Business
- Maybe you're the parents of a college age student, on their way to enter college, or they're already in college. You've probably been faced with some really astronomical costs of student housing. Well here in Texas, parents are now buying houses near the campus, using their son or daughter as cosigners so they start building some good credit history, and during the time of college, they basically get to live in the house for free. You get to rent out the other bedrooms, and then when the student graduates from college, you have two options. You could sell the property and cash in on that equity, or keep the house, and continue to rent out the bedrooms using it as an income property. It's a great idea that's catching on and our good friend over at Supreme Lending, Andrea Keith, tells us how it's done. - Right, well actually that's a strategy I'm thinking of taking advantage of myself, and I've helped many clients do this also. It takes a little forethought, you have to have some established credit for the student. But if you're like me, and you have one, or more students that are going to be going to college soon, you wanna help them establish a little bit of credit profile so they have credit scores. Which I can advise on what to do for that. And then, when it comes time to think about student housing, maybe instead of going to a dorm, the parents could actually cosign for an occupied home for the student. And then the student can live close to campus, be in a home, and have a place to go. The parents probably would save some money on the housing, because potentially you could rent out to other students, rent a room out to their friends or what have you. And then as long as that student is in school there, the student has a place to live, student housing, that sort of thing. When the graduation happens, there's nothing that says you have to sell the home, you can keep it. It's a rental property for you and your child, or you could sell it and cash out the equity. So there's a lot of options there but it does help defray the cost of student housing when you're in college if you take advantage of this. - Andrea, how do parents start this process? - Well, I would say the first place to start is to get qualified and talk to a professional like me that knows how to deal with mortgages. We would need to pull credit, evaluate income and ratios and that sort of thing. And also need to build in the part with the student being on the loan itself. That keeps the minimal down payment. - You gotta admit that's a great idea. If you're the parents of a college student, you can help them start a good credit history, save some money on student housing, and possibly even make some money in the process. Thank you Andrea. If you, or someone you know, are considering to buy a brand new home, new construction, you want to check out myTexasRealEstate.com, the five big mistakes that new construction buyers make. That's myTexasRealEstate.com, the five big mistakes that new construction buyers make. I'm Cliff Hahn, realtor and broker, at myTexasRealEstate.com, and also Keller Williams, where it's always time to buy Texas.