All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

It will definitely be worth it.  I did one on my last build in 2022 and it was well worth doing. I used Madison Specs.  It costs more than a DIY, but they will back it up if you get audited by the IRS.

Yea like others have said. It depends. I have 2 STRs that are in HOAs. Both of these are in vacation destination markets and every property in the HOA is an STR in both scenarios. The HOA takes care of the grounds, the lights, roads and resort pool. So in this scenario it works fine.

If you were doing an STR in a non vacation market, then I would avoid like the plague.

Just set up another account that’s what I ended up doing.   I used the gmail+1 truck to keep everything assigned to the same email account. 

Most of the times I get a local booking, it's because they want to have a pool party for their kid and invite all their friends.  We have thwarted a number of these incidents by asking questions and making sure they are aware of the no party rule and max occupancy for the property. 

So I would totally agree from a lenders perspective you are right on 100%, however, from a buyer's perspective or even a seller's perspective, I think an STR can be valued higher based on it's performance. For instance a 2 bed cabin in the Smokies that did 140k gross last year, is going to be worth more than a 2 bed cabin that only did 70k last year.

I agree the lender may not see it that way, but I think a buyer would be willing to pay more for the one that did 140k vs the one that did 70k.

Again, past performance does not dictate what it will do in the future, but it does show what it is capable of.  

And of course you would have to have a  buyer that values it higher for a sell to work.

But I totally agree just because it is an STR does not make it worth more per se.

 Well I did find a few threads on reddit, asking if the feature existed to allow you to login to certain apps and leave them logged in while in guest mode.   The answers were pretty clear that both YouTube TV and Xfinity Stream will be logged out.  That pretty much kills guest mode for me.  

Honestly I have been running this way for 5 years and yea every now and then (maybe once a year) a guest might notify us that they forgot to logout.  But other than that no issues.  The Roku account I use in my STRs is different than my home account so no big worries.

 So I have not used guest mode on my Rokus because I was afraid that once I do that, then the Xfinity Stream app (which provides my cable TV and local channels on all my Roku devices through out each cabin) will be logged out as well.  Have you tested that by chance?

Cabin in Wears Valley on the edge of the Smoky Mtn National Park at 2000ft elevation.  You actually have to drive through a part of the national park to reach the cabin.  4 star review.. there was a bear that came out in front of the cabin every day and they didn't like that.  boom 4 stars!

The craziest request I got was hey can you check the footage on your ring camera?  Our motorcycles were damaged and we think bears did it.  We need video to show the insurance company.  We checked cameras and sure enough two bears took bites out of their motorcycle seats.

Collin I have not been at this nearly as long as you, but what I have experienced across my STRs doesn't necessarily have to do with a lower rate specifically, but rather a lower rate on a specific STR. It seems that once I get to a certain bottom rate, I definitely get more problem guests.

But I totally agree with your statement that low class folks come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

 If that is the case.. I myself would much prefer the hot tub outside as that kind of gives a better feeling of freedom and openness especially with the view you describe.  If you can do both you can landscape walkways nicely etc..  That would be real nice.   You want gravel, stone, concrete walkways, something like that or even a wooden deck going out to the hot tub.  You don't want grass or dirt otherwise people will track that stuff in on their wet feet.

Things to think about.  You will need to run 220 electricity to the hot tub.  It might be nice to have some outside lighting that can be turned on or off by the guests.  Also, make sure you have a spigot around that side of the house to make it easy on the cleaners to run a hose for fill up.