All Forum Posts by: Mark S.

@David Taylor  Been so long I forgot I posted this.  (And judging by the lack of replies, so did everyone else!)

No, we didn't go any further with this.  But as I've broadened by experience since then I now know I should've gone after a commercial loan.  However the requirements for a commercial loan are different than residential and would require some understanding of the current owners P&L for previous years.  And the need for 20% down, etc.   Frankly if I had received a good reply pushing me in a commercial direction, I may have taken that further.  I have no idea of the numbers would've worked or not.

I'll file it into the learning experience part of my brain.  Best of luck to you!

@Marco Rodriguez All the best, my man.  You've got the rest of us pulling for you!

Without seeing the proprety, my gut tells me that you won't get the ARV you're projecting unless you take care of a lot of the "optional" things. You may be trying to cheat yourself by artificially deflating your reno costs so your take home number looks better.

@Tony Castronovo  Great progress!  If you don't mind the question, how did the sale of the entire portfolio come about?  And where is the apartment complex?  How are the number shaking out for you from what you forecast, at least in terms of your updates/repairs?

Best of luck!

@Ryan Farnworth  I concur with @Julie McCoyJulie on RemoteLock.  Another vote from me.

@Fred Buechel  You will need to determine what you're trying to accomplish.  If you only think you'd use the Florida place once a year, my suggestion would be to buy a property local as a long term rental.  Then rent a condo for a week as a vacation.  A short-term rental -- especially if you're going to use a property mgmt company which I'm assuming you would -- probably won't generate any more profit than a local rental unit.

Just my thoughts, I'm sure others will have different suggestions.  Best of luck.

PS...also make sure that you won't leave yourself too house-poor on your primary home with the HELOC and you factor in the payment cost on that money as well.

@Andrea Cole I think you've got a great job!  The pics look good, though the fish-eye lens is noticeable in some of them.  I would suggest putting some exterior shots of the home and/or neighborhood area.  As a guest, I might be a little suspect of not seeing the outside (maybe its just me).

Otherwise just go in at a low rate to start with (as you're doing) and do everything you can to get those first few 5-star ratings.  You're on your way!

@Sean Wilt   We sold a beach house in Galveston a year or so ago so I will agree with you that beach guests are going to be much harder on a place.  What you're describing though, doesn't sound too bad.  And I agree with other hosts that say to leave the 5 star unless its an issue.  If it costs my housekeepers more in time (and that cost comes back to me) then yes, I will happily ding the guest for it.

But trust me, you'll have MUCH worst experiences. Like the time someone cleaned a fish on the outside dining table and just left the blood and scales to rot in the summer sun for a few days.  Or the numerous times we've had to either bleach/clean or replace comforters because of urine, blood and other stains we can't identify.  Or the time we found a single flip-flop under a bed after a guest left and tossed it in the trash.  Only to have the guest call ask if we found the other half of their $400 pair of sandals.  We had to dig through multiple bags of trash that day to find it and return it -- not sure if we even got a 5-star for that.

(PS...I never toss out things a guest left behind after that.  I will hold it for a few weeks/months now just in case)

So prepare yourself mentally for the times to come.

Beach renters are fun :)

Thanks to @Vijaianand Thirunageswaram we were able to pick up our first buy and hold rental property in Q4 of this year. Next year I'm hoping to purchase the second in the first half of 2019. But what I would really like to do is either flip or buy for purposes of a BRRR. So I will let the deal determine the strategy. I'm open to a few approaches.

Happy near year all and best of luck in 2019.

We find it to vary based on season.  During the higher seasons we get booked out much farther in advance.  In the slower times, like now, we may get bookings with less notice.  In fact last weekend was booked only 1 day in advance.  We tend to lower the prices for those times when we get 3-4 weeks out and still have openings.  Fortunately it doesn't happen to often lately.