All Forum Posts by: John Tobin

Hey @Michael Baum, yes I did advertise it on the FB group and thats how this conversation started. I'm certainly more leery now after everyone's comments and will not consider anything 30 days or greater.

@Carolyn Fuller, thats a good idea also, I will reach out to other STR owners in my area and see their experience with renting for less than 30 days.

Interesting thought @Leslie Anne Morris. Now this booking is for Jan or Feb, during the ski season. Do you think it could still have a negative impact that far out?

Thanks @Sarah Kensinger, they approached me on a FB group so no OTA rule violation there.

I'm just getting started with my first STR that's listed on airbnb and vrbo in a ski mountain location. Someone has approached me about renting my place for an entire month off platform, which is fairly common in my area (Dover, VT). I am considering it, but I'm wondering if I'm missing anything that could come back to bite me with respect to taxes or STR/MTR laws. I will generate a lease agreement for the guest and I will request references so I can do some due diligence on them as well. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!

I'm wondering the same thing. It still doesn't seem be on Stitcher.  Hey @Dave Meyer do you know if it will be on Stitcher in the future?

Thanks!

@Joe Lengfellner did you ever get a property in Vermont? Its a very competitive market up there and I have been striking out, actually I'm 0 for 3 on over-asking price offers that aren't accepted. 2 of my offers even has escalation clauses, but it didn't help. Hope you had better luck than me, but I'll keep on trying!

@Patrick Giblin thanks for you input, that housing crunch can be felt throughout the country even in non investor areas. I live in a suburb of NYC and for the past 2 years folks have been relocating out of the city and pushing housing prices higher and higher in the suburbs. 

@Miguel Santoscongrats on your first property and its initial success and good luck on your second.

@Martha Nowlanyea that makes sense, it probably will always be a possibility. I have seen it first hand: In my town there was a shooting incident at an Airbnb and a month later the town permanently banned all STR's in the area. Its unfortunate that one random act can completely change the law and negatively impact all other STR investors who had nothing to do with the incident.

Like many others in this post, I too have been eyeing buying a property in VT to use mainly as a STR, but also for personal use. I read on VTSTRA https://vtstra.org/faqs that the h.200 bill is still a possibility for the 2022 legislative session. Hey @Kathleen James, do you know when the next legislative session is? Do you think this proposal will be a constant threat until it passes?

@Miguel Santos how did the property work out for you in East Dover? I'm also looking at property around Mt. Snow.

Thanks for the replys.

@Glenna Wood, I actually have an old IRA from a previous employer and a 401k with my current employer. The old IRA is just invested in some index funds, nothing special.

That's an interesting way to diversify your investing half in RE and half of stocks.

I have always been in the mindset to not have cash sitting idly by eroding from inflation so that's why I try to have all my money invested. But as I transition into real estate I guess I will need money in a savings account ready to go.

Hello BP community. I was hoping to get some different opinions for getting into real estate investing. Currently I purchase stocks at an 11% employee discount and its a relatively safe stock. It also pays dividends and they get re-invested. The longer I hold the stock, the more the dividends grow and get reinvested with a snowball effect. I contribute on a dollar cost average basis and has become a sort of forced savings account. All my extra cash goes into the company stocks and I don't save any substantial cash.

I'm not really sure on how to calculate the ROI of this type of investing, but the re-invested dividends produce about $300 per month (currently) and the amount increases about $10 per month on average. So in my mind that's like passive cashflow with out any headaches, but it doesn't have the other benefits that real estate has.

Another option would be opening up a HELOC on my primary residence and pay the interest until I can refi and payback the credit. And just use the stocks as a reserve.

Or a third option is transfer my traditional ira into a self directed ira and use that money. But the stock market has been hitting all time highs lately and I'm not sure I can hit those returns in this real estate market.

Any other ideas or different perspectives would be much appreciated.