Is it illegal? Most SFHs if they allow basement rentals it needs a permit and be owned occupied.

Two family home is not a SFH it is a two family home which is different

What about your liability? Say big house is being rented to a family with kids, you air bnb to a sexual predator who attacks one of the family members in the house. Next thing is you’re being sued.

Do you not care about your neighbors?

Just sell the house. It sounds like one big headache and there is a housing shortage.

Do not Airbnb only the basement. I would maybe make it a long term rental, but I would not long term rent above an Airbnb.

Depends on the size of the house and what state

It will definitely limit your options for finding a suitable renter for the SFH - people in the market for SFH rentals typically do not want to have a rental unit or AirBnB attached.

Sounds like a poor plan.

Not having a basement will reduce the rental rate of the main portion of the house that husband is hoping will be made up on the short term rental part.

I don’t know what your house is like, but generally there isn’t a lot of money to be made in renting single units/duplex’s. The nominal rent dollars are just small - might make a few hundred bucks a month or something. So, having said that, how much additional $ does he expect to bring in running an Airbnb out of the basement vs including the basement in a long term rental? I bet not much. Maybe it makes less money than if operated as one long term rental. Running the Airbnb will mean he needs to deal with the property pretty much constantly.

The logistics of it probably aren’t great either -
- are you planning on submetering?
- where’s the laundry?
- where are the mechanicals?
- does zoning allow for an str? Do you need to make modifications to the unit for code reasons?

Big picture sounds like a lot of hassle for not much payoff

This is a ridiculous plan. Who would agree to allow a revolving door is strangers in the basement as a tenant upstairs?!

Anonymous wrote:We are moving out of our SFH inside the beltway, and plan to rent out the house. DH plans to renovate the basement to have its own bathroom and entrance and no access to the rest of the house, so we would rent main house a long term rental, and the basement we would run as an AirBnB.


We know this will limit our long term rental pool — do you think it will ding our rental price enough to make Airbnb income not worth it. I’m not convinced this is a good plan. Anything else we should consider?

Why couldn't you rent out the basement, too?

Depending on where your live, there are ALWAYS young professionals looking for studio apartments and basement apartments in the DMV area-- especially when they come to the area for multiple year contract jobs at places like NIH, Walter Reed, etc.

We have a similar setup inside the beltway and have thought about that when our youngest leaves for college. The potential income is tempting. Given that we have experienced the headaches of owning Airbnbs in other cities (more resort oriented), we decided we don’t want the hassle of short term rentals, but we are exploring the basement apartment as housing for traveling nurses. I believe it pays well and they stay for 4-12 weeks, and are obviously working, so not a ton of wear and tear on the home. We would have to make our basement a legal unit first. Definitely check out zoning and permitting first.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a nightmare scenario for the renter.

It sounds like a nightmare scenario all around.

Sounds like a nightmare scenario for the renter.

Zoning. You should definitely check with your local jurisdiction to find out if this is even legal. You are turning a single family house into a multi family rental.

We are moving out of our SFH inside the beltway, and plan to rent out the house. DH plans to renovate the basement to have its own bathroom and entrance and no access to the rest of the house, so we would rent main house a long term rental, and the basement we would run as an AirBnB.


We know this will limit our long term rental pool — do you think it will ding our rental price enough to make Airbnb income not worth it. I’m not convinced this is a good plan. Anything else we should consider?