The rise of monthly rentals has created a lucrative opportunity for real estate investors, particularly those looking to serve traveling medical professionals. With platforms like Furnished Finder (opens in new tab) streamlining the process, investors can achieve strong returns without the complexities of traditional rental models. In this post, we explore strategies to optimize your monthly rental business and tap into the growing demand for housing among traveling nurses and other professionals.
What are monthly rentals and why are they so lucrative?
Monthly rentals bridge the gap between short-term vacation rentals and long-term leases, typically ranging from one to six months. This rental model is particularly attractive to traveling professionals—especially nurses, doctors, and other medical staff—who need temporary housing while on assignment.
Why is this market so profitable? (opens in new tab) Monthly rentals offer several advantages over traditional long-term rentals. Investors can secure higher monthly rents than typical leases, while also benefiting from longer-term stays that provide stability compared to short-term vacation rentals.
Furnished Finder: a leading platform for monthly rentals
Founded in 2014, Furnished Finder has quickly become the top online marketplace for monthly rentals, catering primarily to traveling medical professionals. The platform grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, expanding from fewer than 50,000 listings in 2020 to more than 300,000 paid listings today.
As a trusted platform for property owners and renters alike, Furnished Finder offers an excellent opportunity to connect with high-demand tenants—especially traveling nurses—who often return for repeat stays.
Insights from TravCon 2024: what traveling medical professionals want
The latest TravCon 2024 event (opens in new tab) provided valuable insights into the preferences of traveling medical professionals. According to survey data from the conference:
71% of respondents used Furnished Finder for finding housing during their assignments.
81% reported booking multiple stays, highlighting the potential for repeat business if you offer high-quality, reliable rental options.
This feedback underscores the importance of ensuring your property is listed on platforms like Furnished Finder and meeting the specific needs of traveling professionals.
Best practices for landlords: maximizing your monthly rental income
To succeed in the monthly rental market, especially when targeting traveling medical professionals, landlords should follow these best practices:
1. Comprehensive Listing Management
List all available properties: By showcasing all of your rental options, you increase your chances of attracting more tenants.
Highlight key features: Focus on unique amenities, such as proximity to hospitals, parking availability, or furnished spaces that cater to the specific needs of traveling professionals.
2. Professionalism and Transparency
Always be transparent in your listings and communication with tenants.
Avoid last-minute cancellations or redirects to other properties, as this can harm your credibility and reduce repeat business.
3. Create a worry-free rental experience
Develop a clear and fair cancellation policy, especially if you allow tenants to exit early once the unit is re-rented.
4. Utilize Key Tools for Efficiency
Tools like KeyCheck (opens in new tab) by Furnished Finder can be used to leverage tenant screening, online leases, and automated payment systems to streamline the rental process and reduce administrative hassle.
Expanding your monthly rental portfolio: tips for long-term success
Consider Room Rentals: If you're looking to increase your returns, consider renting out individual rooms instead of entire units. This can cater to tenants on a tighter budget or those with specific space requirements.
Research Market Demand: Before expanding into new areas or adding new units, use Furnished Finder's market stats (opens in new tab) to evaluate supply and demand in your target area. This data-driven approach will help you make informed decisions and optimize your investment.
The growing opportunity in monthly rentals
The demand for monthly rental properties from traveling medical professionals is growing steadily, making it an ideal market for real estate investors. By utilizing platforms like Furnished Finder, implementing best practices, and understanding the unique needs of traveling professionals, you can maximize your rental income while offering valuable housing solutions.
Now is the perfect time to enter the monthly rental market, or to expand your existing portfolio. With careful planning and strategic execution, the potential for consistent cash flow and high occupancy rates is significant.
Stay updated on the latest trends in monthly rentals
For more tips on how to succeed in the monthly rental market, make sure to check out our blog regularly and subscribe to The Landlord Diaries podcas (opens in new tab)t for the latest updates and expert advice.
Whether you're new to monthly rentals or looking to scale your investment, there’s never been a better time to tap into the booming market for travel nurses and other professionals.
Episode 121 Transcript
Welcome to the Landlord Diaries, where we talk about midterm rentals and the opportunities behind them. We'll share landlord stories, talk about maximizing investment potential, and discuss how to live the very best landlord life. This podcast is proudly brought to you by Furnished Finder. The leader and largest online marketplace for midterm rentals.
Remember to like, and subscribe if you enjoy our content. Hello. Hello, everybody. Kelly and I are here solo today without a guest because we just have so much great information to share with you. We just got back from TravCon, which is the leading convention and gathering of traveling medical professionals.
So traveling nurses, traveling. medical techs, traveling doctors, all, all sorts of travelers within that category. In Las Vegas, it's a conference that we've gone to a year over year because we love that tenant type and we love giving back to that community. But one of the best things that we get from that experience is feedback from them.
And we want to take that. And for the first time ever, really share it with you as our landlords so that you can be the best landlords possible for these tenants who are looking for great homes. That you have to offer on Furnished Finder.
That was really well said, Katie. I love the way that you put that. And I think one of the places we should start is reminding everyone how Furnished Finder was founded, where we got our start, our origin story. So we got our start in 2014 with a focus on providing safe, affordable housing options for traveling nurses and medical professionals.
Uh, the site grew exponentially exponentially during COVID. Um, and going, we've gone from. Less than 50, 000 homes in 2020 to over 300, 000 paid listings today, uh, where the go to source for millions of travelers all over the country, sinking monthly furnished rentals, serving traveling professionals of all kinds.
So I love that. We have, our heart was, Hey, these travel nurses, we want to find a solution. They're working so hard. They're serving our communities. Well, let's make sure that they have safe, affordable housing. And that's the. backbone of Furnished Finder. So while we have a lot of variety of industries that now, uh, call us the home of midterm rentals, our heart and our soul started with the travel nurse industry.
Yeah, that's it's right. And that's why like we continually give back to this community and we hear all the time from you guys, the landlords that you love. Providing great housing for traveling medical professionals. I know personally, a lot of my midterm rentals are just primed for travel nurses. Um, there, a lot of them are studios or one bed, two beds, and they're near the hospital campus.
So for me personally, I also love just getting to spend time, um, with these travelers and learning how I can create a better tenant landlord relationship with them. So just to give you guys kind of a highlight about who is at this conference. Um, we did. Um, get some survey results that we used this year to get to know this audience on like a deeper level than we've gotten to know in the past.
And 71 percent of them say that they have used Furnished Rinder for travel assignments. So truly we are the go to place when they find out where their next assignment is. One of the first things they do is jump on Furnished Rinder to see. Is there housing available? How much is it going to cost? How far am I going to be from the hospital or the facility?
Um, 79%. So they say they're always, or almost always successful for finding housing. So that can be seen as twofold. That can be seen as confidence that, that these travelers are coming to furnished finder and they are finding housing with landlords, just like you. It also shows that there's still a really strong opportunity.
So. If you're on Furnished Finder and you maybe list one of your properties or two of your properties, but maybe you have others and you think, Oh, I'm just going to fill these other properties by keeping my one listed. And then if I get a lead in, I'll just direct them or tell them about my other place. And That's not how it works.
Okay. And this is just one of the, one of the biggest things I heard is that travelers, they really like to browse on the website and they reach in out when they find out a property that they love, that looks like it's going to fit all of their needs. So if you have more than one property, you need to put them all on the site, like hands down.
Um, and this is the same thing. I always think about like the cereal aisle comparison for me. It's like, you don't see. Kellogg's just putting one type of cereal on the shelf. They put all of their types of cereal on the shelf. They want to take up as much of that view as possible. So me personally, in my market, I love it when someone searches in my market and they're scrolling and they see Katie's property.
And then I see another one at Katie's properties and another one at Katie's properties. It makes it statistically a lot more likely that they're going to be drawn to one of mine and not just drawn to a Specific one. And then I try to redirect them, right? Be a legit landlord, be, you know, follow these best practices that we're going to share with you with that being one of them.
And one of the things that these travelers are looking for is authenticity and professionalism. And that includes. Not saying, Oh yeah, you know, I know you see that property. Um, it's not available. Let me send you photos of another one. You need to be legit and you need to say, here's the link to my other listing that is available.
Right. So that's just something to really keep in mind with that statistic that that, um, gives us the insight into. One of the, one of the stats that I love from this survey that we did at TravCon is how many people are rebooking through Furnished Finder over and over again. 81 percent have booked more than one stay through Furnished Finder and 36 percent have booked over four stays through Furnished Finder.
So if we as a landlord team keep serving our travel nurses and our med pros well, they're going to keep using Furnished Finder. time and time again. So we're going to come to landlord best practices for you guys towards the end of this episode so we can all continue to serve our travel nurse and med pro community.
Well, yeah, you guys, this audience, they know Furnished Finder and they trust us. And as they should, right, we've been serving them so well for 10 years. So when you're a legit Furnished Finder host, They trust you as well, right? And it's up to you to maintain that trust and keep that trust and act professionally.
But like the baseline is there, like we've done that work. We've established the relationship with this community and we are the go to. So you can also be the go to. And it's just, they're coming back and back and back because It, the platform works so well for them. They like the fact that we don't have booking fees.
They liked the fact that we have so much inventory, right? You go to a site like Airbnb and yes, they have so many properties, but once you knock it down and you say, well, I need 30 days plus, or I need three months in a row, or I'm expecting to extend my contract, I need six months in a row. That number gets really small, really quickly.
And on our site, it doesn't. So they know that and that's incredibly valuable. Um, so just keep that in mind, right? This is a great tenant base for us to continue serving. Definitely. It was so great getting to meet so many different variety of traveling medical professionals at TravCon. I love their badges.
You would see like what their interests were. So many are interested in RV life. And so like RV parking would be a real thing for our, for our travelers. Uh, in addition, I loved where it said. Uh, been traveling for three to 10 years, that's a long time, but right next to someone traveling three to 10 years was someone just getting started.
Uh, our survey showed that about 22 percent were, are just entering the travel nurse market. So they haven't even started looking for housing yet on Furnished Finder. That's coming. So. I think that's our next thing, Katie, that it would be great to talk about is everyone says, Oh no, is travel nurse demand down?
How am I going to find bookings? What do you say to that, Katie? Yeah, I think we all got a little, and when I say we, I'm talking about us midterm rental landlords. We all got a little bit used to that COVID spike, right? There was like a certain level of demand for travel nurses on a, on a regular basis.
And then people During COVID, it got really high, really fast. The stipends got huge. The salaries got huge, right? For these medical professionals that were traveling just because the need was so volatile in different markets. And now it's just, it's stabilized again. Right. Um, it's kind of like shiny object syndrome.
It's, it's. Shining object syndrome will never last forever. Um, and now it's back to baseline. And when I think back to baseline, that is not a negative thing. It means it's much more stable. It's much more reliable. It's much more predictable. It's not so up and down. So. Is it down from a couple of years ago?
Yes. But a couple of years ago was not the norm in so many ways of our daily lives. So just like we couldn't really find toilet paper for a while, things are different now. So just, you know, keep that in mind. And, and I like how you said, Kelly, that a lot of these travel nurses are new. There's new travel nurses and med pros entering the space all the time.
And. And it's going to be on you to help educate them for the booking process and what it looks like. Um, so you need to keep in mind when you're working with any tenant type, but this tenant type as well, like you're going to need to let them know why you're going to do a tenant screening, why you're going to sign a lease, why you're going to encourage a worry free waiver, things like that.
Like that's a part of that communication and that relationship. Uh, Katie, I think this is a great time to inform our hosts about key check that may not be Aware of our sister company that guys we want to make the whole midterm rental process Easy for you and reliable through Furnished Finder So while Furnished Finder is the go to place for searching for midterm rentals with over 300, 000 properties nationwide right now and expanding quickly Katie, I think Keycheck was built so that whenever someone says I'd like to book your property You have all the tools you need through Furnished Finder, which is already that trusted brand and name and you can say oh, yeah Let me let me get you settled in and ready for moving and we use key check for everything.
So Katie give a Broad overview of what all they should use through key check, uh, for booking their travel nurses and, uh, midterm travelers. Yeah. I like to think of key check as literally your tool belt for when you're making a booking with a tenant, because since, since we do have direct bookings with between you and your tenant, sometimes it can feel kind of like, Oh, I found the perfect tenant, but now I don't know what to do.
So key check and a lot of these key check products we are, um, introducing through your landlord dashboard. Of furnished finder. So you don't even have to leave your dashboard to do them. And we're going to continue to move those over, um, in the future so that it can be more and more convenient for you as a landlord and just more streamlined, but everything from starting with getting, um, a free quote for your property insurance through steadily.
And then you're going to go and you're going to get tenant screening. You're going to get an online lease. You're going to get your worry free waiver. You're going to set up online payments. All of these things are hosted within key check and furnished finder so that your process can be simple. You can have one place to go and you know that you are doing everything that you need to do to be that professional landlord, have your protection and, and make that relationship really, really good.
It's really important to be aware of key check and offer, offer the services through key check, especially to these travel nurses and med pros, because one of the things as an industry that they educate, uh, medical staff on is, Hey, you know, here are some safe practices when you travel to make sure you're setting yourself up for a great stay.
And so they are oftentimes a little bit more hesitant and want. Proof of, Hey, is this a real listing? So some things that you can do with your furnished finder property to make sure that you are set up for success is fill out that landlord profile, ask for five star reviews at the end of the state, especially your first day.
You can, you can, on your first day, I love to say, Hey. I would, if you had a five star experience, I would absolutely love it. If you prepare the next traveler, since you're the first person in our home, would you be willing to live it? Leave us a review that'll help the next travelers coming in the area.
And nine times out of 10, they've been like, yeah, no problem. I'll go ahead and do that for you. So that's how you start with your first review and then keep building off of that. Um, some other facts from TravCon is we really educated Traveling medical professionals on not only the benefits of saving thousands with Furnished Finder through Avoiding the 10 to 15 percent booking fees that you see on other sites since we have no booking fees Which is a benefit for both the landlord and the tenant But also the value that they could earn while they travel as well So Katie, I wanted you to take a minute and explain for those that maybe are new to MidCity Midterm rentals and how lucrative and, uh, reliable the midterm rental strategy can be, uh, based off, uh, you know, some facts from your properties over the years, because Katie's grown to, uh, you know, 14 properties in about 2 years.
Am I on the right track, Katie? I will say another misconception that I've heard, um, In the past, I'd say six to 12 months is that it's really hard to make midterm rentals cash flow or like, is this worth my time? Can I do it? Because, you know, stipends used to be so much higher and these, these medical professionals used to be making so much more, especially at the peak of COVID.
And I didn't get really involved in midterm rentals until after COVID or at the very decline of it. Um, so I, you know, personally speaking, It a hundred percent is worth your time. Um, I'm going to give two of my property examples and, and you guys will, will hear it firsthand. If you're a current midterm rental landlord, you know this, right?
But if you're thinking about, should I get into midterm renting? Is this right for me? You might have to, you might have to play with the numbers. You might have to look at different markets or different, Areas of different markets are different properties, but that's how it is with every property type right now.
That's how it is with the long term rentals, short term rentals, uh, much less commercial real estate investing right now, right? Like that's just kind of the name of the game, but it very much. Does still work. So one of my properties is a two bed, two bath condo. Um, this is one that we own. Um, and we have a mortgage on it.
So when you take our rental expenses, right? So our HOA, our utilities, our, our internet, our mortgage, And then we consider what we get for income. And this is at a very fair price, like a market price for medical professionals that we're housing there right now. We profit about 750 a month on that two bed, two bath condo.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have a studio apartment that we arbitrage. So we work very closely with the owner. We rented it from them, furnished it, provide a really great house. Um, or property for a midterm rental, um, tenant specifically, uh, again, travel nurses because of the location of this one.
And we get a monthly profit of 835 for that one. And yeah, they flex seasonally and demand wise, but it's there, it's there is the opportunity within midterm rentals is so solid. The way we like to sum it up big picture is you're typically aiming for one and a half to two times the profit. Of a long term rental.
And so for Dave and I on our eight doors in the Austin, Texas area, in a little north of Austin is, uh, we aim for properties that when we run the numbers before we buy, we want to know that the property is going to cashflow around 500 to a thousand dollars, uh, per month. So that's, that's the goal that we have.
So there's some really great tools out there. If you and. If you're looking to jump into the midterm rental space or add another midterm rental property, um, Furnished Finder. com forward slash stats is a great place to research any market and decide what's the supply and demand balance. And would this be a good opportunity?
So the last thing for this section, before we get into landlord best practices is I want to make sure and emphasize while Katie houses, is Travel nurses in entire units. You can also expand by considering offering a home as an entire unit or as a room rental. So Dave and I have one property that we offer as a room rental just because that's the strategy that's won out most of the time.
Sometimes it'll be an entire unit, other times it'll be the room rental that wins out. Uh, same thing. One of our two, two condos, uh, in Austin that we manage, uh, we, I offer it both ways. Uh, and I have, uh, it's always been an entire unit so far, but I typically have a lot of interest at the room rental, uh, um, Option as well because then you're reaching a variety of budgets.
Uh, While you're still making the same amount You can reach different traveler needs when you offer room rentals versus entire units. All right, uh katie I'm excited for landlord best practices so we can all serve our travel nurses and Mid term rental travelers. Well, let's get into it Yeah, this is one of the best things that we get to take from TravCon is hearing it straight from these travelers of how is it going with your landlords?
What can we tell them? What can we, how can we help them help you? Right? Like how can we all do this better? Cause we always want to be improving. So we heard a lot of stories. We heard so many fantastic stories about amazing landlords, amazing relationships that tenants had with their land, landlords. Um, People who just said that their Furnished Finder Landlord was, you know, gracious and considerate and respectful and went above and beyond.
Um, but we do also just want to take this time and, and give you guys more or less like a little punch list that you can go through to make sure that you are being the best landlord possible, because that's going to help you with your reviews. Um, it's going to help you maximize your rental rates, all of these things.
So the first thing I want to talk about is tenants are very conscious And somewhat concerned about if they're going to get their security deposit back. It's a big deal, right? They're traveling over and over and they might have two securities tied up at one time. Oftentimes they're of different amounts, right?
It's a lot to keep track of and they can be nervous about if they're going to get it back. They are very excited about our new worry free waiver product. Like so excited. I talked to so many travelers personally and it was like, Hey, how would you feel about paying a monthly fee? 59 to 79 per month. And in exchange, you would be covered for any potential damage, you know, up to 3, 500, depending on the level chosen.
And you wouldn't have a security deposit. And the look on their faces of just relief of like, Oh yes, they can budget for that. They can add that in to their monthly budget of what they can allot their stipends towards, but they don't have to worry about conflict at the end. They don't have to worry about Is my landlord going to get me my deposit back in a day or is it going to be 30 days?
And then I might be out of pocket with two deposits at once. Is there going to be some damage that they might be held responsible for that was there before? Is this going to lead to conflict? Right? They don't want that. There are. Money is very hard earned, right? This is such a difficult professional and they're giving so much to our community and we want to take that weight off their shoulders.
So if you have not already explored worry free waiver, like it is such a tool for you and these tenants are ready for it. They can budget for it. They can't budget for losing their security deposit unexpectedly. Like you've just got to check that out. So if you have not explored that yet, it's right within your, um, landlord dashboard, you click on landlord tools and it's right on worry free waiver.
We also have multiple blog posts about it. We're going to have a podcast about it soon with, um, a leader from Wavo, which is the company kind of behind worry free waiver. And I just really encourage you, like. Get started exploring that and offer it or just require it for all of your rentals. Yeah, those are all really great points Katie.
So then the next section that we want to make sure and educate you guys on is And honestly, it probably varies if you go on our Furnished Finder Uh, our Furnished Finder Facebook page, which has over 140, 000 Members and you ask hey, what do y'all do for canceled contracts? There is a lot of variety of answers So Katie and I want to educate y'all on how we do it to Keep it fair to both landlords and travelers.
So Katie, what, how do you handle if someone says, I've got bad news, my, my contract got canceled and I need to move out and, you know, move somewhere else. Yeah, this is kind of a twofold answer for me. First of all, this is genuinely one of the reasons that I really. I'm adapting and adopting, um, worry free waiver is because it's always a concern as a landlord.
I don't want to get left with, you know, just someone who skips out on rent their, their contract got canceled and then they just skip town. No, I don't expect that. And I haven't really experienced that, but it's just part of, of protecting yourself as a landlord and as a business owner. Um, I always tell people, if your contract gets sold, I'm going to market the property as available.
And you are on the hook for rent until I get it rerented. And I tell people historically, I've had really good luck getting it rented in two weeks or less, which is true. Um, it's all about making sure that your, your furnace render listing is up to date. You've got your amenities on, you've got a good headline, your pictures are top notch, like all the things we talk about all the time.
Right. And typically, um, Tenants understand this really well. But what I love about the worry free waiver is that if I do get in a bind where the tenant just says, you know what? It's the 28th of the month. I'm just not going to pay you next month. And I do my due diligence. I try to attempt them. I try to collect the rent and they just skip town.
I'm covered for the coverage amount that I've selected through worry free waiver. So this is like something we hear from landlords all the time. And it's something that, you know, It's like one of the biggest perks about worry free. So I'm like, for me, it's, I get to adopt it into my best practices. And that is just like an extra layer of security for me.
But I, I like to work with them. I like to say, Hey, you're only on the hook for, for what I can't cover or until I get it rented next. And if you're diligent on furnished finder shouldn't take long. That's exactly how Dave and I operate it with our, uh, properties as well is we want to be fair to our tenants.
We want to continue, you know, to have a good relationship in case they want to come back this direction in the future. All right, Kelly, I want to wrap us up just with some really quick hitting tips and reminders for best practices and ways to just make yourself a better Super appealing as a LA and Lord for these travel nurses.
So you guys ready? This is like our, our fast hits. So the first one is these housing requests, your unmatched leads within furnished finder dashboard. They're fantastic. Um, but remember to only respond to the ones where it, there's actually a practical possibility there, right? If someone's traveling with four cats and you are absolutely opposed to pets whatsoever, you don't need to reply.
Okay. I, and I hate to say that because every lead is so valuable, but make sure that it is a potential so that you're not just, um, you know, creating false hope or things like that. Um, and that also, it just, it makes it so each lead to you that you respond to is much more valuable. So see just what's possible.
There's a lot of, there's a lot of potential and opportunity within those unmatched leads. A two car garage is an absolute must for someone and you don't have that, like it might not be a fit. The other thing I want to talk about really super quick is to respond to your furnished finder messages. You guys, we hear so often from travelers that they just aren't hearing back from you.
Make sure you reply. Even if it's a simple, like, I'm so sorry, I'm not available. And then you go and update your calendar because maybe you forgot to update your calendar. It's okay. Go do it now. Right. But respond to those messages. My kids are the generation of ghosting. Okay. And let's not be, let's stop that.
When we're talking about landlord and tenant leads, there's no ghosting Okay. Just respond. It's okay. If it's not a fit. Reply. Um, the other thing is education. Um, a lot of our, our traveling medical professionals, a question we get a lot is my landlord wanted me to do a tenant screening. I've already been screened by the hospital.
Why do I need to be screened again? Educate them. The answer is very simple. The screening you go through a hospital for a hospital or an employer is very different than a screening you go through for a landlord, right? Um, they're looking for a criminal history. They're looking for a reasonable credit check, but to be quite frank, they're, they're, they're looking at different things in your credit history than if you.
Paid all of your mortgage payments on time for your primary residence. Um, key check also pulls for past eviction history. I don't know any employer that's going to care about if you've been evicted before as a landlord, I very much care about, care about that. So, and just, you know, make sure it's, it's all about education and communication.
Um, so those are like my last kind of hard hitting tips. Um, and I think everybody like this is such a great tenant base. There are so many traveling medical professionals that are coming to communities in need, and you can help serve your community by giving them good homes. So get out there, get on your furnished finder listing, make sure you're maximizing your potential and then be a great landlord.
And if you're listening, thinking, should I add my property? I just don't know about this midterm rental thing. Today's your day. It is such an affordable rate. When you, especially when you compare it to we have no booking fees, you get to keep 100 percent of your, of your, Profit of what you charge on Furnished Finder.
So go check out furnishedfinder. com forward slash stats, flip over the map, see what the competition's like in your area and get started. You can get started with renting out a room in your, in your home. You can get started with an ADU or you could just say, you know what? I've heard how successful this is.
I want to make one and a half to two times the profit, uh, of long term rentals. So I'm going to jump in, start marketing my property. And you don't have to start marketing your property, uh, with the high end luxury furnishings, if that's the market you want to go for, Great, but it can be very affordable to furnish your space and get started in the midterm rental area.