All Forum Posts by: Brian Barch

 Agree with this statement. We cover 90-110% of the mortgage in Jan/feb. More in the busy season

I admittedly have a bias against condos for the following reasons:

1) HOAs - both a lack of control over fees and assessments, as well as potential regulation changes

2) they don’t appreciate as much

3) you have to work a lot harder to differentiate yourself from your neighbors. 

If you own a home, you avoid the HOA fees, and you can differentiate on the property, seclusion, etc as opposed to having price wars with neighbors and needing the best interior in the building.

None of that is to say you can’t make money with a condo

I would use as many free services as possible.

awning excludes cleaning fees, airdna does not.

more importantly you need to look at the comps in awning to make sure they are equivalent to your property.

I don't know everything, but i DO know that cleaning fees are included in the Airdna revenue figure.

1. research markets that make sense for you (location, seasonality, price point, vacation destinations, etc.)

2. research regulations in those markets

3. start to analyze deals via tools like: Airdna (includes cleaning fees), awning.com (excludes cleaning fees), enemy method.  Understand what type of cashflow is possible given your budget

4. partner with an STR realtor in those markets. Depending on market, you can find them in this forum, or the search function.

5. Make an offer, 10% down. Ideally you find one turn key (furnished), if not you'll need to furnish. Hire an STR photog (you can find them on Airbnb if you want), build your listings on Airbnb and VRBO, and find a cleaner that specialize in STRs (local STR facebook groups are best for this. You could also use an app like turnoverbnb, however I found this to be expensive)

6. Start taking bookings!

I wouldn’t make sweeping judgements about a bad exception. I’ve stayed at many amazing properties.

AirBnb in Dec switched in an “all in” model with nightly rates, that problem has been fixed.

But it’s not the Wild West anymore. It’s not a hotel alternative as much as it gives families the ability to stay in a bigger space, or for people to experience amazing views. When I got married 13 years ago, all we had was a pricy Bed and breakfast to stay at…literally one choice. If I can avoid shoving my family of 5 in a hotel, I always will.

Operators are starting to get wise on diversifying OTAs since AirBnb changed their algorithm. There is going to be a huge rise Direct booking, which benefits both guests and hosts. Just look at Houfy (terrible name BTW). You can literally input your Airbnb listing and it will build a direct booking site for you in minutes. Guests save on fees. When we just booked in Hilton head, we used Houfy to find a space to bypass AirBnb fees. Many hosts leave business cards in their place that essentially say “if you liked your stay and want to save 15% next time, book here….” This is going to be airbnbs biggest challenge, not hotels.

I can weigh in here. I’m in the Atlanta metro and my wife works as an actress in the film industry. She’s actually shooting Megalopolis with Shi Lebeouf as we speak (no, my wife’s not famous!). 
I can  tell you the industry is real here, and it’s not going anywhere. Most of the filming is done in marginal areas (cheap land) on the outskirts of the city (conyers, Covington, Fayetteville, doralville, college park). So they aren’t the most desireable cities. 
that said, every shoot my wife is amazed at how far some of the background actors travel from. People come from neighboring states to make $15/hr all the time. I would look near Trillith studios in Fayetteville, as it’s out in the boonies, nicer, and might lack competition 

keep in mind your target market makes $15/hr when looking at price points

Emerald coast is great as well.

But if I can make a suggestion. I would only buy a personal vacation/STR property if it was within driving distance such that you could use it for the weekend many times a year.
if it involved flying, I would simply buy an STR for investment purposes and then vacation wherever we wanted. Here’s why:

if you can only go once/twice a year, I think you are going to spend 50% of that time working on the place. Cleaning, restocking, rebuying broken furniture, hanging up new art, meeting with a general contractor, etc. your kids will be expecting the beach, and yet you will be hanging up wall art.