I Built an Airbnb Business on UNWANTED Land! (And So Should You)

This was dirt cheap, unwanted land. That is why it's perfect for a glamping business. I'm going to show you how to turn this land into cash flow and get paid in 30 days. Last time I bought unwanted land for $10,000 for 10 acres. And I asked you guys in the comments, what should I do with it? And I read all of your comments. This time I gave myself $20,000 to turn one acre into a full glamping site. I'm going to see if I can pull this off and I'm going to bring you along step by step. Land criteria. I want to pay less than $5,000. Also, I want to buy water. And welcome to my new office. All right, here's the plan. First step, I need to figure out what my business model is. Then I got to find my operator. Next, I got to find the land, prep the land, then create the design for the land. Then I go out and market that boy. And finally I book my first Airbnbs. Lucky for us, we visited so many of these sites together. We've got Yurtopia, which was incredible. Yurt. So beautiful. But like kind expensive. I don't want to spend hundreds of thousands of them. Then we've got Isaac French. Remember him? His beautiful modern design, but a million bucks and would take forever. Then Outpost X, which is maybe perfect storytelling. Cheap, fast, and they used tents. Each of these places taught me something different about what works and what doesn't. So we are going with camping because it's intense. Do you get it? My dad would have liked that joke. But let's get to the actual plan. Okay, the business model plan. Low startup costs. Were going with tents because Isaac French, all these other guys spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. These bad boys are 1600 bucks. I like that. High perceived value. I was looking around online, we can charge like 200, 300 bucks a night for a fancy glamping experience. Modular and mobile. We can move these things. They're easy. I don't have to have a full crew, no construction, minimal util needs. Which means I've got solar powered fans, communal toilets. Not, not that one. And some maybe fire pits and a cute little grill. Really, really cheap. Finally, Instagrammable moments. Those are going to be where the ladies are highly sharing them on Instagram because you know, this is the business plan. But I want to show you how the numbers are going to break down. And now for building a budget. Okay, so I think what we're going to do is this. And I'm not really sure, but I'm like, oh my God, that's so good. I don't know. Like, okay, I totally got this. This is perfect. Nailed it, didn't I? We've got buying the land, 5k tents, 2. So I think we'll spend 4k on it. Extras, which is like amenities, all the fun stuff. 8k for two tents, land prep, making sure everything's okay on the land. 1,000 bucks. Sad face. For contingencies. Anything goes sideways, that's an extra thousand bucks for the grand total of $19,000. $1,000 under budget. Because you builders know that nothing ever goes wrong or like over budget or takes longer than you think it's going to when you're building things. So I'm sure this will be totally fine. Let's get into some revenue numbers. Let's talk about how much money we're going to make. I think we can charge 150 bucks per tent on average, maybe a little bit more. We're targeting 50% occupancy. I think we can make 4,500 bucks a month with this. With operating costs that are pretty minimal, but we're going to get into those in depth at the end of this video payback period means I think we're looking somewhere between three and five months, baby, if we do this right. But you guys, I love a spreadsheet. Right now the numbers look insane. We're Talking about making 54k a year and having a pretty insane cash on cash return. If you guys want this exact spreadsheet, you can click the link in the comments. I got it for you. But right now, got an operator to meet. Here's where things get real. Building a budget and tracking it all. So much work. But secret. My EA did all of this. So if you're trying to copy this or just want to work less, get yourself an Athena assistant. Because once you've got your model dialed, it's all about execution, quotes, suppliers, permits, scheduling, and about 47 random things that will go wrong. If you're trying to scale and not lose your mind, get Athena. Athena pairs you with a full, full time executive partner. They embed in your business your style and then take whole categories off your plate. Not just booking travel or checking boxes. I'm talking sourcing vendors, coordinating permitting calls, helping with listings, even building sops for future sites. It's wild how much faster you move when you stop trying to do everything solo. So if you're serious about building a business, go to Athena.com Cody Sanchez and you get $2,000 off and more Importantly, you'll grow. All right, budget done. Let's get back to building how to find your operator. So I actually don't live in this town, so how did I find somebody to run this business for me and find the location? Well, the secret is I never start a business until I have an operator. Why? I don't want another job. So in this case, I found my operator. Brandy, I'm going to tell you the three things you need to find a good operator. These are your ops. Number one, on the ground, local talent. Which means if I'm going to buy local land, I need somebody who's got what we call the mayor. They basically know everybody in the town. They know how to find people who can help you out. Because guess what? In business, you're going to have problems. That's where all the profits are. Number two, we've got proven grit. This means that you need to have a proven person who has not only done the thing that you want them to do before, but also has done hard things. And three, shared upside. You want to make sure that your operator has some skin in the game. Don't hire somebody who doesn't. That means revenue share, profit share, equity, some way, if they work more, they get more. Now, how about a bad operator? This is your sos, the opposite of your ops plan. And it starts with one single thing. They're pretty far. I think one of the biggest things I see people do wrong in buying business and starting them is that they do not go close by. I know it sounds super easy to find a business farther away because those are cheaper, but I promise you, you will pay for it in proximity. Proximity is power, so find somebody that's close. Second is only done easy things if they've only done things that are simple. They haven't held on to them. They haven't continued in one job for multiple years. What do you probably know? They're not willing to do what it takes. They're just willing to do what they want. I'm tired of this, grandpa. That's too damn bad. And the third, which I think is the most important overall, is self serving. Which means if Brandy had no upside or my operator has no upside, why would they come out on what is going to be a very hot day to help us build tents in the middle of nowhere when we're not making any money yet? You need to have a deal where they see some upside for them, too. And that is how we nail our operators. So if you guys want to find your Brandy, I want to make sure that we tell you exactly how. Let's go do it. Number one, we're going to go to Facebook groups. Look at this. This one's called nomads camping together. 3,000 members, a bunch of people all looking for different places to camp for free. What do you think they'd do if you paid them? Boondocking and Free Camping USA. This is a gold mine. This is 240,000 members. Then I might go to the cesspool of the Internet, otherwise known as ra and on Reddit, you can see tons of things about campground owners, RV park owners. Same sort of thing. You can get it from like 95 bucks all the way up to an entire Resort for 1500 bucks, which is kind of a steal. Lastly, we have something called the SMB boardroom that I built. It's for people who build businesses. If you already are a business owner and this is going to be your second, I have a group that is just for operators. You can use any of these resources for you to find your grandees. All right, Cody, I think I found the one after all of the property that we have looked at. This one checks all of the boxes and it's near the water. I think you should check this one out. That's sick, right? Cool. I think that's our land. If you want to see how I bought the land step by step. We have an entire video on that, so you can check it out. You guys know the goal of this channel is to tell you guys the truth. The good, bad, the ugly. And the truth is we didn't hit our 5k mark. We hit it for 7, 500 though, and I think that's pretty good per acre. It took us 30 days. Well, really, it took Brandy 30 days because while I told her my criteria really explicitly, I wanted the land to be close enough to a major city where people could fly in, fly out. So it's like less than 30 minutes from a major city, which was important. Tents right here. Perfect. Perfect. Okay, we got, I think two we start with, but man, we could fit like six bad boys. I think so too. Okay, let's do it. All right, so we are going to be building a pad right out here along this tree line to put our yurt style tents right along here for glamping. Brandy's off prepping land, which means I get to design it. This is my pinterest board that I have put together for our piece of land. I want a vibey tent. I went and looked at the competition, so I'm like, all right, how do I compete and win against these guys. Well, I think the way that we do is by making this a real scene. So we put together, obviously, our little buy list of everything that we know we need inside of a tent. I want to have sort of a feel where it's like Moroccan tent meets rural land. So Chat GPT can do all the work for me. Check this out. I go, hey, I'm gonna upload all of the images that I have here. Can you build me a mockup interior of a yurt and includes all of these items? I want to use it as a sample layout. Look at what Chat GPT does, you guys. This is an actual mock up with every single item that I put in that goes inside of the yurt. It is to the right square footage. It's the right placement. It's literally perfect. And this took me all of 30 seconds. Now it's time to buy some things, like a rug. Now some lights. Time for beds. Now let's get some furniture, like a bench. Ooh, and a chair. Sexy poofs. Some baskets. Now we're going to add some fun, fun things like a radio and maybe a little coffee maker. That's my tents. I think I got it all. Next, I wanted to make sure that this land had some foliage, because I want some real Instagramable moments. I want to bring some whimsical back to the property. So I'm like, how about we add, like, little fairy forests? Maybe a wardrobe moment in the middle of the forest? This is the tiniest hook ever. Let me tell you why, because what we have right here is imagine moment for the kiddos. We've got a little fairyland, and they get to explore and find each one of them. Then I have a story written on everything in here. So even before they get here, you're gonna start wondering, where do I find the next little fairy secret? This is what's going to make me bunnies. Because it is not enough to just have tents. It's not enough just to have unwanted land. We've got to have something totally different. But I don't think we have to spend millions to get it. Okay. I'm obsessed with this one because I think that that there is something really magical about transition moments. So, like, when you transition into a fantasy world, like lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe, you go through a cabinet or you go through an archway into a new and magical land. So I think, like, we feel something about that, which was my idea for this magic archway. And we looked all over the Internet for it. We Couldn't find one. So we actually had a guy build it here. But I think what you're going to see happen is a bunch of people take little photos. It's a perfect frame, and then it's going to take you right into the fairy wonderland. I want to have some moments where people can get snuggly here. You know what I'm talking about? I think there's nothing like you're at a campsite. You're hanging out. You get to lay in a hammock that you don't have to set somebody else did. And you get to read a book. Not to mention the photos from this segment. You guys are going to be so good. Just you wait. I bet we get bookings just for this. Not to mention this thing cost me like 40 bucks, I think. And it's brown, so it's going to totally hold up when idiots like myself get mud all over it. A magic moment perfect for Instagram. And anybody who wants to have a little Instagramable photo shoot here, which they could also pay for. We've got a pristine little lake and a picnic set up this. We're going to charge people if they want it popped up. They want to have a little champs. We got you. And a swing. Because who doesn't want to swing at a camping site? Some lovely little fun fairy LED lights on here that light up as you're swinging around. I feel like this is a total Instagram moment that I'm kind of obsessed with. What is a campsite without a fire pit? So we got one. We've got a fire pit. We've got somewhere for people to actually grill and cook. We've got a bunch of seats also. These seats are definitely going to last for a long time. And they were cheap. 3.99, baby. One of my favorite costs, and this was all of the put together mostly from stuff sourced on. On site, which is great. I think this cost us 139 bucks. But everything else was good to go. And this is where I want to see a lot of people taking photos on a little tree stump with their marshmallow. Having a time with the family. That's my vision for it. And I think we nailed it. All right, let's break down the numbers and what this cost us. First, tent plus rain flap and ground cover. 2,040 bucks per tent. Exterior, 310. That's trash cans, chairs. Interior, 2,600 bucks. That was a lot of design in there. Also, we wanted to move fast. I think we could have done that. For cheaper. Fire pit one. 39 bucks. I think we did really good there. Arrows. Those cool little directions. 500 bucks. Archway 400 for the labor. Sticks will free fairies. 240. That includes all of fairyland. So the hammocks and the little tiny forest fairies. Then in the tree with all the lights and the swings. 150 bucks. If you wanted to add in those little pillows and the throws, I would charge people an upcharge for that as a picnic. Then we got into mowing. That was a lot. 600. Labor. 2,400 for four days of three helpers and then potty. 278 bucks for a total of 15,107 bucks. That's cuz we have two tents here. Now, if you add the acreage on top, well, that was 7,500 per acre. So we're looking at a pretty good number, I think, for building all of this. The best part is anything we add kind of just as gravy on top. Okay, so Airbnb listing is up. Look at this thing. It's looking good. But the most important part is not learning how to list on Airbnb. We got to figure out how to market this thing. Photos. So we had a photographer come out. We staged the whole thing. You guys saw the Pinterest board and look at what we came up with. So we have the fairy forest. Look at these photos on the hammock. She's like laying down down with their hair back. These turned out so sick. Also the archway, like pretty perfect. They've got the two girls having marshmallows. A little coffee in the morning. And then the inside of the tent. This is beautiful. We caught it at sunset. You know, the sun peeking through. You're basically creating an experience for these guys. Like this. This. This sunset is so stunning. Step two, we're going to do postcards with QR codes that we're going to give a bunch of people in the local community. Then we're going to ping a bunch of local influencers. I have $1,000 in my budget for them to come. They get to stay for free. We'll do something kind of special for them then with these photos and also some little video reels we took on site. We're going to make some Instagram stories to post around. Then we're actually going to ping a bunch of local newspapers. These days they're online, so let's call them newsletters or blogs and see if they want to feature our cute location. We're also going to ping Hip Camp. That'll be kind of a long shot and some see if they will post it. That is how I think we get bookings inside of the first 30 days. Ready to rock and roll when you normally wouldn't. Marketing is the key to money, You guys. You probably already saw we got our first Airbnb booking. Thanks Shauna. How fun is this? So all in 610 bucks. Now obviously that's before Airbnb booking cost and taxes, but let's go break down what this means for our business model. Let's talk some numbers here. Started off with a budget of somewhere around $19,000. We ended up at $22,000 instead. So a little bit over budget and then, then we added in some sexy stuff. We added in some marketing, we added in some things to make sure that we could fill this bad boy out to get to closer to $24,000. If you guys want this full spreadsheet, by the way, I got it for you linked in the comments. Now let's get to the math. Like what kind of money we making, baby? We think an occupancy rate of 30% is actually really, really reasonable. And so that means monthly rent of about 2,700 bucks between 2 10, making an annual income of 32,400 bucks with 2/10. Now we got a lot of recurring expenses here. Those are things like property taxes, insurance, supplies, storage, Airbnb fees. We also don't know your tax code and if you're being clever with it, because it's Airbnb but taxes, which means that at the end of the day we are working with a net operating income of about $11,000. That's actually kind of sexy because the cash on cash return or how much money we make on the money that we invested and put down in these hard costs is actually 48% which is very high. And that means our payback period, although not immediate, isn't too crazy. Like inside of two years, if we don't do too much inside of this business, we start to make our money back. And that means that we have the built out rocking and rolling. Now a lot of people here might say, well, well, what about things breaking? Well, what about things needing to be replaced? That's certainly a component of it. So do you guys want to see how I would turn this bad boy into a six figure business with just two acres? I think you do. Okay, so let's break down how much we would make if we built this out contrarian thinking style. Now we have pretty much the same expenses before we had two fancy tents, right? I'm going to say that we're not going to build any more fancy tents. Although there's like a world in which I might go four, six, eight tents, but instead I'm going to do the next easy thing. I'm going to do what I'm calling byot. Bring your own tent, baby. And for that, I'm going to charge less money, 35 bucks a night. I also am going to think that I'm going to have a lower occupancy rate, but I have way more spots underneath those trees at the location. Lights twinkling, you, your bud, your tent. And that means that I'm getting to about $63,000 a year in revenue. But we're not going to stop there. We're also going to add RV pads. In fact, I already got this quoted by a guy, so that's going to give me another $36,000 a year because we can fit eight of them there. I'm only going to charge 50 bucks because we're not going to put in electricity. Although if I wanted to put in electricity, those things definitely go up. Then I'm going to get pretty creative. This one, I think, is super smart without having to have a lot of operating expenses. Private events, think a little camp for the kiddos. All right, I'll charge you a thousand bucks a night. You can rent out the entire place, plus a little help. Also, these picnics, we're going to charge 150 bucks. We'll set up a picnic by the tree. You guys saw the visuals on that. What about photo shoots? We did some sick photo shoots there. So much so that turns out some of the girlfriend's friends want their high school photo shoot to look just like that. We also are going to do affiliate things. I don't want the liability of having kayaks on my property. But if you come to my property, I'm going to give you a bunch of activities and I'm going to take a cut from somebody else's business. That gets us to something pretty sexy, guys, which is more like $230,000 in revenue a year, all in. And this isn't even going as far as I think we could go. That means, though, that I'm going to increase my expenses. So you'll see here different from the last one. I'm basically somewhere between 2 and 3x in the expenses of the location. All across the board. I'm adding a little bit more. So I'm going to have to pay a little bit more, which means at the end of the day, I'm making about $170,000. And that cash on cash return is pretty wild. This, I think, is how you build up a big business. Now, the last thing I want to say here is we're on a path right now to make tens of thousands of dollars a year with two tents on an acre. That's pretty sick. This next thing is a lot of us guessing and putting projections out. But what is business if not a big, calculated guess and a little bit of risk? And as you can see, I think you can create your own little world on a piece of unwanted land without a ton of cash and maybe even make some money on it. What do you guys want to see us build next?