All Forum Posts by: Ryan Moyer

This is what I do.  Even on properties where I originally set everything up in person there are times where the device loses sync and needs to be re-connected from within the account, or times where I add a new smart device later on.

It is a huge PITA honestly because it's usually a handyman or cleaner that has never used the app and I have to walk them through the steps without being able to see their screen, but it's the only way I've found for doing it.

wut

Wow what a blast from the past. Crazy to see how much the STR market has changed in 5 years. To think back then LOSING only a few thousand dollars a year on a place was considered a success. Now if we're not cash flowing more than $5k/month on these places we feel like they're practically a waste of time, lol.

Out west is difficult, because anything near a major ski resort is going to have pretty jacked up prices.

You might want to check out Ogden Valley (Huntsville, UT, Eden UT) which is hot in the summer due to the lake and has a couple world class ski resorts, both of which are expanding even more.  I'm not sure if returns are great there or not.  When I looked pre-pandemic they weren't, but like a lot of places the vacation market there has likely quintupled since then.

It's not "cheap" but I think it's going to be about as cheap as you'll find for ski resorts that are THAT good.

It's overpriced relative to a year ago but not relative to returns or relative to the type of places he mentioned.  It's not somewhere like Steamboat springs where you pay $3million to get a place that returns $80k/yr gross. 

I actually live outside of Park City, Utah so I'm just being snobby :P

Gatlinburg is the #1 vacation rental market in the country for having (almost) all of the things you're looking for.  The only thing you're not gonna like is the "skiing" is basically a 100 foot tall sheet of ice.  Doesn't matter for rentals but if you're looking to use it yourself that's the only thing you're not gonna like.

From my experience "crushing it" can mean anywhere from $10k annual gross to $1,000,0000 annual gross on the same property depending on who's defining "crushing it".

Coming from Luke I trust it's pretty darn good.  In some of the random FB groups I'm in people will brag that they're crushing it and then when you really push them on it they're doing some insanely low number that seems good to them. 

I remember visiting Crested Butte last year and met someone who was staying in their condo they rented out as a vacation rental.  They were super elated about how their condo was "crushing it".  When I drilled down with them a little more it turned out they were super excited that the gross revenue was almost enough to cover the P&I on the mortgage (before expenses).

If your income numbers are accurate this is a no brainer.  Don't lose it over $2500 financed over 30 years.

It doesn't sound like a good deal to me. If it's priced at 3x the local comps, why not just buy one of the local comps and turn it into an STR? Does it have a permit that other local comps aren't able to get or something?

The "STR business" is worth little to nothing imo. Are the majority of their reservations from past clients through an email list and direct bookings, or does it get the majority of its bookings on Airbnb/Vrbo? If the latter, you don't need all that other jazz, certainly not at the value of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if you want it you can create it in an hour for a few bucks.

Maybe this STR is the outlier, but for most STR's the "business" is not like buying an e-commerce site or a photography business. The website, branding, etc is typically inconsequential. The majority of the income for most STRs has nothing to do with that stuff.