All Forum Posts by: Keenan Fitzpatrick

The bill aims to boost available housing in Alaska by curtailing the growth in short-term rentals like AirBnBs. Do you agree that it's "problematic if people who can afford to build new homes are just building them as short-term rentals"?

Nice purchase! Can you DM me photos.

People could only own one short-term rental unit in Alaska and they would have to register it with the state under a House bill introduced earlier this month.

The bill, sponsored by Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andrew Gray, aims to boost available housing in Alaska by curtailing the growth in short-term rentals like AirBnBs.

“If we want to increase the supply of available housing as quickly as possible, I don’t think there’s a faster way than this,” said Gray.

Source: KTOO

FLAME AWAY!

There's a plethora of tools available to self-manage your STRs if you're under 10 units!

This multi-unit property is listed at $700,000 and boasts a monthly gross rent of $10,150, making it a lucrative investment opportunity. Estimated monthly utilities are currently at $1,750, but I recommend verifying this with the utility provider to ensure accuracy. It's possible that the estimate is slightly lower than the actual costs due to missing readings for one of the gas meters and the lack of a reading for an electric meter.

To maximize the rental income, I recommend making the onsite washer and dryer functional and offering storage units that are not currently being used by the tenants. Adding these two amenities will help minimize turnover with the rent increases and generate an additional $200/month. Additionally, installing cameras and restricting access during normal hours will ensure the security of the laundry and storage areas.

The garage is also currently vacant and can be rented out for an additional $150 per month.

Below is a breakdown of the rental units and their current conditions:

Unit 1: 3 bedrooms, 6-month lease, currently rented for $1,250, but I believe it can be increased to $1,350.
Unit 2: 3 bedrooms, month-to-month lease, currently rented for $1,350.
Unit 3: 1 bedroom, month-to-month lease, currently rented for $800, but I believe it can be increased to $1,050.
Unit 4: 1 bedroom, lease expiring in August 2023, currently rented for $1,000, but I believe it can be increased to $1,050.
Unit 5: 1 bedroom, currently vacant, but can be rented for $1,050.
Unit 6: 1 bedroom, month-to-month lease, currently rented for $800, but I believe it can be increased to $950 as is, or $1,050 with renovations.
Unit 7: 2 bedrooms, month-to-month lease, currently rented for $1,000, but I believe it can be increased to $1,150.
Unit 8: 2 bedrooms, lease expiring in November 2023, currently rented for $1,400.

Unit 9: 2 bedrooms, month-to-month lease, currently rented for $900, but I believe it can be increased to $1,100.
Unit 10: 2 bedrooms, month-to-month lease, currently rented for $800, but I believe it can be increased to $950 as is, or $1,400 with renovations.

I have attached an analysis of the property's current cash flow and projected performance after making the suggested improvements. The current cash flow is promising, and the renovations will pay off exponentially in the future. While there is still work to be done, much of the heavy lifting has already been completed.

 Welcome, Corey! 

The best way to know is to shop around. A couple of things you can do to protect yourself from markups and hidden fees is to require subcontractor and vendor invoices. Sometimes you'll actually be paying less with your contractor's pricing. Another way to protect yourself is to have deadlines for work performed, payment, and drawing plans. Deadlines are important because sometimes you can negotiate a reward/penalty agreement based on the contractor finishing before or after their deadline. Asking the people that work for the permitting department is also a good idea to get good references as well as contractors in other trades that work with the person you're interviewing.

Finding a reliable relative as a tenant is as close as you can get to finding a unicorn!

All peachy except we need more inventory but you probably already knew that. So far my listings barely make it over a week on the market before someone swoops in. It's a nice little problem to have but it is a problem lol

Scenario 1: Presuming your renter took care of the unit, it can be cleaned and ready to re-rent within a few days. In today's market where I live, if I get notice of a tenant moving out, I will turn on the marketing for the unit a couple of weeks in advance of the move-out and I can usually dove-tail a new renter within 48 hours of the old renter moving out. Pretty much a zero vacancy situation.

Scenario 2: The renter damaged the apartment and it needs repair. Maybe it's just painting, maybe it is more? Now you have to figure out how fast you can get those repairs done. You more than likely can't dove-tail your marketing like you could with a seamless transition. If you can get immediate repairs made, you are probably talking about a week of repairs, and the marketing following shortly behind and a move-in within 2 weeks of that. So it might be 3-4 weeks in a good scenario.

Scenario 3: You have multiple vacancies at the same time and you are doing your own repair work. You can't get to the 2nd unit until you finish the previous unit needing repair. Now you can have a unit sitting idle for longer.

But to your question - do I put money away for vacancies? No. It's just lost income to your income stream. If you only have one rental, this may mean you are paying the mortgage for a unit if you are down for a month and it will 'get your attention'. When you have multiple units, you usually have enough cash flow that you will notice your bank account start going down as you don't get that rent payment for the month(s) that a unit is down. But the bank account just absorbs the loss and life goes on.

What we do is have a maintenance reserve account that we transfer $100/month / unit for simple repairs (ac / plumbing / etc). So for us, we are moving $3,700 / month into this account. While the account will float up and down, this figure seems to work out pretty well to absorb both the minor repairs, and the occasional bigger one. So it might get up to $7,000 - 10,000 dollars, but then we'll have an Air Handler or Air Compressor go out, and then it drops by $2,000 - $3,000 or $5-6,000. That little of a transfer won't usually handle Capital expenditures like a new roof, or a new septic field though.

Hope it helps!