Can’t find college renters due to COVID

[Kelsey Folger]

We are down to the wire here trying to find college students for our rental that we purchased during COVID. Many places are still available near campus and with the end of August nearing and our money running out with the rehab.... it’s not looking promising.

Has anyone had a luck pivoting on college rentals in a very “college” market area? What strategies have you used to get renters in while other houses sit vacant?

[Cliff H.]

This feels like a highly local situation. Was pouring over dozens of similar threads over the last couple months in prep for turning over a college rental myself in the middle of COVIDness, which actually happened just this week in a manner faster and with more demand than I have ever seen before (local university cut on-campus occupancy by 50% and pushed students off campus). 

Outside of traditional students, I’ve also seen strong demands this year from folks with kids looking to get settled in prior to start of school in September. In 15+ years self-leasing proprieties I’ve always found strong demand through end of September here in the northeast USA, with a rapid drop-off in October/November and a black hole from December - March. Given that 4 month dead zone, it’s often in the best interest of northern state PMs to do anything/everything possible to fill a space prior to the October cold snap drop-off. 

One the most overlooked things that most PMs/leasing agents do when renting out a space is to go generic: posting ads on CraigsList, newspapers, and national listing sites instead of investing the time at the start to think more about what their ideal renter looks like, where they live/work/play, and going after them by advertising where they are, which could be specific workplaces, housing intermediaries assisting folks trying to get back on their feet while providing guaranteed rental income to owners. 

Some useful links in this space:

https://www.renthop.com/studie...

https://www.apartmentguide.com...

https://www.apartmentguide.com...

https://travelnursingcentral.c...

https://www.ahrn.com/