Vacation Rentals as Passive Income

As a real estate professional I get a lot of questions about the value of real estate as an investment. Real estate has become the foundation of my savings and investing, mostly through the acquisition of long term rental properties. 

One of the strategies that some investors use is owning vacation rentals, or short term rentals. I've had clients that have made quite a bit of money through vacation rentals, but you have to make sure to buy in the right area and it takes more maintenance than a long term rental, since you have to clean up and change linens after every tenant, and tenants stay from one night up to about a month at a time on average. Rent can go a lot higher if you buy in the right area, and even though there is more upkeep through cleaning, etc. your equity will often grow faster on vacation rentals. 

This is the tiny house of an artist friend I made in Costa Rica earlier this year. He used a shipping container as a base and other modern tiny houses as inspiration. He told me that renting out the loft above has been a great source of side income for him ever since he built it.