We took hundreds of photos at the party; this is one of my favorites:

Why do we have roommates?

Why share your home?  Why would you want to do that?  Why would you want to have to clean up after someone else or their pets?  Why?

It really may not make any sense to you.

But think about it this way:

You have an extra room in your house, maybe even an extra bathroom, that you rarely use or that is just filled with junk you don’t need anyway.

What if that room is worth $350- $500 a month to someone else (even more in higher priced areas)?

What could you do with an extra $500 a month?  Pay your car payment? Buy your groceries?

Do you have a basement apartment or in-law suite?

What if that apartment is worth $600-$800 a month?

$800 a month! That is a lot of extra spending money!

In our situation:

We live in a house that was purchased for the sole purpose of sharing the space with friends while I was in college.  It is/was in excellent condition has 5 bedrooms, and a 6th room that could be bedroom or a den, and two large bathrooms.  It was just outside of town with a couple acres so parking wouldn’t be a problem. In essence, it was the perfect house for a bunch of college students.  At the time, I always had between 3 and 5 roommates, each paying $350-$400 a month for their room, their rent aslso included utilities, cable, and Internet.

Just after we were married, the last two of our roommates moved out, and we decided that we wanted to spend our married life alone. . .

Well, that lasted a couple of months, until neither of us could stand the quiet or the emptiness in the house.  If you read our about page, you can see we are very busy and we don’t exactly spend a whole lot of time a home.  So we had a discussion about what we should do.

There we were, with at least double the amount of house we needed, and spending about double the money we needed to be spending for housing, as a child-less couple. So we decided to rent the 3 rooms on the first floor or our house, which consist of a bedroom, office, den and bathroom; we were not using those rooms anyway.  So for $600 a month the couple that lives with us has a fantastic deal on what is essentially an apartment, we share the kitchen (which, by the way, is large enough for all four of us to be cooking at once without really getting in each other’s way).

Ryan and I once again have someone else to help keep life in the house, and have our housing expenses supplemented so that we don’t feel like we are wasting money.   Ryan and I still have 3 bedrooms on the second floor, that consist of our bedroom, home gym, and guest room, as well as a large family room that doubles as an office.  We are much cozier and happier this way.

The pros and cons of have a roommate or tenant in your home:

PROS:

Extra Income- Probably the main reason you would entertain the idea of having, what is most likely a stranger (although not for long), living in your home

Permanent House or Pet “Sitter”- We have pets and all of our roommates have always had pets.  It works out really well if either we or our roommates travel, because the animals don’t have to be boarded and there is someone at the house to watch over them.

Security- There is an additional level of security in your home when there is someone one there most of the time, and when there are multiple vehicles coming and going all of the time.

CONS:

Your home-  If you are easily upset about things such as, your dishes being put away in the wrong place, your pots and pans being used/washed “wrong”, someone not cleaning the “right” way, someone drinking the last of your milk, etc; OR if you are not willing to address such issues as they arise, you probably should not have roommates. Although, if you do have a separate basement apartment or in-law suite, it could still work for you.

You must be able to remind your roommates and/or tenants, in a nice respectful way, that the property is YOUR HOME.  For example, I once had a roommate/tenant that refused to buy his own groceries or was his own dishes. Imagine that. Haha. It is a tough conversation to have with someone, when you have to say, “Hey, this is just a reminder, I am sure that you are aware, I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!  PLEASE clean up after yourself!”

I think that is a little extreme, but, it happens.

In Conclusion, as long as you are not obsessive about your house and your “things,” and are secure with the notion that touchy subjects or problems may come up, having roommates is awesome!

Us and our current roommates on a hike recently: