All Forum Posts by: Kevin Luttrell

Hey Jason, I might be interested in joining

You can still list on MLS and market it to investors. Find an investor-friendly agent (maybe here on BP) to work with and they'll have tips and strategies for the best way to market it.

 I'm curious - if you know that you're leaving money on the table by setting a flat rate instead of using a dynamic pricing tool, why not do it? You can just set it and forget it so it's just as easy as setting a flat rate. 

The enemy method is good and fine, but it's not going to help you regularly adjust pricing to maximize revenue (adjustments for current demand, how many other listings are available, events in the area, etc). 

I'm actually surprised how many here favor having cable. I expected just about everyone to advise against it. 

I guess it depends on your market and the reason people travel to the area and use your STR. Our cabin is in the Smokies and most travel there to hike and be outdoors, not watch TV. We have a Roku and we pay for a Netflix account for the cabin and have never had any complaints. Never had someone even mention cable.

Maybe cable would be more preferred for a STR in a city or suburb?

@Skyler Carpenter Yes you can get normal Conventional financing for non-owner occupied properties. For 1-unit properties you can actually do as little as 15% down (although you get much better pricing at 20% and 25% down). 2-4 units requires 25% down. If you buy as a vacation home, you can do as low as 10% down. 

In response to other posts here, if you look through some past BP posts you'll see plenty of people are happy to put up 100% cash as a silent 50/50 partner. All depends on the return - if someone is looking for passive income and can get a good ROI with a 50/50 partnership with a partner that will do 100% of the work, then it could be worthwhile.

To answer the question about deeding to an LLC after closing, that's so they can get Conventional financing with 10% down (Fannie/Freddie won't close a mortgage under LLC).

@Zack Eastwood If you set this up and deed the property to a 2-member LLC, then the LLC will receive the proceeds when the home is sold in the future. Your ownership and structure of the LLC will determine who gets what. Should be part of your operating agreement.

@Harshil Desai Try turnoverbnb.com

Very good points, thank you all. I agree - I probably wouldn't trust guests to operate a generator properly even with detailed instructions. 

@John Underwood I haven't looked into solar/battery, I'll check it out. Although I expect that will be quite a bit pricier than a generator and we don't exactly get an abundance of sunny days there. But you're right, maybe this first year just happened to be bad and we won't have as many issues in the future. 

Guests have been understanding so far, but an extended outage still forces them to leave and stay somewhere else. We state clearly in the listing that we don't offer refunds due to weather, but it's not always weather related and I wish we could just avoid the whole issue in the first place. 

For those with STRs in areas where the power frequently goes out, what do you do? Do you have a backup generator? Just keep flashlights and candles around? Let guests deal with it? 

We have a cabin in the Pigeon Forge TN area and since we purchased 10 months ago, the power has gone out maybe 5 or 6 different times. Once due to nearby fire, a few times due to storms / fallen trees on power lines, and a couple times for no known reason. Sometimes it's only out for a few hours, other times it's been out for days. Our cabin runs on 100% electric and has a well with an electric pump, so no power also means no running water. 

I'm debating purchasing a home backup generator, but it's expensive and I'm not sure I can justify the price. Although if this keeps happening and we have to refund a few guests every year, it may be worth it in the long run. 

Anyone have any other ideas? 

@Jacob Poyar So you have to either wait until closing to lock or pay $1,500 to lock up-front? Sounds like you should've gone with a different lender...

Normally if you're happy with the rate I would absolutely recommend locking, given the rate environment we're in. The $1,500 fee would give me pause, but I'd still probably lock in if I was in your position.