All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

I've heard similar numbers for Ann Arbor. 

Would be nice if you get set a baseline for specific days of the week, especially weekends. 

Also- I just turned it on and nothing has changed in my rates. VRBO interface is about as clunky and unintuitive as it gets. 

I'm with you @Noah Laker , I think there is huge potential in college towns and mid-to-large cities so long as you do your homework on the legal side. Between work related stuff, conventions, friends/family visits, pro/college sports, kids travel sports, concerts etc etc there are a billion reasons why people visit places like Sacramento and other cities that aren't your typical vacation destinations. IMO the "only invest in vacation towns" mantra led too many people to invest in the same small handful of markets who are now hurting. We all know which ones those are. 

I'm in a smaller regional city and I have great occupancy every month except for January. With a bit of decor and management savvy you can easily be in the top quarter or even 10% without needing to build a waterpark in your backyard and bring in influencers for your photos. More exit strategies and less volatility as well. 

 Great info, thank you! What's your game day/weekend markup?

What you have to remember about Awning and other estimate sites is that they are pulling averages based on a specific criteria, whereas they cannot differentiate the decor, neighborhood, distance to various attractions etc. Sometimes it only has a handful of properties to comp from. Therefore all it takes is an incredibly successful property or a complete dump that has a hot tub to move the numbers in one direction or the other. Which is why it helps to look at the surrounding properties that it pulls the comps from to see what you are comparing. 

If the most successful properties in your area have a hot tub, and similar quality homes without one are less booked, then you probably should too. 

Not sure how cold is gets at night but lots of investors here in various report improved winter bookings when they have a hot tub. 

@Bryce Jamison I have no idea. Although I do have a friend who went through the whole process with his dog and there is actual official documentation he carries around. I'm not sure who the governing is for that. I would never ask the disability of the guest but I don't see what the problem would be for asking for documentation for the dog itself. 

As for the "Vests", there are dozens of them on Amazon for <$30. It's a sham. 

Isn't there some kind of documentation for actual dog if it is a true service animal? If yes I would ask for that. 

I subscribe for my market. More so as a sanity check to see how I stack up against my competition and as a data point in underwriting. 

One thing I liked before the redesign was that they gave numbers based on the average, upper 25% and top 10%. Would be curious to know why they longer display it that way, because I did find it helpful to see where I fit in the distribution. 

 I don't want to blow it out publicly but you are welcome to ask via PM

Quote from @Mindy Nicol:

What are everyone's thoughts are on this graph that Airdna posted plus the article here: https://www.airdna.co/best-places-to-invest-in-vacation-rent...

Should investors really be focusing in on these markets?  Or take it with a grain of salt? I'm just curious on your thoughts.

I'm not sure about the specific markets mentioned in the article, but I think there is huge potential in a lot of markets that aren't on the typical STR investor radar. I've got 11 months/year of 70%+ occupancy in a town similar to what's on that list. People travel for all kinds of reasons outside of pure vacationing.