All Forum Posts by: Katy Hall

I have a short term rental in Crested Butte, CO and am in the process of buying another in Vermont. I live in Houston, TX. I manage all the bookings and communication myself but have a local person on call in case something needs to be handled in person. I pay her $85/month to be available and check on the property a few times if it isn’t rented. She also handles the cleaning for an additional fee that I charge to the renter. Her husband does handyman work so if I need something done he charges me for parts and a reasonable hourly rate.

Have you tried a channel management software like tokeet or one rooftop?

Try Proper Insurance. My policy has some loss of income coverage but I don’t have it in front of me so can’t get too specific at the moment. Their policies are designed for short term rentals.

Is this Homeaway/VRBO? I’ve heard of them doing this. The vast majority of my bookings are on Airbnb and I made the amateur move of paying the flat fee to Homeaway when I signed up. I spoke with a representative from Homeaway the other day and they suggested I drop down to the pay per booking. That means they’d get less money from me but I’ll take it.

Is your property located in Seaside, Oregon or somewhere else? I can connect you with someone who can help if I know where it’s located. There are agents selling properties (typically interpreted as a residential transaction) with the short term rental business attached (typically a commercial transaction). It’s new but there’s an obvious need for this type of deal and there are lenders that will work with it given proper information.

Kurt Kinnie https://www.trec.texas.gov/apps/license-holder-search/?detail_id=880291229 Brubaker and Associates https://www.brubakerandassociates.com/

1,060 from one. In the process of purchasing one right now that’s about 1,600 miles away. Mine are short-term vacation rentals.

And that method of searching keywords within listings is by no means the detailed analysis you’re needing but it has helped me a little in some areas.

AirDNA is a good resource. I also use listing sites like Redfin that allow you to search for keywords. I just searched Indianapolis with a keyword “income” and found this pretty quickly. Just an example: https://www.redfin.com/IN/Indianapolis/234-N-Davidson-St-46202/home/82164247?utm_source=ios_share&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy_link&utm_nooverride=1&utm_content=link

It’s not about making money for everyone. That being said for some it is and not all vacation homes are bad investments. I short-term rent mine and my worst one pays for itself then makes an extra $5-$6k/yr. Worst performing from a cash flow standpoint but not bad and it’s the one most used by myself and family. Others cash flow much better than that.