MTR MarketingMasterClass (how to Help Displaced Families by Connecting with Insurance leads)

Can I apologize about that? Okay, so we're gonna kick this off. Anyone's coming in late, uh, feel free. We're gonna do some Q&A at the end. So this is a masterclass on how to help families by connecting with insurance leads. We're gonna kind of COVID the basics, but that's really at the end. We're gonna focus on that. So it's a really meaty topic. There's a lot to cover. Again, if you have questions, let me know and I'll unpack anything you need more information on. So Really nice to meet you. I'm Shona. A little bit about me to kind of give you some context for why I'm so passionate about this, why I do this. So I'm originally from California. I thought I could never ever like afford real estate, right? It was a very, very expensive market. So was Portland. But way back in the day in 2005, I house hacked my way into real estate. It's called having a roommate back then, right now it's house hacking. But so I've basically been a landlord since 2006 for like a long, long time. That's kind of what I cut my teeth on. I bring a lot of that to kind of the midterm space just with as far as contracts goes and landlord-tenant law. I've kind of considered myself an outside cat. I've always been an entrepreneur. I live with my family in Portland, Oregon, and we own a mix of long-term and midterm rentals. I'm kind of like a serial entrepreneur. I do have a lot of hats. I'm the founder of She's Got Assets. I have a group on Facebook. I'm a podcast host, a course author. Have the REI Playbook and the MTR Playbook, and I have Senior and Portage Properties, which is the midterms or under, and I buy kind of fixers under Shona Buys Houses. So previous to all this fun real estate stuff, um, I was a creative at heart. I had a boutique, uh, kind of boutique branding agency and co-founded an agency with my husband, and that's kind of what my market— my background is in marketing. That's kind of what I bring to the table here. A little few personal tidbits: I love coffee, baking, design, treasure hunting, and I'm really obsessed with real estate. So A little bit about me. If you've heard that, sorry, just skip that. So at the end of this, I do have kind of a special offer. I'm doing another kind of hands-on workshop. A lot of this is very nuanced. We're really gonna unpack it. You can ask me questions, but I will kind of talk about that more at the end. But just, you know, save— take a picture of this if you have to leave early. I'll kind of unpack that more. Just a little teaser. And 10% of the proceeds of that workshop that I'm doing are going to the Red Cross to help people that have been affected. That's important. So, um, so just a little bit how I got into midterms. Um, I was really tired of the constant turnover, right? I had a team, I had a co-host, I had cleaners, but it was just constant turnover. And I was always worrying about the get last review, restocking supplies. It just took a lot of mindshare, so it wasn't my favorite. So with that being said, um, we're going to talk about marketing tonight, and that's basically how to fill it. And part of that is how to, you know, find insurance leads, how to work with them, how to optimize for them. But kind of in a nutshell, marketing is, it's emotional, it's creating desire. You're trying to attract the right, like, guest avatar, right? So it's, it's really important that we position ourselves to appeal to families, to the avatar that we're looking for. So that's kind of, and my background is in marketing. That's kind of why I mentioned all that stuff. So that's kind of what, what we're going to talk about tonight. Just to kind of, you know, versus advertising. Advertising is very transactional. It communicates value. It's quick decisions, right? It's very budget conscious, right? Like in this example here, right? And marketing is more about brand and creating an experience. So that's really the difference. So we're definitely going to focus on the marketing piece tonight. I think I went the wrong way. Sorry. So, okay. Yeah. So basically we're going to talk about the marketing, MTR marketing strategy that I've kind of developed. Just kind of take all the stress out of things, really maximize cash flow, have less turnovers, right? All the things. So this training is for real estate investors. Who want to maximize their cash flow and are maybe tired of the short-term rentals or are in a place where they've been affected by disaster to, you know, help out families and have more passive income, right? So by no means capitalizing this, I really believe we can be of service to people and families. I think that's really important. And people don't understand kind of how that process works to even get found by families in need or insurance companies looking to place those families. So we're going to kind of go over a step-by-step guide to market— how to market your midterm. We'll give you tips and then I will invite you to the workshop. It's a good fit. We can go over that, right? So just quickly, what is a midterm rental? We have these terms kind of thrown out a lot. I've also heard it called some different things like medium-term rental. I think the term I kind of chosen is midterm, right? But it's essentially a 30+ day stay in a fully furnished property, kind of like an Airbnb, but most people are staying for a couple months. You have way less turnover, right? But it's, It's similar in the concept, right, that it's a furnished rental. So to me, the benefits are, you know, you can really maximize your cash flow. It really depends. There's like kind of a— varies on what you can make, but 2 to 3 times your cash flow depending. You only have a couple turnovers a year, right? When you think about a short-term rental, yeah, the profits are great, but you have cleaning fees, constant turnover. It's just kind of a headache. And if you're not like in a really destination spot, it's hard to make them work these days, I think. And I really truly believe we are in the hospitality business. We're providing a needed service, you know, we work with— we're providing all the comforts of home for traveling medical professionals, digital nomads, corporate housing, displaced families, right? And I believe that's— we should come from the place of service and adding value and how we're helping people, right? And we're making money at it too, but really that's what it's about. Um, and I, I just think it provides more freedom from your investment. And, you know, short-term rental laws can change on a dime. Like, basically in Portland where I'm at, you can't even have them unless you live on the property. So these are all the reasons I love midterms. So I'm gonna kind of break it all down for you, how to get quality guests and avoid all the setup and marketing mistakes that I see a lot. So the biggest mistake I kind of see when I'm coaching students is that people will come no matter how you market. You probably just throw it up on Furnished Finder, take some pictures, right? I think that's the common mistake. But, and if you've heard me say this before, it's kind of my soapbox, so I apologize. Um, pictures are so, so important. You only have a minute to stop the scroll, right? I think we all use our really smartphones, we think we just snap some pictures, right? But it— we really need to make a good impression, and the photos represent the quality of the rental, what guests can expect. So it's just so important to have good photos. Um, so with that being said, here's some examples of what I consider not so great DIY pics, right? And this one, clearly it's the bathroom, looks like it has not been cleaned, right? Not a great look. This one has something a little bit questionable on the TV. It's a very strange angle. This bathroom is clearly like facing the wrong direction. This has really bad lighting, right? So all these little things just kind of give you a sense of your brand and the experience the guests would have. So they're probably going to keep scrolling past these, or you can't, you know, you're going to have to not charge very much, right? So this is an example of DIY pics. So when you think about, would you, would, if you put your gas hat on, would you want to stay here, right? This is to me not very appealing. Or would you want to stay here, right? It's nice and bright and light and airy. It's, it feels welcoming, but it's not cluttered, right? Has really nice lighting. Um, so according to Airbnb, photos are one of the top reasons guests choose to book, right? So it's super, super important. Um, so let me know in the chat if this is making sense, like, because I think it's a really important thing and you probably hear me talk about it a lot, but if anyone's like on the fence about photos, please just, you know, hire a professional, hire a real estate photographer. So that is the Photos are really important. Um, again, just to emphasize that, here's some data. You know, according to Airbnb, professional photos receive up to 20% higher earnings on Airbnb, right? So here's some numbers, right? If you're charging $6,000, 20% more is $7,200, right? Huge return on value, right? Um, my market photos are only about $250, right? And it's generally a one-time cost. You're not going to have to constantly redo them. So it's so, so worth it. All right. So hire a professional photographer, like a real estate photographer. Um, you can ask for referrals, go to your local like groups, ask around. Airbnb, um, will set you up with a photographer and deduct the fee from your first listing so you don't have upfront costs. The caveat is that you have to kind of download them from the browser. They don't send you a nice little package, but they do a really good job. And if you're on a budget, it's a great way to start. I highly recommend it if that's where you're at. Um, the mistake number 2, I see this a lot, is I think not posting in the right places, right? So I'm going to cover that. Um, so these are the top, top places. There's a whole list, like in my course, I have probably 100 places to list, but if you're going to prioritize, right, Furnished Finder. And a misnomer there is it's not just for traveling medical professionals or nurses. I think that's how, that's how they started, but they really expanded. I get insurance leads there all the time or homeowners that have been displaced. So don't discount Furnished Finder. It's not just nurses. Um, I think people often, if they're not in the short-term space, forget about Airbnb, but it's really one of the biggest search engines for, you know, short-term stays and also midterm now. So please be on Airbnb. Just, you can set your settings at 30-day minimum. It's really important. Zillow Rental Manager. I think people often overlook it's used for midterms all the time. Um, ALE Solutions is one of the biggest temporary housing providers. You can upload Upload yourself to our database. There's a lot of other ones, but if you had to, this is like top level. There's a lot more that goes into, but this is just like, take a screenshot. This is, these are really important places to be. Um, so, and you wanna attract the right guest avatar with kind of keywords, or if anyone's familiar with SEO, it's a similar concept, right? We wanna let people know that we're pet friendly. If anyone has questions about pets, let me know. But most people are gonna have pets, especially families that have been displaced or part of the family. You know, we're letting people know we have flexible lease terms, that we partner with insurance and relocation companies. We have furnished temporary housing, just really being leading with that in our copy, letting people know, especially on Airbnb, because a lot of times people are not willing to do longer stays or they don't understand this, this model of working with temporary housing companies. So by kind of optimizing your listing with those keywords, it lets them know like, hey, we will work with you. We understand the model. You might book for a month and you'll probably extend, right? So these are really important words and you can even go to these sites like AliExpress and see how they're positioning themselves and just take that as inspiration, right? So make sure you're optimizing. I'll cover this a lot more detail in the course that I'm— or the workshop. So mistake number 3, um, I think like taking too long to list, waiting until everything is perfect, right? Like say you have a property the first month, like you're not getting any income because you didn't list it, right? So you actually have negative cash flow because you have holding costs, right? And then month 2, you get it rented and you get like maybe you get $7K, right? Which is great, but you literally lost a month of bookings. But if you do like a pre-marketing strategy, which I cover in depth in the course or in the marketing workshop, it's you're getting your property out there, you're letting people know you have it. You might get it booked before you even furnish it. So say you collect $7K a month too, you know, you've collected a total of $14K, which is really awesome. That could really help offset your furnishing. So don't wait till everything's perfect. Just get your listing out there. Again, I really teach students how to virtually stage and how to let people know. And, you know, it's just don't wait too long to list because you could miss a great booking, right? So I hope that sinks in. So what if there was a better way? So, you know, how to 2x your cash flow with the right marketing strategies. So we're going to kind of COVID that. So any questions so far? I'll see if I can find the questions. Are there any questions of anything I've covered? Professional photos are a must. Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, I have a question. Um, so if you're, if you're not done like furnishing your, um, your property, could you use like the, um, I guess the virtual staging, um, on Airbnb even though like your furniture and everything would be different? Like, would you recommend that?

I do recommend that, and I coach students all the time, and I book places all the time with exactly that. I virtually stage it. I, I just— a caveat, as I always say in the listing, something like, hey, these photos were virtually staged, rest assured when you book it'll be fully furnished. As long as you're upfront and transparent about it, I've gotten showings and the furniture was totally different, and as long as you're clear about it, people generally don't mind. So yes, I think— because the thing, when you think about like putting a listing up with like an empty room versus a really nicely staged bedroom, people It's just like staging a home for sale. So 100%, as long as you are clear about it, you don't want to put it up there and book it and be like, oh well, it looks different, then that's definitely kind of a bait and switch. But 100%, yeah.

Okay, um, what about like, how would that like translate on Airbnb? Because I know like Airbnb crowd, um, are very particular.

Well, see, here's the thing, right? When we think about like Airbnb, um, it's a great question, like vacationers, yes, they want like the Instagram wall in the game room, but we, when we're Talking about midterms, that's a different avatar. They're there to work, they're not there for vacation. Again, I've done this multiple times and they're fine with it as long as you're transparent. We're not, we're not like gearing this towards people on vacation, or they're not going to be upset if the chair is different. So as long as you're upfront about it, it's— I've never had an issue. I mean, I think I— if you weren't transparent or didn't say it's going to look different, then it'd be kind of like, okay. I think even with short-term, as long as you're upfront about it, and someone may choose not to book and that's fine, but you're letting them know upfront and they're really okay. I've done this so many times, I'm I'm always kind of holding my breath and no one ever seems to mind. I think it really comes down to good communication and being clear on like, hey, this is going to look a little different. Again, the avatar is different than like someone there for vacation. So I hope that helps.

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, no problem. Awesome. Okay.

Yeah, uh, Sean, I have a question.

Sure.

Um, do you find that, uh, your smaller units rent a lot faster than the larger units? Um, I guess because I think— I know that with the insurance companies you have the families, but just for like the people that are traveling, like traveling nurses and that sort, do you feel that it's better to, or easier to rent your one-bedroom or two-bedroom as opposed to your houses?

That's, that's a really good question. No, I, you know, I don't think so. I think the avatar you're going to attract is more like a nurse in a one or, you know, one-bedroom studio, and they're more budget conscious. But the bigger your property, the more likely, the more avatars you have. Like, you, you know, business travels, digital nomads, temporary housing. So I, not necessarily. I don't, I have not seen it. I have, I have like everything from a studio to like a 5-bedroom, and the 5-bedroom, like, it'll just— these bookings come in very last minute. Because when you think about a family, or this, right, they had some kind of like water damage or fire, right? It's unexpected, they need to move like right away. So not necessarily. I mean, I would honestly say, and I cover this later, I think bigger properties, you have— you can— they're harder to find. It's harder for families to find them, especially pet-friendly. So and it's a little bit seasonal. So not necessarily, like, bigger properties, I think you can charge more, you can appeal to kind of the most avatars. That helps. Yeah, good question.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, no problem. Anything else before we move on? Oh, what language? You know, and here's a tip, like, ChatGPT is amazing for this stuff. Like, you can just say, like, Here's just off the cuff, right? You know, these, the photos and the listing have been virtually staged, but rest assured they will, the property will be fully furnished, um, at move-in or something. Just, we're just letting people know what's going to look different. We're not saying this chair will be different, but just saying it's virtually staged, it will be fully furnished. And I always, you know, I talk to leads before I do a showing. I say, hey, just so you know, it is virtually staged and it's going to look a little different to set expectations. Or if someone's not seeing it, I'll just be like, hey, I really make it clear and make sure they understand that. And I've had like, I think one person in 4 years have a problem with it. So yeah, you'd be surprised. People really, they don't mind. And I think it's just the good communication. So yeah, but ChatGPT is great for that kind of thing. But yeah, just we virtually stage the photos. We're in the process of furnishing it. Rest assured, you know, it'll be ready for you fully furnished and maybe in a similar style, right? So make sure you're not going with like a modern style and then going with like farmhouse, right? So make sure it's kind of in keeping, right? Because virtual staging, you can really choose It's crazy, like mid-century or modern or contemporary. Just make sure it's in that vein, right? You don't want to go really different, right? And obviously things change, but so I hope, I hope that helps. All right. Um, and I don't remember the staging company offhand, but I'll try and post it. There's just, it's come a long way in the AI staging. It renders it immediately. You can move furniture around and you can also, you know, have your photographer, if you're going to have it done, have your place photographed empty and they can do it. It just costs a little more. Um, but you have a little more control if you do it yourself. But if you just want a done-for-you thing, I, most photographers will offer that these days. It's used a lot in like selling houses, right? All right. So, um, kind of getting back to the slide here. So the different property types, right? I think we always think of like traveling nurses. That's like the avatar we think of a lot. And that's really like a one-bedroom, one-bathroom, like a studio, right? So we're going to appeal to traveling medical professionals, nurses, business travelers, digital nomads. And they're, they're much more budget conscious, right? So that's just something to keep in mind. Then you get to, you know, a 2-bedroom, 1-bath, kind of similar avatars, students, families, and fringes transition. The bigger properties like 3+ bedrooms, 2 baths, then we're really getting into a family. Most families have like a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, right? Give or take. And when they have to file a claim, they need to be put in a similar style property. Excuse me. So that's where this kind of temporary housing model comes in. So you just have a lot more flexibility with Larger properties are often harder to find. A lot of times landlords don't understand this model. So this is kind of what we're going to focus on. Again, I've got you sometimes people, there's insurance claims for one bedroom. I think most of it they're looking for a 3+ bedroom, right? They want pet friendly, they want a fence yard, parking, all that stuff. So, but all types of properties work. Again, I have everything from a studio to a 5-bedroom and they're all midterm, so they all work. Um, okay, so what makes a great MTR, right? I mean, there's a lot of things. I think like in any kind of real estate, like location, location, location, right? Does not have to be next to a hospital per se, but it should be in a decent Class B neighborhood, um, you know, around local attractions within like 20 minutes of a hospital, right? I have a lot of nurses come and they're willing to travel, right? You do not have to be across the street from a hospital. I think quality of life is more important, um, So location's important, safety, well-lit, you know, decent, decently class neighborhood, right? Nothing too sketchy. Um, I just like, would you— my metric is like, would I want to live in the house? Like, if I had to move, would I be comfortable there? Like, I don't want to buy something that I personally would not want to live in. That's just kind of my little filter that I put on things. Um, design is super important. I think doesn't have to be fancy or luxury, but As more short-term rentals get in the midterm game, I think the bar is definitely being raised. So nicely designed, nothing like extravagant, but if you don't like design, you can hire someone to do it. But, and there's ways to do it like on a budget, right? So, but design's really important for that, kind of ties into furnishing. I'm getting more requests for kind of, um, places that are accessible, right? Which means like a walk-in shower, having like a primary bedroom or a bedroom on the main level, right? Things like that. We're seeing a lot more of that. So if you're looking at a property property. Like, I'd say the ideal property is like a ranch-style house, 3 bedrooms, single level, no stairs, right? And we can do things like ramps, but this just appeals to a really wide kind of avatars. And a lot of times people just— stairs are, they're an issue, right? So, you know, we— I have ones with stairs. I'm not saying you don't have to have stairs, but these are like the most requests I get. Um, um, being pet friendly. People are really afraid of pets, but when you think about it, they're part of your family. You don't want to— you don't want to put them in a kennel for 3 months, right? Like, your home is being rehabbed. There's ways to protect yourself, you know, charge a pet fee if you can, pet rent, have a pet addendum, right? And most pet owners are really responsible. I mean, I, I can tell you stories, but you're missing out on like half your market if you're not pet friendly. So highly recommend being pet friendly with that. Fenced backyards that are kind of private. Everyone wants to just let their dog out, let them do their thing, right? Washer dryer, off-street parking. These are kind of like ideal amenities. Again, these are kind of ideal properties. I kind of covered the single-family home, and I think traditionally as investors, like, single-family hasn't cashflowed that well. But with them, with this model, it definitely does, right? So you can make really good cashflow without being in multifamily. But so this is kind of the properties that are really ideal. Any questions so far? Pet rent? That really depends. I mean, I would say I'm charging anywhere from $75 a month to $150 per month pet rent. Um, then I'll usually charge a non-refundable pet fee. Just know your local laws. Like where I'm at, I can't charge a full deposit and a pet fee. So just kind of know that. Um, but yeah, that's kind of what I charge usually, a non-refundable pet fee and then a monthly pet rent. And sometimes that's something you're going to negotiate, right? Because an adjuster won't approve a price. But that's kind of where I'm at with pet rent as far as fees go. Okay, so we're kind of going to get into the midterm insurance kind of niche, and there's a lot of parties involved, and I'll really try and break it down because it's a little overwhelming at first and you're dealing with a lot of people. So these are the really high-level parties, right? There's a displaced homeowner, right? They've had some kind of damage to their home. Then, then that happens. They're going to reach out to their insurance company, right? They're going to send out an adjuster and they're going to say, there's this too much, there's too much damage here. You need to be put in temporary housing, right? And then the other, the third party in this mix is the temporary housing providers. Like if you've heard of like ALE, CRS, Sedgwick, right? It's a huge industry. It's like a $30 billion industry, right? So there's definitely, there's a lot of them and all kind of, so this is like high level, all the people involved. So it's, it's not just someone reaching out and doing a direct booking, right? So there's just a lot of parties involved and it's, it's just a more complicated process. It's not necessarily harder. It's just, there's more pieces to it. So I'm going to try and unpack that for you guys. Again, this is just some more metrics, right? You know, 1 insurance claim, 1 relocation company, 80 to 100 claims per day, 560 claims per week, right? Almost 27,000 per year. So there's a lot of claims that the one thing I just want to stress is we can't predict when there'll be a claim, right? Obviously, if there's a natural disaster, there's clearly a lot of demand. We want to help families out, but we, we don't want to rely on this avatar. We don't know when someone's going to need it. So we want to make sure we're appealing to multiple avatars. Again, there's a lot a demand and there's ways to position yourself and optimize yourself to get found, but we can't rely on this avatar. But I'm going to teach you guys how to kind of position yourselves to get found. Okay. So types of insurance claims like natural disasters, right? This is an example of a lead I got. You know, we had a tree fall on our house. We're looking for a fully furnished short-term rental. Looking forward to talking with you, right? So they're saying fully furnished short-term rental, a tree fell, and they're not saying we have an insurance claim, but you can read between the lines here. No. Okay. They probably are working with an adjuster and a temporary housing company, right? So, and part of this is education, you know, educating homeowners on their rights and how this works, right? So this is just an example of a lead, right? Of, you know, this happened. Here's another example, right? You know, that we, and when temporary housing companies reach out, they're always going to tell you all the data. They'll give you as much information as they can. They don't always tell you budget, but we have a local family that has some damage to their home. I found this in our, like, in the database, right? So if you can go to ALE Solutions and actually list your properties, or if you have to ones you upload a spreadsheet. So this came in, they had this internally, right? So it's important to make, to list yourself on those databases. Um, and they're asking, it's available. They're asking for a 6-month lease, which an option to extend. Now they will always do that. Sometimes they'll start with like a 1-month lease. It's still great to accept them. Again, we're going to kind of charge a premium if you're starting out with like 1 to 3 months. 6 months, we'll probably negotiate more, but you can have kind of a tiered rate, right? Because because that's a very short lease and they're, again, they're saying they have, you know, 2 adults, a kid, 2 cats, a dog. I've had requests for like ducks and chickens and lizards, right? So just keep an open mind, right? But that's an example of that. I'm gonna check the chat really fast. Okay. Here's some more example inquiries and they all look a little bit different and there's no like formula when they come in, right? Here's an example of like they're saying, hey, we're our budget and we generally, I would say you don't get the budget right. Well, I'm going to kind of unpack how to, you know, do that, but $4,200 unfurnished, $6,200 furnished, right? You're obviously, we can charge a premium for furnished. So that's what I generally do. They're giving you the terms. They will often start with a couple months and they will extend, right? Because we all know that contractors take forever, right? So here they're saying pets, fence, yard, 3 indoor dogs, a bunny, and a lizard, right? Just be open to it. You know, these are homeowners. They're very responsible. They're generally not going to trash your house. Of— I think there's a lot of horror stories about, you know, being a landlord, but everyone just talks about the worst case. And we were really helping people out, and they generally are not going to do something to your house that's terrible. Um, again, here's another example here. Let me know. They're always going to say ASAP, and when they say that, you maybe you have a guest in there for a week. There's a process here. It takes about a week, so don't just be like, oh, it's not available tomorrow. Just kind of communicate when it's available. And ASAP, they're probably in a hotel, right? So I don't see any other questions. Okay. Right. So just, they're always going to say that, and there's usually some flexibility in that. So pets, that's a cat, right? They're, they're always going to, they generally are looking to a zip code that's close to the home that was damaged. Right. Again, here's the budget, $9K. Sometimes we get that. Sometimes we don't. All right. This is from Cedric via email, and I've kind of built relationships with a lot of these, um, temporary housing specialists, which I teach you how to do in the course, but they'll just So when you, when you build those relationships, they'll start reaching out to you directly. And here's an example of an Airbnb booking, right? This was for a 5-bedroom, you know, a $28K booking, which is awesome. And we really optimized the listing for that. So they come in all kinds of ways, right? Email, Furnished Finder, Airbnb, right? Just you want to be in the right places. Here's a Furnished Finder lead, right? It's not just nurses, right? So they're saying, I work for Temporary Housing. We have a family. Is this available? Right? So I definitely get a lot of insurance leads from Furnish Finder. It's not just nurses, just to emphasize that. Any questions so far on what I'm covering? I know it's kind of a lot, so feel free to chime in. All right. So here's some more examples, right? And the other thing I want you guys to see is like, they don't always say insurance claims. Sometimes they'll just say there was— oftentimes they will say, yes, I'm working with Temporary Housing. It's not a scam. You know, they're legit companies. You know, here this one says we have a, see, they're kind of giving you all the details, right? They're giving you the location, they're giving you the terms, and they're going to say 30 days. They're probably going to extend, but we're going to charge a premium if they're only starting with 30 days, right? Parking. Here's another one. It's kind of more of that same one, right? They're generally, all these have pets, right? I'd say 90% of the time they're going to have pets. Here's another Airbnb inquiry, right? And they're saying, you know, I work for MyKey Global Accommodations. They have a family that's been displaced. They need these dates, right? They're telling you exactly what they need. So we're gonna put that language on our listing so they understand that we know this model, right? This came from Airbnb. So if you're not on Airbnb, it's a really important platform to be on. Just make sure that your calendar is open. So, you know, how much does insurance pay? And I think there's a lot of information out there like, You know, basically the homeowners are required to have insurance. It's usually coverage D, it's loss of use coverage, right? Or ALE. There's different names for it, but that's what covers the temporary housing. So ALE, you know, provides financial support if your home is uninhabitable. Like, you can pull up your policy right now and check what your coverage is. That's where this money comes from for temporary housing for displaced homeowners. Every policy is really different. I'll kind of explain some math, but there's really no there's no exact formula to know exactly what their coverage is. Just kind of quickly, the types of catastrophes, right? I've heard anywhere from 20 to 25% of the dwelling value is the budget, you know, yearly. Every policy is different. There's, you know, accidental, manmade damages, natural fire, you know, hurricanes, things like that, which we've seen recently, unfortunately. So those are kind of the categories. Again, there's no hard and fast formulas for what to charge for insurance claims, and we don't want to like list one price and go, oh, it's double that. But, you know, we might— if they're coming in and saying they just want to stay for a month, yeah, we're going to charge a premium for that because it's a very short stay. So we need to kind of COVID ourselves as the property owners, right? So yeah, we might charge a little more for a month versus someone saying, hey, we're going to— we're listing it for this and they're coming in for 6 months, right? So that's kind of the nuance of insurance. Claims. So, but the coverage is really based on, you know, comparable properties, similar beds and baths, the neighborhood, how close is it to the home that was damaged, the estimated home value, right? How long they're going to stay. And again, each policy is really different, but the policy kind of dictates how much can be spent, what their budget is. Access recordings. Yeah, I will have a replay of this and of the next one. I'm getting a question. Stain's asking, do you post your price so you charge a premium after these? Yeah, so I mean, pricing is really tricky, but like, you know, when I'm posting, I'm looking for at least a 3-month lease, right? And if someone's coming to me and saying, hey, we're just going to start with a month, yeah, I'm going to charge more because it's just like long-term rents, right? Like if someone's going month to month versus a year lease, there's a premium for that flexibility, right? So it is okay to charge more, you know, as long as it's not like you hear of insurance and the dollar signs start going off, right? You want to be— you're going to probably charge a little more after starting out with a shorter lease. And they will, they will always ask you what your price is. They will never just assume what it is, right? If it's listed at $4,000 and that's their kind of 3-month price and they're like a month, a 1-month lease, you can charge what you want, right? Because it's a shorter lease term. They will always, always ask you. They will never assume it. Um, which is interesting. They're always going to ask you what's the rent, what are your, you know, what's your terms, all that. And I'm going to kind of COVID what they ask. But yeah, you can, you, what did you advertise is not necessarily what you're going to charge. There should be a reason if it's going to be different, right? But they will always ask you. Um, so, you know, coverage, napkin math, again, every policy is really different. It just really depends. Again, sometimes they'll give you the budget, sometimes they won't. But like, for example, say like the dwelling value is $400,000. 20% of that is $80,000. So divided by 12 is about $7K a month, right? That's like, they're going to use that budget for different things that we know if we submit for like $5,000, that probably would get approved, right? And it's also, there's a negotiation that goes on here, but that's just kind of like napkin math of like how the coverage works. And you can also ask your homeowners, like, have they reached out directly? Hey, do you know what your budget is, right? So there's just some tips and what they're looking for. So they're always going to look as close to as the homeowner's original zip code. That's why it's really important to list your address. Really, really important. You know, 5 to 10 miles is ideal. Sometimes they will travel for the right property. I have, you know, clients that they couldn't find a big enough property, so they're willing to travel. It should be a comparable home, right? If they're living in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home with a fenced yard and it's a nice home, they're not going to downsize, right? So it should be comparable. Again, to get found, you need an open calendar. If you're on Airbnb and you've got spotty bookings, you will not show up in the search results. Again, being pet friendly is super important. Most families have pets. If I can, I hope I convince you that's really important. So yeah, pet friendly, you know, having a, you know, a fenced backyard, not a shared backyard. That's not, not really. People want to have their own yard. Accessible homes, I mentioned that, you know, bed and bath on the ground floor and available ASAP in air quotes, right? If it's available in a couple days or a week, right? They're, they're just want to know it's not like a month down the road, right? They want to know it's going to be available soon. Okay. So these are like key midterm rental insurance databases, like ALE Solutions, one of the biggest ones, Lacrosse City, Cedric, CRS. I have a whole list in the course and I'm going to cover in the workshop, but you can Google temporary housing company, just go onto their databases and list yourself. It's a little tedious, but they will look in there along, along with other places. So there's a lot of them out there. And then you want to be in places they will often look in their own databases or they'll look like on these other places. So again, Airbnb, Zillow, Rental Manager, Furnished Finder, VRBO, right? These are like the key places. There's a lot of other ones, like you kind of want to be everywhere to make sure you're getting found, but definitely be on these high-level places. And you want to optimize your listing. I'm going to cover this more in the workshop, but Essentially, like in this example, you know, we're saying relocate to our pet-friendly home specifically designed for families in need of temporary housing. We're letting people know that we understand this model. We're open to short-term leases because you think about a long-term landlord, they just want like a long-term lease. They don't understand the model. So we offer flexible stays for those encountering home repairs and relocation. We work directly with insurance companies, right? All these kind of keywords are letting people know we understand the model. We're flexible. We're fully furnished, right? So, um, that's just kind of how to optimize your listing so that insurance companies or families in need can find you, right? So that's really, really important. Um, so when a relocation specialist reaches out to you, say from Ale, they'll usually email you. Sometimes they'll call you. They usually send an email or reach out one of the platforms. They're kind of want to, gonna know all these things. And in the course I have kind of proposal template, but available date, monthly rate, is it furnished? What are your lease terms? Are you open to like, is it what's your minimum? Right. I would say stick with a month because they'll probably extend. Are utilities included? It's kind of expected they are. Sometimes these things are negotiable, right? What kind of— what's the property type? Is it a single family, a duplex? Right. Kind of the beds, baths, garage. They're also always going to want to know the fees, the application fee, security deposit, cleaning fee. I will say with the security deposit, with insurance claims, the insurance covers everything. So it's a very safe guess to have our tenant, but the security deposit generally comes directly from the displaced homeowner. So I always make that a lot less than what I would typically charge, which would be one month's rent. So just keep that in mind. I'm usually saying like $2,000, like the rent could be $8,000. I'm still going to say $2,000 because it's coming out of the pockets of the homeowner and I know that insurance is covering the rent, so I'm really not worried about, and they're, they're families, they're homeowners, they're gonna be solid guests, right? So they're, they're always gonna ask you these fees and just make sure that your security deposit is, is reasonable, right? And then they're gonna ask you the best way to contact, right? Phone number, email, all that stuff, right? Um, so this is kind of the overall marketing, you know, strategy, kind of like step one, photography, video, and virtual tours. Then you wanna optimize your listing, right? Like high level, that's really important. Um, so I think I have the wrong slide deck here. Anyway, I do have a, um, a masterclass coming up this weekend. I'm going to talk all about this more in depth. I'm going to go over like how to optimize your listing, how to do duplicate listings on Airbnb, um, how to optimize all the things we kind of talked about more in depth. So I will drop a link in there, um, if you guys are interested in that. And I'm definitely open for Q&A, so let me know if you have any questions while I get that link. Just one second.

I have a question, Shawna. Sorry, I have video off because tech problems today.

No worries.

So I currently have an Airbnb, you know, short-term rental, and I had blocked my calendar because I was hoping to do more of a midterm strategy, but I have not gotten any interest and now I see that I haven't necessarily marketed it the right way and I haven't been pet-friendly, that sort of thing. So I can update that. But how do you transition from short-term to midterm? Because if I open up my calendar, then people are gonna pick, you know, 2 days a month from now, and then that's gonna make it so it's not available for the month. So how do, do I just set my minimum stay to 30 days or how do I, how do you make that transition?

Yeah, I'm going to drop the link in here for anyone interested really fast and I will answer your question. Okay. Yeah. So it's a really good question. So that's kind of the hybrid strategy, right? And it's just really high level, basically. Yeah. If you're, you know, you basically want to have one listing that's optimized for a midterm rental that has a completely open calendar, right? Someone can type in a month's day and you're going to show up because if you just— if your calendar's spotted up with short-term stays, you're not going to show up. So what you can do is and I unpack this more in the workshop that I just posted, you can actually duplicate your listing and make one really focused on, um, you know, on short-term rentals. It's more like experience, it's more like vacation, and then other one is midterm. And just maybe keep your short-term calendar, like maybe just don't book more than 30 days out, right? Don't take reservations like a year from now unless you want to, right? So it's really a matter of two listings. One's, one's optimized for midterm and one's really optimized for short-term. That's one strategy you can do. And then you might have to creatively move a guest around if you get booking, you might just— you don't ever want to cancel a guest, right? But you can find them a different option, right? See if they could move. Maybe if you have a different property or something, move them around.

Okay.

Yeah, that helps. Yeah, definitely. There's a lot. Yeah, I think because a lot of times I think people— and there is, you know, it's great to fill in the gaps if you can do short-term, right? If you don't have a midterm guest, we just want to make sure that you're getting found for midterms, right? So that's kind of the tricky part about Yeah, thank you. Yeah, no problem. Any other questions? I have to answer all your questions. Again, I dropped the link in here. If anyone is interested, it's a really hands-on workshop and there's like tons of resources, you know, like the whole marketing and advertising checklist, the proposal for insurance companies, how to use, you know, how to optimize your listing, like ChatGPT stuff, all the stuff that will just really help you jumpstart your marketing for midterms and help families in need for insurance claims.

Sean, I have another question.

Sure.

So do you, I guess, manage all of your midterm rentals or do you have someone that helps with that? I guess for me, I really like the idea of having a midterm rental portfolio, but I also work a very demanding W-2. So just wondering, how do you handle it? I know that— I don't think you work a W-2, is that correct?

No, this is my full-time thing. Yeah.

Okay, so you probably do manage your own, right?

I do, and I think it's really doable. I think with the right systems and processes in place, like, you get your listing up, you could have a VA help you. I mean, I think it's more manageable than you think if you have the right, like, software in place, you know. And I think, no, most property management companies don't understand the nuance of midterms. So yeah, I mean, know your limits and, you know, or you could maybe have someone help you. But I think most people have really good software in place. They're working with a VA that's kind of helping them with that. And then, you know, what you can often— if you get a 6-month booking, right, you get them in there and maybe you're coordinating like a repair or a plumbing issue or something, right? So Yeah, but yeah, I mean, it, it depends. But I think especially with one property, you could get booked for 6 months and just, you're just coasting, right? So, and just having systems in place to having a good team, right? Like having a good cleaner, having the handyman. Like if I have a problem, I just text my handyman, he can fix most things, or my plumber or my electrician. Like it's just, they're a text away. I'm not going over there and like, I can't fix anything, right? So that's really having a team. And if you don't, kind of building that team, because I think, I mean, all if you you hire a management company, they're just gonna like, they're not going to care as much about your property. They're going to like mark up all the repairs, right? And you're not vetting the quality of it. So I think that's really important, along with maybe a VA or something, right, that can help you with that. But if you, you know, it's not as much time as you would think once you kind of get set up.

Okay. And do you have any arbitrage properties, or do you own all of your property?

So I own all of mine. I don't— people kill it in arbitrage. Like, I— it's amazing. The— what I do like about arbitrage— I mean, there's pros and cons. If anyone doesn't know what arbitrage is, basically you go out, you lease a property, you know, from a landlord, and you're basically— then you sublease it, you furnish it and sublease it to an MTR guest. What I do like is the reverse arbitrage model where you're kind of putting yourself out there for rentals. You find a lead— like, I get a lot of leads that I can't place, right? They're looking for a certain neighborhood. I'm either full or I don't I don't have a property that meets those needs. I go out to my network, I find a property, I lease it, and then I can sublease it to that family. And I like that because we know we're helping someone. We're not taking all the risk on of like furnishing something and having that overhead without any booking. So—

Oh, I like that. I never thought about that.

Yeah, reverse Harvard. It's kind of new. I think it's probably been going on for a while with like— but it's kind of recently come like like being coined reverse. So I like that for sure.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, no problem. Um, do I do consultations? Yeah, I do consultations. I would say if you're interested, I mean, at that workshop I'm gonna— there'll be a lot of one-on-one time. We can pull up listings and do reviews, but I definitely can do that. Um, I do that for students all the time. Um, Anisha, what key softwares? So I I have long-term software. I use Buildium, which is more enterprise level. Depends on the amount of properties you have. I would say if you have 1 or 2, I'd probably go with like Avail or KeyCheck. Those are the ones I hear the most about. Um, and then I have different software like for leases. I, I use Tenant Tech. It's kind of a West Coast program, but I love it because it's very specific to, um, like the county and state that you're in. And landlord-tenant law can be very persnickety down to the county, right? So you want to make sure that you're compliant. So I think that's super important. Um, yeah, great questions. Any other questions? Um, there's a lot that goes into this, and I hope, I hope it was the process. I mean, once you do a couple of these, you kind of get to know it and you build relationships. And I think that's what this is all about, right? Even if you get a lead you can't fill it, you can ask, you know, put it out there to try and help them out. So that's what I always try and do. And I'll put that link in here again if anyone's interested in the workshop. It'll be really hands-on. It's going to be on Zoom. You'll get a replay and like a link all the, all the resources that I have in my regular course. So this is just really focused on the marketing piece of it. Any other questions? Okay, I see another question. How do I build my maintenance team? Well, that's a good question. You know, I, my maintenance guy was my gardener actually, and it just kind of came out that he could fix things and was very handy. It started out with gutter cleaning. I think it's been very organic. Um, but I would say the best way is word of mouth. Just ask in local RIA groups, right? Or ask your friends, like, who do you have? I mean, a handyman, I think, is almost a handyman and cleaner, but just kind of ask around. Or you can post in groups. But the two that I've had that have been my diehard, like, go-to, just— I, I think it was, it was referrals. I think I asked someone, maybe they fixed something, they just became my go-to. So, you know, and try them out on little things, right? Like maybe have them fix one thing and see how scrappy they are, like how responsive they are. That kind of thing. And I think referrals are the best because— or you can use like Thumbtack or something, but I always like to go by referrals. And, you know, people will usually share their resources with you, right? Um, so that's how I've found my people. Um, or maybe ask your cleaner, like, hey, do they— who are they? Do they know anyone? Often it's like people have networks, right? And people really do want to help out. So I think just putting the word out there and trying them out, maybe on smaller things just seeing if you're happy with them, if they're responsive, right? Can they— are they reasonable, right? Are they coming quickly? Do they have kind of good bedside manner, right? Because I'm usually just texting them, they're showing up. I don't meet them at the properties. I really just say like, hey, this property ABC's got like a clogged toilet or whatever it is, right? They go out there when I send them, they invoice me and I pay them, right? I'm not actually there at the property unless it's like a crazy urgent thing. A good question. Yeah. Yeah, any other questions? Can you— can like open the mic up or just throw something in the chat too? Um, do I have a proper— that's a really good question. Um, I, I have worked with my team for so long that I just trust them inherently. Like, I don't question them because I have that relationship. But I would say yes, I think they can send you pictures, right? They can document that it was done. And also, and that's a great question, if there is kind of a maintenance thing or something is being weird, I will often ask guests, just can you get video of it? Then I can send that to them. They know exactly what the parts are, right? But I just, I think it's working with the team for so long, I inherently trust them. But yeah, I think asking for like a video or a photo is really good. And then you can always follow up with the guest and be like, hey, my plumber was just out. I'm assuming everything was great. Let me know if there's any other issues. But again, I think it's having that trusted team. I've never had someone not do the work or do shoddy work. But again, I think it's starting out with smaller things, even maybe doing someone doing repairs on your own home or something if you live in the same market. Um, but I generally, yeah, I don't think I've ever had someone not do— a long time ago I hired someone to power wash and they didn't show up, but that was a long time ago. It's the only thing I can think of where someone didn't do the work. Um, but yeah, again, it comes back to referral-based kind of team, I think. Um, Yeah, Google Docs are great. I, you know, software usually has work orders too, maintenance tickets. I don't really add my team to that necessarily, but I will, I will say like, hey, can you open a maintenance ticket inside the software? Most software has that these days. Then I can kind of do updates and then I can close it out. So if you've got multiple things going on, but anything works, the spreadsheets are great, right? But I usually just have a maintenance ticket and then I'll text my my subcontractor and they go out and fix it. I don't want them to have to log into software necessarily, but, um, yeah, I love spreadsheets. Um, yeah, and it comes down to kind of like that, how does your team like to work? Do they want an email? Usually I just text because you can send images back and forth, but everyone's a little bit different. Just figure out what the best way to communicate is. Yeah. Any other questions? Yeah.

Um, can you, um, just touch on the reverse arbitrage a little bit? A quick second, I think I missed that part.

Yeah, so that's a term where like, okay, say I have a property and I sometimes— and this is another tip— if I have a property and I booked it, I will leave it up because I will get leads from it and then I just can help people out. So say I have a property and— or I just booked it and I haven't updated my calendar and it's like a family of 5, I need a 5-bedroom in a certain neighborhood in a certain zip code and I don't have a property like in my portfolio or that I co-host. So I go out to My network, or like go to Zillow and search for that particular pro— like that type of property. And then you can lease the property, right? And then if they, you know, then propose that property, if the family likes it, then you go ahead and lease it. You may furnish it, you may not, depends on the contract. And then you basically sublease it to that family. So you're— the reverse comes in is that you arbitrage, is you have the property, you're marketing, it reverses, like you have the lead or the family in need, and then you find a property that matches that. I think it's more so with insurance, right? Because a lot of times we'll get— as we build relationships with temporary housing providers, and I always say when I get those calls, I always say, hey, I'm in this, this, this is my market, right? If you ever need something, please reach out and I'll try and help you out, even if I don't have something to offer. So I think as you build relationships, you get more of those leads and you can go out and find properties that kind of match what they're looking for. I hope that helps explain it more.

Yes, thank you. Like, in that situation, like, do you know, like, what the— like, how long that process takes? Because I think from my experience with insurance company or, um, temporary housing companies, um, they typically want you to move very fast.

They do, but that's where the— you know, they want to move fast, but like, it's going to take a week because you have to do— you have to do an application. And sometimes, yeah, they want it tomorrow, but sometimes for the right property, it's— it usually I've— it's very rare that I've had someone like move in the next day. Usually they're— so with insurance, they're going to— the family will want to see the property. I— for the most part, they always want to see it, and that's a walkthrough, right? We're going to walk, walk the property with them. Then there's an application, and applications for insurance, I'm not really screening for income. I'm screening more for just like character reference, right? That nothing criminal or anything. And then, so it's about a week, right? It's never like the next day for the most part. And they always will make it sound like very urgent, but sometimes sometimes there's just a process, or for the right property, they're willing to wait. So it just really depends. And they're usually put in a hotel kind of like, if their home is not inhabitable, they're staying in a hotel, right? So they're not like homeless, they're staying somewhere. But they're always— their goal is to place people, right, and get them in housing, right? That's how they're compensated. So there's always a sense of urgency for sure, but there's usually more wiggle room than they let on sometimes, right? Right. Um, you're welcome, Terry. Awesome. Um, so Marisha, you're asking, is a maintenance ticket— it basically, it's part of any online rental management software usually has some kind of maintenance ticket or like resident portal. Like, and I'll usually tell, like, it's kind of in my welcome notes, like, hey, if there's an issue, if it's an emergency, please call or text me, right? But if it's something that's just kind of squeaking or something that's like an issue, open a maintenance ticket, um, and then I'll, you know, get to it. Or sometimes I'll just do it, and it's just a way for me to track kind of expenses and what my open tickets are. But most software worth its salt has that built into it now, and it's just a fancy way of saying just like how to track something, right? Or you can use a Google Sheet. You don't have to use software, but I recommend software for like collecting rent. With insurance, they're generally going to send you a check, or they'll send— they'll do ACH payments, which is, you know, just easier. Um, so they generally will not log into your rental portal. It's kind just directly paying you. Yeah, you're welcome. Um, and I'll drop that link in again. It's this Saturday for the workshop and we'll cover all of this like really in depth. Any other questions on my copy to answer them?

Um, yeah, I have one more question.

Sure.

For the reverse, um, arbitrage, um, like how do you, I guess, convince, you know, homeowners that you're going to be subleasing their properties to them? Because I can imagine that some are a bit apprehensive because they don't know who's going to be staying there. So like, in what way can you make them feel comfortable that you're going to take care of their home to sublease it?

That's a really good question. And some people are just— they just want a 12-month lease and they're very traditional landlords, right? And so, and that's what happens a lot of time when in temporary housing companies reach out to landlords, they're like, they think it's a scam. They're like, I don't understand this model. So I would say, I think transparency is key saying, listen, I, you know, I'm, my company does this. We help, we help provide housing for homeowners that have been displaced due to damage in their home. Like that's what we do, right? Explaining it. The insurance companies pays the rent. These are really responsible people. They're not tenants, they're homeowners. So they're really responsible. I'll be managing the whole thing. I'll take care of coordinating the repairs. And I think just explaining the process. And again, it's not for everyone, but explaining that, you know, insurance is footing the bill for this, right? You might offer them a little bit more than they're actually listing it for, right? So, you know, just to kind of sweeten the deal, right? Say, hey, I'm willing to pay you a little more if you're willing to take flexible lease terms. I know someone that will just— she builds in her lease-breaking fee for it. But I think just explaining, just being really transparent and like, We are helping families. Like, or you might even say, I've got a— I have a family of 4 and they've got a couple dogs and they had this pipe burst in their home and they need a— you know, their insurance, they filed a claim and, you know, State Farm is footing the bill and your property is like in the same neighborhood, their kids go to the school, right? Just, just tell the story, right? And I think it's better on a phone call personally than sending out as a message, right? There's just a lot of spam out there. So if you can find the number, call the landlord, just be like, hey, I'm calling out of the blue, but I was just curious. I mean, Maybe they've had vacancy for a while and they're open to, but I think explaining the process, being really transparent, talking about what you do, and some people will get it and some people are just like, no, I'm not open. But I've, I've, I've talked to a lot of families and they're usually pretty curious and they're oftentimes very open to it. I think as long as you explain it in a way that just like, these are really high caliber guests, their families, you know, insurance is covering the bill. We can pay you a little more, right? So it's really a win-win for everyone. Um, but yeah, I think it's kind of like just practice too, like the first couple calls, right? And I feel kind of awkward or like, hey, so I'm just calling. But I think if we position it like we are helping families out, insurance is covering it, we're taking care of all the details, I'll be leasing it and subleasing. And I, you know, it may not always work, and some people are going to be like, that sounds crazy, or that's too risky, and that's fine. But I think the more you kind of propose it and the more confident you are, then the more people understand it. And I think the fact that we're helping families out, right? A lot of people want to do good, right? And if you explain it in a way they understand, they're going to be open to it. And if they're not, that's, you know, don't be discouraged, right? Just move on to the next place. Any other questions? I know we're kind of at the top of the hour, but I don't mind. If you're watching the replay, feel free, um, to reach out like on the Facebook group, answer any questions. But again, the workshop is a Saturday. If you can't make it, there will be a replay, and we'll really get and dive into like, sorry, all the, the details of this and stuff. So, um, there's a lot that goes into, but a couple of these tweaks can make all the difference, right? So yeah, I'd love to know what people's takeaways were. You're welcome, Maria. Like, if what you got out of this, if I missed anything, if there's something I should have unpacked more, it's like super helpful for me to know. Cause I talk about this stuff all day and sometimes I forget some of the, what's helpful. You're welcome, Doin. You're so welcome. Awesome. Love to see you Saturday. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Shane. Appreciate it. Awesome. You're so welcome. But yeah, seriously, any feedback, anything that I didn't cover, like, I just, it took me a long time to figure this stuff out. And sometimes it's just getting your first lead and you kind of figure out the process and it's always a little bit different. And I will say, I don't think I mentioned this, when you get a lead, the family comes to see it, always just be really accommodating, be really sympathetic to the circumstances. You know, I'll often say, hey, if there's something to lay out, like you need a, you need a bed moved or you need an extra desk set up or a crib or whatever it is, you can accommodate that. Right. So just really let them know that that's really important. I think I mentioned that. So I'll put the link in one more time. And then yeah, if you guys, if you're watching the replay, just reach out with questions. I appreciate your tuning in tonight. Yeah. I'll give people like one more minute to ask any questions. I'm an open book. I'll ask any, answer any questions you have. Um, but yeah, you're so welcome. Okay. Terry's asking, I marketed after— what? That's awesome, Terry. Oh my gosh. I thought that makes, that makes me happy. That's amazing. Okay. Yay. Thank you for sharing that. She says, um, you marketed to Elle Crochet after the last masterclass. So did you go, if you want to talk, you can. Did you go and like submit yourself to their database? Is that what you did?

Yes, so I think you had one about 3 weeks ago, and I actually, um, got one because I was— I had been paying the mortgage on that particular house for like 3 months, and I've been working so hard because I have other rentals that I'm trying to, you know, I'm just doing a lot right now. So I just remember asking God, I was like, I need an answer, something. I need help. And I jumped on your masterclass and I actually, Shona, I had it on Furnished Finders, but that night after your masterclass, I stayed up till like 2 in the morning and I listed with those same people, the ones that you showed today, Sedgwick, Alikrity, all of those. and I stayed up till 2 in the morning. I had to be work at 7, and you just don't know. When my phone rang and I saw it come across as Alafreddie or whatever the company, and the lady said, um, I saw your listing first thing this morning. She said, I have a family that, you know, is interested. And my heart just skipped a beat because when I tell you, I was dog tired. I was so tired, but I just listened, you know, to my spirit tell me to go ahead and stay up and it. And I just want to say thank you, um, because if it wasn't for you and that night, I probably wouldn't have it. So I've— they are on a month-to-month, um, but I know they're going to be there at least 2 months, and I was able to get a, a pretty good premium on it. So I just want to say thank you so much for doing this, because, you know, for us who are just getting started, this is my first one and I'm kind of liking the way that went. So I just, you know, think that's going to be my strategy, especially, you know, as a working professional and just having a very demanding W-2. So I just want to say thank you. And ladies, listen to Shawna. This stuff works.

You just made my whole week. That's amazing.

Oh my God, it works. So thank you, Shauna. It does work. And I appreciate you. You have such a giving spirit, and I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. That— but you know, I— there's this cheesy quote, action takers are money makers, right? And you helped a family out, and you helped yourself out. And so I really appreciate that. Is the best. I love that.

Well, thank you. I appreciate you too.

That is so great. Yeah, it's the best feeling, right? Because families are— they're just in a bad spot and knowing that you're providing housing, I think it's just the best feeling, right? I don't know how you felt like helping them.

No, I feel good. And the family, you know, they were displaced right before because I'm in Georgia, so you know, all of these hurricanes have come through and I just, I figured something was going to happen, but it happened even before the first hurricane. So, you know, God answered my prayers because I was like, okay God, I need somebody in there before October the 6. And like I said, that next day, you know, it came through. And I just, I feel good about helping. They do have a little pet, you know, and I'm, I was a little, you know, but I listened to you. I left it as pet friendly. And so that really does matter. So I was like, okay, whatever, just pet take over the house. But I did, I did charge pet rent and I charged pet fee, and the insurance company is paying for all of that. So I'm just grateful.

I am. Yeah. No, that is the best. I'm so appreciate that. And I'm really like, the money is great, but the feeling of helping the family and just knowing, right? It's just right. There's nothing. It's like, that's what this is about. So.

Right. And she reached out to me this weekend and she was like, Terry, we really love the house. And she said, you know, it's just beautiful. And we're just— we feel so comfortable here. So that just makes all the difference in the world. And although I do have a property manager that helped me with everything and helped me with the lease and all of that, I still reach out to her on a, you know, a weekly basis just to kind of check in and let her know that if there's anything she needs, just let me know, that type thing. Because like you said, you want to build that relationship with them. And hopefully they'll, you know, extend another month, but I think they'll probably— they, they started out with 2 months, but we just decided we'll do month to month, um, and just, you know, start off that way. So this is my first one. I'm really excited, and I just want to say thank you. I, I can't thank you enough.

I just— that— yeah, I, I so appreciate that. Um, and great job on the communication and making it happen because, like, there's just a lot, and I think that's— we we're hosts and checking in and the, just hearing that family loves the place. Like they're probably so happy to be there. Like, because otherwise they'd be in a hotel or, you know, the, the alternative's not great. So I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. Yeah. Warms my heart. Awesome. Well, keep us posted. Yeah. And I would say like, even if, if it's booked, you, you can leave it up and if you get other leads, right, you can put it out to your network. Network, right? Because other people don't know the strategy and they might be, you know, so that's another thing is just leave it up there. And as you get leads, you know, you can always see if you can help another family out within your network too.

So yeah, that I just, that was the takeaway for tonight. I'm gonna unblock my calendar because I blocked it off, but now I can unblock it. And there are other, um, because I'm also a realtor, so I have some other realtors that have properties, and that way I can— I never thought about the reverse arbitrage. I'm like, Shauna, you have thought of it all. Thank you.

I'm just sharing what I learned. I didn't coin that term, but I just love it because you're helping. And yeah, and I think a lot of people don't understand this model. And so yeah, it's— I, you know, I kind of— well, the listing thing, leaving it up by accident, that was kind of a happy mistake. I'm like, oh, I— and I can kind of parallel leads.

But yeah, I'm gonna open my dates up again. Thank you very much.

Awesome. You're so welcome. Thank you for sharing. I'm doing— you're asking, um, software to price your MTR. That's a— pricing is, is tricky, right? Like, the, the best way I would say is like tiered pricing, right? Like maybe 1 to 3 months is X price, and we are charging a premium. It's fully furnished, utilities are included. 3 to 6 months is different, 6 months plus, right? You know, so I actually have a free resource in the group, and I also coach students how to do it. But basically, go find comps, I think, is the best way. There's a lot of software, or like go to PriceLabs and do a market test. But, you know, pull up Airbnb, you know, if you're doing it kind of the manual way, and look for a comparable property. What are they charging, right? Um, that's one way to do it. Furnished Finder is always going to be the lower end, so I would not maybe go by that. But you can tell demand. But I think best way is finding comps. And there is software like PriceLabs will give you, give you, um, you can do like a market dashboard and it'll give you an idea. And sometimes it's really just testing it, right? Like figure out a range and put it out there. And then again, if it's they're booking for a month, you're probably going to charge a little more of it. Figure out the range, figure out what's comparable. Um, it's really kind of a bit of, it's just a bit of legwork. I wish there was like, um, you know, air short-term rentals, it's really easy. There's AirDNA. What's your nightly price? Price. It's, it's just a lot more straightforward. Midterm is more nuanced, and it really depends on the length of stay, right? You could take your nightly STR rate times 30, less like about 20%, right? Oftentimes insurance leads will pay more, like, we want to be reasonable, but if they're looking to book for a shorter amount of time, right, then we're going to charge more of a premium for that. So I, I wish there was an easier way, but it's really just based on comps and kind of what the market will bear. Like, I will generally go a little bit higher, um, and to see if I can get it booked at that. And, you know, something I can adjust to. And sometimes if I'm talking to an insurance lead and the, the adjuster will come back and say, well, can we just lower the pet fee, right? Or can we do something like, if you're including cleaning, take that out, or maybe cap your utilities? It's always a little bit of a negotiation. And just know that with insurance, um, you know, like, there's always— there's nuance to it, right? So I hope that helps. Um, but yeah, just run comps and, and put it out there. And that's the other thing I like about the pre-listing strategy is you can get your listing out their tester price, tester demand, and it— you're just not like kind of backed into a corner with like having like an open month of vacancy and, you know, freaking out a little bit about that. The sooner you're gonna get it live, the sooner you can kind of market test it. I do this for long terms too, like, but midterm rentals, they do come in very last minute, right? You know, just like Terry said, like she got it in that database and got a call. So I just know even if you have vacancy see, they will come in. You just have to have faith and do the work and optimize your listing. So yeah, all right, I hope to see some of you at the workshop. Any other questions before we wrap it up? I know we've kind of gone over, so I appreciate you guys staying on. Um, um, okay, Laura is saying you're really intrigued by this. I have one SDR but curious if listing— so Laura, that's a really good question. I'll talk about that more in the workshop, but basically You know, we're listing at one. What's your question is how would I charge? Okay. Yeah. So there's no like tiered pricing. That's more like an, you know, if you're going to rent for a month versus 3 months. And in the, in the proposal template I have, I'll usually put like 1 to 3 months and it's just kind of like, hey, if someone's again compare it to long term, if someone wants month to month, it's very clearly like going to be more expensive than a 12-month lease. Right. So just kind of know like if if you, depending on the length of stay, you can kind of adjust, adjust that. Um, but you're definitely going to always average. I mean, you, I will say, here's the other caveat. Um, you know, there's different levels. Furnished Finders generally on the more budget end, I might go a little bit lower. Maybe Zillow's in the middle and Airbnb is going to be a little bit higher, right? So you don't have to put the same price across all your platforms, just so you know. There's no law about having different prices, right? But there's really no way to say Like it's tiered pricing and you can say, and I cover this in workshop, hey, like, you know, pricing depends on length of stay and seasonality. And that lets people know like, hey, there's a little bit of nuance to it. So maybe it's just kind of explains it more, but there's really no way to do tiered pricing. You're just gonna kind of adjust it depending on length of stay and all that. So yeah, I hope that helps. Um, but again, just get out there and try it. And again, it's crazy. Temporary housing companies, they will always ask you what your, their chart, they will always ask. They, they generally don't bat an eye. Right? Like, their goal is to get the family in the property, insurance is covering it. Like, they, you know, they will need to get it approved, right? And so they kind of know the range, and it's okay to ask what the budget is, but they're really— insurance is covering it. And if they want to start out with a month, like, that's a very short stay, you know, we need to be compensated for that flexibility. So I hope that helps you guys. Again, I hope to see you at, um, at the masterclass, and thank you so much for joining. And Um, yeah, Terry, your story was like amazing. That just made this all worth it. So I really, really appreciate it. Um, and I will send out a replay of this if anyone is watching the replay. Feel free to ask questions or sign up. So unless there's any other questions, last call. Sure, everyone's hungry. Um, yeah, well, thank you so much for joining me and for sharing and all the great questions. It's really helpful to me to know. If you think of something after, just let me know and We'll cover it next time. All right, you guys have a great evening. Hope to see you on Saturday. Thanks so much.