I used a simple data file to get my Boston apartment in AirBnB

I love Boston! I think you can love your place a lot especially when you live in a great apartment in a great location. But sometimes it is unavoidable to feel dreamy about all the endless possibilities of the places you could go. I dreamed about Seattle.

This is what happened to me… my dream intensified until I heard about Airbnb. I knew money to be able to afford a hotel somewhere was going to be an issue, so the idea of renting my own apartment while I was away sounded great. But wait! How much money was I going to charge for my unit? What? Where? How?

But there was no reason to panic. I found two files full of data from the Boston and Seattle area that would help me answer three main questions as well as to make an informed decision about renting out my place.

1. What is the price to charge for my unit ?

In order to answer this, I had to find the average price people were charging for a unit similar to mine. Apartment, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms and great location in Boston, which is Charlestown. I wondered…

We can see that in average an apartment has 1.6 bathrooms and 1.2 bedrooms, which is less than what I have 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms. We can also see that the average price for an apartment anywhere is $180.00 and in Charlestown is $210.00. Also, apartments are rated in the top 10 percent of property types.

After this analysis, my final calculated price for renting my apartment will be $200.00, per night.

2. What is the comparative average price people are charging for similar units to mine in Seattle?

Now we have to see what these numbers are in Seattle.

After my research I found that apartments are also rated in the top 10 percent of types of property, but so are houses. It seems that with the money I will make from renting out my apartment in Boston, I will be able to get a house instead since the average price is $132.00. This would allow me to even make some profit to spend it in this city since I will charge $200.00 for my unit. Or I could decide to stay in the most expensive neighborhoods because the prices are near the $200.00 mark.

This sounds like a great idea and a good deal. So, I started to think about buying another property in Boston.

3. What are the greatest factors that determine price in the Boston area?

At this point of my research, I knew what I need to look at, but I wasn’t certain about what were these factors were. For this reason, I created a model that helped to find them, and this is what I discovered:

The top indicators of price correspond to neighborhood and zip code. This will mean that whenever I am ready to buy a property in Boston, the location of the property is one of the most important factors to succeed in renting out my future place.

What about you, do you want to come to Boston…? I have a great unit.