First Investment - Airbnb Property

[Michael LoPresti]

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

4 Bedroom, 3 Bathroom single family home located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Cash flow and designing an experience for guests

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found it on Zillow. Sat on the market for over 14 days during the height of 2022 and closed $40k under asking.

How did you finance this deal?

Financed the deal with a conventional loan split between a business partner and I.

How did you add value to the deal?

Helped design, furnish, and set up the listing on a tight timeline.

What was the outcome?

Currently operating at a slight loss.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Learned how competitive Airbnb is. I think our listing is good, but it is not unique enough to generate the cashflow we were expecting. We based our analysis off of a revenue number that was 20% under the average in our area on AirDNA (to be conservative), yet we did not hit that number in the last 12 months since purchasing. We've had almost 50 reviews so far, every one being 5 stars except for one, and are Superhosts.