8 Insanely Good Tips For Renting Out Your Short Term Furnished Apartments

If you’re looking into short term furnished apartments as a way to make more cash flow on your rentals, I have so many great tips and tricks for you. Back in 2019, I had a bad tenant situations where the couple was breaking up and claimed they were in a domestic violence situation. It was a nightmare.

Luckily, my dad, a seasoned 35 year landlord, encouraged me and said these keys words “the landlord always wins”. That helped shift my mentality and move through the chaos of the situation to get them out.

Once these tenants were out, I knew I was not going back to long term rentals and needed to pivot. I had learned about corporate housing and decided to go all in.

In this post, I am going to give you all my best tips on short term furnished apartments and how to get started now.

This post is all about short term furnished apartments. 

Short Term Furnished Apartments

What are short term furnished apartments?

A short term furnished apartment is a rental that is available for a short term lease and comes fully furnished. These types of units are very common in most major metropolitan areas where companies could be sending temporary workers for a variety of reasons.

Some of those reasons why people need corporate housing is because they have a temporary assignment in a town. Usually their company will cover the cost of their housing making it a fool proof plan for landlords.

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How do I find tenants for my furnished apartments?

There are a couple ways to easily find tenants for furnished apartments. The first is Airbnb, the second is Furnished Finder, the third is FBMP and the fourth is reaching out to temporary housing agencies.

Let’s dive into each option below.

1. Airbnb

Airbnb has a long term housing feature for any listing where you can set long term housing parameters. This lets potential guests know you’re interested in renting your place for longer than 30 days and opens up opportunities for you to connect with future travelers.

Personally, I have had a lot of success with Airbnb long term housing but I truly believe it’s because of my vetting process. I do not allow long term stays to instant book, I want to review every request and read every review. I look for at least 4 reviews and they all have to be 5 stars.

If someone requests to book but is not reviewed or has bad reviews, I have them book a couple nights through Airbnb then get their contact information to run them through my screening process. If they pass my screening and background check, then we move forward with a long term stay.

2. Furnished Finder

Furnished Finder has built their platform on connecting short term furnished apartments with traveling nurses. Many other traveling professionals are now using the site but they are strictly a connection website. As the landlord you can review travelers coming to your area and reach out directly to them and vice versa.

It’s much more time intensive but this allows you to run every tenant through the screening process you have in place, sign a rental agreement and collect any and all information you want.

I’ve been renting to nurses, professionals, doctors on this platform since 2019 and have only increased the number of units since then. It’s a great way to connect no matter where your rentals are located.

3. Facebook Marketplace

FBMP is not a place I have personally had a lot of success with connecting with traveling professionals but I know many people who have. Many people who are looking for long term housing are there and so naturally it could be a place that a traveling professional looks when they are moving to a new area for an assignment.

Those landlords that I know that have been successful with this always keep their listing up on their profile. They’ll refresh it every couple of weeks and use it as a lead magnet to connect with future travelers to fill other listings they have.

4. Temporary Housing Agencies

Temporary housing agencies work with travelers to find housing on their behalf. A lot of times they help insurance clients who are displaced from their homes while work is being completed by the insurance company.

I have only ever signed 1 tenant from a temporary housing agency. But I do know some landlords who have had better success here. I will say that these landlords have a lot of units to offer these agencies so whenever they call the landlord, the landlord already has a solution. The most units I have in one town is 5 so my portfolio would not be big enough for a temp agency.

You can connect with temporary housing agencies in your area through a Google search. Or on the Furnished Finders website there is a list of temporary housing agencies on the website.

5. Classic long term rental websites

Posting your furnished rental on Zillow, Apartments.com, Craigslist or Redfin is another great way to connect with travelers. Again, this is where people will go to find long term housing for an area so most travelers are bound to check there as well.

I have signed a couple short term furnished tenants from Zillow so it’s totally worth posting there in my opinion. Especially if you are just getting started with this corporate housing strategy. You need to cast a wide net to see where travelers in your area look for housing.

How do I screen tenants for my furnished apartments?

Screening tenants is screening tenants. Get an application, background check, questionnaire, whatever it is you do for your long term tenants, do the same here.

Now, remember this is for short term, 30+ day stays but less than a year. So really medium term stays. You don’t need to do this for true short term stays, less than 30 days.

Are the returns really that much better than a long term rentals?

It depends. In competitive markets, the margins are shrinking every year but all mine are still more lucrative than a long term rental. If you run it correctly and cap utilities, you can really make great money.

Personally, I prefer this model because the tenants are generally easier to deal with and I self manage all my units. They have professional jobs and make a great income and typically have 650+ credit scores.

What other tips do you have for short term furnished apartments? Let me know in the comments below!

This post was all about short term furnished apartments.