All Forum Posts by: Nick Zupec

Hi Tanya. Our original plan was to work directly with corporations in a more B2B way as well. Just before we launched our first couple MTRs we started reaching out, networking, and pitching our model to local companies. We got some limited engagement but no real leads. We ended up putting that on the backburner and using the typical Airbnb, Furnished Finder, Zillow, etc. routes to fill our units. One thing that we did early on was create a website for our company that laid out our corporate/MTR strategy. We also put a little bit of effort into SEO so that it would come up in searches for corporate or midterm housing in our pretty small market. It has been about 2 years and now we are starting to have companies come to us. I'm not sure if it was just that we planted the seed but the timing wasn't right at first? We also follow-up with the recruiter or HR lead after each stay to tell them what a great experience we had with their employee and to ask them to think of us in the future when they need to place someone in a midterm/corporate lease. Maybe that occasional outreach is helping us over time as well? Some companies still connect us with their employees and have them work with us directly on the lease signing, rent payment, etc. but we have also had a couple companies sign the lease with us directly. I've asked those companies what made them choose us and they said our website and our prompt replies to their initial inquiry. Hopefully you can figure it out up front and get there a little faster than we did!... but I think we will get there eventually too and we learned some new skillsets along the way. I'm happy to discuss more details directly if you have more specific questions. Good luck!

Thanks @Gregory Schwartz. That's awesome, glad to hear it! Let me know if I can help at all and good luck.

Thanks everyone for the comments and tips, very helpful!

@Priti Ag, this particular company is an infrastructure company that is headquartered a few hours from our town so it is not a company that I targeted previously. The tenant is a civil/construction engineer. They had the engineer look through the usual listing platforms (we use Zillow, apartments.com, Furnished Finder, and Airbnb) and let them know which properties they were most interested in. Then the office manager of that company outreached to me directly through that platform (in this case apartments.com). The unit is furnished and stocked and parking and all utilities are included. I got the same rate that I would get on any direct booking since they could see the listed price online. This is still preferable to platforms like Airbnb where there may be more fees depending on how much of the fees you pass through to the tenant via your pricing.

We manage our own properties so when we reached out to local companies, it was to the companies directly (not property management companies). With larger companies, it can be hard to get to the right person. When we end up getting a traveling worker from one of those companies, we always ask them who their contact is. Then at the end of the stay, we reach out to that contact directly and let them know that we had a great experience with their employee and that we would love to either work with them directly or be a preferred housing provider for them in the future. Good luck!

Since this post didn't get any replies, I'm going to reply with what I ended up doing incase it helps anyone else later. I'm not saying this is the only way or even the right way since I've never done this before, but it seemed to work out ok (so far).

1. I did not use an application. We went straight to the lease.

2. The person signing the lease provided me with a "Resolution of Corporate Authority". It was a notarized document listing the people authorized to sign on behalf of the company.

3. I did still background check the tenant, but I did not do a credit check.

4. The corporation did sign the lease. The tenant moves in next week and I will be doing a unit walkthrough and orientation with him where I will go through the key parts of the lease since he didn't sign it.

A couple other things that are different from typical MTR stays:

- They are not using my property management software (RentRedi) to pay rent. They had me fill out a Vendor Information Form with my ACH information. I am sending rent invoices and they are directly depositing the rent from their checking account to mine.

- They had their corporate counsel review the lease and request a few changes. If you have an attorney, I highly recommend having them review any proposed changes and communicate directly back to the corporate attorney if they have any concerns. They only requested a couple changes and one of them we pushed back on and found a middle ground.

- I communicated with a lot of different people throughout the process. The office administrator did the initial due diligence, the corporate counsel reviewed the lease, the accounts payable coordinator setup the accounts and sent the security deposit, one of the VPs signed the lease, and only after all of that occurred did I get the name and contact information of the tenant.

- Now I am in their system as a Vendor/Subcontractor. I am going to do everything that I can to make the stay go as smooth as possible so that they continue to use me in the future for other employees doing projects in our area. 

Hi Lily. It probably depends on the specific market and the supply and demand in that market. Where I am, we definitely don't get 2 to 2.5x LTR rents. Your 30-50% is pretty accurate here. 

What I do is look at what expenses I would have for an MTR that I wouldn't have for an LTR. For example, I could get $1,500 as an LTR without paying utilities. As an MTR I can get $2,200 but I need to pay an average of $200 for utilities and an extra $100 for vacancy reserves (I self manage so no increase there). The net for comparison is $1,900. The MTR would make me an extra $4,800/year ($400/month). If I spent $12,000 furnishing it, that would be a 40% return on my investment to make it an MTR. Then you could decide whether that added work is worth that return. 

One other side note, I do 4 of these in our 8-unit apartment building so that increase in NOI also increases the building value more than I spend on the furnishings (e.g. $4,800 increase in NOI at an 8% cap rate increases the building value by $60,000). Then we can borrow against some of that equity which is another reason that narrower margins may still be worth it.

Hi MTR community,

We regularly work with local companies to find MTR tenants, but up until now the tenant has always signed the lease, received a per diem, and paid us directly. This is the first time that the corporation wants to sign with us directly. This particular time will be a 6 month lease with a single tenant over that time. What do you do differently in this situation? Specifically:

1. Do you still use an application? This is a large established corporation so I'm not concerned, and most of my application questions wouldn't make sense. However, I'm big on systems and processes so it makes me uncomfortable to change things up and not do an application!

2. How do you confirm that the person at the corporation is authorized to sign a lease on the company's behalf? Do they usually provide an authorization form? I don't want to sound like this is my first time doing this when I ask.

3. Do you still background check the tenant? The credit check is likely pointless if the corporation is paying the rent, but it is an apartment building so I feel like everyone in the building should have gone through the background check.

4. Who actually signs the lease? My initial thought was that the tenant would sign the lease with the corporation signing a lease guarantor agreement. If the agent of the corporation signs the lease, do you have the actual tenant as an additional party on the lease?

Anything else that you do differently that I'm missing? Thanks so much for thoughts on any of these items!

Yes, it has definitely changed recently. I agree. We have a spot on our application that asks how many felonies they've had and we had an applicant list a felony but then it didn't come up on the background check. I know it was in Michigan from talking to the applicant and we've had Michigan felonies show up in the past. We are going to have to rethink our application and screening processes.

I was just in RentPrep and I saw this: 

NOTE: The following states are not included in the Nationwide Criminal Search:
AL, CO, D.C., DE, GA, HI, IA, ID, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, RI, SC, SD, VT, and WY

Is that new? I've used RentPrep for years and I don't recall that disclaimer. That's half of the states that aren't included in the criminal search (including mine). Does anyone have any other options that they prefer for a more comprehensive background check?

Hi Joshua, congrats! Traveling healthcare workers often work 2nd or 3rd shift so blackout curtains and a sound machine are nice. They often work long hours too and primarily come back to sleep so we get nicer mattresses and linens. Travelers in any field usually have streaming TV services so we get SmartTVs with high speed WiFi. We include smaller appliances like blenders, toasters, and definitely a coffee machine (we have Keurigs that brew single cups). 

I also agree with everything that Gabe and Jamie said. We have guest books too with local recommendations. We also provide a welcome basket that gives them items to get through a few days so they don't have to go shopping right when they arrive (2 toilet paper rolls, 1 paper towel roll, small dish soap, small hand soap, 2 dishwasher pods, 2 laundry pods, 3 garbage bags, scrub brush for dishes, a few coffee pods, some sugar packets, etc). Guests always comment on how nice it is to have those things there, especially when they arrive late. 

For Furnished Finder, I definitely recommend professional photos. Don't be the person that you can see taking a cell phone photo in the bathroom mirror :) Most importantly, reply quickly when people reach out with interest. They often are looking at multiple properties and the more responsive you are, the more likely you will secure the booking. I get all notifications to my phone so I can usually reply right away. Reach out if you have any other questions as you get closer!

We include utilities at all of our MTRs and I believe that is pretty standard. Someone coming for usually 30-90 days from out of town doesn't want to go through the hassle of figuring out who the providers are, starting service, stopping service, etc. We find that most travelers are looking for something easy and want one price and payment that includes rent, utilities, parking, etc. all in one. We just bake all of that into our monthly rate. There is a section in Furnished Finder that tells if utilities are included or not so you can see if most properties in your market do the same.