Considering Renting Out a Spare Room? How to Get Started

Renting out a spare room in a property that you own can be a great way to help offset your costs and meet some great new people. If you’re already on your own, it can also help you increase your social life tenfold, particularly if the person moving in already has a social group in your city.

More and more people are looking to renting out their spare room for a variety of different reasons. If you’re one of them, then read this guide to help you prepare.

Prepare Your Spare Room

The first step is to clear out your spare room. Other than some basic pieces of furniture like a bed, mattress, side table, desk, and wardrobe, there shouldn’t be anything of yours inside of it. During this time, you should also deep clean the space so that it’s fresh and ready for a new tenant.

While doing that, also consider how you can add more storage. Add shelves, under-bed storage boxes, and custom storage units or self-assembly shelves in the closet. Use every bit of dead space you can while making it look good so that your tenant can comfortably put everything they own and have space to grow.

Familiarise Yourself With Your Responsibilities

Though you’re renting out a spare room, as a landlord, you’ll have responsibilities. Always double-check what you’re responsible for, and work to make sure you make any changes or take any steps (like informing your lender) about your change in the situation. You may also want to take out contents insurance and look up other ways you can better protect your home from accidents.

Create Your Listing

There are many top sites that let you advertise spare rooms to rent. Choose a few and create accounts and listings for them. Add all the relevant information about the room, the rent, bills, and so on. Also, include what you’re looking for in a tenant. If you’re a woman living on her own, for example, wanting a female flatmate is a very common ask.

To help your listing stand out and give you a good pool of tenants to choose from, take great photographs. Clean up your entire home, make sure it’s as bright as possible, and then take some great photos for the listing. If you need help, just have a look at the professional photos taken for home listings, and work to copy them.

Create House Rules From the Start

Create a few house rules for the tenant to read and agree to before they move in. This can be things like how many overnight guests they can have (usually a max of one or two), when noise should be low (after 10 pm), the household jobs schedule, and so on. Doing this in advance can help set the right expectation, but do remember to be flexible. They’re living in your space, yes, but once they move in, it’s their home too.

Be Social

One of the top benefits of renting out your spare room is that you get to meet new people and expand your social circle. To do that, you need to be social. Organise moving nights, ask your new flatmate out to different activities, and in general try to bridge the gap so you can comfortably live together, if not be friends.