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_03 0:11

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let Thrive. Yes, it's just your boy Micah

Netflix casting through AirDNA and filming at the studio

SPEAKER_03 0:21

again. And today we have a very special guest. We have a Netflix superstar, a our first famous guest, I would say. We have Rachel. Rachel, how are you today?

SPEAKER_02 0:34

I am doing great, Micah. Just thrilled to be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Wow. I'm so first off, let's let's let's jump right into the Netflix thing. Are you allowed to talk about it?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Not too much, but I can give some high level.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Okay, what's the high level?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Well, high level is we actually were um we got an email from AirDNA and Mystic Arts, the casting crew, uh just kind of pitching what this new uh TV show that they wanted to launch. So initially it had one name, they're in the process of changing it to a whole other name, but it had to do with short-term rentals, real estate, home sales, and so on and so forth. And I thought, oh yeah, that's my jam. So definitely I was ready. And um, we went for it. We said, sure, we'll sign up. And we went through the casting process, and then uh they filmed at our house, and then uh just uh two days ago, uh well, actually Sunday, they flew us out to the Netflix studio location and filmed there as well, and then now we're back home. So it should be coming out sometime in 2022. And watch party, Micah.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

That should be awesome. Oh, we're gonna definitely do that. That is what's up. We get I can't wait till that comes out. So uh we have a future superstar here uh on on the podcast. So can you kind of dive into your short-term rental journey? How did y'all get how did you get started and where where do you operate?

From student loans to luxury STRs - the Alabama house with the caved-in roof

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Yeah, certainly. So um I'm a pharmacist by day, short-term rental investor by night. So started in 2019. Um, so after we got rid of a lot of student loan debt, we decided, you know, what is it that we want to start doing to start creating that generational wealth, to start creating some savings, which, you know, we're a focus. Ladies are focused on student loans. So really we didn't have a ton of savings. And uh so as we started to look around, we knew real estate was it for us, right? So um just we looked at wholesaling, we looked at, you know, long-term rentals, we looked at everything, commercial. We were looking at, you know, uh 20 units for $300,000 in the rural areas. I mean, we looked at everything, and so I had to do an evaluation of myself. You had to kind of do a self-inventory and know uh kind of what you're made of and what your skill sets are, and so spent a ton a lot of years, a lot of uh money getting my education, and so we we went and saw this house, and this was the pivot shift for us. So we went and saw a house, and of course, everyone's watching HG TV, so we're thrilled. So we we drove all the way down to Alabama, a couple hours away. So we're in the south of Atlantis, so we're in the Georgia market. Drove a couple hours away to look at this house that was a small little two or three home. It looks stunning on the photos. And I'm sorry, I got a call. It looks stunning on the photos, and so we get there and we're communicating with the homeowner along the way, and we get there, and I start to recognize the area. I'm like, okay, I was born in Haiti, okay, poorest country in the Western hemisphere, was raised in Miami under a represented area, okay. And so I started to recognize some things as I'm driving to Alabama. I'm like, okay, this looks familiar, and not exactly in the in the good way, you know? And so I get to this house, and I kid you not, the roof was caved in. The the sides had visible caulking. They were like there was caulking holding it together for dear life. And my husband's pulling in and he's approaching the door to knock on the door. I was like, please don't knock on the door. Please do not knock on the door. And that was the light bulb went off for me. I was like, okay, I'm not that girl who is as talented as I thought I was, who's the fixed and flipper, who's going to take something and change it from here to here. I just don't have the bandwidth, uh, the skill set, the team surrounding me to make something like that happen. So instead of the we buy ugly houses, which I was all for it, I'm gonna be the we buy pretty houses girl who I primarily purchase off of the MLS or close to that. Um, you know, and I'll I'll make a deal with a four-sell buy owner. But as far as a huge gut situation or a huge rental situation, I'm I'm really not that girl. So we operate in Georgia, we operate in the Poconos of Pennsylvania, we operate in Florida, as well as um

Operating in Georgia, Poconos, Smokies and Florida - five owned, eighteen managed

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Georgia, Florida as the Smokies of Tennessee.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Wow, you you touched the markets that I love, the Smokies, and you touched another market that I'm in and I love, which is the Pokonos. Yes, and I think that's how we connected on Clubhouse because I said something about the Pokonos and you said you were there. I'm like, oh, it ain't too many people in the Poconos, but it's a great market.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Isn't it? And you get a great ROI, man, in the Poconos. I mean, I have a lot of people from California, healthcare professionals that hit me up about the Poconos, and we find them some wonderful deals there.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Okay. Now my question is, do you do do you you buy and you do management?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah, so I pivoted into some management this year, just because the market to buy, I was finding it to be a little steep right now. So I was always that buy and hold girl. I plan to buy everything and I have attachment issues, so I'm gonna buy and I'm gonna hold on. But then when I went to look, I'm like, wow, this is way higher than I'm ready to commit for. And so the opportunities presented itself for me to manage. And so I've been managing as well. And I've actually dabbled in arbitrage also, just because you know, I'm always looking for a deal. And if I can't buy, I'll go ahead and arbitrage. And it's been it's been really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Oh, I love how you said that. You said if you can't buy it, you'll arbitrage it. That is something people don't look to. They look at it with one strategy. I love how you took the blinders off. Now, you said something earlier that I was very interested in. You said you run deals with for sale by owner. What kind of deals are you running?

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Well, you know, it's all a matter of uh listening, uh, leveraging your um charisma, I think, you know. So if I see something that's for sale by owner, I try to get to know that homeowner that's trying to get rid of the property. Uh, once you listen and you kind of understand what it is that they're looking for, what are their pain points, right? Then you can kind of strategically place yourself uh at the top of their list. So by the time I get to this owner, homeowner, you know, they've seen it all, they've done it all, everyone's approached them with all of the strategies. But if your strategy is to avoid capital gains taxes right now, you know, so can we do an owner finance? Or if your strategy is, you know, for instance, to do a renovation, you know, so how much money is it that you need? Um, let me go ahead and cover that renovation and do, you know, structure something, a lease to own, or you know, just I just listen and I figure out how to uh create a win-win situation because in this market or in in previous markets, you got to create your own deal. There's a deal to be had. You just have to take the time, you listen, and then you create your own deal.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Ooh, I love that. Listen and create the deal. That that's that's getting very creative. I love it. Now, as the markets that you're in, which one seems to be your best market?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Oh, that's a hard question. They've been all wonderful. So, for instance, the Georgia market, and I think the reason, Micah, that I don't have a ton of competition. So it's kind of like the Red Ocean, you know, the book by Russell. Um, I keep mixing hips like Brunson, not Branson, uh, and Blue Ocean, you know. So I think I'm unique in that uh the vast majority of our portfolio are luxury homes that are five to eight bedrooms. Yeah. So I'm not gonna buy a house every month. It takes me a year or twice, you know, every six months for an acquisition because I'm in that luxury home space. And so because of that, um, we do extremely well. We've cornered the market. Our guests, you know, they have to plan way ahead of time. There's a lot of coordination that comes with a bigger home, right? So cousins and sisters and bro, multiple families. Um, our ideal client avatar is multiple family, you know, grandma, grandpa, pets, you know, we're pet friendly. Some of our units were actually um uh mobility friendly as well. So those who have some disabilities, we accommodate those because those people often struggle with vacation. So we have a couple where we've built out ramps to make sure we can accommodate the whole family. And so that is our ideal customer avatar. And so we are there's not a lot of competition with us, Micah. So we really, really do well.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

I love that you went to a bigger route. You're catering to a specific. I love how you did, and that's one thing that most people, you're probably one of the we have over 170

$225k in July on ten properties - the five-bedroom strategy

SPEAKER_03 10:38

episodes. You're probably one of the word first people that said that you cater to the mobility. That is huge. And I do it a little bit in some of my places, and it definitely makes a difference. Now, I have a question about the Pocono market. Now, since you're doing these bigger homes, do you have bigger homes in the Poconos?

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Yes, we do. We have bigger homes in the Poconos as well. And so in our portfolio, as we add on uh properties for property management purposes, in our portfolio in the Poconos, we um we're looking for only five bedrooms or more because it's the same amount of work for a three-bedroom as a five-bedroom, but the revenue potential is it really is is is fantastic. So for July, we'll hit in on 10 properties, we'll hit 225k on 10 in the month of July.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

What? Wow, I'm loving this. Okay, so in the Poconos, because I I I only have two bedrooms in the Poconos. There's two bedrooms. Now you're doing how many, how many two bed, how many, how many do you have in the Poconos?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Right now, we have 18. Um, yeah, we have 18. We we had some bottlenecks, you know, with the regulations, so we had to shave off a few. So there are 18 in the Poconos.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Wow. Now, how how do you handle the down season? Is there do you don't you get a heavy down season after the snow after ski season?

SPEAKER_02 12:08

It's it's not too heavy. Uh remember, we're a drive-to-market. So we heavily market our properties, right? So our New Yorkers, our Connecticutans, is that's the word New York, Connecticut, New Jersey. So those folks, you know, they'll drive to um the the properties, and we we do a lot of marketing. So I will tell you that 40% of our uh bookings are direct bookings, which is huge. And 20% is from Airbnb, 25% is from verbo, and 15% is from booking. So our direct like combined, it is the OTAs, but individually we

40% direct bookings through Streamline PMS and a custom SEO website

SPEAKER_02 12:52

beat the OTAs individually.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Oh, now I have a question. What's your marketing strategy to get that? Because I'm I'm I'm really interested on the direct booking side.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Yeah, so the marketing strategy, we we have a direct booking uh website, and I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't cheap to get it. And we paid at for an SEO engineer to work on that site for us a weekly and a monthly rate for a time. And so what they did was they created blogs, they created deals, they created a whole funnel situation so that our um one of our VAs, he's just looking every day if there are orphan days or anything like that. He knows that this funnel needs to go into effect for these days. They'll receive something like um our previous guests will receive something like, hey, why don't you drive up real quick over the weekend? And it'll only be you know stratified to those in the drive-to markets. So New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, why don't you drive up over the weekend? And no joke, with Lulu, the dog, we'll name Lulu because we take the pet names also, and I'm giving you all the secrets with Lulu. Lulu had a great time last time. Come on up, right? And so that that's kind of what what did it, and so we we get a lot of direct bookings because we have a an aggressive email campaign.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Oh, so you have 40%. See, and I've I've been so you didn't use any of like the uh hostfullies or the uh your porters to create a direct booking website. You paid someone to do it. Where'd you get this person to do that?

SPEAKER_02 14:33

So the PMS that we use is called Streamline.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Streamline, I've never heard of them. Yeah, and that they create a direct booking website for you?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

They have a team in there, they have a DevOps team, and so they have a team, I think it's called Bizcore, is the uh website development team.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Wow, this is awesome stuff. How many now and how many do you own? Because I you said you buy them not very often. How many do you own?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Five.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Wow, you own five, and they're all bigger properties.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yes, five six bedrooms for the ones we own.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

See, what's like the gross on those a month? Because I've you're like the fourth person who's came on this podcast and they're getting these bigger homes and they're just crushing it. And I'm like, it's no point of doing these one-bed, two-bed apartments when you can go get a one, five, six-bedroom and you're making $10,000, $12,000 a month off of it.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah, so the gross is $15, well, $12 to $28k per month. We just had 28k at one property per month. And honestly, Mike, that was uh a mind opener to me. It was like, so you mean to tell me with four properties, you can make six figures? Like that right there, just I had to sit down for a minute. I stayed up, I was like, wow, you know what I mean? Yeah, okay, five properties, but wow, that that's a game changer, right? And so the level, the lift of that that, you know, the level of effort to manage, you know, five properties, it's gonna be much less than a hundred properties. Whereas I I know people who make six figures managing 30, 40, 50 properties. And so, I mean, there's record-breaking numbers, so might maybe less than that. But yeah, and it's just very, very different. It's it's really interesting. So I'm a big proponent of my whole philosophy is how do I own the least amount of properties that generate the highest profitability? Because I work, I still work my W-2. I love what I do. I'm a pharmacist. I I you know, I help people, I I love that aspect of things. So I don't necessarily want to have, you know, a hundred doors. When I hear people with 100 doors, I still have door in view, like, whoa, that'll be awesome. But then I thought about that you need you you have to manage. And so, yeah, how do I own the amount of properties that generate the highest profitability? And that's why I'm so specific and so intentional and so strategic as I look at each property because I I I know that each one really counts, really, really counts.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

So I love that you're very strategic with it, and especially you you work in a full-time job and you're pulling

Four VAs, ten W-2 cleaners and building a resort team one leg at a time

SPEAKER_03 17:32

this off. How do you do it? What systems are you using to make sure everything's automated? Who's on your team? What does that look like? How do you do it with a W-2 job?

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yeah, so it's different per market, right? So in the Poconos market, I feel like since that's where we have the uh vast majority of the properties are managed. It's super dialed in in the Poconos market. So the team is robust, I'm not gonna lie. And it took a while to build the team, and I have a partner on that. And so the team in the Poconos is four uh virtual assistants who are um we have a manager, uh, we have a concierge, we have one that's responsible for the website and the SEO just to continue the process that we um, you know, started, and then we have guest communication in the Poconos. Uh in the Poconos, we also have 10 cleaners. Uh, we have 10 W-2 cleaners. Uh, also we have a couple of handy men on the team and uh a manager, and we also have you know projects and things like that that we use. So we're we're branching out because the goal is going to be to eventually uh create a resort. My partner and I were looking at building a resort. So um we're kind of expanding uh leg by leg. We were adding uh contract contractors on board, concrete, HVAC, all of that until we get the whole team built out. Um we're eating that elephant one bite at a time, and then you know, to get a resort built out. And so the Poconos, I would say, is is fully dialed in. So um the guest communications are taken care of for all of the business by our VAs. So they log in, they they're great, and they get rave reviews. Our our homeowners, they they love, you know, they love our virtual assistants, but it it just it didn't start out that way, right? A lot of hit or miss, a lot of you know, trial and error. But once you get good people on your team, they help to onboard additional good people, they may refer additional good people, and so that's kind of how we built out the team.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Wow. Now, you since you're in so many different markets, and that was just a great thing you just outlined. What would your suggestion be to someone who's going to branch out to different markets but they don't particularly live?

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Well, if they're gonna branch out from uh an experience perspective, like they've already, you know, manage and they have homes, and um, I think it's very feasible. But if they're starting off, and I just got this question for someone who's starting off and they're gonna be picking up some properties out of state, I really I highly recommend against that because if you don't know how to run it yourself, you know, I I was the CEO and the cleaning lady simultaneously when I started, right? Simultaneously. And so you you have to kind of be the cleaning lady. I and that's just my my opinion. You gotta know, you know, what it's like to clean your property. You you have to know the nit and gritty and how to run the whole business from communication end to end, the whole life cycle of you know, guests from the inquiry down to the checkout and post-checkout and what that looks like. So um definitely will not recommend it if this is your first one. But if you're going to branch out, just know your market. If you're looking to select a property to purchase, uh just find the right resources to build that team. So if you're purchasing, I think that the two critical folks on the team are gonna be your realtor and your um lender uh if you're purchasing. However, if you're going to be um arbitraging or if you're going to be co-hosting, really understanding that property. Co-hosting is a whole different beast. Um, uh, you gotta understand not only the property, but you need

The 104-degree HVAC disaster in Tempe and staying in your brand

SPEAKER_02 21:40

to understand the homeowner. And uh I honestly I need to like the homeowner. If I don't like the homeowner, I'm not working with them. You know, because when push comes to shove uh and you need something done, and I've been burnt before, and this is from first hand experience. I had a guest who this This was in the Tempe, Arizona property. Oh my goodness, my God. I had a guest who was staying in a home where the HVAC had gone down in Arizona and it was 104 degrees. And the homeowner was just non-emphetic. He did not understand. He just, it was a disaster. And so I should have known, just based on initial conversations, of how you know, and frugal, I'm all about frugality, but he was just cheap, just like he didn't want to fix anything. So when you have a guest complaining of, you know, life-threatening, you know, heat stroke, and he's not even, you know, trying to help or trying to, you know, fix it, at that point I realized, wow, you know, I really, you know, need to trust my gut because my first interaction with the homeowner is like, you know what, I don't like this guy very much. And it was just, you know, just the way he was talking and kind of, you know, I and I just felt in my gut that he was not a nice guy. He was not a nice, you know, landlord. And so I said, you know what, I'm gonna try it. Let me go for it. And guess what? It wasn't my brand either. The property was not my brand. So I stepped, once I stepped out of my brand, I got burnt. So I'm just gonna go back in my lane and I stay in my lane going forward, you know, because I have a brand. I have, you know, my ideal guests. And and so, yeah, I would recommend stick to your brand. Like stick to your brand. If you have a brand, you stick to that brand, do not deviate from it, no matter how great the opportunity presents itself, because it's like lighting money on fire in some situations if you if you deviate from your brand. So know your guests inside and out, know that property inside and out, stick to your brand, build your team around it, and don't deviate. That's my that's my and I should have taken that advice.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

So, yeah. I really hope everyone listening knows how important that is because I I I deviated from my brand just now a few months ago, and yeah, it comes back on you. My brand is houses, and that's what I'm sticking to from now on. I'm like, I'm really against all this apartment complex stuff and red tape. I'm like, you're right. Stick to your brand. That is huge. That is huge. Yeah, okay. So you're you're doing the houses. Wow, and you're making you do 225 a month. Okay. So why do you still work? Besides, you love it. Do you have plans to be like, okay, I'm done at this point, or how are you gonna grow and expand? You just gonna keep working and doing it, or how are you gonna do it?

SPEAKER_02 24:53

No, I mean, I'm looking at some lifestyle shifts right now, and I hope boss isn't listening, but but we're looking to cut back because you know, we've worked really hard up until this point. So I intend to continue to work in some capacity in my profession. But yeah, my job, my W-2 is definitely gonna be my side hustle. So we're actually working on one acquisition, to be quite honest with you. My realtor told me I can't quit until I do this deal that we're in the middle of.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Once that happens, you know. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

So we oh, okay. See, see that, see, and that works perfect. If you're working a W-2 and you can use that W 2 to funnel the business, I see what you're doing now. I I like that. See, and that's one reason I do a lot of the birth strategy, so I have to do a lot of refinances. So I kind of have to sit in my job, so you know, to keep other things of income coming in.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

And that's the thing, we're we're leveraging the capital, right? So you gotta leverage the capital of the W-2 and that history, the work history. And once, you know, once you you're ready, you're ready.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

And so, yeah, it's it's yeah, and you you touched on something about when you're managing a client, when you you're doing the uh co-hosting and the management. Yeah. Now, from your how do you pick the right client? Because that's one thing a lot of people struggle with on that management side, and I think you nailed it, but how do you like from the good first beginning pick to say, okay, I'll manage this guy's property? What are some things you look at?

Vetting management clients - coffee, synergy and the airplane hangar property

SPEAKER_02 26:26

So the first thing and the first point of reference is definitely going to be the property, most likely, right? So I get referrals from so many sources, and it's word of mouth. I haven't spent anything on ads. It's been a realtor who knows our brand, who knows our properties, who tells their um buyer, hey, I understand your situation, and there's a gal. She's running this type of business that you probably should talk to her about. And so, like right now, we're looking at a property that has an airplane hanger in it. Um, and the yeah, they fly into the neighborhood, which is very interesting. It's gonna be our smallest property, three bedrooms, but the airplane hanger intrigues me because I am kind of approaching the world of experiences and I'm looking at how do I, yeah, engage in experiences. I don't know what I want to do with it yet, whether to place an airplane with no engine within the property with beds, something like just crazy interesting, right? So I said, you know what? This is interesting. It's not exactly the super big home that we are used to, but this airplane hanger has me intrigued. So, um, so already, okay, so that checked the box. I go through uh an entire home evaluation process to see if the numbers are there because not to be mean, but I need numbers that are gonna want to make me get out of bed, you know, in the morning and do something, you know. And so something to motivate me. And the numbers were there, and I knew that based on the way I would position the property, we would be able to hit some good numbers, nevertheless. And then the communication with the homeowner started. And so just the communication, we had coffee, there was some synergy, he gets me, I get him, met his wife, she's lovely, she's a talker, but she's great, she gets me, I get her, you know, and so that that was step one. Now on Saturday, we're gonna do some furniture shopping and we're gonna do that kind of thing. And so for me, if they're understanding what the budget is for certain things and certain designs, I'm all about it. But if I'm gonna get pushback, like for instance, if I say that it would take, you know, 8,000, 12,000, uh, 15,000, 20,000 to furnish this type of property, if I start to get a lot of pushback where this is absolutely not, you know, then I'm not gonna do it. I'm just not. Because if you're going to push back that hard and still want the revenue and the numbers that I can uh provide, then we're not it's not gonna work out. Because later on, when it comes time to fix something, when it comes time to replace something, we're gonna have problems, right? And so that's for me, that's that's a big deal. So when we have coffee, how did it feel? You know, is this person of a mindset that there's synergy? Um, and if I start to talk about budget and numbers in order to create, you know, a design or a property that's if if it's already furnished, I could definitely tweak some things, add some things. But if it's empty, we're starting from scratch. And there are unrealistic expectations of what you can put in the property. We can't use grandma's old sofa that's like smelly and ugly, right? If if if the expectations are unrealistic, just no. Just no, because that's trouble brewing, no matter how good the deal is. I'm telling you, you will get burnt. You're gonna get burnt.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

This is really good stuff. Now, I have a question. Like, you had the client who had the AC go out and he wouldn't go fix it and he was just kind of slow to it. Have you like put something in place like where you have like a home warranty in place so like the home warranty can go fix it if the owner can't, or any protections like that you would suggest?

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Well, you know what's been interesting. So even with the co-hosting model, we pretty much have the trust accounting.

Trust accounting holds all guest funds - homeowners get paid the 15th

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Um, and so what we have in place is we get all the money and the homeowner gets paid on the 15th of every month.

unknown 30:49

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

So we use a trust accounting format. I'm not gonna wait for you to make these fixes when I have a guest in the property. That is, you have you know 24 hours to send someone out, or else I'm sending someone out. And so I hold the money going forward.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Oh, and if you have to send someone out, that comes out of their pay, right? There, out of their money, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Or get a paycheck, yeah. So for this month, they may not get one for next month, they may not get a paycheck, depending.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

That is awesome. I love the way you do that protection at all costs.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

But we don't have a home warranty in place. I've heard a lot of um places that do in the Poconos. We have one specifically for um frozen pipes, but that's a good point that make, Micah. I'll look into that for you know, the other appliances or you know, the big mechanical stuff. So that's a good point that you're making. Always learning, always looking to improve.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

Thanks, Micah. Always got to be. We always gotta be. Now you you said you had one in Arizona. I don't know if you're still there, but you can also look in, you're not okay. I was gonna tell you, you can look into men B. M E N B and B, they're starting to really grow and take off. Um, pretty basically, they're if anything breaks in the house, they're a 24 by seven Airbnb type service that comes and fixes it.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

So wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:12

We just interviewed the CEO a couple weeks ago, Andrew Kaiser. So definitely something to look into. Fantastic. Oh my gosh. Brilliant idea. It was a brilliant idea when he did it. I was like, that's smart. So they're only right now. They're in they're actually in Nashville.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

They're actually in Nashville. They started in Nashville, and I think they're trying to expand to Texas, and I think they're in southern Cali, and I know they're in Arizona.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Oh, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

I love it. Yeah, I can't wait for them to expand. Now, you said something because you you said you were doing, you look at the property, you evaluate it. Now, with the numbers that you pull in, you have to be doing deep analysis. And I need to know, like, what's your all-in minimum? Hey, this property has to make this, and then how do you evaluate that? And how do you know that you can add that much value to that market and make that?

SPEAKER_02 33:10

That's a great question. So typically I do charge a higher rate because I know the value that I can provide to a homeowner, and I don't blink, and that's another thing. If they blink or bulk at my rate, that's gonna be a

Charging 30% and reverse-engineering competitor reviews

SPEAKER_02 33:26

no-no, a non-starter for me. Also, and I'm and I'm very confident, Micah, because I've seen the numbers and I know, you know, I've seen homeowners making two, three thousand, and then I pick up the property and I can 10x that based on how I set up the property. So, okay, my all-in number, I I charge 30%, is what I charge. And so I do a lot of um pricing. I'll do a mock-up of a price uh analysis using a pricing tool for dynamic uh pricing. And I'll do that, I'll look at, you know, the competition. What's so good about uh Airbnb, for instance, is the competition is open source, right? So say your property is in on this street, right? And it's a $300,000 property, or say it's a $200,000 property, right? And if you go three blocks over and these are million-dollar homes, right? And they have XYZ types of amenities, I ask the question, what can I leverage? What amenities can I leverage and introduce them to this property to up level the property without, you know, necessarily breaking the bank? And so I draft off of those neighboring homes that are higher value, they're getting a higher rate of return, and so on and so forth. So, what is it that they have? They have a pool. Oh, wow, great. We're not gonna do a pool per se, but they have a hot tub. Oh, can we add a hot tub to this property? You know, and so because if they have a hot tub and now we're in a world of workations, 50% of the remote workers aren't leaving. They want a hot tub, why not? Right? So, can we add a hot tub for what five, seven thousand, you know, and then drive up the pricing? So now you have an amenity that's a higher dollar amenity. Uh, what else can we add? Can we add uh child care related to let's add a baby tub, let's add a crib, let's add a let's add pet friendly, right? Pet friendly and and let's talk about context. If you want to put it Buffy, Peggy, and Hoppy, you know, at the um where do they put them? They board them, board them up. That's a couple thousand. So let's transfer that and then we're pet friendly. And so definitely I'm looking for pet friendly and let's get a little gate created, right? And so I'm really, really into making those improvements that on the front end, yeah, it's gonna cost you something. And okay, maybe we'll do it after we get a couple listings. And you're definitely gonna be uh generating that revenue. And so my sweet spot, and I'm a busy professional, and I help other busy professionals professionals start up. My bread and butter are those folks that are families, and we have been housing a lot of insurance claim uh folks who their home in the Georgia market, their home, you know, has been either destroyed or is are not is not livable. Uh they'll stay with us, and we're like B2B instead of B2C. We can work with the insurance folks and house them for a much more affordable rate than a hotel. And then, you know, they can have their pets, large family, and so on and so forth. So definitely looking at the gaps and the needs in the community and uh in the competition and then leveling up. I even I even drill down, and I'm giving my cigarette, I even drill down to the reviews of my competitors. What is it that what are they complaining about? What did they love? What did they hate? And so I I use that as part of my framework to respond and to give the people coming into that community what it is they're looking for.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

That is how you add value. See, and that I love how because you're standing out, and you automatically stand out. If I'm looking at everyone around me and I see what y'all can offer and I see what your guest is complaining about, that is that's beautiful. Now, your insurance clients, how do you guys go about getting those insurance clients in?

SPEAKER_02 38:00

So those insurance clients are primarily in our Georgia market, not in the Poconos markets at all. So let's say each market has its own personality. The Poconos, the Florida, Panhandle, these are vacationers, right? The Smokies, these are all vacationers. Suburbia, South of Atlanta are my suburban uh area. Uh so those clients they come in different ways, shapes,

Insurance-claim families on Corporate Housing by Owner

SPEAKER_02 38:26

and sizes, right? So uh we advertise not only on Airbnb, we advertise on a website called Corporate Housing by Owner. And they found us on Airbnb, Corporate Housing by Owner, Verbo on those sites for the most part. So they're looking. And so, and and again, Red Ocean, Blue Ocean. If they're looking for a two-bedroom place, they can go to a hotel, they can go to their typical uh corporate housing uh partners. But if they're looking for a family, there's a woman she said, Imagine cooking for a family of 10 in a hotel.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

Not happening.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

It was tough, and that's where she was in a hotel. So she was so happy to come into our home, five bedrooms, six bedrooms where she could make a meal for her family, have enough beds that everyone could sleep on.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

So you said something, C H B O. How has that been for you? And how do you stand out on corporate housing by owner? Do you have any tips for that?

SPEAKER_02 39:29

That's a great question. There's not a lot of competition for our um asset, the five bedrooms again. So if you're looking for a five-bedroom house in my area in the suburban area, I'm the only one that is going to show up, period. So when I go in and I'm looking for five, six bedrooms or sleeps ten on CHBO on Airbnb, and I filter to that amount, guess what? I'm the only property that is showing up. Like all five of mine. That's it. Now that Airbnb has loosened their search a bit so that they can incorporate other neighborhoods, like you know, that kind of annoys me. I'm like, hey, you know, but it again, it's it's I there's not a lot of competition.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

You know what I mean? So you you have the five-bedroom model, there's nobody even competing with you on that model, and you're adding all the extra value ads. Wow, I hope y'all are taking notes because this is this that that this is an earful. Because I'm I'm about to go make sure I'm doing better than my competition after this. And I love how you said you stuck to that brand of the five bedrooms and no one can compete with it. So congratulations to you and your company, and I hope y'all continue to keep killing it and thriving. Now, before we go, I have one important question I want you to answer. What advice would you give to someone who's looking to get started in the short-term rental space?

SPEAKER_02 41:01

My advice would be to start by starting. You know, it's 2021. We have analyzed, um, and a lot of people have listened on Clubhouse, they're listening to podcasts, they're start by starting, do something because there's there's a power in doing that first deal. You know, the first deal is not the deal where you're going to make all of the bank in the world. It is that learning curve. It's not going to be perfect, but start by starting. Partner yourself with others who have gone before you, who are, you know, crushing it, um, who are providing education. And I know, Mikey, you provide a ton of education on your podcast, hundreds of episodes. So if you're still listening to Mike and you haven't done anything, you're not helping yourself. Do something, start by starting, start something, whether it's a house hack in one of your rooms. You know, I know COVID, but whether it's a house hack in one of your rooms or or something, get started, start by starting, and then you know, continue to get educated, leverage um those who are around you who are crushing it so that you can continue to grow.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Wow. Thank you. I can't believe you haven't been on already.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Sheesh. I know, like, I've been waiting.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

Oh man, and to anybody out there waiting, if you have this type of value, please sign up. You can go to the link of my bio. Please sign up. I I sometimes I sometimes me and Steve really don't get around to asking people. Like if someone strikes up a conversation with like, hey, you want to be on? And that's what happened. I think we were in a group. You strike up like, oh, get on. Wow. Because you just really you you you've made me change some things. I'm decided this day forward, I'm doing houses only for real. I'm sticking to that. But wow, thank you so much for coming on. You just provided me a ton of value. I'm about to do a lot of deep dive research on what I need to do to improve. So thank you for coming on. And where can people find you?

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Um, if you go to www.shorttermgems.com, I've got a little webinar that I'm going to share with everyone, like a little masterclass really on how to get started in luxury short-term rentals. So www.shorttermgs.com, uh, you can find me there for sure.

SPEAKER_03 43:22

Okay, I'm about to hop on there too. See how I can get on the luxury side. Yes. Yes. Well, Rachel, thank you for coming on. And if is there anything we can be of value to you in, let us know, and we can see how we can work that in.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

That'd be awesome. Thank you so much, Micah. Thanks for having me. This was so much fun. Oh, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Yeah, we got we gotta have you back when you're doing a million dollars a month. We'll get you back. Oh, hey, I received that, sir. Yeah, you're gonna do it. I know you will. Keep on crushing it.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you, Micah. You have a good one, and I miss your partner in crime there, Steve.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Yeah, yeah, he'll be back next week. He's been on the move. So, yeah, thank you, and thank you for coming on. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

Bye now.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

Bye. All right, that was Rachel, and she is straight killing it in the short-term rental space. I am actually about to go change some things up, about to make sure I'm doing as much value add as possible. And the funny thing about the value add, me and Mahogany were actually in Arkansas this weekend, and I was literally saying, we need to make sure we're pushing out the most value we possibly can in the current rentals that we have. And we're been thinking about because we have these big, huge backyards in Arkansas, and I'm like, man, we could either put a pool back here, we could put like a hot tub, and that's definitely where the way to go. You know, I'll cater into the families, the larger families. That is the way to go. But I hope y'all learned some a lot from this podcast. Um, but sticking to your brand, that is huge. I am 100% on board with the houseplane only. Um, yeah, y'all continue. Thank y'all for continuing to listen to us. Hit us up, live let thrive at gmail.com. Follow us at Livelet Thrive on Instagram. You can also follow me on Instagram, Micah Artist, M Y K A R T I S. And thank y'all for listening. We are out.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Peace. 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.