All Forum Posts by: Dale Bertrand

 @Michael Baum based on all of the equity you have accumulated in your lake house, do you think you could get a better “return on equity” by diversifying into other real estate assets? 

Thanks everyone for so many helpful answers. We decided to say no, despite the fact that they were upfront about their intentions and very polite when I declined. We just decided we didn't want to deal with the risk.

We have a VRBO request to rent our house for a bachelorette weekend. The booking request is for 6 people and they assured us they will be using the house “as a place to come back to at night.” Would you accept the booking after reminding them of the house rules (I.e. no parties) and asking the right questions? Or would you just decline the bachelorette weekend? I have visions of vomit or worse at our house. 

Any advice as to where the MTR strategy works best? It sounds to me like areas near big cities, hospitals, universities, etc. 

 Thanks for this. So true, but I hadn't realized it!

Don't forget that relationships are the key to any business. So always seek to build new relationships and nurture old ones -- with a long term perspective so you treat people right. You will meet again someday.

@Luke Carl Thanks. 

Update: I found a setting in iGMS that allowed me to turn of instant book, even though the documentation says it's not possible to turn it off.

This year I started using iGMS to manage my listings. It's been great but it has a limitation that AirBNB Instant Book must be turned on. This is a problem for me because I rent my homes weekly during the summer (Sunday to Sunday). BUT, I always list set them up as available for check in on any day of the week and for shorter stays so our properties show up in more searches (the description clearly states that we rent weekly during the summer).

Any suggestions?  I'm trying to avoid min stay and check in day restrictions that would limit our visibility when people search on AirBNB. And I want to have some control over who books (we like to avoid large parties of unrelated visitors).

 I'm thinking about keeping Instant Book but hiking my prices on AirBNB during the summer relative to VRBO. Or I could restrict the check in day to Sundays only with a 7 day min stay. I'm trying to avoid this.

I wouldn't do it if you are expecting 3.47% cash on cash return. Could you increase that with some upgrades? Can you expect huge appreciation in this market?

Just cover it up. Here's what we did to the fireplace in our STR...