Getting a roommate to do childcare for lower rent

[Anonymous]

I saw Jenny's post and it reminded me that I am hoping to do something similar. I have a basement studio apartment that I rented out in the past for $800 but I think $1000/mo is reasonable to ask for. However, what I really need is to hire someone for childcare and she could live in the basement. I am worried about how this might become a problem. If, for example, I hire someone to watch my daughter 3x a week and only charge $400 for the apartment, how do I enforce the childcare aspect once they are a tenant? Do I write that into the lease? I am afraid I will get someone in the apartment and sign the lease at $400/mo and then cancel on childcare evenings and be hard to get out of the lease. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

My suggestion: don't do it.

[Anonymous]

I would only do this if you have a friend who is interested. The kind of person you will get for that arrangement is hit and miss (probably miss) because live in nannies make nearly as much as live out nannies do. It also may not even be legal. try posting in the nanny forum.

[Anonymous]

May not be legal.

Also, sorry, but you are not going to get someone trustworthy to watch your kids at that "rate" and for that kind of deal. A reliable babysitter with experience could make way better money in this area for babysitting 3 times a week than a couple hundred dollars' discount on rent.

[Anonymous]

What you're describing is a live-in nanny. A live-in nanny gets paid for childcare and then typically does not pay rent.

[Anonymous]

I looked into an arrangement like this once (I was a poor young professional working at s non profit but had childcare experience) and the problem is that the person way overvalued the basement apartment and way undervalued the hourly cost of my babysitting. They wanted like 40 hours a month to make up for a few hundred dollar discount in rent.

[Anonymous]

I've considered this and if I were to do it, I would just get a renter who stated an interest in babysitting and who I trusted, and then charge market rent but request babysitting at a market price. You would still get the convenience of a sitter who is more likely to be available and could even be "on call" perhaps at a reduced rate overnight, but you would avoid the complications you mentioned.

One additional potential problem you did not mention is what if after a couple of babysitting shifts you decide he/she is not a good fit for your kid/values? Then you would be stuck with a tenant you don't like as a sitter taking up space in your house and paying below market rent.

[Anonymous]

Yes, hard to find someone unless it's a real live-in nanny situation. I offered free use of the basement apartment plus $24/hour, which I set up as a nanny share.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, hard to find someone unless it's a real live-in nanny situation. I offered free use of the basement apartment plus $24/hour, which I set up as a nanny share.

but i only need somenone occassionally and i don't always know when. an occassional sitter is way less expensive and i could rent my apt!

[Anonymous]

Rent your apartment and sign up with a nanny service

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, hard to find someone unless it's a real live-in nanny situation. I offered free use of the basement apartment plus $24/hour, which I set up as a nanny share.

but i only need somenone occassionally and i don't always know when. an occassional sitter is way less expensive and i could rent my apt!

But your asking someone to work for you without knowing when which would effectively make it impossible for them to work themselves. Rent your apartment and then use the rent to pay someone. $400 should cover what? 20 hours of babysitting a month, so 5 hours per week. If you are looking for someone to be on call 3 days s week that's a horrible rate for them

[Anonymous]

I would totally be interested in something like that. I'm a nanny in school and will have a ever changing schedule and would love cheap rent in exchange for a bit of babysitting here and there.

OP, if you're considering this, I would love to talk more about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, hard to find someone unless it's a real live-in nanny situation. I offered free use of the basement apartment plus $24/hour, which I set up as a nanny share.

but i only need somenone occassionally and i don't always know when. an occassional sitter is way less expensive and i could rent my apt!

But your asking someone to work for you without knowing when which would effectively make it impossible for them to work themselves. Rent your apartment and then use the rent to pay someone. $400 should cover what? 20 hours of babysitting a month, so 5 hours per week. If you are looking for someone to be on call 3 days s week that's a horrible rate for them

Agree. You should rent the apartment at market rent and use the money to hire the occasional sitter. It can be the same person that you are renting to but you should treat the rent and the babysitting as separate transactions and should negotiate the cost for each separately.

[Anonymous]

Rent at full price. Then pay them by the hours for babysitting. Totally 2 different transactions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:May not be legal.

Also, sorry, but you are not going to get someone trustworthy to watch your kids at that "rate" and for that kind of deal. A reliable babysitter with experience could make way better money in this area for babysitting 3 times a week than a couple hundred dollars' discount on rent.

Check the laws for your jurisdiction before you go down this path (you're looking for a babysitter and a tenant at the same time). You don't want to run afoul of any laws if you are rejecting any otherwise good applicants because you don't think they would be a good babysitter. If you only need an "occasional" babysitter, rent your apartment at $1,000 to an acceptable tenant and then find a good "occasional" babysitter through friends.