Here’s a true story.
Two years ago, I owned a small, nice house near a university.
I had bought it at a significant discount, already tenant-occupied.
The house wasn’t in great shape,
but as long as there’s a tenant inside — I don’t touch it.
Eventually, the tenant stopped paying rent,
but luckily moved out on their own a few weeks later.
I needed to renovate the house to make it attractive again —
nothing major at all.
And then I caught myself thinking:
How tired I am of renovating houses after a tenant has lived there for years
(even when it’s a small renovation),
then maybe dealing again with a tenant who stops paying,
and on top of all that — not really making much money from the rent
because the house is small and there’s a clear ceiling on how much rent it can generate.
So I asked myself:
Isn’t there something better than this?!
At that time, I was meeting once a week with a mentor (British),
who actually owned real estate in England and Canada — not the U.S.
But he constantly pushed me to open my mind
and think about things I wasn’t used to thinking about —
and he did that by asking questions.
(By the way, I’ll talk more about mentors and their value in Post #5.)
That’s how I discovered — and opened myself up to — something called Mid-Term Rentals (MTR).
What does that mean?
A furnished home, rented by the month, not by the year.
The typical tenants are professionals who travel across the U.S. for work
and need a comfortable, fully furnished place to live for a few months.
Was my house in an area suitable for this?
Maybe.
Would I even be able to rent it this way?
I didn’t know.
What would I do with all the furniture if it didn’t work?
No idea.
And how do you even furnish and design a place so people want to rent it?
No clue.
I talked it over with my husband,
who said: “There’s nothing to think about. Obviously, you do it.”
Is there a Plan B?
Yes.
Higher-level renovation + furnishing = $15K.
And if it doesn’t work?
Then $15K is simply the cost of the mistake.
Am I willing to absorb the cost of the mistake?
I think so 🫣
The result:
It wasn’t perfect at first,
but along the way I learned, improved the property, and refined the process.
I learned to manage everything myself — without a property management company.
The house is rented almost all the time.
Tenants take great care of the property
because they only stay for a few months,
and they’re generally high-quality professionals.
I have no rent collection issues —
they either pay through Airbnb
or monthly like clockwork when coming from other platforms.
Of course, there is ongoing maintenance,
but I no longer need to renovate the house every time a tenant leaves.
And most importantly —
I increased the net income of this house by $450 per month.
And that’s despite having refinanced in a relatively high interest-rate environment.
Who knows — one day rates will go down, and it’ll be even better.
But honestly —
cash flow isn’t the main point here (even though it is very important).
The real power is in the method,
especially when you apply it at scale.
In summary:
I jumped into the water
and discovered the wonderful world of MTR.
Next post:
How I was pulled into another niche within the MTR space.
Sneak peek at Post #4:
A flip deal that didn’t work — and led to something amazing!