How to be successful with motels/resorts?

[Christopher Pray]

Background:

I work a day job as a software engineer. I started investing in real estate in 2016 and currently have 2 3-family houses, a bar/rooming house, and my personal residence with a small motel and cabins on site. I'm under contract to sell 1 of the houses and the other is listed for sale, as I have some equity in them I'd like to utilize elsewhere. I'm considering selling the bar and rooming house, since that has equity too, but provides good cash flow. I have a couple years experience with the motel business now and I really like it. I'm thinking about focusing on that niche and set a goal to buy a larger motel/resort ($1-2M purchase price) with a path to expand beyond that later as well. So I'm here looking for any advice.

My idea is to get something in my local market where I can live on sight to oversee things. My market is a vacation destination by a popular lake (Lake George, NY) with a nice downtown and beautiful nature. The business is primarily seasonal here, from approximately Memorial Day to Columbus Day, with the busiest months being July and August. Although there are things like skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, some local events, etc.

I have a decent amount of equity in each of my properties I currently own, 2 of which are listed for sale as mentioned above, that I need to decide how to utilize. Thinking about any combination of selling, refinancing, or pay off and own free and clear. The equity could help towards acquisition or the "passive" cash flow could help carry the costs of a new motel/resort. I also consider the time I spend on those other properties and whether it might be better to scale up into higher value properties.

I don't want this to be the end of the road either though so my plan needs to have a path forward from here too.

Questions:

- How do people that are successful in this niche buy, rehab, operate, and exit these properties?

- How much leverage is good to use?

- Anything specific about the properties to watch out for when inspecting?

- Any insight on the differences between subcategories in this niche? Eg, strip motels, cabins, condos/apartments, etc

- Any books or other learning resources you can recommend?

- Anyone you know who might be interested in networking with me?

I'll probably think of other questions after I post this. Thanks for taking the time to respond.