Rentrepreneur - A new type of investing

Yep, you could be correct @Excalibur1. More people doing it, it might be harder to make money... winter for me was really easy to be honest. Dropped my min night stay slightly and dropped rates slightly but fully booked, like 90% (and I dont take 1 night stays as a general rule... If I wanted to fill those odd nights, I could have). I got a 3 week long booking for August in May which really helped so I wasnt worried.
There's still heaps of visitors to Sydney any time of the year.
Just everybody... stay out of my turf please!

 

I'm getting double the normal rent. ~$1000 per week and it was a 510k purchase 1 year ago. More electricity usage for sure though, plus internet. To furnish isnt expensive. Fairly easy money for me but you need to stay organised.

 

that is really really good! Well done!

For the last 6 months i keep proposing ideas to my wife on possible businesses she can run. She rejected every single idea except AirBnB! I knew persistence pays off!!

Do you recommend doing it in units or houses? We were thinking of starting in units to test the waters.

 

Imo... Units for full property airbnbs... simply easier to clean. For a place you live in yourself though, I found townhouses good. They tend to be fairly modern. Especially great if you can give the guests their own bathroom.

I think having a big house would be too much trouble... many more sheets towels etc needed. Plus I feel big groups are likely to do more weekends only (imo only) and parties too, so while you can charge more, you might not get the weekround demand and maybe worse quality of guests.

But my unit... doesn't matter, weekend or weekday, there's demand all the time, particularly if you are in or near the city. And you could be surprised... people (couples and family groups) want to stay somewhere multiple weeks.

 

Thanks im learning a lot from you on this topic!

Do you have any issues from neighbors? If you did how did you handle them? Do you think it would be better in a larger complex of buildings or a building with 5-10 units?

 

I had heard no issues from neighbours, if I did I'd convert it back to a normal IP though. Complex.... ideally... if you are trying to do it in a strated property i'd just do it in a unit that is as discreet as possible... not in a location where all the building occupants walk past all the time. But be prepared to possibly incur the wrath of neighbours and Council at your own peril!

 

@Gockie your airbnb place i presume is not a unit?

 

I am happy to PM you the link! (Cant share the link here directly... falls under the "no soliciting business" and "no selling" rules.)

 

Ok thanks - i'm trying to setup one in melbourne so def no competition to you.

 

Fundamentally flawed investment strategy. But let me get this right, you want to invest half your hard earned money into furnishings - depreciating assets - and put the other half into rental bonds - non interest earning accounts?

Furthermore, your wanting to pursue a cash flow strategy when (I'm guessing) you should be in a growth stage?

You talk about portfolios but how well have you thought yours through?

I'm not suggesting you can't make cash flow, you can sell meth to 4th graders and make cash, doesn't mean it's sustainable, smart or conducive to your end goals.

 

Hi @Turbo_C,
Can you quote all the posts you are referring to in your response? I can't for the life of me join the dots to follow your argument and see how you arrived at your conclusion, that's all...

 

I would love to host in Melb. My ADL inner city place only host once or twice a month, there are just so little tourists in ADL sadly.

 

maybe the OP doesn't have enough initial capital to purchase something and needs to extra cash to begin something - nothing wrong with that. If it is not sustainable - then move on to the next thing.

 

I was thinking the same. And re: the furniture. It can cost fairly minimal dollars to fit out (if you look on Gumtree) and you make the outlay back in the first ~6 weeks anyway. Beyond that, its profit.

 

Very true strategy or not if it mean an extra 2-3k on the side in ur pocket why not?

 

I think its really good strategy if you have the time to do it. Even if you don't there are a lot of services that take care of it for you. If you buy in areas with high CG then you have nothing to worry about. I'm sure people doing it are only doing it to get a higher yield on their properties as well as CG that can come with it. It doesn't cost much to furnish a place.

 

Definitely worth it but it takes a fair bit of time and effort and you have to be very clear. Even then there are those that don’t read instructions.

 

Picking up this conversation again, 8 years later!

Did anyone follow through with starting a business subleasing properties on AirBnB?

Without looking into it to much it seems like the market is saturated with AirBnBs, which certainly seems to be contributing to rental shortage in my opinion.

I'm guessing this is not as sure a bet these days however interested to see if anyone has some profitable ventures going on? Did you negotiate an agreement with the landlord or do it on the sly?

 

I'm in a similar head-lease space. Started about 7 years ago.
I've written a few posts about it.

I have acquaintances in the airbnb space.

Doesn't do so well in winter, kills it in summer.
Averages out to a decent income.

Comes down to what you consider a decent income, and business gravitas on how large you can scale it.

Any specific questions?