House as crash pad?

[clumpinglitter]

Ok, so I'm trying to think of schemes where I can quit my day job and go fly airplanes for a living. I would really like to keep my house, but I don't think I'll be able to afford it on any entry level flying job. Then today, I thought to myself: "Hey Self, I live maybe 10 minutes from KSTP and about 20 minutes away from KMSP. What about letting other pilots rent my house as a crash pad? Then, if I have to move somewhere far away for a flying job, the income could help me keep the house. We can trust fellow pilots as renters more than the average yahoo."

Is this a completely stupid idea, or what?:insane:

-C.

 

[JEP]

Where about do you live? I grew up on the East Side of St. Paul just up on the bluff. You'd probably need someone to look after it. I could use a pt job......

 

[falconvalley]

Pilots are people...there are great tenants and bad ones. Make sure you screen who gets access. Not a bad idea though if you can keep enough income coming in via the tenants.

 

[Kristie]

I've heard that using a house as a crashpad could actually put more wear and tear on the house than if you just have a semi or yearly tenant!! why not just try to put it up for rent period?

 

[zmiller4]

We can trust fellow pilots as renters more than the average yahoo."

Ah. Sounds like you may not have seen a lot of crashpads.

Actually, I've seen some nice ones that are well-kept. I've also seen some nasty ones that people just trash--it all depends on who's living there. I'd be wary of just creating the crashpad and then leaving it--I'd want to check on it a lot to make sure people are treating it well. But I definately know pilots for whom turning a house into a crashpad has worked out well.

 

[clumpinglitter]

Where about do you live? I grew up on the East Side of St. Paul just up on the bluff. You'd probably need someone to look after it. I could use a pt job......

Como. And I'm looking to save money, not spend more! It was a generous offer, though.

-C.

 

[clumpinglitter]

Actually, I've seen some nice ones that are well-kept. I've also seen some nasty ones that people just trash--it all depends on who's living there. I'd be wary of just creating the crashpad and then leaving it--I'd want to check on it a lot to make sure people are treating it well.

Definitely. That could be hard or easy, depending on what kind of flying job I had. My neighbors would definitely keep a close eye on things -- lots of old people home all day.

But I definately know pilots for whom turning a house into a crashpad has worked out well.

Really?! Are any of them here?

-C.

 

[clumpinglitter]

I've heard that using a house as a crashpad could actually put more wear and tear on the house than if you just have a semi or yearly tenant!! why not just try to put it up for rent period?

I have a few friends who are landlords, and they say that if you have good tenants, it's great. If not, it's pretty much impossible to get the tenants off your property and out of the house without it being completely trashed. Is there a normal lease with individual crashpad tenants?

One thing -- if I just opened the place up as a crashpad, then nobody is moving all their stuff into my house, so I can even leave most of my own stuff there -- furniture, dishes, etc.

Again, this is just something I'm considering as one who doesn't actually know anything about crashpads or how they work. As for the wear & tear, I just have no way to know how bad it could be without people here telling me. Sounds like it could be kinda bad, though.

-C.

 

[B767Driver]

From an ethical standpoint, evaluate the neighborhood. Is it a nice quiet residential area with lots of families? If so, the neighbors won't like you running a boarding house in their neighborhood. Also, if you have a homeowners' association, it would most likely prohibit this type of activity.

 

[MQAAord]

One of the biggest issues with crashpads is transportation. Is your house on a bus/train/other transit line that makes it accessable to the airport? How would your crashpadders get to your house? Would they have to have their own cars? As a crashpadder, you don't really want to have to have a car. Would parking be an issue? Is there enough room in the driveway for multiple cars? Would people get 'parked in', and unable to get out in the morning. Is street parking allowed, restricted or limited to vehicles with 'resident stickers'?

I used to run a crashpad at the Pavillion in Chicago. It generally worked out okay. I did not run that place for a profit, it was a two bedroom and I kept the smaller bed room as 'my own' and paid more than double what I charged my crashpadders. I kept a separate checking account for the apartment, so I could prove to everyone that I was not making money.

When you have crashpadders, there are people coming and going at all strange times of the day and night. There may be someone trying to sleep at any time of the day/night too.

Since it's not their 'home', people are sometimes inclined to not be very neat or clean up after themselves properly. With that many people coming and going, you either have to clean a LOT, or invest in a housecleaning service.

It can be difficult to maintain a constant # of people in your crashpad. Things like base transfers, furloughs, getting off reserve, can cause people to not need a crash pad anymore. Sometimes not giving you much warning that you'll need to find someone else to take their place, or you'll lose the income!

All in all, I found it to be a lot of work running a crash pad. It wasn't awful, but like others have said, the quality of the crashpad depends entirely on the quality of the people crashing there. I required a personal recommendation from anyone wanting into my crashpad. A new person HAD to be personally known by myself or one of my current crashpadders. No unknown newbies. That helped a lot.

 

[Kristie]

so, you didn't necessarily make a profit Amber? how bout the mortgage and utility payments?? doug and I have thought about doing the same thing to acquire some more property...

 

[MQAAord]

I did not make a profit, at all. I charged $100 a month, which went into the designated checking account. With that money I paid all the bills, the rent, cable, power, phone (we did not have any long distance, everyone used cell phones or calling cards, myself included). With any money that was left over after paying the bills (which was not much, maybe $10-$20 every month) I bought cleaning supplies. My checkbook ledger was an open book and anyone was free to look over the deposits & expendatures as they desired.

 

[Stone Cold]

I did not make a profit, at all. I charged $100 a month, which went into the designated checking account. With that money I paid all the bills, the rent, cable, power, phone (we did not have any long distance, everyone used cell phones or calling cards, myself included). With any money that was left over after paying the bills (which was not much, maybe $10-$20 every month) I bought cleaning supplies. My checkbook ledger was an open book and anyone was free to look over the deposits & expendatures as they desired.

So, was this a hot-rack crashpad? Or were the rooms packed? That doesn't seem like the $200 for you and $100/person would add up to the things listed unless you had quite a few people in there?! Also, what year was this? That's cool that you did the crashpad thing.

C,

There are a lot of things to consider for crashpads...are you going to have it co-ed? Putting guys/gals in the same room can cause problems, whether anything happens or not. I've always made sure it was guys only in the crashpads.

I've had 3 crashpads now. 2 decent, and one absolute crashpad with 3 bunkbeds per room, in a 2 bedroom apartment. I had trouble sleeping there with my schedule (plus other problems I won't go in to), so I left as soon as I had the chance.

Also, as mentioned before, depending on your tennants if renting, or the crew if crashpadding, your home could possibly get trashed. It's all hit or miss. I'll let you know in about a year when we buy a house and rent the condo out how the tennants work out! One piece of advice we've already been given is have a lawyer for if/when you have to evict tennants .

 

[wheelsup]

One of the biggest issues with crashpads is transportation. Is your house on a bus/train/other transit line that makes it accessable to the airport? How would your crashpadders get to your house? Would they have to have their own cars? As a crashpadder, you don't really want to have to have a car.

This is probably the #1 selling point for a crash pad. If people can't get there without a car, you are severely limiting your market share, and will probably have to increase the perks (cable, internet, computers, Xbox, etc.) and lower the price to attract people, if you can get anyone at all.

Like txpilot, I mean Cold Stone said, there are so many variables to think about. I went thru a lot of that as I almost purchased a home for the sole purpose of crash padding it out. It would've been the only crash pad that didn't require a car in a base of 160+ pilots. It would've minted money. However, someone else bought it out from under me (luckily not another crash padder, and I'm still looking in that area).

You can do crash pads in several ways, either rent the room out individually to a higher cost, or put several people in each room for less $$. Different people will prefer different setups because of cost.

For me, the entire intent of having a crash pad is to make money off of it either directly (ie you bring in more money than PITI) or indirectly when you go to sell the home a few years later. Why go thru all that hassle to not make any money?

 

[clumpinglitter]

I've had 3 crashpads now. 2 decent, and one absolute crashpad with 3 bunkbeds per room, in a 2 bedroom apartment. I had trouble sleeping there with my schedule (plus other problems I won't go in to), so I left as soon as I had the chance.

Also, as mentioned before, depending on your tennants if renting, or the crew if crashpadding, your home could possibly get trashed. It's all hit or miss. I'll let you know in about a year when we buy a house and rent the condo out how the tennants work out! One piece of advice we've already been given is have a lawyer for if/when you have to evict tennants .

Between what you and Amber have said, this is probably more than I want to get into. It's disappointing that crashpadders have been known to trash places, although probably not very surprising. I'm not willing to put up with that, so unless I have someone here to keep a close eye on things and screen potential crashpadders while I'm gone, it's probably not going to work. Too bad.

-C.

 

[MQAAord]

So, was this a hot-rack crashpad? Or were the rooms packed? That doesn't seem like the $200 for you and $100/person would add up to the things listed unless you had quite a few people in there?! Also, what year was this? That's cool that you did the crashpad thing.

The guys built 4 sets of bunk beds in the larger, 'master' bedroom. So there were 8 bunks, and two couches. We had 10 crashpadders plus myself. We didn't do hot bunking, everyone had their own bunk. If I remember right, rent was $1100 a month (right around there, may have been just a shade shy of that). So, I took in $1200 (including my rent). Like I said, it paid the bills, and nothing more.

I really never set out to run a crash pad. It just kind of ended up that way. I got into that crash pad when I was brand new, and then as some of the guys transfered away, by default I kind of ended up running the show. When I took 'real' control was when the person who I'd been sharing my room with moved out. I then increased my own rent, and that's when the bunks in the master bedroom got built and everyone else's rent went down because we took on about 3 more crashpadders.

For all I know, that crash pad may still be in existance! I closed the checking account when I got a two bedroom apartment in the 'burbs with a friend of mine and turned control of the crash pad over to a couple of AA pilots who'd been crashing there for years.