Welcome. You just enrolled in the free STR Investor Course — 12 lessons, one every 2 days, each covering one module of our STR Investor Roadmap. Every lesson teaches the core idea right here in the email, then links the deep-dive articles. Unsubscribe anytime — no hard feelings.
Lesson 1 is the math most people skip before buying a short-term rental. Here it is.
How an STR actually makes money
- Revenue = nightly rate × occupancy. A property at $200/night and 65% occupancy grosses roughly $47K/year. That's an example, not a promise — both numbers swing hard by market and season.
- Expenses eat 35–50% of gross. Cleaning, supplies, utilities, platform fees, maintenance, management, and the vacancies nobody budgets for. Gross revenue is a vanity metric; cash flow is the business.
- Getting in usually takes real cash. For a purchase, plan on a down payment plus closing costs, $15K–$40K to furnish, and reserves — often $50K–$150K+ all-in depending on price point. (There are cheaper ways in. That's Lesson 2.)
- STR vs. long-term rental: in the right market an STR can gross 2–3x what the same house rents for long-term. In the wrong market, it earns less than an LTR with 10x the work. The market decides — not the strategy.
None of this is meant to scare you off. It's meant to make you the buyer who knows their numbers — because that buyer wins.
Go deeper
ACTION: Write down two numbers — the monthly cash flow you want, and the cash you can deploy. Every lesson from here keys off those two numbers.
Next lesson: buying isn't the only way in. Four STR business models — and only one needs a mortgage.