All Forum Posts by: Steven Skarupa

Yes.  Indirectly anyway.  It looks at the current rates of other STRs in your region and uses that as an index to adjust your pricing.  So as they rise to meet the inflationary pressures, pricelabs should adjust as well.  The real question in my mind is whether, faced with less buying power for their dollars, will guests be more reluctant to book a vacation?

Of course, if we are priced right, they may continue to look at STRs as a more economical price for vacation (wow my brother's family and mine can stay at this shore rental for 300 a night - that's 150 a couple.  I couldn't find a hotel anywhere near that!)

-Steve

So with all the talk about an uptick in inflation and even some talk about hyper-inflation, what do you think will be the impact to our STR revenue? What do you think we should do to compensate? What are you doing?

Update.  After 4 months of rental (I've grossed ~20K!) I've upgraded my approach to include PriceLabs.   Can't say enough about the product and the concept of using market based pricing data vs my own "gut feelings"   Although hard to correlate, I feel like I've picked up bookings that I would not have gotten otherwise in this off season based on the progressive discounting and constantly adjusting pricing based on current demand and events.   Thanks again everyone!

Thanks everyone!   I think it's clear that just going with market rate out of the gate and being super diligent for the first season (at least) is a good way to get started.  Thanks everyone for the advice.

So, I'm about 2 weeks away from finishing my 50K rehab of a small bungalow just north of Cape May New Jersey.  This area is ripe with BnB's and according to the research I did when I purchased the home (2/1 being renovated into a 3/2) in Feb, rentals will average about $250 - $350/night with about a 50% annual occupancy.  In addition, there seems to be a major shortage in available rooms this summer so the area is totally booked for the remainder of the summer.  Since I'm about to list on AirBnB/VRBO, I'm wondering about pricing and could use some experienced advice.

I had planned a strategy where I would undercut the price for the first 5-10 renters to gain positive reviews and over pamper/attend to them to ensure positive experiences.   Then I would bump the prices back up to market after that.  But now I'm starting to wonder if I need to bother.   I think the positive reviews/experiences initially are super important but I'm also starting to think that I should go ahead and set the price at market to begin with.   With this level of renovation, the money is flying out of the account at an incredible rate and I'd really like to start getting returns.   

What would you do?  Stick with a slow-burn-to-start strategy?  Go with market price from start?  Go above market, since there is a shortage?

TIA!

-Steve

I just signed a contract for my first rental property on Christmas Eve.  Nice little bungalow in northern Cape May a block or two from the bay.  Has the potential of bringing in 2K in positive cashflow!

Now I'm in the due-diligence stage and wondering about insurance.  I've reached out for quotes on flood and standard home-owner insurance that the mortgage company is asking for, but I'm thinking about getting an umbrella coverage or similar to cover the rental business.  I'm not even sure where to start on this - I'll probably start calling insurance agents tomorrow, but thought I'd get the opinion of those of you who are further along this journey before I do.  What questions should I be asking?   

Thanks in advance!

-Steve

I'm a complete newbie; have been studying, listening and working on getting a cash-out refi to gain access to some seed capital to build a portfolio of rental properties - with a goal of finding enough positive cashflow to replace my day job and until then provide more stability by having more diversified income (can you tell I'm working on my "Why"?)

While I wait for the financing to go through (banker says ~60 days right now) - I'm focusing on rounding out my education and practicing analyzing properties so that I can act fast when I see a good deal when the money is available.   I'm able to do about 4-6 analysis per day, but I'm starting to lose track of what I've done so far and which are in the running.  

So I'm looking to setup a system - I can envision spreadsheet or google sheets based workflow, but before I go down that path, I was wondering.  Does anyone have a suggestion for an online workflow tool that I can use?

The workflow seems to be essentially the same as a typical sales/lead funnel, so it seems that there should be something out there that would work better than anything a newbie can wipe together in Google Sheets. 

What system do you use for analyzing and filtering down to the properties you make offers on and on to purchase, rehab and adding them to your portfolio.  What tools do you use to stay organized?   

Thanks in advance!   

@Soniel Estime Holy cow! What a ride. Congratulations on an awesome job. They say that if you have to struggle it means so much more when you are victorious - that's why everyone roots for the underdog. Thanks for sharing.

Our primary resident is a bit of a dog. We bought in 2007 and it wasn't until just a couple years ago that we emerged from being underwater. I'm about to jump into REI looking to at using BRRRR and/or classic buy and hold strategies to build a portfolio. But my primary is a drag on most of my plans. It's too big and because of the loan and insane local taxes it won't get me a positive cash flow. Oh, and my son is still in high school so we need to stay in the district until he finishes (2 years).

I found a foreclosure in the district at a great price with numbers that easily get us to positive cash flow. The plan would be to buy the house, renovate it, move in as our new primary and then put the dog up for sale. When it sells, based on current market we should be able to pay off the mortgage and walk away with 40 -50k in cash.

Since the amount of profit is well lower than the 500k bar, would we avoid cap gains? I was thinking to drop that back into a new brrr deal.

So talked with a banker who is also an investor with 22 rentals...  He said it is virtually impossible to get a heloc on a free and clear properties right now and is trying to get me into a cash out refi at 2.75% instead.  At only ~600/month seems almost as good as a heloc and I talked to my investment broker who said he's got an ultra safe home for the money with between 2 - 3 % return.   So it seems to be almost the same thing as a heloc.  

I consider this banker one of the first members of my core 4 and he's been mentoring me as I jump into the deep end, but even then do you think I should shop some more for a bank that offers a heloc?