All Forum Posts by: Jeffery Wilen

Looking for some insight for a situation, primarily curious how others would handle.

Had a guest contact us requesting someone to look at the drain on the tub/shower because even after a couple hours it wouldn’t drain. 
We had our maintenance guy stop by to look at it as we’ve had to clean hair from drains before. Turns out that the guest just didn’t pull up and turn the stopper to hold it up.

I’m probably not going to do anything other than advise them of the issue. But my maintenance guy is pretty frustrated to be called for this item.

Thoughts?

Thank you

We had a successful case which resulted in eviction in Cecil County in June. 

@John Underwood

We also do 4 day minimums for all holidays regardless of time of year. Peak season is a week minimum as you stated. 

@Ray Peslar I never made the switch as their changeover was horrible. Took them 4 days to make the switch and we were right in the middle of showing a unit and could not accept application for the whole time. I looked at it after the switch and was not impressed. By that time I had made the switch to Turbotenant. So far we’ve been happy with their site. 
Obviously there are differences in setup and screens, but we’re happy the functionality and haven’t come across any issues so far. 

@Luke Carl

Evidently it depends on the clientele of the STR. We get very good compliments from our neighbors regarding our guests. And we're talking about a duplex on a 60x100 town lot with neighbors on each side.
they’re booked at a 100% occupancy during the summer and 60-70 the rest of the year. 
Maybe we’re just fortunate, but we’ve not had any issues with the guests and neighbors. 

When you consider the cost/return of this, I think it’s likely that option 2 gives you the best return. 
if you’re targeting low/middle tenants, many couldn’t afford to purchase their own appliances. I believe that option 2 is more attractive to this class of tenant than option 3. It also would justify higher rents than option 3. Option 1 definitely is costlier than the others. Not just for the appliances, but to also the additional plumbing to each unit. Option 3 also has the additional cost of construction. Another consideration is the additional space per unit required to accommodate a laundry space. 
Personally I wouldn’t put individual laundry in each unit unless it was targeting higher class tenants. We have common laundry rooms for our apartment buildings that target this same low/middle tenant class. 

For me, it’s simply a matter of return. What is my ROCE for the property in question. If there are markets where I can achieve a better ROCE, I’d consider selling. That said, each location would need to have comparable risk levels. I also wouldn’t necessarily trade something for only a couple points either. 
However, if my existing property is not returning at least 5-6% on the equity and there is only 2% growth in value I’d be looking for areas with a better return. 
if we’re here for making returns, why hold a property with $500-600k in equity to make a $30,000 net return when you could take that same equity and make $100,000 net return. 

We used it throughout the whole house in two townhouse units we have.  They aren’t at the beach, but are on the Chesapeake Bay. Have had nothing but good comments about it. It looks great and holds up fantastically well. 
We are also using it in our apartments units and flips. Buyers and renters like it a lot. 
The versatility of it is amazing. We put it over a very uneven concrete floor in a laundry room and it looks great. 

As stated by Hal, unless your doing STR with a 5plex or larger it is the CMA that determines sales price no it cap rate.

Only a commercial property, ie the 5plex or larger, uses cap rate for valuation. Then the NOI does determine the sales price. Like a CMA, cap rates are market driven, not arbitrary. They're influenced by the property type, location and other items that would reflect the typical "risk" of investing in the property. Generally speaking, the higher the perceived risk for the investment, the higher the cap rate.

@Randy Dulac

Like most real estate related investments, it’s all about location. 
like @Dustin Allen said if you are within driving distance of major population center you’ll be fine in a recession. People still want to vacation, they just downsize the cost of their vacations. It’ll just be a different set of the population. Even if you’re luxury, it should hold up as those are the ones least affected by a downturn.