All Forum Posts by: Ian Fortney

Fellow Texas Hill Country Host. Started this March and have had a lot of success. A lot of people have stated about listing photos and design but I’m going to a different direction, your listing description and pricing strategy

Pricing
You need to get Pricelabs or an equivalent tool. It will help out so much. I see your price is static and you are leaving so much on the table. Why would a Tuesday be the same price as a prime Saturday in the middle of busy season (Oct-Dec)? This should be priority #1. I would personally go lower than what pricelabs suggests for the average daily rate and slash weekday prices. You need reviews and people in your place and that will help

Listing Details
Your house is great and you can see you spent so much time on it which is awesome. I know you know the ins and outs of the house but most people are going to skim. You should use bullet points at the top of the your property section. Example for mine:

NEW DEAL: Partnership with 290 Wine Shuttle! Enjoy 20% off using our unique code!

What sets the Peach Orchard Haus apart?
✓ LOCATION! 5 minute walk (4 blocks) from Main Street
✓ Remodeled 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a sunroom
✓ 2 king beds; perfect for couples
✓ Expansive back porch with a table for outdoor dining!
✓ Fire pit with seating for the group
✓ Fully stocked kitchen with all your cooking essentials and spices
✓ Weber Charcoal Grill (BYOC)
✓ Offset smoker for the BBQ enthusiasts
✓ Parking for up to 5 cars
✓ Fenced and furnished backyard
✓ Washer and Dryer ensuite

That section right there gives the guest all the quick hitters and why they should stay with us. I give a lot more details if they want, but I want to grab their attention early with what we know.

Also, you reference local partnerships, why mention that if you don't list them? Means nothing to the guest unless they realize it aligns with what they are doing. I've had multiple people book and then say they booked for my discount code above, which to me is silly since I'm not the lowest cost STR in town.

once again, you are doing good and I’m nitpicking. The fact that you are here and trying to get better is awesome! Keep up the good work!

Totally agree @Robin Simon. Could you imagine having a bunch of STRs in Dallas and then the city randomly pulling the rug out from you?

For those who don't know, Dallas had a wide sweeping ban with no exceptions

Current STR owner in Fredericksburg. I used Stacey Lancaster (she's pretty active on Bigger Pockets) and she was fantastic. 10/10 would recommend to a friend. She specifically does a lot of STRs, so I believe she's the go-to in the area.

As for Fredericksburg itself, I agree with @Evan Tuuk. I would look at the zoning map when purchasing a house in Fredericksburg. Our house is in the R2 zone (4 blocks off main) and the process to transfer the permit back in March was a breeze. I will say that from my discussions with the City during my due diligence, they really seem to be cracking down quite a bit on STRs. You can find the latest and greatest ordinances here. There's also a STR Alliance in Fredericksburg that works with the city. I believe when I was checking with the city, they were proposing a few more new changes. I can't remember exactly, but I believe the main ones had to do with additional parking restrictions and water. Water had to do more with pools and hot tubs. They were cracking down on how often you can use city water to refill them. Doesn't affect us, but it would affect anyone with a hot tub because it would really hinder your ability to refill it. If you wanted to refill it more than the city allows, you would have to get private water to come to your house. My best piece of advice is to buy a house with an existing permit. Even when we got ours transferred, they were super strict when it came time  to an inspection. We passed, but even little things like  string lights or not having a grate over the fire pit were big concerns.

Overall the numbers in Fredericksburg are staying the same compared to 2022 in my experience. The extremely hot summer has subdued the demand this month though. I would buy again if I had the chance.

Why I choose Fredericksburg?

- regional / drivable destination (I've personally rented out a bunch of Airbnbs here)

- already established STR laws (while very strict, they have shown to grandfather in permits and haven't proposed a flat out ban that would also retroactively take away permits)

- Fredericksburg also fights new hotels just as hard as STRs. This is why you don't see a bunch of national chains near main street

- numbers made sense compared to other regional destinations (Gulf Shores, Smokey Mountains, Galveston, ect.)

@James Breese hi James! I was in the same boat as you about 4 months ago. In March we closed on a house in Fredericksburg (shout-out to @Stacey Lancaster for being an awesome realtor). I can only speak towards Fredericksburg since that’s the area we zeroed in on, but your goals are definitely possible. Heck, our place alone had a revenue of 92k the year before we purchased. That being said, I still believe they were priced inefficiently, especially during the week days.

Now onto occupancy. I really don’t think you should look at that number. We have constantly been over 50%, but like @Avery Carl mentioned, it’s an extended weekend destination. Almost all our bookings are Thurs - Sun and that’s where we make our money. Outside of holidays or eclipses (April 8-9th next year), we lower our prices quite a bit to get it booked during the week. That being said, we are on target to surpass the revenue numbers from last year.

One piece of advice with Fredericksburg is to buy a house that has a STR permit because they are getting harder to get. Ours had a permit but we still had some issues with getting past the code due to new restrictions on fire places and string lights (nothing crazy).

Side note, I stayed at an Airbnb in dripping springs this weekend. Great area and I would look into it as well. My only thing is that IMO there isn’t as much around compared to Fredericksburg where the wineries and enchanted rock are the big draws

Hi all - 

We are about to close on our first STR in a couple weeks and wanted to get a rental agreement put together before we go live. I was wondering if anyone here had any recommendations for attorneys they have used in the past. For reference, our STR will be in Fredericksburg, TX.

Thanks!

@V.G Jason glad you had those conversations prior! I’m assuming you did with this being your 10th property but wanted to double check in case :)

Hi!  

Wanted to post some things here to make sure you are good to go on STRs in Fredericksburg.

Can you share the address or which zone the property is? If you don't know which zone your property is in, you can find it here

Depending on what zone you are in will really determine some of the requirements for your STRs. As you probably know, last year they past stricter STR laws with STR Ordinance No. 2022-13. The major changes with this compared to the previous ordinance is parking, occupancy limit and lot size requirements.

Lot size requirements: 

- R1: 7,500 sq ft lot or 10,000 sq ft if building a guest house or accessory unit) minimum  

- R2:  5,000 sq ft lot minimum

- R3: 7,500 sq ft lot minimum

Looking at those minimum lot sizes, there's a potential that none of your houses will qualify for a STR permit. Now if you were in R2, then your first house will, but not the other two. Granted, there's a lot of different zones and yours may not be one of the ones above. Before proceeding, I would not only read over the ordinance, but also talk to Jan Musgrove who looks over STR permits for Fredericksburg.

I am currently under contract and set to close pretty soon on a STR in R2, which is how I am intimately familiar with these ordinances. Let me know if I can answer any other questions!

@Gregory Schwartz as an Aggie and STH, I would really watch out when pricing your Airbnb in BCS. Myself along with a bunch of my friends will book airbnbs the second the college football schedule drops. Even pricelabs can’t beat changing a price that fast. I would just ensure you don’t allow booking that far in advance and/or have a season where those weekends are already super high.

I haven’t fully vetted airbnbs in college station, but I know you can do pretty well if you maximized game days and graduations. Keep in mind thanksgiving 2024 is going to rake in a ton of money with the rivalry game returning

@Joseph Beilke totally agree with your assembly of Jaco. We’ve also looked around Quepos, Manuel Antonio, playa conchal and Tamarindo, but none of the numbers worked out…even when I really wanted them to. Good luck on your RE journey in Costa Rica / in general!

@Joseph Beilke we are getting married in Jaco, Costa Rica in a month and thought the same. The issue is, like many others pointed out, that the numbers just don’t make sense. We looked at a few areas, admittedly most in gated communities catering to American / European tourists and the numbers never really worked out. Most were breakeven at best.

Doesn’t mean you can’t find a good deal, but from our quick search while we were there in May 2022, none of the places came close to meeting our criteria