Cold open from Zapotlanejo, Mexico

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Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb life, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

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Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive. This is Stevie Stacks coming at you from Sapot Lanejo, Mexico. So I'm on our we're on our vacation still. Me and the wife and kiddos over here in um Zapotlaneo, which is close to Guadalajara. Oh, by the way, before I get into it, this is Live Led Thrive, your favorite short-term, mid-term, long-term pad split podcast in the world. And um, like I said, coming at you from Mexico because we are um on our vacation, our Christmaslash um New Year's vacation. And um, yeah, man, I just we're gonna jump into it. I I wanted to record a cast while I'm here. Pardon the video quality. I brought a speaker though. I brought a good speaker, if you can see right here, my blue snowball, and it's sitting on a coffee cup because I don't have to stand for it, but at least we're gonna have good audio. The video um is okay, a little grainy. He can see me, it don't matter, whatever. It's all about the words, right? So, um, like I said, we're coming at you from Mexico on our vacation, and I thought I'd drop an episode since it is the end of the year, it is um December 31st, and everybody's doing their year-end uh podcasts, I guess. So I thought I'd drop one before the year ended, and uh Micah, I believe he dropped one today as well. So it's gonna be a cool little you know wrap-up of what how the years went so far and what we foresee for the next year. So this one's just just me on this one, and Micah has

Three house purchases: one DSCR, two seller-financed

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is like I said, is dropping one too. Let me put this in focus mode so I won't get no interruptions. Um, yeah, let's jump into it. So um I guess I'd like to start by saying this year I was able to buy three houses, and you know, thank goodness. And so I was able to do so. I bought a house in Grand Prairie with a swimming pool, I bought a house in um North Mission Hills, and I bought a house in um where is it at? Ulysses. So I was able to buy, and two of those I bought um seller finance. So I was able to to make a deal with the owners of the house to buy it directly through them, which is cool. And um the first house I bought, you know, traditional, which I'm trying to get away from. I don't want to go through banks anymore. I don't want to do the traditional buying. Actually, it's a DSCR loan, but still it it's it's DSCRs used to be so simple, and um and the rates used to be way higher than conventional loans, like through a bank. But what's happening, the rates are pretty much the same now, DSCR and bank loans, but they're getting more strict, like like banks, you know, like you know, used to be pretty easy. Is the house gonna profit? And then we're gonna loan, we're gonna loan you the money to buy that house. That's a DSCR, you know, business type loan. Now they're asking for all kinds of information about your business, about your personal finances, about the houses you own. They want to see numbers since it is getting more, I guess, competitive, and they want to be sure to uh to cover themselves as the um housing market gets a little murkier, right? So, anyways, so I bought the first house this year as a DSCR type loan and um had to put 20% down, which is also sucks about DSCR. But the other two houses I put like I believe about 6% down on one of them and 10% down on the others, and they were they were a bit uh cheaper price, but I was able to get those um seller finance and I didn't have to deal with all the BS of going through um a conventional loan or a DSCR loan as they are nowadays, and plus I didn't have to put a 20% down payment, which is a big chunk of change, you know. 20% on a $300,000 house comes out to about what $70,000 after it's all said and done. So yeah, let's try to keep the money in our pockets and try to accumulate assets and then try to get them to profit. And I will say, like, um all three of those houses are Airbnbs slash corporate. Um one of them, uh, my first the first one, the the Grand Perry house with the pool, I'm rinsing it out to um somebody that's doing the doing Airbnb.

Landlord arbitrage model and diversifying income streams

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So I'm doing I'm the landlord of an arbitrage, which is which is cool. You know, I have a lot of different tools in my tool belt now. So that's one of the things I'm looking to explore this year, is being able to, you know, get a house that can that is able to short-term and midterm rental, um, and should cash flow good, and then I could just um rent it out, you know, make a little profit on it as uh as an arbitrage to someone who's gonna who's gonna do a good job and and Airbnb it and and furnish it and and do all that stuff. So that's um it's a different it's a different um stream of income if I'm thinking of all the different types of stream of income I have, because I don't have to put all the money in to furnish a place, you know. To furnish a house and to do a decent job, I mean you're looking at depending on how much you want to spend, you can spend a lot, but you can spend around twenty thousand dollars to um to get a house up and running for Airbnb and it's gonna rent well. So I'm looking at ways to just pick up properties for as little down as possible and and then uh make a profit on them immediately and then move on to the next one. Where at but I'm also I also still do arbitrage myself. I still rent houses to do short-term rentals and midterm rentals out of and furnish them myself. And I still do um uh what's it called?

Two cash-out refis and converting houses to PadSplit

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I'm still buying houses to do well now. I'm doing pad splits too, as I mentioned this year. So so as the year in review, I'll say, you know, I bought three houses and uh I did two cash out refines out of two of my houses that I've had for a while, and I pulled a lot of money out. Um, the first chunk of money I used to buy these last three houses, but this chunk of money that I pulled out on the second cash out refi, I'm looking to um I'm holding on to it for a little bit because I could have, I mean, there was a couple houses I was interested in, but again, I didn't want to put 20%, I didn't want to re uh deplete my funds. I like I like sitting on a bunch of cash for a little bit and looking for great opportunities instead of um just okay opportunities, you know. But the thing is, um so I got the three houses, I did two cash eye refines. I'm looking to do you know one or two more cash eye refines uh to pull some money out. Um I'll say this I converted two houses, two of two houses this year, which were the actually two houses that I'm doing the pad split in. I converted them into pad splits. So I pulled money out of those two houses, which of course the um the monthly fee went up, uh the monthly mortgage went up on those, right? But I'm able to I was able to use some of the money to try to convert those into pad splits and make them from three uh one of the houses was a four-bedroom, two-bath. I converted that one to a six-bedroom, two-bath house and turned it into a pad split. And then the other house was a three-bedroom, one and a half bath, and I was able to convert that into a six-bedroom, two-bath house, and um, and turn that into a pad split as well. So that's a new thing I'm doing. This, you know, I'm uh I told myself might as well try. Might as well try new things. And the cool thing about pad split uh uh these two houses, well, the first house is not in the best area, but it's been being a pretty good uh pad split. And um and it it's a different, it's a different animal. Like I said, it's it's people, you know, lower income people that are just you know have a job, uh a lot of them don't have cars, they just need a place to stay for cheap monthly, around 700 bucks a month. But um so the the cool thing about the Pad Split is and I haven't gotten to this point yet, but if I ever did have to do a um uh an eviction, which I'm getting a little bit

PadSplit eviction risk spread across six income streams

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less scared after I've done a couple evictions already, I'm getting a little bit less scared of the whole of E-word. I was always so terrified. And that's what you know, anybody getting into um uh real estate, oh, the eviction, oh the squatters, oh, this and that. But once you've been through a few of them, you're like, well, okay, that's part of the business, you know. But the cool thing about PadSplit is if you have us, if you're writing out six bedrooms out of a house and one person decides to stop paying and won't leave, okay, you start the eviction process on one person and then you get them out of there, but you're still making five streams of income from that one house, so it's not like you're making zero, you know what I'm saying? So I do like that about PadSplit. Um one thing I'm conflicted about is PASPLIT does well in you know C class neighborhoods. And although I can I can pick up those houses, is that best for my portfolio in the long run if I'm picking up houses that are C class instead of looking for clap, you know, A and B class houses? Um, but it's good profit-wise if I could pick them up cheap enough and make a you know and make a monthly cash flow, that's pretty good on a on a C class house. But in the long run, is that neighborhood gonna go from a C to a B or A or is it gonna go from a C to F? You know, so that's the only thing if you're looking long run. Now, if I'm looking to stabilize a pad split, that's gonna be profitable, you know, and then my let's say my mortgage is $2,000 a month, and I'm making like four or five thousand dollars a month as a pad split, that's pretty valuable asset, I think. And I could sell that to another person who's looking to do pad split that wants that cash flow. So in that sense, as reselling it as a pad split, that might be a thing in the future, so it might be worth something in that sense. But as far as just you know, thinking of you know, selling that house in the future um or pulling cash out, it might be a tough call because it's not in the best area. But, anyways, I'm learning all that stuff right now. I just wanted to try different things. So I like I said, I bought three houses this year. Um, all three of them are corporate Airbnb. One of them is uh I'm renting out to our as an arbitrage to someone else, and then um and I converted two of my houses into pad splits. Uh I just I just um I'm learning I'm learning every day, I'm learning every year. Um I've gotten rid of some bad properties, you know. I mean you gotta you gotta tend the garden, as they say. So I've gotten rid of some properties, I picked up other properties. Another thing is I've I've sold off two uh houses that we were doing arbitrage out of. And I just saw an opportunity. Um, someone else was asking to pick up some houses, so I went ahead and and sold them off to them, which is uh you know something you gotta another another stream of income I'm looking at is picking up houses that make good arbitrage and renting them out, furnishing them, getting them all up and ready, and selling them for a profit to other people who want to arbitrage. So that's a new thing that I'm looking at. Um, what else? Oh, yeah, I mentioned that I have the two-pad splits that I converted two houses into pad splits and turned them into

First PadSplit conversion: the old Arlington house-hack

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six-bedroom, two-bath houses, and those are going pretty good. Um, I will say this. Um, so the first house, it's actually the first house I used to live in. So we're going back to the Pat B hole. Um uh, what's it called? Um can't even think. See, like the computer like rebooted a couple times, so I like it threw me off my game. I was rolling pretty good. But, anyways, so the the first house that I turned into a past bed, it was a four-bed and two-bath house in Arlington that we used to live at. That was my very first house back in the day. And it was um I I kept it, you know, when I did my house hacky thing, I jumped out of that house, turned it into a rental, bought the next house, put three percent down. Because if you move into a house, you only have to put three percent down. Whereas if you buy a house to be uh a rental house, you have to put 20% down. So that's how I a mentor back in the day told me, no, you just hop into the next one, hop into the next one, you only have to put three percent down every time. And so I did that. So the the for the um I kept my first house, and it was in, like I said, in the C class area, and I already went through like two eviction processes in that house because it's not the best area, and I had people that well, the first tenants paid for a while and then they stopped paying and uh had to get them out. Luckily, I didn't have to do an eviction, but I just warned them, gave them a 10 days notice, and they left. But the second, the second um tenants at that house, they went they um I had to evict them. They were I think they're professional squatters, so they I've I've seen now, I mean afterwards I see their record, and they've been evicted out of some other places too. So they um and they use uh uh fake identities now. That's another thing with evictions you gotta watch out for. You need to look at all their identification if they're gonna get into one of your houses long term. I hate long term, I don't want to rent any of my houses long term. I have one house that I own that I'm still renting out long term, but she's been there forever for years. She's she lived there long, way longer than I lived at that house. Like I said, it's one of my house hacks. So um she um yeah, she's a great tenant, she pays on the first, all that stuff. She's she's uh takes care of the house, everything. So that's my last long-term tenant. I hate long-term tenants. I mean, not that you know, I'm sure there's good ones. I hate the long-term tenant situation where they get all these rights where they can squat in your house and not leave, and you have to kick them out and pay thousands of dollars and lose thousands of dollars of unpaid rent.

Why mid-term corporate rentals beat long-term tenants

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So, my favorite, of course, is short-term rentals and and midterm rentals, because uh short-term rentals, you know, they're they're in and out, they're gone, um, and you make pretty good spread. The midterm rentals is my absolute favorite, I would say, because you get a corporate guest into a house and they're there around three months to six months, and they're paying a very high premium because it's insurance companies we deal with that that house these people, and they're paying like you know, six thousand dollars a month at a house that you got, whereas your mortgage or your arbitrage might be around two thousand to two thousand five hundred a month. And um, so that's it's a pretty good spread. It's but the um the third thing that like I said, I'm trying is the pad split. And of course, that's come with a lot of challenges and learning situations, which which um which are which are part of the whole deal. But as I mentioned earlier, I don't know if it got cut out of the the podcast, but um when you if you did, if I did have to come up, and so far it's been okay, because here's the thing a lot of these people, you know, this is their last shot at housing because they've either you know couldn't afford an apartment anymore, or they've been priced out of the market for apartments, or they got stuff on the record where they couldn't get an apartment, or they have maybe have an eviction, you know, from a house or apartment. And PadSplit is kind of like their last resort. If if they lose their padsplit privileges, then they really can't rent anywhere. So so I would say um the people that I've given notice to to leave a pad split because it wasn't working out, you know, they weren't the best fit at that house, um, they've left. They've left, um, and they didn't try to squat or they didn't try to have me a victim because they know if that happens, if they if they go have to go through an eviction or have to kick them out of a house, they refuse to leave, Pasplitz's gonna kick them off the platform. And Pasplit's the biggest platform for um what's it called? Um um renting by the room, you know, affordable housing, renting by the room, Pasplit's the biggest. There's some others, I think, but but they're act they're absolutely the biggest. They're gonna be the bit the next big thing, they're gonna be the next big like Airbnb IPO type deal because a lot of people can't afford places, and then Pasplit's providing um affordable housing. Mark Cuban is a huge investor into Pasplit, you know, the Dallas Mavericks owner, uh co-owner, and um and um what's it called? Shark Tank guy. Everybody knows Mark Cuban, I believe. But he's he believes in Pasplit big time. So, anyways, uh I tried, I'm you know, I tried my hand at two Pasplits this year. I got I got a handyman that made me some rooms that you know and it's I'll go back to this because I'm doing my year-end review and I'm trying to teach, you know, I like teaching

Cost segregation timing: appraise BEFORE adding bedrooms

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people. This is what this show is all about. If you do want to try Pasplit, hit me up, I'll give you some pointers. Um there's there's some podcasts out there, of course. But one of the one of the main things in um real estate investing, right? And I and I'm not talking about arbitrage because I'm talking about buying houses. But one of the main things is being able to um, let's say renovate a house or fix it up, and then uh well you buy for of course you buy something, right? Try to put as little down as possible. That's what I'm preaching. Um, hopefully owner finance, other finance, whatever. And then you and you you kind of you know upgrade it. You can do some paint and floors and stuff like that, upgrade it a little bit, and you want to pull money out if you can, right? You want to pull your money back out so you can use it again for the next house. That's that's you know, the the snowball effect, the the velocity of money, as they say. So that's what you want to do if you want to keep growing your real estate game. Um, but I will say this this is important if you're a pad splitter, if you want to go that direction. Go in if you get a house, you know, go in there, do your thing, get your handyman or do it yourself. Um, paint, get get the fresh paint on there, get the fresh floors, um, add, turn that half bathroom into a full bathroom or add another bathroom, whatever you gotta do. Do all that stuff first, but don't put any walls up yet. Don't add, don't start adding bedrooms, don't take change it from a three-bedroom or a four-bedroom into a six or seven bedroom just yet, right? Go in there, you know, improve what you gotta improve, and then get the go in there and get the reappraisal, right? To do a cash out refi, and then um pull your money out accordingly. Now, after they do the appraisal and and they let's say you bought it for 200,000, now it's worth 300,000, you're able to pull 80,000 bucks out, or you know, whatever, 60, 70,000 bucks out. You're able to pull that back out, which is you know, way more than your down payment, or maybe whatever, pull your whole down payment back out, however, you however you play it, you know what I'm saying? But you wanna you want to get the reappraisal before you put the new walls up and start making new bedrooms because what I've come across in that that one situation is you get an appraise, appraisers aren't totally hip to passpit yet. So they go in there and they see a house that's a six-bedroom house or a seven-bedroom house and 1500 square foot house, right? Or or an 1800 square foot house, they don't know how to appraise that. It isn't that it doesn't it doesn't appraise correctly because there's no comps for that in that neighborhood. All the name all the houses in the neighborhood are three bedrooms, maybe four bedroom houses. So they can't comp it against those other houses. And they might actually do something. What happened to me? They they checkmarked a box that said something like a um unique home or strange home, strange setup. I don't know. It was like a thing that they check marked where I got the the cash out reef I didn't hide because it was a strange, it was a different house, and they weren't used to it. And so um luckily I was able to find another appraiser to appraise it for a decent price, and I was able to pull a nice chunk of money out of that house. Um, but now you know I learned my lesson. Don't don't convert it into a six-bedroom or seven-bedroom or eight-bedroom, whatever house, until until it's re-appraised for a cash out refi. As soon as that appraiser gets his appraisal, you pull your money out, then go and go ahead and um and get and start putting them walls up. And I'll say it like this too. You know, you want your handyman to go in there, he can add a wind, because every room has to have a window and a door, right? Two two uh exit routes, a window and a door in each room. So um you can go in there and have them put the windows where you know a room's gonna be, right? And you could have them put the vents where you know a room's gonna be as well. So he can have the vents and he can have the um the window, everything all ready to go for for a bedroom. Just don't put them damn walls up yet. Because once you put those walls up and you add more bedrooms, it screws the whole appraisal process up. So yeah, that was just a long rant on something that's very important. If you want to keep your velocity of money going, you know, get a house, fix it up, pull money back out, get another house, fix it up, pull money back out, keep it going, keep it going. And it's something I learned the hard way because it took forever to get that house um appraised and and cash out refined because it was just a it was a unique house that appraisers haven't seen before. I think it's gonna get more common. There's gonna be actually um pad split cash out refines in the future. Like I said, this thing this Is going to be big. And I'm learning the hard way. I've been through a couple of um unique tenants, and I've and luckily, like I said, they left on their own accord. I I I gave them the notice to leave and they left. No big deal. But uh um, but like I said earlier, if I did come across the situation and a lot of them, this is their last chance to keep to get housing, so they don't want to mess up their PASCLIT, right? But if I do come across uh someone that won't leave, then hey, that's one bedroom out of six bedrooms, right? That someone's not leaving and I gotta evict, or that's one bedroom out of seven bedrooms. So I'm looking to uh get houses. I'm probably I'm probably my next PASCLIT is gonna be like seven bedrooms because um six bedrooms are cool, you know. You make around $4,000 a month on a house, which is which is good. Um but I mean I want to make closer to $5,000 a month on a house if I'm gonna do PADSClit just to make it

100% bonus depreciation and the velocity of money

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worth this worth the while, right? Um, so that being said, uh year-in review, keep on going. Let me take a sip of coffee while I'm looking at my notes. Oh, yeah, on the three houses I bought, I'm doing cross-segregation studies because we're getting the 100% bonus depreciation this year. So I'm looking uh to do cross, you know, cross-segregation studies on these. Is it cross? I always call it cross, but it's cost segregation studies. Anyways, um, we've we talked about a lot that a lot on the show. Real quick, we recap is you know, you you get to write off depreciation on your on your rental houses, right? On your houses, you get to write off depreciation. Now, if it's um if it's uh what's it called? Regular depreciation you're doing, you get to write off 27 and a half years, you get to write off uh the cost that you pay for the house. But what a cost segregation study does is it lets you take off like most of that depreciation on the first year. So if you bought a house for 300 grand, uh just to make the numbers simple, I know you can't um let's say 50,000 of that was land, so you can't write off land. Land doesn't depreciate, apparently, to the to the government. Um, so $250,000 that you spend on the house, you get to write that off over 27 and a half years. Now, what um a cost segregation study is, it it actually beefs up how much depreciation you could take. So that 250 grand, whatever, they can actually make it more like 350 grand you can write off, and then you write off the bulk of that in in year one. Yeah, and then you still get to write-off sum every year after that. But what that does, um, it keeps your taxes, uh, your tax burden really low or non-existent, and plus you get a refund and you can use that money to buy more houses each year. So definitely take care of take advantage of that. I'm doing three houses this year, and I look to buy use that money that I save and the money that I get back on my taxes to purchase more properties next year. Like I said, the velocity of money. Um what else? Uh look to buy more houses, sell their finances subject to, and I mentioned that earlier in the show if it didn't get cut out. But I'm just I'm just first of all, sick of dealing with banks. I don't want to deal with banks anymore. And DSCR is getting a lot more uh strict, getting a lot more uh harder to close DSCR loans than they have been in the past, right? They want 20, 25% down as well, just like a bank, which I want to keep my money in my pocket. I want to stack my cash, I don't want to be blowing it all on a down payment to a house. I don't want to spend $50,000, $70,000 to buy a house when I can just spend you know $10,000 to $20,000 to buy a house or less. Um, so yeah, that's what I'm looking uh, I guess my goal would be this coming up year. I can buy 10 houses. And I think I can I know I'm gonna accomplish that. I mean, I bought three this past year, so as I'm getting as the snowball effects going, I'm gonna be able to buy 10 houses the coming year and hopefully more after

2026 goal: ten seller-financed acquisitions

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that. Um and then, you know, the the the cool thing is I have different tools in my tool belt. If it makes a sense to do a long-term rental, which I don't want to do long-term rentals, like I said, to one one person or one family, then you know I'll do that, but I don't, I don't, that one I don't want to do anymore. Now, if it makes sense as an Airbnb and corporate, I'm gonna definitely do that. And if it makes sense as a passplit, I'm gonna definitely do that. So it's like I can I can look at a a class, B class, C class houses because they can all make sense in different ways. Um, I don't just have one way of buying a house, you know. Uh it's like um building a football team, right? You can't just hire, you can't just draft all quarterbacks, you can't just draft all um you know defensive ends. You have to you have to have different types of players to do to build a good team, and that's what I see my uh portfolio is like a football team I'm building. You know, I got different you know, class A properties, class B properties, class C properties, might get into multifamily. That's another thing. I've never done that, but that's another thing since I've I'm I'm pretty much to me having a pad split with six bedrooms you're writing out to six different people, that's kind of like a multifamily. It's kind of like a a little apartment, right? Or seven bedrooms or eight bedrooms. So um I don't know if pad splits kind of like filling in that multifamily void that I'm that I'm doing, but it it kind of is. Um another thing, I'm never looking to buy in an HOA again. Um I I own uh a couple probably condos that have HOAs. I don't like that. Oh, yeah, I do have uh so I mentioned I had one long-term tenant. I actually have two long-term tenants. One is out of a condo, like a three-bedroom, three-bath condo that I have that I bought for super cheap a few years ago. So that was an opportunity. I bought it for 90 grand, and um it's worth like eh, let's say 170 grand, you know, at the peak of the real estate thing, it was probably worth like over 200 grand, but now it's prices have come down a little bit, especially for condos, but I still have that condo. I sold another condo I bought for like um 85 grand on seller financing. My payment was super low, like 330 bucks a month. Um, but I bought that one. That was my first donor finance deal, but I ended up selling that one. It's in the same complex, it's not the best complex kind of ghetto. Now, my three-bedroom, three-bath condo in that complex is I've had the same tenants since day one, and they're great, they take great care of it and they love living there. So I'm I'm cool with that. I'm looking to cash out refi, I'll pull my money out of that one, use it to buy a house. So, what I'm looking for is houses, you know, in decent areas. I'm not afraid to go to C class because, like I said, the passplit money is really good. Um, but I do still want to buy A class and B class properties as well, when possible. Owner finance, low money down, all that fun stuff. Um, I'm here in Mexico. I I'll say that like staying in a hotel, and I know we're the Airbnb guys. We started off as the Airbnb guys, but there's this really, really nice hotel that we get to rent for a really good price here in Mexico.

Hotel stay observations and static pricing in Mexico

SPEAKER_00 29:12

And and and it's nice, you know, it's nice getting that hotel treatment, right? And um, and it's just a nice room. The thing is, it's now it's me, my wife, and and our three kids together, so that's that's five of us, right? And it's getting um hotel rooms, it's cool, it's a decent size, but it's like getting a little bit tight in there, right? But we still it's still it's still do it's still doable, and it's still got a big lobby, it's got a you know, a pool on the on the top. Um, it's got a lot of cool stuff here. They got like breakfast in the mornings and everything, and they got a place for me I could do a podcast if I want to. And um, no, but it's what I like about the hotels, it's it's cool coming home to a freshly cleaned room every day. That's that's a cool experience that you don't get an Airbnb because by day two, day three, you had an Airbnb, and you got a whole mess of kids. Uh, you got a whole mess of a house to come back to every day. So it it loses its shine quite quite quickly if you don't have that everyday cleaning like a hotel does. And um, you know, you give them a little tip and stuff like that, and they keep your room clean. It's that that's really a unique hotel experience. I know I guess people can offer that at Airbnbs, but um logistically that would be pretty hard, right? Uh, to have your cleaner go to a house every single day and clean it, uh, especially a house. But, anyways, I mean it could be it could be something you offer, and um, I don't know if people would pay it because at hotels they expect their room to be cleaned for free every day, even if they're only paying 50 bucks a day at a hotel, they want it freshly cleaned every single day, which is like I said, unique. Um, so that's pretty cool. Um, what I what I did notice, like at this particular hotel, and it's in the small town, uh well, it's like a it's like a miniature look. So you got Guadalajara over here, which is the big city, right? And downtown Guadalajara, uh, el Centro, they call it the central area. That's where all the you know amazing architecture, skyscrapers, you know, kind of sky. They got the few condo skyscrapers, got the old churches, they got uh you know cathedrals, beautiful, beautiful. Um, this is like a miniature version of that in this town here. It's like a miniature New York City, you know, it's pretty cool. Uh, a lot of walking around, a lot of things to do, a lot of shops and restaurants and bars and stuff like that. But what I did notice is they don't do dynamic pricing here. And it's pretty much like I believe it's like 65 or 70 bucks a day every single day. Uh weekends, weekdays, holidays, everything. And and so I've always been curious um to talk to the guy here about doing, I don't want to here's the thing I don't want them the my prices to go up, but I think they're leaving a lot on the table, of course, by not utilizing dynamic pricing. But I mean, I don't know, maybe I I guess the hotels in the in the states, they definitely utilize dynamic pricing because I mean, in a holiday, you're gonna the room that costs you know a hundred bucks a night is gonna be like four or five hundred bucks a night for a holiday, right? And that's just normal. That's what us Airbnbers have been doing using price labs and and all those you know pricing tools. But yeah, it's like old school to see a uh hotel that charges the exact same price for a Saturday and a freaking Christmas as they would on a Wednesday in you know January. It's just a weird deal. But like I said, I'm kind of like I don't want to rock the boat. I mean, I maybe I can do some pricing for them, but I don't know. I don't I don't know if I should even introduce that to them because then I might make the prices on us go up. Unless we get a free room whenever we want to come, that'll be my payment. I get a free a free room always ready for me if I'm coming to town. Um, I don't know, there's ways to look at things. You can barter and trade, but yeah, I think you're leaving a lot of money on the table, obviously, if you're not doing

New Fort Worth arbitrage: a minimalist Zen passion project

SPEAKER_00 33:00

dynamic pricing and and hotels. I guess there's still hotels that don't do it. It's uh interesting to see. Um, I did pick up another, I you know, I did I did say I didn't want to do any more arbitrage, but there's a there's a complex over here in in Fort Worth, over here. I'm out of Mexico, but back in Fort Worth, there's a complex that um that I have a couple arbitrages at, and they've been doing pretty well for me over the years, and um another few uh another few apartments in that in that it's a small complex, I don't know, about 20 units. And another couple of them came available, and so and they're really nice, they're upgraded, they're pretty good, they're pretty looking. And they got a view of the stuff downtown Fort Worth. Um so I picked, I went ahead and picked up one because it was a good price. She wasn't able to, you know, rent renting out apartments has been a little slow, but I was able to get a good deal, get the one month free, and um, so when I get back home, I'm I'm gonna set that one up. And the thing, the reason why I you know I was I was racking my brain to buy it, right? Let me take a drink because I didn't really want to pick up more arbitrages, I wanted to pick up um more real estate, I wanted to buy properties, but you know, it's kind of like a synergy thing. I I already have two others in that complex, they do well, and and then I have a cleaner that cleans those, so there's nothing for her to pick up another one there. But the thing is, what I what I was wanting to do is use my artistic skills, which I I guess I hadn't used in a long time, but to create like a I don't know, I just like a I want to do something creative, and I'm thinking like like um very artistic, minimalist, um, very zen, like uh do the do the walls, um, put some black and white paintings, you know, on the walls, maybe paint a dark toned um wall, like like uh what is it called? Uh accent wall. Maybe do maybe do some accent walls there and just have like a black and white theme throughout. And I'm like like nice bed, nice beds on the I was thinking on the floor. You know, it sounds weird, but like I just I see these minimalist designs. They make these cool, these cool like apartments. It's usually these apartments or condos that they do, man. Not you, not a whole house, like doing something like that. But I I see something like uh making it making a really cool Zen space, and um and um just I don't know, just using my artistic ability. I might even do the paintings myself, some black and white abstract stuff. Um nice like a sofa, like a low rider sofa that converts into a bed kind of deal. Just muted tones, maybe grays, black and whites, just something cool, artistic, you know. So I picture someone going there and just they need they want a place to chill. I've even I've even contemplated not putting a TV there, but putting just just no TV, just a place for Zen, right? But now I'm thinking about it. I might just I might go ahead and mount a TV there, but um just in the living room, just so that you know, someone will have something to watch, I guess. But people are just in their devices anyway, so it's no big deal. So um, yeah, this is more like a passion project. It does have a view of downtown Fort Worth, and um, so I I went ahead and picked that one up. And just because I had a good it was a good price. I know the I know the the lady that manages the place, of course, because I have two other properties there, and um, and so I don't know, just an opportunity, and I'm gonna go pick up stuff on Facebook Marketplace and get some good deals on on some cool stuff and just make it really nice. Um, so yeah, it's a little passion, passion project. I guess you know, to me, it's like you gotta have fun in this industry too, not just um work, work, work, try to, you know, maximize the best uh what's the farthest my buck is gonna go, what's the highest and best use? You gotta have some fun too. And I think by having fun, it kind of re-invent reinvigorates you in a way and your passion about this. Because more, you know, for me, and I know a lot of people, it's so exciting starting your first Airbnb, your first short-term rental, or first uh whatever you're doing, first, even a first rental property, you get excited about it. But the longer you do it, you kind of get worn down and it turns into a business, and in a way, it turns into a job that you're trapped into. But if you keep that spark going somehow, um, then I think that's uh that's a cool way to do it because especially like like I talked about doing the um um putting together arbitrages, like getting it out securing an arbitrage through uh a landlord, right? And then furnishing it, putting some cool style in there, putting you know my touch or a designer's touch in there, make it a nice place, and then um, and then selling it to uh an arbitrager, you know what I'm saying? So that I think that's a cool thing too, because I love the setup, I love the design, I love how it looks, I love the photography. Um but then once you get after after that, it just turns into like another property that you gotta manage and and um tenants, they're not tenants, but um guests that you gotta you know, you got the headache guest, and uh you get all that stuff. I mean you make profit, whatever. That's the main goal. But you know, all the stuff that comes with it after the creative stuff is over with, that kind of um that kind of is not the funnest. Anyways, so um yeah, just uh just wanted to do a quick episode, a quick um uh year-end uh episode since this is this is December 31st. I hope everything recorded well. Um I'm starting to get calls from the handyman and stuff like that. So I'm gonna go ahead and hop back into doing what I gotta do before we start our day. Before we start, this is New Year's Eve. So we're gonna be making tamales at the the mother-in-law's house. And um, so the the kiddos and the wife are excited about that. So it's gonna be a fun day. We're gonna have a great um end of the year. Uh, wish all the best for you guys. Thanks for um following us all these years on our journey, and uh, you know, it's cool that we get to document it with these podcasts, but um, yeah, man, don't stop, just keep going. Um, they say real estate gets a little tough at times, it does, but there's opportunities in that, so keep it going. Uh, you can find us at um where can you find us? Oh, you can email us ArchistRentles at G. Oh, that's mine. Argist Rentals at Gmail. That's one of mine. Uh uh Livelet Thrive at gmail.com, uh liveletrive.com, all that fun stuff. Um, I think we still have a site, but anyways, yeah, you can find us on um at Livelet Thrive everywhere pretty much on the on the social medias. So I'm not big on those, but we still got them going. I know Micah runs those things. Um, but yeah, thanks for thanks for following us. I'm glad I got got to do this little quick episode in end of the year episode with you guys. So good luck on 2026. I know it's gonna be bigger and better and more awesome. All right, well, see y'all later. Peace.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.