In the dynamic world of real estate investment, where strategies shift as quickly as the markets themselves, staying ahead requires innovative approaches. Today, we dive deep into a conversation with Ryan Long, a top-producing real estate broker and an adept investor. Ryan has successfully harnessed the power of house hacking and monthly (mid-term) rentals to navigate and thrive in the industry. This blog will explore how Ryan's insights can contribute to an investor’s portfolio and the vital role Furnished Finder plays in this strategy.
Understanding the real estate landscape
Before diving into Ryan’s strategies, it’s essential to recognize the current real estate market dynamics. With high property prices, increased interest rates, yet low inventory, investing in real estate can feel daunting. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just starting, understanding these factors is crucial for anyone looking to optimize their approach.
The power of house hacking
House hacking is a strategy that involves purchasing a property as your primary home and turning it into a source of income, which helps cover significant living expenses. Typically, this can mean buying a duplex, triplex, or even a property with adaptable spaces that can be rented out, like a room, garage or basement. For people like Ryan, this has become a reliable technique to achieve positive cash flow in high-cost areas.
Ryan says house hacking’s real power lies in its ability to offset living costs while also building equity. His approach often involves targeting properties with potential for development or those with adaptable space layouts, which can be modified based on market demand.
Monthly rentals and their rising demand
Ryan emphasizes the increasing significance of monthly rentals, especially in areas that cater not only to students but also to business travelers and relocating families. Unlike traditional short-term rentals, monthly rentals offer the flexibility and stability that many tenants in transitional phases value. This trend is evident in the steady stream of inquiries on platforms like Furnished Finder (opens in new tab), where property owners can connect directly with potential tenants.
Identifying this niche in the market can unlock consistent revenue streams and help fill housing gaps in local communities, proving advantageous for investors looking to diversify their portfolio and capitalize on emerging rental trends.
Ryan notes, as a realtor and real estate investor, understanding and tapping into this demand can unlock more consistent revenue streams and help fill housing gaps in local markets.
Room rentals: a flexible house hacking solution
Room rentals present a versatile house hacking option suitable for various stages of life. Whether you're a young professional starting your real estate journey or an empty nester looking to optimize unused space, room rentals can be an ideal choice. By listing spare rooms on Furnished Finder, homeowners can enjoy a steady income stream while meeting the affordable living demands of renters in their market. This strategy allows individuals to leverage their existing property investment, adapt to changing circumstances, and ultimately bolster their financial stability.
Furnished Finder: the go-to platform for monthly rentals
For real estate investors, connectivity with the right tenant audience is pivotal. Furnished Finder is a platform designed to streamline this process. With over 300,000 private listings and room rentals across the country, it provides a direct connection between landlords and tenants, eliminating the need for a middleman.
Ryan shares that Furnished Finder has been instrumental in finding not just tenants but the right kind of tenants for my properties. In a real estate investment context, using Furnished Finder can enhance your reach and maximize occupancy, keeping your rental business thriving.
Real estate agents: elevate your game
For real estate agents, embracing monthly rentals and platforms like Furnished Finder can enrich service offerings, providing clients with comprehensive solutions, whether they’re buying, selling, or in transition. Furthermore, exploring these avenues can create additional sales opportunities as Ryan has experienced, offering a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Boosting your marketing with AI tools
Ryan has successfully used AI tools to enhance the listing process, generating appealing descriptions and ensuring high-quality presentations. These tools can be a game-changer for real estate marketing, offering modern solutions to age-old challenges in property listings.
Conclusion
Ryan Long’s success with house hacking and monthly rentals underscores a pivotal shift in real estate investment strategies. For those looking to navigate the current challenges of the real estate market, embracing these strategies backed by a reliable platform like Furnished Finder could be the key.
For more insights and strategies, listen to our full podcast episode featuring Ryan Long (opens in new tab), and visit Furnished Finder (opens in new tab) to explore how you can leverage monthly rentals for your investment success.
---
For a deeper dive into house hacking and the benefits of monthly rentals, explore our podcast playlist on room rentals, ADUs and house hacks (opens in new tab).
Episode 155 Transcript
We have really low vacancy in my town, we're underbuilt. And so there's always been really high rental demand as a college market too. And people think about student rentals and they think about, family rentals, but they didn't. A lot of people really don't, and we're not a.
Vacation community. So there's not much of a short-term rental market here, but really there's a humongous need for all the midterms. And so I've been just continually surprised by how many inquiries I get on Furnished Finder. And they keep coming. I gotta turn away way more people than I can help.
Unfortunately, and looking for ways to scale and be able to help more people.
Welcome to The Landlord Diaries, the official podcast of Furnished Finder, your trusted companion for building success and monthly rentals. I'm Kelly Bailey with eight Cash Flowing Monthly Rentals in Texas. And I'm Katie Lyon, marketing director at Furnished Finder and Real estate Investor with 13 furnished rentals across multiple states.
In every episode, we share real stories, practical tips, and expert insights to help you grow with confidence from securing better bookings to maximizing your rental income. So follow up the show and let Furnished Finder be your partner in building a thriving monthly rental business.
Today's guest is someone who wears two powerful hats. He's a top producing real estate broker in Oregon and a successful monthly midterm rental investor using Furnished Finder. Meet Ryan Long, realtor and landlord behind six monthly rentals, many acquired through smart house hacking. In this episode, Ryan reveals.
What he wishes he knew before listing on Furnished Finder and how monthly rentals have become a game changer for his real estate business, his clients, and his bottom line. Ryan, we appreciate you being here with us. How are you today? I'm doing great. Excited to be here. Thanks so much for inviting me for.
Yes, Ryan and I met at a conference, and ever since we met, I've just been so impressed by his story and what he does, and so I think you'll really enjoy this episode. Stay all the way through. So let's jump into the conversation. Ryan, what led you to become a real estate broker and investor? Ooh the real estate broker one's a little easier.
I, my mom's been in the business 40 years and she bugged me for quite a few years to join her. And so finally, eight years ago, I took the plunge and moved back to my hometown. And I haven't regretted it. And working with my mom's been more fun than I even expected. So it's been a, it's been a good good setup.
I'm glad that's worked out well. The family businesses, they can go, one of, they can go one of two ways. Yes. It's been great. And love spending time with my mom. Yeah, the investor side, little bit longer story, but I'll make it real brief. I my grandfather started giving me shares of stock when I was a little kid, like eight or nine like one share for Christmas.
And then I started mowing lawns when I was 12 or 13. Made a little bit of money and my dad encouraged me to invest. And so I, there was a, I was reading SNOWBOARDER Magazine and the first snowboarding company went public. I put some money in that and all of a sudden I tripled my money and got to buy a new snowboard.
And yeah, I I was stuck on investing since then. And so I went to finance, became a financial advisor with Fidelity Investments and. Some other business businesses along the way. But yeah, I joined my mom eight years ago in real estate and have had the chance to work a lot with investors and of course, increase my passion for investment properties and creating housing here in Corvallis, Oregon where I'm from.
That's awesome. So tell us when you decided to embrace monthly midterm rentals, because I know even when you're going into I'm gonna do real estate investing, there's a whole array of things that, that you can do. So when did monthly rentals really stand out in your mind? I love to travel and so this time I had a.
I bought a duplex and I was just buying my second house hack. And about that time was the, 2021 COVID. We were working really hard, all these real estate deals and I decided I need to get away three month trip, my visit my brother in Europe and bought a van and did the van life thing in Europe for three months.
And so I had this new house that I, house hacking and somebody needed it for the exact amount of time I was gonna go be gone the three months. So I was able to put them in there and then some other people, and it was actually one of our team's clients, they were sold their house and needed a place for, before their new construction home was built.
And then I, listed the place my. Apartment unit that I was living in my duplex and found a great person. She's a couple that were also, yeah, they were selling their house and moving across the country, set up so very real estate related and could have had the sale there probably.
But my mind was so focused on driving through the former Yugoslavia and where to go that I didn't catch that one, but yeah. I love that. I could send us on a tangent and talk about Van Life, but that's not what we're about. So maybe we'll tie that in the end with the rapid fire questions.
But when it comes to your portfolio and house hacking, being one of your main strategies that you've already shared about what does your current personal portfolio look like, and I love that you're a, like a real estate agent, broker and an investor, I think that's so powerful. There's some great synergies that I'd love to, chat about and hope we'll get there.
We will. My my first house is actually the one I'm in back in now. It's bought it as a triplex and I've got three units here. I'm living in one and actually we can talk about it more, but my handyman lives in a micro studio is one of the three units, and that's been a really great setup for me.
And then, i've got a campus rental, was my second house hack, and my third house hack is a home, a large two bedroom. That of course, I. Split up and now it's a one bedroom and a two bedroom rental, or it can be combined into a larger home. So I've used it, I love the convertible idea and I've been able to rent it both ways.
And then yeah, started helping my parents with with a couple as well. And so a couple larger houses. So I've, it's nice. I've had studios all the way through now four bedroom homes, and so I've gotten to see. Every single bedroom count in my area and what the demand looks like. So that's been a really nice thing too.
Understanding, understanding the demand. Really interesting that you have units that you can flex up and down too, right? By combining them in different ways. I think that's really smart. If you have the asset type that can do that, just to give you that, that flexibility and say, okay, there's demand for this right now, but then maybe it shifts or you get a different type of inquiry or.
Just how it works out. So that I think is a really smart pro tip. If you have a larger property and you're interested in breaking up into room rentals, it's not just each individual room, right? I know Kelly does that. You can say I'm gonna rent these two rooms together, but then if I get interest for just one person, you could do another one.
There's flexibility there. And that's part of monthly rentals is that you get to make those decisions and you're running that business. So love that. I wanna know what surprised you most about entering the monthly rentals field? Because you have the real estate background, you've got the brokerage background and just working in real estate in a lot of different aspects.
But what specifically surprised you about entering monthly rentals? Honestly, the demand. We had, we have really low vacancy in my town, we're underbuilt. And so there's always been really high rental demand as a college market too. And people think about student rentals and they think about, family rentals, but they didn't, A lot of people really don't, and we're not a.
Vacation community. So there's not much of a short-term rental market here, but really there's a humongous need for all the midterms. And so I've been just continually surprised by how many inquiries I get on Furnished Finder. And they keep coming. I gotta turn away way more people than I can help unfortunately in looking for ways to scale and be able to help more people find housing.
But yeah just honestly surprised and wish I would've. Either started earlier or been able to scale faster to help more people. Yeah, that's a great problem to have. And our, if you look at our arbitrage playlist, that's actually a lot of times on the insurance playlist, they have perfected what to do when you have too many leads and don't know what to do with them.
You can flip around and partner with other Furnished Finder landlords. So go check out that those playlists, if that's something that interests you. But, how to really use monthly rentals in your investment strategy. How do you help your clients on the real estate side in the, the closing process or in the transition process?
You already mentioned that your first monthly rental was a transition for one of your clients, so what all do you see for reasons why monthly rentals come in handy for real estate clients? Oh man, it's come in handy so many times. And I've only been doing this a couple years and have these, five units, but it's it's.
Half more than half a dozen times I've had clients stay, so situations like what I just talked about home, new construction being delayed and then wanting to go in there, I've had a couple other closings delayed as well, and I was able to find housing. One was just for three days when, checked in clear whatever they had to redo there.
Employment verification something silly that just took a couple days, but they couldn't move into their new house. And they were of course, beside themselves because they'd promised to move out of their apartment. Septic system needed to be installed, and that put us back almost a month.
So I was able to provide housing. For those people. But really, I was at an open house a couple years ago and I was like, yeah, I've got, I've got some hou, I've got a few places that your family could move in. And because so many people are moving from out of town here to our community, like we wanna land somewhere, we don't wanna rent really and be in a rental for a year.
We'd love to, but we wanna. Find something and it's so hard, low inventory, it's hard to find something, number one. And they wanna know, get to know the area a little bit. So it's great for them to be able to have, and they came back to me a couple months after the open house and say, Hey, do you still have that available?
So that's great. And also some of those leads coming in wanting to rent a place are people in transition into town through Furnished Finder. So I've gotten real estate sales. One through there as well. Yeah, so Furnished Finder helped me get one and, that was a great compensation.
Of course. The other thing now with a listing, and I think I was telling you about this a little bit, but had this luxury home listed earlier this summer, and the ladies I'll nicely call them CAT Ladies. So they've got luxury home, they've got three cats. They had literally. 20 cat trees in their house.
Wow. Was, that's a lot. I was like, we cannot put this on the market and have photos and have people walk around. They're gonna freak out thinking it's gonna smell like cats. Thank God we got, so I said, Hey, my house is gonna be available at the right time when they wanted to list it. So it was things lined up perfectly.
They were able to stay in my house for about four weeks while we were doing all the showings. Luckily, their house did not smell and it sold quickly. And so I, I really do think that helped helped them out and was a nice way to they were sensitive. They'd already passed them, one agent who told them that.
So when I came through and had a solution it helped me get the listing too.
Looking for a simple, professional way to manage your monthly rental furnish binders, landlord tools brings everything together, tenant screening, lease templates, and online rent payments all in one place. Stay organized, save time, and stay in control. For more information, explore landlord tools today.
Now, Ryan, let me ask you this as someone. Who is working the buy sell side of real estate? Something that I think about a lot now is today right in late 2025 when we're recording this. I feel like real estate sales are moving slower. People are being much more intentional about what they buy when and if they sell.
Prices are still high and interest rates are at least when you compare where they were a few years ago, higher. I know people say I bought my house in the eighties. Cool. But compared to three years ago, interest rates are higher. So I am seeing a lot of people that I'm not an agent, that are saying, I'm gonna finish my basement, or I am going to renovate my kitchen. Or Yeah, we're relocating, but we are gonna be really. Intentful with what neighborhood we land in and watching the budget. How has that opened the door for you with your midterm rentals, not only from an investor's perspective, because you are wearing both of those hats, but also from a value that you're giving your clients, because I feel like you are also solving that part of the equation for them that feels like it's gotten a lot harder in the past year or two.
Is that something that you are seeing? Yeah I'm trying to imagine, the business has definitely changed a lot in the last three years as far as the number of sales. But people are always in transition and they've gotta move here and there. And really almost everywhere in the country that minus a few markets is, are still having low inventory issues.
And that, that creates that friction of selling and buying. And so when you've got a solution or a backup solution, really that's what my houses have become is a backup solution. Is that, when somebody's gosh, I need to sell and I, then I can buy or, I haven't found the right home, but I'm already selling and I'm moving to town to get a job.
And so really it, the low inventory has continued. And honestly, I think that's some of the friction that's created a lot of opportunity for me. Yeah, it's an interesting market right now, right? 'cause prices are still pretty high. Interest rates are still pretty high, but inventory is still pretty low.
It's this odd conundrum, but I really like how you're positioning it as solving that problem, right? Because no matter what state of the market or what state of the economy we are. Always gonna have these problems where it's, whether it's a travel nurse can't find a place to stay, or a family needs a place to stay while they wait for their dream house to come on the market.
So I love how you have positioned that, right? Yeah. And I was a little worried as, COVID tailed off here. 'cause I was just on the end of that thinking that, there weren't gonna be as many travel nurses. But again, the demand in my area is only. Gone up here. Yeah travel nurses have been consistent in my area and all these other, we've got a couple corporate rental contracts.
Those are wonderful too. They're only there, half the week or less, and they're coming and going and really light on the property. Lots of reasons to, to benefits and this is a great time to add a few Furnished Finder call outs. Just as for those of you that don't know, our largest tenant type is actually business travelers around 35%.
Travel nurses are around a third of our traveler type. So there's so many reasons why. Tenants are traveling monthly. Relocations is one of our largest growing tenant types, and as we've heard from Ryan there's a lot of use cases for the gap housing and relocations for monthly rentals. Let's go tie it back to your personal story and.
When you're looking at, midterm rentals as a leading cash flow strategy in, a market that can sometimes feel very high cost how do you personally decide your rental buy box and just what to invest in? Great question. So again, house hacking is part of, has been a part of my strategy so far.
But I've always house hacked homes that are either on large lots that I'll be able to develop. So I've got plans to develop a couple of these properties or build out basements or other development to, in, to really not just, flip or do a little bit of a burr kind of thing. It's actually a, it's a much larger increase in value that I'm trying to.
Trying to create. So I'm always looking for those opportunities and those units hopefully will all turn into MTRs as I complete those pro, those three projects I've got lined up. So let's actually dive into a little deeper. House hacking is your main strategy, but. Then someone asks, okay, how do I choose what property makes a good house hack?
And especially a house hack that can be used for monthly rentals. And before we get too far in case we have anyone new to Landlording or investing why don't you go ahead and let 'em know what house hacking is as well. House hacking's really, I think in a simplest form, buying a house or property as income generation.
And so the most common form is a duplex, triplex, fourplex. Those are the very easy and great because you've got several income sources from the other units, but house hacking to me can be also. Having a great shop or parking that you can rent out part of the year. Other ways to make money on the property to hopefully cover most of the rent.
So house hacking is really just hacking the cost of your own living or renting by the room, by renting by the room, by renting out other units on the property hacking, hacking the cost of living. And so how do you decide what is like a no brainer? You're like, oh yes, I am choosing this property and I'm going after it.
How do you decide that? I'm comfortable living. In the same general space with other people, but I don't want roommates at my age. And duplex, triplex, fourplex or space like this, the home in Albany where I could split it up and have, studio and two bedroom or are a lot more appealing to me, something with value add and some separation where I can do that.
One of my house acts actually has turned into a campus rental and it's great. The one where I had the family move in while I was on my three month van life tour. And it's a five bedroom. And so honestly around, around a campus, a five bedroom house, and I could probably do a lot better with a five bedroom like that, doing rent by the room or traveling rent by the room or, MTR rent by the room.
But that one's just such a great campus rental that it's that I've kept that strategy on that one. Yeah, it's, there's a million different ways to house hack, and I think just by opening your eyes to that, you can get so creative, right? You can have an A DU, an additional dwelling unit in the back. You can finish your garage if you're in a climate that allows for that, you can rent out your basement.
We see it all the time and. It's one of those things where once you put on your hat for creativity, you can start to see things you might have not seen before. Let's say, you, your kids just graduated and they moved out and all of a sudden, maybe you got hit with some more expenses.
You have to pay for some medical care for a parent or something, and you need some additional income. You've got a finished basement that's empty, or you've got a garage that you can close off, or you've got space for an a DU. There's a lot of different. Opportunities. Tell us how you have been able to use house hacking and midterm rental strategy to make a sense of some deals that wouldn't otherwise make sense.
Because we do hear a lot of the numbers don't work for this property. And really my most recent purchase, there was no other way to justify purchasing that house without being able to to have the increase in income with a midterm rental. I think on that and my.
My overall goals being in a high cost of living area, I wanna acquire properties. I don't want there to be negative cash flow, even though I have the other benefits of appreciation, taxes and debt buy down with, payments. But you really don't wanna be cash flow negative. And so this is the way that I've been able to be at least cashflow neutral, if not positive on my homes, is to be able to get that, that higher margin with the midterms.
Tell us a little bit more about that deal, specifically if you're comfortable with it. How did, tell us how you got those numbers to work? Yeah, so my last my most recent my most recent midterm was house in Albany, Oregon. And it was actually, we don't have that many foreclosures, but picked up a VA foreclosure point, four acres, two bedroom, one bath, but it.
I was actually, I was in Austin at the time anyway and I bought it from afar because I was like, wow, this is a 1500 square foot house and it's two bedroom, one bath, 1950s, great bones. And so I bought it for 380,000. I was able to use my own commissions as part of my 5% down. So I brought very little money to the table.
It was as interest rates started going up, and so my monthly. My monthly numbers, there's about 2,600 for PITI. And I was able to live in one side did some renovations on that one, about 60 K in renovations. Lived in one side, was able to rent out the two bedroom while I lived in the, what I converted into the studio.
One bedroom, nice studio space. And so then yeah, so one side I rent for about 2,600 a month, the two bedroom. And that studio has been by far. Most in demand. And so I'd love to have more studios, but that one I rent for usually around 16, 16 50 or so a month. And again, super consistent, almost zero vacancy, maybe two or 3% vacancy.
So people are clamoring over each other to, to get into this studio space. So you're getting income, you're getting your principal paid down, you're getting your interest is like you're paying off. Your expenses, people are building equity for you. You still get to live there, right? And experience it like, and you're not, you don't have roommates.
That's the best part. Yeah. I don't, I yeah I think one of the biggest challenges I was telling Kelly is not having a design background myself or that eye for it. And I love some of the new AI tools that are helpful, but it, it was nice to be able to live in these spaces too and furnish them over time.
With high quality used furniture, sometimes free. I, you find stuff on Facebook marketplace or for friends or from clients moving across the country and getting to inherit cheaply some furniture. So that's the other benefit of house hacking is you can slowly build up and not have a huge expense for trying to, get it on the market right away and get everything furnished.
You can build that up over time. A lot and furnish a lot cheaper. It's nice to have some ex-girlfriends with that design. I do a couple of them help me with some fun designs in my homes, but that was the other way that I made it work. Ex-girlfriends that you still get along with, right?
Yeah, I yeah. I get along with most of them. That's good. That's awesome. And if you're loving this conversation, we have an episode that went live a couple weeks back that was about house hacking as a family. So you don't have to be on your own house hacking. You can totally embrace house hacking as a family.
Just as Ryan mentioned a duplex. That's how Dave and I got started in real estate investing is we. Bought a duplex. We didn't know about monthly rentals at that time. It was maybe 20, oh, it was 2015. Furnish funder had just launched in 2014. And we became landlords renting out the other half and, have been going ever since.
Our portfolio is completely monthly rentals at this point with eight monthly rental doors around the Austin, Texas area. But have you Ryan ever helped a client. Transition from long-term rentals or short-term rentals to monthly midterm rentals, like maybe it was underperforming or maybe they were stressed out from all the flips of short-term rentals.
Have you ever helped a client through that? I think I've gotten a lot of clients, especially first time buyers, over the threshold, first time investor clients over the threshold of making the numbers work. So it's been able to do that. I'm a huge advocate for the midterm rentals 'cause I know the demand in our area.
And so cer certainly that way. There's I've been trying to convert, I there's several clients that. Wanna spend their summers here or be here off and on to visit family. And so I've been able to convert one of the, encourage them to use eight months of the year rent it out to, college students or other people looking for furnished for as unfurnished finder.
And they've done well with that. But yeah, I need to get some of those other people that have vacant homes half the year to, to sign on to Furnished Finder. Let me help 'em find some tenants for sure. All right. Let's talk about some things that you wish you knew before you got started, because hindsight is our best friend sometimes, but especially when trying to help someone else out.
So tell us, what was your learning curve like when you're starting with monthly rentals on Furnished Finder? Yeah. The real estate background definitely helped because I was already looking at listings and homes for sale, and a lot of the same principles really match that. You wanna have high quality photos, light and bright.
And that sort of thing. So my first couple listings, again, it was where I was living and I was moving out of town and and so my first listing probably could have gotten a lot more income by having higher quality photos and a little bit better bedspreads and that kind of stuff.
Going to Costco and buying stuff. That would be my second thing is probably, getting consistency with. Sheets and other supplies is nice too. It makes those turnover so much easier if you've got, because my turnovers don't happen at the same time, and so if I've got, three extra queen bed sets and I can have those laundered and ready to go, it makes those transitions from my cleaners so much faster and easier.
So honestly, some of that would be another lesson learned and something I've implemented over the last year is to make those turnovers easier. Having everything. All the linens pre ready to go? Yeah. Honestly, the biggest lesson learned two, two more lessons. One of the biggest is just.
How much opportunity there is for real estate agents in this space and wish I had, done more, done it sooner or we've got local Facebook groups for the agents where they're sharing their listings and I'm able to share my midterm rentals on there too, and people now call me as the furnished rental guy and, asking, those agents are asking me. So again, most of my, almost all of my leads still come from Furnished Finder, but but it's fun to be known for that as well and have people coming to me. I guess last thing I do wish I had, had plugged more into some of the extra Furnished Finder tools that you guys have.
I'd already started on some other systems and so now I've got, a couple different systems going, but, and I think it was before maybe some of the, when I started some of the. Screening tool that you guys have has been great. I've used it once or twice and and also, some of the contract stuff, I'd already gotten some of that stuff, but I think you guys have the Furnished Finder now has a really seamless process for keeping that all in house.
And as I am contemplating how I'm going to improve my processes over the course of next year, I'm looking at consolidating all that under the Furnished Finder tools there to make it that much easier for myself. Oh, it's never too late. Ryan, it's never too late. And I will say, something for everybody to know is we've had key check for years.
A lot of people know about Key Check, but one thing that we've been working really hard on behind the scenes is moving all of those tools, so they're also living within Furnished Finder because that seamless experience, like you said. We know how valuable it is. So you can now do tenant screening right through Furnished Finder leases and docs are gonna be available if they're not already for some users.
So keep your eye open as we move. A lot of that, like we know how ease of use. And having a one stop shop per se is really valuable for everybody. But I think this would also make a really good, quick round table. Kelly, I would love to hear something you wish you knew, because as Ryan was going through that, I thought of a couple really simple, silly things, but that would've made a big difference for me.
You co you cover yours first, and I'll think about mine. All right. A couple things for me and some of these have actually come up more recently is I wish I would've bought a hundred percent cotton sheets for everybody. Sometimes I got like the microfiber or just, the cheaper ones on Amazon.
Those things are so hard to get hair off. If a hair touches them it's like a permanent static cling. So that's something that just a hundred percent cotton going through. I wish I would have from the very beginning, gotten the like iron on labels for sheets that say King, queen full. Even if you have a property that only has one bed size, having those labeled would be huge, especially if you're doing some of the laundry offsite man, I want that.
So I'm doing hotel collection at Costco for my sheets now, and they are great because they have they say, what if it's a, if it's a side or a back or front, and then it's got a great label on it as well to tell you if it's a king or clean. I'm sold clean, so I'm sold because that is the biggest pain.
Okay. Sold. And then my other thing was we never did a walkthrough video. We took the photos and I wish right when we took the photos, we would've done just a quick nothing fancy walkthrough video on our phone that we could send to tenants. When they're inquiring about the space, because now I'm trying to backpedal and get those, it doesn't have to be professional.
Just a quick holding up your iPhone, walking through, here's what it looks through. It gives credibility, it gives all that stuff. I wish I would've done that because now that's. Biting me in the tush. It's not too late. Next turnover. It's not too late. It's just much more difficult. It's just much. Yeah.
Because when you get the property all ready to go for pictures, you're there. You're, everything is exactly how you want it Now. It's like, all no, we still do it. It's just. Much harder or your cleaner could do it for you. Yeah, true. That's the true, yes. Lots of options. Yes. I think there's so many different things we could cover for what we wish we knew before we started on Furnished Finder or in a monthly midterm rentals.
So I'll just grab one and that is the occupancy and booking window, right? A lot of people think it's more like short-term rental, where it's seasonal, you may have gaps, but we've heard on our show time and time again, and I think all three of us can say, 90 to 95% occupancy is normal for a monthly midterm rental.
But the booking window is. Is shorter, right? So it's typically when I put my property available and have the availability date on Furnished Finder, just by blocking out the dates of when my guest is moving out, I'm, I likely won't get my next guest until the week or two weeks. Prior to the availability date, and sometimes a week after or a couple weeks after the availability date.
So that's probably the thing that I want to encourage you all with is don't freak out if you add your listing and it's not available for two months and you're not getting any contacts like. That's normal to have that booking window right around the time that your availability date is coming up.
And that's for those that only do 30 day rentals, right? Like we don't fill our gaps with short term. So if you're filling your gaps with short term, it might look a little different, on furnish under the average book to stay window is around 30 to 40 days. Do you see the same in your market?
Ryan? I, and I've told a few friends that have started doing this too, that it's not for the faint of heart, because you get that last week, it seems like almost every single time I get somebody that wants to get in there at the last minute or a week after it becomes vacant kind of thing.
It's, yeah, sometimes it's oh, I don't have anybody. But then it comes through and it's vacant and it's taught me. Not to take those tenants on that say, Hey, I wanna rent something next summer or three months out, and you're worried about a gap. It's just not worth it. And I've now started coaching those people.
Hey, all my tenants are month to month. I can't, I don't know if they're, I'll know in 30, 30 days before they move out. I would love to keep in contact with you and let you know if it's available at that point. So I started doing that more and trying to do a better job of tracking some of those people to get them in if I do have the timing right for their vacancies.
With Furnished Finder, we're always optimizing the best connection between landlords and tenants, right? We want it to be a smooth process so that you can have that conversation, make sure it's a good fit go through the tenant screening and booking process so you know everything you need. As Ryan emphasized is on Furnished Finder.
So jump in start using the tools whether you're a new landlord or you're already a Furnished Finder landlord and you just wanna see what's out there for other options. But as far as you teased earlier Ryan about AI tools and we've had a conversation that you're actually a huge AI fan as well, Furnished Finder.
We are always looking for ways to incorporate AI and into for the Furnished Finder. Business. So how have you found tools for your marketing that just make your listing better? You mentioned a, like a photo tool, I think, or potentially a furnishing tool. What All AI tools have been beneficial, so I haven't used a ton yet with my MTRs except for, as a real estate broker.
Most real estate brokers should be if they're not using using AI to help them with their listing descriptions. And so I certainly have helped have that help prefill make sure, ask as I do my prompt ask it for, the keywords that people are looking for in my market. And that's, it's been really wonderful having having, being able to upgrade and improve my listing descriptions for sure.
So that's the biggest one, and that's by far the easiest. And if you haven't put your link, your Furnished Finder link into chat, GPT or Gemini or GR and said, Hey, how can I improve my listing? You're crazy. Take two seconds and do that. See what it says. It'd be I think it'd be a really good experience for everybody to try that at the, at a minimum.
Other than that, yeah, there's some great tools that some AI tools, I know that, that help not only digitally. They have a bunch of different styles and so you can go through the house, take a picture and say, I want this to be, boho style or, mid-century modern style. And it will give you some ideas that way you can help furnish it to with those kind of things.
And I think there's some now coming out where, you can. You can use that and then have links to buy some of those products that are available as well. So I'm looking forward to that design process being easier for me as I try and keep things cost effective and running outta ex-girlfriends.
All right, Ryan, I think we are ready for rapid fire, which is our new way of wrapping up the podcast. And I love it because it's quick hitters, which match the length of my attention span. I wanna know one highlight of Van Life because you did something that a lot of us dream about but don't have the guts to do.
Van Life was. It was great going to a low-cost country because I had a small van that didn't have a shower. And so going to a low-cost country, you can decide if you want to spend almost every night in a hotel where you have a nice hot shower as well. But I really loved Albania. It's. The wild West still is one of the most recent Democratic countries.
And so that's not on your radar and you wanna go a little lesser, lesser known country. Albania was really cool. I got pulled over there and talked my way out of a ticket 'cause I didn't have any cash on me that they wanted. So anyway lots of adventures. Yeah. And we've talked a lot about house hacking at beginning.
I'd love to tie that back in. What's a remodeling tip? That like one that you can't live without for your house hacking? Ooh. It's all about networking. I hear all the people that say, go to the, go to Home Depot at six o'clock and see who's there. But one person introduced you to another and I've got this awesome handyman that I've given a little bit of living space, and he, anytime I call him, he's got a full-time job.
But anytime I call him, he's yeah I'll get over there right away. It's so awesome that to have that connection and that that availability of yeah. Of a handyman to help me out. Yep. The most undervalued profession ever handyman. It really is. Find one that you can trust. Yeah.
Yes. Last one, and it's a fun one. If you had to live in any of your furnished finder rentals for one year as a tenant, which one would you pick and why? The one I'm living in. So you've made the right choice. It's like you've lived in all of did. I've, yeah. I've come around and waiting for the next one.
But where I'm living now, as I renovated a more upscale for me. And, of course, counters and, nicer, nicer, nicer. Set up and then I have hidden doors so I can shove everything in there and, I'm gonna go away for a month in December and, I'll shove everything behind the hidden door and hidden bookshelf door and rent it out while I'm gone and, get most of my airfare back.
Back from the I'm just written it out, so it's great. Nice. Awesome. And if you haven't checked out Ryan's listings, make sure and check the show notes. They are beautiful. So you're gonna really enjoy just seeing the kind of effort and professionalism he's put into his monthly rentals. Ryan, if someone wants to connect with you outside of your furnish funder listing, how would you like them to do i'm on Instagram, Ryan. Long realtor is probably the best way to get ahold of me, or best way to find me online or just searching my name in Corvallis. I think the other thing is if you're local to Oregon, I've got a great monthly real estate meetup on the second Wednesday of the month here in town.
So look up W-V-R-E-I, which is Willamette Valley Real Estate Investors and come to our free meetup. Nice. This has been such a fun episode with you, Ryan. We appreciate you being here. If you wanna share your story or you've been encouraged by Ryan's story, make sure and put it in the comments. Don't forget to like and subscribe.
We, we're on a round episode one 50, between one 50 and 200, and we just. All of our content, you can honestly go back and watch. So check out those playlists on YouTube. But we just wanna keep bringing you everything, monthly rentals so you can succeed as investors, new landlords, established landlords, et cetera.
So thanks for joining us and hopefully we'll catch you again next time. What a pleasure. Thank you so much, Katie and Kelly. Bye bye now.
Thanks for joining us on this episode. If you're enjoying The Landlord Diaries, be sure to like, subscribe and share it with others. With over 300,000 listings across the country, Furnished Finder makes it. Easy for landlords and tenants to connect directly. No middleman, no markups. Ready to list your property.