The Tar Heel State boasts a growing population, a booming economy, a buzzing research community, and a spectacular vacation market. If you want to take advantage of all of this as a landlord, where should you invest? We looked into it, and we have concocted the perfect guide. We have four tricks to cracking the North Carolina rental market.
Tap the university market
The Tar Heel State has some of the best universities in the country. The University of North Carolina system, which educates almost a quarter-million students, is most famous for UNC-Chapel Hill, which was chartered in 1789 and counts nine Nobel Prize winners among alumni and faculty. Duke University, in Durham, is a private research university that is considered one of the best in the world. Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham form the Research Triangle, and these have almost 20 universities among the three localities. The rental market here is scalding, and a landlord would be well-advised to buy property in one of these perennially desirable hotspots.
Now, it’s no secret that landlords sometimes shy away from renting to college kids. Grad students are too busy studying to do much damage to the property, but they rarely take care of it. Undergraduates are legendary in their ability to damage and destroy property. If you want to be safe, you will want to search for some landlord software free online. It will offer you the security of knowing who your renters are so that you don’t end up with a property that will never be the same again.
Go for rustic charm
North Carolina has some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes east of the Mississippi. As the home of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the towering Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the great river, North Carolina tends to draw tourists seeking rustic charm. And what type of house is more charming, and more rustic, than a log cabin? For reference, check websites that sell NC mountain cabins. These vacation homes are perfect for a family seeking a weeklong hiking getaway, or a couple interested in some mountain quiet. Towns like Black Mountain, Asheville, and Boone all offer exciting opportunities for landlords interested in customers who come with their hiking boots.
Supply a pied-a-terre
North Carolina’s metro areas are growing, and young professionals are driving that growth. Cities like Charlotte, which house the headquarters of corporate behemoths like Bayer, Duke Energy, and Bank of America, has grown by more than 35 percent every decade since 1990. This rapid growth has transformed sleepy downtowns into thriving social hubs. In fact, according to the Charlotte Observer, Charlotte leads the United States in new apartment construction. This inventory growth means that there are a bevy of opportunities for landlords looking to cater to single professionals, who may want to be close to the hot districts but uninterested in being tied down, or to high-income earners, who may have a house out of the city. Imagine a doctor putting in long shifts at the ICU, or a pilot based out of Charlotte Douglas: for high-flyers like these (pardon the pun), a little apartment in the city would be a perfect.
Lease the beach house
Unlike the states further south, North Carolina’s beaches are rustic, quiet, and laid-back. Cape Hatteras National Seashore, in the Outer Banks, are only one of the dozens of beaches along these thin strips of land arcing out into the Atlantic. The historic port city of Wilmington is famous for its cypress trees and laid-back atmosphere. These tourist favorites are perfect for a landlord interested in seasonal rentals, with the potential for use as a vacation home of one’s own when the time is right.
