All Forum Posts by: Joseph Sauer

  @Ashley W.  If you're already asking questions on here before even starting, you're doing better than most! Lead with hospitality and you'll do great! 

Hey Ashley,
Welcome to the STR community!

Hiring a cleaner or doing it yourself really comes down to if you have the time? If your schedule is flexible? And how much work did you want to do with this short term terminal on a day to day basis. 

Personally, my wife and I don't have the time or flexibility to be able to do a same-day cleaning or if a guest wanted to check in early to be able to get there sooner than we had planned initially. so when we ran the numbers when we bought our first short term rental, we didn't include the cleaning fee in our income numbers. 

as for the staging, I haven't had a situation where I couldn't negotiate with a cleaner on making sure the STR was ready for the next booking in terms of not only cleaning, but making it look like it does in the pictures. Most of the time you can talk to the cleaner about staging and stocking materials and all that other stuff and you can negotiate prices based on how much you want them to do.

ultimately, it comes down to if you value your time for money more right now in the stage in your life or if you even have the flexibility in your schedule to be able to accommodate this into your life. also, you can always change your mind down the road, one way or another. If you wanna give it a shot right now and see how it works doing your own cleaning, go for it. 

hope this helps. Congratulations again on starting the STR journey! Good luck!

Hey Yair,

Congrats on starting your Real Estate Investor journey! 

First off, I agree with Travis. More so in the STR class than other RE assets, don't rush! I've studied and been in the STR class for years now, and I've learned that you have to love this asset class, and most of all hospitality to succeed. If your not in love with hospitality and taking care of ppl or finding the right Co-host to do that part for you, then I would look at other asset classes to help with your tax situation.

Having said all that, if your determined to get into this class, then I'd start in true vacation markets. Places like, Gulf Shores, Smokie Mountains, Myrtle Beach, Destin, etc. The Short Term Shop is a great place to start looking. It's ran by Avery Carl, her and her husband, Luke are huge in the asset class! They'll help you find the right location and walk you through the process of buying and getting you ready to manage the property. 

Good luck! And congrats again! 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $198,900
Cash invested: $36,000

Primary home till we flipped it to an STR after purchasing a new primary.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Been studying the STR space for a couple years. As soon as we had the money saved and the opportunity presented itself, we jumped on the chance to start this journey!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This was a primary home purchase back in 2018. Found the home on Zillow and contacted our realtor. Nothing special

How did you finance this deal?

First time home buyer FHA 3.5% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Home was recently updated, so we didn’t do anything at first. Over time we made repairs and added on to the house.

What was the outcome?

House is currently worth about $80,000 more than when we purchased and it's been a profitable STR so far!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Learned a lot throughout the process of setting up the house as an STR! A lot more work than I thought it'd be. Learned how to dig deep and just keep pushing forward till the job is done

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Kim LaPilusa is a phenomenal Real Estate Agent! She’s my go to the Southern Indiana Area!

Sounds good. Thanks for the info!

Are there any groups around the New Albany, Jeffersonville, Clarksville area?