All Forum Posts by: Bruce C.

I was a bit optimistic on mine as well.  I thought we’d be renting by the end off December 😃

My March bookings for the new house have taken a plunge with the virus concern. The first house was mostly booked, and no one has backed out yet. We are up ~50% On our prices from last March and mostly booked. Was expecting growth, but I’ve been sitting around since last year paranoid it wouldn’t actually happen. 

I will say I’ve noticed a big difference in the interest in the 2 properties. The 2bdrm we’ve had for a year is 99% AirBnB, and most bookings are made less than 4 weeks out (8 ppl max). The new 4bdrm (18 ppl max) actually already has a VrBO booking this summer, and we were getting bookings for April before the virus (one has now cancelled since the Ironman race was cancelled).

All that to say, the more beds and rooms you can build out and not feel like a sardine can, go for it. At 8 ppl Occupancy, your one of hundreds (over a thousand?). If you can get to 16+ ppl, you’re one of about 40-50 in our area of Galveston. 

Most of the guests going to Galveston are from the greater Houston area. Except for a few weekends, if you want to “socially distance” yourself on our beaches (6’ or 10’) it’s not that tough. I don’t think we’ll lose many bookings, and if we ended up with a 2 or 3 week self quarantine, I’d think we’d still get guests that want to quarantine near the beach. We’ll see. 

I thought I had this thread followed but somehow missed the floor pictures a few weeks ago. Those look great!  And congrats on getting your permit. What does your timetable (That you’ll laugh at in hindsight in a year) look like now?

You payed $27k in closing costs on an $89k purchase?

We own a small 2bdrm that has been up and running 13 months and a large 4 bdrm that has been up and running... 9 days :). Both on Galveston. We weRe pushing to get #2 going for spring break. 

The 2bdrm has been booked most of the first 2 weeks and has just a couple gaps to fill in the last 2 weeks. Our prices year over year are up, and even without filling those gaps we are already ahead of last year. 

The 4 bdrm is doing ok for just getting going, but we did have a corona virus cancelation. Our very first confirmed booking was for a 25 person church group for 2 days at $330 a night (plus taxes and cleaning). The stay was booked 2 weeks ago for this coming weekend, and they canceled this past weekend. They canceled and got all their money back as I have Moderate selected on AirBnB. 

A few hours after the cancelation, the house rebooked the weekend plus 2 additional weeknights this week at $180 a night (plus fees & cleaning).  So more money in the end, and I was honestly nervous about 25 people and am happier with this group of 6. 

I will say I was hoping to fill the 4 bdrm faster (second main week of spring break is currently not booked, I’m nervous as hell) but I believe that has more to do with just getting the listings up and running with pictures late February and only having a handful of reviews (given by friends and family that came and checked the place out in January/early Feb). 

If you're concerned about that review being at the top going in to the busy season, have some friends and family rent your place at special rates (I think $20 is the min) and have them leave reviews to bump that bad one down the list.  

 I haven’t heard of this. Who requires it?

Allure ultra from Home Depot is 2.79ish /sqft and has a 20 mil wear layer, which is commercial grade. I think you can get a discount if you buy at least $1500 worth. Click lock and easy to install. Just put some in an STR I'm trying to get up and running

@Timothy Church how do you go about taking a HM loan out for a down payment.  Didn’t the banks ask, or did you hold it for 2-3 months?  Also, what HM lender do you use?  The 2 I’ve talked 2 only lend to purchase the property plus rehab   

Ive got to sit down and go over the D part of my DTI with my ReFi lender tomorrow. Either they're double counting something or I completely missed something - they need me to show $1100/m more. At this point, I may end up finding a long term tenant just so I can get that income and just put off the AirBnB thing off.

@Timothy Church - do you know any decent lenders for refinancing and AirBnB around here? The company we used last time is having trouble finding a lender because they don't want to include the our AirBnB income on our other house (and of course won't consider likely STR income from new property). They'd be fine with a rental agreement, but we're not doing that with this house, so our DTI is rough.