Hostlahoma

[00:00:02] Speaker A: This is Short Term Rental Management, the show that is all about short term rental property management with your host, yours truly, Luke Carl. Short Term Rental Management. We are here. It's a party with, with Libby, who's a rock star, Total rock star. Property manager, co host, rental real estate expert in Oklahoma. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Oklahoma. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Oklahoma. All right, so Libby, tell us about you. About you. Well, I want to know about you. What's, what's the deal? I know about you, but tell everybody else. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'm an Okie, so that's, that's first most important, foremost right now. I own a company called Co Host Oklahoma where we are co host. But personally, I'm a wife, I'm a mother, I'm a chicken mom, donkey mom, dog mom, all the furry friends, so. And then investor too. So a little bit new into investing since almost, almost a decade now. So not as seasoned as you are, but definitely have a few doors under me. [00:01:15] Speaker A: So what's it like? I'm just going to cut right to the chase. What's it like managing other people's properties? [00:01:21] Speaker B: Oh, boy. Other people's properties. That it's a little different because we have two jobs as a co host, our main job is the investor. It's the property owner. But we still have the guests that we have to take care of. And sometimes I feel like those two don't go hand in hand. What's right for the guest and what's right for the owner can be different. And I think sometimes that's a little, I don't want to use the word discouraging, but it's hard to navigate sometimes because not all owners have the hospitable heart that I think I came into this with. And they're investors and they're very investment minded and they don't really understand the soft part of it, the, you know, the hearts for hosting and all of that that we have to bring to the table and that we have to have, I think, a true passion for, to create a perfect guest experience. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Okay, well, I want to unpack that, but I want to back up because you are extremely passionate about the experience. I know that this, this is something that you're very passionate about in general. I mean, it seems, I mean, you're very active in the, in the airbnb community in general, with Airbnb groups and some ambassador responsibilities and things like that. So tell me about that. What does that entail? [00:02:45] Speaker B: So I am one of, there's two of us in Oklahoma, and I am one of the two community leaders for airbnb and what we do there, it is a volunteer role, but we stay very community focused. We bring the community side to Airbnb. It's not just a huge corporation. There is a little bit of a soft touch that I feel like you get from them when it comes to trying to be community minded versus the other platforms and stuff. But with that, my main job is to bring hosts together. So ironically for me, I'm absolutely 100% helping all my competitors. I'm helping everybody else that has a house listed and marketed. But it also opens up a lot of avenues with policy holders doing a lot right now with the city of Oklahoma City, because we have the 2028 Olympics coming in. So it does open up a lot of doors to sit down and talk to the mayor, things like that. And the probably the biggest perk is we actually get flown out to Airbnb headquarters once a year. And that's just a super neat experience to actually have Brian come out and talk to us this last time and to just kind of learn from their social media advisors and things like that. So we're kind of. I don't want to say that we know what's going on before it happens, because that's not true. But I think it helps keep me in the loop of what's to come down the pipeline. [00:04:15] Speaker A: What is this called exactly? [00:04:17] Speaker B: Again, I am an Airbnb volunteer community leader. [00:04:22] Speaker A: How do I become one of these? [00:04:24] Speaker B: So I was invited to the platform by the community leader prior to me. Then you go through a series of interviews with Airbnb and then there is a little bit of training that goes on in a zoom setting. And I don't, I don't know exactly what they're looking for when they do it. The guy that did it for me actually piloted the program from the very beginning and he sold his Airbnb and was getting out. His name's Eric. Great guy. And I've learned so much from Eric over the years. When he asked me to come into it, I. I jumped on it because Eric and I are also two different humans. So he was to bring more of the policy and procedure side and I was going to bring the party. So Eric ended up leaving due to personal reasons. Shortly after, I got involved in the program and another girl, Brooksie, came in with me. And Brooksie and I are a lot more alike. We're both co host. We're very creative. We like the design and the. The pretty side of it all. [00:05:30] Speaker A: Okay. Are you anti other platforms? [00:05:35] Speaker B: No, not at all. I wouldn't Say I'm anti. I mean, some of them, I don't. I don't love them all. I do have direct booking as well, so I don't. I don't just stay on Airbnb, but I definitely like the personal touch I get to Airbnb. And as a community leader, sometimes I get a little bit of perk. I'm dealing with a $16,000 claim right now, and that's been a real nightmare to navigate. It's not anything I've ever had to do before with this amount of money and this amount of disrespect that went along at the property. And so being able to actually reach out to a manager within Airbnb, even though I'm not employed, I still have basically two managers at Airbnb. I have my community leader manager and my co host manager. And so for me, I'm actually truly able to get somebody on the phone, get them on a zoom call. And I don't see that with the other platforms, but that doesn't make me anti against them. I just like the. The human side that I feel I get from Airbnb. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Okay, well, tell me about the claim. That sounds juicy. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Well, we had. We're on national news right now. [00:06:47] Speaker A: You're kidding. I was going to say maybe you can't talk about it, but if it's. [00:06:51] Speaker B: In the news, it's not anything that I. It's not anything I can't talk about. But we did make. What was the. The New York Times. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:07:03] Speaker B: We had an NBA player stay, an ex NBA player stay at our property. Then he was arrested and at the property. At the property for domestic violence. And there's news articles that report all sorts of different things. It has been knocked down to a misdemeanor. I believe he has court in a few weeks in a little tiny town in Oklahoma. So I kind of would have more so expected something like that in Oklahoma City or Tulsa, but not for a little river town in Oklahoma. It's. It's been a lot. So it's. It's definitely been kind of ongoing. There's a lot of Instagram drama going on around it. The guy has the Instagram. No, it's all. No, none of it's local anymore. And he doesn't, he doesn't play for the Thunder anymore. But he, he still has gone to social media. I think he said that the NBA is holding him hostage. In his last Instagram post. [00:08:11] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:08:12] Speaker B: It's been. I'm not going to say it's been Fun to follow with, but I have been kind of following along because unfortunately, if Airbnb doesn't go through with the claim, then we probably will have to file a lawsuit. [00:08:26] Speaker A: Okay, but what, how does this have to do, what does this have to do with you with the 16 grand? [00:08:31] Speaker B: Well, I'm the co host, so. [00:08:32] Speaker A: But I mean, like, what happened in the home? [00:08:36] Speaker B: Well, he decided that he's an artist and there is paint all over the inside, the outside of the home. [00:08:45] Speaker A: You're kidding. Like he took a paintbrush to the, to the home. [00:08:49] Speaker B: I don't see that it's a paintbrush. Maybe more like a splatter paint job. [00:08:53] Speaker A: Oh, I see. [00:08:54] Speaker B: And the home is very nicely decorated. It has been designed by a high end interior decorator out of Tulsa and a lot of very high end pieces of furniture. And some of the furniture he decided he would take outside and create his own little living space outside. And unfortunately, rains came. He was supposed to stay there for quite some time and rains came and the pieces have been destroyed. They're rusted. And the claim for cleaning alone and replacing door locks, things like that, was around 6,000. So the rest of it is $10,000 worth of complete furniture destruction. [00:09:34] Speaker A: So how long was he in the home? [00:09:36] Speaker B: Like, like the total, maybe about two and a half weeks. He was supposed to stay for a month. And then of course, once we were brought, made aware of everything that was going on, we decided that it was probably time to cancel the reservation before he was released from jail. He was quickly released that day from jail and his bondsman brought him back to our location where we then had to again get the sheriffs involved and asked that he be removed. And we took him off of the reservation right away. So it was just one guess, so that we could trespass him if, if that's what came down. And because it was a domestic violence dispute at that, we also wanted to try to protect the other party that was involved, knowing she was going through a lot with domestic violence in that exact moment. So now we're just trying to get the claim, get the furniture replaced and get the place back open. That's been what's real frustrating for myself and the homeowner is we have a Airbnb that is not operating right now. Our little short term rentals just sitting there collecting dust, waiting on the money to come back in to replace the furniture. [00:10:48] Speaker A: How did the owner handle it? [00:10:50] Speaker B: She's been. She's been pretty relaxed about it, actually. She's a good one. She definitely has shown some frustrations in the situation, she would not be able to navigate. Not that she couldn't, but I think for a lot of just regular homeowners, the tenacity that I've had to have in pushing through with the claim and the. The hoops I've had to drop, jump through for air cover and things like that, I think most people would probably quit, I honestly do. If they would just throw their hands up, they would be done. It's frustrating. You feel like you're not going to get the money. You need another document and another document. If you've ever made an air claim or any kind of claim with any of the platforms, it's insurance and there's a lot of navigation that has to go around, so. But she's been. She's been really relaxed about it. She's the one that's actually been finding the news articles and sharing them with me from time to time. And. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Where does it sit right now? Are they. Are they going after him to try and get this money? [00:11:54] Speaker B: You know, they won't tell you any of that. I actually asked them if they would remove them from the platform because I want to protect the next host from this having to happen to them. [00:12:04] Speaker A: That's. [00:12:04] Speaker B: I mean, I find reviews need to be truthful and honest as much as we can as host. But then asked if they would remove the booker from the platform for this. And so far, what I see is they have not been removed. And when I asked Airbnb if they would tell me about it, they basically said, no, they're not going to share somebody else's account with me. And I have had people removed from the platform before and then got a letter or an email saying, thank you for your information. We have removed this person due to xyz. It's been a couple of years ago, so I don't know if that policy has changed or what, but they don't seem to want to share with me what's going on there, are they? [00:12:50] Speaker A: My goodness. Why not get it back up and rented or you're not allowed until this is settled. [00:12:56] Speaker B: It's just the money. I think the homeowner's definitely wanting to see that she's able to put that money back in her pocket to recoup that $10,000 worth of furniture. [00:13:06] Speaker A: She's saying maybe she's not interested in renting it again. Is. Is that. [00:13:10] Speaker B: No, we've kind of gone back and forth where I'm not real sure if I'm interested in co hosting it anymore. It has. It's A beautiful location, but it's very. It's in a weird location as well. So there's bald eagles on the property. I mean, it's, it's stunning. It has heated floors throughout the property. But when people are looking in that location, they're actually looking for lake houses. And this one's on the river on the other side of the dam. And so it actually doesn't really show up on the map very well. And we haven't had tons of bookings there. I. In fact, I think we've had six, and two of them have been not good bookings, so. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Oh, really? [00:13:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's been a little. It's been a little different. [00:13:55] Speaker A: I don't know, it's almost not worth it, is what you're saying. [00:13:58] Speaker B: Maybe not. Maybe not for me or for her. [00:14:01] Speaker A: Was this a personal property and she just kind of said, maybe we'll rent it a little bit on the side. [00:14:06] Speaker B: That's what's very emotional for her. This was actually her father's home. He built it himself. It's very unique because it's 100% custom and he has passed away. And so I think for her that's. That's really frustrating to think that somebody's in there damaging your legacy of sorts. [00:14:26] Speaker A: So the concern for her is that this may happen again. [00:14:29] Speaker B: Correct. [00:14:30] Speaker A: Which, as you and I know, is extremely unlikely. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, I've had well over a thousand bookings just on Airbnb alone and have maybe made five claims over the years. I, I don't make claims very often if I don't have to. I do believe accidents happen. And if guests are extremely upfront with me and they're not jerks, I'm not going to make a claim. My theory is you got to pay for being a jerk and you got to pay for being stupid. So. And this happens to be both, so. [00:15:05] Speaker A: Yes. And alcohol and drugs increase the stupidity. [00:15:09] Speaker B: And. [00:15:10] Speaker A: And what was the other one? [00:15:12] Speaker B: Yes. You gotta. You gotta pay for being stupid and you gotta pay for being a jerk. [00:15:16] Speaker A: A jerk? Yes. There you go. Oh, man. Oh, that's a. That's a rough one. Are you worried about your market being saturated? Too much competition. Well, join us at short term Shop plus and we can teach you to be the best in your area. Stsplus.com to sign up for on demand online courses, one on one live coaching, weekly group calls, everything you need to know about being the best in your field. In the world of vacation rental and short term rental, we say saturation smatteration, STS plus dot com. Let's talk about the stack, if you will. What are we using to run all these things? And, well, I guess. How many units do we have? [00:16:18] Speaker B: We're at 45 right now. [00:16:20] Speaker A: Okay, 45 units. And what's our property management software? [00:16:24] Speaker B: Hospitable. [00:16:25] Speaker A: We're happy with it. [00:16:26] Speaker B: I really do like Hospitable a lot. I've had a lot of good interactions with the Hospitable team. I was actually on their podcast a few months ago, and one of the things they said is, how do you do this? How do you manage 45 properties? Well, that comes with teamwork. That comes with who is your team? And they asked me, who is your team? And I said, you guys, you guys are my team. I lean in heavily on them to make the adjustments that they make, do the things they. They do. And I feel like they're doing a really good job staying with the times right now and doing all of that. I love the features that are coming in with the owner portals, the. The AI with the knowledge hub that they have. So I definitely have been pretty loyal to them. I've looked at branching out a time or two, but boy, I'm gonna have to hire someone just to switch platforms or if I ever wanted to do that. So they got me from the beginning, from their price point, and they basically keep me because they've, they've showed me very great customer service when I do need them. I had one small hiccup with them that was pretty, pretty severe with their AI when it first came out. And then I went to one of the conferences and walked up to the hospitable booth and I was like, hey, I'm Libby with co host Oklahoma. And the girl goes like this and she said, libby with the dress? And I said, oh, yeah, Libby with the dress. We had AI run wild with some a guest saying that they had left a dress behind in the home. [00:17:59] Speaker A: And. [00:17:59] Speaker B: And I said, oh, you know who I am? And she said, yeah, the whole team knows who you are. And after that I thought, well, at least I'm not just a number with them. I have a name with them. [00:18:09] Speaker A: That's huge. [00:18:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is. So I. I feel like I'm sticking around. So I'm down for the long haul. [00:18:16] Speaker A: With them because, you know, some folks say, or maybe not maybe imply that hospitable is not scalable. You know, it's more for the homeowner that has, you know, five or so properties. And I don't know, maybe people don't say that. But sometimes you get that vibe and it's nice to hear that you can, you can do multiple prop, I think, I mean I'm at 10 with, with hospitable and I have no problems at all, you know, anywhere from 8 to 12. Some kind of changes around sometimes. But that's great to hear, you know, but you know, sometimes the vibe is like, oh, I've got 50 units, I have to use owner res, you know what I mean? Which it's good to hear. It sounds like to me what you're saying is this more even, even at scale, it's a personal preference. [00:19:00] Speaker B: I think so. I think it's a personal preference and I think, you know, they're the lesser of two evils. When you're looking at these, these, you know, pieces of software, a lot of times they bring a lot of stuff that's, that's similar and they're trying to all do the same thing and they're all trying to be, you know, your one stop shop for everything. And I think that they do need to stay in their lanes. Like they, you know, the riches are in the niches on this and I haven't started using their dynamic pricing or anything like that. I've stayed loyal with Price Labs there. Price Labs made all the sense from the beginning and I, I don't see that changing anytime soon for me either. But I do love that they're offering the dynamic pricing to people because Price Labs isn't the easiest piece of software. I think that need a little bit of training or you really have to be able to dive into it because I don't think it's a set it and forget it piece. And I did that in the beginning because I didn't know any better. And then I took courses on how to run Price Labs. I've set through some of your pricing as well with the short term Shop plus and things like that. Trying to, you know, utilize it and not have two day bookings and a year. I don't, I don't want somebody filling my calendar for one weekend and, and seven months from now. I'm looking for, you know, a week stay, things like that. So I just really like what Price Labs gives me as far as the control if I want to push a midterm booking or something like that. [00:20:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good to hear because I, I, this time of year I hear, I'm sorry, I start to hear beach folks saying, oh, I've already gotten three or four bookings for next summer. And I'm like, why, why why are we doing that? And they're. But then, you know, sometimes, every now and then I got one buddy who's good at it. Like that's kind of his thing. He likes actually two buddies. They like, they're both in, plus one of them is a coach, actually. And they, they're really into like the far in advance bookings. I don't like them at all. They make me nervous. I'm like, why did I just get booked in June? This is not good. And then I go look. And I'm like, oh, thank goodness. It was like, you know, pretty good price. But I have my June. We're recording this in late November. I have my June's blocked right now. I don't even want to deal with it. I'll open them up sooner than later. But. But yeah, I mean, I think most people that are booking that far in advance are making mistakes. And I think I would even make mistakes booking that far in advance because it's not my deal. I don't like doing that. These two gentlemen that I mentioned, it is their deal. So they've gotten good at it. It just goes to show you, there's many ways to do this. [00:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I kind of feel two ways about it. I feel like people that are planning in advance, one, they're not there to have a party. When I do have problems, it's a lot of times very last minute bookings. So when you're talking about fill in, I've got a lake house. I like to say Oklahoma is not necessarily a vacation market, but we are a short term rental market except for vacation homes. But Oklahoma City, Tulsa, we're not necessarily our avatar of a guest isn't necessarily someone who's spending thousands of dollars for the family to go on vacation. A lot of times we've got, we do have last minute bookings because we're hosting a lot of funerals, memorial services, sporting service, sporting events, things like that. So Oklahoma City's getting there. We're. We're getting there. We're taking, we're taking the tourism industry by storm, I do believe, especially with the NBA or Thunder doing what they did last year. 2028 Olympics coming. We've got two sports coming into Oklahoma City. So I think if we redid this podcast again this time of year in 2028, I might say differently about Oklahoma City and what that looks like for vacation rentals. [00:22:50] Speaker A: You mentioned pricing software, price labs, et cetera. How are we pricing these things? [00:22:55] Speaker B: How am I pricing? I mean, I'm setting everything on your minimums your, your base price and then your maximum price. I let my maximum go pretty wild. But I do trust heavily on that software to help me create. Yeah. Price labs. [00:23:13] Speaker A: And you run just one base rate on the main page. The main page base rate on most properties. Are we doing like a seasonal. [00:23:19] Speaker B: No, no. Each one has their own. Yeah, each one is actually so set up individually from whether we're taking seven day bookings in a month or if we're taking two day bookings in a month. Because I do run just such a variety of homes. I've got really high end homes and then I have economical stays. I've got large homes that sleep 16 people and I have homes that sleep two people. So I don't think that there is a one size fits all when it comes to all of that. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Right, okay. And are you running one base rate per property or are you doing like, you know, seasonal profiles? [00:23:55] Speaker B: I do do seasonal profiles, especially in Norman, Oklahoma, because we've got the University of Oklahoma boomer sooner. So trying to make sure that we're getting, you know, maximum dollars on those weekends. Those are our vacation rental market. That's where people are coming in. And the price is up 30, 500% from what our normal base rate would be. So definitely, you know, have to take care of game days there, have to take care of graduation around Norman. And then of course the lake properties, you know, they're, they're extremely cheap. Right now you can, you can stay at some of our cabins for 89 bucks a night. And in the summer you're, you're hitting six, seven hundred dollars a night. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Okay, all right, Price labs, anything else we're using? Do you do guidebooks or anything like that? [00:24:49] Speaker B: So before I was doing this, I actually was a web developer, or not a developer, but a web designer. I had a company called Ross and Roll and I pretty much have stayed my own designer there. And all of my guidebooks are on the back end of my website. We provide a link to our homeowner or to our guest on the platform they booked on so that they can kind of start checking out what the home looks like. It's. Each one is written specifically for the home. We're able to provide videos on how to use the nest thermostats, all of the things, how to, you know, if there's a little. I think every house has a quart. Every house has something just a little bit unique about it. The fridge makes a funny little noise that's scary if you just got there at midnight. And I'm able to tell people about all the little quirks but then it also I'm able to feed to them all the things I love about the cities that I work in. And I know you can go to Google and find Starbucks. So I don't tell people where Starbucks is on my, on my guidebooks I'm telling them where the local roasteries are, the, the local cafes and pastry shops. Anything I can do to really bring in the local love. When before I was doing this, like I said I was doing websites for small service based businesses across Oklahoma. So I've always been very small business focused and I used to be the PR person for a company called Sample Oklahoma which is all Oklahoma made products and really just the local love. I've always focused on local love just because that's who I am. I'm a connector, I'm a community person. So trying to put those connections together for guests to check out something local that I'm not saying they can't find it on Google but these smaller businesses don't have the SEO and the keyword searches to pop up on all the searches. So I'm able to really share what I find to be amazing. [00:26:56] Speaker A: Love it. Okay, cool. What else? Any other softwares you like or not really. [00:27:03] Speaker B: Let's see. I'm using Canva a lot for a variety of different things. I know that's not just short term focus but I think it's, it's important for us to use all of that and then we heavily use WhatsApp within co host Oklahoma and on top of that we actually have some proprietary stuff that's been written out for us through a local developer that's been able to really help us automate a lot of our business because as you know, the main, the main point of contact for guests, for people that work with me and for homeowners it can get really overwhelming and you can be answering messages as early as 7 in the morning and you know, 11 o' clock at night. If you're going to allow yourself to, to be available and it's not that I don't want to be available and it made sense to be more available at five homes, six homes. It doesn't make sense to hear from 45 homeowners and 45 guests in one day. There's, there's no room for anything else for sleep, for eating, for health care, self care. It's all out the window if that's what you do. So we have really started using Airtable and had some software basically written for us that helps us maintain management, cleaning, maintenance, things like that. That just. Just really brings it all into a snapshot of the business. So after one missed clean, everything had to change. For me, we did have one missed clean and I can see how it happened. It made sense how it happened. And after that it was like, okay, operations, what do we do? How does this not happen again? [00:28:48] Speaker A: But Airtable is fairly sophisticated. Right. When you say air, I think the average listener might think it's like Airbnb, but it's nothing to do with that at all. Right. Can you explain it to us a little bit? [00:28:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So Airtable is very sophisticated. Basically, it's bringing your Google Drive to talk to itself. So if you have a Google Doc and a Google Sheet, they don't necessarily talk to each other. You may be able to feed it over, but when you start getting Airtable involved. So I can hook Hospitable up to it. Zapier, we use Open Phone, all these things that we're able to bring it in to, basically having one monster spreadsheet. And you're able to create these forms in which our cleaners are able to fill out and tell us everything, upload their photos, give us what supplies are needed, what damage was left behind, if any, things like that. So that. Then it's then forcing out to the next person. Is it the supply runner that needs to come out? Is it the plumber that needs to come out, being able to do those? So it basically air table makes all the tech stack talk. If it's. If it's well written and you're using. [00:29:59] Speaker A: That in lieu of, say, a resort cleaner, Turno for scheduling cleaners. Like, how does that work? [00:30:04] Speaker B: Yep. So a lot of my cleaners are actually on Hospitable and they're able to. Yeah. And they can just kind of see the back end. But what we're doing is. [00:30:12] Speaker A: But this works. I'm sorry to interrupt, but because these, these cleaners probably worked just for you, I would assume. [00:30:18] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [00:30:18] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's. That's easy. Right. If your cleaner is cleaning for 20 other people or whatever, then it's impossible for them. Like, why would they want to be on your hospitable when they're going to end up on like 17 different softwares and that's 20, you know, 17 apps on their phone. That's annoying. But because you have scale, then they only need the hospitable. In other words, it makes sense to have them be on your hospitable as opposed to some cleaner that's working for just one or two owners or one or two properties for you and. And 10 other owners, is that right? [00:30:47] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I do have, you know, like a one off cleaner because we're just not real heavy in that market yet. Or we're just kind of getting into that market and then we are using turnoff to simplify things there for scheduling, payment processing, things like that. Because it's just, you know, one or two cleans a week versus I owe you $6,000 at the end, right? [00:31:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, cool. So talk to me about the co host thing. Why are we not simply calling it a property management company or is it. I mean, is this a. Is this a combination of better for Mark, it is better for marketing versus do you have to have a permit or license of any kind in Oklahoma? Explain that whole process. [00:31:29] Speaker B: Yeah, you actually have to be under a broker in Oklahoma to be a property manager. That's, you know, holding, holding money within escrow, making utility payments, things like that. There's. The laws are a little, a little wishy washy. I think you explained it to me one time or you called it to me. The wholesaling of property management. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Wholesaling of management, yeah. But obviously that's understandable because if the law calls for, you know, paying of utilities, you're not doing that. [00:32:02] Speaker B: No, no, I'm not doing any of that. [00:32:05] Speaker A: In some states like Tennessee, you have to have a. It's called a VLS license, where it's not as complicated as being under a brokerage and having a real estate license, but you still have to have that just to be a co host. Not even to be a property manager, just a co host. But that doesn't exist in Oklahoma. It sounds like. [00:32:24] Speaker B: Not currently. Not to say that that wouldn't come down the pipeline. [00:32:28] Speaker A: Like, I mean, I. Sorry, I keep cutting you off. But in Tennessee it's a very simple process. It's actually pretty easy to get that license. So, you know, not the end of the world for sure. But anyway, it sounds like Oklahoma is not there now. [00:32:43] Speaker B: I kind of feel like, you know, co hosting is a little bit of the wild, wild west of real estate that, you know, Airbnb made it really simple, right? They branded the name. They just like Airbnb does in Airbnb fashion. They can turn one word into a noun and a verb. And. And I think that same thing with co hosting, you know, used to. When we said co hosting, we thought media, we thought podcasts, things like that. And I think they've done really well at branding that I actually was able to beta test the co hosting platform with Airbnb and I didn't have a company name at that time. I was just Libby thinking, hey, I kind of like this. So. And then I struggled for a long time with actually naming this company. I was already branded Ross and Roll, which was fun. It worked. People knew me. It's catchy. But it just didn't, it just didn't set really well on the SEO. If I was able to just completely refocus my brand and keep my domain, things like that. I went back and forth, back and forth. You and I have had this conversation before. We, we talked about my name and you actually came up with the name Host Lahoma. And that day I bought that domain as well. And that's my direct booking site as host Loma. Oh, cool. [00:34:01] Speaker A: So you're sort of using it. [00:34:03] Speaker B: I am using it. [00:34:04] Speaker A: I love that. That name is great. It's a great. [00:34:06] Speaker B: It is great. And then I have it secured in case I ever do need to 100% go after that full proper. That's what I secured it for. I was like, okay, I'll have, I'll have these two separate entities. And then I really was like, if. [00:34:19] Speaker A: You'Re going to just not really. And again, it sounds mostly for marketing purposes here, not do the whole co hosting anymore. I'm a property manager now. Then. Then maybe we would switch. I get it. That makes total sense. [00:34:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And then just to have it, I mean, it's. I've created a cute little logo out of it, all the things. And I do love it. So thank you for that, Luke. [00:34:41] Speaker A: Oh, there's nothing to it. [00:34:43] Speaker B: No, thank you, Mr. Mr. Namer of all. [00:34:46] Speaker A: I do name things. I'm a neighbor. Yeah. Short term shop was pretty easy. That one was like, you know, just explains itself. [00:34:56] Speaker B: Right? Well, I felt like co host Oklahoma, same thing. Even though we're not in Oklahoma anymore, we're in Texas now. We may be doing some virtual management for a house in Michigan for one of our clients here locally has asked if we would mind stepping into that role virtually if they had a great cleaner that we could use. So my husband's a fisherman, so he's begging me to take it. [00:35:22] Speaker A: Oh, well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about expanding and scaling and owners and things like that. I have lots of questions there, I guess. Number one, do you have a goal in mind as to number of properties? Are you happy where you are? Do we want to get to 100 or what's the Number I do want. [00:35:38] Speaker B: To get to 100. [00:35:40] Speaker A: That's the actual number looking for. [00:35:42] Speaker B: That really is the, the actual number. But once I'm over the 50 point, we're, we're going to do some reevaluation and it's going to be quality over quantity. So I expect to take a pretty next year. I don't expect to be at 100. Even though, you know, I, I started out at five houses, then it was 14. And some of the business courses are not courses, but networking that I was in. You know, they talk about speaking your goal out, writing your goal down. And I remember going there one day saying, okay, guys, I think I want to start this in addition to my website work. I really love this and I want to be more focused on my properties, but I don't know how to do it without helping other people. And I said, I just want to get five houses. Five houses by the end of the year. Well, it was 14 by the end of the year. [00:36:31] Speaker A: I'm sorry, what do you mean by website work? [00:36:34] Speaker B: The website, the, like when I was doing the website work for, for Ross and Roll and helping small businesses with their website, so. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Oh, you were building websites for, for a living? [00:36:44] Speaker B: Yep. Website. Yeah, that was Ross and Roll was, was website building. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Okay, so sorry. So go ahead. [00:36:50] Speaker B: And so I was really kind of wanting to push away from that. My husband and I went on a vacation to Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks and came back with just some eye opening things. I had $17,000 worth of outstanding invoices that people owed me and it would be like $50, $400. And it was just adding up and it was spend. I was spending so much time chasing my dollars that I was getting really frustrating and finding myself angry with my clients. And so I was like, well, Airbnb just splits the money for me. Because I was only on Airbnb at the time. It's like they would just send me my portion if I got paid 20%. They sent me 20% and they put the rest of the money in the homeowner's account. And I was like, hey, I don't have to chase these dollars anymore. It just made a lot of sense and I really liked it. My husband and I owned a home remodeling company for a decade. I was in marketing. So honestly starting investing in short term rentals was basically bringing our two fortes to the table together. And I just learned that I was really good at it. I was really good at the guest management. I'm really good at Operations. I can see a business like a puzzle piece to pull in what we need to do to automate and to make sense of it all. And so that's kind of where all of that came together there. But I would like to see 100 houses that are great revenue generating. I love some of the older homes, but when you manage an older home, you have older things, so. [00:38:30] Speaker A: Right. [00:38:30] Speaker B: Things break. There's a lot of replacements that have to go on. And I think I've learned a lot from you. I know I've learned a lot from you over the years, Luke, but I've adopted a lot of the things that you do. You're. You're simple when it comes to hosting. You're not big frills. We don't need to have a $250 gift basket in the home. That just going to give a reason for somebody to complain because you didn't have their favorite snack in it or do you know that their kids are gluten free or whatever that looks like. But, you know, I've adopted a lot of the stuff you've done over the years, just listening to this podcast, listening to Avery's podcast, things like that. So this is really kind of a full circle podcast for me right now, just because, you know, a fan for a really long time. [00:39:18] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:39:19] Speaker B: Well, and Avery, I'm. I'll blame it all on Avery that my husband used to come home every night, Avery this, Avery that. And it's like, who is this Avery chick and why do we have to talk about Avery every single night? And he was just so into her podcast and just begging me, babe, please, let. Let's get into this. I really want to invest here. And I just kept saying, no, no investments for rich people. Investments for people with big pockets. That is not who we are. We're still pushing paycheck to paycheck, trying to navigate this world. And we were starting to near towards an empty nest, and our daughter wasn't playing travel softball anymore, so we had a little bit more money in our pockets than we had had and we had a lot more time. And so, so we, we dove in. But yeah, that was. That was literally the short term shop pushing that. And then ironically, somehow I don't know that I even really knew the two of you were like a couple. And I started listening to your podcast because I was focusing on the management, my husband was focusing on the acquisitions. And then it's like, oh, there are a couple. How crazy. [00:40:32] Speaker A: A couple of something. [00:40:34] Speaker B: Yeah, a couple of something. So we learned Everything on both of you. [00:40:37] Speaker A: Okay, well, I'll take that blame. Thank you. And I'm going to give credit to long term rental. I mean honestly, especially the stuff that you mentioned, the simple stuff, I brought that over from my long term experience and my continued long term experience in departments, etc, because a lot of the stuff that I see, especially new people in short term doing, I'm like, you clearly don't own any real estate. This is a noob. Like, you know, the, the high dollar lamps and things like that. I'm just like, do you have any idea what these people are going to do to these lamps? Like, and they don't mean it. It's not malicious, you know, I mean, I mean, obviously with this basketball player that was maybe a little bit malicious. But it's wear and tear. It's wear and tear. We're like going out of our way to put all this fancy stuff in these homes. When, you know, my point is, is if you haven't walked a long term rental that somebody lived in for eight years, then you wouldn't know that you shouldn't put the fancy lamp in the, in the, in the short term rental. Because, dude, I mean, there's going to be holes in that wall. There's going to be holes in those walls. There's going to be like a different microwave than when they moved in. You know, like they sold the microwave and put in a junkie or what, or who knows, you know, I mean, obviously it's a completely different thing than overnight rentals in a vacation town. But I think that's where I got the simple thing from, which is just like, dude, there's no reason to go crazy with all this stuff because making it bulletproof has always been, you know, more important to me. But I do want to talk about the owners. Let's go back to the owners because it sounds to me like what you're saying is 0 to 50, we're just like, let's take it, let's take it like acquisition mode. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then we get to a point where, wow, this is working. I'm making a couple bucks here. I can maybe make a living off of doing this. Which I would imagine wasn't overnight. Not even the making a living after 50 properties overnight. It probably was a couple years of kicking and screaming. Right? Like just to make all the systems work and all that. [00:42:38] Speaker B: And yeah. And even this year, I mean, I'm not taking paychecks right now. [00:42:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:42] Speaker B: You know, I'm building. [00:42:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. And that's what people don't understand. But my, I guess my point is is now we're at 50ish. We, we're starting to maybe see like maybe getting closer to taking a paycheck and we need to be more picky. So that's not my question, but I wanted to lead into the question, which is how are we finding mostly finding owners and choosing owners? [00:43:07] Speaker B: So I'm, I'm on the co host platform on Airbnb that brings an average homeowner that brings a person with one, maybe two listings on top of that. I do a lot of education. I help local realtors, teach maybe their buyers. If they have a buyer who really wants to come into the space and they can't quite get them to the closing table, they're able to call me up and I can help them understand that management can be in place the day of closing. On Friday. I go to a new house. The guy closes at 1pm we're meeting at his house at 3pm to go over what needs to be done. I think he's buying it fully furnished. So we're going to go ahead and look at everything, what's missing, you know, the wine opener, the bottle opener, the pizza cutter, the things that people don't really think about, the really small items that I think get left behind. But so I still heavily lean on the co hosting platform on Airbnb. But on top of that I am looking for investors a lot more than I am looking for people who actually use their vacation rental space because the investors, they're not blocking their calendar, they're not taking any money out of my pocket because they want to be here on the big game day, things like that. And they're much more backseat approach there. They don't have as many questions and I'm not trying to insult any of my homeowners that do because I understand when they hire me, they hire me because they don't know and they have a lot of questions. They don't understand anything. They don't understand the taxes, they don't understand, honestly, they don't understand most of them don't have a long term rental. It's just they saw a cool podcast, they, they were on YouTube and they want to own an Airbnb, they want to own a short term rental. And so that's where they've called me up. But a lot of my heavy hitter investors are 100% word of mouth at this point in time. I sit down at the table with the, the mayor when we're talking about The Olympics coming Visit okc. I've got heavily involved with the tourism side, so I find that those are my lead magnets and those, that's, that's my lead generation is coming from, from those that are already doing the thing. They're already here in space. They're just doing it a little bit differently. I actually work for a very large property management company. He does all long term rentals, but he has hired me to do all his short term rentals. So, you know, people doing the same thing I'm doing just on a different, different level that are asking me for my expertise when it comes to pricing and guest management and, and what do the amenities really need to look like? Do, do we need a pickleball court or will ring hook do the job? [00:46:01] Speaker A: Ring hook. And that's a good move on his part because I'm going to tell you, the long term management brain is different than the short term rental management brain. I, I've not seen a, a good property manager do both effectively. Most of that I think has a lot to do with the market though. You know, a really good vacation rental market manager is going to be in a vacation town and then a really good long term rental manager is going to be in, you know, Huntsville, you know, that kind of thing. But that's. So in other words, it's smart of him to, to outsource that to you. Basically. Networking. I gotta be honest, you're probably the best at it I've ever seen. The whole, the word itself, I, is annoying to me. It's. Whenever I hear the word network, I, I hear just on a, on just ass kissing. Not only ass kissing, but also it's like there's like this like, kind of like I'm gonna turn the other way and be like, I know I just kissed your ass, but you're a jerk. You know, like that's, that's what networking is to me. Kind of. [00:47:10] Speaker B: That can feel very high school at times. [00:47:12] Speaker A: It's high school and it's, it's kind of slimy sometimes, but you're, I don't, you're not doing the same thing that I'm talking about right now. The way you do it is. [00:47:24] Speaker B: First. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Of all, you're just, I don't think you're doing that. You're genuine. You really do want to succeed and help other people. And you're, you're good at it. I can't imagine anybody you've networked with was like, oh, that Libby, she's a jerk. [00:47:39] Speaker B: You know, maybe more crazy. [00:47:42] Speaker A: She's crazy. I mean, we're all crazy. But the tendency in that space is to be like, you know, like, maybe you go to a conference and one person that you talk to is somebody that you're interested in emailing or something. So, anyway, do you have any advice for people looking to network? Because you are really good at it, and it seems like it's paid off for you. [00:48:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So somebody asked me the other day, what's your passion? Like, what are you on this earth for? And I just stared at her. It's actually the other community leader here in Oklahoma. And I was like, I don't even like that question, because passion's hard for me. I'm 45 years old and making a career transition, so don't talk to me about passion, because I don't know. I really don't. And she said, well, I know what you're here for. You're here to make connections. She said, I've never seen somebody go grab two people out of a room and say, hey, you two need to get together. You two have something going on that's very similar. And so I think I do it very naturally. I was at an Airbnb meetup the other night talking to a girl that's a host of two homes. She also has a salon. My daughter's going to cosmetology school. Well, that was Sunday night. Saturday, my daughter works with her for the first time. So my daughter thinks that I'm being pushy and bossy when it comes to that, but it's not. It's just. I just talk to people genuinely. I get to know them a little bit. I know other people's pressure points just from. Just from, you know, being in the community and doing the things that I do. I don't. I think network comes in more with public relations a lot of times, and that's probably a better word for it. Even though you're not necessarily on the news doing public relations or writing out press release, you are still out there. What. What does your relationships look like in the public's eye? And I think finding a group that makes sense, you don't have to go join a huge national networking group. That's scammy. That's like the MLMs of networking, all of that. Find something local. We have professional moms groups here. That's a great one. I think that's a national program as well. And so if you're good with women and you are a woman, then that's a. That's an easy setting for you. I Like to be around a mix of people, but there's definitely real estate networking groups that you can find, and it's just a matter of putting yourself out there. Learning your elevator pitch. My husband is fearful. Fearful of public speaking. You know, he. He would be shaking if he thought he had to come on this podcast with you. I'm excited. He would be fearful. So it. We are two different humans there. But learning your elevator pitch, saying it to yourself, feeling comfortable with it, that's. That's the biggest thing, is being able to stand up in a group of 50 strangers and say, hi, my name's Libby and I'm one hell of a co host. And, and being able to do that and without imposter syndrome. But knowing your value and your worth, I think that's what takes it to the next level when it comes to networking and relationships. [00:50:48] Speaker A: Oh, man, I love it. I'm going to leave it at that. Anything else that you would like to discuss before we roll out? [00:50:55] Speaker B: I mean, anybody listening today? I hope that we're all collaborating and networking on the short term plus platform pretty soon. [00:51:03] Speaker A: The short term shop plus. That's right. Thank you. But how do we find you? [00:51:09] Speaker B: So you can find me@co hostoklahoma.com and then we're on Instagram, Facebook, all the platforms. And if you want to book directly, host Lahoma.com host Lahoma. [00:51:22] Speaker A: I don't know if you noticed, but I like your Instagram posts as they come through. Yeah, I do. I was like, oh, there she is. [00:51:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we do a pretty good job on social media. That's something we hired this year. I did. [00:51:35] Speaker A: You have to. It is so hard. So hard. [00:51:39] Speaker B: And your. Yours are good too, Luke. Like, you're so real on them. I mean, you're. We do way different things on social media, but yeah, I'm a little all over the place. [00:51:47] Speaker A: Avery's really good at it. She's really good at it. But, man, is it hard. Isn't it hard? I never had any idea how hard it is. [00:51:54] Speaker B: It really is. And then it's what works and what doesn't. My husband just started this TikTok for his fishing, and that's been kind of interesting to. To see what works and what doesn't. He gets really mad when it's my video that works more than his. [00:52:09] Speaker A: So he's maybe not as introverted as you think. If he's putting himself out there on. [00:52:13] Speaker B: TikTok, he just wants to figure out how he can fish full time, that's all. [00:52:16] Speaker A: Oh, well, okay. And I'm sure there's lots of folks on Tick Tock that are doing that. I actually follow a couple that are fishing all the time. [00:52:23] Speaker B: Yeah, we've had fun. We bought a boat this year, you know, bust out another thousand and decided that's been his. We've been married for 16 years, and that's been the only frivolous purchase he's ever made. He's pretty much very focused on our home and family. And he finally said, look, I want a boat. And he's a disabled veteran. He deserves a boat. [00:52:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you're wonderful. Thank you so much. This was just a wonderful time. And hope to talk to you again soon. [00:52:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you, Luke. [00:52:55] Speaker A: All right. Don't overthink it. Short term rental management. [00:53:04] Speaker B: It.