All Forum Posts by: Carolyn Fuller

@James Carlson Do you know of any organization that specializes in renting tiny homes? We have a small studio condo outside of Harvard Square that we outfitted with many tiny home tricks and rent short term, hopefully in 3 month minimum stays. Many people have told us we should advertise it on the tiny home circuit but I haven't found a site focused on tiny home rentals. Ideas?

@Vijay Prabhakaran We live in a cold winter climate (Cambridge, MA) and have 2 units that we rent fully furnished on the short term market. We are lucky to live near many, many universities so we generally can rent the academic terms pretty easily through SabbaticalHomes.com. We rent the summer months through Airbnb and VRBO but the few times that we've allowed someone to rent Sep - Nov or Feb - May, leaving either Dec or Jan open, we've run into trouble. Airbnb and VRBO just can't make up the difference in Dec or Jan. 

For those of you who are wondering why we are angry at VRBO/HomeAway/Expedia for adding a service fee to our rentals, it is because they already charge us an annual fee. After they added the service fee, which, by the way, is closer to 9% for properties not owned by Expedia, I started advertising on Airbnb which at least does not charge me an annual fee on top of their service fee. So currently, I am advertising on both Airbnb and VRBO. I will analyze the performance of both sites versus how much VRBO is costing me when it is time for me to renew my annual subscription on VRBO. I suspect I will discover it isn't worth the annual fee they are charging me.

By the way, VRBO does allow for alternative payment methods and they do not ding my "conversion rate" when I accept an alternative payment method even though it bypasses the service fees. That is actually the one reason I might stay with VRBO because for those month long rentals that service fee is steep. My tenants generally don't want to pay it so I direct my month long Airbnb guests to VRBO and have them choose "alternative payment method" to avoid the service fee that would be otherwise unavoidable on Airbnb. 

@Juan Diaz BTW, We live in a gritty neighborhood with tons of character, definitely not an upper/middle class area. Some people relish this kind of urban environment. We do and our guests seem to love it, as well. Then again, we do pitch it such, that those who are drawn to bustling city environments are the ones who are likely to book our apartment. The apartment and the garden outside the door are delightful retreats. It really is an oasis in the midst of a bustling urban neighborhood. 

We have 2 rentals in Cambridge, MA, which is a city that is very similar to Oakland. We rent both apartments during the academic year by the semester or full year term. Then during the summer, we rent one on the "sublet" market for 3 months because it is in a condo association building and we don't want to be annoying to the other residents. We generally have to take a hit on the rent during the summer because there is a glut of summer sublets available in Cambridge. The other one is on the first floor of our 2 family house. So we rent it as a vacation rental on Airbnb and VRBO/HomeAway. We have had great experience with vacationers but I think it has helped that we are here to greet each guest as they arrive and it doesn't hurt that we live upstairs. We pay $70 to have the apartment thoroughly cleaned between each visitor and we add this fee to the reservation total. We also put out fresh flowers and a high end chocolate bar on each pillow. 

I was very concerned originally that we'd have guest who weren't happy with our busy urban neighborhood. But perhaps because we emphasize we are in the midst of a hopping urban environment, we've had no complaints from any of our guests. We generally get 5 star reviews from our visitors.

I use DWOLLA and love it. It is free and painless. Last month my tenants paid on May 30 and it was in my checking account by June 6.

@Joe Henry Thanks! I just signed up and it looks like a great alternative to IPN.

@Chris Reitzel - Do you know what the dwolla.com pricing is? I'm looking for a low price alternative to IPN now that Intuit is dropping the service.

@Joe Henry, Some of my tenants are uncomfortable with ACH or run into technical difficulties with IPN (Intuit Payment Network) which is what I use. 

Some of my tenants love ACH.

Sadly IPN is going away. It is being replaced by a service that will eventually cost $13 per month. I don't think I have enough incoming payments to warrant paying $13 per month. Dwolla.com looks like a reasonable alternative but they don't publish their pricing online. Anyone know what their pricing is?

@Account ClosedI agree that it is preferable to meet the tenant prior to renting to them but that is not always possible in this academic setting. We have experience with another rental that we manage through HomeAway. Although that rental is by the semester instead of by the year, it is still long enough to warrant meeting the prospective tenant when possible. But it just isn't possible all the time. 

One of our first applicants for this new studio is currently in Japan and is not going to be able to make a trip here before he arrives for a year's academic appointment. I'm not willing to turn him away just because I am unable to meet him in person.