Deciding on Strategy

[Jared Mackert]

Hey everyone, I'm new here but have been actively listening to the podcasts for the past couple years and I'm finally deciding to take the plunge into investing. I'm trying to decide on an investment strategy to begin. I'm highly interested in STR for traveling nurses and professionals and I just don't know how to go about finding a deal in the right location to do that. Do I just find any nearby hospital to look at deals or is there a more insightful way to look at demand around certain areas for traveling nurses. I'm interested in this strategy purely for the cash flow, it would be a huge help in my current situation. I have also been interested in just buying a duplex and buying and holding. Not sure how much cash flow I could realistically expect though. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Eliott Elias]

If you are looking for cash flow stay away from single family, buy a quadplex and make sure you are cash flowing at least $1000 a month after all expenses. To cash flow a STR single family you have to have a good month every month.

[Joe Villeneuve]

You don't pick the strategy, the property does,...based on the specific market it is in, and the criteria from your REI Plan.

[Jewel B.]

You could check out the BP bookstore - there's a book on STRs and a book on MTRs.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Jared Mackert:

I've known people that bought properties specifically for traveling nurses. It worked well for a while, then there was a big dry spell and they sat empty.

If you have a furnished rental for month-to-month clients (e.g. traveling nurses) be prepared to shift to a longer lease or look for other customers like traveling businessmen, contractors, people between houses, etc.

[Lyndsay Zwirlein]

Check out Kathy Fettke's book "Retire Rich with Rentals".  I've owned LTRs and STRs and her book inspired me to get back to basic blocking and tackling.

STRs are hot right now, but it really depends what your long term goals and are your time horizon. 

[Taylor Dasch]

If you want to do STR/MTR you may be able to pick a hospital and look at properties in the area then find out what they are going for on sites like furnished finder.

But I would pick a larger hospital that is a teaching/training hospital - this will give you the opportunity to have a larger pool of possible tenants. 

[Alex Fenske]

Furnished Finder provides a tool that will show you the number of searches in a given area along with searching other available listings on the site - this can help you hone in on demand and pricing. Since you're in the Chicagoland area like me, it will be equally important to understand local government regulations in the various municipalities where you might seek to do this. And as others have mentioned above, make sure the property is acceptable to hold with long-term tenants as well - don't stake the whole deal on MTR revenue alone.