All Forum Posts by: Paul Cox

@Nolan Yamada...More details...How big is the house? Where is the house located?

I have two STR properties...1 is a 2BR cabin in the smokies and I pay about $1500/yr and a 4BR in Branson for about $1600/yr...Both are with Foremost Insurance

Best of Luck

Paul

@Tristan Walton

You might try to negotiate a furniture allowance in the closing if the property is coming unfurnished. Was this a property that was previously used as an STR? How big is the property and what are you estimating for furniture costs. I furnished my cabin (2br) using a furniture allowance from the sellers for 15K (appliances were already included) but that was from an upscale commercial grade furniture store that had huge markups I'm sure. That also included 3 large screen smart TVs and installation. I know it can be done cheaper than that as @Luke Carl will attest to. I see furniture stores running all kinds of buy now pay later financing commercials. It all depends on your tastes and pocketbook. Good luck my friend and Merry Christmas and or Happy Holidays.

Paul

Happy Birthday to you my good man and thank for all the straight forward advice over this last year. Here's to many more!!!

@Greg Moore

As one of the relative newsbys on this forum, I jumped in feet first, listening and learning a ton from this forum. I figure that I could have taken more time analyzing all the potential risks before I jumped in, but then I would be 1 year further out of the game. Or, I could be making money while I'm learning from the much more experienced STR owners on this forum. I guess my biggest piece of advice would be the same that @Avery Carl and @Luke Carl gave me when I got started which was first and foremost look to invest in a true vacation destination. That step right there mitigates a ton of the other concerns that come from investing in a different type of area. @Paul Sandhu has all the stories that come from that "different" area :)

Best of luck to you on your journey.

Paul

@Teresa Ong...I echo what @Paul Sandhu said above (although his posts are great for reflection :)) but I did come across a great and simple read that I felt was like gold. It's by Jeramie Worley and you can find it on Amazon. It's title is "

I stumbled across this when working with @Kelly Worley when we turned our focus from the Smokies (priced out) to Branson, MO. for our 2nd STR. I recommend it to all my friends who are just starting to explore the STR world.

Paul

John

The Hot tub is my biggest headache and worry. If you didn't have to have one here in the Smokies to be competitive, I'd ditch it. Cleaners here are used to having them, but you're always a bit worried that they don't pay the hot tub any special attention. Having a hot tub is just part of the cost of doing business here in the Smokies. In the future, if it's not absolutely necessary to be competitive than I'm not putting one in. Just my 2 cents though

Paul

John,

As a 1 year newby, who rode his new mountain cabin purchase in the smokies right into a worldwide pandemic, I have not seen any sort of a drop-off in bookings. We like a lot of others on here experienced the rash of cancellations from Covid starting in March and we completely shut down our cabin for the month of April so as to be good community citizens when the local leaders asked people to stay home. When May hit, and the stay at home orders were lifted, we sky rocketed in our bookings and at increased prices. We have a 1 bedroom / 2 bath including a loft with a King bed as well and we are set to close out the year pulling in over 58K gross. As it stands right now we'll keep about 46% or 27K of that in cashflow. I know there are many others on here with much bigger cabins that bring in much bigger numbers, but for us we consider this a Home Run. All in at closing and including set up for an STR to include a new Hot Tub we outlayed just over 50K. So I believe that works out to about a 54% ROI? (Math guys correct me on this if I'm wrong)

We've kind of been priced out of the Smokies market right now, so we just closed on a 4Br/4Ba Golf Villa in Branson, MO for # 2. We take over management of that at the first of the year and are hoping and praying for similar results there.

Best of luck to you.  You'll learn a ton from this group!

Paul

I've added my listing to their site...So far have managed to score only a couple of bookings, but they're still in their infancy. Hoping to use any other sites that help us be less captive to sites like airbnb and Vrbo

Paul

Nick,

So this is just a newby's perspective, but we manage our own property from an 8 hour drive distance and I honestly put no more in than a couple of hours a week at best. If you're going to be living at the place that you AirBnB, but don't want the "job" of managing it, then just hire you some great cleaners to take care of the turnovers. The rest you literally can take care of right from your smart phone. I'm not sure why you would give away up to 40% of your profits to manage the house you already live in. At least give it a go before you decide to put it under management. Then you absolutely know if your management isn't meeting your expectations, because you've "been there, done that".

As far as furnishings go, what theme are you going with? What have you really liked in the 11 AirBnbs you've stayed at? Duplicate that...

I think in our day, you need:

1. Hi-Speed Internet

2. Nice size Smart TV with streaming options (Roku TCLs)

3. Comfortable Mattresses and nice linens

4. Good Towels

5. The basics to cook with and be able to spend the night in versus feeling you have to go out for food.

Again, this is just a newsby's opinion, but we've been doing this for just a year now with 1 cabin and have done great, even during Covid...If we lived nearby or even on the premises, I think I could take it to another level, but that's not our situation. We've done so well this last year, we just closed on our 2nd STR and this one is about a 16 hour drive or a couple hour flight. Planning on self managing that one as well.

Best of luck to you

Paul

Also, on the lodging rate, they only get reimbursed for what they actually spend so if you're charging them $50/day and the rate is 100/day, they don't get to pocket the rest.

The M&IE is what they keep per day regardless of what they spend

Paul