All Forum Posts by: Bill F.

I do not buy STR portfolios professionally. I'm going to interpret discovery as pre LOI diligence, AKA tire kicking.

In terms of valuation, you need to bear in mind that there isn't a 'market' per se. If I want to buy a share of Meta, a super deep market exists that combines the wisdom of millions of educated people's assumptions about Meta's future as a going concern. A 20 property STR portfolio in the Tampa area doesn't have quite the same level of attention and so valuation falls more in the eye of the beholder, mainly being you, the seller, and whomever else comes along. All that to say, don't put a ton of faith in "the market" since you most likely make up somewhere between 10-50% of said market.

When you say you are buying the contracts, what does that mean? I'm not super familiar with STR lingo. Will you own only the deeds to the 15-20 properties and not any of the branding, employees, customer list ect?

All of this makes a difference for valuation. If you want only the properties, go get a valuation of the portfolio and pay some small multiple of the asset value, like 1.1x or 1.15x, to account for getting a group instead of individual properties. 

If you plan to buy their business, then you'd pay some multiple of NOI/ FFO. I'm not super sure what multiple STR companies trade at never mind in your local, but I'd be surprised if it was greater than 2x.

At the end of the day both those methods are short cuts for a full on DCF, where you project out future cash flows and terminal value and put them in terms of today's dollars using your cost of capital. 

@Andrew Steffens

For General Advice

-Get as much agreed to in the LOI as Possible (Asset or Stock Sale, Amount of Seller Carry if any, working capital if applicable, agree on what info will be provided and when)

Other than that we'd need more info to help you out. 

Are you buying just the rentals themselves or their STR brand too? What's the rough size of the transaction (# units). What type of questions do you have? Due Diligence, valuation, transition?

 Don, the confusion is a feature not a bug. The pitch relies on folks feeling like they have gotten access to some special dark magic which allows them get one over on the man and/or feel superior to others who "Don't get it".

Understanding the mechanics would undermine the main reason people do it/ talk about it: to feel special. 

@Katie Miller Happy to connect with @Trevor Riley or anyone else who may find my feedback useful. Have them send me a message and we can set up some time to talk. 

I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents. FWIW: I only use BP via a laptop so I can't comment on the mobile/ tablet experience. 

Bottom Line, not a fan of the new dashboard and it has decreased my use of the site. 

I enjoyed that the previous version that was forums focused and allowed me to see the threads that my connections had commented on. One of the largest draws for me on BP is the communtiy that the forums have created and the previous dashboard made it much easier for me to see threads/ posts that my connections, a group of ppl I've worked hard to curate over the past 5+ yrs due to their knowledge, expertise, and expertise, have to say. Now that I can't do that/ have to put in far more effort to do this, IDK how much I'll use the site. 

I get that the site needs to drive traffic to the higher profit lines of business/ ones with more engagement, but this dashboard has swung a bit to far the other way... Why do I have a Pro Banner top right when I had pro but canceled it? How many books does BP release in a yr that it needs its own tile? 

If I have missed a way to customize the dashboard and have the same functionality as the old version but with some add ons, I'm game. 

If I'm being completely honest, the UX on BP has felt like the death of a thousand cuts over the past three yrs where the prime directive is to cross-sell as many BP branded products to the users as possible. I get it, the site costs money and has to make money, but these recent UX decisions have seemed to forget/ miss the largest/ oldest product BP has to sell, which is a massive community of REI who come back to the site over and over.

Insightful comment Chat GPT, I mean Jay

Chat GPT4 is $20/month. That plus a few hrs of your time should allow you to automate 80% of the tasks you'd have a VA do.

Terri-Leigh Huleis is probably to busy with her interior design company, FoundHomeCO, to worry about this thread anymore. 

Quote from @Terri-Leigh H.:

Quote from @Bill F.:

Terr-Leigh Huleis' current status

We haven't even touched the topic of heirs and what will happen when they learn of the sales terms AND if the seller had the mental competence to enter into the sale... I bet I know the position the former will take about the latter!

“Heirs” are aware… When she was in heart failure I contact all 3 to let them know and ask who could come down and be there, they all refused. They cut her off, one has legal troubles.
We tried to give everyone the option to step in, everyone opted to not be involved. We all make assumptions.

And we had multiple of her friends, church people involved to attest to competence. 

I’ve mentioned as much but I can’t convince you otherwise im sure.

 To be crystal clear on the facts: her relatives/heirs/ next of kin are aware that she sold her house, which apprised for $290k, to you for $60k? 

Terr-Leigh Huleis' current status

We haven't even touched the topic of heirs and what will happen when they learn of the sales terms AND if the seller had the mental competence to enter into the sale... I bet I know the position the former will take about the latter!