All Forum Posts by: John Morgan

@Account Closed

Barb is great. She will give you numbers on how many nights each unit gets rented out per year to give you a feel or trend for the kind of revenue each type of property brings in. I list my two bedroom cabin (Mayberry Lodge) as “pet friendly” to appeal to more people. I’ve never had an issue with dogs doing any damage. And during the summer months, people check out and they turn it so quick due to people checking in a few hours later. They list these rentals on several websites including a major one in Branson. And about 25% of my guests come from travel agents somehow. Sunset must have a good reputation with those travel agents. 

5k per property should do it  

Yes, four HVACs went out  Well only 3, and a property I had just bought only had window units. I upgraded that place with a new HVAC system. My insurance company said it needed a new roof. Since I had to put in a new roof, I decided to fix the foundation. It needed new siding and windows so did that as well. The list goes on. Fortunately I was able to raise the rent from $600/month on it to $1,400/month after repairs. I also had  three properties with foundation issues at the same time too. Those were about 5k each.  Most of this happened all last July. Then two or three months later the rehab on the house I wasn’t expecting to fix up so soon happened. I pray that 70k worth of unexpected costs doesn’t come up for a while!

@Aldo Balatti

I ended up buying another STR in the same area as my first one since it was such an easy investment with the management company doing everything for me keeping it occupied 15-20 days/month most of the year. However, I was worried about an economic downturn and the uncertainty of visitors during bad times, so I sold one of them. I've only been in the STR game for less than 5 years. I would be curious to see how people have done on their STRs during bad times.

After selling one of my cabins, I decided to get into SFRs. I figured during bad times, I could probably still find someone to rent out my homes..even if I have to drop the rent 10-15% to keep them from being vacant. Not sure how much traffic my STR will get with a slow economy.

Following this discussion. I'm seeing tons of owner financed properties listed on the MLS. No bank loans or cash purchases..just owner financed loans with these properties about 10k over market rate. I've got a couple properties paid off that I wouldn't mind doing that with. I don't know if it's worth it or how to go about it. They are older properties that are slowly falling apart. I wouldn't mind being the bank and let someone else take care of all the maintenance problems.

@Jonathan Bombaci

I had to repair four of my property’s foundations last year. The clay soil in Texas was the cause. Almost all older homes have issues with this. The average cost was 4K per house.

@Aaron DiCaprio

My tenants with scores below 600 seem to be lifers in my properties. They won’t ever be able to afford a house and are living pay check to pay check. These are my best tenants that seem to never want to leave. So I’m happy with these types of people. My tenants with high credit scores and higher paying jobs don’t stay as long. They end up staying only a year or two until they can afford a house to buy. And I hate turning over a property to rent out again.

My first investment property I bought 4 years ago is a STR two bedroom cabin in Branson, MO. I pay a management company 35% to do it all. They wire money into each month and I don't hear from them or do anything. I make only 10% on my investment, but it's easy money and we fly out there once or twice a year to visit it. They take great care of it and it does well. I don't have the time to deal with it, reservations, guests, maintenance etc. Occasionally there is a problem and somebody is needed on a moments notice. Those are phone calls I don't need to deal with living out of state.