What Unido does for landlords
Renting out a room is mostly paperwork you've never had to do before. Unido does that part. All of it is free, and every piece is optional, so you can run everything here or just post the room and handle the rest yourself.
- 1
Put the room in front of people
A listing page with your rent, deposit, utilities, house rules and photos, plus a link you can paste into Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. Your exact address is never public. People see an approximate area until you confirm a visit.
How: Post a room. It takes about five minutes and there's no fee, no subscription, and no listing limit.
Learn more - 2
Know who you're talking to
Applicants can verify their identity with a photo ID and a selfie, checked by Stripe. You see a verified badge, never their document. You can require it before anyone applies.
How: Switch on "Require ID verification" when you post the room. Most hosts leave it on.
Learn more - 3
Ask your own questions, safely
Add up to five questions to your application. Parking, work hours, how long they plan to stay. Unido blocks questions that reference a protected class before they save, and tells you why, so a fair housing problem doesn't reach your application in the first place.
How: Add them under "Questions for applicants" on the listing form.
Learn more - 4
Let people book a visit
Post the times you're free and people book directly, so you stop trading messages about Tuesday. The exact address is only shared once you confirm.
How: Set your tour times from the room's panel on your dashboard.
- 5
Get it in writing
Accepting someone builds an agreement from your own listing terms: rent, deposit, dates, house rules. You both sign it here and you both keep a copy. Or ignore it and use your own. It's optional like everything else.
How: Leave "Manage the lease on Unido" on when you post the room.
- 6
Record the room's condition
A move-in checklist you both walk through and sign, with photos, and a move-out one to match. This is the single thing that decides most deposit arguments, and almost nobody renting one room does it.
How: It shows up on the tenancy once someone moves in. Do it on day one, before they unpack.
- 7
Hand the deposit back properly
An itemized deposit statement with the deductions listed and the returned amount worked out, kept on file for both of you. California limits what you can deduct and how long you have, and this walks you through it.
How: It appears on the tenancy when it ends. The move-in record is what makes it quick.
- 8
Keep the paperwork in one place
Every tenancy has a Documents page with the lease, both condition checklists and the deposit statement, and what state each one is in. Your tenant sees the same list.
How: Open it from the Leases tab on your dashboard.
Being built
- ·
Collect rent here
Rent paid through Unido, landing in your account, logged automatically, with your tenant able to have on-time payments reported to build their credit. Cash and Zelle stay fine either way.
How: Not switched on yet. The rent panel on the tenancy shows where it will live.
- ·
Credit and background checks
Screening built into the application. It comes with real duties around consent and around telling someone when a report is why they were turned down, and that has to be right before it turns on.
How: Being built. Hosts arrange their own for now.
Learn more
Post a room and see
We don't take a cut of your rent, we don't charge to list, and we don't sell your details to anyone. When rent payments arrive there'll be a fee on that, and we'll say so plainly before it happens.
List a roomUnido isn't a law firm and nothing here is legal advice. These pages explain how Unido works and point you to official sources. They don't tell you what the law requires in your situation. For that, talk to a lawyer or one of the free legal aid groups on our Resources page.
Last updated July 18, 2026. Written by the Unido team. A lawyer hasn't reviewed it yet. We'll say so here when one has.