Midterm vs long term - Renton WA

[Eric I.]

Trying to figure out whether is it worth transitioning my 2br 1ba 1100 sqft unit to midterm rental from long term rental in Renton WA? Appreciate the feedback.

[Wes D.]

Hi @Eric I. 

As @Julia Lyrberg noted, MTRs typically rent for more than LTRs, as they should for a furnished home with utilities included. 

For market pricing, I collect LTR data from BP rent calculator and multiply by 1.5x. Then I get STR data from AirDNA to ensure it's well above 1.5x LTR data. And lastly, I search FunishedFinder listings nearby, find comparable properties, and track the listed rent for a few months (does it increase, decrease?). Of course the listed price may not be the actual rented price, but by tracking several listings for a while you can gain a better understanding of the market. As @Robin Smith mentioned, for assessing demand I used FurnishedFinder.com/stats; you can see demand data for a given city and some pricing data too. And proximity to hospitals is key, within 15 minutes is what I seek.

When I was trying to determine demand for our area, I selected about 20 listings near the location I was focused on, and tracked them for several months. If it gets rented the owner will update the listing with a new available date; if this moves by 30 days or more you can reasonably assume it was rented. If it moves a few days after reaching the available date, it probably hasn't rented yet. Tracking several for a few months will give you some understanding about vacancy rates. Also note if the listed rent changes. Our actual vacancy of less than 10% has closely tracked the data I collected this way.

All the best,
Wes