EYL #88 Air Bed & Breakfast

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All right, guys, welcome back EYL Hometown Heroes Edition at Shout Out the A, Shout out to the great city of Atlanta. It's like a second home for us. You know, we love Atlanta. So today's going to be a very exciting, very educational episode, something I'm actually very interested to learn about.

Yeah, man's a lot because a lot of people are trying to get in this game and they have no idea all the things that had to go into it. Man.

So yeah, people always ask us for like different topics, and one of the biggest topics had for a while has been Airbnb and use it a lot.

If you travel, you likely have.

State have stayed in the Airbnb, right, And a lot of people they want to know, like how do you get money? Like how does the business work? It's one of those things, like all things that we cover, there's really no college to learn about this kind of stuff. You just kind of got to learn on the fly

Appreciate it absolutely.

Welcome, welcome, welcome. Yeah.

So all right, so how did you get into the airbnb game? Like? What made you?

Cause I know you used to work corporate, right, yes, So what made you say, Okay, I want to be an entrepreneur and a lot of people want to get into real estate, But what made you want to go to airbnb route?

So when you talk about real estate, there's a lot of different avenues to the real estate industry. So when I look at the real estate how a lot of people do it, which is long term leasing, and then you look at Airbnb, which is short term leasing, and you compare the two. It's always better to do than

So what, like what was your first Airbnb?

Like?

How did you how did you initiate initiate getting into the game.

So I moved out of my last place. And when I moved out of my last place, I was working with this military and she had moved out too, We lived in the same building, and when she moved out, I still kept seeing her in the building. So I was like, what are you doing here? And she told me. She was like, I put my unit up for Airbnb. So when I was ready to move out, she told me, she said, I it's paying my rent and it's rent. So I was like, well, I ain't gonna let mine

You do it?

It was just the industry, you said.

You was already in real estate, like in web capacity, so.

Buying and holding okay, fix and flips okay.

So I mean you're twenty three, right, So where's this business acting coming from? Is this something that was passed down from like family members. It's just like, you know what, something along the way during your experience, this is the route I have to go.

I don't know. Honestly, I've always told my parents I didn't want to work for nobody, and I worked for chick I worked for the same job for six years, since I was fourteen. I worked for Chick fil A, and I just used to say, like, this is not for me. I even started my I started a lingerie line in high school. I was sixteen. My parents were like, you ain't start.

No, that's that's all I'm thinking. Like, if my daughter tells me at sixteen we don't have that's what We're gonna have a problem.

It wasn't that kind of lauderie. It was like pajamaware, I don't care, but it was cute. So at that point in time, I was like, I just I just can't keep working for nobody. I was like, I have to get out of this. My mom worked for the same company for fifteen years. My dad same thing, So it's like, who's gonna break it there? Honestly, my stepfather is the only entrepreneur in our family, and he came along later on down the line, so somebody had to break it.

Yeah, I was. I was just we just had that conversation last night.

As far as like we come from like working class environments, working class families, and working class communities where it's like you know, the goal a lot of times is to get a good job, right, you know what I'm saying, Like a good like yeah, like quote unquote was considered a good job. But it's like that's really a race to nowhere, not to not a job. But it's like ultimately your one paycheck away from poverty. Right, you're working, you're working for thirty years. You don't really have enough

But it's important. It's important. So let me ask you this.

All right, So the Airbnb, right, because we're going to talk about the airbnb and detailed. And it's interesting, I didn't even know that you can actually airbnb an apartment or home and not actually own it like I thought you had to like be the owner of the property and then cause it's like I didn't know you can

Is it like a subleasing type situation?

So are you saying the difference between so.

Like if I own this house, yeah, like if I own this house as opposed to somebody else owns the house and then I'm coming in and I'm renting it.

Okay, So let's use this house for example. So you own this house. So, like I said, there's a few ways that you can go through Airbnb when it comes to knowing how to do the lease. So the owner could say, hey, I have this house and it might be up for the same thing with short term and long term leasing. It might be up for twelve hundred a month. Then I might come in, I might see that same property on the MLS or something. The MLS is the real estate site where people go look for houses.

Okay?

And that's that's the approach when it comes to master lease. Of course, it gets deeper when you talk about contracts because there's different kind of mass releasing contracts as you can use. But generally speaking, that's just what it is. Hey, this is my portfolio. What do you think?

So just from a number standpoint, Let's hypothetically say that I'm paying one thousand dollars rent, right, I can list that property that I'm renting for two thousand dollars or you know what I mean? Like, how does that work form a number standpoint?

Okay? So are you so we want we want to talk about this house. So when it comes you have to specify the difference between short term and long term leasing. So like I said, if you were the owner of the unit of this property, and you had this unit up for one thousand dollars a month for a long term a tenant, meaning hey, this tenant is going to

So I'm a profit if that is the case, right, and I'm doing that one thousand dollars a week, I profit three thousand dollars an inn.

So but all right, that makes sense. But so it's like, okay, if I want to just rent a home, right usually I just get a tenant. I want to charge them a thousand dollars a month. They sign a one year at least with me, and they obligated to pay me one thousand dollars a month. Right, I get That's easy. Everybody understands that. But now it's like you're coming and you're saying, wait, don't do that. I'm gonna come as an Airbnb host.

No, So what I'm saying is I'm gonna do the same thing that you just said, except I'm gonna put it up for Airbnb. So now when you talk about master releasing, is it becomes a point where you have to pay the play. So I might you might have to ze it up for a one thousand dollars, but I might need to convince you that I want to put it up on a short term. It's a platform. So I might say, hey, let me give you fourteen hundred a month. Okay, see what I'm saying, and now

All right, So we got that part. But let's go back just for a second. How do I even become an air and bb host.

It's just so people's that's where a lot of people get they they don't really know. It's really just going on the website and becoming a host.

That's it.

That's it.

Creator, user name, password profile.

You don't have to do that loggy with your Google logging in your host.

And your host without any problem, probably the host right now.

No, no, no, you have to list a property. Okay, yep, you have to have at least one to become.

It doesn't have to be a home. It could be a room.

It could be a room, it could be a room in this house.

So we sold that story on an episode of How MBB Was Founded.

It was started out with.

Yes in the room.

Yeah, so all right, So okay, so if I have okay, so you come to me, you say, okay, I'm not gonna give you a thousand dollars a month. I'm gonna sign a year least for fourteen hundred, right, which, okay, now I'm getting fifty forty percent more than what I would have gotten. But now you're in control of you can make as much money as you want from the airbnb.

Get it.

So now you have to pay that fourteen hundred dollars a month, no matter what exactly. So our owners open to that because it's like, now it's one thing to have one person living in your place, but now you got ten people a month.

Maybe if you're saying, like, what's the so one.

Thing you have to understand about that that's what any business. Everybody's not gonna tell you. Yes, I haven't been told yes. All the time you run into those right people, those white people will tell you yes, that's how I feel about it. There are different people. But like I said, when it comes to even with my apartment, with my apartment buildings, I still do screening. So you need to

Yeah, so the long term turn it Usually when you rent, you have to get some type of insurance. Is it the same for airbnb? If I do it that.

Way, so you have to have insurance, you don't.

You don't have that insurance to rent.

No, you don't have to have insurance to rent. But if I have a place, I have to have insurance. But you don't have to have insurance to rent a place.

No, you don't, and you have to but the deposit. So it's just it's just like renting a regular apartment just a little bit more. But so you're just subleasing it.

Yeah, because you're gonna make triple if you think about it.

So it's really like, so it's a win win for everybody because you're gonna pay, You're gonna pay the own You always have to pay the owner.

More anyway, you don't have to because you have some owners that will be like, Okay, a thousand is fine. You people don't understand in the real estate industry, the market is so it's saturated, but it's not. So then you run into those owners that are like, look, I just want to get this property. I just want to make income off of it. Because then there comes a point a time where some landlords are not even making money.

So that's why I was gonna ask you as far as all right, so as far as the regular person off the sheet that just wants to get involved in Airbnb, right, how do you know? Because it's like you sign a one year a lease, but you're not planning on living there. It's a risk if you can't, So like, how do you know, Like this is something that I'm definitely gonna be able to get off on Airbnb? Like, how do you Is it the area? Is it the location? The like what's what's the most important?

Are you saying making just making rent?

I guess like the determining factors to say, like I'm gonna go a deal.

Area the so let's talk about houses. The area is really the most essential thing. Where's the grocery store, Where's the nearest mall, where's the airport, where's the nearest movie theater, where are the amenities? Where's the leader of activity? There are some houses that are off, like for instance, the south side of Atlanta, there's houses that's off, but they probably get booked maybe every weekend and then with houses, you also have to understand the seasons. People aren't Families

Yeah, I was just thinking in my head, like you do both. You own some properties and you rent exactly from which standpoint you're seeing now, like renting the properties easy, it's less risk.

Yeah, it's less risk. And then when it comes to buying you if you already don't have a property under a mortgage, I don't suggest going to get a mortgage to put a property up for your BnB, because think about it, If you have a two hundred thousand dollars mortgage, how long is gonna take you to make your money bag?

It's beau.

If you already have a property and you're like, maybe I'm out of town, or maybe I'm moving on the other side of town, but I don't want to let my house go, or got time to sell it.

Maybe you want to switch that property after the year at leases up.

Yeah, or maybe you want some extra income. You got a bunch of different options there, So you get those people that are like, hey, I just want to do something with this house and it doesn't take you don't really know when to find a long term tenant. Then you get a wait list with long term tenants. People don't pass background checks, people don't make the deposit income, they don't got income. It's all kinds of stuff that comes with finding a long term tenant that people don't realize.

So you would suggest, okay, if somebody was looking to get into airbnb, it makes more sense to do it the subleasing right as opposed to like buying a place just for the purpose of air being right.

Correct, and it's gonna tell you a lot longer to get the money back. Makes sense, makes sense.

I've honestly never seen anybody do it that way.

You've never seen a nobody buy something.

I've never seen somebody go buy something to go put up at Airbnb. Never even the huge corporations that are here that's short term leasing. They're subleasing.

So there's corporations that do what you do pretty much.

Yeah, they have them up on all the platforms. There's other platforms too, besides Airbnb. There's home away, there's vrbo, there's booking dot Com, trip Advisor, all those two.

So those corporations that come in, they're not they're not getting one property. They're getting maybe six to twelve properties out of time.

Yep, okay, So like what's the what's the profit margins? Like if you all right, let's say a house costs one thousand dollars, how much can a person realistically make in a month? Like is it three times? Like what's the goal? Actually, that's the better question. What's the goal? Like you can say, Okay, I'm gonna pay a thousand, but I want to get no less than three thousand, Like is it something like that?

So let me tell you something about the business and I'm gonna I'm gonna look at the camera and say this. It's not a business that you get into and you start profiting thirty grand just because you got five units. That's not how it works. The platform is for you to progress. So I started with my first month and I might have made fifteen hundred dollars. Second month, I might have made three thousand. My third month, I might have made four thousand. My fifth month, I might have

That's not how it works.

Yes, you have to you And then the thing about Airbnb, you become there's a status that you've become. It's called a SuperHost status. The superhostatus puts you up in the algorithm. So when I say algorithm, I mean say you're going out of town and you're searching on booking dot Com or Airbnb. You might see thirty pages. Who going to the thirtieth page.

Algorithm the top.

That's the biggest thing on Airbnb is to be in the algorithm. If you're not in the algorithm, you're not getting booked.

How do you get there?

You there's a lot of different things just with listing their property. It's hard to say do this, do that, honestly, when it comes to the algorithm, there's is different things you have to know as a host that needs to be done or needs to be listed properly on your unit, on your listing. Okay, so when it comes to the algorithm itself, you have the SuperHost status. Superhosts are already up in the algorithm.

And what's the SuperHost The.

SuperHost it's a ninety day assessment, so once you get it, you have to maintain it. You don't get it and then keep it. You have to keep maintaining it every quarter, so they do it every every ninety days. There's a SuperHost assessment, so you have to have you only have one cancelation every three hundred and sixty five days. Literally you're on pins and needles for a year or you lose it. So you won't get SuperHost status if.

You cancel that's really somebody else can know.

If you can't sol the cats, canceling has nothing to do with it. You cancel. So, like you said, the leaks, maintenance, maybe housekeeping didn't show up those kind of things. Complaints, complaints in regard to.

What like if somebody complaints talk about your airbnb, No, if.

They if they ever occupy your unit, it won't count.

Yeah, so once they open the door, that's it.

Yeah.

Okay, Now, not because you're up, but you said that you went from a three thousand to six down to ten thousand, and you talked to us off camera about having that mindset of scaling business. Yes, what are some things that helped scale? Right? Because you walked in here today you're like, well, yeah, okay, look your vision was a lot different from when we walked.

In, right. So when it comes to scaling, you have to have automated systems in place. That is it with your systems?

So like, what kind of automated housekeeping.

Automated system So, and I'm gonna be completely transparent. Housekeeping was the biggest downfall of my business twenty nineteen. I hated housekeeping. So housekeeping is the most important, it's the most essential thing to the airbnb business.

Why was it the worst? Is like you go actually going in and do No.

It was the volume that I was having and happened to have a housekeeper keep up with my volume. So I was running through. My turnover rate for housekeepers were like it was crazy, Like I was looking for a new housekeeper every week. So sometimes I might have six checkouts. And then you have to understand is checkout is at eleven, check in is at three, So it might take the housekeeper because you gotta do lanning, you gotta wash linten, and you got to dry it. So it normally takes

So what do you do? Do you find more than one or you find a company of housekeepers? What are you doing?

So now I've come to the point. At first I was using housekeepers from different companies, or I would just post on my Instagram like hey I need a housekeeper. But then when I had to realize, hey, I'm running a hospitality company. It's not just a sweep of a broom or wiping off the counters or cleaning a toilet. It's different. You have to stay sing in it. House is a tissue full are the is the shampoo, the conditioner,

Those It goes a long way.

What I'm saying, make sure coffee and creamer out.

May make sure you have wash cloths.

Everything at least another.

Speak with coming. Yeah, yeah, I mean we've been in some of the things.

Yeah, some people don't believe in wash cloths. I noticed when you go to mb you never you know who you know who owns the airbnb.

If they don't have washed it's a fact. It's strange.

Yeah. So my question now is right, so when you when you hire a company of cleaners, right, if you keep using them, does it help now with the costs? You now make a deal to say, you know what we've been using you or we got so many properties, Now can you cut the costs a little bit.

So now when I talk about automated systems, when I say the mistakes that I made. Now I've come to the point where I needed my own housekeeping company.

You create your own yes, So now I have my I have.

My own housekeeping. So the things that I was trying to do is support somebody else's business. That was my thing because I already had the airbnb b business going. So it's like, let me just find maybe you know, somebody that could clean for me. But then it became a point in time like, oh no, this is not working because they don't take my business as serious as I do. So now I need to find somebody to put on my own payroll for housekeeping. And that's that's

All my so a real bull. So you have an in house cleaning service, yep.

And I just did that within two three months, and.

How many cleaners do you have?

Only three? But it's enough right now.

Right now?

So and they only work for your property, only work for my properties.

That's Dope's twenty three y'all.

Now that makes sense because it's like it's like you gotta from a convenience level. Yeah, and you got to spend that money anyway, So like you said, why not spend it where it's on your watch as opposed to somebody else's watch. And now you cut out the nonsense.

And then when you talk about costs normally, so like normally housekeepers charge like seven or eighty dollars for if so, just say you wanted your own apartment clean, they might charge you eighty dollars for one by one bath. I'm not paying that if you clean ten of my units in one day. So now hey, let's what about fifty five? So now I only pay fifty forty five to fifty five depending on the cleaner, for each unit, which is not bad because I charged my guests ninety so that the.

Cleaning service is put inside of the rental.

The reservation exactly. So you guys paid a clean and fee.

Yeah, yeah, so you get paid on that. You get paid on it on.

The back end.

Yes, I just thought about that. You gotta get the cleaning fee.

I need that cat out of you.

I just thought about it. Get some body off front and on the.

Back we got.

We got, We got the cleaning service. Right. What are some other automated systems that we have in place? Because I'm looking at cleaning that's a check What else.

We gonta do so check in having a lock box? So you guys had a code on the door that doesn't work everywhere. Remind you, but it is automated system because I don't have to then go meet the guests, because I do have some units for my assistant has to go actually meet them to check in.

Yeah, we had a situation with a lock box.

And it always got killed, almost got killed.

Thanks. Yeah, now we they We went to LA and we did an airbnb and we got in late, like twelve two in the morning, and the lock box was in the middle of an hour in LA and we're sitting there shot. He's trying to get the lock box open. He can't get it open. So like we're pulled into an alley, lights on. We see people down the alley and I'm like damn all right, we left the alley, came back, and I made that's not the right one we came so we came back, So go back to

Now he pulled the burn out on the fact. He asked him what said he was banging and he's like he's like, you know that gang banging. We're just doing a financial.

Listen, y.

It was crazy. It was like the most It was the craziest moment because like his back was turned. He's like, Yo, what set you claiming? I'm like, yo, bro, we just we just hit on some Like I don't know what you're doing. So then he said I and walked off, and like ten seconds later, shot, You're like, Yo, what do you want.

Where was the actual apartment.

It was across the street.

So that's not that's not that wasn't a unit where you can do something. That was a lazy landlord.

Yeah, I was crazy. Never threw a that was dangerous. That was bad. Yeah.

See that probably had to get into where you couldn't put a lock box on the door. So they're like, oh, y'all coming in at two o'clock in the morning, there's no way I can check y'all in.

Yeah, And that was crazy. It was a crazy moment, but l A was good to Luckily we made it out. Yeah.

But yeah, So having self checking units or just checking concierge period is another automated system. What's another automated system. Inventory. I've learned to automate inventory because you have to keep you have to be sure. So the way that I have mind setup is I'll have a box for my housekeepers, and I'll have a box for my large storage for my clients as well. So I might keep fifty rows of tissue in twenty rows of pepper towels in the large box in the storage, but in the unit, I

You're supplies already, so we're talking about tissue, paper, towel, coffee. If you've done it right, creamer, you know what. Some some of the ones we stayed and didn't leave us any of that, but we we ain't going thro anybody under the bus.

Now.

It's dope, man. And like you said, I mean, it's keeping it all in house. And it only makes sense because it's all relates to the business. Like it's like if you got to get your tires repaired. Now if they can fix your window too, it's like, you know, it's easy as opposed to like, all right, you got to go for the one mechanic for one thing another mechanic for another thing.

You can do everything in house.

What about long long care? Is that something that is in your systems for.

Our two houses? Yeah, but that's not often because there's really no grass that kind of house. Yeah, it's on a college campus on Georgia takes campus and those kids, I don't care.

That's crazy. So you are you are a college student and you had a nb's on.

College a college campus.

Use you was trapping out of campus, just trapping out the band though. So all right, so now we got that that was a bunch of education. We're gonna go into some some some dudes and don'ts for the airbnb industry in the next segment and some more's gang.

All right.

So one question that I had was like, so the regular homeowner. I got that somebody wants to just rent their home or the apartment if they own it whatever. But when you talk about like these apartment buildings where nobody owns them, they're just like park whether it's luxury or just the regular apartment building, but the it's owned by like a corporation that owns the building, and you but you can still airbnb that, Like, how does that? Who do you approach because you don't approach the owner,

So in Atlanta, we don't have any regulations here yet I'm not going to move. The reason that regulations are in place are due to people having those large parties. There's some crazy things that go on in the airbnb energy that people don't realize, Like it gets deeper than just checking in and checking out guests. You get to a point where, like, for instance, one of my units, my housekeeper went in and there was blood everywhere. WHOA So she called me like she was literally she was afraid.

It happened when they checked in it was no, no, no.

When the housekeeper went to clean.

Ah the housekeeper okay, okay, okay, there.

Was blood everywhere. So you have those different things where the government wants to regulate and then of course they don't get paid off us. There's people on the on the platform that's making a million dollars, five million dollars, and the government gets none of it. So you know how they are. They want a piece of everybody's pie.

Now where we live, like obviously, having subleasing sometimes is frowned upon. What's that like here in.

Atlanta subleasing like the luxury apartment. Yeah, so there. So to your question, Alex, there's there's units where they don't care about you doing it, but you're not supposed to. So like there's a few buildings here in Atlanta to where they don't really care like you can they know the whole building is Airbnb, Like, don't overtroy me, I'm coming here and apply.

It's they got new tenants every three days.

Yes, but like how does that work though, Like do you have to actually apply for the apartment like you're renting it yourself.

Yes, so you would. You would go in apply regular as if you're renting it yourself and you furnish it.

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If it was an airbnb, you know, like not as if you were living in it, as if somebody was coming to stay in for a few days. You do everything that time is if you were moving in. I think it's so hard. It's not.

But you can only through that. You can't really scale with that because it's like how many apartments can you lease under your name unless.

You do it through a company, So the company is different, But renting amount of apartments under your name don't matter because only the increase go on your report, not the apartments. So the apartment's only going to your credit report if you get evicted or if you leave a balance.

So you can rent as many apartments as you want.

Yeah, as always you're paying as long as you're paying. What's the so I mean, I know you have a background in credit, I do, Yeah, what what's the role that credit plays in being a part of this airbnb hoston?

So no evictions, a lot of places, no bankruptcies, and then away from credit note, you have to have a clear background. That's all they all that matters.

There's no minimum score or anything like that.

Decent I think a lot. So for luxury, I think you got to have at least like a six hundred six twenty.

That's it.

Yeah, isn't that bad? You got to walk in the eight fifty.

So like what about like a photography?

Like me personally, when I look at the Airbnb's, I'm always big on like the pictures, and I'm like, some people don't have like one picture, and then some people their pictures look crazy. I never forget Marshot and Amasia more. We went to Asia for thirty days and we picked the airbnb in Thailand and it was crazy like that. It was so crazy, like the pictures look dope. And we got there and we was driving for like five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen twenty and it's like the back roads.

So got it?

Guard em So like from for the first question, that I have is like photography, How important is photography? And like what is there? Like a certain things like you should always show your kitchen, you should throw your bat, Like what tips can you give on that?

So let me tell you the two main contact points for any Airbnb listing the listing title and its pictures. So the not it's pictures, the main picture on the front. So be careful booking airbnbs. If it doesn't show the outside, don't book it.

Gotcha?

I just I was just looking at Airbnb's yesterday from Miami, and if it didn't show the outside, I was scrolling. Right.

When you say the outside, you mean like out of the house or like a street view or.

A picture of where I'm walking into. So for this house on the street, I want to see how the whole house looks. For an apartment building, I want to see the apartment building. For a mid rise, I want to see the mid rise. So the like I said, the two main contact points for Airbnb listing is its title, because these are the two first things get to see when they're scrolling.

Yeah, so when you put the title, you're putting first the bedrooms and is there format?

So the way I tell my clients is, don't list the city because people already know what they're traveling to. They only give you a certain amount of characters to list of titles, So don't be redundant. Meaning if I go in before you go search it for anything, you have the type where you want to say. So if I'm typing I want to stay in Atlanta for five days, I don't want to see a listen title that says Atlanta because now my listening title is going to be not important. Its not going to be important.

You wasted some characters.

You're wasting your characters. So with the listing title, they see that, and then I might add a star on it. A lot of people don't know that, so that's a tip. I might add a star on my listings, not all of them, depending on the unit. And then the main contact photo, which is the first photo they see. It needs to be bright, it needs to be lit up, doesn't need to be a lot of times it's either the living room or the kitchen, depending on how nice the kitchen looks.

Now, we spoke about the photography and he said that's a good point, right obviously taking the pictures, but the interior design, how it looks inside is very important. You walked in here today and you said, all right, there's something right. You were calculating things in your head. I saw it. Do you have an interior design background or is there a team of people that you've built along your journey.

So I don't have an interior designer background, but I know how to do a little song. So I just have an eye for the business, like this is my niche. So when I walked in here, I was like, you know, like that's just men. Even when though when I went to I just came back from Utah, like I was looking for everything I saw in the pictures and everything was there. So I'm not saying be petty or be like looking for small things. But the interior designer things

Is there a standard thing? Like? I know a lot of times when we talk to people on alumni that are doing real estate, to keep things standard right. We spoke to Greg Parker. He says he has the same pain for his door, same paint for his walls. Is there a standard design that you have when it's your place and we know what's staying in LEXI spot. No, it's just all.

Because so let me let me tell you this. When it comes to real estate, it's a little different. Greg is right, Like I know Greg's standard. I know his is great. When I when I walk in, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be white til on the ground. All the wise are gonna be and the girl's gonna be read. That's a big business. But my units, I try to do them all different because one thing, the unit,

That's what you know. We're gonna have to next time we come back to Atlanta. Absolutely, Now that's dope. So a lot of people sell experiences in parts of that package as well. Exactly is that something you do as well?

No, I don't do the experience. That's like more so of a business, like maybe doing pottery or maybe doing something like going to get fried ice cream, photography, skateboard and things like that. The movie theater is more so a vibe. So like I'll get couples that come in a bunch of anniversaries, a lot of husbands, they'll bring their wives. I've had I know for a fact, like twenty of those kind of reservations have people, they bring kids.

Wow.

So just from him scaling his business doing it a different way to answer your question. Look how much he gets a charge. So and he only pays nineteen hundred for that unit.

Seventeen nineteen hundred.

So you could airbn beat stuff besides just living like you can air be Yeah, yeah, you can.

You can. There's there's some creative things. There's a treehouse here in Atlanta. It's not Atlanta. I think it's stone Out and she charges three seventy five at night and she's booked all the way until the end of December twenty twenty.

Yeah, I think I saw something like that. Yeah. It's like, I'm like, wait, why would somebody? But people want unique experiences. They want sometimes they want to be away from the city, like a real treehouse. Yeah, like, no joke.

Your husband built it. He's a mechanic. He built the He built the treehouse in their backyard. It's literally in the middle of nowhere, a bunch of woods. He tore down a few trees and he built the treehouse. You walk over a bridge, so I saw the bridge. Yeah, yeah, walk up the bridge with the Christmas lights. It's beautiful. The tub you look it out the window like I'm

So there's a lot of costs that come into this, right, So I listed a few and if I miss some, let me know. Obviously, the furniture ender, the core that you have to put up, yes, people don't think about this. But the TV, the cable, yeah, because that happens Wi Fi obviously, yep. Obviously you put the cleaning courses. Is there any other cause that people don't really know about that they should have to get into this?

So let me go over my checklist. So you have the rent, you have the deposit, you have the application fee, you have the admin fee, you have furniture decre you have basic communities like paper, towels, tissue because I buy those things in bulk, so it's best to buy them in bulk. Let me tell you why. When I first started, I would be buying, like I would go to the Dollar Store and get like a four pack of tissue, and then I find myself going the guests talking my thing,

Let me ask you this because it's like I told you off camera, I was thinking about doing this in La but I wanted to live there. Do you recommend Is that a good idea to like have a have a place where you're actually physically living yourself or you shouldn't.

Mix those two.

So you're saying if.

Like lift there part time Airbnb at out.

Part you can.

You can't do that that with me. I got real OCD with people with me sleeping behind people and then you're sleeping behind different people. So that's just my personal preference. The vibe because you get you get different people, come in people internationally, you get bad bugs. People don't understand this is this is I really run a mini hotel if you think about it. So when I think about that, hotels have bad bugs and people. You just never know

Okay, So let's say, let's sake for example, April I book I booked one of your spots, but something comes up and I have to cancel. Is that something that's rolled into your course, Like how does that wear cancelation fees?

So with Airbnb, there are three different cancelation policies. You have strict, you have moderate, and you have flexible. So flexible, flexible, moderate and strict strict. You have to cancel within fourteen days. I believe moderate. You got seven days in flexible forty eight hours?

Which one you recommend I do straight strict.

You're not getting over on me because you have to. You have to be careful with taking that risk of not getting booked if someone cancels twenty four hours before or forty hours before.

And you don't get booked, and because you lost money because it.

Was now now. There are some instances where people will reach out to me based on how their profile looks, and that becomes a screening. Like I had a guy he had like twenty reviews, all were five star, and he told me his grandfather passed and he sent me the I didn't even ask him for documentation, he sent me the I think he sent the death certificate. I gave him a full refund, So I'm not like, no,

Gotcha, can't do it. Gotcha. And most people don't know Airbnb takes a percentage of each reservation, right, you want to talk about that a little bit.

So Airbnb takes at three percent service fee but it doesn't come out of your profits or or what you make.

Where's it coming from?

The guests pay it. So so let me say this the guests, the guests had this fee, and you have your You have to pay three percent service fee for airbnb? Got it?

Gotcha?

So how quick can you get an air being like?

All right, let's say I get an apartment, and how quick of a turnaround can I realistically expect to start airbing being it out and somebody coming to.

So with So, honestly, I'm going to be straight up with you. So my units, I tell my clients you don't take longer than seven days to get furnished. If you take longer than seven days, I'm putting you at the back of my list because this is what happens. Say I paidwelve hundred dollars in rent on the first I need to be listed by the seven Why say you'll take fourteen days? Guess what rent coming up in two more weeks? So now you're coming out of pocket

And then how long when you list it? How what's the usual turn around time for somebody actually books?

Two hours, three hours, three hours. I can show you that on my phone. My clients be getting booked. They be having five reservations by the twenty four hour mark period period with a tea period. No, No, I'm saying I was saying here, I'm saying about the twenty four hour mark.

Okay, on the actual period, not like a city girls period, like actually actual actual period, both of the same.

By twenty four hours they have they be they'll be like see this my You'll be like, yep, that's you.

That's you.

Yep.

All right.

So outside of the cleaning thing you said that was kind of hurt. You're in the business. There any other obstacles that you face that you can tell people like, hey, look out for this.

Look out for this screaming. You have to be careful of people who have negative reviews already, people who are oh, let me say this, natives. I don't accept a reservation. I just don't, because this is what I asked them, Why do you need my place if you live here nothing. I will accept them under conditions because I have people who live here and they have businesses. They'll come film like this. I get these all the time, people cooking shows.

Think, like, if they live in the city, it's something fishy.

Throw probably doing a party. That's your spot.

You doing something you ain't got no business doing. Now, I do get those couples.

You're doing.

My business. But I will actually if I see that your profile states, because your profile will stay you live in Atlanta. And then if I look at your area code, if it's say four or four seven seven oh four seven o or six seven eight, I'm not going to accept you.

So that's the that's the area, that's the zip codes that was for zip clothes for Atlanta.

Got you, So I'll try it. A lot of times people say no parties in the airbnb, right, but there's no cameras inside. Is that based on the security outside? Is that something that should be standard in Airbnb's having a security camera outside to see the traffic coming in.

You'll know a party. You will I know a party every time. I had a guy come stay in the loft, the movie theater loft, and he told me it was him, his wife and his kids, his two kids. When I went in there, it was twelve pieces of boxes. At the door, it was four trash bags. They had a bunch of pink and yellow plates and a bunch of pink and yellow silvilware in the cabinet. This ain't no kids. He was like, oh yeah, I live out of town, and my kids came, My wife came and we just

Guess that's all I was gonna say. So there's a charge for every person that comes in. Outside of that, you.

Can charge what you want to charge. Some people charge ten, some people charge fifteen, but I charge twenty.

Whoever that man is, you play yourself.

So when it comes to the security, it really you will know a party like I've had units where there were ashes everywhere, there leave roaches all in the you know, on the counter, just messy. You'll smell it because a lot of them don't have balconies. They're just careless.

So you could just decide not to let somebody use your Airbnb yep, and there's no reason why you got to give them.

Well, if they book and you want to cancel them, you have to give a reason. But if they're just inquiring, you don't have to accept them. You get what I'm saying. So you want on Airbnb, you can inquire and send like a message like hey, how close is this to the to the airport? That's an inquiry and then I have the option of accepting the pre approval, So you can go accept the pre approval or you can just do an instant book. Is either one?

Do you do it?

I know like as a guest you can write a review, but does the owner you write a guest review?

We write reviews as well.

So if I'm if it's the first time I signed off for Airbnb and I'm trying to get a spot, obviously I don't have any reviews. Just that is that looked upon in a certain way.

There are a lot of first timers, so you I really don't judge off of you not having any reviews. If you don't have any reviews, it's like, don't hang yourself tech thing, you know what I'm saying. So I'm giving you the rope.

How do you know what to charge?

You have to that comes with location, furniture, the mini seas that you offer. Those are the three main things.

Do you take like the monthly rent divided by thirty days and kind of come.

Up with that?

No, so you you do have to do it that way. Speaking technical, but when you are getting into the business, don't go get a unit for that where you have to pay five thousand dollars and you know you only can charge at one hundred dollars a night, because then you're not doing one hundred times thirty. You gotta do like one hundred times nineteen and one hundred times twenty because you have to count for those bacand nights. You might not get booked every night.

And weekends are always more.

Yeah, well, you can't make it that way. Mines aren't. So people know, is.

There a specific time of the year that is just peak season or.

Now it's peak season? Because so everyone's unit is different. I have a contract. I have a contract with acting agency, so I have to and when Sony, So I have a lot of actors that come in it's pilot season. I think I just learned that. So I didn't even know nothing about no polot season. I guess a bunch of actors are traveling, so they are, they're coming. So about from this time to about summertime, it slows down when it's back to school time, so like August September, it starts to slow down.

I'm sure Tyler Perry bringing everything he's brought to Atlanta's helping.

Now.

Honestly, he's about to build his own hotel on his campus on base.

I love him, but he animated systems.

He's about to put a whole hotel on his base.

Wow.

Crazy, that's so one last question, So all right, so you don't have you don't have to have any special insurance.

No, just one hundred thousand dollars depending on the property.

One hundred thousand dollars of renters insurance.

YEP renters insurance on the apartments. On the luxury apartments, you have to have minimum one hundred thousand.

Okay, So what's your what's your personal take on the future of Airbnb, Like, do you think that because, like you said, there's a lot of issues with like LA specifically New York, Boston.

San Francisco, San Francisco.

Do you think that in your just in your just opinion, do you think airbnb will continue to prosper or do you think it's going to become harder and harder.

I honestly think it's becoming harder. But there's loopholes to any business. Politicians have loop posed, the President got loop posed. Every business that you have, it has loopholes. So when it comes to the regulation, it doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just means you have to register and pay taxes on it as if you were doing a regular house. So people think about regulations. Even with Boston, they never say you couldn't do it. Tampa too, they

So you're registering it as a business with the state and then that income you pay a tax.

Yeah, So they're not saying that you can't.

Do it, they're just saying that we need Yeah, thank you, that's it.

So to answer your question, you it really.

Just depends Yeah, it just depends. It depends.

The thing is it's about Atlanta though, excuse me to cut you off. Atlanta. Atlanta is really prospering, like this is a city for it. Over twenty eighteen, Airbnb took four hundred and fifty million dollars of revenue from hotels.

Yeah, and that's the problem as far as like it's just the same thing with Uber and the taxi lobby, and the hotel industry is extremely strong. Yeah, and it's like now it's starting to kill the hotel industry. So now they fighting back, where Airbnb's a billion dollar company as well, so they're not going to just go.

So it's gonna be a fight.

But it's a lot of pressure that's being put from the hotel industry. And you got community organizations and neighborhood all that kind of stuff.

And there was hotels you have like occupancy fees, you know, when you go stay at hotel, you gotta pay all those fees on the receipt when you check out, permit fees. We just Airbnb's and making us do the same thing. That's it. So it's not gonna really cut nobody profits. It's not that.

Bad, all right, So the next time, we're gonna talk about how you help people and how you educate people to get in the game and since how they can get some money.

In one in one. Yeah.

So all right, so you're young and you got the game figured out and you're making a lot of money, but you also teach people and you've been teaching. So what made you want to do that? Because you could have just been getting money on your own? What made you wanted to go into education and actually, you know, teach people and make them successful.

You want to know what really made me get into education?

Greg big business, business king, King of North Philly.

Philly business is what made me get into education. How did you meet Instagram? Instagram is a huge platform. I actually met Greg and I became his client, and then we spent New Year's together last year. I was we were in Miami, we go to Philly. I just go to Philly just to go up there and kick it with them sometimes. So that's how I met Greg. But just with I Saw, I was like, I figured this business out. Once I figured it out, I was like, well, it's time for you to do something else. So I

One on one. You actually take me through the process of getting good yep, step by step, step by step, even down to you bring the interior designer in my spot, watch me get my first property yep, wow.

Everything, and then I listened for you when you just come to my class. You have to figure that system out yourself. I have I have step by step by step with my one on one program for you until you get listed, all the way until you get booked. And then once you get booked. Once you get listed, a lot of my clients join I want to join my property management company. So literally, like you're you're holding onto my arm the whole entire time. You have your unit.

Too, what's the enjoyment of Like TCAZ choys are educator and I teach financial literacy to kids, so like it's a different feeling for me to like know when it's good to know something when you could teach somebody something. For me, and I'm sure Troy feels the same way, it's a different lovely basis filming and it's a different feeling.

It feels so good. It feels so good. Me posted my clients. So if you go on my page, I have a few of my clients listed their listings. It feels really good. It makes me. It makes the mistakes that I made worth it perfect. Yeah, it really does. I used to be like, dang, now I'll be haven't man, I'll just wake up to five clients, you know what

So its the last time we went to Atlanta, I guy Alex he actually said that, he was like, people are not paying to learn from me. They're paying to get my mistakes so that they don't make the same That's true. So the classes is it spread out throughout the United States or the clients from everywhere? Because I know you're based in Atlanta. Do you have Airbnbs outside of Atlanta? No?

I don't have Airbnbs. When my clients did, they do Okay, so we can do it virtually, So we can do it through a phone call. That's that's how simple my one on one program needs. But it works. And if you do it the way I.

Say, investing in yourself is the best investment. Absolutely, I'll tell people out all the time. It's like, what's the price if you play basketball? How much would you pay for Michael Jordan to show you how to play? You can't put a price on that, Like you know what I'm saying. And it's like that kind of it accelerates. You might get to where you want to go by yourself, but that's the whole thing having a mentor having a coach. And this is why like Lebron, like he pays a

That's true, just a fact.

Yeah.

So and then I see other people they are people look at my price and they compare it to other people's. So if I charge I just went up to two grand January because I'm like this, I saw how many clients I was scaling. I'm like, this is worth more than what I'm charging clients. You got right now I have sixty seven clients. Wow, okay, So for twenty twenty I went up to two grand. So now my one I went to two thousand, and I go on other people who are doing Airbnb and they're charging the same thing.

You see how many How many sessions do I get with the one one? Is there a monthly time or how that work?

No, it's we rolling. So once in the process we roll. You called me how many every times? You need to like, it's not it's not no allocated time. Yeah, it's no allocated time.

You also do a master webinar, Yes, I have webinars. You talk about that little bit.

Yeah. So my webinar is what I originally started off with before I started traveling on tour. So the webinar was I think I hosted like two or three before, and it's the same it's the same information that I teach in my classes, except I had so many people that were out of state that I was like, well, there's no need to do it here in Atlanta, like there's no need to have a class here in Atlanta. So then I got to a point where my audience became bigger. So I was like, okay, now I can

People just touching.

I was like, well, you know it was it was my my beginning stage. My webinars, I don't I haven't done any recently because I started traveling.

All right, And then you also told us that, which is we excited about that for us, You're going to give us a discount for let's listen to this podcast, right, So.

Anybody who listens to the podcast will get one nine off my win on one program with the portal so use promo code e.

Y L so promo code E y L one nine nine, and they get one hundred and ninety nine dollars off.

Absolutely earners.

You heard it. Man, y'all gotta get in this game. This is this is a good way to start.

Now.

It's all about exposure, and you know, we just trying to provide much information, especially from people that's relatable, and you know, I really think that, you know a lot of people can relate to you and being young, being you know, being an African American and just doing your things.

So thank you, thank you for joining us.

Man.

This is really educational for me.

I'm definitely I'm definitely gonna try to get into into the AIRBA. That's the fact because I stay in enough airbnbs. We stayed enough airbn bes that is like we know how it works and we utilize it so much. We use airbnbs more than we use hotels at st.

And then one thing that I do say is every time I go stay, I look for something that I can use in mind. Oh yeah, yeah, it's something different every time I go to a different Airbnb of something like oh okay, well I can use this in mine, then I'll go get it, and I'll go to stay somewhere else I can use this in mine, and I'll go get it.

So how can the people contact you? Can you tell them your social media handles, any website or anything like that.

So my name is Alexia right, my social media handle Instagram is underscore Alexia. It's a l e x I A.

W R I, g h T Dope Dope, Troy House keeping It Eye.

The Yeah yeah, shout everybody on patreon dot com. Y'all know that's our proudly paid program. It has been revamped, so shout everybody that is with us. You know that our top members get access to E y L University that is our online school. It's webinars three times a week for myself, Shotty Matt MG the Mortgage Guide, and

Love sure a shout out to it once again. Shot out to Atlanta and shout out to the good people of more than None to five. They gave me this merch his T shirt and shout out to everybody that gives us merch. We try to wear as much as we possibly can we get a lot of merch, but something I want to know highlight. We try to encourage entrepreneurs and just spread love, spread good energy. So yeah, shout out to to everybody else that's given us merch

Peace please.

Hey everyone, this is Tatiana Manning, host of Real Talk with PGEN. We know small businesses are dealing with rising costs and looking for ways to boost their bottom line.

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