Investing for a College Grad?

General Real Estate Investing
1

FINALLY!!! A forum that’s worth a damn. I have bought countless books, talked with parents, read forums online and nothing so far has amounted to providing as much information as this forum. So to start off, Thank you.

Now heres my story.

I am 21 years old, a newbie to REI and have not purchased my first home yet. I am a resident of Long Island, where real estate is NOT cheap. I am looking to finance the home 100%, and CT may be my best bet. I am a graduate of a school in the New Haven area, and am looking at the town of Hamden(06518). I lived there during college and know the town pretty well. My plan as of now consists of the following:
-Look for homes in the range of $100-$200k.
-Purchase a 3 bedroom, 2 bath.
-Rent to a family in order to get my first purchase underway.
-Eventually continue and start to rent to college kids.

I am interested in the college market, because since I am recent grad I know how much they are paying. I lived in a 3 bedroom home, 2 baths, and paid 733 dollars a month x 3 roomates.

My reasoning for getting into the market prior to college rentals is the fact that I feel college rentals is all about timing. Books have said to try to get $1000 dollar a month in profit from the rentals, and I am not sure how attainable that is. Any advice on what to do would be great.

I am going up to town this weekend in order to go to a couple open houses, cruise around town for FSBO signs.

Thanks in advance

-Jason

2

Jason,
All of these sound like great idea’s. Except the driving around ! LOL I did that at first as well then I learned that there is a better way to do this! I would call them and get there low price before driving around! There are a ton of ways to find motivated sellers without leaving the house! As far as college rentals I could not agree more get something with guaranteed rents coming in!

                                                                  Robb
3

I REALLY like the part about the $1,000 a month positive cashflow!!!

Rentals in my area are about $500 - 900 a month – $1,000 a month positive would be a great trick!

Keith

4

Ha Ha.

Thanks guys for the quick response. I am probably going up to visit to just get an idea of the FSBO and an idea and a refresh of the good parts of town. I want to square off about 25 miles that I want to conquer first.

I love the college idea, but I probably need a rental to a stable family first to cover the basic cash flow needs.

Any idea how I can start to get some good idea on whats a great price in regards to rent? In other words, how can I tell if a property will make me good rent? Say the property is 175,000 I would need probably 180,000 for minor repairs before I rent. Do you think I should set a limit on the amount of rent I would take in or allow anything positive?