Party Animals Or 7 Kids?
I currently have a 5 bedroom 2 bath unit for rent. I was hoping to maybe find a family with a couple kids who was caring for an aging parent or something like that. However, most of the applications I am getting are from local college kids (one who would be the lease-holder and his 4 friends would sub-lease) or from couples with 5-7 kids. My question is this - is it legal to charge more rent because there are more people occupying the unit? Is it some kind of discrimination to tell someone with 7 kids that the unit is $2100 when it is $1895 for everyone else? Also, is it legal to charge a larger security deposit for a larger family? It stands to reason that a larger family will have a bigger impact on the unit. And finally, from personal experience, would either of these types of tenants be better than the other? Thanks for the help.
On some levels I don't know if there is a whole lot of difference between the kids and the college students, in regards to maintaining the property
. However if you are talking grad students then its a different ball game. They'll tend to be more responsible and consientious of the property. In this case I would tend to go fo the colloge students, which whould translate into 5 money sources versus 2. This would also establish your property with the college crowd as a rental. Be perpared for cosmetic repairs but you can still have yearly lease and next year there will be other if they don't renew. You will have to check with you local laws on the amount of the security deposit but I would seem logical to charge a "discounted" deposit per number of children and a full deposit per number of students. As far as the rent goes take what you can get.
Is your house in a College Town? Check around if it is, to see what the norms are.
Keep in mind that in that case, there will be a lot more traffic issues and the neighbors might be much more affected. Also, there may be ordinances, licenses, etc for college rentals.
Secondly, you MUST read a copy of your local landlord tenant laws to see about the requirements of security deposits.