All Forum Posts by: Catherine W.

Hi All! I actually spoke with @Kira Golden yesterday (connected via BP) - she and her husband are doing some cool things down there and may have some opportunities for anyone looking to get into the market. 

@Maura Paler 

That's actually exactly what we do!  I'll ask them if they're interested in doing a review, and when they say yes, I'll tell them that I'm going to send them a link through the website, which goes to them via email. 

@Karin Crompton That's odd - there should be a "reviews" tab in there that has all of the reviews. 

Thank you for the advice - you're right, if we chug along we will have a decent sized collection soon. Also, good point about having all 5 stars - although HomeAway/VRBO doesn't allow you to post your own reviews on behalf of others (well, they do, but they're marked "owner posted" and don't count toward your review tally)

@Adam Hershman  Thanks for the tips.  I like the idea of a small prize - maybe an Amazon gift card that can be sent to their email address.  I know an incentive like that would work for me!

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Hi All-

Question for vacation rental owners out there.  We've had our listing on HomeAway, VRBO and Airbnb for about a year now.  Here's the listings in case anyone wants to take a look:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2349920?guests=4&s=Ifqk

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p3719746

We've gotten about 35 reviews between the different sites.  The thing is, we've had about 55+ reservations during that time.  On Airbnb, we've gotten a review from every one of our guests, but on HomeAway/VRBO, we've only gotten reviews from about 60% of our guests.

After every reservation, I'll reach out to the guest and ask them how their stay was.  If they don't have anything blatantly negative to say (which they never do), I'll go ahead and ask them to write a review.  Usually, I'll get a response like "Of course we'll write a review - we'd love to.  We loved our stay!" and then they never actually do it.  I usually follow up with them once, but that's it - I don't want to be too pushy.

Another thing to note - we sometimes greet guests when they check in (if not we have a keyless lock on the front door so they can let themselves in).  We don't ever really meet them when they check-out.  Perhaps if we were to ask them in person, or offer some sort of incentive (although I don't know what kind), it could increase the odds of us getting those extra reviews?

If anyone has any advice or experience on how to get more reviews, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks,

Catherine

Hi All -

Looking for some owner financing advice.  The owner purchased this property 7 yrs ago and is currently selling it for about double that.  It's vacant and looks like he's started to rehab it himself (he's done some demo and reconstructed some walls thus far) but seems to be continuously working on it. My husband and I are interested in purchasing it and taking over the reno ourselves before he goes any further.

We are looking into the possibility of making an owner financing offer, mainly because we don't want to sink a chunk of cash into the actual purchase and then have to pay for a rehab of 4 units on top of that.  We were thinking something along the lines of x% down now, then having him finance the balance.  We would plan to pay him in full within a year or so of purchasing it from him (just need to bridge the gap between time of purchase and time the house is in good enough condition to get a mortgage on it ourselves).

For him, it would mean not having to pay for the remainder of the renovation himself, property taxes, insurance etc so I can see that being a benefit to him - and who knows, it might even take him several more months of work to get the building sold without our offer (it's already been on the market for 2 months).

If anyone has any thoughts on how to make a strong, enticing offer, we'd love to hear them.

Thanks,

Catherine

Hi All - very happy you started this thread, Yashira!  We have a vacation rental in Columbus and we love it, but it is a lot of work.  Your plan sounds fantastic, and it's great that you have your parents to help you fix up and manage the property!

My husband and I got married in Ponce a few years ago and had our reception at Castillo Serralles.  We've made many trips to different parts of the island and love it.  We are considering moving there in a year or two and also purchasing a vacation rental. 

@Marcia Paler - Great info!  That makes me feel better about going with CBIZ for ours.  Do you notice the price being significantly higher than standard insurance (the amount I was quoted was over 3x as much)?  I assume it's because of the extra coverage they offer.  Just curious.

I just discovered this insurance on Home Away: http://cbizspecialtyinsurance.com/HomeAwayAssure/

Might be worth looking into since it appears to exist for the purpose of vacation rentals.  I'm looking into it myself.

Belinda - we've by far gotten the most bookings through HomeAway/VRBO, but have also have gotten a lot from Airbnb.  We had the house on Flip Key for awhile, too, but took it down because we only got phony inquiries.  That's probably just a Columbus thing, though, because I'm pretty sure Flip Key is really popular in a lot of locations. 

I like HomeAway/VRBO best because you can include a rental contract at the time of booking, and I like that I can pay one big booking fee that covers me for a year vs paying per booking (AIrbnb charges 3% to owners I believe).  I saved a lot that way.  It doesn't hurt to try them all in the beginning and see which one you get the most attention from.

On another note, I'm intrigued by the tiny house concept - especially on the beach!  Would love to know how you do with them.

Hi Brandon-

We turned our primary residence in Columbus, OH into a vacation rental about a year ago kind of by accident. At the beginning of 2014, we started to focus on reducing our student loan debt, and in because of that, wanted to increase our income to speed up the process. We decided to list our house on Airbnb and Homeaway/VRBO, thinking that if we could make a little bit each month, it would be an easy way to make extra cash with a small time commitment. Well, our gross earnings ended up averaging 4x our monthly mortgage payment (including PMI, property taxes, and insurance). We were shocked that there was such a steady stream of visitors in Columbus! After hearing guests' feedback, we know we can attribute most of our beginners' success to the location of the house (walking distance to shops, restaurants, Ohio State, convention center, etc.) coupled with our décor choices.

In terms of expenses above and beyond a normal rental, the highest are utilities (gas, water, electric) and cable, which run us roughly $200-450/month depending on the time of year.  Smaller costs are things like buying new towels/sheets every 4-6 months, and getting small welcome gifts for our guests.  In terms of cleaning, we have tried to do the majority of it ourselves, although we did hire someone to help us in the summer when we got really busy.

For the first 6-8 months of doing this, we would stay in hotels or with family when guests came.  We don't have children yet so we had that flexibility, and the bookings were not frequent enough to justify buying another place.  By spring/summer when things really picked up, staying in hotels started to get difficult, so we bought a duplex in an up and coming neighborhood that we're fixing up.  We'll live on one side and rent out the other (standard rental, as the area most likely wouldn't be attracting vacationers) until our next opportunity presents itself.

A lot of people told us that we were crazy for using our home as a vacation rental.  But to us, it was such a [relatively] easy way to make extra cash compared to getting a second job.  And what's interesting is that we've found 99% of our guests to be super respectful of the house.  We're very clear from the get-go about our house rules, so we tend to attract guests who are on the same page as us.

We hope to increase our earnings in 2015, now that we have a solid set of reviews and have had some experience with it.