All Forum Posts by: Eric Sztanyo

@Shane Kelley A big opportunity often overlooked with vacation rentals is "non-vacationy" markets. 

Everyone thinks about Florida, California, etc., when they think about vacation rentals. However, I owned and operated a successful vacation rental in Newport, KY (just on the other side of downtown Cincinnati). 

I originally stumbled into the idea with my own personal property a few years earlier in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati. While I thought that no one came to Cincinnati for vacations, I underestimated the demand for a home that could host a larger group. Not everyone is traveling for vacations. Some come for business. Others for wedding. We had several people who were in town because of Cincinnati's Children's Hospital. 

Point is - the vacation rental model can work in any mid-sized city with a decent population. Then, it's all about providing an excellent experience and great management. 

Don't overlook the smaller non-vacationy cities! 

But, BIG warning - be sure to know the zoning laws well. 

Hey @James Folsom, 

You have your eye on a few good neighborhoods in Northern KY. Bellevue is great for rentals, but the inventory can get snatched up in a hurry. It's definitely a place where a lot of the kids who grew up in NKY, but now are becoming young professionals tend to buy/rent because of the emergence of OTR, close to jobs in Cincy, etc. 

So, to your question - the low inventory is a good sing. 

I don't know as much about Southgate. 

Newport is interesting. There is definitely a distinct line at Washington Avenue that divides the city, so just be sure to do your research here. Covington is spotty too, so just do your research. Some great places, some not so great. @Garth Kukla lives in the area and knows it well, so he could give you some good info. 

@Account Closed mentions, a House Captain can be a great idea. I've placed one of the more responsible tenants in charge of rent collecting, utilities, etc., and they become my primary point person. I'll offer this person a discount on their individual portion of their rent for their efforts. That has worked really well for me over the years. 

As for cleanliness, this will ALWAYS be an issue between multiple roommates - especially young college kids. It depends on how active you want to be with the group, but in my situation, I generally know most of the tenants who come into the house as they are part of a ministry that I was associated with. I used the cleaning and general roommate struggles that occur as a way to encourage them to grow in maturity as young men - not to run away from such issues, but face them head on. 

Hope that helps. 

I'm still learning how the community works best, but as of now, I am connecting with colleagues because: 

1. They are Local - I'm trying to learn from and network with more Greater Cincinnati investors
2. Experts - They seem to be an expert in some overlapping field where I am trying to learn
3. Possible Partnership - There is a potential partnership that could benefit each of us
4. Experienced - They take time to answer questions, have a significant BP profile status, and demonstrate that they will help where they can. 
5. People are Cool - I like people ... generally. So, if you have a cool pic, or bio, or whatever, I may just want to be your Colleague because I think you are cool. (And that's even spoken by an introvert). 

I will admit that the Colleague, Following, Follower system as it currently works is a bit confusing. I am happy to see BP take a look at this feature and see how they can improve it. As others have mentioned, seems like you can downsize this feature and make it work more like people are used to on other popular social media sites. 

Yup. Good advice @Jay Hinrichs. Thanks.

Lol ... ahhhh, this makes much more sense. Clearly, I thought your reply were questions directed at me. Thanks for the additional insight. Yes, there is no question the bar seems to be low, and I was weary because of that fact. Felt good about who I met with yesterday and their track record and level of professionalism.

Wow, @Jay Hinrichs, I thought this was a place I could ask questions and gain wisdom from experienced investors like yourself, not a place to get berated. 

I've been investing for 5 years, but I've never purchased from a wholesaler before. In my city right now, inventory is low, and I decided to test the waters with wholesalers as a form of acquisition. I don't really see an issue with that. Of course, I had a list of questions, but I wanted to see how other investors have approached this relationship. Yes, @Account Closed, I wanted to see comps, property calculations, more info, etc. 

The heart of my question was - how do you find wholesalers you can trust? For example, I've met with a few locally now and I've known fairly instantly who I can trust and who I can't. One group in particular has set up their operation in a way that they do not invest personally in SFHs anymore because they saw it as a conflict of interest with their investors. They didn't want to be perceived as picking off the best properties for themselves, so now, they invest in multi-families. I think that is pretty legit and a selling point for me as an investor. 

Other questions I had asked were - 

1. How many properties have you sold this year? 
2. How many clients do you have?
3. How much repeat business do you get? 
4. Tell me about your business. 
5. Tell me about you, personally. 
6. Do you have connections to contractors? 
7. What's the average time for one of your flips?
8. Where in town are your properties? 
9. How do you come up with your ARV?
10. How do you come up with your rehab budget? 
11. Do you include holding costs in your profit estimate? 
12. Do you have stats for how accurate your ARVs have been? 

... And many other questions as the conversation went on. 

So, I had a number of questions for myself. I simply wanted to ask the community what they look for. 

Hey everyone, 

When interviewing different wholesalers in any given area, what questions do you ask that help you determine if you want to work with them? 

Thanks!

Hi @Jamila Monaco-Woods, 

Here is the website for OREIA - https://oreiaconvention.com/

Good luck on your education quest! This is a great site to dive in on. 

@Jacob Murphy - Very cool. Yeah, to do something larger than one house at a time (perfectly good strategy), I have been seeking out partners with experience - something I learned from the Real Estate Guys over the years. 

With Robert and Russ, I was a fan for years. They happened to be in Indianapolis last year, and I reached out to them, brought them a variety six pack of Cincinnati craft beers, and started a relationship. 

I worked with them for about a year helping them with their online marketing and their different events - Syndication, Summit at Sea, Creating Your Future (Goals). Part of the arrangement was that I could attend the events as well, which was great. I helped with their SEO, podcast, blog, email marketing, etc., and was able to learn a TON from them and meet some great people within their network. One of whom was Gene Guarino, and I've been pursuing Residential Assisted Living in the Cincinnati area as well. 

It was a great experience, and I'm much better as an investor and a marketer for it.