All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

You've been a great and steady hand here at BP so it is certainly regretful to see you go, but best wishes on everything moving forward! Thanks for the shout out and for sure don't be a stranger around here! 

 Waste of time. You had an inspection and you bought it anyway. Unless you can prove the sellers knew there was black mold in the walls, termites, etc. you're not going to collect a dime. The inspector doesn't have to open up walls to see what's inside so you're not going to get anywhere there either. You should fix the problems and enjoy your lake house. 

 Not too difficult really. Find comparable land values in that area, that are comparable in size to this lot, with like amenities (say electric/water/sewer already on the lot), and subtract the cost of demolishing and clearing the existing structures. Doesn't sound rentable unless you're going to build new on the property. 

 Preach it Brother Joe! :)

 There's not going to be a good temporary solution to this unless your cleaner really wants to get involved in keeping up the fountain. It's not going to be as simple as skimming debris off; debris will sink in the water and eventually plug up the pump such that it will get really slow, or be so clogged that the pump gets starved of water and burns out. Unless your pump is housed in a good screened enclosure in the bottom, in which case you'll still need to clean the screens of debris. 6 feet of turf in diameter isn't much to replace. Fountains look nice and sound great - like I said, I have three of them at my house - but they're not no/low maintenance. Someone has to babysit them constantly. Most of them will need water replenishing whenever it gets hot. You'll need to occasionally clean everything that gets wet, as sunlight and movement burns up free chlorine really fast, and you'll need to do the occasional GFCI reset (your pump should be in one of these or I'd unplug it pronto in a rental) and cleaning of the pump intake. 

It's just not really worth it for a remote rental. I'd guess your cleaners aren't going to really do all of that I listed above, at least not without some extra money. I also turn my fountains off and reverse blow out the pumps with a hose every once in a while to clear debris that can get stuck inside the pump impellers and outlet hose. Maybe I spend an hour a week on them, which is nothing for me but will probably be a hassle for your cleaners. 

I have several fountains at my home and you are going to be fighting a losing battle in a remote str. Have it wired into a breakered lockbox to prevent it from being unplugged, but everything else you'll have to just have your cleaners do their best. 

The income would be a pass through to your in-laws and you would issue them a 1099Misc and the fees paid directly to you by your in-laws would be reported by you as self-employment income. You should not be declaring that portion of the income at all. Your expenses related to the management would be a Schedule C reporting. If I am wrong on any of this one of our excellent accountants here will correct me, but I think this is all correct. 

I think it's going to be a big flop. For the following reasons:

1. Airbnb users tend to be CABs.

2. They already suck from a host's perspective in that everything is geared towards sucking up to the person booking rather than providing equal support to both sides. That may work fine when you're talking about a $1000 house rental that doesn't have a lot of other options right now besides VRBO, but isn't going to fly for a chef or bike rental place or anything else that is dealing in small dollar commodities and can tell AirBnb to suck it when it comes to eating up big fees or having CAB guests expecting imported sushi meals when they paid for McDonald's services. 

3. The vast majority of AirBnb users are looking for inexpensive accommodations and really nothing more. It's a select few that are looking for "experiences". For most people this is a cheap place to drop their heads while they're in town. 

I've done it both ways but usually wait until it's empty. Renters tend to be both slobs and hoarders, and most properties show far better after they've taken their caravan of joy to another location so we can clean the unit and make whatever repairs are necessary. If we had constant, repeat turnover - every year or two - then we might have to alter this but these days I've got a number of tenants closing in on 7-10 year stints, so having a month of down time (it usually only ends up maybe 2 weeks) gives us a chance to go through the unit and get everything up to par before we (hopefully) park another tenant for 5-10. 

Ideally I prefer no downtime, because I'm making zilch while it's empty, but since my models already factor in about 5% vacancy, a month on a unit that was occupied for 5 years is less than a 2% vacancy rate so I've already accounted for those funds. 

Hahaha, that's great. I guess there's a vacation rental out there for everyone!