All Forum Posts by: Scott K.

Good riddance. The more cities and local governments fight against this awful business model the better the result for the housing market, customers, and neighborhoods.

 Oh man. Your basically asking me to write you a course on how to run your entire business... Let me see if I can touch on the most important parts... 

Please don't go white and grey. It's going to look dated (if it doesn't already) in 3 years. It's super trendy, and super boring. You want to stand out. My most successful house is loaded with color, we even wallpapered a bit which helps images pop. 

This brings me to my most important advice - nothing matters except your listing photos. Sure you need bedrooms and bathrooms (with 6 bedrooms make sure your house septic is adequate according to your Township laws about occupancy limits) but in order to get booked compared to other houses, you need to look Instagram ready. People should see your photos and go wow that's beautiful. I use my friend who interior decorates. 

I would strongly urge you not to use a manager. They'll take all your profit off the bat. Find a cleaner, use automation software like hospitable/price labs/turnoverbnb. 

I'd rather not comment on if you bought the wrong house haha I mean, it's a bit too late for that isn't it? Do your best and if it doesn't work out, sell to another Airbnb host. They'll probably pay you more for a turnkey property. If you'd like more assistance message me personally, I'm starting an Airbnb consulting service. Good luck! Be prepared to spend the next few months working every day on this. 

Sorry, what am I lying about? That STRs should only be done if they're profiting? How is that a lie? It's pretty easy to have a LTR and break even, and even have a little profit for maintenance/repairs. And it's WAY less work. If you're putting in 5x to 10x the work with an STR, and you're only getting similar returns as an LTR, I'd tell you to run, not walk away.

It's a simple math problem. What is the total amount of money you've invested creating per year as ROI?

Let's say you put 20 percent down, plus 100k in furniture, repairs, rehab, setup costs (months of mortgage during setting up etc) that's 300k invested. You're making 120k profit a year (plus some equity appreciation of course) 

120/300 = 40% ROI. You will be very, very hard pressed to find a better property return than that. However! You said it could sell for 1.9 million. So if you sell, you're getting back 200k + 900k (value increase) roughly, so 1.1 million.

Now the math asks - could you invest that 1.1 million and produce more than the 120k profit a year you're getting now. In stocks? Probably not. In other STRs? Yes, but you'd also be looking at months, if not years to find enough properties to get that back (also consider you'd have to change markets, otherwise you're just exchanging one house for another, and you reap no significant benefits). Also consider if your income can support a mortgage for 1.9 million. Especially once you sell your cash producing property. 

Overall I'd argue keep your 40 percent ROI property. Use the profits to buy more in a year or two. But that's my personal preference of buy and hold, instead of flip. You have to ask yourself which type of business do you prefer?

 No offense but this... basically makes me think you've never interacted with a customer yourself. You've never had to fight to remove a bad review. You seem to have no insight on how hard it is to actually run this business, or the details that matter when dealing with damages with customers, etc. Are you actually involved in this business or just an investor?

What does your automated message chain look like? How do you request reviews? What is your strategy for removing negative reviews? How do you deal with guest damages?

Thanks!

No need to get upset. Buying a 2-3 bedroom house means you'll be fighting among thousands for scraps. It's hard to be the best at that. If you buy larger houses like I do, it's easier to be one of the best. I've also been doing this for 5 years, it's doubtful you'll immediately be good at this. 

I meant no disrespect, but you have to face facts if you're going to invest your money. Numbers are all that matters, and a lot of people in the Poconos are losing money. I'm trying to help you not be one of them. 

Good luck... 

I never understood this idea of 'I want an str so I can have a vacation home a few times a year'. You're just taking money away from your business when you use it personally, and in that case, you may as well not own it, and rent someone else's because 1. Cost is the same to you and 2. You get to choose a new place each time and 3. You don't have to block off dates well in advance, you can book whenever you like.

As far as the Poconos go, I'm making great money but I only have the best houses. If you're going run of the mill with a 1400 mortgage on a 2 or 3 bedroom, you'll find extreme competition and most likely won't get booked. Most people in the Poconos are struggling to rent nowadays unless they're one of the best.