All Forum Posts by: Alan Martin

@Joe S. I'm pretty sure I heard the guest on the BP podcast last week mention she runs a service setting up vacation rentals for others. #563, her name was Sarah and I'm listening again because I thought it was a great conversation.

I have offered this idea to my SIL who has a knack for this stuff and is handy as a business she could start. We plan to discuss it further this weekend.

I'm sure you could find someone for the decor locally by finding a staging company and asking if anyone wants to design a house for you. As for the listing setup maybe a realtor could help you with the words and photos and the rules are pretty straightforward to set up on airbnb.

@Melissa Yu Danielle Wiram at Movement Mortgage. It seems Movement comes up alot with the conversations around the vacation home loans. (Alot is maybe 3 times that I have seen them mentioned but hey! It's a subjective measure) someone else a few posts up mentioned another Movement Rep.

@Stacee Evans Congrats on finding someone you think will work out.

I'm struggling with the same issue right now for my portfolio where my cleaners are basically resigning in November citing lack of help and the travel distance with gas prices on the rise...

That said... I had tried the avenues you did but my suggestion would be to keep calling and Googling and try to find alternatives in this time so you have back up options just incase this new cleaner isn't up to your standards a month into working with you. Keep any contacts you make because you never know when the opportunity to work with them will come up again.

A tool I have communicated to the cleaners I ultimately did not hire was to ask them if they would be interested in working on an "emergency" basis just in case my new hires are not reliable... they like this opportunity and will likely make it a point to deliver as a chance to win business. It may cost me more to pay an "emergency" rate but it's still less than a guest refund for showing up to a dirty condo.

Good luck!

@Sam Wilson that's all I can come up with. Purchase for the balance remaining on the original loan and do so without a realtor to limit fees but was hoping someone might have an idea that doesn't require the expense behind a new loan.

Hi Guys, looking for opinions/ideas on the best way to handle an upcoming buyout for a partnership I am in. Timeline- 2 years.

Details: my Brother in law purchased a condo in his name for us to use as a STR in our partnership with a financial split between us. My wife and I have 2 other condos in the same market and lined out a plan to partner with her brother to purchase a 3rd. His goal was to help us out using his DTI to purchase the property using a vacation home loan and we were asked to buy him out within 2 years so he can pursue other business ventures unrelated to real estate.

Ultimate question: what would you do to remove him from the partnership and acquire the property in your own name to remove him from the deal entirely?

Alan

@Joseph Bafia

I just want to clarify that this income is basically used to increase the "income" portion of your DTI correct? That is. When it hits the schedule E.

It would be calculated differently if using an investment loan on a STR where you can factor in comp rental incomes to further help you qualify?

So in theory... the income generated from a STR under a vacation home loan is not as heavily weighted as potential earnings from comparable listings within an investment loan?

Or am I off on this? I currently own 2 vacation home both in airbnb but am within my first year so this question is one I'll be asking my "hopeful" cpa next week during my first meeting with him.

Best,

Alan

@Joshua Doherty I would be interested too!

@John Underwood thanks for the reply! New to the app and never saw a notification that anyone replied.

Ultimately the clicking ended up being a slight movement of the stove and having the top touch the countertop whenever someone walked by.

Since this instance however, we did have a cable box fail on us and the guests were super helpful in allowing the repair man in to deal it out and I did give them a partial refund for their willingness to help out.

In these 2 instances I have found that the guests were more happy to have a host who was responsive and involved than they were disappointed about any potential issues with the property. The communication is definitely the key.

@Kyra Waters @Mike S

Newbie investor here undercontract on our 2nd vacation home loan.

Our lender was very laid back on the vacation loan requirements and it was acceptable to spend 2 weeks (14 days) per year there to qualify for the loan. Only caveat about the rental income is it could not be LTR (lease) and we have to manage it on airbnb/vrbo (can't hire out the management to retain complete control over the schedule)

Hi Guys,

I tried searching for a relevant post but didn't find anything so I thought I would start a new thread.

My wife and I have an airbnb in NC that is doing extremely well and we have over 90% occupancy scheduled from now through August ( from all our research this means we are likely too low on our prices, but this is our first property and we are still happy with the returns).

A guest recently mentioned the stove was clicking (electric range) and we started to go through the motions of how we would schedule a replacement to be done if we are booked so solid that the next available "off day" is not until a month from now.

Is there a standard etiquette that other STR investors use when they need maintenance done on a property and have guests scheduled continuously? We don't want to cancel a guest because of the damage it would do to our host status.

Is it okay to mention ahead of time to a guest that a service team will be replacing the stove during their stay?

Thanks,

Alan