As Columbia grows, young professionals find themselves struggling to find short-term housing options until they can get settled. But Realtors think the short-term housing market is too risky. What happens next?

On April 23, Chamber President Matt McCormick’s suitcases leaned up against his office walls. Finally, he had moved out of the Holiday Inn Executive Center he inhabited for nearly three months. McCormick says the hotel was great, and the staff was wonderful, but he was ready to be in a home with his family. “I got to say bye to the staff; you kind of get to know everyone when you stay there for three months,” he says, laughing.

McCormick was appointed president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce in February and moved from Lewisville, Texas, 25 miles north of Dallas, to Columbia. He represents a group of young professionals coming to a growing Columbia for work, both long and short term. McCormick struggled to find available and affordable short-term housing until his house was sold in Texas and his new home purchased in Columbia. His options were limited.

“I even looked on Craigslist, but it was a bunch of college students saying they had a bedroom,” McCormick says with a smile. He attended college once and says he didn’t feel the need to travel down memory lane.

No good system

The most common system for finding short-term housing seems to be word of mouth. McCormick typed numerous Google searches, called leasing companies and conversed with fellow Columbia Chamber members. Google searches returned only a few promising results. Phone calls led to disappointments; any places that had short-term housing were booked.

Professors involved at the University of Missouri may have home-share opportunities and solid networking that allow a stay for a few months. But McCormick was new to town, and he only needed a room. His final verdict was that his best option would be to make the Holiday Inn Executive Center his home for a few months.

“I ate out more than I ever would need to, but it got me out seeing Columbia,” McCormick says.

Asset Manager Amanda Stone of Jacobs Realty says the Columbia Board of Realtors is working to increase communication on issues such as short-term housing. They even have an e-group set up to keep one another updated if someone in Columbia is looking for a particular type of housing that may be available from a certain real estate agent.

“Our community is really great with not a lot of discord,” Stone says. “This is key to solving issues like this.”

Beginning a dialogue

Breaking the 100,000 population mark established Columbia as the fifth largest city in Missouri and one to keep in mind, especially in business. But Kristi Ray, executive vice president of the Chamber, notes some of the complications of this reality.

About a year and a half ago, Ray says the Chamber began talking to larger employees interested in marketing Columbia to bring jobs here.

“The challenge they had is that when they brought those folks to town, there were no short-term options,” Ray says. She specifically remembers when ABC Laboratories hired someone on contract from St Louis who would be in Columbia Monday through Friday for a few months. The need was for a short-term option, not to rent for a full year.

The problem wasn’t solving itself, so last December Ray helped facilitate a conversation between employers and Realtors. These included IBM, MU Health Care and Jacobs Realty, among others.

The Chamber took a roundtable approach to keep all members involved; it served as a mediator between the two groups to help them understand each other’s plights.

“We wanted both groups to have more of an understanding of what the other one goes through,” Ray says. “We don’t want to tell the Realtors or the businesses how to do their jobs.”

Although the roundtable did not lead to definite solutions to the short-term housing deficit, it did increase the communication that might be key in the future.

Who needs this?

Stone says the majority of people she finds needing short-term housing are middle income, but the costs of moving this type of property come at a big price.

“There’s definitely a need in Columbia for this type of housing, but when it does come, it’s going to come at such a premium that the average-waged person may not be able to afford it,” Stone says.

For McCormick, the price was a factor. “I can’t fault the companies leasing,” McCormick says. “You’re going to pay a little higher price for this, and the owner is taking a risk, so I get that.”

Although it may be easier for a single professional to stay in a hotel or Extended Stay America with a small kitchen, someone who needs to bring their family and a pet might need something more substantial.

Young professionals like McCormick might want to scope out all Columbia has to offer before rushing into buying a home. McCormick’s family, including his son, daughter and wife, came to visit as they attempted to sell their Texas home.

“It definitely would have been a mess with the whole family here,” McCormick says about his long hotel stay.

A risky business

Short-term leases are, by nature, risky. Realtors are left to clean up the messes of people who may only live in the property for two months. Then, the Realtor has to turn the property again after cleaning and preparing it. “Companies doing this in Columbia in the past lost money hand over fist,” Stone says.

Stone says these types of leases can attract people who hop from one place to another and won’t commit to a year lease. “It’s not always the executive,” she says.

Jacobs Realty does have three short-term housing properties, however. But Stone says they know many of the people living there aren’t leaving with short notice, and there’s a mutual understanding.

A college town

In a city that thrives on the presence of its universities, it can be tough for a professional to find housing outside of the thousands of university students who engulf Columbia. MU’s enrollment alone was 34,748 for fall 2012.

That being said, Stone says a lot of housing revolves around the university schedule, even nonstudent housing. “Our community as a whole revolves around it,” she says. “People want to be settled by the time school starts.”

Although this year has defied any ideas of standard weather, Stone also emphasizes that the weather plays a huge part in property moving or not. Wading through inches of snow in frigid temperatures would not be ideal for moving; properties just don’t move in the cold weather. So companies such as Jacobs work to have properties available when people are looking between April and August.

Look to the future

One option that could be feasible involves bigger companies purchasing a property and leasing to their own employees. Stone says she thinks this could be a solid investment for companies that have a constant enough flow of employees in the area. “Investment goes hand in hand with risk, though,” Stone says. For example, a Jacobs Realty could manage the property and rent if the company didn’t want to be the landlord, but the larger company bringing employees in would still own the property.

But what if a business struggles, and the few townhomes purchased sit vacant for three months? This complexity reiterates that there are no simple solutions to a demand for short-term housing that continually changes. “A lot of times the person that’s not thought about is the investor,” Stone says. “Unfortunately, the short-term market doesn’t offer a lot of return on investments.”

McCormick may have learned the hard way, but now his family is settled into their Thornbrook home, finally together again. Weekend visits and sleeping bag family nights while moving were fun, but McCormick looked forward to being able to say “home sweet home.”