All Forum Posts by: Sara Abernethy

Hi there!  

I live in Brooklyn and have a vacation rental upstate (not in NYC).  

My first advice is to be careful with NYC short-term rental laws.  From my understanding, renting out the room while you're there is fine, but renting out the entire apartment is not.  It's always changing, but keep track of that.  Your landlord may or may not care...you did the research on this, so go for it, but keep it as a risk.  At any point, you may need to stop...as long as you have the excess funds to manage the risk, then go for it.  

Don't take a course unless it's free - AirBnB isn't that hard to do...especially at the scale that you're discussing...don't let people scare you into paying extra for something.  It does get a bit more complicated when you're talking about purchasing a property specifically for this purpose due to regulations (I have to answer to a state, a county, a town, and a village, who at any point can change their laws), the ebb and flow of tourism in a region, and your positioning within the region.  Making sure you don't annoy your neighbors.  Managing can be more complex too - I also use multiple sites to find guests, but for a room sublet, AirBnB is your best bet, and as you know, it's super easy to use.  

A comment earlier said that renting it out to a full time tenant will be less work.  Definitely true.  But this will be a fun learning experience.  As long as you are willing to take the risk!  Renting out a room has a lot of competition on AirBnB...it's potentially less lucrative than renting the whole place (which, as i mentioned, you may not be able to do).  NYC has great tourism through New Years, then it gets slow.  I say do it through New Year's, then consider a long-term tenant in February if your bookings have slowed.  

I wouldn't change the lockset...that's going to cause more concern from your landlord who otherwise might not really care.  Just put a lockbox on a fence outside.  People do that all the time...for dog walkers, cleaning people, etc.  That won't draw excess attention and works just fine.  

Sara

Hi there!

I have a question for Pennsylvania investors. I have been considering moving my PA rental properties into an LLC, but the county tells me there is a realty transfer tax of 2% to move the deed from my name into the LLC. Has anyone else in PA done this?

I have 3 properties worth about $500k altogether. $10k seems pretty expensive to set up an LLC. I can't imagine this is worth it?From a protection standpoint, I do have an umbrella policy on these properties.

Am I missing something here?  

Sara

If you use Paypal, it has to be connected to their checking account in order for it to be free. If they connect it to a credit card, there's a fee and I make my tenants cover that fee. Venmo is more seamless in my experience and I prefer it.

Michael julien and Josh Thomas - how did it work out? Were you able to bid up the rent? Do you have tips on how you did this while creating a positive relationship with the tenants?

In this case, I really need statistics.  I need a macroeconomic view and I'm struggling to find good data.  Anyone?

Can anyone direct me to any good (sourced) charts/graphs that show why buy&hold real estate is a much better investment in the long term than the stock market?  Pulling together a presentation and wanted to show a killer data point or graph.  I have seen these data points in hard money lender presentations, but I don't have anything in digital form to reference.  

Keep me in mind - I would love to have a good Airbnb property in the poconos.

These guys aren't wrong - you could do better. But I get you - you've come this far!! And maybe you're not all about the return - you're more about being passive. What are your goals? Do you have good tenants? Can you up the rent?? If you want to invest more you could cash out refi and invest elsewhere but that resets the clock. Not sure how close you are to retirement or if that's what this was for or not. If you're not interested in being a professional investor and you're not going to do something super useful with that $70k, i would keep it and enjoy the cash flow. You've held on to this property for a long time and it's given you no love. Let the property pay you now. Selling it and buying something else is costing you transaction costs and a lot of effort - people like me and the others on this thread get a high from that - maybe you don't (or you would have done it sooner). Selling it and not buying real estate again gives you cash - are you going to put that in the stock market? I don't think so - you won't get income from that - just appreciation and it's risky. Let the property pay you and enjoy the extra money. It's not the savviest move but it might be the right one for you.

The lease for Pennsylvania Association of Realtors (PAR) is what I use and all the realtors I've worked with in PA have used. It has covered me pretty well over the years. I recommend brainstorming some of your "worst case scenarios" and then reading to see if it covers you fairly. I had a tenant overstay once and was happy with how the lease had me covered.

Chad - would love your cousin's info but your contact info is hidden!!