All Forum Posts by: Tyler Work

Hey @Adam Faber I am in the process of training a VA in the Philippines as @John Underwood mentioned. I still haven't figured out how to make it affordable, as they charge $8/hour. Even just for coverage on the weekends for 24 hours/day thats $384 per weekend or about $1500/mo. I think the solution depends on the scale of the STR business. At some point a percentage model will be more expensive than paying hourly rates. I'm going to try and leverage the fact that they are billing other clients at the same time as me to get their rates down.

Evolve is a property management company, not a virtual assistant, so I don't think its comparing apples to apples. 

Guesty is a property management software company that offers a "front desk" type service for 5% of gross revenue, which includes their software.  I've heard its a great service and I think is great for people who own their rentals, but not for management companies.  

I think @Jenessa NeSmith also has a great point.  Users specifically on Airbnb are looking for a more personal experience and generally want to speak with their "host" i.e. not an admin person thousands of miles away.  I think you can get it pretty close by thoroughly training your VAs, but the fact of the matter is at some point if you plan on scaling you're not going to be answer every call or message personally.  

@Vance Kibler I have the paid subscription but have yet to get any real value out of it.  If you're looking at data specifically from Airbnb, AirDNA is the best followed by Everbooked.  If someone has success using Mashvisor I would love to hear how they use it, I'm probably held up by user error :( 

@Alex M. I work with them currently on several properties.  I have no idea why all the press about them makes their model sound so vague and mysterious.  Most of what you said is correct but I'd be happy to share more of the details if you shoot me a PM.  

The short of it is: Rented, PM, and owner sign a 3 party lease, PM gets a percentage, Rented keeps whats leftover.  Basically a large scale rent arbitrage model.  They have in house analysts that approve rental amounts to guarantee to the homeowner.  

@Burt Gourley something to think about if you want to repeat this process is how you're planning on borrowing money.  Most banks won't consider income from Airbnb, VRBO, etc as income when you go to refinance.  The owners I work with use me to provide them a signed 1 year lease so they can refinance, and I in turn rent the property out on Airbnb.  

As far as analysis the best place to start is clicking on other Airbnb properties in the area for an initial gut check.  If prices are high it might be a good area.  You can also use tools like AirDNA, Mashvisor, and Everbooked to analyse markets that pull form Airbnb data.  

@James Carlson @Nick P. even in urban markets I don't really see a housing crisis happening due to Airbnb.  There are ~4000 STRs here in Denver and the market is already getting saturated.  Unless tons more people start using homeshare sites I think we can expect a revenue decline this year.  If I was an investor I would not be gobbling up properties in Denver even if it was 100% legal - the margins just aren't good enough. 

Many people think you make money "hand over fist" by renting on Airbnb, but when you add in PM fees, expenses, and taxes, there are lots of (usually 1 BR) properties that have better cash flow if you rent long term *gasp*!  There are of course exceptions and plenty of properties that crush it but I think there is a bit of a misconception.  

In cities like SF & NYC - there is already zero affordable housing there, so it makes total sense those cities are cracking down.  

Hey @Jenessa NeSmith we charge 20% here in Denver, Breckenridge, and Boulder, CO markets.  Just some fair warning - if you're looking for passive income, don't get into property management.  It's about as active as it gets :)  However, I'd be happy to help you get started and point you in the right direction, feel free to shoot me a pm! 

@Jon Arteaga sounds like a no-brainer to me.  I'll take the $70k instant equity plus cash flow to pay it off.  

@Jon Arteaga @John Miranda has a good point.  I think from a cash flow standpoint you could get up and running quicker and cheaper building a garage apt - but is adding it going to add $60k+ to the value of your home? 

Hey @Jason Henning - I echo @James Carlson on this being a tax and risk decision.  The city just wants to collect their taxes and I want to say they use the same form for many different businesses, hence why they allow you to register under a business name.

Hey @Angus Yang, sounds like this could be a great investment!  

I can share my thoughts on point #1.  Do you have some design sense and willing to spend some time shopping around Craigslist?  The cheapest option is to buy big items used and find everything online but you have to be semi-good at that type of thing.  I would highly encourage you to fly out there and make sure everything is set up properly if you plan on managing remotely.  Some other options:

Depending on where the property is you could look into using Feather to do a rent-to-own on furnishing the properties.  They deliver and set everything up in SF and NYC areas, you'd have to call and see what they can do in other cities.  Totally turn key option and spreads out your initial start up costs. 

Havenly is an online interior decorating service that will do all your ordering for you.  I can't imaging hiring an interior designer to go shop for you in person would be cost effective at all, but might be depending on your area.  

Try to keep your furnishing budget to 1.5 times your mortgage or rent cost as a rule of thumb that I use. 

Hope that helps!