Average rental per year for medium rentals

[Christine Snyder]

Am thinking of converting a long term rental to a medium rental.  Can anyone give me a estimate of how well mediums do on average?  Curious to know how often they are vacant.  Thanks!

[Bonnie Low]

Quote from @Christine Snyder:

Am thinking of converting a long term rental to a medium rental.  Can anyone give me a estimate of how well mediums do on average?  Curious to know how often they are vacant.  Thanks!

 I'm not sure where someone would get the "on average" across the nation data because, unfortunately, in the MTR space there is no data source focusing specifically on MTR, unlike AirDNA for instance. And sites that do have stats for your particular area, like Furnished Finder, don't show average occupancy currently. Anyway, the only thing that matters is occupancy in your particular market so I'd focus there. 

You can start by searching your area on Furnished Finder and look at the availability of units similar to yours. This is really critical. You have to compare apples to apples because while a 1/1 may do well in certain areas, it may not be what people are looking for in your area. You also have to compare location, amenities and decor. Once you narrow it down to properties like yours, look at the availability of those similar units. Are there lots and lots of properties with immediate availability? If so, that's  a red flag. Are there only a couple? That's promising. Are there a lot of units but they're not available for about 30 days out? That's an encouraging sign. It means there's demand. 

Doing this analysis in this point of time is a lot like using the "Enemy Method" that Avery Carl from the Short Term Shop talks about it. It can be tedious, but it forces you to really understand your market. The good news is that I've talked to a few software developers that are trying to develop market analysis tools for MTRs. They're just not there yet but I predict in the next 2 years we'll start to see better tools. Good luck!