Investment Journey Started In 2019

[Kenny Farkas]

I have posted a couple of times to a forum on this site with minimal replies or conversation back and forth. I don't know what I am doing wrong, or if everyone is that busy...which I do get (3 boys, small business owner, Full-time job, and investing).

I have one property in my portfolio currently it's an Airbnb (0 money out of pocket on this investment). The listing started 3 weeks ago, and it is pretty much a weekend-only option for traffic.

Things to know if you haven't gone down this road yet:

1. Furnishing/linens/appliances can be costly and are more than a one day experience to acquire. You should allow at least a week. I went to weekends only 0% financing for 18 months.

2. Fixing the place up (Painting and other things). This probably wouldn't have been bad, but we have a 2-hour drive to get to the BnB. Which meant it took us 5 straight weekends after purchase to complete this task. This was done with a 0% CC for 12 months.

3. The BnB website is great and very user-friendly. Setting everything up to a standard does take time.

4. Doing your due diligence on what other BnB's in the area are charging is a must. You can price yourself right out of a booking.

5. The big return on this investment will be in 18 months when the furniture and CC are paid off for this BnB.

6. The locals in the city don't like BnB houses in their area. You will have to work on separating yourself from any negative backlash.

7. Finding the right person to compliment your standards for cleaning can be a challenge. You might have to go through a few before you find the right one.

8. Finding anyone to compliment your standards in anything can be challenging. Mot the people want the money and do minimal work for it.

I am happy to say through all the hard work we are pretty much booked until the 3rd-weekend of December.

As far as The Bigger Pockets website, I have learned so much in a short amount of time. I do love the webinars and podcast, but one thing I would like to see different is more hardship stories on investments. There is a lot of positivity going on which is great.  Personally, most of my failures have turned into the greatest lessons. That is just my food for thought, and now my rant is complete....until next time.