Discovering Short-Term Rentals with John & Wynde Williams

October 13, 2021 melissa Real Estate Comments Off on Discovering Short-Term Rentals with John & Wynde Williams

Discovering Short-Term Rentals with John & Wynde Williams

The short-term rental space has gotten more and more traction lately, especially when COVID put a lot of restrictions on hotels! If you’re a fan of real estate, or business in general, you might have wondered if the short-term rental game is the next big thing for you. Or, you might be totally hesitant on the new trend but just really looking to prove yourself right. Wherever you are on the spectrum, this episode is just for you!

We have two special people on the podcast, John and Wynde Williams. They’re experts in short-term rentals and the short-term rental arbitrage in general! This article touches on their experiences that led to the start of their short-term rental journey. If you’re looking to try things out, you’ll see that it doesn’t have to start out with buying a property at the get-go!

The points below are from the fifteenth episode of the Real Estate JAM, where John and Wynde talk about their first dip into real estate, figuring out how Airbnb worked, their model of focusing on the customer, the management side of short-term rentals, and COVID’s impact on the business. Hop on the short-term rental train before it leaves! Tune in on the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.


 

Too Much HGTV

If you’re reading this article, chances are, you’re a fan of HGTV, or at least have spent time watching a few videos. John and Wynde were massive fans of the show, so much so that they got inspired to try fixing and flipping! After all, these flippers were making a lot of cash. Maybe it could replace their current jobs as a software developer (John) and French teacher (Wynde)!

Their first fix-and-flip was okay. They didn’t make a ton of money, but they made money anyways. It was a spark of hope! But – sometimes the “hope” you’re looking for isn’t exactly what you expected. It’s not like what you see on TV, and the numbers never seem to be right. In this business, you have deal with contractors and other people that can ruin the “numbers”. After a few unfortunate circumstances, they went overboard with spending one property to the point that it wasn’t a “flip” anymore. They eventually became accidental landlords (some of which might be listeners of the show) who aimed to get their money back.

Yeah. That story does sound a little sad. But remember, we’re going to get into their discovery of Airbnb.

 

A Disagreement of Sorts

In the middle of all this fix-and-flip madness, John and Wynde went on a little vacation with their family. They stayed in a short-term rental. (In the podcast, they said they would have wanted to say it was Airbnb, but it may have been another platform.) This got Wynde thinking of trying out the same thing. They have a fully-furnished basement which already acts like a second house, which was used as a movie theater at the time when Wynde’s novel idea was brewing. Since it wasn’t exactly being used regularly, why not put it up for rent on Airbnb?

John wasn’t convinced, though. He didn’t think it was a good idea.

But Wynde did it anyway. She added three things to the basement – a bed, a microwave, and a coffee pot. From there, she immediately put it up on Airbnb for $59 a night (crazy low btw, even for a place 30 minutes from the city). What’s the worst that could happen?

 

The Man Who Wanted to Stay for Three Months

At first, they were worried if people would actually come, something that everyone feels on their first listing on Airbnb. But, eventually, people started booking! The second person to ever book with them wanted to be there for three months for work. Three months – which was a bit unsettling since it’s like having some random stranger move in with you for a while!

But as scary as that might sound, it was one of the best bookings they ever had. They were there for work, which meant they were only in the basement on the evenings. And, they even went home during the weekends!

When they’ve made crazy money because of this person, John and Wynde immediately thought of the fix-and-flip disaster. While they were making some money on that rental, maybe they could turn that into something bigger. We’ll talk about that next week.

But, if you’re too curious to wait, you can listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

 

Outline of the Episode:

  • [01:34] Getting into real estate, becoming “accidental landlords”.
  • [03:31] Discovering Airbnb. The second guest stayed for three months! How much did they get for the first few months?
  • [08:49] John and Wynde’s model for the business. It all starts with the customer!
  • [12:06] You can do short-term rentals WITHOUT owning the property! You can “own more basements”.
  • [16:53] The proper mindset to equip when talking to a landlord. What do you do when you get rejected? What if they’re hesitant about Airbnb?
  • [23:22] The management side of doing short-term rentals.
  • [29:36] The shift of focus to a local and regional market versus an international one (due to COVID). You influence and network are going to be crucial here!
  • [31:29] The impact of COVID to reservations and how they came back around. Even if people “ban” short-term rentals, people are still going to need a place to stay.

 

Resources:

 

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