MTR Rent by Room - Platform
Hi BP Community, REI rookie here!
I'll be closing on a SFH later this week, where my partner and I plan on renting by the room for medium term rentals (MTR) for travel nurses. There is one hospital within <10 min drive from our place, with several others within 20 mins. There's also a university nearby. I'll be househacking one room for at least one year, with plans to move out afterward.
Here are my questions:
- For those who have experience in MTRs, do you have any general advice for someone starting out in the MTR space?
- Our plan is to utilize furnishedfinder.com for our bookings (focuses mainly on travel nurses, traveling HCPs). In order to reduce vacancy, we plan on also listing on Airbnb with 30 day min. What issues do you foresee if we also list on Airbnb (if any)?
- Any advice on how to make our listing more desirable? We're utilizing professional photos, trying to optimize room accommodations (eg private bathroom for master bedroom, 2 garage spots for larger rooms), but looking for anything else that may make our listing more desirable
- Any issues if we also accept long-term leases (eg 1+ year) & university students/other young professionals? I plan on having house rules in place, but I'm a bit worried about the dynamic between travel nurses and university students/other young professionals if I open up the tenant pool. At the same time, I also don't want too many vacancies
- Any advice on how to systematize the process once I move out? I'm familiar with TurnoverBNB and Hospitable, but wondering what else I can consider
Any advice is much appreciated, as I am new to the space.
Happy investing!
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#1 Medium-Term Rentals Contributor
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I've been doing a lot of research on the MTR market because it's something I'm interested in. Here are some takeaways I've gathered from talking to a lot of traveling nurses and hosts. Take it for what it's worth. 1 - for travel nurses, Furnished Finders is a very common platform, but even more transactions seem to occur through specific Facebook groups for hosts and guests. Do a search in your market and join if they'll let you so you can see the dialog. The #1 complaint about FF by both guests and hosts is that the communication on the platform is dismal. Guests will message hosts and hosts won't see the notifications so the guests are irritated and feeling ignored and hosts are missing out on bookings. 2 - the most requested things from travel nurses that I've polled so far are: must be quiet as they are shift workers working long hours; they need blackout curtains for sleeping during the day; it needs to feel safe; laundry on site is a big bonus; full kitchens are nice but in no way required. Beware that there are a LOT of scammers in this space. It's shocking, actually. Guests are getting scammed by fake landlords "offering" properties they don't have and hosts are getting scammed by guests running the "my company will send you a check" scam. Spend 10 minutes browsing a forum and you'll see a discussion about this. So if you can build credibility into your brand you'll be ahead of the crowd. And finally, a lot of people travel with their pets and partners. If you can allow pets you'll tap into a need. And just know that while the nurse or healthcare worker may be gone long hours off site, their partner may actually be in your property much more, possibly working from home.
Hey Eric! I know you posted this about a month ago but I was wondering if you have started to get MTR tenants in the property yet? I am a house hacker / agent in the Inland Empire and love this strategy! Let me know!!
Quote from @Nicholas Coulter:
Hey Eric! I know you posted this about a month ago but I was wondering if you have started to get MTR tenants in the property yet? I am a house hacker / agent in the Inland Empire and love this strategy! Let me know!!
Hey @Nicholas Coulter, great to hear that you're interested! Would love to connect
My partner and I recently got the place furnished (~1-2 weeks ago) and here are some of our learnings thus far:
1. @Bonnie Low mentioned that communication via the FF platform is low, and I have seen that with my listing. I've reached out to all the tenant leads via email (creating an email template helps with time savings), but have also had a low response rate. Following up with my initial email has helped.
2. Some ways I've tried to establish my credibility with my initial outreach include adding a picture to my gmail profile, including a link to my FF listing, and adding personalized information based on the inquiry (eg distance from my property to their assignment location). Too early to tell if these strategies have worked.
3. Despite the "high-demand" as indicated by the FF agent, I've only had one booking inquiry thus far (albeit the agent mentioned it usually takes 30-45 days for your listing to gain traction). I was able to post my listing on four travel nurse housing FB groups (low interest) and reach out to prospective tenants via FB who mentioned they had upcoming assignments in the area (few responses but better).
4. Decided to expand to the university grad student listserv (have one incoming tenant from this) and post my listing on Apartments.com. The latter currently has 16K views and several leads/inquiries, though I'll be sure to screen the tenants thoroughly.
5. One of the things I do plan on trying is reaching out to the top 4 agencies that employ travel nurses (these data are included in the FF platform) to see if they would inform of their new travel nurses of my listing opportunity.
If anyone has any suggestions for additional things I can try to get more MTR tenants, I'm open to ideas. Would love to rent to/support the travel nurse tenant pool, but I just haven't received much interest yet.
Happy Investing!
Eric
That sounds like some great learning! Thank you @Eric Chiang for the follow up!
In my room rentals I have found that the FB pages are a better resource to get more eyes on my listing! Good luck out there!
im bumping this only to see what @Eric Chiang has figured out on his riverside MTR, and if renting by the room is better than whole house? Im thinking of changing up what I am doing with one of my MTR's, which seems now to be struggling (YET- its LITERALLY A MILE from County General Hospital and 1.5 miles from White Memorial (also a huge hospital).
My house is a 3/1, gangbusters from early 2021-late 2022, but been on the struggle bus since then (had an almost two month vacancy gap(!) in Sept/Oct 2022)
I too have read nurses like doing things by the room (but i have had a couple bookings where some of them travel together too). Curious experiences.
Hey @Richard E., thanks for the follow up!
Learning a lot from managing the Riverside MTR by the bedroom, here are things I've learned since my latest post (my opinions):
1. The travel nurse leads I've gotten didn't pan out, since many of them didn't want to rent an individual room and wouldn't mind paying extra for the 1 BR private unit
2. For the leads you do get from FF, I would call them directly soon after the request comes in. Many of them would ignore my email outreach, but would pick up the phone quite readily. Great way to develop rapport.
3. When possible, I would try to advocate for a longer term stay, especially if it's a lead from a non-FF platform
4. Apartments.com/Zillow no longer offer listings for individual rooms, so many of my recent leads have come from Zumper/Hot Pads (by Zillow)
5. Still working through ways to manage the rent by room model once I move out. Some tenants expect to see a live showing, which has been easy while I've been living in the unit. My business partner lives about 25 mins away so it may be difficult for him to show it each time, especially when the prospective tenant decides to ghost.
Thanks for the opportunity to share! Feel free to check in again later on, and I might have more insights to provide for the group haha
@Eric Chiang
Great tips, and congrats on the success with your MTR! I just went live with mine last month. It's for a whole 2/1.5 unit, and the tenant is a medical professional but not a traveling nurse. I got lucky, and they moved in without a live showing.
To Bonnie's point about scams, one idea that I got from the current tenant was to meet the renter somewhere other than the actual property at first. When they rented other properties, sometimes the landlord would do a quick meeting elsewhere for a vibe check. Your idea to call is a good screening tactic as well.
Edit to post: adding another detail. According to the tenant, one of the reasons my listing appealed to them was the lower security deposit. It's $250, but I may increase it to $500 next time. I'd seen a lower deposit recommended on the BP forums, especially for a shorter stay.
I've started doing rent by the room in an LTR (just two rooms). Grad students & University professionals have been the ones most interested in that one.
I'm looking into the viability of PadSplit if it makes sense for future investments. I don't have any experience with them yet, but maybe that could be an option for you?
Hey @Chris U. thanks for the reply and congrats on your properties! Great points on the MTR, another option could be to utilize Matterport (virtual tour).
In terms of Padsplit, I've personally never used it since it's not offered in California, but I did meet a lender contact at a real estate meet up in California who has used Padsplit to manage his long-distance rent by room. If you'd like, you can message me your instagram and I can connect you? (IG is the only contact info I have for this individual).
@Eric Chiang Matterport would also be an amazing solution once you move out. That or other 3d photo/video solutions. Now that you mention it, I might start implementing it with all my properties going forward.
And thanks for the Padsplit connect! I'll take a raincheck once my IG is presentable haha. There's actually a Padsplit event here in NC tonight. They're supposed to be launching in Raleigh.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/p...
I’ve found with my rent by the room in Raleigh that university students and young professionals are the folks who reach out. Traveling nurses generally want their own space.
I use apartments.com and call each bedroom a “unit” then in the description emphasize that it’s one bedroom of four with shared living spaces.
Although I get a lot of interest from apartments.com leads, all of my places tenants have come from Facebook.
I do not show them the apartment until after they do the background check. That way I know they are serious. If you had remote locks on all doors and alerted current tenants you could potentially get on a video call with them when they arrive and show it to them remotely, unlocking the doors for them. I also have a video I made that I can send them if they want to at least see that before doing the apartments.com credit/background check.
It’s worked for me! I’ve had a couple tenants that even rent it without seeing it in person first because they’re moving from out of state. Possibly having a seller rating on Facebook helps with credibility. I’ve also had potential tenants ask to speak with current tenants which I’ve facilitated.
Females are understandably more cautious about a shared space so all of my renters have been male.
@Eric Chiang I have gotten a couple of contacts from roomies.com for longer term. For students I post on the university site. Also you get people with internships who probably would do well with health travelers. Traveling health professionals who are not RNs primarily rent rooms in my area. Pharm tech, surgical tech they make less money. RNs want their own place and usually their own bathroom. Some people care about mixed gender dwellings especially if they share bathrooms but for us it hasn't been an issue. Furnished finders has been an ok source but if you are close to a city the stats on FF are off as are the requests. So if you are say in a 25 mile radius of a major city they will match you with people going to that city. Those people really want to be in the city not 10 or 20 miles out.
For showing we have an iphone video. Of course if you have other people living in the house they could also show live. None of the health travelers wanted a live viewing except when they showed up and were looking for immediate occupancy as they were in a hotel.