All Forum Posts by: Erin Spradlin

Quote from @Curtis Harrison:

Quote from @Carl Davis:

You’re going to benefit from also listing on other platforms like Airbnb and vrbo and setting the minimum night stay to 30 days or more.

Good luck!

How do I keep the multiple platforms from booking over top of each other?

 @Curtis Harrison - It's pretty easy to manage calendaring in the midterm rental space because you have ample heads up, at least 30+ days, but often more like 2 months, 3 months, etc. Unless you have 10 properties going at once, you can manually update these without much issue. (This is how we have done it since 2017.) 

Quote from @Carl Davis:

You’re going to benefit from also listing on other platforms like Airbnb and vrbo and setting the minimum night stay to 30 days or more.

Good luck!

 @Carl Davis 100% this! I'd start with Airbnb. A lot of my consulting clients are not having much luck getting their midterm rental rented on Furnished Finder. As a note: 7 out of 10 of our past midterm rentals have been sourced off of Airbnb. 

@James Carlson @Leo R. - Thank you for the mention, James. 
Leo- If you have done LTR management, medium-term rental, self-management will be very similar. The reason for that is people looking for midterm rentals shop like short-term renters, but they act a lot more like long-term renters... and often they stay for 4+ months, 5+ months, etc. So, you really are not dealing with a ton of turn over or work. It's much easier than an STR and very similar to an LTR. Good luck!

Quote from @Christian M.:

This is my first time renting out a property. I will be living out of state away from my property so I want to be educated on how to properly choose a good property management company. I am looking for things I need to avoid or look for. Any advice is extremely helpful! Thanks!

I work with a lot of consulting clients that have this same issue for their midterm rental. I really discourage you from getting a property manager for your MTR. They take a lot of money, and often my clients are most unhappy when they hire a PM to manage their midterm. I recommend listing on two platforms and to hit the ground running. You'll learn quickly, save yourself money and be the most motivated to get the right medium-term rental tenants and the keep it occupied. (If you have questions on this, DM me. Probably 50% of my clients manage their midterm rentals from out of state.) 

@Kesha Hamilton To find my midterm rental rent rate, I start with long-term unfurnished rents and then x that rate by 1.4-1.65, depending on the season. I then compare this to Airbnb listings in my area. If my medium-term rental sits for 2 weeks with no interest, it's too high. If it gets 3 hits in 10 hours, it's too low. It's a bit of art and science. 

Quote from @Ryan Arth:

Quote from @Jill F.:

We've seen our rents in Akron go up substantially since 2016 when we started. However, our costs have also increased substantially: An HVAC system that cost 3500 in 2016 costs 6500 now. Labor that was $10/hour in 2016 is now $20/hour. And our taxes just increased  25-30% in January. Demand immediately after the pandemic was the strongest, but while it's calmed down a little it's stilI pretty strong for anything nice. I put a SFR on the market week before last and had 10 high quality applications in 4 days (and I require completion of a free application before I show a property).

 Yep, inflation has not just been in housing. My barber is up 26% over the past few years. 

Even at the higher end, the demand for $3,000-$3,600 rentals late summer was very strong last year in good school districts. Nothing sat a month.

@Ryan Arth That's an excellent point. Inflation seems to be an almost universal-economic issue at the moment, and premium housing has always been in demand. As a note, the lull in housing seems to be over. Sellers are receiving multiple offers again and giving up very little to buyers in Denver and Colorado Springs. 

Quote from @Marci Stein:

Yes, if they have a guarantor to sign the lease along with them, it would help because they would be responsible for payment as well.
Otherwise it feels a little sketchy to me, and I would not risk having to evict them after only three months payment.

 @Marci Stein @Mary Ainsworth - You could also ask for previous landlord reviews, and/or to have them fill out a background check. It's not a perfect system, but past behavior is a great indicator of future behavior. 

Quote from @Mary Ainsworth:

I know people say not to accept tenants if they have no active income, but this is a medium-term tenant who would stay 3 months and they can pay the entire 3 months upfront. In this case, is it a risk to let them stay? 

My only thought is that they could try to stay there and refuse to leave I suppose, but that's a risk even when someone has active income coming in. 

Also, if they have a guarantor, would that help? I'm not sure it would since they're paying all three months upfront, but I had that thought

Any advice would be great! Thank you :)

 @Mary Ainsworth - You know, this is kind of how Airbnb Long-Term stays work. You don't know if they have income, you only know that they can pay the full amount. You background check them differently. You are protected by Airbnb, but the reason why I mention it is because it probably happens on Airbnb all the time and you don't know it. For this reason, I think I would be open to someone that can pay the full rent even if they are without a job. 

Quote from @James Carlson:

Quote from @Ruben Helo:

Any midterm rental property managers? 

I think there are some medium-term PMs on here, not sure about Denver specifically. 

But as @Erin Spradlin argues a lot, MTR investors should try self-managing. (Heck, an hour of consulting on how to self-manage costs less than you'd pay a management company in the first month.)

It's not like STRs where turnover is every few days, where cleaners need scheduling all the time, etc. (And even then, I'd argue most of my Airbnb clients manage their own short-term rentals in Colorado as well, even with full-time jobs.)

 @Ruben Helo @James Carlson
Thanks for the mention, James. 

Ruben- I'm encouraging people to learn how to property manage their own long-term and medium term rentals. The reason I recommend self property management is because it is really not that hard and a lot of my consulting clients that are unhappy (or unbooked) have property management. Once they take off property management, they tend to find it's much easier, they are occupied for a longer period of time AND they save 8-12%. 

Quote from @Travis Timmons:

@Erin Spradlin it's funny that you mention that, we're all Airbnb and Zillow for the last 18 months as well. Airbnb tenants also pay a higher price. I'm considering just killing the furnished finder account due to the $149 annual fee. It's not much, but it's been a waste for the last year or two.

 @Travis Timmons Yes, I actually was up for renewal and just let it expire for the same reason. It's not a lot of money, but after awhile, it begs the question: why am I paying for this?