Marketing Tip to Get Your MTR Listing Up and Running Quickly!

This is Shawna from She's Got Assets. I'm gonna go live here. I'm just gonna click a few things. So just bear with me here. We'll see if this decides to work. Gotta get going in Facebook. Thanks everyone for tuning in. I know it's kind of like dinner time. So just see if this works. We have a fun topic tonight. Okay, complete post details, go live. Oh my gosh, I think it might actually work. Fingers crossed. Looks like it's starting. All right. Oh my gosh, I think we're live. Yay! I think we're live in all the platforms. Everyone, you guys know the drill. If you can see me, if you can hear me, let me know if the magic worked, because sometimes Facebook is very persnickety. So I'm gonna give everyone a few minutes to catch up again. This is Shauna from She's Got Assets. I'm gonna do my weekly livestream. I think it's actually working. So you can actually see me and hear me. Like, let me know, let me know. I'm actually talking to someone because sometimes this is really persnickety. I think I might have figured out the problem. Hey, Brandon! It worked. Okay, so I think we're live everywhere. Yeah, we're live on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. So I'll give everyone a few minutes. I'm gonna dive in, but just let me know. Yeah, we're calling in from maybe a win for the day. My win is I think I got rid of a weird smell with lots of ozone machine time, and we installed some smart locks on a duplex. We had a turnover. We finally had a minute to get some upgrades done. So That's my win for the day. Little things, right? Little things. Okay. I'm just gonna get everything sorted here and then I'm gonna do a presentation on marketing tips to get your MTR listing up and running quickly. You guys might have heard this. Hopefully I'll share some good insights, some good value. And then there'll be some time for Q&A at the end and I'll talk about the course that I have if that's helpful for anyone. I think I have an audience of one. Brandon, thank you for actually tuning in. I see a few more people. Let me know, like, so I'm not like just talking to myself. Let me know who you are, where you're calling in from. Sherwin, thank you, Brandon, for being so engaged. I always feel a little awkward doing these things like I'm talking to myself, so I really appreciate any kind of feedback or comments. So. Okay, I'm just gonna go ahead and again, if anyone's like watching the replay after, feel free to chime in or leave a comment. And I'm going to be, I will talk a little bit about my MTR Playbook course. This is just really grazing the surface. It's hard to get into a lot of stuff in, in super detail on a quick livestream. So I'm gonna share my screen and hopefully go into presenter mode. Maybe this will actually work. Mua miracle. Let's see if this actually works. Oh my gosh, it worked. Can everyone see the screen okay and actually hear me? Hey Richard, how's it going? Thanks for tuning in. Can everyone hear me okay too? Travels from Los Angeles. Awesome. If you guys can't hear me or see me, like, let me know. Otherwise, I'm— you have to read my lips or something. So, um, I'm a little frazzled because I just came back from a rental. Like I was saying, I was installing some smart locks. I realized one of them was like the wrong color, so we had to go switch it out because my, you know, it would just drive me nuts to have the wrong color. Um, so anyway, we're gonna dive in here. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Again, let me know where you're calling in from. We'll have some time for Q&A at the end, and then I'll go over my MTR Playbook course a little bit. Um, so tonight we're going to do, um, a topic like how to get up and running quickly with your midterm rental. Um, you know, there's just some tips and tricks that I'm going to cover that hopefully will be useful. So I'm going to advance my slide here. So a little bit about me. If you have— if you've already heard this, I'm sorry, just like do something else. But just for anyone new to the group, we have a lot of new members. I like to say I was raised by capitalist hippies growing up. I helped run the family vacation rental business. So there were always like sheets in the dryer, always doing turnovers. The phone was always ringing. This was like back in the day. It was like pre-internet, right? People actually had to call and leave a message on the answering machine or we had to get our paper calendar. So very very old school. Um, I'm from California originally. I never thought I'd get into real estate until I moved here. Um, and then way back a long time ago, I house hacked my way into real estate investing with my first property. It's called having a roommate back then. That's how old I am. But I've pretty much been a landlord since 2006. Um, I do think when we're in the MTR business, it's more of a hospitality business, but I also have long-term rentals. It used to be really private that I was a landlord. I think I thought I'd be judged, but now I'm kind of out and about with it, and no one's gotten me so far. I'm one of the good ones. So if anyone can relate to that, awesome. Thank you, Richard, for letting me know. Um, now my mouse is not cooperating. Okay, okay, here's my mouse. Okay, so that's a little bit about me. Um, before I kind of went full-time into real estate, my background is, um, as an agency co-founder and as a designer. That, that's why I love design. That's why I'm like so into marketing and why I think it's so important in kind of the context that I bring. Um, been an entrepreneur for a long time. I'm forever an outside cat, as someone once put it. Be hard to go back inside. Um, kind of a serial entrepreneur. I'm the founder of She's Got Assets, the group that you're listening to this in. Um, and I'm the podcast host. I'm also the author of a couple courses, the REI Playbook and the MTR Playbook, which I'll talk about a little bit at the end. And, um, yeah, and then we have Cedar and Porch Properties, and we buy fixers under Shona Buys Houses. And I live with my family in Portland. Oh, there's a typo there. With that. Portland, Oregon. We own a mix of long-term and midterm rentals. I love coffee, baking, design, and I'm pretty much obsessed with real estate. So that's just a little bit about me, uh, just give you some context. I also have a couple other channels. I have a podcast. I have a really interesting guest on— excuse me, a frog in my throat— a couple, um, a couple guests like Sarah Weaver. Um, she wrote the book A Bigger Pocket on 30+ Day Stays, and then one of the co-founders of PriceLab. So you can scan that QR code, feel free to listen and follow. That's all like free content. I, when I think someone's interesting, I just invite them on. We have a really pretty in-depth conversation. I get to ask them all the questions I'd want to ask people. So check that out. And then we also have a YouTube channel, so you can subscribe to that and, um, you'll get alerted whenever I do a livestream, so you won't miss any content. So there's that. All right, so diving into the topic here for anyone like new, this might be a review. I always just like to make sure everyone's on the same page, right? Why I'm obsessed with midterm rentals, right? I'm curious if anyone on the call like has a midterm or is in the process. It's really helpful for me to know, um, you know, where you're at, just so I know who I'm speaking to. I can tailor it a little bit. Um, but what I love about them is like we can do extra more cash flow over long-term rentals, which is really amazing. So we can really get to that financial freedom with only a few doors versus having a ton of doors like I think we've been taught Only a couple turnovers a year, you know, compared to short-term rentals where you have really high maintenance, gas every couple nights, we're doing a turnover, like no thanks. It's way too much work for me. I really believe we're providing a needed service. You know, we're providing fully furnished housing with all the comforts of home, you know, for traveling medical professionals, digital nomads, corporate housing, displaced families, right? People have had a flood or a fire in their home and they need a place to stay for a couple months. And we're really helping them out. And they're so appreciative. I truly believe we are in the hospitality business. And then I think you just get more freedom from your investment, right? If you're at the mercy of one platform like Airbnb or short-term rental laws that can change on a dime, you can just, your business can die overnight. So I think it's one of the best strategies, and that's why I talk about it so much and why I teach students to do that. So we're gonna break it all down, how to get your listing up really quickly and avoid some really common mistakes, right? Some of these you might know, some of them you may not. Definitely take notes. I'm gonna unpack some things and go pretty high level here. But so I think mistake number 1 is people will come no matter how you market your property. It's not true. There's a lot that goes into marketing. There's a lot of nuance from the photos to how you're writing your description to your headline. That's something I work really closely with students on. We really dive in and we look at your listing and see how we can optimize it, what could be improved, because that's really like your calling card, right? It's like, first of all, are you even in the right places to get found, right? So that's super important. Um, so, you know, I— what I see a lot is like super funky DIY listings. Like, these are actual photos. I always hope when I show these that nobody's on the call, um, that had these listing photos. I actually found these. Like, I mean, it's just bonkers how bad they are. Um, you know, I'm sure people had good intention, right? But these are clearly going the wrong direction. There's something weird on the TV. I would not want to stay in that house with a bathroom that wasn't clean. So if anyone can relate to that, right? These are just not appealing photos. And you'd be surprised, um, I see a lot of listings where I think people are moving quickly and they just don't think about it. And we all think we have this like magical smartphone in our pocket. Yes, we do, but you still need to know how to use it, and nothing will beat a professional photographer in my opinion. So please don't do this. Um, I don't know if my slides— hopefully things are advancing. I think there's a little bit of a delay. Um, so would you want to stay here, right? Like, I certainly wouldn't. Just would not stop the scroll, right? And that's so important as people are looking, whatever platform they're on, we really want to get their attention, have them stop and hopefully reach out and book with us. So, you know, would you rather stay here, right? It's nice and clean and bright and airy. And according to Airbnb, photos are one of the top reasons guests choose to book, right? It's just human nature. We want to stay in nice places. And I think the photos reflect on what the experience will be like. Like, I've even had photos redone. I think it's so important. I mean, if anyone's like hearing this, just type a 1 in the chat if you got it right. 'Cause I feel like I say it a lot. I hear other people say it, but I still see listings that, I mean, even if the photos are okay, they're like, they're okay, but are they beautiful? Do they showcase your space? Is the lighting good? Is there clutter on the counters, right? Just be really thoughtful when you're getting your place photographed, right? It's so, so important. And that's something I work with students on, you know, just how to do that properly. So again, use high-quality photos to showcase your midterm rental and its unique features. Also, you know, just, you know, we want to make sure we're not shooting like a lot of times. Thanks, Heather, you typed a 1. I'm glad you're hearing me. I think we need to really make a shot list for the photographer and go over, hey, this is a midterm. It's different than like a real estate listing or a short-term rental, right? So there's definitely nuance to it. So make sure you're really specific. So again, according to Airbnb, at least listings with professional photos receive 20% higher earnings. So you can see here that makes a huge difference, right? So make that investment. And every market's a little bit different. In my market, I'm in Portland, Oregon, it's about $250, right, for professional photos. And these are something you're never— you're typically gonna never have to— gonna have to do again. It's like a one-time investment, right? So please just make that investment. Don't skip that. Um, yeah, so, and you can hire an Airbnb photographer. The only downside is that the photos stay on the platform, so you have to kind of download them and you don't really own them. But you can't— if you're like tight budget or just don't know who to hire, usually you can find a photographer if you ask around. But I've used them and the photos are actually really good. They have a very specific style guide they use, so it's, uh, I really like their style. So if you're at a loss, that's something you can do. When you set up your Airbnb listing, they're like prompt you to hire one of the photographers if you choose to, right? So totally an option, not ideal, but it is an option. And this is another really big mistake. I think we tend to be perfectionists. We're waiting till everything is like completely dialed in, like we have every lick of silverware and every like thing perfect. But if we wait to do that, we're really losing money, um, you know, so we could lose bookings if we don't get up and running really quickly, um. Here's just an example, right? You know, say the first month you're not collecting rent or you have holding costs, you have a mortgage, right? Then you're actually losing money or you have like HOA fees or utilities, right? So then you're waiting to month 2 to collect rent. But what if you got your listing live sooner and you collect your rent and then in month 2 and then you can make like $12,000, like if your rent's $6,000, right? So I just think it's— you never know when you're going to get a booking and sometimes being in the right place at the right time, you get that booking. So don't wait to list, right? Be really proactive. And I teach students how to actually pre-list without actually being fully furnished, right? Another mistake I see is not keeping your calendar up to date, or if you're doing the hybrid strategy, like maybe you're taking some short-term reservations to fill in the gaps between midterm, people are not going to find you, right, if your calendar is dotted with bookings. So those are definitely a strategy how to navigate that. So just really make sure your calendar is up to date. And a lot of platforms like won't show your listing if it's, you know, out of date or if it's like, you know, a couple of weeks back or something. So make sure their calendar's always current and super important. Um, yeah, so you definitely got this. So this is like very high level, the 7 steps for getting your midterm rental listed, right? We're going to prep the space. We're going to, unless we're doing the pre-listing strategy that I teach in the course, right? That's a little bit different, but very high level, right? You're going to prep the space, make it clean, tidy, schedule a photographer. I recommend a virtual tour and a video tour. I talked about that in the course. You're going to kind of outline your listing. You're going to draft your listing. You're going to make a list of where to list it unless you have the course and I give you the exact like recipe. And then you post your listing and then you find a renter, right? This is like super high level. There's a lot of steps that involve, but I find a lot of people sometimes will like, they will forget to like photograph it before the guests move in. You always want to document that because it's never going to probably look as nice. Typically, um, midterm guests are very high caliber, but you just never know. And you want to make sure that you have it documented, your beautiful space, so that when you have a turnover, you're not scrambling, right? I've done that. I've booked things really quickly and then I took my own photos and I always regret it. So I've had students like have the photographer come in, like comes in the morning and then they have a guest in the afternoon. So just make sure that you're doing that. Um, so there's a couple tips. Um, you know, you really want to optimize your listing. You want to focus on like location. Is it close to anything? Does it have like stuff like off-street parking? Pet-friendly, fenced yard, family-friendly, dedicated workspace, washer dryer, any kind of things, right? It's a different style of listing than a short-term rental, which is very much vacation-focused, right? So we really want to kind of highlight these things in our listings and in our photographs as well. Um, you can use ChatGPT, right? It's a really great tool. It tends to get really flowery, right? It kind of exaggerates a little bit. Um, But you kind of want to give it a prompt. Again, I have very specific prompts in the course, but give it a prompt and then you can kind of beat it up and give it feedback, right? You can give it tone and style feedback, make it more conversational, right? Give me 10 alternatives. Give me 10 more descriptions that don't mention X. So just, you can kind of tell when something's written by ChatGPT because it sounds a little bit out of the box, kind of like a little generic. So we want to make sure we're giving it lots of feedback and it gets you like 90% of the way there, but don't just rely on ChatGPT. GPT, um, because it feels a little bit inauthentic and a little bit cheesy, I guess, right? Um, so those are some tips. Um, and then you want to make sure to optimize your listing, right? You really want to make sure you're putting in your listing who, you know, who you are looking to attract, whether it's traveling nurses or displaced families that have had some kind of disaster in their home, right? We want to let people know that we have flexible lease terms, that we are hopefully pet friendly. If you're not pet friendly, talk to me. I'll try and convince you why that's so important. And we cover this really in depth in the course, right? But this optimizing can make the difference of getting found or not, right? So it's super important. Um, these are some of the top places to advertise. Again, I have the full list in the course, but like very high level here, right? Make sure you're on Zillow, um, Furnished Finder, Airbnb. There's a lot more, but this is just a very high-level list. Um, and then you want to also make sure that you're in the key databases for temporary housing companies that work with insurance companies that work with displaced families. That is a a very big topic. We cover a lot more in the course, but essentially a family that's had some kind of disaster in their home, they're gonna work with a temporary housing company, typically, not all the time. It's always a little bit nuanced, but you can, you can get yourself into their databases and then you get found that way as well. So this is like really high level again. And then for anyone that just kind of wants that recipe, needs some handholding, there's a lot of nuance that goes into this. And I think sometimes just being in the right places and having the right listings makes a huge difference in getting booked quicker, charging that premium, right? So the MTR Playbook really covers everything from market research to setting up your midterm, like what kind of smart tech to get, what kind of mattress. It has a full list with Amazon links, and it goes very in-depth on marketing, you know, depending on what kind of avatar you're trying to attract. And we've got— we cover that in depth, where to list, how to optimize your listing. And then finally, we cover very in-depth operations, How to do screening, what kind of screening to do, what kind of security deposit to charge, how much to charge for insurance, right? Because it's kind of a tiered strategy. They're coming in for shorter time frames than like 3 months, right? So there's a lot of nuance. Um, you guys can just drop a comment in the chat if you're interested in that, or you can text, text me at this number. We'll get— Mears, one of my sales team, will get back to you. 503-831-9845. Um, So yeah, with that being said, I hope that was helpful. Let me know in the chat if you had any good takeaways or if you have any questions. I'm always happy to answer Q&A because I know there's a lot that goes into this. And if you're watching the replay too, just definitely drop that in the chat if you have a question. So I definitely have a few minutes if anyone has questions or feedback or anything like that. And I'm also curious to know who has a midterm. And sometimes we just— I have students that have midterms, they just are looking to optimize it a little bit. They're not in all the right places, right? right? Or they don't— not quite sure how to get, um, get found for insurance claims for displaced families. You know, sometimes people are just starting out. So wherever you are on that spectrum, I can work with you directly and kind of make you a roadmap of how to get booked and attract those guests that you're looking for and just bring that cash flow in, right? Um, all right, Sarah's asking, is there a size type of home that's best for MTR? Um, yeah, that's a really, really good question. Okay, so every— I get on calls and everyone's like, traveling nurses. Yes, nurses are great. We definitely serve nurses. Um, I have everything from a studio, like, or a one-bedroom. Um, that is great for nurses. They tend to be very budget conscious, right, because they're typically traveling to make money, to save money. So it depends on the kind of property. If you have like a one-bedroom or studio, you're probably going renting to nurses or digital nomads, or sometimes people in between things. The sweet spot is the larger properties, like 3, 4, even 5 bedrooms. Those are going to appeal to families that have been displaced, um, due to a disaster in their home. So we're going to really get those really great juicy numbers, and we're really helping families out. So in my experience, every property works. There's just nuance to it, but really knowing who you're kind of looking to attract so you're making sure you have the right amenities, right? If you're have a 1-bedroom, let's definitely, you know, and that's, you're going to put like a noise machine and blackout curtains, right? And they don't typically like shared spaces. So yeah, every property works. I think if you're going after the really, you know, more, the bigger the houses, they're better for insurance claims for families that have been displaced because a family will typically, if they're coming from a 3-bedroom, they will go to a 4-bedroom or 5-bedroom, but they're not going to downsize. To a 1 or 2 bedroom, right? So it's a really great question. There is definitely some nuance to it. We always want to be optimizing for different types of guests, right? But, um, yeah, hope that answers your question. There's kind of a lot that goes into it. Oh, you're welcome, Heather. Um, but yeah, I mean, I, you know, and sometimes I'll test the market, right? I teach you how to test it. Is it worth going midterm, right? Because it is definitely an expense to furnish a place, but The way I teach students is we kind of test the market, see if there's demand, and then once you get that booking, you can furnish it, which is a great strategy. So you're not spending all that money up front. Typically, we know by certain metrics, and if you're in a decent-sized market, there's ways to gauge interest. But if you're really on the fence, that is something you can do. But like the duplex I was just at, I bought it off market, like zero down, and it was great. And I'm like, I just, I don't want the hassle of a midterm. I just keep it easy. And I wasn't really getting the guests. I was looking at the caliber of guests or the rent. I kept having to lower it. So I did my A/B test and I got both sides booked really quickly as a midterm. And basically it's 2x over what long-term rent would be. So it's really way more profitable. So typically, um, but yeah, again, every property type works. It just depends. That was a long answer. Any other questions? I have a few more minutes. I don't mind answering questions at all. Well, Heather, thanks for tuning in. Sarah, thanks for tuning in. Richard, thanks for tuning in. Richard, we need to connect and see how your MTR is going. And again, if anyone is watching the replay, feel free to, yeah, just reach out if you have questions. You're so welcome, Sarah. Yeah, every property type is great. I mean, the bigger the home, the more cash flow, right? That's where you see those really juicy numbers. And a couple of those can be a real game changer, right? Just for example, right, on some of the larger properties, I would say in this market that I'm in, Portland, Oregon, right, I have everywhere from like $9,300 a month to like $6K a month, right? And those are like, you know, at least a 3-bedroom. And those are really the insurance claims for just— yeah, for displaced families. It's more of like a B2B model, right? Because they're paying the bill. Hey, Bonnie. You're hopping on from Virginia. Awesome. I know you're at a conference. I appreciate you tuning in. Yeah, Bonnie's killing it. She keeps converting her rentals over and she follows all the coaching stuff and she's doing really well. So thanks, Bonnie. Good to see you. Yeah. Any other questions? Like anything's fair game. I know it can be a little overwhelming. I talk about this so much. Sometimes I forget what the most common questions are, right? So it's helpful for me to know, like, what was useful, what you'd like to learn more about, what burning questions you have. And so I've been at this for a while, so I kind of forget. Um, but yeah, otherwise I'll give people a few more minutes. I see a few more people on here. Super happy. Anything's fair game, just let me know. And if, again, if you're interested in the MTR Playbook course, reach out, text me at 503-831-9845. And I do have kind of an Essentials course as well. If you're maybe a more seasoned operator, you're really just looking to dial in your midterm rental, maybe you're looking to optimize your marketing or make sure you're getting found for insurance claims, I do have that as well. So sometimes that's just what people need is just kind of more of a self-paced course. So that is an option too. But yeah, I don't see any more questions, so I don't wanna keep talking to myself. But seriously, if any of you guys got value from this, it's helpful that for me to know as the presenter and it just kind of lets the algorithm know that this was good content. So Appreciate any feedback. Um, definitely check out my podcast and YouTube channel. I have a bunch of new episodes that I just, uh, put out there, and I have some new ones that are coming out that are really good. So stay tuned for those. I'll post them in the group. And again, if you're watching the replay, reach out any questions. And if you're remotely interested, sometimes it's helpful just to jump on a call to kind of see if it's a good fit. If it's not, then I won't invite you in. We do make sure it's a good fit before we work with anyone to make sure you know, you have the right kind of property and that you're gonna, you know, follow the, follow the coaching. And otherwise, it might not be a good fit. So that's kind of how it works with the— if you're interested in learning more, we jump on a call. You're so welcome, Hilda. Thank you. I thought that was helpful. All right, last call for any questions. Got a few more minutes. My kids are home sick, so I should probably see how they're doing. We had like 5 days of no school. It was like snow and then teacher planning days and then President's Day, and now they're sick. Sick. So got a sick household right now. Um, awesome. Well, again, um, feel free to chime in if you're watching the replay. Um, these are always available in the, in the module. So if you're looking for more content, if you go up into the— I think it's on modules. They're in the— they're usually— they're saved in Facebook. So I have a lot of trainings. There's something you're looking for, let me know. I can totally direct you in that direction. That was a mouthful. Anyway, Hey John, thank you. The program's legit, great value. Awesome. Thank you. I'm excited. John's bringing up PadSplit to town, so I'm really excited for that launch part. If anyone's local on Thursday, check out John's group, PDX RE. I hope I said that right. John, do feel free to do a promo. I'm looking forward to that. Thanks for that. I appreciate it. Awesome. Yeah, it's really the best model. I think as investors, we're looking— when we look at our exit strategy, we're really looking to maximize our return, right? And a midterm is often the best play, um, when you're looking, you know, to make something pencil and get cash flow. And also you're attracting high-quality guests or tenants, whatever you want to call them. So it's a really great model, just something to keep in the back of your mind, right? There's all kinds of exits. There's PadSplit, there's midterm, there's short-term, there's long-term, right? But just kind of knowing what's out there. Awesome. Yeah, um, John's saying PDX REI Group monthly meetup featuring PadSplit. Yeah, I'm super excited. I just— I heard the guy that have coming. He was on another group and I kind of grilled him about some stuff and he definitely passed. So I was, I'm excited to meet him in person. Um, but yeah, it's a great, it's a great model. All these things work. I think you have to know what strategy kind of resonates with you. For me, I think I love midterm because I know I'm helping people. There's the design element of providing like really nice furnished spaces. So there's kind of an experience. And for some people, PadSplit makes sense or just long-term, like set it and forget it. So It all makes sense. I think you have to do your research and figure out what makes sense. And if you need help, who you want to work with, because there's a lot of resources out there. So. All right, you guys, thanks again for tuning in. John, thanks for tuning in. Bonnie, thanks for jumping on while you're away at your conference. Super appreciate it. All right. I'll hang on for a few more minutes. Any other questions? And again, if you're in the Portland area, definitely check out PDX REI. Thanks, John. Look, I have some fans on here. Super appreciate it. Yeah, I think your group was one of my first, like, talks, so I really appreciate it. You're one of the first people to sign up too, so awesome. Yay, I'm looking forward to Thursday. Hopefully I can make it. All right, thanks again for taking the time, taking the time to join me. I hope that was valuable. Again, if you're watching the replay, feel free to chime in, and we typically do these every Tuesday at 5. Sometimes there's some techie things, but The stars aligned tonight and all the technology worked. So yeah, if you're watching somewhere else, I didn't even check the other, the other places I'm streaming at, but I'm just mostly in Facebook right now. So, all right, thanks again, you guys. Really appreciate it. I'm gonna sign off and hope you guys have a great evening, and hopefully I'll see some of you on Thursday at John's PDX REI event. Awesome. See ya.