All Forum Posts by: Francesco Barbati

small town with huge student population will never have vacancies

What my students always talk about as being important things to them are:

Location-can I walk to class, is there a school (not public) bus system that has a pickup near me, if I have to drive how far is it, is it an easy enough drive at odd hours of the day (8am, 2:30pm, 7:50pm etc).

How easy is it to live here-do I have to set up electric, water, internet and subsequently pay 7 different bills instead of just worrying about 1? How does maintenance work? Can I do things online or through text? 

Floorplan-If you are going to rent by the bedroom, you have to consider the bathroom situation too. My units all match up 3/3, 2/2 etc. If not, then you're going to sign someone to a lease for a bedroom space in your home and they have to share the bathroom as well as the rest of the house...it is less desirable. 

Students that are renting SFR here are renting as a conventional tenant with parental co-sign OR big deposits. Students that rent apartments 99% of my market are renting with bathrooms.

It's not easy to find out which areas are up and coming but generally you want to look at where the jobs are moving to and whether the population is growing. One thing you can look for, although I haven't tried it is elementary school admissions trends. For economic outlook, if the city has a economic development plan, that would be a good thing to look at. And companies like Block and Marcus and Millichap offer good info, although some of them cost money. For free, City-Data.com and CLRSearch.com have some good information.

One of the first things to determine is if you'll rent by the bedroom or not. If not then you should really treat your rental as a conventional "rent the whole house" deal. They'll need to qualify with income etc, if they have trouble qualifying that's when you can bring in parents to co-sign or act as guarantors.

Thanks @Jon Huber for hosting this event. I enjoyed this meetup and looking forward to getting together in the future!

Student housing is generally on automatic renewal, with students signing leases in October or November of this year for leases from August 2017 through July 2018. Check in your market to see what they do. If you miss the student window, you will have huge vacancies for an entire year.

Make sure the parents always sign as guarantors unless the kids are under legal age. Then the parents must sign as co-signers. The difference is, if the kid reaches majority of rejects the lease, a parent guarantor is also off the hook but a parent co-signer is not.

Specify access rights in the lease. Parents typically want access (even if they don't have their own keys) for surprise visits, and to get the kid's stuff if he drops out. Unless they are tenants, they are not entitled to that. Unless the lease specifically says they can have access, in which case they can.

Student housing is generally management intensive.  I recommend monthly inspections. I also recommend an online payment portal.

@Francesco Barbati It's best that you have one criteria for all and stick to that so that you don't get in trouble with any fair housing laws. I will private message you a link to the criteria we use. It may also be a good idea to check with a local management company in your market as they may also be able to provide information