All Forum Posts by: Jon Martin

Coming across Walhalla is what drove me to your neck of the woods . . . Inventory was sparse at the time as it usually seems to be. 

@Tom Dean not every STR needs to be somewhere tourist centric, people have all kinds of reasons for wanting to rent a STR in an average joe kind of town. Often the less touristy places have better year round occupancy because there is a broader mix of reasons for people to visit, plus those towns are often short on hotel beds. Especially growing areas where they need out of town work crews for new construction.

Just be sure to optimize for location within that market as much as your budget will allow and also make sure you are compliant with local laws. 

Whichever are combined into a single device. The less devices and cords the better. 

9' shuffleboard table would fit a single car garage nicely, but be sure to dress it up the rest of the garage as already mentioned. TV, Neon LED lights, and some other fun decorations. Multicade would also be great and could probably fit as well. 

I like Fine Art America. You can do a search for your local area to find photo prints of local landmarks and also by color, style, medium etc. Then you can order it in different sizes and materials. Not cheap but reasonable prices, ~$200 for a larger framed canvas or acrylic print. 

On ETSY you can also buy hundreds of digital files of abstract art in different color pallets for super cheap ($10-20), then have those printed onto whatever type of print and size you like with Shutterfly or any other digital printing service. 

The only management cost I have is my own time, which outside of natural disasters is 1-2 hours/week at best. CAPEX can be minimized by purchasing the right property, frontloading fixes, and having a reserve fund- all of which you would have with an LTR as well.

 @Tanner Lewis that's awesome to hear! I have heard mixed signals on this, but it seems that some lenders are allowing them now. Goes to show it pays to call around. 

My STRs are a few counties south of Asheville and lost power for a week. It was pretty easy for me to refund guests once I called in, including fees, but by the time I was making the calls it was clearly a mess. With the app I could only refund from my own payout. 

Hope that helps! 

If you have room in your DTI you can get a Fannie/Freddy loan. If it works as a LTR with rent higher than PITI you can DSCR.

Plenty of markets with a lower entry point where the numbers work. I heard a STR focused book keeper say that the her Midwest investors are crushing it, while the more typical markets are struggling.

How common are 30 year leases for SFRs? If I am signing a contract to pay for 30 years, then I may as well get a mortgage and own it by the end. Plus it would have to be a banger of a property for me to have that kind of confidence in it going the distance through all the market cycles, regulation changes, OTA market shifts etc at which point I may as well buy it.

Which circles back to my original point- if I am not owning and benefiting from the appreciation, why should I absorb so much risk and upfront capital if instead I can find an underperforming property with potential, take a guaranteed return off the top and invest almost no money on my side?