All Forum Posts by: Robert Gilstrap

@Michael Hefferon  Just do it is the only advice I have. There is a reason virtually all hotels do sheeting this way. 

@Michael Hefferon All our properties are cleaned by independents and we never launder linens in the property (no time). They show up with a clean set in a laundry bag we packed from our warehouse and then they leave with the dirty linens in the same bag coming back to our laundry so they can't use the excuse there's no room in their car. 

We use the same type linens in every property with very few exceptions. I don't necessarily "require" the exact same linens but after I explain to owners how much more its gonna cost them to launder their cheap Amazon micro fiber sheets because they have to be handled and treated completely differently than the other 1000 lbs of laundry for that day then they realize the math doesn't favor them. Plus commercial linens last longer and look better. Also since we do triple sheeting on all our beds and use standard pillows on all beds it's just not practical for an owner to not use commercial linens. Where you gonna find a set of king sheets on Amazon that has 5 standard pillow cases and 2 flat sheets in the pack? You aren't. 

What market is your laundry guy in?

@Michael Hefferon well 2 years later and many more units (we're at 46 right now) just made it a larger problem on the linen front. My first solution was to fill a rental house with residential washers and dryers and pay someone to do laundry all day. That worked for a while but we really didn't have the space to put a large amount of equipment in the house plus there are other issues like gas line size, electrical requirements, drain lines, water lines, etc. I will say it worked well for about a year but we still had issues with stains and residential washers just flat don't clean the same as commercial equipment. Then I went down the path of replacing the residential equipment in the house with commercial/industrial equipment but that poses even more challenges like cost, size/weight of the units, infrastructure of utilities, etc. So my last and current solution was I ended up just buying a laundromat! So far that has fixed the volume problem but we're still refining our process to cover stains but it has gotten exponentially better just using commercial equipment. 

I would love to talk to anyone who is at a decent amount of doors about logistical challenges in growing the portfolio so hit me up!

@Aaron Henricksen  How about locating a husband/wife/friends "team" and pay them a % of booking revenue and they handle cleans, maintenance and basically everything for that property?  Maybe alter the % based on review feedback.  As you add more doors they can take on more as a team as they can handle it or you find another team and repeat. They are incentivized to do it the right way and if they don't you pull the property from them and find another team.

@Patricia Lashley Typical government mentality saying that unless they explicitly tell you that you can do something then you can't... Nope, it doesn't work that in Georgia! Just the opposite actually. Courts have repeatedly ruled that unless a particular use is explicitly forbidden then any lawful use of land is allowed. Also, even if they had an ordinance saying STR's are not allowed don't assume that law is even lawful because the vast majority of local ordinances in GA that I've seen (including Atlanta's ordinance) are contrary to state law and thus voidable.

Zoning laws generally govern the use of land not the duration of its use. So if a residential single family rental (the use) is allowed,  then a short term rental is the exact same "use" (residential
single family rental) except for a potentially shorter duration. There is plenty of settled case law on that as well (despite what local govm't officials will try coerce you into believing). In your case; if you would be fine renting out the separate apartment unit to a long term tenant then you are good for a short term tenant. 

Obviously there are nuances and other considerations at play so talk to a good attorney who specializes in property rights for your specific circumstances.

@Barbara A.  I know @Matthew Nicklin personally and he is a great choice and I second his vote for only using NARPM accredited property managers. It's literally the difference between hiring a little league coach  and a major league coach when it comes to residential property management. Good luck.

Yale Zwave locks (YRD-210 or 220) coupled with Samsung Smarthings (now Aeotec) hub and apps to generate codes (Rboy Apps). August Locks I think still has a partnership with Airbnb to automate but I've not found a system that works cross platform (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, et.c)  flawlessly yet that is inexpensive.

@Mike Lambert is correct; the whole law thing regarding miles from a border and miles from a coastline is easily circumvented. If it were not there would be no large resorts on the beaches! 

@Joanne Adrien  The Atlanta ordinance is so full of provisions contrary to GA State Law that the ordinance itself is unlawful on its face. I predict it will just be a matter of time before a lawsuit(s) takes it down or heavily modifies it. Get with an attorney to guide your decisions but some might say that an unlawful ordinance is not one you must follow. 

The answer varies greatly depending on the arrangement of your deal with the owner/landlord but in general you need renters insurance to cover your contents (since you are renter presumably) and then excess liability coverage for your short term rental activities. Also you need to figure out how you intend to cover inevitable property damage done by guests but there are plenty of solutions for that in the marketplace where guests pay a flat fee per reservation in lieu of a deposit and you get covered for an assortment of potential issues (bad checks, credit card chargebacks, fraud, personal property damage, etc.)  Get with a good agent who understands short term rentals because the more of these you do then you can scale the insurance under a Business Owner Provider Policy (BOP) and then you don't end up with a dozen individual policies out there for each property that cost you a fortune.