4 Ways to Ensure You Receive Rent on Time From Student Residents

By Francine Fluetsch on May 28, 2017

Renting out your places in college towns where you will predominately get student renters is great because you will always have someone inhabiting your place, and since students all network with one another and help each other out, there may be little to do on your end in order to get the place filled once your current residents graduate and move on.

That being said, many people are still hesitant to take on renting to college students because they are worried about the college students being able to make rent and make it on time. So how can you try to ensure that your college residents will get you your monthly check right when you need it? Here are some tips so you can enjoy renting to a happening demographic with a little less to worry about.

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Require a co-signer

Many of the students who are going to be applying to live at your property have probably never lived on their own before, aside from the dorms. While this step is a huge one for them in terms of growing up and becoming responsible, they still have a lot to learn, and you don’t want to be the learning curve. Requiring a co-signer, preferably from each potential tenant just to cover all of your bases, gives you peace of mind as you sign on young students with bushy cottontails. They are ready for their adventure, and with co-signers, you’ll be getting your money whether it’s from the students or not.

Students sometimes even prefer when they are allowed to offer a co-signer, considering they may not make enough on their own to prove to you that they can afford the rent, and might be turned away from a lot of places that don’t allow co-signers.

Have penalties

No one likes to be the bad guy, but you want to make sure that you are getting your money on the agreed upon date(s), so you need to have rules and stick to them. When drawing up the lease, think about what repercussions will happen should the tenants miss a payment/submit a late payment. Will the first late check result in a warning and the second one a monetary fine?

However you wish to cut it, make sure it’s all in writing and go over it with your potential tenants in detail before they sign. College students tend to have a knack for signing things without bothering to read the fine print, so if you go over it with them, get verbal confirmation that they understand, and then have them sign it, there should be less of a chance for you to receive the rent late, and if it does happen, you already have necessary steps laid out that you can follow. Hopefully, you won’t even have to use the penalties, but it’s important to draw them up considering they are a great motivator.

“Pay” it forward

When your residents are ready to move out and venture into the real world, they are going to have to list you as a reference for their next housing venture. Let them know in the beginning of their stay that if they always pay on time and don’t give you any trouble, that you promise to write them a letter of recommendation or will agree to say good things about them should a new landlord call you.

Students may not realize it right away, but a positive/negative word from you could potentially make or break their chances at getting housing elsewhere. If you tell them how you plan to pay it forward should everything run smoothly, they are more likely to work extra hard to get that rent to you, considering that they need to stay on your good side.

Be understanding

If your resident reaches out to you and asks for a one-time extension on the rent, and gives you a good reason, consider allowing it. Building trust and a good relationship is important for both parties, so if you show them that you can be understanding, they will remember it and will definitely make sure to share information about your place for rent with their younger friends once they themselves are ready to move out.

That being said, you don’t want to get walked all over, so if they are going to be late, make sure they give you a good reason, tell you exactly when they are going to pay the money and how they are going to pay it, and also let them know that this is a one-time occurrence. If you wish, this could also be listed in the rent agreement, a “get out of jail free card” if you will, and as long as they pay it back and it doesn’t happen again, it won’t affect the lease. If on the other hand, they don’t end up paying the rent after saying they will, you might have to look into evicting them.

These are just a few ways to try and ensure that rent paycheck every month, hassle free (ideally). Build up that trust, rent to good people, get it in writing, and you shouldn’t have a problem.

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