All Forum Posts by: J-Ryan Stewart

Myself and my company are big fans of the LockState deadbolts. They are nice looking, sturdy, and easy to use. Initial setup is not super easy, but operation is effortless. 

The best part is that it connects directly to your wifi, and requires no hub, like most other brands do. I don't want to buy another $100-$150 item just to operate my already $250 lock. 

If you operate Short-Term Rentals, which I do, the lock integrates with Airbnb. It is the only one, and I can tell you the fact they issue codes/expire them without work on your part.. is priceless.

On a side note, the LockState customer service is great. I have a half-dozen properties using them, and I won't use anything else.

I can definitely tell you that if your investments include Short-Term Rentals (STR), the bill affects your tax liability in a huge way! If you personally operate a STR, you must by law now be considered a "Sole Proprietor," and file taxes accordingly. This probably means self-employment an additional 15% tax liability for most. For anyone drawing Social Security, it can mean losing benefits.

I'm involved with professional STR management, so it actually helps me. Homeowners are more likely to let me manage their listing to avoid the new tax rule.

I see a lot of posts from markets I wouldn't consider "vacation destinations." Sounds like folks are still successfully operating STR's, but I'm curious what percentage of the year they are booked? I'd love to hear some real numbers folks are getting with these properties. When I think of a good market, I think most people want to know how much they could really make!

I operate a STR hosting business in Tampa, and laws vary slightly, but we stay within the boundaries, and our premier listings are tracking to be booked around 85% for the year. Done right, Tampa is an excellent market for it, and since we have so many South American vacationers, you can tap into that market using platforms other than Airbnb. This evens out the seasonal dips in booking percentage as well!

Those laws are trying to eliminate the investor altogether. 

The problem here is that we are a new industry segment.. or at least one that hasn't had any power until now.. which is why we are so threatening. There WILL be legal precedence set that keeps states from regulating entrepreneurship like this. It just hasn't happened yet. 

The hotel industry is powerful, but they look to me like the taxi industry did when Uber came along. They used their money/lobby clout to try and control and limit.. when what they FAILED to do is fix their problems; adjust their rates; offer more. The hotels will fail just like the taxis have. Neither will ever be gone, but they'll lose so much ground that we won't have to worry. 

Believe that the Sharing Economy is real, and this is a true "market disruption." It's waay early in the game. Just hope you're operating in a market where the laws haven't been passed quite yet. Let the rest of the markets do the squabbling.

This may seem very small-time for some when you look at the dollar signs, but I think we are getting pretty creative.

We are in the Short-Term Rental market. A lot of our clients are average homeowners, so they don't have much extra money to fix up their place to make it suitable for STR. Anyway, since you won't find many "hard money lenders" willing to do deals for as little as just a few thousand dollars, we started leveraging our existing clients who are looking for more revenue streams, and borrowing the money from them.

The best part is the loan is repaid through the profits of the rental, so the homeowner is out of pocket exactly $0, the rental makes more, faster, and the lender is made whole in just a few months at most.