Vacation Rental Property Management
WE ARE DONE!!! Well, mostly. We still have some permitting and licensing issues to get through before we can actually list, but we are finished with the remodel here and so thrilled with how it turned out! What do you think? Final outcome- 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 car garage, and 1800 sqft unfinished basement.
We’ve been picking up some momentum and a lot of our cosmetic work is getting close to finished. We have rooms that somewhat resemble their normal function now! You can walk into the kitchen or a bathroom and recognize it as such. Sounds simple, but it’s definitely exciting to see cabinets in the kitchen and showers in the bathrooms. We’ve been slowly getting all the “holes” in the house closed up, which has made a lot of things easier. Because we’ve been working on the electrical, we’ve had attic accesses open. Those have made the electrical work possible, but also means the heat and smell, especially in the afternoons, have been almost unbearable. We finally put new garage doors on as well, which has helped to keep the house a bit cooler.
-Removing walls around the staircase, opening up the kitchen and dining room
-Installing garage doors
-Major electrical progress (between the two of us we’ve only been shocked three times!)
-Master bath tiled and drywalled
-Garage doors. Y’all. Do not EVER try to install garage doors yourself. I am obviously all about the DIY, but I will never install another garage door myself again. Not worth the savings. I spent three full days on this project and STILL ended up hiring someone else to do it. To be fair, we had headroom so low in the garage that even the “low headroom adapters” wouldn’t work, so we needed special ordered parts to get them to actually function. The instructions on installing these things might as well have been in another language and I spent a lot of time unbolting things I had already bolted together. The guys we ended up hiring to do this didn’t even charge much more than it would have cost to do it ourselves. Lesson learned.
– Plumbers. I would say the opposite from the garage doors. Better to do it yourself. Probably not always the case, but we hired a gentleman that had been working on the mold crew downstairs to help us with the plumbing. The first day he showed up late, explaining that he was in court. He had told us about a child custody dispute going on, so I assumed that’s what it was, but he went on to volunteer that he was in criminal court for a felony attempted murder charge. He told us the story about how he strangled his ex-wife because he was trying to “calm her down” in an argument and went on about how ridiculous it was that they were charging him for it. He seemed to think that of course we’d agree that his ex must be crazy and it was totally normal to put your hands around someone’s neck while arguing. Obviously I was pissed, but Wes and I decided to still allow him to assist in the plumbing work, as his quote was about half of the others we had gotten. He proceeded to not show up the entire rest of the week, and although we have to find a new plumber now, I was almost relieved to not have to pay him a dime. Hopefully he’s in jail.
-WE STILL HAVE RATS YALL. It’s been two months, there is no food anywhere, and we’ve had traps and professional rodent control out twice. These things are persistent little buggers. If I never smell rat pee ever again, it will be too soon.
-We still have a collapsed driveway. Dealing with insurance has been a pain, and we’re still not sure if they will cover the work or not. Hoping to at least get answers
-HVAC has been hired out and starts today!
-Plumbing. See above.
-Trim. Lots of new windows, doors, and walls have been placed, it’ll take awhile to get trim and baseboards everywhere!
The last few weeks have been a flurry of excitement. Lots of developments, both good and bad. We’ve made a ton of forward progress on the actual renovations, but had some serious setbacks with permitting and technicalities, and a bridge collapse. We now have a few rooms in the house that are almost “complete” now, and it’s really exciting to see it start looking like a real house again!
-laundry room floor tiled
-hall bath shower tiled
-master bath tub installed and floor tiled
-lots of interior and exterior painting
-all windows and siding installed
-kitchen cabinets and flooring installed
-OUR DRIVEWAY COLLAPSED. The bridge over the creek collapsed after a heavy truck went over it. Thankfully no one was hurt and the truck made it out fine, but it was super scary, a massive hassle (because we have to park on the far side and haul all the materials across the bridge on foot) but mostly a MASSIVE expense if we can’t get our insurance to cover it. We’ve submitted a claim, but our estimates to have it fixed have been in the $15-25k range. Ouch!
-The building inspector stopped by. Not a mishap in and of itself, because we planned on having the work inspected and permitted. The office informed us that because we owned the unit in an llc, we could not do ANY of the work ourselves. We had to hire a general contractor and not even lift a paintbrush. (Which was funny since three quarters of the work is done already). To remedy this, we just went straight to our attorney’s office and had him transfer the deed from our llc into our personal name. The second bomb they dropped on us was that if we did any work ourselves, we weren’t able to sell the property within a year. They even made us sign an affidavit that says we would not list the property for sale within a year of finishing the work. From the beginning we weren’t sure if we wanted to flip this property or rent it, but the longer we were here and the more money we spent, we had decided we wanted to sell. Obviously this changed the plan significantly. Not the end of the world, but a bit frustrating that we had the decision taken away it.
– Paint exterior of the house
-Finish tile in master bath
– Figure our bridge
-Hire someone to re do our HVAC system
-plumbing!!
Week four we finally got to start BUILDING things instead of ripping them out! We are prepped for tile to go in a few different places and made a lot of progress with mold remediation, plumbing, and electrical.
Week five was a little strange because I (Shelby) ended up spending the whole week in Kansas. We got a call that my grandmother was in the hospital with food poisoning. The next day we found out that there was actually a small kink in her intestine that was making her really sick. Not uncommon, but normal treatment didn’t work immediately as they’d hoped, so my dad decided to go up and see his mom, just to make sure everything was ok. He was going to drive through the night, so I decided to go with him and take turns driving. On the way there, we got a call that she was being moved into the ICU. By the time we arrived in Kansas City around 9am Friday morning, 5 days after entering the hospital, grandma was in a lot of pain and both her kidneys and her lungs were starting to fail from the backup of fluids. To make a long story very short, that evening my grandmother passed away. She had been living alone, driving, physically well, and mentally sharp until that week, so it definitely came suddenly and as a surprise. We ended up staying the rest of the week to help make arrangements for the service. Thankfully, Wes stayed in Alabama to take care of the dogs, allowing my mom and sister to fly up without worries. Wes was able to continue working on the house during our family’s emergency, and I’m glad he was still able to make some progress while I was able to grieve and spend time with my family.
-Being able to be there when it matters most
-Removed and replaced 3 old windows
-Laundry room prepped and painted, ready for tile
-Electrical removed from downstairs
-Light fixtures and ceiling fans installed in the bedrooms
-Mold remediation crew started working downstairs!
-Hall bath plumbing replaced
-Yard getting cleared out
-While removing one of the big picture windows, the glass shattered and went EVERYWHERE.
-We had three days in a row where the heat index was over 110 degrees. We were dying.
-On the hottest of those days, we decided to take the day “off” (getting supplies at the hardware store, picking out tile, etc, instead of actually working at the house). When we got there the next morning, we found we had caught a rat in one of the rat traps. Said rat had already begun rotting in the extreme temperatures of the prior day and the ENTIRE house reeked of rotting animal. It was a rough morning.
-Tile laundry room floor
-Tile hall bath shower
-Install new ceiling and bathtub in master bath
-Complete mold remediation
-Install 3 new windows
Week 2 and 3 have still been mostly about getting demo done! We’ve ran into some issues from rot in the foundation and load bearing beams of the house that had to be dealt with immediately.
-Refinished the tub and tile in the hall bath and installed a working toilet! (Hooray!)
-Painted all three upper floor bedrooms
-Removed sub floor of laundry room and master bathroom because of rot
– Jacked up load bearing beams to replace and reinforce. (Did you know you can use a beam and a car jack to hold up a house? Well, now you do)
-COMPLETELY cleared out the entire bottom floor! We found an AMAZING crew that did some serious work and knocked out the task in just a couple days!
-Removed walls downstairs to open up the space
-Cleared out back patio area
-The first day it rained we realized why we had such a terrible mold problem downstairs: a veritable waterfall was flowing from the back side of the house into the basement.
-We found an entire family of rats living inside a wall, even though we thought we had gotten rid of them all. Tiny little pink rat babies!
-It’s so hot. We’re melting. We’ve consumed at least 3 ice pops per person per day this week. Yum.
-The electrical downstairs is an absolute nightmare. We need to hire an electrician to replace the panel down there, and potentially to rewire everything. Although this is something Wes is able to do himself, we’re considering hiring it out just because it will be SO time consuming and tedious!
-Getting plumbing replaced so we can begin work on the bathrooms upstairs.
-Install new windows.
-Install kitchen flooring so we can start in stalling cabinets!
1. CONTRACTORS- Finding someone to remove the mold downstairs for a somewhat reasonable price. We had a quote back in March when I first looked at the property for $5,000. However, to make a long story very short, we decided we could not use this contractor. The next quote we got was for $22,000. WOW. And everyone else we’ve called won’t even come give us an estimate without charging for a full testing. We don’t need testing. We know it’s moldy! Haha.
2. RATS- The upstairs unit was left completely full. Clothes in the closets, electronics in the study, linens on the beds, and, most unfortunately, food in pantry. There were two pantries FULL of food. So obviously there were some critters that were taking advantage of this. We knew there was evidence of rats previously, so that wasn’t a surprise, but I did not realize how destructive they could be! Not only does the whole house reek of rat waste, but they actually began chewing through the base boards, and even the flooring in the kitchen. I was really hoping to paint the cabinets in the kitchens and leave it pretty close to as is, but when we got in we realized that there was no way we could do anything but gut the entire kitchen. Even the subfloor has to be replaced, as rat urine has soaked through the floor. Definitely some added expense (We’ve done a couple of new kitchens from IKEA now, and have the hang of it, and even kind of like it!) But mostly the demo has just been DISGUSTING. FYI- Wearing long pants and sleeves and respirator in Alabama in July is thoroughly unpleasant.
1. We have cleared enough brush that the house is fully visible and accessible from all doors!!
2. We have finished the demo of the kitchen
3. We’ve finallllllly cleared out all the furniture, trash, and JUNK from the upstairs unit. This took WAY longer than we expected, but we were thrilled to find out that the City of Hoover would actually come pick all of this up instead of having to rent a dumpster.
4. My family has been an amazing help! Both my parents and both my siblings have been out multiple times, and my siblings have even brought friends with them to help us out. They’ve been clearing brush, scraping wallpaper, hauling trash to the street, and even demo-ing tile! This is the beautiful part of the Alabama community. We’re so grateful for all the helping hands.
1. I ended up with a massive, growing spider bite on my neck AND a nasty case of poison ivy by day two. Thankfully we have easy access to great medical care in Birmingham and got them taken care of quickly.
2. Animal spottings: I found two rats in the linen closet and opened a kitchen drawer to find a live snake. (I didn’t go back inside the house the rest of the day)
3. I fell through the rotting wood on the back deck (Why is it always me?) all the way up to my hip and have some real pretty bruises.
1. Get the water turned on!! We are waiting on this for some many projects!
2. Get a crew to actually start clearing out downstairs.
3. Get the exterior of the house painted so that we can get gutters on.
Wes and I are really excited (well, I’m really excited…) to announce that we closed on our first property that we intend to flip! This will be a major project for us both and we’re both pretty nervous about being in over our heads.
“The Mold House” is what we’ve been calling it, but we’re trying to begin calling it by it’s street name, Rocky Ridge, because it won’t be the mold house anymore when we’re done with it!
Rocky Ridge came about the way that most good real estate deals do; word of mouth. The original owner is a co-worker of my father’s. He and his wife and two kids lived in this beautiful property that they had converted into three units, along with some tenants, until the divorce. I don’t have any details, but in what I can only assume was a contentious split, everyone left the property and went their own ways really quickly. As in…they left food in the pantry and the fridge, house work partly completed, clothes in the closet, kids toys in the living room. And then the house sat empty. For 6 years. Even though the owner was stilling paying a mortgage, taxes, insurance, and utilities on this empty property every single month. I can only assume that the divorce was painful enough he would prefer to throw money at this property every month than to think about it long enough to get it cleaned up, emptied out, and sold.
The most important part of this drama is that the previous owner had been in the process of making repairs to the gutters on the roof when it all befell. He had taken the gutters completely off, and then never replaced them when he left the property in a hurry. This means that for the past six years, water has been running down the side of the house every time in rains (which in Alabama is quite a bit), and then soaking into the siding. Because of this, the entire ground floor of the property is now completely covered, floor to ceiling, in mold. The first time I viewed the downstairs of the property, I put a bandana around my nose and mouth, wore gloves, a head lamp, and glasses, and I was still worried just the few minutes I spent walking around would make me sick. I tried to take photos for Wes, who wasn’t with me at the time, but by the time I got out and looked at them, most of them were blurry because I was trying to get out of there so quickly!
We got the property under contract using the “subject to” strategy. As we move forward with the renovations, I can explain more of the technicalities, but for now, we’re excited to actually get back to Alabama and get started!
We’re in the process of adding three new listings this month! We’re very particular about the units we take on, and have a waiting list right now, so finding the perfect combination of unit, owner, and help to make it happen has been wonderful. I thought now would be the perfect time to talk about the process we go through when setting up a new listing.
A lot of units in Mammoth have been around and in the same family for many years. It’s wonderful that our owners are building equity and have that special family gathering place, but often their vacation condos also become a gathering place for years of junk that never gets tossed. Think, VHS tapes, stereos, giant old tvs, lots of extra bedding and blankets that have seen better days, random knick knacks that collect dust. It all needs to go! Toss it, donate it, sell it if you can, but we’re looking for a fresh start. A unit shouldn’t feel sparse and bare, but when it’s cluttered with stuff it doesn’t make a good impression on guests. 
Now that we’ve got all the unnecessary stuff out of the unit, we’re going to go through every room to look for deferred maintenance or repairs that need to be made. Almost always, we’re going to recaulk everything in the bathrooms. This is often neglected for years and mildew in the bathroom caulk is always a turn-off, making the unit look dirty even if it’s just been scrubbed. Check all the plumbing and drains, make sure all the light bulbs work. Clean the heaters and make sure they’re working properly. Check the blinds and curtains to make sure they move easily and aren’t ripped or torn. Once you’re sure everything is in good working order, then it’s time to clean!
Scrub it all. You know the drill. Shampoo the carpets, wipe down the walls, wash the inside and outside of the windows, wash all the pots and pans. Pro Tip: you can buy the same material that magic erasers are made out of in bulk on Amazon for dirt cheap. They’re ahhhhmazing, especially for things like wall scuffs and the grime around the bathtub. 
Now that everything is working and clean, it’s time to bring in the fresh linens, bedding, paper products, toiletries, etc. New, crisp duvet covers that match if you have more than one bed in the room are great. We provide coffee beans and hot chocolate mix in every unit, so placing out those items. Prep as if you have your first guest arriving and it’s the Queen of England. Here is a list of things we provide to help get you started.
Get a professional photographer. Just do it.
Take extra time setting up the listing by reading other units reviews and descriptions. I recommend going on to Airdna.com to check out the top listings in your area and see what they look like. Is there anything you can learn about their success to apply to your own listing? Use both a mobile device and a computer when setting up the listing, as Airbnb’s process actually gives you different options on each. Make sure every section is filled out. Before opening up the calendar, make sure to check the pricing of other units for the same dates. You want to price yourself very low for the first few weeks to attract guests to your listing even though it won’t have any reviews. This is where having other listings and being a superhost comes in really handy. Guests who otherwise wouldn’t book a property without any reviews will see the badge next to your name and be able to read all the other good reviews for your other properties.
Price yourself low and then make sure your guests have an amazing experience. Check in with each one and ask for feedback. Be honest that they’re one of the first guests and see if they have any suggestions. If there’s something you missed, guests will be less likely to leave a bad review if they feel like they’re helping you out and that you legitimately care what they think. I will ask the first handful of guests to let me know what could be improved, and if they had an amazing stay, to leave a review. The first 10 reviews need to be stellar!! Once you’ve got these under your belt, you’re off to the races! Keep up the momentum and you can begin to raise prices. Good luck!!
I get messages all the time from people who are considering purchasing a vacation rental in Mammoth. The questions I inevitably get are “How much money can I expect to make” and “what are you occupancy rates”.
So, let’s break it down and get into some numbers!
I’ll start with our two bedroom units (included here are 1+loft units, which sleep the same number of people). We currently manage five of these units.
Here you can see our occupancy rates for these 5 units. As you can see, we keep our occupancy really close to 100% all winter long, as well as mid-summer. “Shoulder Season” here, late spring and late fall, are when our biggest occupancy dips are, with November in particular always being low occupancy. (November in Mammoth is too cold for summer activities, the fall colors are gone, but there’s usually not enough snow for the skiing to be any good. Even locals like to get out of town in early November!)
Make sure to take a look at the dotted line below, that shows the market average occupancy rates, which stay well below 50% for the entire year. This really proves to me that how you manage your unit makes a huge difference. We can discuss what we do to keep our occupancy higher in another post, or feel free to reach out to me directly.
The next graphic shows the income for the same five units through the past year. The biggest caveat here is that each of these units is individually owned, and the owners use their units personally at varying degrees and times of the year. All of the units except MG114 are in the center of town, MG114 is walking distance to Eagle Lodge and a bit higher end. We didn’t begin managing that unit until mid-November 2018. The L5 unit was getting remodeled during Sept, October, and November 2018. S7 has the most frequent owner usage. It’s very obvious when looking at the income for each unit during the same times of the year that how much you personally use the unit (and WHEN- weekends and holidays?) make a huge difference in your bottom line.
What do your occupancy and income rates look like? Or, if you’re considering purchasing here, what are your goals? Can we help you meet them?