You lucky you bill so low. Are you sure so low? That not common for new building in Palermo.
Congrats
@Johnny the place looks awesome. Amazing how much furniture and interior design makes a difference. Most airbnbs I see listed in BA have the bare bone minimum w Ikea looking furniture. Yours is clearly high end. As expensive as it was it seems to be offset by the premium you can charge, so a worthwhile investment.
Thank you
@FuturoBA. I think you also bought a place not too far from mine. How are your rentals going? I agree about spending the money to get it higher end. I own a few rental apartments and I have been able to get more money with nicer furniture and a good mattress. The biggest factor is that I get a lot of repeat guests that come back because it is nicer than most others. I was surprised there isn't many things readily available at the high end. I either had to wait to get it shipped there or they had to make it. My sofa bed took a while to make. So did the black out curtains which had to get custom made.
Indeed, congrats Johnny! Really great to see photos of a GyD project, makes me excited about the next one.
Thank you
@CraigM! Yes I am excited when the next property in Palermo Hollywood finishes. I think it should be similar but I bought a 2 bedroom apartment in that building. Mike told me you bought a 3 bedroom in that building so I'm jealous. We will all have to celebrate once that building is done. I'm told that 5 of us bought in that new building.
This was my experience renting a few Airbnbs in BA. It is fair to say most owners in BA on Airbnb spend very little furnishing their place. I had to leave the first Airbnb I had because the bed was too uncomfortable. The place didn't even have a coffee maker either. I did find a nice Airbnb in Recoleta and it was owned by an American. I think foreigners probably furnish and spend more money vs. locals.
That is the thing I hate about Airbnbs and mostly why I have rented hotels because a nice hotel always has decent mattresses. In BA, I rented a really high end Airbnb with
@earlyretirement and it was great. Very nice furniture except the mattresses were very cheap and hard as a rock. My back hurt for a while after that.
90% of all the Airbnbs in BA are dumpy with terrible furniture and terrible mattresses. I rented an apartment on a long term lease but I had to change the mattress. Felt like sleeping on bricks. Most don't want to make the investment. Also what is with owners just having Queen beds and not King. Most Airbnbs don't have king size beds. That alone probably helps with some guests.
I noticed the same thing. Mike told me that most rental guests that are couples want a King bed but the price for a King vs. a Queen really jumps up so most people just get a Queen. Or there might not be much room for beds in the small bedrooms in BA. My bedroom wasn't huge but I took BuysellBA's advice to put in a King bed even though it took up a good portion of the room. And so far that was great advice because people were looking for a King bed. It seems like the key in BA is to do things that other owners aren't doing and you will have less competition that way.
You did very good Johnny. Congratulations for you. You apartment turned out beautiful. You lucky you bill so low. Are you sure so low? That not common for new building in Palermo.
Thank you
@Avocado! It did turn out great and I am happy. Originally I was going to buy with a building with a pool, gym and a bunch of amenities but I was told that those buildings have high HOA bills. For my first purchase, I just wanted something low maintenance with low fees.
I was surprised it was so low but you can see my actual bill below for January. The originally estimated it would be around $100 USD per month. The bill was 71,172 pesos which was about $59 dollars. I'm told it should go up as more and more owners move in. A lot of the units in the building are short-term rentals.
@earlyretirement bought a few for himself and about 6 for other investors. They told me that water is included in the HOA bill but all the owners will get pro-rated amounts based on the size of their units. So maybe it will go up a little but they told me it should stay under $100 dollars a month.
Stunning apartment
@Johnny. Good location.
This makes me very angry because my condo fee was affordable when I bought it but now it has increased beyond what I am comfortable with. I have rented out my property now and leaving BA. The new tenant will have to pay that bill. When I bought my apartment 20 years ago the monthly bill was $60 a month. Now I am paying almost $400 a month including my ABL bill.
Salaries have not gone up by that amount over the years! Most of this increase has been since Milei started! It was stable before that. Getting rid of the subsidies just killed expenses. Just terrible.
Sorry to hear your condo fees jumped up so much. But are you really trying to compare what bills were 20 years ago?? If I gave examples of everything I am paying in the USA that have jumped up from 20 years ago I would have an endless list.
I do feel for those in BA who are having to deal with this. I wouldn't want to pay those kind of monthly fees for an apartment. But even still, my friend has an apartment like mine in downtown San Diego and he pays about $900 a month hoa fees so mine are about 8 X less expensive. He does have a full time doorman around the clock and mine leaves at 6 PM.
