WFH Impact on Airbnbs

[Danny Mak]

Recently I had a deal fall through at the last second. I was disappointed. Maybe it could’ve been a blessing in disguise with the uncertainty in how working from home for corporations will impact real estate.

I’m revisiting my investment strategy and thinking about how rental properties will be changed. Airbnb’s founder/CEO had a segment on CNBC discussing how travel has changed forever. He is seeing a shift in longer stays on the platform. We have also heard about how people are shifting to renting in rural areas to have a lower cost of living.

I have worked from home for the last two years, but my girlfriend didn’t start doing so until covid. Once we knew she could work from home indefinitely, I asked, why don’t we rent an Airbnb at a home near a beautiful nature site and work out of there for a week. Which led me to think, could buying a rural lake property to Airbnb out be a good investment strategy for the future?

I’m looking for any input, whether you’re an airbnb owner (how has your urban/rural property changed?) or if you have a hypothesis of how the real estate landscape will shift?