2 months later - Update on our first STR

[Trent Reeve]

I posted 2 months ago, i was 2 weeks into launching our first STR in Panama City Beach, using everything that I had learned researching and reading here.

2 months later, we just passed $50k+ in bookings for the year and we still have half of August to the end of the year to book.

thanks again for all the help and information from this board.

[Travis Timmons]

That's awesome! There's nothing like the dopamine hit from those first booking notifications popping up on your phone. 

We did a similar thing last year - bought a fixer in Maine - you know, 2000 miles from our primary residence. I was up there at least 1 week per month for 3-4 months, and my whole family and I lived in the place for 5-6 weeks in May and June to get it to market. My kids hated it. I've officially turned into my father now that I take pleasure in making my kids to manual labor. 

It was so hard and stressful. My wife essentially interviewed me on video the night that we put the listing live - it's really cool to look back on it. I was so freaking nervous. That night, we got a $3150 booking, woke up to another $1500 booking the next morning, and had $11k in bookings within the first 48 hours. We also got a reservation for 3-4 days out and the place was not completely ready yet. Then we had a parade of ants marching under the front door into the house the next day. We had vendors coming after hours, working until 9 PM to finish work (at no premium/extra charge), got the pest control crew out to clean up the ant situation 24 hours prior to our first guest arriving, had our cleaner obsessively coming by to sweep up dead ants, just an absolute sprint and roller coaster of emotions to the finish line.

But those first booked felt so good! It's worked out well, and we just bought another fixer on the same street. It's a mess of a property, but it's easier this time around. We have established relationships with vendors and there is far less risk. I'll take the less stressful route, but I'm a little bummed that I'll never get that fist pumping excitement like the first one back.