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All Forum Posts by: Matthew Masoud

Matthew Masoud has started 45 posts and replied 355 times.

I got one right away thinking it would solve all of my problems.

I had to fire them and the two after them before I just hired someone full-time + a VA, and trained them. Got the process down so I actually turned a business out of it.

If trained well things run pretty damn smoothly but I still have to jump in and take care of something a few times a week but we are still less than 100 units.

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @V.G Jason:

How leveraged are you?

Can you withstand a 4 to 6 month period of no rent for 25% of your properties and/or large($15,000+) capex repairs for half your properties if a major weather event came about in the area?


Very good questions.

Most properties have 50%-60% equity. We are refinancing only at 60%-65% to prepare for a potential increase in cap rates that will directly hurt property values.

Our portfolio is spread out over 6 properties. They all share a bank that can float any property for over 6 months (This is not an operating account, each property has its own operating account)

. Think of it as an umbrella policy over our actual umbrella policy over our regular insurance for each property.

We use this account for CapEx repairs and then fill it up with the following month's cashflow

Post: What's your preferred PMS that integrates FF and AirBNB?

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403

Unfortunately because of how new the mid-term rental space is, there is no software that easily runs operations.

You'll have to get creative with the short term management softwares out there.

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Charles Lambert:
Quote from @Matthew Masoud:
Quote from @Charles Lambert:
Quote from @Mara Sargent:
Quote from @Matthew Masoud:

This forum has done so much for me and I felt a bit guilty this afternoon for not giving back. 

Scaled to 48 Mid-Term Rentals in 2 years OH, hired a property manager and maintenance person. Quitting my job next week and moving to North Carolina to grow a portfolio there.

So Ask me anything, Mid-Term Rentals edition.


Congrats Matthew!  I have a 4 plex that I have a property management company mange 3 of the units and I live in the 4th unit.  I am moving out of my 1 bedroom apartment and I originally planned on long term renting it furnished.  Now, Im thinking mid-term rental as it is near town and a hospital. How much more can I charge for MTR vs Long term?  Is there a general rule of thumb percentage? 


 That's awesome! It sounds exactly like what I'm planning to do! Nice to know there are other people doing this, though I am hoping to have a two bedroom apartment for myself, so I can have one room for a home office. I am also intrigued in doing a furnished medium term rental in one of the units, and if it goes well, maybe do all of the units (except the one I'm in) like that.


 This is pretty much exactly what I did. I had a triplex back in 2020 that had a tenant leaving. I thought why not give this Mid-Term rental a chance? Worst case scenario I donate the furniture to the church and I'm back where I started.

The reservations came in fast and hard. Market rent for that apartment was $700, I was renting at $1,400 with near 100% occupancy. 


 This is what I love to hear! I first got turned on to the idea of medium term rentals after watching "Income Property" on HGTV about a decade ago. It almost seemed too good to be true, but there will always be people in need of a furnished place to rent for a few months.

For those who have medium term rentals, what's an average monthly rent, double? Sometimes less or sometimes more than double what it would rent for as an unfurnished long term rental? And what are better areas for this? I'm thinking mid size to larger cities with a college, large hospital, sports teams or some kind of seasonal industry.

I find this attractive, as some of the cities I've been thinking of moving to, and house hacking in a quadplex, are affordable, which is great for buying. But, that also means lower monthly rents, so being able to charge double the rent for a furnished, medium term rental sounds good. Even if there is some vacancy throughout the year, I think I'd still come out ahead. I've got enough furniture to furnish two apartments right now anyways.


 Double the monthly rent is a good rule of thumb although some markets are more or less depending on demand.

Best areas are exactly what you said mid/large cities with hospitals, businesses, schools, etc.

Yeah I'd definitely furnish that second unit and give it a shot. I always like to think worst case scenario, it makes me less afraid to make big moves. Worse case scenario you sell the furniture and rent out that second unit as a regular rental. (make sure the numbers work long-term as well)

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Mara Sargent:

which are your favorite websites to list your mid-term rentals on?


 Furnish Finder brings in quite a bit but it's a manual reservation so more work is involved (lease, deposit ect).

I like airbnb because they handle the payment side of things. Their strong review system has helped me say no to a lot of tenants. Plus it comes with insurance. Their fees are pretty hefty though.

Then I get surprise bookings from other platforms like booking.com, Expedia, and google travel. I put my units everywhere to make sure they stay booked.

Post: Mid-term rental deposit, application fee, & rent collection

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Robert Calabro:

What do mid-term renters prefer when it comes to security deposit? I'm leaning towards a smaller non-refundable deposit vs a full month rent that is refundable. I would love to hear what others have experienced with it. 

Secondly, is it common to do a normal application fee for background and credit? My current platform charges $55. Should I keep doing this or is there something better for mid-term stays?

Lastly, what is the preferred method for collecting rent with mid-term stays? I'm currently using Avail.co for my long-term rentals. 

TIA!


 This is how we do it for our own mid-term portfolio and for the ones we manage.

1. $600 refundable deposit for anything over 31 days. In 3-years in the Mid-Term rental space and 100s of reservations, we've never had to use it.

2. We give them two options for screening. they can either provide documentation that they are traveling for their job or they can pay for tenant screening. You've got to find a cheaper platform though because $55 is fairly steep ours charges $35.

3. We use hostaway in combination with doorloop to manage mid-term rentals. Hostaway is a short term rental software but with enough finagling you can get it to work for mid-term as well. Doorloop is for maitaince requests, reporting, and overall operations. We are able to run pretty well with over 100 mid-term units on these platforms.


The mid-term space is super new so we are all kind of finding out footing together at the same time. 

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Charles Lambert:
Quote from @Mara Sargent:
Quote from @Matthew Masoud:

This forum has done so much for me and I felt a bit guilty this afternoon for not giving back. 

Scaled to 48 Mid-Term Rentals in 2 years OH, hired a property manager and maintenance person. Quitting my job next week and moving to North Carolina to grow a portfolio there.

So Ask me anything, Mid-Term Rentals edition.


Congrats Matthew!  I have a 4 plex that I have a property management company mange 3 of the units and I live in the 4th unit.  I am moving out of my 1 bedroom apartment and I originally planned on long term renting it furnished.  Now, Im thinking mid-term rental as it is near town and a hospital. How much more can I charge for MTR vs Long term?  Is there a general rule of thumb percentage? 


 That's awesome! It sounds exactly like what I'm planning to do! Nice to know there are other people doing this, though I am hoping to have a two bedroom apartment for myself, so I can have one room for a home office. I am also intrigued in doing a furnished medium term rental in one of the units, and if it goes well, maybe do all of the units (except the one I'm in) like that.


 This is pretty much exactly what I did. I had a triplex back in 2020 that had a tenant leaving. I thought why not give this Mid-Term rental a chance? Worst case scenario I donate the furniture to the church and I'm back where I started.

The reservations came in fast and hard. Market rent for that apartment was $700, I was renting at $1,400 with near 100% occupancy. 

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Adrian Tjakra:

Is there any property management company specializing in Mid Term rental you would recommend in the Ohio area?


 I was not able to find one. It was either long-term property management or short-term property management so I actually started my own. 

We almost exclusively manage our own property but are not opposed to taking other properties and plugging them into our operations.

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Bonnie Low:

That's a lot of scaling in 2 years - congratulations! Are you doing the rental arbitrage method? Between the 3 cities you mentioned: Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus which do you see performing best for MTRs and who are your target guests?


 I don't do rental arbitrage. It's a good side income but it's a job not building wealth. Can be a great way to get started if you have absolutely no funds.

Columbus has the best metrics for mid-term rentals but the properties there do come at a premium compared to Dayton and even Cincinnati.

Post: Ask Me Anything Mid-Term edition.

Matthew MasoudPosted
  • Investor
  • Orange County, CA
  • Posts 363
  • Votes 403
Quote from @Charles Lambert:
Quote from @Matthew Masoud:
Quote from @Brian Malavsky:

There are a couple great podcast episodes on asset protection, the main show ep. 595, and BP Rookie ep. 105 & 106, that give a ton of great information on what LLC's can and can't do for you.

For me, I personally use an umbrella policy for my protection but did setup an LLC immediately more so for financing later on down the road. I believe you need to show consistent income for two years before you can get financing through the business. I am working towards investing full-time and leaving my W-2 behind. So, I wanted to start the 2yr clock as soon as possible. I also keep my personal funds and business funds completely seperate. The corporate veil of an LLC can get pierced very easily if funds aren't managed correctly. It may seem complicated but it really isn't if you create a business bank account and credit card. You always can add a cash infusion into your business and repay yourself of that loan. I've been told that when you start pulling out business income (money exceeding the "personal loan" you gave to your business) for personal use is when things get dicey.

I am by no means an expert, but more so relaying advice that I have recieved. Hope this helps @Charles Lambert

Cheers! 


 You hit two key points here.

1. Having an LLC alone does not protect you from liability, mixing funds is the most common way to open yourself up to liability.

2. Financing in an LLC is difficult because you have to show income. A common way around this is to personally guarantee the loan. This is more common in commercial financing than it is in residential financing.


 I guess those are the pros and cons of incorporating. Mixing personal and business money sounds like a bad idea, I wasn't going to, but now that I know mixing funds can open me up to liability, that's another good reason to incorporate and keep funds separate. I should incorporate right away (or when I'm getting close to buying my first building), for a few reasons:
- liability protection
- establish the business (and its creditworthiness)
- looks professional, as it should be if I'm going to own a quadplex, and then maybe more buildings later (presumably all buildings can be under the same corporate name)


As for financing, hopefully by the time I need to apply for it, I will have established a good credit reputation and have solid financial statement to qualify for financing or even a business credit card. For my first purchase, I want to buy with cash and be debt free, then I'll see about borrowing to buy another building. I'd rather not personally guarantee anything, but I've heard of that being done.


You will want to consider an LLC over incorporating. It'll take an attorney 15 minutes (and probably $200) to tell you exactly what you need.

Money Well spent.