Top 10 Smart Tech Essentials for Your Mid-Term Rental

Hey everyone, good evening. I'm just gonna do a few things and make sure we can go live here. Um, I think we're going live, so let's hope this works. All right, good evening everyone. Things are just getting connected. I'm Shona from She's Got Assets. You guys all know the drill. Let me know if you can see me and hear me. Um, so I'll get started in like maybe 2 minutes. Just make sure you— just if you can hear me and see me. Um, let me know. Let me know where you're calling in from. It's— I'm in Portland, Oregon. It's super like stormy and rainy out and feels very, very much like fall, kind of wintry. So I just want to curl up with a book by the fire or something. Um, but tonight we have a really fun topic. Um, we are going to be talking all about smart tech with midterm rentals. There's a lot that goes into midterm rentals, and I think a lot of these things can kind of hang you up and you're not sure what to do. So I'm going to kind of go over some industry favorites, what I use specifically. Um, and if you're watching the replay, I you can just comment and I will send you this exact list. It's also in the course. Um, so yeah, just let me know that you're here. It's super helpful where you're calling in from. I think I've got people on YouTube and Facebook. So again, if you're watching the replay, uh, just comment and I'll get back to you. So, uh, we'll get started. So, uh, good evening. My name is Shona. I'm the founder of She's Got Assets. So we're all about real estate investing and maximizing your cash flow. And, um, one of the things I teach students how to do is fully book midterm rental to really maximize their cash flow and, you know, 2x or more their rental income. So with that being said, we're going to get started. And this is our weekly live stream. Again, I'm Shona from She's Got Assets, and so we're going to go over SmartTag tonight. Um, so I'm going to share the screen. Let's see, this takes me one second here. Okay, gotta get all the things here. Okay, can everyone see this? This is not— I'm gonna go into presenter mode and then I will definitely Stay tuned for, um, like live Q&A at the end. Um, so, all right, here we go. Hopefully everyone can see this. Okay, awesome. Well, welcome everyone again. Uh, this is a live training on the top smart tech essentials for your midterm rental. I think it's a really fun topic, something we don't talk about a lot, but I think it's super important. Um, so yeah, if you haven't met me yet, my name is Shona. Uh, really nice to meet you. If you have met me, you'll just have to kind of be reminded of a few things. Well, that— I always like to introduce myself. We have a lot of new members coming in all the time. Um, so a little bit about me briefly. Um, I like to say I was raised by capitalist hippies growing up. I helped run the family vacation rental business, so real estate and hospitality is kind of in my blood and my DNA a little bit. Um, originally from California, thought I'd never get into real estate, seemed very expensive, unattainable. Um, but then way back in 2005, I house hacked my way into real estate, kind of never looked back. So I've been at this for a long, long time, I'm like an OG. I've been a landlord since 2006. Um, I used to be kind of private that I was a landlord, but then I kind of just came out and was like, hey, I'm a landlord. I'm one of the good ones. I really care about my tenants or my guests' experience, and I want to provide, you know, quality properties. And then I found Midterm Rentals, and the rest is history. But, um, so prior to being, you know, a full-time investor and coach that I am, um, I'm kind of forever been an entrepreneur, um, and an outside cat, as someone once put it. Um, So I'm kind of a serial entrepreneur. I'm the founder of She's Got Assets, which is the group that you're probably part of. If you're not, please join it. I'm a podcast host and then I'm a course author of the REI Playbook and the MTR Playbook. And then I have Cedar and Porch Properties, which is kind of what we run our midterm rentals under. As long as our long-term, we've got a mix of both. And then I buy off-market fixers under Shona Buys Houses. So I live with my family in Portland, Oregon, and we own a mix of long-term rentals, like midterm rentals, like I said. Um, on a personal note, I, I am kind of a techie. I do love technology. Like, I was not always that way, but I've kind of embraced it. Um, I love coffee, baking, design, treasure hunting, and I'm really obsessed with real estate. So that's just a little bit about me if you haven't met me before. Um, all right, so we're gonna kind of get into the meat of this, which is like top tips for smart tech. So just a little backstory here, when I first, like, way back, launched an Airbnb, and now I'm all about midterms. But I swear it took me forever to figure out a smart lock. There's so many options out there. You go on Amazon, everyone has a different opinion. Um, so just know that they all— they're all fine. I'm going to share my favorites and kind of why, and then another industry favorite. And if anyone's listening to this, like, I will share Amazon links with you, so just leave a comment and I'll send direct links. So I personally, I love the August smart lock. I'll explain why. Another industry favorite is the Schlage. I love the August one because like you can see in this picture, you have like 3 ways to access the house. The hardware is kind of behind the smart lock, so the front of the door looks nice. There's no, you know, kind of big bulky smart lock in the front. So you can open it with a key, right? Which is nice. You can open it with an app, which is awesome. And it's Wi-Fi enabled, right? So guests can log— you can open your door remotely super easily. You can change your codes. You can make a special code for like your handyman or your cleaner. You can see when they came in with they left. You can make codes for your guests. I generally invite them to the app and I specify the time period, like, hey, you know, 1 month or 3 months starting the next day, and then it automatically will remove them from it, which is awesome. Um, yeah, so it's just really great. And if you are doing like the midterm— or excuse me, the hybrid strategy with like mostly midterm but some, um, short-term to fill in the gaps— this technology will actually sync with Airbnb, so it'll automatically like make a guest code, which is great because You know, that's just one, not one less thing you have to worry about. Um, so I really like the August lock. I have them on all my properties. And I will say with smart tech in general, just a word of advice, there's kind of like different ecosystems, right? And you kind of, once you settle on like a smart lock, you, you kind of end up sticking with it if you're going to scale, especially like when I open my phone, I can see all of my properties in one app. I mean, sometimes we switch around, but sometimes things aren't compatible. So Not to say that you always can change your mind, but, you know, do your research, figure out which one you really think is the best, because once you kind of commit and you start scaling, right, all your properties, it's nice if they all have the same technology, you know how to use it. So I really like the August one for all the reasons I mentioned. Again, just word of caution with smart locks, the batteries die. They just do, and they always happen at the most inopportune times. I swear, you know, you just were there doing a turnover and then the lock dies. So leave extra batteries on site, like in a drawer or something. I also always document what kind of batteries because because, you know, there's, there's the batteries for the keypad, the batteries for the lock. So I have a spreadsheet, include that in the course of like, hey, just document what kind of batteries, because different things take different batteries. It's usually like, I think, you know, AAA, sometimes AA, depends. And then I also highly recommend just having a lockbox on site. Things do malfunction. Sometimes the internet's down or whatever it is. So that way you have— there's really a foolproof way, especially again, if you're not local. So Again, so front door lock, I think they're super important. Again, you could just have a lockbox, but I think it's really good for security. There's always generally a different code. You can make sure that people got in, you can let them in remotely. Um, most people get it. I think it's a really nice amenity. It's great for self-check-in. Like, you know, my guests, I don't have to meet them. I don't have to give them keys. I have very clear instructions on how to check in. I usually make them a door code that works with the keypad, and that's generally the last 4 digits of their phone number. Super easy, right? And then I give them access to the app. Some guests, you know, they want to use a key. Some guests want to use the keypad. Some want to use the app. Everyone has like a different level of comfort with technology. So I— that's why I like the August. Again, they're all decent. They all have very similar functionality, um, but I've landed on August. I've been using them for years and they've definitely— you know, technology is always changing, right? So nothing lasts forever. But this is my smart lock recommendation. I think that's— you know, I kind of tried to prioritize this list on what's the most important. So I think the front of the smart lock is, I'd say, that most— one of them more important pieces of smart technology. I'm gonna see if anyone has questions really fast on here, so just give me one second. Just— I'll check back at the end too, but I just wanted— before I forget, um, let's see. Yeah, smart technology. Let's see if there's any questions about that before I move on. Okay, just some welcomes. Hey Irma from Tampa, Florida, all the way across the country, thanks for tuning in. Hey Joel from Los Angeles, awesome. Okay, well just post questions as you think of them and I'll certainly get back to them at the end. So that's, that's tip number 1, right? Smart lock, front door lock. Again, there's— I was just kind of— I did a little survey today in another group just to see, and Schlage was kind of the winner. I personally like August, but I just went under both. Um, Another thing that I really like is a smart video ring doorbell. Um, whoops, sorry about this copy here. So I like smart doorbells because you can make sure guests get in okay. I do not monitor them, right? It's really just a convenience for guests. It's also kind of a security thing if your properties are empty. The ones that were hardwired, if you get close to it, will say, hey, there's no one home, you're being recorded, right? So I just think it's a nice, really nice, like, modern safety amenity. Or if people are having Amazon packages delivered, right, it's super great. And if you're not familiar with a video doorbell. There's a ton of brands out there, like there's a plethora. Again, you know, I landed on Ring and I'm kind of like dedicated to it because all my properties have Rings, right? So I like to stick with, you know, similar technology because they're adding to the properties and you have like a million different apps that you're looking at. So what I do with guests is I just give them access during their stay and then I remove it when they leave. Um, and it's just, again, it's nice for packages, it's nice when your properties are occasionally empty, right? It's security thing. A couple tips, like if you can hardwire them, I highly recommend it. Again, sometimes they'll work with like an existing doorbell. Some properties are just, just easier to do a battery-operated one. The problem with that is the batteries, you know, guests don't often charge them. So if you can go hardwired, I highly recommend it. Get your electrician to do it. If you can't, you know, just that, that's what it is. I recommend getting the solar-powered, you know, kind of source to keep the battery charged more. Ring is one of the products that, you know, you get the live view, but if you want to see any previous footage, right, um, that was captured by Ring, if there's a security issue, you really need to have the subscription. I want to say it's like $10 a door. I could be wrong. There's different ones out there that don't include that. I mean, in my experience, they have the best user functionality, good support. But again, there's a lot of options out there. I personally been a Ring fan for a long time. We have one at our home. It's just great because you can talk two-way, you can see who's at your door. You know, I think people like for safety. And especially, you know, like nurses, and they, they really want to have like properties that feel safe, and this is functionality. So I always include Ring video doorbells. If you are battery operated, you can also have like an extra battery if it's not hardwired, because like anything, the batteries just don't last forever. So, but I love Ring video doorbells. Um, all right, then smart TVs. So I personally just have one smart TV like in the living room. I think with short-term rentals, it's maybe expected that they're in every bedroom. I've always just had one TV. Never had anyone complain and never had an issue, you know. But go by what your guests say. But I just have one TV. I think most people have kind of their own smart devices, and I absolutely love Roku. I mean, every— you have to have a smart TV. That what I like about Roku is it's totally engineered for like the guest experience. Like, I used to pay for like Netflix and, you know, Amazon Prime, and now I just let guests— what Roku does is it enables guests to kind of Um, check in when they check in, right? When is their check-in date? When is their checkout date? And they can log into all their favorite streaming platforms. It's super seamless. It's really nice. And when they check out, they're automatically logged out. So you're not paying for streaming. Everyone has a different like flavor of streaming anyway. So I highly recommend Roku if you can. It's mostly built into TVs, but if it's not, it's pretty inexpensive to add on. Just order it on Amazon. If you have like an older smart TV, just do the add-on. It's well worth it. Um, so I'm a big fan of that. Again, it just allows guests to log into their own channels. It logs them out. You're not worrying about logging in and out, people buying stuff on your account, right, needing your PIN and all that. So highly recommend a smart TV with Roku. Um, let's see. Um, so outdoor motion sensor lights— I, again, I really like the Ring product. It's— it will capture video, and if someone walks by, or if you have like a darker corner, it will just turn on automatically. And it will— if there's ever, you know, an issue with anything, you can capture it. Again, just small note here, I think don't have indoor cameras. That is definitely not cool, so don't do that. But I like the outdoor cameras. I feel like it's a safety thing. I feel like it's a modern amenity. And again, I do give guests access to this. I just remove them when they move out. So I'm a fan of the Ring, Ring brand. Um, let's see, indoor motion sensor lights. I think these are also really helpful for like stairs or night lights in hallways and things like that. I have some specific links. It's just kind of a safety thing. It's just a nice thing to have. I can certainly share links for those. Um, and then a smart thermostat, especially, you know, if maybe you have a little bit of vacancy, you can check it on your thermostat, make sure it's not super high, right? Again, it's a nice amenity for guests. So I, I've used Google Nest for a long time. Ecobee is one that I've heard other people like. So they all have similar functionality, right? You have an app, you can set You can update your thermostat as long as there's Wi-Fi, right? So it just kind of keeps things— there's also kind of— it's very efficient, right? So it keeps your costs down, I think, having a smart thermostat. So highly recommend that. Um, and then a newer product, you know, for me is like smart smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors. Um, it allows you to monitor that way of Wi-Fi. And I don't know about you guys, but I've had so many times, especially with long-term rentals, where the smoke detectors go off just just completely randomly. You don't know if it's an actual emergency. You know, they're not smart. They're just beeping incessantly, which is just irritating beyond belief. And you're running around from room to room trying to figure out where the smoke detector— which one's going off if they're all connected. So I'll put some links into the ones I like. They are a little more expensive. It's a bit more of an investment. But when you get your— you know, it's— I just think it's nice to know, especially again if you have vacancy or they go off and you're not sure if it's a real emergency. So I highly recommend smart smoke detectors. Again, they're definitely more of an investment, but I think it's well worth it just for security and all that. So at number 8, a smart speaker, right? I think they're great. People can play music. You just want to be mindful that people can know how to turn it off and notify the guests. They can just turn off the listening feature, but it's great for music, you know, it's great for like, hey, what's the weather like, what are recommendations. So I— a lot of my properties have this. Just make sure that it's really clear in the house notes how to turn them off. Um, so that you're, you know, they don't have to have the listening feature on. That, that's obviously, they can just turn that off. Um, but I do like to include that as an amenity. Um, and this is kind of a newer thing that, um, it's, you know, I think the worst thing that can happen, or one of the worst things that can happen to a property, is a leak that goes undetected. It can do so much damage. We all know that, right? So these are Wi-Fi water leak detectors. You can put them like under your sinks, right? You can put them by your washing machine, by your hot water heater, and they will alert you if there's a leak, which is really awesome because water can do a lot of damage, right? So these are really great. Again, it's a bit of a little bit of investment, but you get a pack of them, you can just sprinkle them around. And they're just— they're really great to know because you're not there all the time. And I've had a lot of, you know, especially in long-term, like leaks under sink, like people just don't tell me. And so I, you know, you come back and you find the leak, so it'll alert you right away. So really cool piece of smart technology. Um, and then exterior lights. I'm really big on like outdoor safety, well-lit places, especially if you have properties that have like steep stairs or there may be darks. Like I have one property that has a lot of stairs. So I actually have, I had the electrician make it the power to be continuously on and I have smart bulbs that I can program to come on from dusk to dawn. The other thing is it's not exactly smart. The light bulbs are great, but also just, you need to have some kind of hub at your property that controls the on and off lights. And I've had guests sometimes remove those hubs or turn them off, but just let them know that's what they're there for. And there's also like a sensor you can add to like your porch lights, which is great because it'll come on dusk to dawn. It just makes sure that everything is well lit. If people are checking in late, you're not like worrying about can they see something, right? It's not a safety issue. So that is high level. There's a lot of technology out there. I think we can really drive ourselves nuts, but these are just some of my favorites, and I'm kind of always looking for things and adding to my list. So with that being said, and again, if anyone wants like Amazon links, I'm going to pull it together in a list because I know sometimes we were not sure what model or what version that can make you a little crazy. So I include that in the course and I'll give that to you guys as a download if you want. So just comment like download or something and I'll get you that. So quick promo here. I do coach students in the MTR Playbook coaching program. I help them how to like everything from market research to getting set up, going over furnishing, what the top amenities are. To like marketing, um, where to list, how to list, what to price, and then going all the way to kind of operations, how to do your leases, all that fun stuff. So it's a pretty full, uh, comprehensive coaching program, lots of resources and downloads. So if anyone is interested, really helps you kind of jumpstart your midterm rental, get all the experience that I have. You have a coach kind of with me, uh, helping guide you. So feel free to book a call here, or if you're, uh, tuning in, just type, um, I'm interested in the chat and I'll follow up with you. So I'm going to check the comments now. If you guys have any questions, feel free to comment, kind of anything. Okay, okay, Richard, awesome question. How do they automatically log out of Roku when they are checked out? So what happens is, it's super cool, you, you, you get your Roku— I've done this so many times, I feel like I'm an expert in setting up Roku. You basically put it in what's— it's something called like guest mode. So when they turn on the Roku TV, it says welcome to, you know, Welcome, when is your checkout date? When's your check-in and checkout date? And then automatically, like, if it's 3 months later, it's just going to log them out automatically. So you do need to put them into that guest mode, um, but then it's automatic and you're not worrying about them like logging into your account or buying things. So that's a great question, but that's how you do it. Um, awesome, you like Roku too. Yeah, Ilya says you like Roku. Yeah, I mean, I've— I used to have a smart TV and I included all these streaming services, and then they've also cracked down, and I feel like there's so many of them out there. If I were to include streaming services, I— it would just— there's so many of them out there and everyone has a different preference. So I'm a huge fan of Roku. And again, if it's not included in your TV, you can add it on. It's like $30 or something on Amazon. Um, so any other comments on smart tech? Or maybe I missed something, like let me know. I'm always looking for tips. Um, my daughter just came in, sorry. But yeah, again, I'm— have anything is on the table. If you have any comments on smart tech, or if you're watching this after, interested in the coaching cover all this in depth. But yeah, I know, I just, I tried to kind of prioritize, prioritize it, you know, as far as what I think is most important to maybe nice to have. But yes, I am a big fan of technology. I think especially with like self-check-in and stuff, it's just, it really helps you, right? You're not having to meet your guests, you're not saying go get this funky lockbox code if they're checking in late, they're not fumbling around with it. Um, yeah, so it's just super— it is amazing. It's especially the smart tech. Yeah, it's really— it makes things a lot smoother. And I think it's also just like an amenity for people that are, you know, looking— it's kind of a modern thing to have. Um, I don't know if people expect it. I think probably smart TV, they kind of expect, you know, smart locks are, you know, nice to have. All the other stuff isn't mandatory. But I do think it's kind of a modern— more modern experience. Okay, any other questions? Anything is fair game. I'm just gonna double-check here. And again, if you're interested in the coaching program, just type a comment and I will reach out to you. We can book a call and see if it's a good fit. Karen Smart Tech, if you're still here, you can watch the replay. Um, yeah. All right, any other questions? Um, just looking here. Hold on, I think that's the wrong thread. Okay, whoops. Let's see. Okay. 5 comments. Yeah. All right. Well, I don't see any other questions. I see a few more people are here. So anything's fair game. You can ask me. And again, if you're watching the replay and I missed something, or if you want to get a copy of all the links, like the Amazon links, I think we all shop on Amazon, right? Super convenient. It comes fast. Just type, you know, like supply list or something, and I'll get that over to you. So awesome. Well, thanks for tuning in, everyone. I know it's late in a lot of places, so yeah, I appreciate it. I'll be back next week with some more live, live content. Have a good evening, everyone.