All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth Conklin

My STR in Upstate NY is relatively new and I have mostly had success with seasonal rentals and now working with a property manager to rent weeks/weekends. I use VRBO and Air B&B-are there other platforms folks would recommend?

Are there other strategies you use to promote your listing in a competitive market or lower season (blogging, ads in paper, etc)?

Thanks!!

I am looking at options to fund investments to expand our vacation rentals in the Dominican Republic. Have others obtained lending for projects outside the country? I am aware of opportunities through partnerships but wondering whether there are other lenders or ways to scale overseas without using all of our own cash.  Thanks!

Quote from @John Underwood:

We leave something sweet in the fridge, we check on them after arrival, we let them know if they can arrive early after cleaners finish up, we leave them a review and contact them to say we left them a 5 star review and would appreciate if they could do the same for us.

We are near 100% of people that leave a review.

Thanks John! That’s great. I love the details and agree that they go a long way! 

Great-super appreciate the tips. It looks like one shouldn’t expect 100% of guests to review but the personal touch of following up goes a long way. Thanks!!

I have a new STR that just entered air b&b. It has been fully booked but very few guests have left reviews. Our property manager is very communicative and requests reviews but we have only had a few to date.

 Any creative ideas about how to incentivize guests to leave a review?

Quote from @Kevin Luttrell:

Just curious, how did you determine that your credit score dropped from this HELOC? What are you using to monitor your credit? Credit Karma?

There are many different credit scoring models out there, and even the most prevalent scoring model, FICO, has multiple different versions that calculate your scores differently. 

I’ve noticed credit utilization has a much greater impact with the vantage score model (Credit Karma) than the FICO models that most lenders use. So when I rack up my line of credit I see my Credit Karma score drop 100 points, but then when my credit is checked for a mortgage it’s still just as high as it was before I increased the line balance.

Thanks, Kevin. Score showed up through FICO.  So I will check-just want to make sure this is not an impediment for future credit. 

Quote from @Bonnie Low:

It sounds like the HELOC is impacting your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio and that will cause a drop in your credit score. A HELOC can be a substantial loan amount so it can have an outsized effect. Hopefully you're in a position to recycle the HELOC money quickly. If so, you'll see the credit score come back up again. The same thing happened to us. We took an initial hit when we took the HELOC out on our primary, then paid it back quickly when we did a cash out refi on our investment property we had used the HELOC funds to rehab. We kept the HELOC open but the draw was minimized so it didn't hurt much. I think at worst it was a 20 pt hit.

Thanks, Bonnie.  Was your HELOC in your name or LLC?  Agreed I will work to refinance and pay back quickly, as it is impacting my debt to income.  It sounds like to continue expanding my portfolio I will need to open an LLC and apply for loans through that so I don’t hit that threshold with multiple loans.  

Awesome-thanks for your insight!

Unfortunately not. The property is held in my personal name, as is the HELOC. Is this something I could convert later? Perhaps, then, I should proceed with subsequent financing by applying through my LLC rather than personal name to avoid this issue?

Do you have an area in mind for investment? If so, I would suggest identifying areas that have attractions for those vacationing and researching the market (you can look on Air B&B and VRBO for rental potential). There are lots of markets that are ripe for STRs and you can buy a single family or other type of property to convert as a STR. There are lots of colleagues on this forum that manage in the FL markets, for example, which are very hot for STRs right now. Good luck!