665: Building a 150-Unit “Lease Arbitrage” Empire and the STR Furnishing Playbook w/Jeff Iloulian

Short-term rental arbitrage seems like an elusive concept. As a real estate investor, it can be a little hard to wrap your head around it. You lease a property, rent it out, and then…profit? That’s right! Without buying a rental property, dealing with maintenance or large-scale repairs, you too can make just as much money (if not more) than the landlord down the street without ever owning the property in the first place. It sounds like a dream, but in reality, you’ll need an airtight system and team to make it work. Thankfully, Jeff Iloulian has all that and more. Before 2014, Jeff was living as a lucrative lawyer, billing high by-the-minute rates and making money every second he worked. This was during the “wild west” of short-term rental investing, where mom-and-pop owned vacation rentals were starting to become a serious way to make passive income. Jeff initiated his portfolio with just one “lease arbitrage” unit and eventually ballooned his empire up to 150 rentals! Now, Jeff does more than just run his short-term rental portfolio. He runs the buying group HostGPO, helping link up short-term rental operators with vendors who can provide better, time-tested, industry-specific products. Not only that, Jeff manages numerous other vacation rentals, so he knows everything from furnishing to cleaning, check-out procedures, and more. He gives a furniture and furnishing masterclass in the second half of this interview where many of his tips could save you thousands over the lifetime of just one rental unit. In This Episode We Cover: Rental arbitrage and how any investor (no matter their budget) can use it to make passive income Breaking out of the “not enough time” matrix to start investing on a busy schedule Furnishing your short-term rental and why IKEA may not be the best bet for bed sheets Building your short-term rental dream team and how to manage a large-scale portfolio The mega-niche investing opportunity of renting soon-to-be destroyed homes  Leaving a lucrative career to invest in real estate and why it’s almost always worth it And So Much More! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Youtube Channel BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets Pro Membership BiggerPockets Bookstore BiggerPockets Bootcamps BiggerPockets Podcast Get Your Ticket for BPCon 2022 Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Learn About Real Estate, The Housing Market, and Money Management with The BiggerPockets Podcasts Get More Deals Done with The BiggerPockets Investing Tools Find a BiggerPockets Real Estate Meetup in Your Area David's BiggerPockets Profile David's Instagram Rob's BiggerPockets Profile Rob's Youtube Rob's Instagram Rob's TikTok Rob's Twitter Airbnb Rental Arbitrage—The Ultimate Guide The Ultimate Guide to Short-Term Rental Properties Creative Ways to Furnish Your Short-Term Rentals on a Budget How to Build Your Dream Short-Term Rental Team Get Exclusive Short-Term Rental Investor Discounts with HostGPO Books Mentioned in the Show: Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat by David Greene Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth by Avery Carl Connect with Jeff: Jeff's Website Click here to check the full show notes: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-665 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Check out our sponsor page! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices