All Forum Posts by: Joel Oh

Quote from @Jules Aton:

Quote from @Joel Oh:

Quote from @Jules Aton:

Quote from @Laura Winters:

Put a lot of insulation whenever, wherever possible. Save both your utility bills and guests complaining about noise. 

 What a timely answer. I just spent the night in my almost ready for VRBO condo and started a thread about a kid running overhead. Do you think insulation would help? 

Yeah, they sell floor padding goes under the LVP or carpet for that. (or they come with it) It is not cheap. Otherwise, you can put insulation in the ceiling if you have a space, but this is more difficult and not the direct solution. If you have a ceiling over 8 feet you can drop the ceiling and put insulation between. Up and down noise is not a cheap thing to fix because the house was built wrong from the beginning. They saved money by building house shorter by reducing thickness of the floor.

Thanks. It is coming from the unit above me so I would have to do something with my ceiling. The ceilings are decent height so I have some room there but it feels like vibration noise which I read might not be helped with insulation? 

 That is why padding is more efficient way of handling up down noise. If you can lower your selling, get the rock wool and use drop ceiling or drywall it. It is a great time to add some ceiling lights or run new wires while you’re working on it. If you’re feeling the vibration from the wall, that means wall is missing insulation as well. At this point, it’s easier to ask upper unit to use rug or something above your bedroom. 

Quote from @Jules Aton:

Quote from @Laura Winters:

Put a lot of insulation whenever, wherever possible. Save both your utility bills and guests complaining about noise. 

 What a timely answer. I just spent the night in my almost ready for VRBO condo and started a thread about a kid running overhead. Do you think insulation would help? 

Yeah, they sell floor padding goes under the LVP or carpet for that. (or they come with it) It is not cheap. Otherwise, you can put insulation in the ceiling if you have a space, but this is more difficult and not the direct solution. If you have a ceiling over 8 feet you can drop the ceiling and put insulation between. Up and down noise is not a cheap thing to fix because the house was built wrong from the beginning. They saved money by building house shorter by reducing thickness of the floor.

Quote from @Tim Bee:

Thanks for the replies.  Yea 4k with self management / maintenance / dealing with government regulations / occasional fines etc.  Its about 15 hrs a week between both houses.  So that's the only way I can make the 4k.  Here's some examples of the fines i get all the time: noise violations fines, show up in more that one hour fine, a fine for a bag and a soda cup in the front yard grass.  Lol..   Anyway I got them for about 700 total and they are now about 1.3 so I think I will put them on the mls....thanks again

 It is not your net then. You forgot to add your own wage. You might be losing money right now

Quote from @Ken Boone:

Uggh.. I just checked all my properties and they are still showing up in chronological order. I hope they are just in a testing phase and will receive enough complaints to pull this back.

I see this applied to all my properties. Since they haven’t announced it officially I think they are in a testing phase. Probably region by region and super hosts first then full on. They rolled back a few different features previously so hopefully that is the case! 

Quote from @Lauren Kormylo:

You should call them and complain.  Do they want guests to book on their platform, or do they want to scare them away with the only bad review you (and others) have?  Most companies put the best reviews as "the most relevant" which is what Airbnb is doing now.

 I think this is what AI companies are selling as a feature and the industry is moving toward that direction. We will soon live in the world the AI will schedule the whole trip starting from airplane ticket to restaurants and we will be just a part of it. All reviews will be written by AI and AI will read them for analysis 😂

This is what happen when an inexperienced landlord try to be transparent and take their business as a job. You went in and showed all your cards without plan B. Of course the tenant will run all over you. You are running a business. It is your responsibility to find the right answer, give a clear expectation to people you hire, learn about the house and industry. What are you going to sue the previous landlord for? Have you asked what the typical utility bills are? You either make an expensive mistake and learn it in a hard way or study before you make mistakes. Well you will still make mistakes. Good luck

Just non-renew with 30 days or 60 days whatever your city asks... why do you bother to reason with unreasonable people?

He will likely not move out after you give him non renewal. Tell him he will lose his voucher if he gets evicted. He will likely still not move out. Eviction after with holdover not freaking noise or lease violation. He will likely not lose his voucher because he will settle at the court and his case will be expunged. You will likely lose 2~4 months worth of rents + court fee. It is just reality. 

People who truly believe talking to Section 8 will make any difference have to be joking. What are they going to tell him? Be quiet, or you get tardy? XD You never lose vouchers simply because you are loud or violating minor lease rules. You have to understand that these people don't care about anything, and the government people are overworked and will not follow up with all the small cases.

 Also you will never win the eviction case with noise. Don't waste your time with an unwinable case. Just non-renew without giving any reason and move on. You will learn how to deal with these people over time.

Quote from @Dan H.:

Quote from @Joel Oh:

@Dan H. 

Being a super host and knowing how to place claims are two different things. You can be super hosts for 10 years and have 0 claim experience. It is a matter of how bottom-line-oriented they are and knowing how to file insurance claims. I got 20k+ from just reimbursement in 2024. At this level of scale, it is almost the same as running an extra unit. You would wish your PM to know how to file claims and protect your assets when your unit is vandalized or someone sues you for slip and fall. Moreover, I filter horrible guests from Airbnb so it is a win-win :)

Your post is so stupid .  Let me enumerate the reasons:

1) my pm paid for the damages.  It did not cost me $0.01.  This was stated in my post.  They simply did not desire to spend more time than it was worth to recover the money from Airbnb. Maybe you would spend the time to recover such a small amount but should you?

2) dropping a vape in a toilet mid stay is clearly an accident.  If it was being done on purpose they would do it just before check out and probably put something worth less than a vape. So quality of tenant is irrelevant as accidents can happen.

So most of your post demonstrates that you did not really think about it.  I am glad my pm does not spend more time than it is worth recovering a small expense like a toilet.  I am glad they realize that I should not be responsible for the cost of a toilet that failed due to a guest accidentally dropping a vape in the toilet and picked up the replacement cost.  I really have zero idea what you think I should be disappointed with my PM about.  I was criticizing Airbnb for not immediately covering the cost.  I was not criticizing my pm for covering my cost or deciding it was not worth further effort dealing with Airbnb.  In my view they made the correct decision and if you spent significant time recovering this cost, well I think we all know what that is.

 Yes, your PM paid for this incident. How many other incidents did he decide not to reimburse because he thinks those are too small? If you throw away 30 linens per year without getting reimbursed, it is $1,000. You can get reimbursed for cleaning if guests smoke or bring unauthorized pets which easily can be a few hundred dollars per incident. I am not criticizing your PM. It sounds like you trust your PM and he is doing what he is getting paid for. Just like every professional has a different pay range and skill cap, PM has differences in knowledge and skills. If you are happy with your current PM, that is really fine. 

I am just saying if I managed your property, I would never paid for the damage out of my pocket simply because I have a solid system and team to win any reimbursement cases. My cleaners take a video after every turn, my team goes in to check everything is good after cleaning and record salt and PH level logs and I have a licensed plumber who is in charge of maintaining plumbing, water heater, and boiler system with logs. I have no room for any guest to put the blame on my business. It is just like law firms from NYC have a full team vs local independent lawyers have a one-man army or a very small team. Not everyone needs to or can use DLA Piper for their cases. I didn't mean to criticize your PM. It is just a reality how many PMs have no idea how to process claims and have close to 0 systems to protect assets for business owners. 

@Dan H. 

Being a super host and knowing how to place claims are two different things. You can be super hosts for 10 years and have 0 claim experience. It is a matter of how bottom-line-oriented they are and knowing how to file insurance claims. I got 20k+ from just reimbursement in 2024. At this level of scale, it is almost the same as running an extra unit. You would wish your PM to know how to file claims and protect your assets when your unit is vandalized or someone sues you for slip and fall. Moreover, I filter horrible guests from Airbnb so it is a win-win :)

Quote from @Dan H.:

Quote from @Joel Oh:

Have you heard something called depreciation..? The same thing you claim on your tax return for your properties. Yes, just like you claim depreciation on the use of your property, any company including an insurance company claim depreciation when they pay for your damage. You don't get 100% simply because you replaced the item. I don't disagree that Airbnb claims can be difficult but this is all very common in the industry. 

For your payout, I don't know the full story but Airbnb doesn't cover extra fees including cleaning fees. I mean, you don't need to clean the property or pay local taxes since there is no use so I think this is pretty fair. However, this system can hurt hosts who hide the true cost in the cleaning fees. 

Maybe deal with an actual insurance company then maybe you will change your perspective toward Airbnb haha.. Good luck

>Have you heard something called depreciation..? The same thing you claim on your tax return for your properties. Yes, just like you claim depreciation on the use of your property, any company including an insurance company claim depreciation when they pay for your damage.

This depends on your insurance. You can have replacement value insurance and this seems to be what Airbnb claims to provide yet sometimes getting them to pay is challenging.

My PM has decided to pay for guest damage rather than waste time and effort trying to collect from Airbnb. This should not be necessary. The last event was a vape stuck in the s-trap of the toilet that required toilet to be replaced. Because toilet did not clog until day 3 of the guest stay, there was no doubt the vape entered the toilet during the guest stay. Airbnb refused payment. PM made a couple attempts to collect and then offered to cover the damage because toilet replacements are not that costly and continuing to pursue the damages did not make sense for them.

Airbnb is supposed to cover guest damage but if they refuse to pay for guest damage their insurance has reduced value and cannot be relied upon.

 No, Aircover uses depreciation and that is why they ask you how old is the item at the very beginning. Anyone familiar with the Airbnb claim system knows this. I can guarantee that if your PM can't win Aircover and thinks it is a waste of his time, he will not win any insurance or small claim fight at the court. You didn't get covered because your PM didn't know how to place a claim correctly. I place easily over 100 claims every year and win 99% of them.