Table of Contents:
If you’re on to this chapter, we assume that you decided to rent your place (Check out Chapter 1 if you still haven’t decided to rent out your home). CONGRATULATIONS! We understand it was a difficult decision that isn’t for everyone. This chapter will mainly focus on how to set up the foundation of your new revenue stream before listing your home.
Chapter Two will focus on the necessary steps to establish your business and ultimately get your listing live. Chapter Three, will cover how to set up your home for success and effectively manage guests. This post outlines the high-level steps we’ll cover in Chapter Two.
Introducing the Beer Tracker
At a previous company Amanda used to work for, during large town hall meetings there was a concept called the “beer tracker”. As the presentation progressed, a beer bottle would move closer to a hand at the bottom of each slide (see example below), indicating the approach to happy hour. It worked really well in setting expectations and to build anticipation for the happy hour.
We thought it would be fun to apply the beer tracker concept while setting up your rental. At the end of each post, we’ll move the beer mug closer and closer to the hand to signify your live listing!
Our Experience Setting Up Our Rental
Transparently, we didn’t realize the number of steps involved in setting up a rental; naively, we assumed it was as simple as taking some photos on our iPhone, listing it on Airbnb, and calling it a day. In reality, there are several steps you need to take as owners to ensure your rental is compliant and set up for success.
Airbnb provides a good starting point in outlining the steps required to set up a short-term rental, but we had to do a lot of research and learning along the way. Don’t make fun of us, but we’re very visual people so our kitchen wall was covered in post-it notes to track our tasks.
Our wall was organized into tasks that needed immediate attention, tasks for the near future, and tasks for later, divided between setting up the rental and preparing for our move to California, and color-coded by person (Amanda = pink, Nick = blue). This method helped us keep track of our tasks and highlighted the most pressing ones - we believe this was key to setting up our rental so efficiently. There was nothing more satisfying than removing a post-it note upon completion.
Instead of you having to go out and buy all the materials, come up with all the tasks, and understand the sequence, we're offering a Google Sheets project plan to help you keep track of tasks as you set up your rental. Subscribe at the bottom of the page to get access.
Rental Revelations Project Plan Tool
The project plan tool consists of two main tabs designed to keep you organized and on track. The primary tab, the project plan plan tab, contains tasks under each step we’ll outline in the section below, with a duration and status column for you to update. The resources/notes column provides all the necessary links and related contextual posts you need to complete each step, making it easy for you to find what you need.
This project plan is a standard template, so feel free to customize it with additional rows and notes to suit your personal situation.
The second tab serves as a visual aid, showing the percentage of completion as you progress toward making your listing live. There should be no need to update this tab.
Once again, this tool is a standard template and doesn’t include steps specific to your personal situation. Should you choose to download it, feel free to update/add the tasks and notes to suit your preferences. However, we request that you refrain from redistributing it without our explicit permission. With the project plan now explained, let's delve into the high-level steps that we’ll be covering in this chapter.
High-Level Steps We'll Cover in Chapter 2
Each of these steps tie directly to the project plan tool that I mentioned above, in Chapter 3, we’ll go through the next set of steps that will also be reflected in the project plan
Post # | Step Title | Duration (Effort) How long it took us | Description |
1.4 1.5 | Understand HOA Restrictions & Research Local Regulations | 1 day (low effort) | Investigating the legal requirements, zoning laws, and regulations imposed by local authorities to ensure compliance before considering short-term rental of your home. |
2.1 | Organize Your Rental Documents | 1 day (low effort) | Gathering and structuring essential documents such as mortgage documents, insurance policies, maintenance records, and financial documents for efficient management, compliance, and accounting. |
2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6 2.2.7 2.2.8 2.2.9 2.2.10 | Set up Business Entity | 2 weeks (high effort) | Establishing a legal structure such as an LLC or corporation to manage your short-term rental business, providing liability protection and facilitating financial management. |
2.3 | Set up a Business Checking Account & Credit Card | 1 week (low effort) | Earn points and keep your personal expenses separate from your business expenses. |
2.4 | Evaluate Insurance Needs | 1 day (low effort) | Assessing the risks associated with short-term rentals and securing appropriate insurance coverage, including liability, property, and vacation rental insurance, to mitigate potential financial losses and liabilities. |
2.5 | Obtain Local Licenses | 1 week (medium effort) | Identifying and obtaining any necessary permits, licenses, or registrations required by local authorities to legally operate a short-term rental business in your area, ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations. |
2.6 | Draft STR Listing | 1 week (high effort) | Creating an appealing and informative online listing on rental platforms, including detailed property descriptions, high-quality photos, accurate pricing, and availability calendars to attract potential guests and manage bookings effectively. |
2.7 | Set up Automation | 2 days (low effort) | Setting up automation to reduce hands-on work required to manage your short-term rental. |
We were really eager to go live on Airbnb and were able to get our listing live in two weeks by dividing & conquering and working on tasks concurrently. In the next chapter (Chapter 3), we will focus on the steps after your listing is live such as furnishing your rental, bookkeeping, staffing your team, and other key topics.
If we haven’t scared you off and you’re interested in using our project plan tool - subscribe below and follow along as we share digestible steps to set up your rental, highlight tips & tricks that worked for us, and feature new trends & information to keep you up to date.
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