Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hello, hello, hello.

SPEAKER_05 0:13

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

SPEAKER_03 0:21

What is up, Micah Man?

SPEAKER_05 0:22

I'm chilling, Steve Tex. How you doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:25

Literally chilling, man. It's like nine degrees outside.

SPEAKER_05 0:29

Yeah, Texas, too. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

The entire state of Texas is in like a blizzard.

SPEAKER_05 0:34

Hey, crazy.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

What what day is it? February 15th, 2021. So remember that day. Oh yeah. This is your this is episode 155 of your favorite Airbnb VRBO short-term, long-term rental podcast in the world. And we're happy to have a guest today. Miss Serena is joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Hey.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Hey Serena, how you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Doing great. How are y'all doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Oh, we're, you know, trying to keep warm while we

Seven large homes in the Atlanta metro area

SPEAKER_03 1:04

still have power here.

SPEAKER_05 1:05

Yeah, just disclosure. If we uh drop off, it's because we probably lost power.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11

But yeah, Serena, so like you, you uh so I met Serena off of Clubhouse. Clubhouse has been a major plug. So where do you operate uh out of and how many units are you operating?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So I'm in Atlanta, um, Atlanta, Georgia. Right now I have seven homes. So I just got I just signed two leases this month, which is crazy. That never usually happens, but seven right now. So seven homes. Um, I specialize in larger homes. I kind of stray away from apartments, so like larger homes, five, six bedrooms, usually 2,500 to 4,000 square feet is what I stick to. Large homes, yeah, large homes.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

Wow. Now, now, question are you dang because you're the second straight guest that says they're doing those large homes. Now, are you based like are your units in the city of Atlanta?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So only one is, and then I have just kind of several locations outside of the city. It's kind of tough sometimes getting in the city, in the city city. Um, they did have restrictions and they just lifted in Atlanta. So I was kind of like avoiding the city for a little while too. The city was kind of expensive. I'm like, wait a minute, eight grand, eight grand for rent. Okay, hold on. We let's back up. Basically, I kind of waited for a good deal in the city. Duluth, I have one in Duluth, Georgia, Alfredta, uh, Kennesaw, Powder Springs, Carrollton, did I say Kennesaw? But yes, so seven, seven total. So they're like 30 minutes, like some of them are um, oh yeah, so like some of them as far as 30 minutes outside of Atlanta, and then um one of them is the furthest one is like an hour outside of Atlanta. So that's that's the furthest one. But all of them are pretty much like within 30 minutes from Atlanta. But yeah, Atlanta just lifted a um a restriction, so they were going to ban uh Airbnb in the city city, and I had to like I talked to the uh lady in zoning, and apparently they're just gonna give a slap us with a regulation instead of actually you know um eliminating us being able to do it. So that's good.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

Oh, that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

That's why I got that one in Atlanta. I just got one in Atlanta is because of that reason. They just, you know, slapped us with some regulations now.

SPEAKER_05 3:11

Follow the regulations, smart

From house-hacking a room in 2017 to rental arbitrage

SPEAKER_05 3:13

move. So what so you got seven? You uh when did you start and what made you get started?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Oh, a good question. Okay, it's kind of a long story, but in 2017 is when I got my first property. I got that because I was basically doing what is known now as what is it called? What do they call it? House hacking. So I didn't that that wasn't I didn't know what that was in 2017. So, but anyway, I was basically um sharing my apartment. I rented out a room, I wanted to make some extra money, I had a two-bedroom apartment. Basically, that kind of sparked. I got I got a tenant in two weeks. So, like two weeks, someone was able to pay me what I was paying my rent in my rent. So she was basically paying me my rent without knowing it, and I was like, whoa, this is amazing! So two in two weeks, if I was gonna be on rent, I'm like, okay, I need to, you know, scale the situation again. So um, that's when I got like a five-bedroom home, and I basically is was doing the house hacking with that in 2018. My grandmother just mentioned Airbnb. I really didn't know what it was, so I was curious, and basically I put a room on Airbnb. I started off with a room, I put that on Airbnb, and then what the same day I put it on Airbnb, I got my first booking. So I was super, super excited. So yeah, basically from there I wanted to scale, but I didn't want to be limited by the amount of income the you know that I put down for each property. So that's when I kind of discovered rental arbitrage and decided the best way that I can scale, the fastest way you can scale with the money that I have is to rent instead of you know purchasing. But I did purchase my first one, but yeah, moving forward, I got started within rental arbitrage because of yeah, just trying to leverage my money. So so yeah, that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Pretty much it. Whoa. So hold on, you bought a five-bedroom house.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Oh, I bought a five-bedroom house.

The $65,000 five-bedroom townhome in Carrollton

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah, I bought, but that was yeah, that was it. So I bought one per I purchased one home. It was super like I got a really crazy deal though. Crazy, crazy deal that does not exist. Yeah, I was able to get that uh approval off of my nine to five income. My last job that I was working, I was able to get approved from that income.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Tell us about this crazy deal that don't exist.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

So basically it's a I got it for $65,000. Moving ready $65,000 for a um, it's like $2,500 square feet, five bedroom. I turned one of the bedrooms. Well, one I turned the um closet. No, no, no, that's a that's an office. I turned the office into a six-bedroom. So basically, yeah, $65,000. It was originally $75, and but we were able to get it down to 65. But yeah, moving ready, so perfect condition. Only 10 years.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Yeah, how'd you do that?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

The location, I guess, because so it's all the way in Carrollton, so basically, really the location. I was able to get something really cheap in Carrollton. So that's pretty much it. But it's a town home, it's a townhome though. So it's not uh, you know, it's not home home, townhome, but sixty-five thousand. So my realtor, my realtor was trying to find me something in Atlanta. I really wanted something close to Atlanta, but we couldn't, of course, we couldn't find anything in my budget because um my my 95 only I got a pre-approval for what for $90,000. Like, that's it, that's it. That was my limit, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

You made it work.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I paid work because I'm I wanted five bedrooms. I'm like, okay, I need five. I need five, I need movement ready. I can't afford at that time. I I had no money, I could not afford to do any renovations, do anything. So yeah, I had to work with what I had. Thankfully, we found something. Found something.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

You know what this makes me think of right away is that um because let's say that you would have got approved for a 250,000 or $300,000 home. A lot of people would be tempted to spend every single bit of that, you know what I'm saying? They'd get into a place that ain't even gonna be as profitable as if you would have got that sixty-five thousand dollar home, you know.

House-hacking all five bedrooms while living there

SPEAKER_03 7:04

It made you use your resourcefulness, and you might have even got something that's even you know way more profitable than the the giant McMansion you wanted to get with an HOA that don't allow you to do nothing.

SPEAKER_05 7:14

No, yeah, exactly. On that five-bedroom, you lived in it and rented out all the rooms?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yes. Yes, so that sucks, of course. That sucks. No one wants to do that, no one wants to do that, but it was the smartest decision for me. Um, it's a smart decision for anyone who has had a limited income. So my income was very limited. I was working um a job, I wasn't getting paid, you know, much at all. So that was the best way for me to leverage my income and be able to save. And you know, like if I had a regular apartment, I wouldn't be like, I'm paying $1,200 a month, I would not have been to save. Like I, you know, save for my next one. So I recommend that for people who basically just have a limited income, they don't have a lot of money saved. That is the smartest way to go for sure. Tops.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Here's what I'll say right now. It just comp came to my mind the more it hurts, the more it hurts, the faster it'll get you to a million. And we say that because Todd Baldwin, you know, Todd Baldwin. He's uh the the I heard that name, heard his name. Yeah, he was on CNBC, the 27-year-old millionaire, whatever they called him, you know. He came on our show, but he did the exact same thing. He got a big house with a ton of bedrooms, lived in it, and then he rented out every single other bedroom, and then he hopped to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Oh darn, you broke up. Can you see that last part again? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Yeah, yeah. So he he bought a big old house in over there Seattle area, or outskirts of Seattle, whatever. And then he he he lived in he lived in one of the bedrooms, rented out all the other bedrooms, and then he hopped to the next house, did the same thing, hopped to the next house, did the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Oh, so he did the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

So he lived in each one, and like within a few years he was a millionaire because of you know of how much his house was worth and how skyrocket the uh you know the the economy was going.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

The coldest part about Todd was he bought a duplex and rented out the rooms in the duplex. I was like, what? He pushed it to a next level, man. Oh, that's yeah, that's and the garage and the garage, then turn the garage into a bedroom.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

So how Airbnb, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

I tell people all the time, house hacking is the way to go.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

It's the most powerful thing there is right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Wait a minute. Now I think I've seen him. I think I've seen that. I think I've seen him.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Uh now that I think about it. But yeah, that's yeah, it's just powerful. Um, it's just really leveraging your money, it's sacrificing for sure. No one wants to do it. Like no one wants to sign up for that, but it's the best way to go for sure. Like, and some people will have good money and do it anyway. Some people really don't mind it, they just rather save the money and do it anyway. So I used to do it. Good idea. So that's how I started that. Used to do it, cool. So for how long? Like, um, like what when did you get started? And then how long were you doing that for?

SPEAKER_05 10:00

Uh, we did it for about two years, two, three years. Three years. We just lived in the downstairs of our house, rented out the upstairs. We had three bedrooms, rented them out. Um, we rented them out by bedroom, or you can rent them all out, or you can rent two. We changed it up. So, yeah, it it's very, it's very lucrative. I love house hacking. I'm definitely a proponent of that. Shoes I'm actually house hacking opportunities, any chance I get. Um, but yeah, yeah. So, okay, so you're based out of Atlanta, you got seven

Party prevention through cameras and threatening check-in instructions

SPEAKER_05 10:29

units, and you started out house hacking. So you did so it took you said four years to get to seven.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Oh, well, yeah, 2017. So yeah. So I got my first one um in September 2017. So almost four years. I've been so yeah, it's three, three something, three, three years is some change. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:49

Oh, how's your systems with you having those big huge bedrooms? Like you're renting them out these big huge houses. Like, do you have to pay your cleaners more? How do you how do you prevent parties?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

That's a good question. Um, so when it comes, well, first when it comes to like the rooms kind of situation, I do that only at two homes where I do like buy the room. But when you have nicer quality, basically your home kind of has to be nice quality. Um, if you want to do the entire home, is what I've kind of learned. So it needs to be like really high quality. Basically, yes, I well, okay, okay. I'm I'm cheap. I'm cheap. So I don't pay the cleaners a crazy amount. Um I I basically, you know, hire them on Indeed so that I can skip paying a cleaning company $300,000. I mean not $300,000, but $300, you know, for cleaning. So I only pay, I still only pay like a hundred bucks. Um, between $100 to like $140. So like my $4,000, um, it's like my $4,000 square foot property. That one I paid her like $140. But like the the smaller ones I paid $100. So I'm cheating. I'm cheating. I'm trying to say I'm trying to say money. And then um with that. And then my clean my cleaning fee is like um $300 for most of them. So like people were people are totally fine with paying this high cleaning fee. They're totally fine with it. Because I guess they they understand that okay, this is a huge property. So um I make money, like I make a couple hundred dollars of each cleaning fee, and then times times 10 bookings a month is two thousand dollars right there just for cleaning, just for cleaning. So that's that was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

And you didn't have to you didn't have to scrub one toilet yourself.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Nope. Nope. So I cleaned for myself for an entire year. That was hell, that was hell, but but um I hated,

$300 cleaning fees that net $200 profit per turnover

SPEAKER_01 12:36

I hated it. But yeah, I started out cleaning for myself for a whole year, and I got so sick of that, of course, nobody wants to do that. So basically, when I got um my third, my third one is when I hired a cleaner. So my longest cleaner's been with me for like over a year, but yeah, I hired everyone from Indeed to save some money. Oh, and then the second question, how I prevent parties. So I have lots of cameras installed, lots of cameras um at each entrance and exit, and then I have very strict rules, like threaten them so many times before they even step a foot in the door, they are threatened so many times. So basically I say, hey, look, if you if you invite you know more people over 12, whatever the max I have, if you invite too many people, if I see you with loud music, if I see you doing this, this, and this, I'm gonna terminate your stay without a refund. And that has always worked. So like people will cancel as soon. So I put that in my house rules, and then I put that again in my check-in instructions. Um, because we don't read the house rules, they don't read it. So I put it twice, and that has literally prevented a party from ever happening. So, like basically, um, if they want to cancel after that, they sometimes do. So I do get cancellations after they get those check-in instructions, they'll cancel, which which prevented a party right there, you know. So I haven't had any parties, they haven't had one party, so I'm really proud of that.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

You getting paid off those cancellations?

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Well, usually not, because they usually cancel like right after they get the check instructions, and I send the check-in instructions like five minutes within five minutes. I have like my automatic messaging system on, so um, they get those like immediately, and then they cancel like immediately, like they cancel immediately.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Airbn gets paid.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Now I have a question.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

Oh, what I was gonna ask was have you thought about like changing sending the rules like a couple days before, so then if they cancel, you can still get paid.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

It's just a little tricky.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

That's not a bad idea. The only my only concern is that, yeah, my only concern is that they'll see the rules and they'll they'll say, Man, I'm gonna stay anyway. Man, it's too late. I'm just gonna stay anyway. You know what I mean? Like, and try to and try to get past the rules. So, like, I kind of don't even mind they get their money back. I just want them to cancel. I really just want to get them get out of my hair because I really don't want to even deal with the possibility of that happening, and then the drama and the aftermath of trying to get them out. That's you know, I don't want to deal with that.

SPEAKER_05 15:10

So all money ain't good money. That's true. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

So so you got the house, that first one for 65,000. Did you were you tempted to uh to pull out any money so you can like start doing some, you know, going big on the arbitrage side?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Pull out to like I haven't I don't think I've um put enough equity into the home yet. Is that what you mean? Like pulling out the equity um cash out refunds. I haven't reached that point yet. I think I have to hit 20% and I haven't reached that point yet. So I'm making very small payments, like I'm taking advantage of it and just trying to leverage, you know. I'm always about leverage, leverage, leverage. I rather, I don't care how much money I have, I want a loan. I want loans and I want to borrow money and I want to pay the interest. But but yeah, so um my mortgage payments are like 400 something a month. It's crazy, 400 something, and then um basically everyone's paying like 600 a room. So one person is paying my mortgage.

SPEAKER_05 16:07

One person is see, and then that's that right there, see, and that's right there is the power in buying. I tell people that it's cool to arbitrage sometimes, but it's cool to buy too because you do your your cash flow does go up when you buy, like $400 a month, you can't beat that. Oh my god. It's crazy, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Tell people they go when I tell people they're always like $400 a month. Yep, mm-hmm. But it's a cheap, cheap house, but it's almost brand new. Very crazy deal.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

And and all your other ones are arbitrages, or you have a couple that you own.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

So it's just one that I own, so they're all arbitrage. But um, I forgot to mention that the reason why this was so cheap again. Another reason, not only in the location, was also because these townhomes they stopped building them, they like quit the project. I think they ran out of funds. Whoever um started, whoever was in development ran out of funds, so they completely stopped the project. So they were just selling them off really, really cheap. So it's basically why they're so cheap.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Um there?

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah. So so they're on set. Like I see someone sell for right now for like 85. So like um over the years, I guess, you know, they're not as cheap, but 80 for 85. Five bedrooms? Mm-hmm. So you can still snag one, you can still get one.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

Oh, we gotta talk after the show. Nah, yeah, we gotta talk after the show. What I got a 1031 right now, and uh yeah, I'm looking for property.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

And the and the HOA is cool with you renting out, you know, short term or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

There's no HOA.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Oh, even better.

SPEAKER_05 17:43

Um, no, I do have questions. So it's a town home, five bedrooms. Now you can keep it 100. We keep it 100 on this podcast. How far up in the hood is it?

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Oh, well, if you ask that question, um good point. Okay, so I will say from a scale from one, ten, you're living in the paradise. I don't I don't try to say, and then one is you're gonna get shot tomorrow. I would say it's like three. So it's not well, okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

You get shot Wednesday.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

So I would say it's like C class, it's not D.

Operating in C-class neighborhoods and managing guest expectations

SPEAKER_01 18:22

It's like it could be worse. It could definitely be worse. It's like C class, I would say.

SPEAKER_05 18:27

Hold on, 85,000.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

People the um the people like the neighbors, they just don't care about their the yard maintenance, is pretty much all I really have to say. Like they don't care about the yards, um, they park in their yards, so it's not like um they don't they don't basically keep the area of their area up, so that's why they have it looking bad. So it kind of depends on who owns you know each town. How and now take care of their so how would now how have your reviews been off that with it being like that? Good question. So I used to, I used to have a method where when people um booked it, I used to say, Hey, um, hey, just let you know, like this area, um the neighbors don't keep their yards up, it's overgrown sometimes, to kind of they, you know, um, and then people would still want to stay anyway. And then they leave me like one star. Hey, it's not as advertised. I'm like, okay, it isn't, it is as advertised. I told you when you but I let them cancel for free. Like they want to cancel after I explain it, I let them, but that sometimes they keep it anyway, and then write me one star. So basically, right now, um, I had people sign contracts with me that basically say, hey, you're gonna lose your right to leave a review here, you're gonna lose your right to get a refund. You you lose all your rights right here, like in this contract right here. Um, and basically, yeah, that's what I do with like, yeah, every day, I only require like I have um what I should have said is I have long term only though. So people are staying for like at least three days. Um, but I usually take leases, I take like one to two year leases here um as well. So so yeah, so I do kind of everything, but I do long-term only. That's what I should have said before.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

But hold on, you say so you only do long-term only at these places at this place.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

So at at my rooms for rent places, yeah. So like Kennesaw and Carolton, those places long term. Well, okay, not not really Kennesaw. I can take short term, but Carolton long-term only um there. Cause I just don't want to deal with, yeah, like over there, I just don't want to deal with like that.

SPEAKER_05 20:48

So Carolton's the five bedroom in the hood, right? Yeah. Well, no, I mean, I got a few, I got a few places around the corner from the hood, you know. But oh money in the hood. For real, it is money in the hood. Now, if I was we were to come out there and buy one of those, do you know somebody that manages?

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Or do you so um so okay, so I managed my own um well, I manage some of mine right now. Um, I'm about to stop, I'm done with managing myself. I'm completely done. But I would say that I hired like my friend to manage. Well, she will be my manager when I um ended up letting her allow her to take over. So at this point I don't know anyone. I don't know anyone, but I'd be I hire her, but I I would train I would hire someone off of Indy. It's like every everyone's cheaper. Like if you if you hire your own, everything's cheaper. But I don't know if you can hire a property manager off ND, but if someone wants extra income, you can train them on how to manage, give them 10%, call it a day.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

No, no, you keep bringing up, you bring it up in is indeed is it called?

SPEAKER_01 21:59

ND.

unknown 21:59

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Okay, and that's just finding people for odd odd jobs, or what is that?

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Oh yeah. So you can hire people off there, like you post jobs, hire people, it's completely free. Um if you want to advertise, you can pay for

Hiring cleaners off Indeed with a 28-question interview

SPEAKER_01 22:10

it if you want, but I don't advertise. And it's always been very easy for me to hire people off of there um without having to pay, you know, for any fees or anything. So so yeah, I've hired a lot of people, a lot of people off Indeed. Like that's that's I just stick with Indeed. Um based on marketplace was not going well for me. Like, no, I got no applicants. I'm like, how do people get applications on Facebook? It's not working for me. So I just stick to Indeed and call it a day.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

I'm I'm happy you brought that up because uh Facebook Marketplace, you get a in the people that do apply, you get a certain demographic of people that just ain't ready for the job. So I've been looking at uh I I'm not this is my I'm gonna lead into the question. So I've just posted on LinkedIn for an administrative assistant. I got like a hundred some applicants in a day, and I don't know how to go through all these damn applications.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Wait a minute, you can you can post a job on LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_05 23:00

Yeah, as long as you create a yeah, you just got to create a company profile, and then under your company profile, you create the job. Oh that's actually what I was doing today before we got on here. I was going through these applications. But my question is what are your job postings like and what's your interview process like? Because that's what I'm struggling with.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Oh, that's a good question. He's a good question. So the job, the job, it took me a while to master. I feel like I'm kind of mastering it now, but it took me a while to master hire. I will say hiring cleaner. Is that what we're talking about like hiring cleaner? So yeah, so it was terrible. It was so terrible at first. So, so terrible because um people would quit left and right, and then I would fire left and right. Like I would go through a cleaner once a week. It was so bad at first, and then I kind of learned to basically ask certain questions and go through it like a certain way. So basically now, I'll I'll get like take you step by step what I do. Like the first thing I do is they apply, I look at their application, but I see I make sure I look for long-term history with each job. Oh my gosh! Like they need to be at each job for two years or like one to two years. That's what they need. Long job history on their application, on their resume. I'm sorry, in the resume. Um, so like a lot of times people will have the people only last for a job like three to six months at a time. Three to six months and they're gone. And that's like consistently. And so I want to avoid those people because they will not last with me, obviously. They don't want, they don't want there's something wrong with them. They're gonna quit or they're gonna get fired in five seconds. So basically, um, that's the first step is yeah, looking at their resume, looking for long-term history. Then after that, I send them my interview questions. I have like 25. So I have no, I think I have 28. I have like a lot of interview questions. Um, the main the most important ones are well, how much money do you want to make? How much money do you need to make monthly at this job? How much money do you need to make? Because like cleaning one property is not going to, it's not, it's not full-time money, period. It's like, okay, you'll make like $1,500 a month. You're not gonna make, you know, $4,000. You're gonna make like $1,500. So maybe a thousand, maybe even as low as a thousand. So like some people's expectations are super duper high. They want like a full-time job, but they're applying for like a cleaning position. And I was so, and I'm so so so um up front, and like I'm so clear on how much I'm gonna pay them in the beginning. Like, before they even apply, I tell them, hey, this is how much you're gonna get paid. Like, you can calculate it. Like, I'm so up front, but people don't read, so they miss that part. And then on the applicate or the on the um the yeah, on the interview questions, they're like, Yeah, I'm trying to make 5,000 a month minimum. I'm like, um, how uh how is that possible if I told you exactly how much you're gonna make? So that's the most important question that because um that will cause people to quit, like they'll quit very quickly as soon as they figure that out. And then, well, this is a lot of them. Um, do you want a long time job, you want a temporary job? Some people want a temporary like situation, and this is like I don't want that, so I'm not gonna hire them. They say temporary. Um, hmm, like some people don't like to put references down, like I asked for two references, they might not, they might leave that blank. I'm like, dude, I see that. Like, why don't you want to put down references? I don't trust you. Um, and then like what else? There's there's quite a bit. Yeah, I just 28 of them.

The 18-page cleaning manual and required test

SPEAKER_05 26:41

I have the gist of it. Like, okay, I like the references thing. Be upfront about the pay. Okay, wow. And do you like put them on a trial period or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

No trial periods. Um, I kind of just like no, because it's like if I put them on a trial period, I feel like I'm kind of screwing either way. It's like if they don't do well in the trial period, I gotta fire them. And if they want to quit, I don't know. It's just I kind of never considered doing a trial period. Maybe I should. But things have been going well. So, but um, but after, yeah, like I asked them those questions, and then after that, oh, I have a cleaning manual and a cleaning manual test. If I like how they answer the questions, I'll give them a cleaning manual and a clean manual test um that they have to pass. And that kind of that's like a the cleaning manual is like 18 pages long, so long, everything's so I'm so thorough. I'm so I'm so thorough because I don't want them to ask me any questions. So they get in there, they take that clean manual test, they pass, and then when they get in there, the first cleaning, they literally ask me no, no question, zero, because they know exactly what's going on. They don't have to ask me where this is, what to do here, how to fold this. They know everything because I was so thorough. Um, and then but after they pass the clean mail test, they have to do a background check. I just want to make sure they're not a thief so they won't steal all my stuff. And then um, and then they have to sign a contract, like a contractor's contract to make sure that they know they're not an employee and they can't sue me if they fall. And that's that's it. It's a long, it's a long process.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

This is what I'm getting um on this episode with with Serena is that you're all about the the upfront stuff, and that's and that's um that's really cool. I mean, it not only it saves time, it weeds out you know, the people that you don't want either to rent your place or to work for you. I mean, you're up front about all the house rules, you know, right away. Here, this is what we expect. There's gonna be no parties, this will happen if you do it. It's not, you know, and this is what you're agreeing to, otherwise, you know, we'll show we'll shut you down. And you get and you weed out like 99% of the people that are gonna do something, right? And then and then you do the same with the cleaners and and then you and you you like that manual and you give them a test, and you automatically, you know, if they're not even gonna take the test, boom, that goes half the people right there. They're not even willing to take a test, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Most people don't take the test. Most people don't think the test a lot of people don't want to pay the $25 in the background check. It's only $25, but that that lets me know, hey, you're not serious about because it's just $25. Just pay. I'm not gonna pay it. I'm not gonna pay for your background for you to not show up the first day. So it's just so yeah, there's a lot of people can um back out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:22

What systems are you using for the background check and the test? Like, do you send them like a Google form or what?

SPEAKER_01 29:29

So I do have like a Google Docs, and I send them a link to the Google Doc, and they can just click on it and they'll download. And yeah, so Google Docs link. And then um, so it's kind of ghetto. I am using cozy.com because for what I haven't found, a background check that's as cheap as that. Oh, you that's what you use. Okay, because that's like the cheapest thing I can find. Yeah, the cheapest thing I can find. I don't want them to pay $35 for a background check. I really don't, like, I really want to be cheap as possible. So like I looked everywhere and that's the cheapest I can find. But I don't want to use that because it looks like it's for landlords and tenants, and that's they're not my tenant, they're my cleaner, but I don't just try to find something cheaper, basically.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

Yeah, like I was saying, so like you put all that upfront stuff and it saves you so much time and headaches in the future. I I love that.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, so yeah, I'm just waiting, yeah. Like you said, weeding people out is key. Um, just saving my own time. I used to I used to call people and like have no, no, no. I used to actually meet up with cleaners and do a do an in-person interview. Um, then I got my time wasted a whole lot. Then I said, okay, I'm not doing that anymore. Then I used to call them and have an hour-long conversation just for them to not show up the first day. Do you know how mad I am? Because I spend an hour talking to them. So I basically got to the point where I'm, hey, let's try to save my own time. So now I just do an um like an interview through email. So just answer these questions and write them down. And I'm spending only five minutes going through each cleaner instead of you know an hour or two. So trying to save my own time. Magically.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Systems, systems, I love it. Yeah, I remember back in the day, you know, well, when I get renters for my long-term rentals, um, it's you know, everything goes good. They're telling you all the good stuff, the stuff you want to hear while you're showing them their house and stuff. And as soon as you get to the point, okay, yeah, I'm gonna send you the application, and then you know we'll you know, it's gonna do the background and credit, and then we'll and we'll see where we go. You're just looking at them, their face, their body, their body language just changes, you know. Oh, okay, yeah. So so what all what all is on that? Uh you know, just the credit and background. Oh, well, there's this one thing you know, I just wanted to tell you about real quick. You know, it's it says it's a felony, but it kind of was a misunderstanding. I was in the car with somebody, they're not gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Yeah, that's a whole life story. I'm just like, oh shit. I don't even want to talk to them. They're like, hey, before I view your property, can I give you a call? I'm like, no, mm-mm. You can go ahead and keep messaging me through Facebook marketplace because I'm not about to talk to you for an hour about what happened in your past. I'm really not like that happens every single time. Every single time. I'm like, no, I'm not taking no more phone calls. Nope.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

That's right through him.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Nope. Uh no, if they start bringing up, you know, it's a it's a funny thing too. They start bringing up Jesus or or the church or amen and god blessed and all that. It's not a good sign, man. It's not a good sign.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

No, see, no, no, mm-mm. Nope. We got to mess him with that emotional stuff. We're gonna we're gonna skip all that. Let's skip all of that. Nope. Mm-mm. Nope.

SPEAKER_05 32:41

Jesus in the church.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Uh let's pray. Let's play real quick. Let's pray. No, no, I'm good. I'm good.

Finding arbitrage deals by texting 300 landlords on Zillow

SPEAKER_03 32:58

Oh man. This is amazing. So, so yeah, so you're all you're all about the arbitrage game now. So, um, so how do you find your arbitrages and and and how do you go about setting them up? I know you said you you called yourself cheap. So, how do you set up a five-bedroom or a six-bedroom place on the cheap?

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Oh, god, you really can't, you really can't, but um, but that's that's a good question as well. But yeah, um, basically, Zillow. So I spend literally sometimes like my whole day going through Zillow, calling. Now I don't make phone calls anymore. I used to call, but now I send them a long, long text message that says, hey, this is what I'm trying to do. Can I do this? I'll pay you more rent. I'm a good, I'll be a good tenant. Here's why. Like I try to convince them through this long text message. Um, and agents suck because they usually don't respond, but owners will respond with a yes or no. Usually it's a no. I would say, um, I can I can hit up 300 people, and out of 300, maybe three were interested, maybe one. Though it's it's kind of like you have to work really kind of sometimes you have to work really hard to um find people who are interested, but like it's worth it to me. I mean, clearly it's worth it to me, but yeah, it's a lot of work. So um, but sometimes I can get them really fast. Sometimes I can spend only like the my fastest was like two days going on Zillow and I got a lease sign like two days later. So, like sometimes it's really quick, sometimes it could take a month to find the right one because I'm also picky about which ones I get. I'm not gonna just get any property, I have to make sure. Hey, like, is my profit margin gonna be high enough? Um, is this property nice enough? It has to be nice, it has to be updated, modern, it can't be outdated. They have to be okay with making upgrades to the property if I suggest them. Because sometimes they don't want to like make the property um more modern for me. I might suggest certain things. There's a lot of like things. Um it might be the hood because I'm not I'm not doing a hood, no. I'm not doing hood, I'm not doing no hood. Yeah, I want like A, B class neighborhoods. Um, so that that's how I've gotten moving forward, is because yeah, I just want as much profit as possible. Like the profit margin needs to look real nice. So I had to get those nice properties. So so yeah, um, yeah, it's like a lot of work, but it's a lot of work, but it's worth it.

SPEAKER_05 35:20

Couple questions What is the profit margin difference? Like, is there a big profit margin difference between your one in the hood compared to the one in the A or B class neighborhood?

SPEAKER_01 35:33

So it's different. Like, I would say that's kind of different. That's kind of weird because I own it, and then it's kind of like I'm doing rooms, so like you can't make sometimes you can't make as much with rooms as you can with the entire place. So like I can't really compare them well because of those those two factors. I would say, but um I would say I thought I was doing good with my first property in in in private. I thought I was doing real good. Then um this other property, I'm able to make like five times the profit. So um, but yeah, I would say like it kind of you can't really compare because they're rents, and then there's like you know, me owning it and the rooms and then the entire place. So I can't really compare that well. But I mean, I can't compare the one in Kennesaw, but I I rent that one. But the profit there is pretty much the same as the one I own because I'm able to charge more for yeah, I'm able to just charge way more because the location. Um, so yeah, like literally the profit's the same as my one in Carleton, which is like the rooms, even though I'm paying rent.

SPEAKER_05 36:41

Yo, rent. Y'all really get me in these bigger places. Like, geez.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

I had uh no, no, yeah, I was surprised. Um yeah, I had like my original what I used to want originally was like two grand a month in profit, and I thought that was doing really good. And then I'm like, wait a minute, I can make way more than that. Oh my god. But I'm gonna have to invest way more money. So to answer your second question, it's not cheap. Oh, it's not cheap to furnish five-bedroom, six-bedroom home, especially when I put a lot of effort into the design because that gets me so much attention. Because like you have to compete around here. It's like um, there's so many, everybody mama wants to do this, so you have to compete. So um, I I just have just I put a lot of effort into the design process, and then um basically, unfortunately, it probably cost minimum like 10k. I mean, if you want to be really, really cheap, if you want to do a five-bedroom for really, really cheap, that's really not enough, like really 15. And then one of them, one of my highest income property is that cost $35,000.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

$35,000 to um to furnish.

The $35,000 furniture investment in a 6-bedroom Powder Springs property

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Like it was crazy, it was crazy, but the money I'm gonna make is crazy at the same time. So it makes sense with that one. It makes it makes a lot of sense, but crazy, absolutely crazy. Oh, but well, yeah, a lot of a lot of effort was put in the design process, so that's really why it costs so much money.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that one, the 35k one. Dive into that one. Yeah, tell us about it.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Oh, so so basically um, that's a location at the end of Powder Springs, Georgia. So it's that's a one. Um, it has a pool, it has a jacuzzi, and that's that's really um, I was so excited for that one because um like it's secluded, it's like in a um, it's it's surrounded by um a hobby tree, so the neighbors, you can't really see them. And it's huge, so nice. The in like the the driveway entrance is so nice. Um, it's just a very high-quality um home, A-class neighborhood for sure. Um, but yeah, so six bedrooms. Um, I there's a game room, so like there's a game room, there's a wet bar, so I had to like invest money in the game room, of course, and then um the wet bar and then um furnishing in six bedrooms. Oh, I do cram a lot of beds, so that's a good reason why it was so expensive. I crammed nine beds in six bedrooms, so three of the bedrooms have two beds, so like I had to um, and they're clean, they're all clean, so I had to like get as many beds as possible if I can as I can, and then hmm, yeah, like the design, like a whole lot of decor, just so much decor, so many plants, wallpaper, like the whole nine yards. Like I even put peel and stick tile on the um the ugly floors because the landlord he was willing to do a lot for me. So he painted the place all white. Um, he did everything I asked him to do. Like he changed all the light fixtures for me. He paid for that. What else? He paid for a lot. That was not it, I can't remember right now, but basically he invested a lot of his money in there for me. Um, because he was excited. I was doing the I offered five years, so I offered a long lease. That's why a lot of people were are even or even responding to me, is because I do a like offer a long lease. Um, I would not I would not recommend that for someone just starting out, but if you know what you're doing and it's been a while, like do long leases um and offer long leases. But anyway, so he was so excited about that. He was willing to basically do like make changes for me, even though he didn't even I don't even think he really likes the changes, but he he made the changes that I thought that we should make to make the property more modern. Um he painted we we painted the brick fireplace black and the living room is now white. It used to be like wood, it was terrible. Oh god, terrible. It was like wood. We painted white and then a black fireplace and looked so good, like look so modern. I'm gonna post those photos on my Instagram soon because people need to know how much effort we put into this property. It was so much effort, but um, but yeah, that's pretty much it. So, yeah, that's why it's so expensive. It's just like we got we got two tables and we crammed them together, we put them together, like the same table, so that we can create a really, really long table for um to seat 16 to like it accommodates 16. So yeah, very expensive, very, very, very expensive. I don't know how I don't even know how it costs, but I'm like, I'm stressed out. Like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_05 41:24

Now, there's a couple things you touched on that are very key, and I think people you actually made me think about it. So if you get a larger unit, those are usually harder to rent. Like people renting five and six bedroom houses, those are hard to rent. So that is a very good target to go after, which I just never thought about. So, my next question is like, who's your target guest for that unit? And then, like, what's your average nightly rate?

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Well, to start off, well, okay, I would tell you, you you'd think it's hard to rent a five-bedroom, but they go so fast, they go fast, and I didn't think that was the case, but I have to literally stalk owners sometimes because their property will be available one week and then the next week it's not. And I'm like, dude, for real, like, and then but I will I will say that the um the more expensive properties are the one those are those are harder to rent, like they have to be expensive, they have to be like three, four, or five thousand dollars. Most people can't afford that, most people are not qualified, like they don't have the income to be able to afford that because you know the landlords want you to make three times the rent. So if you're not making three times the rent, denied. So that's really the reason I think is because of four. It's it's so my rent is four thousand four hundred dollars. Like it's it's it's higher, so you have to make three times rent, and most people can't afford it. So that's like one of the reasons I would say, but yeah, they go fast. You eat these guys, but um wait, what was the other thing? Oh, who's um okay? So like ideal tenants. So I prefer people, I prefer families. I prefer families who are like in town for to visit other family members. That's probably like the top thing that I like. Um, I also like corporate like leasing, like leasing to, you know, like um people, business people. Um, I do not prefer a birthday party. I don't want that kind of stuff. So um sometimes it happens anyway, but they follow your, they just have to follow the house rules. So if they want to have a party that have to be like respectful. Um I've had parties and homes. I've had my own birthday parties and homes, and we were like um not an Airbnb. I've never even said an Airbnb, by the way, even though that's what I do, I would never say it at once. But like I know that it exists, that people can take care of your property, even though they have a birthday party. I've had it done couple several so many times. So it happens, but um, they still follow the house rules, all of them. But but anyway, that's my ideal um that's my deal tenant, basically. Families or like corporate leasing, and then

$500 weekday and $1,000 weekend rates covering rent in one week

SPEAKER_01 44:00

So my nightly rate is surprising. Um, I thought I was gonna get away with 200 on the weekdays and then like 700 on weekends as a um daily rate, but dude, oh my god, like so these people are willing to pay like 500 a day for the weekdays and then like a thousand to eleven hundred on the weekends on the weekends, like so Friday is like a thousand each, and then um Saturday is like I mean Sunday is like six, seven hundred, and then um the rest of the days are like 500. So like basically in one week, my rent is not only paid, like my whole rent, I'm making more than my rent in one week. So like the other three weeks, I'm pro another for profit, like another for profit. So paying for that furniture was worth it, like it was worth the money, but I'm getting that back so fast, you know? Getting it back that fast.

SPEAKER_03 44:51

Here's the scariest part. Uh you said five-year lease. Um, what kind of out clauses do you put in place? Like if they stop doing Airbnb, if they stop allowing Airbnb, blah blah.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

Good question. So I am fully protected with my lease. And my leases, people, the reason, main reason why I can't people can't agree with um renting to me is because of my terms. My terms are they're not crazy, but they think some, you know, my terms are to protect me. So one of my terms is that um if I back out, if I decide to end my lease, then you can penalize me for like a month or two of the rent, that's fine. But if I penal if I back out because there were new laws, like you know, there were new regulations with short-term rentals, I am not to be penalized. You are not gonna hold my security deposit. Basically, you cannot hold me responsible if I end it because of causes that were not like you know my fault. So, like I have that in the lease so that I'm protected if I have to end it because of that. But I shouldn't have to do that because the reason why I get these large homes is because I have a backup plan. Backup plan is always gonna be rooms to rent, like that's always gonna be like a backup plan. In case I'll say crap hits his van, um, I can still, you know, make a profit. I'm not gonna make as much, I'm still gonna make profit. So, like even if I can't do it, so that's what I do to protect myself. I also have the landlords have like a penalty if they break the lease, they have a large penalty if they break the lease. I spent all this time and money getting this together. You ain't about to break this lease, you ain't about to break this lease, so you can't sell your property, you can't do anything. So, like, I have like a ten thousand dollar penalty, but I really need to raise that to twenty. Like, sometimes I one time I did fifteen thousand, fifteen thousand. Um, one landlord signed like a fifteen thousand dollar penalty to him if he um turns the lease. So, like they can't get out of this lease with me. The earls, they owe me the money, like they gave me money. So, because they're gonna take my money, they're gonna take my money. Um, because like, yeah, like getting it together, because because like I actually had an interior designer for this last property, and like we have to pay her, you know what I mean? Like, I had to pay her. Um, and just like basically the time invested into getting it together. I'm not about you ain't about to write this thing. No, mm-mm. And to get paid for that, and to get paid. So yeah. I have 10 10 terms that have them add to the lease that protect me.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

So that's the first time in the history of this show that we've heard about putting uh you know a break the lease clause on the landlord. That's that's true, they gotta pay you to take

The $10,000 to $20,000 landlord penalty clause

SPEAKER_03 47:30

the lease. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

So here's why I'm paranoid. I'm paranoid because here's why. Landlords sometimes want to stock their own property, they want to like go on Airbnb, try to figure out how much I'm charging, trying to figure out how much I'm making. They keep asking me, how much are you making? How much are you making? I don't want to, that's none of your business, how much I'm making. That's none of your business. So, like, I don't want them to get too excited and be like, oh, she's making so much money, let me go ahead and take this property back. No, like you're not about so that's pretty much I'm so paranoid. That's why I didn't in there because I don't want them to get the idea that they can just do this themselves when it was my idea, not theirs. Like, they weren't even thinking about this until I came along. So they're not about to take over my business, you know what I mean? So then you're gonna have penalty if you use that that is that's a cult. Oh, I have another one that says I'll go ahead. Yeah, I have another term that says if they um if they want to do it themselves and break it because of that, they not only owe me a fine, but they also have to pay me 50% of the money that they're gonna be making for the rest of my lease term, and they have to let me manage it. So basically, they can't get out of it, period. Like they can't they can't get out, period. You cannot get out of this lease, period. I mean, I went the win when you you you break it, I win. You don't break it, I win. Win win.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

I love that.

SPEAKER_05 48:50

Damn, that's cold. That's cold. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 48:53

I thought Michael was cold, but I think you got him beat.

SPEAKER_05 48:55

For real, you gotta be meat.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

I thought it was goal for landlords, so I'm surprised that nobody's um mentioned that.

SPEAKER_05 49:03

Oh, we gotta get that one on Clubhouse. I don't even think anybody's talked about these. Oh, 20 G is a penalty.

unknown 49:10

Damn.

SPEAKER_05 49:11

Ain't no traditional landlord about to pay 20,000 to break no lease.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

All right, oh that's what yeah, that's what backs people out, but I'm fine with that. If they don't want to sign a lease because of that, like, yeah, people have backed, not backed out, people have like ghosted me after I send my terms, but like that's totally fine with me. I just want to why do they think, like, if you're not okay with that, then what did you plan on doing with your property? Why why would you because cause a lot of people are excited about the five years? So, like, why are you even interested in breaking this in the first place? The fact that you think that you could break it, that's enough for me. I'm done. I don't want to do business with you, you know what I mean? Like, I don't even want you thinking about breaking this leaf. So that's why I want them to be scared. If they're scared, then I kind of like, okay, I um what do they call that? What's that term? What's that saying? Fought a bullet. What is that called? We're gonna turn, but um basically, yeah, I kind of oh dodge the bullet, dodge the bullet. Okay, dodge the bullet. So yeah, I don't want to have to deal with somebody not thinking about breaking the lease. So no.

SPEAKER_03 50:09

You're signing, you're signing really long leases. Well, do you have any plans? And you put let's say you put 35,000 into that house. Do you have any plans when that five-year mark hits about re signing and trying to keep it from jumping the the amount jumping?

SPEAKER_01 50:23

So um kind of no. So, like, I do have it. I do one of my terms is that I do want to have it on auto renew, though. That is like one of my terms. Like, I would like it to be on auto renew, but they have to give me like a six month heads up if they don't want to do auto renew. They can't just like let me know what I spend it. Like, I need to know six months ahead that you don't want to auto renew. But um, like I get those five years at a flat rate, and I I kind of fight for that flat rate. I'm fighting for that because nobody wants to do it. Everybody wants to do a five percent a year increase. And I'm like, no, it needs to need to be a flat rate. Um, because you're not about to take my profit. So um, but basically after the five years, it's on auto renew, but they still have the opportunity, right, to s to raise the rent. So if they do, I mean, I'd pay for higher rent. I pay for higher rent at all of the properties. Um, I don't want to, but as long as I'm making the money I want to make, I pay the higher rent. So I guess we will have to cross that, like get to that time. Um, I guess we have to like, you know, see how that goes in the future. But in five years, I should be able to charge more. I would I would think I would be able to charge more in five years. So I should probably make the same amount of money or close to it. So I'd be fine either way. I would pay a higher rent.

SPEAKER_05 51:42

I I have a question for you. So like my threshold, like if I'm getting a one bedroom, one bath, I'm like, look, if I don't make $500 a month on this, then we're gonna cancel it, right? What is your threshold on like a five to six bedroom? Like, what's your can't like hey, this is if this we can't make this cash flow, it's not worth it.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

It used to be a thousand, then it was two thousand, then it was three thousand, then it was four thousand. Now five thousand, six thousand. Um, but more can be possible. But five thousand, five thousand. Well, okay, I'll be happy with four though. Okay, I'll be happy with four. I'll be happy before. So I would prefer more.

SPEAKER_05 52:20

That's a good KPI though. 4,000? Like, if we ain't making 4,000, we out. Like can't miss that, but okay. That that man.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

However, however, there has the goal right now is to get one a month, one property a month, um, in 2021. So far, so good. So far so good.

$4,000 minimum monthly profit target and one property per month goal

SPEAKER_01 52:40

But I've realized that sometimes it's more about quantity. Um, so like if it comes a time where I'm struggling to find someone to and the the property is like I can't find a property that's gonna hit my 4K, then I'd go for something that hits three or two. I don't want to, but I'd rather have that than nothing. You know, I'd rather have that than no property at all. Because if my goal is one a month, I just gotta keep go keep going. And sometimes the inventory is not gonna be there. So I gotta take what I'm gonna take. So if it comes to that, but I've obviously I'm gonna try to get you know four grand or more on each property.

SPEAKER_05 53:16

See, but that that's one of those situations where you you shoot for the stars and land on the moon because 2,000 a month, that ain't bad. I mean, shit. If you hey, I'm setting my that's 10x to the next level. I'm gonna set my goal up here and I'll land right here. I'll damn, I need to go to the APL.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

Yeah, yeah, my goals just got higher and higher as I as I saw what was possible. I was shocked. I'm like, wait a minute, is it possible to make this much? Okay, so I'm just gonna increase my goal and try to get what I you know, the best I can get. So, what I do want is more properties that are like the powder space one, the large one, the 4,000 um square foot. I would like more like that, but like the inventory is so low to find that. But I'm gonna chase, I'm gonna be chasing the best of the best, even though it costs so much more money. I'm gonna get more money, I'm gonna get a higher return. But but yeah, I'm gonna keep chasing the best if I can.

SPEAKER_03 54:06

She's literally 10Xy, man. That's what it is. That's all it's 10xing. Damn, yeah. Why put all that time and effort at a one-bedroom, one-bath condo when you could just do it all at once on a big on a big scale and make like 10 times as much?

SPEAKER_05 54:19

Dude, that's level, not for real.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

Natalie came on before too, and she thought the same thing. Yeah, oh yeah, because um, it's just yeah, like I realized very quickly that people who are like in these conos and apartments are usually making like 800 bucks a month profit or like a thousand. And um the property that I like um purchased, I was making more than that. And I'm like, nah, I'll go with that's what made me want to go with like a large property instead of like a one bedroom, just because making more than that. And um I was already making more than that. I wasn't even doing Airbnb, I was just doing like long-term rooms. I'm like, and more money is possible, so I'm gonna try to get more money. I'm trying to make more money because it takes a lot of work to get these properties together. So, and it's like another thing is I haven't even tried to hit up uh apartments before, though. I haven't even tried to hit them up. Um, that's like like a last case scenario for me. I would do it if I was out of desperation, I would get an apartment, but they would have to be okay with I'm making fun of it.

SPEAKER_05 55:20

I ain't calling them in shit.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

What for?

SPEAKER_02 55:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

So yeah, I I'm out of desperation. Like if I if everyone, if I just can't get a yes, because it could be like sometimes you just can't get a yes. A couple months can go by and you're struggling. So at that point, I hit up an apartment. But for now, I'm gonna hit my house. Just for now, I'm I'm I'm like where I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_03 55:45

No, you're doing great. You're doing great what you're doing right now.

SPEAKER_05 55:47

So let's break that down. I want people to think about this. So you're making $4,000 a month, like $4,000 is your minimum, I think you said, and you're trying to you're picking up one property a month. So if you you're making well over your goal at the end of this year, is to be making what $48,000 a month in cash in net cash flow, man.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Yeah, you got a dream bigger, man. I started with five um before 2021. So I guess it's gonna end up being 17 properties, but I didn't think like I thought my goal was kind of crazy. I'm like, wait a minute, how I'm gonna do this. But so far it's been happening. So I'm like, okay, two leases signed in February, and then I just got a property in January. Okay, this might actually happen. So hmm, that's cool. So yeah, I'm just gonna um I have to work hard. I have to, I can't stop. I basically just can't stop contacting people and basically just staying on Zillow and stalking to people, trying to get these homes, but yeah, it's possible. It's possible. So I'm not gonna even know what to do making that much money. I'm not gonna even know what to do. I'm gonna like whoa, I don't even know what to do. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 56:55

I can tell you what to do to make you real rich. I can tell you what to do to make you real rich. What use all your cash as leverage and then learn how to burr, then just be buying properties with other people's money and don't even use yours.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

So I do want to burr, I do want to do that method. Um, my problem is I only want to buy I decided that I don't want to buy a single family anymore unless it's for me to live at. I really just want to buy multifamily only. So what I what I could see myself doing is doing the burr method with a multi-family um and then using other people's money. So I'm very I love, I really try not to spend money at all. Like I use credit, um, business credit. So I'm I'm getting I'm kind of newer at business credit. I just got some last year, so I'm kind of new, but I'm basically leveraging credit um so that I can just save my money up, and then I need like I need like another 200,000 for multi-fam. I need a lot of money. Oh god. Oh god. But um, but yeah, I'm trying I'm trying to save it right now for that. But um, but yeah, like I but I also have a problem that I don't want to share my profits. Like I really don't want to share my profits. Um, and that's my problem with like um borrowing money, you know, with a with a lender and all that. Oh I don't know. I have to I have to deal with that, I have to deal with that later. But I'm kind of trying to take all the profits. I'm like, wait a minute, I'm not trying to oh it's profit. I don't know. But yeah, I definitely want to get into that later for sure, but with a multifamily. I'll probably buy a multi-film that's um moving ready first so that I can feel comfortable and then work my way up. I might do cosmetic renovations at first and then um work my way up to like you know the bigger rehabs later on when I'm more comfortable. I just don't want to mess up, they don't want to mess up, but and I really don't know, I don't know a lot about you know renovating a property, so I want to make sure I don't lose any money.

SPEAKER_03 58:50

I'm sure you'll kick you kick butt at that, like like you're doing everything else. I'm sure you're gonna do great at it. Uh this has been a great show, Serena. You really opened our eyes and and inspired us, and that's what that's what we love about our show. People come on and inspire us, and yeah, you're kicking butt and taking names, and and and thank you so much for hopping on with us.

SPEAKER_01 59:09

Thank you guys so much for having me.

SPEAKER_03 59:12

Yeah, where can folks find you?

SPEAKER_01 59:13

Oh, uh what you mean on online Instagram? Um, so my name is at Serena Or, so S-Y-E-R-E-N-A. O R R so at Serena Or on Instagram. I really don't use any other. Well, I use Clubhouse now. So my clubhouse is at Serena, so S Y E R E N A.

SPEAKER_03 59:33

S Y E R E N A.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

S E.

SPEAKER_03 59:38

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 59:40

Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Yeah. Well, thanks for hopping on and good luck in all you do. And we'll and yeah, we'll be touching base with you in the future for sure.

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Awesome. Thank you guys for having me. Have a good day.

SPEAKER_03 59:53

For sure.

SPEAKER_05 59:53

Where can they find us, Steve?

SPEAKER_03 59:55

They can find us at livelethrive.com, liveletrive at gmail.com, and everywhere books are sold. I don't know. Yeah, you can find us online. Find uh find us on Clubhouse. We're everywhere. Live Let Thrive. Live Let Thrive.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:13

And we are out.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:16

Later.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:18

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.