All Forum Posts by: David J Lepard

Hi @Les Jean-Pierre,  yes we list it on airbnb and homeaway/vrbo. We try to direct people to the homeaway listing because they're a little more protective of hosts. https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p4728361?...

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $175,000

Cash invested: $35,000

This is our vacation rental in the Catskills region of upstate New York. For photos and booking information go to coziestcatskillcabin.com

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

FSBO. We originally saw the property at $200k. We were prepared to offer $187k but around the same time the seller dropped the price to $175k. We weren't able to negotiate them down any further but we did negotiate for some maintenance to be completed and furniture to be left, since we were furnishing it as a vacation rental anyway.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional financing.

How did you add value to the deal?

We fixed some major safety issues like replacing the electrical panel and upgrading the railings on the deck. We added new lighting inside the house and build a fire ring outside.

What was the outcome?

We put our cash flow for the first year into additional capital improvements and repairs to make the house more guest-proof. We refinished and treated the original logs, adding significantly to the curb appeal. Operational costs and repairs should drop in the second year because many things have now been fixed or upgraded. All our mortgage payments have been made for us. We're now enjoying the cash flow as well as mortgage paydown.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Your investment as a vacation rental is only as good as your underlying asset, your marketing, and your property management. I wrote a short ebook detailing how I believe this process could be replicated by anyone, anywhere. Check it out at buyvacationrental.com.

We have a property for which we’re doing this for the last year just outside Windham. So far pretty good. We’ve covered our bills and put a lot of cap ex into the house, but as a result we haven’t had a ton of cash flow. It really depends on your motivations and what you hope to get out of the deal. I’d be happy to talk more about it. The one thing I would jump to say is the season is longer than you expect.

@David Hildebrandt good points all around. And I love that book. 

Hi @Hunter Eidmann 

I just listened to Damion Lupo on the Jake and Gino podcast and the answer seems to be neither (??). I have yet to do my own research, but I'm definitely going to consider this QRP avenue. Just thought I'd share http://jakeandgino.libsyn.com/how-to-take-control-... 

@David Hildebrandt  How did you find their prices compared to your expectations? I know the assumption is that investor-grade work tends to be done much more cheaply than owner-occupant-grade work, and those sites always seems more geared to owner-occupants. 

That said, if anyone has some direct experience in Chattanooga I'd love to hear who you worked with. I'm looking for someone who can estimate scopes of work for a few properties down there. 

David Jiang talk to Matt Maurice at REIS Property Management. He just helped us through the purchase of three houses and we never left NYC, now his people are handling the management. ETA: just realized this is a very old thread--was trying to post from the app. Oh well, maybe this will be of use to someone at some point.

@Christian D.  Do you have a region or model in mind?

Discussion of the tax consequences of rental income that goes into dedicated funds for vacancy, repairs, and cap ex, and whether there are ways to mitigate this.

Thank you @Sam Grooms, @Rachel H., @Erich Hauck, @Marc Faulkner, and @Account Closed for the excellent advice.  I'm making calls this week and will update in case you're interested!