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.

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

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What's up, Micah Man?

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I'm good, Stevie Stacks. How you doing, brother?

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Good. Seems like we've been doing this for a while.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Yes, sir. Especially, especially getting rolling again lately. So that's always good.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yeah, we got getting rolling again. We back on our consistency.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Yes, sir. And this is episode 355 of your favorite short-term, mid-term, long-term pad split, podcast in the world coming at you from Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Let's go, man.

Texas Roadhouse: Hospitality Is the Business

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How you doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Action-packed episode for you. I'm doing good, man. Just got back from uh they do like a you know how they do the school fundraisers where you go eat at a restaurant and part of it goes to the to the school, right? Yeah. Even though our taxes are paying for the school. I don't, I'm confused. Anyways, whatever. I don't know what's going on with all the monies. Um, anyways, uh, yeah, we did that. So Texas Roadhouse. Texas Roadhouse, you know, to talk about hospitality, which is what we do. Hospitality, really, right? But we always gotta we always remember that, you know, it's a business, it's real estate, it's whatever, but in the in the end, what we're doing is hospitality because it's midterm rentals and short-term rentals, and of course, pet split. Um, and so that's what really that's why I invested, you know, in in roadhouse stock a while back, you know, just because I thought this is a good company. You know, you go in there, they greet you at the door, right? They they take you to your table, then the the waiter uh gets there. Well, yeah, the waiter comes and and says, you know, hey, how y'all doing? You need a new thing, blah blah. And then um, you know, everybody's really nice, really friendly. And the bus people are nice to you. Everybody's nice, and then even the manager comes, hey, y'all enjoyed. You know, it's like it's like they it feels like they care about you, right? Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I don't know, but it feels like that they that they really care that you're there and they're happy that you're there. Hey, is everything good? Does it look good? Whereas, you know, we go to one uh down the way close to us sometimes. It's a little bit more affordable than roadhouse, and it's but the food's good, just the service is just like, oh, you go sit yourself. I don't know. You might be waiting a little bit and you might have flag down the waiter, waitress, but um, it's the service ain't as up like like roadhouse. I mean, like I said, the food's pretty good. We go we enjoy it, but it's not roadhouse. And I'm like, that's what I'm sure that's what they stress with their employees to go above and beyond with the hospitality, you know, make them sure, you know, make sure everything's good on with them because you know it's going out for a steak, even though it's not you're not going to Roose Chris or somewhere super expensive, it's still for a family nowadays, going out for a steak is a little bit of money, so they don't always get to do that. So you're gonna make them feel good while they're there, you know. Straight up, man.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Yeah, that that that goes back in what we talked about, what, two weeks ago on the podcast. We talked about, hey, knowing your target audience, you know what I mean? Because you said the place down the street, they ain't got good customer service, but that food's probably really, really good. So you know what I mean? So it's like you go to out to eat in the hood, it's gonna have some damn good food, but the customer service is gonna be trash.

SPEAKER_04 3:29

Well, it depends.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

It depends. Maybe some maybe some hood places are good, you know. But I'll say this this level is it's like a Texas Roadhouse. I'm not wanting to mention the name of the place. Well, I'll mention that, you know, it's Logan's Roadhouse. They even call it Rogan, you know. You might have even been to one. I call it the poor man's uh uh Texas Roadhouse, but but it's shout out to Logan. Go ahead. Logan's, like I said, you can always get a table there, you know. Friday and Saturday, I'd try to get your table at Roadhouse, Texas Roadhouse, it's gonna be packed. But you can always get a table there, the food's pretty good, you know, prices are similar, but the customer service ain't there, and it's a chain too, but not as huge as Texas Roadhouse chain is, you know. I'm saying now, mom and pop joints in the hood, that's hit or miss. Sometimes it depends on who's working, sometimes they don't care about sometimes they're oh hey baby, what you doing? You know, it just depends. And um so yeah, yeah, that's that's that's all I was saying. Is that Roadhouse kind of like stands apart because of their customer service?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

That's a fact, and they know the target that's gonna go after that. Like I tell people, Chick-fil-A,

Chick-fil-A vs Zaxby's: Service Sets the Price

SPEAKER_02 4:32

bro, same thing. They there ain't no different than Zaxby's, but Chick-fil-A gonna have your stuff out in five minutes and tell you to have a blessed day.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

You know what I mean? Straight up, man.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

I was trying to say I try to say thank you as many times as I can so I can hear that. My pleasure, my pleasure, my pleasure. It's a trip, man. Yeah, um, yeah. Go ahead. No, no, I just thought yeah, just thinking that. It's like you said, customer service sets them apart.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Straight up, man. And then that that you can charge extra for customer service. You know what I mean? If you have bad customer service, you may charge a little cheaper, but you're people gonna come back for that food though, bro.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

But you know, and you know what? It's cool too. It's like I just thought of it now with um with Chick-fil-A. They're closed on Sundays for religious reasons because you know they're they're Christian organization, Christian corporation, whatever. Um, and they close on Sundays, all the employees have Sundays off. So you think about that. You're gonna attract probably some better employees because they, you know, they're gonna, oh, that's a cool job. I can have kind of like the weekend off, you know. Whereas if they go start at McDonald's or they could start, they might be closing shift on Saturdays and Fridays and Saturdays and Sunday, you know. Whereas Chick-fil-A, they at least they know they have Sunday off and they can at least go maybe hang out and party with their friends on Friday on Saturday night, you know what I'm saying? And then still have a whole Sunday off. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

I'm gonna be honest, if I was a college student, I would work here at Chick-fil-A. Yeah, I mean, if you guaranteed Sunday off, you know what I mean? That's a perfect, and they help I think they help you go to school, I believe. My niece would work there, and they're overall, they're a really good company. You know what I'm saying? I would definitely, you know, that's how I would think too. Like, I got my Sunday off Saturday night, we turning up. If I was a college student, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 6:12

Sunday we're dragging our bus to church. Yeah, there you go. Go repent for all the sinning you

Nice Place or Great Service? Rentals Need Both

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did.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah, that's how it is, man. But yeah, man, that's how it is, bro. You gotta same thing with short-term rentals. You gotta know, do you have a really nice place or are you providing extremely great customer service? You could provide both, you know, and you get really good guests,

We Got Rid of All Our Hood Dallas Units

SPEAKER_02 6:35

you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Man, I was uh I was talking to um uh a buddy of mine who used to clean for us in Dallas, right? Now I said we got we got rid of um all of our ghetto units over there, right? All the ghetto Dallas units where we started, you know, where we cut our teeth over there. Um and we do manage one that's still in the ghetto for someone else, it's still in the same spot. But um, she's getting out of that. She asked me for advice, and I'm the one managing it and getting paid from, and I'm still yeah, you should probably let it go. It's not, it's yeah, I I feel bad for her, you know. Dang! And so, yeah, you should let it go. No, it's not worth it. Um, but he used to clean for us. Real cool guy. He was always there. If I needed something in any unit, you know, he'd he could do handyman stuff too, is one of those guys. He started to try to grow his cleaning business, but then he started, you know, well, it's hard for cleaners to grow their business because they clean really good, but the people under them, you know, it's hard to find someone that's gonna clean really good and they can't be everywhere at once. So it started slipping, and then he kind of gave up his business, got a real job, as he said. And um, but anyway, I was talking to him the other day because I was talking asking him if he could help someone move over there in Dallas out of that unit, and um it's he's still if he still does handyman stuff and he does on the side, he still does handyman stuff. So we just started reminiscing, right? It's a long story longer, and about all those days. So much it, you

Starting in the Hood Teaches You Everything

SPEAKER_03 7:54

know. I'll say this if someone's gonna start an Airbnb or short-term rentals, starting in the hood, you know, it sounds like yeah, you shouldn't do it. All the viewers say don't do that. That's a great way to learn the business, man, because you're gonna see everything. Yeah, you do, you're gonna see some situations, man. And and and he started, we started going, you know, tell reminiscing on stories, and he said, Oh, it's really bad now, man. Some guy got stabbed up in front of his unit the other day because his girl was, you know, mad at him, and there's blood all over the hallways. I was like, damn, you know, it's like all these stories. And he goes, You remember that unit you used to have, and when the police kicked into the door and they and they arrested that lady? And I didn't even remember that story. So many stories happen that I didn't even remember. I was like, I kind

Cops Kicked In the Door: Our Guest Was a Fugitive

SPEAKER_03 8:37

of it sounds what happened. He goes, Yeah, she was like on the run from murdering a chick in California. And I was like, dude, I do remember because the cops called me and asked me about the guest in that unit. And I said, Well, I it's just an Airbnb guest, I don't know. It's like, all right, yeah, we're just getting some information. Next thing you know, they went there to the unit, kicked the door in, and it was her and some dude in there, right? And they they arrested him and everything. And um, so yeah, it reminded you you probably you might have even heard about it, but uh, anyways, they took him away and um it's they the police told him, Yeah, y'all can just you know clean this stuff out of here, whatever. And um, they told him something, yeah. You just you can just clean around it or whatever the hell and said, but just kind of leave the stuff. And uh, well, they they had left like Bose headphones, and they had left PS5, they had they had some stuff, man. He said, Man, we took that shit.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

He took that shit.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

They said put the I think he put the rest in bags and put it outside, whatever the hell.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

But yo, we kept all the good shit, man. They had some good stuff, and so uh he said Lululemon clothes and shit. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

You see, yeah, he named a bunch of shit, and um, so anyways, they they they kept all but he was like, I was just remit reminiscent about all those days, and I was just like, Man, we went through some shit.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Man, it's it teaches you, bro, and then it teaches you, but you know what I love about that though? You figured out what type of units you want, what type of units you don't want, what type of guests you want, because where you are does attract a different type of guest, you know what I mean? Especially if you don't have guardrails in place, because bro, it man, I've had some wild stories at mine too, so you know, and pricing too, bro. Pricing affects it, you know, and you you can't price that high in the hood, you know what I mean? You gotta just have to attract some of the bad ones. That's funny, man.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Well, that's the problem because you price kind of low in the hood where you can still make a profit, but then it attracts

Cheap Pricing Attracts Guests Who Cancel

SPEAKER_03 10:38

people that are like uh little white girl travel nurse. Oh, that's a good price. I can afford that. No, you shouldn't book here. You know, you see this is the hood, you know they're gonna cancel, you know how to get there. Oh my god, I don't feel safe. There's people doing crack in the hallways. We told you, we told you now. What what area of Dallas was this? So this is over off of um, I guess close to Gaston and um is it Gaston, San Jacinto. It's like close close to downtown Dallas, but it's like that hood part, like just north of downtown. Like you go from you spit out north of downtown, it's right there. Okay. Well, is it is it considered that ain't considered uptown, is it? Or is it deep bellum? No, it's it's no, it's like north of deep bellum north of deep bellum. I don't know what landmarks are over there, but San Jacinto, uh, what else is there? Um crap. Yeah, it's just a bunch of hood. I mean, there are they did build some skyrise nice ones close by there, right? I always tell people that's that's what with Dallas. It's like it's rich in one block, the next block it's hood, you know? It's just yeah, it gets bad quick, bro.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Like, like if you ever go to West Dallas, that's how it is. No, West Dallas, they kind of clean it up. But when they first start gentrifying it, man, you see this nice house next with a G-Wagon out front next door. It's a crack house, they slanging dope out of there, boy. I'm like, dang, you got a trap house next to the dang $700,000 house. This is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

So here's a tip.

Arbitrage Tip: An Eager Landlord Is a Red Flag

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Uh whenever you're calling, you know, the the the youngsters uh or you know, people listening to our show and and trying to get into arbitrage game, for example. Um, let's say you're calling around, you know, I'll say to Dallas, because I know Dallas, but I'll say you're calling around any city, any inner city that you're trying to reach, you know, and trying to see if you can do Airbnb at these apartments, right? If you say, hey, you know, uh, you know, you do your corporate spiel, yeah. We're I'm a corporate, you know, we do corporate rentals and we'll we'll rent your place and then we we furnish it, blah, blah. You do your corporate spiel, right? And try not to say the word Airbnb, which whatever everybody knows it's Airbnb now. But but you you go, you do your spiel, and the person on the other says, Oh, yeah, yeah, we allow that. You can do that here. If they're too eager, nah, man, that's the red flag. If they're too eager to let you do Airbnb at their apartments, nah, man. Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

There's something wrong with those apartments.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

It's funny you bringing it up because I remember we had some apartments up in far north Dallas, bro, and we're getting ready to cut the lease, right? We're getting ready to cut the lease. The guy's like, hey man, we'll we'll give you five more, discount it. And it and it was a it was a crappy place. It was it was good starting off, but then it kind of just went to crap, bro. It was just like people pissing in the hallway. Uh, it was just like people come take your mat off the front of your porch, throw it somewhere, just like it was like it's turned to some garbage over there, bro. And then it was just turned garbage, but yeah, bro. Yeah, you gotta at this point, yeah. If you can't get a good unit, I mean you

How Myka Got Overstays Out

SPEAKER_02 13:44

could go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

It hardened you up, though, because I remember used when people would start, you know, the type of clientele that would overstay their welcomes and stuff. You'd be you were hard on them, and you started going, I'm gonna call them the cops right now. You're trespassing, you better be out of there. You see, you know, ooh, you got I'm like, damn, Michael, we could we can say that, you know. Oh, yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

If it's my spot, we say whatever we need to say to get you up out of there. Like I used to do all types of stuff, man. We used to have the private security, we had the uh uh setting off alarms. They we set up the alarm, I had all types of ways to get people out. But yeah, man, it it's just yeah, you it hardens you. Those are really good learning lessons, but man, if you can stay out there and stay out of it if you can, but go

Stephen Jackson: Players Lost Their Hunger

SPEAKER_02 14:27

ahead.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Yeah, but it's a good learning ground. But like it brings me back to what I sent you earlier. It was the article of Steven Jackson, right? And he's talking about oh yeah, these players nowadays they don't appreciate the game and this and that. You know, he said, especially the ones that are, you know, black daddy, white mama, or so he's not, you know, he was just going off. He said, like he's pretty much saying, well, we came from the hood, you know, where we had to make it. Yeah, you know, there was no choice to to fail, and you know, we went through whatever we could to make it, you know, and and we appreciated the game, and that was everything to us, but these guys want to be on podcasts and they wanna they want to build their brand, they don't want to play ball all the time. It's just like but but the the way he said it was funny though.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

At least it was you know what though I I tell people the games change, bro. It's just like the NIL, you know, the NBA's changed. Like what he and I think I text you, but I text you like a long paragraph back. I said he he makes sense. I see what he's saying, but at the same time, these mixed kids he's talking about in the NBA, most of their dads played in the NBA. Clay, Clay Thompson, his dad played in the NBA. Oh, anyway. Curry, Steph Curry because Curry ain't mixed, though. That's the thing. Curry's not mixed.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

I thought Steph Curry was oh Curry Light skinned.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Yeah, he's light skinned. And that's all I'm saying. Hiella. Yeah, like Curry's mom and dad. I think his mom might be mixed, and I think Dell might, yeah, yeah, they they full blown. Like, but yeah, I was like telling him, I'm like, I get what he's saying though, but at the same time, AAU ruined the NBA, bro. Like, y'all stop teaching fundamentals, and then you you top teaching fundamentals. You kind of have like this nepotism system to the NBA. We can even look at Bronny James. I ain't trying to knock the guy, but Bronny James kind of nepotism to the NBA. You know what I mean? And I don't know if it's good or bad for the game, but the American players suck. I mean, let's just be real. The only who's the good American player besides Anthony Edwards. Everybody's either from Canada or Europe. And you know what's funny? Kobe Bryant said that was gonna happen because he said they are fundamentally more sound than us because we teach AAU basketball, where we're just teaching kids to be athletic and go dunk. That's simply what we did. And you know, and now you have the kids who are coming in that are American. Yeah, the daddy, black, mama, white, you know what a brother do when he gets some money.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

You get that prize.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Hey, I was just saying, you know how people are, bro. So yeah, I mean, I understood what he was saying. He just kind of worded it a little off, but I was like, I mean, it is the truth, but hey, it is what it is.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

I will say the football players, it's a difference, though, because they're coming from the hood, you know. They're they don't care about their body, they're hitting people and they're jumping from the ball. They're they're reckless abandoned where you know CTE, boy. Yeah, they don't they can't even spell CTE, they don't care. Man, dude. So the hood hardens you, that's all we're saying.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

That it's a long ramble,

Arkansas Only Dropped 6% in 2008

SPEAKER_04 17:25

but it's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

So uh I I did have something from the last episode you sent me of the Better Life Podcast. Um, and and Brandon Turner said something that was very important. He said he looked up how much real estate crash in 08, because everybody's predicting that the real estate's crashing or whatever, and I think it is too, or at least correcting, whatever you want to call it. And I went and did after I heard him, I went and did research. I didn't do Texas, but I was like, because me, you know, me, you and Jabron, we always shoot the shit back and forth. And I was like, you know, we always go back and forth, and you know, he's real big on Texas. I'm real big on Arkansas, and I was like wondering, I'm like, well, dang, let me actually do chat GBT deep research. How much did Arkansas crash during the 08 recession? And I looked it up, right? And they pulled it up, they did like it took like an hour for it to do this research because it does deep research. Arkansas only dropped six percent. They said it didn't dip, all it did was it froze, it didn't do like the other places that like dipped. It said the average during that time, I think was 17-19 was the national average of everything that was dropping, 19 to 26 percent. So I was like, and this market I think is smart, and you can tell me your opinion on this. Maybe look at markets that didn't really get hit during the last recession because that's the only thing we can really relate rate relate right now too, right? So I don't know what Texas was.

Texas Has More Room to Fall This Time

SPEAKER_03 18:49

I'll say that because I was living here, of course, when that was happening, the the 08 thing, and and I bought after the the so the quote unquote crash. Uh huh. But um it didn't dip that much. I I would say it was similar to five or six. The the thing is that when it started going up with all you know, real estate guitar to go, it skyrocketed here. I don't think Arkansas skyrocketed like nothing. So I think I think we have a lot of room to come down, a lot more room to come down than Arkansas does this next go around.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Yeah, see, we ain't ever gonna Arkansas never skyrocket. See, it's one of the it's a stable market, meaning it might dip a little bit, but it ain't gonna go back up to where it was, but you can still cash flow and stuff. But I I think you do have room right now to go to dip, I don't know how much further, but you got room to dip, but stuff sitting at the same time, look at how much stuff's coming here, right? Like you stuff up in like Frisco, uh Mansfield's building the damn water, a water wall, uh river walk. So it's like I don't know. You know, it does have

Refinances Down 60% — Be Prepared

SPEAKER_02 19:53

it can tank a little bit more, but when are people actually gonna start buying houses? Because they said I I was listening to that podcast I sent you guys, it said refines are down 60%. I was like, dang. 60% on a refinance? Down? That's pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

I mean the rates are so high though. I know how they're gonna refined from 3% to uh 8%, you know? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

That means banks ain't making no money everybody ain't nothing to sellin'. Well, there's stuff selling, but it ain't selling like it was, and people ain't refinancing, so it's like, dang, where are we at? Because they they predicting, I'm hearing guys predicting by February it's gonna be blood in the streets. So I don't know. Just be prepared. I'll say that.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

Be prepared. Um

The AI Pyramid Scheme Pitch

SPEAKER_03 20:46

another note, we were talking about AI last week, right? Yeah, yeah. We talked about AI. Oh, yeah. I was talking about Buddy, right? Um, the one in Dallas I was saying. And we were just saying, we were talking about, he's like, yeah, you know, uh I guess schemes and stuff. And we started talking about, you know, there's all these AI pyramid schemes popping up. Oh every time it's a new thing, right? You know, uh crypto is new, Bitcoin was new. And I always attach a pyramid to it, right? To get you in, you're gonna get this much crypto, this much Bitcoin. If you bring people under you, all that crap. And and and he goes, Oh man, I was hit up by one of those AI per people. It was someone that he loosely knew and said, Oh man, you know, this is I got this technology, it's gonna help your business, AI, AI, you know, saying it. That's the key, the key word now, right? It's AI, this we're gonna put some AI on that shit. It's gonna grow your cleaning business and all this stuff. And he's like, All right, he's like, well, the you know, it's it's gonna be like 600 bucks, you know, and it's gonna get you this and this and this. All right, man. Yeah, he was just you just gotta talk to my guy, and so all right, I'll talk to your guy. He said the guy called him, the guy running the company. Actually, it was him. He said, Hey, you know, you know, this is what we can do for you. We can scale you, it's gonna be 600 bucks the initial thing, and then and then we'll get you started and all this stuff.

unknown 21:59

So

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Alright, yeah, I guess so, you know. And so he's all right. Well, we'll be calling you tomorrow or whatever. And he gets a phone call. And he's like, Hello, is this uh blah blah blah? Is this so-and-so? So, yeah, this is me. How are you, sir? He's like, I'm I'm good. That's great. Okay, yeah, I'm gonna we're gonna this is what we're gonna do. And but it's like, man, this guy, he goes, This

The Sales Call Was an AI Robot

SPEAKER_03 22:25

sounds like uh like a robot, you know. I mean, it was it was convincing, but he's like, something's off with this person, you know. He's like, this is some AI bullcrap, you know. He said he hung up on them, and the guy's trying to call him. What happened? What happened? You didn't talk to my guy. It's like, man, I ain't getting I ain't getting stuck in that stuff, man. That's a pyramid scheme. That's a fake, that's a fake ass shit. Bro, but people are gonna fall for that. Every time the new thing, the new biggest thing comes out, they're gonna make they make pyramid schemes out of this and they take everybody's money.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Oh bro, it's it's gonna happen, bro. Like remember NFTs?

SPEAKER_04 22:58

You remember NFTs? How many people love? Oh man, that was like the clubhouse thing. Like everybody looked big, it's you an NFT, man. What?

SPEAKER_03 23:05

That shit dead. That shit never made sense to me. I was like, I'm gonna why am I gonna pay a hundred thousand for that thing? I can take a screenshot and I got it on my computer.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

You know what? I'm happy you brought that up. Everybody hops on the newest stuff, right? I never understood NFTs either. Stick to one thing and go through the ups and downs of it. Not the new thing, bro. The the person hopping on. I think that's why a lot of people just can't get ahead. They just hop on the new thing, NFTs, crypto, whatever it may be. I'm just like, man, just find one thing and just go with the ups and downs of it. That's crazy, bro. That's crazy, man.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

So you can see a lot of AI scams out there, guys.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Um I don't I think AI is gonna get a lot of people in trouble too, like white collar crime-wise. I think if you use AI as much as I do, make sure you read the frying print of like what you're doing on certain places, because yeah, man, uh I'll talk about it offline, but yeah, man.

AI Photos on Every Airbnb Profile

SPEAKER_03 24:05

What's funny? What's funny is that people that you know you get uh um bookings from Airbnb, right? And you'll see it seems like almost everybody's profile now is an AI touched-up photo of themselves, right?

SPEAKER_06 24:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

It used to be uh you were one of the very first ones that I saw. I was like, man, that's a good photo of you, Micah. Oh, that's AI. You know, that was years back. And that the you and the tuxedo and shit. And um, yeah, because you ain't uh you probably ain't putting on tuxedos often. I don't I wouldn't think you're not James Bond or nothing. But but I remember that picture. Then now everybody, it's like almost everybody's profile. Now are there there are some kind of jacked up profiles still, and that's easy to spot, right? A red flag. But yeah, but um, there's a lot of people using that for their photos nowadays, and um I can so that being said, with they had with uh Airbnb, I couldn't imagine how the dating game is on those dating apps now, man. How do you know? How do you know what they look like?

SPEAKER_02 25:03

You better FaceTime somebody, man. You better FaceTime somebody.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

They move real quick and the filter, the filter comes off their face.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Oh shit. Yeah, it's getting bad. Like certain AI stuff is bad. It's over the top, bad.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Like the voice for the for the for the passport photo this past time. I I you know, I always you know this time I was like, man, I don't do it online. I'm gonna do my passport photo online, right? And my passport uh is fill out the application, and it tells you, and it you know, you you I use Chat GPT, hey ChatGPT, send her this my it take. I'm gonna take a picture of myself, center it like it's supposed to be on a passport. And chat GPT does does exactly that, right? I said, Alright, can you touch it up a little, man? Yeah, you know, I said, not too crazy, just give me a little touch up, man. And Chat GPT made it look a little bit, a little bit better, you know. I didn't go overboard, and then I and it did say on the on the passport when you submit it, it goes, um, do not use AI for your photos or this and that. I was like, uh, we'll see what happens. And it I send it through and it accepted it. And I got my passport a few weeks later, and there's the picture, man. So so it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

I mean, if it's yeah, as long as it's you, yeah, as long as it's you.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

No, he can still tell it's me, but I just like I just got off work, I just got off, you know, checking on the rentals, whatever the hell it was doing. I was, you know, I got kids, I'm tired all the time. Just just be up a little, AI. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

So it is, bro. I mean, yeah, everybody, you gotta find ways to use it to make stuff quick, fast, and easy, bro. Like you do, and uh, yeah, you just have to find ways to make it fast, easy. No, you're either gonna build it or you're gonna buy it. That's how I look at

Listener Vincent Reyes on RMLOs

SPEAKER_02 26:44

it.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

That's it, man. Um, so so um, what's his name? He just chimed in. Uh Vincent Reyes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He says some good stuff. Yeah, he he likes listening to our show. He's driving around listening to our show. He said, Oh man, every time I hear y'all out, I was like, Oh, I just want to jump in the conversation and say, Oh, this is what that is. This, you know, because we always bring things up, and we might not totally, you know, I just bring it up because I tell you what I went through with that house, and I said, Yeah, this guy made me go through like a third party, you know. And so um, he's oh, I know what that is. He goes, It's uh Rimlo, RMLO or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

RMLO, yep.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

Yeah, so where it's a third party that checks out somebody that's gonna rent from you, I mean, I'm sorry, buy from you, owner finance, right? And so he says he he said, Yeah, the law in Texas is after you uh sell three houses, owner finance, the four every house after that has to go through a Rimlo, you know, so they can check out the person. And he said, they don't give they don't really give a damn about the credit, they just want to see if they can afford the payments on this house. And so you submit all the stuff, bank statements and pay stubs and all that. And then they they this third party company, okay, okay, clears it. He said it costs about a thousand bucks to check someone out, you know, this this Rimlo charges, but but the person buying the house pays it.

SPEAKER_06 28:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

And so, um, and I do remember, I do remember paying a fee for that.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

See, and I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm happy. Shout out to Vincent, man, because you you always uh provide some value to us. Um, and I hope we're providing value to y'all. But I actually made me think, I'm like, dang, because he said it, you sent that to me right at the right time because I was negotiating with this uh realtor. And she goes, Hey, well, my guy, he he he he only wants to accept 10% down minimum because he's been burned in the past, right? And I was trying to tell him, hey man, I have a really good buyer. And then when he said that, I was like, hmm, let me see if maybe we can do an RMLO because he was like, he was all he was like, I'm willing to pay like 2% of the buyer's agent's commission. So I'm like, dang, okay, let me see if we can negotiate that down and say, hey, can we do an RMLO on this deal to help out my buyer? So I'm uh I'm I'm I'm throwing that out there tomorrow. I'm happy he came. Shout out to Vincent for coming through with that because I didn't think we presented that. And uh this real just kind of acting a little fidgety, but uh I'm uh, you know, so it's owner finance deal, is that what it is? Yeah, it's an owner finance deal.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yeah, and I'm happy he brought up the thing about the rap. He was like, they don't give a damn, you know, they don't really care. It's a rap, you know, they know a mortgage and leads on it.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

So

Why Owner-Finance Sellers Use an RMLO

SPEAKER_03 29:16

yeah, so so what he also said is that you know, like the the law is three house after after three houses you have to use one. But he says he always uses Rimblows. He don't he says he don't want no trouble with someone you know coming back to him when when he when he has to you know repossess the house or whatever and saying, hey, you said predatory lending, I'm gonna you know get a lawyer and say, hey, hey, you went through the proper channels, they checked you out and they approved you. You know, it it's kind of it kind of uh protects himself in a way from being accused or sued for being a predatory lender.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Yeah, you might as well pay the extra fee for that then, or have the buyer pay it. Shout out to Vincent too, because he was talking about from the seller side though, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Yeah, he's the seller. He's the bank.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah, he's talking about from the bank side, he's being the bank side. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Because what he can and the rap that he mentioned was when he gets a house, either owner finance or subject to, and then he resells it to someone else as as a you know as a rap. So he's just the middle guy, which is cool. Yeah, it's cool. I could do that with with some of mine that I own, uh, seller finance and subject to. You know, technically, if I wanted to sell it to somebody, I could sell it to them, owner finance, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Yeah. Um man, we need to get one of our friends on. I ain't gonna say his name. He don't want to come on, but we're going to have some dinner with him tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Um, I really want to have him on because uh we always have some really good debates on sub two, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:48

I think that episode would go kind of like how the the Better Life podcast would go. I guess because that he's kind of reminds me of Cam Cam Cam Cafford or Camp?

SPEAKER_04 30:59

Cam's not against well, no, but he gets fired up. He gets fired up.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah, he'll get fired up.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Yeah, he'll get fired up.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Especially you poke at him. Yeah,

"$30K on a Flip Beats $12K a Year in Rent"

SPEAKER_03 31:08

yeah. Because I was poking at him the other day, because he's always on to me. He he gives me, you know, kind of like he he he kind of gives me a thing like a teacher's talking to a child, right? He's like, Listen, how much does your rental make you, you know, a month? Oh, you know, I can whatever that is, 500 to 1,000. He's like, okay, well, how much is that a year? You know, he does the whole spill on me, right? He's done it several times. Okay, okay, so that's that's 12,000 in a year. Okay, let's say if you're making all the whole thousand, I was like, okay, 12,000 bucks. He goes, Okay, I made that, I made 30,000 in a rental in a in a flip yesterday.

SPEAKER_04 31:43

You know, like why do you want to make slow money when you can make it fast?

Myka's Rebuttal: Taxes and Cost Segs

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Okay, and here's my rebuttal to that. I tell people this too, though, because I always get the flipping thing, right? The flipping thing is you're playing way more in taxes than me. For one, two, I'm I will flip, I'm all down for it, but I'm gonna be honest with you. Shout out in that episode I sent y'all of uh what's his name? Uh the laugh guy, uh Orlando. You have to also realize, too, if you're flipping and all that, I don't need to like flip, and I don't need to have like commission breadth when I make sales so I can be an honest realtor because I have a full-time job. A lot of people say, Oh, well, you need to be full-time in this. I'm like, eh, I see it that way, but I ain't out here ripping off first-time home buyers, and that's who's getting ripped off. Now, we, the people in our circle, we don't do that. But if you're focused on the money, the money, the money, and it has to come, or else you're screwed, you're in a different situation. My thing is flipping. Flipping's great. I like it, whatever. But if you make 30,000, how much is that going to Uncle Sam? My 12 grand. My 12 grand that I made off of what 10 short-term rentals, that's $120. I got a whole lot more tax write-offs, bruh. A whole lot more. Hey, I didn't cost seg that house. Hey, short-term rental tax loophole. I got a bunch of ways to keep that in my pocket to go get another house to keep and do it again. Yeah, you know, so flipping. I use flipping as just a tool to accumulate income to buy rentals. That's how I look at it.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Yeah. And it would be a useful tool because he and like

Flip, Wholesale and Hold: Use All Three

SPEAKER_03 33:25

that guy that came on the The Better Life podcast, the one he was saying that he does all three. He does the flips so he can make the systems guy. Yeah, the systems guy. But he he was really good, though. He is saying he used the flips to make cash flow, to make cash, right? So he can go buy deals. And he had and he holds some properties that rentals. He whole sells other properties. He he does different things, and and you know, the holding the properties, building wealth, and all that stuff, having having the rental income, and and then you know, accumulating assets. And then um whole sells the ones that he doesn't that not the best ones. He keeps the best ones for himself, you know, sells the other ones, whole sells them, and then he he flips the ones that he could flip and make a bit a good spread on. So it keeps and he and he mentioned it because a lot a lot of um real estate guy people out there that that have rental properties, you know, a lot of them are are like house rich, but not you know, how but kind of like they don't have a big stack of cash, but that's what the flips bring him the cash, you know. Because if you think about it, yeah, yeah, we're getting rental income, but we do have expenses as well, right? Okay, seats go out, uh roofs, uh everything you that you can imagine. So so we're not exactly you know sitting on piles of money, yeah. Still going into the business. But um, yeah, he made a good point. If you're using all three different strategies, then then you could run a more successful business.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

I agree. Wholesale flip, do whatever you can't. You gotta have active income and passive income. You know what I'm saying? When I talk about that, I'm talking about for tax purposes, you know what I mean? And if your short term rental might always be passive, but it's tax is a passive, you know, in a more of a passive scale. Um, but yeah, I would agree because that's why I got my license, so I can do better wholesales, better uh possibly flip here, but better wholesales and list, you know what I mean, and sell to end buyers. Uh, you gotta have all three. If you have all three, you are in a more successful business. And like you said, we kept our day job. So the stuff happening, it affects us a little bit, but not like the dude who's full time out there. You know, it gets ugly.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

So, in other words, three ways, right? Flip it up, slap it, rub it down.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

There you go. Oh no.

Coaching Programs vs Doing Deals

SPEAKER_02 35:38

And another thing we were talking about on that, he was like, not only I got things the part Cam got mad about was he he does he doesn't do as many houses because now he has a coaching program, right? Where he has these students. So he's like, where are you getting this? He he wanted to be very specific. I'm like Cam too, like you got to be very specific when you're on a podcast. Some people are very vague because they're selling something, which is cool, do your thing. But yeah, he it and I will say me us having this podcast has helped my real estate agent side because I we've have like 300 plus episodes, so it's a little bit easier to build credibility. So I do understand how people use coaching programs to build credibility, and then I just don't like when you are in a coaching program and you don't flip no more, but you teach it. So you're not understanding what the market's really doing because you ain't doing it. And I that was a Cam's point, not 100% agree with him on that. I hate when that happens too. And then and when the students start backing out, now you're back to flipping because the students ain't paying no more. So it's just like I don't know. Yeah, it it's a it's a it's a it's a tough world out there when you're doing this full time, bro.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

It's like a it's like a a diary of cash flow.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Yeah, there you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

That's a old call back.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

For sure, man.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

No, so um

AT&T Outages: Backup Wi-Fi for Rentals

SPEAKER_03 37:07

I was uh did we talk about it last time about the about the Wi-Fi issues going on? And how what do you do? What do you do to protect like to get a Wi-Fi up and running? Here's the thing for for years, uh ATT has been the best. Yeah, they don't have no outages, nothing. But um Spectrum's been Spectrum was the one that you got if you couldn't get ATT. I'm talking about this area, man. I'm sure people all over the country have their different you know versions of it, right? We get here we get two choices spectrum or ATT. And so the problem was Spectrum, of course, is it wasn't it was it's cable, it's not it's not um um what's it called? Uh fiber fiber option.

SPEAKER_06 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:45

And so we would if if there was no fiber in the neighborhood, we have to go with spectrum and they have cable and it was slower and it cost more money, and then they um they had they it would fail a lot, you know. It was outages, so many outages. And so um when you're running an Airbnb, you gotta have internet, man. People get pissed. And real quick, you know, because a lot of people work from home, you know, they're all everybody's working all the time, right? Even when they're on vacation, they're working. They need internet, they need good internet. And so we thought we had to figure it out. We get, wow, we'll put Wi-Fi, we put um ATT everywhere. Well, now this past year, ATT has been having so many outages. I guess they're something like they're updating their systems or something like that, but they've been having outages all over, man. And and so I just I was just seeing if anybody had a solution to that. Do I need to get both at every house? Do I need Spectrum and you know, ATT just in case one of them goes out?

SPEAKER_02 38:38

It's funny you said that because my internet was down two weeks here at my house.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

And remember, you know, that was going, yeah, because we couldn't pack podcasts, right? Yeah, so like my internet was down, so the backup solutions I've been hearing is like Starlink. Um, a lot of people are moving over to the Starlink route. Um, I don't know. Like, I don't know if it's like fully capable in there yet, but if people are paying for it, uh because you have to have something that's probably aerial. Um, I know you guys are doing like the T-Mobile hotspots.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

T Mobile, yeah, yeah, T-Mobile ones.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

How's that working out?

SPEAKER_03 39:13

Well, those work pretty good. Uh in the beginning, they they they worked in certain areas like Fort Worth it didn't work too good. Arlington, it worked, Grand Prairie it did. It just depended on on the area. But now it's pretty much I've noticed it's got coverage almost everywhere, right? So it's just uh it's just a plug-and-play modem. You just plug it into the wall and you got Wi-Fi in the house, right? Now it ain't as fast as ATT or Spectrum, but it'll get you by, it'll run the TVs, maybe the ring camera, you know. If they're gamers, they're gonna be they're gonna probably wouldn't like it so much, right? That's what I was wanting. But uh it'll it'll run it'll run what you need

Construction Crews Are Heavy Gamers

SPEAKER_03 39:48

it to run.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Yeah, see it and you know what construction crews, they're some heavy gamers, bro. Like, and they they game heavily. So, like as soon as they're off, six pack weed game. I'm serious, bro.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Like crying pork chops in your damn kitchen, yeah, straight up.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

So I was like, dang. So like you have to have the Wi-Fi there with them because that that's what they're they had a long ass day. Six pack, hop on whatever it is, Madden 2K, whatever it is. Yeah, because I was like, dang, man, because we got a notification, our Wi-Fi went down, and yeah, they were asking, hey man, you know, and you know, you can see when they connect the new device, like, hey, someone just connected a new PS5 deer, and I'm like, oh shit, they're gaming over there. I'm like, oh crap, gotta make sure that stuff's up. So yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

Six packs each. At least it's six packs each. Maybe 12. Because, man, because you the coo you go clean that house or your cleaners, they're gonna have trash bags full of beer bottles,

Charging Guests for Trash Through Airbnb

SPEAKER_03 40:45

man.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

And I charge them, bro. I don't even care. I charge them. Like, I charge them, man. But I'm gonna be real.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

How do you charge them?

SPEAKER_02 40:52

How do I charge them? Just through the clean through a cleaning fee and extend it, and I take pictures of all the beer cans and stuff, just take pictures of it. If it's through Airbnb. If it's through direct, I just take it out the security deposit, charge it as a cleaning fee.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

So now through Airbnb, you're saying, hey, they left trash bags here, and you and you tell Airbnb to charge them how much the trash bag. Or what do you how do you do it?

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Um, depends. Like let's say, like, let's say we know the cleaners, they'll be like, hey, we'll charge you 200. I'll be like mark it up to 350, put it on the invoice, send it to Airbnb with the pictures, they'll pay it out.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

Now, even if the trash, even if the trash bags are all bagged up and just left in the garage.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Oh, hell yeah. That tracks ants and everything else. Yeah, we we we definitely doing, yeah. You you got to put uh because we send them where they're supposed to take out the trash. This current cleaning, this current crew, I think is pretty good. They pressure this one thing I do like about construction crews. They pressure wash the driveway. They're like, hey man, some of our equipment's leaking. He pressure washed the driveway for us. He had a guy come pressure wash the driveway, they'll take the trash out. Um, and then my lawn guy goes over there and he took some pictures of some trash that was sitting out. We let them know, and they always fix it, like, oh my bad, bro. I got you. So, you know, they're easier to talk to. Now, the inside of the house, I don't know what it looks like as of now. We didn't do the every 15-day cleaning on this one, but um, whatever we charge back, it's all through Airbnb, so I ain't tripping.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

So, yeah, but yeah, I would definitely, if you guys, if it's an issue where it's through Airbnb, send them invoices with pictures. If it's direct, then just take it out the security deposit.

Midterm Security Deposits: $1,500 vs $2,000

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Now, I do have a question for you. How much how much of a security deposit do you charge on your midterms?

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Man, I would say most we charge pretty low, dude. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Me too.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

We charge $1,500 because here's the thing. We're doing we're dealing mostly with um, like I said, misplaced, displaced families. You know, that's that's our cream, that's our bed and bread and butter because they're going through insurance company, their house is getting worked on, you know, and so we're housing them. And so the deposits come from them. So if I put like a $5,000 deposit or $7,000 deposit, that's a lot of money to ask a family to come out of pocket with. It doesn't come from the insurance company.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

I'm gonna be honest with you though, bro. I actually charge them higher. No, those are the people I do charge higher as insurance. Only reason is they're usually willing to pay the higher security deposit because they ain't paying for the monthly rental anyway. So I'll charge them $2,000. They don't mind it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 43:26

But you don't, but you don't go crazy, you don't charge them five.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

No, I don't do nothing like that. I don't do no, you know, no crazy. But if it's like somewhere like like my partner spot that I manage, his is a bigger place, I would charge him like two grand. But they there will I've never had issues with insurance clientele not wanting to pay the security deposit. I've never had an issue. They usually pay it, and the only time that I have seen them complain is it on the uh on the um, what is it, the uh when they go over on the air. But this last person rightfully complained because. We did charge them way too low on the air. We should have we only we charged them 150. Anything over 150 they had to pay. We should have gone up to like 250.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

How do you collect that? You just pull that out of the deposit?

SPEAKER_02 44:11

Um if they don't pay it. But other than that, we just send it to the insurance company and they let the I think the guests have to pay it directly because they send it to the guests and like the guest sends it to them and then they send it to us.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Yeah, and they've always they've always sent it to you.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Sometimes they'll come back and be like, hey, they weren't happy with this charge. They'll try to negotiate for them, but you gotta stick to your guns. Be like, nah, bruh. This was in the contract, and they'll be like, okay, we'll send it. Um, but if they don't, then you know you take it out the security deposit because it's in the lease. Yeah, make sure everything is in the lease, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

Yeah, that's that's the only thing. Like if I'm charging $1,500 security deposit, then and they're um and they they go over, they do the overages, plus they might have damaged some stuff. It's like it's not not a lot I can I can pull from, you know what I'm saying? So I will have to like invoice for the um if it's anything over $1,500 what they did, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

So what

Pet Fees and Utility Caps

SPEAKER_03 45:06

yeah, so I have a question about that.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

Like, let's say you do $1,500, they stay for three months. I'll okay, how much how much do you charge for pets?

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Okay, you have a pet fee, you non-refundable, right? For the pets?

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Okay, and hundreds. Okay, so mine's similar. I do dang, I need to do that. But no, uh, so mine's like $200, mine's a $200 fee, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, $200 to bring in.

SPEAKER_03 45:31

Even if they stay a year?

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Uh yeah, I probably need to go higher. Oh yeah. But like $200 security deposit and then the utility caps. So are you saying like you're $1,500? Let's say they are you saying you usually have to pull if they break something?

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Or yeah, let's say they break something or stain some comforters or whatever they do. Oh, okay. And then I'm pulling from that, and then let's say they they've been there over a year with a lot of overages, and and it's not gonna it's not gonna cover the the it's not gonna be able to pull everything from the deposit, right? Because let's say they went over 200 bucks a month on everything, that's $2,400 right there, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Well Okay, so but that shouldn't come from the deposit though.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Yeah, but you like you like you're telling me, you invoice them for that amount, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Yeah. But if they don't oh, you're saying if they don't pay it, you just you you're basically in a situation you just ain't gonna give them the deposit back.

SPEAKER_03 46:29

Right, right. I'll pull it from the deposit. But like I said, if if it's anything over the deposit, then I then I'm losing out. But like you said, you could you can invoice them and and see if they pay it, right?

Watch Out for Third-Party Housing Companies

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Yeah. Um, yeah, and then that that goes back to what type of what clientele you hold hosting. I like insurance because they I've never had a problem out of them. This this last one was the only time. But you know what it is? It wasn't the insurance company. I wasn't working directly with the guests, it was one of them third-party companies. It's those third party companies that you got to watch. You you brought up one. I ain't gonna say their name. I'll let you say their name. And they're they're like real sticklers. It's because they're the third party company, they're acting like they're providing the housing, but they're not. So they have to keep in a that's why I'm like, I question them now now. Like, hey, you third party uh I might deal with you. Hey, look, I'll pay you a finder's fee, you can get step and put me in touch with the client because yeah, it's starting to get to a point where they they try to fight everything.

The Middleman Deal: Arbitrage It or Walk

SPEAKER_03 47:27

So here's a situation. We we found housing for like a midterm stay, right?

SPEAKER_06 47:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

Through um, we didn't have uh anything available, but we know someone that did. So we we rented one of her uh we um we let her know, hey, we got this stay, they want to stay there, you know, whatever three months at this amount, or what amount do you need, what what amount are you charging? Okay, we'll send it back, we'll go back and forth. And we want to make like 500 bucks over what the rent is, right? If if they're gonna pay you five thousand, well, you know, fifty five hundred, you know, we'll we'll you'll still make your five thousand, but we get five hundred bucks on top. And we say you can just send that to us each month that they stay. And then she's like, Oh no, we don't do it like that. She's like, like if you're gonna if we're gonna do uh if you're gonna be in the you know in the middle or you're finding it like a referral, then we would prefer that you rent the house like an arbitrage for those three months, and then you rent it out to them and you keep your you keep the you keep the you know whatever it is over 5,000 spread. He said for accounting purposes, we prefer you do it that way. And and um I guess that's how some I've I know some corporate housing providers do it that way where they you know they rent from you, you know. I I wouldn't whatever, let's just say CRS or ALE, but they don't do it that way. But there's some that do, they'll rent it from you, their names on the lease and all that stuff, and then those people are staying in your house, right? And and but so she wanted me, she preferred us to do it that way. And so the only thing is, and I never really wanted to do it that way because I didn't want I want to just hook people up, I'm done with it, you know. If something happens at the house, it ain't me. That's your just your guess, you know. But but um we went ahead and did it that way this time. I and also I'm worried about the payments. What if they don't pay us in time and we're on the hook to pay that route the first of the month? It just to me, I was like, man, I don't know. I mean, I understand the logic behind it, and I understand like the big co the big corporations can front that money because they're making a lot of money, right? They can they confront that rent even if those people, you know, if something happens, they they can still front that rent. Oh if the insurance company is slow with the check, you know, they'll at least the the the corporate housing provider will pay you but until that check arrives to them. You know what I'm saying? They'll front the money. I ain't about to go start fronting money to people.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Oh, for real, man.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

I'm small prize, I hate those giant corporations straight up.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

And and and that that's that's exactly seeing it's funny you say that because those housing providers, the ones we were talking about, that's exactly what they do. They let you tell the price, they after you tell them, hey man, it's 5,500, they going back to that client. Oh yeah, we charge um 5200. Yeah, whatever, yeah, whatever it may be, that difference, you know.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Yeah, so they go back, charge that, and guess what? They making whatever spread, but I I don't know how their situation works. You know what I mean? So maybe they're getting paid directly by the insurance provider or by the the end user. I don't know. But yeah, I wouldn't want to. I I'm like you. Let me just be the biddle man, you pay me my 500, I'm out. You know what I mean? Because yeah, you don't want to be on the line for that. And then especially like you said, front and money, hell no, dude. Yeah, because you know somebody's gonna have, oh man, we we came up short this month. Ah, nah, bruh. Nah, bruh. You have to run me my coins, bro.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

Yeah, it better be in good hands, all state. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

Real, bro. Yeah, so yeah, I I don't like that model either. I'd rather just be the middleman, pay me mine, and I'm out.

SPEAKER_03 51:04

But this is between y'all.

SPEAKER_02 51:07

Yeah, but I I've noticed a lot of companies are in that model, though. You know, I haven't dove deep into it, but a lot of people are in that model.

The Frictionless MTR System

SPEAKER_03 51:14

All right. So you're reading a midterm rental book. What's it called? What's it called? Who's this?

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Uh frictionless MTR by Vivian Yip. And I might get her on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 51:23

Frictionless MTR.

unknown 51:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

It's a terrible title, but it's it sounds like an interesting book.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

It's about frictionless MTR system. She basically took supply chain logic of how she used to do supply chain and mixed it into the MTR world.

SPEAKER_03 51:40

Like what was supply chain in what? What industry was she in?

SPEAKER_02 51:43

She oh, uh for Apple. She was making through shit. Yeah, making sure their their iPhones had to be delivered on time. Yes, high-end shit. So yeah, so she she mixed those two systems. I've been on her podcast before. I've actually posted an episode of it, I think my a short time ago. Um, and she mixed those two, and then she made the MTR system behind it. Like, I like her step-up pricing, not her step-up minimum stay. That's like been really helping me out. Uh I I was a little finicky about it. I think I talked about it a couple weeks ago because she allows one night stays between today and three nights out to keep her in the algorithm. And I was like, dang, that's a good idea. And it was a good idea, and I used it, and uh, I ended up getting somebody it's actually really cool what it did. So,

4-Bed, 2-Bath: $20K in Two Months

SPEAKER_02 52:30

like during the holidays, it'll see a holiday because it uses price labs data, and it'll be like, hey, for Thanksgiving, somebody can book for four days. We got somebody booked for Thanksgiving for $2,000, and then we have one person checking out right on the day before Thanksgiving when that person checks in. I think they they're gonna be staying there for like six, seven thousand between now and Thanksgiving, six or seven thousand dollars, and then a Thanksgiving person checks in that day, and it's gonna be a two thousand dollar reservation, so it's like eight grand on top of the 13k we made on top of the reserve, uh, the canceled reservations. Four bed, two baths are where it's at, bro. Four bed, two baths. It's like 20k in two months. And this one I'm managing, I was like, dang, I need to get a four-bed, two baths. Um, but anybody who listens to the podcast, I just recorded solo last week. I was talking about four-bed, two baths and the value in them. You know what I mean? Because people, bigger families, we talk about it all the time. Bigger families, fence backyard, that's who's gonna want them. And those four twos kill it, bro. If you can get a four-two, um, outside of the my biggest play is the three-bed, two-bath duplex on each side, but if you can get a four-two, bro, it's right there up there. It's it's a legit

Buy a 3-2 With an Office, Make It a 4-2

SPEAKER_02 53:39

play.

SPEAKER_03 53:39

That's what I was telling um your partner Antoine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was asking some advice, and I said, and he said, should I get a three-two or four-two? I was like, Well, if you can get a four-two, that's great. But or here's the best play get a three-two that has like an office that you could turn into a four-two. Yeah, because you're you're gonna pay a lot less for the house. Yeah, because not technically a fourth bedroom, but you can easily put a wall up and a door, and you got you a fourth bedroom.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

Yeah, like my house right here. This this office, I enclosed it. You could easily put a closet in here and it's got an egress window. It's now five-bedroom house.

SPEAKER_05 54:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

Um, the thing is, like on the four bedrooms right now, three bedrooms right now, it's hard to find that. But then what they're doing is see, this is the slick part. These three-bed, two-bath people know that they have a house like that. They'll try to charge for a four-bedroom, they'll try to price it at a four-bedroom. We ain't gonna pay that. We're gonna lowball them. But what they're doing is they ain't even sending no counter. They're like, Meh, nah, we'll we'll hold off. Like, all right, you've been sitting 111 days, keep on sitting, bro.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

You know what reminded me about your office and clothes, right? Yeah, uh, because we've been doing this podcast for long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Babies crying and people screaming, and yeah, yeah. But it reminded me of this, this, like, real quick, this skit that I saw online, right? And it shows this this black dude talking to someone on the phone. You've seen it probably, and he's like on an interview, he goes, Oh, yes, sir. Uh, so what's your job? You know, what's your and he goes, uh, yeah, yeah, I've done this, and this, oh, okay. Uh, what's your name again? He tells him his name. He goes, and it he's trying not to sound black because it's an interview, right? And you probably seen it. He goes, Oh, okay. Hmm. And the guy's trying to get him. He's like, I think he's black, but you know, he's like, Who's your favorite rapper? And these guys, uh, I gotta say MM, man. I like it. You know, he's saying all the all the questions and just acing all the questions, right? Oh, making the guy okay, okay. You sound like a good fit. And I think we I think we're gonna hire you, and then you all suddenly in the background you hear the the smoke alarm beep beep, and he's like, and the guy's like, uh, I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna have to call you back.

SPEAKER_04 55:48

And he's like, Oh, and the dude's like, oh the smoke alarm mixed, yeah, smoke alarm used to yeah. I was like, Micah, for like 10 episodes, the smoke alarm was going off, man.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

That's definitely a black thing, man. Oh man. The funny thing about that, funny thing about that is so at my job when we were working remote full time, uh, they would always hear it in the background. They're like, ah, Micah's on the calls.

SPEAKER_02 56:20

I never changed it. I finally, I was like, man, let me start changing my smoke alarms, man. The corporate world got to me, man.

SPEAKER_04 56:28

Oh man, I know exactly what video you're talking about. Yeah, it outed him, man. It outed him.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Oh man, that's that's yeah, that's what I remember all the way back, all the way back in the day. Yeah, even like you would have, I remember you there was actual Airbnb guests walking behind you. It was the lady going to a Cowboys game. I remember you're like, oh hey, I okay, head into the game, you know.

SPEAKER_02 56:53

Yeah, man. We that's crazy, man. It will be 10 years July 4th of next year. We'll be 10 years. I know that shows you, like, man, we've done arbitrages, we've done house hacks, we've done everything in the short-term rental space, you know, and we got stories to tell

People Come Here Hungry

SPEAKER_02 57:10

about it.

SPEAKER_03 57:10

And and and we're, you know, like I said, I'm I'm trying the the pad split thing out a little bit now. Um I I still listen to like a podcast that talks about pad split, and they had a guy on that's from Russia. Going back to the fact that you know, people like the like Steven Jackson said, the ball players are hungrier from the hood, right? They they they you know they they care about you a lot more. Uh people from people come here from a country where they're they ain't got nothing, they tear it up over here, man. This is like easy for them.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Bro, see, you know what, I uh you know what's crazy about that, right? You know how everybody, well, not everybody, you know, certain demographics complain about Frisco. Well, you think about it, bro. These people are coming from third world countries, seeing the freedoms that we have over here, it's easy to take advantage. Like, we complain about a lot, but bro, we go to another country, man. The stuff we we have access to and can do free will, like man, like even the dude who put on the uh for San Francisco 49ers hat, bro.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

Like, he can free will do that and scale. It's like I was I was on threads the other day, right?

SPEAKER_02 58:21

And so this dude, he um he has this Instagram account where he goes around, he hires three of his homeboys, they all dressed up in these suits, and they have they put on these glasses, they look like they're security, right? And he just walks in the mall with them. People start taking pictures with them, giving them hugs, kisses, all types of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

And he records it and puts it on Instagram, but he he ain't nobody, and they take pictures with them, right? Somebody under the uh threads uh post, he was like, damn, bro, I ain't using my free will enough in America, man. He's a straight up nobody, bro. And he he says, When I'm a nobody and I hire private security, and his friends just walk around.

SPEAKER_02 59:01

I'm like, bro, man, bro, but anybody can be anybody because somebody thinks you're Instagram famous, but yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03 59:08

It's the land of opportunity. Straight up, it's the land of opportunity. I heard this this Asian comedian, he was like, um, he goes, Yeah, yeah, I I got straight A's. We had no choice to have straight A's in my house. He goes, you know, y'all, you know, white kids or whatever, y'all kids from here, American kids. He goes, You you come home with a C, your parents are oh, it's okay, Johnny. You tried your best, you know, you gonna you're gonna try harder. He goes, he goes, at my house, they tell us before the first day of school, you're gonna do good in school. And if you don't do good in school, I will kill you.

SPEAKER_04 59:42

It's like it's like there's no B's and C's, man. Dude, we don't we don't take advantage of the American system, man. Other people come over here crushing it, bro.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

Why you think they buying up all the real estate? Because we up here, oh, you shouldn't buy real estate. You I hear people on threads, uh, America, we just always put the price on housing. Man, these other motherfuckers over here buying up everything. What you mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

Yeah, I'm about to get in on the pot. You tripping, man.

The Investor Who Never Heard of Cost Segs

SPEAKER_02 1:00:11

Like, okay, uh, I went to this uh, I don't want to get political, but I'm gonna say what the hell I said. I don't give a damn. So I we went to this little um we went to a um it's this little meetup in Dallas. My brother-in-law came up here, he had tickets to this meetup that was like this private event. He was like, bro, I think you'll like it. You know, it's about entrepreneurs. I ran into our friend Josh there from the pot who listened to the podcast. Shout out to Josh. Comments on YouTube all the time. But I ran into him there, other people, and there was a circle, they were all talking. And this dude, you know, he was like, Man, um, who's made seven figures in uh in stocks? You know, and this other dude, he said, yeah, and they started talking back and forth. He was like, Yeah, man, I'm moving my money into real estate. He's like, Yeah, you know, I'm having to pay capital gains to move my money into real estate so I can not pay taxes. And I'm like, I'm like, hey, man, why don't you just use the cost segregation study in a short-term rental tax loophole? He goes, I can do that, and I'm like, yeah, because he's he he's the dude I was talking about. He makes like $650 on W-2s, but he works multiple remote jobs. He has Claude go out and make these resumes. Hey, do what you do, bro. That's what you do. Do what you do. I'll unlock the hustle, but I can teach you how to not pay taxes. So he was like, I was telling him, and I was like, bro, I'm like, man, look. And he was like, man, nah, I'm just taking the tax hit. I'm like, man, you better look at what Trump just put out there with that big, beautiful bill, man. He ain't no need you sitting here paying taxes, bro. You can short-term rental tax loophole it, and you can do a cost egg, bro. I'm like, you can start shrinking your W-2 income, keeping that money in your pocket, but you know, a lot of people just don't take advantage. Like, we we it's crazy. We have all the opportunity over here, but we complain about everything. I'll be like, bro, we it's crazy, man. It's like we we spoiled over here. We're spoiled.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

No, that's crazy, man. I I said it before, like, I go to Mexico, you know, every few months, and it they man, they live in like they got nothing over there, man. It's like you see AC is a luxury. You got they're all crammed into like a two-bedroom house, you know, a lot of people, most people, you know, middle the middle class is like you would think is super poor over here, right? That's just how that's just how it is uh compared to what what we have. Uh a house with one bathroom, uh small ass bathroom, smaller than my closet. You know, it's just that's just how it is. And um, and you see that and you come back here, you're like, what is anybody complaining about over here? Oh, but they complain.

Myka's Parents and the Value of Hard Work

SPEAKER_02 1:02:33

But you know what? I'm gonna go back. Steven Jackson does have a point that makes uh you different because I didn't grow up like extremely impoverished, but my parents did. And that they taught me the value, like looking at them, the value of hard work. Like my dad's from poor, he's from the poorest county in the state of Arkansas, in Lee County, Arkansas. Like talking back in the day, they had outhouses. You ain't boo-booing shitting in no house. You gotta go to the outhouse, you gotta go outside. It's two o'clock in the morning, you gotta pee, you gotta go outside. You know, it's tough. But that made them appreciate small things, and it taught it down to us because what happened was they made it out, the ghetto, the hood. My mom made it out the hood, my dad made it out the country. What that did was it taught us to have value in things because of what they did. Like they never lived like they were living large, they live. My dad bought my mom and dad, my dad bought a couple houses, but my dad drove drove a broke down Ford and a broke down Sundance, and my mom, you know, she was tired of it sometimes, but she one luxury car she had was a Fleetwood, an 85 Fleetwood, but erect it, and then she got a Durango, and they've been riding on that, you know. Um, but it just taught them the value of like having nice things and taking care of the stuff that you have. Because yeah, man, it it's it, and I'll be real, it's some people that's born in the ghetto that just take advantage of that are taught the system and just will just live off that because that's the way they see it, and not like do what my parents did like, nah, hell no, we're about to have more, you know, and then take care of the little bit that we get because it does give you a different drive and hustle, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

So I do understand what Steven Jackson says. You know, if you got the I don't want to say the mixed marriage, mixed breeze, but you know, if you come from like a lot of privilege, like if your dad played in the NBA, you do have a little bit of a of a of a way to get there. Like Kobe's dad played in the NBA, but Kobe was just a fierce competitor. He was just fierce, you know, and and and not everybody's bred like that no more.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:34

I know there's a famous quote. Like I think I always heard it uh Joe Rogan, right? He talks about I think it was um Marvin and Hagler. I think it was Hagler

"Hard to Wake Up at 4AM on Silk Sheets"

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

or Hern. Hagler Hearns. I was yeah, one of those two guys. And he said, um, what happens when you know a boxer, they start out, you know, the next big thing, knocking everybody out, you know, they're hungry, right? From the hood or whatever, they're getting some money, and then they start getting some money, and then they start, you know, um living it up a little bit, right? Yeah, enjoying the money. And he said, and he and he the quote was he goes, and they start you know fading off a little bit. They start losing some fights, they shouldn't lose, and this and that, right? And he goes, What happens? They lost the hunger. He goes, he and his quote was it's hard to wake up to do construction work at 4 a.m. when you're sleeping on silk sheets.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:18

Oh that's a good quote. Hey, that that's that that's that lifestyle creep quote, man. Like, like, you know what's funny? You know how Floyd Mayweather never lost? He was just horrible with money, so he had to win. He always the the sad part about it is he was so bad with money, and like right now he's struggling and got these issues, which I knew he was when he retired. He was so the reason why he was so good, his name was Floyd Money Mayweather. He had to have a way to make money because of his spending habits. Sometimes but you would have to get over that eventually. But you could see like what it did to him, it made him the best. You know? So yeah, man, it's crazy, bro. Like I remember Chris Rock made a joke about Oprah and Bill Gates. He was like, you know, um, the differences in money. He was like, people think I got money. He was like, man, I ain't got money. Oprah got money. He goes, but if Bill Gates woke up with Oprah's money tomorrow, then motherfucker jump out a window and slid his throat on the way down.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

No, man, it's just different ways of how you look at it, man. He said he's levels. Yeah, he's like, he jumped out a window and slid his throat on the way down.

unknown 1:06:29

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:31

But yeah, man, this money is a it's it's a it's a it's a powerful drug.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:37

Oh man. What are we talking about, Micah? Man, now we're talking about the rails sometimes. Sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:43

Nah, nah, man. We're talking about hunger, man. And I'm gonna talk about one more person. Shell Sunden said it. When did Connor McGregor start losing fights? After he got his money. Got his paper, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

And what happens to the player that's trying to get the big contract, right? What happens the year after he signs that big contract?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

You gotta see, and that goes back to it, man. Whatever you do, I'm gonna I'm gonna bring this all around to short term rentals in real estate. Whatever it is that you do, you have to have some sort of passion behind it. Once you have the passion behind it, then you can be great at it. Like Tom Brady had passion behind it. Even though he did have Giselle, who was making a whole lot of money so he could take some pay cuts. Because I think wasn't the Dak Prescott that said it, I ain't I ain't got a wife named Giselle. So he was like, I ain't taking no pay cut, bruh. So I understand it. So you know, yeah, it's it's it's it's a it's a it's a it's a different world out here, you know. It's a different world with certain people.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:44

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Real quick, it's funny that um whatever you're doing with the podcast, the Buzz Buzz Sprout, Buzz something. What is it?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:53

Yeah, Buzz Sprout, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:54

Yeah, anyways, random people at work saying, hey man, I saw you on the internet. My daughter on her phone. Hey, this is Poppy. This is your show, right? Like, what man, we're popping up everywhere now. I was like, Don't listen to that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

Oh man, especially this episode. I'll see if it can bleep it. I'll I'll see if Claude can bleep me out.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

My bad, John.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:15

We don't need to bleep. We don't need to bleep.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

No, the bleep. All right, cool, man. But Claude, uh, shout out to Claude. Claude's been doing it all.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

I'm just the band pulling the strings, you know.

Uber Exec: No One Will Need a Car

SPEAKER_06 1:08:26

That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:27

Um you put this on here, right? At the end of driver's license, Uber Exec calls car ownership the most inefficient asset and says no one will need one in 15 to 20 years. I agree. You you put that one on there, right? Or no?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:40

Yeah, yeah. I think so. If not, I I've just talked to somebody.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:44

The robo taxis are coming. I got on a list uh to get one in case they ever, if I ever, you know, yeah, I'm able to get one. But yeah, you get on a list right now to get a robotaxi. I thought it was the coolest shit, man. Um, because while you're not using it, it's driving on its own, it's making you money, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:02

They're starting to get them in Austin.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

I think Austin, well, I don't know. I think Austin, if they're not as litigious as they used to be, they'll let them in.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

Um they got Waymo's, right? They got Waymo's over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:13

Do they? I ain't been to Austin in a minute. I need to take a trip down there.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:16

I saw a Waymo in Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:18

Yeah, Waymo's are yeah, they definitely gotta be in Austin. Yeah, Waymo, Waymo's are in Dallas. I have not been picked up by one yet, but they are in Dallas.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:25

I saw one on the freeway driving. I was like, oh shit, they only got on freeways.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:28

Mm-hmm. Waybo, uh, Zooks. When I was in Vegas, Zooks were all over the place, Z O O X, where you can set it's nobody in the car. It's like a little square box. You set your phone up in there and you turn on your own music and y'all go. Um, but the reason why I say that is uh because I am thinking about getting a Tesla. I've been talking to my co-workers, I talked to my brother-in-law. He's like, Man, Micah, you need to get a Tesla, bro. He goes, You work all the time, you like to work, have your computer. He goes, bro, a Tesla's perfect. You just put it on autopilot and go. I'm like, so he kind of talked me into it. But what I do think is I don't think our grandkids are gonna know how to drive. I think driving is about to go away. Hmm. I don't think they'll know how to drive.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:15

Or something that's done on like on a racetrack if you want to just go have fun, right? It's just it's not gonna be on the main streets anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

I think so. Like, look at the how powerful the technology is. Like, even how old is your oldest? 10? Not your oldest, not your oldest, but uh at home, at home, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:35

Nine years old.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:35

Nine, see, Malachi's 11. I'm like, I just can't see maybe maybe those two, but like your son? What holds your son? Two?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:46

He's gonna be two, yeah, at the end of this month. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:48

I don't could you see him having a car? I just don't think I think it'll be I think AI and I think everything will be self-driving, bro. Think about that. That's 16 years.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:01

I'll tell you this right now. Just like dudes at work that have older kids in their 20s, yeah, a lot of them don't have cars, they don't have driver's license. They just Uber everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:12

A lot of my a lot of my tenants at the at the Pas splits don't have cars. They don't have driver's license. They have they show me sometimes they'll upload uh, like, you know, when you have to see their ID? Yeah. Some people will load either uh uh Texas ID or they'll they'll upload uh a passport. A lot of them don't have driver's license, they don't have cars.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:30

You know what the flip side about that is? I wonder how much money they're saving if they're living in a pad split. They probably they probably banking money.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

Well, they're saving money, and if they if they live in Arlington and they work, you know, if they work in Arlington and they're you know, any like I said, they have that that um via five bucks on five bucks or less gets you anywhere in the whole city. So that's cheap. If you if you consider owning a car, paying the payment, the note, the insurance, uh, upkeep, tires, everything, right? It's you're probably saving a lot of money by not having

Single? PadSplit, No Car, Uber Everywhere

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

one.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:01

Bro, you are, and then think about it. That goes back to like I know, okay. This goes back to like cost of living, right? I tell people, man, if you are single in America, you should know how to make it. If you're single with no kids, live in a pad split, don't have a car, that right there, live close to where you work, and if you have a pad split, you can finally find somewhere to live close to where you work. If you Uber everywhere for nine bucks, that's cheaper than a car note. Let's say you're doing back and forth to work, nine bucks, eighteen dollars a day. That's cheaper than what is it? That's probably cheaper than a car note with insurance.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

I mean, I didn't even think about that, bro. And especially if you live at home with your parents, you probably don't need a car note. Need a car. I didn't even think about that one. That's crazy, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:50

So imagine Uber anywhere. Even if you go on a date, you can Uber on a date. And it might even be a smarter thing if you're gonna go out and have drinks with somebody, you know, that there's always that $10,000 DWI you save on.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

See, and I think that's like kind of where we're going too. Like, okay, one, I think they're eventually gonna make D. I don't know if they will, but I think why don't they just make DWIs felonies at this point? You ain't gotta drive nowhere. You have an Uber, it'll be tough, but you ain't gotta drive nowhere. You got Ubers everywhere, yeah, all that everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

So it's like doing I've been doing doing Ubers now. If I'm gonna go meet up with some buddies and stuff, have things I've been doing Ubers.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:26

Like if me and Mahogany are gonna go on a date night and we're gonna go like up to the highlands, have a drink, Uber it. It's like 10 especially the highlands, cops everywhere. Exactly, you know, so it's like eight bucks Uber back and forth. You $16 out of the date, that ain't much, but you're like, dang, I ain't never think about it. Just not having a car, but like you have kids, it's over with. But if you're single, life's always easier in America if you're single with no kids. You can find a way, especially with like pad splits, the stuff we've been talking about, like affordable housing, all that. Um dang, I didn't even think about just dang, just don't even have a car. Yeah. Because I mean, insurance rates, even if let's say you do have an electric vehicle, you would think insurance rates need to go down if it's fully automatic. Yeah, because you can pay $100 a month to uh $100 a month for the full self-driving. I was in one, this dude was just talking to me the whole time in Vegas, looking back, talking to me, and the thing, I'm looking at the thing, and I wasn't scared because I'm looking at the thing, it knew where the cones were on the road, like the movable cones. Like, I'm like, dang, bro. Like you really start to see like technology's changing. Like, I mean, I'm 37. I think in 10 years, I think driver's licenses are just gonna keep going down and decline. Or if people have them, they probably not even just know how to drive. You know, and Uber costs will go down if everything goes full self-driving robots driving us everywhere. Yeah, that's something to think about.

Houses Without Garages or Driveways

SPEAKER_02 1:15:03

Because I I told him go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:05

It's a changing world. And and I even heard you know, people talk, they call them futurists, but it doesn't even seem that far away to have all this stuff. He said houses won't even need driveways anymore or garages. Think about that. Because you won't have cars anymore. If people don't have cars no more, they won't need a driveway or garage, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:25

Not at all. What's the point of it?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:27

It's more square footage.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:30

That goes back into like more housing, you know, more housing for people. Because yeah, you you I'm be honest, I don't even park my car in the garage. My we turned our garage into a damn gym during COVID. I'm about to flip it back now though, and probably start parking in there, but yeah, like even my whole street. They everybody park everybody's turned their garage into something else. So it's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:52

Yeah, no, filled with junk. Yeah, or fill with drunk, people fill it with junk.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:57

Like my my two neighbors at the end of the street, they both have Teslas, but they park them out. The only time they they park them in front of their house so they can charge them. But they got Teslas, and even my neighbors down here have uh electric cars. So yeah, it's it's the world is changing quickly in front of us. Like, you know, if you start like really, I guess you call it futurist, like looking at like, okay, what's gonna be here for my kids, what's gonna be here for my grandkids, yeah, driving, eh,

The Case for PadSplit in Nice Neighborhoods

SPEAKER_02 1:16:25

it's on the way out.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

And what's the I mean, and the future of housing? Because like I said, if if this if the if this uh passplit thing is allowed to happen as it is in neighborhoods, and the big argument with the passplit people is that why can't the people that are working at at these places in your city, you know, let's just say it's an upper-end city, then the workers there, you know, they gotta maintain the the restaurants, they gotta maintain the shops, they gotta maintain, you know, whatever the hotels, but they have to live an hour away because they can't afford to live in your city. Why not give them the opportunity to live in your city by renting rooms out of houses? Nice, you know, nice houses, nice rooms, and living cheaper, and they're able to live in your city and work in your city. Why punish them because they can't afford to live near where they're working?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:14

I agree. And and I think that this has always been my thing. I I said I wouldn't do pad split, but I see the need for it because if you really look around it, they just raised interest rates, bro. This stuff that we're that's going on right now, it ain't going away. Like, unless like a crash happens, we don't know what's gonna happen. So the cost of living is gonna steadily creep up. And what happens in America when the cost of living goes up? People get creative, everybody gets creative in good ways and bad ways. So people get creative, and and the creativity is gonna be there. You know, um, I always say, you know how we know we live in a first world country? We don't start swinging until things get bad. Other places, it's already bad, they swinging for the fences at all times. They come over here, they still swinging, they can't turn it off. Yeah, it's like Steven Jackson said, they still got the passion, you know. So I I just at this point, you you gotta figure out something, but yeah, Pas Split's gonna, I think it's gonna still be there. Um, I I do think they're probably gonna regulate it. Um, and you never know what that brings. That's gonna bring some tough stuff, but you know, we'll we'll figure it out.

"Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity"

SPEAKER_03 1:18:22

And my my favorite Shakespeare quote, have I I've told you before, is um sweets are the uses of adversity. And and so and I've always thought of that, and uh, and it's and it's so true because I mean, being an entrepreneur, there's been some thin months. I'm sure you've gone through it. I've gone through it. We're like, holy crap, am I gonna make it this month? This is this all gonna go down in flames, and that's when it puts you to the pushes you to do something creative to figure out how to make it, right? To figure out, okay, what let's look at all these costs, let's see where let's just try to save this thing, let's try to get some stuff under control. What could I do here? What could how can I generate more profit here? How can I cut some stuff? You know, it makes you start thinking on how to do that. When when things are high and you're living off the fat, then you know you don't think about all this stuff. You're wasting a lot of money. And and but but like you said, people come here with nothing, they they got that hunger, they have to make it, or they're gonna be out in the streets, you know. They have to make it, and so that's that's whenever times get tough sometimes when I'm you know pushing myself, you know, stretching myself too thin. I start thinking, man, I better, I better start figuring some stuff out to keep this thing afloat, or you know, it's not gonna be good.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:33

Yeah, shout out to my mentor because whenever I remember last time I was really struggling financially, I called her and she always helps me in mahogany push through things. She was like, she always makes you be grateful for the smallest stuff. She goes, Why aren't y'all just happy for the mind that y'all have right now? We were like, huh? She goes, look at how many ideas y'all are pushing out there right now. I bet you y'all are living large, y'all wouldn't even be thinking about this. Y'all minds wouldn't be operating at this level of capacity. Yeah, you don't even know how I think it's in the alchemist. You don't even know what you're truly capable of until you've been pushed to the brink. Yeah. So I agree with that, bro. You don't even know what you're capable of yourself until you've been pushed

Founders Podcast: Happiest in the Fire

SPEAKER_02 1:20:15

there.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:16

Yeah. And I listened to that, that, that show, The Founders, the Podcast, Founders Podcast, and and all these, you know, successful millionaires, billionaires that he goes over, you know, all the jobs and gates and you know, Waltons and every all those, you know. And and it it always seems like they were the most, they look back at their life, you know, if they did an autobiography or something, and they're they're they're most happiest when they were going through the fire, when they were going through all that stuff, you know, with the early days and trying to trying to get it going and sleepless nights and just pushing through and to accomplish this goal, right? You know, later on they IPO'd and their billionaires they have to worry about a thing ever again, right? And it's just a lot of them, or they sell the company. A lot of a lot of those billionaires are freaking depressed after they sell the company. After they yeah, isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:06

Well, Kanye West say, the good life, man, not having everything is not not having every the good life, ain't having everything, not having it is. When you're still pushing forward and you're having to grind, man. Straight up, man. Yeah, it's true. Because you know, I sometimes worry about that. Like, man, what am I to do when you you wake up, you you're you're striving for this end goal, but think like, dang, what am I gonna do when I get there? And that's why I always like try to find a passion with something that I do. Like, I'm really enjoying podcasting right now, but um the reason why I look to sports a lot is because they're on limited time, right? Their bodies can't just hold up. So I noticed like with Kobe, he started finding like this this great way of like, oh, I can coach people to be great, you know. So I'm always looking for that thing that I can find passion in. You have to because certain things, we ain't gonna be doing this forever, man. Sitting here chasing down tenants and you know, just having that whole system. You gotta have something you do outside of that, you know. You know, we ain't gonna do this forever. You know, we might podcast forever. I love podcasting. We could talk about it, you know. We'll always have something to talk about. You know, we've gone off the rails even now, but it it's it goes with it, you know, because you have to have that end goal. Once you rent there, it's like, okay, what's next? You know what I mean? And I think that's where like Michael Jordan, I think that's kind of probably why he left basketball for a few years, then came back, then left again, then came back. It's like I think I don't think he found like what is what's after this, you know what I mean? I think Kobe did, you know, and I think that's he left us early, but I think he found that.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:44

Yeah, I think Jordan likes uh NASCAR, he has a NASCAR team.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:47

Yeah, now he's yeah, now he's like finally getting into it. He's 60 years old, you know. Um, you know, I worry about that with LeBron because like damn, but he's still good, you know what I mean? So it's like, damn, what do you, you know? So you always have to find something else outside of you know LeBron's a big entrepreneur, he's got his hands in everything, man. That's true, man. He's got that Shaq thing going on for real.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:07

He's a billionaire, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:08

Yeah, yeah, he's a billionaire. Yeah, he's a billionaire.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:11

Crazy. Yeah, great episode, man. Yeah, it was. It was a good episode. We went off on a 10. He's a billionaire already, but he's still pushing. He still wants to get that another ring with another team, right? You don't have to, he's got his rings. Straight up, his legacy's cemented, you know, chill and make some cash over there in LA and just chill out over there and do some movies or whatever. But no, he's he's pushing for another ring.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:33

That's what's up, man. Gotta have them goals, bro. Straight up.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:38

But yeah, that was a good episode.

Where to Find Us

SPEAKER_02 1:23:41

Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was. All right, y'all can find us uh Livelet Thrive. Oh, yeah, our website is back up, liveletrive.com. Send us an email, liveletrive at gmail.com. And please continue to like, subscribe, do all that good stuff wherever you listen to podcasts. Um, and thank y'all for continuing to listen to us. This has been fun. We're gonna keep doing it. We'll be at episode 400 before you know it. So, yeah, thank y'all for continuing to listen to us. We are out. Peace later.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:09

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.