Rookie Reply: Build Your Portfolio OR Pay Off Debt & Tenant Conflict 101

Ashley :
This is Real Estate rookie episode 431. Let’s get your questions answered today. I’m Ashley Care and I’m here with Tony j Robinson

Tony :
And welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast where every week, three times a week, we bring you the inspiration, motivation, and stories you need to hear to kickstart your investing journey. And today we’re diving into the BiggerPockets forums to get your questions answered. Now guys, the forums is one of the absolute best places for you to quickly get all of your real estate investing questions answered by tons of experts. So today we’re going to discuss should you let your tenant fix up your property? Is a $400,000 duplex too much for a $90,000 salary? How do I manage my short-term rental bookings with a hurricane coming and what happens when my tenant accuses me of stealing? So let’s jump into the first question.

Ashley :
Tony, do you want to choose a question from the managing your property discussions and the BiggerPockets forums? Let’s look there.

Tony :
Yeah, I actually got one here from Albert Johnson and it says, one of my tenants wants to add new flooring throughout the unit. We recently had new flooring installed about a year and a half ago, but the tenant is saying that sections of the floor are popping up and stuff is getting stuck between them. The tenant wants to add new flooring and then they’ll take it out of their rent payment. How do you usually handle this? So Ashley, you are the queen of all things long-term rental tenant management. So I guess the first question is have you ever had a tenant request to make these kind of repairs out of their own pocket and just kind of reimburse themselves through their rent payment?

Ashley :
Well, the first thing is if the flooring was just installed a year and a half ago, I’m wondering, did you use a contractor? Did you do it yourself? Is there some kind of warranty on the flooring? I would look into that first to see if there’s somebody else who can be responsible for making these repairs because it should not be popping up after just a year and a half of having the floors in place. Maybe if there was never any floor leveler that was laid down and you have very uneven floors, then that can be common that that would actually happen. As far as the tenant wanting new flooring, I have had tenants request this before and we will never let the tenant actually install the flooring themselves. So I want to make that clear because you could just run into a lot more problems that way of having them actually install it themselves.

Ashley :
So in this case, I feel like it’s more tricky because it shouldn’t be popping up and you should try and find out the reason why, because you don’t want to go and pay for more flooring to be installed just to have that happen again. So that’s the first thing you should do. What we have done is if the tenant doesn’t need new flooring, such as maybe there’s perfect linoleum in the kitchen, that’s how they moved in, and it’s not beautiful, but it’s decent shape. If they want new flooring, sometimes we will split the cost with them to actually put in the repair or we will say, yes, we will pay for the whole thing, but we are going to increase your rent a little bit to cover the upgrade in your unit. But anything that is our fault as it actually needs to get repaired, that it’s broken. So if this is actually popping up and they’re getting stuff stuck between, I would recommend that you hire a contractor yourself to repair it and actually figure out what the issue is here and get it done right instead of having the tenant actually put the new flooring in.

Tony :
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I feel like there’s probably more risk. It sounds good in theory like, oh, I’m going to have my tenant do this repair for me, but the aftermath might be more trouble than what it’s worth. But actually, I guess, how do you clarify those responsibilities within your lease? What are you putting into your lease to talk about those kinds of repairs and when the tenant is responsible versus when the landlord is responsible?

Ashley :
So as far as wear and tear, this would most likely not be the tenant’s place because how much wear and tear or responsibility, how much wear and tear could they be doing in a year and a half? This floor is already warping. So if it is your property’s fault something was wrong with the install error, then that falls on you as the landlord. And so going through the lease, you can have very specific things, but you’re also going to have to have vague things in there. For example, we have common wear and tear you were not responsible for as the tenant in the property. So if you move out and it’s just like it was a cheap carpet, maybe one of the bedrooms, and it’s just get some of the carpets falling apart and it’s just normal wear and tear because they lived there for 10 years and never had the carpet replaced, we’re not charging them for the carpet when they move out.

Ashley :
So you can have a list, we have a checklist of here’s all the things we do charge for when you move out, holes in the wall, things that are very common. There are definitely times that come up when it’s like, okay, is this the tenant’s responsibility or is this ours? And that’s where we kind of go through me and the maintenance person decide as to how should we handle this. So one thing that seems to have happened a couple times is the toilet handle breaking and it’s just like one actually cracked and it’s like, okay, how does that just happen? But we also look at the tenant’s history. Is this someone who is always putting in maintenance requests? We go into their apartment and it’s actually a disaster and there’s already holes in the walls and things like that? Or is this someone who takes very good care of their home even if it was their fault they did something to break the toilet handle, we’re going to cover it and replace it because they take care of the property. Accidents do happen. It’s not a huge expense, a huge inconvenience, but flooring that’s definitely going to be a large expense. So the best advice I can give is figure out why that flooring has been ruined, and if it was because maybe the tenant has dogs and the dogs have been tearing at, but if it’s something with the actual install of the flooring, then I would say as the landlord, you’re responsible for the flooring.

Tony :
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more, Ashley, with the idea of taking the quality of tenant into account as well because say Albert, this tenant that you have is an amazing tenant and they plan to stay at your property for a long time. Maybe you piss them off by not replacing the flooring and you end up losing a really good tenant over something that isn’t that big of an expense in the grand scheme of things. So just another data point to consider as you’re making that decision. But love that feedback, Ash. Now Ricky, stay tuned because we’re going to find out if $420,000 is too expensive on a $90,000 salary. But first we’re going to take a quick break to hear a word from today’s show sponsors. Alright guys, welcome back. Thank you for listening to our show sponsors just like our rookie audience, our sponsors make the show possible. So appreciate you guys listening and supporting. And honestly, guys, these are all tools that myself and other hosts on the Rookie podcast and the BiggerPockets podcast used to run our business. So we’re happy to share these with you, but how about you Ash? What questions from the form is maybe sticking out to you? Yeah,

Ashley :
So this one I just pulled from the managing your property discussion. So sorry Tony, I’m kind of taking over this for reply episode with managing your Property questions, but maybe this one will apply a little bit to short-term rentals. So this one, Carlos asked, I’m facing an unusual acquisition in my 15 years of managing student rentals. We show rooms to prospective tenants about a month before lease expiration with a 24 hour notice as stated in the lease. We only spend a minute in each room for this purpose. After a recent showing, I received this email when I returned to my room, it looked out of place, my suitcase was opened, a bag inside was ripped, drawers were left open and my heels were out of place. I took photos with timestamps before and after I’m missing money from my wallet and feel this is an invasion of privacy.

Ashley :
I expect the money to be returned. We advise tenants to have renter’s insurance, but it’s not mandatory. I don’t know if these claims are true. I seek advice on how to address this and respond. So Tony, I think you’ll definitely be able to weigh into this statement even without having long-term rentals. But we have a policy in place where unless it’s an emergency, we always request that the tenant be home anytime we enter their apartment. And that just kind of eliminates this. And I understand that especially if you’re trying to fill five rooms in a college house for a student rental, that it can be so hard to coordinate that everybody’s there, but maybe even if one person is there out of the five people and they just kind of follow you through. But the only thing I can say is that this person has no proof really, that you were the one to actually do it or the person you were showing the property to actually did it.

Ashley :
So what they could do is they could take this to the police file, a police report, and the police would come and question you, but I’m not a police officer or investigator, but I would think they still wouldn’t have enough proof to actually arrest you and you could show them the lease agreement stating that you are allowed to enter the property with 24 hours notice. And I don’t think that there is anything that you could do. The other thing you could do is speak to an attorney, of course, even though no one likes to hear that answer, but also write a letter back to the tenant and just kill them with kindness and say, I’m so sorry this happened to you. When we went through the property, I was with the person that I was showing the unit to. We left the property at the same time.

Ashley :
If I know sometimes in student housing each person can lock their own rooms, sometimes their own bedrooms. So if you’re sure that you actually locked the door or maybe you forgot that you locked the door, which and maybe somebody else went in one of the roommates and did that. So I think trying to be as helpful as possible and be compassionate for the person, but making it clear that it was not you, but if there’s any way that you could possibly help them figure out the situation, you’d be more than happy to. And state the times that you were on the property and say, I didn’t see anyone else there. I actually I did see someone else there and just kind of kill them with kindness.

Tony :
Yeah, I love that advice. There’s, I guess maybe the one thing I’m still not clear on because Carlos asked the question, but he doesn’t make it super clear whether or not he was actually with the person who was walking the unit because he says we were only in there for a minute or so, we only spent a minute in each room. So it kind of sounds like he was walking the unit with this prospective tenant if he was, and I think he has a pretty strong leg to stand on to say like, Hey tenant, I was actually walking the property with this prospective person as well, then I can confirm that neither myself nor the other person touch anything inside of your room.

Ashley :
You have an alibi,

Tony :
You got an alibi, right? But if Carlos wasn’t there, maybe it just gave remote access. I think potentially there is room that something may have happened because Carlos wasn’t there to be present. But I think for me, obviously financial, but also just the energy side of things, how much energy do I want to invest in this? And if I can make this issue go away with this prospective client by saying, Hey, like Ashley, I kill him with kindness, apologize. But then just say how much money was taken? And if they’re like, it was 75 bucks, okay, cool, give them back the 75 bucks and say, Hey, here’s what it is. But I feel I would try and find the easiest, simplest solution. It’s just probably trying to make this tenant feel happy. But again, I think I would need all the facts to really point you the right direction.

Ashley :
And it does say they took photos with timestamps, which makes me curious as to what made them think to take photos before you came into the property anyway. But I would definitely ask to see the photos, but I mean that could obviously be staged where, or they took a photo before they left and then changed things and then it came back to it. So I don’t think that guarantees anything. But one thing too is you did mention this person is moving out within a month because you’re showing the property. So I guess worst case scenario, they’re going to be moving out of your property and you won’t have to deal with that anymore. But yeah, and you know what? I would be interested to know what the amount of the money is too. If it is a large amount of money, that would kind of ring more alarm bells to me.

Ashley :
But if it is like 75 bucks, just say, I’m so sorry this happened. Maybe I accidentally left the door unlocked or something like that. I will take it out of your last month’s rent or something like that to keep the peace. Sometimes it’s worth it to pay a little bit of money to keep the peace. Okay, well you guys, we love talking about real estate. We love answering questions like this with you all and we’d love it if you would hit the follow button on your podcast app wherever you’re listening. Okay, so Tony, right now I’m looking at the first home buyer discussions. Okay, so this question is from Katrina and it says is $420,000 for a duplex too much? If I have a $99,000 salary, I’m looking to purchase my first multifamily property. My realtor is showing me duplexes ranging from 3 99 to four 30.

Ashley :
There aren’t many options to choose from. My plan is to use FHA three and a half percent down seller covers closing costs. My gross salary is 88,992, but I also have overtime, biweekly checks are about 4K. So here’s what I’m looking at for the numbers. I’m being shown 420,000 with an interest rate of 6.25% and with the HOA, my mortgage payment would be $3,561. I’m currently paying $1,200 right now in rent plus utilities. I know you’re going to scream at me for this, but my student loan payments are $1,457 per month. So Tony, you got your math helmet on and we can start analyze this. So the first thing is biweekly checks after tax are 4K. So that’s her starting pay. So what’s that two KA week that she nets per month?

Tony :
Yeah, well 4K over, what is that 26 pay period? So she’s actually bringing home net? Yeah, about a hundred grand. It says 104 actually, if she’s doing that every two weeks. So it’s not bad. So we do that over 12 months. Net is about $8,700 is what she’s bringing home, give or take a month, which is decent. Now actually, I think for me, one of the first questions I would ask is the 1400, almost 1500 bucks per month on your student loan payments, is that your absolute minimum, Katrina? Or is that you trying to really aggressively pay down that student loan? Because if it’s not the absolute minimum, I would maybe consider, does it make more sense to free up some of that cash to go towards being able to purchase this property that’s going to appreciate over time? Or does it make sense to continue to pay down this student loan debt? I think that’s the first question I’d ask Ash. And

Ashley :
To add to that, I would say what is the interest rate on the student loans? So if the interest rate is higher than what the duplex would be, I’d say yeah, let’s keep that payment up there and continue to pay those down. But if you’ve got a great student loan that’s maybe at 3%, then yeah, it definitely makes sense to pay the minimum there. So one thing that is not mentioned in here is that if she purchases a duplex, there’s opportunity to rent one side and have some rental income. So that’s one piece that we’re missing as to how much will her income increase when she actually has a tenant in place to cover a percentage of the mortgage. So you always have to account for vacancies, but right now she’s looking at her mortgage payment of 3,500. And one thing I don’t know is if that includes escrow with insurance and property taxes too. So right now, let’s see, 3,561 plus 1,457, that’s about five grand a month that she has in monthly payments. So that’s leaving another $3,500 about in income

Tony :
To live off of, right,

Ashley :
Expendable income to live off of. So you’re also going to have to pay utilities on this new property too. So that will have to be in effect. Gas. Do you have a car payment, your insurance on your car? Groceries? Yeah. So I guess how much do you need? I’ve been using this new app called Monarch. It actually tracks all of my expenses and has my net worth tracker on there. Everything. So if you haven’t already see what your monthly expenses actually are, how much are you spending on lattes or going out to dinner, how much are you spending on groceries? And this little app will actually, it’s super convenient. There’s other ones out there too, like Mint I think, and different ones you can use to actually track your spending to see how much you need in discretionary income or if there are things that you can cut.

Ashley :
So I think that you could live off of 3,500 for your extra payments and maybe you don’t even have a car payment and that’s why it wasn’t mentioned in here. And 3,500 is just your discretionary income with your gas and your groceries, things like that. So if you, worst case scenario, you have a vacancy, your income will cover your mortgage payment. But what I really want to know is what would you rent the one side, the one unit of that duplex for, would that cover a huge amount of your mortgage payment? Because then it makes sense because if you are going to live for $1,200 or less than $1,200, you’re already making out buying this property, then you are paying rent because of course you’re getting the appreciation, you’re getting the equity pay down from the tenant, paying down the mortgage. So I think there’s a little bit more information we need to tell you, yes, go that route or don’t. So look at what the rental income would be on one end of the properties and how much more money you need on top of that $5,000 in monthly payments to actually

Tony :
Live. And we talk about the house hacking strategy a lot, and I always go back to the interview we did with Craig Op where he rented out all the room to almost like sleeping on the couch. I’m not saying you need to go to that extreme Katrina, but you’ve got this duplex and I wonder if there’s even an opportunity to maybe rent out the other side either by the entire half or could you rent out each room so you’re kind of generating a little bit more revenue there. And then on the side of the duplex that you’re on, if it’s just you, you’re a single person, does it now make sense maybe for you to rent out some of the rooms on your side? So say each side of the duplex is maybe a three, two, right? You’ve got one bedroom, you’re renting out the other, what kind of numbers does that give you to move into this property?

Tony :
So like Ashley said, I think that’s a big data point that we’re missing, but if you can get close to subsidizing a lot of that $3,500 payment and say even if you don’t cover it all, but say maybe you only have to spend 1500 bucks out of your pocket to move into this thing, even though it’s a slight increase in what you’re paying now, I think overall that’s still a win because like Ashley said, you’re getting this asset that’s going to appreciate over time. So I think the rim piece is probably that biggest missing data point as well.

Ashley :
Okay. So our next question has to do with a rental property with a hurricane coming right at it. Before we get into this, we’re going to hear a word from our show sponsor. Okay, Tony. So what is the next question that you have pulled out of the BiggerPockets forums?

Tony :
Alright, so this time I’m going to these short-term rental discussions and there’s a question from Sharon and she asked this, she says, I’m new to managing our short-term rental that’s about a block from the beach. We’ve gotten through a tropical storm with the renter and everything was great. They had a great time. Ended up with moderate to great weather, we still got an amazing review. Now Hurricane Burrell is coming and it’s tracking to come straight towards our house. Now I grew up with these kinds of things. I know that it can change rapidly including the strength and direction, but how do you handle this with renters that are booked to be there during this time? Great question. Now none of my properties are in hurricane country. So we haven’t had to deal with hurricanes exactly, but we have had to deal with fires in the Smoky Mountains.

Tony :
We’ve had to deal with road closures in the Smoky Mountains because of snow and ice. We’ve had to deal with flash flooding and some of our properties here in California. So we have had some of these weather events that have shaped or maybe impacted our guest today. And here’s what we typically do when guests are coming in, we always let them know, Hey, here’s what the forecast is saying. So for example, if there’s a flash flood like, Hey, there plans to be heavy flash flooding this weekend, you are more than welcome to come and continue to enjoy your trip if you so choose to do so. If you decide to leave or you can’t get access to the property, we will not hold that against you and we’ll allow you to cancel free of charge. So that is pretty much the only time that will let a guest cancel free of charge is if there’s some act of God that kind of prevents them from being able to actually get to the property or leave. So that’s typically how we handle those kind of weather events.

Ashley :
Yeah, I was curious about that. What’s your actual booking through Airbnb or actual liability to the person if there is a hurricane or a weather disaster, anything, are they allowed to cancel and what is that timeframe do? Are there any certain parameters regarding that or is it all dependent on the host?

Tony :
Yeah, so there are certain cancellation policies that are within the control of the host, but there are certain things that are outside of our control. And if I’m not mistaken, I want to say that acts of God, which include things like a Covid or something else like that. And I want to say severe weather is one of those things as well, where if they were to call Airbnb and say, Hey, there’s a major fire that’s coming through this town, or there’s a major hurricane coming through this town. I want to say that’s one of those things that are covered and Airbnb would just probably cancel the reservation anyway. So for us, we’d rather just do the right thing from the beginning and say, Hey, look, yeah, we would love for you to say if you want to and you feel safe, but if not, no harm, no foul.

Tony :
We will let you guys walk away. And honestly, it’s been 50 50, you’d be surprised. We had a cabin this past winter where the whole little area we were in, everyone’s pipes froze. So there was no running water for two days. And we had someone that stayed at the property. We were like, Hey guys, there’s no running water, you guys should probably leave. And they were like, nah, it’s cool. We already put the vacation, we’re just going to stay here In retrospect, and I don’t want this to get too gross. In retrospect, we probably should have told ’em they couldn’t have stayed because the crazy thing was that they continued to use the restrooms with no running water. So when our cleaners got there, our cleaners are not happy with us about the condition of the restrooms when they got there. But yeah, you’d be surprised. People are willing to stay even without running water in some of these places.

Ashley :
Didn’t you give them a map to the closest creek for them to hike through the woods and get buckets of water and show them the videos of how to lift up the top of the toilet, dump the water in and then to flush it?

Tony :
We got to add that to the digital guidebook. It’s actually not a bad idea.

Ashley :
Here’s what you do if you lose water. Yeah,

Ashley :
So I actually had a situation come up this past week that I kind of aligns with this as far as a guest canceling that I’ve been curious to ask you, Tony. So I’m going to take the last question for myself here. So we take the emergency calls. So we have a property manager for the short-term rentals, but our agreement is very clear that she sleeps at night and can’t take emergency calls, which is fine. She’s amazing. So we get the emergency call, and this is probably the first time we’ve, maybe the second time we’ve ever gotten one. And it was Airbnb calling and they were saying that the person staying in our a-frame, which is a cabin in the woods, saw a mouse and they felt uncomfortable and they wanted to leave. So we’ve had a guest see a mouse there before, and I can’t remember exactly what happened with that person.

Ashley :
I think it was just we came up with some traps and they were happy, not a big deal. And we continuously rotate through traps and hidden spots of the cabin because it is literally in the middle of the woods. So we have added since that other time that happened, a disclosure in our listing that says, because this is in a remote location in the middle of the woods and an older structure that there could still be cracks or something that a mouse could get into and there could be critters and bugs and things like that. So they saw a mouse, and this was at midnight, I think, and they want to leave. So I said, sure, if they leave tonight, go ahead, give them a full refund. It was their first night there. Airbnb can’t get ahold of them. So now I’m sitting up from midnight to 1:00 AM waiting for them to, and I keep messaging with Airbnb.

Ashley :
They’re like, yes, we’re sorry, we can’t get ahold of them to see if they’re leaving or not, blah, blah, blah. So we look on the ring cam, like their car is still there. And so finally the person reaches out to me. I had sent a message just say, I talked with Airbnb, it’s fine. If you guys want to leave, we’ll give you the full refund. And so he messages an hour later and says, I’m sorry, we can’t find anywhere else to stay. We’re going to stay the night and we’ll decide in the morning. And I’m like, at this point I’m like, I just want them to leave. I don’t want to deal with this anymore. So I go on Google and I find five different spots that have a availability that they can go and stay at tonight. And I send them and I’m said, oh, this is a town that’s really close.

Ashley :
I checked all these places, have availability tonight. If you wanted to stay there. Airbnb had told me that you were uncomfortable staying there. No response. So I messaged Airbnb, I’m like, he said they’re going to stay the night. And they’re like, okay, well we’ll just see what they say in the morning, whatever. I’m like, okay, so I can go to bed now? Yes you can. The next day message, hi, I just wanted to check in, see if you’re going to be leaving. The property. Checkout is in half an hour what you decided to do. And Airbnb had told me since they decided to stay, they would at least be charged for that one night and then refunded for the other nights. So I didn’t want them to stay all day and then decide at 5:00 PM then they were going to leave. So once again, never heard back, but the Schlag lock is going on and off all day long of them locking and unlocking the door.

Ashley :
We’re like, okay, well they’re still there. Finally at five o’clock they said, we’ve decided we’re going to stay. They stayed the whole time. They messaged yesterday and said, thank you so much. This place is so amazing. We’re going to leave a great review. And that was the end of it. But my question to this is to where do you draw the line of giving the full refund? Should I have handled that differently or I understand mice can gross people out and you can be like, okay, that’s not for me, a mouse running by in the middle of the night of the cabin when a hundred percent. But where is the gray area where you decide it’s clear in the description this might happen? And I guess where do you draw the line on those kinds of things that people might not like? Yeah,

Tony :
Well, welcome to the hosting world of Airbnb in those middle of the night calls. I think that’s the first part. But no, I think you handle it pretty well, Ash, I think we have properties in the desert. And in the desert you get field mice, you get snakes, sometimes you get cactus. And we put all of that into our descriptions and we’ll tell folks like, Hey, you were coming to the desert and there are certain things that are within our control, and we’ll try and control for those things. But if you’re walking outside and you see something, it’s just part of being in this environment. So we always try and set expectations that way as well. Now, if we ever have a guest that potentially wants to cancel for a somewhat legitimate reason, again, we will be okay with that because again, if they were to go to Airbnb, they might force that anyway.

Tony :
And sometimes if we just get a sense that someone’s going to be a kind of pain in the butt guest, we usually don’t want them there anyway. We want ’em out anyway. But we will be super clear when we offer that to them. We’ll say, Hey guys, look, if you decide to stay totally fine, we will refund you the first night or whatever. We come out to you. But if you decide to leave, just know you have to leave by this time so we can get the property prepped for the next guest. And if you’re not out by that time, we’re just going to assume that you’re planning to stay and then we’ll leave the reservation as is. So let us know what you feel makes the most sense. That way it’s super clear, it’s in writing what our expectations are. And if we don’t hear from them, it’s no biggie. Because we just let them know like, Hey, like I said, you can’t reach out to me at five o’clock when checkout was seven hours ago and say, I think I want to leave now. So we try and set those expectations up front.

Ashley :
Yeah, and I think that was a frustrating thing is that we didn’t know what their plan was for so long, and they just kept getting pushed what they were going to do was the frustrating part of it.

Tony :
Don’t even give them the opportunity to leave you hanging. Just set the expectations for ’em upfront and say, Hey, look, if we don’t hear from you, we’re just going to assume that that means you want to stay, which is totally fine. We’ll be happy to host you, but if you do decide to leave, just know you’ll have to be out by 11:00 AM tomorrow.

Ashley :
One thing that Airbnb was super nice about was that they never even messaged us. They called Airbnb directly right away. So it wasn’t even like they sent anything in the Airbnb app or there is an emergency number in there. They didn’t even call that. So that was another frustrating thing for me too. But Airbnb understood that as, and it was a great experience, I have to say, dealing with Airbnb support

Tony :
And you still got a five star, which is crazy. Who would’ve thought that after all that? I don’t

Ashley :
Know yet. I don’t know yet. I don’t know yet. I don’t think it is come in yet. But they said they would leave a great review yesterday. And that was another thing was the whole time I wanted them to just leave because I was terrified of the review. So if they would’ve left that first night, they would’ve got the full refund. Would they still have been given the opportunity to leave a review and what would happen if they did a terrible review?

Tony :
Yeah, if they cancel before they check in, I know for sure that they can’t leave a review, but I honestly don’t know. If they come in and they leave in the middle of their stay, I think if the reservation actually gets canceled through Airbnb even after they check in, I still don’t think they can leave a review. But sometimes we’ll have a guest leave and we’ll refund them, but the reservation itself doesn’t get canceled. That’s when I think they still have the opportunity to leave that review. So I think as long as the reservation shows a canceled status, I don’t think they have the ability to leave that review. I could be wrong. I know for sure if they do it before they check in, they can’t. But after they check in, I think it’s a little bit fuzzy from you on whether or not they can.

Ashley :
Well, if that is true, then that would be a good idea. If somebody does want to cancel, is to just have them call Airbnb and cancel it through Airbnb and you’ll okay. The refund on your end so that they can’t, we

Tony :
Always try and get them to cancel on their end. Right? Yeah. So say, Hey, we’re totally fine with that. Just give Airbnb a call and we’ll approve it.

Ashley :
Okay, cool. Well, thanks Tony. I appreciate your advice.

Tony :
Yeah.

Ashley :
Well, you guys, thanks so much for joining us for this week’s rookie reply. I’m Ashley. And he’s Tony. And we’ll see you guys next time. But first, before you go, if you have a question that you would like to ask us, you can go ahead and head over to the BiggerPockets forums and ask a question. Also, there are so many great people to connect with, experienced investors and new investors, and you might actually be surprised that you could actually answer somebody’s question too. You may know more than you think from listening to all these podcast episodes. You’ll go in there, jump in, and contribute in the BiggerPockets forums. We’ll see you guys next time.

Tony :
This BiggerPockets podcast is produced by Daniel Zarate, edited by Exodus Media Copywriting by Calico Content.

Ashley :
I’m Ashley. He’s Tony, and you have been listening to Real Estate Rookie.

Tony :
And if you want your questions answered on the show, go to biggerpockets.com/reply.