Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive. I am Stevie Stacks, your host, coming at you from Fort Worth, Texas. And this is your favorite short-term, midterm, long-term rental podcast in the world. And today we got a special guest, a Mr. Dr. Financial himself, Ron Curtis. And Ron's gonna bring it today, man. He's got over 20 STRs using the automated uh co-host model. I can't wait to dive into what that is is exactly. I love automations. Uh he was on Bigger Pockets, he's a nine-to-five preneur like a lot of us, and I'm excited to chat with them. Welcome to the show, Dr. Financial.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Thank you. I'm happy to be here. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Cool, cool. Yeah, man.

House-hacking a basement into the co-hosting model

SPEAKER_03 1:02

So, so how did you get your start in the short-term rental world?

SPEAKER_02 1:07

All right, great question, Steve. So, um, pretty much I always had an infatuation with house hacking. Uh I was in college, I found out about house hacking, and what I pretty much did was I purchased a home and I turned my basement into an Airbnb. And from that, I was able to cookie cut that process and duplicate it across multiple people's property. Uh, and I realized co-hosting properties allows me to scale way faster than actually, you know, going and doing rental arbitrage or purchasing properties on my own.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Oh, cool, cool, cool. So the co-hosting model, how did you see? So, you know, I'm a co-host myself. I, you know, I manage properties for other people. I do the arbitrage thing also. I'm a home, you know, I own some properties too. But the co-hosting thing, yes, that's the the creme de la crime. That's the that's what we all go after because, like you said, you don't need a lot of money to start doing it. You I mean, you find people that need help uh you know, running their Airbnbs, and you go in and you co-host, you run it for them, and then they pay you a percentage. So, how how do you go from how do you find people that let you do that? Because it's become, I mean, there's millions of co-hosts now, right? All over the world, all over the planet, every single country is emailing people that have Airbnbs nonstop. So, how do you how do you how are you able to find people to trust you to manage their units?

SPEAKER_02 2:29

That's a great question. Um, I would say it starts with doing good business, right? So I started my first Airbnb. Um, the reason I I'm called Dr. Financial is prior to this, um, I had a lot of different paths of income businesses, such as uh rental cars, taxes, credit, uh drop shipping, vending machines of that nature. Um, and once people saw that I had success in those different fields, um, once I started doing Airbnb, it was kind of like a word-of-mouth thing. So I got my first property, I managed it, I was traveling, I still had bookings while I wasn't home, and I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. So I'm automated the process. I had a client, she went and got three properties all within one year, two arbitrages, and actually bought a condo and just threw me the keys, right? Ron, go do your thing. You've helped me write an e-book before, you helped me start my Toro business, um, manage these properties for me. So uh that's how I got my first three, um, which had me four under my belt. And from there, it was kind of like word of mouth um in the Washington, DC area of people needing, you know, co-hosts and property managers. Uh, and also because I had a credit repair business, I was already tapped in with a lot of realtors and lenders. So when I'm going to these networking events and they know me as the credit guy, then they see I'm doing Airbnb, they're one of the main people that can connect you with homeowners. So uh that's pretty much how I got started and was able to scale so quickly.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Nice, nice. And um, so so let's go back to the to the root of this because you you mentioned so many different things you were trying, uh, drop shipping, uh, you know, turros, taxes, all kinds of stuff. Um, have you always been the entrepreneur uh type? I mean, did when did this

First sale: a $100 Dragon Ball Z drawing in elementary school

SPEAKER_03 4:12

start? When you were a kid, like selling uh baseball cars, or when did it all start, man?

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah, that's crazy. Um, ironically you said, the first thing I ever saw, uh I know a lot of people in the anime uh and Dragon Ball Z. When I was in elementary school, guys really liked Dragon Ball Z pictures. We used to drill them and trace them. Uh, one guy didn't have a printer at his house. He actually paid me $100 for a Goku and Vegeta pitcher, right? He stole it out of his mom's first, but he got in trouble. Later on, I had to give it back. But that was the first sale that I can remember. Um, and honestly, when the pandemic happened, so that was my shift, right? I was a 9 to 5 preneur, I worked for the DC government. Um, I'm working 40 hours a week right out of college nonstop. And then I was able to stop and think for myself. And because I was getting paid every two weeks, I wasn't going anywhere, money was stacking. I said, okay, let me start trying some of these business ideas that I've been researching and just jump off the porch and do it. Uh, and I started just diving into different businesses and learning and things of that nature.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

That's cool, man. Real quick, I've always, I mean, I've seen a million uh entrepreneur or um uh guru commercials about drop shipping. Is that is that you to become a millionaire doing drop shipping, or has that just played out?

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Probably at scale. Um, that's one of the first things I got into when I got really good at it. I was drop shipping on eBay, um taking products from other uh major sub major retailers, um, listing them as if I had them when somebody ordered it, leveraged credit to fulfill the order. Um and what I really started getting really good at it to the point where I hired a virtual assistant to do market research and create my store. And what happened was I scaled way too fast. eBay flagged my account um and they actually shut it down. I was wasn't doing anything illegal unless they don't allow drop shipping, but they allow major companies to do that. Um, but that's kind of what happened with that, and it made me pivot to another industry.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

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 coffee from the best places on earth, best beans on earth, freshly roasted and sent to your front door in a couple days, and you'll know what I'm talking about. So, my buddy Brian, Brian wins over at the Muse Coffee. Hit him up, he'll hook you up. If he knows you're a fan of the show, you put in code LLT, you 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

Drop shipping arbitrage on eBay until the account got flagged

SPEAKER_03 6:43

and get you some good coffee in the process. Themusecoffee.co. Yo. And that's and that's I mean, it's essentially arbitrage, right? You're selling something that ain't yours, just like uh a house that you're renting and then renting it out on Airbnb or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Exactly. And it's similar to the Toro model as well. Um, what my background is is maintenance oversight for DC government, oversee public transit contracts, and also um all different types of contracts related to vehicles. And I say, you know what, I do this from a nine to five. I'm not even really interested in it. But I can buy this car on a credit card with my friend. We go into business together, and then we renting out the

Turo rental cars grossing $1,000 a month on $200-$300 notes

SPEAKER_02 7:23

car. And the car, uh a two to three hundred dollar note on a car, an economy vehicle is grossing a thousand dollars a month in revenue. Um, and I got kind of tired of cars breaking down, people getting into accidents, things of that, like that. So I say, you know what? Airbnb is the exact same thing, only your house, you know, can't go get in a car accident. A lot more things can happen, but um it's it's it's way better in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Yeah, yeah. That's and that's what um because I oh man, I've been tempted to do the turrow so much, especially as something like uh in conjunction with with my Airbnbs. I thought that'd be cool to do something like that. But and everything works out, you know, hunky dory until an accident happens. And that kind of that kind of messes things up, don't it?

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Yeah, I mean you you have insurances in place, things protect you, but again, it's time. You can always give more money, but you can't get time when your car is off the road. Um, and one thing that I've actually started to do since I'm no longer in that space, you know, I have uh friends and business partners in this area that are still in Toro, are still in higher car, right? So one thing that um, you know, I I do is I can leverage their vehicles on my listings. Hey, you need a rental car, reach out to me. And now, you know, my model is how can we get money together, right? You can turn it into a revenue-generating model by, you know, hey, if I send a client your way, I want a percentage of every ride. Or you can just do good business and now you have rental cars on your listing that make you look better. You don't got to go buy no car, you don't gotta take on no loan, you just gotta go find somebody who has a fleet of Toro vehicles that needs bookings just like you on Airbnb.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

That's brilliant, man. Because they think, well, you this is these are your cars, but not really. It's just a service you're offering, but it's not even yours. Another arbitrary arbitrage model. I love that. Um, so so we'll jump into to how you were able to scale to 20 units. Um, so you had the friend, she handed you the keys, you got three right off the bat. That's you know, that's uh how I've been able to scale my business mostly is with the existing clients or friend of a friend, and then they just keep getting more and more units and throwing them at me. That's that's how I've been able to do it. And it's a very powerful, you know, word of mouth, you know. Everybody, you know, oh, you gotta go and make a million commercials and all that. Word of mouth is pretty strong.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yeah, definitely. Um, word of mouth is great too. I have another strategy that I use, and and this one has actually been able to help me scale and manage properties in countries and states and cities that I've never even been to. Um and the way that I do it, I provide value, right? So social media is so diverse, right? The reach is global. So I like to leverage Facebook groups, right? I join every last Facebook group that I can.

Scaling to 20 properties using Facebook groups as lead generation

SPEAKER_02 10:09

And in every market, every city, wherever, whatever one pops up when I type in Airbnb Facebook group, and what I do, I'm just adding value every day. If I get on Facebook, the algorithm is now showing me nothing but Airbnb. And what I do, I find the needles in the haystack, answer people's questions, you know, tell them, hey, I'll send you a message. Hey, if you need help, message me. And then I get them on the phone. And once I understand what their pain points are and they see the value add that I can bring, a lot of times, you know, they end up taking a chance and going with me and they've never met me a day in their life. And I've been able to help them not only rebuild their businesses, whether they had a bad list and we started over, or do like a listing makeover, right? Listing optimization, SEO, get them some professional photos, get them some pricing software in the back end, and then put them out automations to help it run hands-free. Um, so that's that's what my niche is. That's what I'm good at. Um, and that that's one of the main reasons I've been able to scale so fast.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

That is cool, man. Um, going in on the socials, going in there, answering questions, just being active on there. That pays dividends, man. I hate social media, but I know it's it's something that we got to do, or have a virtual assistant do it for you. That's even better. Um, so so go into this automated co-host model. What do you what exactly do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 11:24

All right, so um, pretty much I like to leverage systems, people, and processes, right? So with me having a government background, they're real big on SOP, standard operating procedures, technical writing. Like, if we were to fire you today, we need a document that tells the next person exactly what you do, right? Step by step. So um I've incorporated that in my business. So that's the first thing, right? Every property has a different check-in, et cetera, right? It's a check, a different flow. Um, the second thing is like your tech stack. So if anyone doesn't know what a tech stack is, it's pretty much the systems that you use to manage your properties. So if I'm using, if I just have an Airbnb and I'm managing three properties, I may not need, and I'm only listening on Airbnb. I may not need something called a channel manager, which allows you to link all of your properties, right? But once you get 20 plus properties, you don't want to be logging into all these different um platforms to respond to inquiries and manage reservations. Uh, so I leverage, you know, channel managers, price and automation software. You said virtual assistants. Um, I definitely leverage virtual assistants. Um it gives me a competitive advantage when I'm going out here and I'm pitching myself to these owners and investors. Um, I know Evolve is one of the biggest, uh one of the biggest property management companies, but a lot of people hate their service, customer service. I've been able to take customers from Evolve just based on me operating as a business and as a professional. There's a lot of amateurs doing this. Um, and I just like to operate like a business and make it professional.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Yeah, picking up picking off uh Evolve. I like that. Uh we've gotten some from them before. Yeah, they said um the same similar things. They're not very good at what they do. I mean, they do it for cheap, but they're not very, you know, you get what you pay for, right? Uh um do it for

Tech stack: Hospitable, PriceLabs, TurnoverBnB, and hiring from the platforms

SPEAKER_03 13:13

10%. Oh yeah, I know, I know. Um so so we'll go into like um you can go in your tech. Tell me about your tech stack real quick before I get to these other questions. What do you what are you usually working with?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Yeah, so tech stack, uh, I'll use Hospitable, which is the channel manager price launcher pricing software. Um, I'm working on demoing some accounting softwares to make it you know easier to pull data in real time so I don't have to rely on my bookkeeper and things of that nature. Um turno. Is a great way to find cleaners in other markets, uh, whether you want to hire an independent contractor where you can you know Google a major company. Um, but I like using turno, you control your margins, you control your overhead, and you can kind of craft a perfect team for your property. Um, but yeah, those probably the main ones that I use. I've used, I'm looking at the direct booking sites now. Um, I used to be a data analyst for the DC government, so I was uh managing systems. So I'm really I I know how to go test the system and see which system I need. So guesty, hospitable, uplisting, owner is, they all do the exact same thing. They just have different bells and whistles and different price points. Uh so I just found one that worked for my business model that was easily um easy user capability, right? And then I can train people on it as well.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

I like that. I like that. Um so so what about what about what do you use to communicate with your team? I mean, you're doing a lot of automations, uh, your team's handling a lot of it. What are you using to communicate back and forth with the team?

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Uh so I have like an options manager. Uh I use Trello. I like to keep it simple. I like to keep the systems free. So I use Trello um to track all of the tasks for my uh virtual assistant, my operations manager. Um, and really I use a Slack channel. I have virtual assistants in the Philippines, virtual assistants in Pakistan, and um they actually we have one group chat where you know check-ins and checkouts are reported, any damage before and after photos, and then they log and track all that stuff on there.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

Oh, yeah, it's interesting because I mean my my VAs are um uh in in Philippines, and then I got one in Argentina, and then of course, um you know, my wife helps out the business a little bit here, so so she's she's doing a little something for me. Um, but you said you said Philippines and Pakistan. Why why would you choose those two different sides of the world? And I think I know the answer, but why would you choose from different parts of the world?

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Well, first, um I have experience working with uh virtual assistants in those two markets, um, and I think there's a time change difference as well. I can't remember off the top of my head, but um one is economies of scale. I understand how money works. I understand I've traveled to different countries and I see, you know, oh, if I land in South America, my thousand dollars is now worth $5,000, right? So at the same time, I'm helping them provide for their family. You know, I'm paying them uh respectable wages, I'm giving them bonuses and things of that nature. Uh, and at the same time, I'm able to, you know, get the service that I need completed. Uh I have 24-hour customer service, that's in Pakistan. Um, and then in uh the ops manager listing SEO, like helping and stuff like that, pricing software, they're there in the Philippines.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Okay. So so that's interesting. Well, you break things up as tasks instead of like just shifts, like everybody uh day shift's gonna do all this stuff, afternoon's gonna do the same stuff, midnight's gonna do the same stuff, but you're breaking it up into tasks. Why are you doing it that way?

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Yeah, so I've been working with virtual assistants probably since 2020, 2019, so almost four or five years now. And I I kind of learned kind of like hiring an individual cleaner or turno, right? You never know what you're gonna get, right? Um, I've worked with virtual assistants in Africa, right? They have electrical power issues, power goes out, same thing in the Philippines. Um, so what I realized was instead of me having you know these one uh virtual assistants that I have to train from scratch, I found companies that already had a team. They are that already work a three hour, uh three, three shifts, and they might manage, you know, 50 other properties. They're already trained, they're teaching me stuff, right? They're helping me get my business refined. Oh, you do that? That's how you okay, cool. And it's like I realized, you know, you can learn from everyone, and I like to pay the experts at what they're good at. And if I interview you, you show me something that was so before, you teach me something, I'm gonna try you out. Um, and that and that's kind of how I've been doing it.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

I like I like that. Man, see, if a lot of people uh wouldn't admit to that, they're learning from employees, you know. And I I do that too. Uh, you know, I run my my company, but um, I'm always learning from the way they're doing things because here's the thing like my employees or or ones we've had before, current ones, um, they've worked for other short-term rental companies, right? Of course, we look for them people with experience. I do look, I look for people with experience, and they can say, well, you know, over here, you know, they did it this way. I'm like, uh, that's pretty interesting. We could try that, you know. We could try that. I like I like that. I I'm not too proud to not hear other people's opinions and ideas. So I'm like, if you can make it work that way, I'm open to it.

Hiring virtual assistants who worked in Airbnb's claims department

SPEAKER_03 18:31

You know, if it don't work, then we ain't gonna do that no more.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Exactly. And like you should always surround people around you, especially as a CEO that's smarter than you, right? I was doing bookkeeping when I had three properties on Excel sheets. Now I have QuickBooks and a live tracker and all this stuff, and now I'm looking at software, so it's like it helped me realize like I can't be the only person on the team scoring. I have to pass the ball, I have to learn, you know, I'm doing consultations, I'm learning about different softwares, I'm asking questions because you can learn something from anybody. You learn from the janitor, you can learn from the CEO. Um, and knowledge is one of the most valuable assets, especially in today's society. Uh, so it actually pays to ask questions because you can get an ROI from that.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

I like that. I like that. Um, so so we'll we'll go more into that a little bit. So, like, okay, you're building your team, you got them doing the different tasks and everything. Now, are you on top of them like 24-7, or are you or you kind of let them do their thing? And hey, if they mess up, they mess up. That's how they learn. What kind of manager are you of your of your team?

SPEAKER_02 19:40

That's a great question. So um, I think I think when people make mistakes, they shouldn't be penalized for it because it's a learning process, right? Especially if I'm onboarding you, you're pretty new. Um, what I do for the DC government, I oversee contracts, right? And I have contractors that work and do all the work. And I just have to make sure they abided by the contract. So, like ironically, that skill is transferable as well, right? I'm not the one fixing buses, but I'm the one signing off if the work was done completely. Same thing. I'm not the one putting together my cleaning invoice for the month, or I'm not the one uh, you know, responding to every message, right? But I am taking a peek and making sure everything's good. So, like I would say the biggest thing um, you know, is when they respond to messages, hey, I like to have a birthday party, it'd be 15 of us, it's a family thing, we're not gonna have a party, it's just gonna be a kickback. They think, oh, no parties. No, we can't have a party. No, we're gonna take that $1,000 book and then charge them a $250 event fee and say, yeah, you can you can have your event here, but you know, there's no parties, quiet hours, agree to the rules, you're good to go. So little things like that, um, because they think, uh, well, from what my experience, they're so black and white and so organized. If you tell them, hey, this is the task, this is the rules, um, sometimes you got to tweak it a little bit for them. So I'll just send a message, hey, just for future purposes, know that this is how this goes.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

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 themusecoffee.co, use code LLT, and get you 20% off of a bag of the best coffee you'll ever have in your life. The MuseCoffee.co y'all. I I do like that, you know. In every situation, uh, you get to build newer systems from it, right? Uh, because something happens. I mean, if you if you if you're on top of it all the time, not letting them make mistakes, then hey man, you're gonna be making a big job for yourself. But if they if they do make a mistake, but we go and and it investigate what happened, then we can create a new process for it so it won't happen again.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

And you know something else I recently did? Um of course, manager 20 bar, who you know, having notifications coming to you, having a full time job. I realized every notification that comes to my Phone, it takes a little bit out of me, even if my focus, my notification, uh, my attention, right? So, what I did was I said, I need a buffer, I need someone to flag, I need a filter to flag all of the stuff that I don't want to worry about, right? So that's what made me hire operations manager. And I say, Hey, you manage the cleaning team, you manage the customer service team, you reach out to me if there's an issue, and weekly I'll give you tasks because it's like the business runs itself now. I'm like, okay, go research this, create an SOP on this, tweak this uh checklist, things like that, things that I don't want to do. I want to focus on what I'm good at, right? Is you know, building teams, helping people generate revenue, helping pay their bills. So I think delegation is one of the biggest things that you can do as a CEO because it allows you to buy back your time.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

That's powerful, man. That's that's so true. That's so true. Uh something funny I thought of while you were saying that is um, like I said, I brought my recently brought my wife on board to help a little bit, right? And so she's diving into you know, learning the turnovers and stuff like that, and answering some messages. Uh, because she wanted to help out in the company. I said, All right, we got I got a spot for you, you know. And so um those first this first few weeks, she's been like, Hey, over here, unit so-and-so, there so this is happening. Which you know, are you gonna do something about it? Or unit so and so this is gonna this is happening. And I was like, I was like, what's happening? I was like, don't worry, they're gonna take care of it. That's why I pay them for so they can take care of these situations. Don't I don't want to know every single little incident that's happening. I got people in place and they got systems and they know what to do, right? But to her, so I'm like getting hearing things that I've I haven't heard in a long time. It's so funny, right? And I'm like, well, you know, no, no, no, I'm not no. I got people for that, they're gonna handle it. If they can't handle it, you know, it'll escalate, escalate to me. But but uh it's so funny when when you know, she's like a new, it's like a new toy for her. She's like, Oh, check this out. What's going on here? Why why are you doing it that way? What if they, you know, they're what if they're gonna throw a party? It's like we got systems in place, they got good reviews, they got this and that. You know, I don't know. To me, it was funny when you when you said that, you know, you got your buffer, I got my buffer. I got I got my um the the president of the company, you know, she's uh in the Philippines, Princess. Shout out to Princess, but she's amazing, and so it she don't want to bother me. She's she feels bad about bothering me me about things, you know, and I'm I'm cool with it, I'll help out a situation. But she, I mean, I don't know all the little intricacies what they're doing because I mean I know that I'm getting the results, and if I if I go in there, I can help out if I need to or give them some you know some guidance on some things, but they know exactly what they're doing, they know better than me, and that's what you want. You want to hire people that know more than you, right? I mean, that makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Yeah, definitely, and I like how you said you guys like to hire people who work um, you know, uh for other short-term rental companies, right? Something else that's pretty cool, and I'm pretty sure you do this, is to hire people that actually work for the companies. Yeah, whether previously or currently, right? They have insider access to you know what's going on, updates, software. Um they know processes, like a perfect example. You if you hire a uh virtual assistant from Airbnb, they youth from the Philippines, they used to work in the claims department, right? They know everything about the claims process. You hire them and have them manage all your claims. They may even have connections, friends, or even family members that work at those companies still. Um, so like, yeah, business about relationships, right? We're trading money value for value, but at the same time, we're providing good services and we're doing good business together.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

You spilled some major tea right there, man. And if people are listening, that's this is that's probably the biggest thing they can get from this show. If you're trying to do what we're trying to do, you know, scale these big uh short-term rental management companies. Uh, but hiring and exactly like I said, Princess, she used to work for Airbnb and did the claims, you know, all that stuff. So she's a killer, man. She's a killer. She gets us paid out. That's why I don't fear parties, man. I don't fear parties because we're gonna come at them and we're gonna get paid, man. Oh oh, it's so it's whatever. We're giving away too much, too much information to these to these listeners.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

I just yeah, yeah. Hey, let's get on parties for a second. Part and this is why it's so important. So I have a client, he has a house in Baltimore, and his property just went viral like two, three weeks. No, New Year's. His property went viral. We had somebody throw a New Year's party, his property

The Baltimore house party that went viral with 6 million TikTok views

SPEAKER_02 26:35

went viral on TikTok. He has like over six million views of it, and they destroyed his house because they were throwing a party, and we canceled. We told him reservation's over, they destroyed his house, and he's working on the claim, but I think he's gonna get paid out a nice amount of money. Um, and it's just crazy, you know, people destroy your properties, but as long as it's in your listing, as long as you know you have your rules, you want to deter those type of people away from or from destroying your assets.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Yeah, yeah, that's that that's oh, they destroyed his whole house. That's crazy. I've seen those um nightmare, nightmare scenarios, but but um I that that's the stuff that makes the big news. Usually, if if a party has situation happens, it's not that bad. I mean, not like that. It's a big mess to clean up most of the times. It might break a couple things, but but if you know how to submit everything, you know how to keep well, you you hire people that know how to do that, right? Uh keep everything in order, send those claims, do it in a timely fashion, know how to word everything, you're you're gonna get paid out. And um if you don't know how to do that, you're gonna lose a lot of money in this game, man. If you don't know how to do claims or you don't find someone that knows how to do claims, you're gonna lose a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yeah, even with the little things, everything adds up and go right back to your bottom line.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

So I know we're we're jumping around a lot. So, so that being said, do you do you use something like proper insurance on your places?

SPEAKER_02 27:57

So ironically, I just got back from the short-term wealth conference in Nashville, uh, and they were one of the vendors there. So um, of course, you know, I've only been doing this two years. I always thought, you know, that proper insurance was like supplemental insurance, you know, if you did direct bookings or off-market bookings, right? Um, but I learned a lot about insurance and liability at the conference this year, and it's definitely something I'm gonna look into. Uh and I think it's you know, $30 or something like that, and you just build that into your nightly rate, make it a linen fee or something like that. And now you're also protected just in case Airbnb doesn't pay out your claim. You can submit that claim through your proper insurance or whatever uh supplemental short-term rental insurance you have. So I gotta look into that. I haven't done it yet, but um, I'm definitely gonna look into it.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

I would have to see, I I was kind of like you. I I haven't really messed with the insurance part of things too much. You know, I've had clients that came it came with it and stuff, but I haven't, you know, I've been like, well, we got a great person that does claims, and so we're good on that end. But I will say this past little freeze that came through North Texas, um a pipe burst at one of the houses that we arbitraged. Now it puts you in a weird spot when you're doing an arbitrage, right? Because you're telling the owner, hey, a pipe burst, and they're like, Well, hey, did you cover up the things? Yeah, I covered up the spigots, I uh, you know, they ran the water, the heater, and it's it's it makes this weird back and forth thing. And uh, and so I mean they paid it and they got they got the floors fixed, I mean it flooded, it kind of sucked, but there was a big gap of we couldn't put nobody in there, right? Okay, yeah, yeah. And I don't want to sound like a commercial for proper. I haven't signed up with him yet, but now I'm thinking, and I and I've heard my you might have seen my buddy Mike Brown, he was over there at the convention. Uh, you a lot, a lot we we probably know a lot of the same people, but anyways, um he he swears by it. He he says that um if that situation would have happened, they would have paid it out. Proper insurance would have paid it out, had the plumber fix the thing, replaced all the flooring, plus all the time that that month that almost you know three weeks of of you couldn't rent it out, you get paid out for that time. For it goes on on the percentage, uh uh what your average nightly stay is and what you what you usually get, and

Proper insurance covering the pipe burst gap on arbitrage properties

SPEAKER_03 30:10

so you'd be still getting paid for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

So uh they pay you for lost revenue. That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Okay, pay you for lost revenue, and and so that's pretty cool. Um, so so that's that's why I I'm changing my tune a little bit. Yes, it's cool that that that you have someone that's great at claims and they can they can win those claims and stuff, but you know what happens when when uh a furnace blows up or a water heater blows up or the place floods, and you know that ain't that ain't a guest thing, right? So uh anyways, um yeah, yeah, I'm changing my tune on insurance. Yeah, and and you heard a lot about it over at your place. I'm cool with it. I'm cool with it. Um, so that being said, so what um so how did the BP thing happen? Bigger pockets, man. That's a huge deal. How did that happen?

SPEAKER_02 30:55

Honestly, God, man. Um, so pretty much what happened, I listened to this book during the pandemic called Set for Life by Scott Trench. Uh, and it pretty much tells you how to save your first $25,000 and start house hacking. And I pretty much took the steps from that book, and that's how I bought my first house, saved my first $25,000. I bought a $420,000 house. I only spent $3,700 to acquire it. Uh, took out a home renovation loan, uh, turned my basement into an Airbnb. And um I happened to be on Instagram scrolling this past spring, and uh a post, uh surprisingly, a bigger pockets ad came up. I didn't even know what bigger pockets was prior to this post, right? And I commented that book came up. Five books you should read as a property manager. First one, Set for Life by Scott Trench. Did I just leave a comment? I say, This book changed my life. I scale, I bought a house, scale from one to 20 property. Boom, I would highly recommend it. And I woke up the next morning and Scott Trench sent me a DM. I'm thinking he's just the author of the book. And he said, I would love to interview you in my podcast, Bigger Pockets. I get to Google, I'm like, Wow is the CEO of Bigger Pockets? That's insane. And it was it's God. Like, I mean, so the that's why I say the power of social media, a comment on an ad turned into a feature. Um and and that's kind of how that happened for me.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

That is it was very organic. That is so cool,

Bigger Pockets interview from an Instagram ad comment

SPEAKER_03 32:18

man. Because I've been a bigger pockets fan forever, you know, starting off my real estate journey because that's what it was back then. It was it was primarily real estate, and they branched off and they they talk about short-term rentals, they talk about everything now. But um, I've been, yeah, so that's to me, that's a huge deal. And the fact that you weren't even a listener, and but you read you read the book or listened to the book, and then you did the thing, which most people don't do the thing, right? And you did the thing and and and it helped you, it changed your life, put you on the right trajectory, and they they wanted to hear your story, and that's so cool, man. I I love that. And and going back real quickly, how the hell did you get a 400 plus thousand dollar house for 3,700 bucks?

Buying a $422,000 DC house for $3,700 with stacked first-time homebuyer programs

SPEAKER_02 33:01

All right, perfect. So I bought a 422, 422.5 house in DC. Um, so when I wanted the house tech, I started research researching first-time homebuy programs. Uh, and NACA was one that I was very interested with, right? And then I realized NACA probably wouldn't work for me what I was trying to do because I wanted to buy a multi-unit. But multi-units in Washington, DC in 2021 in the worst neighborhoods are probably were probably like seven, eight hundred thousand dollars, right? So I said, let's scratch that. Um, so I leveraged my job, one, you know, W-2, and then because I'm a DC government employee, they allow me to, they have first-time homebuy programs for DC government employees, right? Uh, so I was able to get like $25,000 from a first-time homebuyer program. And then I was able to match or combine another program called DC Open Doors, and they gave me $12,000. Um, so all in all, I had $30, what is that? $12 plus uh 12 plus $25. I had 30, like $37,500, right? And they fronted that for me to buy my house. So when I got my house, I uh put a $5,000 in my earnest money deposit. At closing, they credited me $1,200 back. And I used that to buy extended homeowners warranty for like two or three years. So, all in all, I spent $3,700 to buy a house that was turnkey ready to go. Um, and I just had to put a kitchen in my basement. Um, I had everything else, I had to full shower the bedroom. Like that was my goal to buy a house that I can house hack. Had to have a basement, had to have a private entrance. And who would have known me uh busting my single family home into a duplex would now allow give me the skill set to manage properties all over the world. Um, so that that's how I got that house. And that's that's God too as well. Um it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

That's awesome, man. It's it's so it's so people are like, no, it's impossible, it can't be done. How am I gonna get a house? It costs this much, you know, everything's so expensive. But you found a way, but it you hustled to get it, man. You found every you found every program out there to help you on a first-time home buyer and leverage your W-2. You did everything to to get the deal done, and then and you made sure, and that was a big part, you made sure there was part of it that you could rent out as a house hack. Otherwise, if you're just buying a house, I mean, I guess you could have rented the rooms out or something like that. That's that's another house hack, but you wanted something separate, and then that led you to to learn the the short-term rental game. So that's that's I applaud you for that, man. That's pretty inspiring. And you said, of course, you always give give the glory to God, and that's that's so cool too. Um I was gonna say, so so um DC, did they did they start getting some heavy regulations too against short-term rentals?

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Definitely, definitely. So actually, after I bought my house, the following, I bought my house in March, and I started my renovation in September, the following April is when they dropped short-term rental laws, right? I wish I would have known about it 10 years ago, right? But um, because I'm a DC resident, owner occupied a home, they allow you to uh rent out your home on a limited amount of nights as long as you don't owe DC any taxes.

DC regulations that dropped 15,000-20,000 short-term rentals overnight

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Uh, you occupy the home. Um, and I think you have something called homestay, which means DC is your you know place of living. Uh that's for the short-term rental license. They also have a vacation rental license where um you can rent out your home 90 days out the year, being off-site. Uh, and that's what a lot of investors do with their uh long-term properties, right? Um, and then there's another loophole where there's not a long-term rental restriction. So a lot of people list their properties for 30 days or more, and then you get a lot of midterm bookings that way, also. Um, DC, Maryland, Virginia, there's so many cities within 10 to 15 minutes of one another. All of the cities have different regulations.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Wow, wow. So that in a way, uh where your position, how how your position is pretty good because it keeps a lot of competition away, right? And so you must do very well in that unit because there's not a lot of it's not like in Dallas where everybody and their mama got an Airbnb, right? It's just only certain certain people who fit the criteria can get Airbnb. So it keeps away a lot of the competition.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

Yeah, and that and that's what uh like I'm a big data guy. So like that's where the data really comes into play, where you see who your competition is, how many are in the market. Like when they dropped that license, I went and saw like, I don't know if it was like 15, 20,000 properties, fell off of Airbnb from that, right? Um, and of course, supply and demand. Washington, DC's monuments aren't going anywhere, museums, the White House, none of that. People are always gonna travel here, right? Our busy season is anywhere from March. This year was going into January. Usually it's like October. Um, so it shows me like this is a great market, and they put those restrictions in there to stop people from investing and you know, getting this Airbnb money in a sense.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

Did you host any of the January 6th people?

SPEAKER_02 38:06

I didn't. I didn't. Nope, I didn't surprisingly. Um, and then my properties aren't that close to the butt yeah. Nope. Surprising.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

Luckily, I didn't up in there.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

That was something to worry about.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

Damn. Uh, they did they did they shut down the city for for that? What was something happened? I don't remember. Uh uh something something crazy happened in DC.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

No, they didn't shut down the city. So I mean basically they just had their protests and they marched and then they marched from one place to another, and then I think he was like, he told them to go storm the capital, and that's exactly what they did. Um and it was crazy, it was crazy. Like it was, it's it's it's unimaginable, but it happened. Um, and I'm pretty sure all those people that came there, a lot of them probably did stay in Airbnbs and things like that. So that's one thing that's so great about this, the nation's capital, especially with having new elections and new presidents, what every four years they get re-elected. You have all new types of people coming to this area, whether it's for politics, business, etc. Um, so I think this is like a great market in the DB area.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

Oh, definitely, definitely, man. Uh, I need to go. I've never been, I've never been to DC, but I need to go check it out, check out all the the monuments and stuff. You come with your family, I thought you guys in Airbnb. I got you. Oh, thanks, man. I appreciate that. Um, so like, so you you help out people now. You you coach, you mentioned the word coach. So, what got you into like coaching other people how to do this? Not, I guess, not just co-hosting their properties, but you just you're just uh coaching them, showing them how to do it. How what brought you into that?

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Yeah, so um both of my parents are educators. My dad's been a principal my entire life. Uh my mom works in elementary school, and uh I've always had a passion for learning, right? A lot of times people want to hoard and hide information. Like even on this podcast, I probably drop said things that you know people would pay for, right? And um, I really think you know, the knowledge that you have, you have to put it out to the world, right? So prior to this, I was a financial literacy coach. And when I say that, with me having a credit business, I was educating people on the power of credit. Credit is one of the main reasons I was able to buy my house. I didn't even mention that, right? And then I started teaching. I started getting paid to teach communities about credit and budgeting and business and passive income. And I'm going to schools and I'm teaching kids, right? And all of this was like over the past two years. Uh, this year I just niched down to focus primarily on short-term rentals. Um, but I have had, you know, mentorships. I have had people that I taught how to do all these things because I firmly believe in collaboration over competition. There's enough money out here for all of us. If you want to start an Airbnb in the DB area, I will show you how, because I know that there's Airbnbs in every city across this world. And I've managed properties in Tulum, Mexico. I've never been to Tulum. Um, I'm working on managing a property in Colombia and Cartagena. This lady messaging me back. But I'm saying all that to say, like, I understand there's enough for everybody to go around. I can give you the recipe on how to cook, but that doesn't mean you're gonna make it like me, right? So I don't have a problem giving you the tools that you need to get to at least where I'm at, because I'm trying to get to the next level, and somebody poured into me. So I just feel like I have to do my due diligence and pour into others. Anybody who's interested about changing their life.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

You know what's interesting that that that's cool. Um, is when you because like this show, man, we we're going, we're gonna get to 300 episodes soon enough, but but we've given away so much knowledge, right? I think you know, we've been giving away so much knowledge, we had all a lot of heavy hitters from the industry on our show, and just giving it away. But um, it seems like it always comes back to you, right? So, so someone will hit me up, say, Hey, hey Steve, how do I do this, this, this, and and uh, you know, I'll help them, I'll help people out. I won't ask for nothing, but then then later that you know why don't you just why don't you just manage this one for me, you know? Or I got a friend that has one. Why don't you can you help her and and manage hers or his, whatever like that? It's like it comes back to you. It's not just you're giving it away, you're making zero dollars, you're helping people out, and and like you said, you can give them all the ingredients, you can tell them exactly how to cook this awesome meal, but they're like, uh in the end, why don't you just cook it for me and I'll pay you? How about that? So so I love that, you know. Yeah, it always comes back to you. But when you when you give what do they say, what is that famous quote? Um, you can get anything in life you want if you help other people get what they want.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Exactly. And it always comes back. So I'm real big on faith, real big on God. It's like, what would God want me to do? Right. And it's like, I'm glad that you said it. It comes in so in so many different ways. Like you help somebody, and or you're helping somebody in their financial situation, you're helping somebody buy back their time to spend time with their family and go to their kids' uh football game or dance recital, right? It's you have your um, what's the word look for? You you have different ways of giving back. It's not always monetary. It'll come back in the in the least form that you expect, right? Oh, Ron, you do Airbnb? You are like, let me introduce you to my friend. He manages an apartment building. Like, or just like stuff like that, and it's like, wow, people start to realize who you are and what you're doing when you just do good by people. There's so many scammers out here, especially in this industry, right? And I've never scammed anybody in my life, and I don't see how people can do that, but it's like once you find someone that's good, have good intentions, and they're willing to teach you and not want nothing in return, um, that's when you know you you found the right coach, mentor, etc. Um, and that's just the value I try to provide to my clients and also anybody who's interested in doing what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

That's that's powerful right there. Because I mean, yeah, like you said, so many scammers, and people people come to us getting off a guru program, or they put them into a house that they paid way too much rent for, uh, paid too much furniture, paid too much to the guru, you know, and they're like, Hey, this thing ain't profiting. Uh, what do I do? And we try to help. But like, man, you're in a tough situation, dude. I mean, I'm sorry, yeah, the guru got money from you and stuff, but it sucks when people get anything like that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Anybody selling you anything that says turnkey Airbnb, anything, stay away from them. And that's only because I've heard I've had so many clients come to me, like, oh, just gave this person six thousand dollars and the property is in Puerto Vallenta and it's not doing anything, or I spent ten thousand dollars in Tulum with this guy, and now I'm not making any money. He said I was getting bookings and he was charging dollar bookings on booking.com. And I'm like, oh my god, why would people do this to people? But um, but yeah, you you have to be leery because people have shiny object syndrome. Oh, Airbnb, I want to do that. Oh, you got some money? Oh, yeah, let me get you funded. Okay, we got you this $10,000 credit card. Let's go ahead and swipe it, and you figure it out yourself. Like, that's what people do. Um, but that that's not my business model at all, right? Right.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

So also, you mentioned on the show you're a nine to five preneur. And do you that which pretty much, you know, of course, means you you're keeping your job, but you're running your successful business. Also, uh people call it a side hustle, but it's it

Why the nine-to-five job is still the number one investor

SPEAKER_03 45:12

could be turning into your main hustle if it hasn't already. Now, now, why do you continue to stay a nine to five preneur? And when do you see a point where you want to jump out? It's hindering you being able to go to like even higher levels.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Great question. Um, I feel like God's processing me, right? So I've been in DC government for 10 years, right? Two different jobs, only at two jobs since I've been out of college. I'm 30 years old. And I still have to develop the skills and of discipline, right? And when I say that, managing all of my finances, right? I can't leave my job just because in the summer I might have made 20K. And then like I gotta be able to know all my numbers, right? So that's the first thing, right? Um, the second thing, like getting the small things done. Wow, yeah, you manage 20 properties part-time. That's cool. Did you go to the gym today? Did you, did you cook your meal? Did you put healthy food in your body? Did you follow up with that? Like, I'm I'm focused on getting rid of getting a handle on the small things. And I've noticed my nine to five allows me to do that. Because when I go into the office, I don't have a high stress job that's demanding. It allows me to, if I got to sit there for eight hours, I'm gonna think and I'm gonna write down some stuff and I'm gonna organize my thoughts. So like um, I look at my nine, I used to, I recently just developed this. I had to pay a nice little tax bill. And I recently say, you know what? If I didn't have my nine to five and I had to pay that, I would be like, you know, in survival hustle mode, right? So my nine to five is my number one investor. They pay me every single two weeks, no matter how hard I work or how don't hard I work, right? Um, you know, they they afford me with the W-2s to be able to go out and borrow money. Because I know about credit, I have a great credit score, I know how to leverage it, I know how to access it. And it's like it get healthcare, right? I found out this week in there's different ways, you know, if when you go full-time healthcare, but I'm just saying before I leave, I have to master the small things because when you have money, there's so much other things to think about in life. Health matters more to me than money now, right? And it's like, okay, am I gonna compromise my health at the risk of you know, success or making money? Um, so that's why I haven't left yet. Uh except for like, you know, God's telling me to leave my job is very, it's not comfortable, it's convenient. Um, I'm a six-figure earner. It's like it's it's chill. I have seniority, but I'm not comfortable at all. I go to, I don't even like when they ask me to do stuff. When you send me an email, hey Ron King, why are you emailing me? And it's like, I don't know. It's like, hey, do this busy work. Hey, um, did you check? Like, did you check the uh can you send an email about the fire, the fire alarm beeping? Can they change the batteries? Like, I don't want to process my brain on little menial tasks like that. Like, I want to focus on having conversations like this about growth, you know, inspiring people um, you know, to create change. That was a little personal rant for me, because they begin my nerd.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

It's like, man, if y'all, if y'all ran your business like I ran mine, it'd be a lot better around here.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

But but um exactly like y'all need to go have some virtual assistance. Like, what are y'all doing?

SPEAKER_03 48:24

Yeah, no, but then they might let you go. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Uh lit, like literally, it's but um so that's it's literally it's literally like go ahead. No, no, go ahead, go ahead. I'm done, my bad.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

Oh no, no, no. Um, I was just saying that that um that's cool that you that you say that because um so many people and and like especially when this in the short-term rental world or the real estate world, you know, listening to bigger pockets for so long, a lot of people came on and said, Oh, just burn the ships, you know. I'm saying, just burn the ships, just quit your job, do all this stuff and go all in. It's like I don't know, it's not the best way to do it a lot of times, you know. Just you could ease into something and learn it good, and then gradually ease out of your of your nine to five, you know, because I'll I'll say this, I I still have my nine to five, but it's a really flexible job where I can give away a lot of shifts. So I I've been I've been slowly, you know, giving away, you know, work giving away two days here and this week, three days here, you know, just testing the waters, and and it's cool. I get a lot of stuff done in my business that I wouldn't have being at work all day, but it it is like it is um, it does help you when you do have a nine to five, you you can kind of organize your time better more efficiently, you know, starting off because you know, okay, five o'clock hits, I gotta go do these things from five o'clock to seven, you know. Whereas if you had the whole day off, you're like, ah, just I'll do it later, you know what I'm saying? So there's that aspect to it too.

SPEAKER_02 49:59

Yeah, and I actually work like um a flexible work schedule as well. So I'm I telework three days, two days out the week. I go into office three. So it's like every Wednesday is like my Friday, even though I do work on Thursdays and Fridays, it's like free from that rat waste driving in, waking up early, driving in traffic. Like, why am I doing this, right? Um, because my goal is to make Wi-Fi money, like travel the world, make passive income and help people, right? So when I do leave my job, I'll probably leave this country for a little while and just go get some visas, digital nomad visas, and go explore, you know, other countries while I'm young and make this Wi-Fi money. But I'm trying to build those habits and skills now. So when it is time for me to leave, I know you know everything is checked off and ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

Nice, nice, nice. Um, so in closing, I was gonna I was gonna touch on one more thing. Where did it go? Um man, this has been this has been a great show. Uh oh, I was gonna just say, so so being the coach you are, the um helping people, what are like a few tips you could give to someone right now to improve their listings or improve their Airbnbs?

SPEAKER_02 51:07

Okay, um, all right. First, first thing, if someone don't need to prove their Airbnb, the first thing I would say is professional photos, right? In a social media world that we live in, no matter what platform you're scrolling on, photos matter, right? Airbnb did an update maybe six months ago, something like that, where they revamped their whole page. Airbnb doesn't show you title. Well, sorry. The three main things you need to focus on price, reviews, and photos. Those are the three main things, right? Um, your reviews that drives off customer service, engaging the client, nurturing the client, right? From the time they first reach out to you by the booking to the day after they check out, right? You want to create a message flow that nurtures them, make them feel like all my guests think I'm messaging them. I'm not messaging them. Ron's so communicate, Ron was attentive, Ron was so responsive. People like that, right? You don't get that service at a hotel. Second thing, I see so many people with trash listings. And I'm just saying that because what you all need to realize is your listings are digital real estate, right? People say, oh, you can't sell a property and sell a listing with it, but I can definitely give you my email and give you the password or show you, hey, this house makes 30, this basically makes $30,000 a year. When I sell this house, I'm selling you a business, not just a house, right? Um so your price, people buy on three things anywhere online. And I'm gonna say it again price, reviews, photos. On Amazon, anything you buy, those are the three things. So make sure you you have the right price, the highest and most competitive price. Um, you definitely want to make sure that you have good reviews, right? If you have a bad list, then start over, right? Start from scratch. You're not selling the property, right? Um, and then last but not least, which I would see is the biggest. I would I would be a photographer and message every last Airbnb host and say, hey, let me do a photo shoot. Go get professional photos, right? Go on Instagram, search real estate photography, whatever city or or state that you're in, hashtag and go find a photographer. Message a realtor, what photography do you use? Nine times out of ten, they'll tag a photographer and pay them $250 to come take a picture of your house. It'll pay off in the long run, and it's a hundred percent write-off. It's deductible for your business.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

Nice, nice. Well, cool, man. Um, thank you for your advice, your inspiration. Uh, I'm glad you're doing what you're doing, and and and you're it seems like you always find a way to accomplish what you need to accomplish. And those uh bigger things are coming for you, and and and you give thanks to God, you know. Uh, not a lot of people do that, but that's I mean, where would we be without him, right? Um, so thank you so much. Uh, showing us a glimpse into the DC world a little bit. Uh, I know it gets a little crazy over there, it's gonna get crazy with these elections coming up. Um, but but yeah, man, where can people find you and and reach out to you and chat with you?

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Uh, you guys can find me uh on TikTok, Dr. D O C T O R underscore Financial. I'm gonna start putting out more content on there. Uh, Instagram, my name is Wavy StaysL C. I'm about to change my my business name to Wavy Stay and drop the S. So I might change my Instagram, but uh it's definitely Wavy Stays. It'll either be Wavy underscore stays. I just checked it. So yeah, but right now it's wavy stays LLC.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

Cool, cool, cool, man. We'll have that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Ron. Dr. Financial, Ron Curtis, hit him up, he'll help you out. And um, thank you so much, and we'll see you uh on our next episode, hopefully. Take care, man. All right, thanks for having me, guys. Live let thrive out.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

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.