Mom & Dad: Should I live in the dorm or will you buy me a house?

you aren't serious, are you?

I would not do it.  Instead, look into off-campus housing.  Get your kid a studio apartment at a complex near the school.

It's crazy. 50% percent of college students don't finish. Why even bother with those odds?

first of all, between closing costs and downpayments, furnishing a much larger space, utilities and repairs, and hoa's (for condos) it would be MORE expensive to buy a house/condo for your student.

second of all, you want to leave some irresponsible 18 year old (and they're virtually all irresponsible) alone in a house? with their 100 closest drinking buddies? (don't kid yourself). you'll come back in 4 years and find yourself with a house that needs tens of thousands in repairs.

third of all, is it necessary to spoil our children even more than we do? is it unreasonable to ask your child to learn to live with someone, to learn to share?

Back in the hose appreciation days 1999-2006 it was probably a smart idea. Definately not now.

I live in a college town. Yep, that's what many parents do - or at least they used to. People who did it and sold a year ago or earlier got their kids educated for free.

Many of those houses are on the market now - their owners will still do relatively well. They were bought in 2004, after all.

What about those who decided to be "smart" in '05, '06 and later? My guess is that there will be quite a few foreclosures in my town when their kids graduate.

New Zillow employee??

Welcome!  The boards always do need more moderators, and Zillow staff that can answer question and make sure our suggestions get to the programers and decission makers!

Now, regarding the house you wanted me to buy for you while you are at school...

Hey, if you really were my child, you would be getting my assets eventually anyway, right?  Better to teach responsibility earlier.

And the death tax is 50% for any assets over $2 million now, so better to transfer it earlier to avoid paying that huge tax to the government.

Prodigal that will only be squandering the resources?  Not if you are my child; you not only learned fiscal responsibility, but also how to benifit from and enjoy the resources you have and have access to.

Is it a sound investment in this economy?  Absolutely NOT!  Unless you are getting an education in Europe???

But with 10 billion in assets, does anyone really care?

Ah hem... well, I know it sounds crazy, but my parents bought a rental before my sister went to college. It was a house, with a studio behind the detached garage. My sis lived in the studio throughout college. Here's the ups and downs. College kids are netoriously hard on damaging the homes. Ask for a deposit from EVERY student individually. That way each child has their own (or their parents) money invested. Expect the home to be vacant every summer. Expect to get high rents while college has a high attendance, but if they have a low attendance, you get low rent. They owned the home for 15 years and rented out the studio when a child was not 'renting' it. It was the highest amount of work compared to their other rentals, mainly due to having to find new students every year who needed new carpet, paint, etc. The good part about this home was it always made a profit (if you do the work yourself, if you hire it done, you'll lose money). Your choice. It's a lot of work, but it does pay for itself.

Hi again. My inspiration for asking this question was a recent Wall Street Journal article that I came across. People are really doing this...

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121954054684366725.html?mod=sunday_journal_primary_hs

Hi Alpine, when did you get a sex change operation?

Of course they are. But remember the work it takes to flip the rental to new students. These kids don't know the time it takes to repair a home and get it ready for new students. We've had moldy bathrooms from not opening the window while showering. Clogged pipes from trying to put rice down a garbage disposal. Broken windows because they forgot their keys. And don't forget... never forget... the end of the year party. One time there were over 100 kids there. Even though the grass was alive before the party, and the boys did try and keep the party nice and the house in good shape, it killed the grass in one night. I had to reseed the whole back yard. I lived in the back. :-) Was a great party if I do say so myself. Our parents also required that we not live alone... not even in the studio. We always had roommates.

have your kid find compatable roommates off of craigslist. Do you really want an 18 year old to have the added responsibility of being a landlord/homeowner? One of the homes on my street did that, real estate agent parents bought dear son a 4bedroom home. He rented 3 rooms to friends Too bad the first big party at the home ended up in over $5000 in police response fines, and the roomies were better partymates then rent payers. (it was a hell of a party!I had a blast!) A few months later mom and pop kicked the whole crew out, and the home sat empty for the rest of the year. (they are agents so of course they set the rent $400a month higher than every other house in the area, gotta cover the mortgage!) Its rented now to some sorority girls, they are a lot quieter.

For me, the answer would depend upon:  (1) how committed my kid was to their program, (2) how responsible I felt that my kid was, (3) knowing any roomates and their family personally and (4) market conditions in the RE area in question. 

Hub and I both lived in some real crapholes while in school.  I like the idea of knowing how clean and safe the living conditions of my kid are.

I remember a home that I and 8 other friends rented in college.  Stayed there for two years.  When we did the walk through with Landlord's daughter (he gave her the home) she cried.

Unless this is "Flip This House" and the kids can't make it any worse.  Do not buy them a home.

First of all........

you guys re falling all over your selves for this hot zillow worker or alpine in disguise.

Second .........she/he is just trying to produce a thread that is not beating anyone to death and stimulate tier site.

Third......I would only do this if I lived close enough to monitor the property from time and let the student live in the dorm for the first year or two, maybe for their last year put them in their own place.

Now I think owning a rental in a college town is a good buy.

If you plan to buy an investment property anyway, it makes sense, but in today's market, you'd probably have to hold it longer.  I had a duplex listed near the University & several potential buyers were student's parents.  The seller's son lived there through his college days as well. DebtsNMesses makes some good points about the difficulties of owning student housing.  On the positive side though--near UW at least, housing is always in demand. The seller never paid for advertising in 20+ years and always wrote 12 month leases, so she rarely had vacancies. 

When my daughter leased in Bellingham (go WSU!), they had painted out hardwood floors (cheap to repaint between tenants) & landlord contacted all parents to "assure us" she'd call if there was ever any trouble....or if rent was ever late.  Smart landlord.  If my son chooses a local University, we'd seriously considering buying to avoid paying rent, but it would be a longer term hold investment.

why doesn't anyone ever mention buy/rent? the article sited had towns where buy/rent made sense, but realtors just don't seem to apply even simple math to the decision.

Holy schmokes.  Is this even a serious consideration?  Everyone gushes over the "intangibles" related to home ownership.  Well...  There are some serious rights of passage that are associated with living in the dorms, then moving to an off campus apartment (usually owned by some lech wannabe slumlord).

I learned as much from my time suffering roommates, dorm food, and impossible off campus conditions as I did from any coursework.

You know what po's me about this entire conversation?  It used to be considered *bad*, *irresponsible*, *unwise* to buy a home too early.  _Even after graduating undergrad_!!!  This was because you were usually single, just starting your first job, and still very uncertain about where it was all going to lead.  In the first 3-4 years out of school most everyone ended up hopping cities, or even the country for a while.  People were making and breaking marriage engagements.  Friends changed monthly.  Many people ended up doing some heavy travel for their job -- often assigned to the junior team members by older folks with kids & families who were sick of travel.

And all that was good.  It helped one to figure out what they wanted to be when they grew up.  But hey, now we're going to pre-determine our kids outcomes from the get go.  Sure.  Good luck with that policy.  Don't come looking for any kind of "bail out" when they end up HELOC'ing their gifted condo and blowing it up their nose.

lol

"Don't come looking for any kind of "bail out" when they end up HELOC'ing their gifted condo and blowing it up their nose."

LOL - if conditions supported such a purchase for me, there is no way that I would just hand over the property.  I might keep it as an investment after DD graduates, or, I might let her live there and pay me rent.  Most likely, I would sell it and consider giving her a portion of the proceeds as a wedding or grad school graduation gift (hopefully to help her with her downpayment for her own first house purchase).

i actually always thought that if you could get a decent size house(4BR) and some (6+ stayovers) roomies you could probably walk away from a 6 year college investment with the mort mostly paid for... depending on locations and such... but that should be his deal to figure out no?

Did any of you go to college (somewhere other than an all-boys/girls school with about 250 students)?  You're going to buy a house and rent to 6+ "roomies"?  Good luck with that too.  I hope you're buying one seriously dilapidated fixer.

Why on earth would I be Whitney?  Unless you work for Zillow, there is no way you can have the Zillow tag next to your name.  It's not like the agent and lender tag, which any Tom, Dick, and Harry can have.  Please, you doomers are pathetic!

Zillow must pay well.

Personally, I didn't learn anything from the hobag roommate that never cleaned anything and had a different guy over every night after the bars closed.  Before that, all I gained from living in the dorm was the skill of rolling a doob with one hand and waaay to much knowledge of my roommate's sex lives.  My hub made some good friends through living in the dorm though.  Roll of the dice I guess.

I want to work for Zillow. 

You already do.

Well, i couldn't afford the dorms when i went to undergrad. i did however live one year in the international house at UC Berkeley, paid for by my scholarships, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I met a nice german girl I lived with for the next few years in the san francisco east bay area. (I actually moved into her room early in the year, as she had a single room, so I kind of missed out on the whole roommates/buddies thing)

K101.  You may have learnt more from that experience than you give credit.  It's not linear.  You well could have formed some adult ethical and moral patterns having had to live some of the "alternate path" vicariously, whether you wanted to or not.

Remember, someone who chooses a moral, righteous path who has never been tempted, is neither righteous nor moral. 

You learned you had the conviction to choose your own path.  Soooo many think they do, but fail when tempted.  Trust your kids.  They'll make the right choices.  And they'll own those choices if you let them make them for themselves.

It appears to me that Debts family did the college town purchase correctly, leaving it in the parent's name, and setting guidelines, and actually managing the property with the student's assistance.

But they also purchased at the right time.  2008 is not the time to be buying an overpriced house.  Of course the time will come again, but now is not it.  They can do much better renting or commuting.

School is expensive enough as it is.  Why add a mortgage to that with rent rates that can't cover mortgage, maintenance, taxes, utilities, and insurance?

Of course people are making money doing so; but they didn't purchase in 2005 through 2009!

Obsolete information!

No, how about some moderation and handling some of the questions that users of Zillow have?