Has Anyone Out There Had Either A Good Or Bad Experience With University Housing?
I am looking at a 4 bed, 4 bath town home style university residence close to a major university. It is part of a development with health club, pool, etc. for students. It about breaks even on paper. I would like to hear from anyone who has dealt with anything similar.
Are the students hard to deal with? Is the market too narrow for this to appreciate? Pros and cons are equally appreciated. Thanks, Brian.
During a recent bootcamp with David Lindahl one of his invited speakers advocated what he said is a lucrative approach to providing "full service" appartments for students. He converts single-family rental homes (at about $600/month) near campuses to multi-bedroom rentals where each student gets a private room (at about $600+ per month). He has a maid service come in once per week to clearn and stock basic supplies. These rooms go for a premium and the students (and parents) like the deal well enough that they pay for them through the summer when the students are at home in order to lock them in for the coming fall and winter semesters. The speaker said that he has had great success with this approach. I found it interesting enough to consider it a real possiblity if I ever own a rental that fits the criteria.
Good luck!
Brian
By the way, aparently the rental is not considered a multi-unit rental because the bedrooms do not have locks on the doors.
[ Edited by LegacyProp on Date 02/21/2006 ][ Edited by LegacyProp on Date 02/21/2006 ]
I have three rental properties in Tallahassee that I rent to Florida State Univ students. There are pros and cons. For me the pros are currently leading. Rents are higher, students are constantly looking for places to live and I do not hear from them very often. The places do get beat up a bit but that is what the security deposit is for.
One thing that you also need to consider when doing student housing is the zoning of the property that you are using. If it is zoned single family and not multi you could get yourself in trouble. I guarentee that neighbors will complain about student housing in thier areas and you want to make sure you are on the right side of things.
Also with student housing, in my experience ( Notre Dame Housing) is that the name of the game is cashflow and not really about appreciation. If I can get 350 -400 a head on student housing and I can get 8-10 students per property I am cashflowing that property at up to 4K gross rents. If they are consistently renting our year after year the value of the properties is really in those cashflows. IF you are just breaking evening with student housing I would say pass on it myself