How Do I Market To College Students?
Grand Rapids , MI · Member since 2016 · 22 posts · 9 votes
Hey everyone,
I am looking at buying a rental unit in Michigan in a college town. If I do end up purchasing this property, what is the best way to market this rental property to college students? Also, how much do college students care about what a property looks like? Any advice would be appreciated thanks!
Market via the school online newspaper classifieds, Facebook, rental websites, etc.
Generally, people do not want to live in a dump...even college students. Depending on the market, you can get away with a dump the closer you are to nightlife, school, activities. So if it is a great location you can get away with the property not being as nice. The further away from the action the nicer you will need your property to be in order attract good tenants.
I rent to some MSU students in Lansing, MI. Students love love love social media. Here are some of the marketing tools I've used:
1. Craigslist/Newspapers - Yield a lower echelon applicant
2. Zillow, trulia, hotpads - Yield a middle echelon applicant. This is where the college kids are!
3. Company Website and direct referrals from university - Highest and best tenants. Usually visiting, PHD, and international students.
If you are looking at MSU, the college is closing a HUGE university apartment complex. This is going to squish family students and international students out into the community. It's a great time to be a landlord in and around MSU. PM me if your property is an MSU property.
I was a resident manager of a 26 unit apt building next to a university. This is what I learned the hard way.
The best students on the planet are law students. I've also heard that medical students are great. All they have time for is studying and sleeping, and they usually study at the university library.
Also, if you can get them their first year, they usually stay for 3 - 4 years.
I went and spoke with the person at the law school who also helped students find housing. She then would post my available apts on their facebook page.
I also gave my current tenants $100 rent credit if I rented to anyone they referred. When I had a vacancy, I'd let my current tenants know. I got a lot of tenant referrals.
The university I targeted, also had a website for off-campus housing. I could also advertise there.
If you want students, I highly suggest you focus on grad students. Law students are the best, medical students I also hear are great. My experience with MBA students is not good. They tend to rent short-term.
We also only ever did month-to-month agreements. That way if you have a problem, you can kick them out with 30 days notice. I never had a problem renting to students over the summer. There are many students who come for summer internships, for instance, willing to pay more than market rent, to be able to rent just for the summer.
Plus, if you rent to students with a year lease, you will inevitably end up with sub-leases and broken leases. Honestly, it's easier to let them break the lease with 30 days notice on a month-to-month agreement. And, some tenants will fabricate problems in order to get out of their lease. You will find that you had no problems with a tenant and all of a sudden they are complaining about mold and roaches and who-knows-what, and you're wondering what in the heck the deal is. Well, they probably just want out of the lease. And if they just had a month-to-month agreement, they'd just give you 30 days notice, instead of having you send plumbers and pest control, etc., etc., etc.
What college students want in housing (whether an apartment or a house, in no particular order):
-Proximity to campus
-Parking - the more parking, the better
-The neighbor situation - during college my buddy rented a house located next to a 9-5 business = no noise complaints when he had parties = awesome rental
-Is there a yard for entertaining?
Honestly, I would tout any of these in an ad. The beautiful thing is the parents will co-sign.
Random thought: the landlord likely loved my buddy because he rented the house for at least five years after college and so he provided a steady stream of income for years. A lot of people at my undergraduate college (by a lot I mean maybe 40%) stay in town and work - and so a student who likes his or her living arrangement will continue to rent the same place after college.
What college students want in housing (whether an apartment or a house, in no particular order):
-Proximity to campus
-Parking - the more parking, the better
-The neighbor situation - during college my buddy rented a house located next to a 9-5 business = no noise complaints when he had parties = awesome rental
-Is there a yard for entertaining?
Honestly, I would tout any of these in an ad. The beautiful thing is the parents will co-sign.
Random thought: the landlord likely loved my buddy because he rented the house for at least five years after college and so he provided a steady stream of income for years. A lot of people at my undergraduate college (by a lot I mean maybe 40%) stay in town and work - and so a student who likes his or her living arrangement will continue to rent the same place after college.
Co-signers are worthless, except for giving you an additional person to sue after eviction. And I'd market to student who don't party, such as law or med students. Advertising you have a great yard for partying is likely to end up in problems. You want smart student tenants who know it's always better to go to a party at someone else's house, so you don't wake up to the mess (like walking through a kitchen where your feet stick to the spilled beer and vomit) or have to talk to the cops :-)
My mistake in renting to undergrads, ended up with a party with someone peeing out a bathroom window during a party - through the window screen (you can imagine how effective that was) and who broke the toilet they were standing on at the time. There was also a broken towel bar in there, that we could only imagine what was happening with it at the time.
These tenants also had the heater and air conditioners running at the same time - yep, utilities included. But, if Mommy's paying the rent, who cares, anyway, right? That you are completely overworking the a/c and heater while they each try to outdo the other. The damage these types of partier student tenants can cause is huge.
So, sure, sue Mommy and Daddy for the damage. Mommy and Daddy can probably afford lawyers who will fight you. And your unit will be off the market until you take care of replacing flooring, carpeting, lawns, on and on and on. Oh, and it will probably smell like a skunk moved in and died - that's what pot smells like now. Pot smokers always say they aren't smokers. But, try removing the smoke residue from their unit.
Nope, I wouldn't market the party-friendly backyard :-)
What college students want in housing (whether an apartment or a house, in no particular order):
-Proximity to campus
-Parking - the more parking, the better
-The neighbor situation - during college my buddy rented a house located next to a 9-5 business = no noise complaints when he had parties = awesome rental
-Is there a yard for entertaining?
Honestly, I would tout any of these in an ad. The beautiful thing is the parents will co-sign.
Random thought: the landlord likely loved my buddy because he rented the house for at least five years after college and so he provided a steady stream of income for years. A lot of people at my undergraduate college (by a lot I mean maybe 40%) stay in town and work - and so a student who likes his or her living arrangement will continue to rent the same place after college.
Co-signers are worthless, except for giving you an additional person to sue after eviction. And I'd market to student who don't party, such as law or med students. Advertising you have a great yard for partying is likely to end up in problems. You want smart student tenants who know it's always better to go to a party at someone else's house, so you don't wake up to the mess (like walking through a kitchen where your feet stick to the spilled beer and vomit) or have to talk to the cops :-)
My mistake in renting to undergrads, ended up with a party with someone peeing out a bathroom window during a party - through the window screen (you can imagine how effective that was) and who broke the toilet they were standing on at the time. There was also a broken towel bar in there, that we could only imagine what was happening with it at the time.
These tenants also had the heater and air conditioners running at the same time - yep, utilities included. But, if Mommy's paying the rent, who cares, anyway, right? That you are completely overworking the a/c and heater while they each try to outdo the other. The damage these types of partier student tenants can cause is huge.
So, sure, sue Mommy and Daddy for the damage. Mommy and Daddy can probably afford lawyers who will fight you. And your unit will be off the market until you take care of replacing flooring, carpeting, lawns, on and on and on. Oh, and it will probably smell like a skunk moved in and died - that's what pot smells like now. Pot smokers always say they aren't smokers. But, try removing the smoke residue from their unit.
Nope, I wouldn't market the party-friendly backyard :-)
You've had the opposite experiences we've had. But then again, I'm a glass-half-full person who also screens his potential tenants closely, follows my gut and makes certain to tell my tenants and any co-signer(s) what I expect and don't accept.
What college students want in housing (whether an apartment or a house, in no particular order):
-Proximity to campus
-Parking - the more parking, the better
-The neighbor situation - during college my buddy rented a house located next to a 9-5 business = no noise complaints when he had parties = awesome rental
-Is there a yard for entertaining?
Honestly, I would tout any of these in an ad. The beautiful thing is the parents will co-sign.
Random thought: the landlord likely loved my buddy because he rented the house for at least five years after college and so he provided a steady stream of income for years. A lot of people at my undergraduate college (by a lot I mean maybe 40%) stay in town and work - and so a student who likes his or her living arrangement will continue to rent the same place after college.
Co-signers are worthless, except for giving you an additional person to sue after eviction. And I'd market to student who don't party, such as law or med students. Advertising you have a great yard for partying is likely to end up in problems. You want smart student tenants who know it's always better to go to a party at someone else's house, so you don't wake up to the mess (like walking through a kitchen where your feet stick to the spilled beer and vomit) or have to talk to the cops :-)
My mistake in renting to undergrads, ended up with a party with someone peeing out a bathroom window during a party - through the window screen (you can imagine how effective that was) and who broke the toilet they were standing on at the time. There was also a broken towel bar in there, that we could only imagine what was happening with it at the time.
These tenants also had the heater and air conditioners running at the same time - yep, utilities included. But, if Mommy's paying the rent, who cares, anyway, right? That you are completely overworking the a/c and heater while they each try to outdo the other. The damage these types of partier student tenants can cause is huge.
So, sure, sue Mommy and Daddy for the damage. Mommy and Daddy can probably afford lawyers who will fight you. And your unit will be off the market until you take care of replacing flooring, carpeting, lawns, on and on and on. Oh, and it will probably smell like a skunk moved in and died - that's what pot smells like now. Pot smokers always say they aren't smokers. But, try removing the smoke residue from their unit.
Nope, I wouldn't market the party-friendly backyard :-)
You've had the opposite experiences we've had. But then again, I'm a glass-half-full person who also screens his potential tenants closely, follows my gut and makes certain to tell my tenants and any co-signer(s) what I expect and don't accept.
Hmmmm, I think there's an insult in there. But, I'm truly happy you found your niche of neat, tidy, low drama and quiet partying students, and found value in advertising that your property has a great yard for their zen parties.
I'm not sure if a glass half full doesn't equal naive in this instance, but time will tell.