Never owned rental property in Ohio.

But,over the years, my family has owned several rental properties in Northern New Jersey.

A few of suggestions:

1.I don't know about Ohio,but in N.J.,you can buy property without an
atty.
DON'T !!!!!!!

2.Before you buy anything,make sure you get it inspected.
The inspector should be familiar with Code Requirements for rental properties.

3.It may sound stupid.
But make sure the building has a valid Certificate of Occupancy,for what you intend to use it for,before you close.

4.Any lease agreement should be prepared by,or at the very least,reviewed by a Real Estate Atty.

5.As a precaution,we tell all prospective tenants that they should review the lease with an atty.
We even note it in the lease.

6.Make sure you have proof that the tenant has read the lease.
We set up our leases where the tenant has to initial each section.

7.Before a tenant signs a lease,do a "videotaped" walk through inspection of the unit.
In addition to showing the unit's overall condition,you should identify, on the video,any "issues".
A copy of the video should be given to the tenant,and noted in the lease.

8.Any "issues" ,identified in the walk through inspection, should be noted in the lease and initialed by the tenant.

9.One thing that we had a problem with was exactly what constituted "damage" and how it would be addressed.
Over the years that section of our lease agreement has gotten much more detailed.

Three thoughts: One, these two things seem unsustainable.
Two, some of rent costs in Athens are unbelievable with regard to cost vs quality. As most of you know, many of the houses are dumps, but the cost to rent is quite high, at least compared to other campuses in my area.
Three: Tenants are being frequently hit with some sort of "trashy yard" ticket from the city, which sounds a little sketchy. Someone throws a beer can in your yard overnight and you can be assessed a big fine.

The slight decline in enrollment from the 2016-2017 peak I'd imagine has probably leveled off at this point. You are painting a picture that we are on a path back to the enrollment levels of the late 70's and already halfway there. Alumni are reading your comments and believing it. Freshman class is just going back to the 2012 level so in a few years we may see 23,000 again.

2009-10 (21,303)
2010-11 (21,508)
2011-12 (21,848)
2012-13 (21,724)
2013-14 (22,657)
2014-15 (23,306)
2015-16 (23,701)
2016-17 (24,210)
2017-18 (24,155)

https://www.ohio.edu/instres/Factbook/factenrl_hist.html

Problem in housing investments in Athens are the mega housing developments that are considered luxury. The premium market and amenities have hurt the actual rental market of traditional student housing.

And guaranteed that figure counts CC+ and online

I'm not saying the Athens rental market isn't soft. That can be for a variety of factors including more students commuting into Athens because of cost. Enrollment I'm reasonably convinced has peaked but its not tanking.

I was going to talk about how this impacts future dorms in the AD thread but with the discussion moving on I'll put it in here. There is a plan to reconvert the current Osteopathic facility on West Green back to dorms. Earlier in the decade a plan was made to rebuild new south with larger dorms pending enrollment which I'm convinced isn't needed at this point with the enrollment trends. Plans for Ridges redevelopment were scaled back too. That means the 2016 university master plan is all but accounted for outside of doing something with the Convo, Bird Arena and the Aquatic Center.

You’re right. Why would anyone want to ask if someone has experience when doing research before making an investment. Good thing you’ve got all the answers already. Congrats bud

Simply anecdotal evidence but I'm seeing things that I've never seen this time of year: parking spots all up and down Court Street in the middle of the day, big landlords advertising for apartments for 20 -21 much later than I've seen before, and fewer cars on East State Street even though there are more businesses than ever. The town just seems to be not as full.

To further make the point, I talked with a longtime uptown business owner today and without prejudice broached the subject. He told me that he can see it in his daily revenues.

I agree with Alan on all of these points, except East State Street. Every time I go out that way I get caught in a big traffic jam. I have noticed a lot of people from out in the county and even out of county, come on East State Street from one of the highway exits, do their shopping and eating, and then exit town, never to go anywhere near the university or the downtown area. I was told that the average traffic count on East State has been rising steadily over the last few years, and my personal experience would attest to that.

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