All Forum Posts by: Alex S.

I tell my cleaning crew to keep anything they find. They recently scored a massive economy pack of frozen fruit in the freezer. She said the kids have had fruit smoothies every day for a week in this 95 degree heat. Put THAT in your ROI calculator!

In 1970 George Akerlof wrote a paper about "Information Asymmetry."  He argued that sellers of used cars have an information advantage over consumers, because they know more about the condition of the vehicle.  So, they have a lot of power to set the price higher than the vehicles real value.  George won a Nobel Prize in 2001 for this work and lots of folks started applying that concept to other businesses.  Give the consumer access to all of the information and you'll have all the consumers.  So, exactly what @Will Gaston said.

Rich Barton applied that concept when he built Zillow.  His end goal is to move house buying completely online and make it more reflective of the e-commerce environment we know and love.

Regulation represents the biggest obstacle in the path of modernization of the real estate industry.  We'll get there though and I'm glad to be along for the ride!

I looked in the Angel Fire market a bit last year after spending some time skiing there and staying in a friend's cabin.  I think it is too saturated.

There are TONS of STRs and occupancy is fairly low as a result.  AirDNA gives that market a fairly low demand score...in the 40's if I recall.

That said, it is a beautiful place with definite STR demand. Just know that you will need to be the best STR to compete and win the business.

whoa whoa whoa...so your HOA allows you to personally rent out your place as an LTR, but not as a STR? Or do they require professional management for both?

HOAs are truly the worst.

Someone on the planning commission can tell you the rules.  I have tried to dig up the actual city code and read it, but it was a lost cause.  Too much bureaucracy and legal speak to be sure.  Now I always call them.  Also, I would advise against emailing them.

One day I emailed 4 different municipalities about the legality of STRs/AirBnB in their district.  All four said "no."  I called and explained it to them (and I was friendly!)...2 of them said I was actually good to go.

1 more thing...if the property is outside of the city limits, I'd still call the county. It is less common, but some counties even have STR restrictions.

I would like to retract my previous post.

The Magnolia Network is doing a show called (re)MOTEL where people buy old shoddy motels and turn them into STR-esque fancy places with fine decor and design. https://magnolia.com/watch/sho...

@Account Closed you might be on to something!

If you get a 20% down loan, you are in the $1.5MM range.  Depending what market you are searching...it'll be tight to get something really nice in NorCal, but totally possible!  I'd get 1 property if I could, but the biggest priority is the quality of the deal.

I am trying to organize financing on a small boutique hotel/cabins in a Montana tourist area.  The price is $4.5MM.

The seller is open to financing a limited portion of it...maybe 10-20%.

The two options I'm looking at:

1. SBA 504 loan - 90% LTC, 25-yr term, low rates

2. Commercial bank loan - 75-80% LTC, variable term, market rates

My question:  Can I combine seller financing with bank/SBA financing?  Is that a method to doing a $0 down deal?

I have other properties that could be collateral, but I'm trying to limit the cash outlay to use my cash updating the property.

I tried to do this once on a regular SFH investment property once and the credit union I was using shot it down immediately as being in violation of Fannie/Freddie rules...same for commercial?

@John Underwood hahahaha

It depends.