R ichie Matthews teaches people how to start a 7-figure Airbnb business without owning any property.
He does rental arbitrage with apartment buildings.
He does not mess around with single family homes or condos. Nothing against those; it’s just not how he’s been able to scale.
Okay, so, apartments. How does he approach landlords and what does he say?
Richie uses the following tools for research and outreach:
You wanna pursue units that could make at least double (on Airbnb) what your long term rent would be.
Send the landlords of such properties a message through HotPads.
Most of the time, you’ll hear back from ’em after a day or two, Richie says. But if not, pick up the ole phone and call ’em up.
Their goal is gonna be to get you to do an in-person or virtual tour. What you wanna reply with is, “Yeah, sure, if you’re not opposed to doing corporate leases.”
Of course, you’re not technically doing a corporate lease; it’s a variation of that. But it’s baby steps, right?
When you get someone who’s open to that, let ’em know you’re serious. “Okay, cool, I’d be interested in four of your 2-bedroom units.” (Or whatever. Right?) Now they’re gonna take ya more serious.
After that, you can kinda clarify, “What we do is furnish these places and then put guests in ’em for various intervals.”
Some of ’em will shoot you down right there. They’ll say, “Sorry, we have a 30-day minimum.”
But maybe 30% of ’em, give or take, won’t bat an eye. They’ll see you as a solution to their vacancy problem.
Now you have to layer on the advantages of them renting these units to you instead of regular tenants.
For starters, you’re not gonna beat the hell outta the units like a long term renter would. They’ll always be in “show condition.” After all, your business depends on it.
Second, you’ll screen (and monitor) your guests. These units will be in good hands.
Third, you’ll pay rent on time, every month. There’s less risk working with you – an established company – than with Joe Schmo, who might get laid off or lose July’s rent to the slot machines.
If they’re open to it, Richie gets a little gangster. He’ll be like, “We’re gonna need 4-6 weeks to get these things furnished and ready to roll; can I get free rent until then?”
Usually they’ll do at least two, if not four weeks free rent.
Pro tip: don’t ask them to lower the rent, ask for “rent concessions.” It’s the same thing, basically – either way, you save money – but it just sounds better.
It’s a language thing, a mindset thing.
Anyways.
Before signing on the dotted line, Richie will run all the numbers through his Property Analysis Calculator, where he would need to see a (conservative) monthly net profit estimate of $1,500 or better per door.
If everything checks out, he’ll move forward.
And that’s all he’s done to scale to 6-figures a month by subleasing apartments.
He and his wife now have 45 units listed on Airbnb, Vrbo, etc., and they still don’t own a single one of ’em.
They’ve systematized each step, so it’s very passive at this point.
And guess what?
Now that this business is automated, Richie has the time to coach you.
At ScaleAirbnb.com, you can learn more about this Creative Airbnb program. Cost isn’t listed on the website, but damn, Richie gave more practical advice just now than what I imagine is inside most gurus’ courses.
So yeah.
I would totally support you being mentored by him, assuming you’re up for the challenges this model presents.
I still much prefer digital real estate.
