Buying property in your kid’s college town may be a smart move Zach Wichter Bankrate.com Room and board at school can be a major expense for students who go away to get an education. Jeffrey Decatur, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Capital in Latham, New York, near Albany, said he’s seeing a growing trend of parents buying property for their children to live in during school as both a way to cut costs and as an investment. He spoke to Bankrate about this strategy, and talked through what you should think about when considering if it’s right for your family. His responses have been edited for length and clarity. Q. How common is it for parents to consider buying real estate in their kid’s college town? A. Parents are realizing it’s a very viable Contractors Guide | FALL 2021
option to purchase rather than doing the room and board thing, because it winds up benefiting all around in the long-run. You get a write-off, you can make a little money in the end, and it elevates your child’s learning. They have a different level of responsibility than the average college student. Q. Why is this a good strategy? A. Within five miles of me, there are eight colleges or universities. It’s not super, super common, but considering I’m only one agent in an area of 3,800 agents, I’ve seen it enough that it’s something. I had a parent buy their kid a house because first-year students weren’t allowed to have a car. So the parent bought them a house so they could keep their car and have a life. That was the first one and I thought, “Ooh, crazy rich 6
people.” But it was actually crazy smart people, because they get the benefits of owning a house. I started seeing it more and more with medical students and law students. Their parents wanted to make sure they had every advantage and weren’t distracted by other distractions going to school and they had a place to focus and be quiet and study and what have you. One of the properties I actually sold three times, and it was to med students each time. That’s when I started realizing that it makes much more sense for someone to buy a house. One of my best friend’s kids, they were paying $6,000 or $7,000 per semester for room and board, that’s $14,000 per year. In our area, you can buy a house for that. My one friend who bought a house for
