July 13, 2022

Episode 139: Remote listings & travel tax free

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General Real Estate, Operations, Property setup online

How to build an Airbnb Business: Remote listings & travel tax free

What if you could travel for free? Without tax that is. Well, you likely can.

I stayed at the most remote Airbnb I’ve ever stayed at in my life. I literally could barely get to it. After putting the jeep in 4×4 and dredging up and down muddy roads with deep crater-like holes we finally made it. Not without, however, two gracious Colombian gentlemen helping to push us up a hill while I had the throttle to the floor and mud shot all over their ponchos.

It’s hard to imagine a moment of peace after such an arrival. But it was peaceful. Staring out at the beautiful mountains where the clouds rolled by like waves in the sky. The rain spattered in from time to time but there was no noise to be washed out. Just the sound of nature and a crisp breeze.

Of course, as an investor in the short-term rental space, having accommodated over 20,000 guests in my properties, my mind started churning. I couldn’t help but think about the future success (or failure) of this property. Was the arrival just too treacherous? Was this property just too remote? We’ll break down the pros and cons of remote listings this week and wrap up with just how cool it is to explore the world and travel tax-free! This week’s topics:

Remote properties
Pros and cons of operating remote properties
Expectations
Are you eligible for a tax write-off for travel?
Is it possible you could use travel expenses to offset your ordinary income?

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Welcome to short-term rental riches will discuss investing in real estate but with a specific focus on short-term rentals quick actionable items to acquire manage and scale in your portfolio I’m your host Tim Hubbard.

I’m glad you’re here again joining me for another episode on the short-term rental riches podcast it’s an exciting world out there there’s a lot of exciting that short term rentals some easier to get to than others so I got a break down of my little story for you about this remote Airbnb I stayed in outside of many in Colombia where I spent about half the year living each year point 5 for quite a while. It’s fun to get out it’s fun to explore in this listing looked super super cool it was super super cool in fact but it wasn’t super super easy to get to and so I took my little jeep out and as soon as we ended the paved road the troubles began I mean I literally have that thing in 4 wheel drive for like 20 or 30 minutes and then of course the rain starts and I’m like bouncing up and down trying to get up the hills and sliding everywhere even to the point where to bless their souls Colombian that gentleman came by on motorcycles they were driving down the same road and they got out there so nice down here in Colombia one of the reasons why I love Columbia but they got out and they were literally pushing the back of my jeep I have this old school Mitsubishi Montero and it’s got a soft top it’s fun little jeep but I just couldn’t get up this hill and I swear I was like back and forth for 20 minutes just shooting mud all over these guys in the back with their ponchos and they were all for it I mean they’re like Catholic outgoing Mike finally got there so I love Columbia for that but it was quite the journey getting there and the sun was going down and we were out in the middle of nowhere so we finally arrive to this place and it is beautiful I mean it’s on the side of a mountain it’s just looking out into a valley that the clouds are floating by and it was super peaceful but the arrival was not peaceful at all and the expectations were not set so what is too remote there is such thing as too remote of a property now we can definitely make sure that we’re setting expectations that those were not said here and that’s one of the things would help but I want to break down just a couple the pros and cons with remote listings well for one they’re unique they can be exotic they can be very appealing for a lot of people out there that want to check them out they want to get away from the city. For example and depending on the area where you are the property could be cheaper now it’s not necessarily going to be cheaper to build it’s probably gonna be a lot more challenging to build especially if you’re in a situation like this where you can barely even get to it so the properties can be cheaper and might not be as cheap to build there you might have less strict regulations if you’re out in the middle of nowhere then you’re not gonna have a neighbor complaining about your rental you’re not going to have a CD with housing shortages saying Hey you’re taking away from our housing supply so you’re probably not gonna have as much risks there on the regulation side although you gotta check with your city a lot of times you still need some sort of permit to rent a place like this what about management so if you can barely get your place your place is really far away it’s really remote even if it’s just outside the city like 20 miles the management can be much more difficult right to have a housekeeper that’s nearby give a backup housekeeper that’s nearby what happens if you have an emergency is there gonna be someone able and willing to make it out there to help out your gas these are things that we definitely have to consider if we have remote listings and we gotta make sure we have backup plans so although high very likely would not stay at this property again because I can barely get to it it was super cool but the experience could have been a lot better had they just put some expectations and there are such a better expectation so how could they have fixed this specific property for example while they could have a video showing Hey you got to go down this road to get to the property and if it’s raining it’s probably gonna be twice as hard and if you don’t have 4 by 4 well forget it so definitely should have some information like that in there at least some photos and a description but maybe they would want to go a step further and say Hey. You have to take our guided tour in for example and we will coordinate your arrival with so and so they’ll pick you up where the pavement ends and they will bring you safely to the short term rental that they know very well quick intermission I’m super excited to announce the dates for next live event live and in person in Memphis Tennessee August 19 to 20 first this is our fourth live event and they just keep getting better and better and there’s not a ton a room so I hope you can make it will go through my whole process from start to finish what I look for properties how I find them how I set them up how I manage them how I manage them remotely with my teams and how we can scale the whole operations we take it from start to finish perhaps one of the most exciting parts we’re gonna get on tour bus and we’re going to visit some of my actual properties in action in the operation really hope you can join us you can check out tickets at rest methods.com and again it’s gonna be a live in person I’ll be flying back from Colombia August 19 through the 20 first I hope to see you there so there are few things that they can do there that are really easy to help set people’s expectations now this was a new listings so I didn’t really see any reviews on there there were 4 actually and they were pretty good although there was one that said the same exact thing and unfortunately if this company does not fix their expectations those reviews are going to continue to get worse and worse and and then at the end of the day you can have this amazing beautiful property but if you’re not setting the right expectations you’re not getting good reviews it’s not going to have a good return so you gotta keep some things in consideration if you have a really remote property make sure you have back up plans make sure you let people know that certain things might not be available like internet or it’s more likely to go out let him know if they need to bring water we really have to get really need to. If we have a remote listing to make sure that everyone of our gas that comes out to the property has everything that they need all their questions answered before going out there so really cool property and really cool that as a professional investor in church room rentals that’s a business expense right I learned something that every single short term only stay out and I’ve hosted over 20000 yes you would think like a certain point comes where you’ve kind of seen everything but there’s just so many different ways to do it out there so I’m really excited to be traveling more later this year and had to Europe in the deuce and Eastern Europe I going to Mexico later in the year and that Greece and Turkey and Bulgaria and a bunch of cool countries and some that I’ve never been to some really excited to check those out and I’m excited to check out the error being bees in the short term rentals over there and also learn from them so check with your CPA you might be eligible to use some of your short term rental tax expenses to offset your W. 2 income if you have a full time day job double check with your CPA though because this is super important and I’m not a tax professional as some of the best in real state or over 12 years it is easier to qualify to materially participate investing short term rentals that than it is to be a real estate professional they both allow you to write off your ordinary income but it’s a little easier or I should say there’s more ways to qualify if your best in Georgia miles so if you haven’t already head over to my website rest methods.com I’ve got some great information up there for my CPA who I’ve worked with for a long time you can find it under the free resources it’s something worth looking into and if you’re still getting into short term rentals well in the future when you’re doing this professionally you get to write off these really cool trips so I think that’s an amazing cool perk that’s. Kind of how I got into short term rentals in the first place from traveling I was a real estate investor but I was staying a mom short terminals and it’s sort of like backed my way into discovering that they can make a lot of cash flow so I hope you guys are doing well out there if you have a remote listing and you haven’t sent all these back up plans you haven’t set your expectations properly for your gas make sure that you go back and revisit that until next time I hope you have a wonderful day. Want to get on the fast track to financial freedom for short term rentals what all searching the properties you choir you want to make sure that you acquire the right properties I want to give you my you doctor will show you how to do just that there is no charge to my gift to you for being one of our subscribers just go to restmethods.com that’s R E S T methods.com.