College rental advice

[Kurt Gardner]

I have purchased mostly SFH and rented. I have flipped one, sold one that I had rented for 5 years, and I've also bought a duplex. Now I'm looking into purchasing a much larger property in a college town.

I would love to hear some advice from the experts about this type of venture.  Thank you in advance for thoughts.

1) Assuming the valuation on purchase price is the same, should I look for 1BR units or 2-3BR units?  Is there any greater security in renting to a group of roommates versus a single person?

2) Would I offer a rental term that coincides with the typical school year or traditional year to year?  Would I look for the same total either way (i.e., if I go 9 months would that total to the same amount of rent for 12 months, just more per month)?

3) I manage my properties myself, but this would likely be at least a couple hours away.  Would it be silly to try this without a rental management company?  If I go with a company, what kind of percentage should I reasonably expect to have to pay?

4) I use a third party screening service to run credit/criminal/background checks on all my potential tenants, and they provide a recommend/do not recommend status on each applicant.  I can see the college student would have very limited or even no actionable information in these categories.  Do I just use a parent as co-signer and screen them instead?

* if there is a really good article already established for this, thank you kindly for pointing me there, too.

Kurt