All Forum Posts by: Jim Hudelson

Being able to adjust the termostats remotely is fantastic.  Controlling what the guests do - not so much.  We don't do that.  Let them be comfortable with their own settings.  Monitor and change when the house is vacant is the blessing.

It depends.  If the internet provider supplies a modem/router combo then you use what they give you.  If the modem and router are separate devices, spend up and get a high quality wireless router.  People tend to not think about how many devices they have using the internet.  For example, your door lock, your t.v.'s, your thermostat, lighting, security cameras, etc.  All of this is putting a load on the router and needs to be accounted for.  In my opinion, the modem is less important than the router.

It's also important to have dual band router.  A lot of these internet devices require the slower speed connections.  The more expensive routers will almost certainly be dual band and have an auto-detecting feature to determine which band to assign for each device that is connected.  They also will have a setting where one SSID can be shared by both bands.

Another rule of thumb that I use (both in my rentals and in my personal space) is to buy new modems about every 3 years.  You want updated security and a smooth running device.  Old technology in todays world is a point of failure.

Internet speed is mostly determined by the level of service that you subscribe to.  Faster is better but you don't typically need the fastest available.  Something in the middle will work fine (unless you have a lot of devices connected (like 12+) in addition to computers.  500k upload speed is generally sufficient.

And one more tip to finish.  A couple of times a year you should power cycle both your modem and router.  Flush it's brain.  It is simple preventative maintenance that minimizes issues.

I mostly use Netgear Nighhawk routers as my go to's.

Good idea.  You will get more business.  We allow dogs only and we don't impose many rules.  I find this practice annoying when we travel with our dogs.  For example, requiring that the dogs be in a crate or expecting dogs to not be on the furniture.  We don't crate our dogs and if they want to be on the couch, that's ok.  Our dogs are not a problem.  My approach is that if something would be hard to prove then it's hard to enforce, so why require it?

What we do require is a signed pet agreement that has minimal rules(pick up the crap, flea & tick prevention, etc) and we require that they send a copy of current vaccination records and a picture of the dog(s).  This requires more back-and-forth and extra time but we find that it also gets irresponsible pet owners out of the picture quicker.  We charge $100 pet fee and this is a money maker.  Kids have been way more destructive in our experience than have any dogs.  Some minor damages along the way (like a door screen punched out).

We have a fenced yard.  I think this is crucial.  When we travel with our dogs it's the most important feature that I'm looking for.  It's surprising to me how hard I have to dig to get this information from most listings.  If you have a fenced yard put this in your information - right up front.

One more thing, we don't accept puppies.  Any dogs less than 1 1/2 years old are generally rejected.  We have made exceptions, but usually not.

It looks like your property would be great for people travelling with dogs.  Why not open it up for this?  We rent property short term and allow dogs (up to 2, 50 pds or less, pet agreement and $100 pet fee).  Most of our guests are travelling with their dog or dogs so I know that it drives a lot of business to our home.  

When we travel I'm always looking through the photos to see if the back yard is fenced.  This is real important for us and it's surprisingly hard to find.  In our listing we emphasize that we are pet friendly (dogs only) and that our back yard is fenced and private.  Then we have a couple of photos to back this up.

Over 10 years of renting we have had very little damage or trouble due to dogs.  Kids...that's another story!  They are the ones that cause damage.

The way that I see it, there is an analogy between the STR market and t.v. How you obtain t.v. is ever changing (and doing it quickly). The same is true of the short term rental business. You have to keep up. I think that buying into a proven rental market is smart. The florida panhandle is excellent for this. Year-around business, regulations that are favorable, demand. it's all there. As others have said it then comes down to location and execution. If you have a house in Old Seagrove and present it well you are going to rake it in. If you have a 2 br condo on the beach - good luck. What makes yours better than the next? You have 100's if not 1000's of competitors for this type of property. If you have a house in Seaside or Watercolor or Grayton Beach you will likely keep it rented. I've traveled a lot and the beaches in this area are top shelf. I also lived in that area for 20+ years. I left because it has just gotten too too. Too much commercialization. Too much traffic. Too many people from cities that want it to be like home. But, people continue to flock there for their vacations so it works for STR.

In my mind, if the senate bill passes, Polis veto's it.  That's not based on what I know just what I think.  Does anybody know where Polis stands on this?  Colorado is pretty dependent on tourism.

They lost me at Crestview, Fl.  I know this place - it's no vacation mecca.  It's a bedroom community for Eglin Air Base.  It's a gas stop for people headed to the beaches which are over an hour away.  For real.

 Ahhhh - Michael you are right!  My bad.  That said, it is easy to get at and I always pull it off.  I can remove a lock and re-install it with a screwdriver in less than 5 minutes.

We have a 2 bedroom house in a college town.  We advertise solely on VRBO (AirBnb was not working well for us).  We get occasional inquires from travelling professors or other college related people.  Inevitably our nightly rate is too high to fit their budget / per diem.  Does anybody have a feel for how much these people are allowed for lodging?  These are typically people wanting to stay 2-6 weeks.  I'm interested in marketing to these folks in the lower demand periods and coming up with a price that would work for them (and us).  Any help or personal antidotes are greatly appreciated.

The Encode app has a battery life monitor.  You can look up where the remaining power is currently at.  Perhaps being paranoid about somebody hacking the lock should be more of a concern. to me - but it's not.  A good feature of the lock is that it logs date/time/user for each event.  The downside that I've experienced is that the times are not always accurate.  Usually they are but it can't be absolutely relied upon.  

When you set up an access code for your guest you can enter a start & stop date & time.  Once the code is entered it doesn't matter if your wi-fi is working or not.  the code is set internally in the lock and will continue to function.  The wif-fi connection is important for maintaining the access codes, but not for usage.

The Encode does use up batteries but the 'every six months' rule is pretty safe.  It uses 4 AA batteries and they are easy to replace.  We've had guests replace them before.  

The one caveat I'll throw out there is that Schlage puts a sticker on the lock underneath the plastic casing (which is real easy to remove).  This sticker has the default master code written on it.  Pull this sticker!  I also change the master codes on all of our locks so that they all have the same super-secret master code.  That way I don't have to keep a log of master codes.

I'm guessing that within a year or two other companies will have competitive locks so  this is one of those areas that bears keeping an eye on.