Airbnbing Instead of Selling

[Yeng Hawj]

Hi BP Friends,

I recently purchased a bigger home given my family and I are totally outgrowing our 3/2.5 1454 sf home. We've been frugal in our spending and spendy in our savings/investments that we were able to do a 20% on the new home and not be contingent on selling the old home. The initial plan was to rent out the old spot, but the cashflow and COC return wasn't going to be as good as if we were to sell and reinvest the equity into either MF or SFR out of state. Just the other day the idea dawned on me about turning it into a short-term rental instead, which was definitely ready now without much effort.  I was thinking of doing a separate listing for the entire house, along with individual listings for each of the 3 rooms.   

This solves a few issues:

1. I didn't plan on keeping much of the old furniture and other household "stuff", which means the place will be fully furnished without spending much.

2. I had planned on listing the house in January, which is a slow time for real estate sales. I'll give this Airbnb idea a test run for 6 months and see how it goes. If by then I have a change in mind, it'll be prime season to have the house listed. This will also buy me time on fixing other issues to be in a good condition to sell.

3. My new house is 0.4 miles away. This makes it VERY convenient to tend to the house, guests, and issues. I can still access the house easily compared to if I had long-term tenants.

Who has done a similar thing before and how did it turn out?   What are some mistakes you've learned not to do, and pitfalls to expect?

I'm super stoked about this.  I move into the new place in December, and plan on getting the old place ready and on the market by Christmas.  I already have plans for Phase 2 if things work out great.  There's a 10x12 Tuffshed in the backyard with it's own access and a garage that can be rented out.  It won't take much to fully insulate it and put in drywall and such.   

Anyway, I will try and do an update in a few months on how this project is going.