All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 Penny,

do you know the Florida market? It may be hard to do your first one out of state long distance. I would generally advice against that unless you spend half the year there. 

As for a sublease, technically you're not subleasing. It's not really about the rental agreement it's more about the relationship you have with the landlord. Once you find one who wants to work with you then drafting up an agreement is easy. 

I think this is a great idea for you if you're trying to get started sooner than later. It's also much more profitable than purchasing a property as well.

If you have have any questions don't hesitate to PM me and I'll try to help you the best I can.

Good luck!

After posting about Airbnb arbitrage for a bit I've noticed the same objections again and again about start up costs. 

In this post I'll explain some of the was one can decrease the start up costs associated with an Airbnb/vacation rental business.

Furniture Costs

If you've ever furnished an entire home you know just how expensive this can be. The last thing you want to do is spend several thousand dollars furnishing your new Airbnb rental. Here's how you can do that...

Acquire Furnished Properties

When you are in the property search phase and you are using the various platforms and software to find your next deal. First start off by filtering your search with the "furnished" keyword. There will be less options when you narrow your search down in this manner but you may be able to find exactly what you're looking for. If you can find a home in the sub market you're looking for that's already furnished you're going to save yourself a lot of time and effort getting set up. 

If you use Zillow, HotPads, Apartments.com, etc. then you can just use the keyword filter to do this as shown below:

Acquire Cheap... or Free Furniture

Most people who start hosting on Airbnb end up over doing it when it comes to decor and furnishings and under perform on running their business property. I think it was Michael Gerber who said that "most people major in minor things." When it comes to furniture you should get quality looking product but that doesn't mean you have to spend a ton of money on it. Here are some ways to find cheap or free furniture.

The Good Will

The Good Will has all kinds of merchandise you can use to furnish and decorate your home for extremely low prices. Sometimes you have to shop around a bit if you're looking for something specific but in the process you're guaranteed to find some other great stuff too. Now if you think that the things you can buy are not good enough quality I assure you that no one will ever know. And if going to The Good Will is beneath you then you have a lot to learn about business and life. 

Heres a snapshot of a local Good Will store:

Craigslist

To some people Craigslist is a shady place where people go to get robbed. Though I'm sure this happens I've never heard of it from anyone I know. I've used Craigslist for all kinds of things and it's almost always a pleasant experience. So on the craigslist webpage there's an option for "free stuff". 

In this section you can search for what ever you are looking for and you may find it listed for free. You can also search for garage sales and estate sales which usually have a ton of furniture to choose from for extremely low prices. This will also give you an opportunity to practice your negotiation skills.

And after you exhaust the free options you can do a regular search for furniture, appliances, etc. and you will find plenty of affordable listings. My advice is to start off with a 50% offer and say you can come pick it up that day. Usually people just want to get rid of whatever they are selling and will take low offers.

Rental Costs

Rental arbitrage is advantageous for many reasons one being that you don't need to buy any property. However you obviously still have some costs associated with securing the property. Now if you have some capital saved up and you just throw your money at the problem it will go away but this is not a good habit. You should look for ways to mitigate your upfront costs as much as you can including securing the property itself.

Bulk Purchases

If you're renting from a property management company or a landlord with several properties that fit the profile and are in the right location then you can offer to do a bulk acquisition and to waive the security deposits and other costs. One of the benefits to having multiple apartments in one complex is that you can manage them much more easily. Everything is under one roof so it's easier to clean and operate. 

Profit Sharing

Some landlords will be willing to waive or lessen upfront costs if you are willing to give them a piece of the pie. Remember that after debt service most landlords on a SFH might be making a couple hundred bucks every month. So offering them a percentage of your revenue while you do all the work may sound like a dream come true.

Success Fee Basis (compensation)

Some landlords may be willing to postpone the first month's rent and other associated costs if you offer them more money on what's called a success fee basis. They way you work this deal is you offer to pay nothing at first and if you're successful you'll pay them for example 150% of rent and costs after the first month or so. This way you can effectively get in with no money and use your future revenue to pay the landlord. After that everything you make over expenses is yours to keep. You can also combine this with a profit sharing model that may make the deal more attractive to the landlord. 

These are just a few ways you can decrease your upfront costs when starting your Airbnb business. There are plenty more that I may right about later on. If you have any questions don't hesitate to PM me and I'll try to help you the best I can. 

Btw... I used to think that the pro's just threw their money at everything but I've found through mentors and my own success that resourcefulness is what successful entrepreneurs and investors use to become successful. 

Good luck!

Save 10%

Put 20% into debt (attack one at a time by eliminating the smallest first)

Live on 70%

 Excellent point Jake,

I've always said that being successful in business isn't really that hard if you understand the fundamentals. However starting and scaling a business when you have a 9 to 5 job is almost impossible if you're not seriously efficient with your time. 

Being able to quit your job and go full time into your business is essential to create massive success. The sooner you can get in the game full time the sooner you'll become successful.

Im interested in your strategy with the 3 million dollar homes... How has that affected your arbitrage business?

How's your SFH from last December doing?

You're absolutely right about some markets being slower than others which cut into your potential profits. I do a very strong market research process before I commit. I can share some point with you on PM if you'd like.

Good luck!

 Absolutely true, most arbitragers don't do any research at all in general. They just find a house they think will work and wing it. I haven't considered your point about buyers and sellers markets and how that would effect one's strategy. I'll have to look into that. 

Thanks!

 It sounds like you guys are crushing it. Starting off with one property to learn the business whether your buy it or rent it is a great idea. Once you learn the business you can decide whether you want to scale out and acquire more properties or not. 

I would not be against buying if and only if the property were bought much under market value in a forclosure, preforclosure, etc.

Good luck!

 That's an interesting point Jason,

How would you define a legitimate business? 

Also my tax rate isn't 50%... The hotel industry as a whole is much higher than airbnb. However industries such as steel, advertising, recreation and alcoholic beverages pay upwards of 40% and they are bought and sold all the time. 

Anyways... we've all got our strategies I guess. 

 So that's one way of looking at it if this is all you do. Personally I take all of my money and shovel it into multifamily apartments which get all of those benefits. 

I personally think that the cashflow is more valuable than the equity in a single family home which can fluctuate based on the market comps. That doesn't sound like a place I want my net worth to build. 

Something many people may not realize is that you're not just taking the cashflow piece of the pie. You're building a legitimate business which much like commercial real estate is valued based on none other than cashflow or EBITDA depending on your analysis. So a business that produces a very doable $10,000/month > $120,000/year X a 2.7 multiple is worth $324,000. That's just an example and it would be worth much more based on EBITDA. This IS net worth, this IS equity and best of all instead of making $200 bucks a month with a single family rental you're making thousands with each property. 

But I get it... more money is not everyone's cup of tea. That's fine. 

Thanks Jason!

 This is a great way to get around the minimum night stay regulation. This is what resourcefulness looks like, when others complain and say it can't be done, people like this make it happen.