All Forum Posts by: Wilson Vanhook

Is there a way for me to find investors to partner with where they simply bring the cash and I bring my brains/expertise? I understand the ins and outs of STR management very well. I know great places to invest that are profitable and proven with the properties I own myself. What I'd like to find is a serious investor that wants the high returns of the STR business and has the cash to make it happen, but will offload the entire workload to myself for a management fee.

I understand I can always "network" with people I know, but I don't really have people in my circle that have the cash and would be serious about an investment. How can I go about this?

Quote from @Conner Olsen:

Quote from @Zachary Ware:

I am excited to move to Austin and work helping to lend on investment properties. Also Interested in the Airbnb market for investment opportunities. 

Welcome to Austin! Airbnb rules are strict within the city of Austin. There is also a 11% hotel tax fee imposed upon licensed properties. There are areas of town that you can operate a STR legally without a permit and without paying the city tax. I operate MTR's to avoid these rules and have had great success with them. Many of the suburbs do not have legislation prohibiting or taxing STR's. Round Rock has been a popular investing location for awhile because of the family friendly attractions there like Kalahari. The Austin area is a great place to invest and a great strategy!

I've been researching what areas of Austin I can operate a STR legally without a permit, but am having difficulty finding the answers. How could I find this info? I know Austin is a great market to invest in so I really want to expand my STR portfolio into this market.

Quote from @Ryan White:

@Wilson Vanhook This is very encouraging to hear. I’m looking in the Broken Bow area and have been worried about lack of bookings. A lot of cabin calendars are pretty empty when I look on Airbnb. I have also heard other luxury cabin owners complaining of not getting bookings. It has kept me from pulling the trigger.

 I think it depends on the cabin type and systems you put in place. We decided to go with a smaller 'honeymoon' style cabin. I think the larger cabins are being hurt more. We have focused on doing everything we can to achieve high occupancy at the smart to ensure long term success. To get to this point early on we've been giving low introductory rates. So we aren't quite at our target rate yet, but are getting good occupancy.

We also were very particular in which cabin we chose to invest in. The owners up there are getting out of hand with their asking prices. Very few of the deals in Broken Bow are investable right now. But there are a few that you can make work. Open to giving more insight if you're interested in buying there. Just let me know.

Quote from @Sergey A. Petrov:

I don’t think any of us know which algorithms those companies are using. For some people and their properties, AirBnB gets more bookings. For others, VRBO does. Not sure if it is property dependent, location, or something else. I say use them both. Set your prices where you want them to be and fill the calendar regardless of where the bookings originate

 Yeah I agree the goal is to just get the calendar filled. But maximizing the use of how their algorithms choose to promote your listing could lead to higher rates and occupancy down the line.

Quote from @John Underwood:

I would discount the Vrbo listing to try and get some reviews. 

My Airbnb bookings have gone to zero in the last 6 months. I am trying to discount some days to attempt to get just some bookings on Airbnb, no luck so far.

 Why have your Airbnb bookings gone to 0?

I went live with my first STR just a few weeks ago. Bought a 1 BR cabin in Broken Bow, OK. Since going live I've been doing everything I can to try and 'dominate the algorithms,' considering I'm both a new owner and new host on the platforms with 0 reviews. I would say the launch has been pretty successful to this point but I'm always looking for ways to improve.

To try and take off with the new listing I did some really low introductory pricing for August. Goal was to show the platforms that people have interest in my property, and try to get as many reviews as possible within the first month.

Immediately bookings started rolling in on Airbnb. I have a total of about 30 bookings made so far from August-December on Airbnb. In the month of August I've already had quite a few Airbnb guests and every one of them has written me a review. However, on VRBO I've only gotten 6 bookings from August-December so far. My first VRBO guest is currently there, meaning I still have 0 reviews on VRBO right now.

My question is this: Should I start focusing efforts on pushing my listing harder on VRBO? I could potentially do very low pricing for the remainder of September I have open, just for VRBO, to try and gain more traction there. But does it matter? If I'm doing okay on Airbnb so far should I even try to focus my attention on VRBO at all? From what I can tell it's not that people visiting Broken Bow are using Airbnb more than VRBO. I believe overall traffic for the area is split pretty well between the 2, maybe even favors VRBO slightly.

Does it even make sense to try and split traffic between Airbnb & VRBO? From an algorithm standpoint isn't it better to have most of your bookings on 1 platform? For instance doesn't Airbnb's algorithms view you as more 'loyal' when your calendar is filled mostly by them and thus push your listing up in the search results?

If the latter doesn't seem to be much of an issue should I try to get more VRBO traffic and create a more balanced calendar so I have popularity on 2 channels? Might enable me to raise rates and make more dollars in the future.

Let's go bring in the hot takes!! 🔥🔥🔥

Do you as hosts pay the airbnb service fee or defer it to the guest? Standard is 3% fee for the host and 20% fee for the guest. But, if hosts choose to pay the guest’s fee, airbnb will knock that 20% down to 11%. So the total fees, which the host would be covering all of, would be 14%. The standard way total fees airbnb collects adds up to 23%.

So in theory you could cover the fees and raise your rates by 11% across the board, forwarding a total savings of 9% to your guests. All in all if the guest looks at the bottom line total for your bookings you will get an edge out on the competition. But this only works if guests are searching specific dates and looking at the total with all fees, as opposed to looking at solely the nightly rate, since you increased those nightly rates by 11%. If guests focus only on nightly rates, search for flexible days, or look at map view which only shows the nightly rate, this tactic could actually hurt you, even though you’re actually trying to save the guest 9%…

Idk if many hosts have taken this into consideration before or not. But I’m asking what you all think is the better alternative? Keep your nightly rate lower and just forward the higher fees to the guest, OR increase your rates so you don’t lose money but save the guest on fees? All depends on what numbers most guests are focusing on when booking.

Quote from @Wilson Vanhook:

I'm familiar with how DSCR loans work and am exploring the option myself. So far I've only found lenders that require a minimum of 20% down for these types of loans. Does anybody know of DSCR loan options with only 15% down? I have my eye on some properties I could swing with 15% but 20% wouldn't quite make the cut.

If anybody sees this later on down the road I found an answer to my question eventually. 'The One Brokerage' has lenders that will fund 15% down DSCR loans. I've loved working with them.

I have a very specific unique situation on hand. I'm doing a 1031 exchange from one property of mine to a new rental. I have somebody who would like to partner with me on the new rental property. To avoid taxes my plan was to fund the full amount of the down payment on the new property from MY 1031 exchange funds, and then have my partner pay me their half after the fact. Is there any way for my partner to pay me a large sum of money (~$50k) without me being taxed on receiving the money from them in this scenario?

I have sort of a unique situation on hand and want to know if I am eligible to avoid capital gains on a property I am selling.

I purchased the home as a primary residence in February of 2020. I moved into the home immediately and occupied the home until the end of September 2021. At that point I moved into a new house, kept the property, and in October 2021 a tenant moved into the home. I am now under contract to sell the house with the tenant in place and am purchasing a new investment property. Am I eligible to avoid capital gains on this property in any way? I did report the 3 months of rental income from 2021 on my taxes.