All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

Well just because you live in Ohio is not the reason to use a property mgmt company.  We live in SC and manage STRs in TN.   The property mgmt company is going to take a large chunk out of your revenue.  Now the reason to use a property mgmt company is because you don't want to fool with managing it yourself, or the income is not your greatest concern in the deal which are valid reasons.  Plenty of folks on this forum manage their STRs remotely using services like VRBO and AirBnb and others.  Scout this forum and you will find a ton of info from people doing this.  There is an initial learning curve but the folks on this forum will be glad to help you out.  Just some food for thought.

So far I got a notice like that for one of my cabins but not the other two.. still waiting to see what that will be.

@Vincent Chen I understand what you are saying and for me I would would want more cash flow. I do agree that the returns in that market have come down, solely based on purchase price increases that have occurred over the last 18 months. However, a 10% second home mortgage at 3.75 % to wet your feet in the STR business, and see if this is for you is not a bad option to start with. There are a lot of personal details that come into this of which only the buyer will know i.e. his cash position, his goals, family situation, etc.. all of this comes in to play for each person and weighs in on their decision making process for these deals. So it's never a once size fits all scenario. Each person needs to do what is comfortable for them and be able to sleep at night. At least that is my theory ;)

So at his given rate and down payment.. if he only nets 10k/yr his CoC for 1st year is still 29%. Which is a most excellent return. The real question is whether the additional work in this active investment is worth the $832 /mo (10k/12 months) he would make on that return and that question can only be answered by the buyer and what his time is worth, how much the education he is receiving in what I think is his first STR asset purchase and what having a cabin in that fantastic part of the country is worth to him.

Nathan,

As far as towels go.. here is thread when @Michael Baum posted one of his deals of the day for certain towels at Costco.  So I have no idea what the price is today on these towels.  What I do know is that I have seen a number of recommendations for these towels.  We ended up switching cleaners from one who provides this stuff to one who doesn't.  We ended up  stocking  3 cabins with these towels a few months ago and have been very happy with the quality of these towels.  Check the post below for the  exact brand/details.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

What I found was that when I went through the process I outlined above.. the guests were really happy because they had planned their vacation and when they found out it was being sold they got nervous.. but then once they realized that I am keeping their booking.. they were really happy and were very eager to comply with re-booking.  They were very happy they still got to go on their planned vacation to the spot of their choice.  I don't know if @Luke Carl or @Mike V. actually had negative responses from doing this or if that is just what they think could happen.  Maybe I got lucky.  But my experience went very smooth with all happy guests and good reviews.  Like I said they were relieved to know that we were going to take care of them.

I know in my case I setup my listing while their listing was still active.  I would talk to VRBO to find out their guidelines on that part of it.

@Keith Schulz I am in 100% agreement.  Make sure you talk to VRBO about the reviews on the property.  If he has good reviews like I said they can transfer them to your listing but you have to go though their process to make it happen.  The whole number of good reviews thing goes into their search rankings when folks are looking for a property so it helps to have that already populated - of course if they are good reviews.  I didn't do this but found out from VRBO after the fact.

So for me it was not a big deal.   First let me say this.  If he has good reviews on VRBO, VRBO will transfer the reviews to your listing but you need to contact them before you do anything to make sure the steps are followed.  Again, that is the reviews not the bookings.

The bookings thing is not a big deal to me.  As long as the current owner is willing to work with you it won't be a problem.  So the deal is that you need to get your listing set up.  Then have the current owner send you a list of all his future bookings - names and dates.  Then go in to your calendar and block those dates.

Then the current owner will need to contact each of his future bookings and let them know he is selling the property but working with the new owner.  This part is up to you, but I would let him know that he can tell all of his future bookings that once he cancels their booking, they can re-book with you immediately and you will honor their current pricing.  (When I purchased mine, they were priced under market value).  You will already have your listing set up so he will need to provide the guests with you listing and your contact info.  The guests will need to contact you when they are ready to book so you can unblock your calendar for their dates.  Once that is done they book.  Basically we gave all the previous owners guests a timeline to re-book.  It was a matter of days I think, that I would hold their dates blocked until they booked.

We carried over about 15 bookings or so when I did this and it wasn't bad.  We had immediate income which definitely helps when starting a new cabin.  We only had 2 that didn't book.  We do not allow pets so two of them decided not to book for that reason.

Hope that helps.

@Michael Baum That is exactly what I did at all my cabins.  Every cabin has TCL Roku TVs.  Very cheap to purchase.  Very good quality.  Very simple remote.  And if you have xfinity/comcast brought into the rental at one location, you can then load the xfinity streaming APP on ALL of the Roku TVs and stream all the cable channels everywhere in the house without having to rent additional cable boxes.  Sweet!

@John Craven Good deal.  That would not have happened prior to COVID-19. 6 weeks ago he would have said no, you would have backed out and he would not have cared because he would have probably sold it in 48 hours for more than you agreed on.  That is how things have been going leading up to the virus.  I think his response is a good indicator of the market situation there now in response to the virus.  Glad to hear that for you.  You always need to be comfortable with what you are doing in these situations. It's nice to sleep at night ;)