Student Rental Near Major University

[David Smith]

Hi!

This is my first post. I found this forum because I listened to one of the bigger pockets podcasts and the guest in that episode bought a house in Boston near a University and rented it out to several students to maximize rent. He even converted the dining rooms to add another bedroom.

My wife and I want to use that strategy and buy a 4BDR home half a mile from a major University in Orlando. It's a completely renovated 3000sqf house and we're trying to squeeze two people in each of the two large master bedrooms and one in each of the other two bedrooms. So a total of six people will be paying rent. One of them will be my wife's brother who would be sharing one of the master bedrooms as he's currently interning in Orlando. The first batch of students will be his friends, people he's lived with before. After that, if he moves back to Virginia we were thinking of using one of our trusted family friends to find renters and do the property management part for us. 

Down the road we would also like to move into the house if I find a job in Orlando.

Now comes the part where I'm looking for advice.

Being a resident of VA I know the property taxes will be higher. Also, we can only do like 5% down. Maybe we can stretch it but we prefer not to.

What are some of the things you guys would recommend before we make this purchase? 

What are some of the things that first-time home investors always forget?

Is it safe to let everyone sign an individual lease?

I look forward to your comments!

David