#316 - Keeping Your Portfolio Profitable Year-Round with Mid-Term Rentals - Katie Lyon

Joining us in this episode of Living Off Rentals is a mid-term rental investor and team member at Furnished Finder. With 12 mid-term rentals across multiple states, our guest for today has built a flexible portfolio designed to generate strong cash flow and offer long-term optionality. Katie Lyon shares how she discovered mid-term rentals while working in commercial real estate, why she believes they offer the perfect middle ground between long-term and short-term rentals, and how arbitrage helped her scale quickly without waiting on down payments. She also breaks down market selection, pricing strategies, screening best practices, and how to utilize platforms like Furnished Finder to reduce vacancies and maintain control over your bookings. Listen and enjoy! Key Takeaways: [00:00] Introducing Katie Lyon and her background [02:25] How Katie discovered mid-term rentals and why they stood out [04:28] Scaling to 12 properties in two and a half years [05:45] Rental arbitrage defined and how it works with mid-term rentals [06:57] What makes a good arbitrage deal [09:20] How Katie selects markets and identifies real demand drivers [14:43] Mid-term vs. short-term vs. long-term [19:28] Financing owned properties with DSCR loans and local banks [20:56] How Furnished Finder differs from Airbnb and Vrbo [23:15] Screening mid-term tenants is critical [24:28] How to reduce vacancy and fill calendar gaps [27:45] Listing on multiple platforms and staying in control [29:13] Pricing mid-term rentals using comps and amenities [30:05] Amenities that justify higher rent (pets, laundry, parking) [33:28] Real-world tenant stories and unique use cases [37:47] Markets where mid-term rentals may not work [40:17] Connect with Katie Lyon [42:43] Outro Guest Links: Website: Podcast: Show Links: Living Off Rentals YouTube Channel – youtube.com/c/LivingOffRentals Living Off Rentals YouTube Podcast Channel - youtube.com/c/LivingOffRentalsPodcast Living Off Rentals Facebook Group – facebook.com/groups/livingoffrentals Living Off Rentals Website – Living Off Rentals Instagram – instagram.com/livingoffrentals Living Off Rentals TikTok – tiktok.com/@livingoffrentals

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#316 - Keeping Your Portfolio Profitable Year-Round with Mid-Term Rentals - Katie Lyon is an episode from Living Off Rentals by Kirby Atwell.

This episode is 43:08 long.

This episode was published on Mar 4, 2026.

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