All Forum Posts by: Doreen M ODonovan

Learned about this in the Wall Street Journal article today "Build-to-Rent Home Construction Booms". Curious to see what returns they are forecasting when they build and manage the properties and investors are just supplying the funds.  I sent some inquire emails and see what comes of it. 

Hello neighbors, I have a STR in Tennessee and I am very happy with it. I am now looking for my next one. I will try to jump on the next call. Doreen

My recommendation is to contact a short term rental property manager in the area you are interested in. They can quickly tell you a lot of information, I found much more than the average Realtor. I have had a lot of property managers tell me it's a great market if you want to offset some of your vacation home expenses but won't make much money. I bought in the Gatlinburg market and my property manager helped me every step of the way. They are especially helpful with estimates on gross income for a given address. Our property is income-producing so I am very happy.

@Tamara Recinos I had to furnish my new empty house in 4 weeks so I could rent by Christmas. No regular stores ship that fast. Used Wayfair and Amazon and the local store for last minute items. I paid for a http://Modsy.com designer full package. I had her do the living/dining room to start. She picked furniture and did a rendering. I liked her work and had her do one bedroom and the TV room too. There were pros and cons but I would do it again. Looks better than if I had done it. It didn’t cost much considering the discounts they offer on purchases. It took a while for her to understand the 4 week deadline. If I couldn’t get what she picked out I found something similar that would ship in time. They work with Wayfair, so that helped. Now I say in my listing that the cabin was recently updated with designer finishes. It did add time to wait for her to do her work. My property manager built furniture and set up the rooms. For reference our place rents for $400 - $800 regular and $1,200 a night for the holidays. We spent about $50,000 for 2,700 sq ft, 4 bedrooms. Including pool table, arcade, everything for the kitchen and all bedding except for linens and towels. Bought so many things the week of Black Friday. I saved money but also bought better quality than I would have without the huge discounts. I didn’t have any cash since we just bought the house. Put some of it in an interest free credit card and borrowed from the bank of Mom. It’s all worthwhile as it looks like once the the cards and Mom are paid off we will be netting about $3,000 a month on our $300,000 cash in. $575,000 purchase. (I know that is a lot of cash to put all in one place but compromises must be made when married.)

@Justin Anderson thank you for all of the details. I was going to do Apple TV but it sounds like remotes are an issue. I went with the downloaded App on the Roku TVs. I didn’t think to look at usage. I will check it out.

@Dustin Turner I don’t know if there are any deals In the traditional sense, I wasn’t able to find any. Don’t wait for a deal as prices keep going up and Inventory is down. We bought in Gatlinburg in December and the numbers are looking better than projections - minus April and the 1st 2 weeks of May with $0 income.

@Mary Griffin I think the people that are suggesting you buy out of state are just being realistic. The ROI is just better than other places. Find a place that is profitable even after you farm out all of your management responsibilities. I live in the Bay Area and looked forever for a place with a better ROI than the one I had in Colorado. Last year I ended up buying a short term rental in Tennessee. My friend from the bay area ended up buying a couple of multi units properties in Tucson. We both looked in a lot of markets.  When I first started I did Manage it myself so I understand what you're saying, but that was many years ago. I recommend talking to a lender before you get too far into this. Then you can get all of your questions answered about financing before you get too far into looking for property. A good lender will have a recommendation for a realtor who understands residential investment property. Save yourself a lot of trouble and do it in that order. They know which realtors have their act together. Same thing with property managers, call them and ask who they work with. Good luck. 

I am using Turbo Tax Home & Business and found a bug that is verified by other users on the forum. It is not entering home interest on schedule A unless you go to the Tax & Int Wks form and check "No" for the Does your mortgage interest need to be limited question. As a result you get the standard deduction rather than itemized (If you qualify). Just wanted to let people know. I found it when I noticed that this year and last year's comparisons didn't match up.

@Aly W. The numbers are so different with short term rentals. We are looking at $100,000 a year gross. We would never see that with a long term rental. And the manager’s responsibilities are constant, so worth a lot more. I plan to make 2-3 times what I made on the previous house with the same investment and the much higher expenses. Time will tell but our first two bookings are covering the first two months mortgage.

The reality is everyone's situation is different. I think we made a sound purchase.