Rafa Loza’s Stride Academy Review: 3 Things That Can Make or Break Your Short-Term Rental

April 4, 2024

Stride Academy is a short-term rental arbitrage course by Rafa Loza. You will learn how to make money from short-term rentals without owning any property. Mentorship is included for monthly subscribers. Short-term rental arbitrage is when you lease a property for long-term and then sublet it as a short-term rental. It is one way of investing in real estate without owning property.

Short-term rental arbitrage is sustainable if you build strong foundations for your business. Long-term sustainability in this business model also requires scaling and automation. Short-term rental arbitrage is a high-risk business model. Compared to owning your own property, you have limited control with rental arbitrage. Because you also pay rent, you risk having negative income. You can lose money in short-term rental arbitrage if your income does not at least cover your rent. Be sure to do enough research and do the numbers to avoid losing money.

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3 Most Important Things To Know For A Short-Term Rental Business

According to Rafa Loza, there are 3 important things you need to know that can spell success or disaster for your short-term rental business.

  1. Location - The location of the property determines the type of customer. Pick the right location for your specific target customer. For example, properties near attractions and vacation areas will attract vacationers, while properties near commercial or business centers will attract business travelers. Unique locations, such as campgrounds or lake houses, will attract a specific type of renters.
  2. Ease of access - How easily accessible the location will affect how well the customer's check-in experience is. Availability of designated parking, elevators, ramps, etc. can also increase your listing's desirability. Good experience will lead to good reviews, which would mean more bookings.
  3. Storage - Especially important for scaling to multiple units in one location or if you live far away from the listing. Consumables are important for the operations and accessibility to supplies should be a priority. Having a storage base near your listings where you or your staff can quickly get needed supplies is very important.

Rafa Loza’s Stride Academy Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

Rafa Loza has over 5 years of Airbnb arbitrage.

Private Facebook group for 24/7 support.

Cons

No mentorship included unless you purchase the monthly membership.

Quite pricey for the contents and no refund policy.

Price

$4,995 1st payment and $100 every month succeeding.

Refund Policy

No refund policy.

Origin

2022

Reputation

No negative reviews found.

Who Is Rafa Loza’s Stride Academy For?

  1. Beginners who want to learn how to begin a short-term rental arbitrage business. This is great for those who want to do short-term rentals but cannot afford to purchase property.
  2. Current investors who are hosting short-term rentals and want to learn how to scale using the arbitrage method. Rental arbitrage allows scaling of the business with little capital.

What Do You Get With Rafa Loza’s Stride Academy?

You get 13 hours of video content that covers 121 lessons with Stride Academy. The step-by-step lessons that will teach you how to create, manage, and automate a short-term rental arbitrage business are grouped into 13 modules. Monthly subscribers will have access to all add on videos and monthly coaching calls.

1. Course Introduction

The first module introduces the course and talks about Rafa's story on how he was able to turn $6,000 and a credit card into a 7-figure business.

  • Rafa & Course Intro
  • How to Get the Most Out of This Course
  • Getting Into the Right State of Mind

2. Get Your Mind Right

The 2nd module is all about preparing your mindset. Short-term rental arbitrage is a long-term business. The right mindset is important for success.

  • What's your WHY?
  • How to Replace your Income through STRs
  • Creating Attainable and Realistic Goals
  • Attain a Full Balanced Life with This
  • Prepare yourself to get started

3. Introduction to Short-Term Rentals

Understanding the fundamentals of arbitrage and short-term rental is important, as they will form the foundation of your business. The lessons learned from module 3 will set you up for the rest of the course.

  • You do NOT run an AIRBNB business
  • Arbitrage Vs. Ownership Vs. Co-Hosting
  • Why Rental Arbitrage?
  • Why STR over MTR and LTR
  • Mid Term Rental Uses and Why they Matter
  • Understanding Corporate Rentals
  • Room Sharing Rentals

4. How to Find the Right Market, Analyze Numbers, Deal With Regulations

Identifying the best market for your business is important, as this first step could make or break your business. Module 4 walks you through identifying profitable markets and dealing with regulations.

  • How to Find Properties and Owners
  • 3 Best Ways to Make 1st Contact
  • What Market Should You Start In?
  • Does Your City Have Regulations? How to Find Out.
  • Understanding and Operating Within Your City Regulations
  • Should You Operate in a City With an Ordinance?
  • Dealing With HOAs
  • Picking Your Customer Avatar and Why Its Important PT 1
  • Picking Your Customer Avatar and Why Its Important PT 2
  • Types of Customer Avatar
  • Choosing the Right Property Type
  • Will your STR Rent and Make you Money?
  • Tutorial: Running AIRBNB Comps
  • Tutorial: Run Numbers with AIRDNA
  • Know your Numbers and Expenses
  • Tutorial: Run Your Numbers Correctly
  • How to Pay for Your STR
  • Bringing on Investors and Structuring Deals

5. Steps on How to Find the Right Property and Getting Approved

After finding a profitable market, you need to find the right property that suites your business. Convincing landlords to agree to a short-term rental arbitrage business is easier said than done. You will learn how to effectively propose your business model and negotiate prices.

  • Don’t Be Afraid of Rejection
  • Owner Vs. Property Manager
  • Step 1: Best Ways to Reach out To Landlords and Property Managers
  • Step 2: Phone Pitch and What to Actually Say
  • Step 3: Go See the Property
  • Step 4: Explaining What We Do in Person
  • Step 5: Rebuttal; What to say if Airbnb comes up?
  • Step 6: Rebuttal; Vetting Guests and Security Procedures.
  • Step 7: Ask the Right Questions to Make Sure They Fit Your Business Model
  • Step 8: How to Make Yourself More Credible
  • Lease, Rent, Deposit Negotiations
  • What Lease to Sign and How to Sign It
  • Insurance Requirements

6. Setting Up Your Short-Term Rental

Module 6 is all about setting up your short-term rental unit to get it ready for listing. To succeed in a short-term rental business, you need to go above and beyond to provide the best stay for your renters.

  • Intro To Second Section
  • First Steps To Set Up
  • What Security Systems To Use and Implement
  • Capturing Emails Through Internet Use
  • Home Design
  • Hiring A Designer
  • Building Out Your Home
  • Supply Storage Set Up
  • Storage Resupply
  • Handling Linens
  • Hiring Your Cleaning Staff
  • Schedule Pro Photos
  • Staging and Set Up For Photos and Testing
  • Test Everything In Your Unit
  • Recap

7. Going Live To Take Your First Guest With The Perfect Listing & Tech Stack Set Up

Going live for the first time is a challenging operation. In module 7, you will learn which is the best platform to launch your listing based on your situation. You will also learn how to use different tools to handle the management of your listings.

  • Choosing The Right Platform
  • How to Authentic Your Account & What Tech Stack To Use
  • Hospitable
  • Pricelabs
  • TurnoverBnB
  • Slack
  • Trello
  • Minut
  • Yale, August, Vivint
  • Ring
  • Paypal and Payout Connections
  • Recap

8. Tutorial Walkthrough: Connections; Do This The Moment Your Listing is Live

Module 8 includes training on how to optimize your listing. You will also lean how to use several tools to improve you listings.

  • How to use Module 8 Training Videos
  • Tutorial: Part 1 Listing Set Up
  • Tutorial: Part 2 Photo Listing Set up
  • Tutorial: Part 3 Organizing Your Listing With The Right Information
  • Tutorial: Part 4 Connecting Hospitable
  • Tutorial: Part 5 Connecting Pricelabs
  • Tutorial: Part 6 Connecting Turnoverbnb

9. Operations; Hiring Team Members, Automation

Automation is an important step to scale your business. The lessons in module 9 will teach you everything there is in automating a short-term rental business. You will learn how to create and manage your team that will run all the aspects of the business for you.

  • Intro
  • Document Everything You Do
  • Delegating Work and What to Delegate
  • Loom
  • Build The Right Team; Maintenance, Runners, VAs, Tech Stack
  • Where to Hire & How to Manage Your Cleaners
  • Hiring and Managing VAs
  • Last Pass
  • Creating SOP; Standard Operating Procedures to Automate your Business
  • Messages to Automate
  • Dynamic Pricing - Break even, Base, Monthly Rates
  • Tutorial: Dynamic Pricing - Break even, Base, Monthly Rates
  • House Rules
  • More Revenue through Upselling and Fees

10. Operations; Day to Day

Module 10 deals with day-to-day operations. You will learn how the processes work and how to create optimized systems for your team to follow.

  • Intro
  • Creating Systems and SOPs
  • Working with Airbnb Reps
  • Hospitality and Customer Service
  • Accepting The Right Reservations
  • Cancelling Policies and Reservation Alterations

11. Dealing with Guest & Handling Common Guest Problems

Reviews are a very important factor in online business. In the final module, you will learn how to deal with issues regarding your guests' experience and issues. Ensuring satisfaction can greatly affect your business.

  • Intro
  • Refund to Save a Review?
  • Extortion from Guest for Review
  • Overly Picky Guest
  • Issuing Refunds to Guests
  • Guest Fees
  • Undeclared Guests and Pets
  • ESA/Service Animal Rules
  • Dealing with Guest that's Causing Problems
  • How to Properly Remove a Guest

Bonus Content

Extra tutorial contents on various topics.

  • Tutorial: Create a PDF file for your cleaners
  • Tutorial: How to put your property on ALE solutions Insurance
  • Tutorial How to deal with noise complaints, parties, kicking people out

Are Students of Rafa Loza’s Stride Academy Successful?

So far, it is reported that only 2 of the students made 6 figures within 7 months. Keep in mind that this is their total earnings and not their profits. There is no way to confirm these claims, so take them with a grain o salt.

Who Is Rafa Loza?

stride academy review

Rafael “Rafa” Loza is a 7-figure real estate investor, STR arbitrage expert, and founder of Stride Academy from Santa Ana, California. He has 64+ short-term rental properties listed in various short-term rental platforms, which each earns $800-$6000 a month. Rafa is the host of The Big Break Show podcast. His company, Knight & Reign Properties LLC, hosts 1-3 bedroom apartments and homes in Orange County, and offers professional management services to landlords and investors. Rafa is a co-founder of the crypto community, Cursed Labs (DeFi District). He has also been featured in the BiggerPockets podcasts.

Is Short-Term Rental Arbitrage Worth It in 2024?

Short-term rental arbitrage is worth it in 2024. Airbnb is the preferred platform for many short-term rental investors. Airbnb arbitrage is a legit way to make money online. It is one of the most popular forms of short-term rental investment. Airbnb arbitrage is profitable, with Airbnb being the largest short-term rental platform with over 150 million users worldwide. Many travelers and vacationers prefer short-term rentals as they are mostly cheaper than hotels and have a more private and homely feel.

The biggest challenge commonly faced in short-term rental arbitrage is convincing landlords that allowing you to sublet their property for short-term rentals. Entire house listings are the most profitable short-term rental property type. These are standalone properties with at least 2-3 bedrooms. Landlords of these types of units are the hardest to convince because of concerns of rowdy tenants, maintenance, neighbor complaints, etc. You will need to know how to negotiate and deliver a convincing pitch.

How to Find Short-Term Rental Arbitrage Properties?

  • Online listings - Check online listing sites such as Zillow, Apartments.com, etc. where you can find long-term rentals. You still have to convince the landlord to let you sublet their property for short-term rental.
  • Social media - Joining Facebook real estate groups is one of the best place to find long-term rentals. You can even use the platform to message them instantly.
  • Locals - Getting in touch with local real estate agents, or even other Airbnb business owners, can find you some of the best deals.

Pros and Cons of Short-Term Rental Arbitrage

Pros of Short-Term Rental Arbitrage

  • Less starting capital - Compared to buying property, you usually only need capital to cover 2 months of rent plus the cost of furnishing.
  • Scalable - Low starting cost makes it easy to scale a rental arbitrage business. You can reinvest your profits into leasing another property quicker than when buying property.
  • Easy to automate - You can automate your business by creating your team that will handle the day-to-day operations. This added operational cost creates additional risks, but can turn your business into passive income.

Cons of Short-Term Rental Arbitrage

  • Lower profit margins - Since you do not own the property, paying monthly rent lowers your profit margins. High maintenance fees and other operating costs further reduce your profits.
  • Low control - You are still a tenant and thus have limited control over the property. Once your lease ends, you could lose your business if the landlord is unwilling to renew.
  • High risk - High operational costs lead to high risks. You can lose money if your income does not exceed operating costs and rent. Natural disasters and unforeseen events can turn your cash flow into a negative.
  • Increasing regulations - More and more cities are tightening regulations against short-term rentals. Cities like New York and San Francisco have strict regulations regarding short-term rentals.

Related Articles on Short-Term Rental Arbitrage

  • Pros and Cons of Airbnb Arbitrage - Airbnb arbitrage is the most common form of rental arbitrage. It is important to know the advantages and disadvantages before jumping in to it.
  • Derek Cheung’s Airbnb Empire Academy - Derek is a proven success who makes over $5 million a year. His course teaches Airbnb arbitrage with available mentorship through an upsell.
  • Suzie Agelopoulos’ BNB Method - A more affordable short-term rental arbitrage course that focuses on Airbnb arbitrage. 

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