All Forum Posts by: Craig Jones

201 properties on the Truckee STR waitlist as of a week or two ago, and you can't get on the list until after the 365-day change-of-ownership waiting period is up. So I wouldn't count on getting a permit real soon after that.

A decent chunk of "Truckee" is actually not inside the town limits though. Ponderosa Palisades, part of Sierra Meadows, Northstar. Those all have Truckee street addresses, same ZIP code, but are all in unincorporated Placer County. Which hasn't hit its cap of 3900 STR permits AFAIK.

Did anyone else catch this in the Winter 2023 release announcement?

https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-2023-winter-release/

Pricing visibility – The prices Hosts set will include service fees, helping them better understand what guests pay.

Looks like they're going to make hosts bake the 15% guest fee into the nightly rate. Rolling out sometime in early 2024. If they make this change without a very obvious prompt for hosts to update their prices, it'll act like an across-the-board 15% price cut for hosts who aren't paying attention. Which the rest of us will then have to compete with.

It's not limited to short term rentals.  This pattern shows up everywhere that multiple options compete on an aggregation platform and are differentiated mostly on price.

"Resort fees" at hotels (try booking something on the Las Vegas strip), airline fees too numerous to mention.  Even order processing fees when you buy contact lenses online, so vendors can lower the advertised price per box.

And the reason for all of it is that tons of market research and A/B testing by big players shows that it works.  Displaying a low price up front with fees or add-ons that raise the final price results in more bookings / sales and more revenue.

Consumers may say they hate it, and some may threaten to boycott vendors that price this way (as some have in this thread).  But so far, data says that the majority of consumers will choose the option with the low upfront price.

For those popping into this thread/post, just realize this is not common at all. 1 in a 10,000 probably to find this and it actually work out.

That architect that charged $1000 took on a great deal of liability for very little in pay. Probably didn't have professional liability insurance. Because he/she was new, he/she probably didn't even know what he/she was getting himself into. I would not recommend to utilize a brand spanking new professional who isn't vested in the profession yet. My 2 cents.   

Just to level set:

1. This person wasn't a total newb.  He worked in a large architectural firm for ten years and then went out on his own.  He does carry professional liability insurance.  

2. I was my own GC on this project, knew what I wanted and just needed someone to draw a plan set.  It wasn't a huge scope of work.  Still underpriced perhaps, as one might do when trying to build a book of business and set of references.

Quote from @Francisco Milan:

I saw some guys that do blueprints online but not sure if they would work for Phoenix city as far as the correct requirments? 

Has anyone gotten blueprints online?

I did this.  I was looking to get plans drawn for a major remodel in early 2022, and I could not find any local (Reno / Tahoe) architects with near term availability.  I must have made 30 calls, everyone said "I'm slammed, let's talk next year."

So I went on the Nevada licensing board's website, which lists every architect and residential designer (kind of like architect-lite, can only do 1 - 4 family residential) in Nevada along with their first-licensed date.  Found a guy down in Las Vegas who had just been licensed a few months earlier and was looking for business.

I sent him drawings of what I wanted, along with photos, did a couple of Facetime sessions.  He did the whole plan set for me for $1000.  Never visited the site in person.  He also recommended a structural engineer in Utah who worked remotely as well.

Turned out really great.

Quote from @Erick Arana:

Hello everyone,

I am interested in pulling equity out of my investment property through a HELOC but some of the lenders and banks I spoke to state that no one offers HELOC's on investment properties. Does anyone know of any lenders/banks that offer investment HELOC's in California? Which leads to my second question if I cannot get the HELOC I am considering a DSCR loan, but curious if I could do a house hack with a DSCR loan?

These folks all do HELOCs on investment properties in California, confirmed in the last couple weeks:

Better.com

Fremont Bank

BMO / Bank of the West

Does anyone here have a policy from NREIG underwritten by Third Coast Insurance?  I'd be curious to hear about your experience.

This appears to be one of the only options I have for insuring my STR in a wildfire area, but I've read some concerning things here in the past about NREIG and the carriers they use.

The only other option I've found is with Berkshire Hathaway, and that policy has a $15K / yr price tag, about double the price of the NREIG policy.

One more:

America First Credit Union (UT, ID, OR, NM, AZ, NV) does HELOCs on investment properties up to 80% CLTV. They quoted me 10.49% current rate.

@Jeffrey Fung Property is in Nevada, and unfortunately there's no FAIR plan or equivalent here.

I know STR insurance comes up all the time, and I've read many threads on here. I've got a combo of factors that are making it very difficult to find a policy however.

3850 sqft / 7 BR / 5.5 BA on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.  A few different calculators agree on a roughly $1.8M replacement cost.

These often-mentioned companies won't write a policy due to wildfire risk:

Safely, Steadily, Foremost, Travelers, Proper  (Proper offered a liability-only policy, no dwelling coverage)

NREIG and American Modern would write a policy, but only up to $1M dwelling limit.

CBIZ offered a policy underwritten by a Berkshire Hathaway company with a $16K annual premium.  Ouch.  

Anyone have other options to suggest that I should be looking at?