I bought my college son a townhome instead of wasting $12,000 a year on his student housing. I might even make a profit.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with LeAnne Carswell, 51, a real estate agent in South Carolina who decided to buy a home for her son to live in while studying at Clemson University instead of paying his rent. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

My son started at a sister school of Clemson University in his freshman year. So he did his first year at that tech school, and then Clemson took him in as a sophomore this year, but he lived on Clemson’s campus.

He was in a dorm with three roommates. I don’t remember how much room and board was, but I know it was a waste of money because we were just throwing it away. [Editor’s note: According to Clemson University, estimated housing costs for the 2025-2026 school year are $8,904.]

He came to me last fall and said, “We’ve got to start finding where I’m going to live in the fall of 2025.”

I thought that was so far away, but he said everybody’s going and looking. So all three of his roommates went and looked at a new high-rise near Clemson that’s the trendy place to go. It was between $1,000 and $1,200 a month — and he’d still have other roommates.

I said, “I’m not paying that.” So we started searching around for somewhere to buy rather than just wasting that money.

I had heard of other people owning properties while their kids were at school. I actually just got finished selling a home where the parents of a senior at Anderson University had owned it, and she had rented out three or four rooms. In that particular situation, she made a little bit of money.

I expect to at least make my money back

About 10 minutes from Clemson is a little city called Pendleton, South Carolina.

There were some new townhomes being built there. A Clemson soccer coach had gotten a new job somewhere in Texas and was leaving after having only owned the townhome for five months — she even had it all furnished. She bought it for $225,000, and we bought it from her for $227,000 in cash, fully furnished.

It has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, a one-car garage, and 1,523 square feet. All three bedrooms and a laundry room are upstairs.

We closed at the end of February, so it sat there for a while. School was still going on, so for a month, my son went back and forth between his place in Clemson and the townhome. And then he came home for two months, and we just left it vacant.

His friends went off and rented the trendy $1,000 to $1,200 a month unit somewhere else — even though I told him to tell them we’re buying something and to not do anything yet. But they all were scared they were going to be homeless.

Me being in real estate, I just kind of knew what was going on in the market. I thought, “We’re going to slow walk this.”

We did end up renting one room to a kid my son went to high school with who’s going to Clemson for $775 a month.

Then there’s the smaller bedroom, which we hadn’t done anything with this year. I don’t know if we would be able to rent it out this semester. Maybe in the spring that would be something that they could do, but I don’t know that I would get as much because it’s the smallest of the rooms.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with the townhome once he graduates. I’ve got a sister who’s got two boys, so maybe I’ll sell it to her, but we’ll see what happens.

I expect to profit or at least break even once I sell it. I wasn’t looking to lose $12,000 a year for the next three or four years — who knows how long it’s going to take him to get through school?

Do you have a story to share about buying property for your college-age children? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

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