Steve Barsh can call himself a millionaire. It is just his part -time job with which he spends 1 hour a day. He did not intend to become a real estate manager. But he was so frustrated by his landlord that he took over the work himself. He says that the secret is to take the feedback from the guests seriously.
Steve Barsh was actually an IT engineer of his own software company. But in 1999 he sold the company and bought a condominium together with his wife.
Then they rented the apartment because they only wanted to go on vacation there. But after two years, Barsh started out of frustration that he had to pay 40 % of the rental income to a local property management company to manage short -term rentals himself. This resulted in the company “Parker Chase Properties.”
How much does Steve Barsh earn today? In 2024, his company achieved $ 1.27 million in income from bookings via VRBO, Airbnb and the travel software platform Hospitible. The equivalent of this is about 1.27 million euros. Barsh himself estimates that he will solve 40 to 50 % of the income of his secondary business as a profit. The English -language magazine CNBC.com was allowed to see these numbers.
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High investments at the start: $ 1.2 million sounds like a lot, but there is also a big investment behind it: Barsh and his wife now have four apartments and spent a total of about $ 6 million to buy in 2019, each with $ 100,000 paid. Most of the money came from the sale of a company of his wife.
At the moment, the average rent for Parker Chase costs $ 3,390 per night in 2025. Barsh manages the property together with a housekeeper and a replacement manager who steps in when he is out of the country, he says.
How much working time does he have to spend on his job? He uses tools of artificial intelligence to write and plan messages to the guests, and programs lock codes in such a way that they automatically adjust to the telephone numbers of the guests – which allows them to work on Parker Chase only one or two hours a day a day , he says. He is a startup investor during the day.
A “mathematical formula” and the feedback from visitors
A formula for success: Steve Barsh explained that behind the success there is a formula that could be used to calculate your success and profits. So he explains in an interview with CNBC.com:
We have learned that it is like a mathematical formula. The rule of thumb that on the mortgage interest [im Jahr 2019] Based: We want to achieve 10 % of the value of rental income in a year. If we buy a property worth $ 1 million, we have to convince ourselves that we can achieve $ 100,000 in rental income. This results in a positive cash flow.
What also plays a major role for his success? The answer may be surprising, but Barsh explained that the needs of customers have to be taken seriously, because there are plenty of competition out there:
More than half of the start-ups fail because they do not solve a big and urgent problem that is important to people. In both jobs I ask exactly the same questions. First of all, people who want to offer short -term rentals must understand: Who is their customer? Does your target guest stay in a Hilton? Do you stay in a Motel 6? Do you stay in a Ritz-Carlton?
Then you have to develop your central distinction feature – what makes you unique when you have a lot of competition. I recognized that early: Our guests like really nice things. We have cuisinart products, incredibly comfortable leather armchairs and 85-inch flat screens.
For this reason, the time would take the time to set up the apartments that the guests also feel comfortable:
People look at what we do and ask: “Why did you do that? That’s tenants. ” I say: “Because they are not tenants. They are guests and you should treat them like guests. ”
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