MTR vacancy data

[Paige Shortsleeve]

Hi all! I’m struggling to find good data on MTRs. I’ve used furnished finder and airbnb to see listings so I can get an idea of rates but vacancy has been a little more difficult to nail down. Anyone have some go to methods to figure out vacancy or have some first hand knowledge of the Nashville market for MTRs? Thanks for taking the time! 

[Miguel Del Mazo]

My wife and I have been doing an MTR-exclusive startegy for 3.5 years, and we still have a hard time figuring out how to predict vacancy, especially in a new market that we're considering.

If we look at FF's (pretty crummy) data on their website we either see very few listings, so we think "no one is investing here; bad" or we see a lot of listings and think "too much competition; bad".  The reality that neither view is realistic or probable.

The best advice I can give would be to underwrite for long-term leases as that can be an acceptable exit strategy, but be prepared to execute well on your MTR strategy (great interior design along with profesisonal photos and concierge servive).  Nashville has great hospital systems, but there are many reasons why someone might want to stay that have nothing to do with being a provider or a patient. Don't get trapped thinking you have to be adjacent to a hospital to have a good MTR.

Best of luck!

[Wes D.]

Hi Paige! Our MTRs are in Cincinnati, not Nashville, but if you go to FurnishedFinder.com/stats you can see data related to demand for a given city. I just ran it now for Nashville and it shows over 900,000 housing searches in the past 12 months, and about 1,900 whole unit rentals available. There's also data on pricing. Nothing on vacancy rates though.

When I was trying to determine demand for Cincinnati, I selected about 20 listings near the location I was focused on, and tracked them for several months. If it gets rented the owner will update the listing with a new available date; if this moves by 30 days or more you can reasonably assume it rented. If it moves a few days after reaching the available date, it's likely it hasn't rented yet. Tracking several for a few months will give you some understanding about vacancy rates. Also note if the listed rent changes.

Our actual vacancy of less than 10% has closely tracked the data I collected this way. I hope this is helpful to you, all the best!

-Wes

[Allen Duan]

Best bet is to connect with local MTR operators and ask them. My company manages MTRs in SoCal and we're around 80% occupancy across 25 MTRs.