Top 10 mistakes keeping your MTR empty—and learn how to boost your bookings fast! (Top 10 MTR tips)

Hey everyone, this is Shona from She's Got Assets. If you're just tuning in, welcome. I'm going to get started soon. I just need to click a few things, so, um, here we go. Hey, I think I'm live everywhere. I guess you guys know the drill by now. Um, just want to say a quick hello. I'm Shona from She's Got Assets. If you can see me and hear me okay, please just let me know because I'm kind of talking to myself here. It's always a little awkward, so, um, just make sure, like, let me know if you can't for any reason, um, can't hear me or see me. I'm just making sure my mic's working. But welcome to She's Got Assets. This is a weekly live stream. We do it every Tuesday. It's mostly focused on investing in midterm rentals and tips and tricks, so I try and cover a lot of stuff and be a good resource. Um, so yeah, I'm super excited to have you. I do also coach students on this. I love doing that, so I'll have a little give a little promo on that. But this tonight's topic is all about kind of the top 10 mistakes I see, I see people, people making and kind of how to avoid them and what to do differently. So hopefully it'll leave you guys with a lot of value. I know sometimes people take a minute to call in. I try and get on earlier, but sometimes I just don't get to it. So we're going to go ahead and kick it off. I'm just going to check one thing. But again, if you are live, if you're watching me, just say hey, let me know where you're calling in from. And if you have any, you know, burning midterm rental questions, I will stay on at the end for some extra Q&A time. So just hang on. I'm just going to comment. Hey, Marisha, thanks for tuning in. Appreciate it. All right. Let me just tag everyone here. Okay. Yeah. So let me know where you're calling in from. I really appreciate it. I love the feedback. It's super helpful for me. So I'm going to, with that being said, Our topic tonight is all about kind of the 10 mistakes I see people making, students making, and how to fix them. Like, we're always learning, right? But these are some of the things I see consistently. So with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. Um, so it'll look messy for a second. Um, let's see. Let's hopefully this works. Okay. All right. I'm assuming you guys can all see it. Okay, perfect. So It's not. I'm gonna go to, um, present mode. One second. Present. Hopefully that's a little bit better. Okay, okay, it looks like you guys can hopefully see it. And let me know as you in the comments as we go here. So again, if you're just tuning in, thank you so much. I know it's dinner time. This is our weekly live stream in the She's Got Assets group. I'm Shona, I'm your coach. Um, love talking about midterm rentals and investing in So tonight we're going to cover the top 10 insider secrets for fully booked midterm rentals. So really fun topic, lots of good tips. Hopefully take screenshots, let me know if you have questions. Um, so a little bit about me if you just came across me, you don't know anything about me, just a little bit about me to give you some context. Um, I like to say I was raised by capitalist hippies. I helped run the family vacation rental business like way back, like, you know, my parents started it in the '70s. This was like pre-Airbnb, pre-internet, was like very much you know, answering machine. We had a fax machine. I built our first website, like go way back. So it's kind of in my blood to furnish rentals. Um, I'm originally from California, up north, if you've heard of it, Mendocino. Um, it's very expensive, very kind of destination area. Never ever thought I'd be an investor or thought I'd never own a home. Um, so if anyone's just getting started, I hope that's inspiring. Um, then way back in 2005, um, I ended up moving to Portland kind of on a whim. And I ended up house hacking, basically having a roommate rent out part of my house, just made it work. And that's kind of how I got started in real estate. And then I've been a landlord, it's embarrassing to say, since 2006. So I'm, I've been at this, I'm like an OG for a long, long time. My background's kind of, you know, long-term landlording and then growing up with vacation rentals. And I used to really hide that I was a landlord before I was full-time, right? I was really kind of like embarrassed and housing is a big issue, but now I kind of own it and I love talking about it. So that's a little bit about me. Me. Um, and then just before— whoops— before I became, you know, a real estate investor full-time, um, I was kind of— I'm kind of a creative at heart, which is also why I love furnished rentals. So, um, I was an agency co-founder, and I also had a boutique design studio. I'm kind of a— someone once put it, I'm an outside cat. Um, so before, you know, before going into real estate, I created Marketing and design was kind of my background. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I like shiny objects. So I'm the founder of She's Got Assets, which is this group, all you awesome people. I'm also a podcast host, a course author. I have the REI Playbook. It's kind of all about how to buy off-market properties without door knocking or cold calling and creative strategies. And then the MTR Playbook, which we'll talk about more. And then Cedar and Porch Properties is my midterm rental and long-term rental business. And then I buy fixers under Shana Buys Houses. So I live with my family in Portland, Oregon. It's beautiful here, like really nice fall weather, leaves were changing, very classic fall. And we have a mix of long-term and midterm rentals. And on a personal note, I love baking, design, treasure hunting, learning, and obsessed with real estate. So that's a little bit about me. All right, so just a little teaser, a little teaser here. I do— I love— I coach students all the time. I actually just had a student visit, it was so awesome. Bonnie, shout out to you if you ever watch this. Um, but yeah, so I coach students, I have the Playbook. It's a really in-depth coaching program from like how to do market research, how to get set up, how to do marketing operations, all those things that takes a while to learn. And I really— it's a really good jumpstart and I walk you through it and get you booked. So if anyone's interested, feel free to reach out, type something in the chat. You can book a call with this link. I'll talk a little more about that, but just a little teaser. Um, so we're gonna kind of go over the top 10 mistakes, right? This list isn't in any particular order, but it's just things I see consistently that I think we can do differently. So one of the biggest ones is not being pet friendly. Like, it's, it's really, really important. I know pets can do damage, yeah, but they also are part of people's family. And for the most part, all the pets I've had, people are responsible. Again, they're part of your family. If you're— a lot of nurses travel with pets. If you are going after, you know, displaced families for insurance claims, they generally mostly have pets, right? So you're missing out on a huge pool of people if you don't allow pets. Just a couple data points here, right? About 70% of renters own pets. So pet-friendly, you attract more guests. You're gonna have way more reduced vacancy. I think you can charge more. You're gonna get pet fees, deposits, um, people longer stays. Um, and again, just to underscore, most, you know, families that have been displaced have pets. They have a dog, they have a cat. Sometimes they have a lizard or chickens or other things, and they're going to have pets. So if you— if they're typing in their search looking for a pet-friendly rental, you're not going to show up, right? So just be aware of that. So I really— if you have questions, let me know. I'll try and convince you that pets are really important. And again, they're part of the family. It's like if you're going to have to stay somewhere 6 months because your home was damaged by a burst pipe, or, you know, obviously all the disasters we've had, you're not going to put your pet in a kennel for that long, right? So it's just really, really important. So if you're not getting booked, definitely consider that. And this is just kind of an example. I did a search earlier today. I basically put in 2 months, I put in a 3-bedroom place, right? And these are the results I got. 99 properties were available, uh, for a 2-month stay in 3-bedroom. I kind of went on the bigger side because, you know, a lot of times with insurance, that's just kind of a more ideal size, right? So 99 results was what showed up. Then I changed the filter to allow pets and it went down to 65, right? Only 65, which is like 34% less. So it's a huge, huge difference. So you can just see the difference here and like the search results, sometimes it's like half, right? You can go try this right now on like Airbnb or Furnished Finder or whatever platform. So, um, super important. I think, um, this— there's some tips to kind of make it maybe more palatable or how to protect yourself. Um, I, I definitely recommend a pet fee. Know your local landlord-tenant laws that sometimes if you're charging full deposit, you can't charge pet fee. Just know that. But don't be afraid to charge a pet fee, right? They definitely can do damage, right? They leave a lot of hair. So pet fee, which is non-refundable generally. Pet rent, which is monthly, right? Um, definitely have a pet addendum. Spell out all the rules. Most software will have that like baked into it. That's important. Or you can draft one or find one. Um, protection-wise, I— people do different things. For me, I've just discovered like couch covers are great because they collect all the hair. When I have a turnover, I just throw them in the washing machine and gets rid of all the hair and it protects it from scratching and stuff. So they don't look great. I think they're kind of ugly personally. So photograph your couch without a couch cover, but then put one on for each guest and make sure that you might have to change it out. Like they get kind of pilling, just buy another one, right? It's pretty small expense. You know, make sure that your insurance provider, there's no restricted breeds that can be an issue. You know, supplies-wise, I always leave like a little— I use my typical welcome gift, like you know, some chocolate and wine, and then I'll leave some like Milk Bones and, you know, leave maybe some doggy bags out to make sure they clean up after them. Again, you can charge a higher cleaning fee because hair does get everywhere. For the most part, that does the trick. My favorite thing, if I can't get a pet smell out, is an ozone machine. You have to be careful though, you know, make sure there's no one in the home, there's no plants or anything, and you can rent them from like rental places. Just Google it, and they're really great for like lingering pet smell. So I highly recommend that. Um, I'm just gonna see if there's any questions so far with that. Any— if anyone has questions on pets, because it's just such a big thing and a lot of people do not, um, do not— yeah, Milk Bones. Yeah, I like to do that. I just think it's a nice touch, and it's like a couple dollars. So I always leave a little pet thing out if I can. So, okay, so number one, be pet friendly. I can't stress that enough. If you have questions, talk to me, but please be pet friendly. Um, some people also have a thing about cats. I, I love cats. I mean, yes, they can scratch or mark things, but I don't know, I haven't noticed any serious damage from pets. I've heard other people have like a thing about cats. For me, it's been fine. So just a note there. Um, okay, if you've kind of been following me for a while, I talked about this a lot. Sound like a broken record, I'm sorry. Bad listing photos, like I mean, just, this is clearly a nice property, right? This is a nice shower. The toilet seat is up. It has like a shower liner on it. It just does not look very nice. It's not shot well. It's a really bad angle. This hot tub looks— I mean, clearly it's a hot tub, but it's not staged. There's no towels. It just, it just looks funky, right? And this is probably a beautiful garden space. This kitchen is up, you know, it's facing the wrong way, upside down. This, this, this photo here does not look appealing at all. The lighting is really bad. There's no like throw or pillow or anything. So just— I'm not trying to pick on this, I'm just as an example of it's so important to have good listing photos because that you're able to charge a premium. Your people are actually going to call you about your rental. I've even had photographs redone that were professional. I'm such a stickler about it. I'm in Portland, Oregon. Like, I'm happy to give you referrals if you're anywhere else. Just, you know, get a real estate photographer, go to your local RIA groups and you can get a referral. They're all over. Um, so, you know, again, hire a photographer. I highly recommend a real estate photographer, one that kind of understands, maybe that's done some Airbnb shoots that, you know, but most real estate photographers are shooting staged homes. They're going to do a good job, right? They have the wide angle lens. They're going to know how to shoot the bathrooms and like any weird angles that you have. Um, so I'm going to check for questions before again, again, keep, um, oh, Marie, Marie. Marisha, an ozone machine is just a machine— ozone, O-Z-O-N-E— and if you Google it, it just takes out funky smells. I've used it a lot for flips. In my dog flip, I had to rent one for a week. It was very helpful. So, and I can message that to you too. All right, so this is just, you know, an example of like good listing photos. Like, going back right to the previous thing, this is like what I would consider DIY photos. You know, this is— this was done by a photographer that I got hooked up with on Airbnb, right? So I have a few things out, like I put fresh flowers out, but there's a lot more that's normally on the counters. Like I have a roll of toilet paper— I know, excuse me, not toilet paper— I have a roll of paper towels out, you know. I just— there's some other things I have, like a welcome book. I just clean it up, like just kind of filter out the clutter just for the photo shoot, right? Make— it's probably self-explanatory, but just make sure they're kind of fussing, right? If you can't be there, just make sure it's ready or you have someone do it for you. Again, right, we want to make it look inviting. Nice and light and bright and airy, but not a bunch of clutter. So photos are really, really important, and just, yeah, they're not that expensive. Here's another example. It's nice and bright and light, right? There's not a lot of stuff lying around. Um, the photo's facing the right way. So, um, okay, any, any questions on that? And it's really not that expensive, so it's well, well worth it. So tip number 3, or mistake number 3, not posting in the right places. I think I often hear, oh, I put on Furnished Finder or was an Airbnb, and then it's just kind of like set it and forget it. Like, you need to be really proactive and refresh your listings, be in the right places. Um, so this is my top, top list in the course. I have like— I just checked, I think it was like 60 places that you can list yourself, down to like temporary housing and, you know, um, Facebook groups. Like, she's got Assets Right. But high, high level, if you're just— make sure you're on these places. Furnished Finder, and I hope we all know at this point. It's not just traveling medical professionals. I know they're kind of positioning themselves that way, but I get a lot of, um, leads for temporary housing for insurance placement, did, you know, digital nomads, traveling nurses. There's, it's not just nurses. So please be on there. The listing fee I think is $150, but if you get one booking, I think it's well worth it, you know, and check your unmatched leads and make sure to respond right away. I, what I often hear from guests is, you know, they don't get responses. So even if you're full, just give people a call or let them know, right? Um, Airbnb, even if you're not doing doing the hybrid short-term midterm, just Airbnb is like the biggest search engine, right? So there's ways to optimize. Please be on Airbnb. Just if you are only doing midterm, just set your settings to 30 days, right? Another one is Zillow Rental Manager. I don't think people think about Zillow. They think about it for maybe buying homes or selling, but they do have a really strong rental manager. You can list on there. I recommend doing the premium option. I think it's like $29 for like a month and a half or something. I think well worth it. Um, and just look at all the boxes. Like, if you are doing, you know, furnished, check the box. Um, ALE Solutions is just one of the many temporary housing sites. It's one of the bigger ones. But just, you know, if you're going to prioritize, these are like my top 4, I guess. There's a lot more. I'm not saying this is like comprehensive, but just make sure on these platforms. Um, the other mistake I see is not optimizing your listings right. Like, because there's a lot, a lot of landlords when They don't do short-term, they don't do like less than 12-month leases. We really want to optimize them. So some ways to optimize them are really emphasizing your pet-friendly, you know, flexible lease terms, letting people know like, you know, we might— we could stay for 2 months or 4 months, right? We're not locking you into a lease. We're really flexible. We understand the model of you've had damage to your home, you don't know how long you're going to stay, right? And that's really, really important. And even saying like, we partner with insurance and relocation companies, furnish temporary housing. You know, monthly rentals, things like that. So, you know, just— and I have a whole list in the course, but just, you know, think about the keywords someone's using when they're doing searches and make sure those are in your listing so you get found. Um, and then the number 5, taking too long to list. This is a big one for me. I think sometimes we don't wait till it's furnished, do the pre-listing strategy, you know, digitally stage it. I walk students through this all the time. I get rentals rented all the time that aren't even fully finished yet because it's going to get exposure. You can gauge the interest, maybe check your pricing, and the sooner you get it rented, the more you get cash flow, right? And that's just really important. That's why we're doing this. So don't wait to list. Um, here's just like an example, right? Month 1, you probably have negative cash flow because you have holding costs. Month 2, like, you get maybe $7K, right, if it's a higher-end midterm, right? But if you got your listing online sooner, you collect $7K the first month, and then the second month, you know, $7K, so $14K total. And let me tell you, midterm bookings come in like extremely last minute. So you, you could wait like a day or two and just totally miss an opportunity for like an insurance claim or someone that just got a contract. So just don't wait to list, get up as soon as you can. Just be very transparent. If you're in the— if you're still furnishing it, let people know. Don't ever be dishonest, but I think it's super important to list as soon as possible. Awesome, Kate, when you booked photos. Yay! I can't— I'm so excited. So $180 for 25 photos, that's a great deal, right? And that's like a one-time cost, and those photos are gold. You'll have them forever. So I cannot wait to see them. That's awesome. Um, yeah, so it's not— I think we also think, oh, they're really expensive, but $180— I mean, yes, we can use our cameras, but they're just not the same as real estate. And you can just tell when it's professional photos, like, instantly. Um, okay, so tip number 6, keep your calendar current. Um, you know, sometimes I leave mine open just to kind of see what, what the, what the demand is. But also, if you, if you're, if you are on Airbnb and you're trying to get into midterms and you're like a short-term host, if your calendar is spotted with bookings, you will absolutely not show up in, in, you know, searches, right? Or on Furnished Finder, if you've forgotten to update your calendar, you're not going to show up in searches because from the The platform's perspective, they wanna make sure they're serving up results that are available, that people can book, cuz it's very frustrating when someone's doing searches and all these places are not available. So make calendar maintenance is really important. There's kind of a thing called a duplicate listing. I cover it extensively in the course or in my, I just did a marketing workshop. Basically it's just a, a long, a midterm listing, which is kind of an open calendar. And then you can have a short-term listing, which if you wanna take bookings, right? So it's a way of kind of capturing the searches for long-term bookings and you you can move things around. So you can Google it, and I also cover it in the course. But it's just— calendar is really important again because you might be totally empty, say like November, you've got one like Thanksgiving, but the rest of the month is empty, and someone's looking for a 3-month booking. You will not even show up in the search results if, if you have that one scattered booking, right? So be really, um, mindful. Marisha, you got your photos virtually staged. Will be listening. Yay, that's so exciting! Definitely send me a link. I, I love— I can't wait to see it. That's so exciting. Yeah, that's I'm— thank you for taking my advice. Love it, love it. Okay, yeah, I mean, I think it's a great strategy. Virtual staging is great. I do it all the time for listings, and it just— showing an empty, you know, house versus digitally staged is a very different experience as far as the listing goes for pre-listing. Um, I think this mistake number 7 is not putting thought into design, right? I think the bar is getting higher. A lot of short-term hosts are getting into midterm, and so we really need to be mindful of that. Intentional does not have to be fancy. We're not talking luxury here, but thoughtful, creative, just, you know, having some personality. Um, I think if you don't like design, then hire someone to help. But if you do like it, go for it. And it doesn't have to be— it does— nice is not equal expensive, in my opinion. Um, I have a term I like to use, bougie on a budget, right? Uh, you know, so just make it look nice. Um, it doesn't have to be expensive necessarily, but put some thought into it. Um, I think mistake number 8 is like not showing your amenities right. If you have a washer dryer, you're going to show that. And this isn't like the most exciting photo, but it's showing you have a washer dryer, a fenced backyard, things that people really want. We really want to kind of highlight that. Um, Heidi, am I managing these myself? Yes, I, I self-manage. Um, I think with midterms it's really doable, and I cover this in the course because we have such little turnover. And once you get your listing optimized and set up and your software in place, it's really plug and play. So I'm I'm a big fan of it. Um, first of all, a lot of— no management company is going to care about your property like you do. I think there's more vacancy. The midterm space is newer. Um, there are people getting into it as co-hosts. It's probably about like 20% for co-hosting. That's typically what I see. So, right, you don't have to manage yourself, but I think it's more profitable and pretty, you know, once you get your systems in place, it's not that hard. But great question. Okay. Um, so a few of the amenities I see that are in demand: pet-friendly. Again, I sound like a broken record, sorry. Super important with being pet-friendly. A fenced yard is very much in demand, and even dividing the yards. Like, I have some duplexes and I'm— I, I really try and separate the yards because sometimes dogs don't want to mingle. People really want a private fenced yard. Again, you know, dedicated workspace, high-speed Wi-Fi. There's a lot of digital nomads that's a really trending kind of avatar. Um, I'm also getting a lot of requests for, you know, ADA accessible, like one level or a bedroom on the main level, no stairs, things like that. Um, um, Misty, yeah, having pics of what you have, washer dryer. Yeah, it's really— and it's not— again, it's like, you know, if we're doing a short-term, we're probably going to feature like all this really fancy stuff, but like people are going to need to use a washer dryer, they're going to need to use like— what does the backyard look like? I think we forget to put that in. So, and when you're kind of making your shot list for the photographer, make sure you say, hey, I want you to show this. I even want to see the garage, right? That's an amenity to me. So what does the garage look like, right? Things like that. So these are like the top amenities that I kind of see in demand. Um, and then I think mistake number 9, not being clear about like lease terms. Um, you know, which is saying, again, not just saying you have a 12-month lease. I recommend just saying 1-month lease minimum. I don't really want a 1-month lease, but I don't want to miss an opportunity. Again, insurance will often start out with 1 or 2-month leases, and they will extend multiple times. So don't limit yourself and just say we offer flexible lease terms, the option to extend, like that kind of stuff. I include all that in the course, but I think it's really important just to be clear about that because again, we are— these are, you know, extended stays. They're not going to be a year. So just make sure that you're being clear about being flexible at that because again, a lot of times, especially with insurance, Temporary Housing is going to look on sites and they can't find something and they reach out to landlords who they're like, no way will I do less than a 12-month lease because I don't want any turnover, right? So just be really clear about flexible terms, you know, monthly stays, things like that. And that's just kind of putting that in your copy or take a screenshot of this. Like we're saying, we offer flexible stays for those encountering home repairs and relocation. We work directly with their insurance companies, policyholders in need of temporary housing, right? All those are kind of keywords. And as you start to get leads, you kind of see the keywords that are— you're getting in your inquiries and you can kind of bake those in, which is good. So again, mistake number 10, I think, is not having like an omnipresent marketing strategy, which is the fancy way of saying being in a lot of places, right? And you know, from Airbnb to VRBO to Furnished Finder, and then listing yourself in all the insurance databases because temporary housing will look on their own databases and they will also look on the other sites. And I, I really dive into that in course, in the course, uh, and I have a ton of places to be, but, and you can also just Google it, but make sure that you're listed in the right places. So that's super important. So I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you guys got any value from that. I really appreciate the feedback. And again, if you need more like handholding coaching, I know I covered a lot. There's a lot of nuance to this. I do have a course, you know, I really like coach students through setup and marketing and operations and all that good stuff. So feel free to take a screenshot, book a call, and I will hang on for any questions. So yeah, let me know. Again, yeah, if you got any value, if any, any, any questions, I'm, I've got a couple minutes before my next, my next, uh, call tonight. So happy to answer them. And if this was overwhelming, like just baby steps, right? If you don't want to be pet friendly or maybe try it out, right? Just even just change, maybe go change your settings and see if you're getting bookings, right? Mila, you're welcome. Awesome. Glad you got value from it. Yeah. So I appreciate it. And I, sometimes I, I'm in this so much, I forget the common questions. So it's That's super helpful, um, to know what you guys have questions about. You're welcome, Misty. So welcome. Awesome. Yeah, um, but yeah, I mean, and we are— I think, you know, winter is a little bit slower than summers. It's a little bit seasonal. Nothing like short-term, but I just think for whatever reason the winters are a little bit slower. We're kind of getting into that season, but I'm still getting tons of inquiries, so don't be discouraged. And if you're having trouble getting booked, like, take some of these tips to heart post the link. Maybe I can give you some feedback, or if you want some more handholding, certainly, um, just reach out and book a call with me and I can see if I can help you or if you'd be a good candidate for the program. So if I see a few more of you on here, let me know if you have questions or I'll keep talking to myself. Um, oh, my camera decided to die. Okay, well, it's a little— I think it gets overheated. Oh, it turned off. Okay, well, I'm back. Um, Yeah, so let me know if you have any other questions or anything else. Any— and then again, if you're watching the replay, like, feel free to chime in. Or if you're interested in the coaching course, um, then just reach out. We can book a discovery call, see if it's a good fit. Um, I know what happened to my camera. It's having a moment. Sorry about that. Um, but yeah, thanks everyone for tuning in. Again, if you have questions, you're watching the replay, like, feel free to ask them. Um, I try and do these weekly at 5 o'clock. So yeah, let me know what your takeaways were and if there's any— if you have suggestions for like future trainings. But yeah, I'll give you guys a couple more minutes. Anything's on the table, feel free to chime in if you— people are hanging on, so I'll wait till everyone's gone. Um, but yeah, definitely, um, lots of things to take into account. There's a lot of details, right? Um, And I can post some of my listings too if that's helpful for people to see an example. Let me know, I'm happy to share that, um, kind of how I've optimized them. Um, yeah, my camera decided to die. Okay, well anyway, all right, I think that's kind of it. I'm gonna sign off, but thank you so much for tuning in. Again, if you're interested in booking a call, I'll drop something in the chat shortly and just send me a message or something or type a comment and I'm happy to see if if it's a good fit. But I'm gonna sign off. Thank you guys so much for joining. It's always fun. See how I can stop sharing. Okay. All right. Gotta find my window.