All Forum Posts by: Karina Busch

As everyone is getting for the holidays to ramp up and the new year to turn, I want to give some insight into a simple thing that me and my team have been doing to increase our ROI by about 10-15% each month. Some people already do this, but I chatted yesterday with someone who had not thought of this, so I wanted to give out one of my best ways to maximize your revenue and resources.

We upsell 3-to 4 simple packages that guests love; I have trained my cleaners to handle them (they make extra money), my VAs help schedule it with cleaners, and we still make a 50% profit margin on everything.

An example of one package we have is a Romantic Package - $199. 
12 Balloons (buy the helium tanks and keep balloons on site for your team or use a local shop)
Rose Petal Entry Way (bought off Amazon)
2 Dozen Roses (local grocery store for $10-15 each dozen)

Led Candle Display (bought off amazon and reusable)
I Heart U Signs (amazon and reusable)
Champagne (or wine if they want)

This equals around $60-70 each time and we pay our cleaner $40 to set up. Guests love this upsell for the experience provided, they are more likely to share on social media, you can use the decorations as marketing, build relationships with local vendors, and provide extra income for your team. 

We even (I still can't believe it) had a person stay in one of our units that is about $350 a night, who bought EVERY SINGLE PACKAGE (Romantic, Birthday, Breakfast, and Pizza/Smores Kit) and spent $1000 in packages alone. I definitely thought it was a scam but it was legit and easily one of my most profitable 1 night stays away from a pure revenue stand point. We sell about 5-6 of these a month per unit. Happy hosting and holidays my fellow STR friends!

@Karina Busch I have fixed rate 30 year mortgages on 7 properties. Some are 1-4 unit and some are 5+.

I work with a small regional bank that maybe has 20 branch locations across 2 states. I started out with a few 1-4 units with their residential loan officers and now that I’ve grown some, my last 3 deals have been 5-10 units with their commercial loan officer.

I may not be their biggest client but they take me seriously and often when I’m at the branch the vice-president will come out of his office to say hello and see how I’m doing.

I would recommend DSCR for you, or to continue contacting some other banks.

My most recent look indicated that the DSCR rate was actually lower than the one at my bank but would have required a 35% down payment in my particular situation. I ended up with the slightly higher rate and 20% down plus a second loan for some renovations.

Not every lender is the same, continue shopping around until you find one that meets your needs. If it turns out well a good lender is worth their weight in gold. Treat the relationship with importance.

 This is not accurate. Conventional loans are available all day long for rental properties, so long as the property is residential (1-4 unit) and not commercial (5+ units, retail, industrial, etc). If you're wanting a Conventional loan, make sure the lenders you're talking to have an NMLS license. If they are not licensed, they cannot originate Conventional loans and are only able to offer commercial loans. 

Also, if you're working with a local bank, theyre likely choosing not to originate  Conventional loans for investment properties and to only offer commercial loans that they hold on their balance sheet, which are subject to their own internal credit policies. This is very common with local banks and credit unions - they dont have the infrastructure or volume to sell into the secondary market and simply choose not to offer those products in their business model. 

 This is not accurate. Conventional loans are available all day long for rental properties, so long as the property is residential (1-4 unit) and not commercial (5+ units, retail, industrial, etc). If you're wanting a Conventional loan, make sure the lenders you're talking to have an NMLS license. If they are not licensed, they cannot originate Conventional loans and are only able to offer commercial loans. 

Also, if you're working with a local bank, theyre likely choosing not to originate  Conventional loans for investment properties and to only offer commercial loans that they hold on their balance sheet, which are subject to their own internal credit policies. This is very common with local banks and credit unions - they dont have the infrastructure or volume to sell into the secondary market and simply choose not to offer those products in their business model. 

 @Karina Busch  Any competent mortgage broker or mortgage banker can do this for you. You are speaking to the wrong folks. The banks you are speaking with either do not originate conventional loans or the LO simply does not know how to originate them.  

Hey @Karina Busch, there's a great Facebook group called, "Bookkeepers for Real Estate Investors", that is centered around what you need help with. You can go there and ask any and all questions you have.

It sounds like you are leaning towards continuing to run your own bookkeeping which I think makes sense considering you have a few properties and just started.

Bookkeeping for rental properties, especially when rehabs are involved, is more complicated than most people like to believe. So, you're not "wrong" in thinking it's complicated.

The tax code plays heavily into how certain transactions are categorized and there is some flexibility regarding what we can capitalize versus deduct. You can always ask your tax pro if you're unsure.

To give you an idea, I built an extensive flow chart for our bookkeeping team to help decide if something should be capitalized or deducted for a rental property and this became our SOP for capitalizing vs deducting. Again, it's not as simple as you would think it is. Tax strategy plays into it.

With just a few properties, a Google sheet/Excel sheet works just fine. If you prefer a software, we can discuss that.

That being said, if you're interested in hiring an REI-savvy bookkeeper, I'm happy to introduce you to a few candidates so you can interview them.

If you're interested in continuing to be your own bookkeeper, I suggest joining the FB group I mentioned so you can get your questions answered as you're working through your books.

Also, I'm happy to help if/when you have specific questions. Just reach out!