All Forum Posts by: Dave Stokley

It already has been, but that’s just a general trend. There are still tons of opportunities if you know where to look.

$60k gross on $380k purchase makes it a borderline deal for me. Bad loan terms make it a pass. Who was the lender?

If I were you here’s what I do:

1. Look for a local lawyer who is experienced with this.

2. Contact Mile High Hosts, which I think is affiliated with Rent Responsibly. They appear to be active in helping defend hosts in these situations. https://www.milehighhosts.org/

3. Dial back the “Cooties-19” and calling people “ideologues” and “suits.” There’s just no world in which that’s gonna help your case.

Good luck!

Pool is awesome.

You should probably have more pics, and get them professionally done (the interior pics seem like narrow-angle phone shots). Maybe hang some string lights and turn on the fireplace get some night shots of the pool too. Add captions to your pictures.

Did you use ChatGPT for your "about this space" section? Sounds like it! You could definitely do more to fill out the listing, especially the sleeping arrangements details.

In terms of setup it looks like you sleep 6 but have a dining table that's barely big enough for 4 and living room seating for only two? If you're gonna accommodate 6, accommodate 6. And no offense but I wouldn't call that desk in the middle of the living space a "dedicated workspace."

I don’t know anything about the Miami market so I can’t help you there, but I can tell you that this isn’t a decision that should be made solely on the opinions and anecdotes of people on the internet. You should really go find some hard data (which you will probably need to pay for from a company like Airdna) to inform your decisions.

Well this is a blast from the past, but hey, glad SOMEONE figured out the search function! 

So, UPDATE: we have now converted all of those units to STR, so a quad and triplex with all STR units. Never had a problem with guest interaction.

And no, we don't self-manage for tax reasons. We self-manage because we have an STR management company that manages over 60 listings.

Agree with you @Carolyn Fuller. Where did this attitude come from that everyone should have a chance to fix problems after guests arrive? That’s insane! Nobody wants their trip disrupted by having to wait for a second cleaning, hot water repairs, etc. Get it right the first time!

And yeah things can break after cleans and during stays and most people are understanding if you can address it quickly. But there are no second chances for a first impression, and there’s no excuse for an unclean place. 

Think of reviews as your obligation as part of the STR community. The whole system is built on honest reviews. If you leave a bad review yeah you are making one guy's life a little tougher, but if you don't you could be misleading hundreds of other people into a bad experience.

Yikes this is tough. I'm an "extreme ownership" guy so you've got to take some accountability here. You need to know your property inside and out. But if I'm being honest I'd never have thought to look at this and probably wouldn't have noticed it.

The flipside is that the guest obviously did something dumb parking in a handicap spot, and perhaps also by driving without updating her registration (it can be done in minutes online).

I don't think you owe the guest anything from a financial perspective, just a sincere apology and whatever you can do to straighten it out between the HOA and the tow yard.

"Hospitality" does not mean financial compensation for every inconvenience your guest experiences or stupid thing they do.

I’d probably go more towards something like a bottle of wine or a gift basket like @Collin H. mentioned. I don’t like the restaurant gift card because it pigeon-holes them and they probably had other plans already, and the Visa card just feels like cash which, I dunno, seems a little tacky?