All Forum Posts by: Chase Hoover

The property I am looking at actually has 4 cabins on it, so based on what I'm reading it looks like it would not qualify for Fannie Mae's eligibility of "one-unit home".

@Avery Carl @Karen Chenaille Thanks for the quick responses!  Gotta love this forum.  I'll check out the podcast discussion board.

I decided to post this in the STR forum instead of Loans because I think we'll get better responses from those of us in the STR world. In recent podcast #364, Avery Carl discussed her ability to purchase vacation rental homes with a 10% down loan. Can anyone recommend lenders with this option?

I have a little jar on the vanity and have my cleaner set out 5 each turnover.  I have a little laminated sign leaning on the jar saying "please use makeup wipes, stained towels will be charged to guest".  

I wouldn't recommend setting out bulk quantities of them (or any other supplies) because they will disappear quickly.  We have set quantities of each item we set out per turnover.  5 dishwasher pods, 5 laundry pods, 2 paper towel rolls, 2 trash bags, etc.  

@Tim Schroeder I think it's safe to say if a bookkeeper reading this thread were to master this system, they'd have a few new clients right away...

@Karen Chenaille thanks for the feedback, this is exactly what I am hoping to accomplish.  I would love to see a snapshot of your report to help me figure out how I want to set mine up.

@Brian Shelton There are many limited-service management companies (similar to Evolve) that will handle the back-end management such as creating and pricing your listing, guest communication, and reservations management. If you find a local cleaner that is willing to take on the responsibilities of cleaning, inspecting, and stocking your units, you're fairly well covered in terms of owning STR's remotely. Bonus points if the cleaner is willing to be on-call for guests if they need anything. You can google local handymen if any maintenance issues arise.

I know the topic is past at this point but in case others are considering a "traditional" PM or realtor without prior STR experience to manage their STR, I wouldn't recommend it. A colleague of mine is a traditional PM with hundreds of annual rental units. He tried to get into vacation rentals, and just taking on two properties nearly caused him to lose his mind. The processes, systems, and accounting are all completely different than annual rentals. Managers have to have advanced familiarity of Airbnb, VRBO, and all of the sub-softwares and tools to really be able to provide a quality service to their clients. This is why you find so many PMs that specialize solely in STR. Their management fees may be higher than a realtor might quote you, but believe me, you want a specialist.

I've set up around 20 vacation rentals at this point and order almost everything on Amazon, including most furniture (Wayfair is also good for furniture).  I can save a few bucks on my kitchen outfitting list by shopping Walmart isles, but I prefer the convenience of clicking a button.  

We add coffee bars to each rental and guests love it.  I get a Keurig, k-cup carousel, and two small bowls.  We stock the carousel with k-cups and the bowls with sugars and creamers (all of which I order on Amazon).

I highly recommend stocking disposable makeup removal wipes.  We finally started doing this after 2 years of replacing probably hundreds of white towels, and the stains have nearly stopped completely.

Another nifty item I've been putting in all of our rentals is bedroom lamps with USB plug-ins in the base, like you find in hotels.  Guests don't have to pull the bed out to find the wall sockets, they just plug their phone right into the lamp.

For bedding, get a duvet with two sets of covers.  Rotate your covers each turnover with the rest of your linens.  It's much easier to replace a stained $30 duvet cover than a $100 comforter.  Don't forget mattress protectors!

Recently I began finding sofas secondhand and saving a lot of $. At first I was against the idea of secondhand furniture and tried ordering sofas online, but 100% of them were horribly uncomfortable. I've been finding very gently used and stylish sofas for $150 or less. 

@John Underwood Totally agree, I spent some time creating a great master spreadsheet two years ago.  I have one per property, and at the end of every month I enter each booking line by line with data points provided from Airbnb/VRBO.  The spreadsheet then auto-calculates everything I need to know.  

For example, my county has a 6% tourist tax which Airbnb does not collect and remit, so I need to deduct 6% of the total rent for all Airbnb bookings to calculate the "net rent".  The net rent is the figure I use to calculate my management fee.  This sort of thing will never be able to be handled through a rigid software accounting system.  The spreadsheets work fine, but is becoming much more time-consuming as we continue to add more properties and instead of inputting 15 bookings per month I'm having to input 80+.

The deposits from Airbnb/VRBO currently come through my Quickbooks as income, so I'm thinking there may be a way to break this out further by customizing splits to automate this process in lieu of the spreadsheets.

@Tim Schroeder Thanks for the response!  I am currently using Direct which offers similar features.  My main issue with it and other VR softwares I've tried is the lack of customization for reporting.  I'm trying to find a way to bypass the VR software altogether and utilize Quickbooks to split the incoming deposits sending management fees, taxes, due to owner, etc. to the right buckets and run my reporting and payouts directly in Quickbooks.  

Whether it's possible to the full extend I need, I'm not sure.  I'm wondering if anyone has done it with success that may be able to share how they split deposits and classify the splits to specific properties.  Perhaps a CPA or bookkeeper with short-term rental experience might be able to chime in?

I'm finding full-on VR softwares less and less useful for a small-medium VR manager like me (10-20 units).  I am considering ditching altogether and simply using a software like YourPorter for auto-messaging and TurnoverBnB for housekeeper scheduling.