213: Unlocking Your Creativity With Short-Term Rentals with Garrett Brown

Short-term rentals offer many opportunities for creativity. Creating a stand-out property can be the key to building a lucrative business and memorable guest experiences.

On this episode of Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing, Jonathan sits down with Garrett Brown, a resident short-term rental expert for BiggerPockets. Garrett is responsible for many of the STR emails from BiggerPockets and is an expert in short-term rentals, Airbnb, and glamping.

Jonathan and Garrett start their conversation by exploring the lure of short-term rentals and what differentiates the outstanding from the okay. Garrett outlines why a personal touch will always win, the three-year cycle it often takes to create a profitable STR business model, and the challenges of outsourcing communication with guests. You’ll hear why it’s always a good idea to ask friends to stay at your STR and “test” it before offering it to guests, the growing popularity of glamping, and how determining who your avatar is before you start can be critical to success. As they wrap up, Jonathan and Garrett share the importance of being transparent about the amenities and drawbacks of a property, the impact of reviews on a property’s performance, and partnering with local businesses to offer various packages for guests.

Short-term rentals aren’t for everyone, but for those with a creative streak and a knack for crafting unique guest experiences, they can be a lucrative and fun creative outlet.

In this episode, you will hear:

• The lure of short-term rentals for Garrett Brown and what separates the best STR owners from the okay ones
• Why a personal touch still wins, and proven vacation markets are reliable investments
• The three-year cycle it takes to start making money in STRs
• Outsourcing communication with guests, ensuring there is a standard operating procedure in place, and the mistakes that can be made
• Asking friends to “test” your STR before offering it to guests and creating a video that shows the nuances of the house
• The growing popularity of glamping and why it’s doing better than some of Garrett’s STRs
• Determining who your avatar is before you start
• Being transparent about the amenities and challenges of a property
• The importance of reviews to the algorithm on Airbnb
• Increasing ROI by partnering with local businesses and setting expectations
• The sources Garrett uses to evaluate what his markets are doing

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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://zenandtheartofrealestateinvesting.com/podcast/213/ to download it.

Supporting Resources:

BiggerPockets - www.biggerpockets.com

Garrett Brown on Instagram - www.instagram.com/garrettbrownre

Garrett’s TikTok - www.tiktok.com/garrettbrownre

Website - www.streamlined.properties

YouTube - www.youtube.com/c/JonathanGreeneRE/videos

Instagram - www.instagram.com/trustgreene

Instagram - www.instagram.com/streamlinedproperties

TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@trustgreene

Zillow - www.zillow.com/profile/StreamlinedReal

Bigger Pockets - www.biggerpockets.com/users/TrustGreene

Facebook - www.facebook.com/streamlinedproperties

Email - [email protected]

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know we sent you.