Any bad stories with renting out Granny flat?

Hi all,

We're about to buy our new house which has granny flat already built... I want to fence it off and rent it out to get additional income to pay towards mortgage... My wife disagrees and wants to leave it vacant as we have 2 young kids and she doesn't want strangers in our backyard...

Trying to gauge people's experience with regards to renting out granny flat and living in main residence... I thought if the agent does his job, we can find tenants that suite us

 

I'll play devils advocate.
If you were living in a townhouse or villa complex you could potentially have strangers/neighbours just as close to your kids and possible be ok about it.
Has it been built in such a way that it can be separated off so there aren't people walking through your area to reach it?
Is there sufficient space to fence it off and allow for privacy?
Why have you chosen to buy something with a GF if you aren't comfortable with renting it out?

 

Maybe compromise and use it as an Airbnb for short term rentals?

 

I rent mine out to a friend, for cash, works really well.

 

I have heard more bad stories for not renting granny particularly on expenses side.

As westminster suggested, you could live in a villa and end up in same situation.

Rather do your due diligence, chose right tenants, put up a fence. Or don't do it at all and not regret extra cash flow.

Btw, why buy such a house in the first place?


Regards
Ashish

 

I have lived long term (7 years and 16) in two properties with rental accommodation on site and no fences. I had people living in the flats that whole time - from when my kids were babies. There are still people living onsite, though it's through Airbnb now.
If you can afford to own the house without renting out the flat, I would proceed with the purchase. Then you just wait for the right person to come along. That will happen. We had relatives living in them, single female artists, young couples, a retired woman for a long time. It worked well.
Scott

 

I have a granny flat in my backyard. Rented to a young couple. I barely see them for months on end. I don't have children so not something I can personally comment on but agree with others. Separate it properly and it'll just be like having neighbours ( which you have less control over then your granny flat).

Great having people help pay your mortgage.

 

Thanks for replies... I agree if fenced off it's no different to having next door neighbour... We bought house with granny flat for a few reasons... If we every move we can rent out both, if the in laws can no longer look after themselves they can move in... We're in no rush to make a decision but it would be good to have extra income to pay mortgage off quicker

 

One of the reasons we bought our previous PPOR was because it had 2 x 3 bed homes on the one block, so a similar situation. Just make sure it is fenced & treat it like any other neighbour. It's no big deal & the income does wonders to help pay down the mortgage.

A tip though.....

Originally we planned to not tell anyone (tenants etc) that we owned the second home, although it was behind the PPOR, it was a battle-axe situation. Well, obviously neighbours talk, and the tenants knew straight away, and we'd even get people (undesirable) knocking on our door between tenancies wanting to know if they could rent the second home. Note, we lived in an area with a high amount of Centrelink customers at the time.

We let tenants & those wanting to be tenants know that they needed to contact the Real Estate Agents for anything. For those that didn't want to, or didn't understand why they needed to do this, I told them that I had a contract with the Real Estate Agent which meant that I had no control over tenant selection, but I was sure they would have no issues with them. Then I'd immediately call the Agent & let them know that a certain undesirable was on their way.

 

Another tip, if you're looking at building one, best not to let your neighbours know your intentions.
People get a bit funny when they realise the property is going to be a rental. I stick with the story that I'm going to move in and I'm building a granny flat for the in laws to move in.

 

Agree - but also think that neighbours hate granny flats full stop. Different as this one is already built so hopefully most of that pain is over.

As for having a rented one at your PPOR, I'd agree that it all depends on separation and privacy.
It has either been done well for this or it hasn't - trees and fences can only help so much.

 

Thanks all... Had another discussion with my with my wife last night. Explained if we fenced off, it'll be no different to having neighbours and extra income would come in handy... Yeah we don't plan on letting renters know we own the place... Honestly do want to communicate with them at all...

Now just got to work out best way to fence it off so we have privacy.

 

@striple
Post a plan. Always good to get multiple opinions

 

They will work out you are the owners.
I'm pretty sociable and have always enjoyed the people we have shared our backyards with. Right now, we have a sound artist from New York staying out the back. She and my wife have collaborated on one project and are in the middle of another. We've had lots of interesting people over the years and many we are still in contact with.