All Forum Posts by: Jenessa NeSmith

I could see this strategy working if there was one main place your family wanted to stay for a longer period of time, and it worked for vacation Rentals. For example, let’s say you and your family love a particular beach town in Costa Rica, but live in Nebraska. You’ve done your home work and know that this beach town will support multiple Airbnbs, and are already familiar with the area because you’ve been there a lot. So you go ahead and buy several vacation Rentals, or some multi family units. You spend a few months in one of the units each year, but use that time to make updates on your properties and insure that everything is running smoothly. If you are able to afford multiple vacation rentals in multiple cities, I say go for it. However, the idea of having one vacation rental in a bunch of different cities doesn’t make very much sense. Better for your time and money to stick with a local investment strategy and then jet off to wherever you want.

"You get what you pay for. The cleanliness was not what I expected. The shade porch window didn't have a shade; so I woke up with the sun."

...the title of the listing was literally, "Sun-Porch room, wake up with the sun".  

I'm going to disagree with everyone in the above thread...I just financed my third investment property using HML and no money down. It all comes down to networking. Do you attend your local meetups? Attend as many meetups as you can, and ask around for anyone interested in partnership or if anyone knows a 100% lender.

I second the idea that you don’t necessarily need welcome baskets...I experimented putting them out and found they did not make that much of a difference in the reviews. We still got just as many 4 star reviews for no reason :) However, it also couldnt hurt! Some of the things we put out were local soaps, bbq seasoning (Omaha steaks), and local candy. Tty to use local products to fill the basket. Also consider items like postcards. We avoid putting fresh things in the fridge for the same reason, unless you want to pay for your cleaners/restocked to make a weekly trip to the store. Hope this helps!

Just found a buy and hold deal in the Omaha area for our Airbnb business, and am looking for funding. Purchase price is 105,000 and it is move in ready, 2 bed 1 bath, recently renovated. Long term rents in the area are at 1,200-1,400 and going up. Putting it up on Airbnb would net us 2,500-3,200/month. We are superhosts and have been receiving consistent similar returns for about 18 months with three other properties. My credit is not awesome (625) and we have about 15,000 in liquid funds right now and our other Airbnbs bring in 5,000 gross/month. We both have w2 jobs but have reached our limit with debt to income ratio for conventional loans, and do not have enough equity for a HELOC. A conventional bank won’t take Airbnb income into account until after it has been two years. I could probably come up with 20% by getting creative. Any advice or recommendations for HML or private money in Omaha? Thanks for your time in reading.

We have a property in NoDo (North Downtown Omaha) that we rent out on Airbnb.  I agree with everyone else about going block by block...our house is on a quiet street across from a school and two houses down from a church.  However, it's close enough to the main tourist area that it has been quite successful.  There has definitely been revitalization in the NoDo area, especially around the Century Link Center.  Kiewit just bought a bunch of vacant buildings to turn into a new headquarters.  There have been some neat developments around 24th and Lake with some art galleries and local businesses, and if you get super north by Florence or Minne Lusa you can find some cool neighborhoods as well. 

Feel free to reach out if you any specific info, as we are pretty familiar with the area!  Parts of North O that are close to Downtown would make some great Airbnbs. 

I would second the idea of not requiring too much of guests, especially if they pay a cleaning fee. We just ask all the doors/windows to be locked (we have a keypad entry so they can get back in if they forgot something). Since guests get reviewed on cleanliness, most people do things like dishes, even sweeping. I find that if you put cleaning materials easily accessible in the unit, guests will even vacuum. This saves us a ton of tim because as of right now we are cleaning all our properties ourselves. We do outsource laundry, so a company will come and pick everything up, wash and fold it once or twice a week for $1.75 a pound. This helps us tremendously as we have over 20 beds, and when we did the math it is actually cheaper than doing it ourselves.

@Brian Seelos Thank you! It is definitely time consuming to get all the systems in place, but we love having our own business.

• Why did you decide to only go with Airbnb?

When we first experimented with our basement suite as a vacation rental, I had done a bunch of traveling with Airbnb and was familiar and comfortable with them.  Basically we said, "let's put our basement up on Airbnb and see what happens!" 

We've had a great experience using just Airbnb - their commission is low, they handle all of the credit card transactions (unlike booking.com), you aren't required to have instant book, and travelers who use Airbnb aren't usually expecting 'hotel quality'.  We also feel really supported by their customer service in terms of when we have had issues with guests.  If guests damage your property Airbnb will arrange for guests to pay for the damages, and if the guests refuse to pay they have their million dollar guarantee (we have unfortunately had to tap into that).  I've heard some horror stories of other listing sites that hang hosts out to dry.   

At this point it is also a question of time investment.  Our occupancy rates have been 80-90% using just Airbnb.  Is it worth it to spend time listing with other sites, as well as managing and keeping up with different messaging apps/calendars?   That's totally dependent on the host and the area. 

• Do you plan to use other platforms in the future?

If we experience a drop in occupancy or feel that the Airbnb market in Omaha is too saturated, we would definitely post on VRBO or Flipkey/Tripadviser.  If I were to start over, I would put the same listing on a bunch of the different sites and see what is most popular in my area, as well as which site do I personally like using the most. 

• Do you list the properties not owned by you under your Airbnb profile, or under the owners and then co-host?

For the clients we fully manage, we are the listing host and add the client as a co-host so they can see what's going on.  For clients where we consult or do turnovers, they are the main listing and we are the co-hosts. 

• What kind of content do you have on your website? Is it a blog or a site listing your rentals?

Our main website has most of the same information as our Airbnb listing, and the "book now" button goes directly to our Airbnb page.  We also have a page that talks about our co-hosting services.  Our social media pages have more of a blog feel with different restaurants we visit, events coming to town, exclusive discounts, pics if we update our properties, etc etc. 

• What do you include in the personal trip itineraries and recommendations? This sounds like a really neat idea.

In our guide book I included some different sample 2 day itineraries - like a family friendly weekend, girls' night out, Omaha brewery tour and an active/nature tour.  We give virtual access to the guidebook ahead of time for guests so they can better plan their trip.  Guests will also ask questions like - "What's a good restaurant that is open on Easter?" or "Where is the best vegan place?" so we find out the answer and give them our personal recommendations.  It takes a bit more time but guests really appreciate the personalized recommendations.

@Brian Seelos

Hi Brian! Although we definitely don't know all of the answers, we have gotten our business up and running in the past few months and now manage 5 additional rentals on Airbnb.  Here are my answers to your questions: 

• How have you setup your business structure for liability and tax purposes?

On the advice of our CPA and our lawyer, we have a business account under a separate LLC. We have umbrella coverage for our LLC and Prosper insurance for the bookings we own, and we suggest our clients get something similar to Prosper for their units. Our clients sign a waiver with our contract. This is not passive income like traditional rentals so we file under Schedule C vs Schedule E. We do have to pay self employment tax but it is something I will happily do as it means our business is successful! We use Quickbooks to log our receipts, mileage, etc.

• Do you use any liability insurance products for the rentals that you do not own? (see above)
• Is your commission inclusive of any booking fees charged by the sites? Or do you pass those fees along and then get your 20%?

Our commission is 25% after Airbnb takes out their 3%.  It all happens automatically on the site, so neither us nor our clients have to worry about divvying up profits.  We only use Airbnb for several reasons: million dollar guarantee, low commission, user-friendly software, and they handle all of the payment info.  We haven't had any problems keeping our place full. 

• Do any of you use management software?  We only use Airbnb's provided software and utilize things such as saved messages and their total calendar feature.  We've tried some automatic messaging software but I wasn't a fan (it was really impersonal and didn't make sense if the guest asked questions or had a specific request).  I would be leery of using 3rd party software, but we are considering outsourcing some messaging via personal assistants if we continue to grow.
• What extras do you provide? Wine, snacks, beverages, etc.  

We don't guarantee extras for every guest, although we will provide them if we think the guest will appreciate it.  I tried an experiment where I wrote a handwritten thank you card and put out a welcome gift for every guest...and we still got the same number of 4 and 5 star reviews.  Not worth the effort in my opinion.  However there are some guests who really did appreciate it, and we will still do that in those instances.  For example, if they are celebrating a special occasion (bachelorette party, graduation, wedding, etc). we will often decorate or leave a special note/gift.  If there is a group coming for a mom's night out - they really appreciate a bottle of wine! We also do extra things if people are coming around holidays.  We hid Easter eggs, put out chocolates around Valentine's Day, etc.  You can pick up decorations for super cheap after the holiday is over and save it for next year.  I think the key is to make the guest feel special.  If the guests think everyone is getting a hand written note/welcome basket, it just becomes part of the expectation.  If you do something specific to their situation, they feel like you went above and beyond just for them.  Guests feeling special will result in 5 star reviews and repeat customers.  

We generally try to have water bottles in the fridge, and some breakfast items available.  However, we don't advertise that we have those, because we don't want guests to expect them - it becomes a pleasant surprise if we have them. 

Outside of the rental sites, what kind of marketing do you do to keep the listings full?

As far as outside marketing, we use Facebook, Instagram, and have our own website.  All of them link back to our Airbnb page, so it's hard to tell if we get any actual bookings from them.  Facebook and Instagram are free and we enjoy doing it, so we spend an hour or two a week updating them.  Our guests think it's fun, and they can get information and discounts off of our social media.  The local news station found our Facebook and showcased our property for a story about short term rentals during sporting events, which was fantastic free advertising! You never know who might find you. :)  Our client's properties are included in our social media platforms as well. 

The 25% commission is for our completely hands-off package.  We take care of everything: provide personalized messaging/guest interactions, being available 24/7 for guest issues (including being available to physically go over to the property), personalized trip itineraries and recommendations for guests, pricing adjustments (which means staying up to date of current events including concerts, graduations, etc) coordinating of cleaning, restocking and purchasing of consumables (coffee, water, shampoo, body wash), laundry, supplying towels/linens, Netflix subscription, a color guidebook with info about each property/neighborhood, tourist brochures, takeout/delivery menus from places nearby,   We have also partnered up with local businesses and are able to offer discounts at these places for people who stay at our properties. 

The only thing our clients are responsible for are: furnishings, utilities/wifi, snow removal/lawn care, ongoing house maintenance, and repairs.  We will suggest amenity and furnishing upgrades if needed, but these are optional. 

All of our clients so far have wanted a completely passive role.  We would customize a package and find a middle ground if clients wanted to do some of the things on their own. 

Hope this helps!! Let me know if you have any more questions.  

We outsource our laundry. A delivery service comes twice a week, and they charge 1.75/pound with a minimum of 20 pounds. It’s an extra expense but they come back folded and sorted, so we feel like it’s worth it. You will obviously need to but several sets to make this work. Currently we do all the cleaning ourselves, and charge $30/turnover for our clients for a small apartment unit. However we don’t do any deep cleaning, restocking or maintenance. Call around to different maid services and see if anyone offers the service, and get several different quotes.