After graduating college and getting married, my friends Jill and Scott moved into a loft-style condo in Chicago’s trendy Wicker Park neighborhood. While the quaint boutiques and colorful restaurants made the neighborhood fun to live in, it wouldn’t be long before they felt they’d outgrown their 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom abode.                                                                                          

Itching for more space, the young couple found their dream home in an up-and-coming neighborhood. But going bigger meant that they would have to find ways to cut costs.

Solution: Jill and Scott moved into the top two floors of their new 2-flat and decided to rent the 2-bedroom,1 bath garden unit downstairs from them.

“We bought the place with the idea that it would be a rental,” Jill says. “Having the additional rental income allowed us to buy a much nicer, more expensive home and have our out-of-pocket costs be the same as if we’d bought a much smaller, not–as-updated home.”

Q. What are the biggest challenges of being a landlord?

A. Knock on wood, we haven’t had many so far. The only thing is that you have to be flexible to deal with emergencies any time of day or night. When my renter’s toilet breaks at 3 a.m., I have to go to Home Depot and buy a new one. When the air conditioning goes out in the middle of a 90+ degree day, it has to be fixed immediately.

My renter locks himself out on a semiregular basis, but it’s not a big deal since it takes me like 30 seconds to let him in when I’m home. Our renters have been fabulous and don’t cause any problems with noise or messiness.

Another challenge is one that is a challenge for home ownership in general: keeping the outside clear and safe. Seasonally, I spend quite a bit of time raking leaves, shoveling snow and mowing grass. If it was just my husband and I, we would probably be too lazy to shovel and just suck it up and walk through it.

Also, it can be a little stressful that one time of the year when we look for new renters. It’s very important that we make a good choice, since this person will be living under us for 12 months.                                                

Q. How did you decide on how much rent to charge? Did you consider the current rental market, your mortgage, property tax, property management fees?

A. We just based it off of current rental rates in our neighborhood. We found this by looking at Craigslist.

Q. Did you find yourself bogged down in landlord-tenant laws, fair-housing requirements and local rent-board decisions? How did you educate yourself on these topics?

A. No, it wasn’t a problem. The online background-check company I use to run reports on potential renters had a sample lease agreement that we downloaded and made adjustments to. I just used the Internet to find out anything we needed to know.

There aren’t a whole lot of rules or regulations that bog us down, unless a renter wants to leave and break the lease or isn’t paying on time, then it gets tricky. My husband and I knew about giving security deposits back with minimum interest based on being renters ourselves at one point.

Q. What are the benefits of renting out your property?

A. Primarily financial. We build more equity and have lower out-of-pocket costs. And honestly, as a young woman whose husband travels out of town frequently, I feel safer knowing that there is someone living under me who could hear me if something was wrong or would notice if I went missing.

What do think about renting out your home? Do you have your own horror stories or helpful tips?

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