All Forum Posts by: Paul Sandhu

The sawzall is good advice.  I've used a 6" angle grinder before with great success.  A standard 4.5" grinder won't be able to cut all the way through because there isn't enough clearance between the back of the knob and the door.

15 psi is quite a bit of pressure.  The actual working pressure is measured in ounces per square inch.  15 pound psi is probably 100x the working pressure of around 2.5 oz psi.

@Michaela G.

Do you have to have a box spring with that mattress or any other solid platform underneath?  I have 3 basic Hollywood queen and full bed frames in a house that need mattress sets by the first week of January.

The potential for liability is tremendous. A minor staying at your STR under the influence drowning on your float tube...imagine the repercussions of that.

If it was me, I would let them acquire their own tube and proceed at their own will and their own risk. You are in the STR business. You are not in the float tube business.

One of my STRs has a bunch of Quentin Tarrantino movie memorabilia as decorations. To paraphrase Quentin, When people pull up to your STR, do they see a sign that says "Float Tube Trips?". No. You know why they don't see a sign that says "Float Tube Trips"? It's because Float Tube Trips isn't any of your business.

@Rick Baggenstoss

My pricing tool is the equivalent of restaurant that serves two items.  Steak and potatoes or Hamburger and French fries.  

My better houses with nice amenities are steak and potatoes.  $200/week for each real bedroom in the house.  No charge for the extra beds.

My basic houses with nothing fancy are hamburger and French fry.  $175/week for each real bedroom in the house. No charge for the extra beds.

I'm a dinosaur. 

My calendar is a poster board with 22 horizontal lines.  Each space between a line I write down an address of a property.  I have 5 groups of 7 vertical lines.  That represents 5 weeks.  It's a 22 x 35 grid for each day for each property.  I use a post it note to write down who is staying where and what company they work for.  I mark an X on the day they pay and an X on the last day their rent is paid for.  In between the X's I write down how many weeks they have stayed and how much they pay each week.  I collect rent the day after an X.

• 1. No. It was a month to month rental.
• 2. Month to month paid $350 per month.  I put 4 beds in 3 rooms of the house and charged $210 per week.  4 co-workers rented it and paid $840 per week.  They moved out 6 weeks later, my phone rang the same day.  4 other of their coworkers wanted the house.  They paid $840 per week for 6 weeks, then moved out.  My phone rang again, this time there were 3 people.  They paid $630 for about a month.  Weekly rentals brought in about $3600 per month, while monthly rentals brought in $350.  The math wasn't too difficult.  This is on a $12,000 house.

Oh, they didn't speak English very well, and I spoke Spanish even worse.  I knocked on the door the same day each week, they opened it and handed me the rent money.  I handed them a receipt.  That is all the interaction I had with them for the duration the house stayed rented.  Knock Knock and money/receipt exchanged hands.

@Maxwell Lee

2) It costs me about $20 to clean a place, give or take $5.  Included in my cost is new bath soap, deodorant soap, dish soap, hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, and occasionally bath towels and bed sheets. The labor is free, as the lady that cleans my places does it for free. She also sleeps with me.

30 night minimum stay seems rather long.  With that long of a minimum stay I would think that there would be some overlap in the times people would want to rent it.  When there is overlap, the 2nd tenant will find somewhere else to stay.  In my opinion, your vacancy rate is going to be higher.

Like I said earlier, your vacancy rate is probably going to be higher then expected.  That's going to cut into your profit.

I have 22 STR's in my town, and I realize every towns real estate market is different. In this town a basic 2 bedroom unfurnished house with no bills paid goes for $350-$400 per month. A similar 3 bedroom goes for around $600 per month. My furnished bills paid 2 bedroom units go for $350-$400 per week. My 3 bedrooms go for $600 per week. In other words, my weekly furnished rate is the same as the monthly unfurnished rate

If forwards applying that formula to your rental, you should be charging $4000/week ($16,000 per month) for the house since you are paying $4000 per month to rent it.  I know that seems high, but maybe $4000 per month is too high for you to rent the house.

So backwards applying the same formula ($5100 / 4 = $1275) tells me that you should be paying rent of $1275 per month to your landlord and you collect $5100 per month from your tenants.

Your profit margin is too slim.

Find a medium to smaller sized city/town with a refinery, nuclear power plant, papermill or other single big industry that requires lots of maintenance.  The people that do the maintenance come from out of town and need a place to stay.  They can be the tenants of your STRs.  

The population of my town in 9000, and there is a refinery.  At any given time there can be 50-150 contractors in town.  I offer them a place to stay that costs less than a motel and has all the conveniences of home.

The guys that make alot of money (boilermakers, instrumentation technicians, specialty welders) can afford to pay a good amount of rent each week, but they don't stay here very long.  2-4 weeks typically.

The guys that don't make alot of money (scaffold builders, firewatch, hands) can't afford to pay alot of rent, but they are here a long time.  My scaffold guy has been here 70 weeks and sees no end in sight.