All Forum Posts by: Daniel Murphy

Hey all, I'm looking for some ammo.  I'm looking for hosts who have received a referral bonus, please tell me the dates & amounts if you are okay with that.  If you've been denied, please tell me when & the reason Airbnb gave you for the denial.  

Background story:

Airbnb continues to advertise the host referral program every day & everywhere.  I just referred a host who went through all of the proper protocols & then was told at first, "this person is not eligible to become a host".  False, they are an Airbnb host & now have 4 documented stays under their profile fully meeting the referral payout criteria.  

Next, support told me they "temporarily discontinued" the referral program.  They then sent me a link to the referral program terms of service.  

I'm stubborn & can read, so I read the terms of service.  It states that "Airbnb reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify the program at any time by POSTING AN UPDATE ON THIS PAGE. "I also see that the terms of service are dated January 22, 2020. Hence, I don't see any proof of them officially updating or discontinuing the program.  

Well, here's a thought.  The stock market is down so your short term "risk" of losing more money is minimized.  If you, for example, invested your savings right now into a S&P 500 ETF in a taxable account, you could "ride the wave" up when the market does return.  This would be a good use of your money that's sitting aside.  

While that happens, like others have mentioned you can get your other ducks in a row for financing.  Job experience, co signer etc.  Since you're young & presumably in a pretty low tax bracket, whenever you sell your stocks to buy your first property, all of the gains could potentially be tax free.  

I need some help flushing out thoughts on gathering ALL guest emails vs just the person who booked.

I've been watching Dustin Baker's YT videos & absolutely LOVE them. I already gather the email addresses of all people who book through ownerrez.

Is it worth it to gather ALL emails for everyone who logs into my wifi vs. just the main person who booked?

Will the larger email list (many of whom may not be the decision makers in the house) justify the potential guest annoyance of entering their email for wifi access?

I'm trying to weigh the guest experience vs. the benefit of having everyone's email address...

Thanks everyone!  I have about 8 new tabs open on my browser today... :) 

Hey all, We're entering year two of our first STR & I'm looking to really ramp up my success this year & start to differentiate my listing.

Who are the best youtubers, influencers or blogs to follow? 

@Justin Rademacher, we self manage a 3/2 in Cape Coral with a pool.  It's not overly difficult.  However, like mentioned earlier, you do need to have periodic flexibility.  Ideally you don't have a super structured day & can take a few minutes here & there to respond. 

Personally, when I get a guest message or booking request, I drop everything & get on it right away.  Occasionally you'll have something that you need to dedicate 30+ minutes to, but that's not super common.  

Feel free to reach out & I can put you in contact with anyone I use. Or talk you through any of my experiences. Your 1st STR is more overwhelming than you may think. I think it's really helpful to get a few different perspectives from others.

Even if you pay a management company eventually, I think it's a really good learning experience to have that deeper experience initially.  

One other thought... When we purchased our STR in Florida (we live in MN). We brought care packages to all of our neighbors. We invite them over for beers every time we visit. We stay in touch with them & try to hire our neighbors whenever possible. Could you befriend a neighbor & possibly pay their teenager or someone else to do small tasks?

It helps to have an advocate locally when you are not! 

 You can still get this done before the end of the year.  You mentioned that your account was a NON retirement account.  Assuming it's a taxable account? 

And that you are at a loss for the year, but are you at a loss overall?  Log into your account, click on "cost basis"  if it's negative, you can sell everything at a loss today & you should have no tax consequence.  

If it's at a gain, you'll owe either 0 or 15% based on your total income.  And only on the gains. But you may be able to write off some of the costs associated with the home purchase to offset any gains.  

If you read the first page of your SS statement, it states this 75% figure. 

Think of SS as a bathtub full of water. You, me & everyone else is working & adding money to the bath tub.  Your parents & retirees who are taking SS are taking water out of the bathtub (the drain).  The 75% figure basically says that in 2034, IF WE CHANGE NOTHING, there will only be enough money going into the bathtub to pay 75% of the money coming out.  
This is HIGHLY unlikely to happen.  Can you imagine a politician telling the largest voting block that they will do nothing to change a 25% decrease in their income?  

1) small changes are all that is necessary to kick this can down the road for another 20-30 years.  IE- small increase in payroll taxes or a slightly increased full retirement age.  

2) when changes like this are made, they typically are made incrementally.  IE - if insurance companies misprice a product, they first correct it by modifying the cost to NEW customers.  If that is not enough, they will then go back to current customers & increase costs or cut benefits.  Meaning that it is much much more likely that any changes in SS will affect the younger generation first, and the older generation second (if at all).  

I use Stessa.  They do have reports, but I rarely look at them. I just want something easy to track expenses, categorize them & keep receipts.  It's free & works pretty well.