All Forum Posts by: Pablo Flores

I have a vacation rental that I owe $370k on with a 3.75 fixed rate. Home is worth 800k now. I am considering doing a cash out refi with 80% LTV at a 5.25 fixed rate investment loan. This would allow me to pull out $250k and buy another vacation rental. The home would still cash flow very well even after the cash out refi.

What are your guys thoughts on this. Worth taking the extra interest rate to pull that money out?

Thanks

Pablo

@Drew Sygit

I don’t mind the $30/month. You get what you pay for. That’s not that much more than Guesty. I just need something more professional and accessible for the owners.

What is the best PM software that has an owner portal that allows owners to see a real time dashboard of bookings and revenues? I’ve been using Guesty and while it has been great thus far, the income reports it generates are quite rudimentary and it doesn’t really have an in depth look into all their bookings. We are managing about 15 properties right now and should be over 20 by EOY so we feel like this is the perfect time to expand to a more professional PM software.

Thanks

Pablo

Anyone have recommendations on contractors in the Big Bear area? We’re about to take over management of a new home on 524 Catalina Rd Big Bear so we need to interview cleaners, electricians, plumbers, handyman etc. We manage multiple homes in the Coachella Valley but this is our first in Big Bear. Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

Pablo

Helios Vacation Rentals

@Alex Nicholson

Everyone here is giving solid advice. The principle of economies of scale says you will reduce costs and optimize returns if you focus in one area. Eventually you can expand, but you’re not at that point yet with 1 property. I own 5 rentals in the greater Palm Springs market and manage a few more. I’m just barely getting to the point where I’m thinking of expanding elsewhere.

@John D. Shoutout to John! I reached out to him two years ago on BP for advice on my first vacation rental and I haven’t looked back since!

@Raj Kaushal

Still have yet to find a market that grosses anywhere near what Great Palm Springs does. The entry point is high but you are usually looking at 125k-150k in gross year 1 and higher after that. The trick is location and staging. My highest grossing home is in Indio and will do about 200k this year and 230-250k next year when all the music festivals are back.

But like I said entry point is not cheap since investors are bidding everything up like crazy. One of my clients lost a home in Palm Springs last week where we went 125k above asking with no contingencies! Ridiculous. Keep in mind when I say greater Palm Springs I am referring to the cities of Indio, some areas of Bermuda Dunes outside the HOA, and the city of Palm Springs itself. Shoot me a message or check out my website and I'd be happy to share more info www.heliosvacations.com

Hey guys need your help again. I currently use YourPorter to manage all my listings. I'm in the process of creating a website where guests can book directly, but is there a way to integrate the calendar on my website to the master calendar I have on YourPorter so I dont get any duplicate bookings? I'm hiring someone to create a WordPress website but I am being told that YourPorter does not have any WordPress plug ins so it will not work. I dont want to have to get rid of YourPorter and use another PMS to make this work. Its taken me forever to integrate all the booking platforms, and PriceLabs with YourPorter. Hopefully this make sense!

Thank You All

It’s all about opportunity cost for me. Time spent dealing with minor issues is time wasted I could be spending looking for other clients and trying to expand my PM business. How are these VAs paid if they are handling a myriad of tasks throughout the day but might not be tasks that would take an hour at a time? Are they paid per hour? Per task? Fixed salary?

Im also a real estate agent so I would have the VA also help with some of the mundane tasks associated on the real estate side other than what my TC already does. Plus also going through expenses, paying bills, helping with P&Ls for all my listings etc.

@Luke Carl

Since you seemed to have gone through this process already, what places would you recommend I start my search for a VA? Do you have a template on how you trained your VA?

Does anyone have any experience with a virtual assistant helping manage your vacation rental business? I own 4 vacation rentals in the Palm Springs area and manage two others for other clients. And I have 2 more currently on the way for two other clients. My goal is to build a one stop shop property management company for investors. I don't think we need a VA now but I'd rather build the systems now instead of waiting until I absolutely need one a few rentals down the line. I do have a lot of aspects of the business automated with Your Porter and PriceLabs, but there's still a lot of duties that I can't fully automate and having a VA definitely would help.

Does anyone here have any input on where the best place to hire a VA is? What's the cost? How to best train them?