All Forum Posts by: Dan Maciejewski

 In the beaches area with a semi-luxury home, @Andrew Steffens is right -- you really want a pool.  

The best way for you to verify this is to compare ADR (or comparable rates for specific dates) on similar properties in similar locations.  Check a few with pools and a few without.  In my area, a pool will get you about 30% higher ADR and you will get the same or a bit higher occupancy.

Do the same for bedrooms.  A fourth bedroom will up your ADR, but not usually as much as you might think.  And I'm not always sure it will justify the added purchase price in the very short term.  In the very long term, a fourth bedroom is worth it -- it will add appreciation, resale value, and the smaller revenue gains will start to show big in the long run.

 Be very careful who you take advice from.  Make sure it's from someone you want advice from!  So many people give their opinions because they're worthless!

When I was starting, there were so many negative people complaining about toilets and midnight calls from tenants (neither of which are "real" issues).  None of those people owned investments and the vast majority weren't even homeowners.

Each investment property we've bought has been followed by comments from people that had no business talking.  "Your interest rate's too high.  You paid too much.  You'll never get the rent you say you will.  You spent too much on rehab."  Usually without actually knowing specifics.  

BUT, every person that owned investment real estate has been super supportive.  THOSE are the people you want to hear from.  People that have made hard decisions, done research, put their money where their mouths are.  Not renters with 640 credit scores and $750 in their checking accounts.

Yes, it's unincorporated Pinellas, so the county allows STR. The location and sizes may make a long-term rental the highest and best use, though. You'd have to run numbers to check; It may be better as a 6-bed STR with a pool added. . .

I've been predicting this, and April was when I was expecting to see them start to pop up in my market. This is the year that the bottom 50% of STR owners are going to feel their inadequacies. A LOT of people bought anything they could and managed like slumlords. Now that their reviews show that, they're feeling the pain. The pain of bad reviews equals low occupancy, and then low rates.

This will start to help slow appreciation and help owner-occupants buy, which will help to ease housing shortages and hopefully slow Fannie/Freddie from their crazy points.  

In any market conditions, people who bought well, and manage well, will survive and thrive.  People that fail to underwrite well, and buy bottom-tier assets will always suffer.  

One of Warren Buffett's most famous quotes is: “Only when the tide goes out do you learn who has been swimming naked.”  And the current market is an example.

 As far as I am seeing now, the only benefit is the lower down payment.  The interest rates seem to be exactly the same whether it's a "second/vacation home" or a pure investment.  You do have to stay there for 14 days a year for the vacation home loan but that should be no problem if it's in an area you already love and visit.

 I agree with this.  I usually recommend first time investors start with long term rentals.  It's a great way to get your feet wet without a ton of stress.  Recently, its been harder to cash flow, but if you have an opportunity to cash flow with light rehab, that's great!

Also, I agree that a true second home/vacation rental that you will use and enjoy tips the scales on that side a bit. An STR is a lot more frenetic to set up and run, even with pro management, though. Cash flow has been better, especially in a vacation area compared to LTR. BUT, that will vary depending on yearly occupancy for your location. I am in a 12 month transient area, so our yearly average occupancy looks like 75%+

I would definitely say in your backyard - in Pinellas.  It may be harder to get a "deal" but we are bringing in more and more higher paying jobs and housing is in high demand.  And with our lack of buildable area, we shouldn't see any major drop in prices anytime in the future.

There are a ton of fixable opportunities, too.

The city of Tampa still looks good, too!

Municode or call the city.  

Don't always trust that the person you talk to knows what they're talking about, though!

And in Municode, they all call it something different.  Include "transient rentals, vacation rentals, short term rentals," etc.

 Guesty for hosts, lodgify, hospitable, are all decent software solutions for like $20-$34/month/property.  They come with some other automations that make life easier, like automating communications, which saves a ton of time after you set it up.  I know you know, but in case others don't, automating emails is a life changer for those that send each email by hand!

@Brandon Huang -- what your property manager does is what hotels call an inspector.  They will follow the cleaners, act as extra eyes and ears, and check things the cleaners miss, like par levels of soft goods and consumables, condition of hard goods, stuff like that.  It's generally a +-$20/hour job in my area.  See if that works out for your guy/gal.  Vacasa pays like $16/hour for that job, which seems low to me but that's why they have the reviews they have.  You could also 1099 them and pay per inspection.

If you don't have additional software that gives you a cleaner portal like the above, you can try to share your ical link with an external calendar and have them confirm that they've seen/accepted the jobs like @Nathan Gesner suggests, although I think his current link may be for something else!

Dunedin has its own beach and waterfront state park -- Honeymoon Island.  And all the beach along the causeway.

Dunedin is super nice and I miss living there all the time.  Downtown is very walkable and bike-able and there's something going on almost every weekend.

If you want to STR, which is probably the only way to cashflow at today's prices, interest rates, and rents, you will want to look in West central Pinellas -- Largo and Unincorporated Seminole.