All Forum Posts by: Rohin Dhar

I found that if you're buying a home that has an existing Airbnb/Vrbo listing, you can learn more about the house from reading the reviews than touring it in person for 30 minutes. 

We recently bought a place that had over 200 reviews and a 4.98 average rating so felt like a safe bet! We ended up seeing it person right before close, but were prepared to buy it completely sight unseen based on the Airbnb reviews.

Spent at boatload of money this fall installing a gas heater and automatic pool cover to extend the busy season of one of properties with a pool. 

As the final step our pool folks are installing the Intelli Connect automation system for about $1K ($500 for the device, $500 for the installation). There were tons of price quotes for automation systems that were much higher than that. We haven't installed it yet, but the reviews were generally decent. We haven't installed it yet, so I can't vouch for it yet!

For now we've just set the pool to 80 degrees all the time so we haven't had to mess with the temperature. If guests want it higher, they have to pay an additional fee and our cleaner has been manually turning it up for them. For the month we've had the heater, only one guest has wanted it higher than 80 degrees.

I'm not sure there is any area of Lake Tahoe that is going to cashflow, though the market is appreciating relatively well at the moment. We're in SF and have looked at Tahoe a lot but invested elsewhere b/c the shoulder seasons are too long in Tahoe. It's going to be hard to cashflow even if you manage it yourself, but you certainly will not with a management company.

That said, the best places are near the Lake because at least than you get summer bookings in addition to winter ones. But those ones come at high price.

Dollar Point is probably my guess of historically the best spot, but the HOA recently changed the rules so that vacation rental guests are no longer allowed to use the pool, so it may be less desirable going forward. Tahoe City, Incline Village are nice spots. I know less about South Lake Tahoe.

From most of the older threads, it seems like self-management hadn't really caught on yet (people paying 40% PM commissions) and the STR market wasn't quite as big as it is today (growth of Airbnb).

I believe COVID has increased demand in mountain towns this summer. However, if the sky resorts don't open, could be a pretty brutal winter there in terms of bookings which is the main season.

However, shoulder seasons really kill the economics of these mountain towns I suspect unless the purchase price is quite low. We love Lake Tahoe and live a few hours away but never managed to figure out how to make the numbers work!

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone out there had seen success as an STR investor in Park City, Utah?

A lot of the older posts in the forum indicated to stay away from the market because of the long off-seasons with low demand.

Specifically I'm evaluating the small condo (studio or one bedroom) market at entry level price (<$300K) near town or prospector square. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the prospects of cash flowing for these kinds of properties?

@Pablo Flores thanks for the input. Definitely going to look into it, could make a huge impact in winter occupancy!

@Darius Ogloza oh, that is way less than I was expecting. Might be a no-brainer for me to consider getting this done (and adding the cover)

@Paul Sandhu, that's amazing. One day i'd love to put a wood-fired hot tub in a property. Probably quicker to heat using wood than a whole pool!

Hi all,

We have a swimming pool at our property in Sonoma, California. Because of coronavirus, we are seeing more demand than ever before b/c we're only an hour away from San Francisco and everyone wants to spend the day by the pool. The pool currently does not have a cover, but that is something we could add.

We currently use solar panel heaters on the roof, which works okay in the summer but doesn't work in the fall, winter or spring. Sonoma never gets that cold, but it's always around 50 degrees at night and the winter is a little chilly. We're getting tons of interest for bookings this fall and everyone is asking about if the pool will be heated.

Does anyone out there heat their pools using gas or electric? If so, how much does it cost you per month? Do you have a cover for it or not?

Even if the additional utilities cost was $1-2K per month, it still might be worth it for us, so i'm curious if anyone does this and how they do do. 

Thanks!

rohin

@Mike V. Yep is a local resident!