Sort term rental in Minneapolis (Linden Hills neighborhood)

[Charlie Gruber]

Looking to purchase house in Minneapolis (Linden Hills neighborhood) for short term rental(VRBO/AirB&B).  Does anyone have experience with this? Here are a few questions I'm struggling with:

1. Do I need any type of rental license.From this link it sounds like you should but curious how hard and fast this rule is? https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/948/minneapolis--mn
2. I've accounted for expenses such as insurance, taxes, Cap Ex, maintenance,utilities, cable, internet, lawn/snow removal, 3% of rent back to AirB&B.Any expense I'm missing?
3. While running numbers I'm estimating having unit rented on average 15 days per month. Does this sound reasonable?I'm assuming summer months higher traffic than winter.
4. Any suggestions on handyman or cleaning service?
5. Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks for help all!

-Charlie

[Kim Feldkamp]

I have 2 vacation rentals in northern MN and have looked into doing another STR in Minneapolis. I think both Scott and Bruce make good points - you can definitely make more money going the STR route but I think you should have multiple exit strategies.

Something you're missing on your list of considerations is Sales Tax.  Airbnb doesn't collect that for you (yet) so you have to collect and remit payment to state on a certain interval determined by your gross sales (i.e. monthly, quarterly, yearly).

As far as licensing is concerned, to Scott's point, the city hasn't taken a stance yet but if you're already following to proper rules now, you're more likely to be grandfathered in when these new rules come into play.  I've been working with the MN Department of Health to get licenses on my places.  I have to make some modifications, among other things, but they flat out told me that the new regulations were coming and that because I'm making the effort, they're more likely to grandfather me in in the future.

Make sure you account for furnishing the place - I can tell you from experience, it always costs more than you think.  Also, make sure you find a really good cleaning company - Airbnb runs on reviews and you really need to have a nice clean place to get the 5 stars.