Thinking about renting out your apartment to students? This is definitely a great idea, but you should be aware of the fact that having students as tenants is quite different from having families, seniors or young couples as tenants. We have examined some of the potential concerns and issues landlords can have while dealing with student tenants.
Short- term leases: One of the concerns landlords usually have when dealing with student tenants is that students are usually more interested in renting a room or an apartment for a shorter period of time. This is generally also connected to the duration of the academic year.
Seasonality: When you are renting your place to students it can be a challenge to find tenants for the summer months, since this is usually the time when students go on vacation or go back home to their parents.
Student lifestyle: Although it is expected from students to be focused on finishing their studies and spend long hours studying, the reality is often different. Many students want to have the most out of their college experience which usually means a lot of partying and drinking. This can of course turn into a problem if they decide to throw house parties and keep their neighbours awake during the night. This can result in noise complaints or even possible damages.
Late rent payments: Students are usually not financially independent which can sometimes lead to late rent payments. In many cases, they are dependent on their parents or student side jobs which are generally not very well paid.
Possible damages: since students are normally not yet as responsible as young adults for example, it might happen that damages in a student apartment can occur more often.
Unrealistic expectations: some students are going to live on their own for the first time meaning that they might expect to get the same things from the landlords that they received from their parents. This can result in their expectations of receiving extra services, such as cleaning or doing laundry.
There are also a lot of ways to avoid those possible issues. As a landlord you should make sure to include all the necessary things in the rental agreement to protect yours as well as the tenant`s interests. If the rental agreement is written well, you have nothing to worry about. A lot of times it also turned out that those are just prejudices people have about student tenants and that the reality is different. Additionally, problems can always occur no matter if the tenant is a student or a working professional.
Despite all the issues and concerns which may come up while dealing with student tenants, the demand for student apartments is still extremely high. This means that landlords have a lot of applicants to choose from when they are searching for new tenants and can be quite “picky” about who they will choose. Additionally, students are usually also not that picky with the furniture or the whole design of the apartment and will more likely rent the apartment even if the furniture is not the newest. It is also generally known that student tenants are easier to keep satisfied than other tenants that might be much more demanding.
If you are interested in renting out your apartment to international students and young professionals you can do so by using an online housing platform HousingAnywhere.com. The platform was made especially to protect the tenants as well as the landlords and to make the whole process from posting to renting out your apartment easy and safe.
If you liked this article, subscribe to Rentometer's email newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in rental housing.