Purchase student housing

[Tawa W.]

I have been looking for investment opportunities and found a potential opportunity that looks good to me. Given that I am new to this space, I wanted to reach out the BP community and get some advice on it, especially questions and pitfalls.

The purchase price is ~300K + some renovation and advertised annual gross rent is ~90K and net is ~40K.

Some questions:

• Any major concerns or issues with renting to students? Mitigation techniques
• Similarly, is this more of a challenge than more conventional rentals. 
• Any problems with getting conventional funding? 
• Also, any additional due diligence that needs to be done for this type of rental
• Anything I am not asking 

Appreciate it any feedback.

Thanks,

Tawa

[Steve Potash]

Student rentals are not any easier or harder to manage than a typical rental.  You just need to know what you're doing.  A lot of investors/property managers think they can apply the same techniques that they've used on a typical rental to a student rental, but it can't be done succesfully and they're normally the ones stating that student rentals are harder to manage or there's more damage.  For example, you need a lease specific for student rentals, the screening methods are different and the leasing timetables are different.  You also need to understand what the students are looking for, so that you don't purchase a rental that isn't in demand.  If you purchase the correct rental and understand all of the techniques and processes, student rentals can be more profitable than a typical rental.