Airbnb Arbitrage as an experiment?

[Marcellus P McKinley]

Morning everyone,

       So I have been slowly starting to get my plan together for my real estate ventures, but I was talking to a family member the other day and they mentioned the concept of sub-letting a rented space for Airbnb. I inititally wasn't interested, but after thinking about it, it sounds like a great way to experiment with managing a property without investing a lot of initial capital to find if I like it, and then transition to buy-and-hold. Additionally, if I played my cards right, I would be able to gain enough capital to buy my first property. Has anybody pursued this as a lead in into buy and hold? or is this a too simplistic way of looking at it?

[Paul Barbeau]

I have a friend that does this here in Nashville, TN and he has very good cash flow from it. He rents it for $2,000 a month and Airbnb's it for around $400/night.  He says after all expenses he usually cash flows $2,000 a month. But don't forget your up front cost of furnishing the place. I know several short term rental hosts here and some of them love being a host, some of them hate it.