Renovation/furnishing costs of an STR

[Alex Silang]

So I've heard this can run you a lot - around $30,000 for the average sized home of $400,000 in the area I'm looking at. So that means if my downpayment is $80,000, $30,000 is really going to affect things:

1) Capital raised. I need I need 37.5% more capital

2) If I need to sell in a few years, this capital will largely go *poof*. A new buyer is probably not going to pay the full value of those renovations. Ideally I'd be able to find a buyer that wants to do STR but that's not guaranteed by any means.

3) Cashflow will probably be only $1,000/mo. So back of the napkin, that's almost 3 years of waiting to get the money back. 

I understand that this is just a part of STR investing. Anything else I missed?

[Michael Baum]

Hey @Alex Silang, I am not going to challenge those numbers much. Like the others have said, there is no way to know what a place needs until we actually see it and have the info.

@Tom Dieringer, you can do it remotely if you have someone with boots on the ground you can trust. We did our lake house from 7 hours away but I bought stuff locally, refinished it as needed and we loaded up the van and drove it over.

@Alex Silang, the only way to get around the expenses is to buy a turn key property and even then they usually need something. You can mitigate a lot by buying good used USA made furniture like @John Underwood said.

No, you won't get the bulk of that investment back. Upgrades to the house, improved kitchens, bathrooms and the like will yield a return when you sell of course.

Getting into STRs on the cheap has gone the way of the dinosaurs. You have to plan for everything before you jump in.