Hello. Welcome back to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are.

Thanks for Visiting. And this is the Hosting Hotline. If you wanna get your hosting questions answered here on the hosting hotline, go to hostinghotline.com, ask your question, and we'll answer it here on the podcast every single Tuesday. They are so fun hostinghotline.com Today we have a question about midterm rentals.

Hey, Sarah. Hey, Annette. I'm a long time listener here. First time caller. I've been doing short term rentals, but I am starting to get curious about midterm stays, the 30 plus day bookings. What would you say are the pros and cons of switching it up and how would I even get started? I'm curious to know if my area would even work for that kind of rental. So how can I decide? I always get such helpful advice here, so thank you so much for all that you do.

I will say that I was midterm rental, curious, and so I did it. I wanted to know what it was like. We have a slow period here in Columbus. It goes from like December, depending on what's going on with football, definitely into March. And I had been wondering and wondering, and so one year I listed it on Furnished Finder. I've never looked back because it helped me fill that time with a quality, and I'm gonna say this word, very specifically tenant for that time period. And then I did get back into short-term rentals because I was rested up, ready to go tackle our high season. So the caller mentions switching it up, and so I wanted to touch on that, answering her question that you can do a hybrid, and you can certainly just do midterms as well. The brokerage that I'm a part of, they do both midterms and we do both midterms and short-terms, and we have clients who just do midterm and ones that just do short-term. And it's great, but let's get into the differences.

Yeah. And it's, um, you caller mentioned pros and cons and it's more of just like. There's differences. Yes. Um, you know, there's differences from you when you go from long-term rental to short-term rental, from short-term rental to midterm rental. So I wanna put out there, I think one of the, like cons, I will say that, is that people, um, tout that they are the same and maybe they're easy to toggle in between. And it's like a midterm guest and a short term guest are very different. Um, and not in a negative way. Just they're, you're. They're staying for different lengths of time. Their needs are going to be different, and we just like, you have to have a hospitality for a short term rental. You also need to make sure you're taking care of the needs for someone that's staying a longer term, but more really moving in, you know, living in the space.

Yes. It becomes, it truly becomes our home away from home. I know a lot of us short-term rentals say that our short-term rentals are their home away from home, but that's usually for a few nights. Where this is. For, I mean, months at a time. The other difference is when it comes to short term rentals, you can turn on Instant book and have guests book with very little questions. Maybe one or two if that come stay, maybe they never even, you never even hear from 'em and then they leave and that's it. With a midterm, like Annette just mentioned, yes, they might have some more questions 'cause it's their, truly their home for a while. But also in most states they become a tenant and so you do have to do a little work on getting a background check, a credit check, and having them sign whatever they need to sign to be, uh, compliant in your state.

The good news, really huge pro about this is, um, and Sarah's with me like every day and I continue to talk about how I think the demand for midterm rentals is going to continue to increase. I believe the live anywhere, work anywhere is just going to continue to explode. I believe that folks that used to retire and buy one property are no longer gonna do that. They're gonna spread their retirement and their funds across multiple cities and really go and stay. And so I think that's the exciting part about it, is I believe that the demand is going to keep increasing for, um, longer. Longer stays.

Well, we just did an Instagram live actually with Furnished Finder and they said they have the data that it is an increasingly uh, growing sector of traveler. And they said that yes, during covid, the traveling medical professionals were the biggest sector, but now it's actually people coming to do projects in areas. So think. Project managers, construction workers, people on some sort of special assignment within their company and having to, you know, go to different areas to get that work done. So it's more of a traveling professional, not that nurses and doctors aren't professionals, but just not that niche.

Right. That it's like opening the, um, it's opening up to all sectors. Yes. And uh, the other thing that I think is still great about having a midterm rental to midterm rental in there too, is like you still have the capability to not have someone in your space for 12 months at a time. You know, like if that's one thing, like just completely doing a long-term rental, you could have, you know, three months and they extend for four months, five months, six months, but you still have that flexibility, especially if you're someone that. You like to use the space during peak seasons, um, you could still do your personal use, short-term and midterm.

And they do make more than a long-term rental. Obviously you have to put the furniture in, but let's say you're doing a midterm rental strategy only. You probably don't need to decorate it to the extremes that a lot of us short-term rental hosts do to stand out in the market. Midterm rental, they want it to look great, don't get me wrong, but, and they want furniture that's going to last and they want dressers and things of that nature in a fully stocked kitchen. But you probably don't need that wow amenity that you might need to stand out as a short-term rental and, uh, you'll make more still than a long-term renter. Mm-hmm. And depending Now I know a lot of gurus out there will share about the, uh, insurance claims that you can get and you can get them. Unless you have a really strong relationship with an insurance company, uh, placement, uh, those stays aren't as frequent as we wish they were. But even if it's a traveling professional or a medical professional, they will still pay off in 2 x 2.5 x what you can get for a long-term rent. And then the caller also asked, how do you know it can work in your market? And we think you'd be surprised. With the midterm rental. 'Cause like Annette said, it's people who maybe they wanna actually relocate. We have someone who, um, is staying with us right now on a midterm uh, contract who, his kiddo, his grown child, had a, their first baby and he wanted to be there for those first formative months. And so he's just coming and staying in a furnished place and signed a lease so he could be here for six months to be alongside his family. So it doesn't need to be a place that has a lot of business going on either one thing you could do is go on to Furnished Finder and see if there are other midterm rentals in that area. The data's also there via, um, data resources like Price Labs. They can also, you can limit it to 30 days stays and see how many are out there and what's going on there. You could go on to other platforms and see, uh, if there are any listings for stays longer than 30 days, but you'd be surprised. Even smaller markets, more rural markets have a place for midterm rentals.

And that's what I would do. I would go over to Furnished Finder in your area and do a search and see that's, that's what I do whenever I want to. Whether it's just look at any area, short term, midterm, long term. I go online and start to see what is out there.

And here's the, oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was saying, here's the thing is like. You could list on Furnished Finder, have conversations because the conversations go on a little bit longer than you would, like I said, than short-term rentals. And see the questions they're asking you see the kind of interest you're getting and let's say it doesn't,

and see what the price you can command, right? Like that's what's so great too. It's like you don't have to say yes until you're ready to say yes.

Absolutely. And so I would just, I would list your property. Have conversations, see how it goes, see what questions get asked see like maybe you don't, maybe there is a lot of demand. You see there's a lot of other rental rentals in your area, but you don't have a price quite right. And so you can figure that out that way. But listing it and giving it a try is something that you can, uh, try. And the cool thing about Furnished Finder. They are unlike other OTAs where they want you to just partner, like they'll just partner you up with the potential lead like you could, that lead could reach out to you on your listing and you can absolutely give your phone number, your email, take them off platform and talk to you Furnished Finder is a place that connects you with these leads. But you don't have to keep them on platform, which is really powerful too.

And that's what I love about testing it too, because. Depending on your percentage that you're paying to a vrbo, um, Airbnb right now, that percentage. Would remain in your pocket. So you actually stay a lot more competitive because you're gonna be earning more the guest, AKA long-term midterm tenant isn't gonna have to pay, um, those higher fees also. So that's something to keep, a really big thing to keep in mind, um, when you, uh, we hear of people listing 30 days plus on Airbnb, but then that fee structure is also staying the same on Airbnb.

And we also called our friends over at Furnished Finder to get their expertise on this question.

Hey, thanks so much for the question. I'm Tanya Shin, chief Growth Officer at Furnished Finder, and I love that you're getting curious about midterm rentals or 30 day plus days. You're definitely not alone. We're seeing huge growth in tenant demand across the country, especially from travel nurses, remote workers, and people relocating. It's a really exciting time to explore this space. I actually tested it myself with my rental in Austin, Texas. I listed it on Furnished Finder alongside Airbnb, and my last guests were a couple renovating their home. They stayed for three months, and honestly, it was kind of a dream I didn't have to constantly clean or prep, and I just got the check each month. Plus I kept more of the rent since there weren't any guest booking fees and I collected directly. Don't get me wrong. Airbnb's great for short-term bookings. It's super convenient, especially with instant booking and messaging all handled for you. But Furnished Finder gives you a different kind of control. You connect directly with guests, you use your own lease, and you manage payment on your own terms. It's a little more hands-on at the start, but once someone moves in, it's a lot less work. If you're wondering if this could work in your area, just head to furnishedfinder.com/stats. You can look up demand in your city and even call our sales team. They're awesome and can help walk you through it. Thanks again for calling in and good luck if you decide to give it a try.

And if you wanna try Furnished Finder out and kind of take our advice and just list your property, have conversations, see how it goes. You can get $30 off your first listing if you use code TFV30 when you go to Furnished Finder, but act fast. This deal won't last forever. And we also wanna give you motivation to finally give it a try. Kinda like I did back in the day. I kept thinking about it and finally just gotta do it. And now here I am years later and I'm like, that was a really great strategy for me to be able to pivot back and forth from You might be facing regulations. Yeah. Where 30 days stays are something that you're gonna have to do.

Always good to have. A plan to diversify the property and know

Yes. So again, that's furnishedfinder.com. Use code TFE30 at checkout. Give it a try. If you have any questions for us about midterm rentals, you can always DM us on Instagram or email us.

I want, can I share some things that, some that I would, one thing to keep in mind, we get this question a lot about midterm, is the supplies. So make sure, don't feel like you need to supply all the toilet paper, all the paper towels, all the everything for their entire, you know. Six month stay.

I've got a, I've got a colleague who gives nothing. And she tells 'em when you arrive, there will be a roll of toilet paper and

'Uh, a little star pack.

Yeah. And that's it. And now we do a little bit more than that because I have the inventory for it. It's like not a big deal for us. But No, you don't have to at all. Right. I just want you to like be, when you're thinking those things through, it doesn't have to be like that. Yeah. All right. So yeah, try out Furnished Finder TFE30 You got questions? Like I said, DM us on Instagram, email us at hi@thanksforvisiting.com We're happy to answer your questions. Everyone, feel free to reach out. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian. I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for visiting. Talk to you next time.