All Forum Posts by: Mark Miles

Run as fast as you can from Evolve Vacation Rental. I have had a property listed for over 1 year and it has been nothing but trouble. I am an experience property owner. They claim to charge 10%. but in reality they have control of your nightly rates, using an algorithm that is way off to the market. In reality, I looked and asked my tenants what they were charge and it was above the rate I was collecting from the. I had to call several times to adjust the rates and was a hassle to hear back. It made me feel as I was doing something wrong.

Also, they claim to have $3k property insurance for breaks, etc... Good luck trying to submit the information and collecting the funds.

Customer Service is poor. You hope for someone to respond an email or answer the calls. I decided to take my business elsewhere.

Too much aggravation.

Positive: The money was in the account within days and their portal was easy to monitor.

Sheesh, very sorry to hear that Albert.

I’ve got people offshore managing my properties at a very high quality for a fraction of the cost, something worth considering.

They handle everything themselves and rarely need to get me involved in anything, it is the perfect hands off low cost operation

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

1 Vote

Originally posted by @Kat Hussey:

We're putting a tiny house on our large plot property to use as an air bnb. Does anyone have done advice of what they've drive that worked or didn't work for them? Any major mistakes to avoid? Books to read?

Congrats and welcome to the party! Running a successful STR comes down to 3 Ps: pics, people & pricing.

1) Decorate your house nicely & pay a professional photographer to take some amazing pics

Also, be prepared to constantly reinvest some of your profits into your house in order to keep it in tiptop shape. I think a lot of new investors look at the allure of STR and see the big revenue numbers and forget how much damage your house and your furniture and your furnishings will take with guest after guest after guest staying in your house

If you let your house and the furniture and the furnishings fall into a state of decay, what originally started as a big moneymaker will instead become a constant source of guest complaints and bad reviews and headaches and sleepless nights (for you & your guests!) and refunds to guests

2) Hire amazing people - cleaners, handyman, recruit some neighbors to help fill in the gaps, & self-manage or hire an offshore VA to manage the property if you'd rather make yourself rich instead of making a local property manager rich (more on that here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/... )

And make sure that your cleaners and handyman are not only doing a top-notch job of keeping the house in pristine condition, but they are also reporting to you (or to your PM or to your offshore asst) every little thing that needs to be upgraded or replaced so that you can stay on top of it and take care of things before you hear it from your guests in the form of guest complaints and bad reviews. If your bath mats are getting nasty, you need to hear that from your cleaners not your guests!!

And keep your handyman on speed dial because there will be plenty of occasional electrical and plumbing and HVAC and hot tub issues, many of which will be minor but will still require your handyman to take a look. This business ain’t for the faint of heart!

3) Price fiercely to maximize profits not occupancy (they're not the same thing). If you set higher prices and rent fewer nights but make the same amount of money, you actually come out ahead. Less money spent on supplies, less wear and tear on your place, less money spent on utilities, fewer guest headaches, etc.

Bottom line: there’s a LOT of puzzle pieces you have to get right to make this work really well, but once you master it, it can be very rewarding

I preferred to invest in the year-round high revenue parts of the US where you can earn a lot of money year-round. I prefer that because it gives me a nice cushion so I always have extra profits to reinvest back into my houses as things need to be upgraded or repaired. Be careful if you’re considering an area with only seasonal revenues because you might be underestimating just how high your expenses can be in this business, I know I did before I started!!

Keep in mind that your expenses will occur year-round (whether your house is rented or not), so try to invest where you can earn lots of year-round income to offset those expenses (which is typically the southern US). Just my two cents based on my experience. Best of luck!

3 Votes

Originally posted by @Kyle Parks:

I'm in the process of building out a management company in Cleveland, Ohio but have no idea where to start with pay structure. My wife and I are among the best operators on our 2 units and we are completely confident in our abilities (setting up, hospitality, management) but the $ aspect is difficult to pin down. I have seen figures ranging from 9%-30%. Please help!

I offshore my property mgmt for around $4/hr. I’m honestly not sure why anyone would pay someone stateside to handle property management when it is so cheap to hire someone offshore to do a high-quality job.

My offshore PM can set door codes, message (or call) guests, schedule cleaners, adjust the thermostat, monitor my cameras, & call a plumber just as easily as a local PM can, for 1% of the cost.

(more on that here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/... )

3 Votes

Originally posted by @Torey Chumbley:

I am looking into buying my first STR and because I live within a short drive, Tahoe City looks like a good bet. The numbers seem strong and unlike South Lake Tahoe, they still allow STR's but with one big exception. The owner must have someone local in place that can deal with certain problems in person. This seems like a huge road block and since I plan to self manage, this could be a deal breaker. Do any of you own in Tahoe City, West or North Shore or in Placer County? How do you get around this requirement?

Thank you!

Torrance

Every neighborhood on the planet has a Facebook group. Join that group and post in the Facebook group stating what you are looking for, you’ll get plenty of responses most likely. I have had great success finding many local people to help me with many things using local Facebook groups

0 Votes

Originally posted by @Abe DeHart:

I have a 6 unit property under contract in the Smokies, 0.5 miles from the parkway in Pigeon Forge. Units are connected under one roof but there is no pass through from one unit to another. Each unit is a 3/3 1,200 SQFT with a 1bed/1bath suite on each of the 3 floors. It is currently a LTR with 6 tenants. It's zoned for STR, and my wife and I plan to put some capital in and get it to be a rental. A few questions for the group:

Style: The property is relatively new (<20 years old), but has no cabin style at all. Do we invest money to put cabin siding on, some tongue and groove on a few interior walls etc? Or can we keep it as just a clean non-cabin rental with a few bear lamps, rustic furniture, the standard arcade and air hockey, etc.> Any sense at how much rents would decrease if we don't "cabinify" the units?

Unit structure: How do we set this up so that a single party could rent it as an 18/18? or 2 9/9s, or 3 6/6s? Is this possible? We are new to STR, but I'm thinking that renting an 18/18 for a week to a large group could generate a lot of cashflow. Practically can you do this with AirBnb, VRBO?

Pricing/Unit quality: Should we keep a couple with the standard appliances and laminate countertop and then have a few others with granite, all stainless appliances, hot tubs, etc? Cater to a broader swath of the renters that visit, or just make them all "A class"?

What should we be thinking about that I might have missed?

Thanks!!

Congrats, sounds awesome!! Here’s something I learned on my own: try renting it the way that it currently is, and if you’re having trouble renting it for the rates that you want, only then make changes

I once bought a STR house and thought I was going to make a bunch of changes, but I listed it as it was just to get some money flowing, and the money was so good that I never made any changes

If you do decide to make any updates, update only one unit at a time so you still get cash flow from the other units. Then you will be able to compare your before and after rental rates on that one unit to see if it was worth it. A true A-B test!

Finally, the great thing about Airbnb is you can have a bunch of different listings for the same place. You can list each unit separately, you can have a separate listing that combines two of them, a separate listing that combines three of them, a separate listing that combines six of them. Create a bunch of different listings all with different rental rates and see what works best for your profitability.

4 Votes

Originally posted by @Gururaj Iyer:

@Mark Miles- there is absolutely no denying that .. if I may ask - what other locations for STRs are u considering ? Reason I ask is with 2 STRe in poconos- I haven’t been successful in adding another one - rental laws do keep me nervous as well ..good thing is the cashflow I am seeing with the 2 I own so far is super tempting for me personally to endure the hassles but then off course if a better market exist I would definitely want to explore

I've had great success investing down south - Smokies & Florida panhandle are very popular markets with strong ROI that dont have the issues that Poconos do. There's other markets down south too...

0 Votes

Originally posted by @Michael White:

We bought in Bushkill PA (Saw Creek) in July. Definitely check out the STR laws for the township where you are planning to buy. Many have rapidly-changing ordinances (we closed 7/15 and the ordinance changed 7/23 which made things harder for us but not impossible). We have also had trouble finding good people to help with maintenance. It is difficult to have a phone call returned, much less get someone to show up to look at a roof, hot tub, etc.

Omg, btwn Rapidly changing rental laws & impossible to find good people for cleaning & maintenance & exorbitantly high property taxes & power bills & septic tank repairs...

This is why every Poconos thread on here turns into a bunch of people complaining! Ya don't see that when people mention other STR areas! Srsly, Poconos wins the award for #1 complained about STR location on BiggerPockets - that's why I avoid investing there even though I live nearby! 😆

1 Vote

Originally posted by @Bryan S.:

I have a STR w/ a pool and want to make it nice for guests. I'm thinking replace the grass with pavers and covering up the fences with bamboo cover up fencing.

Has anyone else cleaned up a backyard pool area to make it attractive to STR guests?

When I typically do something like this, I find an offshore designer to mock up a few designs. Typically costs me about $100 for an offshore designer - WELL worth it!

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

3 Votes

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Hello,

My girlfriend and I have put in an offer on a 3 bed / 2.5 bath house just 4 minutes drive from the heart of the Bishop Arts District in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas. This property has been rehabbed 100% from pier and beam to roof structure, and everything in between. Spectacular rehab. We want to rent our space full time on Airbnb, but also live in. 2 bedrooms and 1.5 baths will be dedicated to the Airbnb.

I want to hire a 3rd party property management company to run the business. I am not trying to buy my way into another job outside of my 9-5.

If the offer is accepted, we are ready to purchase all necessary furniture / etc that would make our home as comfortable as possible.

I have personally used Airbnb on 11 different occasions, and never use hotels anymore. I love feeling at home when I am in another city, state, or county.

What advice can you share to make this experience top notch for our guests? What amenities, pieces of furniture should we include? Do you know of any good management companies? What should we be aware of or avoid? What have you enjoyed most about your Airbnb experiences? What is a non-negotiable?

Thanks in advance,

Nick

1 Vote

Originally posted by @Scott K.:

With 3 STR's I'm trying to start organizing and automating processes for myself. It's become a chore to organize my different handymen who all have different schedules, and I have to not only remind them of every single repair that is pending for each house, I have to make sure they know which dates the houses are available/free of guests to head over. In addition to that, they often don't report precisely what they did to fix a problem, or which problems they forgot to work on.

This leads me to needing a centralized system to track/manage their tasks.

I suppose before I get to my ideas - does anyone have this problem, and have a ready-to-go app or service they use to organize handymen, that they've found useful, especially given that handymen are often not technologically adept, and have very little interest in downloading a new app or learning a new system?

I'm thinking of coding my own web app. Basically, all a handyman has to do is go to a bookmarked website, where it lists all my houses. Under each house they would see pending repair tasks, and see the next available dates those houses are free of guests. They would then have a button to click to say 'working on', and they could enter their name. Once it's done, they would click 'finish', and it would require them to upload a photo to confirm. Once finished, a task disappears from the list.

They, as well as my cleaners, would be able to also add new repair tasks as they see them. On the backend, I would be able to see the finished tasks, a photo of the task, and who completed it. I would also be able to upload my iCal links to sync my booking availability automatically. I would be notified every time a handyman clicks 'working on' and also when they click 'finish' by email.

I could probably get this done for $400 or so with my developer, so it's quite cheap and easy to do. Just wanted to double check with everyone if they already have a solution for this, or any suggestions for how to improve it.

Hey man, I had the exact same problem as you so I started using Todoist - AMAZING!! It is the king of task management apps. Including templates & checklists that you can save & clone for repeat jobs (eg, a post-stay check or a cleaning). It is free but I pay the $6/mon per person fee to get the added features. I created a business account & I pay the $6/mon per person for my entire team of handymen, cleaners, offshore assistants etc - it is WELL worth it

3 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Mark Miles

Mark Miles has started 38 posts and replied 496 times.

Post: Evolve Vacation - RUN away!!!!!!

Post: Have any Air BnB Advice for a beginner?

Post: Airbnb Owners but non-operators- What do you pay your management?

Post: Need help over coming Tahoe City requirement

Post: 6 Unit STR in the Smokies

Post: Investment in Poconos

Post: Investment in Poconos

Post: Backyard ideas for STR?

Post: Airbnb Advice Please!

Post: How to organize/keep track of multiple Handymen