Preschool · Lesson 4 of 66
STR vs. Long-Term vs. Mid-Term
Three ways to rent the same house. What each one earns, what each one costs you in work, and which risks come attached.
5 min read +10 XP
Same house. Three completely different businesses. Here is the honest comparison, including the parts that do not flatter short-term rental.
The trade table
| Short-term | Mid-term | Long-term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical stay | 2–7 nights | 1–6 months | 12 months |
| Gross revenue | $68,000 | $42,000 | $33,600 |
| Who pays utilities | You | You | Tenant |
| Who furnishes | You — $25,000+ | You — $18,000+ | Nobody |
| Cleaning cost/yr | $9,600 | $1,800 | $0 |
| Management | 18–25% | 10–15% | 8–10% |
| Insurance | $2,600 | $2,000 | $1,300 |
| Your hours/week | 3–5 | under 1 | under 0.5 |
| Net before debt | ≈ $30,000 | ≈ $25,500 | ≈ $22,800 |
| Vacancy risk | Nightly, constant | Between tenants | One month/yr |
| Regulatory risk | High | Low | Very low |
Look at the bottom three rows rather than the top one. Short-term gross is roughly double long-term gross, and short-term net is about 30% higher. That is the whole trade in one sentence.
Why the gap closes
In a long-term rental, the tenant absorbs an enormous amount that you never see. They pay the power bill. They buy their own toilet paper. They own the furniture, they clean the place, and they fix the small things themselves because calling you is more annoying than doing it.
In a short-term rental, every one of those lines moves onto your profit and loss statement. You tripled the top line and quadrupled the cost stack.
Capiche? Then here is the option almost nobody considers.
Mid-term is underrated
A mid-term rental is a furnished stay of roughly one to six months. Travelling nurses, relocations, insurance placements, snowbirds, people whose house is being rebuilt.
It earns less than nightly rental and dramatically more than a lease, with a fraction of the operational load — you are running four turnovers a year instead of sixty-four. And it has one property that makes it strategically important:
A great many Florida associations prohibit rentals under 30 days. Those communities are closed to nightly rental and wide open to mid-term. If you fall in love with a house in a 30-day-minimum community, mid-term is not a consolation prize. It is the business that community supports.
Which should you pick?
- Long-term if you want an asset and not a business, or if the numbers only work with a tenant paying the utilities.
- Mid-term if the association restricts you, if you are out of state without local help, or if you want most of the upside for a tenth of the work.
- Short-term if the property is genuinely well-suited to it, the rules clearly permit it, and you have a crew on the ground.
Also defined: Transient Rental · Occupancy Rate · Net Operating Income · Length of Stay