Hello - this is our first purchase. We are considering a short term rental 4 hours away from us and would self manage so we have not looked for property manager. The thought of buying the furniture and outfitting while at the same time getting best prices seems daunting. Even if I spent a week there working on it, I don't see how I could do it without making a lot of mistakes and overspending.
Do property managers ever do this even if you are not hiring them to manage the property?
Hey @Eleanor Fitzsimmons, 4 hours isn't that far away. We are about 7 hours from ours and we did it all ourselves. How big is the place?
I would start scouring Craiglist, OfferUP and LetGO as well as Facebook marketplace for what you need. Are you started completely from scratch?
I would concentrate on picking a style that fits the place. Mountain cabin, seashore place, high desert etc. Look on Pintrest, Instagram etc, for inspiration. Focus on finding USA made furniture. It will last longer for sure. You can find some really great stuff for pennies on the dollar used.
For mattresses, get the Zinus 12" Green Tea mattresses. They are great and not very expensive. New only. Make sure you a nice waterproof cover. Costco has the Serta for a good price and it is what we use.
For towels, I would get the Grandeur Hospitality from Costco. They are white, wash up great and last. We are on our third year with ours. They go on sale pretty regularly.
For sheets, 70/30 Cotton/Poly blend in a percale weave. White also. They hold up better than a sateen weave. They are crisp and sleep cool. Also, the Charisma brand of comforters at Costco are great for summer quilts. They are awesome. They wash up nice and hang perfect on the bed.
Really concentrate on the kitchen. Make it a place that you would like to work in. Ours is loaded with pretty much everything you could possibly need. 40+ spices, turkey roasting pan, platters, lots of bowls etc. People need a good place to cook.
Don't forget games for the downtime. I suggest TV's with Roku built in. Easy to use and you can stream pretty much anything.
Plan on spending a full weekend at your STR to furnish it. Go there Friday with a truck and trailer. Go to estate auctions and look at Craigslist and Facebook. I furnished my 23 STRs from estate auctions. What I don't buy at auction, I but at WalMart.
But my tenants are different than yours. They are refinery contractors. Big burly guys that chew tobacco in their sleep and have neck tats.
@Eleanor Fitzsimmons a PM isn't going to do this even if you do hire them. That's beyond their scope and would cost you extra if they were even interested.
Buy everything on wayfair.com and use thumbtack.com and takl.com to find people to bring the deliveries in, put them together, and set things up. In this process you may find some folks that you'll want to save their info to use them again in the future.
Hey @Eleanor Fitzsimmons, 4 hours isn't that far away. We are about 7 hours from ours and we did it all ourselves. How big is the place?
I would start scouring Craiglist, OfferUP and LetGO as well as Facebook marketplace for what you need. Are you started completely from scratch?
I would concentrate on picking a style that fits the place. Mountain cabin, seashore place, high desert etc. Look on Pintrest, Instagram etc, for inspiration. Focus on finding USA made furniture. It will last longer for sure. You can find some really great stuff for pennies on the dollar used.
For mattresses, get the Zinus 12" Green Tea mattresses. They are great and not very expensive. New only. Make sure you a nice waterproof cover. Costco has the Serta for a good price and it is what we use.
For towels, I would get the Grandeur Hospitality from Costco. They are white, wash up great and last. We are on our third year with ours. They go on sale pretty regularly.
For sheets, 70/30 Cotton/Poly blend in a percale weave. White also. They hold up better than a sateen weave. They are crisp and sleep cool. Also, the Charisma brand of comforters at Costco are great for summer quilts. They are awesome. They wash up nice and hang perfect on the bed.
Really concentrate on the kitchen. Make it a place that you would like to work in. Ours is loaded with pretty much everything you could possibly need. 40+ spices, turkey roasting pan, platters, lots of bowls etc. People need a good place to cook.
Don't forget games for the downtime. I suggest TV's with Roku built in. Easy to use and you can stream pretty much anything.
I’m going to agree with Lucas - buy from Wayfair for most stuff. Make sure to setup a professional account as you get better deals AND an account person that is assigned to you for help. They’ll ship to t to your place but they may need help unloading the flatbed if no lift is available.
Also, I’ve purchased near all of my kitchen and bath items from webstaurant.com. I paid $1.25 Each for 80 wine glasses for my units in Myrtle Beach.
I've found 4-5 bigger gas or charcoal grills sitting by the side of the road in the last few years. They all needed a couple of quick spot welds in places and half a can of gloss black spray paint, and they looked and performed like new.
Hello - this is our first purchase. We are considering a short term rental 4 hours away from us and would self manage so we have not looked for property manager. The thought of buying the furniture and outfitting while at the same time getting best prices seems daunting. Even if I spent a week there working on it, I don't see how I could do it without making a lot of mistakes and overspending.
Do property managers ever do this even if you are not hiring them to manage the property?
Thank you!
You can inexpensively outsource all of this. I have an amazing interior designer in the Middle East for $10/hr.
My handyman or cleaners take pics, videos & measurements of my rooms. Then i email those to my designer who puts together mockups & 3D renderings for me, complete with links to Benjamin moore paint colors, links to the products on Wayfair, etc. I hit the add to cart button & ship everything to my handyman or cleaners.
I send my handyman and/or cleaners images of the renderings & tell them “I ordered you a bunch of stuff - make the room look like this please & send me some updated pics when its complete”
The nice thing about this too is the large margin for error when the prices are this low. I can have my designer mock up 3 or 4 designs for a room just to see what I like best & it hardly costs me anything. Very tough to get 3 or 4 designs per room if you’re paying a local designer $50-$100/hr.
This is how I get around my lack of design skills without overpaying. Play chess not checkers
You can inexpensively outsource all of this. I have an amazing interior designer in the Middle East for $10/hr. This is how I get around my lack of design skills without overpaying. Play chess not checkers
I just decorate my STRs like Hugh Hefner would decorate his own place. Pretty easy. My clientele likes that kind of deco. They don't care about kittens, ponies or waterfalls. T's and A's, nothing else (there's a few exceptions).
Hey @Reagen Natho! So I am using the Big One from Kohls. It is a 70/30 blend in a percale weave. We are going on our 3rd year and they still look great! They are very affordable when they are on sale. I usually get them for about 12 bucks for a set either queen or king.
Now, you will want to buy extra pillowcases. They take the most abuse. I have been buying commercial pillowcases from a seller on eBay. They are a commercial hotel linen providers, GeorgiaTowels. They are nice because they break up the standard order size.
Most of the time when you order from a hotel linen provider, you have to buy in large quantity. Usually something like 144 pillowcases or 48 fitted sheets. Well that is a ton of sheets for me with one home. If you have several homes, it can make sense to order and split it all up.
Just be sure you get percale weave and not sateen. Sateen will pill up pretty fast in my experience.
That's fantastic. Great idea. We are about to close on our first STR. Would you be willing to share the name of the person you used for the interior design? Also, did you source them through Upwork or another site? Thanks.