All Forum Posts by: Wilson Vanhook

Nobody will know for sure unless they’ve worked for Airbnb on this stuff. I don’t think it negatively affects it when the owner of the listing looks at it. But if you aren’t the actual listing owner on Airbnb I believe it could hurt you based on your conversion rate. Tough to say 100% if it’ll hurt you but I keep away typically.

It's just oh so easy ehh? You're totally right every single person that runs an STR is successful! There totally aren't tons of operators failing, converting back to LTR, and selling what turned out to be a poor investment. Just toss some furniture in, snap a few photos and BOOM money in your pocket. John I am actually concerned for your utter unawareness of what's going on in this industry. Your operation does not equal everybody else's.

Like I said, it's not for everybody, not everybody can be successful running an STR, and not everybody WANTS to run one anyways so they'd rather rent their place out for the long term rent.

 Very well said and I agree completely. What could possibly happen in damages that wouldn't be covered under the proper insurance policies between things like AirCover combined with an arbitrage policy through Proper Insurance.

Not everybody is like you though? Tons of owners out there that just want the steady income without running a STR themselves. This comment literally means nothing it's just you stating you prefer to run STR's.

@John Underwood some owners could definitely take their property back and attempt themselves. But if you run STR's you know there's a lot that goes into running one to actually be successful. It isn't as simple as any old owner can just "do it themselves." Design, SEO, listing optimization, pricing strategy, marketing, so many things involved.

So the way to keep these people that aren't in the financial position to buy their own properties from missing rent is to charge them 2x the rent? Why are they an additional risk? If they get pinched for money they won't make their payments you say, but you're acting like this doesn't happen ALL THE TIME with missed rents for LTR tenants. Of course there will always be some sort of risk for people not making their rent, but it isn't increased with STR operators.

Just need to screen the arbitrager and see their previous work. Ask them a lot of questions and see how knowledgable they are. I'm not saying let any random person come do arbitrage, but somebody qualified I see 0 issue and in fact I'd take them over a normal tenant any day.

 Don’t listen to these other guys they know nothing about arbitrage, and they often just bring negatively and useless comments to the forums speaking on anything and everything in stuff they’ve never done. It totally depends on the operator. So I would screen them and take a look at some of the other work they’re doing. A good operator that is experienced you have no need to charge a premium on rent above what you’d normally charge a long term tenant.

Think about some of these benefits. The STR operator is going to keep your home in immaculate condition at all times. They have to in order to keep renting it out. Whereas a normal tenant doesn't always do so. The STR operator will also typically handle all minor repairs whereas a normal tenant wouldn't, they'd be calling you up. The STR operator will have your property professionally cleaned on a weekly basis.

So think of it this way, why would an STR operator be more prone to risk than a LTR? You literally have a professional renting from you as opposed to who knows who.

Also don’t just assume that there’s tons of cash flow involved for this arbitrager. A lot of us do deals with only $1000k profit per month. Arbitragers have their own expenses to worry about such as thousands of dollars for furniture.

Worst case if you have concerns take 2x the deposit from them, but there’s no need to charge a premium rent.

Save some clients for the rest of us Kurt :( tell me all the markets you’re in so I can be sure you don’t destroy me too 

 I wanna see you start roasting other markets like this. I love it. And I agree with your takes lol.

I’ve ran somewhat similar analysis on the smokies myself. I determined it wasn’t very investable for me and instead bought in Broken Bow, OK. Much better return but still depends what you get into in that market. Can also buy something not very investable in BB.