Opinions on investing in a small college town

[Khayyam Latif]

-I'm interested in a small college town upstate ny and want to get some advice. This specific town is very, very small with absolutely no chance of property appreciation; but for some reason my gut tells me to look into buying a house or two. Houses are very cheap, quite old, mostly 3-4 units but are made to fit in students per bedroom not per unit. There is about equal supply as there is demand so no problems in filling vacancies. I don't want to dive in to numbers just yet but on average I'm seeing comps being 1500-1900 per student per semester as the normal rent here...semester being 5 months-ish. House prices are 70 - 125k here for 2-3 unit that may fit 2 students per unit. Little bit of napkin math tells me I can make decent cash flow. My sister went to school here and she lived off campus in of these houses and told me its not a party school just occasional drinking at the bars and back home.

But back to the point, what are your guys' thoughts on investing in an area like this? The college is about medium-small size (~5000 students). Very quiet small town, low-income but low crime. I just love the fact that prices are cheap and small town makes me feel in control because I can establish a good relationship with other land lords and contractors. Thanks in advance!

[Brian Rosher]

Since it sounds like the town is highly dependent on the school I'd do some more research on the school itself.  What is the cost and quality of on campus housing?  Is there a beautiful new dorm with gym and swimming pool under construction that could impact off campus demand?  What majors do they focus on and are they likely to be in demand in the future?  How will the school be impacted by potential tax bill being passed?

You are near Ithaca which is a great college town.  It also has some airbnb potential in the summer when your units might be vacant to bring in somecadditional cash flow.