All Forum Posts by: Mala S.

@Psalms Salazar

Don’t be discouraged by the responses here. Rental arbitrage is possible but you will have to provide incentive to the landlord (typically by paying above market rent) and make sure all correct insurances are in place.

I had an Airbnb many years ago and managing the property became too much work for me. I tried to hire help and every person I hired became unreliable and ultimately I was so frustrated I converted the property back to a long term rental.

When I posted the long term rental ad, someone reached out to me asking if I would be open to letting them rent it out on Airbnb. We had a phone conversation about it and I told them I would be open to it but would charge them more rent for the risk I was taking and additional insurance. I would also want references to make sure they were a responsible person. The person was sounding like a young guy who had heard a BiggerPockets podcast and was using all the right language I had heard on the podcasts myself. But I was totally open to the idea of a young guy trying to break into real estate investing who would handle all the hassles of dealing with house cleaners that don’t show up last minute and all the other annoying things about Airbnb that I just didn’t have the patience for anymore.

Well, he never followed up after that first conversation. Maybe the higher rent I would require made it not worth it to him or maybe he saw another shiny object and started chasing down another get rich quick scheme that he heard on a new podcast…

My point is, there are landlords out there that would be open to the idea. You just need to give them an incentive and prove you are responsible. One strategy could be to reach out to existing Airbnb hosts who may be fatigued and ready to let someone else handle the daily grind. Just don’t be a flake. Follow through is everything.

@Ron Brady

I absolutely do the same thing.

The first time I had an appraiser come to my rental property, I went through a lot of effort to clean the entire exterior and help the tenants clean the interior. I also dressed nice and professional to meet the appraiser and stayed to answer questions and provided additional info including recent improvements I had made and comps for the area. The appraisal came in at 380k. Much lower than I expected. I am brown (East indian).

I got a second appraisal and this time my husband met the appraiser in his usual old overworn t-shirt & shorts. I did not attend. Appraisal came in at 480k. My husband is white (Irish/Italian).

380k vs 480k is a huge difference!! We are both certain there was bias involved here. Now my husband is always the one who meets with the appraiser.

I have also experienced bias that works in my favor too. For example, even though my tenants know that I own the over $1M property that they are renting in, they speak to me like I am a poor broke mom, struggling to make ends meet. Not sure how they get this impression since they also know I am a working professional. I believe it is just bias because I am a woman/ visible minority. But I think they are motivated to pay their rent on time for this reason, so I am definitely ok with them having this impression!

I also used to have an Airbnb where I believe bias worked in my favor. My husband and I would take turns meeting the Airbnb guests and letting them into the property and I started to notice a pattern. Whenever I met the guests, they would give a 5 star rating, and whenever he met them they would have nit picky complaints. For example, he got complaints and stars taken off for things like, “the top of the fridge was dusty” and “there were no oven mitts provided”… If you understand Airbnb, you know how critical it is to get 5 star reviews. My husband is very charming, affable and great with meeting strangers. I on the other hand, am the nerdy awkward one who is better at crunching numbers than being a charming host. And yet I was get 5 star reviews and he was getting nitpicky comments.

The only explanation I can figure is that when people see a white male Airbnb host, they see a professional investor with a business that is making them rich. So they are hyper critical. When people see me, they just see a poor struggling mom trying to make ends meet. So they feel sorry for me and give me great reviews. It’s ok with me. I will take it all the way to the bank :)

@Kim H.

No worries. I ended up finding an agent and closing on a property in 5 de diciembre neighborhood.

It’s still under construction, projected completion in October 2022.

Good to hear you are fully booked despite Covid…looks like we will be dealing with it for a while.

I miss travel and need some sun, so I am looking forward to heading down to Puerto Vallarta again next week.

@Kim H.

I am considering investing in a condo in PV as well.

Can you share your agent info with me too please?

So has the pandemic hurt or boosted your Airbnb returns? Any other changing trends you are seeing in PV because of fall out from pandemic? Ie: more monthly rentals due to people being able to work from anywhere, etc?

@Aristone Louxz that’s fantastic! And a great example of how it is still possible to househack close to NYC.

I did something similar starting out, but I wish I was that smart to do it at 21 years old!

@John Alosio

Just because a woman has been married it does not mean that she needs a man to take advantage of, is entitled or can’t take care of herself. Applying your one experience with a divorced woman as advice to the OP’s question is gross generalization and incredibly discriminatory.

Feel free to take notes:

1) Just because a woman is married it does not mean that she relies on her husband financially or otherwise (I know many women who know how to shovel snow). Nor does it mean it is 50-50. She may make way more than him or be the sole breadwinner.

2) just because a woman is divorced, it does not mean that she can’t afford to rent the same house she lived in while married, it does not mean she would make a terrible tenant, nor that she has bad judgement or bad character.

When in doubt, Try to put the shoe on the other foot.

What if there was a woman on this forum making gross generalizations about a divorced man? Ugh, do you feel how gross that is? There are a lot of divorced people out there. And also a lot women making good money all on their own. These types of comments are not okay.

And for the solid men out there who have respect for their females colleagues, wives, sisters and mothers:

Feel free to speak up when you read comments like this online. Don’t just let it slide by. Because us women are out there, reading this stuff, and feel shocked and maybe even a little scared about all the hate out there. It would be nice to know that there are some good people out there too.

@Mike Baxter

Just because a woman is divorced, it does not mean that she is incapable of being a good tenant or that she was “trouble with someone who loved her” or that she has “bad character or bad judgement”. Also, btw Just because a woman was married it does not mean her income will be cut in half because she is getting divorced.

Welcome to the 21st century...and please tell us where are you hiding the time machine you travelled from 1912 on...

@Tim McCahill

I did a 1031 exchanged a few years ago and it was a lot easier than I expected. Time limit wasn’t so much of an issue. I found the property I wanted to buy first and made a contingent offer. Put my property on the market and got an offer within days. 7 days between closing on sale of old and purchase of new property. Hudson County, NJ is a fast paced market which makes it easier. The new property sale price should be same or higher than previous property (and “ like kind” of course. Full list of rules are available online). Qualified intermediary handled the rest. Couldn’t figure why everyone is always trying to make it sound so hard...

@Matt Lorenzo

Absolutely not. I had a great tenant who was moving out and had moved everything out except for his bed by 8am on moving day. He asked me to come check the place so he could get his security deposit. The place was spotless...except for the bed. I told him he would not get his deposit back until he moved the bed out. The amount of damage and debris that occurred from the removal of the bed was unbelievable. He didn’t want the bed so he left it on the driveway blocking cars from getting in. I called him to move it and he had a friend come by and break it down and move it to the neighbors yard. The whole thing was a mess and the only leverage I had to get him to clean it up was the security deposit. Otherwise I would have had to hire someone to deal with it. He finally cleaned it all up.

A huge headache and mess from a model tenant in the span of hours!

@Anne Williams so many listings have popped up in my neighborhood and the prices are on the high side...definitely not what I expected 3 months into a shut down...

From what I hear, Hudson County market is hot due to people wanting to get out of NYC. And homeowners are trying to seize the opportunity to ask for top dollar.

I wonder how long it will last...