Homeowner rents out Guesthouse as corporate rental

Todd Hunter, a building manager of a 10-unit apartment building, decided to add “landlord” to his resume. In 2012, he bought a duplex with a back guesthouse in West Hollywood, California. His plan was to rent out the guesthouse to supplement his monthly mortgage payment.

After closing on the property, one of Todd’s friends recommended that he furnish the guest house and rent it out as a corporate rental in lieu of a standard rental.

“I honestly hadn’t even considered renting it out as a furnished rental because it’s not a particularly common thing in West Hollywood, at least to my knowledge,” says Todd. “However, after doing some research online and speaking with a few other building owners, I felt more comfortable with the process and knew it was the right course for me.”

During Todd’s reconnaissance mission to learn all about the furnished housing business, he learned about Corporate Housing by Owner (CHBO) from another owner. The other owner told him that he could make more money with a furnished rental than a standard rental.

“I ran the [rental] numbers and realized they are certainly higher for furnished rentals than for unfurnished ones. Of course I preferred the extra income and the chance to meet more new people, plus I lived in the house next door so it would be easy for me to handle the turnover,” he adds.

Todd says he spent some “serious time” on the CHBO website, reading all the materials he could find. He said that he felt CHBO would be his “strongest option” at getting quality tenants and making some money.

Corporate Housing Here I Come! Feeling confident in his decision to furnish his guesthouse property and list it for rent on CHBO, he hired a professional photographer to take photos, worked on his property description, and then, of course officially listed the property on CHBO.

Todd says, “About 6 hours after my listing went live on CHBO I had my first inquiry. Three days later my first tenant moved in.”Todd says that do-it-yourself landlording isn’t that “difficult.”

“Yes, there’s a lot of time spent setting things up and making sure your ducks are in a row, but once it’s done and if you do it right, the process works on its own. You have to screen potential tenants each time someone moves out, but while they’re living there you just collect the check.”He adds that CHBO makes it “simple” for its members too.“They [CHBO] provide a lot of information via their corporate housing handbook, annual report and recommendations for vendors like tenant screening companies and credit card processors. The CHBO website is laid out with a businessperson’s needs in mind.”