4 ms·

To clarify - tenant income from renting out one of the rooms of the place I'm trying to buy (not existing tenant income). Basically the peninsula is unaffordab

To clarify - tenant income from renting out one of the rooms of the place I'm trying to buy (not existing tenant income). Basically the peninsula is unaffordable to own alone, but if I could get a two bedroom and rent out a room I could do it (alternative is having to buy in SF a one bedroom for 780-875k). Banks don't let you do this though and without this I'm priced out of two bedroom units. I suspect you could create some new mortgage instrument that allows groups of friends to buy a house together since now we typically just do this via renting and splitting the cost for individual rooms (though I hesitate to suggest this since it would ultimately drive up prices even higher). It's also hard to find people willing to risk this, but I think a standard contract structure could go a long way to reducing the social risk.

refurb 8y ago
though I hesitate to suggest this since it would ultimately drive up prices even higher I went to one open house in SF and the top floor was a nicely updated if small house. The basement/garage? The owner had put up walls to create 6 rooms and 2 bathrooms. The rooms were maybe 10'x10'? Apparently they rented them out to help with the mortgage. You could probably get $500-700/month for each or $3000-3600 for all six? And that's one reason why parking is an absolute mess in SF even if you get away from the city center. A lot of houses have one or more in-laws (many illegal). And no place to park the car in the garage!
roguecoder 8y ago
You can absolutely get a joint mortgage with a friend: I did. The real challenge is finding someone you want to go in on a long-term coliving arrangement with, agree with on how to handle home maintenance and the like, and trust not to try to screw you over.