All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Mason

How has everyone's experience been with brand new platform users?  No previous host reviews or stays, no profile picture?

Someone from out of state is interested in my STR, bringing 10 adults for 2 nights, how trashed will my place be after?

Did you find any good PMs you would recommend based on the time you spent? I haven't used one before, but I've hear the good ones can sometimes help source properties for purchase as well based on what you're looking for.

I'm looking to buy 1-2 SFH or small MFH (<4) by the end of this year to start/grow my portfolio and have no interest or time to self manage those when I already self manage a STR up-north. I know there's a ton of PMs in the Detroit specific market that are truly terrible..

I used my primary lender for my STR, but it was underwritten as a second/vacation home. If you already have two+ mortgages, I'd honestly call local credit unions and regional banks. Smaller banks, especially when rates are so low, need to lend to make money. Banks don't make money on deposits, they make money lending customer's money out and charging interest to those borrowers. They want you to pick them do to the loan as long as you're an experience and qualified borrower.. Don't let them fool you otherwise, they need you, not the other way around but be nice and easy to work with.

Tell them what you're doing and that you're shopping around for either a HELOC or cash-out Refi (depends on how much capital you really want or need to pull out to buy another property). Ask about what loan programs they're currently offering and then let them know you're calling around.. Don't let them pull your credit though, do that on your own as a sense check so you know roughly which of their programs you will qualify for and then only let the lender you choose to do the loan with pull your credit.

 That's exactly what I would do. With that much equity and current refi rates, can easily still net 25-30k annually with the now higher debt servicing while still pocketing $400k to go invest with. No-brainer if your goal is to grow your portfolio to infinity. 

That's the real question, isn't it. Would you use the $460k as down payment for more properties, or?

David Soble | ProvenResource.com

Real Estate Attorney in Farmington Hills.

Agree with John and Michael. Don’t trust AirDNA, just go to AirBnB/VRBO and do your research and due diligence based off the local competition. However, Calendars can be misleading, some hosts block a day or two on either end of a booking, and sometimes my family uses our cottage for a month so I might block an entire month at a time. Reviews, amenities, pricing, weekly/monthly discounts, cleaning fees, all things to look at and help assess.

Go conservative in your estimates to start.

I'm one year into the STR game as well and Michael is correct on no reviews and it taking some time to get some rep. I'm working on a guerrilla approach for this and plan to share if it works as a strategy for me.

Concrete or soapstone? Not sure on concrete wash basins, but if it’s antique soapstone I’ve seen those around me for $1,000+  for those wanting pure vintage. 

This is a tough question and I think depends, personally. That being said I’m still new to the game.

My vacation rental is in a rural area where the focus it outdoors (4 seasons worth). TV isn’t a priority and some of the houses in the area offer nothing (Not even internet/WiFi) let alone providing a free streaming service during their stay. I decided to throw one TV in the basement rec space with a sectional and a billiards table for evening hang outs.

That being said, I have high speed internet throughout and a Roku+ Streaming stick plugged into the TV in the basement. I really like the Roku, it has something called “Guest Mode” now that allows a custom homepage that my guests can enter their length of stay and check out date, it then logs them into their own guest dashboard. From here they can log in using their account info for the different apps and the day of their checkout it will automatically log them out and default back to the check-in screen for the next guest. If I forget to switch it back to guest mode after my family has spent time there, I can log in from home and connect to push it to guest mode remotely from home too. It’s great.

There’s also an app called “Peacock” that has thousands of hours of streaming content for shows and movies all for free if you create an account with a valid email. So I recommend that to guests that might not any paid streaming services.

from there.. they are on their own for apps.

I say go for it. This is the exact strategy my wife and I used for our first and currently only investment property, except ours is 4 hours away in the same state

Property management is up to you depending on how passive you want it, I’m currently self managing from home and have a great cleaning/rental turning company, handy man, a heating and cooling guy, plumber to cal, etc. no different than owning a personal home really. Set it up on WiFi/keypad locks with emergency lockboxes outside with physical keys that guests or cleaning crew can use..

It’s really just setting up the systems that takes awhile if you’re self managing from a distance, but after that it’s relatively straight forward.