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

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for Visiting.

Let's kick this episode off like we do each and every week, and that is celebrating one of you, our incredible listeners. You're heading on over to strshare.com. You're sharing everything you can about your short-term rental so we can celebrate you here on the podcast. Annette. Who are we sharing this week?

This week we are sharing at Whimsical Mouse Manner. Love that name. And then when you dig in, it's a Mickey Mouse themed house. Here is what I am gonna share with you guys. This design is so niche, to mouse fans, but it's so well done. I actually want to, I. Put a just, I'm gonna offer to everyone. I want you to go to their Instagram. I want you to look and go room by room and challenge yourself. Is there a room in your house that needs upgraded? All right? I wanna challenge you to look at your competition, whimsical mouse manner. They know they have steep, steep, steep competition in this area. Okay. They came to play. They knew who they were marketing to. They're three miles from Disney. They are not messing around. Couple of things I love, they have a wall in their dining room that they put, um, all mouse ears, but like really well done. Artistic, hung up. They have an amazing, um, mural, but it looks custom and so just dialed in. There's not one place that you look in this house and the family staying there isn't going to be quote unquote entertained by their design. And then last but not least, just when you think they couldn't do anything any better, I spy an amazing, amazing safety signs in their pool area. I have not seen signs at a pool area in a short term rental displayed like this, maybe not ever no diving, it's on their wall. It's clean, it's neat, but they are putting safety first for their guests because yes, I'm sure they have a lot of families, a lot of little kids. Pool safety has to be really important. So check out, um, all of their photos. They will give you design tips and safety tips both, and that is what I call an amazing STR share when we can merge design and safety together. So well done.

Let's pivot to today's episode, and we want to talk about the truth behind midterm rentals, especially if you want to pivot back and forth from a short term strategy to a midterm, back to a short term. There's a lot of hype out there, a lot of talk out there that somehow midterm rentals are just going to save you during your short-term rental slow seasons, we are at least three years into doing the hybrid approach. So we think we know a thing or two that we can share with you about our experience, what we know to be true, and it's not all roses and butterflies and, and puppy dogs. So today we're gonna share the five things that you don't think of. When listing your home as a midterm rental. All right, so reality number one, it is not guaranteed money. Like everyone on TikTok and Instagram wants to tell you it is because the midterm rentals, they're not as stable or they don't offer the predictable income that everyone preaches.

Listen, you are one message away from a guest checking out early. So think about this, your guest. They're looking for temporary housing. Alright? They have short contract jobs. Maybe there's project delays. They might even be going undergoing medical treatments. So they're, these are all things that change quickly. Alright? Very quickly. And the person left at the end of the day holding the, the least that you know, they wanna break early, is you, because that is part of the gamble of taking a midterm guest. And guess what? If you do get someone that is steady is reliable. They want extensions, and those are just as unpredictable. They want you to hold the spot, hold the spot, hold another 30 days, hold another 60 days, hold another 90 days.

And then boom, all of a sudden they're done, let them go and they have to like get out and you're like, wait, I've been holding the spot. Yeah. And, and, and it's, it's just like you want to extend the stay or say like, create a good rapport within the midterm rental world. Let's say you're working with placement agencies or midterm rental guests talk to other midterm rental guests, especially if there's a lot of activity going on in your area. If there's a lot of construction projects or things of that nature where you have contractors and project managers and they tell each other, Hey, stay with Sarah and Annette. They'll ex, they'll hold a spot for you. So if you're contract gets extended, it'll be great. That's one way of looking at it. And yes, you serve them, the guests and you get a good reputation there. But what you compromise on the other end are vacancies because then their contract ends and you weren't working to get another lead, which by the way, takes a lot longer than you think it will, and you're left with these awkward amounts of stays. And unless you can offset that, which short term stays, which now the OTAs don't like you because you have these long blocks of your calendar, it is just not as predictable or steady as people lead you to believe they are. Reality two, is you have to juggle

multiple platforms to remain visible to that potential. One guest that needs a midterm state during the dates that you have open. All right? So you're juggling multiple platforms, making sure that you're visible even when you're booked, because you need to be getting that next guest. And also making sure you're trying, trying to keep reviews on all platforms. And when you're only having maybe four guests a year, it's hard to have like steady reviews to prove to that next guest that you're an amazing host.

Yeah, it is. And again, all these realities, it's not to say that they're not worth the hard work, but they just get sold as this like easy button.

Easy button.

And people love finding their midterm rental guests on Airbnb, right? 'cause we all feel like Airbnb guests, they're safer somehow, which don't get us started there. But Airbnb alone won't sustain a profitable midterm rental strategy. The fees are higher on Airbnb versus Furnished Finder, which has a flat annual fee or direct booking. So listen, for all of you out there thinking that midterm rental is gonna be this, uh, this. Other reality where you have to, you get to avoid direct bookings and facing that reality of figuring out direct bookings, you are flushing so much money down the toilet by getting those leads from Airbnb. And then, like you said, they stay for so long, they don't leave the review. Or if they do, it takes forever to get that review. So it's just this like catch 22 of trying to gain trust across these platforms. They stay for so long though, so those opportunities to add that trust to the platform is really hard to do.

And Sarah mentioned it with the new Airbnb platform fees. With those month long stays. I mean, you're gonna have to understand that math and make sure that you have adjusted properly and hopefully you have headed into, into the future. And we know that Airbnb's work feature it really can help you.

Yeah.

But different platforms attract a different clientele and you really need to be working across all of them again to sustain that occupancy.

Reality number three, the turnovers, okay, you're doing less of them, but my goodness, are they heavier footprints?

Mm-hmm. Unlike a short term rental, if you've just had to stay for a night or a few days, those can take, you know, just a few hours. Midterm rental turnovers, I'm being honest here, could require days of work. Why? Because you are now deep cleaning. Alright, reordering doing a full inventory of all the supplies, replacing items that have been fully lived in, okay. They have been here 24/7 for again, thirty, sixty, ninety, a hundred twenty days. So that wear and tear is much heavier. A lot of times when you have guests. You know, they're maybe in town for an event or visiting other people and, and just in and outta the house. Maybe you're, they're just there to rest their head. These guests are staying, they are living. Listen, they are purchasing plants. They're purchasing mattress toppers, patio furniture. There are so many items that are left behind when they depart because they have made it their home, and rightfully so while they've been staying with you.

And here's the thing. You might be thinking, what I'm thinking right now in my head about what you're thinking, which is well just get in there and clean every couple weeks, every three weeks, every four weeks. Okay. But that's just another level of operations that MTRs are supposed to have us, you know, avoid by just getting someone in there and being able to like, sit back and kick up our feet and relax. It's like if you don't wanna have that heavy footprint, that heavy turnover, if you wanna get in there and making sure that the furnishings, the, the linens, the terry, all of that stuff are being respected and, and, and properly laundered, all that kind of, all that kind of good stuff, then you're gonna have to have something. A system in place to help you get in there more often, and you have to communicate that with the potential guest who's gonna be standing, schedule it.

Schedule it.

Who's gonna pay for it, all that kind of good stuff. But that is the, that is the one great thing that we've found to offset those heavy, those heavy turnovers and being surprised and having to block your calendar for four or five days to recoup. But then it's like. That's, those are occupancy or, you know, vacancy days that I wouldn't have had to.

We've learned that the hard way, by the way, of trying to do a turnover.

No, don't do that in one day.

No, you will.

Even if you do midday cleans and you know the last time you're there two weeks ago it was fine.

You have got to do a full inventory of full, deep, clean. Yeah. All the things.

This is where operation tools like Breezeway are essential.

And Breezeway is truly one of our favorite. I'm gonna have to say, Sarah's can't live without hosting tools.

Hospitality does not stop at the booking. It is the work that follows the inspections, the repairs, the stocking, the cleaning Breezeway keeps all of that organized, so nothing slips through the cracks, especially for during and after a midterm rental stay. And of course during a short term rental stay. And I love their app.

Seriously. She like, she like stares at it sometimes.

I just like adding things to it.

She loves SOPs. Okay. But she's always on the go. You're a host. We're all on the go. So having the app with everything about your property right there at your fingertips is unbelievable. So do yourself a favor, level up your work as a host. Go get on Breezeway today. We're gonna put their information in the show notes. Reality number four, there are leasing and legal requirements. I'm telling you, I got lucky with this that I never had any issues because stays over 28 days, depending on where you are in the country, in the world, they usually require a lease. You are now a landlord. You wanna talk about potential of squatter situations without a proper lease. Woo. Like if.

With a proper lease, squatter situations are hard.

Exactly. But that is where fair housing, there are so many layers to this, and I can say I literally would take midterm rental bookings on Airbnb and I was so naive of what the risk was there. So here are some things that we need to be asking ourselves without, you know, without this proper lease in place. So some questions you need ask who's writing the lease? Like, oh my gosh, like, talk to the attorney now who you know. How are you sending it? How are you signing it? If the guest extends, if someone's ready to send an updated agreement. Obviously you can do all these things online.

It's all possible. It's all doable.

It's possible. We just want you to think about this stuff ahead of time. Some cities, some states, some municipalities like you often need to be a licensed, maybe real estate agent, broker, something legal there to send those leases, and if not, you need to team up with someone and most likely then you're paying them a portion of the fee. Because they are taking on that risk and you're using their so software and their systems, which are critical here. And again, we're not saying it's not worth it, but our job is to make you aware of all of the things that short term rental hosts don't think of when they're thinking of pivoting to midterm rentals.

Well, and I want clarify here. So if you own the property, and again, like there are so many different jurisdictions, and nuances, what, what have you? You can send a lease for, for your midterm rental. But if you are a co-host where it's already a gray area, you managing stays for some for a property that you don't own. And now if someone wants to stay more than 28 days, just really understand what you're allowed and not allowed to do. And. I, that's where like, and if, and if you figure out that you can't, you're like, oh, I just won't, I just won't host midterm stays. But then I think you're doing your client a disservice by not being able to be flexible with, with stays. If someone wants to stay more than 28 days and now you can't do it because you're not allowed to. Again, it's just this nuance that hosts don't think about.

You have to also check with your insurance agency.

Yeah.

They might think you're under 28 days stays, all of a sudden something goes into over 28 days stays. So again, that's another conversation you need to have with your, uh, your attorney, your accountant and your insurance broker. Reality number five, the ongoing property maintenance is harder. Like, I'm just gonna be honest, like outta sight, outta mind, right? Those 30 days can go by really, really fast. With short term rentals, you know, you're slotting your maintenance in there very frequently, let's say your dryer vents, pest control, HVAC plus your turnover team and inspector is tipping you off.

Yeah.

To these potential maintenance issues. With a midterm rental this, the property is occupied for months at a time. So small maintenance issues could get really big in a very small amount of time. And the thing is. When you're a short-term rental host, it's easy. You're like, you know, you have a, um, an opening, let's say from 11 to four, you can talk to your, your turnover pro, let them know that your pest control's coming in, or the dryer vent's gonna get cleaned, or HVAC is there and you could communicate really quickly with them and the house is empty. But when you have to coordinate that with a guest that's living there, it can get really, um.

It's complicated.

There's, yeah, it gets complicated. Maybe they work from home. They don't want anybody in the home. There might be several members of the family living in that home at the same time, working, napping, sleeping. They work at night, they work during the day. There's a lot of different variables.

And that goes back to then the lease to make sure you're lease. Is not just getting any old lease. Mm-hmm. Like how, what kind of lease do you need.

That you can enter to do maintenance?

Right. Where it's not up to the tenant 'cause they are a tenant. Now I know we're calling them a guess, but they're a tenant and it's different. And so yeah, that lease, you can't just get one off because like, there's just different things to take into consideration with how you need to, uh, get in that home and operate within that home. Like with property maintenance. Mm-hmm. Because it, you know, you need to get in there to make sure that the filters are being changed and that, uh, you know, pest control needs still need. All those things we talked about, they still need to happen. The dryer vents still need to be cleaned out.

Actually, maybe even more frequently because it is being lived in 24/7. And here's the deal, I'm getting heated. It is now their home for that period. So these levels, like these vary. So some guests, again, they don't want anybody coming in even for this preventative work. It's adding that layer of complexity. We just wanted to keep it real with you today of these five realities that a lot of people don't think of. And I, and the reason we wanna share this with you too, is you might not even be thinking about doing midterm rentals, but you will inevitably, at some point in time on the OTAs. Get a ping for someone that wants to stay for 30, 60, 90, an extended stay, and they will have you thinking that this is the jackpot. So we just have to set you straight, have these things that you haven't thought about. When you do get that request from someone that wants to stay for midterm rental.

And we are not saying don't do it, that is not what this video is about. This is about preparing you and getting you to think. And just one more reminder that we give with every single time we pop in here is that there is no easy button everyone. There's no silver bullet. No matter, renting out your property comes with risk. It comes with work, even with long-term rentals. Unless you hire it out, delegate all that work to a property manager and property managers, y'all, they work really hard.

Yeah.

Whether it's for a long-term rental, a short-term rental, or a midterm rental and it's work that not a lot of people want to do. I'm an absolute sicko and I understand that and that's fine, but it is. It is a lot, honestly, property managers, it is one of those gigs that a lot of people don't wanna get into it. They don't wanna do that work. And it's because it's hard. It is complicated. There are a lot of nuances and laws around it. Tell the story Annette, of one of our members who's having really difficulty right now with. These midterm rental guests just kind of.

Oh, they're all leaving early. They are all their job contract.

Like just leaving.

Yes. The job contract is ending early. Um, some of them, I'm just gonna say they have relationship issues. That's kind of why they moved in the first place, moving out. Um, medical she has, she lives really close to a hospital and there are people that unfortunately maybe their medical treatment has ended abruptly. They can't afford it anymore. And so she's left like, you know, empty key, you know, the, the, the, the tenant is gone and she's right back at square one. Actually worse because now she's scrambling, where before she was preparing for it and trying to go after them, even when they have a signed lease. Ugh. It is difficult. It's difficult to do.

Lemme tell you this thing too. So, you might think that once you have them in house, you're like, okay, Sarah, Annette, I'm gonna get Breezeway, which you should. Um, and I'm gonna get all this on schedule. My lease is gonna say all the things so that we can get in the property, do all the things, and that's great, and that will make your job so much easier. I also recommend you setting up some sort of system so you do all the things that you need to do before they move in. There's a lot, if they come from various OTAs or wherever they come from, there might be different steps. So that's one thing. If they are truly a direct book. I say you even do it when they're from Airbnb, but credit checks, uh, background checks, background checks, income checks.

And this has to be fair across every single applicant.

Yes.

You have to be fair here.

Yes.

You have to be fair.

Systemize all that. But let me tell you another myth. I'll give you a bonus myth. And that myth is.

I had a bonus myth.

Oh, I have one too.

Okay. Do it.

Is that they're gonna somehow like not talk to you much. And let me tell you that a midterm rental guest talks way more than a short term rental gas test.

Oh, right.

And it's not because, because I was like, maybe this is because I don't answer their questions up front. Listen with me, it's like extreme ownership. I need to put more signs in the property, or my welcome book needs to be more what have you. And it's like, I don't know if they're lonely. I don't know what it is, but it is no less for sure than a short term rental guest.

My bonus, well, my bonus tip to you, not a myth. My bonus tip is especially if you are listing on Airbnb, you have got to be really clear that if they are staying for 30, 60, 90 days, that you are not replenishing. Toilet paper.

Oh yeah.

Paper towels.

Be clear about that. Yeah.

All of the, the dish soaps, the, the, the laundry soap. Like there is this, you know, if that is something that you have put in the listing, that you supply it, you have to let them know that it will not be supplied during the 30, 60, 90 days, or you will get stuck, you know, drop shipping supplies to their house because they will demand it and you don't wanna get that negative review when they feel like they were misled because in the short term stay, all of that is provided and it was not clear during the midterm stay that it was not provided.

And now I understand why. I had some friends of mine who have done midterms for years and years. And they, I, I walked into one and it's beautifully furnished, beautifully designed, but when I tell you there is not one towel, there is no soap there, there are no consumables. And I was like, Jenna, how can you be so inhospitable? And like now, I've, she keeps it simple. And a lot of these traveling people do bring their own terry. They do bring their own bedding and they know that when they come in, they kind of drop their stuff off and they go to the grocery store and get what they need. We haven't done that yet, but I totally understand simplifying it and giving 'em the furniture and taking care of that and making sure it's cared for. So that that next tenant that comes in enjoys the same beautiful space that you're not having to rebuy stuff because it wasn't cared for during the stay. Because then your hundreds of dollars in the hole and this whole midterm rental thing was supposed to be better than short-term rentals. I'm just saying it's all great, but just prepare yourself. It's not easier. It's just different.

And listen, so we know, um, the great thing about this though is like pivoting can work and sometimes you might be forced to pivot, you know?

Yes and grateful for it.

You might be in, you might be in an area where there are super slow seasons and you have to get somebody in there. You, your property, the, the area you're in the homeowner's association.

Yes.

The, the condo, the, the city. Some of it might force you into this, and that's why now you're aware and you can go into midterm rentals with this eyes wide open.

So to recap, midterm rentals aren't easy money occupancy, you know, easy button. They require unique planning around your financials, the turnover, the leases, the maintenance, the visibility, pivoting can work, and we do it. But it is a lot of work, and I think that is where the misconceptions are. I mean, if there's probably one through line through our whole podcast, Annette, it's like, this is work.

I'm here to work.

I love working. Find the work you love. I don't totally buy that. You'll never then work a day in your life, but you'll enjoy what you do if you like the world that you're in. Yeah.

Let's do it.

All right. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for Visiting.