All Forum Posts by: Kim Herrick

Thank you @John Underwood for your response.  Unfortunately the utilities aren’t separated. Would I contact the electric company and water department to get them separated? 

I was concerned about them leaving. I don’t want to come in and change everything they seem happy and pay on time. 

Hello All!

I am in the process of purchasing a 4 unit apartment complex. The rent is below the market average by $65 per unit except for one. 

All four units are MTM and have long term tenants. The current owner pays gas, water and trash. How quickly can I raise the rents? Do you do it in increments or do you do it all at once? As far as the utilities I supposed I have the same question. Can I have them spilt the utilities right away or should it be in increments as well? 

I don’t know the tenants but it’s nice to have long term tenants there. Have you had good experiences with long term tenants or is it better to start fresh.  I’d love to hear your experiences and receive any and all feedback. 

@April Vogt Thank you for the insight! You mentioned your working to get to 70% occupancy. Does 60% occupancy still yield a nice profit for you after expenses? We haven’t had much snow here either so that would definitely affect those who come to ski and sled. I would love to hear more on how you are being more competitive on your pricing. Does that mean you go in and manipulate your pricing daily or is it just lower than normal? You also mentioned you were doing your own cleaning at one point and not doing back to back rentals. Would you recommend I not do back to back rentals if I’m doing my own cleaning?

Wow, thank you all for the thoughtful and concise responses. 

@John Underwood Thank you for the HomeAway suggestion. I wondered if one platform was better for vacation rentals. 

@Jen Faulkner Thank you for the insight! You mentioned your working to get to 70% occupancy. Does 60% occupancy still yield a nice profit for you after expenses? We haven’t had much snow here either so that would definitely affect those who come to ski and sled.  I would love to hear more on how you are being more competitive on your pricing. Does that mean you go in and manipulate your pricing daily or is it just lower than normal?  You also mentioned you were doing your own cleaning at one point and not doing back to back rentals. Would you recommend I not do back to back rentals if I’m doing my own cleaning? 

@Jen Faulkner Great tip to opt into the pay per as you go option with HomeAway! You should definitely look into Galena it's beautiful there. Do you own a mixture of SFH's and condos? I read in another thread that you used Facebook to market your STR. Do you still use this approach?

@Account Closed That is such an interesting niche you have going on! How do you validate your renters using Craigslist? That is another untapped resource I could utilize. 

I finally took the plunge and purchased my first property last month and now I have the fever! LOL. I am now zeroing in on short term rentals. Specifically in Galena, IL which from first glance seems to have the ability to generate renters throughout the year and is a vacation destination area.

I am interested in receiving some feedback regarding Airbnb rentals in a vacation area. For those of you who have experience in AirBNB would you recommend a SFH over a condo or townhouse? Since this is a vacation area the HOA does not have an issue with the townhomes or condos being short term rentals.

Besides Airbnb what other platforms hav you all had success with. I know I’m late to the party with this. Is Airbnb pretty much what everyone uses exclusively? Is there anyone out there who has their short term rentals booked between 7-10 months out of the year? If so what do you attribute your success to

Any advice, feedback, tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated!