Short-term unit + long-term units + owner-unit = Success?

[Lars Olsen]

Hi All, 

I did search the forum in case someone had asked before me, but to no avail. However I am new to BP so please bare with me if I messed up. 

Background for my question: My wife and I are looking to buy our first live-in investment property some time the coming 12 months in Chicago were we both live and work. Ideally a 4-flat with garage. My parents are from and live in Norway, but visits regularly and I'd like for them to have their "own place" here. Needless to say it would be a little extravagant if their place would be empty 11 months or so out of the year. Therefore I was thinking to operate 1 of the 3 rental units as a vacation home (inspired by last week's amazing podcast) aiming to keep the unit occupied enough to generate a similar or even higher income to the other two long-term units.

Does anyone here have, or have had a similar set-up, and would like to share their experiences with me? Any obvious pitfalls I need to be aware of, in general and for the Chicago market specifically? 

Any input would be valued, be that tips on landlording or the financial aspect of an investment of this nature. 

Lars

[Maureen Jacobson]

Hi Lars,

We have been doing short term in Los Angeles since October for similar family reasons. I come at if from a traditional landlord background. This is my fist foray into vacation short term land. So far so good.

I can give you some nuts and bolts. I agree with the 3 day minimum. We have a 3 day min and it doesn't see to be a problem. I would not do a shorter stay. Cleaning and getting a unit ready for your next guest takes time and energy even if you have a cleaning crew working for you as we do. I would look on the rental sites and see how the units in your area look. We used a combination of IKEA and Craig's list to furnish. On average it costs us around 3k to get a 1bd rental ready. Pay someone to take pictures if you don't know how to take photos that approximates professional quality real estate photos. Good photos are very important. We decided no tv's, but provide high speed wifi-fi. A few people have asked why no tv. But most of the 20-30 yr old crowd has no use for tv. They want wifi. Most of our renters are European. They don't spend a lot of time in the apt. They are out enjoying the city. I think the rules and regulations will be changing over the years. For now we are ridding the wave of vacations short term rentals. That may change and I say be prepared to convert your unit back to either regular rental or maybe a longer term furnished executive rental if need be down the road. Im not convinced this is the best. I'm going to evacuate my rental income after 1 year and see if the extra work is worth the return.

On the west coast airbnb is popular. We have been getting almost all our rentals from there. Gradually we are expanding to other rental platforms, but a stumbling block we have is keeping our calendars straight using multiple rental sites. Maybe someone has a automated solution they can share? Doing it by hand is problematic.