All Forum Posts by: Catherine McElwain

 A great point!  We definitely don't want the place trashed.  I like the idea of the cleaning service.  We will discuss this.  Thanks for your insight!

I'm looking for pros/cons of rental to college students.  We have one rental already for college students, and my daughter lives in one room.  It's a 4 bed/3 bath, and we rent out the other 3 bedrooms (by the room).  This has worked well so far and we are considering purchasing other rental properties in the area.

Clearly this would come with high turnover, potential for damage (and general gross-ness haha).  The market is in north Philadelphia where there are plenty of places to choose from, at reasonable prices.  School is large (Temple), but any property would have to be within the "Safety Zone" around campus that Temple patrols, given the not-so-safe neighborhood.

What should I consider in purchasing/rehabbing and then renting to college students?  

We previously co-owned a mountain cabin with friends.  We mostly used it ourselves, but did rent it out on occasion.  Communication is 100% the key.  Run through various scenarios/problems/etc.  Discuss what happens if one party wants out.  Whenever issues arose, it HAD to be discussed to avoid issues down the road. Obviously - common sense. 

It was nice to purchase a place with another family.  We were able to purchase a bigger place since we were splitting costs.  And we had enough room to use it separately, or together.  We sold for a profit after 10 years.  

We recently replaced baseboards with mini splits.  That was definitely a lot of work, but they have been efficient and our tenant is happy with them.  

Hello from the Philly suburbs!  I have never introduced myself here, figured it is time to do so.  My husband and I looking to dive in to real estate investing and the end goal is to have my husband quit his job and work on our investing full time.  I will stay at my job because the benefits are pretty amazing (includes college tuition for our many children).  

In any case, we have done 4 flips and currently own 3 rentals. One is out of state in CO, because we lived there for many years. Our current plan is BRRRR strategy and also flips. Looking forward to networking with local Philly people and continuing this amazing journey!

I have one Section 8 rental.  We were very careful with evaluating our renter.  It's been a good thing for us and for our tenant.  That said, the program in my county is no longer accepting new rentals or new applicants, and those who have vouchers who haven't found a place by a certain date will be out of luck.  Funding for this program is running out/low.