<p>I looked at the payments and in 2008 they paid $3,050 in rent and we paid $3,921 in utilities. So we will be doing better if they don’t pay rent and just pay utilitites. I looked on the city website and it looks pretty easy to set up an account for utilities. I didn’t see any special programs for lower-income people to help with the utility bills but the sister-in-law seems to be pretty good at researching assistance programs. </p>
<p>That is an interesting idea about renting out space in the house. The house is pretty small, about 1300 square feet, with three bedrooms, one living/eating area and an attached garage. But we can always suggest it to them. </p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas.</p>
<p>Can they apply for Section 8 housing help or other rental assistance?</p>
<p>Thanks for the Section 8 idea. I looked on the website for the town they live in and the only housing assistance offered is for home ownership (down payment assistance and rehabilitation). But I did find a rental voucher program offered by a regional council of governments that might help. Thanks.</p>
<p>remember the risk of renting to college students. You don’t complain of current residents doing damage, but it is extremely rare for students not to damage a home, even all-girl renters. That is a projected cost you’d have to be prepared for.</p>
<p>Check directly with the utility companies regarding assistance for low income people. Also if you have heating oil (you live nowhere near me so I am clueless on that) there are even private foundations that help. Joe Kennedy Jr. has some kind of Joe for heat or some such thing that is advertised around here.</p>
<p>I agree that college students don’t seem like the easiest renters. Our SIL keeps the inside of the house very nice although (not surprisingly) the BIL does hardly any yard work. (actually another of the SIL’s complaints about him) </p>
<p>My MIL’s fiancee has a home remodeling business and he would like to go into business with us investing in houses with him doing the repairs and maintenance. The weak link would be the tenant selection and rent collections since we are generally too nice. We get a lot of advertisements in the mail for property management companies so I was thinking it would be worthwhile to pay them to do the tenant part. </p>
<p>This all assumes we get the relatives currently occupying the house to move along somewhere else. It will probably be easier to sell the house. </p>
<p>I will email the utility company about assistance programs. I didn’t see anything on their website but with it being a college town they might not want to encourage all the students to apply. We don’t use heating oil here, just electric or gas. It’s the air conditioning cost in the summer that is expensive. </p>
<p>When I computed out the expenses from the last year the rent payments would have covered the utilities had they made all the rent payments. However, they skipped a few payments. I have now convinced my H that we will send them a new lease with $0 rent but they pay all utilities. Really it just puts the money collection on the back of the utility company rather than on us but I suspect they will do a much better job of it. I also wanted to add something in our letter about the house not being available to them after the next one-year lease but I shall have to see if my husband will go for that. I inserted a cheery note in the cover letter about them being able to save money this year with the reduced rent and get back on their feet. </p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas.</p>