SUPER PROPERTIES

Entrepreneur Faeth presents a no-nonsense guide to investing in short-term rentals.

This manual, which aims to help readers hoping to make “$250,000 Per Year from Airbnbs with One Up-Front Investment,” presents a healthy balance of serious, well-structured investment advice alongside simple pep-talk. The opening vignettes—which present readers with meditations on building wealth as a craft, the legacy of the author’s childhood in Bakersfield, California, and his mother’s kitchen-table accounting lessons—are brief and effectively establish the author’s credibility without dwelling excessively on his fortunes. The book’s central thesis is that anyone, with clarity and discipline, can forge a path to generational wealth, and it centers on his “250 Plan”—a strategy to scale five properties in five years, each yielding $50,000 in net annual income. Faeth asserts that success hinges on more than cash flow, although it is one of his “Four Pillars,” which also include appreciation, paying down debt, and tax benefits. These four elements, he says, can be used together to transform ordinary rentals into “Super Properties.” He warns of the risks of government regulation and inconsistent guest experiences—which he characterizes as the two great hazards of the short-term rental field—and offers advice on proactive risk management and hospitality standards. He guides readers through market selection, underwriting, financing tactics, pricing optimization, and the application of technology for automating marketing and booking. A sprinkle of cautionary tales, addressing such things as expenses for missed snow removal and lackluster property managers, gives the book some real-world color. Formulas, calculators, and anecdotes from the author’s protégés further underscore that the book features not armchair theory, but stories from lived experience. Overall, it’s a brisk, colloquial, and straightforward investment manual. Faeth delights in skewering lazy investors and bland, Ikea-furnished listings; he names names and shares secrets, demystifying a volatile, overhyped sector without dampening its possibilities. Readers may wish for more examples of what happens when things don’t work out, but aspiring investors who prefer a clear path over vague promises will find what they’re looking for here.

A property investment manual that appealingly puts candor before gloss.