Are you ready to take your real estate investment game to the next level? In Episode 117 of The Landlord Diaries podcast (opens in new tab), hosts Katie Lyon and Kelly Bailey sit down with Coty LeBlanc, a highly successful real estate investor in New Hampshire, to discuss his journey into monthly rentals (sometimes referred to as mid-term rentals) and how he has mastered the art of growth, adding two new properties to his portfolio each quarter. If you're looking to grow your monthly rental portfolio, leverage rental arbitrage, and maximize your profits, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.
Introduction to monthly rentals
So, what exactly are monthly rentals? These rentals typically range from 30 days to 12 months and cater to professionals on temporary assignments, such as healthcare workers, construction professionals, and business travelers. Monthly rentals provide a lucrative alternative to traditional long-term leases or short-term vacation rentals. Coty LeBlanc has tapped into this growing market in New Hampshire, a region conveniently located near major hubs like Boston and offering access to a variety of outdoor attractions and urban amenities.
In this recap, we’ll break down Coty’s strategies for scaling his monthly rental business, using platforms like Furnished Finder, and employing the rental arbitrage model to maximize income while minimizing upfront costs.
Benefits of monthly rentals
Why monthly rentals? One of the key advantages is the steady stream of tenants seeking temporary housing. Professionals on the move—like traveling nurses, contractors, and consultants—need safe, comfortable, and well-located properties for extended periods. As Coty explains, monthly rentals have several benefits, including:
Higher occupancy rates compared to short-term rentals.
Less turnover and a more stable income stream.
Higher rental rates than traditional long-term leases.
For Coty, these advantages have helped him maintain high occupancy rates and consistent monthly cash flow. Thanks to Furnished Finder, he’s able to connect directly with his ideal tenants—those looking for properties that are ready to move into and live comfortably during their assignments.
The power of rental arbitrage
One of the major reasons Coty’s business has been able to grow rapidly is his use of rental arbitrage. For those unfamiliar, rental arbitrage is a strategy where an investor leases a property from a landlord, furnishes it, and then rents it out as a monthly rental. This model allows investors to control and manage properties without the need for significant capital upfront, making it an attractive option for those looking to expand their portfolios quickly.
Coty’s success with rental arbitrage is rooted in building strong relationships with property owners. By presenting monthly rentals as a win-win opportunity for both the landlord and the tenant, Coty has been able to convince landlords to lease their properties to him, often with favorable terms. This has allowed him to scale his business, adding two new monthly rentals to his portfolio each quarter.
Communication is key to success
Effective tenant communication is another crucial element of Coty’s monthly rental strategy. Coty emphasizes the importance of staying in touch with guests throughout their stay, ensuring they have everything they need for a smooth experience. From the initial inquiry to the post-stay review, maintaining clear and open communication helps prevent issues, ensures a positive tenant experience, and leads to stellar reviews on platforms like Furnished Finder.
How Furnished Finder powers Coty’s success
Coty credits Furnished Finder as a critical tool in his monthly rental success. With 80% of his bookings coming through the platform, Furnished Finder has proven to be indispensable for maintaining high occupancy rates. The platform provides a robust suite of tools, including detailed analytics, which help Coty track booking trends, optimize pricing, and stay competitive in the growing monthly rental market.
For real estate investors interested in expanding into the monthly rental space, Furnished Finder is an essential resource for both marketing properties and managing tenant relationships. Learn more about how Furnished Finder can help you optimize your listings here (opens in new tab).
How to grow your monthly rental business
Monthly rentals offer real estate investors a unique opportunity to generate consistent cash flow, with higher occupancy rates, lower turnover, and competitive rental rates. By employing strategies like rental arbitrage, fostering strong communication with tenants, and leveraging tools like Furnished Finder, you can effectively grow your monthly rental portfolio, just like Coty LeBlanc.
If you’re looking to dive into monthly rentals, remember to:
Research your market and identify areas with high demand from traveling professionals.
Consider rental arbitrage as a way to scale your business without large upfront investments.
Use Furnished Finder to attract the right tenants and optimize your rental listings for maximum occupancy.
Coty’s story is a powerful example of how monthly rentals can transform your real estate investment strategy, helping you grow your portfolio steadily and profitably.
Want to learn more? Listen to the full episode of The Landlord Diaries here (opens in new tab) for more tips and insights on mastering the art of growth with monthly rentals.
Helpful Links
For more tips and advice on monthly rentals and other real estate investment strategies, visit the Landlord Diaries podcast (opens in new tab) and expand your knowledge.
Episode 117 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. It's your fabulous host team of the landlord diaries podcast, Katie lion, and Kelly Bailey coming to you from a furnished finder marketing team and all things, midterm rentals. We jump in with you guys and have our own midterm rentals that we operate so that we can ask the right questions and have the right guests on the show.
So thanks for tuning in each week. Katie, who do we have with us this week? Yeah, today we have Coty and Coty is a huge success story with midterm rentals, um, and Furnished Finder. He started doing short term rental arbitrage a little bit by accident, discovered the potential there, but then quickly shifted over to midterm rentals.
Now he has a portfolio of 60, 000. 17 properties, a mix between arbitrage and co hosting, and they, he has some really good tips for, um, operations organization and making sure you're putting your best foot forward to get those bookings and have really happy tenants. So this is a good one. Um, lots of tips and tricks in here and also some creative ways to scale if that's what you're looking to do.
Coty LeBlanc is our first New Hampshire guest on the Landlord Diaries. He has 15 listings on Furnished Finder, embraces the short term and midterm rental hybrid strategy with around 85 percent midterm rentals. Coty acquired all of his MTR listings through arbitrage or partnership, many from connecting on Craigslist of all places.
Coty tries to add two new midterm rental spaces to his portfolio each quarter. Coty, we're so excited to have you on the show today. How are ya? Hey, good guys. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to be here. Yes, sir. As our first New Hampshire guest, what is it like operating midterm rentals in New Hampshire?
And is it steady year round? Seasonal? What are the perks of the area? All that kind of stuff. Yeah, I'd like to say that it is primarily steady for us. Being that I feel like it's a little bit of an untouched market, especially here in New Hampshire. It's a strategy that I think that, uh, myself and my company is able to capitalize on pretty well.
Awesome. And what draws someone to New Hampshire for a midterm rental stay? So we do have a lot of hospitals in the area that have travel workers. I actually primarily am connected to one of the hospitals that has over 80 percent travel workers for their staff, which is quite a bit compared to a lot of them.
And, uh, that's where we get a lot of inquiries for as well, you know, coming off of furnace finder. And, um, you know, we also have, uh, a lot of construction going on in the area as well too. So we try and get a lot of construction workers, um, you know, they're coming to the area for new development. And I think you're within an hour of like main hubs, Boston, the seacoast, uh, the lakes region.
So that's really nice for an easy commute on the weekends or when you've got a couple of days off, right? Yeah, exactly. Uh, and that gives the travelers a place to explore, you know, depending on, you know, What part of the country that they're coming from, um, really, whether it's the southern part, western part, you know, anything like that, whether they're in a busy city area, or if they like more of a wilderness outdoors aspect, uh, we're able to, you know, provide that actually, kind of, uh, in any sort of way, because we are, we're an hour from Boston, an hour from the beaches, and an hour from the lakes region, um, and then a lot of the MTR guests that get to, uh, travel over to New England over the next few months, It's good to enjoy all the foliage season as well, too.
All right. So let's talk about your portfolio. Tell us about what kind of properties you have, um, and how you acquired them and maybe a little bit, um, teasing into this, um, arbitrage strategy that you use. Yeah. So, uh, we have 17 properties right now, and I'm going to say that 10 of them are going to be arbitrage and seven of them are going to be co hosted properties, if you will.
Um, and we try to add, uh, about two a quarter, you know, basically, we have more inquiries coming in than we have housing available, actually. It's getting more and more easy to actually convert the landlords, uh, to having the approval for the midterm rental space and allowing that arbitrage opportunity. Um, the, you know, the further we go and the more confidence that we have and the more ways that we're actually noticing that it's more beneficial to them, um, instead of like renting out towards long term rentals.
You have studios to three bedroom homes in your 15 listing portfolio on Furnished Finder in Southern New Hampshire. So how has Furnished Finder been a huge part of your midterm rental business and how well is your portfolio performing at the different unit sizes? Transcribed Yeah, so we do we have studios.
We have 1 studio right now. I believe we have 71 bedrooms. Um, we do have multiple 2 bedrooms and multiple 3 bedrooms as well too. Um, so it's a pretty diverse mix, you know, for anybody to kind of choose from. I'd say that a lot of our studios and 1 bedrooms typically get booked. Um, quicker than the two bedrooms, three bedrooms, um, a couple of those are single family homes as well, too.
And, um, a single family homes do really well. We have, you know, basically, I'll never like to say 100%, but 95 percent occupancy on the single family homes, whereas we'll probably have about 85 to 90 percent occupancy on the studios and one bedrooms. Um, but we usually fill in the gaps a little bit with STR strategy.
And let's talk a little bit about how you landed on the arbitrage strategy, right? Because I think that's appealing to a lot of people and you do it, um, in an interesting way to get, um, partners, which we'll talk about in a minute here, but. Tell us more about kind of what led you down that path, uh, and how that's worked out for you.
Yeah. So arbitrage, I actually, uh, I think like most investors or some, you know, most of them on here started through bigger pockets, if you will, um, you know, kind of listening to the podcast videos, um, and chasing that financial freedom, I guess, is that we're all after a cashflow, financial freedom, you know, those words really stuck out to me and something I wanted to have in my life.
Um, so I ended up. Going into, uh, getting these arbitrage deals by realizing that I didn't really have the greatest credit score. You know, I was in the low six hundreds. Um, I didn't necessarily have a lot of money down. And as I was reaching out to private money lenders, trying to put deals together, it just wasn't the best.
Cause I didn't have my own portfolio to, or experience if you will, you know? So, um, I arbitrage strategy, uh, on a YouTube channel, uh, bigger pockets, I believe is what it was. And I, um, yeah, I just dove right in. I actually ended up putting my, um, my own property on, um, short term rental. And then, um, just realized that that was, uh, beneficial for this area.
Wasn't too sure if it was going to work, you know, being in New Hampshire, it's not really a popular vacation destination place as most like to, you know, think of where only these work. Um, but it doesn't, there's travelers, as we know, especially coming into the MTR space that they're everywhere. And with that, Lee, why don't you share your aha moment of, wow, this is definitely the route I want to go, and then how you transitioned to midterm rentals.
Yeah, so I was renting an apartment, uh, for 1, 000 a month, and then I ended up putting, uh, my apartment that I was in on Airbnb. And I ended up having a guest that booked it for two weeks and my payout was going to be 2, 100. Um, I then within 48 hours had another guest come in that wanted to book another two weeks, the following two weeks after that for another 2, 100.
And I immediately knew that I had something. Um, after watching the YouTube videos and trying to figure out the arbitrage strategy and how this works, uh, I was able to actually call, uh, multiple landlords on Craigslist and after a lot of nos, I found a yes actually. And, uh, and that worked out well cause they're a, um, real estate investor, they own over 50 doors.
That's a, that's a big question that I get a lot is like, how do you get a landlord to agree to this? And at least from my experience, and I'd be interested to hear, hear yours, Coty is when I explained to them that I'm doing 30 day plus days, and these are professionals and they are responsible tenants, that is a whole different conversation than like.
Oh, I'm going to rent this, you know, to someone coming to the area for a weekend or a bachelorette party or something like that. Because then there's this mutual understanding that the property is going to be really well taken care of and it's going to be a true partnership. Yeah. And I completely agree as well too.
Um, we lead down that road, letting them know what the differences are between the longterm and the midterm or short term rental status. Primarily we're just midterm now. So that's really what I like to focus on. Um, but what we'll do is We'll just kind of let them know who we are, who we are, you know, as a company, um, who I am.
I live locally. I like to drive by the properties, you know, at least once a month to make sure everything's going good, um, whether there's a guest there or not. But we also like to make sure that they're aware, um, that the, our cleaning team goes in and cleans the property every time a guest leaves. So a long term renter, you know, they might have a one year lease, two year lease, three year lease, uh, it might be there five, 10 years, and you never know when that property is getting cleaned.
Maybe it's, you know, once a quarter, maybe it's once in 10 years. And, uh, That's reassuring to the landlord knowing that we're in there. It's a business model. You don't have to worry about us losing our job, um, having somebody move out that we were living with that was maybe split in half the rent. Um, so it's just not a concern for the landlord.
And then a lot of the, I guess, uh, the quote that I always hear is, um, I don't want all the turnaround, you know, I don't want to deal with that turnaround. And a lot of landlords are thinking that there's furniture coming in and out of the properties every single time. And there's not, you know, like we're going in there, we're just fully furnishing everything.
The guests are literally arriving with clothes and food, um, and then making themselves comfortable reaching out to us if they have any questions. Um, but again, it's just that clear factor of, uh, there's not going to be any concern about money coming in because the business model, I'm not a tenant, you know, I'm not a individual with a job that you need to be concerned about your property is going to be cleaned.
Um, Our, usually our stays are about 90 days, so I'd probably say, you know, once a quarter your property is going to be cleaned. Um, and then as well too, we're going to lower their vacancy rate because any apartment that they, uh, have that becomes vacant, we're more than likely going to want to take that on as well too.
Yeah, this is, this is huge. I mean, you're positioning the conversation with them as a benefit to them, not a liability to them. And I think that's, you know, if you're someone out there who you're interested in arbitrage, but you're not sure how to get started or whatever, you're looking for a partner, right?
You're looking for someone where it's good for them and it's good for you. And you want to phrase it like that, right? You don't want to call someone up and, and act like you're asking for this and that. Giant exception that is unheard of. It's really, you're looking for, for a partner because you're helping their business as well.
Exactly. You're totally right there. I just want to add one more thing real quick is the fact that. If there's anything like a sink leaking or, you know, uh, something not working in the unit, um, that's going to be brought to our attention immediately by the guest or by the traveler because they're paying a premium, you know, for having the experience that they are, you know, being in the area that they are and we want to make sure that they're, um, comfortable in their stay.
So, if there's anything wrong, they're going to reach out to us immediately. We're going to go ahead and address those issues. Unlike a long term guest where you're staying there, you know, your bathroom sink starts leaking. They just throw a towel underneath the sink, you know, in the vanity and before you know it they move out after three years and your whole subfloor is ruined, you know, and you're in your bathrooms.
You get a complete remodel done, you know, so. Um, yeah, it definitely works out. It's a mutual benefit for sure. Yeah. And Coty, before we transition to our next section, uh, I believe your rental portfolio is your sole source of income. Has it been a wise decision leaving your W 2 and how is your portfolio performing numbers wise?
Yeah. Um, so you are absolutely right on that. Uh, I am 100 percent invested into MTR and this is my only source of income. And, um, it was difficult leaving my W 2 for sure. Um, I slowly treaded into doing that. I did have a few things going on at once and I realized to myself, you know, three business models probably isn't the best idea.
I'd really like to focus on one. I don't really believe that, you know, you can. Be successful, um, all the way through and through if you just have your, you know, hands in so many different things. Uh, and I felt that cause I was in the automotive industry. So I came from the automotive industry and you can buy a car once and you can sell a car once and you can just get that one profit.
When it comes to real estate, you invest your time and your money and then you get paid multiple times after that. So that's exactly what was attractive to me was furnishing all these properties and then getting paid multiple times every month after that, uh, to continue on the growth. So it has been doing really well.
Um, we're finally coming out of the stage where we're starting to finish off paying off investors. Um, you know, cause we kind of, we, we went for it immediately, you know, uh, we've been doing this, it'll be three years, uh, in December that we get our first, uh, we have 17 now, 10 arbitrage, uh, that's a lot of security deposits and first month payments and furnishings, you know, um, we're generally finding that it takes.
3, 000 per, you know, one bedroom. If you will, I'd probably say 3, 000 for one bedroom, five to six for a two bedroom. Um, but it really all depends on the space. You know, if there's porches and patios, you got to put a little patio furniture out there. You know, if it has washers and dryers, um, you know, you're trying to make sure that all that's taken care of.
If you've got a garage area, you walkways. Um, we don't want it to, you know, not look inviting, um, from the minute that you pull up in any aspect at all. We want it to be comfortable right away. Today's episode is proudly sponsored by Furnished Finder, the ultimate platform for hassle free midterm rentals.
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I think it's important, like you said, to invest in your space and you have to know that it's going to take, even if you just have one property or you're renting out an extra bedroom or something, it's going to take a while to get that money back, but it doesn't have to take super long, right? Like if you're just doing one unit, you can make that money back and start turning a profit pretty quickly.
Um, so I, I think that's something good to say. I would love to hear more about these investors you worked with and how you've. Found those relationships. Yeah. So it's definitely not an easy process trying to find somebody, somebody to invest money, um, that they've worked really hard for, um, into a concept that you have or a strategy that you have, especially being brand new.
Um, so I was able to find, so actually, well, I, uh, originally when I first, um, uh, put my own apartment on Airbnb and I got those two bookings, uh, I feel like I actually skipped a little portion of that real quick. So, yes. Um, I did get an eviction notice, uh, on my apartment, uh, door, and a guest let me know this, um, which was very, uh, unwelcoming, you know, if you will.
Not so great, yeah. Not the message that you want to get. No, not so great. Uh, so the guests ended up bringing a dog. I didn't know that dogs aren't allowed in the complex. Um, and one of the other tenants in the building ended up telling the property manager about that and they couldn't get a hold of me, I guess.
Um, maybe they just came here, you know, knocked on the door, but they ended up putting the eviction notice on my door. Um, so I took that money, um, to get back to your question, Katie, is I took that money. That I got the 4, 200 from my bookings and I paid my rent for a thousand dollars and I took the other 3, 200 and I went and paid first and security.
Um, it was 1, 200 an apartment that I had rented three years ago. Um, and I took the 2400 there and I went and, um, found a landlord that was willing to let me arbitrage. Um, so I found that, and then I ended up getting three more with that same landlord as well, too. And then once I had those four operating successfully, I was then able to kind of go to lenders and say, Hey guys, this is what I'm currently doing.
It's something I'm looking to scale. Here's the profit margins. Uh, is it something that you'd be willing to, you know, take on this challenge with me or, you know, loan me the money. So, um, that's exactly what they did. Um, My first loan was for 8, 000. Uh, my second loan was for 20, 000. And then my third loan was for, uh, 12, 000.
Yeah. And that was to, uh, build and complete, uh, four MTRs. Love it. So your midterm rental portfolio, that's your main focus. And you fill the gaps with short term rentals around, if Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe around 80 percent of your bookings come from Furnished Finder and you get three to five messages or leads a day in your area.
So what have been some of the key benefits of working with Furnished Finder for your midterm rental portfolio? Yeah, so Furnace Finder has been awesome. Uh, it's definitely the top of the MTR space. I really enjoy it for their stats section, their analytics section, me making sure that I'm investing my time and money in the right areas.
Um, and yeah, we are, I'd say 80 percent of our bookings come from Furnace Finder since we're now transitioning completely out of SDR into the midterm space. Um, and really, it's you have to stand out and that's kind of just in any industry, you know, you have to set yourself aside. And I think starting in the short term mental space and really wanting to stand out there.
Allowed us to transition into MTR pretty well. And Katie, back to your point as well, too, about spending the money, you have to spend the money because you know, if you think you're just going to put a bed frame and a bed in there and a Bureau and that's it, you know, like one night stand or like no lamp or a lamp, you know, like, no, it's gotta be throw blankets for four to six pillows in the beds, you know, like get it really comfortable in that space.
And it's okay if, sorry, I want to, I want to pull you aside there real quick. It's okay if like, I don't know about you, but. But you know, we have scaled pretty quickly as well. And sometimes I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like it gives me a minor panic attack when I'm like hitting checkout on these online shopping things or when I'm like going to target and my carts overflowing and I'm like, Oh, this is so many, like I'm spending 300 on throw pillows or I'm buying more blankets or more sheets.
Do I really need all these sheets? Because I'm spending, you know, I, I like to put two sets of sheets for each bedroom because in my mind, if you want to wash your sheets, you should be able to put on clean sheets. It's right. You want to have alternatives. And that is, is a must, especially in the level of properties that I'm trying to present, but it's a little bit of like, it twists your gut a little bit when I'm like, Oh, that total, or that amount, or I'm like, here we go again.
And it, it's a hard, it's kind of like a hard pill to swallow. But you have to do it because it's like what you and what you put in is what you get back, right? Like you're saying, if you put in a bed frame and an old mattress and it just, you're going to put in what you get back, right? You're going to attract what you put out there.
If you want to have great experiences, great tenants. I mean, all the midterm tenants are great, but you can get. You can get a higher amount for rent. You can get, um, you know, you can just kind of put yourself in a different space when you act really professionally. You know, you follow these best practices and when your port, when your property shows how great it can be.
Yeah. I want to add something that I haven't added on the show yet while Katie triggered my mind. One thing about, you know, those sheets is thinking if you have space for two king beds, then you have the same sheets that you can interchange, potentially, between both beds. bedrooms. So I learned that one through trial and error is for whatever reason in most of our three bedroom, two bath houses, I've put a king bed and a queen bed.
But then, you know, the, when the cleaners are coming through, they're like, are these king sheets? Are they queen sheets? So my little tip is if you you know, find yourself where you have to have a combo of a king bed and a queen bed. Well, then you can get those really thick plush mattresses where then you need a king sheet anyways, because the mattresses are thicker.
Uh, that's one, one tip or, you know, just label your sheets well. So it's easy for the cleaners to know which ones are the king sheets, which ones are the queen sheets. And I try to buy beds that have space underneath to give that extra storage opportunity to keep. The backup rounds of comforters and sheets underneath the bed.
What about you, Coty? Any, any little tips like that, uh, for the operations in the home? Yeah. Um, I did the same thing as I, uh, I've got a few that have Queens with a full in there. You know, um, we've got a few, you know, maybe they have like a trundle bed that had a single that also had a couple of Queens in there as well, too.
Um, so yeah, we ended up labeling all of the, um, sheets on the tags. We colored them with different colored, uh, markers to make sure that they were labeled properly. And then, uh, I had asked my, uh, cleaning team, cause I drop all the laundry off cause it's so much, you know, most of the time, uh, before when we were doing all the labeling.
But, um, right now we've kind of just transitioned into, so what, Our business model, what we like to do is we like to have three sets of everything, um, in our, uh, for whatever the bedding needs. So if there's one queen, we want three queen sets, 12 pillowcases, or, uh, yeah, 12 pillowcases, you know, um, and then six towels, six face cloths, six, uh, you know, hand towels.
Because we want, um, one that's down to present to the guests when they arrive, it's nice and clean. We want two in this, um, storage closet, you know, basically. And then when you do the first turnover, all the linens get taken, it gets cleaned, you put down the clean linens that are there. And if there's an issue with the washing and drying machine, anything like that, you don't have to worry about turning over those exact linens that you're pulling up to put back down.
So it's just nice to have those extra. And then especially if, uh Um, you know, there's a stain or something like that. Something needs to be replaced. Um, so we'll donate all of our sheets and comforters and linens and furniture and everything like that as well, too. Um, once they've been used throughout the MTR space, cause we have a few now that have been on the platform for three years.
Yeah, that's smart. Don't hesitate to replace those things, right? The, I'll do that too. And I just rely on the cleaner to tell me like, Hey, tell me when the towels, the washcloths need to be replaced. Um, and I've actually given her. extra towels, sheets, washcloths. She has them with her when she goes to clean.
And she'll be like, Hey, the washcloths in here were looking dingy. I replaced them. And then I just know, okay, I need to get her more stock of washcloths, but there's no rush. Whereas if I didn't give her that stock, then she would be like, Hey, these washcloths are dingy. And the new people move in tomorrow.
Like, can I go get some, or can you send some or whatnot? And Think about little ways like that. Like you're saying with the extra sheets. Um, and I love the idea for donating them. Typically I've been giving them to my brother cause he uses them for rags in his workshop, but recycling to some degree is great, but don't hesitate to replace that stuff.
You guys, the last thing you want is for something like old towels or sheets that have stains or that just look worn right. To be the first impression on your guest. You can get that stuff so affordably now on Walmart or Amazon or Target. Like it's not expensive, but that first impression matters so much.
It really does. First impression of the property and first impression for the correspondence as well, too, when the guest reaches out to you, um, all around, definitely very, very, very important.
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These have been great tips for, you know, things we've all learned through trial and error in our midterm rental business. So if you're listening and it sparked your mind on something that you think, Oh yeah, I learned this. through, you know, being an midterm mental operator, then put it in the show notes so that you can help all of us become better hosts and catch those things ahead of time, uh, in the comments that is.
Uh, so one thing that you do, Coty, is We've already emphasized your professionalism, uh, making the best impression on the guests. And the, one of the key ways of doing that is through communication. So you have around nine planned out touch points. We probably won't talk about all nine, but it's a good way to start.
Good conversation to kind of get the juices and the brain flowing for when should you communicate with guests? So why don't you, uh, highlight the key ones that you like to make sure and emphasize, uh, throughout the prior to booking during the stay and, you know, as the checkout's coming up. Yeah, absolutely.
And, uh, that is a very important, you know, strategy or method to go through, um, making sure that you really touch base. I mean, it's hard, right? Like, if you're, so like, we will FaceTime with the guests. We will do a walkthrough if they have a, someone who's local that wants to meet us at the property to walk through it, you know, for them to look over as well too.
We'll also do that. Um, we'll share our reviews, but you know, when you have just the first message going out, it's hard to, you know, Express all of that. You know, you don't want to send them a big story about how great you are and all the things you're willing to offer, but being able to let them know that you have, uh, that to offer in a small increment throughout your messages, uh, really will go a long way.
So, like, just for starters, as you go on new, any of our properties on furnace finder or any of our advertisements, it says, please call or text at any time with our phone number. We're, we're very prominent of putting our, uh, email address on their cell phone number. Usually comes directly to me. Um, you know, so it's gonna be right to my cell phone.
Um, I'm gonna go ahead and answer all those questions for the guests. I'm gonna make sure that they have an understanding of the area that they're staying in. Uh, that's very important as well, too, especially for someone coming to the area that's unfamiliar with it, you know, completely. Um, so yeah, we do have a, um, initial response message, you know, if you will, um, that's going to go ahead and just confirm all the details of the booking.
Uh, confirm the number of guests, confirm if they have any pets or not. Um, cause sometimes, you know, guests won't, um, uh, remember to put a pet that they have a pet that they're traveling with, or they're not sure if the property is open and pet friendly. Um, so they won't put that there, but when we go ahead and you send that message out, maybe they missed it in your, um, uh, details that you do allow pets.
And if you send that message saying, Hey, I just wanted to confirm the details. Here's the dates of the booking, you know, here's the guest numbers. Um, I didn't notice. Do you have any pets? If you do have any pets and plan on bringing them, we are pet friendly. Just let us know. Um, so that's that definitely helps as well.
Um, you get the 3 days before check in message usually. And it's just saying, Hey, you're coming up on your arrival date. Um, you know, if you, uh, have any questions about the area or depending on what you like for dining or food or activities, or do you want recommendations on a local gym? Um, we'd be happy to provide that for you as well.
Um, and then kind of, uh, the next one would be the initial check in message, um, which we send out, uh, usually around noon time, you know, 12 o'clock noon of their arrival date, uh, unless they're asking to, you know, uh, come in any earlier. Sometimes we'll have guests where they'll arrive in the area 4 days before a property is actually available and they stay in a hotel for those 4 days.
So they're trying to come over to the property as quick as possible. Um, so we'll allow that a little bit earlier. Um, the first morning message. Very important. It's a guest want to feel comfortable that they can tell you that there's a concern that they have or something needs to be addressed, um, without having to make the first outreach, I guess, you know, so 10 a.
m. The first morning we send out a message saying, Hey, hope everything's been comfortable and well that you checked in. If you have any questions, or if there's anything that we could do to accommodate your stay. Please let us know. You know, so we do have that. Um, and then just, uh, like before the checkout, kind of like in between that, you know, first day or first morning and the checkout, um, we'll just reach out periodically, maybe with like events that are coming up in the area, um, you know, we're coming into fair season, you know, fall season festivals, stuff like that.
So we always like to let the, um, guests know about all the local attractions, you know, especially some of the old time ones that might not be so prominent on social media as well. One real quick to add is just asking for a review as well too. We always like to ask for a review. A lot of times the guests will like to say, let me make sure my security deposit comes back first.
But that's fine. We're totally fine with that and On that note, uh, I've only had one security deposit that I didn't give back. Uh, and that was it, but they stayed seven months with us. And, and what portion of the security deposit did you have to keep? And what was that situation? Um, so It is definitely a good question.
I, this one's a little bit tricky. So I learned a lesson on this one and I hope that this is a lesson that everybody else can learn as well too. Um, I've been hearing that, uh, some are charging security deposits that are the full month's rent, um, which can be a lot of money for the travelers coming to the area, you know, um, so I have actually been charging, uh, 500 for one bedrooms, a thousand for two bedrooms and 1500 for three bedrooms.
And I ended up charging this guest 500 for a two bedroom and they stayed there seven months. Uh, and I ended up actually having a little over 1200 worth of things that I had to replace. Um, so I didn't give back any of their security deposit. And, um, so there's another 700 remaining that had to come out of my pocket, uh, to make sure that those things were taken care of.
So those were, I mean, they had, uh, two kids and a dog, um, and, you know, so all the linens, you know, needed to be replaced, the broken blinds, um, missing Roku remotes, um, you know, stuff like that. Um, so just a little, you know, all added up, you know, and we do like mattress protectors and duvet covers and pillow protectors and everything.
And it was all right down to the actual material itself that needed to be replaced. I think that's a good point though. You know, you, sometimes this is going to happen. And even in midterm rentals where you have these professional travelers, sometimes things happen, right? And you've got to know that when that happens, there's, there's always a lesson in it, whether like you, you're going to charge a larger security deposit, or maybe it's that if someone's staying for a really long time, you have a linen fee.
Like, that's, what's nice about midterm rentals and specifically furnished finder is you can do this, how you want to do it. Right. And you, you can, you can. customize that to which type of tenant you have, which property, how the length of stay, any of those things that you need to. This also is a good demonstration of where, um, our new product, which is called worry free waiver, um, would come in and like totally save the day.
Um, this is something I'm really excited about. So worry free waiver is, it's an alternative to a security deposit, Or you can use it in addition to a security deposit, just kind of however you want to spin it. And what it does is it gives you coverage for damage, um, up to a certain amount, depending on, um, the kind of level of coverage that you choose, but up to 3, 500 and it's a monthly fee.
Instead of a deposit so you can pay that as a landlord you can pass along the cost to a tenant You can either build it into your rent. You can do it as an add on So many different ways you can spin it. But what's really nice is it just gives you that coverage So if anything larger happens, you can have that peace of mind knowing that like you can get that Replace all those replacement items taken care of so I am excited about that as a landlord.
Well a couple of things I noticed in your furnished finder listings that we'll just wrap up this episode with I really liked the way that you emphasized important details in your headlines and then the main photos, you have a variety. A lot of people, you know, say, Oh, I like kitchens best, or I like, uh, bedrooms best, but you have a nice variety.
So those are the two topics I want to lean into to kind of help wrap up the episode. Some of the key things that you emphasize in your headlines is lakes and oceans, first floor, pet friendly, it's an entire place, not just a room, it's a comfortable bed, fully equipped kitchen. So, how do you decide what are the important features to put in that headline for each property?
Yeah, great question. Um, we actually just transitioned over to doing that now that we're being more in the MTR space. Um, like I said, coming from the short term mental side, it was, hey, look at all these attractions that are in the area. You know, we used to put there were 45 minutes away from Boston. Um, there were 45 minutes away from here, an hour from here type of thing, but.
It's not so much, uh, what's around us. It's what your property provides when it comes to the MTR space. So we wanted to put those things out where pet friendly, it's the entire space. It's a quiet, comfortable area, comfortable beds, quiet neighborhood. Um, that's really what's important, you know, and that's what guests are looking for, right?
Like, it says two bedroom, one bath, Manchester, you know, and you want to be able to let them know the things because they're just sifting through titles, right? Until they actually click on your listing, they can only see what you have allowed them to see. So if you're able to put the questions that they're going to have in their head, basically, you know, or on the, on the phone call when they call you.
Right there in front of them. Um, it's it's the first response. It's the first, uh, initial reaction, you know, if you will, to the guests getting all of their questions answered immediately without having to click on your listing, which thus far makes yours look more attractive. Yeah, and then on the photo side, how do you decide which main photo you want to lead with?
Uh, so the photos is you know, like every property has its its its best showcase photo if you will a room that has been designed the best or You know, it really looks well. Um, and what we want to do is whatever's the most inviting and comfortable and kind of describes the space the best. Um, you know, if it's a, a really big open kitchen and, you know, it's got multiple cabinets and you've got plenty of pots and pans, uh, and there's a nice four seating dining table instead of just a breakfast bar with two bar stools.
You know, show that breakfast table, show that huge whole kitchen. Um, if you have a bedroom that's large, you know, you have a air ionizer in there. Um, you know, you got room darkening shades, super nice, you know, bedding. Um, and it's comfortable and everything there and it's, uh, multiple dressers. Then show the bedroom.
You know, and then prominently, you know, if we what we like to do is if it's a single family home, we'll either show the exterior of the house or we will show the living area because they know again, you know, it's this is the location. This is the layouts how many bedrooms how many bathrooms that it has.
So if you show the first display photo of something that's not in the detailed information, but they're already viewing. Again, it allows them to make a decision a lot faster, which leads to more bookings. Yeah, very well said. Katie, any last thoughts before I wrap us up? I just think with photos like take the time to stand out stand out and don't don't be afraid to change it up to like The photos are more of an art than a science, especially when it comes to your coat your um your cover photos So if you're not getting a lot of action tinker with it, right see if you can switch out that photo If I have a vacant unit, I switch the photo every few days just to see if a different, a different cover photo sparks a little bit more interest or stops the scroll in any different way.
Just tinker with it. You guys be active with your midterm rental, freshen up those furnishings, find good partners. Like this is, it's so much less of an active, industry than short term rentals. Like you don't have to be in there doing the turnovers and managing everything every single day, but you still can't just set it and forget it.
You need to be alive and participating in your business and, and tinkering with your listings and just making sure that the things are working to meet your goals, whatever your goals are. If that's to make a little extra income from one room into your house, Or to have a growing business like Coty does, just make sure that you're being active and giving yourself that chance to succeed.
And Furnished Finder is such a tool for that. Yeah. On, I think the only piece that I'll add for the main photos that That maybe we haven't touched on yet is reminder. These midterm rental guests are staying for 30 days or more. Uh, so it's important to give them the full picture to build trust and association.
So don't skip the exterior photos. Uh, if you are looking through your photos and you only have photos of the interior, well then in, in a lot of a traveler's minds, or at least in my mind, what it says is, Are they trying to hide something? Why isn't there a picture of the exterior? So mine being mainly three bedroom, two bath homes with fenced yards that are great to bring your pets and for kids to play outside, I found that a lot of my main photos are actually exterior photos of the home, uh, or collage style photos to emphasize, um, the home and interior portion and some of those, uh, attractive air, um, the attractions in the area.
So your homework, uh, you guys might've noticed we've started to give y'all homework because we want you to be the best midterm rental operators that you can be. So if you don't have professional photos, a company that, uh, we know of and would recommend would be Snapper. Uh, you can also look on social media groups in your area, uh, to ask, uh, local real estate professionals who they have used.
You can go. on Furnished Finder and say, man, I really like my neighbor's photos. Call them up, ask them who they use. Um, and check your photo order. See, see, is it, is it looking good? Do you need to swap, swap things around, et cetera. Coty, if someone wants to connect with you, how would you like them to do so?
Yeah, anybody's welcome to reach out to me. Ask any questions and best for sure. We definitely have a lot of landlords now that are calling us right now. They're saying, hey, I want you to bring your business model to my property and we can only do so many at once with so much capital, but anybody can reach out to me.
They can send an email at open door housing. 603 at gmail dot com. Um, not too well known on social media. Um, but we do have a Facebook page, uh, underneath the open door housing as well, too. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. Uh, we are a weekly podcast bringing to you everything midterm rentals, uh, and what real estate challenges or successes may come along with that.
So don't forget to subscribe or share our show with a friend. Friend, we will catch you next week. Thanks so much for being here. Have a great day, everyone. Thanks guys.