All Forum Posts by: Leigh Ann Smith

@John Underwood, do you list it on Craigslist as a vacation rental or a short-term rental?

We slapped ours on AirBnB and let them go!  Recently we've also listed on VRBO, and I got a 2.5 month rental (traveling nurse) out of that.  We have a Christmas tree farm (where the rentals are located), and our tree farm Facebook page has lots of followers, so I've advertised there, but didn't get a single booking that way.  I also tried Google advertising with similar results.

I'm scared to advertise on Craigslist!  I'm afraid that I'll get too many tire kickers, no way to vet them, etc.  Anyone want to share your Craigslist experiences with VR's?

@Ryan Evans, if you have access to a well, I'd use it.  A tiny house with running water would be more marketable than one without.  Also remember to include the cost of putting in a road into the property if there isn't already one.  Otherwise you'll have people getting stuck when it's rainy.  

If you do the self-contained waste water, it will still need to be dumped.  It's possible that you can get a port-a-potty company to come out with their truck and suction it out.  Not sure if they can do that with RV waste.   I looked into a holding tank like @Christen G. suggested, but in the end decided to go with a small septic system for our 3 tiny house RV hook-ups.  You do get into a lot of regulations when it comes to waste water!

There are lots of tiny house enthusiasts out there, so be sure to call your place a tiny house, not a cabin.  And if it's a tiny house, it needs to be cute and feature clever use of space.  We've found that lots of folks aren't crazy about sleeping in a loft.  Fortunately, one of our tiny houses has a bed that slides under the kitchen floor, with the bottom end sticking out to serve as a sofa during the day.

If you can make it all happen, it sounds like that would be a very marketable property!

Here are our 2 tiny houses:

www.airbnb.com/rooms/13248492

www.airbnb.com/rooms/14282082

Hi @Brian Cremer,  I live not far from League City (about 20 miles) and we have 2 tiny houses that we self-manage as vacation rentals.  The nightly rates out here are pretty low.  In addition to using Mike's suggestion of Airdna, I'd suggest going onto AirBnB and VRBO and see what's available to rent in that area, and what they're getting per night.

Most of League City is in a flood zone, so be sure to factor flood insurance into your expense numbers if you're looking at a place that falls into one of those zones.  Like most markets, the Houston area market is flooded with investors, and it's rare that you'll make an offer without having a good bit of competition.  Maybe your sister can keep her ears open for people she knows who are planning to move soon, and you could get an inside track on a property.

Buy lots of linens and figure out who will be laundering them.  You'll want to always have at least 1 or 2 clean sets of everything on standby.  Also, plan on buying new ones periodically.  Sheets and towels get stained and also wear out quickly from lots of washings.

Don't forget to include lawn care in your expenses, @Melissa Kirchhoff!  Ask me how I know you shouldn't forget this. :-/

I concur with the strategy of seeing how many occupancy nights you need each month to break even.  When we were contemplating setting up our tiny house rentals, it was scary because we had no idea if we'd get any bookings.  We are on a Christmas tree farm, so that's nice, but we're in a location that is literally not on the way to anywhere (since the Gulf of Mexico is about 50 miles to our south and I-10 is about 25 miles north) and has absolutely NO tourist draw (just a rural area that's coastal plain with a lot of oil fields and cattle).  Nevertheless, the tiny houses were relatively low cost, and the number we came up with was 7 nights per house per month to break even.  I'm not sure of our average, but we've always made that number and sometimes gone way over.  

As I said before, I didn't include lawn maintenance in my calculations, so my husband has had to do the lion's share of that.  Another thing I didn't consider was the laundry.  I have a cleaning lady, but I do the laundry.  In a VR, you need to wash every single fabric thing that's washable every time you change guests.  That has been a pain in the neck.  We're planning to put a washer/dryer in the building where we store the supplies for the houses, but the cleaning lady will still not be able to do all of it without staying out here for hours.  So, think about the laundry and who will do it, and if it's not you, what will it cost?  I read one article from a guy who says to have 4-5 sets of linens & towels, then when half of them are dirty, take them to a drop-off laundromat for wash & fold service.  He said it's well worth it, and I'm not ruling that out for the future.

@Garry C.,  When we cooperate, everyone wins.  😂

@Kevin Lefeuvre, I'm feeling a little better about VRBO after finally receiving my first payout after waiting 30 days for it.

I see what you're saying about PayPal vs. ACH.  And, if I want to move the money from PayPal to my bank, that also takes 2-3 days.  No way around it, I guess.

Interesting article in Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucekasanoff/2014/04/04/real-estate-brokers-obsolete/#3e787c367953

Okay, it's in the files under my name, and the title is Vacation Property Rental Calculator.