Short Term Rental Riches

People ask me all the time "why did you get started with short-term rentals? They're so much work, aren't they?" The answer has always been pretty straightforward; they can make more money, much more money. And no, they don't have to be much more work if you set them up properly. STR's allowed me to become financially free much quicker than I could have continuing my investment journey with tradit...

Airbnb and other OTA's do such a good job of providing us a platform to list our property. We can put in every detail necessary! From the type of coffee maker we have to our favorite nearby restaurants to the type and size of mattresses we use in our rentals. But do people actually read this? Well… sometimes. But definitely not always. How do I know? We get asked the SAME questions all the time. Q...

When are your guests most uncomfortable? I'll save you the run around and just tell you; when they arrive. They don't know your rental. They may have been travelling for a long time. They may be wondering if they're even at the right property. They may be seeing a neighbor and wondering what the neighbor is thinking of them. So many unknowns (unless your check in instructions are stellar)... Ok no...

Who is booking your Airbnb? Do you really know? Well if you don't then you might be communicating in a way that will earn you less than stellar reviews. Airbnb started as a very personal way to rent a property; a "Host" put their property online and used to meet with a guest, hand over the keys, give them a tour, and wish them a great stay. Most of that has changed! As we know, there are an incred...

As investors we have the natural tendency to increase revenues and increase our bottom line. One of the ways we can do that in the short-term rental world is by increasing our exposure. In other words, increasing the amount of people that can see, view, and potentially book our properties. This is exactly where online travel agencies (OTA's) come in to play. They spend 100's of millions of dollars...

You can pretty much rent anything as an airbnb these days, can't you? From a treehouse, to a houseboat, to a luxury villa to a castle! And everything in between. But what makes the best investment? Many times when investing we simply look at the numbers but that's not the whole equation. This week we'll break down the pro's and con's between three different categories of short-term:    Luxury rent...

We've talked before about how photos are NOT the most important piece of your short-term rental listing. They are not. There are greater forces at play that are the main reason for your success and we've talked about that before, so if you missed those episodes go back and check them out :) This week, I want to talk about:    The ultimate guest experience Why pictures are not the most important Th...

One of the two biggest expenses that everyone incurs are taxes. Which means, legally lowering our taxes should be of the utmost importance! For easy numbers and simplicity's sake, if you have $1000 in income taxes and you neglect to write off an immediately deductible $500 expense you incurred operating your short-term rentals then you just unnecessarily GAVE your government $500! For many people...

You are seeing it, aren't you? The instagram photos popping up. The long-delayed weddings that are now taking place. Airline flights being oversold. New travel videos on Youtube. Yep, it's happening, travel is back! This has been a long time coming. What else would happen bottling the world up for over a year and half and preventing one of our biggest joys (and necessities) travel. But how do we k...

Rents have been increasing quickly since the last crash in 2008 which has been great for real estate investors. But why exactly are they going up? The short answer is, Economics.  Economics is the foundation for why prices do what they do. To break it down further, prices will always be controlled by supply and demand.. And when it comes to real estate there is a LOT of factors that affect both su...

In the residential rental world we have lots of choices for flooring but when deciding what to use for our short-term rentals the decision becomes even more important. As prudent, long term investors, we want to make sure we are considering the life of the products but also consider the costs and the appeal it will have with our guests. Wood floor, tile, carpet, engineered hardwood, vinyl… They ca...

Let's face it, unexpected issues WILL happen with our rentals and how you and your team handle the communication with your guests is crucial. In fact, communication becomes even more important when there is an issue but at the same time it also creates an opportunity to show your guests that you really care. Good communication equals happy guests and happy guests equal stellar reviews. But it goes...

There are some opportunities with real estate investments that we just can't find anywhere else. Not with the stock market, not with investing in crypto currency, not by investing in precious metals like gold and silver, and not by operating short-term rentals on a lease arbitrage model.    Nope, they will just never outweigh the benefits of owning property and using leverage (debt). If this sound...

We have quite a few costs that go in to operating our short-term rentals. Some of them are fixed, our mortgage or our lease payment for example, but most of them are variable. Meaning, most of our expenses will either go up or down and change over time. These are other expenses like housekeeping costs, maintenance costs, and perhaps one of the biggest, Utilities! That's right, since we pay for our...

Doesn't it hurt a little bit to look at your calendar and see those one day gaps without any guest checking in? Lost opportunity, lost revenue. Maybe you're not offering one night stays because the work involved seems to be too much for the revenue you generate. Maybe you're worried you will have guests rent the one nighter to throw a party. Maybe you just don't know how to price it effectively. W...

There are several steps to doing market research and deciding on the next place to invest our money in real estate. We've talked about many of them before in prior episodes: from the fundamentals of what makes a good market to the special considerations we need to take when we have the intention to operate short-term rentals and not traditional rentals. In a nutshell these were things like, strong...

Can we kick a guest out of our properties? If you've operated a short-term rental for any length of time you may have asked yourself this question or possibly even had to deal with this very issue. It's a bit of a grey area. Authorities (police) are different in every city and some may be familiar with short-term rentals (airbnbs) and others not. So this week we will dive deeper into the topic to...

There are many components that go into ensuring your guests have a great experience but one that may trump them all is sleep! Getting adequate sleep is an essential piece to being a human being and when that gets disrupted then so do our attitudes, our moods, and our experiences. In short, a poor night's sleep leads to a poor review. And aside from a comfortable bed there are other key ingredients...

It's official! I'm the proud owner of a new property in Brazil. It's a bit surreal to branch out of the country where you were born and take a claim in a totally different culture, climate, and piece of the world. The world is a big place and we have so much to learn from it. I talked about it before on a prior podcast but now that the process is complete I want to recap my experience and provide...

"When the facts change I change my mind, what do you do sir?" I once heard that in an international business class I had many years ago and it has always stuck with me. I"m not exactly sure who first said it so my apologies for not giving props. But it is true. Things are changing quickly and in the world of short-term rentals the industry (and popularity) appears to be moving at light speed. Just...

In our short term rental businesses and real estate ventures we are always doing the same things over and over again. Answering guest questions the same way. Changing reservations, leaving reviews, screening guests etc. After accommodating over 15,000 guests It's not very often that we see something "new." (knock on wood). So all of these tasks we do on a regular basis should be documented so that...

We've all gone virtual! So why are you limiting yourself and your team to those that you live near? I hope you are not. While we do need an "on-the-ground-team" for our short-term rentals we can do most things virtually. So if you haven't yet hired a virtual assistant this week we are going to dive in to that. We'll cover: Where I look  What others recommend Why I like working with filipinos Why y...

Over the years my team has been growing slowly but surely. We're now working regularly with people in 5 different time zones and four to five different countries! Im surprised it took me so long to implement this new tool (Slack) but we finally have! Maintaining clear transparent communication is essential to smooth operations and this has made things waaay easier...And it's so easy to use! I want...

It's interesting that while appraisals are such an important piece a loan they can vary so much depending on the appraiser. Every loan for the most part (unless it's a hard money loan) will require an appraisal. This provides the bank or person issuing the loan with a realistic value of the property so they can feel comfortable lending on the property. But what happens when the appraisal is less t...

If you've stayed in enough short-term rentals you've probably seen it. The photo of the owner in your living room space, a leftover jar of mayonnaise in the fridge, a dirty sponge under the sink, or god forbid - a used bar of soap in the bathroom! Remembrances of last guests or owners come in many forms but they have one thing in common; they should not be in our rentals! You rented the space to h...