[vreihen16]

Because college students, the damages will usually be way higher than with normal tenants unless you get lucky.

Buying investment properties with mortgages and then renting them out to people with lesser credit ratings is supposedly a viable strategy, but your financial benefit will come many years down the road when the rent money pays off the mortgage and you own the property free and clear. Everyone and his/her brother seems to own an AirBNB or ten these days, so there's probably a similar opportunity there with a potentially higher-caliber of tenant.

With the cost of dorm rooms, I know that some parents would buy a condo near their kid's college and use the dorm money to pay the mortgage. They then encourage the kid to find a room mate, who ultimately contributes to the mortgage as well. After 4-6 years of college at least pre-2008, the profit from appreciation and paying the mortgage would pay a good chunk of the kid's student loan off as a graduation gift.

Disclaimer that real estate is not my gig.....