We have a small group of friends/family that are looking to buy a house in College Station near Veterans Park to do Short-Term Rentals on the weekends that we aren't using it for our families. Does anybody have any suggestions or tips? This would be our first "investment property" and was wondering if other's have had success in renting out weekend homes in the area.
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BCS AirBnB
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Last: 5 mo ago by Jorf
My only advice is to think long and hard about buying vacation/rental property with friends and family. Take the time to clearly spell out guidelines for usage, expenses, improvements, clean-up, maintenance, etc. Can everyone loan it out to friends outside the partnership? Will you allow partners to offer it up in fund-raising auctions, etc.?
An example of how this can backfire from personal experience: I thought we had a great set-up with a family member, but they would never book the house in advance, then ask at the last minute if it was available.
Since it usually wasn't, they would get irritated and feel like they weren't getting a fair shake.
No matter how many times I tried to explain that they needed to reserve the house, it never sunk in and eventually led to bad feelings.
An example of how this can backfire from personal experience: I thought we had a great set-up with a family member, but they would never book the house in advance, then ask at the last minute if it was available.
Since it usually wasn't, they would get irritated and feel like they weren't getting a fair shake.
No matter how many times I tried to explain that they needed to reserve the house, it never sunk in and eventually led to bad feelings.
Appears you might be talking about Summit Crossing or the newer white ones on Jax. Good spot to have one, we have a family townhome over there. Quiet and easy to get to Highway 6 and University. However, we don't Airbnb it. I run a couple airbnbs and the juice isn't worth the squeeze IMO
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I think we were talking about getting some legal paperwork that spelled all of that out if we did it. I didn't think about charity donations for auctions and what not. I am curious as to how many weekends a year you could expect it to be used. Being close to Veteran's park I would think that we could get a lot of action outside of football season.
Sharing real estate with 'family and friends' is asking for way to lose those relationships. It almost always ends badly. Good luck.
Who's the baller of the group? Have them buy it and rent it to the others for cash/discount.
If you insist on everyone being co-owners, I'd recommend one being named as in charge. What they say goes for the group.
If you insist on everyone being co-owners, I'd recommend one being named as in charge. What they say goes for the group.
In addition to the comments about investing with family and friends, in my limited second hand experience you need to set expectations if planning on using the investment property.
I can easily see a group of friends with an "investment property" like this in BCS using the house literally every weekend it's desirable as a rental (football games, etc.). So your actual income could be close to $0.
I can easily see a group of friends with an "investment property" like this in BCS using the house literally every weekend it's desirable as a rental (football games, etc.). So your actual income could be close to $0.
Is airbnb even allowed in college station? For some reason I thought that short term rentals were blocked in that area, like is what is happening in more and more areas all over. Or I could be remembering wrong...
In 2023 they changed that law that prevented non homestead properties from being STR. So you don't have to have it as a primary address anymore.
Yeah we're all in agreement that the house would only be used for one agreed upon football game per year unless it didn't get reserved and was still available the day or two before
I do not see this working out and meeting every one's expectations. Also, 'friends & family' seems like a decent size group of people with a variety of perspectives and desires. Either it's an investment property for all or a recreation property, I do not see both working out in this scenario.
There are just so many ways something like this can go wrong, even with the best intentions.
People get really weird about a vacation property. We had conflict with family over what kind of lamps and glassware we bought. It doesn't make sense but that's not uncommon.
You also get people coming out of the woodwork asking if they can use it (and they mean for free). If you have four or five families sharing, that's a lot of people having to stand firm and say "no" to their friends.
People get really weird about a vacation property. We had conflict with family over what kind of lamps and glassware we bought. It doesn't make sense but that's not uncommon.
You also get people coming out of the woodwork asking if they can use it (and they mean for free). If you have four or five families sharing, that's a lot of people having to stand firm and say "no" to their friends.
If you had to put a guess on it, how many weekends a year do you have reservations for? Out of 52 weekends we were thinking it would need to be between 25-30 to make it worth while. With the amount of things going on at veterans park these days, we feel like there would be decent demand outside of football season/graduation.MS08 said:
Appears you might be talking about Summit Crossing or the newer white ones on Jax. Good spot to have one, we have a family townhome over there. Quiet and easy to get to Highway 6 and University. However, we don't Airbnb it. I run a couple airbnbs and the juice isn't worth the squeeze IMO
The one over there on the east side of Hwy 6 is not an airbnb but here are some analytics of a couple of the airbnbs I run that are near the holleman & texas intersection. Note that they are at the same location/community and we are charging a slightly higher non-special-event nightly rate as a way to vet possible guests, which keeps the overall reservation quantity down to a degree.Jorf said:If you had to put a guess on it, how many weekends a year do you have reservations for? Out of 52 weekends we were thinking it would need to be between 25-30 to make it worth while. With the amount of things going on at veterans park these days, we feel like there would be decent demand outside of football season/graduation.MS08 said:
Appears you might be talking about Summit Crossing or the newer white ones on Jax. Good spot to have one, we have a family townhome over there. Quiet and easy to get to Highway 6 and University. However, we don't Airbnb it. I run a couple airbnbs and the juice isn't worth the squeeze IMO
2022 (first year of one property only):
Overall reservations - 23
Number of nights booked - 54
Avg. nights booked - 2.35
2023:
Overall reservations (among the two) - 43
Number of nights booked - 122
Avg. nights booked - 2.83
2024:
Overall reservations (among the two, which includes this upcoming weekend): 20
Thank you, I really appreciate yours and everyone's feedback. This is really helpful.
I would recommend you set up an LLC to own the property, then have folks buy in to that. The LLC would have a managing partnership, contract out managing the property, etc... Run it like a business. If members want to use it, they need to book it and pay for it, typically at a discount, through the management co. This also allows for folks to be bought out if they need/want to, with right of first refusal given to the rest, and approval required for a new party to buy in. This is a hassle to set up initially, but will save the relationships down the road.
As someone who both owns and manages Airbnbs and short term rentals in BCS, it can be very tricky with multiple owners. Having a good property management software where owners can reserve nights/stays would be a non-negotiable along with an iron clad contract with every detail on how many nights each family can stay, % required to pay towards mortgage (if one), HOA, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance etc.
Happy to help manage it if it comes to fruition!
Www.manageway.co
Broker of Infinity Property Group in BCS
Happy to help manage it if it comes to fruition!
Www.manageway.co
Broker of Infinity Property Group in BCS
Definitely do this, or at least create a general partnership at a minimum. I would also suggest preparing an MOU or other document that memorializes the "rules" of operating the property.hillcountryag90 said:
I would recommend you set up an LLC to own the property, then have folks buy in to that. The LLC would have a managing partnership, contract out managing the property, etc... Run it like a business. If members want to use it, they need to book it and pay for it, typically at a discount, through the management co. This also allows for folks to be bought out if they need/want to, with right of first refusal given to the rest, and approval required for a new party to buy in. This is a hassle to set up initially, but will save the relationships down the road.
A few of my personal suggestions are:
- Create an operating bank account for the property where all AirBnB revenue is deposited.
- Identify who will function as the host, co-host, etc. of the AirBnB listing and provide for compensation or other remuneration for their time and effort (hosting can be a lot of work). Maybe they get a % of each booking, flat fee, or first right of refusal for prime dates.
- Determine a period of time for which the parties must book their own use of the property (i.e. a month, 2 weeks, etc.). After that cutoff has passed all nights are opened up on the AirBnB calendar for booking by the public.
- Have very specific procedures all parties must follow when using the property (i.e. property must be cleaned and left in check-in condition)
- Have all operating and maintenance expenses paid out of the business account instead of reimbursing individuals.
I'm an existing AirBnB host and would be interested in potentially investing in new properties if the terms are suitable.
The hard part is going to be getting anything worthwhile out of your airbnb as a business. You want it every weekend that its good to rent it (save parents weekend).
This only ends with you being able to use it on the 4th most popular football game of the year because the top three are so valuable you have to rent it. And then the bottom 2 games you won't be able to get anything for it so might as well go watch A&M beat the Sisters of The Poor.
This only ends with you being able to use it on the 4th most popular football game of the year because the top three are so valuable you have to rent it. And then the bottom 2 games you won't be able to get anything for it so might as well go watch A&M beat the Sisters of The Poor.
This also what feedback I've heard from other part time rentals. The weekends everyone owning wants leaving the worst weekends available and dramatically cuts into revenue.
I mean we all live within driving range of the games, so not staying the night won't be that big of a deal most of the time. The tentative plan is to pick one football weekend that we can all use it and then if you want to use it the rest of the football season it needs to be paid for. That should leave 7 football games, 3 graduations, plus with the success of baseball and the new stadium on the horizon.... I think weekends in the spring will slowly start bringing in a lot more STR traffic because of that.
This applies to every single fringe benefit asset that has ever been sold to the wife as 'its fun and we can make money.' Sports season tickets and lake houses quickly come to mind. You better get used to enjoying it only in the low demand parts of the season or year or its just sunk cost vacations.SteveBott said:
This also what feedback I've heard from other part time rentals. The weekends everyone owning wants leaving the worst weekends available and dramatically cuts into revenue.
Also, you wind up making this mickey-mouse tiered system of desirable weekends as well as an NFL draft for selection. You can't just let it be first come first serve because then someone is gonna run roughshod over everyone else.
Well IF YOU CAN keep the friends and family to one football weekend it makes more sense. But as Meen says those idealistic plans usually get washed out with "just this one time exception clause@ that if approved everyone else wants too.
The best idea yet is an LLC with one executive manager who everyone will eventually hate but at least you can control access and funding. My 85 year old curmudgeon uncle would be perfect.
The best idea yet is an LLC with one executive manager who everyone will eventually hate but at least you can control access and funding. My 85 year old curmudgeon uncle would be perfect.
one MEEN Ag said:This applies to every single fringe benefit asset that has ever been sold to the wife as 'its fun and we can make money.' Sports season tickets and lake houses quickly come to mind. You better get used to enjoying it only in the low demand parts of the season or year or its just sunk cost vacations.SteveBott said:
This also what feedback I've heard from other part time rentals. The weekends everyone owning wants leaving the worst weekends available and dramatically cuts into revenue.
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