Insurance Housing Hosts & Experts - What’s the Real Data?

Question

I’m exploring the insurance housing model (working with vendors like ALE Solutions, Sedgwick, CRS) and I’d love to hear from landlords or operators who’ve listed properties with them.

Specifically:

How long did it take after listing your property to get your first placement?Are you seeing steady placements, or long periods of vacancy between stays?How many months per year is your property typically booked through insurance vendors?

I've been having a hard time coming across any data on this (understandably - who can predict a crisis and when people will need housing...), but I was curious what the real-world experiences have been.

The property in question is a single-family home in Memphis (5BR/2BA), and we’re weighing insurance housing against standard long-term rental or mid-term corporate stays.

Any real-world numbers, averages, or lessons would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

— Laura

Allen Duan · Answer

Hi Laura. This is a great strategy for mid-term rentals. You're going in the right direction.

You've kind of hinted at this already, but the answers to your questions will really vary by market and simply the randomness of when families need alternative housing. Generally, if you're in an Urban market with higher populations - there's going to be more insurance housing needs that you could potentially serve.

I'll share my context, which may or may not be helpful for you. We manage about 30 midterm rentals in the Los Angeles area and have many different B2B relationships who send us insurance booking leads. We get these leads pretty much every day, but that's partly because we have properties all over LA.

If you can connect with other MTR owners in your market, I think they will give you the most relevant and helpful data. I know one investor who owns multiple mid-term rentals in Memphis. DM me and I'll make the introduction.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Stephanie Walker · Answer

I love these questions! For reference, I manage over 60 MTRs in the Charlotte NC area and surrounding markets. To answer your questions...

How long did it take after listing your property to get your first placement? Our properties are typically booked within the first 14 days. The exception to that would be during the slower season (Thanksgiving through New Year) if when we first list the property and/or check outs align with the holidays.Are you seeing steady placements, or long periods of vacancy between stays? We have seen steady placements but this is very much location dependent. We have a property or two in less than desirable areas that can take a little longer to book.How many months per year is your property typically booked through insurance vendors? We aren't exclusive to insurance vendors. We are listed anywhere and everywhere we can be. However, most of our insurance-related stays are at least 3 months long (4-6 months on average) and each property we manage has at least 1-3 per year. We've also received some insurance-related bookings with year-long leases.

The data, unfortunately, doesn't exist the same way it does for AirBNB and short term stays. I don't think it's necessary to choose between midterm and insurance. They can be one in the same.

Hope that helps!

Miguel Del Mazo · Answer

My wife and I have 6 units in a Southern city about 1/5th the size of Memphis, and we have hosted successfully several times insurance relocation claims over the last 4 years.

However, these claims are sporadic, and they can't be relied upon as the bread and butter for a unit, especially a singleton. Many of the leads we've been able to house came through furnishedfinder or Airbnb, rather than the ALE-type site. We've also been able to attract attention because of one unit, but then placed the family at a different unit of ours.

Gross estimate, 10% of our days are booked by insurance relocation claims, but we do not hold out for them. We treat them as any other lead source, and we don't crisis-pump our expected rent just because the payor is an insurance company.