@Account Closed - we begin to show in November of the prior year for a lease starting August 1st. I know that sounds crazy but with the larger properties, 5 bed for example, these groups of students look early and you do not want to miss the boat. We also only sign 12 month lease agreements. I'm happy to connect via phone if you have more questions! We have yet to have a bad experience with these tenants. We also get all parent contact information and never hesitate to call the parents if need be.
@Account Closed we have a lot of college rentals and are very familiar with them. Most of our tenants tend to be upperclassmen or grad students as the younger students tend to live on campus in our area. We sign 1 year leases so we do not have down time or off months. If you are investing in a smaller city where the university is the only game in town, you may have a hard time keeping property leased during the summer.
I'd suggest looking at things that are currently for rent or coming up for rent over the next 2-3 months in whatever area you are targeting to see what other local landlords are doing. If everybody is doing 1 year leases, then you should have no problem staying filled up through the summers. If everybody is doing 9 month leases, you might want to plan on having 3 months of vacancy each yer.
BiggerPockets have alot of podcast on this topic with some great guest. Look into it, they will give you alot of detail about college rentals, it could be a great niche depending on your market
Bashir Badru I have rentals in a college town. They aren't all rented to students but it's nice to have a backstop of thousands of new renters entering (and leaving) the market annually. In my market, you can get the 12 month lease. But each college market has a cadence to it. If you miss the "common" window of signing leases for the next school year, then you have the "leftover" tenants. Wear and tear can differ based on you renting a studio apartment to a student vs. a 4 bedroom house to 6 students. You're a lot more likely to have keg stands in the house than a studio apartment. By the way, a huge appeal is getting mom and dad (with great credit) to co-sign the lease.
To echo the comments above, I live and landlord in a university town and love it! There is a never-ending stream of potential renters, parents are happy to co-sign, the market is competitive so you can price property well, and although college students can be destructive, so can anyone else. You still need to vet and screen tenants thoroughly, if they don't have a credit history, ask the parents to apply as well. Call student's references like past landlords, dorm RA, employees. There are a lot of responsible students out there. I would never offer a lease that excluded the summer months here, we get 12 month or 24 months leases, and if students are gone over the summer they are still responsible for paying rent and maintaining the property, like hiring a lawn care company. If you offer 9 month leases you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Also it's always a good idea to get the property leased in the spring before students leave for the summer. My leases all start on August 1, but I start showing in March and have everything leased and signed by May 15 before summer break officially kicks in.
My opinion is that college rentals are a great investment, property around a college campus usually holds value well, and your only risk is if the college closes down. Pick a major public university town and you shouldn't have vacancy for the next 100 years...
Let me know if you have other questions and good luck!
@Account Closed - we begin to show in November of the prior year for a lease starting August 1st. I know that sounds crazy but with the larger properties, 5 bed for example, these groups of students look early and you do not want to miss the boat. We also only sign 12 month lease agreements. I'm happy to connect via phone if you have more questions! We have yet to have a bad experience with these tenants. We also get all parent contact information and never hesitate to call the parents if need be.
Well said @Kristie Eddy . I really think the risks with college students are similar to non-student renters. They may do damage but so will anyone, and that's why you take a deposit. We have no problem having new carpet installed every year if the renters pay for it. It actually makes renting the property easier in the long run if we constantly have to update it. And if you find tenants early you'll find the responsible ones. If you wait until the month your property comes vacant to find new renters, you'll likely have issues, but that's the same with non-students as well.
Anyway, I say go for it, my experience is similar to Kristie's, so far we've yet to have major issues with students, just small cosmetic things which are easy to deal with.
As someone who has just graduated college, I feel like investing in college rentals is a great way to go. There is always a high demand for and you can find a renter usually within minutes.
In dealing with the off season/summer months, most landlords that I know would deal with this by offering a full year contract almost forcing them to stay during the summer, but monthly rent would be cheaper. Or a 9 month contract that ended before summer, but they would charge a little higher rent. That way you would end up making the same amount of money either way. And then you could offer someone a summer only contract for super cheap and make even more money on top of that.