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
125. Real Estate Mastery: On-Market vs Off-Market Investments + Renovation Hacks for Maximum Profit!
Could your first real estate investment decision make or break your future success? Join Niyi Adewole in this episode of the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast as we unlock the secrets to navigating the real estate market!
🔑 Key Topics Covered:
🌟On-Market vs. Off-Market Purchases: Discover the safer path for first-time investors and avoid the potential pitfalls of off-market deals.
🌟Investment Strategies for High-Income Earners: Weigh the benefits of long-term rental investments versus property flipping, tailored for those with limited time.
🌟Renovation Insights: Transitioning from minor updates to full-scale renovations builds your “investor muscle.” Learn to manage contractors effectively and turn your vision into reality.
"This week, we kick off with a powerful motivational quote: 'If you are not living with a purpose, you are just surviving.' This serves as a reminder that having a clear purpose is essential on the journey to success."
🤔 3 Questions We Address:
1. Looking to purchase my first real estate investment, is it better to buy on-market or off-market?
2. I am a high-income earner with not a lot of time, looking to do my first deal. Should I purchase a flip or buy long-term and hold?
3. How do you pay for furniture in your Airbnbs?
🛋️ Furnishing Airbnbs on a Budget:
Get insider tips on finding quality furniture for Airbnb properties while keeping costs in check!
📈 Efficiency in Property Management:
Learn how to leverage technology like PriceLab and Hospitable to automate tasks and optimize pricing. We’ll also discuss diversifying listings across platforms to maximize occupancy rates.
Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting, this episode is packed with actionable insights to elevate your real estate journey. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to transform your financial future!
Summary
In this episode of the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast, discusses various strategies for achieving financial independence through real estate investing. The conversation covers the importance of having a strong purpose, the differences between on-market and off-market property purchases, and investment strategies tailored for high-income earners. Listeners learn about smart financing options for Airbnb properties, community engagement through open sessions, and the significance of building investor skills through renovation projects. The episode concludes with practical tips for furnishing Airbnbs and managing multiple listings effectively.
Takeaways
➣Having a strong 'why' is crucial for motivation.
➣On-market purchases provide more protection for beginners.
➣High-income earners should consider buy-and-hold strategies.
➣Using 0% interest credit cards can help finance Airbnb furnishings.
➣Community engagement enhances the learning experience.
➣Refinancing vehicles to an LLC can be beneficial but requires careful consideration.
➣Building investor skills takes tim
🗓️ Tune in every Wednesday at 7 PM Eastern! Don’t miss out on our journey toward financial freedom through smart investments.
👉 Hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you never miss an update! Let’s unlock your potential together!
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. This is Nigi Adewale, host of the Acaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group, and I'm excited to be joining you here on this Wednesday before heading out for the holidays. I know a lot of people are going to be traveling for Thanksgiving next week and, man, once Thanksgiving hits, it really accelerates to the end of the year. So I hope that you've been on track to achieving your goals and that you're still remaining focused in this last month and a half of the year, and so we're going to kick this off, this open session, off with our quote, and the quote is if you're living, if you're not living with a person, you are just surviving. And this comes back to having a why. We talk about this all the time with our clients, especially when we first do our introductory calls. But what is your why? Why is purpose? What are you doing all this? For? Any real estate deal that you get into or profession you get into is going to have its ups and downs. That's just a part of life. But you have to have a strong why or a strong purpose of why you're pushing through some of the downtimes to make it attainable, and so that's a huge thing. I think everybody should have a strong why, a strong purpose, and should be striving for something, because, at the end of the day, that's what actually keeps us going. There was a statistic that I read a few years ago that said that 75% of people that retired and did not have a hobby or something else that they focused on firmly after retirement passed away within five years, and it just goes to show like we were meant to work and do something. It may not be physical labor, but you should be doing something mentally stimulating or something of that nature each day and have a why of what you're going for.
Speaker 2:Jumping into the three questions that we have for today, the first one is looking to purchase my first ever real estate investment. Is it better to buy on market or off market? And so when you look at buying on market versus off market, I look at this as if you were trying to ride a bike. On market, you're riding a bike with training wheels. It's going to allow you to have some protections in place. There's certain disclosures that have to be given to you and there's many speed bumps along the way that would allow you to back out of the deal and get your earnest money. Buying off market is more like riding a motorcycle with no helmet. Right, you really need to know what you're doing, because at any instant, you could be buying a bad deal and or you could lose your earnest money. And so I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2:Right, we've helped plenty of clients do their first deals on market, and I actually just met with a seller who is potentially going to sell the property to us to allow us to flip it because they're weighing over their heads who bought with somebody else their first property off market. They went to an auction and they bid for a property, and they bought this property for $75,000. But what they did not know is that it had $190,000 from the bank on that property, and so it looked like a slam dunk deal where they were going to come in and put about $50,000 into renovations and make out. Now looks like even if they put the 50K into renovations, they'd still lose money on the sale, and so now they're looking to try to get out before having to do all of that. And so, long story short, the recommendation I had to this individual was looking on market, because it gives you a little bit more protection than off market. But once you get your feet underneath you and you start to crush it and do a couple of deals, absolutely you can start to look off market.
Speaker 2:I just would not recommend that for your first one. I don't believe that's needed. One deal is not going to make you a millionaire. That first deal was to get you to the second deal, which gets you to the third, which over time will build wealth.
Speaker 2:The second question I am a high income earner with not a lot of time looking to do my first deal. Should I purchase a flip or buy a long-term rental, buy and hold? And so for somebody who's a high income earner to go and start doing flips is not only going to take a good portion of your time so you're going to have to divert some of your time from wherever you're earning that income over to the flips and to learn that whole business but it's also going to increase your income and increase your taxable income. In that year I was a high income earner when I was in medical device sales and that was one of the whole benefits of getting to that. Real estate investing is building up that depreciation over time so I could use that to offset some taxes in the future and then eventually moving into commercial spaces and short-term rentals to where I could offset actively even while I had the W-2. And so, long story short, I would recommend going to purchase more of a buy and hold property where it's going to be a little bit less on you because you're a high income earner. Focus on continuing to crush that as long as you continue to like your job and put those funds into buy and holds. A flip is essentially getting another job. You'd essentially be having two jobs your W-2, and then also this flipping business that you're trying to learn.
Speaker 2:And the third question I got is how do you pay for furniture in your Airbnbs? And the key is I do not pay for the furniture in my Airbnbs. That will get very expensive very quick. On average, it's going to cost you about five to seven grand per bedroom for the whole house. So a three bedroom could cost you anywhere from 15 to 19, right. And a four bedroom costs you 20 to 24 or so, right, to fully furnish that whole Airbnb. And so what I do and recommend to clients is I take out a 0% interest credit card that is, zero interest for 12 or 15 months. You can get this through like Amex Blue Card, I believe you can get this through some of the Chase cards, and I utilize that card to fully furnish all the BNBs that I go for, and then I use the income from the Airbnbs to pay off the credit card over those 12 months or 15 months before that card is due, and so that's a little hack that we utilize within the team to keep some money in the bank. Even if you have the funds for the furniture, it's a great way to stretch it out and get an interest-free loan from a bank. And so that wraps up the three questions of the week.
Speaker 2:We're going to open this thing up to anybody that wants to join or throw questions in the chat. Please feel free. This is an open session tonight and I look forward to connecting with you. Also, while we're waiting for those to join and or questions in the chat, if you want to go ahead and hit that follow button on YouTube or on your favorite podcast, that would be awesome. It would support us and we would appreciate it, and please let me know if you like the new format. We're trying to make it more actionable and actually pull in some of the conversations that we have on a weekly basis that may not come up on the call, but these are questions that we actually get asked, as the Acaba Home Realty team the investor-friendly realtors trying to bring that to a medium where you can kind of get the answer even beforehand, and or if this was something that was burning in your mind from months ago or weeks ago. Hopefully we're helping clear up some of those questions. There he goes. I like the light Come on now he's backing better than ever.
Speaker 3:How you?
Speaker 2:doing. That's good, man, that's good. I think you had a question coming in.
Speaker 3:I've been trying to make a decision as the year runs to an end, just planning for my next purchase next year, and one of the things I wanted to do was refinance my car to my LLC. But the issue I'm having right now is depreciation of my car by like over $15,000 to $17,000. Now the bank is asking that I pay off that amount right, the depreciated amount, and maybe like an extra so maybe like total of like $17,000 for me to be able to refinance my cards, my LLC, In my mind, I'm thinking does this? This would make sense because it would help me to increase my loan potential for next year, right, but at the same time, spending that cash is it really worth it?
Speaker 2:for me right now is such a tough decision yeah, and you said you'd have to pay 17 000 to move it over to the llc. Yeah, my initial thoughts and I am not a lender, anything like that is is no right. I think it's. It's one where, if you're gonna buy a car, if, like you, needed a car, I would buy it through through the LLC Actually, that's how I got my Tesla. I bought it through the realty LLC because I need a car to drive around, and so that was like tax write-offs, things of that nature.
Speaker 2:But if you've already purchased a car and you're making the payments, I don't know that it makes sense. You should just go and, if you have the funds, keep those funds to the side and, if anything, if you need to qualify for more, we've had clients that needed to pay off a car note or a credit card bill and the loan officer will tell you that, and so they'll take that payment at closing and mail it off and kind of make it happen from there. But I wouldn't do that proactively if you don't have to because you don't know yet.
Speaker 3:If they say, hey, you don't need to, then you're gonna go. Yeah, because I I think about it. I mean, it's just um, just understanding that I don't want to just let go of that cash just because of the car is what is probably keeping me from making that decision. But well, I'll get you, like, if I have the opportunity to buy. I don't think I had my LLC when I actually bought my car. Well, these are like things that I feel like I'm learning right now that I should have done, because the truth of the matter is that the car actually does a lot of work for me in terms of running the different Airbnbs I run, and so it should have been a business car, not even a personal car, because it does more of that than personal use.
Speaker 2:And you can still take all the same benefits. Me doing that just made it a little bit easier to take the full car, as like hey, just take this completely off, right, um, but you're still able to track your miles and take take those benefits in this tax year. It just takes a little more effort, desmond. How you doing that's. How are you doing? Come on now, super good man. You doing well. Come on now, super good man.
Speaker 4:I'm just getting ready for thanksgiving. Yes, sir, holiday season, it always comes around sooner than you think. I feel like absolutely.
Speaker 2:It just creeps up on you. One minute you're in october, the next minute you're you're writing your new year's resolutions.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, seriously, so I need to get on that writing revolutions and actually write it down.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I want to see it in your head. I want to see you looking at a paper.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, absolutely A digital paper right now or in these days, but yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:That's fair. That's fair Is your cause, I know. Last time we talked last week, right, you're pretty much up and running now.
Speaker 4:Dude I am finally, oh my goodness. So units is back up and actually a guy booked it this past monday, so monday till next monday, so seven days. It's crazy because I just opened it up on sunday. So I was scrambling that whole day trying to get it together and like really like make it like decent for someone to come in there. And I haven't even updated the pictures yet and he had booked it. So I sent him a quick message like hey, you know, we did some renovations, whatnot. Some of the some of the pictures are pretty different. Um, be aware of that, but he was like chill with it and has enjoyed the stay so far, so that one's up and running and then the next one it's up. There's like a couple of small things I still need to do, just like handyman stuff, but yeah, man, like I'm pretty much done.
Speaker 4:Grand finale. I uh really like posted anything on instagram because I've been so busy about it. So I'm gonna like post some you know, kind of before and after pics and whatnot and um, kind of show the process. But yeah, it was a grind for like a month and a half. I was like gc'ing this uh relation and it definitely taught me a lot, taught me a lot about just like and whatnot and renovation and managing and running a project. So it was cool but definitely glad to be done, for sure.
Speaker 2:Come on now and I got a question for you on this, because I know it's something that other people would ask as well. But having come from okay, I bought a place that was fully ready to go pretty much just some minor stuff to another place where, okay, maybe we updated a bathroom to here, where you redid the whole thing, do you feel like you've been building kind of that investor muscle and now feel comfortable to take on bigger projects?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I definitely think I could do that in terms of like the experience that I've built up, it's definitely taught me a lot and I think that I know a lot more in terms of like running a renovation and like what it takes down to, like oh, like, what is the size of the sheet rock versus like what kind of mud do you want? Like you know those types of details. I'm definitely getting more keen on and understand more now. But I only thing that would hold me back is time work and like even Back is time work and like even when you're not in there swinging the hammers, and like doing the work, just managing the guys, and like even managing the managers Right Cause like it's different contractors coming in and they got their guys, so like making sure everyone is like doing what they're supposed to be doing and not taking stuff Cause the job site. At this point I got two apartments running and I have my shed in the back and there was like some stuff back there. So just yeah, man, it's, it's definitely, um, I'd say a grind and you have to kind of be ready for that.
Speaker 4:I say and like understand what you're stepping into and a lot of times like I think the renovation I did in the beginning of the year, I didn't really understand what I was stepping into and like didn't I didn't take the time, I'll say, to sit down and plan it out and like really get a spreadsheet down.
Speaker 4:But this time I tried to learn from those mistakes and I took like a day before any of the work started, before any like I accepted any quotes and just like made a schedule and made a list and made like kind of a detailed, you know, project plan for what needed to happen, and I think that really allowed it to run in a pretty efficient manner and everything was like went pretty smoothly, like there are a couple of bumps, you know, I think it happens for sure, but like for the most part, I was definitely pretty happy with how things went and just like I'd say, getting multiple quotes is something I've learned now.
Speaker 4:So if I do nothing else in the project, I'm going to get multiple quotes because you have no idea, like at least I I'll say I have no idea what like a lot of the work goes for, like even what like the rate is supposed to be Right. So you'll look online like sure, but a lot of things are specific to a market or like, depending on your location. So, yeah, I think that's definitely one thing I've learned and I'm like I'm writing that down. Right, that's an SOP in the business now. So that's something I've really gotten keen on, too is writing things down that you know I think are important and are big steps that I need to be taking.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's what I'll say about that. But yeah, to that point, I think you said it perfectly. Like it just takes a little bit more of intention, right, and yes, it's annoying at the time but it saves you so much time, energy on the backend If you just write it down. You have the spreadsheet. I have the same thing. Like I get the bids, I'm like okay, I plug it all into a spreadsheet and I put like a link to like the quote that they sent me, right, it takes a little bit of time up front, but then I also, next to it, I put what it actually came in at. Some of it comes in a little bit under, a lot of it comes in over right. Like okay, like, for, I did a renovation project on a unit last year, one in the fourplex right One of those units and I want to say the total was supposed to be like okay, and it came back at like 34 or something like that, which is not bad.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, this is what. Like 11%, 12% over, that's that's within reason, considering the things that popped up and whatnot. But it helps you start to know, like, okay, this is what this can cost. And then when you find better contractors, okay, this person can do flooring at a lower cost, because this is all they do, this person can paint and then you start to build a team and, yeah, I get excited about this stuff because I've slowly been building that team since moving to Atlanta and the next step, I believe, even personally within my real estate is 2025. I want to get into a couple more flips. I've done some in the past, more with partners. Now I want to make sure we can start building out like a quasi flipping company and do a couple next year. That's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I get about that too. Building a team is definitely something to get excited about because it can really help you expand and grow and start to do things like that, so that's super cool, man.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and before we continue, one question in the chat from Joel. Joel, good to hear from you. What are some good locations in the Metro Atlanta area to buy furniture and home items that may be great for Airbnb that you have seen? I'm going to kick this over to Kaniyo first. What do you got Me?
Speaker 3:I strictly do Amazon, though I don't. I never really bought, that is just convenience, so I haven't really bought anything outside Amazon. For most of my Airbnb, every furniture I have is from Amazon, cheap and cheap.
Speaker 2:That's actually amazing, and they're. I mean, you can get literally anything from there and it gives you the tracking. You can return it quickly if there's something damaged like.
Speaker 3:It's so convenient because even like when it comes to returns to like. For every um airbnb I furnish, once we're done with um everything, it is time for returns. So, like, sometimes my car is full of like items that we have to and it's just easy, it just makes it very convenient. So I rather not buy the only time I ever tried to buy even an appliance outside. Okay, no, I buy my appliances from any of the Home Depot or sorry, what's it called? What's the place you electronics from? Best Buy?
Speaker 2:Yeah like, Best Buy, yeah like.
Speaker 3:Best Buy. Well, I think the only time, because I think I spoke to you the last time when I needed to buy electronics from like somewhere cheaper. I didn't. I went to the places and it didn't look good enough, or I didn't want to also take the risk of having to do that and have to start paying for insurance, so I just went to Best Buy.
Speaker 2:And get a new one. Yeah, that's the one thing you can get it and they tell you, hey, it's going to work and you got like one day or so, but after that one day it's. You know, it's on you, desmond, what you got there, what you got for recommendations.
Speaker 4:No, I'm right there with you. I'm definitely Amazon's biggest fan, like, say, say, man 60, see, 70 of my furniture is also from amazon. Now I will also say ikea, my number two. So a lot of my like bigger items, uh, like couch, like stuff I kind of want to see in person. There's some stuff I'm, you know, okay with getting online, but some stuff I actually want to see and like sit on, so, like the couch and things like that, I'd go into some of the restoration stores. Um, because I think that's one recommendation that you'll get and I tried the, the. It's the popular home for Habitat, home Habitat, oh yeah, yeah, the Habitat for Humanity homes.
Speaker 4:I tried those restores, but it's hit or miss right. You have to, you have to catch it on the right day. So I think if you have some time on your hands and you're not in the middle of the project a middle of, you know, getting your B&B up and running or not, in a time crunch, that can be okay. And, like you know, going to some of those like outlet stores. I think they're not necessarily always in Atlanta, they're kind of more on the outskirts, but there's a lot of like furniture outlet stores you can find just on the maps.
Speaker 4:Those are good if you catch them at the right time, but, like a lot of the stuff, it's like oh, you know you need to, they only got one, or like you can get it, but it's coming in like four weeks. So a lot of my stuff, mostly for the convenience factor, is from Amazon or from Ikea. You know Ikea, I know they're going to bring it, they'll, they'll build it for a little fee. Amazon, they'll take it back, no questions asked. That's nice when you are ordering a hundred things you are managing a lot of different pieces.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I like both of those recommendations and those used to be my go-to early on. It still is Ikea. I've strayed away from not going to lie here in the most recent times because we use a designer for most of these now, but Amazon's great for the recurring items. So, like spoons, right, you're going to need a Keurig. All this stuff, amazon, all of that right.
Speaker 2:But when it comes down to the actual furniture pieces and the mattresses and things of that nature tend to go to a myriad of home goods. We have a connect over with the mattress firm because we've bought literally like 30 or 40 mattresses in the last years from him. So he just slashes the price as much as he can, as much as they'll allow him to, for mattress firm. And then you know, for certain pieces, if the house needs a pop, we'll go to rooms to go to get like a dope, solid couch, like when we did the art house, which is like the luxury sports art gallery out in Marietta. That couch that we got out there is a rooms to go couch and it's like it's nicer than the couch I got in my living room, like I wish I actually had that couch and it's been solid, no issues whatsoever.
Speaker 2:We've tried to go, you know, the cheaper route on some of these things and we just find that, hey, it gets stained or it just gets damaged and things of that nature, but, and things of that nature. But, joel, if you really are looking for savings, I actually have a couple of B&Bs that we've recently sold for clients that have furniture where we can work out a deal where you can get a whole bunch of furniture for your house for pretty cheap. You can also look on Facebook market. If you're willing to hustle a little bit and drive around which is what I was doing initially you can get some amazing deals on dope furniture like West Elm furniture and couches and desks on Facebook market. The only thing is you have to drive around and go pick it up. Sometimes you got to rent a U-Haul if it's big and that can get annoying and you got to start to factor in your cost of time.
Speaker 4:One more thing I'll add to that too. I think it can also depend on the quality of listing that you're setting up and the type of guests that you're aiming for, right? So if you're setting up for, like for me it's one bedrooms and I've got one two bedroom Airbnb as well and they're more in the mid range right, like they're definitely not luxury and like high end units, so I think my listings can afford and the prices you know, you know kind of based upon the level and like the quality of the listing, right, and I understand, like my lane, I guess you know, for lack of better words, and I think you know for more of the higher end listings. Like, I just helped Steven set up his bookingcom listing and I don't think he's, he's in there in the Southern Peach Mansion, which is a beautiful home, by the way. I was telling it, it's dope that house.
Speaker 2:He's killing it. I know, I saw him.
Speaker 4:I saw he's got five stars, like 15 reviews. But in a house of that caliber it's like five or six bedrooms, it's like really big, and the price is, you know, caliber. I don't think he is opting for that level and I think it's. I can at least buy his pictures. It's more of a higher end.
Speaker 2:I think his, his guests are, is that's what he's tailoring toward and the price is adjusted to that as well come on now and to that point that's always super important that you know we got to take all this with a caveat. You got to look at which market are you trying to appeal to and and kind of match that you don't want to play too much right, especially like a smaller unit, things of that nature, but canile. So we were talking about the, the car piece, and then last week I don't even know that we finished the full conversation. Did that that help last week when we were talking about kind of like the hospitable and have you tried?
Speaker 3:it. My subscription expired yesterday, my trial and I didn't really you gotta pay, man forget it forget the free trials.
Speaker 3:You gotta pay me, because now my biggest problem or the biggest thing I need right now is increasing my occupancy, managing, like, most of all those things that I'm getting from Hospitable Airbnb already does them for me. To be honest with you, it's not a problem to send my. I've not also figured out how to use Hospitable to send the cleaners. I think it's going to mess actually using it because I don't know how to put the settings properly where it can send to the cleaners the day before, because my cleaners just get 50 messages and they're wondering what was this for and they also don't get the right dates. So those prompts are not properly set in my own system. So that's the reason why I think I've not renewed again, because at this point where I am, it's not helping me do anything. The only thing that I think it might be beneficial for me is if I'm actually going to know that it's going to increase my occupancy through the what do you call it outside Airbnb, just having my own portal? Yeah, the website exactly.
Speaker 3:If that was because I tried to push that, and if I'd gotten maybe at least a lead from that, I would have been very motivated to stick to it. But I've not been motivated since. I've had it for two weeks, and almost a week actually. Yeah, I guess not two weeks.
Speaker 2:Kanaio, have you ever heard the saying Rome wasn't built in a day?
Speaker 3:I'll try it.
Speaker 2:It takes some time and I would just encourage you.
Speaker 3:Your first booking on hospitable directs, you said how long did it take?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I was there in the wild, wild west days, right, Like when they were still trying to figure out the direct. I was there before they accepted direct payments. So I was literally. Somebody would say, hey, I want to go direct. We'd send them the website, they'd send us the dates and then I would invoice them through QuickBooks, right, and say, hey, we're not going to accept this until you pay the invoice in QuickBooks. So that was before it got as clean as it is now, and so I don't actually remember how long. But what I will say is, yes, you want to increase occupancy that's most important but you got to increase efficiency too. Man, Like, when I look at the business, it's almost like going back to the conversations we used to have with Desmond when he was still the head cleaner of all of his properties, Like dude like you're going to expand, like I cleaned my first house myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it helps me at that point in time to kind of like be I mean I'm not doing that anymore, but at that point in time it helped me a lot to pay off some of my credit card debts.
Speaker 4:So sometimes you gotta roll up your sleeves and do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2:Come on now, early on. There's nothing wrong with that. But you do have to have the end in mind and with you, like you're, you're expanding, you're starting to build up how many that you're managing, and so, like the cleaner piece that you're talking about, all that is tweaks that you can work out. I'm sure Desmond's got it figured out and he offers consulting as well. I would get with Desmond on like maybe setting that piece up, but once you set it up one time, it's smooth. I'm working with three different cleaning teams now because I mean, when you get to a lot of properties, it starts to be hard for one team to handle it, and it's so easy now to just switch them in and out and it just automatically sends everything. That's one. And then it also gives you the opportunity to like you're using PriceLab, right.
Speaker 2:I'm not using any of them.
Speaker 3:I use okay, I use right now Airbnb pricing. I use the what do you call it? The Airbnb pricing, auto pricing?
Speaker 2:The smart pricing. I think, yeah, I, I would get. If you're looking for a bang for your buck, that would be the one that's the bang for your buck. But I would hook it up through hospitable because then it's easier to control all of them. You could sync them individually, but then you'd have to do all the airbnbs and all the vrbo separately, which would take a long time. If you link it through hospitable, it's just one price labs per property and then you can optimize that. The price labs will give you a bang for your buck. Desmond, would you agree on that?
Speaker 4:yeah, I feel like though it sounds like you're mainly focused or you're mainly bnb in terms of the ota that you're using. So I feel like hospitable is, while it's definitely still useful and like for me, I wouldn't be able to go without it. Oh, can I? I think you got an echo too, echo chamber over there. Yeah, so I think that for like the single, like OTA, like when you're just using Airbnb, it definitely still be useful for sure. Like for those automatic messages, for automatically setting the smart lock, for automatically sending tasks to the cleaners If you manage your cleaners through hospitable, doing the pricing from one place, and like just having it all in one place, but like, I think, to all to increase your occupancy right. And then also, where hospitable becomes a lot more useful is when you're using the multiple OTAs. So when you're on VRBO, if you are on bookingcom or if you, you know, let me help you get on bookingcom and you're on those three platforms and like have those be your base and then also expand to direct.
Speaker 4:I think direct is good and I think I was kind of laughing in my head, like asking that question to Nick, because he's like what? Like one day, like what do you mean Like it's like we had a guest the same day, so I think it's hard, you know, what do you have? Like you know, at that scale, right, I think the, the needs and like the ask are a little different. Where it's like, if you're not on direct at that scale, it's almost like what are you doing right now? Even for me, right, it's like what are you doing? So it's something I have on my still to do to have set up by the end of the year, but I, I really think, though, that we're hospital hospitable comes into like super being, being super valuable and, honestly, it's like I hope they're not watching this almost like undervalued, right when, like it's, it's for me critical to have like the like really just for me, automatic messaging, automatically setting the smart lock, being able to kind of block the dates on multiple platforms and manage multiple platforms all in one and especially across multiple listings too, because you can see it all in one place.
Speaker 4:It's critical, like I was doing it beforehand without it Almost on Amazon, right, like I was doing it beforehand without it almost on right, cause I was. I knew I was going to use hotspitable from the jump, but a few of them slipped through before I could actually set it up and it was like, oh my God, like even just between the two listings, it was tough making sure things were coordinated between, like, bookingcom and Airbnb and then BRBO. So, yeah, I feel like it's, it's critical, especially when you are on those multiple OTAs, and you can really justify that. Like 30, 40 bucks a month, quickbooks is like triple that.
Speaker 2:QuickBooks is like 80. Because I don't think, and to that point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't think it justifies me paying Like I'm not guarding justification for me paying over seven. I've not gotten justification for me paying over $7. I'll say, because of the number of listings I have, it will be close to $100, maybe like $80 a month Because I am right?
Speaker 4:How are you doing the messaging right now? How many listings do you have and how are you doing the messaging and the smartwatches? Airbnb?
Speaker 3:does a lot of that. Right now, my locks are connected to Airbnb. My messaging there are automated messages that I have for immediately customer books, immediately, 24 hours, to customers booking. Day after customers booking send this message. Day before customers booking send this message. There are automated messages for everything.
Speaker 4:I think that's the answer to your question right there. Like it's all in Airbnb, right, you are locked in to Airbnb, which is great, cause I mean it's a dope platform and that's instant exposure right there. But if you were to like, really, I think, lean into VRBO if you have multiple listings and like, especially if they're a bit larger cause I think VRBO is more tailored to, like vacation homes, but also bookingcom, for sure, and like even like Google has some rent stuff going on now and like the direct site that's the increase of occupancy I think that you're looking for. Even just going on bookingcom, I think, can help you. Not trying to toot my own, but it doesn't.
Speaker 2:I mean, bookingcom is solid and the piece with the price labs is real. If you're using the Airbnb software, it's cool. But Pricelab is going to help you get a much bigger bang for your buck because they're looking at everything. Airbnb is just looking at what they got and saying, okay, how do we undercut our prices? Pricelab we have somebody who's looking to book this Thanksgiving week. We don't have a booking for it yet for this luxury B&B, but they just inquired for it. We answered their question and it looks like they are going to reserve. They're going to be paying 700 a night now because it's a five bedroom right Now.
Speaker 2:If it was Airbnb, airbnb would cut that down significantly. Yes, it'd be booked, but you wouldn't be getting. You know. You know these X multiples. But because we're using that software and it knows all the people around, it's like oh, there's people still trying to book. Okay, we're going to make a premium on this Same thing for, like next year. We had somebody book that same luxury property for February of next year for something that's happening. They booked for like five days. They're paying 4,500. We're going to get like 39 of that. Right, and it's through Airbnb, but the pricing software helped us maximize that much, much more and more effective. Helped us maximize that much, much more and more effective. But, guys, we are at time. I just want to leave you with one thing, canio, and that's just to think to the future, man, think to the future. All right, right now you're super tied to Airbnb.
Speaker 3:You know, next year definitely I'm getting on all platforms, so I have that in mind saying that.
Speaker 2:Come on now, absolutely no. I appreciate you guys jumping on, joel, we appreciate the question through the chat and we will catch you a little bit later.
Speaker 1:Bye guys, peace to us, bye. Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence.
