Most people think STR investing means buying a house. That's one of four models — and depending on the cash number you wrote down in Lesson 1, it might not be your best first move.
The four models
- Own. Buy the property, rent it nightly. Highest capital in, but you get appreciation, tax benefits, and full control. The default if you have the down payment and want to build equity.
- Rental arbitrage. Lease a property long-term (with the landlord's written permission), furnish it, re-rent it nightly. Entry can run $10K–$25K instead of six figures — but you own nothing, and you're exposed if rules or the landlord change.
- Co-hosting. Manage other people's STRs for a cut, commonly 10–25% of revenue. Near-zero capital. It's a service business, not investing — but it's the cheapest way to learn operations with someone else's property.
- Mid-term rentals. Furnished 1–6 month stays for traveling nurses, relocations, insurance placements. Lower revenue than nightly, but steadier, lighter on operations, and often legal where nightly STRs are restricted.
The trap: picking a model based on a guru's screenshot instead of your own capital, time, and risk tolerance. Low-cash-in models trade capital for fragility — know what you're trading. A useful gut-check: if you have capital but no time, ownership plus outsourced management usually fits. Time but no capital? Co-hosting or arbitrage. Capital in a restricted market? Look hard at mid-term.
Go deeper
ACTION: Commit to one model — own, arbitrage, co-host, or mid-term — and run the rest of this course through that lens.
Next lesson: why the market you pick matters more than the property you buy — and the five numbers that separate good markets from money pits.