Real Estate Broker · Little Rock and Hot Springs Arkansas · Member since 2020 · 55 posts · 62 votes
6y
I have two vacation rentals and will be buying my third before the end of the year (fingers crossed). Self managing is the way to go.
To self manage, you'll have a to learn a few systems but it's absolutely worth it. The first property we bought did ~$39,000 in gross rent in 2019. Management took 23%. Self managing, we're pacing to do ~$75-80,000 in our fiscal year.
Property Manager · Orlando, FL · Member since 2020 · 200 posts · 194 votes
6y
Hi @Julia J, it really depends on where you want to spend your efforts. If you are planning to deal with this full time and communicate with tenants, vendors and be by your phone 24/7 then is really worth it. If you are just an investor who wants to have a producing property and a vacation home which you can visit anytime you want then make sure you hire a great property management company which does only vacation rentals. Furthermore, there are ok property managers and there are others on a whole new level using the latest software for pricing and managing the properties. Make sure to go to one of them. Another advice that I have for you is: Don't be scared to trust young people in this industry! The software part can be very challenging and from my experience of 4 years in the industry, younger people usually do much better than older property managers. I know pretty much anything you can think of when it comes to short term rentals. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Real Estate Broker · Little Rock and Hot Springs Arkansas · Member since 2020 · 55 posts · 62 votes
6y
I have two vacation rentals and will be buying my third before the end of the year (fingers crossed). Self managing is the way to go.
To self manage, you'll have a to learn a few systems but it's absolutely worth it. The first property we bought did ~$39,000 in gross rent in 2019. Management took 23%. Self managing, we're pacing to do ~$75-80,000 in our fiscal year.
Rental Property Investor · Pasadena, CA · Member since 2019 · 3 posts · 2 votes
5y
@Dustin Turner Are you local to your STR? People often say it is much more work than LTR. Just wondering what systems you have in place to self manage.
Real Estate Broker · Little Rock and Hot Springs Arkansas · Member since 2020 · 55 posts · 62 votes
5y
@Angela Hsu My STR is ~9 hour drive. I'm in Arkansas and my 2 properties are near the beach in Gulf Shores. I use an messaging tool to automate most of our communication and a dynamic pricing tool to make sure our rates are competitive.
@Nam Trang We're on our second cleaning company and I'm pretty happy with them. We dodged a bullet with Covid, because our property hit the market just about the time Alabama was reopening the beaches. We were booked solid from mid-May through mid-September, when Hurricane Sally hit. We had to cancel 2 weeks of bookings, but we're back up and running on both properties.
Real Estate Agent · Fairbanks, AK · Member since 2017 · 31 posts · 14 votes
5y
My dad has a few short term rentals. As a real estate agent I managed them for him for about 6 months. I found the management side very easy, at least compared to long term rentals with evictions and such. However it was an everyday thing checking messages and such. My dad cleaned it and he had 3 units close together and spends maybe 1-1.5 hours a day to clean all of them.
Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2019 · 77 posts · 304 votes
5y
@Julia J Management is fairly easy if you have the right systems in place.. Just need to focus on setting up your systems to automate things. I use YourPorter (can also use SmartBNB) to automate messaging with guests. I still respond directly to inquiries, etc. But for check in, check out, auto reviews, asks for reviews, auto tasks sent to cleaners, etc for $10-15/ month per listing. This takes the majority of the daily management off your hands. You need to interview cleaners to hopefully find ones that you can trust and can be your eyes on the property. Outside of that - handymen - have a few on call that you can have come fix issues in a jiff. I use Price Labs for pricing automation - it'll changed based on criteria you put in. Very intuitive. It will changes daily and push updates to Airbnb / VRBO for you. They will change based on demand and what other places are charging in the area, occupancy and all that good stuff. If it is your first, or one of your first few properties, definitely self manage, IMO, because you don't want to fork up 15-30% of your gross revenue out of the gate..
I have two properties in Nashville and one in Gatlinburg, TN. Two of them are larger properties and the other one a smaller one. Between the three, we will likely gross >$250k in the next 12 months and net around $130-150k in cash flow!! STRs are way more fruitful than traditional LTRs - in the vast majority of scenarios.
Best of luck to you and everyone else looking to invest in STRs! I say go for it!
Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2019 · 77 posts · 304 votes
5y
@Julia J Management is fairly easy if you have the right systems in place.. Just need to focus on setting up your systems to automate things. I use YourPorter (can also use SmartBNB) to automate messaging with guests. I still respond directly to inquiries, etc. But for check in, check out, auto reviews, asks for reviews, auto tasks sent to cleaners, etc for $10-15/ month per listing. This takes the majority of the daily management off your hands. You need to interview cleaners to hopefully find ones that you can trust and can be your eyes on the property. Outside of that - handymen - have a few on call that you can have come fix issues in a jiff. I use Price Labs for pricing automation - it'll changed based on criteria you put in. Very intuitive. It will changes daily and push updates to Airbnb / VRBO for you. They will change based on demand and what other places are charging in the area, occupancy and all that good stuff. If it is your first, or one of your first few properties, definitely self manage, IMO, because you don't want to fork up 15-30% of your gross revenue out of the gate..
I have two properties in Nashville and one in Gatlinburg, TN. Two of them are larger properties and the other one a smaller one. Between the three, we will likely gross >$250k in the next 12 months and net around $130-150k in cash flow!! STRs are way more fruitful than traditional LTRs - in the vast majority of scenarios.
Best of luck to you and everyone else looking to invest in STRs! I say go for it!
Lender · Asheville NC · Member since 2016 · 469 posts · 317 votes
5y
I self manage. With today's tech, it's very little work. The cashflow is huge compared to most options I've seen for professional property management. If it kept me from scaling, I wouldn't self manage. But it's maybe an hour a day avg. Probably less.
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2017 · 589 posts · 251 votes
5y
Short term rentals in my opinion make sense if you self manage. Most management companies want 50 percent or something crazy like that. Long term rentals is the opposite, more like 8 to 10 percent month.
@Julia J Management is fairly easy if you have the right systems in place.. Just need to focus on setting up your systems to automate things. I use YourPorter (can also use SmartBNB) to automate messaging with guests. I still respond directly to inquiries, etc. But for check in, check out, auto reviews, asks for reviews, auto tasks sent to cleaners, etc for $10-15/ month per listing. This takes the majority of the daily management off your hands. You need to interview cleaners to hopefully find ones that you can trust and can be your eyes on the property. Outside of that - handymen - have a few on call that you can have come fix issues in a jiff. I use Price Labs for pricing automation - it'll changed based on criteria you put in. Very intuitive. It will changes daily and push updates to Airbnb / VRBO for you. They will change based on demand and what other places are charging in the area, occupancy and all that good stuff. If it is your first, or one of your first few properties, definitely self manage, IMO, because you don't want to fork up 15-30% of your gross revenue out of the gate..
I have two properties in Nashville and one in Gatlinburg, TN. Two of them are larger properties and the other one a smaller one. Between the three, we will likely gross >$250k in the next 12 months and net around $130-150k in cash flow!! STRs are way more fruitful than traditional LTRs - in the vast majority of scenarios.
Best of luck to you and everyone else looking to invest in STRs! I say go for it!
@Michael Elefante,
How did you find these Short term rental properties. I'm interested if you used a real estate agent in that area. If so, who do you recommend?
Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2020 · 148 posts · 97 votes
5y
Hi Julia! I have short-term rentals and my husband and I self-manage them from out of state. You mentioned short-term rentals in "resorts". Are you specifically looking at properties that are part of resorts?
Property Manager · Wisconsin and Florida · Member since 2017 · 346 posts · 227 votes
5y
We own some short term rentals and manage many others for other people. It depends on how available you are for being able to self manage. It is doable but you need to be able to answer questions and deal with issues quickly. You also need to make sure you have a really reliable cleaning crew/boots on the ground team. Even as professional vacation rental managers, we experienced a lot of issues with so-called professional cleaning companies we hired and had to fire 2 companies this year. We make sure we had a backup on our team to save the day when the cleaning companies dropped the ball. If you don't mind being on call 24/7/365 and offering excellent customer service, you can self manage.
Real Estate Broker · Little Rock and Hot Springs Arkansas · Member since 2020 · 55 posts · 62 votes
5y
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
@Dustin Turner what systems are you using? Do you suggest any specific books or podcasts?
Hey @Nicholas Aja, The most important tools IMO are for pricing, cleaning and automated messaging. I'm using Smartbnb to automate much of the communication with the guests. PriceLabs provides dynamic pricing, which is critical to maximizing returns. And our cleaners are set up on Resort Cleaning, a nifty site designed for VR cleaning services. It's integrated with Airbnb and VRBO calendars, so their cleaning schedules are always synced with our turnovers. It all runs pretty seamlessly.
Rental Property Investor · Pikeville, KY · Member since 2020 · 1 post · 1 vote
5y
@Michael Elefante
We are actively looking to buy a short term rental in pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg area. Do you use Airbnb and VRBO to market your property? Property management companies currently are charging in excess of 30% right now and I really don’t wanna use one unless I have to. Any information you can give me will be great! Thanks
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2017 · 589 posts · 251 votes
5y
Just keep in mind when you turn it over to a property management company they can charge way more than long term rentals. This can really eat your cashflow. I know the successful short term operators are self managing and keep them all local. They end up making a killing that way. Not sure how COVID is affecting this at the moment though.
Real Estate Agent · Cypress, TX · Member since 2018 · 156 posts · 73 votes
5y
@Michael Elefante great feedback, thank you for sharing! Can you share some insight on why you picked the areas you did for purchase and what kind of research you did ahead of purchasing?