travel and tourism: Tips on Renting Your House to Students

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Tips on Renting Your House to Students | Real Estate and Rental ...

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If you?re looking for a little more income and own a home located near a college campus, you may want to consider renting a room to student. College students sometimes steer away from on campus housing or choose not to rent with other students. Renting a single room from a home can sometimes offer a student more privacy and amenities that wouldn?t have elsewhere.

However, don?t forget that you can?t skew your rental ads to attract students. Being biased for or against student renters is against the Fair Housing Act under the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. This means you can?t turn away or accept renters because they?re a student.

If you do find yourself with a qualified college student candidate for a renter, here are a few tips on renting your house to one:

Give discounts in exchange for duties.

To help alleviate costs for your student renter, you may want to consider giving discounts in exchange for duties around the home.? For example, you may offer a discount in exchange for shoveling snow or cleaning the yard. To make it easier on you, you may want to consider paying your tenant by the hour after each task is completed, and ask that the rent be paid in full.

Don?t forget?when writing up your rental agreement, be very specific over what duties you require your tenant to perform.

If you choose to offer discounts in exchange for duties, be considerate of your work requirements. Students still have the responsibilities of going to class, studying, homework, and maintaining a social life, also.

Maintain good communication.

With any tenant, you?ll want to make sure you have positive communication and an open environment. You want to make sure you have an ongoing dialogue with your resident. For example, greet each other in passing or ask about your tenant?s day occasionally. This will make it easier for when you must have a more serious conversation such as asking to turn down his or her music or cleaning up the kitchen after it?s used.

Reminders during the holidays.

Often times, student renters will head home for the holidays to be with family. Students can get so caught up with studying, finals, and travelling that they might forget about their rent. A friendly reminder during the winter break, spring break, and summer will help you make sure the rent is on time.

Renting after the summer break.

If an empty room and a few months of missed rent isn?t a huge deal, you may want to consider offering the student tenant to leave for the summer months. If this is the case, you could request that the tenant write to you by a certain date with intent to rent from you again. This way, if the tenant chooses to not return, you?ll have enough time to find a new qualified renter.