The Pros and Cons of Renting to College Students

While this is a perfectly viable and smart strategy, it isn’t for every landlord. Before you make your final decision, let’s review some of the major pros and cons of renting to college students.

The Pros

• Housing Demand

  In college towns, it’s very easy to predict when the demand for rental properties will see a serious uptick. Before the school year begins, students looking for housing will flood the market, and some students will even sign leases a year in advance.

  The nature of renting in a college town makes it easy to tell when you should start marketing and sprucing up the property.

• On-time Payments

  When it comes to making full and one-time rental payments, college students get an unnecessarily bad reputation. It’s common for students to have their parents as co-signers.

  Additionally, most parents will help their child pay their rent or pay rent for them entirely. It’s also common for students to live with roommates, which greatly reduces the risk of you not getting paid.

• Less Need for Upgrades

  When looking for a place to live, students typically want a good internet connection, an in-house washer and dryer, and some form of security, such as locking doors and windows.

  Other than that, as a demographic, they’re not very picky. You don’t have to spend mounds of cash to find the best modern appliances and upgrades.

The Cons

• Limited Credit and Rental History

  Typically, you have to properly vet your tenants and view their financial history to ensure you’re renting to a quality tenant. However, the biggest con of renting to college students is that they have little to no credit or rental history.

  This factor makes it difficult to judge their financial situation and their sense of fiscal responsibility. It’s also likely that they don’t have professional references to confirm their income.

• Inexperienced Renters

  Due to the fact that their rental history is very limited, college students don’t often know what it takes to care for a home.

  This isn’t to say they’ll trash the place or be completely disrespectful, but they may not know when a maintenance check is in order or how to submit one. You may need to give them an extra helping hand.

• High Tenant Turnover Rates

  Once the school year ends, most students will head home rather than live there year-round. Unfortunately, you could have a vacant property throughout the summer.

  The good news is that it’s easy to predict when the property will be vacant, so you can start saving money.

Is Renting to College Students Right for You?

Now that you know the pros and cons of renting to college students, the ultimate question of whether it’s right for you still stands. To answer that question, you have to ask yourself something—how much patience and understanding do you have?

College students aren’t inherently disrespectful, dirty, loud, or crude, but they do need help learning how to care for a home. If you can give them the guidance and rules they need to be a quality tenant, you can easily rent to them.

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