All Forum Posts by: Adam Arkfeld

@Adam Arkfeld we shifted our nightly furnished rental to a monthly furnished. We do full credit screening, so we are not afraid of being stuck with a tenant that has tenant rights. If you are booking through STR platforms and not screening, that could be risky. Basically anyone with a credit card could end up in your property.

What I find confusing is why your monthly rate is higher than your nightly rate. That indicates to me that you were not charging enough on a nightly basis. Also be aware in AZ that time of year will greatly affect demand. That could be why you are seeing higher rates. I have a STR guest coming from Arizona, staying June - September. They are escaping the heat and visiting family.

We also rent for 2 day minimum between long term stays. That way if we have 2-3 weeks before long term stays, we can get income. To avoid cancellations we have a $500 non refundable deposit.

There is nothing wrong with your strategy. Just screen properly and you are fine.

Thanks for the feedback Joe. That's a good question about the nightly rate vs the monthly rate. We charge around $175 per night. The house is a 3 bedroom in an average, suburban neighborhood. Nothing super fancy about the location, although the house is nice. We have been generating about $4,000 per month with the nightly rate (not including cleaning fees). With the long-term rentals, it's been closer to $5,500. The house is about 80% occupied on the nightly, so maybe I can increase rates a bit. I've only had it active for 3 months so still figuring out the pricing.

1 Vote

Originally posted by @Bruce Woodruff:

Originally posted by @Adam Arkfeld:

So you mean because you have to clean a few more times a month, you'd take the risk of taking on (essentially) tenants? That would scare the heck out of me. I've found that even when I get the 2-3 week guests, they tend to be more fussy and picky...because they feel like it's their 'home' .....I prefer 3-7 night stays.....

Bruce, thank you for your feedback. Noted that you don't think longer-term renters are a good strategy.

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Originally posted by @Bruce Woodruff:

Don't do it. You're opening yourself up to the whole 'tenant' thing. Do some searches on here......

Do you want to do STRs or not? Seems like you don't.......?

I mean, we've been doing the traditional STR strategy for the last few months and it's going well. It's just the cash flow is better and effort is lower with the 28+ day rentals.

You did remind me though, I need to look into the "tenant" issues more. I certainly don't want to get into evictions and that type of thing.

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Is anyone doing STRs exclusively for 28+ days?

I have an STR in Mesa, AZ, and got a longer-term tenant from January through February who is paying me close to $6k per month. This is about $1,500 more than I get with the normal nightly rentals. I actually had another tenant from March to June at about $5,500 per month, but I allowed them to cancel due to a terrible family tragedy that changed their plans.

Currently, I've restricted my rentals to be 28+ days to see if I can consistently get longer-term renters. It's a fairly decent home in an average neighborhood, but nothing special. I think I'm hoping to prove that those two bookings weren't some fluke (although one was cancelled).

Is anyone else doing 28+ days in a "normal" suburban neighborhood as an STR strategy?

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Hey @Stephen Castles, I run a marketing company for my day job and we generate thousands of leads in the timeshare cancellation space. I know more about the industry than I ever thought I would!

The big question is if your timeshare has a mortgage. If it does, it's incredibly hard to get out from under it and your credit could be severely affected if you stop paying the fees.

If you don't have a mortgage, I've heard many reports of people just walking away and not having any issues besides tons of letters and calls from the timeshare company. I don't necessarily support this, but I've heard it works in some instances. Some timeshares have deed back programs while others are more strict.

If you want to go through a cancellation company, they'll likely charge a few thousand dollars to get you out and it'll take 6 months to a year. You can go through someone reputable like Timeshare Legal or Wesley Financial. They're the big guys, but they also probably have the most to lose if they scam you because they've been around for a while. I'd avoid a small cancellation company as they can be dishonest or outright scams.

Hope that helps.

2 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Adam Arkfeld

Adam Arkfeld has started 1 posts and replied 5 times.

Post: Longer-term STRs (28+ days)

Post: Longer-term STRs (28+ days)

Post: Longer-term STRs (28+ days)

Post: Longer-term STRs (28+ days)

Post: Want to get rid of a timeshare!