WIIRE 005: Our Very First Mid-Term Rentals (& What We've Learned Since!) with Amelia & Grace

Welcome back! Today we're going to talk about our very first mid-term rentals. We will be covering how we set up our first mid-term rentals and how we started managing our first mid-term rentals. 

Amelia’s first ever mid-term rental was in an 11-unit apartment building located about five minutes outside of downtown Des Moines, Iowa. She had seen a few people on Instagram doing the mid-term rental thing and was looking for ways to increase the cash flow on a brand new property that they were going to be purchasing. Before they she and her partners even purchased the property, they decided they were going to try the mid-term rentals strategy out and would start by converting one of the studio units into a mid-term rental to test the waters and see how it went.

With this property being all studio-style apartments, it would make a perfect mid-term rental layout. They could keep their furniture expenses low and as a bonus, it was close to all of the downtown hospitals. 

This particular property Amelia furnished mostly using Facebook Marketplace purchases for right around $3,000. Once it was furnished and ready for tenants she listed it on FurnishedFinder. Within about 24 hours she had her first inquiry; he signed the lease and the rest is history. 

But when this particular tenant moved out, he gave no notice, so he obviously did not get his deposit back. However, it only sat vacant for about one week before it was occupied again. 

One thing we want to add is that we do a few key things to protect ourselves in the event that someone were to cancel at the last minute because let’s face it, plans change. In these instances we simply state that the tenant is ‘on the hook’ for the rent until we find a new tenant - and we will do our very, very best to fill the unit as quickly as possible (which is rarely more than two weeks). We also like to use referrals for our regular traveling nurses - especially if they can find someone to split the unit with them.

We like to look at mid-term rentals like a puzzle: how can you line up all of your mid-term rentals so there's a minimal vacancy.

Grace prefers to look for those wanting a minimum of a 3-month stay because it is not her goal to be a short-term rental host. The exception here is if the has only a few days or weeks between tenants and she will offer the unit as a short-term rental at a higher nightly rate (think Airbnb), or someone who is willing to take over the remaining time on a canceled rental. For 

Grace’s goal is minimum vacancy and has had really good luck with people who have stayed and continued to extend their stay. The reason for that is that she makes sure that her units are nice, but not necessarily over the top. They don't have a bunch of extra amenities, but they have what you need, they're cute, and they're clean.

Investing in real estate provides so many opportunities to be creative with the properties that you already have, or new properties that you're purchasing. But we just love the mid-term rental strategy for that reason.

If you are interested in learning more about mid-term rentals, we have a couple of options for you. The first is our free MTR Starter Guide which covers the three most frequently asked questions that we get about midterm rentals. The second option is our Mid-Term Rental Profit Academy course. 

Thanks for tuning in, everyone. Catch you in the next episode!

Resources:

• Grab our free WIIRE  MTR Starter Guide
• Enroll in our Mid-Term Rental Profit Academy course
• List your mid-term rental on FurnishedFinder
• List your rental on Airbnb