All Forum Posts by: Myka Artis

Ok, so the first thing we need to do here is to figure out how much revenue this makes as a long-term rental. If the property cash flows as a long-term rental then we can look at the short-term rental numbers. The short-term rental space is volatile when it comes to lawmaking so you have to be cautious on the buying side. What size townhome is this? $5000 seems a bit low for furnishing if you're looking to make top dollar on it as a short-term rental. Most townhomes come with HOA's so you might want to make sure STR's are even allowed in the bylaws as well.

Honestly, as a short-term rental from the numbers you posted, I wouldn't invest in this deal unless I'm making 6 figures a year as a short-term rental but this is strictly my opinion. 100K could get you up to 10+ short-term rentals bringing you about 240K/yr.  The above information is what you should look at if you're looking to hop into the short-term rental space.

I do STR's in that area and both areas are great. I personally like Sherwood better because you're right between the Air Force Base and Little Rock.

@Christian Latimer I have a homeowners policy the deeded homeowner and I use proper for the LLC that will be renting the property.

Yes, you legally can. As long as you're living in one of the units for a year you can rent the other units out. You're also not renting it out as an Airbnb. You're leasing it out to your LLC, your LLC then pays you market rent, and the LLC will, in turn, run a short-term rental operation. You're now running a legal operation and fitting all guidelines.

You would need to look into Host Financial or Kram Capital even though I'm not particularly sure that they would be willing to loan 30K over the appraisal but they specialize in short-term rental loans.

My personal suggestion would be to run long-term numbers on the property and if the long-term numbers don't work then walk away from the deal. Short-term rental numbers are safe to rely on in the arbitrage game but in the buy and hold game that's a setup for bad business unless you're in a vacation rental market. If those STR laws change and the long-term numbers don't work you'll be stuck holding the bag.

This is the biggest mistake I've seen on the buying side when it comes to short-term rental investments. Good luck in your investing but definitely reach out to Host Financial or Kram Capital. They will be able to guide you in the right direction.

First off I'm with @Jon Crosby here. You need to verify you're really netting 100K. 

If you are netting the 100K I'd say set your goals higher than two houses. If you're going to be doing STR's and you're capital heavy you should use the capital as leverage and BRRRR into like 10 STR properties. If you're leveraging your Airbnb income correctly you should have access to huge BLOC's so you should be able to get your hands on a bunch of BRRRR properties.

Aim for the stars and land on the moon my friend. Good luck on your journey!

The best way I've found to run numbers on an STR is by simply going on Airbnb/VRBO and run typical comps on places similar to yours. View their prices, calendar availability, and see what they aren't offering guests. Once you find what the highest rated hosts aren't offering you then offer it and the most important thing is to do market research to see what kind of travelers are coming to the area so you can create a target audience. Once you know who it is you're catering to and what to provide them you can't lose in the STR space.

You can use AirDNA but AirDNA doesn’t take into account value so their numbers are always off.

@David Li you can use AirDNA or run comps through Airbnb but I noticed you said a townhome. Have you verified the HOA allows for STR's? That would be the first thing I check when dealing with condos and townhomes.

@Bruce Woodruff Yes you should be on every site possible and more importantly you should have your own website. You can get one through a channel manager such as Yourporter or Hostfully. Airbnb is great but if you were hosting last March when Airbnb cancelled all reservations without guest or host approval then you should know they are not to be relied on to run an efficient short term rental business.

Arbitraging is when you rent someone's property, furnish it, and list it for short-term rent through OTA's such as Airbnb, VRBO, or your own direct booking website. You are then paying the property owner his monthly rent and utilities. You then pocket the difference. 

Co-hosting on the other hand is you are managing their Airbnb/STR. You take care of the day-to-day operations and take 20 - 30% of gross revenue. Day-to-day operations can include messaging the guest, taking care of cleanings, etc.

There are no downsides to being a co-host because you are getting paid. I don't use co-hosts because there are tools that can easily automate the day-to-day operations of an STR.

If you are looking from an investor side of things I would suggest doing short-term rentals through the BRRRR strategy. That in my opinion is the most powerful tool in the short-term rental space.