Seeking Insight on Binghamton Student Rentals

[James Cerasoli]

I’m currently researching the Binghamton area, specifically in 13905 and 13903, seeking a 4-6 bedroom single or multi-family that needs minor work to use as a student rental. I have a multitude of questions/concerns listed below that I’m hoping can be addressed by anyone familiar with the area: 

1) I was wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of demand these student rentals are getting and if there’s certain areas that are more desirable than others and less susceptible to vacancies. I noticed BU is looking to increase its total enrollment to 20,000 students by growing their graduate population and I’d assume this would positively affect the student rental market.

2) So far, I’ve noticed many student rentals on the south-east section of west side (13905) by Oak St., Seminary Ave., Walnut St., etc which I’m assuming are desirable because they’re closest to the downtown area. But I’m curious as to how the demand for student housing is in the south side (13903).

3) Are there certain areas that are known to attract party students that I may want to stay away from? Ideally, I’d like to target tenants who are graduate students, bookworms or foreigners and less likely to wreck the place.

4) I’ve also heard that there’s not much competition or interest for vacant properties that need work considering most investors are looking for turnkey properties and would like to know if there’s any truth to this because that should translate to these properties to be well discounted.

5) How accurate a ~$130k Zestimate is for a 6 bedroom, 2 bath and about 2200sqft that’s nicely renovated and fully furnished on the south-east section of west side that I mentioned before. And how home values may vary from this area to south side (13903) or other areas of 13905.

6) I’m also looking for any local financial institutions/credit union references considering I’ve heard that it’s not easy to get financing for non-local investors.

7) Also, would welcome any referred investor friendly agents or property managers.

Responses to any of the questions/concerns would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Stephanie Jacobson]

Okay so:

Looking by area code in Binghamton is not going to be as helpful as just looking on a map. See how Rt. 17 comes across the north, and then the Susquehanna River sort of swoops down below it? You want to stay in that area surrounded by the Susquehanna on the west and south, the highway to the north, and then where the river splits into the Chenango to the east. The little pocket between the Susquehanna and the Chenango to the east is "downtown" where there are a lot of bars and restaurants within walking distance, so that's where the students pay the highest rents. But most of them live to the west of the Chenango there. You'll notice none of this is actually near the school. That's because most of the students rely on the bus to get them around, so the hot areas of student housing actually end up being clustered near the bus stops.

A picture would have been so helpful here, haha. I hope that's clear.

So the area I'm talking about is half Johnson City, half Binghamton. There is almost no demand for students outside of this boundary.

The West Side that I'm describing here is where you'll get your bookworms, mostly. Certain blocks on Seminary, Murray, Chapin have a reputation for partiers, but most of the frats and things live downtown. Avoid downtown if you're looking for quieter students.

The university is growing and building a new health services campus in Johnson City, so I suddenly have a pretty decent influx of landlords buying in that area. Property values are still pretty low compared to the rents you'll get, and vacancy in the student rentals isn't a big problem. Houses near the BU bus line (particularly on Main street, Front street and Riverside) are in the highest demand.

Properties that need work are appropriately discounted, and plentiful. In fact, that's most of what's on the market. There's a huge problem in Bing with out of town landlords buying rundown housing for cheap and never doing any repairs. Please don't do this. If you buy a discounted property and do some work to make it nice, you'll have a rental above average that will serve you well.

Tioga State Bank does financing for non-local investors. So do Tompkins Trust and a few others in the area. My favorite mortgage broker is Roy Cordero with Southern Tier Mortgage Company, but he's extremely busy and notoriously hard to get a hold of. If you call his office, you'll get either Megan or Lindsey. Don't be afraid to really hound them.

@Gary Kline is my favorite real estate attorney. (Can't tag him for some reason but he's on BP too.) I HIGHLY recommend using a local attorney. Downstate has very different regulations, and crossing NYC attorneys with upstate attorneys is a recipe for having your closing take wayyy too long.

I wasn't able to organize this answer as well as your questions were asked, so I hope this helped! Of course I'm available to help in your search, too. I'll send you a PM. :)