All Forum Posts by: Erin Spradlin

@Johnson Best

 @Wes D. I use Travelers and had insurance on the landlord, dwelling and personal property level (because if the place is furnished by you, you have to have insurance on it) and they didn't cover anything. There are exceptions if the tenants damage the furniture, even thought it is your furniture. They also will not make you whole for any pet damage whatsoever. My guess is they aren't the exception to the rule, so since then I've been very diligent in my midterm rentals about asking for a large deposit (midterm rental deposits should be equal to one month's rent or more).

@Rosemary Earl @Bill Schrimpf - That's a great question. Most places are rentable but have a pricing or marketing issue. Is the first photo the kitchen or the outside? It should not be of the bedroom. Are you pet-friendly (this will knock out 50% of your midterm rental competition). Is your rental set to 30+ days on Airbnb?

@John Cruz - I would list on Airbnb, Zillow and Zillow. I removed Airbnb from this Google Trends search because it depressed all the other searches because it is most popular in Hawaii. Outside of Airbnb though, Trulia is the clear winner. Trulia is owned by Zillow and if you list on Zillow, it will go to Trulia. The nice thing about listing furnished rentals on long-term, unfurnished sites it that people convert really well on them. Good luck. 

@Abigail VanLuvanee - I would recommend being on Airbnb and Zillow. Airbnb because it's for furnished rentals and Zillow because I've found people looking for unfurnished often convert quite fast when given a long-term furnished option. (Zillow tenants are also great because they tend to rent for longer periods of time.) I would avoid the niche sites that target a specific demographic because it limits your marketing and rental base. Hope that helps. 

I read somewhere that Mashvisor and Furnished Finder were going to combine data at some point to help support MTR listings. That said, there needs to be a filtering of rent by the room and midterm rentals because I think they are often conflated and the rental pricing data is very different for the two sources. I think Airbnb is your best bet for cobbling together MTR pricing. 

@Stacy Stilwater - I will DM you, but I do this for a handful of clients nationwide and have a youtube channel (BP won't let me share the link, but you can find me under my name on YouTube) that is strictly about midterm rental property management, midterm rental cohosting, midterm rental pricing, midterm rental strategy, Airbnb v. Furnished Finder, etc. 

I am curious if anyone has had success getting midterm renters off of niche sites that cater specifically to a demographic. This would be if you've reached out to Corporate Housing by Owner, AYA, Vivian, anyone that caters to insurance claims? Do you think it is worth it to be on these niche sites? 

@Clayton Silva @steve 

@Steve H.

Hey Clayton & Steve- Couple lots of thoughts on this. You may have already tried these, but if not, I've found these to be helpful for some of my midterm rental clients. 

Most places should rent, but the issue comes down to marketing and pricing the midterm rental. For marketing, best practices are:

+listed it on two sites, one of which is Airbnb and the other is a long-term unfurnished site like Zillow, Turbo Tenant or Avail (people convert well on those sites)
+Write the listing broad and avoid any preference for traveling nurses, medical professionals, insurance folks, etc. You want to have a solid listing on the platform with no preference for a tenant pool.
+Make sure the first photo is of the kitchen or the exterior. 
+Make sure the headline includes useful details (ex. free parking, dog-friendly, W/D in unit, 3 blocks to downtown) rather than generic words (ex. comfy, spacious, light-filled).
+Whether you are dog-friendly or no-dog lean into the preference because there are people looking for both types of units.
+For Airbnb, list at the beginning what your set up is (2 bed/2 bath), since the filters return everything that is 2 beds+ when someone puts in this filter. It sends everything rather than just the 2 bedroom properties. 

And, finally, drop your prices if no one is booking. Some money is better than no money. 

 @Bonnie Low Rant away. I have so many thoughts about Furnished Finder, and most of them have to do with the company needing some kind of re-organization. It's particularly ironic that we are saying this about them when you source all your clientele from them and I have written books singing their praises- and, yet, now both of us are on a popular, public midterm rental forum saying they do not do a good job, they are not helping their hosts, they are leaving money on the table. Wake up, Furnished Finder. 

@Boffill Yosleys Yeah, the typical property management experience does not work for midterm rentals. It's hard for the PM to make their costs if they can't charge half the first month's rent, and charging half of the first month's rent won't work for the tenant landlord if each rental is only 3 months long. For this reason, I coach a lot of my midterm rental consulting clients to learn how to do Airbnb and Zillow and embrace self-property management. You can always get a PM after that if you are not successful doing it on your own.