Can you rent out a 5-bedroom house by individual bedroom?

[Wesley Mullen]

Hi All, 

I'll start by advising I am a newbie and currently have a singe rental property. I have been on the lookout for new properties as my goal is to double the units this year (add a duplex or two SFRs). I noticed a recent flip on the market that was reduced in price to $240k (down from $248k). What caught my eye is that it has 5br/3ba. After listening to a recent BP podcast (early 140s) about college housing, my immediate thought was that if we could rent out each room for $500/month, it would easily break the 1% rule. In fact, in running numbers with rent at $2500/monthly, it would cashflow just over $600; even at $2k/month, it would cashflow $260/month. My question is would attempting to rent out 5 different bedrooms be an ideal strategy? We are located in a college town, but the property is not in close proximity to the campus (i.e. not walking distance). However, is near a strategic area near shops and on main road. Even if I'm not able to purchase, I wonder if others might be interested and have thoughts to add that I haven't considered. It might be a good STR actually, but I have not researched STRs enough to know how to evaluate them yet.

Regards,
Wes