Renting to students in the off season

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Bigbid

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Because the economy is so slow, this was the first year we converted 2 of our 3 buildings, 13 rooms, to female student housing during the college year. Our main 12 room inn stayed as an inn all year. Renting to students is something we swore we would never do but we are next door to a university and finances forced our hand. We needed to cut a few weeks of our Shakespeare Festival bookings (that runs through the summer and is our high season) to do this but we then had revenue for a full 8 months of the school year from students. We also did not need to pay utilities on these buildings for 8 months which was nice.
And now the girls have moved out and here are the results. We increased our bottom line by a little over 30K for those 8 months and after inspecting all of the rooms, not too bad. A few marks here and there but about $200 will get us back in shape. We traded out some nicer furniture and now need to repeat the process but overall, we will do it again until the economy turns around.
If anyone is considering something like this, screen, screen, screen your applicants and have a good contract and a hefty cleaning fee. We had great girls which turned out to be the key.
 
Not something I would ever consider, but glad it worked for you.
 
Glad this worked out for you. I am sure living next door kept things in check.
I know that some universities have campus apartments which have strict regs as well. We priced them on a couple of occassions for our children and each time found we could rent an appt off campus for far less money with only one appt. mate instead of 3. And yes they appt.s also had very strict rules and cleaning fees attached.
 
You would have to have a uni near by but what did they do about cooking? We are no where near a uni so would not work but it may be a plan for some people. Also you would n't have to rent your whole place maybe one or two rooms if you felt like it.
 
We may have to do this next school year with our second house if another option doesn't work out. It would be 2 tenants and they would share the original kitchen and family room of the house. At what the university charges here for housing, it could be a good deal for them.
 
We may have to do this next school year with our second house if another option doesn't work out. It would be 2 tenants and they would share the original kitchen and family room of the house. At what the university charges here for housing, it could be a good deal for them..
How will you handle that? As a 'rental unit' where the tenants take care of everything themselves or will you provide cleaning once/week or something like?
That would be such a sweet house to rent!
 
We may have to do this next school year with our second house if another option doesn't work out. It would be 2 tenants and they would share the original kitchen and family room of the house. At what the university charges here for housing, it could be a good deal for them..
How will you handle that? As a 'rental unit' where the tenants take care of everything themselves or will you provide cleaning once/week or something like?
That would be such a sweet house to rent!
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If it's rented to college kids, they are on their own except for yard maintenance and pest control. I hope the other arrangement works out though. :)
 
i have a nephew who goes to worcester poly tech i think it is.
he is very very (very) quiet and found the small house on campus too noisy to study in.
so now he is renting an apartment in a house off campus, but close by, with two other equally quiet college 'boys'. they are the nerdy, brainy kind ... no wild parties, no smoking, no drinking. not saying they wouldn't do those things because they are nerdy and brainy but because they just don't 'party' ... they belong to a robotics club and get excited getting their computer gizmos to do what they want them to. only one of them drives, and they all bicycle everywhere.
anyway, only one will be there for the next couple months because he is on work study and has a job nearby. the other two are going home but returning in august but are still paying their share of the rent to hold their places. the house is not owner occupied but the owner lives next door and i'm sure they will be happy with these guys as tenants.
some college kids are nightmares, but some are fine. and some are quieter and neater than me.
 
i have a nephew who goes to worcester poly tech i think it is.
he is very very (very) quiet and found the small house on campus too noisy to study in.
so now he is renting an apartment in a house off campus, but close by, with two other equally quiet college 'boys'. they are the nerdy, brainy kind ... no wild parties, no smoking, no drinking. not saying they wouldn't do those things because they are nerdy and brainy but because they just don't 'party' ... they belong to a robotics club and get excited getting their computer gizmos to do what they want them to. only one of them drives, and they all bicycle everywhere.
anyway, only one will be there for the next couple months because he is on work study and has a job nearby. the other two are going home but returning in august but are still paying their share of the rent to hold their places. the house is not owner occupied but the owner lives next door and i'm sure they will be happy with these guys as tenants.
some college kids are nightmares, but some are fine. and some are quieter and neater than me..
I have good friends that are artists and musicians. Many are professors at our university. They all tell me that renting to art students is not a good idea, but music majors are fantastic tenants. lol! Music majors actually tend to be quiet......which is ironic.
 
i have a nephew who goes to worcester poly tech i think it is.
he is very very (very) quiet and found the small house on campus too noisy to study in.
so now he is renting an apartment in a house off campus, but close by, with two other equally quiet college 'boys'. they are the nerdy, brainy kind ... no wild parties, no smoking, no drinking. not saying they wouldn't do those things because they are nerdy and brainy but because they just don't 'party' ... they belong to a robotics club and get excited getting their computer gizmos to do what they want them to. only one of them drives, and they all bicycle everywhere.
anyway, only one will be there for the next couple months because he is on work study and has a job nearby. the other two are going home but returning in august but are still paying their share of the rent to hold their places. the house is not owner occupied but the owner lives next door and i'm sure they will be happy with these guys as tenants.
some college kids are nightmares, but some are fine. and some are quieter and neater than me..
I have good friends that are artists and musicians. Many are professors at our university. They all tell me that renting to art students is not a good idea, but music majors are fantastic tenants. lol! Music majors actually tend to be quiet......which is ironic.
.
Samster said:
I have good friends that are artists and musicians. Many are professors at our university. They all tell me that renting to art students is not a good idea, but music majors are fantastic tenants. lol! Music majors actually tend to be quiet......which is ironic.
Things have changed since my day then! I was a music major and with practicing and partying, we sure weren't quiet! Oh man, I'm getting flash backs already!
angry_smile.gif

 
i have a nephew who goes to worcester poly tech i think it is.
he is very very (very) quiet and found the small house on campus too noisy to study in.
so now he is renting an apartment in a house off campus, but close by, with two other equally quiet college 'boys'. they are the nerdy, brainy kind ... no wild parties, no smoking, no drinking. not saying they wouldn't do those things because they are nerdy and brainy but because they just don't 'party' ... they belong to a robotics club and get excited getting their computer gizmos to do what they want them to. only one of them drives, and they all bicycle everywhere.
anyway, only one will be there for the next couple months because he is on work study and has a job nearby. the other two are going home but returning in august but are still paying their share of the rent to hold their places. the house is not owner occupied but the owner lives next door and i'm sure they will be happy with these guys as tenants.
some college kids are nightmares, but some are fine. and some are quieter and neater than me..
I have good friends that are artists and musicians. Many are professors at our university. They all tell me that renting to art students is not a good idea, but music majors are fantastic tenants. lol! Music majors actually tend to be quiet......which is ironic.
.
Samster said:
I have good friends that are artists and musicians. Many are professors at our university. They all tell me that renting to art students is not a good idea, but music majors are fantastic tenants. lol! Music majors actually tend to be quiet......which is ironic.
Things have changed since my day then! I was a music major and with practicing and partying, we sure weren't quiet! Oh man, I'm getting flash backs already!
angry_smile.gif

.
I guess the art students are the wild ones here. haha!
 
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