All Forum Posts by: Dina Schmid

Quote from @Brian Barch:

In 3 years I’ve never not had a weekend book out. Hell, most weekdays book out.

all this means, I have to block off months in advance, and not open up my calendar too far in the future

How far in advance do you allow people to book? It sounds like what you're doing is working. 

I think I'm coming to the acceptance that I won't be able to just pop in when I have a free weekend and that I'm going to have to plan far in advance. I wish I had control over how far in advance the calendar was open, but that is up to the PM. 

Quote from @JD Martin:

The main thing I see: don't assume that just because you think it's "popular" right now that you will see this kind of action going forward. You could have just caught the right breeze, or the low rates might have given you a spurt. The area might just be extra popular at this time. You have no way of knowing what your booking rate is going to look like going forward. When I bought my STR, a couple of months after I closed I was killing it with bookings. They were so good I was exceeding my own projections. Last year was back to earth; a glut of available properties drove the rates down for everyone and a drop in visitors also increased vacancies. I use the property myself, but if I couldn't afford to keep the place vacant all year long I'd have been in trouble.

 I do suspect once there are more new rentals in the area that we will go down with the increase in competition. Which will put it more in line with what we were expecting (and what our financial projections are based off of).

Quote from @James Hamling:
Where are you getting this number? It's been widely reported that 73% of people think Trump is doing what he said he was going to do, but he's underwater with his approval rating. 51% disapprove (1ith 40% strongly disapproving) and only 47% approve (with 37% strongly approving).

He has a favorable approval rating of less than 1/2 the US. That's far from 73%.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/02/07/trumps-secon...

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Ok @Dina Schmid, what is the PM charging you? What do you get for it?

I am assuming you know it will lose money most likely?

What is the nightly rate they are charging and how much is it less than others around it?

I've read Avery Carl's book and done a lot of research on (and off) Bigger Pockets. Ran the numbers through two different spreadsheets and am very aware of how much we'll pay to the PM. After joining a Facebook group for local STR owners, and talking to all the major PMs in the area, I concluded that in the time vs money war, I was going with this particular PM. 

I did a search for a summer weekend on AirBnB and the price is in line with the other 2/2 cabins in the area. It almost looks like everyone's using the same pricing software as there was very little variation in pricing. So I guess I can feel better about that.

I'm afraid I might jinx it. I will certainly share the link after we close!

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Hey @Dina Schmid, everyone had some good ideas but...

No cats. They are much more allergenic than dogs overall. If you are also allergic to dogs, then no pets if you want to use it regularly.

Where are these bookings coming from? VRBO and AirBNB? If so, those bookings and the accounts go away. You will need to create new accounts. Then you can manage the calendar. You can just have people rebook if they want.

We bought our lake house for use to use on occasion as well. Frankly we don't use it as much as we thought. We haven't stayed as guests for 2 years. Our calendar fills up fast 9-12 months ahead of time so we have to plan that far ahead. Oftentimes the rest of our family can't make it so we just keep renting it and go somewhere else.

I am thinking you will find that will happen as well.

Can you tell us where it is located? What is the current nightly rate?

This is in the Red River Gorge. I looked the current listing over again and it definitely is listed as "pet" and not "dog" friendly and says it's a "pet fee" and not dog fee. That will have to change. It's also listed as just one fee with no limit on the number or size of pets. Which might be why it's so popular. 

The transfer of bookings is possible because we're going with the same co-hosting/PM.  

I do think we'll go there at least 3-4x/year. We already do that to this area or one of the other nearby hiking areas that we were looking at. So it's not really a change in behavior, but rather a change in accommodations. 

Quote from @Collin Hays:

2. It's a good idea to stay in your own place a few days before you rent it out.

3. Unless you are going to be staying at the place, I would leave it as pet friendly. Folks are going to bring their kitties and dogs regardless of what your policy is.  Over 50 percent of travelers are traveling with pets.

4. A high occupancy in the off season is really good. You didn't buy the house to preserve it, but for it to produce income. Reminds of a friend of mine - bought a brand new Camry but kept it in the garage the whole time because he was afraid someone might scratch it. Kind of defeated the purpose.

5. If it is breaking even, you are doing better than most. You don't want to cancel reservations; that will give you a bad rating. Make your own reservations in advance. 

6. When you stay there, you are essentially renting it from yourself, because you are giving up lost rents while you are there.

1. I'll be pulling the drone photo. Don't know whether I need to notify people that there is/will be construction next door. Thanksgiving is already booked and the development will look different by then.

2. Will require me to cancel a booking or two in order to do this. That's part of the problem.

4. We are buying to use it ourselves as well. Got tired of paying for other people's rentals or making a day trip to the area because we were too cheap to pay someone else. The break-even numbers are based on our use of it for periods of time.

Quote from @Hector Escobar:

I think you have a good problem in your hands. Most other people in STR would only wish they had this type of problem. That being said, the ball is in your court. I'm the same way as you, I like to enjoy my STRs; especially as someone who works remotely. So I would separate the days you want to enjoy it for yourself and if they're already booked, you hold every right to cancel them as long as you provide timely notices, full refunds, maybe even a slight discount for other dates, etc. Make it fair for your guests as well. The pet thing is something that will be tricky to navigate and it may be something you have to deal with at first, however, moving forward set your own rules to your liking. Personally, as an investor, I'm a fan of unique stays that allow for higher rates and less traffic. Just run your numbers adequately and leave a safety cushion to CYA in case bookings drop as you adapt new rules.

We are purchasing to be able to enjoy it ourselves as well. It's in an area we love and visit. I like your suggestion of selectively canceling and offering a discount for rebooking. I wouldn't want to cancel anyone last-minute, but I definitely want to get in there with in a month of closing and experience it from the guest perspective. 

Blocking out dates for the summer and fall won't be a problem once we own it. (Although we will have to work around all the current bookings if we keep them.) Right now we have zero control.

If all goes well with Monday's post-repairs inspection, we should close later in the week on a cabin that we want to use as a getaway for us + STR when we're not using it. It was a new build, shown completely furnished and the builder listed it for use as a STR after we saw it. We knew the place was special, that's why we jumped with a full-price offer. We had no idea just how many other people would think it's special.

The next available weekend is June 6th! There are bookings for the other weekends in June and only five random open days in March. While this is a good problem to have, I'm starting to stress about it for a few reasons I'll put below. I want to note that bookings will transfer, but we're under no contractual obligation to honor them. I'm trying to figure what the best thing is to do moving forward.

Reasons why I'm stressing:
1) There's a drone photo showing no other cabins around. It looks completely isolated. Except that this spring there's going to be a cabin built next door. By fall there might be others. Imagine showing up to a cabin you thought was isolated and finding construction going on?
2) I don't like the idea of renting out a cabin I haven't stayed in myself. I don't know if there's anything missing. It will be a royal PITA to do a one-night stay on a random Wednesday, but it could be done.
3) It's currently listed as pet-friendly with only a $30 pet fee. I'm highly allergic to cats (like super-allergic) and also allergic to most dogs. An extra $30/stay isn't enough for me to have to make myself a zombie on Benadryl in order to sleep there and not wake up with my eyes swollen shut because someone let their dog sleep in the bed.
4) I think it's been priced too low. It's led to incredibly high occupancy rate in the off-season, but I'd rather have a slightly lower occupancy rate in order to reduce wear and tear and leave some weekends open for personal use.

I'm at a loss on what to do about this. On one hand I like that it will probably cash flow (we expected to break even at best) and know there's issues with canceling reservations. On the other hand, I want to be able to enjoy this place too. Any suggestions? How have you handled it when you've purchased a popular existing STR?

If you're counting on getting some financial aid for your children's education, you'll want to take a good look at how owning an investment property (negatively) impacts financial aid. Your home equity you currently have will count as an asset on the CSS Profile, but not on the FAFSA - unless you've taken a HELOC to buy the other property. Home equity in an investment property will count against you on both. If your income is high enough that you won't qualify for financial aid (or you've saved enough in 529s) then it won't matter.