All Forum Posts by: Jordan Phelan

Thanks everyone for the input! This is all very helpful to get an idea before investing the time into it. 

I did forget to mention a part of the vision which I believe would help clarify the idea. I am very much in the DIY crowd as far as furnishing and renovating on a budget. So my ideal market would be people who want to jump in but don't have as much time to invest in the running around, perhaps they are still working full time at a day job. I've spend hundreds of hours scouring all of the major sites for items. I was thinking a package could be around $50 and it would have links for 100-150 items that you would need to operate (I want to be able to offer a big value for the product). The items on the list would be very budget friendly ones. There are 100% areas where you can get away with low cost items in the rentals because there is no added value and or things just break or get damaged, like cups for example. We just furnished a 4bd/2ba house for under 15K including all furniture, supplies, etc so I'm certainly not trying to go crazy with $200 sheets either! The overall goal would be for saving people a ton of time with the research I've already done while helping them provide a well designed, budget friendly, top notch airbnb. I don't believe that good design needs to cost a fortune! Hopefully that helps paint the vision a little more. Thanks again for taking time to give input on this idea! 

@Michael Baum I'd be interested to see who you know of that does this and if any of them are on the 'affordable' side.

Hi BP community! My husband and I own and manage 6 Airbnb’s and have just quit our corporate jobs. I am an architect by trade and we have spent much of the last few years on the grindstone doing renovations, working full time and being the best airbnb hosts we can. We are passionate about short term rentals and spreading our knowledge to others who want to venture down this path as it has afforded us a lot of opportunity and we would love to give back. Now that we are FI (light), we would like to start our own company that aligns our skills with our passion. So the business idea is below, please read and let us know if you think it is something that you and others would be interested in or any input on whether or not there is a market for it.

The company would offer design packages for purchase that help new airbnb owners streamline their design and purchasing process. There would be two types of packages, one for the essentials that every airbnb needs and the other would be design forward packages helping hosts lay out their spaces to a certain design aesthetic. For example, the basics packages would be low cost templates telling owners exactly how many and what products they need to put in their airbnb’s. We have designed and furnished all 6 of our houses and there are thousands of items to consider. The ‘packages’ would include links to products online that you could simply click and add to your shopping cart, saving you tons of time and money from going out and finding each of the physical items in store yourself. Items would include things like spatulas, sheets, soap dispensers and much more.

Please let us know what you think about this concept and any comments or questions that we should consider as we flesh out this business idea.

@Josh Hawkins - I am also in my mid 20's and can speak from experience that house hacking in Denver has worked phenomenally. I bought my first place at 25, rented out a private room on AirBnB for 18 months and it has covered my mortgage. Also, when I am out of town I rent out the whole house for even more income. There are Denver laws for short term rentals, but the hoops are worth jumping through. Regardless, not paying a mortgage has allowed me to turn around and buy a second house at 26. The first house will still be an Airbnb and is expected to, at a minimum, double it's expenses each month in income. The new house will also be an AirBnB. Both loans have been 3% conventional, so I'm pretty leveraged, but with expected appreciation in Denver and some guaranteed rental income I feel pretty ok about it.  Just wanted to share my experience to give further ideas. My personal strategy is buy and hold, but house hacking definitely opens up a lot of different options when you can creating capital quickly. Good luck!