All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

As part of the written requirement for specific credit score, you can also leverage additional security deposits if an applicant’s other written acceptance criteria is great. The percentages are ultimately small, but there are plenty of folks who have a bad score based on low credit usage and/or one or two poor choices, but whom can have a great renter profile with landlord references, employment income, and co-signers or deposit guarantees. The key as others have said, is to ensure that all of these things are written down and formalized before you get going.

Any long-term landlords will tell you to never call the current landlord, far better to call the one just before the current one who has no vested interest in handing off a bad tenant.
Additionally, employment checks should follow a standard processes  Many larger fortune 500 companies have very specific employment disclosure processes that must be followed meaning you increasingly cannot simply call someone to confirm whether someone works there or not, but rather work through an intermediary or specific request form. 

There's screening and there's pre-screening: have a written and consistent process for both that you follow every single time. 

The concern over wasting time is also fixed by reducing the "cost" of your showings - mine are all automated and self service which makes them infinitely safer and more scalable. 

Looked into services like TheHost and others that offer a “free store” but many are basically a pretty Wordpress site with a 30% sale commission. 
I’ve had better luck automating comms around for fee early/late check-ins/outs. If you’re like my rentals where you’re looking at weekend only bookings for specific times of the year, any expansion of weekend stays is just "free money"

You're not wrong, but consider that there's always a gap between market reality today and the time it takes to flush bad or overleveraged investors out of the market. And that many of us here got in before these crazy prices and have the equity to put 50-60% down.

@Justin Wood 

As @Paul Sandhu says, you can always PEX your pipes. Otherwise, why not electric heat tape built for this exact purpose?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fr...

Equally important to read the full reports, while keeping mind that any company like AirDNA's business model is based on continued STR growth. From the same report:

"Occupancy levels in 2022 have fallen throughout 2022 as listing growth has outpaced rising demand... Overall occupancy ended the year at 58.7%, a significant drop from the 61.3% in 2021."

Thumbtack, Angi, or contractor referrals from other investors you already know in CT. Fairfield's the epitome of "the two Connecticuts" and tenants, regardless of term-length, will have sky high expectations. 

Every single December before the winter rush we have here in New England the hair on the back of my neck stands up worrying about mass vacancy in one of the busiest seasons of year. This January being one of the warmest on record made that situation even worse.

Now we’re almost completely booked up and all that happened within a period of 2-3 weeks time once the temps dropped and snow fell. You don’t have to be renting to skiers to understand the lesson here: everyone has a seasonality curve and macroeconomic factors beyond your listing can and will impact your bookings more than you know.

Track your seasonality, learn the macros, & use the pricing dashboards not just for pricing, but for demand tracking as well.

I've generally found anything under $500/mo after debt service + management is not worth the time because that slim a profit margin's too often lost on unexpected maintenance or other factors. Others are correct that many investors are using real estate as write-offs and income offset tools. Others with too much capital on hand throwing 50-100% down and calling it a win. It's far more interesting when folks can start with < 20% down and make a property a long term income stream.