All Forum Posts by: Dax Jauhola

Geez, guys - this thread is not about Orlando. I am not interested in Orlando at all and that is a completely different type of STR community.

Suncadia is a resort property with two hotels, 400 vacation homes, four swimming pools, four restaurants, and two golf courses. It's all under the same banner and controlled by one company.

They have the ability to negotiate with the City of Cle Elum, WA, as they are probably its biggest employer. STRs are popular in this city as they create significant amounts of jobs and revenue.

I am shocked that this model is not more popular around the country. If someone had 1,000 acres in Southern California and created something similar, I would invest in that in a second.

I have some experience with Suncadia. We go there every year, love the pools and its an awesome place. We did the real estate tour about 5 years ago and were looking at homes in the $600k range, should have bought as they are now about 2 million. We ended up buying a STR in Scottsdale instead.

We did the real estate tour again 3 months ago but with the amount of cash we have, the home we want to build will be about $14k per month so I projected that it would lose money. 

I would suggest doing the real estate tour, its really the only way to see what they have as many listings that are not on the MLS. They will try to sell you hard though.

Here are the details of your questions though. 

You will be required to pay about $400 per month HOA, this gives you and your guests (who are staying with you) access to the 4 pools. You can use the pools as much as you want.

You have 3 options for Property Management - Suncadia, a local PM or do it yourself. 

#1.  Suncadia takes 42% of all revenue.  They market your property and do light repairs.  Guests get access to the pools.   They do stuff like, they list your property on Hyatt and can take points.  This will give your property the most exposure.  

#2.  Hire a  local PM who will take 20-30%.  They will list house on Airbnb and VRBO (maybe they have their own website)   The kicker with this is guests do not get access to the pools.  

#3.  Manage it yourself and you list home on Airbnb/VRBO.  Your guests will also not get access to the pools.   They have an ID card with your picture on it so you cant even sneak in guests. 

We have owned a STR in Scottsdale for the last 4 years and are getting ready to buy another one. However, like everyone else, we are not really sure about the next market. We live in Seattle, so somewhere on the West Coast would be ideal.

I am not sure if I want to buy another STR in a residential area because of the unpopularity of Airbnb in some areas, such as Southern California. I feel like eventually, these local municipalities will ban Airbnb. In Scottsdale we have Homes not Hotel signs in many of the yards, this is a group trying to ban Airbnb.

In Washington, we have Suncadia and Seabrook. Oregon has Sun River. These are communities that were built to be STRs, zoned as STRs, and will always be STRs. If someone buys a home in one of these communities, they understand that it’s a vacation destination.

I am not exactly sure what these are called or how to search for them? Are there communities like these in California, Colorado, or Utah

Here is Suncadia and Seabrook

https://www.destinationhotels.com/suncadia-resort

https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/seabrook-town-washington-coast