Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive, your favorite short-term, mid-term, long-term rental podcast in the world. I'm your host, Stevie Stacks, coming at you from Fort Worth, Texas. And this is episode 292 of Live Let Thrive, and we have a special guest. And in the voice of the great Bruce Buffer, it's Time introducing Fighting Out of the Red Corner. He is a serial entrepreneur and marketer. He stands 5'11 inches tall, weighing in at 195 and 1.5 pounds, fighting out of San Diego, California, presenting the reigning, defending, undisputed champion of the world, Chase, the STR whisperer Ryan. And Ryan wrote that for me. And he put that in the Bruce Buffer voice. So also he said he'd watch watching. I definitely you did that on your own.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

I don't know. I definitely didn't write that.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I've been wanting to do that forever.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

So yeah, I've been wanting to be entered that way. So I was like, why not? Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Screw podcast, man. I found my calling. I'm going to I'm going to go to the phone.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Yeah, if Bruce is sick, I think uh you could get get a job or two, you know, UFC 300 or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

I'm I'm I'm feeling for you, Bruce. Hit me up, brother. Uh yeah, and you said so you got his experience uh in STR is with eight properties under management, background in hospitality, and a decade of marketing experience leveraging all of his skills in the short-term rental space, helping hosts generate more revenue and bookings through revenue management, automation, and marketing. Welcome to the show, Chase. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Thank you for having me. What an intro.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, I couldn't have wrote about it better myself.

Buying the first property in 2022 after two years in analysis paralysis

SPEAKER_02 2:06

So, man, so how how did you start in this industry again?

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Yeah, so I bought my first place in 2022, and just like everybody else, you know, I was in analysis paralysis for quite some time. So, like 2020, 2021, I was really just taking in as much as I could, learning as much as I could about short-term rentals. And then I was like, you have to take action. So um, I really wanted to buy a place in 2022, and also two for the tax benefits, I was, you know, kind of needed to get it by 2022, which really helped. So I got the first place and it went really well, and it used all of my skills that I've learned in the last you know 10 years working for various companies, marketing and in hospitality. Um, so then basically that went really well. I got to, you know, flex my creative juices, I got to do some DIY, got to set it up. It was really fun for me, and I found a passion with it. So then from there, you know, my mother-in-law, she's like, Hey, we have a condo. Do you want to help make help me manage it? I was like, Cool, I can start doing that. So started helping her. She's getting bookings, it's going well. And then I started to leverage all of my experience to get another client, which was a referral from my wife. She was working with a family and they had a place that they wanted to rent out. So I was like, cool. And then from there, you know, I'm in a bunch of Facebook groups and I love to provide as much value as I can. Like I just like to help people, and you know, I kind of give expecting nothing thereof. So basically started just answering questions, started getting connected with people, and that led to working with someone who had a property. She ended up launching two more. And then from there, I just keep snowballing. You know, I've built all these connections of just helping people throughout, you know, over the last year that when they're ready to launch a property, I was like, yes, I'd love to help you and guide you and coach you through that. And it just keeps snowballing from there. And then most recently, you know, someone posted about, you know, I'm looking for you know, co-hosts in this market, which I'm already in, and literally five people tagged me and they're like, hey, he'd be the perfect guy. So it's just like, you know, I just keep getting opportunities

Eight properties under management by helping hosts in Facebook groups

SPEAKER_03 4:12

from helping people and just you know providing as much value as I can. Like I'm I definitely care too much. Like I've definitely gone on some Zoom calls for like an hour and just helped them through a bunch of stuff and just never really expected anything from it. But um, yeah, it's just kind of snowballed from there. And um, we are launching the eighth one this week. A ninth one is gonna be it's getting a little bit delayed, but I think in April. So um, and then we have there's a guy I got introduced to who has five properties. I don't think I'm gonna go through with it. I just don't think it's a good fit. I don't know if I want to work with him specifically. And you know, I look through he's currently being hosted by Evolve. So I look through the reviews he has, and they're pretty bad. So I don't know if it's evolved, I don't know if it's him, but you know, if there's a property and it has one review and it's one star, like that's kind of a red flag for me. So I'm like, ah so long-winded answer, but yeah, um it just kind of snowballed, and you know, the more I I meet people and connect with people, I think it's just more opportunities keep coming. I keep getting referred.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

So yeah, I like as a lot you said a lot there. I wrote a whole bunch of already. So the DIY thing, and that and that's um I found that I do like doing that stuff too. You know, it it is tedious, uh, you know,

First paint job took six hours for one wall, vaulted ceilings on a ladder

SPEAKER_02 5:33

you put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it, but but you got that pride factor that that's huge, man. It's like it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah, there's nothing better than like when you start a project that you didn't know how to do it, you looked it up, watched YouTube videos, and then you finish it, and you're like, holy crap, like that feels good. So I think I I kind of got addicted to that feeling of you know accomplishment through something that you've never done before. Um, so for example, one of my first TikTok videos I ever posted was like a paint fail because we painted the entire house ourselves, our first rental. I didn't know how to paint at all. The first wall took me like six to eight hours, probably. And then by the by the end, I'm doing you know, vaulted ceilings that are like 30 feet high on a ladder where I'm just like sweaty palms trying to hold on to the paint roller and stuff. So um, yeah, it's just I got a lot of joy out of doing things that are difficult and then figuring out a building skills while doing it. So um definitely, you know, you learn by making mistakes. So I definitely yeah, that's the big thing, man.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

And not just in DIY, but in any any aspect of life, because most people won't want to try anything because they know they're gonna suck at it at first. But when you when you change your mindset and say, Yes, I'm going to suck at this, I know I'm gonna do terrible at it right, you know, at first, but as I go through it, as I grind or whatever they say, you you start learning the better way to do it more efficiently. And by the time you're in that last room, you can knock it out in what 30 minutes. You know what I'm saying? You just learn these things by doing, and and of course, uh YouTube university helps out a lot too.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

But that's kind of yeah, my mantra of life is just I like to just do things that I might suck at, but I'm gonna learn, and you know, you learn by failing, failing is not bad, so I have no problem failing it as long as you're learning. If you're failing and you're not learning, then that's the problem.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah, exactly. And I just it's funny because this past weekend I just uh repainted my pool, my swimming pool. And so that was like an intimidating project project. But oh my god, I mean the prices that these pool guys charge nowadays is it's highway robbery. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Yeah, I think that that was a motivation too, because I got a couple quotes and it was like, oh, it's gonna be eight, nine grand. I was like, we could do this. It's not that hard, it was harder than I anticipated. But uh it's a good experience for sure.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Oh, hey, how y'all doing? Stevie Sachs here from Live Let Thrive, and I thought I'd give a quick shout-out to my buddy Brian Wynn over at themusecoffee.co. Man, this is some good stuff. Brian's a longtime listener of the show, fellow entrepreneur, and he's been sending us coffee for a while now. And this is some really, really good copies of the first places on earth, best pieces on earth, freshly roasted first. Brian wins over at the Muse Coffee Shop USDF, you put in the code LLT to get an extra 20% off your order. I mean, what do you got to lose, y'all? Help us keep the lights on, help a fellow entrepreneur and get you some good coffee of the process. The muse coffee.co.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

So but yeah, but I've finished the pool, painted it, looks brand new, looks amazing, just filled it up with water. So I'm uh I'm happy, man. I got that pride factor too. Throw the whole number, I'll be like, yeah, I did that,

Repainted swimming pool as DIY to avoid contractor quotes

SPEAKER_02 9:02

you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

No, it's amazing. Yeah, they're so at this the same uh place I'm talking about, basically, I'm just a creative person and an opportunist. So, you know, I was trying to think of what amenities I want in the backyard, and I was like, I'm definitely gonna have a fire pit. I was like, what am I gonna have for seating? And I noticed these people across the street were cutting this huge tree down, and I'm like, light bulb. I'm like, they're cutting them into like sections that literally look like stumps. So I'm like, I'm gonna go over there and ask them if they can have a couple. So I go over and they're like, yeah, take as many as you want. I'm like, okay. So then literally they're like wheeling them into my backyard, and then I it was like a two-day process, but I had to like sand and seal them and like make them you know waterproof and all that, which I had never done any of that, but I was like, all right, let's do it. But it it turned out really good. So we have like the natural stump seating along with like the Adderong deck chairs, so it just really pulled it together. So yeah, just if there's an opportunity, um I'm ready. I'm like, yeah, I'll do it, I'll try it. So that's the one thing though, is like I have a tough time saying no because I'm like, I could make it work.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

It it and stuff. Um, it's funny you bought you brought the stumps because uh it was a couple years ago or last year, I don't know. Uh big winds in our backyard knocked one of the trees down, uh actually into into the pool. It was hanging over the pool. So we lost one of the trees the Bradford pear. And so my you know, my yard guy came over there, chopped it up for me, and everything, left those big giant stumps, and I you know, I use them as chairs for my fire pit outside. And it looks really cool, man.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

It's great, and it's tough to find like if you don't have a tree that falls in your yard or people cutting it down, it's like I don't even know how you'd get that. So, you know, it's uh just buy a change.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

There's tree, there's trees everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Just buy a chase go cutting down neighbors' trees. No, I I know you're upset, but we're building a fire pit, so yeah, you can come by and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

So so you mentioned, like I said, you mentioned a lot of things here. Uh another thing I want to jump to, I'm gonna just jump all around is condo. Yeah, go for it. So so how did you come about the condo again?

SPEAKER_03 11:09

So it's my mother-in-law, she's had it in the family for quite

Mother-in-law's Vermont condo and firewood as hospitality

SPEAKER_03 11:12

some time. Um, so she was like, she already was kind of renting it out. I think she even worked with like a property manager in the past, and I was like, no, no, no, like I'll I'll help you. And you know, it's my mother-in-law, so I'm not getting paid, but like I I turned her listing into you know, got booked really well through the winter. She had a like a midterm stay for the last two months, and now it's back live pretty much, and we just got a booking because we I started getting into the the pricing and um getting everything going because you know when a listing is kind of booked for that long, it almost like gets defavored in the the algorithm. So we're just trying a couple new things. Um, obviously had her get new photos, you know. As much as she would listen to me as changing things, you know, I I gave her my suggestions, but you know, it's it's a mother-in-law situation, so I'm like, this is what I would do, but I know you don't want to do that, you know. She even was like, you know, I don't want to provide firewood. I'm like, no, like this is a hospitality business. You gotta like imagine someone comes up to a cabin and they're snowed in and they have no firewood. Like, how crappy of an experience would that be? Like, and that's the thing with hosts is they try to cut corners and like, oh, I'm only gonna provide two cured cups for and it sleeps 10 and you're there for four days. You're like, what the heck? Like, I've been at a place like that. I'm like, you're gonna provide two cured cups, like you're gonna draw straws to see who gets coffee. So it's like uh yeah, at our place we do unlimited firewood, unlimited coffee, like unlimited everything. Like we just had a guest, she was like, I, you know, can you provide extra towels? I like to, you know, have a fresh one every day. I was like, have as many as you want. Like it doesn't cost me anything, but it makes you happy. So, you know, when people are stingy about I'm only gonna put one towel out, you gotta make it work. Like, why? There are some people that take advantage of it for sure, but it's so few and far between that it just makes everyone's guest experience just amazing. So I just try to try to provide that value.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

That is that is cool, man. Uh going above and beyond with the amenities, it doesn't cost too much more. And like you said, not not a lot of people are gonna go steal ever all your coffee and all your towels or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

I mean, there was one person, they probably went through like 20 coffee pods, but it's like it's I think 30 bucks, 30 bucks for a three, yeah. I'm like, have it, you know. They had a couple thousand dollar reservation, like take as many as you want, take some for the road. I don't really care. So uh I even I'm curious about your thoughts. Do you provide welcome baskets for your guests at all?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Man, in my early days, I would do that, those kind of things, you know. And I guess just getting like because we have over 50 properties now, right? Yeah, so and so the logistics is just it got a little, I mean, we leave like some waters and some snacks at most of our places. Um, as far as the basket, you know, over time the baskets have gotten lost, or or I don't know, people took them. Uh just yeah, I mean, like I said, we leave a few things, a few, a few waters and a few snacks. Now we did we used to go all out at first. We were excited about and and that and maybe I should do that again, but like have a bottle of wine, you know, have some popcorn, have all this stuff, and and you know, we used to do all that, but like I said, a lot of our a lot of our places are like one bedroom condos in Dallas. So it's right, you know, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Yeah, so I was the same. I kind of went out you know, hot. We had handwritten notes, you know, we wrote out like a hundred of them, uh, put out snacks, all sorts of stuff, and we're about a year in, and I'm like, I don't think any guest has ever really noticed or said anything. I don't know if it has like a huge impact. Like it's I'm sure it's nice uh to come into you know some waters and some snacks, but yeah, I'm like considering now, I'm like, I don't know if I if I'm gonna continue because it's it's you know it's a decent amount of money

Welcome baskets and snacks: effort without engagement

SPEAKER_03 15:08

to constantly supply all the snacks, and I don't get cheap stuff either. So it's like, do I really need that expense? Like maybe I could put that into a different, you know, something else.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

So uh we had a lot of like uh bottles of wine with like one or two drinks out of it. You're like, what the hell are we gonna do with this?

SPEAKER_03 15:24

I mean, I guess I could drink it, but I definitely did, I definitely did in the beginning, you know, because you're trying to get those reviews. So, like, you know, bottles of wine. Uh I actually I learned my lesson, but it was my second stay, and you know, it's in Nashville, so I provided some Jack Daniels like nips or whatever, little shots. Man, they I don't know if that influenced them, but they they trashed the house, they broke a bunk bed, like there's puke everywhere, glass. So I was like, uh, maybe I'm not gonna provide alcohol. So uh but I I was like, oh, it's it's cool, it's you know, for the market, you know, drink Daniels, all that stuff. Uh, but yeah, never again.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

We've had we've had people, I guess they saw like you know, a picture of what we had, like our in our listing, and they had the the basket with the wine and stuff like that. We had one lady actually say, could you make sure that there's no wine or alcohol in the house? Because I'm a recovering alcoholic. I was like, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

Which I have heard that angle of like, you know, if you provide alcohol and you don't know their situation, you know, that could be triggering. And now you have a bad review and you're trying to, you know, do something nice. So that would that would be terrible.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, like I said, we've strayed away from it. But I mean, if we if we're gonna be going all out, like and here's it, here's going back to what you're you know, the DIY stuff, and and we do a lot of arbitraging too. I don't do you ever do any arbitrages?

SPEAKER_03 16:50

Uh I've considered it, but you know, without the tax benefits, and then to be in a situation where like maybe they could end up taking over, you know, after a contract, a year, whatever. And especially if you put some work into it, I just I really want to, but I'm just like, man, I don't know. Like, what are your thoughts? Like, how what's your experience with arbitrage so far?

SPEAKER_02 17:14

No, we have some that are that are profitable that do really good. Um here's the thing. I see like a lot more potential if I did some DIY stuff and poured some of my own, you know, money and or sweat into it. But then I'm like, man, this place ain't even mine. That I get to that, I get to that point, you know. And I think I am gonna do some stuff. Like, I'm gonna add a barn door to this other place that has like this open office area that I can create like a fourth bedroom. I think I'm gonna go ahead and do that. But as far as wanting to, you know, these people could end my lease like after this this term, you know, and I go and put like a few thousand into it to make it look beautiful. So that's the only thing that that I don't like about the arbitrage game. I'd rather own something and then put as much money as I in my it's making it more valuable because it's mine, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:59

Exactly. So, and I'm I'm kind of a perfectionist in the way of like I like to have things you know done really well. So if I come into a thing, a place that's furnished, I'm like, okay, it's furnished, but like half the shit needs to go, you know, like it's so it's like, but then you're spending all this money to furnish it

Southern Pines arbitrage deal rejected after running the numbers

SPEAKER_03 18:17

and get it ready to go. So there was an opportunity last last month. My wife's cousin he had a place. I don't know if you golf, but it's in Southern Pines, which is like a golf Mecca near Pinehurst. And the US Open is gonna be there in June, so that's gonna be a huge revenue driver. But you know, the rent was respectable, uh, that we would pay him out. He would profit a little bit, but you know, um we started to factor in the costs of furnishing, financing a couple of things, and it was like looking at the data, you know, we might break even some or most months. Like we're gonna have some profitable months, but like we're gonna break even most months, and we're probably gonna lose money in the off season. So I'm like, that's a you know, to invest 20 to 30k into a place that we don't own, do all this stuff to maybe make a profit. I was like, that's just too much of a risk for me. So I decided like as much as I would love to have a place in a golf mecca that I could go visit, like, oh, I gotta go work on the house, babe. Sorry, gotta go down to the house again. Um I definitely would, you know, it's a dream to have uh something near a golf course. But yeah, after running the numbers and doing everything, it just doesn't make sense. So if we owned it though, because I propose an you know a creative finance thing, I was like, you know, are you interested in selling? If we had some equity and some skin in the game, like that kind of changes, you know, putting some money into it because it's like we own it.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, you could probably manage it for him and show him how much you can make managing it.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

That's another option.

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Yes, yeah. Well, so he wants to, he's probably just gonna do like a long-term thing, just like get tennis in there and just call it a day. But I mean, we were gonna manage it completely and make it a short-term rental, but it needed you know, and we needed to buy things and prove it because you know, we would have to have a hot tub to stand out. Um, we need some type of golf simulator, you know, a mini putt course, something like we needed all of that to stand out because everyone else is just and he wasn't gonna pay for it. No, he was gonna do like uh some like the major renovation stuff, but he wouldn't pay for that stuff. So it's like that that was some cost, furnishing, and then maybe we're gonna break or maybe make a couple like a couple months profit. I was just like it would be nice for the US Open, but it to me it was just too much of a risk.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Yeah, that's yeah, it's don't don't follow the shiny, the shiny objects, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:41

It was hard, it was hard to say no, because I'm I'm the type of person I'm like, yeah, let's do it. We'll figure it out, we'll make it work, it's gonna, it's gonna be great. And I was like, I had to take a step back. I'm just like I don't think it's a good good deal for me, even though it's in the family and it would have been cool to kind of do something, you know, family members, but that also could be a really bad experience if it doesn't go well.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

So that's true, that's true. Uh but but going back to condos, I mean I do like condos myself, and and I have a few and and they do pretty good, man, and it's not a lot of work you gotta put into them, and you don't have to put a lot of money, a ton of money to make them look really nice, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Yeah, definitely. And I think depending on the location too, like if you're in like a metro and you have a condo really close to downtown, you just hit so many different types of people. Um they can outperform single family homes for sure.

Condos outperform single-family homes in metro locations

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Uh it just I think location is key. The tough part is the HOA part. Uh that's you know, usually a condo comes with HOAs, so it's like playing by their rules, and you know, that can be difficult too. Um, but her place is in Vermont, they're actually trying to pass some regulation to like you have to live in your rental for I think a third of the year or something. And it's like everyone that has rentals out here is not living out in Vermont. not like that's just not feasible. So I don't think it's gonna pass, but it's just like you know, same thing with their HOA. You know, if they decide like, hey, you can only rent it out X amount of year X amount of days per year, you know, we don't want a lot of people coming in. Like that's it's kind of like similar to arbitrage. If if they decide to change the rules, like that sucks. Like so I I kind of try to stay away from the HOAs if I can just because you could have a killer business and it's going well and they're like yeah you gotta live there half the year. Oh you can only rent it out for half the year. Like that just that'd be tough.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yeah that's that's true unless unless you're gonna get on the HOA yourself.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

I hope not I hope not but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

We had a friend of the show a long time ago he came on and he was out of uh somewhere in Arizona for I forget exactly where but they they had this complex and and everybody was doing short term rentals right and they were able to to put so much influence and get himself voted on the as HOA president and all this stuff. So it's no way it's gonna stop because everybody he he showed everybody how to make so much money on their condos uh doing short-term rentals and he became the president and so he allow he he he allows you know the complex to to continue doing it and nobody wants it to go away so it's a pretty good position. Yeah I mean that's the thing it's it's usually education of like the everyone's like oh it's parties it's gonna bring in all this noise and it's like it's really not uh and it brings in money for you know people are coming to travel there they're spending money you know at the resort whatever it is uh people don't really look at that piece they're just like they think it's parties bad bad people are gonna come in they're gonna break stuff like it happens but you know that could happen with midterm or long term renters too so uh I think just like education too but yeah I don't know if I'd ever want to be in the HOA I sat on an HOA call and I was just like yeah these I do not want to do this but maybe if I had a condo and it came down to it I you know maybe in that scenario yeah try to get some votes um yeah yeah so you see you talked about you speaking about you're helping other people out so you were going and sharing online and and then just helping whoever you know called you apparently and so it is a lot of wasted hours you know if you're with people that probably aren't going to do nothing with it right give it a malice advice and no one's gonna do nothing with it. But there it is worth it when someone finally comes around and says all right I'm gonna do it and I want you to to manage it for me.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Yeah absolutely so like it's not even like I'm trying to get clients or get opportunities from it. I just truly like to help people but um yeah I mean even the people where I've invested time it has turned into something if that's a referral or like oh you know maybe not co-hosting but do you want to like consult me for a couple hours to do this or can you help me set up this automation or it so like it has turned into some type of financial gain but that wasn't my goal. And then also too I've you know in the last year I've really tried to post you know on on social media so TikTok and Instagram and that's also open doors to new opportunities. So I can help people through my content and then also help them in the groups and it's funny because when you post content especially when you're like starting out you're like you feel like you're just posting into a black void. You're like here's my content like one person liked it or something like when you're starting out and then it's funny when you start talking to people like I've been watching all of your videos and like it's great.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

It's really helped me on this I love that like pricing strategy and I'm like why don't you comment like let me know that you were watching it you know what I mean it's just crazy until you start to reach like a really big following it it almost feels like it's pointless but people are watching so it's like you just have to be consistent and keep doing it which is how we got connected so you know yeah yeah it's and yeah don't I I've learned too not to look at just for how many likes you got or how many comments or whatever because people are watching and the same thing you know I still have my day job I go there like a couple times a week you know I'll give away most of my shifts because this has been become my prior you know primary income um but I'll I I'll see people at work and they'll they'll call they'll ask me about a certain video or certain podcast I'm like you didn't say nothing about it online you know why are you asking me that yeah it's good for the the algorithm give me some engagement come on I'm

Only one person out of a hundred took action

SPEAKER_02 26:28

tired of just my mom commenting no I'm just kidding and out of out of it's it's so funny out of the hundred people at work that have oh wow short term rentals Airbnb that's cool I want to do that I want to try that ask me a million freaking questions only one has ever done anything like about it and they got a house right only one out of all these people all these hours of questions have done anything about it.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

Yeah there's a lot of tire kickers for sure and that's the thing is like in the groups it's at least people that are like taking action they already have a place or you know like they're involved in the world but when I just post into social media that's where you get the people of like hey I'm thinking about it or I might want to buy a place and it's like I I'll help them but I you can tell that it's like they're in that analysis paralysis stage. I've been there.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Or can you find me a place?

SPEAKER_03 27:18

Yeah hey I'd love to yeah I'd love to start but can you find me a place I'm like yeah like I can I could but like then they'll say no I that's a lot of work yeah here's the here's the perfect place you're gonna make three grand in profit here you go are you ready? Oh I actually don't have any money to it's dude same thing man same exact thing but yeah I I it's it's led to a lot of opportunities and the one thing you know so I built a direct uh like a custom like direct booking custom site about a month ago and then it it's something I'd wanted to do for a while and basically it integrates with hospitable and you know built it on Wix and I was like let me just post it in the groups and the you know the reactions were great people loved it and now it's like turning into another revenue stream of people are like hey can you do that for me? Like can you build that for me and it's like I didn't even intend it to be a thing but it's like there's definitely a need in the market for people that want direct booking sites that look good because you know with these channel manager direct booking sites like yeah it gets the job done but if they don't look great and you can't add tracking you can't add pixels for running ads you can't pull in reviews you can't there's a lot of limitations with it um and you can't really be found through Google. Like there's no SEO component to it. So I kind of solved all those problems and you know I'm starting to help people with that too.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

And what's that site called which one?

SPEAKER_03 28:51

The the custom sites that you're that you're building oh just Wix Wix.com is like the platform to build it on but are you talking about my your thing that you created yeah underwoodmanor.com underwood manor.com yeah and what where'd you get that name from the street name is underwood so I don't I I thought and also too it's Nashville so people think it's Carrie Underwood uh but it's not it's just the street name but manor to me it just sounded kind of like you know upper tier just like an even though it's like a big property is what a manor means but I just thought it it played off it well um but yeah that's kind of where the branding came from.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

That are a scary movie.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Yeah right haunted manor yeah yeah and then ironically there is a musician with the last with the last name underwood not carry and he was like I it was on social and he made it up talking he's like this is the perfect place for me like I'm gonna have next time I'm in town I'm gonna be with like a big you know famous musician like we're gonna stay here I'm like oh great and I was like should I reach out to Carrie and maybe just see if she'll uh she'll stay there I think there's also a Sarah underwood so uh just reaching out to all the underwoods. Oh wow my uh best buddy growing up Brad Underwood shout out to Brad what's up brother Brad come stay with us um so

Revenue management: one-night minimums at premium with length-of-stay discounts

SPEAKER_03 30:18

you mentioned revenue management what do you mean by that that's a big buzzword right now buzzwords yeah so obviously using price labs like everyone does but I think from there it's you know you can't just set it and forget it. So um it's usually in Airbnb I'll do rule sets where I'll create you know length of stay discounts and I'll do uh we have a crazy one that we're testing out where we increase the premium. So I basically opened up my calendar completely to one night minimums. If you want to book one night go for it we're gonna pay a premium and then as they book more nights that length of stay discount brings the price down to something more normal. And you know I've seen some great results with it. So I test that out for the weekends with that premium and length of stay. And then on the midweek stuff usually like a Tuesday I'll do a length of stay discount and I've I've noticed a big increase of you know longer stays during the middle of the week. So um it's kind of just messing with those types of strategies and it's kind of a you know it's just you got to test see what works and constantly be trying things. So you can't just rely on price labs pricing completely and just hope for the best because it could outprice you based on your competitors um so you need to look into that um through Airbnb you can look at that obviously and then looking through the data in price labs looking in the market dashboard looking you know at you know different data points and just checking in on your competitors to make sure that you're not overly priced.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

No that that's a great strategy the you of course utilizing price labs you should definitely do that. But also using the rule sets inside of Airbnb to promote longer stays because they get a bigger discount per and it's just and I had a friend telling me you know who who taught me that a long time ago he's he mentioned that he goes us humans we see that little slashed out price and then a lower price underneath that it just automatically think oh I'm saving a ton of money even though girl math girl math they're like oh my gosh and even though you marked it up or like uh the Black Friday deals like they just mark it up and then mark it down they're like you're saving so much money. It works it freaking works man and I know it works on me. I'll see it an orange tag and an orange sticker at something at Walmart and I'll oh it's cheaper and it yeah it's like one penny cheaper the same price.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

But it does incentivize longer stays and I think a lot of people they're so weary like I was too early on but they're so weary they'll have like three or four or five night minimum stays and you're like well if you have a three or more minimum stay you're not going to show in a flexible you know search. So you need to open that up and I know you don't want that one night stay but think about if you did you know one night stay on a Friday one night stay on a Saturday at a premium who cares like you're making more money. And if your cleaners are okay with it obviously like that's the biggest thing are they okay with you know one night and same day turns and all that but yeah you can end up making more money and it doesn't necessarily mean it's a party people could be driving through like we had a a couple celebrate an anniversary they live like 45 minutes away so they paid a premium for that one night that was sandwiched in between like an orphan day and you know I was like why lower the price if someone books it at a premium that's amazing. If they don't no sweat like I don't have to worry about the headache. So um yeah just constantly testing different strategies different pricing rule sets um that's the key just kind of get creative with it.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Yo yo yo Stevie Stacks again one more quick shout out to themusecoffee.co that's themusecoffee.co get you a freshly roasted bag of coffee today. Go to the musecoffee.co use code LL T and get you 20% off of a bag of the best coffee you'll ever have in your life.co now what I do I do that um the price labs where you bump up the price you know like double or triple whatever the price lab suggests that you price it you know and then um I'll even go into the the weekends and even put it like 20% higher even more than what I set it at higher. You know what I'm saying? Yeah so so that way when price lab starts dropping the prices on me it'll at least keep those propped up the weekends you know and I do keep them I do keep I do everything one day except for the uh Friday and Saturday I do keep it at two nights for for farther out but as it gets closer you know because I I just I know a party could happen anytime anywhere but but I I still I I've I've been through a lot of the party situations where some oh yeah we'll spend three or four hundred dollars for a Friday or a Saturday we're gonna party anyway bump that up yeah yeah so I bump it up plus I put a two night minimum so that kind of like has been working great and and deterring parties but um as as it gets closer like to the week I'll I'll I'll change those to one night minimums also.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah absolutely yeah anything that's super far out I'll put three and three because I'm like okay you know go for it if if you want to book it it's got to be the three but anything within like three or four months I've I've been testing that one night and it's been it's been working. So I think I'm just gotta really fine tune it and make sure it works. So the thing with length of stay discounts is like you can really get yourself in trouble if you have it applied to too many days. So um just be very cautious if you are for the audience if you do length of stay don't do it on every day because then you'll get that discount multiplied across every day. So it could be end up a really cheap stay for somebody. So just be cautious with that.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Exactly now now what do you do if someone um sends a request to extend for a night and that puts them from you know six night stay to a seven night stay which triggers another discount and then it makes that extra day like 50 bucks or something cheap, right? What do you do in that situation?

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Well so I took out the the the week discount within Airbnb just because like I I with the rule sets you'll reach that anyways if you book that week right so I don't want to give like a double discount. So I took this off actually uh for that scenario I don't want to get to a point where it's like you're losing money on the stay the more that they book so you gotta be cognizant of that. But I took that off I also um I'm doing simplified pricing which I've been doing which I think not a lot of people realize that I'm paying for the fees but you know pricing myself higher too kind of covers my ass in that scenario. And then also a trick that a lot of people are doing is putting the cleaning fee as a management fee to where it's baked into the nightly rate. And so basically when they see my rate it's like what you see is what you get other than taxes. So it's like really attractive to them which you know I thought about maybe I put like a little badge on like my cover photo of like you know we cover the fees so that people it's a little bit more obvious but that's something that we do and it's been working well.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Okay cool. And how do you because you have the direct booking site right and you obviously you can't do rule set games in there how do you how do you do discounts inside the direct booking site?

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Yeah so that's something I'm trying to figure out because yeah when someone was gonna book direct I was like yeah it's the price is a lot lower than what they would get on Airbnb. So that's kind of something I do need to figure out because you know it's kind of same with VRBO like Airbnb has all the real sets so it's great but like if someone does book direct they're really getting a good deal but at the same time you know with the simplified pricing they almost were paying the same amount on direct versus Airbnb so I kind of think of it as like they are still getting that discount. Uh but yeah I need to find a solution for that is it's kind

Airbnb's zero-dollar short-stay cleaning fee bug

SPEAKER_03 38:06

of newer a new frontier but I kind of ran into that in this past week of like hmm what am I gonna do here?

SPEAKER_02 38:12

Because it I mean the hotels have been doing this forever right you go in there and you book a extra couple nights and it knocks down the price or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

So there's gotta be a way I mean they got to use some kind of software to do it right yeah uh yeah there's gotta be a way for sure it would probably be something inhospitable that maybe I can because you can mess with like the direct booking price but that also impacts you know the other properties that you're or the platforms that you're on. So it's it's something I'm gonna need to solve but I don't have a solution yet but I think soon.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

You might call the house call the hospitable guys they'll be able to help you they they answer the phone they're good.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Yeah honestly like that's why I like love them is that they're always putting in new features and they actually listen to people like hey can you add this feature so yeah hospitable if you're listening rule sets it exact oh man I wish they had them in hospitable wouldn't have to do anything inside Airbnb anymore man uh honestly because then it would push out to your other other channels too so many bugs I don't really um yeah I don't really like my my prices on VRBO are just higher because it's like I don't get a lot of traffic from there and if you want to book go for it but yeah it's mainly in Airbnb where we're trying the strategies.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

There's so many bugs inside of Airbnb man and it's just I remember I'm sure you remember this when uh months ago when they decided to make like short stay uh cleaning fees zero well you you switched it to management fee anyway so maybe or did you have it back then?

SPEAKER_03 39:48

This was I think I think I had it yeah when that was happening I already had it as a management fee.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

So I think it didn't affect you then yeah but it affected millions of hosts right so they all of a sudden someone stayed a two night stay for let's say 200 bucks somewhere and your cleaning fee is like 150 and they didn't charge him anything it charge zero for a cleaning fee. So you made 50 bucks off a two night stay or even lost by some people and and so everybody's freaking out what happened they introduced something without telling us is what happened you had to go in there manually you know where your cleaning fee is um and set you know whatever it is 100 bucks for for your cleaning fee and underneath it it says short take short stay cleaning fee and if you didn't set anything if you didn't know about it it automatically defaulted to zero. So it screwed a lot of people at a lot of money and and um so you have to go switch it to and you it won't let you put it at 100 yeah you can put it at uh 99 dollars but you have to give some kind of discount in order to put that one at that rate it's like all right we're going over there we're cleaning it ourselves you're like take the day off cleaners we got this one and you're like oh shit I know that I I noticed another thing that keeps happening on Airbnb it is this um flexible check-in time for some reason it'll it'll autumn it'll switch to like just flexible where they can choose to check in at 10 a.m or whatever yeah and and we've gone and set these things a few times and it still keeps happening yeah I've seen that where it will show like the time window of like when they will be checking in does that have any impact on them like if they decide at 10 I haven't had anyone do 10 but I've I've seen it's like a window of like four to six which is helpful like if you especially if you're having like a same day turn of like knowing when they're actually going to come but um yeah is that if they set it for 10 they can just come at 10 like have you had a situation like that it's happened to us a couple times man and we go in there and we and we have our check in time set at 4 p.m and and then they see the thing they they made another box under it and I think it might have started getting buggy from that second box. Instead of just it used to be back in the day you just put four you know 11 a.m checkout time 4 p.m check-in time that was it then it added another box under it up to how long and it and it starts out as flexible up to how long can they check in. So in other words if you if you mess up on that thing or

Custom Wix direct booking site at underwoodmanor.com

SPEAKER_02 42:20

or if you don't put anything I think it's letting anybody put whatever they want to check in like I want to check in at 10 a.m even though there's guests there that hadn't they don't leave till 11 and that's happened to us and they were waiting out front blah blah blah and like you got the message we have automated messages it comes at you and say check ins 4 p.m yes but we chose to have a 10 a.m there's no there's someone there there's you can't get in I'm sorry I know it's it's something with Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

Yeah I saw a video of that exact thing and it was like this old guy and he was just like no no but my flight came in early and I I thought I could come early like that's just not how it works.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Like just because your flight was early doesn't mean that you can check it there's people staying here like I don't think they'll be okay with a random person joining their party but yeah you gotta watch you gotta watch these things you have someone like kind of go yeah audit your Airbnbs and make sure these things don't just you know Airbnb switches something without telling you because they'll do that.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Yep I've heard about that. So thankfully I haven't had anything too catastrophic but that would yeah that would be a nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 43:22

Yeah yeah so that that's another reason to get our own direct booking sites and and then try to wean ourselves away from Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah I mean it's just good to have a different avenue like you could be found organically you can run ads and get traffic that way um also with Hospitable and a few other channel managers you can get on Google Vacation Rentals you know uh there's a trip advisor plat TripAdvisor is a platform called Halfie Hoofy Hoofy I don't know how to say it H O U F Y uh but basically it's it's like a another way to get um visibility For direct booking specifically, because you'll still have to have a way to book them. They don't take any payments or anything on the platform. It's just a visibility thing. So uh but the the best part about having a direct site is that you're building a brand and you're building something like with the channels, like if they decide you broke the rules or like you know you're off the platform, like that's it, you're done. Like all those reviews, everything is gone. So it's like if you can start building something now and building a brand, especially for you know people to come back, like that's there's no better time than now to start that.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Yeah, that's true, man. Um so real quick, uh what what Facebook groups do you like to get into that's giving you a lot of um, you know, giving you a lot back?

SPEAKER_03 44:45

Yeah, so I'm in uh I'm in a lot, honestly. Uh like too many. Uh the one that I'm in that I'm pretty active in is host camp. Uh that was the first thing I joined like a couple years back, and there's just a lot of really great people in there. Um and then pretty much any group that is related to short-term rentals or Airbnb. Like, I'm in it. I'm active. Um you know, I just have Facebook open and whatever's at the top, I just go in and answer the question. Like, this is what I would do from my experience, this is how I'd handle it. And yeah, it's it's not like I'm even trying to do anything, it's just like I'm answering their questions. Um, I've even taken a step further to try to find you know, co-hosting clients or people that need direct booking sites. I have a VA that reaches out to people and sends them a message, like a hand message that I have, and it's it's had some good results and gotten some new um kind of networking opportunities of people that I I've started to work with. So that's kind of like my direct outreach, other than just you know being active in the groups and then posting social content too. It's just the more that I could be seen as an authority and you know, answer people's questions or just share my experiences through content, then like only good things can happen.

SPEAKER_04 46:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Obviously, there could be a hater or two, but who cares?

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Now you mentioned a while back um that you that you had one of the places I believe it was the condo that was coming off a three-month rental or midterm rental. Is it was it the condo? And then you're worried about the the algorithm pushing you down because you you know I've heard that too. Um but do you on that one, if it if it does, if it is attracting a lot of midterm, are you also on Zillow?

SPEAKER_03 46:30

Uh for that one, we I mean, I primarily want it to be a short term, but now that we're out of the ski season, it's still people come out there for golf, but uh you know, we're getting bookings already for the summer, so I don't know if if you know we should be too concerned. I think we're gonna be able to fill the calendar, but you know, it it's definitely something I would consider, you know, if they're especially in the slower times. I think that's a good strategy too, which I've heard if you know you have a slow season, don't like plan ahead, like maybe try to get that rented as a midterm rental, like far in advance to where you can at least have a solid income come in during that time rather than trying to like battle everyone for the scraps of you know people coming through during a slow season. So like that could be a strategy too.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

Yeah, that's what I would recommend. Of course, furnish finder, are you on there at all for the condo or or any of your properties?

SPEAKER_03 47:28

Um, yeah, actually for one of the places I co-host, we are on Furnish Finder. We haven't really had any hits there, but honestly, you know, we get a lot of inquiries in Airbnb for midterm stuff, but we make more with the short term. So unless it's something like a really killer deal where you know we're making good money, like we usually say no, but we do get a lot of inquiries. It's usually people because it's a smaller place, it's a one-bedroom like guest house, so you get people that are moving, you know, trying to check out the area, like whatever it is. So there's a lot of uh traffic for that.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

Okay. I mean it's it's like 120 bucks for the year or something like that. It's not too expensive, but uh yeah, we yeah, I I guess a lot of one bedroom because you know, we will host hosting a lot of travel nurses and um you know, interns, stuff like that that come to Dallas. So it's it just depends on your area.

SPEAKER_03 48:20

Definitely a good good pivot too, if like you're struggling with short term, is like you know, start to look into that, tap into that market, look at you know, travel nurses or corporate leases or whatever. It's definitely an option. Uh for me, I like to really just go full bore on short-term rentals.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

That's good that you have your your um you know your target uh that that you want to hit and and your blinders, you know, because I I love midterm. I would rather get all midterm. I'd rather have everything booked up right now. I don't have to look at it, you know. That's me. So I could just focus on you know finding the next one.

SPEAKER_03 48:52

Yeah, I mean, peace of mind, like when we have had the midterm stuff in that one client, it's like, cool, I don't really have to worry about it. But you know, I like to see, especially early on, I'm like, let's see, let's kind of build some baseline numbers of like what could we actually achieve uh with short-term rentals versus midterm. Uh and usually we can outperform that with the the short-term rental. Obviously, it's a bit more work and a bit more management, but you know, that's what I'm doing. So I don't mind the extra work. And it's kind of uh yeah, it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

And over here with spring and summer coming up. So I would definitely transitioning away from, you know, of course, I would love the midterms to cover all of our slow season, which is the winter here, and then spring and summer is coming through. So yeah, let's just lock in. Let's just unless it's a lot of money they're gonna they're gonna throw at us for a midterm state. I'm not gonna let them take my whole you know uh high season calendar for uh a certain low price, which it's I'm sure you've seen on VRBO, but you get those like spammy uh scams where it's like is this student available?

SPEAKER_03 49:58

Yeah, is it available and I'm gonna book it out at full STR price at $14,000? Is it available? I yeah, if you want to book it, absolutely, but no, I'm not gonna send you money uh whatever they always say. But yeah, if you book it for $14,000, go for it. You can have the entire month. I will come there and be your personal assistant for that month. But yeah, that's it's always a scam.

Four chargebacks in one week, $4,000 held by Stripe

SPEAKER_02 50:24

But I bet people have done it too. I bet people have done it, sadly enough. Send the money, send them, yeah. Yeah, I bet that's happened.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

I'm sure. I mean, they wouldn't be doing it if there wasn't people that fell for it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 50:37

Mm-hmm. And and the only thing with the with the direct booking site, we have our own direct booking site as well, uh, is the chargebacks. That's the only that's the major issue you gotta worry about.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

What do you for the direct booking sites? Do you have it through hospitable?

SPEAKER_02 50:55

So, no, we have our own. We it's it's a boostly website. Uh, our buddy Mark Simpson makes the these boostly websites, but and we and it's backed by Stripe. So, so um, and it's funny it because we had it up and running. We got the site up and running, we were getting a lot of direct bookings, and then like one week we got like four chargebacks for four stays. And so not only not only do they um you know have to investigate and do all that stuff, and you're probably gonna lose, especially and here's a funny thing. If they go if they're using an American Express card, you're almost guaranteed you're gonna lose the the battle against what was their reason for a chargeback? They just did a never higher fraud that when they never stayed in place, it was a fraudulent charge on their card. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah. And so American Express backs them, and then Stripe, you know, usually they they investigate, and while they're investigating, they hold your money. You know, we had like four thousand dollars tied up.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Oh my god. So, like, how do you protect yourself, I guess, in that situation?

SPEAKER_02 51:55

That's what I'm that's what I'm trying to figure out because we we we went back to just you know, here, you know, you can send us the dates and then contact us, and then we can we can book directly with you, and you can zell us or or Venmo or whatever, you know, using one of these apps to pay us. But um as far as booking through the site, we have that we have that disabled for now until we figure out a better way. Now, I've heard people they pay this um chargeback protection on Stripe, which conveniently enough comes to three percent, which is what Airbnb charges us to protect us too.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

So it's right, it's kind of a wash, but um that's something I need to look into because yeah, we run the bookings through hospitable, so I don't I I would imagine they have something in place, uh especially with the premium version, uh, because you are paying those fees. So that's a good question, and definitely something I should look into.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

No, it's through hospitable, but do you use what payment processor do you use?

SPEAKER_03 52:52

Yeah, hospitable it processes through hospital. Yeah, if you have yeah, if you have the premium one, they do all of that. You have to pay six percent fee, but it's still lower. Um, or it's charged to the guest service fee is six percent, and then it's I think ten dollars per reservation. Like it's really not bad. And then you get the um the five million dollars in liability and damage protection, um, and then they remit taxes as well. So I would imagine that they take care of it with chargebacks. Luckily, I haven't had a situation yet, but that's something I definitely would love to get an answer for.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

Yeah, definitely ask them because I mean that's that is pretty cool. If they if they take the brunt of the chargebacks, that's great.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

If they passed, yeah, I would imagine they do because yeah, they're doing the the processing and they pay you out, so I would imagine, but it's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

We shall see. Well, cool, brother. It's been a great show, man. Thanks for hopping on. Anything else you wanted to touch on before you head out?

SPEAKER_03 53:53

No, thanks for having me. This has been a pleasure. It's my first podcast ever, so it's been fun. And yeah, it was really good, you know, talking through Str and everything. Um, I hope it was helpful for everyone. Uh, but yeah, follow me on socials and I'd love to help you if you have any questions.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

Where could they find you, brother?

SPEAKER_03 54:11

Uh at real chase Ryan on TikTok and Instagram. R-E-A-L Chase Ryan, right? Yep, the real one, not the fake one. I do have uh I do have someone uh trying to be me and they like send out a crypto scam, so be wary of that one on TikTok. Oh, I've reached I've reached a level that I have a a person you know trying to copy me and use my content.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

So only buy crypto from the real from the real chase.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

Yeah, only from me.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Yeah.

unknown 54:43

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

It's been a pleasure. Been a pleasure, dude. Yeah, we'll talk to you later. We'll yeah, we'll catch up again in another episode.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

All right, sounds great. I'd love to come back.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

All right, see you at Thrive. Peace out.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

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.