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Have a party policy. If you are buying a place in a residential neighborhood and your tenants decide to party till 4 am but the neighbors are working folks, you may have problems.
I am sure if you are the landlord you can determine what goes on in your home whether they pay rent or not.
Not every college student is destructive but you do need to protect yourself in case of damages.
I would also have a pet policy (none). I love dogs and cats but the last thing you need when the kids move out is to have a left behind kitty or fido they didn't feel like taking with them.
When I was much younger, and single, I rented rooms to friends and students for several years. I tried to stick with friends, but there were times I took in students. Renting made my house payments for several years, until I got married.
It worked out OK, simply because I was their age, and was as wild and party going as were the renters. My furniture wasn't anything special, so not much to lose. I did occasionally get an oddball or two, and had to evict a couple.
One roommate I evicted, packed all of his stuff into my kitchen drawers. I came home to find all of my drawer items on the floor, and the drawers missing. I had to call his parents to get them back.. Believe me, you will discover people can be very inventive..!
Years later, I found myself single again, and bought a new, larger home. My plan was to always buy a house I couldn't afford, then let the roommates pay for it.
The second house was within walking distance of a University, so renters were no problem. What I discovered was, the renters were still the same age, but I was 20 years older now, and had nothing in common with them, so it turned into a chore. Many problems came up. One day I came home from work and found Cocaine and a razor blade on my formal dining room table. I'm at work, and my roomie was having drug parties with all of his friends. We put a quick end to that.
One day I was vacuuming the dining room, and I grabbed the armrest on the captains chair to move it. The arm came off in my hand. Closer inspection revealed the arm had been broken off the chair and scotch taped back on...! Giving people the run of your home gives them lots of opportunities to do strange things...
So if you have nice things, I would be very careful about letting someone have the run of you house.
The good news, I did suffer through some of the roommates, but in the long run, I made a lot of money buying homes and letting someone else pay for them.
As mentioned above, nail them to the wall with an ironclad contract and set of rules.
Renting can be profitable, or it can bite you in the butt...!
I might add to that, I now have homes I own and rent out. The very first lesson you learn when renting a home.... DO NOT RENT TO YOUNG, SINGLE ADULTS....
I might add to that, I now have homes I own and rent out. The very first lesson you learn when renting a home.... DO NOT RENT TO YOUNG, SINGLE ADULTS....
I'd like to expand that a bit .... DO NOT RENT TO YOUNG, SINGLE ADULTS that are living on mommy and daddys dime. I'm a young, single (I have a live in boyfriend, but we're not married) adult and have a great full time job, always pay my bills on time, have excellent credit and rental history, and a very well behaved middle aged (5) small (38 lbs) dog. I think you just have to be a bit more picky when you're dealing with young adults... I purchased all of my stuff, and I front my own deposits, so I don't want to destroy any of the stuff in my house, or anyone elses for that matter. If they aren't paying for themselves, then they may not have a sense of responsibility since they don't actually own anything.
Iron-clad lease. Check the Minnesota statutes for whatever landlord/tenant laws that may exist so that you know what rights you have as a landlord and what obligations you may have, and to see tenants' rights and obligations. The lease agreement and any addendum should include absolutely everything in them written in black and white. Include your rules and requirements and the consequences. If someone besides the student is paying the rent (parents for example), they should also sign the lease or a guarantee addendum.
Maybe you could have a somewhat-tough application process to weed out the fly-by-nighters?
There are many college-age tenants who are respectful and mature, but for a number of reasons there are many who are not. One of the most common reasons for the "not" is because sometimes it's the first time the young adult has been out on their own and no longer under the day-to-day scrutiny of Mom and Dad. These kids don't always intend to be lousy tenants, but it sometimes happens.
Could a landlord be held liable for under age drinking
Is it difficult to enforce a lease or guarantee adendeum - if the parent lives 1500 miles away - other then keeping the security deposit.
Some places have a "Social Host Ordinance", meaning anyone who hosts any sort of gathering with underage drinking can be liable. Some places rarely enforce it; others are more strict. And in some places, such as Santa Cruz County in CA, a landlord can be considered a host.
When enforcing a lease, it really doesn't matter how far away the actual "payer" lives - certified mail goes anywhere, and should things get really horrid and you decide a civil action, the court system reaches that far as well.
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