Unlocking Financial Freedom A Guide to mid-term rentals and B2B Direct Bookings with Knoble Crawford

But we focus on, you know, engaging with the business, the organizations, the entities directly, right? Because we want their employees, their contractors, their, you know, guests and things like that and clients to come stay with us. And so, so the, the way I like to describe it is like a blue ocean strategy, right? So Russell Brunson talks about a blue ocean strategy, but essentially we are not going after the same customer that most STR operators are going after on the platform. Right? We're not going after transient guests, right? We're not going after that less than 30-day stay guest, right? And so we typically, because of that, we're not concerned about regulations because those STR regulations in most municipalities and jurisdictions are for stays less than 30 days, right? So we're not concerned about that. We're not concerned about, nor do we get impacted by, you know, the latest algorithm or update by the platforms, you know, that causes your bookings to dive and tank, right? So that's not something that we're concerned about. You know, Nor do we— fortunately, we're not in a situation where we have to do outbound direct marketing, right? We're not running Facebook ads, Google ads, things like that, right? Um, and so it's a very blue ocean strategy in the sense that, um, we are not, uh, we're not in the same water as, you know, as, as the other sharks fighting over the same bait, making a very bloody red ocean. We're in a very blue ocean.

Welcome to the Cedar and Porch Real Estate Investment Podcast. I'm the host, Shona Lépez. Follow along as we unpack and demystify real estate investment strategies through expert interviews and personal experience. From how to find off-market deals to creative financing to long-term and midterm rentals, our goal is to educate and inspire others to gain financial freedom and generational wealth through real estate investing. Welcome. Today I'm super excited to have Noble Crawford on. I first came across Noble on the MTR vs. STR Smackdown, co-hosted by Rachel Gainsbourg and Ruben Kanye, and probably mispronounced that, but I think we all know what side of the team I'm on. I love MTRs for so many reasons, and I really love the B2B niche that Noble is and wanted to chat more about it. So Noble Crawford is the founder of a hospitality brand. His technology, hospitality, and sales and marketing background brings over 20 years of experience to his daily hustle. His wife Elkie and 3 sons, along with his passion for helping others, is what drives him. So Noble, thank you so much for taking the time. I'd love to hear just a little bit about your background and how you found yourself in this super cool niche.

Awesome. Well, first of all, hey, thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure to, you know, to jump on other folks' podcasts. So thank you so much. So yeah, a little bit about me. So, you know, like you mentioned, I do have a background in hospitality as well as sales and marketing. And so I was in a very unique place some years back where I was working in my W-2 job, and we found out my wife, she had a brain tumor, right? And we had to go and we had to schedule the surgery to get it removed and so on. And so we did that. And then during that, the surgery was supposed to last like 6 hours, ended up lasting like 14 hours. She had to have a couple of blood transfusions, and it was this whole big thing, right? And so, She gets out of surgery, they got the whole tumor removed and everything, and she's in the ICU. And she's in the second or third day or whatever she's in the ICU, she flatlines twice in the ICU. And long story short, come to find out that she's allergic to morphine. They had on a morphine drip and it was killing her organs internally. Wow. And so she ultimately, they were to revive her and she survived that whole ordeal. But on the heels of that, she had to go through the whole recovery process, and that was weeks and weeks and weeks. And so during that time, I had a decision to make. I could either go back to the job and grind and hustle. And at the time, I was a commissioned sales engineer. And so I could go back and do that or stay home and care for my wife. And so I elected to stay home and care for my wife. And then on the tail end of that recovery, I got called into the office for the company-wide sales meeting. And in that meeting, I got berated by the CEO in front of the entire company for having dismal sales numbers for the previous 6 weeks, although everybody in the company knew what we were going through and they knew that I was home caring for my wife, right? And so in that moment, I made a decision that I was going to put my head down and work myself out of that job. And I did just that, right? And then a few years later, I basically cashed out and left that W-2. And I had decided I was no longer going to trade my time for money. And be beholden to somebody else's time schedule. And so on the heels of that, launched a marketing agency, ran that for a few years, and then I got introduced to short-term rentals. And like they say, the rest is history.

All right. I appreciate that story. That's really powerful. And that was like, I mean, sometimes the hardest things are stuff, right? Things you make that decision. That's amazing. Clearly it worked out. I'm sorry that you had to go through that though. Um, okay. So yeah, no, um, sorry. Yeah, that's, um, I, I've been self-employed pretty much my whole career and someone once put it like, you're, once you're an outside cat, you're always outside cat. Kind of feral at this point. Um, well, okay. So I mean, we, I know everyone's like, I'd love to just kind of dive into the meat of it cuz you have, I guess just to set the table a little bit, I feel like With landlord-tenant law getting the way it is and all these platforms changing algorithms and STR laws, like we all know, right? I think midterms, we love them, but you found this kind of B2B niche with direct verticals. So I just think that's brilliant. And I'd love to kind of just kind of maybe have to start with that.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So ironically enough, what kind of prompted us to get into this space Most people thought it was COVID, right? But we were actually doing B2B direct bookings prior to COVID. And so, you know, one day, you know, in the business, I had this lightbulb moment, right? And for context, that previous job that I had left, part of the— I had to handle a number of different verticals in that job. So I handled corporate, handled higher education, healthcare, government, and military. Those are the verticals that I was responsible for. In that government and military vertical, that's where I learned the art of federal procurement and government contracts. Okay. And so in the STR space, fast forward, one day I had this lightbulb moment. Why am I not doing this? You know, for this STR space is just a different product or service, right? And then once we implemented that, it just kind of took off up and to the right. And so, so then we decided to double down and start, you know, engaging in other verticals for direct bookings. And so, you know, so we got into higher education and we got into healthcare. And one of the ways we got into that is, again, going back to that previous W-2 job, those were my verticals. So I was engaged with medical schools, right? And so I went back to those same medical schools and said, hey, I'm doing something new now. I'm wondering, you know, I know, I know, I know the medical students and things like that have to pay for their own housing and accommodations while they're going through medical school or, you know, postdoctoral programs and things like that. And, you know, I'd like to, you know, provide my housing accommodations for that. And so that's how we kind of got started in the direct booking space was leveraging my background and my previous W-2 and all the years that I had learned in that space and what I had learned in hospitality.

Yeah, and I love that. And I feel like real estate, whatever your background is, there's a place for it, right? It's not lost. It's like the stepping stone. And clearly you like took most advantage of that. So I mean, I guess what I love, you know, about the B2B, I mean, I think it's, it sounds like you have to really network, but it's more lucrative. You're just, yeah, I mean, What also, just kind of unpacking direct booking, right? You're not relying on the platforms, you're kind of developing your own book of business. And I think that's really, really critical.

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the beautiful things about the B2B direct booking space, so you'll hear a lot of people talk about direct bookings, but most of them are kind of talking about B2C, the business to consumer. So, you know, marketing directly to the end guest, the end-user guest, if you will. Somebody who's really good about that is Mark Simpson, talking about that B2C space, right? But we focus on, you know, engaging with the business, the organizations, the entities directly, right? Because we want their employees, their contractors, their, you know, guests and things like that, and clients to come stay with us. And so, so the, the way I like to describe it is like a blue ocean strategy. Right. So Russell Brunson talks about a blue ocean strategy, but essentially, um, we are not going after the same customer that, uh, most STR operators are going after on the platforms, right? We're not going after transient guests, right? We're not going after that less than 30-day stay guest, right? And so we typically, because of that, we're not concerned about regulations because those STR regulations in most municipalities and jurisdictions are for stays less than 30 days, right? So we're not concerned about that. We're not concerned about, nor do we get impacted by, you know, the latest algorithm or update by the platforms, you know, that causes your bookings to dive and tank, right? So that's not something that we're concerned about, um, you know, nor do we— fortunately, we're not in a situation where we have to do outbound direct marketing, right? We're not running Facebook ads, Google ads, things like that, right? Um, and so it's a very blue ocean strategy in the sense that, um, we are not, uh, we're not in the same water as, you know, as, as the other sharks fighting over the same bait, making a very bloody red ocean. We're in a very blue ocean. And so, and there's a lot, a lot of, a lot of room in the B2B space for hosts to come over and be extremely successful.

I, I love that. I think being in business, you find that niche, you go deep, right? And it's relationship-based. Um, that makes so much sense. Okay, I'm probably gonna ask like a stupid question here. When I think B2B, I think direct booking. Um, I think like, I, you know, I do with the— I make the lease, but I'm assuming with corporate B2B, you have like a master lease, or I've just— can you— and that's probably silly, but I haven't done it. So I'm curious how the leases work with the direct booking.

Yeah, no, no, great question. Great question. So it depends on the vertical really. Right. And so, you know, if it's a corporate, for example, we may have a contract, right, with the corporate where, you know, we'll set aside a block of rooms at X location for employees that are coming in for whatever reason. Right. And so, so that could be one thing. If it's, you know, if it's something like higher education, we're typically not housing students, although there is a strategy for a specific type of student, but we're typically not housing students. We're housing staff and faculty. Right. And so a lot of people don't understand, like a lot of universities and colleges, especially the bigger ones, they have housing offices for staff and faculty outside of the student housing office. Right. And so we're appealing to that type, you know, if we're dealing with the military, right? Then we're dealing with the military's on-base housing office, but we're offering opportunities to provide housing that's off-base, right, that those service members can take advantage of. So it depends on the vertical and what that looks like, which determines how it works.

Okay. So you're not— I mean, again, just because I'm thinking in my world, you're not— are you— if you have like a— however the lease is, it's like between you and the— or your business and the institution, not— there's no tenant screening or credit check. You're kind of— they are responsible for the leases? Is that—

Great question. Great question. So, um, more often than not, there is still a screening process in place, right?

Okay.

And so, um, so it looks different depending on the vertical, but all across the board, everyone, regardless of how they come to us, every guest or every client, um, does have to, uh, sign our guest stay agreement. Essentially, um, they have to provide the current you know, government-issued photo ID that we retain. And so, so there are some checks and balances that are applicable across the board, right? And so signing the agreement, providing the government-issued photo ID, those are two of them.

Okay. And just to unpack that, when you say guest agreement, is that like a lease or is that more just between— because you have this master lease, it's a little different.

Sorry. Great question. Great question. So it's not a lease because we don't want to find ourselves in a situation where anyone can claim any type of rights to the property. Right. And so, so our agreement was written up by— so all of our properties are in Texas. Okay. Our agreement was written up by our attorney here in Texas. And so it's very legally binding. But in short, it essentially says that, that, that you have access as a temporary guest to the property for up to 30 days. And then what we would do, what we do is if it's an extended stay, We'll auto-renew that every 30 days. Okay. And then what we require is we'll take a 30-day deposit. Okay. And then that deposit is refundable always, as long as you provide us a 30-day exit notice, right? Then that deposit's refundable. If you provide us a 2-week exit notice, you're going to lose 2 weeks of the deposit, right? And so that's how we keep, you know, if a guest wants to keep extending, that's fine. We'll retain the deposit. And then when they decide to stop, Um, you know, then we'll stop at that point. So, so that's essentially how it works.

That's kind of brilliant because you're skirting all— like, I'm in Portland, which is extremely tenant-friendly. They do not like landlords here, so even if you're a great landlord, so you're kind of avoiding all of that kind of hairiness, I guess, with that strategy.

Absolutely, absolutely.

That's— and then again, just in the weeds again, is the if you're whatever vertical, I'm assuming who's paying the actual rent? Like, is that the depending on— Yeah.

Great question. So in some instances on the corporate side, the company may be paying or the individual may be paying with a company card or something like that. So it could work a couple of different ways. Typically, like higher education faculty and staff, they're paying for that themselves. Typically on the healthcare side, the end user guest is paying for that themselves. Government could go either way. Depending on the federal organization. And then military, typically the service member is paying, but that's reimbursable. So it kind of depends.

Okay. So you're kind of like in the system as, I don't know, for lack of a better word, per provider or something where you're like, hey, this is like, is that how it kind of works as far as how you're positioned in the B2B when you're— I don't know if that makes sense.

No, no, I'm tracking with you. So essentially, yeah, we're like a housing or lodging provider, if you will. And so, so we are really, to be quite frank, like, our competition is more so hotels, right? Yeah. And then, but if you, if you, because you know, the space, the short-term rental space, our product is more superior than a hotel room, right? And so when, so when we come to come to the table, and we're saying, hey, you know, you know, we, we want to, you know, offer our accommodations to your, to your clientele, but this is the difference between what they're getting now and what we offer, you know, that's a light bulb moment for them.

Yeah, I'm a firm believer in, uh, I don't know, I guess style sells, or providing beautiful style— I mean, functional spaces that are like a home away from home, right? Maybe not like STR luxury level, but like, just you walk in and you kind just feels cozy. I don't know what you think, but, um, no, absolutely, I agree 100%.

Uh, it's, you know, part of it is the, just the atmosphere, the environment, and then it's the experience too.

So yeah, yeah, because hotels, like, right, long-term, do not seem like a real cozy place, especially for displaced families or whatnot. Um, okay, um, so let's see, I just have to ask, I mean, clearly you're, you're a tech software guy, so I, you know, have to ask about management tools or your favorites or anything like that, what you're using to kind of collect rent, or does it depend?

So we typically will use Stripe 99% of the time. That's our payment processing platform we collect payments from. Sometimes we'll integrate, we may take a PayPal transaction, but more often than not it's Stripe. And so essentially what happens is, is the guests will book for whatever their initial length of stay is. They'll pay upfront, we'll collect the deposit, you know, also based on the initial length of stay. And then like I said, you know, depending on when they leave will determine what the refund is of the deposit. But yeah, all of our, all of our transactions run through Stripe accounts and/or PayPal in some instances.

Okay, awesome. Um, God, there's so many questions. Um, so what, you know, I guess I feel like I've heard you say this and I feel like a lot of this goes back to networking, business development, like, you know, are you using a CRM tool for that? How are you kind of doing your outreach and staying top of mind to be that preferred housing provider, I guess?

Yeah, great question. So, uh, the short answer is yes. Um, and so as some people may know, so I used to run a marketing agency. It was a HubSpot partner. So, you know, Because of that, I use HubSpot still, right, as a CRM. And they do have a free plan too that you can use, but we use that. But as far as the outreach goes, we don't do a lot of outbound marketing. We do a lot of retargeting once we've had a guest come stay with us. And so we'll go back and try to recapture that guest for some of our properties. So we have 42 right now. Only 3 of them are left on the OTAs, if you will. And so, so for those properties, because we have as many as we do, some specific guests that have stayed with us, we'll go back and retarget them and say, hey, if you're looking for something that is, you know, vacation style or less than 30 days, you know, hey, we have a few options over here. So we retarget those people. Most of our effort to, uh, attract the corporate type of client, the B2B type of client, um, is through direct LinkedIn messages. So we have a LinkedIn strategy that we use for that. Um, and, uh, and, and then once we have successfully, you know, uh, help their, their client or their guest or what have you, um, then it's just rinse and repeat.

Okay. Yeah, you know, it's funny because that coming from a— I don't want to say corporate, but we had an agency and I, I never used HubSpot, was always LineReader. But LinkedIn, I feel like, is kind of maybe not leveraged as much. I'd love to learn more about how you're, if you want to give away any secrets, but I mean, it's more B2B, right? Because it's corporate or whatever you want to call it.

Um, absolutely. At 1000%. And so, you know, I'll give you an example, like, um, on the, on the government side. So in any vertical, just like you said, um, there's two very key things. Um, the relationship is, is number one and follow-up. Is number 2. And so if you can master those 2 things, the sky literally is the limit. And so like on LinkedIn, that's kind of what— so I teach my students a strategy, a LinkedIn tracing strategy is essentially what I call it. And so we'll identify the vertical that we're going after, and then we'll identify like the specific area or the region that we, you know, where the properties are that we're trying to attract clients to. And then we'll go on LinkedIn And then if— let's just say if it's corporate, for example, we'll go on LinkedIn, we'll find that company, we'll find that region, we'll find that set of employees that are in that area. And then we're looking for certain keywords in their job title, right? So we're looking for, you know, travel coordinator. We're looking for relocation specialists. We're looking for human resources because they can plug us— they're familiar with everybody in the company. They can get us plugged in with the right people. We're looking for purchasing and procurement, because maybe we need to be on their vendor list and able to do direct business with them. So there's certain keywords that we're looking for in these job titles. And then once we identify those specific individuals, um, then we'll create a list and we'll work that list, right? And so that's how we kind of move the needle there.

It's the more I hear you talk, it's reminding me of my— we had an agency and procurement. We used to hate procurement, I'll be honest. Because they would put you through the wringer, right? They want all your insurance and they just like, they're kind of out to like vet you very— is it a similar kind of process for this or is it—

um, it depends. It depends on the organization and, and, you know, what their requirements are and things like that. But, um, again, it's what I know because I had to do it back with my previous job, you know. I did it for years and so I had to engage with procurement like all the time. So I'm, I'm more comfortable with it probably the most, but I teach students how to like work through that process.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's good to know. It's very— yeah, really interesting. All right. So I guess that's super helpful. So it sounds like it's this networking. And do you think that— I guess the other question— this is, again, probably Salim. I think with the nurse, I usually have a contract, and I know they're last minute, but I know I'll get someone in there. And I hate vacancy. Right? That's unused inventory. So I think I get a little nervous on, like, you know, can you kind of get your places booked ahead of time or is it just depending on those relationships? If you could speak to that, if that makes sense.

Absolutely. And so, yes, you can certainly get your places booked months in advance. Okay. Again, depending on the vertical and that sort of thing. But let's just take, you know, let's just take insurance and relocation, those two as an example. So as you know, like on the insurance side, you know, those stays could easily be 3 months, 4 months, even 5 months or more. More, right? Just depends, right? On the relocation side, it's very similar. You know, those stays could easily be 2, 3, 4 months, right? And so the— so here's a trick. Once you have, um, developed that relationship with the insurance agencies— and I'm not just talking about the ALEs of the world, but even the smaller regional ones— develop that relationship with those agencies, or you've developed the relationship with, um, those real estate brokerages that have, you know, real estate, uh, relocation specialist in-house and you develop that relationship, they will continue to feed you leads, right? If you take care of them one time, they will continue to feed you leads, right? And so what happens is more often than not, there's more demand than there is supply. Okay. So then you find yourself in a situation where you can't always accommodate them, but you can still be a valuable resource to them. And so the way you do that is when you can't accommodate them directly, then you, you know, open up the opportunity to your network, right? So fellow STR operators and hosts and things like that that have comparable level quality of product, right? And so then you become a resource to help that insurance agent or that relocation specialist identify another property that their clients could essentially end up using. That's very valuable to them, right? And so that's kind of two different verticals with similar, you know, lengths of stay where you can keep your calendar booked just solely based on them referring business to you.

I love that you're kind of the go-to resource. So you're providing value even if you don't have that. And then you're helping keep the community and yeah, no, that's That's, that's super helpful. That's been my thing in the back of my mind, that little voice, like, what if I don't book it? You know, I start lowering the price, and then I'm kind of getting close to long-term rates, right? When you start doing that.

Yeah. And part of that is just, um, part of that continued relationship building is just keeping in contact with them, you know, and just doing the little things, you know. You know, send them, send them a little something, you know, on it for their birthday, or, you know, for their spouse's birthday or something like that. You know, keep that cadence of communication open because you want to be top of mind when an opportunity becomes available in your area.

It's sales and marketing really is what— Exactly.

Exactly.

That's why you're so good at this, right? That's your background. Are you, I mean, are you doing kind of like, I don't want to say drip campaigns, but campaigns that like, hey, this is this niche. Like, is that, is it that strategic or is it more just, I'm curious how—

Yeah. So, so we do, you know, we do drip stuff. This vertical-specific, and we're using HubSpot for that. So we'll send out relevant, important, useful information to them once every couple of 2 or 3 weeks or whatever. And then we have a person on our team that'll follow up with them and just make sure, hey, are there any needs that you have coming up? Do you have these properties available in this area? Let us know how we can support you. This, that, and the other. And so there is a cadence to our, you know, continued communication with them.

Okay. So just by being kind of useful. And is there any other tips on how to be like preferred housing, like just making it easy for them? Are there amenities that people want? They're like, oh, they've got these things, right, that everyone needs. I'm just pet friendly. I don't know, stuff like that.

Yeah. So they're, they're most of the amenities. What we've noticed across the board are very similar. With the exception of healthcare, there's some different things there that can be pretty useful. So I'm sure you've heard people mention before blackout drapes, just for the obvious reason that they may be working overnight shift and sleeping during the day, right? We found that corporate types and executives they're not crazy about the, the, the, the Keurig type coffee machine with the, you know, with the K-pods. You know, they much prefer, you know, drip coffee or press or something. You make some real coffee, right? And so it's just kind of understanding like what those client— different client types need, client types need, um, and providing that. But what we've started to practice, with the exception of the blackout drapes, is we provide pretty much the same level of amenities across the board. Um, just makes it easy.

That makes sense. No, that, that, and then you have kind of like your list. So, and I have to ask, are you guys pet friendly, or what's your pet kind of stance as far as this?

So some, some properties, but not all. The overwhelming, the majority of them are not, um, but we do have some that are.

Okay.

Um, now here's the key, um, because as, as you know, there are laws around pets, you know, emotional support, you know, service animal, things like that. So one Understand what the laws are, so you're operating legally. But then second, understand what the local jurisdiction, what those ordinances are as well. So for example, we're in one community in one city whereby the city itself has an ordinance that requires whether you're a resident of that city or whether you're traveling in, it requires that your dog have up-to-date shots, that it's wearing a collar with an ID badge, that these requirements exist. Well, in that city, we have a property that's no pets allowed. So then, and that requirement is applicable even for service animals, okay? And so then we have people try to finesse the system, right? And bring a quote-unquote service animal to a property that doesn't allow pets. And then we simply remind them, The service animal has to meet these requirements that the city has mandated. If they do, fine, bring them. If they don't, they can't come. So understand from a federal level down to the local level what the laws and ordinances and rules are.

That's so important. Yeah, and they can be very particular. I just found out you can't charge a pet deposit. That's not legal.

Right, for a service animal, right? That's correct.

Yeah, or even just a regular one. A pet rent's okay, but— Yeah, I just like, okay, that's a really good tip. So to jump around for a minute, my other kind of big, I think, mystery on this is like, I know insurance has deep pockets. I believe that, you know, you're providing value, coming to it with value and providing a good place to stay, you know, not milking it. But how do you know what to charge? Like, I guess depending on the vertical or if that's— you can speak to that.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's a good point because it is, it is a bit vertical specific. And so, so I'll give you a couple of examples. So the military, for example. So the military has a program through the Department of Defense called a BAH, a Basic Allowance for Housing, okay? And so what that is, for all off-base housing, the service members get reimbursed, right? But the way they get reimbursed is by rank, okay? Rate. So the higher the rank, the higher the reimbursement for housing. Okay? And so what we found in offering military housing is that officers, which get the highest pay, get the highest allocation for housing. And then even better, officers that have dependents or a family get even higher rate of housing allowance. And so that's who we target, right? That's how we know how much to charge because we understand what that rate is. And that's information that you can look up You can look up basic allowance for housing, or you type in Google, Department of Defense basic allowance for housing, and it'll give you that breakdown. And so we know what to charge there. If it's something like disaster recovery, like working with FEMA, and so this is real big in Florida because a lot of hurricanes come through Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Houston area. The government will set aside funds for up to a year and a half, sometimes up to 2 years for displaced homeowners that have been impacted by natural disasters like hurricanes. And those funds well exceed the market rent value. Okay? And so then we know we can charge significantly higher than market rent, and the government is paying for that. That's not coming out of the homeowner's pocket, right? So that's guaranteed revenue coming from the government at higher than market rent rate. And so that is how we set our pricing for that. If we're talking about something like insurance, for example, so one of the— Dr. Rachel, so you're probably familiar with Dr. Rachel Gainsborough. She's engaged in that space lately in the rent insurance space, working primarily with ALE, one of the big players. And she's got a strategy that she uses for pricing that. What we found is, because we've done some stuff with ALE, but we also do smaller regional companies, what we found is that most times, again, Again, gets back down to relationship, right? So you want to be that go-to person that they reach out to initially when there's a need. But in some cases, you may find yourself in a situation where it's your property versus one or two others, right? And the rep will tell you, like, our client is looking at a couple of different properties. Like, what are you able to do? Well, when you have a good relationship with them, then you can extract that information. Where do I need to be And is that enough? Is there enough profit in this for it to make sense for me? Right. So again, that's based on relationships. So it varies depending on the vertical, but we know enough about these verticals and that's how we train our students to uncover that information so that we know exactly how to price.

No, that's really, really helpful. So I guess, I mean, would you say like go after a couple niches or when you're starting out, you're like maybe you have experience, you were in the military, then you know how to— how like, I guess, how deep do you go, right? If you're just breaking into this kind of B2B stuff?

Yeah, yeah. Great question. Um, I always recommend to start with like one, no more than two, right? And get that one dialed in really good. At most two. And really focus on those because otherwise it's like throwing spaghetti at the wall and trying to see what sticks. And you know, it's just not as effective, right? And so, um, so, so, so focus in on those one or two verticals and get really dialed in, get really good at servicing those two. Um, and I, I know people that just, they live off of just one or two verticals and, and, and that's all that they do. Right. And so, and that's quite possible. And so, uh, so that's, that's my recommendation.

No, that makes sense. Cuz you really being a generalist. Yeah. That's why specialists get paid really well. Right. Um, so I guess, um, I, not to go too far, my other question is, right. So, I mean, I've, you know, I've got a couple, right? But say you're starting out, like, and you don't have this huge block of like 10, can you still go after corporate if you've got like a fairly small portfolio or maybe even even just one or two? I'm just curious if there's a bar there for entry level.

Great question. So, yes. So again, and I probably beat this like a dead horse, but it depends on the vertical. So some are more useful with single family, like insurance. Insurance is definitely a better play for single family houses and even larger single family houses than your one bedroom apartment. And so, so it kind of depends on that. Housing military, single family is better. You can do it with apartments, but single family is more ideal, right? And also with disaster recovery, like I was saying, now, like, corporate, higher education, healthcare, apartments, great, right? And then the quantity that you would need to service that, you know, that, that group will be dependent on what their needs are. Right. And so with higher education, you're servicing an individual at a time. Right. And so, you know, with healthcare, you may be serving multiple healthcare professionals and— but you can still do one-off, one-off, you know, rentals. Right. And with corporate, you may find that, hey, maybe I need a block of 3 or 4 or 5 properties to fulfill the needs of this specific, you know, contract. Right? So it depends a little bit, but there's, there's a place for everyone to fit in based on the type and number of properties that they have.

That makes sense. And I imagine if you kind of dive deep, you kind of know if you like it and you know the kind of the opportunity there, right, before you go. But I mean, what I love— I mean, if you had making single family the 1% rule in your market, it's impossible, right? So with this, especially with the B2B, you can really make cash flow work and provide what I think is an important service to— like, that's the other piece.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. I mean, you've got the upfront cost, but that was then— I guess I was going to ask you, but you kind of addressed it, size, right? Like, I was so focused on, like, nursing, but I feel like if you're servicing families, right, they're probably going to want, like, a 3/2 or, you know, I imagine more comfortable quarters.

So, yeah, in our experience, I mean, typically if someone's been displaced, ideally they would want to be in a similar, like-sized property. right? And so that's certainly what we would try to provide and what we recommend. In some instances, you'll find— I'll give you an example. There was an instance where an apartment community has a fire. You have multiple residents that are displaced.

Yeah.

An apartment community is fine. It suits just fine. And the insurance that kicks in is going to support multiple residents, which is multiple doors, right? So then sometimes it can depend upon the type of incident. Right, that causes that to happen.

Okay, that makes sense. Okay, I mean, do you ever sort of— I guess if you can accommodate it, you, you build your network and you have some— do you ever like kind of like say, I can arbitrage this, or is that too just kind of like last minute, I guess?

Absolutely, absolutely. So, um, so I'll give you an example. So one of our, our government opportunities, right, um, and what's unique in this space with the government, specifically with the federal government, usually when they need accommodations, they need doors, they need a block of them, right? It's usually not just one, it's a block of them. And so we had an opportunity, um, to, uh, get up under what's called a prime government contractor. So a prime government contractor is a, like, a big Fortune 500 or 1000 company, like a defense contractor, some— your Raytheon, your Boeing, your big boy, uh, companies. And they have a big umbrella contract, right? And but under that umbrella contract is a subset for lodging where maybe people are flying into a location, they have to put them up. So the, the, the Raytheon's, the Boeing's of the world, they are responsible for putting that lodging component together. Okay. And servicing that. And usually what happens is 99% of the times they're reaching out to those local extended stay hotels and Holiday Inn Expresses and, and different things like that to fulfill that. Right. So we identified an opportunity where there was a need with a prime contractor that needed multiple doors. And so we got up, got in there to provide the accommodations for that, but we didn't actually have the doors. So we got the deal first, and then we took the deal and went and arbitrage and got the doors.

Okay, brilliant. Yeah. And then you're kind of— you have a business case for the arbitrage, I'm assuming, because you can show your numbers.

Absolutely. But the beautiful thing is that, you know, usually when you're holding a contract and you go to an apartment community and talk to ownership, talk to management, and you say, here's guaranteed revenue coming from the government for X number of years. We need X amount of doors. Would you like this or do you want to go down the street to your competitor? It's a different conversation.

Yeah, no, that's real. That's numbers. That's not just like, hey, I'm going to hustle and get this. So I have to ask, if you're doing that, are you just buying the furniture? Do you rent it? Do you have strategies to quickly furnish something, if you like?

Yeah, great question. Great question. So we've done, we've done both and it depends on how immediate the need is, right? So specifically, like with the federal, with the federal government, that need, that need could be very quickly, right? They can need it within a few days sometimes, right? They could need it within a couple of weeks. It could be a few months even. And so it depends on what the need is. But in a, in a rush situation like that, we would probably go with a rental option starting out, right? And then as that contract began to mature, then we would start replacing units with purchased inventory and moving out of that rental inventory. I'm working with a student right now currently at a 50-door opportunity. It's a federal opportunity. And if he gets it, if he lands it, inside of a week, they'll need all 50 doors ready to go. Right. It's so weird. We're working through the process of being able to make that happen. Um, but it's a very, very lucrative multi-seven-figure opportunity. So, so those things, yeah, you can put those together.

I mean, nothing like a deadline, right? Yeah. No, that's, that's amazing. Um, okay. I know we need to wrap up here. Well, um, yeah, let's see. Is there anything else like we didn't cover? I mean, I know you have so many tips and tricks on like how to, I mean, my takeaways are kind of going figure out the niche, kind of network, and just, is there anything that we didn't, I mean, there's so many ways, but any tips on, and I guess I'm just quickly, how long does this take? Is it like 3 months or depending on how hard you, your effort?

Great question. Yes. So you nailed it. So a lot of it is, um, depending on you doing the work, right? Um, and so I'm glad you asked that because a lot of people like they hear me talk about it, they hear Jesse, Rachel, Mark Simpson talk about these things. There's upfront work and effort involved, right? And fortunately for us, like, we've been doing this for a while. So when we explain it, it may sound like we— this just came about, right? But the reality is it does take effort, upfront work, take some prospecting, you know, take some sales effort. It takes reaching out, you know, it takes like communicating and trying to reach the decision maker, making 20 attempts and not 2 attempts, right? Um, and so it's really depending on how much, um, effort that you or your team put into it, right? Um, but, uh, it's a, it's a numbers game. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when and how many, right? Um, and all of that is based on your individual effort. And so I've seen things, uh, you know, culminate in a matter of weeks, in a matter of 2 weeks. I've seen things take 3 months, right? I've seen them take up close to a year, but though— but that, that opportunity close to a year was a $6 million opportunity, right? So it— so then you gotta weigh, like, you gotta weigh that too. So it can vary, it could depend, um, and it also depends on the vertical as well.

Okay, so if— yeah, I guess maybe it's— yes, I'm glad you said that because I feel like this sounds so sexy, right? And like, oh, you make— you triple your whatever income, but It's the work, right? It's not just like you hit the button or do one email and you're like, pipeline is full or something.

I wish there was an easy button. But you know, like they say, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it, right? The reality is not a lot of people are doing it. You know, a lot of people don't want to put in the time and effort that it takes. But when you get into this direct booking, especially contract type situations, I'm going to tell you, like, it's the gift that keeps on giving. You got to do the work once. And once you do it, it just keeps on, keeps on generating for you.

So that's— I love that because I mean, otherwise you're just even a standard rental, right? Your, your renters are going to buy a house. They're not going to come back. There's no relationship. You might, you know, build goodwill and be a good landlord, but that's, you know, it's not long-term.

Right.

So I guess if you were to pick a vertical, is it just like do your research what, what industries in your area or what feels more intuitive or something? I don't know if I can ask that.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think probably the, the— I wouldn't say easier, but probably the, um, the, the low-hanging fruit, if you will, would be relocation. That one's, uh, fairly low-hanging in my opinion because it's not difficult to, uh, go to real estate brokerages. It's not difficult to go online and find out, you know, who's holding a certified relocation professional designation behind their name, and that's what they focus on is relocation. So then you begin to develop the relationship with those people. Like, that's, that's easy to do, right? And they, they, their clients have a need, you know, typically they're moving to the area or just sold something and are in between, you know, properties. So there's always a need there. And, and so when you develop the relationship there, um, that can develop some pretty quick opportunities for you. And then if you do it with multiple people in that same space, you can fill your calendar up. So that's probably one of the easier ones to get into that people don't you know, don't realize or take advantage of relocation.

I love that. Yeah, no, I think because it sounds so great, but I'm getting into the higher end, like HR seems like it's gonna take a lot of development. Um, all right, well, I know we gotta wrap up. Anything else that we didn't cover, like, quickly on, like, hot tips or anything before I ask you a couple closing questions? I feel like we could talk forever, but— right, right.

No, I mean, at the end of the day, like, and I, and I harp on it because it's just so important, it's, it's relationship and I mean, I can't say that enough. And if you can get comfortable with those two or get comfortable with being uncomfortable with those two, then like I said, the sky's the limit.

Okay. Yeah. No, the more I'm realizing as a real estate investor entrepreneur, I got to up my sales game because this is what it's a relationship sales. And awesome. Well, that's really sage. Thank you. Well, I guess to wrap up, I ask a couple of questions and this is kind of a big one. You can take whatever direction, like top business or life advice you give someone to live life on their own terms?

Okay, one more time.

Okay, top business or life advice to kind of live life on your own terms?

Um, so you want my— so, so you want my like advice for business of life?

Yeah, or life. I know it's kind of a little bit of a huge one, but just, you know, yeah, some takeaways for someone maybe getting started, or yeah.

So I would say, no, like, know what your why is, right? So in the story I told in the beginning, my why was my wife and my family, right? And that's what drove me to kind of put my head down and grind and work myself out of my W-2 job, right? And get into entrepreneurship and buy my own time back, right? And as you know, and many of us in the entrepreneurial space know, you know, the journey has ebbs and flows. You know, there's good days and there's bad days. right? Um, and so when you understand what your why is, that's going to carry you through those bad days, right? When you're wanting to quit, when you're wanting to give up, you know, when you're like, why am I doing this type of thing? Um, and so I think that's extremely important. Um, know what your why is, um, and, and remember that when, when things, you know, get difficult, because that's what's going to drive you.

That is so true, because it is very up and down. It's not easy, right? It's very Yeah, thank you. All right, um, your superpower and maybe how you use that in your business.

Oh, good question. Oh wow, I would say my superpower is probably— man, that's a good one. I rarely do I get stuck by these questions, but this is good. Uh, so, so I would have to say Connecting with people. I think that's one of the things I'm really good at. I've had the good fortune of being able to speak on stages and stuff and do different things, and I enjoy that and everything, but what I really enjoy is one-on-one connections with people and getting to know people on a one-on-one level and developing that relationship there and taking it deeper. And then being able to understand who a person is off camera, behind the scenes type of stuff, and then vice versa, them understanding me in a more intimate way. And so really building connections and stuff and relationships with people, I think I've dialed that in to a pretty good extent.

I love that. And I think that's what we're about, is connecting. And not everyone— it's not comfortable for a lot of people to connect, right? That comes across the screen, for what it's worth. Um, so again, a couple more questions. Um, like a resource, a podcast, some— someone that, like, that you'd recommend for someone? It could be your own too.

Yeah, so, um, you know, I would plug my own podcast, um, but we just wrapped up season 3, so I'm everything current right now. But, uh, so I think— so there's a number of good podcasts. There's a number of good STR podcasts. Actually did an I've told about my top 7. So there's a number of good ones. But I think here lately, I think books, whether they're audiobooks or whether you're just reading them directly, there's some great, great books out there that I would recommend. I'm a big fan of John Maxwell. So anything that John Maxwell puts out, I'm on board with that. I'm a big fan of Simon Sinek. I'm a big fan, you know, of course there's the, you know, the books that we all know in the entrepreneurial space, the Robert Kiyosakis and those guys. The Tim Ferriss 4-Hour Workweek probably changed my life. The 4-Hour Workweek. I was actually reading that book while I was staying home with my wife, helping her recover. And I would say that was probably the single book over and above of, um, Rich Dad Poor Dad. The 4-Hour Workweek probably is what changed my life. So, um, yeah, good read.

That's a testimonial. I've heard of it. I'm gonna have to crack that one open because Rich Dad Poor Dad is, you know, like, I don't want to say Bible, but yeah. Um, awesome. Thank you so much. I'll include that in the show notes. And then again, like, how can people work with you, find you online, learn more about your program?

Yeah, absolutely. So easiest way to get ahold of me is probably Instagram. Just, uh, shoot me a DM. My handle's, uh, Noble, N-O-B-L-E, dot Crawford, uh, C-R-A-W-F-O-R-D, dot the number 3. So Noble.Crawford.3. So I can get me on Instagram and, uh, yeah, just shoot me a DM. I, I, I do like little free consultations if people have interest typically with my programs because I have two different ones. I'll bring people onto a call, make sure the program is a good fit for them, they're a good fit for the program, kind of walk through that piece, and then if it makes sense, we'll move forward. So if they have an interest in that, certainly connect with me there. But yeah, that's probably the best way to get me, or LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn, Noble Crawford, Facebook, pretty much all the socials.

All the socials. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been really fun. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and your kind of passion for this. It's really great. It's been fun.

Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Always a pleasure to jump on a good podcast. So thanks so much.

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