Going thru all those remodeling projects is a great way to learn and understand how difficult certain jobs are. You both now have real life experience on what to skip (ie ceiling work) when doing future projects. I agree some things are better to contract out, save your back.
I gotta tell you guys, I like you both. I literally don't like anyone and I deeply dislike the vast majority of content creators, but I enjoy your videos and I like you guys, I like how you communicate with each other and check in with each other to make sure you are saying things that the other identifies with, and I like the content and the delivery. Thank you.
Love your content and I'm always thinking of your extra cleaning steps when I'm personally cleaning my Glamping tent. I laugh everytime I see an ant🤣❤️
Hi Kristen and Michael. Thanks for posting about your experience. It’s great that people like you and Robuilt are willing to help out others. We are looking to buy our first property in Western North Carolina and are going through the prequalifying process and have engaged a realtor. There are so many towns and options here it’s a bit overwhelming. Do you have any hints as to how we narrow down the market? Thx.
Thank you so much! Where do YOU like to visit? Where will you get to enjoy your STR and put the love into it like you want to? Choose there. But also keep in mind that it is somewhere others like to visit. JT National Park has over 3 million visitors annually and we're 3 of those visitors (with Finn), so we chose here, it made sense! Good luck to you guys!
If you could hire a reputable management company that a lot of your friends were using for 22 percent would you go that route or would you still manage yourself ? This company offers guest all the perks that we couldn’t offer like pre stocking groceries and other cool stuff. They are highly recommended. We are still looking for our first STR but we are trying to get our ducks in row so we will be ready when we finally find one. Thanks again !
That sounds great & it would be a relief to be hands-off in some ways for sure! 22% is a lot for us to give away right now though TBH esp with how slow summer months can be in the desert, so for the foreseeable future we will be managing ourselves! We will play it by ear over the next year and of course, keep you updated in the videos if we change our minds! ✨
Hi Kristen and Michael, I live in north California, I had some people recently that booked and said it was going to be 2 persons and it ended being 8😮, they stole our fur throw, messed up bad, we are superhost, can I reject those kind?
How can you tell until after their stay? That’s the hard part! I believe you can charge after the fact for the amount of guests + stolen property. But do so before the review and also indicate in the review what happened.
Hi, Phil! We are still on the uphill climb with Airbnb + summer months in the desert are sloww. Luckily all of our weekends have been booked though! Hoping with fall coming we will see an uptick again. We will keep you posted!
We set up an LLC and plan to file to change it to an Scorp next year. We made one to A. start an official business together and B. To keep our STR finances separate than our personal for both tax and liability reasons. You can set it up as an individual but we chose to go the LLC/Scorp route. God forbid we ever had a liability issue with the STR or something happened there, all our insurance and house falls under the business. If this makes sense. But definitely speak to someone and get some advice if you know of anyone but also Karlton Dennis and STR university here on YT gave us a lot of info before we jumped in.
Covid let me catch up! Looks like you two have felt the yuck as well. Learning over here in VA from you both - contemplating the whole AirBnB / STR proposition. Lots of work of course. Yes, plumbers do a great job at charging you for the service - I suppose we're paying for the experience. When I've replaced the "innards" of the toilet I just buy the whole replacement contraption instead of piecemeal -- I've not had a problem with those I've done in my house. Same for dripping faucets and as I see you've noticed -- You Tube is the way to learn which might make your long trip to and from your other home a time to learn. Looking forward to seeing the shade structure once it's built -- I built my deck from watching online videos -- people are impressed by it, so there's a lot of good info out there for free. Also looking forward to seeing the other projects coming. Curious how the changes at AirBnB categorization have come along and if you've seen improvement. Also, maybe link some others you've found useful in learning from regarding STR - you mentioned one in the video. Thanks for all the content - loving it here on the east coast!
Aw man, so sorry to hear you got the ‘vid! Great time to catch up on what you’ve not been able to watch yet though! May be the only plus lol And great suggestion on sharing who we watched before getting our STR up and running - “revenue over ready” came from STR University, who is great here for all the nitty gritty details. We will put his channel in the description as well! ruclips.net/user/STRUniversity We’re building up our arsenal of things for fix-it’s, esp after the plumbing drama! We love RUclips university… we’ve got a few builds coming up that will be through YT haha We’ve been booked weekends solid but the summer has been slow in the hi-dez, no lie! Luckily we have a savings that’s helping when/if we need it. We are hoping the fall will bring an uptick in renting + it seems Airbnb changed their site back in a small way - to showing the names of rentals (their branding) in the titles of listings, whereas before (with the new changes) they only showed a title with the city a house was in! A small win for hosts but a win nonetheless! But thanks for the support and good luck on your STR journey!
We use Airbnb's built in calendar and automated messaging and pricelabs for smart pricing. Other than that we use Google Sheets to keep track of finances
We’ve said the name of it in our videos and there are links in our link trees as well. For privacy reasons, we don’t post the link everywhere… hopefully that helps you on your quest!✨
We are there a lot & the internet is an odd place. Although our STR is a business, it’s also a place we enjoy often. If & when we are there less, we will share more. Hope you understand. Not hiding, it’s avail to find - just makes us feel safer sharing.
Are there Joshua tree on your property? Also next year would be great time to hire contractors for less since the real estate market is slow moving…I was hoping to buy land in Joshua Tree but discouraged with all the negative feedback
It may be, honestly. If you’re coming out to the Joshua Tree area though it’s usually to explore and “unplug.” With the way the world is today, and us all so plugged in, it’s important to us as a brand and we like to encourage that as much as possible.🤍
I know right? The cool thing about the desert and our house is that there are so many giant windows, so the majority of people coming here are coming to be in nature and escape the city so for our guests no tv makes sense for us. In other places it might not work as well!
If you're starting out, maybe send a nice nudge a day or two after they've checked out: 'We hope you enjoyed your stay and if you feel so inclined to leave us a review, we'd greatly appreciate it as it helps us become better hosts for future guests!' Something like that... most times guests will leave a review eventually and if we've rated&reviewed them, we've done our job! Make sure to reply to guest reviews too, even if you've already written them something privately. It will show up on your page and show engagement to the Airbnb algorithm! Which in turn, supposedly, boosts your listing.
Love your content and I'm always thinking of your extra cleaning steps when I'm personally cleaning my Glamping tent. I laugh everytime I see an ant🤣❤️
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Going thru all those remodeling projects is a great way to learn and understand how difficult certain jobs are. You both now have real life experience on what to skip (ie ceiling work) when doing future projects. I agree some things are better to contract out, save your back.
You are the most real, human and amazing couple ! Love your honesty in everything you show on your videos. Many blessings to you! 😍
Thank you so much!
You guys are so cool. Thank you for sharing. I have just found you but i will watch all of your videos now
Another great video !! This is what makes your channel special…. being real with your subscribers.
Thank you for always supporting!!
Great video. Loved the cut in lol
🤣thank you
Loved this video! Thanks so much for sharing all the info!
Thanks for always supporting!!
I gotta tell you guys, I like you both. I literally don't like anyone and I deeply dislike the vast majority of content creators, but I enjoy your videos and I like you guys, I like how you communicate with each other and check in with each other to make sure you are saying things that the other identifies with, and I like the content and the delivery. Thank you.
Thank you so much, this actually an amazing compliment. We appreciate it so much!
Water is low! Is it a fillable tank system? Thanks!
No, it's not. Water from the city & luckily it's increased since we shot the video. Almost too much pressure now! All good though, we are relieved.
Guys I love you thank you for everything
You're welcome! Thank you for watching
Love your content and I'm always thinking of your extra cleaning steps when I'm personally cleaning my Glamping tent. I laugh everytime I see an ant🤣❤️
Those little ants are so annoying and come from everywhere! How is it with a Glamping tent? We've wondered about them.
Very informative. Have you ever considered solar panels ?
Yes! Hoping someday we'll make that happen
Hi Kristen and Michael. Thanks for posting about your experience. It’s great that people like you and Robuilt are willing to help out others. We are looking to buy our first property in Western North Carolina and are going through the prequalifying process and have engaged a realtor. There are so many towns and options here it’s a bit overwhelming. Do you have any hints as to how we narrow down the market? Thx.
Thank you so much! Where do YOU like to visit? Where will you get to enjoy your STR and put the love into it like you want to? Choose there. But also keep in mind that it is somewhere others like to visit. JT National Park has over 3 million visitors annually and we're 3 of those visitors (with Finn), so we chose here, it made sense! Good luck to you guys!
Do you just list on Airbnb or other sites as well?
We list on VRBO and Airbnb currently
Thanks for responding. Of the 2 what percentage do each represent of your business?
If you could hire a reputable management company that a lot of your friends were using for 22 percent would you go that route or would you still manage yourself ? This company offers guest all the perks that we couldn’t offer like pre stocking groceries and other cool stuff. They are highly recommended. We are still looking for our first STR but we are trying to get our ducks in row so we will be ready when we finally find one. Thanks again !
That sounds great & it would be a relief to be hands-off in some ways for sure! 22% is a lot for us to give away right now though TBH esp with how slow summer months can be in the desert, so for the foreseeable future we will be managing ourselves! We will play it by ear over the next year and of course, keep you updated in the videos if we change our minds! ✨
Hi Kristen and Michael, I live in north California, I had some people recently that booked and said it was going to be 2 persons and it ended being 8😮, they stole our fur throw, messed up bad, we are superhost, can I reject those kind?
How can you tell until after their stay? That’s the hard part! I believe you can charge after the fact for the amount of guests + stolen property. But do so before the review and also indicate in the review what happened.
Great video
Thank you!
What happen with the Airbnb site? You were having problems with it in one of your videos what was the result? Thanks Phil
Hi, Phil! We are still on the uphill climb with Airbnb + summer months in the desert are sloww. Luckily all of our weekends have been booked though! Hoping with fall coming we will see an uptick again. We will keep you posted!
Did you guys set up a LLC? Can you share your experience with that…oyo or thru a lawyer? Thanks!
We set up an LLC and plan to file to change it to an Scorp next year. We made one to A. start an official business together and B. To keep our STR finances separate than our personal for both tax and liability reasons. You can set it up as an individual but we chose to go the LLC/Scorp route. God forbid we ever had a liability issue with the STR or something happened there, all our insurance and house falls under the business. If this makes sense. But definitely speak to someone and get some advice if you know of anyone but also Karlton Dennis and STR university here on YT gave us a lot of info before we jumped in.
Thanks you for responding with such helpful information!
Covid let me catch up! Looks like you two have felt the yuck as well.
Learning over here in VA from you both - contemplating the whole AirBnB / STR proposition. Lots of work of course. Yes, plumbers do a great job at charging you for the service - I suppose we're paying for the experience. When I've replaced the "innards" of the toilet I just buy the whole replacement contraption instead of piecemeal -- I've not had a problem with those I've done in my house. Same for dripping faucets and as I see you've noticed -- You Tube is the way to learn which might make your long trip to and from your other home a time to learn. Looking forward to seeing the shade structure once it's built -- I built my deck from watching online videos -- people are impressed by it, so there's a lot of good info out there for free. Also looking forward to seeing the other projects coming. Curious how the changes at AirBnB categorization have come along and if you've seen improvement. Also, maybe link some others you've found useful in learning from regarding STR - you mentioned one in the video. Thanks for all the content - loving it here on the east coast!
Aw man, so sorry to hear you got the ‘vid! Great time to catch up on what you’ve not been able to watch yet though! May be the only plus lol And great suggestion on sharing who we watched before getting our STR up and running - “revenue over ready” came from STR University, who is great here for all the nitty gritty details. We will put his channel in the description as well! ruclips.net/user/STRUniversity
We’re building up our arsenal of things for fix-it’s, esp after the plumbing drama! We love RUclips university… we’ve got a few builds coming up that will be through YT haha
We’ve been booked weekends solid but the summer has been slow in the hi-dez, no lie! Luckily we have a savings that’s helping when/if we need it. We are hoping the fall will bring an uptick in renting + it seems Airbnb changed their site back in a small way - to showing the names of rentals (their branding) in the titles of listings, whereas before (with the new changes) they only showed a title with the city a house was in! A small win for hosts but a win nonetheless!
But thanks for the support and good luck on your STR journey!
@@kristenandmichael I should have linked this for you... found his info super helpful: ruclips.net/user/HouseImprovements
What software systems do you use to manage your Airbnb business?
We use Airbnb's built in calendar and automated messaging and pricelabs for smart pricing. Other than that we use Google Sheets to keep track of finances
How much $ did you save before you bought the house?
I think we spent around $50k to get the house (that included 10% down and closing costs)
It’s more a gamble with long term because the tenant can choose not to pay you. And it can take 6 months minimum to remove them
You know, we know someone that went through this and it’s definitely not the best🥵
need your airbnb page. have gone through 15 pages 5 times with different filters. can't find you.
We’ve said the name of it in our videos and there are links in our link trees as well. For privacy reasons, we don’t post the link everywhere… hopefully that helps you on your quest!✨
Mendiola is my heritage last name...
Woa, did not know you could delete posts. Np, I hope the best for you both. Take care.
@@kristenandmichael what does “for privacy reasons” mean? Wouldn’t you want viewers find/stay at your listing?
We are there a lot & the internet is an odd place. Although our STR is a business, it’s also a place we enjoy often. If & when we are there less, we will share more. Hope you understand. Not hiding, it’s avail to find - just makes us feel safer sharing.
Are there Joshua tree on your property? Also next year would be great time to hire contractors for less since the real estate market is slow moving…I was hoping to buy land in Joshua Tree but discouraged with all the negative feedback
Good idea on waiting until next year for bigger builds on the property. Yes, we have lots of Joshua trees on the property, that’s what sold us on it ✨
Great content, thanks for sharing! Do you think your occupancy is adversely impacted by the absence of a TV?
It may be, honestly. If you’re coming out to the Joshua Tree area though it’s usually to explore and “unplug.” With the way the world is today, and us all so plugged in, it’s important to us as a brand and we like to encourage that as much as possible.🤍
Holy shit they make that much money on that place and they don't even have a TV!
I know right? The cool thing about the desert and our house is that there are so many giant windows, so the majority of people coming here are coming to be in nature and escape the city so for our guests no tv makes sense for us. In other places it might not work as well!
Do you ever get concerned about the potential that longer stay guests becoming squatters?
We haven’t had anyone stay more than 3 weeks so that hasn’t been a concern for us so far! Thankfully
How do you get people to leave reviews without being a nag?
If you're starting out, maybe send a nice nudge a day or two after they've checked out: 'We hope you enjoyed your stay and if you feel so inclined to leave us a review, we'd greatly appreciate it as it helps us become better hosts for future guests!' Something like that... most times guests will leave a review eventually and if we've rated&reviewed them, we've done our job! Make sure to reply to guest reviews too, even if you've already written them something privately. It will show up on your page and show engagement to the Airbnb algorithm! Which in turn, supposedly, boosts your listing.
Love your content and I'm always thinking of your extra cleaning steps when I'm personally cleaning my Glamping tent. I laugh everytime I see an ant🤣❤️
hahah Love that!