All Forum Posts by: Waverly Rennie

For a long time I was able to keep my properties stocked with hotel toiletries I gathered while traveling, but when I had more places I went with Accent Amenities (their website is accentamenities.com) which does cases of 100 each of little soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotion at around 27 cents each. They will send you a sample pack for $5 that shows all their different lines- I really appreciated the chance to see, smell and use the various types. 

I ended up going with one of their lines (called Nurture) that looks fairly high end but is pretty affordable- a full set of 2 soaps (one for the sink and one for the shower), shampoo, conditioner, and lotion, runs around $1.30 per bathroom, plus I supply toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving cream and razors, (also from Accent, average 40 cents each) but these rarely get used. I am now starting to provide big bottles of shampoo and body wash in the showers in addition, and some people seem to use those and not the individual toiletries that are provided. 

All in all, I'd say only about half the toiletries I put out get used, so I don't spend that much. I also have a little basket in each bathroom with sewing kits, emery boards, shower caps (all of these I get from my travels) plus I bought a big box of "La Fresh travel-lite" individually wrapped makeup remover towelettes online (which I highly recommend- I have lost fewer towels and facecloths to makeup once I started providing these), etc.

I provide snacks for people when they arrive, e.g. a couple of granola bars and a couple of bags of salty snacks like pretzels- I go to Costco and see what they have that's individually packaged, has an extended sell-by date (some of the chips have to get used up quicker than I would use them) and then look for something that runs less that 45 cents each. 

In high season, when my cottages are renting for $200+ a night, I provide a bottle of wine at checkin as part of the basket. I don't spend more than about $8 a bottle, and have gotten some nice $6-7 a bottle whites recently. I would like to stop providing it as low season is starting for me here in Florida, but several of my five star reviews have mentioned it specifically so I will probably just keep providing it.

I know I overdo it in terms of amenities but people do seem to appreciate it, they mention it a lot in the reviews, which are 93% 5 star on AirBnB and I guess in the end I want to offer a super nice experience- I can't help wanting people to feel pampered!

Good luck- W

@Keith Willey I'd be interested in that contact info as well- thanks!

Hi @Steve Liebroder- Hope you are progressing well. I am moving back to Dunedin in a while and will start going to some more REI meetings once I finish up some overseas work in February.

I have found the REI meetings incredibly helpful- have gone to Larry's in Pinellas Park Hibachi Grill a couple of times, then one in Clearwater at Joe's Crab Shack on Wednesday lunchtime. Have also made the effort to schedule coffee/lunch with various people on BP and have had a few nice, informative conversations and then ended up meeting someone who hooked me up with an excellent property manager. So it really does pay off to reach out to people.

I will be messaging people in the CW/Dunedin/PH area when I get back to the states for coffee- maybe message me! 

Best of luck, W

County auction- ours are online. I had found a house on the best street in town, and thought the house itself looked okay. I went a little over my planned for limit, but was really excited to have bought it, yay I am a real estate investor! Then...... I made every mistake in the book and finally decided I was going to have to tear it down and build new. Then we were turned down for our request to vary zoning, but in the end I think it is going to be at least a base hit- subdividing the lot into two, and building two expensive houses in partnership with a high-end builder. This is all from BP reading....so thanks to BP and the BP community, who have been amazing!

Hi- pretty much the same experiences as many on this thread. I've only been doing this since mid-2015 and only have 4 STRs, along with 2 long term ones that I will convert soon, but have learned a few things that might be helpful.

Insurance: Really important to get this right. I worked with an insurance agent to get home insurance that allows STR- I think it's called a Dwelling something- but double and triple check because the first one didn't allow STR and no one was paying attention. I think I got a quote from CBIZ and found it quite expensive so went with various other ones. I am in Florida and insurance there is always a challenge.

AirBnB/VRBO v. the others: I found Flipkey/Tripadvisor to be silly and didn't even bother continuing discussions with them- got two total inquiries, both from people who wanted to book in other states and whose search gave them my properties! AirBnB younger and more last minute, VRBO older and plan in advance, usually willing to pay more. I price higher on VRBO, and then adjust AirBnB rates down as the dates approach, in order to fill the places. ABNB is much easier to work with, I find, and I love that WYSIWYG on payments- it says, you will be paid x the day after your guests check in. And I am, whereas VRBO sends payments with various credit card fees and international credit card fees deducted such that it's hard to figure out which payment is for whom. I also love that AirBnB has made an arrangement with my county so that they collect and remit the taxes- a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" approach. But I absolutely love having both Air/VRBO- they complement each other and keep me pretty booked. On my older VRBO listings, I used to get paid as soon as the person booked, so sometimes that came in handy e.g. low season someone books for high season and I got their $ when cash flow was tight. On my newest VRBO listing, however, they have gone to the same payment approach as ABNB- I get paid the day after guests arrive. there are good and bad aspects to that.

Legality: Several of my properties are zoned commercial or STR-friendly, but two are in areas where I don't want to enquire too closely. From now on, I am going to stick to buying in areas where I know legality won't be an issue.

It's a lot of work! But it is paying well enough to make it worthwhile, and now that I have a lot of stuff figured out better, it is getting less management, time and money-intensive. I have now, after some trial and error, a wonderful property manager, a young mom who likes the flexibility, and who i am trying to treat very well, and a couple of good cleaners and a handyman who allow me to run this from another country. 

It's so nice to hear about others' experiences- I am on several other fora on this and each one brings their own perspective.

Best of luck- W

Hi Joe @Joe Gutmann - funny you should mention that- I have a tiny house on wheels I am trying to figure out how to use as a StVR but it's tricky. There are a few mobile homes and one RV that people are renting out on AirBnB but I haven't analyzed how successful they are. it would be easy enough to check- check out their calendars to see their pricing and vacancy rates- e.g. the month of March, everything in the area should be rented out. In my case, I have half rented out and a couple that I have priced high for last minute people who will be willing to pay whatever in order to have a place to stay. I have a few cottages and the one duplex that are STVR but given my target demographic, I don't see the mobile homes as aligning with my strategy.

I am looking at modular/manufactured homes as one possibility for putting an ADU into one property, and am looking at building with metal SIPs for a relatively inexpensive and energy efficient new build on a vacant lot I have. I would like to learn more about modular housing, very different from mobile homes. It's interesting stuff. I haven't done a new build yet and it would be so useful to better understand the cost per square foot etc. so I can decide whether a few lots I am looking at would be worth buying.

good luck and maybe when I am back in the states in Feb. we can have coffee and bat some ideas around.

@Joe Gutmann

I used Cozy on one property and gave another tenant who didn't want to use Cozy (for unclear reasons) a deposit-only ATM card for my biz account at BOA- he goes by the ATM and deposits his rent there, and I get it the same day. Happy with both systems except the 1 week wait to get my $ with Cozy and I'm not willing to pay to get it two days faster.

HI Joe-

@Joe Gutmann

I just bought a duplex at $160k (1/1s, but in a very nice area) and it's not sub-metered for water, so I am paying water for both units. This is bundled with garbage/sewage for a total of about $115/month for the duplex. I inherited one tenant, who is taking care of the lawn for free since he knows he is paying well under market rent ($600/mo). In another similar property I am paying someone about $50 a month to come by and keep the small lawn trimmed. Certainly our town is pretty quick to slap you with a fine and I wouldn't necessarily trust tenants to keep everything tidy.  So those are two costs you might need to factor in. I am paying $200-300 a year for a $1-2M (don't remember exact numbers) umbrella liability policy, and pay $1800 a year insurance on this duplex which also includes 300k liability and importantly covers short term vacation rentals, which is what I am doing with one and soon to be both units. The insurance would be a lot cheaper if it were just regular long term rentals (but the cash flow is higher on STVR so that's what I am doing with each unit as the LT tenants' leases expire.)

Hope this is helpful- W

@Ryan Bonner I started using Cozy for a long term tenant- I mostly rent out my places as AirBnB, much better ROI, but I had inherited two long term tenants. It works well, pretty simple, but she pays on the 1st and I get the $ in my account on the 7th. I liked how you set up the lease for the tenant (how much they need to pay every month, when it's due, and when the lease ends) but I guess I didn't remember to factor in the fact that she had paid her last month rent up front, so I had to go in and change the lease to end a month early. For my other long term tenant, I got him an ATM card that's deposit-only and goes into my biz account at BOA. He goes by and deposits the $ on the 1st (actually, often on the 29th or 30th) and it's in my account that day. There is an ID number on the ATM card so I guess you could have lots of tenants paying with their unique ID number and you could easily track who has paid and who hasn't. This is just a tiny bit of experience but thought I'd share anyway.

Good luck and thanks for the thread

Hi @Dylan Hall and nice to meet you. I am a relative newbie to REI but definitely owe the few deals that I have done to what I have learned on BP and the people I have met here. I'm doing mostly buy and hold short term vacation rentals in Dunedin, but also doing a bit of development and new construction sort of by accident (ask me how this came about.....) I am still living in Tanzania and doing my REI mostly at a distance, but when we move back to Dunedin in late Jan, I would be happy to meet up and exchange ideas. Best of luck to you!