All Forum Posts by: Manny Vasquez

Welcome to BP @Frank Barragan!  I have been a Realtor in Orange and Los Angeles Counties for over 17 years now and I also own some long-term rentals and a Short Term Rental (i.e. Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) company.  I'd be happy to assist you and provide you any advice.  Let me know how I can help!

@John Carbone I stand corrected buddy, you are absolutely right. I had totally forgot about "special zoning restrictions" that may allow for STR's. If this property is situated in an STR zoning area, then yes, the property will sell for a higher price and the business may be worth the $100K that the seller is requesting.

It sounds like the "deed restriction" may be enforceable, however, speak to a Title Officer or a lawyer in the area where the property is located to see if this is really true. If the seller is going through this length to put in writing that they will restrict the deed on the property, then I would pass on the sale of this property and look for another similar property in the same area. Then STR that property and stick it to the seller. 30 reviews for a property over the course of 2 years is deplorable. A well ran STR can have 30 reviews in a short 2 months. You can build up the "Review Equity" pretty fast by focusing on being a great host. Don't pay the $100K that the seller is asking for the STR business, its not worth it.

Hello @Amy Fulbright! I am a licensed agent in California with over 17 years of experience. I also own an STR company where we operate 16 STR's in Orange and Los Angeles Counties and 1 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. If you have any specific questions regarding STR's, please feel free to reach out. I'd be happy to provide you with any advice!

Airbnb, VRBO and other STR platforms are performing very well with very healthy profit margins. I run an STR company in Orange and Los Angeles Counties and my STR's are performing quite well. I'm not sure where you heard your information, but it is clearly from a person who either has no experience in STR's, or if they had an STR they ran it poorly or the STR was situated in a bad location.

"The government should provide housing to"....the mentally disabled that have no family to care for them.  Some physical disabilities should also qualify, however, it should be for those that are "unable" vs. "unwilling" to work. 

The governement has already tried "government housing" and in all cases it has been a failed experiment.  You can find these "experiments" in every major city. In most places, they are called "The Projects".  Failed, poverty-stricken, drug-infested, and deplorable living standards.

You could look up occupancy rate and daily average rate on Airdna or Mashvisor. I have personally used both sites to look up that information for prospective cities that I've been interested in.   Great information in there.

So far, all my STR's are performing wonderfully. For the record, my business partner and I own an STR company and we own/manage 16 STR's in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Our properties are located in cities that have high tourist attractions (i.e. Beach, Disneyland, etc.), regardless of the what type of economy we are in. When the pandemic hit, we were "lean enough" to stay competitive. Granted, we didn't make much money during the pandemic and travel bans, pretty much between March and September of 2020. However, we performed slightly better than breaking even and we knew that we would recover. What we didn't expect was the huge wave of success that came around in October 2022 all the way through now. So far, all of our STR's are performing great. We are very "active managers" meaning that we do a lot of the fixing/repairing ourselves, sometimes we do cleanings (I would say less than 5% of the time), we listen to our guests recommendations and take action, and we are constantly on the STR platforms tweaking everything, from pricing, to descriptions, to check-in/check-out process, to systems, to guest interaction. We are not fearful whatsoever of the coming downturn. We are still operating on "lean mode" and we were lucky enough to purchase the STR's at a lower price point than the competition where we can tweak our prices to be more competitive. As in every downturn-bear market-recession, there are many opportunities to come, and we are prepared for them. This downturn will undoubtedly take out the "casual STR landlord", the person who does not do a good job of managing their STR, the landlord that purchased at a high price point and can't be competitive, the person that does not pay attention to their guests and other hospitality details, etc.

I have self-managed a few properties long distance for several years.  I believe that finding a very good, trustworthy handyman is key.  In the lease agreement, I would also add a clause that any "call outs" will require the tenant to pay for the repair/fix (unless they or handyman can conclusively prove that the landlord should pay for whatever is broken or is in need of being fixed).

Congrats @Mordy Chaimovitz