All Forum Posts by: Mark Miles

 Ha! This will just turn into a ventfest with everyone complaining about how they can’t find good cleaners, Handymen, Plumbers, roofers, lawncare, snow plow, electricians, etc etc etc.

And everyone complaining how they had to fire their last cleaners because cleaning crew members got in a huge fight in the front yard and started throwing things at each other…

And how they had to fire the cleaners before that because they showed up drunk…

And how they had to fire the cleaners before that because they never even showed up…

 I’ve bought Airbnbs that are barely bringing in 100 K in annual revenue. Then I take ownership and get them over 200 K revenue per year. What they’re earning is totally irrelevant, it’s all about your vision for the property. And your business acumen

 In 2019 there were 10,000 homes for sale in the Poconos. In 2020 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic, folks from Nyc and Philly bought them all up. And they turned about 5,000 of them into Airbnbs. This has caused at least 3 major problems: 1) the market is now oversaturated with Airbnbs, 2) rental rates have come down bc of so much competition, 3) there's a dire shortage of workers available to service the huge increase in the # of Airbnbs.

Wait times are often a month or longer for service providers. I have a friend who needs an electrician & has been waiting a month. He had to cancel all of his reservations until he can get an electrician. Another friend's hot tub has been out of commission for over a month while he awaits a hot tub repairman. He has had to give refunds bc of a non-working hot tub. Another friend needs to renovate his house but can't get anyone to do it, it's brutal.

Plumbers, roofers, lawncare, there's no one available to do this work bc there's waaayyyy too many Airbnbs for the local labor market to support.

Not to mention the dire shortage of cleaners and handymen. Home prices have shot up in the Poconos, there's very few homes for sale, there's bidding wars on the few homes that are for sale, and there's a drastic shortage of available workers. Not an ideal place to run a business but good luck if you wanna try it!

Personally, as someone who lives near the Poconos, I would recommend the mountains of VA, NC, or TN. Or the beaches of NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, or TX. I've built quite a little nest egg investing in some of those markets 👍👍

 For the Poconos, your pros should actually fall under cons:

Established rules and regulations -> not true. Rapidly evolving in many Poconos townships

Tourism Driven markets so they won't ban Airbnbs -> not true. Many Poconos townships looking to restrict or ban

easy to find cleaners, handymen, managers,etc -> not true. Oversaturated Poconos STR market means dire labor shortage and not easy to find any of these things

One major advantage of smaller places is you greatly increase the size of your cleaner pool. You increase the possible number of Cleaners available to you. Because you basically just need a solo cleaning crew.

I have friends who own larger houses there and they require entire cleaning crews for cleanings, and the cleaning crews are often very short staffed or they are double booked or they rush through and do a lousy job so they can move onto the next place.

My friends who have smaller homes at least do not have that particular problem. They can basically find any one person on craigslist or facebook who can possibly clean their home.

So yes, having a smaller home definitely presents that distinct advantage. Especially in a market like this with huge huge labor shortages

 Not necessarily a direct answer to your Q but here’s my 2 cents on the Poconos…

In 2019 there were 10,000 homes for sale in the Poconos. In 2020 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic, folks from Nyc and Philly bought them all up. And they turned about 5,000 of them into Airbnbs. This has caused at least 3 major problems: 1) the market is now oversaturated with Airbnbs, 2) rental rates have come down bc of so much competition, 3) there's a dire shortage of workers available to service the huge increase in the # of Airbnbs.

Wait times are often a month or longer for service providers. I have a friend who needs an electrician & has been waiting a month. He had to cancel all of his reservations until he can get an electrician. Another friend's hot tub has been out of commission for over a month while he awaits a hot tub repairman. He has had to give refunds bc of a non-working hot tub. Another friend needs to renovate his house but can't get anyone to do it, it's brutal.

Plumbers, roofers, lawncare, there's no one available to do this work bc there's waaayyyy too many Airbnbs for the local labor market to support.

Not to mention the dire shortage of cleaners and handymen. Home prices have shot up in the Poconos, there's very few homes for sale, there's bidding wars on the few homes that are for sale, and there's a drastic shortage of available workers. Not an ideal place to run a business but good luck if you wanna try it!

Personally, as someone who lives near the Poconos, I would recommend the mountains of VA, NC, or TN. Or the beaches of NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, or TX. I've built quite a little nest egg investing in some of those markets 👍👍 My ADR (avg daily rental rate) is $811/night in those markets 💪 Of course, I buy nice houses and YMMV.

 It’s super easy. I use offshore assistants to manage everything, for pennies on the dollar. Works amazingly well & I rarely have to get involved. All without having to pay a hefty PM fee

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

 It’s risky. Even if you’re able to rent it every weekend, there’s very little weekday demand in the Northeast other than summertime. So 9 months of the year you’ll be earning $8000 per month from weekend only rentals. That doesn’t work with your numbers.

I live in the Northeast and I only invest down south because you can get year-round weekend and weekday rentals. I would advise you to do the same. You will get a much much higher ROI at that price point down south, plain and simple

 Yeah I do the same thing. $250 to check-in early or check-out late. I own high end houses though. A lotta people pay it. Convenience matters! When they’ve already spent $5k for a weekend, what’s a few hundred extra dollars I suppose.

Some pay $500 extra for both early check in AND late check out. These fees alone can often generate an extra $1k or more per month per house.

I think I earned like $40k last year just from early check in & late check out fees across all of my houses. It’s great too bc there’s no associated expenses.

In 2019 there were 10,000 homes for sale in the Poconos. In 2020 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic, folks from Nyc and Philly bought them all up. And they turned about 5,000 of them into Airbnbs. This has caused at least 3 major problems: 1) the market is now oversaturated with Airbnbs, 2) rental rates have come down bc of so much competition, 3) there's a dire shortage of workers available to service the huge increase in the # of Airbnbs.

Wait times are often a month or longer for service providers. I have a friend who needs an electrician & has been waiting a month. He had to cancel all of his reservations until he can get an electrician. Another friend's hot tub has been out of commission for over a month while he awaits a hot tub repairman. He has had to give refunds bc of a non-working hot tub. Another friend needs to renovate his house but can't get anyone to do it, it's brutal.

Plumbers, roofers, lawncare, there's no one available to do this work bc there's waaayyyy too many Airbnbs for the local labor market to support.

Not to mention the dire shortage of cleaners and handymen. Home prices have shot up in the Poconos, there's very few homes for sale, there's bidding wars on the few homes that are for sale, and there's a drastic shortage of available workers. Not an ideal place to run a business but good luck if you wanna try it!

Personally, as someone who lives near the Poconos, I would recommend the mountains of VA, NC, or TN. Or the beaches of NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, or TX. I've built quite a little nest egg investing in some of those markets 👍👍 My ADR (avg daily rental rate) is $811/night in those markets 💪 Of course, I buy nice houses and YMMV.