Being Profitable in Business

If you are thinking about renting out a room in your house, there are some things you will need to do to prepare. The following tips cover planning to look for a roommate, and some things to do before they move in.

Include Utilities in the Rent

One of the first things you will do when you plan to rent out a room in your home is figure out how much to charge. This includes the base monthly rent to use the room, bathroom and other amenities in the home, in addition to what type of security deposit you will request and what is included in the rent. To make it easier for the person renting the reason, it is often easier to simply include the cost of utilities in the monthly rent amount; that way, they know what to expect. There aren't any hidden charges and they don't pay more during certain times of the year, such as during the summer when the air conditioner is on more often. Make a list of what is included, such as if they have laundry privileges and if they have their own bathroom or share one.

Set Up Boundaries

Before you start interviewing applicants, you should have some boundaries in place for the new roommate. This is really important, otherwise they don't know what they can and can't do in your home, such as when they can have company over, if they can use the backyard, and even details like whether they can have pets or what your late night noise policies are. It is your home so you can set boundaries and rules, but try not to be too strict and remember they need to feel some freedom as we. A good thing to do is to choose someone with approximately the same lifestyle as you; that way, there are no issues with the boundaries you set.

Also include information about where each of you store your food in the kitchen so you can keep it separate and there aren't any questions about what belongs to whom.

Have a Second Set of Keys Made

Naturally, you need to have spare house keys for your roommate. However, don't just make any type of key and don't give them your only set of spare keys. You should work with a key cutting service to get that say 'Do Not Duplicate' on them. This makes it so they can't just make as many copies as they want. If they move out, you want to know they have returned the only set of keys they had, not that they made copies and have them floating around. Also avoid giving them your only alternative set or you may both end up locked out of the house at some point with no spare keys to speak of.