All Forum Posts by: Justin Knighten

We are fairly new hosts and thus far have gotten all 5 star reviews on AirBnB.  We're up for Superhost in a week or so when it's evaluated.  We've exceeded every mark, however, we only have 11 reviews.  We have a guest in the place now that's staying for the week.  Prior to arriving, he requested a very specific temperature on arrival and an early check-in.  We got the temp for him, but had a same day turn and couldn't offer the early check it.  Almost immediately after his arrival, we got this message "Is there tinting on any of the windows since apparently we are surrounded by neighbors ? Or are we totally exposed in the foozball room? Thank you"

This room is one 2 living rooms, it faces the back yard and the closest neighors are 200+ feet away, with trees in between.  There is a couch, but no bed, the bedrooms all have blinds.  Nowhere in the listing did we describe it as totally secluded etc...  We've sent him 2 messages asking if there's anything he needs and haven't gotten a reply.  If he leaves anything less than a 3 star, it costs us Superhost for the next 3 months (this is a seasonal rental with busy summers).  What would you do? 

 $55/month.  Covers lawn, parking and anything exterior-including roofs and such so I’m told. 

I'm not an expert but we have a few rentals in Harrisonburg, one of which has students in it.  Zoning makes it fairly difficult to put students in a single family house unless it's grandfathered in (basically has to have had students since 2000 ish), otherwise, no more than 2 unrelated people in a house.  I'm not sure how closely they enforce it, I've never tried to push it.  

There are several townhouse type complexes that occasionally have stuff come up for sale, ours is in Pheasant Run and we've been more than happy with them, their office staff is incredible and if you do have them do any of the leasing/mgt they are very affordable.  They own about 100 units and the other 50 or so are privately owned, usually have a few a year sell right at the $160 mark, floorplans are identical.  It's from the late 90's so its a cheaper option, but they are still full of students and the ones in there really seem to like it.  If you have questions about this place message me and I'll tell you what I know.

There is another called Camden Townes/Hunter's Ridge (they're connected), and they almost always have a few listed, they can be had for under $100,000 for a 2 bed. I believe the HOA fees are pretty high in there and it's not completely student occupied at this point. They are located less than 1/4 mile from the main entrance to campus.

Campus View Condos has several units for sale currently right at $200.  I'm not very familiar with these, but they are on the East side of the city near most of the newer, pricier student housing.  

Check out this guys site, it has a ton of info and links  http://harrisonburginvestmentp...

The Google calendar worked!  I r dumb when it comes to integrating all of this stuff.  Thanks for the help!

First off, we just went live with our listing last week and have Feb pretty much booked up, I'm beyond excited.  I'm starting to see the first bottleneck in the system is going to be communicating with the cleaner and confirming her availability.  Right now I'm manually texting her with each booking and waiting on a reply.  I know there is an easier way where she can automatically see each booking as it occurs and give me a yes/no without me having to do anything.  Is there where the automation software comes in or is there a way I'm not thinking of?

@Paul Sandhu 

How long does it take to heat that up?  I have a stock tank sitting in my yard right now...I'm sure it's cleaner than one your tenants have been sitting in...

Is the maintenance on these things simple enough that I can give the cleaner a half hour lesson and turn them loose with it?

We're getting ready to open our first STR that is a cabin in the mountains by the river. It has a hot tub on site, but it's currently drained. It sits on a little patio in the yard, not under a roof. This time of year, it's pretty cold out, and I don't know how much use it would get, I don't really expect too many bookings until March. I've never dealt with a pool/hot tub before, so I don't know what I'm getting into. The property is about an hour away. How much is involved in maintaining one and how much cost am I looking at? Is it worth turning it on and heating it for low occupancy months? I assume most people hire a company that'll come by every so often and perform whatever maintenance it needs, whats a general guideline on what that should cost?

Greetings,

My wife and I just purchased our first property that we plan to AirBnB.  It's a 2 bedroom near the river in Luray, Va.  We have a few long term rentals, but I'm new to the short-term game.  At this point, we only have the one and won't be adding another for at least a year or so (depending on how this goes).  What, if any, auxiliary software should we have to help run this?  I've looked through the websites for YourPorter, SmartBnB, and a few others, but never having managed a short-term, I'm unsure what I need.  The area that this place is located in is all tourist destination, and there are probably 50 or so other similar rentals within a few miles, should I just set my own pricing or is it worth subscribing to one of the pricing tools in a situation like this?  If so, which one?  Thanks for any suggestions.

HELOC is through a local bank. The current mortgage was sold to Wells Fargo.

My credit is pretty good, high 700's.  

Greetings,

I have a townhouse with a 30 year note at 5.25%,the balance on the loan is $86,xxx. We purchased at $120,000 and it's worth about $132,000 at this point. I'd like to consider doing a refi and pulling some cash out to pay down our HELOC (variable rate, used to make down payments on properties, this would free that up as well as get me a lower rate on that money). Speaking to my mortgage broker, she says that on a refi she can get me 30 years at 3.625%, this may be worth doing for interest savings alone. However, to do a cash out on an investment property, she can't go lower than 75% LTV, which would be $104k, that part is fine, but the rate would be 4.375%. Do these numbers sound right? Should I check around, and if so, with whom should I check? I like working with this broker, they've always treated me well and the process is smooth with them, I just don't understand why the cash out would have such a higher rate.

Thanks for any insights...