upgrades that payoff?

[Jeff Davidson]

Hi,

we're thinking about purchasing a str condo in st augustine. Winter rentals are to retirees, june july and aug to families with kids. Most of the tripadvisor complaints in the complex have to do with mattresses, what other upgrades offer good ROI? I'm thinking large screen tv, maybe a gourmet coffee maker...

thanks!

[Julie McCoy]

Originally posted by @Jeff Davidson:

thank you lucas, I've read some of the self-manage threads, a little daunting considering we're remote. As someone pointed out in one of those threads, if checkout is at 10:00 on a sat, a problem is discovered at 11 and next check in is at 3, we might be in a world of hurt. Still, we'll be exploring this.

we plan to pay cash but don't think it will be possible not to lose money given the opportunity of the purchase price. However, we hope to use it enough to make it an affordable vacation condo.

Honestly, even if you had an on-site property manager, the issue is the same if you discover it at 11am and have another check-in at 3pm.  There is zero difference in the time you have to respond to the issue.  And what's the PM going to do?  Call someone qualified to fix it.  Same thing you'd do.  Perhaps the PM has someone qualified on staff (perhaps not), but is it really worth it to pay someone >30% of your revenue just to save on the very occasional emergency plumber (or whatever) call?

I manage four properties long-distance - three are 200 miles away, one is 2000 (it used to be the opposite).  Nothing's ever happened I couldn't get fixed with a little time on the phone.  Yeah, once in a blue moon I have to refund a guest for a night, but again - that's a couple hundred bucks compared to the thousands I'd shell out to a PM.