All Forum Posts by: Jean H.

@Jenna Pedro Hi Jenna! Good for you for being so ambitious so young! In terms of finding a tribe of like-minded people, go to MeetUp.com and search “real estate” meetups. For example, I run an InvestHer Miami meetup for lady investors in the Miami area. If you’re in Miami, we’d love to have you!

I have 8 Airbnbs in Miami (used to have 11 until I sold 3) and founded the Airbnb Hosts South Florida meetup group. There are definitely Airbnb possibilities in Miami but you have tread carefully, especially with condos. With condos, not only do you have to check the city regulations, you also have to check to see if the condo rules allow short term rentals. And even if the condo allows it now, they could change their mind at the drop of a hat and you can't do anything about it. That's why I stick to single family and small multifamilies where I am the HOA :)

If you want to network with other Miami hosts and get more in-depth info about where in Miami to invest, come to our Airbnb Hosts South Florida meetup on Feb 22. You can find us on MeetUp.com

I just bought an STR in Kissimmee (near Disneyworld) with a vacation home loan 2 days ago. Wanted to get the 10% down loan, but the 3.25% rate I got for a 20% down was just too good to pass up. I told the lender I was planning to use it as a vacation home but to STR it when we weren't using it. My lender said the 14-day rule is not a hard-and-fast rule, just my "intention" to use it as a vacation home. Also, I plan to use a property manager when I'm not using my vacation home. She said as long as I'm not "required" to use property management (like a condotel where you're required to use their management as a condition of buying there), then I'm good.

@Alain Martinez Miami investor here. I'm selling all my Miami/Ft Lauderdale Airbnbs (11 altogether) and buying near Disney. Kissimmee and Davenport are (and will probably continue to be) STR-friendly and my insurance went from $12,000 to $4000!

@Will F. When @Malgorzata Sadowska talks about Little Haiti being "one of the highest points in the county" she's referring to its elevation. Little Haiti as an investment area started trending after Hurricane Irma because it was one of the few places that didn't flood because it's on higher ground than the rest of the county (one perk of this is that you're not going to have to pay flood insurance, which, as @Daniel Smyth mentioned is a concern for most of Miami-Dade County). 

Little Haiti is also one of the closest of the cheap neighborhoods near the ever-more-popular Wynwood and the Design District. So definitely up-and coming. The only thing I would really look into is the state of the building itself. The housing stock there is pretty dilapidated and probably wasn't well-maintained for the most part. If it was renovated, great! but check their work.  If it's between N Miami and US1, I'd buy. Would make a great Airbnb.

Had a similar issue with buyer wanting to back out of a contract 2 days before close for a bogus reason.  It was an all-cash deal, no contingency deal, and 2 days before closing, they came back saying that the property didn't appraise. I responded that that wasn't my problem. It was an all-cash deal. If they want to back out, then I'll just take your earnest money deposit and move on. They didn't want to give up their $40K deposit and kept harping on how it didn't appraise. I finally had to get an attorney involved and he said that if and when it ever got to court, whether small claims or otherwise, it would be a slam dunk win, but I should consider negotiating because they could still put a lien on the house and cloud my title, thus preventing me from selling it for up to 6 months and did I really want that complication? 
So yes, while it sounds like you also have a slam-dunk case to get their escrow deposit, that should not be the only consideration. If you really want to get it back on the market, maybe give them a token amount back in exchange for a waiver of the rest of the deposit?
FYI, in my case, I gave my buyers an extra week, they found another lender, and we were able to close, but I was out $5000 in legal expenses just for that negotiation. Legal fees add up!

@Jean H. @Sebastian Giraldo

@Daria Berenato you should join our Airbnb Hosts South Florida group. It used to be the Airbnb Hosts Miami group when I started it in my Airbnb guest house but now we have over 1000 members from the Keys to Orlando. If you go on the MeetUp webpage and search “Airbnb Hosts South Florida,” you should be able to find us. If you can’t, DM me or @SebastianGiraldo and I’ll send you the link. After you come to one of our meetups, you can join our AHSFL WhatsApp chat where we all talk about markets and submarkets; refer cleaners, contractors, and managers; and forward guest leads.

@Natalia Perlova you should talk to @Sebastian Giraldo. He's a real estate agent in Miami specializing in STR and runs the Airbnb Hosts South Florida meetup group. He helped me buy my last 2 Airbnb properties. I remember that he once sent our group a map of which condo buildings in Miami Beach allow STR.

@Ivan Alvarado if you’re just looking for someone to check on the property after each stay, just self-manage your property and hire an above-average cleaning person/crew. They can act as your boots on the ground and check on the property when they’re cleaning and tell you when you’re running low on supplies, furniture is broken, etc. Bonus points if they know a good handyman to help when things break down.

In terms of what to ask for in a PM, ask what platforms they use—not just Airbnb vs VRBO, but if they use a channel manager, a pricing tool, etc. who pays for that? Is there a website for an owner to be able to see the bookings, calendar, expenses, revenues? Who is in charge of collecting and remitting taxes? Do they take care of utilities, lawn and pool maintenance, or do you? How do they vet guests? How many other properties do they manage? Do they own any of their own? Will the listing be under their name or yours?

That’s all I can think of for now