All Forum Posts by: Avery Carl

@Brandi Scharrer as long as the regulations allow it, it’s not a bad idea. As long as the long term renters are aware that the second unit will be a short term rental, you shouldn’t have a problem.

What market? The very first thing you need to look at is what sort of STR regulation there is in your market.

@Brian Kehoe all of our rentals, both STR and LTR are self managed. What made me choose one over the other is that if I paid a PM even 10% of my gross income on my STR's, that's over $25k a year. That's a down payment on another property for a gig that is the equivalent of answering text messages. Occupancy rate will be determined by your market and the size of the property, but mine hit about 80% a year.
@Luke Carl can expand on that as he is the one who actually manages ours (on the side, with a day job). @Julie McCoy is also a pro at self management. 

@John Blackrock the city has cracked down on the spring break thing a lot in recent years. So it's pretty family friendly, and becoming more so.

Hey Gordon! One of the best places to invest in STR's is just down the road from you in Panama City Beach. It's a true vacation rental market and has been for decades (as are the other towns in the panhandle such as Destin, also a good spot to invest in STR's but more expensive), so the cities figured out how to tax/monetize the short term rentals decades ago. The benefit of investing in a true vacation rental market is that the city depends on tourism and the revenue from STR's, so you don't have to worry (as much) about future STR regulations as major metropolitan areas.

It's not as passive as LTR investing, but the cash-flow is undeniable. My STR's allowed me to scale my LTR portfolio much quicker than I would have been able to otherwise. Hope that helps!

Hi Grace! Sellers are not going to agree to give you any money or bookings for before closing. A lot can happen between contract and close, so I don't think that's a reasonable request.  

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think that once they sell the property, that their reviews on Airbnb/VRBO will still exist/be accessible for linking.

What I usually do is have the buyer go ahead and set up their Airbnb and VRBO profiles, and before closing, have the seller send a cancellation email to the future bookings with the link to re-book with your listings included.  That's the cleanest way to make the switch. That way, the deposits are refunded back to the booking platform and then the guests re-book with you with new deposits. The transferring of deposits etc from seller to buyer in a real estate transaction can get VERY messy.  So I recommend avoiding it if you can.  However, all markets are different! That's just my experience. Good luck with it!

Agreed, guests can be needy and things will break. I had a property get bedbugs last year myself. Definitely not an enjoyable experience, but a hazard of STR investing.

My perspective is this: at the end of the day, has my dinner or vacation been interrupted by my STR's? Yes. But has my STR income allowed me to grow my LTR portfolio by 11 doors in the past year? Also yes.

Hey Aaron! Where is the property located? We can all give some better insight with that piece of info!

You will find MANY STR owners who manage their properties remotely on this forum! It requires a little work, but is ultimately very easy. @Julie McCoy has one in CA that she manages from TN (and 3 in TN that she managed from Los Angeles for a few years).

Hot Tubs Etc is my go-to!