[00:00:02] This is Short Term Rental Management, the show that is all about short term rental property management with your host, yours truly, Luke Carl.
[00:00:16] Okay, Short Term Rental Management. I'm so happy to be here with you. I'm very passionate about this topic and making sure my guests have a great place to spend time with their families. And I'm super glad that you are here with me on this kid friendly program. Feel free to listen to it in the car with the children.
[00:00:35] I certainly love having mine around. I know that. And every now and then I might drop a little bit of a dirty word, but nothing too offensive and I'm just grateful that you are here today.
[00:00:48] And today we're going to talk about the fact that nobody, nobody is going to do it better than you do it.
[00:00:58] So here's how I got the idea for this show and what I'm just going to give you real world examples of what I'm talking about. Because I bought a house right down the street from the house I live in.
[00:01:11] And we live in a beach town, so it will get rented. Now we're going to use it as like a.
[00:01:16] It's a guest house.
[00:01:18] We're going to use it as a guest house for family, they come to visit, etc.
[00:01:23] But you know, we'll probably rent it out occasionally. And I'm setting it up like I set up all my other rentals because the truth is, even when the family comes to town to visit and we put them down the street and maybe we have multiple pieces of family coming to town, they're going to want it set up like a rental, you know, with all the stuff and detergent and clean beds and clean everything. So I'm setting it up like a rental. We're gonna sort of use it like a guest house. But I've been spending a lot of time over there and while I spend my time over there, it's bittersweet, sometimes even difficult for me because I know that I shouldn't be there.
[00:02:01] But the son of a contractor in me says that I do need to be there and I do like to be there to keep an eye on things, make sure things are going correctly. And sometimes I show up over there, it's almost done at this point. But sometimes I go over there and whoever was working the day before, if I had not been there, things were not done right, you know, like they did. They were off just a little bit on the countertop or they were just. They forgot to put a piece of trim back on or they didn't bother to put the plates back on the outlets or all this kind of stuff. I here's a perfect example. My painter I've worked with a hundred times.
[00:02:39] I texted him yesterday, I said what's up with the outlet covers? He didn't put them back on. And he says oh, I thought you were going to do that.
[00:02:46] I mean how much am I paying this guy? A lot. Paying this guy a lot. Painted inside and outside of the home. This is a multi thousand dollar deal.
[00:02:55] And I really do think that because I've been hanging around he just assumed that I would put the outlet covers back on.
[00:03:04] So I'm almost getting myself in a little bit more work here by showing up.
[00:03:08] You know, everybody's always so worried about oh, how do I do a house from a distance, how do I remodel from a distance, how do I manage from a distance? Well, in this case, I'll be honest with you, there's parts of it where I'm wishing I wasn't there and that's one of them. This guy thought because I'm hanging around that he didn't have to finish what I would consider and he should be considering his job. Now I know he considers it his job because he keeps the damn outlet covers on his truck, you know, new ones. So obviously this is something that you do on a regular basis.
[00:03:42] But I've been hanging around and chit chatting and becoming friendly with these guys, putting myself on the same level with them when there's nothing wrong with that at all. And I am on the same level as these guys. I, yeah, I may have a couple more bucks but it's all hip and cool man. We're all humans.
[00:03:59] I'm not better than anybody.
[00:04:02] You know, I got no problem fixing a toilet I replaced. I, I did a rebuild on two toilets a couple weeks ago and, and honestly again, it wasn't that terribly long ago before I couldn't even, you know, when I couldn't even afford to have somebody do that for me.
[00:04:20] But was when I got out of the people me doing everything myself that I really started to notice a difference in my network.
[00:04:27] You can't do everything yourself.
[00:04:30] Fear not saturation.
[00:04:33] When you are the cream of the crop you will rise to the top.
[00:04:39] Come learn from me. The best in the business voted 19 time World's Greatest Landlord Luke Cash Flow
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[00:04:58] We are teaching all the best practices in the world of vacation rentals and we would love for you to join
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[00:05:10] so, you know, you do get to the point where it's like, you know, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I like everything to be perfect. The fridge has to be the exact distance from the wall and this and that and the other. And you got to remember, it's just. It's a rental house. It's a rental house. The people are in there doing crazy stuff and there's going to be a trash can full of empty mech ultras and all this kind of thing, you know. So to a certain extent, I do find that it is oftentimes better to not be there and not being involved. Because with the involvement of myself in this little house I'm rehabbing right now, I've noticed that I'm kind of getting myself into more work.
[00:05:52] I'm noticing that these guys aren't doing things perfectly.
[00:05:56] You know, the plumber did something stupid with the water heater and I had to call him up and I'm like, what the hell is this, dude?
[00:06:04] I'll just tell you the story. He had the water heater on a two by four platform to raise it up, you know, three and a half inches off the ground, which at the time I didn't realize why, but I'll get to that.
[00:06:19] And the platform was from the previous water heater, which was a 37 gallon, and the new one is a 50 gallon and it's skinnier.
[00:06:27] That 37 gallon was fatter and short.
[00:06:33] So the new water heater was quite a bit smaller. And it was like going. It was inside the frame of this 2 by 4 frame and it was leaning to the right and it would like wobble because there was no nothing underneath it other than the rubber pan that he was using.
[00:06:53] And I called him up, I'm like, what is this, dude? Why did you even use this? And then he said, well, because the drain is on the ground and you want to get the drain on the pan on the bottom of the water heater a little bit elevated, you know, on the pan so that if something happens, then it can drain down. Okay, I get that. But did you not realize that there's literally nothing underneath this 50 gallon water heater that weighs somewhere around 500, 550 pounds.
[00:07:20] So this thing's just like hanging in the air like it's got like a tightrope under it of this rubber pan, if you can picture what I'm trying to say. And it's like, what, what is going, why did you do this, you know, and it was. If you ever watch that, there's a guy on Instagram, he does the rehab stuff where he does, like, handy.
[00:07:43] Does handyman jokes.
[00:07:45] And it's Effort Friday. I can't say it because your kids may be listening, but it's Effort Friday. And I was like, this is definitely Effort Friday. This guy wanted to go home. It was a Friday, by the way. Funny enough, he was over it, didn't want to deal with it. Took him three days. By the way, it was three days after the original scheduled job. So that was a little unfortunate. And I may end up trying to have to use a different plumber next time, which is sad. But I thought to myself, if I wasn't here, nobody would ever even notice this.
[00:08:11] And that's one. That one is actually where I saved myself a little bit because that water heater is dangerous. It was going to fall through that rubber pan at some point and cause a problem.
[00:08:21] And at the very least, it would have banged up all the Sheetrock and. Well, on its way down, you know, and. And leaned against the Sheetrock and Lord knows what would have happened, but it probably would end up busting open or whatever else. I mean, again, we're talking worst case scenario. But that one, I was a little disappointed, actually, in my guy, who I've used a million times.
[00:08:46] But that's a pretty extreme example. Generally on this job, I've noticed that everything's going pretty smooth other than that little thing with the water heater. My guys have been crushing it. I used a new guy for the flooring and the deck, and he crushed it.
[00:09:01] No issues.
[00:09:03] He was great. I almost want to do another house just to work with him again. He was so easy, great price, did what he was supposed to, showed up on time, very rare.
[00:09:18] But in general, I was thinking to myself, you know, if I wasn't here, I wouldn't have to be doing. I. I did a lot of the work on the house. I did. I hung all the light fixtures. I hung all the ceiling fans. I did all the can lights, the doorknobs. The every doorknob in the house has been replaced by yours truly.
[00:09:35] Switch covers.
[00:09:38] What else did I do?
[00:09:40] I went to, you know, and sourced a lot of the stuff. I went and got the toilets and brought them to the property because I was worried that they were going to bring junkie toilets if I said I needed two new toilets. And I like a particular. I like the American Standard Champion. I think it's a great toilet and it's a good price for $299. $199. Sorry. $200.
[00:10:04] So I went to the store and I picked up a couple of them with my own two hands, which they're heavy, by the way, and I put them in the back of my Suburban and I had both kids with me and I took them back to the house and I left them there and told the plumber, whenever he's ready, come put them in.
[00:10:18] So I'm putting some effort in, but that kind of stuff really, in the grand scheme of things, is probably a waste of time for most purposes. Just call the damn plumber. Whatever, whatever toilet he puts in is totally fine. You know, I mean, really, at the end of the day, who cares?
[00:10:37] I was talking to a buddy of mine earlier and his talking about his mom, and she's older, you know, and she was concerned about the refrigerator. Buying a refrigerator.
[00:10:47] And she wanted to buy like a rent. She wanted to rent a refrigerator while she was taking the time to choose the right refrigerator for her home.
[00:10:57] And, and this friend of mine and myself were just sitting here like, just buy whatever fridge you can get your hands on for right now that fits in the hole.
[00:11:05] And that other one, that's the perfect special one, by the time it comes in, the one you just bought to fit in the hole is going to break anyway. You know, it's, it's, it's. You get to the point where you just do this so often you don't even care. And that's the way to do it. Forget about the damn fridge. Just replace the fridge and move on. Who cares? It's a fridge.
[00:11:27] I have.
[00:11:28] One of my personal homes put a brand new fridge in there last year. I believe it was last August. So about one year ago, it broke. I showed up. I hadn't been there in a month.
[00:11:41] Whole place stunk. All the stuff in the freezer had melted and rotted.
[00:11:46] Got rid of it and got a new one in there. It's just what you do. You move on. You know, I mean, I'm not here to give you the speech about fixing appliances today. That's for another show. And I'm sure we've already had that conversation once or twice, but when you, when you start playing around with spending too much time on the home and being there and, and nitpicking and making sure everything's perfect. It's really. You're just, you're. You're jumping over dollars to pick up pennies.
[00:12:14] There are many things that have gone down in this home that if I wasn't there. I would have, it would have been more efficient. Now it is a fine line. Okay, Devil's advocate time.
[00:12:24] Because especially in a tiny little beach town like where I live right now, it is very hard to find people to do stuff.
[00:12:32] So I could find somebody to hang these ceiling fans and put these light fixtures in and wait for them to show up and hope they do it right.
[00:12:38] Or I can just walk down the street and do it myself. And luckily I'm good with a hammer, I'm good with a screwdriver and I like to keep my chops up. I do.
[00:12:47] I like to put my, my toolbox in use. I'm a Milwaukee guy, so I got my Milwaukee little compact with the whatever, the big giant. I don't use the big battery, but I use the high tech battery.
[00:13:00] I do have the big batteries. Those things are heavy and most of the time those are only going to get used, say on a circular saw around here. I like the skinny batteries or the mediums. But anyway, I like to keep my chops up. You know, if you don't hang a ceiling fan every couple years, you're gonna not be as good at it anymore.
[00:13:22] Can get, you know, it's like I'm a drummer, I play drums, but if I sit down and play drums right now, I'm not going to be as good as I used to be.
[00:13:31] To a certain extent it is like riding a bike, right? It's somewhere in there.
[00:13:36] But I like to keep my chops up. So it's been a dream. I've, I've really enjoyed working on this house. I've really enjoyed having it drive me nuts and make my back hurt.
[00:13:45] But I'm also sitting there like, damn, dude, this little house is making your back hurt. You're out of, you're out of, out of shape here, which I'm in great shape training for my 30th marathon right now. But out of shape on a house.
[00:14:00] My chops aren't what they, what they once were.
[00:14:03] But the point of the show today is to just let you know these guys are not going to do it as good as you. They're probably not even going to do it up to your standards. And who cares?
[00:14:12] Who cares? It's a rental. These people are going to come in there and ding up the walls. This is this house. By the time I'm done, it's brand new house, brand new everything. Floors, H vac, driveway, kitchen, bathrooms, appliances. The whole thing is brand new.
[00:14:29] Everything but the roof deck, brand new deck, painted, everything had the trees removed had some big giant trees that overgrow and everything. I had those removed.
[00:14:41] Five grand for that.
[00:14:44] Got myself a brand new house. And that first guest is going to come in there and they're going to drag their suitcases all over the baseboards and scratch the crap out of everything.
[00:14:54] So a certain extent you can't really care about that. You just got to get over it. But my point is the other guys are not going to do it as good as you. In a lot of cases, if you're handy and if you're not handy, they're a lot of times not going to do it up to your expectations and your standards.
[00:15:11] And so what? Get over it.
[00:15:14] You can sit there and nitpick or you can move on to what's next and keep on rolling, baby.
[00:15:20] Nobody's ever going to do it as good as you.
[00:15:24] That's what she said. Zing.
[00:15:28] All right, short term rental management. Let me give you a book. I'm finishing up a book right now. I'm really enjoying it. But I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. It is very long, it is very out. It's outdated.
[00:15:39] Let me pull this bad boy up. When was this thing written? This book was written in.
[00:15:45] It was released in 2014, but Something Tells me that was a re redone version of it, if I had to guess. I'm actually going to Google it. Give me a second.
[00:15:54] Yes, I was correct. I was going to say the 80s and I searched it here and it's 1984 to be exact.
[00:16:03] And it does read like a book from 1984. It does. Very much.
[00:16:07] I think I have maybe. I think I maybe mentioned this book a couple weeks ago, but I'm just now finishing it. Doctor or Mr. Gold. Gold rat. The goal. Great book. It is dragging on. I thought I was going to be done with it a couple weeks ago, but I just can't get past this past couple hours on Audible. It's a lot of the same thing over and over, but it is a great book. Highly recommend it. The goal from 1984. Luke Carl from the short term shop stsplus.com don't overthink it.
