Using A Property Managemet Consultant To Grow Your STR Business

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 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 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, is from over in the US and we're going to dive into aspects like co hosting systems, all of that cool stuff. So stick around for the next 20 or 30 minutes and dive into to his business. 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.

Nice. Nice. It's the great thing about the modern world, isn't it? Anytime you've got Internet you can, you can actually operate your business. So let's just take it back a sec before we dive more into Wavy Stays and some of the cool things you do and why do you do this? What do you enjoy about hosting and how did you get started?

I, uh. 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.

I completely get that as well. I know there's a lot of people out there who kind of start businesses or do businesses and they get to a stage where they go, this is a lot of work and a lot of, lot of effort. But ultimately we're all, we'll work at some stage whether or not you're trading your time or your, you know, for money. Ultimately, by creating an asset, a business and something which mutually benefits people, then it's just a great way to go. Which is why short term rental hospitality is a great thing to get into. So 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 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 had to 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.

Nice. That's amazing. I mean that is like you say, I think first of all getting yourself out of any kind of credit card debt and then helping others to do it, but then learning the pattern behind this. You know they say success leaves clues and Learning the pattern behind this and actually going, hey, once I've done this once, I just need to copy this model and do it many, many times. Which is cool. So 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?

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 I also have a pricing manager. So right now if you look at it is really just me. I'm the orchestrator and I have people in different markets helping me run the business remotely.

That's amazing. 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 personally 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 and 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.

Nice, nice. I mean that's an important step, isn't it? Just getting out of the day to day grind to, to that sort of stage and you know, so important for everybody listening and I think it's great advice. What would you say has been the biggest challenge so far? So, 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 9-1-2021. 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 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 by a property and throw me the key, say, ron, do your thing. And then you'll have posts 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.

I think you bring up a great point about how we communicate in general because in the hospitality game, you've got to know who you're talking to and their kind of preferences. And we have to adapt, right? We almost have to be like actors with the guests on one side and then you've got hosts and then you've got, let's say, those hosts, which I call them cringe clients. Sometimes we take on properties and they're not quite right for us because the, the amount of work might be more than the value is worth because they're so that they basically want to manage themselves and see what we do, basically. So 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 isn't 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 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, et cetera. 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.

That's brilliant advice. Yeah, is, and it's one of the things that people don't realize when they first get into this, isn't it? So, yeah, great, great insight there.

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Let's move on to some of the kind of actionable kind of tips and stuff which I know you'll have built lots of experience on. 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 DC organization, I was a SEN 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 host 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.

There's lots of threads to sort of pull on. And that great answer, the, the one that I want to pull off first is the moment when hosts start to talk about their nights as stock. You know, as I say, you know, hey, we're low on stock. In other words, we've filled our houses and we need more houses to be able to fill in that area. And it's funny because you do start to think of it as a business, you know, the more times I can sell the individual night. Whereas when you start, you literally just focus on, hey, I just need to look at this first guest or the second guest and their experience. You're absolutely right. I think it's really important just to balance that up with saying that obviously every individual person that comes to stay and every individual owner, that's their first time interacting with your business. So as hosts, we have to make sure their experience is as good as it can be. But that's, that's like you say, based on our systems and on our processes and stuff like that. You mentioned a couple of bits of tech there. Is there any other bits of tech that you use within your business regularly and why?

Yeah, so I have a pretty, pretty nice tech stack. I use channel managers for anyone who's not familiar with that is it allows you to sync all of your different listings on multiple platforms. Primarily it's Airbnb, VRBO and booking.com. i also use, you know, different project management tools such as Trello to track my tasks with my virtual assistants, report claims, things of that nature. But the three main tech stacks, you know, would be a pricing automation software. There are a lot of different ones on the market. You guys should definitely check out Boostly, but I'm using Price Labs right now. And then I also use Air DNA just to do market research. I don't pay for Air DNA. I actually use the Air DNA rentalizer, which is a free tool. A lot of people may not be aware of that, but you can literally just plug in your address bed and bath and it'll give you a projection on how much that property can make. And my channel manager is really important because it has a lot of dynamic, actionable items in it. And when I say that it allows me to connect, will give access to my cleaning team so they know the calendar, automate that process. My 24 hour customer service team, my finance manager allows everybody to get access to it. I control that custom access and it's one hub where everything lives. I do list on other platforms such as Furnish Finders, Gigster, Peerspace, things of that nature. They don't have those integrations as of yet, but that's pretty much what my tech stack is to manage my day to day business.

No, that's awesome. And that's very comprehensive. And one thing I always remember when I was getting started was that sounds like a lot of tech. But once you start and you start like you say, usually with a channel manager or just on the OTAs themselves, on the Airbnb and VRBO and places like that, but ultimately you quickly see the value in these extra pieces of software and tech, don't you? And yeah, as the business grows, so does every tech stack. And also what your business needs now will be different to what it needs in six months, 12 months, you know, more units and that side of things, which is cool. So what would you say has been the biggest wow moment for you so far on your journey?

I would honestly say the biggest wow moment is the scalability and the growth in such a short amount of time. I've probably had my hands in over 50 Airbnbs. Whether I'm consulting, managing leases, ended, people sold their houses, etc. But just seeing the amount of revenue that I'm generating for my owners, and even though I'm getting a small percentage of that, I'm providing massive value. An example, I met a client, he had an empty house. We got it live in June. From the time we went live, we have bookings all the way into 2024. Right. And I just got a 1099 from Airbnb or a financial report, and it said this Guy's property made $62,000 in six months. And I'm pretty sure that outpaced whatever his yearly salary was. And now he's actually living off of his Airbnb profits and he really doesn't do anything. I run the entire business for him. So it just shows me the life changing potential that Airbnb or short term and midterm rentals can afford me just by doing good business with people and Helping them pay their bills in a sense.

Yeah, that's really an important thing which I think we forget, especially if you're co hosting or property managers that actually we're effectively. Every property effectively can be its own business. You know, that might be as, as an owner, they might be at work and not having time to do that effectively, you're managing their entire business for them for quite a small percentage. And this is where sometimes when owners are like, what's your percentage? Oh, I don't want to pay that much. And you're like, hey, we are literally doing so much for, for quite relatively low amounts. And it's especially the experience, the expertise, all of that stuff that you're building up so fast, as you say, and being able to grow and learn and all that cool stuff. So that's really awesome to hear on. Really, really good for people here I think on the podcast. What does the future look like for, for Wavy Stays?

Great question. So my short term goal right now is to have over 100 properties managed co host. I kind of did the math even at like a 10 to 15%, you know, depending on the property that will help me achieve my financial freedom goal. So my main goal right now is to buy back my time and leave my 9 to 5 corporate job. And I can see that with managing 20 properties already my revenue and net is outpacing my 9 to 5, 6 figure job. So it's, it's showing me okay. As I attain more properties and do more business, I want to start taking these profits and start investing them into my own short term rentals. So instead of owning you know, 100% of the watermelon, by managing know my own property, I'm able to get you know, 10% of other people's watermelons to buy my home. Right. But that's my strategy to invest in more real estate. Potentially have a Wavy stays building that's 100%, maybe a boutique hotel or Wavy Stays type apartment building that's specifically dedicated to short term rentals.

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What do you think the future of hospitality is like at the moment? I know there's a lot of talk as we record this. It's January 2024. What do you think the future of hospitality? Because there is this amazing growth which is happening in the market. And as you say, when you get into this business, there's quite what I would deem a. It has been, for me anyway, a low barrier to entry for me, because I could start helping people manage their homes. I could do rental arbitrage. There's. There's lots of ways to get into this business. What do you think the future of hospitality for the next few years is going to look like?

I think the growth is going to be exponential. Right. It's already a multibillion dollar industry. I think Covid has a lot to do with that. A lot. We're only, what, three, four years removed from COVID A lot of people have fomo. The fear of missing out. And when everybody was on stuck, lost their jobs. People at home, like people are just now recovering, rebuilding their finances. And I don't know about everybody else, but my favorite thing to do in this world is to help people and to travel. So as I travel, as I see how important it is to travel, how so many people are taking advantage of traveling with remote work, remote job opportunities and things of that nature, I can see this industry continue to skyrocket because people really want to enjoy their time and spend their money while they're young enough to enjoy it. So I think that's where we're headed, definitely.

And with so much more free travel for people to be able to have the time to travel because of remote working. We said at the start, you know, that the fact that you've got Internet, you can kind of work from anywhere. Well, so can so many of our guests who are coming to stay. So this is just changing the entire travel industry, isn't it? And the opportunity is huge. Where, you know, how we travel now wasn't how we traveled 20 years ago, you know, so ultimately that's still in its infancy, which is. Which is really cool to hear what advice thinking about. You said at the start, obviously, when you first got your first unit and you're still in your job and that side of things. So what advice would you go back and give yourself if you could, even then or even earlier on in life?

If I can go back and give myself any advice in terms of starting the short term Rental business. I would say I will market myself more. Marketing is really important. I think they say the average human being has the attention span less than a goldfish. And on social media we have so many distractions and there's so much free game out here. But once you understand a concept or a business model, you have to let people know that you know how to do it. So maybe like playing small or having imposter syndrome, you're still figuring it out. I don't want to be anybody's coach. I don't want to call myself the expert. I will go back and tell people early on what I'm doing, showing them so I can like show people there's a way out to escape the rat race. There is a way to pick up a second job without having to know, not spend time with your family or have to go trade your actual time and your life for money. So yeah, just don't be afraid to market yourself and put yourself out there, especially when you have some type of value to add to the world.

That is definitely going to be a sound bite right there on that is is brilliant. Yeah, I completely agree. And if we can inspire people, help people right then, then we're doing a good job. So what resources have you either used yourself and when we say resources, books, podcasts, mentors, coaches, is there anybody who has helped you on your journey that you'd like to share with others listening to this?

Yeah. So one of my close friends, Dejuan Pitts, he actually has a company in D.C. called Clean Moves and he is also an Airbnb property manager. He manages multiple properties as well. I came to him with the idea. He has a background in property management. We talked about it. He kind of gave me some pointers on how to get started. And from there I started my Airbnb and it kind of took off. And I would also say there's a book I read or listened to and it's called oh dang, I forgot to name the book off the top of my head. But it was a bigger pockets book. And what it did was it allowed me to create a plan on what I needed to do to buy my first, save my first $25,000, buy my first home and invest in a property to create it to a short term rental and to start house hacking. And that book is actually called Set for Life by Scott Trench. So that book helped me kind of pave what I needed to do to get into a home so I could start this amazing. And everything pretty much trial and error, learning and Growing and building a plane and flying at the same time.

I like that, I like that metaphor there. So awesome. I mean, you're very impressive, Ron. And I think the growth that we've seen is huge and the tips and the value that you can share is, is huge on here. So I know there's going to be a lot of people who, who want to reach out to you. I'm going to throw the mic open. How do people get in touch with you? Do you have socials or is there a website? What, what sort of way can they, they find you?

The best way to get in contact with me, I would say, is on Instagram. My Instagram is Wavy stays W, A V Y S T A Y S L, L, C. That's how you find me. And also on TikTok, because I'm in a financial literacy space and I teach a lot to the community. My name is Dr. Financial on TikTok and it's spelled how you spell doctor? D O C T O R underscore Financial. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn as well, my name is Ron Curtis on LinkedIn. Those are the three best ways to get in contact with me.

Nice. Nice. And we always end with this question, which is, is there like a mantra or saying or a motto that you like to live by, one that really resonates with you?

Yeah, I actually have one. So my mantra that I like to live by is how can we get money together? Right. I'm real big on partnerships, I'm real big on doing good business, and I'm real big on automating systems and processes so people can buy back their time. So that's my motto. How can we get money together? I'm open to working with people and sharing my expertise to help them get further in life as well.

Thank you so much, Ron. I know there's going to be plenty of people reaching out to you. And 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 in renting, 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 reach out to people like me that are in the business, are in the industry that can help guide you. 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 be with 100.

And what a great way to. 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, 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.