Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] This is Short Term Rental Management, the show that is all about short term rental property management with your host, yours truly, Luke Carl.
[00:00:16] Short Term Rental Management with Luke. I'm so grateful to be here with you. Talk about rent and properties. Although today what we're going to talk about is bigger Pockets Con Do a little recap from bigger pockets con October 2025 Las Vegas bpcon.
[00:00:41] Let's talk about it.
[00:00:45] So worst part about it is the flying. I hate flying and I know there are other people like me and I'm getting better at it. Lots of work on this and books and talking to folks and trying to get better in general at life. And my flight was not that bad. Great flight, Great flight. Actually, Mel Robbins, one of my favorite authors, also has a fear of flying and she makes me feel better about it. She talks about it quite a bit in her book the Five Minute Rule.
[00:01:17] Long Flight to Vegas. Of course, we live in a small town, so it's two flights. I had to get to Atlanta first and then we went to Vegas from Atlanta on Delta.
[00:01:27] Had a very nice seat, front left corner as a matter of fact. And I had two football games going and it was great. And so then you land in Vegas and let's talk about Vegas. I love Vegas. It's fantastic. I am not the type of person that partakes in the typical Vegas goings on.
[00:01:47] I did in my younger years when I was, you know, partying and such and would go nuts in Vegas and not remember most of it and not remember the flight. So that made the flight a lot easier.
[00:02:04] Those days are over and I will tell you, I have more fun now in Vegas. We've even taken the children to Vegas. We did not this time. And it would have been better to have them there. They are just so much fun to be around. But we were working, if you can call it work, we were speaking, which speaking is not easy, although I do enjoy it, as you can tell. If you listen to my program, then you know I have no problem talking, which is what speaking is. It's talking, speaking and talking.
[00:02:37] So we get to Vegas, we had all sorts of fun stuff to do in between the speaking engagements, which of course I'm eternally grateful for. Bigger Pockets for allowing us the opportunity to share our knowledge with their community.
[00:02:53] Matter of fact, Avery has spoken at every Bigger Pockets conference that there has ever been. I think she's one of very few people that have spoken at every one of them. I'm getting close now. I did not speak at the first one or two at Least I was not, I should say, I was not asked to speak.
[00:03:12] It's impossible to get me to not speak up. But anyway, it was lovely. And the first engagement, we had a. We do. We do a boot camp style session, which is an extra paid small fee for a three hour intensive session with Avery and I. We've done that every year and it's. It's pretty intense. Three hours is a lot, you know, and. But it's great. And we sold out. Not an empty seat in the house. We had a great time there. We had a lot of great stuff. I would have, if I was not party to the situation, I would have loved to have been in that room. Just me as a human because there was so much great knowledge. Avery was just crushing it. Great knowledge on today's market and where we're at today and what it takes to find a deal and things like that.
[00:04:02] From the hardest working gal in real estate, Avery Carle. We now have a new book, Smarter Short Term Rentals, available wherever books are sold.
[00:04:15] Build a dynamic real estate business and out host the competition.
[00:04:20] That's Smarter Short Term Rentals. The book.
[00:04:25] So the first night, let's get into the fun stuff. Vegas was on fire. All right, this is one of the main things I want to cover today. Vegas was on fire.
[00:04:35] I'm talking the coffee lines were 20 miles long. It couldn't get any food. It was so busy. And I've been to Vegas a lot of times and it's pretty much always busy there, you know, but it was the busiest I've ever seen it. And it was certainly much busier than it was the last time I was there, which I looked it up. It was exactly two years ago, which was for pleasure. We were there with the family, with the children and mother in law and we were just passing through for fun. Oh, no, I take that back. Avery did have a speaking engagement at. On that trip as well for a real estate agent conference.
[00:05:13] I believe it was exp con.
[00:05:17] So the kids got to see her speak in front of a large crowd and it was wonderful.
[00:05:22] And then we went on our about our business and we ended up going to some concerts and Cirque du Soleil and, and everything. So let me get back to the first evening of this trip.
[00:05:33] We had some friends there and after the speaking engagement, which will wear you out and it's wonderful, we got lunch with the friends and I like to party. I used to be very good at partying and planning parties and I owned a bar. I had a little tiny nightclub In Manhattan.
[00:05:56] So it was a big part of my life for a long time. I no longer do those things, but I still like to have a good time. So we. We sat down at lunch, I did a quick itinerary, and off we went. And we did all sorts of fun stuff. We went to the John Wick interactive thing.
[00:06:16] It was a.
[00:06:20] It was sort of like a.
[00:06:23] An escape room, but it was at the Continental and it was wonderful. And I'm huge, huge, huge fan of those movies. Probably my favorite movies of all time is favorite series of movies of all time.
[00:06:37] And it was an experience, right? So you walked through and there were actors and they were chasing after you and there was guns and I mean, it was crazy.
[00:06:46] Had to hide in the back of a van.
[00:06:48] It was great. And then we went to Meow Wolf, which you've never been to Meow Wolf. I'm not going to say. I'm not going to explain to you what Meow Wolf is because it is perf. Is damn near impossible to explain if you have not been there, you have to go to understand what Meow Wolf is.
[00:07:05] But we went and it was actually quite. I've been there three times now to that particular Meow Wolf. I've been to other Meow Wolves. That particular one I had not been for two years. And it was quite a bit different.
[00:07:15] In other words, they are putting an effort in changing things, keeping it fresh. And it was packed and it was great.
[00:07:24] Then we went off to see an Elvis impersonator because it is Vegas after all, and he is the king of. The King of Rock and Roll, after all. And we are huge fans. We took two friends of ours who are not fans, but they still had a great time. And he was really good.
[00:07:46] Did some research, found the one that I thought was going to be the best. And it was actually one that we've been to before.
[00:07:51] Has a live band. It's called All Shook Up. It's a tiny little venue, maybe a hundred people if that.
[00:07:59] And had not seen this particular gentleman before. He was great.
[00:08:03] He was great.
[00:08:05] Put on a great show. I believe his name was Travis Allen, the Elvis impersonator.
[00:08:11] I love the King. I know it's a bit ridiculous, but that's real Vegas to me. You know what I mean? I don't want to do. Go do bottle service at the Bellagio with Taylor Swift on the. In the background. I want to. I want to go see a fake Elvis and go to the, you know, steakhouse that's been around for 200 years by the Way we could not get into the Golden Steer.
[00:08:33] Certainly have to plan ahead for that.
[00:08:37] And then the second day, we talked all day long. We were at the, the, the event all day long and, and got everything done and saw some old friends and had a wonderful experience and it was just great.
[00:08:49] But what I want to talk about is number one, the fact that Vegas was jam packed and expensive.
[00:08:59] My goodness.
[00:09:01] I, I, I had a little bit of a problem with it. I had to call a buddy of mine and I said to him, I said, because I have noticed, you know, I'm getting a little older and I'm, I'm thinking to myself, I've been, I've had my head down buried in work and working as hard as I possibly can for the past 15 years.
[00:09:20] And did I just wake up one day and everything is seven times more expensive than it used to be because I haven't been paying attention for 15 years? Or is it inflation or is it a little bit of both? Did my dad go through this same thing when he was my age? Did he wake up when he was the age I am right now and go to the grocery store and say, holy crap, these potatoes are expensive?
[00:09:45] And I don't think that he did because he didn't go to the grocery store because he had his head down, working his ass off, never went to the grocery store.
[00:09:55] But I think that if he had gone to the grocery store at my age, he would have said, holy crap, those potatoes are way more than they, than the last time I remember buying potatoes, which was 15 years ago.
[00:10:07] Because you, you do, you get to this point in your life where at least I have and I, I learned it from my dad. You are working constantly and I feel like I'm right on my stride, man. I've made it to my stride and I've got, you know, five, six, seven more years of really killing myself.
[00:10:28] And that's when I'm hoping that I will be able to find some options in life that fulfill me more than work does. But right now that's where I'm at and I'm happy to be here. And I woke up and man, those potatoes were expensive.
[00:10:45] Vegas is expensive. I live in what I thought was an expensive area. The real estate is expensive. There's not a lot of jobs. So people have to charge extra just to make these businesses function because there's not a lot of money floating around around here. It's coming in from other areas, this vacation town. So they're bringing in that Birmingham money to pay for these salads and things.
[00:11:08] And Vegas put this town to shame. I went to the Starbucks, and it was $19 and change for two coffees. It's the same two coffees I get here at home for around $11 and change, which I thought was a lot.
[00:11:27] So it's funny, I get an Americano, and it's. It's at the one right by my house, it's $6 and change. And at the one down by where I dropped the kids off at school, it's $5 and change. I go to that $1. But because it's a better Starbucks they have, it's right there. And I know I should be going local. I understand that. I do. I understand that.
[00:11:47] And you're right. But that Starbucks gives me better service. So I go down there. It's easier to get in and out of the. The employees are nicer. So I do have a point, and that is that Vegas was on fire. These people were moving and grooving, man. It was hard to get cars.
[00:12:06] It was busy, busy, busy. Everybody's dressed to the nines, looking beautiful. And they were spending money, all right? They're spending money.
[00:12:20] You can't go to Vegas and not spend money. I don't care if you're not gambling. I didn't gamble at all.
[00:12:25] I had every intention of sitting down with the friend of our, you know, these friends. We were running around with Natalie from the short term shop and her husband and some other friends. And this Natalie, she said, I would love to gamble while I'm here. I said, let's do it. Sit down. A couple hundred bucks, be done in three minutes, and then we'll move on to whatever's next. And we never did it. We never got around to it. So people are spending money, people are moving around. The airports are packed, packed, packed. All of our flights were annoyingly full, which I was happy to be annoyed about, because that means that people are moving and grooving and spending money on their travels. And the flights are expensive right now, too. Have you noticed that flights are expensive? I. I had so much fun. I tried to book another flight while I was in the air, just for fun. Not to Vegas, but possibly maybe to a little New York City action and get some big city going this holiday season.
[00:13:19] And those flights were so expensive, I was shocked.
[00:13:23] I didn't even book. I was just gonna book it and say, hey, Avery, we're going to New York. She would be down. She would love that. Kids would love that. The kids love New York City.
[00:13:32] Well, it's not the Love. I lived there for many years now. I understand there's people that don't like it, but I am not one of those people. I love it.
[00:13:39] Don't want to live there now, but I certainly enjoy going there. It's wonderful. There's so much to do. Choose your own adventure. There's a million things happening all the time. And I like that.
[00:13:53] Gives you, you know, energizes you, makes you feel alive. We're getting. We're enjoying our day now. I understand that in New York, tangent number 17, it's difficult to get around and get the kids off to dinner and things like that. But there's way easy ways to make it easier. I'll tell you one thing. I lived there for 14 and a half years. So knowing the city makes it a whole lot easier.
[00:14:16] I know where I'm going.
[00:14:19] It's very much like Disney World. The first time you go to Disney World, it's horrible. And most every. Every dad I know that hates Disney World is because he only went once. And he only went once because he hated it. It's very similar to Verbo. I hate Verbo because I don't get any bookings and I don't get any bookings because I hate Verbo.
[00:14:41] Got to keep practicing.
[00:14:43] I got 14 and a half years of practice in New York City. It's old hat, of course. It's changed quite a bit since I was there. But anyway, way off in the weeds. My point, flights are expensive. The airports are full. People are moving and grooving and it is very refreshing. Travel's doing well right now, so if you're having trouble with your calendars and, oh, man, vacation house. My rental is not making the money I thought it was going to make and it's not fun anymore. That's. I hate to tell you, but you're listening to my show and you know what I'm going to say, that's your fault.
[00:15:14] There was a couple years there where things did get difficult and I was here for you there. I was here for you then, too. That's not really happening right now. Smokies are jam packed. Orlando's jam packed. People are not spending a ton of money in Orlando. Disney World has. Their September numbers were down, but Florida travel in general had the best third quarter it's ever had.
[00:15:36] We just got numbers last week. Florida Q3.
[00:15:40] Best third quarter that Florida has ever had. The state of Florida for tourism, which is a pretty big litmus test because Florida is number two in the nation for most amount of travelers.
[00:15:59] One million domestic and international travelers in California 2023.
[00:16:07] And Florida is about 55 million at number two, so almost half.
[00:16:13] But number two, I didn't go any further than that. I'm gonna go for. Let's check out. Oh, look at that. Number three.
[00:16:22] You guessed it, Nevada. So where I just came from is number three, right behind where I live. Number two, Florida in number of tourists per year, which is all behind California at number one.
[00:16:42] I love California. I would visit it more often if it wasn't so Damn far away.
[00:16:47] 46% of California tourists say that they do plan to make a future trip. So more than half of the people going there, which is 100 million a year, plan to go back. And it's great. My kids want to go to Hollywood just because they hear about it and it's on the Pink Pony song and I want to take them there. But man, is it far away from Florida and the time zone change. Let's talk about that. Jet lag sucks. All right. Vegas is in the Pacific time zone. I had two time zones going on my watch, on my calendars, wanted to switch my meetings and appointments to, to the local time zone, which was a pain in the rear end. And then next thing you know, you don't even know what time it is. And you're waking up at some hour of the day that has nothing to do with the normal hour hour of the day that you're waking up, which is all fun and games.
[00:17:40] However, I was only there for like 48 hours and that really messes you up. So I was able to bounce back. Boom. I fell asleep instantly when I got home. And. And I woke up at a regular hour. I did hit the snooze twice, which I hate. That was today, by the way, the recording of this podcast. And I was 15 minutes or so late on my morning run at 4:30 in the morning. But I'm back on schedule. I'm tired, but I'm back on schedule. And that's the way to do that, by the way. That's how I work with jet lag. Just. Just make it hurt, deal with it, get up, do your normal time, especially when you get back.
[00:18:22] And who cares if you're tired? Because if you're tired, what does that mean? Means you're going to go to bed early and you. I'm telling you, if you want to be a rock star, if you want to crush it, number one, you got to find whatever you're trying to crush it in, which can be hard.
[00:18:37] Number two, you got to wake up early and get this done before everybody else wakes up.
[00:18:43] So jet lag is real. I'm dealing with it right now. I'm a little tired, but I think I managed it pretty well while I was there. It was hard. You know how it is. It's like moving and grooving and shaking and going and going, which I love. I love that. Big city, bright lights, Vegas, baby.
[00:19:01] So day two, we had a huge day. I want to say that Avery had a speech on design, short term rental design, which was wonderful and very insightful.
[00:19:12] I mean, I have meetings with her almost every day, certainly more than once a week, you know, multiple times a week. And she, man, she just, she pulled out some stuff at that one, at this, at bpcon that I was, I was like, man, this. This chick is good.
[00:19:32] She is impressive. I'm buying what she's selling and I'm married to her, you know. So she had this speech on design, which was really good. And my, my biggest thing there, which you guys hear about, hear me talk about all the time. And this was not my biggest takeaway from her speech. She actually had made several really good points.
[00:19:53] But what I don't understand is why so many folks have decided that they should be spending all this money on their rental property.
[00:20:10] And when we say, hey, you don't really need to spend all that money. They're. They don't. They're like, they're mad at us. It's like, dude, we're telling you, you don't need to spend $80,000 right now on your house.
[00:20:22] Again, I haven't looked at this house, this fake house we're talking about right now, but I hear these folks that are trying to add all these amenities, amenities, amenities.
[00:20:31] And I'm here saying, you don't need to do that.
[00:20:35] And they're like, oh, it's almost like they're let down. They wanted to spend a ton of money. Perfect example. There was a individual recently. I'm going to pull this up. And it was on.
[00:20:46] It was on Facebook, actually, and I have it right here in front of me. They were looking to redesign their Sevierville cabin, wanting to do an outdoor movie theater and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Looking to spend a bunch of money. Does anybody have a good contractor? And I think they're mostly asking if the outdoor movie theater with a projector was a good idea or a bad idea.
[00:21:15] Which, you know, it doesn't sound like that's going to be too terribly expensive, but it's not something I want to deal with. Managing it's gonna get rained on. They're gonna break it. They're not gonna figure out how to turn it on. I used to have a projector in my back to my. My nightclub in Manhattan. We had one on the ceiling and we used to play old dirty movies and stuff like that. It was not that. It was not your everyday, average nightclub.
[00:21:40] It was. We were playing Russ Meyer movies, we were playing Elvis 68 comeback and we were playing all kinds of old cool stuff.
[00:21:52] And that damn projector would break all the time.
[00:21:57] And it was inside, it was indoors. This person's trying to put one outdoors. I, I don't know. Seems like it's more work than I want to deal with. And then we got into the nitty gritty. And this is why you're going to tell me, you know, like, oh, well, Luke said, I hear this why I have to have all of these things to compete in such a saturated market.
[00:22:18] No, you don't. You just need to be nice, kiss the rear end and do your job and work harder than everybody else.
[00:22:28] So the gentleman, actually. Is this a gentleman? Yeah, I think it's a. I think it's a guy. Doesn't matter.
[00:22:35] We are eight. It's a two bedroom cabin in the Smokies. We are at 80 grand and 80 to 90% occupied on a two bedroom despite not having a great location or views.
[00:22:49] But we would like to upgrade the home to drive ADR up. Well, I hate to tell you it's not gonna happen. 80 grand on a two bedroom with a, not a. With a quote unquote not great location and no view. That's you're at the top of your market. That's as good as you're gonna get. And if, if I can't imagine you need more than that.
[00:23:10] In other words, this seems to me like, I don't know, I don't know what, maybe you overpaid in 22 or something like that, but this seems to me like there's no way this thing isn't covering its debt service and then some.
[00:23:22] I don't know all the numbers here, but why are we spending more money on it when it's already gross in 80k? This is as good as you can expect in this market, in my opinion.
[00:23:32] I gotta work my tail to the bone to come up with 80 grand on a two on a two bedroom at this point in my career. I don't even want to make 280k on a 2 bedroom in the Smokies at this point in my career. That's too much work.
[00:23:45] So this person's doing great and they still want more amenities.
[00:23:49] Take that money and spend it on the next house.
[00:23:56] So Avery gave a great speech on that, on that subject. And then also Tony, I want to mention Tony, man, he is so good.
[00:24:08] He is. You know who I'm talking about. Tony Robinson from the short. The. What do you call it? The Bigger Pockets Rookie.
[00:24:16] Bigger Pocket Pockets Rookie podcast. That dude is good. Known him forever. He bought properties with us back in the day.
[00:24:23] And he is just so good on a microphone.
[00:24:29] I just want to hear what he has to say. And I was lucky enough to be on a panel with him.
[00:24:34] I could see that guy calling football games for Fox, you know what I mean? Like, he's just really well spoken and good, good. I want to hear what he has to say.
[00:24:46] So that was lovely. And then Brit, this investor girl, Britt, was on that panel as well. It was my first time meeting her. I'm not even that familiar with her. Avery brings her up all the time. She's very fond of her, but met her for the first time. She was lovely. Her. Her mother and I flirted a little bit, which is completely innocent, of course. Avery was standing right there, and she's. She's an older woman, you know, but we had some fun is what I'm trying to say, in Vegas. It was good. It was fun.
[00:25:17] And.
[00:25:22] And Garrett. Garrett, the short term rental, the. The Bigger pocket short term rental guy, he was the. The moderator and he was wonderful as well. Love that guy. Been a great addition to the Bigger Pockets team, in my opinion.
[00:25:35] So, long story short, had a great time, nice to see everybody, and it was very refreshing. If I have a point is that it's. It's been. It's. It was better than it was the year before. I don't mean bigger pockets. I just mean real estate is better now than it was a year ago. I. Several conferences. I did several conferences last year.
[00:25:53] They were not as fun or optimistic as the one I just got back from.
[00:26:01] Now, part of that is because BP is really good at it. And also the market has started to change and real estate is starting to very, very, very slowly become fun again because people are spending money, people are flying, people, people are traveling. They are spending money.
[00:26:20] We need to get them to start making some babies, then they will sell their house and move into another house. We need to start cycling out some of these BS 2% mortgages.
[00:26:32] They're not good.
[00:26:34] How in the hell that ever happened?
[00:26:37] And when the real estate market, looking back on. It was not good. In 2021 when these mortgage rates were 2%, two and a half percent.
[00:26:45] Everybody was coming out of the woodwork, buying like crazy. And it's to be expected.
[00:26:53] I did it, but I'm still buying right now and I have zero competition.
[00:26:58] So had a great time at Vegas. I love Vegas. I am so grateful for that opportunity. Everybody involved. Katie, who is the higher up at Bigger Pockets, who we're friends with, she's just lovely. It was wonderful to see her and her new baby and her husband Ethan, and just what a great trip.
[00:27:18] I really enjoyed it. They've already announced next year Bigger Pockets Con in Orlando and hopefully they'll ask us to come speak at that again. I would imagine they will.
[00:27:29] And we will be there with bells on.
[00:27:32] Hell, we can drive to that one. And they've done it in Orlando before and it was wonderful. It was wonderful.
[00:27:39] So if you were there and we got to meet, I appreciate it. Reach out to me anytime. If we didn't get to meet, reach out to me anytime. I love you. Thank you for listening to my tiny little Niche down podcast. Podcast.
[00:27:51] And there's some good vibes going on out there. There are. Things are starting to move and shake a little bit in the world of real estate and it's getting fun again. Hasn't been fun for a few years.
[00:28:02] So thank you, Vegas. Thank you, Bigger Pockets Con and everybody involved.
[00:28:07] From Luke Carl here at Short Term Rental Management.
[00:28:11] Don't overthink it, Sam.
