Monthly rentals are gaining popularity as a profitable investment strategy. Episode 112 of the Landlord Diaries podcast dives deep into midterm rentals and shares actionable insights for real estate investors looking to maximize their profits. Host Kelly Bailey and co-host Katie Lyon interview experienced landlord Darel Ison, who successfully transitioned his long-term rental properties into profitable midterm rentals. Here’s a detailed summary of the discussion and invaluable tips that can help you unlock the potential of midterm rentals.
Introduction: The Shift to Monthly Rentals
Darel Ison has owned and operated various rental properties across Ohio, Kansas, and Florida. While maintaining long-term rentals, he encountered challenges such as high turnover costs, tenant issues, and reduced profitability. Inspired by insights from industry conferences and other landlords, Darel transitioned several of his properties to monthly rentals, focusing on business travelers and relocating families. This shift led to a significant increase in revenue and a reduction in tenant-related issues.
Real Estate Portfolio and Strategy
Darel's Portfolio:
Owns 19 doors across Ohio, Kansas, and Florida.
Includes seven duplexes, one triplex, and one-to-two single-family rentals.
Transitioned four properties from long-term to monthly rentals.
Key Challenges and Solutions
Tenant Management:
High turnover costs with long-term tenants.
Issues with tenant behavior and property damage.
Solution:
Transitioning to monthly rentals mitigated these issues.
Monthly tenants, including business travelers and professionals, are less likely to cause significant wear and tear.
Benefits of monthly rentals
Increased Profitability:
Darel achieved 2-2.5 times higher rent compared to long-term rentals.
Monthly rentals target higher-paying tenants over shorter, more manageable periods.
Fewer Tenant Issues:
Monthly tenants are often professionals with stable employment.
Reduced likelihood of evictions and serious property damage.
Streamlined Operations:
Using tools like Furnished Finder, KeyCheck, and channel managers facilitated smooth management.
Tools and techniques for successful monthly rentals
Utilizing Furnished Finder and KeyCheck
Furnished Finder:
Primary platform for listing and managing monthly rentals.
Direct bookings without the hassle of third-party commissions.
KeyCheck:
Provides comprehensive tenant screening, lease management, and rent collection tools.
Tenant-paid screenings and ACH payment options simplify management.
Implementing Virtual Tours
Theta 360 Cameras:
Darel uses 360-degree virtual tours to provide prospective tenants with a realistic view of the properties.
Enhances transparency and reduces the need for physical walkthroughs.
Effective Communication and Property Management
Clear Communication:
Setting expectations and maintaining open communication channels with tenants helps avoid misunderstandings.
Sending regular updates and reminders about property rules and maintenance schedules.
Proactive Maintenance:
Regular property inspections and upkeep to ensure the property remains in top condition.
Addressing issues promptly to prevent larger problems down the line.
Conclusion: maximizing monthly rental potential
Darel’s journey from long-term to monthly rentals highlights the immense potential in this investment strategy. With the right tools, proactive management, and a focus on providing exceptional tenant experiences, real estate investors can significantly boost their profitability while reducing common rental property management headaches.
Get started with monthly rentals
If you’re considering transitioning your properties to monthly rentals, start by exploring platforms and tools like Furnished Finder (opens in new tab) and KeyCheck (opens in new tab). Tune into the Landlord Diaries for more insightful episodes on monthly rentals.
Episode 112 Transcript
Like I have, I have two construction workers sharing one of my two bedrooms right now. And the fact that it was two of them paying number one was a problem on my channel manager. And the fact they both wanted to use ACH and not get hit with the credit card fees was another issue. So for them, I set it up in key check.
It's simple. I set up two different rental, you know, two different payments, one for each email. And uh, And then, you know, set their rent schedule and it's, it's simple and easy to use. They, they were both older construction workers. So it was a little difficult to walk them through. I actually, and so I actually, the first time I called support and I said, Hey, these guys are having trouble.
Like I'm, I'm, I, I can't see what they see. I set myself up with a test payment. So I could, and I'm like, I don't understand where they're and they support helped them. So they helped them. They got, they got them taken care of. Welcome to the Landlord Diaries, where we talk about midterm rentals and the opportunities behind them.
We'll share landlord stories, talk about maximizing investment potential, and discuss how to live the very best landlord life. This podcast is proudly brought to you by Furnished Finder, the leader and largest online marketplace for midterm rentals. Remember to like, and subscribe if you enjoy our content.
Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Landlord Diaries podcast. If you are just joining us, we are all about midterm rentals. Those 30 plus day furnished rentals for business travelers, relocating families, anyone that needs monthly rentals for the, you know, those gap periods. Uh, I'm your host Kelly Bailey and Katie Lyon of the Landlord Diaries Podcast.
We also work for the Furnished Finder Marketing Team. So thanks for tuning in today. Katie, what do we, uh, learn from Darel in regards to his multifamily midterm rentals? Yeah, Darel's got a solid portfolio of long term rentals that he's slowly transitioning over to midterm. So it's really interesting to see how he's kind of.
increasing his portfolio value without adding extra units by transitioning these into midterms. Um, and throughout that he's come up with all of these processes and ways to solve problems and avoid them from happening again. Um, and it's really cool to hear him explain Kind of his reasoning and how he's transitioning long term to midterm and then how he's using these processes, um, and procedures and, um, operations really to just make these things run really, really smoothly.
Well, enjoy the episode.
Darel Ison works full time and owns 19 doors in Ohio. Kansas and Florida, seven duplexes, one triplex, and one to two single family rentals. Darryl has converted four of these doors from long term rentals to midterm rentals and plans to continue the trend as units come available. 85 to 90 percent of Darryl's midterm rental bookings come from Furnished Finder.
Darryl, thanks for sharing your story with us today. How are ya? Great. Great. How are you? How are you two ladies? Doing well, excited to, to dive into all things midterm rentals with you. So let's start off with your story. You work full time and you've built quite the real estate portfolio for yourself. So what do you do for work and, uh, what are your overall investing goals?
Yeah, so I'm uh, I've been in technology sales for a while first as a kind of sales engineer and then as a as a sales full seller Been doing that since 2008 before that I was in IT managing IT departments And got burned out on management and thought hey Where, where can I make just as much money or not more?
And I've learned it's a lot more. Um, but then I, I got into the habit of, uh, of living off my base pay and using all my commissions to buy real estate. Um, so, so, so been, been doing that for a while. For a while. Um, can't say it's worked out that way every year, but, uh, sometimes I want to take a big vacation, but, um, but yeah, so it's, so then I, I started investing in real estate really.
I mean, all the way back in 2002 when I bought my first condo, I lived in bought a house in 2005, rented out the condo until 2015 here in San Diego, ran into some tenant law issues, um, renting that condo out and decided I was, I would sell it. And then in 2017, I started. Uh, in the Midwest, I grew up in Kent in the near Canton, Ohio.
So I started investing there, bought a duplex and then bought. Five duplexes together a triplex and bought another duplex in kansas And then it's built a single family house in florida during the pandemic And yeah, so I I actually haven't added any new real estate to the portfolio in a few years but I i've instead been focusing my my investments on improvements on what I have, uh, And and increasing my overall profit and what I have and the midterm rental strategy is a huge part of that Increasing the profits and what I have I realized at one point.
I mean I listen to bigger pockets I think every episode until maybe 600 and then I just kind of listened to the ones that now like I think i'd be interested in but But I was die hard on like I need a hundred doors, you know, I need a hundred doors that'll get me to my number. And then I thought, you know what?
I need to establish my number, forget about the doors. And how do I get to the number with the least amount of effort and the least amount of work possible? I went to the BP summit. I've been looking at midterm rentals. I think you're, this podcast was really fresh and young a few years ago when I, when I, when I found it.
Um, I listened to a couple episodes of it, went to, to, I live in San Diego. So I, it was easy for me to go to the BP conference that year and, uh, Sara Weaver and, and, and they were there talking and I'd watched their session and ran into a couple people and then got started in it, uh, started with my triplex.
Um, it was that triplex was a challenge for me. It was, it's in, it's in. A kind of inner city area on a in a good section of the inner city area But things around it maybe aren't as good and as a lot of these cities go you've got a good street and a bad street um And I was just having struggling to keep good tenants in it for long term and I was like i'm gonna sell it or do Something else so I decided to furnish two of the units and They've been full ever since.
Um, so then I did the third unit and now I'm starting to do this set of five duplexes I have in Akron, Ohio. I've converted one of those just a couple of months ago. Actually, I started it and I had, I turned it over in June. It was already rented out by the time I had it done. And it is now rented with a two week gap here at the end of this month.
Um, until June of next year. That's incredible. I love the fact that you were able to maximize your portfolio and really Increase your investment without purchasing new properties. I think that's so important, especially for people who have long term rentals, right? Maybe you don't want to purchase more right now, but you have the option to pivot into midterms.
Sure. I mean, more, more doors means more expense too, right? Right. So, you know, it's more roofs that, that need to be repaired. It's more water, hot water heaters to go, to go bad. So, so yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I, when I started looking at the reality of, of, of not just having these pipe dream goals, but running an actual business.
That's, that's when I made the shift. Yes, definitely. Before we move over into the nitty gritty of your portfolio and how you operate your midterm rentals and all the fun stuff, Katie, I made a note to come back to, you know, those investing goals. What are your investing goals, Katie, uh, with your arbitrage, um, and the properties that you've bought?
Yeah, good question. Some of our goal is to set up, you know, future funds for the kids and to have some long term wealth, um, that they can use to go to college or to purchase their home. We live in Denver, so it's always the fear of, we want you to stay here if you can, but Purchasing a home might be hard if we don't give you a leg up.
Um, so that's a big part of it. The other part is some flexibility and freedom. My husband now works full time for our rental business, and that has been a game changer just in our day to day lives. What? This is new news. When did this happen? Yeah, this happened in July. So he is, he is. full time working for the properties and it it's pretty amazing.
It's pretty amazing. So that was that was a big goal. It was just having that kind of family flexibility because we realized both with full time jobs that it was really, really difficult just to manage, especially his job was really demanding and very, very time intensive. Um, so that's been a huge goal.
Um, and I think other than that, it's It's just to be able to, to take the trips we want to take, right? And we want to go do the things we want to do and, um, My financial goals have always been I don't need to be the wealthiest person in the world in the world But I want to be able to take vacations I want to be able to live in the house.
I want to live in I want to be able to You know go have experiences in life and really kind of not have Money stop that so that's been our big thing arbitrage has been great for us because it allows us to keep the ball Rolling when we might not be ready to purchase the next property whether it's because of a down payment or just because of Not finding the right property or whatever it is um So yeah, that's been kind of our strategy.
I am so glad I asked that question today because that is new facts for me and all of our listeners. So congratulations to your family. And if you are listening to the podcast, we want to know you. We don't want you just to be. To listen and tune in and, and gain a lot of insights. We want you to comment and get engaged so that we can, you know, stay in touch and help encourage you in your midterm rental business.
So if you have investing goals you wanna share, don't forget to add them to the comments on YouTube and in audio platforms, uh, in the show notes. All right, so let's. Dive into, uh, Darel's midterm rental portfolio. We've already established, uh, you know, 19 doors, a lot of multi families, uh, mainly in there been investing since 2002.
Uh, but one of the things you, you already. Noted that I want to dive deeper into is the difference in the tenant type between long term rental and midterm rentals, because that was a big mind shift for you of why you wanted to move from long term to midterm. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I, I knew getting into the midterm rental game that like, I wasn't going to have to deal with evictions, right.
You know, and, and, and, um, I had, it's interesting too, because a couple of my. Like the duplexes I the first that first duplex I bought in Canton, Ohio It's in North Canton and it's like this beautiful property. They're like three bedroom two bath and i've never had a problem there with a tenant right because like it's also like two times the rent of You know a lot of the other stuff I have in that area Um, so it seems like the more people pay the less problems you have Is kind of is kind of this little formula that I that I came up with right?
And in my acronym properties haven't been have been much better than the other ones that I had problems with so So like it kind of the problems do tier with kind of the more people pay. I mean However, you want to look at that geopolitically whatever but it's just it's just what my experimentation has has taught me, right?
and and You know, I mean, I was having, it was costing me 2, 000 to 3, 000 every time somebody left to, you know, redo, I mean, I had these beautiful hardwood floors that have to be redone because people would scratch them up and, and, um, painting and, you know, broken cabinets and whatever else, you know, happened, uh, with, With going midterm, I was able to put about a, you know, 10, 000 investment into each one, into getting it remodeled, getting it cleaned up, new countertops, new cabinets, some stuff.
Luckily, my property manager there was able to do most of that work for me. Um, and over a couple of months he just takes it out of my cashflow and all my other properties. So it's like, it was kind of like, I just didn't get a cashflow check for a couple of months from them. And, and, uh, and then, you know, about 10, I would, my target was 10, 000 per per unit on furnishing, but I ended up more around 15.
Um, when it really, when it really came down to it, I really do them nice. My, my thought was, Looking at my competition, I wanted to be, I wanted to look better than the best one that I found in the area. And that's, that's what I did. Uh, I have a, I have a friend there that I'm helping and he sent me his listing and I'm like, Ooh, you know, he's like, I'm not, I'm not getting bookings.
I'm like, I looked at his, I'm like, uh, why don't you do this and do that and put some art on the wall and you know, put, yeah. What is those things? What did you tell him to do? So his place looked really dated, right? And, and I don't know, it might just be me, but my taste, if I see carpet, I think, I think, uh, other people's dirt and filth, right?
Like, like it's, and, and, um, as well as like, you know, his cabinets were very dated. And I was like, you don't need to replace them, just paint them white, you know? Right. You know, and uh, his furnishings were fine. Art on the wall, you said? No, yeah, no art on the wall. He had nothing on the walls and I'm like, look, a lot of this thing, first of all, I don't want anyone hanging anything on the walls.
I have it in my rules. You're not allowed to hang anything on the walls, right? So I put art on the wall, you know, pretty much everywhere you would, would typically hang something if you were living in a house, there's something hanging there. And I go with a, with a standard theme, right? So a lot of mine are beach themed.
Um, actually two of them are beach themed, I guess two of them are beach themed and two of them are mountain themed. So, so I kind of do the I I I It was to me, it was like, there's no, there aren't mountains in Ohio and there, there aren't any beaches. Right. So let's do something that's not there. So people feel like there may be, you know, they're in a more tranquil, tranquil place.
And I kind of feed to my own tranquility, right? Like I love the beach and I love the mountains and it makes me feel at peace. Uh, so even when I go there and I stay in one of them, I. I, I, I like it more than my own house when I stay there sometimes because your own house, you've got crap everywhere and you know, you, you live your life in it and then you go, you go stay in one of your own, one of your own midterm rentals.
And it's like, ah, this is nice. Like it's, it's so true, no clutter. I think, yeah, I think a lot of people are a little bit nervous to spend that money on the initial furnishings and adding things that might, they might see as. Optional like wall art or you know, like you said the painting the cabinets, but that's really really important Well, I I think it's like if you don't go all in then You're sabotaging your own success potentially, right?
so if you only if you only put you know You look at your your day to day job. If you have a day job if you only give 50 percent effort You're probably not even going to get 50 percent results at that point. You have to give a hundred percent effort to get the results that you want. Yeah. And guys, I think that also means, um, making sure you keep your listing up to date, making sure you're responding to leads, making sure that you're not just responding to leads with, yes, I have a property available, but giving them full details, a link to your property details of why they should stay with you.
It's putting your best foot forward. All of the time. I mean, there was a period in short term rentals and there was a period in midterm rentals where you just put your property up and you booked it, but now it's, it's back to the roots of hospitality. It's back to the roots of relationships and communication and putting your best foot forward and making sure that your listing looks amazing and that you're acting as a professional, even if you only have one or two units and that you're responding and that you are giving yourself.
The best chance to succeed and you're not sabotaging your chances. I like how you use that word. Today's episode is proudly sponsored by Furnished Finder, the ultimate platform for hassle free midterm rentals. Whether you're a seasoned landlord or just getting started, Furnished Finder has everything you need to find your next tenant.
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Yeah, and I and I do I mean if I if I get an a match lead or an unmatched lead I reach out to them and I send a link link to my property listing if it's akron or canton I send you know the appropriate listing And say, Hey, you know, I'm, I'm either available at these dates. I don't totally match up with your dates.
I'm available at these dates. I have some recommendations. If you need to stay for like a week at like the residence in or something like that, here's a coupon code, you know? Um, and, and, uh, that, that has gotten me a few bookings, right. Where it's like, Hey, you know, like, yeah, I'm for two weeks of your six months stay, you can't stay here, but.
Because I've got someone else in but as soon as it's available, it'll be available for you. And you know, Those people a lot of times will respond. Hey, you know, let me get back to you and they they obviously they're going in They're looking at other things and seeing if they can find something nicer.
But if you're the nicest thing People typically are going to want to stay there, right? Especially it's for it's it's one thing if it's for a month or two months, but if it's for a longer stay They're they're gonna be willing to wait a couple weeks and do it Come up with some other plan to stay at a hotel or, or, or something to, uh, to kind of get to the point where they can, they can stay at your place.
Well said. So I, I am on fire with these community engagement opportunities today. If you have a listing out there and you're thinking, why isn't my property getting booked? Put it in the comments, just tag your Furnished Finder property link and put feedback and we, one of the three of us will get back to you and give you feedback on your property so that you can have those bookings rolling in as well.
Just like Darel saying he is, he's making some excellent Excellent points of, hey, be the nicest in the area. And there's a lot of benefits that come along with that. So, um, in regards to your midterm rentals, I think it was your triplex that you converted first to midterm rentals. And did you do them all at the same time or one at a time?
And what's the revenue difference there between long term and midterm for you? Right. It was, it was, it was my triplex I did first. Cause that's the one I was having some problems with and I, and last year I put a lot of money into that place. Right. Just, just, it needed, it needed some love. It's a hundred year old property.
Um, the, uh, the interior I had done up really well. Um, I started off with two, it's, it has two, two bedroom. They're like 1500 square foot, two bedrooms. And they're beautiful. They're a hundred year old, like all the nice woodwork and everything. Um, hardwood floors. Right. Uh, but it was, so I had two, two bedrooms in there and then I have like an attic unit, which I call a loft, right?
And it's, it's a big 900 square foot, one bedroom. Basically it's got kind of funky ceilings, but, um, but ironically, I thought that would be the hardest thing to book. It was the hardest thing to get long term tenants in. It's the easiest thing to book. Like it is always booked at the midterm rental, because it's, it's, it's less expensive.
Right. And it's at that, like, 1, 300 a month right mark where, you know, like Pete, like the single people that are in town that don't need a lot of space. Um, it's does have three flights of stairs going up and I make sure I let everybody know that ahead of time because you know, I don't want someone that's like, you know, 70 years old that has a hip problem booking it because they're not going to be able to get up, get up there very easily.
But, but, um, but you know, so I, I converted two at the same time. So I had two units that were Um, that were essentially vacant. So I had, I had my property manager rehab, both of those. Um, and you know, and it was interesting because they're used to doing regular turnovers for long term tenants. So when I fly into town, then to furnace it, I'm like, Oh no, I'm like, we need to do a lot more.
So I had guys in there like working the whole time. I was, I was, I was trying to get it furnished, you know, like changing outlets so that they're like the paint, you know, everything's painted white, but the outlets are yellow. Right. And I'm like, let's change all the outlets to white. Let's do this. Let's do that.
So that's where I ended up spending a lot more money. Um, fortunately I have a good day job and I can do that. Not everyone can, can just jump in and do that if you don't have the capital, right? But, um, I was able to, I was able to do it. So I did the first two and I just took a gamble. I'm like, look, I'm going to do two at a time.
And I still had a long term tenant in the first floor apartment. So it's the second and third floor that I did. And they were booked for a year solid. So as soon as that guy moved out of the first floor apartment, I did that one. Um, and. My longest gap has been like two weeks. And what I do at that point is I'll go on, I'll go like on Airbnb or I use a channel manager.
So I'll go on my channel manager and I'll say, all right, I'll accept less than 30 day stays for, you know, for this gap, this gap week. That's nice to have that flexibility. Yeah. And I got, I got lucky just recently, like the pro football hall of fame was just last week, um, in Canton, Ohio. And I was able to get more than my normal month's rent.
For like four nights, you know? So it's like, so it was, it was, and it worked out perfect because it was right between guests. And that's a great way to use that hybrid strategy and fill out, fill in the gaps with the short term rental without having to be a short term rental host all of the time, because that's so demanding and that is a grind.
Absolutely. And I, and I do, I, I, I fortunately have found some pretty good cleaners. Um, I've got like three sets of cleaners that I use there and I use the, the turno app and all, if you guys have heard of that one before, um, love it. I haven't used it, but I want to so bad. And it ties into my channel manager too.
So I do all my direct everything on furnace finder. I use my own direct booking site then to manually book them. And then that sends out the cleaning requests and everything else. So. Um, if for some reason someone contacts me and says, Hey, I'm, I need to extend for a month or I need to this or that. I just changed it in the channel manager and it resets all of the cleaning schedule and everything else.
And it's, you know, having a full time job and having to be engaged as I am in my, in my job, I need to do things one time. And not have to do them multiple times. Right. So yeah, I actually, I like what you've said there because we get a lot of feedback because Furnished Finder is not completely integrated into a lot of these channel managers yet.
And if you're not sure what a channel manager is, it's softwares or websites, platforms that pull in, um, All of the platforms that you use to either list your property on or manage your property places like turno, um, Airbnb. And we always get the feedback like, Oh, when are you going to integrate with this software or this software?
And it's always a little bit trickier because on furnished finder, you do your own direct bookings. So You do that on your back end. You do that in the end. But I like what you're saying. You can still use these softwares. It's just when you make this direct booking, just go in there and add it in. And then it'll coordinate and it'll block off any other calendars you have on other sites.
It can coordinate with your turno. Um, so I think that's a really wise way that you can still use these softwares to help make your management easy. Um, even though they don't, they don't integrate with Furnished Finder yet. How does that integration work for you, Darel? So, I mean, the nice thing is, is I do have it listed on, and I will tell you, I've only had bookings from Airbnb and Furnished Finder.
That's it. And most of them come from Furnished Finder, right? But it is out there on Verbo. I've had bookings, but they always cancel on Verbo for some reason. Um, and, and I've had, you know, like, it's, it's, same thing, Booking. com. And then, like, Google Vacations is kind of a new thing. But, like, the direct booking site for the channel manager I use, Um, it gives you the Google vacations thing for free too.
So, um, haven't seen anything come that way, but if you just go to Google and you search for vacation rentals, then it will come up for that area or whatever. Um, I don't think people have like caught on to that whole concept yet, but the, but the, but the, the really cool thing is, is I can send people to my direct booking site when they find me on furnished finder too.
And I have a link for my direct booking site. In my listings now, right? So, and if they go book, then it sends me a request. It doesn't automatically book. I have to vet them. I still got to have to do the background check and everything else. And once the background checks are done on key check, then I can, then I, then I have them, you know, I accept it and then it does everything automated, right?
It'll send them, it sends them the payment link. It sends them the, the, the, once they pay, once they make their initial payment, they get the lease. And then they signed the lease electronically and it's, it's, it's, it's all, it's all done at that point. So.
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Uh, let's, before we dive into, to how key checks been a bit beneficial tool for your midterm rental business, I'm going to circle back to, uh, that revenue question. What's the difference in your triplex revenue from long term to midterm? I, when we add multiple questions at once was sometimes, uh, it's not your fault.
It's our fault. No, no, no, no problem. I'll blame you. Um, so, but, but, um, but yeah, I wasn't trying to be a politician there. I just, I forgot the second part of the question. So, so yeah, so my, my, my rents have been two to two and a half times. Right. So like, I mean, there's, there's times where sometimes things just don't sink well.
Right. And all of a sudden I've got like four units that are all coming empty at the same month, you know? And it's like, all right. So then you start to get a little desperate. You're like, okay, I need to get one of these things booked and I'll drop my price a little bit, maybe for someone that comes in or, or.
Sometimes, you know, guests are good at negotiating down, especially if it's a long stay. If it's like a six month stay, I'll drop her from 1875 to like 1675 or something. And, and then, and then it always, every time this has happened, this happened to me twice now where I've had like a bunch of them at the same time.
And one, one of them just happened this past month. Um, and it's, it's like, as soon as I get that one booking, The rest of them are booked like within a week and at like full price and i'm like i i don't it's like when it Rains it pours but um, but I i've i've learned to not freak out too much and and thankfully part of Your podcast has helped me with that because I hear over and over again from from other other hosts That don't freak out people like a lot of these people on contracts whether they're Whether they're, uh, medical professionals, um, or the construction workers, they get their contracts like a week or two weeks in advance, and then they're looking.
The average book to stay window is 34 days. And I, that is actually longer than I have experienced with our rentals. I get a lot of travelers that are like, could I move in tomorrow? Could I move in next week? And it's true. Midterm rentals are this, it's this weird position where you'd have to be really patient.
But then they stay for a while. So you would think that they, these travelers are booking farther out in advance, but they're not always. So I w I would encourage the same. If you have a vacancy, be patient and also use it as a chance to say, okay, what can I improve on my property? What can I improve on my process?
Can I get in there and refresh the bedding? Can I get in there and paint a wall? Like what needs to be done and use that as a time where you can reinvest in your property versus just letting it sit. Yep. And Darel, correct me if I missed it, but I think you're the revenue side you get about two to two and a half times long term rent.
I think the long term rent in your area is around eight to nine hundred for Ohio right now in that area of Ohio and your midterm rentals are around sixteen hundred and they're all two bedroom one baths. Um, so the, the triplex there are two bedroom, one baths, and then there's the one bedroom, the one that, that one bedroom loft, I get about 1375 and I really haven't had to flex down on that at all.
I pretty much get that every time the two bedroom, one baths, I will rent anywhere from 1675 up to like, I've had as high as 2000 through like Airbnb a couple of times, but, um, But I mean, that's what they're paying. That's not what I'm getting. I'm getting more like the 1875 or so, um, when that happens. Um, and then there is a common basement in that, in that triplex.
And that common basement has two washer dryers. It also has storage. Um, there's some like, I don't know, built in. Like wooden storage stuff down there and and so I give them I have a combination lock on there And I give them the combo to the locks if they have a bike or something they want to lock up They can put it in the basement.
Um, it also has a garage that's common that has three spots in it. So, um, But yeah, and then my and then my my the ones that i'm converting now those duplexes Um in akron, I have those are two bedroom one bath with their own own basement, there's no garage with their own basement that is the full size of the duplex below, right?
So washer dryers down there, hot water tank, all that kind of stuff. Um, but what I do do in those basements, because, you know, people, people look at all these beautiful photos and I know I just think about myself. I put myself in the, in their shoes, right? Like. Look at all these nice photos. Then I see a photo of the basement with the, with the washer drying.
I'm like, I don't want to go down there. You know what I mean? It's like, so I had my, I had my base, it cost me 700 to have my basement fully painted floor and everything with my property manager. Right. And it, It is a night and day difference, right? And then putting in good, putting in decent lighting in the basement, right?
I was going to say, and put some lights in. Cause what's the first thing we all think about the basement? We don't want to go into is that it's creepy and dark. Exactly. Add some lights. There's actually, I've gotten them on Amazon and Kelly, maybe we can link them. They're not the prettiest. Um, they're very kind of industrial looking, but they screw into a regular light bulb, but they're led.
And it's like. Three things spawn out and I have one of these in our garage and it lights the entire garage. You would think that there's 10 light bulbs going on. They're like 15, 20 bucks and it's a game changer. That's good. You need something like that. Yeah. They're not cute, but for something like a garage or a basement where you're doing laundry and something, It would fit the bill.
Okay. So while we're rolling this direction, a couple of things that you've said, Darel, along the way is one, we're talking about kind of those things to add to make your property better. Um, but you also do that from San Diego and your, uh, property manager and your contractors are all in, uh, you know, your three states, uh, the midterm rentals, mainly in Ohio.
So how, what does it look like working with your contractor from a car across the country? Do you have them send you? Pictures, does he have, you know, access to the channel manager communication? Like, what does it look like with your property manager and when remodels are going on, et cetera? Yeah. So my, my property owners, I've, I've been using these guys since like.
Um, and, and they've been, they've been amazing. They've helped me scale. Um, and so what I, what I do with them is I use their, their contractors. So I don't that when I first bought those duplexes in Akron, there was a guy that the last owners were using to do everything. And I used him to help me remodel eight of the units.
And on the last unit, Set of units. He was, uh, he had a bit of a substance abuse problem, apparently that he had fallen back into. I was getting late night phone calls from this guy, cussing me out about how much I was paying him and everything else. And I'm like, and I, I always, I would always give him the contract and leave the amount and the time blank.
I'm like, tell me when it'll be done. And I would put incentives in there for getting it done earlier on time. And negative, you know, if it was done late and he would fill in the date and the amount, right. And I'm like, yeah. I'm like, you, you set your price, you set your deadline, like I didn't force these on you, you know, but so I just got tired of that, so I just deal with my property manager now, they actually use that guy, but I don't have to deal with him, so, so, um, And they can just go like, he's local, so they, they can just be like, hey dude, you need to stay clean right now.
They're, they're, they're there and, and, and, you know, he does a great job on, on refurnishing, refinishing floors. So they're amazing. So, um, but, uh, but, you know, basically I, what I did was I took, when I first did the midterm rentals, I, I didn't know what I was doing from a booking standpoint. So I hired another property manager that was experienced with that just to handle that.
And then I had, and they were remote. And then I hired, then I had my property manager in Ohio handling the building. Basically, right? So, so what I do is I, I give my phone number to the guests and I also have the property manager's 24 seven number, right? And I say, Hey, if it's an emergency 24 seven waters, Bursting out of something the power's out.
Whatever call this number. Don't call me right because I might be sleeping Um, if you know you're having trouble operating an appliance call me, right? but but yeah, so so They manage the contractors and it's a lot of it's about setting the right expectations On my end for them, I've learned even this one in Akron.
I went, I went in there and I was just, I thought more had been done when we had remodeled it. And I forgot it was the first one that I remodeled. So when I got there, I'm like, Oh no, I need, you know, like the vents were like in really bad shape. And so we, You know, we, there was a couple thousand dollars more went into it than I had anticipated.
Um, but I just, I want everything when I get it furnished, I want it to be perfect. I don't want to have to send construction people back in there. Um, unless there's something that's broken that needs to be fixed. I don't want to have to do any remodel work or anything after the fact. So. Okay, and when it comes to the midterm rental operations with your property manager, how much are you doing?
It sounds like maybe you handle the guest communication and the, uh, channel manager and, and then they handle any on property maintenance or what's the balance there? Exactly, exactly. So I, I handle the guests. I handle all the bookings. I handle, um, you know, most guest questions. Um, for some reason I have electronic locks and everything.
And for some reason people can never figure out how to use them. Even though I put a little instruction thing right above the door. Um, but yeah, But, uh, I, it seems like on like 50 percent of the check ins, I get someone calling me, Hey, my code's not working. I'm like, well, you gotta, I've got those on the triplex.
I got those quick set ones on. I quit buying those because people get confused that you got to push two numbers first. Just, just two random numbers light up. You got to push those. Then you can put in your code and they're like, I can't put in my code. There's only two numbers that light up. Right. And I'm like, Oh, you got to hit those two numbers first.
And, and, uh, and then I went on the new ones. I went to the Schlagg ones because they don't do that. And it's, they've got like the. fingerprint proof screen instead. So, um, and they also integrate better with my channel manager, which is another one with those, with those slag locks, the, um, so it's, it's a little less work on my end because the channel manager automatically takes the last four digits of their phone number.
And makes that their code. So it's something that they won't forget, right? But but yeah back to your question though Kelly, I I handle all the all the guest stuff when it comes to that and they just handle building maintenance right, so which is also nice with the guests because I can be like, oh, you know, like if if my if my Property manager messed something up or they came out to fix something.
I've had a couple of times where they didn't knock on the door and they just opened the door. We've, we've gotten to the bottom of that, but, but it's like, you know, um, what I did was I put, I put do not disturb. Um, like, like in a hotel, I've got a little thing that slides. It says, do not disturb or, or, you know, or, or welcome to knock on it.
I tell the guests, you know, like, Hey, if, you know, just like a hotel, if. You know, you don't because I also have like pest control that comes out to the like the triplex once a month And they'll spray inside but like if you don't want them to spray inside just put the put the do not disturb on and they Won't come in They'll just do the outside.
but I think this is all, this is all about creating these processes and solving these problems as you go forward. But what I'm hearing you say is like, you know, you didn't just have an instance once where someone knocked and then it was disturbing to the guests, but then that happened and you made a more permanent solution, right?
So it was like, okay, then we're going to have these signs that the guests can select if they want to. Be disturbed or not right and with the locks. Okay this i'm having this issue I'm, not just going to constantly deal with it I'm, either going to make a process or i'm going to shift what we're doing And I think that is just like key it's like stop dealing with the same problems over and over and over But instead like take an extra second And figure out what's a more permanent way that I can handle this.
Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then having those locks all set up that way, I get alerts when the batteries are getting low and I just keep extra batteries in, in the, you know, drawer and tell the guest, Hey, you know, the battery's getting low on the front door. Can you, you know, there's some in the drawer. Can you, and if for some reason, like I had one guest, Oh, there's only like three batteries left.
It takes four. I'm like, Oh, I just ordered some for you on Amazon. They'll be there tomorrow, you know, and it's, uh, it, you know, You know, and they don't, I haven't met a guest yet that minds doing that. Right. It's not, I think if it's a short term rental and they're an Airbnb guest, it might be different if they're there for three days, they were not, they're not going to want to change batteries in a lock, but if they're there for two, three months or longer, I don't think they, they don't really, they don't really mind that.
And the other thing with the sign to Katie is it, it puts responsibility back on the guest. If someone knocks now, well, you didn't put the do not disturb up, you know? So yeah, you know, and I always send up. Well, I, I get an alert from Orkin when the pest control is going right. So, you know, I know it's, or it's this Thursday.
So on like, you know, Wednesday, I sent a message out to all the guests saying, Hey, pest control is coming reminder. If you don't want them to come in, they'll knock regardless. But if you don't want them, you know, knock, if it's set, they're not just going to walk in, but, you know, set it to do not disturb. If you don't want them to come in and spray.
Right, it's communication, right? It's it's communication. So we talked about key check just briefly earlier Let's uh, let's dive into the Furnished Finder tools a bit more key check being one of those that you use Darryl And reminder key check is Furnished Finder suite of midterm rental tools that once someone says anything send you a booking request or says I'd like to move forward with a booking because we're not an online booking platform, then we give you the tools to take that guest through a secure booking process on our sister site, Keycheck.
So we have all the tools there available for you with tenant screening and leases and rent payments. So Darel, how has Keycheck been such a valuable part of your midterm rental process? Uh, it's been very important, right? It's uh, first of all, I think guests that travel a lot and use Furnace Finder trust it They know it they trust it, right?
So so there's that right? Um, The I like it now that more of it's integrated into Furnace Finder like the tenant screening for example I use it For a hundred percent of the tenant screen, unless it comes through Airbnb, obviously those don't get screened because there's extra protections or whatever, but anything through furnished finder, um, I use, I use key check to do the background screening on each adult guests.
That's going to be there. Um, I've had, I've had college kids stay there, um, and their parents always book it. And I do the background check on both of them. And you know, the parents are always willing to do that. Uh, and then, and then, um, it's, I mean, it's really awesome. Like the, you get three simple to read reports, right?
I, you know, I, I can real quick see the credit score. And if it's, you know, above a 700, I don't look any further, right? I don't, I don't need to, if it's below, then I kind of look down what's going on, you know, and maybe have a conversation if it's below like a 640. I will definitely have a conversation, um, to see what's going on there.
But, but in, and you can, you can validate with what you see if they're telling you the truth or not. That's what's great. I've only had to have that conversation once. Um, but, uh, but then, but then I also, I also, I was using it. For all of my rent all of my leases as well as Um as well as for all of the payments um until I adopted the channel manager, right and Because the channel manager lets me streamline the process and I don't have to click as many I kind of went that way for guest payments and for the lease because the lease is just Integrated now into the process that they click through in their guest portal, which I think you still use.
Um, a ch on Uh, ACH payments on key check, right? Yeah, so so so if they're taking credit cards I use the channel manager but you know if they and most of my guests just want to use their credit card, but But like I have I have two construction workers sharing one of my two bedrooms right now and The fact that it was two of them paying number one was a problem on my channel manager And the fact they both wanted to use ach and not get hit with the credit card fees was another issue So for them I set it up in key check.
It's simple. I set up two different rental, you know Two different payments one for each email and And then, you know, set their rent schedule and it's, it's simple and easy to use. They, they were both older construction workers. So it was a little difficult to walk them through. I actually, and so I actually, the first time I called support and I said, Hey, these guys are having trouble.
Like I'm, I'm, I, I can't see what they see. I set myself up with a test payment. So I could, and I'm like, I don't understand where they're and they support helped them. So they. Just help them. They got, they got them taken care of. Um, that's the only time I've had, I've had an issue and I think they, these were just a little technology challenged folks.
Um, but yeah. Yeah. Keycheck is amazing. I love it. I love it because it just feels like everything is. In one place and integrated and it makes your life a lot easier. And that customer service team is amazing. I mean, I know some of them personally as well, or I guess professionally, right? Because we're working with furnished finder and key check every day with our full time jobs.
Um, and they're just the best people. And they just really care about making everybody's experience great and having these products work to help you, um, reach your goals and make your processes really smooth. So, um, let's pivot here a little bit. Um, and let's talk about sometimes that things didn't go perfectly because things don't always go perfectly.
And Darel, how you use a waiver product. To kind of navigate those situations And then I can add in What Furnished Finder is introducing to kind of help landlords have that same type of protection? Awesome, and i'm excited for that announcement that you're going to make too um, yeah, so I I had gotten this idea from the this kind of worry free waiver idea from the From that property manager that I originally was using to do my bookings and I used them for about a year the first year They're You know, I, I realized though that I had to keep answering the same questions over and over again to them.
So I might as well just deal with the guests. But, um, but they, what they did is they didn't take a security deposit and instead they charged the guest a, I think it was a 30 fee or something. Um, And instead like per month that would, that would, uh, cover essentially an insurance policy for anything damaged.
Right now. I mean, we, we all have insurance on our properties, right? And I have insurance on my property that will cover my furniture too. If, but I don't want to enact that because someone destroyed a couch because someone. Destroyed someone's dog destroyed a rug or chewed on a table or whatever I I don't want to make an insurance claim because if anyone has ever made an insurance claim, you know, that's like It's like an insurance claim with your car, right?
You get in a car crash. Now your insurance goes up, right? So so the worry free waiver thing really came in handy for me with uh, When when I was with them, so I decided to find a product Similar to what they were using, uh, for, for my properties going forward. Um, I had a, I had a, uh, uh, family move in to, to my first floor, uh, two bedroom right after I furnished it.
These were the first guests, right? So everything was brand new and they brought three pit bulls that they did not tell us about. And then once they were in there said they're service dogs. And I'm like, it's, there was nothing we could do. And they, I could see on my outside cameras, they were tearing up the yards.
I had several conversations with the guy about that. And I was just like, what's happening inside? Well, luckily I was flying out at the end of that one and I was going to be staying in the unit because I was getting siding done on the outside. It was getting the parking lot, expanded some other work done.
This was November of last year. I flew out and I was like, that's it. I'm doing this all myself from now on with the guests. And, and, um, and my cleaners, it was horrible inside. Like it was, they caused almost 3, 000 worth of damage to furniture. Um, and, but the good thing was, is I had to pay out of pocket then to get everything redone.
But I took really good pictures, had my cleaners take really good pictures. Um, and. The insurance covered it all so, you know, I think all but maybe like five hundred dollars of it, right? But but when I look at the overall financial part of it, like these folks paid we're paying two and a half times the normal rent anyway Right.
And so when I look at it compared to a long term guest, I was still way ahead in terms of Even if the damages weren't covered weren't covered for that six months day. But um, but yeah So it was it was super easy to use. Um, and and it it covered me Uh, and so what I do do now is I do take a deposit, but I take a smaller deposit Right.
I take a 500 deposit. Um, that's not too painful for people. I know like, especially traveling medical pressure, they've got a deposit here. They're moving a contract. They haven't got their deposit here back and now they've got to give you a deposit and get things done. And, and even when it comes to, I've medical professionals usually seem to have their finances fairly squared away, construction workers, not as much, right.
So they're usually living like they get their paycheck once a week. And, you know, some of them asked me to. To pay once a week, right. Right. Instead of like once a month and cause it's like, they know their own habits or bad habits, whatever it is. But, um, but you know, Hey, they pay and I'm happy. So, um, so yeah, so the worry free waiver product, I absolutely am an advocate for, um, and I can't wait to hear your guys announcement and check that out as well.
Yeah. You guys worry free waiver is live. It's here. We've been working so hard. so hard behind the scenes on it. Um, and it's just for these types of situations that Darel's talking about. Um, I know everybody wants perfect rental experiences and with midterm rentals, you get amazing experiences. You're going to have these professional, um, tenants.
You're going to have, Most of the time it's gonna be great, but it's nice to have that coverage if even something small happens Let's say that you have a white couch and your tenant was drinking a glass of red wine and there goes your couch Right or let's say that they have a pet because we always encourage, you know, allowing pets 40 percent of our travelers have pets but then that Dog or puppy destroys your coffee table or the bed or whatever it is.
It's just nice to have coverage. Security deposits can cover you, but it can make for some really awkward conversations. It can really, it can also make it so. You might create some tension that might lead to a negative review or just, you know, those, those conversations that nobody wants to have. So worry free waiver is a product that we have partnered with Wavo on.
Um, and for a low cost, you can either, you can choose your level. There's levels between 50 from 59 a month to 79 a month, and you can get from 1, 000 coverage to 3, 500 of coverage. And with that, if you have damage, um, you just turn it in and go through the process and then you can get made whole again. Um, the other nice thing that it's covered is if you have someone who cancels their lease, as long as you have that active coverage throughout that term, you're going to get covered for that missing rent, which is really cool.
And I know a concern with a lot of people with like medical professionals and is their contract going to get canceled or what about this? What about that? As a landlord, I really like the options that I have to present it to a tenant. So in my mind, there's three ways, right? There's, I can offer it as, Hey, there's no security deposit.
Rent is 50 bucks higher. Right. So I just build it into the cost of my rent. They don't even know there's a waiver. It's just my rent is 50 high than my competitor, but, um, I don't require a deposit. I can also offer it in addition to a security deposit. Or I can have it and just build it in for the sake of my own protection for all of my properties and just pay for it as an expense as like my security blanket.
Um, typically my plan is to tell, um, Potential tenants about it and say, Hey, I don't require a deposit. Um, I have a waiver that covers you for damages up to a thousand dollars. If anything were to happen, you know, you're covered. Um, and that increases your rent by about 59. But I think it's a much better deal for you and you don't have to wait to get your deposit back or anything like that.
But you can work it into your business how you want to, because that's what we're here about at Furnished Finder is like, how does this work for you? How does it work into your business? Yeah, definitely. So I, the part I want Darel to circle back onto with this conversation is it didn't scare Darel away from still being pet friendly.
He, he took the emotion out and said, okay, here's the facts. Uh, I'm making two, two times the market rent. Uh, I was able to get the damage back through, uh, you know, the worry free waiver type. product. So I'm going to still offer pet friendly homes because 40 percent, almost 40 percent of furniture for your travelers want to travel with their pets.
Uh, so you don't want to, you know, remove that from, uh, your marketing. Uh, but he took that and put better pet policies in place. So Darrell, what do your pet policies look like now, uh, that you learned from that experience? So yeah, so in my email template when someone inquires I ask automatically like any are there any pets Even if they're service animals I need to know if they're pets because if they're a dangerous breed I have to inform my insurance company that I have a service animal there That's a dangerous breed so that i'm covered right because insurance companies can't do that deny you, but you have to let them know, right?
And, and so, so I, so I do, I do that. First of all, I said, I have a separate. Right. And they're not in my normal rules. It's a separate document and it's hanging on the wall, like right. As you walk inside and they get it emailed out. Right. And it, and I have, I have all the pet rules. And then I said, service animals below.
I'm like service animals. These pet rules still apply for the service animals, right? Like, like there's nothing saying like legally that like, I can't say like, Hey, if you leave your dog in the house alone for long periods of time, it has to be kenneled, right? You can't just have it running free. And, and you know, and I have conversations with people about their pets.
I've, you know, I'm not a big fan of allowing cats because of the allergens. I'm allergic to cats. So I mean I it takes a while even if you have a deep cleaning for those allergens to disappear with cats um, but But um, I have allowed a couple cats because the people were like, oh i've had this cat forever.
It doesn't do it You know, it's it and they explain the cat to me and i'm like, okay i'll allow the cat right? Um, and and they've been longer stays, but I charge them an extra You Cleaning fee. I'm like, look, I'm going to have to, it's going to be a deep cleaning. So instead of the 160 fee, it's going to be like 300.
Is that okay with you? And they're, they're, they've always been like, yeah, that's absolutely fine. I'm like, I just, I have to make sure that the next person, if they have allergies, that it's taken care of. Right. Yep. Just explaining the value there. That's important. Right. Yeah. And then, and then circling back to the worry free waiver.
I, I love, I love what Katie said on the, on the, the three different options. Having used it myself. And not having had a deposit, I learned that I want a small deposit because if there's a small deposit and people feel like they have a stake in the game, I just feel like they're going to take better care.
Even though I only have 500, I've given it back every time. I mean, even when there's been a couple things broken, I just, you know, I don't care about a broken lamp or whatever. We'll just ship a new one. Um, I don't even bother with the worry free waiver product for that kind of stuff, if it's, you know, under a hundred bucks or whatever, it's just.
It's just easier to take care of it. Yeah. I love that. It gives you those options. Like you can just be like, okay, how do, how does this work for me? And, or like, how does this work for. This property or this property or this scenario, you can, you can change it and tweak it all the time and kind of test and see what is right.
So, so I have a question on, on the wave of one, and I, hopefully you guys know the answer on this. I think it would be good for the guys. So. Like, in my case, with my damage that happened, if I had had another guest coming, if it hadn't been me coming in town, and by the way, I had to go stay in a hotel for three nights while we got the place cleaned up.
I wasn't even going to stay there. If I'd had another guest coming, like, the next day, does the Wavo product cover those lost rents? Like, you know, someone damages your place to where it's taken three, four days to get it cleaned up. Yeah. You know, that's a good question. And, and this has been one of the reasons that we've partnered with wave Iwana is because this is the type of product where there's, there's so many instances and so many, like, well, what if this happens?
What if this happens? And what if this happens? And I actually don't know the answer to your question, but we have. Our key check team has been trained on the product. And like you said, like the customer service with them is amazing. And we also are like not stopping anyone from contacting way about like, that's why we're being very transparent about this partnership is because they are the absolute experts.
Um, and. We have like their customer service number when you sign up, it's on the dashboard so you can connect, you can ask questions before or during or after. Um, because this is, it's one of those things that comes with a lot of like, what if, so what if, what if, and you know, it's just, it's, it's not as like, I'm like, we need like a, like a long Rolodex of all these situations, but I would encourage anyone, if you're interested in learning more about the product or you have kind of questions like that.
Go to your landlord dashboard, um, and then you're going to see a little thing that says, um, landlord tools and it's right under that section is landlord tools and you will see it. Um, and it's just going to say, um, worry free waiver, and it's got this cute little new icon by it because it's new and we're all so excited, but explore it and reach out if you have questions because that is a fantastic, I think, use case question that is, we're going to have a lot of those.
Yep, for sure. And I, if you, if you If you get on the Wavo website and you actually kind of read the story behind why they developed the product, it's, it's not people that are second nature to the industry. Uh, it's people that have been in the industry, uh, from the short term rental side and said, hey, there's not really great products out there for this.
So let, let me know. We're going to create the great product. So it's a pretty cool story, uh, and just kind of re reinforces and gives you that peace of mind that, uh, it, it really is covering a wide span of, uh, what you need with a worry free waiver without, you know, when you think of, you know, With products like that, you always think, okay, what's the red tape?
And so I think in those conversations with Keycheck, you can figure out that there's not necessarily a lot of red tape associated with it. Um, Darel, did you want to add anything to that? Otherwise we're going to move on to our last two questions. I like that they do cover like rents for cancellations.
The one I used now only covers damages, right? So it doesn't cover any lost rents or anything like that. So I'm, I'm really interested in checking it out myself. So awesome. Great. Uh, so you have a, um, QR code in your images on Furnished Finder and that QR code points, uh, people to a virtual tour, um, and you also have it in your description as well.
Uh, so, you know, I, uh, we would like to hear more about that product and how it's been a beneficial part of your midterm rental business. Yeah, absolutely. So I, I found out about this product from my property manager in Ohio. They, they started using these Theta 360 cameras. Um, and what they, what they were doing is when they would do a turnover, right?
They would go in and they take up the space. They put this thing on this monopod in each room. They take a picture, you do it through iPad, and it takes a picture of each room, like this 360 degree photo, and then they tie it all together. It takes like five minutes to tie it together, and then they send it out with the turnover report.
Port, like of the damages. So that like, if, if I'm like, you know, Oh, well, yeah, guys, like, let's also fix that or whatever, or, yeah, no, I can see that the blinds are destroyed or, or, you know, and so, so that's how I got the idea and I'm like, wow, you know, I, and so I went to order one on Amazon and then I went to their website and realized, Oh, they give these cameras away for free because you have to have a software subscription.
So I canceled my Amazon order of this like 250 camera. And it's like, it's, I think it's around 400 a year. Um, so if you have just one it might not make sense but um, but with having four and i'm growing it makes a lot of sense because I think maybe I'd say 25 to 30 percent of the people that book with me want to see it.
And they'll say, and even though I have the QR code and I have the link in there, um, they'll be like, Hey, can we get in and look at it? I'm like, well, no, I'm sorry. You can't like I'm booked all the time. I can't. Let you in. I mean, if no one was there and even if no one's there, I'm kind of like, do I want to let someone, I haven't signed a contract with just if I'm there to let him in, it's a different thing.
Or I'm not going to pay my property manager a hundred bucks to go out there and walk someone through either. Right. Um, so, so I'm like, here, here's, here's the virtual tour. And that's worked every time they're like, Oh, wow, that's amazing. I'm like, it looks exactly like it does in the virtual tour. You know, like maybe we've, we've maybe replaced a broken lamp or two, but you know, it's otherwise it's, it's, it's exactly like the virtual tour.
Um, and that's kind of set their minds at ease every time. And I think the more. I mean, we all know there's scams out there. You guys put warnings on your website about them. And I think the more evidence of your rental, things like virtual tours, things like, you know, your, your, your listing, um, using key check.
Um, I think the more of that there is to make people feel comfortable, the more they're like, all right, yeah, this is legit. This person's not, you know, I mean, when they see my direct booking site to all those different things, like help. Like give legitimacy that this is a real business. I'm not, I'm not just, you know, I'm not sending my money off to Nigeria or somewhere, you know, where there's.
Yeah, it's. Anything and then it again, it gives you that leg up with the competition, right? And it just do it really, really well. So I love that. I think that's like your theme is whatever you do, you're going to do it really, really well. Um, and I just love how that seems to be the resonating with, with all of your processes and all of your steps here.
So kudos, kudos for that. So let's wrap up with the last question of you've really Emphasize in this episode the value of multifamilies in the midterm rental space So how did you find the right deals for your multifamilies? And what tips do you have for others? Yeah, so I mean you'd think with all the bigger pockets episodes I listened to that I was out there like finding off market deals or something, but I have not bought one off market deal, right?
So they've all been on market Uh, I have a buddy that I went to high school with in Ohio. He's my real estate agent. I mean, my property manager would love me to use his realty company for it, but I'm, I'm pretty loyal to, to my buddy, Matt and he, and he, uh, he finds me my properties, right? He sets me up on his MLS search.
I have access to the MLS there via his portal, right? And I, See a property. I ping him. I'm like, Hey Matt, let's check this one out. He'll drive out, look at it for me, take pictures, FaceTime me. Um, and that's how I found, you know, all of these essentially. I think the first one I didn't use him, I didn't know he was a realtor.
And when he saw, I bought a duplex there. He's like, Dude, like, what are you doing? You know, I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry, man. I didn't know that's what you did. So from going forward, I used him on everything out there. Um, in Kansas city, I just reached out and found a, an investor friendly realtor. I think I used bigger pockets.
And then, uh, I built that place in Florida through, uh, through like one of these, like, uh, rental rent, like I think it was rent to retirement, but like through, through one of these, uh, you know, investor friendly, uh, places. Like build sites, but, uh, that was a pandemic challenge. Um, and it became more of a challenge building a new house in Cape Coral during the pandemic than it probably would have been to find something off, you know, on market, but yeah.
Well, uh, I think what's cool about that Florida one is how, uh, you said it's important to stay tuned in to the market and you were putting in offers that were getting outbid over and over, which is why you switched to the building route versus the purchasing route, right? Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. So, so it just, it just took. Three times longer than what was anticipated, right? And the market shifted during that time and interest rates went up and everything else. So it, it, it's, it's not making what I wanted it to. And honestly, and I've looked at that market to do midterm, but like for that brand new house, it doesn't make sense.
Like I only get a few hundred dollars more than I get for long term rent there. And I think it's just because like, if I know, like, you know, that area, um, it's, if you're not like on the, there's just, It's a lot of retirees and families and stuff and there's just not a lot of I don't feel like there's a lot of uh, You know people go down there for airbnb and stuff But they want to pool and they want a lot of other stuff and i'm just like, okay I'm not doing all that.
So so that that property doesn't quite fit what I need for a midterm So i'll keep it long term for now. Um, but There's always a chance of maybe selling it, reinvesting that money elsewhere in the more midterm. So awesome. Okay. Well, if anyone would like to connect with you, uh, you have your website, we've got your furnished finder listing in the show notes.
Any other ways that you want them to connect with you? My first name, last name on Instagram, uh, same thing on LinkedIn. Uh, so, so yeah, um, I'm, I think it's the same on Facebook as well, but perfect. Darel Eisen, Darel Eisen everywhere. Sweet. So homework for you guys today. We've talked a lot about your, uh, Furnished Finder dashboard tool.
So get in your dashboard, check your listings. Check the things that are available that you might not be using right now like the new worry free waiver product key check We've had for a long time, but maybe you're not using it right now So get in there and see how they might be excellent additions to your midterm rental business and stay tuned to the landlord diaries We always do Tell you about those tools to use and how you can just be the best midterm rental host you can be, uh, with all the new changes in the industry and anything coming up, so tune in every week to the landlord diaries and share our podcasts with a friend so that y'all can have fun talking about it.