If you’re considering purchasing duplexes to rent for profit, you should first make sure you understand the pros and cons of owning a duplex. While duplexes for rent may bring you a nice side income, they require a few additional considerations that don’t necessarily crop up when renting single family dwellings.

What is a duplex?

There are two types of duplexes:  duplex apartments and duplex houses. A duplex apartment has rooms on two connected floors – basically, it’s not a single story apartment. A duplex house is a single house that is in some way divided to hold two families in separate living spaces. This can mean the house is divided by floors, giving one family the lower story in which to live and the other family the upper story. A duplex can also be split down the middle, regardless of the number of floors in a house. In either case, there are separate entrances for the different residents.

The challenges of having duplexes for rent

• Your tenants will have to share a yard. Most duplexes do not have enough yard space to warrant building a wall down the middle of the yard to provide for two separate enclosures. As a landlord of duplexes for rent, you’ll need to stipulate ground rules concerning yard issues. Do this early on, when you first recruit tenants to rent your duplexes. Explain rental expectations when it comes to sharing the yard, maintaining the yard, and placing objects such as tables or toys in the yard. Discuss a protocol for sole use of the yard, such as when one of your residents wishes to host a barbecue. Explain how guests are expected to behave in the yard. If you have a family with young children in one of your duplexes for rent, make sure the other occupants who share a yard with the family are aware of potential hazards for the children. The same holds true for any pets that need use of the yard. Make sure both families are aware of expectations for cleaning up after pets in a shared yard. Laying ground rules up front will protect you from future liability problems.
• Your tenants will have to share a wall. Unless you’ve purchased duplexes for rent that have well-insulated, sound proof walls, your tenants may bother each other with noise that carries through the interior wall. The most common noises that carry include the bass from stereos, barking dogs, and crying children. Though most tenants will understand that having a shared wall is one of the drawbacks of living in a duplex, some will take their grievances to you. Act before trouble starts by either adding extra sound-proofing material to the shared wall area or requiring your tenants to follow noise restrictions. For example, you could impose a “curfew” for loud stereo sounds or request that the volume is not turned above a certain level. This approach has drawbacks, however, as you cannot ask your tenants to control when a baby cries.
• Your tenants will have to share maintenance duties. Unless your duplexes for rent come with pre-paid home maintenance duties, you’ll need to work out how your tenants share duties. To be sure, as the landlord you will be responsible for repairing things like siding and for cleaning out clogged gutters, but it is also fair to ask your tenants to follow certain maintenance guidelines so their use of the duplex facilities doesn’t negatively affect the people with whom they share the duplex. In many cases, any maintenance work you schedule will require that you alert both sets of tenants, and in some cases requires that you send contractors into either side of the duplex. Be upfront about your expectations when it comes to home repairs, and make sure to work out a clear understanding of how you will treat each tenant’s privacy. For example, any time you plan to have work done in or around the duplex, you need to give the tenants plenty of advance notice.
• Your tenants will share a driveway. If you’re able to limit your tenants to a certain number of vehicles on the driveway, you may be able to avoid conflict. However, if your tenants have guests that stay for long periods or if they host regular social gatherings that require guests to arrive by vehicle, you may find yourself dealing with a disagreement of space use. To avoid this, clearly layout driveway rights before your duplexes for rent get signed away to anybody. State how long guests with vehicles can stay and point out where guests of either resident should park.

Move forward wisely before purchasing duplexes for rent

The bright side of having duplexes for rent is that you need to care for and maintain only a single home while potentially bringing in twice the rent. The downside is that you’ll have twice the potential for problems between tenants. If you act quickly and work to layout expectations before new tenants move in, you may be able to avoid most of the dilemmas. When any new difficulty surfaces, act quickly and work to make sure all your tenants understand your expectations. Follow landlord tenant laws and be sure you’re providing a safe living space for your tenants. Doing so will help ensure a peaceful experience with your duplexes for rent.