Actually it is not too hard to manage the student housing if you get some experience. The most important is to find the right tenants---highly educated, easy communicate. We always get rent payment on time. Even during the pandemic period we still got 100% rent collected each month.
If the house/ apartment is too old, just need to do a full renovation as tallcuterich did. During the student turnover period, try to hire cleaning crews to help. When everything is on auto pilot, life becomes much easier.