Foreign exchange students or teachers.

Jesswithwings

Hi! My husband and I are thinking of buying our dream property. While we could afford the mortgage rates now, we would like to explore ways of subsidising our income in case the intrest rate rockets and we are left scraping the barrel every month.

The property has 7 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, and we were thinking that we could potentially have a couple of long term exchange students or teachers to live with us. There is an area of the house which has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a little area which could be used as a small lounge or study (or even kitchenette), it is not separate to the main house but they could go there for privacy (read: to get away from our 3 children). I am at home every day (work night shifts) so I will always be around to cook dinner for them in the evenings.

We have a few concerns, obviously there's the intrusion to our family life, the possibility that the student(s) wouldn't get along with us... I have heard horror stories of students stealing from host families and the worst one was of a student that abused the host family's 5 year old daughter but I know these cases are obviously the minority. I have also treated many many students in our hospital (I'm a nurse) - there are always drunk ones (which we will NOT tolerate with 3 young children) and ones who have been assaulted

Then there are the perks! The money (obviously) and living with someone with a different culture, who will be able to teach us as we teach them. I think it will teach our children hospitality and sharing their home which I feel important (but not at the risk of making them uncomfortable in their own home)

Questions!
*Is is possible to have a mature student or teacher rather than a 15 year old ?(I love teenagers, but living with them is a different story - not sure I'm ready to parent teens yet)

*does anyone know how much it would pay to have a long-term student in our home ?(would rather that than a short term, it gives us time to bond with the student / teacher)

We live in a seaside area where there are multiple language schools around.
Thank you for reading

u751904

we've had foreign language students in the past, it was interesting. Some are easier than others usually dependent on age etc. The Japanese lady we hardly knew she was hear. We had to provide a packed lunch and supper / breakfast etc. Personally we didn't really see a lot of financial benefit for the extra expense of feeding someone and the responsibility etc. If you are wanting to do this longer term I'd say go with a lodger... but the good thing is that if you try this first there is no long term commitment then you know if you can take a lodger... etc.

WinnerWinner_2

Yeh I think it would depend on the amount you could charge as to how tollerant I would be. It's not easy to have guests in your house all the time.

PasturesNew

I used to organise the families for these trips. Each trip had a bus driver and 1-2 foreign teachers accompanying them - they all needed putting up. But, ideally they need to be close to where the coaches are parked at night. In a perfect world the teachers and driver would be the last ones to leave the bus - then walk across the road to where they were staying. As they have the longest day this would reduce their onward travel time. It's also pretty essential to have any adults on the bus before the kids get on.

But it's still worth asking language schools/similar about their arrangements. As a rule of thumb, the rate per night/adult was £2 more than the child rates.

timefortea

Not quite the same thing, but I know a PhD student who lives as a lodger and pays £80/week. And the family she stays with don't feed her. So it could be an idea to look into getting a postgraduate student lodger. If you're set on the idea of them being foreign, you could advertise specifically for a foreign student.

niftyone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/772229

also https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2674451

Jesswithwings

PasturesNew wrote: »

I used to organise the families for these trips. Each trip had a bus driver and 1-2 foreign teachers accompanying them - they all needed putting up. But, ideally they need to be close to where the coaches are parked at night. In a perfect world the teachers and driver would be the last ones to leave the bus - then walk across the road to where they were staying. As they have the longest day this would reduce their onward travel time. It's also pretty essential to have any adults on the bus before the kids get on.

But it's still worth asking language schools/similar about their arrangements. As a rule of thumb, the rate per night/adult was £2 more than the child rates.

Thank you! the house is actually up the road from the coach station and within 5-10 min walking distance from the main language schools so thats a possibility!

Post grad student is a definite idea, thanks! I'll look into it but we are a good 40 mins away from any University but its certainly worth exploring!

Thanks for the links, I'll check those out