All Forum Posts by: Frank Barletta

Quote from @Frank Barletta:

Thank you @Drew Smith

Is this more of an issue that you handle on your own and do the sourcing or if there were some service that could help, you'd subscribe to that?

@Frank Barletta For my first, It would've been useful to pay for a service that would do it for me.  Especially if I am miles away and didn't have the contacts established.  Once you're established in a market, it may not be as useful.  But if I had a great experience, and was moving to a new market, then I might choose to use them again.  Hope that helps!

@Frank Barletta it's not so much the individual vendors - it's a mix of both big and small - as it is an us vs. them mentality among locals. You're an outsider coming in town driving up home prices or you're "one of us" and part of the community. If you can become one of them, your life and business gets much better, smoother, and profitable. 

There is not a good scalable property management solution that I have seen. I self manage from a distance, and the only way that I would hire a property manager is if they were local. Not a national corporation that has local employees, but a local company and owner with deep roots. In these small vacation towns, it's hard to thread that needle of finding someone who is local but also not of the old school mentality. By old school, I mean does not embrace or use new technology, is not flexible with shorter minimum stays, operates in the off season (for very seasonal markets).  

Quote from @Frank Barletta:

Quote from @Andrew Steffens:

Definitely a marketplace with tools for property owners from management, to tech, to boots on ground vendors, etc.  Perhaps some exist but due to demand of questions here I do not think they are doing a good job getting their name out to everyone.

 Sounds like a turn-key management company that isn't crazy expensive so returns are still solid, or am I mistaken?

Well I actually own a full service PM co, and it is hard to operate a successful business on a 20% margin with staff, taxes, equipment etc.

More what I was referring to is that there is a need for people who self manage to meet cleaners, handyman, HVAC guys etc local to their STR property

Im an agent and investor out in Metro Phoenix. The biggest headache for sure is finding and managing reliable service providers (cleaners, landscapers, pool...). As STR owners, we dont want to micromanage these folks, but its hard to find good people. For example, our last pool guy tried to send us fictitious photos to show our pool was clean. The typical churn is about 3/4 months from quality issues, providers asking for raises...

Your initial priority should be identifying markets where short term rentals are permitted AND in my opinion even more important, identifying markets that are both reliant on short term stays to support the local economy and possess barriers that prevent more traditional hotel operations from entering the market. There is a movement across the US with many municipalities either banning or restricting the ability of property owners to lease their properties as short term rentals. This is because most municipalities charge taxes and fees specific to the hotel industry, and when the local hotels lose market share, the difficulty in holding "mom-and-pop" short term rental operators accountable results in municipalities losing considerable tax revenue. It is also helpful to engage a local zoning attorney who can assist with any use permits or licensing that's required. These should be your initial steps. No matter how great of an operator or how good your boots on the ground vendors are, if you lose your ability to operate the property as an STR, the business concept fails.

Definitely a marketplace with tools for property owners from management, to tech, to boots on ground vendors, etc.  Perhaps some exist but due to demand of questions here I do not think they are doing a good job getting their name out to everyone.

Definitely a marketplace with tools for property owners from management, to tech, to boots on ground vendors, etc.  Perhaps some exist but due to demand of questions here I do not think they are doing a good job getting their name out to everyone.

The biggest challenge with Airbnb when I had one is finding a property manager/cohost that is halfway competent. Most want to make mailbox money instead of creating mailbox money for their owners. They are as hands-off as possible and don’t really add value to the owners.

Most of these vacation markets are small towns. You have to build trust and a good relationship with one or more locals that can plug you into the network of tradespeople, cleaners, etc. If not, you're the rich guy from out of town that they can sting for 20%+ more than they charge other customers.