Texas. Investing in STRs & CRE. Hook em'. [email protected]
Texas, USA
Joined December 2021
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I spoke with 153 hard money lenders over 2 months trying to find acquisition debt on my latest deal. I naively thought most were actually "private" lenders, and therefore capable of getting creative and competitive.
Wrong.
Here's everything I wish I would've known beforehand.
June & July 2025 (so far) vs. 2024. Pretty crazy.
Plans for Longhorn Lodge just about done.
- 7,499 sqft w/ pool & hot tub
- 4 bedrooms + bunk & theater room
- 2nd floor bar + game room + rooftop patios
- 5 cabins each w/ barrel sauna
- Pickleball courts, par-3, turf area w/ projector
- Sleeps 30
🤠🤤
A new RE analyst has a better shot at accurately underwriting a NY office building than an Airbnb.
- No P&Ls unless it's already one losing $.
- No brokers to call about renewal plans.
- No verifiable data source like CoStar.
Same comps, 2 months apart. ~25% miss.
The best appraisers are the ones who just wanna make you happy. Usually older, nearing retirement. Call you to ask "Well, what do you think it's worth?" before moving on to their life story. Appraisal somehow comes back right where you need it.
Great value engineers. Great guys.
In 2022, I did the underwriting on a lakefront STR for an investor in Michigan. I got to $245k in revenue at 63% occupancy.
Just checked in. He's at $166k in revenue at 78% occupancy. His comp (not lakefront) is doing significantly better.
His property manager? You guessed it.
According to a 2023 report by Oxford Economics, Airbnb guests spend $229 on local goods & services for every $100 spent on accommodations. Contributed $55 billion to the economy & supported $600k jobs.
It’s "ban all STRs!" until your wife's tacky boutique goes out of business 👀
Most Airbnb investors burn out after a year or two of losing money on a deal.
Assuming you buy a $700,000 house, you'll likely spend $15k on closing costs, $60k on furnishings, and $15k on some TLC.
You need it to appreciate by ~16% to even breakeven on the sale. Ouch.
You can spend $10k on an interior designer OR $300 on an Upwork freelancer for a mood board, renderings, and a final online shopping list with links.
Hire em’ as a “project manager” for a couple hundred more and they’ll handle the entire furnishing process.
“DIY”
Guests send the same message to five hosts at once. The first host to respond usually wins. Answer in ten minutes or wave goodbye to the booking.
There are 10,478 STR listings in Dallas.
Only 3,889 are houses with 3 or more bedrooms. Just 1,443 (0.67%) of all 215,000 houses in the city are full time short term rentals.
Think rent is high now? Wait till apartments realize there's another $116MM in revenue up for grabs.
Thinking about buying an Airbnb? You can spend $750k on a vacation rental OR $730k on a short term rental.
One's for Instagram; the others for income.
$20k in gross revenue since splitting ways with my PM. That's roughly 50% of last year's TOTAL revenue through 3 months of self-management in the offseason. Brutal.