All Forum Posts by: Scott K.

It 'has' to be higher than LTR, because its about 10x the work (I have 4 LTRs and 4 STRs). We use 20% personally for STRs and about 5% for LTRs.

I've had so much trouble getting contractors to just get CLOSE to what their job time line estimates were. Any tricks or ideas to put into a contract to incentivize a realistic time line? Some kind of money incentive? Some kind of legally binding contract? How do you do this without pissing off the contractor, or making them simply disappear if they go over the time frame? 

check if your state allows recording audio without consent - your guests will want to sue you.

If they dont want to sue you, all they have to do is report you to airbnb and they will ban your listing without even asking you. then you'll spend months trying to get unbanned.

With rates 6.5%-7%, especially for investment properties right now, I just read about assumable mortgages where you simply take over the mortgage of the seller when you buy the property. How does this work? Can anyone do it? Does it cost extra?

If the property is more expensive than the seller's mortgage, can you take out a 2nd mortgage on the home? Or are you forced to simply buy the rest in equity. I'm very curious if anyone has done this or has any suggestions.

Thanks!

The closest thing I had comparable to this was guests who smashed windows, bled everywhere, and left $6,000 worth of damages, used a fake ID with airbnb, and disapeared into the night.

We filed a claim with airbnb, and after 3 months they reimbursed me 100%. IT takes a while, but they did cover it. I'm unsure if they'll cover your $20k damage because that's insane. I've never had a fire in a home so I truly can't say I understand how it damages the property, but I've had oven fires, and lots of wood-burning fireplaces, so I don't quite know if the smoke/ash is a big deal? I'd personally just have it professionally cleaned for $1000, and replace the furniture and let it go. You can certainly try to get $20k from airbnb, but in the meantime you're going to have to have guests there. so I'd do the $1000 cleaning + furniture now, get guests back in the property, and run as usual, while seeing what you can get out of airbnb. You kind of have to be scrappy in this business, nothing will be perfect. Or do as suggested above, and file with insurance.

 Fun fact - my houses cost $900 to heat a month last winter, that's $30 a day. Electricity prices in the Poconos have risen 30 percent this year. I'm literally expecting to spend $50 to $60 a day on weekends heating each property (less on weekdays when no one is home). So a few hours each way adds up, or if I don't change the thermostat, I lose $20 to $30 a week. 

Suffice to say, I could save about $100 a month or more per property by having this automated. It's not a bad idea! 

Lease agreements simply aren't necessary. I'm not sure what airbnb did not allow you to cover, but they have 2 major rules they follow
1. Any verifiable damages (just send a photo, its very, very easy.)
2. If you have a written rule in your listing rules/description, it must be followed. You cannot send rules AFTER booking, airbnb will not cover that.

As for damages, even if the guest refuses to pay, airbnb will go 'ok we believe both of you!' and simply pay you out of their pocket, and let the guest go scot-free (which I think is absurd, but oh well)

For chargebacks, you will always lose however. But I don't think you need al ease agreement to fight chargebacks in court, you could go to court regardless and easily show airbnb documentation. AIrbnb however refuses to fight chargebacks, and you will lose everytime.

Around $3000 each when you include permits, inspections, concrete, pouring concrete, path to hot tub, moving hot tub with a forklift/crane/whatever needed, electrical materials, installation, potentially upgrading breaker panel for 50 additional amps, running line. I paid $3000 for each of my hot tub installs and some of them already had eletrical run.

I've used hospitable for 3 years now, while sometimes the 'sync' error pops up, it still actually does sync. You can also set up a backup sync by importing the ical. Their customer service is incredible however, I think any platform is going to have syncing errors since all the interwoven software apps change constantly, the main platform is playing whack a mole. Just my 2 cents.

You cannot charge for smoking indoors... airbnb/vrbo do not care because there's no 'damage'.