Trailers for Sale Or Rent, Rooms to Let for 50 Cents

Posted on February 10, 2008
Filed Under plan, survival |

Photo Courtesy of span

Is that a blast from the past? I guess I’m dating myself but I have been humming that tune all day. I loved the song as a kid but wow, look at what inflation has done.

I have decided to take on a boarder and maybe eventually two. I have convinced myself that it is just plain silly to live in this 5 bedroom farm house by myself and I could use the extra income. I have struggled with this over the past few months but I ran into another blogger who has been renting out rooms for the last 10 years.

He rents furnished rooms on a temporary basis and he does pretty well at it. I have chatted with him about the pros and cons and looked into the legality of it all. I seriously wondered if there would be any need for it here because we are so far away from everything.

The advice that I have gotten so far is this:

Have a written agreement.
Make a list of things you will share
and things you will not share
Decide what is included in the rent
Correspond by email first to make sure they are legitimate.
No matter what your financial situation is, don’t take anyone with whom you aren’t 100% comfortable

Well, I took the plunge and signed up for 30 days at roommate.com. Right off the bat, I had to decide what I was going to charge. I put a reasonable amount. It’s almost half of my mortgage payment and will help out tremendously!

Then I had to decide what type of person I was comfortable living with such as male, female, straight, gay, etc. Well that one was pretty easy. I am pretty comfortable with all of the above and have found in my past roommate days that having a roommate of the opposite sex works out very well. You seem to be more considerate of each other.

They also ask what is included in the rent and that was pretty easy. Heat, TV, Broadband, Furnished room, etc. It isn’t the ritz but it does provide all the basics. I will probably have to put a/c upstairs this summer as it’s much hotter up there but I will cross that bridge later.

So I post my ad and start browsing through the people who are looking for a room. I’m amazed that there are actually people in this area who are looking, not a lot of people but still. The first one is someone who doesn’t seem to like animals. Well that’s out. The second one is a lady who is looking for a quiet place to live and lists cities near here and she is looking at slightly more than I was charging. I email her a short introduction.

The third one is a guy who lives in about 80 miles away and has just gotten a job close to my house. I’m amazed. I can’t even imagine where he could have gotten a job locally that would be worth driving 80 miles. So he likes dogs and cats and only wants the room during the week. And OMG, he will pay up to 4 times what I am asking. Holy Cow, Batman!

I go back and look at the profile again to make sure I didn’t miss anything but it all looks good. He has his picture on it and he doesn’t look like a thief or a rapist or a mass murderer. Hmmmm. Well, I email him and introduce myself and figure that would be that. And by the way, I didn’t change my price but I do find myself thinking of all the bills I could pay with $2000 a month.

He emailed me back today. He is interested and wants me to contact him next week while he is in town. So now I am alternating back and forth between being really excited as this will help me out tremendously financially and really nervous. I have a ton of things to do to get the house ready before I show it to anyone and eeeek… this is my busiest week in two months at work.

So instead of going to the competition in Fredericksburg tomorrow, I will be home cleaning and rearranging, dusting and mopping. The upstairs has been shut up since I moved in.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Trailers for Sale Or Rent, Rooms to Let for 50 Cents”

hank (2 comments.) on February 15th, 2008 6:17 pm

Wow - LOVED that song too. Randy Travis has a pretty good cover of the original too. I’m going to be singing it myself all day… As far as renting out the place, I don’t see a date on this post - any follow up? I’d be interested to hear the results of this.

I’ve heard good and bad things in the past with this scenario. I’d be curious to hear…
CindyS on February 15th, 2008 6:21 pm

Hank, not a lot to report yet. I met with one potential roommate but they are considering some other options as well. I’ll post an update if I have something positive happen.