Furnish Finder vs ?

[Ren Lok]

Hey everyone,

Apart from Furnish Finder, where are you guys posting your Mid-term Rentals?

We have a place almost completed, 5 mins away from a major Hospital.

Thanks

[Jamie Banks]

I also list on Zillow, Airbnb, VRBO, and Hello Landing. Most of my travel nurse / medical professional bookings have come from Furnished Finder but the other sites usually appeal to other tenant types like digital nomads, relocating families, etc. 

[Melissa Hartvigsen]

Hi Ren,

I post my mid-term rentals on Furnished Finder, and Airbnb (30 minimum setting for bookings). In addition, there are Facebook groups for travel nurses where you can post your housing. You have to be invited and approved for the group.

I also asked each of my previous nurses which company placed them in my area, then asked for the recruiter's contact information.  I contacted the recruiter directly and provided them a flyer for my property so they can include it when placing future travel nurses in my area.

If you have multiple units (usually there is a minimum of 4 or 5), then the hospital is usually willing to share your information with their inbound travel staff.

Best wishes,

Melissa

[Allen Duan]

After Furnished Finder, Airbnb is definitely the next place you want to list solely because of how much traffic they get. Depending on who you're targeting to rent your MTR, each website has it's benefits. Furnished Finder is great for travel nurses and more budget conscious travelers. Airbnb can get you more high value bookings if you're property attracts those. 

[Bonnie Low]

I only list on Furnished Finder currently and stay full. I do occasionally post about it on some of the social media sites for travel nurses, such as Travel Nurse Gypsy Housing for example. I have a 1/1 and a 2/1 and although I'm seeing lots of different types of travelers, the ones who have been booking my place have all been traveling medical professionals. I've considered putting it on Airbnb but haven't needed to yet. 

[Quentin Stephenson]

Quote from @Jamie Banks:

I also list on Zillow, Airbnb, VRBO, and Hello Landing. Most of my travel nurse / medical professional bookings have come from Furnished Finder but the other sites usually appeal to other tenant types like digital nomads, relocating families, etc. 

 Hi Jamie,

Have you actually found travel nurses and other traveling professionals through Zillow? I have a MTR that is listed on FF and Airbnb and have not had much luck. 

[Jamie Banks]

Quote from @Quentin Stephenson:

Quote from @Jamie Banks:

I also list on Zillow, Airbnb, VRBO, and Hello Landing. Most of my travel nurse / medical professional bookings have come from Furnished Finder but the other sites usually appeal to other tenant types like digital nomads, relocating families, etc. 

 Hi Jamie,

Have you actually found travel nurses and other traveling professionals through Zillow? I have a MTR that is listed on FF and Airbnb and have not had much luck. 

 Traveling medical professionals isn’t my ideal client type for the properties I have listed on Zillow. I have, however, gotten other tenant types form Zillow - mostly insurance relocation claims

[Zachary Deal]

@Quentin Stephenson I've heard some folks have success with local and travel nurse focused Facebook groups as well

[John Muchiri]

I have had great experience getting leads on Furnished Finder for midterm rentals. In fact 99% of my leads and conversions have been from there. There platform is still quite outdated but it gets the job done but it's okay for the price. I use a combination of their messaging tool and direct messages/calling. I've tried booking.com and airbnb but not much traction there.

[Ryan Daulton]

Quote from @John Muchiri:

I have had great experience getting leads on Furnished Finder for midterm rentals. In fact 99% of my leads and conversions have been from there. There platform is still quite outdated but it gets the job done but it's okay for the price. I use a combination of their messaging tool and direct messages/calling. I've tried booking.com and airbnb but not much traction there.

 does the FF website work for you?  I get error 404.

[Nick Zupec]

We use Furnished Finder, Airbnb, Zillow, and Apartments.com. We get a decent number of bookings coming from all of them. We also have our own website with some SEO setup and we get people that find our website through a Google search and reach out direct too. We like to cast a wide net and get as many leads into the funnel as possible.

[Gabe Chase]

We use FF and Zillow and other sites our PMS syndicates to. Just be careful as not everyone on sites other than FF are working professionals. You should screen everyone the same, but still, it's a bit of a comfort knowing FF is mostly all working professionals. Airbnb is a good option. But they take fees from you and charge the tenant more. So your monthly rate would go up by about 14%... A bit of a turn off for most renters. 

[John Muchiri]

Quote from @Ryan Daulton:

Quote from @John Muchiri:

I have had great experience getting leads on Furnished Finder for midterm rentals. In fact 99% of my leads and conversions have been from there. There platform is still quite outdated but it gets the job done but it's okay for the price. I use a combination of their messaging tool and direct messages/calling. I've tried booking.com and airbnb but not much traction there.

 does the FF website work for you?  I get error 404.

Works on my end. Might have hit it during a maintenance or something 

[KiKi Wood]

We usually do mostly Furnished Finder, but I have seen people do Airbnb, VRBO, and local Facebook groups! 

[Katie Accashian]

I am located in Lakewood, CO and have my property listed at market value and haven't received a single message in 2 weeks. It's good to hear others are having success, but I would check if it works in your area before you spend the $150.

[Miguel Del Mazo]

Quote from @Katie Accashian:

I am located in Lakewood, CO and have my property listed at market value and haven't received a single message in 2 weeks. It's good to hear others are having success, but I would check if it works in your area before you spend the $150.

I don't know if this would apply to you, but some folks think that FF works similarly to AirBnB or Vrbo where they will push resident requests to you.  FF will not send possible housing requests unless they are an exact match for what you offer or if the resident chooses to send a direct message. From our experience, every requester puts in the lowest possible rent ("<1200"), so they immediately take themself out of our match criteria, and we don't get a push notification.

Since many of these potential leads actually have converted to renting with us, we check FF at least twice a day on the app and reach out to people looking for housing even if there is a gap in the match criteria.   

It's a different style of platform than AirBnB (love them) or Vrbo (indifferent), but we can source a lot of good leads from FF.

You may already know this, so I am responding to anyone who may not know about the nuances of FF.

[Tanya Maslach]

Quote from @Katie Accashian:

I am located in Lakewood, CO and have my property listed at market value and haven't received a single message in 2 weeks. It's good to hear others are having success, but I would check if it works in your area before you spend the $150.

 This is great to learn @Katie Accashian   I just spoke with FF rep yesterday and of course they were heavy on the sales pitch to get me on there.  
We are still looking at deals to buy, (for MTRs), and are looking at properties in Aurora and Denver to catch University post docs/faculty, and all the medical prof's near those areas.  But hearing your expertise is super helpful  as it's relevant to us here as we start our investment journey into MTRs.
Have you had your place 90% rented most of the year, or have you experienced blips in vacancies?   Do you  mind me asking what the size, and bd/ba, of your place is?

[Katie Accashian]

Hi Tanya, 

Sorry for the delayed response, new to posting here! Happy to answer any questions. 

My unit is a 1090 SF, 2 bed 1.5 bath townhouse. Its right off 285 with easy access to E470. After about 2 weeks I took off the pet restriction because I read other reviews that highly encouraged it. After about a month of no response on FF I switched my method to LTR. Even then the inquiries were a slow trickle (I used Zillow). I do think the seasonal factor is huge. I've heard from others that the market drops off substantially in October and November. 

[Tanya Maslach]

@Katie Accashian  Thank you.
We're buying in OH now.  Nothing penciled out on our spreadsheet for buying and profitably running something in Denver at the moment.  Lots of opportunity in OH.

[Katie Accashian]

That's great! I've heard there are good opportunities in OH. 

[Sylvia Santelli]

How big is the property? 

The general rule around here is 2bedrooms and less will do well on Furnished Finder + airbnb/others. Once you get into 3bedrooms and up Furnished Finder won't be as reliable as a channel to find tenants. It just has to do with how each platform markets themselves and what kinds of guests come through.

I am an investor and co-host in Dallas, Texas and that's generally the posting rules I go by. But experiment and see what happens in your market with your specific property.