High Occupancy, Short Term Rental

[Thomas Garza]

I am a week away from finishing a complete remodel on our second rental property. I posted a for rent sign a few weeks ago, and as I expected (seemingly due to the time of year), I have had very little traffic. 

Today I showed the property to a few guys who are interested in renting the house for themselves and their work buddies. Specifically, they are interested in having 8 men live in the 4 bedroom 2 bath house. In addition, they are also interested in a shorter lease (6 months) because they are not sure how long their current job will last. I got the impression that they migrate around from job to job, living out of motels or short term house rentals for the duration of each opportunity. 

Everything in me says that this is a bad idea, but I don't exactly know why. I thought that I could double the deposit to hedge my risk, and I could increase the rent to make up for the fact that the property could be vacant in 6 months. I could put it in the lease that I will perform biweekly inspections of the house, and of course I would require ever person living there to be on the lease. 

Has anyone had any experience with something like this?