All Forum Posts by: Cam Lawler

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $375,000
Cash invested: $82,000

Short term beach rental in the Litchfield at the Beach resort. <$5K spent on upgrades to furniture as was purchased fully furnished.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/919414206961110218?unique_share_id=46fc65c2-d3a4-4148-ac6f-e4d950d4a04e

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We have had our 1bd-1ba for over a year now and it is doing great. We have found that the market is really good for 2bd places, so we started looking to add to the portfolio in that location.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We found the deal off-market through an owners group on Facebook. We saw the post Friday morning, called and setup time to visit on Sunday, and had a handshake deal in place by end of day. It took two days to finalize everything with the lawyers.

Since we did the deal without listing, we saved 6%+ and got the property fully furnished.

How did you finance this deal?

We used traditional financing (80/20) with a local loan officer. Give this is zoned as a condo, we had to find someone that new the area and restrictions. We looked into DSCR loans, but the rate was better traditional.

How did you add value to the deal?

We made minor changes, added a bunk bed to help with families and space, and got it renter ready. The photographer did a great job on the pictures and we were able to get it on the market at the very beginning of July.

What was the outcome?

July and August are going well. We will have a negative COC return this year due to missing two major beach rental months, but we could not get the close date moved up due to seller commitments. Another unit in the same complex just closed for over $150K what we paid, so we believe we got a great deal.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

While we won't do it for all, due to location differences, I feel more comfortable doing deals without a realtor.

@Luka Milicevic We are definitely going to switch the master to a King this year.

Quote from @James Hamling:

@Cam Lawler why not just do all of the above, in 1, a bunk-bed with trundle? 

 @James Hamling I have never seen one like this before. Interesting.

 Good point. Need to talk to my cleaner about this.

@John Mausteller was doing some space measurements and looks like the best spacing I could do with separate beds would be 36” between but shoved up against the wall on one side. Is this an issue for guests if they can only enter the bed on one side?

Quote from @Michael Baum:

We have a room dedicated to kids here at our lake house. Never had an issue with the bunkbeds in that room. I did make sure they were adult rated as we often have adults who use them.

Here is a pic -

 @Michael Baum that room looks awesome for kids! If we had a third room, I think we would do a bunk room like that.

@John Underwood could probably do a bunk over the queen. That might workout for sure.

@Sarah Kensinger We definitely want families as this location is perfect for them. We won't be budget priced, so don't want the place to feel that way.

Will need to check on the ceiling fan for sure! Don't remember in the walkthrough.

 @Josh Kristoff We know we get a lot of families in our 1/1, and in some cases 6 people (we make sure to explicitly let them know in a pre-registration follow-up communication that one of the beds is a sofa and almost everyone is good with this).

We are also checking with other owners in the area on what they are seeing since this is our first 2/2 at the beach.

 Thank you @Kerry Baird. I need to check the ceiling size, but I think we are good there. This is just a 2/2 so should be good on bathroom space. Good thinking there.