Mid-term rentals, those that span a period longer than a vacation stay but shorter than a traditional lease, are gaining traction in the real estate market. They offer a unique blend of flexibility and stability, catering to a demographic that seeks temporary housing without the commitment of a long-term lease. For landlords, they present an opportunity to tap into a niche market, ensuring consistent occupancy and potentially higher returns.
From Chance Encounter to Rental Success: Jill Hofer's Mid-Term Rental Journey
Jill Hofer's foray into the realm of mid-term rentals was as unexpected as it was transformative. In 2019, she found herself in Seattle, attending a workshop that would unknowingly pivot her rental strategy. It was here that she met a roommate, a serendipitous encounter that would introduce her to the world of Furnished Finder. This platform, designed to bridge the gap between landlords and those seeking mid-term accommodations, was a revelation to Jill.
Her roommate, a member of the army, shared her own success story with Jill. Every time she was stationed at a new location, she would buy a condo and subsequently rent it out. Over time, she had amassed a collection of condos across various locations, all successfully rented out through Furnished Finder. This strategy resonated with Jill, especially given her own situation at the time. She had two empty rentals, a scenario she had never previously encountered. The universe, it seemed, was pointing her in a new direction.
Taking a leap of faith, Jill decided to explore Furnished Finder (opens in new tab). She handed her phone to her roommate, who promptly installed the app for her. What followed was nothing short of remarkable. In just a span of two weeks, Jill had not only familiarized herself with the platform but also successfully found renters for her properties, which were previously unfurnished. This rapid turnaround wasn't just a personal victory for Jill; it was indicative of the growing demand for mid-term rentals.
The experience was transformative in more ways than one. Not only did Jill manage to rent out her properties, but she also embraced the joy of furnishing them. She reveled in the process, from selecting art pieces to playing "dollhouse" with furniture arrangements. The previously unfurnished spaces were transformed into cozy, inviting homes, ready to welcome tenants seeking a mid-term stay.
Jill's Furnishing Strategy
Mid-term rentals, positioned between short-term vacation stays and long-term leases, often come with an inherent expectation: they should be fully furnished. But furnishing isn't merely about ticking off a checklist of items; it's about crafting a space that feels warm, welcoming, and uniquely homey, even if just for a temporary period. Jill, with her vast experience in the rental market, has developed a furnishing strategy that not only draws tenants but also ensures their stay is both comfortable and memorable.
Marrying Second-Hand Finds with Significance
Jill's furnishing approach is a harmonious blend of budget-conscious decisions and personal touches. She is a seasoned thrifter, often visiting second-hand stores or thrift shops, a habit she attributes to her days of living on a fraction of her income. These thrift trips allow her to discover unique, character-filled pieces that add a distinct charm to her rentals without straining her wallet. But for Jill, it's not just about the price tag. She seeks items that have a story or a deeper meaning. For instance, she spoke of a mid-century property she owns, which, with its vintage aesthetics like yellow tile countertops and salmon sinks, demanded a specific furnishing style. Such meticulous attention ensures each of her properties has its own personality, making them stand out in a competitive rental landscape.
Fresh Essentials: A Touch of Newness for Every Tenant
While second-hand finds add a layer of character, Jill is deeply conscious of the importance of freshness, especially when it comes to essentials. This sentiment was amplified in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, she ensures that every tenant is welcomed with brand-new basics. This encompasses washcloths, towels, kitchen scrubbies, and even cutlery. These gestures, though seemingly minor, play a pivotal role in enhancing the tenant's experience. It offers them the assurance that while they're stepping into a space with history, the essentials they come into contact with are pristine and solely for their use.
Furthermore, Jill is proactive in tailoring her rentals based on tenant feedback. She frequently consults platforms like Furnished Finder and sites like The Gypsy Nurse (opens in new tab) to gauge tenant preferences. If a tenant points out a missing amenity, she's swift to accommodate, underscoring her dedication to their well-being.
Building a Trusted Team: The Backbone of Successful Rentals
In the realm of rentals, a property's value isn't solely determined by its location or aesthetics; its upkeep plays an equally pivotal role. Jill, with her extensive experience in the industry, has often emphasized the significance of not just owning a property but ensuring it's in top-notch condition. This is where the importance of a trusted team comes into play.
Diverse Expertise for Comprehensive Maintenance
Every property, irrespective of its age or design, requires a myriad of maintenance tasks. From plumbing issues that can arise out of the blue to the periodic need for carpentry work, a landlord must be prepared for it all. Jill's properties, for instance, have benefited from her association with plumbers, carpenters, drywallers, roofers, landscapers, and even those who handle tasks on an hourly basis. Each professional plays a distinct role, ensuring that every facet of the property is well-maintained.
Building Relationships Beyond Transactions
One of Jill's standout strategies is her approach to these professionals. Instead of viewing them merely as service providers, she invests in building relationships. She's known many of her team members for years, and this rapport translates into numerous benefits. Not only does she receive prompt services, but her team also goes the extra mile, ensuring quality work every time. This relationship-driven approach has another advantage: by referring these professionals to others, Jill strengthens her association with them, making her a valued customer.
The Legal Safety Net
While plumbers and carpenters address the tangible aspects of property maintenance, legal advisors handle the intangible yet crucial elements. Whether it's understanding local property laws, such as the restriction on having more than five mortgages in Arizona, or ensuring that lease agreements are watertight, legal professionals are indispensable. Jill's emphasis on having legal advisors as part of her trusted team underscores their importance in ensuring smooth property management.
The Charm of Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona, isn't just another city on the map; it's a vibrant blend of culture, nature, and history that beckons visitors and residents alike. For Jill, who has made Tucson her home and the hub of her rental business, the city holds a special place in her heart.
A Vibrant Downtown and Beyond
Tucson's downtown is a pulsating hub of activity. With a rich tapestry of eateries, entertainment venues, and cultural hubs, it offers something for everyone. But the charm of Tucson doesn't end with its urban core. The iconic Saguaro cactuses that dot the landscape and national parks that provide a break from urban life surround the city. This juxtaposition of urban hustle and serene nature makes Tucson a unique destination, appealing to a wide range of preferences.
A Personal Connection to the City
Jill's connection to Tucson goes beyond her rental properties. As a writer for the Tucson Guide (opens in new tab), she has in-depth knowledge of the city's nooks and crannies. This knowledge isn't just for her articles; she actively shares it with her tenants. Whether it's recommending a hidden gem of a restaurant, pointing out a historical site, or suggesting a nature trail, Jill ensures her tenants get a wholesome Tucson experience.
Moreover, her properties are strategically located, offering easy access to both the bustling downtown and the serene outskirts. Many of them are within walking distance of key attractions, making it convenient for tenants to explore the city.
Unique Sensory Experiences
Tucson isn't just about sights; it's about experiences. Jill recalls specific smells associated with the city, evoking memories and feelings that transport one back to specific moments in time. Whether it's the scent of native plants during a morning walk or the distant howl of coyotes, these sensory experiences add a unique dimension to the Tucson experience.
Financial Wisdom for Aspiring Landlords: Lessons from Jill's Journey
Real estate, while often seen as a tangible asset of bricks and mortar, is deeply intertwined with numbers, strategy, and foresight. Jill's journey in the realm of mid-term rentals offers a treasure trove of financial insights for those aspiring to make a mark in the industry.
The Principle of Buying Within Your Means
Jill's approach to real estate is rooted in practicality. She emphasizes the importance of purchasing properties that align with one's financial capabilities. This doesn't necessarily mean opting for the cheapest option, but finding a balance between affordability and potential returns. Her own experience serves as a testament to this principle. When she came across a house priced at $89,000, significantly lower than other properties on the market, she saw an opportunity. While many might have been skeptical about such a deal, Jill recognized the potential of the property, not just as a home but as a future rental asset.
Ensuring Rent Covers All Costs
For Jill, profitability isn't just about the monthly rent exceeding the mortgage payment. She advises landlords to consider the entire spectrum of costs associated with a property. This includes maintenance, taxes, insurance, and even the smaller expenses like providing new washcloths for tenants. Jill was once advised to ensure her rent was at least $100 over all these cumulative costs. While she couldn't always adhere to this initially, she knew the importance of working towards it, ensuring a buffer that could cushion any unforeseen expenses.
The Power of Overpayment
One of the standout financial strategies Jill employed was overpaying her mortgage. By adding a little extra to her monthly mortgage payments, she was able to make a significant dent in the interest over time. This seemingly small step led to savings of $67,000 in interest for her $89,000 house. The brilliance of this strategy lies in its simplicity. By dividing her mortgage by 12 and adding that amount to her monthly payments, she effectively made an extra payment each year, fast-tracking her path to owning the property outright.
Embracing Flexibility in Pricing
Another nugget of wisdom from Jill's experience is the ability to pivot with rental prices. Platforms like Furnished Finder allow landlords to set seasonal rates. This flexibility means that landlords can adjust prices based on demand, ensuring optimal occupancy and revenue. For instance, in a town like Tucson with its seasonal influx of visitors, having the ability to offer summer sizzlers or shoulder season rates can make a property more attractive to potential tenants.
Harnessing Technology: Furnished Finder and KeyCheck
In the modern digital landscape, leveraging technology is essential for landlords. Platforms such as Furnished Finder have revolutionized the tenant-finding process, particularly for mid-term rentals, by effectively connecting property owners with professional travelers in search of furnished accommodations. Additionally, KeyCheck (opens in new tab) offers a comprehensive suite of services to simplify property management. From credit screening, eviction, and background checks to providing renters with insurance options and facilitating secure online rent payments, KeyCheck ensures both landlords and tenants enjoy a smooth and efficient experience. Moreover, its e-signing feature for lease documents of various types further streamlines the leasing process, making it a must-have tool for today's landlords.
Episode 4 Transcript
Welcome to Landlord Diaries where we talk about midterm rentals and the opportunities behind them we'll share landlords 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 place for everything midterm rentals remember to like and subscribe if you enjoy our content hey kelly hey hey how's it going katie so good how are you good i'm excited about today's episode i'm so excited and just a reminder for our listeners i'm katie this is kelly bailey is an experienced landlord she's from texas and has all the good information about being a a mid-term rental property owner and i am katie i live in colorado i work with furnished finder and i am all about the nitty-gritty when it comes to investing awesome also as a quick reminder to everyone our podcast is brought to you by furnished finder Furnished Finder is the online marketplace for midterm rentals so all of your rentals that you might need for traveling professionals travel nurses extended vacations relocating families we have got you covered and on our marketplace there are zero booking fees for travelers love it so today we're talking to jill um kelly it was so much fun to talk to her um what did you love about her because i just like my heart just kept melting over and over when we were talking to her she's such a sweet lady i i love how genuine she is i mean she made it obvious and her her reviews back it up like she has five star reviews on every one of her properties and you can tell that she just goes above and beyond for her guess which in turn ends up you know giving you less turnover and less uh needs for you know having your cleaners come back in and so it just really sets her up for success and i really like the the facts that she shares about how she's gotten to where she is in her investment strategies yeah it's so great so please enjoy this episode if you um have it in your heart please subscribe like comment and share with a friend we are here to pass along valuable information and fun entertaining stories so we hope you enjoy thanks landlords for joining us and anyone else [Music] so our our guest today is actually from tucson arizona and we have had some really fun facts about arizona and she's sharing more so let's jump straight into the intro if that sounds good to you sounds great awesome okay so jill hofer jill is a jeweler writer and property owner with three lovely homes on Furnished Finder she has a unique way of combining both talents by creating a special piece of jewelry that she presents her guests during their stay such a thoughtful gesture that is surely backed by her outstanding five-star reviews on Furnished Finder jill became a landlord in 2004 when she and her partner brad bought a second home and turned their first home into a residential rental jill shared they have enjoyed every step of the adventure and you can check out her jewelry at www.a nice world dot com hi chad how are you today i'm great in yourselves doing great well let's jump into the first question how would you describe your jewelry style and what inspires you oh thank you well it's called a nice world because it's really built on uplifting causes and helping people have a meaningful piece of jewelry that always donates from 33 to 100 percent back to make this world even nicer it's very much based on the law of attraction the main icon piece of the you know my images is a boomerang because what we put out into the world you know it comes right back and of course that applies to everything but it's awfully fun to have a little reminder you know that oh yeah every you know it matters what i'm doing really matters i can make a difference and i'm maybe wearing something that maybe benefits pollinators you know bees or i did a lot with this halo for nurses um let's see it up closer and then you know the butterfly is a another pollinator benefiter of course i don't have a boom hang on but i have the nice and the little this is an old early one it's a sort of relates to real estate it's a takeoff on the white picket fence dream i thought i recognized a fence in there yeah it's a little tiny silver fence so it's like you can carry that with you and you know help other people so where do you uh where do you uh design your jewelry do you have a shop right here oh you're looking at it where are you main part of my house and here's a few tools and there's that boomerang that's that might be backwards does this ring make me look engaged someone says does this ring make me look nice [Laughter] like mission control for managing all the properties you know writing doing jewelry and then everyone's dying to know so you have a piece of jewelry that you design for your guests and that's really special why do you take the extra step and what's the piece uh look like well almost everything i ever do is for the fun of it and i find that that tends to work out really really well in all ways and even if it's something that we have to do you know especially as landlords i just line up with it and i just think oh my goodness what a pleasure what a blessing to have this you know thing to do so i did this because it was fun i love our name which is welcome home ventures it's a little tricky to see but it's shaped like the agave and grasses and i'm actually currently working on it in wax because i like secret message jewelry i don't really like to be right out there with it's fun to have something that's kind of a hidden meaningful jewelry so this is what it looks like in wax yeah exactly and it's like if someone asks about it you have a really good conversation you know and so right right but this is what it looks like in wax so i'm going to be carving actually the outline of the a mountain which is sentinel peak in tucson which is part of our park and rec system and it's easily walkable from actually all of our Furnished Finder rentals so it's really really gonna be nice that they'll have a you know evolving it's getting better and better memory of their time in tucson it's i used to consider myself tucson's kind of unofficial pr director because i'm really on tucson i really love tucson i like inviting people and explaining you know while they'll why they'll love it here we're gonna get there that's actually a question oh yeah uh-huh yeah i'm gonna let you dive into that a little later katie's up she's got a question for you so tell me do you display your art in your home and what other kinds of arts have you have you dabbled in um you seem like a very artistic and creative person and i love how you said that you like doing it because it's fun i think we we don't have enough of that in our day-to-day lives yeah that's a part perspective and part reality you know it's like right sometimes i'll use the word probletunity right it's like ooh i get to learn how to learn something i don't want to want to do right that's a great perspective though that's a great perspective yeah right um i have local art in all of our residential rentals most of it is actually for sale it's fun yeah it's really really fun and my house is overflowing with art and things i love and books i love so it's another added benefit of having furnished rentals i know i can you know my stuff's not in storage it's out there being loved and enjoyed and then the local stuff that i'm willing to part with people can take that home with them if it you know if they're drawn to it and i like to do yeah i would highly recommend um any type of canvas to print service there's lots and lots of them out there so if you have like a beautiful picture of the view from your home or you know for me the hummingbird studio i've got tons of hummingbirds and like here's tucson skyline and you know for an incredibly affordable price like 10 15 20 25 wow you can have a canvas wrap of right what people are looking at they really love those what website is that oh i think it's called canvas to print but there are lots of them i think it's literally called canvas print to canvas maybe would make more sense but if you just type in turn my photo into a canvas right you're going to find a plethora of opportunities and it's addictive it's really fun i like to make stickers and give them away i have a really fun time making people's welcome baskets i really love picturing them you know opening the door because i'm rarely there i like to let people settle in be calm i'm right there as soon as they want me if they want me but i find out what makes it a perfect welcome home for them if it's you know 90 dark chocolate or chips and salsa or you know fruit and healthy stuff but then stickers and fun stuff yeah that's that's so thoughtful too for these travelers um can you give us before we dive into like your properties and your your journey to becoming a landlord can you tell us kind of what your portfolio right now looks like um what types of properties they are are they close to you are they long distance kind of give us a 30 000 foot view of kind of what your what your situation is right now sure i have kind of a neat mix as far as the Furnished Finder residential rentals go one place i have is a triplex and i have the main original home which was actually an originally a chinese market in tucson yeah it's really neat and then i have a body works like a healing arts massage therapist gal who rents one of them which is a really fun thing to give my renters to like especially new kids and then i'm supporting pipa and right no it's just really really fun but so there's the main home and then one of those units is a secondary unit on Furnished Finder okay you know one of those really affordable postings where you can just add one then i have another house oh and that house is it's less than a mile i can get there okay it's right it's adjacent to the same mountain and then our other two properties that are listed on Furnished Finder there i've actually gone a different route with that listing i put them both at the primary listing i just love it i just kind of like and what's 99 dollars right two exactly just put it right out there you know they're really great properties so and those are two properties no they're it's actually it's the same address but i still opt to yeah just keep them separate and then i'm just very clear on both of them and all of the anything that's a multi-unit just very clear you know i have a sort of a piece in the valley clause in the lease that makes people feel really good that you know their rights are going to be respected everybody is an adult you know quiet and good sleeping all that good stuff so i'm very clear about that and with the photos um but they're both listening is it like a private room in a shared house it's actually uh no it's a little studio that has a separate entrance a separate parking separate for everything separate heating and cooling so but it is you know they share it sure they share a wall yeah whatever it is yeah yeah it's a little like a basement walkout you described it really well in our intro call you said it was four units and two houses so essentially there's two units at one attribute and another two entire units at another address and they're all entire units that are individually rented and no shared space correct yep correct cool love it um yeah it's a neat mix i feel like i'm getting the most out of Furnished Finder by doing it just how i want to do it and then i always get all the help i need to you know make it ever make it all work that's awesome so fun question in a previous conversation uh you noted that wealth uh the book wealth is an income stream has been a guide for your investment journey so what were your big takeaways from the book well it's a book it's about this thick it's you can barely call it a book it's so straightforward and so simple and old not new i think i read it right in the night it's not that old but in the 90s yeah in the 90s or as my kids like to call the late 1900s i call it the 1900s too i just call it the 1900s i'll say yeah we moved to tucson in the 1900s you know where yeah yeah you know it's just cracks up and it's always like 96 you know or right really really close to the millennium um but the um what are we just talking about the book the book the wealth as well right wealth is an income stream yeah and what you're taking so it's very simple and straightforward yeah the the basic i mean the title is the main takeaway because there's money in the bank there's money in the market there's money that can work for you and grow for you but when it comes to particularly single family homes is the is the big you know draw for this book the big gold star when you look at the money that you'll make over time and the fact that it's steady and the fact that you know you've got great tax benefits you have a little bit of a lifestyle but it's not like a job it's not like a full-time even a part-time job and that money never stops and you can count on it and you you know you can ride with it through the decades and it makes it really hard to sell a house actually because you really got to do some math right you know we sold a couple houses last year when it was so you know the market was so high but you know those break-even points that's some that's some interesting math because what you get from a rental income the benefits are are multi multiple but basically the main takeaway that steady stream of income all the tax ramifications and you know it's it's in your control i like knowing that i'm in charge i'm the one who you know i can update make updates and and play the game you know and figure out what i can how i can be best smart and be an attractive host that you know can command you know be a really desirable place that people love and they love to come back you know who knew that was going to start happening i think you've had a couple people offer to buy your place haven't you yes it's fun yeah it's really fun they're like please don't ever put your house on the market because if i ever settle down it would probably be tucson and there's no place i'd rather live you know it's the houses are great but the locations are are kind of unbelievable what you can walk to what you can wake up to so it's really fun but you know kelly i know you have similar experience kind of as far as like the w-2 jobs and um you know creating success with rentals i you know i know a lot of our listeners have not heard a lot about your journey with that so maybe you can just give us a quick rundown as to how how it relates to our to jill's story here yeah when we had our intro call i was really excited to talk to jill and um she mentioned that they uh would live off brad's uh or save half of what you invested i believe you would you would make a certain amount and then you'd save half of that i personally i personally lived on half and then a third and then a fourth of my income and then i would buy the houses and he would want in after you know seeing how great they were but i did we did go on loan with a couple of them together for you know just greater rates and whatnot so dave and i have a similar story because um we uh we lived off i actually worked for the land division of co-star and called Ranches, Farms, and Land for Sale Near Me - Land.com now and uh we would live off what i made and um sorry live off what he made and save what i made and so it was great because we were able to help his parents with their uh his dad was a missionary to greece uh growing up and at that point he didn't really talk about you know what does retirement look like and so they didn't have much of a retirement plan and so we were able to go into business with his parents and buy uh we worked our way up to about 13 investment properties in the dallas fort worth area and we did uh uh we had a property manager and he's a host he's he's in the dallas fort worth area and has over a hundred uh properties that he manages so the theory is if you don't hear from him your properties are doing good no news is good enough right yeah no exactly because he doesn't have time for a lot of small chat but uh so we sold we were able to sell all those properties right uh towards uh the beginning of kovid and then they you know they have their own investment strategy now and that's when we started getting into Furnished Finder and it's been such a great journey so now we have five properties are under contract on one in temple as well which is a great great hospital network up there and so i i love your your feedback because it is a great strategy and why w2 jobs can be so helpful is you can save and invest a lot more to set up for the future but also uh you you might be more qualified for loans with those jobs as well so thanks for that feedback yeah and you don't have to quit your i mean when when you're a landlord people would always ask me oh how do you do it you know because i worked a lot when i was in the corporate world but you know you just have good people who can do things for you you know david you know where the haida key is we've got a leak over here right and you'd be there in an hour if not david's got a backup that i can call it's kind of management by text message until you want to go have some fun and do something you know i could go on about you know just i just enjoy being at the properties i kind of love it when i have a little gap which doesn't almost doesn't happen enough but you you sure don't need to quit that w-2 job i would echo that big time cool it's possible it's all possible right so talk to us jill a little bit about your jump from 12-month rentals to more the monthly rentals kind of why you went down that route and how how it's been for you thus far thus far on the management side on the you know experience side and kind of on the investment side because i know especially in this market right now there's a lot of landlords who own long-term rental properties who are thinking you know okay if i need to pivot what are my options here and what what would it look like right pivot is a good word for it before i start at the beginning i'll say that Furnished Finder is sort of the ultimate pivot machine i never really thought about it like in the terms of pivoting but to start at the beginning we i don't think i ever had a a standard classic 12 month lease because i have good advisors i have a great network you know i kind of became them over time right um i have always had month-to-month auto renew leases okay and granted i mean they stay forever i've got people right years and years and and as soon as they're as soon as they're ready it's going to be furnished and furnished finder but a 30-day auto renew means that we have equal rights a resident can just say 30-day notice no questions asked right i can say 30-day notice no questions asked and we're good they love it it's rare you know they're always like trying to pay to break a lease you know just because they're stuck so that was good from the start and sometimes now when i have actually usually now i'll put that clause in there for nurses because i i don't know when i've had a nurse that didn't extend right i'm sure it's happened but you know fall in love yeah they really do plus there's great incentives you know for accepting your contract you're in it to win it and make money and god knows it takes longer than 13 weeks to see southern arizona um be so close to california you know have all those options i'll put that in there because i just need 30 days i know with 30 days i can get on Furnished Finder and make it happen right so that's been the basis all along but when i first found Furnished Finder i think i might have mentioned with the jewelry i'm a big law of attraction person you know you put it out it comes back comes back and i was actually on a special interest group trip on the topic of law of attraction i had a random roommate that we were assigned and we know it's going to be perfect you know and she as we're starting to get to know each other in the hostel in seattle she said oh yeah i have reynolds too because she's in the army and everywhere she got stationed she bought a condo and then she did yeah and then she that now has condos all over the place with great rumors through Furnished Finder yes i literally said well i've told the universe here i'm going to go to this workshop and i'm going to leave two empty rentals which i would never ever have done and she said hand me your phone and i gave her my phone and she gave it back to me with Furnished Finder installed i kid you this was like a two-week experience that i was on in 2019 and by the end of those two weeks i had furnished find her renters who you know just needed it a little bit later time to like furnish everything put the art in there play dollhouse you know it's like oh you know i can finally buy these mid-century chairs so previously unfurnished rentals you had you they were not furnished okay correct we had a 10 if you count a triplex as three and a duplex a couple of duplexes that's two we have ten units so tell so did you end up putting all ten on Furnished Finder or just a few at a time okay just as they occur as they leave right because people are so happy right i love them you're not going to kick them out no but i might say could you put this table in your house tell us a little bit about that furnishing process and like how you came up with the style and what your budget was like and how you would shop i mean obviously you know these properties they're yours but like i think for for some people even for a smaller space that can feel quite daunting right like okay i've i've finished my own house over 15 years right so like how am i supposed to like where where do you begin good point those are great questions i well we mentioned about living on a fraction of my income i'm sort of like really good at finding deals and great bargains and i love thrifting and i love um things that have a little bit of meaning behind them for a lot of the signature pieces one of our houses is right next door there's a lot that we own in between but i mean it's literally right there and it's a mid-century masterpiece it's had one owner before us so i'm very careful you know all those surfaces you know yellow tile countertops salmon sinks i mean it's right over the top you know and so that one calls for what it calls for i like to have um hide a bed i like to have as i have to kind of hold myself back a little bit because i do think when you're furnishing for someone else less is more it's nice to have a bookshelf full of things it's nice to have fun things that they could look at or love um i do have an over abundance of lamps when they first move in and i'll say pick what you want tell me what you don't and i'll store them i like to buy previously used stuff but i also when it comes to the supply side this isn't really on the furnishing topic but in your welcome basket you're gonna get brand new washcloths brand new towels scrubbies you know whatever it is that you don't really need to touch someone else's right and it just feels good you know they're paying money i'm having fun they should have they can have new silverware i mean with covid i it was like new everything that was that kind of a personal thing um but i would just say less is more and i would say for almost any question that you would ask me i would probably say look on Furnished Finder and look on sites like gypsy nurse housing where it's all just nurses talking about you know this place didn't even have a fill in the blank and i might say oh my god i don't have one of those i'm getting one right and i'll show the source for the answer right like don't just guess but like take some time listen for the answer and you can look at rates too and you can look at really popular airbnbs that are commanding a really high dollar and look at those they're going to be pretty streamlined nothing's going to be shabby you know it's going to have some meaning and i also am very upfront when they move in to just tell me if there's something they don't want and i don't even try to like get credit for being a great landlord because i'll just say you know what if you want it so is the next person you want an ironing board oh i don't do that but i'll get you one and everybody else could have it you know right and then you'd love it you know maybe i even tell them to go to target right other people need different things than we as landlords might use in our day-to-day life right like i know a couple of good friends who don't drink coffee and i literally don't know how they survive and i'm like my coffee machine is like my third child so if i go to an airbnb or a rental and there's no coffee machine like i'm sad that's weird i take it a step further and i have to have a grinder see like i use a grinder but i don't have one but i know i'd buy them buy one for them if they wanted but those are coffees and have that tea if that's what they're into those are low budget commitments like you said like an ironing board but i think to a tenant having a landlord or a property owner that's willing to say like go buy it i'll reimburse you or i'll take it off your rent or whatever like and we'll add it to the assets of the house i mean that that's huge right because that gives that tenant some freedom and really makes them feel welcome yeah they feel home you've brought up something that might be worth talking about um condition reports and walk-through forms it takes a little time but between each resident when you're in there with maybe with if you go with your cleaning person i really love my cleaning gal she's my spanish class and my fun and we have a great time um yeah it's really fun and she knows the houses she knows where the like funny things are to take care of anywho while i'm with her or whatever i'm taking pictures of everything and i'm particularly taking pictures of anything that's damaged already and i think that gives people a real peace of mind where it's like i didn't crack that tile well you don't even have to tell me that i know that i know right here's all here's everything wrong with the place that i can find now you tell me if you can spot something else right so i have a really good condition report a really good contents you know because it's kind of easy to take inventory it doesn't really matter if someone takes an ironing board but right you know it's kind of just nice to know what was in there it's a big picture of the bathroom you know whatever's in there and that was going to remind me of something else i guess just all the furnishings just knowing what you've got in there and having i just sort of put a photo page with lots and lots of photos and i just say here is this we'll both do a walk-through i do a crime-free lease i do a lead-based paint um bed bugs addendum i do a hummingbird addendum to make sure they know how to take care of a hummingbird or how to you know get that right just when you cover all your bases like that you kind of welcome a problem or two because it's tightening your system up beautifully you'll never do it twice that's that's another way to put it in tightening your system that's a very smart way of putting it especially as you learn right like um different locations different houses different types of tenants like i think as as you learn and go through keep adjusting your system and tightening that's a very very smart way to put it yeah and little things like you know of course we have a list of things to do like make your wi-fi a contact in your phone right you know 244 south grande avenue wi-fi here's the password here's the blah blah and then i just share that contact with them and then it's not like what was that again where's place and where's that binder there's a lot of stuff in there and i use a realtor he box do you let him in you know i just say make yourself happy ring the bell and i'll be there just ring the bell i live about this far away and i think just knowing that makes them not even need me but i'm always here for happy hours especially with the house next door we love to walk over and just have snacks and happy hour and watch the sunset and the more you get to know people if you know if they are up for socializing then just seems like the better things turn out the more open they'll get with what we want and like i love that and the more they want to stay and the more they come back i've got a gal who's doing like some sort of balancing act here just to stay with me and because she keeps extending her contract like none other so she'll bounce over to this place and then come back to the hummingbird studio and love it wow it's meaningful that's really cool um so let's transition to landlord logistics which we've kind of already touched on it but in our intro call jill you said that everybody comes to you for advice such as like what handyman services do you use how do you find renters how does Furnished Finder work so i want to give you the platform to just kind of share those things that people come to you about that you uh should share with other landlords as well super in in my arena here i'm getting asked that by landlords and non-landlords and the non-landlords they they want to know they know i've got the best ac guys they know i've got plumbers carpenters drywallers roofers landscapers handy easy hourly folks so for that i give them my references then i'm even more of a valued customer because i'm building their business like none other but for the landlord side of that that just shows you it's possible to just line up a trusted team treat them well i know my people i've known them for years they love me they love coming here we thank them well and having your kind of your team really is super important and i like to have and this is relevant for anyone landlords included i like to work with local mom and pop type places for all the reasons that we all love to do that their backup you know they're in mexico they're you know um out of town for some reason if for some crazy reason they're not able to like jump and run my second in line is gonna be a it might be locally owned but it's gonna be a bigger company they're going to have four trucks they're going to have 10 guys and i'm going to see one of them fast so that's kind of a nice way to stack your team for that on the landlord side like you said kelly we touched a little bit on it with how much i love those 30 day auto renew leases i have a really buttoned up tight um condition report and i i do with the nurses i do get a little i'll say i'll say lazy and i'll let them sort of just look it over and sign it if it was a year-long lease i would be like see that you know right that is this looks like this and when you move all your giant furniture in here please don't you know this should look like this when you don't have furniture in and out it is a whole new ball game i don't know what percentage of damage is caused and move in and move out but i think it's significant makes sense thank you stuff through doors you're in a hurry it's hot you're done you know so you avoid all that with Furnished Finder which is really nice um my addendums are important that i mentioned before i like to just let people know you know my paperwork is long it's wordy a writer the value is coming from you know be paid by the word or whatever but it's lengthy but i think they're standard and if there's anything that looks awry just let me know right would like to have um kind of back to that beauty of pivoting with Furnished Finder i like to have seasonal rates that's especially handy in a town like tucson that's got you know a big visitor influx a big college town um you know the kids leave in the summer it's hot i can pivot that price [Music] but i don't have to just find someone for that amount i can put right in my listing hey this is the summer sizzler hey this is you know fall or shoulder season and they know it's going to go up or they know it's going to go down that i think is gold because when you're doing this you know the regular old-fashioned landlord way of doing it maybe you're smart enough to put you're getting a five percent increase annually maybe you're smart enough to do that and maybe you're gonna actually follow through even when you really love the people but when they leave you just change that rate right it's no harm no foul it's just you riding the market right you can adjust on the fly yeah yep pivot pitch it's good you kelly mentioned to me that you were able to retire at an early age because of real estate so what advice do you have to others who are working towards the same goals and dreaming of passive income and you know the benefits that real estate can have especially in terms of these midterm rentals right yep you bet i the catchphrase is the title of the book wealth as an income stream i know it's a little scary sometimes when you're looking at the market and you're thinking you know this is kind of big do i have time here's two more toilets in my life there's another roof you gotta have a cushion of comfort you have to have a time cushion to some extent but you know the world doesn't stop or start based on picking up a little rental if you can do it you just never know what i mean it might be your sister living in it someday who knows you might just be darn glad you've got it for another reason um i can tell you that buying within your means is important i got advice a long time ago to never have a rent that wasn't a hundred over all my costs and you want to be really lovely and i didn't always i wasn't always able to follow that but i knew the time was coming when i could go from 50 to 150 over you know i knew i could count on myself um and when you're adding those expenses it ain't just the mortgage you know what i mean you've got all the maintenance taxes insurance new washcloths for everybody you know it's silly but just pat it pack out it pat and then take a leap of faith and know that in five years you're going to be fine even if you want to sell it even sooner really depending on the market and i oh i also remember learning how darn helpful it is to if you can pay it off faster if you can take your mortgage i want to say the mortgage is 1200 just because it's super easy math say the mortgage is 1200 a month that's a little high but maybe not for your market divided by 12 that's 100. when you send your automatic mortgage payment in every month add a hundred dollars to principal that's the equivalent of yeah i could just write a check for 1200 and call it an extra payment but there's something about just tuning it in and forgetting about it and we were able to do that with our first look we've done it with every house but our first little house that we bought was that we lived in was 89 000 which is why i bought it because i was like what's wrong with this house i haven't seen under 120 000. this house looks simple it doesn't have a fireplace so i know it doesn't have a pool it's going to be more carefree to rent it's just so darn simple um two small bedrooms anyway we did throw some money at it at the end like when it was at 35 we had to pay it off because there's a law that you can't have five mortgages in arizona interesting but before that yeah it's i mean learning having it you know i didn't mention legal in your trusted advisor team i don't use them much but i sure do love knowing they're there things like that you know your title company that they're my best friend um of course if you use a realtor which i do sometimes but i like to not use a realtor too if i just have a neighbor that i really want their house but getting all the way back to where i was on that we paid that little bit extra by the time we sold that house for eighty nine thousand dollar house or paid it off i'm sorry we saved sixty seven thousand dollars in interest and i'm like how can buying a house even be a good investment if this is what a decent interest rate that's right but you know what you're still you're still ahead of the game yeah it's remarkable but if you can do that little divide by 12 trick i love that trick that's a need great advice yeah that'll take a year that'll take years off your mortgage yeah it's a little house i think we have two more questions to wrap it up one we wanted to circle back to uh tucson arizona so you said that you love and get great joy from connecting people and getting them excited about tucson and you also write for the tucson guide which is pretty cool so what are some tidbits you want to share to highlight tucson well i do love my town and i've all i've always been that kind of person where it's like what's fun what's hip what's neat what's new you know i love trying everything new i have an interesting bevy of friends that are you know artistic and performers and i love providing in the binder you know don't miss on the west side don't miss this downtown i oh i've got a magazine here clean this off i always put guides you know whether it's something that i wrote i wrote this story right here whether it's just something of mine or it's just look here read this get involved hear something about you know all the little towns around us and then i don't know it's just fun it's like working for the visitors bureau or something and i think they like it they want to feel good about their decision to choose tucson and like you said it just really adds a lot of fun and joy to do that yep awesome yeah that's fantastic i i love tucson we took a couple family trips to tucson uh my sister played tennis in college so she would go play and my mom and i would fly out there to support her but we'd just hit up the town and figure out all the cool spots and you know the correct me i think yeah i think all right saguaro cactuses that that national park is really good that's great very good very thank you wow i mean it's it's a crazy place i mean nature a lot of my nurses really seem to love hiking and getting out there and if they have a dog they really love to be able to have a nice walk we've got nature but we've got a vibrant downtown we've we're close to a lot of other little cities tons of new restaurants interesting places you can just never get tired of tucson and a lot of them are walking distance from our properties which is extra nice and we're close to the highways you know it's fun there's some specific smells that i uh associate with tucson we we would walk this lap uh i think it was around is there uh maybe the college and we would walk this lap and you could smell certain plants and when i whenever i smell them throughout the yeah that's cool and i think we saw coyotes on our walk too right there in the middle of the city absolutely absolutely that's another thing it's a good landlord tip turn your negatives into positives because they might seem like a negative to you but all you're really doing is is guiding people to your niche you know if you like wildlife coyotes javelina you know if if seeing a scorpion outside your house isn't for you then you should get an apartment right you'll love that apartment and i might even tell you which one's great and close to the hospital where you work but if you've got a wildlife list and you're like ooh i saw this oh i saw a rattlesnake when i was walking today you know you just you right be very clear with expectations and for someone it's a positive yep find your niche that's right and then just find your message enjoy it yeah being something for everyone [Music] that's that old shotgun approach you know you want to really thread the needle and just have people cry when they leave i love it you don't you don't you only need one tenant right at each property so find the right one one time that's right yeah yeah and with some pivoting you know you've got some gravy last spring when it's for high summertime i'll wait i'll wait right i don't and i'll tell people i look for the person who will be the most happy here right and it changes the whole conversation from there right because they know that i'm not going right yeah absolutely well jill before we go we would love to hear your favorite Furnished Finder features your favorite key check features um if you use our sister company key check and just any kind of last minute advice or anything we haven't mentioned yet it's been such a joy to get to know you oh thank you likewise it's been fun well i guess my main advice is that Furnished Finder makes what you love doing more lovable it makes the money that you love earning even more lucrative it puts kind of an ebb and flow in your life that's fun to manage and feels very in your own hands and i just love that i can i can change things at any time i can add or you know i can be really wordy you guys give us a lot of space talk about i mean in your amenities list that alone is an idea generator right if you're not making a lot of checks on those boxes oh maybe i do need right you know oh i do need a fire extinguisher oh i do need a first aid kit you know right you guys kind of yeah i mean you definitely have our backs you want us to be successful because we make you we make up you along with our travelers and and you know new residents so i appreciate it i get fast support i love it i really appreciate Furnished Finder and i'm certainly noticing as probably a lot of your other folks are furnished finder is no longer the best kept secret you know the fact that we're growing yeah we can turn to Furnished Finder and know we're on easy street these nurses background check income job it's all done but now i'm seeing lots of other non-nurse travelers there that you might have to go through some of those extra steps but they know a good thing when they see it too and that's why they're at furnish fund you're looking for a place yep so i appreciate it thank you for all you do well thank you so much for not only being a part of our podcast today but for being such an amazing partner with Furnished Finder we are so happy that you have found such benefit and love hearing your stories and hearing how you know you've taken something that in all honesty can be very vanilla and very boilerplate and you've really put your spin on it and i think encouraging other property owners and landlords to do the same can can really go a long way so thank you thank you i'd love to be helpful so that makes me feel good thank you thank you so much and hopefully we will chat again soon and a quick reminder don't forget to subscribe and like and uh follow uh all of our future episodes have a great day everybody yes thank you bye thank you [Music]