All Forum Posts by: Jimmy Woodard

@Darren Redfearn feel free to DM me as my company may be able to help

@Henry Lazerow @Demetrius Davis I’m looking to do Airbnbs in Chicago for 5+ unit deals. If either of you want to partner up and/or have a deal in mind, please send my way!

@Amity Word if the goal is cash flow it sounds like the SFR is the clear winner at double the cash flow! If you need any help setting up your STR for success after you acquire it, feel free to DM me. Good luck!

@Nancy Revill why not do both? Sign up for Airbnb/VRBO and Furnished Finder and connect calendars so that bookings on one platform don't affect the other. Also check out Rabbu to see the STR potential of your address. Good luck and feel free to DM me for further questions!

@David Babayev your best bet for passive income in the STR space is to partner. Either partner with a property management company (but be willing to give up 20-40% of gross revenues), or partner with another investor who will do all the hard work for you (but be willing to give up equity). Happy to give more advice for the latter, so feel free to DM me!

@Michael Baum when someone doesn't have experience, the confidence level comes from the comps in the area. If you know this is a strong tourist market based on the number of listings in the area, you're going to be much more confident that you can replicate success than if you were starting from scratch with very few comps.

As you start investing in more STRs, then your confidence level is not only based on the comps in the area but also your own experience level. When someone is starting out, they should not have a high confidence level in the revenue potential of a property unless they see comps that their property can beat out. 

I agree, an inexperienced investor may be unrealistic in their confidence level. However, once reality hits they'll learn from their mistake and adjust their confidence level for the next property accordingly. 

And I'm sure you'd agree you wouldn't have much confidence when you first invested in your lakefront rental if there were no comps at all :).

If you want more on this concept, definitely recommend checking out a great book called Thinking In Bets. Hope this helps!

@Matthew Pride there are STR friendly areas across the country (and two in your backyard of Henderson and North Las Vegas). Where do you want to own an STR? Start there and see if the regulations support it by simply googling {city} short term rental laws.

Don't care where you own, just after the returns? The sweet spot is markets with the median purchase price under/around $500k, 4+ bedrooms, and potential revenue north of $100k. Tools like Rabbu and Airdna can help you find potential revenue, and so does good ol' fashioned Airbnb/VRBO competition research (as @John Underwood would tell you).

If you need help analyzing markets, feel free to DM me!

@Scott Sobera start with your budget and work backwards from there. What can you afford and which markets support that purchase price? I'd also recommend signing up for the free newsletter from data.rabbu.com which will send you top-producing STRs across the country. If you need any help analyzing properties feel free to DM me!

@Rachel Mellies congrats on the first property! If you go the self-managing route (highly recommended to save 25-40% of gross revenues), below are important points to know about self-managing STRs:

• Research local regulations to figure out what you need to do to have a legal STR
• Research properties near yours on Rabbu or Airbnb to figure out what amenities sell and what you can add to stand out
• Hire a professional photographer
• Implement a pricing tool like Wheelhouse, Pricelabs, or Beyond Pricing. You’re leaving money on the table if you try to do pricing on your own
• Find a solid cleaner and handyman (this may take a couple tries) as they are the lifeblood of your business and will help you with any last-minute requests that you can’t do being far away
• Use a Property Management System (PMS) tool like Guesty or OwnerRez to automate messages and run your business more efficiently

There are certainly more tips and tricks, but these are the basics to get you started. Good luck and DM me if you have any further questions!

@Eric Sebast here's a simple pro forma that you can use to analyze the deal. Where most investors make a mistake is just accepting whatever revenue number they come up with for comps (unfortunately I made the mistake starting out as well). 

Instead, you should attach a confidence level to your potential revenue. That way you can come up with an expected income that accounts for how confident you feel about whether or not your property can be better than or equal to the comps in your area.

If there aren't a lot of comps, I would do a quick google search for annual tourist numbers in Piney Point, MD. The last thing you want to do is purchase a property and then find out after there's a reason there aren't many other STRs in the area.

If you need any help going through the pro forma or analyzing the deal, feel free to DM me!