All Forum Posts by: Mike Shemp

We do something similar.  We have a "Secret Phrase" in our list of House Rules.  If they do not provide the secret phrase (99% of people do not), then they violated AirBNB policy which gives us the right to cancel if we choose.

Mike

Hi @Michael McFadden,

I used it to purchase data earlier in the year and so far it seems to be accurate. When we purchase our next STR, I will purchase data from them again to factor into my calculations.

Mike

We do something similar, but have some tweaks for the method that we use.  

- Since it can be hard to determine who is using a PM and who isn't, we only focus on properties that are similar (same # of bedrooms, general same square footage, same amenities, same proximity to attractions).

- We list the competitor properties down the rows in a spreadsheet.  We list the months across the top.

- We then check out the rates by month for each competitor by month since they can vary so much since some properties have spikes during the summer for beach/lake areas, or winter for ski areas, or October for leaf-peeping, etc.

- We then sum up the 12 months and you quickly end-up with a range of what you can expect to make.

After we make our spreadsheet, we then buy the AirDNA data to see how close it is.  With the AIrDNA data and your own data, that should give you some pretty good confidence in at least the revenue side of your spreadsheet forecast for the property.

Mike

Hi @Robert Carter,

We have the power go out at our rental in the Outer Banks quite frequently, especially during hurricane/storm season.  We keep some heavy-duty battery-powered LED lanterns in the cottage and flashlights for our guests.  We also keeps a lots and lots of books, puzzles, and boardgames as well so they have something to do if they are getting bored at night while the power is out. 

We also contact the electric company and provide them with updates as we receive them.  Depending on how long it goes, you may want to refund them their money based on the number of impacted nights, or buy them dinner if it was a long time and they still decided to stay.

Hope that helps!
Mike

Hi All,

We recently closed on a short-term rental property.  We paid cash for it using our own personal funds, along with funds from a HELOC on another personal/vacation property that we do not rent out.

From a tax-perspective, does it matter if we keep the heloc in place and write-off the interest personally, or should we think about doing a cash-out refi on the place we just closed on to have the interest associated with the rental property, and pay-off the HELOC?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Mike

Hi @Seth Bryan,

I'm over in Stewartsville, NJ which is not too far from Bucks County.  We are in that area quite often.  I'd be interested in attending your next meetup if you are accepting people across the river.

Thanks!
Mike

@Nicole Vincent - a couple other line items to consider adding on your P&L.  On the revenue side consider adding pet fees and cleaning fees.  On the expense side, we have a "hospitality" expense line which includes gift cards, gifts for guests, gifts for repeat guests, or gifts when something goes wrong.  You'll want to talk to your accountant because only so much of that expense is tax-deductible.  If your property is near the beach or an area prone to weather and natural disasters you may want to factor in some vacancy during that time.  For example we have a property in the Outer Banks and during hurricane season we have a high likelihood of not being able to rent out that week, refunding our guests, etc.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

Mike

Hi @Ross Bowman,

One factor to consider with a beach house is proximity to the water and factoring in the flood insurance as well as the additional maintenance cost due to the corrosive nature of the salt water. I would run the numbers on the lake house, and make sure you factor in the flood insurance and extra wear/tear numbers on the beach house, and see which one has the better ROI and/or long-term appreciation advantage.

Please feel free to reach out about any short-term rental questions.  We have a rental in the Outer Banks on the beach so are familiar with beach rentals.

Mike

@Ryan Proffit I am using SmartBnB.

I had a similar issue with another platform and found it confusing and I was getting nervous that the guest messaging would be messed up so I stopped. So far I’m really liking SmarBnB.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

Mike

Hi @Alexander Schloe,

Congrats on the purchase! We own 2 short-term rentals right now.  We bought our first one in 2017, and bought our 2nd one a couple of months ago.

Here are some lessons learned or just some advice that has served us well

* Don't nickle and dime your guests.  If they break a coffee mug, want to borrow a book, just let it go.  Consider it part of doing business.

* Have each guest sign a rental agreement.

* Get good systems in place to automate.  It's probably good to start off doing things manually, so this way you know all the things to do in case those systems fail...plus it is easier for you to teach to someone else if you outsource certain tasks too.  But eventually you will want to pay to automate some things, especially the messaging with guests (thank you after reserving, emailing welcome book, emailing them night before, how you doing message, pre-checkout message, etc).

* My personal experience has been larger groups cause more headaches  Smaller groups cause less.

* If something doesn't go right for your guest, then make it up to them.  Buy them a gift certificate to a restaurant, etc.

* Handle every situation the way you would wanted it handled if you were the guest.

Please feel free to reach out for any other questions at any time.

Best of luck!
Mike