Are colleges a good idea? Market knowledge in the NOCO area

[Joshua Tikal]

My wife and I are really excited to start growing our portfolio but we quite nervous where to invest.

Our goals:

1. Maximize rental cash flow \ equity in 10yr-15yrs for college funds for our children

2. Provide good homes for college students. We have a great passion for education and helping people accomplish any goals related to education!

3. Retirement  20 yrs

We have one property with equity as well as savings but we're not sure where and how much to invest. About $140k is our limit so we're looking for small homes and condos.

We are looking to start in the Greeley \ Evans focusing on University of Northern Colorado and ideally growing to afford the larger markets Colorado State University or University of Colorado. We have found that the University of Wyoming in Laramie could be an option as well. The property values are as much as 25%-30% less which fits much better  in our budget but the market looks to be much slower. We are also concerned about finding tenants as we see many properties are available and the owners are giving away rent just to get a tenant. We are very familiar with the Northern Colorado area but not Laramie.

Any thoughts \ strategy on investing in college areas?  

Thoughts on houses vs. condos?

Would you invest in a cheaper unknown area with the possibly of investing in multiple properties or invest most\all money in a known area?

Any thoughts \ strategy in investing around UNC (Greeley\Evans) or UW in Laramie.

Thank you so much for your time!

Joshua