Finding new renters for furnished houses?

[Paul Sandhu]

Here's my situation, I have 22 furnished houses with all bills paid.  Half of them are 2 bedroom places.  A basic 2 bedroom with a washer/dryer, cable/wifi, full kitchen goes for $350/week.  A nicer place with CHA, HDTV and streaming BluRay goes for $400/week.  The other half are 3 bedroom and larger, they are priced accordingly like the 2 bedroom houses.  Total number of beds is 82.

95% of my renters are contractors at a local refinery.  They come from Texas and Louisiana.  I'm in Kansas, in a town of 10,000.  Most of them check into a motel when they come to town.  A cheap motel is $350/week, nicer motels are $600/week.  The contractors need to pass a drug screen before they can enter the refinery.  I do the drug screens.  That's where I try to get tenants.  The most common thing I hear is "I wish I would have known about this yesterday. I already paid for a room for a week."

Here's my idea:  Whenever a current tenant of mine leaves, I will give them a manilla envelope.  On the outside of the envelope will be a paper that says something to the effect of "If you refer someone to me to rent a house, I will pay you a commission of 1/2 of the second weeks rent."  The envelope will contain half a dozen descriptive flyers for my houses, business cards, and several nice metal pens that say "Furnished houses in Coffeyville Kansas. All bills paid. Weekly Rate. Better call Paul xxx-xxx-xxxx".  

These contractors are welders, pipefitters, boilermakers, inspectors and such.  When they go back home to Texas or Louisiana they will tell their other friends of the housing I have. 

On an average week, 15 out of the 22 houses will be rented.  But not every bed is necessarily filled in each occupied house. I cut back on the rent rate in those cases.  I drive by all the motels every evening.  There are always more contractors staying in all the motels than there are staying in all my houses.  But I always have more contractors in all my houses than any one individual motel.  In a way, I am a motel with 82 beds spread out amongst 22 addresses.

What do you think of this idea?  Is the commission too high or low?  Anything else that could go in the envelope?  

[John Underwood]

Your idea sounds good.

Why not ask them where they are finding their hotel? If it is online advertising, Craigslist, AirBnb, VRBO, Expedia etc, try and advertise in the same place.

If your not using Craigslist you should be as it is free. I get people coming to do seasonal contract work at a Nuc Power plant and they seem to find me via CL.  I have always had my place rented months out.