All Forum Posts by: Brian B.

Quote from @Joshua Messinger:

Hey @Brian B.! 

Evolve is an extremely generic PM company that gets most people because of their low fee. All of their employees are outsourced as well so if you are looking to use them I would not expect your property to be kept at the standard you would like it to be at. 

My best advice would be to keep researching for more PM companies that are in your area and find which one seems to be the most local as they usually will put the most dedication/focus into their work for you since that area is their breeding ground. Another piece of advice I would recommend you take action on is finding an investor-friendly agent in the area you are looking. Some agents may actually work for a PM company or even know of several of them that are much better than the generic PM companies you will hear of. They can also give you resources of other investors in the area who may be able to help you in your current situation. 

Otherwise, if you ever need any help with anything please don't hesitate to reach out! 

All the best,

Josh 

 Hey Joshua, thanks for the info on Evolve. I have read mixed opinions on them. My initial thought was to use them for marketing and booking only. But I am using my own team of people on the ground housekeeping, maintenance etc. What specifically do you not think evolve will do well? I have no strong feelings either way.

Quote from @Luke Carl:

Read this book before you do anything! Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth: Your Guide to Analyzing, Buying, and Managing Vacation Properties https://a.co/d/2ToG7ac

Thanks I will. 

Quote from @John Underwood:

If I were going to hire a PM, I would hire a local one to the property.

Thanks I am building a local PM team to manage the property. What I am looking for is an experienced Host who can check out the property and put in place the complete check in and check out processes. What information to provide guests, and what amenities I should provide. It is a very unique property and I am not ashamed to admit that I am not an expert on hospitality which is why I am happy to hire someone who is.

I recently purchased a luxury rental property minutes from Lake Milton and Berlin Lake. This is my first STR even though I have been doing LTR for years. I understand how to create processes for LTRs however I would prefer to hire someone to help me put all the processes in place to create a smooth experience for my future tenants. I am likely going to have Evovle do that the marketing and booking but they don't really help with setting up the process for the house. I hope this is not against the TOS for Betterpockets. Thank you!

I recently purchased a luxury vacation home that I plan to rent out a significant amount of time but want to also use it for our family. I have been doing LTR for about 5 years and have built a process and team that makes my life pretty easy. But STR is a completely different ball game. The turnover and the hospitality aspect I think will have a learning curve. I am tech forward so I want to automate everything just like I do with my LTR however I am having difficulty determining a platform and would prefer to higher someone to just set everything up and provide some consulting because I don't know what I don't know. Do you have suggestions on a consultant(s) and platform. I am not looking to build out my STRs at this time so I don't need a platform that has to scale but I do want it to handle direct bookings and manage the cleaning and maintenance ect. I also would like to handle electronic entry to the property. Thanks for your help.

Yea I am going to check with some smaller community banks and see what they have to offer. Hopefully they can be as competitive on rates and low closing costs like the regional has treated me. 

I will check some small local banks and see if 20 or 25 is possible. Do they usually lock the rate for that or is it just amortized for that length but the rate lock is shorter? I didn't think they liked to hold commercial paper for smaller rentals longer than 10 years or so. 

Thank you for the two responses so far. I have been working with a regional bank because I do a lot of business with them via another company I own. So I have not really shopped around seriously other than rates which they have been competitive on and they cap my closing cost at $500 per mortgage. 

I have been buying rental properties for about a year now and generally things have gone well. However, I continue to be frustrated having to pass up on deals because the cash flow is not their when I have to finance at 15 years for a commercial loan. If I were able to amortize or get 30 year loans there would be many more deals I could purchase. I am very conservative and try to follow the 50% pretty closely but even if I stretch a bit the deals just are not there on 15 years. 

Thoughts?  Thank you!