Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to your favorite short-term, mid-term, long-term rental podcast in the world, Live Let Thrive. Coming at you from Fort Worth, Texas, and we have a great episode for you guys today. We got the great the Queen herself, Tiana Dorsey, joining us. Did that say it right? That's good. Uh, is that it right? Oh, cool. It's been a long day, Tiana. And uh I'm just so happy to have you on. Like I said, everybody, y'all, y'all been listening to us for a while, and y'all know Tiana. She does everything, she's uh uh short-term rental accountant, she does Turo Lyft, all the stuff with the cars, uh short-term rentals. She knows it all. So I I'll go ahead and I read the thing last time, so let's just dive into it. Tiana, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:05

I am good, Steve. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Yeah, I'm just it's it's been a crazy day. You know it's funny. You know, uh, I have little girls uh at my house, my four-year-old and six-year-old. And so we I was playing with them earlier today, and they said, Okay, okay. We're you know, you're chasing around like you're the I'm the monster, and then then I go chasing this way that way. She goes, Okay, you lay on the bed, and then we're gonna pretend to not find you, or whatever it was, the game was. As soon as I laid down, I was I was out. Yeah, y'all don't tell me to lay down. I'm gonna pass out. I'm at that.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

You love them hanging.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Um yeah, I'm at that age. Y'all don't tell daddy to lay down because he ain't getting back up. Um so yes, Tiana, how about you tell us a

18 years as an accountant, seven in real estate, corporate housing over short-term

SPEAKER_01 1:45

little bit something about yourself? What are you? Who are you? What do you do? How do you do it? Yeah, go into it, Tiana.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

Sure. So I am located in Atlanta and I have been an accountant for the last 18 years, 18, 19 years. And um I am a real estate agent. I've done that for the last seven years or so. I started with that and got into doing corporate housing. I have a couple units with that, and then from there I went on to having some rental cars, which I primarily do on higher car, and I dabbled a little bit with Toro, um, but definitely like higher car, like the longer-term rentals. And then um with the corporate housing, I chose that over the short term. I did a little bit of short term with the timeshares for a while, which that was good while it was good, and then it wasn't when it wasn't. But yeah, I prefer 30 Day Plus all the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

I love 30 Day Plus too. I'll tell you a little story. So someone, someone I know, you know, they they wanted to like have a little birthday party, get together at one of my houses, right? And I'm like, okay, well, what day is it? What are we gonna do here? Uh yeah, it's two weeks from now on a Saturday. And I'm like, okay, my houses, I built, you know, it's hard to explain to people. I know they do short term there too. And uh, but my houses are built for corporate. I can't close off a Saturday two weeks away and then miss a possible three-month booking, you know what I'm saying? So I couldn't put me in a weird spot. If it's this week on a Wednesday, and I got nothing booked or nothing, okay. I let you, yeah, I could let, you know, I could help someone out. But it just gets to the point where business is business, and I want corporate, I want corporate bookings. I don't want Airbnb. I only get do Airbnb short-term mental bookings if I have to, but I want these big fat three months, six month, nine month, twelve-month bookings, you know. I don't want that the little uh pitter patter anymore, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah, absolutely. Because like for me, for the past two years, I've only done 12 months. I've been working primarily with uh construction workers and travel nurses, and the companies are paying them. So the construction company is paying for the guests and the travel aid, the travel nurse agency is paying for the nurses. So what happens is it creates kind of like a waiting list. So I don't have to experience vacancies because, like for a nurse, if they're only going to be there for three months, that's fine. But another nurse is coming in right behind them since I'm dealing directly with the agency. So that works out for me to where the agency is on the 12-month lease versus the actual guest. And thank God they are signing the corporate letter of responsibility, their credit card is on file, so they are responsible for everything when it comes to those units.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

I love that. I love that. You're gonna get your money no matter what.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Absolutely, and it is helpful for them because um, luckily for me, where my units are located, the hospital is doing construction and they've been doing construction for the last couple of years, and it's supposed to go through 2026. So they have a lot of stuff going on, and I'm the closest to that location, so it's convenient for everybody, and they really didn't like the hotels because I had one guy who was um had been staying in a hotel for like a year and a half, so he was excited to get into an apartment and to be close as well. Nice, he was able to bring his family with him, and they've been there over a year. Same guy. Ha ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

That's awesome, that's awesome. Um, so the the construction, and how did you uh link up with the construction people?

Google My Business drives construction and travel nurse bookings without ads

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Honestly, they reached out to me through my Google listing. I um put my uh business on Google My Business, and what happens is after you get a couple of reviews on Google, they just start sending people your way because I don't pay for advertising or anything, and uh, I get calls every day. And sometimes it's just calls for somebody just looking for a regular apartment, but somebody is calling all the time, and I always get I have a quote form on my website as well, so I get people who just submit a quote. Um and also I reach out to like the travel nurse jobs. I'm in a Facebook group for travel nurse jobs for my area. So if I see a recruiter in the area that posted a job for my hospital, then I reach out to them, I send them information, and I kind of keep them in a um a marketing group that I reach out to periodically just to let them know, hey, we're in the area. Uh, especially if I have a vacancy within 90 days, I'm reaching out, letting them know, hey, in 90 days I have something coming up. I see you have a job that's posted in the area. Do you already have someone for that position and do they need housing?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I love it. You get in front, you get out in front of it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

I rather have a waiting list or at least people that I can contact that I know need housing versus looking at the last minute or having vacancies going days empty.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

You know what I've discovered, you know, and and I've I've hosted uh, especially during COVID, a bunch of travel nurses, stuff like that. And then um, you know, got into other corporate stays and then real real heavy on the insurance now, right? We're doing the I love the insurance bookings. Families, you know, need a place to stay while their houses, you know, fire, flood, whatever they got going on, they need it repair, so they need a place to stay for a few months, three, six, nine months, whatever it is, fires longer. Um, but what I've discovered is um even if like let's say uh well let's say you got like a three-month booking, and of course they always want to give either 15 days no notice or 30 days notice to extend, right? So even if it's coming up on the last month, you haven't heard from them, you send it out. Hey, you can extend. I don't know, we don't know, blah, blah, blah. Okay, all right. So I'm gonna start looking to get the other side filled. And so what happens, because I'll start getting, you know, the last month, I'll start getting inquiries for hey, you got anything? And okay, well, these guests are leaving on the first. Uh one do your guests want to leave in. Oh, they want to move in, whatever, 15, 20, whatever it is, right? So I'll be like, okay, there's a gap there, but it's still big money, so whatever. Um, I have to fill it with short-term rentals. What's happening? I'll have that big gap sometimes, 15, 20 days. But then the people that are already there, they end up okay. We need to extend now. I was like, Well, you know, we got somebody moving in on the 20th. Oh, okay, can we extend to the 20th? So it ends up like filling in by itself, and that's the coolest thing ever.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Another way to handle a gap like that is to partner with hotels too. Extended stays. Ooh, yeah, so you can get as a business, you can go and get a corporate rate for your business. So when you have instances like that, and I would have told the new guests, unfortunately, the guest that's there has decided to extend. However, we do have a smaller option, and of course, you want to make sure you get the best rate at the hotel so it still makes sense. And usually you can get it to be comparable to what you're charging for the long-term stay and put them there, and then that way, when the person who's in the apartment moves out, then you slide them right on in.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Wow, I never heard that one. I've heard a lot of them, but I haven't heard the partnering with extended stay at hotels. I thought hotels were our enemies, we're not supposed to partner with them.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

Oh no, because I partner with them too.

Partnering with extended stay hotels to bridge booking gaps

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Like if I'm doing um, because I also do like government bids, and that's who you have to go through for lodging, you have to partner with the hotel, so they'll work with you. And the good thing is, if you get a corporate rate, usually that'll extend to all their locations, so they'll honor that same rate.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

And the guests will like it because a lot of people that stay at the extended stay hotels, they got hot cars and they don't want the cops going around the parking lot checking license plates. So you hey, I got a garage, man.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

We can hide it there, and you have to pick and choose which ones you partner with, too. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Kind of sort of.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

But yeah, you find the ones that are really good in your area that offer the best amenities that are actually clean and you know, up to par with the type of business that you're running, and yeah, partner with them and let them know what you're doing because they'll be happy, they'll be excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Nice, nice. Are you still a real estate agent?

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Um, I'm inactive right now. I'm focusing more on the corporate housing stuff and accounting. You know, we just ended it tax season. That was busy. Um, so I kind of shifted my focus because I realize a lot of people that are getting into business, it's like, you know, key number one is can we make money? All right, but once we start making money, what are we doing with it? How is our business doing? What's the back office stuff? So that's kind of my specialty: getting SOPs in place, organization, you know, processes, procedures, and of course, accounting. You know, I'm a QuickBooks Pro advisor and I specialize in setting up QuickBooks, getting you started, as well as

The first-floor one-bedroom that earns as much as the two-bedrooms

SPEAKER_03 11:14

monthly bookkeeping or quarterly, depending on how big your business is. Because if you don't know how your business is operating, especially in our line of work, like how do you know if one location is better than the other? How do you know if one unit is doing better than the other? Because, like, for me, I have six units, but there is one unit that I don't ever have to worry about it. I don't know what it is about that one. It is on the first floor, but it's a one-bedroom. It's there is no glitz, glamour, not a lot of decorating in there because it stays booked. And I was like, I'm not gonna put anything extra in there because people love it. And I wouldn't know that if I didn't have my accounting in order to know that it's actually making me more money than my two bedrooms can sometimes, because they'll come and they'll put um two people in there. That's my max for the one bedroom. They're staying longer. So, like I have had teachers that have um stayed in there, I've had travel nurses that have stayed in there, as well as construction workers that have stayed in there. And for some reason, they just love that unit. And I've had repeat guests come and request that particular unit.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Wow, wow. You think it's because it's on the first floor?

SPEAKER_03 12:29

Uh yeah, I think so. Because I mean, all mine are at the same place. Um, it's easy access, you can park right in front of the unit. Um, don't have kids above or next door. The neighbor that's next door, she's been there in that complex like 13 years. Nice lady. Wow. So yeah, it's really quiet, and um also it's a little darker for the nurses, you know, they usually sleep during the day. So maybe that's it. But yeah, I can charge I charge the same for that particular one unit as I do my two bedrooms. That's how good that one is. That's a killer, absolutely. But you got to know your numbers, like you have to know how much are you spending on toiletries and supplies, how much are you spending on cleaning? Like, if you have a unit that's costing you more on cleaning, you want to see well, why that is. Why am I spending more here than there?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

I was always afraid to to arbitrage the bottom floor because I was I I was trying to target, you know, you know, travel nurses and stuff like that. And I was like, well, they need to sleep, and I'm afraid someone's gonna be running around on the top, on the top level, you know. It just depends on what kind of place it is, because if it's well a well-built complex, then that you won't hear that, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah, so yeah, I had one on the terrace level before, and that was horrible.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

The terrace level, how what level is that?

SPEAKER_03 13:53

That's like the bottom. So you know how when you walk in, you have the first floor, but then you go down. Oh, so like uh like a basement level. Yeah, that was no good.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

I didn't like that.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Thank god that when I had that, that was actually the first unit I ever got. And I got that unit specifically for somebody that was coming out of town, so they didn't care because they had kids too. But the neighbors that were upstairs had kids and they were just allowed all day and all night. So um, I did not renew that lease as soon as the year was up. I got out of there.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Man, yeah, some things you can't control, right? Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

My other ones are all townhouses, so I don't have to worry about that. But yeah, you have to uh pay attention and always spend the night in your own unit, at least once.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yeah, some of mine I don't want to do that. I don't want to get shot.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Well, why are you doing something there? That not for a midterm, that sounds like a long term. Put that on on section eight or something. That on automatic.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

I do have a section eight in um in Fort Worth over here. It's it's sweet. That's what's sweet about it. Yeah, yeah. Government pays most of it, and um pretty cool, pretty cool. So it's guaranteed money, you know. Um, yeah, so so um counted for 18, 19 years. Wow, that's a that's a lot. You've seen a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

I have, yeah. This tax season has been my best tax season so far. Definitely a lot of businesses and a lot of new businesses. We were pushing, like I was filing taxes pretty much until 11 p.m. on the 15th. But it's okay, it wasn't that bad. Like out of the whole tax season, I probably worked two weekends this year.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Okay, yeah, we we actually did the podcast together on the 15th, but it kind of got uh it got lost, it got lost, it didn't hit the lost in the sauce record record. What happened? See, there was like this this AI thing, right? That Micah had added to the to the podcast a while back, and that thing asked us, hey, recording in progress. Me and you both hit yeah, yeah, recording in progress, but you have to hit the zoom recording in progress or recording button, otherwise you it's just gonna be that thing that takes notes and kind of does a video, but the video was really it didn't come out good, it was bad. But I thought I could save it, but I didn't save it. But, anyways, we're making up for that today, talking some good stuff for y'all. Um, so absolutely, do you own any properties?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

No, just my primary home. I don't own any investment properties.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Okay, you you you trying to get into that to invest buy some investment properties?

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Yes, actually, I want to um start purchasing property for investments.

Bonus depreciation extension rumours and the 2008 home buyer credit

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Not sure what I'm gonna do, whether it's gonna be long-term or midterm or whatever, but I definitely want to buy uh and I also want to buy multi-family as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Nice, nice. Um, I was gonna ask you, because you're an accountant, do you know anything about they might extend out the bonus depreciation thing? You know, that was a sweet deal back in, you know. You you bought you bought a house, you and then you know the if people don't know, yeah, you go look it up, but go Google it. But usually you can depreciate a house over 27 and a half years, right? And so that helps counterbalance the the rent you're getting paid. So it kind of makes it, you know, uh kind of squashes that a little bit. You it's a good thing, you can claim depreciation, but with the bonus appreciation, you can claim it all up front on the first year. And if you're a real estate professional, then you can claim you even more. So that was like a hundred percent deal, they were doing a hundred percent bonus appreciation this past few years, which man, I mean, you're making you're getting a nice chunk back from Uncle Sam. Um but it's they said they were gonna start scaling that down. Now there's murmurings about they're gonna extend it out. Do you know anything about that?

SPEAKER_03 18:03

No, every year they at the end of the year, you know, they have the meeting and they decide what they're gonna keep, what they're not. So every year we're just waiting for the new tax laws to come out to see what they're gonna extend. But I feel like they're at least gonna extend it the next two years.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Um, just from what I've heard, but we'll see come December what they decide. But I feel like they're gonna extend it because they're also trying to push out that home buyer credit thing that they've been talking about um since we've been in this Joe Biden era. They're still trying to do, you know, push that out. So we'll see, especially with the election year coming up, he's trying to get everything out now in case you know he's not here, so we'll see. Because that would be sweet. Because if you could combine both of those together, because I think they were talking about like 15,000, like kind of what they did back in 08, where they were given like 8,000 per person.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, we I got that. I got that money. I got that. It was nice.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Yeah, it was it was really good because you could combine it with other things, you can still get down payment assistance or or anything and combine that together. So that's a sweet deal. So I hope they push that through.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, because it was like 8,000 bucks for me. I got a check from the government for 8,000 bucks for buying a house that year, and the house was like $80,000. So that's a big chunk. Now houses are like $400,000, $500,000. So you're throwing $10,000 at me.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

It's gonna help you.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

Yeah, that's what after COVID, that's what has been keeping me from purchasing another investment property. It's like the interest rates were started going up, and then the property value started skyrocketing.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

You know, yeah, it was a mess.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Finding a deal has gotten hotter, but it's definitely on my list. I would love to be able to do that by the end of 2024. At least one.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah, load up. On one, that's cool. It's a it's a lot of benefits to real estate, of course. Um, so so higher car. You're still doing higher car. Can you explain what what that is to our guests, to our listeners?

SPEAKER_03 20:14

I'm actually no longer on the platform. They uh merged with Get Around, and I have had a renter

higher car rental business: every vehicle wrecked or totalled, insurance paid out

SPEAKER_03 20:23

who has been in one of my cars for like the last year and a half. And what I did, I just took her off the platform. Like at that point, um, it's just steady income. And then my other cars, honestly, all of them got wrecked. That's the only thing about um when you're doing rental cars, either they will just drive it to the ground until it just doesn't work anymore, or they're gonna wreck it. And my luck so far is pretty much every car that I don't have was wrecked. Total now. Wow. And then one of them I took off the platform and I now use that as my personal car. And then I put my personal car out there to rent.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Oh, you got paid off for those wrecks, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:07

Oh, yeah. Yeah, some of them it it was like a way better deal because I got way more than what the car was worth back from the wreck. And the good thing about it is because I was going through higher car, all they rent to ride share drivers. So we're talking Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, things like that. So they tend to rent more long term. But if they have an accident while they are at work, then Uber or Lyft, their insurance covers the wreck. So it's not even hire car or your commercial insurance because you definitely want to have business insurance and not personal. So that was great. And it was completely hands off. They took care of everything. And I don't know if they were just totaling out everything because they didn't want to deal with repairs, but I never had one that had to get repairs. Oh, and some of them, the damage wasn't that bad. Because one of them I actually thought about going back and getting it from the salvage auction, but just never did.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

No, they they total them out quick nowadays. They don't want to mess with them. It got too much to get them fixed or whatever. So they just told even little fender bender sometimes. It messes it, hits something in the wrong in the inside in the wrong way, and it's total. Just total.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Yeah, because one of them only had like bumper damage, and it wasn't even the hood wasn't messed up or anything. It was totally the bumper, and they totaled it out. Which I was fine with because you know, when I started, I had um older cars, so you know, once they get over a hundred thousand miles, they don't like them to be on the platform unless they were already on the platform. So it was time to get new cars anyway, which I haven't done yet because I want to get cash cars. Cash is definitely the way to go.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

You go to the city.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

But I'm saving up for that because when I do that, I want to get like four at a time.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Damn. Load up for real.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Absolutely. I love the car business. Like it you don't have as much interaction with the guests like you do on the corporate housing side. Um at most, you have to track them down. Hey, your payment is late and they pay the late fee. But the good thing about the Rice Share drivers, they are gonna pay. They don't want to turn that car in because they have to keep working.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

That's their livelihood right there.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Now, now you so you with the new cars will you put them on a higher car?

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Probably the start, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

And then just try to take it off platform kind of deal.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Yeah, I haven't really been marketing for like I guess direct rentals on the car rental side, and I don't see myself doing that um solely. I love the platform, just not sure how the get around is gonna work. Um, since they're merging, I'll see how that is, but yeah, for the most part, it's gonna go back on the platform.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Nice, nice, nice. And um, yeah, so so we we talked about you brought up Zapier last time.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

Yeah, automation. So I haven't used a platform for my corporate housing units in about two years. So I'm not on Airbnb anymore, I'm not on BRBL, none of

Running six units off-platform with QuickBooks, Zapier, and direct invoicing

SPEAKER_03 24:14

that, because I've done all direct bookings. So, what I use to run my business is a combination of QuickBooks, Zapier, uh, Notion, and Gmail. And pretty much everything is in QuickBooks. I have um, like when a new guest comes, everybody pays on the first. I have an automated invoice that's set up. So I'll have them have their credit cards on file. So on the first, everybody is charged. And the good thing about QuickBooks payments is I also have the money on the first. So I don't have to wait for it. And it sends them an invoice and they show it, it shows us paid once they get it, and everything runs smooth. I can send emails through that um with Zapier every time I need to update something or if they have uh requests. Like I do change um pillows every every guest. I change pillows and different things like that, just because they're staying 30 days plus, the pillows are gone. They're gone. Just throw them out, buy new ones. And see, this that's stuff that you have to be comfortable with, you know, replacing you know, things that have high usage, even couch pillows, getting uh covers for things, pillow covers, sheet, um, sheet protectors, mattress protectors, all that stuff. Replace that stuff, get rid of it. If it's been on there six months, get rid of it. Get rid of it. So, yeah, I love automation. Um, as much as I can be hands-off, you know, if when an inquiry comes in, they're automatically getting an email, just the same as you would, you know, on a platform, same way. It's just my way. Because I couldn't find a platform that I could use that was solely based on direct. All of them that I saw, like you had to at least have an Airbnb listing for it to pull in the data. And once I got off of Airbnb, it was there were no options for me. So I just decided to do it on my own.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

See, that part is fascinating to me. You you got off Airbnb altogether.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And why'd you do that?

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Um, because I stayed booked. At first, I was snoozing my listings, and then um I took them down for a while, and it's like an automatic thing where you set, oh, you want to set take them down for like six months, and I did the six months, and then I did the year. And after that, the year, I was like, well, I'm just gonna unlist it because I'm staying booked. I don't have a need for it. Plus, with all the changes that were going on with Airbnb, I didn't want to get involved in that. I like having as much control as possible because it's already with doing arbitrage, you already are giving away control with certain things. So I wanted to take back as much as I could as far as payments, um, negotiating deals and things, discounts if I needed to. Like sometimes if a guest is gonna stay six months or more, yeah, I'm gonna give them a bigger discount because they're gonna be here. Yeah, I'm gonna ask them, you know, do they want groceries to be there when they check in and do you know special things like that, and wine and champagne? And you know, it allows me to do that and really take ownership and cater to my guests to keep them coming back.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

You know, you know, it's funny now, is like Airbnb, you know, it seems like it the pendulum swung all the way back to there on the side of the guest 100%, right? Over us, even though it's our damn house. Um, and so they have a thing now where they'll call the someone from Airbnb. If there's a situation, guest wants to leave early, then they'll start making up some some BS to get out of it and all this stuff. And Airbnb will call you, hey, you you need to let this guest out leave, cut off their stay early, and this and that. And and like, okay, why? He goes, Well, because the you know, they give you the reasons because we just really it'd just be nice if you did if you just let them get out of the thing early, you know. It's like it's like they're trying to strong arm you a little bit, you know, kind of like kind of like Godfather. You're like, no, no, no, they they booked for a month, you know. I I don't I'm not gonna cancel. They can cancel if they want, that's fine,

Why Airbnb strong-arms hosts to cancel and guests game the system

SPEAKER_01 28:26

but I'm not gonna cancel because they scammed up my calendar. What am I gonna do? Absolutely, especially if it's a month, yeah, yeah, or or whatever it was, and and but yeah, they have a thing now where they're trying to be on the guest side, you need to cancel, you need to cancel, you need to let you know. No, no, this is my place, this ain't y'all's place, man.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

And they they get yeah, especially if it's already past check-in. Now, past check-in, you know, it's something different. Now, before check-in, I you know, I don't care. Go ahead, you can go. But if we're past check-in, yeah, no. You know, it's funny canceled because you why are you leaving? Was there something wrong? If it is something wrong, we can fix that.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

They'll make up stuff, they'll start making up stuff, they'll throw stuff.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Yeah, now those if they are crazy, like I've had a lady who came, she took pictures, she opened the dishwasher, and she took a picture of like you know, the top part of the dishwasher, like right when you first opened it, that that has the little seal on it. It was dirty right there. The inside of the dishwasher was clean, everything was clean, but right there it was dirty, and she pitched a fit, but she didn't want to leave, she wanted a discount. And I'm like, no, you can leave and I'll give you your money back, but I'm not giving you a discount. So she ended up staying, and that was like my first one-star review. And Airbnb refused to remove the review, um, which I I was pissed about that, but yeah, so guess like that, like I, if they're troublemakers, I would rather give them their money back than have them stay in my house and either leave me a bad review or mess up my house. But once we're past checkout, like unless it's something majorly wrong, why are you leaving? Yeah, yeah like I make sure I update all my pictures, you know, so it looks the same. Because I do change decor and stuff like that, of course. But aside from it being disgusting, what's the reason?

SPEAKER_01 30:22

And it's funny because they once like like I said, we do a lot of direct bookings now because you know, because we're doing the the midterm rentals. Um, but once again, they it's funny because when they when there's no Airbnb involved, it seems I mean, yeah, you get some nitpicky and asking about this, they're oh yeah, we'll send some a cleaner to to to handle that, whatever. They're nicer.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

Whereas if they know Airbnb's got their back, they can start telling us a bunch of stuff and kind of start threatening and not threatening us, hey, you better, you know, because they know the game, like you know, there's Facebook groups that tell you, hey, this is what you do, so you can get a free stay, or this is what you do to get your money back, and it works, it works, it absolutely works. So, yeah, that's another reason why I love direct bookings because they're just normal people, it seems like they're not out to game you, and because they know you have your credit card number.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Right, right, right. I mean, just like I'm not saying, you know, like if you buy something at a mama pop joint, you kind of would feel guilty about taking it back, you know. But Walmart, eh, it's freaking Walmart, who cares? Take it right back. That's what they feel when they book through Airbnb. Oh, this is an this is an Airbnb. No, this is my house, it's not an Airbnb, it's a freaking my freaking house, all right? It's not, don't call it an Airbnb. But anyway, that's how they see it. This is the this is the Walmart. Well, I'm gonna screw Walmart over. No, you're screwing me over, you're screwing the the individual owner of this house, and you're not screwing over Airbnb. They already got you.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Yeah, but they don't realize that they think it's all through Airbnb, and it's a corporation, so they got it.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

You're right, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Yeah, Airbnb is definitely interesting. Like, honestly, for the last couple years, I've I've only been an Airbnb guest. Like just this past weekend, we went to LA to celebrate my dad's birthday, and we stayed at an Airbnb. Great house, great host. We'll definitely stay there again. But um, very far and few between, I've noticed going to different areas and different states, it is very different.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Oh, yeah. Very different, it's very different. Um the what else was gonna?

Replacing sheets and pillows every turnover, stocking a supply room

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Oh, I was gonna bring up the sheets earlier because that was funny. When you brought up the sheets, you're like, Yeah, you know, I'll switch out whatever and switch out the pillars, but I still have and it's funny because like like I said, we'll get like a six-month booking for like over six thousand dollars. And then my cleaner, when they they do the cleaning, they tell, oh, these sheets are this, they're staying here, they start going crazy. I'm like, just switch them out, just switch them out. I made those sheets over and over, you know. But to them, that's like ah, they're freaking out because it's the sheets. But to me, it's just like, okay, I gotta spend a couple hundred bucks on some new betting, whatever. But they, you know, but they spend six thousand a month at this place. Yeah, I don't tell my cleaner that, but I hope they're not listening.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

But the key to that is creating a well, what I call a stockpile room or a little small warehouse, catch stuff on sale when it's time for college students to go back to school, get the sheets, get all the sheets. I still shop at the um Habitat for Humanity Breeze Store. Um, but they only have white. I tend to shy away from the white except the towels. Um, I like to buy the bedding sets, just the whole bed in the bag type situation. And you can get really good deals. And if I see a good deal, I'm buying 10 sets because I'm gonna put them in my storage unit. I have shelves and everything like that. Put it in there. When you see those pillows at Costco or Sam's Club, those hotel quality pillows on sale, buy the whole carton, get the whole thing. Spend the $200, get you 20 pillows, do it.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

It's worth it.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Because it makes a difference.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Oh, yeah, yeah. Just swap them out. Hey, just go get some new stuff.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

Just stop by. Listen, my cleaners, they know if we're out of stock, stop by the stockpile, get it, and go and buy your business.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

That's it right now.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Yeah, the sheets are not last, like, no. Let them come to a new place when they check in, new pillows, new sheets, new comforter. Now, if it's just 30 days, not so much. But yeah, if they're staying even uh 60 days, 60 days plus, change it. It's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Nice, nice. So, how do you how do you uh set up your your midterm rentals to like maximize for you know the catering to your midterm clients as opposed to like a short-term middle client?

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Um, definitely make it feel like home.

Equipping mid-term units: air fryers, good pots, blackout curtains, and Roku guest mode

SPEAKER_03 35:05

Coffee makers, you know, air fryers, good pots and pans. Don't get the cheap stuff. Um, because the cheap stuff will burn out in a couple months. You want to get the good stuff, spend a couple hundred bucks. Not a couple hundred, spend a hundred bucks.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Well, get the good stuff. Um, get the baking dishes, the mixing bowls. And all this you're not gonna get all at one time, of course. But even as they're there, add stuff to it while they're there. Because I've had guests say, oh, well, I need a bigger pot or a bigger this, kind of um anticipate their needs and provide it. Also check, have the cleaners check to make sure all that stuff is still there after they check out because those are things you don't really pay attention to. Um, that's why I no longer do same-day checkout and check-ins, because um, since they're staying longer, a lot of times I have to do like touch-up paint or you know, different things like that. Check to make sure we have everything. Number one thing that's always missing are remotes to the TVs. Maybe an iron is gone. So you want to take the time to make sure that all the good stuff, all the minis that you say are there, are still there. You know, add some more stuff. Um, don't be afraid to go to Goodwill and look at their appliances and different stuff like that. Decor items, you know, go to Burlington, uh, big lots, stuff like that. Also, um, definitely still blackout curtains are still a thing, especially for the nurses. Um, or even just uh shades, the pull-down shades to darken the room, throw blankets on the couches, and always put extra blankets, extra sheet sets in the unit. Um, they're not gonna always want to wash um as often as maybe they should, but you know, put a couple sets in there, fill them up on towels. There can never be too many towels. Because some people like wash every week, some people don't. So you don't want um them to feel pressure because there's only one of everything that they have to keep washing, but also you put laundry detergent in there, a starter set, not nothing big and crazy, but you know, enough to get them through four or five loaves.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Nice, nice. That sounds cool. Some practical advice from Tiana.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Yeah, and then the grocery shopping thing, like um, with Instacart and all that, that's like a no-brainer, you know, and stuff just like bread, milk, eggs, water. Basics. Yeah, the basics, no meat, you know, no freezer stuff, just basics.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

So now do you use um uh for your TVs? Do you use uh Roku TV? Absolutely, it's the best and the simplest. You could buy like 10 of those remotes for like 20 bucks and keep them in the supply closet. Ah, it's so awesome.

SPEAKER_03 38:10

Yeah, and uh for um if they're doing like 30 days, I used to have on the um guest feature so they would sign in so that they could sign into all their stuff, and then when they check out, um, it automatically signs them out. But I stopped using it because I was having guests that were staying longer, and it was just annoying for them to have to keep doing that. But I still like that feature because you have all your TVs set up on your account, you can still see all of them listed where you have them listed because I do name them by unit and then the room that they're in and all that good stuff. Nice, so that was a feature that I loved, but it it works more on short term than longer term.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Yeah, you're the second person I heard about the guest feature on the Roku. So I'm gonna try it out.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Oh, yeah. Because you can put I love that you can put, you know, welcome to um RGS rentals, you know. Yeah, I love that that your branding and it doesn't get any better than that.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Yeah, Roku, Roku, I guess they found out that us Airbnbers or midterm rent, you know. Um we we love their their TVs and remotes because they're so simple to use, and it's it's the choice of of an of uh Airbnb users is is the Roku. So no, it's not a commercial, it's just the easiest thing, man. You is the sucks to get it go somewhere. There's two remotes with a million buttons on it. You know, they're gonna be calling you, they're gonna be calling you.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

And it's easier for the guests, especially if you have like with dealing with insurance. I find that my guests are older and they don't know about all the streaming stuff, but they know like they have direct TV at home, or they have ATT, you know, cable at home, or they have Comcast. So what Roku allows is for them to sign into their home service, you know, through the Roku. So I make sure that just standard on all the TVs I have, I have the Direct TV app, I have the Spectrum app, Xfinity, all that stuff so that they can watch what they're used to. And then, of course, for all of you know everybody else, you know, Netflix and Hulu and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Put an antenna on your TV, because they're gonna ask about watching some local sports. And so with an antenna, you catch all that local sports, local news, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

You can do it on Roku, Roku TV.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Did you have Roku TV? But it helps if you have an antenna because it'll capture, it'll get more channels for them.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

Really?

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Yeah, yeah. I put uh I put antennas on all of them now, and like ten dollar antenna, you just hook hook it straight in, and then you scan for more channels, and it'll get all the all the channels.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

I didn't even know these TVs could take antenna.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Oh, yeah, yeah, I know, right? They can for real.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Well, Tiana definitely look into that.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Thank you so much for hopping on for this show for this redo. The other show was amazing. This show's amazing. You're always amazing. Uh, where can people reach out to you and chat?

SPEAKER_03 41:07

Uh, you can find me on Instagram at your virtual bookkeeper as well as Tiana the Boss and uh on TikTok, Tiana the Boss, and email info at your virtualbookkeeper.net.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Yeah, get those Airbnbs and those midterm rentals, all the accounting right on them because yeah, that is it's gonna save you a lot of headaches and make save you a lot of tax dollar spending uh later on. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

It would I have a uh chart of accounts for midterm rentals and short-term rentals on my page. Check it out.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

It's great. I'm gonna link up with you. I'm gonna go on there, hit your calendar. You have a calendarly calendar.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

Yep, it's on it.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

I'm gonna hit it up because I need some help on that end, big time, as we all do. So thank you, Tiana. And until next time you hop on, uh, it's always a pleasure. And take care and good luck.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

Thanks, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Have a good one to Live Let Thrive out.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

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