All Forum Posts by: Jenessa NeSmith

I can also supply some information from the Midwest...although we just do vacation Rentals, not the longer term short term rentals.

Rick Baggenstoss thanks for the tip! We are going to get a professional in there to take photos soon :)

Mike Shemp using the dog in pictures to emphasize being pet friendly is genius! I bet someone would let me borrow their baby for the afternoon to show we are family friendly also. Everyone loves puppies and babies, right? Do you encourage guests to tag your vacation rental in their photos? I am leaning towards it but I am also a control freak and wouldn’t want to be tagged in anything that I potentially couldn’t approve of first

Allie Leepson thanks so much for sharing!! Congrats to you and your wife for such success!

Jon Crosby thank you so much! For example, I hadn’t thought of Craigslist...but many of our customers are from nearby cities in Omaha for a weekend getaway. We also get a lot of CWS fans every year, so I could use Craigslist to put ads in the cities that make it to the finals. Have you used Facebook to provide recommendations? I was listening to a podcast (get paid for your pad) where the host posted different ideas for things to do and linked his posts to current events. Local businesses appreciated the advertising on Facebook and even provided discounts to his guests, and he said it cut down on guests messaging asking for recommendations before they come because he can direct them to the Facebook page. And you’re right, even an extra booking a year will be worth effort. Do you pay for Facebook ads or just stick with word of mouth? Thanks so much for the great tips!

@Paul Sandhu  Thanks for the question! We do all of the cleaning ourselves, and it takes about 45 minutes to do a turnover (often much shorter, and our Airbnb is our primary residence so we would be cleaning it anyway).  I am considering upping the cleaning fee on our new property to compensate for our time, but I don't want to charge too much...if keeping the cleaning fee lower allows us to book more nights, it would be worth it.  We are going to start outsourcing our laundry with a pickup service at $1.75/pound.  About how much do you find yourself paying monthly? 

Quick background: We have an in-law suite in our primary residence that we rent out as a separate apartment on Airbnb since December of 2015. Our first investment property just went live on Airbnb this week, and it's a 3 BR SFH. Both are in pretty good parts of town (one in a historic neighborhood and the other in an up and coming neighborhood next to downtown)

Does anyone do any social media or websites with their Airbnbs?  I just started a facebook page, instagram, and website under our Vacation Rentals Omaha name that links to our listings on Airbnb.  It's still new, but I have been posting pictures of things that we do around town, recommendations, what to do this weekend, etc etc.  I've also posted pictures of our house right after it was built in 1910 for some added history.

My questions are: do you have Facebook, website, or Insta account specifically for your Airbnb properties? If so, what kinds of content do you post and how often do you post? Are you seeing an increase in traffic/bookings as a direct result of it?  If you find that it has increased bookings, do you have any tips? 

Thank you for all of the support!

It's a 3 BR/1 bath in NoDO (about 21st and Cummings) so it's less than a mile from TD Ameritrade park and Creighton University.

Here are the #s...

Purchase price: 73,000

Rehab: 16,500: 11,000 for new siding, one side of the house had extensive termite damage.  We only paid 2,000 for a privacy fence because the company that put the fence in messed it up...so although we have some gaps in our fence it was half price.  3,500 for interior improvements including painting, plumbing fixtures, new dishwasher, vinyl plank flooring, some new baseboards, kitchen backsplash, and bathroom floor (peel and stick groutable tiles).  We used cabinet enamel to paint the cabinets with a combination of small roller and brush, and sealed it with a poly.  We went with butcherblock countertops because they were on a Cyber Monday special from Menards and we could install them ourselves.  Obviously they are more maintenance than a laminate, but with an Airbnb they wouldn't be getting the same wear and tear as a regular rental. Plus we really like the look of them!

Airbnb start up costs: 2,500 (furniture, electronics, kitchen items, and decor). 

So all in for about 92,000. I expect to be able to rent it out for $100/night, so at 75% occupancy that's $2250 monthly, plus $15 a booking of cleaning fees. Berkshire Hathaway was booked at $250/night, and for CWS I am hoping to make the same. PITI, utilities, and wifi are coming in around $600 (it hasn't been occupied long enough to be sure of utilities, but I estimate $100/month max).

Rents in this area are between $800-1000/month for a SFH. Our backup plan if Airbnb disappears tomorrow is to do student housing and rent out each of the 3 bedrooms at $450/month.

Our primary residence has an in-law suite in the basement that we have rented out on Airbnb since December of 2015, and we also rent out the bedrooms in the main part of the house during the summer as private rooms on Airbnb.  This has given us a lot of experience, and my wife works from 5 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon, so she manages the cleanings and inspections during the week and I help out on the weekend or when there is a break from school.  I have had a lot of people ask me about the Brian Page formula, but I am not sure you can charge enough for it be effective in Omaha (unless you can find a landlord that will rent to you just during the high season).  We love doing Airbnb and I have been researching starting an Airbnb management company for Omaha that can do guest communication, cleanings, and help get people started...currently going to do a trial run during this high season and see if it can exceed our full-time income. 

Thank you for all of the questions and all of the support/encouragement!! If you want to see pictures of our other property, or more pictures of this one, our website is  vacationrentalsomaha.com  (this is my first attempt at a website, so no judgements!!!) We also have a facebook page and instagram under the same name. 

We closed on our 1st investment property around Thanksgiving, and put in some elbow grease and many trips to Lowe's to get it ready to rent on Airbnb.  It took a little longer than expected (they always do, don't they??) but since we both have full-time jobs and did most of the work ourselves, I consider it a success! We also stayed under budget, which was really important to us (and caused a lot of fights, lol)

It is officially up on Airbnb, and our first guests checked in on Monday for a week long stay.  We have kept our prices low this month since we don't have any reviews on this property, but we are already booked for Birkshire Hathaway (huge tourist event for Omaha) and a few Creighton games. 

This post isn't really a question, I guess, I just wanted to do a little bragging and also thank the BP community for being there to answer all of our questions along the way!  Does anyone else have any other success stories they would like to share? 

Hi Cody!! Welcome to the BP Omaha family. Sounds like you guys have got a great portfolio going...what is your next goal?