Welcome to another Ask Me Anything (Ask Us Anything?) episode! Each week we’ll answer your questions on STR, real estate, OTAs, and everything in between.

Lindsey asks:

Our most recent STR purchase came with an old church built on the property. We’ve been booking it as a wedding venue, but if we wanted to turn it into its own rental unit, what’s the best setup for this? Would it be a draw as a unique STR listing?

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Thanks for Visiting is produced by Crate Media.

Mentioned in this episode:

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[00:00:05] You are listening to the Thanks for Visiting Podcast. We believe hosting with heart is at the core of every short-term rental. With Annette's background in business operation--

[00:00:14] And Sarah's extensive hospitality management and interior design experience, we have welcomed thousands of guests from over 30 countries, earning us over $1,000,000 and garnering us thousands of five-star reviews.

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[00:01:01] Hey, listeners, welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:01:05] I'm Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:01:07] Thanks for Visiting.

[00:01:08] We have an AMA episode for you today, that's Ask Us Anything, Ask Me Anything. If you head to thanksforvisiting.me, in the upper right-hand corner is a red button and it says Ask TFV. And this is where you record your question. And if we select it, we will air it here on the episode and answer it for you for all to hear. It's a really great way to see what your fellow hosts are thinking and what their challenges are.

[00:01:32] And by the way, if you haven't joined our Hosting Business Mastery method, we do this all day, every day inside our private Facebook group. So if you're waiting around for Mondays, jump on the clue bus, come on with us. These questions are being answered daily. We do four calls a month, an hour long, where we are workshopping all of these. Imagine just question after question after question from hosts from all over the country that have so much experience. So if you enjoy this episode, you will definitely want to join us inside our Hosting Business Mastery method, and we have a link to that in the show notes. But Sarah, what's today's question?

[00:02:08] Okay. So today we have a question from Lindsey.

[00:02:11] Hi, Annette and Sarah. I love listening to your podcast. My name is Lindsey Bamber. My husband and I purchased a historic home located in our small town in southeast Tennessee in 2017. The house came with a church that sat next door to the property. The church was built in 1887. Since the church can't really be bought or sold, we actually purchased the house and it came with the church. We renovated the house and have been using it as a short-term rental. The church we've been using as a wedding venue for the past four years. I found that renting a wedding venue is extremely time-consuming and weekend centric and I love running the short-term rental. My question is, if I convert the chapel into a short-term rental, what's the most sought-after setup? The house that we rent next door is a small cottage that has three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The chapel is over 3,000 square feet. So my question is what layout would lend me the most return on investment? Three master suites with a large kitchen dining room, living room? I would love to hear your thoughts on that. I'm also wondering if a converted church would be a draw for people as an interesting short-term rental or if it's been overdone. Thank you so much in advance.

[00:03:35] Such a good question, Lindsey. Congratulations on what a unique and fun purchase.

[00:03:43] And listeners, she's not joking when she talks about weddings. I was just talking about our Hosting Business Mastery membership and we have a lot of people in there that do cater to brides and to weddings and it is--

[00:03:53] A full-time job alone.

[00:03:56] But listen, they are busy, so if it's something you're interested in, I think you too could have a full plate. But let's talk about the church. I do not think it's overdone. I think anything that's well done is never overdone. People are always going to seek an amazing space with wonderful hospitality, which it sounds like you and your husband provide. I would look at what your area has to offer when it comes to the build-out. Is there something specific that it seems like your area is missing? Sarah and I do love a bedroom bathroom en suite. If you can do that all day long, we do think that could help you with the bookings. But Sarah, what do you have to say about the church?

[00:04:34] Well, I didn't catch the first time I listened to this. It sounds like she's willing to renovate the interior to be more of an overnight stay accommodation, which makes sense since it was used for weddings before. And I don't know if you listeners know this, but that's what my husband does. He takes existing properties, redesigns them, and does the full architectural drawings for them. So I hear him talking with his business partners and designers all the time about this. And then, of course, Annette and I hear from not only our own properties, but the people that are inside of our HBM or Hosting Business Master group and en suites are awesome. So if you can have a bathroom attached to bedrooms, it's awesome, king-sized beds if you have the space for it, which sounds like you might with 3,000 square feet. Also, obviously, Airbnb is still a major lead generator for us and you have to look at what they highlight as search engine options for finding listings. And one of those things still is private places to work from home. So if you have a flex space inside of the church where someone could have their work-from-home setup, maybe their friends are in the living room playing wherever. Another big draw and it's also a highlighted feature on Airbnb is a game room situation. So if you could offer air hockey, basketball game, foosball, those sorts of things.

[00:05:54] And think about this too. Is there a way that you could offer both of the homes together for a larger family outing? I don't know how close the cottage and the church-- what the juxtaposition of them on your land is, but you could take a look at again, maybe you could have both of those properties offered together. And I don't know how much land you have, but maybe you could build other cottages on the land and maybe the church is the main meeting area. So I think let your imagination run wild. I don't know what your budget is. So keep that in mind. But I don't think the church is overdone. I would go out there, scour the interwebs, see what other people are doing, and just give it your best shot. Start to make some plans around it and see what's lacking in your area.

[00:06:45] And Lindsey, I have questions for you, too. Does the church have a mezzanine? Because if it does, that could be a unique space for kiddos to hang out and watch TV if you were to keep that and then still have the bedrooms and bathrooms on that main floor. We have a property that also has a loft space, a mezzanine-type situation. And the tricky thing with that though, is it's open to other living areas. And so early mornings, late nights, it is tough for people to sleep up there. So maybe that's your flex space or that's your game room or that's where the kids hang out and watch TV and the adults or elsewhere. But you really want to think about when anyone's renovating a space, an existing space, think about how the guests are going to move throughout that space not only during the day, during dinnertime, lunchtime, breakfast, early in the morning, late at night, coming in and out from the hot tub or pool or any sort of amenity that you have outside where that noise is going to come from, who's going to enjoy that space, how can they live together harmoniously?

[00:07:38] And then I just thought of this. If it is a church and if they weren't allowed to sell it to you the first time as a church, I would just be careful what the resale looks like. Are you able to resell it as a residential property? I don't know how that goes, what that looks like. I'd hate for you to pour a ton of money into this and then not be able to add it into the resell. Do you have any idea about that, Sarah? What happens to a church once it's converted? If it's converted, can it then be sold? I don't know the laws about that.

[00:08:08] I don't either. But I also don't know how attractive that makes her short-term rental actual property look. So it may not even be like an added quote-unquote "value," but it could get it sold faster, especially if she sells it as an operating short-term rental.

[00:08:21] Well, I'm just saying, if the church wasn't a part of the sale the first time, is she allowed the add it in the next time?

[00:08:28] It's just like how she bought it, where it just came with the church.

[00:08:31] So she could just say--

[00:08:32] It just comes with--

[00:08:33] And her land would be x, y, z more expensive.

[00:08:35] Correct. Or it is the market value price because you can't let that affect the price. But it makes her other property more attractive because it comes with this bonus. I don't know.

[00:08:45] Yeah, good question. I don't know either.

[00:08:46] I feel not educated as the realtor that I am, but I don't do those sorts of thing. So listeners, if you know the answer to that church question, let us know so we can share it with Lindsey on our Instagram. But that's what we do with these AMA episodes. You send them in, we give it the best shot. Sometimes we'll even bring experts in to answer the questions if we feel like we're not the most qualified expert to share our opinion on them. But regardless, it's a great conversation starter so that you can then go into your own networks, talk about these topics and just be a better host all around. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:09:17] I'm Annette Grant, and together we are--

[00:09:19] Thanks for Visiting.