Littleggy, I live in Baton Rouge which is the home of a large college (LSU), and parents have been buying houses and condos for their kids for over 20 years now due to some legislation that provides almost free tuition to in-state students who qualify because of grades in high school. Many parents with children who qualify for those tuition breaks invest in real estate instead of having to spend it on tuition. A few downsides of that exist, especially for people who live in neighborhoods where parents have bought a house or condo for their student. This is from first hand experience, and from reading about several neighborhood association problems here in Baton Rouge, and in other college towns. The real estate agent was pointing out the 2 parking spaces at the places they looked at. Two spaces for 3 occupants, each of which will most likely have a car, but that doesn't include space for guests, or the 1-3 boyfriends who will also likely end up living there or staying overnight there most weekends. Do the math. If each girl has a boyfriend, that's 6 cars. In an neighborhood that has a lot of college kids living in it, it soon begins to look like a used car lot with cars parked everywhere. Then there are the parties. Yes, this student was 22, but where I live, partying doesn't stop with entrance to grad school. Maybe she will be a responsible home owner, and be courteous of other owners and abide by parking, noise, litter, etc. rules. I live in a quiet neighborhood 3 miles from the campus, but 2 years ago a homeowner rented his house to 4 college freshmen boys, after having rented it to a couple with a small child for year or so. The house has a single car driveway, and each boy ended up with a girlfriend within a few weeks, and on the weekends it was party central and cars were parked on the street to the extent that a few times the garbage truck couldn't get through to pick up the cans. Neighbors complained to owner, to the renters, etc., and when the students' lease was up, the owner had to spend some $$$ to fix up the house and repair damage. He sold it, and the new owner is a single mom, with a child is elementary school. Our city govt. has tried to put limits on how rental occupancy in single family areas, but it's done very little to eliminate the problem. There is one owner who has bought up houses throughout the area for the purpose of renting to students. He does the bare minimum on maintenance, turns the houses over fast, and in retaliation to local homeowners complaints about street parking, he has retaliated by chopping down trees and paving entire front yards of his rental houses.
Back to the HH episode, and sorry for venting, but that episode triggered my angst about parents buying houses for students. The father was obviously looking for something he could profit off of after his daughter's college days were over. She very likely will move to another part of Charleston, if she stays in the city after graduation. There was never anyway she was going to want the older house with the postage stamp of a backyard. Her excuse for not mowing was that she would be studying? Uh, yeah, right. Wonder what the income source of the parents was.