Can I buy a house, then rent out a room?
I’m thinking about taking the plunge and buying a house.
My rent right now is 400/mo and tentatively, I would be paying 650/mo to buy a spot – with little trouble making payments. The place I’m looking at is near a University, and can probably find a student-renter (I will be living there as a student for the next two years). Can I charge someone 350-400$ and apply that to my mortgage payment? Is that common practice; or am I headed in the wrong direction?
I know I have all of the landlord responsibilities, etc etc, and I can handle the payments, but does this seem like a good plan?
No tags for this post.
July 7th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
You’re probably going to have a hard time including that rental income in your income so if you need it to qualify for the loan then you may be out of luck (unless you can find a private lender that’s VERY flexible).
On the other hand, if you can qualify for the loan on the property with your current income, then you can do anything you want after the property is yours. What you’re planning is actually fairly common in a college town…I rented the garage apartment on my property to a student and I know several students that decided to buy a house and rent one or more rooms to another student. Then, when they graduate, they turn the property into an investment property and continue collecting rent for many years!.