Live Let Thrive Podcast
Airbnb, PadSplit, Corporate Rentals, Arbitrage, and Live Let Thrive cover all the creative ways to rent out your properties to maximize profits. We also cover creative ways to buy properties. Come along for the ride and have some fun along the way!
Live Let Thrive Podcast
First PadSplit Property - $700 Per Room, Three Tenants in Two Weeks
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Steve launches his first Pad Split property in Arlington and shares early wins and challenges: three rooms rented at $700/month in two weeks, a hot water heater repair, and one tenant who called the police on maintenance. He's sourcing additional tenants through Furnished Finder and eyeing more C-plus neighborhood properties that can convert to six-plus bedrooms. The model reminds him of early Airbnb days - new, exciting, and a learning curve.
The episode covers Steve's frustration with corporate housing middlemen demanding perfection at Walmart prices, Myka's duplex furnishing wins on Prime Day, the power of Facebook Marketplace in wealthy North Dallas suburbs, why Steve handles pool maintenance himself on his arbitraged property, and a warning about Airbnb's new chargeback policy taking effect in September. They close with a tip on Deferred (formerly selltaxfree.com) for free 1031 exchange paperwork.
Work with us. Interested in professional management or consulting?
Myka — Sharebnb: www.sharebnb.com
Steve — Argest Rentals: www.ArgestRentals.com
Sign up for PadSplit with Steve's link and get a free 1-on-1 PadSplit strategy call with Stevie Stacks: padsplit.com/hosts
Myka's other podcast, Entrepremarriage — building wealth without losing the marriage: youtube.com/@Entrepremarriage
All our links: linktr.ee/liveletthrive
#airbnb #airbnbhost #shorttermrentals #midtermrentals #padsplit #rentbytheroom #coliving #corporatehousing #BRRRR #realestate #realestateinvesting #VRBO #shareeconomy #airbnbsuperhost #airbnbpodcast #sharebnb #liveletthrive #liveletthrivepodcast #biggerpockets #directbookings #bookdirect #dfwrealestate
Cold open
SPEAKER_00Welcome 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_03Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Right.
SPEAKER_02What's up, Micah? Man. I'm chilling, Stevie Stacks. How about yourself? Oh, doing good. Great to be back together on an episode, you know, because we've both been doing our summer travels. I'll be in town, you'll be out of town, and vice versa. Yeah. It just uh, but we still be recorded apps. That's cool, but it's always great to get the magic together, the team, you know what I'm saying? The ones who started it all back in the gap.
SPEAKER_03Straight up, man. It's been good. It's been good. Good to finally get back together. I know I did a couple solo apps. You did some solo apps, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now we're back. They got the the band is back together. And this is episode 326 of your favorite short-term,
Finding your passion beyond the day job
SPEAKER_02mid-term, long-term rental podcast in the world. Live let thrive. Coming at you from Fort Worth in Arlington, Texas. We got some good stuff to talk about, Micah. I got a question for you right away. What is it? What is your passion?
SPEAKER_03My passion? Uh my passion is helping people grow. I'm starting to learn that. Like letting helping people see the potential that's in themselves.
SPEAKER_02And that's not just getting that money, that's not business, that's not just spiritual, that's everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. My passion has nothing to do with money, but it brings me money.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, I like that. I like that. So you mean like a life coach kind of deal, or what is that? Yeah, being a light lighthouse.
SPEAKER_03Just being a lighthouse. Yeah. Like this podcast, it fulfills me. It gives me that lighthouse, you know, showing people that there's light, you know. Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_02And the reason I asked that question, and and we're gonna get into all the short term and pad split and all that fun stuff today, and Airbnb. But um a buddy of mine at the day job, right? I was um he he, you know, when I when I'm about to leave, he's he's coming in and he's like an older dude, like like 60, you know, early 60s, but he's still out there playing hockey every day, you know what I'm saying? And he's like in really great shape. And he's out there building cars, you know, he likes to do that, he goes bow hunting, and he um he loves to do like a bunch of different things. And he's like, he goes, he goes, man, he goes, you know, you gotta you gotta find your passion in life if you wanna if you wanna have a happy life, you know. And he said so many guys at that job, especially, they don't ever w look forward to retirement, or they they just said, what am I gonna do if I'm not here? So it's just like they don't have anything else in their life going on except that job or except whatever, you know, people some people have a business. It's just and that dominates their whole life, you know. As soon as they wake up, they're on their phone looking at it, and as soon as they go to sleep, they're looking at it still, and it's like they don't put nothing else in their lives, no passions.
SPEAKER_03It's funny you bring that up, man. My uh me and my supervisor were actually talking about that today at work. He said he sent me this LinkedIn article, and it said every single successful person has a side hustle or a passion that they look forward to. It's not because of the money, it's not because of anything. He goes, it knows it gives them mental freedom. I was like, oh man, it was a really good post, but I it relates exactly to what you just said, bro. It does, it gives you that freedom, it gives you something to look forward to. You know, you gotta find your passion, but you just get depressed if you don't. But the thing is, you gotta take risks to find it.
SPEAKER_02Man, there's a lot of people that don't that just don't want to take any risks, you know, want to play it safe. Oh, if I do this, this could happen. I could get hurt doing that. I'll go play soccer with the guys, I could get hurt. There was, you know, there's so many fears, right? But if you ain't if you aren't taking risks, if you aren't out there, you know, doing something, maybe it's like a hobby you're passionate about, you
Real estate as the dominant passion
SPEAKER_02know. And and even and even the my buddy at work saying he goes, none of my passions bring me a penny, you know. He said he makes money at his job, and they got a few little real estate houses, you know. But he goes, he comes to work for the money, it's not his passion, but he has other things, and they said, None of them bring me a penny. And um, but they bring him such enjoyment, you know. He wants to wake up in the morning and go do that. And I and I've done that, you know, and I'll go back to the time when I was making music and doing art. You know, sometimes I couldn't wait, wait to wake up. Oh, oh, I figured that line out that for the song I was writing, you know. I I couldn't wait to get to the computer, hit record, and start, you know, it's just something I know, I probably wasn't gonna make no money, but it's just like, oh man, to creating something, you know, or create or finishing that painting I was working on, or or whatever it was creatively, you know. And then, you know, with this, with this podcast, like you mentioned, it's it's like another way, another creative creative outlet for us. We get to talk about what what we liked, you know, real estate. And and and I'll I'll say this real estate has become like probably my major passion in my life, you know. Of course, yeah, this is say aside from you know your family and and stuff like that, like my major passion has become real estate, and it's pretty much, and I'm like, man, is that is that pretty healthy? Because I do get up in the morning and I check my you know properties and I check Zillow, see if there's any more properties I could pick up. It's become like the number one passion. It's like maybe I do need to have some either some other passions or some other hobbies. And I like I did love playing soccer out there on you know with the guys. I did love making music and and art and stuff like that. So I'm starting to look look, and and once you have that, you have more of a fulfilled life, is it's not like such a you know, like, oh, I gotta get up and work on the business kind of deal. Like, you know, I'm saying it it's like you have other things in life that fulfill you.
SPEAKER_03I'll say this if it doesn't drain you and it brings you energy, then what's the point of trying to look for something else? I mean, there's cool to do and try other things, but if you know that's what brings you energy, man, go all in on it. If that's what if it if it brings you energy. I remember Kobe Bryant once said, uh, he said, when you're young, try a bunch of different things. But once you find your passion, lock in and go all the way in on it. And he was talking about when he found basketball, because he used to act, he used to do acts and plays on stage, but he said once he found basketball in this past, he said I went all in on it. That's like my only thing that I'm doing. So if that brings you energy, go all in.
SPEAKER_02You know, it was funny you bring up Kobe, and that and that in particular, because they asked Phil Jackson, you know, I guess uh they did a documentary. Uh uh, I don't know if it was the one with about Kobe or the one about Jordan, but they did one and he had they asked him what was the difference between Jordan and Kobe. And he said uh Kobe wanted to be one thing, the greatest basketball player on the planet. And then Jordan wanted to be the greatest at every single thing he did. So golf was his passion. He wanted to destroy everybody at golf, betting big dollars on the course, baseball, yeah, anything. Yeah, he was competitive.
SPEAKER_03He his passion was competing. That's what it was. Yeah, I remember that interview. Kobe was like, he was like, Man, when I talked to Kobe, he's like, everything was basketball, there was nothing else. He was like, Jordan, he wanted to just destroy you. He goes, he'd flip over monopoly boards if he were losing losing. I was like, but he that's just his passion was competing, man. It it's so crazy, man. It's crazy, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Sure. But um, yeah, man, so I just thought that was an interesting way to start the show. Uh your passion, you know, if you if you you need some hobbies. I mean, it's always good to have something else, you know. And and and um I do, but I like I told my buddy, I was like, man, I guess right now my my main passion is the real estate game. And and I said, but there's different facets to it, right? Because like we I started off just regular long-term rentals and then got into Airbnb with your help, and then um from Airbnb, corporate, and then now I'm entering the the Pad Split realm. Oh yeah, we gotta hear this. I got I do I do have some Pad Split stories, man,
First Pad Split property: three rooms rented in two weeks
SPEAKER_02right off the bat. And it and it's so it reminds me of my early days in Airbnb. When when when crazy stuff started to happen, I was like, what the hell am I doing? Let me just turn it back into a regular rental and forget about it, you know. And same thing. I was like, man, what am I doing? I'm out of my I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm not I don't know what you know. I'm running a little hotel right there in that little house. I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and and stuff's coming up. And and I it just reminds me of the in the early days. If you and I heard someone say this before, know that when you're gonna start something, you know, before you you know how to do it, everything, just realize that you're probably gonna suck at it at first, but then you're gonna get better, right? Playing the guitar. I didn't know how to play guitar at first, you know, but I sucked, but I got better practice, right? And so as every day, and and it is kind of my thing what's waking me up now because I thought, oh, I gotta figure this pad split thing out, you know. And because I because an Airbnb, you know, learned it pretty good, and then passed it on to my team. They're doing it now. I don't they don't bother me for hardly anything. And and I don't want to get there with the password, but I gotta learn it all ins and outs first before I pass it on to my team, you know what I'm saying? And and um, yeah, but it's been it's been a challenge, it's been fun, it's been cool, and so great aspects to it. Other aspects I'm like, eh, I don't know what the hell's going on. But um uh one thing I will say, I do like their website. There's their site is pretty strong, you know, um, as far as setting up your property and getting it plugged in, getting it out there ready to go. And then um the one cool thing, like some one cool thing on there was like a a maintenance, a maintenance little uh button, right? A little wrench you see on there. And I guess so the pad splitters, I guess what they're called, let's the so the water the the hot water stopped working, right? And so, and so the I saw a little alert come in on Pad Split, like a maintenance alert. And it's uh and you and you open it up and it says hot water, you know, not working, blah blah blah. And I was like, Oh, that's cool. I didn't I didn't even know that, right? And so I I I messaged back and you can message to the whole house, right?
Maintenance request system and the toilet clog
SPEAKER_02You can send a message to the house, hey, my maintenance guy's going by later, he's gonna check the the hot water heater, and um just a heads up, you know. And so my maintenance guy goes out, he looks at it, he's it's a little bit above his head. Like I said, I have different levels of uh maintenance guys, but his buddy he knows more about hot water heaters, so he went over there, was able to uh to clean it out real good and get it started so they had hot water again. And I was like, that's cool. And I go to the app and I said, you know, task complete. It's like it's like kind of like uh how an apartment complex would do it, right? And and in a way, I'm running like a little six-unit apartment complex, if you think about it, right? Yeah, because every door is is uh its own a different person, and uh, I thought that was a cool feature of the app. And and one quick thing on that to to go on to the frustrating part of Pat Splits. So one of the guys in in one of the rooms, um he just started doing Pat Split, so he doesn't know all the ins and outs, and so he um he wouldn't let the second maintenance
Tenant calls police on maintenance guy
SPEAKER_02guy in. I don't know where my other maintenance guy was, I think he was in the garage or something. So the second maintenance guy that shows up, he's knocking and knocking, and the guy's like he calls the cops on him. He said, He said, and the and I texted you, Micah. I was like, rule number one at the halfway house, don't call the Popo to the halfway house. Dang, man. Not that it's a halfway house, but I was like, he called the cops because he's like, Well, I you know, he called me, he's like, Yeah, I didn't know who he was, and and the rules on Pazplit. I guess they get their own rules and stuff. Never open the door for anybody that don't have a code. That was like one of the rules, right? I guess that keeps people from and he said he didn't have a code. I was trying, and so he called the cops, and and then they you know it didn't nothing happen crazy. He said the the cops he I guess his buddies showed up and he's like, Oh no, we're maintenance. He goes, I thought he goes, he thought the maintenance was already completed. I don't know, it wasn't whatever. So he's he's new to it, he's learning, and and um he's got health issues too. He just stays in his room. He's like, he's all right, good, all right, dude, but he's scared. He's like, I just hear we get fined if if I let someone in that doesn't have it. He's worried about getting fined and stuff, right? And so I was like, you know, one of those things that freaking day one, and he calls the popo. So that that's that's one of the things, and like I said, I'm I'm it is it is an something that's getting me excited about this aspect of real estate. And what what really, really excites me is the possibilities. I got three rooms out of six rented, right? Okay. I denied I denied one lady because you you can see their reviews, you can see their reviews. Other their other um um what's called their their roommates review them. Okay and they said that she was loud, she come in on at all hours, she's inconsiderate, messy, leaves a mess, and leaves the bathroom a mess when she's done in there forever. And I mean they they I mean they go off on it, right? And I was like, yeah, I'm probably not I'm probably not gonna let her into the thing. I got three pretty pretty chill guys right now. And um, so I I denied I denied my first you know inquiry.
SPEAKER_03Does that hurt you or no?
SPEAKER_02I I I asked Justin, the guy that hopped on the show, and he said, No, it doesn't hurt you at all. It's not like Airbnb. Airbnb, they hurt you, but they you know Airbnb. We they think they okay.
SPEAKER_03Accept them accept them so I can get paid.
SPEAKER_02So yeah. And so um, and that and that's really cool, man. How you how you can see who's trying to book and see their reviews and stuff like that. So anyways, it's it's a cool new thing, and I think it's gonna be pretty big time. I think it's gonna be it's gonna take because a lot of people's margins on Airbnbs and they got so saturated are really thin, and so they're looking for different ways to do it. And um yeah, you anything you can add to that, so before because I can just talk forever.
SPEAKER_03Oh man, I got a bunch of questions, bro. So, like, okay, so you're at 50% occupancy. What are you charging per room?
SPEAKER_02So about 700 bucks a month per room.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so you're at 700 at 50% occupancy, and then like you brought up a good thing because like your water heater went out, right? So, like with its like how many rooms is it? Six, so six rooms in there total. How are you like? Do you have gas water heater or electric?
SPEAKER_02It's gas.
SPEAKER_03It's gas. Okay, I was wondering that because it's gonna last longer. Okay, yeah. So that's what I was wondering.
SPEAKER_02Good point, though.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because I was wondering, like, man, if you got electric, man, hey, that's gonna be bad on somebody, man. So so oh go ahead.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say uh well, I put a calendar already. You know, room one cleans common areas on Monday, room two cleans common areas on Tuesday. You know, they you get a thing like that, okay. But uh you made me think about the showering situation. I was like, okay, room one can take a shower on Monday, room two on Tuesday. Oh man, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So you have 50%. Man, I I'm I want to know what it's gonna be like to get it full because once you're full, and it sounds like you already have the demand if you're denying people. Uh what what what what city is this in? It's Arlington. Oh, it's in Arlington? Yeah. That's a good place to be, man. Can't beat Arlington. You're right there by the go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. It's the great location and stuff. The thing is, it's like I said, it's the area is like a C C plus area, you know what I'm saying? And Justin mentioned that's the best areas for Pat Split. You don't want to put them in the the rich neighborhood, you know, they're gonna be pissed off. And of course, you don't want to put them in the the F neighborhoods, you know. A lot of people want are you gonna want, but so right, the sweet spot, right? C C plus area, that's the perfect spot.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so you're in like a mid, yeah, C plus area. Okay, so you people ain't calling the cops over there and it ain't Karen's. Just my guy, just my guy. Your guy, yeah, just your guy. So and it ain't it ain't Karen's over there either. So okay. So yeah, how so how like as far as you can you you're just you can send one-on-one messages to each person and you can send it to the whole house. Okay, that's pretty cool. So, yeah, so if that's that sounds legit, because then if anyone, if you can just post like announcements, updates, or whatever, that's pretty cool, man. Yeah, I can't wait to hear more about it. Are you starting anymore?
SPEAKER_02I'm looking right now, man. It is kind of addicting. It reminds me it reminds me of the early days of Airbnb, just kind of being excited about it and stuff, yeah. And so I'm already looking in the in those areas where I wouldn't look before because I wanted, you know, I was always looking for the next Airbnb slash corporate rental, you know. So I'd always go into the to the better neighborhoods. But now I'm like, man, there's like that, like I told you before, there's money in the hood. And so these houses that are nice houses and and decent, you know, like I said, not F neighborhoods, but like C C plus areas that are for a good price that I know this that the square footage I'm looking for 1500 square foot or more, and and then a layout where I can add a couple bedrooms, you know what I'm saying? And so I'd like, of course, three twos and then maybe four twos, and then I can add a bedroom or two, you know, or if it has one of those one-car garages, those are pretty, pretty good to turn into a bedroom too. So um, so yeah, the houses that a lot of the um uh you know families that are looking for houses and stuff, they're not really looking at those kind of houses, you know. The you know, the 1500 square foot three-bedroom, two-bath with uh with a one-car garage. People want two-car garage. Yeah, just these houses that you can get pretty cheap, but
Pad Split vs Airbnb: access rights and guest reviews
SPEAKER_02you can make them into uh a nice, I mean you're making $4,000, $4,500 a month if you do it right. So whereas um if you're gonna rent one of those out regularly, you're gonna make around two grand a month, maybe. So it's it's more than double. And you gotta pay the utilities, but still it's it's double what you would regularly make.
SPEAKER_03Easy. Yeah, and it's less maintenance.
SPEAKER_02That I'm not 100% sure. I don't know if these people, these kind of guests destroy houses, but I don't think so. But the the cool thing is I go, I go, I just say, hey guys, I'm going by the house. Cause I'm gonna go drop off uh a desk in one of the rooms, whatever. And and I just send a message to the house. Hey, I'm gonna go drop off uh a thing, you know. Okay, cool. And then I go, and it's my house still. I can I got the code, I go in, commonary. I mean, I got I got the whole run of the house besides their rooms. I ain't gonna go in their rooms, right? Yeah, but I go to the a vacant room and do what I gotta do in those rooms, and I got I mean, I can still check in on my house whenever I want. It's my house. Whereas if you're renting to uh regular long-term renters or air, I want to get into this part, man. Going back to the Airbnb stuff, anyways, or or Airbnbs where you want you need to get in and do something at an Airbnb, and you get one of those guests. Oh, I don't feel comfortable with anybody entering the unit and I got stuff and blah blah blah. I'm like, you know, that's but they can't really they can't say that at a pad split. They have their own rooms, that's what they're renting, and then there's the common areas for everybody, so I can always go and check on my house and do what I gotta do.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, it's definitely less maintenance if you can always go in there and then you don't the only and the only thing they to destroy it, technically the room and then any common area, somebody else is gonna complain about it if they you know. I like that business model. I mean, think about it. I mean, if somebody destroys a room, I mean, hell, that's what two not even a grand to fix that back up, paint it, and get get some more stuff in there. So, yeah, that's a good business model, man. I'm uh I'm excited for you because I've been listening to a lot of the Better Life podcast, and Brandon Turner's all in on it. You know, he's they're going all in on it. So, and I think DFW is one of those markets where we're we're just you know, so many people are moving here, you got the clientele for it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and um and if you look at it from the the person who wants to rent, and I'll I'll say this because furnish finder. We've all kind of like eh, whatever furnish finder, it's like an afterthought nowadays.
Furnished Finder crossover and three-month stays
SPEAKER_02Back in COVID days, we were making handover fists because of furnish finder because all the you know, travel nurses and covet and stuff like that. But then it's cooled down a lot, and they want they don't want they they don't want to pay a lot of money for a place, right? And so now I put I posted my my house on Furnish Finder and I got it, you know, renting room by room 700 bucks a room. I'm like, so I'm already getting bites off of Furnish Finder people wanting to stay because you know they get a room and they get a whole house for 700 bucks all in. You know what I'm saying? That's cheap. That's what you know, they want to pay a thousand bucks or less.
SPEAKER_03So are you allowed to rent on Furnish Finder and on Pad Split?
SPEAKER_02So they have to sign up for the Pad Split app.
SPEAKER_03Oh, so you're you'll just send them over to Pad Split.
SPEAKER_02Right. I send them the link to my house and then they'll it'll show them how to sign up and stuff. And plus my um I talked to Justin, he said, if it's if it's someone that we that we sourced, uh uh a guest or or whatever tenant we sourced, they'll waive like the hundred dollar fee that they that they charge to book a place. You know what I'm saying? There's like a hundred dollar fee up front to book a room. But if it's one of our, you know, if I want my brother to stay there or my uh cousin or or or someone I find on Furnish Finder, and I and and they'll they'll waive that hundred dollar fee.
SPEAKER_03Okay. And then what's your average length of stay?
SPEAKER_02So they three months is pretty much typical. Now now I'm saying the start, the starting off point. They always pretty much they always sign the first three months. You know what I'm saying? Now they say that there's a way for for the get um guests or tenants to sign a month. Month, you know, at a time, but they charge them a higher premium for that capability. So most everybody is gonna sign up for the initial three months. And he said most of them extend out probably nine months to a year at a place.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, that ain't bad. Now this is my thing. So you're saying they'll go up on that fee if they want anything shorter?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if they want to do month to month, they're gonna have to pay a higher premium.
SPEAKER_03Oh you know. I'm liking this.
SPEAKER_02And if you look at like the the requests that come in from Furnish Finder, it's mostly three month stays.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. That's awesome, man. That's a hit because right now rent's too high. You know, one two bed, like in a DFW, what? One bedroom apartment, what $1,800? If that, probably more. Man, this is a good that's a good lick, man. I like that business model. So if you got what 700 times six, yeah, 4200 if you do it like that.
SPEAKER_02I do have a big room in the back that I would charge more, you know, like closer to 800. So and then the passive guy said, Yeah, you probably average around 4300 at your place. Okay.
SPEAKER_03And so how often are reservations come like uh requests coming in?
SPEAKER_02So, like I said, I've been up for two weeks and I already got three rooms filled, and then I got that other request. So uh in two weeks, I guess four requests, and then one I turned down.
SPEAKER_03Oh man, bro, this seems like a hit, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I I I am talking to the one of the persons that that reached out to me on Furnish Finder, one of the guys, and he and he likes it. He's he wants he he he wants the room and he you know the big room has uh its own entrance too. Uh uh and but he said he has a he has a cat. And that's the only thing I don't allow I don't allow pets at the at the pad split. Because I you think about it, man. If if six people came in there with pets, man, it's gonna be a no.
SPEAKER_03No, so hold on. This is my question, though. I have a question on that.
SPEAKER_02Pad split allows pets. You can allow pets if you want. It's up to you, it's your house. But I don't know. I would like, no, there's no way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's no way. There's like yeah, that's crazy,
No pets policy and the cat request
SPEAKER_03man. I wouldn't even want like a well, I don't know. I can't because remember, pets is a kind of a sensitive thing.
SPEAKER_02Hey, you know what? I don't okay. I don't know if it's a rule, actually. I need to I need to go back and and and check it out if it's a rule that there's no pets, because that you would think there'd be liability for the other for the other guests, right?
SPEAKER_03Not only liability, but also isn't there like a like a you know like a gray space when you tell people you can't allow pets because you know the emotional support will be.
SPEAKER_02Well you you he okay, that emotional support thing's done, but you can they the the the real um service dogs with paper you have to those aren't those aren't considered pets, so you have to allow yeah so pets.
SPEAKER_03That's interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you have to allow that.
SPEAKER_03I'm happy you brought that up because I never I would have never thought about pets. I'm like, ain't nobody bringing no pet to no bedroom, but you never know. People, you know, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The guy wanted he brought bring a cat, you know. And I and to me, I was like, you know, I was thinking about he has his own entrance and all that stuff, but I was like, uh man, you know, a lot of people are allergic to cats, dude. Uh me, one of them. Me being one of them. And I said, I just can't really, yeah, I I can't allow it. But he said, well, let me see if I can find an arrangement for it, and then um, and I'll let you know. So, all right, cool. Let me know. But yeah, I just so so yeah, one person I just posted the the furnish finder last night and and I got that hit right away. So so hopefully, and um, and that's what Justin was telling me. He said somebody else did the furnish finder thing and they got booked up like in a week, you know what I'm saying? For Milan Pets, no, not pets, just furnish finder people. Oh, okay, okay, gotcha. Yeah, and so they got booked up in about a week. And so um, so yeah, that's a lot of people on furniture finder don't want to pay a lot of money, so I think it's it's a great, you know, a great thing for them.
SPEAKER_03Damn, man. So you know I closed on my duplex and it's six beds, four baths. I don't know, but it's in a different state, but I'm like, dang, if it was here seven hundred times six with four baths, I could probably and there's a big ass living room, I could split it in half, make two bedrooms. So I'd have eight six three, four. So it's three, two on each side. Three, two on each side. Yeah, I could make it a ten bedroom four baths. Why don't you do it? Well, it's it's it's in Arkansas, it doesn't have the density like that. Like Texas. Texas has more land density.
Ten-bedroom conversion math for a duplex
SPEAKER_03Pad splits pad splits' biggest hit is due to affordable housing. But people in affordable housing are usually in dense populations like the DFW. Because we're what, we're the third largest Metroplex, yeah, it wouldn't work out there.
SPEAKER_02So they can get an apartment cheap over there anyways, you're saying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can get an apartment for 700 bucks a month. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, so but even at that, like let's say you were charging 400 a month on 10 bedrooms, that's $5,000 a month. So it's still, you know, but my goal with this duplex is make $5,000 per side a month. So that'd be but I'm I'm like, dang, if I was to come down here, because we are gonna start looking at we're gonna do some flips here, but I mean if I have to hold it, because you know the days on markets going up because it's a buyer's market, if I have to hold something, that would be a good way to well, I don't know, pad split. Yeah, I would possibly pad split and maybe sell it as a pad split.
SPEAKER_02I would try it at one, just see, just so you know what's going on in the because I think it's the it's the next big thing, it's the next Airbnb.
SPEAKER_03It it is. I mean, there it has no choice. Look at the the density of America right now, bro. Like we did a I was listening was it Brandon Turner's like they said we did a horrible job of building America's infrastructure as far as like houses. Like, look how much house each family has to have. Other countries that don't do that. Yeah, yeah. So like you have to have affordable housing. You're either gonna build a bunch of apartment complexes or you're gonna have to subsidize housing, like do tiny homes on a lot, or do pad splits. And pad split seems to be the first one in line. So I definitely think it's the next wave, has to be.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, if I was you know young and in school with a job, you know, I would I would have probably done one. I would have probably rented a pad split.
SPEAKER_03Easily, like I would live in a room in one of the rooms, you know. Imagine if you could live in one bedroom, let them pay the mortgage, you go to college, whatever. You could put yourself through college at that rate, you know what I mean? Yeah, bro. That's yeah, that's I think that I like that idea, man. Let me know. Yeah, keep us, keep us in the loop on that one because I want to know what's it like once you get 100% occupied. Because it seems like you have three, you said you have three chill dudes in there, they probably all get along and it's kind of easy, okay.
SPEAKER_02And and the third dude, he's a cool guy because like he he was um, you know, and uh here's the cool thing. Because like whenever whenever someone requests a book, Passplit gives you their phone number right away and their email address, you know, it's not like Airbnb, right? So they gave you so you can reach out and talk to them. You do a zoom call with them, you can do a telephone call, whatever. I zoom called the first guy, but after that I was like, yeah, it's kind of weird. I'll do phone calls and just talk to these people. And and he was a cool dude, and I just asked him about himself, you know, and he told me he's a young dude, 24 years old, got a you know, got a j a job doing some computer stuff at home for some company, and and um he was staying with his mom, but he wanted to hop out and get his own place, and so he saw he's starting to try this passport thing out, and just a real cool guy. And um I said, alright, cool, man. If you if you really want to, you know, you jump in, I think, yeah, I think we'll have you. I think it'd be good to have you. And so he booked and he moved in. Um and and like it was day two. He was he's tech he texted me, or he sent a message to the app. He said, Hey Steve, uh just wondering if you any chores you want me to do with the house. And I was like, Well, I was like on the fridge, I got like every room, you know, there's a day that they clean the common areas, you know, like I said, room one and on Mondays, room two, Tuesday, whatever, on and on. And then um, and those that's also the laundry day, too. So they won't get people all trying to use the laundry at the same time, you know what I'm saying? So Monday is laundry day for room one, Tuesday for room, and Sunday's kind of like open whoever wants to do it, but um, and so I said, but I mean, if you if you wanna like you know, clean up or just sweep and mop, whatever you want to do any day of the week, you're welcome to, you know, but and everybody's got their designated days, but if you feel like doing something, I mean I'm not gonna I'm not gonna stop you. Yeah, he's like, Yeah, man, cool. I'll I'll do something. All right, dude. And so like it, and that's that's what's um that's what Justin was mentioning to me. I was like, well, what do I do? Do I send my cleaner every week to clean the place? What do I do? He's like, well, try to get them to to everybody pitch in and clean so they can have that pride of of having a place, you know what I'm saying? Everybody, everybody is pulling their weight in a way.
SPEAKER_03No, I have a good question. Because you said the woman, I know the woman was gonna be a pet headache or a pain in the ass or whatever she was.
Male vs female tenant dynamics and house culture
SPEAKER_03Would you have wanted her there with all the guys? And are you kind of like doing it women only men only, or are you kind of mixing and matching?
SPEAKER_02Now, I'll say this starting off, it's illegal to discriminate for correct, correct. Yeah, for sex, age, creed, whatever. It's illegal to discriminate. But that I mean, that does uh cross my mind. Not that I could discriminate anyways, but what what what um Justin said, he goes, houses kind of naturally, if like two or three dudes book, they naturally become a guy's house, or if a few girls book it out it naturally because becomes a girl house, because they can see who else is staying there. That's what I was gonna ask.
SPEAKER_03That was my next question.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like you, I I you know what I'm gonna do this week. I'm gonna create a pad split account, like as if I'm someone who wants to book and kind of play around in there and see. Cause yeah, that that's interesting. Because I would be like, because I wonder why that woman, she's seen three dudes in there. She was like, hey, let me maybe just cause she was a pest and like none of the female house was like, hell no, we don't want this girl here. No, for real. Like, I you know, yeah, that's interesting though. Yeah, it makes sense.
SPEAKER_02It's a possibility, it's a possibility. But I mean, then again, she she chose the room with its own private entrance, too.
SPEAKER_03So maybe oh okay.
SPEAKER_02But still, you know, I just I just saw the bad reviews. I was like, Yeah, I don't wanna I don't want to mess with this. Um but anyways.
SPEAKER_03So okay, and then I'm my next question is how about the common areas? Like, are you are are they are because I remember when we first started talking about when Justin was talking about it, he said you don't want them in the common areas. Do you have like couches in there or is it just kind of like empty space?
SPEAKER_02So the common areas I do have a few couches. I do have a few couches in there, you know, people can chill outside of the room sometimes. And then I do have uh a dining table with some dining chairs, and I have the kitchen that has you know the basics that they would need if they wanted to cook or whatever. And that brings me to something else about cooking. Um and then and then um yeah, and I don't have any TVs. I didn't put it, I didn't put one TV in the whole house, right? And not even the bedrooms? Not even the bedrooms. They said, and and then even Justin was like, he said, yeah, you don't need you don't need to put TVs. People are on their devices or they have an iPad or whatever. If they want to bring a TV, they can bring a TV. Oh but yeah, we he goes, it's probably it's not this is he goes, this is not Airbnb, it's different, you know what I'm saying? And so um, so yeah, I didn't I didn't do any TVs. Um, so it was you know, I just put up the beds. Um, you know, they got the closets, of course, and the the rooms that don't have closets, I put like an armoire, or I put like um this the things that the you know the metal thing that holds hangers and stuff like that. You can set those in the corner so they can hang some clothes and put their shoes in a spot. Um real basic man. Just uh but I did put queen beds and then the big room has a king bed. So I did put some decent beds in there. Um and I didn't I didn't add I have some side tables, but I didn't add a deck. I I'm gonna I think I'm gonna start putting
No TVs, basic furniture, and queen beds
SPEAKER_02some desks in there because you can put getting them for pretty cheap, you know. Yeah. So I'm gonna start putting some desks in the room, see how, see, you know, just try to enhance the experience a little.
SPEAKER_03I have a question though. Has he did he was he able to give you like let's say you did put TVs and desks in there? Could you charge him 900 instead of 700?
SPEAKER_02I don't that's a good question, man. I'm learning all this stuff. Now, desks, I don't know if I don't know if that'll warrant $900. You know, he yeah oh go go ahead. Well he told me about he um Justin was because I was asking him a bunch of questions and he said for about yeah, $700 a month probably the sweet spot for for your your house and your location and your rooms or whatever. That's what that's what he suggested.
SPEAKER_03Because I was charging $700 renting per room here, but I was giving them desks, mini fridges, a desk, mini fridge TV, and now you can even put like a monitor, keyboard, and mouse in there with the docking station. They could work from home like that. I'm pretty sure a tech, like if you would get a house full of tech people like who work in IT, they pay a thousand a month for that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and there are houses. I've seen some really, really nice ones that have those mini fridges and and desks. How much are they charging per room? A little bit more. They're not they're not charging a thousand bucks a month, I don't think, but they're charging they're charging a little bit more than what I'm charging. And so yeah, you should deck one of the rooms all out just to see. See how it goes. Yeah, see how it gets.
SPEAKER_03Like, even if you I would deck out a main bedroom, like the entrance, a main suite, and then a smaller one, like just put everything in it and then see how much you can charge for it. Like, let's say you charge a l let's say you charge eleven hundred for one of those. Man, imagine if you started getting a thousand per room. I was I'm just wondering because I I would like with so many people coming here that's in tech, man. You could easily put like a because I used to charge more on Airbnb just by simply having a desk, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a logic tech camera they can use.
SPEAKER_02Right, right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So I was wondering. I might have to look on password.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Yeah, you do some A B A B testing.
SPEAKER_03Some A B testing on that.
SPEAKER_02Interesting stuff, man. Um yeah, I mean, there's so many possibilities. That's that's what's cool, but I just kind of looked about houses in my area, right? Yeah to see to see how they how they were doing it, and I kind of matched it to what was going on in my area. Um, like I said, and there are some houses in higher end there in neighborhoods that have that. I mean, like I said, the whole house is decked out. You could tell it was like it was probably a high-end Airbnb before, but they're trying something different now. You can kind of tell, get that feel for it.
SPEAKER_03Oh man. Um so I went to Noble's um he had a government contract thing, and that's what they were doing. It was a higher end Airbnb, but they rented it per room. I don't know if they were pad splitting it, but they were renting it per room. I don't, but I didn't see inside the private room, so yeah, that that is starting to become a thing.
SPEAKER_02Okay, okay. Yeah, I mean it's it's um no, I I I like it so far. I like it so far. So um it's doing okay. Um I did I did tell you that you know, creating the extra rooms, I had to make like a hallway in the back room, the king, the the master bedroom. Yeah, you can't because you had to give access to that bathroom to the rest of the house, you know, so it'll be so the ratio would be right. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_03That makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Three bedrooms to each to one bathroom, you know. Okay. So there's some things you gotta do. So I I turned I can't, I mean it to me, I'm like, man, I can't believe I did this shit. Because I I turned I I was like, all right, man, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna turn my house into a pad split. And I added two bedrooms and put walls up and all that stuff. And I told you from way back in the day when we about touring one of those pad splits that that someone was doing, remember? Yeah, and it was like a Frankenstein house, and I was like, I don't man, what the hell's going on in this place, you know? And I so from that from those days, I was like, man, what is pad split, man? It's just like this halfway house kind of thing, but it's come a long way since then, man.
Corporate housing middleman demanding Four Seasons at Walmart prices
SPEAKER_02And like I said, you know, you're getting the a lot of ex Airbnbers out there that ain't making, you know, they're not hitting their numbers, so they're like, shit, I'm just gonna turn it into a pad split.
SPEAKER_03Man, and you know, and you know, there's this new thing called mini stays, they're doing like the short midterm rentals. I think pad split's gonna hit because what I've just started to notice about people, they don't like doing the advertisement, they rather just be on a platform because they want the platform to do the work for them, and that's why I'm seeing like Pad Split, Mini Stays, all these new companies are coming in because people are at the wits in with Airbnb. So a lot of these new tech companies, they're able to make like a little small gap or niche for you know other people. And I think Pad Split's one of them, mini stays is one of them. So yeah, it's a lot of little uh little little gaps that are starting to sink into the market.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, people are fed up with Airbnb, man. The way they keep adding rules against us and and kicking suspending our listings because of a Karen and kicking us off the platform and charging, you know, giving full refunds to guests. I mean, people are really pissed off at Airbnb.
SPEAKER_03I can see it, man. And I have I'm gonna be honest, I ain't had an Airbnb reservation in we just had one from a client of mine for three months. It's like a $10,000 reservation she got. But we don't be getting Airbnb reservations, they're either through verbo or direct. Yeah, so I I see why. I see it. And then but this new mini stays thing, I'm gonna probably check them out. They're uh they're real big on corporate and midterm, but you know me, I don't like the plat. Because it still gives you like that middleman feeling. I haven't used it yet, but we'll see. Oh, speaking of middleman feeling, because I wanted to talk to you about the text you sent me about a particular company. I don't know, I'm not gonna say names. I'll let you say the name if you want to, but you can go in like to details about what happened.
SPEAKER_01Which which was this text? Uh when was this text?
SPEAKER_04It was right before, either right before or right after Passfoot. You said you hosted somebody from a particular company that we both know.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. I'm not gonna say the company.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, don't say the company. Don't say the company or the person.
SPEAKER_02You just say No, neither or the person, but um So we got you know, I got a house out there in I'll just say North Dallas area. Okay. And someone that we know um that has a corporate housing company sent us some potential clients.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02And you know, our price was around $7,500 a month for this place, for this house. Like if they're gonna do corporate, right? And they they said, Oh, can you do better price? Can you do more closer to $6,000 and this and that? They're gonna be, you know, great clients and all this stuff. And so we agreed to six grand, which is way lower than what we charge. Um, but still, it's still a decent profit, whatever. Yeah, anyways, they when they moved in, these people went through this home with the fine tooth comb and looking at any little scuff mark on the wall, or looking at a a crumb on the floor. I mean, you know, you know the type that go in and they just they just tear my place to pieces with say with all this um feedback, right? Sending a million pictures, and I'm like, so so of course, this person that that sent them to us, they like they call me directly because they have my direct number. I don't like that. I like you know, my team to deal with all these people, but they know us, so they they call me directly, just giving me an earful and all this stuff, and just saying this is unacceptable, you know. The the the Karen's favorite phrase, this is unacceptable. Uh and so and these high-end clients, and I'm and I guess I guess they caught me in a bad mood because I was like, I was like, if they're high-end clients, they only want to pay six grand a month for a place. He goes, and there's plenty in that area that are 10,000 plus if they want perfection in a mansion, you know. This ain't that. I'm Walmart, I ain't five seasons or four seasons, whatever you call it. I it's like, and I nothing wrong with people that operate like that, but it's not me. I I like to, you know, nice place, comfortable place for a comfortable price, and and make my money that way and move on. I ain't sitting there and going on my hands and knees with a toothbrush every time someone leaves. You know, that ain't some people do that. Okay, good for them. They want to pay a thousand dollars for a turnover, that's fine. That's not me, that's not my model, and you can't make me be that model for this particular client, and and so it really, yeah, it's been a crazy situation, and that's what that's what sucks about what happens when a Karen pops up, and then someone else is having to deal with it, they want to drag us into it too, you know what I'm saying? And it it ain't my fight, and I and I and I wanted to say this phrase so bad because um I heard it somewhere before, but when when someone was like panicking, telling someone this that their manager this and that, and they that they told them your emergency is not my problem. And so and I've always thought about phrase, you know, you know, you're you need something done, you need something, I need it now because of this. And I know I'm you know, freaking your emergency is not my problem. And so I felt like saying that. I didn't, I kept on the higher ground, but then I did, you know, just getting worn down by these people and this particular um person. I just you know had to let them have it. And it's like, this is not, you know, you can you're not gonna tell me how to run my business. You know, I'm sure you run the business like that. That's fine. But that's not my business model. You know, and they wanted to pay, they want like I said, they want a perfection. There's plenty of places, ten thousand, twelve thousand a month over here. They wanted to pay six grand. They want Walmart, they want four seasons for Walmart prices.
SPEAKER_03Straight up. You know what? And when you were telling me this story, it it actually goes back. I uh so I recorded it last week and I was talking about we kind of just touched on like how people want to be away from Airbnb. And even in midterms, and I used to always tell people if you're getting your reservations through Airbnb off midterm, you're already taking a risk, right? Because it's bit midterm to me is business to business. So basically, you know, like we just talked about Airbnb's new rules. You know, they can a person can make a complaint and then they you'll have to do a full refund. Or the other thing is on Airbnb, you can uh they can um they're they're they're putting you in charge of chargebacks. So that was their Airbnb sweet thing, is they always take care of chargebacks, whatever. So when you were telling me that, I was thinking to myself, that is the importance of being direct to the client, because whenever you do third party through somebody, this person, whoever, you know, the person who you're who's calling you directly, they're probably answering to somebody else. And now they feel like they need to do this tug of war, and now you're kind of in this tug of war situation. Rather than if it was me talking directly to the client and we're having a back and forth, we can now negotiate and get things done. And like when you were telling me that I'm like, man, that is the power in like being direct to clients because you don't want to have to deal with this third party person. Now I'm gonna pressure Steve because I'm under pressure. It's like, hell no, man, I don't want that chain of command crap. Let me talk directly to the client so now we can work some things out. And that's like the same feel from Airbnb. And I think that's why maybe that business model's starting to die off because it sounds like Pad Splits, like, look, hey, here's the dude's phone number, all his information.
Airbnb's September chargeback policy change
SPEAKER_03You call him and check them out. You know what I mean? We've vetted him, but I mean it's your place. And I think that's where a lot of people are with that middleman crap. You can't be a middleman and try to tell me how to run my property, you don't have any control over it. But I mean, it's a great business model. You the host takes the risk, and I just get paid in the middle. And I think that's starting to die off. You know, straight up, man.
SPEAKER_02Chain of command.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, ain't nobody got no chain there. There ain't no chain of command in my property, bro. You can't come and tell me what to do, you know. And I think that's where Airbnb is starting to lose it. You know, ain't nobody, oh, by the way, we're not gonna handle chargebacks. Okay. You you alright? You want to play that game? We're going somewhere else. But I think Airbnb, I think that is the craziest rule I've ever had them hear them say is they're not gonna do chargebacks. Because that's the only reason I'd say a majority of the people are on your platform is do as much as I have gripes with Airbnb, they're really good about like payments, like they'll get you paid. So if they're not doing chargebacks, that's like whoa, like, and I'm pretty sure they're getting in trouble for it. They're they're probably lose paying a lot in insurance for chargebacks.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wait a minute. So so that's a new thing. They're I mean, so if someone does a chargeback on a card, then Airbnb is not gonna cover that for you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. You you didn't see the new payment policies that's coming. Oh, that's going into effect in September.
SPEAKER_02Holy smokes.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I didn't know you didn't know that, man.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh.
SPEAKER_03Oh, bro, it's a bunch of man. Go Google like Airbnb's new payment policies, bro. Like, especially like the ones on long-term reservations, where like I think it's um basically if somebody stink has like a six-month reservation, they can just up and say something's wrong, get like a huge portion of their money back. Yeah, bro, they just updated all their pay payment policies. So I'm kind of considering like, dang, because I haven't had a midterm through there, but I just had my a person I managed for got a midterm through there, and I'm just like, damn, I don't really want this through there, but we'll we'll work it out, whatever. But yeah, man, check out the case.
SPEAKER_02Now would it would it get as bad as like um booking.com was back in the day.
SPEAKER_03You talk you saying, Yeah, see, I don't know. That's what I was wondering. Is it gonna get as bad as booking.com? I don't know. See, and that's like this is what my my thought process. If Airbnb knows that's always been their sweet spot, either they're gonna do due diligence up front, or if they're starting to see a lot of people have this chargeback issue, I I could not I cannot see Airbnb sticking to that and not making a change. Like, hey, we're gonna go back to doing this. But I don't know, you don't know how far that is in their pocketbooks that that's hurting them. Yeah, because if they they've always been overcharged back and all that, imagine how much they pay out in insurance for that. So yeah, that's been yeah, that I was like, man, I was on bigger pockets forums and people were pissed. I was like, damn.
SPEAKER_02Man, and you and you know, going back to the the middleman thing, right? Yeah, it is his thing. And and I told you that I have this um this house that I purchased earlier this year that has a pool, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And but you know, I had several I had a bunch of um pokers in the fire, as they say. I had a bunch of stuff going on. So uh someone that I know, I let them go ahead and arbitrage it from me, right? Yeah, and so I'm renting it, yeah, renting it out to an arbitrager. So they're doing the Airbnb and stuff like that. I'm just uh you know, primary landlord. And anyways, so they um I mean they had a few bookings. I mean, they made this place freaking beautiful, right? I like I mean they painted walls, you know, the what's it called? The the accent walls, they put this cool wallpaper up in the bathrooms. I mean, just like really, really nice and high-end furniture. And and um look, the place looks beautiful. And um, I didn't have to do it. They did it. Yeah, and so, anyways, they they I was you know, they reached out to me the other day, talked about uh okay, so you know, we've been getting a lot of rain here, right? I mean a lot of rain. Yeah, crazy like crazy rain um in Texas, in North Texas too, anywhere. And and so they reached out to me, my pool guy cleans like on Mondays, right? So some guests checked in on Wednesday, but from Monday through Wednesday, we had like heavy, heavy rain. So of course the pool was a little bit, you know, had had leaves blown in it and you know, branches, because they clean once a week. They don't go every single day to clean your pool. And so, you know, they had a there was a guest complaining about oh, the pool wasn't clean, it's dirty, and this and that, and and and so so she's freaking out, the host and talking to Steve, is the pools, they said it's dirty. Well, the pool guy was there Monday. I showed he showed pictures, it looked good, but we've had a lot of rain, you know. Oh, okay, okay. Um I said, you know what, I'm gonna be what's it called? Oh, I said, I'll send the guy um out again because if it is get like that and it's for your client, I'll send him, see if he can go by and scoop out a little bit. And um and so he did. He sent pictures, it was clean, and but they were just like, it was one of his it's always it's always funny because once I say this, you'll be like, oh, I know that type. You know, he goes, and the person said, Um, I have a pool, I have a pool at home, I know how to take care of it, and they're not taking you know, it's one of those things, just like they would go hey, then go clean it, bitch. But it's just it's just like it reminds you, oh, I have I host Airbnbs, and you know, it's always the worst ones, right? The ones that have their own Airbnb and they know everything about Airbnb, and then they rent your Airbnb and you I know how to I have my own Airbnb and blah blah blah. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04You remember back in the day we used to see it says also a host, you immediately reject their with the pools, also a pool owner.
SPEAKER_02Anyways, I I um I said you know what? Because like she had said some things, yeah, they've been complaining about it, and and I said, I'm I'm I'm gonna be out at my Pad Split, you know, this weekend. I'll I'm gonna cruise by and see what's going on with the pool. I got there, it's fuck freaking immaculate, it looked beautiful. I was like, I was like, what is what was the you know, he had checked out, the guy had checked out, and I showed her I walked around videos. This pool looks I don't know, looks great. I don't know what he's talking about. He said the guy didn't didn't scrub the walls right and all this stuff, you know. Now the now the pool like the the paint is kind of like an aqua blue. So I was like, maybe he thinks that's algae or something. I don't know what's going on with this guy. And um, I did drop like a like a D algae thing because he that guy mentioned algae, but I dropped one of them in the in the skimmer, and I just but there was the pool was great. And I was like, and and I told her, you know, it's like I I know you know you're kind of new to Airbnb, but you're gonna get some Karen's, and you know, and and yeah, if you want to cater to them like that, that's fine. But you know, you kind of bring me into it too, in a way, because I'm the the landlord, and yes, I I'm I'm responsible for for the pool maintenance. I told you that when y'all rented, and um, and I and I take care of the pool, but I can't be at the whim. I mean, has I said, has anybody else complained about the pool? No, nobody else is complaining, just this guy. I said, Well, you know, and uh don't freak out. You're gonna get some people that that that are like that. And and that what sucks and it reminds me of like I got the Karen's over at that house in North Dallas that you know that I got dragged into because of some Karen's, and then you know, they got got a male Karen talking about the pool, and I got dragged into it, you know, and I'm like, wait a minute, you know I I dealing with it myself, I you know, I got like oh doing this hospitality for years now. You got a thicker skin, and you're like we don't we don't we don't um bow down to these people, right? You know, we you know we don't bow down, and just because you ex you want to bow down to them doesn't mean I gotta bow down.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So so yeah, that was a unique um situation.
SPEAKER_03And that situation right there? That's what I'm afraid of with this new Airbnb crap. So we're gonna be watching keeping your eye on stuff like that. Keep your eye on stuff like that. Now I have a question. Did you why did you choose to do the pool maintenance? You just wanted to make sure the pool was good and just didn't kind of trust the the Airbnb person to do it?
SPEAKER_02Um so that's that was a part of it. And um hold on one second. Go ahead and just talk amongst yourself, Michael.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. So yeah. So I was just wondering like why you decided to take over that pool thing. Seems like probably they didn't especially her being new to Airbnb and probably not knowing like pool maintenance and how everything runs on it. I was wondering maybe you didn't want it didn't want to hand that over, but I understand it because I don't know if I'd trust like a person to be over the pool maintenance. But uh yeah, but those guests do come. The guests that uh want to complain about every little thing. I'm knock on wood. I have not had one in a while due to everything being midterm. Hopefully I don't get them. Um so yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'll answer your question now.
unknownYeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02And uh this is this is I I'll tell you why I pause right now. Cause it because uh one of the pad splitters texted me that uh the toilet's clogged. And I told you I'm I'm handling the pad split until I can learn how all the ins and outs, and I can just hand it off to my group. Yeah, just close it and go back to downs on the okay. So so I had to so I had to answer this thing because I'm kind of the pad split person until I until I pass it on to my group, and then they they know how to call the maintenance out there and respond to the guests and all that stuff. Yeah, anyway, and you can do co-host on Pad Split too and all that stuff, but anyways, so the pool thing. I my first house I've well I own a house with a pool, you know. But that's this this is my first rental house that I have with a pool. So I was like, I know it it is uh a little bit involved to take care of a pool, especially you never had one before. So I was like, you know, I'm gonna I'm just gonna raise the price to a certain amount,
Why Steve handles pool maintenance himself
SPEAKER_02right? Because it's uh in and just include the pool maintenance as part of the price. That's how I wanted to do it because I didn't trust, I guess, um, tenants to take care of the pool. What if they don't know how to do the chemicals or they do it wrong? I mean, a pool can get green quick, man. And then you're spending hundreds of dollars to try to get it back to good. You know what I'm saying? So, so um I said, I'm gonna take care of the pool, and I'm gonna get a pool guy, put him on it, but I'm just gonna raise the price to eat that, you know. Now, going out there for Karen's and stuff like that, that whatever the there's a branch in there or whatever the hell, you know, that's that's gonna add up. And I and I'll let them know. I mean, I'll have the I have the scooper out there and go scoop it out your damn self, like Micah said. And a scrubber, if you is give give it a good scrub. I have the scooper and the scrubber, and um and so they can do little things themselves at the pool, right? And um someone did I did have like an older like robot out there, and someone took the like the pool robot that crawls, you know, the wall had one of them, and um and it was taken apart in pieces. I don't know what the hell happened to it. I mean it wasn't it, it was an old one and not an expensive one, so I was like, I'm not too crazy, you know. But I I do got to replace that. But just the pool maintenance, I wanted to to keep it me doing it and making sure the pool was in good shape at all times.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Because it, I mean, I mean me, I didn't know what the hell I was doing with a pool my first year. I owned one, and yeah, that shit kept turning green over and over again.
SPEAKER_05You know, I just yeah, yeah, to learn it.
SPEAKER_02It's a learning curve. So someone that's a a tenant, especially if the tenant lives in Canada, how how good are they gonna take care of it? You know what I'm saying? And the cleaner is like, yeah, it's clean enough, you know, the cleaner ain't gonna care either. Um, but so yeah, I I handle the pool maintenance, I just add it kind of to the price of the rent.
SPEAKER_03Okay, okay. That's yeah, and then you upcharge on the rent. You can't lose there. Can't lose there. So, like right now, you said you're getting on Zillow, and you know, I I've been talking about it the last couple weeks, you know, where we are officially in a buyer's market. Deals are to be made. Uh, are you seeing any good deals out there?
Buyer's market deals and the 1952 foundation disaster
SPEAKER_02I am. I I'm glad you said that because like I'm I'm seeing some pretty good deals, man. And I I did, you know, there was one house I looked at. Um I did I looked at it again today. Okay. I'll give you uh okay, he's gone right now. I'll give I'll give you a thing. It's um what's it called? Um it's in Arlington, of course. I'm liking Arlington now. C plus C C Arlington, C plus Arlington, and which which is crazy because you know it kept all of us out of Arlington. Was we we couldn't do short-term rentals. And and of course that wouldn't work for the corporate model because we always got to fill in the gaps with short-term rentals. So they went gung-ho against against short-term rentals, and it kept a lot of people out. But I'm liking Arlington and and um the C neighborhoods, uh, that you can get a really good deal. Now, this is this house I saw. It has a house in the front, four-bedroom house, uh, two-bath, and then it has like a giant mother-in-law suite in the back.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02And for a good price, I think it was like 230 grand. And so you're getting like two houses for the price of one. And and I said, Man, I could turn in two, I could turn in this dining room into another room, and then I could turn this little garage into another room. I was looking at six bedrooms, plus I have a whole apartment in the back, you know. I was thinking, man, this thing's gonna make bank, right? My mortgage is gonna be eighteen hundred bucks. Um, so, anyways, I I was I already put in an offer, this and that, and um I I I you know I went really low, lower than the 230. And then um, and they said, No, it needs to be a little higher. And then we went, I said, you know what? I told my agent, can we go tour it with a foundation person? Because it felt wonky. It felt like I'm you're you're you know, walking downhill in certain spots, right? Okay, and so he pretty much said, you know, this house built in 1952, the foundation's crumbling, um, the back edition's not even probably not even to code, so you might have to get rid of that whole back edition. And he goes, and the and the foundation's cracking in that back in that back um mother-in-law suite, too. And he's like, Man, he goes, You don't know what how much this this could cost, you know, it could cost 100 grand after all said and done, right? All the stuff you gotta fix. And then if you start moving the foundation, you know, you start cracking the plumbing and you gotta go under the house and fix all the plumbing, and it's like, yeah, so it was a no. But um, but I am looking for how like I said, like I said before, I'm looking for for pat split type houses.
SPEAKER_03That's a good thing, man. And the thing about it is when you start, when you hone in like that, you're gonna find jewels and diamonds in the rough because you have a target that you're looking for. And once you have that target that you're looking for and you know what you're gonna do with it, in times like this, when you're in a buyer's market, you have the advantage of negotiation rather than someone, I'm just looking for a long-term rental, they're gonna limit themselves. A whole bunch of people are looking for that. You know what I mean? So, like, I was just talking to my friend, like, hey, when I'm looking at properties, I'm looking at like midterm rental play, short-term and midterm rental play together. So I know what type of properties. I want three twos, two bed, three beds, two baths, and also a garage if possible. But if it doesn't have a garage, that's fine. As long as it has that three-bedroom, two-bath, I can host a family. So, yeah, man, that's good that you, you know, once you know what you're looking for on Pad Split, go after it and attack it. Find your niche.
SPEAKER_02Find your niche. Smack my niche, smack my niche up. There you go.
SPEAKER_03That's for real. That's what you gotta do, man. And then like right now, with it being a buyer's market, like you just said, I'm starting to see good deals pop up too. Like those days on markets start popping up. Now people are gonna have to make some changes, and they're predicting interest rates to go down in 2026 to 6.1. I don't know if it does happen, but if it does, I got two refinances I need to pop. And if they go up, well, we get wealthy, wealthier and less competition and uh a little bit more deals, good deals to make, you know, those interest rates go up. So you're in a win-win situation, depending on your mindset.
SPEAKER_02You know, and I I had meant, I think I mentioned on the show, I put together the whole the passport with all uh Facebook Marketplace stuff, man. I I did, and I was thinking, you know, okay, everybody's talking about the tariffs, prices going up, inflation. You can still get stuff cheap as hell on Facebook Marketplace.
Prime Day furniture haul for the Arkansas duplex
SPEAKER_03It's uh hardwood, sleigh beds, beautiful. Bro, and speaking of like, man, speaking of like inflation and shit, uh so you know I just set up those three beds too bad, right? I I I just got back to Texas shit last night, one o'clock in the morning driving. Dude, man, we got so many prime day deals. Like I was saying, that's why luck is when preparation preparation meets opportunity. Because we got like after we closed, we closed on the duplex on on the first, right? Three days later, I didn't know prime day was coming up, so mahogany starts ordering all the furniture. He's like, Oh man, it's prime day. Man, we loaded up those carts, bro. I was like, oh man, we bro, we so we bought a table for 300 bucks. We went to the furniture store because we needed to get dressers. We found the tame table in the store, and it was a $900 table. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_02I was like, wow. So yeah, we were getting some good deals. That is good, man. Yeah. And that's for the house in Arkansas?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the duplex, the two do the three two duplex. So we're getting that set up right now. Um, I'm excited about that. That's gonna be a hit, a good hit for us. I'm excited about that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you you'd be having you'd be putting all that furniture together and stuff.
SPEAKER_03Uh no, we have uh we had a team down there to it.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03The only reason we went down is because we had a whole bunch of furniture in our garage. I'm like, let's clear this garage out. We ended up having we ended up getting a bunch of refunds because some of the stuff we already had, so we were like getting refunds from Amazon and everything. Oh, another thing, another Amazon tip, and I didn't know this. If any of your stuff is like dinged up, like any type of scratch on it, and you got it through Amazon Prime, bro, they're either gonna fully replace it or send you a like a small refund. Like we were uh the guy was putting together the bed, and you know, they're on the little uh Zen Zenus beds, you know, there's the little buttons on them. One of the buttons was missing. We took a picture of it, told Amazon, they're like, oh man, since it's a bed, we'll just send you 80 bucks off. I'm like, damn. So and the bed was already on prime day. We probably got it for like a king bed for like 130. So yeah, I was like a $60 bed. I ain't mad at it. However, that's 60-70, however much that is. So yeah, man.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, mattresses are high as hell, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we got those on Prime, yeah. We got those on Prime. Mattresses are high as hell.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What do you spend on Prime for like a couple hundred bucks?
SPEAKER_03I don't know how much you spent on the mattresses, but they were 40% off. I just remember her saying they were 40% off.
SPEAKER_02You still get the um medium, the medium hard uh what's it called? Foam beds, the medium memory.
SPEAKER_03I do the xenus memory foam, that's what we do.
SPEAKER_02Okay, but like the medium, right? You don't get they got hard, medium, and soft. So I think.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I forgot which one. I think we could get the medium, I think. I'm not sure. But yeah, those are good beds. Really? Yeah. I do the Zenus, we did the Xenus, the Kings and the Queens and Zenus, and we love those beds. They don't know.
SPEAKER_02You know, you they sell those at Walmart now, right? You know that do they? Yeah, they sell them at Walmart. So you can you can like and I and you know, I did a video, I put the I put together that whole one bedroom apartment and uh with all Walmart stuff.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. You can hey you can do it, man. I saw I seen uh I seen an 85-inch TV for $670 at Walmart. Yeah, they're so I was like, damn, bro. TCO, uh it was a high sense Roku TV too. I was like, damn, $670 for an 85? If you put an 85 in an Airbnb, man, that that's with a king size bed, that's hitting all day. But yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now every now and then you get a guest that can't understand a Roku. Rokus are so easy, man. I'm like, how could you not understand a Roku Roku?
SPEAKER_03I have not. Yeah, I haven't dealt with one of those in a while, man. Yeah, if you don't understand. A Roku at this point. I mean, I ain't gonna lie. Since I've been doing like short terms, midterms, I got Roku's in my house. Like the only one that's not a Roku is the one that's in my uh my in my office right here. But the rest of them, Roku's, bro. I got a 75-inch Roku. I got off the neighbor. He was like, Yeah, man, I just have a bunch of them, and he gave it to us for like 300 bucks.
SPEAKER_04Like, hell yeah, shit. I'm mad at that shit in my living room so quick.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So would you would you keep uh a storage unit going to just to get deals?
SPEAKER_03Dude, that's crazy. You said that mahogany brought that up. She was like, Man, we just need to keep a storage unit. And I was like, I was thinking about it. I'm like, yeah, we could. I'm considering it. I'm considering it. Because if you kept the storage unit, storage unit
Storage unit debate and Facebook Marketplace in rich neighborhoods
SPEAKER_03is what? Depending on the size, maximum 200 a month, depending on the size, but I'm considering it, man. How about you?
SPEAKER_02Man, I had one and you know, I never I never well I did I did get one because I moved out of a house. Yeah. And so I needed a place for all this stuff, and I didn't have another arbitrage coming or something like that. So I did get one for that reason. And then um someone else gave me some furniture, so I had that place jam-packed, but I just I never went over there until I until I purchased my um this other house, the the the second house I bought this year on owner finance. Uh I told you that deal, you know, six percent down, owner finance deal. Yeah, I think six percent interest. And um no credit check, no bank, no nada. So can't beat it. So I I did furni I did put most of that furniture furniture there, you know. And so I once I got it down to like I got rid of most of it, I was like, man, I don't need a storage unit no more. I just closed it down. Yeah, and I and I was just thinking, you know, it sounds like a good idea, but if I'm if I'm gonna be using marketplace more when I'm putting together a place, then it's always gonna everybody's always giving getting rid of junk, right? Everybody's always getting rid of stuff. So it's always gonna be some deals on there every single day. So I don't need to store a bunch of stuff in there and wait for a rainy day for to use it and then pay 100 something a month, you know, for it. I'm just thinking, uh I just it's better if I if I need a uh sofa or I need a bed, I just hit up marketplace, see what I can get, and then just go take it over there.
SPEAKER_03That's how it is, man. You can do yeah, it depends. If you have the time, I always tell people do marketplace, marketplace, Craigslist, whatever else you want to do, man. You can if you got the time, it's because it's the time thing. If you have the time, you can do it. Because you know, some people, sometimes people cancel, sometimes people, oh I can't, oh I sold it already. So you if you have the time to go through all that, man, you can furnish something cheap.
SPEAKER_02Uh I gave you the tip. I gave you all the tip of the of the furniture, I'm sorry, uh, marketplace. Go go to the the rich neighborhoods. That's where you gotta get your bed from, man. Because like I said, they'll they'll once you go in there and then they'll say they're like, oh, hey, um, I'm getting rid of some other stuff too. You wanna you you're interested? I said, what are you getting rid of? Oh, some side tables, some a table over here, and I mean they'll practically give it away for free. You know, you show up for a bed and you're getting all kinds of stuff in your truck, man.
SPEAKER_03I did that uh remember when I we first started this podcast. Was it right after we started? We we we had been doing the podcast a little while. I was working in Frisco, yeah. I used to drive to Frisco all the time. Nice. So, but remember we were setting up units. So when we would set up a unit, I would just before I leave work, I'd just be sitting on marketplace and man, I was getting 60, 70 inch TVs, put them on the back of my truck 200 bucks. We roll and boom, we go get it, roll out. Because, like this one dude, I remember I stopped at his house, had this big ass house up in uh up in Frisco, big ass house. And he was like, Oh, yeah, man, I I got this TV. He's like, I don't want it anymore. I just we just upgraded to a projector. I was like, Oh, okay, and gave me this big 65-inch TV six 200 bucks, hopped it, put it in the truck, took off. Yeah, bro. Yeah, you hit hit those rich neighborhoods. That's a play. And then, like, they're sometimes upgrading furniture, they got brand new looking furniture. Yeah, those are hits all day, bro.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. One one thing I was joking around about, I was like, you know, you go to go to those rich white neighborhoods because you know, they got maybe one kid, maybe two, you know. We crank them out like crazy, but they you know, they don't have a lot of kids, and so once those kids start going to school, they have like five rooms of furniture and they're gonna turn it into a yoga room or some shit. And so they're gonna they don't need side tables no more, they don't need dressers no more. You go for a bed for a hundred bucks, a thousand dollar bed for a hundred bucks, and they're loading your truck up, man. It's like it's insane, man.
SPEAKER_04For real, bro.
SPEAKER_03Those are hits, man, all day, bro. You go to like like I'm gonna tell y'all the sweet spots in the DFW. If you go from like Los Kalinas, that that circle from like Los Kalinas, Capel, and start circling up in like Little Elm over to Frisco and Plano, man, you can get so much good stuff off Facebook Marketplace, bro. I'm talking brand new in the box stuff. Some of these people, I'm talking, man, bro, yeah, all day in that little that little area up there, bro, to hit.
SPEAKER_02Now the hood will want a hundred bucks for a shitty little side table, though.
SPEAKER_04Well, they they posting a hundred bucks and they're gonna rob you when you get there.
SPEAKER_02I wouldn't even I wouldn't even try it, bro. Like, man, I saw that posted like uh like 30 minutes ago on someone else's for free, man. And you try to sell it for a hundred now?
SPEAKER_03Oh for real, bro. But yeah, bro, I tell people, man, Facebook Marketplace hit uh all day, all day in those rich neighborhoods. Yeah, well cool, man.
SPEAKER_02This has been a good show, good long show. It's good to hop on the hop back in the saddle again. Um, yeah, anything anything more to add on today's show?
SPEAKER_03Nothing, man. Just uh everybody take advantage. It is officially a buyer's market. You're gonna start noticing those days on markets go up and uh buy now. Buy, buy, buy if you can. So that is my advice.
SPEAKER_02I'm out there buying too. Oh, oh, one thing, you know, I mentioned to you, and you said you already used them. Real quick, uh is for the 1031 exchanges.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, we talked about it. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02And what was that company is called?
SPEAKER_03Deferred.
SPEAKER_02Deferred. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I was like, my agent told me about it. Like, they're like, yeah, they're they're free. Free? They don't make no money. Well, how they make their money, let's say, okay, they're used to, you know, prices of high houses are higher now. So they they could put like someone's $300,000 into an account and they get paid from the interest. And then when they when they use it for the next house, you know, it's tax free, you don't, you don't get taxed for it because it goes into the next house, right? Now, um, yeah, even all the way down to because like I sold the condo, I made like 30 grand, right? So, but I didn't want to pay no taxes, so I put it on that 1031 thing and for deferred, and they did it. Boom, they handled all the paperwork, send it to the title company, and that was it. So my cunny is my uh my my money's sitting in an account waiting for me to to go identify a house to buy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I just did that's why I got the duplex, and that's my that was my second 1031 exchange. Yeah, I I've used them two times. Yeah, they've been perfect every time. I love them. Yeah, deferred, deferred.com.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, other places were like wanting to charge like a thousand bucks to do the 1031 exchange.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yeah, never paid. I didn't know that people charge charge because you know I've always used deferred, so I didn't know people charge. So, like, yeah, if you do um because they used to be sell taxfree.com and then they got acquired and now they're deferred.
SPEAKER_02Deferred. I like deferred better, sounds good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh yeah, yeah, because they used to be called selltaxfree.com. They moved over to deferred, man. Yeah, so shout out to them.
SPEAKER_02Cool, yeah. Another another tip out there for you out there buying houses, flipping, slapping, rubbing down. Oh no. Uh where can people find us, Micah?
SPEAKER_04Uh you can find oh, hold on. One more thing. Speaking of rubbing people down.
SPEAKER_02That's a good transition right there, man.
SPEAKER_04One last thing you text me about. You text me about Diddy.
SPEAKER_02Oh, free Diddy. Remember, remember we were talking about Diddy?
SPEAKER_04Hey, we didn't say free 'em.
SPEAKER_03We just said we just said, from the evidence that they were presenting, it didn't look like any crimes were committed, but it says it sounds like he beat everything but the pimping charges.
SPEAKER_04And Steven Steve Steve texted me and said, Yeah, man, it ain't easy. It ain't easy.
SPEAKER_02Pimping ain't easy. But yeah. We we joked about it last time. Sorry for anybody out there that got hurt or got offended offended, but you know, that's how we do. And we just said that, you know, flying hose around in private jets with caviar and champagne is not trafficking. That's all we said.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I just don't. Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02The courts agreed with that. He was not trafficking people. He wasn't loading them up in a white van at the border. You know what I'm saying? He was just, you know, flying hoes around in private jets. Flying hoes.
SPEAKER_04Oh, planes and hoes. But yeah, man. All right. So yeah. You can find us at Instagram, TikTok, all that good stuff. We're posting on the daily. Follow us, email us, all that good stuff. Thank y'all for continuing to listen. We are out. Later.
SPEAKER_00Thank 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.
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