All Forum Posts by: Allen Duan

There are some good answers here. She doesn't need her own email account per say. Her daughter can help her with that and send it to you. I'm not sure if Rentredi requires a separate account for her to esign the lease, but I would be comfortable if the daughter helped her sign electronically as well.

Hi Vanessa, this is all about market research. Just like any other business, you need to get an idea of what the marketplace/tenants will pay for and what they want to buy. But it's always going to be a prediction until you actually start offering your product and see who will buy and for how much.

The best way I've found to predict MTR performance is to look at comps. You'll get an idea of pricing, demand/occupancy, amenities and property set up.

Hi Summer! I don't think this is a problem specific to property managers. It's a problem for a badly run business. I own a MTR property management company and we do our best to respond quickly to our clients. It's a matter of priority, as well as building the systems and team necessary. As Jonathan said, if they don't cut it, they don't get your business.

I assume you're asking in context of instant book on Airbnb right?

You're totally correct. A 5 week window would kill your bookability since you'll be limited to only 1 months bookings for a very specific window of dates. Unless you're market has an overwhelming demand for 1 months stays, you'll struggle. Essentially your effort to avoid vacant gaps will create the very thing you're trying to avoid. 

Here's what we do. We have our Airbnb calendar open for 9 months out (12 would work too). And we use pricing to solve the vacant gaps problem. If someone books and creates a 2 week vacant gap, their price has a premium that compensates for that gap. This way, our listing will come up for searches for any date range we have available. And the price for every specific date range will vary depending on how it affects our calendar.

A pricing principle for MTR and STR: every booking reduces the value of the dates before and after the booking. As long as the booking value is greater than that reduction, it's a good booking.

The Schlage Encode is the gold standard for smartlocks, due to it's high built quality and software compatibility to integrate with many different apps. The second is essential if you want to set up automation to create custom codes for each guest. August locks are good if you need/want to use th existing deadbolt.

We've never worried about changing mailbox keys. I don't think the effort is worth the risk reduction.

When we were focused on rental arbitrage we had our system down to furnishing a property in 2-3 days once all items have been delivered . IKEA and Amazon in stock items will get you items delivered the quickest. Then get a few people to unpack and put everything together in a few days. I know delivery times will be longer if the property is more remote. 

Hi Zacharia! It just comes down to the market and where the demand is. If the total income is similar, I'd always prefer renting the whole home because it's a lot more work dealing with separate rooms and tenants. That single bathroom will be a hard sell for room rentals too. 

At the end of the day, rely on the numbers. What's the demand and market rate for rooms in your area vs the whole home? That should give you clarity on what will serve your goals best =)

Hi Farid! 

I manage STRs and MTRs here in SoCal. We don't have one in Anaheim right now, but my rough estimate for your property's MTR rate is $5000-7000 a month. MTR occupancy rate here is 75-80%. For most 3 bedroom homes, you'll earn more as a MTR than LTR, assuming you're doing the right marketing and getting bookings.

Let me know if I can help in any way =)

Hey Nate!

I'm in Los Angeles so I'm speaking from my experience in this market, which may or may not apply elsewhere.

I find that the smaller the MTR unit, the more demand there is for it, but the profit margins are smaller. Larger homes, up to 4 bedrooms, have relatively less demand, but much better margins.

If the LTR rate for the tiny home is $1100, you're better off doing that. MTR occupancy rate will be lower than LTR, and you have some additional expenses for utilities and supplies.