I've become my own client

Its been an interesting 2 months practicing what I preach on a daily basis to my clients that are looking for investment properties in Big Bear.  My husband and I bought a rental property last July and found a great tenant that lived in the home for a year but eventually moved off the mountain.  While that was great and worked out well for both sides we decided it was time to start renting nightly which was the original goal.

Two weeks before the tenant moved out we started ordering everything from furniture, decorations and cleaning supplies necessary to have it on the market July 2 after a long term rental move out date of June 30th.  I love difficult goals!

We stocked the house, got it ready and started renting it out July 2.  In the course of the 2 months that we've been renting the home out we have made the income equivalent of 6 months mortgage!  This is doing it on our own and has been a low level of involvement. (mainly responding to requests online, arranging cleaning and just being responsive).

100% of our rentals have come from Airbnb.  While we have it loaded on 2 separate sites (Airbnb and VRBO) it seems to be renting significantly more on one site than the other.  The beauty of having it on both is that the calendars can SYNC and not allow a booking thru one site if its rented thru the other.

I intend to use a company called Rental Ready Big Bear.  Some of my clients have used this company and been really happy with their service.  Basically they are a cleaning service that  does a la carte add on items depending upon what you want them to do. Their cleaning calendar syncs with your calendars so that they get notified when the renter is out and when they need to clean the home.  You can set up your Airbnb or VRBO to pay out directly to them as well.  All of this, and guess what- no management fees- you get to keep the income for what you are renting.

For now though, I've been using my military trained husband to clean the home each time we have an arrival.  He slowly but surely seems to be getting to a point of wanting to hire a company but we will surely get there in November when reservations hit the fan and its all hands on deck!

Its been a lot of fun and some back end work that happens to get where you have the home set up and the ball continues to roll easily but its worth it in the long run.  Always stay mindful of your neighbors and I always recommend screening your applicants that are wanting to rent your home.  In the last 2 months we have turned down several guests because we didn't feel that we were a great fit.

Feel free to reach out if you want help with yours or you'd like to buy a home that will make you a lot of money!  Rachael Smith 909-744-2190 or email at rachael@bigbearsold.com

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19551192?location=big%20bear