All Forum Posts by: Jerry W.

@Calvin Schmeling, too few facts to be able to give much advice. How much EMD did you put down? Have you considered selling toa buy and hold buyer instead of a flipper? It is unusual for a court to force someone to go through with a deal they only award damages if proven. If the lease is still in effect then what is there damages? They have just as much money coming in now as they did a year ago. Maybe had another deal pending they lost their EMD on for not closing, if so make them produce their claims now. It is rarely productive to sue over these things but some folks do. As to your LLC it is likely that any potential damages would come out of that if you have been running it correctly. If it has no assets then there is nothing to get, however it is possible to pierce the corporate veil and go after the owner, but again I have no idea of the facts to guess about it.

I have several vacation rentals in the middle of Wyoming.  We have a few small tourist draws but not a lot.  I still do pretty well with VRs.  I just converted two of my long term rentals into VRs and I am working on a third.  I get a lot of folks on their way to Yellowstone, a good number of fishermen, travelers, workers only here for a few days or who bring their wives, folks visiting relatives, going to weddings or funerals, etc.  Folks use VRs for lots of things other than vacation.  More than half of my bookings are one night.

I can't help but think about how the town cut the police budgets and called them corrupt and racist.  The truth is people of all colors violate laws.  You need to look at the facts of each case.  You have a bad cop get rid of him, you cut your police force and reduce morale by constantly attacking their character and you get a massive reduction in enforcement.  Very sad for everyone.

@Jenna Joan Singleton, the courts could place the forum wherever the deem appropriate.  There is usually a weighing process.  You can insert a forum choice clause, but courts don't always follow it, but it can help.  The good news is that in not answering they may forfeit their right to contest jurisdiction if they were properly served.  If the borrower had answered and argued forum non conveins or something similar the court might have transferred the case to OK.  I hope that you are able to get your money back.  Money should if possible be secured by real property and a mortgage.  It is possible for the money to be gone and not being able to execute on property of value.

@Jay Hinrichs, all of the information I get shows that traveling nurses are becoming even more popular.  I am finding however that some medical facilities are buying their own housing for the nurses.  Physical therapists are now doing the same thing.  My terms for them are normally 90 days for a stay.  Some get offered an extra 30 day extension.  Some of the traveling nurses I have rented to also take the higher paying shift like graveyards.

@David Babayev, it varies a lot for me.  Our peak season takes a lot more time than off season, and we also manage about 40 long term rentals as well as being self employed in a totally unrelated business.  I would guess that I am spending about an hour a day while running 4 STRs.  When something like the central air conditioner going out on a 102 degree day takes up a LOT of time, many days I just check messages to make sure the cleaner sends the message on what units are ready.  I have automated a fair number of messages, but really should do more automation.  My 2 I just opened in June are only listed on one platform so that is much easier, but I will change that soon.

@Kaylyn Geiger, I have owned 2 vacation rentals for about 5 or 6 years.  My first year with one rental I didn't make enough to pay for utilities.  I started late in the season and kind of learned as I went, a year later I added a second house and started in early spring and made about $100 less than if I had rented it out regularly.  The third year I went to multiple platforms and really tricked out the house and started reading heavily about STRs.  I also rented out to traveling nurses for 90 day periods during the off season, and had a ton of repeat business.  I made close to 3X what regular rent would be my third year.  A lot of things happened.  First I figured out how to do things better.  Next my marketing really made a massive difference.  I only used VRBO the first 2 years, but added AIR BnB the third year, and had a much better idea on prices.  Finally I dialed in who was using my property.  I realized that about half of the folks coming were here to fish in our river, and about 30% were traveling to Yellowstone Park or other national parks, and the rest were just travelers who like houses better than Motel rooms.  I actually found that I had different demographics in each house despite it being being a duplex with about similar square footage.  Fishermen and travelers rented toe Cozy side, and tourists rented the Bunkhouse side that was really tricked, with some fishermen and regular travelers.  My fancy side books at least 10% more bookings than the plain side despite being about $20 more per night.  We also went from about 12 STRs in my town to about 60 STRs, and my houses are making more than they ever did.  I added 2 more STRs in June, and plan to a luxury one any day.

What I am getting at is that 10 years ago I didn't know what a vacation rental was.  Five years ago I ran one but very poorly, now I am making triple what I made then.  Learning to run your business well is almost as important as the concept.  During peak season I gross about $3K or $3.5K from a place that would have rented for maybe $500 a month when I started.  Now I could rent the same place for maybe $700 or maybe $750 per month.  Houses are selling massively higher amounts, so my most recent rental is a converted office building with a shop in the back.  Just like good markets and bad markets learning to invest intelligently is a huge part of the issue.  Recession or not learn and adapt you should be OK.  Learning what the demographics were was very eye opening to me and made a massive difference.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hey @Daniel Carrillo, thanks for the information, it was an interesting read.  A lot of it makes sense, but I don't think that much money will follow it.

@Scott Trench, my opinion is that things are not going to soften for awhile.  Look at the number of folks wanting to buy, look at the number of houses available, then look at the huge price of building materials, the huge cost increase of supplies like concrete, windows, appliances, etc., then look at the labor shortage and the huge delay in buying supplies from stores, and I do not see enough houses being built in the immediate future to alleviate the demand.  

To be honest I have had to abandon my prior strategies for acquiring properties.  I still look mainly at distressed properties, but now I am counting on rising rent rates and rapid appreciation to bail out a property that will lose money for me for a year or two.  I pay too much and have a negative cash flow and count on time to fix it.  That is a horrible strategy and I do not recommend it to anyone, but it is the only game in town for me at the moment.  Buy too many of those and you will go broke.  Buy nothing and stagnate.  The only saving grace is the properties I have bought over the last 30 years are now worth a lot more, and bring in a lot more rent than they used to.  That is even after some heavy refinancing in 2013 to buy out the last partner in the business.  What are you doing to expand your portfolio?

@Scott Trench, I didn't hit the pause button. my market did.  I still wanted to buy, but huge increases in prices and rehab costs have forced me to slow down as the houses are simply not penciling out to show a profit.  That being said I converted two properties that I owned into vacation rentals.  That market is still pretty decent, but nothing like the numbers of last year.  I have added 2 more properties this year but while I normally only buy distressed houses, these were in extremely bad shape.  I would not have bought them at this price in this condition 2 years ago.

I really struggle to find a contractor, and getting rehab supplies is tough.  I have had delays on appliances of over 6 months.  Wood is 8X as much as it was 3 years ago.