Unexpected Short Term Rental

[Hailee Money]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $326,000
Cash invested: $38,000

This is a 4 bed 2 bath single family home with a full mother-in-law kitchen in the lower level.

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

This property was really close to my full time job (I was driving 50 miles a day before this). This property already had 2 units set up and was in an area that was growing, just outside of Salt Lake City. My initial analysis was for this property to be a long term rental, but I think I had some rose colored glasses on while I was looking at rental rates in this area.

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

This deal was on the MLS, at this point in time properties were only on the MLS for a day at a time in this area. My realtor asked the sellers what we could offer other than money (since other buyers were offering $15k or more above asking) that would put us above other offers. The sellers wanted an extra week to move, that is what we offered and it was accepted!

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional lending

What was the outcome?

After listing this as a long term rental and realizing that I could not charge what I needed to per month for this to be a good deal, I was a little scared I trapped myself in a bad situation. I had recently seen a YouTube video about how to run an Airbnb business, so I thought I could list it to see if anyone even looked at the property. I posted the pictures at 5 pm (they were NOT professional, I only posted them to see what would happen with no expectations).

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I woke up to bookings made up to 3 months out! I quickly changed focus and furnished the unit for Airbnb. I have slowly added amenities as I have been hosting since I had not initially expected to be running it as an Airbnb. I learned that no matter what curve ball the market (or my lack of research) throws at me, there is a way to make it work. Keep an open mind, as something you may have never expected might be the solution to your problems.

[Hailee Money]

@Nicole Droitsch by "outside of Salt Lake City" I mean Magna, UT! With the airport and i-80 only a few minutes away from my property this is a great location for a short term rental. I am looking forward to when we are able to have concerts/events again because the venue The Great Saltire is only a few minutes away from the property as well. Magna has been growing for a while, but since I have been there (Oct. 2020), it has seemed to start booming even more and even faster (extra perk for me!).  Airbnb collects the taxes for me in Magna, it depends on the city though, some cities you will have to collect your own taxes and make sure that the city even allows Airbnb.