I'm 66 and have roommates. It helps me make extra money and pay off my home.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Dee McCord-Ochoa, 66, a business development professional and homeowner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who has opened her three-bedroom home to roommates to help her save money and pay her housing costs. She's used Craigslist and SpareRoom to help find roommates. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I bought my house in 1999 for $145,800, and there still are monthly payments on the home.

Normally, within 30 years most people would have their homes paid off, but I had a little slip-up in 2008 when the market crashed. I went from a six-figure income to zero income.

I depleted most of my financial resources to hang onto the home.

I'd heard of people renting out rooms, and I had never really seen it anywhere. I decided to go on Craigslist and started renting out rooms.

The idea came to me through some other friends of mine who were struggling as a result of 2008 as well. They were sharing stories with me across the table saying, "Dee, I'm renting out a room. Maybe that's something that you want to consider."

And of course I did, and it's been working out for me ever since.

One of the rented bedrooms in McCord-Ochoa's home. Courtesy of Darlene McCord-Ochoa

I segued into renting out rooms to become financially stable.

I started around 2018, and I've had at least five roommates since then.

I can always use the additional income, being semi-retired with no full-time job at this point. So it was a perfect opportunity for me to take advantage of my real estate, and lo and behold, in 2025, it's one of the biggest things that's going right now.

It's a business for me, but sometimes I give people a break

It's a business. It's not making friends, it's not being nice to people — although we are — it's a two-way street.

Usually, people need somewhere to live, and they want someplace nice, clean, and comfortable.

What they get is a 12-month contract with a 30-day notice from either the tenant or the landlord that they want to vacate the property. You have to have first and last month's rent as a security deposit.

As far as the house, I work from home, so we couldn't have remote people working here either — that wouldn't work for me.

Secondly, the house has house rules: No loud music, no talking on the phone on your speaker throughout the house. There are certain spaces that have a limit, too, because of the way the house is laid out: as far as the kitchen, doing your laundry, and all of that — 10 or 11 o'clock is the time that ends.

I charge anywhere from $800 to $1,100 a month, and it goes straight into my savings account.

My current roommate pays $850 a month. He's a young man who was in a situation that he really wanted to get out of, and I thought he might need a place to stay. He came from a church foundation, which is important to me. I gave him a break from $975 to $850.

And I do that often. When it comes to the deposit, especially, most people don't have the first and last month's rent. They can come up with the first but not the last. What I sometimes do is I let them pay an additional fee in rent every month until they make that security deposit.

The benefits go beyond financial security

Are there benefits beyond financial? You better believe it. Psychologically, the loneliness, that human touch, the socializing, all of those things are so critical for people who live alone.

It's very difficult if they don't create a socialized lifestyle where they are involved in whatever it is they like. You can meet partners in the park and walk, but you can't live in your house by yourself every day. People need human connectivity. People need human touch. People need communication with each other, not just via telephone or the internet or a computer.

The shared living space in McCord-Ochoa's home. Courtesy of Darlene McCord-Ochoa

I absolutely 1000% recommend that people in this generation and older ages should consider getting roommates.

Having people live with me, I hear them coming in and out of the door, I see them, I talk to them, I say hello. Without that, that means I have to go out more and more and spend my time maybe at bars or at dinner doing things that could be counterproductive, but at least help fill that lonely void.

I'm not just spending my extra money on myself

My total overhead is about $2,500 a month. My mortgage is $1,781 a month. That $2,500 includes utilities, cable, phone, and all of the other necessities that you have to have in order to run a house.

With the extra income, I save it and use it to fund the mortgage, allowing me to cover the overhead.

But my goal was to be able to save money, and that's what I did by renting out rooms. And in turn, I turned around and started to upgrade the house: New bathrooms, new floors throughout the bedrooms, and a new patio built in the back.

I've upgraded the house so that the house still goes up in value, and if I ever want to sell it, it's going to be an immediate, quick sale. When you walk into this 25-year-old home, you would think that it was just built.

Some of the savings also went toward some travel and helping other family members out, which love to do financially.

For example, I have a family member who has triplets and a 1-year-old — so she has four kids about the same age. So financially from time to time I throw them a bone.

When you have a big family, and you have kids that are grown, there are so many things that go on that you want to be able to contribute to.

I'm saying that because I didn't just do this to get greedy. For me, I needed to make money so I could share it with other people as well. That makes me happy and it makes me feel good.