How to set up and fully book your first MTR with great guests so you can 2x your cash flow.

Hey everyone, good evening. I'm gonna hit some buttons here and see if this works. Let me know if you can see me and hear me. I think we're live. Hey everyone, this is Shona from She's Got Assets. Hopefully everyone knows the drill. If you can see me and hear me, let me know. You're on Facebook right now. I'm just gonna do some checking to make sure everything's working, that we have a fun topic tonight. We're just gonna go over midterm rental basics, like my top tips and tricks, and I have some exciting news. So, um, yeah, if anyone is here, let me know. Let me know you can see me and hear me. It's always helpful. Um, looks like we're here. Okay, I'm going to say everyone, we're live. All right, so if you're here, let me know. Appreciate you guys tuning in. I'm just gonna make a comment on someone's post that can't find me. Um, but I really appreciate everyone tuning in tonight. Let me know like where you're calling in from, how your day is going. Um, and then we're gonna jump in. I have a fun presentation to share with lots of tips and tricks, and I'm gonna talk about the midterm rental course. So, um, yeah, um, okay, I'm just doing some admin stuff here. Sorry, I'm running a few minutes late. Okay, all right, if anyone's here— all right, hey guys! Hey, um, Gilmarie! Hey Nancy! Hey Michelle! Hey Loretta! Thank you for tuning in. Let me know you're calling in from Texas. Loretta, awesome, appreciate it. Okay, I'll give everyone like another minute and then I'm going to do a screen share. Let's hope this works. It's always fun. Okay, let me just rearrange a few things here. And yeah, super fun topic. Um, it's just kind of all about midterm rentals, going over the basics again, talking about the course, be a live Q&A at the end. So I'm going to go ahead and present. Um, let me share my screen. All right, let's hope this works. All right, can everyone see my screen? Please let me know. I'm not in presentation mode. Let's, let's make that a little prettier. Hopefully that works. Okay, everyone can see it, let me know. Hey Susan from Seattle, thanks again for tuning in. Um, so I'm Shona, I'm the founder of She's Got Assets. Um, I love talking, working with students, talking about midterm rentals and investments in general. So, um, Again, if anyone is tuning in later watching the replay, just drop a comment and I'll get back to you. But we're going to kind of do a little presentation tonight and then we're going to talk at the end. I have a little special going on and fixing my camera here. And then we're going to talk about, yeah, how to work with me and how the course works. All right. So this presentation is how to do extra cash flow with midterm rentals. I'm Shona from She's Got Assets. Um, all right, so a little bit about me if you haven't come across me or the first time you're watching. If you already know me, just like grab some— a drink or something. Um, I like to say I was raised by capitalist hippies growing up. I helped run the family vacation rental business. This is kind of in my blood. I'm in Portland, Oregon originally. I'm from California. I thought I would never be in this business. It was way too expensive and it just seemed, you know, like very unattainable. If anyone can relate, let me know. Um, I've been a longtime landlord since 2006, so quite a while. I've learned a lot. It's been fun. Um, like I said, I live in Portland, Oregon with my family. We have a mix of long-term and midterm rentals. Definitely love my midterm rentals. A few things about me: I love coffee, baking, design, treasure hunting, learning, and I am of course obsessed with all things real estate. Um, a little bit before I got into real estate full-time, um, my background is I was a graphic designer, and then we founded a boutique graphic design studio and then co-founded an agency. Um, I've pretty much been an entrepreneur my whole life. Somebody once put it very eloquently, uh, like, you're an outside cat. I'm totally an outside cat. Um, so I used to— this was kind of a side hobby for us, then I became the full-time investor. I'm kind of a serial entrepreneur. I'm the founder of She's Got Assets. I'm the podcast host and the course author of the REI Playbook and the MTR Playbook, which we're going to talk about after this presentation. And then I have Cedar and Porch Properties, which is my rental brand, and Shona Buys Houses, where I bought off-market properties directly from sellers. So it's a little bit about me. Now we'll get into the meat of it. Um, thanks for listening to that. So midterm rentals, right? It's definitely a hot topic. They're getting more and more popular. I have so many leads I can't even fill them. Um, I love this quote, "Buy land, they aren't making it anymore." So definitely a favorite. So let's just kind of start with what is a midterm rental. It's a 30+ day stay in a fully furnished property. There are some exceptions to that, but generally that's kind of what we're talking about when we're talking about a midterm rent or an MTR rental. Um, so what I love about them, right, there's only a couple turnovers a year. You know, you look at a short-term rental like an Airbnb or a VRBO, it's like every couple of days. So it's like only a couple turnovers, maybe 2 to 3 a year. So it's a lot less than short-term. I really believe we're providing a needed service. You know, we're more of a host than a landlord, right? We're dealing with people— we, I call them guests. They're usually in town on work or contract or maybe had something happen to their house looking for temporary housing. And they're regulated like a long-term rental, so we're not at the mercy of all those short-term regular regulations. I've had to— a lot of people and Airbnb, they're really cracking down on them, so they're getting outlawed in a lot of places. Um, let's see. Okay, so I used to have short-term rentals, you know, I had a couple, they were fun, but they were a lot of stress, really, really high maintenance guests. Like, people are there for vacation, they want to know where to get coffee, they want more towels, toilet paper. It was just a lot of communication. Yes, there is software to manage that, but still, it's a lot of mindshare. Got really tired of the turnover. You're always worrying about your last review. Reviews are important. They're not as nearly as important in the midterm world as they are in the short-term world. In the short-term world, like, one bad review, right, and you could lose a booking, right? So that's my kind of Airbnb STR life, um, MTR life, right? More cash flow with less stress. Up to 2x more cash flow or more over long-term rentals, which I love. That's of why we love this, right? It's cash flow. And again, I mentioned this, but, you know, STR regulations don't apply. You don't have to worry about constantly changing or being outlawed or a whole business just, you know, getting cut because the local regulations changed. Again, way less turnover, only a couple a year. Expandability— you can make rentals cash flow in an expensive market, right? Sometimes you're looking at a rental or investment, it's really hard to make any numbers work if you're thinking of a traditional rental. It just doesn't generally pencil. At least in expensive markets like I'm in. If anyone can relate to that, let me know. Um, okay. Also, generally, there is a caveat. I generally don't have to do in-person showings. For insurance claims, it's a little bit different, but most of the time I'm really booking directly. I'm not doing, I'm not doing a bunch of tours. And so I, that's one of the things I like about it as well. Um, so I think A really big question is, you know, what makes a good midterm rental? Does size matter? Does it have to be close to stuff? You know, I think if you're in an urban area where there is a growing population, there is industry and commerce, most property sizes are going to work. You know, there's nuances to them, but we're going to kind of COVID that. So, you know, doing your research is good to know. Like, I've been doing this long enough. I know kind of the demand in my area. But if you're starting out or you're not sure, there's a couple You know, I cover this really in depth in the course. There's a lot of tools, but you can go to like Airbnb, Airbnb Long Stays, just kind of do a search, see what you find. Furnished Finder has a stats option. You look on there and go to corporate housing by owners. There are a lot of more detailed ways I cover on the course, but these are some high-level ways to kind of check demand in your area and how much you could make. Right. So let's cover, you know, property sizes and guest avatars. Avatars being who's staying in your property. Right. So in my experience, I have the gamut of like a studio up to like a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, right? They all kind of work. It just some of them are more profitable than others. So essentially, you know, if you have a studio, right, that's great. You know, I just recently bought an off-market duplex, zero down. It was amazing. I tried it as long-term. I really wasn't getting the rent I wanted, so I decided to go midterm and I'm basically doubling it, right? So on the smaller properties, I definitely say you can want extra cash flow. So if you have a studio or one bedroom, right, it's great for traveling medical professionals and nurses. That's who I think most people think of. Business travelers, digital nomads. Then you have like the two-bedroom, one-bath. Again, you know, corporate clients, businesses, digital nomads, students, some families. But I would say, you know, one-bedroom studio, two-bedroom is definitely more kind of a traveling medical professionals, nurses who you're appealing to. They're also more budget conscious. Then you get into like the 3-bedroom, 2-bath. Again, can be a similar clientele. Sometimes people have roommates, um, maybe more corporate clients, but really the main avatar for this is displaced families from insurance claims. We're going to cover that. But as you can see here, really runs the gamut. All, you know, property types work. It really depends on the quality of the property, the location of it. Is it close to stuff. But in my experience, I have all of these properties, they all work very well as midterms. Some people really dial in their niche, some people have a couple different types of properties. So that's kind of the overview. Um, I like to do what I call an A/B market test. Like, if I'm testing the market or I'm considering going long-term, or, you know, if I don't want to spend the money on furnishing up front— and I cover this in the course— I will digitally stage properties. Um, and you can see the difference here, like an empty room versus what, you know, is furniture. And, and there's a lot of AI tools out there I have in the course. It's pretty amazing what you can do pretty quickly. So I— that's kind of one thing I like to do to test the market. Um, again, here's another example, like before an empty room and then after. You can see it looks really cozy. There's like artwork on the walls. There's, you know, it has a cozy feeling. It just has a very different vibe than an empty room. And people generally cannot imagine an empty room being furnished, right? It's just like staging a house when you're flipping it, right? When you add that staging and the artwork and the throws and kind of the accessories, right? It really comes to life. So I, I really, I love digital staging. It's just a way to like test something. I, I, you know, I coach students on getting their places booked before they're even furnished with this strategy. It's really effective. So there's a tip there. Um, so pricing is a big question and it's a little bit of an art and science. There's definitely strategic ways we cover in the course how to do it. I like to kind of know like, what is my long-term rent? Like, that's just my baseline. Okay, it would make this as a long-term. I kind of want to know what that is. Is that worth going midterm? If I'm getting a premium for a long-term, look, I may not want to go midterm. Um, you can check on Furnished Finder for comps, Airbnb, and, um, you know, you can try like 2x over a long-term rent to test the market and kind of see what kind of interest you get. I would like to start high and then back off of that. Those are some quick tips. We go into that more depth in the course. Again, top amenities, hands down the most common ones. Most people have pets. I know people are very nervous about pets, but you are cutting yourself out of a huge audience. So if I, I can't emphasize it enough, like, please be pet friendly. You don't have to be, but you're just gonna miss out on a lot of business, and there's ways to protect yourself with, you know, pet rent and pet fees I cover in the course. Just highly recommend being pet friendly if you can stomach it. Um, you know, there's again, there's ways to protect yourself. So the top amenities are people really want a fenced yard, ideally one where they can kind of— that there's a yard like attached to the house, like the dog can just go out through the back door. Fenced yard, pet friendly, uh, parking is ideal. Not all my properties have parking, but like off-street parking, a garage is really a top-tier amenity in my experience. Um, A few more things. I think people expect a washer dryer. They don't want to go to a laundromat. Who wants to do that? Like a full kitchen, not like some kind of, you know, apartment kitchen or some kind of like hot plate. They really want a full kitchen, you know, fairly well stocked. And I think the other thing is in a safe, you know, decent, solid class B neighborhood, right? Doesn't have to be high end, but we want nice areas that feel safe or well lit. So that's kind of a high-level amenities. Again, I have a full list in the course. So furnishing, we're gonna kind of COVID a high level that. Again, I have a very full list in the course of like what to get. Every room is kind of broken down by kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. So we're gonna go over high-level amenities. You know, I think design is super important. Design really sells. You have to have nice quality furniture. Quality properties. The market is definitely getting more competitive with Airbnb hosts going midterm. So I would say if you, if you love design, I feel like a lot of people in this space really do, you know, choose a style, modern, eclectic, mid-century, right? If you love design, if you don't, definitely hire someone for that. I might, I kind of coach students to keep it simple but functional. You know, we don't need to go crazy, but you know, add some color, add some, add some personality, add some coziness with throw pillows. And I just, really emphasize that style, I think, sells. People want to stay in nice places. If you don't put a lot of effort into your furnishing, you're not going to be able to get a premium, right? So don't overlook it, but it is definitely also not vacation mode, right? So it's someone going to be living there, needs to be functional but really nice, high quality. All right, um, so some quick furnishing tips. You know, I, I cover this in the course. I have a really extensive list and with Amazon links and whatnot, but if you're doing this yourself Go room by room, like make a list, like look at your bedroom. You've got nightstands, you have a mattress, just kind of make this mental list, right? I think it's good, always good to measure, right? So you got the right sizes. Um, definitely you can hunt for stuff. I think it's a little more efficient to order online because hunting and packing takes a while. It depends on your timeline, your time frame. Um, I, I order most everything including the mattress online and I have that all in the course. Comes in a box, it's great, it just unravels, it's super easy. A little, I like to add a little bit of local flavor, right? These are a couple of my favorite things. I have this map I like, it's a letterpress map, a throw, you know, stylish fixtures. These aren't like necessities, but I just think a little bit of style and character goes a long way. So those are a few of my favorite things. I think smart tech's really important, and I cover recommendations specifically in the course. Self-check-in is awesome, which means a smart lock. There's a lot of options. I have my favorite in the course. I like the August one. I think video doorbells are great for safety. You just, you can see when packages come. I did a tour of a property and actually the guests requested it. Normally I have that installed and then I usually generally have like one smart TV. You know, you don't, I don't think the expectation is to have one in every room. I just put one in like the living room or add like, you know, Roku or something so guests can log into their streaming channels of choice. Again, I think balance online and local, have a couple statement pieces, but as much as you can order online, it just makes it a lot more efficient. Little quick tip here is if you can stay the night, make a meal, make up, you know, some pasta, see what you're missing. You're really gonna figure out, oh, you forgot the colander or the can opener, those little details are really important. So a little tip there. So advertising, we cover this really in depth in the course. I'll kind of go high level here with some tips. Um, you know, these are the top places. There is a huge list of stuff in the course, but really high-level— Furnish Finder, you know, um, very popular for medical professionals. Other avatars use it as well, so I think it's well worthwhile being on there. There's ways to optimize it that I cover. Airbnb, uh, definitely, even if you're not doing short-term stays, it's a really good place to be. And Zillow— these are like my, the top recommendations for places to list. And then to kind of COVID corporate clients or temporary housing for displaced families, there's really big companies. These are a couple of the top ones. Again, I have a full list in the course, like ALA Solutions, CRS Temporary Housing, THD Temp Housing Directory. You can really command a premium for these kinds of claims. There's a strategy to it, and I cover it in the course. But if you want to list yourself with these places, it's well worth it. They also look in the other places. And just kind of a really high-level overview of how insurance claims work. I cover this in the course, but just if you haven't come across the strategy, it's kind of the niche strategy of Midterm. So disaster happens, a flood or a fire, the family files a claim. They're going to stay in a hotel, right? That's where they're going to stay. The insurance company is going to work with a temporary housing company. Because insurance companies, they're not housing providers, right? So they're going to work with a temporary housing company. They will often reach out to you like a relocation specialist and say, I have a family of 2 and have a dog. Sometimes they have a duck or a lizard or chickens, and they will ask you all the questions, and we kind of COVID what they're going to ask you in the course, and you give them a price, and then they might— they'll go back to the adjuster and get it approved. It's sometimes it's a bit of back and forth, and then if the adjuster approves, right, and they accept that, they will generally want to see the property in person and the family moves in. That's very high level how the insurance process works, and we cover it in more detail in the course. So a couple listing tips, you know, highlight your amenities. Is it pet friendly? Does it have a fenced yard, dedicated workspace? You know, what attractions are close by? Is it walkable? Is there restaurants, eateries, all that fun stuff? You know, professional photos are super, super important. Do not take them yourself. I cannot emphasize that enough. Um, it's important to keep your calendar up to date so you don't miss out on bookings. Um, again, just really emphasizing high-quality photos. Hire a pro. Don't skimp on that. It's really going to be a one-time cost, and you know you won't have to do it again for the most part unless you drastically change your furnishings. Um, so here's an example, right? Would you want to stay here, right? The photos were like upside down, the toilet is not tidy, there's something funky on the TV, right? These are not good listing photos. This is not gonna wanna make someone stay here. This is an example of, you know, would you really wanna stay here versus would you wanna stay here, right? It's kind of nice and bright and welcoming. It's not too cluttered, but it has some personality, right? So according to Airbnb, photos are one of the top 3 reasons guests choose to book. So I know I say this a lot, but photos are super important. I also coach my students in the course to do like a video tour and a virtual tour. I kind of talk about how to do that in the course, but it just— as much information as you can give guests, I think it's really helpful. And sometimes you cannot do in-person showings if you have all of that. So then really, we're going to do a high-level management overview. Um, so I, you know, I coach students that, you know, basically having to do direct bookings, we have to, you know, we collect an application for every adult. I always recommend to students, you know, do a background and credit check, um, you know, verify employment. There is some nuance to that if they're coming through an insurance claim, they are paying for that. So I generally don't require that. If it is a traditional midterm, I'm going to check references. I have some tips and tricks in the course on services that I use for that. But I think it's really important to do a thorough, thorough check on your, on your tenants or guests, right? Because they are staying in your property. We are dealing with long-term landlord-tenant laws. So a couple of case studies, just some numbers, right? We all love that part. This is the Bungalow Craftsman Duplex. It's like a 2-bedroom, 1-bath. It's fairly cozy. I get between $2,500 and $2,700 a month for that. This is an example of like a very cozy— it's like a one-bedroom, right? It's under 400 square feet. Um, I get anywhere from like $1,200 to $2,500 a month for this, right? So you can see like as a long-term rental, this would get a lot less than that, right? So you can really see where that you're getting a premium for the fully furnished midterm properties. Um, these are some of the bigger properties. These are all insurance claims, right? So I there's a property. This is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath. It's about 1,300 square feet. It's $5,300 a month, which is well above market, right? Market's probably about $2,700. This is an insurance claim for a displaced family. So that's— they— I think they're in a 7-month lease. So that's a nice one. This is a duplex. This is really cozy. It's a 3-bedroom, 1-bath, but it's like 700 square feet. So it's pretty small. There's— again, there's a range. Like $2,500 to $2,600. This is one of my latest placements. It's a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, about 1,600 square feet, really beautifully remodeled. And this is— we're getting $6,000 a month for an insurance claim on this one. So it is a really nice property. But you know, it's well above what we get for long term. So yeah, now we're at the part where I— if anyone is interested in learning more about the course. Um, the doors are officially open. I'm doing a special for $200 off until Friday. So I kind of, kind of COVID everything from marketing and advertising to staging and design and how to negotiate prices and where to list and hold your hand through all that stuff because it can be a little overwhelming. I really love to get students online and booked before they're even fully furnished. I think time is of the essence, so that's— I really want this of course, to be a jump start. So if anyone is interested, just type like me in the comments, we'll reach out, set up a call. But, um, yeah, it's definitely, um, really aimed to get you going quickly and answer all those questions and save you a lot of time to get you cash flowing sooner. So with that being said, I'm going to see if there's any questions. Um, so yeah, if anyone has questions, I'll hang on for a few minutes. Let's see. Hopefully we're still live. Okay. All right. So if anyone has questions about anything that I mentioned or anything specifically about the course, feel free to chime in. Looks like we're still live. Yeah. Okay, good. But yeah, I definitely love the midterm strategy. It's definitely a bit of a learning curve. There's a lot of nuance to it. There's different avatars, but I think, you know, it's really providing a service, like I said, and it's That's really fun, you know, getting that family in there that's been displaced by a disaster in their home, or maybe someone traveling for work, just knowing they have a place to come to. Um, so yeah, any questions? I'll hang on for a few more minutes. Again, if you're watching this afterwards, just if you're interested in the course and interested in that discount, um, hit me up. We have— we can book a strategy call and see if it's a good fit. You can sign up from there. Hopefully this, um, gave you some insight and some value into kind of how midterm rentals work. Um, but yeah, there's definitely a lot that goes into it. It's not hard, it's just a lot of steps. And for a lot of my students, um, it really helps. Yeah, the investment for the course is, uh, if you pay up front, it's normally $3,000. I am offering $200 off till Friday, and there is also a payment plan that you can opt in for. So I believe that's— I think it's— I believe it's like $1,200 a month if you choose the payment plan. Happy to cover that more. Um, but yeah, my goal is for anyone that signs up that we're getting you out there and listed and, you know, even advertise before you're even fully furnished and maybe even feel like you're ready, because bookings can come in really quickly or they can take a while. But I really want you to get as much exposure as possible, figure out your pricing, right? Figure out your demand so you can kind of know that and, you know, get a booking and then get it furnished quickly. I've furnished things very fast, so nothing like a deadline. Um, yeah, good question. Any other questions before I let you guys go for the evening? Um, yeah, but I definitely— it's all— I'm a little more about the course It's, um, so it's when you sign up, you get immediate access to all the on-demand modules, all the SOPs, all the downloads like the furnishing list and how to price it and a lot of things like that. And then, um, and how to do like proposals. That's kind of the on-demand piece. And there's also included, there's weekly coaching calls. You get to call in and talk about whatever you're looking for help on and handholding or whatnot. Um, that is weekly. And then there's also one-on-one calls. Um, so if you need to like, let's just get a jump start on things, you need some strategy or help with something, you can book a one-on-one call with me. That's just, you know, it's half an hour. I am adding as part of this bonus thing like a one-on-one call for an hour. It's like a kickoff call. It's like, hey, where are you at? You know, do you have the property? Where you at in furnishing it? Have you figured out your pricing? We're going to tackle all that stuff, murder list, you know, like kind of plan for it. Also, if you want to join with a partner, it does come with a partner membership, so the two of you can join and they can join all the calls. They get immediate access. There's also a private Facebook group just for students. Um, the course is lifetime access, so I'm always updating and tweaking it as I learn new strategies and new things. You get lifetime access to the course and lifetime access to the private Facebook group. The live coaching is like 3 months, um, of live coaching, kind of handholding. But after that, you always have lifetime access, of course, as long as it's there. Um, so yeah, any other questions before I let you guys go? And if you're— again, if you're watching this after the fact and you want to book a call, I can drop a link in. Just, you know, uh, comment and I will, I will follow up. So, um, yeah, I don't see any other questions. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I really appreciate the time. I know it's all different time zones, this is a little late for some people, but yeah. And if you guys have questions, if you're watching after something I covered, you're welcome, Loretta, thanks for tuning in. Just feel free to drop them in there. But if not, I'm gonna sign off and have a great evening, everyone. Again, I'd love to work with you guys. This special is until Friday and the doors close. I'll be sending out a few reminders, but feel free to follow up with me if you're interested. Um, yeah, I appreciate you guys tuning in. Have a good evening.