All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

My SFH full time vacation rental property was significantly damaged by Hurricane Ian. I have both a DP-3 policy and a Flood Policy. They are both with the same company, Frontline, but the adjusters made it clear they will not coordinate. The exterior wind damage from the hurricane is significant but not catastrophic. The concrete tile roof might be able to be repaired (might), but it really looks like we'll have to replace it. Gutters and soffits, pool cage, polycarbonate window shutters ripped off by wind, metal roll down shutters and garage door damaged, and attached fencing all destroyed. We started reaching out to contractors and vendors early on. Since the entire region is trying to rebuild all at the same time, it is taking months to get vendors out to make repairs. The flood damage from the subsequent storm surge waters is also significant.

Frontline (DP-3) called this morning to tell me they will not pay anything for the supplemental coverage and keeps saying "due to the flood damage."  My roof and pool cage, gutters, soffits, and interior drywall from a roof leak were not damaged by the flood water.  They were all damaged by 150 mph hurricane winds. I have signed rental contracts for which I had to process refunds, have realized loss of 3 months of income so far with high season (January - April) rentals all canceled, and am going to be losing about 2X the income of the supplemental coverage limit.

I know it's the insurance company's job not to pay and to estimate and undercut as much as they can.  It's my job to fight.

Any advice for me on going after that Fair Rental Value coverage?  How can the insurer possibly say that they won't pay because there is also flood damage?  This self-admitted new adjuster asked if I have flood insurance.  I asked her what difference that made?  She knows full well Flood Insurance doesn't cover fair rental value.   Why sell that supplemental coverage if you're going to use an excuse not to pay it?  I have wind damage.  I also have Fair Rental Value coverage.

Thanks for any advice. 

Snowbirds will complain about not having the pool heated December through March in SWFL and could impact early reviews. My very first tenant knew the pool was unheated, got a price that reflected that, but complained in the review anyway. That really stung for a new STR investment.

I'm in Lee County and have a 30 day minimum with a maximum number of rentals allowed per year enforced by my particular HOA. Some areas like Sanibel and Naples have stricter rules at the island or city level. Make sure you know what you're getting into to avoid the headaches of vacation rental un-friendly jurisdictions. Hoping others with experience in Naples will chime in.

https://www.naplesnews.com/sto...

Hi Erika, I hired Vacasa right before the Pandemic and really regret it.  It all hinges on your local team.  My local team can't be bothered to answer an email. Takes a couple days to return a text or phone call - forget about busy check-in days or holidays.  Local area manager has an excuse for everything, badmouths the tenants and other owners.  He committed to checking on my empty house off season every week or two, but it's rarely less than a month between visits. I hired another caretaker for my own peace of mind.  I'm still waiting for a refund on a guest cleaning charge from May that the guest paid for with their reservation and Vacasa double charged to me.  Vacasa blocked off my summer calendar with a month+ reservation from the UK when there was a longstanding travel ban from that country.  I didn't find out until a couple days before the scheduled check-in at which time it was too late to find a new booking. Vacasa kept their money as a future stay credit.  I got nothing. They definitely do not earn their cut in my market.  It could be completely different in yours. Just leaving this message here in BiggerPockets will get me a contact from someone in Marketing, but nothing will change.   Ask a lot of questions.  Insist on references from other owners in your market.  Good luck.

I'm looking at a property in Fort Myers FL and the county Property Appraiser data shows the owner as "Unknown Heirs of ..."  for a deceased owner.  Can you recommend good resources to read to educate myself on this kind of scenario?  

The home is listed and being shown by a realtor. I talked extensively with the agent showing the home at an open house and learned about some specific repairs being done.  The agent at the open house is not the listing agent shown on the yard sign and she had to ask the listing agent a few of my specific questions. Since the online county records show "unknown heirs," I'm trying to learn more and see if this is something used by the county when there is no will.  At this point, I think analyzing this property is more an exercise in education than anything else.  

I read up on Florida law and what's needed for notifying heirs when there is no will.  It's not clear if this kind of "Unknown Heirs of" label is normal when there is no will. Can any of you more seasoned investors recommend additional reading suggestions? 

Thanks for any suggestions.

Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Bonita are in a serious sellers market. If you can find a deal that works in Florida, please share how you did it. We were planning to get a second STR in the area, but buyers are offering over asking prices and properties get snapped up so quickly. My month-minimum SF pool home in a gated country club community in Fort Myers is mostly booked through May 2022. Looking forward to hearing what the rest of the community has to share. We're thinking of pivoting away from SWFL for our 2nd STR because of the housing shortage.

We signed up with Vacasa the first week of February, just before the Pandemic hit, and it has been a colossal headache.  Had I known how much work I needed to do and how many times I would have to follow up on small items that should have been handled by Vacasa promptly, I would never have signed with them.  The regional manager consistently tells me he will follow up on an issue and nothing changes.  A local area manager that was assigned to our home made so many booking mistakes that we lost our entire summer of income.  She has since left the company and her replacement seems to be competent.  If I could go back to January and tell myself that Vacasa's service fee is not worth the value added, I would.  If I didn't have bookings straight through for high season coming in January, I would have dropped them months ago.

I'm very interested to hear what you mean by hiccups by Turnkey.  I thought the same when we started with Vacasa, but those hiccups turned into a constant stream of issues that in the end cost me quite a lot of income.  

Adding my limited personal experience with SF rentals in Fort Myers. I put my first offer on a SFH in a non-gated public golf community. All of the paperwork, advertising, and both real estate agents said there were no ST rental restrictions. I dug deeper online and found additional covenants and restrictions that were not disclosed. Made a few phone calls to volunteer HOA board members and was fortunate enough to find out in time that the community had a clause that rentals had a one year minimum term. Some owners were breaking that clause, but I was not interested in pressing my luck. Found another property in a more desirable location with clear one-month minimums and no obfuscation.

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For those of you who set up an LLC after purchasing a property, how difficult is it to transfer the property from personal ownership into the LLC? My first property was originally to be a family vacation home. Circumstances changed and now it's a short term rental.