Welcome to the ever-evolving world of real estate investment! If you're eager to maximize your monthly (mid-term) rental income, it’s time to broaden your horizon. Amy Fraser's journey reveals how expanding tenant pools through monthly rentals can be a game-changer for real estate investors.
Why focus beyond travel nurses?
Travel nurses have been a staple tenant choice for monthly rental properties, offering reliability and consistent demand. However, limiting your tenant base to solely this group is a missed opportunity for tapping into a larger market. The post-pandemic landscape has seen a diverse range of professionals seeking flexible housing solutions.
Amy Fraser's insight
Amy Fraser, co-owner and broker at Cottage Real Estate and Rental Collection in Huntersville, North Carolina, has successfully utilized a broader tenant base to increase revenue. Her properties are favored by not only relocation professionals but also those undergoing home renovations or involved in large-scale construction projects. Amy’s properties appeal to high-end professionals, an audience often overlooked by those solely focusing on travel nurses.
The importance of a diverse tenant pool
Expanding your tenant pool offers numerous benefits:
Increased occupancy rates: A variety of tenant types means higher occupancy rates throughout the year.
Diverse rental income: Focused marketing and premium offerings can diversify your rental rates.
Reduced risk: Diverse tenant types reduce dependency on a single market segment.
Strategies to broaden your tenant base
1. Invest in quality and design: Amy emphasizes design consistency across properties. Ensuring your rental stands out ensures that you’ll appeal to a wider range of tenants. Her properties feature coastal, timeless aesthetics that attract those seeking comfort and style.
2. Leverage platforms like Furnished Finder: Using Furnished Finder (opens in new tab) helps present your properties to a vast array of professionals needing monthly furnished housing. Furnished Finder caters to various industries, from digital nomads to corporate executives.
3. Build and nurture relationships: Amy attributes much of her success to relationship building, both with tenants and other local businesses. Networking within local industries can open doors to potential tenant leads.
4. Utilize professional marketing: The importance of high-quality photos and comprehensive listings cannot be overstated. They serve as your property’s first impression and significantly impact potential tenants’ perceptions.
Case Study: Huntersville, North Carolina
Amy's properties demonstrate the potential of catering to an expanded professional clientele. In her region, industries like finance, energy, and technology are thriving, driving demand for monthly rentals from executives and professionals. Her market insight and strategic property management have secured a steady inflow of high-caliber tenants.
Final thoughts
The monthly rental market is fertile ground for investors willing to think beyond traditional tenant types. By broadening your scope and adopting comprehensive management strategies, you can ensure a steady, lucrative rental income. Take a cue from Amy Fraser's successful approach to expanding her tenant base and enjoy the financial rewards. List your property on Furnished Finder (opens in new tab) and reach over 500,000 travelers search for housing each month.
Remember, staying informed and flexible is key in real estate investment. Enjoy the lucrative benefits of opening your properties to new possibilities beyond travel nurses. Happy investing!
Episode 142 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. Today our discussion will be tailored around expanding your guest pool beyond travel nurses to maximize bookings and earning potential. Joining us is Amy Frazier, co-owner and broker at Cottage Real Estate and Rental Collection, a real estate firm, property management company and design firm in Huntersville, North Carolina.
This real estate team operates 11 high-end luxury monthly rentals, ranging from one to four bedrooms, mainly reaching the relocation tenant type, which has seen 130% growth year over year. Uh, Amy, we're so excited to talk with you. We've met you at a couple conferences. How are you today? I hope you guys are awesome.
Good. Uh, well, Amy, as a real estate broker, what led you to become a monthly midterm rental investor and property manager? So I think it was an interesting evolution. I think so many of us get our real estate license and we just start as traditional real estate brokers, which is certainly what we did. Um, and I say we at times, 'cause my partner Marty Briggs, he's not on here with me, but we are very much a unit and do so much together.
Um, but really started as real estate broker got into relocation, which in my background I was in. Human resources. So it really kind of went hand in hand, real estate and human resources, people relocating, and it really got us thinking, gosh, all these people need housing. I was working on the sales side of housing, but certainly the temporary housing piece is an important component.
Not everyone's ready to buy right away. Sometimes contracts aren't the full length of, you know, years upon years. And so they just need a temporary, again, place to live. So our wheels kind of started turning and we thought, well, what could we do to get our feet wet? Well, the best way is our own properties.
So we bought a property in 2019, started to live in it, started to renovate it as we went. And when it came time to find another property, which happens too frequently, sometimes in real estate, uh, we went ahead and put it out as a furnished rental. And that was really the start of our experience with furnished rentals was in 2019 with that one property.
And then it's really grown and evolved since then. Awesome. And how do you present, uh, midterm monthly rent rentals as a strong real estate option to your investor clients? So really to us, we present it as increased cash flow, better protection of your property, more control over what kind of furniture is brought in, the amount of furniture, right, the placement of it, the style of it.
And really at the end of the day, it protects our asset more. So when we look at turnovers with. Furnished rentals, it's a much lower expense to our investors when they go to, when we go to turn the properties for them. So for all those reasons, you make more per month. It's less wear and tear on your property.
The types of clients who choose to stay with us are very high-end professionals. People who are, you know, um, building new homes. Like they just, it's just a different tier and it's a different type of experience. And our investors love putting their money in that sort of investment versus like the long-term rental game.
And lastly, from my part, uh, on this topic, I, in our first call you shared that you actually have quite a few investors that find you because they see you on, uh, different real estate marketing platforms. Like how are you getting this rent? Like, what are you doing that mm-hmm. Other realtors aren't, and you get a lot of, gain, a lot of clients that way.
Tell us more about that. So we get it a couple different ways from that. One is people see our prices and they call us initially a little. Bent outta shape, right? They call a little accusatory, like, is this a typo? Or how are you really able to get these prices? Have you gotten these prices before? And it really opens up the conversation to better educate them about what we do, how we do it, how it's different, and how we can get them the same results.
So we've definitely gotten properties, um, that way. So that's been a big piece, is like, it's almost like the shock marketing, right? You put something out and you expect some sort of response back. Uh, and that converts to more sales for us. A lot of us when it comes to midterm rentals or monthly rentals, we only think about hair healthcare professionals.
We think about travel nurses, we think about traveling, um, physical therapists or ultrasound techs or all of these healthcare providers, but we don't think about the other types of, um, professions and travelers that you are serving with your housing. Um, and this is such, such a common question because.
It's almost like the stigma we all have to get past, right? Travel nursing is strong. It, it's been around since the seventies. It grew a lot during the pandemic. Some people say it's dying in reality, it's just kind of back to par. It's back in like a balanced demand. Um, there's still slow and steady growth.
Places like Fusion Medical, um, are predicting a 7% annual growth for the next coming years. Um, and it, and it is steady and it is. Still a great place to find tenants. I know I house a lot of traveling medical professionals, however, it's not everyone. So tell us more about your main tenant type and who you're putting in your houses.
Absolutely. I think that's a really good point. And it's interesting because. When we got started, I think everyone who starts thinks healthcare professionals, right? I mean, that's just sort of been historically and that's honestly what has gotten the main headlines, right? Um, but we've actually never housed a healthcare professional.
So for us it has been. Really three main buckets. It has been true relocation, people moving to the area, they don't know where they wanna buy yet they don't have enough familiarity with our area. We, on the real estate side, are, are of course, you know, building that relationship to be that educator and help them understand that area so that hopefully, you know, they do choose to buy with us in the future.
Um, but that's a big bucket. Um, the other really large bucket has been. Really large scale renovation projects. So we live in an area called Lake Norman. It's just north of Charlotte, and we have some really beautiful, large homes. They're a bit dated, I call them the beige and brass homes. And a lot of them are waterfront or in lake access communities.
And these people, uh, by them, and they're beautiful in their own way, but they're not yet to their standards and their style, right? So they take on the project of renovation, and usually that means that their general contractor kicks them outta their house. And they're out of their house for over a year.
What they think is a six month rental always, always, always turns into. About two years. And you hate to tell them that at the front, but that's usually how it works out. Um, and, and with that too, I would say slash it's also new construction. So a lot of custom semi-custom builders, their clients stay with us.
We have relationships with them. They know to refer people to us, but that also the people then come to us and say, wow, your houses are just like what I'm building. But on a smaller scale, so it feels comfortable to me. It feels familiar to me. So I wanna rent with you while my new construction home is being built.
Yeah, and that's amazing that, you know, six month to two year stays, you don't always hear that. Uh, with Furnish Finder stays, uh, that is more common, uh, with my portfolio as well in Austin, Texas. I think Katie's varies, uh, and more is maybe the 90 days to six month. Uh, but that's what we're here for. In the furnish finder monthly rental space is anything over 30 days, but our average on the site is around 90 days stays.
So let's, uh, hone in a little bit, just back up just a step so that those listening can kind of understand, you know, more about. Who you are and where you're coming from. Uh, how long have you been a host on Furnish Finder? Um, you know, how's Furnish Finder doing for you? Give us kind of some of that backstory as well.
Sure. So I believe we've been on Furnish Finder for three or four years now. Um, I think we were, you know, into it initially again, thinking healthcare professionals. That was who we were going to attract from the furnish finder platform. Um, but actually our first furnish finder, um. Guest was actually a traveling professional.
He worked for himself and he could be a digital nomad essentially. So they literally packed up their truck with their dog, came here from out west, literally set up every webcam, light stand, everything you can imagine. Multiple monitors like kind of transformed our space into all these spaces that they could have virtual calls.
24 7. And uh, they lived with us for about six months. They transitioned from one property into another with us and they were super happy and they loved it. They were, you know, young professionals and they have just literally been bebopping the entire US and working, uh, for themselves from wherever they choose to call home for the time.
So they were with us over a summer, which, you know, at Lake Norman is an awesome time to be here. Really from that, I mean we've had, we get a lot of inquiries, um, and I build a lot of really great relationships. I really value the relationships. It almost feels like you're building a pen pal relationship at times because certain people, at least the tier that we focus on, they are looking to have a relationship with you and build that relationship and build that trust.
And I have found that Furnish finder gives us kind of that safe platform to do that. They like to continue to message in the platform. Um. They're very responsive, as am I, and sometimes it doesn't work out timing wise. Um, but certainly again, because we also do real estate sales, it allows us to build that relationship and they say, we're gonna save your contact information in the future.
I'll reach out to you so. I find it to not only be good for tenant sourcing, but also for relationship building. And then also I will say that homeowners find us on Furnished Finder as well. So when they're searching to see about even posting their own home on Furnished Finder, they see our properties, which do stand out amongst our competition in our market, and they reach out to us to say, Hey, I found you Unfurnished Finder.
I'd love to understand more about your business. I see that you actually have a business. You're not just a one-off. You know, person who's listing their home for, for rent, right? It's like you're actually a business. You have a company name. I understand you have a website, and so again, kinda helps that relationship building.
I wanna talk about that a little bit because a lot of times, um, leads will come through or messages will come through, and if you're not available, you don't have the availability. Um, or it's, it's not gonna work out. Sometimes say, Ugh, well I'm just not, I'm not getting the matches. I'm not getting the matches.
And there is a certain level of patience. When it comes to monthly rentals, right? But I think there's also the, what else can I find from this message? What else can I build? Because there is so much else to gain from these messages and these connections. So I would love to learn a little bit more about what you're saying about how do you, what are some of your best practices with messaging someone or starting to kick off those relationships?
'cause it, it can be a little bit. Uncomfortable almost sometimes, right? Like, what do I say? What do I do? How do I answer this? Like, what are, what are some of Amy's go-to strategies for how to, how to start that? That's a good question. I mean, I think because I have a recruiting background, um, I think it's just about just making that connection and responsiveness and professionalism.
I think, you know, we live in a world where. Strong communication is not necessarily at the top of the list anymore. We're all sucked into technology. And so that human piece, even like, is this a real human being, right? Is this an AI bot responding to me? Um, so I think it's, you know. It's being genuine. I think it's asking questions.
It's offering up, you know, sharing our website. It's talking about all the different service lines that we do. It's educating people, even if they haven't asked the question yet. It's providing value, it's providing other ways that we can work together because it might trigger. Their mind to say, oh, I actually meant to ask about that.
Or, oh, I could be flexible on my timeline if they're saying they have these other properties. And then it's also about networking, right? So if we can't host them in our, one of our properties, who else in our market might be able to serve them? And then hopefully they'll boomerang back to us in some way.
Um, but again, like putting out that good karma, right? Like putting out good energy and it coming back to you. So it really is just again. It sounds so simple, but it's like just being responsive, being professional, educating people about what you have to offer. Um. I'm all about solution finding too, so it's like, so what's a solution?
Maybe it's not the solution they wanna hear or that will work for them, but it's a solution to consider. Today's episode is proudly sponsored by Furnished Finder, the ultimate platform for hassle-free midterm rentals. Whether you're a seasoned landlord. We're just getting started. Furnished Finder has everything you need to find your next tenant.
With Furnished Finder, you can say goodbye to booking fees, markups, and commissions, and hello to Direct bookings. If you are ready to experience all the benefits renting your property for 30 days or more, head over to furnished finder.com where you can list your property for one low annual price. We make it easy to get started.
Well, this episode we're really focusing on, you know, while travel nurses are great tenant types, how much more there are as far as expanding your guest pool. So let's continue with that trend. And if you haven't caught a recent episode, uh, with CEO Jeff Hurst. Go back, uh, and listen to it. It's, uh, episode one 40, released around early June, uh, of this year.
And we really dive into tenant trends, uh, top markets, things of that nature. Uh, but in regards to expanding your tenant pool, you know, our top business or our top tenant types that are traveling, um, in 2025 are business and digital nomads, uh, which makes up around, uh. 37% of furnish finders travelers.
Healthcare comes in at 25% and relocation around 20%. So there's so many different traveler types, uh, utilizing Furnish Finder. And one of the best ways to see the variety is just to get started. Add your property to furnish finder, start watching your tenant leads, uh, which a anyone? That is coming to your area, can put in a message that triggers the landlords in that area, which is called a tenant lead, uh, to landlords.
And, uh, Amy, one thing I would love for you to share is, you know, some of those industries with Jeff, we talked about data centers, really driving demand and, you know, uh, different government projects, things like that. What is the local. Industry driving demand for those relocation needs in your area of Huntersville, North Carolina?
So in our market, historically, we have had big industries like Lowe's Corporate is here in Morrisville, North Carolina, which is about 15 minutes north of us. Wells Fargo. Right. All the financing and banking of. Charlotte, North Carolina, um, duke Power. So we have multiple power plants. Um, those have kind of been like the big dogs, if you will.
So when I worked corporate relocation, like those were some of our main clients, but what we've really seen, so yes, that is a huge bucket. Um, Trane, Ingersoll Rand, right? Those kind of manufacturing companies have hubs here, but what's been interesting is the self-employed entrepreneur. Or somebody who works for an international company that has connections here, we have housed, um, you know.
International, uh, plastic CEOs. I know it sounds fancy. Uh, we have had toll lane from Spain. Uh, CEOs stay with us. So we not only cater to, you know, we are actually able to cater to international clients more so than a lot of other large formal property management companies that are owned and structured differently than us.
So we've been able to really gain some traction with their employers. We have, um. Forestry company, uh, executives that stay with us, that they're willing to literally travel six hours into Tennessee to do the forestry and do all that, and then come back to Huntersville and Cornelius, North Carolina to call home because of the properties that we're able to offer just feel like that much better of an option for them.
So really self-employed, uh, international companies, and then of course the traditional, uh, industries that have existed here in our market that many people have heard of, those kind of company names. So when you're looking at, at a potential property, how do you know or decide if it might be a good midterm rental for this use?
So we live in a very, very, very heavy HOA area. So homeowners associations that dictate we have CCNRs and really before any property is ever, even from an acquisition point, looked out to be in the portfolio as a midterm rental or monthly rental. We're looking at what do, what do the CCN R say around rentals.
So. Never do we work with something that says a 12 month minimum, right? But we've actually been able to be pretty successful in the six month realm, and that's an often written in cc NR requirement is a six month minimum rental. But in a perfect world, we're in a no HOA, which in our market. Rarely do we find a property that pencils out in all the other ways as an OHOA, but a monthly minimum HOA is really what we found to do incredibly well.
So, um, we, again, CC and rs reading, doing research, due diligence is so important in this business. I can't tell you how many people we've saved from a situation where their real estate agent said, oh yeah, buy this house, and then you couldn't do with that house what you thought you could. And they come to us and say, help me, or they tried to do a short-term rental.
In a town that you can't actually do a short term rental, and they were making really great money and then they got reported and they say, okay, help me. I've got this furnished property. I don't know what to do with it, and I still need to make really good money like I did on the short term rental side.
And so we've brought those properties in our portfolio. So again, due diligence. The research piece, and then we really focus on class A neighborhoods. So, um, for us it's really important to be on like the top tier school districts. That is the main driver for us. Even if the people staying with us don't have kids in the schools, they still like all the things that come from being in that assigned school district.
So, um, school district is huge for us. And then just integrity of neighborhood. Um, we primarily are in neighborhoods where we're one of the only rentals in the community, which. At times feels a little scary, but it also requires just a high level of professionalism and management. And so our properties always look as if they aren't rentals.
And that's what the neighbors always tell us is they're like, I didn't know they were rental, you know, people in your properties or monthly rentals. It's like, well that's good. I'm glad you couldn't tell. That's our goal. Yeah. That's very much our one single family home that's a rental is. You wouldn't drive by it and, and say it's a rental.
It's the only furnished rental in the area. And because of that, you know, you, you do get a lot of different tenant types and you get people traveling for all sorts of reasons because these are needs. So I think this is really encouraging and important for people to remember that you want to consider.
Who might be traveling to your area, who might need a property like your property, whether it be a small property, large property, somewhere in between. Um, but don't hone yourself in too much. Don't think to yourself, I'm only gonna rent this to a, um, corporate traveler. I'm only gonna rent this to a CEO.
I'm only gonna rent this to a travel nurse. Because when you do that, you know, you are limiting yourself so much. Um, we hear often, I only wanna rent to traveling nurses and. I get that from one perspective because they're fantastic for the community. They're fantastic individuals. I mean, I've had so many wonderful experiences with travel nurses who have stayed at our properties where I end up just on the phone chatting with them, you know, just 'cause they're great people to chat with and they're so personable and, and so reliable, so professional.
But that doesn't mean that other people aren't, so, don't. Pinhole yourself. Make sure that you are keeping yourself open to, you know, locations that might have job growth or new development or new highways, new hotels. Right? Look at your local market and say, uh, you know, where is there high owner occupancy?
That might be an op, an opportunity for a rental, like you're saying. Or where is a good downtown hub or where's a work, a walkable area? Um, our stats page is a good place to get insights, furnish finder.com/stats. We're gonna be expanding it. We don't quite have a timeline right now, but we have so much incredible data.
We're excited to share with everybody and help everybody make their midterm rental business even better. But it's so cool to hear from you, Amy, since you've done this, like you've walked the walk, you've talked the talk, and you've done the midterm rentals. In the way that some people feel a little bit more risky about, right?
Like the larger properties that are more expensive, but it doesn't have to be. So, um, let's dig into that a little bit. Let's talk about the specific design style you have for all of your properties, how you selected it and how it works in your favor too, attract midterm rental tenants. Sure. So it's interesting, uh, because there is a standardization to what we do, and the goal is, and the feedback is.
I saw your properties, drawers are consistently the nicest. They all sort of have that same vibe. That's exactly what I'm looking for. So I will say our style is very much like a coastal kind of timeless feel. It has a casual vibe to it, but there's lots of texture and interest. So for example, uh, we always use pure white paint.
Every property. If we are given the opportunity to repaint a property, it's going into that color. All our personal properties are that color, including behind me. Uh, but also then like texture and different things, right? Like wood tones, right? Millwork, like you see on the shiplap there, right? Wood shelves, things like that, that most rentals, regardless of s st well, SDRs often have that kind of design, right?
But like. In an str r we might have like a fun wallpaper behind me, right? Instead of like white and all of our clients, they absolutely love that timeless elegance, but still feels casual and approachable, and that's been huge for us. So they love the white walls, they love the quartzite countertops that we put in our properties.
They love the counter depth fridges, right? That don't stick out. They love the oversized hardware that we put on all our kitchen cabinetry. Um, you know, they love. Like everyone does. The lack of carpet and properties, if you're redoing them to write, just have LVP or real wood or engineered wood. Um, they love the, you know, gas ranges versus electric.
They love a pop of something interesting. Whether it's a fun colored pop, you know, front door, they love fencing. Oh my gosh, give everybody a fence. If you can invest and do that, even if they don't have pets or kids, they still love the feel of like, this is my abode. I'm not sharing this with somebody else.
They just love that privacy piece. Um, and then even like. Nice things like nice blinds. We put cellular shades that have the top down, bottom up configuration in all of our properties or plantation shutters. So for us, again, it's like that elevated experience. Um, Marty is awesome at millwork, so he adds a ton of millwork into every property.
Who's actually working on that this morning over here, where I'm at right now? Um, but just those little elements that people care about, ceiling fans. Ceiling fans with remotes, no chains, right? Like the little things, interesting light fixtures, like we never have builder grade. We always have something interesting.
It draws people in. They love that. And I think for some people too, not only is it like my house looks like this, or I want my house to look like this. So it kind of gives them that vacation vibe of like, this is what I'd ultimately love my house to look like, and you're giving me the opportunity to live in this environment while I have a need for temporary housing.
And they seem to really enjoy that, and I love bringing it all together. It's so fun to see the f the final project, like. It just brings me a lot of joy. So whether it's our properties or ones that are investor owns, um, we actually just finished a project for an investor. It's the second property that we've done for him where he literally, um, had us design completely from the ground up a.
$1.1 million house for him. It is now a potential furnished rental. It could also be a long-term rental, but we did the same thing with another investor actually. And again, picked everything, made it a furnished rental. And that's our highest price rental property at 10,000 a month. And um, that's been a huge success and we get calls on it all the time.
And we have a tenant in there, um, who will at least be there for two years. As a furnished monthly rental, essentially, that's turned into a two year contract.
Hey landlords. Are you ready to level up your rental game and simplify your midterm rental business? Well get ready to meet your new best friend. Key check. Key Check is your all in one solution for stress-free property management with tenant paid screenings, online rent payment processing, custom lease.
Creation and a suite of incredible landlord tools. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. No more chasing down checks or sifting through piles of applications. Key Check helps you organize and manage all things landlording in a simple and efficient way. Make landlord life a breeze with key. Check the game changer for modern property owners.
Visit Key check.com to unlock the power of stress-free property management, and take your rental business to new heights.
Well, if you're listening and you're thinking, oh my goodness, Amy's properties sound amazing, how do I make my properties stand out like that? Reminder, check the show notes. We put the link, uh, to the guest properties on Furnish Finder in the show notes. I. So you can actually see who it is that you're listening to.
Um, so let's hone in a little bit on, you know, this beautiful design. And if you're not marketing your property well then no one's going to see your beautiful design. So how do you reach that relocation tenant type and keep, uh, you know, your, your marketing kind of broad to reach other tenant types as well through your furnish finder marketing, um, and other forms of marketing.
So we really believe in high quality first impressions, and usually for most people, that means online presence, right? So professional photos. I mean, I think everybody at this point knows to do that. I can't stress enough the importance of that, and not just professional photos, but an actual photographer who.
Can show some of the detail, shots, can kind of share a little bit of the vision of a property versus just like wide lens. Wide lens, right? Like somebody can actually like get into the vibe of the property. So I think photos are a huge thing. I think having floor plans available so many people. Even if you're obviously furnishing the property, they still wanna understand, like you tell me there's a king bed in here and I see it in the picture, but how big is this room really?
Like it's little things like that. Oftentimes it's because, and we've had this happen a lot, somebody says, I love that you have an office space, a dedicated workspace, but both of us work from home, so I'm gonna need to bring another desk in here. And I'm trying to figure out if the bedroom, it looks like it has enough space, but does it really?
Right. So, um. I think floor plans are super, super helpful. I think some level of video, and it doesn't have to be professional video, but like, um, Maddie on our team is amazing. She's our marketing person and she goes into every property and does some level of video marketing that she can then turn around on social media and post.
Uh, we also do email campaigns, so we have a master list of human resource and other talent management type people, hiring managers within many different industries that we've researched exist in our market. We send out that email every time we have new properties available, we usually send it out regardless of what property type we have.
STRM, TR, or LTR. 'cause you never know, it also gets out to all of our sphere, right? So oftentimes you think, well, this person bought or sold with me, but maybe they know somebody at their, you know, employer who needs temporary housing, or maybe they know a family in transition. Somebody just had a fire at their home, whatever it might be that there's somebody in need and we might be able to give them a solution.
So we use email marketing as well. Um, we do post on a couple other platforms. Um, but Furnished finder for us allows us to have a level of detail that I think is really important when somebody's looking for this specific need. And I will say. A lot of our, like we have a corporate high level executive mom who was looking for a place for her son who's going to intern in Davidson, North Carolina.
And she specifically looked unfurnished finder because as a corporate c you know, executive, she would go there first for her own housing or for her own employees. And so she thought for while for my son, let me look at the same place. We actually did have an A DU. Walkable to dip Downtown Davidson. It was incredible.
And she called and she interviewed us, which is totally fine, right? She had her son on the call, but he wasn't really participating and he's living with us for the summer while he interns, right? So you never know, I think on Furnish Finder two, whose eyes are looking at it. And so I do think, again, that professionalism piece.
I think you'd be amazed at how many people might be looking for other people. And if you can be that professional, comprehensive resource, they will reach out, even if it's not the perfect fit, because they're like, oh gosh, you're that much more professional and put together. I wanna have a conversation with you first, and then I'll go and check out some of these other leads.
But first I wanna start with you and see if we can come to a mutual, you know, solution together. I love how you say that in a way that, you know, it just makes it sound so attainable. Um, we do have a lot of individual hosts on Furnish Finder that might just be getting started or don't even. Plan to expand their portfolio.
They just have their one a DU or their room rental or you know, one investment property that you know is, is all that they really desire to have in their real estate portfolio. So h how, what's one tip maybe that you would tell them to go out and just tweak on their listing to make it that much stronger without it feeling too, like too much work?
So I think a couple things. One. We never thought we would have more than a few either, right? So I mean, I think you start somewhere and you start building traction and then I think it gives you the confidence to snowball effect that, right? And get even more involved in the industry. So I think one thing I'd say is like never think small, right?
Like you think you're in one place, but you can go somewhere else and it just takes that first quality, first impression again. And I think if anything, spend $200 if that on professional photography. We all have access to things like chat, GPT now and other ai, like have it assist you maybe in writing the descriptions, massaging some of your words, title choice, things like that.
And that's, that can be free. So for, in my opinion, $200, you can present really professionally, really strong on furnished Finder plus the furnished finder, um, listing fee. So, I mean, for under $400, you're all in. If you're doing this right, I mean, that should pay for itself within the first booking based on first month cash flow really.
So it's a small investment to make, and again, it's only gonna pay dividends in the future because you will get. More attention and good attention by just investing in yourself and having that great first impression. Yeah, and I think like just being thoughtful, right? Like you guys can tell just by listening to Amy, that she's thoughtful when she's doing things.
She's not just making any type of reply. And I would encourage everybody listening to do the same. I think we're in a, we're in a very time sensitive and responsive culture right now. Like. First to reply, first to, you know, get things up first, first, first, first, first. But it's like instead like take a second.
And then when an inquiry comes in, whether that's a booking inquiry or a matched or unmatched lead, whatever it is, a text, a call. Take a second and think like, how do I wanna present myself? How can I present myself as professional? I always tell our users like, send a link back to your listing. Tell them more about it.
Don't just say, yes, it's available. What questions do you have? Like, answer some stuff for them, right? Take a second and just try to be 20% more thorough, more professional, better than other people who are responding. And that doesn't mean you have to have a company or you have to have multiple properties.
You just have to just. Take a second. So I think that, I think that is huge. Um, I think quality over quantity definitely wins that game of, of responding and creating those relationships. I have a great example for that, Katie. It was a message that came in today and I saw in the message and it went out to all the landlords, but I saw in the message that it said, I love, you know, being on the lake water spots and in Texas you really need those in the, in the hot Texas summer.
And it also mentioned an area called Cedar Park. Uh, but, but it. While they were searching in an area called Cedar Park, the, they were actually working in a place in North Austin. So rather than passing over that opportunity, you can look at those opportunities and say, how can I be that, you know, special property or special host to this specific.
Tenant and if so, make that connection. And so my thoughts were, I am so excited to share with them that I have a list of my favorite water spots, uh, in the area that I'd be happy to share with them. And then I go take that address of where they're going to. Be working and I map it from the property that I have in mind for them.
And even if it's not the areas they said that they wanted to be in, if it's in within 15 minutes, uh, of their working location, there's no reason that I can't or shouldn't send it to 'em. So that's how you wanna look at these opportunities is, you know, how can I be the perfect. Property for this person, and if they reach out, then great.
That means they loved what you presented. If not, that's okay. The next opportunity will come along. Well, Katie, let's keep going on our theme of tenant types. Is there anything that stands out to you when it comes to property size, uh, with tenant types in mind? Yeah. In regards to property type, I know you know Amy, you have larger single family homes.
Um, I have a, a mix. I have everything from a 400 5500 square foot apartment to, you know, a 4,000 foot square foot home that we rent as monthly rentals. They do attract. Different tenant types and it's, it's, this is like our theme, right? Our theme is that it's, it's so important that you are open and that you are trying to attract multiple different types of tenants because it's gonna depend on your property type, it's gonna depend on your location, it's gonna depend on your rate.
I wouldn't be surprised if someday, you know, next. Time we, we see you at MTR Summit. You're like, Hey, I hosted three travel nurses who were traveling together and we're like, it finally happened. You finally had the local, local Senate. Yeah. You know, and sometimes it's the opposite. Sometimes it's like, ah, I've had nothing but travel nurses.
And it's like, great. They're all such wonderful tenants. What's important is to really get to know your area, your demand, and your business. So, um, I think that's just hugely important. Furnish Finder is not just. A site for low budget travelers. Um, so let's talk a little bit about your perspective on the future of traveling and corporate travel, Amy, and where you see the market headed.
I mean, I feel like you have such good insights since you're living and breathing, you know, corporate relocation, people who are doing these new construction homes and you're develop, developing these great relationships. Where do you see that part of monthly rentals going in the next few years? So I feel like it's only going to go up from here and for a couple reasons.
I mean, I think, you know, we're in the greater Charlotte market, right? So it's one of the hot areas of the United States for relocation. So, um, job growth, you know, our international airport drives a lot and what we're finding too is that people. There's certain pocket of people that love the Charlotte market, like the uptown area, and there's a great group that also wants to live within accessibility to it, but not right in the thick of it.
And that's kind of where we focus. But I think when you really look at, I think, growth patterns we have, you know. Too little housing for the demand, period, end of story, nationwide, right? So I think that's gonna, uh, continue to drive temporary housing because I think for, again, for us, new construction growth or building has really been a huge chunk of who stays with us, right?
So as more new construction happens, it can never really catch up. It's gonna take a while. There's still going to continuously be people that need. Some level of temporary housing. I also think, you know, we live in a fairly, um, well-to-do demographic area where people do have the disposable income to spend on significant remodeling projects.
And so we don't see that slowing down. We, like many other metros are seeing people move from California, New York City and, and anywhere in between and coming with, uh, cash to spend. And so again. Housing those people while they renovate. And one piece that we didn't talk about today, but we do typically have one or two insurance claim families staying with us at a time.
So that is another group that we do serve. Um, but I think when you live in a temperate climate like the southeast, uh, there's just continuously relocation to the area. So for us, we don't really see things slowing down. On the real estate side, we don't either. Um, I think again, because when you live in an area that is attractive to people 24 7, you're gonna continue to see growth.
Um, again, most of our business is relocation, regardless of if it's on the rental side or the sales side. People are just continuously moving to our area, so. There's not much to really slow us down other than lack of inventory, right? Like, I want to move here, but I can't find a place to stay. And that's usually where we put them into one of our furnished rentals and at least get their feet wet so they can start to pivot quickly if they need to on the buy side.
I think so for us, like we feel very confident in the market, we feel very confident in the market in which we work. Um. You know, people ask us all the time, are you going to expand within the Charlotte market? And for us the answer is no. We've really found a secret sauce that exists in our three towns that we focus and we're okay with that.
Um, and it also helps us be able to serve our guests a lot better by staying in kind of this small space. I call it windshield time. So for us, um, less windshield time, the better. So all of our properties are literally within 10 minutes of each other, and that helps our entire team better serve our guests and for us.
That's certainly a win and that's something that we're willing to, to stand firm on instead of, you know, continuously expanding into the bigger metro market. Um, we have gotten to know you so well over the years. We've spent good time with you at Midterm Rental Summit, uh, and other conferences and gotten to learn and appreciate how well you are doing things and just how much you're focusing on relationships and quality and, and really serving these people who are looking for housing and, and, um, being their partner.
So I think. Everything you're doing is just so fantastic. I can't wait for other people to learn from you, but let's leave today with just, if you were to give other midterm rental operators, whether they're new or experienced or whatnot, one piece of advice, what would you give them? I would say refinement is key.
I think too often we get stuck in this certain way of doing things. We're like, Hey, I'm trying it this way, so let me not give up on this way yet. But I think Pivot has been a word that's been with us. Uh. All the time. Really, honestly, I'm thinking back to what year was that? Not our word, but it's always been our word, right?
Like you start one way and sometimes you have to pivot and do something different. And I think it's okay to pivot. Like don't tuck your tail. Like, just be like, okay, I've learned from something. Maybe I've listened to a podcast, it's made a difference. Maybe I've attended a conference and I've heard a speaker give me a nugget that I can pivot and implement.
And it's incredible what small pivots can do for your business with growing. Um, so I think again, just like not be afraid to. Pivot from what you're originally doing and do little incremental things that will continue to tweak your business, whatever your business is, if it's one property or 10 or a hundred, and it truly will make a difference.
But it's being in your business, it's being intentional about your business, that's so crucial. Versus just throwing something up online and hoping that, you know, somebody gives you a call, right? It's like continuous refinement, pivot when you need to, um, and be involved in your business. If anybody can also appreciate the Ross Keller reference of pivot, you'll forever be my friend.
So, um, this is, this is, this is so great, Amy. I'm so glad we got the time to catch up and to talk about this. It's such an important topic because there are so many travelers out there who need this monthly housing. It's not just traveling medical professionals. So, um, my challenge to everybody out there is go out there and think about who else can you serve?
Who else can your housing serve? How can you make it, serve them and help your business be even more successful than it has been before? So with that, we'll say goodbye. Thank you everybody for listening. Um, Amy, if they wanna get in contact with you, how should someone do that? Two ways I would say would be either on Instagram, which is cottage realestate, or our website, cottage re.com, and it has all the different service lines and our contact information right on there.
All right. Perfect. Thank you. Well, Amy, we really appreciate everything you've shared today. Uh, we just love being able to share your monthly midterm rental stories on Furnish Finders podcast, the Landlord Diaries. If there was something that stood out today. Please put it in the comments. We'd love to hear if there's any other topics that you'd like for us to do a deep dive on.