Have a contingency fund for when things go wrong. You should be able to avoid dry spells of any more than a couple of months for a room, but having a contingency fund of perhaps 3 or 4 months rent will give you peace of mind and mean that you don’t rent a room to someone you wouldn’t normally just because you have to rent the room.

Its good that you are staying in the house. It means you are there to see what’s going on. If anything is happening that shouldn’t you can nip it in the bud quickly. This will appeal to potential renters, so slip it in when you have them round to view the place.

As for selecting people to rent from you, go with your gut feel. If they sound rough over the phone then you probably don’t want them in your house, just say you are sorry, room has been rented. If you have them round and something just doesn’t seem right about the person, or if don’t like them, then don’t rent to them! There will be plenty of other potential renters along soon. That advice is from experience. This is your home (not a B2L property) so you don’t want little things they do or don’t do niggling you. You want the people to respect the property and those they are sharing it with.

It can also be worth having your other renter present for viewings. They don’t need to be there all the time, perhaps just bump into the viewer in the corridor and introduce themselves. They’ll get a feel for whether they will get on.

I’ve been fortunate when renting rooms. My worst renter was slow with the rent and boy did he have opinions that the liked to view. (Not particularly well informed views at that!) He was out on his ear shortly after breaking a tumbler and leaving that tumbler in the kitchen sink. Muggins was clearing up his mess (number of plates etc that needed cleaned in the sink) and didn’t see that it was broken. Tumbler shattered when I was cleaning it. I required stitches from A&E after they had removed splinters of glass from my hand. Other flat mate had been away that weekend, so I knew it was he who had left the broken tumbler in the sink. He didn’t apologise. Anyway, gave him his month’s notice and he moved on. I told him I was selling the property and wanted the flat empty so I could give it a lick of paint and sell on. The other flatmate played along with this as he wanted him out too. Otherwise flatmates were fine. They all paid on time and treated the place with respect.

One final note that I’m sure you will have thought of. If you charge a little less than the competition you can be more elective with who you rent to.