I am in Northern VA and my parents rent out a townhome- in the past they used a lease, but since it expired, they have never sent the tenants a new lease for renewal.

You couldn't be the investor in a short sale of your parent's house for example.

I also ALWAYS require a parent to co-sign, my reason is the lack of rental and credit history, I mean really!

If you are going to do it, I would screen for good grades and get both parents of each renter to cosign along with the max allowable deposit.

Actually, my parents taught me about MLO's on residential property so it was easy for me to grasp and its nothing new but that doesn't mean its well known either.

Bigger power bills are going to drive even more tenants into doubling up or returning to their parent's homes.

Off Topic :To take it one-step further, you should create a parent company, usually a S-Corp or an LLC with an S-Corp filing status.

And acting as a surrogate 'parent/counselor' grows repititiously tiresome.

For me, it was a decision to live at home with my parents in a small town where there are no opportunities for work nearby, or to move away from rural Connecticut and become a tenant in an area that will allow me to pursue a career and save for a down payment on a home.

With college students ALWAYS get a signed parental guarantee.That way you have additional parties with assets to go after.I do not have any clause allowing early termination of the lease because it is usually difficult to re-rent in the middle of the school year.