All Forum Posts by: Alex Zweydoff

God, I hope so. I have a STR in Four Corners and it has been a non-stop battle with the bottom feeders for occupancy. I have a nice sized house (3k sf) in a nice community close to everything, on a lake, fenced in yard with nice pool & screen house, all 5-star reviews, but both last summer and this summer have been about 50% occupancy. I've said it before on here - lucky I don't have to rent this place at all or I would be losing my ***. We come down in the winter and a couple times throughout the year and do repairs, upgrades etc and it's nice in the winter, but if I needed this place to make any money I'd be hurting. There's just too many $99/night places around here and too many cheap guests, so if your rates are at $200/night or higher (mine are just under) it is a real battle. All this summer every booking has been last minute, within a week or so of the stay, so it's obvious to me people are still just sitting on the sidelines looking for the best deals since there's so much supply out there.

I think it will start thinning out over the next few years - I've seen a few places in my own community that I know were STRs that have been sold as owner-occupied (hard to make a 4/3 STR work down here when you're paying $450k or more), so as that starts to happen more and the building pushes even further out into the hinterlands I have hope for the future. Not to make any real money but at least make my expenses!

@Alex Zweydoff, good insight! Personally in Indianapolis, IN, we have not seen too much change in the market from STR to LTR. I think people are now discovering more MTR in the area, so I've seen more of that! I'm interested to see if this will spread to more markets in your area, or into different states!

 I manage 20+ units in Kissimmee/Davenport.

The area is simply overbuilt for STR which has pushed prices way down and made returns much tighter. Demand remains strong but even on peak dates with every park full the parks can't pack in enough people to fill up all the houses.

Both Universal and Disney are expanding (Universal sooner) so that will drive up demand even more, but the problem is there is endless land out there so supply will always have a chance to catch up if developers get wind of new demand.

That's why, at least for my own purchases, I'm focusing on areas with limited buildability where supply can't just scale in lock-step with demand for eternity.  Broken Bow is another major market I would never consider for this reason, having just visited there.  Even if demand increases any advantage to the side of demand will only ever be short lived, as there is endless cheap land out there for supply to quickly catch up and surpass that demand.

I am in vacation destinations like Pigeon Forge and these are not converting to LTRs.

Hey Alex - PM from Tampa here.  We also have a unit in Kissimmee that has been extremely challenging to fill.  Luckily the owner is understanding of the market and has no debt on the unit.  Orlando real has been tough.  In Tampa we did see a down year last year but are up YoY 23-24.  Last year we did see quite a few units to go MTR/LTR, but those were mostly people who bought top of market and high interest rates and were drowning.  Our seasoned properties with lower costs hung on fine.  Some people also cashed out.

I think PM's now more than ever have to adapt and add value to clients.  We invested significantly into our pricing strategy as well as getting on more channels (Marriot Homes and Villas, JetBlue/Allegiant, Google, Booking.com, and more).

Good luck!

Hello!

In Pinehurst NC, known for golf and the US Open, we do have some STR that are often medium term...during the winter months when golf is not as enjoyable, we get medium term renters. Often, it's a soldier from nearby Ft Liberty that needs a place for a few months. Sometimes, people want to move to the area and rent in order to get a feel for what each area offers. There's limited STR in Pinehurst; with VRBO and AIRBNB it seems easier for someone to "scout out" what a property is like, versus looking in other rental (longer term) sites.

I hope this helps!

How does it address situaitons where occupants either have a fake lease or got scammed by someone posing as the landlord?

In Metro Detroit area, police will not remove these types of occupants (they are afraid of scamming landlord having police remove legal tenants), calling them a "civil matter" forcing landlord to start court eviction process.

"Buy real estate and wait. Don't wait to buy real estate."

Everyone who waited 2 years when they could have bought a 4-unit for $600k, now is looking to spend $750k for the same property.