All Forum Posts by: Erik Kuhi

@Alanna Schroeder

Kissimmee, FL

It’s my first dabble in vacation rentals. It’s been up and running since mid February and so far so good.

@Shannon M.P. Lewis

Congrats for sure! You are on a path to great things! Please keep us updated on your project and future plans. I love that you’re working with your father on the project. I hope it takes off and you both flip a ton of houses together. Great stuff!!!

@Aurus J. Sanchez I strongly recommend listening to all of the Bigger Pockets podcasts and post a lot of questions in the forums. Keep saving $$ and analyze as many properties as possible. You want to find properties of interest learn how to run your numbers to see if they will perform and see how fast they sell. If you see the properties you’re looking at are moving fast your heading in the right direction. Of course the ones that sit on the market for a while are good too if you’re up for dealing with whatever issues are keeping them from selling. From listening to the podcasts and learning to find and research properties your plan will become clearer and your forum questions will be more specific. When that happens you’ll be in a better situation to execute your plan and get in the game.

Hope this helps!

@Angela Holmes Welcome to BP. You gotta love this site! You already have several great answers to your question. You can now take what seems to fit your comfort level and situation and then repost the a question worded with the method you are learning towards to dig deeper on that specific method to make sure you are heading down the right path. Also being a newbie and a couple hours away from your potential property I would suggest finding a good property manager. I invest out of state from where I am and having property management has been really good for me. Of course you want to find a good property manager. Listening to the BP podcasts I’ve learned that you should budget for property management even if you choose not to hire 1. You never know if you might need 1 at some point so it’s best to run your #s with that cost in there. Best of luck!!! Erik

@Tyler Dreher if you do your research and vet out the best property manager in the area you can still do well with renting remotely. I have a rental in Daytona Beach and live in NJ. I have a good property management team with Mary Lynn Realty and I’ve been extremely happy with that investment. That property doing well is really what is motivating me to do another and hope to have 10 rental properties in 10 years. That’s my current goal. I think if you want to do a traditional rental remotely a good property management team is key. Short term vacation rentals is a different animal from what I’m learning. I suggest taking the plunge and renting it out. Best of luck to you! Erik

I’m looking into purchasing a property in Kissimmee FL for a short term vacation rental. Having 2 young daughters it will be mostly an investment but to be honest there will be a little personal use. My main concern beyond finding a good property at a good price is finding a team to manage it for me. Since I reside in NJ is will be best for me to outsource management completely or as much as possible. I’ve been looking at companies like Evolve and Vacasa. There is always the option of putting together a team local to the property but might take a more research and due diligence to find that team. It will be nice to hear some experiences, advice, and opinions on the idea, the area, and anything really to help me with this next REI adventure. Thank you all in advance for your input! Erik

@Karam Charrouf - All the advice everyone is giving you is great. My only addition would be to search and analyze deals as often as possible to help you learn what a good deal looks like. I’m still a bit of a newbie myself but here is what I’ve been doing. Maybe some more experienced investors can add to this. I use Zillow to search for properties. It is good for very general use. I warn that they offer a lot of information on properties but it’s not very accurate so I don’t consider this doing due diligence. It is just a practice exercise. If you do come across a deal that you want to pursue contact an agent to get the real details of the property and also use BP for any questions your agent might not answer. Step 2 of the practice is to use the BP calculators to analyze the deals. Fill in the forms to the best of your ability and let them calculate the #s for you. After doing this several times and turning to the forums when you have questions you will build the ability to analyze a deal very quickly which will be a valuable tool in your future as an investor. Best of luck and feel free to message me if you have questions. I’ll either help by answering or help us find the answer. Either way we both learn which is what makes BiggerPockets such a powerful tool for its members

I’m looking for my first flip project and hoping to find a good wholesaler in the Monmouth/ Ocean county areas of New Jersey to work with to find properties. If the first goes well, meaning not losing to much $$ and learning some lessons, I will continue to do more deals and I’m hoping to build strong relationships to help find them. I'm open to all types of properties if the numbers work. 

Scott Harper I use Mary Lynn Realty to manage my rental. I’ve been working with them for a little over a year and they’ve been pretty good. http://www.marylynnrealty.com/

I don’t completely agree with the comments on Daytona. I know it has had a rough decade or so but I believe things have been improving over the last few years. The area by the race track has definitely seen some rapid growth since NASCAR has invested hundreds of millions into that area. On the beach side there has been recent development with a Jimmy Buffet retirement community and the Hard Rock soon to open. Don’t get me wrong though. There are still some pretty rough areas in Daytona but it’s worth taking a look yourself. I have a rental there that is doing very well and as I’m looking for more properties I’m seeing the prices increasing pretty quickly. I’m just saying I think it’s worth a visit to see for yourself.