All Forum Posts by: James R.

Garrett, go to your local lumber, doors, windows, etc. supply store (not a HD or Lowe's, of course) and ask at the front desk if they can recommend someone.  They will.  Why?  Because when that person does work for you, they will come there to buy the supplies, plumbing, or water heater etc.  I did this and my handyman has been solid the last 10 years.  He doesn't charge an arm and a leg either.  In Milwaukee, the local lumber store is called Bliffert.  They have 3 locations throughout the city.  Extremely helpful.  You can open an account and they will bill you monthly too, so something similar to that in your area is what I recommend.  

There seems to be a glut of STRs in every major market, yet there are RE agents out there telling people that there is demand.

There may be demand, but if the owner cannot book their place to cover the costs, how can RE agents be out there telling people that it's a good investment?  In the Orlando, FL area, people are desperate for bookings and are trying to get guests in their house that sleeps 10 for $99 a night?

The mortgage alone has to be at least $4 grand a month.  Booked every night for a month, doesn't even cover the mortgage, let alone the cleaning fees and maintenance of the pool, etc. and if you have a property manager, you have to be cashflow negative.  That to me is not a good investment, yet everyone is still wanting to get into short term renting?  

Keith, I started out house hacking in 2014 using the Airbnb platform.  For the first 4-5 years, people were great.  Appreciative, friendly etc.  We often cooked meals together etc.  

In the last 5 years that changed.  Guests were rude to my face, made unreasonable demands to the point that I felt uncomfortable in my own home.  For example:  I accepted a woman and after she checked in, she said that she would be "cooking up a storm" for her elderly father.  She took over my kitchen and started cooking early in the morning and into the afternoon.  She filled the freezer with the meals and then the next day, took them to her father and put them in his freezer.

I told her that she was using a lot of utilities and if I had known that this was what she was going to do, I would have declined her request.  This went on for a week!!!  I was so happy when she left.  She gave me only 4 stars too!  So ungrateful and when I called Airbnb, after she declined to pay $40 towards the utilities, Airbnb said that I should have called during her stay and now there was nothing that they could do.  

Now, I only own and manage entire houses for STR and it is MUCH better. I never want to have to deal with guests in my home ever again!!!

Yep.  I'm hoping that my finances are much better at this time next year and continue to improve as the economy gets cleaned up, with the right person at the helm.  People will hopefully have more money to take a vacation.  Right now, my only guests are the very well-to-do who don't feel the pinch that your average family does.  

I was just discussing this as I make some improvements to one of my properties.  I will hire an inspector to come through, after the improvements are done.  I always thought that an inspection was only done during the sale of a property.  I agree, inspections should be done, maybe as frequently as once per year.  

Hello Eric.  Yes, when you are active on your listing, doing the things that you mention, this activity tells the algorithm that you are an "active host" and you get a boost in the rankings.  I do the same thing.  I've hit 90% occupancy, but not year round though.  

Hello Michael.  I would be interested in getting the contact information of your accountant.  

I agree.  Why not make the list The Top 500 Cities.  Same fluff. 

For example: 

• Airbnb Rental Income: $3,452
• Airbnb Daily Rate: $128
• Airbnb Occupancy Rate: 59%
• Airbnb Cash on Cash Return: 4.22%
• Median Property Price: $476,223
• Property Price per Square Foot: $269
• Days on Market: 49

I own 2 STRs in this city and the occupancy rate overall is about 20% according to AirDNA. Both properties are in sought-after upscale neighborhoods and fetch only ca. $1,500-2,000/month. There are zero zoning restrictions, so the market is beyond saturated. I would not start another STR there. The mortgages are paid on my two properties, so cashflow is pretty easy at this point, but to start now at today's interest rates...no, thank you.

I received the same email today.  Thank you for pointing out the fine print.  What this really means is:  VRBO is not meeting stockholders' demands for revenue and profit, so we're going to lower the nightly prices of our hosts' listings, so that we can meet those numbers.  Scummy.  

VRBO:  "Build trust with your guests by lowering your nightly price."  Yeah, okay, while you at the same time increase your booking fees. 

Be on the lookout for when VRBO automatically changes your cancellation policy to Flexible too.  They did that to me.  I had to manually go into my listing and change it back to Strict. 

I tried a Flexible policy.  Everyone knows that as the booking window narrows, guests go looking for places that have discounted their place to get a short notice booking.  They cancel you with your flexible cancellation policy and book at a lower nightly price somewhere else.  Now, you're stuck getting a short notice booking.  

Every VRBO or Airbnb policy is designed to benefit VRBO or Airbnb, not us.