MTR Rent by Room - Platform

[Eric Chiang]

Hi BP Community, REI rookie here!

I'll be closing on a SFH later this week, where my partner and I plan on renting by the room for medium term rentals (MTR) for travel nurses. There is one hospital within <10 min drive from our place, with several others within 20 mins. There's also a university nearby. I'll be househacking one room for at least one year, with plans to move out afterward.

Here are my questions: 

- For those who have experience in MTRs, do you have any general advice for someone starting out in the MTR space? 

- Our plan is to utilize furnishedfinder.com for our bookings (focuses mainly on travel nurses, traveling HCPs). In order to reduce vacancy, we plan on also listing on Airbnb with 30 day min. What issues do you foresee if we also list on Airbnb (if any)? 

- Any advice on how to make our listing more desirable? We're utilizing professional photos, trying to optimize room accommodations (eg private bathroom for master bedroom, 2 garage spots for larger rooms), but looking for anything else that may make our listing more desirable 

- Any issues if we also accept long-term leases (eg 1+ year) & university students/other young professionals? I plan on having house rules in place, but I'm a bit worried about the dynamic between travel nurses and university students/other young professionals if I open up the tenant pool. At the same time, I also don't want too many vacancies 

- Any advice on how to systematize the process once I move out? I'm familiar with TurnoverBNB and Hospitable, but wondering what else I can consider

Any advice is much appreciated, as I am new to the space.

Happy investing!

[Bonnie Low]

I've been doing a lot of research on the MTR market because it's something I'm interested in. Here are some takeaways I've gathered from talking to a lot of traveling nurses and hosts. Take it for what it's worth. 1 - for travel nurses, Furnished Finders is a very common platform, but even more transactions seem to occur through specific Facebook groups for hosts and guests. Do a search in your market and join if they'll let you so you can see the dialog. The #1 complaint about FF by both guests and hosts is that the communication on the platform is dismal. Guests will message hosts and hosts won't see the notifications so the guests are irritated and feeling ignored and hosts are missing out on bookings. 2 - the most requested things from travel nurses that I've polled so far are: must be quiet as they are shift workers working long hours; they need blackout curtains for sleeping during the day; it needs to feel safe; laundry on site is a big bonus; full kitchens are nice but in no way required. Beware that there are a LOT of scammers in this space. It's shocking, actually. Guests are getting scammed by fake landlords "offering" properties they don't have and hosts are getting scammed by guests running the "my company will send you a check" scam. Spend 10 minutes browsing a forum and you'll see a discussion about this. So if you can build credibility into your brand you'll be ahead of the crowd. And finally, a lot of people travel with their pets and partners. If you can allow pets you'll tap into a need. And just know that while the nurse or healthcare worker may be gone long hours off site, their partner may actually be in your property much more, possibly working from home.