Renting out a college property in February

[Upgrade Costello]

I just finished renovation on a 6 bedroom house near Ohio State University campus.  It's ready to be rented out, and I have the rent price listed at $2495 (slightly below average rental price in the neighborhood) but no one is interested, I assume because everyone has already secured housing since spring semester already started 4 weeks ago.   I am considering doing a short term lease at $1995 per month, and then raising the rent to $2995 (average $500 per bedroom which is standard in the neighborhood) in the fall of 2018.

My questions are:

1. is this a good plan? (I don't want to leave the house vacant, even if it  means me discounting the rent all the way to $1995

2. When does "fall lease" start for college students usually? (aug 21 is the first day of class, so I assume Aug 1st?

3.  If I make my short term rental, should I have it go from now until July 1st (so I have 30 days to clean and repair damage before the Aug 1st move in?

Any tips or advice is appreciated, but my main goal is just to have the house occupied even if it's at a reduced rent asap, so I don't have to pay the utilities and also have the house exposed to squatters or a break in to steal plumbing etc.

Thanks!

[Will Gaston]

@Upgrade Costello I own about 50 student rental units in Columbia near the University of South Carolina and have (unfortunately) been in this situation several times. To answer your questions.

1) You probably don’t want to hear this but I would just try and lease it for July and leave it vacant until then. Go ahead and get in the cycle (July/August to July/August) and stay in it by advertising early for the upcoming fall. I am currently advertising and leasing all of my properties that have July/August start dates right now. The most important thing about student rental marketing is knowing WHEN to market. I see better properties than mine go unleased all the time because the owners are unaware of when to advertise.

2/3. I do a lot of my leases like this:

August 15th, 2018-July 31st, 2019

July 10th, 2018-June 30th, 2019

I use the first 10-15 days of the month to handle the turnovers so that the houses are in good shape when the tenants move in. I don’t pro-rate the rent either. The tenants have to pay the full month’s rent and are okay with this. Most of the large student housing places do this in my market as well as they are turning over hundreds of apartments in a 10-14 days and don’t want to lose the income for that time.