All Forum Posts by: Peter Stewart

Without seeing a link to your property it's hard to provide specific advice, but generally speaking it sounds like you need to "optimize" your STR listing.

To boost your activity I would do a few things:

1. Make sure you have professional photos and your staging/decor is top notch

2. Make sure your listing description is detailed, catchy, and easy to read (not just a jumbled mess of a paragraph)

3. Use a dynamic pricing tool (like Pricelabs) to be more competitive - you may have #1 and #2 dialed in, but if your pricing is off (too high) then you won't get bookings.

4. Exposure - make sure your listing is on all the main booking sites. Between Airbnb and Vrbo you probably have 95% of the market covered, but you can also get on sites like Booking.com and Google Vacation Rentals, etc for additional exposure. 

5. Utilize the enemy method - like @Bradley Buxton said, take a look at your competition to see how yours compares and make adjustments accordingly

I have a duplex listing on the near eastside that just hit the market yesterday and my client (seller) needs someone that can manage the property while it's on the market. The previous PM terminated services when the property was listed. One side is vacant and the other side is rented. Seller needs someone to do the usual PM duties for the occupied side (collect rents, handle repairs/tenant inquiries, etc) and keep an eye on the vacant unit. The larger PM's I work with don't do this type of special arrangement, so I'm reaching out here to see if there are any smaller, 1 man/woman type operations that are more flexible and are willing to take on something like this.

If so please message me directly. 

I have a cabin in Pigeon Forge, TN with a hot tub and it's standard OP to drain/clean/refill the hot tub after every guest. Just think about what happens in hot tubs....

Every management company I spoke with confirmed this, and I've been through multiple cleaners and they all did it as their standard cleaning procedure. They do not charge extra for this service though, it's part of the standard clean. Sure, I cover the water to refill it, but my water bills tend to be pretty "normal" so it doesn't seem to be costing me a ton of extra $$.

Point is - yes, this is completely normal and it's something your cleaners should be doing at every turn. 

Sort if. In theory, more platforms = more exposure = more bookings

However, you have to take into consideration the market share of each of those platforms. Posting on random/obscure booking sites will probably only account for 1% of overall bookings. and the vast majority will come from the big players (Airbnb, VRBO, etc). Maybe add on Booking.com but after that it's the law of diminishing returns - lots of work/time for just a guest or two.

If you are self managing I would limit the amount of platforms to the top few because it could get overwhelming tracking the property on all the various sites because they all work a little bit differently. The smaller platforms will probably account for only a fraction of overall bookings, so the juice may not be worth the squeeze. You can use a channel manager like Hospitable to help manage the listing on multiple platforms - primarily you can protect against double bookings, but there are many other nuances to each platform that the program does not touch.

Hire an experienced real estate broker to help you price and sell the property. 

I would use tile in the kitchen and bathrooms ideally, and then LVP in the rest of the property. If tile is not in the budget, then LVP everywhere. It's durable, affordable, and waterproof. 

I find like they are Rentometer. Sometimes spot on, sometimes way off. 

For two condos I own, Airdna was spot on. For a cabin I own, it was off by $10-15k. 

Makes sense though - it's like pricing, it's very easy to price units in a condo building since they are all so similiar vs a custom home which can be very difficult to evaluate. 

I find it's best to get your rental data from a few different sources, weight them, and then do the math. For example, use STR Insights and Airdna, and get rental projections from a reputable PM. I would give the most weight to the PM's projections.

100% agree with this! Thank you for speaking up, people need to hear this info - too much misinformation out there about sec 8. 

This is who I use: https://www.therealestatecpa.com/

They have a great planning/strategy option if that is all you're looking for. They'll set up a few meetings with you and will come up with a great plan and will give you a PDF document that outlines everything they suggest doing. 

By far the best accountants I've ever worked with. They specialize in working with RE investors only.