All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

Another thing to keep in mind across any of the New England states is that even if you find a property you're likely looking at 6 month runway on any major renovation work you're not doing yourself. Factor that into your cost calculations beyond any initial downpayment, local pricing/regulations market research, connecting to area contractors, and furnishing your rental with something other red plaid and stuffed bears. Most places continue to go contract < 48 hours for over asking and often for cash. I sit on a board of a condo association and have seen many buyers making offers without ever asking to speak with the board about tens of thousands of dollars worth of upcoming assessments which, if they had asked, would have been shared. While there's still opportunities, lots of investors jumping into what they think is a gold rush and are going to lose their shirts if they don't understand their local markets really well, ask questions about what's happening in the area, and show up without connecting with any local contractors or PMs beforehand. Keep in mind that a huge portion of contractors in the upper New England states are offline and and motivated to help neighbors, not out of state investors. Their supply-demand dynamic right now also means they're not hurting for work and in no hurry to hop on your minor $40k bathroom reno because you're in a hurry to turn it around quickly for an upcoming ski season. 

Yes and I’d question the reality of the opposite: those selling short term riches with $200-$400k into a $400-800k: property. Anyone can claim big stats when they’ve paid off the property before they even started. The better measure is what you can do with with you have, today, wherever you are. Enjoy the ride!

Disclaimer: I'm no where near a beach! 

That said, I love the pyramid strategy for 3BRs: 1 queen (for the happy couple) + 2 full (for the angry couple) + 2 bunks (for the kids or last friend that paid). Result: 8-10 person capacity with lower upfront cost, significant flexibility in sleeping arrangements, and maximum "heads in bed" capacity as @John Underwood aptly calls out as essential to your STR success.

@Jeff Gold your post reminds me of what I too often forget: we only know what we know. The real dangers in real estate often come not from what see in our backyard, but from being blindsided by what we do not know across town. 

I see posts in the mass media and reality shows with owners pounding their chest about 5-10% cap rates or gross incomes ignorant of $100k downpayments + $100k renovations/furnishings. Unless you're banking $8-10k/mo after expenses you're on a 5-10 year journey just to break even. 

Plenty of other places and spaces to invest far less dollars for nice returns, you just have to keep looking around and focusing on where your interests and dollars are best leveraged, which unless you're lucky, is not often in your backyard. 

Back from the dead! For what it is worth, 2021 is likely the best time in a decade to buy an Apple laptop. The M1 chips are some of best battery life and performance you'll anywhere and the higher-priced MacBook Pros just saw a major update in 2021. While initial purchase price will always look higher, comparing a Mac to a Chromebook's an apples to oranges comparison (no pun intended). iPads are closer to Chromebooks and even that's hard to compare since a Chromebook with similar capability to an iPad is a $1k Google device not the the $400 device sold at Best Buy based off 5 year old chipsets. 

Start with what you want to accomplish with the product, then narrow your search down to what you need: 

• iPads will do 90% of what the average person needs, with a form factor that's flexible enough to change from a laptop style with keyboard to a tablet form with digital writing/signatures. 
• Chromebooks are decent web and email devices, but local software's limited to blown up versions of Android apps that are inherently designed for smaller screens and less power. Given the limitations of even Google's own Gmail app, I often just find myself using the web version of Gmail and that's an app built by the same company that made the operating system!
• Macs fit the need when you need that do-it-all device with massive local storage, anticipate tons of email/typing, and want top notch multimedia capabilities with best in class security. You can record a video walkthrough of a property with your phone, wirelessly send it to your Mac, and have an edited video walkthrough with subtitles in less time than it takes you to create your listing. That one video could easily pay for your Mac 5x over.

Hope this helps!

@Chip Larson check our Stessa. Automatic receipt tagging and categorization that integrates right with your property bank accounts. It’s almost unbelievable how good their system is. And free.

I checked out once you started talking about hair club for men… but to the original post: I’m lost. If you’re lazy enough to go with Vacassa versus a local vacation rental shop, finding a co-host to manage your rental for you, or learning how to self manage yourself, why would you not think you’re going to pay more than 18%? Historical percentages were what, 40-60% of gross revenue? Moreover, if an owners are too busy to care/notice isn’t that on the them anyway? 

Porter just switched over to Guesty’s backend infrastructure. Give them more than a day or two to get the switch over completed. iGMS has nothing on Porter. And yes I’m going to keep calling it that until I actually know what Guesty will bring to the table beyond a color change. 

Fargo

@Sheena R Roth lot of XP in this area. ERentalLocks uses algorithmic locks, which means their website has a paired algorithm to their locks so it can generate a random code for a specific use case like a one time code, time limited code, permanent code, etc without the lock having any connection at all. It’s a unique technology that I believe is only replicated by a few others companies like ResortLock or newer players like Igloo. 

The challenge with these locks is that if you need to terminate or remove a code after the fact you’re SOL: the code duration or use case is locked in and since the “locks don’t talk” back to the Internet there’s no way to remove/change the code after the fact unless you use their local USB stick which acts, similar to a ZWave/wireless SmartHub to sync codes back and forth to another device (like your PC or phone) through the Internet to their system. 

There’s a lot of ways you can approach this: from the direct sync to a WiFi lock to property management system like Porter (with fees), Schlage’s own key generation subscription service, or through use of a SmartHub system to act as the “intermediary” between your phone and your lock. 

WiFi smart locks are great b/c they’re a one-and-done install, but have the downside of needing frequent battery replacements due WiFi using a lot of energy vs something like ZWave to a hub (that’s very low energy like Bluetooth). 

A few sites and resources I’ve found in this space that might be helpful: 

https://www.gokeyless.com/shop...

https://shop.remotelock.com/

More recently, there’s a push in this space to have smart locks that don’t actually look like smart locks. It’s a neat idea, though the dependency on mechanical actuators for deadbolt style locks could be a challenge if you’re installing in older doors where alignment or fit may not be perfect: 

https://level.co/products/lock