I live in a Canadian city with two universities. There is a large student housing market in this city. I work at one of the universities and have always been somewhat interested in purchasing a student housing rental. Looking for advice as to people who have done this - either positive or negative stories.
For example, there is one 3 bedroom/1 bath two-floor apartment unit for sale right now for $230,000. It is rented at $1500/month until the end of August. It doesn't explicitly say it is for students but I know it is. It is 15 years old, located in a great place, has parking, looks to be in decent condition. I could take money out of my and my husband's TFSAs and put at least 10% down. I've played with a mortgage calculator and it looks like the monthly mortgage payment would be around $950. I know I'd have to add in insurance and property taxes. Plus there is any maintenance cost (my husband is fairly handy and we live 10-15 minutes away, plus I work quite close). We have two young kids and rarely go on vacation.
We've never been landlords before and obviously I'd have a lot of research to do, but I feel like it could be a good market to get into. Students rent for 12 month terms and rarely break the lease - if anything, they sublet if you get a student with co-op/work terms. I am going to try and find some local student landlords to chat with as well but figured this could be a good place to get some good food for thought.
The other option is, keep socking away as much money as possible in our investments and stay far, far away from rental properties.