All Forum Posts by: Brandon Elliott-Pandey

I am curious to see what everyone's opinions are here. Why WOULDN'T you hire a Property Manager?

Quote from @John D.:

Lake Havasu is down huge from last summer, with lots of new listings and less demand.......hoping some folks get out of the STR biz by next summer or none of us will be making money....or at least no one that's bought in the last year or two. Crazy how a number of markets that were doing well a year ago have changed drastically.

@Brandon Elliott-Pandey what do you mean by "clearing"?

 It is quite interesting to see what happened pre covid and post covid now. 

And when I wrote "clearing" I meant earnings after all debt services and expenses.  

Quote from @John Carbone:

Quote from @John D.:

Lake Havasu is down huge from last summer, with lots of new listings and less demand.......hoping some folks get out of the STR biz by next summer or none of us will be making money....or at least no one that's bought in the last year or two. Crazy how a number of markets that were doing well a year ago have changed drastically.

@Brandon Elliott-Pandey what do you mean by "clearing"?

I've been saying this for the past year. Covid created short term rental markets out of nowhere, and now reality is setting in. If there wasn't a solid STR market before Covid, it won't last post Covid. Also, having STR within a reasonable distance of major cities is ripe for saturation. People with money means more opportunities to buy a STR that is more "locally". Before Covid this happened with people renting apartments in major cities, and ADU's on the west coast in major cities. History is and will continue to repeat itself.

 All great and sound thoughts! Thanks for the input John!

And when I wrote clearing I meant earnings above debts service and other expenses.

I have a question for my fellow STR specialists. First thought a story! :-)I recently traveled to Omaha NE and found out the Airbnb I was staying at was clearing $50K/ year!!! (It was a SFH with 4beds and 2 baths). I live in CO and have a friend whom is STR'ing a triplex and is clearing $50K! A triplex vs a SFH!!!! That is Crazy to me how big of a difference between the two properties but getting essentially the same dollar return. :-D

With that context my question is, where are you invested in and what kind of ROI are you getting from your investment (in dollars).

(If you are comfortable please comment answers to these questions below).

- Style of home.

- The ROI in dollar value.

- The city or area where your property is located.

- How you chose that location and what research you did before buying.

Quote from @Isaac Lane:

It took me about 12 months! I became interested in real estate in July of 2019 and started educating myself through books, podcasts, and attending REIA meetings. It was a mixture of educating myself and saving up for the down payment that took me 12 months. Since then, I've purchased 3 properties in the last year and looking to continue to scale!

 Well done Isaac!!! 

Hey fellow BP members! 

I may be a little slower on the spectrum and or just a victim of the analysis paralysis group but my story seems to fall into the 11% group. I sat down with my Realtor in Jan 2020 and purchased in Aug of 2020. So... yes, 8 months of searching! Now of course I can make a story about Covid slowing things down but that is not truly the case. When everything shut down I was still working as a essential provider and was even busier than ever!!! I'd say I took April through May off and really kicked up my search again in June. I was getting plenty of emails with prospective properties and walked through dozens. I just had a stick buying criteria and an even more strict girl friend, now fiancé, as my wing man looking into the properties with me. (Love her to death lol and glad she stuck it out with me!)

After I finally found the one, it just felt right. I walked through the house and felt in my bones that it was perfect for what I was looking for. And on top of it it was right for my fiancé!!! SOOO hopefully my story glens a few learning lessons. For me I learned that staying true to my buying criteria was critical and having multiple conferring opinions helps with the decision making on your FRIST property. 

Best wishes in your search and happy hunting my fellow investors! :-D

I had a great day yesterday and spoke with some new buyer clients about the market! They are incredibly excited to buy a home!!

What are you seeing these days with your buyers... more so dread or excitement? And why do you think they are feeling that way??

Quote from @Brian Moore:

I use many of the methods listed (Zillow, Realtor.com) with Rent-o-meter as a starting point. One of my oldest sites that nobody mentioned is padmapper.com. I believe it aggregates data from several sites like Craigslist and apartments.com, and plots them together on a map (which is commonplace now, but was unique 5 years ago!). Also Hotpads and Rently sometimes contain listings not mentioned elsewhere, so it's always good to cross reference multiple sites.

I'd also mention (when you are leasing or renewing your rentals) not to be afraid of challenging your PMs numbers if you feel confident in doing so. Hopefully you both come up with a similar number, but they are incentivized to place a tenant (typically with 1/2 month rent) and will likely be at or below market. You know your product and all of the improvements in-depth, and if you feel there's more meat on the bone, then it's your role as the asset manager to go for the higher price.

 Thanks for your thoughts Brian! 

Quote from @Patrick Drury:

@Brandon Elliott-Pandey
Rentometer has worked out quite well for me. It's fairly accurate in Columbus, but has a few shortcomings and is by no means perfect. You can always cross-reference rent amounts with Zillow and apartments.com. 

 Course, thanks for your thoughts Patrick! 

Quote from @Kevin Manafi:

@Brandon Elliott-Pandey As a Realtor® I always use the MLS for my most accurate rental comps. If I want to be extra sure, I then follow up the MLS search with looking at comps on Hotpads, Trulia, Apartments.com, etc. just to give my clients or myself an idea of what the competition is charging around me in real time.

 Thanks Kevin, yes I do the same thing. Just wanted to see what other planforms there are out there to share as a value add for my clients.