Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 So a lot of people will tell you, you can't afford to go on vacation. I can't afford to go on vacation. I got the money. It's so expensive. But we are here to tell you, you can't afford not to go on vacation. This podcast is all about how you can get paid to go on vacation and not just a little bit of money, a lot of money. And, um, Airbnb, V R B O, short term, a K eight, short term rental.
Speaker 1 00:00:24 Ooh, I love it. <laugh>. How does my hat look?
Speaker 0 00:00:27 You look like a mountain man.
Speaker 1 00:00:29 Ah, I love it. That was the exact look I was going for. What? I kind of thought I looked like Indiana Jones. To be honest, I
Speaker 0 00:00:35 Look. I look like a Florida man. I think you
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Do. I love I pink, loving the shirt. Pink
Speaker 0 00:00:39 Flamingo.
Speaker 1 00:00:40 What's going on guys? My name is Sean Connors. I am the managing broker and co-owner of Vanguard Realty Alliance. I'm an investor,
Speaker 0 00:00:49 Not a good hat
Speaker 1 00:00:50 Wearer. I am an investor right here in Chester County as well as the Pocono Mountains, which we're going to be talking about today.
Speaker 0 00:00:57 And I'm Rob Lawrence, uh, leader of the Rob Lawrence team. We're real estate team, uh, help people buy and invest, uh, in real estate, buy and sell houses. And I'm also a real estate investor, father and husband. Ooh. In the Westchester area.
Speaker 1 00:01:09 I can mention that
Speaker 0 00:01:10 Stuff. Do you have a family?
Speaker 1 00:01:11 I do have a family. They're nice. Two girls.
Speaker 0 00:01:14 I like them. I
Speaker 1 00:01:15 Forgot about them. <laugh>, don't tell them.
Speaker 0 00:01:18 So what are we talking
Speaker 1 00:01:19 About? So today we're going to be talking about investing in short-term rentals, probably, in my opinion, the hottest topic in real estate investing. The past few years there has been a flood of people who have decided to buy a short-term rental Yes. And make a lot of cash flow.
Speaker 0 00:01:40 Did you know, did you know that the average homeowner has nearly $300,000 in equity in their current house? Woo. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:01:53 That must be like carrying that average has to be California, right?
Speaker 0 00:01:59 Has to. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1 00:02:02 But that's amazing. It's across astonishing.
Speaker 0 00:02:04 It's across the board. I mean, when you've got prices going up 30, 50 to percent, I mean, like, that is
Speaker 1 00:02:08 Crazy. I did see a sta today, um, that Americans have increased their wealth to $150 trillion Wow. With a tea.
Speaker 0 00:02:19 I want a piece of that.
Speaker 1 00:02:20 I know. Well, you got a piece of it. I got a piece of it. And yeah. Again, we're gonna be talking about short-term rentals. You have a different strategy. I have a different strategy. You invest in a different location. I invest in a different location. So, Rob, tell us how you got started investing in Florida.
Speaker 0 00:02:36 So I think this is an interesting point, and when I just talk about the equity, because it's like, how do you take your equity in your current house and then turn that into something that pays your mortgage? Right? I think that's like the question of this podcast that we want to answer. Yes. And you know, for me, basically I did a live and flip on my house in West Chester with my wife. And, um, we, um, we got an equity gain into that and that that gave us enough money that we could work on getting a, a house in Florida. But the story really starts with my wife loved Clearwater Beach, Florida. Clearwater, Clearwater. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, as we say in, uh, Delco. So anyway, so my wife, my wife loves Clearwater Beach. She said, Rob, we should get a house there. We should get a house there.
Speaker 0 00:03:16 We should get a house there. I'm like, we cannot afford to get a house there. Like, I don't know. Well, who you think I am? You know, but I don't have, I don't have money back, honey. Yeah. You know, <laugh>. And she was like, please, please, please. And she reminded me quite often actually. So I was complaining to, uh, our broker Steve Seymour about it, saying, oh my God, like my wife wants to buy this place. I like, don't know what to do, you know, maybe in 10 years. And he goes, Rob, you can't afford to buy a place in Florida. And I said, yeah. And he goes, well, how many nights a month do you need to rent it out so you can afford it? And I was like, maybe 10. He's Steve Seymour. Do you? He did Bastard Don't ask, don't say you can't do it.
Speaker 0 00:03:58 Just ask how you can do it. Exactly Right. That's the thing, right? Yep. So I I I was like, all right. Um, I went home to my wife and I had to tell my wife she was right. I love it. Have you ever done that? Yeah, unfortunately. I, or fortunately I know how you look. It, it is, uh, <laugh>. It's, uh, it's difficult. It's tough. But I did do it. I did ho I came home and I said, sweetheart, you know what? You're right. I'm wrong. Let's do it. Let's get a place in Florida. Let's make it happen. I've, I've, I've been shown the light by Mr. Seymour and our brokerage here. And so anyway, it was like September-ish that we made that decision. We went down to Florida multiple times, made offers on multiple houses. It was fun when we went down. We enjoyed the beach.
Speaker 0 00:04:40 We saw everything, you know, great times. Um, and then, um, we've got a four story townhouse in Clearwater Beach, Florida with four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a three car garage. It's in a community with a pool, with the hot tub. They're both heated all year round. The hot tub is huge, huge. 16 people, I'd say at least six comfortably. Comfortably. 16. Wow. And it's like a resort environment. You don't feel like you're at like a, a community pool. It's, it's like, feels like you're at like, you know, sandals, you know sandals. Yeah. It's like nice, you know, <laugh>. So, um, yeah, man, it's, it's this awesome place. Mile from the beach. Um, and you know, one of my big hesitations about it was that in Clearwater there's restrictions on how short you can rent. Mm. So you can't go less than the minimum term, minimum term, 30 days.
Speaker 0 00:05:32 Wow. Gotta go one month or more. And I was scared outta my mind outta doing this. Right. So we were kind of like aiming down towards St. Pete. We were going down all these other beaches that are like, sort of down that way, um, that had less restrict, less strict rules. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know. But when we were looking at this place, my wife again, she found the place and then she went on Airbnb and found a comp a neighbor who was renting on Airbnb monthly. And they were, were getting like over $4,000 a month. And when I did the math, I said, that covers it. Yeah. Like, that's good. We're good. Let's do it. Let's let it rip. We love the place. I was like, okay. We did. And then, um, we headed up. They had up for 360, negotiated down on three 50, then we got $6,000 off on stuff we thought, you know, we needed to repair. And then, um, the appraisal came in 6,000 low, believe it or not. And then we got another 6,000 off for that. So we ended up at 3 38 on this house in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
Speaker 1 00:06:30 And what do you think that it's worth now?
Speaker 0 00:06:33 So I was actually just talking with a, uh, client who was like, you know, get, helping get started in real estate investing. And I was showing him my investments and I just looked on Zillow is the estimate, which we all know is a hundred percent correct. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:06:44 A hundred percent accurate. <laugh> all the time.
Speaker 0 00:06:46 <laugh> don't trust it. <laugh>. Uh, but, but it, it is not all, it's not that far off. In this case, I am a real estate professional so I can, you know, see, you can attest. Yeah, I can attest to the accuracy in this, this can this case. But it just said 5 0 9. Nice. 5 0 9. So that's, it's huge. You know, I'd say, okay, let's say we're at 500, right? Right. That's 162,000 equity gain. That's huge in a year and a half. Wow. Yeah. So, I mean, that's big money, right? Like I said, I can't afford not to go on vacation. I need to be going on vacation.
Speaker 1 00:07:15 Yes. You need to be going on vacation. Way
Speaker 0 00:07:18 More <laugh>. I'm actually going in a couple weeks, so. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be awesome. So tell me about you and the Poconos. Cuz so many people say, I wanna invest in the Poconos. Everybody I wanna invest. I hear it's great up there. I hear it's great. Like well, okay. Yeah. Like a hundred people are gonna say that. Yes. Two people are gonna do it. Right. That's true. So tell me about your journey and, uh, and getting him started in the Poconos. True.
Speaker 1 00:07:36 So my wife and I, we went on vacation in March of 2021. We were going down to North Carolina to a place called Lake Lore. At that point in our life, we had decided that we wanted to start looking at buying a vacation home to use as a short term rental. And it was the one thing that my wife could really get on board with as far as real estate investing. And as you know, if your significant other is not on board with you and what you want to do with your real estate investing, it makes it so much more difficult. Right? Yeah. It's so hard to talk them into. But she was really into it. And we were in North Carolina, we fell in love. We're like, this is the area. Started reaching out to people as soon as we got back. And somewhere along the line Kelly said, you know what? Why don't we focus somewhere a little bit closer to us for the first property? And then she said, the Poconos
Speaker 0 00:08:31 Dun dun dun. Oh
Speaker 1 00:08:33 Man. I was like, no, not the Poconos, I don't like it up there.
Speaker 0 00:08:37 It's mountains.
Speaker 1 00:08:38 Yeah, the mountains. I was like, uh, I love the mountains. Right? Yeah. But there was just something about the Poconos and, and I had a mm-hmm. <affirmative> a weird perception of it. Cuz I would go there as a kid and always I remember it just being so freaking cold.
Speaker 0 00:08:53 Ah,
Speaker 1 00:08:54 Yeah. Yeah. That's why I was like, I just hated the, cuz I don't really like the cold, don't ski. I don't you don't like snowboard. And I tried them both. I, I tell Kelly I broke my ribs, I just knocked the wind outta me <laugh>. Um, but anyway, she's like, let's focus on the Poconos. I was like, all right, fine. I I, if this is what you want, let's do it. Cool. Because I knew it would, it would make her be more bought in. So anyway, that's when we decided to start looking at the Poconos in the summer, like June-ish of 2021. We would go up there for half day trips, four or five, six hours, check out all the different communities. The Poconos are filled with different lake communities. And we wanted to buy somewhere where guests like us families would want to rent. So that's how we honed in on different lake communities.
Speaker 1 00:09:43 And again, there's so many different ones, a lot of different rules within the HOAs. A lot of different rules within the townships, different rules within the counties. So that's something that you have to be well versed with when you're making a decision. So anyway, we went on the contract on this property in Lake Ariel. It's about two and a half hours away in a community called the Hideout, which changed their short-term rental policy like crazy. I'm so happy that deal fell through. Oh, I didn't say that to you before, but I'm so happy that deal fell through because they really stuck it to the short term rental owners. Ouch. Yes. So you have to be very careful when you're buying it in hoa. Anyway, that fell through. We came back south, I guess you would say a little bit to where we own now, which is Albright, Ville, Pennsylvania. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we bought in Menting trails in September. So it's been a full year. Awesome. Yes. That's a
Speaker 0 00:10:38 Year ago. Geez.
Speaker 1 00:10:39 And then we bought our second one in July of this year. Awesome. Yeah. So now we have two properties in the Pocono Mountains, same community, half a mile away from each other.
Speaker 0 00:10:50 One one year, two
Speaker 1 00:10:52 Properties, one year, two properties. <laugh>. Yeah. Love it. Three properties if you include the commercial building. But we'll
Speaker 0 00:10:59 Talk
Speaker 1 00:10:59 About that later. We'll talk about that later. Right. Next
Speaker 0 00:11:01 Podcast, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:11:03 Yeah. So now we are short term rental owners. Um, this next month will be our first full month as short term rental owners. Cuz we, it took us six weeks to get it up and ready. Got you. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:16 So I think you do what, like, you can do like two day Reynolds,
Speaker 1 00:11:19 Right? We do a minimum of two nights. You can, if we, if we wanted to, we can do one night, but we decided that we wanna stick with two night minimums.
Speaker 0 00:11:27 Yeah. I think that makes it more worth it. Yeah. Right. Than like, but
Speaker 1 00:11:30 There's a hack. What's that? That if you o on Airbnb, if you open up your property for one night stays, you will jump higher in the page search results. Really? Yeah. But I don't really wanna do that.
Speaker 0 00:11:45 I
Speaker 1 00:11:45 Did not of them. I I don't wanna do it. I wanna stick with two night rentals. And that's what we do. You know, you
Speaker 0 00:11:50 Could always experiment with it. Right. You could try it, see what happens. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:11:53 Yeah. You can. I know. Yeah. But anyway, yes, two night rental minimum. Um, and then your 30 night rental minimum. So two really different strategies between the both of us. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:12:06 I'm forced into my strategy based on the rules. Right. Yeah. And I knew that going in and
Speaker 1 00:12:10 You're, are you in an HOA too?
Speaker 0 00:12:12 Yes. And like I have to run background checks on every renter that comes through too. Didn't mention that. Whoa.
Speaker 1 00:12:18 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That changes
Speaker 0 00:12:21 Criminal back, criminal background checks on everybody who I rent to.
Speaker 1 00:12:24 So Interesting. Let's
Speaker 0 00:12:25 Talk about that. I mean, it's 30 days a blessing or is it a curse? It's a little bit of both. Okay. All right. Let me talk about, let's talk about downside first. Okay. All right. So basically I gotta get someone who was gonna rent for 30 days. So that limits my renter pool. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And if I'm gonna have a vacancy, like I could have vacancies of three weeks, two weeks, and like no one can rent in that term. Okay. Right. Like I'm just, I've got a gap. I got a gap. Right. Um, and you know, that's, that's kind of a disadvantage. I mean, it doesn't rent as easily. Okay. It also doesn't rent for as high of a price. I think if I was renting it on a daily basis or weekly or whatever, I'd probably get near double the nightly rate that I'm getting.
Speaker 1 00:13:10 Interesting. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:13:11 Yeah, because I mean, I think about it like if you were renting a four bedroom townhouse Yeah. You know, and I'm getting probably on a monthly basis, I'm probably getting around like 1 40, 1 50 a night.
Speaker 1 00:13:23 Oh yeah. You could definitely get three 50 at 400 I would
Speaker 0 00:13:26 Think. Exactly. So you're, you know, you're really limiting your upside on the cash flow, um mm-hmm. <affirmative> in, in that regard, in that 30 days. So that's one downside. That's one major downside. Yeah. Um, but I bought it so that it worked at 30 days. So it's like, okay, yes. Could I be making more money doing it with a different way mm-hmm. <affirmative> if the rules were different. Absolutely. But they aren't. So it is what it is. Right. Yeah. Upside, if you are addicted to meth, you don't have $6,000 to rent it for a whole month.
Speaker 1 00:14:02 Whoa.
Speaker 0 00:14:04 Because you spent that money on meth.
Speaker 1 00:14:06 Okay. <laugh>. That is true.
Speaker 0 00:14:08 <laugh>. So Yes.
Speaker 1 00:14:09 My cut down meth addicts.
Speaker 0 00:14:10 Yeah. They, and they won't pass a background check usually either <laugh>, so. Yeah. Interesting. So it's like, you know, you get a, you get a higher quality clientele, you know Okay. People that are, you know, retirees that are looking to get escape Minnesota or Canada or whatever Right. For a month. Um, people
Speaker 1 00:14:26 Minnesota
Speaker 0 00:14:27 Vacation with their families, Minnesota mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Um, shout out to Kirk Cousins who everybody knows I love <laugh>. Um, anyway, so, uh, the, the, the thing is, um, that, that, that's, that's, that's kind
Speaker 1 00:14:41 Of good. That's really nice.
Speaker 0 00:14:42 Yeah, it is nice. Yeah. You, you don't, they don't beat up. Well they still beat up the place, but my family beats up the place too. So anyway. Um, and then the other thing is it's less management. Mm. Because you know, like when you get somebody coming in, they're gonna ask all their questions in the first three days, and then if you're renting every three days, then you got questions basically nonstop. Um, and then, or, or issues or different people you're dealing with. Right, right. But after, you know, a month I had someone rent for me for five months. Whoa. So, you know, when they stay in that long Awesome. Yeah, it's really great. Like they, you, there's, there's really minimal management mm-hmm. <affirmative>, maybe a few hours a month air conditioner broke this, broke that broke. Right. Right. So it's, it's just minor stuff that you, and it's, it's very much, I don't have to spend that 20% on a property manager or make it basically a full-time job. So it's, it's got its pluses and minuses. Yeah. And that's basically where I'm at with it, you know. Okay. And basic. I
Speaker 1 00:15:31 Like that. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:32 I mean, and you know, it cash flows. Like my expenses all in probably per month or about 2,500 a month if I can keep it occupied. You know, I'm pulling 43, 4500 a month after expenses, Airbnb and all that stuff. So, you know, I can make about 1800 bucks a month occupied. The problem is the vacancy's gonna obviously detract from that. Right. And then I'm traveling there paying for my airline tickets and meals and everything else. Right. So it, and you know, I've been furnishing upgrading it. I've been using the money to upgrade the place. Um, so, you know, it ends up kind of just breaking even. Right. The big gain for me has really been the equity gain. Yeah. In the improve in the improvement in the, in the value of the property. Right. That's really what's been, I would say, the big financial windfall other than that, you know, get the vacation for free, you know, and enjoy the place. But, you know, my strategy again is around my lifestyle. Right. Really like, this is how I wanna live. So I'm,
Speaker 1 00:16:22 That's why real estate investing's amazing. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:24 I mean
Speaker 1 00:16:24 Talking about it all the time,
Speaker 0 00:16:25 You can make it fit your lifestyle. Yes. Whatever you want to do. Whatever your goals are. Right. So tell me about your strategy, the pluses and minuses that you think Ooh.
Speaker 1 00:16:33 So I'll do, I'll go in the same way that you did. I'll talk about the downside. The downside to investing in short-term rentals, which any short-term rental investor owner will tell you the same thing. And I've really wanted to stress this to future short-term rental owners is it's a lot more management. Right. With more management is more wear and tear with that is more. And with two night stays is more turnover. So that means more fees for cleaning, more fees for supplies, more fees for upkeep. So that's really the downside of it. Gotcha. You have to be on top of your game, on top of communication at all times seven days a week. Which is fine cuz people text. Right. And we can just text right back. You have to manage your expenses. You have to find a really great cleaner that's able to do an amazing job that can make the house the same every time. Yeah. Something that we've been struggling with, to be honest. Um, and you again, like you just have to manage guest expectations so much more. So that's the big downside. The upside is we have equity gain as well, which is really exciting, but the cash flow is really good. Nice. Yes. So numbers wise, we're at about, as of today, $49,000 gross. Uh, expenses about 14,000. And then mortgage on top of that is about 16,400. So we're at about almost, or a little more than $2,000 a month in cash flow.
Speaker 0 00:18:08 That's awesome.
Speaker 1 00:18:09 Which is huge. Right. And you know, you talk about living for free. Yeah. Right. And taking helo out, buying a second property, taking the cash flow from the second property and applying it to your mortgage that of the house that you live in. Right. So you can live for free with two houses, with two houses you could live for free,
Speaker 0 00:18:28 Which is Sean, which pretty amazing. I can't do that. I can't get ahead in this world.
Speaker 1 00:18:32 Huh. The world's gonna bridge your, that's the mindset. Right? That's the mindset. But I will say this, and this is extremely important for at least the first two years, take all the money that you make, all the cash flow. Keep that into a reserve account. Yeah. So you don't have to go clawing and scratching from money to fix things when they come up.
Speaker 0 00:18:52 Sean? I actually would like to say I, I prefer to get quick, rich or uh, get
Speaker 1 00:18:57 Get quick rich. Yeah. Get
Speaker 0 00:18:58 Quick. Got it. Get rich quick. I get <laugh>. I like, I I like to get rich quick. Yes. Everybody that's
Speaker 1 00:19:03 Everybody wants to get rich quick. I
Speaker 0 00:19:04 Don't wanna wait two years. Well
Speaker 1 00:19:05 You gotta wait.
Speaker 0 00:19:06 I know. Gotta wait. It's investing. That's investing. Investing. It's a time game. Buy
Speaker 1 00:19:10 Now. Wait. Right. So buy
Speaker 0 00:19:13 Wait.
Speaker 1 00:19:14 That is in my opinion, the biggest benefit to owning short-term rental in the Poconos where you renting it on a nightly basis. Um, there's a lot that goes into it though. That is, it's more than just managing it or it's more than just managing like the guest. So you have to be good with marketing. You have to show your property really well. Just like in regular real estate,
Speaker 0 00:19:37 Good pictures good.
Speaker 1 00:19:38 You have great pictures. You have to have nice furniture. You have to have nice amenities in the Poconos. Everybody wants two things. What one of which we don't have. Tell
Speaker 0 00:19:47 Me what those two things are.
Speaker 1 00:19:48 I'm not gonna tell you. Hot tub <laugh> and a game room. That's
Speaker 0 00:19:53 It. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If
Speaker 1 00:19:54 You have a hot tub in a game room, you're golden. You're going to get so much more yearly cuz you can add on another 25 to $50 a night.
Speaker 0 00:20:05 You know, I'm going to, I think I'm gonna go down to Florida this time. I'm putting in a ping pong table in my garage. That's it. I think that would be a help.
Speaker 1 00:20:11 Yeah. You know, one thing that we did that was huge. So the second property we bought it didn't have a basement like our first one does. Yeah. Well it's more like a first floor. But anyway, it's three floors. The second property did not have a basement. So it has a loft, the second floor loft, which is really nice. But what we did was, the previous owner actually the person built the home. They installed a shed just a normal, I don't know, 12 by 20 shed
Speaker 0 00:20:36 Big shed.
Speaker 1 00:20:36 Yeah. They used it for storage. But what we did is we turned it into a gaming shed.
Speaker 0 00:20:41 Nice.
Speaker 1 00:20:41 Yeah. So we cleaned it all out. We put, there was electric that was already ran there. So we hung up a tv, we put up a bar. Um, we have darts. A little basketball game. Dude
Speaker 0 00:20:52 I love I
Speaker 1 00:20:53 Bet like things like that. Yeah. Like kids and the gaming
Speaker 0 00:20:55 Shed kids guys that like come there. They're like, I can just go in the shed. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:20:58 No one bothers me. It's close. Exactly. And that's what you want. Parents when they bring their kids up, they wanna say go to the shed, go to the game room. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:21:04 Go here. But they don't call it the shed. Yeah. They call it like Yeah. They don't call it like the kid uh, jail or whatever.
Speaker 1 00:21:09 Right. No, they don't go to kid jail <laugh>. Anyway, so what we're gonna do in the wintertime is run electric out or excuse me, run heat out there. Yeah. So you can be out there when it's really cold. Yeah. Win-win. That'd
Speaker 0 00:21:20 Be awesome man. Boom. You keep improving the place, you're gonna keep improving your revenue. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:21:23 Exactly. The more, the more improvements you make, the more of a nightly rate that you can get.
Speaker 0 00:21:29 That's the one thing that's so different about real estate investing versus like stock market investing is like you have control.
Speaker 1 00:21:35 You can't improve the stocks you invest in Exxon.
Speaker 0 00:21:38 Exxon Mobile. Say that again. I keep writing them notes about things I'm suggesting they do and they keep just throwing them in the trash. Can you believe that Dicks, they are a holes. So anyway, but uh, yeah. Hopefully my wife doesn't do the same thing with my suggestions on Airbnb. <laugh>. She does.
Speaker 1 00:21:55 Oh, Rob said it.
Speaker 0 00:21:56 <laugh>. I have an idea. Maybe I can make this your idea. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:22:01 Um, so what are some of the challenges then that you're facing? You know, besides a 30 day, what are some of the other challenges that you're facing? We
Speaker 0 00:22:11 Have a chunk of vacancy right now. Okay. From September to January of this year. Um, which is a challenge and I'm, I'm just trying to see, okay. It's making me think about what do I need to do to get better, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, maybe improve the countertops, for example, put in a ping pong table. Right. Step my game up, um, to improve the performance of the property and Okay. You know, and I think it's kind of like those things can kind of be a blessing in a sense cuz like if you don't have a challenge, then you don't improve it. Right. Right. And then you do improve it, then you get more money. So, you know, it's, it's a and and the value like that stuff that's going into the value of my property, like countertops, it's gonna improve the equity
Speaker 1 00:22:46 Is Florida. I think I know the answer, but I want people to know is Florida an area where people are going to vacation and they want nicer amenities like stainless steel appliances, granite countertop, hardwood floors, blah blah, blah.
Speaker 0 00:23:03 I think it's nice. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:23:06 You know, I think the things they really want, like stuff to go to the beach with mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, um, a pool, a hot tub. Right. Um, plenty of space. If you're gonna stay in a place for 30 days, it better, I think it better be a bigger place. Right. You know, um, I could live in this townhouse with my family of four fairly comfortably. Okay. You know, like it wouldn't really be, you know Yeah. It wouldn't be a stretch at all. And I've had like 12 people there at once, you know? Right. And it's really not bad. So, you know, I I think like, I, I guess I, I don't even know if I'm qualified to answer the question. Okay. You know what I mean? Because I'm just doing my little thing here and you know, I'm not the greatest short term rental or guy in the whole world. Right. We just, you know, getting started. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:45 Right. The reason why I asked that is because I have noticed and have heard from people that, um, the Poconos people vacation to the Poconos because they want to be in that like cabin. Right. They want that cabin feel, they want that mountain feel. Right. Right, right, right. So they don't really want to be in a chalet or a saltbox style home with everything that is decked out granite and you know, oh, brand new this. Like, people do enjoy that. People do want that, but people are really vacationing into Poconos cuz they want that cabin mountainy feel. Yeah. So if you can make your property more of like a cabin mountainy feel that is going to get you more money.
Speaker 0 00:24:31 You gotta hang a couple deer heads in there. And
Speaker 1 00:24:33 If you put the moose head up, it's the moose.
Speaker 0 00:24:35 The
Speaker 1 00:24:36 Moose put the moose head up. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:24:37 People wanna take a picture picture on this
Speaker 1 00:24:38 Stuff and stuff and
Speaker 0 00:24:39 Stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. You know, that's such good point. Cuz in Florida we have a very beachy place. It's like bright blue, bright orange. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, a lot of seashells anchors. And, um, my wife loves decorating in that style and it's the style we enjoy. It's like, I think when you're there, you don't wanna just feel like you're in a condo. Right. You wanna feel like you're on vacation. Yeah. Right. Even if you're there for months. I mean, it's just like, I'm at Florida, I'm at the beach, it's like, it's like my vacation, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so, you know. Yeah. Like going that sleek style. Um, actually one of the Airbnbs that competes with me has that very sleek style, which it seems to still do fine. Um, and I gue I I i, I guess maybe it's just like, depends on the person's preference, but I think like if we are both the same style, then we're really competing against each other. So. Right. It's like, hey, differentiate. We do my thing. We do your thing.
Speaker 1 00:25:22 So what are your future goals then as we round this podcast out? Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:25:26 So, um, for me, I am just looking right now not to do more Airbnbs in Florida or really anywhere else though. My wife seems to have a different idea. She's been talking about South Carolina. Ooh, yeah. Myrtle Beach. Yeah. Maybe Myrtle Beach. There's um, ah, gosh, I can't remember the name of this beach we went to that we really enjoyed. But anyway, there was one down there that we'd liked.
Speaker 1 00:25:47 I would love to have one in Charleston.
Speaker 0 00:25:48 Charleston. Charleston's. Awesome man. It's a good spot. Yeah. Value. It's really cool. I think the so whole Southeast has been appreciating really rapidly mm-hmm. <affirmative> and um, a lot of people just wanna retire down there and move down there, especially work from home. So, um, that, and I'm looking at around us doing potentially either long-term rentals and maybe some corporate rentals. Ooh. Like
Speaker 1 00:26:08 That month. Love that idea.
Speaker 0 00:26:09 Yeah. The month. I'm hooked on
Speaker 1 00:26:10 The month working with clients right now who are relocating here from New York and they need somewhere to stay.
Speaker 0 00:26:17 I should buy in a house real quick. You
Speaker 1 00:26:18 Should do
Speaker 0 00:26:19 It. I'm not, but that huge might. I might, yeah. I mean, I like that idea of the corporate rental because you can really get a lot, a company's paying for it. Um, they're expecting a certain level of, uh, you know, place. Like a nice place of course. But yeah. You know, you can, you can get that and, um, I think, uh, yeah, it may be a strategy that I employ Cool. For, for the future. How about you, man? What are you thinking next? Eight
Speaker 1 00:26:39 More properties. Just eight. You hear that We're looking for eight more. We want a total of 10 short term rentals in the Poconos. Generally in the area where we're at. Maybe like a 30 mile radius of Albright's. Yeah. And the goal is to have them cash flow. $2,000 per property giving us $20,000 in cash flow per month.
Speaker 0 00:26:59 That's a pretty sick cash flow bra.
Speaker 1 00:27:02 Can you imagine that life changing?
Speaker 0 00:27:04 I think that you would be even life changing, even happier than you are right now.
Speaker 1 00:27:07 But it's a lot of management. It is a lot of management. That's the other end of it. So do we start a management company? Do we hire someone, you know, maybe you, there's a lot to think about.
Speaker 0 00:27:16 Maybe you got 20, they'll give you like a little bit of a discount on management fees, you know what I mean? I mean, eventually, right. To be in full financial freedom. Like if you're managing it, you're not quite there in financial freedom. So you're gonna have to make that choice at some point. Take a hit on the cash flow a little bit to um, you know, free yourself to do your next thing, your next project or, or whatever it is you wanna
Speaker 1 00:27:36 Do. So if somebody wants to get a hold of us, what are, what are we gonna do? Well, I don't know. We've make it very secretive.
Speaker 0 00:27:44 I think <laugh>, you can always Google us, but <laugh>, we're gonna put the, we're gonna put our, uh, I think we should put the links to the Airbnbs in the description.
Speaker 1 00:27:52 Yes. We will definitely do
Speaker 0 00:27:53 That. And then we also gotta do, um, put our contact information in the description as well. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and don't be a stranger. Like, this is what we do for a living. We help people do this. We can help you in any state actually find a realtor who can, um, help you buy an Airbnb or a rental that understands that understands investing. It's so critical. I interviewed 50 agents by the way, when I bought
Speaker 1 00:28:13 Florida. Five
Speaker 0 00:28:14 Zero. Five zero. Yeah, that's a lot. I like kind of sifted through 50, talked to 15 on the phone, met with three picked, one picked the best one I could find. And, uh, I think that really helped. Okay. So, you know, and we kind of do that four
Speaker 1 00:28:26 People. So finding the right agent is huge.
Speaker 0 00:28:28 Find the right agent.
Speaker 1 00:28:29 That's what we can do for you. We can help you link up depending, no matter where you're at with the right agent that can help you.
Speaker 0 00:28:35 And we can talk financial strategy as well. And then, you know, we can help people invest in this local area. Like that's one of the big things I do in my business. Philadelphia
Speaker 1 00:28:42 Wealth Project.
Speaker 0 00:28:42 Yeah. We're doing the Philadelphia Wealth Project. We're helping people build a hundred million in wealth in our area over the next five years. Both agents, um, investors. We've got the meet up tomorrow night with Sheila Dragon. Um,
Speaker 1 00:28:54 Super exciting. Uh,
Speaker 0 00:28:55 She's got an awesome name. I know. Really. I an awesome name. And she's gonna be talking about flipping versus, um, you know, uh, buy and hold and, and and renovate. And also she has some short, short-term rentals. She just built one in the Ozarks, I believe she has one in Avalon. So, um, and she's dealt with a lot of different situations. She's gonna be talking real talk. Mm. You know what I mean? Nice. I love it. I love it. Yeah
Speaker 1 00:29:16 Man, it's super exciting. So thank you guys for listening. Again, we're gonna link to everything in the description and we look forward to it. So make sure you stay tuned for the next one.
Speaker 0 00:29:24 I hear the next one. We're gonna be talking about how to make 400 grand on one project.
Speaker 1 00:29:29 Whoa.
Speaker 0 00:29:29 400 grand one. Project
Speaker 1 00:29:31 Suspense. Don't tell 'em too much. All
Speaker 0 00:29:32 Right. Secrets <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:29:34 All right guys, we'll talk soon. All
Speaker 0 00:29:36 Right. Later.