All Forum Posts by: Julie Hill

@Julie Hill

Congratulations! That's so exciting. I know a few people doing the rental arbitrage thing with Airbnb and short-term rentals. (I'm looking at you @Tyler Work .) That's exciting to find a landlord who's open to it.

Before answering your questions, can you tell us where your new property is located?

Your questions:

1. Go minimalist, but try not to be too "stagey." That's a fine needle to thread. I think sparse modern furnishings do well, but if it looks like every other moderately priced home-staging furnishings, I think that's not quite as appealing. Maybe throw in some books and something to be a little more unique.

2. I like Tyler's idea about a Facebook page. You should also build out a website and have it ready to go for bookings. Not many people are going to find it right away, because you won't be high up in Google search rankings. Write some content on the website about Airbnb in that area. Good content will eventually drive eyeballs to your site and then they may start booking through there instead of Airbnb/VRBO.

3. See above

4. This is a cool idea, but there's no place to put it on Airbnb. You could put it on your website though.

Some other thoughts:

- be sure to get the emails and phone numbers of all guests and stay in touch with them. When they return to town, they may remember you and book again ... this time through your website

- Pay for good photos! Probably the number one mistake people make is assuming some quick cell phone ones will do it. I like Virtuance. It's $100 for 10 or $150 for 25 photos. They're all HD and make your place look amazing. See below for examples. 

Oh, and good luck!

-------

Here are three cell phone vs. professional photos of an Airbnb listing

@Julie Hill, congrats on finding a lease option!  Definitely not an easy thing to do so congrats on that win.  As for some of the day to day stuff you are referring to, I'm not going to try and blast it all here, but welcome you to read a few of my BP blog articles on a variety of topics in this area when you have the time.  (Click Here)

Best of luck on your ventures and looking forward to hearing how it goes! 

Cheers!

@Julie Hill Congratulations and best of luck. 

Just because you're not local doesn't mean you need a property manager. No reason why you can't establish a network to identify one or two maintenance people and hire great cleaners who provide you with feedback. Hiring a PM doesn't mean you're going to provide the best unit though it does provide you with hands-off peace of mind. You don't strike me as hands-off though. And extra things like bathrobes (depending on your specific location and guests) might yield only marginal gains. Videos might be supported on some platforms and if they're easy for you, why not have them ready?

@Julie Hill why not buy properties for this purpose? The reason I say this is say you sign a one year lease and your landlord sees you are being successful so he feel he deserves more rent and keeps raising the rent drastically every year or they decide they can do what you are doing and refuse to renew your lease so that can VRBO the property?

Owning gives you more control over your own destiny.

Now if you are going to say you don't have the down payment etc there are ways around this such as owner financing all or just the down payment.

Just something to think about.