All Forum Posts by: Garry C.

I've been contacted by Evolve, and others like Vacasa. I've not yet felt the need to have someone else manage my property, especially since they often charge quite a bit more than the 10% property management for a traditional rental. And I stay pretty much full all year round. How much time are you spending on this? If it's more than a few hours per month, maybe discuss the challenges that are taking up most of your time. There are probably solutions to make those easier while keeping more of the rental income in your pocket.

Not to mention, those legitimately asking for monthly stays always want your 'best rate', which is essentially half of what you'll get renting it out to multiple guests. It's called shirt term for a reason. I advertise no more than two week stays, but will go to three during slow months.

Agreed with Bill, James Carlson is the man to talk to regarding STR in Denver. I know there are some rules that might make it a bit sticky, such as the primary residence rule. Sounds like you'll be living in one unit, but I'm not sure how that works with other attached units.

When I consider a deal as an STR, I always make sure it will work as a standard rental as a backup plan (they often do not, at least in Denver). If not, then the only other exit strategy is a sale. So if the deal is 'nothing special', you should proceed with caution or maybe keep looking.

Apparently there was a 'hiccup' with the gas the other day, and my tenants needed to relight the stove, fireplace, and hot water heater. They told me that on the heater they removed the door with the sticker that said 'Do NOT Remove' and tried to relight it. But this didn't work and it looks as though some of the wires are melted.

I sent a guy out and he can't find parts to fix it, says it would be $600 to fix, and it's a 14 year old tank so I should probably just spend the $1650 for a new one. OK, price is a little high, but not too bad. The real issue is, should I hold the tenants liable? He says that this damage is almost certainly brand new and done by the tenants in an attempt to relight. Pictures are coming soon...

I think the obvious answer is 'Yes, bill the tenants for the new hot water heater'. But, how? Bill them full price of a new water heater with next month's invoice? Offer to spread payments over the next three months to be nice? Tell them to get out and find new renters, since they breached the lease?
The lease is fairly general, it simply states that they should not do anything other than routine maintenance like light bulbs, furnace filter, etc. Perhaps this could be considered routine under those terms.

Is this deal still available?

@Jeremy Baker, I'm in the making memories business. People think I'm in the vacation rental business, but they are wrong. You can get a vacation rental anywhere. If you have good memories of a vacation, you'll want to do it again. The slightest thing going wrong, you might decide to try something different next time. It's not about whether there was toiletries or not. It's about those guests that forgot those things and would spend the weekend fretting about it, but now don't have to because we supplied them just in case.

@Michael Greenberg, I see it as a passthrough cost. Housekeeping charges $75 to clean, I bill out $89 cleaning fee. The additional $14 goes towards the toiletries, paper goods, dish and laundry detergent, starter packs of coffee, etc. I agree, the more units you have the more sense something like this makes. I started doing this with just 1 unit because I didn't want to seem like a mom n' pop shop operation. I like to think big and act bigger. I do think this helps my business, and I think that branding it with my logo would help even more.

@Jim Brewer, I'll be in touch. I'll admit that I had the same type of thoughts initially. But I have to assume that the units I'm buying here in the US are probably sourced from China anyway, right?

@Justin Tahilramani, I looked at Amazon, but didn't find anything I liked. Maybe I'll look again, it's been a while. We find our guests use this quite a bit, and those that don't, we save those items for next time.
Regardless, having just one guest frustrated because they forgot shampoo and now have to run down to the grocery store instead of sitting by the fire with a glass of wine... that can cost you return visits. Similar reasoning behind adding remotely coded door locks after the first guest lockout using the old lockbox/key system.

I buy the toiletries from a vacation rental supplier/blogger. It's about $5 per bag and comes with travel sized shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body wash. I've also purchased other items from her, including 'Hair Dryer' bags, linens, etc. Let's call the pricing reasonable, not economy nor extravagant.

As for the toiletries, I've considered sourcing these from China, with my company logo on them. It would be a lot cheaper in the long run, but a larger up front payment to buy in bulk. Also, they seem to make this fairly easy these days, but it's still a bit more confusing that buying from someone in the states. If anyone has experience with this kind of thing, I would like to chat about it.

@Jon Latorre, any plans to maybe write up a blog post on the subject? Looks like there are quite a few people interested, myself included.

What's missing here is that an STR is the same as a regular long-term rental in where you make your money. On the buy side. Not in how you rent it out.
If you're buying off the MLS, and paying the same for the property as anyone else in the market for a second home, it's not going to cash flow very well.
Sure, STR vacation rental can be much more lucrative than a standard annual lease, but as stated above the expenses are also greater, so it's a wash.

Make sure you're implementing sound foundational RE principals first, then get into the details of STR and how it differs from standard. Find yourself a fixer upper that you can get into for less than everyone else.