Zeona is a true real estate experimenter and a skilled investor who’s walked the walk, AND talked the talk. She is the co-host of the INVEST2FI Podcast and the co-author of the “30-day Stay”, which is all about mastering the medium term rental industry. Zeona has hands-on experience in many aspects of real investing, from arbitrage to buy-and-furnish. It all started when Zeona's best friend rented his place out on Airbnb. Fast forward to a decade later, Zeona has been an Airbnb host since 2012. ...
Jan 02, 2023•51 min
Michael Chang is a recovering investment banker, now turned high scale short term rental owner and operator as co-founder of TrustBNB Vacation Rentals. Mike got his MBA from Cornell in 2009, and spent a decade on wall street as an investment banker. While the pay was great – what he now calls the golden handcuffs, he got over the lifestyle overtime. Today, he reflects that he should have left in half the time to build the lifestyle business & empire he and his wife Liz built today. Mike pers...
Dec 26, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Derrick's story started like many investors but took a very unconventional route creating a very unconventional real estate financing company. Derrick started flipping units out of state with other people’s money with his partners who were also college friends at Harvard based out of Boston. They did this all out of state, hitting the ground running. The other people’s money that they used came from levering the money of their Harvard network to invest in Atlanta. They began scaling their portfo...
Dec 19, 2022•56 min
The short-term rental industry is a niched real estate industry of its own, and Jeffrey Ilouilan started to solve his own problems as a short term rental host trying to source quality furniture for his multiple units as a short term rental arbitrage operator. During his time he launched multiple units that ranged from luxury homes and apartment buildings. Jeffrey Ilouilan, then Co-Founded HostGPO which is a furnished buying group for short-term rental operators. In this episode, learn how you ca...
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 7 min
The short-term rental industry is a niched real estate industry of its own, and Dave Goodfellow was able to scale his operations within a unique niche of what he calls ApartHotels — giving him the most cash flow through a lean repeatable model. An Aparthotel is a concept of building multiple units under a single roof. Dave began his short-term rental experiments first off in the rental arbitrage arena to then scale into ApartHotels. Today, Dave and his team target rundown hotels, remove all the ...
Dec 06, 2022•55 min
Entrepreneurs are the true creators of new products, services and business models — and Tatianna Taylor-Tait has done just that in the niche of interior and furnishing properties, including private room rentals. Tatianna found a way to use her interior designing background to help her break into the short-term rental industry, which has become a huge asset for her services. But she not only does it for clients, she’s walked the walk as an airbnb host herself. As a matter of fact, she discovered ...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Laura Villamor, a nurse along with her husband, has proven the importance of selecting a market that has consistent flows of traffic year round, serving Marines and their families. From being in healthcare to now real estate, Laura, a superhost, uses her strengths, patience, responsiveness and charisma to host families across the nation in their very niched short-term rental market. Laura and her husband Eusebio found a way to provide temporary housing to families impatiently excited to reunite ...
Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 22 min
Entrepreneurs in their respective industries always strive for great marketing strategies, but a real estate investor like our guest, believes that the greatest marketing of all time is in your branding. Today, we have the pleasure of having Arthur Colker in the lab, who is the CEO and founder of StayFi — the #1 provider of WiFi marketing services for vacation rental companies. Vacation rental managers use StayFi to brand WiFi, collect guest data, and increase direct bookings, all while providin...
Nov 07, 2022•39 min
While most investors focus on sharing their passion, Noble on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of being able to solve problems, hence why his business model is business to business – making him a true Entrepreneur. Noble Crawford is an Entrepreneur, Investor and Consultant who is passionate about building profitable businesses, technology, marketing, real estate and most importantly – investing in people. He is also a 7-year business owner and principal partner in the short-term rental ...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 7 min
While some have niched into short-term rental investing, Alex Jarbo niches down even deeper and specifically develops and builds short-term rental properties to the tune of cabins and tiny homes including land plays for multiple lots to build large short-term rental communities. Alex Jarbo was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. After high school, he felt that going the traditional route of college and university wasn't for him, so at the age of 18 years old, he decided to join the Marine Corp...
Oct 24, 2022•58 min
There’s a significant difference between branding and marketing, and Jordan Kahana, our most recent guest will tell us why. Jordan’s first break was by a desert dog video that went viral on The Dodo with 120 million views! That’s what started Jordan’s journey into marketing but how did he go from that to the short term rental marketing platform that is Stayamo today, a marketplace that has over 600+ homes to rent to 2000+ creators worldwide. Jordan and his team achieved this by combining vacatio...
Oct 17, 2022•53 min
Bill Faeth has been an entrepreneur for most of his life, and it all started with his love for sports. It started with an opportunity as a kid, when both he and his mother were invited to a Lakers game. From then on, he did every business venture you could think of from pizza for his college roommates all the way to 2008, where he discovered inbound marketing, and the rest is history. There is no exaggeration here, after discovering that he could grow businesses while spending minimal costs on m...
Oct 10, 2022•1 hr 35 min
Today marks a milestone for Experiment Nation as we’ve reached our 200th episode mark! This means you now have 200 vetted experiments of knowledge that you can use in your respective lab. Join Ruben as he takes a look back at the numerous resourceful interviews from practitioners in the lab and recaps his most notable and favorite ones. During these 200 episodes Ruben has had the chance to extract concrete blueprints and ingredients from true leaders in their respective real estate & busines...
Oct 04, 2022•36 min
Alex Sabio is a respiratory care practitioner turned real estate investor who not only lives and breathes real estate but he does so while still having his profession as respiratory therapist. Alex has grown his portfolio while hiring the best resources to help him and selecting the right kind of properties to maximize thousands of dollars in net cash flow per month to optimize for freedom and essentially spend quality time with his family. Alex currently has 5 short term rentals + 2 under contr...
Sep 26, 2022•59 min
Ryan Luke is a real estate investor with a very unique model of rental arbitrage baked into his portfolio of properties that he owns as well. Ryan uses his arbitrage model to scale quickly combining cash flow for ownership. He spent months perfecting his business before coming up with a very niched concept in the short term rental industry doing it uniquely overseas, primarily in Dubai. Fast forward now he’s amassed a portfolio of 300+ properties and built a community along the way. Ryan plans o...
Sep 19, 2022•51 min
Knowledge is truly power. Traci Gagnon who had only $21 in her bank account, bought a book for $14 that became the catalyst of her success. Now she is a real estate investor and an author. When you're on the edge, you'll do anything to survive—and survived she did. They also say that, ‘the master appears when the pupil is ready’, and Tracy is an excellent example of this. She studied under the greats and became one of them herself. She never stopped being curious about what she didn't know yet, ...
Sep 13, 2022•53 min
Stay humble and work hard - Moriya Rockman, Co-Host of the Hospitable Host and Founder of Triangle Luxury, Smiling House Luxury and Villa Tracker. She fell in love with hospitality by chance when she immigrated to the Swiss Alps with her husband. There they had this very old villa where she hosted a friend; her friend introduced her to Airbnb and told her to put it on the market. And then things just snowballed from there - fast forward to today, Moriya has been able to build an empire from scra...
Sep 05, 2022•58 min
Be courageous enough to face rejection. Liam Carolan, a real estate investor and co-author of the Hospitable Hosts started out with humble beginnings as a product manager. The thought of leaving his job began weighing heavily on him so he devised a plan for how to do it. He listened intently to podcasts, audiobooks and invested in a mentor which essentially gave him the knowledge needed to start his own business in the short term rental niche and create a true productocracy. A productocracy is “...
Aug 29, 2022•1 hr 8 min
We got another experiment here at the lab for y’all. Andrew Street is both an entrepreneur and a short term rental host. His company, BnB monthly provides a new model for short-term rentals. His brand’s vision is to innovate midterm rentals: a 30-day plus stay. It's an elevated way of investing through a flexible leasing strategy. Plus, another factor is that it's an automated business, a marriage of technology, innovation and in the case of Andrew, dedication. You’ve heard of short term rentals...
Aug 22, 2022•54 min
Today we have masters of design. The Karwells, creatively derived from a name combination of this powerful duo, is taking the STR world by storm. Emily with her background in fashion and retail, combined with Sarah's creative tenacity. They are a perfect example of polar opposites working perfectly together. There are levels to this, or should we say, fundamentals to design, and they get a bit tricky when it comes to short term rentals. We'll talk about what to tackle first, their thought proces...
Aug 16, 2022•1 hr 7 min
One of the most dominant property management softwares is Guesty For Host App which helps short term rental operators automate their front, middle and back office operation as short term rental hosts regardless of size of their business. As a matter of fact, Guesty for Hosts is the app that we use internally to manage all of our short term rental units that we own and manage. Guesty for hosts gives new and seasoned operators the ability to synchronize all listings into one place, automate guest ...
Aug 08, 2022•29 min
How do you build a brand in the STR community, stand out, and make your guests feel even more welcome? This episode, I have the pleasure of stepping into the lab with my man, John Hildebrand, who is all about investing in short term vacation homes away from home while building a brand in the STR community. His story and approach to build an Airbnb business around an established brand and reputation will inspire you on your journey. From helping others build their brand as photographer to buildin...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 12 min
Ryan Webster is a multifamily investor and operator. Before he began working in real estate, Ryan enjoyed the opportunity to build things and sell them off. But then he reached a turning point in his mid-life journey (a crisis, if you will); something was still missing, and that time with his family. In our path to provide and pursue excellence, it's easy to lose sight of why you are doing it in the first place. So he pivoted towards investment and managed a way to make passive income while also...
Jul 25, 2022•42 min
Sometimes we are pulled in many directions when pursuing our goals. If you have a lot of projects on your plate, you need to find the most efficient way to work so that you can stay sane and maintain momentum. Don’t let the overwhelm break you, instead break all your goals down into manageable chunks. I mentioned a book that teaches the importance of mapping out your NEXT 15 MOVES. After all, if you want X Y Z then you have to work on A B C first. This is where prioritization comes in handy. It ...
Jul 18, 2022•17 min
This episode is to remind us all in our respective labs that often we are closer to our goals and dreams than we think. Most importantly it’s important for us to remember that on the other side of our goals exists a resource, person, insight, idea or piece of information that we don’t know that will help us get over the huddle. It’s important that we face this opportunity starting with WHO not HOW. In the short term rental space, as a virtual airbnb superhost, the answer to our problems is usual...
Jul 05, 2022•19 min
As short-term rental hosts, we are no stranger to mistakes. Humans make mistakes, it's normal but when they keep happening over and over again, then we're not being careful enough. Even though some mistakes may not be your fault, there is still something that you contributed to whatever happened - and ultimately, these choices are yours and yours alone to shoulder; nobody else's. Not to punish yourself or anybody, but to build on, and that’s ownership. When you deflect responsibility you are mis...
Jun 27, 2022•33 min
What is the difference between staying in Airbnbs vs staying at hotels? And if you stay at both, can you take some elements from both that work in both places? Typically, it's all about an experience that is convenient. Think about who your customer is and what they're looking for. Hotels usually have a concierge that makes guests feel taken care of plus room service and valet. An Airbnb host might find ways to provide those things too - like meeting up with guests before they arrive or doing a ...
Jun 20, 2022•19 min
Travis Smith is the Founder and CEO of Tribevest, a platform that makes it easy to invest as a group and do deals together in as little as 48 hours. He started his career with Morgan Stanley but realized the most direct path to wealth and financial freedom wasn’t as an individual. The path is as a group, as a tribe. Travis is obsessed with building a platform that standardizes, streamlines, and ultimately de-risks group investing. He won’t stop until every single deal on and off the internet is ...
Jun 13, 2022•50 min
Nancy is a physician, eye surgeon, and real estate investor. As a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Medical School, she currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two young daughters. As an ophthalmologist, she helps people see better so they can regain their identity, dignity, and vision for the future. Nancy started investing in real estate to create passive income, hoping to regain control of her time and stop trading time for money. She currently owns and operates a real ...
Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 16 min
Bailey is a Real Estate Investor, a young budding Entrepreneur, and a college drop-out. He started his career at just the ripe age of 20 while studying, taking calls and reservations in the middle of class. He began to ask ‘why?’ when he’s earning so much already. Bailey was one semester away from graduating college then he decided to drop out. It’s an incredible story. No one approved, especially his parents. There was so much uncertainty getting into real estate at his age, and of course a col...
May 30, 2022•55 min
