All Forum Posts by: Alex Scattareggia

It is awesome. 

I have actually learned to give PL more control and use less of my time on pricing oversight which is invaluable for control freak managers like me. 

You are coming from a market segment that is much more hard data specific and looking to apply the same approach.  It will be helpful if you can get your hands on reliable numbers, but that will be your annoyance in this space.

To answer your initial question, I would get as many data points as possible from all of the above listed sources for revenue.  Average them out and give yourself a 10% margin of error because of the unreliability in the inputs.  We have been throwing out March 2020- January 2022 when running analyses recently because it has the potential to skew the whole data set for obvious reasons.  

The part that you can have more certainty on is the expense side, where you can get real #´s on utilities, turnover etc. As others have alluded to above, there is a bit more art and a bit less science in the STR vs CMF market. You are dealing with the whims of individual travelers over a long period of time vs one renter pool once every few years. The value-add stuff is actually pretty easy if you can narrow down the things that really drive business which with your background I am sure you will be able to do.

Cheers and good luck.

Amen! No politics, even though the above would make a pretty good libertarian stump speech, but this is the biggest reason I don´t spend as much time in the states anymore.  

The idea that everyone needs to be protected from everyone/ everything else without any individual accountability or decision making prerogative has gotten harder to stand for me.

If Wyoming ever becomes too restrictive for you, there are quite a few states in Mexico that might still fit your view of the world @Nathan Gesner

Is pivoting to a different strategy something that would work? Was this purchased using STR numbers?

Using the two metrics of little expense and little effort I think that might be your best strategy. Unfortunately, the STR space is work and capital intensive, especially upfront with a value-add property.

This last bit scares me a little. We all want the most bang for our buck, but if you are locked in to STR as the only strategy for this place it is going to take some significant money to get this up to par, especially in a hyper competitive market like Kissimmee.

If minimal effort and capital expense is your goal, I would explore a different strategy for the property. 

Lets assume the 5k monthly top line is correct.

Correct me if my numbers are wrong here but the monthly expenses number seems quite optimistic.

Mortgage is going to be 2.7k.  So, you are calculating $900/month in additional expenses?  This deal is pretty thin margin to begin with, but I think you are being quite optimistic with the expense number.  

Good luck, saying no to marginal deals is equally as important as saying yes to great ones. 

Get as many data points as possible within your budget.  Take 10-15% off the top to be conservative.  Then average these and you will have a much safer number than relying on any one source. 

As a side note, I would be very leery of any realtor giving me a revenue quote unless they have a history of working with investors or are investors in the market themselves.  

The platforms offer protection that direct bookings will not offer.  I am always leery of people immediately wanting to book off site.

However, even if you do not have your own direct booking website, collect the information of your guests and let them know that if they ever wish to stay with you again to contact you directly and you can offer them a small discount off of their stay (we generally just cut out the OTA fees).  

There will be slightly less risk associated because they have already proven themselves to be trustworthy guests and you can set up your own safeguards (credit card holds etc), save the client money and put more profit in your pocket.  Good luck!

 Generally I agree, but there is a great filter on Wayfair ¨commercial use¨.  You can also search for commercial grade furniture on most major sites.  We have had great luck with all the commercial use stuff from Wayfair, you might pay a bit more up front but can sleep soundly knowing your replacement time/cost is going way down.  It will take a beating, especially on an item like chairs.