All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

Makes sense. 4% on a $600k+ property is still a hefty payment and requires a higher ADR to pay the bills. 

I grew up there. STR regs are tough in the city limits. In normal inventory times you could look for a place just outside the city limits and likely do okay and still be close to downtown but it is tight right now. Might be a better MTR market within city limits.

In general, the northern half of town is nicer than the southern half, especially as you move east. SW to Center West is fine, but would avoid the SE corner altogether. Feel free to DM me about specific parts of town. 

Kinda like how the amount of time it takes to complete a task expands with the due date, aka "Parkinson's Law". 

Similar to when you bring a 24 pack of clothes hangers home thinking that you will always have enough hangers from here on out, only to find yourself looking for a hanger 2-3 weeks later because more of your wife's clothes found there way onto them. 

I just stayed at an STR in San Diego County. Place had a killer 360 degree mountain view (basically a guest house for a much larger home) which made up for other aspects of it being fairly average. Main thing I found myself wanting was better cooking/eating utensils. Most STRs I've stayed in have very lackluster utensils that seem like hand me downs or thrift store stuff.

All great feedback above, thanks for posting!

Costco delivery for bulk items: TP, PTs, dish/laundry tabs, microwave popcorn, dish soap. IIRC if it's 2 day delivery you don't pay an upcharge, or at least it's less than same day. 

Target home delivery for emergency items because I already have the subscription for personal use. However it seems like there are numerous options for that nowadays. 

If that's what it says in your rider then yes, I would adhere to that. Mine is very similar but does not have that specific line. 

Doesn't this depend on what exactly is written into the 2nd home rider in the loan paperwork? I have a 10% down loan and all that there is no clear rule about how much personal use is required, only that it's "some of the time". Which a lawyer could argue is 1-3 days a year. 

I think a lot of the confusion in general is conflation with what is considered a rental vs a personal use 2nd home for taxation purposes. Not saying that your post is that, but I see a lot of that in general. 

No worries @Michael Baum I didn't take it that way. I'm a big fan of used furniture as well, sitting on a leather couch I bought used more than 10 years ago. Same goes for my favorite coffee table. If you have the time to source it used then I'm all for it so long as it doesn't look cheap and pieced together. 

 That's fair. However Ikea furniture is optimized for shipping logistics, not longevity. I (or whoever is helping) can get a lot more setup work done when not assembling 6 nightstands with 50+ parts and terrible instructions. 

"If you can't put together an IKEA piece then you need to stay away from tools in general because everything you touch won't work. :)"

It's not that I can't, it's simply that I don't want to. Nor do I want to pay someone extra to do it when I can simply use that money to buy a better piece of furniture that's less of a headache. At this point in my life I am done with assembling stuff in general, especially when it's not designed with ease of assembly in mind. 

So much this!!! I cringe when I here people talking about ordering Ikea garbage for their STR and then complaining about how hard and long it takes to put together. Just stop, you made your bed. Especially items with drawers as you mentioned. What you save on ticket price you pay in assembly and replacement cost (and time) many times over.

I filter specifically for solid wood and minimal to no assembly. You have enough work setting up your place already even if everything is fully assembled. 

Also, I've shared this tip before: When using a drop ship site like Wayfair or Overstock, drag the photo into a reverse google image search and it will show you where else the product is being sold and often the original source. Sometimes it's half the price or less. The product photos from the original manufacturer are exactly the same as what wayfair uses and you will get a cheaper hit 98%+ of the time. 

I would do a frameless glass with a swinging door. They are a bit more expensive but worth it IMO. The number I've heard thrown around (and paid myself) is $1500 for frameless and ~$1000 for framed, installed, assuming standard size. If you go framed I would do black. There are some nice barn door style ones too. 

Shower tile looks OK, maybe scrape out a column on each end and add some nice mosaic to brighten it up. 

In general, look for small and inexpensive detail fixes where you can add some "pop" in the photos.