All Forum Posts by: Josh Splawn

I have had a STR on airbnb for a year now and I agree that some of the most difficult parts about it are doing laundry and removing a large groups 3 or 4 day long amount of trash, so it's not an overwhelming amount of labor and for the most part the guests are respectful of the property/rules. The key is to find someone responsible to clean it and get it ready for the next group. Also, it may help to stand out from other short term owners by offering something they don't. I allow for 16 guests and that helps me get more bookings.

It may be easier to use the PM. Making the process a bit smoother. It can be worth the extra money to get a bit more peace of mind. Thank you for the advice. 

It's time to rehab my first single family rental. My primary question is should I allow my management (Home River Group- Boise) to do all the work. It seems logical to say yes, but has anybody else had rehab work done through them and if so was it a good experience with workmanship and price? I am not opposed to using an outside contractor if it is not a breach of contract if the quality is high and comes in thousands of dollars less than my managers price. Let me know what you think! 

 Toby, My rental in Caldwell ID. needs a serious rehab and I was wondering if you had any experience with Home River Group doing work. If so, how is the quality of their work, their timeframes and does their cost compare well to other contractors? 

Thanks so much guys! I appreciate the info.

I have been wanting to scale up my RE portfolio by selling my out of state single family property to my current long term tenants and doing a 1031 exchange into a multi family also out of state. I intend to pass the savings of not using a realtor and not needing to do any rehab, on to them. I will have the multi-family selling realtor help facilitate the 1031 exchange. This whole process seems within my scope of abilities at this point in my RE investing career but I am a little unclear on how to time everything. If the house sells before i identify a property, is it then too late to do a 1031 when i do find the property I want? Or if I do find what I want, tie it up with earnest money, and the SFR sale falls through, then what? I'm also still trying to find what markets I want to invest in. I'm looking at Akron OH., Albuquerque N.M., and the Boise area. Thoughts?

I’ll check it out. Thanks again everyone!

Thanks everybody for the tips. 

@Craig Jeppesen Caldwell

I have had one rental property in Idaho for 14 years and a second home that is an Airbnb for less than a year. I have never sold a house before so I was a little surprised to get an estimate from my agent that it would cost me upwards of 8% ($17k) to sell the home. I completely understand the value and ease that a good agent brings to the table, but at the same time, leaving that money behind will hinder my ability to move forward with scaling up into a down pmt. on a multi-family or portfolio purchase. I have read a few posts about these concerns and I get the feeling that there aren't many options available that won't leave me scatterbrained or with less money. Something tells me that 17k could easily become 20k when everything is said and done. 20k is roughly 10% of the current value of the home. Does it really cost 8-10% to sell? I applied for a heloc on the property , but my DTI was too high because of the debt on the second home and really I would just prefer to sell the home at a discount, just not 17-20k. Better options or bite the bullet?

Great post! You got me thinking about this strategy for my 5 bedroom rental in Idaho!