All Forum Posts by: Maura Paler

Our experience is that yes short term income on our VR's far exceeds what we could get from long term income. Yes check the local regulations, but keep in mind if they start to tax you, they are taxing everyone, so everyones rates go up, keeping you competitive. Keep in mind the extra expenses (furnishings, housekeeping, utilities, supplies, etc which are pretty easy to factor in), but the key factors are occupancy rate and mgt fees. I see you are looking at Hawaii - a year round destination. I would research comparable properties in your area of interest on VRBO, etc and follow them for a while to see how booked they get. If you are self managing take into account that your time needs to be compensated. And if not...check the local mgt fees, in many places they are so high they eat all profits. If you do proceed - make yours the nicest in your price range, get professional pictures, spend the $ marketing on VRBO, Flipkey, HomeAway and list with Airbnb. Do a Facebook page and ask every renter to post pictures to it after/during their stay. Their friends will see your VR, like the photo, then all their friends see it. 

We live in a 4 unit building that is currently apartments in NYC. 

The owner would like to convert to condo, but apparently this is a very tricky and expensive thing to do in NYC with tenants in place. If he is able to do this we would like to buy ours and possibly another of the units. 

Does anyone have any experience with this? Apparently the best way is for each of the four tenants to remain in their respective apt and each of us buys our individual unit, which is a possiblility. Otherwise the owner has to vacate the whole building to convert to condos, which seems bizarre and is certainly impractical. 

Any ideas would be much appreciated....thanks! 

Maura 

@Beth L.:

Thanks for taking the time to look through them. Nothing in particular we are concerned about - we do get year round bookings - but always looking to improve occupancy and maintain the ability to raise rates without losing occupancy. 

Thanks Beth! Choose one, or all 4, would love your feedback! You can message me or post for all to see, either OK with me. 

 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

Charlie Lake Cabin

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

Love @Karen Margrave's idea of a Vacation Rental Forum! Hoping that happens. 

In the meantime, we have just closed on our fourth VR, and are quite invested in their success. 

The ads and photos for each property are as important as having a great location. It's hard to critique our own stuff, and when doing multiple properties we may be making the same mistakes, or missing opportunities in all of them and simply not be aware of it.

So - would anyone out there be willing to offer to critique our Vacation Rental Ads? Don't need to be a VR owner - just able to act as though you were a traveler looking to vacation in the mountains by a lake. 

If you are a VR owner would be happy to do the same for you. 

This would be ever so helpful! 

Maura  

Love the idea of a vacation rental forum. 

Just closed on our 4th VR house, working on it now, just LOVE doing this. 

I have been managing ours and many others owners VRs for years...it's a great business facilitating vacations! Beats sitting at a desk which I also did for years. 

Am interested in the idea of partnering with others for financing, property management, renovations, and in different locations...it's a hard thing to manage from a distance and we are very interested in pursing other (i.e. warmer!) areas to purchase. 

The restrictions are local. It's not that Airbnb is not legal in NYC, it's that the owners or tenants of apartments cannot legally rent out their apartments for less than a 30 day period, unless they remain in the apartment while renting out a room or a sofa. That is the local NYC law, as I understand it, but your coop board may restrict short term altogether, and most do. South Beach Miami does not allow rentals under 6 months unless you are registered and approved for short term rentals. So the restrictions/laws vary, thus the need to research before you buy! 

I manage the advertising, payments, property management and calendar myself for all 4, they are within 1/2 hour of each other. All are lake and mountain properties. 

We live 4 hours away, we vacation in all of them (whichever is not booked is the best place to stay!), and in the off seasons take care of chores. We have reliable housekeepers which are the most important part of this business - couldn't do this without them. We have people who mow and plow, and in one instance open and close (drain pipes, shut off the heat and water) the house in winter before and after each winter guest. 

In our area there really is no property management company that could help us with this, but even if there were there is so much detail involved don't think I'd trust someone else. That is a big drawback of this business, it's a job, albeit one I enjoy so am willing to take on. 

 Oops I did forget to mention our $76K down payment required for an investment loan!