Hey I'm Richard Fertig founder of
Short Term Rental Secrets .com. I've been
a short-term rental host for multiple
years now both on Airbnb and Home Away
and I have properties all over the
country. I've learned an awful lot in
that time period and i'm creating this
video to share with you some of the best
practices the pros of being a short-term
rental host as well as some of the cons
and the pitfalls things to look out for.
So I hope you find this interesting. So
the first and primary reason that
somebody would enter the short-term
rental market is clearly profit. You
would never do this for free so the
converse is true right. Like you do this
for profit what I found firsthand and I
hear from many hosts is that the profit
potential is somewhere between 2x and 3x
what you would get on a long term say 12
month lease. So let's put that in
perspective. If your home normally runs
for a thousand dollars a month that's
thirty-three dollars per night what you
would experience in a short-term rental
via Air B&B or Home Away or any of the
other services is potentially 2,000 a
month or 3,000 a month. So another perk
of short term rentals is the fact that
its ultimate flexibility. You
can rent when you want and not rent when
you want or whatever happens. So if your
in-laws are coming to town or your best
friend's coming into town for a wedding,
you can literally just block the
calendar and not rent and you have
access to your home or your flat
whatever it is. That doesn't really exist
in a 12 month rental where you have to
notify the tenant in advance to get in
to do a repair or whatever it is. It's a
little bit more of a hassle and it's a
longer term commitment. Another amazing
pro in the short term rental market is
the mega trend. I think we're in the very
early stages of what's going to become
common so right now a lot of people use
Airbnb and Home Away to rent homes or
vacation homes out or to stay there but
I think this is going to be even bigger
trend as people start to do this for
their primary homes and the way that
they start to live. So the sooner you get
involved and the sooner that you start
listing that extra bedroom or that extra
vacation home you start to develop a
network and ratings and rankings and SEO.
And the earlier that you'll get involved
in what I think is going to be the wave
of the future. Another super cool thing
about being a short-term rental host is
that you get to meet unbelievable people
from all over the world in my experience
I've met people from almost every
continent,
their families, they travel, they've got
wonderful stories, they love being hosted
by me and I love hosting them and so I'm
part of something that's bigger than
just like a rental check that arrives in
the mail. There's stories, there's
continuity, there's friendships and
there's the opportunity to add value to
their trip and it's just it's a great.
You know a lot of this is about people
and the community and you don't get that
in a long term rental but you do get
that in short-term rentals so that's a
huge pro. So let's talk about some of the
cons and like in anything there's always
cons for every pro there's a con and
it's just a matter of it's a course of
business just expect it. One of the
things that everybody points too and
everybody's really worried about and
we're just going to address it head-on
is damaged our short-term rentals more
likely to get damaged than long-term
rentals and in my experience the
answer is No. In fact, I could also make a
counter argument that there's less
damage because there's less wear and
tear because as people are traveling
they're out there touring, they're seeing
the sights, there at the restaurants,
they're not actually like living there
every minute of every day. But to be fair
I have experienced some damage, nothing
major, but it is you know something that
I have to deal with and repair and so on
and that's where having a really good
staff of people that you can call
whether it's a plumber or an electrician
comes in handy. So we'll talk a little
bit later in some other videos about how
you go ahead and get prepared because
you should expect minor damage and if
you expect it then it's really nothing
more than an inconvenience and you can
also use the security deposit to pay for
that regulation. Look anytime that
there's a new entrant or something
that's disruptive in any industry
there's going to be a lag and
uncertainty as regulation sort of
catches up in the end regulation should
be your friend, right. Like you learn what
the rules are, you know how to play by
them and abide by them and then optimize
them for your own gain. But in that
period of time where regulation is
stored of being figured out and it's
changing and it's different in each
region or state or geography it can be
uncomfortable. So you have to pay
attention to what's going on and make
sure that your law abiding because at
the end of the day we all want to be
law-abiding while increasing our rental
income and so right now it's an
interesting time. Lots of things
happening.
Just pay attention. Put a google search
on your computer that puts Airbnb plus
your city or your county or your state
and you'll get automatically alerted.
It's not that challenging but you want
to make sure you're on the right side of
the law. Vacancy is uncomfortable one of
the benefits of long term rentals is you
know when you sign a 12 month lease that
on the first of the month you're going
to get a check every single month. In the
short term rental world that's not
exactly true. You don't necessarily know
when your next tenant is going to come
in or guest but you know that they're
going to come in there's great tools
such as beyond pricing and in fact we
filmed the video. Check it out over here
to learn more about it. It'll help
you manage your vacancy. We have an
affiliate link in there so if you want
to sign up for free trial try that. It's
no obligation it helps us a little bit
to help you but most importantly once
you move to the short-term rental market
you realize that the days of vacancy are
actually to be used intelligently to
clean or repair and because you're
making 2 to 3 X what you'd make on a
long-term rental just don't worry about
it instead of fearing it embrace it. In
the long run you're doing quite well.
You'll always encounter unhappy guests.
You can't take things personally no
matter how great a host you are and how
much you bend over backwards and how
clean your places and how detailed your
instruction guide is at the end of the
day and we all know some of these people
you just can't please and no
matter what you do you're not going to
be able to win them over. And the first
couple of times that happened to me
in my short term rental history really
took it personally and I couldn't
believe it and I apologized, and this and that.
At the end of the day recognize that
you're doing your absolute best, you have
tons of great reviews, you've got a
really great product, a really great
service, terrific hospitality and
sometimes some of your guests just are
not a good match like they should just
not be staying in your home maybe they
shouldn't be staying an Airbnb at all. So
some people are impossible to please and
just don't take that personally. Keep
doing your absolute best and that's what
you've got to work on. I hope you've
enjoyed this video. Hit the like button
down here and go ahead and subscribe up
here. We're constantly creating new
content like this filled with tips
and advice and suggestions to help you
double and triple your rental income using
short-term rental secrets. Thanks so very
much. Really appreciate your time and
interest and happy hosting!