All Forum Posts by: Sheena Drake

Upon reading the books for furnishing STR and MTR, I purposely did not keep track of receipts until my 2/1 was completed. Put to the test it was true........$10 per sq ft. This did not include the cost of appliances, as we would supply these in our LTR anyway. Outfitted with a lot of items from Wayfair (sign up as business for discounts). Wall decor from Hobby Lobby (sale prices all the time). And quality used items for the kitchen from Red Racks (thrift stores). Very cute, comfortable home that I would live in and it came out very close in cost to the $10 per sq ft.

THank you so very much!  

I have read a few highly rated books on midterm rentals with chapters covering the lease.  However, I have not found a site to download a lease that is state specific for just this purpose.  I assume it would need to read slightly different from a long term lease, in case the tenant decides to stay longer  and I'm not sure the verbage that should be used for such and/or how to accomodate this when others might want to rent?

If this is confusing, then you are understanding my state of mind on how to write this lease.  This is giving me more anxiety than having to spend the money to outfit the home!  Help from the experts?  Thank you ahead of time for any words of wisdom

In my ongoing education and experience, I've read about $10 per sq ft for nice (mostly new) but not luxurious decor.  I have 2/1 at 950 sq ft and have spent $9200.  I would stay there and that's my criteria for doing things comfortably.

Stessa to either take a picture and automatically upload through use of stessa app. Stessa is free. I input receipts by hand because it’s my OCD cure. It will keep all profits and losses (P and L) for you and easy to send by email or downloaded on memory stick to give to your CPA.  

Avail for collecting rent. Also for free or upgrade to $5 per month per rental for faster deposits (I have this charge as part of the rent) .  Easy to set up your bank acct info.  renter responsible for linking their acct to yours and money deposited automatically   Avail will send you emails to alert you to scheduled payments, late payments, or canceled payments due to insufficient funds.  You can then easily request new payment for late fees without having to talk to renter.  I then check my online linked bank acct to assure money deposited  I also use this bank acct to pay any vendor or otherwise expenses so it’s easy to track and paper trail if needed

Would like to hear more about the availability. We have family that annually visits in an STR but we have not considered real estate to be affordable there.

Stessa is for the overstretched , OCD, type A person that needs simplified accounting.  In other words, wonderful for me!  Free.  You can actually take pictures of your receipts using their app and it will automatically upload to the appropriate account.  I like typing all the receipts in and if it's a LTR I put the receipts in a large box labeled for the tax year.  Available to Uncle Sam if needed.  If it's expenses for our short term rental, I keep those receipts in a separate large manila envelope so they are easier to find if it becomes a red flag at tax time. 

Seriously, Stessa is as straightforward as one could hope for

Walter,

I live, work and invest in St Joe. I was born and raised here and still need guidance on suggestions for what a rental may bring in certain parts of town. Within the last year I have realized that COC can be very positive here. We personally use Marty Lyle, owner of Top Hand, as our REI and property manager (we have 8 long terms and inherited a renter we did not want to deal with so left it with Top Hand). The others we manage ourselves. Marty is very upfront in telling you if the deal would be desirable for you. Once he learns of your expectations on property rehab, he will tell you if the deal is a match for you or not. Trust me, he's told me many times to not bite off more than we could chew.

I hate for the word to even get out about our town because I hate competition!  But it's also good for the city to have investors that want to rehab and provide decent housing.  So come along!  message me if I can help in any way.

 Josh,

I'm in the same boat. Purchased 4/3 in Branson fully furnished STR, with additional 5K investment to "make comfy". Added 5K capital contribution in beginning to cover expenses before rental season started. Never paid myself back the initial 5K cap contribution and continued to use all collected rent to pay bills. January and Febuary 2023 have been completely out of pocket for me, as no renters stay at this time. So I have nothing but loss for 2022 but as a high W2 earner I am looking for the losses to offset my ordinary income. I look at this place as an asset that my family will want to own long term with expected appreciation (albeit probably minimal since we paid for basically a new structure). The majority of mortgage paydown will be by persons other than myself. And I too know that this decision was a FOMO moment, but my feet are wet and I'm still swimming rather than sinking.

Thanks to each of you for the advice.  I have now filled out the Landlord requirements for her to get state assistance/ Covid relief.  If not, she knows the ending.  What made it worse , at least in my mind, was that she had been a renter for over 1 year when she smiled at me one day and said “By the way, I just got hired in your office.  I’ll be working with you starting in 7 days”.    That was not my ideal situation