All Forum Posts by: Sarah Kensinger

Make sure you research, like beyond to the moon and back, before you jump into the Orlando market. This would especially mean learning about the STR market for this day and age, as well as what guests are expecting in a property. Also make sure your numbers are more than good, and you have beyond plenty to create a property that stands out from thousands and thousands of other properties.

Reach out to The Bright House PM. Not only would they be a great company to look after your property, but they can probably help you find a STR realtor in the area as well!

Get your property on as many sites as you can! The more eyes on your property the better!

A lot of this also depends on which platform your area is the strongest in. Some places more people book on Airbnb, and in other places it's VRBO. Some areas are strong on both sites but does seem to lean one way or the other. 

This is a hard question to answer! For you to up the STR revenue, it sounds like you'll need to build a serious brand and get your name and property out there. Then people know you're a nature retreat and would specifically come to area just to stay at your property. Given the remote location it'll probably be hard to try a different strategy like LTR or MTR, so in some ways I wonder if selling the property would be a better route.

Due to our recent experience with commercial properties, I would be surprised if you could get a DSCR loan on your property. I would definitely call around and talk with different lenders and even throw this question over on the commercial real estate investing forum.

Thank-you for this! We had a number of people recently ask about VA.

Look at the numbers of each option closely and then decide what would be the best course for you. It's hard to say when numbers would be a major deciding factor...at least for me.

Quote from @Josh Kelly:

Quote from @John Underwood:

Don't depend on Airdna to be accurate enough.

Use the enemy method. Google it.

Cheers! Thanks for the tip. Looks like John Bianchi's method of analysis is very very similar, which I learned last night. Definitely seems clear that the baseline number that airdna gives you is super unreliable.

It's not unreliable at all if you know how to use it, which to be honest many on here don't. There is no other data pulling software more accurate and staying ahead of the game then Airdna. 

You should have a realtor that knows the STR market of the area you're looking in... whether it's the Poconos or another area. If you need any contacts to talk about the market etc., reach out and I can connect you with some STR operators in the area.

@Andrew Steffens pretty well covered it, I would only add $125 for software fees to run the STR.