Search for help finding a short-term rental agent and you land on eight or nine companies that all say roughly the same thing. Each one promises specialists, market data, and an agent who understands cash flow. What none of them say is that they are not selling the same product. Some employ the agents you would work with. Some introduce you to an independent agent and collect a fee later. One charges you directly to pick the property for you.
Those are three different businesses with three different incentives, and the difference matters more than any claim on any home page. This comparison sorts the category by model, then lays out what each service publishes about itself, what it costs you, who pays it and at what point, and the kind of buyer it actually suits. Chalet is one of the services covered and we have written our own entry to the same standard as the rest, including where we are the wrong choice.
Service details verified September 2026 from each company’s public website. Figures described as “as claimed” are the company’s own published numbers, not independently audited.
Brokerage teams, referral networks, and paid match services are three different products
Every service in this category fits one of three models.
Referral networks do not employ agents. They introduce you to an independent local agent and are paid by that agent. Coverage tends to be far wider than any brokerage can staff, which is the reason this model dominates when a buyer has not locked a market yet. The variable worth interrogating is what stands between the network and the agent, because two introductions from the same network can be very different people. Networks also differ on a point most buyers never think to ask about, which is whether the agent pays for the introduction itself or only pays when a deal closes.
Brokerage teams employ or house the agents under one brand, usually at a national brokerage. You are hiring their agent, in their market, on their process. Accountability is clean because one company owns the outcome. The limit is geography. If the team does not operate where you want to buy, your options are to change markets or change companies.
Paid match services sell property selection. You pay a fee and the company underwrites and hands you properties that fit agreed criteria. The pitch is that a realtor alone cannot forecast short-term rental income, which is a fair argument and also the argument that justifies the fee.
One more category shows up in search results and deserves naming. Directories list agent profiles and nothing more. Nobody at a directory is accountable for the match, and at least one page ranking for comparison queries is a directory wearing a comparison URL.
How eight STR agent services compare at a glance
| Service | Model | Markets covered (as claimed) | Cost to buyer | How they are paid | Agent credentials published | Minimum investment stated | Lender introductions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chalet | Referral network | 500+ | Free | Referral fee from the agent, only when a transaction closes | Shared with you before the introduction | None stated | Yes |
| Rabbu | Referral network and marketplace | Nationwide | Free | Agents buy leads at $150 each in bundles of 20 or more, per Rabbu’s agent page | Agent profiles with ratings and endorsements | None stated | Yes |
| STR HUB (stragenthub.com) | Referral network | 57 in one place on the site, 90+ in another | Free | Referral fee from the agent on closing | No individual profiles | None stated | Yes |
| STR Realtor Search | Referral network | Not published | Free | Referral fee from the agent | No | None stated | Not stated |
| The Short Term Shop | Brokerage team (eXp) | 20+ | Free | Commission on the sale | Team page, no per-agent deal counts | None stated | Not stated |
| Savvy STR Agents | Brokerage team | 57 markets, 57 agents | Free | Commission on the sale | Yes, with deal counts and years of experience | None stated | Not stated |
| STR Search | Paid match service | Not stated | Paid engagement | Client fee | No | $175,000 recommended | Not stated |
| STR Hub (strhub.com) | Directory | Roughly 30 agents listed | Free | Not stated | Profiles only | None stated | Not stated |
What each STR agent service actually does
Chalet
Chalet is a referral network covering more than 500 US markets, which is the broadest coverage in this comparison by a wide margin. You tell us the market and the budget, we introduce you to an independent local agent who works short-term rentals there, and the introduction costs you nothing because the agent pays a referral fee when your transaction closes. That last clause is the part worth reading twice. Chalet earns nothing unless you actually buy something you are happy with, which is a different incentive from a service that bills the agent for the introduction itself. Agents come into the network by invitation and review rather than by signing up, and we will send you the specific agent’s markets, transaction history, and credentials before you ever get on a call. Lender introductions run through the same process, which matters if you are financing with a DSCR product. Free market analytics on every one of those 500-plus markets sit outside the match entirely, so you can pressure-test a market before you talk to anybody.
- Model: Referral network
- Coverage as claimed: 500+ US markets
- Cost to buyer: Free
- How the service is paid: Referral fee from the agent, only on a closed transaction
- Agent credentials published: Provided to you before the introduction
- Best for: Most buyers, and especially anyone still comparing markets or buying outside the brokerage teams’ footprint.
Rabbu
Rabbu is a Charlotte company that spent its earlier life in short-term rental property management and repositioned in late 2025 as a nationwide investment marketplace. The product today combines revenue estimates, market dashboards, exclusive listings, and an agent match that promises up to three local agents within a business day at no cost to the buyer. The data tooling is genuinely good and the agent profiles carry ratings and endorsements, so there is something to read before you commit. The structural difference from a pure referral network is how agents get in. Rabbu’s own agent page states that buyer leads are sold at $150 per lead in bundles of at least 20, so an agent’s presence in front of you reflects a lead purchase rather than a fee contingent on your deal closing well. That is a normal lead-generation model and plenty of good agents buy leads. It is worth knowing which one you are in.
- Model: Referral network and marketplace
- Coverage as claimed: Nationwide
- Cost to buyer: Free
- How the service is paid: Agents purchase leads, $150 each in bundles of 20 or more
- Agent credentials published: Yes, profiles with ratings and endorsements
- Best for: A buyer who wants listing inventory and revenue tooling in the same place as the introduction
STR HUB (stragenthub.com)
STR HUB is a free matching service that connects investors with short-term rental agents and states plainly that it earns from partner agents when deals close. The site publishes more supporting content than most of the category, including market pages, an ROI calculator, regulation guides, and free courses. Two things are worth flagging. The home page states 57 markets in one section and 90 or more in another, so the coverage claim is unresolved on their own site. And the brand shares a name with strhub.com, an unrelated site, which makes searching for reviews confusing. The company registered its domain in early 2026.
- Model: Referral network
- Coverage as claimed: 57 in one place, 90+ in another
- Cost to buyer: Free
- How the service is paid: Referral fee from the agent on closing
- Agent credentials published: No individual agent profiles
- Best for: A buyer early in research who wants free market tools alongside a match
STR Realtor Search
STR Realtor Search is a referral platform with a form and very little else. No agent profiles, no published deal counts, no market data. The domain was registered in August 2024 and the site runs to roughly 77 indexed pages. That is not a knock on the agents behind it, and a small operation can make a good introduction. It does mean you cannot evaluate the match before you submit your details, so every question in the next section has to be asked live.
- Model: Referral network
- Coverage as claimed: Not published
- Cost to buyer: Free
- How the service is paid: Referral fee from the agent
- Agent credentials published: No
- Best for: A buyer comfortable being introduced first and vetting afterward
The Short Term Shop
The Short Term Shop is a brokerage team at eXp built around vacation rental markets, and it is the most established name in the category. The home page claims over 20 markets, more than 75 local agents, and over 5,000 vacation rentals sold, with offices concentrated in the Smokies, the Florida panhandle, Gulf Shores, Broken Bow, and a spread of beach and mountain markets. The company also sells a book and courses, so a fair amount of what you encounter is education marketing ahead of the transaction. If you are buying in a market they already staff, this is a team that has closed hundreds of deals on the street you are looking at.
- Model: Brokerage team
- Coverage as claimed: 20+ markets, 75+ agents
- Cost to buyer: Free, paid through the commission on your purchase
- How the service is paid: Commission on the sale
- Agent credentials published: A team page, though not per-agent transaction counts
- Best for: A buyer already committed to a market the team serves
Savvy STR Agents
Savvy STR Agents publishes more about its people than anyone else here. Agent profiles carry deal counts and years of experience, some impressively high and some reading as one deal and no years, which is useful to know before an introduction. The site claims 57 agents across 57 markets and more than 1,000 investment properties, though the hero section on the same page says 35 or more markets, so treat coverage as a range. Property listings show projected revenue only after you create an account, which is a lead-capture decision rather than a data one.
- Model: Brokerage team
- Coverage as claimed: 57 agents and 57 markets, with a conflicting 35+ figure on the same page
- Cost to buyer: Free, paid through the commission on your purchase
- How the service is paid: Commission on the sale
- Agent credentials published: Yes, including deal counts and experience per agent
- Best for: A buyer who wants to read an agent’s track record before agreeing to talk
STR Search
STR Search is not an agent referral service, and reading it as one is the most common mistake in this category. It sells a property match built around a proprietary method and a stated 30-day match, and its own FAQ argues that realtors understand local markets but generally do not underwrite short-term rental cash flow. The site recommends a minimum investment of $175,000. You are buying analysis and selection, and you would still transact through an agent.
- Model: Paid property match service
- Coverage as claimed: Not stated as a market count
- Cost to buyer: A paid engagement, quoted on a call
- How the service is paid: Client fee
- Agent credentials published: No, because agents are not the product
- Best for: A buyer above the $175,000 threshold who would rather buy the analysis than do it
STR Hub (strhub.com)
STR Hub is a directory of roughly 30 agent profiles, most belonging to the Savvy STR Agents team. It ranks for comparison queries with a page at /compare-realtors, but that page lists agents rather than comparing services, so a reader arriving for a comparison does not get one. As a way to browse individual agents it works. As a way to choose between the models above, it does not attempt the job.
- Model: Directory
- Coverage as claimed: Roughly 30 agents listed
- Cost to buyer: Free to browse
- How the service is paid: Not stated
- Agent credentials published: Profiles, sourced largely from one brokerage team
- Best for: Browsing individual profiles, not choosing a service
Five questions to ask before you hand your search to any of them
The model tells you the incentive. These five tell you whether the specific person on the other end can do the work.
How many short-term rental transactions has this agent closed in the last 12 months? A strong answer is a number with markets attached. A weak answer swaps in the company’s total, describes the agent as passionate about short-term rentals, or folds long-term rental deals into the same figure.
Who pays you, and at what point? Free to you can mean several things. The agent may pay a referral fee only when your deal closes, the agent may have bought your contact details in advance, or the brokerage may simply earn the commission. All of those are legitimate. Only one of them ties the service’s payday to whether the purchase works out for you. Ask which it is, and treat a service that cannot answer in one sentence as having answered.
Does this agent live and work in my market, or cover it remotely? Expansion agents are common and not automatically a problem, but somebody two hours away will not walk a property on short notice or know which streets the permit office treats differently. Vague answers about serving the region deserve a follow-up.
What happens if my permit is denied after closing? Nobody can promise a permit. A good agent tells you where the rules sit today, when they were last revised, and what the contingency options are. An agent who says the rules are fine or that everybody does it there has not read them.
Can I see credentials before the introduction? License number, brokerage, markets served, recent closings. A service confident in its network produces this on request. If credentials only arrive after you fill in a form, notice that four of the eight services here publish nothing about individual agents at all, and draw your own conclusion about what the screen consists of.
You are also free to run two services at once, at least until you sign a buyer representation agreement. Comparing how each one answers these five questions is the cheapest due diligence in the process.
Matching the model to your situation
For most buyers a referral network is the right starting point, because most buyers are still weighing two or three markets when they start looking and no brokerage team covers enough ground to serve that comparison. Breadth is the whole argument. A network that operates in 500 markets can follow you wherever the numbers lead. Judge networks on what they will show you before the introduction and on when they get paid, not on the size of the coverage claim.
If you have already committed to a market and it sits inside a brokerage team’s footprint, the brokerage team is a strong and simple choice. One company owns the result and the local reps are deep in that specific submarket.
If you want the property chosen for you and your budget clears the threshold, a paid match service is the only model here that sells that outcome, and you should expect to pay for it on top of the commission.
Whichever route you take, run the market numbers yourself first. Revenue estimates on any of these sites are marketing until you check them against a full trailing twelve months. Annual revenue is average daily rate multiplied by occupancy across 365 days, so a single soft season moves the figure more than any agent’s optimism. Our methodology page explains how those inputs are calculated, and the underlying data is free for Destin, Scottsdale, Broken Bow, and 500 other markets. If you are buying before year end, the bonus depreciation rules affect how much first-year furnishing spend you can write off, which is worth modeling before you pick a market.
Where Chalet fits
Chalet suits the majority of buyers in this category, and the reasons are structural rather than promotional. Coverage runs past 500 markets, so we can follow your analysis instead of steering it toward the markets we happen to staff. Agents join by review rather than by purchase, and you see the credentials before the call. We are paid a referral fee by the agent only when your transaction closes, which means a match that goes nowhere costs us and not you.
Chalet is not right for everyone. If you are set on the Smokies or the Emerald Coast and want the team with the longest local record, a brokerage team is a reasonable call. If you want someone to select the property outright rather than introduce you to an agent who helps you select it, that is a paid service and we are not one. If you want an introduction, start with the STR agent match.