All Forum Posts by: William Collins

I always seem to lock up deals in December here in Connecticut. So far I have a triplex locked up for 50% of ARV and a quad for 65% of ARV. Both have 1 vacancy so I can immediately renovate, and have occupancy so I can cash flow.

I am of @Michael Noto 's  clients.  I have only bought 1 property without the involvement of hard money in the journey. It is a cost you can plan in. 

Great to see everyone who showed up tonight. Thanks again Stephanie!

Great seeing everyone there tonight

@Tyler Cote so this is a problem and you should go back against the errors and omissions portion from your broker's.  I would 1) talk to my lawyer, 2) approach the town to see if it could be converted to a 5 family or grandfathered in for the usage.  There are a lot of people who try to sell properties at higher value by taking them from 5 families to 4 family designation- as it then qualifies owner-occupants to buy the property.   If the problem was only insufficient parking- can you create a parking space to fulfill what the town wanted. 

@Ilgaz Arikan  I am mainly saying that short-term rentals may force you into property management faster, and still could have better numbers. The margin for getting it right is smaller than LTR.  Short-term rentals have a greater amount of moving parts and more real-time demands.   But this may be an equation of "Who not how". You may just need to solve for that management aspect first.

@Mat O'Grady at this point in time I would not recommend even someone who has filed many evictions to not use a lawyer. Too many judges are interpreting the rules when the rules are new so it is better to have a lawyer help you through this.

I always put up curtain rods, and point people to where they can buy curtains that match their decor. 

Hello New Yorkers! As a former upstater (born in Elmira) I live in the great suburbia that is Connecticut.  I own or have owned in Berlin, Bristol, New Britain, Manchester, and soon to be Collinsville.  There are some great markets in this state- the question is what are you looking for. Bristol is a very nice small city- located on the edge of going rural, but not convenient to the highways- decent taxes, good water bills, and the town government is ok.  New Britain has lots more properties, is a larger city, super highway convenient, but with neighborhoods which are mixed between good and bad, and the lines are really hard to tell.  The taxes are high and the water/sewer is exhorbitant. 

"I'm curious about both STR and long term rental properties. Is there a general consensus on STR vs long term rentals for first time investors? Is the learning curve steep for STR as a first property in terms of property management? How do you decide between doing STR vs long term? Would it make sense to use a multi-family to have both long and short term tenants in different units? I see some crazy numbers on AirDNA - is that an accurate gage of revenue potential?"

So I am an investor here in Connecticut.  Short-term rentals are a more active business model than long-term rentals. Long-term rentals are a business that is easier to place with property management and is more passive.  Truly excellent Property Management of Short Term rentals is something which is a totally different beast.  They need to constantly price adjust, field calls from tenants, rush fix issues, and turn over cleanings between guests.  Can this be done remotely or passively- yes but not at scale. AirDNA is a great data resource but you must also peel the onion. The dataset is three correlated but different factors: the property location, the property amenity, and the host factored against seasonality and tourism.   So a great house with a hot tub, with a crappy host will not be shown to clients or booked as much (remember AirBnB favors good ratings- it is an echo chamber). 

I currently have/co-own about 51 units (selling/buying) all are long-term.   I am totally beginning to diversify to add short terms to the mix, but with totally different property management.  My goal is stable cash flow, with reserves, and seasonal cash flow which has the LTR underneath as a safety net.  

Please let me know if that makes sense to you.