Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and
Speaker 1: Matt and today we're discussing making a living with Airbnb
Speaker 1: with Zianna McIntyre Da Jel. Our guest today is Zianna McIntyre,
Speaker 1: who went from earning minimum wage to becoming financially free
Speaker 1: in two years with real estate. And she didn't do
Speaker 1: it with any old, boring real estate. She did it
Speaker 1: specifically with Airbnb. Ziana now owns seven properties and she
Speaker 1: manages twenty and they're all over the world. She she
Speaker 1: also consults by working with her clients and helping them
Speaker 1: to achieve their short term rental goals right, so from
Speaker 1: finding an ideal rental property to purchase uh, she provides
Speaker 1: tips on furnishing all the way through to Tomain as well.
Speaker 1: And you know what's so great about ziana story is
Speaker 1: how she's used real estate to design the kind of
Speaker 1: life that she wants to live. And you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: too after this interview, How the Money listeners out there
Speaker 1: will be inspired to do the same. So, Zianna, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today on the podcast. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. Hey so glad to have Usianna and
Speaker 1: every episode. You know, Matt and I we actually drink
Speaker 1: a craft beer. Were big beer nerds. So for us,
Speaker 1: it's kind of this thing where we are splurging on
Speaker 1: something that we love now, while at the same time
Speaker 1: we're pretty thoughtful about saving and investing for our future.
Speaker 1: So do you have anything that you like to sport
Speaker 1: John in the here and now while you're building wealth,
Speaker 1: while you're building your real estate portfolio for your future self.
Speaker 1: I literally only buy holmes. My boyfriend says that some
Speaker 1: girls buy shoes. I just buy homes. So literally, all
Speaker 1: the money that I put aside, I'm like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: almost enough for a home. So Zianna has no fun
Speaker 1: with any money that she makes. It's all going towards investment.
Speaker 1: Is it all deprivation for you? Like, there's got to
Speaker 1: be something that you you enjoy. I mean it sounds
Speaker 1: like you enjoy real estate as well. But yeah, what else? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I've just learned to hack things, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I love clothes and I love costuming and fashion,
Speaker 1: but like I do um clothing swaps with friends. So
Speaker 1: we all just like bring a bunch of clothes to
Speaker 1: a house and like swap for free. And I don't
Speaker 1: buy anything. Maybe underwear, um and then other things like travels,
Speaker 1: Like I got so good at travel hacking that I
Speaker 1: do pet sitting and I do credit cards and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So miles and points pay for
Speaker 1: most everything, and then I don't have to pay for travel.
Speaker 1: So there are lots of things that I love to do,
Speaker 1: but I just like figure out how to have them
Speaker 1: pay themselves. Nice. It sounds like you're fairly optimized then
Speaker 1: when it comes to the things that you enjoy doing.
Speaker 1: So that's yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, yeah, let's dive
Speaker 1: right into you know, how you got started with airbnb specifically,
Speaker 1: So a friend of yours gave you the idea after
Speaker 1: he got laid off. Can you share how that all
Speaker 1: that went down? Yeah, So my friend was living in
Speaker 1: New York, and I feel like New York is just
Speaker 1: like the epicenter you hear about everything first, you know,
Speaker 1: there's just so much happening there. And I was really
Speaker 1: familiar with this idea of couch surfing. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys had ever done that, but it was
Speaker 1: website that was really big and like oh six to
Speaker 1: maybe like two thousand ten or something like that, and
Speaker 1: I had like traveled and stayed at people's houses and
Speaker 1: you stay on their couch and it's like free. Um.
Speaker 1: But he told me about this concept of Airbnb, where
Speaker 1: you actually rent out your house and travelers come but
Speaker 1: they're paying you, and so I was like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: super into that idea of like living vicariously through people's
Speaker 1: adventures and hosting people and all of that. So it
Speaker 1: already seemed like an easy match Airbnb. By the way, uh,
Speaker 1: I feel like it took it was CouchSurfing made legitimate, yeah,
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, because that also then cost you money,
Speaker 1: which totally I mean, I think there's something still really
Speaker 1: beautiful about the idea of couch surfing, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it didn't really stick around the same.
Speaker 1: But I guess people just really like money too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But essentially he decided to try it out, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, that sounds really cool. Um. And he
Speaker 1: was stuck in this lease because he was living in
Speaker 1: New York and I think his apartment most like three
Speaker 1: thousand a month, you know, just crazy um. And he decided, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to just try this Airbnb thing. I'm going
Speaker 1: to rent out my place hopefully it'll just cover my
Speaker 1: expenses until I can get out of the lease. So
Speaker 1: he was traveling like in Spain and South Africa. He
Speaker 1: was only going to be um, you know, like unemployed
Speaker 1: and having unemployment travel for like three months, and then
Speaker 1: he ended up making so much money off of his apartment.
Speaker 1: He traveled for an entire year. And the whole time
Speaker 1: he was like, man, you gotta do this, you gotta
Speaker 1: try this, And I was just distracted. I was in
Speaker 1: school and I didn't feel like I had the time. Um,
Speaker 1: but he's very persistent. Uh, And after an entire year,
Speaker 1: he told me that he made fifty thousand dollars off
Speaker 1: of this apartment that he didn't own. So that got
Speaker 1: me listening. Okay, You're like, okay, that's real stinking money
Speaker 1: right there. Off that you know for sure, and travel
Speaker 1: on that. So and then when you first got into
Speaker 1: a Zianna, you were basically subletting apartments that you were
Speaker 1: currently renting, but on the d L, right, and that
Speaker 1: was was that like a little bit shady? What were
Speaker 1: things like for you in those days? I feel like
Speaker 1: I've heard stories about that, like way back when when
Speaker 1: folks were like, but don't make any noise when you
Speaker 1: check it, okay, Like yeah, I think. Yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 1: because back then people didn't know about Airbnb, so kind
Speaker 1: of when I would tell people, they wouldn't know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about anyway. So it was kind of like
Speaker 1: a really small I don't know, niche or something for
Speaker 1: at least the first couple of years. So the only
Speaker 1: thing that made me feel worried is just kind of
Speaker 1: my my like very clear sense of right and wrong.
Speaker 1: I was like, I think this is wrong, but it works,
Speaker 1: and there's no rule that says that it's wrong. Okay, right.
Speaker 1: So I think there was a part of me that
Speaker 1: was always kind of worried that a landlord would find
Speaker 1: out and I would get in trouble somehow, but it
Speaker 1: didn't really happen that way. There was two different incidentss
Speaker 1: when I got asked to leave an apartment that I
Speaker 1: was solely um renting and then re renting. One of
Speaker 1: the instances was it was like a nine unit apartment
Speaker 1: building and they owned the entire building. So then one
Speaker 1: of the neighbors routed me out. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I get that, you know, like that's stupid. I didn't
Speaker 1: realize you guys had the whole building. Um. And then
Speaker 1: the next time that it happened, and I'll say that
Speaker 1: that first time, they gave me back my deposit and full,
Speaker 1: they gave me time to move. They were very cool
Speaker 1: about it, and they even said, wow, that was a
Speaker 1: really cool idea, but we don't want you to do
Speaker 1: it in our apartment. Credit that's pretty ingenious, like we
Speaker 1: love your furnishing and everything. But I get out. So
Speaker 1: that was cool. But then the second time that it happened, Um,
Speaker 1: I had a little like one bedroom at another place
Speaker 1: ace and I don't know how the owner found out,
Speaker 1: but maybe, Oh, I think it's because he was trying
Speaker 1: to list on Airbnb, and so you found out. I said, oh, sorry,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that's my place. Yeah, totally. And then
Speaker 1: he asked me to go and I got someone to
Speaker 1: take over my lease, and that girl later I found
Speaker 1: her and him on Airbnb and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can't stop the system. You know, they're all doing it.
Speaker 1: The floodgates were open at that point in time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and so like you know, obviously in a
Speaker 1: lot of leases there are clauses built in. You know
Speaker 1: that don't allow you to sublet. But that's that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily something that like that you mentioned that is completely wrong.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes you are allowed to, you know, to sublet
Speaker 1: your place, and I mean there's a term for that,
Speaker 1: like that's master leasing. Right. Yeah. Um, I think people
Speaker 1: call it arbitrage as well. But yeah, I mean subletting
Speaker 1: is negotiable. I would say that everything in a lease
Speaker 1: and everything in life is negotiable. So what I would
Speaker 1: do when I was signing up for those situations is
Speaker 1: just say, hey, you know, I travel sometimes for work.
Speaker 1: I would love to be able to sublet if I'm
Speaker 1: gone for an extended period. And they would always just
Speaker 1: like cross it out of the lease and let me
Speaker 1: do it. So I was on the right there. It's
Speaker 1: just that they didn't realize that it was like Airbnb
Speaker 1: and I was making money on their apartment and all
Speaker 1: these other kind of things that sometimes make people upset. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's I mean think that's really important to know
Speaker 1: for people that are considering it, that that is negotiable
Speaker 1: when you're talking to a landlord, and that it's possible.
Speaker 1: Like I think if one of my tenants came to me,
Speaker 1: even if there were a percent above board, and we're like,
Speaker 1: I'd like to write your place and run it out
Speaker 1: on Airbnb all the time, but I'll pay you a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars more a month than market rate. Then what
Speaker 1: you're asking in order to do it, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: all right, cool, that sounds like, let's talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think, um that those kind of things
Speaker 1: are always open for negotiation. That's a good point. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you kind of began to move past that
Speaker 1: and buy some real estate. But the first place that
Speaker 1: you bought, you kind of had to get creative with
Speaker 1: the financing. So can you tell us about that too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So my first place, it took me a aisle to
Speaker 1: kind of get to that place and being able to buy,
Speaker 1: But it was already after my first two years where
Speaker 1: I was feeling financially independent, um, and those were just
Speaker 1: off of places I was renting, So it was really
Speaker 1: cool that that could happen on its own. Um. But
Speaker 1: when I went to buy, I had this great um
Speaker 1: position where I had a one bedroom apartment that was
Speaker 1: five minutes away from the other apartment that I was
Speaker 1: going to buy, and so I had already been renting
Speaker 1: this place out for like a year and a half,
Speaker 1: and so sometimes I tell people Airbnb is like training
Speaker 1: wheels for real estate, you know. So I had all
Speaker 1: the numbers. I knew what everything costs, and knew what
Speaker 1: my property could make, and so when I went over
Speaker 1: to buy the other one, it was really easy for
Speaker 1: me to know what would work and what wouldn't work.
Speaker 1: So that was like a great, you know, foundation for me.
Speaker 1: At the time, I had a friend who was a
Speaker 1: previous landlord of mine and we had just kind of
Speaker 1: stayed in touch, and he was a big investor. I
Speaker 1: think he owns like eighteen apartments or something and all
Speaker 1: in one complex, and so I think I had heard
Speaker 1: that he gives people loans, and so I just thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, let me just try. Um I got
Speaker 1: some money. Yeah, I was like, you know, I work
Speaker 1: for myself, and I've heard that's hard to get a mortgage,
Speaker 1: and I was doing like massage and Airbnb, and Airbnb
Speaker 1: wasn't really recognized his income yet. It was kind of
Speaker 1: this weird gray area, so I thought that would be
Speaker 1: difficult for lending. So I just thought, Okay, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna go ask, and if he says no, then I
Speaker 1: have to figure out a new plan, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: but he was cool with it, and he ended up
Speaker 1: making a loan for me. The house that I got
Speaker 1: was like one sixty two. I think our loan was
Speaker 1: one forty four. And at that time, I mean literally
Speaker 1: that could have been a million dollars that I was
Speaker 1: asking for. It was just like so much money. But
Speaker 1: he made it really easy for me. And I feel
Speaker 1: super grateful that people in real estate are so open
Speaker 1: to helping people very often. You know, it's really like
Speaker 1: a mentor teaching kind of community, and I think sometimes
Speaker 1: you just you to ask. You never know if people
Speaker 1: are going to say yes, yeah. I mean what's cool
Speaker 1: about that too, is is yeah. I mean you kind
Speaker 1: of mentioned him as almost this mentor. I mean you're
Speaker 1: you're able to ask him questions and you talk with
Speaker 1: them and talk about the market. I'm sure you know
Speaker 1: when when if someone's that invested in the local market
Speaker 1: there and and interested in real estate, they're going to
Speaker 1: have a lot of wisdom. And that's not something you're
Speaker 1: gonna learn from, uh, talking to your bank, Like you
Speaker 1: don't get that, Like you can't even get that with
Speaker 1: a credit union, you know, as much as we love
Speaker 1: local credit unions. And I'm sure you know, he wants
Speaker 1: to make sure his his investment is going to do
Speaker 1: well and and so you know, he probably wants to
Speaker 1: talk through the fundamentals of the property you're buying to
Speaker 1: make sure that it's gonna work out well for him.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure that in some ways was a learning
Speaker 1: experience in and of itself. Yeah, it was surprisingly light.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm like, wow, they want everything and
Speaker 1: your first baby. He was really like, Okay, do you
Speaker 1: think you could cover this mortgage about And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. And he's like, uh, I'm glad to
Speaker 1: see that it worked out for you. Obviously, you know
Speaker 1: in the time since then that yeah, that's really panned
Speaker 1: out for you. But I mean, I assume you don't
Speaker 1: do that currently, right, you know, as far as private
Speaker 1: money lending, you know, so have you changed your approach
Speaker 1: to to find anything since then? Yeah? So I started
Speaker 1: with private money and I got two loans from this guy,
Speaker 1: which was really great. Um. And then from there I
Speaker 1: worked in partnerships and so I would find people that
Speaker 1: either had cash or they had an easy w two job,
Speaker 1: and we would partner together and work out some kind
Speaker 1: of split. You know, it might be a fifty fifty
Speaker 1: or sixty forty because I was managing and kind of
Speaker 1: found the property and did all the leg work for them,
Speaker 1: and they were just kind of like riding the coat
Speaker 1: tails and being able to get the mortgage. So I
Speaker 1: still have a few of those relationships, and I think
Speaker 1: that worked out really well. I'm just for the first
Speaker 1: time getting a mortgage on my own, and it feels
Speaker 1: like big girl steps. But you know, I guess lots
Speaker 1: of people probably don't know, but you're able to get
Speaker 1: ten conventional loans in your own name, and so if
Speaker 1: you max that out, it's nice to know that there's
Speaker 1: other creative ways to get loans with other people and
Speaker 1: their names or privately. So yeah, it's good to get creative. Well, Ziana,
Speaker 1: we have listeners basically who live across the United States
Speaker 1: international too, and you know, people who live in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: people who live in Montgomery, Alabama, and and so you know,
Speaker 1: we're really talking about this wide range of real estate prices,
Speaker 1: just different scenarios. When you're talking about renting in an
Speaker 1: airbnb and actually, like before we started recording, you said
Speaker 1: that you're buying a home in Making, Georgia, just south
Speaker 1: of US, which is fascinating. So obviously it seems like
Speaker 1: you think that airbnb can work in any market. Is
Speaker 1: that true? Or their markets maybe where it doesn't make
Speaker 1: as much sense, Like what do you have to think
Speaker 1: through based on where you live? Yeah, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1: So this place I'm making, that's actually my boyfriend's buying
Speaker 1: it and I'm helping facilitate. I am the puppet master. Um,
Speaker 1: it is not going to be an Airbnb that will
Speaker 1: be long term, but could it work in making? Maybe
Speaker 1: I'd have to do a little more research. I think
Speaker 1: what's been really interesting since COVID is that a lot
Speaker 1: of the places that people thought would be like the
Speaker 1: hot markets forever, like all of the really dense cities, um,
Speaker 1: have become like a little less desirable because people are
Speaker 1: wanting to have more of a like drive to destination
Speaker 1: with space and work from home office. So I was
Speaker 1: finding that some of the kind of out of the
Speaker 1: way b and bs that I manage, we're doing so
Speaker 1: much better. Cabin in the woods so hot right now? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think it just depends. I would say that
Speaker 1: maybe the middle of nowhere doesn't make sense as much.
Speaker 1: But I've also heard of people that live like right
Speaker 1: off the highway perfectly between two cities and it just
Speaker 1: ended up being like a great stop over. So you
Speaker 1: never really know. I think it's just about doing the
Speaker 1: research ahead of time, and airbnb can work in lots
Speaker 1: of places. Nice. Well yeah, well, I mean that's what
Speaker 1: we're looking to talk about the rest of this episode
Speaker 1: on just we want to get your thoughts on Airbnb
Speaker 1: and you know, some specific tips as folks might be
Speaker 1: looking to dabble in it themselves. And so yeah, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get your thoughts on that on Airbnb specifically. But
Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break. All right, we're back
Speaker 1: from the break. We're talking about making a living on Airbnb.
Speaker 1: We're talking with the Xiana McEntire and we we just
Speaker 1: kind of talked about your you're making rental that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a more long term one. So airbnb versus long
Speaker 1: term rentals. You see more gung ho about Airbnb than
Speaker 1: traditional rental properties. But yeah, you're you're delving into both.
Speaker 1: So yeah, where do you fall on those? Which ones
Speaker 1: do you like more? And why? I think it's like
Speaker 1: when you're young and starting out, it's great to be
Speaker 1: scrappy and you want to like maximize every little penny, right,
Speaker 1: and I think Airbnb can do that with the right places.
Speaker 1: I think airbnb is the best for a house hack
Speaker 1: if you live on the property, or you're living for
Speaker 1: free because you're renting a room or the basement or
Speaker 1: something like that. It is the best. If you're buying
Speaker 1: a property to airbnb it. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people in that space that do it professionally, and you
Speaker 1: have potentially a lot of competition based on where you are,
Speaker 1: so that has gotten like a little less profitable. There
Speaker 1: were a few years back where it was like great.
Speaker 1: Every year was like more and more money and you
Speaker 1: could charge more and there was just so much demand.
Speaker 1: And I feel like it's kind of like shrunk down
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I wouldn't say don't do it.
Speaker 1: I would just say make sure that your numbers are
Speaker 1: going to work for you. UM, and I super encourage
Speaker 1: it for anybody that's like actually doing it at their home.
Speaker 1: We just bought a place, my boyfriend and I UM
Speaker 1: in January, and our whole plan was, um, we have
Speaker 1: an extra room here, but we also would rent it
Speaker 1: out any time that we travel and we go and
Speaker 1: do this pet sitting thing um, which basically means that
Speaker 1: we go and watch people's pets and then they don't
Speaker 1: pay us, but we're making like two fifty dollars a
Speaker 1: night on our Airbnb and so we you know, can
Speaker 1: live for free that way, and there's lots of creative
Speaker 1: ways to do that. So specifically, you know, with when
Speaker 1: it comes to like an air to be property, like,
Speaker 1: what is it that you're looking for in a property
Speaker 1: like that you are planning to list on Airbnb? Does
Speaker 1: it truly just come down to the numbers or are
Speaker 1: there other things that you're kind of keeping in mind
Speaker 1: as well? I mean, I think everything comes down to numbers,
Speaker 1: but there are lots of other considerations. I mean, you
Speaker 1: wanted to have kind of like a an interesting look,
Speaker 1: so an Airbnb kind of like I guess I would
Speaker 1: say instagramm herble look, right. So that can be with furnishing,
Speaker 1: but it can also be with architecture, and it can
Speaker 1: be with renovations. So it kind of depends on how
Speaker 1: deep you want to get into the project. I personally
Speaker 1: like to buy stuff already renovated in a cool way
Speaker 1: and then I just like move in and furnish it.
Speaker 1: But some people are real scrappy. So yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say the way that it looks is a huge factor
Speaker 1: because you're selling it by photos, um, and yeah, so
Speaker 1: that that's a huge thing. But then the location is
Speaker 1: also something that people really want, and of course that's
Speaker 1: very common in real estate. Everybody talks about location, so
Speaker 1: there are definitely ways to do research about that. But
Speaker 1: you're going to want a location that draws people in.
Speaker 1: It can be next to an airport, it can be
Speaker 1: by a hospital. Hospitals are huge actually, and universities. I
Speaker 1: find that I really like interesting. Those those are good tips.
Speaker 1: I would not have thought I would never have Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I mean with the hospital specifically. Is that
Speaker 1: just with folks you know unfortunately like coming to visit
Speaker 1: somebody in the hospital and they just need someplace to
Speaker 1: stay for a couple of days. No, actually, so there's
Speaker 1: this huge market of traveling medical professional oh god, like
Speaker 1: nurse housing. Yeah so nurses, doctors, um. Then people that
Speaker 1: are coming from medical treatments and the people visiting people
Speaker 1: with treatments. So yeah, you'd be really surprised about hospitals. Man. Okay, Uh,
Speaker 1: so we're talking a lot about we're using Airbnb, right,
Speaker 1: and and that's kind of where you've really done most
Speaker 1: of your short term your short term rental listings, and
Speaker 1: you've done really well like that. But there are other
Speaker 1: sites out there that compete with Airbnb, like v r
Speaker 1: b O, right, and so, are are there any other
Speaker 1: sites that you feel like people can do just as
Speaker 1: well on Is it worth it to look at airbnbs
Speaker 1: competition or is Airbnb like the only game in town, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, you said v r b O, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they rebraid. Haven't school ads on YouTube verbo? It's the worst.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Every time your verbo, I'm like, nope, I
Speaker 1: reject that v r b O. It's not going to
Speaker 1: buy into your new brand. It's so bad. Um, yes,
Speaker 1: I think it's valad to be on both of those websites.
Speaker 1: I have branched out and tried some of the others,
Speaker 1: and there are hundreds, but I really don't think that
Speaker 1: I get the return that I need. So it's like, no,
Speaker 1: every time you learn a new website, you have to
Speaker 1: learn their like back end, their extra net. It's just
Speaker 1: very complicated. So what I find is that I get
Speaker 1: my bookings on Airbnb. So I really just like, wow,
Speaker 1: I think you could do just Airbnb, but um, I
Speaker 1: think you know, vr b o is is worth it too. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I would say it kind of depends on
Speaker 1: the type of house, because some people tell me that
Speaker 1: they get nine of their stuff from vr b oh.
Speaker 1: I think it's really strange. But I think maybe if
Speaker 1: it's a house that attracts older people or that's I
Speaker 1: don't know, some somewhere where Canadians travel for some reason,
Speaker 1: I think they really use that site. And then if
Speaker 1: you're in Europe, maybe more booking dot Com, but I've
Speaker 1: found them to be very frustrating. So I would say
Speaker 1: that Airbnb is a great place to start. And then
Speaker 1: if you're becoming like an expert the new kind of
Speaker 1: branch out, you know, yeah, yeah, I can picture vr
Speaker 1: b oh. I'm like torn now and like, which, which
Speaker 1: what do you say? Because because you guys love saying
Speaker 1: v r b oh, I instinctively want to say verbo
Speaker 1: because I buy into marketing. But um, you know, so okay,
Speaker 1: so what about managing these properties? Ziana? You know, like,
Speaker 1: how have you gone about managing these rentals? Like as
Speaker 1: you started to build your portfolio. You know, like when
Speaker 1: we talk about real estate, that's one of the most
Speaker 1: consistent responses that we get. Folks say, I don't want
Speaker 1: to manage tenants. So for you, have you found with
Speaker 1: short terminals? Is it really all that bad? No? I
Speaker 1: think it's all about creating systems, right. So, you know,
Speaker 1: with COVID, I found that you could do longer term
Speaker 1: stays like three months and six months, and I actually
Speaker 1: really like that because there's less turnover. But even with
Speaker 1: short term rentals, if you can figure out a way
Speaker 1: to have your cleaner automatically get emails or if she's
Speaker 1: kind of signed into your calendar and so you don't
Speaker 1: have to be back and forth with her, like she
Speaker 1: knows when she cleans, then you're so good. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really just the inconvenience of a guest learning your
Speaker 1: property every couple of days so there's more communication and
Speaker 1: then the cleaning. So if you've got a really dependable
Speaker 1: cleaner and she knows how to schedule herself, you're pretty
Speaker 1: much n there. I think like one thing that would
Speaker 1: that really helped me when I got started is that
Speaker 1: at first I was really just trying to do it
Speaker 1: all myself and bootstrap it. So I was the cleaner,
Speaker 1: and I was you know, all the guests communication, and
Speaker 1: I created the house manuals and I furnished the place
Speaker 1: and later I found other people to do those things
Speaker 1: or figured out ways to automate it, you know. But
Speaker 1: I think that doing all the tasks helps you know
Speaker 1: how to do it and how to teach it. So
Speaker 1: it's great to start that way. True. Yeah, good, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a good, good tip. I think that's something
Speaker 1: that Matt and I recommend with long term rentals. Two
Speaker 1: is to manage properties yourself, at least in the beginning,
Speaker 1: so that you can know what questions to ask of
Speaker 1: a property manager when you do hire somebody. That that's
Speaker 1: super helpful. Do you think zona changing regulations towards Airbnb
Speaker 1: in some cities, Like, does that make you nervous because
Speaker 1: some people have gotten shut down They bought places specifically
Speaker 1: to rent out on Airbnb and now that's illegal, like
Speaker 1: they can't do that, Like, so does that make you
Speaker 1: nervous and threaten your business model? Yeah, we want to
Speaker 1: make sure that all seven of your properties aren't in Paris. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think at this day and age, most
Speaker 1: places have put in some kind of regulations, so that
Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, is it going to change over thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as big of a problem as
Speaker 1: it maybe used to be when everything was sort of influx.
Speaker 1: So nowadays you can pretty much plug in like any
Speaker 1: city and short term rental laws in Google and you
Speaker 1: can see either that they are discussing it or they've
Speaker 1: already put in some kind of measures, And a lot
Speaker 1: of places they either wanted to be your primary residence
Speaker 1: or they'll let you have like one some places are open,
Speaker 1: but um, I think it's just about reading the rules
Speaker 1: and then learning how to work within them. I think
Speaker 1: what's also really cool is that a lot of places
Speaker 1: that don't want you to short term, they'll let you
Speaker 1: do thirty days and more. And there's a whole lot
Speaker 1: that can happen in the three to six month rental range,
Speaker 1: which I really love. That whole like travel nurses and
Speaker 1: doctors thing is fantastic. So I wouldn't say that like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's going to kill your business, like
Speaker 1: there's so much need for furnish rentals. Yeah. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: full disclosure. When my wife and I renovated our house,
Speaker 1: we actually renovated the basement. Uh in. You know, we
Speaker 1: we had an Airbnb listing that we did for a
Speaker 1: little bit there, and we found that over time we
Speaker 1: kind of were we realize what you're saying, where it's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I feel like the sweet spot for
Speaker 1: us might be someone that was down here for maybe
Speaker 1: about three months or so. But then John, I we
Speaker 1: actually we took it over four podcasting, so we're actually
Speaker 1: sitting down here in the old airbnb. But I'm totally
Speaker 1: with you. I totally get that that kind of sweet
Speaker 1: spot when it comes to two time frames. Well, and
Speaker 1: something else too, you know. You know you mentioned like
Speaker 1: we're talking about the property that you're looking at down
Speaker 1: and make in how that's not going to be an airbnb.
Speaker 1: But so specifically for you, like how has the global
Speaker 1: pandemic affected you know, the rest of your properties. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw a sharp decline back in the spring,
Speaker 1: but are you seeing a lasting impact because of COVID?
Speaker 1: I would say what I see is just basically discounts.
Speaker 1: It's like a little bit less than what you would
Speaker 1: normally charge, and so that's okay, you know, but I
Speaker 1: think that there was a steady um, maybe two weeks
Speaker 1: where like all of the reservations canceled and that was
Speaker 1: kind of a scary thing. And then it started being
Speaker 1: that like lots of people wanted to go somewhere, but
Speaker 1: like four a month or longer, and so then all
Speaker 1: these places we're getting booked up, and I was really
Speaker 1: surprised to see that. So I think for me, it
Speaker 1: hasn't changed that much. What has changed is that some people,
Speaker 1: because they're having a hard time working, they've decided, oh,
Speaker 1: I have to self manage for a time. So I've
Speaker 1: lost a few listings that way, or some people are
Speaker 1: just uncomfortable renting their homes so they've they've taken them
Speaker 1: off the market. So I've seen a little bit of that.
Speaker 1: But the ones that are open, they're doing fantastic. So
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, it's still a very viable business
Speaker 1: model and probably super helpful for people that are not
Speaker 1: making as much money now. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Un
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this segment, you mentioned when you travel,
Speaker 1: like you have all these different ways to maybe at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the show, actually you said credit cards,
Speaker 1: pet sitting. I want to know more about pet sitting
Speaker 1: real quick. How how how you use pet sitting in
Speaker 1: order to travel for cheaper for free? And then yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe detail a couple of other of your favorite hacks
Speaker 1: and how yeah, they allow you to travel for for
Speaker 1: almost no money. Yeah. So I used to just do
Speaker 1: a lot of pet sitting, like word of mouth around Boulder,
Speaker 1: and then I started getting people in other markets from
Speaker 1: Facebook and stuff. So I like maybe two years ago,
Speaker 1: I was like going to St. Thomas and going to
Speaker 1: Mexico and like pet sitting in Hawaii, you know, and
Speaker 1: it was great, They're paying for your plane ticket and
Speaker 1: letting you stay in their house or how's that work? Um? No,
Speaker 1: the further ones away, I would just figure out the
Speaker 1: plane ticket with miles or something like that, and they
Speaker 1: generally didn't pay. Some of the ones that were in
Speaker 1: Boulder would pay. And that's where I live in Boulder, Colorado.
Speaker 1: Um And so that was always just like a bonus.
Speaker 1: But I was renting out my place, so I didn't
Speaker 1: really care about that. But back in the day when
Speaker 1: I didn't have like it was all word of mouth,
Speaker 1: it ended up just being like sometimes I would stay
Speaker 1: in places and they would be a little dumpy, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it stays somewhere to be fantastic. But now that
Speaker 1: I have this app, so I used Trusted House Sitters
Speaker 1: and it's amazing and I could send you a code
Speaker 1: if you want to share it with your peeps. Um,
Speaker 1: but man, we only stay in places that when I
Speaker 1: see it, I go like, oh that likes exciting, you know,
Speaker 1: like I only stay in sweet like villas and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. But basically, um, if you're on this site,
Speaker 1: like if you set up notifications, there's definitely like ways
Speaker 1: to hack the site. But if you're very quick to
Speaker 1: respond to someone once they post something, um, you can
Speaker 1: get all kinds of wonderful stuff. And right now, because
Speaker 1: of COVID, we're kind of just staying in Colorado. But
Speaker 1: my goodness, we've been in like Breckon Ridge and you know,
Speaker 1: all kinds of places crusted bewd and just having all
Speaker 1: these like wonderful retreats and mountain villas and you know,
Speaker 1: hot tubs and stuff. And then you've got like one
Speaker 1: little cat. But we love pets and we don't have any.
Speaker 1: So I think even like with quarantine, we were just like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we need to snuggle something. It's great, Yeah,
Speaker 1: give me a soft labordoodles that kind of. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like too, like pets are the perfect way
Speaker 1: to get to know an area, you know, like one
Speaker 1: of the things when my wife, when Kate and I
Speaker 1: purchased our first home, we immediately that was what allowed
Speaker 1: us to then get a dog, Like we knew we wouldn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't want to have a pet until we had
Speaker 1: our own place because we weren't going to do the
Speaker 1: elevator thing and trying to get them outside up you know,
Speaker 1: potty trained them on that kind of thing. But oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, we were able to meet so many of
Speaker 1: our neighbors so quickly just by going out for walks.
Speaker 1: Because you know what, when you have a puppy, everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna come up and talk to you. But I
Speaker 1: feel like that's just a really cool way to get
Speaker 1: to know a neighborhood. If you are traveling as well,
Speaker 1: just kind of going out for a walk, if you
Speaker 1: have a if you're watching someone's fancy dog, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is awesome. Uh, we are going to
Speaker 1: take a quick break, but after that we're gonna get
Speaker 1: some more advice from you for individuals who might be
Speaker 1: looking to host their their very first Airbnb, and so
Speaker 1: we'll get to that right after this break. Alright, we'll
Speaker 1: back from the break. We're talking about making a living
Speaker 1: with Airbnb and and a whole lot of other stuff too,
Speaker 1: with Zianna McIntyre. Uh. Zianna, I've hopefully not an awkward
Speaker 1: question for you here, but almost a decade of your
Speaker 1: life has now been dedicated to real estate, lots of
Speaker 1: those endeavors through Airbnb, and you learned about it while
Speaker 1: you were in college. Right, So do you actually feel
Speaker 1: like your college education was necessary to get you where
Speaker 1: you are today? And if you had to go back
Speaker 1: and do it over, would you quit school? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: would say absolutely not. Um. I am a big believer
Speaker 1: that people can self educate, and I mean, I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of great things that come out of education.
Speaker 1: But if you don't know what you want to do
Speaker 1: and you're just going through the motions, I think it's
Speaker 1: a really expensive way to do that. And I think
Speaker 1: I'm like all about gap years, and I'm all about
Speaker 1: different kinds of technical programs and things that you can
Speaker 1: do until you figure out what you want to do.
Speaker 1: Because what I've sort of seen and at least what
Speaker 1: was true for me is that I didn't really know
Speaker 1: what I wanted until it was like mid to late twenties,
Speaker 1: and so there's a huge period of time there, you know,
Speaker 1: after high school, but like you just kind of try things.
Speaker 1: So I think college can be a really expensive way
Speaker 1: to do that, and I definitely didn't need I think
Speaker 1: I had like I probably pay like sixty grand or
Speaker 1: seventy grand total. I don't have that dead anymore. But
Speaker 1: like I don't think it made it made sense, you know. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean that's certainly something to I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't personally feel that was an awkward question such
Speaker 1: an open book. You just asked me all the things.
Speaker 1: I'm good. I feel like that's that's important to cover though, too,
Speaker 1: because I mean that is kind of the I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the default, right you go to college, and like
Speaker 1: you said, you know, it's so expensive, especially too, as
Speaker 1: folks are going to these really pricey schools and they
Speaker 1: don't even know what it is that they want to
Speaker 1: get into. It's yeah, it's just like you said, it's
Speaker 1: an expensive lesson to learn. There's a huge backlash right now,
Speaker 1: you know, people are asking their colleges their institutions to
Speaker 1: drastically reduce the price because it's glorified Skype learning session
Speaker 1: at this point in time, pretty crazy. So yeah, we're
Speaker 1: going through definitely like a sea change in how people
Speaker 1: view college and higher education in general. Yeah. So okay,
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm guessing a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: who are listening, they're loving your story, right, but they
Speaker 1: may not necessarily want to own or manage a bunch
Speaker 1: of properties themselves, um or at least not yet until
Speaker 1: they discover in their late twenties that that's what they
Speaker 1: want to do. How can someone get started on Airbnb?
Speaker 1: You know? So, like what tips do you have for
Speaker 1: first time hosts? Yeah? I mean I think the best
Speaker 1: thing is to start with your own place, right because
Speaker 1: you have to kind of see if you like it,
Speaker 1: um And so I think the best is like if
Speaker 1: you can rent out a room in your place, and
Speaker 1: it can even be your room, even if you have roommates.
Speaker 1: You can try to work something out where you give
Speaker 1: them a cut, but you get that experience of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what kind of things do I need for a guest?
Speaker 1: And how what kind of questions are they going to
Speaker 1: ask me? And what is it really like to clean
Speaker 1: for somebody else and just all that kind of stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: It's definitely not rocket science, and I think anybody can
Speaker 1: figure it out, but you have to kind of do it.
Speaker 1: And then after that, I would say, if it's something
Speaker 1: you really love, it's great to go try to find
Speaker 1: somebody that you can manage their property. And the reason
Speaker 1: I think that's great is because it's no cost to you.
Speaker 1: So you know, if you find a friend or you know,
Speaker 1: a family member that has maybe a cabin that they
Speaker 1: don't use that much, um, you can ask them to
Speaker 1: buy the sheets and the towels and all the things,
Speaker 1: and they give you a house furnished and they're covering
Speaker 1: the mortgage and basically you're only making a percentage and
Speaker 1: it could be you know, twenty to um, but it's
Speaker 1: basically like you make money when they make money. So
Speaker 1: they're excited about it and you're excited about it. But
Speaker 1: it's really no cost to you. So I think that's
Speaker 1: a great way to kind of start and test the waters.
Speaker 1: But of course, make the mistakes on your own place
Speaker 1: before you go and do it on other people's places. Nice.
Speaker 1: I love that, Yeah, I mean, that's what's so great
Speaker 1: too about airbnb is that you can just try it out.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not this huge commitment. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: snap a few pictures, make the make the listing happen,
Speaker 1: make it look nice. Yeah, and then you can just
Speaker 1: try it out and then if you don't like it,
Speaker 1: you just stop. Quit after three nights if you're done. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: what are some of the most creative ways you've seen
Speaker 1: people make money from their house any in particular outside
Speaker 1: of the box ways you've seen people make revenue and
Speaker 1: generating an income doing this. Yeah. So I have this friend,
Speaker 1: Shelley and um in Colorado Springs, which like an hour
Speaker 1: and a half from here, and I think she was
Speaker 1: wanting to go camping one summer and looked at the
Speaker 1: nearby camp sites for her family and realized like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's all booked like months in advance, you know, you
Speaker 1: can't get a spot anywhere. And so then she thought, well,
Speaker 1: we have a backyard. What if we put a tent
Speaker 1: up here and we you know, charged the same It
Speaker 1: was like forty dollars a night for a camp spot.
Speaker 1: So they're like, okay, can we do it here? So
Speaker 1: they have this really cool backyard that overlooks like open
Speaker 1: space and you can just go like walking out on
Speaker 1: trails outside of their yards. And I don't even think
Speaker 1: they provided a tent. They just provided the spot with
Speaker 1: like some s'more supplies and a little fire pit and
Speaker 1: they have a cute yard with like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: patio furniture and that was it. Um And I think
Speaker 1: they we're making I don't know, eight hundred a month
Speaker 1: or something like that, but like it was a game
Speaker 1: changer for her and now she probably manages about five
Speaker 1: properties or so, but um, it really just like changed
Speaker 1: her life. So I think there are so many cool
Speaker 1: creative ways that you can start. That is impressive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got a friend here in Atlanta and he and
Speaker 1: his wife they have a too i think to tps
Speaker 1: now in their backyard. So they basically live on this
Speaker 1: little farm and they created these tepees, uh, and they've
Speaker 1: got like goats and chickens and stuff like that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's part of their whole attraction is that it kind
Speaker 1: of feels like you're you're on a farm, but you
Speaker 1: also get to sleep in tepees and you kind up
Speaker 1: with the goats or now you're a lot of pet
Speaker 1: them and it's like kick you, Um, well you got
Speaker 1: to Like you mentioned too, how like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of competition. We're kind of out of that phase where
Speaker 1: the rates were kind of climbing year after year. There's
Speaker 1: more places listed now than there ever have been on Airbnb.
Speaker 1: So for someone starting out, how would they make their
Speaker 1: listing stand out on Airbnb? You know? Like I heard
Speaker 1: you talking about the furnishings, is that, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the ways to go about it is just kind
Speaker 1: of like picking up cool furniture or yeah, how would
Speaker 1: you recommend for folks to do that? I think that's
Speaker 1: a big piece. I think that the kind of days
Speaker 1: of well, I'll just put up like my dorm looking
Speaker 1: very minimalist place that doesn't work anymore. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll admit that's how I started. You know, I was
Speaker 1: like five, and I didn't have any money, and everything
Speaker 1: like was mismatchy. But now you need to kind of
Speaker 1: do a little research, you know, look through a couple
Speaker 1: interior design magazines or Pinterest or something, um, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be expensive. I do most of my
Speaker 1: stuff secondhand, probably all of it, but with Facebook, Marketplace
Speaker 1: and like Craigslist now you can find so many cool pieces.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I definitely think it needs to be colorful,
Speaker 1: it has to have texture. It just really needs to
Speaker 1: pop in a photo. And then I would say, for
Speaker 1: sure you have to do professional photography. Lots of people
Speaker 1: want to skimp on that, but it really sells it
Speaker 1: um and that's that's your barrier. Picks aren't going cut
Speaker 1: it um. Yeah. I mean I've seen some people have
Speaker 1: some really cool um filters and like they know how
Speaker 1: to do, but like I don't do that well. So
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I think professional photos are definitely
Speaker 1: better than just baseline iPhone photos. Yeah for sure. Yeah. Alright,
Speaker 1: So so another thing too, when it comes to how
Speaker 1: this functions in reality, if you do attempt to run
Speaker 1: a place out on Airbnb, there's a certain amount of
Speaker 1: like optimization that needs to take place in order for
Speaker 1: it not to consume your life. I think Matt found
Speaker 1: that out too when he was attempting to run out
Speaker 1: his basement. So, like, what are some of your best
Speaker 1: tips for optimizing property so that you're not constantly thinking
Speaker 1: about it constantly beholden to the notifications or a booking
Speaker 1: attempt or having to get in touch with the cleaner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean specifically, I'll say, like I mean the number
Speaker 1: of settings for a listing all on AIRBB it's unreal,
Speaker 1: Like there's all these menus and sub menus and you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's really hard to navigate. I was actually really
Speaker 1: surprised at the just the pure quantity of options, you
Speaker 1: know when you log into your listing on your phone.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would love to hear you speak to
Speaker 1: that as well. Yeah. I think it's really funny because
Speaker 1: they add stuff all the time, but they don't notify you.
Speaker 1: So you go in there and you're like, well, what's
Speaker 1: this that's lily weird feature that I have to fill
Speaker 1: out or nobody will think I'm relevant. Um, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really weird with that. But as far as optimizing, I
Speaker 1: would say there's lots of little things that you could
Speaker 1: do that you kind of learn along the way. So
Speaker 1: like somebody might have one set of sheets for their bed,
Speaker 1: but if you have a second or third set, then
Speaker 1: they can optimize the laundry. So that's like a very
Speaker 1: small but quick fix that makes a big deal. I
Speaker 1: would say figuring out an automated way that you're cleaner
Speaker 1: is getting notification, So whether it's having like an email
Speaker 1: that transfers to her every time it comes in from Airbnb,
Speaker 1: or it's having a shared calendar that will save your
Speaker 1: life because all of the back and forth and oh
Speaker 1: I mistakenly said it was this day and not at
Speaker 1: day like that will that will kill you, you know,
Speaker 1: So you definitely want to have that. I would say. Also,
Speaker 1: there are saved replies that you can set up an
Speaker 1: Airbnb like right in the app, and those are really
Speaker 1: helpful too, because you'll start to find like people will
Speaker 1: ask you the same few questions like you know, what's
Speaker 1: the parking, what's the WiFi? You know, do you have
Speaker 1: a grill or whatever? And if you plug in those
Speaker 1: saved replies, you don't have to type it out every
Speaker 1: single time. You just click the button. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I think those kinds of little things make it really easy.
Speaker 1: Um as far as settings go, I mean, when you
Speaker 1: set up an Airbnb account, there is an option to
Speaker 1: use their wizard that kind of like walks you through
Speaker 1: and ask you questions, but it's definitely not comprehensive. It's
Speaker 1: just like the basics. I think that it's important to
Speaker 1: go through every tab and kind of educate yourself the
Speaker 1: first time. Um So I do listing creation for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, but I still tell them like go
Speaker 1: in there and see all the settings. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what we're doing, and we'll talk about it ahead of time,
Speaker 1: but like you should know what options there are. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if they actually do it, but you're
Speaker 1: basically like an Airbnb sherpa at this point. Seriously, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: so I want to follow up to with with the
Speaker 1: with the cleaning multiple times now, you mentioned cleaners, and
Speaker 1: you also mentioned too that like one of the easiest
Speaker 1: ways to kind of get started is by running out
Speaker 1: your own room or maybe running out an extra room
Speaker 1: in your house. You know, early on, a lots of
Speaker 1: this might a lot of this cleaning might fall on you,
Speaker 1: right like it's it's maybe the best way to save money.
Speaker 1: It's it's a wave that you can be scrappy. Is
Speaker 1: there a way to make cleaning easier, because that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that we found to say, I have
Speaker 1: an Airbnb and I manage it myself. What that means
Speaker 1: is I clean and I flip, you know, like that's all.
Speaker 1: It really feels like like yes, you get to meet
Speaker 1: them and you know, or talk to them, I guess
Speaker 1: if you want. But you know the rest of it,
Speaker 1: like that's time consuming, is the cleaning aspect of it.
Speaker 1: So I didn't know if you had any tips for folks,
Speaker 1: you know, if they're just getting started and they don't
Speaker 1: want to have a cleaner, Like, what would you recommend
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of, you know, making a space easier
Speaker 1: to clean and flip? Yeah, So this is how it
Speaker 1: worked for me because I would always rent out my
Speaker 1: own place and I would do it like on the
Speaker 1: drop of a hat. If I had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: stay at a person's house or babysit or do something
Speaker 1: where I wouldn't be in my house, I was doing it.
Speaker 1: So for me, the key was to live really clean,
Speaker 1: Like I was doing a little bit of cleaning every
Speaker 1: day and that made my house really clean. Now, if
Speaker 1: you're doing an additional space, first, I'll say about a
Speaker 1: room in a house, right, so it's a room that
Speaker 1: you don't actually live in. That to just flip one room,
Speaker 1: you're basically you know, cleaning the floor, wiping the surfaces,
Speaker 1: doing the sheets. That can be ten minutes. So if
Speaker 1: the rest of your house is always clean and maintained.
Speaker 1: It's not that bad if you're talking about a totally
Speaker 1: different space. It's really dependent on if those people left
Speaker 1: it like a crazy mass. Sometimes people look like they
Speaker 1: didn't even stay. You know, they'll even like remake the
Speaker 1: dirty bed, and you're like, why did you do that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean with something like that. I found that
Speaker 1: for me it was helpful to have kind of like
Speaker 1: a routine in the house. So you can either have
Speaker 1: like a checklist or something, but you know that you
Speaker 1: do it the same way every time, because I noticed personally,
Speaker 1: I would get really overwhelmed if I saw a really
Speaker 1: dirty place and then I was like, Okay, I'm grabbing
Speaker 1: this one thing and then going into this other room
Speaker 1: and then I'm lost and it's taken me three hours
Speaker 1: when it should have been one. But if I had
Speaker 1: like a checklist, I'd be like, okay, I'm doing the
Speaker 1: sheets first, and then I'm doing this next thing. It
Speaker 1: kind of helped me stay on task even when it
Speaker 1: was harder. Nice. I love that. Yeah, that's great advice.
Speaker 1: All right, Ziana. This has been great, And I think
Speaker 1: like education for a lot of people who are interested
Speaker 1: in pursuing, you know, renting out whether it's part of
Speaker 1: their own home on Airbnb to make some some side income,
Speaker 1: or pursuing it even in a bigger context kind of
Speaker 1: you know, like you're doing. Um, so yeah, where where
Speaker 1: can our audience find out more about what you're up to? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a blog on Ziona McEntire dot com and
Speaker 1: it shows all the different offerings I have about Airbnb
Speaker 1: creation and consulting and I'm becoming a real estate agent,
Speaker 1: so you know, all the thanks very cool. We will
Speaker 1: make sure to to link to your blog your site
Speaker 1: there on our show notes. Uh and then Zianna, thanks
Speaker 1: so much. Yeah, we really enjoy this conversation. I hope
Speaker 1: that this has been just a nice like Airbnb one
Speaker 1: oh one kind of interview for for all of our
Speaker 1: listeners out there who might be looking for ways to
Speaker 1: to supplement their own income. So thanks again for for
Speaker 1: coming on the podcast. Thanks again, Siana, Matt. That was
Speaker 1: like such a great conversation. Zianna is basically the Airbnb shirt,
Speaker 1: I like I said, so, I like that you said that,
Speaker 1: darning because it really is a perfect way of describing
Speaker 1: what it is that she's done, you know, like she's
Speaker 1: gone through this herself and now she's helping our listeners
Speaker 1: figure out how how they can potentially do this as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think there were a lot of creative ideas.
Speaker 1: That was a fun conversation. All right, So what was
Speaker 1: your big takeaway from this episode? Man? Yeah, okay, well
Speaker 1: mine how to do with not just Airbnb specifically, but
Speaker 1: just real estate as a whole. How if we implement
Speaker 1: systems and how it is that we do things, it
Speaker 1: can make anything just way more doable, way more approachable. Right.
Speaker 1: We really do hear that all the time that folks
Speaker 1: are they complain about renters, they complain about you know,
Speaker 1: the calls in the middle of the night. Guess what,
Speaker 1: I've never had a call in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night because that's not how I communicate with my tenants,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh. And so implementing systems can make something
Speaker 1: that seems a little more daunting and a little more scary,
Speaker 1: like real estate, like Airbnb, it makes it way more approachable.
Speaker 1: And that carries over to with the way she talked
Speaker 1: about cleaning an airbnb, right, she talked about having that
Speaker 1: checklist that's just a mini system, like that's all that is.
Speaker 1: It's just a way for you to stick to a
Speaker 1: plan that you know works, and so when it keeps
Speaker 1: to cleaning, knowing that this is the best order that
Speaker 1: I should clean this apartment in, We'll just make sure
Speaker 1: you hit that every single time, like, regardless of how
Speaker 1: the place actually looks. I think that truly is the
Speaker 1: best way to minimize the amount of time that you
Speaker 1: are dedicating towards your airbnb. That's just a great way
Speaker 1: to keep it from becoming this massive time suck fanomizes frustration, right, Yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so what about you? What was your big
Speaker 1: takeaway for this interview? Yeah, I really you know that
Speaker 1: that first question in the last segment when we talked
Speaker 1: about her college experience and whether or not it was
Speaker 1: worth it. And I don't want to disparage college, like
Speaker 1: I have a college degree and it I'm glad that
Speaker 1: I got it, and I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: value there. I think thinking about how much it cost
Speaker 1: is really important. But but one of the things that
Speaker 1: she said in that reply was that you should try things.
Speaker 1: There's like this period in your life where you're not
Speaker 1: really sure what you want to do, and typically that's
Speaker 1: in your early twenties. There's a lot of exploration there's
Speaker 1: a lot of trying and failing. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: thinking through what you want your life to look like.
Speaker 1: And I think the more things you try, the more
Speaker 1: you're willing to to give it a go, then the
Speaker 1: more likely you are to find something that's super enjoyable
Speaker 1: that you can do for a longer period of time.
Speaker 1: And it took her friend essentially convincing her over the
Speaker 1: period of the year, especially when she when she heard
Speaker 1: that number fifts. I mean, that's convincing right there. And
Speaker 1: she could have easily stuck to something more conventional and said,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got this college degree, I need to
Speaker 1: use it, but she opted to try something new, and
Speaker 1: that new thing has panned out into a decade long
Speaker 1: career in real estate. So yeah, I love seeing that
Speaker 1: and I love hearing how trying something new seems to
Speaker 1: have led to something bigger than she could have really
Speaker 1: thought or imagined. Totally. Man, Yeah, I really appreciated that
Speaker 1: she was, you know, all about the gap year, all
Speaker 1: about traveling, seeing the world, just seeing how other people
Speaker 1: are living their lives and not necessarily confining yourself to
Speaker 1: like your bubble. You know, essentially, a lot of us
Speaker 1: kind of grew up in a bubble, not a pandemic bubble,
Speaker 1: but just our entire childhood and leading into too high
Speaker 1: school and college, and there are certain expectations on us,
Speaker 1: and for certain folks, I think kind of stepping out
Speaker 1: of that is more challenging than others. I think obviously
Speaker 1: some people are just predisposed to just trying new things.
Speaker 1: But for those who aren't predisposed, you know, for those
Speaker 1: who like to play it safe, I think that's certainly
Speaker 1: a yeah, a great challenge for those folks as well. Joel,
Speaker 1: all right, let's take it back to our beer man.
Speaker 1: This episode, you and I had a chocolate peanut butter porter. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this is by a brewery? Is it lupelin? Lupulin maybe? Yeah,
Speaker 1: something like that. We've never I've never had a beer
Speaker 1: by these guys before war, but yeah, what we were thoughts,
Speaker 1: Are this a brewery out of Minnesota? I've heard good
Speaker 1: things picked us up at the local package store. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and chocolate peanut butter porter. The first thing you think
Speaker 1: about is a Reese's peanut butter cup, And you know,
Speaker 1: had elements of that for sure, but it wasn't over
Speaker 1: the top at the same time, so I thought it
Speaker 1: was approachable. It had those nice chocolate and peanut butter notes.
Speaker 1: Going on with Halloween coming up makes me think I'm gonna, uh,
Speaker 1: stealing some of my little girls Reese's peanut butter cups,
Speaker 1: and I'll be reminded of the speer when I when
Speaker 1: I do. Is that your favorite Reese's peanut butter cups? No,
Speaker 1: it's not. It's not that's your favorite. So I really
Speaker 1: like the like the gummy worms. Man, I'm a gummy
Speaker 1: So you're a sugar kind of guy. Yeah, So when
Speaker 1: we divide up the candy, you always you gotta have
Speaker 1: the sugar bucket and then you have the chocolate bucket.
Speaker 1: Give me some of those kittles, because you can't mix
Speaker 1: them together if you got them. If you leave them together,
Speaker 1: they'll start to taste like each other. All the chocolate
Speaker 1: ends up tasting like fruit, and you don't want that. Terrible.
Speaker 1: I prefer the chocolate bucket unless with the sugar guy.
Speaker 1: And so for me, peanut butter cups there they rank
Speaker 1: up there, and so do snicker bars. See, we would
Speaker 1: have been perfect butter fingers as well. It would be
Speaker 1: perfect if we were friends as kids. So we could
Speaker 1: have swapped candy Um after Halloween. It was destined to
Speaker 1: be for me, man, I I really enjoyed this beer
Speaker 1: and it wasn't overly sweet. And I bet that's probably
Speaker 1: why you like this one. I know you don't like
Speaker 1: beers that are too sweet, and with us one being
Speaker 1: a peanut butter porter, it definitely could have gone that way. Obviously.
Speaker 1: I think it would have been a little more sweet
Speaker 1: if it was a stout, but with it being a porter,
Speaker 1: it was lighter in body, but it was also lighter
Speaker 1: in sugar. It kind of finished out a little bit dry.
Speaker 1: And you know what, it kind of made me think
Speaker 1: of the old school candy. And I think I've said
Speaker 1: this before, but a bit of honey or bit oh honey,
Speaker 1: or like Mary Jane maybe like like one of those
Speaker 1: old old school candies, uh, that are kind of like toffee,
Speaker 1: but they kind of have peanut butter and peanuts mixed
Speaker 1: into him. That's what this reminded me of. I don't
Speaker 1: know why I just stuck out in my mind. It
Speaker 1: took me back to a time before I was even born.
Speaker 1: But I enjoyed this woman. Glad you picked it up.
Speaker 1: Glad we got to share it together today on the episode,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna be it for today. Our listeners can
Speaker 1: find our show notes up on our website at how
Speaker 1: to money dot com and up there will also make
Speaker 1: sure to link to Zona's site. And if you've been
Speaker 1: listening to this show for a while and you haven't
Speaker 1: left a review, well, Matt and I would massively appreciate
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Speaker 1: a quick second leave us a kind review letting us
Speaker 1: know what you think of the show. It helps other
Speaker 1: people find out about the content we're creating so that
Speaker 1: more people can be positively affected with good money information.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it, so thanks in advance. All Right, Matt,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode. Until next time,
Speaker 1: best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.