Become the STR expert in your market — free.

The STR Agent Academy is a free, complete short-term rental training program for licensed real estate agents: 24 email lessons across two 12-lesson tracks. Track 1 builds a competent STR buyer agent — regulations, HOA restrictions, revenue analysis, financing, inspections, and protective offers. Track 2 builds the STR listing agent and the professional practice around it — pricing operating STRs, revenue deal rooms, permit transferability, liability discipline, and the referral bench.

This page is for agents. If you're an investor learning to buy and run an STR yourself, the free STR Investor Roadmap is your course — it covers the same ground from the investor's seat.

Why This Academy Exists

There is no mainstream credential that makes an agent competent in short-term rental transactions end-to-end. NAR's RSPS designation is oriented toward lifestyle and second-home buyers — a few hours of coursework with no underwriting depth, no permit workflow, and no DSCR financing coverage. Private seminars and certifications run roughly $275 to $2,800 and each covers a fragment: regulation basics here, listing-side tactics there, interior design somewhere else. The teams that actually operate at the required competency bar train only in-house.

The STR Agent Academy covers the full span — client intake through closing mechanics, buyer side and listing side, plus the liability and compliance layer nobody else teaches — and it's free. It's the training we want every agent in the STR HUB network to have, so we give it away.

Why STR Clients Are Worth the Work

STR investors are the best client type in residential real estate: they buy on numbers rather than emotion, they buy again when the first property performs, and they refer other investors. But they punish incompetence fast, and most agents lose these deals in predictable ways:

• Regulation misses. Failing to verify STR legality before showings is widely regarded as the number-one STR deal-killer — and when a buyer discovers a ban or permit cap after closing, there is generally no rescission path, only a liability conversation.
• Financing misroutes. STR buyers routed into conventional underwriting tend to die pre-file; STR-appropriate DSCR lending typically wants strong credit, 15–30% down, and applies meaningful haircuts to projected revenue — agents who don't know the menu burn weeks and lose the client.
• Revenue illiteracy. Agents who repeat seller revenue projections verbatim, or can't read a trailing-12 export, get out-negotiated by investor buyers and expose themselves on the listing side.

Every one of those failure modes is fixable with training — that's what the two tracks below do. And for agents who want the client pipeline to go with the competence: STR HUB accepts one founding agent per market, free, and routes that market's inquiries to them. See how claiming a market works.

Track 1 — STR Buyer Agent

Track 1 12 lessons by email, one every two days

The foundation track. By the end you can qualify an STR buyer, verify legality before the first showing, read revenue like an underwriter, route financing correctly, and write offers that protect your client — the skill set that wins investor clients and keeps them.

1. The STR ClientThe four STR buyer archetypes and the intake questionnaire that qualifies them before you show anything.
2. Bedroom MathWhy "sleeps 12" can be legally permitted for 2 — the septic-permit trap that silently caps legal bedrooms.
3. Regulations Before ShowingsVerify legality first: permits often don't transfer with a sale, and caps or lotteries can close a market overnight.
4. The HOA KillerCC&R rental bans, rental caps and waitlists, and why board rules and recorded restrictions aren't the same thing.
5. Locations That BookDrive-to vs. fly-to markets, seasonality, and what's actually booking in the 2026 landscape.
6. Features Guests Pay ForAmenity ROI — which features raise revenue per night and which just raise the purchase price.
7. Reading Revenue HonestlyThe STR CMA: projection-tool biases, trailing-12 forensics, the true-comp method, and the conservative-underwriting habit.
8. Inspections, STR EditionSeptic, well, electrical, pool barriers, egress — the life-safety and permit checklists a standard inspection skips.
9. Financing FluencyThe loan menu by use case, the DSCR as-is appraisal gotcha, total-capital coaching, and the occupancy-fraud line you never cross.
10. The Turnkey TrapWhat actually conveys in a turnkey sale (and what doesn't) — permits, listings, reviews, and the FF&E bill of sale.
11. Offers That ProtectThe STR clause library: permit contingencies, HOA-review contingencies, and booking-transfer addenda.
12. The 10-Minute Viability ScreenA repeatable MLS scorecard for screening any listing fast — the habit that makes you the market's STR agent.

Track 2 — STR Listing Agent & Professional Practice

Track 2 12 lessons by email, one every two days

The listing-side skill set plus the professional layer no other program teaches: pricing an operating business that appraises as a house, building the deal room investors move fast on, and the liability, compliance, and practice-building discipline that keeps you out of trouble and in repeat business.

1. Winning the STR ListingThe income-property listing presentation that beats the neighborhood generalist for STR sellers.
2. Pricing an Operating STRComp value vs. the income story — and the appraisal reality you have to coach the seller through.
3. Building the Revenue Deal RoomPlatform-export forensics and the documentation package that makes investor buyers move fast.
4. The Permit Question at ListingCheck transferability before you price; grandfathered status can be the premium — or the trap.
5. Dual-Track MarketingInvestor channels and lifestyle buyers need different photos and different copy — run both tracks at once.
6. Showings Around BookingsOccupied-STR logistics: showing an operating property without wrecking guest stays or reviews.
7. Negotiation DefenseWhat investor buyers attack in an STR deal — and how to pre-empt every move before it lands.
8. FF&E, Bookings & Closing MechanicsBills of sale, booking wind-downs, and staff and cleaner handoffs that make closings clean.
9. Insurance & Risk ConversationsThe STR coverage gap: what to flag for your client — and where flagging ends and advising begins.
10. Tax-Moment RecognitionSpot cost-seg, depreciation-recapture, 1031-clock, and occupancy-tax moments; say the safe sentence; refer out.
11. Agent Liability & ComplianceWhat you may and may not say about revenue, regulations, and taxes — E&O realities and documentation standards.
12. Building the STR PracticeThe referral bench playbook — DSCR lender, STR CPA, insurance broker, 1031 QI, PM — plus repeat-investor economics.

The Supporting Library

The lessons link into long-form references you'll come back to on live deals. Read them alongside either track:

• STR Inspection Checklist for AgentsSeptic, life-safety, pool barriers, egress — the full deep-dive.
• STR Contract ClausesThe clause library behind Lesson 11, Track 1.
• The STR CMA: Revenue AnalysisPlatform-export forensics and the true-comp method.
• The 10-Minute Viability ScreenThe repeatable MLS scorecard, in full.
• Agent Liability & STRsCompliance and standard-of-care for STR agents.
• STR Client ArchetypesBuyer types and the intake questionnaire.
• STR Agent vs. Regular RealtorWhat clients expect a specialist to know.
• Regulations Directory100+ city and state STR regulation pages.
• Regulation Checker ToolVerify any market's STR rules in minutes.

STR HUB Certified — Coming Soon