The rental landscape has witnessed a paradigm shift over the past few years. Amidst the hustle and bustle of short-term rentals and the long-term commitments of traditional leases, mid-term rentals have carved out a niche for themselves. For those contemplating a dive into this burgeoning sector, understanding the journey of those who've tread this path can be enlightening. This article provides a thorough exploration of the world of mid-term rentals, enriched by the experiences, triumphs, and failures of early adopters.
The Personal Journey of Sasha: From Airbnb to Mid-Term Rentals
Sasha Reyes' (opens in new tab) entry into the world of rentals began with Airbnb. With a property in Florida and a move to New York on the horizon, she initially saw Airbnb as a way to generate income from her vacant home. As she delved deeper, she appreciated the platform's potential, especially with the diverse range of guests it brought in.
However, the challenges of managing a property from a distance became evident. The frequent turnovers required by Airbnb meant she had to be constantly on her toes. Add to that the unpredictability of short-term guests, some of whom hosted unauthorized parties or left the property in less than ideal conditions. The fees from Airbnb, combined with the inconsistent income and the stress of unexpected guest behavior, made Sasha reconsider her strategy.
It was during this period of reflection that Sasha came across the concept of mid-term rentals. This niche, positioned between short-term stays and long-term leases, catered to professionals like traveling nurses who needed accommodations for a few weeks to a few months. For Sasha, this was a game-changer. Not only did it promise consistent income, but it also meant dealing with a more reliable tenant base.
She recalled her interactions with a traveling nurse from Michigan who had been working at the Winter Haven hospital. Tired of extended stays in hotels and seeking the comfort of a home, this nurse became one of Sasha's tenants. Such interactions highlighted the demand and potential of mid-term rentals.
Recognizing this, Sasha adapted her property to this new market. She focused on making her home comfortable for longer stays, ensuring it had all the amenities professionals might need. This shift wasn't just about maximizing profits; it was about creating a win-win situation for both the landlord and the tenant. Sasha's pivot to mid-term rentals not only brought her more stability but also underscored the importance of being adaptable in the ever-evolving rental landscape.
Pricing Strategies: Finding the Sweet Spot
Sasha's journey in this area was characterized by meticulous research and sharp intuition. Setting the right price for a rental property can be a delicate balance. Her primary goal was to offer a competitive rate that would attract traveling nurses, a key demographic for her, while also ensuring she made a reasonable profit.
To begin her pricing strategy, Sasha first looked at the costs a traveling nurse would face when staying at a hotel. She considered factors like daily rates, the amenities provided, and the length of stay. This research gave her a clear picture of the expenses these professionals were already accustomed to and provided her with a baseline to work from.
Next, Sasha turned her attention to Airbnb, a platform she was already familiar with. She analyzed her previous rates on the platform and then deducted the fees Airbnb charged. This exercise was crucial because it gave her insight into the net amount she would receive from a booking. By comparing this with the hotel rates, she could gauge where her property stood in terms of market competitiveness.
But Sasha didn't stop there. She also took into account the unique selling points of her property. Her home offered a more personalized and comfortable experience compared to a hotel room. Features like a fully equipped kitchen, laundry facilities, and the overall ambiance of a home could justify a slightly higher rate.
Furthermore, Sasha was aware of the value of her property's location. Situated close to the Winter Haven hospital, her property was in a prime spot for traveling nurses working there. This convenience was another factor she could leverage in her pricing.
In the end, by blending hard data from sources such as www.FurnishedFinder.com/stats (opens in new tab) with an understanding of her property's unique offerings, Sasha was able to set a price that was both attractive to her target audience and ensured she maintained a healthy profit margin. This strategy underscores the importance of a holistic approach to pricing, one that considers both market rates and the intrinsic value of the property.
Furnishing for Success: Meeting the Needs of Mid-Term Renters
When Sasha first ventured into mid-term rentals, her approach was simple and minimalistic. Her property was equipped with just the basics: an inflatable mattress, essential amenities, and a few pieces of furniture. It was a modest start, reflecting her cautious optimism about this new rental niche.
However, as she began to host more tenants, Sasha quickly recognized the importance of feedback. One of the most significant insights she gained was from a traveling nurse from Michigan. This nurse, who had been working at the Winter Haven hospital, expressed the challenges of staying in hotels for extended periods. She missed the comforts of home, especially when it came to preparing her meals. This feedback was an eye-opener for Sasha. She realized that traveling professionals, especially those on longer assignments or those with families, were looking for more than just a place to sleep. They wanted a space that felt like home.
Acting on this feedback, Sasha began to invest in her property. She upgraded from the inflatable mattress to a comfortable bed, ensuring her guests had restful nights. Recognizing the importance of home-cooked meals for many of her tenants, she equipped the kitchen with modern appliances, utensils, and other essentials. The living area was transformed with cozy furnishings, creating a space where guests could relax and unwind after a long day.
The Power of Platforms: Furnished Finder and KeyCheck
In today's interconnected world, leveraging the right digital platform can propel a business to new heights. Sasha recognized this early on and made a pivotal shift to Furnished Finder (opens in new tab). This wasn't just any platform; it was specifically designed for traveling professionals. Beyond its user-friendly interface, Furnished Finder brought to the table a range of tools that set it apart. One such standout feature was the travel nurse housing demand graph. This innovative tool provided a visual representation of market demand, enabling Sasha to gauge peak rental periods and adjust her strategies accordingly. The platform's emphasis on transparency and its ability to connect landlords with a niche audience made it a perfect fit for Sasha's objectives.
But Furnished Finder was just one piece of the puzzle. KeyCheck (opens in new tab) emerged as another cornerstone of Sasha's rental business. In an industry where trust is paramount, KeyCheck's tenant vetting system was invaluable. It meticulously examined potential tenants to make sure that trustworthy people were residing on Sasha's property. Beyond this, KeyCheck simplified the often cumbersome transaction process with its online rent payment options. The platform's transparent fee structure meant there were no hidden costs, a feature that both Sasha and her tenants greatly appreciated. Moreover, with state-specific, customizable leases and e-signature options, the leasing process became a breeze. By integrating KeyCheck into her operations, Sasha was able to streamline administrative tasks, allowing her to channel her energies into refining the overall tenant experience.
Building Relationships: Neighbors and Tenants
Being miles away from her rental property could have been a significant hurdle for Sasha, but she transformed this potential setback into a strategic advantage. While her primary residence was in New York, her rental property was located in Florida. This geographical divide underscores the value of fostering strong local connections. Sasha didn't just view her neighbors as mere acquaintances; she saw them as invaluable partners in her rental venture. They became her eyes and ears on the ground, ensuring that the property was well-maintained and secure. In instances where tenants faced issues, these neighbors stepped in, offering timely assistance and ensuring that Sasha's guests always felt taken care of.
But Sasha's relationship-building prowess wasn't limited to just her neighbors. She deeply understood that the success of her rental business hinged on the experiences of her tenants. Every tenant brought with them a unique set of requirements and expectations. Sasha, with her innate ability to empathize, tailored her offerings to meet these specific needs. For families that required different sleeping arrangements, she was flexible with bed configurations. Recognizing that many of her tenants were new to the area, she curated a comprehensive list of local attractions, eateries, and hidden gems, ensuring they got the most out of their stay. This personalized touch not only led to extended tenancies but also garnered her glowing reviews, further cementing her reputation as a top-tier landlord in the mid-term rental space.
Embracing Flexibility and Adaptability
The rental market, with its ever-shifting dynamics, demands a keen sense of adaptability from its players. Sasha's journey in the mid-term rental space is a shining example of this. She didn't just set up her property and wait for tenants to come in; she actively listened to their needs and made adjustments accordingly. When she started, her property was minimally furnished, with just the basics. However, as she began to understand her tenants better, especially the traveling professionals and those with families, she realized they were looking for more than just a place to sleep. They wanted a home away from home. This led her to enhance her property, ensuring it was well-furnished and equipped to provide a holistic living experience.
But her adaptability wasn't limited to just furnishings. Sasha was astute enough to understand the market's ebbs and flows. During lean periods, when demand was low, she offered flexible pricing, ensuring her property remained attractive to potential tenants. This agility in pricing not only ensured consistent occupancy but also fostered goodwill among her clientele.
Episode 7 Transcript
Welcome to 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 place for everything midterm rentals remember to like And subscribe if you enjoy our content as always thanks for joining us this is Kelly Bailey your host of the landlord Diaries I'm here with my wonderful co-host and our Furnished Finder marketing director Katie Lyon take it away Katie what do you think about this episode hey hey this episode was so fun we got to talk to Sasha and Sasha grew up in a traveling family so she's seen it from both sides she was in over 20 States growing up which just absolutely blew my mind and now it's so cool to see how she's taking taking little tidbits of what she learned as a as a traveling child and throughout her you know years of growing up and adapted it to making travel the easiest for travel nurses with the the homes that she is creating so it's a good one [Music] thank you let's go ahead and bring in uh the star of this episode Sasha Reyes Sasha and her husband Jesse have a furnished finder Furnished Finder rental in Winter Haven Florida and are currently in the process of setting up a second rental in South Carolina she is a new Superstar on Furnished Finder but an Airbnb super host with 24 quality reviews Sasha has a unique story which I'm so excited for us to dive into because she grew up in a traveling medical family and now has come full spectrum and is going to be hosting similar guests on Furnished Finder so hi Sasha how are you today hi ladies hi Kelly and Katie I'm good thanks for having me awesome let's dive in so uh Sasha tell us what it was like growing up on the road with your mom as a traveling medical professional definitely well it was a it was a constant change of of environment to say the least um I started at a very young age so um you know I kind of got used to adapting to the different cities states and climates of course um being from South Florida we were in some very very chilly States and um we had no choice but to roll with it so um I think that it made for a very good uh life experience also and that was throughout your entire childhood is that correct mostly throughout my entire childhood um my mom uh we didn't pretty much settle back in Florida until like my late high school years so even throughout like sophomore year we were still traveling and how often did y'all move around yeah how often what did that look like yeah so as as some as you ladies may know I mean a contract can be as little as 13 weeks um and the average so we it'd be from three months to could be six months it could be nine months um but we were never in one assigned a location for over 12 months wow and did y'all homeschool or how did you do school no no no school was like like it you know like it used to be I'm just going to school my dad would sign us up or my mom would sign us up you know we would have to take all our documents as you were to register at any public school district um transfer records all that good stuff sometimes took days or whatnot and we would be in a school for three months even if it meant just that amount of time wow um but my parents always made sure that we were enrolled so that was we didn't get uh you know if we weren't lucky enough to just be like oh not go to school or home school we would go to actual School so was that hard or did you like it I mean um in the beginning I guess I thought it was a bit harder um but you know as a creature of that we are of habit like after something just becomes your reality um you kind of just start adapting to that um at some point I remember myself kind of getting bored after like two months of being in the school I'm just like okay I'm ready for the next book oh really or whatever the case may be because yeah I mean just think about it I was starting about uh second grade because when I first traveled to my first um School outside of Florida um we were in Iowa um middle of the winter and it was just different I remember it being very different there we lived in Montana Billings Montana also very different Northern California uh uh Southern Arizona so just constantly living in different environments um and there was just some schools that I didn't really like um I do remember that one of my favorite uh my favorite areas I guess or maybe I was just welcomed a little bit differently but just like the East Coast the the Northeast Coast like you know the Pocono Mountains um that was always a very nice area I guess I really just like the Landscaping too I'm a landscape person and an architecture person and I just love that whole New England kind of feel um but um I always I also like like that ranch feel like back in Montana like Montana to me was very beautiful even you know just driving through the plateaus or the mountains or whatever that's something that I really um really clinged on to and you know getting to know Indian reservations and stuff like that so that was that was pretty neat as well so um I it has its it it gave me a life experience and I've learned a lot from it and I think that um it did more good for me than bad at the end of the day nice did you keep track of how many states you lived in yeah we lived in about uh I'd say almost 20 States wow wow and not all of them did I necessarily enroll in school so there may be some times especially on the off season if it was like summer time we just you know my mom happened to work in that area throughout the summer we just wouldn't be enrolled in school or at times we would go back to Florida and then you know we would just stay in Florida and then my mom would just if it was something very like like just a short contract she would just go on her own um handle the contract for those said two months or three months and then come back um so at some point you know we would just roll with whatever came our way uh you know Katie we're laughing or we're saying wow like 20 States I wonder how many of our traveling medical professionals like 20 yeah that's pretty normal I don't know right like that's that sounds about right and to me I'm just like yeah I mean we moved two miles down the street and I'm like oh my gosh you had kids into the mix and everything is just so much harder and crazy and like you said you think of school and friends and activities and I mean that's no easy thing that was you know but it does create a lot of cool memories I think as well yeah and I kind of do feel you Katie like we get that a lot from our family like because at the end of the day we're we're not settled into like one town or city so we were living in um in Southern Florida for the longest and so we're just like you know what we need to buy a house and we just simply can't afford a house in here and we just like let's just move to Central Florida we have no one there there's absolutely no one there but I'm just like hey we gotta you know I guess coming from my background where I just had that sense of like I have never been tied down to one city one state I just didn't find it very hard to just say hey we got to go find a house in Winter Haven so but um it's nothing everything is just a drive or a plane ride away that's how I think right yep no I think that's pretty cool so how do you feel this whole experience growing up has shaped who you are today yeah definitely I think it makes me um I think it makes me more knowledgeable and in a lot of ways um just even getting to know new places and um you know you get to know new things and learn new things it gives a topic of conversation many places of which you might be talking to someone one day and they might be from that same town or or whatever the case and it's happened in several locations where you know you're just in a conversation with someone and they'll be like oh yeah I have a friend there or I went to school there or whatever the case may be so just being be more well-rounded um more knowledgeable and also just um getting to know all different kinds of people you know and you have 50 states in our country and every which state in this country is very different from the culture to the accents to the people in general even that we eat so um I think that that's pretty neat um and it just has made me a well-rounded person in that sense and I think in a past conversation we uh you had said that you grew up in a cuban-american family and really only knew that Heritage being Cuban American being raised in Southern Florida it's like it's like you're mini Cuba it really is um especially if you're born and raised there um and my mom she knows she had that perspective where she wanted to she did want to change she wanted to change a scenery so her taking that traveling um you know a career uh really did that for us you know getting away of of that stereotype lifestyle in Southern Florida and just kind of getting to know the world and getting to know our country in general definitely uh made me more Americanized although my first language was Spanish because my parents were Cuban um I mean technically I I spoke English at a very young age now going to public school and as you were as you would in in um in Florida in any school um but the culture is obviously different from the food that we ate to the things that we listened to the music the way we dress everything you know um let's get into um experience the American lifestyle uh getting to meet people in other cities and states that um top my parents a lot of new things you know my mom had a and you know she always had a heavy um Cuban accent and people early on in her traveling career um you know she she was lucky enough to make uh good friends and people would sometimes correct her and they would compare her to uh I Love Lucy and Ricky Ricardo like my parents were those you know like to them because they had that you know that spunk and that kind of um uh character were like oh hey well you guys are different right and anytime they would miss say a word or something so simple you know where they would nicely correct them so I think that for everyone for every one of us um it was just a constant change of culture and getting to know um just getting to know our country in general so I think that it made us more Americanized it made us more in tune with our country with their people with what it is to be an American in general and not just a Cuban American now you grew up with so many changes constant changes different locations all of those things do you see any reflection of learning to adapt to change and try new things and be thrown into new situation in your professional life as well uh definitely so to start off with my professional background um I went to college for communications I mean something very broad but um I have I haven't been uh very successful in tying myself down into a corporate lifestyle um and not because I can't just because my background doesn't allow me to I am I am a creature of just being a free a free woman and I work with who I work and when I work so right from yeah I was raised I you know I'm an independent contractor I I choose who I want to work with when I want to work in et cetera you know um you can you know you can take it from there but um as far as that that kind of uh that's from my background I I realized that now that I can't be tied to one place I I just can't you know what I mean I like that change and always having a different Challenge and just getting to know and uh new people getting to speak to new people and just being in that constant um change of environment I know that for some people it might seem like oh wow you must be constantly like on the go but um it it doesn't trouble me at all um and as far as you know being a uh apparently I'm Lord and and getting to accommodate people in that field um it helps me out because I know that when you're on the road there's certain Essentials that you need and that the fact that you're going to be traveling and you're out of the comfort of your own home Etc you know we want to make sure that we provide those certain Essentials for you to feel at home um and you not necessarily have to go out and purchase those things something as simple as a as a blender or simple things of that nature that you don't have to go out to the store and buy you know an appliance or anything uh for you to be comfortable in your home or in that said property for those three to four or five months um so I feel that that my background the way I was raised or just simply traveling um so much um gives me that that knowledge of like you know the things of the essentials that a traveler needs um we used to travel with us a 12-foot trailer um and at one point my dad just got sick of it because we wouldn't really drag our house everywhere we went we would you know put a trailer in the in the car and just drag it 600 miles this way or take it A Thousand Miles the other way and we would move in and out of an apartment or a home every single time and that um it takes work um and again uh Katie going back to like after having children we we traveled with three I was the oldest at first it was just me and my brother and then my little sister came on after a few years and um we were traveling a whole family of five uh constantly adapting and changing our our environment and our homes and and things like that um to the point like I said at one point my dad was just like listen we can't be traveling with all these things so um things and you know you always try to make your family uh you know comfortable right especially that we're changing environments all the time so making the home and this is what this this podcast is all about you know finding that furnished finder that makes um makes you feel homey and and welcomed and comfortable for that extension of your contract so that's that was our goal everywhere we moved um essentially love it so Sasha you have traveled a lot um what made you and let's just focus on your current property uh that you already have guests in what made you uh land and purchase a home in Winter Haven Florida yeah so um one of our previous questions I I mentioned how um I have no sense of being tied down to any area or any town or any state in that factor um at the time back before the pandemic because now I feel like we're talking in ages it's like pre-pandemic but this is before pandemic we were living in Southern Florida and to say the least things were getting a little expensive back then and um I had just had my son Marcel and I'm just like listen I'm tired of renting I um this is you know it's getting a bit excessive and I just kind of want to not being uh I don't want to be so stressed out paying rent everything right yeah it's a very stressful thing especially when it's going to someone else's Pockets yes after after you know and analyzing things um I decided to take a break a break of everything a break of life everything and we went over to Colorado we went to Colorado for like three months and it's a good place to be yes it's the perfect Escape I tell that to everyone anyone that needs a break in life I'm just like go to the Colorado mountains just just spend a few weeks there you'll find what you're looking for and and that was the break that I needed I needed that break in life and just you know cut ties with and with anything that we had at that time and we went to Colorado Springs we're there for almost three months and um just got things into perspective um started thinking about our goals and what we needed to do to get there um and we did uh we we had the blessing of having some awesome Airbnb hosts and they had this little duplex um a two unit duplex they lived on one side and they rented out the other side and I'm just like well these guys are not paying no mortgage no nothing we're paying their mortgage no you're chilling yep I want to be like them so is that the first time you had thought about real estate as a possible future yes that is it's not the first time I wanted to be a boss but it was the first time and someone else is going to pay my mortgage right in Good Sense not in any other crazy sense in the good sense of support I mean hey um you know I you have a property and it can always make you money uh to say the least so that's the first time that we put that idea into perspective um and we thought about purchasing in Colorado we were like you know not being tied down to Florida whatsoever I said okay let me start looking at the Colorado Market I started doing how you know the price out here this and that and at the time I'm just like okay you know the things that we could afford need a little work and then the prices that our new bills are kind of remote and I don't want to be so remote out here because it is Colorado and it snows and you know at the same time you got to be a little smart so I'm just like um you know we held off the idea on that um in January of 2020 we moved back to Florida and I already knew you know I was already in the process of my pre-approve I said this year I am not moving back into another rental I am going to get a house the next house I move into is going to be at our house and so we did that uh three months later we had our home in Winter Haven we realized that in Southern Florida it was just obviously out of our out of our budget at that time um and we moved on up we're like okay I work a lot um in my industry of events and marketing I was having a lot of uh clientele in Orlando Florida um but Orlando was getting really pricey too so you know I myself a good realtor or a realtor however you pronounce that word uh realtor and uh and she scouted me all over Central Florida from Orlando to Lakeland to to Kissimmee to Winter Haven and we came across this beautiful new built community and um it's it was it it was like one of those things you know as lady intuitions we kind of just look at a place and we're just like okay I can see myself here this is it so this is the first home that we've bought ever uh it was a Winter Haven um but um I was happy that it happened in uh when it did to say the least um I was telling Kelly in our in our initial intro intro interview last week that um I just felt like it was a time for change and to change fast um and I know that some things you know we it's out of our explanation as as far as how we feel the energy around us but when I was in Colorado I I was just so you know I kind of came to that Clarity um I knew what I wanted to do I knew what I had to do to get there but at the same time I felt something I felt like listen if I don't do this now you know like it's either now or never feeling at the time and um right after we signed those papers of purchasing our our first home um covet unfortunately hit and boy was I happy that we had our own home because imagine paying 24 months to another landlord right so so um that's when all that happened um you know things still became difficult throughout 2020 um obviously in my field of work being a consumer related kind of industry marketing events and all that um that wasn't happening right so um you know I did what I could we did what we could to uh stay afloat and by early 2021 I'm just like listen um things are getting real tight and um I need to start making some profit off of this this property we have and and that's what we did we we had an empty guest room um that was just literally empty not even storage nothing was just healthy collecting dust and so I told my my husband I said listen we have Legoland right here um I'm look I've looked plenty of times um you know in the area for for uh hotel stays and things like that and there just isn't many options out here in Winter Haven as far as hotels and airbnbs and stuff and I'm just like I think we have a very promising Market um and so we did that we listed ourselves in Airbnb I mean I know it sounds crazy but we kind of just locked up our stuff in our bedrooms make sure we had double locks on the bedrooms uh a lot kept our our garage nice on laptop and we would give people access to the home they can stay in our home use our home use our backyard use all that good stuff um you know and B have a comfortable spot for them and their families uh whether they came to Legoland or whether they worked at a hospital um initially my first professionals believe it or not that I had staying for an Extended Stay in the property where a couple of Pilots there's there's there's a few airports down there that I had if these pallets would have never stayed in the home I would have never even known we had like these airports in the area um so that was pretty neat so that was my first experience with that and then I started getting a lot of requests of traveling nurses I was gonna say because those previous ones were probably more short-term rental Airbnb yeah right like maybe you go for a weekend and you guys would go to a family member's house or something um so how did that cross over into more the midterm rentals where obviously you don't want to just leave your house for three months or maybe you do I don't know well Katie oh when it comes to uh you know when it comes to a Hustler's mentality you know we're lucky enough to where my husband um his mom's house wasn't was in Hollywood so anytime that um we would have to leave for a week or so just go down there I'd pick up a couple of jobs in the area and they would all be good in Dandy we also um ended up buying a lot of land in the near area about an hour away in the area of Sebring um I'm not sure if you've heard of that area in Florida but it's a little bit Southern and it's um it's known for there's 24 hours of Sebring so there's a huge Raceway there and it's like a national National kind of racing uh thing so anyone that's into racing knows of 12 hours of Sebring and it's like a kind of a little town um we bought a lot of land out there and we were like listen maybe we can just live out here too you know off-grid I was I'm all off-grid stuff especially during the pandemic I'm just like babe we need to be awkward right so we got ourselves a little cabin out there yeah yeah we were living all that off-grid life anytime we had to and um that's how we did that um so between our off-grid cabin and Southern and Southern um Florida because winter Haven's in Central Florida so Southern Florida a little bit more down three hours south um that's how we would work that um during that time as far as having to live somewhere you know my son is still young enough to wear it's not an issue with school and that kind of stuff so you know um definitely at some point we have to uh set ourselves to a to a set area but um as of right now um that's what we were doing until you know this year here around and we're just like you know what why don't we just go to the Carolinas go find something fun to just like spend a weekend with like you're the ones that just go to the airport and you like close your eyes and you point hey you know a detailed player under the table of contents and you just I just feel like you need like a magic eight ball that is amazing yeah yeah I mean don't get me wrong this this comes from you know also from experience I know what I need when I hit the road I have a no I I respect it I mean that is amazing yeah that's amazing you know I learned how to pack for children you know I learned how to pack with my siblings and why not I know what kids need on the road I know what I need on the road I know what my car needs on the road so I am look I go on a trip with you any day yeah I'm ready for it I close my way but um yeah initially we were like we really liked the area of like Savannah Georgia and I'm just like wow babe this is beautiful out here let's see what things are costing out here um you know obviously you know 2020 2022 whatever and things were already a little bit out of budget for us as far as what we were looking for so I'm just like okay let's keep moving on up north let's look at the Carolinas you know we love the Smoky Mountains and whatnot so uh we came up to this area and uh sure enough after scouting for a few months we found a spot um you know it's still a small town um we're about 45 minutes from Charlotte 45 minutes from Greenville South Carolina um so it's a sweet spot right in the middle and right near the interstate that I feel um could be beneficial as well for for a furnished uh for a Furnished Finder property um there is some hospitals in the area and things like that and I'm just like hey you know whenever I'm tired of living up here I'll just rent it out So the plan that you guys are building that one yes and you're gonna live in it yeah yeah so every long and then the Winter Haven home is fully a rental property now well it's it's currently a restaurant yeah right it's apparently a rental property we do have a traveling nurse uh staying there right now in Winter Haven um you know we were blessed to find her she's from Michigan she was working at the Winter Haven hospital since October Believe It or Not wow at some point she just was tired of being in Extended space because like I said there's not many options in Winter Haven um and the options that there are it's shared rooms and some people are not a shared room kind of person right you know they just want to have their own their own roof so uh we were lucky enough she have stayed at the Legoland hotel in a few months why not that gets pricey girl that's doing good for like 250 100 a night so I can only imagine what that would have costed but that's a very nice here just for a night just just just for the heck of it just to stay right aren't you talking to us from your South Carolina property right now yes yes I am yes um yeah I'm in our South Carolina property right now still waiting still getting appliances and TVs through the mail getting everything all ready so hopefully after um maybe I don't know if I get someone in the Winter Haven home hopefully after August because our nurse does leave in August um you know we could either rent this one out or go back to Florida but honestly I I like it up here I wouldn't mind you know uh giving that Winter Haven home a run for its money and and see how far how much more can it handle as far as traveling professionals obviously you you've done the short-term rentals and you've done the midterm rentals with the traveling professionals how do you balance you know your strategy there with one versus the other or you know what is the appeal to either one or like as a landlord and an investor really like um where do you decide what is best for you because I know if you guys are far away you've got to think of things like property management and turnover and there's a lot more that goes into it especially if you're not a mile down the road right yeah yeah that's a that's a that's an awesome question Katie yeah essentially for anyone in my position it's it you know the key is to being a very very organized person here's my agenda right here I have this thing everywhere I go all right every single note on here of anything any project anything that I have my my hands on because obviously I'm independently that you know has to play into where am I going to be at you know at the set point in time you know what's gonna where is my property gonna be exactly et cetera so um the I really really turned into long-term hosting um right before we purchased this home because logistically I was just like I'm not doing the two three night thing anymore there is a million kinds of scenarios that someone needs a furnished home for a certain amount of time an extended period of time so it could be traveling professionals it could not it could just be someone that needs to be away for a little bit you know and doesn't have um the resources to move their furniture or buy it or whatever the case may be so as far as my preference that is my preference as of now because I do have a property out of state you know because I want to be worrying about that property in Florida or even here in South Carolina if I ever am not here for a certain long period of time um and that's when furnished finder came into play I found someone in Fringe finder and in less than a month to be honest with you I'm not getting paid ad or anything I'm telling you I got someone on here and that was great I was just like I was hustling it though I was like you guys have like a little option where um you do get people that are looking in Winter Haven that don't necessarily fit the budget that you have it listed for so things like that switching reaching out to tenants hey I got this hey I got that or um seeing if I can negotiate with them in some way because hey if at some point someone can't afford the home uh completely maybe I can just rent out two guest rooms and you can share them you know there's just so many different ways right I think that's an important point you make right because we there are matches that you can see on the back end of the platform but to some degree it's like you also have to get in there and really put put the pieces of the puzzle together to fit because just like when you're looking for an investment property you might not find the exact piece there's always a way to make it fit if you get creative enough if you hustle enough like you said and if you really put out that communication I mean it never hurts to ask you know do you have people who might want to share the house or someone who you know they might pay a higher rent if they have a one month stay versus your three-month minimum or something like that like you gotta you gotta put yourself out there and it's not always just gonna flow into your inbox and be all there at once you know you might you might have to dig in a little bit but um I think that's a really important note yeah and that's important for anyone that's tuning into the to the series of podcasts and getting to know that being a landlord doesn't just mean that you get to um you know just like you said list the property and Bam you're going to get the money that you want no sometimes you need to work with the tenants that you get um and making it you know um obviously cost efficient for everyone you everyone wants to make profit but at the same time we have to think you know these are traveling professionals you know work with them see what their agencies are giving them for per diem Etc their their travel um incentives and stuff like that what are they um getting in order to to be able to live and and be living outside of their base you know like I said my right my current tenators from Michigan that she's a far away from Michigan in Florida let me tell you and you know uh given the fact that you know she you know she tried doing the extended stay and and they extended her contract again and she's like listen I want to get out of a hotel and I was able to offer her that you know um in the most comfortable sense and obviously you know we make it comfortable for them you know utilities included this this and that so they don't have to worry about one thing I mean out you know we cut the lawn like there's nothing that that person has to worry about they just have to live you know be comfortable and go to work every day so how do you manage that from from far away is that challenging or have you you know with your amazing book of organization figured out like yeah so awesome processes because you're not you're not 10 minutes away right like you are in Long Distance managing I'm 10 hours away oh yeah okay uh so the key is to make friends with your neighbors have good neighbors be blessed and have great neighbors let your neighbors know what you're doing you know in the beginning I'm a very secretive person don't get me wrong I don't tell everyone everything but at some point you know people start noticing what's going on hey there's a lot of traffic in your house what's going on no hey you know I'm renting my house from time to time you'll see new people here you know just keep an eye on the house make sure that nothing's out of order you know one of my tenants or discrepancy would you mind being present do you mind helping me out this and that so uh neighbors is number one um you know and obviously I have I have good neighbors where they're just friendly in that sense and and they don't mind um extending that extra that extra hand as far as any help at any time that I have with a tenant um at the same time you know my my neighbor from time to time she has free time on her hands and I'd be like hey do you think you can uh go clean the house for me really do this for the day and of course Allah who doesn't want that direct sell payment on their phone like I should pay with you um in the beginning especially during the this time of of the middle of the pandemic people as we all know we're using airbnbs for Gatherings um and unauthorized Gatherings and I did get two of those and right it upsetted me because I'm a very uh honest and straightforward person and and I'm also a softly in the sense that I take everyone's um everyone's uh whatever it is whatever they're going through I take that into consideration so another story that came down he said he was going to go visit his daughter for her birthday and I'm just like wow that's so beautiful yes of course you know bam approved right his plans was to build a full-blown birthday party in my house you know right yeah full-blown like you like bounce house everything in my yard cars on my drive and I have a six car driveway so just imagine that if it filled up my driveway and the street so neighbors were not happy the neighbors were like Sasha are you home right just right I don't know what's going on oh look they sent me a picture of you know through the fence obviously you can see the bounce house and I'm just like get out of here like what's going on like that's crazy you know so um and and things like that luckily we have in the sense of Airbnb sorry I know we're talking about French finer but in a sense of that platform you have that like complaint um thing where you're like listen there's an unauthorized party like you know and even then um the guests stopped answering my phone call like when I found out that that was going on he put his wife or the or the the baby's mom and I just said I listened like this is unacceptable can you hear the tone of my voice this is unacceptable now that has to be somewhat relieving when you have like a traveling professional or a relocating family or someone who's there for multiple months right like you know a their plan is not to just be partying and B they they I'm assuming and you could tell me if I'm right or wrong but that they value their relationship with you as the landlord more because they're not in there for four days and then you know peace out whatever it is it is um particularly when you're far away right like yeah definitely oh that would happen to me right now oh don't get me wrong I'll get there in 10 hours but you know right right there they're probably checked out so yeah wow the tenant that I have right now I mean she thanked me so many times her and her mom you know because her mom was helping her throughout the scouting process to her being a full-time nurse and she's a night shift nurse so you can only imagine you know she sleeps through the day things like that so that's that's kind of like the kind of people that we have to be accommodating to right something as simple as that a night shift a nurse I mean that is that is you're helping out a night shirt night shift nurse versus posting parties that you weren't aware you were hosting right right from a property owner perspective like that's a big that's a big shift and one that can very much affect your bottom line and the condition of your property and yes it's a piece of mind it's a piece right okay so Sasha I feel like you have a unique perspective because you've done a lot of the different variations of this right you've done Airbnb you've done furnished finder you've done you know vacationers you've done traveling professionals you've also been um you know local you've been far away if you could rewind all the way to the beginning of your journey what are a few pieces of advice that you would give yourself that have really come in handy now that you are you know you've gone through a lot of those paths and you've you know you're you're at a more experienced level now right yeah yeah so um there's a lot of moving Parts when it comes to um renting out a furnished uh a furnished property because it's not you know how we've been speaking out throughout our interview it's not just a 1K scenario if it's all there is people saying the property from all walks of life with all sorts of situations going on um like you said from vacationers to people that are transitioning to people that are uh set to live there for a certain amount of months or weeks so um getting the house adapted or comfortable enough for that person um in the beginning of my journey it was I had in mind you know the family friendly sense so I would a lot of things that would fit toddler use um you know I had the playpen um you know um and because I I have a toddler I already had my home furnished simple enough where I wasn't worried of anything getting damaged I don't have glass Decor on my coffee table or nice beautiful vases that can fall and break you know making it um making it family and kid friendly was my goal at that time um you know and as and as the you know the months and the guests progressed and my reviews and my feedback you know I adapted um the home um better and better every time you know um so just to answer your question Katie I think that um learning from every guest from every single bed so what are some of those tweaks that you made along the way based on feedback yeah definitely so um although I had my you know my fair share of experience of you know living in in bnbs or living in other properties weren't necessarily mine I I always try to take that self that self-experience and and adapt that to the rental but in the beginning I didn't have much to work with you know I was on a budget I didn't have the budget that it takes to make you know this glamorous guest room so you know I I you know I did the Amazon I did the Walmart | Save Money. Live better. I tried to go for the things that were comfortable enough simple enough but at the same time um that wouldn't break my bank um so in the beginning the very very beginning I had a queen tall uh uh inflatable mattress so to some people that's like oh my god of an inflatable mattress but I'm just like you know at that time I had listed my home for a price that you couldn't beat um in the beginning and you know you give you give those first guests a nice uh cost of incentive for that and also for the reviews um so I had an air mattress um and then after that I'm just like I need to step it up a notch and so I got a full mattress with a with a with a you know with a bed platform and I still had my queen mattress so I technically had two mattresses in the room and a few months later I'm just like okay enough of this of of this um uh you know an inflatable mattress I don't want my property to be labeled as the inflatable mattress guest room you know so then I got rid of the inflatable mattress and then I got two full mattresses you know so you can so you can accommodate a family of four if if need be you know I always tell people listen you know if I my home accommodates up to a family of five of you I have a playpen for your child or if you want to bring your own air mattress and put it in the living room so it's all those things that you know just constantly moving your property up um and then making it more comfortable for not just one or two people but for a family um also you know using uh having simple silverware and things for children so I went to Ikea and got myself all this cute little Ikea plates and silverware for the kids and cups for the kids and things like that so they won't be breaking my glass cups you know right right so um so uh minor things like that um making sure that I have enough toiletries for the guests making enough making sure that I have enough towels you know because it is an Airbnb and it happens hotels as well where the towels get stained I've had guests that decided to dye their hair black and use my white towels to dry their hair oh it happened now is there anything that you've learned specifically that traveling nurses or more of the monthly stay renters want or are looking for I mean obviously they probably want like a nice comfortable bed or yeah you know anything like that because I think that's also you're dead on I think with speaking with tailoring it to your custom your target market and who is using your property and and I like what you said about how you don't have to invest all at once right but take chunk by chunk and like pick the things that are going to make the biggest impact for your guests and start knocking them off that list right I'm curious I'm curious what those who stay on like a monthly basis or you know six weeks eight weeks at a time like what are those what are those Target markets what have you found like makes a really big difference for them as far as maybe Furnishings or amenities yeah so um the most important thing to someone that's staying long term is the guest room obviously you know the fact that they have a full kitchen to live off of go out to dinner every day it's a huge plus too because those professionals that are stuck living on an Extended Stay yeah some of them might have their you know their kitchenettes and their little fridges but the fact that they have a full-size kitchen with everything you can possibly think of that they can use to prepare a meal to prepare their their their meals to go to work etc you know so they don't have to be relying on buying things in the cafeteria or order remover eats every shift um so essentially the guest room is it's what I what I focus on um my first a few professionals um I took I went from the two beds they didn't need two beds in there I made him friends I'm comfortable put the one bed gave him the nice fluffy sheets gave them the nice fluffy comforter you know four pillows that kind of thing where they would feel comfortable as if it were their own right even though his feet wasn't there but as if it were his own home um for that period of time that he hadn't be there for that assignment with now with my current tenant I asked her I said listen this is the options that I have as far as uh as um as sorry as furnishings and um and mattresses my I don't know if any of you are into like um Harry Potter but I consider the guest room like the magic room it's like yeah because I staged that room however you need it right you know yeah yeah so I um I I spoke to my current tenant I said listen um you know do you would you mind having the two beds or would you just like me to maybe one bed or would you like a queen bed because the mattress I had there were two full sizes you know obviously for any family that's just coming for a few days going to the park sleeping for a few hours they don't mind that but someone that's going to be living there you know I took that into consideration and I asked her listen I have this queen mattress this bed everything um would you like me to make the bed accommodated for you the room accommodated for you in that sense and she said yeah sure of course I love a queen pillow top whatever so I did that right um I moved over the bed from one of my other rooms I steamed clean it did everything to make a shirt and feel brand new and um for the queen mattress and the queen uh bed and furniture and all the good stuff so I made the room comfortable for her you know I I put the blackout Shades things like that the blackout curtains are there on things like that that she would actually feel comfortable because her being a Partners she's sleeping through the day so obviously the sun is out during the day and you know I made sure that she had um the curtains and everything that she needed to keep the room nice and and dark during the day for her resting period of time all right yeah well I think we've gone through the landlord Logistics uh section without actually saying it so uh thank you forever I agree you shared Sasha and we've got one last section that we cover and uh I'm gonna kind of jump into a couple things with it and we call it the favorite Furnished Finder and key check uh features and so pricing we haven't talked about you've got a home in um in Florida Winter Haven Florida and then you have a home in South Carolina a little town close to a bunch of big cities so did you use Furnished Finder to help decide how to price that and how do you you know have you found it a lot different than the Airbnb pricing like what's your pricing yeah so the way I fund my pricing I um I kind of did a various forms of just uh narrowing down the right price for what I thought I offer in my property uh you know taking into consideration that a lot of travel nurses uh do live in hotels um in which some of them might feel comfortable and others might not I said you know how much how much is your typical nurse paying a week and I'm broke it down and I'm just like well that's not a bad price to list the whole house or you know what I mean uh thankfully you know the mortgage is still at a point where I can uh pay that off you know the utilities are not a huge expense you know so I kind of took that into consideration and then said okay well I still have enough profit here to work with where I can hey they can pay off my other bills so right so that's how I started with that um and I also kind of used the other platform that I used to host this is not a commercial for them it's about Furnished Finder but I did use this is share economy so you can talk about we want to talk about what you use not you know while we are furnished finder if we know that a lot of our landlords use Airbnb or VRBO and we encourage that yeah and there's there's strategy right where you can use both or a mixture or Different Seasons or different time I mean there's definitely no wrong answer definitely so don't get me wrong even right now the property is listed but you have that option of blocking out whoever is currently living in your home so obviously you know all your calendar for that period of time that someone's occupying your home and it doesn't interfere with any way when you're using another platform but as far as getting that price point narrowed down to a something that works for everyone I used uh Airbnb as well and I said okay so what am I charging right now nightly okay this and that and then I said okay but look at all these freaking fees I'm having to okay you know that money's not going to me so there's they're paying all that it's not a small amount no it's hundreds of dollars yeah yeah all and yeah you know they say that they have insurance and blase and I had to deal with all that before and it's not as easy as it stated on the platform right you know ready to get your money and whatnot so um maybe things have changed but I hope to not have to use that ever again but as far as getting it priced I'm just like listen people are paying this amount to Airbnb and I'm coming out of this and I'm still having to give them a three percent fee so right can you just offer the person what I would you know rent the house for without the all those Airbnb fees and stuff like that um yeah and like you said um I was blessed enough that this person was okay with that price um it might come a point where hey you know things are changing in our economy and some people might have a certain budget and I might have to rent out two guest rooms to make up for that one uh tenant and that's absolutely fine it's it's it's just um it's a constant involvement so I I narrowed down my price you know like I said using BMB how much I would uh how much I was charging and that platform and at the same time um you know doing the math of how much a traveling nurse pays at a hotel you're right home for what you're paying at a hotel for a month you know you have your privacy you have all your amenities and the Comfort right of a home for the same price so I'm going to add to that and say that you have a property in Florida South Carolina so it's likely you're going to have another one down the road and you're currently deciding how to price your South Carolina property as well so my recommendation is on furnished funder under the resources tab there's both four Travelers or for landlords you can go to the property owner resources or the traveler resources and there's what's called a travel nurse housing demand and it shows you a graph of what how much each section it's like a little pie chart of the pricing for each rental type in the area so it's a really helpful tool if you go to the resources Tab and it'll it'll show you just a rough idea of how much properties are renting out on average throughout the year and as a as a host in Austin Texas and and I've heard this from quite a few other hosts typically I increase my price during the spring and summer months and decreased it a little during the winter months and that's worked sometimes if it's really close and I don't have a renter yet then I just go ahead and kick it down a couple hundred dollars and constantly reevaluate on Furnished Finder to make sure that I'm in the right price range as well and I think I think that's what's important and you've hit on this a lot Sasha and I think it's very evident in your story that is so key for individual and family property investors is pivoting and adjusting constantly and I can see it so clearly with your with your story Sasha that every time you hit a a roadblock even if it was just hey I you know being like I don't want to be here anymore or it's time we buy out anytime you hit a roadblock not getting defeated and seeing it as the end but seeing it as okay like now we got to figure out this now we got to figure out this it's the same as when you say you're getting these these housing matches that aren't complete matches it's how do you make it work um I heard I heard one adage once that like there's no such thing as an investment property that won't work it's just you have to look at it from all sorts of different angles maybe that property doesn't work for you or your goals but there's always a way to there's always a way to Pivot it and especially you know with the options we have and you're right like the amenities and the different things that we can offer tenants and um you know there's there's always the option to twist things which I think is is something that you have very much taken advantage of in a great way yes any last things we want to talk about ladies Katie you got any more questions I'm good Sasha any uh any other Furnished Finder or key check features you want to discuss oh sure so going back to uh to keycheck and whatnot um he took it was obviously my first time utilizing that platform uh through my uh Furnished Finder tenant but um it was very like user friendly to say the least I found it very user friendly it wasn't too complicated to move around the platform and send those invoices or send that background check feature and things like that um Kelly did make it um clear to me that there is um a minor I I thought that it was a different kind of fee because they used the strike platform to send payments for rent payments and I wasn't having that you know she had to pay the certain percentage but that's because she was using a debit card so the fact that it could actually you know pay a very minimal fee just to send um you know that monthly payment that that's a plus as well um so and and all in all I think that this has been a great interview I appreciate all the questions um you know and for any any other host or landlords out there in my position or that are looking to do what we do um honestly just go with your gut you know yeah don't be uh don't be scared of transition uh it's a property you know you can transition it to anyone at any given time and um just go for it I think that this is a a kind of um you know Revenue stream that um that is beneficial for everyone you're you're giving a service that's needed I mean it's housing and it's it's furnished housing yep you know um people of all sorts of walks of life that need that service and then you know and it's a good thing that we get to get paid for offering that service so I recommend that to anyone that's on the fence about making a decision in this field awesome well thank you so much for being with us no problem thank you ladies and um I'm happy that you guys have chosen me to be on the show you take care bye Sasha thank you so much [Music]