Living in the building changes the tenant relationship and nobody prices that in

The maintenance economics flip completely. My crew charges a trip fee before anyone touches anything, call it $95 to $150 depending on distance, so an off-site owner batches small stuff and waits. An owner living upstairs fixes it in eight minutes with a wrench they already own, which is real savings, and it also trains the tenant that anything is worth a knock. I've watched owners burn a whole Saturday on a toilet flapper and a smoke detector chirp because they never set a channel. Pick one way to receive requests and answer nothing that comes through the door.

Counter view: the friction is the price of the loan. You are getting owner-occupant terms that a plain rental loan won't touch, and in exchange you live next to your tenant for a year. Fine trade. I'd still rather be in a duplex with two separate exterior entrances and no shared basement than a house with rented bedrooms, because the second one has no wall between you and the problem. Shared kitchen means every dish is a lease issue.

Does anyone route onsite requests through an actual number rather than their personal cell? I've looked at small answering services and basic maintenance request tools in the $10 to $40 a month range for a couple of units, and the pitch is really just that the tenant texts a system instead of texting you at midnight. Wondering whether owners living in the building bother, or whether the fiction collapses the first time you pass each other in the driveway.

The lease does most of this work if it's specific. Write down which parking space belongs to which unit by number, how maintenance requests come in and the hours you respond to non-emergencies, what counts as an emergency, who does snow and lawn, and how shared laundry works including whether it's coin or included. Vague leases push every decision into a hallway conversation, and hallway conversations are where onsite owners lose ground.

One piece worth understanding before you pick a property: utilities. Older two-to-four units often have one gas meter or one water line for the whole building. If the tenant's heat runs on your meter, you are paying for their thermostat habits, and "heat included" rent needs to be priced with that in mind. Separately metered units make the lease shorter and the arguments fewer.

The other thing that catches new onsite landlords is that you're still a landlord in the eyes of the law even though you live there. Fair housing rules, notice requirements before entering a tenant's unit, and security deposit handling apply to you, and the details differ by state and sometimes by city. Renting bedrooms inside your own home with shared kitchen and bath is treated differently in some states than renting a separate unit, which is worth a single conversation with a local attorney before you write your first lease rather than after.

Being friendly is fine. Being the person who decides things by mood is what gets expensive.

Slightly sideways question, but does the lender care about any of this after closing? I had assumed the loan just wanted you living there and the rest was yours to run however.

@vellum from what I've been told the lender's interest is the occupancy certification you sign and the insurance staying in force. The lease terms are between you and the tenant. I'm shopping specifically for separate entrances and separate meters now because of this thread, even though it knocks maybe a third of the listings in my price band out.

Two doors, two meters, one boundary you actually hold. Everything else is decoration.