Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast . Here we're all on breaking free from the 40 to 50 year world ride and accelerating our journey towards financial freedom . Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence .
We serve as a hub for connecting with fellow members during our sessions so you can share successes , ask questions and keep the momentum going .
This is Nigi Adewale , host of the Acaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast , and we are excited to be joining you on the first Wednesday of April and we officially are in Q2 . And I think it's just been an awesome start to the year . I'm actually excited to be joined by my co-host , liban Ismail , who's promised that he's got his internet fixed .
Liban , how are you doing ?
I moved rooms . I got the modem right next to me . If this doesn't fix things , I have no more solutions . I got to get on the phone with Xfinity himself .
We got to get on the phone with the leaders at Xfinity and tell them hey , man , stop doing that All right , don't do that , sir , I can't keep doing this . No man , how has your week been going so far ? How are you doing ?
No , so my week has been awesome . I mean last week , you know , my cousin came into town surprised me . Weekend was great . No complaints so far . We just got to keep the good train rolling .
That is the key . That is the key and keep the positive energy in that . They kind of go hand in hand , Right , and I know we talked about it a little bit before . But one of the things we wanted to focus on today is the power of networking .
Right , Networking has been forever mentioned as hey , your network is your net worth and things of that nature and many monikers like that , and I'm truly a believer of that and I know that you are as well . But we wanted to dive into some stories of how networking has helped us in different situations .
Lee Bond , do you mind sharing how networking's helped you ?
Yeah , I mean one that has literally come top of mind immediately and I'll kind of go in chronological order here . The first time I really recognized the power of leveraging past people I can tell you a story right now . We had a client who we got through due diligence . We were finally , you know , there was a whole issue with the tenant .
We weren't able to get inside the home . We get inside the home during due diligence and we see that there's no condenser . The tenant ran off with the condenser . Obviously , now this is a big deal . And so my client's like , what , what happened ? So we go , we try to negotiate with the seller .
The seller's like , no , I'm not dropping my price , I'm not giving you any concessions , just really hardballing us . So then I kind of went and said , hey , this expense , what is the amount of money ? Because we did have a rehab budget set aside in order to kind of get this deal going after we had closed .
And so we kind of said , hey , what's the number that we're trying to spend ? And I said , okay , they gave me back $3,000 . I said , okay , awesome , now I get back .
And I met a dude a year ago , prior to meeting the client now and having this issue at a real estate meetup , right , and this was one where , quote unquote we weren't allowed to advertise our services , we weren't allowed to do anything . But I just started talking to him hey , what do you do ? I'm an HVAC guy . Oh , awesome , let me get your information .
And so you know , from time to time , you know , I told him oh , you know , I had made websites for people in the past . He's like oh cool , you know , help me out . So we just kept in touch occasionally here and there , and so I give him a call . I'm like yo Travis , major problem here . I got this HVAC .
I don't know how much the condenser is going to cost . He goes oh , let me come out and take a look . Comes out , takes a look , says okay , you can get a brand new condenser .
Or I have a personal relationship with a warehouse and you know how essentially big apartment office buildings they have a ton of these AC units because it's just so big that they need multiple units .
Okay , and to that point . To that point , yeah , I do know , know about those . They usually buy it in bulk , so they get a bit of a discount , exactly exactly .
And when you buy in bulk , a lot of times there's manufacturing errors . So one of the uh units he said , hey , I can get you this unit way , way cheap , like 75 off , um and so . But it's a little ding and I'm like , is there anything wrong with he goes ? No , it's just the outside has a dent .
And I'm like like , okay , I asked my client do you have an issue with this ? No , no , that HVAC labor materials install all of that $1,500 . That's nuts , insane , that is actually crazy Insane . And so that entire thing , like he got it for , I was like once you get the HVAC he goes .
If I told you , you know you you'd throw up Like you don't want to know what I got this condenser for . And so we've used him after that to just hey , now if I have an HVAC issue , check the ducks , dah , dah , dah .
And so it's been kind of a positive relationship in that way , because he keeps prices low and we keep him working , and so that's been exponentially helpful . And I would have never met him had I not just sparked up a random conversation with him at the end of the meeting .
Yeah , and I love this because you went out there . You went to a meetup . You had no idea who was going to be at the meetup , but you networked , you talked to a bunch of different individuals and , lo and behold , somebody you met a year ago ended up helping you close a deal and now is a trusted partner in getting a bunch of HVACs .
And I can tell you you're probably gonna have a bunch of people . What's the here that's reaching out to you to figure out his contact for that piece , including me . Cause hold on .
I've been paying too much for my HV . What's going on ? This is good . Yeah , I know 100 and and I mean that's the thing is I had no idea , I didn't know who he was and I kept his information . That's .
Another thing is a lot of people will meet people but they won't remember because I keep a rolodex in my brain this person does this , this person does that , xyz . So when I run into an issue , who ? Because I think of problems as kind of like creative how do we solve this ? How do we get past this ?
A lot of times I'm not going to deal with this problem alone . So how can I get my ? In the same way , clients come to us and , you know , get their team set up . How do I build a team around me to where I have this , I have that and any issues that come up .
I'm not panicking or I'm not freaking out on how to , but what we're talking about is the power of networking right and how that can truly drive your net worth as well as your ability to continue to grow . And so you mentioned LeBond . You said that you try to build a team around you .
Yes , Can you hear me ? I can hear you now . Okay , okay , awesome , yeah , I don't know what's going on today . Hey , come on .
Hey , we got to have a talk with Mr Xfinity , we got to switch it to Verizon man , but no , but no to that point . That's awesome , awesome example , and I love the fact that you brought up the whole meetup piece , because we're actually going to be having a meetup which can have very similar results .
I'm dropping it in the chat here Next month , may 3rd , about 30 days from now we're going to have a meetup in person at one of the larger short-term rentals with a lot of investors that are both new and very seasoned to the game , to try to get the same people in the room that can help each other .
You never know what type of opportunities can come from going to a meetup or from networking , and I can tell you that one of the things that I learned from my network recently in the last two years is I tend to go in bigger pockets and try to answer questions from time to time .
Of recent , I've gotten behind and I've gotten busy doing other stuff , so I need to get back into the habit of like weekly jumping in trying to answer some questions , and I want to say it's been about two , no , probably like three years now . There was an individual asking about , like furnishing costs for a B&B , right .
They're like hey , how do you estimate the furnishing costs and things of that nature ? So I popped in I was like , hey , it's about five grand or six grand per bedroom , right , for furnishing an Airbnb . And oh , by the way , I manage a bunch of Airbnbs .
And we got to talking on there and we started DMing and this individual was like , hey , do you have a moment to hop on the phone ? And when we jumped on the phone , it was an out-of-state investor that owned a property here that they were looking to turn into an Airbnb and they needed help , right . So I was able to connect them with the designer .
I was able to go ahead and actually sign a management agreement and it was one of the first ones that we started managing . And lo and behold , what this one connection led to was . This person was a shaker and mover . It went from managing one property to managing four of his units .
He was actually on the podcast here maybe two years ago , so he's one of my guys on the East coast and and he's a really good friend now . And also it led to a deal that was closed earlier this year , right , which was a subject to deal . It was one of the properties .
That was like , hey , I need to move some funds around and try to get this thing sold on the market . It's not going for the price I need . Can we make something work ? And it worked for me because the resources we have .
And so , long story short , that one little message to somebody online , right , and then following up and kind of building that relationship over time , led to a subject to deal where you had to put zero down , 0% interest , and and and both sides win .
Yeah , and I think you hit the nail on the head right there , because a lot of people meet people and it's a one-time transaction . Instead of trying to build a relationship out and saying , hey , let's kind of work out in the future , what can we do more so long term together ?
And I feel like a lot of people and I hear this saying a lot bend over to pick up dimes when they're losing out on the dollars . You know that's a big one . Bend over to pick up dimes when they're losing out on the dollars . You know that's a big one . They'll skimp out on minor things when big picture what or what's the end goal ?
What are you trying to get to and how are you best going to get there ? We're trying to . I say I'm nasa , you need a team to build a rocket ship , right , and I I'm trying to take my team to the moon , you know .
So that's how it is and to that point , literally what you just mentioned right , and I think the phrase is like stepping over dollars to pick up dimes and pennies or something like that .
But what you just mentioned is true If you're going to be in this real estate game , you want to have a long-term view and think what do you want your reputation to be over the long-term ? And so it's not just you know how you interact with somebody today , especially with , like , different vendors , contractors , things of that nature .
You don't want to burn any bridges , man Like you want to make sure that you're able to build strong relationships that are going to last , so that when you need a solid , when you're down and out and need a solid , you've got people that know you , that will come out there and really help you out .
And or when you have an opportunity opportunity , you have a network that you can pitch it to and really take advantage of of that opportunity when it's there no , 100 , 100 and like that to your point .
Yeah , people will do you a solid later on by saying , okay , I'm not going to charge you as much as I charge other people , you know , and that you're just , you're saving in that regard too .
You know , just by being friendly and because I do not , the amount of contractors that give me a price lower than what they give everyone else , just because I'm nice to them , I don't freak out Astonishing specifically in that regard .
And so especially now , with Atlanta kind of being a small city it's a big small city , I like to say , because they're in the meetups I talk about People will do deals with each other just because they know each other , and they'll only do deals with people they know .
So that's an entire market people are potentially missing out on just because they don't want to go out network , see people and a lot of the old guard . They're not on the bigger pockets , you know . They're not on these online platforms and they're the ones that are really sitting liquid with like 30 houses , you know .
And so I've tended to notice that those kinds of people you meet at these meetups , at going inside , really hitting the ground , agree , agree .
And and and I love what you talked about with that first person that you met . I think you had another story of networking that revolved around helping another client as well .
Yeah , what I was saying was I had a previous , and this actually goes to show you the kind of contractor when I go about . Hey , a contractor likes me is going to do me a solid versus someone else . So we had an issue where we were doing a full renovation on the property and we got a stop work order from the city .
Now , when you get a stop work order , how you deal with the city is very important . Thankfully , the client and I were very respectful . We were like , oh , we didn't know , we'll be compliant . We didn't try to brown nose . Oh , we're oh , act tough , we check , da , da , da , no .
And so the fire marshal was like , hey , you guys need a permit for this , this , this . But go ahead and do the floors , go ahead and paint , go ahead and finish up the bathroom tile . And so they were working with us and they said what ? And you also , you're going to need permits .
So I met a contractor a year ago on a listing presentation and I went out there and the home wasn't completed yet and the owner wasn't there yet . He was still coming . So I started talking to the people that were working there and I met a GC . His name was Luis . He said , hey , I do stuff like this .
We started talking about investing and then Fast forward nine months after this initial meeting . I told you I keep a rule of decks . You got to remember the people that you interact with . Nine months later I said hey , luis , me and my client are in a tough spot right now . We need permits , are you ? You know , can you get that done ?
I can't , but I know a guy . So he connected us with someone and all we did was we paid them a flat fee . It was like , I think like 2,500 , 3,000 , something around that range , and they got everything permitted , dealt with the city , and you know , that's a way bigger fee than that 25 , 3,000 , especially when you're doing it later , after the fact .
And so that is just an example of remember who you come in contact with , because if they don't know someone , or sorry , if they aren't the one to help you , they might know someone to help you .
And so that's when it comes down to leveraging your networks network Dude that is incredible and , honestly , that's how you bring so much value to even our clientele right , especially those that are trying to do , you know , some of these rehab projects is being able to have those connections that can get you across the finish line Right .
And , you know , in a much lesser format , one of the connections I developed early was was similar right . It was somebody within the city for the short-term rental ordinance and I was able to get this person's personal phone because it was a new . They were still trying to figure it out .
I got the personal phone and like , for all the properties that we were getting or ordinance early on , I just called . I was like , hey , you know I'm struggling through the process . Can I just email you directly some stuff and are you good ?
And they were just fast forwarding it through and so , long story short , you're right , you got to treat people right and you have to try to bring as much value as you can to others and then remember your network and whether that's for me it's putting it in my phone and putting notes underneath to where I can search it up , or if you've got great memory like
Leibon and you remember that stuff , that's awesome . But you got to have some way of tracking and , kind of , you know , staying connected with that network .
I can tell you , on a complete another note , the one piece that that really helped me even move to where we are today , which is into the entrepreneur space full time was around the time I was starting to think about , hey , maybe I could lead the W2 this year .
I was surrounded by a lot of entrepreneurs that I look up to and that were inspiring , that were already doing it Right . So I was able to ask them questions about like , hey , how are you handling health insurance ? How do you even handle your day-to-day , what does this look like for you ?
And it was a resounding , just positive energy coming from them saying like , hey , you're already doing it , you can definitely move into this full town .
And three individuals that stick out in my mind was my realtor in Louisville and partner , monica Dunlap right , I mean she made the jump from being a district manager at Cracker Barrel managing like 200 people to now she owns her own brokerage , right , and kind of building that whole thing out .
Another individual is my guy , jordan Spector , who is a full-time artist . I mean he lives in Costa Rica six months out of the year and then comes back to Philly and Atlanta , which is kind of cool . And another person rest in peace was my guy , marcus Mayfield , who was our maintenance manager . But this dude owned like six or no three .
He owned three event spaces and he showed me the numbers these things are bringing like 10 K a piece a month . I'm like what that ?
I'm like why are you doing maintenance here he's like .
I just want to network . I'm like all right , cool , you know you want to network . I'm like this is great man . So , long story short , that networking is powerful and it's something you should definitely seek out every opportunity to try to meet more . And I need to get on your level , ebon , and actually start going to some of the Georgia REIA meetings .
Seriously , it's a goal . I just added it to my goal list for the year . So I'm going to actually get on board and start going to those .
Yeah , and I always say , even if you end up not talking to anyone , they give out so much free information , Like the amount of free information I've received from people who've done it .
And they love it when you ask them questions , because I'm sure you know if you're like at the end of your life , when you're at that age , you you'd love talking about what you did , how you started . And so me , I , I kind of go at it at a humble manner hey , how'd you get started ? What was your first deal ? How'd you know it was a good deal ?
And they like talking about it because for them they kind of get to relive when they were in it , Cause a lot of these people are retired at least most of the people I meet are , especially they're retired , so they love it . When people are coming in , they're interested , They'll like say , got any new ?
Like I'll go in , and they're like you got any new deals for us to look at ? Like it's , to some level , a game to them , and I think that's why they've succeeded so well . It's because it's no longer work , it's more of a game .
That's the key . If you can make it fun , that's the cool thing and that's why I like just being able to immerse in both sides . Being able to help clients , being able to work alongside you and the rest of the team is exciting to see like , hey , we're putting this thing together and see if you guys overcome some crazy struggles .
And then also the investing side . It's a . It's a perfect mix of just . You know , there's certain pieces that are , yes , going to be annoying from time to time , but when you pull it all together , it's fun . Like it's pretty fun to be fully immersed in this game , and it is . It's one that if you stay in it long enough , you just get better .
It's like anything else , right , when you , when you want to go learn how to ride a bike , you probably suck the first time , first time , right , you're like falling to the left , falling to the right , but then you get better .
A lot of great beats , you know , and then you start getting better and then , all of a sudden , you're like doing tricks with the bike and things of that nature .
So yeah man , it's cool . No , and actually I think our team is a great example of having a good character and networking , because , for instance , I was one of the first people I would not have joined if I thought you were not a good guy , you know , and I would have stayed if I thought you were the good guy .
And then , additionally , I wouldn't have told , hey , deanna , come join us . Deanna would have said , hey , naira , come join us . Past clients that you've worked with wouldn't have joined us if you weren't consistently one character , two being someone who was willing to help out , kind of serving first .
And in that regard , I think our team is a perfect example of what we're talking about today , cause everyone that is on our team we don't put ads out Everyone either was a past client or , as a world , a referral .
And to that point it's been just fun and it makes the journey much better . Right , when we can all get together , like that little thing that we did the other day , where it's like , hey , what's your favorite destination ? And things of that nature . I genuinely enjoyed it .
I was dying laughing and it was funny that they put the wrong the wrong the wrong artist , but that's a whole nother point . But no , a whole nother point . But no , it's . It's cool and we're only growing and and I just see us being able to do a lot together .
So this is . This has been fun , man . No , a hundred percent , cause I think about it . We surpassed the last year's goal because of the fact that there were so many more of us , and that's where it comes . Your team is going to take you much further than you were going to do by yourself .
And that's in all aspects of life . They say that if you want to go fast , you go solo . If you want to go far , you have to go together Right , and so going together in an intentional format is awesome and and it's fun , and to that point , I'm going to shift gears a little bit right and do a little bit of housekeeping .
This is an open session , so feel free to join . Liban and I were just talking about the power of networking . We love to hear about your networking stories and how you've been able to meet people that you didn't know . You know we're going to turn into some crazy relationship . That's kind of helped out for you as well .
And while we're waiting for others to join Liban I already shared this with you , but I'm excited about , so I need to share with the , with the group as well yeah , um , but we finally got uh , the self-storage was completed , uh , a little while ago , right , and we actually put together kind of like a , a video that we're marketing on facebook , and so here
goes the video for our self-storage . We officially got our first two tenants over the weekend . The phones have been ringing since .
Hi , I'm Monica Dunlap , owner of Totally About Houses Storage . We're not like those other guys . We have security gates around our facility .
Hey sir , is that , is that your unit ? Is that a ball-agel ? What ?
We have storage units ranging from 5 by 6 and all the way up to 10 by 20 . Hey , what are you guys doing here ? All jokes aside , Totally Bad Houses . Storage is open for business . Visit ta8storagecom for pricing and availability .
I'll send a link in the chat if you want to look at it outside , and I mean kind of while , since there's no audio , I can kind of ask you some questions about it . What was the deciding factor on what kind of ad we were going to run ? Why Facebook market ? You know specifically kind of what was the ? What was the brainstorming session to create this ?
Yeah , so Facebook market allows you to target Right . So we could target a certain age group , you can target a certain area , and it's a lot more specific than doing , like you know , google ads things of that nature . For Google .
You could just get you know a couple of your friends to do some reviews to start out , and then we started giving out like dollars . We actually send an email to the two tenants and it worked for one of them where we say , hey , we'll give you $10 credit if you give us a five-star review on Google .
And so they gave us a five-star review , we gave them a $10 credit and we're going to build up our reviews as we start getting more people in there like that . But we wanted something that was less than a minute so people would stay focused . A little bit of humor in there , right , so that it's a little bit funny and you remember it .
And then something where at the end , we can tell you what really differentiates us and that we're open for business . And so this was a cool ad . We got inspiration from the Dollar Shave Club ad , right . And for the OGs with the Acabo Home Mastermind Group . You remember we had Monica on , let's say , last year Don't quote me on that .
We had her on recently , probably within the last , like 50 episodes or so . It's been a lot going on , but we had her on . That's my business partner and and I had to coerce her into doing this . It was like Monica , come on , I need you to go do this video . But she did it , so it was cool .
No , great no . But the question I was going to ask you was I know a lot of storage facilities . They'll do all first month free to kind of get you in . Are you kind of leveraging any unique marketing strategies like that one ? Absolutely .
Yeah , this is a full blitz , right , we got 223 units we need to rent out and we're not mincing on , hey , allowing some of these to get booked up for a little bit less , because with self storage we talked about it before If you move your stuff into a unit for a hundred dollars , if somebody raises it 10% which is a lot in a rental , but it's just $10 ,
you're not going to go and move all your stuff out next year , right , and so , um , one of the things that we've done is it's across the street from middle school and elementary , like the best one in the , in the in the County , and so we sent out a bunch of those mailers , right , the same ones that we do for like listings , things of that nature .
We did a mile radius of mailers to the whole neighborhood to say , hey , if you use this code , right , which is , I think it's like love , tah or something like that you will get a 50% discount in your first month .
And then , for the teachers specifically , monica's kids go to that school , and so she brought in cupcakes and put it in the teacher's lounge and had a whole stack of like individual teacher cards , because teachers need to store stuff for the summer and we're giving them a 10 percent discount just off the unit period , right , so it'll just continue on for forever
as long as they stay there . And then the Facebook ads . So it's kind of like a three pronged approach . We canvassed the whole area , mile radius . We focused on the school across the street , and then now we're starting to do the facebook ads , now that we have the video up and running .
Yeah , okay , no , that makes sense and I agree to your point , because they raised my storage 50 bucks a month and I was just like now 50 .
I might , I might think about it , I might be like , all right , hey , hey , 50 raise . That's that , that's a bit much , that's like they just did it .
It's too much and I'm like ah no , but do you have a timeline on how quickly you want everything rented out by ?
So the main piece that we're looking at is my goal is I want to have 100 units rented out by the end of , or really by the middle of May . Right , If we can get 100 units rented out by the end of , or really by the middle of May , right , If we can get a hundred units rented out by the middle of May , that'll cover our , our monthly expense .
That right there covers our monthly expense . And then everything else , which 123 units above that is the cashflow . Right , that's for maintenance , which there really is no maintenance on the brand new storage .
Literally there's nothing there , which which I like we got to talk to the GC who built it .
Yeah , exactly Like hey , man , what's going on here , right ? And so the goal for that is because at that point we're going to lay down the blacktop . Right now we still don't have the blacktop because it's cold in Louisville a little bit and that blacktop is crazy expensive .
When I tell you it's like I think it's like 300K for the whole blacktop that we still need to put out . Now the bank's covering 80% of that , but we're still coming up with 20% of it , right , and I don't want to do that right now while still paying the monthly .
So we want to get that covered and then the rest will be gravy on top and it's all going to work on the end and we have the fencing coming in now . So there was no fencing up when we did this video , but we just kind of filmed it in a way where you couldn't tell the fencing's going to be up by the end of the month .
Okay awesome .
AJ , how you doing man . What's up , my guys , how y'all I'm good .
Hey , come on now . Thank you with the tech tip . I had no idea what I was doing , so I appreciate that . Yeah , for sure bit of responsibility to kind of help out there . So well , can you , can you fix leban's internet ?
is that something we could do to mr xfinity ?
can you get ?
I don't know if I can , mr xfinity for me we'll see .
It's been pretty bad these past couple of weeks , so we'll see what I wrote him a letter .
I'm telling you . I get no letters back . I'm trying who's your provider , like I have Xfinity , see , okay , I don't even know if we can get an answer for that , is that ?
Xfinity , xfinity , xfinity . Yeah , see , honestly , um Xfinity . I have a strong dislike for them cause they monopolize a lot of the areas around .
Yeah , my area .
And , yeah , and , and honestly , they don't the best services . It's not so reliable . But , lebon , aren't you in Decatur ?
I'm in Stone Mountain . I'm right next to it , but I'm technically in Stone Mountain .
I would highly recommend checking out AT&T . They are very reliable , they don't fluctuate in their prices and they don't put you into contracts . So I would check your area but I would highly recommend AT&T .
My other property , however , I'm kind of forced to go with Xfinity because again they're monopolizing that area and I actually just saw the address of the mansion . I didn't even realize . That's only about less than 10 minutes literally from one of my properties . Yeah , are you coming through or what man ? Yeah , I'm going to definitely pull up .
I have to make sure that I don't have anything on my schedule , but if I am free , does it fall on a Saturday a weekend , I'm assuming ?
It's a Friday . It's going to be Friday from 6 to 9 . Got to book a ticket , right , but it's going to be me , ricardo , at the mansion , and that place is actually doper than LeBron . Did you see when the pool was done ? I don't think you saw it when the pool was done .
I haven't seen it . I saw the guys who did the pool . I got their info .
Of course you did the whole networking thing . I like it , I like it , I like it . But it's fine . No lie , it's dope . We had our first couple guests with the pool . But yeah , aj , it'll be cool .
Yeah , yeah . So so long as nothing's on my schedule definitely definitely will show up and it'll give me an opportunity to see Ricardo again , because I haven't seen him in a while . So him and I kind of texted a little bit just to you know , keep up with one another .
It was something I learned about him which was interesting , because I think he also does Turo too .
But we've never talked about it . He's big on Turo man . He does like luxury cars on Turo . He does like Porsche and stuff on Turo .
Tesla , yeah , yeah he's got a lot on Turo .
I actually have to tap in with him because we're both Turo hosts and it's interesting because we're both employing like two different kinds of market segmentations . So he sounds like he's marketing more towards , like luxury vehicles , people who want to pay that high price dollar .
But you know my target market is more so like economy vehicles , people who need to get from point A to point B , things like that . But that just goes to show that you know there's multiple strategies that you can use and even also in real estate , just like the same thing , you know you can do so many different strategies .
So that was just kind of a side note . Definitely got tapping with him , but so long as nothing's on my calendar , I will definitely be here . Done and done , and to that point on the Turo piece , did you ever start to try to figure out a way to link it with the Airbnbs and kind of market it or co-market it together or not so much ?
Not so much , I have thought about that , but I think it would be a little bit more difficult because so I have my Airbnb , which is about 30 minutes away from my property .
So if I were to do that kind of setup , I would have to prepare the vehicle at my property and then , once they're done so say a guest is staying for a few days and they check out I would have to drive to that property or maybe hire somebody to basically check out the vehicle .
And the checkout is important because you want to make sure the vehicle is still intact , it's in a solid condition compared to when you originally gave it to them . So I haven't quite found a solution to that piece , but if I do , then maybe I may consider it in the future . But that's actually not a bad idea to kind of marry it together .
But you know , I would also have to look into , like , how often our guests you know needing a rental car or maybe they already have rental cars booked , you know . But it is a really great idea . I just think I haven't done enough research into it .
And I'm a novice on all levels when it comes to Turo . I haven't done it personally , but we had a person that we managed for that owned a house down in Riverdale . We still managed the house as a short-term rental and he was doing Turo with this BMW for a long time .
And he just added , asked us to add in the Turo photos with , like , the number to contact at the back of the listing . And you know we had multiple times where people booked the Airbnb and then went ahead and booked the Turo because they reached out to him saying hey , you know , we need a car , this makes sense .
Let's just combine the two , but to your point , you do got to figure out the logistics . It doesn't make sense or just keep it separate .
Exactly , robbie how you doing , man , pretty good , how you guys doing Super good . I actually did Turo a couple of years ago before I moved to Atlanta , and it was it was really good . Like my car payment , I think was was like two thirty five at the time . So I would only I was working from home and I would only rent it out .
You know when it when I didn't need it and it basically covered my car payment plus some . But I wasn't doing Airbnb at the time . So you know it didn't I didn't like link it up like that , but it was really , it was really good . You know it didn't I didn't like link it up like that , but it was really it was really good .
And you know you got I got a couple repeat customers , because anytime you're in a city , you know , at least in DC I guess Atlanta is different , but in DC not too many there's a lot of people that don't drive and take public transportation and you know , just have a smaller city .
So anytime people wanted to take a trip somewhere a little , you know , weekend road trip getaway would work out pretty nice . So I definitely recommend it and they're good with giving you , you know , any type of extra money for if the car is dirty , like inside , like not really damaged .
But one time someone took my car to the beach and there was sand in there and I got like extra money for that . If they go over the mileage they say you know you get a lot more money than you probably even should . So it's it's definitely good if you have the vehicle and you're willing to , you know , kind of go that route .
So would you do it again in Atlanta ? Would you haven't had experience in DC ? Would you say , okay , let me get a car for Turo .
I would . I mean , I did it actually a little bit in Atlanta , um , and it was working great . I just needed the car more here . That's really the only reason I stopped , and I was , you know , I got the house , so I started just focusing on that . But , um , it worked great in Atlanta also , um , no issues at all . So yeah , I would .
I would recommend it for sure . Other thing I want to tell you guys I got randomly my first peer space booking . It was like I , I set peer space up literally like I don't know when . I set it up like a long time ago and I never got any traction on it . And someone just randomly booked my place on Tuesday for 8 pm to 10 pm .
I got like I have it listed at 75 an hour . So they booked it for two hours . I got like two . I ended up getting like 220 bucks out of it . They didn't . I went and checked it before the cleaners came . The place was just in perfect condition because they weren't sleeping there . They just literally just using the living room for whatever they were doing .
So I didn't have to do any cleaning fees and you know the place was already set . So I'm going to look into peer space a little bit more , especially when I move into the top floor , because like that was a really good setup for me , like they didn't spend the night , I could keep it open , you know , for the next day easily no cleaning .
So I don't know if any of you guys use it or have used it but for that first , I have never heard of have you guys heard of Gigster , pure Space and Gigster no no , I don't know , I heard Robbie mentioned something about an hourly rate .
I'll let you guys explain . Guys heard of gigster , pure space and gigs . No , no , I don't know . But then I heard robbie mentioned something about an hourly race . I'll let you .
I'll let you guys explain . I like that .
I like that are you renting out a space in your home on an hourly basis ?
whatever it takes . Whatever it takes , yeah , no . So it's like for production , um , you know , any type of media type stuff like on the website . They have like podcast rooms . You know everyone has a podcast now so they rent out podcast rooms . They do all kinds of different stuff .
But they randomly booked my place I had it listed on there for 75 bucks an hour . So two hours got me , you know , minus whatever peer space took , got me like 220 bucks and , um , you know , it was simple , it was really simple and they get the payment comes like pretty quick . So , yeah , it's like .
It's like a night on Airbnb and you get that just a couple hours . That sounds solid .
Yeah , and if you're in a situation it didn't sound like you you were , but if someone's in a situation where they can , you know , clean up easily , like if it's a multifamily and the other unit is right there , they could , you know , in theory they could host multiple people , you know , throughout the day day .
I probably would get more people if I lowered my price a little bit , but I'm definitely going to look into that when I move in , because the cleanup took five minutes . I took the trash out , like straightened up the bed a little bit and it was , and it was good to go .
So and to that point , like , peer Space and Gigster are amazing and if you're in the short-term rental space , you should also plug it on there , because you never know what spot may get selected for a movie or for a shoot . So I can tell you that the mansion we've gotten probably 25% of our bookings have come through Gigster , peer Space .
We haven't got a hit yet but we'll hope to get one at some point , right . But Gigster , that's where we got the individuals that were shooting the Usher commercial , right , they paid 15K we worked out numbers 15K for like three days , right , and they didn't use any of the beds and stuff , it was just to do a shoot .
We literally have these guys that did this last year and they're coming back to do it again . I don't know if you watch , like some of these TV shows where it's like famous people or reality shows where they'll show like a mansion , right , it's not the person's house , they usually put them somewhere else because they don't want to display their own house .
And so literally , we have somebody who's paying $1,350 because that's our minimum to come in there and at night shoot the outside of the mansion . They don't want to go inside , they just want to shoot the outside of the mansion .
They're going to do a couple shots where it's like somebody's coming in and shoot the outside for one of those outtakes and they're paying heavy dollar . Don't got to worry about cleaning . So yeah , gigster and pair space is where it's at . You just have to have the right setup for it , and so we've put like half of our properties on there .
Um , but it's , it's pretty solid .
It's kind of sound like , kind of like club Sheaa type you guys , it's a shannon shirt . He has a nice setup . I don't think that's like it could . I could be wrong . It could be his house , something he owns , but I'm assuming that it's just a space that he rents out and he does numbers on youtube for that whole entire production .
So whatever he spends trying to rent that space out , he gets it back and it can't be that much either , like , yeah , just relative to what he's making , like it's a good deal for both sides I'm curious , so this is the first time I'm hearing about this , so I do have an additional question on top of this .
so is this kind of more reserved for higher end listings ? Because , I'll be honest , like you know , I would love to tap into this . But my properties , they're nice properties , they're clean , comfortable , all those things , but , if I'm being honest , I wouldn't see my properties as something that someone would want to rent out for a production or entertainment .
So I'm curious is it kind of reserved for more luxurious setups or higher end properties ?
I mean I would say that you know if it works for you to put it up there , you might as well put it up there , like if you , if you think that it could , you know you could make it work you might as well just put it up there , because you never know what somebody is going to be looking for . But you know , I'm on the website .
After I got the booking I went and looked through a couple other like listings on there and it really varied . I mean , some of it looked like this would be good for like a music video or a podcast or something . But you know , other stuff was just kind of like a room .
I will say my unit looks like a little different , so that might have been why they chose it . But I mean , if you think logistically that you can make it work , like it doesn't cost anything to to put it up there , so maybe no one will book it Like no one booked mine for like probably a year .
I don't even know when I posted it , but you know it doesn't , it doesn't hurt to throw it up there .
In my opinion so I have a question for you guys , because you have all these different websites . You're all airbnb , vrbo . We found about gigster . Now how are you managing the bookings ? Do you have like an in-house ? Okay , I got booked on gigster for this , so I'm gonna going to mock off the day on Airbnb .
I got this day on Airbnb , but this day on VRBO . How is that scheduling working ? Robby , you want ?
to go first .
Oh , go ahead , Adrian . I was going to pass it to you because I know I'm sure I have an assumption for what answer you'll have . Come on now . Yeah , I know what side you're on . Yeah , hey , hey he knows the side now .
Yeah , I know what side you're on . Yeah , hey , hey , he knows this side .
Robbie , what about you ? Yeah , I'm probably on the same side as you . Nii , I just it's all automated .
You know , I think through it might be through Hospitable , for Bookingcom and for Airbnb and then for Peerspace is not automated , but this was my first booking in a year so it didn't really and it was on a Tuesday , so my spot wasn't booked Like you know , it was easy .
In the future that might it might cause , like if someone wants it for a Saturday for two hours , that might , you know , be a problem or an issue . But yeah , for the for bookingcom and Airbnb , which are the two main ones , I use it all it automates .
And then I've seen on hospitable that they have pretty much every everything on there that can you can automate through .
So yeah , and piggybacking off of that . I think for the main like short-term rental sites bookingcom , vrbo , airbnb and direct it's done through hospitable . They allow you to link everything there , so when it gets booked it just all is automatic .
Uh , the piece that is a little bit , you know , touch and go , especially as you grow your portfolio for Gigster , peerspace as well as Furnace Finder . It's a lot more manual . Like I can't even really train the team on this piece .
I'm going to share my screen here because I have it on my phone , so I'm the one that has to kind of like message and there's times where I will just be busy and completely forget to come back to it .
But like , here goes to people that are reaching out like , hey , we want to do all this stuff right at the mansion , so we're trying to understand , hey , how long is this going to be and what's the price that we're going to charge ? And so here goes all the people that just continue to reach out .
So when you have a bigger spot yeah , so we don't want to have ragers , we do not want to have ragers , so we want to keep it to a hundred or less .
That's probably why I didn't respond back Like , hey , listen , we're not doing that , um , but we have been able to garner significant dollars , you know , from this and like , for example , this person , I think , was shooting like a BET special that we talked about , um , and things of that nature . So it's , it's a lot .
It's a lot that you can get coming in from this , from this gigster .
Once you get it set up from this , from this gigster , once you get it set up , andrew works for BET .
Hey , yeah , I know Right , yes , he does , and they actually came out . Sometimes we have to do property tours , which again is another manual thing , especially for the bigger shoots . I think I talked about it before , but we had an opportunity where we were top two for getting a five week shoot .
That was going to be a 90 K deal , right , because they're going to shoot a whole tv show there , a reality tv show , kind of like survivor , but in a mansion where they don't have anything . They got to earn everything . It's kind of a weird concept . But long story short , um , we didn't get that one because our parking situation is tough in the city .
Um , but it's good , like you can get some major hits off of there . Uh , but it does require a bit more Like for those guys . We had to show them the house two or three times in between guests and be on site and things of that nature .
This is an interesting one that I kind of want to throw in there , and this is something that I had never knew of . But this was maybe maybe three or four months after I had closed on my current property my house hack and we just received a knock on the door .
And when you buy a house , people are constantly sending things in the mail knocking on the door . So a guy knocks on the door and I didn't go answer but he left a note .
So once he left I opened the door , saw the note and I opened it and it's basically a note from a representative of the general insurance Trying to think of , you know , the general insurance . They have yeah , this is like a short white guy . He's like a military guy I think . And if , how does the slogan go ?
For a great little rate you can go something , go to the general and say so .
That's a great commercial . That's a great commercial . I don't know that's a great commercial because we remember it's good .
Right , exactly . Anyway , they came knocking at my door and they were trying to offer us money to shoot a commercial , like a televised commercial at our property . I've never heard this before and I was like what this is crazy . So I reached back out to the guy Once . I've never heard of this before and I was like what this is crazy .
So I reached back out to the guy once I realized he was talking money . I said , hey , you guys want to shoot it ? I should have answered the door the first time , um . So they said , oh , yeah , sure , um , you know , you mind if I come back and bring like the film directors and the crew and I'll say , yeah , by all means .
Um , they were , they were , they were offering a , a , a , pretty , uh , a solid rate per hour . So I can't remember exactly what it was . But , um , a couple of days later they bring the entire crew . They're like checking the place out . I'm like , no , this is insane , like I've never heard of this before and this just kind of happened .
This isn't anything that I had to put myself out into a pool or submitted a ticket for , anything Like they literally just came knocking at my door because they were looking for a specific house and my house kind of fit what they were looking for in the area . Long story short , they brought the crew out and everything by Friday .
They came knocking initially on Monday . By Friday they didn't call back . So I think they inevitably decided with another house . But I came really close because they said they were deciding between one or two houses that fit their kind of molded description . Um , but I thought that was pretty interesting and cool .
I've never even thought of that before and it was kind of something that just fell into my lap .
So that just goes in to show the flexibility and the different ways that you can use your assets to generate your income , and that was one that just kind of ways that you can use your assets to generate your income , and that was one that just kind of , like I said , fell right into my lap so Absolutely , and as you continue to grow those assets , you just
get more opportunities to kind of shift people around , like .
On a complete another note , right , we had a couple insurance claims where they were staying at one or two of our houses , right , and I remember one reached out for a specific house where we already had somebody in there for nine months and and I was like , hey , that's not available , but we have this other one coming to market that we haven't even put out
there yet . Let me send you the video pictures dah , dah , dah , dah . And we're able to get somebody in there for eight months . Right , and so you get to use , you know just , your breadth of portfolio to kind of entice people and once you do one of those productions , like , they'll come back to you If you stay in touch with them .
Like some of these producers they've texted me , reached out , we just haven't had a property that made sense . Like one time they're trying to do a home Depot commercial and they wanted to finish somebody's basement , but they wanted something specific . They were like , hey , we need a basement that's Leigh-Bond . I think you might remember I hit you up with that .
They need , like , a basement that had concrete floors , but the walls weren't up yet or something , and you're like , yeah , we just put the walls up yesterday . I'm like , hey , man , we could , we could have made some money on this thing . But but long story short , you get other opportunities , and so that's that's .
One of the reasons we were so happy to take on the mansion , too is because it expands the opportunities that we could reach , because now we can show off all the other properties like , hey , yeah , check this , but also don't forget about these guys type of deal Absolutely , absolutely . Yeah , but , guys , I know we're coming up on time .
I wanted to leave you one last day . All right , I definitely am a hospitable guy . Right , I got to meet the leads of the company , which is kind of cool . But if you're going to be awake between 945 and 1015 , and I say that because I'm probably going to be knocked out , I go to bed pretty early , between 9.45 and 10.15 , tune into Fox Business .
You may catch your boy on there . The hospitable guy is doing a nice little photo . Slash this video op . Let me know what you think . I've got cable , but we'll YouTube it . We'll YouTube it Based on the internet , internet . I knew you didn't have cable all right , this is for everybody else . This is for everybody else on the line everybody , but leave on .
I'm telling you , man , see if they got at&t in your area I feel like I'm in a monopoly , because I remember I went on um that website . I'm gonna find out , I'm gonna find out , I'm going to find out .
You got my number , so if you need some help , I got you .
We're going to figure it out . We're going to figure it out .
You got my number . If you need me , I got you .
I got you . I'm going to call hey . Hey , remember my answer . I need you to yell at me .
There you go . Yeah , we can't keep having this man no no , no .
But , guys , I appreciate you for joining again and I look forward to seeing you next week Be safe and we will catch you .
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