All Forum Posts by: Jin Zhang

@Yuxi Li I have used Airbnb to great success for the MTRs.  As @Jordan Moorhead said, make sure the renter checks out when requesting to book on the platform and use your specific screening materials or questions.  I use a second agreement all tenants / guests have to sign in advance on STRs and MTRs.  

You will gain attention if you put your listing on the MLS as @Celine Crestin mentioned, but you will also likely incur significant lease up fees, potentially on both sides (listing and showing). If you have an HOA that has 3 or 6 month minimums I believe this could be a viable route but a 30-40% lease up fee for a single month alone would likely devastate the profit margin.

You can find leases on legal sites like LegalZoom and Rocket lawyer which are specified by state. I only use leases if I rent directly, not on a platform like Airbnb & VRBO but something like Furnished Finder or if the guest extends offline. 

Instead of listing on the MLS, if you are trying to capture seller's or buyers looking to rent furnished for a few months in the interim you can get a lot of requests from Zillow.

I would personally screen my MTR tenants and have them sign a lease. Anything over 30 days is lease-worthy IMO. You can also list those rentals in the MLS with a realtor and probably find quite a lot of traction, as there are many home buyers who sold their home and need a short term place to stay (1-6 months typically) until their new home build is completed and utilize their realtors to help them find something.

You can screen tenants with a variety of services online; I like to use my smart move, but there are several others. Many of the online rent collection sites also offer tenant screening. 

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out should you have additional questions.

Daniel, 

Probably going to have to get a bit creative or find off market deals. Our market is tough to buy standard rentals and cash flow. I'm from western WA but currently live outside of Portland. REI became way more accessible and fun for me when I started investing out of state.

I have multiple rentals for what I could've bought one place for. We're turning our primary into a rental in the next year or two to take advantage of the sweet appreciation. But I'll continue to primarily invest remotely. 

Quote from @Jin Zhang:

Quote from @James Carlson:

@Brandon Elliott-Pandey

That's a great story. We have MTRs in Denver and Colorado Springs. We like the model so much, my wife/business partner wrote a few books about them. (The latest is aptly named Erin's Guide to Midterm Rentals.) I've always been interested in getting synced with insurance companies for the above reason. That's a great connection.

We had a similar experience with our 4br/2ba SFH in Colorado Springs. We bought to live in just before Covid. We moved out two years later and got college kids in from nearby Colorado College. We initially paid their utilities, but they paid medium-term rental rates but stayed for 9 months. We repeated that with another set of college kids the following year.

Then this year, we were able to bump up our rents and have a family staying in there. This time they pay utilities and the furnished MTR rates. It's just over $1,000 in cash flow after all expenses. Now ... we bought our house in 2019 when prices were lower and -- most importantly -- rates were crazy low, so this is more difficult to replicate, but the numbers still work, if not as well.

Thanks for sharing.

 Hi James, Thank you for sharing your experience here! How do you normally find renters from insurance companies? Could you share more about it? Thanks!

 One such company is ALE Solutions.  Here's their page to register your property:
https://www.alesolutions.com/r...

Quote from @Jin Zhang:

Quote from @Allen Duan:

There are many stories in this section of the forums. We're currently at 20 doors we manage as MTRs in Los Angeles. It's a different perspective since I'm not the owner of the properties, but the demand and rental rates are great. To give you an idea, I'm confident in recommending any 2 bedroom or smaller units should be set up as a MTR instead of a LTR almost anywhere in LA. Happy to share more if you have specific questions =)

 Hi Allen, Thank you for sharing your experience here! I am curious who are your renters? 

In order of most common to least common: travel nurses, families having their homes repaired or renovated, people visiting their family for an extended stay, groups traveling for work together (often for construction jobs), people moving to LA for the first time and still searching for where they want to live.

Quote from @Michael Foss:

Good afternoon! I was hoping to get some advice on Single Family Rental investing in the greater Tampa area.  I am seeking homes in the $250-350K range and would love some advice on neighborhoods and expected yields when investing in this market.  Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance! -Michael 

As LTRs and unfurnished, you can expect around a "0.7-1.0% rule".  A couple factors that will really impact your bottom line will be 1) flood insurance 2) home insurance and 3) HOAs.  Vacancy rates are going to be best in Pinellas and Hillsborough but much of manatee and Pasco counties are still really good.  

I would be happy to help further if you want to dm me some more specific questions and I can give you more specific direction based on your goals and current situation.  

@ray above is an excellent lender too that I'd recommend to anyone to get some rate quotes.

@Brandon Elliott-Pandey

That's a great story. We have MTRs in Denver and Colorado Springs. We like the model so much, my wife/business partner wrote a few books about them. (The latest is aptly named Erin's Guide to Midterm Rentals.) I've always been interested in getting synced with insurance companies for the above reason. That's a great connection.

We had a similar experience with our 4br/2ba SFH in Colorado Springs. We bought to live in just before Covid. We moved out two years later and got college kids in from nearby Colorado College. We initially paid their utilities, but they paid medium-term rental rates but stayed for 9 months. We repeated that with another set of college kids the following year.

Then this year, we were able to bump up our rents and have a family staying in there. This time they pay utilities and the furnished MTR rates. It's just over $1,000 in cash flow after all expenses. Now ... we bought our house in 2019 when prices were lower and -- most importantly -- rates were crazy low, so this is more difficult to replicate, but the numbers still work, if not as well.

Thanks for sharing.