All Forum Posts by: Jason Wolohan

I'm a fan of PriceLabs Market Dashboard. It's $10 per month (you can cancel after the initial load as you're not likely to need the data for more than 30 days) and you can select your radius.

You'll be tempted to go for the widest possible radius, but I'd suggest being more narrow, even if it means paying for a couple dashboards. This will help you narrow down to the neighborhood/resort that is most like the property you're looking at.

Once you have the dashboard, it'll give you estimated earnings for the last 365 days, average occupancy, and - my favorite - links to the Airbnb listings of those properties. Generally, I sort by highest revenue, then click my way down each link until I find the sweet spot for where my property would fit immediately. Then I have a goal and an idea of what it would take to move it into the higher tier.

The true answer here is a combination of a few of these sources though. Definitely don't rely on just one.

You'll need to have the property long enough to show up on your taxes. Once it's on your Schedule E a loan officer will be able to use the income generated to offset the debts in your DTI calculation.

The answer to this question is unique to everyone, but if you're concerned with the Due-on-Sale clause, check out BP episode #527 with Pace Morby. He talks about an insurance you can buy in case your loan gets called.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

@Richard Evanns I think you're wise to transition your thinking to STRs bringing the returns that a really good long term rental would bring in. I think you can get a little higher than that still, but it's a little more work and long gone are the days of 50%+ COC in the first year.

Personally, I'm still going for STRs in vacation markets. Here are my reasons:

1) The cashflow is still higher than LTRs and the work required to manage them - especially in a vacation market where the local infrastructure to clean/maintain/etc. is already in place - is not hard with tools like Hospitable and PriceLabs.

2) I've got a W2 and won't meet REPS status, but STRs combined with cost seg studies and bonus depreciation (at least for the next year or two) allow me to offset my W2 income.

3) I'm buying in places that my family wouldn't mind visiting. Although this isn't the primary goal, if we travel in the off seasons we're not necessarily sacrificing too much revenue while having place to vacation ourselves.

Typically the lender will want you to use the property for a portion of the year (at least two weeks) and you won't be able to use the income expected from the property to qualify, like other investment loans might allow. Because you'll need to have the intent of using it for personal use, you'd be limited by not putting long term leases in place or using some property management companies. If you plan to self manage you should be fine.

Hey Jillian -

I'd recommend listening to episode #364 with Avery Carl and #476 with Tony Robinson. There are other episodes with STR as the focus, but these are the two that moved the need for me. Once you listen to those, check out content that Avery and Tony have both put out there on their own YouTube channels/podcasts for more in depth info. Both do a great job of giving steps you can take if you're interested in diving into STRs.

I haven't heard of Your Porter. I'll have to check that out.

A slightly different topic, but related to the reviews. Do you have a travel log or book in your houses that guests can write in? As a guest myself, I like reading through previous guests' comments because this is often times where people reference a good restaurant or hike or whatever so I can get some good ideas. But I'm curious if having one of those logs 1) competes with your online reviews (i.e. are guests who leave their "review" in your travel log less likely to review you online?), 2) are the guests leaving comments in the log that you can't respond to in a timely manner because you only visit the property every once-in-awhile?

Thanks for the vote of confidence Alex! I've got a call with a realtor today in a market I've narrowed it down to and a mortgage broker tomorrow that will hopefully be able to get me a 10% down vacation property loan.

Nice net on that property! I know all properties/markets are different, but our one LTR that (only) nets us $6,276 annually is one of the reasons why we're going STR next (it's a good ROI for us, but I think we can do better with STR). We like to travel ourselves, my wife loves the idea of hospitality and helping others enjoy their vacation, and I like the increased ROI. So it seems like it'll be fun.

I haven't gotten to the point of finding a cleaner yet, but for you, do you have a specific individual(s) or a company? My thought behind the question is this: if it's a company, how will one cleaner to the next know the unique tasks for your property that might be different than the other properties they clean?

My thought was to have a "unique" checklist in the cleaning/supplies closet. Not to micromanage - they know how to clean a house - but for the unique things (like checking the propane tanks, replenishing the welcome basket, or whatever else might be different than a standard cleaning). Has anyone done this? 

Thanks Jimmy. Sound advice! I think you probably don't really know how the neighbors will perceive you once they learn you're doing short term rentals, but they'll find out either way so I'd assume the best thing to do is to build rapport. Hopefully they'd then become another set of eyes on the property for you as well.

Kudos on saving the review. Do you use systems for communication automation in addition to just being generally available during the course of their stay? And on that note, at what point in the stay do you find that guests most likely have an inquiry? I'm sure there are random questions, but is there is a pattern?