Cold open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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

SPEAKER_01 0:11

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

SPEAKER_02 0:22

What's going on, Micah Man? I'm chilling, I'm chilling. How you been, Stevie Stax?

SPEAKER_05 0:27

Ah, getting over that, you know. We were both sick last week, so getting over that and um back at it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Oh, yeah, yeah. So episode number 112, I think. 112 episodes. That's a bunch of episodes. Damn. So we have 112, and we got a special guest

Meeting TJ Tijani, the Airbnb guy of Houston

SPEAKER_02 0:44

on from my favorite city, H Town, Texas. We got Mr. TJ on. H is up. Yeah, man. So I'll go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

Oh, yeah. Can we say his full name? Because it's a cool name. TJ Tajani.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yeah, TJ Tajani. He is the Airbnb guy in Houston. Everybody knows him.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

They they they appreciate that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Anytime you say Airbnb in Houston, they call TJ, man. So yeah, man, TJ. So tell us how long you've been in the Airbnb game and what got you started, man.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

Oh, so yeah, definitely been

Engineering degree to oil and gas to real estate investing in 2015

SPEAKER_04 1:25

investing since 2015. I graduated with an engineering degree, actually, from the University of Houston. Uh engineering and mathematics. So I was worked in the hospital some time. Of course, you know Houston is the oil and gas capital, right? So uh dove into the oil and gas space, um, started doing that, and I was traveling quite a bit. I was actually like at the face of the oil and gas economy. I was working offshore, I was working out of subsequent installation vessels on the rigs, and so I was gone. I mean, probably about 60-70% of the year. But whenever I was in town, I was uh investing. So I started off buying and holding. That was the first strategy that I started doing and uh started buying acquiring some rental properties. I acquired three rental properties um in 2015, and then I started getting into some wholesaling. So I started wholesaling quite a bit as well. And so then uh you guys might be aware of what happened in the oil and gas market in 2016, 15 going into 16, really, when it kind of took a dip.

Oil crash from $100 to $42 a barrel forces career pivot

SPEAKER_04 2:27

I mean, everybody was happy and eating when when oil was about $100 a barrel, right? And so then it dropped all the way down to like 42, something like that. And so uh, you know, the the major operator just wasn't drilling as much. So um, so we just didn't have in my company, and we're we're an oil and gas service company, so we were providing the subsidy equipment for the operators like Exxon and BP and Shell. So I was on the Exxon portfolio, and when my project was up, they it was just like, man, there was just no more work. And so there was hardly any work. So um I was kind of given an I was kind of given a decision, kind of an ultimatum to where I was to move to a different role and taking uh a significant, and when I say significant, I mean like half a pay cut, um, either that or take a severance. So I decided to just bet on myself and I took the severance and uh had all the opportunities to go back into the into the workforce in the oil and gas space. Um but I decided to just kind of go dive into the real estate space. So I was actually one day just kind of doing some uh additional market research on how on on generating more leads. Of course, y'all know how that goes. And so I came across a short-term rental route kind of on accident. It kind of fell on my lap, sort of. I wasn't really necessarily looking for it. And so then um at the time I had two projects I was remodeling, and so one of them I decided to furnish and try to try the short-term rental route on that property. And uh in a it's a three-bedroom, two-bath house that I still have, it's still one, it's still in my portfolio. And uh I was scared because it was a little bit overwhelming. It was a big property to furnish. And so, but I ended up doing it, and I didn't know if it was gonna work or not. But the next day when I listed it, I woke up with two bookings and I decided that you know what, I think I think I can sink my teeth into the strategy. And so uh still still got still was doing projects that I was uh doing some fix and flips, but the short-term rental route kind of became the primary. And so um so I started growing the business, and so then I kind of started putting out what I was doing. And so then people wanted to know how I was doing what I was doing, how I was building my systems, and so then uh that's kind of how I became kind of known in the space. So it's been a it's been a heck of a journey.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

That's a lot to go over right there.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah, so you you said you had a three-bed, two-bath house. So are you arbitraging only, buy-in only? What are you what's your strategy now in the short-term rental space?

SPEAKER_04 5:01

So it's interesting because about uh you know, 70% of my portfolio in my short-term rental space, I actually own these properties. And I rent 30% of them. Um probably by the end of 2020, it'll probably be about 50-50. Um, but yeah, I own most of them now at this point. That property that I that I um alluded to earlier, my very first short-term rental was a three-bed, two-bath house, about 1700 square feet. Uh, it was a big property, and I it was a property I owned. I was gonna put a traditional tenant in it. Then I decided to furnish it and make it a short-term rental. And I wasn't sure if it was gonna work. The neighborhood wasn't as it wasn't, you know, the best neighborhood, but the proximity. I don't know if y'all know too much about Houston inside the 610 loop, the third order area. So that's where the property is. You know about the trade? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

I know about the trade.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

Probably is, man. And so um the neighborhood is is transitioning 100%. I mean, things are getting really expensive here. Um, but I was worried about how rough it was. I mean, the proximity was amazing. I mean, the downtown is within 10 minutes to the med centers within 15 minutes. But so I end up taking a chance to end up working out pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Man, so you so like you said, you got it what you're doing at you're doing it at a 70-30. You got 70% you own, 30% you arbitrage, but you're

70% owned, 30% arbitrage strategy moving to 50-50

SPEAKER_02 6:19

working it up to 50-50. Is that kind of where you want to keep it at 50-50?

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Yeah, yeah, I want to keep it at 50-50. I'll probably go, I'm I want to keep it at 50-50 because I love the ownership aspect. Um, because and a lot of some of the units I own, most of the units I own are small multifamilies. So mainly duplexes. And so my I end up actually netting more of my duplexes

Why duplexes outperform: $2,000 mortgage beats $1,500 rent on a one-bedroom

SPEAKER_04 6:39

because the numbers actually work out better, if that makes sense. So you can imagine like one of my duplexes, the mortgage is like $2,000 a month, right? But one of the units I it's a and this duplex is a two-bedroom, one bath, right? Each unit's a two-bedroom, one bath. But the one of my uh properties I do a rental arbitrage on that I rent, it's a one-bedroom, and the rent's $1,500 a month. So it ends up, and they're literally within five minutes away from each other. So the it and it turns out that my my duplexes end up netting me more because it's like two units. And so um so I I like to keep it at 50-50 because I want to own at the end of the day. I'm trying to I want I'm gonna push ownership at the end of the day, but of course we know that the rental arbitrage route allows us to scale the business rather quickly because it's a great way to earn cash flow without owning the property. So that's why that's why I'm a good, I like to be at a good mix of both.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

So you said you're 2-1 killing it. Like, what kind of are you getting like a like more business clients coming in the 2-1s, or what do you think is driving that factor?

SPEAKER_04 7:40

So it is really the location, right? This 2-1, it's it's uh it's really close to Midtown, and but it's also literally within 10 minutes from Indy Anderson, the medical center, which we know Houston, which one of the things we're greatly approved to here, is having the number one medical center in the nation. I would say a large part of my clientele base, my guest base for that unit are coming for medical reasons or some type of medical purpose. You know what I mean? And then uh then we're that unit is also like eight minutes from downtown, so we still get a lot of business travelers and a lot of large groups that come in and to just want to uh to just want to go to downtown or be in the city. But what I love about my duplexes is that I kind of created a niche within the short-term rental niche for myself, is because uh with the duplexes, they have is two units, right? But I list it as three listings. I have three listings with it. So you can list unit A, you can rent unit A, you can rent unit B, or I have a third listing where you can rent the entire building, where you can have both. So each unit sleeps six, or you can rent the entire building and rent the whole thing that sleeps 12. So we get a lot of large groups or big groups of business travelers that end up renting the whole building. You know, when I rent the whole building, it goes for like 400, 450 a night. So I don't think that's pretty well.

SPEAKER_05 8:58

Man, I was um I just read an article and it mentioned Houston. Mentioned DFW too. I sent it to I sent the article to you, Micah, about how we keep getting an influ influx of um people from out of the out of state coming here to work and live. And um it said Houston is number four, most um uh what's it called? Biggest fourth biggest metrop metropol metropolitan area, metropolitan area in the country behind yeah, behind LA, New York, and DFW area. Number four, and it's and it's gonna continue to grow. It's like the second fastest growing behind the DFW Metroplex. So, yeah, buying buying properties is pretty smart right now, man, over in Houston.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

Absolutely, absolutely. Especially, especially when you buy right. Um, you know, I the way I like to buy my properties too, I like to buy them distress. I like to I like to rehab them, actually, because I'm able to leverage a certain type of lender like a hard made lender or my private lenders. I'm able to leverage them and really rehab the property to what I want it to be. And so then I leverage a hard made lender or a private lender, fix it up, refinance it, and it really allows me to come out of pocket at the minimum.

Buying real estate with your time, not your money

SPEAKER_04 10:14

Um, and that's how I like to buy my property, that it's a good opportunity to do that.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

So sorry. Yeah, I was gonna ask real quick how how you are able to accumulate so many pop properties so quickly, but you kind of answered that. You use the hard money, hard money to do it.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

Yeah, and and this is actually one of the things that I should teach in my class too. I teach people how to buy real estate with their time, not so much their money. You know, there's a there's there are two ways you can buy rental properties. You can buy it with your time or you can buy it with your money. The very, very first rental property I bought back in 2015. For example, this house I bought it for $90,000, didn't need any work. Um the the owner lived in it for a while, then he replaced the roof, replaced the AC, replaced the floors, replaced electrical. I mean, this thing was rent, was ready to go. Um $90,000. I had, you know, I was working as an engineer, my expenses were super low, so I was just saving a lot of money. And so I came to the table 20% down, conventional loan, right? 20% down, came to the table at about $22,000, including closing cost, to buy that property. I had that thing rented out within two weeks. My mortgage was about $8.50, I put it on a 15-year note, actually. My mortgage is about $850 a month, I was renting it for $1,300 a month. Within two weeks of buying it, that delta, that difference was my cash flow, right? So it didn't take me too much time to get it cash flowing, but it did take some a hefty amount of down payment. Then we can look at another example of even the first rental property that I bought that that uh that's on Airbnb. That property I bought for $90,000. It was uninhabitable. Matter of fact, it sat vacant for over three years. The owner lived in the Philippines, he didn't care about the property, he was asking $120 for it. We ended up negotiating down to $90,000. Um, I put $70,000 into the remodel, but the after repair value ended up coming out to $245. So the lend uh my my uh private lender gave me 70% loan of value. So with that 70%, I was able to buy the property and do the rehab, and once the rehab was done, I did the refinance. But uh but you can imagine, you could we had to order the appraisal, work with the private lender, or the appraisal, get that done, manage the rehab, um, hired a contractor, he ended up um not doing a good job at some point in time, let him go, brought in another contractor. The whole process took about four months, right? Four months, then it was done, then I refinanced it, then I was able to furnish it and get a cash flow. So the two stock differences, right? The first one I didn't need any work, came to the closing table with a whole lot of money, had a cash flow within two weeks. That I bought it with my money. The second example, that property, I was able to leverage a private lender, uh, pay for the uh the purchase and the and the rehab, refinanced it, zero dollars out of pocket, didn't cost me anything out of my pocket to buy that property. But it did cost me my time to buy it. So I try to tell people and I try to show people how to buy real estate with their time, not so much their money. And you know, if you can if you can learn how to buy with your time, because you can do it part-time. That's something you can do part-time. You can buy real estate with your time part-time. So I show people how to do it with their time, and uh and that way, you know, you can come up with a good game plan and uh to really accumulate some some wealth and some properties.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Man, man, man. I never met a hustler and I uh never met somebody from Houston that wasn't a hustler, man. Damn. Man, so are all your Airbnbs and all your units are all in Houston?

SPEAKER_04 13:42

They're all in Houston, they're all in Houston.

Houston regulations, Super Bowl bookings, and Turkey Leg Hut

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Uh probably when I get to when I get to 25 in Houston, um, I'll branch out to my next city that I plan to. We'll see how it goes. My plan is to branch out to Atlanta. Atlanta. We'll go to Atlanta.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Man, it's like a little thing. Every party I meet that does Airbnb, they do it between Atlanta and Houston. Man, there's some good markets out here.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

I was looking at Philly. A Philly, I was looking at Philly, I was looking at Philly, Dallas, and Atlanta. Those are my top three. Dang, sound like you're following Sean Rikizic. Everybody hitting Philly. I actually I actually met Sean, man. Me and Sean actually connected once, man. This is earlier, man, when he was uh he had like 30 units, and we ended up meeting over here in Midtown here in Houston. Really? Yeah, we chopped it up for some time. So yeah, I know Sean.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Yeah, I met him down in uh I met him in Dallas actually at one of his meetups. Yeah, I met him at Dallas in one of his meetups, man. And yeah, he he because I was right when I met him, he was just going to Philly. He was like, oh yeah, I'm going to Philly. I was like, man, but Philly's been, I heard Philly's the hot spot.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

Yeah, Philly's good, man.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

So so go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 14:47

So so why is Philly a hot spot?

SPEAKER_04 14:50

Man, you know what? I don't know the full details, but from what you know, from what I'm hearing, it's just it's just becoming such a such a great tour city. Um a lot of businesses, I mean, from what I'm from what I'm hearing, it's just it's just a great place to visit, a great place to live, and and and properties are still relatively affordable to invest there as well. So um uh Philly was definitely one of those spots that I was looking at too.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah, and the thing about Philly is I heard they ain't as strict on those Airbnb regulations like the rest of the East. So it's people up there killing it up in Philly.

SPEAKER_05 15:24

Not yet.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Not yet. Yeah, and plus I don't know, and also you gotta check and see. Yeah, make sure that if they already have laws in place, just keep making money. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 15:35

But the the I hear they have high taxes over there. Is that true or not?

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Man, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_05 15:41

I'm not sure that that it's the East Coast, you know.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I won't be surprised. I heard about what uh what recently took place in Austin.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Oh yeah. The uh what happened? The state came down and cracked.

SPEAKER_04 15:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So essentially, essentially, well, Austin had a because you understand Austin's becoming like the tech hub of Texas, right? I mean you got Facebook there, Apple, there, Microsoft, Amazon's there. I mean, Austin's popping. So the part in Austin like that, that area close to downtown UT, that area is getting so already getting expensive in rent. The rents already shooting up there in Austin, and then uh what the people are doing a lot of Airbnbs, taking advantage of a short-term rental space, making good money in Austin. So a lot of people are complaining, saying that it's causing a shortage because Austin's not that big a city. So they're feeling it more so in Austin. So it's causing a shortage, and so the for the units that are available, rents were going up, so people started complaining. So then Austin put in a place to where uh a regulation for short-term rentals to where you can only do a short-term rental to properties that are type two residentials. Type two meaning it has to be a five unit and above. So whether you own it or you rent it, it has to be a type two residential. Even if it's a house, single family, duplex, triplex, whatever, you can't do it. It has to be a type two. So then people were like, yo, you can't tell us, like, if I owned a house, you can't tell me exactly what to do with my house, right? So then the Supreme Court like came down and told and said that, told the city of Austin that you can't tell people what to do with their single family homes. And so they ended up having to lift that regulation. So kind of now, Austin, as of recently, is now fair game.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

So I have a few, I have a few Airbnbs in Austin, but our problem is we're in Arlington, Texas, and they just banned it. Like they just flat out Yeah, like with Jerry Jones. I don't know if it was Jerry Jones, I ain't gonna put it on the hill, but I'm pretty sure it was. Like, they just straight came out and said, hey, it's done January 31st. They already handed out fines, people going to court, like some people ain't even written their spot, they just have a listing up, they handing out fines to them. I think the fines start off at like 300. Steve may be able to tell you more about it. He already yeah, so it's crazy, man. So yeah, I I need to figure out who the one who hit up the Supreme Court about that so we can get them in Arlington, man.

SPEAKER_04 18:03

Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy. I think I think it's interesting though, because then you see that happening in a city like Austin, you can only try, you can only think about okay, what else might come down in other cities that are having these strict rules? So we'll see what happens in the future.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Man, dude, that's crazy. So, like I checked out your website, uh, book home suites. That's dope. How are you are you taking direct bookings? Are you trying to move more towards that route?

Moving toward direct bookings at bookhomesuites.com

SPEAKER_04 18:32

I'm moving more direct, uh, moving more. Actually, I don't even have all my listings up on the site yet. I really had to site up for a credibility piece. Um so I don't even have all my listings up there, but I I'm gonna I'm gonna upload all my listings on the site. I mean, right now, um, you know, all my bookings are coming from Airbnb Booking.com, home away, VRBO. Those are the main four sites that we're on. Um, and so right now for 2020, that's one of the goals because we're starting to network directly with a lot of the hospitals here in Houston, a lot of the businesses here in Houston. We're gonna be working directly with them, letting them know who we are, what we do, how nice our units are. And so now we're gonna be getting booking here. So the the website was there for a credibility piece to get it going, but now we're gonna be taking full advantage of it. This is the time to do it, actually.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

Yeah, I really don't trust Airbnb. I think they're gonna go up on fees towards they are, they are.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

With them going public, they it's almost like they don't have a chance. I mean, they have to they have to they have to appease the shareholders, they have to maintain their their evaluation, and they're gonna maintain it no matter what at all costs. And if that means we're increasing the fees, they're gonna increase the fees. So that's definitely the time.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

So I have a I have an important question. Is that Turkey Leg Hut actually that good?

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Hell yeah, it's that good. So if you if you haven't had it yet, you definitely gotta try it. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. I'm I'm really happy for what those for what those folks are doing, man, at Turkey Leg. And here's the thing. Let's see, one, two, three. Mainly all my units are within 10 minutes from there. I have five units that are not even five minutes away from there. So yeah. I'm staying with you the next time I come. I'm sleeping with TJ. There'll be guests that book and they'll ask, hey, uh, just want to make sure it looks like it's pretty close to Turkey Leg Hub, but I just want to make sure that it's it's pretty close to Turkey Leg. Like, guests will ask, like, they'll hear for other things, but they want to be able to hit up Turkey Leg Hut. It's like the hottest restaurant in Houston right now, man. There's definitely up there. I mean, you know, and and the credit credit to them. They're they're doing great things, and the food is amazing. And uh they do a good job in that community too, because they're they're right there at the heart of Third Ward, and uh it's they're doing pretty good things, man. The food is amazing too, so yeah, they definitely deserve it.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

I heard there was some neighbors getting pissed because it it was it smelled like I guess it's made the neighbor neighborhood smell too good or something.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Make the neighborhood smell too good. That's exactly what happened, man. You know, it's you know, it's it's it's man, I don't even know. We can go off into deep end as to the crux of that issue. Um, podcast. We keep it 100. You know, well let's just let's just say our uh you know our our our neighbors, our uh our our counterparts, our our more, our more lighter complexion counterparts were on a we're on a we're on a hating wave, uh let's just put it like that. So uh but you know the they ended up you know the whole thing ended up being dropped and uh so I was really happy for that. Supporting a turkey leg hut to get this lawsuit dropped and ended up uh ended up working out pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

So Yeah, I was sharing everything on my IG, man. So

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Keep it up, man. Cause I love Turkey Leg Hut.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

It's crazy. It wasn't even just Houston. I mean, people from all over all different cities were like supporting Turkey Leg Hut. It was crazy, man. It was dope to see though. Yeah, and it was crazy. Like the people in Atlanta want one in their city. They was like, hey, we gonna bring that to me.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

I was like, hey, man, they're asking for it in different cities.

SPEAKER_04 22:19

They might, they might, man. I mean, there's some rumors that they might. So I don't know if that's the case or not, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Yeah, man. So by the way, people out there, we we I'm not uh we don't get paid by turkey leg hut, but if you in Houston, go to the turkey leg hut. Seafood, turkey legs, drinks, kick it all night. I love it. Every time after we go to the club, we go to turkey leg hut afterwards.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Oh yeah.

Themed units: music legends wall, sports illustrated concept

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Yeah, man. So uh so like what's your Airbnbs? Like, are you doing different themes? Are particular groups you're targeting? How are you going about it?

SPEAKER_04 22:53

Yeah, definitely. I mean, well, you know, and and that's a two-part question. So now all my units that I set up now are themed on some level. Um, and I realize that my theme units are performing very well. Um, because at the end of the day, you know, a few years ago, when when Airbnb wasn't as big as it was, you could have just put any old couch or maybe just a mattress on the floor, and you probably would have still been pretty profitable on Airbnb because it was just still such a commodity, just kind of the thing to do still. But nowadays, you know, things are changing. People, guests expect more out of hosts, and and even and also there's more direct competition. Now, as a whole, our real competition are hotels. Let's not let's definitely not misunderstand that. But of course, there's direct competition. So people expect more, and you definitely want to make sure that you that you get in yours in your particular area, and that means you coming with it. That means you actually making your units nice. That means you find creative ways to identify yourself to uh and stand out at these different listings and as people are looking. So definitely um we're we're we're definitely theming things up. Um the last unit that we did, we did like a music legend theme, right? So my decorator did a phenomenal job. Um like there's a there's a whole wall. It's like a music legend wall where and it's all these black and white photos and like these gold frames, and guests come in there, they say, Oh, that's you know, the the Beatles, oh, that's Ray Charles. And they try to guess who all the legends are. Some of them are like, you know, in their current how they look currently, some of them are like pieces of them way back in the day. So you might not be able to really guess who they are, but they always try to guess, but it it turned out looking great. The whole it's a three-bedroom, two-bath unit. Every room, everything has a theme flowing through it. And uh, that's actually a duplex unit. And then the upstairs unit, we're furnishing that unit right now, and that unit, we're going with like a uh people people still my ideas for my theme. Oh, yeah, because they're they're they'll still them, man. They'll be like, hey, that dude don't win, but thrive. See, you know what? Just know we get we got some theme units. We're doing some things. Tell us about them when they already up. I'll tell you when it's already up. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's it's a it's a whole it's a whole like a kind of like the way we would like the music legend, we're doing like a sports legend. So it's like every every athlete that's ever grazed like a sports illustrator cover. So we're doing like a whole sports illustrated thing. It's a whole thing. Um, and you don't have to go too elaborate with your themes, though. You know, some such a simple um, you know, you could you could have like an animal theme. If you, you know, I know I even Sean talked about how they bought like a this elephant piece, and they just built off of that, you know, one of his units. They just did like a whole elephant theme, you know. And so just make sure it falls it flows well and it's functional and it photographs very well, and um, and you'll you'll and and that's a good go, and you'll see that it does pretty well. I'll notice, and now I'm starting to hire a designer back, but my first like probably my first few units, five units, I was designing everything myself. You know what I'm saying? I was picking everything out. Me and the wifey, we were picking everything out and designing everything. So, but we noticed that that's why it's important to hire people who are good at what they do and let them do what they do, right? So we noticed that our designer, and we thought we were doing something. When our designer came in, did a way better job than we did. So, so it's working out pretty well. So, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Yeah, that's how it was. Me and my wife was doing the design, and man, yeah. So I was like, man, we got to get a designer so we can streamline everything. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Makes life a lot easier too. My goodness.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

So, like, what systems are you using to automate your business?

SPEAKER_04 26:35

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, of course, you have your like your field partners and then your technology

Systems and team: Smart BNB, PriceLabs, TurnoverBnB, maintenance on retainer

SPEAKER_04 26:39

partners, right? So, you know, I have I have an uh you know, assistant, then of course your cleaning crew, which is the backbone of your business, um, your cleaning crew, uh, we have our linen service, our cleaning crew. I have a maintenance guy that's on retainer, and my maintenance guy, you know, anything that might happen, like anything that'll happen at any, he's on call essentially. So uh my maintenance guy, then of course we have the technology partners like we are we're heavy on Smart BNB, we love Smart B. You know, we have our guidebook, Smart B, you know, we use uh our website, which also um uh does a calendar management as well. And we have a rep we use price labs for our revenue management. And um, so yeah, those are pretty much our our technology partners. Um and we're like we love turnover as well, turnover for our for to manage our cleaning process. So we love turnover. Um so yeah, essentially, that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_05 27:36

I see you're using your um engineering skills to to run your systems, right? Yeah, you see exactly.

SPEAKER_04 27:43

You know, you know, it's crazy. I you know, when I I went to the University of Houston, I um I I graduated from there with no student loans, by the way. I paid my way through college, and um and it was it's interesting because I look at it now, I was like, damn, you got an engineering degree. You know, people like they're not even using it anymore. People always say that to me a lot. You have a whole engineering degree, but it's crazy how certain things that you pick up still apply. You know what I mean? You know, certain things like that. So definitely.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Man, it's crazy. Every single person that I've seen that go from Airbnb, they all come from an engineering background, man. For real? Yeah, like I'm an engineer. My boy Josh, Norman, all them engineers, all them engineers, crazy, crazy. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_04 28:24

You know, you know Josh and Norman? Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Um, Norman, for sure. Uh uh Josh, I believe I met Josh. I believe I met Josh, but yeah, uh Norman I know pretty well. I actually uh we went to go look at a at a at a triplex that I was looking to purchase, and I hit up Norman. I told her, hey, just come check this property out with me. And we went to come check it out with me. It's actually on the same street as my other two duplexes are. Really?

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Yeah, yeah, because I was the one he was like, hey, I'm looking at this. Yeah, he tells it, yeah. So man, what y'all doing? Like all these multifamilies, man. Is the Houston market saturated right? Is it becoming saturated or is it just open game right now?

SPEAKER_04 29:04

You know, you know, you uh and I and I'll keep it 100. I think there is a level of saturation depending on the area, um, especially like for one bedrooms. If your unit sleeps like four, um in these key in these areas, I think there is some level of saturation. I mean you have companies like Lyric, companies like Sonder, who has made a huge stake here in Houston. And I mean, you'll people were people like just two years ago were killing it. And then as soon as kind of they came up and took a lot of the market share, then you'll notice that kind of decrease, which kind of, which you know, it's it's in retrospect, you could say it's a bad thing, but you know, as a as an entrepreneur, you know, it kind of forces you to adapt. It forces you to um, it forces you to get unique, forces you to be creative, it forces you to step your game up. And for the ones who are doing it right that are actually stepping the game up and staying on top of their business, um you'll notice that it's still pretty profitable. You know what I mean? So um, so but I noticed that like if you have a nice unit that can sleep about eight in these key areas, you still do very, very, very well. Um because that's kind of not the space that they're kind of in. Um there's an there's an apartment complex right in Midtown here. I know Saunder rented, rent is rented, has a five-year lease on that entire building. The entire and they have one and two bedroom units. So, and they and their units sleep anywhere between four to six. So, um, but I I have properties that I rent to arbitrage are literally within five minutes away from there. But my properties are still doing pretty well, just because I mean it kind of forced me to to to to kind of get more creative and get more and fine-tune my processes and fine-tune uh my automation and things like that. So, you know, for for the ones that are doing it right that are that are staying on top of it and and and and not not looking at it as like a you know, such this big loss or anything like that, you know, I I believe that they're still being profitable. Like there's an area, they have some properties like in a galleria area, and even in the galleria is tough in Houston because even though it's a huge business sector, it's a huge financial sector here in Houston, but there's a ton of hotels for one, and then there's a lot of competition there. So for you still gotta be smart at some level. Like if you're gonna be in the galleria area, I would recommend your unit to sleep at least six. I recommend it to sleep eight, even. Um, so you just kind of gotta know the the pockets that you should be in, that you shouldn't be in. And if you're gonna be in it, how many people should you sleep, how many bedrooms should you have, how should you set up your units, um, and look at what other look at the ones that are doing pretty well, look at their units, let's see how they're set up, look at their photos, things like that. You know, just just being a student of the game. Um, because I don't care how how good you're doing or how well your systems are, how well your automation processes are, you gotta be a student of the game no matter what and keep learning and keep adapting. So I think I think there's there is a certain point of saturation on some level, but then if you I think for later on it's gonna get to a point of stabilization for those who because there's probably gonna be a lot of people that drop off, and for those who are actually staying in it and doing it right, they're still gonna be getting a lot of bookings.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Man, so it sounds like Dallas kind of did the same thing. One bedroom studios that got oversaturated. Yeah, people are like, okay, let's go to the outskirts and get bigger homes and put them on there, and they're exactly doing what you're doing. You know, you can sleep more. So is that what you are you targeting like the bigger homes? Do you have like multiple three-bed, two baths, or are you just not really?

SPEAKER_04 32:51

So I I I like the I like the like um I have I have I have some three-bed, two bath. Like I'm remodeling a duplex right now that's a two-one each unit, but I'm making it a two-two. But it's a big, there it's actually pretty big. Each unit is almost 1,400 square feet. So each unit's actually gonna sleep eight. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it a I'm adding a restroom to it. So each unit's gonna be a two-two that sleeps eight. So um the room, one of the rooms are big. We're gonna do two queens in one room, a king in the other room, and a pull-out sofa to sleep eight. So um, I'm kind of if I see the opportunity, um, I'm letting my units sleep a little more. I'm looking at, I'm looking at uh an apartment complex downtown on Monday, actually, that we've already talked to, and we've been in talks with them about our business plan, and it looks like they're gonna go ahead and let us pick up a few units. We're gonna start off with two or three, and then we're gonna go from there. And I'm gonna get uh to pop it off, I'm gonna get two two-bedroom units and one one-bedroom unit. Um, it's in a very, very great area downtown. I mean, really, really good area downtown. So um, so I'm I'm looking to get, you know, if I can get a little bit, I can get a like a two-bedroom to sleep a little more, I'm gonna take advantage of that.

SPEAKER_05 34:09

So, real quick, there's no rumblings at all, like Houston's trying to restrict or ban Airbnb at all.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

So, so there's no rumblings. No, not at all. You know, the city actually makes money on behalf of Airbnb, so I don't think they're trying to stop that bag anytime soon. Um, and you know, one thing you gotta understand about Houston, the city is so big. You know, it's not like the way the way the rental rates were affected in Austin, you you won't feel it, we don't feel it like that here in Houston, just because there's so much available and there's there's their city is so big, and it just completely just keeps going out and out and out. And um so we're not, you know, people aren't complaining. So in Houston, it's not so much will the city allow it. That's a given, yes. And they're not, and it seems like it's here to stay, it's more so like will that area allow it? Will the HOA in that area allow it? Or are there deed restrictions in that neighborhood that won't allow it? So it's more so in that area. Like there was some uh there were some units in east downtown that were looking to take down some loft styles, some apartment complexes, and uh we were pretty much about to sign these leases, and uh, but then the board said that no, we don't want we don't want that here. Uh so that's more so what you gotta worry about.

SPEAKER_05 35:21

Yeah. Yeah. Now were you were you all booked up when Kanye came into town and and played at that church?

SPEAKER_04 35:30

Oh man, uh I definitely was. I definitely was, and it's crazy because I was actually, man, that weekend was booked even before I found out that that was happening. But um, if it wasn't booked, it definitely would have been. I mean, uh that was that was interesting, by the way. Um I end up watching it. I didn't even want to see, I didn't want to experience the chaos, but I have a lot of friends that went, and uh, but I end up watching it at home. So, but yeah, we were we were pretty booked even before I even found out about that.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Hold on. Did you uh so you've been doing a two-year, were you hosting just during Super Bowl?

SPEAKER_04 36:05

No, no. I'm like, I missed that window. Uh I started. It was that was that was uh that was Feb that was earlier 2017. February 2017. And so I started listing right at the tail end, like December going into January 2018 was when I started. Um yeah, I missed that boat. But uh I believe it's coming, I think two more years or two or three years. So oh yeah. It's coming back. Oh yeah, it's coming back to Houston. Three more years? Oh, I might need to go ahead and hop in, man. I believe so. I'll need to do my from what I know. I I'm gonna I'm gonna look into that, but I believe I know it's coming back. I know it's coming back for sure. I think it's about three years or so, I believe. So yeah, we go, we're gonna have to clean up. We're gonna clean up nicely.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

Oh yeah, man, because I was down there in the neighborhood, I was at my cousin's house in North Houston, in the neighboring. He was probably making about he said he made like a few grand. I was like, dang, but I believe it, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:05

So my when it came to when it came to Dallas or Arlington, we had like the the harshest blizzard ever in the history, so it was pretty bad. And it had and and it hasn't snowed since. So that's how bad luck Jerry Jerry Jones has.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Oh man. Oh man. Yeah. Man.

SPEAKER_05 37:24

But uh so you you were in the oil and gas industry. Yeah. And and um and it's crazy because you said you started buying properties right away, and that's cool. And I was like, and it and it's instantly reminded me, like I have cousins and friends that during that time when it was over a hundred dollars a barrel, they were making bank, man. They were they were making like they could just write their paychecks, and they had these big they got, of course, a lot of them bought these big trucks and big toys and all this crap, and then like you said, it just kind of crashed.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:54

And so you did a smart thing, you were buying up properties at the time. Yep. Now, now if if another if another bubble happened or another, you know, it shot up like crazy, is there any is there any way you can make money in that industry, like maybe you know, providing housing to these guys? Because they're big ballers when it's up.

SPEAKER_04 38:10

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Um, you know, and that's providing that's probably probably my number one way to do it is to provide housing for for

Serving medical travelers: TVs in every room, king beds, printers

SPEAKER_04 38:20

uh for business travelers, especially in the oil and gas space. And there are certain oil and gas kind of markets here in Houston that um that are heavy in all like areas that are heavy oil and gas. Um, so that yeah, I will I would I would take take advantage of that fully 100% for sure. I serve a lot of business travelers now though. Like I serve a lot of business travelers, and we tailor make our units to make sure because at the end of the day, it's important that you have an avatar. Like you need to know exactly who you're serving. Like, that's the question. And I noticed that when I tailor my units to who I'm serving, um it it might my reviews are are are nicer. Uh my reviews are are even better. Um, like for example, we serve a lot of people that travel for medical reasons. So people ask me, one of the things I do is I put a I put a television, a flat screen TV mounted on the wall in every single room that I have. If it's a living room or a bedroom, I put a TV in there. Um, do you have to have a TV in every room? And even in my three bedrooms, I'll put a TV in there. No, you don't have to. I know who I'm serving, right? I had somebody that checked out at my unit not too long ago. They stayed for 18 nights. Um, a girl, uh a young lady and her family came down and they she got a small procedure done on her brain to get a small tumor removed. But, you know, after they got the procedure done the day after they checked in. So when they after the procedure was done, they were recovering at my unit. And so you can imagine if somebody gets any type of procedure, you know, whether it's a knee or whatever, they're not that mobile. When they're laying down and recovering in the bedroom, their their mobility is quite limited, right? So it'll be a great thing if they can be entertained, right, with the cable and a Netflix while while they're laying down to be entertained while they can't move around so much. They really appreciate that. We do king beds. We do make sure our mattress is a quality, quality mattress. So the the review literally says, Thank you so much for having such a great bed. It's super comfortable. It was a big bed. It had plenty of room for uh for me and my mom to lay next in because she was um she was uh she was a high risk of seizures. So her mom was able to, you know, lay next to her and and watch her overnight as she slept. So things like that, you know, just kind of putting yourself in the guest shoes and knowing who you're serving, right? Are units that we know we attract a lot of business travelers. We put to make sure we put a desk in there, a workstation in there, right? So we put a printer in there. The printer hardly gets used, but there are such things as certain things that you just put in your units that even though it doesn't get used much, the gesture speaks a lot. And to me, the printer is one of those things. And so uh we know we're serving business travelers, we put one in there, and it hardly gets used, but they highly appreciate it, and it helps the review. So having that avatar is very important.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

Yeah, I used to have a printer and one of mine, and a lot of people start using it with their phone, using their phone. Yeah, so yeah, it's definitely a help. Definitely a help. Definitely new to printers.

SPEAKER_05 41:19

All right, another important question. Profile pick. Do you put your own picture on your profile pick?

SPEAKER_04 41:25

Man, you know what's crazy. Um I I experimented, and I'm kind of still experimenting now.

Profile picture experiments: personal photo vs logo vs stock image

SPEAKER_04 41:32

I put my profile, a picture of me and the wifey at first, and you know, I just wanted to see what it would do if I put my logo. I didn't notice much of a difference at all, honestly. Um, but I'm actually considering going back because when you think about the premise of Airbnb, it's like people connecting people. You know what I mean? So I think, you know, I don't I don't want to seem too corporate y. So with our systems and our automation, we're already kind of seem corporate y a little bit, but if we can have a picture, I think the picture might do a little bit better. Um, but then you know what's interesting, and I'm just keeping 100 with y'all. I ended up using a profile picture of somebody else, totally. Um, a very, you know, young, pretty, you know, uh lady. White girl.

unknown 42:26

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

And I'm not gonna lie, I I I feel like I noticed I noticed an uptick on that. So so there was a slight uptick on that. You know what I mean? So um, so uh that's something that that I experimented with as well before. But I mean, kind of to each his own. I mean, I think I don't think it makes that big of a difference, but I think there are definitely some people who like to, if they're gonna be want to experience the city in a residential view and experience that city in a different way than experiencing a hotel, then I think kind of having your personal brand, um, and when I talk about brand like you on there could go a long way as well. So we're actually, I'm actually looking to switch it back to the personal picture than the logo. So right now we have the logo. I've had the logo for like probably last seven months up there.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:21

Here's one thing that I noticed when when I did, I used to have you know profile pic of me and the fam, the family before, you know, Hispanic family. And I noticed we got like mostly minority renters. And um when we did have that, and then I you know I eventually changed it to my logo, you know, after I did it for a while, and then it was just a mix of uh whoever, you know. But I just I just thought that. Did you did you uh notice anything like that?

SPEAKER_04 43:49

You know what's crazy? I wanna I wanna agree with that. I wanna agree with that. I I think it was still a mix, but when when you when I when I think about it, it was uh it was definitely. Towards minority when I had when it was just kind of me. And so I I'm inclined to definitely agree with that. And then when I switch it to the logo, I mean it's a mix now. Like it's a pure mix now. I get all kinds of people that book with me now. But we have the logo on there. So I'm definitely, I'm definitely inclined to agree with that for sure.

SPEAKER_05 44:20

And then when you switch it uh to the white girl, it's minority again. I just kidding.

SPEAKER_04 44:29

Oh man, it got it got it got somewhat uncomfortable. I told my lady, I said, man, you might have to start managing this thing for because it got a couple. There were people that would like say things that were like I was like, yo, hey, hey. So yeah, it got it, it got it can get a little uncomfortable. Yeah. They didn't know they were being catfished. Oh, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Yeah, because I ain't gonna lie, I I got a I did all three. I did me and me and the wife, I did the logo. Then I I still got the white girl up now, but like you can't really tell. She she looks more Hispanic, but like man, it's crazy. Like people I noticed all my West Coast listings, I get way more. Like the San Diego's, the Vegas's, I get way more. I'm like, oh, I don't know, maybe it's it's crazy. Like geography has a lot to do with it too. It was weird.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. It definitely does.

SPEAKER_05 45:32

It definitely does. Just put a picture of the the turkey shack on there, and you'll get a lot of people. Turkey leg shack, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

That's funny, man.

SPEAKER_05 45:46

Now at that at that restaurant, because I I see it on uh social media a lot. Is it a mix of uh or is it mostly minorities that go there?

SPEAKER_04 45:53

Is it a mix of people that go there? Uh I feel like it's mostly minorities. But I've never seen it's all kinds of people that go. It's all kinds of people.

SPEAKER_05 46:01

You never seen what?

SPEAKER_02 46:03

I seen one white dude standing in line, man. When I was there, I literally seen one white dude standing in line.

SPEAKER_01 46:11

I mean I was like, dang, but it was cool though, because everybody's accepting, you know.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

Hey, you know, you know, uh, it's definitely mostly minorities, but but you'll see, you know, last time I was there, I saw I saw I saw a few. I saw a few a few of my white folks there. Um, but but definitely mostly minority. I mean, for sure, for sure. But that's good though. I mean, you know, they got they got they got the minority support 100%. So it's good.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Definitely. Yeah, man. Those profile pictures are a trip, man. That's a trip. Man, so man, so you're trying to get up to 25 in Houston

Goal to hit 25 units in Houston then expand to Atlanta or Philly

SPEAKER_02 46:50

and then branch out, huh? Yeah, I'm branching out after that. Yeah, I'm 25. Okay, that's a good number. Yeah, then you kind of compete with yourself at that point. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 46:59

So, what's what's your goal out of this? I mean, is your goal to get like a hundred units, thousand units, or just to be financially independent, or what's what's the end game?

SPEAKER_04 47:07

You know, that's a good question. I mean, you know, they say that every successful entrepreneur sells a business. So that's you know, that may be something I'll be considering down the line. Um, when I get to, you know, a pretty a pretty high valuation point. I might consider uh I might consider building it up and then selling it, but still keeping my properties to where you know then they will have to be renting from me at that point, right? So it, you know, we'll see. I mean, oh, I may, I may not. I'm actually not sure. But um, you know, right now I'm just focused on scaling it. Um focus on branching out, focus on the educational piece, because I'm having like, you know, my masterclasses are are sold out every time I do it. They're going very, very well. My next one's coming up on March 21st. It's gonna be a great masterclass. When is that? I might uh have to come down. Yeah, yeah. March 21st here in Houston. You know what I'm saying? It's gonna be here in Houston, um, in the city. So, you know, it's gonna be relatively you know, close to the downtown area. Um, so yeah, yeah, definitely, man. March 21st.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

It's a Saturday, it's a one-day class. Okay, shoot the link and we'll put that in the show notes so whoever wants to come to his master class in Houston, uh, because I'm definitely sign up. March 21st, I'm signing up. March 21st.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

March 21st, March 21st, man. It's gonna be awesome, man. And and um, you know.

SPEAKER_05 48:34

You can stream it too.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

So last time, uh, you know, I might I'm I may stream it. I may stream it. I'm gonna have like a uh somebody that actually like a professional crew to help me with the stream this time. I held a shorter version because the one I'm doing is a one-day class. We're going for eight hours diving into the business. You know what I mean? So, but the I did a shorter version once and I tried to stream that one, but we had so many technical difficulties, and uh I literally had to, I felt so bad, I gave back everybody that was streaming, I gave them their money back because it will have so many technical difficulties in between. Even though they still got a great amount of the knowledge. Um, so but this time I think I'm gonna hire somebody to actually handle that and to stream it. Um so it's it's something that I'm highly, highly concerned doing a streaming. Um I may actually do it. Do the streaming. Um I'm gonna be recording everything into different sections, and I'm also I'm gonna make the recordings available for people as well to get to catch the recording for those who weren't able to make it. So at least one of the two, one of those two will happen, or both. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

I will be in the building. I'm coming to that.

SPEAKER_04 49:47

It's gonna be a good look. It's gonna be a great. It's a Saturday, 8 30 to 4 30. It's a Saturday. The last one I did, we ended up going to like almost six o'clock. They didn't want to leave, they just wanted the more knowledge. Damn. I like that. Yeah, but I would try to I'm gonna try to be respectful of people's time this time.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

So uh TJ, you you um have you heard of the four-hour work week or you read it? I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_04 50:11

You know what's crazy? It's on my oh man, well, it's on my reading list for this year. That's my that's my February read, actually. It's one of my February reads. Um so I'm gonna be reading that. I I've I've heard of it, of course. Uh, I know it's a very popular read, um, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet, actually.

SPEAKER_05 50:27

So have you um I guess the I guess the idea of it is if you if you set it's all about systems. If you set your systems up right, you only have to work maybe about four hours a week, and your but is your business is gonna run itself. Do you are you to the point where you're pulling you know away from your business more and more and setting up the systems where it does run itself?

SPEAKER_04 50:46

Oh man, and um absolutely, absolutely. It's all about the systems, man. And and uh I was in I was in Jamaica in September, systems were doing were going to work, team was doing this doing this thing. Um and it's crazy because you know, me and my mentors, we have like our mastermind call on a weekly basis, sometimes twice a week. Um, and and you know, there'll be certain people and and and they'll ask questions and different things like that. And a lot of times my mentor would always say, you know how to solve that? Get more units. I think it's interesting how easier the business actually gets in terms of running it by scaling it, getting more units, because it actually gets easier to run because now you can hire people, you can outsource more, you can hire people, you can remove yourself from certain from certain tasks by having the income and the cash flow to do it. So um definitely, definitely, I'm looking for even look even looking forward to my next hire, which is gonna be like my uh my official like boost to ground person. Like I have a I kind of have that, I have somebody in my cleaning crew that does that, but I want to have somebody that that's like their focus, the the the the runner, the that porter, that boots on the ground person. Um so I kind of have that now, but I'm definitely gonna that's gonna be my next, and that's gonna free up a lot of time. Um, you know, so the systems are are pretty are pretty tight. They're pretty, they're they're running pretty well, and they're able to to run the business. And uh even if I'm out of town, the systems go to work. And so uh, but but there are even certain things that I'm still looking forward to outsourcing. So when I get more units, I'm definitely gonna be doing that.

SPEAKER_05 52:26

Now have you ever tried virtual assistance?

Virtual assistant advice: don't hire until you have documented SOPs

SPEAKER_04 52:29

Yes, yes, yes, most definitely. And that's and I think the the the toughest part about a VA is just is just the training them, right? Because you're gonna have to go through a lot of a lot of frogs before you find the right one. But but yeah, definitely, definitely. And that's one of the um well, I have a VA now that uh that's doing a great job, and they handle a lot of the the management, especially like with the guest and managing things with the cleaning crew. So yeah, yeah, definitely. Oh, nice individual from the Philippines. Sweet.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

And um so what would be your advice uh to somebody like looking for a virtual assistant to help run their business?

SPEAKER_04 53:11

Um I would say I would say um I would say be patient. I would say know know your entire business and your systems that way you can properly train them. Um and I think I think some people might if if you're not ready for that in terms of what you know and and knowing how like if you can't if you can't put it on a paper and present it to somebody who doesn't know anything and they can go out there and execute it like effectively, then you're not ready to hire a VA. Like you need to be able to get to that point before you hire one. That'd be my advice. Because you'll you'll you'll save a lot of um you'll save a lot of headaches and time running through VAs that way by having it down and being able to articulate it effectively and train them effectively on this on your systems.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Create an SOP.

SPEAKER_04 54:03

Absolutely. Standard operational procedures. Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

Engineering again, right?

SPEAKER_05 54:13

And and and you you do want to like you keep saying, um uh boots on the ground person, you do want to hire hire an assistant that's gonna be there to to take care of everything.

SPEAKER_04 54:22

Absolutely, absolutely. Somebody that's like that's there physically, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05 54:27

Oh, okay. Yeah, so you just pull yourself totally out of the business then.

SPEAKER_04 54:31

Absolutely. But but I can only do that if I get more units. There you go. That's all that problem.

SPEAKER_05 54:40

But yeah, go ahead. Yeah, because I was gonna go to Houston actually last week. It kind of fell through because our you know, our our our little one was sick and we we couldn't fly over there. But we're gonna go for the the same-day passport thing. And um, and these people were hitting me up, you know. I got I hit I put on there the Houston Airbnb Facebook group, and I was like, hey, I need a spot for one day, anybody got a deal, whatever. And man, these people had there's tons, thousands of Airbnbs, man. Especially if you just need like a one-bedroom, or like you said, like like you were saying earlier, you gotta distinguish yourself, you can have like a three-bedroom or something big. But I mean, but these things were nice and for cheap, man. I was like, how the hell are they doing this? But the thing is, with the if you for renting something for one night in Houston, it would it was like okay, you can get it for 60 or 70 bucks or or 90 bucks, you know, and get a real freaking badass place. But it's gonna be an Airbnb fee, they're gonna be a city fee, there's gonna be a tax, it's gonna be this and that. After after said and done, that $60 place is $200 or something dollars for one night. And the hotels, if you rent a $60 hotel, you're gonna be paying like $65, you know. I don't know how they they pay less in taxes or whatever, but so that's the only thing I saw that there's so many Airbnbs right now of the one-bedroom, two-bedroom in Houston, and they're freaking nice. I mean, they're decking these things out.

SPEAKER_04 56:03

Yeah, yeah, and I and I definitely agree with that. And you know, and I think the the key thing to to realize and know is that um when you when you look at the the experience that you're providing though, um, it's totally different from like a hotel, right? So you know, you're providing a whole different experience. Like even the the two-bedroom that I have that is really, really close to University of Houston, um really close by there, and you know, there's a family that booked it, a sleep six. There was a family that booked it, and um, they were like, you know, hey, we're we're just happy that we found your place because we would have had to get two hotel rooms to to accommodate us. Um so because they had like down with them with the kids and all that. So I mean there, you know, I definitely agree with you. And um I think it's just it's just important. That's why it's even more so important that you that you provide a unique space, that you provide a nice space, that your reviews are on point, and um, and that people find paying those extra fees worthwhile than to staying in a hotel because they know that they're gonna get at the end of the day a better experience at your unit than staying at a hotel, if that makes sense. Yeah. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

Definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_05 57:19

So one more thing. Um could you give us um a TJ tip? A TJ is something that that's original to you that can really

TJ tip: speed test your Wi-Fi and add the screenshot to your listing photos

SPEAKER_05 57:30

help someone out out help someone out a lot. Like, I don't know, something different, something that you don't hear all the time in all these thousands of podcasts that are out there, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

I would say this. Um I'm gonna go. Okay, so first of all, get the fastest internet possible in your area, whatever is the fastest internet that that unit can provide, um, get it. Get the fastest, get the fastest internet, and do a speed test on your phone. Or if you have a laptop, do a speed test. Um, take a screenshot of your speed test, especially if you have if you can if you can get at least like eight, eighty, eighty megabits per second, um, then do a speed test, screenshot it, and add it as part of your photo rails and your photo. That's a little hack because what it does is understand that there are all different kinds of people that book through Airbnb. A lot of a large group of those are millennials like us. And uh and people that care about Wi-Fi, really everybody cares about Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is super, super crucial. But if they can see how fast your Wi-Fi is before booking, that'll give you an edge. You know what I mean? So that's just a little tip for me to y'all know that already. But uh, do a speed test. If you have, if you have the fact if you if you know you got good Wi-Fi, do a speed test and add it to your photos. Add it to your photos and pee and watch people will book it just because they can see that you have fast Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Yeah, I didn't think of that one. That's a good one. I'm adding that one to the to the tip.

SPEAKER_04 59:09

Just tip especially business travels too, because they know they come in with their laptops, they say, Oh, you got super fast Wi-Fi, and the place is dope. Oh, yeah, I'm booking too.

unknown 59:18

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:21

That's a smart idea, man. That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_05 59:23

I've had I've had people ask that before how fast my Wi-Fi was and stuff. I was like, I don't freaking know. But now I know it is crucial to some people. Because some people be in town, they gotta do some work and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 59:35

It's all about something.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

Absolutely. They gotta do some cam work or something.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

Definitely. So man. So man, but yeah, TJ, man, thank you for coming on. You you you you really you taught me a lot, man. I like your systems you got going, you growing, man, and you're flipping, you didn't been flipping houses, you didn't wholesale them. Airbnb hosts, man, he's an all around hustler. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:00

Man, I appreciate y'all, man. I love what y'all are doing. Keep up the great work. You know what I'm saying? Keep up the great work and definitely know that you guys got my support 100%, man. However, I can add value to y'all, just let me know.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

Ask us however we can add value to the you. We got you, man. We definitely putting your master course on here. So I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:23

Sure. I'm uh I'm gonna definitely uh I'm gonna shoot it to you for sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:27

So where can folks find you, man?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:29

Man, definitely um heavy on Instagram. Um, I'm literally just created uh, well, apparently my my my real estate partners here said that I'm asleep on TikTok. So I don't know if that's something that you know you you advertise that you own, but I just made that. But um definitely heavy on Instagram at TJ Tajani. Uh at TJ T-I-J-A-N-I on I G. Um so I'm heavy on there. Um Facebook, TJ Tijani on Facebook as well. Uh the website for the bookings is uh bookhomesuites.com. Um like I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna completely update that site, but uh so stay tuned for that. But you can definitely still go on there and still check out some of my units. Um so definitely. And gonna be putting, uh I'll definitely send y'all the info for the master class as well. So the master class is March 21st here in Houston. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. I will be there.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:27

We'll go and then we'll hit up um Turkey Lake Shack for real.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

Let's get it. Let's get it. We can make it happen. Definitely. I'm gonna be in that thing. Coming down. I love each time.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Yeah, let's get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:42

But yeah, man, thank you for coming on. Um fellas, I mean ladies, are you ready to get your health and fitness game together? Be sure to follow Mahogany Artists on IG for all your fitness and nutritional needs. Be sure to follow us on IG, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We appreciate y'all. Appreciate y'all for the love. Thanks for being listeners, and thanks, TJ, for coming onto the show. We are out. Peace out.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:11

Christmas. Peace.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:15

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.