Getting started in mid-term rentals or buying your next investment property? Whether you're a new or experienced investor, Colin Wong has cracked the code on scaling mid-term rentals across multiple markets. With 10+ MTRs and 70% of his bookings coming from Furnished Finder, Colin shares proven strategies for picking the right markets, maximizing cash flow, and managing properties remotely. Tune in to learn how he balances equity growth with cash flow, finds investor-friendly realtors, and optimizes his listings for consistent bookings.
Timestamps:
0:00 Welcome to The Landlord Diaries podcast
1:50 Colin’s real estate journey started with advice from a friend
4:05 Googling “how to improve cash flow” led him to mid-term rentals
5:30 How MTRs generate 1.5-2x more than long-term rentals
5:50 Let the tenant demand in your market guide your rental strategy
7:45 Strategic property selection: How to spot the right MTR opportunities
10:20 What to look for when buying your next mid-term rental
16:10 MTR design tips: Keep it simple, update as guests request
20:45 70% of Colin’s bookings come from Furnished Finder—must-know tips
21:50 Has Colin’s strategy for equity and cash flow paid off?
24:35 Managing out-of-state rentals: Start with an investor-friendly realtor
28:15 Scaling to 25+ MTRs: Colin’s partnership and long-term vision
30:30 3 expert tips for Furnished Finder success
Episode 132 Transcript
I think time in the market. Is really important rather than timing the market. And I think we've already mentioned it before with our conversation is that, Hey, how do we get started? Let's just get started. Let's just get in and get your feet wet. So when I bought those turnkeys back in 2018, 2019, I was able to refinance them.
For a lower rate and getting cash out too. So I had really little to none money in those turnkeys. Then as the market just went higher and higher in 2021 and 22, we sold a few. And we 1031 into San Diego. So here we are full circle into California that we always wanted to be in. Welcome to the Landlord Diaries, where we talk about midterm rentals and the opportunities behind them.
We'll share landlord stories, talk about maximizing investment potential, and discuss how to live the very best landlord life. This podcast is proudly brought to you by Furnished Finder. The leader and largest online marketplace for midterm rentals. Remember to like, and subscribe if you enjoy our content.
Today, we're diving into the world of out of state investing for equity and cashflow with Colin Wong, a seasoned midterm rental investor who owns around 10 midterm rentals and manages around 25 MTR properties across multiple markets with 70 percent of his bookings coming from Furnished Finder. Colin has mastered the art of scaling through smart market selection, value ad strategies, and a guest first approach.
Whether you're curious about building equity, finding the right markets or growing your rental business, Colin's journey offers actionable insights you won't want to miss. So we are here with Colin. How are you today? Doing well, Kelly. Excited to be here. Thank you. Yes. We always like to start with your journey, right?
So how did you get started in real estate investing? And I think it were early on, it was some advice from a syndicator friend of yours. Yeah. Yeah. We're, we live in the Bay area and it's, it was, we've always wanted to own real estate, but the barrier entry was too high. So we just ended up putting our money into mutual funds, but come dot com bust and the mortgage meltdown, we just got tired of losing our money in the stock market and not growing it.
So when our oldest decided to go to community college, it helped us or that money that we saved we'd said, Hey why don't we just put some of that money into real estate? So being California being too high we thought let's go out of state. So we looked into some turnkey properties and this was back in 20, 2018.
So we met up with the turnkey provider, a really good one. So we ended up buying four properties over a one year, one year, one year span. And then I was listening to the bigger pockets podcast. And it was just really just listening to religiously every week, waiting for each episode to come out. And there was one, one investor who was a wholesaler out in Arkansas.
And his story resonated with me and I connected with him and I bought a wholesale property from him and he helped me burr the property. So I bought it wholesale, rehabbed it. And rented it and refinanced it and rented it out and did it again. I did two or three of those. And I met him with one of my friends at church.
He was a syndicator, the professional real estate investor. And I told him what I was doing. And he said, no, it sounds all well and good. You're just washing your money out and you're not really getting a lot of cashflow in that market and you're not really getting a lot of equity. You should do something else to enhance your cashflow, look at a different market or do something.
So I took that to heart. I was I was proud at the moment when before we were going to talk to him, then after talking to him, I was like I need to do better. So I just started Googling, how do you improve class cashflow with rentals? And Airbnb started to be more popular or furnished rentals started to be more popular.
And I started Googling, Hey, how do I do this? And in Facebook, I found a group led by. A gentleman called Al Williamson. We love Al's one of our episodes. He's a mentor. And so back in 2019, and I joined his group and with that community, with his help he helped me identify what I needed to do to to, to furnish a property and to get it ready and to be a really desirable place for someone to come and live there for.
Say 30 days or more. So I thought this experiment I can try. So here we are in a small suburb outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. I talked to my realtor. Hey, can you get me a cleaner? No problem. Can you get me a, can you give me a handyman? No problem. So I got my list of items to furnish from, and I bought all this stuff from Amazon, had it delivered to the house.
My cleaner, who also does a little bit of handy things, she put together all the furniture and set up all the furnishings, all that. Then I put my listing on Airbnb, VRBO, Furniture Finder, and I got my first guest. So then the cashflow or the monthly rent was about one and a half to two times as much as a long term rent.
That's awesome. And one thing I know about your strategy is you let the demand in that market decide what your real estate strategy is going to be. So in a lot of your markets, you're aiming for midterm rentals. What have been some of those surprising guest types or things that have come about?
I think Little Rock, Arkansas is a great one to start with. You, the demand you got there was very different than what you expected for your midterm rental guest. For sure. For sure. As I started to buy more properties, I was more strategic in, in the area. And I ended up buying in an area where there were three hospitals.
Level one trauma centers, children's hospital those type of facilities. So I started getting nurses. Then over time, there were disasters. Unfortunately, there was a hurricane that tore through or a tornado that tore through the town twice. And that meant insurance housing, insurance claims. Relocation.
Then I started getting work crews, they're working on McDonald's down, down the interstate hobby lobbies are coming up. So these work crews would stay there for months at a time. And also we have the Air Force nearby, or a facility that trains a lot of the pilots. They come for months at a time.
I think that's so smart because not only are you looking at hospitals, because we all know that traveling medical professionals, travel nurses are Such amazing tenants and they need really high quality, reliable places to stay for their work assignments, but there's other tenant types too and Developing cities, towns that are expanding or that are doing a lot of renovation or, highway work, new retail developments, commercial developments, they all have people who are coming in to serve those needs.
So I think that is A really strategic and opportunistic way to be looking at where you could get your next property. So tell us a little bit more about these properties. Are they single family homes, are they duplexes? I know you mentioned when you first started purchasing, you bought multiple in one year.
So tell us a little bit more about what that looked like and how you ended up where you are today with your portfolio. Yeah. Like you said, Katie. Yeah. I started with single family homes and I started getting into duplexes. I bought a duplex. with a garage and I converted the garage into a studio. Then I bought a house that was split into two because an elderly man and his son, elderly man lived on one side and his son lived on the other side and they sold the home.
So we we sealed off the door on one side because it has two entrances and then we included a kitchen and put in a bathtub because we know that people like to soak in the tub after a long day of work. So we've. Increased our cash flow position greatly by adding units to existing properties.
The next project that I'm working on, which I have under contract now, right outside of Central Arkansas, right outside of Little Rock, is a 2, 500 unit house, or excuse me, 2, 500 unit house, square foot house, that we're going to break up into three, that has a stand alone garage, two car garage and workshop, which will be an additional essentially dwelling unit, ADU.
So that's going to add some square footage. So that will cashflow on its own as long term rental. But when we furnish it, it will be more than a half times or more that of a long term rental. Yeah, that's fantastic. Just looking at properties with an opportunistic set of eyes. I think as real as, as real estate investors, we've all found ourselves scrolling on Zillow and we all in the markets that we know already.
Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but I can look at a property and just be like, Nope, I can't cashflow that one. I can't cashflow that one, or that one might break me even. And I want to have it in my portfolio for other reasons or whatnot, but really. There's a skill to being able to look at things with opportunity and creativity.
And I think that's what it's going to take as interest rates are more challenging. It is not impossible. It's not impossible at all. It's just not that you can look at any single property on Zillow or on the MLS and just be like, Oh my gosh, these would all cashflow amazing, right?
Those days. are over. But it also means that the competition is a lot more focused on quality and you have a chance to stand out as an operator and as a landlord. So I think you have an incredible mindset there and just not only creating cashflow with midterms in the, in cashflow with midterms in the short term, meaning you're getting cashflow immediately, but you're also creating long term value by increasing this, the livable space of these properties that you can sell for a higher value down the road.
Yeah, I think this is actually a good roundtable discussion, Katie of how to, for those that don't know how to look for these opportunities that could be transformed into multiple units, et cetera and what we all look for when we go to purchase our next midterm rental. I think this is a great starting point and I'll go first.
Mine is When I'm looking on Zillow, we've started adding properties that have ADUs in the backyard, which take our cash flow up an extra 500 and give us an extra unit to rent out. So what I look for when I'm searching on Zillow or online somewhere is going to be typing ADU into the keywords so that I can find it that way.
Although Sometimes, they're not called ADUs. You have to know what your local lingo is for that. Like in, in Austin, Texas, it could be a casita. It could be a a cottage. It could be a garage apartment. So like jumping around to those different keywords to see what you find. And then also sometimes I'll just put in.
Places with six plus bedroom multifamilies and see what comes up that way just to get creative with how you look for it. And so we have two of those properties that are three bedroom, two bath homes with a separate ADU that rent that we both ran out individually as midterm rentals.
What, when you're looking for these houses, Colin that you can split into multiple units, what are you looking for? Yeah, first I'm looking for something that's been on the market for a very long time. Over 90 days looking for a certain size there's actually two, there's actually a very small size, like a two, two, then you could split that into a one, one, or a larger size, like something over around 2500 square foot bathrooms are key because they're really key.
Expensive to add on to a rehab. So if there's a three bathroom house, then boy that could be three units. Could very well be. Keyword search, garage. Basement, unfinished basement. And for kitchens one cost savings would be open shelves on top, as opposed to full cabinetry everywhere.
And how do you add, if you're saying look for places that have bathrooms already, for a midterm rental, unlike a short term, you could get away with just a microwave, right? And like a hotel, a microwave and a little mini fridge. You can't get away with that in a midterm rental, because they're staying for more than 30 days, and they want to be able to cook, and have their dry goods, etc.
So how, when you're looking to split these properties up, The additional bathrooms are super helpful, but what do you, how do you look and analyze the kitchen space potential? Today's episode is proudly sponsored by Furnished Finder, the ultimate platform for hassle free midterm rentals. Whether you're a seasoned landlord or just getting started, Furnished Finder has everything you need to find your next tenant.
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Yeah. It's going to be have to, it's going to have to house a full range of full stove with an oven for sure. We don't do any cooktops. In our properties, there's all full ovens, full size refrige refrigerators washers in, in, in property washers and dryers. We do the stackables for smaller units.
But those are the things that people look for. Also pet friendly. So then we don't have carpet. We don't have carpet. We just have the LVP. I think that's, I think that's incredibly smart. I know our latest acquisition is a two bed condo and. We always try to be pet friendly just because it opens up the door to so many more tenants.
And we went and we did a walkthrough. We were adding some new signage, just checking some stuff at all of our properties. And this one unit in particular it's our newest unit and they have a cat and it smells a little bit like cat right now, but I was like, it's fine. We don't have any. Carpet in here, the tent, when the tenant gets out, the cleaner can do a good mopping and all will be well.
So it does, taking out that carpet, if you're worried about being pet friendly is a huge relief. And that LVP is very affordable these days. It really is. Yeah, for sure. This has been a great roundtable discussion. If you have anything to add on how you go about choosing your midterm rentals, then please put it in the comments.
We would love to hear from you guys. So on to our next conversation. I am very excited to to bring design topics back to this episode. We try to balance how much we talk about design, how much we talk about pricing fees, things like that. So Colin has very nice properties. They're all done differently.
So what advice do you have for those that maybe are getting started on how much they should budget for furnishing their midterm rentals and how to go about shopping and using the what recommendations you have. For where you like to purchase things for your midterm rentals. Thankfully I am no good at this as far as design, but thankfully I have someone to help me like my wife and also my, my, my cleaners.
They're pretty good at that because they see these properties. They know what good looks like. They know what popular looks like. So to have someone in my, on my team to assist me is great. Color is always good to have in a property. So it's not drab. But me to try to find the right color coordination is very difficult.
I would not be able to do it. But, one thing I would suggest for someone starting out is when you do furnish do not go so, so all out. You do have to have the bare bones. Utensils, bedding, towels, things, soaps, things like that, and some decorations. And then as you have more guests, they'll give you feedback.
Oh, can I get a pizza cutter? Can I get a a corkscrew? Can I get an ice cream scooper? Things like that. And you just keep adding things on. Yeah. There's so many good round table discussions here. So I'm going to add in a few. I built my lists off. When, back in the day when I started four years ago, I built my list off of Pinterest.
I tried to think of everything that they might need, like you're saying. And it is nice that you can go about just adding things as you go. But if you want a good starter list Furnished Finder now has a Tool for how guide to how to furnish your midterm rentals So I will put a link to the blog in the show notes.
And then we also have under the Furnished Finder home page Resources property owner resources. You'll see a handbook on how to get started in midterm rentals So lots of great tips there under the resource like our stats page is my area going to be a good? Place for midterm rentals. We'll go to Furnished Finder.
com forward slash stats, which is under that resource tab, and you'll see the demand in your area. Katie, our marketing director of Furnished Finder, excellent design. What design quick hitters would you like to add for this conversation? I think it's important to. Not skimp on wall art. Wall art can be very affordable.
You can get it at garage sales, you can get it on Facebook Marketplace. If you want to drive around a little bit, I know Kelly you're always up for that. The clearance sections, it doesn't have to be perfect, but wall art goes a long way. I also like to always pick one furniture piece that stands out a little bit.
This last property did, we did a yellow. Chair in the family room. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, just something to stand out a little bit. It really helps in the photos. And then just to not forget that the little things really do make it feel more inviting, some throw pillows, some blankets, right?
It doesn't have to be over the top. It doesn't have to be insanely expensive at all, really, but it really does help just tie everything together. Yeah, and one more thing I thought about on Furnished Finder that we always keep up with. If you want to know what are the high demand areas for midterm rental travelers, go search the Furnished Finder map and look at the filters.
We keep those up to date. Right now we've got King size bed is important. High speed internet is important. And if you think of internet, you think of a work from home station. Is there a place that you can set up to have a private, quiet, work from home station to do things like this? Podcasting or Zoom calls for your job.
So keep those things in mind for your midterm rentals. While we're talking about Furnished Finder, Colin, I'd love to hear your tips since, almost 70 percent of your. Bookings come from Furnished Finder. What tips do you have for someone that you have just found are the like hidden gems of Furnished Finder?
Download the app because you want to get notifications right away when you get leads or direct messages. And you need to respond right away. So when I do get a lead or direct message, I go into the app and I message within the app. And then I say, I'm going to send you an email and I'm going to also text you.
Then if they're interested in more information, I would send them a walkthrough video that's professionally done. So that, that, the, just a quick response to know that someone's. Listening or someone's watching and someone's just paying attention and also showing them. I'm a real host with a real property.
Yeah, for sure I would love to expand further. You said getting into real estate your main goals are equity and cash flow. So now that you know Started your journey in 2019. I think you left your full time job in 2022. I think you have over a million in equity right now. You aim for 500 to a thousand per property in cashflow.
What do you want to add about just where you're at in your midterm rental real estate journey that could encourage others on the financial side? I think time in the market is really important rather than timing the market. And I think we've already mentioned it before with our conversation is that, Hey, how do we get started?
Let's just get started. Let's just get in and get your feet wet. So when I bought those turnkeys back in 2018, 2019, I was able to refinance them for a lower rate and getting cash out too. So I hadn't really little to none money in those turnkeys. Then as the market just went higher and higher in 2021 and 22, we sold a few and we 1031 into San Diego.
So here we are full circle into California that we always wanted to be in. And so that property that we bought in San Diego through the 1031 exchange, we were able to cash flow because we can midterm rent them to students. Because there's a housing shortage for students in San Diego, they're building a lot of space over there for students, but it's going to be much more expensive when they come online because they're new, because the costs are higher.
So we'll be competitive moving forward for student housing.
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I would love to dive further into the out of state. management side of it. So I think a majority of your properties that you've scaled over, since 2019, a lot of your midterm rentals, I think, are in Nashville, Chattanooga and San Francisco. If I'm missing any or if I'm wrong on those, then please correct me.
But what tips do you have for others that are in a higher price market? Like you are in California and they need to invest outside of their local market. What tips do you have for them to get started and have confidence in building their midterm rental business? I think the key is to find a realtor in that market.
You can go online and find the top realtor or the top, top few realtors, and they can help you. And from there they have their networkers realtors by nature, they have to network and they know cleaners. They knew who's coming and going. They know maintenance people, they know yard people, things like that.
That's one way to start. There's Google reviews on everybody. If you do Turnkey, there's Google reviews on Turnkey providers. There's really good ones, and I was very fortunate to get really, a really good one and they have thousands of positive reviews and then I know people that are just losing money on turkeys, but it starts with a realtor.
Yeah. And you guys, there's great ways that you can find realtors. And make sure that they are experts in what you are looking for. If you're looking for an investment property, you're looking for midterm rentals, look for a realtor who is experienced with that. You don't want to look for a realtor who's experienced with placing first time homebuyers necessarily, right?
Realtors all have their expertise, just like we do as landlords. So make sure that you are looking specifically for that. Ask them questions. Ask if they're familiar with Furnished Finder. Are they familiar with midterm rentals? What do they know about it? How can they help you? What do they know about the demand in your market?
There's a lot that our stats page gives you, and there's a lot that you have to discover within the market itself. And that can also come, like Colin said, from Getting in there and trying it out. You can always pivot, but a lot of times you can only learn these things and you can only get started by getting started.
Yeah. I just wanted to add, yeah. So to Katie's point when I did find a realtor that was really good, but they had no idea what I wanted to do. They thought I was coming from outer space, left field. But then when you, when I did find someone, an investor friendly realtor we were like talking the same language.
They didn't think I was crazy. They thought, oh yeah, this is going to work. And they were looking for properties that I would be interested in. They started feeding me properties that would work, not just give me a house that I would live in and move in as a, as an owner. That's such great points.
Just on the importance of finding investor friendly. Agents in those markets, especially if it's not a market, so we are building a playlist on our YouTube channel Landlord Diaries YouTube channel of Different realtors around the country that also have their own personal midterm rentals so that's a great playlist to go to if you're looking to expand outside of your market and work with someone that already has a Successful Furnished Finder journey and a real estate license as well.
So check it out and then, circle back to not only do you have your own properties that you own, you also manage around 25 midterm rentals with your partner, Albert. So why don't you tell us a brief overview of, why you decided to go that route since maybe that doesn't have the I think it's arbitrage, so that doesn't have the equity play, and that was one of your big focuses at the beginning.
So why did you add that? piece to the puzzle. Yeah, no, I think that's diversification. We do arbitrage and we also do property management. So we prefer to do property management. We started with arbitrage, but now we do property management. Um, he's, he has a great way about him, Albert does to to talk to owners and realtors and network with them.
And so we've done a lot of properties where the owner is selling, is moved away. And it's selling property and I had a hard time selling and that's happening a lot. So in the meantime, we're taking over the property and managing it for them as they sell it in, say the summer or a few months ahead down the road or year down the road.
We're also helping retired people for more income rent out their spare room. We have a widow that we're helping rent out her spare room and she loves it. She loves the extra income and she loves people coming into her home. And also another gal who goes away for the summer.
So the summertime, three months out of the year, we we manage her property for them. So those are the value adds we have for people. And that's really one thing I really like is serving other people and giving them what they need and what they want. And there's a certain fulfillment for me for that.
And so yeah, our vision is to have properties. And to give back to ministry folks pastors missionaries for respites, for visitation, things like that. That's our vision for our company in addition to going into and expanding into other markets. Colin, I love all the different ways that you have established and grown your business and grown your portfolio.
And just really, like we said earlier, looking at all of this through. opportunistic eyes and just saying, where can you serve next and how can you grow and develop within the midterm rental space? So I think I'd love us to leave off with you giving listeners some of your best practices and tips for the Furnished Finder platform because you're on there so much and you're so active with your growing portfolio.
So what are some tips that you would share that have Proven to be really helpful for you. It's going back to just react quickly and you get a lead. Keep your calendar updated. Make sure it's available. Make sure your pricing is correct. Because you turn around one day, oh, the season changed. It's slow season now.
Or, oh my gosh, I just rented it for too low because I didn't change it from low season to high season. So set a note for yourself at least once a week, if not two times a week to go on Furnished Finder and update your listing. Make sure you spend that money up front on, on professional photos.
On professional videos, that's an investment that's gonna pay you back. Yeah, for sure We do have some major calendar updates coming. So stay tuned to your Furnished Finder social media channels your email You're gonna really love The improvements we're making to the calendar and we'll leave it at that so that you can see it in the near future.
And I think I'll just wrap us up with something that I've really grasped from Colin throughout this episode. And that's the importance of looking at your real estate strategies for. opportunities with midterm rental, right? How many times you ha you said you had a friend in syndications and friends and the flipping business, how many times are those properties sitting on the market and they're just paying paying the mortgage, paying the electric.
Waiting for it to sell when they could potentially have a month to month midterm rental guests in that property while they're waiting for it to sell. Of course, check your local laws, be clear in your communication with your guests that's what would be happening. But especially syndications, like if a multi family complex.
Is just sitting on the market and it's only 70 percent occupied. Start looking for arbitrage partners that might want to come in and partner with you to rent out those as midterm rentals, et cetera. If you have any of those. Any of those real estate investors in your life, then we challenge you to just educate them on the value of midterm rentals.
Please put in the comments anything you'd like to hear more from us about. We bring all real estate conversations to you focusing on midterm rentals. And Colin we appreciate you being a host on Furnished Finder, sharing your if someone wants to connect with you, how would you like them to do so outside of you can always connect with Colin on his Furnished Finder listings?
Absolutely. We do have a website, furnishedhaven. com. Awesome. So check it out and don't forget to subscribe and comment or share this episode with a friend. Have a great day, everyone. We'll catch y'all again soon.