All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Reinagel

Hey everyone!

I've been doing STRs for almost two years. I currently have 10 rental arbitrage units, and manage one additional unit. I also have two small children, and a third due in just a few weeks. The oldest will be about 26 months when the third is born. Needless to say, I have my hands full! 

Over the last 2 years, I've learned a TON about STR and Rental Arbitrage. I've also learned which parts of the business that I love and the parts that are not as enjoyable for me or take away from other, more important, things in my life - namely my family. I LOVE designing listings, and creating systems that make the guest experience better and/or make things easier for my team. I don't like having family fun days interrupted by unexpected guest issues, or being woken up at 2am by a guest who doesn't know how to use a smart lock. :P

As I look forward to what the next chapter looks like after baby #3 is born, I am looking for ways to take all that I've learned, but eliminate the "always on-call" aspect of managing STRs, so that when I'm not in a dedicated work session, I can focus on my family.

I have some ideas, but would love to hear any other suggestions from you all as hosts or potential future hosts. What services would be helpful to you? Here are some areas that I feel I have a lot to offer. Do any of these stand out as more helpful/valuable? 
- Staging and Design 
- Stocking a new listing
- Staging for photo shoots
- Budgeting for setting up a listing
- How to find rental arbitrage properties
- House manual compilation
- Saved replies for guest scenarios
- Scheduled messages for guest stays
- Turnover, Deep Clean, and Maintenance checklists
- Incident reports automation for guest damages

I'd also love tips on how to market these services if I do decide to go down that path. I have no shortage of ideas, but my marketing skills are not what I wish they were!

@Cody Lewis it's a flat rate for access to the data. No additional cost per pull for that set of data. There is for another data set we would need. Hopefully it would take off and pay for itself, but it's hard to take that big of a plunge without being able to "test the waters" first.

Thanks for your insights!

@Cody Lewis my husband is building it. He has 10+ years of experience as a software engineer. He's a total wizard and can build it no problem. It's just getting access to the data that were struggling with. We've been quoted $7500/month minimum! 😳

Does anyone know of a good way to find investors in a new app? We are wanting to build an app to help people find profitable short-term rental properties. The barrier to entry is high due to pricy API access, but this could be extremely lucrative if we get it going! Just don't know where to start!

 Thanks! Best way to acquire properties....trial and error + relationship building. I generally contact 50+ properties for each one that I've added. But when I get a Yes, it's been from investors or property managers who are adding more properties to their own portfolio and are ready to work with me again because I've proven myself. 

I currently have 1 side of a duplex, three apartments in the same complex, and 1 SFH. I don't care about the property type as much as the location and comps. I have pretty much stayed away from larger, more corporate, apartment complexes. I'm not a sales expert, and I don't feel confident enough in my pitch to take on a larger company.

I haven't had to do anything like what you're talking about with neighbors or paying for permits. I have to register with the city, but so far that's all been free of charge. 

Do you find that you're able to keep a guest to bathroom ratio that works. I try to not have more than 5 guests per bathroom. Doubling up beds seems like it would create a lot of frustration for guests. I can't imagine 8+ people in my 2bed/1bath apartments!

For simplicity, I always use Queen beds in bedrooms

- Only one size of sheets to manage
- Can sleep a couple or two kids...I've shared countless queen beds with my sister over the years!

I generally use these beds from Amazon - They are stylish, but versatile enough to fit in most design styles. They're super sturdy. My cleaner loves them and says they're the easiest beds to make. 

If you're going to have a sofa bed, I'd go with a futon...again for ease of management/cleaning. There are some good ones that look nice and aren't too expensive. 

I use August. I believe it's the only one that is able to sync with Airbnb and automatically assign codes. It's not perfect, and sometimes I have to step in and fill the gap, but 85-90% of the time it flows seamlessly. I know there may be other more "reliable" locks, but the syncing with Airbnb is worth it to me.

Here's an example of my analysis of a rental arbitrage property:

I use AirDNA to get the % Occupancy and Nightly Average, and factor 20% of rent for utilities and insurance, and take out 3% for Airbnb fees. This doesn't factor in cost to furnish. For a nice looking, but minimalist home, you can plan to spend the following: 

• -$2000 per bedroom (furniture, linens, mattress, etc.)
• -$250 per bathroom
• -$1500 per living area (including outdoor spaces)
• -$1200 for a Kitchen + Dining 
• -$500 miscellaneous 

That's buying everything new, so if you have the time and energy to shop around for some gently used furniture, you COULD do it cheaper, but I've found that the financial savings is seldom worth the time and effort it requires. You could also go crazy in any of those areas with high-end furniture, arcade games, hot tubs, etc. These numbers have held true for my 5 units so far (1, 2, and 4 bedrooms)

I've had good success with arbitrage. Make sure to cross your T's and dot your I's. Make sure there's no HOA with by-laws against STR, have a proper lease addendum with the landlord, etc. As someone else mentioned, if you get into a property that's not as successful as you'd hoped, you can always not renew the lease. We've found arbitrage to be a good way to build cash-flow without the up-front investment involved in buying a home. I have 5 arbitrage properties (in the Phoenix area) and looking for more. There's NO WAY I could have bought 5 and furnished 5 properties this year.