All Forum Posts by: Ben Hooper

@Angelo Wong how have you gone about expanding with option #1? have you found any techniques or ways to partner with landlords to help ease their concerns? 

My assumption is that individual landlords rather than management companies are more open to allowing STR. Has that been your experience?

@Will Pritchett great thoughts Will, thats generally what i was thinking. I'm finding the hard part is more finding properties that are in a good location and also don't have restrictions on short term renters (either hoa or local regulations).

I've reached out to owners with the same basic offer (increase rent, cover repairs up to a certain amount) and most people are hesitant to even discuss it, so i think it's a sheer numbers game and being ready to buy a property when one shows up that matches my criteria

Peachtree Towers Condominiums and Landmark Condos. Both are downtown. 

Does anyone run a listing near an airport? i'm considering purchasing a place near Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson airport, and i've heard that the properties could do well from other hosts. I'm going to  get an airdna report to confirm but wanted to hear other people's thoughts and experiences first

@Tyler Work Thats interesting to hear, i would think using some of the tools out there would help co hosting scale. I've had the same thought about owning instead of hosting as you, and thats definitely the longer term plan, just need to find investors to work with since i don't have cash reserves to do down payments :)

What took up most of your time cohosting? I'd assume messaging people would be frequent but easy with saved templates, and turnover would be the biggest point of management. 

@Myka Artis, have you subleased just for short term rentals? It seems like most landlords are against it. What points seemed to win them over to let you lease it and put it up on short term sites?

I've been hosting for over a year now and have two properties i run and have enjoyed it quite a bit. I've wanted to expand the number of listings i manage, both by buying more properties but also co hosting. 

For any successful co hosts out there, what marketing pipelines did you use to acquire more clients?

The link to the blog seems to have good posts that go beyond the basics of hosting. i'll research on that.

I don't have any questions about the airbnb side, like what linens to buy or accepting guests since i've had plenty of experience managing that side.

My main areas are: 

traditional and non traditional financing

methods of acquisition (master leasing vs owning)

scaling management systems (hiring people to answer questions, clean)

managing a remote property in a different city (hiring local as needed property manager)

and problems that come up from managing multi properties that don't occur with a single property

I've been hosting for a while now and want to expand my business.

What are some books that go beyond the basics and actually teach you how to scale a STR business.

Are there an good blogs?

it seems as if option #1 allows you to quickly scale with less money (basically furniture and a security deposit) but has the downside of lower margins since you're not building equity.

I've also thought of other ideas such as buying a few properties under a llc with several other investors, where the total cash per person would be the same as if you bought 1 property by yourself but it's diversified across different markets and reduced risk. Also a single software license and team for management could be used. 

This would also have a benefit of having 3+ properties that you could use for vacation during off seasons/empty days while still making you money overall.