How to Manage a Short Term Rental in Panama City Beach, Destin, or 30A (Episode 9 of 10)

Avery Carl [00:00:03]:
What’s up, guys? It’s Avery Carl from the short term show doing the intro for the panhandle of Florida. We are doing a ten episode deep dive on two markets here, both the Emerald coast and the forgotten coasts of Florida, which basically makes up the entire Florida panhandle. So ten episode deep dive here. We are going to add quarterly updates, so make sure you hit that subscribe button. We also have some supplemental materials for you guys on our website. So anything you need to know about current short term rental property pricing in terms of how much it costs to buy a property in these markets, you can find that on our website@theshorttermshop.com, dot. You can also find current air DNA income data thanks to our friends over at, you guessed it, AirDna. And we’ve got all that for you guys.

Avery Carl [00:00:50]:
So that you can listen to this at any point in time and go find live pricing and live income data. Also, if you guys want to buy a short term rental investment with a short term shop agent on the emerald or forgotten coast, you can just email us@agentshorttermshop.com and we will get you hooked up. These are two of my very favorite beach markets, by the way. I’ve chosen to live in the Emerald coast. I also invest in the Emerald and forgotten coast, so very near and dear to my heart. Also, if you guys just have more questions and you want to chat about short term rentals, we’ve created an amazing community over on Facebook with over 50,000 short term rental investors just talking shop all day. It’s got the same title as my book. It’s called short term rental, long term wealth.

Avery Carl [00:01:33]:
So head over there to chat more about short term rentals. And if you want to chat live on Zoom, we’ve got a call every Thursday that you can join@strquestions.com happy investing, y’all. Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode on the Emerald and forgotten coasts of the short term shop special episode series. Today we’re talking about common management occurrences. So common things that happen in these markets as you go along managing your property. So things that are going to happen often or sometimes that you’re going to have to work around. So we’re going to go over a few of those things. I got a great panel here to help us.

Avery Carl [00:02:16]:
First, we have January Johnson. January, everybody knows who you are, but go ahead and intro yourself anyway.

January Johnson [00:02:22]:
All right, January Johnson. I am the longest running Airbnb host in the city of Panama City. I own and self manage four short term rental properties and I’m a community leader for Airbnb, and I sell everything between Panama City beach and Navarre beach on the Emerald coast.

Avery Carl [00:02:38]:
Thank you very much. Next we have Pete Appizzado. Pete, how’s it going?

Pete Appezatto [00:02:43]:
Very good. Very good. Pete Apposato here. I’m a local agent here in the Destin market. I’ve had Airbnb since 2010, and I cover basically from Destin all the way to Panama City beach.

Avery Carl [00:02:58]:
All right, and next we have the infamous Chuck Kramer.

Chuck Kramer [00:03:03]:
Infamous. Okay. I’m not a real estate agent, but I bought and sold over 60 homes in my life. So I have a little experience at it. Have short term rentals here in the Destin area, Miramar beach, as well as up in Gatlinburg, but also live here. So good perspective.

Avery Carl [00:03:22]:
All right. And next we have Mister Luke.

Luke Carl [00:03:27]:
Carl also live here, and it is beautiful. And I’ve taught over 10,000 people how to self manage their short term rental from a distance and happy to be here financially free since 2018.

Avery Carl [00:03:43]:
Thanks, Luke. All right, so let’s talk about some of the common things that we deal with as managers and investors in this market. So who wants to bring up the first topic?

Chuck Kramer [00:03:57]:
Well, when people think of Florida, the first thing they think of is probably hurricanes, tropical weather. We do have to deal with those. And the thing about that is the hype often starts a week or maybe even two weeks ahead of time, depending on what news channels you listen to. And it doesn’t even have to affect this area. Anything that hits Florida in general is going to have an effect on the whole state, even if all it does is drive people to our area. You got to make sure you have evacuation plans ready for your guests. And of course, there’s all the preparation need to do to the homes. When storms are headed straight towards you, it’s a pretty big issue, something you have to be prepared for.

Chuck Kramer [00:04:45]:
You can’t wing it.

Pete Appezatto [00:04:46]:
Well, I think that’s with anything and any market and any topic when it comes to management, is preparation in advance. Being a good host is just being prepared in advance and anticipating any issue that comes up and planning for it in advance, not when it actually happens.

Chuck Kramer [00:05:03]:
Very true.

January Johnson [00:05:04]:
I think one of the common misconceptions is that hurricanes happen all the time here. And, I mean, I’ve been living back in Florida. I’m from Panama City, and I’ve been living back here for seven years, and we’ve had one. So it does not happen all the time. There are tropical storms. Sometimes it’s just wind and rain, but people get, people who don’t know about these things get really upset and worked up and fearful of them and really the chances of them happening are low. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared, that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. But you have insurance, and when you have insurance, then if any damage just becomes a project that you have to manage, it’s not the end of the world, it’s not armageddon.

Chuck Kramer [00:05:46]:
You got to be good with your yes communication even beforehand. It’s hard for people to understand how big Florida really is. You know, if we weren’t a peninsula sort of shaped state, we’d probably be the largest state in the country. You know, if you just went straight down and over, made a box out of us, carved out the gulf, we’d be bigger than Texas. So hurricanes can hit somewhere and have absolutely zero effects somewhere else in January. You’re right, it doesn’t just cause a floor. A hurricane hits Florida, doesn’t mean that it hits this part of Florida. I’ve been here since 2012 and where I came from in the mid Atlantic, we had more hurricanes than we’ve had here.

Chuck Kramer [00:06:29]:
On the other hand, I do remember 2004 where we had twelve, so.

Luke Carl [00:06:35]:
Well, I’m from the midwest and I am scared to death of these damn things. A tornado, no big deal. I would sit in my front yard drinking beer. I am definitely scared of them. And Avery sleeps right through them. So perspective is huge. You know, where I come from you’ve got tornadoes and hail and snakes and Avery’s scared of all three of those. Of course her school did get hit by a tornado when she was a kid.

Luke Carl [00:07:06]:
But anyway, yeah, I mean it is not fun for me. I see that there one in the gulf, a little storm brewing and I am like, I’m out man. I don’t, I don’t like it. So it is a thing, I guess, and you just gotta hope and pray that everything stays safe. And these are the same issues in every market. I’ve got properties in the midwest for where I’m from. I’ve got a lot of property in my hometown. And snowstorm comes in and all my roofs are a mess, you know, hailstorm comes through and all my roofs are a mess.

Luke Carl [00:07:43]:
So it’s just part of it. And it happens in every market. Nature happens in every market. It’s just a different type of nature. We don’t have snow down here, so that’s very nice. We don’t have snowplows, which means we have really nice roads because no plows tear the hell out of a road and we don’t have to worry about that. So I don’t know that it’s any worse than any other part of the country. It’s just different.

Pete Appezatto [00:08:09]:
I mean, and for example, here we’re prepared for hurricanes. The anticipation of them coming is a thing. But in other markets, like Jersey, for example, about ten years ago or so, where I’m from, Jersey, we had Hurricane Sandy, and that was completely unexpected and the level of destruction was completely unexpected. So I think it’s actually better to be in a market where you anticipate something like that happen as opposed to not.

Avery Carl [00:08:36]:
Well, let’s talk about the fear of hurricanes. So you guys are right. Like hurricanes, every time they come in the Gulf of Mexico, everyone thinks that, that they’re hitting us. Every time that happens. A lot of times they dissipate. A lot of times they hit Texas. A lot of times they hit south Florida, Louisiana. They don’t always, you know, every time you see the word hurricane on the news does not mean it’s hitting this area.

Avery Carl [00:09:00]:
But we are guests with our guests, just like with people who may or may not want to invest here. They don’t know that. So sometimes they get scared of hurricanes. So what happens when there’s a hurricane in the gulf? Usually this happens. It doesn’t happen in the high season. It happens just after hurricane season technically starts. What is it, June 1?

January Johnson [00:09:17]:
My birthday?

Avery Carl [00:09:19]:
Yeah, hurricane season starts June 1, but we typically don’t see much about it until like September ish, August, September. So by then you’re mostly through the high season. But there are times when you’re guests are going to see that on the news and say, hey, I think I want to cancel because there’s a hurricane in the Gulf. So how are we handling that?

January Johnson [00:09:40]:
So there’s a couple of different things related to this. I want to distinguish bad rain from tropical storm or hurricane because sometimes I have guest inquiries and they want to cancel because of an actual thunderstorm. Okay, well, we don’t cancel reservations because of weather, you know, unless it’s severe weather and there is actual danger and we’re in a drive to market. So a lot of people have to drive here from somewhere else, and they might be driving through an area that might be dangerous for them, but that doesn’t mean it’s that danger is here. So I know for Airbnb and the other agencies will work with you on, you know, is it really a threatening, you know, something dangerous physically, or is it just bad weather? So we have to distinguish between that. First of all, just wanted to say that.

Pete Appezatto [00:10:30]:
Absolutely.

Luke Carl [00:10:31]:
Yeah. I think there’s multiple ways. I mean, there’s no, I don’t think there’s like, hey, here’s your checklist for managing this type of thing. I think that there different managers can have different ways of doing it. And I’d be happy to give you a quick rundown of what I do. I have in my listings no refunds for weather. That’s all of them. All my listings.

Luke Carl [00:10:47]:
Doesn’t matter what town it’s in. Although I am, I’ve gotten older, I’m pretty cool about giving refunds. I just don’t want them coming into this thinking that it’s, you know, like, hey, I can just get out of this whenever I want, you know? So I promise over deliver. I am not promising you anything. Matter of fact, you’re not getting a refund. But when it actually happens, happens. I. If it happens, I do deliver, and it really doesn’t even have to happen, quite frankly.

Luke Carl [00:11:19]:
It’s going to be a case by case scenario. How close is this storm to the home? And how freaked out are these people and how, how far they’re traveling through said storm, or maybe even another storm to get to the property, is their flight cancelled, things like that? In most cases, I will just go ahead and. Go ahead. Full refund. Because, you know, karma is a big deal. I’ve been doing this a long time, and over the course of a large spread of time on a spreadsheet, I mean, what’s however much money that was versus the happiness of people and safety of people? Right? So. And if the, if the people are happy and safe, you will, in my opinion, you’ll make triple the money over time. And so I’m making that sound really nice and sweet, but I’ll be honest, it came from a pain in my ass.

Luke Carl [00:12:14]:
You get to the point where you’re sitting there trying to protect this money and not cancel these reservations so many times that it just is. It’s a time suck. And eventually, I grew up. I looked, I can now. I can now. I’m in a position where I can look at my portfolio as a whole, as, instead of every single freaking dollar and really look at it like, what’s the best for everybody here? It’s going to take me a lot of time and money to tell these people no, and it’s better for the universe to just go ahead and give the refund. So I tell them no, and I. I basically go back on my word and go ahead and give full refunds quite frequently.

Luke Carl [00:12:53]:
You know, not frequently. I know that’s a terrible way to put it, but if it happens, if it comes up, I’m usually the first one to just say, you know what? Here’s your money back. No big deal. And again, I’d love to hear everybody else’s way of handling it. There’s, I don’t think my way is the highway at all, but it’s just the way it works for me.

Pete Appezatto [00:13:11]:
I think you have to take every situation on a case by case basis because, like you said, you know, you know, it is about karma, too. You want to be a good host, but, you know, let’s be honest. Some people try to game the system in getting out of reservation, so it really has to be on a case by case basis. And, you know, put yourself in the shoes of the guests. Like, if you have to drive through a storm, you know, I don’t want to put someone in harm’s way.

Chuck Kramer [00:13:38]:
Well, and there’s the other part of it, too. If, even if they get here, you may end up be, you know, dealing with a guest who’s in a home without power. Stores may be closed. You know, if communications are down, that means credit card machines aren’t working. At gas stations, you have a whole nother set of logistics involving the guests to deal with. So that needs to be part of the decision, too.

Luke Carl [00:13:59]:
Yes. And sometimes you got to let them know that this is happening, because a lot of times, guests won’t even look. You know, they’re coming in from somewhere. This isn’t any market. Again, we’re not super market specific here. It could be a snowstorm in the smokies or wherever, which is very rare, probably more rare. It was about as equal to a hurricane, probably. Um, but, uh, in hurricane in Florida, uh, sometimes you have to be proactive and say, oh, man, there’s a damn storm out there.

Luke Carl [00:14:26]:
This one’s looking pretty bad because your guests a lot of times won’t even look or care. They’re just planning on their vacation and making sure they got their sunscreen and packing the car, and they have no idea that there’s a storm 3 hours away, you know? So, um, a lot of times, I’ll be like, hey, uh, you know, if it gets bad like a, like a cat four out there or something like that, I’ll say, hey, there’s a storm out there. Were you guys aware of this? And they’ll be like, oh, no, we were not. And because if they show up and that happens to them, and they didn’t know then you got a real problem on your hands. So as part of that, that’s why.

Chuck Kramer [00:14:58]:
We emphasize early on with booking travel insurance. You know, that’s a big piece of this for peace of mind for us as well as for the guest.

Luke Carl [00:15:08]:
And how do I, how do I facilitate that? And just so everybody, if anybody’s interested, I don’t do that. But Chuck, I know you do. So how do you facilitate?

Chuck Kramer [00:15:15]:
Well, the PM’s we use, we can offer it through there, but I think it’s. Insuremystay.com is a website that just has a whole bunch of different options and providers and we push people there as well as telling them to google it. We don’t want to get involved between them and the insurance carrier where you want to be a part of that transaction, but we let them know it’s easily available and it’s not very expensive. Now the last time that I checked on Airbnb and Vrbo just a few weeks ago, they seem to now be offering that option on checkout too. So either they’re doing it themselves or they’ve teamed up with somebody.

January Johnson [00:15:56]:
And I’d like to say that in nine years of managing properties, I’ve probably had to refund or cancel a guest three times. I mean, it’s, it’s not that frequent for me. It has not been.

Luke Carl [00:16:10]:
Yeah, I would agree. Not common at all. But when it does come up, that’s another reason. Like, hey, you sit there, but this doesn’t happen very often. What’s going to be the least pain in my ass?

Chuck Kramer [00:16:22]:
And in our case, we have multiple properties in the same market. If it happens on one, we’re going to be dealing with them all.

Avery Carl [00:16:33]:
Yeah. So let’s switch gears for a second. So other things that might show up in the news. So right now there’s an article floating around about a 5000 square mile clump of seaweed out there somewhere in the ocean. I don’t even know if it’s true or if it’s for, excuse me, years ago. Anyway, it’s out there floating around and I see people asking about it on the 38 Facebook groups and stuff has to see we’ve gotten there yet. So we do have seaweed sometimes because it is the ocean. And then another thing that people read about is red tide, which we don’t get that much up here that’s more towards south Florida.

Avery Carl [00:17:07]:
But people will read about these things and then email you as a host and say, oh my gosh, is there red tide? Should I cancel. I’m going to cancel. So how do we handle that when that happens? Very similar to the storm thing.

Pete Appezatto [00:17:19]:
But when I saw that seaweed article I automatically thought it was kind of. I don’t know if it’s true or not because I just imagine all these people flying in airplanes above and no one ever seeing it. So I don’t know where that article came from but it seems to me that it, it not talked about enough of all these people flying over a 5000 square foot blob.

January Johnson [00:17:42]:
Well, and I want to talk about what actually happens on the beach because the sargossam seaweed is kind of a more dense, it’s not like that floaty kind. And when it washes we have beach seaweed beach services that come and bulldoze it away. So it’s not like it’s piling up on the beach and stinking and there’s dead fish. It’s not like that. I mean there’s, there’s seaweed that washes up. I mean, yes, it’s in the water a little bit so that might impact some of your swimming, but it’s not any dangerous thing and it’s not some gross, disgusting mess on the beach. And at night, you know, big tractors push it away and clean it up. That’s what we pay taxes and you know, that’s what the services do.

January Johnson [00:18:23]:
So we handle that. We’ve been a beach for a long, long time. We know how to manage that.

Chuck Kramer [00:18:28]:
And the beach is the main source of revenue so they’re going to take care of it.

Luke Carl [00:18:32]:
And our beaches are beautiful. I mean, it’s pretty rare that I go to the beach and see anything that bothers me or makes me uncomfortable. These beaches are. I mean, just to reiterate, for anybody that’s never been here, good luck finding a better beach. They are insane.

Pete Appezatto [00:18:46]:
Absolutely. When I moved here from Jersey I was awestruck that how beautiful the beaches are. Nothing close anywhere else that I’ve been to in the country. Not even close.

Luke Carl [00:18:55]:
Not even close.

January Johnson [00:18:56]:
Every day I just. I’m so happy that I live here and I work here and I just can’t believe it. I’m always posting pictures. I live here. I live here now.

Luke Carl [00:19:05]:
You mentioned red tie. That’s another. That’s a whole different thing. And I don’t really know that much about it, but I did and I’ll let Jan take that. But we don’t get it very often here. Like, I have a friend, I have a friend that lives down near Tampa. It’s guaranteed every year comes in for a certain amount of time, and it’s always the same time of year, give or take, and they plan ahead for it. And he’s always planning to go ahead and refund folks for red tide because it does get really nasty and it smells bad.

Luke Carl [00:19:26]:
But if Jan, if you want to elaborate on that a little bit.

January Johnson [00:19:29]:
I mean, are there occasionally a few dead fish on the beach? Yes, it’s the beach, but it’s not the red tide of central and south Florida that, that people hear about. As a matter of fact, I’ve never had that. I’ve never seen a big incident of that, and I’m sure somebody can google and prove me wrong, but the, the point is that I don’t live in fear, and I’m a native here.

Luke Carl [00:19:51]:
So, yeah, we had it last year. Uh, we had it last year, which, the beaches still looked amazing, but it did smell a little funky for a couple of days. It wasn’t like central Florida, where, I mean, it gets pretty nasty there. Chuck, what is red tide exactly? Do you have a dictionary definition of it?

Chuck Kramer [00:20:07]:
Um, I don’t have a perfect one, but it’s basically a mix of algae and bacteria in the water, uh, that comes from over oxygenation. So, um, it’s. One of the concerns about that large seaweed patch was that may actually lead to a larger red tide this year. We do have it here maybe a week or two on a regular basis. And the issue isn’t so much the water or the beach as it is the air. People with asthma or respiratory diseases can really be affected by it. I am, unfortunately, and I spend a lot of time at the beach, so I’m a good indicator.

Luke Carl [00:20:47]:
Yeah. All of a sudden, you’re coughing and you don’t really know why.

Chuck Kramer [00:20:50]:
That’s it, exactly, yep.

January Johnson [00:20:52]:
So if Chuck is worried, he’s the canary in the coal mine. If Chuck is worried about it and coughing, then we should be worried. Other than that, move along.

Chuck Kramer [00:21:00]:
Yeah. I will say one. As a, as a host, though, one thing I’ve done in all my homes is put air filters in air purifiers. You know, they’re inexpensive, and it just gets rid of that problem if it pops up. I mean, people have a safe place that can stay without worrying about any outside issues. They hardly require any care. They’re quiet, they sit in a corner. Sometimes guests don’t even know they’re there.

Chuck Kramer [00:21:24]:
It’s been one of the best investments I’ve ever made in my places.

Luke Carl [00:21:28]:
Is it actually red, the tide? Yes.

Chuck Kramer [00:21:32]:
Yes.

Luke Carl [00:21:33]:
Okay. Yeah.

Chuck Kramer [00:21:34]:
If you’re looking at an aerial picture. It will be reddish. So.

Avery Carl [00:21:39]:
There’S an episode of that nineties version of the Little Mermaid tv show about Red. That’s where I learned about that. I remember watching that when I was a kid. Anyway, so, um, what do we do if, like, a guest gets here and they go out there and there’s June grass? So June Grass is the kind of slimy green, floaty seaweed, and they want to refund. Cause there’s June grass out there.

Luke Carl [00:22:02]:
Slimy foot, floaty. Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do if that happens with somebody up there. Take that one.

Pete Appezatto [00:22:08]:
I mean, Mother, you can’t control Mother Nature. It’s happened.

Luke Carl [00:22:11]:
Yeah.

Chuck Kramer [00:22:12]:
Wonderful environment.

Luke Carl [00:22:14]:
Good luck finding another beach, regardless. I mean, the whole beach could be covered in that shit. You’re still not gonna find a better beach. You know, I mean, I think it’s tough luck on that one for me.

January Johnson [00:22:23]:
Yeah.

Avery Carl [00:22:24]:
All right, so let’s. Let’s move on to something else. So other things that we. That a potential investor or owner here would be dealing with. So the next thing I want to talk about is pools and pool maintenance and things that you may need to deal with with guests and how you manage the pools.

Luke Carl [00:22:44]:
Yeah. Pools are very complicated at times, but. And I want to preface this conversation, which could end up being even longer than in the hurricane thing, with the fact that I don’t really spend much time on my pool. I have one pool in this area. It’s a large pool. It is in ground. It is. I have a liner pool, which is really, actually fairly rare for the area.

Luke Carl [00:23:04]:
Most of them are going to be gun eyed or concrete or tiled. And liner pools are easy. They’re more. They’re in a less expensive to install. So, in other words, mine is maybe not as classy as the next guys. But I do kind of like mine because I can swap the line route pretty easily. If something weird happens, I can basically make it a brand new pool for a couple, you know, three grand. And that does need to be done regularly every five to ten years.

Luke Carl [00:23:32]:
But, so, first, I guess my point there is figure out what type of pool you’re buying and figure out the nuances. A gunite, concrete tile pool, from my experience, which is zero, is less maintenance than what I have. Um, and. But when it does need maintenance, maintenance, at some point, then, you know, you’re probably looking at a lot larger expense than replacing a liner. Again, not a lot of liners in this area. I just don’t think you’re going to end up. I just, I happen to buy the only one, I think. But, um, so the pool itself is fairly easy, in my experience, anyway.

Luke Carl [00:24:04]:
I don’t really think about mine too much. I do have my pool guy twice a week, which is overkill. Most people are going to do once a week pool. Pool guys are very easy to find in the area. I mean, they are everywhere. Doesn’t mean they’re gonna be good, though, or work well with you. I’ve had, I’ve gone through several to find one that I like, which just happens to be the same guy Chuck’s using, which is a big company, actually, which normally I don’t like big companies, but in this case, it works for me. So that’s about the pool itself, you know, figure out what it’s made out of and what your deck is, that kind of thing.

Luke Carl [00:24:39]:
You don’t want it to be too slippery or anything like that. You know, obviously liability. We should probably. I’ll let Chuck get into that. The pool is going to morph into many different subjects, which I already have written down here. But, Chuck, can you cover some liability aspects of it?

Chuck Kramer [00:24:53]:
Well, you hit the nail on the head. The biggest one is the deck around the pool. You got to make sure it’s got some kind of grip to it that’s not as hard with concrete or pavers in this area. But if you have, if you’re going to paint your concrete, it could be a big deal. You want to make sure you get the, the type that has a grip to it, the built in sand. Or if you’re going to use a wooden deck, it could even get a little bit tougher. There are ways to protect that, including stain that has grip built into it. But you got to remember, it’s almost always going to be wet when people are on it.

Chuck Kramer [00:25:27]:
So it’s not how, how sturdy it is or how stable it is when it’s dry. It’s when it’s wet.

Luke Carl [00:25:35]:
Yeah, I actually had a, mine was concrete when I bought it, and I put, I paved the driveway and the deck, the pool deck, which was a huge process, had to get permits and everything. I did a flat, smooth paver on the driveway, and I did the same color with texture on the, on the pool. And then I sealed it. You gotta, you know, you gotta stay, wash it and seal it every couple years or every year if you want to. And I, I used, you can buy, you can just get at Lowe’s or Home Depot. You can buy a little. It’s like sandpaper grit that you throw into the sealer as your. As your.

Luke Carl [00:26:09]:
Before it dries. Basically, it’s very similar to if anybody has an epoxy in their garage where they sprinkle. It almost looks like sprinkles, literally of, like, paint chips on top to make it a little bit of a texture. It’s kind of like that. At least that’s what it reminded me of anyway. But, Chuck, what do I need to do? As far as insurance is concerned, are there any concerns with having a pool there or liability? As far as insurance, yeah, you’re going.

Chuck Kramer [00:26:32]:
To pay more for sure. And the insurance company is going to give you some requirements around a pool. Such as. Plus there’s also local regulations, but one of the other is definitely going to require that you have some sort of access control, whether it’s a locking gate or an alarm inside the home, on the back door, or any door that has access to the pool area, because you don’t want kids slipping out in the middle of the night, you know, a bunch of nine or ten year olds saying, hey, let’s go. Let’s go night swimming, and then get woken up by screams. So those are requirements. And at least in my case, the insurance companies will send somebody to check it. It’s funny, the city doesn’t, but the insurance company will.

Luke Carl [00:27:14]:
The pool alarms are not fun. I’m not going to lie. It is a part of management that you’re going to have to deal with. You have to maintain them. They’re very simple little device that goes on the door, but they are the most annoying sound on the planet, and they are very loud. And to my knowledge, that’s statewide. I think it’s anywhere in Florida. So you got to make sure I put a QR code right next to it with a video saying, this is exactly how this works.

Luke Carl [00:27:40]:
And no, we cannot disable it, although.

Chuck Kramer [00:27:43]:
They will try to disable it. So I’ve had, um, I’ve had some people do some fairly ingenious things to mind to turn it off.

Luke Carl [00:27:52]:
Yeah. And, uh, you know, my, my thing there is just get upstream because when they. It’s rare for me to get that question anymore because mostly because I have that QR code. It’s like super obvious. Like, dude, if this thing’s annoying you, probably something to do with this QR code here, you know, let’s check it out. As a matter of fact, that’s the only QR code I use other than a refrigerator magnet with my guidebook in my home, some people will put a QR code for you know, tvs and coffee machines. I don’t do that. But the pool alarm is.

Luke Carl [00:28:23]:
I agree with my guests. It’s annoying as hell. But I do have small kids, so I want it there. You know, some little kid opens that door, it could be absolutely devastating. I’ve got a friend who’s a. He’s on the fire department, and my firehouse is two blocks from my house. And every time I see him, he’s like, had to save another one out of the pool around the corner from your house the other day, you know, and. And I’m like, well, as long as you’re not hearing about.

Luke Carl [00:28:47]:
Are you hearing about my house? He’s like, nope, everything’s cool at your house. We’re good there. But, you know, make sure all your. You know, it’s a thing you got to be very careful with. With. With the swimming pool. It’s very scary. Again, as a dad of super young kids, my kids would not know what to do, you know, if they snuck out there, and it’s.

Luke Carl [00:29:04]:
It is kind of scary. So get your pool arms in order.

Chuck Kramer [00:29:08]:
And there’s some other things that. Some will be required, and others are just a really good idea. You know, the safety hook, basically the long pole with the little shepherd’s hook on the end of it so you can grab people out. Of course, there’s the life saving ring, which a lot of people are going to end up using as a toy, but these are still good things to have. In my case, my insurance company requires one of those went overboard and put both in. But it also sends a message, I think, to the guests that you really care about their safety, too.

Luke Carl [00:29:43]:
Yeah. And signage. Again, we’re not here to offer any sort of legal advice. You have to check with your local, you know, your local authorities, insurance company, and check with your lawyer how you want to get this stuff done. But. But, yeah, I do have the. The ring. What’s it called? A life ring.

Chuck Kramer [00:29:58]:
Life ring. Yeah.

Luke Carl [00:29:59]:
And. And I honestly, I’m okay with. They use it as a toy because it looks kind of fun, but it has to be put back when it’s. You know what I mean? It needs to be where it needs to be. And I check. We check every turn, make sure that thing is where it’s supposed to be. And I have signage everywhere. I’ve got 15 signs back there.

Luke Carl [00:30:14]:
You know, I got signs inside this. You know, this is what happens with. These are the pool rules, that kind of thing. Again, talk to your lawyer about what they’re going to expect as as far as signage is concerned.

Chuck Kramer [00:30:25]:
Yeah. And if you have a rental agreement, make sure your lawyer has drafted that liability section or, you know, of the agreement and that you, you know, you have language elsewhere, too, so you can’t have it enough.

Luke Carl [00:30:40]:
I do that and I get a signature on a rental agreement, you know, makes me sleep a little better.

Avery Carl [00:30:46]:
All right, moving on. Let’s talk about golf carts and. Or bicycles and renting them to guests. Look, you looked like you’re about to say something.

Luke Carl [00:30:57]:
Golf carts are not for me. I looked into it fairly heavily. And basically what I mean by that is I read a million Facebook group forum, you know, Facebook, Facebook posts about people that were doing it and not doing it, and I just decided it’s not for me. This is illegal. And in our area, in a lot of these areas, golf carts are street legal. So that means they have a license plate and it is a motorized, regular old car, basically, with no doors, and they only go 25 miles an hour if you’re lucky. It’s really more like 18, you know, but I just decided that, you know, I mean, I read a statistic one time recently. It was 86% of Americans admit that they drink to excess while on vacation.

Luke Carl [00:31:40]:
And I’m talking excess here, you know, not Tuesday night happy hour. We’re talking getting hammered on vacation. And I just don’t want a motorized vehicle with my name and the registration and the license plate being driven by somebody who may or may not be drunk and from another area. Again, some of my enemies have them. Not very many, but some of them do. And so, you know, if you’ve got a system in place for that, I would, I would recommend sort of some sort of separate agreement specifically for the cart and that kind of thing. But again, I don’t have one. My.

Luke Carl [00:32:14]:
I do own one. We have one at our own home. Electric is the way to go if I was going to do it, I think, because then otherwise, your guests are always worried about filling it up with gas, and then you got another liability on your hands there. They got to take it to the gas station and stuff. So I think electric is probably the way to go if you’re going to do it. And get a. Get an agreement and make sure your insurance knows both insurance homeowners and your auto insurance knows exactly what you’re doing there. What I do is I just provide a phone number for a rental place.

Luke Carl [00:32:41]:
Hey, call these guys. They’ll drop it off at the house. They’ll pick it up when you leave. Super easy. It does count towards one of your cars. Where my house is located, I have a maximum number of vehicles, and they are seriously strict about it. I mean, if you. If they come by and see one more car, then is allowed at my property, I’m in deep doo doo.

Luke Carl [00:32:58]:
Okay. So I just make sure that they know that that does count as a motorized vehicle, and that’s kind of how I handle my system. I know Chuck does have a golf cart, so I’ll turn it over to him, and then if anybody else but Chuck and I have talked about this extensively, so go ahead, buddy.

Chuck Kramer [00:33:15]:
In our case, we inherited it with the house when we bought it. And we don’t actually own the cart. It’s provided by a third party. They have their own agreement. My attorney’s been over it, and he’s as comfortable as possible that we are separated from it. They handle everything. They handle the maintenance. If something breaks, they come out and actually, their service has been great, and we just pay them a monthly fee.

Chuck Kramer [00:33:40]:
In essence, we are paying the rental cost for the guest, but it’s done in a way that we’re outside of liability. Having said that, I made sure that our insurance company would still cover us in the event they found some creative way or somebody forgot a period on a sentence and it changed the meaning. So we’re covered for insurance. Attorney’s good with it. I don’t have to worry about maintenance. I don’t have to worry about anything with that cart. Except, as Luke says, it does count as a vehicle. And in places where you’re limited to number of vehicles, that can be a problem.

Luke Carl [00:34:21]:
So furthermore on that, just in case anybody watches this and gets mega obsessed, which we would encourage, I think obsessed is a wonderful thing. I did call Chuck’s cart guy, inquire about renting one from him. And the quote, the price he gave me was three times what Chuck was paying. So I think Chuck’s got a sweetheart grandfathered deal there. I was not able to duplicate his deal.

Avery Carl [00:34:44]:
It’s the hawaiian shirts.

Luke Carl [00:34:46]:
It’s probably what it is. If I were able to duplicate it and get the deal, Chuck Scott, I probably would have gone for it. I really would have, because he’s got a sweetheart going on there. But I wasn’t able to. So I just went with the. Here’s the phone number. Give him a call.

January Johnson [00:35:00]:
Anybody else have in Panama City beach? There’s all kinds of cart rental places, you know, and little. Those fun little scootery things, whatever they are. So just let them do that. There’s.

Pete Appezatto [00:35:11]:
Yeah, exactly. They’re all over the place here, it’s like it’s on every corner.

Luke Carl [00:35:15]:
One more thing. Enemy. It’s all about the enemies. If you’re in an area, if anybody happens to be watching this, that every single one of your neighbors has a golf cart, you’re going to need a golf cart, and you’re going to need a system for that golf cart. In our areas, at least where I’m at, it is not the norm. There are a few that have them, but I can still compete. I can compete heavily without them, which I guess maybe that leads me to bicycles. Avery, if you want me to just parlay that into another subject, I do have.

Pete Appezatto [00:35:43]:
Yeah.

Luke Carl [00:35:44]:
I said, you know what? Let me just take this little space in my driveway that would have been a golf cart, and I’ve got four bicycles, and I do what Chuck does with the cart. I rent them. They’ll bring brand new bicycles, generally, and they’re brand new, and they give you a little rack. It’s not cheap, but I do find value there. Nobody ever really asks about them, but every time I go over there, the locks are different than they were the last time I was there. So they are using them, and they’re in really great shape. And also, because I’m renting them, there’s a phone number on the bicycles. If something is wrong, the guests can call directly to the guy.

Luke Carl [00:36:23]:
He comes the day of. And again, it’s not cheap to get that, but I think it’s really cool service. And I’ve got these really cool beach cruisers, very much like if you were to go to a tropical destination, like, when Avery and I were in Mexico last time, they had them at everywhere you went, and similar to that, but I’ve got them at my house, and I would recommend that. Or you can just buy them yourself. But my problem with that is, then who’s going to maintain the tires, et cetera?

Avery Carl [00:36:52]:
Yes, I do recall, Luke, you ride a bicycle seven months pregnant, and I.

Luke Carl [00:36:59]:
Were you pregnant?

Avery Carl [00:37:00]:
Yes. And I thought we were just gonna go, like, down the road, but not that pregnant. No, no, you’re right. That was the next. Okay. Anyway, but you still had me riding a bicycle, which I’m not good on a bicycle, guys. I grew up on a gravel road down, like, a highway in Mexico.

January Johnson [00:37:21]:
Yeah.

Avery Carl [00:37:22]:
And I called a cab to come get me and put that.

Luke Carl [00:37:25]:
I thought it was amazing. We went. We swam in the cenote.

Avery Carl [00:37:28]:
Cenote was amazing.

Luke Carl [00:37:29]:
But we went to, like, six of them, and then we went and got margaritas, and we went to another cenote, and we were on these bicycles and.

Avery Carl [00:37:35]:
There’S a beach on the highway.

Luke Carl [00:37:38]:
It was incredible.

Avery Carl [00:37:39]:
And the guy that wanted us to give him our passports to hold, to.

Luke Carl [00:37:43]:
Rent the bikes, well, that’s how it started. We were going to rent a motorcycle, and the dude wanted to hold my passport. I’m like, I’ll take the bicycle anyway.

January Johnson [00:37:53]:
A lot of areas go on coast that really aren’t that bike friendly. There are some communities that are, there’s, there’s a big stretch of 30 a that is, but like on the, on the east end of the Emerald coast where I am, we’re not bicycle friendly. I did have a bicycle at my very first rental property. That was my personal bike. And the very early on, the renter said, well, we can’t find your bike. And I said, what do you mean you can’t find the bike? It’s right, you know, blah, blah, blah where it is. No, we put it in the front yard when we went out to some bars, and when we came back, it was gone. Yeah, you basically gave my bike away.

January Johnson [00:38:31]:
So I had to, you know, that was early in my renting experience, and I had to file a claim and I had to get a police report. And I was like, I’m in Houston at the time, and I’m like, what is this, mayberry? I’m going to call the police to come make a report about my stolen bicycle. They came, they made a report, and then I was like, okay, I’m done with bicycles. But my area is not bike friendly bike, you know, we’re not set up for that where I am, so I don’t worry about that myself. But there are parts of the Emerald coast that love bikes. I mean, you drive down 30 a and everybody’s got a bike.

Pete Appezatto [00:39:04]:
Yeah, yeah, I bike ride all the time. I love it. And a lot of the drivers are not bike friendly, so that’s something you.

Luke Carl [00:39:11]:
Have to be careful of because 86% of them are. Well, anyway, and just to clear, just to reiterate what Jan said, I agree. I’ve got three houses in this area. Well, with it, give or take. In the, in the Emerald coast area, I only have bicycles at one of them. Two of them, they wouldn’t, they just wouldn’t work. One of them, I don’t have any space for them. And the other one is all the roads are basically sand, so you wouldn’t be able to get anywhere anyway.

Luke Carl [00:39:35]:
So, yeah, it definitely is a micro market dependent.

Pete Appezatto [00:39:39]:
Yep.

Chuck Kramer [00:39:40]:
Yeah. Does depend on the immediate area. I mean.

Avery Carl [00:39:42]:
Yeah, yeah. All right, so what else what are some other things that we might have to deal with? So we’ve gone over storms, conditions in the gulf, whatever that might be, renting bikes and, and golf carts have gone over pools.

January Johnson [00:40:00]:
What else do we want? Animals. So. And I. When I mean animals, I mean, like lizards and palmetto bugs and things that people aren’t.

Luke Carl [00:40:09]:
Excellent topic.

Avery Carl [00:40:11]:
Yeah.

January Johnson [00:40:12]:
You know, like, actually, one of my clients, he closed in the summer and he’s getting his house ready and he wanted to know what’s up with the lizards. Is there some infestation? And I’m like, no, it’s just lizards, man. We just live where lizards are. And I don’t mean like the big iguana things that you see down there. I’m talking about the little tiny things. So sometimes, I mean, it’s not, there’s not problems, but I’ve had guests alarmed because they’re not used to the wildlife that we have in Florida. And it’s minor. But, you know, it’s humorous to me and it’s not a problem, but I think that we need to consider it because, you know, if you’re, if you’re an owner from California or Washington state, you’re gonna have, you know, you’re gonna be surprised by some things.

January Johnson [00:40:57]:
So, you know, there’s the big palmetto bugs. They fly. They look like cockroaches. They’re, you know, you want to do regular pest control. Obviously, you don’t want these things in your house, but it’s not like that. I’m just talking about what’s outside the house.

Pete Appezatto [00:41:09]:
Yeah. As a Yankee who moved here not too long ago, the first few lizards I saw, it kind of freaked me out a little bit for a second, but then you just get used to them. They’re little. They run away. They don’t bother you.

Luke Carl [00:41:20]:
Yeah, but they can.

Chuck Kramer [00:41:21]:
Beneficial. They eat the bugs.

Luke Carl [00:41:23]:
Yeah, exactly.

Avery Carl [00:41:25]:
I think they’re adorable. I love.

Luke Carl [00:41:28]:
But they can’t end up in your swimming pool. And if you get somebody coming down from Ohio that sees a lizard floating belly up, you know, so I let them know, hey, you might find a lizard in the pool. We’re doing the best we can over here, you know, I mean, I’ve got twice a week cleaning, and the next guy doesn’t. He’s only got once, if that, you know, so.

Pete Appezatto [00:41:45]:
So one thing I’d like to mention about the hurricanes, for people that are in contract to buy a property, one thing I need to point out is if you’re in contract to buy a property and we’re in hurricane season and a named storm is named in the market. You need to get your insurance bound sooner than that because if it’s named, they stop writing policies for several weeks. So I make it a point for my clients, you know, to get their insurance bound as quickly as possible.

January Johnson [00:42:17]:
Yes.

Pete Appezatto [00:42:17]:
That’s not something we want to encounter at all.

Luke Carl [00:42:20]:
And just to further point that out for midwesterner like myself, that happens in the fall. So if you’re shopping in the fall, be advised, get your insurance sooner than later. Palmetto bugs, one more thing on that. They are inevitable. Okay. They’re, they’re just going to happen. And so you need to keep up on that management wise. Yes.

Luke Carl [00:42:40]:
Your pest control needs to be getting over there as often as possible. But they, they do happen. I mean, they’re just, they’re like a. They’re, they’re like the state bird. You know, it’s technically a cockroach. I think that they’re called the Florida wood cockroach, as a matter of fact. But the, we have this sexy name for them called a palmetto bug. And they are, they’re big.

Luke Carl [00:43:01]:
You know, they’re, they’re about cockroach size. So be, be advised that they are a thing and they’re going to happen. And, I mean, I let my guests know, you probably are going to see palmetto bugs, you know.

January Johnson [00:43:12]:
Well, and I tell my guests, if I’ve recently had pest control service, I tell my guests, we had pest control service last week, you may see some dead cockroaches. Dead are better than live.

Luke Carl [00:43:22]:
Okay.

January Johnson [00:43:23]:
So it’s just, you know, it’s inevitable. It’s not like there’s going to be a thousand of them. I mean, there might be one or two, but that’s actually evidence that I’m taking care of my property, not evidence that there’s a problem. So I. If I’ve had pest control service, I try to make sure I let them know, and I do have.

Pete Appezatto [00:43:37]:
Yeah.

Luke Carl [00:43:38]:
Dead bugs mean that I’m getting my house taken care of. Okay. Live bugs. That’s not good. Not as good.

Pete Appezatto [00:43:47]:
It’s better than a mouse or a rat. But I had properties when I had properties in Manhattan, that, that was a common occurrence.

Avery Carl [00:43:55]:
Oh, yeah. And then they die in the wall and you smell three days and there’s nothing you can do.

January Johnson [00:44:05]:
To take the rat problem.

Pete Appezatto [00:44:08]:
Yes, you’re right. I had to become a expert in extermination. So I went around every property with steel wool to plug up every single hole. So, yeah, it works, though. They can’t get through steel wool.

January Johnson [00:44:23]:
You might also see in our area, raccoons. You might see possums. It’s just the natural wildlife. They’re not going to come up in your. I had a client one time ask me about alligators. So do they just come up in your yard? I was like, no, they’re not like stray cats. You know, there are, there are, you know, alligators in Florida, but that is not a pest problem. That, that’s not.

January Johnson [00:44:47]:
But it was funny to me. I tried not to laugh, but it was.

Chuck Kramer [00:44:49]:
This is in Tampa.

Pete Appezatto [00:44:51]:
Yeah, exactly.

Avery Carl [00:44:52]:
Um, yeah, but we do have alligator, but, yeah, they’re not just walking around.

January Johnson [00:44:57]:
You’re not just gonna run up in your yard and steal your burger off your grill.

Chuck Kramer [00:45:02]:
And we have black bears.

Avery Carl [00:45:03]:
Yes, we do.

Chuck Kramer [00:45:04]:
We.

Avery Carl [00:45:04]:
That is a thing, too. So a lot of people forget about that. They think that’s a mountain thing you still do and can have bears get in your trash. It happens.

Luke Carl [00:45:13]:
We get them out of the house we live in. Yeah, I actually looked it up. Walton County, I think, which is, you know, one of the areas we’re in here, I think somewhere around 110 bears. And they actually said that the, they would prefer the population was right around 200. So it’s lower than what they would like. And they’re very protective of them, as you would imagine. But we get them. If you leave, if the neighbor, if all my neighborhood, which is only like five houses, leaves the trash out for enough days in a row, they’ll come hanging around and that’s not good.

Luke Carl [00:45:42]:
So you got to put your trash in the garage.

Pete Appezatto [00:45:44]:
Yeah.

Avery Carl [00:45:45]:
Okay. What else? So we’ve gone over potential wildlife. Anything else that you guys run into fairly often around here that I feel like listeners would benefit from hearing about the beaches themselves.

Luke Carl [00:45:59]:
You know, the, the fact that some of them are going to be beach service or not beach service is something to keep in mind. And what I would recommend there is just go down to your closest beach from wherever house you’re buying and poke around. Go down on the sand. Is there a beach guy down there? He’s going to be there. You know, even if there’s a storm, he’s. But he’s just going to be sitting there on his phone doing nothing. Maybe not in the wintertime, probably won’t be there in the wintertime, but, but what they do is they’ll rent you a, you know, chairs and an umbrella and, and it’s actually, you know, in most cases, depending on how fancy your beach is, it’s fairly reasonably priced and it’s awesome. Because, man, even just a half a block, carrying that stuff can suck, you know? So to my.

Luke Carl [00:46:38]:
In my opinion, it’s worth it, even if you’re frugal, to go ahead and. Because that’s why you’re there, to enjoy your vacation. And the chair and the umbrella are 100%. If you don’t get the umbrella, you’re going to get your ass burned anyway, right? So I would go down there and see if the guy’s got a phone number. Sometimes they’re privately owned. Sometimes it’s a bigger company with a different guy all the time, sometimes the same guy all the time. See if they have a phone number, put it in your guidebook, and let your guests know. Hey, if you want to really enjoy your vacation, you might want to consider renting a chair.

Luke Carl [00:47:07]:
You don’t want to rent a chair, by the way. Those guys have territories, you know? So if you’re not going to rent the dude’s chair and his umbrella, usually you have to sit, you know, 20 yards the other direction, because that’s his territory, basically. Not all the time, but, but, but sometimes there can be a territorial situation going on there. So. Anybody else have anything to add on that?

Pete Appezatto [00:47:30]:
It’s like the chair mafia.

Luke Carl [00:47:31]:
Yeah. Chair again. Jersey over there. Yeah.

Pete Appezatto [00:47:33]:
Yeah.

Chuck Kramer [00:47:34]:
Well, as a host in some areas, you can actually get in touch with these companies and pay for a year of beach service. And then you give a code or a coupon to your guests, and they go down and boom, it’s set up for them. That’s usually associated with hoas, but not always.

January Johnson [00:47:53]:
And I think that’s better when you have a condo or. Or a community on the beach, because my property is in Panama City, not Panama City beach, but the first year that I had my property, I did rent two beach chairs for a year. Really, I did it for myself, but I offered it to guests, and because I’m just not close enough to the beach, you know, it wasn’t. It didn’t. The guests didn’t end up using it, and so it was a waste of money for me. So I didn’t do that. But I can guarantee you, as a local person, I would much rather take my $40 and walk down there and give them $40 for two beach chairs and an umbrella for the day than lug my stuff if I can get away with it. So, you know, I tell people.

January Johnson [00:48:30]:
I tell my guests where I like to go to the beach since my property is not beach adjacent. I tell them where I like to go, and there are beach chairs there. And I definitely recommend them.

Chuck Kramer [00:48:39]:
Great idea.

Luke Carl [00:48:41]:
And also, you could provide your own beach chairs. I do have a little wagon. That’s all this from Chuck. I got a little wagon. And I get those Tommy Bahama backpack chairs from Amazon. They, they’re very expensive. Unless you buy them within like a three week period in the spring, then they’re cheap. And, and I do provide those.

Luke Carl [00:48:58]:
I got a new one. They get rusty as hell. So I get new ones every year. And again, again, to me, I’m leaving those at the house and going and renting from the guy. But it probably is nice to have those available, Chuck, if you want to. Again, I stole that from you. If you want to elaborate there.

Chuck Kramer [00:49:13]:
Yeah, we found it really works. Not everyone has the money to do that all the time. Or the beach service. Near one of our homes, it’s dollar 58 a day, and it’s two chairs and an umbrella. But we sleep six. So, you know, if you have six, you probably want at least maybe four chairs. It starts to add up really quick. You’re here for a week.

Chuck Kramer [00:49:38]:
You’re renting chairs every day. So we give them the option. We provide the same chairs. We get. We get a whole season out of a set of chairs, usually along with a beach cart and some random toys and a couple of boogie boards. And people love it. I mean, they comment on it. So you have an option.

January Johnson [00:49:57]:
Also, I provide a cooler. And I always encourage and in my, in my guest communication, automated messages. I say, you know, please feel free to leave beach toys that you have purchased because they’ll come and buy sand castle equipment and, you know, little shovels and floats and things, pool noodles. And I say, please feel free to use them. Leave them for the next guest if you don’t want to travel home with them because they can’t always take them with them. And so I end up with an assortment of things. And, you know, we just keep it weeded out and keep them hosed off and clean and they’re available for people to use.

Luke Carl [00:50:32]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Same thing here.

Chuck Kramer [00:50:34]:
Yeah, we do that as well. We have to filter out the inflatables, though, because our insurance company doesn’t allow us to provide anything inflatable.

January Johnson [00:50:41]:
Interesting.

Chuck Kramer [00:50:42]:
Yeah. The other thing about the beaches is, you know, we have a concept here. It’s not very common across the country. We have private beaches and, you know, where that house on the beach actually owns the property, down to the mean high tide line, I think it is. And, you know, that can have an effect on how much of the beach, you have access to. You got to kind of watch that with where you buy, because if your guests have to go too far to go or have to go too far away to get to the public, access makes your place a little bit less desirable.

Luke Carl [00:51:15]:
Yeah. And one more thing there. Similar topic, but slight subject changes on street parking is almost unheard of in most of this area. So a lot of times when you’re looking at a house, you want to keep in mind how many parking spot. I mean, Avery and I make a joke occasionally that we’re not even renting our house. We’re renting our damn driveway, you know, because parking is. It’s unheard of. It exists here.

Luke Carl [00:51:41]:
There’s very few public parking area spots, and you got to get there really early in the morning to get them. And so, you know, I mean, just something to keep in mind. That’s. That’s another reason you’re buying this house, is because nobody can park on the street. They can rent your house. They get somewhere, they can walk to the beach. It’s a. It’s a wonderful thing.

Luke Carl [00:52:00]:
So keep that in mind. There’s nowhere to park. There’s no, like, pay by the day parking areas anywhere, because the real estate is too valuable.

Pete Appezatto [00:52:08]:
And that’s why when, when looking at homes with clients, you know, proximity to the beach is always an important aspect, because the further they have to go, the more hassle it is to get there.

Luke Carl [00:52:17]:
Yeah. You can’t buy a house 3 miles from the beach and then drive to the beach and park. You can’t do that. It has to be, the house has to be walking distance in most cases.

Chuck Kramer [00:52:26]:
Yeah. Destin has an Okaloosa county and Walton county as well. Lately, they’ve been doing a good job of trying to buy up beach property and put in parking, but it is never enough.

Pete Appezatto [00:52:37]:
Never.

Chuck Kramer [00:52:37]:
You know, we get about 20 million people a year visiting us here across the Emerald coast. And there might be. If you added up all the public parking, there might be 500 spaces. And, you know, it’s. This is a consideration, too. If you. If you buy a place on or across, say, across the street from the beach, you know, you might have to be dealing with people parking, you know, on your property.

Luke Carl [00:53:03]:
So in some ways, the public parking that they’re adding is making it worse, because now you got all these cars driving around that are trying to find a parking spot, and it used to be they didn’t even bother, but, you know, it is what it is.

January Johnson [00:53:16]:
So in Panama City beach, we’ve got over 100 public beach access points, some of which you can park at, most of which you cannot. But you could park a golf cart or a bicycle. We also have several parks, brick Seltzer park and the state parks and things like that, that you can, you know, for a car entry fee, it’s like $8 or something. You can go in and park there or, you know, in a lot of Panama City beach, especially lower grand Lagoon area, everything is walkable. So you can walk to a public beach access in a pretty quick amount of time.

Chuck Kramer [00:53:49]:
That’s a good point. And, you know, up in the destination, we have Henderson park, which is, I mean, people rave about it. And of course, we have top. Well, we have top sail park, but you can’t really park very close to the beach there. It’s still a hall from the parks parking lot.

Avery Carl [00:54:05]:
So, yeah, you got to take a tram. Okay, so let’s talk about insurance. So we went into this a little bit on the analysis, the common expenses call or common expenses episode we did. But let’s talk a little bit about how we kind of have to manage our insurance once we’re already up and running and changes that happen. And what do we do when that happens?

Luke Carl [00:54:31]:
It sucks.

Chuck Kramer [00:54:32]:
That’s a hot topic. I think the biggest issue we’ve been dealing with lately is insurance carriers discontinuing their business in Florida, usually after some storm is hit somewhere in the state. And then you’ve got tens of thousands of people all jockeying to get new coverage for the companies that remain. You know, insurance agents tend to get overwhelmed, they’re slow to respond, and your price is going to go up. Every time you change insurance down here, your price is going to go up pretty much unless you drop coverage. So.

Pete Appezatto [00:55:09]:
Yeah, yeah, it’s. It’s, you know, when looking at properties with clients, you know, staying in. So you can never gauge insurance rates, it’s always, you have to reach out for a quote. I’m not even going to venture to guess what it could cost, but some of the things that help is the age of the construction and the age of the roof. The newer the construction, the better your insurance premium is typically going to be because the building codes are more wind resistant. But that’s kind of the best kind of guidance I could give clients without kind of getting my way into what an insurance agent does. Because it’s the wild west.

January Johnson [00:55:49]:
The main thing I tell clients is to, whenever you see a cost to own document and they include the insurance rate, do not assume that will be your insurance rate. It will not.

Pete Appezatto [00:55:58]:
Absolutely.

January Johnson [00:55:58]:
I’ve had to argue with, with people about that. But it’s going to be a whole new policy. It’s just like taxes. You’re not going to pay the same tax rate you pay the other person paid the current owner. You’re not going to pay the same insurance rate at all. There may be flood insurance required. It depends on where the property is located. Just because we’re at the beach doesn’t mean you need flood insurance.

January Johnson [00:56:18]:
Some properties do, some properties don’t. And that’s specific to the property also.

Pete Appezatto [00:56:22]:
Yep.

Chuck Kramer [00:56:23]:
And that also gets into whether you’re required to have it or whether maybe you should have it. And that’s a decision that pretty much only you can make. We also seem to run into more here. And I’ve got experience in several states, but there’s a huge emphasis here on the age of the roof. And you know, what can be very frustrating is to look at your roof and go, hey, that’s only twelve years old. And your insurance company comes back and says it’s over ten. You know, here’s a big number that goes along with that. Or you can replace it and drop your insurance rate and you got to debate what’s the best thing to do.

Chuck Kramer [00:57:00]:
And you’re looking at a roof that’s twelve years old, guaranteed for 30, but the insurance company is saying no.

Pete Appezatto [00:57:05]:
Yeah, yeah. We have to differentiate between insurability of the roof and the age and the useful life that still may remain on the roof. So that’s kind of, it becomes an inspection issue, really. And it’s a touchy subject. And that’s one of the first questions I ask of listing agents when reaching out about a property is what’s the age of the roof? Because I want to know what we’re getting into from the beginning.

January Johnson [00:57:29]:
Even with tile roofs that might be able to last 30 or 40 or 50 years, that doesn’t matter because the insurance company is not going to write it if it’s 30, a 30 year old tile roof, they’re not going to write a policy on that.

Pete Appezatto [00:57:41]:
And some of the research I found out is they actually don’t like the tile roofs because they could fly off.

Avery Carl [00:57:46]:
I personally don’t like tile roofs because I don’t like the way they look. It looks very like Britney Spears house in 2005.

Luke Carl [00:57:54]:
Well, first of all, first of all, I agree, but how the hell you know what Britney Spears looked like in 2020?

Avery Carl [00:57:59]:
Because I was the right age to care about that.

Luke Carl [00:58:02]:
No, how she was living.

Avery Carl [00:58:07]:
Everybody bought Mediterranean houses back then and that was like the thing and it kind of looks like Olive Garden now. Anyway, I just don’t like Tyler.

Luke Carl [00:58:19]:
I don’t like Tyler. Google her address or something.

Avery Carl [00:58:22]:
I mean, no, if you follow her on instagram, pictures of her home. Mediterranean house. Yeah, it’s very like Olive garden y.

January Johnson [00:58:32]:
Well, she can afford to pay for a new roof, though, so we’re not worried.

Luke Carl [00:58:36]:
Well, her dad can. Well, here we go.

Avery Carl [00:58:38]:
Yeah. Anyway, so anyway, just, I don’t, I’m. The mediterranean thing bothers me, but that’s just my own personal opinion. I don’t like Mediterranean houses.

Chuck Kramer [00:58:46]:
So.

Luke Carl [00:58:47]:
I agree. I’m not a big fan of those roofs either. They look a little weird.

Pete Appezatto [00:58:50]:
Yeah.

Avery Carl [00:58:51]:
Anything else that we think that our listeners could benefit from hearing about they may or may not care about? Britney Spears used to have a condo in Destin.

Luke Carl [00:59:00]:
I mean, even if there is more to cover, it’s probably a good, good note to end on, say one last thing.

January Johnson [00:59:06]:
And that is because despite anything that we’ve said today, this is a very affordable beach market. I can’t believe that, you know, at least in Panama City beach and places around here that, you know, that we can have a home in as close proximity to the beach as you can for, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars. So, you know, you got to balance all that where, you know, you might go to another state and you can’t even get within 2 miles of the beach for under several million. So, you know, there’s balances to all that. So don’t let anything you said deter you just are trying to make sure we cover everything. But it’s the affordability still. Great.

Pete Appezatto [00:59:46]:
I have that conversation with my clients all the time. I’m used to going to the Jersey shore and the home price is there compared to the beauty of the area here. And as an investor, this is an eight month market as opposed to the Jersey shore, which is three months. Not many people do short term rentals as a business at the Jersey shore, but the prices are still higher than they are here and the beaches here are just more beautiful. I just don’t see the comparison at all.

Luke Carl [01:00:10]:
So hold on. I don’t want to think that you can get into destin for a few hundred grand. That’s not.

Pete Appezatto [01:00:16]:
No, no, no.

January Johnson [01:00:16]:
I said Panama City beach.

Pete Appezatto [01:00:19]:
Yeah, no, but even for a few.

January Johnson [01:00:22]:
Hundred grand you can maybe a condo, Honda.

Avery Carl [01:00:25]:
You can. Yeah, yeah.

Luke Carl [01:00:27]:
What was I going to say? Oh, the pool heater thing. You’re going to need a pool heater today. They’re super techie. You can get it connected right to your phone, turn it on and off from your phone. Don’t worry about that. I don’t want to spend too much time on that. You’re going to need a pool heater.

Avery Carl [01:00:40]:
All right, well guys, if you want to buy a property for a few hundred dollar, a few hundred thousand dollars.

Luke Carl [01:00:48]:
On the Emerald coast.

Avery Carl [01:00:51]:
Luke, stop scaring everybody. You can get condo for a few hundred under promise.

Pete Appezatto [01:00:57]:
Yes you can.

Avery Carl [01:00:58]:
Okay. So anyway if you would like to buy a property with us, which Luke has made really unattractive by his comments that he continues, then email us at agents at the short termshop.com. or if you just have more questions you can come to our open office hours every Thursday on Zoom. You can sign up for those@strquestions.com and you can join our Facebook group. It’s called short term rental, long term wealth. Same as my book. Thanks so much guys. We’ll catch you next time.