All Forum Posts by: Ariel Smith

@Jon D. Corporate rentals are a great niche to pursue in the right location. What you are looking for is not people coming for conferences, but people being sent to different locations on work assignments. This is true if you are looking to stick to the 30 day minimum stay and not do nightly rentals.

I'd say you can avoid daily cleaning as that is not expected or a necessary expense. 

You really want to tailor to the clientele in your market. For example, @Paul Sandhu's scenario caters perfectly to the type of traveling worker he is accommodating. Here in the Bay Area, people are looking to be close to downtowns, walkable to public transportation (here that would be caltrain and bart) and to have basic amenities such as fast wifi and a clean space.

@Tj Stirling it sounds like they didn't have a roof inspection done which is on them. I have all of my clients complete a full home, roof, and pest inspection every time. Either way, they are now the owners and if you didn't touch the roof then it's not really your work to stand by. I agree with the other posters in that it's now on the new owners.

@Juan Ayala Did your Realtor use a CAR contract or a local contract? I can't speak to your local contract, but with the CAR contract there are 3 contingencies automatically in place:

1) Property condition contingency

2) Loan contingency

3) Appraisal contingency

My question to you is: How long was your loan contingency period and how long was your close of escrow?

Whether or not you told her about the refinance is irrelevant in regards to you being covered by the loan contingency in the agreement which states: 

"LOAN CONTINGENCY: Buyer shall act diligently and in good faith to obtain the designated loan(s). Buyer's qualification for the loan(s) specified above is a contingency of this Agreement unless otherwise agreed in writing. If there is no appraisal contingency or the appraisal contingency has been waived or removed, then failure of the Property to appraise at the purchase price does not entitle Buyer to exercise the cancellation right pursuant to the loan contingency if Buyer is otherwise qualified for the specified loan. Buyer's contractual obligations regarding deposit, balance of down payment and closing costs are not contingencies of this Agreement."

So as long as you still have your loan contingency in place, if you do not qualify for the loan due to your LA property not appraising, you can back out and not lose your deposit. 

My guess is she is confusing the part about appraisal not being a reason to exercise the loan contingency. What that means is that if the property you are trying to purchase does not appraise and you have removed/waived your appraisal contingency and that is the reason you do not qualify for a loan, you CANNOT exercise your loan contingency. It has nothing to do with a different property's appraisal affecting your loan.

@Tim Schroeder In my experience, wear and tear is much higher in an Airbnb. Also you have to factor in included utilities (and a higher cost for them since guests will run A/C & heat the entire time they are there since they are not paying for it) as well as replacing furnishings, bedding, towels, soap, etc.

@Christian Nachtrieb it is really difficult to get an idea of the layout from your current photos. 450 sqft is not a lot of space, so in order for someone to see how they could configure that, I'd recommend adding in a floor plan drawing. It's easy to do on websites like smartdraw.com. You simply take measurements and add them into their generator and can create one. I think that will help potential renters imagine how they'd configure the space.

@Henry Pho I manage some that the owners have furnished themselves but I know other people who have furnished from Ikea, Ashley furniture, and even Cort. Cort can be great because they sell off their older furniture that they no longer rent, but in my opinion the aesthetic looks just like a hotel and that is not what I'm going for so I stay away from them. It's been successful for others I know here though.

@David Song I would suppose that SB 1069 covers all of CA and if a local ordinance doesn't say otherwise, then SB 1069 is the law. It's the same as how CA has its own rental laws, but cities and counties can enforce their own policies such as rent control.

@David Song we primarily use Airbnb here in the bay area. We set our minimum to 30 days so we automatically capture anyone looking for longer term stays. I also use CHBO, VRBO and a few others, but Airbnb brings most of my business. I previously worked for HomeSuite which is where I learned how lucrative the model can be. When I came to my current brokerage, I started to build out the furnished rental side of our property management business. 

Pricing depends on many factors and some properties just aren't a good fit for many reasons - the main ones usually being location, access to public transportation, and size. Happy to chat in more detail if you're ever interested! 

@David Song yes I manage some furnished rentals here in the Bay Area. Are any of yours furnished?

@David Song thanks for documenting this! Very cool to see this in the neighborhood. Is this your primary residence or a rental property you're building on?

@Ethan Cooke 

From my experience, the most desirable and consistently booked properties in San Francisco are studios, 1, or 2 bedroom units. The demographic of a corporate traveler is typically someone traveling alone and looking for their own place rather than a hotel. The family demographic you described is definitely another group to target as guests, but they are a smaller subset of the overall "corporate traveler" market. 

Most of the families I placed in my time doing furnished leasing were actually locals who were either in between buying and selling a home, or doing some remodeling on their property.

How much are you currently getting per month for that property on a 12mo. unfurnished lease? The thing about short term is you can usually command much higher rents, however, even just a few days of vacancy can wipe out your profits and I saw large SFHs sit vacant much more often than smaller apartments/condos.