Quick summary: I own my house. It's a 3 br, 2ba home, and I only use one bedroom and bathroom for myself. Recently a friend of mine proposed moving in. I've thought about it, and decided to offer them the other 2 rooms and bathroom to them for $500/month + half utilities.

I told another friend of mine (someone not directly involved) about this in passing, and they began to personally attack me for being a sham of a communist, and being a capitalist, and a landlord. They claim that what I'm asking for is steep. I understand essentially the place where their criticism is coming from, rent is a system of accumulation whereby I would be gaining wealth, and my friend would be receiving merely the permit to exist in my house. So on some level I understand and agree with the fact that this arrangement is essentially at odds with my beliefs.

Does this make me a sham? Brutal honesty please.

  • Owl [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    You could look at the amount of your mortgage payment that goes towards interest instead of equity, think of that that as a rent you're paying the bank, and split that portion the same as you'd split rent. Then you're not really creating new oppression, just passing along existing oppression. Though you'd still owe your friend a portion of however much the home value goes up while they're there, of course.

    Though I think there's something to be said for charging as low as you can actually afford, too. Sometimes doing the obvious good thing is just obviously good, you know?

    • DetroitLolcat [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I don’t understand the “you owe them if the house appreciates in value” part because you have no idea what the value of the house is until you sell it (which itself is a months long, labor intensive process that costs thousands of dollars).

      Furthermore, what if the house depreciated in value? If the housing market crashed this time next year and the house lost an estimated $5000, would you stick your friend with a $2500 bill? Of course not. I don’t think this agreement should force OP’s friend to speculate on real estate prices just to get a room.

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Also, you have to pay the whole mortgage to get the house. If you don't pay the whole thing for long enough, they can end up taking your whole house.

    • gonnaburnthisaccount [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      You could look at the amount of your mortgage payment that goes towards interest instead of equity

      This is a pretty great suggestion. I'll have to do some googling into figuring out what exactly that math amounts to.

      • Owl [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Your mortgage paperwork should have a lifetime total amount paid listed somewhere. Alternately, I think mine was 180% of the cost, and don't have any reason to think it's atypical, so 55% of the mortgage payment is equity.