23 Aug What is Passive Airbnb? How to Set the Right Expectations

I expected too much out of me in the beginning. I thought I would be building on average of 2 units per quarter and 6 units total in 12 months. But the reality was more like 1 unit per every 3 months. I underestimated the workload to get 1 unit ready to go live.

I fell victim to the above-average bias! That’s okay because the majority of us all do. So, after about 3 months into this business, I had to self-adjust and slow my roll to a speed that did not stress me out.

The reality turned out to be very different from my expectations.

In this post, I will help you set the right expectations and give you a list of questions to ask yourself as a guideline.

1. What kind of business do you hope to run?
2. How much time do you have to invest in this business?
3. How much capital do you have at your disposal?

Here are my answers.

What kind of business do you hope to run?

I knew that I wanted to run a passive income business that is not dependent on a location. So I made a short list on a very high-level.

• Not tied down to a location or chained to a desk
• the flexibility to work remotely and the freedom to travel when I want
• work fewer hours and stress less

How much time do you have to invest in this business?

When I started this business, I was just transitioning out from a consulting gig for a drone company. I knew that I didn’t want to go back to a full-time corporate job. So right then, I decided to focus on this full-time. I probably worked about 15-25 hours a week in this business. It took me about 6 weeks to get everything up and ready on Airbnb for my first unit.

How much capital do you have at your disposal?

I started with $5,000 dollars in cash. The cash was only used to cover the 1st-month rent and security deposit. I also had another $5,000 in reserve just in case anything came up. For the rest of the expenses, I used my best friend – American Express.

As you can see, I started with $10,000 dollars and that is literally 1/10th of the costs of buying a rental investment property. If you are cash-strapped, try to save for the 1st-month rent and security deposit.

Last Parting Words

Setting up and managing expectations is super important. It gives you a clear direction, so you can go back to this whenever you feel lost or distracted.

I run my business like a lifestyle business. I reinvest some of my income back into acquiring new units. You can run your business however you want, but if you want to succeed, then you definitely need to define a goal.

My goal was to reach an average net of $10,000 per month and work less than 10 hours a week. I have since achieved that goal.

In fact, I actually work around 7 hours a week. I spend an hour each day running this business and sometimes less. It was not like this when I first started because it took me a while to start learning how to run it more efficiently. I expect the same from you.

Your Homework

Answer the questions that I have listed above and define a goal. The goal has to be in number because that is the easiest way to quantify.

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