All Forum Posts by: Whitney Breedlove

@Neal Shue  from my experience it isn't worth the trouble with only 1 car.  It's just a hassle. 

And if anyone is interested here is a brief overview of my Turo experience.  I started with my first car around November, and now have 6 cars (1 has been unlisted and I've been driving it as my daily driver most the time)

2007 Honda Odyssey

2009 Toyota Prius

2010 Honda Insight

2015 Ford Escape

2016 Lexus IS

2011 Honda Insight (i usually drive this car)

I'm now at the point where I consistently gross over 3K a month.  Last month was 3700 and this month was 3250.  All of the cars except the escape and the lexus were bought with cash.  My monthly expenses with two car payments, insurance, and various repairs and miscellaneous expenses (washes, oil changes, etc)  are about 1500/month.  

In january/february I made a few changes and it has improved quite a bit.  I made sure every car is ready to be rented at all times and changed all the rental notices to 1 hour notices (its kind of weird how many people book cars that last minute, but they do).  I also started requiring all my cars be cleaned and vacuumed before being returned (this cut down on expenses and also make ready time between rentals).

I now consistently have my vehicles rented out about every weekend and throughout the week is somewhat sporadic.  

My recommendations:

1.  In my market (san antonio) inexpensive economy cars do well!  (and with turo's recent protection plan/payout scheme changing it makes even more sense).

2.  Your cars won't always be treated well.  My nicest car has had the rims beat up, has a giant gash in the hood, has been smoked in on multiple occasions.  And one of my economy cars has been stolen.  You simply take it for what it is.  Turo has allowed me to have a Lexus IS (the nicest and most comfortable car i've ever owned) and I don't pay for it, but sometimes people drive it hard and beat it up more than I wish they would. 

3.  If you are treating it like a business it's not going to make sense and will be more of a hassle until you have 3-5 cars. 

4.  Get great deals on cars.  Every car I've bought has been very inexpensive and a buy that I know even with more miles on the car I could sell for nearly what I bought it for.

Turo keeps making changes that make it less and less desirable to be a host, but for now its working and I'm debating adding more.   Most days I spend very little time dealing with Turo, but there are other days when its a nightmare, just like anything that involves humans. 

I’m sure it’s wonderful and the area is as fine as frog hairs 

for napkin math just use 50% of rent up to a rent of about 1200.. that will be uncannily accurate.

Yeah I'm comfortable with determining how much the expenses will be for a property, I've just heard you should work with turnkey providers who are upfront about these additional expenses. If they're hiding the ball as to this aspect of investing, who knows what else they're hiding especially if they're the ones rehabbing the houses as well.