All Forum Posts by: Michael Elefante

@Mark S. BP won’t let me post the links as it considers it advertising. You can find them on my IG account or YouTube

 Thanks for such positive feedback! Yes, great point you bring up about local laws and rules. We certainly evaluate that in locations we invest in. We like locations that STRs have a positive value add to the county/city - such as Gatlinburg (TN Mountains) the vast majority of the city's income and businesses are generated around tourism and most people that come want to stay in a mountain cabin and not necessarily a hotel. Cabins also look much better than giant hotels do in this area and maintains the integrity of the area. There are some rules and regulations, but just call in and speak with zoning office they are usually very clear about expectations. Nashville and other metro areas are cracking down on rules - mainly around zoning and occupancy limits, etc. Any new rule that gets announced, most of the older properties get grandfathered in. I don't want to rely on that 100% though, so we try our best to pick locations that there won't be any major changes to zoning in the next several years to ensure we can continue to operate. Any cities that constantly change rules in a major way looking to eliminate rentals I just avoid completely - personally. As you mentioned, I don't want to get caught in a situation where I'm forced to sell or LTR and shrink profits or even lose money. 

 Awesome - wishing you guys much luck and cash flow!! :) I see you're in Austin - we used to live there and loved it. 

You can find and stay in sync with cleaners on turnoverbnb. I have yet to use this but have friends who really like it and rely on the app. I like to tip our cleaners for doing a great job and lay out clear expectations and make sure I'm also communicating how they prefer. They can send you photos of any damage so you can submit claims. They will let you know what you need to replace. They can send you videos or photos on turnover bnb or your cell phone when the property is complete to show they are done and checked everything off the list. Also, if you get a negative cleaning review, you can speak with your cleaners and talk about areas you can work to improve on to ensure success. 

 That's awesome to hear! Congrats to you two!! Keep crushing it

Honestly a lot of time spent on Pinterest - followed by fully furnishing our properties on a spreadsheet we created to track roughly how much we are spending on furniture for the entire house. This enables us to be usually within $1k or so of the actual cost. We link everything in the spreadsheet so if anything breaks or needs replacing, we can reference that sheet and buy the same item. Most of our shopping is done on Wayfair and amazon, however we like Poly and Bark for furniture and other sites or local stores if we want to really focus on one or two areas of the house that will be the first couple photos to stand out online. 

No, we switched jobs several times. Was just painting the background story to show that regardless of one's starting point, you can achieve success in real estate.. My wife and I both got entry level jobs after that. I got into sales and she was in foresnics, both making very small salaries. Worked up corporate latter and switched companies along the way, and my wife also got into sales. We have been fortunate to earn much higher income than we had in years past, with the goal of saving and investing nearly everything into real estate. 

 I really like using Airdna to find markets and evaluate them as a starting point. Most cities will have stricter regulations, but most of them are around zoning and occupancy limitations. Popular regional vacation destinations tend to have less rules, but not always the case. Once you narrow down markets, you can usually find online on the city or county website the zoning restrictions around short term vacation rentals. 

 All conventional. We did investment loans for 3 of them 15-20% down for each. One was a secondary home loan, as we intend to use the property periodically for pleasure. We were able to put down 10% for that one. 

Some (NOT most) lenders will take into account some STR income of the property you are acquiring. Usually they'll want to see the incoe on prior year(s) tax returns.