All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Just got back from Ireland and I really loved Dublin and started toying with the idea of buying a place there. From the postings here as well as doing our own research (hubby owns a house in Dublin from many years ago), it looks like it would be hard to get a loan. Supposed we have enough cash to buy a small place, I wonder how to bring the cash or to transfer from US bank to Ireland Bank without prompting all kinds of alerts to the IRS etc. How do people do this, does anyone know?

What a great and inspiring story. Thanks for sharing! 

Thanks for organizing and inviting me, @Johnson H. 

I am planning to be there, plus one!

Oh also, just for future reference, there are quite a few bars in DP that are nice/quiet and I spoke with one of the guys there who said they would love to host casual events like BP's meetups. Food can be ordered from Longbridge Pizza :)

Thought that would be a convenient location, being only a T away from Fi-Di :)

@J. Martin very, very impressive and inspirational at the same time. Lots of achievements in just a few  years. But then again you are one of the most hardworking and motivated persons I know. It's fun watching you succeed and be a great inspiration for lots of us!

 it's a good idea to set the limit on the thermostat. We currently use a few different ones, mostly because some of them were already there when we bought the house. But I have 2 honeywell that we can control remotely, also a Gig2 that is a part of the Z-wave system we have. We will probably change everything to Honeywell, eventually.

I don't mind short stays since it generates more cleanings for my cleaners, which means more income for them.

Hi J, no offense taken! I always learn lots from your wealth of knowledge, so am always happy to share whatever little experience I have.

I'm not a big fan of big groups in my units. I did this in the past in my 2BR/2BA flat, where we fit up to 6 people. That turned out to be a bit of a nuisance. So we reduced to 4 people, but ideally 2 people (I started charging higher fees for the third and fourth person).

So my current motto is: less is more, small is better, and basically we like to provide a nice place for people to stay or come home to, but not too nice that they'd enjoy to stay all day long. I want them to get up, get out and about. So this includes cutting the cable. I really don't want folks to stay home and watch TV all day.

When we first started, I itched to provide everything, as much as I could. Some guests loved our place so much that they invited their friends and family and partied all night, which is strictly against our house rules. So my house rules now get longer and longer. 

As a homeowner, it is in my best interest to have guests who would respect my properties and my neighbors/neighborhood. And when done right, this is a very rewarding business, financially and emotionally. It's nothing like getting paid every other day and receiving this kind of email below:

Everything is perfect here, thank you very much, we really enjoy our stay in your place, it's amazing, quiet and beautiful ! We couldn't have expected more than all you did so well.

I think it will be hard for us when we will have to go back in Paris, we are spending a great time here.
Thank you again

Ha! :)

I know, right? And yes, I'm dealing with those thermostats as well and in the process of changing all of them, one at a time, to a very simple (I think it was $24 at home depot). The small stuff are easy to replace but if you talk about refrigerators in 6 units, that is a bit of a challenge. We have those fancy ones with external ice/water thingy. Less is more in VR busienss.

@J. Martin  and @Johnson H. We are working on all that you mentioned - we've been doing this for 2 years now so definitely have gone thru all kinds of "what to do in the future' strategies. Prior to running this business, I read all forums, books, everything on how to run vacation rentals. Those things give you a great idea, but nothing gives you clearer picture than actually running it. This includes the minimum stay requirement. If you set a minimum stay of 7 nights for example, what would you do if someone booked your place from Nov 1-8, and the next reservations from Nov Nov 14 - 21. What would you do for those 6 nights from Nov 8-14? Leave it vacant?

Anyway, I was just sharing what kind of challenges we have encountered doing this. If someone else has been successful doing this remotely (i'm talking multiple units in multiple locations) while traveling, I will surely love to hear. But, we're very happy staying put for now. Nothing beats sitting in the living room at 7am overlooking heavy traffic on 101 going north and south and not being in it :)

Oh J, all those FAQ's and emails and binders are fine and dandy and I've been doing it. It would definitely work, and most of the time it does, if the guest actually READ. I put the wifi info in the welcome email, house manual and in the binder in the unit. Do some guests ask? Of course. Which is again, fine and dandy as long as I'm staying put and have access to emails. But when you're traveling out of the country, you don't always get that wonderful LTE connection. 

And I do take care my workers VERY WELL. I pay them more than what they quoted me and reward them nicely for any extra thing I asked them to do. But you have to actually pick the right person too which I'm still searching for. The fact that I don't have a day job now makes it more possible to search for the right one. But yeah, it does take time and effort to do that and hopefully it won't take that long!

Johnson, hahhaha.. yes, you know what I'm talking about. And you have one unit. Imagine seven! Oh and calendar sync issues between my laptop and my iphone is another topic. It doesn't happen very often, but it could be a disaster when it does.

Airenvy did contact me before (or another management company, I can't remember). However, I am still hesitant to hand over the management to some company. I still want to handle the reservations etc. which I actually really enjoy. What I need is a reliable person on the ground who can handle emergencies etc.

If a guest contacted me and told me the shower door is broken, I want to be able to forward that email and say: can you please handle? Thanks. THAT is what I want :)

 Amit, what do you want from your RE business? Can you tell me? :)