Mike Cotroneo:                00:00                     If you don’t have a house that you own yet like if you’re renting, watch as many videos as you can. Don’t get emotional about it. Don’t go, “I’m going to buy this place.”

Julian Sage:                         00:13                     This is episode number 32 of short term rental success stories podcast. Are you an investor that’s looking to have your home professionally managed? Go to cohostit.com for more information. Welcome back to the 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 their 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 hosts, we all strive for five star reviews, so please go on over to iTunes and let us know what you enjoy because it really helps support the show. If you haven’t done so already, go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation, to connect with the community.

Julian Sage:                         00:52                     Hey, what is going on? Host nation, so I’m just super excited because I have some special news. Jon and I are actually putting together a little mastermind group called BNB Empire Builders where we are going to be working with just a small amount of people to really help them stretch and grow. So if you don’t already know John and I have a local meetup in the DC area where we are helping people that just come out once a month we’ll go out there and we’ll just catch up and see how people are doing and we’ve seen people just progressed so much like they came to us, they didn’t know anything about Airbnb or rental arbitrage but they wanted to get in on the space and then through some, you know through some direction, through some kind of motivation and accountability we’ve been able to help them to acquire their first properties and now they are short term rental hosts and we want to be able to do that with other people with other BNB empire builders.

Julian Sage:                         01:42                     So we are opening up for a very limited time because we can’t have too many people. So it is first come first serve and we do have to fill out an application because we all are also looking at you know what, what is the type of person that is going to be joining our mastermind group? So if you are interested in finding out more and actually joining that, it’s going to be really cool. We’re going to be doing live Q and A’s. We’re going to be answering your guys’ questions and helping you stretch and build your BNB empires. So if this is something that interests you, then go to shorttermsage.com/store and you can apply for that.

Julian Sage:                         02:14                     So as you all know, investing in short term rentals can take a lot of risks when you’re investing a lot of time and money into it. And that’s exactly what Michael Cotroneo took. Michael is a full time employee who bought his first single family home in Houston on July of 2017 where he rehabbed it and turned it into a long-term rental property. Later on, he realized that doing short term rentals was a lot more beneficial since it’s giving him a higher return on his rental income. In addition to a duplex, Michael also invested in RVs and currently owns multiple properties in Arkansas. In this episode, Michael shares his experience and transitioning from working as a w two employee to owning and managing multiple short-term rentals. Even some of them are RVs, which is just super cool. He talks about the contrast of investing between single family homes, RVs, and the differences of rehabbing homes for short term rentals versus long-term rentals. If you’d like my show notes for this episode of short term sage.com/STR32 or if you’d like my show notes sent to your inbox every week, then go to shorttermsage.com/shownotes. With all that being said, onto this week’s conversation.

Julian Sage:                         03:16                     Hey, welcome back host nation to another episode of short term rental success stories. In this episode, we have the special honor of speaking with Michael Cotroneo. Michael, would you please introduce yourself to the host nation? Let us know who you are and what inspired you to get into short term rentals.

Mike Cotroneo:                03:31                     Hi, my name is Mike. I’m an Airbnb host. Me and my wife who is still in bed, we have listings in Houston and an entrepreneur. Currently I’m here in Medellin, Colombia in a cafe trying to make this work, traveling. We used to teach and I think, believe we got out of that and now we just do short term rentals for a time now.

Julian Sage:                         04:00                     Yeah. So you are full time renters now or you’re full time, short term renters. Previous to that you were teachers. How long were you teaching? How did you find out about short term rentals? What got you into that?

Mike Cotroneo:                04:14                     Yeah, so we’ve been on airbnb since 2014. We never had for high end guest, so, right. You know, we would stay saying something that was nice, that affordable, we would stay in the US, Mexico and Asia. So we were saying in rooms, houses, guest suites, you know, basic stuff. And that’s kind of a bit of how, how we learned, you know, with short term rentals, you don’t have to have like like those symbols to have, there are guests that are totally simple and those types of guests.

Julian Sage:                         05:02                     Okay. Because you were full time teachers, when did you realize, okay, when did you get your first unit and when did it start to realize like this is actually gonna be a profitable, a fulltime business?

Mike Cotroneo:                05:14                     Yeah, so this is going to be a story. All right. So my wife and I, we met while I was a driving instructor in Asia. While we were waiting on her green card, we had to move over to China a year, came to the U S uHouston myself for four years now. ULayla two years. So after about two years of teaching, we hit that point where like we had to, we’re looking at tax returns, all that stuff. And so we bought our first house. Being a fan of biggerpockets, we decided to jump in really deep. We bought an area in Houston as a 1930s duplex. I had no idea when we’re getting into, again, we had never done a rape had ever, ever, and this was one hell of a rehab therapist placed meeting. I did not know this. So the first one I’ve done a month later we have hurricane Harvey and what am I Mexico during that stumps. Okay. So we by that July D I’m going to say I’m going to say 2017 1617 we’re going to see when hurricane Harvey happened and we went to Mexico, our contractor, we make it back and then so we go through about three months of trying to work with her to like teach and it is just crazy, right? Like just absolute ridiculous. Showering literally living with like in the entire house, the hot have to literally reset the hot water heater. Every time that you use it, you’re wired up types of craziness. They’re having like balance the shower cover by we shower and then we had the Columbus winter in Houston. It’s like 1940, after snowed, we had willing to radiator, so went through all that kind of good tracker and he finally got the house fixed up enough to rent and we decided, okay, we’re gonna move that out of here and get it.

Mike Cotroneo:                07:59                     We know whether we should do a longterm rental them. Short term property manager, we met some of the people who would do short term rentals. Did it mean that we would get in that area? So we decided let’s give it a shot. So we went down, we went to Ikea furniture, set it up downstairs, duplex. Once we got it set up, someone came in one night, someone came back in a second. Right. And I mean like blankets, the entire bag does already set up, try to move, good to take out the laundry meat. We actually made it there and the laundry room was outside and then fitting our room. So that was great. So we’re not outside. And at that point, you know, we were getting new senior family that was already done about eight minutes down the road. And it just, we had so much demand so much, and furnish means we’re doing five lanes.

Mike Cotroneo:                09:28                     What’s coming to find out later on after learning is not the way to actually go. We want to do like the whole place consistently, like 95%. At that point I was like, well, there’s no reason that we, we up about two years ago, I’m a 1992 Odyssey. No, no, no. We drove up to Maine down to Cuba last week. I was like, look it up and just see how listeners, and we’re hooked at that one and instant success. That became one of the top Airbnbs in Houston. Insane. and then at that point, you know, we, we kinda ruled single family house and we wanted to make some money off the off of that. And so we actually turned that we, it was it’s a three bed, two bath, sorry. Yeah, yeah. So two bedrooms and one bathroom and then there’s like, you know, for that hallway. So we blocked that all added in a fridge, a French door member bedrooms, and we turned that bedroom into its own private. Yes. I guess the alone paper and then speaking way too much.

Julian Sage:                         10:47                     No, no, I think, I think that that was a really, really interesting story, Mike. I think bio you had the crap beat out of you when you first just started getting off. You know, and I think that that’s pretty cool though, that, that, you know, sharing your story here and how you got this duplex to, you know, your first investment on a teacher’s salary you move in there, you’re dealing with awful contractors that, you know, always seems like the first contract. There’s always the worst contractor deal with that. Then you’re struggling like should we short term rent, longterm rent? You decided to short term rent and then somebody steals all your stuff. Did you get that, that money back? Did Airbnb reimburse you? No. What are some things that maybe you could have done that would have allowed you to get that money back?

Mike Cotroneo:                11:29                     So at that point we were on air BNB and so that, that, that would’ve been a big thing. Let’s see. But also I guess honestly, right? They, it was probably probably one of the contractors guys. I can’t really say, you know, it was just, it was on those things where we were just like done. You know, it was like, at that point it was like tripping $100 for the, I was like, let’s just do it again. And I’ve come to realize the beans, like, bye. Then the most different, most pain that’s, that’s when you’re about to get your biggest pain or the hardest to rehab, you know, with like all of these, the ones that are in the best shape, interrupt pain, fix that. I’m gonna make the most money off of this kind of like type of struggle.

Julian Sage:                         12:25                     Now with the duplex if you wouldn’t mind talking about some of the returns on that, how much did you invest in that place? Is it completely paid off? And then what were the monthly returns on that? Yeah.

Mike Cotroneo:                12:36                     So that one, we did that on an FHA two Oh three, but that is an investment tool. I want to say like one 82 and it’s when those loans where the searches and the rehab and thinking that is, you also get eight months like clips you if you’re getting with the contract. And the way that that one works is that you contract your doesn’t get paid. The [inaudible] gets paid through the bank. And so if the HUD concepted and you keep that in, in mind, you as the actual like customer, don’t like the bank, not paid, the contractor didn’t get any warning. There’s nothing that she could do with life because shot, I mean it was and then so for the rehab we ended up not being able to use all the money that we were going to use from the bank. So we ended up having to do because of just some weird paperwork stuff there. I’m gonna use that to pick up on another call, track tracker outside of the bank network and they fix it up and then some of my own money. So at the end of the day we put about, I want to say $65,000. So let’s see, what does that 245 to say, two 50 every day and now one about 300 to three. And that area is just gentrifying more and more and more.

Julian Sage:                         14:34                     And so your first short term rental investment was, was a heck load of trouble. You, you went through a lot of work to be able to get that up. But the returns on that, like you said you know, it was kind of that diamond in the rough and after, after working on it, you’ve created something that is generating a good amount of cashflow. How much is that that unit making now?

Mike Cotroneo:                14:52                     Oh, so the duplex per month thinks about 5,000 groups after mortgages and everything, we make probably about $2,200 a month term rental. 300 of them,

Julian Sage:                         15:07                     Right. Yeah. That’s the beauty. Short term rentals. Now I wanted to transition to your second venture, which was the RVs and you kind of found a pretty unique niche in that. How, what, what a, how much are you investing? Are you doing the renovations yourself? Were you contracting that out and what’s the return on the RVs look like?

Mike Cotroneo:                15:27                     Yeah. so I do most of I have had some similar with like people on [inaudible]. I just don’t like [inaudible]. I could see that those are not, that are almost like 2,500. This was way Sandy who bought that just to have like hashtag damn line type of pain. We fixed that up. My mom’s best friend and my cousin, same time, who’s doing our rehabs now, we spent about a month and a half fixing the systems. And we drove back to Maine for a summer. We drove it down to Cubest for we got some good usage. It was a bit of a Rubio class, C B going out. And then we had that behind our house just because we had nothing and Sandy and it was 5,000 letters in it. It makes like 1500 a month and there’s people in it right now.

Julian Sage:                         16:59                     And from there you kind of realize like, man, this is a really good return on investment. The amount of time that you may be put into the duplex a is do you think that it’s actually worth more investing into like RVs than it is? Maybe the the, the rundown duplexes?

Mike Cotroneo:                17:14                     Well, it’s true. Different strategies. So if you’re looking just for another line and just straight up cash flow. Yeah. Also I’m only 32 now and so that’s, you touched on it percent luggage. So like that, that, that will be there as like a great future. So it’d be all these I really used use those to take that cash friendly all the reeds and best right back into the air. So I didn’t use w two jobs and so the doctor that paycheck Airbnbed money. So at that point we had the duplex army. Those were consistently so then I got another army for $600, and I’ll put that back there as well. Crazy.

Mike Cotroneo:                18:28                     I think we have run the new one and I put about 100 doors and I, my my soul and then I go to the kitchen kind of area there. Cause that was a nightmare. The the the Houston and that brings them one metric. Now I’m not renting these for about, I’d say average about 30 to 30 a night, but for people, just people just wanting somebody to affordable and like nice for weekend they, they live it. I don’t want to pay for like an 89 on the side of the highway in Houston. It rather happened here, something cute for them for like 50 to 60 a night.

Julian Sage:                         19:35                     So because, because you’re you’re targeting a lower price point, have you noticed that the the quality of the guests has gone down or is it, is it okay?

Mike Cotroneo:                19:43                     Yeah, that is one thing that’d be can be a bit of a handful. With the oldies. There’s not enough space. There’s not much games or they can really do, we, we’ve seen as you know, nothing, some wee, a bit of trash, you know, dirty dishes. They can mess it up. So nothing major just, you know,

Julian Sage:                         20:11                     Are you, are you leaving the RVs there all year long? Because we actually had another guest who Chad Miller, he does Airstreams and he would actually take them down to Florida during the slower season. And so he’s like he’s getting full, you know, full season coverage with, with his units. Is that something that you do?

Mike Cotroneo:                20:31                     So with Houston, since it’s, you know, in the deep South, most of the years we just, you know, we haven’t, when do we see the summer beats use does great. We put another radiator heaters for winter time also. Good. It’s hooked up to their same store in waterline as in like mainline in it or the house that just feeds in and yeah, we just leave them there.

Julian Sage:                         21:04                     Yeah. I really liked, I really like what you said about the, you know the, the contrast between the duplex and the RVs because what the duplex, you’re, you’re building that generational wealth. You’re building something that can take you a lifetime. The RVs, you know, they’re eventually going to fall apart or you’re going to have to maintain them and you know, the how much you put into it. It’s not, maybe not gonna increase the value too, too much. But I like the, the contrast that diversification. When did it become a when, when were you able to step away from your w w two job and, and how was that transition?

Mike Cotroneo:                21:35                     Oh, so that if that transition is right now let’s see. We, we stopped working, like to teach and so now so we figured we were going to do it starting in may. We spent about a month and a half in Houston, you know, just, just kind of making sure everything’s, you know, fixing this, fixing grant, see how that works that much. And then, so we flew to Mexico for about a month, you know, just, just in case $200, the house burns down or something be like drastic happens. And then we have [inaudible] happening. I was not, I would call it here [inaudible] like X, Y, Z issue happened. But I was able to manage everything from here. It’s like, okay, let’s go. Now again here I needed to go back. It’s like nine hours. It’s like reading or dollars to do that. And so as we kind of see that everything’s fine, right? Have around. So by September Chilean origin and Tina and if that goes well, come spring of next year, the change times and that’ll be like a big risk because that are being used to be in like an eight hour that’s happening here.

Julian Sage:                         23:18                     So I think that’s a, that’s a very, a very smart approach. You, you’re kind of dipping your water, you’re going a little bit farther into the deep end and the deep end and seeing how, how that works and you know, it really does make a difference. You could be here or you can be over there. I send them, bad’s gonna happen some of the magic to happen. But I think for you it’s building up your, your self confidence where it’s like, okay, we can kind of let this kind of sit by itself and let its kind of do its thing. How does that, how does that feel? You know, doing that, that transition now

Mike Cotroneo:                23:44                     Really good. And honestly, yeah, it’s it’s like a dream really. Yeah.

Julian Sage:                         23:49                     That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean that, that’s so cool. Doing, doing podcasts and a Metagene Columbia while your events are making money, that’s, that’s, that’s a good, good life. Good life. So I also want to hit on, because you’re not just managing the units in Houston, but you also have multiple properties in Arkansas. And with those you decided to do more of our rental arbitrage approach. Correct.

Mike Cotroneo:                24:14                     We own those. So one of them okay. So, so I had some money saved up and I was looking at Airbnbs and Palm Springs. First thing I did, I pulled the first, got just that Brown on air BNB. I was like, huh. Landry’s rentals. And like, I know houses in like Palm Springs, they’re not that much money. And so I have some info from here, DNA. And if you guys don’t know that, that is like an Airbnb Mack and research software, I would have paid for it every single month. But just to see somebody come back data really, really good. And then I did some more research and Airbnb said over the past three years, 300%, year over year for the past three years, I think some didn’t bill. So I just started looking around for cheap. I bought the first house for $6,000 or $6,500. It was in rough shape.

Mike Cotroneo:                25:33                     And then my wife’s cousin, you know, heard about what we were doing. He wanted to jump in and do rehab and he’s up in van, ended up where the market is, mine too hot. And so we actually bought that from me and then we made a counter ship where you know, like those houses there, he puts in all the money. I have all the guys to do the rehab, I run the rehab, I take care of the decorating, you know, the headache that comes with the rehab and I manage it afterwards. And then when we refinance it strategy you know, he gets that money back and so it wasn’t as bad.

Mike Cotroneo:                26:26                     It had so many issues was you know, we’ve got something done and then like that last minute and you’re like, look again, the biggest, the biggest pale, it is one of the top Airbnbs in classrooms now. Airbnb round up the windows, everything I took to that house, maybe from the ground up and how it does really, really well. And then we ended up budgeting 37,000 to fix it up. Ended up costing like 60,000 different things about the day. So my money back, money for the rehab for the extra cost and rehab. So he has no money in that deal whatsoever. And so he made them get the new, I have no money, you know, just the amount of time. And I may have another accounts out there that another two that I own. I got another two that I haven’t served to rehab and then the one that’s going to be finished this week, another one to put that same center. I find it rehab and then we refinance it and he gets as much money as

Julian Sage:                         28:15                     Why. So I mean you’re going through ’em very, very. I mean that’s very challenging. Dealing with contractors, dealing with all this while you’re working a full time job. It’s like w w w what is it, what does it, what would you say is the most challenging part of being able to scale this type of business model? Cause yours is more of like the, the, the, the, the borough approach. But with an Airbnb flip to it.

Mike Cotroneo:                28:38                     Ah, I see the hardest thing. So having contractors, that’s, that’s really our time. Time. Okay. Time, time and I guess money. And we had enough money to get good years perhaps like yeah, but time and then I’d also like to buy something else I could put her occupying or something that’s around, you know, 200, 300,000, not the way that Moni, when you are something, when it needs a bit more, I have to wait to be able to buy something else of that, like price range. Yeah. So I guess the hardest thing would be time and contracts.

Julian Sage:                         29:25                     And have you found the secret to finding reliable contractors yet?

Mike Cotroneo:                29:29                     Oh man, it’s really hard right now. My present. He does really well. He’s like the perfect contractor. He does things like save, save me money issues. He has like he, he has like my mindset’s in his name, which took a little bit of time now. But again, I have two houses and I hadn’t been able to touch yet because he’s so busy like working on these other two, another contractor. Now I have someone else looking on Maya. And so that’s a bit of a challenge there because I’m kind of, I have little guy in like his team. I don’t, I don’t get to.

Julian Sage:                         30:26                     Now you said that your units like your RV, you said that was number one in Houston, Arkansas. You had the number one house there. W what do, what are you doing to be able to set your units apart to really stand out amongst everybody else?

Mike Cotroneo:                30:37                     Yeah. so we, we’ll do something interesting like the blue Werribee. The insight is a, it’s like an opera green in a, has like a light, like a chip. And then circle the other part of brought together. I mean the inside, right? Like prying ship. And so when I’m building these out, I had in mind, when am I going to take it on Airbnb and just doing stuff. I’m like, what can I do in this little bit of space here that when I take a photo, when I’m over here to make the space pop. And then for the I made a little bit inside P a deck around out. Most of our guests that stay in those RVs seem to be women. And you know, it’s alright. Take this little, it’s nice, bright pink. Cute. I always have that. I had that in go, that is going to be in that on Airbnb as I go.

Julian Sage:                         32:01                     [Inaudible] Well, what do you, what do you do for the the Arkansas house?

Mike Cotroneo:                32:04                     Kind of the same. Yeah, so with the arm. So I do acid Moe’s you know, I do furniture that stands out. Yeah. Just that like in Berlin. How can I make a photo in this room? Air BNB, that’s like guest guest. So I present one of the bathrooms and one of the counselors, it’s like a jacuzzi tub underneath that. Me and my cousin had the funny idea, let’s put some led lights under that stuff. And then plexiglass and then dye arena under that tub. And so we did, we did that. That would be something that like I guess would like see in films and go, well, this what is going on there. I want to stay there. I’m been to see what is happening underneath that stuff.

Julian Sage:                         33:06                     So see you have guests that are staying with you so that they can check out what you have going on with the tub.

Mike Cotroneo:                33:11                     Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dinosaurs versus cars. And we were like, let’s get this. There’s like second year and man, something else. Yeah,

Julian Sage:                         33:25                     That’s, that’s funny. I’ll include your listings a in the description. I’ll all the, all the hosts that have been on the show. We would like to include their, their listing. So for other hosts to kind of get a feel for what, what you have going on. But that is very cool. Is there any, I want to go back. What, what would you say? Because I think there’s probably a lot of people, a lot of people that listen to this show are, you know, maybe working a full time job and they want to, to be able to transition to real estate. And your, your model is more of like the bird, the bird, the bird method. So for people that are just starting off, what is the most challenging part of starting that business and how did you kind of overcome that?

Mike Cotroneo:                34:00                     The most challenging parts? Is it better to say it’s kind of a challenge? So like buying a house is a challenge. Finding it is a challenge. Is it challenging figuring out, you know, what type of furniture of the style that you want to do. That’s a challenge. And an air B and B, they do not hold your hand right back in like college. And even for that, like for Outback, they would sit me down like two days. I’ve watched videos like Airbnb, so building the listing is H huge challenge and so many people don’t do it well. Even if they don’t do it, they still be making money I guess.

Mike Cotroneo:                34:58                     I guess getting started, you can’t think of this in, I want to be making enough money on Airbnb to stop having a w two job. You had to break down tiny steps that they’re going to do. It just seems impossible like once you start like two years ago and I had no idea. Literally at this point I was like, no, I want to buy my first house. I want it to be an investment. I’m not buying it as a eight. The numbers make sense. An area that’s growing, I know it may be a long term rental or as a duplex need be possibly and has went through those steps and it was a challenge. I taught in that Dean scrub district in Houston at that time using the, maybe listing this. I live in Katy [inaudible]. It’s about 25 minutes away and an after school.

Mike Cotroneo:                36:07                     I try to from being in a downtown Houston, I didn’t know at that point. I only been there for like a year, year and a half, and I drove around everywhere, down neighborhoods that I’ve met or been just scattered I guess. I guess it’s not driving for dollars. I have no idea. I was just like, I’m gonna drive around and like find stuff. And I ended up in some sketches, parks. I ended up like landing like eight acre homes. Ended up way down where it’s sunny side and that’s why advanced benchmark numbers just a year. And just interesting.

Mike Cotroneo:                36:55                     I’m gonna eliminate something five, 10 years down the road and I could see like right next to down to downtown. It looks like there’s some really nice neighbors, but definitely just been there. And I’ve found that just by spending days riding around my rubric that I was nuts, you know, mapped out. And my wife at the time, that entire time my wife is not not high maintenance, definitely not low maintenance because she also sad that I had, you know, motivation and you know anyway, I guess the main thing is break it down into steps that go step in and just keep going on that point. There was no way that you can think I’m going to be in this at this point in my, actually get started. Okay.

Julian Sage:                         38:06                     Yeah, I think, I think, I think what you said you said is really nice. You have to jump, you have to do it. And you’re either gonna sink or you’re going to swim and you’re, you’re, you’re gonna have to learn along the way. You’re not just going to come into the pool and learn how to swim right away, but hopefully you’re not putting yourself into a position where you’re, you’re going to drown. So I think, I think you were smart about that. Yeah. That W2 supplement that income and you’re, you’re in the shallow end. You’re, you’re swimming and you’ve been swimming all along this, this point in the shallow end and you’re ready to kind of really take that to the next step and you’re, you’re really ready to swim into the deep end. That, that is some exciting, exciting stuff. Michael. is there anything that you do that has helped your guests leave positive reviews?

Mike Cotroneo:                38:48                     Ask. Ask what? Five star review. It’s really that simple. Oh, we will tried meetings on the bands and chocolates and best and that, and you know, guess wouldn’t really take advantage of it. And didn’t really seem to matter. I know, I’m sure you have like a, you know, high end air BNB, you know, champagne or you know, or somebody would really but Raj really just, just ask once they leave, ask, ask for feedback. And typically in the messenger and not integrated. Yeah, just like Richard stays on as STR just asked for five store.

Julian Sage:                         39:37                     And is there one house rule that has saved you before?

Mike Cotroneo:                39:40                     Huh? A house would that have saved me man, when you get a bad, a bad gas, there’s nothing bad I can say [inaudible] I guess. So we do charge and so sometimes get would probably be sneaky and I would say it stays me, but I put in there like, look, if you don’t have the right amount of guests in your booking and I have a camera out, how’s that? How’s this? Like you know, on the outside base it will be a two times charged because I used to just, you know, call here and make a resolution obviously when it would be exactly what I was going to be pain. So I made it two times speed. So some books in range, two expert guests, three nights, 20 bucks that I can make care off the bed and I stopped. I stopped mentioning it to guests. So when it gets right in my greeting I say, how many guests do you have?

Mike Cotroneo:                40:51                     How many callers I have in house about the extra? Yes. My initial message that I used with smarts need me double chairs like this day. Give me because, and you have, you know, no matter if a guest is that right? Just to make sure that you know, whatever. And at that point they don’t have the inner, don’t realize it to be honest. I just wanted to mention it because I really think if I sort of cancel and meet like walking into a negative with just for me in person, Airbnb’s policies in my own house. So I just let it slide. I send myself an email and I put their like their like name or date date when they stay and like once a month like feed me and Airbnb, nine times edits at a, Tim will either take it from the gas.

Julian Sage:                         42:00                     No, that’s, that’s a really good tip that hasn’t been shared a two times in the fee because your, your time is worth something. You know, you’re not just, you’re not just trying to just collect what extra that if normal person went through the process that they would be that you’d be receiving, you know, you’re, you’re charging, you know, because they are either like actively trying to hide something or they’re actively not reading your messages and not communicating with you. So I think, I think that’s

Mike Cotroneo:                42:24                     Greenie, it’s, there is an extra cost extra guest timing that this med man, Andrew, Jesus rounders so that, that some take, I love that risk. You took out the mortgage, you could have the money in, you deserve to. And so, you know, I had some guests, you know that like I have like an extra guest fee, you know, screening for some that may be ever stopped. If we get a maybe goes down, those guys aren’t going to help you. You know, you have the one ticket that, that risk. So you deserve to get paid.

Julian Sage:                         43:13                     Yeah. Sweet. Speaking the truth, Michael, speak the truth. If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s trying to start their a Airbnb business, what would that be?

Mike Cotroneo:                43:22                     If you don’t have a house that you own yet, like something that like if you’re renting like that, it’s like a house. Watch as many videos as you can on it. Don’t get emotional about it. Don’t go, I’m going to find this place. You can move within one year. Where are you? Why wasn’t that either? Okay. 5,200. I those owner occupied for three and a half percent. Do that and in turn any other spare space might have bedrooms, but I’ll give it to you have to try and buy those units. DMV notation does matter. Then I’m finding more and more on here. It’s really not that important. Every Airbnb is going to be able to work almost anywhere. It’s really unique that way. Yeah. I guess the main ad and buy your first house as an investment and you can buy a duplex. Right? Let’s go right to do that. If not line up bit is it? You can do what we do. When my wife got it, got a teaching job [inaudible] hold another luggage. Right. And so we bought another house, another, you know, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac house. I’m talking by that birth that, that those towns and you don’t blow your nose, you been fine in a year. Lincoln book gone up because of air maybe and then you can play by for another house.

Julian Sage:                         45:29                     And what would you do differently if you had to start from scratch?

Mike Cotroneo:                45:33                     I just know how to do it differently. It would be I guess go into doing here indeed that I made that into a long term rental that I happened to be able to look out as an air B and B by rehabbed it as if you’re watching this, thinking about doing here as a backup whenever you bind that first place, build it as an Airbnb and it’ll be better things that you need for a short term rental. I had to go back short term, round the mat and set things out.

Julian Sage:                         46:26                     W w what are some of those those key differences between rehabbing a home for short term rental versus a longterm rental.

Mike Cotroneo:                46:32                     So there’s some cosmetic things and then there’s some, some too many things you really don’t need more than the knees and you’re going to see your lab because that’s neat as far as the Bahrain goes for the each bedroom on its own because yes, use the hairdryer in their bedroom in the bathroom. And if that’s hooked into, you know, another couple rooms for multiple rooms, room chances are hot water heaters. Get the waters one that you can shit cause guests will use it and name letter goes out. And then cosmetic things, you know, don’t just, your house is a bunch of crazy trailers. Don’t, don’t just make everything like Chan or like white look white. Like there’s some interesting stuff but like the ranger bedrooms to being bad center. I mean that that is is don’t worry about like in that bedroom, focus on the biggest, the best, that eight and a ranger room. That’s that. Right. And then use materials that can handle renters, luxury, vinyl tile, things that can handle the what else.

Julian Sage:                         48:29                     Okay, great. Yeah, thank, thank you for that. Thank you. Those steps. Really, really good stuff. I think it’s pretty interesting hearing the perspective, you know, from a, a, a flipper that is with the short term rental mindset because a lot of the times when when we speak to people they say, Oh, usually it’s longterm rental, first short term rental in the kind of flip flop in between. Usually longterm rent is the primary motive. But you, you’ve kind of changed your, your mindset and the way that you, you, you build your houses. So that’s pretty unique. I w what’s a question that I should ask the next professional hosts, maybe someone that is at a kind of maybe like a similar level or the next level or doing something different. Just something that, that you would like to know.

Mike Cotroneo:                49:04                     What is your exit strategy? So like for example, let’s say an Airbnb goes, goes under whatever reason, because a reason it would be that somebody else comes up and is a bit easier to work with when issues pop up. Yeah. So I guess what is your exit strategy? Because I say 30 years from now, short term cash properties that can then be paid off every single year. Bernie knows 20 years and had that income or rather time, maybe I’ll find the notes on them, maybe move into doing venture rentals easier. This is what I actually have happens with the public and whoever’s out there in a good property manager manage short term rental money, but and you can’t do it. So like brothers, you’re running

Julian Sage:                         50:42                     Great and a really, really good question. And being a, a probably a big fan of bigger pockets, you’re probably a very avid reader. What’s, what’s a book or a, something that has really changed your business or your mindset?

Mike Cotroneo:                50:54                     I think it’s bringing true that voted the the one on, on distance rental. That’s that. That one has so many good strategies. There’s a new green dot. I would also recommend reading, especially if you don’t know anything about that. And then the main one, the one that literally changed my mindset entirely. I mean the, you’ve not read which that you are cutting where my job under neath, that is the biggest mindset change real estate investing. Unbelievable.

Julian Sage:                         51:47                     Very nice. Well, thank you so much Michael for the recommendations for taking the time out from traveling and, and doing this. I wish you the best of luck. I’m excited to see you where you’re going to be going and definitely I’ll include everything, best ways to contact you in the show notes and let’s, let’s stay connected in the host nation and until next time, host nation, keep on hosting.

Julian Sage:                         52:10                     Hope yous 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, go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation, talk to you, host in the next episode, keep on hosting.