[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] All right, Short Term Rental Management. Couple things to talk about today.
[00:00:22] Number one, I do want to talk about just briefly here. Just a random note that I noticed in my management shenanigans is that if you're dealing with houses, which is what we're doing, that's why I call the short term rentals. It's not a hotel, it's a single family home.
[00:00:36] To a certain extent, you again, we have to be smarter than the guest, right? It's not the guest job to know this stuff because they're on vacation and they're busy partying, etc, but you do need to understand it. It's not a hotel.
[00:00:49] And the cleaners are not, you know, they're not on salary, they're not hanging around the building all day if something goes wrong.
[00:01:00] And your guests, I'll be honest with you, they're not smart enough to figure that out, You know. So to a certain extent that aspect of it is a lose, lose. Like, here's why this was brought to my attention. I went into one of my units the other day and I did some maintenance stuff which normally I don't do. You know, the crews do that, but I happen to be down the street and I went in there and checked it out and I noticed that the H vac filter was nasty and the chairs didn't have furniture pads on them, which drives me nuts. Hello, cleaners of the world, can you please make sure that the damn kitchen chairs have furniture pads on them.
[00:01:41] What are we doing?
[00:01:43] Scratched floors are expensive.
[00:01:45] We can't have scratched floors in overnight rentals. They look crappy.
[00:01:50] You can't have things that look crappy in overnight rentals because you get reviewed. All right? So please, cleaners and you as hosts, remind your cleaners, make sure that there's not wood rubbing on vinyl flooring or wood flooring or even tile flooring. You can't just have the chairs scratching the hell out of everything. You've got to have something between them.
[00:02:13] I just use the old school stick on furniture pads. They are definitely not ideal. They do fall off, they get hairs stuck on them and all sort of nonsense. But anyway, and then when I left, I, I ended up, I sent them, guess the message, you know, this is small potato stuff here, this is little small tiny ho stuff here. But that's okay and maybe that's what you are. So maybe you can appreciate this. But I sent the guest a message I said, hey, just so you're aware, this is the maintenance department.
[00:02:43] Hello, this is the maintenance department. This is not the guy that owns the house. You never, ever admit that you own the house. That's a great way to get destroyed.
[00:02:55] And we ended up going in the house to do a few things after it was cleaned, like the H Vac filter, etc. And we're so sorry if our feet happen to track in some sand or whatever, because there are guests out there that are going to say, oh, my goodness, there was one tiny little speck of sand on the floor. I want my $400 cleaning fee back.
[00:03:16] Never mind the fact that there's 20 beds with clean sheets in here.
[00:03:21] You know, it's that one speck right by the front door where everybody's feet are, you know, And.
[00:03:31] And I. I was even thinking to myself, man, maybe I should. Should send this message to everybody. I'm so sorry. The maintenance department had to come in there and change a light bulb right after the cleaning crew. So if you see one tiny little speck of dust, that's why.
[00:03:46] But here's the reality is that people are used to hotels, and hotels have cleaning crews on staff. They are there all day. The last hotel I stayed at, we were at the Auburn Hotel across the street from the university last weekend for a tennis tournament. And the cleaning crews were just going up and down the damn hallways asking if anybody needed anything.
[00:04:07] That cannot happen in a house, not unless you're charging some ridiculous fee because of economies of scale. That hotel has dozens and dozens and dozens of units, hundreds of units. So they can have somebody on staff that's there to do all that stuff. Sorry, I was trying to fix my camera angle there. If you're watching on YouTube.
[00:04:32] Did I mention my YouTube award also? Did I mention. I'm sorry my office is so nasty. I am moving to a new office very soon, hoping it will be a little prettier.
[00:04:44] Now, I love this one. Don't get me wrong. Hell, I love my old office, which was teeny tiny. It was kind of like a Stephen King. I read the book about Stephen King's career. I think he wrote it, right, or somebody wrote it about him. I don't remember, but I read it. And he said that the worst thing he ever did was get the big office with the big fancy desk. Because then he felt like he had no creative juices left. He felt like he had arrived. And at that point, Why should I try so hard?
[00:05:14] And I do kind of. I feel. I feel that I do I feel that I miss my tiny little office with the tiny little desk.
[00:05:23] We're looking for guests.
[00:05:26] Are you a professional short term rental property manager?
[00:05:31] Perhaps a co host or a host that has a fantastic story that you want to share with others?
[00:05:41] We would love to have you shoot us an
[email protected] that's guest trmshow.com.
[00:05:56] so anyway, it's a house. It's a house. It's just a damn house. And I do think that the expectations in some cases are too high on the guest part. You got a great deal. There's great deals to be had out there right now because the economy's not that great. I don't know when you're listening to this, it's summertime, so I batched my recordings, right? But the economy's not great. Let's be real now. People are driving more because it's expensive to fly. You know, when those gasoline prices go up, everybody's like, oh, my goodness, nobody's going to travel to the Smokies anymore because the gas prices are too high and they can't afford to get there from Ohio. Well, guess what? Guess what else takes gasoline is airplanes. And people will not stop going on vacation. They will not.
[00:06:44] And when things are expensive like gas, which in turn makes airplane tickets go higher, people travel for their summer vacations. Hell, I'm traveling. I'm going to Pigeon Forge this summer, baby. Taking the kids. We're going to Dollywood. The whole thing, man.
[00:07:04] Dollywood, baby.
[00:07:06] Can't wait.
[00:07:10] We're going to Disney World. We are going to Disney World. Twice.
[00:07:15] And be honest with you, I don't like flying. I hate flying. It's not for me. But we're flying also. We're flying to Wyoming anyway, you know, you do need to keep these things.
[00:07:27] You got to consider these things with it just, you know, it's a house, it's a house, it's a house, it's a house.
[00:07:35] So anyway, let me get to my next point here, which is the fact that Covid's over, All right? Covid is over. And we're seeing this a lot right now with buyers and sellers, mostly with sellers. And here's the truth of the matter. You know, you can't.
[00:07:51] You can't hold it against these folks. You can't expect them to understand because 20, 21 is a crazy time. 22, 23, depends on your market. There were different periods of time in those three years depending on your market that were just insane. Where you were just, you know, over Asking price and multiple offers, and you couldn't buy a house. And everybody wanted a house. And it was. Oh, my God. It was scarcity. It was. It was fomo. It was the whole thing, where am I gonna raise my kids?
[00:08:21] I've gotta have a beach house. You know? And it was. It was a crazy time. It was insane. Prices were going up, interest rates were in the gutter.
[00:08:31] And now if you're trying to sell one of those houses, it's not fun.
[00:08:38] And a lot of it has to do with perspective.
[00:08:40] There's somebody in my life that bought it their first house and to move into and raise their kids in 2021.
[00:08:49] And at the time, it was insane. They couldn't even find a house. They couldn't find a house in a good neighborhood. They couldn't find a deal they liked. They couldn't find the right price and all this stuff. And it was stressful. I wasn't there for the whole thing, but, you know, I can imagine, because 21 was insane. least, you know, in this particular town. Some towns, again, it was 22, 20, or 23.
[00:09:12] So that was their frame of reference for buying a house was, oh, my God, it's so hard. You gotta, like, really, you know, try it. You got to be the best out there. You got to give the most money. You have to have the quickest closing, and you have to make it the most appealing offer or you're never gonna get a house.
[00:09:30] That is a lot of people's frame of reference right now for what it's like to buy a house.
[00:09:38] Average human only buys a house every seven years, but now that same human is going to sell that house, and it's sitting on the market, and it's sitting on the market, and it's sitting on the market, and nobody wants it. And they don't know what to do.
[00:09:57] They're confused. They're stressed out. They don't know, oh, my goodness, when we bought this thing, we had to bring heavy artillery just to get somebody's attention.
[00:10:07] And they think, you know, why wouldn't they think that person. Why wouldn't that person think that? That's the way it always is.
[00:10:15] That's how you buy a house.
[00:10:21] And that's what's wrong. That's a big part of what's wrong. There's a lot of things wrong, but there's. That's a big part of what's wrong. With today's real estate market.
[00:10:28] Sellers are clueless.
[00:10:33] They thought that they were buying Tesla stock in 2017, and they had some. The best thing on the planet. This is. This is. Everybody wants this. I'm gonna get rich quick. I'm gonna turn around and sell this thing in two years and make a hundred thousand dollars.
[00:10:48] And people were doing it, but not if you didn't time it right.
[00:10:56] And that's not realistic. Anyway, you know what I mean? I could have sold all my stuff at the peak and gotten out and just disappeared into the sunset.
[00:11:05] But no, I'm stupid. I kept it all and tried to work on the cash flow.
[00:11:12] I'm just kidding. But anyway, so that person goes and buys a house, tries to sell the house today, and they're not selling, and it's not selling, and it's not selling, and it's not selling, just sitting there, no offers, nothing. And then when the offer comes in, it's going to be under asking, under, under what they paid. They. They're going to say, no way. Are you crazy?
[00:11:35] When I bought this. Because. Because when I bought this house, I had to pay extra.
[00:11:41] And you're trying to pay less.
[00:11:43] Not only are you trying to pay less, you're trying to pay less than what I actually paid for it five years ago.
[00:11:50] It's been five years, by the way. Isn't that crazy?
[00:11:55] Six in some cases.
[00:11:58] You know, so it's a struggle. It's a struggle. And what's the solution? There is no solution. The solution is the interest rates have to go down for the real estate to become more attractive. We've got to get this gas thing under control. I'm not going to talk about politics or the economy because I also, for one thing, I don't know when this podcast is coming out, so I don't want to be behind the times.
[00:12:19] But it's something you got to understand.
[00:12:27] It does mean there's deals out there. If you're a buyer, it's much, much better to be a buyer right now than a seller.
[00:12:34] Unless you bought way before COVID then it's, you know, it's a. It's a fine time to be a seller. If you bought 21, 22 parts of 23, it is not a good time to be a seller. So you just need to understand that if you bought during that period of time and you're going to sell a house right now, you're probably going to lose some money.
[00:12:53] Which, to be honest with you, that's reality anyway.
[00:12:57] That's more like real life. That is more like real life than Covid was. Now, we don't want to lose money on the purchase on the sale of a property. We don't want to lose money. But to expect to sell a house in three to four years and not and turn a profit is a bit much to ask.
[00:13:15] You know, you're, you're paying. How much principal are you paying down three years? Very little. It's mostly interest, front loaded. You know, houses have always been like that. It's always been set up for something that you're going to keep for a long time. That's why we have the 30 year fixed in America which is the only place you can get a 30 year fix by the way.
[00:13:36] And the same thing's happening in the job market. I have a buddy, his son is trying to find a job and when he found the job and he has now in 2021 it was easy peasy. He just said hey, I'm looking for a job. Got the exact job he wanted because it was crazy. The government was printing money and nobody wanted to work. So if you wanted to work, you're hired.
[00:13:56] Covid was not real life.
[00:14:00] This is much more like real life where it is, you know, it can be kind of hard to get a good job but the perspective is completely out of whack. That's the problem.
[00:14:13] That is the problem. Sellers have no clue.
[00:14:17] People trying to get jobs have no clue because their perspective is based off of COVID Peak and it's going to take quite some time for that to even out.
[00:14:30] I am studying purchase and sale prices like it's nobody's business.
[00:14:37] All day, every day I'm looking for deals, looking for deals, looking for deals. Who bought this house for what and when and who's been trying to sell it for how long and why not why? We don't care why somebody's selling a house but do they live in it? Do they not live in it? I've got one I just offered on this morning that they bought to live in and they moved a tenant in because they couldn't afford to sell it because they're going to sell it for less than they paid. So they moved a tenant in. Tenant didn't do a great job. Houses tore up a little bit. It's only four or five year old house but these new floors at this point and paint job, you know because the tenant, because probably because they put a tenant in there and didn't know what the hell they were doing. They probably self managed.
[00:15:18] Most people don't have any business being landlords, you know and I like that. See all those things add up to me too. I can maybe get this thing for a little less than they paid. And I hate to tell you, Mr. Seller, but that's what I want.
[00:15:34] Good.
[00:15:35] And the last time I checked, I meant to say cuz, but it didn't come out right. But anyway, forget that. The last time I checked, Mr. Seller, you didn't have any other offers.
[00:15:52] You know, it's funny because I'm looking at two houses that are on the same cul de sac. They're across the street from each other.
[00:15:57] They're both like 22 builds or 21 builds or whatever.
[00:16:02] Both of them bought it like on this. They're the same house. They both bought them on the same year, same day, same purchase price.
[00:16:11] One of them that's just been sitting there empty because the. They had moved into some other house or whatever and they can't sell it. And the other one, they put a tenant in there and the tenant just moved out. And that's the one that needs the floors and the paint. That's the one I offered on. Why? Because the seller, the seller's agent on the other one literally across the street said they're not likely to go below XYZ because that's what they paid for it.
[00:16:33] And I'm sitting here like, then you are not likely to sell this thing.
[00:16:43] Sorry.
[00:16:45] With your coveted purchase.
[00:16:49] Now it's not. I'm not saying this if you bought a house in 21 or 22 that you, you did something stupid or that you're in trouble.
[00:16:58] Not saying that at all. I'm saying that you got three and a half percent interest on that. Son of a.
[00:17:05] And if you try to sell a house ever in the history of any market, after three years, it's a pretty good chance you're not going to make money and or lose a couple bucks.
[00:17:15] But the perspective is completely skewed due to Covid.
[00:17:21] That's what I'm saying.
[00:17:24] And on top of it, some people do realize it and they're just holding on to their three and a half interest rate and they're just going to sit on it. And that's why people aren't selling. And that's why the people that are selling are completely delusional because the new interest rates are literally double or more what they have on their house.
[00:17:41] That's why. Why a year, a year and a half ago, subject to was like the hottest thing on the planet. And then people realized that was stupid.
[00:17:53] Anyway, just a little lesson in perspective today and do your damn homework. We are all looking for a deal. I preach about it all the time. If you're trying to make a better future, you are looking for a deal. You're not special.
[00:18:11] Everybody's looking for a deal.
[00:18:13] They are never easy to find. They have never, since the beginning of time, been easy to find. And shame on you if you think deals should be easy to find.
[00:18:23] Put your damn work in, put the effort in, and good things will happen. I'm Luke. Carl. I'm from the short term shop. And I love you.
[00:18:35] I do. I really appreciate you. If you came and stopped by and hung out with me in my little office, that soon's going to turn into a prettier office and I'm going to miss this one.
[00:18:44] But as always, don't overthink it.
