All Forum Posts by: Karen Chenaille

Try to gather as much information you can so that you can put together a solid list of recommendations for restaurants and things to do. When I buy in a new market,  I find it challenging to make recommendations on niche spots because I don't have a lot of knowledge about the area.

Hey folks, aside from Air DnA and Mashvisor, are there any companies out there that ya'll have commissioned to do market specific research on that goes a few levels deeper that just ADR, Occupancy and gross revenue? Something akin to a feasibility study, but for a STR market.

I have some great cleaners I can recommend. I ran three STR's there from 2017-2021. DM me and I will share some names with you.

Hello!

What do you mean by 'take over his Air BnB account'?  Air BnB is pretty strict and they require you to establish your own account.  You don't want them to find out you are breaking the rules and ban not only the account you took over, but you personally from ever being able to list on the platform.  You cannot transfer reviews on Air BnB, but on VRBO, with seller permission, you can have their reviews added to your account.

Here is some food for thought...Perhaps you can manage the property better and make some improvements that would lead to bookings at higher rates than what the seller had?

As an agent, I advise my STR investor clients against taking existing bookings unless required to as part of the purchase. Odds are, they will be able to do get a higher average daily rate and generate more revenue.

@Augustine Cherukunnel

The smokies have been a hot rental market since the 1960's...long before Air BnB and VRBO. Before the internet, folks would call cabin rental companies and book a cabin over the phone...my how things have changed!

Hello!

I applaud your out of the box thinking on ways to get into the STR game. We owned a Class A diesel pusher and considered doing this in the Gatlinburg area. It seemed like a really great way to get some revenue out of the RV instead of having it sit idle for months at a time. What stopped us was the campgrounds...Many campgrounds in the area do this in their own parks and they do not want competition from outsiders.

We also looked at parking the RV in our yard when we lived in New England and renting it out.  We decided not to do this because it was going to be too weird having strangers in our door yard.  Plus, when we looked at the logistical tail end of it, the juice did not seem worth the squeeze. 

Another relatively inexpensive way to get into the game if you own some land is to purchase low cost accommodation alternatives such as glamping tents, or geodesic domes.  They generally cost less than an RV and rent out at attractive average daily rates (ADR).

I have used Price Labs, Wheelhouse and Beyond pricing.  Price Labs is definitely the best value, even though it's UI is a bit clunky.  Beyond Pricing charges based on the booking value. If your guest cancels, you don't get a refund of the Beyond Pricing fee. Price labs costs me about 20% of what Beyond Pricing was charging me. Wheelhouse is very slow to adopt changes. I was with them in their earlier days, they kept promising VRBO pricing, but never delivered.

Oh Boy! I bought a cute little condo in Biloxi, MS. Everything *seemed* to check out...the covenants allowed STR and all I would need to do for the city was get a zoning variance. Holy smokes..what a mess the zoning variance turned out to be. I was buying out of town, so I figured I would show my face at the zoning meeting to assure my approval. It was a nightmare! The meeting was full of people from the condo complex that did NOT want STR's there. As an out of town investor, I had no idea that was the sentiment in the condo complex...there were already active STR's there and I thought it would be no problem.

Other STR owners in the complex filed a suit against the city zoning commission, but to no avail. I wound up converting it to a medium term rental and eventually sold it.

Lesson of the day here: Talk to folks that live in the building/community you are buying in before you buy.

Hi Jake

I have four condos along the gulf coast and I would say the biggest downfall across all of them has been the HOA's. When I got into STR's, they seemed pretty innocuous. One thing that is common to all of them is the boards are comprised of folks that are not short term rental investors...in fact, few of the board members have any background in investing at all, much less short term rentals. On the plus side, all of them provide a nice return and I have accepted the fact that I am in it for the long haul, but if I had it to do again, I think I would do my best to steer away from a complex with an HOA.

There are so many markets where you can rent legally with little hassle from the authorities...Smokies, Gulf Coast, the Carolina beaches. Also be on the lookout for situations where the HOA allows it but the property is not zoned for STR. I wound up in this situation a few years back and it was a nightmare.