Hi J_Wang,
My location kinda sucks. This whole area is full of beautiful homes that sell for way less than you think because the commute is awful. There is not a single touristy thing nearby and even the “close” work areas are at least 20-30 minutes away.
Well, I suppose that would eliminate certain kinds of travelers, but I’m sure you get people like me who want to be a bit off the beaten path. However, judging from your calendar it looks like you have quite a few reservations, huh? That’s great! I use the 10 rule to determine if it’s all worth it: If I get just 10 days of month from my little one-bed in a shared space I’m happy. It pays all my bills and buys gas for the Yaris 
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Hi @J_Wang,
10 days a month is quite a low occupancy rate. I think most people here would throw fits if this was their average. But I’m guessing that you don’t depend on the Airbnb income.
The only time I’m willing to host 10 days or more per month is in June, July, August, September, and October. Those are really the only good destination months to this area. But, hosting 10 days (hopefully with only a few one-night stays), is very difficult for me. It’s a lot of work, and takes a toll on me physically and I get to missing my privacy! I offer a private room/bathroom and I do work outside the home. I rented a total of 12 nights in July, my sister is arriving today to stay for 6 days. I have vacation time from work from Aug 3rd to August 7th, so I’ve got my place blocked off those days as I plan on playing tourist in my own hometown. So, my home is blocked off from now until August 15th. I’m just burned out. Maybe I’ll open up some days if I get rested enough during my few days off from work.
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Hi @brook2adks,
Is most of the hard work cleaning related? Or are the other aspects equally exhausting/time consuming? I’m finding I spend an alarming amount of time doing correspondence. Most of my guests are very short stay, so I’m regularly corresponding with 5 different people at once. It reminds me of when I used to teach the kids back in NC, and I used to get a whole bunch of them writing to me the day before homework was due. 
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Another thing that’s just interesting. The stark differences in real estate and employment in different areas of the country. @Artemis, though I have not seen the whole thing, based on real estate in your area, I suspect that if you plopped your home down on a piece of land near were I live, it would sell for upwards of $650K. Which sounds good. But unless you had one of the few jobs in Maine that can support that kind of mortgage, you’d probably be commuting to Boston for work. And the property taxes would over 10K a year.
I love real estate and interior design. I wish I’d been smart when I was young and gotten a license to be an agent. Off topic, sorry. Just musing over my coffee this morning.
@faheem, yes–the cleaning, having other people in my home, having to extend myself, just wears me down. Some guests are just awesome, but some are awkward or just more work than others. My guests who left yesterday, were in the awesome category. They arrived perfectly on time (6pm), which gave them time to review all my materials so they could plan their activities, they asked appropriate questions on how they could best prepare for their adventures (this area is rugged, there are many many miles without any kind of services). They were waking up early so they could experience the view of the lake and rivers in the morning, hiking during the early hours of the day, taking a quick shower and out to dinner. They were blown away by the scenery. The guests just before them, didn’t get out of the house till almost noon, then disappointed because the places they chose, with full warning from me, were ‘touristy’, it was hot and muggy, and not the nature experience they were looking for, but then again, there is not much you can do in kitten heels to get a real feel of the Adirondacks! So, even though I shouldn’t, I felt a little guilty that they were not completely happy with their adventures.
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Hi Chloe,
Real estate valuation is an interesting topic, and it’s a conversation that I have with many of my guests. My first guests were from Toronto, and they said the minimum in their area to buy a house - any house - was $850K (I did not verify this independently, so they could be discussing their own neighborhood, not the whole city). But still, that’s a huge amount of money and it’s a tough barrier to entry for young people.
I grew up in northern New Jersey, which unlike all the jokes, is actually a really beautiful area. My town had many giant victorian mansions or 30’s Tudors sitting on an acre of land, and all those homes are $5 million plus in today’s market. A tiny Cape Cod bungalow goes for upwards of $500K, so again, a tough barrier to entry. But lots and lots of people want to live there so that forces up prices.
Contrast that to Texas. Houston and the surrounding area has so much space to expand that real estate stays relatively cheap. Of course downtown and some of the other close in areas are much more expensive because they are desireable locations, but once you hit the burbs it’s not hard to find a really nice house around 3,000 sq ft for +/- $200K - $300K.
Our neighborhood is full of fancy McMansions from the '80’s that desperately need updating. Some of these houses are too big and no one wants 7-8 bedrooms, so they sit on the market getting cheaper and cheaper. We took on a house that needed every single room painted, new flooring, new countertops, new fence, new landscaping, etc. but the barrier to entry wasn’t excessively high. Over the last few years we have been doing all these projects. When I found out about Airbnb, my first thought was “wow, I can give my house a job and make it pay for it’s own repairs!” Now that I’m doing Airbnb, I found I really like it and wish I had more rooms (we didn’t buy one of the too big houses, even I don’t want to take on that much).
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@Artemis, you sound like me, lol. I’m so thankful to be in the midwest when it comes to housing prices. We just bought a 95 year old 3-story “manor” house on 2 acres, for $180,000. Yes, we had to sink in $20k in DIY repairs and labor, but it’s beautiful, mine, and has a 600 sq.ft. “mother-in-law” apartment I can rent out to have the money to supplement our income as I stay at home with my kids, but also keep updating and repairing our property and cover the insane utility bills.
I do sometimes find myself wishing I had 1-2 less kids and could rent out one of our bedrooms occasionally, but the way my kids are spaced out and staggered, I need all 5 bedrooms in this house…
I watch these HGTV shows where there are houses the size of our apartment going for more than our entire property in derelict condition. Makes me happy and sad at the same time. I also totally get only wanting to rent out 8-12 days a month when these people are in the house with you. The only reason I want to be fully booked is because our rental is not attached and we average 7 day stays so it’s not too much work other than check-out day.
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That’s clever. I need to think about that. In my second rental room, I always hope for a mature woman and I mostly get young men. Which has turned out fine, but going forward maybe I should alter the decor. My own natural decorating style is gender neutral and i did the rooms that way.
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Hello Faheem,
Haaa!!! Once you get used to having that income you tend to depend on it :))) Getting 10 days is OK with me as I said and it gives me a little more privacy since I live “on site”. However, since before our summer until now I’m getting quite a few guests with 21 days booked with still a couple of days open, like today. Just had the dream guest who stayed 2 nights because he didn’t want to face the drive home to Pasadena after work. I only saw him for a couple of minutes.
Hi Artemis,
I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds the topic interesting.
Yes, I’m not sure why NJ gets such a bad rap. Most of it is really quite nice!
I want to come visit you in Texas so I can a) experience your gorgeous guest rooms, b) see if I can absorb your decorating and DIY talent via osmosis and c) just see all those giant McMansions for (comparatively speaking) such reasonable prices for myself.
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Come any time - but I recommend Nov - Apr when the weather is nice. It’s still in the 80’s-90’s through the end of October and it starts back up again in May.
Edited to add: I should add that even though my location is not great for visitors who want to do interesting things, it’s actually an awesome place to live. There are tons of incredible restaurants nearby, shopping for anything you want, and the cost of living is very reasonable. It’s a good place to live and work. The downsides are the hot weather and there’s not a lot of natural beauty or outdoor activities nearby.
Just the opposite of New York! We could switch guests. And yes, New Jersey has many beautiful areas, love Sussex city and Bergen and cape may
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Hi Maggieroni,
I went apple picking in New York state in the fall once when I was a teenager. To this day I can still summon up the crisp air, fall smell and the taste of fresh apples. There is nothing like fall weather down here and I miss it in an almost physical way. My husband and I have talked about whether we want to move to the northeast, but the cost of living is so much higher. I could not afford to move back to my home town in Bergen county - the house I grew up in sold for over a million dollars a few years ago (my parents sold it 25 years ago for a LOT less than that).
We’ve also talked about visiting, so maybe I need to get off my butt and plan an Airbnb vacation!
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Come visit us in Maine @Maggieroni. Kennebunkport, which is 20 minutes from us, is very similar to Cape May. I think you would very much enjoy Ogunquit (30 min) as well!
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@Artemis, fall is right around the corner! Come on up, LOL!
I know what you mean about fall in New England, and apple picking! I go every year!
Also, there is a lot of farm land not far from us. In the fall, after the corn is harvested, there are places nearby that create mazes in their corn fields. You can visit these farms and spend some time navigating the corn maze (they give you a map with questions that, if you answer correctly, you know which way to go in the maze, otherwise you get a little lost, LOL!). Then you can get apple cider and fresh baked cider donuts to eat while sitting on bales of hay. It’s a fun and inexpensive way to spend an afternoon.
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I’ve been to both, love Maine especially ogunquit. I may take you up on that visit! Is your listing in the show off thread?
We just moved back to NYC from SoCal just a year ago and bought a house on city island. You don’t need to be in Bergen cty unless you’re commuting. There are still areas here in the Bronx, new Rochelle and parts of NJ that are very affordable. I am really enjoying the seasons!
It’s not, but here’s my listing:
I need to upload better photos of my kitchen and breakfast nook. The lighting was terrible, but have not gotten to it yet. Also, there’s now a big painting of ocean with beach chairs and umbrella over the bed so the wall isn’t so plain.
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