SoCal Real Estate Riches with Keith Yazdanseta

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the New and Experienced Investor Podcast. Today we have an amazing guest. We're gonna be talking about thriving in the Southern California market using a variety of exit strategies. It's definitely a show you don't wanna miss. I'm Alex Barnett. I'm one of your hosts. I'm the new guy.

And I'm Joe Homs, and that makes me the experienced guy.

Yes, it does. Like I said, we have an awesome guest, uh, real estate investor specializes in short-term and midterm rental strategies, building a profitable portfolio in OC and Coachella Valley. Before we bring him on, let's remind everybody about our upcoming meetup.

I can't read it from here. It's August 25th. 25th.

Yes.

August 25th, Hangar 24.

That's right.

6 PM. Uh, Natalie Elsner, our CPA.

Yeah.

Is coming to speak.

Oh yeah.

She's going to talk everything about the big beautiful bill and what's in it. She's read it from COVID to cover.

Yes.

So you can ask her whatever questions, and if she hasn't read it, I'm putting her on notice. She better read it.

Oh, she's read it so she can answer all those questions out there.

There's a lot in Really? There's a lot.

Yeah.

So she's gonna let us know what's in there. So don't miss it.

Don't miss it. Real estate's one of the best vehicles to get all these tax savings. It's actually written into the tax code. So she's gonna explain the best way for you guys to successfully pay zero taxes to the government.

Ooh, that'd be nice.

Yes.

That's my jam.

Yeah.

I always like to remind you guys, this is a live show right now, so please share it far and wide and jump into the chat. It's one of our most requested parts. We bring a question to our guest live in the flesh, so it's pretty fun stuff. But let's stop screwing around today. Let's bring in our guest. We have Keith Yazdunceta. What's up, man? How you doing?

Good, guys. How are you?

Good. Thanks for coming.

Pleasure to be here.

Yeah, right on. Come a little bit closer to the mic so everyone can hear that sweet, sweet voice.

That's better.

Yeah, there we go. Nice. Yeah, go ahead, introduce yourself to the audience. How'd you get into real estate? What'd you do before? What got you there?

Sure. Yeah.

So based in Southern California, primarily Coachella Valley. I kind of split my time here between Orange County and Coachella Valley. Originally from New York, came out here about 10, 11 years ago. I currently am full-time in tech, and then on the side, I invest in real estate. So my strategies are short-term and midterm rental. Buy and hold and wholesaling as exit strategies.

Nice.

Are you a tech bro?

A tech bro to an extent.

Yes.

I get called nerdy a lot.

That's it. I mean, the whole, everything is going to be tech eventually. There's no way to stop it, especially in real estate. You see people making leaps and bounds with this AI stuff and automation and all that. So how do you, how do you bring those 2 worlds together? Are you implementing any, new technology in your portfolio?

That's a good question. So we have to run— I mean, we have to run technology in the backend, and I have to present to our customers. So that kind of coincides, runs hand in hand with dealing with whether it's sellers or dealing with guests, um, for my rentals. Um, they have an issue or I have something to present to them, and I have to work it on the backend, uh, change it and present to them on the frontend as well too. So I'm both backend and front-facing in my, in my, my W-2, and I have to do the same thing with real estate as well.

Love that. So tell us about, um, I guess your first deal. Was it a short-term rental? Was that the first path you went down, or what?

First deal was a, uh, it was more of a buy and hold. We purchased a property in Southern Orange— South Orange County, Mission Viejo. Um, my first, I guess, strategy was house hacking. So I was actually living in one room and renting out the other room, as crazy as that sounds. But it's, I mean, it's popular. People use it. And then I purchased another property out in Coachella Valley. I was really just looking for something in close proximity to family. And we ended up landing on the property out in Palm Springs. It's basically an SFR with an ADU. It was kind of a long road because initially we looked out of state. I looked in Arizona, Nevada, and just with financing rules with the state, it was kind of difficult to make a casita out there. Or there was very little duplexes cash flow to qualify for traditional lending. Went to South Carolina. I'll be honest, it was pretty— it's very, very, uh, competitive out there. So got outbid a bunch of times. Um, and then looked up into, uh, Northern California, about 2 hours north of the Bay, and this city called Kelseyville. Um, beautiful property overlooking the lake. But you guys probably are aware of the California Fair Plan. That property, that area was— had gotten hit by fires, I think, in 2018. So thousands of properties burned down. So I had to pivot and found the Palm Springs property, and it's been working really well.

Nice. Okay, so you were living in the front house and there was an ADU? Is that what you mentioned?

Yeah, that's currently what I'm doing right now. I'm living in the, in the main house, and then we have an ADU.

Gotcha. Okay, and so that's, that's when you started renting it out short-term-wise? Is that— did you have any experience before that?

No, not really. Just kind of jumped into it. I mean, I— to, to be To be honest, I, we, I took a couple of courses to kind of get an idea of the backend of Airbnb, how to deal with guests, certain inquiries, things of that nature. But, uh, was my first time actually becoming a host. And I had this vision of exactly doing a house hacking, but having someone, having another party either rent short-term and midterm in that other unit.

Okay.

Yeah.

Gotcha. And I mean, what are some things that you've learned about short-term rentals? Because now you're, Managing other people's, right? And so I guess it all came from that first one. You kind of cut your teeth on that. What, what did you learn, um, as far as what it takes to have a successful short-term rental?

I think one of the most important things before you actually purchase your— whether you're doing an arbitrage or you're buying the property, is to get a really good understanding of what the local regulations are in the area. And if there's anything involving— there's anything, you have to just stay abreast with that. Because I got lucky. I mean, I looked into it. I know it was regulated— perfect example— regulated by the county. Where I'm at, but you could look at Palm Springs, proper Palm Springs, and they have limitations on as to how many reservations you can book per year or allow guests to book per year. It's a little bit more strict, and only every neighborhood is divided in the city of Palm Springs. And this is also other cities nationwide too, where 20 percent there's a 20 percent threshold. So essentially, only 20 percent of the properties in that neighborhood can have short-term rental permits. So that's a huge one. That's that's That's that's pretty much required. You want to be very you want to be specific and very accurate in your listings, and if there's anything that could potentially pose as an issue, not not like an essentially damage or anything like that, but as an issue and inconvenience, you want to put that in your description too because that's going to protect you kind of going from the front end to the back end as well too. Is okay, this was listed. You can't hold this against me. You just want to and also just just be have great communication. Communication is key. You want to have great communication with your guests ongoing, even if sometimes they're not. Communicating back because people are on vacation, right? They're traveling. So you want to make sure that you provide an open streamlined line of communication. That way you can, you can show that you provided all the necessary information for check-in, check-out. Personally, what we do is we have automated messages after the initial booking, leading up to the day of check-in, and then during for check-in instructions and check-in instructions, things to do in the area. Well, the check-up message. And right now in the Coachella Valley, it's hot. It's a little bit of the slower season. So in order to keep my occupancy rate up, it's been actually probably at least 80%. We just do midterm rentals. So then it's just, okay, it's not automated anymore. We can build out more automated messages to check in every so often as well too. And I don't just use Airbnb. I use Furnished Finder as well. Or I'll just, I'll just negotiate directly with guests and have them come, have them sign a, have them sign a vacation lease contract as well too.

Gotcha. Okay. And can you kind of explain the difference between midterm and short-term rental?

Sure.

Yeah, it, it kind of goes by, I guess, uh, city or county. But generally speaking, some states, some cities will say 28 days or less is a short-term rental. I think the majority is 30 days or— 30 days or less is a short-term rental, and anything above that is considered midterm, and up to 6 months, then it's considered long-term. So every, um, every jurisdiction is going to have its own set of regulations as to whether or not they allow Short-term rentals as well too, and you just have to be educated in how to pivot around that because sometimes it'll just be seven-day minimum or ten-day minimum, which is still considered a short-term rental, and you can cash flow very well on that.

Okay.

You just have to know how to kind of position your property at that time during that season to capture that.

Okay. And now you're you're you're managing for other people.

Yes.

So I mean, I'm assuming with all this communication that's involved, it's got to get pretty tough with like. Checking in with all these people? Like, what's like your bandwidth on that? How do you kind of—

So I have a— my spouse, my girlfriend, she helps me manage as well too. Um, we're gonna hire a VA, but maybe if we expand a little more, we'll hire a VA. It's not too bad. Bandwidth's not too crazy. Again, we have the automated messages. That helps a lot. I've had situations— luckily I'm pretty local to the properties that I manage, so I, I can just go over there and just I've had some, yeah, very interesting situations occur. We could talk about later if you want. Oh, um, yeah, but I've had to go on site to properties and, and kind of had to deal with, had to deal with the situation.

Okay. But I mean, we should probably just get into it.

Like, what, what is the issue?

Let's talk about it. Today was a, today I had to put out some fires.

Kind of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's start with the ugly.

Ugly. Okay. So today it wasn't as bad as, as, as it's gonna be perceived. So One of my, one of my property owners, he obviously most as I recommend to any another recommendation is any, any property owner or anyone managing a short-term rental or any rental, you should have at least a doorbell camera or some kind of camera on your, on your premises, right? I have on my, on my property that I own, I have cameras all around the perimeter, just not for my, not for their safety, but for my safety as well too, just so I can see. He noticed that there was a strange man with a dog going in and out of the house. So the guest, again, this is a situation where the guest wasn't that communicative. They didn't get my message till later. So my property owner kind of got paranoid and ended up calling the sheriff. Luckily, it didn't escalate into anything crazy. But, and, you know, the also we tried it. So another thing too is you want to keep everything on the messaging app, right? If the guest doesn't respond, then you have to Airbnb will automatically provide their what should be their cell phone number. And you can reach out to them via, you know, via text or call. I did both. I put put put them in a group chat as well too. No response, and she got back to us after the the sheriff came in, and everything was fine. But she didn't provide her updated number. It was a completely different area code, so I had no way in contacting her outside of Airbnb. I didn't know that. It should be in the it should be in the listing. But that's also just something as well too. Is just you want to be able to make sure that the guest has their updated contact information for God forbid if there's there's an emergency.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

So it was just a friend. They didn't let anybody know or something. Who, who, who was the strange man?

It was a friend.

Yeah.

They didn't let her know.

He came up on camera. Yeah. It exceeded the guest threshold as well too. Right. So that's another reason why you want to have, uh, you wanna have cameras, uh, you wanna have cameras there too as well because you wanna make sure that you're not too many. There is an excess of people there. 'Cause also you can as a, on, and I think across all the platforms as well too, you can have an extra guest fee as well. So per guest, you can charge at $100, $80, whatever, whatever you determine. As long as it's in there, you'll win with Airbnb.

What about speakers, like 2-way speakers so you can talk to them and you're like, who's this? Who's the guy coming in right now? Is that frowned upon?

Outside? No, I don't believe it's not. It's not inside. Obviously it is. We don't— Airbnb bans that. And I wouldn't put a camera in because I wouldn't want that if I was staying at someone's, someone's property as well too. I wouldn't want to Interior camera as well.

Yeah. Do you have any properties that you own or manage that there's an HOA responsible?

Yes. So I don't— I can't do short-term there. The one out here in Orange County. Yeah, there's an HOA. So the max— the minimum nights, it's essentially a midterm. It's 30 nights.

Okay. And the reason I'm asking that is because there's a new law that passed that basically the HOA can't fine you more than $100.

Interesting.

Okay.

And so Like if you wanted to do a short-term rental, you just pay the $100.

Yeah.

Oh, that's kind of— that's amazing.

Yeah, you just build it in.

Yeah, you just—

yeah, especially it's like, okay, you want to fine me? $100 is all you can fine me. Here you go, build that into your system.

When did that pass? Is that recently?

Recently, yes.

Okay, is that nationwide or is it California?

Oh yeah, no, all the ugly stuff is here in California.

Well, I mean, these HOAs were getting a little crazy with what they were doing, so then they'd probably fine you and then You couldn't pay the fines, so then they'd try and foreclose on you. And then, you know, just so that's probably a good thing.

I heard that the other day and I go, geez, that's a workaround for somebody who wants to do a short-term rental.

Yeah, exactly.

That's great.

Because that's the biggest thing.

Not that I recommend it. I really don't recommend it.

But don't upset your HOA.

Oh, yeah. I was just curious, right? You know, how, how much of a pain in the neck burden are HOAs?

I haven't had to deal with them. Yeah, from a short-term perspective, I haven't tried dealing with them for my property down here, but they— I'm sure they can be, especially when analyzing a deal as well too. It's okay, how much— even if they allowed, how much do you need to allocate to buffer to recoup the loss to HOA? So some places, especially here, there are several hundred dollars a month.

And, and for managing places, are you managing stuff like pretty local around you? Like you can like quickly drive to it, take care of issues and stuff like that. Like, if I, if I was living here in Orange County, I don't know that I could manage something out in Palm Springs. I mean, it's a 2-hour, 3-hour drive, whatever. But I think local regulations want it to be a certain time that you have to be there by. Is that correct or no?

The city of Palm Springs, yes.

Okay.

They have to— if, if there's an issue, the city will come on, though, the city will come on site and they will ask you to be there. They will, they'll need whether it's you on site or someone, someone from your team on site to be there. Um, my property is all regulated by the County of Riverside. They're pretty much very hands-off, which is great. Uh, so I wouldn't— I don't have to do that. And I'm probably— I probably wouldn't take on a property in Palm Springs right now at this point, the city of Palm Springs.

And, and that's, you know, that goes back to knowing what the regulations are and where you, where you're, you know, doing all this stuff at.

Doing your homework initially.

Yeah.

Yeah. Seems like unincorporated areas are, are usually a lot— yeah, less regulation.

Yeah.

And, and the thing is, is, is, I mean, we saw this with the STR boom was people went so hard on short-term rentals and then it was like the city council changes this, city council changes this. All of a sudden it's not a feasible exit strategy.

Yeah, exactly. It's not. So you kind of have to pivot and, and kind of rotate to other strategies like midterm. Midterm is very good. I mean, it's kind of essentially what is midterm. It's between short-term and long-term. As far as cash flow as well too, it's a, it's a very good in-between. And the demographic is, is a little bit different. People are looking to work. Half the time they're not even there. I had, for example, I had someone stay last month, 30 days, and he was never there. He was working the whole time. Same thing, I, I had a nurse stay at one of my properties who actually was local, um, kind of in the Temecula area. He came, he would, he was working, um, out by, out in downtown Palm Springs at a hospital. And he was never there either. He was only there 3 or 4 days all the week. It was great.

Amazing.

2 months. It was great.

Yeah.

So it's a great way to pivot. I definitely encourage midterm as well too. It's a different demographic.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, you're seeing a lot in, I guess, just headlines or YouTube videos where it's saying short-term rental is getting harder because Airbnb is changing their site all the time. I mean, has any of those updates affected you at all or anything? I guess— They pivoted more to like an experience sort of thing to where just the standard house, depending on where you are, may not perform as someone who has like a pickleball court and freaking like, you know, arcade in the garage. And is all that necessary still?

It's not necessary. Um, but I mean, you definitely wanna optimize your listing to benefit from the search algorithm. And you don't have to have, like, for example, I don't want my, one of my main properties, I don't have a pool, I don't have a pickleball court, but it's typically in the first page when you, when you look out in the area, right?

Nice.

It's just how you, you have to really change. It's breaking down into simple things. You change your, your listing title. You have to, you have to change your description to kind of fit what's, what's kind of in with the season. So for example, during the summer for my properties out there, I, I'm not, I'm not marketing as a vacation rental. I'm marketing it as a midterm stay for traveling employees or traveling, traveling nurses, whatever it may be. And I always, always try and stay competitive with the hotels as well too. So I try and stay a little bit, probably like 10% lower than what the hotels are charging. And it really comes down to reviews as well. I'll be honest with you, reviews, as long as you have a good accumulation of reviews, and I am a Superhost as well too, that helps a lot, helps that your property is ranked high as well. So it's, you can manipulate your listing to benefit the algorithm. You don't need all the fancy bells and whistles as well too. What I have noticed depending on the area, some properties are, so for example, SFRs, You really have to manipulate that even more because they're kind of taking a hit. Whereas opposed to like, for example, one of my other properties is a studio apartment that does very well because it's easier for people to come in and out, whether they're working or just coming in for a night of town or so on and so forth. So yeah, to kind of reiterate, you don't need to invest a ton of money, I would say, into like all these fancy accessories.

Yeah, I could see a studio working actually pretty well because like you mentioned, it's probably like a price thing. Accessibility, easy. Maybe it's got some amenities there, but yeah. Whereas the houses, they gotta be, they gotta be hitting a certain threshold to even make their return, you know, or break even.

Yeah, yeah. They have to, you have to, you definitely have to manipulate the pricing on that too as well, or add discounts. What I have noticed, not necessarily the site as much, it's the fees that have been tacked on. And I recently, a lot, I think people have been asking me to try and negotiate with negotiate on reservation costs and whatnot because Airbnb has increased their fees. That's for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess if they can book directly through you, which is probably the best one.

Yeah.

If they return.

Yeah. And I just— one of my reservations right now, my properties, that is, we just booked directly through. We went through Furnished Finder. Furnished Finder just charges you for an annual membership. And what's cool about Furnished Finder— what I like about Airbnb is you have AirCover, right? So Furnished Finder built in this almost like this Security deposit, but it— there's different tiers to it and it'll cover a certain amount of money. So I just build that into my pricing to, to my guests and it's covered. So they don't have to worry about paying me, you know, $1,000, $2,000 security deposit, whatever it is. And I'm still, I'm still protected as the, as a homeowner as well too. And I'm not getting charged fees. So I was able to kind of circumvent that too.

Nice. Now, when you first got the property, was it, was it turnkey or did you have to put some some money into the, the ADU to get it up and running?

That's a good question. So when I first bought the property, was already on Airbnb. It was a, it was a kind of like a flip property. We were able to get a good discount and I probably got— I negotiated probably another $30,000 off the top and was able to have all the furniture included and the TVs, all the appliances.

Yeah.

So it was nice. So it helped with the Airbnb because everything was there ready to go. But the biggest thing was the— at least in my property was the— it has an oversized bathroom. When I look at it, when I initially looked at it, I thought of like a Las Vegas spa or hotel or something, right?

Mm-hmm.

The biggest thing we— the biggest renovation we did was we added a kitchenette. Um, it was kind of like a blessing in disguise. So, uh, the previous owner didn't install a P-trap inside of the— inside of the studio bathroom, and there was a flood one day. Um, and this is something I would— this is, I think, another tip for, for, uh, operators too, is you want to build good relationships with contractors, plumbers, electricians as well too, because you can get a very good deal. So I was quoted to fix my P-trap and also to run plumbing into the onto the other side to build my kitchenette. I was initially they quoted me at like $4,300. I have I built a really good relationship with a plumber. He did some work before, and he I ended up paying about we ended up paying about $1,500. And the beautiful thing is I have a home had a home warranty company at the time, and they covered the whole thing.

Oh, amazing!

Yeah, it was great. So. Uh, all in all, I mean, uh, with the kitchenette, it wasn't a lot. It was probably $1,100 because I did a lot of the work myself and I had a friend who was construction. He did a lot of the work himself with us. He helped us as well too. So put the kitchenette in, we got, um, we obtained unfinished cabinetry. So we finished everything, uh, and just redecorated the whole unit. So it came out pretty well.

Awesome.

And so, okay, so now it's kind of like a self-contained thing where people can cook if they, if they need to. Excellent. Okay, sweet. And so how do you branch out from there? Where did you become a Superhost and then you start reaching out to other hosts to see if they want you to host for them, or how does that work?

Yeah, so just, I guess, building brilliant relationships with people I come across. Um, I mean, I've talked to people who want to sell their house because they've had it— they have an Airbnb, it's not doing well. So I talk to them about what I'm doing. I'm a Superhost. Um, kind of show them, you know, show them my listing. And talk to them how I can help improve their, the performance on their property.

Nice.

And being that I'm, I'm local out there too, so I have an understanding of how the market works.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, God, I've never been able to figure out like the desert area. We tried Joshua Tree before.

Yeah.

Palm Springs is its own thing. Palm Desert is its own thing.

It's depressing. It's depressing.

But you see people like making like beaucoup money out there, you know?

Yeah.

So, What what do people need to understand about the desert? It's hot.

Yeah, no, it's exactly. It's hot in the summer, so it's gonna be very slow in the summer. Your peak seasons are going to be between basically depending on how you market property November end of October November through end of April because obviously we have the festivals out there. That's when people kill it. I mean, I think what Rihanna paid, I don't know forty thousand or something. Some celebrities pay an exorbitant amount of money for their. for their stays out there. So November through—

That's nothing for her.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, that's a dollar.

Yeah, it's like Motel 6, you know?

Yeah.

So it's understanding that, understanding the heat, understanding when your peak seasons are, and then kind of— I didn't label it, but pretty— and like make transforming your property into a hybrid property, which is we go midterm on the offseason. And like it's it's very slow in the summer. So either if you don't have a pool, you have to adjust your pricing or market it as a midterm rental. And then September through October, it can be hit or miss. It really just depends again on the fluctuation of what's going on right now with the economy and what's going on with the local market as well too. But what I what I really like about short-term rentals is obviously long-term rentals. It's kind of this is the rental range, right? You can you can look on rent.com. You can look on Zillow. They're going to give you an ideal rental range, and this is where your comps are. The, the beautiful thing about short-term rentals is you can kind of emulate or illustrate the property you want through the description and make it how you want to be. And you can have comps as short-term rentals that are doing $3,000, $4,000, and then 5x, right? It just depends what kind of property you have and how you market your property and what kind of features you have as well too. So, um, the sky, the sky can be the limit with short-term rentals. It just depends how you market it.

Wow, let's do it.

I think there's also, I would say, a motivation for people who are looking for short-term rentals. You know, maybe their house had some flood damage or fire damage, and they need to, you know, find a place that's like temporary. Well, you're going to pay for that.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, you know, you're going to pay for that. So I can understand you raising, you know, what the normal rental rate would be.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great, that's a great point to kind of segue off that is that's a big, that's a popular, that's, that's a popular strategy too, is that's midterm where you're working with relocation organizations that are partnered with insurance, home insurance companies. So unfortunately, people who've lost their homes, had fire damage or flooding, they need a temporary place to stay. And, um, you can accommodate those guests as well too.

Yeah, yeah. We had a guy call us the other day who was, um, His house was hit in the Malibu fires. And so apparently, I think the only thing that you can put on your property right now are mobile homes.

Wow.

So he was looking to get a single wide. We had a single— the single wide we ripped off of that one lot. And so he was hitting us up trying to like take a look at it and see if he could just put it on his lot in Malibu. I'm like, that's gonna be like the only thing in the Pacific Palisades for a while. It's just gonna be all these mobile homes. On like these $5 million lots.

Wow.

Interesting.

Yeah. Interesting.

Someplace to live.

Yeah.

No, no. Yeah. Something. I know. I know.

It's great.

It's just kind of weird. But, um, somebody sent me a lot in Altadena, but we figured out they're not giving out permits right now. Right. Like from the Eaton Fire area.

No, I mean, that's a long-term play.

Yeah.

Just hold on to it until they become a little bit more wiser, or Newsom is gone, or Karen, whatever her name is. Karen's gone. It's more of a long-term play. Okay.

All right.

Well, I'll pass on that then.

Yeah. You're gonna have to take your millions and go someplace else.

Yeah, exactly. I think it was only like $400 grand, but it could be worth it. So, um, you got the midterm going, you got the short-term going, and you're doing wholesaling as well.

Yeah.

So how's that? How's, how's the wholesaling life?

Wholesaling is good. I mean, um, it keeps you amongst the 3 of them, it keeps you very busy. Looking like we're going to be locking up something out in New Mexico as well too, and potentially Houston. I, I market out of state a lot right now, and a little bit in California too, just because obviously I have a network out here. Um, but I try and stay within a certain, I guess, bandwidth or threshold as far as price point, and then market it to the buyers and lock it up under contract as well too. It's good. I like it. I enjoy the chase when it comes to wholesaling.

It's fun. Nice. All right. Any tips you can give somebody that's like looking to get started in wholesaling?

Yeah. So if I were to start over again, kind of like talking about working on the back end and going to the front end, I would, I would build my network with buyers first. Build your network with buyers first because there's people, there's people out there, especially now, unfortunately, with the delinquency rates in both SFR and multifamilies. Build your buyers list, figure out what they want, and then get the deals. Because I've gotten a lot of deals locked up in the past, and it just wasn't priced right. It wasn't a good it wasn't a good fit for my buyers, and it just didn't work. Whereas now I have a I have a solid connection with buyers in in various states. I have a I have an understanding of what their buy box are, and I can go look for the property. Or even even better, wholesaling is like a team sport, right? So people will bring me deals. Hey, does your buy do you have a buyer here? Do you have a buyer there? Do you have a buyer in New Jersey? Do you have a buyer in Texas? Different, different areas. Because I say, okay, I have buyers in X, Y, and Z. I need, you know, they're looking for— this is their buy box. Send me deals. So I think that's the biggest thing is obviously consistency, not giving up. But from a technical standpoint, really finding your buyers and getting a good understanding of what they're looking for.

Okay. Nice. What's the one in Houston?

It's a 3/2 in Southeast Houston. Yeah.

How big is it?

Uh, 1,164.

Goddamn. I need big houses.

I come, I, I come across them all the time though, so.

All right, well, if you find anything 2,000 square feet and above, let me know.

Okay. Yeah.

Trying to put up walls and shove as many people in there. No, but make it an excellent, clean, and safe place to stay.

So, okay.

Hold this finger.

Yeah, yeah. But I know Houston's a good market.

Co-living, right?

Yeah.

Co-living.

Co-living.

Yeah. Yeah, Houston is a good market for co-living, actually.

Yeah. That's where the guy was, because Joe and I were talking about zoning and permitting and all this stuff. Some guy built a house on YouTube in 60 days from start to finish.

Wow.

He did it in an unincorporated part of Houston. I guess they're just giving the permits away.

Yeah. I think all of the legislature, at least the Democrats, are currently in Illinois right now. Right.

Exactly.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, that's good.

Run away from the problem. Okay, that'll solve it.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much, pretty much. Um, right on. Well, how are you doing all this? I mean, it sounds like what you're doing right now is a lot, and then you also have a W-2 job. So how, how are you juggling both of those?

I'm just kind of focusing on one task at a time, creating a schedule for myself. So I try and work Central or Eastern Standard hours Then I can, then I can focus on, um, you know, I can focus on the other businesses afterwards, like 2 or 3 o'clock. Or if I need to, I'll have my partner, she'll, she'll answer any questions as far as, uh, as far as guest requests or anything like that as well too. So the beautiful thing is I work remote, so I mean, it's just messaging too at the end of the day. A lot of times just messaging, handling phone calls. I can step away for a bit if I really need to.

Gotcha. I mean, with your W-2 job?

Yeah.

Okay, nice.

Okay. You know, separate everything as well. Yeah.

Okay.

Just telling it. Heck yeah. Okay.

Are you—

he's available.

He's available.

Yeah.

He's available.

Give him a call. Um, so, um, you know, a lot of people use their W-2 as an excuse of why they can't get started in real estate. What, what, what sort of tips do you have or what, how can people balance that out?

I mean, there's the age-old adage, oh, we all have the same amount of hours in the day, but everyone has different lives, right? I would say just kind of figure out if you can figure out your schedule, kind of establish 2 or 3 hours extra a day or whatever, whatever amount of time you can allot and, and set and start working there and then gradually work up and then gradually increase your, I guess, your effort or your journey into real estate. Obviously weekends, take advantage of weekends, but it's just really about controlling your schedule, using a planner. And delegating, that's helped a lot too, is from the wholesaling aspect at least, is instead of trying and taking a deal down all by myself where I'm going from seller to seller to buyer, I'm just JVing. And it's not even because I was greedy, it's just because I was still new at the time, which I still am. But creating networking with people and delegating tasks to other people that they can help you out with. And not even just in wholesaling, for example, when I'm out of town, I have a good friend out in Palm Springs and she'll go and she'll stop by my property if I need to. She's done showings for me as well in the past. And yeah, it's just about creating relationships where people can help you.

Yeah, I 100% agree.

It sounds like work. He's working.

He's working.

He's working.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's not crying about it.

That's all you have to do is work, you know? Right.

Yeah.

Get focused, work. Yeah.

Well, and it's funny because most people, they'll come to Joe and they'll be like, I want to get out of my job so bad. And it takes you starting, maybe it's taxing, maybe you're working on the weekends, but you're already starting investing. So now that can be growing in the background.

Yeah.

So just, I mean, then that's what real estate is, is just let it kind of do its thing and eventually If that's your choice, yeah, it can replace, yeah, you know, what you're doing. But yeah, if not, I mean, it's great. I mean, if you had a tax write-off, yeah, it's a great tax write-off. And, and I mean, if you have dual incomes, like, who doesn't love that?

He's not married.

Well, no, but he has a girlfriend. Yeah, yeah, but they're pretty serious, right?

Yeah. Do you share a bank account?

Yeah, you do? Yeah, business.

Yeah.

Oh, business.

Yeah, she's got her own little secret bank account over here that he, he doesn't know about.

He's not allowed to touch that one.

Yeah, no, not at all.

Yeah, makes sense. Okay. No, that's— I mean, that's a fun part too, is being able to work with your significant other.

Yeah, that's great.

You guys make a good team.

We do. We have our— I mean, with any team, you have your strengths and balance— your strengths and weaknesses, so we kind of balance each other out. As well too.

So yeah, it's called marriage.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much, pretty much.

Yeah, same. Unless you're like newlywed, you know, you're still in the honeymoon phase. Like Michaela, they just, you know. Oh yeah, they love each other, kissing, they're in love and all that stuff.

Yeah, newlyweds.

They're newlyweds. They're still newlyweds. Yeah, yeah. Now she brings her husband to work with her, right?

Bring the husband to work day.

That's nice.

Very nice, very nice, man. It's been good. The office has been filled recently.

It has.

That's good.

Thank you.

Keep coming in.

Yes, we have a co-caller co-calling, but he went in the office because he didn't want to bother the number one real estate podcast in Laguna Hills.

That's right.

Yes.

Heck yeah. So what's, uh, next on the horizon? What do you— what do you got your sights on?

That's a good question. Uh, taking down more wholesale deals and then eventually going to flipping.

Nice.

Yeah, it's the natural project— projection, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Yeah, I'd like to flip a prop— I'd like to flip 1 or 2 properties in the next 12 months ideally.

Okay, well, you're pretty handy. You gonna do it yourself or you gonna like—

No, I'd hire— I mean, it depends what it is. If it's cosmetic, I, I can do it myself.

In Palm Springs, is that where you're looking?

No, uh, Palm Springs or out in Orange County. I mean, I'm looking to buy another property Another buy and hold out here, but a fix and flip just anywhere in Southern California that makes sense.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think Stephanie has one in Yorba Linda that's coming up.

She said it was already under contract.

Yeah, but she's looking for a buyer.

Oh, I understand. Okay, gotcha.

Yeah. And then there's another one. Another— my— no, one of my agents has one in Foothill Ranch. Is it? Yeah, Foothill Ranch.

Okay.

But they're preparing that one because, yeah, the guy wants $1.5 and the ARV is $1.3.

$1.3.

So, well, Orange County.

Yeah, exactly.

She's, she's working on the price.

Okay. Yeah. Uh, she's not gonna get that much lower probably, but yeah.

We run across them every once in a while.

Okay.

Yeah. Palm Desert, Palm Springs is a cool market. I think the move out there is if you have, if you can, you have the room, add the pool.

Yeah.

Right. Because I think it, I think it goes for—

One of my properties has a pool, so it does pretty well as well too. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Especially in the summer.

Yeah.

You need a pool if you're gonna rent short-term.

Yeah.

Do you ever run into Bob Hope, Dean Martin? Do you even know who they are?

I, I, I, I, I run into their, their, the street's named after them.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay. I just wanted to see the age difference. Right. Yeah.

Well, and it's cool.

Michaela's over there going, who's that? Yeah.

Um, the, uh, the architecture, like it's all mid-century kind of— yeah, like old Hollywood vibe.

It's cool.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah, it's pretty sweet.

They call it as well too. That's right. Yeah. So are— yeah, are a lot of the short-term rentals— is it still like LA hippies coming out there? Is that still a movement?

Honestly, I've had people from all over the world stay at our short-term rentals. Oh yeah, I've had people from Austria, Australia, wow, Germany, um, South America, uh, almost— I think almost every continent minus Antarctica. I've had people come from Asia as well too, everywhere. So Palm Springs, I mean, we're local here, so it's like, okay, cool, it's a desert, right? That's what's so special about it. It's hot, but I mean, the weather is very nice in the winter, uh, in November. It's nice. So I can see why people like it, and it has that nostalgia effect to it as well too. So yeah, I've had people from all over the country stay At all my, all my properties.

So I, I stay at a resort out in the Marriott, um, out there during the winter. And even during the winter, the, the pool is actually, uh, cooled. Yeah, cooled down. It's not heated. They actually cool it down.

That makes sense. Yeah, they'll still get 80 out there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's, it's refreshing.

Yeah, it is. It is.

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, it's, uh, it's a fun place to stay for sure.

It is.

Yeah.

Nice.

Nice and slow out there compared to Orange County. Obviously LA too as well. Much time elapses much slower out there, right? No traffic really. Traffic's not too bad unless rush hour. And then, you know, you have your events that are out there at Coachella. It's, it's a, it's crazy. But other than that, it's, it's calm.

Oh yeah. You get like TikTok influencers coming in there at all?

Yeah.

Oh boy. Yeah. Do you get like runoff from Coachella? That like, that's, is that a busy—

Afterwards?

Or I mean, just people going to the festival. How far is that from where you are?

From my properties, it's, it's about half an hour. I, we, but we're always booked for Coachella too.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

It's great too, cuz that's when you can inflate your prices and, and people will book last minute.

I've, right.

I've, I've had people cancel and then I've had people book last minute.

Okay.

as well too. Everyone wants to go to Coachella, so they have to— they find whatever is available as well too. And obviously, if you present your property in, in, in accordance, it's, it's going to rent.

Dang. Yeah, we should look into that.

I'm done with the desert.

All right, all right. Um, so this is the part of the show where we've curated several videos that I want to get your true and honest reaction to.

Perfect.

Starting with this first one called Mistakes You Should Avoid When Getting Into Short-Term Rentals.

Here are 3 mistakes that you should avoid if you are getting into short-term rentals. Number 1, you need to have good photography. Avoid bad photography. Hire the expert, somebody that knows what they're doing. Number 2, you need to integrate dynamic pricing, um, Beyond Pricing, PriceLabs, something like that. That's going to be something that's going to inflate and deflate your prices based seasonality and so on. Number 3, make sure you have a good cleaner. Those are the backbone to your business. The cleaners are the backbone to your business because they're like your property managers. They're there every day and they're the ones that's seeing the daily things going on and out and they should report to you anything that's going on.

Thoughts?

I agree with 2 out of 3.

Oh, spicy cleaners.

Yes. To kind of elaborate on that more, you want to have, we went through 3 or 4 different cleaners that we found are, are one, our cleaner, right? Our primary cleaner. But we also have backup cleaners too, because as they should, cleaners go out of town, they go, they travel, they go on vacation. So you want to have backup cleaners as well too, so there's seamless integration when they're not there. Photography, yeah, 100%. You want to hire a professional photographer because it has to— the place has to look exquisite. You want to be— you want to illustrate your place so that it looks, it looks like it is a vacation rental. It's not, it's It's not done on your cell phone, your iPhone. Two, dynamic pricing—you can do that yourself. I've used Price Labs. I'm not trying to take a shot at them. I've used other—it's—it's—they're good, but I've had hiccups to where they just—they didn't integrate properly. I've had to work with support. If you're—if you're managing—if you're managing under, I would say, ten properties, you can do it yourself. And it's just really understanding what the market is, being abreast into what's. What events are happening in your, in your property's local market, you can take it yourself. It doesn't hurt, but I've had more success without dynamic price, without an automated dynamic pricing that I have, as opposed to just doing it myself.

What are some of the hiccups? Like, they'll— yeah, what, what, like, what could go wrong?

They overprice, they'll overprice you or underprice you. There's just not really accurate as to what's going on. VRBO has a good pricing analyzer. I, I'll use that to price out, price out my listings as Well, too.

And do you have to pay monthly for that?

No, it's built in.

Oh yeah, being a host, it'll kind of tell you like, hey, come down a little bit in this month, or—

Yeah, that's what I expected. It's essentially like a, almost like a bar graph, so, or linear graph, I should say. Yeah.

Okay. PriceLabs use AI though?

Um, I think PriceLabs did use AI.

I don't know. Everyone can—

I don't remember.

Everyone can claim that.

People swear by it and use the software. I just it wasn't a fit for me.

Yeah, no, that's good.

See, cleaners are very important.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, cleaners. I can imagine. And there's a lot of them out there, right? Like, I mean, that because there's so much Airbnb activity, people made businesses around cleaning services for Airbnbs.

Yeah, 100%.

Um, how did you find yours?

I think I found her through Facebook, and she wasn't the first one through Facebook. I went through 2 or 3 different cleaners, um, through Facebook or word of mouth. And, um, we just like the way she cleaned and just been working with her. Yeah, she's very good.

Nice. Yeah, it's hard to— it actually is really hard to find a good cleaner because we use some after we do flips and I'll tell them the whole list to do and then it just looks like they took a rag like on the— yeah, you know, like everything else is dirty and then I got to get someone else to— Yeah, just the top. There's still like all the footprints on the floor. Like, come on, guys. But what are you gonna do? It's hard to find good help these days. All right, um, number 2 is what a bad home rehab job looks like. This job is a shit show, bro. You gotta fire everybody on this job, dude. What else really needs to be done over there? What else needs to be done? Everything. I fell through the freaking deck. The bathroom upstairs, the basement— nothing's done in here, man. He don't give a crap. Fire his ass.

We won't ever use him again.

It's infuriating, dude. I haven't been here in like 3 months and it looks the exact same it does 3 months besides the floors looking marginally better. This job is a shit show.

That's his problem. He hasn't been there in 3 months. Yeah. How often do I tell you to go?

Yeah, but you would be the guy on the phone and I would be the other guy on the phone.

No, I wouldn't be the guy on the phone. I, I tell people to go every month. I mean, every week.

Well, that's, that's the thing. I think the guy on the phone was probably supposed to be there all the time.

Oh, I got it. Yeah.

But what do you think? What do you think as far as, as far as with the everything going according, or just the flip in general too?

Yeah, working with contractors, what's that like, huh?

Oh yeah, I've worked with contract— I've had good and bad experiences, I'll be honest with you too. Seriously, my biggest lesson is I don't try and— don't go cheap, don't try and save money. I, I, I had a, had an issue in the past and kind of learned from it. Um, build good relationship with the contractors that do good work. And yeah, you want to, you want to be on site, at least for me, at least once or twice a week as well too, to check in with them to make sure everything's—

Yeah, they, they've got to be supervised.

Yeah, they have to be supervised. I have someone I know too, kind of, they, they just fired their contractor and they're having issues with permits right now and trying to figure that out, navigate that situation. I told them from the get-go, hey, listen, let me help you find a contractor. They didn't want to listen to me.

Why do they do that?

That happens a lot.

Why don't they listen?

It happens all the time. Yeah, yeah, I told you. Yeah, you didn't listen.

And then he comes, he's like, oh God, I got these permits that are pulled by this other guy. What do I do now?

Yeah, and as a short-term rental operator, I mean, that's gonna— it could— even if they, uh, even if they Mickey Mouse it and it looks nice on the surface, things will break down in the future as well too. And you have to kind of— you have to kind of clean that up after the fact as well too. And that's gonna hurt you too because then you're a vacancy, right? Because you have to— you're taking time out, you're blocking your calendar, and it's being fixed as opposed to it being rented.

God, but sometimes those, like, when you get that price and you're like, he's gonna do it for that much? Yeah, let's just try it out. And then every time it sucks. Yes. Yeah.

And the guy doesn't show up, and then it's, uh, okay, send me more money.

Yeah, that happened to me where someone was supposed to come and fix my ceiling. Um, again, I I had a roof job, didn't go well. Ceiling leaked, and they never came. I ended up just doing myself. I had a one of my actually one of my owners that I work with. He's pretty handy too, so I've worked on his house, and he helped me. We patched the ceiling up, and then we redecorated the whole. We just used an excuse to redecorate the whole living room. It came out really nice, actually. So there you go.

See, turns lemons into lemonades. I love that. Last one: Why your midterm rental isn't renting and how to fix it.

So your midterm rental isn't booking. There's 3 things that you can actually do, and I'm going to start with number 1. As more short-term rental operators are jumping into the midterm space, you got to have a sexy place, so you're going to have to revamp it. And what do I actually mean by revamping? You might want to change your amenities. That's going to be number 2. Amenities are going to be highly important, especially if you're going after travel medical professionals. They want to have noise machines, box fans, blackout curtains. Those are definitely things to think about. And number 3, you're going to want to connect with actual travel medical agencies. These agencies are going to help you fill your spaces. Remember that we have guests that are staying for 90 days at a time, so you're going to be occupied most of the time. But creating those relationships is going to offer you a win-win relationship with the agency. 3 out of 3.

I agree. Yeah, it kind of goes back to my point where it's not about having the pickleball court or a big fancy pool, but creating those, adding those little amenities to Midterm guests, the blackout curtains, the noise machines—that goes a long way as well too. And couple that with great reviews, it helps a lot. Making those connections with healthcare providers and relocation relocation service organizations—that's a big win as well too. When you get those, those are great. Those are great reservations to have.

I I have a noise machine that I married 45 years ago.

Yeah. Does it sound like?

Oh no, and it's like yelling and screaming as well. Yeah, yeah. So I can understand the noise machine part.

Noise machine. I think you meant white noise. I guess that still pertains to—

Oh, it does. Yeah, you get used to it. It's like, huh, what'd you say? You know, like, what? Kayla, quit taking notes.

All right, we have a couple of questions in the chat here. Do you still have some time? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh, nice. It gets bigger. Okay. So Liz says you specialize in short-term and midterm rentals. How do you decide which strategy to use on which property?

That's a great question, Liz. So it depends on the seasonality of the property, right? So for example, my, my desert properties during peak season between November to April, it's short-term. Once it heats up a little bit, it's hotter. Tourism is a little bit slower out in in in the desert. So then I have to pivot and then market my property as a midterm property.

Wow. Yeah. Knowing knowing your product, knowing your area. That's why he's a super host.

No, I know. I know. I don't. I let's like I'm trying to think like if I could even do that in Dana Point because I'm like do are you reading like upcoming events so you know exactly what's going on or yeah reading upcoming events.

And catering the curating the titles over that. I have a digital guest book. We also have a we built a physical guest book as well too, a guidebook I should say. So that will kind of hold all the that'll hold all the rules and hold basic like amenities in the area, things to do, whatnot. But and that's also in the automated messages as well. But for actual events to kind of capitalize on the seasonality, we'll talk about like we'll market the property for like oh this is a Mountain View Coachella stay. Um, um, cool, cool breezes by stage for stagecoach, something, something like that. Just paraphrasing.

Oh, I see. Okay.

And that will kind of trigger the algorithm as well too, right?

This guy's triggering the algorithm. Whoa, easy. Um, okay, Coach Steph says, I've heard that the food scene out in the desert area is the biggest draw aside from affordable housing. Is there a culture boom out there which is Causing appeal?

Um, I would say the one of the bigger drivers for people coming out here or even out to the Coachella Valley is also just the, just the, the cost of real estate along the coast since pushing people in. But yeah, the food scene is very prevalent in Palm Springs. We try different restaurants once or twice a month just to kind of give our, give our advice or recommendations as what to try. So food scene's big. Um, I mean, there's a number of events that occur out there as well too, in addition to the festival. Like, there's a— there's tennis tournaments, um, there's— I think there's Fashion Week is out there as well too. There's all different events that happen, so people will come specifically for that too, for what's— what's happening in the— in the desert.

Polo as well.

Yes, polo as well too. Yeah, it's a racetrack out there too.

All right, that's what the— I think that's where Coachella is, right? It's like next to the polo thing, polo grounds.

I have an agent out there and he told me that, um, that's a big place for Canadians.

Yep.

Are they, are they still coming? Like, I mean, we want to make them the 51st state. We're headed that way. But are they mad because we want to do that?

I don't think so. I mean, they're still coming.

You still see them?

Yeah, I still see Canadians. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's one of my bigger demographics too, is Canadians. Yeah, people just come to play golf. That's another attraction out there. Yeah, people play golf in 100-degree weather. It's crazy, but they do it.

Wow. Yeah. That is crazy. I've done it.

Don't, don't try it at home. Oh, okay. I need to learn how to golf. Let's do it, Joe.

Let's take lessons. I don't. Come on. I'd fall asleep.

No.

Yeah, I would. It depends who you're golfing with. It could be entertaining. I mean, yeah, I could entertain you.

I could be the entertaining part. Yeah, part.

Yeah, 18 holes. Watch Joe.

Watch it. Yeah, he missed it again. Yeah, okay, now All right.

No, thank you. Well, how can people reach out to you if they want to learn more about short-term rentals or wholesaling? If they want, if they got some deals and they want to team up with you.

Yeah, on Instagram, my Instagram handle is Casey Y A Z D A N. Casey Y Y Z A D A N.

I just put it up on that page. Cool, man. Um, well, thanks so much for dropping some knowledge and coming in here today. Uh, it's been a long time coming. You thought you didn't have anything to talk about, but you just schooled us. Yeah, thanks for having me.

It's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Very informative, very useful.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And if you guys already don't know, uh, Joe's got a plethora of books here for everyone to pick up on Amazon. The latest one being why I have met with over 500 investors from BiggerPockets in the last 10 years. See that? Very nice. Is it signed? I think you were. I think you were one of it. Did you meet Joe on BiggerPockets?

Um, I know we connect on BiggerPockets.

There you go. There's another one. Yes. Boom.

I think that's right.

501. Yeah. Put him in the back.

I forgot to include him in there. That's right. Yeah. I want to. I want to give a shout out to producer who's not here today. Yeah, I know. We miss you. We miss you.

Yeah, I'm trying here. Joe's roasting me.

This guy's fired.

It's, uh, you know, doing what we can do, but it was fun nonetheless. All the knowledge is there. Make sure you guys share this with any new or experienced investor in your life. Make sure you come to that meetup coming up on August 25th, and we'll be back here next week. All right, see you guys.

Awesome. See you later.

Thank you, guys.

If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach out to us one-on-one.