How Do I Market To College Students?
Grand Rapids , MI · Member since 2016 · 22 posts · 9 votes
Hey everyone,
I am looking at buying a rental unit in Michigan in a college town. If I do end up purchasing this property, what is the best way to market this rental property to college students? Also, how much do college students care about what a property looks like? Any advice would be appreciated thanks!
Market via the school online newspaper classifieds, Facebook, rental websites, etc.
Generally, people do not want to live in a dump...even college students. Depending on the market, you can get away with a dump the closer you are to nightlife, school, activities. So if it is a great location you can get away with the property not being as nice. The further away from the action the nicer you will need your property to be in order attract good tenants.
Market via the school online newspaper classifieds, Facebook, rental websites, etc.
Generally, people do not want to live in a dump...even college students. Depending on the market, you can get away with a dump the closer you are to nightlife, school, activities. So if it is a great location you can get away with the property not being as nice. The further away from the action the nicer you will need your property to be in order attract good tenants.
Thank you @Jon W. that makes sense! Also, what is the best option for a lease? Most college students seem to move back home for the summer, so is it best to offer them a nine month lease? or is a one year lease standard even if they aren't going to be living there all summer?
I only use 1 year leases. I have found that most students renting a house with friends do not move home for the summer. Many times they will move out early if they have graduated. I also collect rent quarterly, so I get the last rent payment in April that goes through the summer.
There are no absolutes, but generally the nicer a property is, the better your tenants will be. Likely, at larger schools you're going to find more available money than at smaller state schools. Usually with more run-down properties students will be less likely to care about the property and you'll have more wear&tear from partying etc. With that, I've seen college houses that had the walls literally covered in painted OSB to protect the walls, and they were always rented out... they were also always party houses.
My parents and I rent our college houses on 9 month leases (both semesters) then a much lower summer rental fee if they want to stay or keep their things for the coming year. The benefit in our eyes is that it makes cost comparison to dorm living a little easier, and gives you a few months to do repairs over the summer, or the ability to make a little extra bonus cash. If you go this route, make sure your costs are covered over the 9 month lease... as you cannot bank on a summer rental.
Check into local laws regulating how many unrelated parties can live together, a lot of local governments have regulations to prevent fraternities, sororities, brothels, etc.
@Jon W. Alright great! Thanks for the information I appreciate it!
@Matt Vogt Great advice! Thanks for the input it is much appreciated!
Marketing to college students is very easy since they are plugged into technologically and all congregate in one specific area.
The easiest first step you can take is to post it to Craigslist, and apps like Lovely (although I don't know if Lovely is used by students at your target university). So if you want the students to come to you, you can just keep posting it there and hope that you can fill up your apartments.
If you want to engage in a more aggressive marketing policy, you can try Facebook/Instagram ads. Log into your Facebook and navigate to the Ad Manager. From there you can target students based on a large array of criteria. For instance, if you were renting out high-end apartments, you could find "Students of ________ University who often make expensive purchases" (I am paraphrasing the exact category titles). There is a bit of a learning curve to this, but with some experimentation, you could get really good results.
Lastly, you could physically go on campus and either set up a booth or hand out fliers. This is a great way to reach students. Especially if you offer some sort of reward like a free slice of pizza, students will definitely check out what you have to offer. This is definitely something you should consider.
As for how nice it needs to be, that is up to you. Students are often on a budget and are willing to live in an absolute dump. That being said, they will only do so if you are giving them a really good deal. I suggest that you look at competing apartments before you buy to get a feel of the market.
As for leases, students prefer shorter leases. As @Jon W. said, 1-year is good. But I suspect you could charge more for a 6-month or month-to-month if you can deal with the insecurity that brings. As @Matt Vogt pointed out, however, you often will have a much harder time renting out during summer. So shorter leases could, in the end, be less profitable. Again, I recommend checking out what your competition is doing to see what is standard in that area.
Let me know if you have any questions about college students or online marketing, as I am glad to help! Good luck!
@Levi Painter I would suggest listening to some of the BiggerPockets podcasts on student housing. They are always extremely helpful and might give you some good insight as to how to market more effectively. This isn't an area I'm too familiar with, however it's something that I want to get into eventually as my portflio expands. Best of luck!
@Account Closed Thank you very much for the information I appreciate it! I will definitely check out their podcast for student housing.
@Liam Cardenas Wow great information! I haven't even thought about using Facebook ads that is a great idea. I appreciate the information thank you!
@Levi Painter free case of beer with every lease! haha
I rented a room in a house in a 6 bedroom house near my college for 2 years. Those were the days. Let me just say that I would not have a student rental without guarantees from the parents or the maximum deposit allowed in your state.
College kids will be college kids. they will have parties and "kick-backs" at the house unless you get really really lucky with your tenants. There was a podcast that the guy was doing student housing and he made them sign a collective lease so if one person did any damage, it would cost all the tenants money from their deposit. I think that's the right way to go, don't do individual agreements with each person.
Also I think you need to inspect the property more than your typical tenant. A lot can happen in a 12 month period.
A note about leasing in a college town... I like my leases to begin/end around the same time the fall semester begins. Although I typically go for a 1 year lease, I have had a tenant move out inexpectedly in January, and the unit say vacant for a month or so because all the students already had their housing. In that situation, we found an interested tenant who could move in March 1. I gave them the option to sign a 5 month lease and then renew again in August for a year so I could get the unit back on the same cycle as the school year.
For summers, if the student is leaving town, it's their responsibility to continue paying the lease or to find someone to assume the lease for them. Usually they will know someone who needs short term summer housing, so this is not a tough problem to solve.
@Liam Cardenas is correct. You need to see what your competition is doing and what is customary or standard for the area. I my area leases are 1 year and collected semesterly. Leases are also signed in October/November of the year preceding the lease. So my next lease will be signed this Oct/Nov for August 2017 move in. If you do not sign a lease during that lease signing period you will miss most of the students looking for a house.
@Levi Painter, If you have great pictures and its a nicer property, craigslist will likely really help. If its a university town with business presence (for internships etc) consider the 6 mo leases then post it to facebook groups, or partner with businesses posting internships to get summer tenants. At my school people used to walk in before class and hand out flyers to all the kids in class. Pick a morning one so you get students who are slightly more likely to take school seriously.
College tenants will probably run the gamut in how much they care about their living conditions. Just drive around, college areas are likely to have lux apartments that are likely backed by parental guarantees and a few blocks away will be shanty towns held up by hopes and dreams.
This isn't my niche, but I notice things while living in Ann Arbor. Take a look at the many new student high-rises in Ann Arbor--very, very luxurious and pricey (do a search on M live.com for her stories about these developments). People are predicting that more of the "student ghetto" houses will be sitting vacant and then be turned back into single family residential housing. If you are in a different college town that doesn't have options for higher-quality housing for students, you might be able to do a version of this at a smaller level. I'd find a way to target female tenants, myself, if there's a way to do that without violating any laws, and avoid those college boys. When you do make a move on a property, be absolutely certain that you will be able to rent it out. I know someone who purchased a student rental and then failed to secure tenants by the start of the academic year and ended up losing it to foreclosure. I've heard of another landlord in Ann Arbor who has relationships with fraternities and sororities. He rents houses to them for their overflow students who can't be accommodated in their own properties. Good luck!
I rent in a college town of College Station and my hard learned advice is to list your properties VERY early and make sure your lease has a longer than average renewal lead time. I am listing my properties in December for a July 1st or August 1st move in. At Texas A&M they are having their Parents Weekend this weekend and I have noticed that most of the pre-leasing is done by now or at this time. We also have many luxury high rise apartment complexes go up so we have found that the SFH have a unique market opportunity that we differentiate from the complexes. One strategy I use is that I do not charge an application fee. I also offer a small discount to rent if you setup direct deposit automatic payments. (I use Erentpayments.com). This allows me to compete with the apartment hounds trying to fill pre-leases.
One call to the college off campus housing office will tell you everything leases going rates where they like to live. You can list it here for free.
A buddy has 130 beds getting 71K a month 50K after expenses. She told me use auto deduct, parents guarantee and keep them out of the basement. She has someone clean the common areas twice a month checks for any damage. Parents like the cleaning. She rents per bed not per unit includes cable and internet and utilities. Rents are 2-4 times more over conventional renting.
Make sure the property is on the shuttle route and the campus escort.
The companies that specialize in large student complexes give something when a lease is signed. The best one was a coupon for a spring break cruise. I think the landlord pays $149 for each.
I wrote an article on student housing shoot me an EMAIL if you want a copy my BP PM does NOT work.
Paul
One more thing – I have had rentals in Ann Arbor, and while I don't consider them student housing, I did have grad students on occasion. They liked having something a little bit further off-campus, so that they were not in the undergrad crowd. Most of them were also looking for a place where they could bring a cat or dog. That is a type of niche you could consider--and grad students in a doctoral program sometimes stay for up to five years or more.
I own an upscale house in Lansing and target MED School and PHD Students. We have had luck with both Craigslist as well as Facebook. My daughter has tapped into a couple of Facebook Groups and just simply posts to the site and we get leads regularly. No luck on either Zillow or Trulia as I rent out by the room and everyone on those sites thought they were getting the whole house for the price I charge for a single room. Hadn't heard about the Facebook ads, so I might look into that, so thanks for that tip @Liam Cardenas. With post graduate students, most are getting big loans which include living expenses, so I also give discounts to have them pay either quarterly or semi-annually and most seem eager to take advantage of that offer. Significantly reduces risk and changes the leverage issue in your favor. Also these grad level students are pretty serious students so are not partying like most undergrads, so damage to house has been minimal, but cleaning regularly is not really a strong suit of theirs. May be looking into the cleaning service mentioned earlier in the post as another way to differentiate and add value. Good luck to you!
Hey everyone,
I am looking at buying a rental unit in Michigan in a college town. If I do end up purchasing this property, what is the best way to market this rental property to college students? Also, how much do college students care about what a property looks like? Any advice would be appreciated thanks!
College kids come in all sorts of types from the top ramen eating shoe string budget to the kids of wealthy parents who send their kids to college with a credit card that they pay. That being said, you can probably find a renter for your place no matter what if it is close enough to college. The nicer the place, the more people will come look at it, want to live there, and be willing to pay more. As far as marketing goes, I have found that with a commuter school you can post it on craigslist and be just fine. If the college is one where more kids are living on/near campus then you might look for a housing board at the college. Most colleges will have a housing board in one of the main buildings on campus. We had it at the student center, other universities called it the union building, your college might call it something else. Regardless, tons of kids pass by it every day and tons stop to check it out. If there is a student newspaper, this is also a good place to advertise. Facebook is a great place if you target your audience, but it costs a little more than a free post on the housing board. Don't forget the power of putting a FOR RENT sign in the yard. If you have a lot of college students passing by there every day, you will get calls. Oh, and you could give a referral bonus..say $20 or $50 off one months rent if they refer a friend who signs a contract and moves in. College kids want to be near their friends. You could also send out an email to all your past tenants or those that stopped by and you were impressed with, but they didn't rent it at the time. Go knock on the doors of the rental you are interested in or a similar one and talk to the kids....ask them where they found the place to live. But don't stop there. Ask them what they like about the place. What made them want to move in. What kind of price range they are looking for, etc. Then follow it up by telling them about the place you are buying, tell them what is good about it, then ask them if they would like to hear more about it when it becomes available to rent. Get their info and start building a list of potential tenants you can shoot an email to or mass text msg. If there is a new student orientation that is done on campus before school starts, and you still have vacancies, find out how you can get a flyer to all the students coming on campus for the open house. These are just a few ideas. I'll bet there are a ton more. Keep us posted. I look forward to hearing how it goes for you.
Great input from everyone so far. I have helped my father manage a 4 BR, 2 BA townhome in the Virginia Tech market of Blacksburg, VA. This unit has been owned and rented since October 2004 to date without missing a lease cycle in that time period (August-July leases). For the first 4 of those years, an immediate family member (owner's son) lived in one of the bedrooms as a student.
To answer your original question, @Levi Painter, I've seen that Craigslist and a local school newspaper are extremely effective ways to find a tenant who operates on the school calendar. If either of these do not work then Facebook is the other obvious route which is also extremely effective and inexpensive if not free (try the marketplace before paying for ads).
Lastly, the owner of this property created a very basic website just for this house in question. It's URL was simple (www.address.com) and made for an easy page to post contact information for leasing the unti. This was also the place to upload more pictures than would be allowed through Craig's List.
@John Frisina, @Steve Burt, @Sarah Lorenz, @Cody Begg, @Paul Timmins, @Cory Mccarthy, @Chris Bingham, and @Jeffrey Gignac Wow thank you all for the input! Great wisdom and advice I really appreciate it!