Episode Transcript
[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.
All right, here we are. Short Term Rental Management. Loving life.
Old buddy mine David is here to party.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: We go way back.
I remember, I think it's probably been four or five years since you bought your first property, at least with the short term shop. And anyway, let's hear about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, where you're from, and what got you into this whole real estate journey.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Again, I'm David. I was born overseas. I was born and raised in Kenya.
And my family moved to the United States when I was 18.
This is in 1998. I had just finished high school.
We settled in Knoxville, Tennessee.
And this is right, you know, I just finished high school, it's time to go to college. And I did what, you know, we're all taught to do, which is go to school, get a job. So that's what I did. I got a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee, got a job as an engineer for a Japanese automotive manufacturing company, the top two company in the world.
And I went to work. I went to do what we were all supposed to do, which is again, work to you till you retire. And hopefully there's a pot of gold waiting on you at the end. And that's what I did for 15 plus years. And then I realized that this is really not what I wanted to do. I did not want to work until I'm too old. And when I leave, my kids are old. My kids are gone, out of the house. My parents are maybe too old for me to, you know, maybe. Are they, are they going to be even around? Right? So to me, that was not a price that I was willing to pay at that point.
And so I decided, I started planning my escape.
And real estate was the. Was the perfect escape.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Okay, so paint that picture. When did you, when and how did you get into the real estate? You know, Bug.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Well, I wouldn't say it was necessarily real estate.
I remember when I was in college, when I was a senior, you know, they have you take these classes just to meet credit requirements, right? So there was a one hour class that I took, taught by an engineering professor, his name is Dr. Speckart.
But it was not an engineering class. He actually taught, he was teaching us how to make financial decisions, how to make life decisions using finances, but mainly looking at the time value of money.
So that's when I learned, I started learning about compound interest, right how it works for you, how it works against you, buying a mortgage, a car, all these things, right? So, and also up to that point, I had read rich dad, poor dad, I had red cash flow quadrant. I had come across Dave Ramsey. So all you have all these things that are kind of swirling in my brain at the time. I'm still in college, right? So I made a decision that I was going to invest my money. Okay? Now it's up to debate which vehicle you use to invest money. Some people do real estate. It could be the stock market, could be futures, whatever, right? But at the end of the day, you have to invest money. So I went into the workforce with that in mind. I want to invest money.
But it got to a point where I was thinking about my future. I think I was about 40 years old and I was thinking, okay, I have all this money in my 401k and I cannot touch it until I'm 59 years old. 59 and a half, right? That's the exact number. And I remember I started doing math because I'm an engineer, I'm a geek.
And I was like, okay, I'm 42 years old, it's another 17 years by the time I get to 59. And I just did the math, right? I was like, okay, I'm driving, working 12 hours a day, five days a week, 50 hours a week for 17 years.
And it added up to 51,000 hours. And to me, that was not a price I was willing to pay.
I'm not willing to Give someone else 51,000 of my hours in the hopes of one day retiring. So for me, that's kind of what I did. And, but real estate, the reason for that, it's, it's in my opinion, the best investment there is out there.
Because if you've read the cash flow quadrant, right? He talks about the four quadrants. This is Robert Kiyosaki we're talking about.
Meaning you can either work for someone else, you can work for yourself, you can have other people work for you, or you can have money work for you, right? So these are the four different ways that we all make money.
And real estate means money works for you, right? So does the stock market, right? You invest money works for you. But real estate to me is superior because the tax benefits are unreal, right? You can depreciate your property, right?
Real estate income is not subject to self employment taxes, right? So you, you're saving 15.3% of all the income you make in real estate. And you also have the 1031 exchange, meaning you can, you can defer capital gains taxes when you sell your property forever, right. And then when you leave the earth, you can leave all that property to your descendants and they will not pay taxes on it. So to me, it was a no brainer. Real estate to me is it's, it's more superior.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Well, you're, you're a very impressive gentleman. Okay, so let's talk about the real estate general as far as owning it. When did you buy your first piece of rental real estate and what was it?
[00:06:10] Speaker B: I started. I bought my first one, I believe it was January of 2021, and it was a long term rental then. Actually, at the time I decided I was gonna get into real estate, I did not care, you know, whatever money I had, this is what I was gonna do. And I did the math and I think my plan was to retire with long term rentals. And I thought, okay, I'm gonna buy a single family house and I'm just gonna keep buying. And maybe when I have 40 of these things, then I.
So that was a game plan. I bought a long term rental. I bought it for $85,000, right? Believe it or not, this is 2021. You can buy anything for 85 grand. Now.
I bought it. I had a very small budget for rehab. I think I had like $6,000.
And, and the rest was me. Okay. I did all the work on it. I was replacing light fixtures, painting it, you name it, right.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: While working the day job?
[00:07:02] Speaker B: While working a day job, yes.
The house was here in Knoxville.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: And, and I rented it out. I got a property manager. And when we got the lease, I think that they were paying like eleven hundred dollars a month.
And I just could not believe it. Like, I was like, how is this person paying me and I'm not working?
It just did not make any sense, right? Because I'm used to exchanging time for money, right? So here they are paying me a thousand dollars a month. And I was thinking, this house was built in 1930, so yeah, I have a house that's almost 100 years old. How is this house commanding a thousand dollars a month? I don't get it, but it is what it is. So to me, that was like, that was a selling point. My wife was on board and. And then I decided to just keep going. And somehow I met Derek. Tell you, you know Derek, he's a real estate agent and he got me into short term rentals.
And long story short, I bought my first cabin. Loved it. And at that point I was Sold. I was. I made a plan, and I was determined.
Nothing's gonna stop me. I'm. I'm leaving. So no matter what, I'm leaving. I'm not staying here.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: So the job, you mean? Yes, I got you. Okay, so 1100 bucks on 85 grand. That's a hell of a deal. I'll take that one.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Okay. Great job.
And then you bought a cabin. And where do we go from there? More cabins or.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I bought cabin and Smokies, I.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Guess we should say, because. Well, I. I assume everybody knows that because you said Knoxville, but I guess, you know, we should probably mention the Smokies, correct?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Yes, the Smokies. And for the longest time, I mean, I've lived here for so many years, I never even knew what Pigeon Forge is all about, right? I would hear people come here from out of state, and I was like, why? Right? And I never paid attention for decades, right?
So I bought my first cabin in West Valley, little one bedroom cabin, put an offer on it. This was a time where, you know, everybody's like, up bidding, right? So I paid, you know, I. I won the bid, right?
Bought the cabin, and I just loved it. And I remember, you know, we put a little work into it, not a whole lot. I think I probably spent too much money, but I think I spent maybe 10 grand in upgrades, and we're talking about maybe a new couch, new TVs, that kind of thing.
And that little one cabin, I think it grossed 71,000 that year. Now, this is right after Covid. So, you know, we had a. You know, those are high, right? And I just could not. I could not believe it. So I bought my first cabin that was in March of 21.
And then December of that year, I actually bought two back to back, okay? And I was still employed at the time.
I bought two.
One was a. The both two bedrooms. Bought them, and I went live with them in a couple of months.
And. And that's when I left my job. I left my job the following year in 22nd January, and I still had a plan.
In 22, I bought three more properties, and the rest is history. So.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful. I've got a lot of questions. First of all, where are we getting the capital for these properties? Then if you're leaving the job, where does that come from?
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Well, to make a long story short, you know, my mantra even when I went to work was to always invest my money, right? So even when I'm, you know, the salary I was making, right? I Wasn't just consuming it, right? I was putting the money in the stock market over the years. So when you think about compound interest, how it works, you know, you add that up, you know, in 15 plus years I had a decent amount of change, okay, in the stock market.
And so I decided to deploy the capital.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Long story short, you're a hard working dude and you earn this damn money.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I worked. And now when I was working, the money was gonna, I was, I was gonna wait until I'm 59 or when I retire to touch it, but to me I was like, I don't know, wait. And that's why I left. Because where I wanted to be in life when I was 60 years old, I came to the conclusion that working a job, and it did not matter what job it was, okay? I don't care if I'm the CEO of Apple, okay? That path was not gonna give me the life that I wanted, okay? The life that I wanted was freedom, okay? Freedom, the ability to, you know, be flexible with my family. Right. My parents are overseas, I want to go see them right. Whenever I want without having to like ask my boss for time off. Right. So anyway, so long story short, to answer your question, yes, I had some capital save and I decided to deploy that capital into real estate.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Okay? And this, this was not a plan, you know, I mean it's, it's a tale that we hear all the time on the front end where everybody's like, I'm going to buy this, this, then this and then I'm going to quit my job. But yeah, wasn't really your plan, your plan?
Well, first of all, your plan changed, it sounds like. And then when you got deep enough in, into this, you not want to put words in your mouth, but you realized that this could be your job, right? Like you, you were like, okay, hold on a minute, there's something here, There's.
And that's where I think there's a big disconnect. People don't realize that dude, you're still going to need a job. Care how many properties you own, you're still going to need a job unless you're like at the end of your life and not doing it anymore. So the good news is is there's a ridiculous amount of jobs in real estate.
There's a ridiculous amount of money in real estate if you're willing to work hard. So it sounds to me like you got to a certain number of properties and then you kind of had like enough know how there that you, you Were like a shark, right? Like, is that. What. Is that fair to say? Like, you were like, there's. There's money in this business. I can't. I can't be spending time at this day job that I don't have passion for. I need to come over here and make this my day job. Is that fair to say?
[00:13:11] Speaker B: 100%. And I will say this. I think there's this vibe out there, and you'll hear a lot in a lot of, you know, if you go on YouTube, right?
You know, influencers, podcasters, whatever, and there's this vibe of, you know, money just kind of flows down, you know, from the mountain and you don't have to do anything. Right?
That's not. That's not true. Okay. That is not real life. Okay. I'm nothing. First of all, I don't like sitting around.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Even to this day.
I wake up, you know, between 4 and 5 in the morning, I'm up. Okay. And I'm not up on the couch watching Netflix. Right. I'm.
I'm at my office and. But I'm doing what I want to do. Right. Which is being productive, right? Yeah, like being productive. I like making things better. And in my opinion, if you are willing to work, there's money to be made. But I will say this, though. I don't think money ought to be the.
The end. The end goal. Okay. In my opinion, I think money, if. If that's all you're chasing, money is always going to run faster than you. Right? So you'll never catch. You always want to want more. So there has to be something more meaningful to life than just, I want to make money.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: So. But anyway, so, yeah, I do work. I work hard, but I. I do. I work based on what I want. It's not me exchanging my time for paycheck.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Love it. Love it. I have a perfect example, actually. Let me tell you a little story.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: I got. I got stuck in the we're in the government shutdown era right now. It just seems like maybe at the recording of this podcast, maybe coming to an end. But I. I was a victim, if. If I can use that word, which I hate that word. Because you are.
Absolutely. And I'll get to that. You are the.
You got to choose your own destiny here. Right?
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: So, long story short, I was in Indianapolis this past weekend, and I was going to Atlanta and then back here to Destin PCB area, and Atlanta was the first one to go. Right. It was like Atlanta and Houston on this shutdown. Nope. No flight. So I was lucky enough to get from Indy to Atlanta, which took seven hours of delays. And it wasn't until, like, literally the last plane out of Indianapolis and even the pilot came on. It was a storm. I mean, it was a. It was. It was a perfect storm of all kinds of nonsense. But even the pilot was like, you guys have no idea how lucky you are. This. The plane took off, and so we landed in Atlanta. I get off the plane, it's probably about midnight at this point, because it's Eastern time zone, I live in central and all this other stuff. Anyway, I got off the plane. The whole board, every flight was red, canceled, canceled, canceled, delayed, canceled, canceled. So the whole airport was full of people, like, trying to sleep there. And I was smart enough that I booked the hotel room at the airport. I've been through this before. The Atlanta airport, you know.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: We live in a teeny, tiny little town, so everything with a lot of people flows through Atlanta.
And I said, I'm not going to do this. Like, I did it last time. So I booked a hotel room before I got on the plane. And when I. When I got off the plane, I realized I'm not getting home. It's one o'clock midnight. You know, I ran. I ran a marathon that morning. So I was tired as hell.
And I went to the hotel, gave my confirmation number, and they said, you do not have.
This confirmation number is fake. You do not have a room here. We haven't had any rooms for four days.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: No way.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: And I said, well, what about the other hotels? And they said, there are no hotel rooms.
And so I went to the car rental place.
No cars. All right, so this, this, to me, I felt like what you're talking about, like in my journeys, in my life as well, where I was being told, this is how it's going to be. You are not going to get a hotel room. You are not going to get a car. You're not going to get a flight. They canceled like four, five, six flights in a row back to my, you know, my original, my final destination.
So you are basically screwed. And, like, my only option was to sleep in the airport.
So I'm not going to do that. I'm just not going to do that because I am going to take control of my own destiny. So I figured out a plan. I found A hotel, like, 30 minutes away, drove to that. I had to get Uber to that. And then the next morning, I said, I'm going to be the first person here when this, when this car rental Place opens at the airport was the only car rental places that were open on Sunday.
So I couldn't go to another car rental place. So I had to go back down to the. To ground zero.
And I said, I'm going to be the first guy here. And I was. I was the second guy there in the morning.
And the guy behind me, he had spent two nights in the airport with his mother, his wife and three children, one of which was seven weeks old.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Oh, dear.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Three days in the. In the Atlanta airport with a seven week old. He was losing his mind, and I don't blame him.
But for whatever reason, I got lucky and I got a car. And it was so it was that down to the zero wire. I did not have a credit card on me, David. All I had was a debit card. I didn't even think to bring a credit card. I only had a debit card. And you know, you can't rent a car without a credit card. So I get to the Apple Pay. They said, apple Pay. And I said, can you take a credit card on the Apple Pay? And she said, sometimes. And I said, oh, shit.
And she said, she goes, you're so lucky. We are the only car rental place in the airport that has a car.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: And the only car rental place in the airport that takes Apple Pay. And I was like, let's go. So I swiped my phone. It worked. That gave me a brand new Mazda with fake leather seats. And I was off on the way back to Florida, baby.
And when I got in that car and started that motor, first of all, it was a hybrid, which I'm not used to. So I was like, oh, this thing didn't start.
And I'm like, oh, man, now I'm in trouble because the only car in this parking lot is dead. Yeah. So anyway, I put it in drive and it moved. And I was like, all right, we're good. And so I get on the Internet, I call Avery and blah, blah, blah, that. That moment right there was freedom. I said, I'm free, man. All these other suckers are going to sit at that airport until somebody else tells them that it's okay to get on the plane.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: 100.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: And I'm not doing that shit. I'm going to take matters in my own hands.
And that's just that kind of guy you are.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, we have to. And that's the thing. We, you know, we have what's called agency, right? We actually, you know, God gave us a brain for a reason, right? And he wants you to use it.
My plan, I was told it can't be done, okay? You can't do it, okay? You're gonna have to stay here and work here until whenever, until we tell you when you can use your money, when you can leave. And I'm thinking, no, I'll be the first one. No, I don't care. I'm doing it and I'll never forget you. I read in, I think it was rich dad, poor dad, Robert Kiyosaki, he always used to say that you should never say, I can't. Okay? Those words should never come out of your mouth, right? Because when you, when you do that, your brain just quits thinking, right? So instead, what you should do when you're faced with a situation that you don't have an answer to, you should turn that into a question, right? So instead of saying, I can't, you should ask yourself, how can I? Right? And what that does is it kind of turns your brain and you start thinking of solutions.
And I spent a lot of time thinking through this. How to get out, how to get out this, you know, nine to five. And I got to tell you, Luke, I was not, I did not hate my job, okay? I was in upper management, right? I was Matt, I was in charge of three engineering managers, and each of those managers were in charge of like six to eight engineers, right? So I'm managing 20 full time people, right? So my job was fine. I had a clear path, you know, if I wanted to get promoted, I could, I could do anything I want to do in that company, right?
But that was not my motivation. I just wanted to get out and be free. And I thought through this and thought through it, and I remember one day I was sitting in my office at home and the light bulb just went off in my brain.
And just like that, I knew how to do it. And I remember I went to my wife and I said, hey, I'm leaving my job in four months.
I already had a date picked out. And I just, I worked on the plan. I have a plan. I think I wrote like maybe eight pages of a detailed, you know, step by step plan of how to achieve this goal.
And I have to tell you, it came to pass just the way I wrote it down. And January 13, 2022 is when I left. And I never looked back.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: The short term shop is hiring. We are hiring real estate agents in the best vacation rental markets in the nation. If you live in a beach town, a mountain town, or want to move to one, and you are a qualified rock star, Realtor, please reach out to us.
Theshortermshop.com careers we are careful. Currently hiring in multiple markets.
Theshortermshop.careers let's talk about your work load. Like, I would assume you're working just as hard, if not harder, in some capacity than you were with the. With the day job. Is that true?
[00:22:48] Speaker B: That's true. And that is one thing that, you know, nobody says, right. They don't tell you that.
That, you know now that you. You know, I own my own business, right?
[00:22:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: And when you're starting out, you have nobody. It's just you. You're doing everything. You do the marketing, sales, finances, bookkeeping, you name it.
So. But if you're. If you're passionate enough, it doesn't feel like. Like a job. It doesn't feel like work. I love doing it, you know, so I enjoy it.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: I have a thousand more questions, but I want to. Want you to paint me a picture of what it looks like right now. How many units do you own? How. Because you are managing, right? Is that right?
[00:23:25] Speaker B: I am, yes.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Okay, so how many do we own versus how many are we managing? And, I mean, what are we doing all day?
[00:23:30] Speaker B: So. So right now, I own six.
Five of those are in the Smokies. One of them is a beach house in Gulf Shores. And we are managing 33 for other people right now. And we actually have this. We have three already that we just signed a contract for. Two of them we're onboarding right now. We plan on going live on those two in December, and there's one that's gonna go live sometime in February. So. So right now we have 36, really, that we're managing for other people.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Okay, so you're a property manager.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: I am.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Okay. And did you know that was gonna happen or when you got deeper into this, that was just kind of. It just clicked. And this is gonna be my path, actually.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: I. I was. I was. I had that in the. In the back of my mind. Okay. I was like, hey, you know, I. Whatever. This skill that I develop in this one year that I've been doing this while I was still employed, I thought, you know what? I can actually do this for other people. And I did some research while I was still employed, and I realized that you can. It's. It's doable. And the. There's a. There's a license that's required in the state of Tennessee, and it's not too challenging. Right. Some states, you have to be like, a realtor or a broker. Right?
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Right. It's a vls, right? Vls.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. In Tennessee, it's a vls. And it's much easier than becoming a real estate agent.
So.
So, yeah, I thought about it, and I had that in the back of my mind, and I did want to do it for other people as well.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Okay. And so at this point, we've realized we want to work for ourselves. We want. We're going to be an entrepreneur and we're going to manage other people's properties, which I think is a huge thing. That many people that get into real estate, it just never clicks. Like, because I've said it a thousand times, David, you've been listening to me preach and do stupid junk for a million years now.
You're gonna run out of money, okay? You are going to run out of money. And then what? The good news is there's a. There's a lot of jobs available if you. If you don't. The whole hate my job thing, it is possible, but this YouTube and Instagram stuff, they paint this terrible picture. The reality is, okay, you hate your job, no problem. You like real estate, no problem.
Crapload of jobs in real estate. Like, yes, endless amounts of jobs. But, I mean, it trickles all the way down to the handy people and the plumber, and then you've got CPAs and bookkeepers and builders. You could get into development. You could build high rises. I mean, attorneys. You know, it's. It's endless.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Yes. And the. And I think, for example, I'm primarily in the Smokies, and you know how dealing with contractors is, like, in the Smokies, right?
It's hard to find really good people, but they're there, which tells you that the need is there. Right. All you have to do is be decent at your work. Right? Answer the phone call. Right? Follow through, Do a good job. Don't try to rip people off. Right. If you just do that, I mean, there's like, there's money to be made, right? And instead of, you know, I don't know, you know, watching all these influencers telling you fake, fake things that never, you know, never panned, that they're not doing themselves, right?
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: So, yeah, there's. There's money to be made. And if you're willing to develop a good product, provide a good service, you. You'll. You'll do just fine.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: I agree. 100. I think the influencer thing is getting. I think it's getting better. Really? I mean, you remember a period of time during COVID where it was like every. Everybody on TikTok was renting Lamborghinis and posting video. You know, it's like insane what's going on here.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: I know that's not your car. Like what are you doing? You know, and, but anyway, so let's talk about the management.
Let's break that down a little bit and you know, kind of how I built this of your company. So we've got mid-30s on the units, which is great. And so let's talk softwares and all that kind of stuff. What are the nuts and bolts?
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Well, it's a little bit different than when you manage for yourself, right? Because when you manage for yourself, you can kind of, you can do whatever, right? But when you manage for someone else, you do have an ethical duty because this is someone else's money, right? So it's one thing if I'm just managing one property for someone else, for my brother or something like that, but these are investors who are looking at me to get a return on their money, right.
So I can't just, you know, for example, I don't, I can't just refund guests just because I want to, because it's not my money, right. So I do have to pay attention, very close attention to who I hire, right. What kind of clean am I getting?
Are these people insured? Right. So there's quite a bit that goes into it. Like I said, I could easily manage 30 properties that I own versus 30 properties for someone else.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: So that does come with a challenge.
And I had to hire people. Okay.
So I do have a full time local person. He's my operations specialist.
He handles the day to day operations.
And also I do have two assistants who help with mainly guest communications reviews. They handle phone calls, they even, you know, they contact vendors for us, you know, scheduling things, they help with invoicing a few things in there.
They don't just do, you know, guest communications. So you do have to build a team.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: And, and what I tell people is even if you're not managing for someone else, you do have to think in terms of teams, in terms of systems, because you're going to get to a point, especially with short term rentals, when you get to like 10 properties or even five to six properties, short term rentals, if it's just you, then you can, you're kind of buried. And it's very, it's really difficult to grow past that unless you get yourself out of the picture. Think of, okay, who do I need to get into the position to kind of do some of the things that I'm doing that I don't. I don't need to be doing, so I can focus on big picture items. And I think if you think like that, it's much easier to grow 100%.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: All right, break me down. Your software stack, what are we looking at for management software?
[00:30:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. So I started out with guesty. I mean, I'm with onorez now, and I love it for the PMS pricing.
Price labs. That's what I use. I've looked into wheelhouse and beyond pricing, but their cost is a little bit higher than the price labs. I like the priceless subscription fee structure.
So as far as guest books, we were doing touch day. We still are doing touch day, but I'm actually phasing out of touch day.
We're gonna do something, you know, on our own, so that's that.
As far as smart locks, I'm a big believe in schlage. That's the gold standard.
If you don't do schlage, my. The second one that we use right now is the Yale sure lock.
But those are the two main ones that we use.
Cameras. Ring works great. We love ring.
What else? Thermostats. I'm big on Honeywell, the T9. Any smart thermostat. But primarily Honeywell is what we use.
They have some WI fi. I think it's a T5 and a T6. They're both Wi fi, but Honeywell, for the most part, does. It does a good job.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: So, okay, owner res, Price labs. And are you doing revenue management in house? Are you doing the revenue management, the pricing?
[00:31:24] Speaker B: We are, yeah. That way we handle ourselves. That's. That's the one that I think that's probably the last thing I ever.
I don't think I'll ever outsource it outside the company. It'll have to be in house. But even that, it's.
It's difficult to train somebody. So eventually someone. Somebody in my team will take it. But right now, that's the one thing I'm still holding on closely.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: That's exactly where I am as well with. With my properties. I still do that. And I. I do it, I'd like to say, because I enjoy it.
And I do. I enjoy it. I do. There are times where I'm like, dude, I. My time is better elsewhere. I'm so buried with this over here in this remodel or whatever, that why am I doing this? But at the end of the day, nine times out of ten, I'm pretty happy to do it. You know, like Morning coffee. Let's do some pricing.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: It's your happy place, right?
[00:32:21] Speaker A: It is, yeah.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm the same way. I enjoy doing it.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think for other people, a lot of people are more happy place with the design. You know, I think there's a lot of folks that have that brain where they're really into, like, what color should this wall be? And my listing has to be the best listing in my market, and I have to have all 5.0 stars.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: That's not me. I think those are two different brains. There's the pricing brain, and then there's the design brain. And I'm definitely more of a pricing.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not good at design. I can walk into a property, and I'm very upfront about this, and I know something's wrong with it from a design standpoint, I'm just not the guy to, like, get you from point A to point B. And it's okay to realize that. You just have to know, okay, this is my weak point. I need to have someone who's good at it on my side that you can hand that over to. Right.
I'm a numbers guy, so pricing comes kind of easily for me. But I do realize also that moving forward, some of these things I'm doing, I do have to slowly give them up, give them someone else. And I've come to realize my. My role right now as the leader of this company is to determine what the future looks like.
Right. Make it very clear, and then find the people to execute and then follow up with them, make sure they're doing work correctly, give them feedback, oversee what they're doing.
That's kind of where I'm at right now in my journey.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Love it. Let me hear about how you're getting new owners.
Is that how you spend the bulk of your time? Is that. Is that time consuming, getting new owners?
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Well, it is. And honestly, we've been blessed because we have a lot of local contact with its realtors and even just my presence on Facebook. Right. Most people that have come to me have either been recommended to me by someone who knows me, someone who knows what I do. Right.
We've not done a whole lot of cold calling. Right.
Which I'm not discounting it. There is. There is a time and a place for that. We've not done a whole lot of mail marketing. Right.
Or even, you know, that kind of thing. We really haven't. It's just been talking about what we do and then people seeing what we do and deciding, hey, let Me talk to David, let's see what they can do, and then we chat with them. Some folks, you know, women or jail. Some people decide, hey, I'm going to self manage.
Some people decide, hey, that other company will. I'm going to go with other company. And that's okay. It doesn't, it doesn't bother me.
But we find a very good clientele.
We love working with them, and that's basically how we find our new clients.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Wonderful. Yes. Blessed, I would say, is the word on that one.
It's hard to find new owners, would you say? Looking back on the whole thing, let's look big picture, Were there signs or points in your life now that you've kind of gone and done your own thing where you, you know, where it hit you, like, man, I've always been an entrepreneur. I just didn't know. Or maybe you did know.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And yes, that's true. And I've actually thought about this because I remember growing up, I always just admired people who owned their own business. I remember, you know, when I was in college, I was a cook right here in Knoxville. I worked in a restaurant, and the owner of the restaurant is the guy that I went to church with. And I remember one day I asked him, I said, hey, man, you must be nice owning your own business, right? And the answer he gave me at the time did not make sense, but now it's probably the same answer I would give someone who asked me and he said, hey, David, it doesn't matter what you do, you're always going to have to work hard.
And maybe the vibe that I gave him was I was looking for an easy way out. Maybe I thought owning a business is just simple. But he said, hey, it doesn't matter what you do, you're always going to have to work hard. But, yeah, I do believe I always had that streak. And I would not, you know, consider myself like a serial entrepreneur. But I think, I think most people have it in them. You know, for example, you've heard people say, you know, folks who employed, right? They're like, no, business is not for me. Some people are just made to own a business. Some folks are just made to be employed. I don't think that's true. Right. I think even as an employee, you are an entrepreneur, right? Because you are selling something to your employer because they're paying you, right? Why are they paying you? Right?
Because you're selling something to them. So I believe we all have it in us.
We just maybe don't have enough confidence to step out there, or maybe we don't have a good product to sell, or maybe we don't believe in ourselves, or maybe we have these preconceived notions. I think entrepreneurship is within all of us because when you look at history, the last. Just go back 300 years ago, we did not have mass employment.
We had people who had trades. You had a skill set and you sold your skill set. Right. Maybe you're a cobbler, right. Or yeah, blacksmith, whatever. Right.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: With the shoe on the horses or whatever, you know.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: Yeah, horseshoes. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, that's what we did. And even. And now I believe there's a lot of people who have degrees. Right. Whether it's law or engineering, design degree, whatever. Go start your own business.
Why do you have to go get employed by someone else? Right. Sell that engineering skill set that you have.
Right. Learn how to do it. It's difficult selling and marketing, but you just learn it just like anything else. But I think it's very rewarding because you get to dictate what your future looks like.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: Yes, I agree. I mean, I, I have always been work for myself. I, I matter of fact, I don't think I have what it takes to get a job.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: You know, you're not employable.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: No, I'm not, I'm not. But you know, when I was, I don't know, I was probably 15 years old, I had a rock and roll band and I would have my mom drop me off at the mall and I would go around trying to sell my band's cassette tapes, you know?
[00:38:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: And looking back on it, I'm like, that dude was an entrepreneur, you know?
[00:38:59] Speaker B: And yes, I mean, yeah, looking back, I was not like that. So I would consider you a serial entrepreneur because, you know, you, it's been in you, right? And you've always been doing it. Me, I thought it was a good idea, but I just never had the, the boldness or the confidence to step out there until I was like, I started looking at my future and I was like, I just can't. I gotta get out. I got to get out. Because if I stay on this path, I will not be where I want to be and, and I cannot live without regret. So I got, I got to go, so.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Well, you're natural. You're an absolute natural, A very well educated man. And speaking of, what about books? I could use a good book right now. I'm in a book slump, to be honest with you.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:39:46] Speaker A: So if you got something for me, I'd like to hear Something recently maybe.
[00:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm actually reading three books, believe it or not.
I'm gonna put this is Alpha Dogs.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: Oh, I don't know this.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I bought this years ago when I was employed. And it's a good book. It talks about how to be how your small business can become a leader of the pack.
And what this does is it's written by a. I think it was INC Magazine. And they interviewed people who owned regular boring businesses but were leaders in the industry. Right. Whether it's an ice cream shop or a bike shop, whatever.
But very good book, very enlightening.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Hold on. Yeah, I'm gonna give a shout out. There is an ice cream shop in New Orleans.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: That knocks my socks off. I'm not an ice cream guy. Matter of fact, I've been dairy free for like 17 years.
But this ice cream shop, every time I walk in there I'm like this dude. Because it's a guy, he's in there. You know, him and his wife. But because I follow him on Instagram.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: And. And he's always in there and I'm like, this dude is crushing. And this ice cream is so freaking good.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: Good.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: So I'm gonna shout out. You mentioned ice cream Parish parlor in New Orleans on magazine. Okay. Okay.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: When I'm there, I'll be for the stop by.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: It's so good. So good. I love that town. Anyway, go ahead.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: So in another book that I think is people should read, especially folks who are employed and are looking to get out of their employment, it's called can't see this.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: So good.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: They can't ignore you. I don't feel that. Or not.
[00:41:27] Speaker A: Fantastic. Yes. Read that.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: Yes. Great book.
And I'm also reading the one page marketing plan by Alan Dibb.
Very good book on how to market yourself. How to market.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Whoa. I don't know this.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Marketing plan. One page. This is my next book. I like it.
[00:41:47] Speaker B: One page marketing plan.
Very enlightening, very easy to read, easy to follow.
And. And then there's another one called three Months to number one.
It's by. It's. It's about SEO search engine optimization. So it might put you to sleep. But it's also very helpful to help you understand how the online search engines, what are they looking for? Okay.
What are they trying to do? How do you get to those top pages if you have a business.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Love it.
Love it.
Well, I'm going to give myself a shout out. You did buy your first few properties with the short term shop and I'm very proud of that.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: So thank you. Thank you.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: Actually, all, all my short term rentals have been with the short term shop.
[00:42:40] Speaker A: Well, look at that. Thank you so much. And you've been hanging around and being so nice for so many years and we owe you big time for being so cool for all these years. And thank you. And how do we find you?
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Well, we have two brands, so my management company is called Short Term Connections. You can find us, it's ShorttermConnections.com and our. We, we have a direct booking website. It's called 865 vacations.com but we also, we're on Facebook a lot. You can just follow, you know, put type of name in. You'll find me there.
And we also have. We're on Instagram and We are on TikTok at 865Vacations.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: Do you like the TikTok?
[00:43:24] Speaker B: It's new for us right now, so we're kind of dabbling in it.
I do think that's where everything is going right now.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: Right. Because when you look at the audience in on Facebook is different than the audience in TikTok. Right. When I look at my guests who are traveling, they're getting younger and younger. Maybe, maybe I'm the one who's getting older. Right. And, and those folks are not on Facebook. They're on Instagram, primarily on TikTok right now. So, so yeah, if you, if you're not getting. I think we have to learn every, every old dog needs to learn new tricks. Okay. So we got to, we got to get into it. So that's what we're doing right now, 100%.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: And I agree. I think, and maybe it's just me, but Facebook seems to be a whole lot of throwing the remote at the TV at this point. Like, everybody's just so grumpy.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: And I don't know what that is, but I spend a lot my social media time on. On the Instagram is where I hang out. I, I love scrolling through the reels and watching all the crazy nonsense. It's fun.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. And, and I'm also trying to like, minimize my.
I mean, these social media platforms and they'll suck up your time.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: Oh, they will. Yeah.
[00:44:44] Speaker B: So I'm trying to minimize that as much as possible.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: It's the new television, don't you think? It's the new television.
I mean, I can't, I can't remember the last time I sat down and watched a 40, you know, 30 minute television program. It's just.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: Exactly. And those algorithms are very powerful.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Yeah. They know what you're. They are, they're following you around.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: They'll suck you in immediately. So I try, I try to do my social media work on my computer.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: Right.
It helps me stay on track. I find myself sometimes I'm on my phone for like an hour and a half and I'm like, what have I been doing?
[00:45:18] Speaker A: You know? Yeah. What, What?
[00:45:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: Well, anyway, I'm not trying to rush you out of here. Did we miss anything? Anything you want to cover before we.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: No, no, really.
I just wanted to see if I can provide value to your audience because your audience is primarily real estate investors. And that's, that's my heart.
Property management. I love doing it because I want to help people. But the people I'm helping are real estate investors. And I deal, I deal with their problems often the time. And I know their pain. And that's what I tell them as soon as a client calls me.
I tell them, hey, I know what you're dealing with. And I know at this time where real estate is a little bit tougher. Right. The short term rental market has seen a dip.
They're struggling. Right. A lot of these owners, they got to pay the mortgage.
So I do feel their pain and I empathize with them and I try to help them as much as possible.
And that's really what I wanted to do. Here is your audience is these are owners and I do want to tell them, hey, real estate, don't give up on it.
Opinion. I would, I will not sell unless I'm. I, I really, really have to. But I would do whatever I can to hold onto that property. Because real estate, it goes in cycles. It goes down, it's going to come up.
So just hang on to that property if you can, because I believe there's. The future is much brighter than it is today.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: I agree. It's also starting to. We're already starting to see it a little bit, you know, in certain areas.
But the problem right now, as you know, is just the uncertainty. There's just so much kind of. I mean, what is it? I, I don't even have. Shenanigans is the only word I can come up with.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: And you see, and you're seeing it with, with the travelers, right? They also, there's an anxiety right.
In the atmosphere. And a lot of these travelers, you know, maybe they're not staying long as long as they used to. They're not, they don't want to spend as much as. As they used to.
So. And. And us as operators, we also have to consider that. I know you. You're always preaching about pricing, right?
Some of those owners, you know, we may be priced too high sometimes, right? We have to.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: We have to think about that way too many times.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Matter of fact, yes, we're too greedy. You know?
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Well, I think, honestly, it's just a lack of knowledge. Like, you know what? I'll look at somebody's listing and I'm like, wait a minute. Why do you think that your house is worth this much money? It's just not. I mean. Yeah, and it's not that. It's not that they think that their house. I mean, it's just like, it does. It doesn't click. It doesn't click. And a lot of times, those are the people that have the 5.0 on the reviews. You know, like, you're really good at reviews, but the pricing is not your thing. I know.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: And to me, I'm thinking, okay, if you have a. If you have a good product.
Okay. A good listing in a good location, great reviews. Okay. In the Smokies, for example.
But you are not occupied at all. Like, your calendar is just empty.
What do you think it is? Yeah, just be honest with yourself. What do you think it is?
You know, are you okay with having nobody there? Is that okay? Yeah, it's not okay. And I'm not saying you should set your price to zero, right?
[00:48:34] Speaker A: No.
And it's funny you say that, because every time I see these people that are like, I can't get any bookings, my calendars, the market's terrible. The air. Airbnb bus or whatever they were talking about three years ago and all this nonsense. You go look at their listing and it's like, gorgeous. And it's like, dude, you're telling me that the nobody's going to rent this beautiful house with brand new everything because the market sucks. That's not the problem here, dude.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: Exactly. Yes. And it could be just. It could be just a 10% reduction and boom, you get some traction, Right? So, yeah, just be realistic. Be honest with yourself. The market is tough, but it's not. It's not dead. I go to the Smokies all the time and there's traffic all the time.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. You just got to be better than the next guy, which you're. Which you're good at.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: We have to. We have to, you know, we got to strive to be better.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: That's right. Well, listen, man, I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much I'd love to have you again. Maybe next year or something like that.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: And I appreciate it, man. I'll let you know, but I'm always available. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:49:37] Speaker A: Absolutely, My pleasure. Great to catch up with you and we'll talk to you soon. Bye, now.
[00:49:41] Speaker B: Thank you.
