All Forum Posts by: Stephen Wasko

Bruce,

AZ has the highest number of RV rentals in any state in the US.  I think the lots would do well and as others have mentioned, maybe putting a used RV on one of the lots (a tow trailer for $10-20k for example) would be a good A/B test to see which would be more profitable.   There are a number of sites where you can list the RV for rent - Outdoorsy, RVShare, RVezy, Good Sam, RVnGo...

Quote from @Michael Baum:

So @Stephen Wasko, what are the other STRs very close by charging as a nightly rate?

AirDNA is pretty rough when there are just a few data points to pull.

Take a look at AirBNB and VRBO and check the competition to see what's what.

Now, personally I don't see this as a great choice. It isn't close to the beaches, it is close to the airport (a negative to me). What is there to do? What would be your demographic?

According to the local airport, this location is one of the top tourist destinations by visitors in the US. Beaches a few miles away, spring training in the same area. Nearly 90% of our Turo traffic is airport traffic and our utilization across multiple cars averages out to 70% annual utilization so a competitively priced Airbnb in close proximity seems like a good strategy to me. Some will pay to stay waterfront but there are just as many I’m betting that would opt for slightly less expensive digs in a very popular tourist destination. 

Airbnb and Vrbo for 3/2s without a pool average $225-350 a night. The 62.5% utilization number on AirDNA is for the zip code. 

Quote from @Nathan M kiefer:

Quote from @Stephen Wasko:

Good morning all!  We are about to wade into the AirBnB pool.  A couple of key stats:

1.  AirBNB is permitted in my county.
2.  Doesn't seem to be a lot of competition in the immediate area - more around 10-15 miles away.
3.  I'm 2.5 miles from one of the busiest tourist airports in FL
4.  I'm about 8 miles from one of the top beaches on the Gulf side and about 12 miles from the 2nd beach.
5.  I'm at 2200 Sq ft with 3 bedrooms, a major living room, and a climate controlled finished Florida room.  Meaning a King bed, 2 queens (or bunks in the smaller rooms) and 2 fold out queen sofa couches and I could sleep 10 guests.

I'm trying to figure out what the right nightly price is to start off.  We will likely be moving late summer/early fall timeframe.  I run a couple of other businesses that vary based on seasonality (Turo and RV rentals) so am familiar with the fact that pricing will change as demand changes.

Are there good resources our there (or consensus from the group) as to where 2200 sq ft with a hot tub and 15 minutes from some of the best beaches in FL should price?  Decent neighborhood as well.

Appreciate everyone's insights!

-Steve

 How many baths? our general rule is baths for beds so we dont buy anything str with less baths than bedrooms?

Initially, my thoughts are too few bedrooms for 2200 sq ft, is there a way to have a 4th bed, that size house should be able to sleep 12-13 in our experience.

We have two 1650 sq ft stilt beach houses and they are both 4/4's and sleep 12-13 and we do about 140k combined in them.

Thanks Nathan!  

Three bedrooms, two full bathrooms.  Each bedroom could sleep 2 (6 there) and we were thinking about a fold out sofa bed for living room and Florida room (4 more there for 10 total).  We could possibly add a bathroom and bedroom in the finished Florida room since its 14' x 22'.

As a follow-on question, AirDNA shows around a 62% occupancy rate in this area.  How accurate does the group feel those projections are?  We modeled out at various nightly price points using 50% occupancy and the property would likely provide a nice return. AirDNA shows potential earnings of $79k gross per year.

Good morning all!  We are about to wade into the AirBnB pool.  A couple of key stats:

1.  AirBNB is permitted in my county.
2.  Doesn't seem to be a lot of competition in the immediate area - more around 10-15 miles away.
3.  I'm 2.5 miles from one of the busiest tourist airports in FL
4.  I'm about 8 miles from one of the top beaches on the Gulf side and about 12 miles from the 2nd beach.
5.  I'm at 2200 Sq ft with 3 bedrooms, a major living room, and a climate controlled finished Florida room.  Meaning a King bed, 2 queens (or bunks in the smaller rooms) and 2 fold out queen sofa couches and I could sleep 10 guests.

I'm trying to figure out what the right nightly price is to start off.  We will likely be moving late summer/early fall timeframe.  I run a couple of other businesses that vary based on seasonality (Turo and RV rentals) so am familiar with the fact that pricing will change as demand changes.

Are there good resources our there (or consensus from the group) as to where 2200 sq ft with a hot tub and 15 minutes from some of the best beaches in FL should price?  Decent neighborhood as well.

Appreciate everyone's insights!

-Steve

Hello all! 

Steve Wasko here. New to RE investing and hoping to pick up my first STR in 2024. Excited to learn from others and would love to meet local people who are like minded and have already been down this path. IT background and some analytics. Looking forward to connecting and learning!