All Forum Posts by: Ken P.

All - Hoping to connect with anyone investing in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. I'm primarily interested in the vacation rental / AirBnB market there but would love to talk to anyone who knows the area well. I'm analyzing properties as they come up but without occupancy data from a reliable source (aka, an actual investor, not airDNA) I'm lacking confidence in my projections. If you, or anyone you know invests there I'd love to connect.  Thanks! - Peter 

@Aja Leafe-Hall Sorry for the delayed response, totally missed the BP notification from your reply. 

Take my opinion for what it is because I do not have a short-term rental of my own. I think what you will find in Madison is that in the peak season, you'll do just fine, but in the off season you will struggle to be competitive with those more centrally located. A big pull for Eidelweiss is the lakes, but those don't really do much for folks in the winter and then you're just a bit farther away from skiing in the Valley. I would talk to Pinkham or Badger, they'll be able to tell you more realistically what you could expect from that area. 

I would be careful trying to blend LTR and STR in one property, especially with shared walls. Short term renters tend to be in vacation mode, and the long term folks who live there will not be too stoked on vacationers staying up late drinking or shooting off fireworks as they like to do.

I decided that if I were to go the STR route I'd find a property that worked as a STR and a LTR  (not at the same time) Housing is so tight in the valley that if STR didn't end up working out the way you had hoped, it will be nice to be able to fall back to LTR. The most demand right now seems to be for 2/3 bdrm in the $800 - $1400 /month range. If you can find a property that would at least come close to breaking even on those numbers, that would at least be a way to mitigate your risk a bit as you venture into the STR arena.  Keep in mind those are current rents, so consider a scenario where AirBnB overstaturates, people move properties over to LTR and rents fall. Not sure if that would actually happen, but I would try to run your numbers accounting for the possibilities of lower rents.  

Best of luck and please do follow up with whatever you decide on, I'm curious to hear how it all works out. 

Dave - 

This is definitely something I have thought about and it's on my radar. Have some other projects on my plate right now but have been considering a cleaning/STR management company for the area for a while, might be a future pursuit.

- Peter 

I live in North Conway (heart of the White Mountains) if you need any local info feel free to bounce it off of me. STR market here is very saturated but I'd hardly say oversaturated, there are so many people that come here summer (hiking and other attractions) , winter (skiing) , and fall (leaf peeping) and it's only growing. If you need market info you could give pinkham or badger real estate a call, they both have short term property rental management services and I'm sure they'd be happy to give you some better insight into the short term rental market. My experience with airdna is it's a decent starting point but I would definitely not rely on it for running numbers or projecting earnings, just my opinion. I will say finding a reliable cleaner may be a bit challenging as there are far more rentals than cleaners here, but it can be done.

Look forward to following your journey, I have been interested in getting into STR in the area for a while but the market is extremely competitive, everyone wants a piece of it.

Also of note, there is some local resistance to STR that you should be aware of. Conway village and the kearsage zone of north conway have had some rumblings of ordinance though nothing in place yet.

I'm typically in the valley Thursday evening to Monday evening. Would be cool to get something together, not sure how many local investors there are, my impression is that most are out of state but I'd love to be wrong!  Regardless, we could put one together and just see how it goes!

Hi Axel - 

I don't have personal experience working with any STR property services but I do live in Bartlett (Intervale) and would be happy to talk to you about the area. Bartlett is a great location though certain neighborhoods are better than others. in general you have very close proximity to multiple ski mountains for the winter season and Story Land pulls a huge crowd in the summer, yet Bartlett has much lower taxes than surrounding towns.

You could try getting in touch with Badger Realty or Pinkham Realty - I believe they both have property management branches.

Upcountry Property Services is another name I've come across - I have no idea about the quality of their services as I haven't worked with them but I do know they're local and do STR turnovers. 

Best of luck and let me know if you're in the area and want to meet up, I've enjoyed reading your posts on the forums and would love to learn more about your real estate journey. 

Sorry guys I won't be able to make this one - something just came up. See you next month!