Furnished corporate housing looks passive on paper, but the management fee tends to eat the premium

Furnished corporate housing often shows the best spread on paper among the more hands off strategies. Take a market where a decent one bedroom unfurnished rents around 1,250, while furnished all inclusive listings aimed at business stays run 2,100 to 2,300. That gap is real, and it is usually the first number that makes someone take the strategy seriously. The gap pays for real work. Someone hands over keys, swaps linens between stays, answers the phone when the internet drops at 9pm on a Sunday, and rebooks the unit every eight weeks. Long term management typically quotes 8 to 10 percent. Furnished mid term management tends to run considerably higher, often 20 percent plus a placement fee, and some managers decline single units entirely. Run the numbers at 20 percent of 2,200, that is 440 a month, plus roughly 250 of utilities and internet, landing near 1,510 net before cleans. Against 1,250 minus 9 percent, about 1,140, on a unit that requires no attention. The difference, roughly 370 a month, is what furniture ownership and between stay vacancy risk cost. Whether that 370 is worth it depends on the operator's alternative use of time and capital. What is worth checking directly is whether a 20 percent quote is standard in that market or reflects a go away number given to a single unit with no track record, since a call to two or three more managers usually clarifies which it is.