Getting Started - Interested in Student Rentals in Orlando

[Michael Sprouls]

Hello everyone, nice to virtually meet you all.

This is my first post on BP, and I write professionally, so I apologize for the longwindedness. A little background: My wife and I have gotten very interested in REI recently. We're learning all we can while simultaneously searching for our first investment (I'm on book 3 of 5 that I picked out to read). We both attended University of Central Florida and lived in a house that my parents bought for my sister and I while we got through college, and the idea of student rentals intrigued us. We both still live in Orlando and are familiar with the UCF area. UCF is now the second largest university in the US with 70,000 or so students, and apartments are springing up everywhere. It seems safe to assume there's a market, but obviously we'll need some more research to confirm that.

We both have degrees in graphic design and work for Universal designing theme parks (with some on-site experience for both of us). I also have an MBA. We feel like this gives us a pretty good background to start, but by no means do we think we know everything we need to yet.

The area around UCF has improved quite a bit in the last 10 years and home prices have risen considerably, but it seems like there are still some promising areas to find deals. We came up with a few questions we've been wondering.

- Of course it's always important to find great deals, but how "great" is necessary for student rentals? I.e. We'd love to buy low and add value, but if the numbers seem to work on a turnkey property, is there a reason not to go that route?

- How risky are student tenants? We were pretty good kids in college, but of course we had parties and made our share of messes. I can handle some college shenanigans, but I'd also love to hear some horror stories if anyone has one.

- What sort of turnover can we expect? The idea of a natural turnover seems more of a benefit than a drawback to me, but I'd love to know some rules of thumb for just how frequent can be expected. 

Any other best practices or things to consider are of course welcome. Is there anyone with experience in this niche? Or anyone with experience in Orlando? We'd love to chat any time.

Michael