All Forum Posts by: Michael Snider-Held

oh and once you realize this you are obligated to stay with them an other three months before your contract will terminate

I wanted post a warning to my fellow community members. Currently the BP podcast is sponsored by a company called vacasa. i have been using vacasa as my management company for two summers now to manage my property in the finger lakes.  Vacasa takes a huge cut of the profits. They charge exorbitant fees above the rate you get as the owner and they list on third party sites at rates way above what they pay you. For example my nightly minimum is $200 but its listed for $340 a night on airbnb before the cleaning and booking fees are added in other words, i the property, owner get $150 per night from airbnb, vacasa takes $190 per night from airbnb and then charges fees.  When i ask my property manager about it the response is that i must talk to rates department. rates department blows smoke and tells you they cant control airbnb

But wait there's more!  Do not make the mistake I did in thinking that Vacasa is in anyway a property management company.  They will tell you that they have a maintenance department that will take care of minor maintenance. What they mean by that is that they will  respond to a call about a leaky toilet, send the maintenance guy to confirm that its a leaky toilet and then hire a third party to come fix it. Usually this occurs on weekends after six pm and the companies they partner with are all charging emergency fees. i have had emergency services come for a thermostat that the vacationer couldn't figure out how to use. $200 for an hvac guy to say "turn the dial like this".  last year i had third party emergency maintenance in four of my six months vacasa managed. This year i have had two in two months.   This year i left the property to vacasa ten days before my first renter. They did not inspect the property to do a clean until the day of the guest arrival. During that time they supposedly found a leak which was beyond the scope of the maintenance  and i had to pay a plumber to come in saturday morning while the guests were there. thats on top of the "deep clean" which cost $300 and was somehow done in a couple of hours.  now there's a wasp nest  on the corner of my garage. Maintenance does not do pest control. so my house, which is surrounded by ten acres of woodland requires $430 from orkin because they cant be bothered to open a can of raid.  

but wait there's more! the one thing that my property manager is really good at is telling me how something isn't her job.  there's always an other department to call but the kicker is this. When i asked her about the maintenance fees. she openly admitted in writing that vacasas' primary obligation is to the satisfaction of the renter and that they have no obligation to the home owner beyond changing lightbulbs and cleaning the linens. 

In the advertisement on BP podcast they exclaim that they will drive up the rentals and that you will have a low vacancy rate. this is 100% true. i have been booked solid since may. however. last month it cost me $500 to let strangers stay in my house and this month i might break even.  It is my experience that Vacasa has no interest in being your partner and that they will syphon off every penny of potential profit you can make until you fire them.  Zero stars I do not recommend their services. i recommend against them. 

 thanks Jim! 

Update: I was able to have a couple meetings with the assessor and after my second meeting where I displayed 3 years of inspections, appraisals and contractor receipts she realized I was gathering evidence for a case and she became more willing to work with me. She devalued my old barn because it needs serious repairs and counted towards the usability of the house and she did the same for the pool that needs to be relined.  In the end it took 100k off my tax basis which is still a large increase but I can afford it without having to sell and it gives me a huge equity boost so my quarter million dollar house is now a half million dollar house but it being taxed at 400k which was bound to happen sooner or later.

thanks everyone for the help! 

Quote from @Jim K.:

What's missing from much of this discussion is a real understanding of what the property is, ten acres in the heart of upstate New York Finger Lakes wine country, the desirability of that property as a vacation property on the one hand and the value of it as a vineyard on the other, and how local government (especially Yates County) is systematically trying to fight against the encroachment of moneyed OOS vacation-home buyers/STR operators in the area.

This is not some bland normal place where normal people live and operate. Finger Lakes wine country is a world unto itself.

 Yea it’s an all out war. I got mislabeled with the wrong group and have to prove I’m not part of it which is true in the state of ny.  Though I’m about to join that group in other areas outside of New York and I have structured this property as both a part time residence and a part time income stream.  

Quote from @Bill B.:

You live in an RV 7 months out of the year? Why not change that to 6 months, live in the property 6 months per year and declare the home your primary home? That’s got to be worth some kind of discount. Although RV’s are a horrible investment there are also websites that will rent out the RV’s for you. Maybe rent it out the 6 months you live in the home?  Find someone to rent a room during those 6 months? Even if they meet you half way you’re only going to save $200/mo, compared to a room renter that’s nothing. 

I stay seven months in the rv so my house is rented or listed during that time.  I am a South Dakota resident because the income tax is 0% and I can travel as much or as little as I like. if I stay in New York 181 days during a calendar year then I’m not a primary resident but at 182 days I am and then I pay income tax to state, county, township and city.  Owning a house with a view in NY already cost ten percent of my current income in taxes.  If I become a resident they will give me a small discount on the house but then take far more from my income.  It’s simply not worth it.

 im not hurting for money. I’m being subject to what I believe to be discriminatory practices by a local government by whom has increased my tax basis by 50% and my usage of that tax basis by 20% with no evidence as to why which contradicts my inspections and appraisals and would result in a mortgage worth of taxes on a property that has been in my family for 18 years.  I have a large paper trail with multiple inspections by their inspectors and appraisals by liscenced appraisers ordered by me and the bank as well as contractor receipts showing that I’m only half way through the list of recommended repairs from their inspector.
This post isn’t how can I make the house cheaper or how can I make more from it.
This post is I’m taking on an unjust government. Has anyone done that and what tips can you give me to be more successful so I can win at the appeal and not have to start a suit. 

Thank you guys! 

My mortgage is 120k I replaced the roof and used the rest to build an rv which I will be living in the 7 months I don’t live in this house.  Mortgage payment is 867 but I pay 1k a month on that and 500 on utilities so my total burden is 2100 with tax during the seven months it’s a vacation rental it does 3-4k which means that I’m breaking even year round as it is. 

I plan on apealing as a community member during my appeal. I have around 30k in local receipts to show that I’m not only here but spending in the economy when local business needs it the most because I’m here when the town’s population is 500 and not evacuating to Florida like the 10,000 other part time residents.  I’m hoping that helps.  You’re right though I need to go to all the fire hall fundraisers. And spend more time out and about.  My only issue with that is everything here is positioned around booze and I’m six years clean and sober.  

My biggest problem is that The new six hundred thousand evaluation is something that I could deal with if I believed the house was worth that but it’s simply not.  I’m compiling a list of my repairs and a list of everything that needs to be done. This house though haven’t been updated since the seventies and my land value didn’t go up the house value did which is insane. 

Good evening all. My real estate journey started two years ago when my parents passed and left me what was to be their unrealized retirement property. It's ten acres on a hillside surrounded by vineyards with a pocket view of Keuka Lake. At the time of my inheritance I was renting a place in Maryland which was my home state. I fought like hell to keep the property as my brother and the lawyers wanted to sell it and put the money in the pot. I convinced them to let me buy my brothers half instead. However, as a millennial with only 80k in income actually moving into the property and claiming NY residence would have been financial suicide. At the time the property was appraised at 260k. it needed 80k in repairs and the yearly taxes were only 3500 in my fathers name. When it transferred to me the taxes jumped to 6500. I spent 40k in the first year bringing it to habitable and then I jumped though all the ******* crazy hoops the town made me jump through to get one of the only 6 STR permits they issued that year. My taxes jumped to 7500 because of the repairs. After one summer of STRs I came back in the winter took a first lean mortgage on the property to replace the roof (and build my RV which I plan on living in while renting in the summer). The new appraisal from the bank came in at 380k last October which matched the towns tax assessment. I have lived here all winter and replaced the roof. I'm getting ready to leave at the end of the month and my mail forwarding service gets a letter from the town which I have a feeling is important so I overnight ship it to myself. Thank god I did because I received it on the last day I could go to the assessor and talk to her in person before I the may 28th appeals date

the letter reads that my new assessment is 590k and that my new taxable rate was 91% of that 590k.   the house still needs foundation repairs as well as new windows, new ac and a handful of other items. There is no way it’s worth that. I’m fighting it.

This house is not my primary residence and I am under 65 so I do not qualify for any of the tax breaks. Taxes at 380k are $600/m. There’s a kicker. Because I played ball and did everything by the book and got all the permits etc., they have re-zoned my property as residential/commercial use which evidently was their solution for people not getting the permits but puts me into an entirely different tax structure. 

This house is the only thing I have left of my parents. I have no intentions in selling it. Ever.   I want to give this house to my grand kids. However I can’t afford the impending $1000/month in tax.  I don’t have that cash flow. 

I need help identifying my real options as at this point I only see two: 

1) fight it and settle for 5-10 percent increase which is my goal. I have two consecutive years of appraisals from state licensed professionals that show 100k increase in property values after the 40k in contractor receipts during that year which cross out only half the list given from the state licensed inspector 

2) accept the 590k evaluation. Give up on my dream for keeping this as my retirement property and use the new equity to go to war. I.E. do exactly what they are trying to prevent. Remove 80% of my equity and re-invest it into a the property. Adding a 500k house to the property would put it into the 2m price class (was my retirement plan) at that point I’d sell it with around a 1.5-1.8 gain on my actual cash invested and the only people who would be able to afford it would be the Wall Street bankers that wouldn’t put their kids in the school and wouldn’t stimulate the local economy. (I’m furious over this) 

I don’t want to sell it. It would be stupid to sell it as is but if the town forces my hand I’ll get the most from it I possibly can. 

What do I need to bring to the appeal? Is there a third option I’m not yet seeing if I don’t win the appeal?

thank you for your time and consideration 

~Ace