New to AirBNB Advice on 2nd Home Purchase for AirBNB

[Shelley319]

Good afternoon,

My husband and I have rented on a handful occasions.  I have been in a corporate environment for several years.  My husband and I have owned businesses and are preparing for slowing down.  That said, I formerly lived in Maine (U.S.).  I now live in Missouri.  We are in the process of purchasing a second home in Maine because we are familiar with the area.  We have adult children in Boston.  Maine would be a state that I would like to explore more with my husband. 

Our thoughts are that we could use some of our savings, offer the home on Air BNB while we are not in state.  Preferably, we will find something near the coast (not right on the waterfront - too cost prohibitive).   

Here are the questions I have:

1. Any advice you wish someone would have shared with you before you bought a property?

2. Are there any specific challenges you faced while starting with Air BNB?

3. Do you own multiple properties or a single home that you rent out?

4. What are key elements we should be looking for during our search?

5. Is there a tool within Air BNB website that provides a list of restrictions by state or city in regards to Air BNB?  limitations such as minimum stays, etc.?

We are working with a realtor.  Just curious what we can expect.  What advice others would give before purchasing a home for this platform?

Thanks so much!

Shelley

[Shelley319]

@Laura2592  YES!!!!  Thank you!  This is what I needed.  I have been trying to weed through the many posts to find one with enough content to be helpful.  Bless you!

[Laura2592]

@Shelley319  no problem. We started small and relatively close by. We have thought about doing a second location and toured some candidate homes. I think it would be a lot of fun to expand our "brand"  but the upkeep on one additional home is a lot. We just dumped a few landlord properties in 2020 and are ready to invest, but prices are high, inventory is low, and the right property has just not come along. 

One thing I will say that is big consideration for me is my own emotional response to guests who are not kind or considerate. I LOVE our little cottage like its a member of the family. I put a lot of energy and attention into ensuring people have a pleasant stay. When they are rude, unreasonable or do damage, it bothers me on a deeper level than it should. I have owned about 20 houses over my short life, and you don't really get attached to all of them in the same way. I am attached to this one. My advice would be-- don't. Don't get so attached that every annoying person bothers you. Appropriate detachment is the way, as the Buddhists tell us 🙂 And don't wait for Airbnb to help you if you have issues. Because they won't. 

[Shelley319]

@Laura2592 I needed to hear this today.  I take great pride in my home and am extremely particular with how it is used.  I try to offer comfortable seating and accommodations with overnight guests.  I can be weirdly offended when someone wants to use my master bathroom when the guest bath in the hall with suffice.  Odd, I know.

 When I travel, I like to treat the home as my own.  I can imagine that brings relief to most hosts.  I bring my own pillows and shop at local grocery stores before arrival.  So I am usually satisfied with any arrangement I have rented.  I obsess during my search, so I know what to expect.  I do, however, know not everyone can be as religious about "Finding the perfect fit" for their vacation.  So, can I ask, what are the requests or the most absurd comments that you find yourself stumbling for a response? 

Thank you for your open feedback.  It helps a lot.

Shelley

[Pete69]

How long will you be out of state for? Whenever possible, I would want to lease rather than do the short-term transient occupancy thing. So much easier! The problem is that it's difficult to find people who want to rent for just a few months. Even finding tenants who want to rent for 6 months and then be gone is difficult.

[Ann72]

@Pete69  Towns and rural areas in Maine are just so different from Los Angeles.  Shelley definitely does not want to rent her place to a long-term tenant there.  There is a long tradition of summer cottages being rented seasonally and looked after by locals year-round.  It's an important part of the local economy.  Rent it out to a long-term tenant and you deprive several people of part-time work.

[Shelley319]

@Ann72  You have definitely become familiar with the economy in that area!  You are right that it is extremely dependent on local tourism.  Yet, the locals can sometimes be a little prickly about that fact. 

If we purchase another property after this one, maximizing the rental income may be more important than it is with this property.  For now, our primary focus is for our family to be able to access it as well.  The long term rental is not wise in this situation.   I wonder how many other hosts start with this exact situation and expand their properties over time.

[Shelley319]

@Pete69  Interesting thought.  We discussed this as well.  Again, my husband is not familiar with the New England market.  There is a long term rental market in Maine.  Even at the seasonal level.  Those tend to be for 30 days versus 6 months.  Most of those are on the interior of Maine towards "The Lakes" region.  My experience is from 10 years ago.  But what I have found in my research is that this still holds true. There is an extremely large population of out of state owners that occupy homes seasonally.  They close the homes down for "off season".  So, really those 6 month rental needs just don't exist in coastal Maine.  

We have children in Boston.  We will continue to keep our primary residence in Missouri.  We still own businesses there.  In the past, we have been the guest at AirBNB's.  It makes sense to just purchase a home and become the host.  We are slowing down in our businesses, and expect to travel at least 60% of the time.  Although all of that will not be in New England.  I suspect we will be out there 3 or 4 times a year.  At times for a week.  Other times for 3 or 4 weeks.  Our children may use the house on weekends when it is not occupied.  Do you think it seems reasonable to be able to keep it available for these times?

Thanks so much!

Shelley

[Pete69]

I can only speak for Pacific Palisades, CA (beach suburb of Los Angeles). I've done both short-term rental of my private guest suite, and held my entire home home out on VRBO for medium term vacation rental (minimum of 3 weeks to max 2 month bookings), and held my place out for a 6 to 9 month lease on Zillow. The medium-term vacation rental effort on VRBO (and later for a few weeks on Airbnb) was a total disaster. 10 inquiries and no bookings, although that was tried in the Winter months only (Summer might have been different). I had a better response from the leasing effort. I quickly found tenants who I actually wound up leasing to for 11 months. The short-term (2 to 7 days) rental market on Airbnb has been great, but of course that's much more work