All Forum Posts by: Mike B.

As I was on my morning bike ride yesterday I noticed a T@B teardrop camper in the driveway of a nicer home in one of the neighborhoods I typically cruise through and while I've biked by this trailer a hundred times, for some reason it dawned on me that I should purchase one of these and rent it out as an STR. The plan would be to purchase a new or lightly used tow behind camper for cash, and rent it out of our driveway. For a bit of context: Camping is an extremely popular activity in Wisconsin, and in Madison in particular, as we have a really nice State Park system which recieved an estimated 20M visitors last year. After some quick research I found one gal who's doing exactly this on Outdoorsy.com with the exact trailer (Little Guy Max) I want to purchase. Her rates are $130/night with a 3 night minimum and she's booked out the entire summer. For a purchase price of <40k this seems like a decent gamble to me, however I wanted to solicit some feedback from anyone who's tried it, or is doing it presently. Any thoughts appreciated!

@Gregory Mizzi

If you’re planning to build with native trees, and don’t want to wait for drying/seasoning you should consider timber framing. Hire a portable sawmill to come to your plot. Then the frame would be built with green wood right off the mill

@Jayden Hamilton

Jayden,

First let me say I sympathize. As a thrifty Midwestern kid my instincts about saving money and DIY are exactly the same as yours. However, having been in your shoes, I’m now realizing that (although not easy to find) good contractors are out there who will do good work for a reasonable amount, and that sometimes spending some money will save you SO much headache and stress so that you can finish a job or turn your attention elsewhere. Hang in there, it’ll get better

@Nathan G.

This is an excellent response. Thank you

@Trish Mccoy

Trish what’s a typical purchase price for one of your STRs?

@Joe Splitrock

I couldn’t agree more, have had questionable experiences with them myself

@Andrew Bond

Andrew, it would help to tell us a bit more about your situation, location, investing capital, etc. You may bet more specific responses if we knew these things

@Jennifer Walsh

Hey Jennifer,

I'm not too far away west of you here in Madison and it's the same situation. It made no sense to me either until I realized that many of the rentals are being purchase by seasoned investors who can pay all cash and are perfectly ok buying 4-5 cap properties with no financing. They know that the area is extremely likely to appreciate 4-6% on average over time, and their likely considering IRR versus monthly cash flow. There's a small number of established investors/families in Madison that control a huge amount of property

@Carlos Lizarazo

Cash out refi?

@M Shah

I’ll second the recommendation for the “hands off investor”, by Brian Burke. It’s an excellent resource for those looking to invest passively