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
131. House Hacking 101:Short-Term vs. Long-Term Rentals
🌟 Mastering Real Estate Investments: Short-Term Rental Success & 2025 Financial Goals! 🌟
Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast, where we help you break free from the 40 to 50-year work grind and accelerate your journey towards financial independence! Join me, Niyi Adewole, every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern as we explore diverse investment strategies that fast-track your path to financial freedom.
Episode Highlights:
In this exciting episode, we embrace the new year with enthusiasm and motivation. As we kick off 2025, we reflect on the journey ahead, starting with a powerful quote: “The person on top of the mountain did not fall there.” This quote serves as a reminder that reaching your goals requires hard work, determination, and a willingness to embrace discomfort.
We’re diving into 3 crucial questions from our community:
1. Short-Term vs. Long-Term Rentals: Which is Better?
- ➣Niyi shares insights on the advantages of both rental strategies. He emphasizes the potential of short-term rentals in neighborhoods where traditional rentals may not cash flow. Discover how he transitioned one of his properties from a short-term to a long-term rental after it appreciated enough to make sense financially.
2. Neighborhood Classifications:
- ➣Learn about Niyi's approach to classifying neighborhoods (A, B, C, D) and how these classifications can guide your investment decisions. Understanding these categories can help you identify the best locations for your investments.
3. Community Engagement and Goal Setting:
- ➣Niyi encourages listeners to set clear financial goals for 2025. He and the community members share their strategies for tracking progress and staying accountable throughout the year.
Summary:
In this episode, Niyi Adewole provides valuable insights into achieving financial independence through strategic real estate investments. From motivational quotes to practical advice on property management and negotiation strategies, this episode is packed with actionable tips for both new and seasoned investors. The emphasis on community engagement creates a supportive environment for sharing experiences and advice.
🌍 Why This Matters:
In today's competitive real estate market, understanding the nuances of investment strategies, negotiation tactics, and property management is crucial. Niyi’s insights empower listeners to take control of their financial futures and make informed decisions.
The Importance of House Hacking:
- ➣If you're just starting in real estate, house hacking remains the best strategy. Niyi discusses his own experiences with luxury house hacking and how it has helped him build a robust portfolio over the years.
Navigating Property Management Challenges:
- ➣Niyi shares real-world challenges faced by property managers, including handling guest complaints and managing property damages. He emphasizes the importance of proactive communication and technology in
🗓️ 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 Niyi Adewale, host of the Acaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group, and I'm excited to be joining you here on this Wednesday midway through January. It's truly exciting time. We're officially in 2025. And it's kind of crazy to think that people who were born after 2000 are now 25 plus. Like. That's actually still throwing me for a loop.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned before, this is going to be an open session Welcome, justin. And after we kick off the quote and three questions, we're going to jump right into it, and so the quote for today is the person on top of the mountain did not fall there, and, although it's obvious, it's something that we truly have to continue to embody and remember. I can tell you that I meet with a lot of people on a day-to-day basis who want to be at the top of that mountain, who want to have all the real estate deals, have the financial freedom, but aren't necessarily willing to go through the early struggles or the uncomfort of maybe doing a house hack for a couple of years or things of that nature. And so if you truly want to be on top of the mountain and reach that pinnacle that so many others have been able to do, you have to be able to sacrifice, willing to put in the work and really climb that hill or mountain. One of the questions we have short-term rental versus long-term rental, which one is better? Uh, I like to. I like to do both. Honestly, if you're able to make a house cash flow as a long-term rental, that's the way to go. You could have hundreds of long-term rentals and not a huge team managing that, and you can truly build out a crazy portfolio. It's not going to be a lot of cashflow, but it's awesome because you're gonna get that appreciation over time and you don't have to think about it as much. That check just comes on a monthly basis, as long as you vet those people right, and you should be fine.
Speaker 2:Now, when it comes to short-term rentals, what this allows you to do, and what I like it for, is buy in neighborhoods where a house normally would not cash flow some of the nicer neighborhoods and also being able to allow that home to appreciate over time and eventually make it to where it can work as a long-term rental. And so I'll give you an example. Actually, earlier today, one of the properties within our portfolio that's been a short-term rental for two and a half years, we switched it over to a long-term rental right, and it actually cash flows, or at least covers itself as a long-term rental right now. It's one of those properties where initially we had to go short-term rental and then we switched it over to a long-term rental two and a half years in because the rents have appreciated enough that it now makes sense and so now that's a long-term rental. We just signed a two-year lease with somebody that already has an increase built in after year one and you really can just set it and forget it and collect those checks.
Speaker 2:So when you talk about top strategy for getting into real estate in 2025, I think it's the same as 2024, 2023, and many years before that house hack. If this is the first property that you're going to be going after and you're okay with giving up a little bit of comfort not even a lot, just a little bit of comfort in living in a unit next to, potentially, some of your tenants, house hacking is still the best way to get started in real estate. I've been investing in real estate for over nine years now and I'm still house hacking. I just do more luxury house hacks, I go bigger, awesome neighborhoods, all that stuff but I'm still doing it because it's hard to stop once you get started and kind of get hooked, and so I plan to do it for as long as I can, probably until I have kids and those kids get up school age to where we have to be in an awesome neighborhood. We're going to house hack.
Speaker 2:And then how you determine the class of neighborhood. A lot of people throw out letters like A, b, c, d class, right, and the way I like to look at it personally is A class is a place where you can send anybody, right. I even look at it almost like a Monopoly board. So A class would be the boardwalks of the world, right, and the park places of the world. This is where you know the real estate's expensive. You're walking around there and you're like, hey, an apartment over here is probably going to be the most expensive in the city. That's A class. When you look at B class, I look at neighborhoods that are maybe a short drive to those areas or neighborhoods that are comfortable, to where you would feel comfortable having your girlfriend, wife and or mom walk down the street. But it's not that A class price, right, it's not the rich rich, but it's solid neighborhoods. You could raise a family there. You feel comfortable there.
Speaker 2:I look at C-class as being slightly more up and coming. It's a neighborhood that is not a war zone, but it was a war zone maybe a couple of years ago and now you can see it turning over and gentrifying and you can see the path of progress. I'll put that in the C category gentrifying and you can see the path of progress. I'll put that in the C category. In the D category I'll put as hey, it's not going to turn over and gentrify within the next three years. We don't know when that's going to happen. Right, and I tend to try to avoid the D class properties because those can stay D class for a long time.
Speaker 3:But, eric Justin, how are you guys doing, man? Welcome, doing good man, happy to be here on Wednesday, happy to make it to 2025. You know, hopefully everyone is having a good start to the year and we're checking off those goals as we get into them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I know you're of the same mindset with the goals.
Speaker 3:Did you actually write down your goals and kind of align that stuff? Yeah, I got my goals for this year, just trying to figure that I'm checking those boxes and I'm hitting everything that I want to hit this year.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. Eric, what about you, man? And I got to see both of you guys in person today, which is great. But, eric, what about you? How are you doing?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm excited for the new year. It's a good time. And did you write down goals for the new year? I did this time. Well, I normally do for the past couple of years, but this time I tried to make them a lot more simple than the years before.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Same here. Years before I used to have one page of paper for each different thing. So realty, business, personal, family, all that stuff. I read a book and they were like dude, you're doing too much, and so I put it down to one page. So everything's on one page. I can actually remember it and I just keep it on my desk. Kaniyo, welcome back. The lighting is still a little bit weird, but hey, we're going to let it go today. How are you doing, man?
Speaker 5:Good, good. This means I need to move out Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I know you've been liking stuff and sending things my way. Man, we're waiting on you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, for me New Year. Yeah, I think for the last, maybe like almost eight years now. I think I always do the thing where I just at the beginning of the year, just write down my goals for the year Seven. Usually I keep it down simple to seven major items I want to achieve before the end of the year. I do that.
Speaker 2:Honestly, that's the best way, because those are seven that you can truly focus on and you know whether or not you hit it Right. It's like, hey, ok, I've hit this goal, I've not. What I hate is in previous years I'd get to the end of the year and I'd look back at the goals. I'm like, ok, I hit a bunch of these, but there's just so many that I forgot about along the way and I'm like I don't want to do that this year. Yeah, but what, you guys?
Speaker 5:got. Man, what's top of mind? Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna drop off in the next 10 minutes. Um, 10, 15 minutes. Quick one.
Speaker 5:I had an issue with one of one of my rentals, so we had this guest, like last year in mid-november, december that stayed on the property and this is in moya's house, which has like a lot of issues with the house, to be honest, that there are too many issues with the house, like there's always one thing to repair the other. The problem is the guests complained the next after they are checked out. They put, they sent in a report to avmb that they had an injury at the property which is like there's this drainage system that is in front of the house, like in between you know, like where usually you have the, the mailbox, like somewhere around here on the other side. There's one corner here that there's a dekal county water drainage system thing. So the guests fell into it and holds himself according to them and, um, they complained of some other things at the house and put it all together to try to get their money back from Airbnb.
Speaker 5:And I don't know if they got their money back, but when they put the review, I called Airbnb and told Airbnb that the claim was ridiculous. Because one, how can you say you lost your job when you're on vacation, on a holiday, on a weekend, for an injury? It doesn't make any sense. So Airbnb took off the comments, but only for yesterday. Moyo actually got something from Airbnb cover that the guest is playing in damages and injury and all of that. So there's something like I think maybe like a law, they had a lawyer or something. Never experienced that, but that's the situation of things. I think that part of the property isn't necessarily the part of the property, but I'm yet to really do my findings to find out if that's Because it looks like state property. So I don't know.
Speaker 2:And when you say a grill, is it the white thing sticking out or it's something that you can actually fall into? And you said it's near the mailbox.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a drainage. It's a drainage Like a drainage. It's usually at the front of the house and it has like this round cover, metal cover covering it that has the half-county on it. When you open it you would see, I think it reads the water that comes into the drainage. So it's the water main, I think, like what line is where you can turn off your water? No, this is like at the front of the entrance of the house, not the house itself, the front of the entrance of the property.
Speaker 3:so yeah, but it's like your water main. You said it reads, so the the amount of water that you use?
Speaker 5:No, no, I think it maybe reads the amount of water rainwater into it. I don't think it has anything to do with water going to the house. I think it might be the drainage system. It's at the front of the house. I wish I had a picture to show you, but I don't think I have a picture anymore on my phone.
Speaker 3:And my question to you do you have exterior cameras?
Speaker 5:Yes, but that place, the exterior cameras, do not get out that far because it's literally on the road, like just before you get on the property.
Speaker 2:So it's like on the road right before you get to the property and the property is far deep inside that should not, because because we've dealt with not not this, but we've dealt with, like plumbing, related, related items and typically once you get past that mailbox or even a couple feet in and you get to where it starts hitting the city, sewer, city, main it's no longer your responsibility and you're able to call it in if there's an issue there. Okay, but for the guest, are they threatening you as far as like the messaging with the lawyer?
Speaker 5:no, it's just fbm. We actually just notified um him that there's an air cover thing and they're getting a lawyer and just trying to reach out to him to get some information and all. But uh, yeah, I think just that experience is my first time saying that and I don't think that part of the property is even part of a property because there's even something on it that states the cap county. So the drainage system has the cap county written on it. The big metal has the cap county written on it on the cover of the hole. So I highly doubt that it is even part of the property itself. Well, it's crazy. Yeah, that experience is just crazy. Well, then we get this things where guests try to get their money back a lot on that property for any little thing that's the piece, and I've seen that a lot more of recent.
Speaker 2:I think people are just getting smarter with airbnbs and understanding kind of how it, and so if you have any little thing happen, they're looking to either get money back, get nights for free, get extensions for free. What I have seen, though, because we manage a whole bunch of properties, is the more luxury you go like the higher end, the less headache, like you weed out a lot of those folks and you're getting people that literally just want to stay in the house, or people like us that would go travel right to different places. You're not competing with the person looking just for price and then looking at hey, if this place is not, you know, the Marriott or or JW, I'm going to hit you over the head for trying to get some some funds back. At least that's what I've seen, justin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been my experience as well. I don't have issues at my property Very similar to you, though I do have where my water main is. The cover was off and a guy from Bookingcom said he stepped into it. He didn't report any injuries or anything, but he did bring that to my concern and we just made sure we went in there and made sure that it was covered up. It does have a tendency to kind of fall. It's a bit of an older property, so you do have those issues. But I would just say make sure you have those exterior cameras and you could try to at least get them out. Like you said, this is something that's outside, but if you could get a good recording around everything around your property, that way if someone is making that claim and, like you, see that that happened and they walked away perfectly fine, then they're trying to make a bogus claim. You'll have that evidence, yeah.
Speaker 5:I'll check to see. I think I checked that period of time to see if I would see anything, but that place is really far off from where our camera picks up from, so it was hard to figure it out Absolutely.
Speaker 2:How's the rest of your property management business coming? I know last time we talked about setting up some of the pricing and actually using Hospitable. Have you actually?
Speaker 5:integrated it. Yet I used Hospitable for one month and I didn't even get an inquiry, so I quit. But then again I'm trying a different, cheaper one, because I mean, if they're all doing the same thing, what's so special about hospitable? So I'm trying. Um, there's a new one that I saw that was a lot cheaper. What's the name? Uh, guesty. Okay, yeah, I know guest, yeah. So I'm trying to use that one to try that one too and see if, because that one is cheap I think it's like 29 for three properties, something nice. So the main thing is using something you just want to automate as much as you can to make it and see if, because that one is cheap I think it's like $29 for three properties, something Nice.
Speaker 2:The main thing is using something you just want to automate as much as you can to make it easier. It's not necessarily to get bookings with it Now you can when you develop the direct site and things of that nature but it's to make it and make you more efficient.
Speaker 5:And I mean, to be honest, airbnb has become a lot like a lot of all those messaging things. You already have them on Airbnb, so it helps that before and because I do only Airbnb, I'm not on other platforms it's I feel like now, just because I'm thinking about going to other platforms, that's what I'm thinking about, especially for the other guys like Olu, and I'm trying to put them on. So that's the only reason why I'm trying to even use Guesty, so that we can integrate different platforms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, honestly, that's the whole key of it, right, because the more platforms you can be on, the better, and if you're going to be managing a bunch of these properties, it's almost your duty to do that, right? So with our properties, we have the percentage breakdown, and so 60% still comes from Airbnb. That's the overall alliance here but we've been able to get that down from previous years being 75%. Now we're getting about 20% from bookingcom. We're getting about 10% direct. The rest of the percentage is coming from VRBO, and so it does start to add up.
Speaker 2:And the cool thing about using that system Guesty or Hospital Board, whatever software you want to use is it integrates all the calendars, syncs all the locks, sends messages to all the cleaners, but then you're also able to charge more for different platforms if you want to. So VRBO, when somebody books we just had somebody book one of our properties for 15, 16 days because they're working the Mercedes-Benz for the college football championship and so they've been here this whole time and they paid a premium to get these days because we upped it for VRBO, which is good and welcoming Yvette to the call for the first time. How are you doing, yvette?
Speaker 6:Finally, it was a challenge, just to get in.
Speaker 2:Hey, come on now. Teamwork. Eric, thank you for that assistance. Thank you, eric, but Yvette, how are you doing today?
Speaker 6:I'm doing well. I'm doing well.
Speaker 2:That is good. That is good, and for anybody that joined the first time that you joined, we do like to kick it to you to just talk about your real estate portfolio and some of your real estate goals, if you could.
Speaker 6:So, oh hi, Justin, how you doing so? Yes, so my husband, mark and I, we own two investment properties, one in Decatur and the other one is in Southeast Atlanta, and our goal is we're going to start looking at our next property, not sure exactly what area we're going to be looking in. We did talk about maybe going out of state and looking at a vacation area. So we kind of have to, you know, kick that around, you know and see. But usually at the end of the year what we do is we go through you know all our assets, our financial picture, and basically we put it on a spreadsheet like all our 401ks. You know just where everything is, you know some of the vendors that we actually use. So we have a clear picture of you know the financial picture, you know what we need to do, or you know where we can potentially pull money from for our down payment and any other expenses we're going to need for the next in property.
Speaker 3:What strategy are you using?
Speaker 6:What strategy am I using?
Speaker 3:Are you doing long-term, short-term?
Speaker 6:Well, actually we have a mix right now. I mean, mainly it's short term. We do have one unit that's long term. I have to say the long term tenant didn't work out this time, so we're in the process of getting her out and then we're going to have to reassess whether we're going to do another long term tenant or we're going to do short term term tenant, or we're going to do short term, and I love what you said about reviewing all the numbers at the end of the year.
Speaker 2:This is something that I want to say. Last year maybe the year before me and my wife started doing on a monthly basis. We have like a financial dinner and we pull out that net worth calculator and now one of the goals that we have for the year is where we want to get our net worth to, and it's not just buying stuff to get net worth, it's also just doing the stock market, paying down debts, right, that's another way to build it, and so it's like an overall goal for that piece. And so how often do you look at this? Do you look at this on a quarterly basis?
Speaker 1:Is it?
Speaker 6:once a year, once a month? How often do you do that? Usually I wouldn't say a deep dive, I would say twice a year. But you know if we're going to do a big purchase or you know something's going on, then you know actually we'll have to do it. But I have to say, this year is we actually really? I pulled out the Excel and I have tabs for you know each thing and I mean this last year, I mean we went through a lot of, you know, changes over the last 18 months. You know, with the move down here, you know with my job, moving my 401k around, we do have a financial advisor that's still up in Massachusetts, but you know we just had a lot of moving pieces and for me to I'm a visual person, so for me to really, you know, focus, I had to, you know, put everything on a, you know, on a spreadsheet.
Speaker 3:Something that I recommend Yvette, that I highly, that I really like, is Monarch Morning. I started using that this year and it tracks everything on a day-to-day basis. It links with all of your accounts. It's very similar to Mint, but Mint Folded. And now Monarch is really like one of the things that a lot of people recommend within BiggerPocketsMoney. It's a community just like BiggerPocketsHousing that talks about money and financial growth and achieving financial wealth. So you should check those guys out, but I do highly recommend it. It basically does all the network of the spreadsheets and everything for you. You can track all of your assets. You can see all the money that's going in and coming out. I have it separated to where I can see the personal income versus the business income. It categorizes everything and it makes it really easy when we get to tax time because everything has already been categorized throughout the year. Once you set all those rules and everything for the person just seeing what you're making.
Speaker 6:Right.
Speaker 2:Okay, and speaking of tax time, this is, I know, a lot of people's favorite time of year right when we got to figure out how much we owe and actually start distributing that to Uncle Sam.
Speaker 3:I'm excited. I'll say this year, so I'm ready for tax time. Oh, you did one, I'm doing one. I'm excited, I'll say this year, so I'm ready for tax time. Oh, you did one, I'm doing one. I mean, I haven't found my taxes yet, but yeah, that's the plan. Try to do that, call sick and, you know, put those dollars towards the next property. So I'm excited for tax time this year.
Speaker 2:Love it, Love it. And to that point, Eric Yvette, have you guys gone down that cost seg route.
Speaker 6:No.
Speaker 2:Is it something you've considered?
Speaker 6:Yes, it is, it is and, as you know, I mean we're using your CPA. We have signed up with him.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, and he actually has a cost segregation company that can help with that, and so we're going down the path, and this just reminded me. I need to shoot them an email like ASAP because they're going to get busy, but we're actually. I'm excited too, justin, because we get to cost seg the self-storage. Last year, for last year's taxes, we couldn't do it because it wasn't yet put into service, but this past year we actually started taking income, and so that's going to be a huge negative, and so essentially, it's going to be like I didn't make any money last year, which is great, so super excited about that. But, to your point, you have to put it to work. You got to take those dollars and go put it to work somewhere.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and even if you didn't have enough income, you could always carry those losses forward. So sometimes it's a little bit better to go ahead and do it, because the amount that you can do is decreasing every year. Trump did the bonus depreciation 100, what two years ago? Then it went to 80, then it's going to 60, then 40, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:Now correct me if I'm wrong. I think there was talks about bringing it back to 100%. Do you know if that actually happened or not? So much.
Speaker 3:From my understanding it hasn't happened yet. So I mean I guess if it comes back, maybe you could shoot yourself in the foot. If you do it too early, I'm not sure how that's going to quite work out.
Speaker 2:That's fair. That is fair. What else you guys got Anything's top of mind?
Speaker 3:How are you feeling about these rates? You know everybody was raving about rates are going to come down and rates were actually lower about what? A year ago? This same time last year, cause that's when we bought in November and like now I look at rates, they're at seven and we bought it around 6%. So are these rates ever going to move? Or should people just kind of lock in and make sure that they're penciling things that work with these rates, versus trying to hope for a rate cut?
Speaker 2:Honestly, it's crazy, like the way it was trending was, hey, it's going to come down, and if it was a different administration that was coming into office, I still think it was going to trend down because it was going to be more of the same.
Speaker 2:But with some of the policies that have been proposed, you can see it in the stock market. They're already starting to price in, like, hey, we believe inflation is going to start going up and so I don't know that these rates are going to come down anytime soon. The Fed's saying they're only going to do two cuts this year and the bond yield just continues to rise. So, honestly, it's one where I think, for investors, this is going to be an opportunity for going after some of those houses that have been sitting for a while, because now these sellers are not going to have the rest of the market to turn to. So you can really put together a pretty cool deal, but for the buyers looking to just go buy a regular house like their first regular house, they may be on the sidelines for a lot longer. Yvette, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 6:No, we were talking about this with a client the other day. The same thing you were saying, with the administration coming in. I don't, I don't think. So I think it's going to take a while, you know, maybe towards the end of you know the year, maybe, but we just don't know what. Everything you know he's in trying to pass that's going to cost money, so you know eric, what's your take?
Speaker 4:yeah, I mean, I think if you're able to find deals that pencil in, it's always a good time to buy, and I think there's always also like trade-offs with like the rates, like if the rates they're lowering the rates they're normally lowering it for a reason, um, because then maybe the economy is doing is like weaker, um, and such like that, so that that's not necessarily, you know, that may affect you in other ways if you're looking at it too, and I think also too, if we all invest in real estate, like inflation is actually somewhat good for real estate prices in the long term as well, especially if we're like net debtors, because we're going to pay our money back with, you know, dollars that are worth less in the future. So you know, those higher inflation is also good for us in a way too.
Speaker 2:True, it's good for the people that have assets. It's really not good for those that are trying to get there first, and so that's something to keep an eye on too. That wealth gap, it truly is eliminating that middle class and making it the have and the have nots, and I would much rather be on the have side, but I'm hoping that some of the things they're talking about with hey, let's eliminate some of the debt from the government actually comes to fruition. I just don't know what that would look like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm hoping this Sparingly. I've been looking at the market trying to find deals that pencil, to be honest, man, it's been pretty hard to find things on the MLS that make sense. I'm a multifamily guy now at the Living in One House Act, so I've been looking for another multifamily deal and I just haven't came across anything that makes sense. And I've widened my net to all of Georgia. I don't really want to go outside of Georgia. I want to be, if I have to, in a pinch get to the property just for where I'm at in my real estate journey right now. So I want to be at least three to four hours, if I had to, in a pinch drive down there, but I just haven't been able to find anything that really works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one of the things that is popping up in the recent deals that we've done is vacation home loans used to be an awesome way to get a short term rental right. You put down 10%. The rate used to match, similar to what you would get for a personal home. We know a couple of years ago they took that piece away right Because they wanted to make it more even playing field for first-time homebuyers, things of that nature, and so the rate now matches what you would get for an investment loan. So it's a bit higher.
Speaker 2:But recently, over the last month and a half now, they've increased the amount of closing costs to use a vacation loan, and so it used to be roughly about three percent closing costs, and so when we do an awesome job in negotiating six from the seller, the other three percent are buying down interest rate.
Speaker 2:We're using it for other things. Now, on the past three deals that we've closed, it literally is all going toward closing costs. Closing costs have been about six percent because you have to buy down like three points, which is nuts, and so the Fed and the government's doing what they can to try to help with the housing crisis, but as investors, it's making it tougher and tougher and I can't help but look at other countries that have been around a lot longer than the US and see what their home ownership rate is and I mean it's hard to touch anything right. I was looking at like some Netflix shows about like housing in Paris and London and I'm like dude, these prices are nuts for what they're getting and I think we're heading toward that way if the market stays how it is. But, guys, anything else top of mind before we wrap for the night.
Speaker 3:Next deal you got. If you need some help, I'm down, I'll partner.
Speaker 2:No, no, hey, no, hey, let's do it. I'm gonna hold you to that. I hope everybody has an awesome wednesday event. Good to see you on, eric. Good to see you on, and we will catch you a little bit later all right, see you all later thanks see you guys.
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