Thoughts on tenants

DH and I are house hunting. One of the biggest bones of contention we are having is whether or not to have a small accessory apartment in the house. I grew up in a single family home whereas he grew up in a multi-family dwelling. As such,we have seriously different views on having a tenant.

Basically, I'm asking for opinions on this. For those of you that are currently homeowners, do you have tenants in your house? Do you regret it? For those of you who are homeowners on Long Island who don't have tenants, do you ever wish you did have the opportunity to have the extra income? If you have children, does having a tenant in any way interfere with your DC's activities at home?

I'm really trying to be open minded but I'm struggling, so any thoughts are welcome.

Re: Thoughts on tenants

I never have had tenants or been a tenant in a multi-family home so I don't have any thoughts on it but I think if you had the right tenant it would be a great opportunity for some extra income....

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I have never lived in a home like that
we bought a home that doesn't have an apartment
And I really don't think I would be comfortable with having someone other then a family memeber living in my house
I'd be afriad they would burn down the house, or bring bad people to the apartment that may do harm to my house, cars or me.

But I'm just a scaredy cat so you can't go based on me

We also don't need the income from an apartment, thankfully

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I am a landlord but my place is in another state.

I hate being a landlord first of all.

Unless I needed the income, I would not have a tenant or be a landlord.

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Growing up we always had a tenant. Single people usually. There was 1 time we had a family living there. 99% of the time you didn't even know they were there.

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we have an apt in out house. i love it. we really interviewed the people that came to look at it and in the end we have a WONDERFUL single woman in med school and i love her!!!

it could be your worst nightmare or the greatest thing in the world, all depends on the tenant!

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Exactly, same here. Our tennant works out perfectly for us... we hardly know she is there, and we dont need the space she occupies. Plus the monies are nice to have, we save it all so we can afford the "big things" like putting in a pool, or central AC.

Message edited 7/29/2010 12:34:13 PM.

Re: Thoughts on tenants

DH bought the house with a tenant upstairs already. There is a kitchenette in the bigger bedroom and used it as a LR and the other bedroom for sleeping.

It brought income and that was good.

But after I moved in it was problems after problems. The guy smoked, DH could not smell it but I could. He was not allowed to.

He started no paying rent or late. Since DH wanted him to catch up on the rent he owned us (he had had a concussion and had to stop work for a while...so he was not paid!). Eventually after 6 months he did caught up.

Only to leave the keys on the stairs one day (oh yeah on the day of my bachelorette party and DH was at his bachelor party in Canada) and after 3 days wondering where the guys was, DH called the guy's boss who told him the guy moved to GA.

Oh yeah, we checked the appt. Carpet burns everywhere. He had deactivated the smoke alarm ...or I should say RIPPED it out of the wall (we could have all died one night if a fire had started). He left all his $hitty furniture and clothes and disgusting bedding and his last pot with pasta still in it from his last meal. He only took his clothes and his TV. Left EVERYTHING else (it was all hand me down stuff).

I went to Target, bought long thick gloves. We put everything on the curb. Hired a cleaning lady (there was no way I was touching anything! It was gross).

Needless to say, we have been completely turned off from renting.

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i grew up in a house that had two apartments (one upstairs and one basement) for a few years then just the basement apartment until I was 10. For me it was disruptive - i was always being yelled at for being too loud, to not run around, to go out in the winter to play so i wouldn't disrupt anyone, etc. I remember we had some real winners that would bring over their grandkids or children and ask to have them play with me. Basically drop them off to have my parents babysit them.

We purchased a house that had a apartment but opened it up to our house and are using it as an extra room. Now dh and I discussed it - we could have definitely used the extra income but dh hasn't had a real home since both of his parents died at 13 and with my experiences as a child we figured we rather just work extra.

I would say if you do it make sure its legal otherwise you will run into problems, if you do it make sure to be prepared for noise or try be restrictive on what you can do in your own house.

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if you do not have to rent dont
my poor sister is living this nightmare she rented to 2 old ladies one of them moved in her son daughter and daughter in law 5 people in a basement they stoped paying rent. she just after her 2nd time in court got them evicted
they are low lifes

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Before we bought a house we lived in a two family house. While i loved my neighbors below, I was always worrying about being too loud, having people over too late, not having full use of the backyard etc

the whole reason we bought a house was to have our privacy and have a place of our own.

there is no way i'd ever have a tenant or be a landlord - aside from the reasons above, it can be a huge hassle if you get someone who isn't good, and you are responsible for fixing and maintaining their place as well as your own.

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remember that taxes will go up if the apartment is legal - so factor that into costs

and the apartment needs to be legal otherwide you could have trouble getting back rent if they choose to stop paying - also could have trouble getting them evicted if need be -

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When we bought our house, the lady living in it had it set up so that the lower level was rented out to a tenant.

DH saw
I was like NO WAY!

We did not need the extra income, so we slowly converted it back to a one family house. We had to rework a lot of plumbing, take down a wall, reconfigure the heating/CAC system. After all that work, there's no way we'd ever have a tenant in our house.

I think I think a lot differently now that I have kids too. I would never fully trust anyone to live in the same house, KWIM?

Besides, our house is small and I need that area for the kids playroom, guest bedroom and laundry room.

And the biggest factor is we converted to hardwood floors and I have 2 kids. NO one would want to live under us

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i rent a house and there is a tenant downstairs ..let's just say it has been the worst yr of my life !! I have 3 kids , there is no noise proofing here ,and the woman downstairs has done nothing but flip out about my kids ! My kids are not crazy in any shape or form ,but there is nothing seperating my hardwoods from her ceiling ! Maybhe if you took extra steps to noise proof ( insulation and carpeting) it could work , but when you rent it , let them know there is kids and it will be noisy ?

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My friend just bought a high ranch w/an apartment in it. The tenants were pre-existing to her purchase and they are living there for a SONG ($800.00 for a two bedroom in Farmingdale). They were "friends" of the former owner and are quite resentful of my friend and her fiance. A few times while my friend was in the inground pool (an amenity they have use of w/the apartment), the daughter of the tenant gave my friend a total attitude about using the pool at the same time she did (Ummm, her HOUSE!). The tenant has b!tched and complained more than 1x about my friend having company over past nine on the weekends, yet she won't move.

My friend is at a loss because even though they are completely hostile, they pay the rent. Her fiance is afraid to bump their rent because he recently lost his job so they feel like their hands are tied. I would never want to feel like an unwelcome guest in my own home. I'd work more than one job to keep the roof over my head before I'd live with such restrictions and inconvenience.

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We have tenants and it is amazing! They never bother us at all and the extra income really helps. We do try to be mindful of how loud we are but for the extra money I really don't mind

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It is all about having the right person, could be real good, could be real bad. I know a lot of my family members bought houses that started as two family homes, then as their families and income grew they took over the whole house for themselves. This worked out very well for them

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FH and I just bought a house and we plan on putting an apt in for extra $. We are turning the upstairs (2 large bedrooms and full bath) into a 1 bedroom apt. We plan on only renting to a single person. We are in the process of gutting our house so we are taking steps to sound proofing the floors so we dont hear the tenant walking around. We dont plan to rent forever and the upstairs will easily be converted back into two bedrooms. Its extra income to keep as a cushion and we will have plenty of living space for us between the first floor and full basement.

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I've never lived in a one family house lol

My parents always owned multi-families growing up.

When my husband and I were house hunting any decent one-families were so overpriced it was unaffordable.

We ended up buying a 2 family new construction in Queens. My tenants are great. They've lived with us for three years and the grandma babysits my son in the afternoons. They will be moving out on August and we already rented the apt for Sept. 1st.


The upsides to having a tenant:

Additional income
Someone in the house to look after things when we go on vacation
More square footage --- in a couple of years we may turn our house into a one family -- it will be much cheaper and larger than any comparable one family in Queens on the market now
More tax deductions
I'm not afraid to be home alone - someone is always in the house.



Downsides:

We don't have access to the backyard from our apt. We have to share space. We need to paint every time a tenant moves out.

We will probably be buying an investment property in the near future. I like being a landlord

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Growing up I lived in 2 family houses on the 2nd floor. At a very young age I was taught to be quite for the people living downstairs. So we were always good tenants. I still walk lite on my feet because of it.

Now we are homeowners and we bought a home with a 1 bedroom apartment (Hi-Ranch). My mom lives with us now, so it worked out for everyone in the end. At first we thought it was a great idea to have some extra income and that is what we mostly were looking for when we were searching for a home, but we didn't have to have one. But we ended up with one. Sometimes I regret it even though it's my mom. It's hard because it is my mom. I feel like I still live at home at times. But in the end, we are helping her and she is helping us out. And when we have kids, grandma will be there to help out and that is a great thing.

Otherwise the apartment was empty for 2.5 years. We really didn't need the income, so we were just happy with it the way it was. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't get a home with an apartment in it. Sorry Mom!

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we have an apartment and I love it! We have one guy with his dog who we love and plays with our dogs. It makes life a lot easier money wise. Although I do hate how we kinda of rely on the rent now. But I also like the idea that when my DD grows up and has a fiance she can live in it too.

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Thank you for all the responses. We own a 2 family house now but DH owned it before I was in the picture so I don't look at it as "my" house. To me, it's his house that was a temporary place for us to live so I really did not care what was going on there. Now that we are seriously looking for houses, it's become an issue b/c I don't want a 2 family and I don't want an accessory apartment. We are lucky in that we have great tenants but I'm totally over having other people in the house. I want my own home with my own backyard and my own driveway. Is that too much to ask? Apparently.

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I know in our situation we only use the driveway and yard it is totally seperate and only for us to use. If you find the right house with the right apt it may work for both of you GL!

Re: Thoughts on tenants