All Forum Posts by: Julie McCoy

 If they have a calendar app that works with the .ical protocol, they can just import your AirBNB (or VRBO or whatever) calendar to their phone.  It would be considered a calendar they "subscribe" to, and all they need is the .ical link you'd use to sync your AirBNB/VRBO calendars.

 $400k in the Smokies will get you a heckuva lot more than it will in Hawaii!  

My first VR is in a small town by a national park (NOT the Smokies) and it does really well, but not a market I want more than one property in - it's pretty much saturated now, it's very seasonal, and finding good help in a town of <3000 is NOT EASY.  I've considered selling the property just because that part is a PITA, but frankly I love it there too much.  

My other three investments are all in the Smokies where occupancy is both high and consistent, and the infrastructure is far more supportive of VRs.  I don't worry about those properties, whether I'm 200 or 2000 miles away.

There's certainly plenty of excellent pockets throughout the country where you can have a viable STR - but the logistics are a lot easier in the "sure thing" markets, IMO.

@Paul Sandhu I'd want to use the boxing gear every night just to cope with how much I'd hate knocking on doors every day!  LOL 

@Paul Sandhu How long are they staying?  Doesn't seem like it'd take too long for 9 salesmen to canvass Coffeyville... then again, I had no idea door-to-door salesmen still existed!  

There's no doubt you've got the fattest margins of anybody on this entire forum. :) 

@Amanda Williams I totally understand the tendency to over-analyze/over-prepare!  LOL  Thanks for taking it in good humor.  Once you can break out of the analysis paralysis, that trait will work in your favor - and you'll find that while running a vacation rental is definitely different from other kinds of RE investing, it's not that complicated once you get it up and running.  The time/money investment is DEFINITELY front-end heavy.  Give yourself a few weeks to work out the kinks and figure out your patterns, and then you'll be off to the races.

My Smokies properties do great.  They're super easy to manage, cash flow is awesome, the area is slammed all the time so my occupancy is great, and the fact that the area is so tourist oriented means working with vendors is easy because they're so used to VRs.  And for you, that area is just a bit over an hour away!  Not mandatory at all (I lived in Los Angeles when I first started investing there) but definitely helpful to be so close.  

I'm actually going to be in Maggie Valley the week after next for a couple of days, shoot me a PM if you want to grab coffee or something in Asheville and chat STRs. :) 

You really don't need a management system for a single property.  It'll make your life more complicated, and cost you more money.  Also, for your first property it will be good for you to do a lot of things manually at first - learn the system, don't hand it over to a computer right away.  Figure out what prices work in your market for your unit - otherwise, how will you know if a computer is pricing it correctly?  (I've tried them all and think they're all garbage, frankly)  Learn what you need to communicate with your guests and when, have it down to a science, THEN automate it.  

Integrating calendars is dead simple and natively supported on AirBNB, VRBO, etc.  Ignore all the systems saying "We're a channel manager!  You need a channel manager!"  Nonsense.  You definitely need your calendars synced with each other, but you definitely DON'T need additional software to do it.  Search "sync AirBNB VRBO calendar" or similar and you'll learn how in a second.

Communicating with your cleaning staff... what about text messaging?  That's what I do for my four properties.  And if they're just a little tech-savvy, they can import your booking calendar to their smart phone and see your entire schedule at a glance.  I've never once had to communicate the booking schedule to my housekeepers in the Smokies, because they just check their phone each day.  It's brilliant.  

Once you've got your arms wrapped around how everything works, THEN you can look for a system that's suited for you (if you still want one).  But right now, you don't know what you don't know, and management software is only going to muddy the water.

New hotels are a sign of rising demand, and so, a good thing for STRs.  My STRs are in vacation destinations, not urban areas, but even so my typical guest stays 2-3 days, not a week.  

And while I'm sure there's a point where there could be more supply than demand, those hotels about to be built are literally banking on there being enough to demand to supply their hundreds of rooms. That means there's probably plenty of room for some STR action. That said, look at the budget level of the hotels being built - if they're mid-range or higher, good deal. If they're Motel 6s, you may not want to bother.

Looking at the other area AirBNBs is probably your best market research, though.  If the calendars of comparable properties to what you're envisioning look pretty full/are making good money, see where this road takes you.  If it looks like they're mostly empty even though they seem to be doing all the right things, then you probably want to pass.

Check out the permit situation first. It's tough to get a permit for an STR in Palm Springs. Easier in surrounding areas (Indio, Coachella, etc).

There are several Palm Springs investors on this forum who will hopefully see your post and shed some light on estimating revenue.

That's one of the easiest things to budget for. No matter what platform you're using, you're paying 3% - AirBNB charges 3%, VRBO/HA charges 3% if you've got a paid subscription, if you're direct booking you're paying 3% to your CC processor. It's a line item that's 3% of your projected net monthly income. Hopefully you're also budgeting a percentage for vacancy and a percentage for repairs and CapEx... this is just one more percentage. No variables like with utilities etc. where you're doing a certain amount of guessing.

 You're not wrong, and it's a risk.  I once had to have someone present for the cable installation... talk about frequently missed windows!!  But fortunately I had a ton of stuff for my handyman to do anyway (again, it was a new property), so I just made them happen on the same day.  

It's admittedly an issue that doesn't always have a neat solution, but hopefully there's some flexibility around a planned install so things can be organized in an efficient and cost-effective way.  But at some point, it's the cost of doing business.