All Forum Posts by: Alex S.

Spoiler alert:  No one knows.

With that in mind, would you go bankrupt if 2022 gave you $80k/yr again?  If so, I wouldn't do it.

As for opinions, I've got one too! :)  COVID accelerated a trend that was already growing.  STRs are so much better than hotels for vacationing.  They give people the feeling of being a part of the community in a way that hotels never could.  It isn't just millennials; I get more and more boomers staying at my STRs.  I can't predict what the economy will do, but I don't see any scenario where STRs are a fad that will fade away into nothing.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Texas.  Hurricanes are a thing, but that is why you have insurance.  Make every fear you have into a number and add it into your gonkulator of what makes something a "good" deal.  Florida has hurricanes, Smokey Mountains have bears, and Branson has Dolly Parton...all risks that can be accounted for by putting a dollar value on them.

@Malik Brown With no property and no money, you should probably work towards buying a duplex/4-plex and planning on living in one of the units while renting out the others. You can get an FHA loan with as little as 3.5% down.

If you can't save 3.5%, then you don't care enough about reaching the goal.  I used to drive around a 93 Honda accord delivering pizza on Fri/Sat nights to add another $200/week.  At that rate, you could be moving into your duplex in less than 6 months with the person on the other side of the wall paying your mortgage.

Time to start reading and studying...books/podcasts/etc.  It'll be worth it!

@Nicholas Connell I'm no pro on the Montana market.  I only have STRs in the midwest and just sold in Northern California.  However, I have been analyzing opportunities there for my next leap.  The growth potential seems astronomical to me.  Bozeman real estate is the most absurd price climb I've ever seen.  It is a stunning location, but insufficient infrastructure and supply to meet the massive demand of Seattle, Portland, SF Bay Area, and LA.

I think there are 1.1M people in all of Montana.  A MASSIVE beautiful state with tons of potential.  I see it as the future growth zone.

@Joe Splitrock knocked it outta the park!

There is so much complexity when it comes to returns. CoC is a pretty good metric, but it still requires an understanding of what you are actually calculating.

@Jordan M. My only add to this discussion is that your returns (however you calculate them) should significantly exceed long-term rental returns. A well-executed STR investment won't take much management effort, but it is more work than LTR and you should be compensated for that.

I've been exceeding 30% CoC for all my STRs in Northern California and the Midwest thus far.

@Jason Wolohan my first thought after reading your post was..."he's ready. time to get off the sidelines and execute!"  Much like @Joshua Strickland said.

You are gonna mess things up; it is inevitable. On my first STR, I ripped out a perfectly functional shower for a unit that makes $99/night and tried to tile it. Long story short, it cost thousands to fix and looks worse now than it did when I started. It would have been a perfect BRRRR (no cash left in the deal), but I ended up with $10K left in it...it nets $10K/yr.

In other words, just go for it.  Your mistakes in the beginning will cost you money, but not as much money as waiting another 6 months to get started.

@William Beck  Thanks for the insight.  You bring a great perspective to the conversation!

Making $50K (minus closing/taxes) to lose $20K/yr seems like a bad move to me.

Furnishedfinder.com is an option for winter stays.  Traveling professionals (often healthcare workers) will look for 3 month stays.  You won't make as much as AirBnB in the summer, but could pay the bills until the high season.

AirDNA is okay, but you could do the research yourself by digging into AirBnB and looking at your competition.  What do they charge?  Min number of nights?  Alltherooms.com or Rabbu.com also have some of the same AirDNA data.

As far as waiting until March to buy...it depends.

What if you bought a place that needed some remodeling and got a good deal on it?  You could use the winter to get upgrades done and be ready to knock the competition out of the park when Spring rolls around.

Yes sir, Pocatello/Twin Falls.  I think Bozeman might rank higher on the "scenic beauty" scale, but the price growth is so astronomical, that those other markets should get some attention soon.

I'm jealous of that fishing trip.  Montana is rising quickly as an incredible vacation spot.