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I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

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Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#71

Post by crbnw00ts »

jeffandersen wrote: post #2

Was there anything specific when applying for insurance? Did you need to disclose it was being rented out or anything (I'm assuming if you had to this would affect premiums)?

You must be kidding! This is "disruption" we're talking about, after all. That means all precautions, regulations, contingencies, licensing, and everything else are out the window, full stop. What are you, some kind of last-century luddite who hates progress? What do you want, for the bad old pre-startup ways to contaminate things and spoil the party? "Insurance" is for non-entrepreneurial losers, and no one cases about them, because they're not really people anyway!

Just do a textual search for "insurance" in the article. Zero results found. Yep, it's "disruption" all right! Full speed ahead!

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#72

Post by jimt67 »

So you have roughly, a 27% ROI for your first year -- which seems good. Have you accounted for: Income tax? Property tax? Insurance costs? Legal risks: (i.e., you potentially in violation of law)? Liability risks: (i.e., something happens to a tenant)? Property damage risks (may be included in cleanup costs)? Labor costs (i.e., your time)? Property value appreciation/depreciation (could be a positive)? After that is all taken into account, I wonder if you end up netting more from a passive investment.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#73

Post by [deleted] »

naterator wrote: post #31
sn0v wrote: post #6

I wonder how he deals with unruly guests.

More specifically: What if they completely trash the place? How remote is he, and could he travel to do the repairs on sudden notice? Could legal wrangling over the damage make it no longer worthwhile? What about future guests who are displaced by a damaged and unlivable apartment? What would you do if your neighbor became fed up with unruly guests and tried to do something about it (legal or otherwise)?

[deleted]

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#74

Post by woofyman »

adrianpike wrote: post #68
wildgift wrote: post #30

That's messed up for the neighbors. Please don't do this.

I don't want to come across as being facetious, but why? At least in my building, there's a large percentage of neighbors who I don't know at all - whether they were renting via Airbnb or owners of their condo, it doesn't make a huge difference to me.

He's breaking the contract with the owners association that he agreed to on purchase. It lowers everybody else's property values and prevents them from selling their unit.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#75

Post by ahlatimer »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #40
smallegan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His question was does it work without having service. In other words offline mode. I think the answer is that no it does not.

I thought I answered that, while also providing additional information. I apologize if that seemed rude in any way.

You did not. The OP was asking if you had a phone in the equivalent of "airplane mode" or just no service where you are, would Lockitron work? You have a mobile phone, which meets your criteria, but Lockitron would not work with SMS access, since you can't send an SMS. Would it work for smart phones? I have no idea. The page you linked to didn't say one way or the other (or if it did, I didn't see it).

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#76

Post by petercooper »

objclxt wrote: post #17
adaml_623 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you exaggerate. zoopla and some research gives me (all city centre addresses): Manchester - £55K+ Leeds - £70K+ Birmingham - £45K+ Hull - 50K Bristol - 100K Norwich - 70K etc. If you're happy with a small village then I think you can find even cheaper.

Yes, I think the OP is rather mis-informed. There are plenty of places in the UK where you can get a one bed apartment for between £50-70k and not get a 'brick through the window'. Are these places you're likely to be able to rent out to full capacity on AirBNB? That's a different question.

I said "a house for under $100K" not a one bed flat. The one bed flat comparison was in my first paragraph.

Where in the UK are you going to pick up a (small) house in a non-rough area of a city for ~£61k? Let alone the equivalent of Las Vegas.. (don't say Blackpool!)

As someone who owns property in the UK, has lived in numerous areas of it, and is actively looking for somewhere new to live, I hope I'm not too misinformed in this area, but standards do vary. I'd contend you'd find nothing as attractive as the Las Vegas pad in the UK at such prices though.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#78

Post by brightsize »

rll wrote: post #13

If enough people do this it will be the end of Airbnb. This is one of the patterns the state of NY is using against Airbnb while Airbnb is arguing that the service is intended for people occasionally renting out their primary residence. If the state is able to prove a significant number of people used this model Airbnb is done in NY and I fear other states will follow.

When I was visiting Berlin last winter, I stayed at Airbnb flats and it seemed like a lot of the owners were doing exactly this. In fact, to your point, the city was, IIRC, about to forbid vacation rentals in certain neighborhoods. Berlin is rapidly gentrifying, there's a R.E. bubble going on, poorer people are being pushed out of the city, and this kind of thing intensifies that trend. I've no idea if cities in the US would be willing to step in and intervene if this became common here.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#79

Post by venutip »

Stuff like this makes me sad. When I first used Airbnb three years ago, it was easy to find a real person letting out their room or apartment to make some extra money. Nowadays, it's very difficult to tell who is a real person and who is just like this guy: an absentee landlord for a place they've never lived in. It's an abuse of the system, and it's people like this who are going to get Airbnb shut down. Blame them when it happens.

Re: I Bought An Apartment To Rent Out On Airbnb

#80

Post by jaredsohn »

glaugh wrote: post #61
rll wrote: post #13

If enough people do this it will be the end of Airbnb. This is one of the patterns the state of NY is using against Airbnb while Airbnb is arguing that the service is intended for people occasionally renting out their primary residence. If the state is able to prove a significant number of people used this model Airbnb is done in NY and I fear other states will follow.

I would imagine Airbnb could at some point cap the number of nights you could let a place out, right? Certainly not ideal from their standpoint, of course, but manageable?

A consequence of this could be that people who rent places out also use AirBnB's competitors. So this could perhaps help AirBnB politically, but wouldn't fully stop the problem.
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