Should You Rent to Family or Friends?

Many landlords choose to rent to family and friends and then others decide against it. Whether you do or not is completely up to you. However, there are advantages to renting to family and friends.

However, with advantages, come disadvantages. Before you make your decision, you should consider the pros and cons that are involved.

You Know Them

First of all, if you rent to someone you know, you are already aware of what kind of person they are. You know whether or not they can hold a job and if they’re responsible. You know whether or not they will take care of the rental property. So that’s a major advantage to renting to a stranger.

No False Information

When you rent to friends and family you won’t have to worry about being duped. For instance, when a prospective renter fills out a rental application, they may provide you with false information and they may even have friends pose as prior landlords to give them a good word when they know their actual prior landlord would not. Your friends and family would be more likely to be honest with you about their pasts and you’ll probably know quite a bit about them already.

Basically, when you rent to a friend or family member, you’re renting to someone you can trust. However, there are some downfalls to renting to someone you know.

A Few Disadvantage of Renting to Family or Friends

They may expect special treatment like a discount on rent or bending the rules of the lease and thinking they can get away with it.

Your family or friend may feel awkward bringing up needed repairs to the property with you.They may also struggle with brining up other issues in a multi-unit property, such as another tenant violating the lease.

Renting to a friend or relative can also damage your relationship with them if things go bad, whether it’s your fault or theirs. It could damage your relationship with other family members who are close to the one you rent to, as well.

You may want to take all of this information into consideration before you decide to rent to someone you know.