All Forum Posts by: Joel Oh

Your tax return will definitely get more complicated if you have a short-term rental that you self-manage as that will classify the property as 'active' instead of passive which will allow you to potentially offset the losses with other forms of income such as wages, interest, dividends, etc

Best of luck to you in your search.

@Joel Oh

I recommend finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation and multiple state returns. You may want to consider working with your accountant remotely to expand your options.

I would also recommend looking for a accountant willing to work with you throughout the year. You want an accountant who can help you strategize and who is responsive when you want to know the consequences of the financial decisions you are making throughout the year.

Good luck.

I would also consider how close you are to the property. If you are delivering, handling, and repairing the bikes it would be much more profitable. The bikes sounds like a great add on but sometimes if you have to pay others to do a lot of the bike coordination it might just end up being a headache and not the best return!

I owned a bike rental in Hilton Head. Huge headache if you deliver. Maybe ok if they are picking up. You have to buy top quality bikes to withstand the abuse which is expensive. Bikes will last a few years at most, less if you are renting bikes with gears. Check insurance rates too. 

 Got to agree here, these people usually have a lot of opportunities to make peace with the landlord

But I have to point out, that I have seen a case or two where the landlord was the scum and was just trying to screw a tenant. 

Can certainly say that most of the times thought that is not the case.

I'd avoid tenants with eviction history and poor landlord references. That's why you screen them...

Would rather lower the price or improve the space to find a higher quality tenant, of course if those things don't help then likely it is the area that is the issue when it comes to finding higher quality tenants. 

This is my first rental property, I had it for a bit over a year. Today I got a call from the first floor tenant stating that there is a strong smell like dog/fish in her front porch. She moved the curtain she dad and noticed a stain that smelled very strong. When you see it from outside, now there is a massive stain in the vinyl siding that comes from the second floor, and it smells terrible like pee.

In the second floor there is a tenant that I inherited and has a giant dog. I allowed them to have a dog in their lease of course making them liable for any damages. At this point it’s clear that they allow their dog to pee in their porch.

My concern is that since the damage is inside the wall, if I give them notice to inspect they might try to clean up and cover everything up. So it might be hard to show them liable. (I can’t take pictures of the smell). I was thinking in just showing up and saying that there is a strong odor downstairs and it could be toxic, so I have to go in immediately, then take pictures. Is this legal and reasonable?

I haven't done this but would do it.  Explored doing something similar with car rentals at one of our STRs and others in the area but didn't quite pencil out because of the depreciation on the cars we were considering.  

Sounds like a business problem in the area that needs to be solved and could be worthwhile.  You don't know what you don't know and there is risk involve but I wouldn't let that stop you.

Who knows, you may uncover this local bike rental business is more profitable than your local STR and deserves more of your time. What if you become the local bike rental business that all these other STRs rent from...