LIES Sway😳: Learn the WHOLE Truth About Short-Term Rentals and AirBnB Arbitrage

Couldn't figure it out. Right. So I'm gonna move y' all back to the audience real quick. So, yeah, we went through everything that we could trying to figure out. I'm on YouTube as well, y'. All. We went through everything that we could trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the channels. Because one thing about the Airbnb platform is that once you get, from what I've heard, Once you get 10 reviews on your property, then yeah, it just skyrockets, right? You just become accessible and more seen towards all viewers who are looking for properties in your area. And man, my place is beautiful. I can't wait till you see it. June. It is gorgeous. Hey, Keita, how are you? I'm gonna bring you up to the stage. Ms. Keita, Ms. Brittany, Sasha. I'm invite y' all to speak because one of the major things that I want to talk about is the, is this Houston market.

And if you have a property, a short term rental in Houston, please raise your hand and come up to the stage because I want to hear from you and I want to know exactly what your perspectives are regarding this market. I met with TJ Tahani today at his property and you know, he has the same ideas that I have. So I have nine units in a 10 unit apartment complex doing short term rental arbitrage. Just in case you don't know. Short term rental arbitrage is where you rent out the units from the, the homeowner, I mean, from the, from the owner of the property. And so I love it because I have an independent owner. So I'm not fighting with corporate companies about whether or not we're doing this or we aren't doing it right. And it's, it's really just working out well with my landlord. But TJ was doing, TJ is doing the same thing. He, we are pretty much in the same area. I mean, about two, three, I mean, a couple of blocks away from each other, about three, four minutes. And he has a six unit, a fourplex and a three plex, a triplex that he's turning into a gorgeous boutique hotel. And it's gonna be absolutely amazing. I mean, I went by there today, so I'm super duper proud of him.

And you know, we were talking about the Houston market, what his projections are. Hopefully he'll have a little bit of time to join us today. But one of his projections is that there's going to be more.

Legislation coming about in the Houston area. We've already seen some in Bel Air, and he's thinking that there will be more legislation, but because the city of Houston imposes taxes on short term rentals, I think they're going to be pretty friendly as far as any legislation is concerned. In Houston, according to City Council, the number of short term rentals increased between June and September by 60%. 60% more than there were in May. That's a lot of people coming into the market for the very first time. Brittany and Sasha, what have y' all seen in the market so far?

I've definitely seen the market has been increasing with Airbnb post. However.

I've also seen it increasing with people that is.

Not well educated. So it's, it's almost like it's giving us a bad name when we're trying to go out and, you know, pitch for the short term rentals and things of that nature. So I just always encourage people when they ask me about.

You know, short term rental. Just make sure you get some type of mentorship or take a class, you know, or link, get into some type of mastermind group where you can link with other Airbnb hosts so you can definitely get a better understanding and know you're getting yourself into. But so far, like I took TJ class three years ago and so he's educating me on how to, you know, get into the, the Airbnb game and short term renown. And I don't, I have short term rental, the leases as well, you know, rental arbitrage. And so that has been a success for me. I don't, I think that's the route.

That I will always go.

I don't think I will ever get into apartments.

So.

So right now, do you have a duplex or what?

Yes. So me and my business partner, Brittany. Yes, she's on stage. So we have a fourplex right now. And so she has two units. I have two units. And it's coming up a year. They've already offered us to stay another year. So they're very open to what we're doing. We also have a townhouse and the townhouse has, they also are very aware of what we're doing and they're asking us to stay, me and Brittany, like, if HOA keeps bothering us, we don't know, you know, that if, that if we should stay. So until we get until hoa, just say, hey, you guys need to move around, you know, you can't do that here until they give us that letter to say, stop doing what you're doing. We're going to continue. The owner is very aware of it. And I was just talking to Brittany the other day. I said, hey, what happens if hoa say you can't continue on? She said, the owner is very aware.

That we'll just have to move and, you know, it won't be no cost to us.

Gotcha. Brittany, what's your. What's your take on the market in Houston right now?

Which.

Brittany, you know, it's die A N Y.

Okay, which one is for. So. So I actually, I'm actually in the.

Apartment and I think that was.

I. I'm literally having, like growing pains. Right. But it's all a lesson. It's all understanding now, especially with the group that we're in, that has helped with the knowledge. So I wouldn't advise people to do apartments. I think that was one of the biggest mistakes. But I have learned so much from it, right? Because apartment can say yes when their market is down, and then all of a sudden when their market is up, they can say, okay, well, you can't do it. But it also goes with knowledge as well. We're looking at the lease and the contracts and making sure everything is aligned together.

Now, when you're in a rush and.

You'Re so desperate and hungry for it, you're willing to take their word and. And I understand, like, no, you need to read that lease in detail and find out exactly what's going on, because they can kick you out at any time. So I wouldn't advise apartments. If I could tell anybody, I would not advise apartments. I would like individual owners if possible. But then I know that comes with a whole nother set of problems as well with the apartments. To answer your question, it. To me, it's really hard. Even if you go on the app, you can see a lot of people are having to drop their prices lower and lower and lower for apartments because the competition is so high.

Right. So as I said earlier, for those who are just coming in, according to city Council, the number of short term rentals in the Houston area jumped by 60% between June and September. In the. Like I said, in the Houston area.

One of my main reasons for doing this is because.

A lot of people can say, get on short, get on Airbnb and it'll go. And to be honest with you, I do believe that in the beginning that was absolutely true. But when you get more people in the market, you have to become more creative, Right? As legislation starts coming into town, you have to become more creative than you were previously. And I think.

I became a host right when that tide was turning a little bit. And so I got caught in that. It has been a learning experience. It has caused me to dig real deep. Just like Brittany with an A, N, Y, just like she said, you know, it has caused me to dig deep. So I'm going to go over some things that, that I want you all to know from my perspective. And everybody you know that's on the stage can join in. If you have rental units in Houston or in Texas, period, please raise your hand and you can feel free to come onto the stage. We're going to, we're going to be talking about Texas first, and then we'll go on to the rest of the United States. If, if additional people come. Britney, with an ne, what's your perspective on the Houston market?

Hey, you guys, Good afternoon.

I'mma change my name to BG.

For the sake of this room.

Okay.

I agree with the ladies. You know, I definitely believe that there has been an influx or increase in host, especially with so many people doing courses and things like that, you know, and marketing on Instagram and all that type of stuff. But, you know, like Sasha and Brittany said, you know, I think that people are going about it the wrong way. We really need educated hosts, you know, we need.

People who are going to operate in the right manner so that it doesn't become, you know, looked down upon. I think that the whole apartment situation, I think that there's a challenge in that area because there's so many people who, you know, are trying to just do these leases in their personal name and, you know, they're having an issue. Whereas when you, you know, you get these corporate leases set up the right way, you're doing it in your business name and you're making sure that there's no.

No language in the lease that indicates that you are unable to market on the Airbnb platform. You have to make sure that the landlords are aware. And it doesn't, you know, it doesn't matter if it's the apartment landlord or the property management company or individually owned landlord. They have to know what it is that you're doing so they can support your business. So like Sasha said, the landlords and the properties that we do, rental arbitrage know exactly what it is that we're doing. We were not, you know, shy about letting them know that the properties would be marketed on the OTAs on the platforms like Airbnb, brbo booking.com, you know, we, we were going to do, you know, we let them know, hey, we're going to do direct bookings. We're going to, you know, advertise professional people. But, you know, at the beginning, you have to start on the Airbnb platform. That's just one of the most lucrative platforms, platforms that are available. So I just think that we, you know, we need to stick together and continue to have a community like this so we can, you know, rid ourselves of doing this the wrong way. And as far as, you know, the increase in hosts, I think that we just need to do something to set ourselves apart. So, you know, everybody has, you know, just regular furniture designs, whatever. We just need to get a little bit more creative, make sure that we're on multiple platforms. Airbnb, VBO booking.com peer space, have your own direct booking site, get an Instagram run Facebook ads, run Instagram ads, you know, not just wait on Airbnb to do all the marketing for us. So that, that was a little much, but that's my perspective.

Oh, no, thank you. That was, that was exactly what I was looking for. One thing that I want everybody to understand, I've heard a couple of times, education.

When. How can you tell when somebody is just putting up a unit versus a person that is receiving? Yeah, can you hear it? Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just talking. Okay. I was saying, I've heard a couple of times the word education. How can you tell when somebody has been educated on the short term rentals versus when they have not?

Well, I'll say starting with the lease. That's always my first question. How do you have the lease? Whose name is the lease in? Is it in your personal name or is it in your business name? And then did you, did you allow the property manager or the owner to say in special provisions that you are unable to market on the Airbnb platform? Like you can have a corporate lease, you know, and it can still say no marketing on Airbnb. So those are two things that are very important to look at and make sure that you structure your lease to protect yourself. The most traditional way to do corporate leasing is to have it in your business name, but there's like a second tier that people are running into that they're not paying attention to. It's like, okay, yeah, you know, maybe you did go beyond the personal name, but now you have your business name. Well, that still does not mean that you can market on Airbnb. You have to make sure that there's no language in the lease indicating that you are unable to market on the online platforms. You have to make sure. So it's a two step process. It's not just, okay, great, I got the corporate lease. You know, you can still have the corporate lease and still be unable to market on Airbnb. So people need to be aware of that and look for that and make sure that these people are okay with it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Sasha, you want to join in on that or did she cover everything?

No, she basically covered everything that. She took the words right out of my mouth.

That's exactly what I would look for.

To know if you're educated or not.

Okay. Ms. Keita, how are you this evening?

I'm doing well.

Give me your perspective on the Houston market.

I definitely think that the Houston market is saturated. I came in the Houston market, I.

Think around the same time that you.

Came in TJ and.

You know, the summer went very well for me. Very, very well. But I just did the numbers and I did.

I did really good for the year.

But I plateaued right here at December. It's just dead for me. So I agree with everyone on the panel that has spoken thus far that you definitely have to be. You get your creative juices flowing when it comes to the decor. However, I will say this. I'm looking at a property now and I've already gotten the guest and everybody's agreed to the. Everything that was just said about the marketing and all of that. However, I'm a little skeptical about going forth with this lease because it is so much competition in. In this certain area that I'm looking at, which is east downtown, and it's a lot of townhouses and down there, as we all know, and they are definitely ramped up with themes. So for me right now, just looking at the competition on the Airbnb platform, it. It kind of makes me a little uneasy if I want to move forward just for situations like this right now when it's the slow season. So I don't know how to go about that. If anybody has and give me any input.

And you're. You said you're east of downtown in the Edo area.

Okay. So I invited a guy named Manuel, we call him Manny, and he has a whole lot of properties in Edo. So hopefully he'll be able to make it. He's at work right now, but hopefully he'll be able to make it and give you some perspective. And I mean, Justin Ito, I know Manny probably has 20 Prop 20 themed properties.

Yeah, yeah. In Edo, he has a lot of properties that have some amazing themes. He's actually on Facebook as well. So let me reset the room real quick. Good evening everyone. My name is TJ with Solutions by tj. Normally I'm on here talking about the notary world. I teach people how to make 10 to $20,000 a month in the notary signing agent world. But tonight I wanted to come on and just talk about another endeavor that I'm working on which is short term rentals. I have nine short term rentals right now and I'm really passionate about giving people the honest to God truth because clubhouse can be one of those things where you can get hyped up, you can have a great time, and your ambition to win can get ahead of your logic. So I wanted to just talk to you guys and give you my perspective, not everybody's perspective, but my perspective on things that you should do prior to and during your, your short term rental business. Because this is a business. And one thing I think the main thing that I didn't realize until I was in it is that now I'm in the hospitality business, like for real. I don't know if people with one unit realize that you are in the hospitality business. Your whole goal is to make sure that your guests have a great time.

In your city. Really. I mean, that's what the best hosts do. They make sure that their clients, their guests have an awesome time in their city. So that's, number one is realize what you're getting into. Number two is choosing a mentor. Now, you know, I mentor people. I believe wholeheartedly in mentorship. We've all seen on this platform, man, it looks like everybody is rich, everybody is doing well, everybody knows something that you don't know. So you can get caught up in a lot of stuff. And even if you've done your research, I think a lot of mentors that come from this platform get really big and take a lot of clients. And, and when you do that, you can't focus on each person as you would have when you had a smaller group of people. That's why I try my best to keep my groups as small as I can, even if I have to raise the price so that I can service everyone. But when you're looking for a mentor, number one, be sure that you understand what your expectations of a mentor are and communicate that to that person. For instance, I'm a box of rocks type of person. I need step one, step two, step three, like on Forrest Gump, like a box of rocks. I, that's, that's what I need. I'm a chemical engineer, but I like information broken down to the point where I can't you know, you got to be dumb to not do this, right? So that's one thing. Break it down for me. Number two is, when I was first looking for a mentor, one of the main questions that I asked is, does this person understand my local market? Because every market around the United States is not the same. I mean, how could it be, right? We have different things going on, different regulations. New York is not Houston. Houston is not California. California is not Louisiana. I mean, all of these places have their own nuances. So does this person understand my market, and can they be accessible? To me, that accessibility is priceless because, say, for instance, you're like me. And it doesn't, you know, it doesn't just jump off from Airbnb and you have to figure something else out. You need somebody when. When the going gets rough, you need somebody doggone near sitting next to you, looking at your stuff, with you every day, checking on you. How is it going? Did you get a booking? Let me look at all of your listings. I mean, just going through everything with a fine tooth comb to make sure that you win. I came into short term rentals with nine units, not one, nine units. Now, would I recommend that stupid stuff for anybody else? No, I would not. Not at this point. Come in with three, come in with two, come in with four, but nine, it's a lot. But I'm the type of person that if I feel I'm gonna pay the price to get what I need, and I felt like I paid the price to get a mentor at a cost that where they would walk me through what I needed to do. You live and you learn. But.

One thing that I did not do is take the time to get a referral for a mentor because there are some amazing programs out here. One of the ladies that's in our group regarding Houston, her name is Kiara. She's the. What. What is it? Hosts. What, what's. What's her tagline?

The coach for the host.

The coach for the host. Right. And I haven't taken her training, but I have heard amazing things about it. And then a couple of people that were in the training in my mentorship group switched to different mentors. And I've heard that Mr. Kevin Meals is. Is amazing now. I mean, you have to check these people out for yourself. You have to check them out for yourself. You have to have an honest conversation with them about what happens if everything doesn't go right. Will you be there? How does that look? The other thing that I wanted to talk about and tell you guys about is that a lot of people are doing rental arbitrage in various apartment complexes.

But if you have to leave that apartment complex, have you created a brand where people will follow you regardless of where you are? Are you being noticed? For.

Latonya Johnson, the brand. Right. I had to back up and look at everything that I was doing and go back to not listening to somebody else, not listening to a mentor, but knowing what Latonya Johnson knows to do. Because if I get kicked out, say, for instance, my landlord dies and his children or want to start doing short term rentals here, people need to know that clue. Cliu, which is now my brand, is no longer at this facility and a new brand has come about. So I'm gonna remove all of my stuff and my brand will find another spot. So people follow people that they love and that they like, and that brand is what you should, what you should be going for.

That's one thing. And like Brittany said, you know, do not go in thinking, I'm not gonna just rely on airbnb. I'm not just gonna rely on one or two platforms. Go in looking at your location, doing the proper research and. And Kiara does an amazing job, just from the little that I know of teaching you how to identify the hot spots where Airbnb is just a win. It's not a partial win, it's a for sure win.

So, you know, look at that information and.

Figure out exactly where you need to be within the city to win. Because there are places where it just looks like they are blowing and going, and then there are places on the other side of town where it's slowing down. Some of it is all about location, location, location. Right. Anybody have anything to add?

I just want to say that I think you made a valid point. When and when we're talking about the difference between a good coach and a great coach and a great mentor is going to not necessarily hold your hand, but they're going to show you how to become profitable, how to scale what you're doing to make the necessary corrections or tweaks if you're not performing.

Good job with that. And Kevin as well, I know that personally because I've done both of their courses. But there, there are. You do get caught up in the height of clubhouse and what, what they throw out to you, and you think you're getting a certain thing. And then when you get into that mentorship, they're not giving you what your money is paying for. So I do, I totally agree.

Absolutely. Right, right, right. And you know, man, that ambition Thing can be huge because you want to win. I mean, the reason that I got into this in the first place was because I want to get out of corporate America. And I've been working to get out of corporate America. I understand that cash flow is king. I've been, you know, I've owned a 91 unit apartment complex before.

Back in 99, I owned an apartment complex. I bought it and sold it. And, you know, so I understand cash is king.

Cash flow is king. And you need, when you are going out on your own, it's one thing to have a pile of cash. It's a whole nother thing to have cash flow. You need both in order to be on your own. You need a stack of cash and then you need the cash flow. So my reason for getting into the short term rental business was strictly for the cash flow. Because I looked at the numbers, I could tell what it is. And then I said, hey, this looks like a great idea. I don't know anything about it. Let me hire a mentor who does. But once again, you have to be careful and hire not only a good mentor, but a great mentor who's going to be walking with you step by step.

So another thing that I have done personally is looked around in my market to figure out where else can I get clients that are off of the platform. I'm talking about my local market based on where I am located because I am about 2.4 miles from the medical district and I'm 4 miles from downtown. So what's my market? What am I doing? Who can I go after that nobody else is going after? If everybody is going after, you know, when you do the themed, the themed places, my personal opinion, that's a tourist crowd.

What is your avatar? Who are you going after? So I decided lately, you know what, I'm gonna go after the medical crowd and I'm not talking about traveling nurses because my personal opinion, y' all can chime in, but traveling nurses can be a little cheap. They don't want to pay the price that I need for my units. And my units are gorgeous. 2 bedroom, 2 bath, king size beds in both bedrooms with the queen couch. I spent a lot of money in making them really nice so that everybody can be comfortable. And I don't want to have to compromise on my price every time I'm dealing with a nurse. So I'm going after the medical crowd, the people who are coming back into town for outpatient care, right? And right now my crowd is MD Anderson, but I'm going after every Single hospital in the area. And what I plan to have by the time it's all over is access where those hospitals can book me directly without them having to call me at all. They have a client who's, who needs a longer term stay and the client wants a property at a price that's comparable to a hotel, but a lot more space with the kitchen. I mean, I'm a win, win, win, win. So, you know, those are the type of clients that I started looking for. I also thought of putting a Tesla station in my yard. T.J. me and T.J. tahani talked about that. The, the space that he's building is a space where he's putting Tesla stations in his yard. He's having three pools on his property, so each building can lease out their own pool. There are three buildings. I mean, he's going all out to make it perfect. One of the, we talked about parking because we are in a spot where parking is just not that great. So I was telling him, hey bro, you need to buy that lot across the street or figure out something else for parking because for the caliber of your building, people don't want to park in a non secure place. They want gated parking. People are not driving Teslas and then just leaving Teslas to park on the street. And not even on the street, but just park inside of, you know, off of the street, but onto a driveway. So, you know, those are the main things that I wanted to talk about and let you guys know is, man, hey, listen, brand yourself from the beginning. Make sure that you have a heck of a mentor that's going to be with you and stick with you through thick and thin, especially if you paying the big bucks. I mean, I was paying near $20,000 for my mentor. Why? Because I know I don't know anything in this business. So of course I need somebody that understands, has a lot of units and can give me the best of the best. I don't have a problem paying for that, especially if I'm going to be profitable because the projections that I saw when I first started this business, let's, let's take a look at it. I can rent a room for 250 a night. I have nine rooms. You do the numbers.

Now, let's say it's only rented 80% of the time or 25 days out of the month. You still do the numbers. I, I can win. Those are really good numbers when you look at them. Even if I don't do 250, if I do 150, I'm still winning, I'm still profitable.

But when you want to get into the real, real, real, real good profit, you have to niche down and get out of the pool where everybody else is. And that's the main thing that I'm seeing in this market right now. Get out of the pool where everybody else is. Or at least position yourself where that's not the only pool that you're in.

Anybody else have anything to add?

You hit that on the nail. You hit that on the nail. Just really, you know, when, when you, when you, when you talk about, you know, when people say there's always so much competition. Yes. Competition of people doing the same stuff. So yes, you know, about the gym, just, you know, with your different avenue, you know, the direction that you're going, then, you know, doing different, doing something different from everybody else. And that's.

And even still, you know, I wanted to add from what you said earlier, even even though I've been a host for right at a year now, I'm still learning, you know, like there's just so much to even just one. The one Airbnb platform. Like there's so much to the platform. The algorithms, like, you know, and marketing, period. And I, I come from a mix management background. My degree is in business management, not marketing. So marketing is like super foreign to me and all these algorithms and stuff like that. And if you don't know about that kind of stuff, it's, it's a lot more than just to get. Create an account and list your property and put pretty pictures and you know, like what Kiara teaches and, and I, I haven't, you know, done a ton of classes either because I just haven't. I did TJ to Johnny's master class last year and that's the only class that I've ever paid for up until Kiera's season courses that she just did this week and so on those, I learned so much about the Airbnb website. So it's a lot deeper than just listing the property on these platforms. Like you really have to understand the market marketing behind it and the algorithms behind it. So that's, you know, that's, that's my point of view from that.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you, thank you. Brittany, Sasha, y' all have anything you want to add?

No, and I, I learned so much with, you know, of course the classes. However.

What, where I do learn a.

Lot of stuff and I have a.

Ton of notes is clubhouse, tapping into the different rooms, just listening to people on the daily about the things that they're doing. You you're able to take note of that. And they share a lot of great like information and it's information that you can go in and you know what you're currently doing. Like for example, for the longest I couldn't understand why.

You know, and it's like I've been getting bookings and then it just went dry and just been in clubhouse.

Someone said just go and change your message.

You know, change your name, your listener. And that worked like. So I changed it. I started getting booking like it.

But like I said it was a get a puppy furnish it. You put it on every. So people think, okay, well I was getting every B. But you really have to invest into the knowledge. Like if I can't stress that enough so how everybody I'm, I'm in the, if we being transparent, I'm in the. I'm not gonna say failing stage. I'm gonna say the lesson learned stage, the growing pain stage. Like I can really tell a person exactly, exactly what has happened from the negative to the positive back to the negative to the positive. Because in an apartment, even with a, a landlord, when it's slow, of course it's still. Payments still have to be due. So you're literally paying for three apartments and you're not booking three apartments. So I think the knowledge that these some, a lot of people have is it's best to invest it to them because they know from, they know from experience or they know from, you know, other people teaching them as well.

I do feel like like I said I would not. I don't think I would ever get an apartment again for short term rental.

Let me. I don't know.

I. I just don't see it. It's very difficult. It's very hard because when the apartments need you, they want you. The moment that they don't need you, it can, it can fumble easy and fast. So yeah, most definitely investing in your future.

Thank you for that Britney man. That I mean we are on the same page. Like I've been a based and I've been. I listen in October I paid the last $8,000 to my name. Now mind you, my, my rent per month is $14,400. I made $7,000. So where did the rest of that money come from? It came from my pocket. It came from my household. Would I recommend this for anybody else? Absolutely not.

No.

Because other people can't. Number one. It takes some mental and emotional stamina to do this by yourself.

And to remain sane when all of this is going on.

And I Have other avenues where I can make money as well. I do apostille jobs. I do the remote online notary stuff. I'm a notary, and I practice what I preach. So I can easily pull in from just doing that another $10,000 to put into this business. But other people cannot do that. So would I recommend that to somebody? Absolutely not. The type of. I coach people as well. And the type of coach that I am is when I love when students come to me and do what I ask them to do. Because I know if you do what I'm telling you to do, you're gonna win. And if something comes up where you're not winning, call me, and we're sticking side by side until you do win. Let me look at everything.

And so I am that type of student.

That is one other thing that I'd say hindered me because you tell me to do it, and that's what I'm gonna do. Am I gonna question you? No, because you're the expert. I should have questioned more. I should have.

In the beginning.

Stuck with my gut. More stuck with my gut. I'll say stuck with my gut because I knew I'm going into this with a hundred thousand dollars. I went in with a hundred thousand dollars. Everything that I had told my coach, this is what I have. This is all that I have, period. But of course, you know, in any endeavor, things happen. This is. This one is no different. So at the end of me furnishing all of these nine units. No, I furnished six at that time.

And I paid about 100. No, I paid $100,000. So because of my lack of knowledge and my lack of resources, knowing other people who did this and all of that, Did I overpay for some things? Probably did, because my cousin and I. Now, are they beautiful? They are gorgeous. But does that. Did I overpay? I think I did. For my situation, I overpaid. I wasn't at a $20,000 decor. $20,000 per unit decor Standpoint with the finances that I had, what is normal for you to pay? And y' all can chime in whenever you want to, but what is normal for you to pay is anywhere from 7 to $11,000 per unit. That's what I've seen since then. So I'm talking about fully decorate and equip your unit. Am I on target with that? Anybody?

I think it's a personal preference.

Because each unit should provide a different experience, you know, and it could be something so small. Like, for example, I'm doing the Theme unit for the duplex that I just purchased. And.

I'm going to, you know, add some things like a pool, which is a super huge purchase. Everybody can't do that. But there's just different things that we need to.

Decide on. You know, like some people have like books in their units and games and like air fryer. Just little things that I never even thought of, you know. So I think, you know, and I had a conversation, I forgot who it was the other day. I think they said they didn't have TVs in the bedrooms. Oh, was that, was that you?

Yeah, I don't have TVs in my bedroom.

Yeah, so. And I was, you know, one of my mentors always said, you know, you put TVs in every room. You want to make sure that you put a TV in a desk in every room. You know, so that an added expense, but that's solely a personal preference based on the experience that you want to provide. So for example, you would say, okay, well, Brittany, why would I put a desk in every room? Well, maybe you can, you know, if you wanted to rent your property out by rooms, you could potentially rent your property out. Buy rooms to travel professionals where they can have their own room and their own desk. You know, they don't have to come out to work in a central desk location or central, you know, office location and living room, whatever. Or if you have a traveling family.

Do you, do you have a crib? Do you have a high chair? Do you have plates and spoons and cups for children? You know, just toys, a stroller. If you're in midtown or downtown and you know, the family wants to walk. One thing that I just came up with, I told cyber because we, we have some bicycles and we don't really use them. I said, well, you know, when we were in our mastermind the other day, we were going through the amenities and I saw the bikes option. I said, well, I have these bikes in the garage. Like, why don't we just go ahead and make that and add an amenity and you know, offer an additional, not necessarily a service, but just an additional amenity because of the location. Like it's, it's, it's in a good walking distance, a good bicycle riding distance. Why don't we add that? So I think that it just really, people need to really, like, I don't think people are actually doing a business plan. So 2022, I'm going to start coaching. I'm stepping into the short term rental culture space because we need people like us who have experienced, you know, certain issues or whatever, and we can, you know, teach people the goods and the bads.

And so.

Lost my train of thought. I was going somewhere with that.

Oh, man. I mean, you. You hit on so many things, though, Brittany. Yeah, but I, I do, I. I.

Do understand why Britt haven't already tapped into that. Yeah, you amazing. Like, you straightforward with it. You get down to the dirty life. Britney, that don't make sense. Why are you doing it? This is what you need to do. You are very knowledgeable.

Yeah.

So most definitely you need to tap into that.

I am. But, y know, my passion in coaching is fixing flips, so, you know, I still feel like I'm a growing host myself. And thank you ladies so much. I really appreciate that. But, you know, I think we all get to a point where we have to feel like. And I'm not saying I don't feel like, you know, what I have to offer is good enough, but I still feel like there's a little bit more that I want to learn. But I'm just gonna. Oh, that's how I was. That's the wrong. The business plan. I'm just gonna be strategic about what I'm offering and very transparent. Like, if you're interested in the course, these are the things that I'm gonna offer. And, you know, when you think about courses, I would sign up for a course not even thinking to ask, are you gonna go over the Airbnb algorithms and, you know, all of that stuff. Like, you don't even. You don't know what you don't know. And I think that's super important to know. But where I was going was with the business plan. You know, a lot of people are just hopping into the space, you know, going straight to the leases, but not having a real business plan. I think that there's so many different business ventures out there and things that, you know, clubhouse and Instagram and Facebook and all these people are doing with all these different businesses, you know, and teaching these courses. But I think we need to take it back. And that's. That's one thing that school, you know, will teach you. If you go to school for business and how to write a business plan, I think we've strayed away from that. So one of the things that I'm going to implement in my course is a real good freaking business plan. What is your mission? What is your vision? Let's talk. You know, put your financials on there. How much money do you have to start? How much are you putting Budgeting for your, for your expenses monthly, you know, how much are you budgeting for your startup costs? Like, people are just missing out on a lot. What's your marketing strategy? I'm not gonna let anybody just get started and do Airbnb only because that's what I did and I didn't reach my goals doing it. So here we are in year two. I'm not giving up, but I'm just gonna restrategize. I'm going back to the drawing board. I'm doing a different business plan now. So that's my.

So I love it. I love it. One thing I want you to add though, is give me a, give me like a max, like per unit, if you can. I mean, you may not be able to, but if you can. How much are you going, how much would you spend, say on a two bedroom, two bathroom unit? What's the maximum amount that you'd spend on a unit?

That's a good question, because I'm about to furnish one.

Okay.

I'm gonna say furnishings. My budget personally is no more than I'm gonna say about $8,000. And that includes all of my technology. So that includes my Vivid thermostat, that includes my doorbell camera, that includes my Vivid panel, that includes my, my keyless lock, you know, that includes my cleaners closet.

Like it?

Everything, Everything. And actually I have a whiteboard in my living room and I have, I'm looking at it, it says new unit plan, right? So I'm already thinking about utilities schedule, Vivid insurance, marketing. What does it say? Schedule paint. I'm going to do paint. Schedule paint and cleaning. This property is going in the new llc. I'm already thinking about SEO words. How am I going to go beyond Airbnb, you know, and with the direct booking site and send up SEO. Like I'm going to go straight to Fiverr and just pay somebody to do that. Like all of that stuff should be in your startup budget, your marketing plan, whatever, you know, additional cost. Something else that a lot of people don't think about is these extra ways that you can make money. If you're having a conversation with somebody about starting Airbnb, the first they gonna say, Brittany, what's the first step? Here's my link sign up. That's 360 right there. That's additional money. People are not tapping into Vivid. All you got to do is call Vivian and they'll give you a discount code. If you, if, if you use my discount code, I'm gonna get 200 off my bill. You're gonna get 200 off of your equipment. I haven't paid the vivid bill on one of my units in the last four months because the bill is like $50. And I keep making sure part of my four month plan is to find somebody else that use my code so I don't have an electricity bill. So I'm very strategic and you know, I, I think about a lot of these different things and ways to not only save money, but make money. And all of this stuff is well thought out and I really document everything and so everything that I've documented, documented and everything that I've done, you know, now this is going to be the fourth and fifth unit that I'll be furnishing. Everything is documented. I'm gonna, you know, do the same thing, but just enhance it each time. So long. Answer. 8,000 is my budget. Will I go over it? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm gonna be strategic about it and everything is gonna make sense. If there's going to be a reason why I have this here, there's going to be a reason why you're a Tesla station, I think about that. And I'm building a pool too. Me and TJ are actually.

The, the guy, tj. We were actually both kind of going back and forth, kind of sharing our, our knowledge about getting these pools built at our units. But I did not think of the Tesla charging station and I think that is freaking brilliant. And something like that is what you need because you got all these multifamily properties in our area and they don't have these stations. So I think that's freaking brilliant. And those are the type of things that people need to think about to be creative and to stand out. Because there's a lot of, if we go back to apartments, when you're going looking at apartment complexes, there's a lot of apartments that don't have Tesla charging stations. So when you think about your idea, a client, you know, especially if you're in the Turo space, like, like, you know, some of us are on the stage here. You want to think about something like that if you have a Tesla or you know, if you're co sharing cars or co hosting with your colleagues, like that's something that you know, is important. And I think, Tanya, I think you.

Should.

Reach out to, you know, Turo host who have Teslas and figure out some type of cross selling strategy that you guys can do, you know, or some, some way possible that you can generate additional income, not just basing it on your guests at Your units. Like how else can you drive income to that beautiful property that you have when you incorporate that Tesla charging station?

Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is, that is, that is, that's absolutely what what I'm think.

And offering. You know, Turo, it's an even better opportunity though to, to get with people who offer them and to get that charging station up. Because if you do. So the reason that I thought about the Tesla, the Tesla model was one of my friends said, have you looked at who their ideal customer is? And when you look at it, it's, it's so perfect, so perfect for all of our properties. It's the, it's the mainly guys, right? From what they're, from what their research is. It's mainly guys making.

Anywhere from 100 to $200,000 who are green friendly, who are up on all the latest technology, who like you know, being first starters. And in urban communities though, hey, that sounds like where we are. That sounds like the ideal client that we're looking for. So yeah, that, that was one of the things that was really, really important and real cool to me. But yeah, that Tesla station, it's a lot of little bitty things that you're going to have to think of man, to put your property out in front and be different from everybody else's.

So look, check this out. Instead of me spending the money, because our, our properties are within 5 minute radius, instead of me spending the money on a Tesla St, I can actually market your Tesla stations to my short term rental and my two row guest. Yeah, and you, you know, have some sort of fee or whatever where you, you know, charge me or I don't know, we come up with something. But just thinking out the box, you know, trying to figure out, you know, the, the rental rates are great, but there's so many other ways that you can make money in this space. You know, and a part of the business plan is thinking about that. You know, there's affiliate opportunities you have. I'm building this pool because I want to, I mean this huge property, I want to be able to. You can just book the pool if you want to.

Right?

That's what I was telling TJ2.

That's a two thousand dollar day. If you want my pool, at minimum you can have a pool and you can, you can live next door and you don't even need to touch the inside of my units. But if you want to book my pool, that's gonna be $2,000 a day. Thousand dollars per unit or more. I don't know, that's just where I started it. But, you know, that's gonna be another additional asset to that property and another way for me to market on another platform. I, I don't, I can't do think of the, the platform right now, but there's basically a principal like an Airbnb for pools. I forgot the name of the platform. I have it written in my book. But yeah.

I love it. I love it. So are y' all getting value from this? Because, man, I mean, just from, just from my friends up here talking, we are brainstorming and we have a mastermind group. Me, Sasha, Brittany and some other ladies in Houston. And we get together every Monday and it's this type of thing. We're helping each other look at this and, you know, walk through this journey together. And it, it's, boy, it makes a heck of a difference to have people that are in your market to do that with you. So thank you, ladies. I'm so appreciative for that. Thank you. Thank you.

So we've been real quick while you, when you bring up her, her your Monday meeting, because I signed up for.

It, but I always forget.

Is it a way that you can implement like a reminder email?

I have one, but if you miss like the first month, I probably deleted you. So just DM me and I'll re. What's your email address?

I don't know which one sign up.

With, but I, I.

Me because I, you know, I just, I really love what we had going. So I took the sign up off of my Instagram. But.

If you, you know, are interested and ready to commit.

Come on, girl.

I react every Monday.

I forget.

Yeah, I have it on the calendar, so. I have it on the calendar and I think I have it on a one hour notification alert as well.

Okay, well, I'll definitely think my answer.

Okay.

And Kita, what I had to do was put it on my alarm. So every Monday it's. I get an alarm at 6pm on every single Monday and I've labeled that alarm mastermind, so that's how I remember.

Gotcha. That's what I'll do.

Miss Sasha, did you have something that you were going to say?

Sorry, No, I don't. I don't.

All right, all right. Well, we've been on here for an hour now and I thank you, ladies. I'm not going to stay on here all night. I've said what I had to say. Hopefully you guys got some value out of it. I know. I meant every time I'm in The room with my crew, there's always, always, always value coming through. So if you guys have any questions later on, please don't hesitate to reach out and let us know. Let me know. Supportolutionsbytj.com and I'll definitely walk you through anything. And my information is open. I have some resources that I found that, you know, I shared with my internal crew. Because in our mastermind, if we're gonna win, I just don't hold anything back. I'll hold anything back. So when I find out something, I'm looking for a way that everybody in our little vicinity can win from it. So if I go and talk to the people at MD Anderson, forget about it. You don't have to. Because I'm here advocating on all of our behalf. When I go to the Greater Houston Visitors Bureau and set up a table for Clue Houston, I'm advocating for every single short term rental that comes in that I come into contact with, which is our mastermind group. Because you better believe if some, if I can't take somebody and there's an overflow, I'm gonna go to my, my girls and say, hey, does anybody have space for this? This is their budget, blah, blah, blah, you know, or especially if I get some of the bigger deals I have, since I have nine units, and lord, let me figure this out. And I'm definitely getting some more. But since I have nine units, you know, I don't even count myself as like a short term rental. This is actually a boutique hotel. That's what this is running. This thing is a boutique hotel. And TJ and I said, so here, here's a little bit about our conversation. And, and I talked to man Emmanuel before this too. All of us came to the same freaking conclusion. In this Houston market right now, for you to win, there is a saturation of one bedroom and two bedroom properties. When you have three bedrooms and more people are booking more in groups. So if you get a one or two bedroom, it needs to be in a place where all of them are together and you could list it as a group. When I listed stuff as a group, all of my listings are booked every single week. And I'm getting larger groups during the week. I'm getting work groups. Right now there's a group of, I think they, they have four units and these guys are selling solar panels in Houston. They're definitely coming back. They love this place. So I'm getting different groups like that. There are people who work that are still coming into Houston. All I need is nine of Them. I don't need everybody in Houston.

So you have to think like that, right? You have to think, how can you differentiate your market? So one, you take groups. Then when, when the market changes again, you can always split those back up. But make sure that your rent, your units are all kind of in the same vicinity so that you can group them together. Because a group wants to stay close to each other. Right. Let me see what other thing.

The larger spaces, the groups and the themed units. People want to stay in something pretty, they want something different, they want an experience.

That's what everybody is going for, the experience.

So those are just my final thoughts. If anybody has anything to say, say it now.

If you.

If not, we'll end the room in a moment.

I just want to say I think this was awesome. Cj, thank you so much for having the room, having us up on the stage. I hope that everybody got value. Please follow us here on Clubhouse. Follow us on Instagram. I am making a commitment for the new year to post more, to give more value on my pages. So please stay in touch if you are aspiring host or even, you know, a host. If you're interested in joining our mastermind and bringing value and sharing and giving DM me, I will send you the link to sign up. It's free. We're not looking for anything. We just want people who are going to, to bring value. And so, you know, one of the things that we talked about, you know, with what TJ just shared is, you know, with, with her going and, you know, marketing and maybe bringing stuff back to the table. Like for example, there was a cost to something that she brought. And I said, well, hey, you know, let's all pitch in, let's do this as a group. You know, that's what we're here for. So that's what we're looking for, you know, a family or community of hosts, you know, that are like minded and are not selfish and you know, have value to bring and help us all grow. The mastermind was also set in place for us to learn about each other's units and to be able to share the overflow, to be able to, you know, refer somebody who's looking for a property in the different side of town that we're not in and, and trust that they're going to provide a good experience to the person that, to the guest. So that's it. But thank you so much tj and to all the other ladies as well.

Yes, thank you, tj. I thought I missed it on Wednesday, so I'm glad you had it again.

If I did miss it.

Yeah. I changed the date because I couldn't make it on Wednesday, so I pushed it back a little bit. So thank you so much for coming, Keita. I do appreciate it.

It.

I thank Lori for coming. I thank you for adding your perspective. And everybody, all the ladies on the stage who had a per. You know, who gave their input, thank y' all so much. You know, a lot of this stuff. Boy, I tell you, I couldn't do it without y'. All. I'm just. It feels good to have a group of people who stand beside you and encourage you and that you can look at and say, hey, keep your head up. All right? We're gonna figure this out. Stop it. Don't go down there. Don't go down. Depression row. Hold on, hold on. Get up. Fight. Okay. Fight. Fight.

I know.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. June, do me a favor and back office Brittany about that mastermind group, and she'll let you in. She's the one that creates. Created that for us, man. And it is amazing. I mean, she is. She is so good. Like, she get has notes and all kinds of stuff.

Alumni always support my purple and goal.

I did already back off with you. It was about my daughter, though.

She's actually in business, and she wants.

To jump into the real estate world.

And so I do want to say.

Thank you, tj, for always being just a one and real.

I met you last year on Clubhouse.

And been following you ever since January of last year.

So I. I believe in not only what you just said.

You gotta rub shoulders with good people, but you gotta rub shoulder with people.

That you know are real and they're.

They're really genuine. And you, since I met you, you've been genuine.

So gonna be the newbie in the space.

And this is what I want to do for focus on in 2022. So I'm all in.

Yay. All right, well, ladies.

TJ, for having me on stage, I really appreciate this room. Thank you, ladies.

You are so welcome. Well, thank you, ladies. Y' all have an amazing weekend, man, and get out there and get the money. Get the money. Don't, you know, do things differently. Listen, like my auntie used to say, take the good and throw away the bad. So remember the things that we said that we do differently and do the different stuff, like think outside of the box and take our perspective and turn it into a gold mine for you, because that's the main reason we had this room. We love you to life. We thank you for everything for coming and joining us because there are other things that you could be doing on a Friday night. So y' all have a great, safe weekend, and I'll see you on the. On the other side a little later. Bye.

You have a great weekend.

You, too.

Bye. Have a good weekend.

Okay, let me see.

YouTube. Where yet?

All right, I got some spammers in the room. Okay. So I hope you guys.

Got something out of this. It was, you know, the people on Clubhouse, they were amazing. My family, that's the mastermind. I'm excited to have y'. All. I'm so appreciative. And if you're in any business, I suggest that you get a group and a. A club around you to hold you up and to support you even when times get bad. All right, this is TJ with solutions by tj. If you have any questions, put them in the comments. Love you to life. You all take care and good night.