All Forum Posts by: Steven Caldwell

Hey @Nathan Kantner - Chicago handymen are always hard to come by, so when you find a good one definitely take care of them.  I've got a decent guy I can send you....I am also in logan square so we are neighbors.

Also, @Mark Ainley and @Bob S. advice above is awesome!  Start will small tasks and test people out......best way is always through referrals though.

@Steven Caldwell I have been using junk removal companies for this in a lot of our apartments. We recently did several apartments in the Old Irving Park area, and the junk company shows up with 2 guys and grabs all of this. We bag as much of it as possible ahead of time in construction bags. I have found this to be far superior to getting a dumpster for apartment turns. 

Hey @Kris Ostrander - I've been doing airbnb in Chicago for about the last 4 years, but not at any real scale.  I did end up getting my operator's license but haven't really used it yet.

One of our most recent condo purchases advertised airbnb and then we got denied by the city, so switched to a mid-term rental which has actually worked out well.

I am happy to connect and share what I have learned so far but I am by no means an expert.

Quote from @Kevin Pillow:

Quote from @John Underwood:

I don't understand why people need any of this for a couple of properties.  I use the built in tools and messaging that Vrbo provides. It takes almost no time to self manage without paying for a bunch of extra software.

I would disagree with you on this if you’re using more than one booking company. Also the pricing service is a great tool that lets you control and integrate with channel managers.

Airbnb and Vrbo already sync calendars. I set my pricing based on the correct competition so I can outperform any pricing software.

People are looking for excuses to pay for software and services that they really don't need.  

Hey @Steven Caldwell

A few were regarding the un-maintained nature of the house. 

-Both bathrooms ended up with excessive mold in wall cavities, requiring mold remediation and reframing. 

-Sewer lines had roots in the line, causing a whole house flood (luckily only concrete subfloor at that moment). (Emergency Plumber services are expensive and predatory was a secondary lesson there)

-Also we ran into drainage pipes in the concrete that were not connected to each other, just a pipe within a pipe, for which we had to jackhammer out a make a proper connections in order to prevent flooding in the event of backpressure from clogged lines. 

-Some bad ceiling joists called for reinforcing and new sheet rock.

Then there are your typical first time investor mistakes; 

-Remodeling the property too nice for the future rental use. 

-Scope creep.

-Taking on too much work yourself instead of budgeting in a crew to do work efficiently on and schedule. 

-Insurance okay'd the purchase of the house, but right after closing, threated to terminate coverage unless a 80' mulberry was removed from next to the house. (That was an expensive tree to have cut down within a week.)

Those are just a few that come to mind at the moment. But you will have to forgive me, this house was remodeled 2017-2018, and I am blanking on some of the other problem items that popped up during the rehab. We did also replace all mechanicals.

I hope that somewhat answers your question.