Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive. Coming at you from Fort Worth, Texas, and Arlington, Texas, when Micah hops on. This is episode 331 of your favorite short-term, mid-term, long-term, past whatever we do, you do too, some of it. Podcast in the world. And you can tell uh it's been a while since we've recorded one of these uh wonderful podcasts. We have people asking, when y'all gonna do another one? Uh well, we're doing another one right now, and thank you for joining us. Uh, we're gonna talk about a lot of uh good stuff. Um man, I tell you, uh, we've been doing short-term and midterm rentals for a while and long-term rentals as well. And I would say I like uh recently, you know, I've I'm doing I got two pad splits up and running. And why? Because hey, you always got to challenge yourself, right? So so I've been talking a lot about the pad splits on previous episodes. We'll talk in some about them. Uh I'm learning the ropes still there and um trying to improve my game, trying to improve where I can pass it on to my team so they can do it for me as as you know, probably better than me. But um, so I've I've had the pad splits going on. I've still got a bunch of Airbnbs, still doing a lot of corporate rentals, and um, I'm still buying houses. So it's a whole mix of things, and I think it all, I guess they call it synergy, it all works together. And and um, yeah, we're here to just to share and discuss, and hopefully our story uh helps you guys out. You know, there've been people listening for a while to Live

The violent PadSplit tenant who kicked cabinets and slashed tires

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Let Thrive, and I'm I'm happy to get back in the saddle, as we call it. Um so yeah, uh, what are we gonna talk about first? What do you want to talk about? Um I can start with this story. I kicked a crazy guy out of my pad split. Um, so my Arlington pad split, you know. I had that one has been doing pretty good for me, um, except there was this crazy guy that was uh I had red flags from the beginning, but I let him in the house because um he was the very first um guest, I won't call them tenants, but pad mate, whatever. He was the very first one to rent one of the rooms out of the house. And uh, you know, to fill in the backstory uh house in Arlington, I've had for uh that was our my very first house I ever bought. And um I used to live in it and then I lived in it in it with my wife, and then we started then we started hopping into house hacking and getting more you know more houses that way and turned that one into a rental. Uh it was a long-term rental, so I said, you know what? I've had bad luck with long-term tenants. Um the first one's kind of ruined the house really bad, and the second one uh kind of um had to victor out of there. Uh so that so I've had not so good luck with that house. It's in a C C plus neighborhood. It's a nice house, but it's like an older house and a C neighborhood, C plus neighborhood. And um, so that was what I was gonna look forward to if I kept the house, just having more um C or C rated tenants, and that that's that's what you get, you know. Um there's money in the hood, but you gotta work for it. And so what I did, um I said, you know what? After this this last person I I um evicted, I said, I'm gonna turn this. And I started hearing about Passplit. And I knew about Passplit from the past, but I said, you know what? I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it in this house. I got my guy um Pablo to go over there and tell me uh and and go tell me where I could put up some walls to make two more rooms. So it's a four-bedroom, I'll turn it into a six-bedroom. That's the key to Passplit. You know, you gotta you're gonna make more income, but you gotta make a couple more rooms in that house. And um, and so I I they did that, you know. I probably told the story a little bit before. And he was the first one, and I got it finished and everything, and he was the first one to um, hey baby, so my daughter's coming in here. Yeah, fix it. I don't have the inside. Okay, hey, go over there. I gotta I'm doing a podcast, okay? I love you. And so he was the first um tenant, um pad mate to move in, and then he um I you know, I did the whole, I did like a zoom call with him and everything, and and he answered without his shirt on. He was just hey, uh, you know, short answers, one question, you know, hey, so how you doing? Uh, you know, how's everything over there? Okay, you know, just just like one-word answers wasn't really very engaging. And one thing he told me is, hey, if you're not gonna choose me, just you know, just deny me so I can get something else. It's like shit, man. Okay. I was like, it's like he didn't even care, you know, if he if I chose him or not. And I was like, man, I was racking my brains. I was like, I don't know if I want this guy in here. It's a young dude, young dude, um around 24 or whatever. He had a good job. I mean, he worked at Amazon, he had a steady job, and paid pretty good, paid all right, but he just I started getting weird vibes from him, right? And so I just uh you know, I was telling myself, I don't have any anybody in there yet. I gotta I gotta let the first person in. I gotta let someone in. I don't know, I don't know anything about this pad split, but I mean maybe these this is what the pad split uh demographic is like. Maybe that's what they the just young dudes that don't give a div give a darn about normal protocol. Uh so I was alright, I let him in. It was alright when he was there by himself, you know, it was no big deal, but then you know, people started moving in and then I filled up the house, and then he started acting crazy. He um the first uh the first thing he did was like he kicked through the the cabinet underneath the kitchen sink, right? He he busted through the cab, he kicked through it, and in that same uh instance, I guess they have like a group message going around that that only they can see that a pad mates can see. He said he's told the group, he goes, he goes, quit touching my shit. You know, he said he cursed on there. So I can't see those messages, but later on they told me he said that. And it happened to be the same day he kicked through the the the cabinet below the sink in the kitchen. And you know, I told him, I said, I called him, I said, What the hell, what the heck happened, man? I was like, Why you did you bust that that cabinet? He's like, Oh man, I just uh I opened it and it fell apart. Uh I'll pay for it, you know. I'll send you 30 bucks. And I was like, Well, my handyman's gonna fix it, it's gonna cost 50 bucks. Okay. And he sent me the 50 bucks, but I was like, This is weird, man. Anyways, um, so another another incident happened like uh about a month or so later. He uh I I was looking back at the cameras because I got a call from one of the pad mates in the back in the back room or one of the rooms, and she said that her tire was slashed. Or it was brand new tire she got, and it was it was it was flat. And she said, I don't think I hit anything in there and just happened at night and this and that. And I saw that, you know, on the camera. I saw the ring camera, I saw that dude out there that that same night. I mean, but the the way the camera was positioned, I couldn't see where you know where her car was. I mean I could see it, but I couldn't tell if anybody was around it. And like ring cameras at night aren't too good. Um, so I I couldn't say that it was him when we had a suspicion it was him because he was acting weird. And um so that night he walked in the house and you just see the door wham slam like hard. Like so when someone slams a door, uh the front door of the house, and it just and it just goes right back open, it doesn't even latch, you know. It slammed it that dang hard. And so I started messaging him like the next day, what what's going on? Why why are you slamming the door like that? You can't be slamming the door like that. People are complaining, like they said they heard a loud bang and all this stuff, and he didn't answer me. He wasn't answering me at all. So, uh as my life is super busy, because I'm always looking to buy houses, um, I got all these Airbnbs, I got this corporate rentals, I got all this stuff going on everywhere. I really didn't address it, you know. I just like this this dude's weird, man. And I couldn't prove that he um slashed her tire. Then I mean then when they fixed the tire, you could tell they they they drew where the cut, there was like two cuts in it, you know, like like a like a knife cut it. And so, anyways, um he did that. I mean I think yeah, pretty much can say he did that. Um so like a few days, like about uh a few days later, I

Window shattered on camera - escalation and forced eviction

SPEAKER_01 9:12

see him walk inside the front door, you know, through the camera, and then the way the camera's positioned is sideways facing, so you can see the side, you can see the front door, you can see the front door. And um you see him go in, and all of a sudden, like right away you hear boom, boom, push, and you just see like the glass bust out from one of the small the small windows, you know, d some doors have these small glass windows you can look out, right? And he busted one of those out. Like, like somebody um well they told me, hey man, there you know the next day. I didn't see it live, but they said, hey, this guy, um, or they said there's glass all over the front, you know, and there's like a one of the one of the windows is missing out of that door, and all so I looked at the cameras and I was like, that was him. What the hell's going on with this guy? He's a weirdo. And so I I um I messaged him right away. I was like, dude, I got you on camera doing busting out the window. I said, I want you to put in your notice and get the heck out of my house. And um, you know, I put it through the Pad Split at and I and everything, and I told Pad Split all everything that was happening, and and he put in a transfer right away. He says, Oh, cool. I you know, dodged a bullet, I don't gotta freaking try to evict somebody, you know. And um, but then one of the padmates, she put a a bad review on him, like this guy gives me the creeps, I don't feel comfortable with him around, this and that. So whoever accepted his transfer canceled their transfer right away. You know, and you go back to the the the way that long-term long-term um landlords, you know, their their main goal is to get a crazy person out of their house, and they so they're not always honest with the with the person that's leaving their house, right? So you call up a landlord, they're having issues with somebody, and you you kind of have to dig deep and try to get some real answers from them. You can't just because they're gonna probably, oh yeah, they're good, they're a good tenant, you know, they they they pay rent, blah blah blah. You know, they're even though they're just uh the worst tenant ever. They just want them out of their house, so they don't got a victim, right? So, anyways, not not that I was trying to do that, but I was just happy he was transferring and um and pass, but you don't you don't get to ask the previous landlord. That might be a thing, that might be a thing they can start doing, asking the you know, having the share information from the previous you can you can call the previous landlord and talk to them. That would that would be a good idea, just like a long-term tenants do, but they don't have that functionality right now. Um, anyway, she left a review like that, and so his he tried to transfer like a couple times like the next two days, and it kept getting canceled, kept getting canceled. And then he's like, he didn't try try to transfer no more. I was like, dude, you still gotta get out of my house. I don't know what you're doing. And um he says, Well, Passport says if you put a notice to vacate, I get 14 days to move. And I was like, Well, this ain't PASP. I mean, that's their policy. My policy is notice to vacate through the courts, and so I'm gonna go post one of those uh, and then so I I printed all that crap out, the notice to vacate, signed it and and took pictures and posted it on the inside of the door to the house, and I was gonna post one on the on his door to the where he was staying. And I and I walked to the living room, and there he was sitting there, and he like he like gets up all nervous, right? He's like, Oh hey man, uh Yeah, yeah, I just um can I stay until until blah blah blah? I think he named like uh I don't know, five or six days in the future. And I was like, Well are you gonna leave that day or or what? And he said, Yeah, I'll be leaving that day. And then um I was like, Well, I'll put the three-day notice of transfer. So if you stay until you know a few more days after that, that's fine, but it's there, and and if not, I I'm out to evict I'm gonna evict you. Okay. And I had the copy in my hand, is that it? I said, Yeah, and he grabbed it. I was like, let me ask you something. Why did you why did you why did you bust that glass out of the door? And he just he didn't even look at me in the eyes, he's like, oh, just one of those things. Like, you can't be doing that, man. It's like you got other pad mates here, they're freaking out. You can't be acting like that. And he just didn't say nothing and walked back to his room. So, all right, cool. This guy's gonna be gone, you know, in a in a within a week, whatever. And so it was either the next day or two days later. I get a call from one of the guys at uh Padmates there, real cool guy, you know. I chatted with him, he's a real super cool guy, laid back, and um, but he was fired up. I mean, this is I got a call like uh seven in the morning, and I was at at my day job, right? And he's like, Hey Steve, man, this this crazy mofo, this and that, and then he turned pretty ghetto, pretty street, really

PadSplit support gaps when tenants turn dangerous

SPEAKER_01 14:00

quick, man. He goes, I'm gonna f this dude up. He goes, If he uh what he did, I said, What do you do, man? He's like, he went into my by my door and he just pounded it real hard and it popped open. And I come out, what the hell, man? He's like, I did that. That's what that was his response. He goes, This crazy mofo. He goes, man, he goes, I I told him off, and you can't, you know, you do that shit. I'm I'm gonna do some stuff. And so dad said, Don't do nothing crazy, man. Let me let me just let me get him out of there. Let me get him out of there. I called Pat Split. I was like, man, this 14-day notice to vacate that y'all do is not gonna work. Y'all need to cancel him now and get him out of my house. So I'm gonna get him out of my house, and and so it got escalated and escalated. That's one thing that's not they're not too good at yet, Pat Split. I'll tell you that. They're not that when you have situations, they're not very good at helping at all. It's pretty much on you to get someone out of your house, you know. And so, um, anyways, so I told that dude off. I was like, Man, I'm gonna, you know, you need to get out of the house immediately. Blah blah blah. And and he like, well, can I just oh they canceled him off, they they they they um yeah, they kicked him off Passpit. So because he was all well, Passpit said this, Passport said that. He goes, Well, Passpit tells me to leave, I'll leave. I was like, Well, they pretty much told you to leave because they canceled your damn Passpit account. And so he he gets out, he's he's gonna get off work that night. He sends me a message, what happened? And it's like, dude, you know what happened. I say, I say, you gotta get out of my house immediately. And he's like, Well, can I spend one more night and I'll leave in the morning? I was like, I fine, you better be there out of there in the morning. I'm gonna be there in the morning. And so sure enough, he he left that morning and he's gone. And I went there on my uh my lunch break for my day job and and I cleaned out that room. Of course, there's a hole there was a hole in the wall where he kicked through and like towards the bottom. And um, but that was it. I thought I was afraid that he just destroyed the room, but he was um it didn't it aside from that hole in the wall where it looked like his foot went through, um that was it. He just had some weird anger issues, man. And and so I it's you know, up to me to get him out of my house. And that's the thing with um this is a long story, but I have um the meeting ran over. Oh Micah's texting. No worries, I'll wrap this one up and we can do one tomorrow. Um so anyways, yeah, Micah can't join us today, and that's fine, you know, things happen. But what's gonna what's gonna happen is um with this with what's you know what with the the pain points

Back in the trenches: learning PadSplit from scratch

SPEAKER_01 16:49

of doing something like this is that I'm back in the trenches where whereas my Airbnb and corporate rentals, they run themselves, right? So I got my team and you know, helped build the team out, and and um and they and it's great. It it runs itself prime pretty much. I'm only brought in if there's something really crazy happening, you know, for example. But if it's nothing crazy going on and everything's running smooth, my team's handling everything, everything, and I love it. And now I'm learning something new, I'm learning this passplit stuff, and I'm back in the trenches doing it myself and stressing myself and trying to figure out situations myself, and that's that's part of growth, man. And once I get once I get it all figured out and and written down and and have some, you know, uh, what is it called? Yeah, have your um contingency plans and all that stuff, um, then I could pass it on to my team. And they already they're already helping, they're like co-hosts on my pad splits. And so when someone reaches out, they'll answer, you know, they'll answer them as best they can. They'll even send out because you can put maintenance requests inside a pad split. So they'll even send out um one of my my handyman to go address something. That's cool. But like situations where it gets uh crazy, you know, where it gets um where you get people that shouldn't know that you need to get out of there, that's a whole nother story. So I'm it's it's uh it's a learning thing, but it's it's cool. I mean, it both houses are pretty profitable because of it, right? And because I I I did another house and and um here close

$1,900 rent vs $4,000 PadSplit income on the same house

SPEAKER_01 18:33

by that that has that I turned it in from a three-bedroom to a six-bedroom, same thing. And so it you know, regular rent would be around 1900, 2,000 bucks a month. You know, right now rents have dropped, house prices have dropped, everything's dropping pretty good. Um but on Pad Split you can make around like four grand or so on that same house, you know. And so it's uh it's worth it. It you make double, but it's more work. It's nothing free in life, right? So um that was my that was the story with my crazy uh crazy guy um that I got kicked out of the that kicked out of the pad split. And I don't want to just talk full pad split

The applicant wearing a weed hat in his profile photo

SPEAKER_01 19:15

on here. I will say one thing, you know, you're dealing with a different demographic, and let's say um for example, I I there's this guy that that put in the book The Last Room in my in my Passpit over here by me. And he um you know, he decent job, been there for a while, makes decent money, it's just him. He's a you know got no kids or nothing, you know, 42 years old, so he's older, he's not all acting dumb and crazy like a youngster, and and um he don't have a car at the moment, but he um I guess he Ubers back and forth to work. But I uh everything seemed good, and then I um I noticed he had a a profile picture, so I opened up the profile picture, and he's just sitting in his car with a hat on. Now I I I zoomed in and made the picture bigger and and you could be you can see the top of a weed leaf on top of that. So to me, I was like I was automatically thinking, okay, this guy, you know, trying to book my place, and he doesn't even think to um to put uh for his profile picture for Passfit. He's wearing a weed hat. I'm like, that's um yeah, I mean that's just to me, I think it's um I guess I take for granted that most people, like let's say for a job interview, going to get an apartment or going to rent something from somebody, you're not you get you're not gonna wear your weed hat at that moment, right? You're not gonna go into a job interview with the weed hat on a marijuana leaf on it. And um, and I I don't mind people doing that stuff. That's fine. I I don't want it in my passpits, but I mean if you want to go off and hang out with your buddies and do that stuff, okay, whatever, you know. Um but but at least don't even have to put uh you know a nice clothes on, just just just the bare minimum is for any anything you want to do in life, don't wear a weed hat. And I used to partake in the past and I didn't advertise it. I was like, to me, I thought that was the stupidest thing ever. I didn't want no cop pulling me or over or stopping me for anything, and I'm off out I'm I'm out there with a weed hat on, it's like a damn target on my ass, right? So I I just I never understood that that people want to wear um weed uh clothing. It's just just funny to me. I actually called him, talked to him, cool guy, and um and he just you know laid back. Dude, I asked him about the hat. He said, Oh yeah, man. Sorry, you know, you would take our profile. It has us do a live profile picture of how we're, you know, you know, whatever we're at that moment, and I was in my car and I took a picture. I just happened to have that. It was just a hat. He goes, I don't do that stuff anymore, and this and that. We'll see. But um he was real honest. He goes, I do uh he goes that he smokes um he smokes some menthol cigarettes, he said, and but he doesn't do it in the house. And um and yeah, he just he just said he just laid back, he just stays in his room, he plays like video games and stuff, and um yeah, he just he seemed like a cool guy. He wasn't trying, it didn't feel like he was lying to me about anything, but you know, like I said, time will tell. Um the weed hat did give me some reservation, but I'm just saying, please. Uh if you're out there listening, don't wear don't

Multiple rental strategies unlock hidden property value

SPEAKER_01 22:52

wear a weed hat around. Um even if you love weed. Oh man. So so uh man, I I'm just talking about pass. Let me see. Um looking at yeah, I'm looking at buying houses right now. And uh I'm always I've always been looking to buy houses, but what what's cool about knowing different ways to to rent out your houses, be it with um uh you know, short-term rentals, um, Airbnb, or if you know how to do corporate, even long-term, even just regular long-term rentals, um, or you you have a new tool in your belt. Like I haven't done a new tool in my tool belt, um the Pat Split. So so where I where I can see a house that, like, for example, nobody, it's like sitting on the market for a while, and like I said, it might be in a C-class neighborhood where people really don't want to be, like, especially they have kids, they don't want to be in that area, they want to, they don't want to be in those schools, but um the price is good and houses in decent shape and pretty good shape. If I see something like that, and I'm like, well, it won't make what I want as a long-term rental, right? It'll probably break even if that, and then plus you're putting C people, C class um tenants in there, whatever. Um not worth the headache, but and it won't it won't work as a corporate. Then I'll be like, well, I can pad split it. I can add some walls and do a pad split there, and it could and it can make me some good income. Um where or there's a house in a nice neighborhood, but the price point is pretty high. And and if I bought it, I wouldn't get the rent, the long-term rent that I would want, but it would make a great corporate rental, right? Uh corporate Airbnb rental. So I can buy it with that in mind. Uh, you know, a house with a pool. That one would make a great short-term rental, right? Because you get more money for houses with a pool on Airbnb. So it's it's cool to be able to see different properties, and then um and you have different ways that you can make money from those properties. And what's what's um what's even what's even cooler is like I have my agents send me um houses that are uh seller finance, that people are offering seller finance or owner finance. And and it I've even had I bought a few, I bought three houses this year. I bought one just like a DSCR loan, you know, business type loan. And and I bought two with uh they were doing seller finance. And and one of the one or both of the of the the people selling the house were like, well, if we sell it to him at we sell it to your client at this price, it's not and he's an investor, it's not really gonna it's not gonna make that much as a long as a long-term rental. He might not it might not cover the whole mortgage, right? And of course, what I love about uh buy and sell their finance is you know we can come to terms come to terms on the terms, as I

Seller finance at 6% down vs 20% bank requirements

SPEAKER_01 26:05

say. Um so so with that said, I um I could like let's say they want 20%. You know, most of them say they want 20% down. They want they they come at it like a bank comes at you, right? They want 20% down and they want whatever close to the current rate, you know. Well, some of them are trying to knock your head off. Some of them say eight, nine, ten percent, but you know, some of them a little a little lower, but all that's negotiable. You don't have to go by those terms, you know. Whereas a bank, these are the terms, 20% and whatever the going uh interest rates are right now, and then plus your credit, right? Whereas the you're dealing with the individual that owns the house, you know, it's not really I mean, they they might check your credit, but they're not gonna knock you on it as long as you have decent credit. Um, and they're not even looking at the debt to income ratio like uh like a bank would, right? So so you can go and negotiate the terms. You can say, you know, I'll put, I'm gonna put um, I know you want 20,000, but I can put 10,000, you know what I'm saying? Or I could, or you know, you want 20%, I could put 5%. And then we, you know, he meets somewhere at a price that I could do 10,000. Like I got one for like 6% down. I bought a house for 6% down. And I turned that one into a corporate slash Airbnb. And I think that guy was like, well, yeah, it's not gonna, and I just worried that he's not gonna be able to make the payments because of the, you know, because it as a long-term rental, it won't make, you know, what the mortgage would be. Well, and then my agent explains to him, well, he does short-term and midterm rentals, he does corporate rentals, he makes about you know four or five grand a month on a good corporate rental, and that's what he sees for this house. And then, okay, back and forth, and they agree, and we agree. Go to a title company, like you sign just a few, like a stack, a little bitty stack of papers, as opposed to you know, buying from a bank, you sign like a whole Bible's worth of papers. Um, and then you got PMIs and you got all kinds of craziness. Whereas you're buying from an individual, it's a lot less, right? A lot easier. You agree on terms, you still want to do inspection and all that stuff, and they gotta do repairs or they gotta take money off the price, and it's just like buying a house. And then um, so and I was able to buy two, like in that within a one or two month span, you know. And and so I bought three houses this year, and I plan to do cross-segregation studies on them so I can, you know, um knock down my taxes or get money back, actually.

Cash-out refi math: $300 payment bump to gain $1,000 monthly profit

SPEAKER_01 28:33

And so that's my um that is what what I'm doing. What uh so I and that's that that was my whole point, was you know, buying being able to buy houses in different ways that that you can do different things with. And so that's another thing. So I'm looking to buy and I'm doing some cash out refines right now, and because I have decent size equity in my long my houses that I've had for a while, and so I want to utilize that equity to me, and I think Micah believes the same. Um, I can I can utilize the equity to purchase another property, and that property is gonna make more income than what the difference is between the like let's say I cash out refi, and my payment was fifteen hundred bucks a month for a house, and it goes up to eighteen hundred bucks a month because I cashed out, I pulled some money out, and then I refinanced it on a 30-year note, and my payment went up. Let's just say two or three hundred bucks. I want to make, but I can get a house, I can see I see a house where I know I can make like a thousand bucks a month more on, you know. So I with that equity that was just sitting there not really doing anything. Uh people refer to it as debt equity. It's cool to have, okay, cool. But if you can pull it out of that house and purchase another house with that equity, and that that house is going to cash flow and make you a thousand bucks or more. So that's if it made just a thousand bucks a month, you know, profit, that's a seven hundred dollars difference in the positive. Plus, you got a house out of it. That's pretty cool. And so as cash flow-wise, it's more money, and then you get, of course, another house, which you add when you're building your wealth, and then you get more um uh you get to write off the uh you know advanced depreciation and take, you know, take all that money off what you were gonna pay in taxes, and um yeah, you get all that all that fun stuff. And so so I'm I'm looking at two houses right now, and they're so different. One of them is a house with a pool with a little playground out back, it's a nice, nicer, you know, nice neighborhood that could do a good as a corporate and short-term rental. People would wouldn't mind staying in that neighborhood, and um and it's and and short-term rentals is allowed in that neighborhood. And then there's another house that um where short-term rentals aren't allowed, but it's a nice house and a decent area, maybe C plus area, and which is perfect for a pad split. And and it's a big house, so I can I know I can make I could turn this house, I think it's a four-bedroom. I believe I could turn it into a seven-bedroom pretty easily. So I'm looking at getting that house, and that's an owner finance house, so I think I only have to put 20 grand down on that house, and the house is like 315 grand, so that's not that's a lot less than um 20% down, right? Because 20% of 315, you're I mean, with all the fees and everything, you're talking about 70,000 bucks, right? After all the all the closing costs and everything. But if I'm I'm only putting 20 grand, so I'm saving $50,000, right, to buy this house, and um, and I can make it into a pad split, so it'll it'll hit the marks that I'm wanting to hit. So I'm looking to buy, I'm gonna pull the cash out of two of my houses, or a house and a condo, right? And um a condo I got super cheap. Uh that's another story. I probably told that one before, but I have great renters there, they've been there forever. So I'm pulling money out of that condo that I've had for a while, three bedroom, two and a half bath condo uh in the hood, and uh and I'm pulling money out of um uh the house that I the second house that I'm turned into a path split. I'm pulling money out of that. And I should and and I should be able to buy two more houses with that money and then still have some money left over, which I which I wanted to just put into reserves to have some money there. So that's that's what I'm where I'm going

From one house a year to five in 2024

SPEAKER_01 32:49

with that. Um I don't ever want to count the chickens before they hatch. So but I'll I'll say this. I you know, I own two 10 houses right now, and that's pretty cool. Um you know, I've been doing this for probably 10 years. And then my my whole goal when I started all this was to have to buy one house a year and just do it that way. And so pretty much I got one house a year. Now I got up like 50 Airbnbs that I take care of that I that I you know that that I manage and for other people, plus we arbitrage ourselves. So those are cash-flowing entities as well. But and that kind of sidetracked me from being just a pure pure purchaser of houses, but the but the fact that I got this to the same spot with the amount of houses I wanted, plus I got a lot of income coming in from the um from the Airbnb and corporate rental side and arbitrage side. That's another thing. That's another story. So that um so so if I if I do this, if I do this, you know, I'm pulling the cash out and I buy these two houses, that'll be 12 houses. That means I would have bought three houses, uh, five houses this year. I already bought three, so that'll be five houses this year. And, you know, luckily we got that bonus depreciation this year, so it'll be a lot of money to write off on taxes and get back on taxes to use to purchase the next houses next year. So if I'm if I and they talk about compounding, right? So if I've compounded this much, you know, I got stagnant at around nine houses for a while. Like over a year, maybe two years, I was just stuck, right? But all of a sudden I bought three houses this year, and I might buy two more, so that'd be five houses this year. I just picture next year buying ten houses. And you know, the compounding effect, because more more revenue is gonna come in, and I can stack more cash, and I can find more deals, and I can find more off-market deals and and um owner finance deals or subject to. And then I said, Well, now I know the the formula, you know, I'm buy about five this year using that formula. I can buy ten next year and use it. Oh, DSCR, that's the thing. I'll buy one of these new houses, one of these houses coming up, DSCR, and the other one I'll buy um seller finance. So it's it's it's an exciting time, it's

The Founders podcast: Enzo Ferrari and the obsession with excellence

SPEAKER_01 35:22

cool. I I I love um I do love this this real estate thing. Um and what I'll tell you what I've been listening to lately is uh is a podcast called The Founders, right? It's all about people have founded companies, uh, you know, the Steve Jobs, the Bezos, uh, and then other guys that I never heard of, but they founded amazing companies. I mean I've heard of I've heard of Ferrari, and I read about Enzo Ferrari, uh what the company he started, and he has there's funny because like there's these um there's a bunch of these guys that are just maniacal, right? They just uh their company is their baby. They just because you know I can understand it because a lot of these guys came from nothing, came from poverty, uh like Enzo Ferrari, he came from poverty, um, had nothing, and then he built this amazing, this amazing company, and he made these amazing cars. And he wasn't an engineer, he wasn't a car builder, but he learned all the ropes and he and he just and he was just obsessed with excellence and obsessed with making amazing cars, and just it was it wasn't even work for him. He just wanted to live at the factory and just do that all the time, and it just compounded compounded and he grew into this amazing car company. Lots of ups and downs, but he was so obsessed with the company that it didn't, you know, most people they fell once. Let's just let's just be honest, most people fail once at something they give up, right? Or they fail twice at it or three times, they're done. But these these founders of these companies they fell like a they fail like a hundred times or two hundred times. That's you know, they just keep failing and keep learning, fe failing, and learning, and they just stick to it. And um, so so his was a his was uh a great a great um podcast to hear about about how he did it. And there was another um Italian uh uh eyeglass frame maker that was uh also obsessed. He was an orphan, he was he was an orphan, orphan when he was young. His dad died when he was young, and his mom dropped him off at the orphanage, and he became a multi-billionaire, and he just he just had this this relentless passion for well for and his thing was perfection too. He wanted to make the perfect uh lenses, uh, I'm sorry, um, frames for your glasses, and then you know he got a lot of buyers, and he ended up buying out the buyers, and he ended up growing his company, and then he ended up like go posted on the stock exchange. He started making glasses for everybody, posted on the stock exchange, and um I'll find his name too while I'm while I'm jabbering on. But he um the US stock exchange at that, and and um he he became a billionaire, and then he he bought the company, the parent company to lens crafters. The you know, y'all have all heard of of lens crafters, the place where you go buy you know reading glasses or you know seeing glasses, what uh contacts, all that stuff. And and he ended up buying them, even though they were worth five times what his company was worth, but he was able to get it done. He just he was just relentless, and he figured out a way to always to always get things done, man. And that and that's just inspired. I mean, this this podcast is just changing my life, and I'll and I'll pull up his name as I stammer on. Um for this Ferrari. Okay, the Orphan Who Built an Empire, Leonardo Del Vecchio, V-E-C-C-H-I-O. The founder, the yeah, the founder of Luxotica, L-U-X-O-T-T-I-C-A. So yeah, go check out the founders podcast. I mean, I love these podcasts, they're way better than than my podcast. But but this guy, like the guy that does this podcast, he's obsessed learning everything about the great founders of the great companies in the world. And he'll read like he literally, he's read a thousand books on these guys. A thousand, not a one guy, but like a thousand books on all these founders, because he has a buttload of episodes. He has four hundred and four hundred and four episodes so far. So I think that's what it has. Anyways, so he's read a thousand books on all these guys. He does other shows too. But founders, I mean, I haven't dove into his other shows. Um, he's interviewed some some of these CEOs. I just love because he tells the whole story, man. He'll read he'll read several books and he'll piece together a whole story on these guys. And I've read a few um founders. Uh I've I've read the Steve Jobs book, That Guy's Crazy. He was crazy, you know, rest in peace. And uh who else did I uh I don't know, I've read a few, but but yeah, you there's a common thread. A lot of these guys are just obsessed, they're just um obsessed with winning and obsessed with perfection and um and driving and then driving people crazy, but getting the most they can out of their teams that they're they work with, and they and they have a great eye for talent, and they can't do it by yourself, but you go and get the best talent from any and from the other uh companies and you get the the best. Um a lot of them are obsessed with the best um technology, you know. You get the best technologies, you get the best people, and you build the best things. It's it's it's simple, but it's hard. So um that's another thing I'm obsessed with right now is the founders, and I think I've talked about just two things on my list that I was gonna talk about, the pad split stuff. Um, you know, I hear that uh and I have buddies that bring it up, oh, the Fed's gonna cut rates, this and that. And when you get to a point where you're like you're investing because if your numbers work or not, you don't even care about what the Fed's gonna do. You know, it's such a thing that you know people talk about, but I really don't care, especially I'm doing owner finance. I don't give a darn if they raise rates or lower rates because I'm gonna negotiate with that person to get the rate that I want, anyways, right? So that's um to me, that's a moot point. Um yeah, I was gonna talk about some things with Micah about the sports world. Uh and Micah loves to talk about basketball, so we talk about uh this I'll talk about something. About we talk about failure breeds success, right? And I'll and I'll tell you this. Um, there's a there's a basketball team. I don't know how well everybody that listens to this podcast is first on basketball, but there's a basketball team here in Texas called the San Antonio Spurs, and they've won a buttload of championships, right? Um, what five or six championships?

San Antonio Spurs and how failure breeds the number one draft pick

SPEAKER_01 42:08

I don't know. And it's and it's considered a small market, right? San Antonio is uh one of the biggest tourist cities in the world, but it's a it's not Dallas, it's not New York, it's not LA, it's it's a it's a smaller market for sports and everything. And um, but anyways, they they love their Spurs, and they have one of the the greatest coaches of all time. You know, he he's pretty retired right now, uh Greg Popovich. But what happens, I mean, they won these championships, but they'll have a year where they just suck, right? They just, you know, they say they got some key injuries, and they just um they call it rebuilding years. They just they just tank, they just they just lose a sh butt ton of games. And and and the NBA, if you lose if you're one of the worst teams, you get like a high draft pick. You get they do like a a lot of a lottery system where you get like uh let's say uh I don't want to go into it, but let's just say, you know, you get a bunch of lottery balls if you're a really crappy team, so you have a higher chance of getting the number one pick. And so they've got they've been lucky over the years to one one year they will tank really bad, they will suck really bad, and they will get the number one overall pick. And they and they picked up um uh Jesus. They picked up uh this is like in the 90s, oh man. Duncan, Tim Duncan. And so they already had they already had some great players, and when Tim Duncan joined the team, they ended up winning multiple championships, right? And they were able to build a team but with some great European players as well. And and so they had a bad year a couple years ago. And what happened again? They got the first pick again. And so they f let's say the failure of having a bad year where you're losing almost every game. Led to them getting the number one overall pick. And they pick a guy named Wimby. W-E-M-B-Y. I think his name's longer than that, but I just know Wimby. He's like a 7 foot five tall dude from France of all places. Real skinny and lanky. But he can ball. They had a uh they didn't make the playoffs last year. He was his first year. But he showed a lot of signs of promise. You know, he showed like he was he was pretty good. Um this year, I've just watched him and he's been like un literally unstoppable. I mean they can't stop him because he can dunk, he can go inside. Of course, he's seven something, he can just barely hop up and he dunks, right? And and then he can get any every rebound, he can block shots, and then he can shoot three-pointers, step back three pointers, man. He's just like an unstoppable beast. But they got him because they a failure. And so whenever you whenever you um encounter failures, and I've encountered so many freaking failures, you know, um, there's always a there's always um a benefit to it. There's always, you know, you learn something, or something better comes your way, right? And so that's what I was gonna bring up with Micah. I was like, you know, the the Spurs, they've been really good for a lot of years, but they'll have an off year, but then it'll lead to something even better. So don't be afraid to swing for the fences and fail because you'll learn something and you'll be stronger for it, and your business will be stronger for it. So um that was the the basketball take I was gonna do with Micah. When I when he gets back on the show, I'll I'll bring it up

2026 World Cup in Arlington: one-month windfalls vs year-round strategy

SPEAKER_01 45:42

again. Uh, another thing I was gonna bring up is the World Cup's coming here to Arlington, Texas, um, where they banned Airbnb out of 99% of the houses in the city. But but if you're in that one mile bubble around the stadiums, you get to do Airbnb out of a house. Now, I'm looking, you know, I have Airbnbs in in Grand Prairie, in um Dallas, and Fort Worth. So people just I think they're gonna do really good for that. That it's gonna be about a month uh of soccer uh going on here, and the World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the planet, right? It's like a bunch of uh what they say, a hundred Super Bowls or whatever. But it it is it is I'm excited for it to come to town. And we're all excited. People here are excited to rent their houses out, right? And make some money for the World Cup. I'm you know, I hear people, oh man, maybe I'm gonna get an Airbnb for the World Cup. I'm like, okay, that's cool. You make the good money for that one month, but what about the other 12 months on that lease? You're gonna make how what are you gonna do with that? Uh, you better make sure it's a it's a good Airbnb for the whole year, not just one month, you know. So I'm cautious because I'm like, well, hopefully people just don't load up and turn everything into Airbnbs and then it's oversaturated, and then nobody makes no money, right? And you get nothing but vacancies. Um so if I'm gonna get another Airbnb just for the World Cup, I'm gonna make sure it's gonna be a nice Airbnb that's gonna cash flow all year round. And that's a that's a cherry on top. That's how I'm looking at it. I'm not looking at it getting it just for one event, you know, and then the rest of the months it sucks. But I did run it by I did run this by my wife, and I'm still working on her. I said, okay, what about our house? We're not too far from the stadium, we're right down, you know, a few back roads away from the stadiums. Um what about first I I worded it like this, because I'm doing like uh it's an art of negotiations, right? I said, how about how how would it sound? How does it sound? Let's go on a to go on a take the kids on a Disney cruise, you know. I know they're expensive, but that would be a cool, a cool thing, right? She's like, hmm, Disney cruise, but I think she sees right through me. What's he thinking here? What's the what's the angle? And so um I said, how about yeah, yeah, we can do it. We can do a Disney cruise next year, it'd be great, you know, go in the summertime, it'd be cool. And um, they'd love it. Okay, well, you know, how are we gonna do that? I say, oh, easy. We'll just rent this house that we live in out on the world for the World Cup, and we'll make, you know, enough money on this big two-story house with a swimming pool, big backyard. Uh, we'll make enough money renting this house out for that month of the World Cup, it'll pay for our Disney cruise and then some. And so, because I looked at it like getting a Disney cruise, what about five, six grand for all of us? Um, plus, you gotta pay for all the other stuff. I'm sure nothing's free on the boat. I mean, you get free food, but you you know, if you want to

Renting the family house during the World Cup to fund a Disney cruise

SPEAKER_01 48:52

have a drink or you know, excursions and stuff like that's gonna add up. But, anyways, so that was that was my angle. There's always a way, right? So, so I I was telling my wife that would come out, we'll just rent it out for this month. We'll put all of our valuables somewhere else, you know. We'll just make it just for Airbnb this house. It's five bedrooms and stuff. We can I'm not bragging by the way. I got a great deal on this house when the market was way down, so I'm not bragging, and um, I still gotta do something to pretty it up. I've been pretty in it, I've been um doing so much renovations on my on my rental properties that it's time to start doing some renovations on my own house. So that's coming up soon. Um perfect time for it for the World Cup, right? So that's my advice to you if you're looking to just load up on a bunch of uh get a whole bunch of apartments and try to rent them out for the World Cup. Uh good luck with that because uh that's one month. We can do with the other 11 months, right? So, anyways, that's uh talk to Micah about some World Cup action. It's gonna be fun. Um yeah, I think oh one other thing. We bought we bought our very first, very first brand new car. First car, first brand new car I've ever bought in my life. And I've always been I've always been um I guess frugal in life, even to this point where I, you know, thank God that I could afford something like that.

Buying the first brand-new car after years of used vehicles

SPEAKER_01 50:17

I just held out. I was I've always bought used cars, and I was like, man, no, as soon as you drive off the lot, it drops in 20%. Uh it drops value 20%. He goes, it's a liability. And I always thought that way, you know, but I was like, you know what, we're doing all right. I'm gonna buy I'm gonna get my wife a new car. Got a Sephord Expedition uh active, I think it's called. Got through third the three rows, you know, and um got all the bells and whistles, they're pretty cool. And it's got this cool um like smoky blue color. I don't know, it's like a Arctic blue. I don't know. It's a cool color, it's one of those cool Trent colors they got out nowadays, and um, so it's pretty neat, man. It's got computers everywhere, like giant computer screen in the middle, got a computer screen in front. It's like, man, this thing is high-tech. I've never seen nothing like this. And it drives itself. Literally, you can let go of the steering wheel, let take your feet off the thing, it'll drive itself. Of course, it'll start beeping to put your damn hands back on the wheel, which that sucks. But I'd like to just let it drive, let it do the driving all by itself. And um, but it's it's like, yeah, it's it's a pretty cool thing, pretty cool feeling. Um, first, first new car I've ever bought in my life, and um that we've ever bought. And so uh yeah, just thought I'd I'd throw that in there. Um I don't I don't like I barely I hardly get on Facebook anymore. Just I mean I'll get on there to like a marketplace. I'll get on marketplace for stuff, and then I'll get on um I'll get in there to try to like dig up dirt on like potential tenants and and pad baits and all that crap. Um or an Airbnb person with a unique name, you know, and I'm not uh and I'll go look them up on on um Facebook to see, hey, wild house party at this at this Airbnb in Arlington. Oh, okay, that's what they plan to do. No, I use it as a tool to look up stuff. I don't get on there if I you know when you once you get on the front page, you look, you'll scroll, and it's all politics, all this and that, all crazy people bitching at each other. It's all just a bunch of waste of time to me. But anyways, and um, so I don't get on I don't get on that stuff really at all. Um Instagram, I don't get on there no more. But like I said, I just um so I don't I don't I'm I ain't trying to brag. I don't like I don't you know people people put on their stuff that they're proud of. Okay, that's cool. But I I not I wasn't gonna do no post or nothing, but I just I talked to you to you guys. I'm just um and it all kind of goes together. Y'all seen the stuff me and Micah hug going through to build what we got that we built. And um, so yeah, I guess I guess that's the moral to the story. It's not it's not uh it's not bad to reward yourself um every now and then, especially if you're putting tons of hours into this stuff. And um all that midnight calls, everything that that's gone on. It's just um it's good to reward yourself. It feels good to like, wow, you know, this is a little milestone. So, anyways, uh I think I've rambled enough. That was a fun little podcast I've done one in a while. Um, where could people find us, Micah Man? And Micah's not here, so I'll say it. Uh Livelett Thrive.com. I think it's still up. You can send us a message at live let thrive at gmail.com. That's still up. Our our gmail. So liveletrive at gmail.com. We will answer the messages and just send a shout out, say what's up, Steve, what's up, Micah? And we'll and we'll chat with you. Tell us what's going on with your business, what's with your life. We're always here to chat. So thank y'all for listening, and we'll talk to you on the next episode with me and Micah.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

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