All Forum Posts by: Aaron Smith

I accept Venmo, CashApp, and Zelle. I would say 80% of my tenants use Venmo and 10% each for CashApp and Zelle. Then I have a few tenants that still go to my bank each month and give them my checking account number and deposit that way since they don’t have any smart devices/phones.

@Jason Stoltzfus

Yep go for the poly wood. I just spent $2,000 for 4 bar height chairs for our beach house for the outside deck areas and am getting ready to spend $2,500 for a poly wood dining table with 6 chairs. It’s a high end beach rental. I’ve bought about 30 plastic Adirondack chairs in the last 3 years and they always break the same year I buy them after going through a 5-month beach rental season.  I’m tired of it haha so I’m finally splurging and spending some serious coin to have permanent nice outdoor seating which tenants will really appreciate, and also not rust either.  This is a weekly rental that averages between $3,000-$5,000/weekly rent in the summer, just to give you a frame of reference of the price point versus my investment in nice outdoor seating.

Mine is simple. I wan to make $1,000/day cashflow, or $30,000/month or $365,000/year. I’ve calculated I can achieve this based on what I already have in my portfolio (32 properties with 42 total doors). Right now there are 27 of these properties with mortgages on them and 5 owned free and clear. All 27 should be paid off within the next 12 years. I will be 53 then and both my kids would just be wrapping up college by then.

I put a pool in 3 years ago in our beach front house. Cost me about $50,000 for a large fiberglass pool with concrete. Well worth it though because I have been able to get about $15,000 more in rent per year from having the pool. By next year it will have already paid for itself and I get the pleasure of using the pool everytime we go to stay between April and November

I have a short term rental on Topsail island in NC and also a mountain house up in the NC mountains near Boone. Property management rates at the beach are around 20% for most companies but I was able to negotiate down to 17% due to how easy my house would be to rent (has a private pool). Property management rates in the NC mountains are much higher, somewhere around 30-35% for most companies. I was able to get them down to 27% but no further. Worth it for me to pay these rates as I don’t have time to self manage these 2 short-term rentals working a full time job and also self managing over 30 traditional rentals.

I’ve converted many rooms to a bedroom, be it a second living room, huge master I could make into 2 bedrooms, etc. do it would increase the rent significantly. I did not add additional square footage but just changed the layout which sounds like what has happened here in your case. I would laugh in your face if you thought I’d give you a credit/take less money because of that. Sure they might have thrown up a wall with a little extra wiring and a door, but the value of the house is still the same and the total amount of permitted finished square footage is the same.

@Kelly McCormack

I own a short term rental up here in the Boone/Banner Elk area (Sugar Mountain specifically). We use it as our second home from May through September and then rent via AirBnB during the winter (for snowboarders/skiers).

I’ll tell you this. Pigeon Forge area has a completely different demographic than you’ll see up this way. But most importantly for us it was about having a house with elevation (greater than 4,000 feet) to be able to not have to have air conditioning. It never gets above the high 70s here in the summer and is always back to the 50s at night. Compared to the rest of NC/SC/Tennessee it is like another world. Pigeon forge area hardly has any elevation so it is still hot as hell there in the summer. And much more crowded. Just something to think about since you said you’ll use it personally as well.

I personally only pull. Permit if I am adding square footage that was not there before or adding something structural like a deck. Other that that forget it.

I have had 2 turnovers happen in the last month and both my tenants are ok with me having prospective tenants come to view the property as long as they wear a mask.  I honestly would have an issue if they told me straight out I cannot show the property.  We are no longer in a state of emergency in our state and also, there is ZERO way to ever prove where you got COVID from if someone tried anything.  That said, luckily I have not had a current tenant push back against a showing, but I would probably push back if so and tell them I am showing it at X and X time and they can feel free to not be there if they did not want to be and that we would wipe the door handle off when leaving.