Haven't used Furnished Finder but I've run this math on several properties. One thing that helped: furnished gets 30-40% higher rent but expect more vacancy gaps. Breakeven is usually around 70-75% occupancy vs 90%+ unfurnished. What's your target tenant type - nurses, corporate, or general month-to-month?
Hi Ben! I've been a host on Furnished Finder for over 5 years now with a handful of monthly midterm rentals. Furnished Finder has a lot of educational content on the site such as Market Insights that can show you who is coming to your market and average rental rates, etc. I aim for rental rates to be 50-100% higher than long term rentals in my area opening the door for $500-$1,000 in monthly cashflow per property.
Midterm rentals are expected to be furnished and all bills covered. Furnished Finder says a guest stays around 90 days on average which would be about 4 flips a year. We maintain over 95% occupancy throughout the year on all our properties. Guests are gentle on your property since they are not moving furniture in and out, painting walls, etc. They show up with their suitcase and you rarely hear from them if your home is stocked and managed well. We've had a large variety of tenants- med pros, individuals or families that like the area but aren't ready to buy yet or have a large remodeling project at their home, skilled workers or superintendents for a variety of industries like a Meta plant, solar farm, a Chick-fil-A, a Floor & Decor, etc. A majority of our homes right now have midterm guests that will be with us over a year, many two years and our longest stay so far is going on 4+ years. Probably rare but nice when it happens.
I start marketing my properties on Furnished Finder with the professional unfurnished photos and "furniture coming soon". I block my calendar for the time frame I need to furnish it. I like to have 2 weeks since I have a full time job and try to stay in the property a night or two while furnishing it but many furnish within a couple days to a week.
If I were you, I'd look at Market Insights, review the competition on Furnished Finder and Airbnb for your area. If the numbers show steady cashflow then I would start marketing your property on Furnished Finder now with the unfurnished photos. You can see which strategy wins between long-term and mid-term. Hope that helps!