All Forum Posts by: Leslie Anne Morris

I created my account once I had 5 STR. Now I own a property management company and we manage 20 units. Instagram does drive bookings but you have to be posting constantly. Facebook works too, but TikTok is best for direct bookings.

I haven't heard of anything that does similar, they are really the industry leader on this.  Other option may be a social channel like monday.com or slack.com to keep track of maintenance and other team communications.

In my experience it is VERY hard to negotiate out of any existing PM contract.  Help them interpret the contract and start a countdown clock to when they can get out with no fee.  Or if you really want their property you can try to help them out with waiving or reimbursing some of those fees to get them sooner.

I struggle with this too!  You never want to burn a fellow host, but in the same regard we are not all created equal.  Use your best judgement and don't nitpick, but do be honest.

Calculate net operating income or NOI. You'll need: gross rent, expenses that are month to month (utilities, HOA, taxes, insurance), property management component OR not if you plan to self manage. I would work with a knowledgeable real estate agent who is also an investor in the market where you are shopping. They can help calcuate your numbers. After NOI subtract your principal and interest payment. For bonus points calculate cash on cash by dividing the final component by year one cash in deal. I have a blog post on BP that dives in further.

 You should be able to schedule a call with an ads rep from Google.  I had one assigned to our account.  We looked at our last 12 months of bookings and pulled demographic information to determine how to set them up.  

VRBO is tough for me also.  I think if you book often on one platform it limits you being seen on the other one simply due to calendar availability.  What's your cancel policy?  VRBO said moderate performs the best with them, you could try changing that.

If the mountains intrigue you at all definitely consider the Smokies! If you buy in the right location and make sure it has all of the amenities guests are seeking - we are still seeing deals pencil out quite well. 

I haven’t looked into this yet myself but I’m sure it will end up being a great choice, so be a first adopter if that excites you. I can definitely recommend running Google Ads. We do get direct bookings as a result from them. Also consider TikTok…we get a ton of direct bookings from there. 

Why not consider hiring a property manager? Interview 3 specialist in STR in your area. See which one makes the most sense based on their business model and what you're looking to get out of it. You definitely don't want to feel like you bought yourself a job!