Finally AirBNBed our primary residence!

[clairebonk]

We are renting it out for 10 nights in April! No bites yet for the rest of the year. I am wanting to splurge on vacas away from the house because they are essentially free but I am too mustachian, we’ve mostly been camping.

We’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, it feels good to follow through.

[St Elmo]

@clairebonk I've been wanted to do this with our house for a long time, but haven't been able to convince my spouse. We live in a college town and the going rate for smaller houses farther from campus are going for $1500+/night for graduation weekend and gameday weekends.

How has your experience been? Any lessons learned you can pass on in case I ever try it? Are there any resources you've found helpful for knowing the best way to set things up for renting out your house?

[iris lily]

I live in a tourist town and I know I could get $800 minimum a night during festival eight nights in the fall. But I don’t wanna.

The idea of the work to put away stuffI to keep the hordes from snooping, and then I would have to come in and clean Between guests– UGG. Not worth it.

[HenryDavid]

Like Iris Lily we are just too lazy. And long ago stopped chasing the next possible dollar.

In order to avoid wasting our useable house space when we’re not there, we usually find a friend who’s between places, an artist or writer needing a work space, etc. and just let them use it. Cool stuff has been made in our house over the decades.

[Cassie]

I would never do this as people wouldn’t be careful and I have nice things I don’t want ruined. Plus having to remove valuable items. My folks owned a summer resort for 10 years and people steal, break things and ruin things. I also live in a tourist town. Luckily my hoa forbids any rentals for less than 30 days. One person was doing this but once we realized it we stopped it.

[314159]

Nice job, OP!

If I owned rather than rented, I would definitely be interested in short term renting it out while we are out of town for more than a week at atime. The inefficiency of paying for a place to stay when I'm out of town while my own home goes empty irks me! Especially if it's during a big event that brings in out-of-towners and drives up prices. I like the idea that someone else can pay for my vacation.

Admittedly there are costs in terms of packing up valuables and potential damage to belongings or the building. But there's a deposit and if the price is right you can definitely come out ahead in the long run. Still, I wouldn't try to convince anyone who's not already interested that they should do it; I think it needs the right sort of mind set. Plus you have to be OK with strangers doinking on your furniture. Weird, but again, everyone has their price XD

[Chris Pascale]

Nice job, OP!

If I owned rather than rented...........

There's a Bigger Pockets episode from a few years back where the guest is renting a bunch of places and just AirBNBs them.

"My only risk is the security deposit," I recall her saying at one point.

The YouTube comments are of the WTF variety, but looking at them now there are surprisingly few. Perhaps BP re-posted (or I found the wrong link) because I'm positive I heard this back in 2020, and this post is from 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E957AviBj2E

[clairebonk]

Just funded a couple months in Europe. So far it’s worth it!

[brandon1827]

Congrats OP!

My wife and I have talked about doing this so many times. I think it would most likely be more feasible for us when our son (8th grade) goes to college. He'll most likely end up going to UT which is 3+ hours away and we will also most likely spend a lot of time there while he's in school so the house will be sitting empty for several weeks/maybe months per year and it seems silly to not make money that way if we're not going to be there anyway.

[Dicey]

Just funded a couple months in Europe. So far it’s worth it!

I missed this thread completely. Oh, I was kind of busy last April, duh. It sounds like it's working well. It was nice to see you the other day, if only in passing, lol.

[sonofsven]

I'd like to do this and I bet my place would rent well, as it's a pretty sweet location near to the popular tourist trail, but I fear I would have to upgrade to "push button heat".

Currently I only have a wood stove.