All Forum Posts by: Denise H.

So as an update I just got my quote from California Fair Plan, because there is STR use I was told I need to get a commercial plan which is $5592, then I need the additional policy to cover what CFP doesn't cover for an extra $1600?!! I really am pulling my hair out, it is a 1200 square foot 3/1 cabin, how in the world can the insurance be this high??

I know there have been many STR insurance discussions but I am in a serious bind here. Our property is in Lake Arrowhead which is a high fire risk area, the only company I could find to insure us for STR coverage was Proper at a cost of $4500 per year. We've been insured with them for a year and just got a notice that they will not be renewing due to the fire danger. I have reached out to CBiz and they will also not provide fire insurance. What do I do?? Anyone have any other providers that have recently come into the market by any chance? Anyone in the mountain areas of CA having this issue? Would love some guidance!

@Jennifer Carter, So I'm happy to report our only problem has been that our cabin is always booked and we have only been able to use it 5 days since we bought it. We are at 100% occupancy for August and only had 2 days not booked in July and have had every weekend booked since October. I really attribute this to a few factors; 1. our location, it's only about a 5 minute walk to the lake and village, 2. our management company is seriously top notch and provides a dock with kayaks and SUP's, and 3. our home is very nicely updated with everything you could need. With that being said we are making a profit but not it's not a lot, making money wasn't the goal, just to cover the costs and be able to use it occasionally. What neighborhood are you looking at? We are off Mittry.

Does your rental income include the cleaning fees and HOT that you pass on to your renters? 

I have a STR in Lake Arrowhead that we purchased in October. The expenses that I didn't fully account for have been STR insurance (almost $400 per month due to extreme fire danger, regular homeowners insurance won't protect you), snow removal (about $200 per month December/January), clearing of lot required by county annually ($250), very high utilities (our Jan-March average for gas and electric this year was 402 per month). The upside has been that we have been rented all but one weekend and are at 100% occupancy for July and August. We do use a property manager who takes 30%, honestly couldn't handle all the day to day stuff ourselves, but when it is all said and done we make a very small profit. We love the property and are planning on it more as a second home for our retirement years and are happy it pays for itself in the mean time. Good luck to you!

@Eric Mcginn I just looked back over my spread sheet for this Jan-April, we are slightly over break-even. I feel pretty good about this as we are heading into the summer busy season, then the holidays where the bulk of our profit should be made. It will be interesting to see how we end our first full year. Financially we are happy with the results but it wasn't really our plan going in to run a full-time STR. The company we use primarily only manages there own properties, because they previously owned ours they offered to continue to manage for us. I will pm you there link.

@Eric Mcginn We closed on our home in Lake Arrowhead in October so this is our first go round as well! We kept the property manager that previously owned it as they were keeping it booked and allowing us to be completely hands off. They did tell us that May is their slowest month historically, we had 22 days booked in April, and will end May with 10. The good news is our summer is almost completely booked. I know they did drop prices for May and offered some sort of promotion, I will have to go back and see what it was. We are walking distance to village which I believe is a positive for us. Good luck to you, I'm sure your summer will be great!

We pay 30% which I though was very high. Our intent when we bought it was to take over management but it turned out the company we use does such a great job keeping it booked all the time with zero headaches that we've decided they are more than worth it. Our biggest problem is that it is booked so often we never get to use it.

As the others have said I really don't believe you have enough room to cover the expenses. STR insurance can be very expensive, ours went from 800 per year as a vacation home to 4400 when we converted to STR.

Lake Arrowhead, CA