How to Work a 9-5 & Be a Successful Real Estate Investor with Profitable Short-term Rentals

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(9612) )}

I believe if you are going to invest in something, you have to understand it. You don't have to be the end all, be all and the number one expert, but you have to understand it. I understand real estate. I'm like, okay, you can touch, you can feel this house. It's sitting right here. And so, out of all of the strategies I found on short term rental investing, also known as airbnb investing, to be one that could help us accelerate our savings anywhere from three X, what you would expect from just a regular long term rental to ten X even.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(45937) )}

Welcome to everyone's talking Money podcast. I'm your host. Shauna games. There's no judgment, no dumb questions, just smart conversations about you and your money. So come on in and grab a seat. Everyone is welcome here. Can you have the best of both worlds? Can you work a job that you love while being a really successful real estate investor and build wealth? Well, if you're Rachel Gainsborough, the answer is yes. Rachel was facing what so many of us face huge, huge student loans. I'm talking over $500,000 and a passion to figure out a revenue stream that would help her create a life she didn't need a vacation from. After a lot of research, Rachel found short term real estate rentals, mainly through Airbnb, and was able to create a five times her investment revenue stream, which just basically changed her life and her families. On this episode, we dive into Rachel's story of success as she shares with you how to find the right properties for shortterm rentals, how to avoid some of the biggest mistakes when it comes to real estate investing, and how to work a nine to five job and still be a successful real estate investor. I hope this episode inspires you to think that if Rachel can do it, you can do it too. Let's start talking. Rachel, I am so excited to have you on the podcast today. Thank you so much for joining us.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(137062) )}

Thank you so much, Shawna. What an important topic that you're covering, and we're just so grateful for all that you're putting out there for the community.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(145912) )}

Thank you. Well, it helps to have amazing guests like yourself to bring all these conversations to life. When I was prepping for interview, I read your background and I love that you have this great immigrant story and how unique your American dream journey has really been. You were born in Haiti, raised in Miami, you became a doctor, no less, and you were left with what many of us face very hefty student loans. I believe the number is somewhere over 500,000, which is a lot. And you found airbnb investing. You own 18 different properties, and somehow you miraculously balance, like being a health care professional by day and rental investor by night. But before we dive into your story a little bit more, I really just want to talk about the state of the real estate market right now, what's going on with the market? And I guess the further question is, does it still make sense to become a rental investor with the current climate?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(212212) )}

What a great question. And I hear this question asked a lot in the communities that I'm a part of, because you're right, there has been some drastic changes. We have higher interest rates, we have a cost of entry that is higher over the last, I would say, twelve months or so than what we have seen in the past. But what's interesting, Shaunna, is for those who are looking to invest, for those who are looking to purchase their first or next property, we're finding that those who are selling are willing to negotiate more than they have been willing to in the last two years. So there are deals out there more so than before, and I still am confident that now is still a great time to get in. Yes, the interest rates are higher if you're looking to purchase a property using a lender. However, there are some tax benefits and legislation around, some tax benefits that are out there that could benefit a lot of those who are buyers in the market today.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(280087) )}

Can you give us a little bit more information about some of those tax benefits?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(284662) )}

Yeah, so, full disclaimer, I'm not a tax accountant or any of that, but one of the tax benefits that members of my community have been taking advantage of is the bonus depreciation that comes with purchasing a short term rental. So it's a loophole, if you will. If you purchase a short term rental, you can accelerate the depreciation on that property on the passive losses. So say, for instance, the cost of the cabinets, the cost of the furnishing, the cost of the roof, all of that is segmented out by a specialist. And instead of taking the depreciation year over year over the next, let's say 27 or 30 years, you can take it all in year one, you can take 100% of the losses or the tax write off year one in 20, 22, 20, 23, it's 2024, it's 60%. So leveraging that has made such an impact for so many of the members of my community, because at 100%, it really helps to offset your W two or offset your other business taxes that you're paying. And the benefit can exceed the interest rate that a lot of people are hesitant to move forward with.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(368812) )}

Yeah, that is a great advantage. And I would say, if you're listening and you're intrigued by this, talk to your accountant for sure. But I actually did this when I purchased an SUV about ten years ago. I was able to take almost the entire depreciation year one. And so the beauty of it is, what you're saying, Rachel, is it could significantly lower or even take away your taxable income, if you will. So that is an awesome advantage to know about.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(400687) )}

Absolutely. Absolutely. And so for those who are hesitant, that's why I emphasize taking a look at that to see whether or not it's something that your tax accountant or your tax strategist feels is a good financial plan for you. Everyone has a different profile, right? But if you're able to leverage their expertise and if they are well versed in the real estate world, they can definitely give you some insight on that. So I really believe that this can exceed any of the interest rate hikes that we're seeing with purchasing properties right now.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(439612) )}

Well, I would love to hear your story, Rachel, of like, the very first investment property that you had, and you can kind of take us back then when you were like, hey, why don't I do both things? Why don't I be this healthcare professional and also be an investor?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(458812) )}

So for me, it started after we were able to climb that peak of getting rid of quite a bit of our student loan debt. We looked around and we saw, okay, great, we don't have this mountain of debt, but we didn't have any savings, shauna and so that was a little bit concerning. We were raising two boys at the time, and we really didn't have a significant amount of savings. And so we started to strategize, okay, what would this look like? How do we accelerate our savings? And we looked at all of the real estate investing strategies, as well as some other strategies as well, like maybe investing in somebody else's company, like a startup. And we saw that the risk was there. It's hit or miss if you're going to hit or just completely flop. Bitcoin had come out at the time. So cryptocurrency was one thing we looked at. We didn't quite understand it. We moved on to real estate, like, okay, next. And that's one thing I believe in. I believe if you are going to invest in something, you have to understand it. You don't have to be into all, be all and the number one expert, but you have to understand it. So I understand real estate, I'm like, okay, you can touch, you can feel this house. It's real. It's sitting right here. And so out of all of the strategies, I found a shortterm rental investing, also known as airbnb investing, to be one that could help us accelerate our savings anywhere from three X, what you would expect from just a regular long term rental to ten X even. And so we started off with some of the other strategies. We looked at wholesaling, we looked at syndications. We didn't go all in on them yet. As a matter of fact, I remember driving to this property in Alabama, allegedly, it was $17,000, and I was like, oh, my goodness, this is going to be great. But as you get closer and closer to this particular property, we weren't in Kansas anymore to say the least. So it just became really concerning that okay, this space does not feel safe. And then as soon as we arrived at the property, the property unfortunately looked like it had been caulked or duct taped together. The roof was giving in that little glimmer of gold and the sun, all of that that we seen in the photos was a very different perspective. And so that's when I quickly realized I'm not going to be one of those fix and flippers that you see on HGTV, right? Like that's a whole project, that's a whole other job. But I wanted something that would, I could just kind of walk in to if there are a few things to be done like carpet and paint, I can start to generate revenue within 30 to 60 days. That became my goal. At that point I said, okay, I can't project, manage a yearlong renovation, I have to find a property that is ready to go and by the second month or so, I already have my mortgage covered and then start generating cash flow that way. And so that changed the criteria for our purchase. We ended up purchasing a property within, I would say, 2 miles of where we lived. It was for like 280,000 or $290,000 was the purchase price. But the area, the property values were $400,000. So I was very familiar with it. It did need a roof replaced. So there's a company, they replaced the roof in three days. It needed carpet, it needed paint. So all in we were at about $19,000. All in. That's with the down payment even because we had found a company that was a local bank that was willing to do a 5% down, which was great. And then the roof was about $7,000 and then furnishings and so for about 20,000 or maybe 2025K, we started our journey. And that house rented for anywhere from, I would say $6000 to $9,000 a month overall on a nightly rate of course. And that was our very first short term rental.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(723282) )}

Wow. So I'm putting myself in the shoes of maybe somebody listening. How do you walk into a property and assess like, okay, this just needs maybe some carpet and like a few little fixer items. How do you know if you're getting a lemon of a house or you're getting one where you could have your scenario?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(745762) )}

Yeah, that's a great question. So I had consumed a lot of real estate related content via podcast and books throughout the last year or two prior to that purchase. And I had an idea of the big things to look at. For instance, the mechanical things, AC, electrical, plumbing, roof. So those are going to be your big things that are going to be expensive to fix, but they're figureoutable so if you can assign a number to it. So the AHA moment for me was instead of thinking, oh, if it needs a new roof, I'm walking away. The better question to ask is if it needs a roof, well, how much does that cost and how much does that factor into my formula? Will I be losing money on the deal, or is it still a viable deal? And so I charted that out. Again, I understood the big mechanical things. I understood how much those things would cost, like kind of a range of what it would cost. And I relied heavily on the inspector who is inspecting the property after we place the property, an offer on the property, as well as contractor, relatives and friends that I connected with as well, to ask them for their insights. So if there was consistency across the board, I felt confident, which there was. I felt confident that the property was a viable property.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(839587) )}

Yeah, I like that. I like having this kind of idea of having a team in place right, that helps you through this. And I want to talk about this shortly before we kind of dig deeper into short term rentals. But I'm seriously addicted to any TV shows, anything to do with home buying, remodeling, I mean, you name it, I've probably watched it at least a couple of times. And I just checked out your episode on Netflix. Buy My House with your Husband. And of course, congrats on making a deal. That was fantastic. But tell us a little bit, what was your experience like being on this show?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(877837) )}

Oh, my goodness. It was such an interesting experience. Nevertheless. So this show was filmed, I want to say over a year ago, like a year and a half ago, and it was just quite an experience. They had reached out to us based on the revenue that were generating on this particular property that was on the show, and one of the data analysis tools that I use to evaluate short term rentals, that company is called Air DNA. And they actually were working with this casting company to cast for the show. And they reached out and we were interviewed. My husband and I were interviewed via Zoom, and they selected us and came out to the property. They filmed us here on site in Georgia at that property, and then they flew us out to New Mexico to film the second portion of the show where you saw us in the room with the tycoons. So that was in Albuquerque on their set. And that's the set of Breaking Bad and Better Calls all, which I think is hilarious.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(947622) )}

Oh, how fascinating is the place where the real estate deals are going to happen to you?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(956437) )}

Exactly. It was such an interesting experience. But to be honest, after the filming had occurred, I hadn't heard back. I thought perhaps, you know, with all that's going on, maybe the show is not going to air anymore. And then at the end of August, I hear, oh, there's a show airing called By My House. And lo and behold, it was the show. So, yeah, just a really interesting experience nonetheless. A lot of wardrobe. You're in the green rooms and bags for a while. Hurry up and wait. It was just different than what someone like me would expect from show business. It's not just flashy lights all the time. It's like you're waiting and waiting.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1004437) )}

Yeah, the hurry up and waiting. Actually, you are about the third person who has mentioned Air DNA to me. Tell us a little bit about that.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1015087) )}

Sure. So AirDNA is a data aggregator. So they pull all of the data from all of the Airbnb and verbal listings out there. And the data would include the number of bedrooms, the nightly rate, the cleaning, the monthly revenue, the annual revenue. And it's actually my go to tool when I start looking for a property. And then when I'm diving in even deeper, I'll go back and go in there. So there's like it's premium, right? So there's that free version that you can look and see maybe two or three data points. But once you get the paid version, you can go drill in a little bit more and see more data points, such as seasonality numbers, what that looks like, types of amenities that are more visible in that market and so on and so forth.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1071687) )}

Yes, and I think what's interesting, I mean, data obviously is very helpful. Right. And when you were on by my house and you were talking about your house in Peach Tree, I believe, near Atlanta, and you were talking about the rental rates that you were getting from that house and it was having to do with the movie industry that was in Atlanta. And so you were making just astronomical amounts of money each month from this property. I'm thinking, as those of us listening, if we're interested in this idea of like, airbnb investing and short term rental investing, how do we find those little niches where there can be so super profitable?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1117087) )}

Yeah. So they're everywhere, believe it or not. Shawna. So there's two verticals that I serve. It is the movie industry. And the other vertical that I serve are individuals who are displaced from their home, unfortunately, due to, say, a hurricane or a fire or a disaster. So if something were to happen to their home because of their insurance coverage, they would be placed in another home that is a similar type.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1149487) )}

Yeah. Okay.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1150840) )}

Yeah. Just to preserve their lifestyle, so to speak. And so if you are in an area with really good schools, homes that are a little bit at the higher cost of living area, and the neighbors home catches on fire and your home happens to be a rental, then based on the property value, you can get really lucrative monthly rent from the insurance company, essentially.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1185337) )}

Listen, friend, there is no better sound that I love than the sound of a sale you make on Shopify, the allinone commerce platform to start run and grow your business. Shopify makes it so simple to sell to anyone, anywhere. Whether your thing is vintage teas or recipes for ghee. Start selling with Shopify and join the platform, simplifying commerce for millions of your favorite businesses worldwide. With Shopify, you'll create an online store in your own vibe, discover new customers and grow the following that keeps them coming back. Shopify has all the sales channels sorted so you can keep your business growing from an inperson POS system to an allinone ecommerce platform, even across social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. And thanks to free libraries full of educational content, Shopify's got you every step of the way. It's how every minute new sellers around the world make their first sale with Shopify. And you will too. I had this dream of creating my first book, the Money Mindset Journal, in 2019. And pandemic or no pandemic, I launched it in 2020. And I am so thrilled that over 50 people are changing their relationship with Money, thanks to The Money Mindset Journal and Shopify. So when you're ready to launch your thing into the spotlight, do it with Shopify, the commerce platform backing millions of businesses down the street and around the globe. Go on, try Shopify for free and start selling anywhere. This is possibility powered by shopify. Sign up for a free trial@shopify.com. Slash my money. That's shopify.com. Slash my money to start selling online today. Shopify.com slash my money now. I work from our sponsor Better Help I'm a huge believer in therapy and I believe everyone can benefit. I've been going to therapy for ten years now. I honestly couldn't live without it. I've been able to work through traumas, get into much better mental health, get help with anxiety, depression, have a place to work on building a healthy relationship with my husband. Therapy has also helped me get in a much better relationship with my money and my career. It's just done wonders. There's so much you can get from therapy and it's not just about going when things are not good. Therapy is so amazing when things are going well to keep you focused, confident and less stressed. If you're thinking about giving therapy a try, BetterHelp is a great option. It's convenient, accessible, affordable and entirely online. You get matched with a therapist after you fill out a brief survey, and you can switch therapists at any point in time. When you want to be a better problem solver, therapy can help you get there. Visit BetterHelp.com Mymoneytoday to get 10% off your first month, that's BetterHelp.com MyMoney. I am a big believer in always setting yourself up for success and being ready for growth when the opportunity strikes. That's why I love ShipStation. They set you up for growth by directly integrating every shopping cart and storefront so your products are easier to find, manage and get in the hands of your customers. With the holidays coming up and a busy shipping season right around the corner. It's a lot less stressful to get all your shipping situated so you aren't stressed out and you aren't having to try to play catchup. I am definitely not a friend of stress, so I love using ShipStation to literally make ship happen. No more limiting your business to just one store. ShipStation integrates with every platform like Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, shopify, etc. They make it really easy to manage all your shipping from one easy dashboard. You easily can compare carriers rates and delivery times to get the most out of every send. And you get the same discounted shipping rates as Fortune 500 companies, whether you're sending a stack or a truck full, join over 1300 companies who have grown their ecommerce businesses with ship station like Seattle Foods. I love their tortilla chips and the sock club. Okay, I can always have another pair of socks. Ship more and grow more with ShipStation. Go to ShipStation.com today and sign up with promo code My money for a free 60 day trial. Start today and get set up before the biggest shipping season of the year. That's two months free. Visit ShipStation.com, click the microphone at the top, and type in the code My Money. Hey, guys, I want to tell you about Kachaa, my all in one daily super blend. If you're worried you weren't getting all the nutrients you need, then listen up, because Kajaba has you cover. Kajaba puts everything your body needs in one glass. You can have it all all the superfoods, all the vitamins, all the omegas, all the greens, all the protein, all the benefits for your gut, your skin, your hair, your brain, your muscles, your heart, your whole health. No more compromise, no more guilt. No other nutrition shake does all of this, and they travel to the ends of the earth to source them all and crush it up. Guichava is a powder. You take two scoops, just add water, blend it up, and it tastes incredible. They have five delicious flavors chai and matcha. Those are my personal favorites. And I drink cache of every single morning for breakfast, and I feel totally energized as a result. I just can make great life and great money decisions every day because I feel nourished and I feel really good, like, just ready to take on the day. There's just no way I could get all these nutrients with my normal diet. Trying to manage all the supplements, ingredients you should be taking, it is overwhelming and expensive. But now Cachava makes clean, organic, superfood nutrition accessible to everyone. You got to try a cachavea for yourself. Cachava is offering 10% off for a limited time. Go to Kachava.com. My money. That's spelled Kachava. And get 10% off your first order. That's kashava.com MyMoney hey, everybody.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1551700) )}

I'm Nick Latham.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1552557) )}

And I'm Leo Bama.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1553607) )}

And we're the hosts of were you raised by wolves?

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1556292) )}

Each week, we try to make the world a kinder, nicer place.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1559995) )}

Well, that's the idea, at least.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1561525) )}

I mean, we try.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1562800) )}

Have you ever wondered what to do if you're ghosted?

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1565547) )}

Or what to do when a friend.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1566790) )}

Asks you to borrow money or the proper way to eat cheetos?

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1570617) )}

You know the big questions.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1572325) )}

So please find were you raised by wolves? Wherever you listen.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1581487) )}

I find it really interesting because I've read a lot of articles lately. I believe there was one I just read. I think it was in the New York Times, but I'm not 100% sure. But they were talking about like, all the rental real estate that was bought in the last few years and how so many of the properties are not actually making decent cash flow and really costing owners more than they expected. So, like, thinking about the flip side, maybe, what are some of the red flags or what are some of the things that you should stay away from so that you can make sure that your property isn't one of those where nobody wants to rent it out?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1623337) )}

Well, that's a great question. So as it relates to a short term rental investing, I could speak to that more than longterm rental?

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1631877) )}

Yeah, absolutely.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1633462) )}

Yeah. So with short term rental investing, you have to understand that that traveler, especially the luxury traveler, they're looking for an experience and they're going to be more select. Right. And with the advent of Airbnb, we understand the vast majority of hosts have one or two homes on the property. They are middle aged women, according to the data. Airbnb women made over, I want to say either 5 billion. I hate that I don't have this on my cheat sheet or something at the moment, but like $5 billion is a lot in revenue, right. Last year and outpaced men, and nothing against men. I have boys, my husband, nothing against men. But it shows you that there is such an opportunity and there is gold. Right. And being able to create your own business and being an entrepreneur and serving your clientele. But with that has come a lot of listings, a lot of different options for travelers. Right. And so how are you going to stand out from the crowd? You need to ask yourself that. So whenever I'm going into a new market. Whenever I'm looking to find my next property of where to invest. One thing that I look at is the Occupancy rate of that entire market as a whole and Air DNA. If you go to the free tool. The rentalizer. You can Google Air DNA Rentalizer. The free tool. You can place any address that you want in there. And it's going to spit out for you the Occupancy rate. And if it's below 50% Occupancy rate, to me, that indicates there are not a lot of travelers in that area. I typically stay away from that market. Okay, so if there is more supply than demand, right. There's houses, but not enough people going to the houses, then that's not going to be a good fit. So Occupancy rate is huge for me. And then after that, I just look into the various components in terms of my budget, purchase price, property value. So I look at those things. But once I get really granular, I'm looking at the property as a whole. As I'm driving to the property, whether I'm driving there physically or virtually, I'll do a Google pin drop to walk around the neighborhood. I want to see what is the vibe there. Is it we have our cars parked on our lawn, tires on the front lawn. Does it look challenge? Does it look like the hood where I grew up in Miami? That's going to be challenging to market that property to that select traveler. Right. Because there's that component with the guests. They want to experience a luxury stay, and part of that is immersing themselves with nature sometimes. The other part is connecting with those they're traveling with. They want to reconnect with nature, the convenience of check in and check out. So those are the things that I would look at. If the property already has like, smart locks, that's a plus for me. If not, I will place a smart lock there because convenience is definitely the key for those guests to start to envision themselves as having a good stay there. That first interaction with the property is like, okay, I had to fumble around a lockbox to get the key that kind of already dampers the impression of the property.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1864087) )}

Interesting. I like that a lot, I think. Right. In real estate, the same rate is location, location, location. And I would imagine even with a short term rental, it's probably even more so because people are going there for whether it's a vacation or some sort of extended stay and they want to be in an environment that feels comfortable to them and maybe feels like home. Whatever it is that you're looking for, I'm wondering the answer could be no for sure on this, but I'm wondering, have you ever had a short term rental that just didn't go right for me?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1902190) )}

Yes, actually. So the one that didn't go right was one of the short term rentals we purchased was in an area with an optional, quote unquote, optional, HOA optional. Okay.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(1916365) )}

I'm understanding right now, right?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(1919035) )}

I still don't understand it, to be honest with you. And so for all the listeners, just say no to HOA. And I do have a caveat. Unless the HOA is there to collect fees for really amazing amenities such as like a lagoon pool, a golf course, or something really fun. Right. A boat slip. If the community has those types of major amenities that they're collecting fees for, that yes, I understand having an HOA, so that must be present for me to even consider a property that has an HOA. But there's one more thing that has to be present. As well. You have to have both. Number two is more than 50% of the properties that are in that HOA are short term rentals. So that I'm not outvoted. So just say no to HOAs unless those things are present because that's what tanked. One of our short term rentals is the optional HOA. They didn't want anything to do with having a short term rental in that particular neighborhood. And so they were miserable. Our guests were miserable, they made each other miserable. And so less than a year we sold that property because we didn't necessarily want to make the neighbors miserable and we didn't want our guests to be miserable. Right. Getting glared at by the neighbors and all of the things, it's just not a good comfortable feel. So needless to say, that one did not go well.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(2016745) )}

I was like, thank you for your candor, because I like to share, obviously when things don't always go as planned and I think it's important to share those stories as well. I want to just circle back a little bit to your story in this massive amount of student loan debt, which I think we can all agree that student loans are sort of like the silent killer, right, wealth killer for so many of us. And I know that so many of us listening have this idea of maybe wanting to start an airbnb side hustle or second business. And you've actually done this with two careers. So tell us a little bit about how do you manage to balance both careers? I'm thinking without some serious sleep deprivation.

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(2062312) )}

Oh, man. No, that's a great question. It did start with some of that because as you're starting something new, the anxiety is there. You're wondering, OK, did I remember to do this? Did I remember to do that? And I will warn you, with short term rentals or airbnb or setting up a property, it's never quite perfect and you can spend forever zooshing things up. You've got to kind of give yourself a deadline and just stop. Right? But you know what? This is going to have to be enough. And you just walk away. Just walk away from it. But definitely the support of my family has been really, really key. So my husband and I, he has a background in psychotherapy, so he has a practice and he served Atlanta public school system for years. And so he and I, we tagged teams. He took care of a lot of the maintenance requests and helping coordinate with Cleaners. And I took care of guest communications and the billing side of things until we were able to get a lot of that automated and outsource quite a bit of it with one virtual assistant who helps us with guest communications and of course, Cleaners. We have a cleaning team, three deep. We learned you want to be three deep because one has a conflict, the other is ill and then you need a third one. So our backup is actually an app called Turnover BMB. We use that app, which is great because you can see the reviews of the cleaners and the host that they previously served to see whether or not it's a good fit. So using apps like that to find those service providers have come in during a pinch, for sure.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(2176612) )}

Louis so I'd love for you to give us a little bit of a pep talk. So if we're listening and we want to start investing in short term rentals, but maybe we're thinking it just isn't possible, maybe we don't have a lot of cash or kind of doubting ourselves, can we do it? What do you think? What should our action plan be if we're interested in getting started but we have no idea where to start?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(2200987) )}

Oh, I love that question. Okay, so here's the deal. First of all, everything is figureoutable, right? So if you want to do it, you absolutely can do it. And if I were starting out from the very beginning, say I even had student loan debt and just newly graduated, what I personally would do is find a way to purchase something that has an opportunity to house hack, and I would start there. And so what house hacking is, say you purchase a Duplex for $200,000. You wouldn't of course, have to pay the $200,000 on day one. I know some people feel as though cash is the only way to purchase a property, and I honor that and I respect that. But really, you may qualify for something as low as like 3% down or 10% down. So for less than $10,000, you can be in that property. And if it's a two family property, meaning you can live in one portion and someone else lives in the other portion that you're able to airbnb, I think that's such a great place to start. And this is a question that I get asked by a lot of medical students who are about to graduate with all the debt. And I told them when I left, I graduated from school with a whole lot of heirs. I had put on so many heirs and I thought, oh, I'm going to be this big woman with all this money. I didn't count the cost of the debt. So I went and bought a big old house, went to the rain trial and boutique. I thought I had it made, but come time for the student loans to be paid for, it was absolutely astronomical. We ended up selling everything and living in an apartment to pay off debt. So don't do what I did going back, I would have house hacked, bought one property that has the opportunity for two different families to live there like a duplex and start there. That's where I would start. Because everything is figure out. Well, you just never know. Some of us are sitting on an asset, a property that has an opportunity in the backyard to create, like, a really cool glamping experience, right. I've seen someone renting out a hammock for $50 a night in Oregon. I'm like, what in the world? And so your imagination is only your limitation. So, of course, take a look at your regulations in the area that you're looking to invest to really understand what that looks like. But everything is figureoutable, really. This is a sharing economy. You got this. Go for it and reach out if you need any support. There are a lot of people out there willing to support you.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(2369155) )}

Okay. So we are headed into the end of another crazy year. A lot of us are really looking forward to turning that calendar over to 2023. Some are even saying that 2023 could be the biggest new year. New year, we'll see. But if you can peer into a crystal ball, rachel, what do you think? The 2023 rental real estate market, what is it going to look like?

{( speakerName('A') )} {( convertTime(2395987) )}

Oh, I love it. I really think, especially with the short term rental, it is going to continue to provide experiences for those who are looking for, like, those unique stays. I know I lose a little bit to those glamping experiences, but I think it's going to get bigger and better. Those dome houses, I see people building out entire dome communities, which I don't know if you've seen them before, but they're just really unique and coollooking. And I know people who are just flying out to the middle of nowhere to go and stay in this dome community. I mean, which is awesome, right? Places that you probably wouldn't think to visit, but because it has this really unique experience, people are willing to go there. I really believe people want to experience something different. They want to live their best life, even maybe an instagrammable inspired type of life. And if you're a short term rental host, if you're an airbnb host, simply putting wallpaper on a wall that has neon lights, you know, something like that could really draw those individuals in who are looking for those unique experiences. So definitely I think it's still such an opportunity for those who are looking to get into this space, but really just getting laser focused on what it is that you really want and figuring out who you need to partner with or what resources you need to make that happen, because you can make it happen.

{( speakerName('B') )} {( convertTime(2489287) )}

When I was a practicing financial planner, I got to peek into a lot of people's money situations, and I can tell you the wealthiest of those. They all have some form of real estate, whether it was commercial rental, short term, you name it. Investing in real estate, yes, it's not for everyone, but it certainly is a way, if done right, that you can build substantial wealth. The beauty is that you have someone like Rachel ready and willing to share it all with you and help you shortcut your path to success. If you'd like to connect with Rachel, you can find her on Instagram at Short Term Gems and be sure to grab her free resource 75 Cities with the highest profitability at 75 Gems.com. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love if you share it with your friends and family members, help them get in on the action of shortterm real estate investing. As always, you can head to the show notes for all the links to our episode guests as well as our amazing sponsors that make this show possible. I'll see you back here in a few days for a brand new episode.