All Forum Posts by: Kyle Parks

@Gabriel Bures

House hacked before I knew what it was. Just understood that someone else paying my mortgage was a good idea. We still own the place - its now 2x airbnbs and we bought a small condo down the street.

The rising prices did 2 things- raised my taxes and gave me the option to take alot of money out. Can't complain. Working on 2nd house now. :)

@Gabriel Bures

Lakewood is on the up and up. I've lived here for 7 or so years (5 in lakewood) and it's one of my favorite places in the world. Not many chains, everything is small biz. All around its just a wholesome place. Prices are high right now (bought for 110k 5 years ago. Just appraised at 270 last week) but I guess that's everywhere

I dont have experience in this but can tell you that we highlight the shortcomings of our rentals. Under promise over deliver. 

people are traveling for all sorts of reasons and an airbnb can be far more economical for a lower income family than a motel room, ect. 

I think the most important thing is to understand your target customer and cater to them. 

 Not really to be honest. They were from my city which I didn't notice or I would have paid more attention. The guests downstairs were way too nice and waited far too long to call me. 

Hello! 

So I would like to start off by saying I am installing exterior cameras tomorrow . This is something I did not want to do but now realize I have no choice because people are ********. Yes - I should have had them before. That is not the point of this post. Story time. 

January 19th I get a booking for this past friday night. 1 night stay. Message says "Looking forward". Odd message. They are from my city (which i did not realize, my wife set up the code and is currently on another continent) regardless we have been getting 'staycations'. Not the first time. wont be the last. whatever. Person arrives at 4pm. 

11:30PM I get a call from the downstairs guests. Our place is a duplex / double that consists of two 2/1 units. The guests are possibly the nicest people of all time. They let me know that the upstairs guests are being loud. Can i ask them to quiet down a bit. I ask them "does it sound like there are more than 4 people in the unit?" the reply - "More than 40"   ---- can you repeat that? 4-0 like almost fifty? YES. Im in my car half asleep a minute later with the police on the line. 

I'm outside waiting for the police to arrive, this is a rager. groups walking in and out. Police arrive. We walk in, 25+ guests in my unit, at least half have a cigg or a joint in their hand. I'm taking photos cops are telling people to leave. They have a buffet set up with crab legs, chicken, all sorts of cakes, ect. It was absolutely INSANE. Luckily nothing was broken. Only some small items are missing (candlestick holders, stuff i think that they thought they brought with them). Light damage to some areas. I got EXTREMELY lucky that these ******** were in a weird way respectful. Makes no sense but yet it does. 

This morning (2 days later) I get a message on airbnb from the "event coordinator" of the party asking if i have her cake tray. LOL wtf. even more evidence of this party. 

On my listing I have fees of $1k for parties, 500 for smoking and 500 for illegal drug use. I have tons of photos of the party. Photos of damage. Photos of police breaking it up. Police report. Message from cake tray lady. 

What is the best way to lay out my case and receive as much in damages as possible? I know that at the end of the day its up to AirBnB but I have been looking all over the internet finding lots of "how to charge guests" posts, not many "I got X reimbursed" posts. As of right now I am thinking that I "charge the guest" for all of the infractions, the damages, missing items and the cleaning bill. They will deny then I get airbnb involved.  I already have a case open and it has been 'escalated' twice. 

 Not everyone enjoys 1 season. Fall in cleveland is the BEST. 

Cleveland is affordable. Its fun. It is locally owned and operated. 

I love Cleveland because I HATE chains. Cleveland is lots of mom and pops joints all over the place. The barrier to entry for ANYTHING here is so much lower than other places I've lived.

Florida, hawaii, California? You can have em

@Ari Hadar

Agreed. The gold rush is over. Thank God

@Remington Lyman

Funny you say that. I just was in cbus with the wife for a weekend. Feels like a watered down white washed version of Cleveland. I guess it all comes down to what people like. I like the grit.

With that said - for years people are beating the ohio drum. Investing in cle today will take far more finesse than it did a year+ ago.

Same in cbus?

@Sandy Metivier

It seems the ship has sailed on good deals in good neighborhoods. Lots of out of state investors have driven the prices way up. I have a double in lakewood I bought for 110k just over 4 years ago. It would appraise at 240+ with no improvements.

The issue here is that as others have said the numbers don't make much sense. When I bought the average 2/1 rent was 750/mo. Now its around 1100ish. People have not gotten 20% raises to account for the rent hikes and I personally feel as if it is unsustainable. "Don't try to time the market" well I honestly do not see how prices can go any higher in lakewood.

With all that said- Lakewood is as gay and multicultural as you are going to get in the cleveland area. Our little city is very progressive and we are very small business oriented.

Airbnb Arbitrage is a very high risk low reward venture. Where did you hear about it?