Location: Ames, IowaProperty: 4 plex multi family, about 2 miles from Iowa State UniversityMy overall question is, how hard is a rental to fill after college has started in Ames?

I'm a rising senior at Boston College interested in buy and hold real estate investing.

Plus the trades are aging fast and many will retire and we have a generation of college kids come up who can't tell a 2x4 from a 2x8.Sub 300k inventory (in our market) is the lowest and limited to existing homes - the cost of land, materials and labor force builders into the 400-600 range, so starter homes are like bit-coin: finite supply.Wrapping it all up I dont believe we will see an economic slow down have significant impact on the RE markets - at least certainly not to the tune for 2008.

I also realize that it'd be easy to say, "It's your friend, you shouldn't charge him" but the house is almost an hour away and if I'm going to coordinate lawn care, cleaning, renter turns, and the like, I would like to be compensated to a certain degree. 

Here are a couple things you forgot to mention- you shut the electricity off on us the day we moved in (with 100 degree temperatures), you left a non working washing maching in the laundry closet filled with brown water and made us take it out... you also had us walk through the back yard with you and there had been drought for days, so the mud wasnt visible... and in your lease it stated that we were to make you aware of any changing conditions of the property... also i first approached you about the issue asking if we could and i quote “seed the back yard ourselves and just take it out of rent” i never asked you for sod, i never demanded it- actually the first person to mention sod in our emails was you! 

Currently I am 22 years old and recently graduated with my business degree and luckily no student debt.

Hey all,I am an early stage investor (9 mos in the game) in Austin and Bryan/College Station.

The neighborhood I was interested in is a college-town, so many rentals are occupied by students, as landlords can make more money charging students by the room as opposed to renting to families. 

@Nathan Greeney, if you like the room-by-room approach, look at college towns.

A detailed assessment of existing systems will inform the type and degree of renovation needed.