Introduction and gratitude

Hi, I just finally joined the forum to say thank you all for the past 2 years of education, knowledge, and hosting confidence I have gotten from reading your awesome, friendly, constructive, incredibly helpful forum.

It took us just shy of 2 years from date of purchase, working only during our vacations and working nonstop and hard for 1 to 2 weeks each stretch, to get the place in condition to host guests.

During the times we were not working on the place, I was trying to learn every good bad and ugly thing about the vacation rental biz. I read a lot of forums, blogs, watched vlogs, listened to podcasts… this forum is just the best and I now read here every day.

So I thought I would finally de-lurk to express my appreciation for all the great advice and information and fellowship you’ve all given this stranger you didn’t even know was here.

In case you were wondering, no we didn’t buy the house to do VR. The perfect place came up in the perfect location in a different (my home) state where we intend to retire, in a desirable rural area with historically low inventory, 1/4 mile from my family’s home where I want to be in retirement near my then to be elderly loved ones. It was several years sooner than we need it, so VR in the interim.

Only hosted under a dozen groups at this point (only been taking bookings about 6 months) but I have gone into this feeling like I already a good handle on the tips, tricks, scams, things to avoid, etc. before I ever took that first booking and I owe that mostly to this forum. Absolute best VR resource on the net.

A million thanks, sincerely!

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Congratulations on the purchase of your retirement home. We did the exact thing! My husband retires next year but I have to wait two more years. Meanwhile, renting it out is paying our property taxes which are quite high in New Jersey. Hope you have a great AirBnb experience.

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Welcome! I love your plan for utilizing your retirement place as vacation rental in the meantime.

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Congrats on your place and wishing you loads of good fortune! This forum is indeed a great resource!

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Welcome, @LoneStar, from a (fellow?) Texan!

We’re like you, @Ritz3, bought our retirement home 5 years ago in a desirable location (Caribbean) and hubby retired late last year. I have two more years to work. I’m the finance person in the family, and we spent more than originally budgeted under the vision of renting it out most of the time. It’s been such a success that we’re planning on expanding for our retirement “job”.

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Texas born and raised and counting the days til I shut the listing down and move in. Having fun with learning this biz in the meantime!

That is awesome. Hubby wants a camper trailer in retirement I do not think we need. He has agreed that when the day comes, he will let me set it up as an airbnb room with its own privacy fence on the land to keep some pocket money coming in. I will have fun with guests and not be bitter about the purchase lol.

although I was surprised it was available, I thought Lone Star fit because part of my marketing is … this is our only home and it is owner operated. No offense to y’all with other types of biz models. Just doing what it takes to make my new listing appealing with what I have to work with.