Welcome to the latest episode of Landlord Diaries (opens in new tab), a podcast brought to you by Furnished Finder (opens in new tab), your go-to platform for midterm rentals. In Episode 113, guest Nicole Bansal, hosts Kelly Bailey and Katie Lyon delve into the world of midterm rentals and the strategies to excel in this lucrative market. With fresh insights every week, the duo continues to enrich the real estate investment community. This episode features a special guest, Nicole Bansal, who shares her journey from being an accidental landlord to becoming a savvy real estate investor.
Why midterm rentals?
Midterm rentals offer an exclusive niche within the rental market, bridging the gap between short-term and long-term rentals. As described by our hosts, midterm rentals can provide higher cash flow compared to traditional long-term rentals without the high turnover rates associated with short-term rentals. This makes them an attractive option for real estate investors looking to maximize returns.
Understanding the "Buy Box"
One of the key takeaways from this episode is the concept of the "Buy Box." Here’s a quick breakdown.
What is a Buy Box?
A Buy Box is a set of criteria that helps you focus on the right properties for your investment goals. It's essential to avoid analysis paralysis, particularly with the multitude of properties available on platforms like Zillow and Redfin.
Factors to consider
Affordability: Understand what you can afford based on your loan prequalification.
Market Indicators: Look for cities with job and population growth to ensure appreciation potential.
Local Regulations: Be aware of rental regulations, especially those affecting midterm and short-term rentals.
Property Type: Determine the bedroom and bathroom count and other amenities you require.
Tools for the savvy investor
Nicole emphasizes the importance of using data-driven tools to make informed decisions. Here are some valuable tools she recommends.
Furnished Finder stats: Useful for understanding demand and supply dynamics in potential investment cities.
Rabbu: A free platform that provides detailed data on short-term and midterm rental performance.
AirDNA: While it can be pricey, it provides robust analytics for short-term rentals.
Pro tip: use AI tools
Nicole shares how she leverages AI tools like ChatGPT for generating high-quality descriptions and Canva for enhancing property photos. These tools can save time and elevate your marketing game.
Case study: Nicole's Savannah, Georgia property
Nicole shares her experience with a midterm rental property in Savannah, Georgia. Here are some highlights.
Purchase Price: $485,000 with seller credits bringing it down to approx. $471,000.
Rental Income: Around $7,000 per month, thanks to a mix of midterm tenants and leveraging additional spaces like a garage for storage.
Diverse tenant base
Midterm rentals attract a diverse array of tenants, including:
Construction workers
Digital nomads
Families displaced due to insurance claims
Super yacht crews
Nicole’s Savannah property has housed all these tenant types, showcasing the versatile demand for midterm rentals.
Marketing mastery
Effective marketing is critical to attracting quality tenants. Here are some strategies.
Professional Photography: Hire a real estate photographer.
Compelling Descriptions: Highlight nearby amenities and unique property features.
AI and Photo Editing: Use Canva and AI tools for enhancing images and descriptions.
Real-life buy box insights
Both Kelly and Katie shared their current buy box strategies:
Kelly's Strategy: Properties with 3-bedroom, 2-bath homes, ideally priced under $400,000 and located in walkable, adventure-friendly areas.
Katie's Strategy: Focuses on affordability, preferring condos and townhouses with minimal external maintenance.
Final thoughts
Investing in midterm rentals can be a highly lucrative endeavor if approached strategically. Utilize the tools and strategies discussed in this episode to refine your investment approach and maximize your returns.
For continuous insights into the world of midterm rentals, subscribe to Landlord Diaries and follow Furnished Finder for more expert advice.
Episode 113 Transcript
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. Hello, our wonderful listeners. This is Kelly Bailey and Katie Lyon, your fantastic hosts of the Landlord Diaries podcast. We have been bringing you fresh content for about two years now, every week. We just love telling midterm rental host stories.
And today is another wow story from Nicole. What did you love today, Katie? Yeah, we get into nitty gritty today. So today is a great one if you're trying to figure out what type of property to buy. We go a lot into, um, what a buy box is, how to use it to find a great midterm rental, how to, when to stay within it, when you need to reassess your buy box.
We also talk about like marketing your property, how to shift your property from one strategy to another. It's really, really information heavy. So this is, this is one where like, it's really great if you're just getting started or if you're looking for your next deal. Get out your notebook, get out your notes app.
You're going to want to jot some things down.
From accidental landlord to savvy real estate investor, Nicole Bansal will inspire us today with her three step process for determining your buy box or buying strategy and finding investment properties that should both appreciate and value. and cashflow. While Nicole lives in San Diego, this process led her to buy a four bedroom, two bath short term midterm rental hybrid property in Savannah, Georgia that has a studio apartment as well.
Uh, Nicole, we're so happy to have you with us today. And we met you at the midterm rental summit. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you so much. I always Have listened to these podcasts. That's how I got into real estate investing. And so that feels like a watershed moment to be on one. That's awesome.
Well, we're excited for you to make your debut on the Landlord Diaries and let's Let's jump into the first question How do you become an accidental Landlord and not once but multiple times? Yeah, when people ask me like when I started investing in real estate, I never know how to answer that question because I feel like there is a timeline on which I accidentally got into real estate investing and then a different timeline when I intentionally got into it.
So, uh, I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Um, and at some point made the decision to move to San Francisco, um, to work in the Silicon Valley tech scene. And at that time me and my boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, we owned a condo that we lived in. And this was all kind of around that 2009 crash.
So the property really hadn't been appreciated in value at all. Didn't make sense to sell at the time. So we rented it out. We moved to San Francisco. We rented that place out and it was just kind of barely covering it's bills, making any cash flow. And so I became an accidental real estate investor. Um, and then the same thing happened to me later.
And I lived in San Francisco for seven years and a year after buying. Well, it was supposed to be like our starter home that we wanted to have kids in Um covid happened and we decided let's move to san diego And so then we rented that house out because it'll leave in a year And it didn't really make sense to sell once a week before leaving san francisco.
So I became an accidental landlord again um But I had learned my lesson from Vancouver. We sold that property very shortly after. Um, we didn't make any money on it, but we didn't lose any money on it. And that was my biggest, to date, is my biggest real estate regret was selling that condo because it is worth about double what it was when we bought it.
Um, And I wish I'd never sold it. So that's kind of how I accidentally became a landlord twice. And you have a pretty iconic memory of leaving San Francisco to move to San Diego in the heart of COVID and all of the fires. So tell us what that was like. Yeah, I think I might've even taken. a photo at the time because it really felt very symbolic.
Like, I'm just a very, I tend to be very rooted in logic and fact. I'm not a super emotional or superstitious, superstitious individual. And I, as I was driving away from San Francisco, my rearview mirror was Just bright orange just like it felt like the city was on fire and I was Excuse the term like literally walking away from a literal trash fire as I moved away It was like it's like I don't think i'm gonna I thought at the time We've got a six month lease thinking we might come back to san francisco But as I was driving away, it's like You know, it feels like this, I might not be coming back.
Um, and you know, it was a rough time to be renting out a property in San Francisco because like myself, a lot of people were leaving at that time during COVID. All the things that made San Francisco great were closed. Um, and you paid a lot to live there in very small spaces, confined spaces. And so. It was, yeah, not an ideal moment.
Again, a property that I was like, do I sell this? It will make money on it going through the exact same process I got there in Vancouver. I was like, how do I keep making these real estate mistakes? Because I know people who are making money doing real estate. I think it's important to note though, but it's easy to look back in hindsight and say that like, you know, we should have kept that property should have done that.
I think we all probably have some of those. I know when we look back at our first primary house, I'm like, That sucker has tripled in value, but it's like, nobody is perfect in this journey. So I, I'm like, you know, we have made mistakes and it's just, it's part of the gig, right? And the best mistakes you can make are ones that you learn from.
And it sounds like you, you definitely did that. And now you have a really specific. buy box. Um, so if you could kind of first let's describe kind of what a buy boxes and what is important because, um, something that's unique about our podcast here is we have very beginner landlords and we have super advanced kind of experienced landlords.
So let's just talk about that high level, what it is, um, and why it's been important in your journey. Yeah, absolutely. Um, going back to what you said, like, I think a 400k kick in the pants is, it will certainly get you in the mindset of investing a little differently, like, that condo, people think condos, I mean, I also think condos aren't appreciated in value very much, but we bought that condo for 400, 000 at that time, and it's worth well over 800, 000 now, like, which is just crazy.
Insane. Um, buy box, you know, I went through, so what is a buy box? A buy box helps you ensure that you are not looking at every single property on Zillow and going, well, maybe we can offer this one. Maybe we need the other spot. Maybe we should add a light to this one. Cause there are at any given time, hundreds of properties in hundreds of cities available for you to purchase and having apps like Zillow and Redfin makes it very easy.
Easy to, I think, get lost in that, that catalog of real estate porn and never actually move forward in a very strategic way. So a buy box helps you be very strategic about making sure that you're putting the blinders on a little bit, focusing on what it is you should actually be buying. Based on a number of different factors and those factors can be things like Getting pre qualified and understanding.
What can you actually afford to buy? What kind of loan will you be able to get? For me a number of things that go into my buy box are i'm looking for cities where I see job growth population growth Um for me, I also want um, ideally cities where um But the job growth population growth, I can understand the regulations within that marketplace.
If there are regulations around midterm renting or short term renting, typically, there are no regulations around midterm rentals, but I know San Francisco is implementing them so that, you know, that may be something we see moving forward. So really understanding the regulations around renting your in that city, and maybe even within your property like, um, I try to stay away from HOAs because they might even have like one year lease requirements So again understanding the regulations on a macro and a micro level Um, you know, what kind of bedroom bath towel do you want to have?
Which ones make money and this is where I think this is where I can maybe share some unique perspectives on how I really hone in on a very strategic buy box, but There are so many factors that could go into your buy box. Like do you feel comfortable investing out of state? Um, would you be able to have a team on the ground or be able to manage that remotely?
Or do you need to buy something that's really close to you? And so getting really honed in on your buy box is going to ensure that you don't get lost in that analysis process. You don't get lost in all the photos and the glam of real estate and you sit down and you go, okay, well, this is what I can afford.
This is what I think is going to make money. This is the strategy that I think I'm going to take. Um, and I understand that that strategy is going to work in my city, in my community, in this property. And so this. Property meets all those check boxes. And now I should actually go try to pursue this property, view it, analyze it, underwrite it, make an offer.
So you're not just blindly throwing darts at a dartboard and you're taking a very strategic approach to that. I love that so much. And I'm going to. focus us in even a little deeper, uh, into the three ways that you break down your personal buy box. Uh, you set it up in, you have personal goals that you were looking to achieve.
Uh, you watch news updates, uh, to help you hone in on the right areas. And then the three main tools that you use. And I won't spoil it for anyone. I'll let you share your three main tools, including Furnished Finder data. So let's start with that personal goals of what were you, you reached that point where you said, Hey, I don't want to just buy places that I like anymore.
I want to buy strategically for investment purposes. Uh, and that was starting with, okay, now that I want to. Now that I want to buy specifically, what are my personal goals? So let's hear what those were once you started looking into it. Yeah, so for my own buy box, I definitely wanted properties that I thought were going to increase in value Um in the short term and so I was not reaching for immediate cashflow I would be perfectly okay making 100 200 300 a month off of a property in the near term So long as I thought there would be equity appreciation and to me equity appreciation is how you build long term wealth Which is like kind of that short term income.
I am lucky enough to have a great at the time of a great w 2 job Now I actually um Luckily, thanks to real estate, I've been able to move to working part time, but I had a great W 2 income, and so I didn't move the income. I wanted what that could come from real estate. And so for me, um, generally, equity appreciation homes come from people moving to that city, people in that city getting better paying jobs, and there being like kind of that income growth happening in the city, from whether it's from transplants, from jobs coming in, and the, and the city kind of, you know, Um, growing.
And so I saw that there was a big population boom to the south, south, mostly the southeast, was what I was interested in. I can. Dive into that a little bit more, but the southeast specific cities and the Southeast seem to be doing quite well. Um, on top of that, the reason I was focused on maybe the southeast rather than the Southwest, was I knew that I didn't wanna spend more than $500,000 on a property as well.
So that was another part of my buy. I, I knew that with my limiting factor, I didn't wanna spend more than $500. It needed to be a city that was experiencing population growth and income growth. And that stuff comes from. Like, one, um, population growth is Texas data, and you don't have to go researching a ton.
Just go use, like, an AI tool like ChatGPT and say, Hey, what are, like, the top 10 or 20 cities experiencing population growth in 2024? And then you can hone in even more. What are the cities in the southeast that are experiencing the most population growth where the average home price is under 500, 000?
And, you know, it will run all of that for you and give you those lists. And so that's why I was using the Haudenosaunee cities. That seemed really interesting to me. Um, you can even add other determining factors like which ones have landlord, landlord friendly laws. Um, maybe there's something else of interest to you specifically, like which ones have a lot of big tourism.
Industry, maybe you're interested in like that. And so you could really hone in on the, the cities that maybe would make the most sense for you based on how much you can afford or what you're looking for. For me, that was equity growth. Um, and I think you also, uh, didn't want, you knew ve early on, you didn't want long term, you wanted to go after short term midterm rental properties.
Why was that? Yeah, so I, living in California, I was looking around at all these different places in California to buy. I guess I would say all very coastal cities because that's where I've lived and I have an affinity for the ocean and Nothing seems to cash flow at long term rents So I knew already just looking in California that kind of would probably need to take a furnished approach like a short term or midterm And then when I went looking other states, I realized that I'll like not only because I wasn't like I'm the Impression that maybe it'd be really hard to cash with this point.
And so as I looked more and more into like the gap between furnished rents and unfurnished, I saw that that gap was very wide in both cities and to me, putting in that upward investment into furnishing a home nicely. I was rolling that into my initial cost estimates of how much I would need to put into the home, and it felt like I would come out way ahead in the long term in terms of using that STR MTR strategy to, to, um, generate more cash flow.
Additionally, one of the other things I noticed was as I clicked around and a lot of other listings and looked at them, I'm a marketer by trade, my, that's my full time job. And I noticed that people weren't doing a great job marketing their properties. Their photos maybe didn't look great. They weren't writing great descriptions.
They weren't adding all the nice amenities that were in walking distance or nearby. Um, they weren't selling it. They weren't selling me on a vision of staying in their home. They weren't, you know, going through that detail oriented approach. Um, and so I realized that My job profession by trade would lend itself really well to this strategy because there is a lot of marketing I think that goes into doing a furnished rental.
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There's so many things we can dive into here, but a couple that I want to bring certain attention to is the first is that your buy box. I always think about it as, It's like a cardboard box and not a steel box, right? Because we're talking about things like personal goals and, you know, what kind of a, of a home can you purchase right now if purchasing is your path?
And those things can all change and that's okay. But what's important is when you're looking at, at, at, Purchasing or arbitraging or co hosting or whatever your, whatever is your buy box, um, is that setting those guidelines and sticking to them because there, it can be incredibly overwhelming and it can be like, you just, you will never get anywhere if you're trying to go everywhere.
You just won't. Like it's not going to happen. Um, the other thing I wanted to, to hone in on is how it is really, really hard to cash flow from a long term rental perspective right now. Now there's nothing wrong with that for wealth generation. Obviously it'll still do that. Um, but you might even be negative.
For cashflow. Like I know in my neighborhood and the surrounding areas, rents are cheaper than mortgages. So it's like a lot of times it's these people that have the really low interest rates and they're still able to charge what was a market rate for rent. And it hasn't pulled that rent up yet in these markets.
Now we can't, we're not going to get into the data side of what's going to happen with rent and long term in the future. That's just kind of not where our focus is, but Shifting into a midterm furnished rental is such. It's a quick and attainable way to take that property that might not cash flow, probably won't cash flow on a longterm rental and make it cash flow instantly without having to wait for a market to shift any of that, right?
You're adding so much value and in a business like real estate where you add value is where the money will go. Right. You're adding value by furnishing it and making it somewhere that people can live for 30, 60, 90 days versus a whole 12 months with no furniture. So that I think it's just, it's just such an opportunity.
And every time I hear people who are like, Oh, you know, the numbers don't work right now. The interest rates are too high. The prices are too high. I've got to wait for rates to come down. I've got to wait for. The market to cool off more. I'm like, no, you don't. You just need to look at different options.
And midterm is, it's not as intimidating as short term, right? It doesn't have the intense turnover. It doesn't have the high guest needs. It is that perfect in the middle fit that I just, I want to just take everybody and be like, you guys, it's right there. It's right. There. Absolutely. And you know, going to your point about people who are waiting to enter the market, I really felt when, cause I only started doing this in 2022, um, I felt like I had missed the boat and someone said to me, and this has really stuck with me, that the best time to invest was yesterday, whatever date in the past you want to pick.
And the second best time is today. And they're like planting a tree. Yeah. Right. And so the second best time to start is today. And absolutely, I, the gap between midterm furnished rentals and long term sometimes is 2x in certain markets. There's absolutely a way to make cash flow even in midterms. Like, the most expensive cities in the US, there are ways to find neighborhoods and homes that will cash flow.
And I, I see that living, as someone who has lived in two of the most expensive cities in the US and owns properties in both of them, in San Francisco and in San Diego. So like, if I can make those cash flow, you can definitely make something cash flow near you. So I think that, um, one of the last things that goes into my buy box, and this is where I get really deep on the data, is when I moved to San Diego, I was, I, I bought this property in Savannah, which we can come back, jump back to and talk about.
Um, and I applied a similar approach to, to buying here with, I didn't think anything in San Diego would cash flow. Um, I thought that would be impossible because I had this natural bias. That when I go to a place that is on the coastline, I want to stay really close to the beach But that's just me that doesn't mean that that's how everybody else operates.
Um, and the data proved me wrong So what I decided to do I took this approach of using the free tools that exist online and I think for um, You can use a number of different tools for this. You can use the Furnished Finder map, so you can, once you're on a city that you're interested in investing in, you've kind of figured that part out, and maybe it's a couple different cities that you're looking at.
You can do this using AirDNA, which I know is a very popular tool. My personal favorite, because AirDNA charges a lot of money, is, um, Raboo, R A B E N U. And it's completely free to use, and they give you so much data. Um, you can start honing in on what are the properties that make the most money. And I will say Rabu focuses more on short term rental, but I find that wherever short term rentals make a lot of money, mid term rentals will also make a lot of money.
And so you can use the same approach on Furnished Finder as well. Um, it's a little bit more manual for each finder because you're going to want to go click on everyone's calendar. So I'll get into that. But using Raboo, you can actually start just listing the properties by which ones make the most money.
And as I did that, uh, naturally the ones by the beach were the first ones that came up and it's like, no, can't afford that. Can't afford that. Can't afford any of that, especially not in a seven, 8 percent interest rate environment. And it just kept scrolling and scrolling until I saw some that were coming up that were not near the beach.
And so then I would go, okay, is this property? What do the houses on the MLS on Redfin and Zillow? What are they costing to buy a property like this? How much would it cost me to buy a place like this? And also start making a spreadsheet of all of these properties. And what they had in common. So what is their bedroom count?
What is their bathroom count? What amenities do they have? Which, what's the close enough address? Because you won't get like a full address, but you can put in the zip code or the area. Um, and then any other notes you can pull together for it. Like go look at their calendars. Um, Especially a Furnished Finder.
Is it like available January 2025 and it right now it's July 2024? Great. They're booked for the next six months. What is the price that they're publishing and and renting this property out at? Um, and if you want to or so inclined I would encourage you to even once you start honing in on this a little bit more I'll talk about How you go even deeper than that start messaging the owners of the properties that are most interesting to you And see if you can pick their reins You'd be surprised how many owners are more than willing to chat with you about how they got into this or what they do Or how book they tend to stay how much they tend to charge And what's the worst that's going to happen?
Someone isn't going to respond or they're going to say No, i'm not going to do that Okay. It was like, it was worth a shot. It's, what's the worst that could happen? So I started building this spreadsheet of the properties that were nowhere near the ocean that were making a lot of money. And then, you know, I apply, I have applied this in multiple different cities and you start getting into these neighborhoods where they might be the neighborhoods that are up and coming or maybe they're next to like a hospital or a school.
Is a really expensive property school and even you don't necessarily think through that that those properties, maybe don't cost that much to buy. But they rent at a really, really good occupancy and a really good rate. And so you get to this sweet spot eventually, where you move down the list of the really expensive properties and you start getting these mid range ones.
That actually can generate similar revenue doesn't want to really talk before he went, and as soon as you start finding a bunch of those night, kind of got some zip codes and areas that you can hone in on. And start like looking around at like, okay, let's really dig into these calendars. Let's really dig into the amenities of these homes in this neighborhood.
Which ones are the ones that are generating a ton of revenue? What are the amenities they have? What is their proximity to certain, um, uh, businesses or what is driving kind of maybe the, the revenue rate in this area? And now you've got a great buy box. I'm like, oh, it seems to be that in this area, it's like the.
Five bedroom plus properties that seem to make the most money. It seems to be a really large families coming and renting these together. Or in this area, it's the two bedroom condos with the rooftop pool. So I got to buy these buildings. Um, and so you get a really detailed, the data driven buy box that helps you ignore all the noise.
Okay. And one thing that we talked about in your intro call is. how you have this really fantastic way, because Katie and I consider ourselves Furnished Finder experts, right? But you have this really cool way of zeroing in quickly on where the highest rents in the city are. And I want you to dive deeper into that because, you know, we love furnishedfinder.
com forward slash stats for a general overview of what is the demand look like in the cities that you're interested in. Interested in, and then as you're saying, you can flip over the map and really start looking at who's booked up. How many properties are there at different sizes, but you have a really cool way of zeroing in on Furnished Finder to where the rents are the highest.
So tell us about that.
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Love first find your stats because it helps you hone in on cities. You can really get an understanding of how many searches are happening in any one city. Um, and so how much demand might there be relative to how much supply there actually is. And so that's great for honing in on which cities might work really well because the demand seems to outstrip the supply.
Um, from that point, once you've got a city you want to purchase in or you're interested in maybe arbitraging in, then you can flip over to the map. And what you can do on the map is you can use a little price toggle, and You know, I think usually when I'm looking for a property to stay in, I'm toggling the price down.
Like, I don't want to spend more than this. But now you're going to take the opposite approach. Because you're on the supply side and you want to know where can I make the most money. And you're actually going to turn that little price toggle up. Um, and you're going to put a minimum base price in. And now you're going to look at where are all the properties that make the most money.
Because you'll see. Suddenly start finding these little pockets where there's a bunch of different properties in a very close area That have very high rents and now you can go look at what does a property in that neighborhood cost? And you can start running through each of those zip codes and like okay, are there properties in the zip code that I can afford?
that um That would pencil out as you underwrite them that would pencil out at these rents and now you have an idea of like, okay Where are the ones that make the most money? Are they properties that I can afford to buy or that would cash flow at that price point? And like, now I know I need something in this little box on the map.
Yeah, I love that so much. Uh, and it was cool. We, we looked at it, uh, on our call. And when you flip over and you zoom out on the Furnished Finder map, well, it's pretty easy to see where those pockets are. You're like, Oh, there's a lot of properties there. There's a lot of properties there because we roll them up depending on, uh, where you're searching, uh, for on Furnished Finder map, but we'll roll them up so that you can see, Oh, there's 20 properties here, 30 properties here, whatever.
So yeah, such a great tip. Any last things you want to add about RABU or, uh, AirDNA or anything in the process? If not, then we will move on to the next conversation. Yeah, I think amendees can be really, really important when it comes to doing MTR or STR, so don't skip that part of it. Um, make sure that once you've honed in on the neighborhood, The bedroom to bathroom count make sure you're looking through the photos the amenity list and if you're struggling with that on say Furnished finder you're finding that a little bit Manual use a tool like rabu because you can actually just check a box and say hey only show me and you can honestly Actually, you can do this on furnished finder too is you can say show me properties that Rent for at least 5, 000 a month, and I only want ones with a hot tub.
I only want ones with a pool. And so check off those amenities and see also what that difference is, what that gap is in certain amenities, because it might help you refine that buy box even further. Because you might see like the ones that the pool are for, and the ones Like the pool are at six. Um, and so that might really help you also determine like, okay, I really need to make sure I have these amenities.
I think really it's like, you just need to dig in and do your research and your research doesn't always mean like it very much can mean air DNA or price labs or things like that. It can also mean. Like you're saying clicking around the map. I always tell people I'm like look at what is in your area Look at how they're doing connect with connect with those landlords, right?
Midterm rental landlords are not gonna be afraid of another property in their area. They're gonna want to connect with you They're gonna want to partner. So really get out there and do your due diligence and and Do everything in your power to make sure that it's a great investment. Yeah. And I would encourage people to make sure they're recording all of that in a spreadsheet.
And here's a couple of reasons why you're going to come to a point. I think when you start making offers where you do have a little bit of anxiety and panic that starts seeping into that, because it is such a large purpose you are making, and it's so easy to start. Faltering at every step when you get that home inspection report, when you have to send in that earnest money deposit, and then you have to send in a down payment.
It's really easy to get cold feet during the process. Um, and so when you have the spreadsheet in black and white of like, here's all my comparative properties, here's how much money they make, here's all the notes I made. It inspires a lot of confidence in yourself that no, no, no. I know this property will make money.
I'm not going to back out on myself. And also, if you're going to use other people's money, if you're going to get family and friends or anyone else to help invest in some of these properties, if you're looking for a partner to invest with you, go and put this research on paper because it inspires a little confidence in others to partner up with you.
The property that I actually bought in Georgia, I bought with one of my best friends. Best friends who we are now partnering on more properties. Um, and you know, I would say I'm definitely the risk taker in that partnership and she's the very risk averse one. And so it was helpful having all of that in writing on paper where it was like, no, no, no.
Well, how can we be sure about these numbers? Well, we can be sure because we've done the research and it's all here in black and white. Yeah, definitely. Uh, I'm going to take a quick minute to wrap up this section, uh, with a round table discussion. Katie and I'll just take about 30 seconds to share our buy boxes.
And if you're listening and you have a buy box or a buying strategy that you think would benefit all the other listeners as well, get on the comments on YouTube and on Spotify and Apple podcasts and add your feedback. Back, we would love to hear it. So Katie go first. I mean, right now we, we have kind of a, a handful of different strategies.
We have arbitrage, we have ownership. Um, so let's just talk about our ownership ones right now. Right now our buy box is we are buying in Iowa. Um, because of the affordability, um, right. For us is just, it's just a really big thing right now. And the numbers work really well. So, um, we actually like the opposite of a lot of.
What other people like, which is we like the condos and we like the townhouses. Um, I don't want to manage yard work and I don't want to manage the law right now that might change, but in the future, especially long distance, I don't want to manage that. I also really like that. If something happens or there's a storm and there's a new roof, the HOA covers it.
And I have insurance for if we get a high assessment. So I know I'll never get hit with that. That's covered for me. So I love that. Um, I like these that are two to three bedrooms is ideal for us at the moment. Um, But it's definitely like a cardboard box for us and not a stainless steel box. We kind of take it as that buy box doesn't go for our entire portfolio.
It goes for, okay, what do we want to buy next? And then it might change for the next one. Like when I'm thinking about the most two recent places that we bought, they're very different. One's a two bed, two bath condo. One is a three bed, three bath townhouse. That doesn't sound that different, but they were in different areas of the city.
The townhouse needed some love. It needed some elbow grease. So it's, it's a cardboard box. But when we're looking for the next deal, it is stainless steel. Like it's not changing until we're through that chapter and then we can adjust it. A hundred percent. My buy box is very much a cardboard box. Like if you look at my portfolio, the properties are on the In different cities have completely different structures, um, even in San Diego.
I have one that I purchased and one that I arbitrage and they're completely different from each other. And so I think one thing I haven't mentioned is if, you know, if something isn't, you're not finding what fits your buy box, maybe take a different strategy, like with arbitraging. Make more sense. So you can get creative with your buy box as well.
Yep. And then just rewind and listen to the same steps that Nicole already shared on how to go through discovering where the best properties are, where to rent, and you can apply that to arbitrage as well, which is awesome. 100%. For my buy box or buying strategy, my husband and I do our, uh, rentals together.
Uh, we've got eight midterm rental doors and what we have found, uh, to be our successful style. And it wasn't more of doing a bunch of research. It was more, Hey, let's try to rent our own property first that we live in, and then we'll go create more and grow, uh, grow at, at each step along the way. So we find that.
Three bedroom, two bath homes is, uh, something that we're comfortable with. Uh, similar to Nicole, uh, we typically, so far we like it to be under 500, 000. Uh, and quite a few of them maybe have been more on the 200 to 300, 000 range. And then we. hone in on those midterm rental adventure seekers. We want to compete in a completely different, uh, niche of midterm rentals by having places that are walkable to downtown squares or walkable to really nice hiking areas, or where you can jump on your bike and just take off and, uh, relax and enjoy nature from your front door.
So that's kind of our buy box. We have added to that over the years, uh, and look for, uh, uh, multi families in a way, which, uh, more where they have a three bedroom, two bath home, but also have an ADU in the backyard, or our most recent one has it completely separated. So there's two units on the property, a three bedroom, two bath house, but then there's also an ADU that has a completely separate yard, uh, and parking spot, et cetera.
So that's our buy box. We'd love to hear you guys Buy a box. So jump in and get engaged. Uh, we want to hear from you, uh, Nicole, we've built up to your property. Now we want to hear about your Savannah, Georgia, uh, hybrid property that you short term and midterm rent. How's it doing and how's the midterm portion going?
Give us the scoop. Yeah, I mean so that property has done really well as a midterm rental so I think we almost exclusively midterm rented now Um, it is a four bedroom two bath downstairs as kelly mentioned and it's got a studio apartment upstairs And then actually there is a garage downstairs and we've rented out separately as a storage unit, which I didn't even You know, we hadn't thought through that at the time.
So that's an extra, um, bit of cashflow. But we got that property in September of 2023. Um, but you know, we, when we bought that property, they had a long term tenant upstairs who we actually decided to keep on, even though he was paying below market rent, because he was also a handyman and he was willing to help us fix little things around the house that just like have us pay for the materials and get free labor.
Um, so we kept that as a long term rental. Um, and then we actually rented out the downstairs as a storage unit. So on average, you know, that property was around, it was around 485, 000. We did get some seller credits that actually brought it down to about For 71 for 85 with like 14 cancel our credits. Um, the longterm tenants who had been in the four bed downstairs.
We're moving out. And I, if I remember the least correctly, they've been paying around 2, 800 a month for a longterm rent. We mentor that downstairs for on average, about 5, 000 a month. So nearly double what the longterm renters were paying. Um, and so that is my, I think that. Is my biggest recommendation to folks is if you can put in that labor of love at the beginning grounds personal property really well and taking some really nice photos and Um, you know ensuring that you're doing some great work on the the like the descriptions and marketing it And you know, maybe you offload that because you know, there's a lot of midterm specialists Like co hosts, property managers out there that will charge around 15%.
You're still going to come out way ahead midterming that property, even if you don't want to manage it yourself. I'm a big proponent of managing yourself, but, um, just in case you don't want to. Um, and so we, we rent that out the downstairs, our upstairs tenant has since left. So we brought that up to market rent as well, which is like, 300 more than he was paying, and we also rented out the garage.
Um, so that property makes on top line revenue around 7, 000 a month. Um, and to, you know, you're about the 1 percent rule. Like there's no way you'll find a property that makes 1 percent of the purchase price, but we're making around 7, 000 a month on a property that costs us 485, 000 to buy. Yeah, it's, it's doable.
And all of these things, I think in real estate, I hate when people talk about like hard and fast rules or updates, like, Oh, you can't hit the 1 percent rule anymore. Oh, this strategy is dead. It's like, no, you might have to get a little more creative. It might not be so like, just on a silver platter waiting for you to take it, but That's one of the best things about midterm rentals is it, it gives you that flexibility, right?
It gives you those options, those ways that you can make things work. Um, and it's also so easy to pivot in and out of if you need to, right? If you're like, I'm going to short term this part time or Hey, this has been a long term rental. Why don't I furnish it in a very basic manner and try it? Or why don't I rent some furniture and try it or list it as furnishings coming soon and see if I get any interest, right?
Like it's something that's very easy to pivot in And it doesn't have to be an expensive pivot, I think, which is, which is something that a lot of people are surprised when they discover not at all, you know, we even did that with the studio upstairs when the handyman tenant was leaving, we thought there were, why don't we midterm the upstairs to, we kind of put it up on first finder, we said, there's going to be beautiful furniture and the rents that we were getting Back were not enough to justify us midterming that well, we could get relative to long term.
It just wasn't worth the extra effort that we'd have to do with turnovers and furnishing and cleaning. Um, so we ultimately decided to long term on that one, but you could absolutely put up a listing before it's ready. Pick a date that you reasonably think you will have it ready by, I'd even like pad that a little just in case it takes you longer than you think it will, and see if there is interest in, in people renting that from you at a specific rate that would make sense for you to go and buy the furniture and, and put in that legwork.
Yeah, uh, and one thing that talking about your Savannah, Georgia property, we didn't discuss is this wasn't your first offer. It wasn't like, yes, this is a property. You had multiple agents in different cities around the Southeast. You ran the numbers on hundreds of properties. properties. You put in about 10 offers and it led you to this Savannah, Georgia property, uh, which is great.
And I think you've had a very unique set of tenant types, uh, staying in your home at the midterm rental level. So why don't you tell us about some of those tenant types coming to Savannah, Georgia? Yeah, you're, you're 100 percent right, Kelly. I must have, like, analyzed close to 100 properties in the spreadsheet that I built, um, and when I would do that analysis, I would have kind of a pessimistic, a mid, and an optimistic scenario for rent and occupancy as well, so I really think through, hey, how would this property do in a very pessimistic scenario, and will it at least pay its bills, or would I be willing to float that if there was a little bit of money that would have to come into it?
Every month, uh, what does it make in the optimistic scenario? And that also helped me once I knew what city I wanted to be in or what cities I wanted to be in It helped me decide which ones to even view and make offers on uh, because You sometimes you'd see a very wide range on pessimistic and optimistic in like very seasonal markets So looking at like a florida because I was very interested in florida at the time But the there is such seasonality in a lot of florida That you would see just such wide margins between my pessimistic and my optimistic months or years.
Um, so I was looking in florida. I was looking in tennessee I was looking in the carolinas and in georgia and in specific cities So I had realtors that I found in each all of the cities. They were constantly texting me blowing up My phone with properties. I was facetime touring. I was a facetime tour at least like 50 properties, um, underwriting them and then, you know, made offers on, I think around 10 and, you know, some, sometimes the offer got accepted and we got time inspections and there was way too much work and we wanted to get, you know, credits or get things fixed.
And so we, we'd fall out. Sometimes my offer was not the winning offer. Um, you know, so it's definitely a process to, to finally buy the one. It won't, sometimes it will be your first one and sometimes it won't be, and that's okay. Um, This property that worked out in Savannah, Georgia, we've had such a wide array of tenants.
I specifically picked that market because I knew there was a really big algae dye plant coming in. Um, just outside Savannah and there was a lot of job growth happening. Um, a lot of population growth happening. And so we've actually had construction workers. Stay at the home who are working out at that plant.
We've had construction workers working on this amount of quality of art and design that's in town. We've had digital nomads who are coming to town with like their dog. Uh, we had a very, very wide array. We had, uh, just most recently had a family stay that was an insurance claim. Their, um, home had flooded.
And so they were, uh, an insurance claim that was staying with us. And so we've had a very, very wide array of clients. And I think some yacht guests as well, like super crews for yachts. Yeah, we did. We had a crew right before the insurance claim. We had a crew for a super yacht that was docked in Savannah, um, staying with us and it was, yeah, it was really funny because we had, we had our handyman go over to just fix something and he was, he was mentioning that there's a cook there who's always cooking and it always smells phenomenal in the house and I think she was the chef for the super yacht.
That's awesome. I wonder if they were on one of those, uh, shows about like below deck or the different things that they do with those shows online. Oh, I wanted to ask if I could like, you know, now that they'd stayed at my home, can I have a stay on the super yacht? Right. Can we just swap like just one night?
That's even right. Um, it there's so many different people that use these rentals though. Like it's just, it's, it's crazy. I've had so many people. Use my rentals. I have not had anybody from a super yacht. That would be pretty cool But those guys aren't really traveling to the Midwest quite as much. I don't know where they would park it, right?
I did just have what was probably my most interesting tenant use so far Which was a couple who came over from Europe because their surrogate was giving birth. Oh, wow How cool is that? Yeah, so I had to be a little bit flexible with their checkout date because they obviously had like a hard date where they were coming in, but they said, you know, once the baby is born, we have to do this paperwork.
And since we don't exactly know when she'll be born, we don't know how many time, like how long it's going to take from there. So I ended up, we only had to adjust it by a day, which was Absolutely no big deal at all, but it was so cool. I was like, Oh, like you got to come here and like establish your family.
That's so awesome. So it's just, there's, that's a use case that I would have never ever dreamt of. So I just, I just think it's so cool to hear these different things. So, all right, well, my last question, um, Nicole is you and I share a love for all things marketing. Um, and I want to hear, um, Some of your kind of best tips for marketing properties on furnished finder to kind of get ahold of these tenants that have been so great for you.
Yeah. Um, Oh gosh, where to start? I think the basics that I, I think anyone listening to this podcast probably heard great photos, good, good, like furniture. That's going to pop, um, pick some accent colors for things like throw pillows or a wall. Um, so, you know, make sure that it's going to look great. Really, really baiting those photos because that is the number one thing that is going to lead to bookings.
Pay for that nice photographer. Do not just have your friend or family member take those photos. Don't just use an iPhone, you know. Definitely take really good photos. Look at the properties that are doing well. Look at what they're writing in their description. There is no shame. And using that as a template and editing that make it a little bit different.
Um, look up what are the nearest amenities to your home? You know, I didn't realize that the savannah bananas are huge in savannah. It's this local baseball team Um didn't know didn't really know that and it turned out that our property's walking distance to the savannah bananas Stadium and you know, people are very excited by that.
So it's like, okay, that's awesome. Savannah bananas. Um, so make sure you're pulling in like what's nearby. Is there a really nice coffee shop? Is there a restaurant that's really famous in town? What is near your property? Make sure you're building those descriptions. Well, make sure you're doing not just that.
Counting on inbound marketing, you're doing outbound marketing, but you are following up on the tenant lead. You're responding quickly. You're calling them one unique tip. I have, um, I'm definitely, uh, I'd say an AI proponent somewhat. And so I like to use AI to really help me. I'll do things like when I got my photos back for one of my properties, it was this really nice outdoor shot, but I just didn't think the sunset looked as great as I would have liked it to, so I use Canva.
Uh, come as a little AI tool where you can give it instructions and you can select certain areas and I said, can you just add a really nice pink sunset? And it added this beautiful sunset for me. And I, put that up and it's not that that pink sunset doesn't exist some days. It just didn't exist on the day that I was shooting.
Um, if you have photos that you've taken where maybe the cords are showing on the TV and it just doesn't look very clean, you could clean that up, even just say, Hey, you just got to remove these cords. Um, good reminder. Yeah. So like those little things that are going to just clean up, make your photos pop.
You could also just say, Hey, can you brighten these up? Make them look more saturated. Make them look like, and go through that process. Similarly with their descriptions, go, you can put those in like a chat, GPT and say, Hey, can you. Make this, um, high converting. Make it sound more exciting to someone who want to stay here.
Talk about, can you look through, this is where the property address is. Can you build me a list of all the close amenities with how long it would take to get to them? So you don't even need to do it. Just have an AI tool do it for you. Um, it's not. I feel like it's just, it doesn't need to be time consuming these days.
There's so much that exists to help you with this. Um, you just have to think outside the box a little bit. You are making some really great points about the marketing. Cause the hard part that I've always had is once you take those professional photos, you don't necessarily want to to go back and take them again every time that you change something on the property.
But it happens. You change stuff, right? So, I've got one property that had a black couch in the picture, but it has a blue couch now. And we're about to paint one of our doors today, actually. Uh, it was an espresso, it, it, the alignment was off, it was rubbing the floor too much, so we got a new door put in, so we went teal with this one and made it pop a little bit.
And so what you're making a really good point in Canva, that instead of going back and having the professional team come back out, I could probably just click on it and have it change the door in that professional photo to teal or, uh, you know, just those little things that you could tweak. I am going to get, I'm going to have to go back, So first off, this is your homework.
If you have not looked at your photos in a while, go back and say, okay, is this a place I'd like to stay? If you need professional photos, take them, uh, get them scheduled. They're not that expensive. One thing I would add there with the professional photos is don't just use any professional photographer.
Like don't use a wedding photographer, reach out to real estate photographers. And if you don't know where to find one, go to Go contact your Realtor, go contact any Realtor whose photos look really good. Like go, go to MLS, which one has really nice photos. And just ask that person, Hey, can I get a referral to your real, to your photographer and use a real estate photographer?
Yeah. And Facebook groups next door, tons of places to ask for referrals, right? You could even ask fellow Furnished Finder hosts online if you like their photography. And then get on Canva. If you've never tried Canva, it's super easy tool to use. It's free. There's Tons of YouTube videos if you need to figure something out on how to use it.
And yeah, I'm going to go check those photos and see what I can enhance that might've changed at the property. I highly recommend Canva. I had from my first photo on every listing, it's a collage. It's not just a single photo, just because it helps it stand out from all the others. So when people see it, they want to click that one because it looks a little different from all the rest.
Um, for my property in San Diego, that is, uh, Uh, mostly STR. I only MTR in the low season. Um, I'm just, I'm in a neighborhood that's just outside San Diego by a block and it doesn't have the transient occupancy tax that's required. I, in the collage, put save 10. 5 percent tax. Um, and then I write in the description, Hey, a property one block over, you're gonna, when you get to the booking page, you're gonna have to pay a 10 percent tax.
When you get to the booking page on mine, you won't. So think about ways that you could market your property in the photos Using AI tools. Um, I used chat to BT today too. I had to, I had these flooring samples and I wanted to try to get a feel for what the floor would look like in our room entirely. And so I put the photos of the flooring sample in, I put in a photo of the room and I said, Hey, can you furnish this room with a brown leather couch, a black ceiling, um, lots of green plants.
And then I want to see this floor in both of the rooms. And it gave me a side by side of what those two floors would look like with that kind of vision. All right. I think it's just like, it's like working smarter and not harder, right? Like use these tools. AI can be your friend when you're using it as a tool to do things that can, can help you be a better host and do midterm better.
So I love that. Definitely. Well, Nicole, this has been such a fantastic episode. Thanks for being with us. If anyone wants to connect with you and pick your brain on marketing or tools or anything like that, your buy box, et cetera, how would you like them to connect with you? Yeah, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn.
So I'd say go on LinkedIn, Nicole Bansal, B A N S A L. Um, I am on Instagram. I, so funny, you know, I do marketing as a day job, but I really don't do a good job marketing myself. Uh, so I don't have like a great real estate Instagram, but you can find me on Instagram if you search for my name, you can message me there as well.
I think I will start a real estate investing Instagram account soon. It's not there yet. Well, thanks so much for being with us. Reminder, if you're loving our content, don't forget to subscribe, share this episode with a friend and tell someone about Furnished Finder. If it's been a successful partner for you, don't forget to share that with your friends and neighbors.
I've got one neighborhood that has five to seven, uh, Furnished Finder Airbnb listings on that one street. So get out there. Don't be afraid, afraid to share with your neighbors and we'll catch you next week. Coming to you live, not live, coming to you every week with new episodes. Thanks so much. Have a great day, everybody.