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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have a basement studio apartment I’d like to leverage for some extra income, but the obvious choices—Airbnb or a long term rental—hasn’t sat well with me for various reasons. Recently I came up with the idea of doing short term rentals, like a month or two or a summer, for young women who are working on issues I am supportive of. Like perhaps a PhD student doing research or an intern working at a non profit I believe in. I’d charge them steeply reduced rent and perhaps get to know some really sharp young people. This would also give us the flexibility to have the space open for the holidays, for example, so our parents can stay.

I mentioned this idea to a friend and she insisted that this was illegal and that I need to be in line with fair housing practices. Is that correct?

Also, any ideas what networks I could reach out to where an offer like this could be welcome? I went to undergrad and grad school in dc so seems like many students or young people wouldn’t need something like this, as opposed to out of town schools.

What are your thoughts? [/quote]

[b]I don't know if you're new to landlording but what I see in your post is some grade A naivete.[/b]  What you're doing is equating a certain set of views in a person to their perfection as a tenant, and it just doesn't work that way.  These people aren't your friends. Your relationship is strictly businesslike.  What you should care about is: do they pay on time? Are they good about maintenance and cleanliness? Are they weird? Are they going to use your microwave for food storage and forget about it for days, leaving you with a pest problem? Are they going to feed you a sob story every month about why they can't pay? Are they going to grill something on open fire and scorch the cabinets? Are they going to call you every time a light bulb needs replacing? Are they going to be snowflakes who can't be held to rights?

I assure you, a superliberal young POC woman is just as capable of being a major non-paying PITA as a young white male Republican! And vice versa! Are you going to be less annoyed snaking a toilet because it's liberal feces? No! You're just not going to care. Look for a good tenant first and forget the rest.  You seem to want to exert an inordinate amount of control over all the wrong things. [/quote]

+1 and I'll add it's strange and kind of stupid of OP to assume she'll "get to know some sharp young women" because they rent your apartment for 2 months.  They're not going to be eating supper at her boardinghouse table, enjoying a freewheeling discussion of issues of the day.  They're going to see her when they pick up and drop off the keys, and when the toilet overflows.[/quote]

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