All Forum Posts by: Cliff H.

@Brandon Taylor nothing wrong with process and standards, in most states formal written qualifications standards are required anyway. The challenge here is the details. I've had/used similar standardized processes as RentRedi has made for years and with great results, processes that helped me FSBO my house from two states away without ever meeting buyers/agents in person.

However, the devil's in the details. You should absolutely have an exception processes in place to ensure folks without an email or online connection who may be older or disabled can still apply and be on even footing with the de factos. 

Ultimately screening is about having formal written standards documented and leveraging a repeatable, auditable process to ensure your housing meets Fair Housing standards and not discriminating based on a protected class. We can all debate over whether email is a proxy for a protected class, but in a world of $1k/hour attorneys the best defense is always being proactive and avoiding even the appearance of discriminatory behavior that sends countless DIY landlords down a path of litigation benefiting no one except the lawyers. A great resource here are any of the NoLo series of books on landlord-tenant law. They have a knack for simplifying law in a way I've rarely seen elsewhere. 

You want to exclude yourself from working with the majority of great tenants because the majority of your applicant base don't use email well? This feels backwards. Finding a great tenant is a numbers game. It's a sale funnel. You should be thinking about how to get more applicants through your funnel, not less. 

Popular question and it ultimately comes down to what you're looking to solve for with a PMS. I've demo'd a bunch and found not a single one that's not either over-priced or saddled with an interface out of MS Word gone wild wet dream. 

I've posted it before, but here's the comparison chart cover 15 different STR PMS solutions I built out to decide on the PMS Formerly Known as YourPorter (now Guesty for Hosts). I'm not bankrolling a large portfolio so the popular option to gouge smaller managers for a minimum $100/mo isn't a biz model I'm willing to support. Yes, what others have said about GfH's customer service is right: it's challenging, but I'm grandfathered into pricing that makes it a tough sell to switch and with (still) 98% of their solution's capability available right in their mobile app it's still a compelling option for smaller portfolios. Now if only their newer developers would remember their mobile-first origin story when rolling out new capabilities like smart pricing that only works on a desktop. 

While all real estate is regional and percentage between AirBnB and VRBO or others will vary, you're not running a STR business if you're only operating on a single channel, you're a customer to a platform.

AirBnB has and will pivot down the line and you don’t want to be left on the lurch without reservations if/when you end up on the wrong side of the platform. 

Amazon sellers have been saying this for years, but it's been a longer time coming in the STR space given real estate's quite a bit less tech-savvy a market and STRs have been on fire in the COVID years.

With many market’s saturated and platforms looking to hedge against market changes, it’s essential to learn the ins and outs of multiple platforms, if not your own direct bookings. 

“The startup’s business model, which is leasing apartments at market rental rates and furnishing them for short-term rentals in more than 30 markets, has struggled largely due to the upfront costs involved, associated capital expenditures and variables in demand and rates, one of the sources said. Others in the space have also had challenges, including Stay Alfred, Domio, Lyric, Zeus Living, The Guild and WanderJaunt. Ironically, Frontdesk previously acquired over 100 units across several cities from WanderJaunt, Stay Alfred, Lyric and Domio.”

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/02/short-term-rental-provider...

JD, don’t disagree on some of the points you’re making above on responsive Web versus mobile app development, but it all comes down to level of engagement and what you’re looking to do with a site or service. Put simply, a well-designed mobile app has far higher user engagement than a web only service/site. The challenge with the BP forums is that they perform poorly on mobile in their current form. A great alternative would be simply licensing or leveraging a different web forum platform that already has a mature mobile app available for and that BiggerPockets could simply redirect mobile users to when they open the site. In the current form, I am constantly dealing with AutoCorrect failures when entering text on a mobile browser or tablet, inability to tag members, and quoting errors on text. Those certainly discourage contributing to the forums and that’s one area where a dedicated mobile app that leverages on device auto correct capabilities, could help. Yes, if it’s just a web frame cross-development framework that lacks any ability to leverage a device’s native capabilities then the cheapest route to market via web certainly wins.   

Hi @Christopher LHeureux what part of New Hampshire? Happy to talk shop on how I’ve handled my in-state rental, but design will definitely vary by location. You can find very affordable interior designers in gig sites like Upwork or others who can operate off of room measurements and photos alone. Ask me how I know. 😀

@Gretchen Quinlan in the middle of this process myself right now, and happy to talk shop. There’s not a ton of information out there on how to handle direct booking that is not simply an upsell into an existing hosted solution. Given your background, you may already know how to drive traffic off targeted ads and setting up the website and payment processing is not terribly complicated, but faster tracked through off the shelf PMS systems with a direct booking website builder component. Ask for a trials from some of the more popular solutions out there and use that to evaluate the different capabilities.

Definitely not new. May have moved locations as others have said, but it is always been there, and is one of the most important pages to understand in order to keep track of placement in the Airbnb search algorithm. As I mentioned in other threads, the new “guest favorite” for listings with a higher than 4.9 rating is definitely super optimized for page placement at this stage.

 Looks like it was pulled from the iOS App Store (again) Dave. Hoping BP is committed to bring it back. Agree with others that accessing BP forums on the go is pretty basic expectation for the site and service.