All Forum Posts by: Timothy Church

@Bruce C.

It is for the best to stay off of Craigslist. While you might be able to find someone eventually, you will be wading through a sea of fake cashier's checks and poor renters. There are some people who use it but even if you have good luck there are other risks.

One of the common scams at least in Galveston is listing duplication. Originally this was just for long term rentals. They would copy your photos, description, and even NAME and put it on the market a couple of hundred bucks under your amount. They would get people to sign a lease and then mail a deposit check. People would lose out on a months rent through this scam and have nowhere to live. I've called "myself" before on these fake listings. You can flag them as a scam but they just pop back up.

They've now taken to doing this for short term rentals as well. They will have all of your information posted down to the littlest detail. In fact, many keep the charade up all the way down to a fake lockbox code. Now you have guests at your house who have paid someone else to stay there. These people are embarrassed and normally rather pissed. I've talked with one manager where after being informed they'd been scammed, the guest broke the lockbox and slept in the house until the cops got there.

There was a time that Craiglist was a wonderful tool with a vast variety of uses. Today it is a center of scam, bot listing, and countless issues. While you can list on there, I'd rather be able to 100% deny that any of my listings have ever been on Craigslist if and when the cops, unfortunately, have to get involved.

Just my thoughts. Better safe than sorry!

For the Airbnb:

For scheduling things with the cleaning company, look into TurnoverBnB. It is free to use and is a great way to make sure your cleaners know to clean the house. They get automated emails for every booking and even update emails if something is rescheduled or canceled. If you need recommendation for other cleaning options on the island feel free to reach out to me. Be happy to share my personal experiences with a handful down here. 

I get the pest issues!! Even with all my properties on quarterly treatment schedules, it still happens. Really not much you can do other than apologize. I keep a handful of spec's gifts cards in my truck just in case I get guests that don't seem happy with just an apology.

@Ram Dettmer

Good morning! 

After thinking everything over, I'm going with your idea for the blogs. I will have one site which will have a realtor based landing page. There will be links to a real estate based blog/market analysis & a separate link to a FIRE blog. 

For the time being, I'm going to hold off on the tenant portal and continue to use Cozy. Maybe after this next acquisition, I'll create a separate site that will be a tenant and investor portal for my investments. I'm curious if having all my properties on one site would count as connecting them from a liability standpoint?? I'll have to ask my lawyer.

Thanks for your feedback!!

 I'm curious as why it would be off putting. Since I work solely with investors, I was thinking showing that I am pursuing passive income through real estate myself might help with credibility. 

I'm thinking of doing 3 separate sites. A blog for real estate and FI, my Matterport scanning site, and a secure site for tenants and investors to access information.

I'm a bit bias towards splitting the blogs as it will be much harder to maintain two separate blogs.

@J Chad Davis

How many websites should I have?!? 

So here is my situation. I am a Realtor in Galveston, Tx focusing on working with investors. I personally invest in Galveston and am working on buying some commercial properties as well as a few more Airbnbs.

I've always had the stale IDX provided by my broker but never put the time I should have into growing my online presence. I really would like to start a blog discussing my journey to FI as a way to visually see my growth and help keep me on the right track. My question is should I separate my future website as a Realtor from my blog about FI especially since my primary vehicle for FI is real estate. I want to be able to outline projects I'm working on and returns I'm getting on the site as well as a post at least weekly.

I do have one site. I currently have a side hustle doing Matterport 3D tours and I have a basic one-page site to show examples of work and collect contact info from interested parties. I will need to begin actually utilizing it as well and advertising appropriately.

Another site I would really like to set up soon is a tenant portal. I've been looking into updating my management software due to an upcoming project and liked the abilities of Buildium to integrate into a website. I'd love to set up a tenant site for properties to store document, pay rents, and report issues online. 

To add another curveball to the mix, I have recently been talking to investors about some private money lending. One website I'd love to have is a secure site where I could upload reports, videos, and updates for investors to give an extra level of transparency.

Sooo how many sites do I have? Do I congeal them all into one master site or keep them all individual? For a quick synopsis here are the different sites.

• Realtor website/blog
• FIRE blog
• Matterport 3D tours
• Tenant Portal
• Investor Portal

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

I think one of the first issues will be finding a decent rentable house at this price point. The SFH pricing has risen significantly in the last handful of years resulting in difficulties in performing as LTR. At that price point, you'll have full gut rehabs and properties rented to subpar tenants.

There is definitely still opportunity here. Most SFH in decent areas perform well as STR and there are multi family options that still work for LTR. Best bet would be to find a multi family project that has been held by an investor for a while. They'll still need work but have the best returns for LTR.

Definitely remember to get full insurance quotes before jumping. We need flood, windstorm, and liability down here! Let me know if you have any specific questions!

@Thomas Weidner The competition has definitely risen quite a bit! However, there are about 7 million tourists to Galveston every year. We actually have beaten the Grand Canyon for the last 6 years! Another thing that shows our growth is there are current 3 new hotels being built. That being said my numbers were abour 5% down in 2018 as compared to 2017. It is definitely getting tighter and you are having to run them properly to out perform the market. I'm just excited for those people who don't do that. I'm ready to pick up some turnkey vacation rentals on the island as people stop doing it!!

@Dennis Solari I typically recommend to my investor to self manage. Once you have things running, they are decently self sufficient. Your primary job is being able to respond to occasional messages. As long as you make a point to take all relevant questions and add them to your listing/check in packet, those occurances will diminish. You do by city law have to have someone within an hour of the property as a "contact person". This could even be a local handyman or someone you have an agreement with down here. 9/10 issues can be resolved without you visiting the property. Actually had one leg of a electrical panel go out tonight on a property I manage for another investor. Called the guest and explained what was going to happen, called centerpoint to send out the guy to fix it, and called the owner to aprise them of the situation. Centerpoint texted me when it was fixed, I texted them, and everything was done!! All while taking my family downtown for ice cream at Galveston's ArtWalk!! It is minor inconviences here and there but it isn't too hard.

It really depends on the property and the location. I have a handful of vacation rentals on the island and also manage some for some other investors. At that price point, hopefully yours is either a west end property or in the historic district. They can definitely provide a decent income if run properly. If you'd be interested on the AirDNA data for it, I have a subscription covering Galveston and would be happy to share it with you. Just PM me!

That is one of the things that can be stressful about STR. While they perform great, most guests book rather last minute. In Galveston, 50% of guests book in the last 30 days! You really don't want a full calendar a month or two out as you are actually missing out on a lot of guests. When I hear people saying that they are booked up for the next 2-3 months, all I can think of is all the cash they're missing out on being priced so low!

In Galveston, you are not required to hold a license or certificate. They do require that every STR be registered with the city and that you have a contact person that is available who is within and hour of the property. It is fairly easy to register on the City Park Board website. They like them registered so the can easily keep track of the local hotel tax of 9% (6% to the city & 3% to the conference center). If you have any specific questions in regard to city regulations, the park board is who handles that down here and they are happy to help!