College Towns

[Nik K]

I'm obviously still very new -- does anybody specialize in college towns at all? As in -- buy a crappy house in a college town, fix it up, and rent it out?

Reason I ask is that I found a relatively cheap house for sale very close to a college I went to. I know the area really well and I know for a fact this house (after some fix ups) would do really well in terms of being rented out.

Anybody have any tips on this? In terms of -- I'm very recently out of college myself, and have a very small amount of cash saved up. How would I even go about getting started in terms of buying a house say < $50K. A mortgage?

[David Gellner]

Nik K, As someone who is just leaving college and has signed a few leases, I feel like I can offer some advice.

1. I would have a VERY strong lease, more so than a regular tenant lease because of the possibilities that students will try and bail once they find out they "can't" get along with their room mate.

In the lease state that their is no lease takeover, and make the lease for an entire year. That is how homeowners limit turnover, always a new group of students every year.

2. If you have the opportunity, make the downstairs some type of cheap indestructible hardwood floors. Carpet gets destroyed in college.

3. I would have a considerably large damage deposit, due to the fact that their is a high probability of college students that are going to try and "walk away" and let you keep their deposit instead of fixing damage.

Hope this helps!