A software engineer's unique Airbnb property

In Episode 21 of The Richer Geek, Skyler Whorton was a guest and shares with us his unique approach and adds on some great tips that we have already learned about in the previous episodes. 

Skyler purchased his first short term rental home because he and his partner, Madison, love creating stylish, fun and thoughtful spaces that stand out. When they put the homes together, they love using colors and interesting furniture, and all kinds of interesting design elements. They also love to host and share that with people that they love. So they love having friends, family and neighbors over and like to host and throw parties.They love to share all that design with everyone and really enjoy the space that they live in. They love to travel. And have been to some short term rentals. Some of them are great. Some of them are not so great. And when they go to the not so great ones, they say to them ourselves

“Gosh, we feel like we could probably do this better.This doesn't seem that hard. Like, what's holding us back from this?”

Focusing On Names Of Properties

Skyler and Madison’s focus has been on creating a space that reflects the things that they love most about Arizona such as the natural beauty, the wildlife in the area, the history of the area, and the lifestyle they want to share with other people.

Their vacation home is called the Ollie. The property that they purchased has an amazing backyard and the whole back perimeter is a big wall of oleander trees which are very shabby, bushy tree, probably 10 feet tall and they make these beautiful, white or pink Flowers. They shortened the name of oleander and came up with Ollie. 

Choosing Your Short Term Rental

Having a location close by as your first venture into real estate is a great choice. Skyler chose his first home close by in case something went wrong they would be able to get to it. As for what they were looking for, they knew they wanted a single family home with three more bedrooms. And the reason for that is really specific, setting up space and privacy that appeals to groups of people. And it's immediately different than the product that a hotel often offers, which is one bed or two beds or media suite, if it's a really fancy hotel, they might have a bigger suite. But immediately they were no longer really competing with people that are just renting a hotel room for a couple of nights for themselves. 

It is also important to look at numbers when purchasing your short term rental. Looking at what other rentals charge, what hotels were charging the area, and since Arizona is such a seasonal market, also at different times of year, you can compare that with home prices. Think about how much the mortgage you take will be and what rent and expenses will be. 

What Is Involved In Getting A House Ready

In addition to some of the things you might expect, what repairs are needed and types of things you need for a long term rental. For Skyler and Madison though it was more than that. They say they are pretty particular people. They know that they have a high standard for things. They wanted the place to feel like someplace they would be excited to go and stay on vacation. So that was kind of their guiding light for all of the products around the around the house, and everything that they did. So they made the design the way they like to imagine themselves living there and imagined themselves hosting people. And in addition to that, they built some relationships with different tradesmen and vendors that were going to help them run it. So they got a great pool person and a great landscaper and people that they knew they could trust to keep things looking a way they would expect it to. And the kind of cap on all of that was when they were really putting the finishing touches on actually going and staying there themselves and imagining themselves being on vacation, spending nights there and using all of the appliances and fixtures and realizing firsthand what would bother them and what they needed to fix or improve on. They also asked some of their friends and family to do the same and stay there and give them feedback. 

Creating Local Partnerships

Skyler and Madison really wanted their guests to have a real Arizona experience when they stayed there. They wanted people to feel like they were experiencing the desert, experiencing what Scottsdale was. They found some local brands whose products they really liked. So whether that was the coffee, lotions,hair products,etc. They weren't the cheapest things.The really kind of splurged for something that people would really enjoy and find remarkable. When they approached those brands and just said "Is it okay If we use these products? We're building the short term rental business, we want to feature you like, Is there a way we could get some wholesale pricing on some of these things?" You'd be surprised at the response that they got just by asking people and letting them know that they're going to be a part of your business and your brand. People get really excited about that. They had a lot of success with that and built some really good partnerships that way. 

In every bedroom, they have a little card with a QR code and you can type in the site and say, Do you like these products? Here are links where you can go and buy them online or find their stores in Arizona.

Managing Properties

There are a lot of property management companies that specialize in short term rentals, and they do all of the managing for you. You turn your property over to them, and they handle all those things for you. And they just send you a check at the end of each month after they've taken their commission out, which could be between 20 or 30% of your bookings. And then all you worry about is taxes at the end of the year. And unless there's some big emergency, like your house is actually on fire,you'll never get a call from any guests or anyone about any problem. For Skyler and Madison, one of their passions is travel and they still wanted to be able to travel and have business continue. So they needed to find someone they trusted to be there in person,every time and if there are any issues that came up. But on the other hand, they didn't want to go full property management because there were some parts of the business that they really loved. They loved building their brands, they love marketing, they love doing social media. Sometimes they love talking to guests. So why would they pay a full service property management company to do all those things that they love doing and that they think they are adding value to the business by doing.

The challenge for them was finding somewhere in the middle someone to worry about the things at the property, and managing the business day to day but letting them kind of provide value on those other things.And so they decided on a professional co host. There's a good book that Madison read called the Abundant Host. They got a lot of inspiration from it about finding this person that you develop this relationship with. They kind of become part of your business, you're trusting them with a lot. And they're also kind of relying on you to. They want to feel empowered. They want to feel like they're part of it, they can make decisions, they can really take ownership of the guest experience. 

Finding A Co-Host

Skyler first looked in their networks, they knew some people that could potentially have filled that kind of role. They didn't find a lot of interest out there. So they moved on to kind of other channels. They posted a job description on indeed. They also thought about like other people who are in the gig economy, if their schedule is very flexible, and they have the right interests and skill set, maybe that's something that type of person would be really into. And they didn't really find much there either. So the next thing they tried was going on to some online communities so Airbnb for Facebook. From there they received responses and were able to find a candidate. 

How To Manage Seasonal Markets

There are different parts and different phases to help with this. One area is breaking down everything from knowing if they ate all the snacks to using all the towels and having to wash them and what the cost of that would be. 

They look at not only what other Airbnb’s are charging around them and their neighborhood, but also what hotels are charging, and they don't necessarily try to undercut but they kind of want an idea of seasonally what are people paying to come here and stay here. The other thing that they look at is the timing of events and holidays that bring travelers to the area and they know that they can charge when demand is higher during those times.

Challenges Of The Overall Process

Skyler and Madison have had experience with a lot of different sorts of pieces.As he mentioned they love design. They have bought a home before they’ve gone through all the mechanical sort of steps of that dealing with contractors. The thing that was new for them, and maybe most challenging was kind of the process about finding a co host, because of the way they were structuring their business, it was so important to have someone they could trust basically, unconditionally with their property and their reputation. 

Check out the full episode here.