All Forum Posts by: Peter R.

20 days a month is too high to expect starting out, don't base your forecasts on that until you can book some repeat guests.  You can totally get there, but don't expect to book 20 days a month, every month, the moment you put up your listing. 

You don't need to do a co-host if you don't want, nor do you need to give it to a property manager.  But you could.  This will depend on your tolerance for dealing with guests remotely.  Some investment in automated locks, a good communication and guest on-boarding process and a very reliable cleaner will allow you to manage this from afar with little to no issues.  I do it literally every day and I assure you it can be done. :D

But if you'd rather give it to a property manager that's ok too!  Just make sure to factor that fee into your budgeting.

If it's already furnished, I'd take some great pictures, create a highly detailed listing and give it a go.  You might be surprised at how easy it can be.

@Kevin Lefeuvre 100% with you on VRBO being bad at vetting guests.  Had one last year that turned into a police report and urgent "eviction" due to a fraudulent credit card being used. VRBO was just the worst in that situation, zero help to us and approaching openly hostile at times.  Between lost rent and tenant damage it was a large bill to absorb. 

They're still king in our area though, so, eh, we roll with it but you mentioned it and I thought of that situation all over again.

@Kevin Lefeuvre it wouldn't shock me at all if VRBOHomeAway was in the process of changing their process to eliminate the ability to contact the guest outside of their ecosystem.  Airbnb makes it nearly impossible, as does TripAdvisor.  

I'd bet money VRBOHA loses this feature in the next iteration of the platform, although it is nice for now.

A few people have complained about the new VRBO fees but as @John Underwood mentioned, I haven't seen any slowdown really in bookings due to them.  But I can't say I'm thrilled with their fees.

In my area I've found that VRBO tends towards a much longer average stay and people using VRBO tend to book well in advance, months at least, on average.  Airbnb users tend to be more of a last minute booking, just days in advance sometimes.  And Airbnb is a much shorter duration usually.

TripAdvisor, on the other hand, is a hot mess.  I can't get a consistent read on leads from TA, other than SEO usefulness I probably wouldn't even bother but since I've got it, I maintain it.

Just another data point, I'm in the Weber camp with @William Leahy and our units have grills that have been there for years without issue, even in the salt environment next to the ocean.

We discussed gas vs. charcoal and decided against gas mostly because of maintenance and not wanting the guest to run out mid-grill and have to head for a tank swap location.

So far what we've seen is guests leave about a half bag behind on average, that gets used by the next guest who buys another bag on their own to supplement that and then, you guessed it, leaves about a half bag behind. :D 

I've got units in the Melbourne Beach area if you want any advice on locations you find.  Some areas are better than others when guests of your client want to get to the beach. A1A can be a tricky road to cross on foot and only certain public beach parks are good for cars.

We manage 7 units with the same general setup for automation.

SmartThings is the central automation hub for most of it with ST controlling:

- EcoBee3 Thermostat
- Schlage KeyPad Lock (remote code ability and they keep working even if the unit loses power or wifi)
- First Alert Smoke/CO Detector
- Water Sensor to detect leaks
- At least 1 lamp per unit that can be turned on remotely

ST lets you set alerts so that if the smoke detector is triggered it'll send an SMS letting you know which one and when.

Generally we operate one ST hub for a set of units.

All that is connected to the internet via Google Wifi that also provides guests internet access, they are small round devices you place throughout the rental.  We use them to blanket a property in wifi signal (mesh wifi network) so that one google wifi setup provides internet to multiple units.  It all looks like the same SSID to guests no matter which unit they stay in on property.

Guest communication via Email, SMS, Airbnb, HomeAway/VRBO messaging runs through a google account and google voice relay that forwards messages to various Slack channels to alert whomever is available and they can take action.  For example, a VRBO inquiry goes to a different Slack channel than an alert from the water sensor that there is a leak.  Google Voice also lets us keep a "public" number and shield our private cell numbers from being given out all the time.

I can go into more detail if anyone is interested.  

Also, @Aaron T. you can use that Schlage lock with other automation services, a bit more involved to set up but doesn't need an Apple TV necessarily.

@Kevin Lefeuvre actually, yes, I did find a way but I took the hard way around and developed some software to link Airbnb with VRBO/Homeaway in a central calendar system.  I also wrapped in some basic analytics like rental days/goal days, average booked rental rate, average rented days, etc.

And I included some very simple reminders to let me know when to change air filters, smoke detector batteries, things like that.

I couldn't rely on syncing Airbnb and VRBO/Homeaway calendars using the tools that either company provided so I just rolled my own.  I hope to launch in private beta in the last week of March or first week of April. 

If you're interested in testing it out I'd be happy to give you or anyone else from BP beta access, I'd love the feedback!

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the replies!  I certainly did fat finger a few things, I'll try to correct my post below.  And @Michael Le I really appreciate you detailing everything out!  Most of those were my fault, the one question I did have was about Vacancy and Management, the reason we have different figures is I was calculating the 7% post vacancy, not pre.  So (39000 - 2730) * 7% = 2902 as they don't earn if I don't get rent.

Purchase Price: $275,000
Mortgage: 30% Down, 5.15% on 20 Year Amortization
Taxes: $2200/year
Insurance: $2000/year
Maintenance/CapEx: $6000/year
Management: 8%/$2902/year
Administrative: $1000/year
Vacancy: 7%/$2730/year

Rent: 3250/mo

39000 - Income
(2730) - Vacancy
(14102) - Expenses
22168 - NOI
(15437) - Mortgage
6731 - Cash Flow

$112/Month/Unit with Expenses hitting the 43% Mark as calculated by expenses + vacancy cost / Gross Income.  

Also, property taxes where I am in FL are usually really low or really high, not too often in-between. 

Hi BP.  Looking at a 5 unit, would appreciate some thoughts if you have them.

5 units, all 2 bed / 1 bath:

Purchase Price: $275,000
Mortgage: 30% Down, 5.15% on 20 Year Amortization
Taxes: $2200/year
Insurance: $2000/year
Maintenance/CapEx: $6000/year
Management: 8%/$2902/year
Administrative: $1000/year
Vacancy: 7%/$2730/year

Rent: $3250/year

I'm getting:
39000 - Income
(2790) - Vacancy
(13702) - Expenses
22568 - NOI
(15437) - Mortgage
7131 - Cash Flow

$119/Month/Unit

Given these numbers, would you do this deal?  Anything jump out at you as off or not quite right?

Thanks!