All Forum Posts by: Matt Mertz

Thanks for sharing!

Just curious, do you ever get single couples (or smaller groups) that just want to stay at the dome?  Was wondering about your thought process of adding the geodome alongside an already very nice cabin.

Congrats Joel!  It's always good to feel your work vindicated.

One thing I'd caution you on is to not quit your W2 job(s) too quickly, even if you hit your goal.  Give it a little time and use the extra money for future investing or rainy days.

FF has been a disappointment to us. We have a SFH in Pflugerville TX (just north of Austin) and most of the leads we see are 1-2 bedroom folks (ours is listed 3bed at $3200/mo).

The leads we get from people that want a SFH never materialize. We assume it's from the massive competition in the market.

We listed our place on Airbnb for funsies and got bookings there.

My conclusion is that the "traveling nurse" market is better suited for 1-2 bedroom townhomes and condos. And in Austin, the SFH market has a ton of competition.

We're ok because our home is paid for which is why we tipped our toe in this market.  But as far as I'm concerned, the MTR market in north Austin is not worth it.

We have 2 properties listed.  One has the badge, the other does not.  There's been a noticeable increase in activity (bookings/inquiries) for the badged property since then.  Not huge: 1 week long booking for spring break and 3 inquiries, but it was pretty quiet before that.

It will be interesting to see if (or how) this impacts their search algorithm.

Bedroom ensuites where the bedroom is just big enough to accommodate a king size bed, 2 nightstands and a closet to stow luggage (save sqft for other parts of the house).  Put windows in smart places (don't cover them with the headboard).  Design the layout where you can mount a TV on the wall opposite of the bed.  Put conduit in the wall (if running a game console) or electrical outlet behind the TV so you don't have cables running down the wall.  Add some 2x4 block in the wall where you intend to mount the TV.

Focus on making the bathroom special.  Walk in shower, beautiful tile, twin vanities.  This is where you can really stand out and give guests something they don't have at home.

ADA compliance.  Doesn't cost much to put in a ramp at the front door, one wheelchair accessible shower and grab bars in a bathroom.

We built a 4 bedroom, 5.5 bath, 3500sqft cabin in the Smokies.  Has an excellent view.  Went live 12/2021.  It's doing better this year than last.  I'm assuming it's because we're superhosts and got the good reviews now.  It's work, but we love it and the income is outstanding.

We're trying to build a 1 bedroom cabin in the same area.  However we have sticker shock at the construction costs.  Almost all trade costs (HVAC, plumbing, electric) are the same as our first cabin from 2021.  And this new one is 1/3 the size!  We're so happy we built the big one first!

We also have a SFH near Austin TX that we converted to an MTR and that's been a bit of a flop. Basically we're on the verge of putting it back on the LTR market but we managed to get a 30 day stay all of November through Airbnb. Just don't have a lot of confidence that it will be worth the effort to manage it as a STR/MTR going forward.

It doesn't perform as well as our Smokies property.  It was an LTR for a while and now it's our mid-term rental attempt that hasn't been working out.  So we just threw it on Airbnb while we figure out what to do with it.  

Since our minimum stay is 1 week, we don't think there's enough variability in the stays that call for nightly price tweaking.

We've been using Pricelabs for our Smokies cabin for almost two years and been very happy with it.

Beyond has been hard selling us lately. May try them out for 2024.

We also have a SFH near Austin but we don't bother with dynamic pricing. Just set rates.

Cabin in Gatlinburg that sleeps 16.

As of yesterday, we got all major holidays booked this season except for the weekend preceding Halloween.  New Year's eve was a surprise because we had 2 night minimum set and the guest booked 5 nights.

We have 3 weekends left open for the remainder of the year.