Alex Veytsman of The Offer Sheet

Recently, we were lucky enough to be featured on The Offer Sheet. Once we learned about it, naturally, we were dying to explore it. We sat down with Founder Alex Veytsman and asked him what it is all about. It is an incredibly cool idea for those in the market for a profitable AirBnB. Take a look at what Alex has to say.

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1) How did you come up with the idea to start The Offer Sheet.

Similar to the hordes of others who became Zillow enthusiasts during the pandemic, I too found myself spending hours at a time looking for the coolest / most architecturally unique houses I could find. Part of that was because my wife and I happened to be looking for a home at the time, and partially because owning second, third and fourth homes was always appealing to me as a way to build long term recurring income and equity.

Real estate is the ultimate way to use borrowed money and gain leverage. What other business / venture does someone else (in this case the bank) take on 80% of the initial cost and risk (assuming a 20% down payment), and then take $0 in profit when you go to sell. To then be able to take that leverage and double down on it with a property that is architecturally unique, will always be in demand for a short term (or long term) rental - and effectively will always retain and likely increase in value over time - especially given the short supply of unique houses - is a no brainer.

But - my wife and I were a bit busy. Buying our own primary home not too far from NYC and having a baby. There just wasn't the time to devote to building an Airbnb empire quite yet. I figured if I'm looking for these types of houses as a side hobby, why not a side hustle?

Around the same time, I heard about Substack and how many folks had started their own newsletters on random subjects. I thought, hey, perfect match - I know how fun (but tedious) it can be to look for the perfect investable property for hours every day - why not hand that to folks on a daily basis, give them a sense of the potential profitability for each property, and let them just be able to choose what fits them best from an already pre-curated daily list.

2) So, it’s a new publication. What did the rollout look like?

You gotta start somewhere and just start producing content, that's what everyone says. Deliver great content, don't worry so much about getting subscribers out of the gate. If you build it, they'll come, and that's definitely been the case with The Offer Sheet. We started in October 2021 and have made great strides with thousands of total subscribers and hundreds of paid subs at this time. The key is just being consistent every day. Substack is great, too, because they provide the platform. You don't have to worry about building out your own site, setting up payments, managing emails/subscribers etc. - that part is mostly taken care of. Just about getting the word, and of course delivering the newsletter daily.

3) Who are your main subscribers to the paid model?

Folks who are seriously interested and ready to purchase their next Airbnb property, and just waiting for the right one. They don't mind the $19 monthly relative to getting ~300 preselected properties. Some of the folks who have unsubscribed tell me they loved the newsletter, but they purchased a home and no longer need it. That's the best compliment we could receive. It's like being in charge of a dating app and your users stop using it for all the right reasons. Subscribers will often tell us about their home purchases (or close purchases) - where they put in an offer and might have just missed out.

4) The design is great! Did you do it yourself?

Thanks! The general layout comes semi-standard from Substack, but there are definitely components that can be customized for each individual newsletter - which is what we did. As well of course as all of The Offer Sheet's logo / design elements.

5) How are investors responding to The Offer Sheet?

As mentioned, we've had a number of success stories of folks using the newsletter to buy their dream Airbnb property. We'll soon create a section to share all of these great testimonials. Regarding other types of investors, we've actually already had interest in The Offer Sheet itself - but obviously we want to continue the mission and grow this thing!

6) The Offer Sheet is an excellent name by the way. How did you come up with it?

I happen to be a die hard hockey fan and a sports business nerd. The Offer Sheet is one of the more exciting player acquisition tactics that is used in hockey. Essentially, another team semi-predatorily tries to pry a great player from their current team who would not typically be available. Subsequently, the incumbent team has seven days to match the offer sheet.. This makes for great suspense for fans of both teams for that period of a week. Kind of like making an offer on a house, and seeing if you'll get it.