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_04 0:11

What's up, Stevie Stacks? What is up, Micah? Man, I'm chilling yourself. Oh man, freaking stressed out from trying to keep everything organized and Airbnb, VRBO, booking.com chaos going on. It's just a mess, dude.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Oh man, that's why you gotta switch to hostfully, bro. Then you ain't gotta be dependent on the big OTAs. What's hostfully? The guidebook people? Nah, nah. Not only do they have guidebooks, they also have a property management platform system that they now use. Uh we use hostfully. It takes care of all of our direct bookings, it manages all of our calendars all in one place. And we can even provide discount codes to our guests that book directly on our website. And it integrates with a Boostly's website as well, which provides our websites.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

I want to start getting some direct bookings.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Oh man, that's why you got to get switched to Hostfully and set up that Boostly integration. Get your website up, and it helps you with your Google AdWords. So then you're no longer being P I M P'd by Airbnb.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Ha ha! I like that, man. We keep it real. It sounds like Hostfully keeps it real too. Yes, sir. Hostfully. Ho ho, hostfully.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

Sorry for those long ass commercials, guys, in the front of the show. But hey, we got to get paid. We gotta keep the lights on. You know what I'm saying? Anyways, what is up, Micah Man?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

I am good, Stevie Stacks. How you doing?

SPEAKER_04 1:43

I am great. Sliding into home base after a long day. So long week, long month, you know, long year. This this hustle, it kind of grinds, wears on you sometimes, but we made it to Friday. Only what?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

We're only 27 days into the year.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

It's been that long. It's been a long year already. This is episode 237 of your favorite Airbnb VRBO, short-term, mid-term, long-term rental podcast in the world coming at you from Fort Worth in Arlington, Texas. Let's go. Who we got? We have two guests actually. Jessica and Vernon are uh are hopping on the show today. And who are they? Well, Jessica sent me uh a long thing to read, so I'm gonna try to chop it up a little bit. Uh, to say Jessica is high-energy leader is an understatement. Her dedication to her family, business, and community are unparalleled. She has been selling real estate on Cape Cod since 2012 and working tirelessly to represent her clients' best interests, guiding them each step of the way. Jessica is also president and co-owner of Cape Cod Cleaning Collaborative. Say that five times real fast. And five-star vacation rentals. The company has a client list in the hundreds, and the business gives her exceptional knowledge of housing and investment property inventories on the lower and outer cape. I'm gonna stop there and you can tell us about the rest of your story. Welcome to the show, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Hi, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

You are welcome. So is Jaws still alive over there?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Everybody's still afraid of him, right? We actually we actually had a guest in when I first started 10 years ago get bit by a shark. So that actually happened to us once I know. So it's you know.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

So yeah, how'd y'all start in this industry?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Uh well, I'm a vacation rental agent. So I started in the industry kind of trying to get my footing in real estate. Uh, my first broker had a really big vacation rental department because we're on Cape Cod and short-term rentals have been a thing here long before Airbnb was a thing. Uh, so it was a really great way for people who didn't have a sphere of influence to find a footing in real estate. Uh, so I built basically a cleaning company and got started on the service side of short-term rentals by anchoring my business to my broker's business. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Yeah, it does make sense.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

And what about you, Vernon?

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Well, I'm in the Great Smoky Mountains, East Tennessee, and I am uh the owner and founder of stakehating.com. And I am also, my story mirrors hers a lot. I also started in the service end of this. I was a uh a person who was in the corporate housing industry for a while, and I started as a cleaner and a stager, and we went in and we we staged corporate properties, and just recently I got into the Airbnb side about two years ago and started a property management business here locally. I'm also a realtor and we're more service provided than a sales provider provider. I do more service uh for our local office here at uh our home of EXP here in the uh local area.

unknown 5:01

Nice.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Y'all are y'all both with EXP?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

So I'm an independently operating broker, actually. And Vern and I kind of found each other by fate because when I had built my business and it was time to you know spread my wings and fly, I had to really figure out what that was going to look like for me operationally. I had this cleaning team, I had clients. What I didn't really have was a good way to distribute and manage the reservation component of my vacation rental business. So my broker had this in-house tech that he used, super expensive proprietary, never ever worked. There was constantly a tech person. We were always trying to link the computers. Um, and just on a budget standpoint, that wasn't a real way to get started for me. So a couple of years ago, I went to Google, uh, and I believe that I Googled MLS for short-term rentals because I'm a real estate agent. And in my mind, that was what I needed. Uh, and I came upon channel distribution tech, which is like rocked my whole world, which is what brought me to Vernon, uh, because he came kind of looking for a similar solution. He's a realtor, he's got listings, he doesn't know how to send them out and grow and scale because you can't be tied to your computer and also operating a business. It doesn't flow like that. Um, and so that was basically what brought me to Vernon. One day we were sitting in on a meeting and he was kind of telling me, you know, hey, I do what you do out in Tennessee. And uh we jumped into this tech thing together, and we've been together about a year now, right, Vernon? Yes. Yeah, I mean, we operate separate businesses, but um both of us in doing so have kind of gotten into like a business-to-business space, which is kind of cool. Um, you know, my first thought is why isn't every real estate agent using channel distribution tech? Like, can you imagine having a sales listing and not having an MLS? It's kind of crazy when you think about it, right? When I started this 10 years ago, I used to co-host for a brilliant woman. Shout out to Marilyn Taylor, and she had about six or seven properties, and two of us helped her co-host around the clock. Um, you know, so how do you kind of grow and scale when you need that type of support on your operational end? But at the same time, you live in a place where maybe there's not a lot of people living there because of the second homeowners and the short-term rentals. So everybody you hire has to be cleaning and operating and managing your owners.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

So what is uh channel distribution tech? Is that a PMP system? What is what is that?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Really good question. So they take the listings and they distribute them onto OTAs or the online travel agencies. So your VRBO, Bookings.com, Airbnb. Um, and we found this company, Jetstream Hospitality, had kind of started in the hotel-motel space. Uh, and when I found them, I understood that they were taking extra inventory from something like a Marriott villa. And they were taking that inventory and putting it onto these travel platforms. And I just emailed the CEO and said, you know, I've got inventory, can't you do that for me? Um and that was what sort of kicked this off was figuring out what components in my business can I outsource. And mostly that boils down to guest management. Like in after two years of doing this, I can verbalize that I want to stay out of guest management and I want to stay in owner management and portfolio building. Um, and and that is how I want to build my business. So by use utilizing tech like channel distribution tech, I don't have to get on the computer and make sure all of that is synced all the time. That's something that I can automate. Um and the the guest, we actually have a guest service team. Oh my God, when I outsourced my guest service team, my life changed. I mean, if you've ever answered an angry guest message at 1:30 in the morning, it's not something that you feel sorry giving up. You know what I mean? So, this has been to clean up all of these components and not be strapped to my business to be able to really refine it and make sure that it's operating the way I want so I don't have to be reactive. Total game changer.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Oh, I was gonna ask Vernon. You said you you came from a corporate stay background. Uh, can you explain what that is? What is corporate stays?

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Uh a lot of it is done through arbitrage now, where basically you go in to you either get an apartment or you get a condo and you sublease it out, you put the cable in it, you put all the furniture in it, and you you set it up, and then you've got a corporate client. Normally it's military folks, uh, like you'll have these things online, furniture finders, nurses, doctors, attorneys, and those folks will come and stay with you. They're more of a midterm stay, so they're not as they're not shorter term. A lot of these folks are coming in for a month, three months, six months out of the year, and it's a little bit more of a clientele. It's a longer term stay, but it's it's not as there's not as much turnover as there is with the Airbnb where you've got two to three to five day stays. So that's kind of the background of that.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

I had a question then, because you said just that to go into the Airbnb space while a lot of the Airbnb people are trying to get out of that and go into the corporate space. What made you make that transition?

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Actually, I like it because I at the time I was working for someone at the time, and uh now I'm actually my own the owner of my own business and that sort of thing. And for years I was talking to people about hey, you know, let's let's try to marry these two. So eventually I'm going to actually be adding those services to what I'm doing now. I'm getting my broker's license and I'm gonna be adding some of those services to what I do now. So it is it is definitely the next thing. And I I see lots of folks on on Facebook and LinkedIn that are talking about making this happen. You know, it's been around 20-some odd years. I mean, it's nothing new, uh, but it's kind of the new thing now, the midterm stay. So, you know, I'm gonna kind of ride that weight just like everyone else, and I'm gonna teach folks how to do that, and I'm gonna I'm gonna do a little bit of it myself.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

That's cool. Um, okay. So just to break it down a little further, because I'm a little slow. Sorry. So y'all are uh I'm looking at the the website right now, Jetstream. Um, y'all are a powerful service for channel marketing and reservation support. So what makes that different than a PMP or uh hostfully or you know all the others?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Uh I can answer this question. So some of those other companies, and they're they're really, really great, right? But you still need somebody to be at your computer functioning that software. And one of my favorite things about Jetstream is I don't operate their tech, they operate their tech. So their 24-hour person component takes my listings, they take the information I give them and they build it. They put the listings up for me, they respond to all of those things. If I need to close my calendar, I send a text message. You know, if the cleaners are going to be late, I just say, boop, boop, boop. Can you just let the next guest know that we're running a little late and we're gonna send them to dinner? The end. I'm not trying to fly to the other side of my island, get to my office, worried about double booking. None of these things happen. So the fact that the tech is operated by them is huge. That's a huge difference. And the other thing is that we are not property managers. So Jetstream is often compared to companies like Evolve, frankly, because when agents and PMs don't know who to go to, they seem to default to Evolve. Evolve is a property manager. Jetstream works for property managers. So in its perfect use, it takes partners like me and distributes under my brand. And that's a little bit different than your traditional channel distribution tech.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Does that clarify? That's that's yeah, I was gonna ask that. Is it like a management company then if they're gonna do all the stuff?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

So it's not a management company. They work on behalf of me and my guests don't even know that they're there because it's completely white labeled. Um, the other thing that's tremendous about them that I have not found anywhere else, I've done a couple of this podcast now, and a lot of people will call them, you know, a call center. They'll be like, oh, you've got a call center wrapped around. These folks are not a call center. Jetstream is an employee-owned company uh and they care. They are really savvy, kind people that I've had the opportunity to work with for two years who really know what they're doing. So you've got a really powerful team behind you dedicated to your brand. And you know, that's probably the biggest piece is onboarding partners because we have to learn about them and what they want and how they operate. So the longer you're with them, the easier it gets.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

One I have a question that you said that if you need something done, you just send a text. So, how how involved are you in the business with dealing with jet stream? Can they not see the calendar or know does the cleaner not talk to jetstream or talks to you?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

So good one. So the my cleaners are my employees because that is how I structured my business. Vernon's cleaners are our contractors, and he can correct me if I'm wrong. So it doesn't really matter how you structure your business. We actually connect the Jetstream channel distribution team to the on-site team through a task management software. So many people have heard of Breezeway, that's an example of a task management software. I personally use uh Pair To Teams. It used to be VR Scheduler, and so that is what I use. We have an open API right to Jetstream, so it goes right to the cleaners and everything and all the tasks update in live time. We've recently built an integration with GetSojo. So now my amenities are automated too, which is really exciting. That's happened within the last couple of weeks. So the other thing I really love about Jetstream is that every time I ask them for something, they build it because they're moving into our space. So a lot of this tech stack and the way we have built it over the last two years is really for small partners like me to be able to operate like big partners and sort of level the playing field into entry there.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

And to piggyback on that right there, too. The the thing about most traditional property management and the traditional way of doing it, I've done both and I've done property management by myself. Learning new software, you know, trying to find all these folks. What's great about being with these partnerships, it's much like you know, a lot of your new real estate companies are powered by another company. What we like to say is we are powered by a jet stream. So when we're out making our sales to folks, you know, I'm able to deal with the owner, I'm able to talk to the investor, I'm I'm able to do all the things that I need to do to build my business and build my brand. And I let them power the back office. So, really, you know, the automations and setting all that stuff up, that's that's a huge challenge for somebody who's just getting into the market, uh, especially a real estate agent, they don't have a lot of time, don't have a lot of energy to put toward that. So it the the beauty of being partnered with someone like Jetstream is that they just pretty much are the hands-on of the day-to-day operational things. Of course, you say text us, they call us, you know, my cleaners still have daily contact with me, you know, my owners still can contact me anytime. But a lot of the things that are the hardest part of it, guest management and onboarding properties and that sort of thing, a lot of that is done behind the scenes for them. And it is it's seamless. I'm telling you, it's it's a great opportunity to be partnered with such a great team of people.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

If I could piggyback off of that, because I think you guys would find my other model behind this interesting. So now that I've joined their team, right, I have the unique opportunity to be able to help other operators. So I actually train my competition on Cape Cot because I have a cleaning company. So I can anchor my cleaning company to their business and power their business. And so agents that used to bring me referrals, because I'll be honest with you, best source of referrals for me is other agents who aren't in the space. And they would bring me referrals because they've got buyers, they want to sell the house. I want them to sell the house, I want to rent it. And now what I say to them is, why don't you keep your listing, right? That's your client. You keep your listing, we'll put your name on it, we'll bounce you into my tech, and my cleaners will just show up when you book. So my first right, my first partner on the Cape, she she did it. I talked her into it, different brokerage, Keller Williams agent, entirely different things. She had an amazing ocean view property that she brought me. I said, just keep it. And she said, I'm not doing this, Jess. I'm not getting into short-term rentals. And but you know, three months later, she had three properties because she just kept going. Once you set up your first one and you get into your flow, you're going, well, now I've got a cleaner. Now I've got software. Now I've got all the pieces I need, and the rest of it kind of falls into place. So it does enable a person who wants to build multiple revenue streams to be very flexible because I don't need my name on it. I don't care whether people know I'm there. I just need a little piece.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

So your job, it sounds like with you guys and how you guys are, you make someone who wants to get into short-term rentals their life a whole lot easier by operating with you guys.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Yes, absolutely. Gotcha. Absolutely. Other realtors are coming to us now. Jess and I had a mastermind on Wednesday, and we're talking to new people that are coming in all the time. And what they're excited about is, you know, as a real estate agent, as a salesperson, at the end of that closing table, when they hand you that check or direct deposit that check, you're starting over. The beauty of this is they've got a residual income. Not only have they got a residual income, they're keeping their listing, they are creating generational wealth for their family. I mean, it's just on and on and on. The beauty of this is, you know, most people are like, man, I wish I had thought of that. And you know, the the beauty of this is you don't have to think about it now. Everything is there and it's rolling for you and it's ready to go as soon as soon as someone wants to partner. We plug them in and we get them, we get them moving immediately.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Imagine what a great top of mind tool, a deposit into your client's bank account is with your name on it every time there's a check it. You know, so they look at their bank account and they're seeing my name, boop, boop, boop, boop. Uh, it's it's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

So you guys mainly operate in vacation rental markets because in Smokey's in Cape Cod, correct?

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yes, as operators. I personally don't get into remote management. I've been doing short-term rentals for well over a decade. I've done remote management. For my own self, I prefer to just focus on my Cape based business. Um, but I do have partners with geos all over the country now through Jetstream because fundamentally, in addition to the tech stack, right, sometimes people need help figuring out their tax schematics and just the logistics of the whole thing, um, straight up to how do I handle the linens in the house? And if you've been doing this long enough, you can do it in your sleep. So I find myself in that space now.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

I guess you know, the obvious question is is what percentage do they charge?

SPEAKER_01 20:23

So they start at 12, which is incredibly reasonable, plus booking fees, and they can go down from there. So they'll go down to 11% at 10 properties. Um, and that's at three properties, they'll give people a free direct booking site. So that's the other thing is we start to give our partners assets. This coaching group that Vernon was talking about is my effort to prove that people, if given the proper tools, will do things with them, right? That's why we pay to be in the National Association of Realtors. We pay for training. We pay because we want to know how to use these things. So we've got this great group of agents, and we give them slide presentations. They're branded of exactly what it is. It's basically jet stream service with their name on it. And we teach them how to use it and we teach them how to go out and get leads so that they can get started with us. And then once they do, the momentum builds.

SPEAKER_04 21:19

Hmm. And so that's so after 10 properties, it's 12% across the board.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

11%. 12% at entry, 11 after 10 properties.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Oh, after 10, it drops to 11.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

It drops to 11, plus your plus your booking fees on the platform. So I don't want to, you know, there's nothing we can do about that. Airbnb gets a fee, VRBO gets a fee.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

But I basically replaced my whole reservation team, an entire staff, and all the channel distribution tech for 12% on a profit sharing model. So I got to start the next day. I mean, when Emmanuel and I, that's the CEO with when we had our first where did you find me? I don't know, where did you find me? We started talking about this. I mean, I popped up shop the next day. My first client came from one of the major companies. Um, and she was just unhappy. And we said, why don't we try this? Why don't you let me try controlling the listing? We're already in there cleaning for you. And we just started that way. But it was an instant way to be just as effective as the giant brokerage next door. They don't have any more power. It's not about Google clicks, right? Because the guests basically are going to these OTAs. They've won the war on consumer trust. So you can get started building a steer off of OTAs and then direct book and market and increase your revenue margin from there. You can get started tomorrow. There are no barriers to entry anymore. This is a complete profit sharing model, and nobody gets paid if the unit doesn't book. So that's the other thing is you get a group of people like your business development partner and the revenue manager, and we're all working for you to get it to book. If that unit is sitting stagnant, we're going to be having a meeting going, what is it that we need to do?

SPEAKER_04 23:05

What is up, Live Let Thrive Fam? Here's some more Stevie Stacks talking about mother loving hostfully, the only PMP you'll ever need for your growing short-term rental business. What's a PMP you ask? Well, it's your property management platform, of course, the thing that runs all your things. And Hostfully's PMP plugs in all your listings across all your different platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and more, and puts it all into one convenient spot where you can update, edit, change, improve any of your properties instantly with just a couple of clicks. It's insanity. So in other words, it takes this clump of chaotic mess you created while building your short-term rental business and it cleans it all up for you nice and pretty like puts a bow on it, makes it run efficiently, saving you hours and hours of your own precious time so you can go do what you do best, grow your damn business, or build a kayak or jump into a cold river naked. I don't know what you're thinking, and I really don't care. But Hostfully cares, and they're here for it, and you. But seriously, my short-term rental management company has grown to over 70 properties in eight different cities across three different states, and I sure as hell couldn't have done it without the help of Hostfully. For real, I've been using them for a minute. A minute in the urban dictionary sense, meaning a long, long time. Now y'all, you know we keep it real on Live That Thrive, and Hostfully keeps it real as well. And they keep that PMP hand strong, because PMP ain't easy. So show some love to LLT by clicking that link in our show notes and getting a hundred bucks off Hostfully's property management platform, plus two free months of their industry leading digital guidebooks. Two free months. Holy crap, hostfully. And so and so, like um I would assume they use uh virtual assistants, or how do they, you know, how do they address all the messages and talking to guests as some wrong, something bad happens?

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Yeah, they're all employees. So they have an employee, what what Vernon and I call the B2C team, but a guest communications team that answers all of those inquiries in a unified inbox. So they staff all of that and do all the training because that's the other thing. When you talk about training in software, if you're a small business, how many times have you gotten that brand new perfect manager trained just so? You've kept them all winter when you have no cash flow, and then summer comes along and they leave. Um, and then you're really in a pickle because now your whole institutional knowledge base is walked out the door. Um, so that is, you know, I actually think that the B2C team is one of the biggest selling features of this whole thing. Uh, they do speak in 11 languages and they're 24 hours a day. So that's the other thing. We don't miss anything.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

The other thing is you can pick up the phone and call the number they give you to call, and they're gonna answer it immediately. And that's that's kind of unheard of in this in this industry. So, I mean, that's the beauty of it is I've tried it just to see three o'clock in the morning, three o'clock in the afternoon. Someone answers the phone. It's it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

And then you guys said they do move you into direct bookings. How much marketing do they do for your direct booking site?

SPEAKER_01 26:21

So our partners do marketing. So I do my own marketing, they do the marketing on the OTAs, but any additional marketing is really up to the partners because you're the property managers. So that's your business. I have heard of examples of them doing co-marketing together. So for the right account, um, you know, I, for example, was just communicating with a group of people that have a super duper McMansion on Cape Cod and are open to doing events, and that's very rare. Uh so we started talking about okay, if you'll do events, maybe we can get you some ad space on the knot or some wedding specific sites that we wouldn't normally do. Uh, so things like that, they would probably be open to the conversation, certainly.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

We do get the emails and the phone numbers of these folks as well. So we have I've got a CRM, so does Jessica. We have a CRM and we do remarket to them for the direct booking.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

100%. So even though you're staying out of the management of the guests, because ah, um, that's your information. That's your sphere of influence. Those are the people that you're drip campaigning to come back. And if you're a real estate agent, you're going, hey, can't help but notice you come to the Cape every summer. Have you ever thought about owning here? Have you ever thought about becoming one of our investors and retiring here?

SPEAKER_02 27:35

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 27:36

And they take on any properties that I mean, they don't have to be like uh Cape Cod Mansion. They take on any properties you got.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

So I wouldn't say we take on any properties because we definitely have expectations that you're going to deliver exquisite hospitality. So we don't want people that are not including sheets and towels or anything like that. I will tell you that some of my more humble units rent the best. Um, so it doesn't have to be that you're a McMansion. It does have to be that you're willing to step up and provide a full hospitality experience.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 28:12

Yeah, it's very interesting. Because I mean, as a as a property manager, you know, I have a property management company and we have around 70 units right now and growing. And so, but we have to build all this stuff out, you know. And like you said, yeah, I mean y'all got it all in the house. It sounds it sounds very appealing. Um, as it's the best. Totally. We're always training, hiring, firing, trying to find the perfect people, uh, creating systems, changing the systems. It's just um it's a lot, you know. So I'm I'm like, it it sounds very interesting what you're doing, you know, where I could we could still be the property management company, make sure everything runs, you know. I mean, make sure everything's good, but have uh an engine, uh an engine like y'all, you know, running it in the behind the scenes. Uh it sounds very, very uh very appealing, very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

You'd have a lot of free time. That's what the partners say to me is they're like, oh my goodness, you know, because and again, that's what you get to take that time that you're not spending on tasks that can be outsourced and grow.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

So there's a question I do have. So, because you said it takes care of guest management. Let's say Steve, because Steve's a property manager, he gives his properties over to Jetstream. So now Steve gets to sit back and the any guest issues, they go straight to Jetstream, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Sure. And Jetstream may have to call you because you're on site. So if the issue is relative to the site, you're gonna get a phone call. Uh, for example, if there's a beeping fire detector, there's nothing they can do about that. Uh, but they are going to take the inquiry. All of our guests go through a pre-screening process that includes going through auto host. Uh, the guest has to take a picture of their ID, a selfie, they have to fill out leases, in some cases in my state-led paint forms. We make other disclosures in there. Once they've been pre-screened and Jetstream is doing all of this, then they're covered by a property protection plan called Super Hog that we bundle those two together. Right? You know, super hog. And at that point, the reservation is confirmed. And that's what it ends up in my task management software of aperto teams. And we use aperto's Yale locks on all the doors. So the guest team will set the lockout. Um, and we can see on our aperto dashboard which units have been vacated on a Saturday morning. So where we used to call owners and be like, are people gone yet? We can see who's checked out. We can see when the cleaners clock in. So the guest team at Jetstream can see that a unit has been cleaned or not cleaned or is in the process of being cleaned, and they don't have to call you. Um, so it's all kind of connected through these various elements that keep the whole thing moving. Um, but it really was orchestrated by a small manager like us. It was built kind of for people like us because I very much sympathize with how much work you do if you have 70 units. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:09

I am too, because it's, I mean, it's it's turned into a beast really. And so I'm gonna talk to my partner Federico. Just uh we might have a little Zoom chat with you guys. We'd love to. Yeah, and just see and see, you know, float some ideas and and see what y'all could do because it it is it is um we love the hospitality part of it, you know. We love we love you know, happy clients, we love happy guests. It's just um as we grow, I mean, it's just becoming a big, a big beast, like I said.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

So yeah, and I've been doing this 10 years and I still love it, more than 10 years, probably 12 now. Um, so I love it more now than when I did before. And that's what drives me into this business to business space is I'm like, God, these people don't even know how much easier we could make this for them. Um, so that's kind of my mission is to go out and say, hey, if the professional managers don't wrap ourselves around using this tech, the owners will go direct and they'll cut us out. That's what will happen. Um, so it's very important that professional managers act like what they are, because again, there will come a time when this type of tech will be readily available to every owner that has an asset.

SPEAKER_04 32:22

And and so, I mean, is B2B, you've been saying that, you know, the whole episode, or or is it B2C? Was it B2C?

SPEAKER_01 32:29

B2B. So I work with other agents and PMs, is where I really love to be.

SPEAKER_04 32:33

Okay, okay. So, so um being that the being that it's B2B, that you and then you want to kind of keep it that way, I guess, because you don't want to deal with like you said, you just mentioned, well, what if the owners just do this and just hit up, you know, do it themselves or do you know hit up Gulfstream themselves, uh Gulfstream, sorry, Jetstream themselves. Uh, why do why do you choose to work with property managers instead of directly with the owners?

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, good one. Less stuff. So, first of all, you can cuss on this show if you want. If Jetstream got into working with owners all the time, they would become property managers, right? Because owners are not professional managers. Some of them are, some of them are great, uh, but others bring their feelings into it. And if we took on owners every which way, we would become property managers. What we really want to work with is professional managers who already have portfolios, because then you have one point of contact for all of that inventory. You know the rules, you know the standards, and it's just a lot less management for that B2C guest team we were talking about because we love them. So we don't want to overwhelm them with stuff.

SPEAKER_04 33:41

And if we had it, let's say we have it set up with using hostfully or using uh beyond pricing or whatever the tools we're using, how we set up our company. Do y'all just seamlessly use those same tools or y'all change it up to do your own thing?

SPEAKER_01 33:55

I think you might have some redundancy in there. So that would be kind of a question where we could meet and talk about the tools you were using. There may be a little bit of redundancy in there because some of those texts you were mentioning have channel distribution. So they might be linking you to two of those platforms. Um whereas we might be able to get you on 13.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

So yeah, yeah, yeah. And another question, I'm sorry, I'm selfishly asking questions for my own company. But how do how does how are y'all how are y'all set up where you can say, I mean, I mean, you you got the business run and you got your clients and stuff, but how do you got it set up where you can just boom take on another 70 units? That's a lot of freaking units to take on. How are y'all set up to handle something like that?

SPEAKER_01 34:41

It's a lot of units. So we have an onboarding team that does nothing but onboard and a content team as well. Um, and we do run a queue. I always tell people it's going to be 30 to 45 days to onboard really well, um, particularly if you haven't started things like cleaning, staging, and photographing. It just takes time. Um, and effectively we would just get you in a queue and start onboarding you in a way that made sense. I have found that most people want to start with one or two, anyways, um, just because they're like, you can't do this. You can't do what you say you're gonna do. So they start with one. Um, and then the next thing you know, they're like, okay, here's two and three. Um, and I found that by property three, most partners feel more comfortable in what their role is and what information they have to gather if they're newer. If they've been doing this a long time, they know what's coming.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

It sounds like as a property manager, from your point of perspective perspective, Steve, like with 70 units that you manage, you could really break your business down to having maybe two to four VAs because you would have a VA to talk to Jetstream, and then you guys correct me if I'm wrong, and then you'd have the VA to talk to your owners, right? Because your his owners wouldn't talk to Jetstream, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:54

No, so his owners wouldn't talk to Jetstream. I personally don't have any VAs that I put between myself and Jetstream right now. Um, I do have certain head housekeepers that can get phone calls for certain properties. Um, but just the way I operate my business, I prefer when the B2C team has a problem to just hear about it and decide what I'm gonna do about it. So for me, that's what I do. Also, VAs with owners, you can, but I mean, that's my magic sauce, right? Is who I am. I'm selling myself. So I feel like that's the work I want to be doing is communicating with owners and answering those types of leads. Um I don't know how else to say that I have like almost 40 employees, all cleaners, and we don't have a reservation team. Like I don't, Jetstream completely helps me with all of my stuff. And we again, I also do cleaning. I touch properties in a lot of different ways because I have a commitment to being flexible. Um, but this these two things just fit together so beautifully.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

You know, and when you said that about, you know, you have that huge team of cleaners and you don't have a uh what you don't have a what?

SPEAKER_01 37:05

Um I don't have any reservation team. So I do have a personal VA who helps me with my life, um, but she doesn't necessarily do any of that because Jetstream really handles all the listing content and guest piece. Um and we've pretty much automated all of the stays of that. So really what I'm left to do is go out and do those inquiries from my owners. And I'm not really ready to hand that off. That being said, I do have two licensed agents under me. And in this moment, I've taken somebody from a sales department somewhere else who is amazing, who's in the process of getting licensed and will help find inventory. So I choose to grow that way by finding other people who are gonna go out and grow my portfolio, basically, rather than be on the phone. Because again, I can train them, train them, train them, and they leave. Like it's it's yeah, it's Keep God.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Yeah, yeah. And that's what I was saying. Because when you said that, that big uh team of cleaners, it reminded me of uh Julie George, who's been on the show a few uh before, and um she's out of Australia, but that's how she got her start. You know, she started managing these Airbnbs or short-term rental, yeah, Airbnbs. She that's all she did back then, and um, and she just started, you know, cleaning was the biggest issue, so she started hiring cleaners, and then she started pretty much turning each cleaner into an independent contractor, and they took over a unit, took over a couple units, and and they did all the work because the cleaners there. They know they mean they're there to clean, they're there to fix things, and then they they're there to interact with the guests. So she cleaners are the most valuable part of this whole thing. So um, that's cool how you have what that you said that it reminded me of her.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Yeah, I agree with that, and minor employees. So that's a whole other element, but I just have found that it's sort of helped us break into some of those higher value properties because they're covered by workmen's comp. We have five million dollars in general liability, et cetera, et cetera.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

Uh yeah, we we've been hearing that a lot. Is it's best to have your your cleaners in-house, you know, as employees. So that's that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Um, yeah, also, I hate to cut you off, but also just while we're talking about cleaners, I have to tell you the leads are cheaper. So by far, in addition to getting them from other real estate agents, my most affordable leads come as a hotel-style housekeeping service. Um, because everybody wants the listing. Nobody wants to scrub the potty. So you know, we're getting a ton of people coming in and then we give them a cleaning quote and just basically say for this small percentage more. We can keep the whole thing in house and we'll just mail you a check on check and day.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

No, because with I I know the biggest thing of having cleaners in-house is you you save a lot on cleaning costs. Does that help you guys be a little bit more competitive in the market? We save a lot on cleaning costs.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

I haven't experienced that where I am only because the cost of labor is ridiculously high where I am. So even my teenagers out of high school at 14 are making 22 an hour plus payroll tax just to get started. Um, so it's, I wouldn't say it's necessarily any cheaper for me than hiring vendors. Probably, if anything, I pay a little more because I pay a ridiculous amount of payroll tax. Um, but it does, it does work for me. I've been doing it this way for a long time. I'm a smidge of a control freak. So I want everything to go the way I want it to go. And in order for that to happen, they really need to be employees.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

Makes sense. Cool. Uh Vernon, you've been you've been awful quiet. How's things in Tennessee?

SPEAKER_03 40:38

Oh, it's great. Uh you know, I do it different than she does. I actually have uh someone that I've contracted out, but she's a friend of mine, and she's trying to build her business and build her brand in the in the cleaning industry. And what what I have found is that boots on the ground relationship with a good maintenance person, a good cleaning person, good inspectors, good concierge services. That is the bread and butter of what I do in my industry, my business right here, because those folks that I have brought in where Jessica is, you know, she has the improvement side. What I've done is I'm trying to replicate my business so I can actually scale my business in multiple markets. And I I'm I'm gonna look at building vendors out, and we have expectations that we set, and I bring in people who have the same opinions that I have, that have the same goals and aspirations that I have, and so that's where we are with that. But in Tennessee, I mean we've got 14.1 million visitors here every year, so there's there's plenty of business for everybody here. But the beauty of what I get to do is I get to be the person, I get to be with my own owners, I get to talk to my owners on a weekly basis, and if they call me, had someone texting me during this podcast, asking a question, which is really funny. But that's just the level of service that Jessica and I provide to our to our clients, and so we give that personal touch. So where I'm at with this, the automation part of this, the channel management, all the guest services and everything, it allows me to be the guy I want to be, which is the business owner, rather than working in the business. I'm working on building the business, working on building trust so I can build my clients. If they want to buy another property, I'm the guy they're coming to because I'm providing value to them every day. So that's that's where we are kind of in our market here is providing that value to our owners, to our investors by saying, hey, look, let's let the professional folks I've done guest management. We've all done it if you've been in property management before. But the beauty of what we're doing right now is we're trying to establish these relationships where we can actually build someone else's wealth and help them build that wealth and be that trusted advisor to be someone they can come to. I'm not just about making a sale and making a commission, I'm really more service focused. So if a client comes to me, I want to be able to say to them, look, this may not be a good property. And it's not about collecting commission, it's about creating that trust and that advisory role to where they can come to me and say, Hey, Vernon, what do you think about this one? Uh that's something Jessica and I have not talked about. Is we run revenue numbers for anybody. If someone calls me and says, Hey, will you run numbers for me? Absolutely. Again, I send that to someone uh on our team, they'll put me a little report together, I send it out. I don't brand it with my name or anything on it. I don't that's that's not the issue. The issue is to become the trusted resource, to become the trusted advisor that people will actually reach out to because they know that I'm gonna give them the right information, I'm gonna tell them what the property will actually do. You know, we got folks in our market that will inflate numbers to try to get a property, but I would rather give them the the truth and tell them look, we will do our very best to market your property, we'll do everything to manage it properly, and we're gonna do our very best to make you the most money and monetize this week. But the thing is, is that those inflated numbers and that sort of stuff, you know, we're not into that. Jessica's not into that. We're into giving people real world advice and and establishing clients for life. I'm not a one and done salesman, that that's just not what we do in Tennessee, where I'm at. We're really into building those relationships and building a long-term portfolio with folks instead of trying to just get them in and get them under management and just move on to the next one. I want to be involved in the day-to-day.

SPEAKER_02 44:13

I love that. No, because you guys are both agents. Now, have you guys seen a slowdown? Because I am interested in coming to the vacation rental markets, Smokies in particular. Have you guys seen a slowdown in buying in the in that market?

SPEAKER_01 44:27

I was just at an open house. I'm sorry, I was just at an open house today at 4 p.m. So it's 6 45 where I am. There were 20 cars down the block. There were 50 people. And it was a little slow. It had slowed down a little bit because I happened, I mean, I am a broker. I've got buyers. I'm also in the market for myself. So I've been watching this the last month and a half. Something in the last two weeks. I mean, I have 12 showings lined up this weekend for other people in the next two days. So the inventory in my area is notorious. Like it's so low. It's dead low. We call it DFL dead low. Um, you know, and DFL dead low. And anything that is on the market is so stale. So the only thing that's really sitting are those items that are overpriced. Those houses, they're just they're overpriced, you know, and that is sitting. So you're seeing corrections in a way. Um, but if you come onto the market price properly right now, I just mean we're back to waiting in line.

SPEAKER_03 45:31

I need a house. We're working, we're working with developers right now as well. We're building properties all over the area. You know, my broker is a builder also, and he works with developers. And you know, we're building 80 and 90 units in certain areas. And so for us, it's not really slowing down. There was a little dip in the market, but what we're seeing is people still understand that this is a good investment. I mean, uh, real estate is a great investment if you get it for the right price. You know, get the right property that fits what your individual investing goals are. I mean, there's plenty of there's plenty of inventory, even if you're wanting to look at it from a standpoint of, hey, maybe I'll wait a couple of months, I'll do a build, and I'll build out what I want with with the amenities I want, get it staged the way I want it. And so we've got a lot of clients that are coming to us right now, uh, in the in the construction, new construction, and in the developments.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

So I'm I'm very familiar with the smokies. Like I know I understand the cabin thing down there is really hot, and people, you know, uh years ago we had uh Avery Carl's Avery and Luke Carl on, and he gave us the full rundown, and we should have bought a damn property if we made that mistake.

SPEAKER_04 46:37

But he told us to buy them back then too.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Yeah, he told us to buy them, we didn't. That's the biggest mistake. But I don't really know about Cape Cod. So I was wondering what are the best properties in that area? Like what gets you the biggest return?

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Yeah, so this is a tough one too, because Cape Cod is so heavily seasonal. And one of the things that has made I think me successful in my little niche here is that we have a commitment to keeping our houses open year round. And that is really hard for a lot of operators to do because of the cost of the operations. So if it costs you the same amount to turn it over in January as it costs to turn it over in July, how do you take an off-season booking when you might be running in the negative? Um, so that was part of how I structure my deal with my clients is you know, we're going to keep these houses open year-round and the split includes the cleaning so that they can take those off-season bookings and still be pocketing a little bit of money to encourage them not to close the houses. So there's there's that. I happen to think that the two to three bedroom units are, I always tell everybody is where I would start. I get a lot of people who are like, I want a four or five bedroom, and they perform super well in season. But boy, do those take a hit. You know, you're you're renting something that might go for $12,000 a week for $250 a night in February. Um, so it's like it's really hard, right? But those two and three bedroom units, we have had such tremendous luck, or maybe it's just hard work, filling them however we have to fill them. So I will say that during COVID, we got really lucky with the 30-day stays. We got a lot of people coming out of the cities. It was not hard to fill the units. And we did feel a little bit of a slowdown. And there was this moment in maybe November where I was starting to feel a little like, oh my God, what if we don't occupy them like we have? And you know what? We did. We still did it. We got out there and we said, okay, let's find some midterm rentals instead. And we managed to fill most of our units with workers that are here for the winter working on big municipal projects. So we just kind of turned away, we hit the community rooms instead of relying on Airbnb and said, let's go find ourselves somebody to fill this space. And that worked. Um, so they're still full, you know. And as far as things slowing down and going up, I guess I've just been in real estate long enough now that I don't feel that sense of panic anymore. Markets go up and markets go down. And a lot of people have jumped into this in the last year or two because it was easy. It was just easy. Anybody could do it. Um, and as a market corrects, basically the low-hanging fruit kind of falls off of the tree, right? The people in this room are not the low-hanging fruit. We're gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_04 49:25

No, all right. Oh, go ahead. I'm just saying, I'm I'm sold, I'm convinced. I'll take um one Cape Cod cocktail, one Tennessee whiskey. Hook me up, guys. There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Now I have a question. Now, these two and three-bedroom are these condos, houses, beach houses.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

No, any so condos are my least favorite just because HOAs, they're not. I if I can keep an HOA out of my life, I will. Um, and we actually don't have a lot of multi-unit buildings on Cape Cod because we're very much not in my backyard NIMBY. So we don't want multiple unit buildings and we want single family homes. So in where I am, that's the majority of the inventory. Um, I have these great little two and three bedroom, two-bath units that just perform so well. They're clean, they're in the middle of, you know, um, the price point, they're not too expensive, they're not super cheap, and they just tend to do the best for me. They're easy to clean. I have found that the bears, the big, big houses, I mean, they're expensive. We have cleaning fees. Like I fired a man who was paying $1,400 a cleaning once because I didn't like his attitude. You know, yeah, that was his expression too. He couldn't wrap his brain around it. Um, but there are just so many of that in the season, right? Um, and so if you can find a smaller unit where you're paying $300 to $400 to turn it over, that is way more manageable in your off season. So for most people who aren't cash heavy, um, it's better to start down there. And again, I mean, one of these units makes me like $60,000 a year. It's a two-bedroom, you know? I mean, it's just great. We just figure out how to keep it in that 75 to 90% occupancy range, and we make a commitment to doing it. I mean, if I have to go out and find the guest, I will. I'll hit the ground running when when they're not coming in. Um, we'll consider creative ways to get people in the space and network with your agents because in markets like the one that we're in, that if we're talking about people have sold their house, can't find a house. So hold their house, and they're a great midterm stay. Like, sure, you can come stay with me until you figure out where you're going.

SPEAKER_04 51:36

No, that's what I'll go ahead, Steve. I was gonna get get at with the um because uh Vernon mentioned it earlier, the the midterm, the midterm stays. He's getting real heavy into that and teaching people that. How does this um you know jet stream help the midterm stays?

SPEAKER_03 51:51

Yes, we we can accommodate that. That is something that I think they're eventually going to start marketing and and building into. I've spoken to the CEO about it a little bit, and I think it it is something that we're heading toward, especially as Jessica said, during the off-season. I don't really there's really no off-season for the Smoky Mountains, but there's a lot of corporate people because I live in a university town and I live near some really big major corporations that are that are that are always sending people here. So for us, uh it's a next logical step for me. Uh you don't have as much guest base management without, you don't have as much maintenance and that sort of thing. So it is really kind of a I love that business because it's kind of on the autopilot, you know, because once a guest gets there and they get kind of settled in, unless they have an issue with something, you know, that that's a really good, that's a really good business model to be in. And uh that's why I'm going to explore it again and kind of get back into it as an owner versus a uh you know versus as an employee for someone else.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Vernon and I are both in very heavily vacation destination communities, but I think it's important to remember that not every short-term rental is a vacation rental, and that's another hard one for people, right? So like, well, you live on Cape Cod. Of course it's easy for you. Um, but if you are near a hospital or a base, I once had a client who was right between four universities and she handed me all the basketball schedules and was like, jack up the rates on these weekends. Um, you know, so there's a lot of different, you know, I had a cousin that was getting treatment and had to be within five miles of a particular hospital to get his don't, you know, Oregon donations. There's a lot of people who are staying in these midterm spaces in places that aren't necessarily vacation communities. So short-term rentals are a legitimate form of housing everywhere. There is a need.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

Yeah, we have a condo downtown that stays booked with nurses and doctors all the time because it's within walking distances of a hospital. So those are great, those are great tools to make money. And the the way the HOA is set up there, it has to be a bit of a 30-day stay. So it works out great for us. So anyone that books it are normally a 30-day to 60-day stay. We had a lady just leave and she was there with us for six months. So I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is on the outskirts of it. We have the University of Tennessee here, and we have a lot, like I said, we have a lot of that going on around us. You know, we have a pilot corporation here, we have a lot of bigger corporations, we have a national laboratory in Oak Ridge. So there is a huge market for that. Just because, as she said, we're in a vacation space doesn't mean that there's not opportunities for these other things going on in our in our industry as well.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

And one question I did have for you, um, guys, is so you know, Airbnb changed their algorithm with the whole cleaning fee thing. So are you are you have you been noticing you having to go out and get more outside clientele, or are you still able to get booked with the cleaning fee?

SPEAKER_01 54:38

So I used to never include a cleaning fee. We always bundled it. I know you're doing that, but I'm on a split with my owners that includes everything, right? And so no matter how I take the fee, it's all rent. That's how I choose to structure my deal with my owners. Um, and so for the longest time we had no cleaning fee. And one day our revenue manager was kind of like, Jess, you're leaving money on the table. People expect a cleaning fee. Do something little. Um, and I'll tell you this is very frequent on Cape Cod because this is how I end up doing consultations with people that think they're going to pay 200 and I tell them it's going to be 600. And they go, but my neighbors are paying 200. Your neighbors are not paying 200. Your neighbors are passing on 200. Um, so I do believe that cleaning fees in general are going to go the way of the dodo. Every state is considering them pre-taxable dollars anyway. Um, you know, it was basically something that we did way back when to avoid paying tax on a portion of our income. That's what that was. Um, and they've all caught on board with it. Also, in other places, I believe in England, for example, it's already illegal to have that split fee. So Airbnb has already changed their whole aggro algorithm. If you're overseas, you see one number. Um, so there is no way in my mind that we are headed for anything but eventually combining all of that anyway. Um, that's my personal opinion. I never, I don't think people like hitting the button and having a huge cleaning fee. I have one owner, just one with a beautiful house who insists on passing on this cleaning fee. And he's the only one who didn't fill up this winter. It's frustrating. We chose to clone, close him down because I just said that it doesn't math out, um, you know, but I have everybody else. That was something I learned early on after that. Everybody else is on a split that includes those services because I want to be able to rent them year-round. And that's the only way it really works. So I think it's okay. Hide your cleaning fee. You should know what it costs to turn it over anyway. Um, I do believe it's the direction we're heading in. And I creep on a lot of social media groups and these podcasts. I'm listening to a lot of people saying that they are feeling like their analytics are better when they take their cleaning fee out. So I do think that's starting. I don't have any hard like evidence of that, just people talking about it.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

So I can be the evidence it is. If you take it out and make it into the nightly rate, you get booked more. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

Yeah, I know that's how we've always done it. And then the other thing, when we do take a midterm rental, and again, this is because I, you know, I own the clean company, but I think everybody should do this. We actually schedule a cleaning. So when we take somebody for five months every two weeks, the cleaners come in and clean the house. Um, and we do that because that's the best asset protection we could have. You know, we could do a whole other show on tenant rights and what happens when a midterm stay turns into a long-term stay, and where is real estate law and all of this? So, how do you protect your owner in a situation where they want to stay long-term, but your midterm or they want to stay in the short-term space, but your midterm stay is actually a long-term rental. So, part of what we do is go in and we clean it every two weeks to kind of keep an eye on it. And so if there's a problem, we're gonna know about it right away, not at the end of the stay.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Now, with you doing, because that's kind of how going into housekeeping, right? So, with you doing that, are you charging to go out or is it part of the total price they're paying?

SPEAKER_01 58:06

So, I am incredibly expensive. So, I include it in the commission that I charge to my owners. However, in the past, or for some of our owners that we only do the housekeeping on, where we recommend this, they charge their guest as part of the stay. So we can, they'll do it as part of the agreement with their guests. Like, sure, you can stay in my house, but you have to pay the cleaner to come once a month or every other week or whatever it is. Um, but I do say if you're thinking about baking your rate into the guest and what you know, the way Jetstream works, right? I pay them that 12% or that 11%, whatever I negotiate above that is mine to keep.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

So I include the cleaning and all of that in that rate. So I'm I don't bug my owners ever about much of anything. So it's just something we choose to do because it's the right thing.

SPEAKER_04 58:53

Nice. Now, Jessica, serious question. Do people say that you remind them more of uh Joan Cusack or Winona Ryder?

SPEAKER_01 59:02

Um I used to get Liv Tyler in my younger days, but I'm old now. So probably I can see that.

SPEAKER_04 59:09

I can see that. I just meant the talking and the no, no, no, no. The the talking and how you maybe they're from your area out of the bippity bappity.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

Stranger things, you know. Oh wow. This is this is so cool. Uh, we do we're gonna schedule a zoom with you guys because yeah, um, if y'all could help us out, it's just uh two 70 units. That's nothing for you guys. Uh it's easy.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

It's something, man. I won't lie. It's hard work. What we do is hard work.

SPEAKER_04 59:39

You know what I mean, Vern?

SPEAKER_01 59:40

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 59:41

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 59:42

So is it is it what's better? Uh uh whiskey or bourbon?

SPEAKER_03 59:46

Uh let's see. Probably whiskey because bourbon's work in Kentucky. Tennessee whiskey. Yeah, Jack Jack Daniels would be whiskey. Uh Tennessee whiskey.

SPEAKER_04 59:58

I like bourbon. I don't know. Is it a little sweeter or something? I don't know what's the difference between not a lot. What's the difference between those two? What are what uh one can be both and the other one can't be the other? I don't know. Yeah, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

I think they can be both, but you know, if you were gonna ask me what I was gonna have, I'd be having the Jack and Coke.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

So Jack and Coke. Yes, go to.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:17

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:19

Well, cool. Yeah, well, thank y'all so much for coming on this show. It's been a great eye-opening. And yeah, um, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

Well, I'm at uh www.bookwithjessica.com. It's pretty easy. That's my calendarly, and I will have a conversation with pretty much anybody. So if you're a cleaner, you're an agent, you're a manager in this space, I'll give you 30 minutes. Tell me what it is you do, and we'll see if there's any way we can make it a little easier for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

You can find me at shorttermpro.com. And there's a calendar on there where you can see the links and see all the services that we provide. And I'm just like Jessica, I'll I'll give you the first 15 for free just to kind of get you going, and then we decide what it looks like after that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:05

Sweet. Well, cool. Any more questions for these wonderful guests, Micah?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

That is it, man. That was a really good, really eye-opening. I like how you talked about you are already baking your cleaning fee in. And I'm I'm definitely wrote a couple notes. I might have to start charging people anyone that stays over 30 days every two weeks. We got housekeeping. I love that. So yeah, thank y'all for coming on.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:29

Talk to you later.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

Bye.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:32

That was pretty cool, man. That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

Yeah, very interesting. That was a very interesting show, man. Because I I had they're heavy in the vacation rental market, and it's stuff that people do in the vacation rental market. We I gotta start learning from it because it's like you know, the whole Airbnb bus thing because of the cleaning fee. So, yeah, you know, I'm I'm happy that they are like, oh, we're already doing that. So a lot to learn from them. I'm definitely gonna see what I can learn from them, and you know, because I've I had to anyone who is struggling with the cleaning fee thing, Sean has an absolutely awesome course on how to get booked. I was on it, a good webinar, and I think you can buy it for like four or five hundred bucks now. So should have been on it. Originally was only a hundred bucks, but yeah, check that out.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:14

Nice, nice. I will I will check that out. Um, I'm I'm I'm very interested. I want to talk to them um about how they could possibly help, you know, me and Fetty, me and Fed, as you call them Fetty, uh our business, because if Fed is Fed is a Fed is a special dude, man, not special as in you know that special, but he's he's a special uh guy as in the sense that he wants to try it the hard way. You can't stop him, and then he might um he'll realize that maybe not the hard way is the best way. And and so I'm I know if I brought this to him, he's gonna give me some resistance and I just hear it out, dude, hear it out, and and then just um and see what he's trying to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

I can't wait till you have that convert with Fetty because I I mean Fetty's mind kind of work very similar to each other because he was on our mastermind last night. Because I my whole time I'm thinking, I'm like, hmm. The reason why I said the VA thing is because if you're charging 20, you give it to them for 11, you take 9%. You have to then I was like, or could you would you be comfortable in your business and fuck it? I'll just fire the VAs and I'll just because basically you're almost going to become a call center.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:23

A call center. Um, I see that. I see that. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Because that's yeah, because I was like, I wouldn't want to become a call center. I'd just hire a VA to take the calls. Hey, if Jetstream needs help, you go into Monday.com or send them the information. Uh, or you just have them do that and then you talk to the owners. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me know how that goes. Because that was a we had a me, Fetty, and Mike had a really good mastermind last night, Ross. Really high-level stuff, and it was a really good combo. So, yeah, yeah, this is very interesting. Very interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:53

Yeah, man. I'm sorry, I missed that. I was just beat down as with the family and stuff. Um, but that yeah, he he came out of that thing with some great ideas, and he was telling me about it. So um, but yeah, it would be an interesting topic, and and and the way I see it, you know, if something like this would work, you know, for us, you I mean, yeah, it would we why would we keep all these VAs and that are doing all these things for us? And he built this whole notion, you know, giant thing. Um, which it can still be used by the you know, this company. I don't know. Uh it's something to look at. You know, there's a there's never a real easy button for anything, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:31

There is never called chat GPT. Uh here we go.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:39

So these these youngsters coming up, they don't even have to work on their game anymore. It's a Mac on a chick, right? They just hit up, you know, whatever message comes through that chat gpt, and then boom, they're they're hooking up with the the hottest chick there there is.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

So we don't need chat gpt for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:54

It's called Tinder nowadays, but the messages, you know. I'm saying he's gonna they're gonna be talking to chat GPT. Jack PTP did it is gonna get more dudes laid than um Barry White. So I'm just saying that right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:09

Oh, somebody's on chat GPT, upload the messages to Tinder Man.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:15

No man, he reads poetry. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:20

Um, so yeah, where can I find to Steve?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:25

This is horrible, man. I made I made the Scooby-Doo meme, you know, the one where they're sitting there and he takes the mask off. He goes, Remember, I made I sent that to you guys. And it goes, Chat B, he's sitting there with a mask on, chat GPT, and then the dude, you know, the good guy, whatever his name takes the mask off of him and it's it and it says Ask Jeeves, and he goes, I knew it. So ask Jeeves was the original chat GPT video.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:47

Funny stuff, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:49

Where can people find us, Mike?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:51

Man, you can find us at liveletrive.com, email us at liveletrive at gmail.com. Um, I am getting our YouTube membership up. I'm gonna have it is up right now, but I'm getting more videos uploaded for that. Join that and check out hostfully. You guys know we are sponsored by hostfully, check them out. Use your code Thrive or use the link in the comments. Man remove subscribe, like, share, leave us a review, leave us an honest review. You know, some people don't like us, but oh well. If you don't like us, we might just actually, if you do like us, we'll leave you we'll read your review out loud. The people that don't like us, we might even read those. Those are funny sometimes.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:26

But yeah. Oh, like in uh uh what's that show? The tonight show they read the the bad uh the bad tweets, uh evil tweets or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:33

Oh, yeah, the evil tweets of people. Yeah, so thank y'all for continuing to listen to us and uh yeah, man, follow us and uh we'll continue to have this continue with this journey of giving you free information on the STR space. And we are out. Peace later.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

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.