All Forum Posts by: Jerry W.

@Andrew Naber, high end is relative I guess to your area. You can always experiment to find out. I simply put my listings on both sites and see how they shake out. I called my most recent STR high end because it had 4 bedrooms, not my normal 2 bedroom, it had more square footage, higher end furniture, and it was on a river front. It has an outside fire pit, higher end bedding, bigger kitchen, etc. It is nicer than most in my area, but not as nice as some. You can decide for yourself. Good luck.

@Jim Smith, welcome to BP bud. Just so you know, you can put your 25% into an LLC without the consent of any of the other parties. Just a thought.

@Andrew Naber, Welcome to BP bud.  I would just leave it on both sites for now.  When I started I got almost 90% ABB, but now ABB is maybe 60% and 25% VRBO.   I recently opened up a nice 4 bedroom house on the river with higher prices.  It is 80% VRBO.  So longer stays and higher end properties seem to do better with VRBO, smaller short term stays seem to do best with Air BnB. 

@Ki C Chan, you didn't give enough information for me to be of any help. If your only question is how to transfer the ownership of your LLC from you and your wife to your intervivos trust, the answer is to do a Bill of sale of your ownership in the LLC signed by you and your wife to the Trust saying in exchange for $10 and other good and valuable consideration, including for estate planning purposes we transfer our ownership of X LLC to to Mr. Smith as Trustee of the Mr. Smith Intervivos Trust dated January 10, 2023. Do a set of minutes for the meeting to keep in your LLC. The actual reasons and tax issues should have been explained and planned out by your attorney and accountant. You should understand why you are doing it.

@Tsering Lhamo, welcome to BP. I don't know that I have much of good advice. If I could not invest locally and had your money and resources I would probably try somewhere like North nor South Carolina, or even in the Blue Mountain area of Alabama or Georgia. I would try a vacation rental if I was looking for cash flow. Not a lot of cash flow in long term in this market that pays well enough to support trips from New York. I am sure there are some, but this market and current interest rates make it tough. I don't know how much time you have, do you have time to study the market? Would you do better just buying into a REIT for awhile? Just a few thoughts.

@Hannah C Christie, I have also hear about Fannie or Freddie allowing a transfer of mortgage into a wholly owned company, but don't know the details.  First yes insurance is the first line of defense, but LLCs have a lot of protection as well.

Maybe do a Pro and Con check.

Pro, get the added protection of an LLC in addition to the insurance. By using a property manager you actually limit your liability a lot. You do not lose LLC protection just because you form an LLC and put a property you own now into it. Every LLC has to have partners put in capital in order for them to get started.

Pro, you are ready to buy another property and already have an existing LLC to put it in.

Con, even if Fannie allows the transfer will they let the interest rate stay the same?  Maybe.

Con ,you need to buy new title/mortgage insurance to cover the property in the new name.

Con. if you decide to sell you lose the $250 tax exemption if it was your primary home for 2 out of the last 5 years.

Also the homestead exemption laws vary wildly.  I don't know how they work in OK.  If you move out you normally lose the homestead exemption since it is not your primary home anymore.

Just my thoughts.

@AJ Wong, this is my favorite post of yours so far.  Very nice take on STRs.  I have started down that rabbit hole myself and am learning so much more than I ever expected, but unfortunately have a vast learning curve still ahead of me.  Thanks for taking the time to post this.

@Sarah Kensinger, the reason that your comments were not well received is likely that you made a direct attack on STR operators for lack of safety. I believed you used the word "appalling", and lots of exclamation points. I find it interesting that you cite people being killed, but show absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing on behalf of the owner or operator whatsoever. You ask why the owner/operator never came forward with evidence of fire or smoke alarms. First news outlets only publish sensational items, not evidence of someone operating a safe STR, Next if someone has guests die on their property the last thing they want to do is start spouting things to newspapers. They will talk to an attorney who will say to not comment.

If you really want to have a healthy conversation about safety in STRs then why not do it without attacking every STR operator in a broad stroke? How about writing an article on "The Ten Top Things You can Do To Make Your STR safer"?

I do not know of a single STR in my town that does not have smoke alarms, CO2 detectors, and fire extinguishers. I have them in every STR and long term rental I operate, yet I stayed in one this week without a smoke alarm or fire extinguisher. That being said in my LTRs they are not likely present that much. I install them, but when folks move out I find that the smoke alarms are missing, batteries dead, etc. I have some actually say, oh we took the fire extinguisher with us for camping and never put it back up. I carry 9 volt batteries in my pocket so if I go to a rental and check the smoke detector I can replace the battery despite my lease saying they are required to replace them twice a year. I now buy 10 year battery life smoke detectors, but have not converted all of my houses to them yet.

Next when anyone says anything contrary to your statement you immediately attack them, like why are you so hostile, are you an owner of the house that burned?  Or oh you are a moderator how come you have not fixed someone sending me spam.  Try engaging in meaningful dialogue about the topic instead of personal attacks.

I realize in today's world that everyone can be an armchair warrior who is fearless and aggressive since you may never come face to face with the other party, but problems really get solved by meaningful and respectful dialog, where each person listens to the other and treats them with respect. Safety is an issue that we all should be aware of. I have been a volunteer fireman for over 30 years and take fire safety seriously, but only after going to a class on STR safety did I realize that I leave lots of cleaning chemicals where young children could get to them. Now I am looking at putting child locks on cabinets with cleaning solutions, and am looking at moving cleaning supplies to upper cabinets for safety. It is a never ending process of learning when it comes to operating STRs as I am sure you have learned.

@Alden Fernandes, welcome to BP bud. There are a lot of internet companies that will form your WY LLC, be your registered agent, and give you an address for your business in WY for very little money. Like $500 range and only a few hundred a year to be the registered agent. I cannot do it that cheap. Unless you plan on moving to WY you MUST have someone do this for you. It is massively cheaper than going to one of the guru programs and paying $10k for this service.

@Adam Bindar, that is still too vague for me to give input.  Is the other party bringing in 25% in cash and you arrange the loan for the 75% and you both sign?  Is he bringing in 10?  Are you having your crew do $10,000 at cost?  Or $500,000 at cost?  Are the costs for materials being paid by the loan?  Fronted by you?  Fronted by the other party?  How much do you expect the increase in value to be?  $100,000, $500,000?