All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

Great questions! I'm in the same boat - looking to take all of my property management in-house. Currently I only manage my STR and MTRs but want to take over the LTRs, too. I also use Baselane for banking, bookeeping, collecting deposits and rents; Avail for tenant leases, Keycheck for background checks. I rely on reports from Baselane for income, expense reporting, P&L, etc and any other reports I need. I manage all vendor payments via credit card with dedicated credit cards via Baselane for recurring vendors like landscapers, cleaners and hot tub maintenance. What I feel like I'm really missing is a platform for handling tenant requests. Right now I do it all via text or phone call and usually only have one issue at a time so it's manageable. But I'd like something more formal and user-friendly for tenants and guests. Looking for suggestions on this.

Reach out to a local Realtor to find a real estate attorney in your area. They often have close relationships and can point you to someone who specializes in real estate.

Hi, Eric. I'm not sure what you mean by 'in series' but I can tell you how I have mine set up. I have 4 LLCs and a Holding Company. The LLCs are all under the Holding Company. I use Baselane for my banking and bookkeeping platform. I have set up a master bank account for the holding company through Baselane, then individual bank accounts for each LLC which are sub-accounts of my Holding Company. Baselane gives me the ability to set up virtual credit cards easily and with no fees. I don't have a credit card for each property simply because I didn't set it up that way - I could have but just didn't. I do, however, have virtual credit cards for vendors I have recurring payments with like cleaner, spa maintenance and yard maintenance. I know if card X is charged, it's the cleaner at my North Carolina short term rental, for example. It's very easy to set it up this way. It does require that you pay attention to the funds available in the sub-accounts, but you should be on top of that anyway.

Hope this helps!

I recommend you talk to @Patrick Drury. He is the Realtor I use in Columbus and really knows the neighborhoods well. He'll provide you with a synopsis of the neighborhoods to help answer questions like this.

You kind of have to separate out the asset protection aspect from the banking aspect when you think about it. I subscribe to the 'don't leave much equity in each LLC' philosophy. So with properties that are paid for free and clear, you have a lot of $ someone could go after with each property even when they are in a single LLC. We also use a holding company that holds all of our LLCs and I've recently put our holding company inside our family trust. It can be a complicated structure and you need to make sure you're doing compliance on each llC and filing the property documents quarterly and annually. It's a hassle for sure, but so so worth it should something every happen. I hear what you're saying about having multiple bank accounts to manage. This is another thing that I kind of think of as a necessary evil. I use Baselane and even though it's very simple to set up accounts and to have dedicated credit cards for each property, I do have to watch very closely that the deposits and expenditures go to the right account so I don't leave myself short anywhere. You could just have one master account, but I think that leaves you open to more complication when it comes to filing your taxes. This is especially the issue for me because my properties are in different states. I don't know that there's an easier way to do it. As you scale, you might want to hire someone to do your bookkeeping or bring on a VA to do it. In some ways, it's a good problem to have ; )

Bigger properties can be more challenging to rent as MTRs @Matt Mertz but then again, there are entire strategies within the MTR niche that specifically target larger properties. Specifically, insurance placements, corporate housing, and relocations. All of these can be very lucrative but you have to get into the right marketing channels. 

 I actually have gotten 100% of my tenants from Furnished Finder over the last 2.5 years. People struggle with it - both guests and hosts - but if you have the right property at the right price in a high demand location and you understand how to us it it can be a great option. What I prefer about it is that I am completely in control of my unit. Unlike Airbnb, no one can cancel their trip midstay without my ok and there's no one issuing refunds to unreasonable guests without even consulting me. A lot of people don't understand that it's only a lead generation funnel. It's up to you to pursue the leads. I typically get a lot of unmatched leads that I will reach out to if I need to, but my place usually books via direct booking requests on FF. 

I haven't seen any statistics on this, but anecdotally we're also seeing a lot of conversions to MTR, which makes a lot of sense if your property is already fully furnished and you have the systems in place for guest management. 

It's definitely harder to find deals and to cash flow in this market. If you're trying to buy off the MLS it's extremely hard. This is the time when creative finance comes in, networks are invaluable and creative use/exit strategies are imperative. I don't think it's necessarily a bad time to buy - prices always go up over time. But it is definitely more challenging.

Many people are finding themselves in the same position as you due to local regulations. It's a fairly easy switch to convert from STR to MTR. LTR is a little bit different. The thing to keep in mind is that people renting your place as an MTR are expecting a hospitality experience, much like in an STR. So if you're used to that, it's an easy switch. Your marketing needs to change a bit but other than that, it's very similar. If you're converting to a long term furnished rental, the expectations are different and so is the day-to-day usage of your place just as you've assumed by your question about wear and tear. In my opinion, MTR is the best of both worlds. You get higher rents than long term and less turnover than short term.