All Forum Posts by: Joshua Strickland

I would tell them. If you pitch it right you even get an extra set of eyes watching your property for you. You want to get ahead of this or it will be an issue.

Also you checked the HOA restrictions but did you check zoning with the county/city?

One of the things I strongly agree with Dave Ramsey on is that trailers depreciate! I personally wouldn’t recommend it. Most people when going to the beach want either a house or condo. Plenty of condos priced cheap enough that would be more appealing to vacationers. Also not sure how a mobile home would hold up during hurricane season and if it does I would hate to see the insurance on it.

Check out “Smoky Mountain VR Owners Only” Facebook group. You can usually get some good info in there.

Not crazy. Curveballs are fun to figure out, but that was a pretty large hook for a first property or any for that matter. Unless you were comfortable doing very quick due diligence on it you probably made the right move.

With that said…smaller issues will pop up with basically every property ever, but it shouldn’t be large enough to change your entire game plan like this was.

Property management software will run you between $10 -$100 dollars/ month depending on what company you choose. I have Smartbnb @ about $20/ month.

Pricing tool will run you about the same, once again depending on what you choose. I have pricelabs @$19.99/month.

Stessa can be used for accounting and is free. 

I 3rd what @Michael Baum & @Bruce Woodruff said. Own it to build equity and courses will teach you some, but the free stuff and getting a mentor is better. And free

https://www.airdna.co/blog/bes...

Airdna, alltherooms, and Rabbu are a decent(ish) place to start when looking at potential income. They aren't exact though and doesn't come close to getting first hand knowledge from other STR hosts in the market that you are looking at.

My money is and will continue to be in one of the below markets…

1. Smoky Mountains (Pigeon Forge)

2. Florida Panhandle (PCB)

3. Possible expansion into either Branson, MO, Broken Bow, OK, or Blue Ridge, GA.

@Nancy Bachety To be honest I’ve just implemented it, so no repeat guests yet. It captures their email when they log into my WiFi and from their I can run email campaigns in the future. Especially for the slower months. Also have a QR code for the website in my welcome book. My direct book pricing is the same for now, but I should probably go back and add 3-5% which would still be lower than Airbnb and VRBO fees.