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12 Best Property Management Books Every Host Should Read
Becoming a great property manager and vacation rental entrepreneur doesn’t happen overnight. It might take years to master all the nuts and bolts of perfect hosting and property management. While you can speed up this process by listening to podcasts and following industry-related blogs on the web and social media, a book remains a firm favorite.
One of the main advantages that it offers is that you can find all the essential points together in one comprehensive guide. This means that you do not have to hop around from one link to another to find information about a specific topic.
However, there are situations when it is useful to use different sources to obtain information. Beneficial content can be provided not only by a standard information site, but also by educational platforms where students and teachers share their learning documents on various topics. Therefore, you should not limit your search for information to regular websites.
To make your search for a great book faster, we’ve compiled this list of the top property management books. Check out the list below.
What Aspects Should a Good Book on Property Management Cover?
As a property manager, you have a long list of responsibilities. These include marketing, screening guests, managing check-ins and checkouts, turnovers, and maintenance. Plus, if there is a demanding guest (which luckily does not happen often), you also need to have strong interpersonal skills. This way, you can de-escalate the situation to avoid a negative review.
For this reason, a good property management book should discuss a wide range of aspects relating to managing vacation rentals. These include: how to find a property to rent out, create a listing, market it, and keep track of the financials. Considering that there are many rules and laws that can make or break your business, a look at the legal aspects is also crucial.
While not all the books in the list cover these aspects in full detail, each of them is easy to read and packed with insight and practical advice.
1. The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions…and Created Plenty of Controversy by Leigh Gallagher
Published in 2017, Leigh Gallagher, an editor at Fortune, has written the first comprehensive study of the life of Brian Chesky, the young CEO of Airbnb. It is also described as the first book that is exclusively dedicated to uncovering the phenomenon of Airbnb.
Although the book does not give any suggestions related to property management per se, it reveals the remarkable, behind-the-scenes story of how Airbnb started and has since grown to a household name. If you want to start a successful venture in the home-sharing industry, reading this book will be useful. Its inspiring story will motivate you to work towards your dreams.
Order it here: The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions…and Created Plenty of Controversy
2. The Book on Managing Rental Properties by Brandon and Heather Turner
In this book, the wife-and-husband team, Heather and Brandon Turner, share their advice on how hosts can effectively manage tenants in their rental properties. Brandon has also written a number of other books regarding rental property investing and co-hosts the top-rated BiggerPockets podcast.
Whether you are new to the industry or more seasoned, their personal stories of their trials and tribulations will transform how you view property management. It covers topics like types of tenants to avoid, low-cost marketing strategies, and provisions that your rental lease should include.
3. The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
Before Brandon Turner partnered with his wife to write The Book on Managing Rental Properties, he wrote this one. In this bestseller, he shares strategies specifically for real estate investors.
This 356-page book will help investors to spot amazing real estate investments, analyze properties, put together a team, finance rentals, and build significant cash flow. A must-read for anyone who wants to become a successful real estate investor.
Order it here: The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing
4. Optimize Your Airbnb: The Definitive Guide to Ranking #1 in Airbnb Search by Daniel Vroman Rusteen
Written by Daniel Vroman Rusteen, a former Airbnb employee and current Airbnb Superhost, and owner of a property management company, this book is the most reviewed and highlighted book for Airbnb hosts. In it, he shares tips for how you can boost your search ranking on the platform by crafting your listing and improving your guest experience.
From choosing a title for your Airbnb to capturing high-quality photos using your smartphone, Daniel shares inside details into the industry. Chip Conley, the former strategic advisor for Airbnb, describes this book as the book with the most valuable, professional advice.
Order it here: Optimize Your Airbnb: The Definitive Guide to Ranking #1 in Airbnb Search
5. Get Paid For Your Pad: How to Maximize Profit From Your Airbnb Listing by Jasper Ribbers and Huzefa Kapadia
While this is one of the oldest books about the industry, Get Paid For Your Pad, still remains one of the best books that hosts must read. In this step-by-step guide, Jasper Ribbers, shares how he has more than doubled the income he made in a year by renting out his apartment in Amsterdam.
Together the two authors also take you through how to prepare your Airbnb listing so that it can compete with hotel accommodation and offer advice regarding guest communication and pricing strategy. Considering that communication and pricing are two of the most challenging aspects of vacation rentals, this book comes in handy to optimize your listing for profit maximization and ensure repeat guests.
Order it here: Get Paid For Your Pad: How to Maximize Profit From Your Airbnb Listing
6. Every Airbnb Host’s Tax Guide Third Edition by Stephen Fishman
Written by Stephen Fishman, an attorney and authoritative author on taxation, this book is the first of its type. It will teach you how you can make the most of your short-term rental business while adhering to IRS regulations.
From which deductions you may and should make to how to report your short-term rental income, it is the ultimate tax guide for hosts that use Airbnb, FlipKey, TripAdvisor, or Vrbo. This edition includes the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the new 20% pass-through deduction. However, this title will also be rereleased on January 25, 2022. So, you might want to start with one of the other 11 titles in our list first before you tackle tax.
Order it here: Every Airbnb Host’s Tax Guide Third Edition
7. Airbnb For Dummies by Symon He and James Svetec
The “For Dummies” book series needs no introduction. It has been a global success with editions in several languages. Now, a book dedicated solely to Airbnb is also available in this popular series.
Published in 2020, Airbnb For Dummies, is written by Symon He and James Svetec, the team behind LearnBNB.com, a go-to resource for hosts. Symon He has also written another book, while Svetec has also founded the BNB Mastery Program.
In this book, they share hacks for:
– Writing engaging listings
– Telling your property’s story via photos
– Perfecting your pricing
– Mastering the guest experience.
All in all, this book is an amazing resource to help you learn how to make your guests feel more pampered and maximize your hosting revenue.
Order it here: Airbnb For Dummies
8. Short-Term/Vacation Rentals Investments Made Easy by Gaston Gilbert
Written by Gaston Gilbert, author of How Not to Kill Your Business in 10 Steps, this book is one of the newest books about short-term rentals on the market. Published in 2021, he shares how to go about creating a profitable vacation rental business and identifies common pitfalls to avoid.
One of the things that sets this book apart from many of the others is that it has a strong focus on how to help hosts keep the costs down. For example, it will teach you about some cost items regarding vacation rentals that hosts should be familiar with. In addition, it offers tactics for reducing expenditure. If you are struggling with cash flow specifically, be sure to check it out.
Order it here: Short-Term/Vacation Rentals Investments Made Easy: 6 Golden Rules To Create A Real Profitable Business And Avoid Common Pitfalls
9. Build a Rental Property Empire (Book 1 of InvestFourMore Investor Series) by Mark Ferguson
Mark Ferguson has been a realtor for nearly 20 years. In addition to owning both residential and commercial rental properties, he also flips up to 30 homes per year.
In his book, he shares information about how to discover, finance, and manage rental properties. It also outlines the potential risks so that you can enter the market with your eyes wide open. Whether you want to manage your rentals on your own or enlist the services of a property manager, this book covers both approaches (including best exit strategies). To ensure that this book reflects the current market conditions and changes in Mark’s strategy, it has been revised a few times.
10. No Vacancy: A Zero BS Guide To Killing It In The Vacation Rental Biz by Odessa Christiana
If you are searching for something more lighthearted and humorous, be sure to check out this book. Written by Odessa Christiana, a leading expert in the vacation rental industry, her book will teach you how you can turn it into a full-time job like she has done. Her guidance will help readers to create a robust venture by working smartly.
From selecting the best property to furnishings to maintenance, she shows how these crucial tasks do not have to be challenging. Then, to ensure that you make the most of your hard work, she also shares marketing hacks (ideal for beginners too) and how to create a memorable guest experience time after time.
Order it here: No Vacancy: A Zero BS Guide To Killing It In The Vacation Rental Biz
11. The Vacation Rental Bible by Dave Mencel
If you are a new vacation rental property investor, be sure to check out The Vacation Rental Bible written by Dave Mencel, the owner of Valentine State Properties LLC. It does not matter if your objective is to create a smaller vacation rental business or scale it to a big empire, as his book covers all the steps to help you embark on this exciting venture.
In his 143-page book, the author shares how you can analyze your financial performance, research competition, and boost your guest relations. It also includes Excel budgeting spreadsheets that you can download. With the help of these valuable digital forms, you can complete a budget for any property that you are considering buying. This way, you can estimate how the property will perform financially to prevent buyer’s remorse.
Order it here: The Vacation Rental Bible: Proven Tips to Find, Manage & Market Vacation Rental Properties for Maximum Profit
12. Million Dollar Host By Julie George
The author, Julie George, is regarded as one of the leading experts on Airbnb across the globe. She has managed to build a portfolio of 130+ properties. What is more, in less than three years, she managed to generate an income of more than $8 million.
This 134-page paperback tells the story of how she turned her hobby into a very profitable business. As an entrepreneur, she saw that many Airbnb property owners failed to take complete advantage of this listing site.
In this book, you will learn numerous strategies on how you can make money by means of the platform, even if you are not a property owner. After you have optimized your listing and used her shortcuts to set your listing apart, it will also help you to identify new properties that you can manage so that you can scale your business.
Order it here: Million Dollar Host: Julie’s Airbnb Portfolio Earned Over a Million Dollars In Her First Year…Yours can too!
Amplify Your Property Management Skills with Automation
As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So, you can only start to experience the real value of these books once you implement these hacks and suggestions. It is essential for property managers and hosts to be able to put the knowledge that they get through these books to good use.
As many of these resources explain, to go one step further and improve your property management, you should give automation tools a try to streamline your routine operations. For example, iGMS, one of the top vacation rental software solutions, can help property managers and hosts with numerous routine tasks, such as:
- Managing multiple accounts and listings on the top vacation rental platforms from a single interface
- Enhancing your guest communication by utilizing automated messages
- Using the unified inbox to organize your messages into a single feed
- Synchronizing reservations across multiple platforms to eliminate the risk of getting a double-booking
- Receiving payouts and creating invoices by connecting your Stripe account to iGMS
- Automating the process of guest reviews send-outs
- Managing direct bookings using a direct booking management toolkit
- Streamlining your guest communication with PROtrack, a unique add-on functionality for tracking the productivity of your employees offering guest support
- Creating essential reports on your business results within minutes.
- Adjusting your pricing regularly through integrations with PriceLabs and DPGO.
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