Renting Rooms in a house to college students?

A lot of people around here rent rooms to college students- its very safe and much cheaper for the student who cannot afford to rent an apartment, but wants to live off campus. The student then has his/her own private room, but shares the kitchen, living room and bathroom. As long as the owners lay down ground rules and the student obliges, there are usually no problems with this. A lot of my friends live this way and they thoroughly enjoy this way of living. You can always screen your potential college students- get a background check- criminal history and credit history through public records on an online site. Do not worry too much, your parents are smart and they won't let some freak move in!

My school only had student housing available for the first two years, so a lot of my friends rented out houses together junior year. I sort of regretted not doing the same thing myself: they were able to support each other during exams (despite the occasional squabble), and those of us who had tiny apartments would go over and socialize with them. Security wasn't too much of an issue, as long as they kept things locked up - and the campus wasn't located in a very safe neighborhood, so I wouldn't have too many concerns on that front.

However, I would not recommend doing it your first year, especially with people you don't know. You should be taking advantage of the dorms to get to know your classmates and the campus. You've got some time to think about this, so keep talking to your dad about why he feels the way he does and what you can do to persuade him otherwise. If it's a money issue, maybe you can find a part-time job to offset the cost.

I rented a room from a family home while in school. I had one bedroom and a bath. No real kitchen was available for use. My roommate and I were friends from HS and everything worked fine. I would suggest that if your family bought a house and rented other rooms that you "shop" now for friends that you already know to rent to. Don't know of legal responsibilities that you might have as an owner. Good luck

Sorry, your Dad evidently wants the EXPENSIVE option vs the affordable option. Your father needs to get up with the times and set up a phone meeing with the Dean of Students. Once you live off campus, you become "out of touch" with what is going on, ON campus. Dorm life is alot of fun, and I fail to see why your father is so incredibly against it...it's a foolish choice on his part. You don't need the hassle of learning to be a landlord, taking care a house and bills, and being a Freshman at the same time. It IS unsafe and a pain, unless your father just likes forking out money to pay for someone else to live there for free and paying for damages. You sound smarter than your Dad.

Yeah, that's really risky. If you found some good people it would be fine, but it would more likely turn out badly. When I was in college this happened alot, and it never seemed to work out.

I've heard alot of horror stories about renting to students.

If your parents really have the money, they could buy you a small house or condo (condos are fairly common) and then just sell it after you graduate.