All Forum Posts by: Bruce C.

At 70k each you’ve got 70 months paying them off 1k extra. 

If instead you put 3k towards one, you’ll be finish house 1 in 23.3 months, house 2 in 20 months (rolling $500 from house 1 mortgage), and house 3 in 17.5 months (rolling 1k from 1 and 2).

So 60.8 months as opposed to 70.  Most of a year, or 14% less time. That’s not insignificant. It also gets faster if you decide you need less insurance coverage. 

If you have the time for it, use all 3 and keep finding more beyond that.  Eventually after you’ve worked with them enough, some will randomly call you and say “I have a deal that looks perfect for you that’s not listed”. I’m only on rental 3, but that’s how I got #2. Same realtor I used for my primary and #1 called me with a foreclosure his contact at the bank had. House wasn’t even listed yet and we locked it up before it had the chance to be. 

@Aaron K. and @Mikki Sylvester 

I should have mentioned this is a short term rental near the beach.  Sorry.  So I was looking for something a little more eye catching and warm if possible.  

This seems like the better place to post this question than my thread in the investor deal diaries.  I wanted to try painting the dining room with some orange in it. I don't know if I should do just 1 accent wall, two tone (maybe white on the bottom?), stripes, or some other combination.

Below is the LVT we're going to use. It is the aegean travertine allure ultra from HD. I'm not sure Orange even goes with it. Speak up if you have any suggestions.

First picture is of the dining room as is. The louvres on the left side will be turned in to a door with window leading to a covered deck outside. Ceiling tiles are being covered by sheetrock and will be textured.

Don't know if this is the best place to ask for paint color advice, but i'll start here.  I wanted to try painting the dining room with some orange in it.  I don't know if I should do just 1 accent wall, two tone (maybe white on the bottom?), stripes, or some other combination.  

Below is the LVT we're going to use.  It is the aegean travertine allure ultra from HD.  I'm not sure Orange even goes with it.  Speak up if you have any suggestions.

First picture is of the dining room as is.  The louvres on the left side will be turned in to a door with window leading to a covered deck outside.  Ceiling tiles are being covered by sheetrock and will be textured.  

floor.  Sorry for the large image

Hi Jay - does that mean the only way to get the heloc is if you own the property free and clear first?

All that work and all I have to show is one room painted - and it’s just the walls. Still have to get to the ceiling and trim. I started the flood openings last night and will finish them up tonight. Also cut up and removed the old carpet on one room. It’s still ugly, so no pictures yet. 

The Ac worked great while we were there. Contractors are there texturing walls and putting up new ceiling Sheetrock. The contractors doing the bathroom and deck may be able to start this Thursday.

I got busy and never updated. We closed 9/28. 

Insurance numbers ended up being terrible. I’m going to install some openings on ground level, but right now I’m looking at 6600 a year through Wright. 

5 ton AC install mostly finished up. They are doing a system check today. That’s going to end up at 11k, had 12.5k budgeted.

Been running through contractors and GCs for quotes. Had a GC quote me $68k...geez.  I don’t think he wanted the work.

I’ve found a couple contractors I’m going to use. First set will put up new drywall on ceilings and get the walls textured in the half of the house that had wallpaper. That’s gong to run me about 3700.  

Other set will install and plumb new bathroom, covered deck, and new electric water heater. That’s going to run me about $14k. 

To save some money, I’m going to paint and install the kitchen lowers myself before having someone come in to do the countertops. My ceiling and wall prep number was underestimated going in to this, so this is where I’m making that back up. That’ll keep me close to original budget without using contingency.

If there are no major surprises, I should end up at $30k for repairs, with 5k left for “planned” contingency, and another 10k for unplanned. 

I’ll put up some pictures of the progress Sunday. 

@John Underwood

Just checking current listings in AirBnB doesn't give useful data for past performance. 1) you don't get to see the occupancy for more than about a week in the past, and 2) you don't get any data about how much those need houses charged to book. The only useful data it gives is what price your competition has set right now, and how far in advance they get booked. If you are in an area with hundreds or thousands of listings, it is also impossible to compile the data for houses listed on multiple sites. For example, if you tried to just look at VRBO for STR, you'd think I was losing a lot of money. You'd need to cross reference AirBnB. Good luck doing that with 1000 houses.

I used AirDNA for my first STR. It was fairly close, if not a little conservative. It was closer than AirBnBs estimate. I pulled my expected numbers for my second STR also. I won't know how close they are for another 12-16 months

Got another scam today, and as often as I see coworkers successfully phished, I though I’d post. 

I’ll start by stating I’m very skeptical when I get emails at work, to the point where I will walk down the hall and ask if the email doesn’t contain something “personal.”  For instance, one of my coworkers is dyslexic (on top of being an engineer, how he has made it this far I life...). Anyway, if I get an email from him with a link and no typos, I’m not clicking the link!  My boss used to make fun of me, then our HR mgr got hacked (employee personal info stolen) and our VP approved a PO for $16k to a scammer...

So on to the AirBnB scam. Today I got a request to book from someone with a newly created account. First, the language came off a just a little odd. But then by the end of the message they had a link they wanted me to click AND LOG IN (WTF?!) because they claimed they saw my exact same listing somewhere else.  

I reported the message, and AirBnB killed the account within a few minutes. 

I looked around online, and it appears this has been around for a while, as most scams have been. What I read was that it takes you to another website that looks very much like AirBnB, and when you attempt to log in they get your passwords and try to reroute your payments, possibly also open a few bogus properties.

Moral of the story: don’t click on links

***i removed the full link so no one can accidentally click it***

Hello ,
I'm so interested in your property it's looking so good and I would love to stay .
But i'm little bit confused as I saw the saame property , same pictures and location
advertised for a lower price can you pelase check this link
Гooms12387-airbnҌ.142xxxxx and let me know why like this ?
Thank You I will wait your reply ..
PS : You need to copy paste the link into your browser in order to see the property
You need to login .