Furnishing a property for monthly rentals, also known as mid-term rentals, can feel overwhelming at first. Whether you're an experienced landlord or just dipping your toes into the world of real estate, creating a space that feels like home (without breaking the bank) is both possible and rewarding.
In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know to furnish your monthly rental property effectively, so you can attract the right tenants, reduce turnover, and maximize your income.
Why monthly rentals are a smart choice
Unlike short-term vacation rentals, monthly rentals cater to traveling professionals, relocating families, digital nomads, and insurance displacement cases. These tenants typically stay for 1-6 months and are looking for comfort, functionality, and a sense of home.
Monthly rentals offer:
Less turnover and fewer management headaches.
Higher income potential than traditional long-term leases.
Flexibility in lease terms and tenant types.
Lower furnishing costs than short-term rentals, especially if you're starting from scratch. Monthly rental tenants don’t expect extensive decor or lots of extras - they want clean, comfortable, and clutter-free spaces.
In fact, you can estimate furnishing a monthly rental at around $7 per square foot. That means a 1,000 sq. ft. unit could be move-in ready for approximately $7,000, depending on the quality and sources of your furniture.
Start with the essentials: what every monthly rental needs
Before you get swept away with decor, prioritize function. Think about a tenant's day-to-day needs:
Sleep comfortably
Invest in a quality mattress (medium-firm hybrid styles are ideal).
Include extra bedding and a mattress protector.
Work productively
Provide a desk and comfortable chair.
Add a monitor, keyboard, and surge protector if possible.
Cook easily
Stock a well-equipped kitchen with non-stick pans, sharp knives, and a can opener.
Don’t forget storage containers, coffee maker, and starter cooking supplies.
Clean & stay organized
Include a vacuum, mop, and laundry basket.
Supply starter cleaning supplies and extra towels and linens.
Avoid common mistakes: what not to do
Don’t skimp on high-touch items like sheets, towels, and cookware. Poor quality leads to complaints and early replacements.
Avoid overly trendy decor or cheap furnishings that won’t last.
Don’t forget basics like blackout curtains, full-length mirrors, and iron + ironing board.
Make a lasting impression
Small, thoughtful upgrades can set your rental apart:
A comfortable sectional sofa for relaxing.
Eco-friendly toiletries or starter kits.
Pet-friendly touches like washable rugs or leather sofas.
And yes - a green couch can stop a scroll and win a booking. Check out this webinar, From Empty to Essential: Furnishing Tips for Monthly Rentals (opens in new tab), to learn more.
Stretch value for your budget with the right tools
Using platforms like Minoan, landlords can access trade-level discounts (up to 60% off) from brands like Article, Wayfair, and Parachute. Plus, their furnishing checklist makes setup seamless, and their digital showroom feature can turn your furniture into a passive income source.
Ready is better than perfect
It’s easy to get stuck waiting for your property to feel "ready." But many successful landlords start by listing their unit with in-progress photos and a clear timeline. Furnishing can (and should) evolve with feedback from real tenants.
Remember: clean, comfortable, and thoughtfully equipped homes win every time.
Download the Monthly Rental Essentials Checklist (opens in new tab) to get started.
When you're ready to welcome your first tenant, list your property on Furnished Finder (opens in new tab). It's the trusted platform for monthly rentals—built for landlords who value reliability, direct connections, and less hassle.
Make the smart move today and join thousands of landlords already seeing results.
Episode 139 Transcript
I, again, in 2022, didn't know about Minoan. We were a fairly new company back then. I started with them in 2024. But had I had ow when I was setting up my midterm rental, I would've saved a lot of money, but I also would've saved a lot of time. I, when I first started, I showed my colleagues the scratch checklist for my furniture that I was using, which was really.
Not polished and not professional whatsoever. So we help every host, no matter where you are at in your investing journey, whether you have one property, you have 20 properties, really feel like they're running a business as opposed to a side gig. Welcome to The Landlord Diaries, where we talk about midterm rentals and the opportunities behind them.
We'll share landlord stories, talk about maximizing investment potential, and discuss how to live the very best landlord life. This podcast is proudly brought to you by Furnished Finder, the leader and largest online marketplace for midterm rentals. Remember to like and subscribe if you enjoy our content.
Today's episode is going to be great with Jennifer's Zureikat, our newest Furnished Finder partnership with Minoan. Jennifer is the marketing director at Manan, and I'm gonna let her kick us off by telling us about this fantastic partnership between Furnished Finder and Minoan. Yeah. Thank you Kelly. I am super excited to be here.
Just a little bit about the partnership. To me it makes perfect sense. I've been a Furnished Finder host and a Furnished Finder tenant for the last. 18 months or so. And so when we realized that there was a great alignment here between OW and Furnished Finder, especially as you consider the market right now, I think a lot of the people that use OW and for furnishing a short-term rental are now trying to think about how do we transition to something a little bit more reliable, something a little more stable.
And we provide, the furniture, the amenities. Not just for the short term, but also for the midterm. Yeah, we're doing a lot of fun stuff together, A lot of cool co-marketing things like webinars and this wonderful podcast, so thank you for having me. Yeah it's one of the biggest questions we get is like, how do I furnish this property?
So we're gonna spend a lot of time today talking about. That and getting into the nitty gritty because Manoan is fantastic at that. And they have all the expert views. But one of the reasons that Jen is here with us is because she's been down this road. Like you said, you have been a furnished finder host and a tenant, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I you have had a short term rental before that you now use as a midterm rental sometimes.
So I would love to hear just an overview of your story and experience and how you decided to. Transition at least part of the time into this monthly furnished rental. Sure. Absolutely. So I I've been in real estate for over a decade. I've been in the prop tech industry. My husband's a broker and it we saw everybody else our age investing in property and we, really wanted to participate in that.
So we in 2020 started purchasing properties. For the intent of long-term rentals and that went really well. But I saw all these people on TikTok and Instagram doing short-term rentals and making all this money and it looks so much fun. So in 2022, we bought our first short term rental in an area that allowed it, which is Bradenton, Florida.
It's about 15 minutes. Outside of Anna Maria Island, which is a huge vacation destination, I set it up in 2022. The supply chain was just the worst, and furnishing was tough. I didn't know about Manone at that time, which is. I'm kicking myself for now, but yeah, I, as I got into it, I realized that short-term rentals are a lot of work.
It's not, coming from having these long-term rentals where I'm used to maybe once a month having a tenant call, maybe 'cause a dishwasher needs a repair or the toilet is clogged, little tiny things. This was like every week I was hearing a complaint or a piece of feedback.
And I will also say vacationers want everything to be perfect, and I just didn't have the time to devote to that. So I had talked to my husband and we were like it's already furnished, like we already have it set up. Why don't we try to find people who are in between houses, maybe people who, you know, their house under construction, but they need a place to stay in the interim.
A lot of traveling nurses down here as well. And yeah, so we put it on Furnished Finder and we've gotten a ton of interest. We've gotten, even people who had previously stayed for a week refer other midterm tenants who are local to the property. So it's really, I actually do think the property is just better suited as a midterm rental due to the location and some of the strategic things that we did with it.
Like we made sure to have a home office in there. We usually have two home offices. They're not designated, but a nice desk area for remote workers to really, be able to. Get their stuff done. We also put like a Peloton bike in there and I know a lot of people are like, oh, with a midterm rental, it's not about amenities, but you do want it to feel like home and with no gyms nearby, like that was something we considered.
If you're staying for 30 days and you might wanna go to the gym, we're gonna provide you at least some equipment. So yeah, so it ended up actually everything that we did to make it a short term ended up being better as a midterm and now just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, not having to deal with the turnover.
Yeah, I think that's fantastic. Both of those people have short term rental tenants or guests and midterm rental tenants have much different needs, and you've been able to take one property and really make it work for both use cases, which I think I. Is fantastic and so smart and something that so many of our landlords can learn from.
So you're like the perfect person to help us talk about this. Give us a quick introduction to Minoan, what you guys do and how you really are the experts about furnishing and why landlords should consider using ow and when you're furnishing a property or whether you're refreshing a property or replacing a furnishing, anything like what makes you guys so special.
Ow one's special because you think about how many people set up their property and they have to budget this insane amount of money for the furniture, and ow one basically helps you do that at a fraction of the cost. So investors, they care about the dollars and cents. A lot of them will go very cheap with the furniture so that they're often having to replace things.
But no one is great because you can get the quality things at the prices that make sense to the investor, so it's not breaking the budget, but you're still going to have quality lasting pieces. In addition to that, we have great partnerships with. Replenishable companies. So anything from like linens to soaps to shampoos the things that you need, even for a midterm rental, you should have that stuff available for the first, I would say at least week or so.
We offer all of that. And then on top of all that, again, just in the investors' mindset, which is how my brain works. We offer the opportunity to monetize all of those things, which is the core of our business. You can set up what we call a showroom and it's basically a digital storefront for your rental and your guests.
Or your tenants can scan these QR codes and shop the things they love about the their stay, and then you earn an affiliate commission on everything that they buy from you. I think for midterm rentals, it actually even makes more sense because if you're staying in a place for 30, 45, 60 plus days and you start to fall in love with that coffee maker, you fall in love with that mattress, there's a good chance that you're gonna wanna take it home.
While we don't encourage people to steal from the property, we do encourage them to shop the showroom and be able to take a piece of their stay home with them. I love the way that you said that because how many times is someone starting their midterm rental journey with monthly furnished rentals and they think.
Okay, great. I'm ready. But how do I furnish this space? And not only is there going to be a showroom, but I think y'all a teaser, I think you even have a Furnished Finder checklist of what a midterm rental operator should shop for. So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I, so the key thing is a quality, especially for midterm rentals.
So the things that we might recommend for short-term rentals, there are things that you could get away with maybe going a little bit. Less expensive on. There are, I would say, as a midterm host myself, like I really wanna invest in quality towels. So we provide the recommendations that allow those things to last.
You think about how many times people are washing them and the linens they're being slept on every night, as opposed to maybe four nights a week. So that is where our discounts are really great too, because again, you can get the higher quality stuff at the cheaper prices if you were just shopping on your own.
And then there's a bunch of things that maybe short-term hosts wouldn't consider as much. Like they might be focused more on beach chairs and. Blow up toys and fun things for the backyard. Whereas a midterm host is probably focused more on desks and monitors, things that'll really cater to people who are gonna be staying for a while, likely working from your property.
So we do have this awesome checklist where you can run through like the essentials that you would need as a midterm host like. You don't wanna leave your guests without a monitor if they're staying for 30 plus days, in my opinion. Today's episode is proudly sponsored by Furnished Finder, the ultimate platform for hassle-free midterm rentals.
Whether you're a seasoned landlord. We're just getting started. Furnished Finder has everything you need to find your next tenant. With Furnished Finder, you can say goodbye to booking fees, markups, and commissions, and hello to Direct bookings. If you are ready to experience all the benefits renting your property for 30 days or more, head over to furnished finder.com where you can list your property for one low annual price.
We make it easy to get started.
Yeah, those types of amenities are really gonna make you stand out. And this leads right into the differences between furnishing a short term rental and a midterm rental. I think swapping a monitor in place where those beach chairs might have been before, or the stack of puzzles or. All of the decorations it's a great exchange.
Our largest tenant type is business travelers and digital nomads. That's about 37% of our tenant de tenant demand. So it's a big deal, right? So when you think about that, if they're searching and they see that you have a monitor and a desk, and maybe even at a standing desk, something like that, it shows that you're, you've been thoughtful and you're putting their reasons for stay.
Their needs at the top of your furnishing list. So I also love this idea of a list because I know furnishing can be very overwhelming if you've never done it before, if you're having your first property or you're transitioning an unfurnished property. But even if you have a short term rental property like just adding those few things that makes it really midterm friendly, you don't wanna just go on and find any type of furnishing list.
You wanna make sure you find one that has monthly rentals in mind. Yeah, 100%. And what I like most about the list that we created too, is that we're actually providing like a link to the product that we suggest you use. It's not just yeah, sheets, we have a lot of sheets that we offer.
We do. I think what people are really looking for is just tell me what to buy. I know you offer a great discount. My budget is, $40 for the sheet set. You can see through Minoan what was an $80 sheet set might actually be $40. So again, you're getting a great value there, which is awesome. And it really is like plug and play.
It's, I think that midterm hosts like myself don't wanna deal with hassle. That's why they do midterm as opposed to short term. So just tell me what to invest in, what's important to buy within, a reasonable budget. Yeah, but no one feels it feels like the cheat code, to furnishing.
And I think it's also the cheat code too. Hey, I know I need to invest in towels. I know I should invest in the cutlery. Maybe like the knives are gonna be used all the time. Maybe, it's not a short-term rental where people are probably getting take out or DoorDash, the majority of the nights are, they're gonna be cooking and the sheets, like you said on they're gonna be slept on 90 days in a row versus in and out and in and out.
These high touch items, it's a way where you can get those higher end products and you can get that cheat code to the discount, so you can still get the quality while maintaining that value that you need. A hundred percent. I, when I had a short term rental, I would've never invested in caraway pots and pans.
But through Minoan, we offer such good savings and it makes sense because they're gonna last, they're not gonna get all scratched up and gross and so I had 'em for my short, these other ones for my short term that I got off of Amazon, they barely lasted. And I hope that no one cooked with them because they were very junky.
And then when we transitioned to midterm, I, that was the type of thing, especially the kitchen where, but I really wanted to upgrade because people aren't going out to eat every single night at a midterm rental. They're probably cooking. Yeah. So let's talk about what are some of those small upgrades that can make a really big impression on a midterm rental guest?
Like, how do we make a place feel homey? How do we make sure it's comfortable, it's clean? Like how do we make sure that we have all of those things that really make us stand out? I focus on I stay at my rental sometimes, and so I'm thinking of it both as like a vacationer, but also like I bring my computer with me.
I bring all of the baby gear. I needed to feel like home, otherwise I'm gonna be extremely uncomfortable. So we make sure to have things for families, like baby gear, which is important, whether you're doing short term or midterm. And then we also, again, invest in that office set up. We have a keyboard, a monitor mouse, just a whole sort of office setup in two different rooms just in case.
There's two people who need that kind of amenity. But then just down to the actual fabrics and plushness of things and the comfort like. I go to an Airbnb, sometimes the sofa is super hard. It's not somewhere that I wanna hang out, but it's okay because I'll be at the beach all day and then, but when I'm on thinking about my Furnished Finder tenants, it's important to have a really comfortable sofa. It's important to have warm blankets. That's not something you might always have at a short-term rental because they'll get dirty and dingy, but you think about how you live in your own house every night.
You close your laptop, you eat dinner, and then you wanna sle up on the sofa and watch a movie. So that's really important too. So just like the little touches, again, the linens, the towels are huge. No scratchy towels. People are not gonna wanna bathe and with those every night. And then things that last.
So that's anything from your sheets to even your shower curtain. Just making sure everything's really clean and guest ready. I, and I think this is a really good time to highlight too, guys. Our partnership with Minoan is really set up for everybody to be successful and for you guys to be able to be MINOAN members and get off to a really great kickstart.
So we have that furnishing checklist that we're talking about in the show notes, and we also have a link where if you sign up via the link, you're going to get $25 off of your first order. Just to give you like another. Another head start, right? Whether you wanna start small and you're like, I'm gonna replace my towels and my sheets.
That's one of my goals for my properties because we went mid grade with the towels and the sheets because we grew really fast. And I was like, we gotta keep the budget in check. And now what I'm discovering is that we're replacing most of the towels and sheets because mid grade towels and sheets last.
For a while, but not for long enough for me. So this time we're being more intentional. I'm going through Minoan using their order process, which is fantastic. Yeah I think check out those show notes. Anything you wanna add to that, Jen? No, I would say we have a great support team and we have a great growth team and they're always willing to help.
So if you are like. Hey I don't even know where to get started here. I have the checklist, I just, I need more help. Reach out to us. We're always willing to help. You can reach out to me, jen@owexperience.com (opens in new tab). I love that. I'm happy to give you my advice as a host and tell you what I think you should buy based on your location.
It really is, I don't want, I feel like you can feel very lonely in this journey of being a host and being an investor. It's a lot of work, and so I think we should come together as a community and all help each other as much as possible. Okay, so Jen, tell us exactly how Minoan helps with the furnishing process and simplifies it.
Because I wanna dive into like how we can design and furnish a beautiful, a durable midterm rental without breaking the bank. And tell us like exactly how ow works. 'cause I know I've used it personally. Like I said, helping furnishing and just refreshing a lot of my units. But it's a little bit of a different process.
Yeah, it's not your traditional retail experience. So the way it works is OW is a platform. You log in, you can see a bunch of great products, right on our homepage. As soon as you're approved, your account is approved and you can start shopping right away. And we actually have these really nice curations.
So we have one like kind of a bed in the box curation. We have some outdoor picks, seasonal stuff. And then we actually have a new thing launching next week called Deals of the Week. So these will be mano and exclusive flash sales with various brand partners. But typically, because, a lot of hosts want that assortment.
They just wanna go out and shop and explore on their own. You download our Chrome extension and then you can go to any of our brand partners websites. So Create and Barrel article. You're basically pulling the item back into your ow cart, and that's how you get the discount. So you wanna check out through ow you don't wanna check out through the brand partner, otherwise you'll forego that discount.
It's super easy once you get the hang of it. And the cool thing is we are set up like a B platform. So unlike traditional retail where you're like. Juggling multiple cards and you're trying to figure out where all your stuff is, it's all in one place. And that's really great at tax time for starters.
So you can keep track of all the things your, all of your expenses. But it's also great when you think about having to restock or refresh anything. So if your sofa is damaged or you need new linens, you can easily find all of your orders within your Minno account. Yeah it's super intuitive once you get the hang of it.
And then really like it's, I again in 2022, didn't know about Minoan. We were a fairly new company back then. I started with them in 2024. But had I had, ow when I was setting up my midterm rental, I would've saved a lot of money, but I also would, would've saved a lot of time. I, when I first started, I showed my colleagues the.
Scratch checklist for my furniture that I was using, which was really, not polished and not professional whatsoever. So we help every host, no matter where you are at in your investing journey, whether you have one property, you have 20 properties, really feel like they're running a business as opposed to a sidekick.
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Creation and a suite of incredible landlord tools. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. No more chasing down checks or sifting through piles of applications. Key Check helps you organize and manage all things landlording in a simple and efficient way. Make landlord life a breeze with key. Check the game changer for modern property owners.
Visit Key check.com to unlock the power of stress-free property management, and take your rental business to new heights. Yeah, that's a great point. And I think as a Minoan representative and a furnish funder, host yourself, I would love to hear what you recommend as far as the balance between. The furnishing costs of setting up your rental and the value of the revenue based off of choosing quality furnishings.
What do you hear as some of those, setbacks of why people don't want to use quality things that you that you guys at Menno can encourage Our furnish fund hosts on why it's so important to, especially with those high touch items, to have quality furnishings. Yeah, it's, I feel like that's very much a, you live and you learn thing.
Like people can tell you all the time, invest in the good stuff because not only is it gonna photograph better and you're probably gonna get more interest, right? At the top of the funnel, right? When you're marketing your property, people are gonna say, wow, that's a really nice bet. That's a really nice sofa.
That's a really nice dresser. But when you think about. Just your sanity. So when you have people coming in and you wanna keep this as hands off as possible, I think that's every landlord's dream is not having to, go to the property every couple of days and fix things. It'll be so much easier if you just invest in the quality things now so that you don't have to fix or replace them in the near term.
I have tons of stories of personally of people who have stayed at my property and, they complained about. The sheets or the linens. When you think about how that affects you, not only just, you know you, who wants that, you want people to have a nice time and you want people to have a nice day where they're staying for a few nights or a few months.
But also if you're hosting on a place where there's opportunity for reviews. You don't want those negative reviews because that will cost you money. So I really recommend, spend a little bit more money. And with Minow, it's really not that much more money on things like your mattresses, your bedding, your sofa, the desk and workspace that you're setting up, the cookware and appliances.
And then anything that helps people do laundry, I found is really important. And really you're. You're saving yourself time and money in the future. It really is like an unlock to just. Set it and forget it. Yeah. And you get to save the time and money now too, right? Because and this is something I don't think I ever realized how substantial the discounts on Manoan are.
You guys have up like 50% is not an uncommon discount with Manoan. There are substantial discounts that you can get. And just using that Chrome extension, how you get to just add it to your cart and then see it all like it's really. Nice to be able to see it all. And it just gives you the chance to get that leg ahead.
Like you can advertise the fact that you have a more premium bed or more premium supplies in the kitchen without actually coming out of pocket that much more. Yeah. And for midterm tenants too, being able to supply them with some really nice soap and shampoo and being able to put like.
We have a partnership with Koala Eco. They're a sustainable, eco-friendly cleaning brand people. I have Koala Eco at my midterm rental and the guests. Tenants, they love it. Because they're the ones cleaning, it's not, they're not on vacation, they have to clean. So like you should supply some cleaning stuff, even just the starter pack.
And it's funny because this is definitely where showroom comes into play, is they were like, where did you get all this stuff? This is so cool. I love the shampoo in the bathroom and I love the cleaning spray that you guys have in the kitchen. And I'm like, oh, you can just scan that little QR code and.
Buy it yourself. So investing in that quality, just and now you know, you get, I get a lot of word of mouth people, especially the locals that stay when they're in between homes, if you keep it nice, like they will refer your house to everybody. I've had two times now my midterm guests and one of them actually asked to come back.
So it's just been, again, I can't speak to enough, but the headaches that I dealt with when I tried to cut corners versus, just. Having it feel very passive at this point. I love how you talked about the starter kit too. 'cause we talk about that, about how with a monthly rental, you don't need to provide, toilet paper towels, soap, shampoo, all of that for their whole stay.
They're not expecting that at all, but they are expecting to be able to stay at their new property for a couple days, maybe a week, without having to just rush to the store and grab soap and paper towels. Putting that, giving that starter supplies or that starter kit and having some more high quality items.
When you get them at this discount and it allows you to get them and really position yourself as, a very hospitable landlord and being really thoughtful and high quality like that really carries through and sets you apart right from the beginning. I a hundred percent agree. And I think also like it's the little things like that where you're just setting this relationship and with a midterm tenant, it is very much like a relationship because you're, they're gonna be staying for a while.
You're setting it up on the right foot. You're just giving them like a very. And on. And from their standpoint too, like they've probably just, they're either there for work or they're in between homes. They're trapped, they're busy. So having those things available to them so that they don't have to run to the store, like you said, but also giving them the quality items that are like special.
And then, they might overlook, oh, this faucet's dripping. Or, oh, this. Power strip isn't working. I find that when you like have the nice things for them, they're less likely to complain about the really little things. Yeah. I think it's being selective and intentional with where you invest your money.
Jen, let's talk about if someone is to do a brand new. Furnished rental, and they are like, okay, I'm on a tight budget. Maybe it's a one or two bedroom. So they're looking at, eight to $10 a square foot, maybe they're hoping to keep it under $10,000, which for a short term rental is probably really tight for a midterm rental.
It's pretty practical really. Talk to us, if you were to tell this landlord, okay, if there are five items that I want you to really invest in, what are those five items? I've said it before and I'll again say the mattress, 100% the mattress and I think that people think I wouldn't invest in the same mattress that I have at my home.
Not true. I actually bought a better mattress for my short term rental, or my midterm rental because it, it was actually less expensive than the entry level one. So it's Elisa and through Minoan I spent. $800 and I believe it's like a $2,800 mattress I have. That's amazing. The $1,800 version at home. But I was like, why wouldn't I just.
Upgrade it, to the nicer version and then, the everyday like less expensive mattress for a king size on Amazon is probably around five, 600. Anyway. So I think, and the compliments that I get and the happiness that provides the tenants is unmatched. So 100% the mattress, the bedding, again, I.
Had cheaper sheets. I had a midterm tenant who actually turned into a long-term tenant and they stayed there for six months. When they left, I had the old like Airbnb sheets that I was using off of Amazon. There were holes actually in them. 'cause they, they're using them a lot and they're running them for the washer, and there were holes in 'em. So I upgraded to parachute hospitality and I haven't had to replace them since, which is amazing. Again, not something I thought that I would never like That's parachute. That's so nice. With ow it's very much accessible. The sofa. The sofa. I went really cheap on my sofa initially, and I even my mom, she went to the property and she was like, this is horrible.
I can't believe that you let people sit on this. But the short term guests, they don't care. They're sitting on the sofa for maybe playing games in the living room for a little bit. But I sit on my sofa every night and I'm imagining my midterm tenants do as well. So especially like deeper seats.
Sectional if space allows so that multiple people can hang out and one that isn't gonna sag cheaper. So sofas do tend to sag and if people are sitting them sitting on them a lot, you want something that's gonna hold up and something that's easy to clean. We actually have a lot of content on our blog, specifically around like contract grade furniture, stuff that's easier to clean.
That's a great resource for that. Hi. Let me think of what else. The workspace again, invest in a nice office chair. That's something I didn't mention before. I mentioned the little things on the desk, but really a good office chair because this person's not just like squeezing in a few hours a day.
They're probably sitting there the same eight hours that they sit at home if they're a remote worker. So having a comfortable chair for them. And we have a, we have a partnership with Wayfair. They have a million in one office chairs that you can look through that are, I have one myself and it just.
It's really nice. I have a fun question. So when you look at Furnished Finder listings and the photos are what? Stand out and make someone stop their scroll, right? And so we're talking about furnishing I'd love to tie it into how we need to add that like where to accent. Certain things with your furnishings to make the photos pop.
And then also just a reminder that 30% travel with pets, and we've talked about this quite a bit lately, but in a short term rental, you can leave your fur baby behind. In a midterm rental, it's months at a time that you don't want to leave your fur, your pets at home. So does Manoan have. Specific like outdoor furniture or indoor furniture that would be recommended for those that are pet friendly?
Or is that the, just the same quality all around? I would say, we're always encouraging people to invest in durable things, pets or no pets. So a lot of the stuff that you know, you can find through our brand partners is going to be hospitality and contract grade. It's gonna hold up or it's just gonna be like.
Better quality stuff that tends to hold up better. But yeah, no, that's a great point. 'cause there have been times where when I have less expensive furnishings, I was worried about like large dogs staying in the property, especially on the sofa and like really, I. Kind of diminishing the quality or the aesthetic, I should say.
I've actually switched to all leather for that reason so that my cleaners don't have to spend that extra time to really work at the hairs on the couch. So we've over our four. Plus years of hosting on Furnished Finder. As it, the opportunity arises and we add a new property, I typically choose some sort of leather couch and then ask the guest to put a blanket on top or something like that.
If they have pets that like to be up there with them. But the out the outdoor. Feature is, I think something that oftentimes gets missed on Furnished Finder images is like they'll have this beautiful backyard that, but then maybe like a, it's not really set up in a way that someone says, ah, that looks so inviting.
I could totally see myself hanging out in an evening there. How do you recommend making the. Outdoor space just as homey as the indoor space. Yeah, sure. So we actually, because I find that too, like sometimes people are just completely lacking in the outdoor space and in a climate like Florida, people wanna spend time outside.
So we actually invested, we got it from Wayfair. It's like a through mano of course. A big, sectional for the outside, which is nice because it's washable. So I can take the covers off, I can wash it. We get a ton of rain, I don't, they get gross, but I can take the covers off, I can wash them, I can re, people can rearrange them as they need them.
But it is important to have a nice, comfortable seating area. A nice. Coffee table in front of them and usually a rug. And I recommend doing something that won't stain, so something darker. Because even if it is washable, realistically, you're not gonna be at that property every couple months washing the rug.
That's I. A big burden. So any colors that won't show so much dirt and debris, especially outside. I went with a dark wicker sofa for that very reason, and I went with navy blue cushions because I didn't wanna deal with every little spot showing. And then like you said, you have the photos taken and it might look really nice too, but then when people get there, you don't want them to be like, oh, this is not what I expected it to be.
I thought it was gonna be newer and fresher, but you don't take new photos every year. So as much as you can try to keep it looking as new as possible is super important. Yeah. And I think it's important for everybody to remember that you don't have to do this all at once, right? You can get started with your midterm rental if you're coming from scratch, it can be very overwhelming.
So lean on Furnished Finder, lean on ow and lean on this furnishing list that's gonna be in the show notes here. And then just get the basics. And then you can keep upgrading, right? Even if you add one. New piece of exciting furniture or new highlight. Every tenant flip you have, right? The average stay on Furnished Finder is about three months.
So let's say every three months you go in and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna add that workspace now. Okay, now I'm gonna take the time and I'm gonna upgrade these kitchen supplies. Okay? Now I'm gonna work on the outdoor space. It's better to chip away at it in bite-sized pieces if that's what you need to do, or if you're saying, okay.
I hear you. I need, I know I need to upgrade. My stuff's looking a little worn. It's looking a little dated, but I don't have the budget for all of this all at once. That's where this is really handy, because it's your own little shopping experience that you can do at any time. And you guys are adding new partners all the time.
I get your announcements. And it's just, it's, it just feels like it's this resource that can be there to help with the furnishing, because. Keeping it furnished, or I'm sorry, getting it furnished can be challenging. Keeping it nice and updated and fresh is a whole nother thing. So I think it's a big relief to know that, that our landlords can know that they have man, no one on their side and just have this like resource that is always keeping up to date with things we should be paying attention to on that front.
Yeah. And I to that, I would say also do not feel overwhelmed. Do not feel like it has to be show home ready. At first listing when you log into Mno and you're gonna see a lot of cool stuff. But, you don't have to buy everything at once, as long as you have some furniture, I would say as long as it's clean and comfortable and quiet.
Really you're ahead of the game from a lot of people. Yeah. A lot of people just, they throw whatever in there and I think as long as it feels clean and homey you're gonna succeed. And then, yeah, just make the upgrades over time. I didn't even talk about decor because again, like setting it up can feel very overwhelming.
And who wants to like, worry about hanging pictures on top of everything else? It's just another investment. That is something like down the road, slowly start to hang some pictures and just make it feel a little bit more special. We are approaching our time with this episode. We wanna leave you guys wanting more.
As stated, we don't want you to feel overwhelmed. Remember, all three of us are active midterm rental operators. Feel free to put any comments or questions in on YouTube or. Spotify feel free to reach out to us. We're here to help our customer service team at Furnished Finder, at Minoan, always here to answer questions, so don't feel overwhelmed.
You're in this, we're in this with you. You've got a full, a whole community. And just get started. That's where a lot of people fail is they say. It's not perfect yet. I can't add my property. That's not the case. And that's a perfect segue to once your property is live, you've been through all your checklists to make sure that your midterm rental ready.
Guess what? Things still come up. Pro tips would be if someone asks for an item and it's reasonable, or you hear the same item multiple times, you should probably add that item to your rental. That only helps you less communication less need for people going to the property or to restock items.
So Jen, I'd love to wrap up with the conversation. For my last question is just items that are often missing from the home, that are important to have. And some of those that we've heard on our Facebook group of over 140,000 travelers and hosts that can communicate together there vacuums and like cleaning supplies.
You want your property to stay in great condition, right? So make sure you have cleaning supplies. Same idea, a working can opener, full length mirror knives that are sharp and actually cut. What have you found from your experience, Jen, are items that maybe you were asked for or that you have improved your listing over time with?
It's funny you asked that because I had my midterm tenant recently be like, how do you not have an iron? And I was like, I, no one's ever asked me for one, and I never ironed myself. But, you put yourself in your guest shoes. She is a professional, so she often wears. Nice shirts and she wants to look very polished and she needed an iron.
So I sent one right away. I went to Manoan searched iron, found the right one. We actually have a really cool it's almost like a hair straightener iron that's really easy to use. So I, that's one thing that's really important. Things that allow guests to self-serve because when they're staying in a midterm rental, they're doing everything themselves.
They're ironing on their own. The vacuum broom and mop, just like you said, the cleaning supplies, but sometimes more elevated cleaning supplies extra sheets and towels. I think a lot of short-term hosts when they're, or even just newbies, they think oh, I only need one set. 'cause then my cleaners will just wash them.
And then, but in a midterm stay, they're washing them themselves. And how often do you forget to put your sheets in the dryer after you put them in the washer in the morning and then eight o'clock, nine o'clock rolls around, you're like, shoot. I don't have dry sheets. That's why you need spares, especially in a midterm rental.
All those kitchen supplies you mentioned, and not cheap knives, but nice knives that people can cut a real steak with if they're making steak at home coffee gear, that actually works. And then, I even gave give storage containers for leftovers because people cook and I want them to be able to like, store their food just like they would at home.
And then blackout curtains, that's one more thing. If you're staying for a long time, you're not gonna be okay with every morning the light streaming in, especially if you're on a. Specific schedule for work or what have you. So blackout curtains are really important in my opinion. You know what's one that I have really put effort into for all of our properties too, especially if it's a really high ceiling.
Can you imagine if the smoke alarm's going off in the middle of the night and you have no way to reach it? So I, I. Make sure that there's a step stool at all of our properties, and if it's 10 foot ceilings, I'll even put a ladder in there so that they can reach it and have a good night's sleep because we don't wanna have to go in the middle of the night to make these changes and they don't wanna lose sleep.
So yes, if there's anything that you have noticed in your. Midterm stays that people are asking for. We wanna hear from you in the show notes or in the comments so that we can all work together to make sure our homes are stocked and ready for our guests. Katie, how would you like to wrap up this episode?
Yeah, I just wanna encourage everybody, if you have a property and you are brand new and you haven't furnished it yet, download the checklist. It's in the show notes. We'll have it on the Furnished Finder blog. We're gonna make it really accessible for everybody. If you're coming over from short term or you're considering offering midterm rental stays in your short term, go through that checklist too and just see, okay, what's different here?
The checklist is probably gonna be a lot shorter than you're used. To but look on those things and pay attention to those high touch items, right? How are your high touch items? Are there things that someone's gonna wanna live with for 90 days? And if you already have a furnished monthly rental, you already have a midterm, I would encourage you to, stay on top of your furnishings, replace things before they're broken, and think about.
What you're gonna replace them with. This partnership we have with Manone is really cool and this is a really cool company and you guys are doing awesome stuff to make sure that like these discounts are really significant and getting landlord and hosts access to those is, it's really meaningful for our businesses, right?
Like it makes a difference on our bottom line. So I would just encourage everybody to really check that out. The link is in the show notes, you guys, and you can get $25 off of your first order. So that's, you use some of these discounts and you got a set of these linens that's half off and then we're gonna take another half off or so, right?
That's gonna give you a great head start. And it just serves back with our mission that, atmo Nolan and at Furnish Fund, we're really trying to help. Support your business, right? We know this can be overwhelming and we don't want it to be that way. We're gonna make it so that you can get everything you need to be successful.
So I think it's so great hearing your personal story, Jen, having the short term rental that you use as a midterm rental from time to time, and everything is always, more meaningful when we can speak from experience ourselves. So I just, I can't wait for everybody to start exploring within Minoan.
I know I went into my account the other day and I was just poking around for an hour. It's so easy to just get lost in shopping land. I. Yeah, I think that's it for today. I'm really excited about what we can do together in the future. Thanks for being here, Jen. And I just wanna leave us with this thought.
Our top 10% of landlords earn 30,000 a year in rental income. So if you're not in the midterm rental game and you are thinking, should I furnish my property? I don't know if midterm rental's a good fit in my market. Just get out there, get started. It's not hard. Go to the stats page, Furnished Finder.com/stats.