All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

Would not be a stretch to use AI or bots to do reverse image searches of your profile pics to scour the web for direct booking sites. 

@Mindy Nicol that's great! I find with larger homes that are big enough for wedding parties, reunions etc that I get a lot of bookings well in advance, with ~50% occupancy several months in advance. With my 2 bed I get a fair amount of advanced bookings but nothing like the 5 bedroom. 

IMO 2-3 bedrooms are the squishiest middle in most markets with too much overlap in guest avatar. I'd rather have a 1 bedroom that I can optimize for couples or a 4-5+ bed. 

 How far forward do you get bookings for this property? 

Whether you DYI or hire out, below is what I recommend:

Optimize for assembly. It is worth paying more upfront if it takes less time on site to put together. Plus there are less moving parts that can break, need constant tightening, lost/missing parts etc. A nightstand or dining with 70 pieces is a major bottleneck and keeps your team from moving onto other tasks, whereas one that is already assembled might cost $50-100 more but only takes minutes to unpack. 

Buy nice or buy twice. If you follow my advice above you will likely buy quality by default. Cheap items will break sooner and require replacement, and will make your place look cheap overall. 

That said, you don't want to overspend either. If you buy something too nice that is also light and compact then a guest may help themselves to it. Shoot for middle of the road kitchen utensils, blankets etc

Otherwise it is pretty easy to have most of your stuff scheduled to arrive at the same time. Couches, dining and bedroom sets are the only things that should require a delivery. 

Get a roll away dumpster too- the amount of packaging waste the setup generates is staggering!

Coming across Walhalla is what drove me to your neck of the woods . . . Inventory was sparse at the time as it usually seems to be. 

@Tom Dean not every STR needs to be somewhere tourist centric, people have all kinds of reasons for wanting to rent a STR in an average joe kind of town. Often the less touristy places have better year round occupancy because there is a broader mix of reasons for people to visit, plus those towns are often short on hotel beds. Especially growing areas where they need out of town work crews for new construction.

Just be sure to optimize for location within that market as much as your budget will allow and also make sure you are compliant with local laws. 

Whichever are combined into a single device. The less devices and cords the better. 

9' shuffleboard table would fit a single car garage nicely, but be sure to dress it up the rest of the garage as already mentioned. TV, Neon LED lights, and some other fun decorations. Multicade would also be great and could probably fit as well. 

I like Fine Art America. You can do a search for your local area to find photo prints of local landmarks and also by color, style, medium etc. Then you can order it in different sizes and materials. Not cheap but reasonable prices, ~$200 for a larger framed canvas or acrylic print. 

On ETSY you can also buy hundreds of digital files of abstract art in different color pallets for super cheap ($10-20), then have those printed onto whatever type of print and size you like with Shutterfly or any other digital printing service. 

The only management cost I have is my own time, which outside of natural disasters is 1-2 hours/week at best. CAPEX can be minimized by purchasing the right property, frontloading fixes, and having a reserve fund- all of which you would have with an LTR as well.