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Show Summary
In this episode, Gillian Irving shares her expertise in student rental investing across Canada and the U.S. She explains how to maximize property utility, structure joint ventures, and implement strong systems to support scaling. Gillian also addresses common misconceptions about student housing and offers practical advice for investors looking to diversify into new markets.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Gillian Irving (00:00)
So mostly when I tell people that I’m a student rental investor, they look at me like I’m crazy because everyone has these visions of their mind, know, the animal house, the movie where they think of, you know, students taking over a house and throwing the lawn furniture into the pool. But the fact of matter is, is this model is actually a really clever way of maximizingthe utility of a single family property. So rather than renting out a house just to a family, right, you’re renting out each of the individual rooms to students and so the amount of rent that you can collect per room is magnified by so much when you do it that way.
Michelle Kesil (02:12)
Hey everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Gillian Irving, who is an investor in Canada who buys properties in student towns and helps break it up getting her investments split up and supporting the students in this way. So excited to have you here today, Gillian.Gillian Irving (02:37)
Thank you. Thanks so much for inviting me. Look forward to chatting with you about this.Michelle Kesil (02:40)
Sure, yeah, let’s dive in. So first off, for those who are not familiar with your work yet, can you share what you are up to these days?Gillian Irving (02:48)
So I’m a mortgage agent by profession and not on the side, but as a big part of my world as well. So I invest in real estate with partners. So I also now have a mortgage license. So I help my investor partners with that as well. But my investing expertise is primarily centered around the student rental niche. So that’s primarily what I do.Michelle Kesil (03:13)
Awesome, and can you expand what that looks like?Gillian Irving (03:15)
So mostly when I tell people that I’m a student rental investor, they look at me like I’m crazy because everyone has these visions of their mind, know, the animal house, the movie where they think of, you know, students taking over a house and throwing the lawn furniture into the pool. But the fact of matter is, is this model is actually a really clever way of maximizingthe utility of a single family property. So rather than renting out a house just to a family, right, you’re renting out each of the individual rooms to students and so the amount of rent that you can collect per room is magnified by so much when you do it that way.
So for those investors who keep thinking like what is the highest and best use of this property
student rentals are really the way to like suck the most juice out of your property that you possibly can. So that’s kind of why I focused on it. It’s like a cash flow intensive strategy with just using a single family home.
Michelle Kesil (05:05)
Yeah, absolutely. What have been like some of the biggest challenges of that?Gillian Irving (05:08)
Excellent.I would say, so people think that, let’s talk about the misconceptions because people think that you’re gonna get a group of kids together, they’re gonna wreck your house, or they’re not gonna pay their rent. And the truth of the matter these days is you’re not really renting to the students themselves. Mostly or in the vast majority of times, you’re actually renting to the parents. Parents are there.
to assist their kids, not all the time, but some of the time. So parents will help with rent. They’re not gonna see their kids go off to college and then see them struggle to pay their rent and get kicked out. So the rent piece is actually what I consider a more stable, it’s more stable in student rentals than it is actually in just regular life. And furthermore, like if you have one kid who’s not paying his rent, like that’s one room out of six that’s not paying versus a family.
family doesn’t pay like no one’s paying you so it’s kind of a way to to balance the the income coming into your family but there is some truth that students are like messy and kind of gross and so you have to really set the the rules and the tone for the house in terms of what your expectation is for them to keep the house proper and clean but mostly if you take the time as a student landlord to take them through like what their obligations are what the expectations are
mostly they follow it. Like these young kids have never really owned a place, like been in a place on their own before. It’s their first time away from home. So, you know, if you take the time to kind of take them through, take them through the steps, then I find that that often eliminates some of the bigger problems down the road. And of course you have, you know, security deposits if there’s damage and they understand clearly that if things are broken, that they’re going to be required to pay for it. Like I include like a list.
of what things cost to repair in the lease, like broken screens that cost $80, repainting a wall that cost 75 bucks, or whatever the number is, like you include that in the lease so that they’re pretty clear upfront that if they punch a hole in the wall or whatever, or wreck the carpets, that they’re paying for that and what that cost would be.
Michelle Kesil (07:14)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome that you’re able to make this model work.Gillian Irving (07:20)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’sYou know, here in Canada too, I mean, think it’s somewhat different depending on what province, like what state you’re in in the States and here in Canada where some provinces here have guidelines that are more leaning towards the tenants, like it’s hard to kick people out. And I know it varies state by state, but you know, here in Canada, we don’t ever, sometimes in some of the States where it’s more tenant-focused, landlords worry about having…
rentals because if people don’t pay it’s hard to get them out. But students have a natural progression anyway and this is true in Canada and the US where they come, they stay for a couple of years, then they move on out and then you can just be resetting your rents really in very systemized process. So yeah, from that standpoint in terms of just knowing that the rents are going to go up.
and that you can charge this premium is like a really satisfying model knowing that the cashflow will always be there.
Michelle Kesil (08:19)
Awesome. And what do you feel have been some of the main keys that made the biggest difference in allowing your business to grow and run smoothly?Gillian Irving (08:20)
Mm-hmm.So first of all, it’s buying the right property. mean, I guess that’s the case for any real estate investor, right? Like for a student rental or even for like a pad split where you’re renting to professionals. Like you want to understand one who you’re renting, like buying a property that one is well situated. So obviously if you’re student rentals, you want to be close to a college town. You want to have it like close to transit. But the things that made the biggest difference in my business was buying
Michelle Kesil (08:51)
Yeah.Gillian Irving (08:55)
single-family home that was not set out to be a student rental to begin with and then adding rooms strategically like in the basement so it could have been or on the main floor like it could have been a two-bedroom house that I bought but I made it six bedrooms or five bedrooms or whatever that number is so by doing that you’re automatically like elevating the rent potential for this room so I guess as an investor you’re always just trying to balancea little bit like obviously you want to have the most rooms possible like that’s your number one rent generating matrix but you don’t want to stuff people in there like sardines or it’s not safe and no one wants that so you really just have to balance it for like what is the maximum but safe and comfortable way and that one thing drives so much ROI into your deals just doing that and then I would say
systems, like any real estate business, need to have systems for, you know, maintenance and acquisitions and all of that stuff. you know, systematizing the process, making sure your buy box is like super, super clear. Those are the things that allowed me to kind of grow over the years and grow with partners as well.
Michelle Kesil (10:39)
Awesome. And what are you most focusing on solving or scaling to next?Gillian Irving (10:45)
That’s a great question. Well, it’s interesting because I am primarily a Canadian investor and you know, the market’s a little bit different here in Canada and my focus now is coming down to the coming down to the US. So I’m digging into student rental markets in the US or that and I love this pad split model. I love the idea where you can kind of switch up.the model which is shared accommodation and then maybe change from young students which obviously have like, you know, there’s a little bit more management for that because these are young adults moving in for the first time and switching my focus to adults, like to young professionals, right? That’s the model that the pad split model serves more specifically. And so I just think there’s such a need to service that.
that market, right? People are finding it hard to make it a go on their own. And when they’re younger and just beginning, they’re happy to share, they’re happy to share accommodation with others. Like in the pad splits are like single rooms with a bathroom. So like you have your own space. You might share a kitchen, but like think about how great that is, right? It gives you a runway to kind of get started, but you have your own little space and you don’t have to pay a ton in rent. So I love, love, love that model.
And we have lenders who will do it, not all of them will. Like that’s always the complication with the shared model, Is while we know as investors that the cashflow is so fantastic, lenders shy away from it, right? They don’t always like the sort of what they call sort of boarding house type, but we’ve found some lenders who will do it, one for Canadians investing in the States or US.
investors who want to do pad split models or student mentors.
Michelle Kesil (12:33)
Awesome. And what advice would you give to investors that are looking to get into this model?Gillian Irving (12:35)
Mm-hmm.I think…
I think the number one thing if you want to be a student rental investor is you kind of just have to have some patience for the system to begin with. One, you have to be prepared to bring some equity to the property. So you have to be prepared to do a little bit of renovation to maximize the usage. So not everyone wants to do that, but I think it’s a kind of a key part of the system. And two is get your systems in place right away. Get a rock solid lease. Make sure that it’s really, really clear about
how you want the kids to behave, what their obligations are, and then be sure that you take them through it. And if at all possible, get the parents to guarantee the leases. So for me, every single one of my parents is also a guarantor on my lease. So if the kids don’t pay, I call up mom and dad, and then mom and dad will always pay. So I think if you can get those systems in place, make sure you nail down the guarantor piece, then…
like your income is literally guaranteed. I’ve never had a student not pay like ever in all these years, not one. So yeah, so there’s a real security component to it.
Michelle Kesil (13:44)
Yeah, that’s awesome. Is this like the only investment model that you’re using right now?Gillian Irving (13:49)
No,I have others. I’ve been investing for a long time, so I have small multifamily units. I also have a midterm furnished rental that I do. I would say it’s my bread and butter, and it’s where I started. And again, I think a lot of investors, when they start, they hear something like, oh, that’s a great idea. And then they hear of another great model, and they’re like, let’s do that. And so they get kind of a bit scattered.
by all the options that are available. So I guess if I could go back and say another piece of advice is just stay in one lane until you kind of get that mastered, get your primary system mastered and then grow into other areas if that’s what you want. But it’s really hard to be really great if you’re all over the place using all sorts of different models. So I really stayed put in student mentors for a very long time. And then I started kind of looking.
outside of that as a way of growing.
Michelle Kesil (15:24)
how do you bring other investors to into this model with you?Gillian Irving (15:28)
So, you know, like anyone who works with joint venture partners, I talk a lot about what I do. I, yeah, at every opportunity I tell people what it is that I do. And, you know, obviously I talk about the return. So for people who are interested in real estate, I talk about why the student model is so great. Most of my friends too also have, you know, college aged kids. They want to understand how this works. So…Michelle Kesil (15:29)
PfftGillian Irving (15:52)
Yeah, I just, I try to use as many of the platforms available to me as possible. Just networking and whatnot to just help people what I’m doing. And that’s how I found all my partners easier is people who wanted to invest in real estate but didn’t necessarily know or want to do it themselves, but they wanted to kind of attach their cart to a horse that was doing what was being done successfully already. So that’s how I found them. Like I got a bit of experience under my belt.like good results, track record, and then I invited people to join me.
Michelle Kesil (16:22)
Yeah, awesome. What has been like the biggest obstacle that you’ve overcome in your investing career?Gillian Irving (16:27)
I haven’t really had a ton of obstacles. I I guess as you grow in scale that always becomes trickier, right? Like so getting capital now myself is harder just because I’m sort of limited by the number of properties I own. But I solved that problem by, you know, reaching out to investors. So I would say…Meaningfully scaling always is a bigger problem for investors once they’ve got a good thing. It’s like, do you keep going? Where do you get the capital from to keep going? So I used investors as a way to solve that problem.
Michelle Kesil (17:00)
Yeah, that’s awesome. And are all of your investments based in Canada?Gillian Irving (17:03)
Yeah, they are, but in like two different provinces here. But I will be coming down there. I’ll be there soon. You’ll hear from me shortly when I get my first pad split or student rental in the US. I haven’t figured out my market yet.But it’s the same principles, Michelle. it really, mean, Canada, US, mean, university towns, it doesn’t really matter where you are. It’s more just the wrapping your head around the idea of renting your house by the room rather than by the house.
Michelle Kesil (17:17)
Awesome.Right?
Yeah, definitely that makes sense.
And what is something that you wish you knew when you started investing that you know now?
Gillian Irving (17:39)
You know, taking the first step, I think, is the hardest, right? I mean, some people, they’re like, ah, it seems like a good idea, but I’m nervous. And they don’t want to get started because it feels like a big risk. And so a lot of people are looking at ways to kind of get unstuck, and they’re looking at things to do.Michelle Kesil (17:40)
Pfft!Gillian Irving (18:08)
but they don’t pull the trigger. They do a lot of learning and then they get stuck in analysis paralysis. So I don’t know. It took me a while to get going. I would say if you have an idea and you have run the numbers and you have done some good thinking on it, just do it. Like don’t wait. Because you can recalibrate and sort it out as you go along. Like you’re never gonna be 100%.ready. So you might as well get started and learn and learn that way rather than sitting on the sidelines while opportunity passes you by. So I think I would have got started earlier.
Michelle Kesil (18:43)
Yeah, definitely that action piece is important. Awesome. So before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more. Where can people find you and connect with you?Gillian Irving (18:47)
Mm-hmm.I love it when people reach out. I am happy to have information calls with people. I’m happy to share a pro forma with people if they want it. I can be reached at Gillian, which that’s a G, G-I-L-L-I-A-N, [email protected]. That’s my email. And you can find me on LinkedIn. And yeah, I think that’s probably, that’s probably best.
Michelle Kesil (19:20)
We’ll appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. Thanks for being here.Gillian Irving (19:24)
Thank you so much for inviting me. I always love to have a good chit chat about student mentors.Michelle Kesil (19:29)
Great. And for those tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Gillian who are building real businesses and we will see you all on the next episode.
