Women Invest in Real Estate

Welcome back to another podcast episode! This week we’re sharing the top misconceptions about midterm rentals that we commonly hear and going to debunk each one of them for you! Not allowing yourself to get caught up in these common misconceptions could actually get you ahead of the game just by knowing how to tell apart a fact from fiction about midterm rentals. Let’s get started! The ListMyth #1: The units in midterm rentals must be luxury or extravagant. The Facts: Keep it simple: clean, safe, comfortable, and affordable. For the most part, traveling professionals are only in this space to sleep so their needs are low and they are trying to keep their costs that way too.  Myth #2: Midterm rentals are only for traveling nurses.The Facts: Recently a teacher who was brand new to the area moved into one of Grace’s midterm rentals because he didn’t know exactly where he wanted to put his roots down yet in his new local area. Amelia has housed all sorts of construction personnel, solar panel and wind turbine contract technicians, traveling corporate employees for companies like Starbucks, and more. They are only working 1-3 month contracts and don’t want to live out of a hotel for the entire time so they choose midterm rentals that suit their needs.  Myth #3: MTR tenants are always the best tenants.The Facts: While this might generally be true in 95% of cases, there is still that 5% of tenants who have been problematic renters. (Throwback to episode 13 where Amelia dished about her tenant who caused her internet to become suspended!).  Bonus Myth #4: Midterm rentals only work in large cities.The Facts: Cedar Rapids has a population of about 120,000 people and Grace lives in a town of about 1,000 people and MTRs are absolutely successful there. Amelia has a MTR in a lake town and her cottage is going to be an MTR for the winter when travel slows down for the season. She put up the listing on FurnishedFinder and within two hours her MTR tenant had paid their deposit and booked the unit! Bonus Myth #5: Short-term rentals have a higher vacancy level.The Facts: In reality, our midterm rentals typically were near 0%. We both work our business to keep our vacancy levels as minimal as possible where a tenant moves out and a new tenant moves in within a matter of hours, allowing for just enough time for a good cleaning and turnover.  That’s all for today friends, thank you for joining us! Catch you in the next episode!  Resources:Enroll in MTR Profit AcademyJoin the Property Management AcademyList your property on FurnishedFinder

Hello everyone, welcome back to episode twelve of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast! We have had such great feedback and so many questions about our day-to-day’s, so today’s episode is another behind-the-scenes WIIRE episode where we’re going to give you the scoop on what we are both up to in the world of real estate investing and managing our properties. We’re going to start off with a crazy story that Amelia has been bursting at the seams to share (and has made us wait until we recorded this episode to share) all the deets about recent happenings at her mid-term rental property! Amelia’s Internet NovellaA few days ago Amelia received a call from Mediacom that they were suspending her service for illegal video downloading. She inquired about the specific router and with several units sharing routers she had to determine exactly when the video downloading occurred to narrow it down to the exact culprit (tenant). The downloading apparently began the day after this tenant moved in and she was taken aback because they claimed they had called her to inform her previously (nope, they did not, nor could they prove it). No one (and we mean NO ONE) likes to deal with utility companies and this time was no exception.Amelia’s red mane was flaming and she was furious about the problem this tenant had caused, because not only did he cause her account to be suspended, but Mediacom informed her that if it continued they would be canceling all of her accounts! This would be quite problematic because not only were all of her units in this building run on Mediacom, but a few others as well, including her personal account. She asked them to give her a few hours to nail down the tenant and resolve the issue and as soon as she hung up she immediately called the tenant. While Amelia normally prefers to handle all of her tenant communication in writing, time was of the essence and she needed an immediate response. When he answered she immediately informed him that she was aware of what was going on and that the internet has been suspended and he was to remove all content from all of his devices, effective immediately, or she would be taking legal action against him.To cover her back, she sent him a text message detailing exactly what she had just verbally told him, as well. He was very apologetic but still received a BIG timeout from Amelia’s paid-for wifi.  Grace’s Next MoveWith more than 12 units using Mediacom for internet service, they finally advised Grace to move to a commercial internet account (quite literally to help her avoid situations just like Amelia’s), so it doesn’t cause an issue across the board on her accounts.Grace is also in the process of hiring an in-house Property Manager and could not be more excited! After so much back-and-forth about the decision to hire Grace has pulled the trigger and is now learning how to ‘be the boss’! This investment will come back to her simply on the time she will be saving by having someone else handle all of the little (and big) details for her biz. For the time being, Grace has been in a reactive stage. She reacts as requests come in, and would rather be able to be in more of a proactive space where she can be prepared for things ahead of time. It is going to be a whole new stage in her business. Other UpdatesAnother announcement Amelia is excited to announce is that if you tuned into our first BTS episode you heard that I was under contract on a seller-financed triplex and they finally closed on that property last week! The first thing they are planning to tackle on this project is actually replacing the roof. It will cost around $22,000 to fully demo and replace (including the removal of 4 old layers) the roof of this property. She is also going to have the gutters replaced as well which will add on another $4,000, spending $26,000 right off the bat, which they are financing through a line of credit and they will BRRR into a commercial loan once they are finished with the rehab.A couple of fun surprises they found on this property were that it still has old knob-and-tube wiring. While it is in good condition, they will likely still go ahead and replace it since so many walls will already be opened up. Another surprise was that this owner actually did a full clean-out from all of the ‘stuff’ that originally had been packed into the property (rare, but a much-appreciated surprise!). Lastly, while they were pulling up the old, brown shag carpeting they discovered beautiful wood floors, in immaculate condition!That’s all for this episode, friends! If you’re looking to connect with us outside the podcast you can find us each on Instagram:Amelia’s IGGrace’s IGThat’s all for this week, we'll catch you in the next episode!  Resources:Join the Property Management AcademySee how you can use TenantCloud in your businessCheck out Hospitable for your vacation rental properties

Welcome back to episode 11 of the WIIRE podcast! In this week’s episode we’re sharing with you about our very first (ever) rentals; how we found them, how we managed them, and if we still have them in our portfolio.  Amelia’s First Rental PropertyAmelia’s first rental property was a triplex in a small town in her hometown, with a population of around 5,000 people. It was a 2-story property with 3 units; two bedrooms, one bathroom on the first floor, and two units with one bedroom and one bathroom each on the 2nd floor. Amelia found this property listing on Zillow and really, only by accident. She typically had only been searching for single-family properties and didn’t realize she had the multi-family filter selected when she came across this property. She scheduled a time to walk through it and was taken aback by the awful tenants living in the residence. So she wrote what she now calls a ‘love letter’ to the owner stating how she was excited to purchase a property in her hometown and be able to give back by providing quality housing to the residents of her hometown. With the list price sitting at $99,000 she submitted an offer of $65,000 and after some negotiation they landed on a purchase price of $78,000. Amelia purchased the property for all-cash because the appraisal was taking a long time to come back so she made it an all-cash purchase with the intent of refinancing into a mortgage right when the appraisal could be completed. This wound up being a blessing in disguise situation because the property needed some work and she was able to make them to the property before the appraiser came out. When they finally did come out to do the appraisal it appraised for $92,000. Part of Amelia’s contingency on this offer was that the property must be sold vacant, meaning no inherited tenants upon closing. With only 45 days until they closed the tenants moved out and Amelia ran the numbers again on this triplex (crazy for a first rental!) and knew there was no way she wouldn’t make money on this property. It’s been nearly two years and taking the risk on her first-time rental property as a flip, wound up being a huge success and now cash flows around $800-900 per month.  Grace’s First Rental PropertyAfter looking for a few weeks Grace and her boyfriend purchased their first rental property when she saw a property for sale, called the seller, and asked for a list of properties they were interested in selling. He sent over a list of about 30+ properties and was trying to sell them down to about 8 or so. She told him she wanted to see the grossest property he had.He did, and it was absolutely disgusting. An absolute gut. Backing up a few steps to her Buy Box, Grace knew they needed to BRRR because they had the money for a down payment and for the repairs, but did not want to buy cash. They also knew they wanted it to be a single-family property, and the town Grace lives near. They also did not want inherited tenants so they could start work right away. Plus, they were going to DIY the project. When it came time to start working on the property it seemed to be even more disgusting than they initially thought and found more trash than they could have ever imagined possible. After purchasing with 20% down, they told their bank they would be refinancing it ASAP so the bank put them on a construction loan so they only had to pay quarterly interest on it until they refinanced it. It took about 6 months (which was 3 months over their initially estimated timeframe) and between $35,000 and $36,000 (when they had only estimated $23,000), which added a significant about of stress to the entire project. One of Grace’s ‘fondest’ memories (and biggest lessons) of this particular project was that when they were roughly one month out from completion, they made a schedule of what needed to be done. The entire 3-story property needed painting (doors, walls, ceilings, trim, you name it). She scheduled herself 3 days to paint which quickly, and painstakingly, turned into one month.Their hard work paid off and was roughly $120,000 and when all was said and done the property appraised for $185,000. They pulled out roughly 70% equity and walked away with around $8,000 extra to use on their next deal. Today, Grace still has this property in her portfolio (renter occupied) and has learned some major lessons to take along her REI journey. If you’ve enjoyed hearing our stories in this episode head over to Instagram and give us each a follow and see what we’re up to now!Follow AmeliaFollow GraceCatch you in the next episode!  Resources:Grab your seat for our free 60-minute training

Hey friends, welcome back to episode 10 of the Women Invest In Real Estate Podcast! This week we are so excited to welcome Kayla Thorp, also known as thatlandlady on Instagram. Kayla is a residential real estate investor in upstate New York whose real estate portfolio currently sits at 40+ doors, mostly in the long-term rental market. Kayla is one of the smartest people we know in the REI biz and we are so honored to have her join us today on the podcast and dive into how she systemizes her business.Kayla started out like the majority of investors, self-managing her rentals but since then she and her husband now have their own property management team they can rely on to keep their units and operations running like a well-oiled machine. After purchasing their first couple of rental units, they started out using Cozy.co, and when Cozy merged with Apartments.com they realized the service was not serving them well, nor was it meeting their tenant needs. They pivoted and made the switch over to Buildium, and ultimately switched again to AppFolio, which is what they still use today.One thing Kayla impresses on other investors is that if you buy a property and don’t factor in a management fee, you are not buying an investment. You are buying a full-time job. The reason for this is that eventually if you want this to become a more passive business, you will need to hire a manager (which hopefully you will see a good ROI with appreciation and rent growth). For Kayla, that time came sooner than later and they were quickly glad they had factored in that management percentage from the beginning. Being able to keep that management percentage to fund their own business and lifestyle, while building their portfolio, became super valuable for them. At that point, they were already ready to put more systems in place to be able to hire out different pieces of their business.Their first property management hire was an internal hire. Because Kayla had done her due diligence and created SOPs for each step of her business in the early stages, it made this transition much less painful. They could continuously point back to all of their documented systems and procedures for every detail of exactly how to screen a tenant, turn over a unit, review standards for rental criteria, and so much more. Being in New York, a very tenant-friendly state, Kayla has had to adjust her management style in a much different fashion than most others operate. Because New York has a unique set of laws and regulations regarding things such as evictions, collecting pet fees, the inability to check previous eviction history, and so much more. They have developed a problem-solving style that has really helped them get through most of these situations, without having to go through the eviction route.Kayla and her husband also started the Rochester Housing Coalition, which is a group of housing providers and also nonprofit organizations that deal with homelessness in their city to address some of the housing policy concerns and to help the city work through those things in a way that's beneficial to everyone.Eventually, Kayla and her husband were able to pivot their business and hire their first external property manager, who was actually an old friend of their business partner. They began to hand it off piece by piece starting with maintenance ticket coordination. They began by introducing them to their maintenance team. Introduced them to their ticketing system, worked out all of those kinks, and handed off just that piece. Next, they handed over learning the rent collection system, collecting outstanding rental payments, and so on. Ultimately Kayla’s goal for herself and her husband was to get down to only working in their business for a total of 10 hours per week before they would consider the stand-up complete. Finally, they were ready to really test their systems and booked an Airbnb, out of town, for a full month to allow their team to really run the show successfully with their hands off. Kayla’s Tips for Property Management1. Do not be afraid to reach out to your investing community.For the most part, the real estate investing community is so welcoming and genuinely wants to help one other. We all want each other to succeed. 2. Visualize the absolute worst-case scenario and piece together exactly how it could play out. Could you handle that? Consider if you’ve done all of your homework, you’ve measured and taken responsible risks, and you have done your due diligence. If you cannot cover that risk and if there is not something that you are willing to live with, in that scenario, then you might need to change your strategy and direct it towards a scenario that you can live with.  Kayla and her husband have now transitioned to a property management team. This is an amazing option if you have a larger portfolio and they chose to partner with someone who had extensive property management experience and was also interested in starting a property management company. Kayla and her husband brought the systems, processes, and business knowledge to the table, so this operating partnership made perfect sense for them. If you want to learn more about Kayla’s business you can visit her website or connect with her on Instagram.Thank you so much for joining us this week, see you next time! Resources:Sign up for our FREE 60-minute trainingConnect with Kayla on InstagramSee how Kayla operates her businessCheck out the property management software Kayla uses in her biz, AppFolioFind out more about the Rochester Housing Coalition

Hi everyone, welcome back to the WIIRE podcast! In this week’s episode of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast we’re going to talk about the five property management mistakes that you should not make. We’ve each learned some of these the hard way and want to help you avoid them at all costs too!First and foremost, a reminder…Do as we SAY, not as we DO! 5 Property Management Mistakes1. Not using a property management software!  Yes, they cost money but hear us out. This investment will not only save you time and energy but will streamline your processes, tenfold. We love TenantCloud and highly recommend checking it out. There are a few key things a property management software should do for your business:Allow you to collect deposits, rental payments, fees, etc.Submit maintenance requestsSign rental agreements/leasesCommunicate with clientsBookkeeping (you’ll thank us come tax season!) 2. Not setting (and sticking to) regular business hoursWhat that means is don't train your tenants to think that you will reply instantly on Saturday and Sunday, or even instantly at all. We are huge proponents of setting business hours so our tenants know when they can reach us and what our rough turnaround for requests is, aside from emergency situations of course.What does this look like? If you are on your computer at 7:30pm on a Sunday evening and you see a question come in (not an emergency), let it sit until Monday. Then on Monday, respond by letting them know you just received their request from the weekend and add the rest of the response to their request. Unless you want property management to be an around-the-clock business, set your business hours, and stick to them. (There will be situations that are clearly emergencies or more urgent and this does not apply to those.) 3. Failing to properly onboard a tenantOnboarding tenants is definitely more work on the front end of a move-in, but it is so beneficial in the long run. Setting ground rules and training your tenants on expectations from the start is going to help save you a lot of headaches down the road. After they sign the lease, provide them with a simple welcome packet. This could include:Instructions on submitting maintenance requestsHow to setup utilities (bonus points for adding websites or phone numbers)Expectations for property/communityYou should also include a move-in checklist where the tenant goes through the property in the first few days, notes anything that is broken/needs repairing/is damaged then turns it in so they are not held responsible for those upon move-out.  4. Not having an Estoppel Agreement in place for inherited tenants.An estoppel agreement is a fancy way to describe a document that reiterates the terms of a lease for an inherited tenant. It includes anything that might be a verbal agreement between the tenant and the current landlord. With estoppel agreements, we also ask for all outstanding maintenance requests to ensure there are fewer surprises upon purchase of the property. Key components of an estoppel agreement are:How much their deposit wasWhat they pay in rent and any fees each monthWho is responsible for the utilitiesWho lives at the residenceAny verbal agreements in place between landlord and tenantLease length 5. Last but certainly not least is doing quarterly, biannual, or annual walkthroughs of your units.This is so important because it gives you a chance to get into your units and make sure they are being properly cared for but also allows you to look at general maintenance that needs done to keep the property in top shape and not degrade over time (looking at faucets for water leaks, checking for mold, pests, etc.). It will allow you to stay aware of any issues that may arise or what to expect when a tenant moves out and how much work you could expect to have to turn that unit over. Avoiding these 5 things is simply about being a proactive landlord, rather than a reactive landlord. We too are guilty of (likely) all of these, and like everything in business, there is always room for improvement. See you next week! Resources:Check out TenantCloud

Welcome back to episode eight of the Women Invest in Real Estate podcast! In this episode, we’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we are up to in our businesses, and we’re kicking it off with an eviction story from Amelia. Let’s get started! Amelia’s Tenant Eviction StoryWith what is Amelia's first (and also hopefully her last) eviction, she’s learning some excellent lessons on handling tenants and the process of an eviction. This particular tenant has been problematic for the past 9-10 months and it has escalated to his becoming verbally abusive towards her and physically destructive to her property.While no property owner wants their property to sit vacant, it will serve her much better in the long run, to hire a lawyer and evict this tenant. She will be able to rehab this unit and be able to up the rent on the unit - so while evicting a tenant is never an ideal solution, in this case, it is the best choice. She has positive, regular cash flow from her mid-term rentals and can afford to let the unit sit vacant while she goes through the eviction process and rehabs this unit.  Hiring a LawyerHiring a lawyer has been the absolute best decision to move through this process and has served Amelia well. Amelia paid her lawyer a retainer of $1,990 to essentially handle her entire eviction process. If the tenant leaves without having to go to court she will receive $900 of that back and feels it has been 100% worth it.  Best tips for the eviction process…Communicate only in writing, not by phoneIf you can afford to do so, hire a lawyerDon’t accept a partial rent payment if you’re already in the eviction processSend documents, or any deposit/checks, via certified mailPut your human feelings aside and just like move forward from a business standpoint Grace’s UpdatesGrace is in the process of purchasing a single-family (nearly turn-key) home that is on the same street as her existing four-plexes. For this property, Grace negotiated a seller-financed deal that was a bit different than others she has done because this particular seller is an investor herself. It will be a quick turnover - a solid house, in a solid neighborhood - just needs a fresh coat of paint before listing. She has already reached out to some insurance agencies who are all interested in renting this property for their clients. After this house is finished, Grace is excited to be done rehabbing and buying for a solid three months so she can do some traveling and just take a massive break. Grace has been rehabbing for nearly a year and a half straight and is excited to hit pause after this house is complete. Also during this time, Grace is excited to get some much-needed systems upgraded and new systems in place to help her productivity and also take a good look at where she’s at and what direction she wants to take coming up.  In The Works…Amelia currently still has 5 inherited tenants. Once they move out she plans to convert them into mid-term rentals, however, there are two tenants who might be hold-outs as long-term tenants. Frankly, she is fine with that. They have been there for 10 and 17 years and despite being under market value provide stability and the property functions well as it sits right now. Amelia also has an Airbnb property in Clear Lake Iowa which reached over 80% occupancy for July and is set to make over $2,500 in cash flow on this property in July alone. This has given her the bug to keep her eyes peeled for vacation rental properties that makes sense for her. Grace on the other hand doesn’t want to be all mid-term rental. She likes the consistency and stability that comes with her long-term rentals. Like Amelia, Grace also has her eyes peeled for an Airbnb-style property that is small, doesn’t require a ton of rehab work, and will serve her well. Another reason Grace is looking to add an Airbnb property to her portfolio is that she wants to be able to hire an internal property manager but right now it doesn’t make sense financially. But if she add an Airbnb to her portfolio that would add to her cash flow she would be in a better position to add this person to her team and take some work off of her own plate. That’s all for this week, thank you so much for joining us and getting a little behind-the-scenes look at the happenings in our lives as real estate investors! We're so happy that you're listening and you can follow us over on Instagram for more updates! We'll see you in the next episode! Resources:Stay connected with the WIIRE CommunityGet the scoop on Mid-term Rentals

Welcome back to episode seven of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast! This week on the podcast we are diving into what changes we anticipate experiencing in the mid-term rental market and also how you can plan for and protect your real estate portfolio for those potential changes. Amelia’s TakeObviously, we know that the COVID pandemic is subsiding (fingers crossed). Some of the questions I’ve been asked are:Are we seeing a reduction in requests from traveling nurses because of this?Do we think that the market is slowing down?Do we think it's changing?Personally, my answer is yes, I think it's changing. But is that going to stop me from continuing the midterm rental strategy? No. There are certain steps that I'm taking to mitigate some of this risk but I don't plan on converting any of my units, or dropping the mid-term rental units, anytime soon.  Grace’s Opinion:My short answer would actually be, no. I have not seen a change in requests and I’m still being bombarded with mid-term rental requests, especially my one-bedroom units because a lot of people are solo travelers. However, as you said, am I going to go buy another 10-unit mid-term rentals to turn over right now? Probably not. (If it was the right deal I would, especially if it was one bedroom.) But I still see a huge demand because I’m in a market where there really isn’t much competition for mid-term rentals. They are more scarce and there are a few big hospitals in the area. As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, I have clients who drive 20-30 minutes to their hospital because there just isn’t anything nearby to their destination. I’m in a smaller, more rural area. However, I don’t see the market ramping up.  The Short AnswerWe really don’t know. If we did, if anyone knew exactly what was going to happen with the economy, they would be able to make bank on that information. But in reality, no one really knows for certain.  Mitigating the RiskThe way we structure our lease terms to protect ourselves against cancellations is the specific terms we are including in the lease. This is to: Protect us as landlordsAssist travelers if their contracts are canceled (it happens!)Grace requires that if her tenant cancels, they are only ‘on-the-hook’ for rent until she finds a new tenant to put into that unit. In the fine print, it also explains that I will work really quick to try to find another tenant. This is very fair because she already has more risk by offering 3-month leases, whereas most landlords lock you into a 6 or 12-month lease. This protects Grace because it ensures she has no vacancy and the only two times she has experienced this she has found new tenants to take over the lease in under two weeks.Additionally, we collect a deposit from every tenant to ensure that we aren’t holding a unit for someone to not show up. This way, if they cancel their reservation without the required notice (or simply don’t show up) we aren’t completely out of pocket.Both Grace and Amelia also invest in multi-family properties. Their units are diversified so if the mid-term rental market does slow down (or tank completely) they can convert some of the units back to long-term rentals.Another unique place to look when looking to fill units is with insurance agencies. There are a lot of insurance agencies out there who are looking to house people for a medium term. Maybe a few months, six months to a year, who might need furnished housing because they have a client whose house burned down, the basement flooded, etc. By contacting the third-party company (who also furnishes the property - bonus for you!) they get you lined up to house those people who need emergency housing, and they take care of furnishing it. This is a bit less risky because the insurance company is the one responsible for the security deposit, the rent, etc., on the property. You are also helping out a family with very few options who would otherwise be stuck living in a hotel. Final ThoughtsTraveling nurses have been around for way longer than the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept and practice is absolutely not going away. But one thing that has truly shifted with the pandemic and we are still experiencing this massive shift is working remotely, vs being tied to a physical location. More and more businesses are emptying their physical office spaces, or downsizing to smaller locations, in favor of allowing their employees to work from where they are. So if those workers are looking for 3-month accommodations where they can experience different cities for short periods of time while working, they are likely going to be looking for furnished mid-term rental units. While of course, we don't know for sure, that is where we think the mid-term rental market is headed. But if you're nervous about diving into mid-term rentals, just know that there are many ways to protect yourself and diversify your portfolio so that if there is a shift in the market, you will still feel good about your investments and be safe.Thanks for tuning in, friends! We'll catch you next week! Resources:Grab our MTR Starter GuideJoin the MTR Profit Academy

Hi everyone! Welcome to episode six of the Women Invest In Real Estate Podcast. Today we are welcoming guest Ashley Gallacher to the podcast. Ashley is a full-time real estate investor in the Seattle, Washington area. Ashley left her W-2 in corporate finance at the end of 2020 and now has both short and mid-term rental properties throughout Tacoma, near Mount Rainier National Park, and also in Milwaukee.Ashley got her start in mid-term rentals after learning about Kendra and also Sarah Weaver on Instagram. They both have amazing resources on their Instagram pages and she came across them when she was looking for inspiration on how to pivot and switch her long-term rental to something different. Right now, Ashley only has one mid-term rental but it is on her list to turn more of her existing rentals into mid-term rentals and also find new properties to turn into mid-term rentals to add to her portfolios as well.Ashley purchased her now mid-term rental in early 2020 (pre-pandemic) for $270,000. When they closed in March 2020 things quickly began to shut down and were lucky enough to find a long-term tenant very quickly for $1,700 per month, a bit lower than initially planned but she was also happy to have it occupied going into the COVID pandemic. Despite her initial fear that her market was oversaturated with mid-term rentals Ashley made the leap and has had great success with her mid-term rental. When Ashley made the switch to mid-term rentals, she increased the rent from $1,700 to $2,500 per month (now up to $2,700 per month) and gauged interest on a local Facebook group. With a lot of inquiries, she quickly locked in tenants before she had even finished furnishing the unit!Being in real estate is all about being creative. Just getting started, taking action, and learning as you go; making necessary adjustments along the way. For the rookies tuning in, none of us knew 100% what we were doing when we first started, but we started anyway. We’re continuously changing our processes to make them better. Ashley is in agreement that the mid-term rental market is strong and will continue to grow and has plans to continue growing her real estate portfolio basing whether they are long or mid-term on the demand in the market. For the most part, Ashley finds her tenants on FurnishedFinder and local Facebook groups but would be open to using sites like Airbnb to keep her units rented.If you want to connect with Ashley, head on over and follow her on Instagram.Thanks for tuning in friends to another WIIRE episode, catch you in the next episode! Resources:Follow Ashley on InstagramList your MTR’s on FurnishedFinder or Airbnb

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 GuideEnroll in our Mid-Term Rental Profit Academy courseList your mid-term rental on FurnishedFinderList your rental on Airbnb

Welcome back to episode four of the WIIRE podcast. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the first three steps to getting started in mid-term rentals. We are super excited to dive into this topic because we both got started not too long ago in mid-term rentals ourselves so it’s pretty fresh. The steps we are going to cover can also be found in our free downloadable MTR Starter Guide. We’ve compiled these three steps because they are the most common questions we get about getting started with mid-term rentals. At least once a week we get questions coming into our inbox with questions such as:How to get startedHow to identify a marketWhere to list your property…plus so many more. So we’ve taken all of these great questions and created this free guide.  Step 1: Identify Your MarketHow do you know if your market is good for a mid-term rental?One of the biggest indicators about midterm rentals is that most of the tenants are traveling nurses. The first indicator is if it has hospitals, nursing homes, or some sort of medical facility in the local area. Also, if it has a medium to large population size is a good indicator as well. While mid-term rentals can work anywhere if you're looking to have more of a steady income with a mid-term rental you're going to want to look in a medium to big-sized city. The exception to this is if you are the only mid-term rental in your area. The other thing about choosing the right market is that it's really going to help in the way that you might be able to turn your midterm rental into a short-term rental, if the opportunity is there, or maybe if mid-term rentals slowing down. And of course, the bigger the city, the more amenities in that city, the easier that's going to be to keep it occupied. One other identifier is, if the city has a major airport for travelers, including airline employees. Simply doing your research ahead of time to see if there's a need for mid-term rentals in your area will help you decide if it is a good move for you.  Step 2: Identifying A Location In this step, you need to look within the city you’ve chosen and see where within the city makes sense. One thing that's going to be different than a long-term rental is you need to have A and B-class neighborhoods because these people are coming from out of town and are trusting you to place them in a safe location. They're not going to be there for that long and are not okay with staying in D and C class areas or buildings that are loud, unsafe, and noisy. It needs to be in a good location, safe, cozy, and comfortable. Many of these travelers are traveling alone and in our experience, over 50% of them have been females, and they want a safe and quiet neighborhood.Another indicator of a good location is within 15 to 20 minutes of driving distance of the facility that they're going to be working at, specifically if they are a traveling nurse or medical professional. Many of them work on call and if they are called in they need to be within 15-20 minutes of that facility or hospital. Another perk is if it is close to public transportation if it is in a larger city.  Step 3: List your mid-term rentalThe most common question we get: ‘where do you list your midterm rental?’If we could only list our properties in one place, it would be FurnishedFinder. FurnishedFinder is specifically for mid-term rentals and is a platform that targets traveling nurses as well as a lot of other traveling professionals. On FurnishedFinder, bookings tend to come in around three weeks ahead of time.The other two websites we have also used are AirBNB and also in city-specific Facebook groups for traveling nurses or even city-specific FurnishedFinder groups. If you’re interested in learning more, check out our course called MTR Profit Academy, designed to start using midterm rentals as a way to start doubling your cash flow. Thanks for tuning in, see you next week! Resources:Grab our free downloadable MTR Starter GuideEnroll in our MTR Profit AcademyList your mid-term rental on FurnishedFinderList on AirBNBUse Tenant Cloud in your biz