All Forum Posts by: Justin Jellison

Looking to get started in the STR business and a few properties in Grays Harbor County, WA (copalis beach area a bit north of Ocean Shores to be specific) have come on my radar. I talked with a gal at the county regarding licensing of STRs and it sounds like a bit of a process and may come down to a public hearing where the public can oppose your licensing. She also can't direct me to any sort of checklist and just says it is a case by case basis. We would be building on vacant land so going down that road without knowing pretty well it will be approved obviously isn't ideal. Has anyone had experience with this is Gray Harbor County recently (after 2019)?

@Steve Miklashevskiy I think it’s about 25% off but hard to tell since I’m just seeing the median and highest/lowest months. Maybe I’m just being too nervous about seeing the slow season coming up on the calendars and it being too far out to know what will be booked in the spring and summer. Probably would be worth the paid version for more details.

@Abbie Little, good to know about the str rules in PT. PA and clallum county seem pretty lax, but I do wonder if that will be changing since that seems to be the trend. Rules changing in gig harbor right now where I live. 

Thanks for everyone's thoughts so far!

Port Angeles is where the main visitor center is for Olympic national park, the black ball ferry runs to/from victoria from there (when the border is open), a few small casinos nearby, not far from Forks and coastline, and the olympic discovery trail runs through. We're more looking outside of town but you have fair points. Port Townsend is nice, but much more expensive and I was thinking may actually see less overnight visitors. What do you think? Sequim has always seems kind of blah to me.

We're trying to get started with real estate and looking hard at STR (but haven't ruled out other), but the free data I see on AirDNA doesn't seem to add up with what I see by looking on AriBNB and VRBO. Specifically, we're looking at Port Angeles, WA market and AirDNA says the median occupancy is 87%; however, I struggle to find more that a couple units on AirBNB that appear to be rented out anywhere close to that. I understand some units are periodically taken off the market by the owner and supposedly AirDNA takes this into account, but I'm wondering if this is why I can't make the numbers add up. Also possibly it's because I'm looking at the calendars in the fall and the summers just aren't booked up yet. Anyone have insight on this issue?