Short Term Rental Success Stories

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Josh Chapman, who is a father of 2 and works a full-time day job as a civil engineer in Dothan Island, Alabama. In as few as two and a half months, Josh has scaled up to 4 rental arbitrage and 3 co-hosting properties and is about halfway away from allowing his wife to quit her full-time job. Josh shares how he was able to grow his Airbnb rapidly with 7 units in two and a half months and the challenges he encountered in doing rental arbitrage and co-hosting. Join the waitlist for BnB Empire Builders https://www.VacationRentalMachine.com

As an Airbnb host, it is crucial to know how to optimize your Airbnb listing to get more bookings!  In this episode, we have the honor of speaking with Daniel Rusteen. Danny is the author of Optimize Your BNB, the highest-rated and most highlighted book on Airbnb  Danny shares a lot of valuable content on how to get your Airbnb listings to the top to increase your chances of getting booked and make more money! 

House hacking is appealing for many reasons. First, it eliminates your largest expense which is likely rent or mortgage. Second, it allows you to get into real estate with not a lot of money down, and lastly, it is a great way to build wealth and achieve financial independence. In this episode, we are with Craig Curelop, author of the book, "The House Hacking Strategy," and currently works at BiggerPockets. Craig talks about how he did his first house hack and soon turned it into a short term rental which helped him pay off his student loans and mortgage. House hacking helped Craig achieved financial independence, and now, he doesn't have to do things he hates to do.

In this episode, I had the special honor of speaking with the newly-wed couple, Ray and Vanessa Vargas. They decided to convert the mother and daughter live in space of their house into an Airbnb, and within 45 minutes of going live, they got their first booking! And it has been rented every single weekend for the last 3 and a half years. Ray and Vanessa realized that there's a huge business opportunity with Airbnb and thought what it would be like to manage other people’s properties. In 2018, they took the leap and founded Home Sweet Hudson. Being the first in the market to provide property management services, it gave them a huge head start in building a portfolio of properties. Now, they are managing 25 properties, and continuing to grow and scale their Airbnb business.

In this episode, I had the special honor of speaking with Maria Kelley. Maria started her own business, Kelley's Hands On Demand, an errand and concierge service in Augusta, Georgia after she got laid off from her wok. One of the services her company provides is cleaning and when she started going out to business networking events, she found a couple of short term rental investors who needed her cleaning services. Maria started doing the cleaning for one property, but because of the relationship she established with her client and her willingness to take on other tasks, she was offered to take on additional hosting tasks. Currently, Maria manages 10 properties and makes as much as $500 per property per month. Maria shares her journey from cleaner to cohost and how important networking is to get clients. She also talks about putting systems in place for her team and guests to make sure that her business still runs even without her.

In this episode, I had the special honor of speaking with Alvin Cavalier. Alvin started doing short term renting in March 2018 and is now remotely managing 24 properties which are located in 10 different states and 14 different cities, and the other amazing thing about him is he is a full-time active duty army and has been in service for 18 years.  This episode is one of a kind! Alvin walks us through the process of looking for properties that are for rent, creating an attractive offer to homeowners/landlords, setting up a process to manage your properties and people remotely, structuring your short term rental business properly to maximize the tax advantages of the rental arbitrage model, and monetizing a shared economy service.  There are a lot of takeaways from this episode that can you start applying to your own vacation rental business! This is an episode you don't want to miss.  ⚙️DOORS CLOSING FOR BNB EMPIRE BUILDERS MASTERMIND https://VacationRentalMachine.com

Today, I had the honor of speaking with Anuj Datta. Anuj, prior to jumping into short term rental investing, owned various franchisees such as gas stations, Subway, and Checkers. Because of the overhead costs in those businesses, he decided to sell off his businesses, move to Houston, Texas, and jump into the real estate world.   Anuj has 10 listings that he owns himself, and three of those are shipping containers that he turned into a very unique tiny home. He is currently growing his management company to take on more clients.  Anuj talks about how his background in business helped him started his short term renting business and had it going smoothly. He also shares how the idea of converting a shipping container to a short term rental property was brought and what he did to make it stand out from the rest. 

Investing in short term rentals takes a lot of risk, especially that you will be putting a lot of money and hard work in it, and Michael Cotroneo took that risk. Michael was a full time employee who bought his first single family home in Houston in July 2017. He rehabbed it and turned into a long-term property. Later on, he realized that doing short term rentals is more beneficial since it’s giving him a higher rental income. In addition to that duplex, Michael invested in RVs and currently owns multiple properties in Arkansas. In this episode, Michael shares his experience in transitioning from working as a W2 employee to owning and managing short term rentals. He also talks about the contrast of investing between single family homes and the RVs, and the difference of rehabbing homes for short term rent vs. long term rent.

In this episode, I had the special honor of speaking with David Krauss. David is the co-founder of NoiseAware, an innovative noise monitoring service for short term and vacation rental managers. After a party that happened at one of David's airbnb properties, he was forced to sell his property and lost over $30,000 which almost ruined his business. David met Andrew Schulz and they started to build the "The Smoke Detector for Noise" with the goal to save short-term rental owners and managers from the same nightmare David endured. This is a great episode where we talk all about what Noiseaware is, why it’s a crucial tool for your business, and how you can stop parties from happening in the first place. Get a FREE Noiseaware and 6 months of free monitoring when you sign up with Booking.com https://ShortTermSage.com/noiseaware

Today I had the honor of speaking with Julie George. Julie is a rockstar based out of Cairns Australia. Over the course of 3 years, Julie impressively built up a portfolio of over 120 listings through cohosting, bringing in up to 550k a month! Julie recently sold her management company, Host My Home, to a larger conglomerate, Hometime for over 7 figures. Julie now is working as a consultant for property managers, promoting her book Million Dollar Host, and sharing way too much information that I'm surprised hasn't gotten her into trouble yet. (you'll see why in the episode) In this episode, Julie shares her strategy on identifying gaps in the market, a unique way of scaling a cohosting business, and so much more.

Today I had the honor of speaking with Jeremy Schmitt. Jeremy is the founder of the Pasion Group, a Short Term Rental property management company servicing primarily in the Chicago area. Jeremy started 2.5 years ago with no prior experience and partnered as a Junior Investor working with an experienced property manager in the UK. Jeremy was able to build his first management company, Help Host, to over 50 properties in a little over a year. Jeremy sold off his share of the company to his partner to be able to start his style of management in the Pasion Group.

Today I had the honor of speaking with Rick Carlson. Rick hosts out of Kodaline, Idaho and owns 2 duplexes managing 4 units. Rick is a real estate agent, host, and cleaning company owner and shares his experiences managing these three different aspects of the business allowing him to be a full-time entrepreneur. Rick shares a lot of really great information all about his experiences in growing a cleaning company and finding reliable cleaners.   Acuity Scheduling: https://shorttermsage.com/acuity    Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str26 ⁠ The Host Nation Facebook Group: https://shorttermsage.com/HostNation   Vacation Rental Machine: https://shorttermsage.com/vrm

Today I had the honor of speaking with Nathan and Raquel Carrillo. Nathan and Raquel are full-time hosts who currently reside and manage 5 units in Mexico City which they've scaled up to in 5 months. Their portfolio of 5 consists of 2 properties which they own and 3 which they are subletting. In this conversation, Nathan and Raquel share their experience of growing this business in a short 5 months, how they've organized their business for easy scalability, how to create units that stand out, and what it's like managing multiple properties in Mexico.   Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str25 ⁠ The Host Nation Facebook Group: https://shorttermsage.com/HostNation   Vacation Rental Machine: https://shorttermsage.com/vrm

Today I had the honor of speaking with Adam & Asury Johnson, a power couple coming out of Clarksville Tennessee who owns 41 properties which they've acquired through subject-to financing. Adam and Asury have been converting these properties into short term rentals since 2017 and are now operating 13 units which they own due to creative financing.   Adam and Asury share their journey of transitioning from active duty military and medical technician to full-time real estate investors, how they have been able to grow a portfolio of 41 properties, and how anyone can acquire properties through creative financing.   Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str24 ⁠ The Host Nation Facebook Group: https://shorttermsage.com/HostNation   Vacation Rental Machine: https://shorttermsage.com/vrm  

Today I had the honor of speaking with Charles McPike. Charles is a Forex trader and host, based out of Hollydale California area who operates 2 units that he's acquired using rental arbitrage.   In this episode, Charles shares his experience of turning his life around through the power of positive affirmations by reprogramming his brain to think more positively, his fears and failures of starting a new business, and many practical tips to starting on the right foot.   Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str23 ⁠ The Host Nation Facebook Group: https://shorttermsage.com/HostNation   Vacation Rental Machine: https://shorttermsage.com/vrm

Today I had the honor of speaking with the amazing Kate Birtch from episode #2. Kate is a host with multiple properties and is also the founder of Property Protect, a short term rental insurance company that fills a pretty unique space in between Airbnb's resolution center and your primary home insurance. In this episode, Kate educates us on what to look for with insurance, what you need to be covered for different business models such as subleasing and cohosting, what property protect covers and the steps you need to take when an incident does happen.   Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str22 Learn how to start, automate, and scale a Vacation Rental business. Vacation Rental Machine: https://shorttermsage.com/vrm The Host Nation Facebook Group: https://shorttermsage.com/HostNation  

Today I had the honor of speaking with Tyann Marcink. Tyann is a powerhouse in the vacation rental community as she manages 10 properties, runs a photography business focused primarily on maximizing earnings with vacation rentals, is a community ambassador for Touchstay, cofounded the VR Mastered Bootcamp, and is a frequent speaker at VR events, educating the audience on marketing and photography tips.   Tyann shares her experience of over 13 years in the industry as well as super actionable tips on how you can increase your Short Term Rentals conversions by taking better photos.   Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str21 Learn how to start, automate, and scale a Vacation Rental business. Vacation Rental Machine: https://shorttermsage.com/vrm

Today I had the honor of speaking with Farhan Abbasi. Farhan is based out of Boston Massachusetts and runs a coworking space called Coalition Downtown while also managing a portfolio of 15 properties also located in the Boston area. Farhan has been in the rental arbitrage subleasing space since 2012 and throughout his short term rental ventures managed 40 properties but has had to scale back to due to tightening regulations. In this success story, Farhan shares transitioning from climbing the corporate ladder in Accounting and Finance to leaving the rat race and taking up self-employment and hospitality, the steps to building systems that allow him to manage his properties part-time, and the challenges of tightening city regulations and having to dissolve properties.   Podcast show notes available here: https://shorttermsage.com/str20 The Host Nation Facebook Group: https://shorttermsage.com/hostnation Free Airbnb Rental Arbitrage Course https://shorttermsage.com/vrm