All Forum Posts by: Wes Short

Hey Dylan, a super simple and effective technique that I found is using Zillow and then just saving the home as you drive past it. This allows you to database the lead fairly easy, gives you all of Zillow's data right off the bat, and you can view all your saved homes in map view and see what areas you have already hit. It does only allow you to save 500 homes but you can create multiple accounts fairly easily.

Hey Tevin, a lot of people included search criteria such as equity, mortgage type, last sale of the home, absentee owners, and age of owner. You normally want 50-100% equity in the home, a home that has sold within the past 15-20 years, absentee owners because it is difficult to manage from far away, and an older owner because they are often more motivated and looking to get out of real estate. I haven't done a lot of list sourcing but these are some of the common criteria that people search.

I would tend to agree with Aaron, wholesaling something off the MLS would be pretty tough because most investors would have seen it and that is just another set of fees you would be paying for closing etc.

I do think though that there are some good buy and hold or flip deals on the MLS and you should always keep your eye out for price drops or properties that have been sitting on the market for a long time. If someone's home has been on the market for half a year or longer they can become motivated especially if you are an all cash buyer that offers to close quickly. The strategy of sending the same person an offer monthly is something that has been talked about on podcasts and seems to work because you are constantly reaching out and putting a solution in front of that struggling owner. But finding a wholesale deal on the MLS would definitely be tough.

So I just created my list of run down homes that I plan to send mailers to and have a couple owners who are listed as revocable trusts and revocable living trusts. Should I be mailing to these people and are these people likely to change the trust or sell their home?

So I am still considering starting more AirBnBs in my town (Bloomington, IN) and was wondering what you guys think will happen to rents from AirBnBs when/if a recession was to hit. I know AirBnB was started during a recession time, 2008, and many people turn to short term rentals for cheaper/more frugal traveling already but the number of people traveling also drops significantly during depressions. My STR would probably be on the lower end of the market to begin with but do you guys think homes will still be able to pull in the same nightly rates?

@Ellie Narie Hey Ellie, I would agree with @Richard Ibeh here, if you do a little bit of advertising around town, on Craigslist or Facebook, you should be able to find a cleaner with good credentials. There are definitely ways to cut down that 3.5 hours to about an hour. A good start is having multiple sets of sheets and asking guests to put the sheets in the wash before leaving. It may sound weird to a first time host but it is actually fairly common.

I'll add that a lot of the homes seem to be listed/for rent by mom and pop investors that are struggling without in depth marketing and probably have not considered STR at this point.

@Paul Sandhu @Luke Carl @JD Martin Thanks for the responses and advice. It sounds like it is a pretty clear no on signing the lease without being upfront about it and thank you for giving me that prospective from landlords.
If someone was upfront with you though and told you before hand would that change your mind at all? There are some properties in my area that look like the landlord is having trouble finding renters for and I wanted to inquire with them about using it as an AirBnB and filling their vacancy (I had the same problem in this area before transferring into STR and now make 1.5x the rent I was asking). I would pay the full utilities, wifi, and would even possibly pay more than the asking rent if the price was right and fit the market of the AirBnB. I would also most likely make upgrades to the property, like improvements to curb appeal and interior decorating (normal AirBnB stuff). Do you think an average landlord would consider this or do you see it as a STR being a risk for the propety?

Thanks again.

Hi, I was wandering if anyone had experience in renting a home, signing a normal lease, and then turning that home into an AirBnB. I originally heard this strategy on the BP Podcast, I think episode 229, but was wondering if anyone had taken this route yet and if you have how did you deal with the landlord. Did you tell them upfront or did you go ahead with the idea and basically look at it as you have the right to the property and you can run at as you like? 

I know some leases have sub-leasing clauses in them but I haven't seen any that talk about short term renters in the home. Also was it worth it, does the short term rental income create enough return to go through with starting up a new unit every year. I am very early in the real estate game so I am fine with smaller returns and a lot of work at this point but just wanted to see if anyone had experience doing this at the start of their career. 

From talking to a couple AirBnB investors and being one myself, I would say providing all of those extras wouldn't be very appealing because each investor has their own setup system and includes certain things in each property. It would also be tough to justify your rate of $55 a night without every actually running it as a STR.