Property management for medium term rentals

[Brenainn Kilchoer]

Hi!

So I bought a duplex with a friend in Casper WY a while back this past year, which is actually a non-conforming because it also has a finished basement. It's located a couple blocks away from the major city hospital, basically a 5-10 minute walk depending on weather.

One side of the official duplex is a 1 bed 1 bath and the other is a 2 bed 1 bath, and they're currently rented to travel nurses who typically stay 1 to 2 months, although the 2 who are in the 2 bed side are staying for another year.

The duplex currently rents at $1575 and $1250 per respective side. We bought it using an FHA loan, down payment including closing costs out of pocket was $16,000 of which we each paid half, and the property was bought for total purchase price of $265,000. Our total PITI as well as utilities adds up to $2100 every month, but we're not taking any of the profit out since we plan on updating the interior.

We've had absolutely no problem finding renters through Furnished Finder, but right now our inconvenience is that we have to live in the basement until next April to fulfill the FHA requirements so we can't really rent it out just yet.

Now, because of our respective jobs, neither of us is able to stick around Casper enough to be efficient with turnover and addressing tenants needs. We do have another friend who helps but it is not her primary job and we don't have the money to hire her full time ourselves.

So here are my questions:

1. How much should we be expecting to pay for a full time property manager (based on the description above)?

2. Is this considered a short term rental (despite not having any lease under 31 days), and if so, how does managment differ from a long term tenant manager?

3. How much of the work would you recommend we delegate to the manager (based on financials mentioned above) and how do we come up with a contract describing what work we want done? Do we need a lawyer for this or would a real estate professional or agent be capable of setting one up?

Any help with this matter is greatly appreciated!

Brenainn

[Allen Duan]

Hi Brenainn,

We manage mid term rentals and I can answer your questions from my perspective as a mid term property manager.

1. Our typical fee is 15-20% of gross rent. That's for full service management for an owner who wants to be hands off.

2. The difference between mid term and short term rentals is primarily the length of stay, as you mentioned. We started off doing short term rentals and most of our systems and processes translated to mid term rentals. Main difference being less turnovers so it's overall less work to manage. Marketing can be a bit different, there are specific websites like Furnished Finder that cater to mid term rentals.

3. I think the most cost effective way for you may be to manage the property remotely, but build your "boots on the ground" team to take care of cleanings, maintenance, and other in person tasks. These people you can pay by the hour or by the job, while you take care of the management work that can be done remotely, such as messaging, getting the place booked, marketing, etc. If you're hiring a property manager, they should have a contract for you. If you're hiring someone to help, you'll want to write up a job description and set those expectations up front.

Hope that helps! I'm happy to chat more =)