All Forum Posts by: Neil Henderson

My wife and I run an AirBnB listing out of our casita at the front of our house. It's our version of house hacking. 

So many of our experiences exactly echo yours. We have 119 reviews, 92% Five Star reviews. 

Our casita is appointed very much like a nice hotel room. Bed, desk, TV, coffee maker, small fridge and microwave. We have just included everything that we thought we might need when traveling with family or on business. In the process of deciding if we want to replace the bed frame and flooring. Currently carpet and it's starting to look a little dingy, we'd like to go with Pergo.

It probably takes us no more than two hours per month to host, more if we have to clean, but we hired a cleaning lady who does it for $40 and it takes her about 45 minutes to clean.

We've looked into buying a condo somewhere to convert to a short term rental, but we're leaning more towards long term at this time. Too many variables with neighbors, HOAs, city/county regulations, etc.

The Short Sale posted in September 2014, not 2012. Sorry, my mistake. 

We did for a period but the bank wouldn't approve the Short Sale while we were current. As I recall, we got to 60 days past due before they approved.

Lost a long term, Military, tenant on a two year lease to PCS with just 30 days notice the same month my wife, who was 6 months pregnant at the time, was laid off from her job. Happened in Las Vegas in early 2012 when the economy was still struggling. It was negative cash flow and without a tenant plus my wife's income, we had to let it go before it totally sunk us.

Just providing context.

Thanks for the reply @Shaun Weekes

I'm curious if any investors out there have had experience getting conventional mortgages on investment properties and/or a HELOC after a short sale.

I had one 20 months ago. 

First lender I've spoken to said it would be at least 2 years before I could get approved for a loan or HELOC but that would require proving extenuating circumstances (which we did prove at the time of the original short sale) or the wait would be 4 years.

Proving the extenuating circumstances was about as fun as a voluntary tax audit so I'm just chomping at the bit to go through that again. :o/

Refer away @Monika Haebich

Send me a PM

How do people tend to insure their short-term rental properties? I'm looking for insurance options in Las Vegas.

Any AirBnB landlords have experience getting supplemental insurance for rooms or guest houses they are renting off of their primary residence?

You might try contacting a few of the nearby local hotels and tell their housekeeping departments you are looking for a part time maid for your personal residence. Ask them if they wouldn't mind you sending them a job flyer to post in their break room. I wouldn't tell them you run a vacation rental and I wouldn't indicate it on the flyer. Just explain it to the applicant when and if they call.

Sounds like we were at the same FTU this weekend Lee Huffman

Lee Huffman Are you an active REI? Have you ever had issues with getting financing after churning through so many cards? I met a guy this weekend who runs a management company for large HOA's. They use to pay all their insurance bills individually using a miles earning credit card, to the tune of $800,000 a month. All the insurance accounts were with the same vendor but separate accounts. One day their accountant suggested they consolidate the accounts into one to make book keeping easier. The insurance company was happy to oblige. Things were fine for a few months but then the companies CEO called and said they wouldn't be accepting credit cards for payment anymore because they didn't like paying the 2% transaction fee. They explained to him they'd been doing it for years on separate accounts, why did he suddenly have an issue with it. He responded, "When you were using separate accounts, I didn't notice, but now that they are all on one account, I definitely notice the $16,000 charge from our credit card processing company."

I have some boots on the ground in Texas. Houston, Dallas and College Station.