How to Find Short Term Rentals for Sale

To make profitable Airbnb investments, you should find the best short term rentals for sale. Make sure to use these tools to help you get started.

Investing in short term rental properties is not as difficult as some might think. Just like any real estate investment strategy, it can be quite profitable when done right. But, if you’re planning to buy a vacation home to rent out on short-term listing sites such as Airbnb, it’s likely that you have a lot of questions about this strategy. 

You may be asking yourself: How can I make money from Airbnb? How do I know if Airbnb is even profitable? Where are the best cities for Airbnb investment? These are some of the most commonly asked questions asked by beginning investors. Fortunately, you can find the answers to these questions on the Mashvisor blog.

Another important question that you may be asking yourself is: how can I find short term rentals for sale? Whether you are investing in long term or short term rentals, finding the best investment is not easy. That is, of course, if you’re following traditional methods of finding investment properties for sale.

But, thanks to the emergence of various real estate investment tools in recent years, this task is now made easy. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the best tools available today that can help you find short term rentals for sale. The best part is that you’ll find all these tools in one online platform—Mashvisor.

How to Find Short Term Rentals for Sale on Mashvisor

The key to finding short term rentals for sale is hidden in conducting research. Just like you’d research the rental market before investing in traditional rentals, you must also conduct a short term rental market research before buying any turnkey property. By doing so, you’ll know whether it’s a good idea to invest in Airbnb in your chosen area.

This research requires you to study the location and compare rental properties in terms of certain real estate metrics. These metrics allow you to gauge the profitability of a particular investment property. To find the best short term rentals for sale, the most important metrics to consider are the rental income, cap rate, cash on cash return, and occupancy rate.

Running these numbers helps you find the most profitable investment properties in the market with the highest rate of return. However, researching the short term rental market on your own and running these numbers by hand almost never gets accurate results. Since doing this manually is prone to error, it can lead to potentially bad investment decisions.

Luckily, Mashvisor provides the investment tools and short term rental data that you need to conduct your market and investment property search quickly and effectively. Here’s how to find short term rentals using Mashvisor’s tools and analyze them to make sure they will derive the most profit.

1. Rental Property Finder

The ultimate tool to find the best short term investments is, without a doubt, Mashvisor’s Rental Property Finder. As you can tell by the name, this tool allows real estate investors to browse rental properties for sale in different locations across the US housing market. 

The tool comes with some filters that allow you to set your criteria of what type of property you’re looking for. To find short term rentals using this tool, simply set the “Rental Strategy” filter to Airbnb. You can also narrow down your investment property search by setting the city, miles, budget, property type, number of bedrooms, and number of bathrooms filters.

Using the latest machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics, Mashvisor’s Rental Property Finder will immediately provide you with a list of rental properties for sale that meet your criteria. Furthermore, the properties we recommend are those that have the highest potential for returns in terms of Airbnb cash on cash return. 

With this investment tool, real estate investors could turn their property search process from three months into just 15 minutes! 

Want to get access to this ultimate tool for finding short term rentals for sale? All you have to do is sign up for a 7-DAY FREE TRIAL with Mashvisor.

2. Real Estate Heatmap

As we all know, location is key for successful real estate investing, and this applies to Airbnb investing as well! And when we speak of location, we’re not only talking about the city, but you need to find a good neighborhood for investing in vacation rentals. 

If you already have a city in mind but not sure which neighborhoods are best for owning short term rentals, our Real Estate Heatmap will help you out! This tool shows you a color-coded overview of how Airbnb rentals are performing in different areas. Simply type in your city of choice and select from the filters that you’d like to base your analysis of the area on. 

These filters are:

• Listing Price
• Airbnb Rental Income
• Airbnb Cash on Cash Return
• Airbnb Occupancy Rate

For example, if you select Airbnb rental income, the Real Estate Heatmap will highlight the areas where short term rentals make the highest rental income. The color would either be dark blue (by default) or green (if you toggle on the “full color” setting).  Likewise, if you select the Airbnb occupancy rate, the tool will highlight the areas with the highest occupancy rates. 

You can keep adjusting the filters and compare different neighborhoods until you identify which one has the best Airbnb real estate investment opportunities. 

3. Investment Property Calculator

The final and most important step for finding short term rentals that will bring you profit is to run the numbers behind the deal. This requires you to first calculate the costs of buying and operating a vacation rental business. Then you need to estimate what return on investment you can expect to earn from the property. 

As mentioned, you don’t need to do this Airbnb investment analysis manually on your own anymore when you have Mashvisor’s real estate investment software to help you out. To make sure you’ve found a property that is worth listing on Airbnb, use our Investment Property Calculator, also known as the Airbnb Rental Calculator.

With this tool, you’ll get a readily available rental property analysis for any listing across the US housing market. This analysis includes short term rental data that comes straight from Airbnb and reflects the performance of active listings in the past 12 months. Therefore, you can rest assured that our data is accurate and reliable. 

Moreover, we also take into account Airbnb comps in the area for accuracy. To help real estate investors make good decisions about their short term rental properties, Mashvisor’s calculator provides the following Airbnb analytics:

• Comparable Rental Income
• Monthly Expenses
• Cash Flow
• Cash on Cash Return
• Cap Rate
• Airbnb Occupancy Rate

These metrics will be shown for both the traditional and Airbnb rental strategies, so you can make quick comparisons and determine the optimal rental strategy for each property.

To start looking for and analyzing the best short term rentals for sale in your city/neighborhood of choice, click here.

Remember to Keep Airbnb Regulations in Mind

As mentioned, not all locations allow the operation of short term rentals. Also, some cities have certain limitations that may restrict your profitability. When searching for short term rentals for sale, you first need to check in with the short term rental laws in your chosen area. This step is very crucial and should not be taken for granted.

Laws and regulations surrounding Airbnb rentals vary from city to city and even from one state to another. In recent years, many laws have emerged that restrict and even ban the use of short term rental properties as investments in many cities. This includes cities like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, among others.

In other cities, there are requirements regarding the type of property that can be listed as a short term vacation home. These requirements may vary, but they usually include the way a property should be designed, built, and maintained. Other requirements to keep in mind involve the owner-occupancy of an Airbnb property. 

Registration Requirements

In most cases, Airbnb hosts or short term rental owners are required to register or obtain a license to operate a vacation rental. The permit should be secured before you’ll be allowed to legally rent out your Airbnb property. You need to pay various fees in order to register. Plus, you need to pay occupancy taxes and comply with insurance requirements.

Needless to say, it’s important to research local regulations in the city where you plan to invest in vacation rentals and make sure to comply with the law. This is a vital step before finding short term rentals to invest in. If you think you cannot abide by the law and follow the restrictions for vacation rentals, it’s best to find another location with less rigid regulations.

Other Legal Restrictions to Remember

Aside from local restrictions on short term rentals, it’s equally important to remember other legal restrictions involved in owning a vacation rental property. Examples of these legal restrictions are as follows:

Legal Restrictions for Condos, Coops, and Planned Developments

If your investment property is in a condominium, cooperative, or planned development, you need to use the property in accordance with the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) or bylaws. 

This document includes all restrictions regarding the use of the unit. In some cases, short term rentals may not be allowed entirely. In other cases, there are certain restrictions that you need to comply with. It’s best to read the CC&Rs first before buying a unit if you intend to use this solely as a short term rental.

Lease Restrictions on Renters

Some vacation property owners do not really own the property. If you are a renter and plan to rent out a space in your apartment to short-term guests, make sure to check your lease agreement for any provisions that restrict or prohibit subletting. It’s best to talk to your landlord and get their permission before you list a room for rent.

Start Finding Short Term Rentals for Sale Now

Finding short term rentals for sale using Mashvisor’s top three real estate investment tools makes things a lot easier. Mashvisor’s database contains several available properties for sale, including turnkey properties and those that may need a little improvement. It’s important to study the analytics and figures to determine if it will make a good investment.

When finding a property using Mashvisor, all you need to do is enter your desired city or neighborhood, and customize other filters like budget, property type, and size. This allows you to get more personalized results based on your preference. Select the property that interests you and check the metrics to determine if it will make a profitable investment.

Make sure to utilize the Airbnb investment calculator to help you make an informed decision based on accurate figures. You can also customize your expenses and financing option, so you can get a more accurate calculation. This way, you’ll know whether a property will become a good short term rental investment or not. 

Find the right investment property in the right location, and start investing in Airbnb from there. When choosing a location, make sure to consider the demand for vacation rentals and the seasonality of Airbnb business. One of the best locations for investing in Airbnb is Orlando, Florida because of its popularity among both local and international tourists.

Once you have chosen an Airbnb property, learn how to advertise the rental to start getting bookings and making money from your short term rental investment. 

Interested in trying out our tools? Start out your 7-day free trial with Mashvisor now.