All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

Quote from @Brenda Reems:

Thank you for your response. This areas is great for MTR. Furnished units are renting from $1,200-1,800 for a 2 bedroom. This duplex has 1 2bd and the other is a 3bd. However, with that the tenant would no longer pay all utilities and would need to furnish. I work in the hospital and the travelers biggest complaint is that there isn't housing available. This town has a military base, fairly good sized hospital (for the region) and a university. 

Does that change your perspective?

Brenda, you're more than welcome to bring this deal to my weekly MTR group called THE MTR Connect. We meet Fridays at noon EST (9am PST). It's a group of MTR investors who share their properties, deals, ideas, challenges and successes. It's a fairly small group that is very supportive. We can help you look at the property, the market you're in and give you some ideas of how we would underwrite it. Please let me know if you'd like to join and I'll send you a link. 

Just curious why you're opposed to hard money? As someone else pointed out, rates are competitive and often better than PM.

My white linens are mostly ok outside of what I would consider normal wear and tear. The items that really seem to wear out quickly at my units are wash cloths. I don't know if they just get used more frequently and therefore washed more frequently, but even when bought in the same pack and/or product line as the towels, they just look rough and dingy sooner than anything else. I have one unit with all white towels, one with some gray and some white and one with some dark green and white. They're all aging about the same. But, like someone else mentioned, the colored ones sometimes fall victim to bleach. In the future, I'm going to buy the chlorine-safe colored towels.

Congrats on your first purchase and for getting it under your belt at an early age! Are you buying for appreciation primarily, or cash flow? Are you intending to use it as a house hack? 

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

Quote from @Carolyn Fuller:

Are others nervous about what impact a decline in international travelers will have on their STRs? 

75% of my current bookings are from international travelers so I'm worried.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

Hi, Carolyn - for me the answer is both yes and no. No because where my MTRs are located I don't really cater to out of country visitors but I can see where you would in Cambridge and especially in your academic setting. That said, yes, I am nervous about the impact of international travelers cancelling US travel in general simply because it's such a huge driver of the economy overall. I do have an STR and have had 3 international travelers (that I know of) over the last 18 months. I may feel the impact there directly.

"I do have an STR and have had 3 international travelers (that I know of) over the last 18 months."

The last 18 months are probably not relevant. I think we're talking about people cancelling becuase of the recent actions of the US (since Jan 21).

Yes, I understand that. My point was that I don't get many international travelers at my STR, but have had a few, so I might feel the impacts of slowed international travel there, but it's unlikely to affect my MTRs in California. I just don't get international travelers there.

I may have misunderstood your original question. I thought you were looking to acquire more MTR units. Typically, Realtors are not going to source your clients for your MTR units, with the possible exception that they will sometimes have clients relocating to the area who are in need of temporary housing while they find their property to purchase. This is one niche for finding MTR clients, but definitely not the only or even one of the most popular niches. Typically, you're going to have to source tenants yourself by posting your properties directly on furnished rental sites like MiniStays, Furnished Finder or the OTAs or sites like Zillow. You might also enlist the help of a co-host or an MTR property manager for this purpose. 

Quote from @Shaheer Khan:

Hello BiggerPockets Community,

I am representing The Bijou LLC, and we own several properties in Detroit, Grosse Pointe, and Pontiac. While we already have short-term and long-term rentals in place, we are looking to expand our portfolio by adding mid-term rental opportunities.

I have connected with a few realtors through BiggerPockets and other sources, but we are eager to reach out to more professionals in this space. If anyone has recommendations or can assist us in finding experienced realtors who specialize in mid-term rentals, I would greatly appreciate your help.

I'm sharing our Airbnb listing just for reference:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20995245?guests=1&adults=1&...

Looking forward to the support. 

 I recommend you reach out to @Sonseeahray Harvin if you're looking to acquire MTR (or other) properties in the Detroit area. I highly recommend her. She's a member of my MTR Group (THE MTR Connect) owns MTR properties herself and is a very experienced Realtor in the Detroit area!

Quote from @Carolyn Fuller:

Are others nervous about what impact a decline in international travelers will have on their STRs? 

75% of my current bookings are from international travelers so I'm worried.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

Hi, Carolyn - for me the answer is both yes and no. No because where my MTRs are located I don't really cater to out of country visitors but I can see where you would in Cambridge and especially in your academic setting. That said, yes, I am nervous about the impact of international travelers cancelling US travel in general simply because it's such a huge driver of the economy overall. I do have an STR and have had 3 international travelers (that I know of) over the last 18 months. I may feel the impact there directly.

You shouldn't have any limitations on posts. I'm not sure why you're only seeing 3 pages of posts. I have 82 keyword alerts for midterm rentals and countless pages just today. Maybe check with BP admin to see if there's a glitch on your account?

Quote from @Andrew Self:

Any landlords here Baselane for banking or any of the other services they provide? I signed up for a free account to collect rent and use them as my dedicated bank account for my LLC. They also mention they run backgrounds checks, have accounting services, loans, etc. Almost seems to good to be true so want to hear experience from anyone who does or has used them as a landlord. Thanks in advance!

I've been using Baselane for more than a year now. All the features you mentioned are accurate, and then some. I have a portfolio of MTRs, LTRs and one STR and I use it for all three. Some of the features I like best are: it's very easy to set up bank accounts and sub-accounts within Baselane so keeping finances straight across a multi-property or multi-LLC is simple and clean; I like being able to set up virtual credit cards to pay my subs and trades with and attach that credit card to a specific bank account or property; and I love the rent processing feature that gives me real time updates about the status of rent collection. You should definitely check it out and go through a demo.