Rent by Room Student Rental ($$$ and Class Determinations)

[Ray Pantle]

I'm considering buying SFHs near universities and renting by the room to students. A promising property popped up in one of my target locations, and I need more info before crunching the numbers.

1) I found a few comps on rent.com (similar in # of rooms, square footage, advertised as student housing), but the listings for the comps have the entire properties included as one unit to rent, rather than offering a lease by room option. So how would I calculate a reasonable rent price per room?

For instance, the 6-bedroom rental literally next door to the property I'm interested in buying is listed at $1,800 per month. My understanding is that the benefit of student rental by the room is that you can get more per room (in this case, 6 rooms) than if you rented the entire unit under one lease; in other words, something greater than $300 per room ($1,800 divided by 6). But how do I arrive at that number with no rent-by-room comps?

2) I understand the percentages to consider for vacancy rate, maintenance, eviction costs, and other expenses should be based on the property class, but I'm not sure how to decide the class in this situation, where I'm targeting students (generally 18-24 year olds). It seems like the usual criteria for deciding class wouldn't apply. Can someone help me out?

Thanks in advance!