All Forum Posts by: John Mausteller

Welcome @Stefani Mokris ! What a great story and an inspiration. Proves that staying focused on a goal gets you there. We live on the coast in North Carolina on the Outer Banks. We bought our first house in 2012 and it was a duplex and we rented out half and lived in the other half. That was our first taste into the investment world and we have not looked back since. We still own that house and through HELOCs and traditional loans we have bought 6 more SFH homes and one quad plex. We manage them all ourselves and they are a mix of short and long term rentals. I am handy as well so able to fix up my own properties. We sell real estate here and have loved working and meeting other like minded investors and helping them buy a beach investment. Thanks for sharing your story - I look forward to following along!

Agreed - AirDNA has the most data and if you read through it all and with a monthly subscription, you can do your research and then cancel when you are not using it anymore. 

 Some people certainly don’t like that … that’s where I think a trundle twin in each room under the queen might be better 

I don’t see why there would be any reason for it to be illegal to do so.   Just like you are allowed to rent a room to a tenant in your mortgaged home.   After they close the loan, and you are making on time payments , rarely do they ever look back into anything anyways.  

I would consider doing a built in bunk maybe - if the ceilings are high enough you could do a comfortable one - even queen over queen or a twin over queen.   You could also do a trundle under each queen bed - so that adds two extra beds, even tho in separate rooms.  If you do a twin over twin with the queen room, I’d make sure it was very sturdy - or built in.  If the space is super tight, I’d consider a different approach. 

You should be able to find a handful of agents on here to help! I assume atleast one that even owns their own STRs in that area! 

Great story - and portfolio that you and your wife have built!  Definitely an inspiration - it’s a long term game and before you know it , you own more property than you ever imagined.   Where about in Western NC?  I live and sell real estate in the Outer Banks but I have a couple investment properties out in the Black Mountain area. 

Hey Nick! I think you can certainly do this!  I loved on 30a for a while and have bought and sold a few investment properties there.  My brother and some good friends still live there and own numerous investment homes in the area.  Happy to connect you with them if you would like!  I have a handful of realtor contacts there as well!  Shoot me a message, I would be glad to connect you!

Hey Kelly! 

I say YES, manage your own! Mainly because you are only 40 minutes away! Find a good team, but with you being only that far away, if it was a major thing, you could get their rather quickly in the grand scheme of things. I manage all my STRs , some of them locally which is obvioulsy easier, but the other ones are 6.5 hours away but it has worked out great. If there are lots of trades in the area or surrounding area of your STR, you can certainly manage it on your own. Connect with Handymen, Cleaners, etc - I think it is a no brainer, as 30% management fee is pretty outrageous!

Hey Lubica! 

I have quite a few local lenders I can send over to you if you still need one.   Send me a message if so and I can email you my list of lenders over!