A new business model with Short term rentals

[Account Closed]

Greetings BP, I've been on the platform for a few months and greatly value the connections, feedback, and partnerships I've gained from joining. So, before I go any further I wanted to say thank you to the group. Now, on to business! My company has recently (last 6 months) came to a fork in the road with STR management. We were doing the traditional model which would be a commission split with property owners where we would do the work and split the profits (between 30-50% in most cases) of gross revenues and net a decent return at the end of the day. The key to a successful property management company is volume, the more accounts and listings the more revenue you generate. As of lately there's been a concept bouncing around which allows us to stabilize income and remove all the guess work by renting and subsequently subletting units for the purpose of short term rentals. This has been a growing trend that nets healthier returns for PM's like myself and a higher quality "tenant" for landlords. We've completed a test market in a second tier city with 5 units and on average generated 2.5-3 times what we paid in rent without having to split the commission generated. The challenge of using this model is that of any new location, start up costs! First and security for rent and staging can easily go from 25-75 a sqft depending on your target demographic. These upfront costs are recouped within the first 60-75 days but to scale at a higher rate we are looking for alternative funding sources as traditional loans are still uncertain on how to underwrite short term rental financing without a "traditional" revenue stream. I'm hoping for a number of responses here. Are you currently doing a similar model? How is your progress? Are you a landlord and interested in doing a model like this? Are you a STR Property Manager and want to partner up to combine resources? Are you a non conventional lender that sees how you can get a healthy return on loans in a rather short period of time? I'm open to any and all suggestions, comments, and feedback.