Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast

This is Part 2 of our Short Term Rental Ask Us Anything and today, we cover a whole array of topics, including if we would ever build unique properties from the ground, how much you need to get started in STR, what the biggest factors have been for our success, and even if we let friends and family stay for free.  Enjoy!

Ask and ye shall receive.  This is Part 1 of our Short Term Rental Ask Us Anything, where we answer your questions about STR.  In this episode, we cover everything from how to house hack your own home to what brand of mattress we use that guests rave about (and is cheap to boot!).  

Over the years, we've learned A LOT of lessons about how to make a magical short term rental.  Here, we give you the 14 most important lessons , from the sexy ("discover your why") to the unsexy (let's talk about locks!). 

The 15(ish) things that we happened to us in 2021 that we are thankful for - including some that were definitely unexpected (hello, Condé Nast, thanks for the love!).

Some people prefer homes that are turnkey and ready to be rented immediately.  Others prefer to renovate so they can put their own touches on a place (or they just love picking up a drill!).  And some might not be sure which is for them - or might want to both (like us!).  In this episode, we talk about the pros and cons of each and what our renovation experience has been like (hint:  some good, some not so good).

When we first set off on our STR journey, we never imagined we'd sell all of our Philadelphia properties this quickly, but...sometimes, things change and you have to buck conventional wisdom ("never sell a house within 5 years of buying it") and do something that wasn't part of the original plan. In this episode, we talk about why we bought 5 properties...and then sold them all within 4 years of owning them - and also why we sold them all in one 3 month time period.

Ok numbers nerds, it's time to have some fun.  In this episode, we break down all the important numbers you should be looking at before you purchase a property to make sure it's a home run AND all the numbers you should be monitoring after you purchase to make sure your property is optimized to it's fullest potential.  Knowing your numbers is absolutely key to having a successful short term rental (as we learned during our "meh" period in Philly) - so whether you're someone who loves the numbers or someone who shies away from them, you've got to know them, so have a listen.

Should you manage your own short term rental or should you hire a property manager?  We've done both - and learned a bunch of lessons.  We break down the pros and cons of each, tell you about to best automate the process if you are self-managing, give you advice on how to make sure you are finding a good property manager, and, of course, share our opinion on which we prefer!

Secretly, this was our favorite episode of the season to record (whoops, guess it isn't a secret anymore) and that's because this is our "secret sauce" to our short term rental success.  95% of hosts don't think about this - and we didn't either when we got our first Philly STR's - and that's why their listings end up being middle of the road.  But after a learning curve, we've been able to go from having middle of the road listings to magical ones (which also means more money!) and we dive in to both the big picture and small picture reasons why in this episode.

Today, we share 3 different methods to finding your first short term rental - including one that might be hiding right under your nose.  We've done 2 of the 3 methods (and have friends who do the 3rd) and we talk about the pros and cons of each model and which we prefer - and why.