All Forum Posts by: Cindy Coker

I rarely look at BP on laptop, but frequently did on iphone App.  Miss it being available. 

Just saw this (The App doesn't work on phone anymore, so get in the forums less). We did stay fairly well booked doing the furnished monthly thing, but got tired of the sales/occupancy tax, so went to 3mo minimum a couple years ago. Stays fairly well booked solid. Travel nurse for a while, folks looking/finding home to buy, folks staying while building on land out in the county. It's been good for them and us.

Still missing the App - Any clue from BiggerPockets staff?

Looks great - congrats! We also have a duplex rental in Avl. One side is longterm, the other is furnished 3mo rental now. Used to be monthly on VRBO.

Hi Amy,

We have a buy and hold duplex not far from home in Asheville too. We're both retired engineers from NASA/MSFC in Huntsville AL, and been in Asheville a few years now. 

Cindy

@Gorden Lopes aha! 35811 woulda been my other guess. Grew up in 35803, and my first home was in 35811. :-)

@Michael S. I’m guessing 35805? Curious also.

Hi Shawn,

I still have a home in Huntsville, but the young adult "kids" are living there, and we visit - so we never worked through the difficult situation the City was spinning up back when I initially posted this. I'm not certain of the status there since we dropped the idea. The kids' former living situations deteriorated, so it's not empty between our visits to rent for furnished TDY housing afterall. 

There is still a North Alabama Vacation Rental Owners group on FB. I don't think they are Meeting, per se, but they do post questions/comments there - some of the rentals have been changed to longterm. Some may still operate until they are directed otherwise.

Sorry, I'm rather out of the loop on the current Hsv/Mad County regs.

Good luck!

Cindy

Asheville will certainly track down and fine illegal STR's, $500/day. We rented our furnished rental as a 30day Vacation Rental (not short term rental - different meaning under NC State law). At one point, we were advertising on VRBO, for a 7day minimum, and stated clearly that we blocked 30days for any guest, even if they only stayed a week.

We received a certified letter for the $500/day penalty, but they dropped it when we changed our minimum to 30 days. We put within the text of our listing, that "early checkout accommodation was sometimes Possible, with scaled rates, if a shorter visit within the blocked 30days was needed, and to talk with us" - something along those lines. We would charge roughly $200/nt if they checked out early and stayed a week, $150/nt for 2wks, $95/nt for 3 wks, and $86/nt for a month. Something like that.

Now we only do 90day minimums, to lighten up our hassles with sales and occupancy tax reporting.

We have a duplex, that since 2014 has had one side LTR, the other, monthly furnished vacation rental (not STR).

Last fall we decided that the monthly would become LTR as soon as we needed contents for our Home Staging and ReDesign business, and 90day minimum until then. Our travel nurse guest extended 3mo to 6mo, and left in June, a week before our current 3mo guests. 

Longterm (5yr) tenants had some difficult work cutbacks, so we were able to give them a $350 break for April/May, then reassess. Giving them $100/month cut thru December, then expect to go back to regular rent. They had asked if we could discount or defer rent for a month, but we didn’t want them to owe us back rent. Didn’t want that ominously over their heads. They’re young mover/shakers, and we have confidence that they’re going to continue to do well in life.

So looks like we’ll be down $1400 for the year, if things don’t get much worse in a second wave.

Not sure when we will empty the furnished side and look for a fulltime resident. The year started with a bang for home staging, but not sure how many we will be doing. All four we staged since Jan have sold - one in 2days(!), after 3wks of comments about how “dark” it was - Boom! We helped! (That was fun!). But we currently don’t need the furniture, and I am NOT looking forward to screening fulltime tenants in this iffy employment market. 

Cindy