All Forum Posts by: Joseph Bafia

If you are looking at buying it as a 2nd home/vacation home then you're likely looking at DTI. What we've run into is that STR income not treated like LTR with a lease. The revenue is only count once it hits your Schedule E tax return, so you're riding the expenses until you file taxes.

However, if you use an asset based lender (we have on one deal) they don't look at it through DTI. They evaluate it as a "business" and treat is differently.

Many ways to make it happen!

Congrats and welcome to the STR world! I got into my first one 4 years ago and now I'm closing on #8. Excited for ya!

I do STRs in my home state of NC but they are still 4 hours away.  Also partnered with someone to co-own 2 properties in NC and he lives in CA and does the daily management of them from that far away.  Various ways to self-manage, structure partnershps, etc.  Just need to have the right agreement and systems in place.

We just used a HELOC for the first time on our most recent purchase and think its a good idea if the deal makes sense. In addition to what @Lisa Graesser states, I'd add to make sure you have some reserves and the HELOC is not your last of all funds.  You want to make sure you can carry a load for a period of time if things slow, but overall I'm all for the HELOC.

Best of luck

@Jelissa Bisono

If you are simply looking for an investment property loan for a STR than 20% is likely the norm. However if you purchase the property as a second home, you can get a traditional loan at 10% down and still rent it out as a STR. There are some guidelines and rules but it is possible as we've done it (and so have many others).

Best of luck!

@Andrew Haney

We do. We list out what we have and we haven’t had any issues or complaints.

@Andrew Haney

We do provide an ample supply of dish a like plates, glasses and mugs.

As far as appliances and “extras”, we’ve really scaled back over time. We tried to over-provide and had things like both a traditional coffee maker and a Keurig. We also had every single type of utensil you could think of. We had various spices, condiments, and even provided a bottle of wine for each guest stay. Over time , we realized that the more we had the more opportunity for dissatisfaction. Some guests would say “the home does not provide ground nutmeg” or “ the bottle of wine was nice , but we prefer white wine and they had red”.

Now we follow the “less is more” plan and provide a clean home with the basics. This way the housekeeper is not inventorying all the small items. We do disclose everything provided so people know in advance what to buy and bring.

Many asset based lenders that lend on STRs.  I used Visio on one of mine.  I've financed using just about every method possible and the other one I could suggest is owner financed (I've done one of those as well).

Happy to help answer any other questions or give guideance.

@Becky Brown

@Ryan Howell all day long.

I speak from experience!

Great to hear of a fellow investor in Mars Hill / Wolf Laurel.  We have some properties there as well.  Do you already have something in the community?  We've had some success finding people through facebook, nextdoor, and thumbtack.  Joining those neighborhood groups is key. 

How did you land in that community?