All Forum Posts by: Craig Curelop

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@Adam Read - The BiggerPockets calculators are pretty good and accurate. They also spit out a nice report for lenders and potential investors. The two downsides to them is that they are not very flexible and they take about 5 minutes to fill out. 

If you are Excel savvy, you could definitely build your own calculator where you could customize it to your liking and enter the numbers in about 20-30 seconds. 

Hope that answer makes sense! 

@Burt Gourley - Some great advice given above. I recently talked to my lender to see whether they would accept AirBnb income towards my "income" in their debt to income calculation. As long as you have tax returns to show, the lender will accept. So if you AirBnb, you might not be able to refinance right away. It may take a year to prove to the lender that your property is a viable AirBnb. 

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@Philip Arthurs - The short term rental strategy is so new that most investors do not have confidence in the cash flow volatility that comes with short term rentals. Cap rates are typically only used for properties that are 4+ units. 

If your goal is cash flow through short term rentals, you can absolutely use cap rates in your own analysis. If you can turn a traditional 8 cap into a short term rental 11 cap, you are doing pretty good. I don't think that increases the value of the property to most buyers. However, if you find someone who is looking to purchase a property to use as a short term rental, then you may be able to get a premium when it comes time to sell. 

As a conservative bet, I would not use income from a short term rental when determining your cap rate. I would stick to traditional comps. 

Hope this helps! 

@JT Alexa - I echo what everyone else says, you do not need an agent to find a rental. Are you planning on purchasing property for yourself when you get here? If so, I do have an agent for you that is really good. Just shoot me a message and I can introduce you. 

If you have trouble finding a place, I would suggest going on AirBnb and booking a place for a month. Then maybe asking the owner if you could sign a long term lease or just go month to month until you find a place to buy. 

@Eric Byington - I do something similar. I have duplex where I rent out the top long term and AirBnB a bedroom in the bottom. I can tell you that AirBnb is a lot more lucrative, but it's also a lot more work. So it depends on what you and your partner are looking for? 

As for occupancy rates, it's tough to say exactly. That's mainly because AirBnb hosts will fluctuate their prices with demand. For example, you will have a weekday rate, a weekend rate, and a "I need to fill this vacancy" rate. 

My suggestion would be to set your weekday and weekend rates appropriately. If you are 2-4 days out and you have a vacancy on say a Tuesday night (weird time), drop the price to fill it.  Even if you have to drop the price by 50%. 50% of one night is more than 100% of 0 nights. 

I am also doing this in Denver so happy to meet up for a coffee or something! Just shoot me a private message and we can figure something out. 

@Tony Salemi - Before the showing, I usually do a pre-screening. Basically, I will hop on the phone with them for ~10 minutes and ask them a few questions. One of those questions is what do you think your credit score is. I take their word for it at this time. 

After the showing and if they are willing and ready to sign. That's when I do my deep due diligence to confirm that what they said in the phone conversation is correct. I use Cozy.co to obtain credit reports that they pay for ($40). 

@Jeremiah Ashe - this is the best possible problem you could have. And obviously, there is not really an answer. 

I would say continue to build until you can passively fund the lifestyle you want. Whether that's a $40k per year frugal lifestyle or a $100k+ per year lavish lifestyle. 

If you love doing it... then never stop! You can enjoy the cash flow, but continuously look for deals.