All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

About 3 months in with my 2/1 in Greenville SC. Occupancy and revenue has been pretty good but could be better. I realize that time on market is a factor here as I build reviews (11*5 stars), and I should qualify for superhost in July. In general I am happy with the performance and I am profitable. 

That said, there is a house around the corner that is on a less desirable street, no W/D, and not pet friendly that is booked 90%+. The rates, interior furnishing and rebab quality is similar. If anything, my place has more comfortable furnishings, a better kitchen and more character. Aside from superhost status and more reviews, the only strong differentiator of the other house itself is an extra full bath, whereas I have only 1 bath total and you have to walk through the whole house if you are in the other bedroom. 

I do have existing footprint space (roofline covered front patio) where I could add an extra full bath with minimal disruption and an excellent contractor who thinks he can do it for <$10k. Plus with bonus depreciation and the ability to force appreciation and cash out refi I am not concerned about the cost, and I could do the work during the slower winter months. 

Has anyone added a bathroom and seen it make that big of a difference? Thanks in advance!

@Scott Goulet if that's the case and there is no significant difference in occupancy, then my gut tells me that it is not a major factor that guests consider and are willing to pay a premium for. Or, there are so pools already that it is no longer a unique differentiator. 

I would do a game room over a movie theatre. I think most people are content with a decent tv in a comfy living room. 

If you find something you like on any drop shipping website, such as Overstock or Wayfair, copy/paste or drag the image of the item into a google images reverse image search. That will link you to the original vendor where the same item is often much cheaper. 

I'm tempted to bid on an Amazon pallet of returned household goods for my next property, would be curious to hear from someone who did this. 

Do an enemy analysis. Check "flexible" dates for a house with a pool to weed out the condos with shared pools. This should bring up all of the homes in your area with pools. Exclude any units that are out of your league and focus on similar comps. 

What are they charging per night? How full is their calendar? Should give you an idea as to whether it's worth it or not. 

The problem with going from STR to LTR is that you will spend a lot of time and money on furnishings for an STR, whereas an LTR does not require anything at all. Unless you really go cheap with used and bargain items, the furnishings can easily eat up 1-2 years of the increased profit that an STR does over LTR.

If you convert back to LTR, what are you going to do with all of that stuff? Nothing wrong with having LTR as a backup but I wouldn't plan for that from the start. 

 Maybe @Jim Mueller place is more likely to book because the nightly rate is more competitive as a 2/2. Doesn't require pooling together 1-2 more couples or another family to make it economical. Seems to be a good downturn or inflation hedge strategy against larger properties that are more leveraged and require higher occupancy and ADR to pay the bills. 

Just a thought, I don't invest in this market so I have no horse in this race. 

Can anyone comment on what wind coverage is costing new purchases as of late, maybe not beachfront but 1-3ish miles inland? The agent at Proper told me that policies in the Stuart area for a 2-3 bedroom were pushing $800-1200/month. 

@Nick K. are you able to do this through the Google Home app? Do you have a link to a video or brief description of how set an min/max? The google home app is so clunky and unintuitive. 

I keep mine set to the "Comfort" level to hover between 69 and 72, then time it to turn itself off if I have a turnover without a guest that same day. Then I set it to go back to comfort shortly before the next check in. Seems to work well, and haven't had any guests do anything too irresponsible (yet). 

Monterey County is one of the more nimby-ish of the coastal counties. They had a huge opportunity to be another Napa for wine tourism and completely blew it it with similar business unfriendly policies. 

 LOL I just got one of these this morning that had a pre-approval/decline option of the dates. No reservation history and the airbnb platform noted that it was translated. First he asked how the weather was in August, so I replied with the average high/low for that month. Asked if he (assuming it's a "he") could bring a cat (no pet noted in the reservation itself), I replied no, and he replied no problem. Then insisted that we talk on whatsapp and I replied that I do not communicate off platform until the booking starts. After several tries he gave up and I haven't heard back since. 

Most if not all of the random scam texts come from forced labor troll farms in SE Asia. I wonder if this is their new strategy for finding leads?