If you are a student landlord with rooms to fill, or thinking about embarking upon that journey, then listen up.  With an 8 bedroom house and 6 of those rooms to fill each year, my brothers and I learned a thing or two about attracting good solid roommates (tenants).  By solid I mean emotionally stable, dependable, honest, able to pay their rent, and able to resolve conflict like adults.  Now with 6 rooms to fill, we couldn’t always be so picky, thus I have more than a few stories to tell that won’t show up on this blog due to protecting the identities of those involved and protecting myself from injury or harm!

So in order to find good roommates, the more you have to choose from the better.  It’s a numbers game and the more applicants or interested parties you have, the better quality you’ll find and the higher rents you can charge.  Increasing the number of potential roommates is what we’ll discuss today.  Here are a few suggestions from those that have tried it all!

·        Create a Buzz – This takes times but will prove to be the most effective in the long run.  You’ll need to name your house or condo and start to call it that.  Our first house was named, “The Big Blue House”.  Not very creative, but it stuck.  Even when the color on the house changed, it was always “Big Blue”.  Some friends of ours lived on Cedar St. and called their house, “The Cedar House”.  It doesn’t matter what the name is, you just want people talking about it.  “Where is the barbeque this weekend?”  “Oh, it’s at The Cedar House.”  Then, as people rotate through the home each semester or year, you’ve got people asking the question, “Who is living at the Cedar House next year?”

·        Host activities, events or parties – This goes along with creating the buzz and it also takes some time.  You want people to know where you live and know your home.  Host barbeques, parties, birthdays or even study sessions.  Depending on what types of roommates you want to attract, cater your hosting to that demographic.

·        Use your network – In the days of social networking I’m not sure that I need to expound much on this concept.  Just put the word out there.  Throw it up on your facebook profile or twitter update.  “Looking for a roommate at the Cedar House next semester, let’s talk!”  Word of mouth is still very effective.  Just let your friends know and they will let their friends know, etc.  Several rooms of ours were filled by people we didn’t know personally, but who were friends of friends.

·        Go to the Web – www.craigslist.com is probably the most popular in college towns and it’s free.  You’ll want to update your posting every 3^rd day so that it doesn’t get buried.  Two other sites you might try are www.roommates.com or www.collegesublease.com .

·        Tear-off flyer – Every college town is filled with cafes, restaurants, book stores and campus boards that allow you to post items for sale or promote special events.  This is where you go if your network isn’t hooking you up.  Be very clear and specific about the type of roommate or roommates that you are looking for and put the flyer up in places you normally frequent.  We actually found a really great roommate this way from a tear-off flyer at Free Birds Burritos.  Ask some very specific “get to know you” questions and make sure you feel comfortable with whomever you are inviting to live with you!

·        Visit a local leasing office - I worked in a campus leasing office for a few years and was surprised at how many people came in looking for roommates and not apartments!  We never really had much to offer them.  Let your local leasing offices know that you will rent a room if someone comes by needing it.  You will have to offer them a leasing commission, typically 50% of what you are charging for rent, but well worth the investment for a good tenant!

That’s enough to get you started.  Be creative and choose your roommates wisely!  There is nothing worse than being stuck living with someone you can’t tolerate.

I apologize for those of you who reside outside the State of Texas.  Not because Texans are a proud people, but simply because you might not understand how boring the drive between Austin and Dallas/Ft.Worth is along I-35.  And if you don’t understand how boring the drive is, you might not understand the need for something exciting to do along the way.  At almost exactly half way between the two major cities sits a small town with a Big 12 identity.  The city is Waco and the university is Baylor University.

Baylor is the largest Baptist University in the Nation and the oldest college in the state of Texas.  Despite being around the longest, total enrollment hovers at just over 14,000.  What this sleepy town needs is some action!  Well, look no further.  At least look no further than a proposed and very ambitious plan to pump large sums of public and private money into this old town and the University that occupies it.

The brain child behind this large project is Developer Rick Sheldon and he’s got the high-tech animated video to push it.  (http://www.1000friendsofwaco.com/ ) The project includes significant development in Hotel, Retail, Parks & Public Areas, Bridges, Walkways, Convention Center, Marinas and a 55,000 seat domed stadium for those fierce fighting Baylor Bears.  There is also a very agressive project for expanding the I-35 bridge that connects North and South Shore of the Brazos River.

The overall project is way to comprehensive to cover in this post. What I would like to do is pose the question, “how does this affect the Baylor real estate market in Waco?”  Well, first of all, this project is a proposal at this point.  It would require significant cooperation from local, state and federal governments as well as significant private investment.  We’re talking easily in the Billions from start to finish.  At the end of the day, this dream might be a pill that is just too large to swallow.  So don’t go buying up land in Waco just yet!

On the other hand, if you’re interested in purchasing property in Waco, it might not be a bad reason to push you over the hump.  As with any investment, risk is conversely acquainted with reward.  The best way I have heard this explained is that “scared money don’t make money!”  I wouldn’t necessarily be the first one in on this land grab, but I would be careful not to be left out either.  Take a look at the master plans available, make some decisions on what areas will be the most desirable for a student whose focus is study but needs to get out and enjoy the city a little.  The seeds of change have been planted in Waco.  Vision is something that people respond to, even in tough economic times.  I would be real surprised if nothing came of this push to bring Baylor’s home town of Waco into the modern age of capitalism.  The picture has been well painted, now we wait and see if the paint dries the same color.

Change is hard for most everyone. And whenever it comes, you see people falling into one of two categories. There are the Optimists who see opportunity, possibility and potential. On the other hand are the Pessimists who see tragedy, consequences and fear.The small Boston community of Allston is no different.

Harvard has been eating up acreage across the Charles Riverin Allston for a long time. They began to invest more aggressively starting in the late 80’s with an official announcement not coming until the late 90’s on their 52 acre acquisition that included some industrial and commercial properties. Since that time it has been a bit more difficult to fly under the radar. Of course Harvard doesn’t announce their intentions at this point without knowing they have acquired the key pieces to their puzzle. So how come we didn’t see this coming sooner? All properties purchased by Harvard over the years were bought by a company that would keep confidential the identity of the actual buyer. This protects large investors from being taken advantage of and is not considered to be unethical in practice but often times necessary. It wasn’t until the change of the century that Harvard made public their private ambitions to grow and expand across the river and into Allston.

Since then, local residents have been asking to see final plans for the expansions and how it will impact current transportation infrastructure as well as other public services. Many residents fear that their comfortable and cozy neighborhood will be over-run with students and the collateral damage that comes with any large student population such as high traffic, high density and of course the bars and venues that students frequent.

I suppose those are fair questions and fair arguments. However we are talking about one of the most prestigious universities in the world moving into some new territory. If my primary concern is property value and investment potential for Allston, I’d say the upside is huge. Harvard has not begun their ambitious development plans as of yet due to economic uncertainties, but Harvard has always taken their time and measured their steps carefully before executing moves. Would you expect anything else from a university that has the reputation for being one of the best and brightest in the World?

Allston is not only home to Students attending Harvard University in Cambridge, but also a number of other universities including Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, MIT and Emerson College.

All said, if I’ve got plans to attend Harvard University or any of the other surrounding schools within Boston, I’d take a long hard look at Allston and see if there might be an opportunity. For updates on the project as well as development maps and information, you can visit the official website at http://www.allston.harvard.edu/ai.htm.

The days of 0% down have almost evaporated just as quickly as they came onto the scene several years ago. However, it has always been somewhat difficult to discover low money down programs in university real estate markets. In fact, most university areas posses some unforeseen obstacles that might not exist in other markets. It’s called warrantability. If you’re buying a house, it’s not something to be overly concerned about. But for most buyers looking in university markets, their price range limits them to a condo or townhome. Lenders evaluate risk on loaning money for certain properties based upon a specific criteria. Meeting this criteria is also required for the loans to be “conforming” and thus able to be sold on the secondary market.

Warrantability is affected by two primary indicators. The first looks at how many of the condos within a given complex or community are owner occupied and how many are investor owned. Typically, lenders want to see that over 50% of the ownership within a complex is held by owner occupants. The second indicator is how many units are owned by one single investor. If a single investor owns more than 10% of a complex it gives that investor an uncomfortable level of influence over voting issues. Condos are held as TIC’s or Tenants in Common. It’s a democracy of sorts that is governed by a set of approved by-laws. Any changes to those by-laws must be approved or voted on by the owners. An investor has one thing in mind, bottom-line. An owner occupant may have another, such as preserving the appearance, security, etc. So, if an investor is able to acquire a majority stake in a complex, whatever he wants goes. You can see how lenders are a little nervous with any one person having that much power over the value of their investment.

It’s easy to see why warrantability becomes such an issue in college real estate markets. Due to the number of investors who favor these stable markets, you get an unusually high level of investor owned properties.

Some condo communities do qualify for less than 20% down, but make sure that your real estate agent knows which ones those are if you are depending on going the low money down route. If the complex is warrantable OR you end up buying a house, the FHA offers one of the best loan products on the market called The Kiddie Condo. The kiddie condo program deserves its own post and explanation. So stay tuned for that one to come.