Any alternative sites to Furnished Finders?

Question

Our MTM's have been booked solid since 2020 until recently.  And our best performing 1 bedroom, 1 bath condo hardly any vacancies until recently.  We work in the healthcare field and aware of pay cuts to travel nurse salaries and contracts.  Our primary site for leads has always reliably been Furnished Finders.  We have cross listed to Airbnb, VRBO and apartments.com with some inquiries with guests that keep trying to lowball us.  We prefer MTM to STM and because of the work we've done in furnishing 3 rentals we'd like to stay MTM.

We can afford to be vacant indefinitely but don't want to.  Our last tenant checkout out on April 22, 2023 and I've had a few inquiries but no solid leads.  We also have consistent 5 star reviews across our MTM and the past week I've lowered the price to almost at cost but no solid leases yet just inquiries.

Where else can we cross list and still get quality tenants?

Thank you BP community in advance!  My husband and I discussed possibly selling this unit in July if we still have it vacant.  I'm just bummed because we got it at 2.75% and only have 13 years left on the mortgage.

Bonnie Low · Answer

You said "we can afford to be vacant indefinitely but don't want to." I'm curious why you aren't just pivoting to a LTR with this property?

Melissa Hartvigsen · Answer

Hi Georgia,The travel sector as a whole has slowed down.  Many Airbnb hosts are switching to MTM to fill their bookings, so you have more competition.  I have been doing MTM for three years and notice that I get more serious booking inquiries at different times of the month. In my area a lot of the travel nurse contracts start mid-month so I see an influx of request between the 1st and 15th. The leads that I get the rest of the month also try to negotiate to a price so cheap I would not consider it. Knowing how your leads fluctuate in your area my help.

Typically I change my price after two weeks of vacancy. If a price adjustment does not get you booked, try being pro-active. I am not talking about "cross platform listings". Reach out the the local grad schools, hospital HR department for incoming doctor residencies, relocation service companies, and see if they will cross market for you.  Your one-bedroom condo may not be a great fit for insurance company relocations (for families displaced by fires), but if your other rentals have two-three bedrooms this may be another way to fill your rentals.I haven't done this, but follow a MTM guy on YouTube that suggests driving by the local "Extended Stay" hotel and looking for company vans in the parking lot. Then he reaches out to that company to get them to book his MTM.Would a long term rental cover your costs until travel recovers in a year or two?Good luck!

James Donis · Answer

I remember coming across a site called Homads. I believe they specialize in Mid-term rentals and have an MTR Host Facebook group with over 16,000 members last time I checked, which could provide alternative options. Given your 5-star reviews and well-furnished properties, maybe Homads could be a place you could cross-list. Give it a try and see how it goes!

Christina Leavenworth · Answer

Zillow is free and easy. You can search by keyword like furnished. I used to use FF, but switched completely to zillow and it works better. Also Facebook is good. There are travel nurse housing Facebook groups that are great!!

Georgia Revilla · Answer

Hi all,

Yes I see several hosts also vacant and offering below market so I believe it’s a supply and demand issue and not that I’ve cross listed different sites I’m getting inquiries for some reason again.

I may have to sell if we’re not consistently booked unless we come up with something creative .I see some landlords trying to sell their units as well.

I really appreciate all the helpful comments and tips  here and will pursue them.

Thank you BP community!

Bonnie Low · Answer

I understand. This is what I didn't like about staging houses we were flipping. You have to store the furniture in between and it might not fit the next space. What about offering it as a long term furnished rental? 6-month or 1 year booking? As much as it hurts to sell off your furnishings you would recoup at least some of your sunk costs if you just sold it off and then could replace it later if needed. Just a friendly recommendation: I would remove the wicker chairs in the living room. They just don't look comfortable and it's just so competitive now. People are looking at every possible thing to compare, especially in a market as competitive as Denver. Maybe just a few simple swap outs could help? I know you've been booked up till now but sometimes we have to refresh, just like refreshing your listing on the OTA's to boost searches. I hope you find something that works for you! It looks like a great space. I visit my son in Denver a couple times per year. If you send me your listing I'll bookmark it!

Georgia Revilla · Answer

Hi Jamie,

Yes we’re near hospitals and are in Fresno, CA and I think it’s the law of supply and demand as I’ve seen other MTR host now listing their units for sale due to the vacancy.

Yes we’re also listed on Zillow as furnished but no leads there.

This morning one student emailed to say she’d like to proceed but we had to give it at cost but she’s renting it from June until Feb 2024 so we agreed.I just didn’t know how to target quality tenants as we’ve declined a few due to inability to pay and bad credit.

I didn’t know about student.com

Thank you for replying. Jamie.

I’ll definitely consult with you for our future needs.

So far all 2 MTR and 2 LTR are rented out and I’m hoping to close the contract on our last one within the next few days but need to figure out how to target other non-medical who do not use Airbnb, VRBO, Furnished Finders, Apartments.com and Zillow .

We are also building our own website to market our units.

KiKi Wood · Answer

I would say Zillow, Airbnb, VRBO as a longer term stay (you can set that)!

Jason Liang · Answer

I wrote this post that lists out several midterm rental alternatives to Furnished Finder https://rotatingroom.com/blog/2024/07/15/what-are-alternatives-to-furnished-finder/

Georgia Revilla · Answer

I registered our rentals with them and didn't get a hit although I have been getting inquires from other insurance companies via traditional listing sites.

I'm happy to inform all of you that  after I posted  here that we are fully booked again and received multiple inquiries when I listed one unit at a lower rate until demand picks back up.

Thank you all for your insights, they were very helpful.

It was just the strangest thing, after bring fully booked with multiple properties since 2016 I guess there is just more competition and less demand so we really need to stand out.

Any alternative sites to Furnished Finders?

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