All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

I dunno, while a great market from a general investing standpoint, I’m not sure the revenues/ADRs in Columbus are strong enough to handle a 40%+ management fee haircut.

Quote from @John Underwood:

Plus they tend to be in the best part of town and are therefore more walkable, more restaurants, proximity to attractions/amenities, character, larger lots etc.

The older neighborhoods in the urban core of Columbus have all of that, so I'd be surprised if other parts of town actually do better solely because the construction is newer? What exactly is the draw?

Quote from @Andrew Steffens:

It is similar here in FL - our smaller cheaper units consistently have 80+% occupancy and the luxury houses have a 50% occupancy, but ADR is much higher. Usually, ROI's tend to be about the same.

Do you see more advanced bookings with the larger properties? I have a 2- and 5-bed unit in the same town and the 5 bedroom books out further in advance because of all the weddings and other group events that people plan for.

There will always be demand for something that is comfortable and affordable for 1-2 people. Easy to furnish, maintain and clean (ie lower cleaning fees). If anything these places weather the downturns better because of their affordability and efficiency. 

In most markets I've evaluated you are either 1 bedroom or 4-5+. 2 and 3 beds are the squishy middle that overlap too much with each other. 

One way is the BRRRR method, where you pull out equity from your property to roll into the next one. Problem with that is that you have to purchase a property with value add potential and then slog your way through a rehab where you burn cash on fixes and holding costs. Plus there is no guarantee that the market and appraisal will recognize the value added and allow you to pull that cash back out, especially in this interest rate environment.

The other way is with partnerships. Better to own 1/4 of a watermelon than all of a grape. 

Beyond that, yeah, it can take a while to save up that kind of cash again. 

Quote from @Jeremy H.:

Washington & Oregon - two liberal states that are not landlord friendly

For those reasons, I'm out 

 I see what you did there !

Quote from @Michelle Clifford:

Bongostays is back with their same old video (same woman in it) as a new restructured company BeeSetups, just FYI. Their bankruptcy filing and firing of Rick (I think Hilany was still there though) wiped out their obligation to any of us that were owed as far as I can tell which is a bummer.

They are sending me emails advertising 50% off Airbnb setups..

Shameless . .. . Probably 50% off of the "Setup Fee" so long as you buy their grossly overpriced furniture through them. Bait and switch. 

Quote from @Michael Baum:

Yeah there are some cool ideas here, but I do believe she is skirting some local permit laws. Hard to tell but I know some of those wouldn't fly in some places.

Yeah that was my first instinct as well. Proper secondary escape/egress, ventilation, etc. Which directly ties into the liability of non-permitted and uninsurable properties built in trees by unlicensed builders. 

Great for her, but I don't think I would sleep well at night

Quote from @John Underwood:

I hope they can make the app more like Vrbo's. Airbnb 's app is clunky and more difficult to use than Vrbo's.

From my own experience and what I hear from most others you are in the minority with this opinion. Maybe because you use VRBO more?

I started using both at the same time and found AirBnb to be far more user friendly with less clicks/swipes needed for any task. Whereas with VRBO I've had several tech issues that were unfixable, such as photos that never load no matter how much I manipulate them, and a catch 22 with the dynamic pricing that never worked that locked me out of my calendar. With AirBnb I've never had anything remotely as frustrating. 

I found the same thing as a guest as well. 

I don't think that much of the above is mutually exclusive. Many of those items are desirable by all guests, so I'm not convinced that you have to dial it in to one category at the expense of others. For example I don't see much of a difference between a business traveler and a digital nomad, and the business traveler would still appreciate a washer/dryer.