My wife and I might buy the house next door which would be used as a rental. But I'm concerned as how likely people would rent next to their landlord. The privacy between the 2 houses is good and the house is move in ready, great location and quiet area. How likely will you rent? I added a poll so you can vote.
As a landlord I can tell you this. You don't want to own the house next door. Do you own any rental property now?
That's what I figured plus other things that could be involved. But I'll be glad to hear other opinions.
unless they're friends/someone you can trust, but then again being a landlord to a friend means no more friendship.
From past experience when I lived with my grandparents it can be a bad idea but also a pretty good one. My grandfather ran a Victorian house that was converted into four apartments. The tenants were good and bad they won't be afraid to bang on your door when they need something or something is broken but they will also be more likely to take better care of your place. There are always the dirtbags though. You will be more likely to catch anything destructive before it gets carried away being so close as well. Hope that makes sense.
My experience with renting has lead me to a couple of things. Always ask more than the other houses for rent around you. Demand a full months deposit. Background and Credit check every time before they move in. At one point between , my parents, grandparents, and myself we had 27 rental properties. Its a huge pain but it does turn a profit. Its a full time job looking after that many and that job usually gets left to my dad and myself. I'm firm but respectful to our renters, I treat it like a business because it is. When we lived next door to the ones we built I had one of the home owners knock on my door at 11 at night to tell me the garbage disposal didn't work... Thats the kind on nonsense you have to deal with. If you can deal with that I say go ahead. I also agree with what was said above you do get to keep a close eye on whats going on, they question is do you really want to know every time they throw a party.
When I rented out one of my houses to a friend, I thought I could trust him and never really entered the house for over a year. After he moved out I found out him and his family destroyed the inside of the house. I had to put close to $20K to fix it. I will never again rent out a house.
Would I rent with the landlord next door? Sure. Would I rent a property I owned that was next door.....no way. We rented before I bought our current house and the landlord was next door. Never had any issues but I was respectable to what the landlord asked of me. Most people are not.
My parents (and I, since I lived in the house with my friends) vowed we would never be landlords again after my place in acworth. Other than my best friend (whose dad also owned rental property at the time, which he now owns), the other 'friends' that lived with us were disrespectful, needy, and complaining almost on a daily basis. If you can really honestly trust someone, then do it, but I'm willin to bet you can't. Especially if you are looking anywhere other than a short list of your friends (craigslist, forums, etc). In my experience it was a 1/8 shot that my best friend was the only reliable and honest roommate/tenant.
This is how we are also. Except we don't do credit check. We know some people who have a rental, they do credit check and one time they had a lady with 820 as a credit score and it ended as she was not paying on time and they had to evict her. We go more with feeling and background check. We, also, are respectful of our renter even when they're late. We should be able to deal with mostly any thing that can happen in the house; the only thing I would be concern is when things turn wrong, like if we have to evict them for any reasons, then it could be stressful and difficult to deal with as people are getting more crazy every day. Which could end up by having the renter menacing us in any possible way..... You'll tell me this is an extreme thought and I agree but we have to think of everything.
It took about 2 years with our actual renter to draw a line on what we are expecting from them and what they should expect from us. It has been hard sometimes and we even had to begin the eviction process, twice, but they signed up for a fourth year and they're doing good so far (knocking on wood!), and they take good care of the house. And friends and colleagues would be the last persons I would rent to!
Everything is relative to how needy they are. If they never ask for anything yet they are late every once in a while I can look past it. If something is always broken and they are always late then thats different.
I'll be closing this thread in a couple of days. Thanks to all of you on your opinions. We, still, are undecided if we want to make an offer. But you're more than welcome to vote!
dont tell them you live next door... see how good there situational awareness is and let them figure it out!