Looking For Student Apartment Comps

[GWISC]

Wisconsin appraisers. I am looking for sales of student apartments in and around colleges and universities. I would be grateful for anything you may have.

 

[Deleted member 130081]

What area? 1-4 family or larger buildings? Why are you struggling to find sales?

 

[GWISC]

30+ units. Sales of student housing apartments are not plentiful.

 

[residentialguy]

30+ units. Sales of student housing apartments are not plentiful.

You'll probably need to expand your search parameters to include other types of student rentals like duplex, triplex and quads and carefully adjust for the variances that those contribute. I hope you are getting at least $2500 fee plus mileage. That's an ugly complex order you got there.

 

[GWISC]

Thanks residentialguy. After 25 years as a residential appraiser, I am trying my hand at commercial. I am working for and being mentored by a long time friend in the commercial appraisal business. Yes, we get fees close to what you suggest. Unfortunately, comps for near campus student housing is hard to find. I just thought I would see if anyone out there had a good comp that was not on the normal radar of searches.

 

[Howard Klahr]

You need to look at college/university campuses all around the state/ region. Have you checked information from thee student housing reits?

Ps i hope the fee is higher than resguy suggested

 

[gregb]

It would seem likely there have been sales in Madison of 30+ unit apartment properties.

https://campusareahousing.wisc.edu/search

 

[GWISC]

Thanks for the inputs. I will search the website suggested by gregb. The fees are not my call. I am a grunt working for someone else, learning something new.

 

[GWISC]

Oh, and I will look into the reits as Howard suggested. Thanks again.

 

[Gobears81]

OP-If you are doing an appraisal near UW-Madison, I'd certainly focus on that area and have a hard time believing that there aren't sales out there for that market. If you are doing student apartments in another town, maybe try to identify other comparably-sized universities, but it is also important to identify enrollment trends in those universities. For example, I just completed a couple appraisals of student apartments near a state university where enrollment is 60% of what it was ten years ago. Yet there are a couple of universities in IL where enrollment is increasing, and as you might expect, there is a significant difference in rents, cap rates, vacancy, etc. between the two locations. This could warrant quite large locational adjustments, or outright elimination of consideration of some locations as comparison to your property. Some of the most notable supply and demand experiences that I've dealt with involves student housing.