All Forum Posts by: Daniel Amsalem

Hey @David Cherkowsky my wife and I house-hacked just outside Alexandria (in the Fairfax County side) and now are in City of Alexandria in the West End.

We went the walkout basement route but have friends who did rent by the room (they're past clients of @Russell Brazil). 

I certainly believe you'd find many applicants in Old Town, but prices were a bit prohibitive for us. I agree with @Chris Seveney that Del Ray would be an excellent place to do this. Ideally, closer to the main strip such as some restaurants on Commonwealth or especially on Mount Vernon.

We are doing the mid-term rental route on Airbnb. It worked well on our first place, we just took our listing live today for the second. Here's hoping it crushes!

We had a snafu last week where our Facebook post mistakenly showed the event was happening last Wednesday!

Well, here we are having our event this evening if you can make it.

I've got some fun updates on our basement reno and here's a hint: we're finally able to take a breath!

Meg and I hope to see the regulars and a few new folks there!

Below are some pics from the last meetup

We were able to share a few updates with folks including the fact that we were just about done with the rehab.

Well, here's the latest:

We got final approval from the county and closed our permits! Boy that was such a good day.

Since then, we've been going hard on the landscaping and furnishings as we prep our basement for both the open house (for NOVA REI members) and then taking the listing live on Airbnb.

We've got a few more loose ends but feeling relatively good about things.

If you can make it to this October meetup, I hope to share how our first bookings went 🤞

If you have an Airbnb in DC, Maryland, or Northern Virginia (NOVA) or want to, I'd ask you provide feedback to the City of Alexandria regarding their proposed regulations.

Regulations: https://www.alexandriava.gov/sites/default/files/2024-08/sho...

Feedback Form: https://www.research.net/r/AlexandriaVA-ShortTermRentals

Alexandria sets the example for all of DMV as the most permissible county/region. If we become heavily restricted, what chance does the rest of the DMV have to get their own regulations that make sense?

My suggestions:

* Requiring code compliance and safety equipment is absolutely valid and should be part of the regulations

* Requiring owners live within 15 miles is not necessary since poor hosts whether they're local or distant will violate the 3-5 warning system and earn a suspension. Great hosts will be good neighbors, will contribute to local tourism and will pay their taxes and permit fees

* A major area to improve on the proposal is the 1 hour time-limit for resolving complaints. Few of us are full-time hosts, instead we have day-jobs. A more realistic expectation is 24 hours which will ensure we can arrange any repairs or corrections with a team, handle it in person, etc.

Hey folks! This is a reminder that we've got a meetup next week.

Exciting news for my wife and I, our basement renovation is almost done. The target is to wrap it up next Friday, the same week as the meetup!

We're currently lining up friends to help with furniture assembly because we've got a 5x10 storage unit absolutely jam-packed with Amazon and Wayfair boxes.

We also purchased a bunch of trees and shrubs and other plants to improve our backyard and add to curb appeal.

The aim is to get our Airbnb live in the final full week of September (23rd-27th).

I hope to share more details with attendees of the meetup and to invite attendees to our open house.

We'll see you there!

Oh, I guess I misunderstood. I just saw this place listed on the MLS. So it's a flip not an investment and the Airbnb numbers are estimates?

What an awesome deal! Seller-fi that cashflows immediately upon purchase 🔥

This is so awesome! Well done on a successful deal. We are pursuing a house hack (fixer upper) and turning the basement into an ADU which we rent on Airbnb.

I had a theory that Airbnbs that performed needed to be walking distance to a metro. So I'm happy to see yours is going well. Like you, we're not walking distance to a metro station but rather bus stops. 

Looking forward to seeing all you confirmed attendees at tonight's meetup!

The next meet up is only 2 weeks away and so I'd like to invite anyone in the DMV to our next NOVA REI meetup.

You'll get the chance to share any questions with experienced investors and house hackers.

As an update to our second house hack, we've got the insulation and walls up in our basement and should have it painted before the next meetup.

We also lined Jeff Bezos' pockets on Prime Day because we bought most of our furnishings. Now, the packages just keep rolling in!

Below are a couple of photos from our last meetup