Is an 8 Bedroom in College Town too risky?
Member since 2020 · 7 posts · 5 votes
Hi. My mom and I have wanted to get into real estate for a while now and we've started looking. So far, everything is a bust. We have come across an 8 bedroom house in a college town. I was intrigued by it because it's described as a duplex - 4bed/2bath per unit. When we visited, there was only one entrance, so it's really just a big house. Right now, 8 football players are renting, and some might stay for another year. They pay $500 total per room. The house is around 215k. I think it would make great income, but I'm scared it would be too hard to rent out when the football players move out. Can anyone share some insight or advice? Thanks in advance!
@Andrew Syrios 5 or 6 unrelated, They just passed 3 unrelated here and I think in NJ it was 4 in the college areas I know of. I don't know what will happen to the 4-6 bedrooms here. I suspect it will just drive the students to falsify who is living there.
Search student rentals and college rentals on this site, there is tons of insight into this type of rental and some very experienced people in the area. The first thing I would check is your town regulations related to unrelated persons and noise ordinances. Next check it is a duplex. We had a duplex with one entrance and two separate interior entrances. There were two meters and furnaces. You may be better off preserving it as a duplex if it is one. You will have more rental options. You would need a boarding house license in some areas for 8 unrelated people in a house. Have members of the football team historically rented this house season after season?
Like Colleen said, the main entrance to the building should lead to two separate interior entrances to each unit in the foyer/common area. If there are not two separate entrances to each unit, ask the listing agent if it is a legal 2-flat or if there is a non-conforming unit/some other situation.
If the football players have historically lived in the duplex, you may have strong future prospective tenants from them. As long as the property is managed properly, you shouldn't have issues in attracting renters though, athletes or not. You should also consider the seasonality associated with student housing rentals. Most students are going to be on campus from August through May and leave for the summer break. Seems like a great opportunity given the rent and price.
It sounds like a good opportunity, but you need to investigate further! Usually football players on scholarship get a stipend to live off campus. Check and see if that is the case and look into the possibility of continuing on with other football players going forward. Treat them right and you might have a gold mine. I have 10 rental units I manage in a college town and several of my duplexes are very close to the Vet School. My Vet students are multi-year tenants and when they graduate I incentivize them to find replacement tenants. It is the best thing going and easiest to manage.
Since you already have football players, maybe they can give you tips and introduce you to contacts inside the football organization to help you continue on the football pipeline. Coaches have an incentive to keep their players eligible and if you were to have some insight on how best to work the coaches that might further your standing in getting support from the coaches. For example, you might let the coaches know of issues that instead of having to go to police about disturbances ect you would be willing to let them know first. Football players can sometimes get out of hand and do stupid things but you can present yourself as one who has the University interest in mind! Just some rambling, but 8 rooms at $500 a clip totals $4000 a month on a 215k property is a GRAND SLAM! Cheers!
If it's a good sized college that isn't a commuter school (students usually live on campus) and the property is close to the campus, it should be fine. Although you will want to check with city ordinances. Some don't allow over 5 or 6 unrelated adults living in the same unit. This is true in Eugene, OR for example, although you can get around it by making the property a "communal living" property.
@Andrew Syrios 5 or 6 unrelated, They just passed 3 unrelated here and I think in NJ it was 4 in the college areas I know of. I don't know what will happen to the 4-6 bedrooms here. I suspect it will just drive the students to falsify who is living there.
@Sophie Pierce the numbers sound great and I love student rentals. For sure, look at the ordinances about unrelated people living together. This is popular in college towns and it can cause problems for a landlord.
@Andrew Syrios 5 or 6 unrelated, They just passed 3 unrelated here and I think in NJ it was 4 in the college areas I know of. I don't know what will happen to the 4-6 bedrooms here. I suspect it will just drive the students to falsify who is living there.
3??? That's ridiculous!
Do they have an exception for "communal living" like Eugene, OR does or anything like that?
@Andrew Syrios I believe you are allowed 4 if they are not students. No communal living exemption. Larger places likely will have to go to boarding house license. It is kind of crazy because they already went after the behavior and issues have been way down with the passing of a noise ordinance a number of years ago.
@Andrew Syrios I believe you are allowed 4 if they are not students. No communal living exemption. Larger places likely will have to go to boarding house license. It is kind of crazy because they already went after the behavior and issues have been way down with the passing of a noise ordinance a number of years ago.
Are you allowed more if they are students or is that maxed out at 4 too?
@Andrew Syrios the ordinance currently reads 4 unrelated persons and separately it states only 3 students. Really poorly constructed. The last ordinance went to RI supreme court and was overturned but the providence 3 unrelated persons ordinance was upheld in supreme court. Just address the bad behavior.
@Andrew Syrios the ordinance currently reads 4 unrelated persons and separately it states only 3 students. Really poorly constructed. The last ordinance went to RI supreme court and was overturned but the providence 3 unrelated persons ordinance was upheld in supreme court. Just address the bad behavior.
Yikes, that sucks! Perhaps they were sick of student parties, which admittedly, can often get out of hand.
Search student rentals and college rentals on this site, there is tons of insight into this type of rental and some very experienced people in the area. The first thing I would check is your town regulations related to unrelated persons and noise ordinances. Next check it is a duplex. We had a duplex with one entrance and two separate interior entrances. There were two meters and furnaces. You may be better off preserving it as a duplex if it is one. You will have more rental options. You would need a boarding house license in some areas for 8 unrelated people in a house. Have members of the football team historically rented this house season after season?
Thanks for the advice. We are trying to get more information on the place. It's owned by an investment company. So far the realtor has only gotten us the financials and last year's leases - where I noticed that only 7 rooms had been rented out. I don't think it can qualify as a duplex because in order to get into the basement (or what they're considering to be the second unit), a tenant would have to go through the living room of the first unit. I have no idea why it's listed as a duplex... maybe to get more people interested.
It sounds like a good opportunity, but you need to investigate further! Usually football players on scholarship get a stipend to live off campus. Check and see if that is the case and look into the possibility of continuing on with other football players going forward. Treat them right and you might have a gold mine. I have 10 rental units I manage in a college town and several of my duplexes are very close to the Vet School. My Vet students are multi-year tenants and when they graduate I incentivize them to find replacement tenants. It is the best thing going and easiest to manage.
Since you already have football players, maybe they can give you tips and introduce you to contacts inside the football organization to help you continue on the football pipeline. Coaches have an incentive to keep their players eligible and if you were to have some insight on how best to work the coaches that might further your standing in getting support from the coaches. For example, you might let the coaches know of issues that instead of having to go to police about disturbances ect you would be willing to let them know first. Football players can sometimes get out of hand and do stupid things but you can present yourself as one who has the University interest in mind! Just some rambling, but 8 rooms at $500 a clip totals $4000 a month on a 215k property is a GRAND SLAM! Cheers!
This is great advice, thanks so much! This building is advertised as a duplex, but because a tenant would have to walk through the living room of the first unit to get to the second unit, I don't think it would work. Would you worry about having to rent out 8 beds in one house? Not all 8 beds have to be rented out to make the mortgage + misc. payments, but it still worries me some, especially as a first unit. Thank you again.
If it's a good sized college that isn't a commuter school (students usually live on campus) and the property is close to the campus, it should be fine. Although you will want to check with city ordinances. Some don't allow over 5 or 6 unrelated adults living in the same unit. This is true in Eugene, OR for example, although you can get around it by making the property a "communal living" property.
The ordinances state that only 4 unrelated persons may live together in one dwelling unit. I suspect this is why this building has been deemed a duplex. How do I get around this if the building is not a real duplex? (Tenant has to enter into living room of unit 1 to get to unit 2). Thanks so much!
@Sophie Pierce, You ask a very GOOD question. Renting out individual rooms may bring more money but it also brings more liability and potential problems. Let me explain. It will be difficult to find 8 roommates who will get along and feel comfortable living together. An organization (like the football team, or sorority I can see working), might work but otherwise you will have more problems. I have duplexes in a college town and even though they are 3 bedroom and 2 bedroom units, I do not rent by the room. I put all students on the lease and they collectively are responsible for the rent. If one student moves out, they still are required to pay the entire rent amount, including the student who has left. In my three bedroom I have had one student not get along with the other two and want to move out early. I can't prevent that from happening but did let all the students know that the full rent must be paid. I worked with them and let the remaining students find another replacement but in the meantime full rent had to be paid. I was only able to do this because they signed the contract as a group.
Now, if instead you sign individual room leases then you open yourself up to a student blaming you that you inserted a non-compatible student to live with them and therefore they want to leave early. So yes you need to assess how easy it will be to find 8 students especially if the layout involves students having to go through others personal space to get to their rooms.
@Andrew Syrios they also have rental registration and a noise/disturbance ordinance with a fine, decibel levels and a door sticker so they have lots of ammo to deal directly with behavior which they should and do. All before this ordinance.
@Sophie Pierce you will have to dig into the duplex classification to see if it protects you on the unrelated persons ordinance. See if there are town issues with this property. For example with the building department having cited it for non-compliance. Is there egress from lower unit in case of fire? Is the ordinance enforced on this type of property or was it maybe treated similar to if you had a boarding house license (one possible way to rent by room). Would be good if you can configure to be a real duplex, might talk to a contractor on what that would run.
Would be good if you can configure to be a real duplex.
@Andrew Syrios they also have rental registration and a noise/disturbance ordinance with a fine, decibel levels and a door sticker so they have lots of ammo to deal directly with behavior which they should and do. All before this ordinance.
@Sophie Pierce you will have to dig into the duplex classification to see if it protects you on the unrelated persons ordinance. See if there are town issues with this property. For example with the building department having cited it for non-compliance. Is there egress from lower unit in case of fire? Is the ordinance enforced on this type of property or was it maybe treated similar to if you had a boarding house license (one possible way to rent by room). Would be good if you can configure to be a real duplex, might talk to a contractor on what that would run.
Would be good if you can configure to be a real duplex.
Geez, it sounds like they aren't messing around (and that they're not particularly landlord-friendly). Perhaps turning it into an actual duplex with two entrances and areas that are walled off from each other is the best path forward. Is it even zoned for that?
If it's a good sized college that isn't a commuter school (students usually live on campus) and the property is close to the campus, it should be fine. Although you will want to check with city ordinances. Some don't allow over 5 or 6 unrelated adults living in the same unit. This is true in Eugene, OR for example, although you can get around it by making the property a "communal living" property.
The ordinances state that only 4 unrelated persons may live together in one dwelling unit. I suspect this is why this building has been deemed a duplex. How do I get around this if the building is not a real duplex? (Tenant has to enter into living room of unit 1 to get to unit 2). Thanks so much!
Is it deemed a duplex by the seller or is it zoned as a duplex by the city? If it's zoned as a duplex, the best path forward is likely just to turn it into one.
@Andrew Syrios sorry to confuse, the original posters town doesn't have the extra ordinances on noise we have but it is an illustration ordinances are important in these college rentals. She only has to deal with 4 unrelated persons ordinance so far. I agree the OP should consider if it can be returned to being a true duplex. Also opens up the rental pool.
@Andrew Syrios sorry to confuse, the original posters town doesn't have the extra ordinances on noise we have but it is an illustration ordinances are important in these college rentals. She only has to deal with 4 unrelated persons ordinance so far. I agree the OP should consider if it can be returned to being a true duplex. Also opens up the rental pool.
OK got it, thanks for clearing that up. I think they put in a noise ordinance (basically a party ordinance) in Eugene and we just told the students if we get charged for that, it's getting passed on to you guys.
If it's a good sized college that isn't a commuter school (students usually live on campus) and the property is close to the campus, it should be fine. Although you will want to check with city ordinances. Some don't allow over 5 or 6 unrelated adults living in the same unit. This is true in Eugene, OR for example, although you can get around it by making the property a "communal living" property.
The ordinances state that only 4 unrelated persons may live together in one dwelling unit. I suspect this is why this building has been deemed a duplex. How do I get around this if the building is not a real duplex? (Tenant has to enter into living room of unit 1 to get to unit 2). Thanks so much!
Is it deemed a duplex by the seller or is it zoned as a duplex by the city? If it's zoned as a duplex, the best path forward is likely just to turn it into one.
I was finally able to find out that it is deemed a duplex by the city. Thanks so much for your help! Really appreciate it. Lots to learn but I feel better about moving forward with this property thanks to everyone!
If it's a good sized college that isn't a commuter school (students usually live on campus) and the property is close to the campus, it should be fine. Although you will want to check with city ordinances. Some don't allow over 5 or 6 unrelated adults living in the same unit. This is true in Eugene, OR for example, although you can get around it by making the property a "communal living" property.
The ordinances state that only 4 unrelated persons may live together in one dwelling unit. I suspect this is why this building has been deemed a duplex. How do I get around this if the building is not a real duplex? (Tenant has to enter into living room of unit 1 to get to unit 2). Thanks so much!
Is it deemed a duplex by the seller or is it zoned as a duplex by the city? If it's zoned as a duplex, the best path forward is likely just to turn it into one.
I was finally able to find out that it is deemed a duplex by the city. Thanks so much for your help! Really appreciate it. Lots to learn but I feel better about moving forward with this property thanks to everyone!
Good to hear Sophie and best of luck with the property!