Ekabo Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast
A podcast for those who do not believe they were put on this earth to work 40 to 50 hours per week for 40 to 50 years, to hopefully retire at the age of 65.
Ekabo Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast
119. Transforming Challenges into Triumphs: Essential Real Estate Insights for Financial Success!
🚀 Ready to break the barriers to financial independence?
Join Justin, Desmond, AJ, and me in the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast! 🎙️ We're diving deep into the real challenges of investing, property management, and strategic goal setting.
🌟 Hear Justin's thrilling journey in Boston, from collaborating with the Celtics to exploring new sports media realms like the NHL and NASCAR! Plus, I'll share the hurdles of running my bed and breakfast amidst Boston's high living costs. Together, we’re navigating these challenges with smart financial planning, property appreciation, and innovative solutions like Hospitable's Knowledge Hub.
💡 But that's just the beginning! We’re not only sharing personal stories; we're equipping you with actionable real estate strategies. Learn how to write down your goals, craft Standard Operating Procedures, and optimize your current assets while minimizing debt to pave your way to financial freedom.
🏡 Curious about boosting your property's appeal and profitability? Discover innovative property improvement strategies tailored for diverse market segments—from family-friendly amenities to trendy features that attract the TikTok generation! We’ll show you how understanding your audience and enhancing aesthetics can significantly elevate your average daily rates.
🎉 As we wrap up, get excited about our new Investment Exploration Podcast and a sneak peek into the inspiring story of our upcoming guest! Tune in for a perfect blend of personal anecdotes, practical advice, and a glimpse into the future of real estate investment.
Don’t miss out—your journey to financial freedom starts here! 🌟
Summary
In this episode of the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast, host Niyi Adewole discusses the importance of setting clear financial goals and strategies for achieving financial independence. The conversation covers various investment strategies, particularly in real estate, and emphasizes the significance of optimizing short-term rental properties. The participants share their experiences and insights on navigating economic challenges, adapting to life changes, and exploring new investment opportunities. The episode concludes with a discussion on the current real estate market and the importance of being proactive in financial planning. In this conversation, Niyi Adewole discusses various aspects of real estate investing, particularly in the multifamily and short-term rental markets. He emphasizes the importance of being proactive in property searches, creative deal structuring, and leveraging technology for efficient property management. The discussion also covers optimizing rental properties with family-friendly amenities and the significance of aesthetics in attracting guests. Niyi shares insights on navigating the current market conditions and the potential for higher returns through strategic investments.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Financial Freedom Mastermind
03:13 Setting Goals for Financial Independence
06:05 Optimizing Short-Term Rentals
08:56 Strategizing for Fut
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Our Links
➣ Financial Freedom Mastermind Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/53083...
➣ Peer Space Host Referral Link https://www.peerspace.com/referrals/g...
➣ AirBNB Host Referral Link https://www.airbnb.com/r/niyia41
➣ Ekabo Home Network (IG, Youtube, Email) https://linktr.ee/ekabohome
Niyi Adewole is a licensed realtor in Georgia, brokered by EXP Realty. Feel free to reach out at Niyi.Adewole@exprealty.com if you would like to work with an investor friendly real estate agent.
Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast. Here we're all about breaking free from the 40 to 50 year work grind and accelerating our journey towards financial freedom. Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence. We serve as a hub for connecting with fellow members during our sessions so you can share successes, ask questions and keep the momentum going.
Speaker 2:Good evening everyone. My name is Nii Adewale, host of the Acaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group, and I'm excited to be joining you guys here, and so kind of what we talk about all the time is you've got to have definite goals, you've got to have a focus in mind and each day, just go one step closer to reaching that goal and you'll be surprised what you can accomplish in a short period of time, and so I know that for myself, there's some goals for this last quarter of the year. I know that for a lot of the clients that are working with the Acaba home team, they have goals for the last quarter of the year, and so we're looking to accomplish those and really finish the year out strong, heading into 2025. But tonight is going to be an open session, and so if this is your first time joining or you're a mainstay here, you want to just click the chat button down below to ask any questions and or join live and be able to ask questions and join into the conversation. But this is going to be an open session and while we're waiting for people to join and for questions to come in of that event, and so I will pause there and give you guys times to jump on. Feel free to ask any questions in the chat and or join live.
Speaker 2:There he goes, justin. How you doing man? What's going on, dan? I figured I wanted to leave you here by yourself. Come on now. I appreciate you. I know it's been a while. I wanted to send the message back to let people know we are back. I know I was out of it for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I understand that. Honestly, the whole time you was out, I was pretty much out of it myself. Had a lot of stuff going on. I was actually up in Boston last week. You know your old stomping ground, so pretty good time up there. I was up there for about a week.
Speaker 2:Were you with the champions.
Speaker 3:Actually I didn't go to Celtics media day. I went to that Tuesday. I had some other obligations that I had to take care of, but I was up there for some Celtics stuff. I was just doing a lot of stuff with people in the area. I went to the community rowing center. I don't know if you ever went to Mike's Pastries.
Speaker 2:I've heard of it. I never actually made it out to Mike's Pastries, but I've heard of it.
Speaker 3:So I was at some of the more popular spots in Boston just interviewing people around what the Celtics did, Got a piece that I'm working on.
Speaker 2:Should be good Dope and has everything settled down for you heading in? Well, you mentioned that this year there's not going to be a change. It's the following years that there would be a change for the media deal that'd be next year.
Speaker 3:So this year, you know, we're pretty much business as usual. We're going to go throughout the season as if everything's the same, but next year we won't have the nba, so that'll be new. Uh, we found a couple other properties. We got the nhl mob and some nascar events, so that's what we're going to be transitioning to. We actually have two college football playoff games this year too, so I'll be getting back on this weekend working on some football once the playoffs get here, so that should be interesting.
Speaker 2:Let me write that down. I know who to hit up for tickets, all right. So, okay, sideline pass. Okay, okay, we are good. That's cool, man, that's really cool. And next time you're going out to Boston, you got to let me know. We got some food spots that you have to go to. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, I'm always out there I'm always so busy, but I did go so I stayed up at Newton, you know, not really in the city. I went to like a seafood it, but it was like right down the street from my hotel. It was killer, pretty good.
Speaker 2:Nice, Nice. Yeah, I know, I know Newton, Newton, uh, Wellesley, right, we were. That's actually where I stayed when I was first coming up there to look for apartments. I had one weekend to find an apartment before moving there like a month later. And so I mean Boston's crazy expensive and Newton was the only one that kind of made sense and you can drive to the city and get out pretty quickly. But I like Newton.
Speaker 3:Yeah, similar to like being in Decatur in Atlanta. It's like 15-minute drive, or it was for where I was hitter.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly Outside of that man. How are the B&Bs coming? How's the optimization? Are you starting to see it pick up?
Speaker 3:Everything's going smooth, just trying to make sure we keep occupancy up as we move into I'm guessing the slow season. It's my first year doing this, just trying to get the numbers and understand, but just slicing those rates whenever I can as we get closer to those dates. I've been able to pretty much get everything filled up. We're having a little bit of a lower nightly rate but that's okay because we're still more than break-even. That's the name of the game. We're in this for the long haul so we can just continue to get appreciation and get those mortgages paid. That's all good for me.
Speaker 3:I'm not looking for a ton of cash flow right now on the properties that I have. I'll house hack on one of them, so once I move out of this thing it'll definitely be taxed on. But we're kind of. So that's just kind of what we're doing, just keeping it steady and making sure that when we have those busy seasons that we're allocating those funds for reserves as we head into these slow seasons. But, like I said, we've made sure that we've made enough for the mortgages. So technically we're still on the up and up when it comes to the BNBs and the optimization is great.
Speaker 3:Man, pretty much hands off, don't necessarily have any issues. But because we are a little bit slower, I think I'm going to start making some updates. I think I'm going to be replacing some flooring in one of my B&Bs that I have Got to reduce some countertops, things of that nature, maybe some touch-up paint as we move forward into the busy season. Pretty much had all five circuit reviews, had one three-star last week so I was just trying to make some corrections around some of the things that they brought up.
Speaker 2:But as we do that, I think we'll be pretty good. Come on now. And sometimes it's hard because it may be something that happened during that stay. That's not normally happening, where this person just hits you over the head. They don't realize how hard that's going to hit on the property. So that's a tough one.
Speaker 2:But as far as making sure that now, during the quote unquote down season, you're making those touch-ups and getting it ready, that makes perfect sense and we're looking to do the same for some of our properties. I think we talked about it before, but the house hack that we're doing we have basically a luxury short-term rental in our backyard and it's kind of cool because we're able to control that whole experience even more so than we can with a lot of other properties. For the mansion, we specifically have somebody go there before check-ins because you need to right make sure this thing is pre-owned. But for other homes it's hard to do that. If you've got eight check-ins, how are you going to get to all these homes? Right, and it's hard to do that. If you've got eight check-ins, how are you going to get to all these homes and it's not sustainable.
Speaker 2:But for this one I can just walk back there. So it's cool being able to see like, hey, this is out of place, let me move this back, or hey, let me cut this off or switch this light or whatever. And we've been getting five-star reviews back to back and this is our first stay of a week. We got somebody checked in today. He's going to be here until the following Monday. We're right there with you on the optimization.
Speaker 3:It's very similar to what you said, man, with the house hack, it's very easy for me to pop up, make some changes, do whatever I need to do, because this is literally 30 feet. That's why, very similar to Desmond, I'm trying to lock down the whole street. Man, if I could just get all the houses on one street, maybe I'll get me a bike and I'll just ride the bike up and down the road, checking in and out on my B&Bs and just living the dream, like Debo out here, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Stanley get off my grass.
Speaker 2:That's funny. That is funny. But no, that's aspirations, right there. It's kind of like a game of Monopoly. It's kind of like that foreshadow, but Desmond, how you doing oh yeah, I'm ready, don't worry, don't worry.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, that's facts, man. Hey man, slowly but surely just trying to buy the block up. But hey, man, congrats on the week's stay. That's awesome. So things are moving along that. But yeah, man, I'm in the same sort of kind of boat right now and really just trying to, you know, make sure things are tip top going into the new year. No-transcript do I want this to go like, where, you know, where can this, what can this be? Where do I want it to go? You know, and just what's the, the route that?
Speaker 2:can be taken. That might be you.
Speaker 4:Is that me? I think it's okay. Okay, we're good, but man trying to focus up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to that point, desmond, I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm going to ask you a question here in a second. But it's good to take some time away too, like I was gone for two and a half weeks three weeks on a honeymoon and that time away helped not focus on running the business day to day, but being able to step away and focus on the business and actually write out details of okay, this is an area where there's a bottleneck, this is a spot that can be a lot better, and you just come back with so much clarity when you take a little time away. But a question for you while you're thinking about all these grand ideas, have you written anything down? Are we going to see a goal sheet heading into 2025?
Speaker 4:Yeah, definitely going to see a goal sheet. I have started to write things down, and more so, write things down in my business right now and just get things together. So I started actually writing down SOPs and writing down what is the procedure for handling certain issues and, like, right now I'm the only employee or I'm the only full-time employee, let me say that, right, I have some you know a few vendors, cleaners, you know a lawn guy that I work with, but I'm the only one looking at the SOPs right now. But I want to get it to a point to where I could have someone look at this and know exactly what to do. You know, know how to operate, just in case you know, or just when that time comes right, because surely that I'm sure that time is going to come at some point.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I've, I've really started to think more and like, focus more on, like just stepping back and like writing, writing down, like, what the goals are, but honestly thinking beyond, yeah, just like the next property and whatnot, and really just thinking about, like you know, career and real estate and intertwined and where, you know, could that go Like do I want to, you know, maybe take a, you know route similar to what you did and go full time into real estate at some point, like, is that something that I think would you know be, you know, fruitful, or just be something I want to do?
Speaker 4:Do I want to, you know, dig really deep into my career, maybe go back for advanced education? Thinking holistically about that, and that definitely kind of shapes my mind around like my business and like how does that factor in as well? And like I had started off like man. I want to you know property every year, and now I'm starting to ask, you know, is that, is that still the goal? So I have started to write things down, though. So I will say that I have, in some fashion, started to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on now. It helps tremendously, especially when you start talking about five year and one year goals, because you're able to come back to it and see, okay, where do we progress to, and and realign right like we're, I'm constantly changing up my long range goal right, at least as far as like the numbers, and you know know it used to be hey, I want to get a hundred units and things of that nature. Now I want optimized units. I think there's enough going on, like. Like. What I'm focused on right now is optimizing the whole portfolio, especially while we're still stabilizing the storage units and getting the townhomes off the ground. I'm like all right, there's enough money getting poured into that and we focus on those and stabilize everything. So, yeah, it helps to write it down. Justin, what are your thoughts, man? How are you heading into this final quarter? Are you starting to think about what next year looks like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, 100% on the optimization man Just trying to look at my current portfolio, which is just two properties right now. But how can I squeeze every dollar out of those two properties before I go acquiring more properties? Because I feel like the more I acquire it's going to be harder for me to work backwards and kind of get everything I can out of the properties that I own. I was fortunate enough to get one of these properties with a covet rate, you know, three percent. So I'm like, all right, man, can I make sure that I can just pour maybe an extra 10 grand into this property, right, and just bring up the value of this thing to where I can get more on that nightly rate, and then it just becomes a cash cow for me moving forward and then eventually I'll get that another property and then I'll be so stabilized in this property that I'm just kind of not worried about it. Similar to you just trying to make it as much of a luxury experience as I can, because I think the more luxury the experience is, the less issues you're going to have with your guests, right, and you can get that high quality guests. You have pretty much no issues with it, and then you have so much money coming in because your note is so low. I don't know if you guys are solo, but like, once you can create that spread and you got all this money coming in, now it makes it a whole lot easier to reinvest more money back into that property, right, and now it makes it a whole lot easier to reinvest more money back into that property, right. So any little issues you do have, they just become nonexistent because you just pay to get those issues resolved and you move forward. It's not like you're only making a couple hundred dollars on the cash flow on these properties once you can really narrow down and make sure they're optimized.
Speaker 3:And, desmond, similar to you, I'm thinking I want to get a property every year, but I think I'm just going to do every two years. Man, make sure I get that two-year grace period of if I decide to sell that property I've already been at it two years and then by the time I get another one, I just can keep going from that and it gives me a little bit longer to kind of build up that down payment and make sure that we're stabilized on everything else and just kind of pay down the debt. It's a lot of money upfront when you're starting to B&B. So I want to make sure that I've already kind of paid down all that debt on the startup costs before I move into the next property, because me was kind of alluding to this but I felt like I wanted to grow very fast.
Speaker 3:But now I'm trying to grow and minimize the amount of debt that I have on it outside of the mortgages. So if I can keep that debt low and just kind of have that financial freedom of all I got is a note on these properties. So as long as I can make enough on Airbnb to cover the note, I'll always be good. That's kind of where I'm leaning towards now and eventually I'll just pay down the debt on all the properties and I'll just kind of ride off into the sunset with those Just having maybe 20, 30 solid A-class properties that are just generating a good bit of cashflow, then I'll be good.
Speaker 2:Come on now and, honestly, there's nothing like that. And the cool thing, like the whole goal of all this, right At the end of the day, is real estate acts as one of the best savings and investment vehicles, because one, it makes it a little bit harder for you to get the money out. You can't just go and sell a stock and say, hey, the money's in my account, I'm going to go spend it on something you actually have to. Okay, I got to go do a HELOC, which is going to take 30 days or whatever. Or hey, I got to sell this thing, which could take 30, 45 days, and so it forces you to lock in and actually save money on a monthly basis, because every month your mortgage is getting paid down little by little, so that's getting paid directly to you by somebody else.
Speaker 2:That's one piece. Two, it's going up and to the right over time, especially what we have going around the metro of Atlanta, all the different companies here, all the different investment getting poured in and the different events that are coming here, and so I just like it overall for that piece. But you're right, at the end of the day, you got to make sure that you still have a good balance. Right that you have the real estate but you also have cash and reserves just in case, and that you also have, if you're doing retirement accounts, things of that nature. It needs to be balanced across the board. Maybe not fully balanced, but you got to have some of the other ones as well.
Speaker 3:Just a little bit of flexibility. I think that always works, man. And I tell people all the time people are like what are you going to do? Because I invest in ETFs. I just dollar cost average into ETFs, no matter if it's high, no matter if it's low. Because I'm looking at it like this the stock market crashes, everyone's going to be out of money. Guys, if no one has any money, it doesn't matter if I had a couple hundred thousand in the bank. It's not going to do me any good in my opinion. So I'm just like I'm just going to continue to dollar cost average into the stock market and see what it does.
Speaker 2:Come on now and one little sidebar before we kick it to AJ, if you guys haven't already, for for you guys that I'm looking at and also anybody that's listening in or listening to us in the future, we do have our event coming up next Saturday Breaking Ground another in-person yes, we went back to the same Jamaican caterers and they're going to hit us over the head with some of those patties which I'm excited about. But come through for the networking to hear, for some incredible women in the industry that are crushing it. Looking forward to seeing you guys and everyone there.
Speaker 5:But, aj, how you doing, man? Hey, I'm solid man. You'll definitely be hearing from me and seeing me because, cammy's, they are legit, I will tell you, ever since the mansion event that you threw, that has kind of been like one of my go-to spots and I made a really good relationship with those guys over there, and Shamel and his family is awesome. So I haven't been there in a couple of weeks but, man, they got some of the best Jamaican food in the city, hands down.
Speaker 2:So come on, I'm trying to get them to sponsor the podcast. I'm working on it. That place is amazing Solid. Yeah, you got a tough opponent.
Speaker 3:This week aj, by the way yeah, oh he's, he's talking football he's wearing the.
Speaker 2:I see I just realized he's wearing the bills, the bills man three, and oh, I like it they look.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they look good, we look good. We just gotta stay consistent. You know the bills are um, have a long history and just kind of like a roller coaster ride, but I'm really liking how we're looking right now, so it's going to be an exciting weekend for sure. Come on now.
Speaker 2:But outside of that, how was business? How was the real estate coming for you?
Speaker 5:Honestly, it's solid in terms of, like real estate. So, personal life-wise, I actually just got laid off of my W-2 about a month ago, so I've really just been trying to navigate the waters with that. But the real estate piece, I think me and my wife just kind of teamed together because of you know, obviously, the implications of the W-2. And it's like, hey, we still have this real estate portfolio that we have to manage right. So one thing that we did immediately afterward was number one obviously cut back on all the unnecessary expenses and things like that.
Speaker 5:Unfortunately I had a trip that we were going to go to Charlotte, but I just completely nixed it. I just didn't think it would be in our best interest to go ahead and spend money frivolously after, especially being laid off. But then after that we kind of just reassessed our real estate portfolio and actually transitioned to midterm rentals and one of the reasons why we wanted to do that was just to have that secure income coming in for the next, like I think, until the end of the year. So we're solid. And then that'll buy me a little bit of time as I'm actively applying to different jobs and interviewing and things like that. So that's kind of what I've been up to for the past month. It has not been at all.
Speaker 4:Is that?
Speaker 3:What do?
Speaker 4:you got over there.
Speaker 3:That's my no, that's me. I may have to Software today.
Speaker 4:He got a specialized keyboard over there. Yeah, he got something crazy over there. I don't know what he got Like hold up man. I do software too, but I ain't never heard that. Go ahead, Nia.
Speaker 2:To that point. This is a weird time period, especially with companies, and, aj, we feel for you. We know you're going to be back on your feet here quickly and it's one of those where this is a good time to kind of tighten up the ship, right. I think what you're doing is smart to start to okay, not have some of those ups and downs, at least get through the winter, especially if you're able to secure those midterm rentals which you've been successful in, right, getting a couple of midterms, and so if you're able to get a longer one, it buys you time to not have to think about it and it also allows you to, while you're doing that house hack, still have income coming in. That's helping pay that mortgage, which is the whole point of doing it to begin with, which is awesome when you think about it. I think he's still working on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, aj definitely feel for you, man, and obviously you know about my situation with the NBA, so hopefully I won't be in the same situation here in a year. But I've just been trying to proactively set myself up for that as well. You know, just as these companies continue to trim, it looks like we're headed towards a recession. You know people are already saying we're kind of already in a recession. So we're probably going to start seeing that a lot more often with these companies as they try to tighten up their ships as well and kind of keep costs low.
Speaker 2:And that's part of the reason why, when you think about it, the Fed's cutting interest rates right, they started seeing the unemployment tick up and things of that nature, and so they're trying to complete that quote unquote soft lending, which I think they've done an amazing job right, quilting inflation and now starting to bring the interest rates down a bit. But they're doing it for a reason, and as you head into the winter, things historically slow down anyway, and so you got to look at the opportunities that are going to come our way, which is opportunities to refinance, potentially get other items in right, if you're able to still go out and acquire assets and things of that nature. But most importantly is actually shoring up the shorts. You got to play defense before you can jump out there and play strong offense.
Speaker 3:What do you Go ahead?
Speaker 2:No, please, please.
Speaker 3:Even though I'm not looking to buy right now. I mean, I guess I'm always looking to buy if the right deal comes out there. I've still been looking at, still check properties from time to time, right, and I haven't seen a ton of inventory for like multifamilies. I remember a while back, man, I saw this great opportunity. It was like three single family homes, essentially on one lot that they were selling as a selling as a detached triplex type situation. I haven't seen one of those come across again. A property like that is one that I really be looking forward to or even bought of that nature, because I kind of like the idea of the multifamily but I really like the idea of the detached units on one plot of land. Someone's already came in and set up three different properties but they're selling it as one unit, essentially one unit as one sale. I really like those, but it gives you that privacy for when you're running the Airbnbs as well 100% agree.
Speaker 2:And the ones that you're talking about. I've seen a couple come across, but they get snatched up quickly. You got to have your ducks in a row ready to go, like right now I'm working with an investor out of California who's looking to buy multifamily in grade A or B plus neighborhoods, and so we're looking and running the numbers on this triplex that's out in Alpharetta. It does need a little bit of work, but the numbers are incredible in this thing and it's like dude, if we want to move on this, we need to move on it Right, cause it's not going to be here, whereas some others in you know like more questionable neighborhoods, right, they'll sit for a bit longer, especially as we head into the winter.
Speaker 2:There's a fourplex that I'm working on with an individual who wants to get something that is just barely qualified, right. So, like all the units need renovation, they want to go and house, hack it and put in all the sweat equity because they've done some flips before and just build that thing back up, and so those ones are sitting for a bit. That house has actually been on the market for like six months, so we're going to go in there hard and see if we can't get like a crazy deal.
Speaker 2:But for the ones you're talking about grade A neighborhood, you got to be able to lock those up pretty quickly, like the one I'm sitting in now. We locked this up back in February and didn't close on it until middle of July, right, so it's that type of deal.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I feel like to sorry, I was going to say just to your point, justin I feel like they, they're always, they've always like, even when I was looking a couple of years ago, it was hard to find, like this, this property, the one I'm sitting in, we like went after the same day, a couple hours after it was up, and then like, basically the next day we were looking to, you know, go through the uh, closing and whatnot. But yeah, like, I think they're, they're hard, and when you're actively looking to buy a multi-family, I feel like you have to just be constantly looking, like day in and day out, and then also to the point of just like locking properties up early. I didn't't realize, I guess, how common of a thing that was. Like my homie down the street, he did the gut and now he bought the property across the street from it and he got that one on a first right of refusal that he basically had them sign a couple months prior and then, lo and behold, later they were willing to sell it and I thought that was one super smart.
Speaker 4:But I also didn't realize that people were doing that and that, like seller, would sign into that. But that's definitely been on my mind of like man, like you know, if you see a property, particularly if the people are like out of state or they're older, I think it's something that someone might be willing to agree to. You know more than you might think. Think I wouldn't think anyone would ever sign that, but it does seem like and I'd be curious to hear me. Is that something you've seen people do as well? Is that something you've done? Because I feel like that can be a great tool to just lock something down even before you're ready to buy it.
Speaker 2:Dude. So it depends on where you are in the market, right. When we were getting that first fourplex with you, I want to say it was 2022. So we're still coming out of it being a seller's market, and the interest rates hadn't hit the level that they hit last year and early this year, and so you know, yeah, thank goodness, and so and so, with that in mind, it was still a seller's market, so it's a lot harder to get what you're talking about then, but we've been in a buyer's market for at least about six months, right, and we're still in a buyer's market until these interest rates come down enough and we hit the spring. I think we'll be in a buyer's market until the spring, right, but long story short.
Speaker 2:Right now, even some of the listings that we have one of them that we just got sold was subject to. This person was like hey, I'm willing to do subject to, and really have no money down from the buyer, right, it's outside of, like closing costs. I picked up one earlier this year subject to there's many ways right now to go out there and negotiate deals, right, but it's your comfort level, hey, do I have enough reserves to float this thing while I get it turned around and all of that, and that's the hard part. It's exactly what Warren Buffett says, right when everybody's fearful, which is right now, this is when you should be greedy, this is when you should be out there buying. But it's hard if you don't have those reserves in place. Good, point.
Speaker 3:Justin, you're on mute. You got to swim into the tide. You know when you see that big wave coming, you got to swim into it. You can't wait for the wave to pass.
Speaker 2:You past, you gotta run the way, come on now. But to what switching gears? Not even to that point have you guys, within hospital book, been using that knowledge hub at all. Have you started playing around with that?
Speaker 4:I haven't, no, just because I I'm not, I'm not sure, I'm not sure how much I trusted one, but also I I don't have too much communication going on to where I can't just go in there and apply. But I'm curious to know if you have and how it's been working, because I thought about it.
Speaker 2:Dude. It's pretty cool. So I would highly recommend trying it out, especially if your goal is to eventually train somebody to help you with messaging and things of that nature. The way we've been doing it in the past is we had, like, this Word document that had all these details hey, what type of beds and baths do we have? Yes, that had all these details. Hey, what type of beds and baths do we have? Yes, you put it on the listing.
Speaker 2:But I'm sure you guys get questions as well, like, hey, what kind of beds you got? It's like, listen, it's all listed there. But you may have to tell them. And so what this knowledge hub allows you to do is to put all the information that you put in there, as well as anything additional, like, hey, you know you can only park in these areas, or you know there's 10 stairs leading up to the, the house, or whatever information you want to put in there. And then you essentially essentially it parses it out and pulls the information here. Let me actually share, let me show you what I mean. So it essentially parses out that information and it's it's used in the ai right?
Speaker 4:yeah, you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're training the AI, the chat GBTs, essentially to. Can you see my?
Speaker 3:screen yeah To be a VA in a sense, right.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 3:That's huge.
Speaker 2:So now, instead of having to go to the Word document, now you plug it in and boom, you've got all the info. It just pulls it. So now, anytime somebody says you know like, hey, I got a question on this. When you do that, suggest AI. It's a lot more powerful and a lot more accurate and you can just keep updating this, and so I see the value of this as replacing the need for multiple, multiple, multiple people to work around the clock. You really could probably just have one person and you know yourself. Just have one person and yourself during the daytime and hit the suggest button. As long as you put all the details in here any new questions that you get asked, put what you're going to answer there it'll start pulling that information for you and eventually probably be able to automatically answer on your behalf down the road.
Speaker 4:Right and it can answer, can it? Can it already do the answering or no?
Speaker 2:It does, but it wants you to hit send Right now.
Speaker 4:it won't automatically send Okay.
Speaker 2:Unless you have like questions, right, but people can ask anything and it can pull from all the data that you have.
Speaker 4:But right now it's not automatic. This is our address.
Speaker 2:If somebody asks like hey, how do I get to here? It'll give everything Restaurant recommendations. You can put all that in there and it'll spit it out Are you investing in hospitable?
Speaker 3:I know you've been rolling with these guys for a long time. I just want to know if you're ever investing in them I know they are listening to where you can invest directly in a hospitable or something along those lines.
Speaker 2:I should. I definitely should. I'm almost all in on real estate, but soon I'm going to start putting some more money into stocks and things of that nature to rebalance, and so hospitable is a company that I believe in. I think right now they're still only taking it from people that use hospitable, and so that'll be one soon that I want to put some money into. Funny that you mentioned it and the reason your boy got champagne today is because we hit the $100,000 mark for direct bookings with hosp. Wow, that's pretty incredible. That's huge Like a whole box. So me saying bye-bye to Airbnb.
Speaker 4:And we're trying to as much as we can. That's huge, and how long have you been doing direct I? Think direct came out was it last year and you signed up basically immediately. Yeah, it came out last year. Yeah, it might have even been this year.
Speaker 2:I don't know, might have been. I think it was last year.
Speaker 4:I think it was last year for direct. I need to still sign up on that you're not on.
Speaker 2:Direct yet?
Speaker 4:no, I'm not, but I've started to think about it more and I actually have a question kind of coming out of this convo. But I've been starting to think about it more since I think we're starting to go a little bit more into the slow season. I've had to think a bit more about the calendar and the bookings or, like in the summer and especially even last year, I didn't have to think about it, it was just booked Like I would look it'd be a month out, just booked. I'm like all right, sweet, like we're rolling. Now I see some gaps, I see I have to do some optimizations, I have to go in there and change the price, yada, yada. So I'm starting to think about absolutely doing direct it's on my to-do and button up list for something I need to get done by the end of the year.
Speaker 4:I'm also curious to know, and also on the topic of optimization, what do you guys think and have seen to be the best improvements to a property that you can make? Maybe specific to short-term, maybe long-term as well, maybe both, but it's something I have started to consider as the calendar maybe slows down a little bit. Like what's the value in adding a washer and dryer or you know what kind of benefit is that going to bring? What's the value in? I think less so in like, small additions of like oh, I'm going to do this accent wall or I'm going to put up this, you know wall of wallpaper, I feel like it has to be pretty, something pretty big, or unless you're doing a you know, full house renovation and you're making it super nice.
Speaker 4:But it's definitely something I've started to think about. It's like, what is that? Maybe one thing I could do to the property to kind of set it over the top and differentiate me from the others and like. I definitely plan to like go and look and do the research, get on price labs and check out other listings and whatnot. But I'm curious to know, just in you guys' experience, what have you seen to be the most?
Speaker 3:valuable, say family-friendly and wheelchair accessible, because I just had a kid, we had an extra playpen or a bassinet thing. So if you put that in the home, people who have newborns or infants, they'll book your house because most of the other homes that offer it need a safe space for their children to sleep. So if you have, like a fold-up one that can just go in the closet after it's used, so like if you have a list, it's like hey, upon request, just let me know if you need a playpen, then you just tell them it's in the closet, right, and they just pull out right, because babies have to sleep in a crib or some type of bed that you probably don't have a kid but they have to sleep in a special type of bed when they're so young.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. So you know, a lot of families are traveling with their young children. So if you have that, it just kind of pushes you to the top of the homes that they can stay in, like they may want to go in another home. And if they don't have a place for the kids to sleep and they don't want to travel with that thing, you just made it a whole lot easier for them. Or maybe having like a high chair, like those things are pretty much, I would say, low ticket items that could really boost your status, especially booking somewhere. So on bookingcom, you got to think about the people that are traveling from overseas and places upon that nature, like the farther you're traveling, the less things you're trying to travel with.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's actually pretty incredible because, justin, you are fresh into this. This is something that my wife was saying, like, hey, we should put that into the back, and so is this something that you actively look for now. Or you're like, hey, it'd be good to have playpen high chair and things of that nature.
Speaker 3:And two, if you look at like the, I think Airbnb shows you the most things that people are looking for or something along those lines, like the categories that you can check, like the most ones look for at the top. So like people that have like a crib or a bathroom or things of that nature, they're always at the top. It's almost equivalent of like having a fully stocked kitchen. Think about it, because there's a ton of families that travel. The most people that travel, based on the data from Price Labs, is couples and families, but in couples with children.
Speaker 3:So you know, I know a lot of us are investing into, like, single families and things of that nature, but I've actually kind of been looking forward into investing into more properties multifamily. They were like one ones, right? Because if you can just lock down all the couples that's traveling, it makes it a whole lot easier versus trying to fill up a larger space and your cost of acquisition for those properties should be a little bit lower, because generally people or families aren't trying to buy those type properties. So if you're trying to have these boutique hotels, so now you just got these one ones and you're just looking for the travelers, so of course you'll be competing with hotels, but we're already doing that kind of in this market anyway.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, and you're totally right on the one one and I've seen that my one one has consistently done better than my two ones, which I'm thinking, oh, I got more space. They're going to want that. No, but I'm. I'm having to lower my price on the two one almost to what it it is on the 1-1 to get those bookings right, Just because it's a lot of couples, it's a lot of smaller families. Yeah, great point.
Speaker 2:One piece I would add to that. So that's noted and now it's been in my head twice, so I need to make a move on those and get those added to the listing. But washer and dryer, as you mentioned before huge we have a couple 1 one-ones in our portfolio, right, and most of them do not have washer and dryer. But we recently added two earlier this year that do have a washer and dryer in unit because they're slightly bigger, and, for example, one of them we've had the guest, I want to say. They booked back in like early July and they've just continued to extend.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I'm not sure you know what's going on with their house, but they've continued to extend and extend and extend, and I think a lot of that has to do with actually being able to wash your clothes and things of that nature without having to, you know, go to a laundromat, whereas one of the other ones that we have that's, you know, visually nicer. We've had people stay a bit longer, but some of the feedback they've given is hey, I wish you did have some type of laundry facilities that we could utilize, because it is kind of annoying and you don't want to stay for a super long time if you got to go to a laundromat every two weeks and kind of wash your clothes. I think the washer and dryer if you're able to do it economically, if If you have a water source that's nearby, like a closet or somewhere that makes sense would be an awesome addition.
Speaker 4:The problem I have I don't have enough electric in the unit that I want to do it in, so the panel would basically need to be rewired. It's like an older panel so there's not enough. I think it might be just a hundred volts and I think we need like a minimum of 150 or something like that. But I don't have enough basically breaker box to do that, so I need to basically redo the whole breaker box to add space. I'm like at that point I'm going to start opening walls and finding all types of shit out of code. The building's like 50 years old, so I don't think it's something I'm probably planning on doing. But even a facility having somewhere they can go it's not in unit, but you're allowed to go here to do your laundry I feel like it could still be powerful, because people aren't staying a long period of time without. People aren't going to the laundromat unless they already do that in their day-to-day, and that's unlikely the types of guests that you are housing anyways, particularly in the nicer homes.
Speaker 3:It is, but I'll do some research if you could, man, I'm sure, like nowadays, I feel like you can just pretty much buy anything Like I'm sure there's some type of unit that they sell for specifically that case, right To where it's like oh, this home is outdated, but this unit can take this type of power or something along those lines.
Speaker 4:I just don't want to burn my house down.
Speaker 3:They just but I hear you. Well, I'm saying like some type of additional power source, right, you know they have these like a generator to where, like you, can run stuff off of different things, like electric generator or something along those lines. I'm just sure I just would imagine there's some type of use case out there for your specific. Reddit is always great for those things of that nature, like living in a basement. Now, like I use Reddit all the time for like weird things that happen from living in a basement and it's helped me out tremendously. Come on now.
Speaker 2:And it's one of those where, yeah, I think when you look at older homes, right, what are they doing in Europe? All those homes are old and they have like these weird systems that do wash and dry, which I'm still trying to figure out. But yeah, there's probably a solution out there. The other piece is what we've done for some of the houses, especially the bigger ones, is we have a laundry service. Now, where people will? The guy will come and take all the sheets to wash them, so our cleaners can do back-to-backs, and so maybe I mean, it's not crazy expensive that could be something that you offer. Hey, we have laundry service for your clothes, that's a really good idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's probably better than a washer and dryer. Honestly, even if you did have a washer and dryer, there's just screens, upscale service, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's like you have a butler service for your laundry. I might even do that.
Speaker 2:That's actually a really good idea. I can give you his contact. Dude's pretty cool good idea.
Speaker 4:I can give you his contact. Dude's pretty cool um from philly actually, please do. I've seen the laundry services and I've seen that like you can do it, like there are certain ones tailored to airbnbs and whatnot, but I had never thought about providing it as a service for the guest, because that could be huge, like if you book, you know 30 plus days or how many x plus days, you get the laundry service included in your stay. That could be the game changer, I feel like, between unlocking those longer-term stays, because right now my stays are never any longer Like I've had like one guest stay for longer than a month. Other than that, like 90% or more of my stays are like one week or shorter. Interesting, interesting.
Speaker 2:AJ, what you got, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I've kind of had the luxury of being able to control my laundry. In that situation.
Speaker 5:It has a separate door and a separate entrance to laundry For shorter stays.
Speaker 1:Most of the time they're in short term rooms. They're staying like 3-4 days.
Speaker 5:I'll probably just lock it off that's only due to the fact that I feel like in those situations, a lot of short term guests, they can cause more damage than anything especially just for a couple days, even me personally, if I'm going on a trip just for a couple days, Even me personally. I'm going on a trip for just a few days I actually don't need to wash, or dry.
Speaker 1:Everyone's different.
Speaker 5:It definitely is a nice to have For those longer days where people are staying seven days or longer week at a time, 14 days, things like that. We'll actually open it up For the situation that I'm in right now. I have midterm tenants. They're staying for months, like three to six months. They have access to that.
Speaker 1:Obviously, my other property, has a family there, so they definitely have access to that. So, yeah, I mean going back to the amenities and everything, I definitely thought that you guys brought up some really valid points, especially about the career the careers like that I might have to disagree with you on the aesthetics and kind of some of the things like that Personally, I really like that and you know, you know being able to kind of tap into those things I think really draws and leans on to the experience aspect that you get from airbnb, right, because when you go to hotels you just kind of just get a bland like hotel room.
Speaker 5:Uh, you know basic, basic amenities, right? So I so I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I'm a different kind of person. I just kind of like those different amenities, wallpapers, things like that. It's kind of like flashy stuff, especially Especially with a lot of people coming to.
Speaker 5:Atlanta. They like to come have a good time. I think what's in right now is like the what is it? The wall with the turf wall with the lighting? I think you guys don't want to see that.
Speaker 3:The grass wall with the, it's the TikTok generation now.
Speaker 1:People love things like that.
Speaker 5:So I'm actually actively trying to look to see if there's ways to optimize my property. Actually, once my midterm moves out, I'll have to wait a little bit. They'll be moving out sometime, I believe at the end of November.
Speaker 1:But yeah, once they come out.
Speaker 5:I think we're going to go in there just freshen some things up. We probably put a couple new coats of paint in there and just see where we can optimize it. So then once we get back into the short-term, then we can really get to that and then hopefully that will be able to allow us to increase the. Adr on price and things like that, which also brings in more rest. So this is my take, though.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, and I agree with you. I definitely think aesthetics matter for sure, and I wasn't trying to say that they don't.
Speaker 4:I think, one thing is that it can be hard to understand, like like the value that comes out of that. I think it's like a harder thing to analyze and, like research based off of, it's really easy to filter Does this house have a washer and dryer or not? But there aren't really any filters around like, oh, is there like cute wallpaper or like accent walls and do they have like the turf wall? But I do think it's. It's at least I'm going to put it on me to like do more research, cause I I'm really curious to know for my own business and I'll try to share what I find with the group on like the nicer properties. I mean, you can tell, looking at a property, this property is a bit nicer, a bit more luxurious looking than some of the other, more plain, you know, just simple properties, and I'm curious to see like, is that something that can be seen as like worth it, right, and just like how to try to quantify that? So, yeah, it's something I'm going to look into.
Speaker 3:I think you really have to define who your market is too, because if you market to everyone, you market to no one. So, like, if you decide that, like hey, I'm going heavy into marketing my airbnb to families, right, so it makes it a whole lot easier for the things that you want to include in your airbnb. Like, if you're trying to market to gen z and to families, like it's just going to become very muddy. Now you're marketing to everyone and no one really is going to say, oh, this home, because of this, that and the third, if you're looking to market it for my Decatur property, I'm marketing to large guests that are coming, for I'm not going to say events or whatever, but we're trying to give them a backyard space, we're trying to give them five bedrooms, all with clean beds.
Speaker 3:So if you have multiple adult couples coming, those are the people that we're marketing to, right. We're not necessarily marketing to families, but families could book our home, but that's maybe not who we're marketing to, right. So I think it depends on who you're marketing to. If you got a one-one and you're trying to get couples in there, maybe you have like a spa type experience in the bathroom and you have this tick tock photo wall things that we're talking about. But if you're marketing to a family and you're two one maybe you have a crib and you have some amenities for children, things of that nature, so then you're hitting that market every time. Anytime a family is looking for a B&B, they're going to choose yours because you have these amenities for these kids, versus two adult couples, they're not going to choose a B&B because now you've got these amenities for your kids. They don't want to be in a room with dinosaurs or things of that nature.
Speaker 2:That was highly specific. But no, but no To that point. To that point we are, we are at time for today. But I think this was an awesome discussion and it was cool to kind of talk through some of the things that you could do to differentiate your property. One piece I would add to that is there's going to be a cap depending on how many bedrooms you have, because you've got the competition around you right. So if you're in a one bedroom, there's only so high you can go, even with the amenities that somebody's going to be willing to pay. And so sometimes you got to zig when everybody's zagging, like Justin has a huge house, right.
Speaker 2:If you lean into the luxury of that space and kind of the story, you can definitely increase that ADR and go crazy with it. And that's kind of what we leaned into was more of that luxury market with this most recent BNB. And it is different. If you do go luxury and you go with a slightly bigger house than what's out there, it allows you to just charge a heck of a lot more. These people are staying for a couple of days. They're paying like 2,500, right, it's like okay, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It costs a hell of a lot to get it up and running, but now we're starting to see the effects. There's somebody that booked for early next year and we have our pricing set up as such that if you book further out, you're going to get hit with a lot because you definitely want these dates and that person's paying like four grand right For like a week. So, long story short, you can definitely have it pay off for you. You just got to figure out what are the things that you can do with your size of unit to reach toward the higher ADR for that size. If it's one bedroom, what's the highest one bedroom's pulling in? Let me look at those and how do I get there?
Speaker 3:Sure, your cash on cash return is crazy, though. Even though it took a lot to get it started, making two grand, four grand a week, it's like sure You'll get that back quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm happy and I'm pumped and it's cool being able to see it and work through all the kinks of that first month, cause now we're the races. But, guys, it's been good seeing you. Guys, I hope to see you next week. We're going to be interviewing somebody next week Pretty incredible. I'll send out her story probably a couple of hours before, but I hope you guys have a good evening and I will catch you a little bit later.
Speaker 1:All right, fellas, take it easy. Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path.
