All Forum Posts by: Julie McCoy

@Paul Sandhu That's great for your market where everyone's trying to cram in and save a buck for a few weeks. But for someone who is designing a STR from the ground up, for families or friends traveling into town to visit college students or attend an event... they don't want to sleep in closets. :p

I agree with @Jon Crosby that the emphasis should be on common spaces (and designed in such a way to shield neighbors from noise), and also about creating technology-friendly spaces!  @Paul Sandhu's point is well taken re: dining rooms being unnecessary, but an open floorplan or large living rooms would allow for big sofas and good gathering spaces.

I also want to add that closets are essential in a LTR, but arguably unnecessary in a STR. You'll want to have some anyway, to preserve the possibility of using it as an LTR and to store household goods, linens, etc. but things such as walk-in closets would be wasted in a STR.

In-unit laundry facilities are another thing that aren't necessary.  If you're building a multi-unit building, I'd suggest a common laundry facility, as your renters won't need to use it frequently.

The kitchens can also be kept somewhat minimal - you'll want them big enough to provide all the appliances (including dishwashers!), but you don't need much in the way of food prep space or a lot of cabinet storage... or even full-size appliances.

If you want to get as many bodies in there as you can, plan the bedrooms big enough to comfortably hold two queen beds, or bunks - and like Paul noted, make sure the guest/bathroom ratio is a reasonable one!  

It sounds like a fun project, good luck!

I'm only really qualified to answer question 2: I run a VR from 200 miles away and another one from 2000 miles away.  Not nuts, definitely possible, just need a good team (housekeeper, handyman) on the ground.

@Luke Carl I keep picking up little tips and tricks from you...

(but I already know a lot of them because I HAVE talked to you and @Avery Carl - a lot - and you guys are basically a ready-made business plan for GB/PF.  Folks, if you're considering that area, they're seriously invaluable.)

@Nicholas Dill I agree you aren't going to get much directly from the forum - because your question is very market-specific and this forum is small and covers a lot of territory.  Reaching out to fellow hosts with similar properties in your market is probably your best bet.   Also agree that you don't want to lead with asking for housekeeping referrals - those are valuable and nobody wants their good housekeeper to get so busy their availability comes into question!  See if you can arrange a time to chat or meet for coffee (on you) and see what you can learn from them in general, and work your way up to housekeeper etc.

Ugh that blows.  But weren't you just telling me scratches give floors character?  ;)  

Seriously, in this situation you're probably better off leaving it be with the guest.  Since he can nail you with the review, and in all likelihood this is only the first scratch of many that floor will experience... let it slide and patch it up, and take a deep breath and realize it's like the first scratch on a new car.  Inevitable but painful.  But at least the next one won't hurt so much.

 Okay, I love this idea, I need to phase that in to my listings... 

To the OP: as others have said, what you actually need is either a rider on your homeowner's policy, or a commercial policy designed to cover STRs.  A standard homeowner's policy will NOT cover commercial activity.  

Renter's insurance is a different thing entirely that you purchase if you yourself are renting a long-term place, to protect your personal property.  

It's Kissimmee, it caters to the Disney crowd. :) It doesn't surprise me that communities like this exist - while you should definitely do your due diligence, I agree that the HOA itself is probably designed for vacation rentals. (there are lots of these in East Tennessee where I have a cabin)

The "up to" $92k gross number likely means the house took in $92k in gross rents in some recent 12-month period. That probably also includes cleaning fees, etc. collected - basically, all the money taken in. You'd want to explore if the previous owners had it with a professional management company (and if so, what cut did THEY take? It's probably significant), and if the HOA requires a property to be professionally managed or not. Some will allow self-managing, some have an in-house management team that you are basically required to use.

Ask for the rental history on the property, as far back as they'll give you.  That will let you break down what kind of vacancy they were experiencing, and what the nightly rents were (and how they change over the seasons).  It's good of you to assume you won't achieve those kinds of numbers right away; it'll probably take some time to get the same traction an established property gets.

See if they can give you a P&L statement too - you want to know what the REAL expenses are, which are going to include housekeeping turnover, utilities (that's a big house and Florida summers are HOT, brace yourself for a big power bill), cable/internet, commercial insurance to cover the STR business activity, possible additional insurance for flood/wind, good of the HOA to cover lawn maintenance, at least.

Even after all that, the numbers might still be sexy - definitely worth looking into!  

@Paul Sandhu you can't do that in LA, especially if the building is rent controlled (which most of them are).  

@Jenelle H. While your sister should definitely research the laws herself, based on my own research in LA, her situation might actually fit the parameters of the laws I've seen discussed for the city! That is, the unit would be her primary residence, and she would rent it out for only part of the year. My current understanding of the laws/proposed laws are that someone could only use their primary residence for STR and there would be a cap on how many days/year it could be used as such. It seems like legislation is leaning towards 180 days/year, which would be perfect! AND with it being her primary residence any applicable rent-control laws wouldn't apply.

Also: congrats to her on owning a 4-plex free and clear in LA!  Based on your description, is it in Inglewood, by chance?  Feels like that's exploding right now - some friends just got an offer accepted in the area, they're really excited.  The AirBNB potential has a big upside with the new stadium going in, and events at the Forum.  

As for how much she can make, as others have pointed out there are several ways to research that.  Since she's going to be living there half the time, of course she'll have it fully furnished and be covering the utilities and such already. :)  As long as the numbers crunch (and I suspect they will) I think she's in what could be the ideal situation to AirBNB in LA.

If navigating the STR rules & regs are too daunting, she could also consider renting to medium-term tenants of over 30 days, to which the STR rules won't apply. Traveling medical professionals, business people, or maybe construction pros working on the new stadium facility.

Best of luck to her!

Oooh thank you @Jon Crosby!  I couldn't get Automate.io to successfully import my reservations so wound up trying to find a bunch of workarounds (unsuccessfully).  But I do see the emails are encoded so I will see what I can do about that and try again... 

That site smells like a scam to me.  As you noticed, they're very vague and contradictory about what they do ("We do that by Purchasing a block overlooking the downtown skyline in Atlanta" - a block of what?  And that implies they're developing a mixed-use building or buildings, while the following paragraph says they seek RE deals to purchase in less than 30 days), and their copy is *terrible* - the site is fraught with incorrect grammar and poor sentence structure.

It looks like they've loosely modeled after a fund, and if I understand the pitch correctly, it's not a terrible idea (a fund for STRs instead of apartment buildings etc).  But I've never seen an RE investment fund site that asked you to buy in *via an online shopping cart*.  I'm not an expert in these things, but I'm pretty certain raising capital in that manner could run afoul of FTC regulations.

I think you should stay far away from whatever those people are doing.