I've got a studio unit, 338 ft, in the Midwest. The city here has a large tech and healthcare industry and is a place young professionals often relocate to.
I have the unit listed for a month to month lease, but am having a hard time finding renters who meet my requirements (650 min credit score, monthly income must be 2.5 times rent, no eviction history). I've been thinking about listing the unit on Furnished Finder or something similar to maybe attract better renters.
Does anyone here use Furnish Finder or Airbnbs to find month to month renters? What's your experience been like and would you recommend it?
Anyone have luck renting out using Furnished Finder or medium term Airbnbs?
byu/LattesAvocadoToast inrealestateinvesting
Posted by LattesAvocadoToast
3 Comments
So far I have had decent luck on Furnished Finder with my duplex in St. Louis, MO. We were able to buy the property for a good price, fully furnished, from someone who had been doing the same and learned the ropes a bit from her. I’ve mostly avoided AirBnBs due to the fees (FF doesn’t charge any fee on the rental, just an affordable annual fee for the listing… $199 currently)
St. Louis doesn’t have a HUGE traveler market… but does have major hospital systems that still employ travel nurses. Plus there appears to be a healthy mix of relocators (in fact, I used Furnished Finder for a 4 month bridge between selling our home and buying one), other types of corporate travelers, insurance displacement (for fires, floods, a big tornado we had last year, etc) to keep leads strong. Our property is in a nice, but not super in demand, area and I haven’t had more than a few days to a week vacancy between tenants since buying the property last April.
It definitely helps to furnish/decorate/and market your property well. Furnished Finder lets you proactively reach out to anyone who has been searching in your area with criteria that matches yours and I’ve very actively done that leading up to a lease end to ensure I find a tenant. So, a little bit of work, but not too bad and you do get much higher rents for a furnished rental. They tend to be good, respectable tenants as well since they are typically in town for work. I think it’s really a nice sweet spot for a real estate investor.
I would look at Furnished Finder in your area to see how many properties there are — I would want to see a healthy amount to know that others must be having success, but not so much as to indicate a fully saturated market. FF gives you some data that can help you extrapolate what types of properties are in demand in your area compared to supply, and what you could expect in terms of rent.
I had two places listed for a year, very few leads but did end up getting a five month stay in one of them.
Not reliable at all for income but that one tenant was great.
It’s also cheap and easy to do w no real obligation so it’s a nice thing to try.
I do short term in my busy season then winter rentals on Furnushed Finder for off season for mid term rentals.
I’ve had a good experience overall. The actual user interface kind of sucks and is annoying to use but it’s better than any other site for finding people in search of mid term rentals.
I just email them directly and move off platform once I receive an inquiry.