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All Forum Posts by: Mike Neubauer

Mike Neubauer has started 43 posts and replied 290 times.

Post: Is Brandon Turner OK? Maui fires.

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187
Quote from @Clinton Davis:

Just wondering and hoping he and his family are doing ok due to the fires in Maui.  Anybody heard anything?  thanks.


 Brandon is fine.  The damage was limited to Lahaina town (3.5 square miles of about 735 total square miles on the island).  Brandon lives in South Maui and his place did not sustain any damage.  Brandon actually set up a foundation to help with the rebuild though with some local builders and business people.  You can check that out at: makai.org. Aloha!

Mike

Post: Donations for Maui

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187

Aloha Monty,

Thank you for wanting to help!  There are a ton of organizations out here that are doing a lot of good work.  Brandon Turner started one called the Makai Foundation (makai.org) with some local construction companies and other business owners out here to help facilitate what is needed and get around the red tape.  Try taking a look at them.  Mahalo!
 

Post: Maui Fires Fund Raising

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187

Aloha @Kevin Dias,
Both Brandon and Josh have been active in the community out here.  Our entire island has really rallied together to support our family, friends and tourists who were in Lahaina at the time of the fires.  I know Josh has helped to put up families that were displaced in his house.  Brandon has started a non-profit with several other local business owners to support the efforts (Makai.org). If you're looking to help out, that would be a great place to start.  But, to answer your question, yes, the Maui BP community has been extremely active in raising funds and supporting Lahaina Town.

Aloha!

Post: Maui Saturday Morning Meetup in Kihei

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187
Quote from @Jason McEntee:

Looking forward to it! 


 It'll be great to see you there, again!

Post: Maui Saturday Morning Meetup in Kihei

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187

Join us on the first Saturday of each month at South Maui Gardens near the Da Green coffee shop as we wala'au (talk story) about all things Maui real estate.  Bring your deals, your questions, your skills or just your interest and connect with other local investors for an informal gathering over coffee.  

Hosted by Mike and Caroline Neubauer.  Mike is a full time investor and Caroline is a full time realtor right here on Maui.  Their portfolio consists of short term rentals, mid term rentals, long term rentals, syndications and more.  Both are happy to share their insights and take on the current state of the market. 

All are welcome!

Post: Condo without ocean view- good for STR?

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187
Quote from @John Underwood:

I'd stay away from a condo.

HOAs can make your life miserable with fees, rules and fines.

You can make more money with a private house.

I can rent a condo in Myrtle Beach cheap because there are so many of them competing for my dollar.

 @John Underwood with all due respect, please stop posting about markets you have no knowledge of. If an investor wants an STR on Maui they are limited to investing in condos. You can't buy a SFH and get an STR permit without holding the property for at least 5 years before applying. Even then, the county has all but said they're not giving out any more TVR permits on single family homes. I've seen too many of your posts about Maui that are not accurate. You're giving investors bad advice. I know nothing about investing in Myrtle beach so I'll leave that forum to you. Please leave Maui related advice to people with Maui related experience.

@Suvarna G. Like @Mark Waite said, your costs to acquire are going to be less without the ocean view.  We've seen the numbers actually working out better in many cases with investing in places without an ocean view as opposed to those with one.  When you take into account the premium you would pay for ocean front vs. across the street for example the price can be almost double.  However, the nightly rates can still be 75% of what you might get for ocean front depending on the area.  

Post: Channel Mgt for STR Hostaway vs OwnerRez

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187

Well, I'm going to chime in here again.  We have tried Hostaway, OwnerRez, Hospitable and Guesty for Pros.  There are many others we've looked at but never actually tried.  These ones I'm familiar with.  Here are my thoughts:

Hostaway:
 Stay away.  There's very little support and a lot they can't do.  They sell you on the platform before you can actually get in and play around.  It's very weak in the automated messages category.  They do integrate with a lot of vendors, and the site looks pretty but the platform itself has a long way to go before it's worthy of being used, in my opinion.

Hospitable: We used Hospitable for years. They're really good at the auto messages thing.  Sadly, they're not as robust in other areas.  They don't connect with a lot of other platforms and their support has gone downhill big time.  I really wanted to continue using them, but for growth it just wasn't the best choice for us.  After using them for years we asked to jump on a Zoom call with their sales team to try to figure out a way we could continue using them, but they replied that their team was too busy focusing on new sales to jump on a call.  That told me all I needed to know.

OwnerRez: This is a decent product.  They do most things and they do most of those ok.  They don't connect with a lot of apps and other vendors though, and their site and services are clunky.  It's like they built their platform in the Bronze Age and its been held together with duct tape ever since.  Looking at their forums, their moderators are against any kind of growth or adaptation of new technologies.  Throw the word AI in there and they fight against it tooth and nail.  Again, they're ok, everything is a la carte, but at the end of the day you have to be ok cutting services and planning on using exactly what they have forever.  Don't bank on them integrating with new technologies any time soon.

Guesty for Pros: This is expensive but does have the most support.  It does everything, but there are a fair amount of glitches.  Their automessages and workflows are good and more robust than the competition.  My problem with them (other than the price) is that they're trying to do everything.  They have their own payment platform (you could use Stripe... or GuestyPay), they have their own dynamic pricing (you could use PriceLabs... or GuestyPricing), they have their own smart locks (you could use RemoteLock... or GuestyLocks), etc.  That is all well and good, though you don't save any money using their software.  It's the same pricing as others.  The problem is there are so many glitches in their base system that still need to be ironed out.  I wish they would work on those before jumping into their own services that you can add on.  I would imagine all those are a bit glitchy as well.  That said, they have the most to offer and aren't afraid of integrating with new tech and apps.  Overall, this is the service we are using now and are decently happy with it.  I think it is the best of the bunch.

In the end there are no great solutions in this category.  You'll have to just choose the one with the least amount of headaches as it relates to your business.  

Post: STRday Meetup in Kihei

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187
Quote from @Eddie Valentino:

When is the next one after this?  Recently moved to Lanai and would love to attend a meet up but 7/1 won’t work unfortunately. Thanks! 


We’re going to try to do them on the 1st Saturday of each month. Hope to see you there!

Post: STRday Meetup in Kihei

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187

Thanks to everyone who attended the last STRday meetup.  Let's do it again!  Same time, same place.  We'll meetup at Da Green Coffee Bar in the South Maui Gardens Oasis at 8am and wala'au about all things real estate.  From short term rentals to financing to what we're seeing in the current market, come with your questions, expertise and aloha.  All are welcome.  @Caroline Neubauer and I will be there hanging out and sipping coffee and we'd love to meet up with you!

Post: Short Term Rentals in Maui

Mike Neubauer
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Waikapu, HI
  • Posts 300
  • Votes 187

Yep, mine are doing well too, @Mark Waite.  It's dangerous when people start touting facts without actually knowing what the rules and regulations actually are.  @Pete Slaga, you can pull up that information on the county's website or just work with a knowledgeable local agent who can guide you.