All Forum Posts by: Julie McCoy

@Noel Felix III I just have my housekeeper do it :) 

@Noel Felix III I have a similarly sized house (2/2 + loft) that I'll market to couples by locking off the master suite, thus making it a 1/1.  I of course encourage booking the full house, and only accept reservations on the smaller version if the stay is coming up soon and the full house isn't already booked.  It's worked out pretty well for me during seasons when families aren't traveling as often.

I just read the thread you linked.  Those people are not moving out on Feb. 9 no matter what they said to you.  They want to stay beyond 30 days because they know that after that it will be MUCH harder for you to kick them out.  And if you don't get an attorney involved you will probably NEVER get rid of them.

This is serious.  They're trying to take advantage of you.  You cannot believe anything they are telling you.  And if you do not do as we're advising you to do, it's going to cost you a lot more money (not to mention stress) than dealing with them right now.

You don't need an attorney to evict them - yet.  You need to TALK to an attorney to find out what you are allowed to do to get them out without evicting them.  They have not been there 30 days yet.  You need to ask an attorney WHAT ARE YOU ALLOWED TO DO TO GET THEM OUT.  Are you allowed to change the locks?  You might be right now, but after 30 days you will not be allowed to.  If you're advised that you're allowed to change the locks, DO IT RIGHT NOW.  Do not wait.  Do not be nice.  

You will probably have to pay the attorney for their time and advice.  It will be worth every cent.  It will cost you a lot more if you continue waiting.

You need to get an attorney involved.  You're just about to run into tenants rights issues because you're in California and you're coming up on them being in your house for 30 days.  If you can't get them out before they've been there 30 days you're going to be in for a world of hassle.

Talk to a real estate attorney about what your rights are in this situation vs. her rights.  You need to know exactly what you can and cannot due or else you risk getting sued.  Do not change the locks, you may not have the right to lock her out of the house at this point.  Do this ASAP so you have as much time as possible to respond, your options right now (before they've been there 30 days) may be more flexible than once you cross the 30 day mark.

I find it varies by user, as well as region.  Both areas I'm in have owners who swear by VRBO, but 95% of my bookings come through AirBNB.  I'm not sure why my experience is different, but it's just as well because I prefer AirBNB.

Flipkey was not worth my time and Booking.com was an even bigger waste of my time.

 But DON'T use AirBNB's dynamic pricing, find a third-party app to do that because AirBNB's dynamics are terrible.  I wouldn't make any money if I used them.  :p  

I haven't used BP's AirBNB calculator, I had no idea it would give a suggested nightly rate.  Now I'm curious how they're getting their data!  Regardless, I don't trust apps to give me an appropriate nightly rate, they always seem to be wildly high or wildly low.  Nothing like first-hand research to get the job done right!  Thanks for the heads up!

Hi @Craig Gerulski!  For Nashville's current permit process, you'll definitely want to purchase a condo that's zoned specifically to allow short-term rentals - there are a number of options available (@Avery Carl is very knowledgeable about them). You will NOT want to purchase a single-family home, as I believe you now can only get an STR permit for those if you're an owner-occupant.

The Nashville permit process is pretty specific - nashville.gov has lots of great, easy-to-find information on what precisely they require, I encourage you to check it out. (look under Codes Administration - Short Term Rentals) I don't know what, if any, differences there might be in obtaining a permit for those STR-zoned condos vs. an owner-occupied unit.

As for purchase-to-listing time, it really depends on how quickly you can get it furnished, photographed, and have your boots-on-the-ground ready to go (particularly your housekeeper).  I like to take two weeks to get a new property up and running, but I'm sure it could be done in a week or less if you're willing to spend the necessary $ to get furniture delivered quickly, not take the time to shop much for deals, etc.  DEFINITELY have a really specific plan before you close so you can jump right in, know exactly what you need to buy/build/install, etc. and be prepared for it to cost more than if you're able to take more time.

What's going to take longer, I imagine, is getting the actual permit.  DO NOT list your property before you have the permit in hand.  

After that, how long until it's booked?  Can't possibly be answered, as there are too many variables at work, but if you've got an attractive space in a great location with excellent photographs and a low entry price, it shouldn't be long - and then you can raise your price as the 5-star reviews roll in.

I hope this helps!  Good luck!

Hey @John Bucknum!  Sounds like you've got a good situation to do a trial run and learn the ropes with pretty low risk.  You can manage long-distance, no problem, when you have trusted local people to do the hands-on work (I'm 200-2000 miles from mine).  

@Ray Johnson and @Michael Greenberg have good advice about checking out the local competition and trying to get a feel for what you can expect re: occupancy, rate, etc.  Be careful with using AirDNA for analysis, though - the data can be useful, but the numbers are quite high in my experience, so take it with a shaker of salt.  A more accurate approach is to run a manual search for like properties in your area and see what their calendars look like.  Make sure you plug in a variety of dates to get a feel for prices over time; without dates AirBNB will just show you their base rate.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 Depends on what you want.  You can get 1/1 cabins for <$200k and you can get 5-6BR cabins for >$550k, and a lot in between.  There's not a huge discrepancy in rate of return, so it's dealer's choice, really.  I like small cabins.  @Tim Schroeder likes big ones.  We're both really happy with the money we're making.  There's more nuance to it than that, of course, but one of the cool things about the area is there's basically something for everyone.