Turn you Boise VRBO into a Long-Term Rental

Embarking on a journey to transition your investment property from a short-term to long-term rental can seem overwhelming. Short-term rentals are furnished properties that are rented for a month or less. Historically, these rentals garner a higher price per night than long-term rentals. However, they also require consistent management, price adjustments and cleaning since people may only be staying there for a night or two.

Conversely, long-term rentals are typically unfurnished. While they may have a vacancy period when they’re initially listed once a renter moves in the owners experience consistent revenue month to month.

Because short-term rentals take so much effort with less predictable income, some owners are choosing to transition their short-term into a long-term rental. In this blog, we will explore key aspects of this transition, shedding light on the financial differences, the importance of understanding market dynamics, and the necessary steps to make your property appealing to long-term renters.

Understand the Financials

Short-term and long-term rental financials look quite different. With short-term, you likely had a much higher price / night but because your rental wasn’t rented out every night you also had to adjust your earning expectations for vacancies. This creates varying rent revenue month to month. Moreover, if you weren’t turning and cleaning the property yourself you likely had a large cleaning bill each month or a significant management fee for short-term rental management.

Long-term rentals tend to have more predictable revenue once they’re occupied. It’s important to remember, you may have a period of time when the rental is vacant. At the time of writing, Boise’s median days on market for a single-family home was 48. Budgeting for a month plus of vacancy is important when you make the transition to long-term rentals. However, once you make that transition and have the rental occupied your revenue will become stable (assuming your renter is paying).

It’s also common for there to be upfront costs when turning your home from a short-term to long-term rental. Catching up on deferred maintenance is important in getting your home ready for its new long-term renter.

Sell the Furniture

While it may be tempting to rent your home long-term furnished, it’s essential to consider the market demand.

Renting the home long-term furnished can seem like a win-win.  You’ve invested effort money in furnishing and decorating your home and want to keep it that way in case you decide to go back to short-term.

Let’s put ourselves in the renter’s shoes. The standard long-term renter is going to have their own furniture that they’ll be moving out of their previous rental with and won’t have a place to store it if the rental they come into is furnished. You’re looking for a very small niche of long-term renters who want something furnished. Perhaps someone moving from out of state for a short period of time and doesn’t want to move all their furniture cross-country. Or someone building a home who doesn’t want to move all their furniture in for only one year.

The takeaway here is you’re looking for the exception, not the norm, to rent your house. The long-term unfurnished rental market is far larger (read: more demand) than the few renters looking for long-term furnished. Renting long-term furnished will likely mean your home sits on the market longer.

Get it CLEAN

You may have cleaned the home yourself when it was a short-term or had cleaners come through after a renter left. While short-term rentals demand frequent cleaning akin to a personal home, long-term rentals benefit from a deep cleaning before listing.

Different cleaners have different names for this kind of cleaning, but they’ll often call it a move-out cleaning. This includes items beyond that of the weekly cleaner. For example, wiping baseboards, dusting fans and light fixtures, deep cleaning the inside and out of appliances, dusting blinds and deep cleaning bathrooms. You’ll also want to have the floors steam cleaned. In the future, depending on your lease the tenant may be responsible for this, but you’ll need to provide it upfront.

Consult Your Handyman

Short-term rentals can be lived in hard, which is likely no surprise to you as the owner. A 3 bed 2 bath property may have been marketed to sleep 8+ to get higher rent per night. That also means a lot more wear and tear. Moreover, short-term renters may be less likely to make you aware of small inconveniences from a maintenance standpoint.

It’s likely you’ll need a handman to come through to address your ‘to-do’ list once the last short-term renter moves out.

List it!

Hurray! It’s time to list your home for its long-term renter. You can read more about how we market long-term homes here. One thing that’s important to note is if you take photos while it’s furnished be sure to note whether it’s listed as furnished or unfurnished in your listing descriptions.

If you’re ready to tackle long-term rental ownership, give us a call! We’re happy to help you through the process.

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