All Forum Posts by: Conner Olsen

I list one side of a duplex in North Austin on Airbnb as a medium term rental (30+ days). I found there are 3 ways to increase revenue on a medium-term rental:

1. The most obvious one is increasing your nightly rate. I have been successful at increasing our nightly rate by 7% in the past 3 months.

2. Decreasing your monthly discounts. Most Airbnb hosts offer discounts for renting a home for 30+ days. This is still true for hosts that exclusively offer medium-term rentals. I decreased my monthly discount from 20% to 15% so my revenue increased by 5%! 

3. Some hosts require regular cleanings for tenants staying for extended periods of time. I've heard hosts tell guests that it needs to be cleaned every two weeks by our cleaners and the guest has to pay for it. As a host you can charge guests a rate above your cleaning fee and pocket the difference. (I have only heard a couple hosts doing this, I haven't tried it myself)

I have implemented #1 and #2 and have increased our revenue by $325/month over the last 3 months!

@Brian Chan I'm able to get cash flowing properties by furnishing and doing monthly rentals. It is a little extra work but worth it for me to be cashflow positive.

@Joe Scaparra could not agree more! When we bought it the rents BARELY covered the mortgage payment so it would be cash flow negative after other costs. It was also at 0.5% rent/price ratio so we were able to more than double the rent by doing the medium term rental strategy.

@Josh McAuliffe we got it off the MLS! It was a good find looking back at it now but sure felt like a lot at the time.

@Ricky Tran purchased November 2020 off the MLS! It had been on the market for 45 days so we negotiated the price down as well.

@Stephen Stokes we have 3 tenants staying with us from July 1-December 31. Their length of stays are 35, 77, and 30 days.

So far 2 of the tenants have been looking to buy a home in Austin, the other one is just WFH from different places. Our target is geared towards families or people who WFH. It is fully furnished.

@Will Barnard you’re absolutely right! The 1% rule doesn’t account for many things. It does not give an indication for cash flow or cap rate. There are much better metrics to track more closely.

I bought a duplex house hack in North Austin and am renting out the other side as a monthly rental on AirBnb. We live in a 3bed/2bath, and are renting a 2bed/1bath. We've had great success finding renters, and have successfully increased rent by 12% since we first listed in June. Once we move out of the property we will hit the 1% rule!

Price - 435k

2/1 rent - $2,450/month
3/2 rent - $2,700/month

Total rent: $5,150

5,150/435,000 = 1.18%

I've seen that Round Rock could be a good STR market. I'm personally looking at Airbnb for duplexes but am wondering about the typical renter in this market. It seems like more families would be attracted to RR and might not see good demand for a 2 bed 1 bath. Thoughts?