This also filed test is based on conversations with Landon Wilkinson, an Airbnb host in Yakima, Washington, about two and a half hours south-east of Seattle. He and his wife have two rentals on the property of Washington – a converted chicken coop, with prices of around $ 120 per night and more, and a shipping container – and a third in Montana. Conversations have been changed for duration and clarity.
I am an Airbnb host for spending 10 years now.
Before Airbnb really became one thing, I did sofa surfing. It was a bit of a pioneer for Airbnb and a really fun experience.
From my own trips, I had a taste of what was possible when people opened their own houses and did cool things. When I was younger, I had a construction company. We have set houses and started making long -term rentals. Then, around 2016, we tried Airbnb with a very small house.
The house may have rented $ 900 or $ 1,100 per month as a long -term rental, but we regularly earn $ 1,600 to $ 2,000 per month like Airbnb.
I grew up turning home for my father, but the chicken coop was more ambitious than many of my previous construction projects.
The state of the original chicken coop. With the kind permission of Landon Wilkinson
Trying to visualize something of this building was a very organic process. It started by repairing the roof a little and putting more beautiful windows. I thought: “I’m just going to make it a small store. I’m going to make it more isolated.”
Then, through this process, I realized: “In fact, I could do something really nice with that if I wanted it.”
Then I did everything.
Demolishing this would have cost $ 20,000 and repair it was about $ 38,000
I bought the property of 55 acres In 2018 of my parents, who had bought it and used it essentially as an additional agricultural land for hay.
There had been a house on it at some point, but it had burned. There was nothing really on the property in addition to the chicken coop walls with a kind of roof on it.
We didn’t think we were going to do anything with the chicken coop. It was a concrete structure in the form of 100 years. It was super dense and very difficult to demolish.
I thought: “We could spend $ 20,000 trying to get rid of this structure, we could see what we could do with it.”
A view of the chicken coop of Wilkinson’s house. With the kind permission of Landon Wilkinson
In 2019, we were trying to improve the property near the place where we had built our main house. Every morning we looked at the rear porch and saw this chicken coop which was a real horror.
We started glowing in winter 2019. It started to become more a project, and I brought in some of my guys from the construction company to help you.
We have put $ 38,000 – and a lot of nights and weekends – to support it and install the first time. Then, in the past two years, we have updated things, such as furniture. We have a more pleasant whirlpool.
Outside the chicken coop during its renovation. With the kind permission of Landon Wilkinson
I found a new rear window on Facebook Marketplace and I only paid $ 40 for that. If you are just a little creative on certain things or willing to be flexible, these can be very great discoveries. This new window would have been a large couple, probably.
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I thought Coop would not appeal to Airbnb guests, but my wife saw the potential
This is the part of the story where my wife will say: “Make sure to tell them how much you resisted”, because it was she who felt confident that it was an airbnb. I always had the image of a chicken coop in my head.
We supported ourselves on this subject. She said: “Let me list the photos of the landscape property and describe what we can on the property and put a fairly low night rate, and we will set a date where it will be available.”
The rental finished, with the main house behind. With the kind permission of Landon Wilkinson
We started the project in December 2019 as a hangar for my storage. In January, we realized that it could be more than that. We transformed it into a rental by April 2020.
We had a nurse who came in April 2020 and stayed there for two months. Once we have obtained this reservation, I thought: “I guess we have to do that well and do it on time.”
When the nurse moved for the first time, we always finished landscaping, and we barely done it in time so that she could stay there. As she left, everything was really well done outside, and landscaping was a little mature, so we were able to obtain updated photos.
We have a nice brand panel on the door and on a post outside the house which says “Ahtanum Cottage”.
Airbnb income quickly covered our mortgage
The chalet was put online in the spring of 2020 and started to manage very well. The 12 or 24 months later were the highest volume.
In August 2020, we won about $ 6,000 in a month in this house. It is a scenario of aberrant values. We are generally on average $ 2,000 to $ 3,000 per month of income. It is on average about 65% to 70% occupancy.
One of the henhouse rooms. With the kind permission of Feist Media
I had a 40 -foot and high cube shipping container that I used when we stopped using the chicken coop for storage, to put our lawn and garden stuff. After building the Coop chalet, I started to imagine what could work with the shipping container. We therefore embarked on construction in 2022.
The two airbnb announcements are more than covering our mortgage, or about $ 1,100 per month. Our public services in Washington, with three properties and two whirlpools, is between $ 400 and $ 500 per month.
It is more difficult to start an airbnb these days, but the profit potential is more important
It takes a little more work to install an airbnb – especially now that the competition is more rigid. At first, it was quite easy to make something work on Airbnb. Now you have to be a little more competitive to add equipment that really sells the property.
The view from the upside down on the property. With the kind permission of Feist Media
If you are able to manage a property well, Airbnb is generally a much better return on investment than a long -term rental. In many cases, you cannot operate long -term rentals at current mortgage rates. So, unless you penetrate while the prices were still low, you are in a way forced to be somewhat creative.
The chicken coop started like: “How can we get rid of this thing?”
It was difficult, when we looked at him in his old state, to visualize him as something else. But once you start to repair a few things, the vision becomes clearer.
We could probably have marketed him like a chicken coop, but it is one of those things which, for me, seemed to turn against him. We wanted it to be something that people perceived as what he is now instead of “Oh guy, it was a dumping ground before.”
It would probably have been an excellent marketing decision, but I was a little chicken, without puns.
At the time, we were not as convinced as a single stay, being a chicken coop, would have been a positive thing. Now, with hindsight, it would probably have been a good idea.
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