With Summer in full swing and July almost halfway over, it is time to start thinking about Fall and students getting back to school. If you own a rental property near a  college or university, or even just in a college town, then you may be considering whether signing a lease with college students is a smart move. There are several factors to consider on both sides of the argument and we will take a look at the positive and negative things to consider as you make a final decision on  whom you will market your rental property to.

Let’s start with the plus side…

Top Dollar Rental Rates

Going back to the basics, we all have been made aware that the market prices for nearly any product or service is often dictated by supply and demand.

If the rental property you manage is in college town, then you know that as long as the school doors are open, then  that town will always see an influx of students during the months that school is in session. 

Depending on how flooded the rental market is in your specific area, you may be able to ask a premium monthly rent for your unit. Due to the number of students that historically live off campus, there is most often a high demand for convenient apartment spaces close by to campus. As an added bonus, the closer to campus your rental is, the higher the rents can climb. This is due to the convenience factor of being close to school, as well as the fact that most college campuses have many amenities nearby.

The businesses in campus towns are eager to invest in the local neighborhood, because they know that many students will want to stay close to campus to dine, shop and hang out. Having this built in network of amenities will make your property more attractive to potential tenants and thus worth the higher monthly payment. 

Lower Maintenance Tenants

Another thing to know about college students is that they are frequently lower maintenance tenants when compared to professionals and families. College students are usually in their late teens and early twenties and many times, this off campus apartment will be the first place they have lived on their own - outside of the dorms, of course. They are busy young people who split their time schedule amongst  going to class, hanging out with friends, studying and working. They are looking for a place to eat, sleep and shower and they don’t need, and aren’t expecting all the bells and whistles in the unit, as an older professional might. 

Having lower maintenance requests and not needing to upgrade the finishes in the apartment or house will be a big time and money saver. 

These are great positive reasons to rent to college students, let’s take a look at a couple of the  negatives…..

Hard To Judge Their Level of Responsibility

Because college students are younger, they most likely will have a very limited amount of credit history, if any, and they most likely will not have any prior landlords to contact about how they behaved and the condition of the last place where they called home. 

Renting to college students can be taking a little bit of a risk ,because it will be very hard to truly gauge their level of responsibility. Will they pay the rent on time?Will they adhere to your rules? Will they vacate without proper notice? These are all good questions that are hard to answer, because you have no history to look back on to compare.

Don’t Know If They Will Take Care of the Property

Big college parties or even a get-together with a few close friends can easily often get out of hand. Due to the lack of rental history, you have no way of knowing if your property will incur damage while the student is living there. 

Although it is hard to know if you should rent to college students, conducting interviews, doing a background check and explaining your expectations to your potential student renters are all good steps to take in order to minimize your risks. 

Have a solid lease drawn up to give you legal grounds to pursue costs for repairs or lost rent, should your college student skip out on their lease. And while it is important to be prepared and protect yourself, it’s also important to remember that there are a lot of really great and responsible college students out there, so don’t let one bad experience ruin it for your landlord/tenant relationships with all other students.


Thousand Hills Realty is the premier property management company in the Branson and Hollister area. If you would like to talk about having us manage your rental for you, call us today at (417) 337-8081. We’d love the opportunity to earn your business.