STRSS 42 – How to Make Your Vacation Rental Property Stand Out w/ Irina Roth

Video Transcript

00:00:00

And what I also like to do. If someone is coming for holidays or special occasion, like say anniversary, I like to leave like a little bottle of champagne for them, or like a little present. I do leave postcards that they can take home with them. I think those little touches make people feel very special and that’s why they keep coming back.

00:00:20

This is episode number 42 of the short-term rental success stories podcast. Are you an investor that’s looking to have your home professionally managed, go to cohost.com for more information. Welcome back to short term rental success stories. I’m your host, Julian Sage. This is a show where I talk to hosts about their journeys and starting and growing the short-term rental business. My goal is that you’ll be able to walk away with practical information. That’ll help you become a better host and learn how to scale your business. Like any exceptional host that we all strive for five star reviews. So please go on over to iTunes and let us know what you enjoy is it really helps support the show if you haven’t done so already you going over to our Facebook group, the host nation to connect with the community.

00:01:00

Hey, what is going on in host nation? I’m super excited to be back again with you this new year, 2020. That is so crazy, happy new year to everybody. I’m still actually in Columbia at the time of this recording. I am actually going to be in San on this. I spent about a week in Bogota, but now I’m going to be going to a smaller island. That feels a little bit more like home. You know, being in a Florida boy, going to the island is going to be super nice, but I want it to say that this new year it’s going to be a really big one. Now I know, I know this past year a lot’s happened from starting entrepreneurship again and getting into the Airbnb space and starting the podcast, starting a second podcast, Vacation Rental Machine with John Bell, creating a property management business, and then actually getting my listing up and running and paying for my mortgage.

00:01:45

This has just been such an exciting year and I’m super excited for 2020 because we have some really big things that we have planned. So if you are subscribed to the show notes at Short Term, Sage dot comebacks, I show notes. Then you probably saw my email where I was talking about some of the stuff that we’re going to be doing moving forward in 2020. Now I’ve got some really big goals and some really awesome plans. And just the amount of feedback that I get from the community is just so awesome and encouraging, seeing the reviews and seeing you guys replying to these emails really makes my day. So thank you to everybody that is doing that and continue to, you know, just comments in the Facebook group, the host nation Facebook group, and keep me posted because I love reading every single comment. And I do try to see every single message that is posted, but unfortunately I’m not able to comment on every single one just because I do, I do have a lot going on, but there’s a lot of stuff that I do want to be able to provide, to be able to answer those questions that I do see coming up over and over again, 2020 is going to be a year where we’re going to be providing even more value.

00:02:43

So if you’ve been having a lot of value from the success stories and Vacation Rental Machine, which I know you have, because a lot of people have been commenting about that, but I want to provide even more value. And John and I have been working on some really exciting stuff that we plan on releasing probably within the next couple of months, we will start really start pushing this stuff out there, but I’m super excited, you know, just stay tuned. There’s going to be more awesome stuff coming. And there’s going to be some really cool stuff coming with co-hosts that for those of you that don’t already know, co-host, that’s our management company and we’re also doing turnkey arbitrage properties. So super exciting 2020 is going to be the year that we take over the world. Guys, thank you so much. And let’s just jump into this episode.

00:03:22

And in this episode, I have the special honor of speaking with Irene Ruff. Irene is a real estate agent who specializes in vacation rentals in the St Pete Florida area, and also manages a portfolio of 13 short-term rentals. Irene has been managing short-term rentals for the past five years, and she really is the whole package from finding the property to staging and designing all the way to management. She really is an investor’s dream person because she does everything. Irene has found her niche, and there’s a lot of insightful information that you can take away from trying to build your own co-hosting business. Ran to talks about how she got into the short-term rental business and scaled the 13 properties, your experience specializing as a vacation rental real estate agent and how she manages her properties. So if you’d like my show notes for this episode, go to Short Term Sage dot com backslash SDR four two, or if you like my show notes sent directly to your inbox every week, you can go to Short Term Sage Chuck on backslash show notes with all that being said, this week’s conversation. Hey, welcome back to another episode of short term rental success stories. In this episode, I have the special honor of speaking with Irene Roth arena. Would you please introduce yourself with the host nation, know who you are and what inspired you to get into short-term rentals?

00:04:25

Yes. Hi, thank you so much for having me. My name is Amina and I’m originally from Russia moved to the states about 13 years ago and kind of jumped into real estate business. I am a licensed realtor here in Pinellas county in Florida, and I managed 13 properties. So I think my mom inspired me to be in this business because she was a realtor herself and she was the first one to open short-term rental business in the city where I’m from. I kinda got inspired by it and I saw, you know, I have so much passion for it and I saw her passion and how she does things. And I really, really liked it. So sure enough, when I moved to Florida, I realized that we in the perfect location to do this business and we have the beautiful beach and attractions and everything kind of a recipe for success. So I, I think I would give it to my mom for inspiring me that’s for sure.

00:05:23

So your mom was operating short-term rentals, vacation rentals in Russia. Yes, she was. Wow. And how many was she managing at that?

00:05:31

She actually, so she was kind of a co-host on most of them, but she also had a bunch of her own properties. I think at one time she probably had about 20 of them and it was all in downtown across Nash, which is where I’m from. So it was mostly done for business people that go on business trips and kind of for that reason, because we really don’t have much going on in Siberia. So it has a lot of business trips to accommodate and she was great at it.

00:06:02

So in that, that is so interesting. So your mom was operating the short-term rentals in Siberia. That’s a business travelers and she was, she was doing this full-time

00:06:12

Yes, she was doing this full time. She was also at some point, like I said, a real estate agent and she, she kinda got into that business and it just kind of helped her. She was doing it full time. She built her business and she probably had it for about 20 years altogether. And then she decided to move here to be with me. So about five years ago, she kind of passed that business to somebody else sold it and moved back here.

00:06:40

Wow. So you you’ve grown up around vacation rentals in this atmosphere and it’s sounds like real, estate’s really just been with you for your whole life. How, how was that coming to the United States and then in St. Pete and then getting your license and then starting to, you know, follow the family tradition and pick up vacation rentals as well.

00:07:01

It wasn’t easy, but I definitely enjoy the process. And I bought five years ago, I actually started doing it full time. I got my real estate license, which was, it was pretty good. It wasn’t that difficult. I started selling real estate kind of right away. And in the meantime, I was trying to figure out how to become a co-host or how to take on more properties. And so, for example, you know, five years ago we only had two of our family property is on the beach in treasure island. And then we got another one and we bought another one actually. And then all of the sudden people started coming to me and asking, Hey, we would like to try this Airbnb business. You know, that sounds like a good idea. And I said, sure. And they said, we don’t know anyone who knows it better than you. So can you help us? And I said, absolutely. So last year I had one client of my own. And then this may, I actually got just a bunch of clients send to me by referrals, word of mouth. And right now we have 13 properties. It is absolutely amazing. And I just love every second of it. It is so much fun.

00:08:12

So, so you got your real estate agent, you, you purchased this property because you want it to short term rent it, and then it just kind of grew organically. People saw that you were operating and they said, Hey, can you help me out? And for, for quite a few years you only had one, one client. So it was your property and your one client, but then this past year, it just blew up.

00:08:31

Absolutely. I did. I had to open my own company. I’m like, okay, we need to make it official. So, yeah. And I, I mean, it’s great because people have so much trust in me and I really, really appreciate it. And they keep referring their family and friends. And this is actually how I got a few of my first clients. They were traveling to purchase a property in Florida. They’re from, I think originally they speak Ukrainian and Russian. So we kind of, you know, vibe because of that. So they came to Florida, they were looking to buy naturally. I held them by and I told them exactly which type of property they need, how much money they can make, we closed on the deal. And they said, just take it because we know you can, you can take it from here, you know, and you can make, make profits for us. So I said, sure thing. And then it just kinda started happening more and more. And I have a bunch of Russian clients. So that kind of helps because I speak Russian and they can, you know, they don’t have to speak English or worry about translating. So I don’t know, I just kind of organically grew.

00:09:36

Wow. I read it. That is so cool. That is so awesome. So I think that that’s such a really good combo and I want to, I want to hit on the real estate aspect because that’s pretty, pretty unique with your license though. You got your license and where you are specifically targeting short-term rentals, because you said you had one client for about, about four years until this year, it really took off. So at that time, w w were you just trying a bunch of different things or were you trying to do more residential and then you switched to Vacation? How has that progression?

01:10:08

And it was a smooth transition on its own. I didn’t really do anything. I know you should probably have a niche in real estate to be different because I’ve noticed how, like, some of my friends aren’t in commercial real estate that I have no idea about, but that’s how you, you are successful. I feel like. So I started with residential because it was like the easiest thing to do. And I had friends who were looking to move into, you know, three bedroom, two bath, single family home, very, you know, very normal. And then all of the sudden I started getting those investors, especially because I speak Russian. It kind of helped with my Russian investors as well. And they all started telling me, you know, we just want to buy a second home in Florida. It’s the perfect place I said, okay. And it just kind of transitioned into that niche that I now have. And on top of it, my fellow real estate agents actually refer their clients to me. So they go ahead and they help them purchase the property. So it’s not like, it’s my deal. However, from there I can take on the management and I can actually help them set it up the way it’s supposed to be. So they kind of just say, okay, here’s my client. We know you’ll take care of them, you know, go ahead. So that’s really nice because it’s the same people referring people over and over, which is

01:11:26

That’s so cool. That’s awesome. So how, how, how did you, because that that’s, that’s like a double Mitch being Russian and short-term rentals, but I think it’s really cool is that you had other people referring you business. How, how were you able to set yourself as being the person that even other real estate agents would be sending their, their clients do? So you could run the numbers. How did you get position yourself into that place?

01:11:51

I didn’t really advertise it in any way, but yeah, kind of a little bit, because I would just post my new listings on Facebook, Instagram, and I just kind of noticed they started reaching out to me and saying, oh, we didn’t know you specialize in that. Well, this is good to know. This is good to know. And I just started meeting a bunch of different real estate agents and they all asked for coffee meetings and I said, sure, absolutely. And I think what they struggled with because we live in such a area. I wouldn’t say it’s like a tourist area, but we do have a lot of visitors. And we have so many people buying second homes or vacation homes that they kind of run into this problem where they would have a client say from Canada, visiting, you know, kind of trying to see what they can buy here and know what type of Vacation Rental they can get for them that can actually make them money.

01:12:38

So they ran into this issue and they would just naturally reach out to me and ask just kind of, for some tips and advice on what type of property they should be even looking at. And I would just kind of guide them where they should go, because at first it was started buying those huge, beautiful homes that you cannot really rant on Airbnb. You can, but you cannot make that much money and it just wouldn’t be profitable. And I would tell them, don’t do that. How about you just put your money into this? And they said, thank you so much because it makes us look so much better that we know what we’re talking about. So, you know, that’s why I say you have to have a niche because otherwise you have to refill retort people out. But the, my fellow agents that are good at other things that I don’t usually, you know, kind of take like say short, short sales or foreclosures, I don’t usually work with those. And so that’s good. So I can kind of go to them so that, and then they can send their clients to me. I feel like it’s a good dynamic, you know,

01:13:33

So having, you know, it, it is important. And I want to hit on this, that being able to identify short term rental property versus just a traditional property, there, there is a big difference. And that’s why there’s people that are specifically targeting this in each. What, what makes a good short-term rental property versus a bad short-term rental property, let’s just say in your market.

01:13:53

Yeah. I mean, I can talk about it a lot, so I’ll try to summarize it. Basically. First thing you need to look at is the zoning because Pinellas county can be very different. It really depends on the town here in some properties in St. Pete who may be able to ranch Short Term, some of them are only say six months minimum, and that’s not how you gonna make any money. So I would say the best types of properties would be in a close location to the beach, because that’s very important. I’ve noticed that a lot of guests search for that, they want to be close to the beach or say five minutes away. So that would be zoning first location. And I would say, just run your numbers really because you don’t want to be investing so much money into this big, beautiful property and only be able to rent it on weekends.

01:14:45

We do manage different types of properties. We have single family homes with pools, you know, beautiful, great for families. And then we have little studios on the beach that are 90% occupancy rate. You see, because those two to three days at a time, it constantly stays book. You get crazy amount of people in and out the properties immaculate because we’d come in and clean between, you know, each guest. So it’s always like it’s a quick turnaround and the owners make pretty good money on those. And then they only invest at say $150,000 just to buy the property versus a nice, beautiful home. That costs say $450,000. So you’re already putting more money into it, plus your bills and you know, all of those things to maintain it. And they only rented on the weekends, but when they’re into on the weekends, it’s not a bad thing because yes, it’s sitting empty.

01:15:39

However, on those weekends, you could charge way more money. It’s going to be two to three families traveling. So that’s a totally different type of property. And you need to understand that. That’s what I kind of help my hosts with. I tell them exactly like how much money do you have and how much we can maximize your income by just selecting the correct type of property and seeing if you’re going to meet those numbers and kind of looking in the area too, like, how are other people doing and what are they doing and how much they are charging. So we ran through all those numbers. I think it’s very important because I don’t want my clients to be disappointed. So I kind of help.

01:16:19

And how do you come up with those numbers? Are you using any tools or using comparables? What, what’s your process for finding those?

01:16:24

So I know some people use, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say the names of those companies, but I think it’s air DNA or something like that, where they kind of combined everything together. I actually do it manually because I feel like it’s more accurate and I can focus on specific areas and kind of see, I read the reviews, if it’s bad reviews, I make sure that I take it and turn it around and we don’t do those things. You know, I make sure that we kind of we’re being proactive. So I look at a lot of different factors and then I see how much they charge for a high season. I kind of go in and look through their listings, you know, just, just doing those things. And it does take a little bit of time, but when it comes to my client’s money, I can just be, you know, promising, you’re going to make so much money. And in fact, that’s not, it’s not how it’s going to be. So, you know, I don’t mind spending a few hours researching and now I kind of know off the top of my head, how much you can charge, but I always tried to be very specific.

01:17:25

And now what about, what about furnishings? Are you, are these, these are empty properties. Are you the one that is coming up with the design? Because obviously the price point is also going to be dependent on the amenities, the style of the property. Are you going in there with an idea of how much they should be spending up front? Are you advising them on like how much they should spend on furnishing and what type of furnishing? So how do you come up with those numbers?

01:17:49

That’s a good question. I’m glad that you asked because some properties come already furnished and turnkey. Some of them are empty. One of my clients just bought an empty house. I mean, there’s really nothing in there. So we had to, well, he had to invest a lot of money upfront and it’s a big place too. I do tell them exactly what to buy. We, I feel like I have so much experience with it now that I know what type of furnishings and linens and everything you need to purchase, because you want it to be durable, but you don’t want you to spending crazy amounts of money because the second that’s ruined, you have to go and replace it. So we kind of trying to be very practical. I would give them the list of things that they have to purchase. I have a list of inventory that has to be in each place.

01:18:35

And I know how to furnish a three bedroom home versus a studio and kind of come up with the overall feel of the place. And we’ll try to keep it, put a little bit of design into it and, you know, kind of decorated nicely. I do have my degree in home staging as well. So that kind of helps me. I actually use it for real estate most of the time, but then when it came to Airbnb places, I just said, listen, let me just set it up the way it’s supposed to be and make it functional yet. Beautiful. And then, you know, you don’t have to worry about replacing all those expensive items. We can actually make it look really nice and you don’t have to break the bank. So that kind of helps. So yes, I do help them with that. And I, in the initial consultation that we have, I tell them to expect to spend X amount of money on the investment on top of purchasing the property.

01:19:28

I ran a, your, your whole package. You’re the real estate agent, the property manager and the designer you there. You’re awesome. It’s so cool. So one of the things that I did want to ask though, was your returns. Are you aiming for a certain type of return on investment with these properties? Or how do you, how do you give a good baseline? So when someone’s coming up to you and they say, Hey, I want to invest in a property. How do you know like when they should be getting that return back? Or are they just looking for cashflow? What’s the baseline that you’re going for?

01:19:57

I think since the scale of my company is still very small, I’m able to actually be very kind of customize each age property and the bay, a lot of attention to each of my clients, because some of my clients, they honestly just want to buy of cash furnishings, inexpensively, you know, get it all rented and be able to pay their HOA fees or association fees. They don’t really, they’re not looking to make a lot of money. So I, and of course I ask what your goal is and all of that before we even start the process. So some of them are okay with the way it is now. Some of my clients, they put a lot of money into it, so they would like to, they would like for it to make sense to them. And that’s what we talk about as well. So there’s really not any specific number that we’re looking for, you know, kind of like a generic margin, I guess, but it really depends on their needs and I’m able to provide them because, you know, I can actually take my time with them. So that’s helps.

02:21:00

So after, after that you had that first property that you were managing at around four years, you things really started to change. Were you doing anything different where they really was the tipping point where you started getting a lot more referrals and getting a lot more short-term rental business? What, what was that change?

02:21:16

Very good question. I honestly don’t know how it happened, but I think what helped, I think I mentioned that earlier, it would be maybe social media, like I said, I didn’t pay for any advertising or anything, but just the word of mouth and maybe being exposed to so many real estate agents and to so many clients that kind of helped get the roll, the ball rolling. And I do have a lot of investor clients that, you know, I kind of keep in my phone. So this way, if anything comes up, I can say, Hey, there’s a property coming up for sale would be perfect for Airbnb. And I think that just kind of how it goes. I didn’t do anything special. However, I think that, you know, that exposure helped and here we are.

02:21:59

So what, what, how, how do you go about finding those types of investor clients that that would be interested in short-term rentals?

02:22:08

A lot of, a lot of my clients are naturally looking for a vacation home and what they do is they just ask, Hey, you know, I just want to get something here in Florida that I can come and visit say couple months out of a year for the rest of the year. I don’t know what to do with it. And I just offer, Hey, I can manage it for a young, we can turn it in Vacation Rental. At least it will pay your bills or whatever your goal is. You know, we can figure it out, but at least you wouldn’t have to pay out of pocket for all of the maintenance expenses and all of those other things. And to say, this is a great idea, and we just kind of take it from there. So if you have those people definitely were just looking for their own vacation spot and they’ve used it maybe once a year for a couple of weeks, but for the rest of the time, it sits empty and I can rent it on Airbnb and other platforms.

02:22:57

But, but how are you finding these people? Are these all coming through like, like referrals or are these coming through like just you going out and networking?

02:23:06

So some of them are referrals, which I would say most of them are actually, and mostly internet websites like Zillow, realtor.com there. And they choose me as an agent and then they contact me to help them with the purchase of a property.

02:23:24

So you’re using tools like Zillow to be able to find clients.

02:23:29

Well, they actually find me. Some of them were Russian speaking clients and what they did, they just went on Zillow, I believe, or a realtor.com. And they typed in, you know, Russian speaking agent in Tampa bay, for example, and I would pop up and they would read my reviews and all of that. So they can actually make a decision to contact me. So it works great. You know, and I feel like internet is a, is a great tool.

02:23:55

So you don’t, you don’t even have to do like door knocking or anything. You have everybody that’s coming and finding you, and then they, they, they pay you to find the property and then they also pay you to manage the property and stage it and everything. You make the sound so easy. I read them,

02:24:15

But you know, I mean, you have to just build good relationships with your clients and other people that you meet and your friends, and they always think of you first before referring to someone else. And I feel it’s very important. And I do this, my friends who have their own businesses, I feel like that’s how you support each other. You can just, you know, you have to do that.

02:24:37

And going off of that, what has been the most challenging part of starting your short-term rental business?

02:24:43

I haven’t had a good question, honestly. I guess to me it was, I didn’t know how to manage so many clients or how to organize the whole business because I mean, it’s a little bit different than being in Russia, you know? And, but luckily nowadays you have so many tools that you can use and property management programs and, you know, everything is on your phone. I think I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to, you know, manage it correctly or find the clients, but it was a very smooth transition because it didn’t happen all at once. So I think that really helped. And of course, having my mom’s input on things, she kind of helps me with some tips and tricks. So that, that really helped, I think.

02:25:31

And what about scaling this business? Cause you went from having a, essentially like what two or three properties, the now in, in as short as a year, you have a, you know, 10, 10 or 10 or 13 properties total. And you’re about to take on five more. How, how is that scaling then

02:25:50

Again, I mean, it’s just a returning client and he’s an investor. So that really helps, you know, and he just offered me to manage more properties that he has. I think now I will just have to hire more people and kind of have someone else to help with reservations and those sorts of things. And I think it’s just going to go up from there as well. So we just have to make sure that we keep the quality that we’re providing to our clients, or we have to make sure we keep the guests happy, just like we used to, because I’ve noticed that a lot of companies that do management for vacation rentals there, they kind of put it on an automatic thing. Like there’s not nothing personal and it’s just, they don’t answer their phone calls or messages. And I feel like it’s totally unacceptable. I will never be one of those people. And I think that’s why you should have a good team. So that’s my next goal is to kind of bring more people on board and start, you know, kinda like continue with a good quality, but start taking on more properties and making other people happy. I think it would be great.

02:26:55

You said you had one investor client, this is this one investor client, the one that gave you the 10 properties for you to manage?

02:27:02

No. So these are all different people. Each property is each their own on the owner. Now this investor has, I’m only managing one right now for him and then he has a bunch more and he has an ability to bring in more properties if it would make financial sense to him, which I think is great.

02:27:22

And can you talk a little bit about the five properties that you’re you’re taking underway right now and what your role is with the development of those?

02:27:30

Yes. So those are not your typical properties. Those are little cabins that we have there on the lake in Pinellas county. It’s very, very cool. Like they have that rustic feel and you know, they’re fully furnished and they look, they look pretty cool. I love them. And the fact that you’re on the, on the lake kind of gives you that, you know, like, feel like you’re in the woods and you can like take your kayak or go paddle boarding there it’s, it’s like one of a kind type of property really. So I’m really excited about that. And I think we are starting on those this week, so we have to set it all up and get the ball rolling.

02:28:07

And, and, but you said that those are already furnished, so you don’t have to be a part of the design or anything like that it’s already.

02:28:14

Yeah. So they’re turnkey. The only thing I think we need to do is get the linens, the correct, all of those little items. And we also like to have our kitchens fully equipped. So I have to make sure that the inventory is there. So we can start

02:28:29

Now with, with 10 different co-hosts clients. I mean that, that’s a lot of different types of people that you have to interact with, or are there any types of clients or any types of situations that you’ve learned since starting off that, you know, five years now, you’ve been, you’ve been dealing or working on this? Is there anything that you’ve learned from maybe first starting off to what you’re doing now that maybe you wouldn’t do

02:28:52

One thing I would do earlier, I would start sooner managing those properties. Cause I think it’s a great business. I did learn a lot and it’s only been, you know, a few years. So I think I have a lot more to learn of course, but I think every day almost we run into situations when I’m like, okay, next time I’ll do it differently. And I can’t think of anything right this moment, but it really depends. And because each client is different, you just kind of have to be flexible with them, but all of my clients are pretty awesome. They are just so nice. And they, I think when they have the trust in you, it makes it a little bit easier. So they don’t like get too controlling or, you know, kind of suspicious of anything that we’re doing. So I think, I think I learn every, I will tell you that. And especially with the guests that we host now, we kind of started being more, I dunno, select if I would say we don’t just approve everyone, we just kind of trying to take on quality guests, which makes our properties, you know, kind of saves the condition of the property and maintains it. And I don’t know, you, you kind of get less troubles, I guess when those types of clients. So yeah.

03:30:10

And what are you doing to set these units apart? Are you the one that is also helping with, you said that you do some of the staging, but are you like advising clients to make corrections or to do different things? What, what are you making those units to be able to stand out? St. Pete I imagine is a pretty competitive market.

03:30:28

Oh yeah, absolutely. And you know, first things first, I think the most important thing for guests across the world would be cleanliness, which is huge. I know I wouldn’t want to travel anywhere where it says the unit wasn’t that clean. So we keep it absolutely immaculate because I mean, this is the most important thing. You have a good team of cleaners, you know, you check every time they clean your property, it’s very important to maintain it this way. And then number two, I would say, I mean, nice decor is very important and we kind of try to think of everything I had of time. We tried to make it look like it’s a home away from home. So I think that really helps. And what I also like to do, if someone is coming for holidays or special occasion, like say anniversary, I like to leave like a little bottle of champagne for them, or like a little present.

03:31:25

I do leave postcards that they can take home with them. One of my clients actually all four, it was her idea. She wanted to leave metal straws because that way we can save the planet, you know, and we were by the beach. So we want to make sure there’s no plastic. And St Pete’s was really strict about that. So she buys those metals trusts for guests to take with them, which is really cool. I think those little touches make people feel very special and that’s why they keep coming back, which is very important. And you know, they refer their family and friends to us too. And they say, we stayed here last year. We want to come back. We loved it. And that’s what we want to hear it.

03:32:06

Glean cleanings, like you said, it’s such an important part of the business and you have a, you know, 13 properties about to have 18. I mean, that’s a lot of work and you have, you said two cleaners are these like full-time cleaners at this point, are they just like working nonstop with you?

03:32:20

Yeah. So my parents oversee the cleaning part of the business and they, they have, so it’s two of them. And then they have a couple more cleaners that do specific types of properties. And you have to think about like, if you have a single family home, that’s over 1500 square feet, that’s a lot of you what room to clean. And they have to make sure that they have somebody there almost the entire day sometimes to make sure everything is the way it’s supposed to be. And then for smaller properties, they can just do it themselves if they have to. So we’ll definitely have to be able to delegate both control the quality. And I think we’ve been doing a good job so far, so we’ll just strive to be, to be on the same level. Yeah.

03:33:04

And you said that your, your parents are also involved in the business. Are they, are, is there anything that they’re doing to manage cleaners or to make sure because I mean, your, your, your mom already has, she has 20 years experience, you know, has a lot of experience in the space. Are there things that she’s doing or that you’re doing with managing these types of properties that maybe other people aren’t aware of or not doing that maybe they should be doing?

03:33:30

I think the most important thing is the quality control. I know that my dentists are very particular on who they hire to clean those types of properties. And they like to inspect every single cleaning. I know it may seem like a lot, but those inspections are very important. And I think it’s important for my clients as well, because they know their property is always going to be in a good condition. I would say always inspect for cleaning this, all this, check your appliances, check your TV, to make sure that the next guest who checks seen they don’t have any issues with, oh, our TV is not working. Or the light bulb is out. You have to be very proactive and kind of think of those things. The next person comes in. So they’re on top of that. And I mean, I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I feel like it’s very rewarding. And that’s why, if you look at our reviews, we have, you know, 4.9 I believe is the lowest that we have. And it always says that it was parked sparkling, clean. It’s beautiful, you know, and I feel like that’s what drives our guests to book with us

03:34:36

With, with, with managing cleaners. I mean, that’s always a hot topic with short-term rentals with going to a property and making sure that it is done right. Is there, is it just because maybe we don’t trust our cleaners enough for them to be able to maintain that standard or because after you’ve seen them perform a certain amount of times and, and be able to clean a place and they have, you know, good cleanliness, shouldn’t they just be able to do it on their own or what’s the reasoning behind having to verify every single cleaning?

03:35:06

Well, sometimes it can get a little overwhelming when, especially, I believe like on Sundays we have the most amount of check-ins and checks checkouts. So yes, it’s not going to be, I would say 95% of the time they would be coming in and checking on those on those cleaners. But of course you do train them specific ways. So at some point you don’t have to control them, but I, I think they like to come out and just kind of check on their overall condition and make sure, like, there are some maintenance items that the cleaners are not supposed to be doing, obviously. So then just kind of, you know, coming in and take care of those as well. And it is a sensitive topic because to find those types of cleaners, it’s not an easy task. You know, a lot of people have their own, I guess they think clean is this is clean for them, but it may not be clean for, you know, up to our standards and what my parents do, why they take so much time training is because a lot of people come from residential cleaning, which is totally different than Airbnb or short term rental cleaning.

03:36:11

And they may not understand that. And so we talk about leaving the toilet paper, roll on, you know, kind of unrisked. So like you have to put a brand new or all to the paper, you have to make sure everything is even, and it has to be at a certain angle angle when you feel the shampoos, you know, do all those things. And sometimes those cleaners might not even think that this is important. So those are little things we always have to make sure are there so we can keep it consistent throughout all properties. I think that’s what takes most time.

03:36:45

Is there, is there like a formal checklist that you guys go through or is it as it by now, everybody kind of knows what they’re supposed to do.

03:36:52

We have a list and I think the first time you cleaned for us, you kind of look at it, but we do train in person and kind of show everything. And so by the time they cleaned their third property, they already know. But because each property is also different story and everything, because one time we had guests who had rearranged all of our decorations. And so the cleaners went in and they had to go and put things where they’re supposed to be. Sometimes they open the app and they look on Airbnb pictures just to make sure that’s where that stuff goes, which I know is kind of silly, but you would want to keep it cohesive. So no moving stuff around.

03:37:34

Is there anything that you do that has helped your guests leave positive reviews?

03:37:38

I actually follow up with them and I asked to make, I asked them how they’re doing, and if there’s anything that they need. One thing that I’ve noticed it’s been very useful is to send a message after checkout, to, you know, kinda thing them for being with us and choosing to stay at our property and asking them if everything was good. And if everything was great, you know, during their stay, could you please wave that anything below five stars is usually negative for Airbnb and other platforms. So if they want to leave a review, you know, kind of do it wisely. And if they have any feedback or suggestions, we are open to it and we’d like to take it into consideration. So I think that really helps with reviews, especially because now they realize, okay, you know, everything was really good and we’ll give you five stars. Like there’s really nothing do on your say that was, you know, alarming or unpleasant.

03:38:37

And is there anything that you include in your units that has saved you time and money?

03:38:45

Nothing that I can think of? What would you, what would you consider?

03:38:51

So a lot of people sit, might say like a, they might include security cameras. They might include like smart locks could be, it could be like a particular type of towel or,

03:39:01

Yeah, actually, that’s a good question. So in terms of towels, we do put little, I think they’re like washcloths, but they’re color black because this way, when they take their makeup off, it doesn’t stay in the white towels that we usually offer in. But put like a little sign that says, you know, for makeup only, and people love it because they don’t have to worry about ruining any linens. So that’s one thing we like, and sometimes we’ll put a few notes here and there with instructions. It depends on the property. And of course we use smart locks, which is super important because I remember back when I started, we had little log boxes and everyone had to put a code in, or you have to actually go give them a key. We don’t do that anymore because guests can lose the keys. And, you know, it’s just not convenient for anyone. Smart lock is the best. And some of my properties already have security cameras, which we honestly, luckily didn’t have to use in terms of, you know, kind of going back and looking at the footage. And I know you have to disclose those. So you have to be very, very careful. I think it’s important to have them, but not everyone wants to put them up and I respected. So, but then definitely those are good tools. I think they do say, Hey, lots of time and, and money really in the long run.

04:40:21

And is there one house rule that you’ve started, including that has saved you before?

04:40:27

I mean, keep the noise to a minimum between certain hours because neighbors will complain. We have a lot of house rules now that I think about it. Our instructions are pretty long with the rules and manual and everything a lot. And again, it depends on the property. Like we have a house with a pool that is, you gotta be very careful with those types of, of homes, because if you’re traveling with a child and the child goes outside, you know, you have to make sure that you let the guests know too to be kind of on top of that. They cannot just let their kids run around and get in a bad situation. So those types of rules, and we also have just normal staff with a dryer and washer. Like I just discovered you’re not supposed to dry your towels that have sand on them, which is we arrived by the beach, but that sand actually makes the dry or leave little black marks on linens.

04:41:32

We didn’t know what it was before, but then I called the technician and he said, this is your beach towels that I’ve been, you know, kind of dried in them in the dryer. So I’m like, okay, we went ahead and put a sign up. Of course, kind of let people know that, you know, don’t do that because then you’ll be charged for it and no one’s to do that. And I would just say, the first thing we ask is just to treat this place as, as if it’s your home and kind of leave it the way you found it. We don’t make people wash their own linens or do the dishes, but we would respect if you, they would take the trash out with at least, you know, kind of helps a little bit because if we cannot be there on time to clean after them, we don’t want the place to, you know, smell better or anything like that. So just, I feel like those are common sense items, but you almost have to type out too many, too many things just to prevent any problems, but a lot of people respected and they they’d read through it. And they’re fine. So,

04:42:31

And if you could give, if you could restart, if you could go back five years or to your first property, what would you do differently if you had to start from scratch?

04:42:40

I think I already said that I would start sooner than that because I did, like, I didn’t even know about it at BNB probably five and a half years ago. And then I discovered it and I said, wow, why didn’t I use it sooner? So definitely that. And I would probably start working on getting my own Airbnb properties more than anything because I really, really enjoyed it and managing other people’s properties is absolutely amazing. But I would also like to have my own, which I’m working on right now. Yeah. I think, I think that’s it. And really, I think it’s a learning process. So you’re going to get there. You just have to be very, you just have to be open to read more information about how things are done and I guess trial and error would be, you know, the best experience that kind of teaches you

04:43:34

Moving forward. Would you be more focused on scaling the property management aspect or the real estate transactions?

04:43:42

Good question. You know, I like both, so I honestly don’t know if I can pick it’s it’s almost, I cannot leave without either or right now, but I do like having the Airbnb business, property management business going because you can scale it and still provide good customer service. And I don’t see why I shouldn’t have it going, you know, and real estate transactions, I guess it all depends on the market, but I feel like where we are in our area, you always will have people buying vacation homes and you just, you can’t avoid that. So we’ll see what happens.

04:44:20

Is there anybody else in your market that is really kind of dominating the Vacation Rental niche? Or is this really something that maybe not enough people are taking advantage of in their particular markets?

04:44:32

I honestly don’t know anyone else who advertises or kind of positions themselves as Vacation Rental specialists in real estate. I know, I don’t think I know anyone. I actually worked with a lot of realtors. Like I said, who specialize in other things and pretty much all of them tell me they don’t really know that market that well, they kind of guess by, I mean, just using common sense, they know, okay, it’s a beach front. It probably will make you money, but it’s not always the case. So, so far I think, you know, I kind of find my niche and I think I will explore it more and take advantage of it.

04:45:10

And if you could look, if you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s planning on starting, let’s say they’re a real estate and short-term rental business. What would that advice be?

04:45:20

Oh, both. Okay. Do a lot of research and, you know, educate yourself and listen to your podcast to get some tips. I

04:45:32

Do.

04:45:34

I love hearing what other hosts say, because there’s just so many situations and so much valuable information you can get from it. So I feel like you should listen a lot before you try to do it on your own. And just less is more don’t, don’t put too much furniture, don’t put too much items in your homes, you know, kind of set it up for them to be comfortable, but just enough take good pictures. Professional pictures is the key, you know, get as many reviews as possible to have visibility on Airbnb. I mean, there are so many, so many things that you can do and all the information is out there. So I think education is key here.

04:46:19

Where do you see short-term rentals going in the future?

04:46:21

I think, I think it’s a blooming business and I know it can get a little more saturated, but I think by local government, you know, zoning rules and all that, it kind of weeds out those that are not there legally or not doing that well. And I also feel like if it’s a good quality property, it’s always going to get booked no matter what. And I think a lot of people do like vacation rentals versus hotels because it’s more like a personal touch and they support and love that. So I think, I think we’re going to do good.

04:46:56

Awesome. And w what, what’s the question that you have maybe for a host that’s in a similar position than you, or maybe the next step of where you’d like to be? If you could ask them a question, what would that be?

04:47:09

I guess I would say, why would you, why would you be in this business? I think it’s a valid question to me, you know, because it’s not for everyone and a lot of people don’t even want to deal with it in the first place. They feel like it’s overwhelming and it takes a lot of their time being away on even to go on vacation. You, you constantly have to be on your phone, almost kind of keep an eye on it to make sure everyone is happy and there was no emergency or something is going on. So yeah, I will, I will definitely ask them why they’re doing it and if they’re enjoying it and, you know, kind of go from there.

04:47:46

Awesome. Yeah. Definitely finding out why you’re doing this business. It’s it’s, that is a good question to figure out, you know, what, what’s the benefit? Is it just because it’s a good, you know, a good way to make cash or is it because you enjoy the hospitality and you enjoy this business, but thank you so much, Ariana, for taking the time out with that. Is there any way that anybody can reach you a what’s a good way to be able to find you Irene,

04:48:08

You can find me. I am on Facebook. I’d run a Roth in St. Petersburg, Florida. I have a page on Facebook. Again. I Reena Roth realtor and I have a website that’s www mids homes that, so it’s spelled M I D Z homes that come and MIDC is actually the name of my company. And it’s just first initials of my husband and two of my kids. So I feel like it’s a little, you know, special to me, but yeah, you can find me online and any questions you can call me, email me. I’ll be happy to help.

04:48:43

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Ariana. And until next time, host nation, keep on hosting hope hosts benefit from the show. If you found value, please go on over to iTunes, leave us a review and let us know what you enjoy about the show. If you’d like to talk to hosts that have been featured in these episodes, as well as the community, going over to our Facebook group, the host nation.