Rowan University / Glassboro / South Jersey

[Ty Martin]

Hi NJ BP Family!

After I close on my first property (which I am currently working through) I am interested in looking into Student Housing opportunities in the Rowan University / Glassboro area.  Based on some market study and interviews with current students, it seems that this area is set to boom.  I was wondering if there was anyone on BP who has any experience in the Rowan University area.  If not, anyone else who has interest, feel free to reply to this and let's get the ball rolling!  

Thanks everyone!

[Stephen Cirner]

I attended Rowan and now live about 10 minutes away. I'm new to the forums and still learning about real estate investing, but I can try my best to help if you have any general questions on the area or the college. Feel free to contact me.

[Ty Martin]

Thank you @Stephen Cirner ! As soon as I finish up with the deal I am working right now (looks like about 3 weeks / a month longer) I'll be in touch.  I appreciate it, in the meantime I connected with you

[Lauren C.]

Hi @Ty Martin ! I also attended Rowan. I think the "big boom" somewhat already happened with the expansion of the Rowan Blvd project back in 2012-2014. Of course, Rowan is consistently expanding the campus and the surrounding area so I'm sure values will continue to grow but property has definitely increased since I graduated in '12. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I rented off campus housing so I'm familiar with the concept (charging per bedroom/person, rather than for the house) and the desirable areas as a student.

Good luck!

[Ty Martin]

Hi @Lauren C. - I appreciate the input.  I am curious as to what areas are desirable for student housing off campus.  There are a ton of properties in the area, but I am curious as to which are neighborhoods college kids would want to be in vs which are more traditional family neighborhoods.

To be it seems close to the concept of Manayunk in Philadelphia.  Plenty of students out there, but mostly in one part (near main street for the bars, to be honest).  Is Rowan like this?

Thank you!

[Lauren C.]

Hi @Ty Martin, from my experience, you want to be as close to campus as possible  and near Landmark Americana and Chickie and Petes. Below is an outline I did of the area I knew students to live in. When I was a student, we didn't even consider houses East of Delsea Dr or South of High Street. 

I can't speak for all students but all of our friends lived within 1-2 blocks of campus. The desirable area is smaller than one may think. 

This was 5 years ago so this could be different now and as a female, we didn't want to walk through more residential areas to get home after night classes because Glassboro outside of campus wasn't the nicest place back then. So maybe male students might not mind being further out. 

Another thing to consider. We had A LOT of break ins over winter and summer breaks when students went home. I stayed in a house with a security system and we still got broken into twice over break.

The thing with Glassboro, while its developing into a great town, they don't offer efficient public transportation into Philly. (No trains) and so I don't know many people who stay there after graduation and I definitely don't know anyone who moved there post college where Manayunk seems to be a popular area for those working in Philly. 

[Charlie Hampton]

I agree with @Lauren C. in saying the boom already happened.  I graduated there in 2010 just before the boom.  Doesn't mean there aren't still deals to be had though!  I commuted, but I would have to say if its within walking distance to a bar (Landmark) then students will rent it.

[Jessica Zolotorofe]

Hi @Ty Martin. I actually just wrote an article on student housing, so I'm really interested to see how it goes for you. It's a really niche market, but the good news is that if you can't rent to students, you still have the  mainstream market to work with. I would try to see if the school would be willing to list your place when there is overflow (which NJ schools almost always have) or as an upper classmen option. They'll sometimes have brochures in the housing department office or flyers with available housing that they endorse. It makes a huge difference. Also, finding one student, even if you have to pay them a couple dollars, to post on the web forums or the sports forums or Greek life... anything that can boost your applicants, which in turn can boost your asking rent. Good luck and keep us posted!

[Ty Martin]

Thank you all! @Lauren C. - thanks for taking the time to map this out...

@Charlie Hampton thank you for your input!

@Jessica Zolotorofe - great points, I will definitely reach out... at this point I'd probably be looking for next school year, which would be perfect.  

[Will Gaston]

@Ty Martin I very much agree with @Jessica Zolotorofe on this. Student housing is a lot different than almost any other area of the landlord business. I've got about 50 units & 140-150 student tenants and there is a tremendous amount of upside AND downside to renting to students. 

I would highly encourage you to find out more about the market timing of student rentals in your area and meet with some student rental landlords/PM companies for some advice. The management is very challenging for a host of reasons and this can be made partially easier by finding out how the people in your area who already are successfully doing  it. 

Students pay a lot more in rent, but you certainly will earn it if you go that route. The good news is however, if you can successfully manage students you can successfully manage any tenant base. 

[Robert S.]

Tyler Martin I graduated from Rowan as well, however I live close to Rutgers now. When I think of Glassboro and it's tremendous transformation, consider that there is currently $250 million+, possibly $350 million, of development taking place there. Examine the entire plan Rowan has for that town. Look at how much of that development is directed towards student housing. Also, take into account that Rowan itself wants to get up to 25k students. Granted there was always a significant amount of commuters, however, let's say half want to live on or around campus. Is there enough ample housing?
As Lauren C. mentioned, there are the neighborhoods the students want to live, and the neighborhoods they wouldn't go near. Rutgers is a great example of this, look at real estate for sale in New Brunswick, seems pretty affordable by NJ standards, until you get into the student section of town. Those same exact houses and lot sizes just doubled or tripled in price and require insane amounts of work.

Now you won't read about this one group of investors on BP, because they don't exactly advertise their niche. What they do in New Brunswick is buy a house, and then the one next door. Then they go to the city with a development plan, appear before the zoning board, hopefully get approved, then take those two duplexes and build a 4, 6, 8 or whatever they can get away with unit building, with ample parking and simple student amenities. It takes some serious stones to work on that level, however, I have been in the guys' houses that do this, and I can surely say it totally paid off for them.

In my opinion, and with my knowledge of the people doing business in and around Rowan/Glassboro, this technique would transfer nicely into that town. Also, I believe the ones who are going big are the ones reaping the rewards of the explosion taking place there.

All of the best, I can't wait to see Rowan when these projects reach completion. Go Profs!!! (Hopefully they'll change the mascot at that point in time as well).

[Dave Cantera]

hi guys, my son is attending rowan now and this looks like an interesting investment strategy, you might want to investigate SJREIA.org. we have investors who have student rentals in glassboro. we have a few meetings each week somewhere in jersey, 3rd Tuesday of the month a big meeting in Cherry Hill at the Holiday Inn. I'm a real estate broker and business broker in jersey.

[Ty Martin]

@Will Gaston

@Robert S.

@Dave Cantera

I appreciate all of your help guys! Definitely going to do more research and consider everything you had mentioned above...

[Jonah Walsh]

I am a student on campus looking at a 4 bedroom to buy and rent to people so i could live for free amd get my foot in the door for realestate.

[Christian Shissias]

Hello this is my first post on BP. My fiancée and I just purchased our first investment property 2 streets from Rowan. We are currently house hacking our duplex in order to get our 1 unit up to speed. The down town is going through a lot of revitalizing. What we have seen so far in our short time here is that even though you have a large college presence it is still a very warm and welcoming community, with plenty of family events through out the year. I can try to help answer any questions you may have.