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(08-08-2022 12:58 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(08-08-2022 11:32 AM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  

(08-08-2022 07:47 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(08-07-2022 06:30 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I do front end legal work for a company that builds these large mixed use residential/1st level commercial buildings around campuses all over the country. They print $$ with them.

Apartments tend to range from @ $1000-$3500. Built cheaply IMO but they use materials that look higher end. The business model is based around the fact that the end user borrows more $$/their parents cut the check since this is now what students expect for their near campus experience (oy vey). Also, foreign students often have the $$ paid to the developer directly by their home government in advance. They love the Chinese students. Completely pass through so they normally don't care what the rent is.

There are reasons why campus-near is starting to look cookie cutter no matter where you go.

Yep...last one I had anything to do with as a construction manager before going back to school was in Columbus. $22M project cost and the managers expected a full payback within 3 years. Just nutty profit margins. As a multiple unit owner near UT's campus up north who requires parents to co-sign on leases with their children, I can tell you, if you get into the game heavily and decide to put money above tenant happiness (I have done neither), you won't need to do any traditional work again. For me, it's a nice passive ~$20,000 in profit every year including a perpetual 4 year full unit renovation plan on my end.

They're now called 5 + 1's I believe. The thing is, Clifton also has a ton of residential homes from the 1900s that you can rent for cheap. Those homes are almost always falling apart and are usually managed by crappy landlords. The generic new 5+1 units all having leasing offices, accept pets, and are usually located in prime spots. Not to mention, many of them have rooftop pools and coeds running around in abundance. Hard to turn down if you're a college student. Also, they do pack a lot of housing into a small space, which is something American cities have desperately needed.

I definitely prefer renovations that preserve the historic architecture of old buildings. OTR really is beautiful nowadays for that reason alone.

I agree with everything you said, that's part of why I brought all four of my properties up to something I would WANT to live in now, and something parents WANT their kids to live in (helps to have them on the side of your property over everything else). I'll never forget the slum-lord doubling as a UC professor who ran Clifton Housing...lived for a carry-over year in one of his properties on University Ct. and it probably took years off my life.

Clifton has tons of cheap housing and I like a mix to attract a variety of students. My buddy 2nd floor bathroom fell through in Clifton. Landlord was a joke but they paid for what they got - the bathroom. Luckily no one was in bathroom or kitchen when it occurred.