All Forum Posts by: Tim S.

I have student rentals, summer is not a problem for me, the lease is 51 weeks.  I leave one week for turn over.   This is typical for my area, 12 month lease, they can sub-let in summer if they want to . You are better off renting the whole house to a group, where all are equally responsible for the rent and any damages, let peer pressure work for you.  Rather than individual leases for each one.  They can work out for themselves what each room is worth, and who pays what for rent, utilities, etc.  I don't care or need to be involved in how they choose to divide up the expenses. 

Obviously with COVID who knows when schools will get back to normal, so I wouldn't buy anything for the foreseeable future.

Pro's, almost no vacancy if it's a good property, proximity to campus being the most important.  They always pay, or their parents do.  I don't know where the money comes from, as long as it's paid I don't care. 

I haven't had many problems in terms of damages, you have to accept that it's going to happen and don't get too upset when it does.  There will be more damage than if it's a family, but mostly it's small stuff.  The extra rent I can charge more than makes up for it.  The biggest issue is these kids don't know how to fix ANYTHING themselves.  "my towel holder fell off the wall, please fix it" "the light in this room stopped working"  for little stuff like that we (my PM) try to coach them though it (like how to replace a light bulb) or wait until there are 4-5 things needing to be fixed then send someone over.  I created a little book with instructions on simple stuff, like how to shut the water off to the toilet if it starts to overflow, stuff you can, and can't put in the toilet.  How to reset a breaker if it trips. 

Make sure in your market some developer isn't planning an 800 unit student apartment building.  I think smaller schools are actually better, large developers won't move into those markets.  

Make sure you know your market, what the norms are, what the schedule is.  For example in my market, people start advertising in Oct-Nov for the following Fall.  I had a signed lease in Nov 2019, for June 2020 move in.  If you buy in April-May for example, you may have missed the rent up window for the upcoming school year.  

Lots of great info here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/491641-nearing-1-000-college-student-tenants-heres-what-ive-learned

@Alex Olson  I started this thread 3 years ago, prices in that area have gone up a lot since then.  I'm buying in KC now. 

@Eve Cao Highlands Mortgage, Graham Parham.

I just locked in a loan for SFR investment property, 30 yr fixed, conventional, 25% down 4.18%

San Jose is 2x Seattle prices, so I know expensive.  Lot's of people invest out of state and have success with it, me included.  Some lose, because they don't do enough due diligence, and are just frankly dumb about it.  You have to be careful and methodical.  I'm sure you'll find lots of threads on the subject with a little searching.  Here'e what I wrote on another thread:

Most important member of your team for OOS investing is the property manager. Decide which market you like, reach out to BP members who invest in that market. Get recommendations for property managers and realtors. Make some phone calls, ask a lot of questions. Property managers know which areas are most desirable, and how much houses will rent for. Realtors usually don't know, as most houses are sold to local owner occupants. IF you can find an investor friendly realtor, great. Make a trip out there, drive around, get a feel for the areas, meet with multiple PM's and realtors. Look at a lot of houses around your pricepoint. Get a feel for what you can get for your money. Find out what they would rent for, Craigslist, other sites. Ask your PM's which areas are the most desirable, what features are most tenants looking for. Don't feel like you have to buy something on the first trip. Once you have a feel, you can tell what's a good deal and what isn't. Talk to locals, waiters, what areas do they like? Where are the good schools? Where are the high crime areas to avoid? Check Trulia crime maps. school rankings. I avoid low end houses, shoot for houses just under the median price for the market. I would not buy anything that rents for less than ~$900/mo in any market. Too much drama at the low end. Plenty of people make money in C class, but I don't think it's a good idea to start there, it's riskier IMHO.

Run your numbers and Make some offers. If you're back home, get your PM to go look at them for you, take lots of pictures. You can have a good experience with OOS investing if you are smart and methodical about it, and know what the market will bare in terms of rental rates.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/792307-should-i-buy-out-of-state-or-am-i-not-getting-creative-enough?page=1#p4664473

I like the "Good deeds note investing podcast"  lots of nuts & bolts details that many educators and books gloss over. 

Tax assessed value does not track well with actual value of the home.  As mentioned above, it's usually lower, sometimes a lot lower.  This is a good thing, otherwise your property taxes would be even higher.   It varies a lot from county to county, some are more diligent in updating the values, and are aggressive on the values they assign, others not so much.   

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/491641-nearing-1-000-college-student-tenants-heres-what-ive-learned

I've met Scott at a convention, and taken some of his training, luckily I never invested with him.  I looked at a couple of deals of his a few years ago but they seemed like bad deals, red flags, so I passed.  I used to point people to his training videos, I learned a lot from them and I know many others have as well.  Some of the paid training material was pretty worthless. 

It's sickening to see this happen to people, it's clear he's a scumbag.  I'm glad people are publicizing his crimes, hopefully it will save others from throwing their money away.  There are still quite a few people that know all about him, but seemingly continue to support him, I can't understand that.  Many others that were trained by him, have cut him off completely, the ones with integrity.  He's still looking for new victims, still doing his thing as if everything is just fine, makes me sick. 

Most important member of your team for OOS investing is the property manager.  Decide which market you like, reach out to BP members who invest in that market.  Get recommendations for property managers and realtors.  Make some phone calls, ask a lot of questions.  Property managers know which areas are most desirable, and how much houses will rent for.  Realtors usually don't know, as most houses are sold to local owner occupants.  IF you can find an investor friendly realtor, great.  Make a trip out there, drive around, get a feel for the areas, meet with multiple PM's and realtors.  Look at a lot of houses around your pricepoint.  Get a feel for what you can get for your money.  Find out what they would rent for, Craigslist, other sites.  Ask your PM's which areas are the most desirable, what features are most tenants looking for.  Don't feel like you have to buy something on the first trip.  Once you have a feel, you can tell what's a good deal and what isn't.  Talk to locals, waiters, what areas do they like?  Where are the good schools?  Where are the high crime areas to avoid?  Check Trulia crime maps. school rankings.  I avoid low end houses, shoot for houses just under the median price for the market.  I would not buy anything that rents for less than ~$900/mo in any market. Too much drama at the low end.  Plenty of people make money in C class, but I don't think it's a good idea to start there, it's riskier IMHO.

Run your numbers and Make some offers.  If you're back home, get your PM to go look at them for you, take lots of pictures.  You can have a good experience with OOS investing if you are smart and methodical about it, and know what the market will bare in terms of rental rates.