When considering exit strategies for a property, traditional real estate operators often look at sell, lease option, or rent. We try to consider the market and location from which a property is identified because there may also be a couple additional short-term rental income options to consider.
Renting out your home, condo, or townhome for short hotel-like stays (Vacation rentals) has been made popular by a few well-known enterprises. If your property is in or near a popular tourist destination, and you can find local labor to inspect and clean between visits, a property owner can usually collect higher than typical market rents. Chose the right area, deck your property out with the right amenities, price competitively, market well and you could enjoy some magic cash flow.
A lesser known but growing short-term rental opportunity for real estate operators relates to the travel industry. For example, having a property like aforementioned but near an airport, you could cater to airline personnel. Pilots, stewardesses, and other frequent travelling staff may opt to pay less money for a bed, in a room of a house because they can enjoy more homey amenities while saving money over a hotel. These types of property operators in out experience will have multiple beds in one bedroom, but they are seldom occupied at the same time. Especially, when airline crew fly the same routes repeatedly, a more home like feel can be just the ticket. For the property owner, they may be charging these people $400 a month but that may be a huge savings for flight personnel. Yet, the property manager renting 4 beds per room, 3 rooms per house, could essentially make closer to $4800 per month when normal rent for the same house might be 1/3 to 1/2 as much. That could seem like some magical cash flow compared to traditional income options.
Corporate rentals bear mentioning but with the economy less clear and more tele-commuting, many businesses are keeping a closer eye on travel expenses. Love to hear your thoughts? As always, we can not and do NOT offer accounting, tax, legal, financial, nor investment advice.