Intro

If your city just banned short-term rentals. What do you do? First, take a breath and relax. I’ve been exactly where you are. This article is designed to help you navigate through tough times and come out the other side just fine.

My Background

I own a two-family townhouse in Brooklyn. My family and I live in the duplex unit and rent the one-bedroom apartment on the ground floor. I started short-term renting (STR) in 2014 after I had to evict a tenant who left furniture behind. I did not want to have to deal with another tenant with an annual lease and the nightmare of an eviction again. That’s when I learned about Airbnb from a neighbor. Since then, I’ve gone on to be a perpetual Super Host while continually honing and optimizing my listings and guest amenities. When NYC started clamping down on STR, I switched my NYC listing to month-to-month hosting and only used STR to fill the gaps between longer stays. 

Some Basic Differences in STR and Month-to-Month Hosting Strategy

The beauty of longer-term stays on a month-to-month contract is that you do not have to change your setup. You just need to understand the characteristics of who you may be hosting. I typically get people relocating to NYC and needing a place to stay while looking for permanent housing, people coming for temporary work assignments, such as healthcare workers or students, or people like digital nomads. Digital nomads and students will need strong wifi and desk space. Beyond that, nothing else will need to change about your listing.

When dealing with a longer stay, I suggest having the tenant sign a month-to-month lease and take a security deposit. You will not have Airbnb and their assurances to help provide a sense of security. You should also verify their employment, income, and ability to pay for their stay. They will pay their rent each month per the terms of their lease. To manage long-term guests, I use TurboTenant, which handles all of this for you. I will get into more detail on the platforms I use later in this article.

With longer-term stays, I also suggest providing a laundry service where you provide new sheets, towels, and linen bi-weekly. You cannot be assured of the guests’ level of cleanliness, so doing this will help maintain your linens. If it works with your budget and the tenant is interested, I also suggest bi-weekly housecleaning to give you peace of mind particularly if it is a remote property that you do not manage directly. Your cleaner can work as a second set of eyes for you and let you know if anything is off, such as damage or smoking.

Although it is unnecessary, I also provide initial toiletries for guests to get them started, such as a few roles of toilet paper and paper towels. I also provide the same pantry items I would provide to STR guests, such as coffee, tea, and cereal. These supplies are complimentary, so I will not restock them for longer-term guests.

How I Get Leads and Find Tenants

I have tried a few platforms for getting tenants, and the best is FurnishedFinder. FurnishedFinder is a marketplace for pairing traveling professionals with temporary furnished housing. I typically get traveling nurses through the platform, and sometimes, I get corporate staffing companies looking for housing for companies and their employees. They are really great at getting leads at the top of your funnel. Another platform I have had success getting rental leads from is Sublet.com. Sublet appears more geared towards people looking to take over a lease, but it still has worked well for longer-term housing. TurboTenant also has a property listing and a marketplace where they aggregate your listing to 20 rental sites.

After exchanging a few messages and getting a sense that the lead is a good fit, I invite them to apply through TurboTenant. The application fee is $55, which includes a credit check, an eviction screen, and a background check. I offer to offset the cost by reducing their security deposit from that amount and then refunding their security deposit plus the $55 fee to make it free for tenants. I also ask potential tenants for a pay stub, government ID, and a bank statement for additional verifications of income and money on hand. TurboTenant will also ask for previous landlords, so I will call at least one to verify that they paid their rent on time and were good tenants.

When everything checks out, I have the potential tenant sign a month-to-month lease with the date range for their stay. I also collect the security deposit and use it as a down payment to hold the apartment. I have them pay the first month's rent at least a week before moving in.  I usually ask for $1000 as a security deposit. That is enough to cover basic repairs and more than enough to replace items such as sheets, towels, or dishware. For tenants who may balk at having to pay a security deposit, TurboTenant provides the option for tenant’s renter’s insurance as an alternative. It costs a tenant $8 per month.

Community and Additional Support

I have created a Facebook group to support other hosts and property owners transitioning to longer-term hosting. It is called Navigating Airbnb STR Bans. You are welcome to join. I figure we can share tips and learnings, share tenant leads, and maybe advocate for policy changes. At a minimum, I believe that NYC should operate more like San Francisco and allow hosts to do STR for 90 days of the year. That would be enough for us to fill in the gaps between longer stays and benefit from peak tourism months. For local hosts in NYC, I am also making myself available if you need any additional support on a consulting basis.

Resources and Links in the Article

As a quick recap, this is a list of the platforms and resources in the article:

• TurboTenant: A full-scale property management platform for landlords. You can create a listing and market your property. You can create leases, communicate with your tenant(s), capture payments, and maintenance requests.

• FurnishedFinder: A marketplace for matching people who need furnished housing with homeowners. From my experience, they are people like traveling nurses or digital nomads.

• Sublet.com: Another marketplace platform for matching tenants needing housing, but the use case is more for taking over leases or sublets. Either way I have had success with the leads generated from Sublet.

• Navigating STR Airbnb Bans: A Facebook support group for Airbnb hosts navigating dealing with short-term rental bans.