All Forum Posts by: Peter R.

I think it depends heavily on your seller's situation.

Cash offer to a seller not in a hurry with financing contingent offers in play?  No real value, one of the other offers will close, highest bid probably wins I suspect.

Distressed sellers, on the other hand...

Or sellers who hate realtors and banks.  I usually find them self-listing on zillow.  They love cash offers and will even discount to avoid dealing with the paperwork that comes with financing contingent offers.

Very possible although be aware that in some cases zillow is behind the MLS powered sites by several days. You need to watch it and even pay attention to things under contract, they don't always work out for various reasons.

Don't overlook FSBO either, Zillow is decent at those listings.

If extra bank sub-accounts are free where you bank, and it helps you visually identify buckets of funds, sure.  I do this with vacation rentals when I book income for the next year, I pull it out and put it in a reserved account just for that.

I also mark it in the accounting side but sometimes you just like having a sub-account labeled for things.

Your post makes it seem like this is your first vacation rental, apologies if that isn't the case.

Some random thoughts in no particular order:

Be realistic about how often your rental will be occupied.  You're not going to rent it 330 days a year.

Be honest about your desire to turn a unit if you are doing it.  If turns aren't for you, make sure your turn person/team shares your expectations about quality and cleanliness. 

Stay in it before you buy it, if at all possible. 

Know where you're going to list it.  Find your competition there, double check your intended rates.

Quadruple check your local laws INCLUDING HOA BYLAWS if you have one. Don't run a rouge operation. Factor in taxes AND someone to file them if that isn't you.

Budget for replacements.  Increase that budget your first year, sometimes you get the wrong thing your first go around.

Do you know your high and low season?

It's going to depend heavily on your local laws.  But it sounds like they don't care until you're doing it for an extended period of time or for more than a couple of rooms.

Looks like they want you to go legit and get a license like @Account Closed said.

In Florida, for example, if you were doing what you describe you should be collecting taxes and sending them to the county and state.  Plus having a license from the FL Department of Professional Regulation.  And periodic inspections, and posted license details, and conform to regulations for safety, etc, etc.

If you're just using Airbnb, no, it won't auto block dates based on other airbnb listings.

I would make a third though, that way you can show up for people searching for more space than either of your units alone can hold.  

If you plan to use any other service like VRBO, it can sync back to Airbnb and block dates automatically for each listing you have mirrored on VRBO.  Unfortunately it's a one-way sync, VRBO can't block based on what happens on Airbnb.  Quite annoying.

Does anyone use software for this?

As in, you see a property you like but it's under contract and you just want to know if it comes back on the market. Or if you see a property for sale that you're not going to pursue but would be interested to know what it sold for.

Or you're somewhat interested in a property but only if it drops below a certain threshold price.

Sometimes I just drive by a property and think "I'd like to know if that ever pops on the market."

What do you use for this, if anything?

Does anyone use software for this?

As in, you see a property you like but it's under contract and you just want to know if it comes back on the market.  Or if you see a property for sale that you're not going to pursue but would be interested to know what it sold for.

Or you're somewhat interested in a property but only if it drops below a certain threshold price.

Sometimes I just drive by a property and think "I'd like to know if that ever pops on the market."

What do you use for this, if anything?

@Kerry Baird have you dealt with any projects that have done a scrape and replace?  What is the temperament of Melbourne/Brevard County for building things in general, if you don't mind my asking.  I haven't done a construction project over here yet, only minor rehab and rent.

You can have VRBO synced automatically to the Airbnb Calendar, but not the other way around.  So if you get a VRBO reservation it'll automatically block the dates on Airbnb but you'll have to manually block VRBO dates if you get a listing from Airbnb.