Thursday, February 15, 2007

3 Reasons to Own Rental Properties in College Communities

Having personally experienced the pleasure of owning rental properties in a college (university) town, there is a wealth of reasons to locate one's properties in a community that houses a center of higher education. Listed below are just three of the myriad reasons a rental property owner should add college-town rental properties to their portfolio.

1.) Rentals Already Leased -Rentals already leased? What this refers to is the fact that most rental properties that one purchases in a college community are already populated with tenants. This means that the initial cost of getting the property rented or having it set vacant (for a month or two) is NOTHING! The only catch for the new property owner is to make sure that the tenant is a good one; that's easy enough.

2.) Money in the Air - College and University towns are full of money; government money. Most tenants that are students have plenty of student-loan money and almost always pay their rent on time. As an added bonus, one can locate their rentals near a private university, thus tapping into the government's money as well as wealthy parents that prefer to send their students to the best educational institutes.

3.) Ample Supply of Tenants - There are often plenty of tenants to go around. Although many colleges house their students on campus, they never come close to housing all of them. Juniors, seniors, and graduate students often represent most of the rental market in these areas (which is good, because they are, in most cases, more mature and responsible).

College towns are great towns for rental properties, but a few precautions should be taken before jumping in. First, investigate the town to make sure that there are enough tenants to go around and that the school is growing; not shrinking. Secondly, colleges and universities that have excellent graduate programs are more preferable, because they get older students that almost always live OFF campus.

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Source: http://www.articlealley.com