Renting to College Students

[Rick Domico]

Looking for opinions on renting to college students. I'm currently looking at a 4 bedroom single family home outside of a satellite campus. Nice area. Good or bad idea as a first time rental property? Thanks in advance

[JD Martin]

@Will Gaston

I have had a lot of success renting to college students. 

Pros:

1. Tend to have stable rent sources - either student loans or their parents.

2. They tend to have co-signers - their parents - who don't want Junior starting off life with an eviction.

3. They are generally pretty easy going when it comes to the "fanciness" of the place. Most of them are just thrilled to have their own place. They're not hard to please and don't bother you for much.

4. You get to reset the unit to market rate frequently rather than dealing with a very long-term tenant.

Cons:

1. They are slobs. If this bothers you, don't rent to college students.

2. They are transient. At most you get them for a few years, so there's a decent amount of churn and turnover. 

3. They are lazy and dumber than bricks. No idea how to change a heating filter or clean out a gutter. Getting the grass cut is the best you can hope for.

That's really about it. If you rent to graduate students they tend to be a lot more mature, but they also only last 1-2 years while they finish up their degree. Undergrads last a little longer. We haven't had any problems with partying or anything like that.