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Originally Posted by gar1976
Uhhh....speaking from experience, bad idea to front the utilities. Split 'em with your roomies, otherwise you're just going to get pissed off when they take hour long showers, leave lights, tvs, and stereos on 24/7, and want to order pay-per-view while calling europe from your phone. Or just charge them another $50 a month separate from rent.
Best idea - get a deposit of at least a few hundred bucks, since when they move you'll need to fix up the rooms they were in (drywall/sheetrock/painting) and more than likely you'll wind up paying some of their last utility bills. You might also want to consider not having long distance calling available on the phone, and have them use either a calling card or a cell phone.
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All great advice. First, if "utilities are included," they'll just use them to the max without conserving. After all, why should they? You sold them unlimited utilities at a flat rate. If you could keep phone service separate, that'd be great, too. Like, maybe there could be two phone lines into the house: one for you (in your room) and one for them. Let them handle splitting the bill without you getting involved.
As far as deposit is concerned, how you handle that depends on the state. In sunny California, you can ask for last month's rent in advance and a separate security/cleaning deposit to cover any problems with the apartment. But that kind of deposit is usually having money available for specific damage that they've left behind, not wear and tear. If you start charging your friends for every nail hole they leave in the wall upon moveout, they probably won't be your friends after that.
Better would be to figure the amount you'd need for a general freshening up of the place into their rent to begin with. I used to know a real estate agent who'd say, "Sure, I've got no problem renting to college students. You just gotta allow for the cost of a new carpet when you're setting the rent."