Airbnb Host and Investors Forum General Advice « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 9 Next » A Short Term Rental (STR) Forum Community

[lpc1988]

What exactly are the arbitrage listings which I always see posted in every Facebook airbnb thread? Are they scams? If doing a str vs. rental was so much more profitable why don't the owners just rent out the properties short term themselves?

[nvoi65]

These people are scams, there is nothing they offer that you can't find out for free. Please save your money. Generally they will try to get you interest in a course offering fools advice on how to get rich doing “rental arbitrage” where you rent out a property and use it as a short term rental.

[ohtanisbookie]

The “attractive business model” is fake created to generate revenue through social media views and paid content. You are sucker if you think it’s real.
Save up the capital to purchase your own property and launch your own STR business and you will also have the knowledge to make it successful (hopefully housing prices and interest rates come down – now is just not a good time TBH). People who run successful STRs do not arbitrage because with owning you not only have cash flow from managing but also gain wealth through asset appreciation tax advantages and debt leverage.

With arbitrage your landlord will get all of those advantages and you hold all the risk. Ideally you want your work and effort to pay your mortgage and not someone else’s mortgage. This is why arbitrage is a poor use of your time and effort.

[YYH05]

I travel for work and have stayed in a few “arbitraged” airbnbs when I realized I was checking into a rental complex. I always check the rent and run the numbers and have yet to stay in one where the host is making any money. They’re always a week away from losing not even breaking even for the month. I have yet to stay at a super-host listing at an arbitrage property or one where there are more than a handful of prior reviews. Unsurprisingly, I always seem to be the first or second guest in these situations, as the hosts tend to quickly find out they are losing money.

[Autoslash]

Pretty sure the airbnb I am staying at is one those arbitrage models. ~3K monthly rent in a luxury building for a 1 bed renting an avg of $200 a night. Only a few guests before me. I just don't see this lasting as every time I need to get into the garage I have to use the callbox to call the host. What if I'm coming back at 3AM??? On top of that, the "luxury" listing uses cheap furniture - think ikea futons, flatscreen on the wall with the wires dangling (my pet peave), no amenities... not even a bottle of water. Also, check in was quite interesting.. there was a fake plant outside the door and the key was just underneath. No lockbox or anything.

[back2thebay]

If they were actually making money with arbitrage then they wouldn’t be trying to get more competition… it’s always a scam. “A fool and his money…”

[frappant]

Rental arbitrage is a bad idea.

If you are not going to own any property outright and build equity and only making 20-30%, you are better off being a property manager for an STR. You charge a fee to run the property based on percentage of revenue. Generally, a high quality full service property manager can make between 20 and 30 percent of revenue. This is the actual low risk way to make money on STRs without owning it and get stuck into a year long lease.