Airbnb Rental Arbitrage

[Asan Dixon]

My buddy and I are looking to get into rental arbitrage with Airbnb. I've heard a lot specifically about leasing properties through an LLC and then using it on Airbnb. I know you can do it but unsure how exactly to go about it. I think dealing with single family or even MF property owners would be a little easier as we can sell them on the idea in a sense but what about with the large apartment complexes. Were we live, downtown would be the best place however there are a lot of higher end apartments that I think would go really well on airbnb surrounding the city as well. Summer is coming up and we have two sports stadiums down town. Anyone have any experience with this? Theres a guy on youtube I've been watching who is apparently very successful doing the same thing but hes never gone exactly into the details on how to acquire properties from big developments. TIA!

[Ethan Cooke]

@Asan Dixon - I run a rental arbitrage business in the SF Bay Area. @Paul Sandhu is right--pitch to your landlords' "pain points" and tell them exactly what you're doing. And look for landlords/property managers/HOAs who are open to sub-leasing. I have had very good results signing leases with mom & pop landlords. They love that I have a great credit score and offer free property maintenance and early rent auto-payment every month. After 15 months in this business, all of my new units are coming as referrals from the landlords who are my partners already. I also have friends who have built a whole rental arbitrage business based on a relationship with a single landlord who has multi-unit buildings. 

I have not had good luck trying to work with property managers. I recommend that you connect directly with building owners and build your business from there. Good luck!