All Forum Posts by: Garrett Brown

Hospitable, Pricelabs, and Turno. The holy trinity of STRs lol I get around 70% direct bookings on my unique stays because of social media. My regular style houses are about 70% airbnb and 20% direct, and 10% booking.com/vrbo.

I would be concerned if you are the only one doing this in your area and also, I'd rather Airbnb be the enemy of the guest by adding their service fee than me be the enemy because I have to raise my prices by 12%. Airbnb is trying to shift the consumer mind frame of "outrageous Airbnb fees being charged" so it's more like a hotel I would guess with this effort. Just like how people say "hotels don't charge cleaning fees!" when in reality, it is baked into their pricing. 

I love it when they highlight the success stories of STRs and the benefits added. Thanks for sharing, Mike! 

One of the most significant benefits to owning an STR is the benefits it brings come tax season. Luckily, while I am not a CPA (not even close), BiggerPockets partnered with Hospitable (the #1 STR Management software) and Amanda Han, CPA, to bring a FREE STR tax guide to the community. Learn how to save yourself $$$ and stress come tax season every year. Let us know what is the biggest takeaway you found from it!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/resources/real-estate-investme...

@Preston Dean is spot on!  https://www.biggerpockets.com/business/finder/property-manag...


@Andrew Steffens highlighted a good point and something to look into with companies if you truly want someone to handle most of the operations. 

I recommend everyone self-manage their first STR typically and use tools like Hospitable to manage it correctly.
1) you will learn what it takes to manage an STR to know later on if a PM is actually worth it. It's not as daunting as you may think with systems set up and continuous education.
2) Most PM's are expensive and will eat up a significant portion of your revenue and as you have found, often only take listings at certain revenues. 

What is your biggest fear or concern about self-managing? @Arthur Schwartz , Maybe I can help ease your mind or provide a resource. 

Your long-term goals matter the most here and only you can decide that. If you are buying in a non-historical vacation market and are concerned about regulations, I would only buy for a few reasons. 
1) The area has tremendous appreciation rates and you are looking for long-term benefits. 
2) The location could work as an MTR and/or LTR and has the metrics to support this. 
3) It is a fantastic deal with tremendous value add or under-market value purchasing. 

You mention a "million dollar" property and selling in a few years. Appreciation will not be able to truly work if you have to sell in 2-3 years (you still may benefit in a hot market, though).
Is this a million dollar house in Los Angeles? Or in Kentucky? Location matters. Your LTR chances are low for a million houses in a random midwest city. LTR could work on that type of house in areas. 

@Bryant Xavier pretty much gave you all of your possible exits and not it just depends on your goals and location. 

Most STRs do not drain the water after each guest. Hotels and gyms do not. It is debatable how often you need to (I do mine around every 2-4 weeks), but I have times before I had to drain more often, depending on the state it is left in. We charge the guests if the water needs changing due to their fault of not following rules we set out.  Getting a professional to handle the chemicals is the move, or even empowering your cleaners to get hot tub maintenance certified through a program they can take around chemicals from Pool & Hot Tub Alliance. Check with your insurance company about requirements that need to be met. 

Hey Amy! Congrats on getting it started. Do you have any units you manage already? How do you plan on finding leads? Have you told everyone you know that you are starting this venture to see if they know anyone?

Like mentioned above, Local facebook groups are a good start. You can also find STRs listed on places like Airbnb, VRBO, etc. See who has poor reviews or seemingly bad management and use something like PropStream to find the owner based on the cross streets and exterior of the house. Get the owner's contact information through a record-searching website and reach out. If you have prior experience, it will help tremendously to make them switch. If not, you will need to really sharpen your presentation on the benefits you will provide to the owner. I think there are plenty of videos to learn from on YouTube about co-hosting and STR management. Most master classes just repurpose YT videos into the same type of content in the class.

Seaside/Rockaway Beach is the winner on that list based on data and yields. Where did you pull your data from? I'm broadly showing closer to $300 ($299-311) ADR and 59% Occupancy rates on AirDNA research. 

A few questions and I think you'll get your answer.
1) Can you actually rent this out as an STR? Does the city allow it? Does the HOA?
2) Is it furnished? If not, prepare to spend quite a bit furnishing it as in $20,000+ and probably way more
3) Are you wanting to become more active in investing and hosting? STRs demand more time even though alot of things can be automated. you will managing cleaners, damage, guest experience, supplies, and more.
4) Use AirDNA to see what an estimate of revenue can be, check Airbnb in your local neighborhood to see if anyone else if getting higher rates, and use BiggerPockets STR calculator to see what common expenses you may be forgetting. What is your revenue now?
I pulled the AirDNA #'s for you for 4-5 Bedroom homes in Folsom. These are jsut blanket averages though.

$61.3K

+12%

54%

-1%

$376.34

+11%

$201.78

+9%

In this particular situation and the market, I'm going to guess that you are more intelligent as an LTR and trying to figure out how you bring in more income or lower expenses on that side. If the unit is already furnished (or you have a budget to get it ready) and allows STRs, it may change some things.