All Forum Posts by: Jasen Bankson

We have a few projects going in the OKC area right now and the contractor/crew we work with have over tasked themselves and are taking too long to finish projects.  We have a couple underway that we are looking to finish up and are hoping to connect with a few good options in the area that could finish them up.  Does anybody have contractors they have worked with in the area that they would recommend that are reliable, will do a decent job and have reasonable pricing?

On a different note, I have a house that I need to do some minor finish work on (single window replacement, lay some LVP...~400sqft, do some trim & paint touchup work inside and some exterior painting and some backsplash tile) that I think a general handyman-type would be well suited to do in a couple days work.  Any recommendations for this?

The houses I'm referencing are in Shawnee, OK, about 45 mins from downtown OKC.  So, ideally the folks would be closer to there, but if they have to come from OKC we can certainly consider that as well.

Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback!  I appreciate it.  I think Waivo seems like the best fit for my situation.  I still haven't had success reaching Safely and it sounds like they may only be catering to PMs based on an email I got from them in response to my interest.

I just spoke with Waivo and I think it could be a good fit.  They handle up to $5000 in damage coverage with no deductible.  Seems like a good way to be covered for damages caused by guests for cases that would be most common.  I reached out to Safely, but haven't been able to get a call back.  I did get an email but it sounds like you HAVE to be using a PMS to use their service?? That could be wrong, but I can't get anybody on the phone to talk to and ask those questions (which is red flag number 1 for me...if you can't get the sales dept on the phone it's gonna be hard to get claims on the line.  I tried reaching out to them 3 times over the last week without getting a hold of somebody).  There is another company out of the UK called SuperHog.  Goofy name, but it seems like the right kind of coverage and includes guest screening.  My concerns with them is that they are based in the UK (not sure it would really matter, but all the agreement details you sign references UK law and such which makes me curious about compliance with US law and if something substantial goes wrong that involves court / legal proceedings) and there seems to be info about data security questions when looking at reviews online (that's not great) and the name is so goofy that it's going to be something I have to explain to customers is not a scam every time I point them their direction to do screening and that seems like a problem for me and being professional with customers, so that doesn't seem like a good fit for me.  It does seem like a fairly small space in the market at the point.

Hey! I rent my home out for weekends about 5-7 times a year sometimes through AirBnb/VRBO, but some customers like to book direct and we can avoid fees and such of the third party. As such, I'm interested in a third party company that handles damage insurance and I can pay on a per booking basis. I have found a few (superhog, safely, proper?) and they appear to have decent coverage from what I see, but it sounds like reviews are mixed in terms of how customers feel about it considering they are not as well known as the booking companies. Does anybody have experience with any of these companies (or similar) and recommend a specific service? I'm mainly interested in damage insurance to cover accidental (or not) damage to contents of the property that could occur during a stay. Screening is nice, but in the end we do that already to some degree and don't do a real high volume, so that service isn't as valuable to us. Any recommendations? (This home is our primary residence and we do have an STR endorsement already on our homeowners policy)

Hey!  Thank you for the feedback...this is all GREAT information!  It is consistent with others I have spoken with offline and helps a ton!  When it comes to pricing, I have heard AirDNA over and over again as a good resource, which I plan to utilize, however, given the demand these weekends command I'm not sure that will be accurate.  I plan to list high and then as the dates approach considering lowering to (what I consider) my low threshold.  Any advice on how long to wait before reducing? 2 weeks? 1 week? several days?  more/less?  Is it better to offer that in the form of a discount?  Or as a lower listing price?

Also, ideally the visitors book 3 nights (but we only expect 2).  Would it be a good strategy to give a hefty discount for the 3rd night to try to encourage booking?  For instance, if booking for say $1,000/night (first 2 nights) offer the 3rd night for $400 since at that point it is low hanging fruit to have somebody stay 1 extra night?

Alternately, we don't plan to rent a lot during the year, so MAYBE it's better to keep the price high and just try to book as close to 14 nights as possible for the 14 day tax benefit since once we cross that threshold we have to do about 6-7 more days just to cover taxes before we start making money again (and we don't really want to rent a lot more than 14 days anyway)...as I think through it I think this makes more sense than offering a 3rd night discount.  Any other pricing tips?

Hi!  I live right next to Clemson University in Upstate South Carolina and am considering renting my home on game weekends in the fall and on graduation weekends.  Those weekends everything in town is booked up and there is high demand for places for people to stay near the university.  My family has a place to go out of town and we hear about people renting their homes on those weekends and doing well so we think we may try it.  I'm looking for some advice, experience / thoughts from people that may rent their primary residence periodically like this to get an insights on things to know, be aware of, pitfalls to avoid, etc.  I haven't done STRs before, but have done a lot of other real estate (long term, flips, notes, etc).  A couple things we are considering related to this are:

- This is our primary, so we don't HAVE to rent it.  We are just looking to capitalize on some high demand, so from a pricing standpoint I'm trying to 'price it to be worth it', but still be reasonable enough to get some bookings

- We are planning to leave our stuff in the house and just put things away that we care about and lock up stuff we don't want people into.  Any advice on what to leave vs. put away (i.e. family photos, clothes in closets, kids toys, etc)

- We have a large house and could sleep 15-20 people.  Thoughts on larger groups like this?  I would be charging a pretty high price (since it could be 3 or so families splitting) and I'm heard this generally will keep the riff-raff away. True? False? (I know there are always cases where people cause problems, but generally speaking a high price rental is going to help avoid that I think??) I obviously don't want to have a party house, so I want to avoid that, but would like to use the full potential for the house to get the best rate I can.  I plan to list through Airbnb since they have insurance and screen people

- I plan to have professional photos taken for the listing to have it present really well. Anything specific/out of the ordinary to have photos of beyond the usual?

- What's the best way to establish 'house rules'?  In the listing and posted around the house?  Any house rules examples that anyone already uses that they'd be willing to share?

And I'm open to any other info those of you with experience have to offer!

Thank you!

I'm not going to make it tonight because of another commitment, but next time!  See you then!

@Jay H. Wow, congrats!  Sounds like it was worth it for sure.  I'm interested in hearing about the 'secret sauce' as well.  Thanks for sharing your experience!

@Brett Russell , thanks for the thought, and I agree.  I'm not going into the deal offering asking price.  It is a low price offer on a property that I know history on and stand the opportunity to get the house at a discount.  The question is, in this kind of a deal, does the assignment process work the same way?  or are there additional considerations?

I have a lead on a property that I may be able to buy in the price range I need to, but it is currently listed for sale with a realtor.  Because of this, what would the closing process look like for this property if I was assigning the contract?  Would it be any different than doing an off-market deal?  Would I need to do a double closing in this scenario, or would it still be assignable just like any other deal?  Likewise, I assume that if I can assign or do a double close just like a normal off-market deal, then the flow of the money should be the same too, correct?  Anything else to keep in mind for this type of deal (other than the obvious it will be tough to agree on price because of the realtor fees involved)?