Moving to Blacksburg VA; who invests in the New River Valley?

[Adam Cade]

My wife and I just found out that we will be returning to our alma mater Virginia Tech next academic year and are super excited! I am active duty Air Force and will be an AFROTC instructor for the 2022-2024 academic years. We have been looking at homes in the local area and the market seems pretty brutal right now. However, we are working with a local realtor to hopefully find something that fits our wants and needs. More importantly, we are looking for an investment property that we can use to offset our mortgage payments and help build equity faster.

We have been exploring the ideal of finding a property with an ADU (essentially a detached mother-in-law suite) that we could rent out to a grad student or small family. Skimming through Zillow and Realtor.com is not looking promising for availability. We are curious how other investors are doing in the area, and what strategies people are using for this market.

Currently we only invest in syndications, so doing a rental such as an ADU would be new to us. We have done our research and have confidence that we could be successful, but we are looking for tips and tricks regarding this REI strategy.

Thanks! Adam

[Craig McNally]

 We host Airbnb at our house for football games and graduation, and its really enjoyable.  Its been very short lived so far, but all the guests have been great.

Before mortgage rates dropped in the last two years, rental rates would just cover costs, so having a house in Blacksburg was more speculative--- relying on appreciation.  Rents have gone up since then and interest rates have come down.  In the case of this particular house we bought, we didn't bother looking at it until seeing how long it sat on the market, since offers have been so aggressive in the market overall.

I personally am not interested in student rentals.  Per room rates are higher, but I don't want to deal with the hassle.