2 weeks after STR launch - thanks for all the information

[Trent Reeve]

I joined back in August when my sister started my interest in REI and STR. I read Avery's book and a few others. Wife and I researched and ended up buying a property in Panama City Beach last October. We remodeled a 2/2.5 townhome into 3/3.5. soft launched with some friends while re-model took longer than expected (big surprise). Then some delays getting inspection, permit and licenses. But we officially went live on Airbnb/VRBO Thursday Feb 9th around 10 pm. Not going to lie, we did re-think our purchase after the 3rd mortgage payment, one that is more than our primary residence, and we still hadn't been able to rent yet. By the end of that weekend, we had 3 bookings.

Our first booking gave us a great public review, and also sent an email saying that they did love our place and love all the extras we put in there (beach toys, cooler, cart, sandwich bags, foil, etc.) but also that our brand new floors didn't feel that clean, coffee pot had some coffee marks and dishes were left in dishwasher previously. I apologized and thanked them for letting me know and said i would address it and sent the info to our cleaners. But they didn't put any of that stuff in their review, which i appreciated.

Now 2 weeks since launch, we have our 2nd renter finishing up tomorrow. Half of March is booked, 20 days in April, 1 week in May, 1 in June and 1 in July. I will say, we only have 1 booking from Airbnb, all the others through VRBO.

I definitely feel better prepared reading thru all the many posts, and they have helped educate us on many things we would not have thought about.

Thank you for the group and the group info. Hope I am able to give back on any of my lessons learned.

www.sandpiperretreat.com

[Rosa Regier]

@January Johnson a question we ask ourselves when selecting an investment property is whether we would live in it. It's more of our personal preference to stay out of communities where 1 property looks like the one next to it. Plus HOA fees+sharing walls+I don't like my neighbor, etc, etc.

Though I'm beginning to rethink this idea. I see that a good number of Floridian beach STR properties are TH & Condos. This ole gal can be taught new things :)