All Forum Posts by: Thomas Dempsey

From my experience in the STR market I have seen and heard of multiple ways to make this process easier on the investor.

To start, finding a management company that specializes in handling STR's is the best way to start this process. After offloading most of that heavy lifting comes begging the question, what else can you do?

Finding a team of professionals that specialize in finding the deals and closing on them can make acquiring deals that much easier. Also, the furnishing of your unit, if it is not already furnished, does pose an issue. Thankfully there are companies and people out there that provide these services as well. Although the costs associated with the services may dip further into your budget, it depends on how highly you value your time as an investor, and whether or not you can afford to spend time doing these things.

What are your thoughts? Any other services or companies you can think of that help making the acquisition, start up and maintenance of STR's?

A great way to gain an edge in the STR market is investing in the listing photos. Whether this is just paying a professional photographer to do the job, getting a designer to give the place a little more life or both, highlighting certain areas of the home can do very well for its online traffic.

Have you tried any of the above before?

I believe listing on all platforms with a joined calendar, along with a website to promote direct bookings can be extremely beneficial. The joined calendar will allow you to list on all platforms without running into issues with overlapping bookings. 

With groups fighting back against regulation of STR's, I feel there could be a very positive future for STR's in Philly. Although, this is hopeful and the current realities aren't exactly lining up to show a very hopeful future.

What do you guys think? If or when regulation comes, will STR be out of the question for you or are you willing to work around it?

Between the on-going debates about STR restrictions and the everyday hassle of keeping track of the property, getting into the STR game is becoming increasingly difficult.

If you have already set up an STR on your own, how did this go and what services were you able to find to help the process become smoother?