Branson, MO · Member since 2014 · 27 posts · 28 votes
Who else has been able to leave their job and have freedom in their life from owning vacation rentals listing on Airbnb and Homeaway? I live in Branson, MO and love my business. Who else is out there?
I'll do $500k gross in vacation rents this year, and $1mil next, averaging more then $150k/door/year. No problem leaving my day job, but in the short term I have definitely created another one!
We have been doing long term rentals and are about to start our first vacation rental. We are converting our house in Bishop, CA from long term to vacation rental. We will see how it goes, but it would be very nice if the income stream comes in. If so, we will likely invest further in vacation rentals. Locations in Lake Arrowhead and the Palm Springs area would be considered and if vacation rentals work and we enjoy it, we would eventually look at other states.
I'm on that path @Brad Moncado. Two properties in Scottsdale, AZ, will be buying two more this year. I have been slowly finding folks like yourself and working on creating a group that are on this same path. If you want, PM me your contact info and we can connect and share further ideas.
Thanks Brad! how many units do you have, and how many nights of the year are they rented out? 300 nights out of the year seems like a high expectation, that's just one night out of each week not being rented. But even at 150 nights my calculation still come out great.
It seems excessive how much a management company charges for short-term rentals, and will be hard to resist that extra 40%, but I guess if you had quite a few rentals then it would be worth it.
I'll do $500k gross in vacation rents this year, and $1mil next, averaging more then $150k/door/year. No problem leaving my day job, but in the short term I have definitely created another one!
Its a bummer you feel like you went from one job to another. I self manage and it takes so little time. Maybe we can connect to discuss. Learn a little from each other.
For those of you that have more 3-4 vacation rental properties, what are the profiles of those properties? Are they larger, showcase-type properties? Or smaller units (and cheaper) just in a high traffic, desirable area? Or are you applying elements of BRRRR to the process and buying distressed properties in vacation-demand areas?
We have 1 unit now that performs well and are about to close on a second in a different area. But unless we look into cheaper, smaller units, I'm not sure how to scale; though we want to.
I live in Branson, a tourist area of Missouri. There are a few thousand nightly rental properties, mainly 2 bedroom. My Vacation Rental properties range from 3 bedroom to 8 bedrooms. In my market, the larger homes do very well for me, as families love meeting in Branson and large homes are in demand here. They provide a fabulous passive income, as I have created my own way to maximize the income, and eliminating the mental and time drains from the business.
I have a handful of seats available for the Vacation Rental 3 day learning event in Branson. I am bringing in 10 national and local speakers to help others learn the business of vacation rentals. This is my event, if you have any questions, please ask.
@Mark S. I've been focused on larger homes (6+ bedrooms) but am trying to pick up some projects where we have a few smaller homes or apartments grouped together, that we can rent together or separate. I suspect that's the best way to squeeze out the most juice......renting for higher rates to large groups in advance, and if we aren't booked in advance, renting the individual units separately last minute.
John, that works. I have an example of that with a duplex that is a 4/3 on each side. I have three different marketing listings for the property, one for the 8 bedroom, and one for each side as a 4/3. Thankfully the marketing sites allow merging calendars so it is simple to keep track of.
@Mark S. I've had really great success with the small unit vacation rental in my area. I have a one bedroom that that we paid 147k for and we gross 3500-4k/month. I'm hoping to expand my portfolio of these type properties as well.
Between this little property and a couple long term rentals I was able to quite my day job a year and a half ago. LOVE the freedom that the vacation rental has given us! Thanks @Brad Moncado for sharing!
has anyone expanded outside of their state? It seems that one would need a team on retainer, so it would be just as easy to manage a property 6, or 600 miles away. Do yall own these homes, or are some a sublease?
I own all my vacation rental homes, and all my homes VR's are within 15 minutes of where I live. At our event last year we had a speaker panel on managing a VR from 100-1000 miles away and our group loved it! Having a power team is the key, with the most important being a quick response appliance repair/handy fixer upper person, a fabulous cleaning team, and a community of other owners that will communicate with each other. Other than that, people can self manage from afar and enjoy life. Hope that helps!
My properties are 2-4 bedrooms in areas just outside of the central tourist zone. I haven't tried anything larger yet but maybe that should be a goal. 2-4 are the easy for me to manage myself, can be picked up cheap, and turned over quickly. @Chad C. All my properties are out of state, and often I am out of country, so my team is crucial and I have worked with the same people for years now, very little turnover in personnel. We own them all.
Nice, thank @Blair Russell how close are your rentals to the "strip" and how many nights of the year are y'all renting, Are these homes financed with a commercial loan, or a second residential loan ? I'm considering New Orleans, but they are laying down some heavy restrictions starting this month, and would only be possible in the downtown commercial area, but still feasible. I might could create a cabin getaway on a creek, for relatively cheap, with little competition.
@Chad C. Not all of my rentals are in Vegas but the ones that are are just about a mile from The Strip. They aren't financed because they were so cheap when they were bought (Vegas was hit hard by the bubble) .