All Forum Posts by: Joy Lee

Hi Kevin, welcome to Bigger Pockets! I have a DC condo apartment used for a long-term rental and a country house in Virginia about an hour and half away from DC used for short-term rentals. I currently live in DC but am actively looking to purchase a single-family house in northern Virginia as a primary residence that can potentially be used for house hacking and/or a live-in flip. I'm hoping to rapidly grow my portfolio in the next few years and am open to continuing long-term and short-term rentals and delving into commercial spaces, such as building or acquiring storage units. 

I'd be happy to chat about my experience (albeit still new to real estate investing) and be helpful wherever possible. In exchange, I'd love to pick your brain on your architecture experience. Do you have any experience with landscape architecture?

That's awesome, congrats! I'm on the other side of the Shenandoah mountains, between Sperryville and Culpeper, getting ready to close on my first STR! I am purchasing the home in my individual name as a vacation home, but will be operating the STR business from my LLC.

Agreed with @Kingsley Thomas on the fear of a due-on-sale clause. If you're shopping around for mortgage lenders, I'd ask them for their insights to compare the two options and whether it's even possible with their company's terms. My conventional mortgage terms would not allow me to purchase with my LLC. Also, your LLC, especially since it sounds like it's new and doesn't have business history, may not be eligible for a loan immediately.

@David Doucet Yes, please ask around, I appreciate it! And absolutely, would love to connect. It'll be my first STR, and I haven't closed yet, so I'm not sure haha. But I analyzed this property (and lots others) using projected data with tools like Airdna, and the projected COC return was above 50%, so I am cautiously optimistic about it!

Hi Heyward! I'm under contract for a STR property in Virginia, but a few hours west of Hampton Roads - I'm in Reva in Culpeper County, between Warrenton and Sperryville, about 45 mins north from Charlottesville, and 1.5 hrs south from DC. Happy to share my tax person's info - she lives in North Carolina but has a property in Virginia Beach (though she keeps that one for personal use). I believe her investment properties are in NC and SC. She's great to work with.

I'm looking for contractors/handymen that do work in my region if anyone else from Virginia is reading and can provide recs. 

@Kingsley Thomas Thank you! We're hoping to close by the end of the year!

@Joe Splitrock Thanks, I slowly got to that realization about Google Fi as I kept reading about it online. Unfortunately, the seller is a 92-year-old woman who sounds like did not have internet. The seller's agent recommended Virginia Broadband and CenturyLink, but neither of those are actually available at this address. 

@Bjorn Ahlblad Exactly my fear with Hughes Net. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Thanks for the rec, Nathan! Unfortunately, their website says it won't be expanding to this area until late 2022 to early 2023.

I'm under contract for my first STR property (small, rural town called Reva in Culpeper County, Virginia; about 1.5 hours from DC). It has 3 br/2ba, 1750 sq ft, and 10 acres. I'm super excited (and super nervous) and I'm glad to finally take some real steps on REI. My biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to get internet coverage out there.

Does anybody have experience with using Google Fi in your STRs? How has that worked for you and your guests since not all phones are compatible with Google Fi? My STR property has extremely limited internet options, and I'm wondering if Google Fi is a better bet than the local providers that are likely unreliable.

Alternatively, if anyone has experience with HughesNet - good or bad - in the Culpeper County/ Sperryville/ Shenandoah regions, I'd love to hear about that too. Thanks!

Happy to connect you with my CPA, Vicki Hafele, based out of North Carolina but does work in Virginia and DC as well. I consulted her when I was setting up my LLC and she was a wealth of knowledge. She also has properties of her own in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina.

That's fair, and thanks for responding. That makes sense when comparing specific rentals, but I was talking about aggregated data. I wasn't sure of the range Airdna used to pull those average rates. 

I saw on a different post that you recently closed on a cabin in Luray for STRs. How's it going so far? How was your experience with Page County for your STR approval? Did you do any renos before going live?

Hi there, I'm analyzing homes in the Shenandoah region for short-term rentals primarily using Airdna's Rentalizer tool. I'm curious what factors lead to homes in the same town having such widely varying average nightly rates and average occupancy rates with the same or a comparable number of bedrooms and bathrooms. For example, Home A in Front Royal has 4 br/ 3 ba with an average nightly rate of $409 and average occupancy rate of 61%, while Home B in Front Royal has 4 br/ 4 ba with average rates of $269 at 74%. What factors can lead to this variance?

Separately -- with the caveat that Airdna data is not perfect and that all of these numbers have to be considered holistically -- when you're analyzing homes, do you give more weight to a home that has a lower average nightly rate (under $250) with a higher occupancy rate (over 85%) or vice versa (higher average nightly rate of over $400 with a lower occupancy rate of under 50%)?

Thanks in advance for any insights!