All Forum Posts by: Scott K.

Take this info with a grain of salt. I have rentals in PA and we're seeing 20-30% higher revenue/bookings this year.

Usually your township/county will not allow you to rent your STR to more than your septic is approved for. That being said, a 1000 gallon tank is typically approved for 3 bedrooms. 1250 gallon for 5 bedrooms. You won't have any overflow problems. Get it pumped every year, it's very cheap only about $200. I get mine pumped every 6 months because people throw condoms, garbage, you name it, and we have a 6 bedroom so it gets a LOT of use. The last thing you want to do, is pump less than necessary and it backs up and your house reeks of sewage(or it literally flows out). You'd lose thousands by not spending $200 a year.

That being said, we aren't approved for 6 bedrooms due to our tank size, so we're having a pump installed for $6k that allows us to 'expand' our tank capacity without having to actually expand anything physically. This changes our allowed limit from 5 bedrooms to 6.

You forgot the last bucket. Which is those of us who want more but are currently waiting on money, or for our time to free up from the last purchase. I'm on #7 this year and hope to get 1-2 more each year until I get bored. I'll probably hire a manager at #10 or #12 so I can buy more per year. I don't see any reason to stop. 

It takes a lot more capital for an str due to all the furniture and supplies and increased quality of rehab. So it's a bit harder to scale as fast. 

You need to check your cities short term rental ordinance to see what the requirements are for getting a permit.

Allowing pets (aka dogs) basically increases your cleaning time from all of the hair, and MAY increase your revenue. Most likely however it will just allow you to charge a pet fee. Without any info on how large your STR is, or how much you charge, or a bunch of other factors, it is impossible for anyone to hazard a guess if it will help you. Best bet is to simply try it for a few months, see how you like it, track your revenue, and charge a pet fee.

Yeah I think for us proper quoted $3400. And we got it for $1800 with state farm so the choice was obvious.

I got quoted from proper it was way too expensive. State farm is $2000 total a year.

It is PRECISELY the same as the homeowner's policy, it just applies additionally to short term rental use. I added on service line coverage + sewer/drain + home systems protect. IT doesn't have some of those additional clauses that proper I think has, like loss of revenue?

I use state farm, costs about $200 a month per $300k house. It's billed as a str rider on a regular homeowners policy I believe. Seems to be the exact same as anyone else. Includes everything you need. 

This won't help me, since i use vrbo as well and want to spread my automation over both consistently. The automation a PMS offers is way beyond simple messaging as well. Syncing properly, requesting reviews, snagging email information to save for later email blasts, syncing pricing, automated pricing strategies, minimum stay changes based on time out, I could go on...

You really could have combined your two posts into one... But if you get a bunk bed make sure it's metal. Kids love to slam the wooden head boards with their feet and break it.