Corporate or other furnished housing, short or mid term rentals

[Kevin Lefeuvre]

Hey everyone,

I am trying to reduce my dependence on vrbo/airbnb, by using furnished housing sites in addition to the "vacation rentals" platforms.

I see corporatehousingbyowner.com ($230 to give it a try), sublet.com ($20/mo to try),  mynewplace.com,  monthlybyowner.com , ...

Anyone has experience with any of these? Any recommendation?

[Channon Dade]

I am fairly new to Bigger Pockets and I have a corporate rental in Houston, Texas that is close to downtown and it has been rented out consistently since I made it a Corp Rental about a year ago. I first signed up with Corporate Housing By Owner and used a discount code I found on line to get the Silver Package so it came out to be about $350 for the year. The advantage of CHBO is that they list with lots of other insurance companies and other marketing companies (like sublet.com -  https://www.corporatehousingbyowner.com/partners/ ) that market your property so you don't have to list with these companies individually and these sites typically cater to to those looking for monthly, short term rentals verses VRBO has more short term stays. 

Also with CHBO, they give you a 30 day guarantee...so if no one books your rental within 30 days of listing it, they will extend your membership for an additional 6 months for free.  I had a family in there 32 days after I listed with them and got to take advantage of this guarantee.

I also listed it with VRBO.com which has been good for the in-between monthly rentals ( I find they typically book a weekend but have had 1, one month stay from VRBO) but they do take a hefty fee when people book through them. 

To give you some specific insight I had someone form CHBO from the end of August in 2017 (when I first listed with them) to the end of February 2018. Then it has been filled with 5 rentals from VRBO (this includes 3 to 14 days/weekend rentals that were for housing wedding parties, concert goers, college visitors, vacation stops and 1-1 month rental while their house was being repaired) from March 2018 to the end of July 2018. Then at the end of July 2018 I got someone from CHBO, moving to Houston and needed a place while they house hunt. They are still in the house and have plans to stay till the end of Sept. When people sign up via CHBO I just have them sign a lease that is month to month. 

So as you can see I highly recommend CHBO and I would call and talk to them to do the free rent assessment for your property as well. I prefer the monthly rental of course because of less turn over and more bang for my buck.  I also think it is very important to know your market. Ask yourself is your market more corporate rental which is geared towards monthly rentals or is it more conducive for weekend rentals or both?  That will help you focus on your marketing better and take advantage of all the metrics that are on sites like VRBO and CHBO a lot better. 

I recently just joined Furnished Finder.  I am near tons of medial facilities, however I think  @John Oden is right  in terms of the nurses typically are on assignment by themselves and look for the more economical options so my 3 bedroom is not as economical unless I encourage them to find roommates which does take time.  So I am finding that it is probably better for 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom.  

Again knowing your market and going to talk the companies near the property might help you market better and not rely on VRBO so much.  I am trying to talk to the midsize level companies near by (I found bigger corporations usually have their own real estate that they house their employee in) and see where that goes.

So bottom line I am finding that it is all about marketing, especially to the specific industries near by and getting your place in front of as many potential customers as possible. I have spent approx $700 in marketing this past year but made several fold over just from that.

Hopefully this give you some insight.  I would love to hear about your progress because any insight on other markets and what people are doing helps the rest of us in this specific industry. Thank you for the post!

Kindest- Channon