Furnished Rentals (Monthly/ "Medium" Term)

[Robert Ombres]

As we know, Asheville (mostly) does not allow STR. Is anyone doing furnished 30+ day rentals?

I'm trying to gauge the demand.

I get an email every now and then from real estate agents asking if anyone has a furnished rental their buyers can stay in while they home shop.

Looking on AirBNB there are a decent number available, though the number drops down quickly as number of bedrooms grows. Pets allowed knocks it down several more.

Cheapest I saw was around $5k/month. It's difficult to guess vacancy rates. I tend to do my math using 50%.

[Cindy Coker]

We have had a 30day furnished rental (one side of our rental duplex) in N Asheville since Sept 2014. Running about $2200-2600 a month. We've averaged 8-10 months occupied since.  built a website using VacationSoup (.com) website template a little over a year ago, to try to shake free of VRBO, but hadn't quite gotten free of their business model. 

We currently have 3month guests leaving end of September, who'd love to come back and book it next summer, but we have decided to remove the furnishings and go longterm on both sides. NOT because it hasn't worked well, but to simplify in order to concentrate on a different small business startup. With the other 8-10monthds occupancy, with us paying for cable, internet, and power, we'll net nearly the same with it unfurnished, and rented for $1450 or so.

I will say that inquiries have dropped significantly since Expedia bought VRBO, and started interfering with Owner to Guest communications and added service fees. And rumor has it, VRBO will start doing as AirBnB, and paying Owners after checkin, rather than when Guests pay (sometimes a year before arriving). For STR's that may work alright, but for 30day Vacation Rentals, I would find that unacceptable.

Let me know if y'all have any questions I can help with.

Cindy