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All Forum Posts by: Melissa Wesling

Melissa Wesling has started 3 posts and replied 134 times.

Post: Starting out Short Term or Long Term

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

Hi Bryon! We started our investment journey with a short term vacation rental almost 13 years ago. It went well and has definitely become more successful over time. But each investment is a case by case situation and performance may be based on a few things including great location and great management. Over the years we have added long term rentals and a couple more STRs. There is a wealth of information in the BP posts about the pros and cons of LTR vs. STR.

One thing to consider is that if you start out as STR, would you be able to turn it into LTR if you need to based on circumstances? We have never had to do that, but when the pandemic began it was in the back of my mind. Luckily our calendar wasn't disrupted too much from all the changes. It is also wise to know all of the city's rental regulations ahead of time. What area are you looking to invest in?

Post: What I found while searching BP marketplace

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

Following this post as I have been considering the paid membership in order to use the Marketplace for advertising...has there been a lot of success listing homes or advertising your business in the BP Marketplace? I'm still pretty new in the BP world.  Thanks!

Post: New to real estate in Michigan

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

HI Stephanie! I have short term vacation rentals in Michigan.  What kind of investing are you researching? 

Post: Deciding number of guests for short term rental

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

In my experience, we charge more for our larger property.  We have a 3 bedroom and 6 bedroom STVR.  As mentioned above, check the regulations.  Our city has a formula for the max number of guests based on bedrooms and floors (I don't believe we can count a bedroom in the basement).  Pull out sofas are okay if they fit into the formula.  Our 3 bed has to max at 8 and 6 bedroom sleeps 14 max.   

Post: How do you pick a market for STR

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

All great advice, I agree with the above posters. We self manage our STVRs from out of state, but still live close enough to go there if needed (2.5 hour drive), which has worked out well.  When we were beginning our search for our first property 13 years ago, we had a general idea of where we wanted to invest, but to pinpoint a town/location took a bit more research.  We were old school back then before all the websites came to fruition, so visiting the town in person was a great starting point for researching.  We stopped in a few towns and got a good sense of the tourism when we saw the downtown and beach were full of people, we could tell there was demand.  It's a fun research project, good luck to you!   

We self manage STRs in Michigan, and we have had other STR owners in our city call us and ask if we would manage their rental property, so I think there is some demand. We always have declined and referred them to the local property management company, but have thought that would be a good way to make money if we had more time and energy to get it all organized.

Our city requires a "local agent" as mentioned above.  We already knew someone local to assign as our local agent, but I believe the city gives a list of people you can "employ" as your local agent (which is more or less a local emergency contact).  

Post: Vacation Rental Newbie

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

You may have already looked into this, but one thing to research is your city's (or HOA since it's a neighborhood) rental restrictions. My STRs have a maximum number of renters based on a formula from the city. Our 3 bedroom STR max people it can sleep is 8 (2 in each bedroom plus 2 in a pull out couch on a separate level). I see that you have 3 bedrooms and hope to sleep 10 people, so I just want to give you a heads up on that. We self-manage, so don't have advice on the companies. Best of luck!

This was interesting to read the different variations of allowance for pets, thank you. When we started our first STR, we allowed dogs with an extra $100 fee. We stopped allowing pets when one chewed up the trim. Now it's been about 12 years being pet free, but we have so many requests from people to bring their dog(s). With Covid, we felt a little desperate and did allow a rental for a family with a small hypoallergenic dog. I'm still not sure we will open it back up to dogs all the time due to reasons listed above.

Post: Amazon Alexa in your rentals? Other smart home technology?

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

Hi! We don't have the partnership with them, but we have already been using some smart technology in our STRs.  The smoke alarms, carbon monoxide, and thermostats, as well as an alarm in the basements to let us know if there is water detected.  We like being connected to the home in these ways for temperature control, etc since we manage from out of state.  We put Alexa speakers in 2 STRs because we thought guests would like them for music, but it seems the guests always unplug them, so I'm not certain how often they are even used.   

Post: Short vs long term rentals

Melissa WeslingPosted
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 148
  • Votes 97

Hi Kevin, I have both LTRs and STRs, 2 of each. We manage them all on our own. I would say our situation would be best described as your #3 when we got started. The above posters are right that the LTRs are kind of "set it and forget it." Requires less management and time investment, they are "easier" as long as you have good tenants. Our LTRs are local but we manage our STRs from 2 1/2 hours away. We have a reliable cleaning crew and handyman for the STRs which is essential if managing from afar. We want to manage our our own because we don't want to pay a management company. I would describe the STR journey as more "fun," however much more time consuming. I believe STRs could be as "easy" as LTRs if we were to hire a management company. We have been doing it for almost 13 years and we use our houses for vacations and weekends away and hope to spend a lot of time in them after retirement. Good luck!