Live in the Dorm or Buy a House?

I will have to agree with you. I feel that there is too much responsibility involved in allowing an eighteen year old to own a house while in college. Yes, some are mature enough to do it, but for the most it is an accident waiting to happen.

However, the one’s that did own the house usually got credit for having all the great parties!

Well, I agree and disagree, I agree because if you find a home for your 18 year old there is risk. But if you look at it as an investment it may not be. Dorm Costs can be huge, depending on the college. But if you can find a foreclosure or a bank owned property for pennies on the dollar, you as the parent could rent the rooms out to your child and to other students… What do you think of that?

I’m the parent of a daughter who became the owner of a house, 2 blocks from her college (San Diego State), at the age of one month-short-of-her-20th birthday. She had experienced living in the dorm, followed by a year in an apartment, where the apartment management severely “cramped their styles” by calling it off-limits to drink beer by the pool after 10pm!

After looking at rental homes in the area, we determined that for the same monthly cost as renting for the 5 roommates, we could buy a house (with 3% down) and pay the mortgage, taxes, insurance, gardener, and home warranty (that would fix the broken items that the college kids would probably wreck.) We used an FHA loan with daughter and roommate as the primary borrowers, and the 2 sets of parents as co-signers.

They had loud parties, the cops came and threatened to fine them, they had roommates move out, and new incompatible ones move in, but someone always paid the rent, which paid the mortgage.

My daughter was the “property manager” and collected the rent from the roommates, called the home warranty company to fix things, signed the leases, as landlord, when new roommates moved in, coordinated the damage deposits at move-in and inspections and deposit returns at move-out.

We all learned that kids who go from “Mom & Dad – to dorm – to house” don’t realize that light bulbs and toilet paper don’t just grow in the cabinet, and someone needs to call the utility company to put the billing in someone’s name, or the water doesn’t run and the lights won’t turn on!

Over all, if the numbers work (rent vs buy) it can be a terrific experience for both the student and the parents to invest in a college house. After owning our college house for 8 years, (daughter was in it for the first 2, and roommate’s younger siblings for the next 2, then strangers for the next 4 years) we sold it at a substantial profit, paid off her student loans, paid for her wedding, and put a pretty good chunk in the bank!

I would do it again, if I had another kid starting college now!

I’ve never really thought of it that way. Might be a nice investment opportunity.