Why This Pharmacist Enjoys Her Side Hustle in Short-Term Rental Properties

By Dr. Rachel Gainsbrugh

Within my first few years working as a pharmacist, I knew that I wanted to find ways to generate passive income. I wanted to dictate my schedule and my life. Real Estate has been an interest of mine for years. When I first started investing and managing short-term rental (STR) properties, I was hooked!

Traveling is truly a great way to de-stress, unwind, and escape the hustle and bustle of daily life. However, travel accommodations can take up a huge chunk of a travel budget. Thanks to short-term rentals, travelers can cut down on their expenses significantly, while enjoying some benefits that hotels could never offer.

My husband and I have had the pleasure of hosting various folks looking for comfortable, well-designed, accessible homes in our local town. We have created a private, homey environment for travel guests. Hosting has given us the opportunity to house diverse, interesting groups of individuals, such as travelers for business, work groups, those visiting families and relatives, resident doctors, engineering interns, golf teams, professionals looking for a comfy bed after a long day of training, airline pilots, government officials, cast and crew members working at Pinewood Studios, and those in need of relocation. We truly enjoy being hosts!!

Currently, we have both short-term and medium-term rental properties in our portfolio.

These are my top 5 reasons why I love Short-term rentals as my side hustle:

1) Revenue Generation!!

Short term rentals generate about 3X the average revenue of a traditional long-term lease. That’s right. Read that again. 3X the average rent revenue! This has helped pay down our mortgage on the rental property faster and accelerate our path to financial freedom. Whether the rental is a cabin in the Smokies, a villa on the beach, or just a spare bedroom in your own home, short term rentals can provide a great opportunity for higher cash flow and financial freedom.

2) Personal Use of Vacation home

If your rental is located in a resort or touristy area, you can use your own properties while on vacation.

3) Upfront Payment

Short term tenants pay upfront through a platform (AirBNB, VRBO, etc). Your guests pay PRIOR to showing up. Long-term tenants that do not pay for a couple of months will need to be evicted and this can be a lengthy, stressful, and expensive process.

4) Minimal Wear and Tear to your property (Surprised?!)

Because STRs are constantly in a state of readiness for guests, they are maintained at all times. After each guest, our homes are cleaned and sanitized by our professional cleaning team. In order to serve our guests and keep our 5-star rating, ALL maintenance issues are taken care of immediately and are not deferred. Additionally, our guests tend to eat out or order take out quite a bit. Therefore, there’s minimal use of our kitchen appliances.

5) It can be A LOT of fun!

Once you buy a rental home, you can put your own personality into it! For one of the homes, I went with a French Country Bohemian theme. I really enjoyed the design process. I’ve encountered some really neat treehouses, Harry Potter theme, Beachy theme, etc. The customization and options to personalize these homes are endless. We’ve enjoyed the process and have had the opportunity to serve a lot of great guests along the way.