Here is how you can make passive income from Airbnb without property ownership, credit, or a real estate license.

Let me know what you think, ask me a question, or suggest something I cover in the future in the comments below!

Step 1: Find the Right Property

To find properties that work for this strategy, you want to avoid big travel destinations and major cities. For instance, Las Vegas and New York City would not like people renting to Airbnb users all the time.

Around 92% of U.S. cities allow home sharing, so you should be okay with the legal side. But, just to make sure, check with the city.

Properties/locations people like for this Airbnb method:

  • Cabins
  • Ranches
  • Suburb homes
  • Small town homes (if there are things to do in the town)
  • Locations close to convention centers
  • Homes in college towns

Step 2: Make the Deal

If you don't own a property to rent via Airbnb, don't worry about it. This strategy is all about finding home owners that are looking for tenants and making a deal with them.

You can look on sites like Zillow and Rent.com to find homes available for rent. The best thing to do is find properties that are for rent by owner because an individual would probably be easier to negotiate with than a business entity.

Just offer to pay the rent (hopefully around $1,200 or less per month) and ask them if they are okay with you using it for Airbnb.

Make sure and agree to maintain the property, furnish it (if needed), deal with customers, clean it, and maybe even insure it. If everything works out, you should be able to sign a 6 or 12 month lease and be on your way to getting your business up and running.

If you don't have the money to do the initial investment of renting a home for this business, you could do a few things:

  • Find a partner like a friend or family member who has some savings and would like to get in on the business.
  • Offer a home owner a split of the Airbnb income instead of rent.
  • Rent out a spare bedroom in your home (where you live) for extra income to invest.

How much will you make?

Well, it can vary. But, you can make, in many cases, 3x-4x what a tenant would normally pay for the rental of the property.

You should charge between $90 and $200 per night in most cases unless you get into much higher end properties.

As a side note, what's also nice is Airbnb only charges a fee of around 3% to hosts.

Step 3: Furnish

If the home isn't already furnished, you can furnish it at a cost of around 2x-3x the typical cost of rent for one month. So, if a home normally rents for $1,000 per month to a tenant, it could cost $2,000-$3,000 or more to furnish, depending on the size of the property.

To save money on furnishing the home, look for gently used items on sites like Amazon (yes, they do sell used furniture too), Craigslist, or the 5Miles app.

On top of furniture, you will want to get an electronic lock for the front door that allows customers to just put in a pass code instead of having to keep up with a key.

You can get a good one for $150-$200 on Amazon here.

Step 4: Market

One great thing about Airbnb is the fact that you don't really need to do a lot of marketing. You just need great photos, a quality experience, and 5-star reviews.

Taking great photos is definitely a must. You might want to get a professional photographer to help you because it can make a big difference in how much money you make.

Also, make sure to put your best photo in front as the thumbnail for the Airbnb listing. People won't even look at your other photos if the thumbnail sucks.

Also, focus on over-delivering with the experience. Make sure the property is VERY clean every time someone uses it, and make sure to include things like:

  • A complimentary bottle of wine
  • Chocolate
  • Snacks
  • Plenty of dishes and cooking ware
  • Nice towels
  • Coupons to some of the hottest places around

These are the types of things that get you more 5-star reviews and lead to more bookings.

And, if you're ever in doubt, make sure to check listings in the same area as yours that have really high ratings. Read through their best and worst reviews to get ideas of what to include and what to avoid.

Step 5: Automate

To make this business earn PASSIVE income and take up less of your time, you need to automate the cleaning and customer messaging.

You can find a quality cleaning service at a site like Tidy.com.

For automating customer messaging when you have bookings, you can use services like Guesty or Smartbnb which both specialize in Airbnb management specifically.

After you get these services set up, you should only have to work a couple of hours per week on this business.

Courses with More Details

For more details on how to structure this business model using Airbnb, negotiating deals with property owners, and more, check out these two courses:

BNB Formula

How to Create an Empire on Airbnb without Owning a Home

More Ways to Make Passive Income:

make passive income from airbnb real estate

    4 replies to "How to Make Passive Income from Airbnb Real Estate"

    • Tonybank

      I have been your admirer still you have been corresponding with me and I wish to appreciate you. Am in Africa and precisely in Nigeria and I love the idea of the Airbnb formula. How do I lunch this laudable business idea in my country? Can I have the opportunity of starting it on franchise level to stop local moneybags from stealing the ideas from me. I await your response, thanks, Justin

      • Justin Bryant

        Probably the best thing to do would be to save up some money or find a business partner that has some saved up and then look at real estate listings for rent. Then, contact the owner of the rental about the Airbnb business idea to see if they would do it. As far as people stealing your idea, I don’t think that will be a major problem. Real estate is a huge industry that can allow for lots of people to be successful at the same time.

    • DeDe Mandrell

      We got into a problem of getting a place in the DC area & the counties in the area shortly after put restrictions on AirBnB’s –
      putting restrictions on the amount of nights you can rent – killing the AirBnB industry in our area. We can share the pros & cons!!!

    • Amir wahid

      i am Amir from Pakistan i need the Online Works please help me i want please call to my whatsapp 03409102133

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