Navigating the world of real estate investment can be daunting, especially when deciding between long-term, short-term, or midterm rental strategies. On the latest episode of The Landlord Diaries, hosts Kelly Bailey and Katie Lyon delve into the advantages of midterm rentals, featuring insights from Candice Menard, a savvy landlord who successfully transitioned her 25 long-term rentals into 10 prosperous midterm properties. Sponsored by Furnished Finder, this episode uncovers the potential of midterm rentals and how they can revolutionize your investment strategy.
Why consider midterm rentals?
Midterm rentals, typically lasting a few months, offer a unique opportunity to increase cash flow with less turnover compared to short-term rentals. In today's competitive market, midterm rentals bridge the gap, offering consistent income and appealing to a variety of tenants such as displaced families, construction workers, and traveling medical professionals. Consider listing your properties on Furnished Finder (opens in new tab), the largest online marketplace for midterm rentals with over 1 million shoppers per month and housing available in all 50 states. Our top 10% of landlords earn $30,000+ a year in rental income.
Candice's journey: from long-term to midterm success
Candice Menard is a testament to the viability of midterm rentals. Originally managing long-term properties, she saw the potential in 4 bedroom midterm rentals, especially in hosting traveling nurses and construction teams. By utilizing strategies like 1031 exchanges, Candice redeployed her real estate assets effectively, upgrading her portfolio to suit midterm tenants' needs. Her story reflects the importance of flexibility and understanding market demands to optimize returns on real estate investments.
Critical steps in transitioning to midterm rentals
Understand Your Target Audience
Identifying who your potential tenants are can guide you in customizing your property offerings. Candice's focus on traveling professionals led her to make property adjustments such as offering separate working spaces, additional parking, and special amenities like King-sized beds and outdoor grills.
Leverage tax strategies like 1031 exchanges
This allows property investors to defer taxes on capital gains by reinvesting in similar property types. This approach was crucial for Candice as she converted older property investments into new pr nearly new midterm rental homes.
Ensure tenant satisfaction
Employing platforms like KeyCheck, landlords can screen tenants efficiently, ensuring trustworthy and reliable residents. Whether utilizing basic tenant screening or comprehensive suite tools from KeyCheck, safeguarding your investment starts with knowing your tenant.
Midterm rental management tips
Keep house rules practical and minimal: Candice adopted three straightforward rules: no pets, no smoking, and no additional company, reducing potential conflicts and ensuring harmonious tenant experience.
Provide Comfort-Enhancing Features: Practical additions such as room-specific thermostats, high-quality bedding, and ample parking arrangements make tenants feel right at home, increasing the likelihood of repeat bookings.
Community impact and networking
Midterm rentals are not just a financial asset but contribute positively to communities by supporting local economies. These rentals provide homes for professionals who contribute to various sectors such as healthcare and infrastructure. By aligning your property with such community-driven needs, you enhance your investment's social footprint while boosting demand for your properties.
Conclusion
The transformative journey of shifting to midterm rentals offers a compelling case for real estate investors seeking enhanced cash flow and property appreciation. By leveraging resources from platforms like Furnished Finder and adopting efficient management practices, landlords can successfully navigate this rewarding real estate domain. If you're ready to explore this avenue, start by visiting Furnished Finder (opens in new tab) and utilize KeyCheck for streamlined property management solutions. Candice Menard’s full story is featured in episode 124 (opens in new tab) of Furnished Finder’s podcast, Landlord Diaries (opens in new tab).
Episode 124 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. We are here with another great episode of the Landlord Diaries. It's your host team, Kelly Bailey and Katie Lyon coming to you from the Furnished Finder Marketing Team. And we are avid about this midterm rental strategy, which is why we love talking with all of you from around the country and how Furnished Finder is a successful part of your midterm rental plan.
Business. So today we have another one of those great stories, uh, with Candice Menard from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Katie, what did you learn from Candice today? Yeah. Candice is an exceptional example of someone who has pivoted from long term rentals to midterm rentals. If there was one thing I could do in the real estate investing world, it would take every, it would be take everybody that has, A long term rental.
And I would just like, look, I'm dead in the eyes. Like look at midterm rentals, right? It's not that big of a pivot. You don't have to furnish as much as short term. The tenants are incredible. The, the cashflow is so much higher, especially in today's market, where, you know, if you're renting long term, you might be breaking even and, and doing it for the, the long term equity play, which is fantastic.
But what if you could make more cashflow in the meantime, or what if you could make a property that might not work numbers wise, longterm really work if you rent it as a midterm. So we go through a lot of the reasons that Candice was drawn to midterms after doing longterms for years and years. Um, and how she has had success with displaced families, with groups of construction workers, with traveling nurses.
So she's just like such an ideal example that anybody, um, can have some great, um, concepts and ideas from this conversation. So we hope you enjoy.
About two years ago, Candice Menard of Rent It Like a Saint in Lake Charles, Louisiana, converted her portfolio of around 25 aging long term rentals to 10 nearly new properties that she manages on Furnished Finder. These are mainly three to four bedroom homes, ranging from 3, 3, 500 to 5, 500 monthly.
Candice started her midterm rental journey, hosting travel nurses by the room and now rents entire homes to construction teams or displaced families. Candice, we're going to have so many great conversations today. How are you? I'm doing well. How about yourself? Doing great. Thank you. Well, one thing that, you know, a lot of midterm rentals are probably doing it with their families, getting started building their business.
Katie's got an awesome team with her family and you as well. So your family is a huge part of your real estate story. So why don't you tell us about your mom's legacy and how you honor her memory each year and the family dynamics of your real estate business now. Absolutely. So I started out in long term property management.
And then about two years ago is when kind of the switch happened where we were actually, um, going ahead and get ridding the old rental properties and then replacing them with new, uh, furnished homes. So, just a totally different, um, avatar as far as what we were gearing towards. And, um, my mom absolutely paved the path for me as her only child, um, for my real estate success where we are today.
It's just great to have, um, her to start that. Um, my dad is a part of it. I have one son, Justin Menard. He is also a part of the family legacy. Now, about a year ago, he quit his job and came to work with me full time. And you guys honor your mom each year, right? How do you do that as part of your real estate business?
We do. So she passed away from leukemia two years ago. And what we do is on her anniversary, we donate a portion of all of our revenue to the leukemia foundation. And then we also eat her favorite food, which is with a Daryl's Poor boy in Lake Charles, Louisiana. So that has been our tradition. We started last year and we will do it again.
Um, in November of this year. That's amazing. I love how you can, you know, these really are like family businesses, right? So many landlords we talked to in midterm rentals, they're not huge corporations, even like the big landlords, right. With big portfolios, there's still like a lot of times these family businesses with so much purpose and heart that gives back, um, actually my grandma.
Who is in her mid eighties. She's a widow. My grandpa passed away a few years ago, who was like really the leader of our family. She is even involved in our portfolio and she too has leukemia. So she is, um, she's actually doing quite well, but she, her, her part. It's my favorite job. She hand stitches like Kleenex holders, and we have gotten so many comments from our midterm tenants that they're like, Oh, I can tell, like, you know, you guys mean what you say?
This is a family business. We have, like, they're literally like just hand sewn things that she adds her little touch. So. Even if, if no matter how it's a family business, whether you've got, you know, like your son working full time or just family members contributing, it's such a good spirit to see. And I think just brings that whole idea of a family business kind of back to its roots, which is, is something I think like has a lot of heart to it.
It absolutely does. Absolutely. All right. So tell us about your real estate portfolio right now and what led you to convert your longterms into midterm rentals. So the reason we converted was because I became a flight attendant and I thought, okay, I have this four bedroom house and these rooms aren't being really used.
I had an office in one. Um, and then I lived out of one. as well. And I thought, why not try to fill these spaces? Um, and what happened was a traveling nurse reached out to me. Um, and that's really what I wanted. So whenever I put the ad out, like I was putting it into the universe that I would love to have a travel nurse come and stay in my home, um, sometimes called house hacking.
Um, Um, and so that is where it actually started was renting rooms out of my personal home to traveling nurses. And I absolutely loved it. Um, my mom's mom, my grandmother was in the medical, um, industry. She was a nurse for almost 50 years. And my grandfather was the hospital administrator of a hospital. So it just felt so good to be able to provide number one, a beautiful space.
Um, focus on comfort for the nurses. And then I would do all the extra things to make sure they had everything they needed plus them. So, you know, from the blackout curtains, um, to their own special color coded towels, so they knew which room and what towels went for each person. Um, we had a desk. put in each of their rooms so they could have a working space as well.
And then of course in the kitchen we had the air fryer, we had a regular coffee pot, we had the fancy coffee pot. So really that is where my journey started in the traveling, you know, furnished world was, was at that point. And I just really fell in love with that model. And it just grew from there. Um, once I found that, you know, the traveling nurses were a joy for me to have, then I, um, transferred some retirement funds into a solo for one K because I was a solo business owner and actually purchased a brand new four bedroom, three bath house.
Specifically with the traveling nurses in mind, like that's the avatar that I wanted and I solely enjoyed it while you know that lasted and the demand was there and then once that kind of dried up, then we kind of switched our bottle to we found that there were a lot of construction workers travelers that needed to come into our particular city and really, I did not know that demand was there.
Um, also people that are needing to be relocated here, they need a temporary space in order to have, you know, something until they found their permanent space. Then we found displaced homeowners that needed a temporary space, and so it has just been a joy to provide that either a brand new home. new home.
Um, and then just make sure that, you know, we're providing the best service that we can and the home speak for themselves. So we have a lot of demand that once they stay with us, whoever it is, when they come back to our area, they want one of our homes. It's really incredible how many different tenant types you find once you get into this, right?
Like you might look at it on the surface and say, Oh, well I don't, I don't, my property wouldn't be right for travel nurses or my property wouldn't be right for a displaced family. But there are so many different travelers that need these midterm stays that it's, it's, I mean, I'm a few years into this and we've got what I think 13 properties now and I'm still having different tenant types come because it's just, it's, it's so diverse.
So I love hearing that from you. Um, and I want to dig in here just for a second. And did you end up selling some of your long term rentals to then invest in, in more midterms, or did you keep them and convert them? We actually got rid of the old and in with the new. Um, so my mom did several 1031 exchanges.
So she decided to sell those older rental homes and then we replaced them. Really, we were going for the travel nurses. to begin with. So out with the old and with the new, um, and we've got a total of four houses that way. So four brand new or nearly new homes. Um, and even like you're saying, the diverse amount of people that come have no idea that there are that many different types.
I was, I was really shocked about that. Yes, definitely. And with the 1031 exchange and you being a realtor as well, a couple questions here. Do you have any additional tips for someone that's considering a 1031 exchange for maybe the same thing, moving a long term into a midterm or, you know, different strategies?
I definitely recommend that, you know, it, it saves so much on capital gains taxes, especially for if you in, you know, inherit property that's, Um, and then the other one, my mom purchased just a piece of land in Florida, um, probably close to 30 ish years ago. And the idea was just to keep it. And once she retired, she was going to build a home on there, her retirement home.
Um, so some things changed, but she sold that one piece of land in Florida and was able to, um, 10 31, exchange it to three. homes in our area where we live in Louisiana. Um, so that was just, you know, very much good planning on her part. Um, and kind of paved the way. First of all, your mom sounds like a very savvy lady, like what a legacy that she has been able to leave.
Um, and that just kind of shows you like the power of real estate and how it can become this really this generational benefit. Um, I want to back up just for a second and let's explain what a 1031 exchange is to anyone who might be kind of new to that terminology. And Candice, I'd love to just have you describe it in your own words since it's You've gone through it yourself.
Sure. So I was very much a supportive role in that 10 31. Um, what she did was she took that piece of land in Florida and she was able to exchange it for like kind. So like kind could have been another piece of property, um, single family house, another piece of real estate. So as long as at least the amount that you're selling that first property for is if you, um, spend at least that amount or more.
On your new property or investment, then that saves on the capital gains taxes that would have been, uh, assessed for that purchase from so long ago, especially. Yeah, capital gains are capital gains are a big thing. And if, if you're looking to sell a piece of property or really hold on to a piece of property for a long time, it's something to consider.
Um, I know that's 1 reason that we actually just closed on the sale of our old house. That was 1 of our rental properties because we were still within the rule that if you, if it had If you purchased it for your primary residence and you had lived in it for three of the past five years, you become exempt to capital gains taxes.
We took it down to like, we had two months left on the clock and we were like, okay, we got to sell this sucker. But if you don't fit that rule or other ones that your tax advisor might've shared with you, um, a 10 31 exchange is a great way that you can essentially keep reinvesting that money. And you're kind of kicking.
kicking the ball on the tax, right? Like, you're just like, I'm going to, I want to make these gains work for me. I want to keep them investing, making profits. So you're just, it's, it's a fantastic strategy. So I would encourage anybody to, you know, if you have a property that has a lot of equity in it, um, and you, you want to do something with it, talk to a tax advisor or, or a great, Real estate agent too will have a lot of resources to learn more about that.
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So with moving your portfolio from longterm rentals to midterm rentals, has the value grown? How has it changed? And what advice do you have for other realtors that might be tuning in right now and, and. Don't know much about the midterm rental strategy or how to explain it to their clients. Yes. So I do feel that once you purchase the property, especially in the type of neighborhoods that we were looking for.
So it really depends on the neighborhood, you know, in your particular area, um, as far as appreciation that way, the house and land increase in value over time. Um, I believe that it is something that other realtors Would benefit from to actually learn about it and that that way they could educate their clients as far as it could be an option that they could be actually actively looking for a real estate investment with the intention of a midterm rental space because it's, you know, it's, it's not as, um, I'll say demanding as the short term because there's not as many turnovers as many, uh, maintenance issues.
Um, and it's not the long term, um, rental, which that's a good strategy as well. It's kind of have a good combination of it. But that midterm space is really, um, I think an untapped area that realtors could absolutely benefit from as long as they're getting the information, the knowledge, they're learning about it, and then they can share that with their client.
Yeah, definitely. Well, let's circle back to the travel nurses. So we've got two main tenant types to talk about today, traveling medical professionals and then construction teams, since that's been a majority of who you have housed over the last, uh, three years or so, uh, through furnished finder. And let's, Talk about, you already gave us an excellent overview of some of those things that you make sure and provide for your, uh, travel nurses and traveling medical professionals.
There's a few that I still want to, uh, emphasize as well. Uh, you're the way that you address the background check conversation. Furnished Finder always recommends that you screen tenants. We have key check our sister company available for a quick, easy way to screen every tenant. It includes additional aspects that aren't part of the, uh, medical screening that happens at the hospitals, which is why we recommend it for every tenant, including medical professionals.
Uh, but it is a soft pull, great to use. So check out key check if you need those, uh, tools to, for once you get a yes. Keycheck will help take you to that, to the rest of the way with tenant screening, leases, and, uh, rent payments. So you offer a cool way that you communicate to your travel nurses and professionals with that screening conversation.
Yeah, so we, um, we have enjoyed all of the Furnished Finder, you know, avatar that we've had. Like you were mentioning, we have had traveling nurses that have found us, many traveling nurses that have found us on Furnace Finder. Um, we've also had construction, um, guys that are coming in and they have found us through the Furnace Finder.
So it's not just for traveling professionals. Um, and then a third, um, avatar or type of person that found us is actually a relocation, um, situation. to where someone in the hospital, like the admin in the hospital of one of our local hospitals, they were relocating or he was relocating to the area and needed a temporary house until he found his permanent house.
So he actually found this on Furnished Finder too. So it's not just for the traveling professionals. And we were able to, you know, secure all three of those types through your platform. So with those background checks and, uh, communicating with traveling medical professionals that are screened all the time, how did you make sure it was a successful conversation each time?
So the way we handled it was we gave them a couple of different options. Either they could choose to provide their contract with the information redacted as far as like their, their pay. But we wanted to verify that yes, they were actually assigned to the to this specific hospital for that particular amount of time along with their ID.
So that was one option that we gave them. Um, or we gave them, if they did not want to provide that to us, then we actually did the, um, the screening through Furnace Finder through Q Check. Awesome. Great. Uh, and then with the room rentals, a couple more things that those, a lot of people are intimidated by room rentals or it's the nice, easy way to get started in the midterm rental process just like you did.
So what are some of those house rules or the way you set up the home to make it a successful stay for anyone that was renting a room from you? So what we did was we created a list. of house rules that they would need to go by. And in that, we actually had some three basic rules that we went by. Um, so no pets in that particular house, um, no company and no smoking.
So those were the three, you know, if if that didn't work for a particular traveling nurse, that was fine. They could find another place that That would work for them. Um, but to me that kept drama to a minimum. Um, that way there was no one walking out their room as far as like a traveling nurse walking out to the kitchen and wondering, you know, what person, guy, who is this in the living room and why are they there?
How long are they staying? So for us, that was the best. You know, way to do it was no company, um, no smoking obviously in the home and then no pets just because of the room rentals that seem to be the best Avenue. Um, and then some extra comfort things that we actually did was to provide each room a Dyson heat and cool unit.
So besides the central air and heat that we had, um, each room actually could control their own temperature to make them comfortable as possible. I like that you've kept the house rules very, very simple. Right. I think as, I think as soon as you go into like this whole room rental mindset, it can kind of be like, Oh my gosh, I'm like, I instinctively go back to like my college days and I'm like, Oh, the conflicts we had, they were ridiculous.
Like I'm going to have to make all these rules. I'm going to have to make all these policies and you know, whatever. And it's like, it's like, That's not the case because you are like you're targeting travel nurses, right? They're there to stay and to work and to live. They're not throwing parties. They're not, you know, they're very responsible and respectful.
So I like that you have made your house rules just very concise, very clear, and that you've left the little things like, you know, who does the dishes or who takes out the trash? Like you've left that to just be like an organic thing of the household and, and treating adults like adults. I really do appreciate that.
And I think that sets. Okay. A very good precedent as a landlord, right? Like, you know what, you guys can handle the small issues, figure it out. You're all adults. Everybody pull your own weight. Um, but here's like the core rules. They're not, you know, they're not anything. Nobody like someone can't deal with that's right.
And then I also wanted to make sure that all vehicles could get in and out of the driveway without having to bother. traveling nurse. And so we actually poured an another additional parking space, another extent of the driveway to make sure every single person could park where they needed to park. And no one had to knock on the door and said, Oh, can you let me out?
I have to go for my shift. Like I tried to think of everything to make it just like kind of the perfect, the perfect spot. The one house that we use as a room rental that also has an ADU, we did the same thing. Uh, the, the driveway and the garage made perfect sense to offer that to the house guests, but we needed a place for the ADU guests to feel like they have their own private spot, not necessarily just random street parking.
So we built like one of those rock, Type, uh, parking spots so that they could pull off the street, make sure that their, their car was, you know, not kind of half in half out and made them feel very safe and comfortable. And then we, uh, set up lighting so that they could access their ADU any time of the day, uh, without feeling.
Like it's too dark or unsafe. So yeah, that's a, that's a good point. I never really thought about mentioning that before. So, um, this has been a really great conversation about traveling medical professionals. So let's make sure and continue with your next tenant type, which is renting out the entire spaces, uh, to construction teams and, and, and, and, and, and, and Displaced or relocating families, but the construction teams you've had, like, I think you have five homes of construction teams right now or something like that.
I think you mentioned so how has, how steady has, has that side of the business been for you? That has been a complete shocker. Like whenever I started out with the, with the traveling nurses, I had no idea that our area had the demand that it did. For furnished for construction crews, construction supervisors, construction workers, like it just goes on and on.
And we definitely have had the majority of the business right now from that particular guest. So, what was really special for us is, as you referring to 5 different homes had construction crews and or supervisor or superintendents. Um, to do a huge project for our city in 2020. We were hit with Hurricane Laura and then Hurricane Delta six weeks apart, both category three hurricanes, and that was devastating to our, our area, our houses, our livelihood, our homes.
Um, just devastated in that timeframe. Um, so there was a, uh, skyscraper building and it was about, um, 20 stories high, and it was damaged in. That first hurricane, Hurricane Laura. And the owners of that particular building were not able to come to a conclusion with the insurance company. And so the building just sat with most of the windows out because it was an all inclusive, like the entire building was was windows.
It was on a beautiful piece of property overlooking our lake. In Lake Charles, um, and just and just stayed there and it was deteriorating. And so, um, finally, it was brought to, you know, fruition that it was going to come down. So we had. 5 crews in our homes with the sole purpose of taking down that particular tower.
Um, and that was a lot of work. It was very rewarding to actually see the construction workers what they're here for, because typically it's in the plants or industries, or we can't visually see put our eyes on. Okay. What are they doing here? Like this particular situation was amazing because we saw what they were doing, you know, month by month, because it was, it's still an ongoing project because the tower itself was dropped in eight seconds.
Eight seconds it was dropped and then now they're doing the cleanup. So we do have some part of the crew still here in, in our homes. And this is, you know, a project for eight months or so total after from start to finish. So that was really rewarding to see their work here. And, you know, we're providing that space for them to come back and kind of relax and be able to have a home away from home for that period of time.
I love this because when you, when you have these midterm rentals, you are like, you are enriching the community, right? You are helping the community in a multitude of ways, but you're either, you know, giving homes to these construction workers or who are putting things back together or who are building new things or traveling medical professionals who are coming in to support.
A need in your community, right? You're helping a displaced family. You're helping a family who's relocating here from somewhere else. Like you are doing something that really matters and communities support that, right? When people find out about my midterm rentals in the community, they don't think about it.
Like, Oh, it's another Airbnb. I'm going to have to tolerate noise. And there's going to be people coming in and out and the cleaner's going to be coming twice a week. It's going to always be like loud and. And just chaotic. It's like, no, no, no. They're like thankful because it's like, you really are like you're supporting this community.
And the other thing that, um, you queued for me is, You never really know the needs of your community until you are in the weeds of it, right? You, there will be something about your midterm rental that will surprise you like 100%. Um, and, and I think that's just something that There's so many different use cases.
You're never going to know them all until you really get in there. And then we'll keep being surprised at how many people can benefit from this housing. A hundred percent. You know, one of our most recent inquiries was about, um, a home to stay in while the attorneys and, um, plaintiff come to a court case.
Like I would have never thought that that would have been, you know, something that people look at, but they want to know how the courthouse. Um, and then how fast was the internet speed? So that was just like, wow, I mean, it would have never really thought that, you know, someone would inquire about that.
And that that's a need. You know, we've had some, um, assistant managers come here for training for a restaurant that opened up recently. So they could train on that process. to go back to their their home city and state to open up their own restaurant. So it's, it's so many different facets. Um, we've had families that are with us while one of the family members is in a, like a long term treatment for their particular issue.
And, you know, they just have such beautiful spaces with us to be able to call home while whatever situation that they're in. So you're right. 100%. You just, you just never know it. It completely surprises me. Some days would have never, you know, thought. And then it's like, wow, I really enjoy. I get joy from providing what we provide the houses that we provide and the service that we provide to me.
It's just so rewarding. I think everybody gets a little bit nervous when they hear about construction workers and I just want to like, pause there a moment and encourage everybody to be open to those, these different traveler types. These construction workers are still like, Just because they might be like working out in the dirt all day or, you know, they're very, it's like, it's a lot of physical hard labor.
They just want a good, safe place to stay. Right? And I think there's sometimes somewhat of a stigma that can come along or a stereotype that they might be hard on your property or might be damaging. I'd be interested to hear kind of firsthand your experience with that traveler type. Um, because I think it's, it's, you know, Typically quite the opposite, right?
Like they're, they just want a safe place to sleep and to stay and to call home much like a traveling medical professional. Absolutely. Uh, in our experience, we have had minor issues, um, with the traveling, um, workers. Like, I think you're right. That a lot of people do have that stigma that, Oh no, you know, I'd rather families, I don't want any workers at all.
Um, and we're kind of, you know, the opposite. We welcome the traveling workers. Um, we welcome, you know, relocation clients that need to come in and have a special place to stay. So, 100%, you know, we have not found that they have been harder on the property. I think that they really appreciate, you know, the comfort that we provide with all the furniture.
So, starting out with traveling nurses, The budget went to comfort. So the budget went to, you know, Serta pillow top, uh, mattresses with Serta box springs. Like that was really important starting out, um, for me to make sure that whenever the workers were with us, um, that they're comfortable. So I think they really appreciate the type of, you know, comfort that we, we do provide and have not had, you know, minimal, minimal issues, um, with any other.
With any other, you know, than the normal person. Yeah, definitely. So with the construction teams Use the leases you you might have a little bit different setup with the lease because it's not just a family It's a company right and it's one person typically taking lead And I think in your homes you actually have workers that rotate through so how do you structure the leases for?
For these construction teams, it just depends on the situation. Sometimes we do it with the companies themselves. Sometimes we do it with the, the main superintendent. That's kind of like, in charge of the project and then he'll take responsibility for the places that he is renting and then. So it just varies.
It kind of situational to situational, um, what, what they need and what we can work out for them.
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Yeah. Reminder with the leases, Keycheck Furnished Finder suite of business tools offers state specific customizable leases. Uh, so if you don't know where in the world to get started with midterm rentals, We are your answer. We're the home of Midterm Rentals with 300, 000 properties nationwide, over 200, 000 landlords that trust Furnished Finder.
And we created Keycheck to be that suite of business tools to help you go from a yes to a no. I want to rent your property all the way to your booking is complete and you know, here's your move in instructions, et cetera. So we really set you up for success with any of these tenant types. Um, and so with the decor, you have a lot of the same features that use for the travel, uh, traveling medical professionals, but you added a few extra really nice details.
touches for construction teams. So what is that, um, icing on the cake for, for your construction teams that you'd like to offer? So what we did was we tried to think what would guys want to do whenever they get off work? Cause mainly we do have guys, some women, but mainly guys for the construction crews.
And so we, um, purchased a couple of grills. for them to use at the house. So we have a typical, just, you know, charcoal grill, and then we upgraded to a pellet grill. So some people are just so excited to be able to use that particular type of grill, um, in, in just, you know, their everyday life, whenever they're staying with us.
And then we provided some games for them, some outdoor games, um, that way they can have something to do. We have a nice space outside so they can relax. And then we also spray monthly. For mosquitoes outside. So every single home is sprayed monthly. That way the mosquitoes are not allowed in our particular yards for them to actually enjoy it.
So I think that's genius for you to spray, but that does affect your costs. And you also offer, you know, uh, the. Your guests to choose between monthly or weekly cleanings, which I think is an extra charge for them. So how have you navigated those waters to make sure that you're running a successful business while still incorporating these, um, additional benefits such as the mosquito and the cleanings?
So we always do a cost analysis to see if we're going to get the return investment, or if we think we're going to get the return on investment that we do and then move forward from there. So we thought that this was a really good between the pellet grill and spraying the yard for mosquitoes that way that will differentiate ourselves from others in the area and have them choose us instead of the competition.
I'm, I'm curious about the cost analysis. What does that look like when you're running the numbers? We just look at it. How much is it going to cost? Can we increase our nightly rate, you know, to cover that particular cost, um, moving forward? And then lastly, you're on that King beds only train and notice, I think a little later that you wish you would have done King beds from the beginning and have been transitioning.
So was that for the construction teams for the traveling medical professionals? What led you to that decision? It was really for the construction teams because typically those are guys that are bigger that take the lead. a bigger space. Um, and so originally, even in some houses, we chose to put all queens when we thought, okay, traveling nurse, you know, it's just, we're not aiming to have families.
We were aiming to have one person per room and, you know, a queen bed would be good enough. Um, and then after I, you know, experienced and had classes and, you know, Had seminars and talk to people. It's like the king beds, um, were the way to go. So we're in transition of, um, removing as many queens as possible and replacing them with king beds in the houses.
I think, you know, it's a little intimidating when you're furnishing a property for midterms, especially if it's a larger property where you're thinking about multiple bedrooms, you're like, okay, a queen would be fine. Right. Because the cost isn't that much different, but. At least in my head, I'm always like hearing like cha ching, cha ching, cha ching, like, it's all adding up.
And I'm like, a queen would be fine. It's like, no. Put the largest bed you can in each bedroom. And also if there's any way possible, put the same size bed in all bedrooms. Like even if it's a secondary bedroom. Put a king bed. If you can, these people like these tenants, they're staying there for a long time.
They don't need a whole lot of extra space in the bedrooms usually, unless you're trying to fit a desk or something. I think it's a, it's the general preference is a larger bed than like extra space to walk around in there. It's also going to make dealing with your linens. So much. You're not going to have to have your cleaner going through and trying to figure out which sheet is the full, which is the queen, which is the King.
Just make it all the same. You will thank yourself later. I would agree. A hundred percent. If that, if I had something to do over, that is what I would do over. I would put Kings in every single room and every single house, um, that could possibly fit it. Now, you know, some, some situations you just can't, but that is the one thing that I would do over.
A hundred percent is king beds. King beds only is such a fantastic thought in the midterm rental space. And if you are listening, I'm so glad that you're getting this advice ahead of time. If you have not started your midterm rental journey yet, now, you know, put the biggest size bed that you can in every room and the more consistent, the better.
All right. So another thing that is good to it. Understand ahead of time is property fees because we do not all do them the same around the country And you know katie and I are here to educate you guys on midterm rental processes So I think it's time that we kind of help y'all understand. What are some uh industry, uh Ideas, uh, for midterm rentals on these subjects, such as application fees, cleaning fees, deposits, uh, non refundable and the worry free waiver typically covers anything that a security deposit would cover.
So look into it. You have some sort of product like that on your properties, Candice, because I see that year all of your three to four bedroom homes have a non refundable deposit of 51. So tell us about that. Absolutely. So I am 100 percent believer in having the waiver in place as opposed to, um, collecting a security deposit for damages such as those.
It just makes life so much easier for both myself and our team. And also, um, for the guests because they don't want to continue to pay security deposit after security deposit. If they are traveling and moving around. Such as traveling nurses, so that benefits them is it's less money out of pocket, and it's more security for us to have that damage waiver in place.
100 percent in agreement with that, um, would really recommend that to anyone. All right, my last question for you, Candice is actually when my husband and I were talking about this yesterday, and we've always referred to ourselves as, you know, the property owner or the landlord when we are in communications with tenants or travelers.
And yesterday I said, he, he goes, you know, maybe we should just refer ourselves as the property manager. And we went into this conversation about kind of why he thought that and where we were coming from. And before I kind of reveal my thoughts, I would actually love to hear yours because I feel like they're very similar.
And this isn't something I really anticipated. Even being top of mind, but I think it's something that a lot of people could benefit from. So tell us your take on that and maybe how it's helped you to be successful. Sure. So starting out as a property manager for longterm tenants, um, that was my language.
Like I am the property manager and I am here to do whatever I can to help the actual tenant, but also Have to take the owners into consideration and I would like to keep my job. So I have to make everyone happy. So that just followed me through the midterm space as well. So I have a team that helps me now, but.
I am the property manager. I am not the property owners. You know that that is more, um, role that I think is better suited for everyone because you're always trying to help the guest or the tenant, um, as much as you can and also, you know, have have the thought of you have someone else to report to to make sure that things are done correctly on the other side as well.
Yeah, I, I agree with that so much. And I also like my husband and I, his conversation was very much like some of our properties we own, some of them we arbitrage. We're not going to explain that to anybody because that's going way too much in the weeds. It provides no value to the tenant. Um, but it really is like, you know, when we're in these relationships, yes, we're the landlord, but we're really acting like a property manager.
We're fulfilling that property manager role. We are self managing. So it's like, I feel like the word property manager or title is just, it's less. It feels less arrogant in some ways. It feels like you're really there to help. Like you said, kind of mediate that between like, listen, I want to make this work for you.
They also don't have to explicitly know if we are the owners or not the owners, but they just know that like, We're the property manager. We're managing this and we're trying to make it work for everybody. We're trying our best. So I just feel like it puts everybody a little bit more on an even playing ground.
And, um, so yeah, I think there's a lot of different approaches you could, you could take to that. None of them are wrong. Um, but I would just encourage everybody to think about. Ways that you can get creative and enhance your relationship with your tenant through little tweaks like that, because it doesn't, it doesn't have to be huge stuff, especially in the midterm rental world.
You don't really need extravagant gift baskets and things like that. It's just about service. It's about caring. It's about, you know, providing good hospitality and communication. So um, it's sometimes simple is better. Well, Candice. We have so enjoyed our conversation with you. Thank you so much for being with us.
All your valuable feedback and advice. If someone would like to connect with you, how would you like them to do so? So we are on all the social medias and it is a rented like a saint, um, for the rental part. And then it is sell it like a saint for the realtor part. I knew we didn't get into that part. Um, but the rented, Is my passion.
And that's where I spend the majority of my time. I just love providing the hospitality, love providing the service. Um, so rent it like a saint because I am from Louisiana and I have a passion for my new Orleans saints team. As a matter of fact, I got to go see them this past weekend, um, in new Orleans, which was an amazing, um, first game of the year that I was able to go to and enjoyed it immensely.
That's fantastic. Well, you've got another great episode of the landlord diaries. Don't forget to share our show with a friend, uh, subscribe, uh, comment, leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Uh, we just appreciate you guys and any topics you want to hear about. Let us know we're here for you.