Student Hosting

Hi all

Has anyone has experience with hosting international students to earn some money?
I am looking at this site in particular http://www.ozhomestay.com.au/
It seems you can earn gross income between $250-300 per week if you host a student.
Next year my wife is thinking of taking half a year off to care for our two kids, which means we will be down to a single include. We would really need to supplement it somehow with more funds.

So if you have done this how was it, what is something to look out for?

 

Not the best person to answer this. I see some people doing this and the profit is attractive. From my observation:
1. You have to be prepared to live and deal with "aliens";
2. They may move out between 1~3 months (some may stay longer, depending on your hospitality and price);
3. You have to prepare meals for them everyday (the agent provides details and requirements). So, your freedom is restricted to some extent (you have to put dinner on table in time!). No holidays unless you want take them with you.

 

Dear Sasha, it could be a really nice opportunity for your children to experience a different culture!
I think teenagers are aliens! from planet teen, no matter which country they are from! Make sure they have their chores (you decide how onerous they will be You may find that your own children learn some languages and different cultures too. Try to engage with them and they will love you! Just do your normal stuff, its all exotic for them too! A word of advice...I would stay away from 18 year olds though, (They think they know everything....!! ) I have had a bit to do with homestay ages ago, and while I was a bit tied up, it still suited me!

 

Yes i had international students, be prepared to have your electrcity on all night and go up higher.

 

I have family friends who've had incredible success with student housing up in QLD. They buy big houses (typically "queenslanders") For $550-750k, renovate them, aiming for sub $40k in reno costs to have 8-12 rooms and rent the rooms out at $150pw+.

From what I've seen and discussed with them, the pros & cons are as follows:
Pros:

• Incredible cash flow

Cons:

• Legal nightmare. I believe there is some sort of limit (4 adults?) on residential tenants for most of inner Brisbane, I'm dubious that they've actually got a legitimate work around to this vs just ignoring it
• Good luck getting insurance on it because of the above
• Managing it is a second job. They've attempted to deals with long term tenants where they handle stuff like filling vacancies, etc in exchange for cheap or free rent, but it doesn't seem to work out. It seems like a 1-2 day a week job (they have probably half a dozen properties) during university semesters & 6-7 day a week job for a few weeks just before semesters
• much higher wear and tear on the buildings. More people = more maintenance. I know they budget something like $2,500 per year per property just for cleaners because even though the tenants are responsible for all the cleaning, with 10+ young people in a house the number of "I didn't do that, that's not my problem" messes in common areas becomes a disaster.
• Occasionally have to deal with disputes between tenants. often works out easier to help them throw their stuff in the back of a ute & move one of them to a different property. Anecdotally the three biggest causes of issues are: messiness in common areas, hogging the bathroom at peak times & smashing the internet connection with traffic

They don't do any meals, they don't provide furniture beyond cheap (second hand) couches & a dining table.

Its way too "slumlord" for me & the risks are way too high (i'd live in fear of a fire in one of the houses & getting a lengthy jail sentence..) but the returns are 2-3x higher than what I could achieve by buying similar properties..

 

Plutus, what the original poster is asking about is the 'homestay' arrangements where a student lives with you in your home and you get $250-300pw for providing room and food.
A good mate of mine does this in Brissy. It really pulled him out of a financial hole and now I think he enjoys it. He lives with his wife and two daughters and they now always have at least two live-in students.
It would be wise to post here which nationalities he has had the best experiences with, but Sash if you want to send me a message I will let you know.
Scott

 

You don't need to provide weekday lunches. I thinks it's a great way to add extra income of needed. If you can do it and don't mind and extra person lurking around- go for gold. Not for those that like their privacy etc

 

Hi Sasha, I also like the idea of providing homestay accommodation and will be doing this when the family an I eventually get back to Melbourne.

Not too keen on Oz Homestay because apart from being in Sydney, they tend to focus on short term stays. Better of finding uni students and signing them up for a year at a time.

The going rates from what I can see are
-Shared room with meals $250 , no meals $180 or less
-private room with meals $285, no meals $200 or less

$500 a week for the use of a spare bedroom and a couple of extra plates at the table is a good deal to me.

Would target Chinese students because they have a lot of pressure on them to study and my daughter is half Chinese so language practice and keeping in touch with Chinese culture would be a big bonus.

By targeting a particular market and providing extra value that appeals to cashed up parents, should be able to charge more

 

There was a couple on Somersoft who had Japanese Uni students each year. They always had 3 at a time. They provided breakfast, packed lunch and a main meal at night. I know it got them out of a tight fix when they bought too many properties at one time and were having trouble making payments!!!!