Reply #2: Forget the dorm, how about a condo for your college kid? [View All]

[Scooter24]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-mortgage2807oct28,0,7990822.story

Forget the dorm, how about a condo for your college kid?

Checklist as your teenager heads off to college: Don't forget to: a) pay the tuition; b) have the safe-sex talk; c) have the drinking-and-driving talk; and d) buy your student a house or condo.

Pardon the whiplash on that last one, but the fact is, many parents who are financially able to do so are choosing to invest in real estate close to campus for their college-bound offspring. In many cases, it's preferable to shelling out dormitory fees or apartment rent.

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Although NAR doesn't track campus-area housing prices per se, Phillip Filardi, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty who specializes in properties near the University of Texas at Austin, will attest that Longhorns with their own digs are living large.

"It's amazing the number of parents who are able to come in and buy a $200,000 or $300,000 condominium, or even a $400,000 or $500,000 house for their children right around campus," he says. "I've had any number of parents tell me, 'If I'm going to spend this kind of money every month to house my children, I might as well buy an investment property and get some return.' "