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Hey guys, sorry I’ve been pretty inactive for the past few weeks. I thought it was crazy a few months ago, this has been the worst week ever, family and friends-wise. Anyway, on to my topic/questions:
We have a whole apartment rental above our garage that does really well. It’s adjacent to our house so I can monitor it well and do all laundry on-site. Yard work, cleaning, everything is managed by me. We charge lower end of our market rate because it’s fairly easy to manage, so we stay booked 90+% of the time.
My husband and I also LTR a 900 sq ft house 3 miles away. Next year the 3 year lease is up and we still probably can’t sell the house due to market issues and what we owe. So we’re looking at our options if he doesn’t renew. We have a great tenant, but we have such low margins that it’s not worth risking a bad LT tenant there, so we’re either considering dropping $15K into the house to just sell it and be done with it, or putting about $5K into furniture and such and converting it to a STR.
So feel free to copy these questions and answer if you would:
What % of the month are you booked for a house that can sleep 4-6?
Would you recommend having a washer/dryer on site (I do plan on having 2-3 sets of everything on-hand so I don’t have to do laundry on turnover day)?
Do you get mostly families or a few couples, or do you also get business people and just couples on trips away?
Do you manage everything yourself, or do you find it worth it to outsource lawn-care, turnovers, etc?
Currently our margin is $60/month on our LTR after our costs, but since we can’t sell the house currently without a huge loss it’s better than nothing. So I want to make sure I can get our margin averaging $500+ a month to make all the extra work worth it. And these are a few questions I can’t answer based on my experiences. I’m already factoring in extra costs such as utilities, furniture, bedding, dishes, etc. I’d just hate to do all this work and find out I can’t book it more than 25% of the time. I get mostly families and couples here as most STRs in my area are either bedrooms or hold 2 people. So I think there’s market space for it.
We are booked 80/90% of the time. Our appartment (half of an house) can have upp to 8 guests.
We have a washer, some guests are using it. It’s not compulsory but people that needs like it.
We get companies during week days (most of the weeks), some families, group of friends and very very few couples during week ends. During summer and holidays we have many families.
I do everything myself.
Our place is in the center of sweden, in 150 000 habitants size city.
I just opened up our STR mid-March, so I am very new to this. The house sleeps 6 (2 bedrooms and a futon in the living room).
April and May I am about 65% booked. I have a long term renter for June, July and August (family relocating to the area)
We do have a washer/dryer and my guests have used it more than I would have thought.
I get a WIDE variety of guests. Families, bands on tour, students, etc. I have to say that families with kids have done the most wear and tear on the home and furnishings. My weekends are all booked into September. Weekdays are more sporadic. I find that people often book weekdays at the last minute (like the week before)
I do manage everything myself, although I get my kids to help me if I have a quick turnover.
Since I’m still starting up, I have some additional expenses, but my profit for April should be in the $400 range. I am located in Minneapolis.
If your “house” is very close to your attached rental I think that is a great gauge. I’m sure each “market” differs but if you’re only 3 minutes away and you’re booked 90% of the time that tells me there is a demand. I also think people prefer having their own space - it is more valuable and you could ask a higher price.
I think people appreciate having this service available. You may be able to find a small stackable used one for convenience.
Again, depends on where you’re located (city, suburb, resort area, tourist area, etc). We get mainly groups of couples or families traveling together.
I manage it myself - sometimes “I get by with a little help from my friends”.
If I were you I’d go for it. There must be a way of furnishing the house for less by getting used furniture, then upgrading it as your business grows.
We get as much for a 1-week STR than we used to get for a month of LTR, and with the LTR there is much more risk these days - more damage, people leaving town without a trace, and without paying - I’ll never go that route again.
If your current tenant doesn’t renew could you do Airbnb for a few weeks/months and see how it goes? If you have a truck you can haul stuff in and the patience you can get great stuff used. If I were young again shopping for used furniture on craigslist, estate sales and in used furniture stores would be fun.
The only problem with this is the furnishings. While I do plan on buying everything quality used, it will be a pain to do it on a temporary basis. Though having it furnished will be good in trying to list to sell if all doesn’t go well.
That’s what I’m hoping. I"m just wanting to make sure I’m not missing some other factor.
@mom2eight, thanks for the response. That’s exactly the kind of info I’m looking for. I know I’ll be sinking money into it up front, but if we can average $400-1000/month in profit then I think it will be worth it.
2 years ago we basically gutted the house after a bad tenant and so everything is beautifully updated. Our current tenant is so good we’ll just have to do a good cleaning, touch-up paint, and then of course furnish/stock the place to make it an Air rental. I’m hoping he renews because I don’t really want the hassle, but there is no way I’m going to risk another bad LT rental while we still owe so much on the house. If I can Air it for a year or two and possibly even get that house paid off, then I can rent it LT again without the stress of money in the equation.
