Renting out our basement (I think)

[Big Cliff]

We have a fairly large house on Sturgeon Lake but there is just the two of us and we hardly ever use the basement. The basement has a large bedroom, huge family room with gas fireplace, TV, 4 piece bath, it's own private entrance with a walkout to the lake gas BBQ, good fishing right off the dock, air conditioning and I am going to put in a kitchenette.

 

We were thinking of renting it out for the summer either for weekends or by the week but have no idea what sort of money we should be asking for. I tried calling a couple of agencies but they only handle the whole residence and aren't interested in just the basement. Not sure where to start but know lots of you guys rent cottages and such. can you give me some feedback please. BTW, it is about 900 sq ft.

[Tarzan's Jane]

Sounds very nice...would be ideal if you were able to rent it out on a more permanent basis, to perfect tenants of course. My parents have rented cottages in the past and it really varies in price. Waterfront, always is more $$ and so it should be. For example, they rented a two bedroom cottage for a week at $1,000. The next year, they rented a smaller cottage (2 bedroom)again for one week for $800.00, both were waterfront. Personally...I would consider renting your basement for a week...just trying to sort out in my mind what would be a fair price. I would be comfortable with $500.00 for the week...$250.00 for the weekend.

 

When are you booking? lol

 

And....I guess another question I have...is...if we were 4 people and brought a blow up mattress, is there room for the mattress and would you charge more?

 

Don't answer yet...wait for more replies.

 

Nancy

[Roy]

AWWWWWWWW Cliff, I've stayed at your place and you can hardly call that part of the house a basement. Heck, you can walk out to the great large yard and lakefront. Dang, If I lived close by, I'd sell to move into your place.

[sonny]

my advice,,,,if ya don't need the extra income,,,,don't do it,,,for so many reasons!,,,privacy ,damage, anoyances,,ect.ect

[Musky or Specks]

The 500 a week 250 weekend sounds reasonable but remeember they wont be guest they'll be customers.

[Bernie]

Ummm Cliff. What time is breakfast?

Seriously You should be able to get a fair dollar for a place like that. Close to urban areas and right on the water.

Choose renters carefully! Once you develop trusted renters over a couple years it gets easier.

Edited April 16, 2008 by Bernie

[Gerritt]

I would think 1000.00 to be steep... but I have only rented at 2 different cottage resorts as when I find a good place I like I stick to it.....

 

That said Cliff, you are free to charge what you feel comfortable with and what makes it worth while to you.. Hope you get some good clients (I prefer the terms client over customer.... as clients are repeat customers) and they stick with you year over year.. be fair to them and they will in turn normally be fair to you..

 

there is alot more to this though then just a rental cheque... relationships will be developed as well...

 

Be fair in your fees and I am sure you will be successful. Nickel and dime like many resorts/rentals do... and well........ you have seen the posts...

 

Good Luck Cliff... I wish you all the best!

 

G

[irishfield]

Just be sure to keep the silverware drawers clean!

 

Seriously Cliff, it's a decission that only you and the wife can make. Keep in mind that if you are renting your will also be intruding while trying to use your own yard.

[steve barrett]

Hi Cliff Did you ever consider B and B Give the them a room for the night Breakfast in the morning.And away they go.A few bucks in your pocket and it gives you time to check them out if they are good people if they want to stay an extra night or two. Had renters didn"t like them if you know what I mean.It's only an Idea.Good luck on your decision.

[danc]

It's been on the news here lately that many folks in small towns are renting such things out because there's so much mining exploration going on and there's just not enough room for all of the workers. The hotel/motel owners are complaining because they are not doing this legally. They don't have the proper licenses, insurance etc. And they're not paying the full taxes for conducting such a business.

 

Just something to consider. If you're renting property, you're in business.

[Landlocked]

Definitely check with your insurance broker/agent.

[rob v]

Don't forget to check with your lawyer e: liability issues and how to protect yourself. Best to check with the municipality also - what if any permits may be necessary and/or zoning regulation issues.

[Gawel]

An additional dwelling unit may require upgrading the existing conditions. A few important building code requirements kick in with additional units (fire separations, etc). Check with the municipality if their bylaws will allow another unit. Doing it legally can result in a few major headaches depending on the rules in your area.

[brandon]

Cliff......you could rent that to fleming students in a heartbeat.......I rented a place on sturgeon my second year at fleming and it was perfect

[Big Cliff]

Thanks Nancy and yes, there is plenty of room for for a blow up air mattress, in fact I have two of the twin size ones that we set up when my neice and her gang come to visit. As for charging extra, probably a little to cover the extra hydro/gas/....... but it wouldn't be much. If we do decide to rent it I'll let you know. About the only rule we have is NO SMOKING IN THE HOUSE.

 

Roy: your post brought up a good question, can't really call it a cottage so I wasn't sure how to advertise it if we do decide to go this route, any suggestions?

 

Musky or Specks, Good point, we often have company stay over and hadn't quite thought of the "customers thing" thing

 

 

Bernie, a friend of ours has a three bedroomm cottage that she rents out for the summer months, very nice place, three bed rooms, hot tub, she gets $1600.00 a week in the summer for it through one of those agencies. I wouldn't expect anythisg close to that unless I was renting out the whole house.

 

I hear you Gerritt, that is one of the reasons I did post on here to get an idea of what would be a fair price, and what would be expected for the money charged.

 

Wayne, Ya we are still in the decision making process and not sure if we are going to go through with it or not, this is a 3000 sq foot house with just two of us (and our dog Andy), it just seems a shame to have all this space and not do something with it + the cost of maintaining it goes up every year but my pension doesn't. It's either generate some additional income or sell this and move to something a little smaller.

 

barbless fisher: We did think about the B&B idea but that would involve a lot of extra work with linnen, food..... I work all week from spring to fall from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm that would put a lot of extra pressure on Sue.

 

DanC, Landlocked, Rob V, Gawel: Thank you all! Some very good points there and to be honest we hadn't really given them a lot of thought, those would be some of the things we would have to consider before going ahead with this but hey, that is why I posted on here, because I knew I'd get some good feedback and a variety of perspectives. All part of the decision making process.

 

Brandon, you brought up an interesting point: We sort of thought about perhaps renting it to a student, can you give me some idea of what a student might pay for a nice clean firnished large one bed room apartment, all utilities including high speed wireless. They would have to help with the snow removal in the winter but I would supply the snow blower. Might be a good opportunity to help a kid and help us too. In fact it might be a lot of fun having a young person around here again now that our kids are all grown up and gone. I'll post a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the accomodations.

 

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to respond, any other suggestions or input would be most appreciated!

[Big Cliff]

OK, well here goes, I'm not much of a photographer but this should give you some idea. The rooms look smaller in these pictures than they actually are and the kitchenette isn't done yet, that would probably take about a week to finish but would include all the basics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beans]

Very nice Cliff...as long as your clients don't mind some old guy wandering through once in a while to use the washroom...

[Big Cliff]

LOL Beans, you'll just have to use the one up stairs

[bigbuck]

Cliff,

Why don't you put an ad in the paper and list it for $7-800/month with a 1 year lease. Another idea is $750 for the week and $400 for the weekend in the summer. If you find a half decent tenant you'll be fine as long as you lay out the law from the outset AND ON PAPER. You can pick up a standard lease from Grand and Toy, any changes, make sure you write them on the lease and have BOTH of you initial them. You keep the original and the tenant gets the photocopy. Go with your gut when you meet someone, that has served me the best over the years, my family has had rental properties for pushing 40 years, I've been involved since I could walk. I have seen everything from grow ops, non payers, general scum but for the most part, good honest hardworking people.

[Zamboni]

You will have trouble getting permits to do this legal if your zoned for single family residential....need to obtain a variance contingent on neighbours aproval if that's the case.

 

If it was me who the 'clients' were would be most important, your living upstairs and are up early every morning. Be very selective and this can work for you, families with younger kids are quiet after 10pm. Teenagers not even being noisy may disturb you-a campfire or friends over one evening, people in and out to washrooms. I know from experience of renting large cottages with inlaws and friends how dificult it is. I like to get up early, golf or fish-don't apreciatte a screen door slamming at 11:30pm or people talking loudly, laughing late at night.

 

Your place looks good, bet you will have plenty of interest from suitable renters right from this forum 'you could live with'.

[lew]

Cliff, I've had the pleasure of being in your home and have seen the beautiful set-up you have there, and the 1st thing I thought of when I read this post was the fact that you & your wife may be giving up alot of your hard earned privacy to strangers.

 

I know how much you enjoy going down to your dock in the evening after working all day, or spending time both on your dock or in your yard with the grandkids on the weekend's, but now you may have to share that space with total strangers who will invariably have all their friends and families up to visit.

 

That may work well the odd time, but if you & Sue are looking for some peaceful quiet time alone in the yard or beside the water, or you want to have a nice BBQ with your family, that may not be possible with a whole mess of strangers using up your yard.

 

I'm sure if they're renting the basement, they'll assume they get full use of the yard and waterfront too, and if they and their families turn out to be someone you'd rather not share your space with, it could turn out to be a pretty miserable summer for you & yours.

 

Just another thing for you to think of........

[crappieperchhunter]

A few have mentioned that you may end up losing some of your privacy with regards to sharing the yard, the dock etc. Cliff have you considered winter tenants like we have in our little place in caygeon? Our tenants move in October 1st and move out April 30th. I nice retired couple who go to their trailer on Balsam for the summer. You would get 7 months of income from your tenants, who you will probably hardly ever see in the winter cause everyone is inside, then come May 1st you got the place to yourself again for the nice weather when you wanna be out enjoying your property. I think it could work out well for you. Having been to your place I can attest to what a beautiful yard and home you have. The right tenants would think they died and went to heaven if they got the chance to come every year for the winter.

[Big Cliff]

Thanks Lew, that is one of the biggest considerations we have, in fact it might be the biggest factor in deciding if we do or don't rent it out for the summer.

 

Steve, how do you go about finding "winter tennents"? If we could find a mature person/couple, it might work out well and it would be nice to have someone in the house if we want to go away for a couple of weeks in the winter. I don't like leaving the house empty.

[crappieperchhunter]

Cliff all we did was put an ad in the Lindsay Newspaper and we only had to run it for a week. Got between 5 -10 responses every year. Go through the interview process and pick whoever you think will work out. Our first 2 winters we had 2 different young couples. Our third season we hit the jackpot and got the retired folks who want to return every winter. Also if you know any real estate agents in the area, let them know your plans. The real estate agents who we dealt with when we bought our 2 properties up there told us that they always have people between houses that need a place for a short time. They sent a few professional couples our way, but our little place was too tiny for there needs. Another option is to type something up and ask local trailer parks if they would be kind enough to circulate it around the park or post it up on a community board in the park somewhere. Frankly Cliff you will be amazed how easy it is to get winter tenants.

 

Good luck with whatever decision you go with

[Big Cliff]

Thanks Steve, some excellent ideas there much appreciated and will look into them. I will also check into zoning, insurance, and legalaties and then Sue and I can decided which way we are going to go with this if at all.

 

Can't tell you all how much we appreciate the ideas, thoughts, opinions, and feedback. It really helps in making these kinds of decisions. This sure is one fine family!