All Forum Posts by: Maura Paler

Rates vary of course dependent on location, number of bedrooms, is there a pool. 

The market is changing out east, keep an eye on occupancy as well. Our colleagues who have owned and rented in Montauk for many years have switched to year round because the competitiion is so great that they now have frequent vacancies. Lots of summer vacancies also in East Hampton. Market has been flooded with investors past 10 years. There is also a relatively new (last couple of years) very strict and enforced regulation on short term rentals in East Hampton which includes Montauk that only allows a couple under 30 day rentals in one year, so everyone is now renting monthly or longer which just increases the competition. 

Not to say it can't still be a profitable situation...but you may have to have the best house at the best price to assure occupancy. 

We have 5 vacation rental home all under CBIZ 

Good question on the syncing pricing...I am thinking of signing up with One Rooftop which can sync my pricing from HA to my One Rooftop listings, but not sure about syncing them with airbnb, etc. Would be a HUGE help as it is so much work doing the pricing, we vary our prices greatly depending on time of year, holiday weekends etc, and then we lower them frequently for last minute availability. 

no mentions so far re the fees, and lots of online bookings

Bought our 5th Vacation Rental! They are all in the southern Adirondack Mountains (upstate NY)

Paid $174K, invested $25K in renovations/furnishings/landscaping 

Expecting $35-45K per year income

Anticipate $5-10K in expenses annually 

As per my last post regarding the frustration of financing, we purchased this on margin from our stock account, which is considered a cash purchase. Hope to get a home equity loan (refinance loan? not sure what it's called) for about $125-150K. Our stock margin is only 4%, so we are OK if we do not end up with a traditional bank loan, but would be nice to get our cash back to reinvest (also if market goes south we are in trouble with a margin loan!). 

This one is an original 1940's log cabin with lots of privacy (3 acres!), which in our experience is key to success in VR in our area. Lake view and lake access up here are important as well. This is lakefront, but reason it was so cheap is that the lake was not accessible as it is marshland before the lake. 

So, with some sweat equity and determination, we have created a 120 ft path through the marsh, and now have lake access! Kayaks will soon be included - so our rates are going to increase and we believe so will our occupancy. We closed in early July, did some renovation to the cabin, cut down a bunch of dead trees to improve the view, and voila, got fully rented through summer. Fall rentals will improve (we hope!) now that we can offer lake access and kayaks. 

Here is a rental link to the new cabin: 

http://www.adkbyowner.com/listings/VR7716.html

Here are our other 4 rental properties: 

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p3165887

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p353641

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p3946888

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p189448

My business is vacation rentals, it's my full time job, produces decent income and the start of a nice RE portfolio. 

I use VRBO, HomeAway, TripAdvisor (Flipkey), VacationRentals, GlampingHub, Airbnb and even Craigslist for my rentals. 

WARNING about Airbnb - their cancellation policies are very lax, not good for the property owner, so if someone gets sick or has a death in the family (or any "extenuating circumstance" they can cancel at the last minute and you will not get paid for the rental. This is not good business for our investment properties, we cannot afford to lose a peak week of income due to this policy (and we have!). 

So - we use Airbnb ONLY for last minute reservations. It's more work updating the calendars on each of our listings, but we get quite a bit from Airbnb for dates that might otherwise not get booked. We lower rates for last minute availability, offer even lower rates for midweek dates, etc. Lots of strategy, but it's worth the efforts. 

I do feel taken hostage by the new algorithms, not at all happy that despite being one of their oldest customers (going on 13 years!) my listings are now "Best Match" determined by how much $ I pay for my listings, then by whether or not I allow them to take bookings (and commissions) on my behalf, then by offering "instant" booking which is not ideal for those of us trying to keep some semblance of control over who stays in our homes. 

We have 5 VR's, 3 are financed with conventional investment loans. Not sure we would be granted another given the crazy loan requirements, and it was so stressful each time don't want to go through that again. 

We have talked to one of our lenders, the local bank, about a portfolio loan. Their rates are higher than the "bigger" banks, but they get what we do, are familiar with the area we do it in, and have offered us quick and guaranteed approval for our next deal or two as a portfolio loan. So - try local.  

However, that restricts us to the same area we are already in, we would like to expand (heading south next). 

Am also very interested in other's suggestions. 

 I would think since HomeAway does not offer owner validation, it is a very hard thing to do, they have already thought of everything. They do offer "fraud protection" which is a refund to guests who are scammed via their site, then of course they take down the offending listing right away. Also many listings are by mgt companies who represent the owner, you don't want to lose them, that is a large portion of "private rentals". Another fraud tactic is that someone can copy your listings, make themselves look your site, (I've seen it happen with the HomeAway website!) and get people to book thru them, usually by wire transfer. HA does not take responsibility for that type of fraud. 

My thought is the best way to avoid issues is to take payments by credit card, scammers won't take cc because they will get charged back. 

 Piseco Lake Cabin 

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p3165887

Lake Algonquin “Trailer Liscious”
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p189448

Lake Algonquin Farmhouse
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p353641

Our latest acquisition Spring 2015
Charlie Lake Cabin
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p3946888