Renting to college students

[Sara Abernethy]

For the past 9 years I have owned a rental property in Philly in a neighborhood that college, graduate students, and young adults love. I historically rented to young adults / early 20s, but I've always had a hard time because so much fluctuates with that demographic at that point in their life - people move in and out and it's stressful for those tenants who want to stay. This particular segment has also started moving into center city. So I voluntarily left the place vacant for a few months to get on the college cycle. I finally have a group of college students and it's great. I have parents as co-signers. The cycle is very specific though. They decide in November where they are going to live the following school year. My current group is on a June to May lease. For my lease I use the standard PAR (PA lease) which states they need to give me 60 days notice to move out. So they technically don't have to tell me their plan until April. However, if I wait until April I'll miss out on the next round of college students. I need to know in November. I'm going to talk to them soon about keeping me posted on their plan to move out or stay another year. Questions for the group: -are there any incentives I can give them for committing to me early? If I give them the incentive how do I make sure they follow through? For example I could say "I'll give you half a month off rent if you renew" which is great if they renew but if they leave me high and dry it's useless. -how can I structure future leases to get an early commitment?

[Steve D.]

What I have done is create my own lease agreements.  That way I can tailor it any way I want.  

You are correct, kids go home over Thanksgiving, talk to their parents about where they want to live next year, etc.  So you need to plan. 

In my lease, it states that I will send them a reminder in mid-November that they need to commit to the following year....or not.   I let them go home Thanksgiving and decide.  By first week of december, they need to tell me in writing whether they intent to renew lease in August of following year.     If they do not respond, this  means they will not renew and at that point I put the place up for rent.  

Only once has someone backed out in Spring after committing.  I make sure lease states that they forfeit their security deposit if they do this.   No way of guaranteeing that they won't back out obviously.