Invest a single family house for AIRBNB

Research
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Hello

I am a foreign investor who is planing to buy a single family house in Riverside,CA, mostly for investment, also for vacation sometimes.

After doing some research I notice that long-team renting is less income and more risky(when you have to spent money to lawyer to do evictions if someone doesn’t pay rents), but for Airbnb it seems higher income, and for sort-team less then 30 days it’s easy to remove a guese from my house if he/she dont pay the rents.

but as a foreigner who have no much knowledge about all these sort-team related license and do not have work permit in U.S. , I cant do Airbnb on my own.

is there any property manager that can help me to do Airbnb? full management, from law to cleaning ,giving keys to guest, and I also need suggestion about where and which house is a good buy for Airbnb.

or, am I just having a ieda that doesnt work?

Thanks

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Riverside? It’s not really a tourist draw. You might get families coming to visit the university but it’s inland, hours from the famous beaches of Southern California. Riverside. Are you sure?

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Frankly, I have to say that, being a non-US citizen, investing in California of all places, and trying to make a hospitality business of it, is NOT a good idea. YOU, personally, can’t be hospitable if you aren’t even in the same country.

Sorry - had to rant. I just don’t believe that if you are trying to run an AirBnb business properly, that you can live more than 20 minutes from your rental.

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Now that’s an understatement! Hemet anyone?

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I can’t comment on the area but I have done a bit of research myself concerning my own property.

Being a foreign investor and owning property would not require a work permit because this is not work.

My first step would be to talk to someone about tax implications of generating revenue as a non resident.

My second step would be to ensure that the area you’re picking would be profitable as an airbnb city. Search listings, read reviews…are there many? are there large gaps in time when hosts don’t have reviews? does the market look saturated? are their calendars full? What type of clientele would you be attracting by being there?

Next find out of it’s legal to have an airbnb in your chosen city. Some places it’s not.

Then I would go to a trusted property management company in that area to discuss their services and fees. These exist in many major cities and they can potentially take care of everything from checkin to complaints to cleaning. You would have to be in the background and guests would never know that you are the owner because you can’t run a business like this from overseas. The more they do, the more you pay.

Then do the math and see if after paying the tax man and the property manager and assuming that the house will not always be booked, whether you will make money.

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Also many places have HOAs that prohibit STRs. And just because it’s legal now doesn’t mean it always will be. Jurisdictions all over the country asre tightening up on allowing STRs.

I guess I don’t understand the thinking that you live in another country and are wanting to buy up real estate in the US and try to run an Air from halfway around the world. It’s hard enough to do it when you live upstairs!

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I have a condo on Airbnb that is not in an area with a resort or trip visitor draw. I do not live in the condo and I do not rent out individual rooms. I net more income monthly than if I used it for long term rental HOWEVER it is more work due to the cleaning between guests & the wear & tear on the unit.

I am surprised that the majority of my rentals have been 4-8 weeks to families who are relocating or need housing because one house sold and their next house isn’t ready.

I originally opted for short term rentals because my father was going to move into the condo in the next year or two. I’m glad I did.

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And California is the land of HOAs. I did a very unscientific search of riverside Airbnb listings and many are less than 30 a night. Not much room for profit especially if you don’t live in the home. Add all the extra costs for cleaning, repairs, managing and it seems like a lose lose.

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