369. 5 Non-Negotiables for Airbnbs in 2026 with Taylor Jones

Summary

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Podcast Summary: 5 Non-Negotiables for Airbnbs in 2026 with Taylor Jones

Podcast: Tax Smart Real Estate Investors Podcast
Host: Hall CPA (Tom, Nate)
Guest: Taylor Jones, STR Search
Episode: #369
Date: March 17, 2026
Duration: ~45 Minutes

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the “five non-negotiables” every short-term rental (Airbnb) owner must embrace to stay successful (and profitable) in 2026. Guest Taylor Jones—founder of STR Search and a seasoned Airbnb investor—joins hosts Tom and Nate to share actionable strategies, fresh trends, and specific amenities that help short-term rentals stand out in an ever-evolving marketplace. The discussion blends practical investment tactics, design insights, and revenue-maximizing tips, all supported by years of real-world industry data.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Taylor’s Background and Journey into Short-term Rentals

• Taylor’s transition from sales and baseball to STR investing
  • Realized post-COVID that real estate, particularly Airbnbs, fit his analysis-driven mindset.
  • Became addicted after his first property netted $6,000 in bookings overnight.
    • “Launched that first property...woke up Wednesday morning, I had over $6,000 worth of bookings and I was addicted.” (03:04, Taylor Jones)
  • Highlights the power of depreciation and tax strategies in scaling up.
  • Now guides clients through STR Search, helping investors find and operate profitable Airbnbs nationwide.

2. The 5 Non-Negotiables for STR Profitability in 2026

a) Short-term Rental-Focused Professional Photography

[06:01–08:21]

• Not just any professional photos—hire photographers specialized in STRs who create images that evoke emotion and help guests imagine themselves in the space.
• Quote:
  • “People book with their eyes at the end of the day...you need short term rental focused photography.” (08:12, Taylor Jones)
• Listings with evocative visuals make the first cut as guests comparison shop.

b) Backyard Lighting as a Game-Changing Amenity

[08:41–11:57]

• Professional outdoor lighting (especially string lights) is an underutilized, affordable amenity that vastly improves listing appeal.
• Enhances both photos and actual guest experience, especially with dusk/sunset shots.
• “Nighttime and sunset photos are going to give you something because everybody does daylight photos.” (10:15, Taylor Jones)
• Investment can range from ~$500–$1,500 for high ROI, or more for premium, hardwired installs.

c) Advanced Revenue Management & Dynamic Pricing

[12:08–17:56]

• Move beyond off-the-shelf dynamic pricing tools—hire or use professional revenue managers who actively adjust prices, minimize calendar gaps, and monitor competitors.
• Avoid “orphan nights” (1-day gaps), which can erode profit.
• Quotes:
  • “The further you get from the unboxing day of dynamic pricing...you're now blending closer to the 50th percentile of everybody else.” (13:22, Taylor Jones)
  • “A professional revenue manager...is going in there every day or every other day minimum and making pricing adjustments... That's the critical edge.” (13:48, Taylor Jones)
• Services typically cost $250–$999/month but often return 2–4x the investment.

d) Leaning Into Niche Amenity Offerings (“Baby Making Spaces”)

[18:26–24:23]

• Ultra-niched properties (e.g., luxury couple’s getaways with multiple romantic amenities) can outperform larger homes and even achieve 6-figure gross revenue.
• Amenities like outdoor showers, hot tubs, and themed experiences drive premium pricing and bookings.
• “There is a direct correlation between baby making spaces or amenities and your nightly rate.” (19:21, Taylor Jones)
• Real-world anecdotes about properties with unique offerings making more than bigger, generic homes.
• Design intentionally for niches: families, bachelorettes, group trips—go “all in” for your target guest.

e) “Investing at the Poles” (Large & Unique, Not the Middle)

[28:49–36:58]

• Booking data shows that demand is strong at the extremes: big homes (for groups/multi-family) and super-niched small units (like romantic getaways).
• Middle-sized 2–3 BR homes are increasingly squeezed.
• Limited supply of large homes in most non-major markets means less competition and higher returns.
• Search Filter Hacking: Use guest-side Airbnb filters (pet friendly, pool, hot tub, etc.) to rapidly assess local competition for your target niche.
• Pet Friendly Properties:
  • Pet-friendly rentals face less competition, can charge pet fees, and attract more bookings.
  • “Kids do more damage [to a rental] than pets a thousand out of a thousand times.” (32:16, Nate)
  • Recoup cleaning with pet fees, push deep-clean costs to guests if necessary, and exploit platforms’ “air cover” for damage claims.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |-----------|---------|-----------------| | 03:04 | Taylor Jones | “Launched that first property...woke up Wednesday morning, I had over $6,000 worth of bookings and I was addicted.” | | 06:47 | Taylor Jones | “There is a key difference: real estate photography vs. short term rental photography... STR photogs are selling an emotional experience.” | | 10:15 | Taylor Jones | “Having nighttime and sunset photos are what’s going to give you something… comparing 10 listings—everything’s daylight, you mix in a sunset photo, it stands out.” | | 13:22 | Taylor Jones | “If you’re not building these formulas and algorithms and you just let people book away, you could be leaving yourself one-night gaps... You just lit $600 on fire.” | | 19:21 | Taylor Jones | “There is a direct correlation between the number of baby making spaces or amenities your property offers and your nightly rate.” | | 25:35 | Taylor Jones | “You can’t design for the masses... You gotta go all in... The more the kids are occupied, the more peaceful the parents are, the happier the review.” | | 27:00 | Taylor Jones | “There’s only two ways to charge more per night: be more luxurious or provide more value.” | | 32:16 | Nate | “Kids do more damage than pets a thousand out of a thousand times.” | | 36:21 | Taylor Jones | “If you’re already two or three amenities in and then you also click pet-friendly, it will shrink it down... You can make a boatload because you have less competitors.” | | 39:43 | Taylor Jones | “At the end of the day, you’re getting ice cream when you walk out—profitable short-term rental. The toppings—budget and preferences—are up to you.” | | 43:31 | Taylor Jones | “If you don’t have your blueprint ready to go by your tax professional, you’re kind of just flying blind.” |

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Additional Insights

How to Evaluate a Market (DIY “Amenity Filter Hack”)

• Search Airbnb as if you’re a guest: use bedroom count and amenities (pool, hot tub, pet-friendly, etc.) to see supply and competition for your planned STR.
• Unique combinations (pet-friendly + hot tub + pool, etc.) for large homes can often make you “one of one” in local market supply.

The Crucial Role of Tax Planning

• The hosts emphasize: STRs are both a high-yield investment strategy AND an unbeatable (if structured correctly) way to generate tax benefits for high-income individuals, even outside “real estate professional” status.
• Get tax advice before you close on the property to ensure you don’t miss out on material participation and other compliance/strategy opportunities.

Don’t Just Do It—Do It Deluxe

• Taylor drives home: “Do better than everyone else”—not just in amenities, but in who you serve (families, bachelorettes, couples, etc.) and how you design your offering.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Taylor Jones background & STR genesis: 01:48–05:36
• Non-Negotiable #1: STR Photography: 06:01–08:21
• Non-Negotiable #2: Backyard Lighting: 08:41–11:57
• Non-Negotiable #3: Revenue Management: 12:08–17:56
• Non-Negotiable #4: Niche Amenities & Design: 18:26–28:47
• Non-Negotiable #5: “Investing at the Poles” and Pet-Friendly Tactics: 28:49–36:58
• How to DIY market analysis with Airbnb filters: 35:05–36:58
• STR Search’s approach to working with investors: 38:49–41:28
• Closing thoughts on tax planning and STR setup: 42:13–43:53

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Concluding Advice

• The STR landscape in 2026 is highly competitive and more sophisticated. Success means:
  • Specializing and serving your niche audience intensely.
  • Heavily amenitizing and professionally presenting your property.
  • Employing continual, active revenue management—not just “set and forget” automation.
  • Leveraging tax strategies in advance with a professional, not as an afterthought.
  • Partnering with experts like Taylor’s STR Search to match your preferences and budget to the right market and property type.

“If you don’t have your blueprint ready to go by your tax professional, you’re kind of just flying blind.” (43:31, Taylor Jones)

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For more resources, see the show notes on TheRealEstateCPA.com.

Transcript

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

You're now listening to the Tax Smart REI Podcast, the number one tax podcast for real estate investors,

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

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[Podcast Producer/Outro Voice]

all things real estate, accounting and tax. Here we reveal our secrets that can save you thousands in taxes, streamline your accounting process, and help grow your business. Stay tuned to hear insightful interviews with industry experts, successful real estate investors, and current clients on what strategies they use to grow their business and how they steer clear of Uncle Sam.

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

Welcome to this week's episode of the

[Tom (Co-host)]

Tax Mod REI Podcast.

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

Thanks everybody for tuning in. Today we're joined with Taylor Jones of STR Search and we're gonna be talking

[Tom (Co-host)]

about his top five non negotiables for short term rentals in 2026. So if you're out there, you're going to be acquiring short term rentals this year. You're not going to want to miss this episode. And we have something very special that we're going to discuss on how to make a one bedroom more profitable than a five bedroom Airbnb. So we'll be diving into all that in just one minute.

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

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[Tom (Co-host)]

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Get the real estate and tax news that actually matters straight to your inbox. Subscribe to the REI Daily newsletter today and at therealestatecpa.com subscribe. That's it for now and right back into today's episode.

[Tom (Co-host)]

All right, and we're back. So Taylor, thanks again for joining us here on the show. I know you've been here on the show I think two or two or three other times. But just for anybody who might be new might be tuning in, would you be able to share a little bit about your background and kind of what you guys do over at CR Search?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah, I am a washed up baseball guy, so staring at numbers all day was naturally an easy fit during COVID used to be in the sales world and kind of got put on pause. So that was kind of my oh crap moment to life and what am I going to do? And I had all the time in the world which was kind of the blessing to me in Covid and always had the itch for real estate but wasn't sure what I wanted to do whether it was long term rentals, flipping Broker, multifamily, et cetera. And as a traveler and consumer of short term rentals and staying in Airbnbs. Me and my wife have stayed in 40 plus Airbnbs across the world since 2015. I started to look at, well, what

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

does it look like to buy Airbnbs?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And good lord, I wish I'd started in 2015 on the Traveler side when I started. But you know, started there 2020. Wrote five offers, got the sixth one accepted and was off to the races. Launched that first property. I remember it was a Tuesday night. Naturally Covid happened. The world came back. I was back at the sales job, so, you know, was back to working the job. And when I woke up Wednesday morning, I had over $6,000 worth of bookings and I was addicted. And you know, that was the oh my gosh moment. And to me, like anybody, I was

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

like, oh man, I'll just buy one a year for the next decade, own 10 of these, you know, quote unquote,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

retire all that crap that people spew. And like I said, got addicted four months later, bought a second one and quickly realized like, I need to buy as many of these as I can. The next year got my first taste of depreciation and oh my gosh, you want to shoot that into your veins after you've had that the first time. So, you know, and this was prior to having great folks like Hall CPA who I'm personally engaged with now, but back then I was just a regular stiff CPA off the street. And he's like, yeah, you got to

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

do this cost segregation thing.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And I didn't even know what the heck anything was. But we order it, it comes back and I remember having $202,000 worth of paper losses, air quotes on my offsetting my sales commissions and good lord, that was addicting. And my first taste in not just

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

having short term rental success, which I'd

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

had obviously from being the owner operator, but really understanding how it affects my day to day.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Eventually I started talking about my journey

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

online randomly about me and my wife's purchasing with no really rhyme or reason, but just spewing it out into the Internet. And naturally the follower count kept growing. Got a DM from a group that was looking to deploy capital at scale into short term rentals and they needed a numbers guy. And that's where being a washed up baseball guy came into play here. And so naturally I joined there and have since helped deploy over 150 million into this asset class and bought over 356 short term rentals with investors the last four and a half years. And what spun out of that was STR search. So we do just that. We help investors find, buy, set up profitable short term rentals across America.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

I think you skipped the part where you were going to be an accountant at one point in time and how that's probably like the worst decision you've made actually. But it's probably pretty awesome story, man.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a short stint during college where I wanted to be an accountant and you know, I had a internship lined up from a guy, KPMG and all going down that whole rabbit hole. And you know, in college they, they

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

start to have those weed out classes.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

You know, you're in general business and then you get into your major and

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

it took the second accounting weed out class. It did its job.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

It weeded me out. I changed majors, went into business and finance and got out of accounting. So, yeah, Nate, thank you for reminding me of my fake accounting dreams from back in the day.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Well, of course that's how you got into the world of real estate. And of course you get to figure out that you shouldn't make it to the tax class. Then you'd have been hooked when you found out about depreciation. Right?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Man, I gave up too soon on my journey and my calling.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Well, Taylor, super happy to have like always love having you on. Like Tom was saying before, so today, one of the things that I know we wanted, like we wanted to go through is what are your top 5 non negotiables for a profitable str in 2026? You guys constantly going through all the market data. You're analyzing everything. So what, what are you guys seeing that is like basically makes your top five listing that you tell every investor, hey, you got to do this.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah. So let's start here. And in no particular order, but you know, really what I end up saying a lot I wanted to repeat to your audience. So the first one is professional photography. And this I would say is definitely a carryover from maybe 2025, but the importance has turned up significantly in 2026.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

It used to be, do you have iPhone Photos versus professional photography. That used to be the comparison, but

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

now professional photography alone isn't going to do it. Because what people don't understand is there's

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

real estate photography and there's short term rental photography. And as a guy who looks at

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

hundreds of Airbnbs a day across the

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

country, I can see who hired a real estate photographer and who hired a

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

short term rental photographer.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And the key difference Is think about it if you're going to list the house. So sometimes I look at these Airbnbs

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

and I'm like, oh, is this for sale?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Like, you know, are they selling this as a primary home? Because it's just more displayed with like the wide angle lens and showcasing the space, not transferring emotion. So with a short term rental photographer, what they want you to do is imagine yourself, your family, your group inside using the property. That is a different level of how you shoot each room than, hey, I want to display the living room or display the pool. And that's what real estate photography is. So there is levels to not just having professional photography. That, that used to be enough, but now it's, are you hiring a general real estate photographer, which there's a trillion of, or do you have a short term rental for forward who can convey emotion? Remember, people book with their eyes at the end of the day, that is exactly how the traveler experience goes.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

They pull open Airbnb, they type in

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

their location, and then they're going to start with roughly 10 tabs open and then they're going to start filtering it down until you get down to those

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

final two or three.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So if you've never, you know, if

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

you've ever been a traveler of Airbnb or Verbo, like, you know exactly how that goes.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

I do this personally when I'm looking,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

I click a bunch of them I

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

like and then I start to trim it down. And what's going to catch your eye to even make those first batch is the photography.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Does it sell you when you open it?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So to me, that I think is one of the critical things for 2026 is you can't just have professional photography. You need short term rental.

[Tom (Co-host)]

Focused photography makes a ton of sense. I know, I know. What you're saying is 100% right. Whenever I go on Airbnb, that's the first thing I do. If the pictures are terrible, they're getting weeded out right away. And it just. Pictures speak a thousand words. It's not just a cliche, it just hits you like a ton of bricks at one shot. So totally makes sense to have a more nuanced approach to the photography you have on the Airbnb.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah. Okay, so number two here is backyard lighting. All right, this is probably my go to sneaky under the radar amenity of 2026 as the game starts leveling up. Sure, everybody has a pool in Florida. Sure, you put in a playground set for the kids. Sure, you put a fire pit.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But the next thing people don't invest in that gives you such an easy way to stand out is professional lighting.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Whether it's along the walkway, walking from the pool to the fire pit, whether

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

it's along the back fence line, you

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

do the string lights. Every cabin that we have a client

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

buy in the mountains, we always budget string lights on the deck. So if you have one deck, you have two decks, or you have the big old three story, you know, triple deck where it's got the loft, it's also got, you know, the basement. So you have three decks.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

You need to run string lights throughout all of them.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Your photographer, he'll fly the drone out, looking back at it from the sky.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And you want those string lights and you make sure it's at sunset time. It, it is a perfectly executed look

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

that everybody wants and has.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

But again, even if you're not in those mountain markets, like I said, take your Florida, your Texas, your Arizonas, North Carolina, South Carolina type, you know, markets.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

How do you level up from just having a pool, just having that.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And it's an area that a lot

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

of people don't invest in today.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And we are actively encouraging our clients because now again, we talk about how do you make your photos stand out even better? It's not just, oh, I have professional photography.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And only having daylight photos. Having nighttime and sunset photos are what's going to give you something. Because if everybody's just daylight photos. So think about it, comparing 10 listings, everything's daylight, bright daylight, bright. And you mix in that sunset sky, little orange and purple hue to it,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

like, oh, let me click this one a little further.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And then you have the lighting. And again, you're selling emotion. People can now imagine after a fun

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

day at the beach, they got a

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

cold beverage in their hand, their kids are making s', mores, and you see the string lights, you're like, oh, man,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

like, I'd love to create that memory with my family.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So lighting is coming in here as

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

the second one of 2026.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

And Taylor, that's not like an insane. Correct me if I'm wrong, that's probably not an insane cost to like do something like that on the property. Right? That's not an insane cost. Overall, it's not going to cost like $30,000 to do some good lighting.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah, no, it's a relatively affordable. That gives you a high roi. I mean, you could buy string lights, you know, depending on, you know, they sell them by the foot at Home Depot for, you know, 50, 100 bucks.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Now you start to get into some of the Solar lighting, you know, it's like, okay, it's not that bad. And then if you start to get

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

into like, the premium option will be hardwired. And if you want to do like up lighting, you know, like you got

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

the palm trees and you want it like embedded.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Sure.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But even then, we're still maybe talking 4 to $10,000 depending on the size of your lot.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

But you could really do this for

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

500 to 1500 bucks. You could have really nice lighting, whether

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

it's solar string lights, a combination around your property and totally differentiate and set the mood. So yeah, it is a great call out that this isn't a, you know, putting a pickleball court, which was definitely the 2024, 2025 trend for sure.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

This is a relatively affordable one that

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

not a lot of people have caught onto yet. And we are again trying to always be ahead of the curve.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Yeah, okay, so that's good. And hey, just FYI, we'll get into this later, but there's some tax benefit in that too, right? Everything like whatever you put in going to get 30% on the dollar back. It's five year property. So just FYI on that too.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Guys, look at this.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

The two people smarter than me on this call shedding more light. This is amazing. This is amazing right there. So number three is revenue management. Some people don't even know that this exists, but what revenue management is is

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

who is professionally pricing and managing your calendar.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

So there's softwares out there for dynamic pricing. So again, this is kind of similar to photography.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

It used to be flat rate pricing versus dynamic pricing. So back in the day, the property manager would charge $99 Monday to Thursday and then 199 on Friday and Saturday. And that was fixed rate pricing. And then a lot of these softwares came out and they're like, hey, we can adjust the pricing up and down based on every day and the demand and it'll move. It's like, cool.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Well, guess what?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Everybody now buys these out of the box. They're 10, 15, 20 bucks a month. Super relative dynamic pricing tools. Cool. Now you and everybody else have out of the box dynamic pricing tools. So if you don't actively go in

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

there and build new algorithms, new formulas

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

and new adjustments, the further you get away from that unboxing day one of your pricing, you're now blending closer to the 50th percentile of everybody else. So if you just have a dynamic pricing tool like everybody else, how are you any different? How do you go in? And so what people don't know is those top one, top 5% have a

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

professional revenue manager, somebody is going in

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

there every day or every other day minimum and making pricing adjustments, looking at market occupancy, all of your direct competitors, how far booked out are they versus you? What are they charging per night? Do I need to make adjustments up because I'm giving away my place for too little? Also, you talk calendar management, how do you not leave gap nights, also called orphan nights, that's where somebody checks out Wednesday, the next guest doesn't check in till Thursday. Well, you can set formulas and things so you don't allow that to even happen. So that now that person who checks out Wednesday, the next person has to either check in Wednesday or check in Friday, which leaves you a two night gap. So assuming you don't want to take

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

one night bookings, which that's a big party risk and most, most people don't, unless you have a couple's getaway which

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

will take that out. But if you have a larger 3,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

4, 5, 6 bed, you typically avoid one night bookings.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So the worst thing you can do to cost you money is leave a

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

one night gap on your calendar.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But that's based on calendar management and how you set up your minimum stays and your restrictions. So again, if you're not building these formulas and algorithms, you just let people book away. You could leave yourself these one night gaps. You got a property that, that makes 3, 4, 5, 600 a night. You just lit 3, 4, 5, $600 on fire. And if you have one gap night, two gap nights, three gap nights a month, you just cost yourself 1500 dollars a month. Like without knowing it, you thought, man, I signed up for the dynamic pricing tool. Like all the influencers told me, I am sitting here and I'm 80% occupied.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Like, cool, you left two GS on the table. You know, like, you know, if you like driving down the highway and just throwing money out the window, I mean, great, let me know, I'll try to drive behind you and catch it. But you know, to me, I like putting it in my pocket.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So revenue management is a new emerging thing.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

There's a lot of these more niche companies that offer just that.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

They won't talk to your guests. Never.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

They won't talk to your vendor.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

They just manage your pricing and your calendar.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

You know, again, and the other, the other advantage you talk about there is

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

having longer stays, the less turnovers you have at your property. So the less checkouts you naturally have, less cleaning, less expenses, less wear and tear and so you're more profitable dollar for dollar. So if me and Nate both have a property that generates a hundred thousand in revenue and he had 60 bookings

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

to get there, but I only had

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

50, his cleaning bill's higher because he had 60 turnovers versus my 50. So I make more profit because I have less turnovers. So how do you set it to where when people are booking further out, you now have three night, four night, five night minimums on that property and then it compresses down to two as it gets closer with an unfilled gap. That is all.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

A professional revenue manager.

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

Hey, real quick, if you've been a longtime listen to the show, then you know we give everything away for free from how to use the real estate professional status and the short term rental loophole to save time, tens of thousands of dollars on taxes to upcoming tax changes. We don't hold anything back. And the only way we're able to help more real estate investors is if you rate, review and share the show. It just takes 15 seconds to leave a quick rating review or share with a friend who may find this information useful on their real estate journey. That's all for now. We'll dive right back into today's episode.

[Tom (Co-host)]

That makes a tremendous amount of sense. Of course, everybody who tunes to this podcast loves the tax benefits of short term rentals, which are absolutely incredible. But we have to remember first and foremost they are an investment, right? And we want to be profitable on those investments. And like Taylor's been saying, it's the market's becoming more sophisticated, more mature. You play the game at a higher level. And that makes sense that there's these companies that specialize in just that and I can get you a better bang for your buck, so to speak, when it comes to maximizing the revenue of your property.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Taylor, what's the cost of these services? Like, is it like, is there a ballpark?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Are they all right, that's the best

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

part, man, is like it could be as low as like 250amonth and as high as I've seen like maybe 999amonth.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So relatively somebody goes and drives an

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

extra 500 to 1500, you're getting 2,

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

3, 4 to 1 on your money, no doubt. Like that's, yeah, that's the great part

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

is it is still a profitable ROI

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

to hire that expert when you are

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

talking 250 to 999amonth to manage your calendar and pricing. And again, like, depends on what, where, how, like anything. But yeah, a good Revenue manager will go pay for themselves at least 2, 3, 4 to 1 on their cost. 100%.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Nice. Yeah, I know people are always talking about like hey, when you get your str, like eventually you start getting to a cost cutting mode that I find. But sometimes you gotta spend money to make money, right? As a great Sam Presti said.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Yeah, as well said. That is well said.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Cool. So number four here and Thomas teased this off the cuff here, how to have a one bedroom couples getaway that makes more revenue than a five bedroom house.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And really what we're dealing with is

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

when you go down into the studio one bedrooms, you're competing with hotels now because as a traveler, as a couple, like you could rent a hotel.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Now some markets, you know, out in the mountains, like it might not be a lot so you know, versus more urban.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

If you're in Austin, Texas for example, you're gonna have a lot of, you know, cutthroat competition, you know, Miami beach, et cetera. Like you know, you're renting a condo or you're renting a, you know, short term rental at a hotel.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And so how do you stand out?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And I make this joke and you know, it's always gets good social media run. But if you look at the data, there is a direct correlation between the number of baby making spaces or amenities that your property offers and your nightly rate.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So when you are comparing one bedroom properties, the more variety of locations that you could provide, procreate in versus just

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

quote unquote, the bed as we would say is standard, the more you can charge per night. And so you see some of these like one bedroom cabins and you know, I flash this before they have outdoor

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

shower, hammock, fire pit, hot tub, the deck, the this, the that and all of a sudden you're like, oh, this guy's averaging 550 a night. And you look at a five bedroom house in that market and it's you

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

know, getting 450 a night on average.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And it's just there is one bedroom, you know, properties I've seen across the country that have pulled as high as 175,000 in revenue.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Again that's on the high side, but

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

it's not that uncommon. You see a well designed luxury couples getaway cabin cottage, your unique structure insert

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

whatever it is that pulls six figures in revenue.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

It has been done and can be done. And then obviously the higher above it,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

that number does shrink.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But getting to that six figure is,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

is a well executed machine. And so yeah, like the very kind way to say it Is, you know, the more baby making spaces your one bedroom has, the more you can charge per night and because again if they're going to go spend 2, 3, 400 a night, it's what's the alternative? And the more value, the more offering you bring, the more people will pay per night.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

So I guess the question is then they then offering a, another suite for the next year after the baby like nine months after.

[Tom (Co-host)]

Right.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Like is that, like is there an

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

offer that they have a, they have a two two right next door that you could rent. So you start with the 1:1 and then next year you go to the 2:2 and you know, you carve out

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

the little nursery space like that.

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

Yeah, real quick.

[Tom (Co-host)]

So, so, so I'm pretty sure where everybody tunes into the show's 18 plus. All right, so we're all adult 16 here. Okay. What is the number one like amenity, number one spot that you've seen or the craziest thing that you've seen as it relates to this particular.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Have you taken the black light through the properties? I guess is the better question I would say.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And if you just think about it

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

from human nature, like the outdoor shower to me is a premium thing because most people don't carry an outdoor shower. I mean, you know, some of you guys live in cold weathers. I'm in Florida. So it's not that uncommon to have one. Just you know, but normally like hey, by the pool, you rinse off.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But if you, you got a cabin

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

or cottage, you're in the woods and you know nobody else can see you,

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

you know, the outdoor shower, outdoor tub

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

is going to be a premium that you know, again it's just something so different that most people don't get or most couples don't get in their day to day that like it is such an attractive option and you can niche this down further. So these are all just like nice getaways. There is a niche within this of

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

I don't even know the best way

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

to describe this of like, hey, I

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

want to reconnect physically with my partner

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

places and you know, there is a

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

lot of tools and instruments that you might see and it is very specific to that genre. And those are also doing six figures and there's a couple brands emerging.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

I, I, you know, kind of joke that you could start a brand here and stand out in this space where you know, I think the biggest one only has five or six locations. But they are all very specific and

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

there is fun activities that you can test out and it is very Intentional

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

for what it is when you go

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

to those types of places. And that is an emerging niche.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

You know, again, little, you know, bonus

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

4A here as we go off. But you know, I've posted that as well and it is crazy that, you know, again, those are going to command

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

2, 3, 4, 500 a night and those will push six figures in revenue. I always joke, like, if you ever were going there, I don't know that

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

you would want to put your name and leave a review there publicly. If you could leave an anonymous review, sure. But I always thought it was a little weird. It's like, yeah, hey, me and Mrs.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Jones came in here, it was a

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

great reconnection for our 10 year anniversary. And I'm like, yeah, now my face is here on this review.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Just got to sign up the guest book and then leave your favorite. What was your favorite part of your favorite experience on the trip?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Right, yeah, yeah, those are, I will say the physical.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Great, great little spin off here.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

The physical, you know, comment review thing. We, we did showers a while ago,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

just unfortunately, you know. And again, we, we typically have always had three, four, five, six bedroom houses.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But people write inappropriate things, they draw inappropriate things, and you're not there.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

You can't check it unless you, you know, hey, it's the Airbnb next door. And you go physically clean it, which is not the norm.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So the pivot to a digital guidebook,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

which those are obviously even more robust. And you could make changes, updates, because you could control it.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But the cute little, hey, we enjoyed this and you read them. I remember that from four or five years ago.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And then it only takes one. And unfortunately the cleaner's like, hey, have

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

you seen this lately?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And I'm like, no, I don't live here. And you quickly got to throw that thing away because one bad apple ruins it with writing something or drawing something inappropriate in that book.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So digital guidebooks, keep control, maintain your business.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Like I said, you want to, you want to be a good operator and don't leave things out of your control.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Taylor, one follow up question to that, maybe two. You can ignore me with this. First one is what are the cleaning service expenses on these types of short term rentals that you're mentioning? But I guess it's like, how many, like you're starting to see, Like, I think what we're kind of talking about is that in the str realm, it feels like you got to start niching down, right? You can't just be, hey, I'm just here. You got to start kind of niching down and kind of like having a different offering than what everybody else is doing. Does that kind of sound right? For, for the most part, yeah.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

I mean, on your first one, you know, the, the cleaning teams charge by the hour or by the headcount. So if you have to do extra

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

deep cleaning, it just costs more than, hey, I have a 500 square foot

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

condo that you know, at the beach. So that's a pretty straightforward answer.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But yeah, in regards to the niche,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

you just have to do it better than the next person. So if you're offering a family stay in a family forward market, you gotta have more to offer to that family. It's not just a pool and a playground. It's not going to get it done.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

If you're group travel, if you're bachelorettes,

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

forward, if you're bachelor forward, if you're couples getaway, you need to now offer more.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But also too with your design, you

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

can't design for the masses and just

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

be like, oh, my property looks great. And yeah, I designed it well, it's like, am I going all in on

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

group travel and friends?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Am I going all in on bachelorettes? We've had clients do that. And like when I say go all in, they painted the pool deck pink, they painted the kitchen cabinets pink, they got pink appliances, there's pink wallpaper. But guess What? Groups of 14 women are paying 12, 14, 1600 a night to go there every freaking weekend because they niche down. If it was just like, oh, you kind of did and like, yeah, I got some pink wallpaper, that's not enough to do it. And so to your point is like, you got to go all in. Same thing with families. Like big bright murals, the playground, the game room. What else can I give the kids? Because that second order effect is the more they're occupied, the more peaceful the parents are, the happier their review. They can relax, quote unquote, on vacation as much as they can. They're more likely to leave a positive review to come back. And they don't mind paying a premium price versus oh my gosh, like the

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

kids got bored, they went swimming for two hours and now there's nothing else to do for them. And it's like, how do I occupy them?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So if you have all those extra

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

things, you can charge more. And like, this is really a very simple thing. I tell people there's only two ways to charge more per night in this industry. You have to be more luxurious or

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

you have to provide more value.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

So let's unpack those two being More luxurious is very straightforward.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

High end career marble. When you design the kitchen, high end finishes, all the stuff there. So visually, if you have nicer high end floors, bathrooms, kitchens, a modern house, new construction, you can charge more per night than the vinyl siding that has granite countertops.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Easy.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Providing more value than the next guy. That can be a variety of things. If Thomas hands out gold bars at check in, he's providing more value. He's probably going to get charged more per night because when you check in, Thomas is giving you 5 ounces of gold in a gold bar. Check in like that's providing more value. It could be a good welcome basket. It could be, you know, hey, we send over, you know, a masseuse to do an in cabin massage included. Like those are all value. But the simplest value add is you have more amenities to offer than your competitors. So if you have five amenities and they have three, you're providing more value to the guests. So that's the simplest way when you unpack because you could provide value in a lot of ways to win. So again, you take Lux out because that's just one strategy. Your only other way to charge more per night is offering more value, which is a very broad way to do that. But in simple terms, how we always look at it is we need to

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

offer more amenities to our competitors. So again, if it's groups of friends,

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

if it's bros on a, you know, golf trip or a buddy's trip, like it's not just having the miniature golf course in the backyard. I also got the golf simulator in the garage. So it's going one step further because now I want the golf sim and the mini golf, not just the mini golf. So those are those different things that allow you to really expand, push your

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

short term rental forward.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

Nice.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Okay, and last one here. And this trend has continued to go, but it is investing at the polls.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

So Airbnb being a public data, they release their, their data every quarter. But if you actually look over the

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

last three years, the average bedroom count

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

per booking, so they released this number,

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

how many bedrooms were booked? So if somebody makes a booking, how many total bedrooms were there? That number has gone up quarter over

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

quarter for the last three straight years.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So naturally every booking on the platform is getting larger. So when I say invest in the polls, it also does go the other way though of niching down in that couples getaway, that one bed. So there's a very profitable route there that we already discussed. But the middle, those twos and threes are getting squeezed. It gets Harder and harder to. Because the price of the real estate has gone up in every size, but the revenue isn't quite matching at that same growth rate. And when you look at building supply in this country. So a big issue we have is

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

supply in the United States. And there's not a lot of new construction going on. You know, not nearly enough. You have government red tape making it worse. You have all the NIMBYs making it worse. We cannot build enough inventory in this country. And I don't know when that's ever going to get corrected because you need the NIMBYs to step aside or you need the government to get out of the way. And I would love for either of you to let me know the last time you saw either of those things happen. And that'll be the first time I've seen it happen too.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So naturally, builders who were building these

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

houses that maybe weren't built as a short term rental when they were built in 1992 or 1970 or whenever the

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

house was built, builders weren't specking out six, seven, eight bed homes. So there's not a lot of six, seven, eight bed homes or five beds in a lot of these markets. Now take Disney, like which is probably the most chaotic market off the table. Take maybe the Smokies, another very chaotic market. Sure, they're building 10, 12, 14 bedroom homes in those markets. But in a more normalized vacation market, you're not going to see a lot of five pluses because that's not what the general supply is. So naturally, you just have less physical

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

competition if you buy a 4, 5,

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

6, 7 bedroom home because there's just less supply. So period, to satisfy multiple families or large groups that are traveling to that

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

area, there's just not a lot of sheer competitors, period.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And you know, really, you start breaking

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

that down and it's like, how do I differentiate? A really cool exercise that I would encourage people to do, and we've done this before, is you could just go to Airbnb as a traveler in your

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

market and start setting up filters for

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

the search results you want. So I'll give you an example. We were looking at a really good deal and I was encouraging this client to buy this property. And this is in a non pool market. So it's a non Texas, Arizona, Florida, where you have to. And it had a pool. And I said, man, like this is

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

a four bedroom with an unfinished basement we can turn into a six. So went to Airbnb just said six plus bedrooms has a pool. And in a 45 minute radius. There was eight total competitors.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Eight.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

I said, okay, let's add a hot tub too because it is cold here. We dropped down to three. And I said, and again, smartest hack, I tell everybody, make your place pet friendly. There is more pets in the United

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

States than children under 18. Okay?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

You are leaving money on the table by not being a pet friendly. Short term rental kids do more damage than pets. Everybody's like all the damage. Kids do more damage to your short term rental than pets a thousand out of a thousand times. Now has a dog pissed on the

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

carpet before or on the rug absolute freaking lutely.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But you have repercussions to protect yourself

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

in a couple ways.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So when you're pet friendly, a couple of things. You're going to charge a pet fee

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

that's non refundable, so you make additional revenue right there.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

I like flat rate pricing, so I just charge per pet, depending on the place, 75 to 150 bucks. Because your alternative is to go pay 75 to 150 bucks to put your dog in a, in a kennel and

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

you don't even get your dog with you.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So I'd rather drop 150 bucks and bring Fluffy with me than to drop 150 bucks and Fluffy is stuck in a six by six gauge and gets

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

two hours of sunlight during the day.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So that's number one. And again, you just disclose in your listing, hey, there is a deep cleaning fee that happens for pets or damages. So obviously any damage, kid, pet, anything you have. Airbnb has what's called air cover. You take a picture, you file a claim. Airbnb charges their credit card so you get reimbursed. But let's say the dog left an extra mess. That requires more work from your cleaner. If you disclose it in your listing, you can hold the guest accountable to it that hey, there will be an additional deep clean issue. Now if I were you guys, I would say that that additional deep clean is $1,000 again because if you put it in writing you can charge that and if they have it, you can go. Now is the actual additional deep clean from my cleaner going to cost me 1000 bucks? No, it might only cost me 5 or 600. I just made a little spread on it. So again, when you carry a very large threat like that, you can execute on it. But it also prevents people like I've

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

got, you know, dogs do like we're very good, like you know, owners of them and I want to make sure.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But if there's an irresponsible so being pet friendly, you make the revenue in two ways. The pet fees and less competitors. Because remember, as soon as you check that pet friendly box, everybody without a pet drops off. I don't care if Thomas is charging $2 a night to stay at his mansion, if he's not pet friendly, he doesn't even show up in search. He's not even visible. So again, I ran that, that scenario down for a client and I said, dude, look like this is why this is an amazing property. You have a pool, there's only six of you that can accommodate the large, large groups in this market, A non pool market. And then if we also put a hot tub on the deck because it

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

does get cold here in the winter

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

and we allow pet friendly, we are one of one. But even if you said, Taylor, I just can't have pets in my place, whatever, you have three competitors. That's a pretty good opportunity for me if somebody was looking in this area with pool in a hot tub. But you can run that trap. So say, say you are going to buy a three bed or a four

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

bed in a market.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So even if you take a more middle of the road property, you could just set up as a traveler, hey, I want to go to Austin. You click flexible on dates, so you don't actually pick any dates and you just put the number of guests that

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

you're going to sleep.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So you have a three bed. Let's just say you put six or eight in and Airbnb will be like, hey, there's 800 homes. And you're like, okay, what if I buy a three bed with a pool and you just literally check the pool box as a traveler and Airbnb maybe that drops to 200 and you're like, also I put fire pit in and what it is. And so you could start checking random boxes and unchecking and look at what it does to the supply. So this is a very like, obviously we're data professionals and I could give you all these datas for any city in America just like that. But even if you wanted to be a little entrepreneurial diy, this is the way to hack it on the amenity

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

side as a, you know, investor is

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

just go to the search side as traveler and again, pick your market, pick your bedroom count and start just checking various amenity boxes that Airbnb offers and you could toggle them on off and write down how many competitors because you're going to start with just Austin three bedrooms. And then it's like Austin three beds. With a pool and then pool and hot tub and then pool, hot tub, fire, pet. And if you always save pet friendly for the very end, that's always your

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

hammer and you're going to cut it really.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

If you're already two or three amenities in and then you also click pet friendly and will shrink it down to very few. So again, highly amenitized. Get yourself in there. You can make a boatload of money because you have less competitors. I don't care how nice Thomas's house is. I don't care how many amenities he has. I don't care that he's handing out gold bars at check in or he's

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

offering $2 a night.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

He doesn't even show up in the search. I don't have to worry about him. He's not a real competitor. Because again, that is how the search

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

function works on Airbnb and vrbo.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

If somebody checks a box as a traveler, that's all they're gonna get served

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

because they want a good booking experience.

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

So I mean it might save Tom some money by not being pet friendly. Cause then it's a handout. Gold bars to everybody that walks in. That's kind of, that's kind of what I'm getting. But okay, back to what you were saying to Taylor. That's. That's amazing. Before we talked about, you said ah, five might be hard to hit. I think you probably hit 2020 right there. I was like, let's see what people can be doing. Which is amazing and awesome. That's super awesome data again. It just kind of sounds like the more down you niche that's the better that we can get from that. And also I'm gonna go back to the pet thing too. I'll weave some tax next. We're a tax podcast. Is that look, if you have to continually like do all these maintenance for these pets and stuff, guess what guys, that is a deductible expense. Right. So hey, you do get some of that back on like when you're actively operating short term rental. And hey, or if it's just profitable like Taylor's over here going to make going to create for you, then you're going to have the opportunity to use that and offset the income. Right. Just an FYI. Right. We don't hopefully Fluffy doesn't take a big doo doo in the carpet every single time. But if that does happen, there is some tax effect that wraps into it as well.

[Tom (Co-host)]

Absolutely. So I know a lot of people out there looking at short term rentals as the tax strategy. For them for 2026 and I'll let you guys know out there. If you're a high W2 high income business owner, you can't take advantage of the real estate professional stats because you or your spouse cannot work full time in real estate. Short term rentals are going to be by far your best bet in order to get tax savings. So and I know it could be daunting for a lot of people to try to get into these short term rentals. Taylor, I know that you at short term Rental Search you guys help people get into short term rentals that make sense for their situation, help them acquire it, help them figure out ways to operate to make it profitable. How can listeners who might be considering short term rentals but really don't know how to do it in a really effective way? How can they learn more about what you guys have going on or explore your guys and connect with you guys and how you guys can help them get into short term rentals or elevate their game perhaps?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah, certainly. I mean, you know we are happy to dive in with people.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

What I say is every investor comes

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

in with two things and that's budget and preferences.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

That's going to be the variable. We've helped clients buy as cheap as $199,000 cottage and we've helped buy $2.55

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

million mansions and everything in between.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So budget and then preferences.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Do you want coastal mountain lake, urban metro? Do you want small, do you want big? Do you want new construction? Do you want value add? Do you only want to buy existing

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

short term rentals or do you want to buy something that's zoned to be

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

a short term rental but isn't today?

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Those are all just preferences. What I say is everybody who walks

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

in the door is going to get ice cream. You are going to get a profitable short term rental. That's exactly what the company does.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Now your budget might be one scoop, two scoops, three scoops, it's going to vary.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Person walks in the door and your

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

preference might be mint chocolate chip versus rocky road. Hey I want whipped cream, Hey I want sprinkles. But at the end of the day you're going to get ice cream.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

At the end of the day like

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

when you walk out of the store, you come to SDR search. We are going to give you a

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

profitable short term rental.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

You can go save 50, 100, 150,000 in taxes. You can pay down the guests, are going to pay down the principal, you're going to put a couple bucks in

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

you know, in your pocket every month

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

and you hold good real estate long

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

enough, it statistically grows in value.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So it is a four headed monster that makes it an absolute insane return when you just look at it apples to apples when you combine taxes, cash

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

flow, principal pay down and appreciation. So what we just sit down with everybody is building out that game plan.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

When somebody comes up to me and

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

says Taylor, where's the best market or

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

where should I buy short term rental? I say well it depends what's your budget and what are your preferences?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Because you might not be able to

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

afford certain markets, you might have a

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

preference for only wanting newer product.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Well, I can't control that there's no

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

new construction in this market because homes trade below replacement value. So you have to buy older homes.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

So if that's a preference that you don't like, it doesn't matter how many profitable Airbnbs exist in this market, it doesn't align with your goals and interests. So before you know that's how we're

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

going to kind of wind that funnel down with a client is build out

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

your acquisition strategy for which markets align best with your goals and interests, which, which types of properties align with your goals and interests and then ultimately how to set it up, how to design it, how to amenitize it and ultimately

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

how to operate it effectively.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Everything end to end so that you're successful.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

And like you said, you're not just saving 57,500 grand in taxes and then you have a losing short term rental.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

You're saving 57,500 grand in taxes and putting thousand, 2,000, 4,000 bucks a month in your pocket. That's the outcomes that clients like having 100%.

[Tom (Co-host)]

Yes, absolutely. Because you know what guys, this is more than just a tax play as Taylor's mentioned. It is, it is a four headed monster and it is an investment and you want to make, you want to make a profit. At the end of the day we're going to drop all of that into the show notes how you can connect with STR search how they can help you take your game to the next level or get into your short term rental. If you are looking for help on the tax advisory side, make sure you're doing everything properly so you can capture the tax benefits that are associated with short term rentals and and all the other benefits that come with your personal tax situation. You can click the link in the Show Notes below and book a discovery call with our team. We'd love to learn more about your situation, discover how we can help. Taylor, it's always a pleasure having you on. Always like chock full of insights. Any parting words, any final comments, anything you think that the listeners should know about short term rentals, where we are today?

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

Yeah, I mean I will say even bringing your guys side of the house in, you know, we do get clients, they heard about the short term rental, you know, loophole. They kind of know some education and obviously I can't, I can only education to an extent. I can't talk as a CPA as I'm not licensed. But you know, really what I tell people is you want to set this up properly from day one.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

You don't want to get too far

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

down your journey and then try to like make sure that you're tax compliant.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

And so what I always try to tell people is hey, maybe you have to take one step back, go talk to your cpa, go talk to the guys at all, get set up so that we don't have any slowdowns, hiccups or you know, like it's, it's tough to be in the process and be like crap, we misstep, we, you know, didn't. Sure there's a lot of ways you could save yourself, but there's also missed opportunities that sometimes you can't go back and fix, you know, throughout the process. So you know, what I always like to tell people is like once you're committed to, hey, I'm going to buy a short term rental, we're going to

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

take you A to Z and hold your hand.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But along the way you got to weave in the tax side and the CPA so that we're doing it right from the get go. And the quicker you do that with your tax professional partner, the better overall process you'll be for ensuring material participation, getting your reps hours in, if that's

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

the route you're pursuing all of those

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

things, you know, again it's a very

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

clear blueprint that needs followed.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

But if you don't have your blueprint ready to go by your tax professional, like you're kind of just flying blind. And that's what I would always encourage people is like weave your guys side of the house in as early as possible, like get it in and then we can kind of work in tandem

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

to find the market, find the property, get the renovations, get the amenities, get the design help, get set up for

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

operations and then push forward into cash

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

flow and you know, material participation hours, etc.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

Etc.

[Tom (Co-host)]

Perfect. Couldn't said it better myself. Nate, any final comments before we wrap this one up for today?

[Guest/Co-host - Possibly Nate or Tom]

No, just thanks for coming on Taylor. I'm always glad we get to have this conversation and just like hear what you're seeing out there and then just like, like kind of, you know, just weave it through. And like how like you said how we can get the tax benefits out of this all too.

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

No I I appreciate it and thank you guys for taking my one off

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

text or emails on can we do tax this way? Like as we start niching niching into short term rentals there's all these these new little things. So I come to you guys with crazy ideas that sometimes don't work, sometimes are not applicable, and sometimes unlock cool things. So thank you for always taking my weird one off short term rental tax

[Taylor Jones (STR Search Founder/Guest)]

related questions, comments or how does this get done scenarios?

[Tom (Co-host)]

We appreciate you come on the show and share all the knowledge. That's going to be a wrap today for everybody. Again, links are going to be in the show notes if you want to connect with SDR search if you want to connect with us, but we'll catch you on next week's episode of the Tax Smart REI Podcast.

[Host - Tax Smart REI Podcast]

The Tax Smart Real Estate Investors Podcast is for general information purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied upon for tax, legal or accounting advice information. Information on the podcast may not constitute the most up to date legal or other information. No reader, user or listener of this podcast should act or refrain from acting on the basis of the information on this podcast without first seeking legal and tax advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction, use of and access to this podcast or any of the links or resources contained or mentioned within the podcast show or show Notes do not create a relationship between the reader, user or listener of the podcast and the host could contributors or guests. Any mention of third party vendors, products or services does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. You should conduct your own due diligence before engaging any vendor. For more information, reference the show notes or description of this episode.

[Podcast Producer/Outro Voice]

Thanks for listening to today's show.

[Nate (Tax Expert/Co-host)]

If you enjoyed the show, please find

[Podcast Producer/Outro Voice]

us on itunes and leave us a review. You can also email us at. Contact therealestatecpa.com with any feedback or topic suggestions. We are always taking on new clients and with the new tax laws in play, you really don't want to navigate this alone. Let us help you save money on taxes with your accounting and CFO needs to become a client. Navigate to our client [e-mail] and fill out a web form with as much detail about your situation as possible. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great rest of your week.