All Forum Posts by: Derek Larson

@nicholas burrell I live in Midland and work in Mt. Pleasant for my day job. And have STR in Traverse City. Love to connect.

@Myrl Paschke . Traverse City is great for STR, not sure on your plan. long term renting may be a different story. We have only been doing the STR for 6 months. It has been an educational experience. We are in a no loose situation with buying up there, because we use/or could use very often and we want to retire up there. My next plan is more of long term rental closer to home base, but please reach out if you have thoughts.

I live in Midland, Mi.  I have a Short term rental in Traverse City.  I am now looking for more of a long term rental.  I have been looking/lurking at midland/bay city and have not ruled out Traverse area (price lot different then central mi).  I have some money saved and been analyzing properties.  So a little in the same boat.  But putting it out to the world if anyone wants to connect in either of those areas. 

@Brian Gerlach. The adapter that hooks to my WiFi. Then I go through Schlage app- once I have code created. I can go to schedule and adjust from there. Like cleaners just access on Friday’s. Or recently the furnace guy. Created new code and it was only good for Monday. I still have to delete the code later or it would be good for next Monday too. But joe criminal or opportunistic doesn’t know that- Incase they tried to come back next day or whatever.

Hope that made sense and helps. Wanted to try and post screen shot.

We moved back to Michigan from PA.  The letters on our sold house in PA was overwhelming and really made no difference with the sale anyways in our situation.  When we were talking with our Michigan agent about that, he said most stopped doing that for the discrimination reason. 

I use the Schlage, with the connect so i can change codes remotely.  I can set certain access codes and times for guests, maintenance, or PM.  One think I really like about it is that I get a notification when unlocked or locked.  I can also check history of what codes were used and when.  It was a couple hundred bucks but well worth it- like to get another for my home.

@Tracey Wittke

That’s is what we were thinking. We are on Spider Lake.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence other investment in Traverse City.

Purchase price: $280,000
Cash invested: $116,000

Single family home, 2 bed, 2 bath on all sports lake. Second home purchased with first plan to make it a STR and use it when it was not being rented. Summer is prime rental season and we will use it for cross-country skiing in the winter time. Other draws in the area with wine tasting, snowmobiling, down hill skiing, state and national parks.
Major draws of a smaller home, low maintenance and landscaping- the rehab was mostly cosmetic.
#northernechocottage

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We love Northern Michigan and Traverse City. I have wanted to get in the investment game for a number of years now. This was a way to get my wife on board. The idea of having something tangible and be able to use was a draw, of course the kicker was to be able to explain the income opportunity for it when we are traveling- especially in the summer.

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

Months of searching mls

How did you finance this deal?

saved a large down payment from years of saving as well as relocated back to the area and sold our home in a hot area in PA.

How did you add value to the deal?

Mostly painting. The home was vacant and a bit overgrown, did a lot of tree trimming, but furnishing from our last home which we downsized on our primary.

What was the outcome?

We enjoyed it all of last summer, listed for STR mid September- booked almost all the weekends from then through early November. Hoping for a couple winter bookings, but going after spring, and we have a couple week stays booked for next summer already.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I won't lie, got a little lucky on a few things. I had to work harder to make a few things work. I didn't know my numbers as much as I thought. I give myself a solid B-. But for the first one we are very happy. I overestimated the year round rental a bit, underestimated the summer nightly. I know I got a little house fever and really wanted to lock down a lake house. Speaking cash on cash i might not have played it quite the same- this box is not big enough for all my lessons and challeg

Nobody has decorated ours yet.  I suspect there may be a wine glass or two left at some point.  A lot of the wineries in the area give them out with the tastings.

Thanks for starting this thread. I have a STR in Traverse city, new to the game up there but loving it so far. Would love to connect with others in that area. I use our STR most weekends during the off season. See you all up north!