Separate internet and cable television at single residence.

[homeby5]

Hey Guys,
I'm not sure what section this topic should be in so I apologize if it's in the wrong place and hopefully the mods will correct

Anyway, I am building a separate "guest house" attached to my main home that I am building. The guest house is attached and has a separate entrance separated by an outdoor hallway. It will be used as a rental property...sometimes for weekly vacation rentals and sometimes for long term. IT IS CONSIDERED A SINGLE RESIDENCE AND WILL ONLY HAVE ONE ADDRESS. I would like to know the best way to run my RG6 and CAT6 to the tenants residence that will provide security between both of us. I do not want them to be able to tap into my network and vice-versa. .

Can/Should I install a single hub for each and "star" the connections to every room in the guest house and the main home? Is there a better way? Or should I install a separate RG6 and CAT6 feed from the outside the house that the provider can hook up two separate accounts? Are two separate accounts allowed if it's one address? Any other ideas?

Thanks a bunch guys

 

[Blain]

It's not truly a "guest house", you're planning a rental property.
They should have separate accounts.

 

[QuietDad]

As a cable installer subcontractor for both Cablevision and Comcast, one mailing address, one account.

 

[homeby5]

It's not truly a "guest house", you're planning a rental property.
They should have separate accounts.

Yes, but not allowed. Soooooo.....any ideas?

 

[vailr]

Cable for one, DSL for the other.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

As a cable installer subcontractor for both Cablevision and Comcast, one mailing address, one account.

I can't see why any of the ISPs can't provide two separate accounts to the same "residence." Am I wrong in my assumptions here? You'd want two, separate internet accounts billable to the same party, and -- likely -- one cable-TV access provided to the "entire" address.

I guess this raises questions in my own mind about how you charge rent. And I'm assuming you would simply account for average utility usage in the overall rental-rate.

Alternatively, you could simply extend your SINGLE cable-TV and internet (bundle?), but you'd want to assure that separate routers would allow definition of two subnets. Somebody else might have better insight to securing residence A and B from each other in that context.

Also, you might want to check with your local zoning authority. I once rented a "basement" apartment from the owner of a large, single-family residence (same address). It inadvertently came to the attention of the city authority, who, in turn, claimed that the apartment rental violated the zoning restrictions.

Of course, you can do this -- a lot of property owners do it -- if you can keep the rental "under the radar" so to speak.

But for the internet/cable subscriptions, there must be at least a few ways to skin the cat. I think what you're fishing for is a way to subsidize your single ISP/cable bill through the rental, leaving the tenant to see it as a bonus advantage for him as well. Otherwise, two accounts would best be managed under one name, and eat into your rental proceeds -- explicitly or implicitly.

But to resolve the security problem, I think you'd find it easier with two accounts, but there must be a way to create different subnets that are secure from each other, and use a single account/subscription. That way, vacant or occupied, you only have your own bill to pay.

UPDATE: It also occurs to me that with one ISP and one account, you might have an allowance of maybe 10 e-mail addresses. However, the holder of the account would then have control of the account names and passwords, and the tenant's e-mail address would not be "truly private," which would raise a security problem at his own end -- if he fully understood how it works. Otherwise, the tenant could provide his own e-mail account accessible through YOUR ISP. For instance, I have a family member who just refuses to drop an old EarthLink account, while we took up with our existing ISP some 14 years ago. She still pays for a minimum "dial-up" subscription with EarthLink, accessing her e-mails through the ISP's internet access.

 

[Ketchup]

Keeping with the restrictions of one account, you could have a different ISP as the only option for the house, or you could just give them an extender, like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-AC1200-Power-700mW-Extender/dp/B00HQ883QW
and just use the one service.

The only issue I see with the repeater option is the stipulation that they would need to have email accounts through other channels, but I see it as being a lot better than going back and forth with services through other carriers.

 

[vailr]

As far as security is concerned, maybe a "T" connection & using 2 separate cable modems (with extra monthly fees) would do the job. There would only be one cable bill from the ISP, but the 2 residences should be invisible to each other, as far as network access.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

As far as security is concerned, maybe a "T" connection & using 2 separate cable modems (with extra monthly fees) would do the job. There would only be one cable bill from the ISP, but the 2 residences should be invisible to each other, as far as network access.

I thought that might be possible, and I certainly agree with the "invisibility" requirement. As for extra fees, there'd be the $5+ monthly rental of the extra modem. Depending on how the account is configured at the ISP end would determine if it would cost more.

There are many possibilities. You could easily share the cable-TV with provision of a single extra set-top box adding about $7 to $10 monthly to the subscription -- based only on my experiences with my own ISP. Then let the tenant arrange for his own internet feed.

Interesting problem, though. My own "tenant" experience occurred during the early 1980s, and I used my telephone and modem to communicate with the university computer. There wasn't any "internet." And I think I was satisfied with OTA TV -- too busy at school and work to care much about it.

 

[homeby5]

I think what you're fishing for is a way to subsidize your single ISP/cable bill through the rental, leaving the tenant to see it as a bonus advantage for him as well. Otherwise, two accounts would best be managed under one name, and eat into your rental proceeds -- explicitly or implicitly.

No, I live in a vacation area (Key Largo) and I want a separate internet because of security concerns. The cost will be factored in anyway and honestly is not a huge concern. Let me give an example.....

Say I end up with a tenant who decides to setup a torrent server and who downloads porn and movies simultaneously twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. First, because I'm sharing a connection with a porn freak, the speed and reliability of my own service diminishes radically. Second, unless I'm willing to go to the tenant and say "hey, I know you're downloading porn every day; cut that out", there's not much you can do. Third, if the tenant does illegal stuff over the Internet, you end up getting embroiled in it because the activity is coming from your connection and your account. See how this gets undesirable very quickly?

 

[Ketchup]

No, I live in a vacation area (Key Largo) and I want a separate internet because of security concerns. The cost will be factored in anyway and honestly is not a huge concern. Let me give an example.....

Say I end up with a tenant who decides to setup a torrent server and who downloads porn and movies simultaneously twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. First, because I'm sharing a connection with a porn freak, the speed and reliability of my own service diminishes radically. Second, unless I'm willing to go to the tenant and say "hey, I know you're downloading porn every day; cut that out", there's not much you can do. Third, if the tenant does illegal stuff over the Internet, you end up getting embroiled in it because the activity is coming from your connection and your account. See how this gets undesirable very quickly?

I was wondering if that is the type of thing you were worried about. If that is a concern, you would definitely want to go with a different service for the other house IMO.

The problem I see is that you are trying to get around technically having more than one residence, but having more than one residence, on one property. You can work around it, sure, but there would be risks involved.

 

[corkyg]

I have stayed in B&B's where Internet access is allowed for guests via Wi-Fi stemming from the owner's account. The owner has direct hardwire, and the guest has Wi-Fi access with a password. The Wi-Fi is speed limited so as to make anything such as Torrent, etc., impractical due to slowness. But is is very adequate for email and general browsing.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No, I live in a vacation area (Key Largo) and I want a separate internet because of security concerns. The cost will be factored in anyway and honestly is not a huge concern. Let me give an example.....

Say I end up with a tenant who decides to setup a torrent server and who downloads porn and movies simultaneously twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. First, because I'm sharing a connection with a porn freak, the speed and reliability of my own service diminishes radically. Second, unless I'm willing to go to the tenant and say "hey, I know you're downloading porn every day; cut that out", there's not much you can do. Third, if the tenant does illegal stuff over the Internet, you end up getting embroiled in it because the activity is coming from your connection and your account. See how this gets undesirable very quickly?

Funny I didn't think of that concern for such liabilities or potential dilemmas.

You would file your taxes with Schedule E. If you had enough Schedule A mortgage deduction to make it worth completing the form as opposed to standard deductions/exemptions, I think you could allocate the square-footage of personal use and the sq-ft of rental use. So you could take the guest-house fraction to the entire mortgage bill's interest expense for Schedule E and the rest for schedule A. But you could only include the interest expense for "acquisition cost" -- the original mortgage loan -- or market value at time put in service for rental revenue.

If there are any personal liabilities folded into the mortgage, you would count only the portion associated with the guest-house, repairs, replacements -- on Schedule E. That is, you couldn't include interest that had covered your last year's Lexus purchase, or a credit-card balance transfer folded into a mortgage or HELOC loan. In terms of showing a diminishing balance (with less interest expense), I believe there's a schedule of what gets subtracted first from the loan, and the acquisition cost is always on the bottom of the pile. You may want to review that more closely, but there's a specific IRS publication 5xx covering "Mortgage Interest." Probably a pub for "Rental Property." There's a section covering "mixed-use loans."

The rest of it is just the pro-rata accounting of utilities, association dues, listing fees -- that sosrt of thing.

You'd be entitled to up to $25,000 annually in any real loss as a deduction to income from all sources. You can show "active participation" in managing the rental, property and its maintenance. But any common charges must be allocated pro-rata.

On the matter of depreciation, only depreciable property -- as opposed to land-value -- can be written off according to a 25-year straight-line in annual amounts. It would also be allocable by square footage of rental versus personal use.

So you just keep all the related bills, take the December 31 totals, put them by line-item into a spreadsheet, which has formulas which give you the Schedule E amount and any Schedule A amounts. Pump it into Turbo-Tax Premier, Home and Business or whatever includes Rents and Royalties.

 

[mfenn]

Also, you might want to check with your local zoning authority. I once rented a "basement" apartment from the owner of a large, single-family residence (same address). It inadvertently came to the attention of the city authority, who, in turn, claimed that the apartment rental violated the zoning restrictions.

This is the real issue IMHO. If you want your rental to be a legal rental unit, you'll need to go before your zoning board and get the appropriate changes made. To be honest, separate Internet access is the least of your worries if your rental unit isn't set up legally. Once that's taken care of, it'll have a separate mailing address and all your other issues will go away.

 

[Blain]

Addresses can be...
1234 A North Rd.
1234 B North Rd.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This is the real issue IMHO. If you want your rental to be a legal rental unit, you'll need to go before your zoning board and get the appropriate changes made. To be honest, separate Internet access is the least of your worries if your rental unit isn't set up legally. Once that's taken care of, it'll have a separate mailing address and all your other issues will go away.

I'm surprised nobody beat up on me for the tax advice.

But I think you're correct. However, staying under the radar with the local authorities doesn't cross the scrutiny by the higher tier of government. There shouldn't be any potential risk there. I wouldn't encourage somebody to violate their zoning ordinances surreptitiously, but your building permit for the guest-house is always justifiable for grandma's summer visits -- whatever.

On the tax issue, there's no sense cheating. I always bristle when someone tells me they require monthly cash (currency) from the tenant: it means they're cheating. The ultimate point of it is this, though.

A rental property is a business. If it's a serious business, then you want to do reasonable book-keeping. The tax reporting requirement simply makes you do that, and -- once familiar with the "tax situation" and the record-keeping required -- it becomes easy -- effortless.

I think the point I forgot to make is this. Things like shared utility bills need a pro-rata application for the Schedule E. Things that are not shared, or which are accounted for separately don't need a pro-rata calculation.

Therefore -- and ultimately -- separate accounts for landlord and tenant may cost more and increase the burden slightly for periods of vacancy. On the other hand, the tenant account is entirely deductible by itself as a rental business expense against the gross rental revenue.