All Forum Posts by: Scott K.

2 to 5 percent? That's insanity. Run, don't walk. If anyone thinks that low of a return from an str is acceptable, theyre simply not worth listening to. You can get those numbers from long term rentals that are turnkey. This house looks like a very difficult first buy. Wait out the market. 

I think there are two glaring issues.
1. If its such a good investment, why is no one else buying it? I see this all the time with people entering a new business, or are trying to be entrerepeneurs, they see 'such a fantastic idea' and think they've hit the jackpot. Reality is, its not, or someone else would be competing with them to get that idea done, and it would level out in the market to then become 'an okay idea'. The free market always levels out business plans to be mediocre in most cases unless you have a particular set of skills, or secret knowledge, or some other competitive edge that no one else does. So it sounds like you should do more research, and you sound very new to this business idea.

2. You don't have enough money. I'm telling you that right now, you simply don't have the experience to see all the repairs, all the furnishings you'll need, etc. Find a cheaper house and plan to spend $50k to get your feet wet, and then in the first few months you'll end up spending $75k and be thankful you aren't broke and destitute.

As someone who's been in the poconos for 4 years now, I have to warn you guys it's literally the worst time to invest in it. Prices are about double what they were 3 years ago, interest rates are double as well. Competition is outrageously high (aka, why you two are trying to get in!) and to top it all off, most communities are watching tobyhanna township with an eye on banning them altogether in their township/HOA. There's pending litigation to see how it all plays out, and in the next 6-12 months or so the landscape could drastically change based on the outcome.

I have a few properties and I've basically told myself I can no longer invest in the Poconos until the market or legal environment drastically changes, so for now I'm looking elsewhere. So unless you guys know more than I do, I'd keep researching. Good luck!

Few things going on here because you're forcing us to read between the lines... which makes me think you know why they did it.

Your rating went up by half a star? That means you were rated VERY poorly. You mention you had to rehab the place so it was nice? It must have been a dump.

So basically you listed a really bad property, and not only that, but listed it inaccurately, causing people to get upset and rate you poorly once they booked. Your rating must have been so low (probably below 4.0) that you were able to raise it more than half a star with just a few reviews.

Airbnb removes listings under 4.5 consistently. Frankly, you should never have a listing under 4.8. It's not hard if you're a good host and accurately display photos and amenities. The average rating on airbnb I believe is a 4.7 so you were well under the average.

Don't be a dick - talk to your neighbors in person. Give them your cell phone. Kindness goes a long way.

Frankly, if your guests are causing a problem, you should know about it. It means you aren't instructing them properly, or you aren't vetting them properly. A well run STR should not be causing problems.

If your guests are being a nightmare, would you rather you not know about it, and the neighbors call the cops? Or simply call you and you speak to the guests or kick them out before they cause any real problems?

I wish I could say 'you'll never have to charge guests for damages' like Luke above, but one guest used a fake ID on airbnb, fake name, fake photograph. It happened to be the only house where I didn't install a camera (its installed now!).

The guests seemed great. Communicated a few sentences about their stay, didn't cause any problems.

That is until the cleaners called me sunday morning. "Hey I think you should come here" "well I live over an hour away, whats up?" "I think you should come here, or call the cops then." "Uh, could you just send me photos and explain?" "Well. There's a lot of blood. I don't want to be here anymore."

The photos started to come in as I sat up in bed at 8 am. There were 3 smashed windows. From the windows started a bloody trail on the floor that led to the dining room, to the kitchen, to the living room, then it pooled on a chair, and there was a distinct bloody handprint on the armrest. The trail continued to the kitchen again, down the hall, to the bedroom. In the corner of the bedroom was a mess of bloody towels, paper towels. The blood was in the queen bed, on the sheets, on the mattress, on the frame. Then it moved to the bunk beds, where it was on everything as well.

The bathroom on that floor had **** smeared on the walls.

The basement had puke in a food container that was pushed under the couch to hide it's shame.

The interior porch had hookah and cigarettes on the floor, with burn marks on the tables, flooring, and chairs.

The exterior porch had garbage strewn everywhere, from leftover food, to more smoking stuff, to shards of glass.

Cleaners: "I'm not going in that garage, i think someone died in there" "What makes you say that?" "The smell" "Ok I'll call my handyman I guess"

I called the cops, they said "Well it's a landlord issue. We don't deal with that. Go to court"
I called Airbnb, they said "We don't give out personal information of guests"

Long story short I spent 3 months dealing with airbnb, but eventually got all $6k in damages back.

Wanna know what scares me most? If I had used VRBO I would have gotten $0 back. Always get them to use a high damage deposit/insurance. VRBO is the worst platform. Airbnb at least covers you no matter who is lying to you or using fake IDs. Even if it takes 3 months...

Funny thing is, these guys didn't bother the neighbors at all!

I get mine on wayfair.com Decent prices, made in US, and ships in maybe 2 months.

I would say you missed the most important aspect. Explaining to guests that 4 stars is a below average review, and will get you kicked off their platform (literally, if your review score drops close to a 4.2 or so, Airbnb may remove you) 

The rating system is non intuitive and people assume 3 is average. You must educate them before they leave a review unfortunately. 

The other important aspect is that you must pay guests who are pissed off so they don't leave a bad review. It's unfortunate but extortion works on Airbnb. Unless they explicitly state 'I will leave you a bad review unless you pay up' they can easily get away with 'I had a bad experience because of X, please send me a partial refund' and you will pay them or suffer a 1 or 2 star review tanking your rating. 

 Airbnb will never help you in a legal situation. They won't even give you identifying information of someone who trashes your place or commits illegal acts. You should require drivers license photo, and address, and information from this person before they rent, treat it as if Airbnb does not exist.

Since no one has mentioned it - larger houses you pretty much 'have' to have a washer/dryer because you'll be hosting large groups, and with those groups you have kids. Kids almost mandate washer/dryer due to accidents and crazy things happening. I exclusively have large homes and almost every group asks. (3k sqft+)