I'm new to the community and trying to figure out the best site to list my rental property on. This property is in Albuquerque NM which is not a particularly popular vacation spot. We would like to do a furnished rental for 1-3month leases. The property is very close the the local hospital, medical school and university so it would be ideal for traveling hospital workers/nurses/students. I was wondering if anyone has used furnished finder? What are the benefits of this site compared to listing on airbnb or VRBO?
It sounds like given the situation of how close your property is to the hospitals/med school/university I would recommend using a furnished finder as your main marketing platform. But, I would also advise on still listing on Airbnb/VRBO with a minimum booking length of 1-month so you can focus on consumers looking to rent on a medium-term/long-term basis.
Also, another recommendation I would have is listed across other rental platforms like Zillow, Apartments.com, or Turbotenant. These platforms usually target consumers looking to rent on a medium-term/long-term basis.
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to reach out!
Cambridge, MA · Member since 2015 · 651 posts · 736 votes
3y
My units are in a university town and I list very successfully on SabbaticalHomes and the university off-campus housing sites.
The benefits over Airbnb and VRBO are dollars. Airbnb and VRBO are very expensive places to list for 1-3 month leases.
Since, my tenants sign fixed term leases with no option to renew, I'm able to run my listings on SabbaticalHomes continuously, just updating the dates available. This means I have no vacant days even for the listing that is never rented short term. For the listings that I'm able to rent short term, I can allow much more flexible begin and end dates for my longer term tenants and fill in with vacation travelers.
I have a different experience than a lot of other people here. I listed on Furnished Finders, Airbnb, and VRBO and only had bookings through Airbnb. I just set it to 30 day minimums. I make more through Airbnb than I would through Furnished Finder.
I think the experiences with Furnished Finder versus the STR platforms all depend upon location. Here in Cambridge, we are in the midst of a serious housing crisis. Our vacancy rates are less than 1%. That means LTR rents are through the roof. This impacts the MTR rents, as well. Traveling nurses compare Cambridge / Boston MTR rents to what they know from their respective homes and go into serious sticker shock and balk at everything. It would be easier for someone doing an MTR in cities like Boston/Cambridge to use the STR platforms instead of Furnished Finder.
If your MTR is in a University town, you can use Sabbatical Homes. Visiting scholars are a bit more use to the housing crisis in our cities and what it has done to rents. Sabbatical Homes is significantly less expensive to use than either Airbnb or VRBO.
Do you have much experience/success with Sabbatical Homes? My rental is in a big university town (Columbus, OH) and that seems like a compelling medium for finding MTR leads.
Very successful. I am not allowed to rent one of my units on the STR market so I rely totally on renting it by the semester and over the summer via SabbaticalHomes and the university off-campus web sites. Most of my tenants come through SabbaticalHomes and I'm able to keep it rented the entire year with no gaps between leases. I do require fixed term leases that begin Sep 1, Jan 1 or Jun 1, ending Dec 31, May 31 or Aug 31, no exceptions.