All Forum Posts by: Patrick M.

Hey there all - we are working on a flip where we got into a 2-story townhouse with units on either side, and we have realized we have a chain smoker in each of the adjacent units. The unit has popcorn ceilings, and we plan to remove them and then use the Zinsser BIN Shellac primer on walls and ceilings in every room. We are currently spackling and filling holes in the walls, and will also rip off the baseboards and use spray to seal smoke from coming in under the drywall.

Our popcorn ceiling contractor can start work in July, and my question is about timing.

My wife, son and I could go in and wash all walls and do the Shellac BIN primer over the next few weeks, but it would then be sitting there without the ceilings done for 1-2 more weeks. If we do the walls and ceilings a few weeks apart, is there any disadvantage to that? I'm wondering if by having the walls done but the ceilings still leaking some smoke in, we might get some of those smoke molecules trapped in our unit. Or will our AC running clean those out? 

Or is getting shellac on any wall at any time helping improve air quality in our unit, and if some smoke gets in while we wait to finish the ceilings, we can just run an air purifier or ozone machine to remove those odors from the unit after we finish the ceilings a few weeks later.

I welcome all advice on whether we should wait and try to do the shellac all at once, or move as fast as possible to start sealing indvidual walls ASAP.

Thanks!

Greetings all - LTR investor with four properties up and running, now considering making unit #5 into a Medium Term Rental. We see the benefits of using Furnished Finder as a primary portal and AirBNB/VRBO as well. The PMS approaches to managing AirBNB/VRBO are well-documented.

Is there any PMS that can do ***BOTH*** AirBNB and Furnished Finder(FF)? I see on the FF website that they will sync availability with an AirBNB calendar, but that's not the same as integrating with a PMS.

I would welcome any insights you have! Thanks.

@Terry Johnson re-upping this convo...we did some looking last summer but had an injury in the family and got side-tracked. I've been thinking a lot about your advice and looking more towards Banner Elk than either of the ski resorts. It seems like the ski areas had a down season this year. Was that your experience in Banner Elk over the last 12 months?

Hey there @Amy Farrington - how is your unit doing? Was thinking of one of the ski resorts as a property target last year but now zooming out to Banner Elk again.

Quote from @James Carlson:

It's a step above geocities, but...

I laughed out loud! Simultaneously the most apt description and the sickest burn. Thanks for the perspective and the humor!

Thanks @Colleen F.! It's the outer wall of a condo. There's another unit upstairs. Just figuring that there would be some complexity there and not sure what they'd accept or not.

I have a potential property I'm looking at. It's all great except...there are two sets of double sliding glass doors that open to where a deck ONCE was. The HOA is unlikely to let a new deck be added. So if I purchase, I need to convert the two double-pane sliding doors to windows (either all glass or some wall/some window. I kind of like the all-glass idea.

But I don't have any idea on cost to put in a pro forma. Has anyone ever replaced ONE sliding door pair with a window? Did you go with one monolithic pane? Who'd you buy it from? Did you fill in a wall in the lower half and put more standard windows above?

All advice (and costs, in what past year) are welcome!

Thanks.

Quote from @Julia Taylor:

In case anyone is looking for this info, I contacted both State Employees Credit Union & Coastal Federal Credit Union. Both do offer the 10% down vacation home loan but State Employees Credit Union has limitations on who can become a member (I don't qualify since I'm not a NC resident or state employee, etc).

Coastal however does not require you to be a resident of NC (or VA or SC, the other states they serve), and from what I've been told it's easy to become a member there. Thank you @Arthur Schwartz!

@Julia Taylor on SECU and CFCU - did either share what their residency requirements were? I'm trying to figure out how many days I can rent out a place per year while still spending 4-8 weeks per year there.

@Dave Foster that's really good advice about intent! When you say your "normal experience," do you mean that my evidence of having bought and held other properties would be reasonable to show intent? That's interesting about the BP profile as well. I bet I have some forum posts where I went looking for PMs for this unit.

Anyway...I spoke to the acquisitions manager tonight and their offer was comically low. They were offering $40k under what I paid for (visible on Zillow) six months ago. I guess they weren't very skilled at screening.

Hey there-  I bought a deal six months ago that has greatly appreciated, and I have a buyer inquiring. If I get the right offer, I think I could sell this one and use the proceeds to buy a STR that cash flows $700/month more that I've been watching.

But is it legal to 1031 from a long-term rental that you've owned for less than a year into a short-term rental? Is this still a like-kind exchange?

Also - we would want to use the STR sometime as a family. Probably less than 4 weeks/year, renting the other 48 weeks or more.

Any advice?