Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello, hello, hello.

SPEAKER_04 0:13

And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Drive. What is up, Micah Man? I am good. How you doing, Stevie Stacks?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Wonderful, bro. Wonderful. It's a beautiful Thursday here in the DF Dub. Uh, this is Live Let Thrive, your favorite Airbnb V RBO, home away, live tuber, to all that share economy stuff podcast in the world. And we have a very special guest today, Micah.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Who we got? What episode number is this?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

This is episode 178, actually. And we have a special guest named Brian Payne bringing the pain today. You want to know about Brian? How y'all doing? House of Pain. I like it. We're doing good, man. Let me read you a little bio real quick. It can it says, while Brian, I like how you wrote it in the third person. That helps, you know, because I've always had to change it for

Brian Payne's backstory: from pacemaker sales to 10 rental units

SPEAKER_01 1:05

people. Um, while Brian was working in healthcare, he was recruiting, he was renting out his furnished rentals to traveling nurses. He had 10 units and they all stayed full because there was a constant flow of new healthcare workers being hired by local hospitals. In 2014, he launched Furnish Finder as an answer to the healthcare housing crisis and now has over 70,000 monthly rentals, representing a potential of 20 million bookable nights per month. And we all give money to Brian. Uh, you know, we all do it. And welcome to the show, Brian.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Glad to be here, guys. Thank you, Steve and Micah. Thanks, uh just chat and uh see what's going on with you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Oh wow, that's cool. I didn't know your backstory, man. So you were in healthcare, and then you know, just started writing out furnished rentals, and and then it just you're like, wow, I need to make a website.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I mean, we we all do it, right? We kind of look for an angle, look for, you know, while I was working for a company called Boston Scientific, I was uh selling pacemakers and defibrillators. So going in with these electrophysiologists, cardiologists, and helping them implant these devices. You know, I had a lot of access to a lot of travel nurses. So um, you know, real estate kind of runs in my blood and my wife's blood. So, you know, she had said, Hey, we're just gonna rent a condo when we're gonna get married. And uh she threw it up on Craigslist, furnished. And uh yeah, no sooner than that did we get contacted by a uh travel nurse um staffing company. They reached out to us, said, Hey, can I slam a nurse in there for three months? We said, Absolutely. And then after that, they said, How about another one? And how about another one? So we said, Oh, we're we might be onto something. So we bought a handful of units and they continued to stay full, like the bio said. And um, yeah, we just kind of kept growing from there. And at some point, we just realized, like, look, we're limited by the amount of physical properties we can have, but there might be a bigger opportunity. And that's kind of how we started with Furnish Finder.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

So what uh so what market were you guys in to where you just get nurses like that back to back?

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah, I mean, travel nurses, they travel all over the US. Um, so uh if you have a hospital in or around your town within

Bakersfield's high turnover and hospital proximity

SPEAKER_02 3:37

30 minutes drivable distance, chances are they're coming to the area where we were was lovely, Bakersfield, California. Um, so that was uh, you know, there's kind of a high turnover. It's outside of LA over the grapevine, about 90 minutes or so. So just enough to kind of get it out of commute range. And uh, although I love it in terms of the people, not the most desirable place in the whole world. Um, and uh so there's just a lot of turnover. So um, yeah, there's just a lot of travel nurses coming through there. We were just sitting on it, we didn't really, we didn't know it, but uh turns out that you know that area is one of the you know hotter areas for travel nurses in the country, but you know, all the major cities that you would expect, um DC, Nashville, Denver, um, San Jose, California, San Diego, LA, uh, Austin, Dallas, Houston, I mean, uh on and on. Um, but it's not just um kind of cities, it's rural as well, because there's hospitals everywhere and we need healthcare providers more than ever.

SPEAKER_04 4:49

I'm happy you brought up rural because that's where I was gonna lead into. Uh, have you seen any like market gaps where hey, there's this many nurses asking for housing on Furnish Finder,

Market gaps and 70,000 listings covering travel nurse migration patterns

SPEAKER_04 5:00

but there's not enough houses of housing available, like short-term rentals available. Have you seen those areas?

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I mean, um, yeah, there's always gonna be those areas. So, I mean, it just kind of depends. We built our system to kind of track where the travel nurses are are going, and that was since 2014. So we have a lot of data and we know kind of their migration patterns, if you will. Um, so yeah, we're pretty well covered in the map with about 70,000 listings um and and growing. So, but yeah, I mean it it really just kind of depends on uh on who's hiring, who where the biggest needs are. Everything has changed, obviously, in the last 15, 20 months um to where you know they turned, they cut off elective procedures and that that really kind of upset the balance between the travelers and the landlords. Um, but that has sensed kind of that ship has been righted, um, so to speak. And then um I guess we'll say with this delta wave, everything has uh it's changed for the better. I mean, for Furnage Finder, it's it's been uh amazing. We were very well positioned to handle both waves of of COVID. First wave was, you know, you had a lot of a lot of companies that maybe they were in short-term rentals, Airbnb, VRBO, uh things like that. And they were looking after those nightly. Well, when leisure travel shut down, you know, a lot of people come looking to furnish finder because we're kind of that in in the middle, sort of in that sweet spot. And then uh similarly, uh, same with business travel, shut down at the same time. Um, so we were just well positioned at that point to kind of handle that. Um, and now you know things have changed in uh, you know, in terms of travel nurses, they're still very, very steady. Now that elective procedures have come back, um, travelers are traveling as much, if not more, than ever, just because of the demand. But now travel nurses are are competing against um,

Remote workers and monthly furnished housing demand post-COVID

SPEAKER_02 7:15

you know, all different types of travelers, remote workers. I mean, people maybe like yourselves realize that hey, you know, I can go live in Austin for six months. Let's go visit our family out there and we'll make it a uh a work trip. Um, you know, and if you're a remote worker, you know, monthly furnished housing is something that, you know, either you're considering or have considered, uh, just because just the demand is is there and and people have more freedom and more choice than ever before.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So back in the back in the beginnings of furniture finder, because you must have you must have looked at other avenues when you said, Oh, wow, you know, this is decent money renting out you know spots to to traveling nurses, and you must have obviously looked at oh we'll just throw it on Airbnb, see what happens, or throw it on uh VR Bo or whatever there was available. And and what what was the moment you said, well, this isn't really this isn't really built for like traveling nurses, and there's not nothing really out there. I guess corporate housing by owner was one, but when was the moment you're like, I need to make something here, I need to build something, and and how did how did that go?

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah, it's a great question. Um, you know, we realize as landlords, like that that was our niche. We love renting to travel nurses, they're background screened already. So they're you know, they're gonna be, you know, they're there to work, they're not vacationers, they're not parties, they're there to do a job. They're they're gonna work for 12-hour shifts, they're gonna come home, they're gonna make something to eat, maybe watch a Netflix show and crash out. So, you know, in terms of wear and tear, it was, you know, the turnaround is every three months, and about a third of the time they do renew. So we just liked those types of tenants. Um, they were easy for us. I had a job, like we're saying, we you know, we have to, you know, you got to do what you have to do until you get there. And that's what I was doing. I was working as a pacemaker rep working for Boston Scientific, great company, really enjoyed it, gave me um a lot of insight in the um, you know, I was around a lot of these travel nurses that kind of that I was renting to. So it was kind of a unique situation. Um, but at some point it was like, you know, as a landlord, I was looking for 30 days and greater. You know, I didn't want the high turnover, I didn't want and all the issues that came with it. So I just realized I looked at, you know, of one that you mentioned and a few others, and just there was nothing in between. It felt like, you know, you've got 12 month over here and you've got nightly over here. And of course, I think you know, Airbnb did have 30 days

Building Furnished Finder: the half-million-dollar website journey

SPEAKER_02 10:03

and greater, and but it was never, I know that they released uh for work as well, but it never seemed to be um a priority for them. And um, so anyway, we said, look, if it's important to us as landlords, you know, there's got to be a a nationwide market for it. And I gotta believe that, you know, other landlords think like we do. So let's go out, kind of cover the business and in uh a lot of a lot of prayer and uh everything else, and uh off we went.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So so we've all had this this moment, you know, in dealing with Airbnb, and and maybe oh, I got this idea that's a good niche that doesn't, you know, that doesn't quite work with Airbnb. I have a few, I go to the buy the go daddy no domain names and uh mess around with it a little bit. And of course I'm like, oh, it's gonna cost me a lot of money to actually go through with this. So how do you what what was your next step? What do you I mean, how did you know anything about building websites or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

At this point, you know, I'll say uh a couple things. One is um when you're when you're launching something like this, um, have a plan, know your business model, and uh surround yourself with people you trust. Um and I was very, very lucky. I work with my wife and my brother-in-law. So the trust part was there, and luckily they're two of the most brilliant people I know. Uh, so that helps as well. Um, and so other than that, um it was kind of just one of those things where okay, so back to your your question was the um hold on, bring me back. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

So it's yeah, you get the idea, you're like, okay, I need to make a website. It's like like what is the what do you do? I know you go to GoDaddy, get the name. I I don't know how to what is your how do you do it?

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Yeah, it was such an such it was very, very new for for me. So I like I said, I had quit my job and and went all in here uh with Furnish Finder. And it was one of those things where um, although I had no experience creating a website, um, we had uh, and and knowing what I know now, would I have gone this far? I'm not sure. It's it's a beast, it's like an iceberg, like you know, so you see the platform on the very top, but there's so much that goes into it, and we really haven't even scratched the surface. There's so much more that we can and want to do. Um, but yeah, it was just it was extremely difficult. Like I said, uh a lot of prayers, a lot of tears um at the breakfast table. But you know, we knew that we had a really good idea. And we we knew that if we had the right business model, uh, we can had and kind of had the right team in place, we could build it. Um, and we did. And it took us um many years and we start, you know, and a couple of uh business model shifts as well. So uh, like I say, know your business model uh so you don't have to go through that brain damage and uh loss of time and such. So we came in uh early in 2014 and our kind of our approach was hey, let's just um let's go after the stipend travelers. So, in terms of you know medical travel, there's about 90% of them will take the stipend. You know, Airbnb really paved the way for you know for travelers to just give them the choice and just to empower them to say, hey, I can book my own housing. I don't need you know, a my staffing company to provide my own housing. So they really paved the way and just empowered travelers to think that way. Um, and uh yeah, so we just kind of found a niche and and um worked our way through it. And we just listened to our customers, listened to our uh travelers, finding out what they wanted and um went from there.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Hmm. So yeah, I I guess I guess what I'm getting at um is so so I have an idea. Oh, this this is a cool niche in the Airbnb. Or I'm sorry, the short-term rental, long-term rental, middle, mid-term rental, whatever, whatever niche I come up with. Like I I get gotta create a website to capture these people. How much money do I need to get started? How much? I mean, I know it's a vague, it's a general question, but like like we've we've had the guy from Turnover BNB, the the founder of Turnover BNB, he, you know, the clean instructor, you know, fire cleaner for Airbnb. And I've talked to him a few times, and and he said he's spent over a million dollars on his website already. And it's still not where he wants to get it.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

It's the time is is the biggest thing. Um, of course, money, but it's it's so heartbreaking, and I feel him. It's so heartbreaking when you spend, let's say, six months and whatever thousands of dollars to build something that you want, and you just never quite get it there, and you have to scrap it, and then you lose that time and the money, and it's it's uh it's really difficult. I mean, there's no easy button. There really is not. We've learned it. Um, and uh I I think I mean, we used to say that we made sales despite ourselves, you know. I think there's just God is good and gave us the opportunity to to uh compete in this market and create this little uh this niche um which is expanding. And um yeah, there's no easy button. If you want a number, it would it's easily half a million dollars. We're we were a little bit different. So it was it was one of those things where we said, hey, we believe in the model, we believe in what we can do, so let's go for it. So we quit our jobs and all the money that we had put in. Um, and it was totally bootstrapped. We didn't take outside money, we're still um kind of that type same type of company. Um, so yeah, I mean, there's no easy, easy way to do it. There's a lot of brain damage and a lot of um a lot of swings and misses, I'll tell you. A lot of swings and misses. There are no guarantees that it's hard. Okay. Because the question is, Mike.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

Yeah, is there like a particular type of housing that that you guys find to be more desirable, like for you guys to grow your company? Is there a particular type of housing that people need to be putting on your platform to make it, you know, to really entice

One-bedrooms under $100k and essential property features

SPEAKER_04 16:52

more travel nurses to come on to Furnish Finder?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. I mean, we're we're not the vacation rental, you know. So the the beachfront mansion is probably not going to do very well on our site. Um, but I mean, these are traveling professionals. And we keep saying travel nurses, but there's so many out there now, you know, remote workers, digital nomads, you have a lot of um people in oil, ag, engineers, students, professors, doctors, all of the above. So um lumping them all in. Um, but you know, I was listening to one of your previous podcasts, and they were saying somebody was saying, hey, you know, in DC area, you can get um, you know, one bedroom condo for under 100 grand. Um, so you know, that was kind of our model. We were we are looking for low maintenance, one, two-bedroom, or you know, three-twos, no pools, things like that, that we could easily um put five, ten thousand dollars worth of furniture in there and start renting to to travel nurses. So I'll, you know, some travel nurses like to rent rooms. You know, they can have the camaraderie, they have, you know, they can share a space, feels like home. It's better than a hotel, and the price point is uh is more attractive. There's other travelers that's that really want their own place. Um I don't blame them. So, you know, I want my own place, I want I want a dishwasher, I need washer, you know, laundry in the unit and things like that. So, you know, it short answer is hey, get a one and two bedroom with laundry and um dishwasher and parking, and you'll be set.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

And blackout curtains. And blackout curtains. Yeah, you like those. Yeah, yeah. The the um it's funny because the HO the HOA um sent me a message that, hey, one of your tenants has put foil on the windows. I'm like, oh crap. And so I I asked her and she said, Yeah, you know, I just like to like it really dark. I was like, Oh, you should have told me, you know, it's it's kind of an Airbnb, and would you travel we would have travel nurses in there too? So I didn't have blackout curtains. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go put some tomorrow. I'll be over there put some blackout curtains for you. Yeah, we can't have foil on the windows. No, no foil, right? Yeah, your neighbors love that, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. I I did it at you know, back in my very first house, which you know, kind of in the hood, but I I I would black out my room because I worked midnight ships. I blacked out everything, but foil works great, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

So I mean I'll tell you, you can't buy class like that. Foil on the windows. I mean, class like that doesn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Met her through furniture finder. Nah, she's cool. Cool, cool girl. Uh um, but yeah, so I what's what's different

Direct landlord-tenant transactions and the $99 annual membership

SPEAKER_01 19:45

about about your y'all's y'all's model is from Airbnb or VRPR or whatever, is is you let us deal directly with the with the uh guests, right? With the with the nurses, right? So okay, you found we found her. Here's a lead. We talk to them, you know, then and say, oh, they like our place, we'd like to I'd like to rent it for three months, which is mostly it's it's mostly three months, it's pretty cool. And then the rest is up to us. So uh it's cool. I mean, me and you know, me and Micah have been doing rentals for a while, and we've been doing Airbnb for a while. So, okay, drawing up a contract, it's no big deal. Now, that could be a hurdle for a lot of people that just sign up for for Furniture Finder, right? They don't know how to do a lease contract and stuff like that. What advice do you have for them?

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yeah, great question again. Um, so um, you know, KeyCheck is a company that we own, and they're a sister company. They do um they do tenant screening, custom leases, and they also do online rent payment. And so in your furniture finder dashboard, you can go ahead and schedule any of those that you want. So we're um while we're building it into the workflow, you can just go ahead and sign up at Keych.com or you go you know straight into your furniture finder dashboard and you could do that. And so we just give you the tools to do it yourself. And it's a unique model. I mean, again, it's it's not Airbnb where it's um, you know, it's bookable right then and there, because think about it. It's like you said, an average is three months. You kind of want to know as a landlord who's gonna be staying in your place for three months, especially if maybe it's a basement unit or you know, kind of a shared type of property. Um, so we recommend that you, even though travel nurses are tenant screening, uh, you know, travel nurses are great tenants, we still recommend screening them just because they're people, you know, and um just because they can get hired and pass a background check, background check, uh, doesn't mean that um they can manage their money or they don't have, they haven't been evicted a couple of times, or they haven't um, you know, paid their car payment, or they got a judgment or lien or credit score. 520. So always do those credit checks. And yeah, so we give the tools to these types of landlords, try to educate them as much as possible. But yeah, it's a uh it's a model where you list, you create your own lease, um, you can schedule your own online rent payment. But the thing is that you collect 100% of the rental fees. You know, we're not in the middle. You do pay us a very uh nominal fee on the front end as a membership, and that's a 12-month membership. It goes for $99, unless you're a hotel or apartment complex and it's uh a little bit more. But um, but yeah, a very simple model uh by design and a very low price point by design.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

No, we love it because yeah, like I said, we're used to you know having uh long-term rental, short-term rentals. So and we get to keep all the money. It's like, oh, cool, you know, because yeah, sure, Airbnb makes it convenient, they can book and then they're in there. But like you said, you know, it's it's a three-month booking most of the time, and then we don't know who it is really. And a lot of the like places we do long term, the HOA does want to know who it is, you know, do a little information on them, stuff like that. And but yeah, it's it's it's great. We get to keep all the money for ourselves, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Well, that's that's we we kind of built our uh a system around the system that we would want to use as well, and we were kind of utilizing these systems just to get tenant leads. That's what we wanted. So we would we would get a an Airbnb listing, we'd get we'd put stuff on Craigslist, put it on Zillow or wherever, and we try to. I mean, you have to be careful with a couple of those platforms because online housing scams are crazy. Um, but all we were all we really wanted were was the um tenant leads, you know. So we built a system um that provides tenant leads to landlords and they can go ahead and um pick the best tenant after kind of screening them the way that they want to. And then their furnished rental or furnished rentals are are full for the next three months, and then they do it all the good.

SPEAKER_04 24:10

Would do you guys plan on maybe in the future making it so someone can like instant book a property for three months or something like that? Like, hey, they've passed the furniture finder background check and boom, they can instant book for three months and they're verified. Do you guys plan on eventually doing something like that?

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Well, we are doing uh hotels, and that's our focus right now. We know that hotels are an important part of the journey for these travelers, so hotels are easy to um integrate with, and we've signed agreements with um all of the big ones. So um, yeah, uh we are doing online booking of hotels, but again, as a landlord, you know, for me, I always wanted to screen my own tenants. So an instant booking, um, we the short answer is yes, but it'll uh will still give the um the landlord the you know the control that they need where they can approve, they can screen, and then they can book. But just allowing anybody to book for three months, I don't think that's very responsible. And I'll tell you why, is because if I had bad credit, I would flock to that site and say, I can get into a place for three months, they don't even check my credit because my credit's horrible, and you know, and then who knows what can happen once they're in, right? So, you know, evictions and things like that. We um we concentrate on traveling professionals, they stay, they have a uh a contract, they're there for three months, and then they typically move on to the next city. So um, yes, for the Instabook, sort of is the is the answer.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

And you kind of surprised me. You guys said you're doing hotels, so my friends, yeah, he just did an exit interview with a um with the traveling nurse, and he was asking, Hey, how do we bridge the gap of getting you guys into these short-term rentals? And that's one thing she brought up. She goes, Well, most of us still use hotels. Do you know how to how to bridge that gap? And is there like a demographic that would prefer the hotel over the house or the condo? Do you you guys know that information?

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Man, it's like you guys have uh planned this out or something. You guys are asking great questions.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

We don't plan, we don't plan.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

We're just in the space, man. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Well, let's keep going then. So um I think uh there are there are a lot of people that like hotels. For me, it would be a short-term bridge until I get to where I'm going. Like I would want, like I said earlier, I would want a one bedroom or two bedroom. I'd want, you know, a dishwasher, I'd want your um laundry and you know, convenient place, things like that, convenient area. Um, hotels, like say maybe your place that I'm I'm looking at. I really like your place, Micah, but it's not available for three weeks. But my contract starts today. Well, I'll park in a hotel because your condo is worth waiting for. So I'll book your condo for two months or you know, three months, but you know, say it's not quite ready, I'll pop, I'll pop into a hotel for sure. Another reason why they might use hotels is again, online housing scams are crazy out there. So, and I'll tell you a little bit about what Furnish Finder does to combat that. But um, you know, about hotels, a lot of travel nurses or you know, other types of travelers will just say, Hey, let's go and get boots on the ground. You know, let's park in a hotel for a week or two. We'll go and we'll visit, you know, different places, visit different landlords, look at some real places, and then I'll sign an agreement and hand over my deposit money. So there's some a couple different scenarios where hotels, you know, play a part.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Yeah, they help fill in the gaps, fill in the gaps.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Yeah, and you know, and I guess the other third, you know, I do know that some travelers really do like hotels. They like the amenities, they like the privacy, and they like the early out. So if uh their contract gets canceled tomorrow, well, they just wave to the front desk person and they're gone. You know, there's no lease, even though most of our leases on Furnish Finder are month to month. Um, with you know, with these types of travelers in mind, hotels have the the easiest type of cancellation policy,

Hotels fill gaps and combat online housing scams

SPEAKER_02 28:54

right?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Just leave, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Just leave, right?

SPEAKER_04 28:58

Do you guys have like okay? You have a I have a bunch of three twos. They're right, they're right across the street from the hospital, and people are willing to pay the extra, and they're saying, Hey, I got my family coming in town. Now that's just a property out in rural Arkansas, right? Now, my ones in Dallas, they're two twos, but I'm not getting as many of the family travelers coming in. Do you know, like where the influx flux of like the travel nurse who's hey, I'm traveling with my family? Do you know like the demographic of them? How are they like that often? Like the I guess how hard are they to find?

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Because you know, yeah, I mean, you'll see them come through your dashboard. I I would say the majority of these types of travelers will travel solo. Um, sometimes they'll say, Hey, it's close enough where my husband can visit. Because a lot of these travelers will have a mortgage, they'll have a home somewhere else, but they take a travel assignment and they're gone for three months, and then the husband will come in, you know, hang out once a month or something like that. But um, you know, some of them also do travel with uh the family and the kitchen sink. So it really just depends. I don't think I could put my thumb on it.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Doggies, they bring doggies. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Uh we found about maybe 25% uh come with the pets. Um I understand it, you know. The debate is hey, you know, what are the what do the travel nurses do with a pet when you're at work? Um, and I know that there's a lot of uh different sitting services, walking services, things like that. Um, but I understand the uh the pet thing as well. Hey, you know, it could be a lonely gig for three months without your best friend. So I understand that.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Oh, go ahead, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Oh, I was I was gonna ask. Um, so what how did Furnish Finder become synonymous with travel nurses? Because it's the it's not in the name, it's furnished finder. How did it become like that's the go-to for travel nurses?

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Um yeah, well, I I it's not by accident. Um, you know, again, that's who we focused on. You're right, it's not in the name. Um, we just uh by who we aligned ourselves with, we partnered with a lot of medical staffing companies in that industry. Um, and we have probably over 100 medical staffing companies using us, uh, you know, and referring us to their stipend travelers. So really it's about the kind of the company that we kept that was our business model, instead of kind of creating a um a monthly uh platform where it's good for everybody, which it is, it's available for everybody. We did go after the travel nurse because we knew that they were um a very, very steady source of tenant leads, and ultimately that's what we wanted as landlords, a steady source of tenant leads.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

So, so so what were some of the early early names uh for Nish Finder? The the more embarrassing, the better.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Oh, that's funny. Um, well, you know, we we also have uh travelnursehousing.com. We're kind of uh fans of just telling exactly what it is. Uh so we own travelnursehousing.com. Um, and that helps uh a lot in terms of uh brand recognition because um all of that business funnels right through Furnish Finder. But you know, I can't remember some of the more embarrassing names. Um to tell you the truth. I think it's just been it's been uh so long um that it's just the only thing I can think of is Furnish Finder.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

Now, so since you said you guys targeted all these travel nurse housing companies, like right now, you you pointed out earlier, you know, you have the all the remote workers. Is there any other demographical travelers do you guys that you guys see that are going to be that are spiking that you could start, you know, catering Furnish Finder to?

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. They're they're finding us just because um monthly short-term housing is is hard to find

Educating nurses on market rates: $800 in Jacksonville doesn't equal Dallas

SPEAKER_02 33:10

sometimes. You can go to apartments.com, whom we love, but you go to apartments.com and it's sometimes it's difficult to find the furnished ones or Zillow or you know any of these other platforms. And it's difficult to really define the furnished ones. And if if they are furnished, are they truly furnished, or are they just saying, oh, well, I we can furnish them through court for another $750. So um it's hard to really, you know, and and then what about utilities? Do I have to put utilities in my name? Or you know, so it's just one of those things where um it was always a little bit um hard uh to find. So it's one of the kind of the reasons we did it.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

All right. Bones to pick with furniture finder. Yeah, and Micah, you might have some. I got some nothing crazy. Wow, it is not even your fault. It is why why are there so many? It seems there's so many that want to stay at the Taj Mahal and pay 900 bucks a month. How does that how does that even? I mean, I I don't understand it. Maybe they're coming from like a rural podunk place instead of they can get to Taj Mahal for 900 bucks a month, but they're coming to Dallas and they want to spend 900 bucks a month. Our our we're paying like 1500 a month in the mortgage or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

I just yeah, yeah, what I get you, and it's um it's an education problem. Uh, we have, you know, I if we're talking about specifically travel nurses, there's a lot of this is what happened in the industry, you know, COVID hit, a lot of travel nurses split, or a lot of nurses retired early. So we have a whole new people, but it's a transient industry by design, right? So you're always having a new influx of travel nurses, and they're they're fairly young. So I think it's an educational problem to where they go, you know, hey, my place in you know, Jacksonville, I can get a I got my two-bedroom, two bath for $800 a month. And I'm assuming that's going to be the same in Dallas or San Francisco, right? No, not right. Um, so it's an education problem, it really is. And um, some of them feel fairly entitled to, hey, the I'll never pay that. Well, well, guess what? That's the going rate, and that's called market rate. And that's what the market will bear. And if you really want one, what you're asking for, then you're going to pay for it, you know, because you guys, as landlords, you're not willing to give um, you know, discounts necessarily just because they're in a certain profession. You know, I love travel nurses, but you know, sometimes they really do need to educate themselves on um, you know, the housing costs and what's expected in the cities that they're looking for a job. You know, so we have a budget tool, they can kind of type in and say, hey, I'm looking at San Francisco, you know, I'm looking at DC, and then I'm looking at Biloxi, Mississippi. Well, one of those, you're gonna get a lot more for your money than the other two, right? So they can kind of go through, type in those areas and get a good idea of kind of the housing costs and what to expect before, you know, they just get off the off the bus and land there and just go, wait, are you kidding? It's 2028 for a studio, it's 3200 for a one bedroom, you know. Um yeah, sometimes I mean, and housing right now is gangbusters. I mean, it is um it's really, really competitive. So if they think that they, if travel nurses think that they have a corner on the market or they deserve something, well, they're gonna get left in the dust.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

We've seen their salaries online. Hey, come work over here for $100 an hour and so and so.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Well, yeah, these crisis rate pays. I mean, they they really can um uh make some some decent money, but um again, a lot of them also do have to pay a mortgage at home. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 37:14

Another thing to also look at to kind of add on to what Steve's saying, and to kind of go into a little bit of background research. So a couple weeks ago, we actually did I did research

Tax-free stipends and hospital contract variations

SPEAKER_04 37:24

on exactly what Steve was asking, and this is for the people out there, this is something to consider. Uh, we looked up, hey, how much does a travel nurse make in this area? And actually, Texas and Arkansas are the lowest places they get paid.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Yeah, so it does vary.

SPEAKER_04 37:39

Yes. So if you're looking in Texas and Arkansas, they're gonna go for a cheaper rate because they don't get paid as much as someone going out somewhere else. So that's another thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Florida's like that as well. Um, you know, I think it depends on hospital contracts or you know, something above my head. But um, but yeah, it's not one size fits all in terms of their their rates, and it gets pretty aggressive, like uh some of the the biggest facilities are paying the most, which is leaving the little facilities that who that can't pay that out in the lurch. So it's it's affecting our healthcare system in the short term as well.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

So, how does it work? Like, I mean, you were in the industry and and you have a lot of ties to the industry. So, does uh does a hospital say, okay, we'll pay, I don't know, anywhere from 50 to 100 bucks an hour, all the overtime you want, and then um and do they give stipend for for you know a place to stay? Do they give you like you know a thousand bucks a month for a place to stay or two thousand or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yeah, I think uh you know they'll look at the the stipend, the cost of living and things like that. They will get a stipend. Um, it's a tax-free stipend, and it does depend on. I think they have a uh a house of their own or they're paying. Um, you can't kind of double dip for tax reasons. Um, but yeah, they they do get stipends for sure. But it you can't think of it one for one and go, okay, well, San Francisco, it's gonna be a higher cost city. So that stipend should reflect that for whatever reason. I think a lot of the medical staffing companies, they it's like buying a car. Okay, well, you want a lower down payment? Great. Well, you're gonna have, you know, you're gonna raise something else up here, so they can kind of mess around with the numbers. And oh, you want a good um, you know, housing stipend? Great. Well, your your pay is gonna go down. So there's only so much money, so to speak, and and uh in in these housing contracts. So, but yeah, they do get um stipend contracts or they do get uh stipends with their contracts.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Cool. I'm gonna I'm gonna call Joe Biden to see if he can get some money to these travel nurses so they can pay some more rent to us.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Man, they deserve it. They're working so hard, truly.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Really, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Yeah, they're the backbone of our healthcare system, they really are big time.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Um, so what else? Yeah, it's a question, Micah.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Oh, I was gonna also throw in there, like, yeah, another place that travel nursing is really needed, and they'll pay that extra stipends, Nashville, Tennessee. I don't know what's going on out there, but they'll pay four or five thousand dollars. I don't know if it's just the scenery or what, but yeah, it's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

So yeah, I think a sum of it, uh part of the travel is the experience. So, you know, they may go, look, I've always wanted to go to Nashville, and you could, you know, enter in any city, but I've always wanted to go to Nashville, and I know that I'm it's probably not going to be the most lucrative assignment for me in terms of me putting cash in my pocket, but um I want to go, I want to experience that for three months. I want to um, you know, see the area, and they do it. And so that's one of the benefits of being a travel nurse is that you can pop around and visit, you know, the cities that you've always wanted to live there for, you know, three or six months, depending if you like it or not. And um, you really get a sense of um of the area and plus your your specialty as well. They can kind of pop in different areas as well to uh see which type of specialty they like. And then there's always an element of uh, like I said, transiency where some nurses they they take a uh a full-time job. They go, Man, I love it here in Nashville. I'm staying. And they take a full-time position, and they're out of that the workflow, so to speak, in terms of travel nurse, and then a new one comes in. So it's it's always a kind of a constant flow of of uh nurses coming through.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

And and even alluding back to that younger nurse coming in, because I just had a younger nurse book one of my places by herself and she paid for a whole three-bed, two-bath, but she probably ain't got no mortgage back home. She's young, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:47

That might be the case, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Yep, yeah, yeah, it's early mid-20s.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Now, and she probably didn't have a lot of options. Like, hey, if your place is available, like there's really, you know, I'll take it, even though it might be a three-two might be more than a two-two, right? Or a one-bedroom, but you know, the uh inventory is we've got a ton of properties on there, but they are flying off the shelves easily, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah, I because one thing I've always I've dabbled, you know, we try to put our places as many spots as we can online, you know. And one thing I've dabbled in is Facebook Marketplace, but I'll tell you that you know, I get nervous with the people that reach out to me for Facebook marketplace, and uh not a lot of a lot of them aren't travel nurses, so I love I love how your site it is travel nurses, and I've I've I mean knock on wood, I've had great experiences with with the travel nurses.

The $150-200 professional photography investment that increases rent

SPEAKER_01 42:40

They they they pay rent on time, yeah, they're great, they just go there for you know to sleep. They want a good, you know, good place to sleep, good comfortable bed. And that brings me to another thing. What are some some big tips you have for for making a great uh travel nurse-friendly place?

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Oh, perfect. Um, I just went over to Jane's house. Jane is uh uh a woman who we know and she's wonderful, and she um she just decked out her basement, completely decked out her basement just for this purpose. And she did such a good job. I went over there just as a friend and a favor, and I was so impressed with what she did. But um, she made it a space where you know travel travelers can can feel very they could feel at home, they have the space that they need, they have everything that they need. Um and the price point is in range. I mean, she's not offering any huge discounts, um, but it's also not the most expensive property on there. Um so you know, basically some of the things that she did, just the kind of the the little touches are like you mentioned, Steve, blackout curtains, um, her furniture. I mean, she repurposed a lot of furniture. Like she went to Let's let's say goodwill, and found three bar stools and they were fine. She painted them white. They look crisp, new, and clean. They look beautiful. Um, she had a little table behind the couch uh as well, so you can kind of eat while you watch TV and things like that. Um, you know, travel nurses, they want uh smart TVs, they want it at least one smart TV. Um, they need internet, they don't necessarily need cable, but they do need fast internet. So if you're going to, you know, get splurge, you need to get the fastest package you have. It's just it's expected. It's it's the the kind of bottom line of expectation for travel nurses. Um, let's see what else. Uh if you have space, and maybe you're in that spot where you're like, I'm not sure. We don't have the space for a washer and dryer. Well, can you create one? Because if you can create that space for the washer and dryer, it will be uh a game changer. It could be, you know, it could uh do a few things for you. It's going to, you know, you could probably get another hundred bucks or so a month. Um, and you're gonna your place is just gonna be more desirable than as opposed to saying, well, you can you just have to walk down the streets two blocks, it's very easy. It's still not that convenient, even if it's right next door. So um, yeah, washer and dryer is really, really important. Um, you know, everything else kind of dishwasher, you don't have to spend a ton of money. I know you have a designer in in uh on your podcast, and you can spend as much money as you want, but you don't necessarily have to. And as a furniture finder host, or uh think of it like an like an Airbnb, right? Airbnb, Airbnb sometimes they'll say, Hey, I'll leave a bottle of wine, or I'll leave this and I'll I'll do that. You don't necessarily have to do those extras. The little fine things are nice, like they paper towels, some some uh toilet paper, enough stuff to get them started. That's kind of their love language. You don't have to leave them a basket of fruit and a bottle of wine. Now, granted, they'll eat and drink it. It's totally fine to do that. Could set you apart, you could work the reviews, it's fine. Um, but these are traveling professionals, they don't expect it, they don't need it. They would rather save the money. Like, hey, just keep the bottle, you know, save the bottle of wine and just keep the cost low. Um, what else?

SPEAKER_01 46:31

What other and don't put them on the bottom floor, never do that because of any condo complex, you don't want anybody above them to. I tell them that every time I say, Hey, yeah, this is the condo, you know, I describe it to them, and it's on the top floor. No one's gonna be on top of you above you.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Yeah, if you have that, it's a selling point. I mean, you know your your area, you know your property better than anybody. Um, just if you're away from your family, what would you want? You'd want a stocked kitchen, you know. If you don't have a full kitchen, well, do everything you can. You know, get a um uh, you know, those what are those toaster ovens, you know, get a hot plate, get, you know, uh get a nice microwave, you know, do whatever you can to make that space um really, really nice and you'll stand out. Um, while you're marketing your place, do me one favor, get professional pictures. Or if you don't want to take the professional pictures, at least make sure they're light and bright, you know, sending pictures that are really dark and blurry, and then going, hey, I'm not getting any travelers because your place looks gross. You know, you got to showcase your place, you know, clean your car before you, you know, go out on a date. It's the same thing. You, you know, you know, you have to get uh quality pictures. In my experience, that is the best thing you could invest in. And for a one-bedroom, let's just say for a two-bedroom condo, you can probably get it for 175 bucks, 150 bucks, maybe 200 bucks. Professional photograph, uh, photographers, they come out and you've got 24 images that are crisp and bright. And we did this for a place in Dallas that we had, and I did it before and after. And the pictures that you know that we took, they were okay for the cell phone, but the pictures that that guy took um were just fantastic, and we honestly we were able to increase our rent because of it, um, because it looked that good. So it might be the best 150 bucks you ever spent.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Got the wide angle lenses, man. It's very important.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Yeah, the lighting, I don't know what they do, but they do it well, worth every penny.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Agreed. And one thing, like, you know, it's funny because you mentioned, like, you know, they like they like that homey feel, you know. And and I was what what I've been noticing, I don't know about you, Micah, but like, for example, we have some rental arbitrages that you know, so we're in for somebody that that they already came furnished, you know, and it was because they were living in the place, and then they, you know, they said oh they moved somewhere else or this and that, but they kept it as a rental, but it had kind of you know, they left the well. I'm just gonna rent it out, put it on Zillow furnished, which that doesn't help at all when you put it on Zillow furnished. No, furnish finder it helps, but Zillow, yeah, people are you know, they don't care, they want to put their own stuff in there, but anyways, you know, we it and it looked pretty nice, but it looked like a a lived in, like a house, like a like a lived in house. You know, they got a comfortable, you know, kind of leather sofas and comfortable bed with actual you know headboard and everything. It didn't, it's it's not like if you if you look at a bunch of Airbnbs, it's all wayfared out to the gills now, right? It's all wayfaired puked on all an Airbnb, and that's just yeah, it that was the trend. We all went that way, and we're like, you know, you can get a uh a futon for 150 bucks, great, throw it in, throw it in my Airbnb. But I've noticed the ones that already came furnished like like a look like uh someone you know a lived in place, those are doing better than my my wayfair places, you know. Interesting, and and so I'm thinking I'm thinking that would maybe for travel nurses too, they find it they they get that homey feel to it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yeah, I I think it's a it's a fine balance, like if there's egg plates and figurines everywhere, and you know, it's just so cluttered and looks like your grandma's house, it may not be perfect for you. But yeah, I think uh everything if you can if you can find that that balance, um then, then yeah. But if your place is or if your stuff is dated and old and you're just trying to turn it around, you'd it you know what, get creative. You know, you a um a slip cover for a couch, a white slip cover for a couch, you'll be amazed at how much it brightens up a room. So, you know, think about stuff like that where you don't necessarily have to go out and spend five thousand dollars on new stuff, but you know, if you could freshen it up, I think uh it'll do you well. What are your thoughts on that, Micah?

SPEAKER_01 51:12

I'm curious.

SPEAKER_04 51:13

Uh well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

I haven't noticed that I don't have the old grandma's furniture sitting around, but I mean I didn't say grandma's version, I just said you know, nice, you know, lived in place, not grandma's version. Repurposed, Micah.

SPEAKER_04 51:27

This might not be good for advertising. No, but um, yeah, I um I I do notice that Wayfarer's definitely taking over, but I I try to use a little bit of design online. Um, but honestly, if you have good pictures, it's really about the pictures, like you said. Uh brighten them up. Like I had a photographer, he did an all right job, but mahogany, my wife, she went in and just brightened them up immediately, just immediately overnight. More people inquiring and requesting to stay.

SPEAKER_01 51:58

You you notice Brian. Well, you yeah, you've had it all your life, but your name, your Brian and Payne with the Y and the I, it just messes with my brain. How many times have people messed that up in your life?

SPEAKER_02 52:09

Yeah, well, you just said it brain. A lot a lot of times I get brain brain pain.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Brain pain, yeah, because I want to spell Brian with a Y and Payne with an I, you know, it just it screws with me, anyways. Oh man, it's been a great well.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

At least my first name isn't major, right? Major pain, brain the pain, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

Yeah, uh, one more important question, Brian. Um, do you think I'd look good in a V-neck? You think that yeah, I think you can pull it off, dude. Okay, cool. Absolutely, no hair, none.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

Oh, I mean, hey, that's that's good. You must shave. Yes, that's hard to do.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

No, no, I'm a Mexican hairless. Um man, this

Behind-the-scenes improvements and activity-based ranking

SPEAKER_01 52:51

is fun. This is a great episode, man. We got the the guy, the furniture finder guy is on our show. This is this is man. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Yeah, I'm I'm stoked to meet with you guys, and and um, you know, uh I listened to your shows before um somebody forwarded to to me and said, Oh, look at these guys, they're just they're making it happen. So good on you for what you guys are doing. I'm I'm happy to support you any way I can.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Thank you. Yeah, we we we love Furnish Finder, you know, with any website, it's anybody anybody's been doing short-term rentals or whatever, and and and then and dipping their toes into the longer term, you know, market. Nothing's perfect. Your website's really good, really good. But like I said, nothing's perfect, and and it's getting better every day.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

Yeah, good. I'm I'm glad you said that. Um, we know it's it's not perfect, and it's uh it's one of those things, it's a labor law that we're uh totally committed to. And you're you know, so much of it is is behind the scenes um that that we're we're doing. Um, but we're also launching kind of new things with all of the kind of the new volume that we have, which is a good thing. Um, we have we've got to kind of reconfigure the map. And that's taken up a lot of our time because you know, you're trying to make everybody happy, right? So um you'll see some things come out to where the freshest properties get the highest ranking um based on your activity. And and um, you know, we've got a lot of cool things for travelers as well set up. Um so we'll keep at it. And I think you guys will see kind of our commitment level. Um, but bottom line is it works, and it is it's one of those kind of hidden gems that if you're a landlord and you want a bunch of tenant leads, you know, and you're renting a place, you're looking for furnished or you know, looking for tenants like travel nurses and other business professionals, there's just nothing out there like it. And um yeah, we're happy to be kind of in the position we are with this uh with this company and in this industry.

SPEAKER_01 55:07

Yeah, and I noticed uh when you said about the activity thing, we we get um email alerts now. Hey man, update your calendar, Mofo. You know, we get those, and that that's cool because I like you said, we we we're it's our job to okay, we talk to these people, these these travel nurses or professionals, and then we we sign a uh you know a lease with them, and okay, everything's golden, and we forget to update our calendars, you know. It's just that's the only thing. That's the it just we just forget.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

Yeah, no, and I get it. And and this is uh that's gonna help with that, you know, because if you're if you're using the app, if you're going into the dashboard, if you're replying to um tenant leads, if you're if you're active in the system, you're gonna get a higher ranking, as opposed to just you know, that one thing, hey, tell us tell us what your availability is. Um, it benefits you as the landlord and it benefits the traveler a ton because they don't like dead ends, you know, on the front end when they're reaching out to you know, to landlords. Oh, this is already rented. Oh, it's already rented, you know, they're getting a lot of that. And and so we're just, you know, we we realize kind of our uh opportunities for improvement and we're we're tackling it straight on.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

You'll see it. I guess one more thing is it is 99 bucks per property,

Fraud prevention through credit report authentication questions

SPEAKER_01 56:30

right? And oh, you were gonna get to how because about the about the the fraud, you know, uh oh right people, yeah. And and I I kind of not know where you were going with that because when you make a sign and put our property on there, you want to see like an electric bill or something that ties us to the property.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

Yeah, how long have you been uh uh oh years. Oh years, okay. So within that time, we've um we've kind of uh developed a system to where every landlord that lists they have to be they've got to go through a sophisticated vetting system. So they you have to answer questions out of your credit report. So, you know, what car did you drive in 2020? You know, who do you have a mortgage to of these? Um when did you get a loan here? You know, and they'll answer questions. Have you ever lived at this property? And they'll list five different listings with five different properties. Um, these are ways that we can we can um find out and make sure that you are who you say you are. You know, there's no if anybody can create a listing even on Airbnb, there there's fraud everywhere. And there are there are full places that just look for vulnerabilities. Um, so we invested so much time and money and effort into into locking down our system. So essentially, if you can't answer these questions that anybody should be able to answer about your own credit re credit history, we'll refund you your money and you can't list on our platform. That's how that's how important traveler safety is on our platform.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

That's great. Because I mean, has it always been like like that?

SPEAKER_02 58:16

Or I mean we've always had we've always had certain things, and you mentioned, oh, we'll send in a uh a phone bill or send in a utility bill and a driver's license. That's just not good enough anymore, right? Right. Everything can be forged. There are they'll spin up um they'll spin up uh a license and a and a fake utility bill around a fake ID, so it's just not good enough. And if you if you get can get the data on a public website, so can they.

SPEAKER_01 58:49

Yeah, I I guess I guess that makes me feel a little better because I used to chip out and be like, okay, shop owners reach out to me. I talk to them. They oh, I like your place. Yeah, I want to rent it starting on the first. Okay, great. This is how much you know, deposit and rent, and then they'll vin move me the money. Okay, yeah, okay, I can't wait to move in. I'm like, wow, that they just sent me a whole bunch of money, they don't even know me, you know. But I'm glad you said that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 59:12

But for them we we got a Facebook group, and I know that you guys um you mentioned something about Facebook Messenger. Well, Facebook are Facebook groups, um, are good for information, but bad for transactions and commerce because it's the same thing, you know. Uh Facebook marketplace is riddled with it, and uh Facebook groups are just they're not private, they're not secure. Um so yeah, travelers really do have to be careful, as you mentioned. So the one thing that we can say is hey, when there's a listing on Furnish Finder, they've been vetted, they've uh been authenticated. We know that that they are who they say they are.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

Nice, man. Nice. It's been a great episode. I'm glad you hopped on with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

Yeah, yeah. I really appreciate it, guys. Yeah, stay in touch.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Um oh, I did have one more question. Bring it. A lot of us, a lot of us guys uh or N gals that are doing the the hosting and short, you know, short term rentals. We have a bunch of properties. Uh, I mean, I got you know 26 properties right now on you know, short-term rentals, you know, arbitrages and um and ones we host. Yet the the the price is still 99 each one. You have any kind of like thing in the works where like some like you know, people like us can put you know, add additional ones for cheaper?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:39

Um, you know, there's not a lot of margin on that 99. 99 thing. I mean, if you think about it, you're you guys list on Airbnb as well. So, you know, if you think about the fees that are paid out, you know, the $99 pays for itself with its very, very first tenant. Um, if they stay one month, the the system has already paid for itself. So since there's just not a lot of margin on that, and again, it's not an accident that that cost is so low, you know, and that's also one of the reasons I think why we have a lot of the properties that we do, over 70,000 on the map. Um, so I mean, we can always talk offline and you know, talk about a bro deal, but um we we work with companies that you know that are listing thousands at the same price. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:40

You can hook up air uh Live Let Thrive, Brian. It's cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:44

Bro deal. Come on, just talk.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

Cool, man. Any more questions, Micah?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:50

Man, that was it, man. That was a lot of a lot of good information. Uh, I loved it. I'm definitely I'm definitely on Furnish Finder all the time. I have a whole VA going through there and grabbing all the leads out of there. So definitely been very helpful. And uh thank you for creating the platform and the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

Yeah, it's our pleasure, guys. Um, as uh you guys are using it, uh feel free to reach out to me. I love hearing from customers. Tell me what we can do better, tell me where what you'd like to see. We'll build it, we're committed to you guys. So um, yep, thanks for having me on as well. Yeah, thanks for hopping on.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

All right, furniture.com, furnishfinder.com. Furnishfinder.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:30

Thanks a ton. Thank you, Brian.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

All right, pleasure. See y'all, see ya.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:35

Man, that was Brian Payne from Furnish Finder. That was a really good convo, man. Really good convo. Learned a lot, definitely had a lot of questions. I kind of wanted to go a little bit more in depth on that uh on like the data, but yeah, he he touched on a little bit. Like, I really wanted to know like, are they like, is there more people going for the single rooms or the houses? But yeah, it was a great, it was a great show, a lot of a lot of information there.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:59

I know that um a lot of our listeners and be like, damn it, why didn't y'all ask them this? Why didn't you ask them that? Because I know that every almost everybody that I know is on is on a furniture finder, it's kind of obligatory, you gotta be on there, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:09

Yeah, yeah. No, I should we should have we should on guests like this. We'll in the future we'll start, you know, polling it out. Like, hey, what questions you want us to ask? You know, so definitely we'll do a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

We'll do a round two, we'll do a round two, we'll pull it out as far as right now, live thy thrive at gmail.com. You can hit us up at our personal emails, that's fine too. I get questions from there sometimes. And um, yeah, they thanks for listening to our show. We just that that's like the leaders of the industry hop on our show. We're doing in our freaking you know, little pod rooms. Isn't that uh it just chips me out every time? It's like these these these movers and shakers in the in the short-term and long-term rental industry are are wanting to come on live that drive, and that's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:52

We have over 200 hours of content. What do you mean? Of course, they want to come on here.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Of course, I know it's I know the why, but I just it still chips me out. I'm like, wow, you know, this is just some started in Hearst, Texas, man. Yeah, and and what it and the seed started in uh over in Arlington at the at the meetup, and and then um at the it was uh stocks, yeah. It was my little stock investing club, and you hopped in that so no, it was it's cool. We love doing the show, man. Like I said, we sure yeah, movers and shakers hop on here all the time. So if you want to hop on here, you gotta bring it, you gotta bring it, and and thank you all for listening and supporting and all the great reviews. We get a lot of cool reviews on on leave us a review on on um on um pod uh Apple Apple iTunes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:41

Apple Podcasts, leave us a review, you know what I'm saying? I I know sometimes we get a little unprofessional here, but we try to keep it a hundred, keep it a buck as much as we can, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:48

That's what they love about us. We keep it real, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:51

Yeah, yeah, we'll tell you some shit shit, you know. But uh, but uh yeah, man. Thank y'all for continuing to listen. It's been fun doing this, man. It's been dang, that's four years since 2017. We've been running this, man. It's been awesome, and then we've been growing with it. So it's it's really fun, you know. Uh I got some big news to announce on the next meeting you episode. We will we'll definitely be tuning in, tapping into another episode soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:16

Oh, cool. Yeah, I can't wait to hear it. Yeah, this serve.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:20

So, yeah, thank y'all for listening. We are out. Peace. Later.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

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.