It's a terrible investment unless you have reason to believe your market is going to go way up.Don't ever buy a property thinking you "might rent it to students in the future" -- if you're going to rent to students, be aware that you're renting to students, and design it appropriately (for example, expensive fixtures are generally a bad idea in a student rental).

There's a lot of satisfaction with doing it yourself, even though it's terrible work :). 

While the commute from Durham wouldn't be totally terrible, parking on campus really sucks, and the TTA doesn't run often enough to make it easy and reliable.

Frogtown/thomas-dale is supposed to have several communities attempting to revitalize it (habitat for humanity) and it may gentrify some day being next to midway but its got some major problems and the housing stock is generally pretty terrible.

@David AlvaradoI always hear from the pros "the low hanging fruit is not there anymore"  I need to remind everyone the low hanging fruit was around when financing was difficult, occupancy rates were in the toilet and the economy was terrible.

We have always known they are loose canons for lack of better words, but they have truly shown their colors this past week and have said some terrible things, so we want everything in writing and legal. 

Personally I think this is a terrible idea. anything can happen before closing. the place can be ransacked by thieves, the seller can get a higher offer and back out, your financing can fall through.

The note is a 4% apr so holding onto it for a few more years wouldn't be a terrible move. 

I personally think it's a terrible idea, but I could be wrong and this could be a common procedure.

It looks terrible and I would never want to rent or live somewhere that had it, so I don't want to do that to a tenant either.