Short Term Rental Riches

I’m sure we all have experienced this: a guest changing his/her plans and asking you to change the date of their stay to a time that is outside of the cancellation penalty period.You approve this request only to find out that, well your guest is, after all, planning to cancel!  Well quite sadly, this is an ongoing tactic. We understand that guests want flexibility but if you just give in to these alteration requests without checking how it goes with your cancellation policies, then you are losing a lot of potential income there! Imagine, a Reddit post about this tactic in ULPT (Unethical Life Pro Tips) has 10,000 upvotes on exactly how to go around the host’s cancellation policy. They are talking about this at your expense! You definitely don’t have to fall for this! Remember that when a reservation is made on your listing, guests are locking in those dates so no one else books it. You have the right to earn money knowing the value of your home and the value of your home being booked! So this week, I invite you to join me as we talk about:   What is a trip change request How it works  Should you be accepting them and what you can do Red flags you should keep an eye for  Bonus Tips you should know Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

Investment philosophies should always revolve around returns that’s why we normally recommend areas of the US where the rent to value ratio (amount of rent we get back vs. purchase price) is higher. If you evaluate properties using this metric it’s an easy way to rule out a lot of areas; typically the areas with the highest cost of living. But when can these SAME CITIES actually make sense? Let’s talk about rental arbitrage and how the areas for rental arbitrage are often the opposite of the areas you would want to purchase or invest in but can still make you a fortune.   Why some markets are bad places to purchase but better for lease arbitrage A few examples of cities How we can calculate to know for sure Lease considerations if you decide to go this route The operations are the same Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more! Check out this older Airdna report on the Best Markets for Lease Arbitrage in the US which is still relevant today (unless regulations have changed in the cities).

It’s exciting hosting so many guests from all over the world in our properties. We are helping to facilitate a new way people are deciding to travel that is more experiential. We are helping others to build lifelong memories.But it’s not exactly easy. Things happen, and people have questions. Questions about our properties. Questions about the area our property is in. Questions about what we recommend they do while they are there. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, then hopefully, you’ve figured out how to answer most of these questions BEFORE your guests actually ask them, but the reality is, there will still be more times when we have to communicate with our guests. Every guest has slightly different questions and expectations. If you are just getting started and have one or two properties, then the questions you get from your guests are likely not dictating your life and waking you up at all hours of the night. If you have more properties, however, there is no avoiding required communication at ALL times of the day, and if you’re like me, I didn’t begin investing in real estate to answer calls at all times of the day. I got into real estate as a way to earn passive income, and so I learned early on that the guest questions were one of the most important parts of an Airbnb business that I needed to outsource. Over the years, I’ve explored several options for outsourcing guest communications, and that’s what I’d like to break down for you this week so you know your best options! Join me as we discuss:  Options for outsourcing your guest communications Where to hire virtual assistants  What to Include in Your job description Having someone 24/7 for your guests Challenges & requirements for a VA Tracking progress Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here, including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

It’s often said that “the devil is in the details.” When it comes to short-term rentals, this could not be more true. One little hair could be the difference between your 3-star review and a perfect 5-star review that will keep guests coming back. So how do we ensure that we consistently get great reviews? We have to monitor the details! I know, that’s easier said than done. My team and I have managed over 20,000 guests over the years, and I know we have missed a lot of details. A dead battery in a TV remote, a loose door knob on the closet door, or mismatched hangars in the closet; there are a lot of details to consider. So I’m excited to talk this week about a program that can help us manage all of these little details. Everything from housekeeping to maintenance to ensure that our properties are exactly the way they should be :)  What is breezeway?  Most management software programs are lacking The items we should be tracking  Top features Connecting to Airbnb, VRBO, etc.  Costs You can check out the software here: https://www.breezeway.io Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

We are currently doing hundreds of reservations a month, and something just dawned on me after looking at our cleaning fee and realizing it was likely too low...We may be losing thousands of dollars! And not just in lost potential revenue but because our cleaning expense is actually higher than our fee. So that brings up a good question, how much should you charge your guests? How do you calculate the right cleaning fee for your property? Should you look at the cleaning fee as a way to earn additional revenue, or should you charge just enough to cover your costs? What happens if your cleaning fee is too low or too high? There are a lot of things to consider when you set your cleaning fee for your listing, so this week, we’ll uncover a few of them, including: Finding the average Lower fees vs. higher fees Housekeeping perceptions Is it fair?  How often do we need to adjust our prices  Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live event, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!   P.s. did you know that we just launched a mastermind group where we can talk directly? Find out more info here

Do you know all the downsides to renting to long-term guests for stays over 30 days? If you haven’t really thought it through before - there are quite a few. Everything from the legalities and taxes you will owe to the way you manage your property change. Long-term stays are NOT well suited for all short-term rentals and markets. But on the flip side, there are a lot of benefits!So before we decide if we want to attract long-term stays, we need to truly understand if having long-term stays will be to our advantage…So this week, we will dive into this discussion and talk about: Pros of accepting long-term guests The downsides The legalities (it is different) Management Changes Are you leaving money on the table?  Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here, including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

What if you could travel for free? Without tax that is. Well, you likely can.   I stayed at the most remote Airbnb I’ve ever stayed at in my life. I literally could barely get to it. After putting the jeep in 4x4 and dredging up and down muddy roads with deep crater-like holes we finally made it. Not without, however, two gracious Colombian gentlemen helping to push us up a hill while I had the throttle to the floor and mud shot all over their ponchos. It’s hard to imagine a moment of peace after such an arrival. But it was peaceful. Staring out at the beautiful mountains where the clouds rolled by like waves in the sky. The rain spattered in from time to time but there was no noise to be washed out. Just the sound of nature and a crisp breeze.Of course, as an investor in the short-term rental space, having accommodated over 20,000 guests in my properties, my mind started churning. I couldn’t help but think about the future success (or failure) of this property. Was the arrival just too treacherous? Was this property just too remote? We’ll break down the pros and cons of remote listings this week and wrap up with just how cool it is to explore the world and travel tax-free! This week's topics:    Remote properties Pros and cons of operating remote properties  Expectations Are you eligible for a tax write-off for travel?  Is it possible you could use travel expenses to offset your ordinary income?    Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

I’ve been investing for over 12 years and have not been particularly biased to any one type of real estate to invest in. I started my career as a commercial real estate broker working exclusively with investors and different real estate investment options. The small team I worked with completed over 2 billion (with a B) in real estate transactions including everything from shopping centers, to warehouses, to apartment buildings. There are many, many different niches of real estate niches to invest in and within each “sector” of real estate lies even more sub-niches. Short-term rentals are just one sub-niche of the residential housing sector.  You may say… hey Tim… short-term rentals are part of the hospitality sector! And you would be right if you were referring to just STRs used for vacations! But the fact is, people are living in short-term rentals now and they have become a mid-term option for many people.So which type of real estate is the best to invest in? Short answer; it depends. It depends on your risk profile and your experience. It’s also helpful to be able to compare and contrast the various options. So this week we’re going to make things simple and break down the risks and opportunities of just one of these niches (and my favorite as our listeners already know) and talk about investing in short-term rentals. This week we will have a rapid-fire list of the risks and opportunities as I see them with short-term rentals. Let’s discuss:  Recap from 8 days with some of the smartest investors I know STR strengths and weaknesses Subtle opportunities (you probably haven’t thought of) The future outlook for the industry (and economy) What I’m doing in the current environment Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

It’s hard to tell at first. Something seems a little fishy but not enough to lead you to believe that someone is out to fool you. Not from the start anyway. These days there aren’t many areas of life that haven’t been infiltrated by someone or something trying to take advantage where they can and ultimately take things that don’t belong to them. Scams happen with Airbnbs and short-term rentals as well. And there isn’t just one way they’re doing it. An important thing to take note of is that scammers are smart and always adapt.  Just recently, for example, a scam at the start of 2022 affected 587 individuals and tallied up to a whopping $2.7 million in lost money. $2.7M lost with just one fraudulent scheme! So we need to be careful. As scammers are getting increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to fool people around the globe and with the rise in demand for rentals, this industry is now more prone than ever to fraud.It’s crucial that we watch out for any potential risks to avoid becoming vulnerable to scams, even to those already staying with us. This is an important topic, so this week, we’ll talk about  Warning signs to look out for Most Common STR scams OTA ways of protecting us (and who does it the best) General tips for preventing scams   Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!

If you have had an STR for a while I’m sure you had some unexpected cleaning due to guests smoking in your listing or pets damaging your property. Not only is it frustrating when our properties aren’t treated with care but having to deal with the process to get reimbursed can be equally frustrating! And sometimes we just don’t have the time to file a complaint before our next guest checks in and we lose the possibility. Airbnb has had its “Host Guarantee” for many years but just last November, Airbnb dropped it and introduced AirCover - the “top-to-bottom” protection for Hosts. AirCover is a branded type of coverage that consists of Host Damage Protection and Host Liability Insurance. It actually covers a lot of stuff behind this simple name and is just one more reason to explore short-term rentals as an investment option. Once you hear more about it, you may think, “Is this too good to be true?”  Well, it is true, but is it good?! This week I will share with you all you need to know about AirCover and how it helps us manage our short-term rentals in case of damage to property caused by guests. We will talk about: Host Damage Protection Host Liability Insurance Key takeaways Tips on how to make Airbnb damage claim Are you enjoying the podcast? Please subscribe, leave a rating and a review, and share it! This helps us reach others that may find the info helpful as well. Get a copy of my 12 proven house rules to protect your property from almost every negative situation (highly recommended)  You can find all of our links here including our website, recommended resources, upcoming live events, short-term rental playbook, Instagram, and more!