Property Manager · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2018 · 35 posts · 17 votes
Has anyone had luck using Furnished Finder to book extended stays (over 30 days)?
I'm transitioning several STR properties to month-to-month in a desirable downtown Kansas City, MO location. I decided to give Furnished Finder a try, and after about a month, the only leads I've seen seem to be 1) sent to every host with a listing in the KC metro area, guaranteeing a deluge of responses, and 2) catering to folks (typically traveling nurses) who want to pay below market for a fully-furnished, all-utilities paid apartment.
Has anyone had luck generating leads this way? The idea of hosting medical professionals is appealing, but the budget numbers I've heard them quote are disheartening. For example, my 1BR downtown loft makes upwards of $2500 a month via short term stays. I get the impression I'd have to list it around $1200/month to attract traveling nurses, which is negligibly more than what I'd make with a traditional long term lease.
I've considered CHBO, but the reviews aren't great. Any other tips on breaking into the extended stay market would be appreciated!
We've been using Furnished Finder to fill our units during the down season (winter). The revenue (and net profit) is greater than traditional rentals, but less than AirBnB/VRBO/etc. We've been pricing the Furnished Finder units at ~1.25 - 1.5x relative to traditional rentals for the 3-4 months stays, whereas AirBnB nets somewhere between 2-3x (depending on month). The obvious advantage to the 3-4 months stays is that you have a more passive and guaranteed income stream, so this is a trade-off you must weigh for your situation. I think it works really well to limit the downside risk of a down season, but I wouldn't trade any of my good months for it.
I also wanted to mention that you may also want to take a look at posting your unit on Facebook groups. There are a number of groups catering to travel nurses (Travel Nurse Housing - The Gypsy Nurse) that we've received several leads through (free).
The other thing we noticed with the travel nurses, is it seems they are finding out about their assignments / locations at the very last minute (0-2 weeks in advance). For instance, we got 3-4 messages in the 7 days before new years asking to move-in on 1/1...so something to keep in mind.
I've tried both those sites you mentioned. They get 2 thumbs down from me as a rating. I receive several inquiries from my Craigslist ad from agencies that employ travelling nurses. Travelling nurses is a keyword at the bottom. It usually ends up that the hospital they are working at is over 100 miles away. But here is my ad:
@AJ Vanderhorst - I have 8 full-time mid-term furnished rentals (1-6 mos) in San Francisco and just south. AirBnB has been my most successful platform by far for attracting business travelers. Others swear by VRBO/Homeaway. My experience with furnishedfinder is the same as yours: it attracts medical professionals who aren’t usually on a very limited budget. To attract the business traveler market, I list my places for 30-day minimum and follow AirBnb’s simple guidelines for “business-ready” e.g. provide a workspace, hair dryer, coat hangers, etc. Good luck!
We've been using Furnished Finder to fill our units during the down season (winter). The revenue (and net profit) is greater than traditional rentals, but less than AirBnB/VRBO/etc. We've been pricing the Furnished Finder units at ~1.25 - 1.5x relative to traditional rentals for the 3-4 months stays, whereas AirBnB nets somewhere between 2-3x (depending on month). The obvious advantage to the 3-4 months stays is that you have a more passive and guaranteed income stream, so this is a trade-off you must weigh for your situation. I think it works really well to limit the downside risk of a down season, but I wouldn't trade any of my good months for it.
I also wanted to mention that you may also want to take a look at posting your unit on Facebook groups. There are a number of groups catering to travel nurses (Travel Nurse Housing - The Gypsy Nurse) that we've received several leads through (free).
The other thing we noticed with the travel nurses, is it seems they are finding out about their assignments / locations at the very last minute (0-2 weeks in advance). For instance, we got 3-4 messages in the 7 days before new years asking to move-in on 1/1...so something to keep in mind.
I think I'll get an ad up on CL, thanks @Paul Sandhu. Can't hurt to cover all the bases.
@Ethan Cooke, are yours exclusively mid-term rentals, or do you toggle between mid-term and short-term? Curious how far in advance you typically get booked.
@David Bergmann Thanks for the tips and perspective. Sounds like I'll need to dial my profit expectations back a bit if I want to seriously engage the medical market. How do you transition your units from short term to mid term? Guessing you must map out the timeframes well in advance.
@AJ Vanderhorst You are correct that you'd need to have that timeframe mapped out well in advance so that you don't end up with a short term booking overlap. We just block our calendar during the expected timeframes (January - March, for us).
Logistically, the "swapping out" is pretty straightforward since almost everything is the same as a AirBNB. The only difference in the units is we remove most of the linens and consumables since the expectation is that nurses will bring those items. We also have them sign a lease and send payments through PayPal and a 50% deposit, but I think you could set this up any way you want.
@David Bergmann Thanks, that makes total sense. I'll have to bite the bullet and stop taking future short term reservations at some point. I was hoping to lock down some mid-term stays further out in the calendar and backfill, but it seems like lots of mid-terms are booked fairly close to the start date.
I've tried both those sites you mentioned. They get 2 thumbs down from me as a rating. I receive several inquiries from my Craigslist ad from agencies that employ travelling nurses. Travelling nurses is a keyword at the bottom. It usually ends up that the hospital they are working at is over 100 miles away. But here is my ad:
Hey Paul, your CL ad seems to keep looping me back to this thread. Care to repost or send me a link? Crafting my own CL ad and I'd love to have a look.
@Paul Sandhu That works, thanks. Hilarious listing, btw! Love the "better call Saul" references. Great job personalizing the whole pitch. My background's in marketing and copywriting...I'll stop gushing.
I signed up with FF a couple months ago and, while I do get a good number of viable leads, they seem to always flake last minute. I'm wondering if i'm deterring tenants because I require tenants submit to a background check and engage in a month-to-month lease. For those of you on FF, are you getting people flaking out and are you also requiring background check and month-to-month leases?
@Ashlee Mitchell You are deterring tenants with the background check and the lease. I do neither with my 23 STRs with 82 beds. But I do have a sign in most of the places, "In God we trust, all others pay rent in advance."
My tenants don't know when their job will be over, yours probably don't either. I refund tenants their unused days they paid for if they don't stay the full last week.
My tenants are contractors. Those burly guys with neck tats working on the large upright steel structures at a petrochemical refinery. Welders, pipefitters, boilermakers and the like.
**** FURNISHED FINDERS BE AWARE **** Furnished Finder would not give my money back only one hour after I have listed my apartment !!! I have listed my apartment on the the site with the incorrect address. For some strange reason I could not change it myself on their site. I called them to correct the address. First I was asked to wait 72 hours to change that. Then I was asked to jump so many hoops in order to change the address !!! I didn't want to go through the hassle, so I requested for my money back only one hour after the apt was listed. To my amazement, they denied to refund my money !!!!!! BIG SCAM !!!!
I've had zero results since I tried it out in December. My city is shutting down short term rentals, so I was about to sell but then a lead came in from Furnished Finder. Three month stay. Not finalized yet, but looks like it will go through. If so, that will make the listing worth it.
Have you guys tried housestay.com Not sure whether the service is available in your cities but I've had a good number on inquiries that turned into bookings for my properties in Los Angeles. I tried CHBO but wasnt too happy with the results. Goodluck guys
Just that one tenant, but she ended up extending a few times and staying almost 6 full months. She will be finally leaving in a couple weeks. But nothing else from there.
For me, it turned out to be a good return on $100, but I wouldn't bet on that happening again. I think that site is better suited for a lower price option such as a single room; I had a whole house.
@Elham Aghili - Did you ever get your money back from Furnished Finder?
@AJ Vanderhorst - did you have any success listing your properties on FF?
@Ashlee Mitchell - did you end up having any success with using background checks for traveling nurses?
@David Bergmann - Do you rent out individual rooms or do you rent out the whole house? I have a 2/1 house that was very successful during the spring and summer getting the whole house booked with Airbnb with 90% vacancy, but now it seems that the travel nurses aren't interested in the bigger house and want to rent out only individual rooms, which I don't want to go to the trouble to turn over while people are staying there. And I don't want to deal with figuring out which person to charge the deposit to if anything breaks while 2 separate people are staying there. How do you handle this? Also, I posted my house 2 weeks ago on about 10 different traveling nurse facebook groups and have only gotten a few likes (and even a laughing face!), but no inquiries.
A partner of mine just picked up 3 new rentals from me in Houston (he puts them on STR sites). Most of his biz comes from Airbnb. He'll often get 3-6 month people who pay 1.5x what he pays me (or 2x for shorter).
I don't care for Airbnb (mostly due to their politics) but for STR listings they're hard to beat
@Cheryl Vargas I will not be renewing my subscription to FF. I live near 4 hospitals and the leads are typically for hospitals outside of the area. I also noticed many will inquire and then ghost me. I have not had one tenant in the year I've been on FF. I understand others have mentioned that the background checks could be a deterrent, but with the rental being a room IN my house, it's too risky for me to not require it. I also require they be on a month-to-month lease, which is probably another deterrent. But California is very tenant-friendly and, from what I understand, if someone has lived at the property more than 30 days, they can obtain "squatters rights" and I would have to go through the court system in order to remove them. While I would love the extra income, I also will not put my family or property at risk.
FF seems like a scam. I have a furnished condo in Honolulu and have no replies from both "leads" and FF. I paid $173 for this and decided to submit a dispute with my credit card company. Most of my leads are from Airbnb and I changed it from short term to 30 day or more stays. Hawaii has cracked down heavily on short term rentals with their new law. So I am wondering...is there another place to get credible leads for traveling nurses and business people?
I was on FF for 3 months last year with no applicable leads and more bogus dead-end leads. No customer support. I paid $170 and they refused to refund me. I told them their ad was falsely advertising the Hawaii market. I called numerous fellow FF ads and majority of them heard crickets as well. They should charge a % after bookings like Airbnb, instead of ripping you off up front. I had to remove their charge by filing a claim with my credit card.
I recently added two of my short-term rentals on Furnishedfinder and was pleasantly surprise. The Governor has temporarily suspended vacation rentals in Florida, so I'm trying to fill some vacancies. I wouldn't use this site for peak season. I do like that I can have the travelers book directly with me, use my contracts, etc and also that I can turn down any that are wanting a longer stay or to stay in late June or July when I'm hoping the vacation rental market will start to see some recovery.
I will probably use this site again for the winter months for some of my smaller units.
Do you think it's possible to do short term rentals if you have a home out of the area?
I'm wondering if I could manage it by having my housekeeper leave the key in the lockbox for the next tenant to gain access to the garage and the door from the garage would only be unlocked when we are expecting a new tenant. The housekeeper would have to do the walkthrough at the end of each term. I'm okay with less rent and shooting for the travel nurses with minimum stays of 30 days. Am I crazy or is this doable?