All Forum Posts by: John Arendsen

@Account Closed is spot on regarding whether or not the MH's in the park have their own. Most singlewides, especailly older ones don't usually don't have W/D's and a coin facility managed and maintained by a vendor is the only way to go unless your onsite mgr is an appliance repair man. Plus if you're not personally managing the coinage you're asking to be cheated.

On the subject of building a website and generating Googl Juice and SEO I tend to agree with others who take the position of letting the AB&B's and VRBO pros lead the field in that department when your a newbie. However, once you get established and/or start generating a lot of returns and referrals thats a different story.

As a RE broker I know the value of CC&R's and HOA's. They can and most often are a PIA and a deal breaker; at least for me. I won't even attempt to invest in properties that have this going on. There's too many other more user friendly places to invest in.

The very first thing one should do whence performing their due diligence is to contact the local municipality the property is located in be it a city or county. They all have different rules and regs governing VR's.

On the North San Diego Coast for example it changes not only from city to city from Oceanside, to Carlsbad, to Encinitas, to solana Beach to Del Mar to La Jolla it also can change from neighborhood to neighborhood or from being right on the coast to a little inland. It can get very confusing so you really need to do your homework before you pull the trigger on a property you intend to use as a VR.

Example: Carlsbad is really cracking down because homeowners in quiet residential SFR's and Condo communities are demanding controls and legislation due to the transient flow of their once quiet neighborhoods. They've actually cordoned off certain neighborhoods and are preventing any type of VR activity. Long term rent/lease is no prob, however.

@Michael Rutkowski, no prob with my mortgage ins as we have no mortgages on any of our properties. But you do raise a very valid point re: short term rentals. In fact I recall my insurance agent specifically asking me if we were doing that. At the time we weren't because my daughter and her family were living full time in the home. 

Subsequently, however, we have converted to a VRBO and Air B&B and have been successful with both overtime we rented. However, I never changed the policy which I will certainly look into now. Thanks for the heads up.

Hi @James Carlson and thanks for reaching out on this forum. For openers what's an STR? I'm not yet fully versed on all the nuances of this budding industry. As far liability insurance is concerned I would think that the overall homeowner policy would cover this wouldn't you? We have homeowners insurance that covers personal injury on all our properties including our primary residence and our own personal vacation home.

As far as Oceanside, CA is concerned they are welcoming VR's with open arms as they have been undergone extreme gentrification for the past 20 years and are now in the throes of building and billing Oceanside as a "destination tourist and vacation & resort community" what with all the hotels, timeshares and myriad condo, townhouse, row houses (which is what we currently own and VRBO and Air B&B's along with the great surfing, beautiful and accessible sandy beaches, hiking, biking, walking trails, wonderful eateries, boutiques, shops, etc. Oceanside is well on its way to posturing as one of the most popular tourist attractions in San Diego. 

Having been historically, since WWII, known as a military town rife with red light districts, X-rated movie theaters, "friendly ending" massage parlors, drugs, thugs, and gang activities for decades, they are now loving and arms wide open to the TOT and relishing in the fact that they are the "Northern gateway" to San Diego and the first stop that folks can make after leaving Orange County and traveling through Camp Pendleton with no other options.

What with all the traffic congestion starting miles North of Oceanside on I-5 and extending on some weekends all the way south to the city of San Diego along with the fact that it's the only coastal  North/South thoroughfare you can use to get here is starting to make Oceanside a much more desirable choice for many travelers and tourists. It's actually a win win for everyone tourists and investors alike. I'll be on a buying spree for as long as the cash holds out. When it does I'll be looking for partners to buddy up with.

@Tim Spires, I tend to agree with you. If it works why try to fix it. In the overall scheme of things if Air B&B and VRBO has a successful model why be greedy. All you need to do to offset the added charges is increase your rack rate accordingly. 

Additionally, that's the same reason we only target VR friendly communities. Why go against the grain and try to be sneaky by maneuvering around local municipalities rules, regulations and TOT. It's a lot easier just to play it straight from the get go and get all those costs incorporated into the framework so you'll know what your costs are and can adjust your price point accordingly. I guess that's the RE broker side of me. As a state licensed entity we have to play it straight.

Love the idea about the digital key @Michelle Fenn. We installed one of those on our first property and will continue to do so on all of them. Even our long term properties and manufactured homes. We're also looking into a 24/7 video surveillance offered by our local cable provider. 

We put it out there to a few of our tenants and they seem to like the idea because it gives them a sense of added security and it's really not that expensive.

Once again @Mike R.as a RE broker, PM and general contractor we certainly don't mind doing the work. That's why we intend to keep all of our investments strictly local.

"I'm using both and it simply depends on if VRBO decides to feature one of my properties that month. When they do my rentals on VRBO skyrocket. When they don't- it's all AirBnB. FlipKey is a waste of time."

That's interesting @Mike R.How does a listing get featured? Is it something you have to pay for? Or is it something you just get lucky with by VRBO's random selection?

You almost sound like a clone @Michael Rutkowski. I too am a RE broker. But in addition to that I'm also a general and manufactured home contractor and we have a rather extensive manufactured and site built home lease/rent portfolio. 

It was just this past year that our, daughter and CFO for all our companies and business enterprises convinced us to invest in prime VRBO properties close to the beach and downtown tourist attractions which we have done.

We have been very fortunate to have her as our PM and my son, who runs our construction company, there to work with us. If you can't trust your family who can you trust. Not only will they be managing and maintaining both our long term and vacation rental inventory they own part of the business which gives them all the more incentive to stay profitable. 

We to are in search of our 2nd vacation property in the same area and are looking forward to purchasing more as long as our purchasing power lasts as we are all cash investors and don't really like leveraging capital or being beholding to banks and/or creditors. 

That stated, however, when we start to wind down our RE brokerage we won't be generating the same level of income so we may have to start looking at other forms of financing or hedging if that's acceptable lexicon for the RE industry as it is for the stock market.