Question about AP housing: 2BR basement apartment in our rowhouse

[Anonymous]

Our rowhouse in Georgetown DC has a 2BR/1BA basement apartment. We live in the main house upstairs. We currently rent the basement to tenants and it pays half our mortgage. It's big (750 sq feet) and has a nice open layout, own kitchen, access to laundry room, etc. The bedrooms are completely private on opposite ends of the rowhouse and don't even share the same wall.

We are expecting and leaning toward the idea of an au pair when the child is 6 months old (or thereabouts). What are my constraints on renting out the 2nd bedroom to an au pair/nanny of another local family? Or a local college student? Would this be allowed? The tenant would be someone of a similar age to the au pair (early 20s, female).

Any insight or advice you can provide would be appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I doubt you could rent to another nanny or college student. It couldn’t be an AP, APs live with their HF. If it’s a totally separate apartment, I’m not sure you’d even be allowed to house the AP there by herself, you’d need to check with the LC.

[Anonymous]

You cannot put an ap down there unless you give them the entire apartment and do not have a renter.

[Anonymous]

unless the apartment is connected to the house and you already have a tenant there I don’t see how you could do it. With most agencies you need to list all adults living in the house when applying. So you can’t have multiple tenants coming and going when the ap is there. Don’t you have an extra bedroom in your house, you can apply using that and when AP comes you ask her if the basement arrangement would work for her, this will breaking the rules though but you could do if AP is ok with it.

[Anonymous]

If it is a separate apartment and you rent it out, I have no idea why you want to know how it affects you when you have an AP.

She doesn't live there, she lives in the main house.

I don't even think it applies to the number of adults (PP), because it's a different household/house and those renters aren't co-mingling.

You can rent it out to whomever you want.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't this also cause issues with the actual paying tenant? She would probably assume she gets to make the rules in the apartment in conjunction with her roommate, but you would basically be the roommate in terms of those issues ...

I mean, are you going to argue with your tenant about the electric bill being too high, or what kind of guests she can have, or anything else you might want to restrict for your au pair?

[Anonymous]

AP can only live with host family- no others. So you have 2 options:
- have AP live with you in main house and rent out apartment
- have AP live in apartment. alone

[Anonymous]

So you want to stick her in the basement with a stranger?

[Anonymous]

You might be better off getting a real nanny and offering the basement as partial payment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might be better off getting a real nanny and offering the basement as partial payment.

This. Find a married nanny with kids (or not married with kids), and then it becomes a deal worth it to her. You could probably legally charge her what you would have charged the 2nd tenant and call it a "live-in" situation. You will not be able to charge her market rent, however.

[Anonymous]

This is a bad idea on a couple of levels. I have been hosting for 6 years and have hosted and met so many great APs I cannot count; but I would not recommend any of them for a first born, new born for any family. It just is a bad idea as very few APs have experience with children THAT young; and even if they did very few would want to take on your family.

As previously posted you living arrangement idea is dreadful unless you surrender the entire apartment (and half your mortgage) for an AP. Even if you were stupid enough to do that many candidates would pass on your family as it is not attractive or in the spirit of what most are looking for in the program.

In short, get a nanny or daycare. Wait a few years for an AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a bad idea on a couple of levels. I have been hosting for 6 years and have hosted and met so many great APs I cannot count; but I would not recommend any of them for a first born, new born for any family. It just is a bad idea as very few APs have experience with children THAT young; and even if they did very few would want to take on your family.

As previously posted you living arrangement idea is dreadful unless you surrender the entire apartment (and half your mortgage) for an AP. Even if you were stupid enough to do that many candidates would pass on your family as it is not attractive or in the spirit of what most are looking for in the program.

In short, get a nanny or daycare. Wait a few years for an AP.

I agree with pp about sharing the apartment being a bad idea but not about getting an Ap for a 6 month old first born. I know a lot of people who have done it successfully, I also know APs who took care of newborns firstborn twins with no problem. Things is to get a mature ap who has younger siblings and love infants and have they come one or two months before your maternity leave is over so they can learn with you. With that say, I wouldn’t get an ap yet if I was in your situation, it is not cost effective for one kid adding to you losing on rent and having to feed them and pay for extra car insurance etc. Do daycare of nanny share, the living in nanny sounds good as well but that area of the city is expensive even if she only pays half the rent. Anyway good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a bad idea on a couple of levels. I have been hosting for 6 years and have hosted and met so many great APs I cannot count; but I would not recommend any of them for a first born, new born for any family. It just is a bad idea as very few APs have experience with children THAT young; and even if they did very few would want to take on your family.

As previously posted you living arrangement idea is dreadful unless you surrender the entire apartment (and half your mortgage) for an AP. Even if you were stupid enough to do that many candidates would pass on your family as it is not attractive or in the spirit of what most are looking for in the program.

In short, get a nanny or daycare. Wait a few years for an AP.

I agree with pp about sharing the apartment being a bad idea but not about getting an Ap for a 6 month old first born. I know a lot of people who have done it successfully, I also know APs who took care of newborns firstborn twins with no problem. Things is to get a mature ap who has younger siblings and love infants and have they come one or two months before your maternity leave is over so they can learn with you. With that say, I wouldn’t get an ap yet if I was in your situation, it is not cost effective for one kid adding to you losing on rent and having to feed them and pay for extra car insurance etc. Do daycare of nanny share, the living in nanny sounds good as well but that area of the city is expensive even if she only pays half the rent. Anyway good luck!

Sure - it can be done; and for some it works.
From my experience over last 6 years and having lots of APs crash at our place when in rematch and not I would say rematch rate at 75-80% for APs with new horns. First born even higher as the parents are generally a nervous wreck about everything making it miserable for AP.
Keep in mind APs are going to be friends with other APs who work 20 hours during school year and see how easy their jobs are.

[Anonymous]

You might get really lucky with an older, mature AP, but I would never have trusted every single AP I’ve ever hosted or their many friends I’ve met over the years with a newborn.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand the answers.
The OP asked if she could still rent out the apartment, and the answer is yes.

Let’s not diverge into a nanny vs au pair for an infant debate.