All Forum Posts by: Matt J.

See, I think the seasons are longer than people are giving Duluth credit for. From January through March, Duluth hosts tons of hockey tournaments at the Heritage Center, the DECC, Mars Lakeview, etc. Obviously going to be a slower time, but not completely barren either. Spring break, is Duluth a top destination for most people? No, but for people on a budget, Duluth is a pretty affordable option. 

Then you come to May, and you have a lot of families visiting for graduation weekends at St. Scholastica and UMD, plus Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer season. June, July, August you'd be absolutely able to rent a place out every weekend. Events like Grandma's, Blues Fest, 4th of July fireworks, and more, you'd be able to probably charge a little more than normal. 

Then September comes and you have move-in weekend for the colleges. In October the leaves start to change and people love coming to Duluth as a jumping off point to drive up the shore and take in the colors. You also have Homecoming and MEA weekends in there where Duluth gets busy again. November is likely to be a little slow, but starting with the Christmas City of the North Parade, Bentleyville opens up, and it gets busy again! 

I think Duluth is probably one of the top short-term rental markets in Minnesota. The issue is working through the city's restrictions and finding a property manager. I'm starting this process myself, so if I come across anyone who does manage STR's, I'll be happy to refer them to you!

@Mark Miles you’d be surprised at how much money the tourism industry brings in in Duluth. It’s not just summers either.

@Amy Ranae starting to look into it more. I have a few long term rentals currently but no short term. I don’t know of any companies who provide short term mgmt services and there’s a lot if restrictions from the city.

Hey Andrew, this post is from a couple years ago now, but I've heard there's more of an established meetup group in Duluth now than there used to be hosted by @Michael Schraepfer from Heirloom Properties. 

In Duluth, MN - 6 units, 6 fully paid for both April and May. And I've heard from other landlords in the area that they've had no issues receiving payment either. Seems like media hype to me to say there's a massive drop in rent collections. Heck, a lot of people right now are making more on unemployment and with their stimulus checks than they did when they were working, so why would they not have money to pay their rent the past couple of months? 

@Sam Torvinen I followed your advice and used ListSource. Exactly what I needed, thanks Sam!

@Michael Lowe I had the same thing before I got started. So I stopped talking to them about it and did my first deal. Now when I bring it up they ask me questions and say how great it is that I did it.

So just ignore the negativity, do what you know you need to do, and tell them all about it afterwards.

I'm looking to refinance a property and am contacting as many lenders as I can to get the best rate I can. Through this process, you need to get an appraisal done, send over tons of paperwork and jump through hoops up front, just to see what they can offer at the end of this process. 

How have you all gone through this process? I don't want to have multiple appraisals done on the same property, submit all the paperwork up front, just to get a quote on what I might end up paying. 

Any thoughts?

Thanks a lot, @Sam Torvinen!

Hey Sam, I'm currently looking for contractors in Duluth so if you've come across any I'd love to hear about them! 

For CPA, I work with @John Woodrich, who is an absolute rockstar. He's not in Duluth but works with me and a few other investors I know who do have properties in Duluth.