All Forum Posts by: Ashley W.

Hi everyone, I am new to investing. I have been a teacher of Family and Consumer Sciences to teenagers for the past 13 years. My husband talked to me forever about real estate investing and I was too stubborn to get in on it when we should have. But I've seen the light and have now jumped in with both feet. Long story short, we have two STRs that I will be officially posting this week. We are planning to self manage and I am going to be the "boots on the ground" for cleaning (due to a limited number of cleaners willing to do what I want for a vacation rental). We also have a 4 year old at home and are waiting to match for adopting a second child. As a teacher, I'm feeling burnt out and lacking the time to care for my family who has higher needs than typical. I am realizing that I cannot do it all. Therefore, I am either leaving teaching this year (17 more days) or next school year. What I'm struggling with is how I can find a way to replace my current salary of 60k. We accounted for the savings on hiring cleaners as well as the tax benefit of me being a real estate professional, but we would still like more so that we can continue scaling. The hope is to buy a third property this fall. I considered offering cleaning/hospitality services to other people in the area and creating a mini business with that, but I'm open to creative ideas to gain a flexible schedule with two young kids, aging parents and a business. What do other people do? Is there anything that you wish you had and I could offer to you or people in my area? Is there advice you have for me regarding any aspect of our situation? 

Hi, I am starting out in this venture and have two STRs that I'm hoping to officially post this week. As I'm starting up, I would like to make business cards and grow into a website and such. I have not done any of that yet but started looking at creating a logo for the business. I'm not sure where to start and am nervous I might run into issues of copyright or something I'm not aware of. How should I go about getting my branding set up so that I can market through a website and then through social media, etc? Do I need to spend money on this or can I keep it simple. I don't mind creating things myself. Just nervous and would love any feedback you might have for me. 

@Marcus Auerbach thank you. It is definitely a Wisconsin bar. Would you keep up the Wisconsin badger pendant lights. It's hard to see in the pics but they are glass and pretty cool in my mind, just old. 

So far our non-investing, fellow Wisconsinites are voting to keep the bar, but update it and then create a game room. Some of you mentioned everyone staying upstairs, but this is actually a walk-out basement which where you would enter the indoor hot tub room and exit to the outdoor pool. The door in the first picture is the tub/pool exit. The basement is likely where most will be traveling if the pool will be in use. 

Hi everyone, just purchased an STR home in Wisconsin that has the quintessential Wisconsin basement bar already in it. We are updating the whole house, especially flooring, but were wondering what to do about the bar. It is currently a full bar with mini fridge and full sink. My thoughts were to take out the L shape part of it and fix up the built in section on the back wall. Thus creating more space in the room and still including full bar amenities. My husband thinks we leave the whole thing and make it look nicer. We would not provide alcohol and we are marketing more to families as there is a pool and it's close to sport fields used heavily year round from all over. I can see both ways and would set it up family oriented with popcorn and such for a movie space regardless. What would you do? Leave the L or remove it? Ps. I would post pictures of it but cannot find how to do that.

@Joseph Sauer thank you. We are excited and nervous to be starting this business. Fingers crossed this first year goes well. 

Hi everyone, 

looking at hiring a cleaning crew for our STRs. We are brand new to the game and will have two STRs up and running in May. After getting some quotes and seeing the services provided I feel that I could do the job myself therefore saving that money. I'm concerned that staging is not included in the services which I understand but who puts the extra touches like placing pillows where they go and such. If I do that I might as well clean. Perhaps I am over thinking this but thought I would reach out to see if any of you have advice either way? What do you do or would you do? TIA

@Tyler Divin interesting. Thank you for sharing.

I also have heard recently about a website called VACASA. I have not looked into it much, but had a friend reach out to me to say that he and his family will only book through that website for their vacations. 

@John Underwood, We plan on hiring the chemical part of it, but we want the water drained and the tub cleaned then refilled for the hot tub between each guest. That's the part we are discussing with a cleaner and unsure what that could look like. What are your thoughts on that aspect.