Are you passionate about your hobby? Do you wish you could generate cash flow from something you love? Does the idea of combining your favorite thing to do with an Airbnb excite you?
If so, don’t miss Episode 23 of the Host Coach Airbnb Investing Podcast with Erin Hogston! She’s sharing how a trailer next to a motocross track her family built for themselves, is grossing over $80,000 a year as an Airbnb!
Read on to understand how to find Airbnb riches in the niche communities you or your family are a part of!
Topics discussed in this episode:
- How serving a niche group can supercharge your Airbnb bookings
- How to best prepare for launching your first Airbnb
- What to do when neighbors complain
- How family time can help you find your ideal investment property
Host Coach Airbnb Podcast Episode 22 Show Notes:
Erin, you bought some land for your son to enjoy his motocross passion. How did you end up with one of the most sought after Airbnbs in your state?
Well, being a realtor, I don't like seeing empty houses. Some friends and I decided we wanted to have some land to play on during COVID. The land came with a trailer, and it sat empty, I would say for about a year. And then I was like, "let's make it pretty and see if people would want to stay here and ride." Because we enjoyed the property so much. We would go fishing, riding, shooting, running on the trails. There was a lot of stuff that we did together as families or even with friends.
Then we just decided, that we'll put some money into the trailer and put it on Airbnb. And this is not a big fancy house, right? It's a double wide trailer and it was run down. It was a mess, but I thought, okay maybe even we could stay there if I made it nice enough to where we could have a fun family weekend where we can do a huge bonfire or the kids could ride all day. That would just be fun. And so we put some money into it, and got it all fixed up.
The Opportunity
I remember you coming to speak at our Keller Williams office at some point during this whole process, while we were thinking about doing that. And what you said about Airbnb investing really expedited what we were going to do with the trailer.
So a quick visit from Culin, the host coach, you were like, "okay, you know what? I can turn this dumpy double wide into a possible revenue generator."
Yes, I still, at that point was like, I don't know. It's in Rocky Point. It's in the middle of nowhere, but I specifically remember Culin even taking interest in our idea thinking that's really unique, that you're going to do well.
Right. The riches in the niches! That's something we hear over and over again in investing and even in podcasting, but that you applied it to your Airbnb. It wasn't just, the trailer that you fixed up. You built a dirt bike track on this land adjacent to it.
Yes, it was just like one track led to another. It was more about the fun and building different jumps and different features. My husband is like a big kid. He likes to operate the big machines. So, it was just like, let's see if we can build this jump... and then how about this tabletop? And then next thing we knew we have four or five motorcross tracks on the property.
And how did it take off?
We put it live on Airbnb and I had no idea what my pricing was going to be. I didn't even know people would actually stay there, but we did one post in a motocross forum and that post had over 4,000 shares.
Oh my gosh. And were people just sharing it or were people booking it?
I had 20 to 30 bookings it felt like that day, but it could have been in a few days. It just felt like everything was all at once. I kept increasing the pricing to try to slow it down. I was like, I don't even have a cleaning lady yet. But it all worked out and somehow we have five star ratings
How Much can a Trailer Make on Airbnb
Our listeners have to be curious. You fixed up this double wide, put it on Airbnb, and had explosive interest. How much is this place grossing?
The first year we madeover $80, 000, maybe $90,000. We were really, really booked. Like almost every day. The second year we had a lot of repeat people. And so we're tracking the same,
That's amazing! So the double wide that had been ignored on the side of your property is grossing over $80, 000 a year. Are your guests mainly from the area? Are they from North Carolina?
No, actually most of them are all from out of state, believe it or not. We've got guests from Ohio. In a couple of days, we have people coming from Indianapolis. We also have a lot of New Jersey and New York guests who want to come down and ride during colder weather. And then the beach being 20 minutes away, was really attractive for people as well. So sometimes they'll come and they'll have their big trailers with all their bikes. They'll unload them in the barn.
We have this really cool barn set up with all these lights in it. And it's just a really neat spot. Guests can just dump all of their stuff and head to the beach or to different attractions
Proximity to Area Amenities
So you've got your own amenity of tracks, but your Airbnb also has proximity to other amenities, the beach and Wilmington, et cetera.
Yes. It's kind of funny because sometimes people stay the whole time and they don't even leave the property, but then sometimes the wives and the girls, they might want to head to the beach.
We've had bachelor parties stay there that just wanted to have a barn party. Just a few guys wanting to hang out in a barn.
You know, I love using any structure on a property. We turned a dilapidated shed into a garden pub. So kudos for doing the same thing and making that barn, not just a barn, but a place that people want to have a party in.
Overcoming Airbnb Challenges
We've had our challenges along the way, with the county and the planning board and neighbors. They sometimes get tired of hearing the dirt bikes a lot, which I understand. So we're trying to block off days, block off certain weekends so that it's just not endless noise.
So you've found some ways to overcome adversity with government and trying to be a good neighbor and it's not all roses, right? Sometimes there's some work, some obstacles, in your path as Airbnb investors, but you guys stuck with it. You kept patient and you worked the process and you were calm and overcame those obstacles.
How to Avoid Erin's Biggest Airbnb Mistake
That leads me to ask, and it may not even be related. What's the biggest mistake you made as a new Airbnb investor?
I think the biggest mistake is not have things in place, like a cleaner before you list your property on Airbnb. We did not know that this place would be super insanely successful and busy. And I didn't know we would get all those bookings all at once.
It was just a lot of moving parts, when it was all happening at the beginning. The first month was very time consuming and frantic. Having vendors and structures in place beforehand would have been better, obviously.
There's a lot of unknowns too when you're new. Some of the unknowns for us were the neighbors complaining. We weren't thinking about that because they never once complained before when we were riding there all the time. They were trying to say that we're operating a business and we weren't, we simply have an Airbnb, which is totally legal, and letting our guests ride on our property. So, there's certain things that we did not know that I feel like we could have been more prepared for ahead of time.
Well, good for you for standing strong through it. As entrepreneurs, we've had all kinds of ups and downs and there's always something interesting that happens and you learn from.
Advice for Creating Niche Airbnbs
What advice would you give to our listeners who either have land or are deeply committed to a particular hobby or sport and want to get into Airbnb investing?
I would do something where you would enjoy spending time. Try to invest in somewhere where everybody wants to be and wants to go. I think that's what it was for us. We all wanted to just enjoy time playing on land. We weren't thinking about the Airbnb from the get go, but as this progressed and succeeded, it made me think about investing in multiple Airbnbs.
We actually bought another property in Beach Mountain because we and my kids love snowboarding. So my advice is investing where you and your kids want to go spend time.
We call it finding your where. Find a place that you're passionate about, where you would like to go, where you don't mind spending some time. Ask yourself what your interests are. Coming from that investing point, you'll attract like-minded guests.
How Airbnb Investing Impacts Family & Finances
How has Airbnb investing and the cashflow that's come out of it affected your family life?
I would say for me, I see our Airbnb profits like a savings account. It's money that's just somewhere else in another account. I think it is like building your future with an investment. I think down the road and the more we stick with reinvesting in our Airbnb properites, it's going to pay out even more.
Yeah. I can't even imagine how much you put into expanding from one track to five tracks, but I can also imagine how happy that makes your guests and how much more they're going to be willing to pay to stay there over time. And you rolled that cashflow into this second home in the mountains. How far away is that?
Five hours from Wilmington, so it's about 10 minutes north of Banner Elk.
Fun question. What has surprised you positively the most from your Airbnb investing experience?
What has surprised me is how these motocross families travel 15 hours to just come to Rocky point, North Carolina and ride on our tracks. It surprises me how many families and how many kids are involved in the sport and how there's not a lot of places for them to ride.
Also, all of our guets are so appreciative and everybody is so nice. They're not expecting anything beautiful. We had a really dirty barn. We cleaned it out the other day and I was like, how has nobody said how disgusting this barn was? And I think it's because they're like, it's a barn. It's supposed to be like a barn
They're delighted to have access to a barn. I think a lot of people, I'm trying to avoid saying most people, but I think a lot of people have something in their life that they might figure is quirky to them. Like our family, we spend a lot of time playing lacrosse, right? Your family spends a lot of time in motocross. I think most families have something like that -whether it's a sport, volleyball, or chess chess. In that niche they're not quirky, there's a ton of other people that are living the same life.
Yes, it's definitely a way of life.
How can our listeners contact you if they're interested in purchasing an Airbnb property or just a property in the Wilmington area?
I'm @the_running_realtor on Instagram. They can also call me. I'm on the Summer's real estate team at Keller Williams. If they want to check out our Airbnb and tracks its @copperheadranchNC on Instagram.
Airbnb Advice for Real Estate Professionals
For anybody who is in real estate, whether they're an agent or a broker, do you have any specific advice for them when it comes to investing?
Do the research. And even when you do the research, know that things could be different. Do what's comfortable for you and choose payments that are comfortable for you - just in case you have some off months where the revenue coming in isn't necessarily paying your mortgage. I think just seeing an Airbnb property as an investment and knowing what you can afford is really important.
Thank you so much, Erin. We appreciate you sharing your adventures in Airbnb investing and in creating a niche place that people are just lining up to visit!
So there you have it. You now know that there can be riches in creating an Airbnb that caters to the niches of hobbyists. You also got great advice from Aaron about how to find the right place to invest and what to expect.
Remember, our joy is in your success. Should you need personal online Airbnb coaching - that is what we do! Sign up for a free 30 minute Airbnb coaching call to explore your needs and how we can help you succeed as an Airbnb investor.
