All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Baker

As far as I know, @John Underwood is correct. However, just be careful as you may want to document your work and keep receipts of any work you do as it may be tough to convince the IRS that you did work that day instead of hanging out at the beach!

@Paul Smythe as you can see, it all depends on your market and how you use your listing site.  As I mentioned earlier, VRBO is by far the best platform for the market I'm invested in and for how I use it.  Whereas others like @Jonathan Safa and @Myka Artis absolutely hate VRBO!  

I'm not a CPA, but you can most certainly stay at you're VR and keep it classified as an investment rather than a second home.  As long as you limit your usage to 14 days or 10% of the time it is rented, you will keep that property classified as an investment.  Being able to use your VR is a great perk!

I will counter with @Mike Bolen, not that he's wrong by any means, just to give a different opinion and experience.  The idea that "investing in real estate is to have passive income" is not absolute.  For many, that might be their goal, but for others, especially who do it full time, it's always going to be a "job." Just like most other types of investments, you can be as hands on as you want with your VRs.  For us, we do all of our own bookings, but once guests are at our condos, they are then passed off and taken care of by our property management teams.  We also personally make welcome guides and a separate info website with all the information they will need for our condos and the area, including lists of things to do, places to visit and where to eat.  So rarely does a guest contact us directly during their stay.  

Success with VRs are like any other investment, you need to make sure the numbers work, especially if you are using management companies to help run your rentals. As a matter of fact, I would suggest running your numbers with management fees even if you intend on managing your VRs yourself.  As Mike highlighted, some items will wear out much quicker than your average long term rental and those need to be in your numbers also.  VRs are not for everyone and it can be more like a hospitality business as Mike mentioned, however, it's something some people enjoy being a part of.  

@Jeremy Lee I think vacation rentals are just fine for your first investment.  That's how my wife and I got started and it's become our favorite type of investing.  As others have mentioned before, make sure you know the local laws regarding short term rentals (and any trends regarding those laws) and do your due diligence with your numbers and you can definitely have a successful VR.

@Paul Smythe We only list with VRBO, so I couldn't give you any advice on the pricing difference between VRBO and AirBnb.  

I think it really just depends on the market you are in.  With us, we keep our calendars full with just using VRBO.  Even with the service fee they introduced (and they did a horrible job rolling it out!), we haven't seen any less inquiries or bookings.  I actually know other VR rental owners in our area that dropped AirBnB, even after VRBO introduced the service fee.  However, I know owners locally here in Denver that has by far more success with their AirBnB listings than they do VRBO.  

@Paul Smythe we use VRBO for our Kihei, Maui vacation rentals.  One of the main reasons we do so is because that's where the majority of the properties in our area are listed.  So see which service has the most listings in your area for the type of vacation rental property you are looking to list. 

Another reason we chose VRBO is we can add a tax line item in the price quote.  AirBnB does not have a line item you can add to the price quote for any tax, so you basically have to work in the tax into the nightly rate.  

Is your property in ATL?  I lived there for 5 years (2000 - 2005) before moving to CO.  I lived down in the Buckhead/ Peachtree Hills area and wish I knew more about investing back then when I was there!

@Deborah N. congrats on your first VR!  I would suggest looking for other vacation rentals in your area and see how they are listing their rentals.  VRBO? AirBnb?  I would suggest listing with the site that has the most listings for your area, at least in the beginning and you can change to what you may think would work best once you get a feel for it.   

As for bookkeeping, I would say try and keep it as simple as possible.  I know many investors that just use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of expenses and rental income.  I personally use the Wave accounting app.  It's a free cloud based accounting program that's fairly simple to set up and use.  

Best of luck and enjoy your new VR!

Jeremy

@Russell Gronsky as @John D. mentioned, I would suggest checking out the VRBO listings for any area that you may be interested in.  To get more information, you can email some of the owners in the area through the inquiry option on VRBO and let them know you are interested in buying a VR in the area and ask them if you can email or call with a few questions regarding owning a VR in that area.  Most owners will be happy to answer your questions and it's a great way to get some local knowledge and even get some property management, housekeeping, handyman referrals and more. 

hahaha, no problem @James Carlson.  It is a great place for VRs.  Every time we run the numbers to invest in short term rentals in the Denver metro and the mountain ski areas, it never beats the return we get in Maui!  

@James Carlson, I live in SE Aurora/ Centennial, but our VRs are in Kihei, Maui.