All Forum Posts by: Candyce Chen

@Paulina Le I recommend advertising the property ASAP with a move-in-ready date that’s at least one week after the current residents move out date. This timeline assumes you have good stock photos, your turnover team is ready to go, and the unit is in a good condition that can be turned within a week.

The longer the current residents have lived there, the more time it may take for repairs, touch-up paint, and deep cleaning. If any appliances are broken or missing, you’ll also need time to order and receive replacements—so I strongly suggest scheduling a pre-move-out walkthrough as soon as you receive notice to vacate. Make sure your lease includes a clause allowing for this pre-walk through, and coordinate a reasonable time with the existing residents.

I agree with most on this—it's usually best not to show the unit while it’s still occupied. Not only is it more respectful to the current residents, but it also allows future residents to see the property in its best condition. It sets the tone that you’ll treat and respect your future tenants' move-out with the same level of care and professionalism. Hope this helps :-)

Hi Francis,

Congrats on putting in your first offer—that’s awesome! I also worked a full-time W-2 job and invested long distance, so I completely understand the challenges. That said, if you're planning to waive the inspection contingency, I personally think it's worth taking a couple of days off and spending the money on a flight to visit the property in person. Sometimes listing agents are hesitant when a long-distance buyer wants to purchase sight unseen, especially without an inspection.

That being said, I have waived the inspection contingency before. In one case, I bought a property sight unseen with only a virtual tour because it was fully occupied and hard to show. My local contractor—someone I had worked with and trusted—joined my realtor during the virtual showing. That contractor had also completed a rehab for another similar unit I owned just down the street, so I felt confident.

I will also recommend asking about the big-ticket items: the age of the roof, HVAC, electric panels, plumbing, furnaces, etc., so you understand the repair or rehab cost. You could also have a home inspector join your realtor and contractor during the walkthrough if it is allowed in that city. You’ll have to pay for the house inspection, but you’ll get a full report in case the house inspector catches something your realtor & contractor might have missed. That way, you can still waive the inspection and negotiate from there. Hope this helps.

Best of luck—excited for you!

Hi BP community,

I host mid-term rentals and self-manage my long-distant properties remotely. One of the biggest challenges I face is the short window of time between tenant turnovers, which makes it difficult to handle laundry efficiently—especially with high-end linens and towels in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath unit. Most of our guests stay between 5 to 9 months. Unlike short term rental properties that can clean sheets/towels every few days, our mid-term rental properties are not able to do that.

We’ve run into a few issues:

• Storage limitations: We can't leave fresh linens, towels, or bedding in the owner’s closet, as they risk getting musty after 6–9 months and would need to be washed again before use.

• Laundry bottlenecks: Our cleaning team currently spends 8–10 hours laundering all the linens—sheets, duvets, pillowcases, mattress protectors, bath/kitchen/hand/face towels—between guests. We use a standard residential washer/dryer, which isn't fast or efficient for large loads.

• No reliable outsourcing: Local dry cleaners usually take 3–5 days to return items, even if we drop them off right after checkout—which doesn’t work for tight turnarounds. Our cleaning crew also charges us per hour, so it can not be more than one hour drive from the house.

• Inventory strategy: We've increased our linen and towel inventory and purchased new sets to use at turnover. However, even these new items require washing before use, so we’re still spending 8–10 hours on laundry per turn.

We start to have cleaning service every two months, but it still takes more than one days for our cleaning crew to wash sheets/towels. We also consider to mail brand new sheets to our cleaning crews. 

Do anyone have any tips or strategies for managing linens and towels cleaning/inventory more efficiently, especially to enable quicker turnovers for mid-term rentals?

Thanks.

Candyce

Hello @Angela A., 

If your ROE is low, then you might have a high equity in the condo. Here is a list of my suggestions:

1) 1031 exchange your current condo & buy one or two small multi family (2-4 units) properties that have a better cash flow. You might need to invest out of state. You can also 1031 exchange to a distressed property in San Diego and renovate it. This forced appreciation with a heavy value-add should be great with a long term buy & hold play.

2) Cash out refi & purchase a vacation home via a 2nd home loan. There are some markets/small town in California still cash flow with short term rentals essentially if you can self manage and/or can do an owner occupied hosted rental.

3) Stay put & sell the condo in the future to get a duplex that you can do a live in flip and house hacking one unit. If you are 55 + and sell a property, you can transfer your current low property tax to a new purchased house. Check Ou prop 60/90. This only works for primary residence house, so you might need to move into your rental first. Please check with a CPA first on this strategy. 

https://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/prop60-90_55over.htm

Before selling the condo, maybe you can also try different strategies such furnished long term/mid term rentals or rent by rooms. This might improve your NOI and slightly raise your ROE while you try to decide.

Hope those ideas help. Happy investing! 

Hi Becca,

I am also an investor from SF bay area. I invest, rehab, and manage my own properties out of state, so I can totally understand your frustration. 

Instead of SFH and LTR, I start to shift to 2-4 units multi family properties and rent each unit out as MTR. The cash flow from MTR is definitely much better than LTR excluding the headache from dealing with trouble tenants. You can also try furnished LTR which might produce higher cash flow than a non-furnished ones especially for SFH in Class A area. You can always check out rent from the furnished finder to see if there are MTR demand in Indianapolis area. Maybe you will be able to use the positive cash flow to balance out the negative cash flow SFH that you rent out to your family in the City.

Beside REI, you can also diversify your investment in some index funds...and others. W2 jobs offer 401K and employer's match, HSA, paid vacation, paid sick hours, low cost health insurance, cellphone bills, dry clean, employee meal, discount on things and much more. Unless you are able to cover those bills by yourself, it might be better to find another job if your current job costs you so much stress IMO.

Happy investing & best luck on your next move! 

Hi Christopher,

Welcome to BP! I am also an investor from SF bay area and invest in out of state properties. 

If Cash Flow is your goal, then Columbus, OH might help you get there faster, especially if you purchase 2-4 units small multi family property and rent it as mid-term rental. However it's getting harder to find a good one nowadays. You might want to stick with A or B+ neighborhoods which have better tenants. Even if you get a super cash flow properties in C~D neighborhood, you might end up spending more to fix up after each tenant's turnover. 

If appreciation is your goal, then I will choose other cities in CA than Mount Shasta, CA. You might only be able to make $30k-$40K a year from a 3 bedrooms SFH Airbnb there, but this amount will not cover the mortgage after you deduct 50% cost for a short term rental. You might want to check out STR regulation below for Mount Shasta, CA first.

https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/MtShasta/#!/MtShasta05/MtS...

https://www.mtshastaca.gov/finance/page/short-term-rentals-t...

I will suggest picking a market that you might want to visit (for STR) or a market that will cash flow if you don't plan to visit if it is your first out of state property.

Good luck & happy investing! 

@Joseph Villasenor, you are welcome. Best luck on your next deal! 

Hi Joseph,I used a free standard lease from the apartment.com that is designed for my state. (It’s more general and cover the basic) Then I added a house rules document that was provided from a local management company and approved by a legal. (More specific for my properties) I also added a furnished item list as a reference for my tenants and included a move in/out checklist for the walkthrough. 

I only used furnished finder to get leads and communicate with potential MTR renters, then I ran background checks, collected payments, e-signing leases via the apartment.com free version platform. 

Hope this helps. Good luck on your 1st FF listing. It’s exciting! 

Hi @Asher, I will suggest to check out data from the furnished finder and search data directly for traveling nurses rental units and demand in Pittsfield MA. There is small demand for mid-term rental, but probably not as strong as bigger cities. STR/Airbnb has higher demand IMO. MTR seems a bit slower now compares to previous years during Covid peak. Berkshire Medical Center brought in more medical professionals back then. Beside traveling nurses, the summer peak season will also bring in some retirees and interns which will rent from 1 to 4 months. Winter is definitely slower for MTR in Pittsfield. Hope this helps.

Hi @Sophia Bahena

I truly admire your courage on considering a 4plex on your fist deal. Great way to start. Cash flow is generally better in 2-4 units vs. a SFH in the same area. Here are my 2cents:

1.  Tenants: established tenants have Pros & Cons. You might want to consider if the rent is below market rate, can you raise the rent in the future? Do your existing tenants have stable income to cover rent? Getting rid of all existing tenants - you might need to keep good relations  with them so they don’t trash the property when moving out. You can also reduce the rent and remodel each unit while tenants are in them.  

2. Occupancy: SFH tenants tend to treat the property like their own and stay longer. 4plex might have a higher occupancy rate & turnover rate.

3. Pro Property Management or Self management: PM usually charges 1st month rent when it places a new tenant. For any repairs, some PM companies will charge a fee too. If you are first time self-manage, you might have to think about one vs. four toilets, appliances, house showings, and leases …etc.  Handymen and contractors are in short supply theses days- a property manager should have access to these resources to limit delays on any projects that need to be done. 

4. Properties Age & condition: this will affect your future capital expense, cost. 

5. Taxes: you can ask for taxes return record from the current property owner as one of the contingencies on the P&S. It will show clearly how much is the rent on schedule E.

6.  Utility sub-metering for 4plex: it might cost more to set up, but you will save more money in a long run. If it’s in a colder states with only one boiler, if might not be feasible. You can bring an experienced  general contractor during the home inspection.

7.  Leases: some states are better to take over without existing leases from current tenants if it’s month to month. Other states are better to take over with existing leases due to eviction laws.

You might want to check with a legal professional to make sure if this in your specific state.

8. Downpayment: anything less than 4 units should have similar loan terms. It should be the same DP for SFH & 4plex.

9. DOM: 4 months might seems long for a 4plex nowadays, you could check past 3-9 months sold history for duplex/triplex/quadplex in the same area. I would compare town size, rental history, property conditions, locations, listing price…etc to understand why this particular property is on the market for so long. Talking to some local PMs, realtor, handymen, and contractors might also provide good insights too.

10. Exit strategy: 2-4 U it's have a more limited resell market- only other investors (or house hackers) will buy it and the resell is based on estimated cash flow. SFH has a larger pool of buyers because it can be sold to another investor, to somebody that wants to occupy it or for use as a STR. In many markets, SFH will show more appreciation because the selling price is based on comp sales instead of cash flow.

Here is another post about the same topic. Best luck on your 1st deal on whichever one you choose to do. Happy Investing!!!

~ Candy C.


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