Every year, well over 100,000 students, faculty and staff infiltrate the otherwise sleepy little community of Bryan-College Station, Texas. Why? College Station is home to one of the world’s largest universities—Texas A&M—and Bryan is home to Blinn College. These two institutions combined tip the enrollment scales at over 100,000 undergraduate students, making the area a prime location for international investors. But what makes this market unique is that on-campus housing—the dorm life—is limited to less than 25 percent of the freshman class. Plus, a significant majority of the remaining students, and a very large percentage of the supporting staff and ancillary service providers, choose to rent during the school year, rather than own. This makes for a huge off-campus rental market, and investors across the globe are taking notice. If you’re an owner looking for an ancillary product to add to a growing list of services, or a sales professional wanting to build an international niche, you should consider targeting college towns like Bryan-College Station.
Historically, college towns across the country—especially in states like Texas—have some of the most undervalued real estate in the nation, and savvy investors are cashing in on the opportunities. Teams like mine at CENTURY 21 Beal in College Station are creating a full-service investment real estate sales and management niche by attracting large investors looking for secondary and tertiary markets to drive portfolio value and first-time buyers who appreciate and value real estate as an asset to building wealth.
“I like to use the 1 percent rule,” says NFL Hall of Famer and real estate investor Bruce Matthews. “If I can buy a $200,000 property that rents for 1 percent, or $2,000 per month, I’m cash-flow positive with current interest rates and a 20 percent down payment. I just let the tenants pay for my house and let Aggieland Properties take care of everything else.”
Bruce isn’t alone. Investors across the globe are zeroing in on college towns for their historically affordable real estate, extraordinarily captive audience of tenants and tremendous cash flow opportunities.
The opportunity, therefore, is for professionals to step in on behalf of their clients, be the knowledgeable resource about the market and the product type the investor is interested in, negotiate the best deal possible on their behalf, and complete the transaction for investors who, in many cases, conduct this business without even stepping foot in the market. You’ll need a system and platform that best suits your needs to leverage these opportunities, and we couldn’t ask for a better partnership than the one we have between Century 21 Real Estate and the CENTURY 21 Beal, Aggieland Properties Team.
Kevin Matthews is a sales professional with CENTURY 21 Beal, Aggieland Properties Team.
For more information, please visit www.century21.com.
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