All Forum Posts by: Kevin Lefeuvre

Thank you @James Carlson, @Dexter Crawford, @Sean Walton. 

@Myka Artis I did the same. I guess we both received VRBO's email blast :) They replied fast and actually replied to my questions within 24 hours as well. Before moving to them, I posted here to get some feedback.
@Evan Kilbourne thanks for the feedback. Yeah, that's the problem with the insurance companies. It's easy to pay them, but getting paid has always been a different story with some of them. They are good at finding "exclusions" in the policy when you file a claim.

I've also got a quote from "American Modern". If anyone has feedback from them, please share. Thank you!

As you know, most insurance policies exclude STR. VRBO pushes for CBIZ and Airbnb says we got your back for up to $1M. Even for those of us who prefer airbnb, since STR is banned in most policies, I suspect as soon as the main insurer sees a claim with a tenant involved they play the exclusion card. That's why I am considering changing to CBIZ to have a better coverage for liabilities as well as loss of income. Their quote is not cheap but the coverage seems really thorough to me. But the problem with any insurance company is how they treat you when you have a claim. So my question for the community is: Has anyone had an experience of a claim with CBIZ? If so how did it go? What's their reputation?

@Jonathan . Very interesting that you use Craigslist. Had no idea people would look for short term rentals on Craigslist. What's the "amount of traffic" you pull from there and how do you measure it if all go through airbnb?

I'm also interested to learn on this subject. 

Based on my research Airbnb does cover you now up to $1M. Haters say they will never pay that amount,  I think they just did this because they know exactly how rare the claims are, and they are big enough to take it instead of having yet another overhead for the hosts which can't find insurance for that.

VRBO has a recommended partner.

A few important things to note:

It depends on the type of the property,  location, local market,  demography of your market  (your tenants ) etc. Which will make VRBO a better platform than airbnb. As a general rule, urban condos in large cities get more income through airbnb. Large luxury properties on the beach are for VRBO. Anything in between needs probably both platforms.  Most investors like me are on both platforms. One property in Newport Beach works better with VRBO. Another in LA city rocks through airbnb.

As a consequence of the above,  none of these airbnb-api based websites  (mashvisor, airdna, etc.) Are accurate because the airbnb api data is , by definition, incomplete.  They don't have my vrbo info. Also when I find someone over 30 days, my data is on neither sites. So you have to get your data by doing the analysis manually yourself. I was advised here while ago to use mashvisor. It turned out to be a waste of time when I noticed that the information was not matching the reality that I was seeing  myself and talking to friend investors in my area. When data is presented nicely it can be attractive but when the initial data is wrong or incomplete,  it becomes misleading. 

Absolutely Amy, short term rental is definitely an option. I'm looking into LTR, because it brings me probably 15% less income but a lot of hours of less work . still considered.

Bill, I agree but permits are a complicated thing. there's the notion of  "use" which is very subjective and disputable , but unfortunately still a thing.

What do you guys think of adding a 2 lines provision in the lease to disclose the "uncertainty" about this matter so that the tenant can't use it against me ? has anyone done anything in those lines ,  not necessarily for a permit matter, but for any downside in a rented property . kinda warning the tenant in the lease. thoughts ? 

As we all know, large cities, especially those with younger and trendier visitors, are going to set the trend for the whole national and international STR business. As you also noticed STR has been practically banned in NY, and drastically restricted in San Francisco. The latest discussions in LA tend towards a legal STR, limited to one per host and limited to 180 days per year (this part is hard to enforce). Even this limited legal status is under attack. If you are considering STR any time in the future, please support Short Term Rentals in Los Angeles and sign the petition:

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/protect-resid...

... but the kitchen was added after that.