All Forum Posts by: Ariel Smith

@Angelo Wong I love that idea of asking for guest feedback and adding those items as requested

I would not rely on anyone to give you leads. You have to figure out how to get leads on your own regardless of which brokerage you work for. People are always looking for quick fix but the reality is that you have to do the work to get leads and make money. Try networking, door knocking, holding open houses and cold calling. Tell everyone you know you are a Realtor and try to get your name out there. Best of luck!

I agree with @Account Closed and think it would be best to hire on someone to handle maintenance. If you are managing more than one building it would be best to have a person like this on your team.

@Jimmy Ho I love to hear of people getting great deals in the Bay Area since it seems to be so uncommon, so congrats! I'd say if you don't need the cash immediately, then I'd do nothing and continue bringing in that great cash flow.

@Leigh Ann Smith wow they sure did rip off Airbnb to a T. They even took their little lightning bolt symbol haha

@Michael Greenberg oh gotcha so you are referring to seasonality as opposed to longer term bookings year long. I do agree that the fees can add an insane amount on top of the nightly rates that are advertised. It could also be that there is simply more competition in the market now so you are seeing fewer inquiries. Vacation rental popularity has grown exponentially in recent years. 

@Leigh Ann Smith I totally agree! I used to work for a leasing platform (HomeSuite) and we worked as an intermediary to the transaction so we never had to worry about that. However, when tenants would extend their lease we found they would sometimes go direct to the landlord and no one would inform us. Our approach in general was just not scalable so they moved towards a direct host to tenant type platform of communication as well and with that comes finding a way around them connecting off of the platform.

Personally as a host myself, I would never do a deal with anyone outside of the platform. For me, unfortunately, guests who ask for discounts or work arounds are the ones who end up causing me problems or damage later on. I also like the protection I have with Airbnb and booking through them. I actually recently just removed my listing from VRBO because I got 98% of my bookings through Airbnb and I hate their interface and lack of guest vetting. That has just been my experience but to each his own!

The reason they are blocking guest information is to prevent you from booking directly with the guest outside of the platform. That's exactly why Airbnb does it and they are just trying to copy that. They must finally realize that many hosts just simply circumvent their platform and book with the guests directly. That is also the same reason that almost a year ago they removed the contact information from hosts from the page. They didn't want would-be guests reaching out to hosts directly via phone or personal email and just making reservations without VRBO involved.

@Michael Greenberg if you're looking to attract long term guests you almost have to shift to being exclusively 30 day + rentals. The reason being that if I am a guest looking to book a 2 month stay and I search for my dates and you have just 1 day of that blocked, you will not show up in my results. The small bookings as you take them over time are hurting your chances of getting booked long term if your calendar is filled up already. It hurts your SEO if you have sporadic blocked dates.

@John Underwood @Kevin Lefeuvre I agree that the Airbnb "smart pricing" is terrible. It reminds me of Zillow's zestimate in that it has no way to take into account the condition of your home - decor, photos, etc. It also doesn't track higher price drivers like events nearby (this is a big one), the clientele you are attracting, etc. It has a long long way to go before becoming even remotely useful IMO.

@Sophia Maler honestly if it's cash flowing here, I'd keep it. Rents have only historically gone up and as long as there are jobs here, there will be people who need housing.

@Jad Boudiab that's correct and for newer investors that is just what they are doing. Many of the ones I'm dealing with in my area are more seasoned or the baby boomers looking to downsize larger properties into condos or small multifamilies. They are most concerned with the tax shelter considering their high income levels and appreciation. 

Let's connect! I'm always looking for out of state agents to have as referral partners.