665: Building a 150-Unit “Lease Arbitrage” Empire and the STR Furnishing Playbook

<p><a href="https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/airbnb-arbitrage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Short-term rental arbitrage</strong></a> seems like an elusive concept. As a real estate investor, it can be a little hard to wrap your head around it. <strong>You lease a property, rent it out, and then…profit?</strong> That’s right! <strong>Without buying a rental property</strong>, dealing with maintenance or large-scale repairs, you too can<strong> make just as much money </strong>(if not more) than the landlord down the street <strong>without ever owning the property </strong>in the first place. It sounds like a dream, but in reality, you’ll need an airtight system and team to make it work.</p><p>Thankfully, <strong>Jeff Iloulian</strong> has all that and more. Before 2014, Jeff was <strong>living as a lucrative lawyer</strong>, billing high by-the-minute rates and making money every second he worked. This was during <strong>the “wild west” of </strong><a href="https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides/the-ultimate-guide-to-short-term-rental-properties" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>short-term rental investing</strong></a>, where mom-and-pop owned vacation rentals were starting to become a serious way to make passive income. Jeff initiated his portfolio with just one “lease arbitrage” unit and eventually ballooned his empire up to <strong>150 rentals</strong>!</p><p>Now, Jeff does more than just run his short-term rental portfolio. He runs the buying group <a href="https://hostgpo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong><em>HostGPO</em></strong></a>, helping link up short-term rental operators with vendors who can provide better, time-tested, industry-specific products. Not only that, <strong>Jeff manages numerous other vacation rentals</strong>, so he knows everything from furnishing to cleaning, check-out procedures, and more. He gives a <strong>furniture and furnishing masterclass</strong> in the second half of this interview where many of his tips coul