Investor · Rushford, MN · Member since 2018 · 20 posts · 10 votes
My wife and I have always had an entrepreneur spirit. She read an article on Mr. Money Mustache about becoming financially independent as an Airbnb host. That led us to another article about vacation home rental is a service business rather than a passive income business, which led to another article on BiggerPockets about real estate investing, and here we are, a pro member. We are super excited and ready to find our first deal! We are being cautious and making sure the numbers work for cash flow and reading everything we can get our hands on - PLUS - listening to BP podcasts!
There are a bunch of ways to achieve financial independence over the long term via real estate. You should definitely weigh vacation rental vs other methods.
We recently added 3 AirBNB vacation rentals in Costa Rica to our investment portfolio, and my advice is to consider:
1 - all potential expenses (it is higher than you might think for AirBNB, depending on location, upscale or not, outside management, etc), especially start-up furnishing expenses
2 - high and low seasons because occupancy may not be consistent throughout the year. For example, high season is Costa Rica is great, but there are definitely a few slow months during the course of the year with less occupancy.
3 - competition can be fierce as some markets are saturated with rentals, and reviews are important to getting bookings and it takes time to build reviews
You are definitely in the right place for learning more - good luck!
Hello @Rodney Thompson, welcome to BiggerPockets! It is great to have you and please feel free to jump in the community - there are certainly great people around here!
Hi Rodney, welcome to the forums! I recently did my first deal and BiggerPockets played a significant role in giving me the confidence to do it. I hope you and your wife have the same experience!
There are a bunch of ways to achieve financial independence over the long term via real estate. You should definitely weigh vacation rental vs other methods.
We recently added 3 AirBNB vacation rentals in Costa Rica to our investment portfolio, and my advice is to consider:
1 - all potential expenses (it is higher than you might think for AirBNB, depending on location, upscale or not, outside management, etc), especially start-up furnishing expenses
2 - high and low seasons because occupancy may not be consistent throughout the year. For example, high season is Costa Rica is great, but there are definitely a few slow months during the course of the year with less occupancy.
3 - competition can be fierce as some markets are saturated with rentals, and reviews are important to getting bookings and it takes time to build reviews
You are definitely in the right place for learning more - good luck!
Thanks for the advise @Caroline C. We originally were looking to do some Airbnb type of rental, but we have since decided that isn't the direction we would like to go.
Episode 283 Paul Thompson - Quite a new episode but I would think everyone would agree this is a top episode. Mainly, the systems implemented are fascinating (VA, automated offers, etc.) Plus...escape velocity...
Episode 113 – Jay Papasan - Very practical slow and steady advice
Episode 221 - Tim Shiner - his concept of equity build up and "shearing the sheep" shows some of the flexibility of real estate vs a 401k
Last but not least, I strongly recommend all the tax advice given by my fellow CPAs.