All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

@Brian Kantor can you elaborate on what the track ball is for? Not sure what they purpose is if there's only 1 for 2-4 players . . . Does it make selecting games easier? 

Interesting . . . . Amazon says the firmness is "Medium" which is the same stated firmness as the Zinus Cooling Gel, yet at half the price I might have to jump on it. Thank you Mike!

Thanks @Chad McMahan sounds like pretty standard stuff that a lot of subpar hosts and listings are dealing with! 

Are you seeing Cottonwood well booked through the winter months as well? 

If you can't at least ride a bike to the beach then it's not coastal. 10 miles as the crow flies is at least a 10 minute drive with no traffic plus parking, loading/unloading the car etc. You may not notice much of a difference between the 2 properties. 

2 vs 5 acres is not a significant difference from a purely land area standpoint but a larger property should have more privacy and potential uses. If the more inland property really does have an incredible view then that is something you can leverage. 

@Chad McMahan can you comment on the main sources of failure? Bad location, overpriced, poor decor & management? Or simply took on too large of a payment relative to revenue? 

I like Sedona as a seasonal offset but it's a bit out of my league at the moment . . . Hopefully in a few years I think I'll be able to jump in. Thanks in advance 

January is January . . . Unless you are in the Keys, Sedona, Hawaii, ski area etc. I had a strong March through December but this is my first January and February. 

Calendar was not empty but definitely lite, so I got anxious and dropped the weekend rate by $20/night. Immediately got a booking but had a bad feeling because the guest only had one review and their payment (via ABNB) took a short while to clear. Of course, my instinct was correct and the guest added 2 hours to the clean and seemed to help themselves to several bathrobes (that I provide because of the long walk through other parts of the house to the single bathroom). 

Moral of the story is that it's better to hold your rates firm and take the hit for a few months, those guests will end up costing you more anyway. 

As mentioned before it would depend on your time and cash horizon. Assuming you are in a summer high season market, you do have some time to put some the work into it. I look for properties in great neighborhoods that get looked over by typical owner-occupied buyers because they need a face lift, have bad photos etc. Better to buy the outdated home on a great street than a pristine home that is overpriced for its surroundings. With improvements to a dated home you can only go up, whereas the fancy home will take the biggest equity hit and be tough to unload in hard times.

"Distressed" is the wrong word because that implies serious issues that are expensive to fix. I would look for "outdated", where easier stuff like paint, flooring, fixtures etc go a long way. 

For STR you want location first and foremost, which fits the value add model better.

@Michael Baum 22 feet would be a bit excessive lol! The funny and great thing is that this place would actually fit it. Thanks for the link, that $1400 model that I think you are referring to has a solid wood surface and climate adjusters so that would probably be a great choice.

@Chris Seveney and @Bruce Woodruff I don't mind used but I want to be sure that the original item was good quality, not something poorly made that was originally drop shipped from Wayfair. Seems that climate adjusters and a solid surface are a must (maybe MDF is ok?), so with the cheaper tables I worry that warping is a real concern, especially in a cinderblock basement in South Carolina. 

On a related note, there is now a "Play" category on AirBnb that is the first to pop up on the landing page. Seems like a great differentiator, plus I can list it as a 5-6 bedroom, so I think I will do alright with this one 🤓

Putting together a game room for a recent purchase. I'm generally of the "buy once cry once"/"buy nice or buy twice" philosophy. However if I apply that to every item in a proper game room it will get very expensive very quickly. My plan is to go big on the pool table with a proper slate top and blue felt to really pop in the photos (~$4K all in, delivered/installed), and then save a few bucks on the secondary items (shuffle, air hockey, foosball etc)

At the local dealer that sells high quality stuff, where I will probably buy the pool table, their lowest priced shuffleboards are on par with the pool table. Anyone have luck and good feedback from anything under $1000? There are a few on Wayfair that look great for around $600ish but when I read the worst reviews it gives me pause about the quality of materials and assembly. 

Anyone find anything good for less than $1K? Thanks in advance. 

I thought the same thing. Start your own company with a % based model that way you get a piece of the action and succeed in step with your clients. Win/win