All Forum Posts by: George A. Douty II

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @George A. Douty II:

They also don't want their kids playing in a yard with dog poop in it...so you have to find a way to have dog poop picked up regularly. 

Unless you are really struggling to book your property, I would try other things first, adding more unique features, etc, before allowing pets. It brings about a whole set of issues that are hard to fully understand until you are in the middle of it. 

Even if the poo is picked up regularly, there is still the residue and smears...no one wants their little kids in that. And yeah, the point I keep making over and over is why? Why go to all the trouble to deal with pets?

I suspect most people allowing pets or suggesting others do it are only dealing with 1 or 2 properties. As with all things in STR, the bad things get worse and the good things get better when you scale up. Our experience was that at 5 properties it is not feasible to maintain our standard of cleaning when allowing pets. It also added too much additional communication and management for what amounts to very little fee income. 

We started with No Pets allowed, switched to Allowing up to 2 pets, then went back to No Pets at all but 1 property. So 4 of 5 are No Pets currently. The problem is not necessarily direct damages to things, its the hair, dog poop in the yard, dirt/mud on floors and furniture, pee on the rugs, etc. But they will eventually damage your cabinets, blinds, rugs, etc. Another issue is the management of it...Tons of questions from prospective guests...its says 2 pets, but can I bring 3...It says 25lb max but my pet is 35lbs...I have 6 dogs but they are all REALLY well trained...and on and on...It's endless and it is a pain to deal with. Then you have to coordinate with your cleaning team regarding when or if there are pets, bc they charge additional fee's and have to perform additional services when pets are staying. We use our 1 pet friendly property as a way of having that to some degree, but I don't recommend it generally speaking. 

Another issue is that the longer you allow pets, the more pet bookings you will get proportional to your non-pet bookings. People without pets typically do not want to stay in pet friendly houses. They definitely don't want to sit down on the couch and get up with pet hair on their clothes. And yes, this will happen, I don't care how good your cleaning team is. They also don't want their kids playing in a yard with dog poop in it...so you have to find a way to have dog poop picked up regularly. 

Unless you are really struggling to book your property, I would try other things first, adding more unique features, etc, before allowing pets. It brings about a whole set of issues that are hard to fully understand until you are in the middle of it. 

The question should really be whether or not STR's are actually prohibited or not. POA's and the like send out cease & desist orders all the time that are not justified under state or federal law. These cases are being litigated all over the country and in many cases have gone in favor of the STR owner. Insinuating that someone is going to go to jail if they don't comply with a cease & desist order is presumptuous and I would argue it sends the wrong message regarding the STR industry and it's potential investors.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Canyon Lake.

Purchase price: $264,000
Cash invested: $60,000

Short Term Rental in Texas Hill Country.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This is our path...we walk without fear

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We knew the builder from a previous deal, made a fair offer.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional Loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Expand driveway, add front porch, added to back patio, all new furnishings.

What was the outcome?

It's operating as a STR.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Turns out we do know what we are doing, lol

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Angie Douty, Realtor

Not sure how long this trend will last, but for the past year or so the increasing demand is on vacation areas that are within driving distance of major cities. Within 3 hours is commonly used for "driving distance". That may give you some additional criteria to narrow your search. We narrowed it down to the most attractive given our criteria and then bought the AirDNA data for those locations. From that point it's really a matter of comparing the data and then using other resources to verify/confirm, like looking at the actual AirBNB listing in that area to see what the calendars and listing prices look like. 

I would also get a local realtor in whatever areas you are serious about. One that has STR experience. Many realtors now days own rental properties or even STR's, so they can often provide valuable insight.

We provide Internet and a Smart TV, which has all the popular apps (Netflix, Hulu, AmazonPrime, Etc.) loaded on it. The guests log into those apps using their own credentials. Additionally, we have Samsung Plus, which is a free streaming service that for the most part is comparable to "basic cable", but without the local channels. It has a full menu, looks and feels like basic cable. We create an email account per property and use that to setup the free Samsung Plus account and keep it logged in. 
When we setup and furnished our STR last year, the internet/tv service provider would only install internet. Cable TV was not considered an essential service, so due to Covid they would come setup Internet but not Cable TV. So we didn't have an option, we were a bit concerned that guests would want Cable TV, but we couldn't do anything about it. So we just did the best we could with what was available and it turns out the guests don't mind at all. No complaints and all 5 Star reviews.

@Richmond D Kopp Welcome! My wife and I have an investment property near you. 

Looks like you have done some good prep work getting things lined up. You are entering the market at an unprecedented time, where all the major cities in TX are being overrun with buyers. This, among other things is pushing a lot of people outward to the less populated areas. So buying is quite challenging right now, things are moving very fast and at high prices, often above list price.  

But still, even with the market the way it is, I would say to make offers and don’t be afraid of the unknown. Run the numbers and take action. Your first deal will teach you more than any person or group can. The sooner you get that first deal done, the better off you will be. 

Pricelabs, Stessa, Ring Doorbell, Schlage Automated Lock...These are the most critical in my opinion, and the ones I use myself. 

I would take the AirDNA data with a grain of salt... We found that it does not do a good job accounting for hosts that block dates vs actual booked dates, and I don't think it accounts for direct bookings at all. It is good to get some baselines and averages, but I wouldn't rely on it as a single source for decision making. 

If you don't have a good reliable cleaner, you won't have a STR :)

@Andrew Haney We use Stessa for our STR property. From what I know about how Stessa works, I don't see a way to show the PM fee withholding automatically. Since Stessa works based on pulling the transactions from a bank account, and your PM fee is not showing up as a transaction, I think it would have to be entered manually. We actually found Stessa support helpful and responsive to our questions on how the software worked, so I would definitely try that route for your specific question if you have not already.

@Ian M. We had the same or similar transaction downloading issues, some missing, some duplicated, etc. Rather than waiting for them to find a fix for the downloading error, we found it easiest to just manually adjust the transactions for the initial download, then on a going forward basis it has been correct and pretty easy to manage the income/expense allocations. 

From what I can gather, you are aiming towards being a LTR Landlord, STR Owner/Operator, New home builder, and Large SBA funded Business Owner/Operator. All while maintaining a relationship with your serious girlfriend that will be 55 miles away...Any one of those endeavors would be challenging, combining them all seems very challenging. You established that your previously owned STR was not manageable due to work stress, so I would question why you would want to add more STR's now while also starting a new business, or at least question if that is sustainable. The consumer expectations of STR Hosts are not going to drop, as more professional STR hosts enter the market (which they are at a rapid rate), consumers will demand more, and hosts will have to deliver to stay competitive. Better service, better response times, better amenities, better prices, etc., etc. Personally speaking, I think you are underestimating the demand of all the different endeavors you are laying out here. It may be helpful to look at a way to consolidate/streamline your endeavors and then determine how to best deal with the properties/equity to fit. More so than letting the properties dictate your endeavors. That's just my opinion based on the original post...