All Forum Posts by: Chris Seidler

Agreed -- I didn't mention this above....  We actually keep a pantry pretty well stocked with basics:  tea, coffee, cleaning supplies & laundry stuff, cup of noodles, ramen, soup, oatmeal packets, microwave popcorn, spices, bottled water, lemonade mix/crystal light, etc.  

There's bulk packs in our owner's closet that the cleaners can use to refresh supplies with or we just do a walmart.com order to resupply.

We have gotten a number of positive comments in reviews on the pantry staples.  Our mental model is to have enough that someone arriving late could put together a bare bones meal for dinner and have the essentials for breakfast before they head out to get actual groceries.  We've had guests do exactly that.

We do not advertise any of these supplies until our check-in instructions welcome them to use the pantry, and let this be a pleasant surprise to people when they arrive.

In theory a guest could clear us out but nobody ever has.  And its not like any of that stuff is super expensive if they did.

This property is in the mountains and has electric heat, so the main bill comes in the winter when the heat is running.  

We took the highest month of "normal" winter usage we had records on -- people in the house, heat running at a reasonable temperature, washer/dryer running, etc.  We then added about 50%, rounding up to a round number.  That's our cap.

The only time we have seen an electric bill higher is when contractors were in there working and using a ton of electricity for industrial heaters for a month.  I think you'd really have to work hard by mining bitcoin, leave the windows open in winter with heat on full blast, or something similarly unusual to exceed the cap.

Ours is in a rural area with strong seasonality and lots of regional vacation travellers going out for a weekend or maybe a week. We are within a few hours drive of several metros. We do a mix of STR & MTR. MTR brought in 75% of the gross and more of the net due to lower cleaning fees for turning over the STR.

For gross numbers we brought in about 1.2% of the ARV value in monthly rent this year which is decent based on the rules of thumb at least. On paper we were slightly in the red but much of that is due to one-year expenses/repairs & allowable transportation costs to get up to the property for work days ourselves. For CY25 I realistically think we'll be somewhat in the black with about ~3-6% ROI/COC now that much of the initial rehab is settling down and we have our systems in place.

We were very pessimistic (realistic?) with our estimates for both income & expenses on this property.  Sure enough the rehab ran over budget (we had a large contingency that was used up -- some due to contractor malfeasance, some due to pulling the trigger on big repairs like a new roof) and the revenues were right around expectations, maybe slightly below.  Because we were clear eyed going in it has worked out ok.  If we had gone with more optimistic assumptions then it would have been a very disappointing year financially at least.

Every market is unique.  But I'd be shocked if people are getting significantly better numbers in similar "regional destination" type areas.  I think if you're in it for the money, location in a decent sized metro with a lot of transient work force would be key.

We have two rental properties out of state.

Consider Transportation:  One of them is a few hours drive away.  The other is a full day drive, or a short/cheap direct airplane flight and we have family that lives nearby.  If your property is hard to get to then think again.  Things will happen and you will have to go there sometimes on short notice.  If you can hop on a $100 non-stop flight, nbd.  If its going to be a 2 day drive or a 7 hour/$1000 airplane adventure with a 3 hour layover in the middle, not so cool.

Both of the properties are also places we don't mind going so its not a huge hassle if we need to drop in.

Taxes:  The taxes get significantly more complicated with new state returns.  Plus your home state wants to know about all that income and while they probably shouldn't tax it, they'll let you know how much they think you might owe.  Finding a single tax professional who is smart on the varying rules in different states may not be feasible either so those costs go up too.

Legal:  Procedures vary in different states.  Lease provisions in one place that are common and acceptable may not be allowed elsewhere.

Overall its worked out for us but there's definitely some potential pitfalls.

Our market is relatively small and rural so I have a good idea of what is available based on looking at comps:  a few minutes on Zillow, Airbnb, Furnished Finder and Realtor.com tell you what the comps are.

In our area a comparable LTR is maybe ~$800/month.  We can charge about +50% in the off-season and +100%ish in the peak season.  Realistically around $1200/$1600 although.  Typical utility bills (which we include) are $100-300/month.  The place is furnished and with 7 year deprecation (hah!) that's worth one or two hundred bucks a month too.  So in reality our MTR rent -- especially in the off season -- pretty much covers the utilities, furnishings deprecation, and another hundred bucks or so, at least in the off-season.  In the peak season the math is better.

We started charging MTR a bit more for the four biggest holiday weekends of the year.  The tenants have paid and if someone is thinking about moving out then an extra surcharge that hits if they aren't out in time for us to turn the place for a lucrative AirBNB short term rental can help massage the move out timing.

That said with MTR we do not have the cleaning costs that eat up a lot of STR gross, and its lower hassle in some ways. And it gives us a lot more flexibility than a LTR which in our particular case is nice.

Our medium term lease covers utilities but includes a cap for electricity.  Its generous and I don't think anyone would go over it with normal usage.  If someone was over during a high consumption month I'd give then a notice/warning for the first month along with some energy consumption tips then tack it onto the rent.

Ours is in a rural area.  There is no high speed internet available yet and we haven't sprung for Starlink.  We absolutely have some "low tech" entertainmnet.

- Interior TV antenna mounted:  pulls in a bunch of channels as we're on a mountain.

- Board games:  We have a Kallax unit.  About two cubes are full of games.  Some "euro" games and some traditional ones.  We also have some RPG books (Basic Fantasy RPG is super cheap) and dice that have been used by guests.

- Books:  We have a mix of books including some local area/regional stuff, some fiction, and kids books.

- Kids Toys:  We advertise to families and have another 2xKallax cubes full of toys that won't break and are tolerant of missing pieces, but are easy enough to cleanup:  lincoln logs, blocks, hard animals, stuff like that.    Nothing tiny (no legos!).

- Art/Decor:  We have sourced local art from farmer's markets and the like.  Its tasteful but makes things a little cozier.

We are not a luxury property, and that's ok. We are literally next to a golf course and about 10 mins from a ski place and I don't think fancier amenities would generate a ton of ROI. Our guests are out golfing, hiking, skiing, etc and seem to want a conveniently located place with a full kitchen and bath when they get back -- and that's who we market to.

We have a property which bounces between STR & MTR. We just got an off-season MTR request on furnished finder for a medical company that places medical providers in rural areas (which is our listing). The company seems to be a legit mid-sized business. They want to place a doctor and their spouse for a few months which seems to check out.

Since the lease will be in the name of the corporation, how do we do tenant screening for the actual occupants?  Do we ask the corporate placement folks to allow a background check for the tenant?  I'm not even sure what I'd look for...  the company is paying the bills so even if the doctor has bad credit it doesn't really matter about getting the rent check...  in theory there could be criminal background, but I doubt someone would be practicing as a MD with a long rap sheet.

Would it be sufficient to merely put a clause in the lease that the authorized occupants are Mr. & Mrs. John/Jane Doe, and any change in occupants requires mutual agreement of both parties to ensure that the business doesn't start to rotate different employees through with no option?

The company doesn't really have a "credit score" or "eviction history" so I'm thinking about asking for 1.5x or 2x monthly rent as a deposit (we normally do 1x month rent) just like I would for a tenant without established credit history.

Thanks!

As a tenant earlier in life I needed multi-year leases as I knew my job would keep me in a specific place for 2-3 years.

Escalator clauses are not uncommon in a multi-year lease.  Basically have the rent go up $X every year on the anniversary month.  You need to decide what "$X" is.  You can Keep it Simple and raise the rent by 4% every year (inflation is historically under 3% so you should make out ok), or you can index to CPI, or you can index to something like military BAH or GSA per diem.

The other option is to just do one year leases and renegotiate. If you're looking for high quality tenants ("A") in a larger SFH that don't want to deal with the hassle of moving after a year you may chase some people away. If you're ok with younger less established people, households with less stuff, a smaller home, etc it may be fine.

I would definitely not give a discount for a multi-year lease.

I'm an investor looking for Grade B or C+ properties primarily for long term rental in or around Washington Township, Montgomery County, OH. I am not interested in anything inside city limits of Miamisburg, Centerville, Kettering, etc. -- really want to be in a township for tax purposes.  

Wholesalers -- send your properties!  Please feel free to contact me if you have any opportunities. Thanks!