All Forum Posts by: Tim Grillot

The Mortgage Shop (https://mortgage.shop/) is a great place to get started for lending, they offer a wide array of products and are very knowledgable about STR.

In regard to insurance, I also recommend reaching out to someone that is familiar with the STR space. Proper is popular, but there are several other local brokers that are fantastic as well. Price can vary a bit depending on what all coverages you chose and the size of the property. My smaller cabin (2/2) is roughly 2k/yr I believe for insurance.

Luke and Avery Carl(and their team) are the experts in that area.  I highly recommend using them.  They offer a service when you buy through them that puts you through Luke’s classes on how to get all setup for success right out of the gate including lots of contacts for cleaners and other services.  Maybe reach out to them? 

@Luke Carl

@Luke Carl thanks man!!  2020 has been rough, no option other than to push forward.  We live an hour north of you guys in Bowling Green KY.  We also got nailed by the tornados this spring...we had one go right through our property the same night as the Nashville tornados.  Lost our house roof, our entire barn, 75ish trees, and my truck got crushed!!  I chainsawed for a week straight!  Just gotta keep grinding!!  Good thing is the day job has been on fire!!

@Julie McCoy you have been fantastic to work with.  We beyond appreciate you!! The right place will hit when it’s right..until then you are stuck with us..! Bring on those bears!!!  Haha!!

No, just same building, our unit is in the center facing the gulf.  Not sure exactly how the assessment/insurance works as this is our first condo....I'm sure we will learn shortly!  I heard lighthouse was hit hard too with lots of damage so you might have dodged a bullet!  We just stayed at lighthouse a few months ago on a shopping trip!

@Luke Carl  Thanks!  Our place was on the national news the other night!  lol, not how we planned on kicking this deal off!  Looking forward to working with you all when we get locked in on a cabin.  We are working with Julie, and she is a badass!  We were under contract on one, but it ended up having quite a bit of structural/foundation issues, so we are back on the search.  Good luck on your unit in Mobile.  We have been doing long terms for a few years and just jumped into this market.  We like it, but stuff like this is not for the faint of heart! 

My wife and I jumped into the STR market this year and have been having a blast learning all about it. Our first place was a condo in Gulf Shores we closed on about a month ago. We are in the process of working with Avery's team (they all rock) to get a couple of cabins in the Smokies as well. Our place in Gulf Shores started off well until we got hit head on by Sally the other day. We still don't have word on the condition of our unit yet, but our building was hit really hard. An entire exterior wall is gone for five stories exposing all of the interiors of those units completely. We are shut down for the foreseeable future until cleanup and repairs can be done....both of which are extremely extensive. It has been devastating for sure, but we are remaining positive and looking for all the good out of it. Is anyone else on here dealing with Sally as well? Anyone else dealt with other natural disasters?

We close on our first place in Gulf Shores in twoish weeks.  We used Airdna data and crossed that with actual actual results from some recon work we did in the area on other properties.  We were happy with the cash on cash analysis so we are forging forward. With that said we are paying market price for the property, but it is in a prime location and has desirable elements to it.   Like  @Avery Carl said managing is a HUGE part of the numbers.  We will be managing ourselves remotely from Kentucky. 

Typically house-hacking is considered living in one of your units that is part of a multifamily or a roommate situation and letting others rent absorb your living expenses. We have a small portfolio of rentals including a triplex, two duplexes, and two single family homes. One of our nice little 3/2 single family homes is going to be available shortly. We are considering selling our primary residence (5/3 on 20 acres) and downsizing into the 3/2 on a half acre that is part of our LLC. Downsizing is for sure a good thing for us as the big house is just a bunch of wasted space for us and our lives have shifted to where we don't get to enjoy our park-like 20 acres like we used to. This would also open up a bit of cash (equity) from the sale of our home, and drastically lowered monthly expenses (3k month) to expand our portfolio. The rest of our portfolio cash flows plenty to cover the cost of the 3/2 we would be looking at moving into. Are there any legal or other downsides to doing something like this? Would we need to pay rent to ourselves?

We prorate when they move in,  and and when they leave if they stay longer than the end of the month.  We have yet to have an issue with this.  Once you get to the point of collecting deposit and first month your "homework" on the tenant should already be done and if I qualified them I don't feel I should have to worry about getting paid.  So far it has worked well and we have happy tenants, and happy landlords (us!!).