All Forum Posts by: Sam Steadman

I am looking into investing in College Rental properties. What are all of your experiences with investing and managing college off campus housing?

Sam

 Haha I can appreciate this comment. After working a corporate job doing accounting work I was reminded as to why I find Real Estate so enticing. I was not made to sit in a cubicle from 9-5 everyday.

Hi All,

I am looking into using an FHA loan to invest in my first Residential Real Estate Property. I was wondering from others personal experience what you have found to be the pros and cons to using this for financing a property. I understand that you have to live in the property for an extended amount of time (I believe 2 to 3 years), but what about the qualifications and guidelines to receiving an FHA loan? I am still a student, but looking to jump into investing in real estate within 3 months after graduation this upcoming spring. I am trying to learn as much as I can beforehand!

Sam

@Edward B.

Sounds like a nice balance and I agree that college students in Grad school would be more responsible and less of "party animals" compared to undergrad students. Nice to have a tenant base from two streams including college grad students and young professionals. For sure something to think about when looking for an investment. Good luck with future properties. Thanks for the response.

Sam

@Stan Butler

So you found that with the heavy turnover it wasn't worth the extra income flow per month? I'm assuming that if you have a couple properties it could start to eat up a lot of time to continually find new tenants. Also, I'm surprised that your property did not have a reputation from the student body, which would lead to an easier time finding tenants. My experience is that the properties around campus have good reputations and that the owners do not have a tough time finding new tenants.

However, I could be totally wrong b/c this is coming from the student perspective and I'm not the owner who is searching for tenants.

Thanks for the great post. 

Sam

@Carl C.

I'm happy to see you are having success in this niche. How was purchasing that second house different than the first? Did you have different financing? Did you find if fairly easy to make the acquisition or much more difficult to acquire that second income property?

Funny that you thought it was a dump, but that others said it was nicer than a lot of other properties in your area. As a college student, I have seen that many college students and friends have a  high tolerance for a dirty and messy house to live in off of campus. With that said, I feel like it would be better to attract cleaner tenants by having a nicer property.

Sam

@John Cohen

That is awesome to see you started out that way and makes me more confident that I could also be successful. Thanks for the response. I really appreciate it.

Sam

@Kelly N.

Thanks Kelly. I will have to look into that before I make my first purchase. That could be a place where many investors make mistakes.

Sam

@Account Closed

That is my mindset too! I am willing to sacrifice to make that next step earlier in the process. What did your deal #2 look like? Did you end up buying another property that was similar to the first and rented it to other college students? Or did you focus on another niche of real estate?

Thanks for the honest feedback. I agree with you that to be successful you have to sacrifice and be uncomfortable at times. I bet that property is paying off now though!

Sam

 Hahaha thanks Al! That is what I have heard.

Sam