215. Michael Elefante | Investing In Short-Term Rentals

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to our personal development podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, we interview one of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better.

In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Michael Alfante, author of Investing in Short-Term Rentals: The Fast Path to Financial Freedom. Michael is an entrepreneur and short-term rental investing expert. He and his wife Jill built a 7-figure short-term rental business in just 3 years. Michael is the founder of BNB Investor Academy and co-founder of Home Team Vacation Rentals and Summary Designs. His company, BNB Investor Academy, has taught thousands of people how to successfully find, invest in, set up, and manage short-term rentals. Michael is one of the biggest influencers in the short-term rental industry today, and you can find him on all platforms under Melfante6. In this episode, Michael shares about his journey from door-to-door sales to achieving financial freedom through real estate investing, specifically in short-term rentals. We talk about the importance of having a mentor or coach to accelerate success and the need to focus on one strategy and become an expert in it. We discuss the advantages of short-term rentals over traditional long-term rentals, such as higher cash flow and more control over the property's performance. We dive into how to minimize taxes and increase income and strategies for how you can make your short-term rentals stand out. Now get ready to learn and enjoy this incredible conversation with Michael Elefante.

Michael Elefante, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. Today we're here to talk about your brand new book, but first I want to bring you back to about 2015 and you're out in the Jupiter, Florida heat doing door-to-door sales. Just like you, I have some door-to-door sales experience. So this is why I wanted to start here. What lessons did you learn in that period of your life that still apply to the work you do today?

You need a good mentor or coach to accelerate your journey to success. And that goes for people who are very new to any industry or profession. And it also stays true for somebody who is more or less an expert in their profession. I still think you— it's always good to have a mentor or coach that can help steer you in the right direction, help you, you know, break the next glass ceiling that comes your way. Because that was a massive holdup for me. I didn't know what I was doing then, you know, but now I pay more, more money than ever for consulting, coaching, mentors. Because there's a lot of things in my life that I'm like, you know what, I could probably do it 10 times faster and 10 times more successful if I have somebody to show me the way.

So if I bring you back to that period in your life, are there any horror stories that you can share with the audience? Any, any fun times where you knocked on the door and something weird happened? Is there anything that sticks out in your mind?

You know, nothing too crazy. I, I do remember going into a gynecologist office and like walking in and everyone was just looking at me like, why is this guy here right now? And so I just walk up and I just start trying to pitch somebody on taking a meeting with me. And it probably wasn't even the right person. And I probably more so for me than them, I just felt way uncomfortable, not only because it was like sales, and I wasn't good at sales. And I didn't know what the heck I was selling. But I was in an office that is usually mostly female.

So yeah, that is pretty funny. And then you sort of go through a few more different roles, you know, cold calling, etc. And you end up in this space that I think a lot of people in our audience are in today. And that's the reason they're listening to this show where you do a deep dive on YouTube, you start reading a lot of books, you talk about listening to podcasts all about real estate. What was— how did that feel for you? Like, were you just a kid in a candy shop consuming as much as possible? And like, what advice do you have for somebody that might be in that same space today that's listening?

Yeah, you know, I think starting broad and just trying to figure out what's out there is important. But a lot of people, including myself, you start to get the shiny object syndrome where you're like, oh, I heard about this strategy. Let me learn about that. So you spend a week diving into YouTube, books, podcasts, and then you're like, oh man, this sounds cool, but like I'm just scratching the surface. So it seems a little overwhelming. So let me learn about this shiny object, this, this business model. And so I think a lot of people become like the idea king or queen in their group and they're like, oh, I'm learning about this, but no one ever takes action. So I think the biggest takeaway for me is all that stuff is wonderful, but I think you should maybe look at 2 or 3 things, figure out which one just frankly interests you the most, and go a mile deep into that one subject. And it's going to take time to truly learn about it, become an expert, and actually just dive in headfirst and execute.

Michael, I looked into your story a little bit and I'm really excited to ask you, you know, you went from corporate world and then 11 months later you were financially free and then 16 months later you quit your jobs. So I'd love to know, like, what content and books were you consuming at that time? And then how did you go about starting to implement it? Like, because I think that's something that a lot of people struggle with is the actual implementation. You're talking about, hey, pick 2 or 3 things, and then dive really deep. But how did you get into the implementation stage?

Yeah, so I just went all in on, hey, I knew I wanted to do real estate investing. It was just tangible for me. I understood you could buy a property and you could rent it out and make money on it unless your expenses and mortgage, that's your profit, right? But I think what I had to understand truly was what, like, what are my actual goals in life? And did the strategy actually align to that? That helped me eliminate a lot of other business models or real estate strategy and got me focused on short-term rentals because I realized I need to invest for cash flow if I truly wanted to attain financial freedom at a younger age. So that helped me really just narrow down the scope of what I was after. And then in terms of books, there was— I sat on the sidelines for many years, like a lot of people do, a lot of your listeners do. And I was reading a book called Cashflow Quadrant, which is a sequel more or less to Rich Dad Poor Dad. And it's somewhat of a repetitive book, like a lot of these are. But there was one key takeaway. I was actually listening to it on Audible on a long drive to Memphis, Tennessee from Nashville for a work trip I hated going on every month. And it was talking about identifying risk. Most people feel risk-averse. I don't want to lose money. So it keeps them from taking on seemingly more risky avenues or investment strategies. But I had to identify what was more risky, investing and losing some money. What would be the end result? I just continue to work the same job and do the same thing every day and save up again. Or do I risk 30 or 40 years from now having regret or risk the what if? What if I tried? What if I bet on myself? What if I took the risk, the perceived risk at the time? It doesn't seem so risky in the future. And most people, you talk to them when they're older, it's like, I would never regret taking a bet on myself probably. And I realized I would regret not. So like, I don't know if you guys have heard Jeff Bezos' regret minimization framework, but that was a big thing for me too. But that was like my biggest takeaway from that book. And like, all of a sudden, all of like these risks just kind of melted away in my mind. It was no more like, what if I lose money? It was more so like, what's the worst that can happen? I lose some money, like whatever, you know?

Yeah, I remember reading Rich Dad Poor Dad for the first time. And there's a line at the end of that book that says something like, Robert says, I've met a lot of rich people who have lost money investing. And I've met a lot of poor people who have never lost a dime. And it's, it's that conversation about risk. Um, so you're in this space where you start to think about regret minimization. I'm still just wondering, like, what is maybe the first action that somebody should take outside of reading your book to secure their first property? Because again, it's overwhelming when you have all of this possibility. And you know that you want to create financial freedom, you know that a standard 9 to 5 is more risky for creating regret later in life, than maybe going out on a limb in the short term and creating the life of your dreams. What is still that first action that somebody should take?

First action is understanding what your end goal is and the time, the time you want to achieve it by. So if my end goal is, hey, I want to cash flow 10 grand a month, in a year, then, and I only have $100 grand to my name, and I have this preconceived notion that I want to buy property, you're, you're not going to hit that goal unless you leverage a bunch of other people's money, become a really savvy investor. So maybe I need to identify if this is truly what I want, I need to identify the strategy that best aligns with the budget and the goal and timeline. So that might be rental arbitrage, that might be Managing property for other people? What is the— what are the strategies I need to do? And then from there, it's just, okay, rental arbitrage. Like, what's the most important next step? That's the thing Brandon Turner, you know, a friend of mine, likes to say. The most important next step is learning how to evaluate a deal. So I need to go do that. So you can kind of just like see where this is going. It's like a stair-step method to get to the getting your first property. But the first thing you really need to do is identify like, what do you truly want? What's the timeline? And what is the strategy that best actually aligns with what I want, not what I think I want to do?

So Michael, why did you choose short-term rentals over more traditional real estate options like buying a house and renting it out for the long term?

2 reasons. One, cash flow. A single short-term rental can cash flow thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars a month. It's crazy, but it is very possible. And then so for me it was like, if I want to cash flow 10 grand a month, or excuse me, a month, yeah, 10 grand a month per se, I would need at $200 a door, I'd need like what, 50 doors? So for me it just became overwhelming, especially as a new investor thinking, oh, I'm going to do all single family, or maybe I need like a 24-unit apartment complex and do that twice. Like that became so daunting that I was like, oh, what if I could just do it with 3 properties? Like, that seems more achievable. So for me, it was really more of a comfort thing. I felt like it was more achievable for me that way. And then 2, it is way more challenging to invest into a property to force it to be able to rent more on a lease than it is to, you know, add amenities, use great design, add things that market to people on vacation that they are 100% willing to pay more for, for a 3 to 7 day stay. Compared to month-over-month rent. So you can only bring up a rent on an apartment or a home so much, and there's kind of a ceiling, or else it'll sit vacant. With a vacation rental, you could spend a bunch of money and you could seemingly force the revenue potential to go up and the cash flow ultimately to go up. So I just felt like I had more control over the asset's performance.

Yeah, when I, when I read your book, A couple of people that I've invested in multifamily with over the past few years saw the posts, and they read the book. And I've had some really interesting conversations with some of my long-term investing partners. Can you talk about the differences in cash-on-cash return between like a standard long-term 30-year play versus the short-term plays that you're recommending people get involved with?

Yeah, I think a traditional rental, you know, right now with higher interest rates, cap rates are suppressed a little bit. It's like, especially multifamily, it's going to be low, you're almost banking on being not like not losing money, and then rents going up over time. And that's great if you are, if you want to hold long term, and then you bank on the appreciation, right? With short-term rentals, you know, you can get— I target 20% cash on cash with all my investments. And I've achieved as high as 100% or doing the BRRRR model, infinite return if you're able to pull out that money and still cash flow really well after the BRRRR. So with long-term rentals, honestly, like 8 to 12%, I think would be a home run. But right now you'd be lucky to see 5 to 8%. Most people are, you know, just trying to be not bleeding money so they can make money in the future as rents go up.

What's a realistic timeline for somebody listening today, who is just learning about the power of short-term rentals from you right now, and they buy the book and they read it, what's a realistic timeline to like understand enough to take action? Because I remember the first time I listened to a BiggerPockets episode, I was like, this seems incredibly overwhelming. I've never thought about buying real estate before. And I'm just supposed to go out there, evaluate a deal, Like, put this money down, get it up on Airbnb, manage it. Like, it just, it's incredibly overwhelming, I think.

Yeah, I think the cool thing about short-term rentals, like, you need to be a savvy investor, but you don't, you don't need to be as savvy, you know, in the terms of like hunting for off-market deals and like, you know, waiting for the most incredible hidden gem in the rough. that you know you could, you could do well with. So with short-term rentals, you could find a property that's been listed for 3 months on Zillow that frankly, a primary homeowner or secondary homeowner doesn't want, another investor doesn't want. And as long as you have the vision and can execute, like it does have the bones for me to create an amazing experience, to have upside, that for me seems a little bit more doable. And the cool thing about today's day and age is you have access to data and information that you did not many years ago. In really all forms of real estate, but with short-term rentals, I love it is because you can go on AirDNA, you can go directly on Airbnb or any of these other data platforms and filter properties in any zip code, submarket, big market, state, whatever, in any country in the world and look at the current properties and how their performance is. So it's almost like if I'm a gym and I wanted to see all the local gyms' performance, where they're located, what zip codes they're in, how many, how big is the square footage, how many people can they have on monthly recurring membership or whatever. And I could see the revenues of all those different gyms. What do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to try and open up a gym as closest to the ones that are in proximity to the others that are all doing the highest revenue. And what do they offer? Like, what do they paint their walls? What type of gym equipment do they have? It's the same thing with short-term rental. So I filter by revenue. I just want to see what What type of appetite do travelers have? Are they willing to spend $1,000 or more a night? What type of property are they looking at? And so I— that's how you create the buy box. And I think that's why it's super tangible for someone who's new, and it might seem overwhelming at first, but if you just look at the current properties, where they're located, what they offer, and then simply go to Zillow or work with a realtor and start to find properties that fit that buying criteria, you can turn a property into the end state that would match these ones or maybe be a little bit better. That's really all you have to do. And of course, you have to learn how to like what makes a good investment numbers-wise. But that all comes down just to like plugging in on a spreadsheet.

And can you give the audience a little taste for where you are today? What's your portfolio look like?

Yeah, today we have— we're buying our 9th, or we just bought our 9th, and we're under rehab on it right now. Just for context, we had 8 properties live during the month of July. This year, just a couple months ago, and we did over $100,000 in profit on 8 properties in a month. So, you know, July is a busy travel month, right? So that's not every month. But it's just pretty cool that an individual small-time investor— I still consider myself that— can achieve a 6-figure profit in a single month on less than a 10-property portfolio of single-family homes. That, that is why I love short-term rentals. So much. So that's where we're at in terms of individual investments. And then over the years, I just, I love doing it. I love helping other people achieve financial freedom and all that. So I built a mentorship and coaching program and community, which has been phenomenal. I've been able to teach thousands of people from across the world, primarily the US, but we do work with international folks. And then we have a management company and a design firm as well. So HomeTeam Vacation Rentals and Summerlet Designs. Both of which partners basically were people that I taught and they took it and ran with it, crushed their invest— personal investments, and then brought business ideas to me and we partnered on it together. So it's been pretty cool, man. Now we manage over 300 STRs across the country. We design over 300 a year as well, and it's just been a wild ride. But it all started with that one about 5 years ago.

So I think that's really crazy. But only 5 years ago. Do you mind telling us a little bit about that story? Because I think what, you had to sell your truck or something? I would love for you to break down that story of that first property that you got and maybe what was going through your mind too at the time, because I'm sure there was a bunch of fears and doubts as well.

Yeah, I think the— I can't remember the saying, you guys will probably know, but like the pain of not making a change finally outgrew the pain of the perceived change I had to make and to become what it took to become the person I needed to become. And that for me was just like, I could not stand another day of getting in my car and driving to a customer's meeting who frankly, like, I didn't really care that much about. Like, I care about the customer and their success, but like, I just— I didn't care to sell the product and do the whole thing, the whole charade. I want to control over my time. And like, if I had to do this for another 40 years, I would be miserable. I think this is why a lot of people are miserable. So anyways, I lost track of even your question. Honestly, I just— I'm going back in that moment right now. And I'm just like, oh, yeah, I totally, I totally get that.

I was just asking about like the what you had, basically what you had to sacrifice and do to get that. Oh, yeah, that first property. Hello, Book Thinkers family. We are on a mission to change people's lives for the better. And we believe that the right book at the right time can change your life. And the only way we can impact more lives is with your help. If a book has changed your life for the better, I wanted to ask you a quick favor. Could you please take a few seconds and leave a review of our show? Because if you're like us, you want to change not only your life but others' lives as well. And by you leaving a review of our show, it spreads the word about all of these life-changing books and does just that. We greatly appreciate your help. By reaching more people, you help us change more lives. Thank you so much for your time. And now back to the show.

Yeah.

So the pain— you're saying the pain was terrible, and I totally get that. So the pain was terrible. You're at this point where you're like, okay, I've had it with this job. And then whatever's next.

Yep. Yeah. So the first step I had to take— so once we got the first property, and this is, this is also part of the reason I think mentorship is so important, because you don't know what you don't know. And sometimes That can lead to mistakes that could be costly. But I bought a property and I was like, oh wait, I have to furnish it. How much does that cost? So I had to sell my truck in order to be able to furnish it. And I had just finished paying off this, like, at the time I was like super awesome, like souped-up truck I bought when I lived in Texas. I was really proud of that thing, loved driving it every day, but I parted ways with it just so I could furnish it. Then the second property we were all in, and my wife and I both said, you know what, our goals are not to work until we're 65. So let's liquidate and pay the penalties on our 401 and IRA and buy the second. And then COVID hit while we're under contract for that property. And we had $40,000 of cancellations in a 2-week period on our first property. And I was probably more optimistic than most, right? But I just kind of like went with it. And then those properties stabilized and cash flowed. And so those are some of the early things that, that we sacrificed. And then once we quit our jobs, you know, we pared down, we rented out our primary home and got into a camper van, sold out most of the things that we owned, and our expenses were like less than $5,000 a month, which is insane to think about considering they're way higher now. But when you have consistent cash flow coming in and you don't have to trade more than a couple hours a week, and you have complete control over your time and freedom, that is, that is like the dream. and freedom, you know, to be able to do what you want, when you want, with who you want each and every day. So like those early— the reason I said is those early sacrifices, looking back on it, were small and totally worth it.

Yeah, that's awesome. I think it's really important to show that it's like, hey, you started here and then in 5— I mean, I just can't get over like how quickly you made this huge radical change in your life. I think that's really inspiring because so many people think, oh, it's going to take 20, 30, 40 years. And for some people it does, but it's totally possible to shrink that timeline. And I think that's really, really amazing. Now I'm curious, were you in there for how long? Did you manage and clean and do all of those things until you were delegating stuff? Because I'm assuming now it's all just delegated out, but bridge the gap. Between, you know, you're in there cleaning to delegation?

Never clean, never clean. I have cleaned our properties 2 times early on when cleaner, like early cleaners, we didn't have a good system for schedule syncing, so they didn't show up. So we rushed over there and cleaned. I would never do that ever again. I would also advise like, you got to get out of the cost savings mindset. And if you want to be like a multi-7 or 8-figure investor, Before long, like, you got to be scrappy in the beginning, but you have to start acting like one, you know, because if you're acting like somebody who's gonna do all the work, clean the properties, communicate with maintenance, and I don't know, go over and let the guests in the house, like, you're not going to be able to do that at scale. And if you don't build your systems early to scale, you'll— it'll be really hard to break everything when you get to a breaking point and force the change you have to make later on when your portfolio is much bigger. So I would say like leverage technology, leverage people where you can. Great cleaners and maintenance is really all you need. Other than that, you could manage from your phone pretty much anywhere.

So making $100,000 in profit in a single month, where is that money going today? Are you looking to bring on a bunch of additional properties? Are you paying down existing mortgages so they become more profitable? Are you reinvesting in technology or the property management? Like, how does that work today for you?

Yeah, yeah, a lot of that money just gets reinvested. You know, some of it gets spent on the fun stuff that my whole reason we did this, we have to stay grounded. Like we wanted to be able to travel all over the world whenever we want. So this year, like we spent, you know, a week at the beach in Hilton Head, we spent a bunch of time in France, Switzerland, Austria the past year. So like, we, we like to go do things that we love to do. And that's where we like to spend money. So some of it goes there, but really like to reinvest and reinvesting when you start to really increase your income becomes more important. It starts to shift from, hey, I want to invest for cash flow. That's still always like a checkbox for me. It has to cash flow well. But really, it becomes more of like, I hate paying taxes. And how do I not pay as much in tax? So the best hack in the game really is to invest in real estate. There's just great tax advantages there in the tax code. So like, that's, that's the biggest thing. It's kind of finding a balance of, you know, just buying to buy and making sure we're still trying to stay on process with our KPIs and cash-on-cash return, all that good stuff.

What would you say to somebody— and I'm sure you hear this a lot in your comments section on socials— but what do you say to somebody who says, hey, listen, Michael, you got in a few years ago at the right time where Airbnb had this huge liftoff, and now they're kind of bearing down on on people. There are more regulations. It's harder to make money. It's inflated.

Blah blah blah blah blah.

What do you say to that person?

Honestly, first thing I would say is my most profitable investments, like out of that hundred k. Over 50 to 70 of it came from 2 properties that were my most recent 2 that were bought in '23 and '24. So, you know, the best time to invest in real estate from today and compared to any day in the future is usually today. So you can talk about the past all you want. You know, I was saying at the time, F this, real estate's expensive. It's really hard to break into this industry. I wish I got started in 2010 or 2015. when I invested. Now I'm looking back and I'm like, you're a knucklehead. You should have bought 100 homes and raised a bunch of money. If I knew what I knew, what was coming, of course, it's always like hindsight 20/20, but it's really easy to sit on the sideline and say, man, must be nice, or lucky you, you just timed it right. Yeah, looking back, I did time it right, but did I know that when I started buying? No, I just committed to making the decision that I wanted to become a real estate investor and I wanted financial freedom. And in order to do that, I had to start ASAP.

Yeah, sometimes, like, my wife— after reading your book, I've been talking to my wife a little bit about short-term. And, uh, you know, it— you see those funny memes or reels talking about, well, my parents bought their $2 million house for a bag of chips, you know, back in the 1980s or whatever. And, uh, sometimes I think about, well, we're going to be thinking that 50 years from now about the home that we live in right now. And just with how inflation happens and appreciation happens and like, you're totally right. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. And the second best time is today. And today is the only option that we have. And so you might as well create a little bit of urgency, put some money together, take some action and figure this thing out for yourself.

Yeah, that would be really funny though, thinking about the conversation 50 years from now. Man, they— you only bought this house for a million bucks back then.

Yeah. You know, yeah, you only bought this house for $1 million, you know, now you get $1 million every time you rent it out. Yeah, true. But there was a lot of money back then.

Yeah, exactly.

That's funny.

I would—

I'd love to know. So a lot of people in Airbnb see it as almost like a race to the bottom to be the cheapest price. Like if you— I mean, you can go on Airbnb right now and like there's, there's houses that are $100 a night and then it's $95 a night and there's not much difference. And then so what do you do in your houses to make them worth the premium price that you want to charge? And how are you like thinking about that?

Yeah, usually it's, you know, before I buy the property, I want to understand where— what are the top performing properties currently making? Where are they located? What do they have to offer? So this is, you know, in part of the book, I dive into this is probably the most important part of that entire book is, and in any type of real estate or buying a business or whatever it is, create a Create a buy box. This is basically just like I, I know exactly what I'm looking for and then what things I need to add or do to the property in order to compete and also outcompete some of these other top competitors, right? If you do that, it's really hard to like not do at least okay, frankly. So for me, buy boxes comes down to this outside of location. I'm looking at size of home, you know, do they have big living rooms? Do they have basements? Do they have amenities? Do they have views? Is it walking distance to town? Is it secluded? Notice commonalities between all the top performers. And then you're going to want to note also the non-negotiable amenities. If you notice that there's a huge revenue jump in properties that have a fire pit, hot tub, and whatever, insert amenity, then it's not a should I add this or not? It's no, no. I have to get a property that either has it or has the capability or space for me to add this if I want to compete. Now, this is how you become the boardwalk on the Monopoly board with the hotel on it, because that's how you dominate in a market. I think of the Monopoly analogy as those are different size properties in a market, and that the more houses and hotels I put on there, the more I can charge per night, right? So when someone lands on me, so I would rather be a mid-sized property that has a hotel on it than the boardwalk, but I'm broke, too broke to add amenities or have the analogy there. So, but who typically wins Monopoly is they have the boardwalk and maybe a few other cards with hotels on them because they can charge the most and no one else can compete and everyone else is a race to the bottom. So going back to that point you made earlier, so what are the 1 to 3 things that I can add that either nobody else has or very few people have amenity-wise or design, whatever it is that make my property stand out online when somebody's scrolling on Airbnb that they're just like, holy shit, this, I send it to my friends, guys, I don't even care what it costs, empty your piggy banks, we have to stay here. Because people are selfish. They want to take pictures there. Look at the place I'm staying at. So I want to provide that experience. And it's the same in any industry. If you compete on value, your customers will be willing to pay and appreciate you. Like iPhones are not the cheapest price, but you think people are not willing to pay for an iPhone, you're wrong, right? They provide probably the best value, service, whatever product. I want to be that. So, you know, I'd rather be the top 1% of my subcategory within a market than stretch my budget to get one that's like mediocre. Because you're right, it will be a race to the bottom for sure.

I've seen people do some fun and creative things like every photo of the Airbnb has somebody in a dinosaur outfit, like somewhere in the room. What are, what are some of the things in your vacation rentals that help you stand out in a big way? Like, what are those 1 to 3 things typically?

For me, it's really more so like, like the amenity selection. What if you or nobody else has like, So some of my recent properties, I've done stuff like if the ceiling's high enough, or maybe I can raise the ceiling in a room, I'll put a golf simulator in if it's a family or like an area where people like to enjoy golf or the outdoors. Most people do not have a golf simulator at home. And also second to that, most people will probably swing on a golf simulator maybe once in their life if they get like fitted for clubs. So for somebody to be able to use an amenity that they rarely ever have, and would cost them a fortune to put in their own home, you could bet your bottom dollar they're willing to pay for that, splitting the cost with a bunch of their friends or family. So that's one. Any type of photo moment as well, it's also free marketing. So if you can do an interactive mural or if you have a view like you see in a lot of cities and stuff, they'll have like a big heart or like an arch where people like line up to take photos. And I took this, you know, the mural thing from Nashville because when I first moved to Nashville, Tennessee, there's murals all around the city. And I'm not kidding, on a Saturday morning at 10 a.m., There'll be 300 girls lined up with their boyfriend or fiancé or husband sitting there just like tagging along. And they want to take the one picture that was made famous on social media that has the big wings. Because I was like, that was my first property. I put wings on my wall. And now a lot of people do that. But that was the only reason we got all these bachelorettes to book before we redesigned it, made it like really crazy, was they wanted that photo moment. So amenity that they don't get. Ever or rarely? And then can you create a memory there? People will pay for the experience, the memory, whatever you want to call it, for sure.

Such good, such good tips. And it's funny, like, I haven't really thought about it through this lens. But when I think of Airbnb, I'm always looking for those little things, those little things that make it stand out. What's really cool, I mean, I'm sure you've seen like those, those crazy Airbnbs that are like, Winnie the Pooh's, you know, tree or whatever. There's a bunch of those cool ones that are, that are becoming bigger and bigger, and they're like booked out for years. It's insane. So it totally makes sense just to add those little extras that don't cost that much more for you, but you can profit a lot more in the long run by having that. So I love that. I want to like kind of bridge the gap now between you're doing all this, these properties, and now you have your book, you have your mentorship group. What was the, what was the motivation behind starting those things? Because you could have just sat back and be like, hey, you know what, I have the properties, it's enough. I don't want more work on my shoulders, not going to do this thing. But what led you to doing this?

Yeah, you know, it kind of happened organically. Like anybody who has a personal brand or contact or coaching program, or whatever, mentorship, you name it, it usually starts out in a very similar vein where I just started finding success in something and I was so excited about it. It just invigorated me that I would tell my friends about it, my family. It's all I would talk about. People probably got sick of me talking about it. Then I just started sharing it on social media. And I didn't really have an intent behind that necessarily. It was like, I learned from social media, I'll just talk about this, you know, instead of posting like what I'm doing on the weekend, and no one really cares about that. And then you start to get all these random people from high school, college, strangers that reach out and be like, yo, how did you do this? I'm actually really interested. Like, can you share? I'd be like, sure, dude, let's hop on the phone. Let's hop on Zoom. I literally just do like a free coaching call. And it wasn't even like coaching then. It was really more networking. Here's what I learned. Here's how you can do it. Let's look at a property together. So it happened very organically. And then it turned into how much, how much do I owe you? Or how much can I pay you for coaching? And I was like, I don't know, like $50, maybe?

Sure.

That's nice of you to offer, like lunch or something. So then it became like the demand got bigger and bigger for it as I kept talking about it online. So it just happened naturally. I was like, okay, this can be a really good business model. But I always want to make sure people get value from it, and they actually find success. So it's like, you just want to make sure you're not like— I never want someone to feel like, oh, I paid for this program or coaching and I didn't get out of it what was promised. So I'm very cognizant of how we have it structured. But yeah, it's growing like crazy, but it's the most rewarding thing ever because it impacts somebody else's life. It's not so much just I made extra money. It was my wife was able to leave her job that she hated and she always wanted to stay home with the kids, or I was able to leave my sales job that I was traveling from work and now I get to spend time with my family, or I can travel more. Now I can Pay off my car, whatever, insert benefit. And usually it just makes people's lives better, not worse. So like, that is the most fulfilling thing for me and I get paid to do it, which is like what we all dream of when you think of like the American dream, right?

Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing too, 'cause I think a lot of people see somebody like you and they're like, well, if he was making enough money on the Airbnbs, why does he have to teach it? I hate that because I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like, he was doing this thing, he was making money doing it, and then so many people reached out for advice and needed help that it was like, it didn't make sense not to charge because all of a sudden your time becomes a lot more worth it. So I just really appreciate you, you sharing that. That was— that's awesome.

Yeah.

And the other thing too is like when you offer like, you know, free whatever, most people, because they have no skin in the game, ultimately just kind of like kick the can down the road and never do anything. It's way more fun to work with somebody who is like financially and just so personally bought into the mission, that you both get more out of the interaction, frankly. And same thing, I could say the same thing about people I've paid tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for coaching over the past couple of years. It's like, they could very easily not have a coaching or mentorship program, but I needed it. And I was willing to pay for it. And it impacted my life, you know, so 100% agree.

Yeah, I love that. And I think that's like, That's the big thing that I always tell people when they're looking at paying for mentors or coaches, because they always have— that's always the thing that gets in the way. Like, oh, but why would this person do that? It's like, well, because number one, they want to help the person that they were, and they see the value that it adds. And then it gives them— I'm sure it gives you tons of good feelings to, like you said, help somebody have their wife quit their job. That's amazing. Or pay off their car, or pay off whatever. Like that, that is super fulfilling work. And it's like, you can't even— it's even hard to put a price tag on that. That's amazing. So I love that. I'd love to know your, your personal brand across TikTok and Instagram. I think you have, you know, 500,000, 900,000, like so many followers. Was that something that was super intentional that you did? Or is it something that just kind of happened organically?

It started out organic. I mean, I had like, part of the motivation was like, let's see how many people are interested in this topic, right? So I started posting on TikTok. And, you know, I think a lot of people get discouraged when they're like, oh, I want to like be a content creator, get a bunch of views. It's like, anybody will tell you that starting out, like the first 900,000 followers I got on TikTok, 90% of those probably came from less than 6 videos. That's crazy. But I posted like every day for like 3 years, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it takes a while. And a lot of those videos were the same style, same words. For whatever reason, the one stuck and went crazy. Because I remember waking up in my camper van, and I had like maybe 20,000 or 30,000 followers. And I woke up to like 5 million views on a video and 100,000+ new followers. And I was like, whoa, this is crazy, you know? It's harder now with TikTok, frankly. And then I posted another video that afternoon, it got like 2 million views, and I got another like 50,000 followers. I'm like, this is easy. I'm a genius, you know, but then the next bunch of videos don't hit. And it's just like, it's really a game of consistency, and then trying different things and figuring out where your voice and face stick. And then redoing that same style of video until people are, you're, you know, you're blue in the face. And people tell you, I'm sick of it, because I treat every video like it's a brand new audience. A lot of people think I have to put out new content, new ideas. And it's like, No, you don't, man. Like, stick to the one topic, maybe a couple different angles, and keep giving people a reason to click yes, I like it, follow, thanks for providing a little bit of value, I want to learn more.

Yeah, you're speaking our language. I love it. 2 final questions for you, and then we've got to wrap up. Luke might have a couple of questions as well. So here's my first one. You shared with us before we press record that you also have a done-for-you package. If somebody is listening today and they don't want to evaluate properties themselves or manage them, But they want somebody like you to step in and help out. What does that process look like?

Yeah, yeah. It's a fun service that we offer called B&B Turnkey. And this, this also happened organically. I had a lot of people that would basically apply or interview to do the coaching thing, but they're like, look, man, frankly, I got a bunch of money saved up and I don't, I don't have the time and I don't care to do the work. I don't— I definitely don't want to manage it. So I literally— will you do it for me? And the first person to offer this had just sold a company. And I was stupid. I was nervous. I said no, and that was dumb. So like a couple years later, I was like more and more people asked. So we finally just built the service out where we will go find properties, you know, whether that are within your budget. Of course, we do have a minimum that so we can kind of find a target property for you. We'll go find the properties, underwrite the deals, send them to you, and then you can review them and choose the one you want to buy. You you own 100% of the deal. We just have a consultation fee. And then once you close on it and get the keys, we will professionally design it, set it up, manage the construction, furnish it, and then manage it for you on the back end. So hence BNB Turnkey. It's a turnkey offer where really all the effort you have to do is kind of some back and forth and then, you know, send money when we need to buy furniture or so on and so forth. So that's great for people, honestly, who have $200K to $250K or more saved up. They're— they want to get exposure to short-term rental cash flow, but they frankly just don't have the time or care or desire to do it on their own. So that offer is for you.

And you said there's a 15% average cash-on-cash return even after all is said and done?

Yeah, our target is 15 to 20%, inclusive of the management fee on the back end. So we're still looking to, you know, we want it to be more or ideally double or more that you would get in an alternative investment. And that's just cash on cash. So that's just cash flow back in your pocket. Most people don't get the passive income, you know, they just get the capital gain over the course of time. So you, of course, also get the tax benefit, you get principal paydown on the loan, equity through appreciation, all that fun stuff.

Well, for the right person, that sounds like a totally— a total no-brainer. I know there's a lot of people that even come to mind. They're like, oh, I want to do this Airbnb, but I don't want to have to do all the work behind it. So there you go. you have the offer for them. All right, Michael, this has been so much fun. I have 2 more questions that I ask all of our guests. The first is, where can people go to find out more about you and learn about all the amazing things that you're doing? And of course, we'll link it all in the show notes.

Yeah, yeah. Honestly, Instagram is probably the best spot. It's just @melefante6. No, I never changed my handle since I created Instagram. But yeah, @melefante6. That's with an F, not a PH. And you could DM me there. There's a bunch of content there. If you want to read the book, super cheap and affordable book, guys. If you want to learn about short-term rentals, it's a quick read, really more tactical than a lot of real estate books are. Investing in Short-Term Rentals: The Fast Path to Financial Freedom. You can find it on Amazon. And that's really the only 2 things I would say starting out if you want to learn more.

Perfect. Amazing. Yeah. And definitely we'll link it all in the show notes. All right. This is my final question that I ask all of our guests, and it's this. You pass away and all the information that you've put out, so courses, books, everything that you've done disappears, but you can leave the world with a single piece of advice. What would it be?

It's whatever aspirations you have in life, you have to adopt the mindset of why not me and take action. Because, and if I'm okay to do so, I'd love to give you some context around that. So my wife and I always saw people online or saw successful people, especially myself. And I'm like, man, must be nice. Who's thought that before? Must be nice. Like, oh, you didn't just overnight success, right? And so I start instead of saying like, you know, oh, must be nice. I said, well, well, if they can do it, like, why not me? Why not us? So we wrote why not us on a board that had a map pinned to it. And on the map every day at the bottom of the stairs, we would look at it and add to our route we wanted to take in our camper van when we quit our jobs in the next year. So that was the, the thing that motivated us. But it was more so just like, you know what, dude, F this. Like, everyone has imposter syndrome. It's hard. It's not easy. But dude, if they can do it, so can you. If I can do it, so can you. So like, why not you?

So powerful. It's such a powerful story.

Wow.

I love that. All right. This has been so awesome, Michael. Thank you so much for your time. You are so smart. It was so great learning from you. I can't wait to dive more into your whole story and share this with our audience. It's going to be great.

Awesome. Thank you guys. Appreciate you so much.

That is a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Book Thinkers, Life-Changing Books. It would mean the world to us if you could write a review and share this episode with a few of your friends. I mean, these books truly have the power to change people's lives. By reviewing or sharing our podcast, you're helping us make an impact. If you have any recommendations for future guests or any constructive feedback for us on how we can improve our show, please feel free to submit a form on our website, www.bookthinkers.com, or send us a direct message on Instagram @bookthinkers. With that, I am signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Don't forget, go read something.