All Forum Posts by: Nathan W.

My general rule of thumb is if you have any vested interest in telling me to do something I generally filter your advice out. When you filter out all the Realtors / Property Managers / Lenders the picture starts to look a little clearer. 

@John Carbone I was there a couple of weeks ago and I  thought it felt pretty dead too. It will be interesting to see April and May's numbers. I expect to see a decline. 
I keep hearing about more and more layoffs. I think we are likely to hit a recession which is why it's so important to stress test your numbers when you make an investment. Unfortunately most people don't. I'm a long term buy and hold investor though and I think even if we do have a slow year or two it will bounce back.

I also think inflation is real and just getting started. I keep seeing stories like Raising Cane's raises average wages to $19.50 an hour. People got used to those government checks during the pandemic and they aren't willing to live with less. That's going to force companies to pay more and keep inflation going for a while. 

As far as the slow season, I always heard that January, February, May and September are the slow months. 

I always watch this data. We don't have numbers for April yet but overall traffic has been decent. 

https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSR...

Seemed relevant.

https://www.insider.com/diy-re...

Hope it's no where near my cabins. 

I have a couple of cabins between PF and Wears Valley. We only lost power once this winter and our guests didn't even mention it until I asked them about it. It was a non-issue. 
If we started to have to give refunds to guests then I'd consider installing one. Until then I don't see it being worth it. 
Frozen pipes are the bigger issue for me. I hope that's solved for next year. 

Wow, if only you offered some sort of Masterclass where I could learn more! 

I'd recommend listening to Luke Carl's STR Management podcast. He had a good episode on Insurance and there was a broker that specialized in Florida that you could reach out to.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/...

Follow up question. 

How many of you are heating your pool with propane? If so, how much propane are you going through a month to keep it heated? 

Two somewhat relevant thoughts. 

Is there any reason to think that this couldn't happen in a hotel room? A hotel room has a smaller footprint so it's easier to clean but I would think the same risks apply. That being said, they are often designed to prevent things from rolling under the bed and with easy to clean surfaces. There might be some things to learn here from the Hotel industry. 

This also makes me think about guns being left behind by guests. I've heard several stories from other hosts and my cleaners about finding guns. Thankfully I haven't heard any stories about the next guest finding a gun but I could see it happening. It's a lot for cleaners to check every drawer and hiding space a gun could be. 
Reducing drawers in furniture and having no-gun policies might be wise for a host. 

Property taxes also make Austin a rough place to invest in.