Mid-term rentals

A mid-term rental is a furnished home rented for roughly one to six months at a time, to people who need a place for a set stretch: traveling nurses and other medical workers, families out of their home after an insurance claim, employees on a relocation or a project, and people between homes. It usually earns more a month than a 12-month lease and less than a busy nightly rental, with a handful of turnovers a year instead of dozens.

The 30-night mark is what makes it its own category. Some city short-term rental rules, New York City's and Nashville's among them, and some occupancy taxes treat a stay of about 30 nights or more differently from a shorter one, and at that length your guest may be a tenant under state law. Where each line falls varies by place, so check the rules for the exact address.

Who rents a mid-term rental?

The guests need a home for weeks or months, longer than a hotel makes sense:

• Traveling nurses and medical workers on temporary contracts. Nurses and landlords on BiggerPockets describe contracts of about 13 weeks that are often extended, which is why homes near hospitals are the classic mid-term rental.
• Families displaced by a fire, flood or major repair. A homeowners policy's additional living expenses coverage pays the extra cost of living elsewhere while the home is rebuilt, and investors on BiggerPockets suggest getting onto the temporary housing lists that insurers and their relocation companies use to place these families.
• Corporate relocations and project workers, from a new hire waiting to buy to a crew on a long job.
• People between homes: a sale that closed before the new house was ready, a renovation, a divorce, a semester, a remote worker trying out a city.

They find homes on furnished-rental sites aimed at traveling medical workers, through corporate and insurance housing companies, local hospitals and employers, and on Airbnb and Vrbo. Airbnb's help pages call bookings of 28 nights or longer monthly stays: hosts can offer a monthly discount, and payment is collected in monthly installments.

Why does 30 nights matter?

Because several kinds of rules switch at about that point, each in its own place.

City short-term rental ordinances. New York City's registration law exempts rentals of 30 consecutive days or more from its registration requirement. In Nashville, the short-term rental permit rules cap any guest's stay at 30 consecutive days, so a longer furnished stay is not one the permit covers. Other cities draw their own lines, so read the definition in the ordinance for your address. Lenders use the line too: Fannie Mae's guide describes a short-term rental as a furnished home rented for brief periods, typically less than 30 consecutive days.

Occupancy and hotel taxes. Texas's state hotel occupancy tax applies to houses, condominiums and apartments as well as hotels, at 6% of the room charge. The state Comptroller says a guest who occupies a room for 30 or more consecutive days, with no break in payment, is a permanent resident and is exempt; a guest who gives written notice of a 30-day stay, and stays it, is exempt from the date of the notice, while one who does not owes the tax for the first 30 days. Florida draws its line much later. Its 6% tax on transient rentals covers living quarters in hotels, apartment houses, condominiums and the other places the statute lists, and its exemption is for a bona fide written lease longer than six months, or for a resident who has stayed longer than six months and paid the tax for the first six, so a three-month furnished stay there can still be taxed.

The examples are from official pages as of late 2026, and rules change; the guide to short-term rental regulations shows how to check an address. This page is general education, not legal or tax advice: confirm your situation with a local attorney and a CPA.

Tenant law: your guest may be a tenant

Someone who lives in your house for three months, gets mail there and pays monthly may be a tenant, whatever your listing calls them. Then your state's landlord and tenant law applies: deposits, notice before entering and, most important, how you get the home back if they do not leave.

New York's eviction statute shows how short the path can be. It counts even a hotel resident who has been in possession for 30 consecutive days or longer as a tenant, and it says no tenant or lawful occupant of a dwelling may be removed except through a special court proceeding. Airbnb's own help pages warn hosts that in most US states and localities a guest who stays a month or longer may establish rights as a tenant, the exact number of days depending on the place, and give California, Illinois and New York as places where 30 consecutive days can create a tenancy. Other states use other tests, so assume a mid-term guest is a tenant.

That changes how you run the rental:

• Use a written lease with fixed start and end dates, the rent and when it is due, what the rent includes (utilities, internet, cleaning), an inventory of the furniture with photos, pet and guest rules, and what happens if a contract ends early. Contracts can be canceled before or during the assignment, traveling nurses on BiggerPockets point out, so set early-termination terms in advance.
• Screen every applicant the same way, with written criteria: identity, income or a contract letter from the employer or agency, and references. If you use a consumer report and turn someone down even partly because of it, the Federal Trade Commission says you must send an adverse action notice naming the reporting agency and explaining the applicant's right to dispute it. The FTC also notes that a blanket refusal of anyone with a criminal record may violate the Fair Housing Act.
• Plan for the worst case. If a tenant stops paying in month two, the remedy is the state's eviction process, which can outlast the stay itself. Screening is the protection that matters most.

What does a mid-term rental earn?

Think of it in three bands for the same house:

• A 12-month lease sets the floor: the unfurnished market rent, with the tenant paying most utilities.
• A mid-term rental charges a furnished monthly rent that includes utilities and internet. Investors on BiggerPockets report premiums over the local lease from about 20% to roughly double, and one found that long-term rent in his market came close to the furnished rate. Investors in the same threads budget about 10% to 20% vacancy for the gaps between stays.
• A nightly rental usually grosses the most in a good market, but carries the heaviest costs and the most rules; Airbnb vs long-term rental works that comparison through.

The premium is not profit: it has to cover the furniture, utilities, turnovers and empty weeks first. GoDoor's rent calculator prices the long-term and short-term rent for an address, the floor and the ceiling a furnished rent sits between.

What does it cost to run?

The costs a lease does not carry:

• Furnishing for living, not visiting: good beds, a desk for remote work, a full kitchen, laundry, linens and blackout curtains. Less than a nightly rental's setup, but real money up front, and it wears out.
• Utilities, internet and streaming, usually included in the rent and paid by you all year, empty weeks too.
• Turnovers: a deep clean, an inspection and repairs between stays, three or four times a year rather than every weekend.
• Listing and screening: listing fees, background and credit checks, and the platform's fee if you book through one.
• Insurance. The Insurance Information Institute says a longer lease to a tenant will likely call for a landlord or rental dwelling policy, which covers personal property you leave for the tenant's use, while regularly hosting short stays is a business a standard homeowners policy does not cover. Tell your insurer exactly how you rent and confirm the furniture and lost rent are covered; short-term rental insurance covers what changes.
• Management, if you hire it. Fees vary, so get a written fee schedule.
• Taxes and registrations, where a stay of your length still owes occupancy tax.

Three ways to rent one house

How lenders treat a mid-term rental

A DSCR loan qualifies on the property's rent rather than your income, so which rent the lender counts decides the loan. For a mid-term rental, lenders often count the appraiser's long-term market rent, not the furnished monthly rate; a lender posting on BiggerPockets says most DSCR lenders do on a purchase. Some lenders are more flexible about mid-term income than others, so ask before you count on it.

So underwrite on the lease. If the house covers its full monthly payment (PITIA) on long-term rent, the furnished premium is upside; if it only works on the furnished rent, expect a smaller loan or none. DSCR loans for short-term rentals explains how lenders count nightly income.

General education, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are examples: rates, rules and programs change, and every lender sets its own. Last checked November 4, 2026. How we research these guides.