All Forum Posts by: Peter Francis

Donate unused items from your own personal residence to the STR house. My wife and I got married. She had a 4BR house full of furniture in a house that was for sale. I had an empty 2 BR house sitting vacant. We furnished the 2 BR from her 4BR. The 2BR paid $350/month as a LTR. We put 4 beds in there, and charged $210/week for each bed. It took about 5 days before we found 4 guys to rent it.

They didn't speak English. I knocked on the door each week and they handed me $840 and I gave them a receipt. This went on for 2 months and they moved out. Within 60 minutes some of their friends called me and wanted the house. Same story, no English, just $840 and a receipt for another 6 weeks. They moved out. Some of their friends called within 60 minutes and wanted it, but there were just 3. By now we had a 2nd 3BR STR up and running bringing in $800+. There were 9 guys in there. One bathroom. So we bought a big 3 story house with 4 full baths and a jacuzzi and that brought in a 4 digit number every week until and beyond the house paid for itself. We bought another and another and then my wife quit her day job to be a full time cleaning lady.

3 more what by the end of the month? 

As Owner? 

as in property managers? 

As Arbitrage? 

As Co hosts? 

I am totally disinterested in rapid growth. I have enough money. Getting big can suck the fun out of it. Overleveraged, zoning changes, having money in reserve, etc. 

Better to get good value properties in good areas, optimize their revenue, automate as possible, get good support staff, top quality online systems, serve your clientele, learn how to perfect your process, etc. 

We will all spend a lot of time underground. It's not about rapid riches. It's about enjoying what you do, the people involved, wisdom, etc. 

Let's say the economy does a sudden collapse in 2 years or your market is saturated and you cannot make your payments and you sit there with 27 properties... 

 I've been fortunate to keep the same crew with me as I grow, but that may not always be possible (especially as I get into different markets), and that's where I expect to feel the most growing pains.  

Otherwise a key thing in my ability to scale has been learning how to use automation in a responsible way, so that I can focus on the things that genuinely need my personal attention, but the guests never feel like they're getting less than my total focus.  

Adaptability is key! Realizing that not everything is going to always fit into the equation the way you expected is the hardest part to learn. Learning that short term rentals, no matter which market, aren’t always going to fit into the formulas and calculators that we have learned to use as traditional investors can be a tough lesson. With short terms, you can make significantly more money but you’ve got to be able to roll with the punches or you won’t succeed! Or, maybe you will succeed but it will be more painful. Lighten up and roll with it was the biggest lesson for me.