All Forum Posts by: Katrina Kubicina

Good morning,

I am looking for an administrative assistant, virtual assistant, property manager type of person!  Ideally someone who is familiar with airbnb/vrbo.  Instead of hiring a local property management company and paying 20% which we just simply cant afford, I was hoping to hire someone to help with day to day stuff and just give them a commission off each booking.  What is fair? 8-10%?  

Hoping to find someone who can handle marketing, social media, calendars, bookings, communications between guests, and sending out rental agreements.  If you can help us with taxes too that would be a huge plus.  I need someone very friendly for our guests but business minded and professional.

If interested or have any suggestions please let me know!  Thanks,

Katrina 

Hello,

We purchased an old school house and updated it to turn into a "bridal house".  Its basically an airbnb with a pretty name.  We contacted the township back in October BEFORE we bought the house making sure we would be ok to do this and they called us and said there are no restrictions in the township, it was ok, and good luck to us.  Well now, we have a ton of publicity, we've been on the news, and a lot of exposure about this because its a new idea (bridal house) and now they are contacting us saying we do not have permission to do this. 

We are zoned in an RE1 residential zoning so we are not allowed to operate a commercial biz.  But its not a commercial biz right its just an airbnb?  We just call it a bridal house so it has a nice name.  

I am obviously sick over this because we have news interviews coming up and a ribbon cutting scheduled with the mayor and all these amazing things happening and the zoning dept. is basically telling us it all can't happen.

Anyone have any suggestions?  We are looking into hiring a real estate attorney as well.

Thanks,

Katrina

@Joe Splitrock that makes a lot of sense.  Thank you!  

@Steve K. yes we are looking into that!  thank you!

@Evan Polaski really great idea.  thanks so much for your input!

@Jason Shackleton thanks for responding!   It is a commercial property but right now they are living there.  I think covid may have hit them hard and the owner is old and doesnt want to run it anymore and they are moving.  We would have 20-30% DP yes.  It is not operating at the moment, but they said it is "turn key" and we could potentially book weddings right away.  We researched other venues in the area and they are not nearly as nice or have the amenities we would have and they are charging $3K and we feel like we could easily charge $5.  Now i realize some weekends we could book 1-3 days some weekends wont book any.  But so much potential!  

Here is where it gets really tricky -  we recently purchased an old school house and flipped it to turn into a bridal house.  We could sell it, or use it as a rental property.  But, years ago I personally had a short sale on a condo and that wont fall off my record until this Oct.  Even though my business (wedding photographer) makes more than 100K a year, i cant put my name on anything until after Oct.  We had to use my father in law to co sign to get the bridal house.  We love this wedding venue so much we would sell our home, sell the bridal house, and move to make this work.  But its all a big risk and i have no idea how we would even get a pre approval letter right now.  The $ isnt really the problem its this damn short sale.  My credit is back to 700 now and my husband is over 800!   Anyways sorry for rambling lol any advice?!  

@Zachary Beach We are going to look into owner financing for sure.  thank you!  

Taylor, thank you for replying!  This venue is turn key- fully operational- and a winery on top of it.  We could charge $5K a wedding, potentially Fri-Sun.  They have had much success with it but the owner is rather old and they want to move and don't want to run a business anymore.  Other than that I am waiting on more information from my videographer who just took the photos/videos for it.  They want to list it tomorrow and i don't want them to list i I WANT IT!  lol 

Hi!  My husband and I are wedding photographers and it has always been our dream to own a venue. We just stumbled upon the venue of a lifetime and are in love with it. Its 2 million dollars. We do pretty well, but not that well! Anyone have advice on how to finance something this big or finding an investor to help us get the venue?! I know once we have it we will be making $ back quickly. We just need to get it! Thanks!

Hi! 1st time poster and new follower of biggerpockets thanks to my little brother raving about it all the time. My husband and I are wedding photographers and it has always been our dream to own a venue. We just stumbled upon the venue of a lifetime and are in love with it. Its 2 million dollars. We do pretty well, but not that well! Anyone have advice on how to finance something this big or finding an investor to help us get the venue?! I know once we have it we will be making $ back quickly. We just need to get it! Thanks!