College Town Rental -- Lease questions

[Tom Shepard]

Looking for advice from someone with experience in renting in college town.

Do you generally do a 12 month lease vs 9 mo, or length of school year?  Do you offer any incentive for them to keep the lease during the summer (lower rent if they are not living there for the summer, but leaving their stuff there?)  Do you allow for the lease to be broken if student leaves school?  Do you get the parents to also sign the lease as guarantor?  (one of our kids rented an apartment from a rental company and they required this.) 

Our first 3 years should be pretty simple, our daughter and a long-time friend will be living there until they graduate (we WILL have a lease with the friend and her parents to help things go smoothly).

What does the BP community say?