I knew kids that were fortunate enough to have parents in the position to purchase a house/condo for them during their college years; all of them kept the places that their parents had purchased in tip top shape. Some were in one bedrooms living solo, while others had roommates and acted somewhat like a live in super (collecting rent, making sure things work, etc.). Nonetheless I believe all these kids acted more responsibly acting as home owners then they would have if they had lived in a dorm… The fact of the matter is even the nicest dorm, is still not going to be as perceived to be as nice as your place where you have the power to really personal the space. While it is self evident that the university owns the dorms, their really isn’t a face of disappointment when you break a wall in a dorm or flood a bathroom. However lets apply the same destruction to condo that your parents have purchased; there is a clearly a face, voice, and sometimes even a foot that will express disappointment with that broken wall… This motivation links directly to the classic parenting line of “I am not angry, I am disappointed…”

Let just be honest, for some reason when you are in college the larger the group the better horrible ideas sound… You are more likely going to be able to rally 40 people on your floor in a dorm to set up a “slip-n-slide” in the hallway; then you would be if you were in a living situation with just 4 people, and those 4 people were like minded best friends…

I do think that one year in student housing should be mandatory it will truly make kids appreciate how good they have it once they are in a place living as/like a home owner…

I knew kids that were fortunate enough to have parents in the position to purchase a house/condo for them during their college years; all of them kept the places that their parents had purchased in tip top shape. Some were in one bedrooms living solo, while others had roommates and acted somewhat like a live in super (collecting rent, making sure things work, etc.). Nonetheless I believe all these kids acted more responsibly acting as home owners then they would have if they had lived in a dorm… The fact of the matter is even the nicest dorm, is still not going to be as perceived to be as nice as your place where you have the power to really personal the space. While it is self evident that the university owns the dorms, their really isn’t a face of disappointment when you break a wall in a dorm or flood a bathroom. However lets apply the same destruction to condo that your parents have purchased; there is a clearly a face, voice, and sometimes even a foot that will express disappointment with that broken wall… This motivation links directly to the classic parenting line of “I am not angry, I am disappointed…”

Let just be honest, for some reason when you are in college the larger the group the better horrible ideas sound… You are more likely going to be able to rally 40 people on your floor in a dorm to set up a “slip-n-slide” in the hallway; then you would be if you were in a living situation with just 4 people, and those 4 people were like minded best friends…

I do think that one year in student housing should be mandatory it will truly make kids appreciate how good they have it once they are in a place living as/like a home owner…

Thank you for that wonderful story. It appears your daughter (the property manager) was both mature and responsible enough to handle homeownership quite well.

@Louis,

I totally agree that responsibility is by individual. Some 17 year old kids act with more self-control than some 37 year olds I know. But it just seems to me that there’s nothing inherently difficult about homeownership such that college students MUST be shoehorned into dorm life. If anything, it almost seems to me like having to take care of a major financial asset like a house would help the young person grow in maturity and responsibility.

-rsh

Thank you for that wonderful story. It appears your daughter (the property manager) was both mature and responsible enough to handle homeownership quite well.

@Louis,

I totally agree that responsibility is by individual. Some 17 year old kids act with more self-control than some 37 year olds I know. But it just seems to me that there’s nothing inherently difficult about homeownership such that college students MUST be shoehorned into dorm life. If anything, it almost seems to me like having to take care of a major financial asset like a house would help the young person grow in maturity and responsibility.

-rsh

I’m the parent of a daughter who became the owner of a house, 2 blocks from her college, at the age of one month-short-of-her-20th birthday. She had experienced living in the dorm, followed by a year in an apartment, where the apartment management severely “cramped their styles” by calling it off-limits to drink beer by the pool after 10pm!

After looking at rental homes in the area, we determined that for the same monthly cost as renting for the 5 roommates, we could buy a house (with 3% down) and pay the mortgage, taxes, insurance, gardener, and home warranty (that would fix the broken items that the college kids would probably wreck.) We used an FHA loan with daughter and roommate as the primary borrowers, and the 2 sets of parents as co-signers.

They had loud parties, the cops came and threatened to fine them, they had roommates move out, and new incompatible ones move in, but someone always paid the rent, which paid the mortgage.

My daughter was the “property manager” and collected the rent from the roommates, called the home warranty company to fix things, signed the leases, as landlord, when new roommates moved in, coordinated the damage deposits at move-in and inspections and deposit returns at move-out.

We all learned that kids who go from “Mom & Dad – to dorm – to house” don’t realize that light bulbs and toilet paper don’t just grow in the cabinet, and someone needs to call the utility company to put the billing in someone’s name, or the water doesn’t run and the lights won’t turn on!

Over all, if the numbers work (rent vs buy) it can be a terrific experience for both the student and the parents to invest in a college house. After owning our college house for 8 years, (daughter was in it for the first 2, and roommate’s younger siblings for the next 2, then strangers for the next 4 years) we sold it at a substantial profit, paid off her student loans, paid for her wedding, and put a pretty good chunk in the bank!

I would do it again, if I had another kid starting college now!

I’m the parent of a daughter who became the owner of a house, 2 blocks from her college, at the age of one month-short-of-her-20th birthday. She had experienced living in the dorm, followed by a year in an apartment, where the apartment management severely “cramped their styles” by calling it off-limits to drink beer by the pool after 10pm!

After looking at rental homes in the area, we determined that for the same monthly cost as renting for the 5 roommates, we could buy a house (with 3% down) and pay the mortgage, taxes, insurance, gardener, and home warranty (that would fix the broken items that the college kids would probably wreck.) We used an FHA loan with daughter and roommate as the primary borrowers, and the 2 sets of parents as co-signers.

They had loud parties, the cops came and threatened to fine them, they had roommates move out, and new incompatible ones move in, but someone always paid the rent, which paid the mortgage.

My daughter was the “property manager” and collected the rent from the roommates, called the home warranty company to fix things, signed the leases, as landlord, when new roommates moved in, coordinated the damage deposits at move-in and inspections and deposit returns at move-out.

We all learned that kids who go from “Mom & Dad – to dorm – to house” don’t realize that light bulbs and toilet paper don’t just grow in the cabinet, and someone needs to call the utility company to put the billing in someone’s name, or the water doesn’t run and the lights won’t turn on!

Over all, if the numbers work (rent vs buy) it can be a terrific experience for both the student and the parents to invest in a college house. After owning our college house for 8 years, (daughter was in it for the first 2, and roommate’s younger siblings for the next 2, then strangers for the next 4 years) we sold it at a substantial profit, paid off her student loans, paid for her wedding, and put a pretty good chunk in the bank!

I would do it again, if I had another kid starting college now!

3) If you’re mature enough to handle home ownership at 18, why can’t you also manage your own alcohol intake?

Kids grow up faster here than pretty much everywhere else on earth yet we have the oldest drinking age on the planet. It makes no sense but thankfully this ridiculous rule is currently being challenged: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121996586419781419.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

3) If you’re mature enough to handle home ownership at 18, why can’t you also manage your own alcohol intake?

Kids grow up faster here than pretty much everywhere else on earth yet we have the oldest drinking age on the planet. It makes no sense but thankfully this ridiculous rule is currently being challenged: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121996586419781419.html?mod=googlenews_wsj