Quote: (06-08-2017 01:51 PM)Scuba_Instructor Wrote:
It's reassuring to hear that renting your place out to strangers didn't bother you as much as expected. I'm soon to rent out my place full-time due to heading overseas and having spent a lot of time and effort fixing the place up, i'm finding the idea of (albeit vetted) strangers living here a little disconcerting. I've always refused to fall into the trap of 'the things you own end up owning you' a la Fight Club, and have minimalism down to an art form, but it's funny how you can still grow attached to shit.
Getting the personal stuff out and into storage will no doubt help; once the place is just walls, floor and ceiling I'm sure it will be a lot easier to leave
The thing you and many others miss from this concern is this:
Quote: (06-08-2017 03:10 PM)Laner Wrote:
I keep all my furniture and kitchen shit in there. By personal I mean clothes, albums and things that have some sentimental value. Anything that can be replaced with money, I don't give a shit about! It does feel good.
So many people are worried about the "expensive" stuff getting broken and they forget to realize that the only valuable stuff is the sentimental or the stuff that's easily replaceable. Have a 60" TV? Make your security deposit high enough to cover replacing it and then stop fucking stressing about it. If you are renting out a place short-term and you are renting to someone who would break a TV or do major damage, either your price is too low or you're not being selective enough when renting. Professional travelers, families, responsible adults not looking to party are who you're looking for.
Quote: (06-08-2017 07:11 PM)worldtraveler3 Wrote:
If it's just full for the weekends I don't think it could be worth it to let out. That's only around 8 days a month. If you are going for 2 months I assume you have a pretty flexible work situation. But Why not just rent to a friend if you have dates fixed in advance.
Renting to a friend in advance? How many friends do you have exactly that need a place for only a month or two? This is an extremely rare situation, so I'm surprised you'd suggest it as an easy alternative.
He's in a nice area with high demand from travelers/tourists, so his weekend rates I'm sure are high enough to make it worth it.
Quote: (06-08-2017 09:50 AM)Laner Wrote:
Anything left behind I could care less about. AirBnB insurance covers all this easily. Some people can't believe I would let strangers into my home while I am not there. At first I thought it might bother me, but it never did. Its 4 walls in a concrete high rise. Who cares if a stranger takes a shit in my toilet bangs on bed (I have a complete separate AirBnB bin for towels, sheets, shampoo, soap, etc)
This is an extra $10k a year for me, and pays all my holidays. I can't imagine having to go back to paying for them out of pocket. But Vancouver is fucking retarded sometimes and is trying to make AirBnB illegal, so we will see.
While I'm not recommending people do short-term rentals on their place. A nice unit (like Laner's sounds like), in a high demand location, can definitely bring in pretty decent income. If you're willing to take a shit in a hotel bathroom after it's professionally cleaned, which has had thousands of people shit in it, what's the difference between that and your toilet? They make waterproof/spill proof mattress pads and you could use completely different sheets/towels.
The downside is that you can only make any decent coin on short term rentals if your place is in a great location for tourism/visitors and sleeps a decent amount of people. There's not much money usually in shared situations (where you have 2 bedrooms and rent out the other bedroom only and they share the rest of the space). Best bet is multi-bedroom homes that people can rent the entirety of (focus on families and working professionals in town for conferences/events) in a high end area.
I have a friend who rents out his 2 bedroom when he travels and it usually pays for most/all of his vacation expenses. The added benefits he has are that his place is always ready to go which means he doesn't accumulate a bunch of shit in his place (minimalist) and it's almost always clean/picked up. Further, in order to attract more rentals he's upgraded his place so he gets to enjoy his place even more as it has higher end furniture/appliances/decorations than he would if he just lived there.
It is not for everyone, and most places won't have enough demand to actually make any real income, but it can definitely be a strategy for some money success given the right situation.
The same factors apply to any very small business/sole propietorship. Even if you're not doing the cleaning or maintenance yourself, you've gotta be on top of cleaning, maintenance, mundane paperwork/office work, responding to potential guests quickly, inspecting the property well, dealing with the inevitable issue that comes up, and of course keeping the neighbors happy by doing solid screening and making sure your occasional or full time business doesn't get fined/shut down.