All Forum Posts by: Aaron Williams

My wife and I are based in Waco, TX and have been Airbnb Superhosts for nearly 6 years. Lot's of people in the BP community (who are way more seasoned than we are) will say to make sure STR (short-term-rental) is a plan B or C. If it works for you, that's amazing. I would imagine if your stick with it and become a stellar host (especially in an area like Pittsburg where there are countless reasons for folks to be traveling), you will eventually see the gold.

Our experience right now is bookings are DEFINITELY softer than when we first started and competition was fewer. That being said, we focus on micro units (1-2 guests max) and have no problem having our units booked every weekend with scattered weekdays.

The sad thing is we used to be at nearly 95% occupancy in 2017-2019 but once everyone started joining the party and our city started throwing up tons of hotels to keep up with tourism demad, we dropped to more like 65% occupancy.

Keep your head up, man! We are all learning and you are brave to be joining the party and learning alongside all of us.

Hey everyone,

In 2017, my wife and I bought an existing retail art supply store and the C-2 property it was in. It was fairy underutilized being that the previous owners were elderly and ready to retire. The building itself also needed a lot of updates, but what attracted us was the fact that the business was established, the building was in an upcoming location and the owners lived in the back of the property.

Fast forward to now, we have made many cosmetic and major improvements to both the retail space, our living area, and the building. The business itself has grown a ton since we bought it due to the fact that we have expanded both in store and online. We also have a profitable Airbnb in the very back of the building with which we are Superhosts.

This being the case, we have created a lot of equity in the building but feel like we are stuck at the moment. We want to keep investing in real estate but have no W-2 income since we are 100% self employed. We have a great relationship with our local lender who has issued us SBA loans in the past, but rates are not advantageous at the moment.

Have any of you been in similar circumstances and have ideas/advice regarding what you would do if you were in our shoes?

Thanks for any help in advance!