All Forum Posts by: Alexander Knowles

I am in a similar boat. I was always told that if there are big chain hotels nearby (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn etc) then there will always be demand for Air Bnb! Also having more space for larger families to stay at one spot is a huge advantage. 

@Ben Leybovich this is awesome! You're an inspiration to all of us just starting out. What are some key indicators that you look for/see that make Phoenix so hot right now? (Sorry if it has been asked before!)

If you are in Chicago there should be a bunch of different real estate "meet-ups" that you could attend or even set up yourself to begin networking with private money lenders. Chicago is a good financial hub and I am sure you should be able to meet the right people soon enough. With traditional stacking, you can either start with a single-family and rent the other rooms out or begin with a duplex and rent the other side - you could keep both options open so you can get started sooner rather than later. 

@Myia Hunter I am in the same boat as you coming out with a graduate degree. You should look at your degree as an investment, and depending on your degree, you should start earning a higher wage soon enough (your return). I recently refinanced my student loans to make the smallest payment per month over the longest period as I want the cash to invest with. I plan to pay my student loans off in a few big chunk payments once my income and investments get to a level I am comfortable with. Being in grad school, I feel we are a little behind on investments and want to focus on that for the first couple of years as (as well as doing well in my work life to earn more income) I intend to buy and hold for as long as possible. I would recommend reading Millenial Money by Grant Sabatier and he speaks about growing your income as your primary focus. 

@J. Max Van Hoose - thanks for this! Do you do any marketing/advertising outside from the AirBnB platform? If so, what marketing do you do? 4 beds is a big space! I can imagine that is more appealing for families than staying in hotels. 

@Mike F. awesome insights my man! Thank you very much!

@Julie McCoy - thanks! We will need to take a deeper look into others in town. And yes, something we have discussed and will need to keep in mind (particuarly if it gets busy and we need to turn/clean the property frequently). 

@Andrea Cole - awesome tips! We also have a lot of out-of-state students here. Great thinking on the academic calendar!

Hi BP Community -

Has anyone had any experience doing short-term (Air BnB/VRBO primarily) in a college town? We have a two-bed studio unit behind our larger single-family that has been converted into a business. It is currently leased and due to expire in August. We want to have the flexibility to use the studio unit during the week for business purposes and then have it rented during weekends. We are planning to put between $5K-$7,5K of cosmetic renovations into the unit in order to capture a premium price. 

Our college town has around 15,000 students that makeup roughly 35,000 of the total population. We have a division-1 football & basketball teams that regularly attract outside visitors, as well as having Interstate-80 run right through our town. There are a TON of big chain hotels/motels in town. 

Any pearls and tips to make this work? Being a smaller town, do you get the same volume of visitors to make it worthwhile? 

Check out J. Scott's book on estimating rehab costs to give you a general idea. I would try and find a general contractor that can at least give an estimate/bid for some of the specialized work (they will probably refer you to a plumber, roofer, electrician, etc but at least you will have ballpark numbers to get you started). An experienced investor would definitely help, preferably someone local that knows the area well and is involved in the same asset class that you are looking at. 

Local lenders are great for a refi and some abide by their own house rules. We had an instance where the local loan broker brought everything "in-house" to help us out with a refi on our primary residence due to our self-employment (1099) income not being approved by Freddie/Fannie. You are always going to be capped by your DTI so as long as you can meet the local lender rules you should be able to at least find something - might not always be the most optimal and may include loans such as 5-yr balloons etc. Start networking with local lenders and see who you can charm!

There may also be a variety of VA loan options (there was a BP Money episode with a veteran on there that spoke about a variety of VA financing options).