Marketing MTR & Handling Leads

[Valerie Bashiri]

I recently listed a room in my primary residence as a Medium Term Rental.  I'm marketing to traveling nurses, professionals, and those in transition such as people that may be renovating, or getting divorced.  I'm doing a flexible lease from 1 week to under a year.  I'm looking for feedback to manage my expectations with regards to marketing my space.  I have the room listed on: Craigslist, numerous FB groups, FB Marketplace, Sublet, Zumper, Cirtru, Furnished Finder.  How do you all work your leads?  Just call anyone that says they are interested?  I'm noticing TONS of people are not reading the listing; which is wildly frustrating.  I work FT and 10 hour shifts, so not a ton of time to be following up on leads where people aren't reading.  Also, are there more effective marketing channels to list my room?  I have not listed on Airbnb, as I'm still renovating the basement and I didn't want to risk people complaining that the basement is getting renovated.  That is a fact I will discuss when people come to check the place out.  I have a large home and plenty of space on one floor.  So no one would even know about the renovation except for when they are wanting to do laundry.  I want to know the most effective way to work the leads I get, the best places to post my listing, and how long I should expect the listing to sit before it's rented (a ball park idea).  Again, I'm just trying to manage my expectations.

[Tiffany Cohen]

Let me start off by saying the bathroom is beautiful as is the bedroom! I'm just getting into MTRs myself and another site to list is Kopa. I just listed one of my STRs on there. Furnished Finder will likely be your #1 source though. Airbnb too once you get to that point. Have you emailed the listings to friends and family with links and also posted it on your regular FB (or instagram)? You will definitely need to make sure you have systems in place such as a rental agreement as well and a way to check if the interested parties are good to rent to. I'm assuming you're priced appropriately based on other listings in your area? Furnished finder also has good stats at www.furnishedfinder.com/stats that may help. That may give you an idea of how long it might take. Also make sure your listing is optimized with keywords and all amenities and bullet points. Call local hospitals and ask if they have somewhere you can post the listings. Also call the staffing agencies who are listing any of the traveling nurse jobs. Is there a military base close by? Thats another good avenue for a single person changing their station or on part time assignment. Any refineries? Think about who might be renting and any services they might use. Call those people. Good luck and let us know when you get your first booking!

[Tiffany Cohen]

Here's a site that can also help and lists another place you can post your listing. https://blog.bluepipes.com/how...

[Allen Duan]

Perhaps a property management system could be a solution for you. These are typically designed for short term rental management companies, but they would work fine for mid term as well. I believe mid term rentals are much more similar to short term rentals than they are to long term rentals. 

We use Hostfully for our business. You can create your leads in the system and track it all there, including sending quotes, messaging, etc.

As far as marketing, we get almost all our bookings from Airbnb, Furnished Finder, and a much smaller share from FB marketplace. I'd recommend dropping the sites that send you a lot of low quality leads that take too much time to make it worth it. I imagine Craigslist is like that, which is the reason we've never used it.

Hope this helps!

[Drew Sygit]

@Valerie Bashiri everyone thinks property management is easy - until they have to actually do it!

Yes, we all get LOTS of idiots that don't read our ads and we have to politely respond to them.

Best practice is to write several really good responses, politely directing them back to your ad, listing your basic requirements, etc. 

Recommend you save 1-2 weeks of inquiries, spend a weekend sorting them into categories and then write responses to the most common ones. Then you can copy and paste EFFICIENTLY!

Yes, you will piss off some of the inquirers, but 98% of them aren't really good leads to begin with and it isn't efficent to pursue the 2%.

Also recommend you either pick STR (1-30 days) or MTR (1-6 months) strategy and update your ads accordingly. Trying to pursue both is less effective and very interested prospects will ask about exceptions anyways.

[Don Konipol]

Put a “ROOM FOR RENT’ sign on your front lawn.

[James Carlson]

@Valerie Bashiri

Beautiful looking space. Well done. 

We do medium-term rentals in Denver and Colorado Springs. We don't have any special system for working the leads. We post on Airbnb and Furnished Finder. FF is definitely our biggest source of leads. Anyone who comes in, I ask what's bringing them to Denver or Colorado Springs. (I personally think communication is a big indication of tenant quality, so I want to see them respond and answer a few questions promptly.) If they're interested, I send them our link to fill out a background and credit check, which they pay for. If it looks good, I take the first person who came in. If multiple people are interested, and good candidates, I tend to take the tenant who wants to sign the longest lease.

I don't really like Airbnb because I find their "remember to respond" emails obnoxious, and getting them to sign a lease outside of Airbnb can be tricky. (We require people sign a full lease.) 

Also, we make tenants give us 45 days notice of departure, so we have plenty of time to advertise it. We rarely have more than two or three days vacancy between stays. Finally, check out "American Nomads" by Erin Spradlin. It's a pretty easy read and has solid info in there about medium-term rentals. 

[Tiffany Cohen]

Quote from @James Carlson:

@Valerie Bashiri

Beautiful looking space. Well done. 

We do medium-term rentals in Denver and Colorado Springs. We don't have any special system for working the leads. We post on Airbnb and Furnished Finder. FF is definitely our biggest source of leads. Anyone who comes in, I ask what's bringing them to Denver or Colorado Springs. (I personally think communication is a big indication of tenant quality, so I want to see them respond and answer a few questions promptly.) If they're interested, I send them our link to fill out a background and credit check, which they pay for. If it looks good, I take the first person who came in. If multiple people are interested, and good candidates, I tend to take the tenant who wants to sign the longest lease.

I don't really like Airbnb because I find their "remember to respond" emails obnoxious, and getting them to sign a lease outside of Airbnb can be tricky. (We require people sign a full lease.) 

Also, we make tenants give us 45 days notice of departure, so we have plenty of time to advertise it. We rarely have more than two or three days vacancy between stays. Finally, check out "American Nomads" by Erin Spradlin. It's a pretty easy read and has solid info in there about medium-term rentals. 

I like the 45 days notice. Which service link do you use for the background check?

[Valerie Bashiri]

Thank you all for the responses.  I think what I really need is tenant placement specialist at the moment.  I'm really looking to find someone that will specialize in marketing the space, handling leads, screening and the lease agreement.  I have a FT career and will be going to grad school this Spring.  

[Valerie Bashiri]

Quote from @James Carlson:

@Valerie Bashiri

Beautiful looking space. Well done. 

We do medium-term rentals in Denver and Colorado Springs. We don't have any special system for working the leads. We post on Airbnb and Furnished Finder. FF is definitely our biggest source of leads. Anyone who comes in, I ask what's bringing them to Denver or Colorado Springs. (I personally think communication is a big indication of tenant quality, so I want to see them respond and answer a few questions promptly.) If they're interested, I send them our link to fill out a background and credit check, which they pay for. If it looks good, I take the first person who came in. If multiple people are interested, and good candidates, I tend to take the tenant who wants to sign the longest lease.

I don't really like Airbnb because I find their "remember to respond" emails obnoxious, and getting them to sign a lease outside of Airbnb can be tricky. (We require people sign a full lease.) 

Also, we make tenants give us 45 days notice of departure, so we have plenty of time to advertise it. We rarely have more than two or three days vacancy between stays. Finally, check out "American Nomads" by Erin Spradlin. It's a pretty easy read and has solid info in there about medium-term rentals. 

Thank you for your thoughtful post Jim! This is helpful info.

[Valerie Bashiri]

Quote from @Drew Sygit:

@Valerie Bashiri everyone thinks property management is easy - until they have to actually do it!

Yes, we all get LOTS of idiots that don't read our ads and we have to politely respond to them.

Best practice is to write several really good responses, politely directing them back to your ad, listing your basic requirements, etc. 

Recommend you save 1-2 weeks of inquiries, spend a weekend sorting them into categories and then write responses to the most common ones. Then you can copy and paste EFFICIENTLY!

Yes, you will piss off some of the inquirers, but 98% of them aren't really good leads to begin with and it isn't efficent to pursue the 2%.

Also recommend you either pick STR (1-30 days) or MTR (1-6 months) strategy and update your ads accordingly. Trying to pursue both is less effective and very interested prospects will ask about exceptions anyways.

Thank you Drew!  Your post was helpful!

[Don Konipol]

Quote from @Valerie Bashiri:
Thank you all for the responses.  I think what I really need is tenant placement specialist at the moment.  I'm really looking to find someone that will specialize in marketing the space, handling leads, screening and the lease agreement.  I have a FT career and will be going to grad school this Spring.  

Good decision!  Let us know how it goes.

[Bonnie Low]

Quote from @James Carlson:

@Valerie Bashiri

Beautiful looking space. Well done. 

We do medium-term rentals in Denver and Colorado Springs. We don't have any special system for working the leads. We post on Airbnb and Furnished Finder. FF is definitely our biggest source of leads. Anyone who comes in, I ask what's bringing them to Denver or Colorado Springs. (I personally think communication is a big indication of tenant quality, so I want to see them respond and answer a few questions promptly.) If they're interested, I send them our link to fill out a background and credit check, which they pay for. If it looks good, I take the first person who came in. If multiple people are interested, and good candidates, I tend to take the tenant who wants to sign the longest lease.

I don't really like Airbnb because I find their "remember to respond" emails obnoxious, and getting them to sign a lease outside of Airbnb can be tricky. (We require people sign a full lease.) 

Also, we make tenants give us 45 days notice of departure, so we have plenty of time to advertise it. We rarely have more than two or three days vacancy between stays. Finally, check out "American Nomads" by Erin Spradlin. It's a pretty easy read and has solid info in there about medium-term rentals. 

Hey James, thanks for the tip on American Nomads - I hadn't heard of that one before!

[Bonnie Low]

If your target is travel medical professionals, FF should be at the top of your list because it's so well known in that industry. But beware their messaging platform is awful. Duplicate messages, very slow delivery, missed messages. Most hosts and guests initially communicate through that platform but quickly transition to email or text because it's just too wonky. There are numerous travel professional facebook pages you might find useful, too. Just do a keyword search for your area or niche. Beware of advertising in too many places, though, because it becomes a lot of inputs to manage and many of the prospective guests are just tire kickers who don't respond so you'll spend a lot of time chasing inquiries that go nowhere.