college house

[ollie]

is it feasable to buy a house for a college student and make it pay?  i live in Iowa and have a girl who goes to UT in Austin.  She will be a senior and will probably go on to grad school there.  She could do the legwork by collecting rents and watching things but could she live there for free and have her roommates make the payments?  i get ads from places down there that are trying to sell condos with this thought.  i am 800 miles away.  their ads always have the tax savings figured into the money you make.  i would not want to do it unless it was feasable without the tax advantage figured in.  anybody have any experience.  plus something would have to be done fast since school starts in august.  i think i could find something if i was there snooping around for a month or so but being far away i feel it may be too much.  i have bought real estate since my 21st birthday in 1974 but i am not familiar with your guys terms you use on here or your abbreviations.  Ollie

[StacyKellams]

Ollie,

Do I think it can be done here in Austin? Yes!

Do I think your daughter can find the property? No!

I think she could manage the property just fine. I don't think she'll have enough experience to find the property though.

It can be done, but like you said, you'll need to spend some quality time down here this summer to get it done.

I wouldn't do it with a condo though. I'd find a nice 3 or 4 bedroom house.

It won't be very close to campus either. The numbers won't work with the properties down there. As I'm sure you know, the UT campus is in downtown Austin making the land expensive. I'm sure that's why these brochures you've been getting are throwing in the tax benefits.

So the question becomes, is your daughter and her friends willing to live with a 20 to 30 minute commute to campus? That's assuming she has morning classes. If she makes her schedule such that she doesn't have to go in until 10am then traffic won't be as bad.

Hope this helps.