Melanie Giacomo shares how she went from accidentally renting a vacation home to owning nine short-term rentals across five states, earning $300K a year.
Most agents I talk to want to invest in real estate. They see the income potential, they understand the long-term wealth math, and they know commissions alone won’t carry them to where they want to be. But somewhere between wanting to and actually buying that first property, most of them stall out.
The numbers feel out of reach. The market feels overwhelming. The risk feels too high without a clear playbook.
That’s why I wanted to talk to Melanie Giacomo for the latest Expert on Fire episode. Melanie is a Bay Area real estate agent who flipped the typical agent-to-investor story on its head. Most agents start selling homes and then eventually get into investing. Melanie did it backward. She bought a vacation home on Lake Tulloch in Copperopolis, California, with her parents for $550,000. They put it on Airbnb, and when she saw that one booking covered a mortgage payment, something clicked.
That property is what led her to get licensed a few years later, and over the past nine years, she’s grown her portfolio to nine Airbnbs across five states.
This conversation covers a lot of ground. You can watch the full video above, or feel free to skip to the topics that interest you most using the timestamps below:
00:00 — Intro and Background
01:15 — How It Started
04:04 — First Property Tour
08:18 — What Works
10:05 — Second Property
13:40 — Buying During COVID
15:57 — Five States
16:47 — Choosing Markets
18:19 — Research Resources
19:03 — Drivable Markets
20:23 — Property Size
22:11 — Biggest Mistakes
24:28 — Self-Manage vs. Manager
27:05 — Revenue and Time
29:39 — Virtuous Cycle
32:05 — Deals Differently
33:36 — Financial Impact
35:21 — Getting Started
38:33 — Where to Find Melanie
What stands out across Melanie’s playbook is how simple the framework actually is. Cute, comfy, and clean. Finance first, then pick the market. Drivable vacation destinations over fly-in markets. Smaller cabins over bigger homes. And the honest part most agents don’t hear about this kind of investing: it is not passive income. It is a full-time job. Her best year brought in around $300,000 in revenue and about 30 hours of management per week across all nine properties.
If you want to get started, here’s what Melanie recommends. Talk to a lender and find out what you qualify for. Start analyzing deals even before you’re ready to buy, because the practice builds confidence. Research markets using AirDNA, podcasts, and direct searches on Airbnb to see what’s performing. You don’t have to buy where you live. Melanie manages nine properties across five states from the Bay Area. And her advice to her younger self: stop waiting to feel fully ready. The confidence comes from taking action, not from analyzing one more deal.
If you want to connect with Melanie, she’s on Instagram and Facebook under her name, and she offers one-on-one consultations over Zoom for anyone who wants to talk through Airbnb investing.
If you have questions about getting into the game of real estate investing, whether it’s Airbnb or any other strategy, reach out to me. Call or text me at 408-317-0506, email me at Brett@TheRealExperts.com, or visit therealexperts.com. Don’t just be an agent. Be the expert.
