Again, not really familiar with what any of that shit means. My friends and everyone deal with cap rates and all that, I've never been involved. Not sure it needs to be more complex than it is -- the mortgage for the two cabins I posted would cost around $2,500/month (combined). Each cabin would bring in over $3,000/month (each), which means you're earning a good chunk of change every month. Hire a good cleaner and maintenance man and it's very little work. My involvement is answering 3-4 calls/month and replenishing toiletries/kitchen stuff/etc.
Very positive experience. This thread from page 1 is basically documenting my entire experience, and there are links to it a few pages back.
Ok, I'm caught up. You found the same tiny home company I did! Their models seem pretty badass. If I go deeper on this, mind if I send you a PM?
I believe I found AirDNA when it was mentioned in this thread, has anyone used it to determine their rental potential and pricing?
I used it before we bought our property. It’s insightful but has a couple of challenges. The biggest is that personal use is counted towards occupancy because there’s no way for them to know the difference. It also needs a decent number of comps to be accurate. I’d use it but not bank on it exclusively. Reach out to str property managers in the area to inquire about their management services and ask them what they think. Vacasa.com is a national tech startupy one and they make it really easy to get estimates. In our case I used their rev estimates as a target and have so far been able to hit them. I charge more than they all said they’d charge, but keep occupancy lower than they said they would. Where AirDNA was maybe most helpful was creating a short list of properties to considering buying. There was way more RE inventory then though.
This is helpful. You are saying you can double rents and you provide some opx clarity. So a fair proforma is the following?
For comparisons sake, this would be my pro-forma to operate the same property. I wouldn't be able to operate it as efficiently. 45% opx.
I think they make a lot of sense, especially when you are hustling and self managing the property. You can really drive the return.
I've been trying to figure out projects for a property with two or three trailer tiny homes on it. The challenge I keep running into is trying to come up with a reasonable replacement timeline for them. I'm guessing they'll only last 10-15 years being that they're RV's being used every day. Is that close or just way off? Just seems like the trailer would give out or etc over time. They're more cars than houses.
You ever thought about doing 3 nights minimum? In my experience I've had no problem renting at that as they will come down Thursday through Sunday. Might be an easy way to fill another night per week.
I'm playing with this now at our place. So far so good. If you use PriceLabs.co, you can set dynamic minimum stays based on how far out the reservation is. If it hasn't been booked, it'll automatically drop it back down to 1 or 2 nights to get it rented.
I have not. It may work on my Rainier property, but this new one is really far out of the way. If it takes off I'll look into it
See that’s the thing, right? They’re anywhere from 35k - 100k to buy them. If wear and tear means you’re replacing them every 5-10, the only real way to make money is at a pretty massive scale. Just seems to make way more sense to suck it up and do new construction (or buy another existing property)
I mean, you're not gonna make fuck you retire money, but your note will be so small that it should be a nice regular cash-flow. Conservatively estimating $10K profit each year then it's paid for itself in 5-6-7 years. And you'll need land to place it, so that's another good investment. Over the longterm, absolutely stick construction >> modular homes/tiny homes, etc. But, if you don't have a lot of $$$ to put down, this can be a good way to get your foot in the door.
Yeah I guess I’m just saying if the goal is replace it when it’s ready, you don’t really have cash flow - you have savings to buy the next one. If it’s $50k up front and you make 10k a year for five years and then have to spend $50k again to replace, you’re not getting anywhere. The delta on the two, cash flow vs replacement cost, is what I’m looking at. I think I could make enough to pay down the land / tread sideways. So spend $50k to pay down a $100k lot and then replace with actual construction (assuming construction costs are better then, inflation adjusted, then the craziness now) But no matter how I cut it right now it seems to be in the -1 to 5% a year cash on cash. For comparison I’m doing over 30% on my existing Airbnb (heavily leveraged, though)
I plan on either selling the tiny home itself and building a cool A-frame or something on the property, or selling the land with the tiny home on it. If I can make the cash work, would love to keep the property and just sell the tiny home.
That person is either crazy, or has been burned by guests one too many times. We stayed in a place in Gaitlinburg once that had financial penalties for everything on their check out list. $20 fine if the remotes weren't put back in the exact spot you found them.
Has anyone ever used a hard money lender in lieu of traditional financing? https://www.redfin.com/WA/Ashford/38207-567th-St-Ct-E-98304/home/2936815
I have on a couple properties. Was mostly an avenue to acquire fast with cash, renovate, and then finance with a conventional loan.
Some choad on TikTok who lies was spreading a bunch of false info about these meaning you have no actual debt or cash into the project and shit like that. Turns out he mortgages the rentals in his wife’s name to pay the hm loan then like transfers it to the LLC to make it look like he has the assets without the liabilities(?) or whatever. looks like the account is deleted
That would be the plan. Borrow like $25-50K on top of the purchase price, fix it up, finance it traditionally.
So airbnb folk, is it a pretty big no-no to put cameras inside the actual house? Finding that it is, and I'd like to smoke a little weed in a few weeks at a place whom claim they'll "notify authorities" wrt "drugs". It's just weed ppl
What do you guys know about full-service glamping? Essentially looks like charging people a buttload to set up a big tent with glamping amenities, shuttling them in, then back out. The vendor I saw at a maker fair just did the equipment on public camping locations, rather than owning land and having a permanent location.
Been accumulating a bunch of second hand stuff in anticipation of buying a second place sometime this winter.
Having my first real issue with my second property. Pretty sure my cleaner is on meth or some other similar drug -- which isn't surprising given the area. Texts me at all hours of the night with just off-the-wall ideas, and for the second time since August just straight up didn't flip the cabin for the next guest. Thankfully the guests were super understanding, just refunded them one night. She also constantly reminds me of money struggles and her dad getting cancer. Recently, she told me her Venmo was "locking her out," so I pay her BF -- aka someone probably complained about her and she got kicked off the platform. How many more redflags ya want? After forgetting to clean the property on Monday, last night she asks if I'd be interested in hiring to co-host the property -- so she would have access to my airbnb account and all that comes with it. She could boost my revenue by "at least 50%" with personal horseback rides and personalized hikes. I have like 75% occupancy already, so unless she plans on adding days to the calendar, color me skeptical on a 50% revenue increase. Asked for $100 advance payment to design a logo for my cabin. Why the fuck does it need a logo? Sucks because I'm legit concerned about her vandalzing my spot if I fire her. Going to try and ride it out thru end of the year, and once I close it down for winter change keypad, etc. and fire her. Fun stuff.
Recently had my first issue with a guest shitting all over the toilets and flooding the basement because of doing laundry. Good times. Still getting another in the next couple months.
Would working through a company like vacasa be any kind of benefit for you? Then they could deal with the cleaners, plus handling all the marketing? We started renovations on the house we intend to rent. Hoping to have everything ready by Jan. 1. We are going to go with Vacasa, just because this is our first foray into owning a STR, and want to get used to it before we do it on our own.
What % does Vacasa take? It's really not a lot of work if you find a reliable cleaner -- for my other property, I barely lift a finger. Send my cleaner the bookings at the beginning of the month and and Venmo her for the previous month.
They are anywhere from 25-35%. Steep, but they handle everything. Evolve does marketing only for 10%.
What's a reasonable monthly income compared to expenses? Sitting at between 2x and 3x expenses currently.
You’re making 2x your expenses? That’s seems really good. Like I want to get into this just to pay for the property. Going to look at a lake house that needs some work this weekend.
May was 1.75x. June was 2.5x. July was 3x. August was shit but still made expenses. September was 3x. October was 3x. November was 1.75x. December will be 3x. Jan will be 3x.
Need a little more context (how much out were you to acquire the property for starters) but yea, 2Xing your expenses is pretty damn good.