All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Conaghan

@Flavio Zanetti bookings have picked up dramatically. We have all of April and most of May booked up without having to discount rates as we had been doing to stay occupied the last few months. Assuming no further Covid curveballs, investors that picked up properties on the cheap in the last month or two should be feeling pretty good.

Cash Flow gets a lot of the hype but the other benefits of real estate investing are what truly make it an optimal wealth creation vehicle. Those are depreciation, debt pay down (increasing equity) and appreciation. Additionally, any opportunity to create a net reduction in monthly expenses (removing cost of rent by having tenants pay your mortgage) is a huge step towards financial freedom. Best of luck.

@Eder Tavares I don’t have experience with AirBNB arbitrage, but I imagine many of the considerations are the same. Gain an understanding of estimated occupancy/nightly rate, required level of finish to obtain said occupancy and rate, estimate expenses, calculate potential return on investment, decide whether it meets your objectives.

There are plenty of people that will beat up on the arbitrage model, but it seems like it could be a good way for people to get started in the STR space with less money down. With that being said, you might be better suited identifying a market and neighborhood, finding a deal and then presenting your plan to someone to partner with you and bring the capital. That way, you might have an opportunity to own a piece of real estate that you are AirBNBing. Again, no knock on the arbitrage model in general, but if the goal is wealth creation, I'm not sure that achieves it.

@Eder Tavares I am not familiar with the Dallas market but I am with Kissimmee. Either way, I would say there are likely to be properties/owners that make and lose money in both markets. The best thing to do is narrow down to a specific area/neighborhood that you would like to purchase, scan properties on the various marketing sites to get an idea of their average occupancy and nightly rates, see what properties are selling for, estimate the cost to bring that property up to a finish consistent with the better performing properties in the marketing sites, determine the need for and cost of property management and then you will have an idea on whether it can be profitable.

Best of luck.

@Brandon S. Good luck with your purchase in Windsor Hills. We bough our first investment property there last year. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

@Sebastian P. We own a property in Kissimmee close to Disney that I utilize as an STR. I purchased it last June, renovated it substantially and got it listed. It took a while to pick up steam, but eventually did, I believe due to the quality of the renovation/decor. The last few months have been rough as they have been for most people and attempting to predict what the future holds is probably not helpful as I do not think anyone knows. Assuming we get back to "normal", proximity to the parks, more bedrooms and updated decor will help an STR stand out in a crowded market. Happy to answer any additional questions. Feel free to shoot me a message.

@Cari Childers Have you considered a Home Equity Line of Credit? You could have "access" to the equity on your property without actually cashing it out. That way, you can move quickly if you find a deal. Best of luck. 

@Armani Diaz Hi Armani, congrats on your purchase. That’s great that you already have some bookings set up. I would definitely get it listed on those sites so you can begin getting bookings coming in. The most important thing starting off is getting reviews on your property so you want people to stay and for them to have a good experience. You will probably want to discount your property below what it might typically rent for to incentivize people to stay. With everything going on with the virus, bookings are slow/nonexistent, so don’t take that as an accurate representation of what will be once this all goes away (whenever that might be). As far as optimizing your property/listing on those sites, I would suggest having a professional photographer take photos of your property.

What community is your property in?

Best of luck!

@Lucas Carl Absolutely, this will pass. There are a lot of people that have it worse off from this virus. I am in New York and it is impacting a lot of people in a bad way. I'll gladly sit on my STR for a few months if it means we get rid of this virus sooner with less deaths.

I don’t think I caught the post for your Destin property (I think I recall you saying you were going to make one). I would love to get a look at it if you didn’t mind sharing a link to it.

Cheers.

I just received the below from my Kissimmee property manager. Coronavirus taking no prisoners.

“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has today announced a total suspension of all vacation rentals with immediate effect, remaining in order for two weeks from today. Any guests currently staying in a vacation home can complete their stay and then go home, but no new vacation rental guests are to be allowed. Check points are being setup along Florida's northern boarder and at local airports which we understand will be instructing certain out of state visitors to self-isolate for 14 days.

The reason for this suspension is because the authorities believe that people living in Coronavirus 'hotspots' with active shelter in place orders are coming to Florida and endangering Florida residents.”