Using A Property Management Consultant To Grow Your STR Business

I literally woke up this morning to a $50,000 booking request. Somebody wanted to book a property for a whole year, right? Can you imagine how much easier life would be if somebody else was paying your rent or your mortgage for a whole year? So I'll close it on that and I'll actually show the screenshot. Just so everybody knows, I like to do this sometimes. I woke up this morning and these were all of the requests that came in.

Having a blast Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee, like Bruce Lee? Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making rhymes, don't write it, just do it loosely if you want my respect, you're better but direct Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.

Hi, welcome back to the Boostly Podcast, the podcast that gives you the tools, the tactics, the training and most of all the confidence so you can go out there and get more direct bookends. My name is Liam Carolan and this is the Boostly Podcast and the behind the Host section of this podcast where we interview hosts from all, all over the world. And this has been great fun to do because we find out about their systems, their processes, what they do in their business, which works really well. So you can learn it and do it in your business as well or perhaps even reach out to, to some of these awesome business owners and you know, connect and network is what we recommend. So today we've got Ron Curtis, he's from Wavy Stays, he's from over in the US and we're going to dive into so aspects like co hosting systems, all of that cool stuff. So welcome along Ron. Thank you for joining me today.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

So first of all, can you give your business like an elevator pitch, what is it that your business does, where in the world, all that stuff.

I agree. So my name is Ron Curtis. I'm based out of Washington D.C. i have a property management consulting business called Wavy Stage that specializes in short term and midterm rentals. And what I pretty much do, I run the entire day to day operations for my investors and business owners for a small percentage of the profits of the daily, the day to day activities of the business. I can run this business anywhere in the world as long as I have access to cleaners and wi fi connection.

Why do you do this? What do you enjoy about hosting and how did you get started?

So the thing that I love about hosting is the time freedom that it affords me. In the United States we Live in a debt wealth society. So a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck and I'm a firm believer that and having one stream of income is too close to none. So one reason why I have a passion for this, it allows me to not only incorporate additional streams of income and revenue to my life, but it also affords me the opportunity to help my business partners and investors to pay off their mortgages, pay their rent, pay the utilities, etc. And also profit and create an additional stream of income for them as well.

Why did you start in this? And just take me back to how that happened.

Okay, so pretty much I graduated college, went to a four year university in Virginia in the United States. After I got out of college, I pretty much got 10k in a credit card debt from living at home, my parents not really having too much overhead and I was just going out, partying, traveling, having fun. From that I got myself out of credit card debt. I actually started a credit repair business. I started helping friends and family get out of credit card debt as well. And then I kind of fell in love with the idea of passive and residual income. The reason being is because the way that the credit card system or credit repair business was set up, I was getting paid out monthly on a subscription based service based on work that I was completing prior. So what it did, it allowed me to see the, the concept of, you know, doing the work one time, doing a great job and getting paid consistently from those actions. So from that, from learning the credit game, learning how to leverage credit because I did not have access to that much capital, I started researching first time homebuyer programs such as naca and I started researching house hacking. Right. So to sum up the story, I was able to purchase about a $420,000 home in Washington D.C. and I leveraged credit and first time homebuyer programs where I only spent 30 $700 out of my pocket to get it. And then I turned my basement into a short term rental which pretty much supplements and covers my mortgage. And I took that same exact business model and cookie cut it across multiple properties all over the world, including Mexico.

Just for the listeners and myself. How many units are you currently looking after at the moment?

Currently I manage 20 properties, I own one and I'm co hosting 19 others all across the United States. Wow.

I mean that is. That does take some work. So who helps you with this? Do you have a team or is it just yourself?

So I'm the CEO of the business. I do have a team. I like to leverage people, systems and processes to run my business. I have a team of virtual assistants, I have handyman, I have cleaners, I have operations managers, I have a 247 customer service team and also have a pricing manager. So right now, if you look at it, it's really just me. I'm the orchestrator and I have, you know, people in different markets helping me run the business remotely.

What advice would you have for somebody who wants to get started with kind of that team building? Because there must have been a first hire, right? Who, who was the person who you go, do you know what this is? The first person to get or looking back, would it have been a different, a different kind of. When I say personal, different role, I'd first.

Right now I think the first person that I hired was probably like a cleaner operations manager. And that's when I had my properties. The majority of my properties are based in the Washington D.C. area and I'm real big on replicating myself. I can't be in 10 places or 10 properties at once. So one of the first people that I hired was an on the ground operations manager that actually oversee oversaw the cleanings. I promoted a lead cleaner, made her more of a supervisor and she was kind of my eyes when I'm not there to check on the properties. For me.

What would you say has been the biggest challenge so far? So just before answering that question, how long have you been now replicating that model and what has been the biggest challenge for you and so far?

All right, so I got my first booking in September 1, 2021. So I've been doing this part time. I have a full time job, I work for the D.C. government and I would say the biggest challenge is managing expectations. And when I say that when you're a co host, you not only have to manage the guest expectations when they arrive to the property and during their stay, but, but you also have to manage your host expectations, right? You have a lot of different hosts. So I have hosts that, you know, they're going buy a property and throw me the keys. Say, Ron, do your thing. And then you'll have hosts that are micromanaging, peeking over your shoulder, double replying to messages after you just responded to a guest inquiry. So learning how to just be one neutral person with everybody and being able to please not only your guests who, you know, supplement the bookings, but also your owners who you're partnered with, you know, managing their properties for them.

How do you, is there any coping mechanisms you use for kind of dealing with people at different sort of stages and different characters, I guess.

So one of the things that I've Learned in my 2 year, 10 years so far is the first thing, all money is in good money at this point. I can kind of, when I'm onboarding a new client, I can kind of fill them out based on the questions that I asked them and based on their temperament. And I think that's something you definitely have to do, especially when you first start, you're just trying to sign as many deals. You don't care if you know the person's a cringe client or not. You're trying to get your foot in the door. And once you get in there, you understand how the business works and you really understand your value that you bring. You won't settle for things that don't fit for your business. So one kind of model that I try to use when it comes to this is it's just business, nothing personal, right? Anytime a guest has an issue, they can be yelling at you, cussing at you, etc. Don't take it personal. It's just business and vice versa with the host. So got to take a deep breath sometimes and then, you know, think about it and process your response and do it that way.

So when you're looking at taking on these, these properties, how do you know which locations work? Is there any kind of software or any kind of things that you use? Or is it just, do you have a process where you meet the client and look at their home? First of all, talk us through that.

Yeah. So I'm a real big numbers guy. I'm big on data. In my previous role at a other D.C. organization, I was a senior data analyst. I used to manage systems and things of that nature so I can speak data and I know that data drives everything. So one of my most important team members on my team is my pricing manager for my finance department. And the reason being is because all we do in this business is sell nights. I ask hosts all the time, what do we do? Oh, we sell an experience. We sell hospitality. We sell cost. No, we sell nights. Right? So my main goal is to make sure that each night is priced as competitively as possible, specific to your market. A lot of times I have hosts who come to me who already have Airbnbs up and running and they don't, they don't know why they have bookings. And I'll do a market analysis for them. I'll do some listing optimization and SEO and before you know it, they start getting all these bookings right. So that's what I use. I use different pricing softwares just to not name drop. I use Air DNA, Price labs. There's a lot of different other software that you can use. And I also leverage Facebook groups, especially when I go to markets that I'm not familiar with, that I've never been to. And when there's slow seasons and droughts, I'll go look. And I say, oh, okay. My data supports what's going on in the market based on everybody else complaining. So data is a big thing for me when it comes to determining, you know, where to invest or if this market is even good to invest in.

The one thing that I'm going to take away from this podcast is just not to underestimate the power of, first of all, the opportunity. You know, like actually seeing the opportunity and not seeing the problems, because too many people see obstacles instead of the opportunities. And also, that co hosting model is just a great way, like you say, I'm going to remember that if I can get 10% of other people's watermelons and then I can buy my own, and that's exactly a great way to. To think about it, that ultimately help others to improve their pockets. And at the same time, you can then be bringing in income to then buy your own, invest, do whatever you want to do. So that's really cool. Any last things to share before we go or any closing remarks?

Yeah. So if anybody's out there on the fence about Airbnb, you know, whether they want to get into it or not, whether they have properties that they're interested, rented, I would say, like, don't be fearful. Right. A lot of us suffer from analysis paralysis. I would say jump off the porch and take that risk. The worst thing that can happen is you can make some money. If you're worried about your home getting damaged, they do have air cover for hosts that protect you in certain situations. And if you have no idea what you're doing, you can, you know, reach out to people like me that are in the business, are in the industry that can help guide you. Right. None of us want to work till we 60, 70 years old and retire. This is a great way to buy back your time and to make money every single day. I literally woke up this morning to a $50,000 booking request. Somebody wanted to book a property for a whole year. Right. Can you imagine how much easier life would be if somebody else was paying your rent or your mortgage for a whole year? So I'll close it on that and I'll actually show the screenshot. Just so everybody knows, I like to do this sometimes. I woke up this morning and these were all of the requests that came in nice and the one at the top says $50,000. It's good to wake up to stuff like that and it kind of changes your perception on how you can make money.

So that's what I'll leave with.100 and what a great way to bring it to a close. Thank you so much for your time today. If you're listening to this on the podcast and you want to come and discuss more things, all things hospitality do bear in mind there is a Facebook group called the Hospitality Community. Everybody's welcome there. Free Facebook group where you can talk about anything hospitality related. All you need to go on Facebook and search Hospitality Community. That's it from me. Thank you for your attention today and we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.

Having a blast. Going to get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee cuz it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely.