The Ins and Outs of Student Housing

Host:

What's up everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Loop It In, the DoorLoop Podcast, where we pick the brains of experts in property management, real estate, and investing. Tech, we cover it. Marketing, that too. So whether you want actionable tips or the insider scoop from top performers in their industries, this is one show you won't want to miss. Be sure to subscribe so you won't miss out on any future episode.

Hi everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. Today I'm here with Bruno. We're going to talk about student housing. Welcome to the podcast.

Bruno:

Thank you.

Muhammed:

Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself for those who don't know you?

Bruno:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for putting this together. Thank you for having me. I've been part of this company for just over a year now, and I never would've thought we would've had a podcast like this with this amazing studio. So happy for everybody that put it together. This is really, really cool stuff. So to your question, a little bit about me. I grew up in Brazil, a mixture of Brazil and here, Miami, Florida. For those of you who don't know, this is where our headquarters are. But my story in property management begins at the University of Florida. So I did a lot of student housing. I worked there for about three years, since junior year of college until my last semester. So it was a pretty good time, but I did student housing for about three years over in Gainesville.

Muhammed:

Awesome. Okay. So what got you into student housing in the first place? What drew you to that?

Bruno:

Yeah, so I think the big thing was I lived on campus for two years, freshman year and sophomore year I lived on campus. And then one of the time came to choose to live on campus or off campus for my third year, I went ahead and decided to live off campus for my third year. And at that point, living off campus was a little bit more expensive than living on campus. So in order to help, because my mom was like, "Hey, you got to go and make sure that you pay your rent for off campus if you want to do it." So what I went ahead and did, and I found out was you actually get a rent discount for working at the leasing office and being a part of the property management team.

Muhammed:

Wow.

Bruno:

So that's what we did. I went ahead and I applied. I think the first time I applied, I got rejected. But as all good things that you want to do, you got to keep pushing. And I applied again and luckily I was able to be part of the team and it was a really fun team. So what got me in it was of course the rent discount, to be completely honest with you guys. But what kept me in it were the people and the stories and everybody that I came across working there. Pretty fun stuff.

Muhammed:

Awesome. So what was it that the second time around got you in? Did you do anything differently?

Bruno:

I don't know. And that's the beautiful thing about student housing is that the same way that you have lots of turnover on the tenants, the staff, more often than not, they're also going to be students. So students' lives change very quickly. One semester to the next, you realize that you're taking a little bit more of a workload than you were comfortable with before, or you decide to go and study abroad. I mean, everybody likes to go to Europe. So I think what happened was the person that essentially took my spot the first time around that I applied, they are like, "Hey, screw this. I'm going and studying abroad in Europe for a good six months." So that's opened up a spot, and luckily I was able to take care of that.

Muhammed:

Right. So that's how you got your foot in the door?

Bruno:

That's how I got in, yeah, that's how I got in.

Muhammed:

Nice.

Bruno:

And I've been in property management ever since. Pretty cool stuff.

Muhammed:

Awesome. So you mentioned that one thing that attracted you was obviously the student discount.

Bruno:

Yes.

Muhammed:

I can't blame you for that. Was there anything else that made you want to try it out?

Bruno:

Yes. So what actually ended up happening, I worked at the place that I lived. So ultimately I went as a consumer, as a prospective tenant. I went on a tour and the person who gave me the tour, she was very kind, very nice, very fun. And the people in the office were really cool. So of course the rent discount was definitely a big plus, but I just wanted to make people feel how I felt when I was on a tour with that community assistant. That's the position that you start into. You start off as a community assistant, and then of course if you're there long enough and you look to grow within the company, you can grow within more of a managerial standpoint.

But the community assistant at the time, or CA, she was very nice, very kind, very fun. And then that's kind of what drove me to want to be a part of it because like, "Hey, she made me feel good." I was moving alone for the first time. So I decided to go ahead and say," Hey, maybe I could do the same with other people moving in."

Muhammed:

Right. And you did that for three years, right?

Bruno:

Correct. Yeah. Different positions throughout.

Muhammed:

Nice. So after doing that student housing, you did that for three years. Did you ever think about getting into conventional housing or any kind of property management?

Bruno:

No, never.

Muhammed:

Really?

Bruno:

So yeah, the really cool thing about student housing is that it's very different year over year. I mean, you're dealing with different personalities, different students, the turnover is a lot, so you deal with different personalities. It's really fun. And again, I'm just saying this from kind of my gut feeling. I don't think conventional housing would've been as fun. So no, I've never thought about going into conventional housing. I certainly really, really enjoyed doing student housing. Never thought about it.

Muhammed:

Because the very nature of student housing is you're getting new people every year, or maximum they're going to stay a couple years.

Bruno:

Exactly. So people who are excited, people that are moving in for the first time, and with that comes the consequences as well. But you're getting people that are really excited to be there. There's high energy all the time, and I like being part of that environment. Nothing was ever static. Crazy things happen all the time, and I'm sure we'll get into some pretty fun stories as well.

Muhammed:

Well, that's funny because that was actually going to be my next question. Tell us one of the crazy stories that happened.

Bruno:

Oh my God, there's been so many. Some of which, if I say I probably will be fired somehow, I won't answer that truthfully.

Muhammed:

Censored version.

Bruno:

Exactly. We'll give a little bit of a censored version, but oh my God, there's been so many from fake fire alarms at three o'clock in the morning, having to go down in a towel. Or tenants kind of ditching and just leaving their apartment as is filled with dirty food and clothes. But I'd say that the craziest story that I've had to deal with, I mean... Okay, think about this. This student threw a party, I think it was very often. Very often. But the unfortunate thing was the timing of it. It was right in midterms or finals weeks. And then what's crazy about that thing is that some students are done with midterms and they could care less if there were people still taking them or finals, whatever the case might be.

So what ended up happening was he threw a party. One of the roommates were really, really upset, that they needed to study. They threw a tantrum. I mean, things happened, and then the police had to show up. We had to file police reports. I mean, it was a mess. It was a mess. But I'll think of some crazier ones and I'll get into some details. I just have to go through it as we go through the podcast, it'll come to me.

Muhammed:

Right. Yeah.

Bruno:

Okay. But yeah, some pretty fun stuff. And I'll think of more. I'll get back to that.

Muhammed:

Well what do you do in those situations? How do you respond? What are the consequences in place for students that break the rules?

Bruno:

Yeah, and good question. So there's a little bit of everything because there's a lot of moving pieces. You have the student, you have the roommates, you have the student's parents. So there's a lot of moving pieces that you have to go through. And sometimes, of course, if this school is close enough to campus, you'll deal with on campus affairs as well. I mean, there's tons of things that are kind of involved in that whole situation that in conventional housing you don't really deal with. So what do you do in this situation?

Well, first and foremost, everybody's main priority is making sure that students are safe. You're dealing with a lot of helicopter parents. And so the main priority always is making sure students are safe. Once you've kind of established that, then you go into the problem-solving. What is the main issue? What happened? Was it just someone being stupid? Was it somebody just acting spiteful to the bad roommate? I mean, you get a little bit of everything. I've seen stories, and this is just one that I remembered. One of the roommates wouldn't wash their dishes, so every time that the other roommate wanted to use one of the dishes, they would take all of their pots and pans that were in the sink and just leave it right outside the other person's bedroom door. So at the end-

Muhammed:

One of the biggest conflict points of any roommate relationship is the dishes?

Bruno:

Is who's washing this? Exactly. And I mean, you've been through it. I've been through it. Everybody probably watching has gone through it too. So it is a big conflict point. I mean, cleaning the apartment, everything like that. But making sure that they're safe is number one priority. And then going through the problem-solving steps, contacting the parents if this is really something that does need to be contacted. A lot of times these students come in as they have guarantors, so their parents' names are on the lease, so they do have to get contacted and you have to bring parents into it. And when you bring parents, it gets even cloudier because the parents want to get involved and they don't know the full extent of the situation.

So it's just taking it step by step, making sure you're doing things with the correct due process. Luckily I worked for a very big property management company at the time, and they've seen it all. So in situations like this... And the people that I was working with, they were very, very intelligent, extremely fantastic people, and they helped me very, very much.

Muhammed:

You learned from the best.

Bruno:

Exactly. Exactly. A little bit of how I do here as well, but they guided me through it. But you either have a step-by-step process making sure everything is taken care of accordingly, things are documented. I mean, you've got roommate disputes, so it just depends on the situation. But always the first thing is making sure that the students are safe.

Muhammed:

And then I think you said earlier when we were talking about it, that sometimes the parents, they'll deny that their child could do any wrong, right?

Bruno:

Oh, all the time. I mean, my baby would never do this, right? We've probably heard of that before.

Muhammed:

Yeah.

Bruno:

I mean, we've had situations where... This is an example. There was a student who, with college you deal with some drinking, and we can get into that later. But one of the stories is that the student got very sick from alcohol and ended up puking all over the couch. And when it came time to charge the students, all of the roommates put responsibility on that one person who actually did the deed. And so the parents were like, "No, my son would never do that." And we actually had a video that one of the roommates sent over of the kid puking all over the couch. So we send it to the parent and we're like, "Hey, look. Yeah, we have the evidence."

And the parent... It's funny because while the charge is there on their account, you hear the parents calling every day, "Hey, there's a charge on my account. We got to take care of this. This shouldn't be my son. This is all the roommate's problems. My son would never do this." And then after you send the evidence and you send the video, immediately you just see the charge being paid. You don't hear from the parent again.

Muhammed:

So that's the best case scenario.

Bruno:

Yeah, it's the best case scenario. So there've been some funny ones, but you deal with a lot of parents that would never think that their kid would do something like that. And when you pull out the proof, he gets even better. And sometimes when they're in front of you, you just see their face sink and they're like, "I'm so sorry. I can't believe my son would ever do this."

Muhammed:

Oh my God. Not easy.

Bruno:

Not easy, not fun. Not fun. But that's college.

Muhammed:

Yeah. And it also gets difficult in the common areas, right?

Bruno:

Oh, yeah. So that's the thing with student housing.

Muhammed:

With the couch, I believe.

Bruno:

Exactly. Yeah. So with student housing, you're dealing a lot of individual leasing. If you and I were to rent out a two bedroom, you'd have your own lease that you'd pay for your room, and I would have my own lease that I would pay for my room. And the thing is, sometimes you run into the unfortunate case where there are some common area damages. So with those common area damages, it's split between you and I, for example. But if you see that it was my fault and I man up to it, then I'll go ahead and pay for it in full.

Muhammed:

Got it.

Bruno:

Common area damages are always very unique to deal with.

Muhammed:

So you almost have to act as judge in that scenario.

Bruno:

Yeah, I mean, a little bit of everything. Like judge, jury, and execution just because you have to first determine who did it, then you got to carry out a sentence by charging them and deciding who's the person that should be taking care of those. So yeah, it's a little bit of everything.

Muhammed:

Right. All right. If we move on a little bit to marketing, what can someone do to market the units that they want to rent out?

Bruno:

And it's very interesting because typically in student housing, a lot of, at least in the market that I was in up in Gainesville, Florida at the University of Florida, and we actually have some gators here in the office that they'll be able to attest as well. It's a lot of word of mouth. You're not really looking on apartments.com, you're not really looking on Zillow. A lot of it is word of mouth. And of course, as you go through college, you have friends that have different experiences. You have different friends that live in different apartment complexes and different houses, different properties. And so a lot of it is word of mouth.

But a big part of it, especially when I was there, was Instagram.

Muhammed:

Instagram.

Bruno:

Yeah, Instagram. So a lot of people are like, "Wow, this aesthetic of this page is very nice. It's very appealing." And that drove a lot of people. It's that-

Muhammed:

 You have professional pictures?

Bruno:

No, sometimes we would take them from our phones. Luckily, iPhones have some pretty amazing cameras. So people would put in their filters, they would have their own aesthetic with their filter, and students were really drawn to that, right? If they open up a property's Instagram page, and it's all cohesive, the filters are nice, they were drawn to it. And so we did a lot of that side of marketing. But the other part of the marketing, which is very popular and I encourage anybody else that's in the student housing world that doesn't do this, to do this, and it's called street teaming.

Muhammed:

Oh, okay.

Bruno:

So street teaming is basically, you go to the busiest part of campus, the parts of campus where people try to avoid during the rush hour. But you go to the busiest part of campus, whether you own a single property or if you're for a property management company with a lot of units, you go in and you take some merch, some swag, some pamphlets, some free food, student love, free food. But you go to the busiest part of campus and you start advertising your place. And so you just get your name out there. Students will come ask you questions about how much the rent is. I mean, the simplest, the best way you can dumb it down for the students, the better, because they're probably going to go back and ask their parents for approval to sign a lease. So street team is a big one.

Muhammed:

So what's the language you use? You have an elevator pitch they use.

Bruno:

Yeah. So for us it's like, this is... Different apartment complexes will have their different characteristics or personalities almost.

Muhammed:

Right, yeah.

Bruno:

So the one that I worked at, we tailored to the freshmen and the sophomore, not the upperclassmen. So with those, we were always pushing for, "Hey, you're make lots of friends. We're going to have tons of resident events, you're going to meet a lot of new people." I mean, things like that. More of a communal sense to it.

Muhammed:

So a new place they want to belong.

Bruno:

Yeah, exactly. You'll be sure to find your friends here. And ultimately it's like if you want a dorm-like experience, but without the kind of crowdedness and the communal aspect of living in a dorm, this is your next best place. So yeah, ultimately it's just kind of talking to students and the street teaming and giving kind of them that vision of, "Hey, this is where I want to be for my next few semesters."

Muhammed:

So word of mouth, going on campus, getting the word out there.

Bruno:

Social media, TikTok was a thing near the end when I worked there.

Muhammed:

Did you do any dances on TikTok?

Bruno:

I've actually done one. I've actually done one dance and it was part of a-

Muhammed:

I'd love to see that.

Bruno:

I'll send it. It's not for you guys, it's for Mo only, but I'll show you later. But we had a TikTok contest where they had to do a TikTok dance, and we gave out prizes. I mean, sometimes these were gift cards. Other times, I mean, students love Starbucks, so we gave out Starbucks gift cards. We've done giveaways with Apple AirPods. I mean, tons of things. So this was just one of the community events that we've done.

Muhammed:

So what else do students look for when they're looking at student housing?

Bruno:

So affordability is one thing, and so making sure that it's affordable for them. Usually it's the first steps. For a lot of students, it's the first time that they're actually paying for a bill, so you'll have college jobs and they will then go in and pay for the rent. So that's one. Two is being able to be comfortable, where you have to... A lot of times if you don't want to share a bathroom with somebody or you want to have your own bedroom. So students that are looking for off campus housing usually are those that are like, "Look, I'm not going to do the communal living once again. I'm not going to share a bunk bed with somebody." So that's typically what they look for. And of course, that sense of community, being able to fit in with your neighbors. What I always refer to, because as I said, I was a resident as well, even though I worked there.

And I had a really good setup because in the apartment right above me, my girlfriend and her friends, so she had four roommates, and I had three other roommates. So we would just leave our doors unlocked all the time. I don't advise anybody do this, but we were on a building and it was about six floors. And she lived above me, I lived on the floor below. And we would just open each other's doors and just go sit in each other's couch. It was basically like a big episode of friends where it was that for junior and senior year. So it was a pretty fun time.

Muhammed:

It can be very appealing to students.

Bruno:

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, at that point, everybody's on the same boat. Everybody's kind of living alone for the first time. They're just going through college. So lots of students really like that.

Muhammed:

Yeah. Well, it does sound like there's a lot of challenges as well with student housing. So why would someone want to get into that business rather than conventional or any benefits there?

Bruno:

Yeah, so there are lots of... There's everything. You have got your benefits, you've got your challenges. It's like pick your poison. So I can speak on that. Of course, the benefits for landlords and for property owners, it is a very lucrative business, to be completely honest. I mean, think about it. Mo and I here in Miami, rent is very high. So let's say we were to rent out one two-bedroom apartment for $3,000, $2,800 per month. In student housing, you can essentially split this into two leases where each person will pay $1,800, $1,700 for one bedroom in a two-bedroom place. And that ultimately for the landlord, you're pretty much getting more rent money per month. And let's say we both don't pay, rather than you collect one single late fee, you're collecting two from two different people. So lots of landlords go this route with individual leasing because it's just a lot more lucrative.

Now, with the challenges, you're dealing with a lot more turnover. Chances are if you're in a student specific property, they're going to-

Muhammed:

Can't hold on to a good tenant for years and years.

Bruno:

Exactly. If it's a really good tenant, chances are they'll probably move out after three, four, sometimes six semesters. But there's turnover pretty much every year. And that's the part of turn that's very complicated. We all understand turn as property owners and landlords that you got to turn the property over for the next tenant minutes to move in. However, what if everybody's lease ends on the same day? Everybody's lease that's moving in next time starts on the same day. So there's a period in time, and this, I would say is one of the challenges, but definitely a very fun challenge. You feel very rewarding after you get through it of this period called turn, which essentially for us was a two-week period between July 31st and August 15ish, where we had 592 units. Let's say two-thirds of them moved out, so they're left with 400 units that you have to turn over in a span of two weeks.

And so it's very difficult. You got to coordinate with vendors, carpet cleaners, steamers, those that actually do the cleaning, the painters. I mean, it's a whole thing. At the end of the day, your goal is to make sure the apartment looks brand new for the new person moving in. So that was very, very challenging. And one of those things that you're kind of dreading for the whole year. But once you get through it, and of course if you have good people along the way to kind of battle it out, it's a fun time.

Muhammed:

Wow.

Bruno:

It's a fun time. Some of the other challenges though, are roommate disputes. You're dealing with kids, and they might be 18, 19 years old, but these are still kids.

Muhammed:

Who think they're adults.

Bruno:

Yeah, exactly. And some of them are more mature than others. And the problem is when you get those sort of discrepancies within the same apartment, you essentially kind of got to get in the middle of that. So lots of roommate disputes, and of course, as we mentioned, the helicopter parents as well.

Muhammed:

So what advice would you have for someone that wanted to start getting into student housing?

Bruno:

Yeah. So that's a good question. Yeah. First off, find out if your property makes sense to be considered student housing. Are you close to campus? Would parents and students feel safe in that neighborhood? Are there other college properties around your vicinity? Are there other students? I think that's not like number one. See if it's a good fit. Because for example, right now our office is at the heart of Miami Beach. Miami Beach is awesome, but I don't think there's a university within 15, 20 miles from us. We have the University of Miami down towards Coral Gables, but it just wouldn't make sense for you to make a student housing complex here unless the person wants to commute in Miami traffic for an hour every day. So first, know if your property is a good fit.

And then after that, say that it is a good fit, I would recommend getting into making sure that the lease that you have is tailored to student housing. There will be some intricacies about that, especially the common area charges, individual leasing, things like that. Roommate, you as the property owner has the ultimate say in whether or not you can relocate roommates, different things like that. Making sure that you cover all of your bases with everything that you might experience in the student housing world.

Muhammed:

For example, if one student is on the lease, but then they move out and they want to sublease it to someone else, does that happen?

Bruno:

Yeah. So it happens quite a bit. And especially, of course, we deal with subleasing in conventional housing as well, but especially in student housing, you deal with it quite a bit more. You have students that from one day to the next are like, "You know what? I'm going to Australia for a semester." And they still have a lease, and so they have to fill someone in there as well. So they got to go ahead and find somebody to take over the lease and take over the payments. And oftentimes students try to do it under the table because usually with that comes a subleasing fee, and that just covers a paperwork that you as a landlord or a property owner will have to work with. You're essentially having someone else sign the lease.

Because it's happened before. It's a scary site that you're like, you're doing your inspections and you're expecting, especially when it's co-ed apartments, you're expecting... Or same gender apartments, some individual four unit apartments, which it's going to be female only, or some four or five-bedroom apartments are male only. You're going to do an inspection and you're expecting to have a female apartment, you'll walk in and there's three guys because they're all reletting from a group of four girls that traveled.

Muhammed:

Wow.

Bruno:

So making sure that you're following the reletting process, that you as a landlord knows who is living in your property. So really, really important that you have a plan in place should you allow reletting possibilities.

Muhammed:

All right. Do you have any regrets of being in student housing? Because you did it for three years. I know you enjoyed it, but any downsides there?

Bruno:

No, I wouldn't say there were any downsides. I honestly would've loved to be more and explore more of that world because I had a really fun time. I guess the only downside is as you go into student housing, be prepared to receive phone calls at three o'clock in the morning because a student came back drunk and locked themselves out of their room.

Muhammed:

Oh, wow.

Bruno:

So be prepared. If you put your phone number out there, be prepared for some late night phone calls, but that's the only downside. And I mean, it happened very, very infrequently, but no regrets. I had a really good time, learned a lot, and I think it's a fantastic, fantastic industry that most people don't think about like, "Hey, when I grow up, I want to be working in this industry. When I become an adult, I want to work in this industry." Property management I don't think is ever one of those, but it's certainly one of the most captivating.

Muhammed:

Not a lot of kids' dreams.

Bruno:

Yeah. Not a lot of kids' dreams. But I think it's really fun. I had a really good time and I'm happy I'm still part of that world.

Muhammed:

Awesome. Awesome. So what were the best moments for you?

Bruno:

Honestly-

Muhammed:

Regarding property management.

Bruno:

It's funny because the best moments happened during the worst, most busiest time, which was turn.

Muhammed:

Really?

Bruno:

Yeah. So turn is, just imagine, let me set the scene for you.

Muhammed:

Okay.

Bruno:

So ultimately you're used to going from August to July with a bunch of residents in the apartments. From July 31st to August 15 during that turn period, there's nobody there.

Muhammed:

The two weeks.

Bruno:

The two weeks, yeah. So there's nobody there. And so it's just you and the staff and you've got to turnover mattresses. You got to find gross stuff all over the property. I mean, there are so many things that you-

Muhammed:

You don't need to specify.

Bruno:

And so the best moments come from seeing what college kids left behind, what mess they left, and just kind of laughing about it with your friends. And cleaning grout from the bathroom is definitely not my highest moment, but it lives there as one of... It's like those things like, we suffered, but we got through it and we suffered together. So it was really fun.

Muhammed:

It was a fun challenge.

Bruno:

Exactly.

Muhammed:

Awesome. Any last stories that you want to tell us? I know you had a few more, but I don't know if you mentioned them here.

Bruno:

Well, okay. Yeah. I mean, this was one that I was thinking about, and it comes during... Most of these crazy stories will come during turn because students just leave things behind. We had a student that was an exchange student from China, and when COVID hit, he just had to go back, but the student left I'd say, over $10,000 of computer equipment.

Muhammed:

No way.

Bruno:

Laptops, gaming computers, monitors, headsets, speakers.

Muhammed:

Was he planning to come back?

Bruno:

And so we reached out to him and he is like, "No, no, you guys can have it." So we basically had... He gave us, we got written permission from him, all of these things. He was like, "You guys can literally keep it." He was a good friend of ours, part of the staff, and we basically just kind of, not auctioned it out within the staff, but we were fighting about who was going to take what.

Muhammed:

Wow.

Bruno:

Needless to say, I was a very happy college student at the time because I walked away with some pretty cool Bose speakers.

Muhammed:

No way.

Bruno:

So, just depends on what the situation is, but there's been some pretty crazy ones.

Muhammed:

Yeah. Some cool perks to the job then, huh?

Bruno:

Oh, for sure. Cool perks of job, being behind the scenes and having a peek behind the curtain is always fun. But yeah, it was a really good time.

Muhammed:

Well, I'd want to ask you as well, what's your policy on being friends with the tenants?

Bruno:

Yeah.

Muhammed:

You said one of them was your friend, right?

Bruno:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's always tough. Like I said, I was a tenant and I had roommates, and sometimes my roommates didn't pay the rent. So when it came time for me to do delinquency calls, I was sometimes calling my roommate and I'm like, "Dude, you have to pay your rent." So there isn't ever a policy of you can't be friends with the residents, but at the same time, there's a certain line that don't cross.

Muhammed:

There's some boundaries.

Bruno:

Exactly. So for example, if you're an employee and a tenant throws a party, you can have parties and everything, but at the party you see that there's alcohol and everybody's below 21, you see that there's drugs, there's noise, and all these things as an employee of the company that you're representing, it's not a good look. So there are some boundaries that you can't really cross. And I mean, it's your responsibility as an employee of the company and employee of the property to make sure that one, the property's being taken care of and that the tenants and residents are following the rules that are set forth by the property.

So in situations like that, making sure that you're... Nothing, no line is being crossed, and either if you don't want to be that guy, you can just distance yourself from the situation and basically pretend like you weren't there. Or you might really have to step in, make sure that nobody gets hurt, et cetera, et cetera. But ultimately, there are definitely some boundaries. They were never explicit like, "Hey, you can't be friends with residents." Because at the same time, most of the employees were college students. So it's just really, really tough to basically say, "Hey, look, you can't be friends with your colleagues."

Muhammed:

Got it. Yeah.

Bruno:

But there's a certain [inaudible 00:28:32], it's like an unspoken line.

Muhammed:

I love that. I think that's probably the best way to do it.

Bruno:

Yeah, yeah. It's an unspoken line. Nobody really crossed it. Thankfully, there weren't any issues.

Muhammed:

Awesome. All right. Before we finish up here, any final words of wisdom? Do you want to leave the audience with anything here?

Bruno:

If you haven't gotten into student housing, get into student housing. It's fun. It's crazy. It's chaotic and it's worth it. It's a lot, it doesn't sound like you'd want to get into it because it's a lot of headaches. It's a mess, but it's always a fun mess. There's like the saying goes, hard work does pay off. So it's a lot of hard work, but there are a lot of benefits as well. So I highly recommend you try to get through it. If you have a property, if you're looking at an investment opportunity near campus, definitely, definitely do it. From purely being a part of the management standpoint, I recommend it. Don't know in terms of numbers and finances, if it's all that wise, but really, really fun experience. And if you can even surround yourself with a really good team, that I would say is even better.

Muhammed:

I love that.

Bruno:

Cool.

Muhammed:

All right. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today.

Bruno:

Absolutely, Mo.

Muhammed:

It's amazing.

Bruno:

It's a pleasure, man. This is really cool. We've put together a really cool set here. Anytime, man, I'd be happy to be back with any topic.

Muhammed:

Awesome.

Bruno:

I'll make up some lie, and then we'll cover another topic together because I had a lot of fun.

Muhammed:

Definitely. We got to do this again soon.

Bruno:

Yes.

Muhammed:

Guys, thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you next time.

Bruno:

Thank you everybody. Bye.

Muhammed:

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. Don't forget to give us a good rating on whatever platform you're tuning in from, and we'll be back soon with another new episode. We hope to see you there. And until next time, this has been Loop It In.

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