So, you are thinking about joining the Airbnb, money making, community? Where do you even start? Well, you are taking the first baby step right now, by thinking about it and doing your research! Research was our number one most valuable asset.
Starting The Adventure
My husband and I both started in January 2019. After selling our home in 2018, we decided to get out of the month-to-month, working for your mortgage, rut. Who wants to live paycheck to paycheck, when you can make your money work for you? So, we set out on a new adventure – we purchased a 2-unit condo, instead of a single-family home. For the last 5 months, not only have we been living for free, we have profited anywhere from $1,000 – $1500 per month on top of our mortgage! We are finally out of the same old rut, and now saving most of our paycheck for our next Airbnb investment. Yes, it sounds crazy – we pinch ourselves all the time, and wonder why didn’t we think of this 5 years ago?! The first step we took was research, which lead us to our success.
First thing was to analyzing similar properties that were listed locally on Airbnb. This was a very simple analysis – we took notes on every property. We looked for similar features, including – what amenities were offered, how many bedrooms/bathrooms, full kitchen or kitchenette, square footage, how updated/stylish did it look in comparison to ours, and finally the most important factor – what price was it listed at? Once we gathered a list of our soon to be “competition”, we could then determine what price to list our rental. The goal was to rent it out as much as humanly possible. So, we placed our price point slightly lower than similar properties. However, in comparison to those that were not renovated quite as nicely as our condo, we priced slightly higher, since our guests would be paying for a higher quality stay.
You Too Can Be Like Us
Do you have a single bedroom with shared common areas – awesome! These tips will still work in the same manner for you – research your competition. It’s great to know what is offered nearby and to see where you will stand in the market. We started with research and price point, since that was our main motivating factor – how much money can we realistically make? Our next areas of focus were: do we use Airbnb smart pricing or our own instincts? How do we list our unit and make it look appealing at a first glance? How do I take “professional” looking photos on our own? Pets or no pets? Are we doing the cleaning or hiring a cleaning service and do we charge cleaning fees or not? If we hire a cleaner, how are we going to keep the cleaning service schedule organized? Do we list on multiple rental sites to try to maximum potential or keep it simple? It has been such an exciting adventure and there are so many tips & tricks that we will share to help you to maximize your earning potential on this journey!
