All Forum Posts by: Blair Russell

@Brian T. Grooms I also have LLCs and I agree there is a lot of extra hassle so @Luke Carl really do your research and make sure it's what you want to do.  Umbrella Policies are an option for some people but they run into their own troubles...so basically nothing is perfect. The lending thing is a major hurdle though.

@Erica Muller I agree with you on most of that, becasue Vegas is very particular, things change by the block. But unlike Orlando (based on 4 years of evidence) people actually will not have planned their Vegas vacations yet for 2017 so most homes will show low bookings right now.  Bookings will surge starting at the end of January - March and then continue to grow throughout the year.  @Matt Smith You really want to talk to someone who is both a Vegas local and who invests there because it is very specific and sometimes surprising the properties that are successful. 

@Christopher Griffith I really like the idea, it seems like it would work much better for my purposes. 

@Mike Hurney What would have been helpful? 

@Christopher Greci If you do go the route of short term, I can give advice since I am an out of state (and normally out of country) investor and do it year round. @Mike Hurney  I'm sure I don't know what you mean? As in could I look it up or call the McDonald's franchise in question? I suppose, but that wasn't really the point.  Could I drive over there? No, because I'm about as far away on the globe as you can get right now and even if I was home, my base (as you can see) is Las Vegas.  I was going off of what I saw during my last property inspection visit. But thanks for the input. 

@Christopher Greci I agree with @Ann Bellamy. You're in The Batch Yard I take it? I would hold on to that if you can. Although normally cash-flow is king, Boston might be one of those rare exceptions, right now. With all the changes to happen along Broadway (McDonalds was just demolished to be replaced with a brand new one I think) I wont be surprised to see the prices continue to rise. I converted a SFH for our use into a STR in Charlestown and have had great success, is that an option? What about Corporate rentals? If not then what are your options for raising rent soon?

@Account Closed  And it works that way all over the world, people will pay £1.3 million for something half that size and twice as old in London, Location. Location. Location. Study Vegas well because it's one of those weird places that can change block to block, but you can make your money go a long way depending on where and how you want to invest. 

@Jay Hinrichs I don't know about Kansas City or Memphis, but not all "hoods" are a bad place to invest just saying...

@Bill Higgins I'm right there with you, been looking at doing this too. I don't want to use one of these companies, because I still want to ultimately make the decision and have control of the reservation process, but I'm running into timing and just the quantity of work issues. 

Have you completely written off an offshore VA? One reason why I am still considering it is that I have most things written up in templates and often so many of my bookings are instant books so I don't even really need to have much interaction with the guests. I figure I can still direct calls to myself (since people don't call often) and if absolutely necessary it can go on to the VA. I think we would be surprised at the quality of English language skills. The giant customer service centers we have to deal with are probably not the best sample. Any mistakes could be chalked up to typing error, plus you could always have them check with you if there is a clarity question. Not to mention having someone on a different time zone could help catch those middle of the night inquiries, that I miss sometimes.

My biggest concern is the same as yours, subjective situations. Sometimes I bend rules or make changes depending on the guest, which obviously a VA won't know exactly how you would respond but I guess that's all part of the delegating and releasing control which you have to do when growing a business.

Right now my housekeepers are  on call for guests at arrival and during their stays and I have almost never heard of my guests having a problem with them, in fact they work a lot harder than I imagine and will tell me (normally when I see them in person) all the crazy request and situations they have had with guests that I never hear about. Judging from my reviews they handle it well. One of them is also not a native English speaker but that hasn't seemed to be a problem. 

@ONeil Turner There are some services that do comps on STRs (airdna maybe, or mashvisor?), but it's kind of a difficult thing to measure at this point. The best you can do is see what the people in that area are charging per night, and see what their occupancy looks like. Just keep in mind, people don't always charge the headline rate as there are normally discounts on longer stays, etc. Also that just because a calendar is full doesn't mean a guest has stayed there, they could just be blocking off dates. If you have the time look at the number of reviews they have over a period. Once you've generated an idea (keep in mind slow season if your location has one) then you can judge based on that.