Looking for advice on Room Rental for Student Housing

[Will Stewart]

Hey everyone,  I was interested in doing student housing and I know individual room rental is becoming popular. My question is, how do you determine rental rates when doing this? Do you just go by the going rate for the overall size ( 4Bd, 4.5Ba) or do I need to look at what a one room apartment might rent for? The rent variance between the two if considerable. Thanks for the help!

[Kenisha B.]

@Will Stewart

Hey Will

I can only tell you what I did from experience.. not sure if it’s right or wrong. 1st I added up all my expenses: Utilities, internet, landscaping, mortgage/rent, insurance, etc and divided the total by the number of rooms (this was the minimum amount of money I needed to cover ALL expenses. Next I looked at what I had to offer (amenities) to increase the rents: laundry, parking, private bath,pool, storage, furnished/unfurnished, etc. Next I analyzed my location & how close I was to different businesses: gyms, grocery stores, underground metro rail, coffee shops, bars, hospitals, lounges, etc (in Los Angeles this is important since traffic can be insane) After that, I looked at what other landlords were charging for rooms in my area (craigslist, Facebook market place, radpad, word of mouth, etc). I also thought about the type of jobs my tenants would have… after doing this I was able to come up w/ the maximum amount I could charge for a room. Hope this helps and good luck!