We have a 2/1 that we currently have listed for rent. A couple approached us to rent it from us for the $1100 a month we were asking but have made it known they plan to sublease and list as a short term rental. A lot of things pop in my head at first glance but curious on what their end game would be on a scam. First concern would be insurance as we only have it for long term rental coverage. Secondly would be we could just Airbnb it ourselves but would have to furnish it and not have the guaranteed monthly income from a long term lease. Do they not have enough to purchase their own house so this is a new version of "using other people's money". Also they seem to have a fairly legitimate website with a couple other houses in the area where they are presumably doing the same thing.

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Your lease can forbid sub-leasing. Not a bad clause.

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Ours does.

Yeah our leases do specifically forbid subleasing but they aren't tenants at least not yet. They just inquired and let it be know before hand that's what they would be doing. I was more curios about any exposure we would have or if this was a Nigerian prince situation

Most residential leases forbid running a business out of the home. I would consider a hotel to be a business.

Hard no.

It sounds like they think the AirBNB rates in the area are high enough over your advertised rent to make it worth their whole.

Like others have said, I don't think it's a scam. But from everything I've read, short term rental properties take an absolute beating. So you have tenants who have a theoretical maximum risk (up to their deposit) who couldn't care less what happens to the property as they can leave when the lease is up. That alone would make it a hard pass from my point of view.

I agree, likely not a scam, especially since they told you what their plan was upfront.

As someone above mentioned, you would definitely need to discuss with you insurance agent to make sure you are covered, and likely require them to carry coverage as well.

May take some time to look at what the AirBnb potential is. Once systems are set up, (cleaning service, keyless locks, etc,) could be a cash cow.

I wouldn't say they are pocketing all the profits. At 1100 we cash flow very well for this property. I did a little more digging and Airbnb and Vrbo are going for 90-100 a night in the surrounding area. But most are vacant and able to book any dates within the next 2-3 months. I find it hard to believe I could get it rented on average the 11-15 days a month unless they have another avenue in which they place tenants. Plus I would be out of pocket another couple thousand bucks furnishing the unit. Their website says they place business travelers so maybe they have some connection thru another company that they get sent customers. We had another couple interested as well but it was a little out of their price range. I am convincing my partner that we should just take the 1025 a month and not deal with the extra heartache. Thanks for your feedback everyone

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I am convincing my partner that we should just take the 1025 a month and not deal with the extra heartache. Thanks for your feedback everyone

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Agree with this. We recently took a small reduction for the right tenant & are happy we did.

I'd go the other way and seriously look at AirBNB options. Do you have an AirBNB profile already? I started brand new January 2020 and took most of 2020 to get my initial furnishings investment back. For Q1 2021, I'm projecting an annualized 30% return on equity. I already project this as I'm fully booked through April 3 (5 week guest checks in in a few days). I've been booked every single weekend for 15 months. Yes, even during COVID. The biggest hassle, by far, is coordinating house cleaning.

Yeah we have 2 other places that we AirBnB and one more getting renovated right now that we are debating long vs short term. but they are in much higher traffic areas. Just don't see this one panning out on a regular basis. Maybe we could get more than the 1000-1100 some months but I doubt it would be regular. Something about bird in the hand