As you might have noticed, Airbnb, VRBO, and other short-term rental platforms have given the hospitality industry a run for their money over the last few years. Eric Moeller from STR Profit Academy operates nearly 90 units in the luxury niche, and he talks with me today about how to quickly analyze whether a property is worth purchasing for short-term rental purposes.

A lot of investors focus on turnkey condos and cookie-cutter amenities, but Eric believes that each property should have some character. Today’s renters are looking for experience over simply a place to lay their heads down at night. The biggest opportunity, he says, are older homes where you can add your stamp without completely tearing down and redoing them.

Bad pictures, bad listings, and bad furniture can tank an Airbnb listing. By looking at short-term rentals just like you do real estate comps, you can figure out why a property has such low occupancy rates. Then you can better assess how you can fix the property up to make it more profitable.

If you’re buying properties and running them in-house, you’re going to be spending around 50% on these houses. Most short-term rental properties are 2-4x of market-rate rents already, and on average, a home costs about $7-10,000 to stage. Eric shares the numbers that he aims for when he purchases, furnishes, and rents out a home.

Most properties are attracting families, and people are looking for a way to get away from it all. Eric shares the items that every single short-term rental need to have so that you can go above and beyond what the renters are expecting and blow your competition out of the water. These hard costs are important because you have to consider them to factor their price into a property.

Remember, stay true to your mission and the results will follow.

What's Inside:

• How properties in secondary markets have become hot items in a post-COVID market.
• The sweet spot for occupancy rate, outside of a total lockdown in the area.
• Analyze your Airbnb data with this website.
• Why you should bring the outside character into the inside of the property.
• The number one trend that Airbnb is currently seeing.

Resources:

AirDNA.co