Offering services to medium-term rental owners--general tips & local market questions

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I live in the Raleigh area but own a medium-term rental for traveling nurses in New Hampshire. I love everything about managing the property, and even fly up there between tenants to get it ready for the next one! Heck, I even find joy in it when a squirrel eats a hole through the kitchen ceiling, the fire alarm blasts for no reason, and the tenant's kid secretly turns off the "do not turn off" switch to the heater, necessitating an emergency call to the electrician.

Three years after retiring from freelance writing, I'm looking for my next act. I don't want to purchase more properties—we bought the one in NH to move to when my husband retires, which is a ways off—but I know I'd like to do something related. I spent 25 years at my laptop, so I'm looking to do something more hands-on.

An idea that hits the sweet spot—it's more hands-on, it's related to my interests, I can use my previous experience—is to start a business helping Raleigh-area MTR (and possibly STR) owners set up their rentals. I'd offer different packages, such as purchasing furniture and supplies, doing actual set-up, refreshing an already-furnished rental, doing marketing, etc.

I'm in research mode now to figure out if this is even a doable idea. I've reached out to several local owners of multiple MTR rentals to see if they'd be willing to talk to me, have looked at Furniture Finder, and have researched competition.  But I'd love to get insights from people in the business now!

My questions:

* In general, does this strike you as a workable idea?

* Does it make sense to focus only on local MTRs and not also STRs? MTR seems like an underserved niche, but maybe it's too small?

* How is the MTR market in the Raleigh area? Furnished Finder is showing 107 full-unit rentals that are available right now, which is giving me the idea that there are a lot more rentals than potential tenants. (To compare there are TEN full-unit rentals in my area of NH...though to be fair, Raleigh is literally 10 times bigger than the NH city...so maybe per capita it all evens out?)

* Is it better or worse for my business if the rental market is over-saturated? AirDNA says the occupancy rate for STRs in Raleigh is 33%, which sounds low to me, and as I mentioned, there are 107 empty full-unit MTRs. Would people be less likely to hire me because they're not making enough money, or MORE likely because they need help?

* Have you heard of/used a service like this before for MTRs, in any area of the U.S.? If so, what were your experiences like? (I know there are a TON for STRs, though I found only a few in the Raleigh area and I had to dig for them, which makes me think that marketing is not their strong suit. Better for me because it IS my strong suit!)

* If you own an STR/MTR, what are your biggest challenges in getting them set up to rent?

Any other ideas or advice are much appreciated! I apologize for the kind of vague post, but I don't know what I don't know yet. :) Thank you!

[Pat Lulewicz]

Hi Linda - your services make a lot of sense for someone who is trying to go the MTR route, however if they are just now buying a house in today's dollars and rates, and setting it up as a MTR, it may be hard to substantiate a few thousand dollars to pay a third party to do the set-up after they just spend tens of thousands, or potentially hundreds of thousands on a house DP in Raleigh + furniture.

I think the fundamentals work for someone who's owned it a while, has made great cash flow, and who has been thinking about converting from LTR to MTR, and just doesn't want the hassle of set-up and marketing but wants the returns. You're more likely to find LTR owners who want to convert to MTR because they are effectively the same rental experience and management for an owner, just with (potentially) more frequent turnovers. Going from LTR to STR though is an entirely different management experience for the owner/client and its rare someone wants to ADD work to their rental portfolio by making it actively managed.

I figure your 107 units is at a single moment in time, right? So rentals get leased and other rentals come on-market? Would be useful if you tracked that daily/weekly to see how it moves if it does. DOM (if that figure is available) is probably more important to your Q. But if those are already active MTR-able units then your set-up model isn't really relevant to that group, right?