Is the $130 a night in the $425,000 home an off season rate?

My sons Airbnb rates drop at this time a year throughout the summer. He bought his place during the slump. Some who bought at higher rates might want their 2nd home to pay a Bit for its self. They schedual their stay times and have the rest of the days bringing in some money.

Not as far as I know, justerrilynn. Maybe they will try for more next season, but that house just sold in April and went into VRBO immediately at that price.

ETA Their insurance must be sky high because the flippers were under the Chip and Joanna spell and ripped out the front wall of the house, so now the entire front wall is the floor to ceiling jalousie windows of the porch, and you know how much insurers in S FL like that.

I think it will get tougher in the next year for son (and others). Right now he stays busy year round but in the past year there are so many more Airbnb's in the area.

Yes, I've been wondering about that, too. How many can an area support? Especially a rather esoteric one like LW, which is definitely a like-it-or-hate-it kind of place.

Also, when a person just starts up with the Airbnb they often have their prices low to get people in and to get those all important reviews.

Yeah, I can see that. What I can't see is how with paying that much to get in, you are ever going to break even.

I don't know about that as I can only afford one house :)

Between his job and the Airbnb money my 25yr old is making a killing. He is taking a year (he thinks) to travel the world. I was asked to run the Airbnb in his absence (with pay) but declined. It's A Lot of work with three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths of laundry plus upstairs down stairs. He has hired someone else. With Airbnb one bad review on cleanliness can kill you. I hope it works out but have a feeling I have not heard the last of him trying to rope me in. I'm not playing though. He needs to think of a long term renter.

He needs to think of a long term renter.

Yeah, but that's a lot less income than the short term rentals can generate if you're successful. Friends of mine who were looking for something to rent long-term have totally backed off because with the current feeding frenzy the prices just don't work out to make it worthwhile, unless of course you're one of the people who believe that this time prices will only go up forever.

I found out an interesting fact in a small upstate NY town where we own a building.

One of the shop owners DIL started an Airbnb behind the store. Other Airbnb participants in the area quickly told her that her price was too low! They are unofficially regulating the cost per night.

We recently purchased a house in so cal for use during the winter months. We are renting it during the summer months. Our intent is to help cover the costs of second home ownership. We are not using airbnb or vrbo but are using a realtor. Our town and community prohibits short term rentals(under 30 days).

Thanks, Gooster and czarinalex. The city has had previous discussions about putting limits on short term rentals, although at the time things were bad enough there economically that they listened to the pleas of the folks who were relying on vacay rentals for most of their income and shelved it for the time being.

Now they have switched focus to dealing with the plague of bad sober homes, but I would not be surprised if the solution to that doesn't also involve passing laws something like the ones in San Francisco, which will have a huge effect on the lower end of the housing market there.

ETA Actually, where I live most owners are seasonal and rent their properties short-term at other times. In the past this has worked well, but now we are getting new owners who are using them for short term drug dealing/supposed drug rehab, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in the rules here, too.

I have wondered this myself, as we just found out our next door neighbor is renting their lovely basement space as an AirBnB. We have been here 1.5 years and never even noticed! Their house is actually going on the market this summer and I imagine it'll be listed well over $400K, which is a pretty nice house in this area. Their nightly rate for AirBnB is $90. I can't imagine why they bother renting it, but maybe they have fun with it.

We had a rental property at the beach which we just sold and we rented weekly through VRBO. It was a seasonal summer weekly rental and only rented for 11-12 weeks a year. That did not cover the taxes or maintenance costs of the property (there was no mortgage) but helped to defray some of them. We kept it because we were banking on appreciation, which it did quite handsomely, and was the reason we sold once we received a full price offer.

We kept it because we were banking on appreciation, which it did quite handsomely

Yes, i can understand that, but in an area where the price for that house has gone from $52K three years ago (so after the slump had passed) to $425K in April, I'm not sure how much more appreciation you can expect unless you are doing an immediate flip, in which case it would have been better to 86 the curbside furniture they put in there.

@writersblock, I think in a resort community the governments recognize that the general populace and merchants (and tax coffers) benefit from a regular flow of tourists and house price appreciation. However, having restrictions on maximum occupancy per home/unit or professional activities like the rehab houses are probably a good thing for all.