All Forum Posts by: Heidi Kenefick

@Kevin Lefeuvre

Airbnb will refund fully for certain things, and illness with proof of a doctors visit is one of them. I had to cancel once for a month long stay a week in advance due to pneumonia, and the host literally wanted to keep $1100, which I thought was excessive. And he admitted to not having any other requests during the time that I had requested, so he didn’t lose business.

As a host, you can change your cancellation policy to keep most of the funds even if people cancel, which is what I had mine set to as a host. However, I nearly always called Airbnb and issued a refund to people that cancelled and called me or texted me to let me know. It’s just money, and I feel the good karma is better than the money.

So ask yourself this, if you spend a bunch of money on a reservation, and your trip went bust bc you or your child was sick, would you prefer grace or to pay for a vacation you never went on?

@Marisa Rowe

I’ve noticed a lot of people write how they will be happy when they reach x dollars. Interesting. Money doesn’t equal happiness, in fact, I know more poor people that are happy than wealthy people that are happy.

I like the idea of freedom of choice, meaning, I can choose to leave a job and not return. But people always get stuck thinking they need FU money to do that. All you really need to do is realize your self worth and find a different job that does fulfill you.

My goals for real estate are to earn enough to comfortably leave to US. That will largely depend on where I go. I’m following more of the Dame Ramsey and Mr Money Mustache philosophy of paying off all debt and saving aggressively to reach my FI number, with real estate on the side. It should take less than 5 years.

@Andres Aguero 500/door is a lot, especially after calculating in PM costs, vacancy, capex etc. like what others have said, the higher the cash flow (on paper) the worse the property, and the higher the headache factor for you. Fewer properties in good neighborhoods is definitely a better strategy, if you want fewer headaches. Once they are paid off, they will generate A LOT of cash flow! Would you rather have 5 paid for properties bringing in over 5 grand a month, or 30 properties with mortgages brining in the same amount?

@Keeya WangJones You actually find yourself in a situation to make 2-3x market rent, buy renting out by the room! It’s like buying a slice of pizza vs the whole pie, by the slice is always more! I did it for 3 years using Airbnb and marketing to travel nurses. They would stay for 3 months at a time and paid well. I also got some other long term people in that were doing work out of state, the longest one stayed for six months, did the dishes and walked my dog. It was a win win! You can also advertise on rotatingroom.com it is for MEDICAL STUDENTS ONLY, but they don’t charge a service fee and most Med students only need a place for 4 weeks at a time. When renting to travelers or students it must be fully furnished and include all ultilities, internet and TV. As for rent each room should cost what a one bedroom apartment is going for locally. In my area I charged $650 all inclusive and stayed full. One other option is to reach out to local social services agencies and offer full service corporate rentals for their clients (ie: blind, CP, veterans etc) that need housing. Check out www.drcashflow.net. This guy sells the course on it, I bought it but haven’t implemented it yet, but seems like an untapped way to earn a lot by the room. Good luck!

@Bosko Mijatovic If you get a single family, consider renting it out by the room to the medical students at COMP. renting by the door will increase your cash flow.

@Alina Beryh BiggerPockets has a rehab estimator calculator. I also recently read an article on BP that breaks it down to a simple formula. Price to rehab per sq ft x sq ft of the home. You could try talking to some people who are doing rehabs in your area to find out what the general cost per sq foot is. Then just do the rough and dirty calculation to come up with a ball park.

@Dave Lawrence

I did not fire them. I made a lot of phone calls and did a lot of micromanaging, but they had it rented within about 3-4 days of me asking them to make adjustments. I told myself if by Friday I don't see results, I'll fire them, and on Friday they had it rented. :-)

@Drew Eldridge Hi Drew, I’m just out of residency and doing Peds. I house hacked my 3/2 throughout residency to travel nurses and now it is rented out with a year lease to a nurse. I’m looking to by tax liens and multi family houses now, and rent out per door to certain populations. I’d love to chat more! Send me a PM.

@Kurt F. When I ran the numbers is using 5% vacancy and 5% for repairs, plus pest control, PM, HOA, and Mortgage, tax, insurance, it still cash flowed at $1300... but not well. Now I’m above the 5% for vacancy so it may not cash flow at all. The beauty of it is in the cash on cash return. I got it for zero down (actually made money at closing), and for the time I lived there I house hacked it and earned well more than my mortgage. If I sell in 3 years, I still get the gains tax free, and it has appreciated 4% per year. So when I sell, the cash on cash is infinite, the house will be worth more, and someone else paid for it the entire time. That’s why I kept it since it made sense economically.

@Mel Hayes Greenville in general has a lot of rentals, but this neighborhood is mostly owner occupied. I know of two rentals on my black, there may be a couple more that I don’t know of though.