Julian Sage:                       00:00                    In this episode we’re going to be talking about when is a good time to become a co-host. So stay tuned.

Julian Sage:                       00:06                    Vacation rental machine helps hosts just like you learn how to start, grow and scale your short term rental business. The show’s all about creating systems that help you automate your business, giving you more time and money freedom. If you’re ready to start living the vacation rental life, then subscribe to this podcast today, come and join us on our Facebook group, the host nation where we’ll be talking about starting automating and scaling a short term rental business. Now onto the show.

Julian Sage:                       00:33                    Hey, welcome back host nation to another episode of vacation rental machine. I’m Julian Sage and I’m with Jon Bell and we’re talking about when is a good time to start taking on co-host clients to start building your property management business. So Jon, you actually started a little bit later in your Airbnb short term rental journey with hosting. So when do you think is a good time to start taking on co-host clients?

Jon Bell:                              00:51                    You know what, for everybody out there, I would almost say now is a good time to start picking up co-host clients. Why? Because they don’t cost you any money. They’re really easy. You get the experience that you need and it just helps you inch towards whatever you want to do. Whether that’s the BRRRR method, whether that’s the rental arbitrage way to go or maybe you just say, Hey, I like co-hosting. I just want to grow this whole thing.

Jon Bell:                              01:18                    There’s plenty of businesses out there. Cohostit is one of them that actually we just cohost. It’s simple as that.

Julian Sage:                       01:26                    One of the big questions that I see a lot is rental arbitrage versus co-hosting. I know that we made a video about, you know, rental arbitrage, co-hosting, BRRRR, all the different methods, but for people that are just starting off, which do you think is the best model for people that are just starting?

Jon Bell:                              01:40                    I would say it really comes down to funds. If you don’t have 10 to 12 K to really put into an apartment or something where you could actually go get it and get the furniture and lease it out to somebody else, then co-hosting is probably the best way to go just because you just don’t have the capital that really is required to go out and do the rental arbitrage method. So you use the other methods to help get you a little closer to your other goal.

Julian Sage:                       02:09                    From your experience, Jon, because you had around 24 properties through rental arbitrage before he started taking on co-host clients, which is a simpler model though.

Jon Bell:                              02:17                    You know, there’s a catch 22 between both. Technically my units, the ones that I have rental arbitrage, they don’t talk to me. They just are performing. My cohost clients, they want to be handheld. They want to be talked to, they want to know what’s going on. It’s something that is required from both. I don’t have the risk or the burden of having to pay leases on my cohostit items, on my cohostit units. It’s a toss up between the two on which one’s better. Which one’s better for you? You’re really free to just go out and try whatever you want, but if you don’t have the capital I would go ahead and just try co-hosting. It’s really easy to get into and you can just speak about all the experiences that you have, set up a host experience if you like, just to get some reviews on something that you are actually performing for others so you’re used to the platform and you can speak to anything to a potential property owner.

Julian Sage:                       03:21                    As far as a scalable business though, which do you think is going to be easier for scaling? A cohost model or rental arbitrage model?

Jon Bell:                              03:26                    For scaling and scaling quickly with little or not that much funds? Co-Hosting is definitely the way to go. Let’s try to break down how easy it is to scale on both sides. I’ll start with co-hosting because I think it’s the easiest to really scale. You pretty much go and you talk to a bunch of people and you tell them what you can offer and they either sign a contract with you and you actually just picked up a new client/cohostit property. Very easy. On the rental arbitrage side, that looks more like you have to go out. You have to talk to the same property owners or maybe landlords or management companies. You have to convince them that you’re an okay person to allow into their building to then release to some other people and still battle all of the other issues that they might bring up for just short term renting in general.

Jon Bell:                              04:21                    You then go and sign the lease? You have to put down the down payment. All of this stuff has to happen. Then you have to go and get the furniture. There’s really just a lag in time. To me, that could be six to 10 weeks before you’re really up and ready to go. On the cohostit side, if the furniture is already there, you’re pretty much just scheduling a guy to come out and take photos. That could be a turnaround of a week. You get to money a lot quicker when it comes to co-hosting. However, the lag that you have within rental arbitrage, it’s kind of worth it because you’re going to make a lot more money when it comes to payouts at the end of the month, but it costs you some to kind of get in there. So you gotta weigh that ROI. Once you really get established with either one of the two, scaling the other is still very, very easy.

Jon Bell:                              05:17                    So they kind of go hand in hand. But which one is the path of least resistance? I would say co-hosting.

Julian Sage:                       05:23                    You know, I was honestly quite surprised, Jon, because when I, when I first started, I just had my basement unit and then I said, okay, well I want to start managing other people’s properties. So I created a website and I just made it very keyword heavy with like, you know, the DC area. And it was very minimal. I’m not a professional at making websites or SEO or any of these things, but I created this website, had a really simple form and I had people start signing up. And that’s actually how I got my first client was by creating this website and then just putting it out there and I didn’t really pay too much attention for it. And I still have people signing up for this website every once in a while that I don’t even actively manage.

Julian Sage:                       06:04                    So for the cohost model, there’s a lot of people that are interested that don’t want to be hosts themselves. And that’s golden opportunity for you to be able to start and make money off of those units.

Jon Bell:                              06:14                    Yeah. Most property owners, they know about the profits that they could really get from short term renting. So either they want to do it themselves or they want to give it to somebody else. Just make sure that you position yourself as the trustworthy, a well educated person that can come and just do this for them and you’re honest. You give them what your contract says that you’re going to give them. They give you what your contract says that you are due to them. At the same time, have fun with it. Ask for referrals because once you are successful with one person, they know somebody else.

Jon Bell:                              06:53                    Trust me. They didn’t just come up with this idea by themselves without talking to another person. That other person might be interested in the exact same thing especially once you prove yourself as yes, you are the person that can do this.

Julian Sage:                       07:05                    Yeah. I think you brought up a really good point, Jon. It’s that credibility. Like in rental arbitrage, you need to have credibility to be able to establish yourself as being a trustworthy person. And it’s the same thing with co-host. You have to have some form of credibility and one of the things that we have actually been working on is a way of being able to show that credibility, to be able to show that you do have experience even if you haven’t been hosting before. So for those of you that are interested i`n getting into co-hosting, we do have a project that we have been working on. Definitely, you want to stay tuned, keep listening to the episodes. It is still in progress. A little beta program that we are currently creating, but this is going to definitely help you to be able to establish your credibility and your authority as an expert in the space.

Jon Bell:                              07:51                    All right, hosts, question of the day. Which method do you prefer; co-hosting or rental arbitrage? Leave your comments below.

Julian Sage:                       07:59                    Until next time, host nation. Keep on hosting. Hope you hosts found value in this episode. If you did, please go on over to iTunes and leave us a review because that would greatly support the show. If you’d like to connect with Jon, the community, and I, then go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation, talk to you hosts in the next episode. Keep on hosting.