Latest / Short Term Shopping / From Wine Country to Lake Houses: Texas Hill Country STR Opportunities

Transcript

From Wine Country to Lake Houses: Texas Hill Country STR Opportunities · Short Term Shopping

• 0:02
  Speaker A: Welcome to Short Term Shopping where we explore homes for sale in the best vacation markets in America. Some homes we do like, some homes we don't like. Brought to you by the short Term shop. It's Short Term Shopping. Let's talk about Texas. It's going to be a good time. It's very beloved state and there's some places to go on vacation there. There's a beach, which is not what we're talking about today. We're talking about the other place that is very. Well, there's plenty of other places. But you know, Marfa for instance, very famous. I've been there. It is weird. But today we're talking about the hill country. So, Stacy, how are you?
• 0:56
  Speaker B: I'm doing great. I feel like I should have worn my cowboy hat. You should have worn yours too.
• 1:01
  Speaker A: I have several. Yeah, I've got one right there actually, somewhere. I can't point at it. There it is. But yeah. So talk to me about your area and why am I going on vacation there and all that sort of stuff.
• 1:16
  Speaker B: Sure. So I cover the Texas Hill country, which is a large chunk of central Texas. And basically There are probably 30 different markets in that area, some more well known than others. The. I love it.
• 1:37
  Speaker A: There we go.
• 1:38
  Speaker B: If mine was closer, I'd go grab it, but we will carry on instead. So there are lake markets, there are wine, you know, trail markets. There's a little bit of everything in the Texas Hill country. And it's a really great market because Texas is growing so rapidly that it. And the majority of people who visit these areas are Texans. And so we're seeing that growth across the, you know, our vacation markets here too. So they just continue to grow and grow and it's a really great area to invest in. We really don't have downtime. You know, we are kind of a year round market because when most markets have, you know, seasonal downtime in the cooler months or like January, February, the weather's beautiful here and so people want to get out. We may slow down a little bit, but we stay pretty steady. We actually can slow down a little bit in the summertime just because it is so hot. But you know, year round we are pretty busy.
• 2:47
  Speaker A: Slightly more vacancy than, you know, say a super heavy market. Is that true? It's just, it's. It's more consistent year round.
• 2:56
  Speaker B: Correct. We are more of a. Depending on where you are in the Texas Hill country, we're more of a long weekend market. So say for example, kind of our, our wine tour areas or our little artsy Communities, you're getting people who are coming in maybe on a Thursday, checking out on a Sunday or Monday. Lake markets, you know, especially in the summertime, tend to be more week long stays, but we do have a little bit lower occupancy. But most of our markets have a higher adr so that it balances out,
• 3:29
  Speaker A: I say so in other words, I might have one or two nights a week that don't get booked. But my, you know, my average nightly rage is pretty decent and not really any certain parts of the year where it just completely shuts off, correct? That's correct. Yeah. Where this is very rare, you know. And again, we talk about this a lot, but you may or may not like that. I, I, I have the opposite here where I live on the beach, which you would never know by this get up I'm wearing right now that I live on the beach. But you know, here we do completely shut down for three months, maybe more in some cases, maybe even four months. So a lot of folks are a little nervous about that. Oh man, how am I going to, you know, budget? It's budgeting is really all it is. Yeah, but you know, smokies are very well known, which you do own there as well. And that is, you know, to be expected to be pretty much dead in January and February, depending on the size of your property. But you know, it's only two months and it's very busy time of year with the holidays get ending and getting back in the swing of things anyway, so you don't even notice it and you blink your eye and boom, it's March and here we go again. So you're, you're a little bit more like kind of low and slow where you're at. Where just like, more like, like we're, we're doing a brisket on the barbecue as opposed to, you know, like just turning it out on a beach market. Just turning and burning in, in hill country. We're, we're doing some ribs.
• 5:01
  Speaker B: Yeah, I love the analogy. That's exactly right.
• 5:06
  Speaker A: Well, where is this? I mean, I'm in the driving distance between many large metro areas, right?
• 5:12
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 5:13
  Speaker A: Okay, can you explain to me like maybe I have a screen share of a map and show me where we're where we're talking about here today. Yep, there we go. Okay, cool. This is a not very nice looking graphic.
• 5:25
  Speaker B: Yeah. So this is, yeah, I like this better than maps just because I think it shows a breakdown kind of of the different areas more clearly in the Texas hills country. Because we are such a Big area. So if you're looking at a map, you know, you see Austin up here, San Antonio down here, and Fredericksburg here. So really this is all hill country. But the. Your prime markets are kind of from Fredericksburg down to San Antonio up to Austin and a little bit north of Austin, because there's a lot of lake areas up north of Austin that you can't see on this map very well, but that is also considered hill country. So kind of in this triangle here are your hottest markets. For the Texas hill country. Fredericksburg is probably the most well known. You know, it's the wine country of Texas. Very charming. If you've ever watched a Hallmark Christmas movie, you have, you know, experienced Fredericksburg, Texas, because it's just incredibly charming with great restaurants, shopping, all of that. Wimberley is very similar to Fredericksburg. It's a little bit of. More of an artsy vibe because it's a little bit closer to Austin. But they also have wineries. You know, they're. They have all kinds of events throughout the year. So those markets are very, very similar and attract similar guests. All of our markets, you know, these popular markets are all within 45 minutes to a little bit over an hour from both Austin and San Antonio, which is great. So, you know, if you have people coming from out of state, they can fly into either one of those airports and be very close. Um, but most people are driving in, you know, from other parts of Texas. Then the lake. Hold on.
• 7:15
  Speaker A: How far away from, you know, Houston and Dallas?
• 7:19
  Speaker B: Houston, you're probably about two hours. Dallas is probably about four. But honestly, like for Fredericksburg, the majority of travelers who are coming in overnight are coming from Houston and Dallas. You get a lot of people who visit from Austin and San Antonio, but that's a little bit more day trips. Our overnight guests are, you know, I would say the majority are from a little bit north in Dallas in Texas.
• 7:46
  Speaker A: And can we explain some of these little towns a little more in depth? I've been to most of them myself, but I'm nowhere near as qualified here as you are. Of course, Fredericksburg is, is that fair to say, is maybe the biggest town in the area?
• 8:01
  Speaker B: I wouldn't say it's the biggest town. I would say it's probably the most popular of the short term rental markets here, just because it's. It's very charming. And the wineries, there's over 50 wineries in the area, so they do a lot of wine tours, girls trips, couples destinations, but we also get a lot of families as well. Then like say, Canyon Lake. Canyon Lake is just about 45 minutes from San Antonio. It's a huge lake that, you know, there's all kinds of water activities. It's all about the lake there. There's not really a whole lot do other than go to the lake. But it's a pretty affordable market for the Texas Hill Country. It's probably our most affordable market, you know, and then the lakes up.
• 8:49
  Speaker A: Am I looking to buy something on the lake or is that like through the roof?
• 8:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. So Canyon Lake, the way it's built, it was built by the Army Corps of Engineers, and so there are not a lot of lakefront properties just because of the way it was built. So you're probably not going to be on the lake. There are a few properties, but yeah, they tend to be, you know, over a million dollars if you're on the lake.
• 9:12
  Speaker A: I see. So they're pretty rare, correct?
• 9:15
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker A: And what, what kind of a prior. We're going to get more into this, but I'm jumping the gun here. Again, back to the Texas thing. Jumping the gun. What kind of a price range am I looking at there in Canyon Lake? As of the recording of this in
• 9:28
  Speaker B: fall of 25, Canyon Lake right now is pretty affordable and there is a ton of inventory on the market. So you can get in under 300 sometimes, but probably around the 300 range is, you know, where the most majority of the properties are. And some of these are brand new builds because there is just a ton of inventory out there.
• 9:49
  Speaker A: And, and, and who's buying these homes? Is this somebody that wants to use it on the weekends? Is it somebody from out of state? All of the above.
• 9:59
  Speaker B: I would say the majority of my clients are Texans who, you know, are familiar with the Texas Hill Country. They like the Texas Hill country and they want to have a short term rental close to home that they can enjoy when it's not being rented. I do have, you know, a fair amount of out of state investors, but I would say the majority is Texans.
• 10:21
  Speaker A: I got you. Yeah. And that's what we all should be. That's the, that's the goal. That's the goal for me. And then looking back, I see that. I've been there. That is a postage stamp. Yeah. But has a lot of history, obviously. And of course the song. But are we buying houses around there as well? It is in the middle of nowhere, is it not?
• 10:37
  Speaker B: It is in the middle of nowhere, Luke. This is a. This is like the best investment opportunity for anybody. I have said for years and years that A developer needs to go in and build a cute little downtown in Luckenbach because it's such a destination spot. And the Luckenbach dance hall is just so cute. And they've got the post office and it's really cute. But not a lot of people are staying in Luke. And there's not a lot of places to stay in Luckenbach. But if a developer came in, I think they could make a killing out there.
• 11:11
  Speaker A: There's just like not even really any homes there. It's very unpopulated.
• 11:17
  Speaker B: Right. They have built a, like a tiny home village out there, you know, probably since you've been there. But other than that, there's really not a lot of places to stay near Luckenbach.
• 11:29
  Speaker A: Okay. All right, well, continue. What do we see next year? Maybe Wimberley or.
• 11:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, so Wimberley again, really close to Austin. You're probably about 45 minutes from Austin. Very kind of artsy community. Cute little, you know, they've got a town circle instead of town square, but lots of shops, you know, restaurants. There's a lot of weddings that happen in this whole area. So like Wimberley to Dripping Springs and up around Driftwood and Spicewood, which I don't think you can see on this map. It. That's big wedding country. And so a lot of weddings happen there and you get a lot of wedding guests, you know, who are coming in to attend a wedding. And so there's good opportunity. There's tons of wedding venues out that, that direction.
• 12:18
  Speaker A: And what about all the way over here? Maybe on the west here? Is any of this Bandera Medina? Are these popular areas?
• 12:24
  Speaker B: Not really. You know, there's definitely opportunity there. Bandera is kind of cowboys. It's. It's motorcycles and cowboys, and it's one of those towns where you drive into town and there are horses. You know, there are people on horseback walking down the street and there's chickens running down main street. So it's a. Definitely a very eclectic place. And, you know, people do like to visit there, but it's not really someplace I. We get a lot of focus just because I think if you had a short term rental there, you're mostly going to attract bikers. And I don't know if that's your ideal avatar for guests.
• 13:01
  Speaker A: I'm googling the population right now. It sounds very small. Bandera has a population of 891 people, so.
• 13:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:10
  Speaker A: And something tells me all 891 of those folks are very proud.
• 13:15
  Speaker B: Probably. Yeah.
• 13:17
  Speaker A: Okay. All right.
• 13:18
  Speaker B: It's a unique place for sure.
• 13:20
  Speaker A: And Kerrville Any of these areas. What else is worth mentioning here?
• 13:25
  Speaker B: Those are kind of the main places that I recommend. Oh, New Braunfels and Green, Texas, which is right next to New Braunfels. That. Those are definitely areas worth considering. You've got Schlitterbahn water park there. You've got two rivers that run through there. So summertime is very popular with people. You know, tubing on the river. Green, would it be possible for you
• 13:46
  Speaker A: to point at these while you're speaking of them? Like, I took me a minute. There we go. Yeah,
• 13:52
  Speaker B: Green is right here. So they're. They're actually much closer than it looks like on this map. Green's actually closer to New Martin Falls than it is Canyon Lake. But it's. Green hall is the oldest dance hall in Texas, and they have concerts every weekend, so you get a lot of people coming in for that. Again, Green has a very cute little downtown area with wineries and great restaurants on the river, and so it's a neat place. There are restrictions in New Braunfels and Green that you've got to be aware of, but it is a great place to invest.
• 14:31
  Speaker A: Okay. And then back over. Sorry, I cut you off there at the Kerrville thing.
• 14:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, Kerrville. It's a little bit farther out than I recommend. There's. There's a lot of outdoor activities in Kerrville, but there really. I don't think a lot of people are searching for Kerrville as far as a destination spot. So it's not really a place that you can do well. You know, I have had people look there before because, you know, they just want to be in the area or they have family in the area, but it's not really a destination spot, so I don't typically recommend it.
• 15:05
  Speaker A: More of a town, though. There's 25,000 people there, according to.
• 15:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's a big. It's a big area. It's bigger than a lot of these places in San Antonio and Austin are both great places to invest, too. They both get a lot of tourism. Again, you just have to be aware of the restrictions and make sure you're playing within the rules.
• 15:23
  Speaker A: Right. Austin is extremely. Well, let's just slide into that then. As far as restrictions are concerned. Let's start back from the top. I think Fredericksburg is maybe slightly more restricted in other areas, but I'll let you give the speech there.
• 15:37
  Speaker B: Yeah, Fredericksburg. So they do have a lot of restrictions. The great thing about Fredericksburg is they are very well defined. So you know exactly the rule book that you're Playing by and essentially, if a property in city limits does not have a permit, you aren't getting one. So you've got to buy something that already has a permit because the permits are grandfathered and transferable. So the great news is there's a lot of properties on the market that have permits. So there's plenty of inventory. And so you know it. Fredericksburg, actually, even though they do have some pretty strict restrictions, they make it very clear as to, you know, what you need to do.
• 16:16
  Speaker A: I have some questions there. So this sounds like it's nothing like, like we hear about Nashville or San Diego or New Orleans where they have a very, very limited number of these permits and sounds like it's fairly common in that area. They just don't give out new ones. Is that true?
• 16:32
  Speaker B: Correct? That's correct.
• 16:33
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:33
  Speaker B: They're trying to balance the needs of the residents with the, you know, the investors in the area. So they haven't, they're not removing anybody's permits. They're just saying we're not giving any new ones.
• 16:44
  Speaker A: Does a house, is a house worth more if it has a permit?
• 16:47
  Speaker B: It does, yeah, about 30%.
• 16:49
  Speaker A: 30%. Oh my. Can this permit be transferred?
• 16:54
  Speaker B: Yep, it's absolutely transferable.
• 16:57
  Speaker A: So if I'm.
• 16:57
  Speaker B: And it's grandfathered with the rules in which it was implemented.
• 17:01
  Speaker A: Okay, we need to check with the city, I would assume. But is it a situation where if I buy a house that has a permit and I wanted to switch the permit to another house, I could do that?
• 17:12
  Speaker B: No, it has the permit, stays with the house.
• 17:14
  Speaker A: With the house. Okay, interesting. Okay, so 30% more there. But I can go, Can I go just outside the city limits?
• 17:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great opportunity because outside city limits there is are no restrictions, you know, unless there's a homeowners association, which is not super common in this area. So outside city limits you can get some pretty good deals, you know, if you're willing to kind of turn it into a short term rental, but it's
• 17:41
  Speaker A: not going to be as hip, cool, cute and like, you know, right there in the town center, that kind of thing.
• 17:47
  Speaker B: I have some folks who own outside of city limits and they do great, but they've made their properties really beautiful. In fact, when we show properties in just a little while, I'll show you one that's outside city limits and it does really well and, but it's a beautiful property. They've done a good job setting it up.
• 18:05
  Speaker A: Then let's move over to Austin. As far as regulations, that's Extremely heavily regulated. Is that true?
• 18:11
  Speaker B: It is. So Austin and San Antonio both go by density limits, so you can only have so many short term rentals on a block. So Austin probably about two years ago, tried to basically shut down short term rentals and say that if you didn't live on the lot itself that you could not short term rent. They got, they were sued and they backpedaled and that's no longer a rule. So it's purely based on density limits. So it takes a little bit more homework, you know, if you're looking in Austin. But there are lots of short term rentals, you know, and they're pretty good about issuing permits. You just have to. It requires a call to the city to say, okay, can this property be a short term rental? And they're going to say yes, as of today, you know, it meets the density limits. And so then you just, once you close, you have to apply and get the permit.
• 19:06
  Speaker A: So this doesn't really sound all that complicated for a city because you know, again, what we're talking here, this is a city. Austin is a major city and it's grown tremendously over the past 10 years. And, and it's not uncommon at all for c to not want overnight rentals in neighborhoods and single family homes. Totally normal. So it sounds like it can possibly be done there, but it is, it's definitely a different vibe than what we're used to, you know, here where we're, you know, dealing with vacation town and a vacation house in a vacation town. If you're getting into Austin, just be aware that's that's a city and it's a whole different thing. It's a different way to rent it. You're going to have to have a relationship with your neighbors and play by a lot of rules and play ball. And it's, it's not really something I would personally be interested in, but it does happen all the time. And, and you know, for the right people, it's, it's a, you know, can be done for sure.
• 20:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I always tell people, you know, you just have to know that the risk is they can change the rules at any time. Austin and San Antonio do not rely on short term rentals, whereas Fredericksburg, you know, and Wimberley, they heavily rely on short term rentals. If they shut them down, you know, they would basically halt tourism in the area. So because there's not enough hotels, Austin and San Antonio don't have that problem. So, you know, that's just something to be aware of that there's a bit of a risk there. But I think with Austin in particular going through the lawsuit that they had a couple years ago, I think, you know, I'm not anticipating them to make big changes anytime soon in San Antonio. You know, it seems to have been stable for quite a while.
• 20:46
  Speaker A: So again, what is the lawsuit?
• 20:48
  Speaker B: So they, Austin tried to say that you could not short term rent on your property unless you lived on the lot. So if you had like a guest house or something, you could short term rent. And then, you know, lots of short term rental owners brought a lawsuit against them and Austin lost. So they back, you know, they've obviously, you know, removed that restriction and now it's just density limits.
• 21:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I do think a lot of this is due to the invention, for lack of a better word, of Airbnb. You know, I mean, it put a lot of attention on the map for what's going on here. And it's not something that hasn't been going on for 100 years, but they made it, you know, a household name. So I think over time cities are going to understand that this is not some weird new thing and everything will just kind of shake out and they'll, you know, certain cities will have their, the way they do things and that's just the way they're going to do things. It's not really. Not unlike when all of a sudden we were no longer taking taxicabs and we were pushing a button on our phone to have somebody pick us up at our house. All of a sudden it was like, wait a minute, the whole country had to relearn how to, you know, use a vehicle to get them from point A to point B. And that's calmed down and everybody understands it now. And that seems to be happening with the, with the whole, you know, Airbnb as well. But, but again, I use the term Airbnb because that's really what you're doing in the city of Austin. You know, it's more of an Airbnb than it is, you know, a vacation rental.
• 22:16
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:17
  Speaker A: So what about restrictions and regulations, etc. In some of these other areas?
• 22:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, so Canyon Lake is wide open. There are no restrictions. You can basically do whatever you want as long as it's, you know, there's not a homeowners association that restricts it. There's a lot of homeowners associations in Canyon Lake that do allow short term rentals because it is such a heavy vacation market. So Canyon Lake is probably the, the easiest to short term rent in New Braunfels. Green and Wimberley all have the same rules. Basically, you cannot get a short term rental permit in a residential area within city limits. So you have to, you either have to be, you know, in a commercial area or a multi use area or it has to be outside city limits. So typically, like with Wimberley, I just recommend you look outside city limits. There are a few properties that have conditional use permits, but they're not transferable. And so you have to go through the process of getting it approved again if you were to buy that property. And it's just, it's a little bit risky and, you know, and it's a big pain in the neck.
• 23:25
  Speaker A: Got it. Okay. Anything else we need to cover on that subject?
• 23:30
  Speaker B: I don't think so. I think that is pretty much it for restrictions.
• 23:33
  Speaker A: And just for the record, if, you know, God forbid somebody from the city of Fredericksburg stumbled on this and thought we were, were talking negatively, I'm not at all. I think they handle things very well and I think that they're doing a great job of protecting their integrity. And it's just the cutest little place on the planet. And I think they're, I think that what they're. The way they handle things is exactly how I would, would. I mean, not that I know how to run a city, but anyway, we're not saying that every damn house in Fredericksburg needs to be on Airbnb in any way. So I think they do a great job.
• 24:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I think it's very helpful that they have all the rules spelled out, you know, upfront, so, you know, it protects everybody and helps everybody be successful, in my opinion.
• 24:18
  Speaker A: Okay, so what am I looking for? What is it? What is a, you know, typical property that I'd be interested in buying look like?
• 24:26
  Speaker B: Yeah, so there's a couple of different, you know, properties that really appeal to people. So you've got your kind of your cute little cottages in Fredericksburg, even new in New Braunfels that are just very cozy and quaint, that appeal to people. And then you've got like the beautiful modern type of properties and I've got a couple of ones pulled up. So let me. So this is a cottage, you know, this is in one of my owner's cottages. And I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but it's just very quaint, it's very well done, it's very cute. And you know, it just looks like a place that you would want to stay. So this is just a little two bedroom cottage in Fredericksburg. That does really well. It's got a lot of personality. Let me see if I can. This one was actually done by a designer. So, like, it's got fun wallpaper on the ceiling and, you know, it just has personality. So people are looking for kind of those Instagramable moments when they come to the Texas Hill Country. You're going to get a lot of girls trips, a lot of couples trips. So they want something that excites them to stay in. Let me show you. So, and this is one that's actually outside city limits in Fredericksburg that does really, really well. So this one is just kind of very modern, you know, but again, beautiful. Stay. You've got some Clint Eastwood art on the walls to appeal to, you know, Texas. And this place has a pool, and so it does really well. Pools do well. If you can find a property with a pool in Texas, it's hot here. And so especially in the summer, anything with a pool is going to do really well. This one, this place is in Johnson City. I like this one because of what they've done with the outside. They've just, you know, done some really cool murals. They've got this outdoor. It's almost like a theater area. And this just really appeals to people when they're looking for a great place to stay.
• 26:48
  Speaker A: Cowboy pool.
• 26:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, they got. This is actually an ice plunge or a cold plunge. Cool. So. Which is not common in this area. So I think it does pretty well.
• 27:01
  Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah, so they're using it like a outdoor chill. I mean, I can't imagine it's at like the freezing cold temperature all the time.
• 27:13
  Speaker B: I'm sure it isn't. I'm sure people are using it more like, you know, a little outdoor pool, which is a great idea. And in fact, that's what people do. Hot tubs are also very popular here, which is it, you know, used to boggle my mind because it is so hot here, but I think they just don't turn the heat on in the winter, in the summertime, and then use it as, you know, like a mini swimming pool.
• 27:34
  Speaker A: You speak of the heat, and I'm going to change the subject just a little bit. What are we doing for national natural disasters here? Are we. Are there any.
• 27:42
  Speaker B: Not really. That's a great question. We really don't have any natural disasters. You know, I think the biggest thing that we face is hail. And, you know, we may get one hailstorm a year or so and usually it's small hail, you know, that doesn't do any damage. You Know, tornadoes are always, I guess, a risk. I. I am not familiar with any tornadoes that have touched down in this area, you know, that did any major damage in the last 20 years or so. So we really don't have natural disasters here.
• 28:17
  Speaker A: Can I see the exterior maybe? Close. The top left close.
• 28:21
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 28:21
  Speaker A: And I'd like to see the exterior. Well, we did see this one. Yeah, they've got them all organized, so there you go. Okay. It's just a house.
• 28:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's just a regular house.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: Do they call those saltillo tiles?
• 28:31
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 28:33
  Speaker A: Those are out of New Mexico originally. I think they're very popular there.
• 28:37
  Speaker B: Yeah. Funny enough, we have saltill tiles in our house, and I didn't put them there. They were there when we bought the house. But, yeah, that tends to be a popular look in some of these older
• 28:47
  Speaker A: houses, which makes me think, what's the H vac situation? Is it just regular central air or is it in the floor?
• 28:54
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's central air and it's vented, you know, usually vented through the ceilings.
• 29:01
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 29:02
  Speaker B: And so this is a place up in Lago Vista, which is a lake community. And, you know, it's just really bright and airy. Feels a little bit like a, you know, you're in a tree house, but very modern. I'll show you the outside of this one.
• 29:21
  Speaker A: Much more modern and probably newer.
• 29:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, it is. I think it was built in 2023, if I'm not mistaken.
• 29:28
  Speaker A: I noticed they even had tile on the. Between the windows on the interior. Is the garage functional? What they do with the garage? I'm curious.
• 29:37
  Speaker B: I love it right now. I think it's still a gar. I don't think they have turned it into a game room. This. My client just bought this a couple months ago. So they're still working on getting it, you know, outfitted. So I think their long term plans are to turn the garage into a game room.
• 29:55
  Speaker A: I see. I'm a big fan of a garage. I would definitely leave that garage intact and use it when I. I'd park. I'd park a motorcycle in there and. And lock the door.
• 30:05
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:06
  Speaker A: But, you know, obviously you're gonna have an easier time renting it if you do something fun with it. I do have a garage at a rental that I put a beer pong table in, which comes at some controversy because people, you know, people have mentioned to me that you really want to promote them playing beer pong. I'm like, well, they're going to do it anyway, you know, so might as
• 30:26
  Speaker B: well Give them a safe place.
• 30:27
  Speaker A: Yeah. That way they can shut the door if they're getting too loud.
• 30:30
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And so. And then one more.
• 30:34
  Speaker A: Oh, look at this. Now, this is in my wheelhouse. I like the modern new one. It's cool. It's probably very easy to manage after they've. If it's a 23, they've already worked the kinks out, you know?
• 30:44
  Speaker B: Right.
• 30:45
  Speaker A: But this is my whale house here. Now, look how adorable.
• 30:49
  Speaker B: Yeah. This is probably one of the cutest properties that I have ever sold. It is. And it's like walking distance to Main street in Fredericksburg, so it is super cute.
• 31:01
  Speaker A: You know, this is in my wheelhouse. Look at the fence. This is right here in my warehouse. I. I'm. This is the kind of thing I'm gonna buy. What's with the staircase on the second? There's. It's two. Two entries?
• 31:14
  Speaker B: No. So this Fredericksburg has a lot of what are called Sunday houses. And so people who lived out in the country way back in the day would come into town on Sunday for church, and, you know, they'd come in on Saturday. They would spend the night in these Sunday houses and go to church on Sunday and then head home, you know, back out to the country, because, you know, they were horses and wagons and stuff, and it took a long time to get to wherever you needed to go. So these Sunday houses, a lot of times had, like, these staircases on the side. There's nothing like. My clients are not. They've not finished that out or anything. It's a pretty low ceiling and things like that. But I think they used them for extra sleeping areas, you know, way back when. So it is an opportunity to, you know, utilize that additional square footage and, you know, maybe put some games or something up there or.
• 32:10
  Speaker A: I just like the story. I would put a little note, you know, in the house about the staircase for people. You know, I mean, just think of. I mean, they were sleeping up, and it probably can't even stand up in there. And there's no.
• 32:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, you can't.
• 32:22
  Speaker A: Definitely no air conditioning.
• 32:23
  Speaker B: Right.
• 32:24
  Speaker A: So what. What a. What a life they were living. I mean, and it's probably sounds kind of fun in a lot of ways. And then think about how. How hot you are all the time.
• 32:34
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:35
  Speaker A: Wow. We've got it easy. But, yeah, let's keep seeing. I want to see more of this. This thing is so cute. Is that, like, an original? Like, is that a wrought iron fence that's been painted white?
• 32:44
  Speaker B: I think it's actually a picket A wood picket fence.
• 32:47
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 32:48
  Speaker B: So let me see. And so they've got the, you know, old fashioned.
• 32:53
  Speaker A: Okay. Whoever owns this, if you happen to see this, which they won't, but this picture is not good.
• 32:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
• 33:02
  Speaker A: They need a few more pictures as well, but we're not doing listing rehab today. That's cool. That thing looks like it's been there a really long time.
• 33:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, they. That. This is in the bathroom over the sink.
• 33:13
  Speaker A: I love the. I love the wallpaper in the bathroom move. It's. It's kind of dumb in some ways because all the humidity and it can peel the glue off, you know, but, man, look at that. Yeah. I love this thing. I'm renting this house. I would definitely rent this house.
• 33:29
  Speaker B: I'll send you the link when you're ready.
• 33:30
  Speaker A: This is me. I. I'm going. You know, Avery maybe would want the modern one just because it's easy, but this thing, to me is just cute as. Cutest pie. Look. Look at that. Yeah, the ceiling.
• 33:44
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's got it. I don't know if you can see in these pictures. I think that's a tin ceiling. So it's just very cozy.
• 33:55
  Speaker A: Love it. I would do a couple things here with the flooring in a couple rooms, but, man, definitely leaving that sink and the bathtub and just. What a great house. Love this.
• 34:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 34:07
  Speaker A: What does a house like this cost or like today?
• 34:11
  Speaker B: So it's. The market's very slow. You know, it's very much a buyer's market right now, so you probably could get something like this for about 450.
• 34:21
  Speaker A: Oh, 450. That's. And how many bedrooms is it?
• 34:24
  Speaker B: It's two. It's two bedrooms, one bath, I believe.
• 34:27
  Speaker A: Okay, well, that's not cheap.
• 34:30
  Speaker B: It's not cheap. And part of that is because it is walking distance to downtown Fredericksburg. The location is.
• 34:37
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 34:37
  Speaker B: Phenomenal. Yeah.
• 34:39
  Speaker A: I can't imagine there's a ton of these just hanging around like something this cute at least, Right? Look at the original. The pine. The heart. Pine floors. I would assume that's what that is I'm making. Maybe I made that up, but it's what it looks like. It probably is at the bead board on the ceiling. Just. Just a treasure here. This thing. I love it. I'm already. I'm smelling it. You know what I mean?
• 35:05
  Speaker B: It smells like an old house.
• 35:06
  Speaker A: Smells like a great old house. It's got creeks in the floor. Love it. I'm renting that thing. All right. Okay, cool. Sorry. I got completely taken by this little thing here.
• 35:20
  Speaker B: I know. It's a cute house. It really is.
• 35:24
  Speaker A: So, yeah, let's talk a little bit more about purchase prices and what to expect. Maybe go back to that modern one. What's something like that going for? Are there a lot of new builds and. And how much would something like that go for?
• 35:35
  Speaker B: So this one. This one is in Lago Vista. It is not that close to the water, and I think we. It's sold for around 6, 600,000. So something like this in Canyon Lake is probably a little bit cheaper. Maybe less than 500 or around 500,000.
• 36:00
  Speaker A: Something like this near Fredericksburg does not exist, I would assume.
• 36:03
  Speaker B: Correct? Yeah, they don't really have anything this modern. There are some, you know, more modern places, but they're going to start to
• 36:12
  Speaker A: get a little further from town.
• 36:13
  Speaker B: Correct. Yep.
• 36:15
  Speaker A: I see. So the location on the little cottage that I'm in love with versus this thing, they're not even in the same ballpark.
• 36:22
  Speaker B: Correct.
• 36:23
  Speaker A: They're completely different things.
• 36:25
  Speaker B: Yep, Yep. It's apples and oranges.
• 36:27
  Speaker A: I see. It doesn't mean that this location is not as good. It's just different.
• 36:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, this is. This is up around Austin, you know, near, like, Travis. And so it's just a completely different, you know, guest experience.
• 36:46
  Speaker A: Okay. All right. And. And what about these other two? Well, give. Give me an idea on a price range on something like. Like that one that looked like just a regular old house. Was that this one? I think it was the second one. One maybe.
• 36:58
  Speaker B: Yeah. This one. You know, something like this. This one actually is on about five acres, has a pool. You know it. If without the land and everything, you're probably. And it's outside city limits, so that helps the price point as well. But you're probably for something turnkey like this, you're looking at 8 to 900.
• 37:19
  Speaker A: What area is this one in?
• 37:21
  Speaker B: It's outside Fredericksburg.
• 37:23
  Speaker A: I see. Okay.
• 37:23
  Speaker B: But it's only about, you know, probably seven or eight minutes to Main street in Fredericksburg.
• 37:29
  Speaker A: Would you consider this. Can you scroll down or maybe go back to the main listing on the back button on the top left. Would you consider this one? Yeah. There you go. Would you consider this in the country a little bit?
• 37:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's a. It's a little bit in the country.
• 37:46
  Speaker A: Radio tower. Okay.
• 37:51
  Speaker B: That's how they get their cable.
• 37:52
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 37:52
  Speaker B: I'm just kidding. I don't know. I don't know what that is.
• 37:55
  Speaker A: I would guess that that's no longer in service and just has taken down. That's a nice pool. That's a nice looking house. It's big.
• 38:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's a big house. And it actually has a guest house over here. So with the guest house and everything, that does push the price up a little bit. But if you just had a house like this, you know, with a pool, you're probably looking around 900k.
• 38:20
  Speaker A: Wow. Okay. And that, that first one there, I don't even remember the exterior of that one looked like actually. Perfect place. This.
• 38:29
  Speaker B: Let's see.
• 38:31
  Speaker A: Can you hit the back button for me? Oh, that's cute. Just a little house with a carport.
• 38:38
  Speaker B: That's kind of cottagey.
• 38:41
  Speaker A: This is Fredericksburg. Yeah, this is Fredericksburg with the lime topo. Chico. I like that. That'll suck me in. Is this in a neighborhood? Is there a neighbor there or is that. No, it's just a trip.
• 38:52
  Speaker B: It's not a close neighborhood. There are neighbors around it, but it's probably about a third of an acre.
• 38:59
  Speaker A: Are they also going to be rentals for the most part or not really
• 39:01
  Speaker B: for the most part? Yeah, a lot of them are.
• 39:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. Or you know, second home weekend situations. Okay, cool. All right. Well, this is wonderful information. Did we miss anything?
• 39:15
  Speaker B: I don't think so. I think we pretty much covered everything.
• 39:19
  Speaker A: Okay. So we've got price ranges for just about everybody. It sounds like we're down into the 300 sometimes in canyon. What does it, what does 300 get me in Canyon? Like something like that cottage or does that not exist there?
• 39:36
  Speaker B: That doesn't really exist. But you do have. You can get some new. Build a little bit more modern looking places. In Canyon Lake. I will say in Canyon Lake, you. There are a ton of rentals on the market. So there, there's a lot of competition. The competition is not stiff. You know, a lot of them have like hand me down dorm room furniture and, and don't have professional pictures. So they're not doing a great job. But they are. There's just a lot of competition. So you have to have something that kind of makes you stand out. So a beautiful place, you know, great pictures, some amenities that, you know, most people don't have. And I'm not talking anything crazy, you know, but hot tub, some outdoor games, price per night.
• 40:26
  Speaker A: That's what I always go for. If you can have the best price per night in town, you're always, you're always going to get booked. Right, so sounds like tons of competition. That's not competitive is what you're saying.
• 40:37
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I'll say in this market the vast majority of rentals are with a property manager.
• 40:46
  Speaker A: So.
• 40:47
  Speaker B: And most of them are the bigger property managers that don't do a great job. So, you know, if you're looking at an existing short term rental, the numbers generally don't look that great. There's exceptions to that just because the, you know, these property managers are not paying the kind of attention to the listing that needs to be done. A lot of them are not even on vrbo, they're only on Airbnb. So there's a lot of opportunity to come in and improve performance for, you know, existing short term rentals.
• 41:22
  Speaker A: Rental history is so is what you're saying is probably not really something to pay much attention to.
• 41:26
  Speaker B: Right.
• 41:27
  Speaker A: More so enemy method and the data sources and air DNA and all that fashion forward, let's see what the future looks like, not what the past looked like.
• 41:38
  Speaker B: Yeah. And a lot of them are second homes. And so people are using them a lot or they have family that are using them a lot. So they're not even being rented full time. So the numbers can look, you know, they can be disappointing 100%.
• 41:53
  Speaker A: We see that all the time here where we live, you know, and the, you know, I got a whole street full of these giant monster beach houses that are empty. All, they're all always empty. And very few of them where I like in my immediate area right here are even being rented. They don't rent them. They just come in for two months a year in the winter because they live in Michigan or whatever, you know, and, and it's a wonderful life. It is. You know, so. But to be able to rent it, you know, if you pick something that it's a fine line because it's at least where I live, there are neighborhoods where the neighbors might not be all that excited about you. But then there's other neighborhoods where there's nothing but rentals and there's. It's funny because those ones, now we're getting off in the weeds here, but the one like I have a house that's in a neighborhood that only has two primary homes in the entire neighborhood. And they are so vocal, you know, it's almost like they, it's almost like they live there, but because they want to complain, you know.
• 42:57
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 42:58
  Speaker A: It's just a, it's a personality type. I'm gonna live in this neighborhood where nobody lives.
• 43:03
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 43:04
  Speaker A: And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna about it.
• 43:07
  Speaker B: Yeah. We have a residential neighborhood in San Antonio not too far from me. And when you drive through there, they all have no short term rental signs in their yard. So if you're in the big city, you know, you definitely don't want to be in, like, a cookie cutter neighborhood. You want something that feels a little bit special, you know, you don't want somebody. Somebody who has gone from their house in Houston that looks just like this house.
• 43:30
  Speaker A: Right.
• 43:30
  Speaker B: You know, to stay. They want. They want an experience and something a little special.
• 43:34
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, absolutely. In a neighborhood like that. I'm gonna get a hotel probably, you know.
• 43:38
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 43:40
  Speaker A: But anyway. All right, well, it's been wonderful. Anything we forgot, we're good there.
• 43:45
  Speaker B: I think. I think we covered everything.
• 43:48
  Speaker A: Cool. Well, it's been a good time. And any opportunity I had to wear. I know your husband wears a cowboy hat all the time, which I'm very jealous of that. I don't know that I could quite pull that off here on the beach. It. It's, you know, every now and then
• 44:01
  Speaker B: you can be a trendsetter.
• 44:03
  Speaker A: Yeah. Well, actually, that's last year's daddy daughter dance. One of the gentlemen. I did not know him, actually, which I was shocked because he seemed like the kind of guy that I need to know wore a cowboy hat, and I was so jealous and. But yeah, there's. It's pretty rare. I mean, you know, you're wearing. You're wearing flip flops or slides, like 80 of the time down here, you know, so. But anyway, I appreciate Avery and see
• 44:28
  Speaker B: Wimberley, and you could walk around all day long.
• 44:32
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 44:32
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 44:33
  Speaker A: My wife, Avery, short term shop leader, fearless leader. She went to, obviously, University of Texas, and she's extremely fond of the area, for sure. She's taken me there before, and we had a great time.
• 44:46
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 44:47
  Speaker A: But. All right, well, thank you so much.
• 44:49
  Speaker B: You're welcome.
• 44:50
  Speaker A: Oh, how do we find you? Let's plug you. Why not? It's just an email address or whatever.
• 44:55
  Speaker B: Yeah. Stacy with an ey@theshorttermshop.com.
• 45:00
  Speaker A: wonderful. All right, well, we'll see you soon. Thank you.
• 45:03
  Speaker B: All right, thanks. Bye.