@Emily K. Hi Emily,
I am relatively new to renting, we just purchased 2 multifamily homes, 6 units, in our home town, but previous to multifamily rentals, my wife and I opened an Airbnb a year ago. We both came from previous marriages, so we came into the relationship with two houses, and when we met and got married, we decided to live in the first one, and listed the second on Airbnb.
I say all of this as a disclaimer, contrary to a lot of people on this forum, I don’t yet have a lot of experience in rentals, but my wife and I did get about 50 people/ groups into the house through Airbnb in the past 14 months and obtained Superhost status in the process, so I feel like I understand that side of things.
There are concerns with what you’re looking to do, from a landlord side, but I think if you’re open and honest with prospective landlords about what you’re looking to do, you may be able to strike a deal with one.
A bigger challenge that I see with listing a rental, is that your business is review based, and in my opinion, any mistake on your part or the landlords could ruin your profile on Airbnb, and prevent further offerings.
Let’s say:
1.) Change in landlord or landlord’s policies. You’re blessed to have some reservations that extend 6, 9, 18 months out, and then the landlord changes, or changes policies. You either need to cancel your reservations, which will tarnish your review status and profile, or even worse, face eviction if you don’t comply. This is the main reason I don’t like this idea as a host myself.
2.) Profit margin- depending on who you’re dealing with, if you become successful, they could increase your rent severely, and you have no leverage or profit margin. Additionally, because there are photos of the unit, you can’t just go and get another unit and make it look the same way the old one looked.
3.) Tax Breaks- There are major tax breaks to the owner of any rental, short term or long term, and without being a CPA myself, I’d think you’d get fewer of those incentives if you had to lease vs. own
4.) Bad neighbors. You don’t own the property so you have even less control than most landlords on the negative experience they may provide to your guests. There could be neighbors in the same building or next door that could cause negative reviews despite you doing your best job possible.
In closing, people that search for vacation rentals want to see pictures of where they’re going to stay, and positive reviews. The goal once an account is opened should be to get as many 5 star reviews as possible, as anything less is detrimental to landing prospective guests. If you’re looking to get into Airbnb or any other short term rentals, I think leasing a unit from a landlord leaves too much control to neighbors and the landlord, and once you get some negative feedback on your reviews, that stays with you. And for me, the bigger thing is that if you don’t own the property, you can’t control the business.
Hope that helps, and best of luck,
Eric
