All Forum Posts by: Sid Payne

To answer your question, yes, there are cities that are more friendly to vacation rentals, even AirB&B. I think the right way to do it is to look for places that have regulation, licensing and tax infrastructures in place. For example, I am in the central Florida market. It is very tourist friendly and everything is already in place to make my STR's legitimate. We have to obtain a hotel license for each property and collect sales and tourist development taxes. The neighborhoods we are either completely or mostly STR's.
If every city did it this way, there would not be so many issues.
I think that what is eventually going to happen is that the cities that do it right and that have a reason for tourists to visit will end up becoming much more attractive to vacationers than cities that don't.

@Robert McConnell, did you end up doing anything down there? I have been thinking about getting into the STR market down there as well.

Thanks a lot,

Sid

A partner and I own a short term rental property in Kissimmee, FL. There is no mortgage and it is owned by an LLC. We are looking to leverage this property to finance the purchase of another one (and then many more). I currently own 3 others in the area and all 4 are doing well.

My question is, does anyone know of someone we can work with who can help with financing our future purchases as LLCs for each house (all owned by one umbrella LLC)?

Or, is there another way that would be better for doing this?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Sid

I don't know how long it keeps it for, but the ring camera has an option for a solar panel to keep it charged, records motion and costs $3 a month for storage. Seemed like the best option for my STR.

At home I use POE cameras connected my network and a PC using Blue Iris software (http://blueirissoftware.com/). It is great but the storage is not in the cloud. You can access it from your PC or phone remotely. Retention is based on hard drive size. With drives being super cheap, you should be able save a lot. So, no cloud storage but also no monthly cost once you set it up.

So, it might not be what you're asking for but maybe these will help.

Be careful where you place the camera. There are privacy issues.

Sid

Where is your STR?

My places are in Florida and I think it is pretty common for people to open windows and crank down the AC. It's crazy but happens. 

I have ecobee at home and love it for my personal house but wanted something a lot more robust for my rentals.

The other thing I did was have my attic insulated with polyurethane. I've only had it for 6 months but based on my inthrma reports, it looks like my AC is running about 25% less. 

I am also considering replacing my crappy single pane windows and sliders with new, high efficiency triple pane glass. It's a huge capital expense but AC is crazy expensive. 

I use a system called Inthrma, it works great. Tons of features and reporting. It even syncs with my calendar so that I can have different setting when the houses are unoccupied. It is a little expensive to implement, but well worth it. 

Also, with my security system sensors, it knows to turn off the AC if a door or window are left open for more than a couple minutes. 

Let Sam know I referred you if you decide to check it out.

They were only fined after being given a pass the first time they were caught. I don't like these laws as much as the next person, but they knew they were in violation before they were actually fined. 

We have Xbox's in all of our houses, some of them have more than one. We also put WII's in a lot of the kids rooms. I think they make a big difference. Also, the XBox One S can stream 4K and play Blue-rays.

I put a screen in every room. You can get a 40" at Sam's Club for under $200.00. I don't always have cable run to them but at least Netflix or other streaming services. I've had good luck with the TCL TVs that include Roku built in for really easy streaming. However, if you already have cable there, that may be easier. I also upgrade the cable TV package to include more channels and go HD on everything. I also include a gaming system and some games. While it seems bad, a lot of the time I think parents want the kids to go off and entertain themselves so they can unwind. I suppose that depends on how much outdoorsy stuff there is to do.