College student renting

[Jeanette Land]

I am looking to rent out my home for college students at a school that is a 6 min drive from here. I would love to hear any thoughts on this on whether it is a good idea. Any tips are appreciated 

[Nick Gray]

Hi @Jeanette Land, I've been using my first SFH purchase as a college rental for a few years now and it's worked out very well for me. However, I have to agree with Tatum on a couple things... the turnover is something you have to be prepared to deal with. In my experience, best case scenario you get 2 years out of each group as they're usually only looking to rent for Junior/Senior year.

Also, to Tatum's other point, the risk of damage is always there because at the end of the day, they're college students. Some are only there to party and don't understand the responsibility they're taking on when signing these leases. To mitigate that, use your best character judgement when meeting these students and you can likely get a feel for who will be the best fit for your situation.

One thing I'd like to point out is the funky timing for marketing your place. In my case, students are actively looking for housing up to a year in advance with Sept-Nov being the busiest time. In other words, I already have tenants for the 2023-2024 school year and I'm now getting ready to market my place for 2024-2025 and expect things to get busy in the next month once classes start. I don't know why it's like this, but it is in my case. May be something for you to think about and double check whether or not it's the same in your area.

The upside to this is that your returns can be great using a rent by the room strategy as long as you are prepared for the specific needs of the market. Hope this helps in any way and happy to share more if you ever need!