Buying House Near College Campus
Would it be a good idea to buy a 4 bedroom 1 bath home near campus and rent out each room individually. Should I put stipulations like everyone must be a female? Approx. how much should the rent be for a bedroom in a nice $85,000 home? I was thinking $250-$300 a month for each room.
I don't know if you are legally allowed to stipulate that everyone must be female.
I own a duplex (3/3) near a university and I only sign one lease agreement for each unit. So, the lower unit is a 3 bedroom/1 bath and I have one lease agreement. The same for the upstairs unit. What is most common is that one person signs the lease and they find the other tenants. Thus, if a room is vacant, they are covering the cost while they find another roommate. I have tried it both ways and will not rent out individual rooms as I find myself becoming a babysitter when someone I have chosen is not a fit for the other tenants ... since they are living in tight quarters. My two cents.
Just bought my second one near campus. You can still find young professionals and graduate couples and families... they make great tenants. Usually higher SES, transient, smart, always "in the lab" at school.
I have a vacant one I am going to list at the campus and also in the Washington Post... but the DC area has so much, there's many different kinds of renters around.
You CANNOT discriminate based on age sex religion familial staus blah blah blah. Although you can say its ideal for some but all are welcome. OR put a female in there and then shop the rest around to "share with female"...
My female tenants are the dirtiest (just by chance?), I might prefer males (just not frat boys).
Good luck.
A word of experienced caution whenever buying pvt "student" housing:
A lot of years back I bought an apt. house near a state college campus...only to learn, after the fact, that all students were requried to live on campus...so while we got the occasional grad student, it sure didn't perform like we hoped.
I expect today, as crowded as campuses are, that students are allowed to live anywhere, but I'd sure check anyway.
And there's a lot of free info available through the housing office, such as where they live, what they typically pay, how vacancies are running in the area, etc..
One more thought on this. I have had experiences with top universities having a housing shortage (kids show up for the dorms and end up in "barracks" for a few months).
Many organizations maintain their own "housing info" webpage or section of a newsletter. Specifically, business schools within large universities, newsletters for grad students, and within some large departments (All of the physics faculty, staff and students, for example).
There is also http://www.roommate.com and one other good that I have found tenants with...(I will remember as soon I post this).
I own a multi and rent strictly to Harvard grad students and have never had a problem.
I target grad students because they tend to be more mature. I targeted Harvard students because their parents tend to be more affluent and usually they're the ones footing the bill. And these parents never miss a payment.
As for students at a state school, I'd advise against renting to those kids. Nothing against state school students (I graduated from UMass), but most of these kids don't have the luxury of mommy and daddy paying thier rent. Many of them have to work thier asses off to pay for school, books, food and rent in addition to thier studies. And when money's tight (and it often is), and they need to make a choice between paying rent, buying beer and a pizza, or paying for next semester's text books, paying for rent comes in last place every time.
I know firsthand because I used to own a multi and rented to UMass Lowell students. They were all damn good kids, but had to scratch and scrape to make ends meet. I can't recall ever getting a full months rent in the three years I owned to place.
These kids just had other priorities that were higher up on the financial ladder than paying me rent.
Anyway, good luck.
[addsig]
i wouldn't even bother tring to rent out each room. just charge a high enough rent where the student renting it will find the roommates. because if you start renting each room there are going to be boundry issues. if you rent to a group they'll settle the issues themselves.
renting rooms may make you a boarding house and that may be a problem. Check with your local zoning authority.
in san diego, UCSD has reduced enrollment by 2.5% this quarter for incoming freshmen because of budget constrainsts. i think that works out to 500 fewer new students. make sure the place your targetting doesnt have similar issues.
I only had one house near UCLA which I rented out on one master lease and he gathered the others. Of course as a great believer in education, why some of my best friends are educated, I give a great deal. I took this barn of a house with its pseudo spanish barok mediteranean, continental goodies which I bought cheap cause it was so missymass. I took the four bedrooms and modified them into bed sitting rooms and I assigned a bathroom to each even if I had to break thru and establish doors. They are truly suites and then the living room is a true gathering place and the formal dining room has become an electronic center for hooking up onto Internet and other university libraries etc. etc.
the over all rent is cheap, $3,200 but in view of what is going on it is a bargain. I have a house mother who goes in once a week on a monday and cleans up. removes lint from washer and dryer filter, checks the vacumn cleaner for broken glass and stuff. Directs the washing of windows and picks up a few extra bucks cleaning the suites for the idle rich. There is no pool but there is a sauna. Also Washer Dryers coin operated cause they do a lot of laundry. Afraid to ask.
We get occasional guests who stay a month or two with their amours. I go along, cause I am envious. Wish I were young again. Looks like a great life style.
Of course looking back I did live in a Brothel in the Lebanon while going to Grad school at the American University. Now that was an education. I was tempted to write a text book on irregular arabic behavior. Now I know why they wear veils. Thank God!!
Lucius 8-) 8-)
Hi, I'm glad somebody posted this topic...we thought about buying nearby to the university here.
We were in 2 minds about it, but thought that with the cost involved in renting acc. for these young people which is also on the parents, we asked a friend of ours who is a mother of 2 uni students what she thought of paying a down on a LO home for the 2 of them, and have them take in a room mate also.
She thinks its a great idea , will work out way cheaper, around here anyway...and she is now asking all of her friends their thoughts.
As a result, we are accumulating a good ist of buyers who ring occassionally asking when can we sell them a house!
That's our next project
Chris
..forgot the best part...for them...they can then resell the house and pay off the student loans they aquired afterwards!