what's up guys Matt Faircloth here have you ever stayed in Airbnb before today's video is going to
be teaching you guys how to own airbnbs today we're going to talk about airbnbs as cabins in
the mountains phenomenal places that people like to go near cool assets like Dollywood and stuff
like that my friend Lacy is going to talk to us about owning cabins in the Smoky Mountains you
can apply the Lessons Learned here to any Airbnb conversation out there but what I got from this
conversation is a quick tip before we get in you've got to have the right operator partner in
the market Leslie's located in the Smoky Mountains soon to be in Colorado Rockies as well and so you
need operators that are seasoned like hers are that can help you guys find the right deals and
get them operating and running Leslie's going to talk to us about how to make it the latter
so let's bring her in now and we can hear all about the Airbnb world and what it takes to
be successful great great thank you so much for joining me today thanks for having me so Leslie
and I have been friends for a while uh because of my wife's real estate invest her community
that I met Leslie at originally and heard it bumped into each other at the best ever con BEC
best ever conference out in Salt Lake City and we got to talking and she won believe it or not just
because she's my friend she put her name into a raffle and she won this raffle to do the advice
with Matt and I'm like uh oh you and and Leslie now friends we got into chatting and stuff like
that supposed to be a mentoring call but uh you know what let's just talk airbnbs so Leslie thank
you so much for joining us today thank you thanks for having me sorry for those of y'all that are
watching that I know the super easy answer to the super basic question but what is the Airbnb
I know it's not really it's like Xerox it's not really that's not really the name of it it's a
short-term rental so let's go there what is a short-term rental teach us that and then we'll
get into smokies and cabins and all that jazz well they're short-term rentals and then there's
vacation rentals and their short-term vacation rentals so Somewhere In the Mix of that is where
I ended up Landing I'm in vacation markets um like you said looking to move into Colorado do the same
thing but I'm targeted on places that people can go create dreams and memories with their family
and loved ones in a cool house or a cabin or sometimes it's even like a ski and ski out condo
um but yeah they're going on vacation and they don't want to stay at a hotel so it's another
option and I mean I have two young kids so I'd rather not stay in a hotel I'd rather have them
have their own room and have my wife and I have our own room so we don't have to both
all everybody go to bed at seven o'clock you know so it's nice to have you like okay tuck them in
and you know like my wife and I can stay up and do some adulting and do whatever else we want to do
right you can't do that in a hotel you can do that kind of environment at home but you can't do it in
hotels and what I've found is a vacation rental give you that kind of home feel while you're away
totally and just like Airbnb I mean there was that rental by owner verbo VRBO way before like years
before Airbnb it's like you know Uber you might take a lift and said but you call it like it's
just it's turned into a buzz term so Us in the industry we like to say Str yeah because we don't
want to you know we want a direct book through our own direct bookings websites and just have a
marketing channel as Airbnb so that's it in the nutshell all right so Leslie let's get into the
nuts and bolts of vacation rental shall we let's go all right you're you're doing the Airbnb thing
out in the Smoky Mountains yep okay do you live out that way too yeah I live in Nashville which
is about three and a half hours from all the cabins that I own I was just telling Vinnie
I'm like I just launched in Colorado yesterday I made the decision that I'm going to move into
the Rockies so I'm going to do Smoky Mountains and Rocky Mountains Smokey Rockies I'm going to
be known as the cabin woman for some yeah good how are you funding those deals so right now I'm
just spending those deals out of cash flow my own pocket and I typically do dscr lending structure
I have a bunch of different lenders that I use I'm not particular about who I use just whoever I
know can perform and close the deal are you at the growth Pace you want to be at like do you
want to do a deal or two a year to add one or two properties your portfolio are you looking to like
hockey stick I mean I'm just looking to bolt in what makes sense so my unique thing is that
I'm a licensed agent and I also own the property management company what I'm trying to do is use
myself to just be like the center of the gravity for all of it have been approached by people that
have money that are like let me just give you some money and you can just I'm like hey I'm like I can
help you buy it and then I can have my other company manage it that's kind of how it's set
up yeah but I do get approached a lot just because of the nature of the fact that I own the property
management company and me I don't have no Partners in any of it a unique proposition for like Capital
raising I guess but I haven't done that no do you want to do that I mean I've considered it
it's like a whole nother that it's a big thing it's another thing yeah Capital raising by itself
isn't a thing you can make that easy enough right but the business scaling that happens is the thing
right because you could raise Capital enough that where you could be buying instead of two deals a
year like 15 20 30 deals a year it could be less right but that's there's a whole business side of
the Acquisitions thing that you got to deal with there's Acquisitions and Ops that have to get
Scaled way up you start raising money from other people private Capital increases your business
velocity and your business capacity on everything else it gets accelerated by by private Capital if
you're this big you start raising private Capital you have to do this on everything else too so
are you happy are you comfortable where you're at now yeah like I had a couple of years in a
row where I bought like five properties a year and then last year I bought probably four but
they were kind of it wasn't just like brand new adding five more doors it was a little different
than that that's a lot for for the Airbnb world that's a lot of doors yeah this is a lot that
goes into these it's not like buying an apartment building it's like Plug and Play I mean you gotta
work on brand and Furniture I mean Liz and I stayed in Airbnb this past week abysmal terrible
yeah the oven didn't work the whole time we were there there was a hot tub that smelled like a foot
or no the owner the whole time I'm going back and forth with her she's sending me feedback and stuff
like that and then finally she's like oh excuse me a message so this is really the owner you've
been dealing with my assistant the whole time like because she had a VA that was doing her stuff she
had 61 units on her profile oh wow yeah my fault I booked this property they had three reviews
their average review on three reviews three point eight percent no 3.8 like anything under like a 4
rating system would be different but like a four star is bad so if you're ready because it was it
forget it didn't work man we won yeah she refunded me she gave me about 30 of my housing costs back I
mean we do that I own a cabin personally that's got issues with the well it'll occasionally run
out of water up a gas doesn't have water that's like a come on you don't want to talk yeah right
but even if you don't have like the hot tub where the hot tub smells like a foot or whatever you
indicated like that's still a really bad that's right and it was one thing after another it wasn't
like one flute the hot tub stinks the oven didn't work yes I keep going the AC didn't work this Rec
Center that you're supposed to get badges to use the badges they gave us were dated 2020.
do complain about that you know oh it's an outside fire pit that has a gas knob powered by propane so
the knob had broken off I can't let it outside fire oh I'm gonna sit in handyman the handyman
didn't show up for the fireplace oven still didn't work the whole time we were there the
stove top worked yeah but my niece who wanted to make me gluten-free cookies couldn't do it
because the oven wasn't working the whole time oh do you put artwork on your walls on airbnbs yeah
one hanging piece of anything I noticed that and I was like this place didn't have any soul
for sure yeah you said that she had a VA and she had 60 plus listings 61. wow so it could
be somebody that's like co-hosting that's common in this there's no way this woman has 61 units
yeah there's no way that these owners that are having like she probably doesn't own them all
she's probably co-hosting for people presenting herself as a fixer because I think that there's
an owner that couldn't get Airbnb to work and she's got an online co-hosting business what's
a co-host yet like what's her faith co-hosts could be 10 or 15 percent but like Professional Property
Management is more like 25 and up it could be as high as I've seen some places charge 45 but
they're doing everything you're licensing your taxes facilitating payments you literally just
get like a statement and a check or we do direct deposit do you want to do more of that that's
what I am doing it's Josh's cabins we're more like 25 to 35 it just depends on the property
and how much work it's going to be and where it fits into our territory and our existing teams
so could somebody approach you to like I want to buy in the smokies and you would broker the sale
connect them up to your dscr mortgage broker and then once they close would you for a fee like
airbnbi the property for them and trick it out and put in the Fancy Pants couches and the cool
artwork and all that you would do all that stuff for them yes that's exactly what we're doing we're
like we took one on in Gatlinburg just recently boners were there they did like a bunch of work
inside the place but there were still a few little things that we wanted to do for them to make it
like make the most rent it could make bump it up you know charge Hefty fees for that it's kind of
just like a service there's a small markup for stuff if people want to give you money for deals
right that's how I'm set up today and everything I own I own hundred percent with no Partners the
investing I do in the DeRosa group is different that's a different business that I own that yeah
is like a self-directed IRA but everything else I'm doing is active it's active versus Packard I'm
proud to say I'm your passive investing outlet but so we want to be for people that want to
buy in the Smoky Mountains so they can't protect them in a active business yeah it can be viewed
as passive too owning in the Smokies yeah tell me look I want to buy a house Smoky Mountains okay
what are like the three criteria that I have to know when I'm looking for a house
in the Smokies the area needs to be within 20 minutes of either Dollywood or the island or
the aquarium there's like three major like tourist things in three towns so it's like
a triangle okay what's the island it's a theme park in Pigeon Forge okay so we have Dollywood
and Sevierville the islands in Pigeon Forge and then the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg
so that gives us the trifecta of the area okay and how far apart are these things
not very far so if I stayed in one Airbnb is it possible to access all three of them yeah
okay yeah but you want you want your house or your cabin okay cabin that's the other one of the three
it needs to be a cabin because guests are coming to stay in an rustic cabin but your cabin needs to
be within a 20-minute Drive of one of those three places otherwise it's too far it's 40 minutes it's
too far yeah so yeah I know investors that try to buy out of the Smoky like it's still the Smokies
but it's a little further out and not just you don't rent as well yeah near one of the three
major major assets major magnets right you're gonna be there it's got to be a cabin it needs
to be a cabin it needs to look and feel like a cabin now I have some that are not your true Log
Cabin it doesn't need to be a true log cabin but it needs to like look and feel special rustic like
a city boy like myself can come and stay and tell myself I'm living in the country for a little bit
right yep okay the third thing would be it needs to have a pool table a hot tub and a Mountain View
or anything special like I saw one that was listed recently on a pond and that looked really cool in
the photos like it needs to be it can't just be some dusty cabin in the forest or you need
to have like a trail in the there's yeah there's a whole like metric around this but the mountain
views really do they sell themselves you list them and they just stay rented let's pretend I abide by
Leslie's rules and I got myself house with a hot tub with the pool table with a Mountain View near
Dollywood do you have a sweet spot bed and bath count that you like or do you not care are you
agnostic to that mostly what I own is two beds two baths really yeah you can bring like a whole Army
full of kids and all that yeah like I have some that make over 100 Grand a year that sleep four
people that's awesome they do really well and now the biggest one I manage is a five bed five bath
um it's massive and there's some even larger than that there's definitely business to be had
for any size but if you're looking at like a one bed one bath that's too small I own a couple that
only have one bathroom and they the performance is not as good as two bathrooms so you like two
bedrooms two baths your that's your sweet spot so it just depends on pops up on the market but block
that five bath I did sell to the buyer and I am managing it and it was like 1.8 million so you're
talking about two two very different budgets I bought one for 6.75 and one for 7.75 and then
my client bought one for 1.85 it's all relative right okay and maybe that's what that was the real
answer is that it's relative to like a two bedroom or three bedroom's gonna sell as you said for five
six seven somewhere in there in a five bedrooms yourself 1.8 million but they're the rent fee on
either of them is going to be is going to scale compared to beds and baths and square footage
right okay cool yeah all right like when I work I buy I do buy leads through Bigger Pockets I'm
a premium agent on their own and then most of the people I'm working with they are new investors
or their first time investors and their budget is going to dictate a tutu they're not going to come
up with one point their budget most of them are like shopping 600 to 800 000 and some maybe even
a little bit less like half a million and I'm like oh it's gonna be tough to get them out in view two
bed two bath for half a million what's the what are the DSC or other ones kicking in towards that
these days well it's all right advertised recently it was like 8.25 so they're very expensive and you
got to put down 20 or 25 but a lot of these new first-time investors they can take advantage of
conventional mortgages either vacation home Second Home Loans or investment loans and do 10 or 15
down at like six something percent so that's not an option for me my portfolio is too large yeah I
have 13 Doors in the portfolio so it's I can't do any more conventional I'm capped out okay
to them like why wouldn't you try to do it originally if you could the only bad thing is
they can't structure it within an LLC they need to buy it in their personal name yeah because
the bank is viewing it as a second home right yeah okay and in that situation the bank's not
going to care that their Airbnb for Revenue right dscr is it could be an LLC loan right okay yeah in
the name of the LLC and then if they do buy it in their personal name with a conventional mortgage I
have recommendations on how they insure the place to make sure that they're covered on a personal
level it's like a triplicate policy that we do yeah it's not just homeowners insurance it's got
commercial liability and all this other stuff loss of rent and yeah so it's there's a whole
strategy around if you're going to buy it in your personal name to protect yourself there's a lot
to this thing guys it's like Finance Insurance there's a lot to it that's why you need somebody
over like Leslie who can talk to you about this kind of stuff right uh so let me transition
let's pretend I got this house I took your advice cabin you got the cabin it's not a house's cabin
it's got a pool table got a hot tub got a cool view right but I just bought it and I want I'm
gonna put it on Airbnb give me a deeper cut on the decor conversation and on online marketing
and what do I got to do to get my revolving door going for people coming in and out of there yeah
most of them are going to be sold TurnKey but I recommend that you go and lay on the
bed sit on the couch look in the kitchen cupboards make sure the oven's working
those basic things it probably needs to be deep cleaned check the windows the windows probably
need to be washed walk around the outside because we do have a bear problem it'll look like someone
littered but really just a bare tour through your trash can so go around and do a trash pickup it's
obvious stuff and then yeah just making sure that it's some place you would want to stay that's why
I said lay on the bed sit on the couch I've done a lot of theming like the last few I bought I did
like a theme and I just literally took down one of my properties and changed it from Bear theme
to Dolly Parton so there is like opportunity to do something special and cool like over the top like
I painted walls pink I painted cabinets pink we went crazy great but I bet the people love it they
probably great reviews photos yeah professional photos don't list it with your iPhone photos don't
list it with the MLS photos from when you bought it because you can get sued for that so you need
a professional photographer that's probably going to cost you 500 it's expensive but it's worth it
people are making an online emotional decision when they book your place the awful Airbnb that
I stayed in it was very clear those photos were taken well before I got there because the photos
were the absolute best the photos look fantastic they'd like a drone photo of like the outside
the hospital looking down on it and everything like that it was awesome but look nothing like
those pictures did I highlight one more thing you said and that's to go there and I've seen
a bunch of airbnbs and it's very clear that the person that is offering Airbnb the host did not
has not stayed there because it's like they would have realized hey there's no Tupperware
anywhere in this house there's two knives in the drawer there's one spoon no can opener right
what happens is so your experience is like years down the road so she's getting the same
messaging from everybody staying there and she's not going in and doing what you said like making
sure stuff's fixed and it works people will start paying less rent because the rating of the place
is dropping and then you start getting a different quality of guests booking the place that then
steals things so then they'll take a fork because they want to eat something on their drive home or
stuff like that and so that's why you want to get a property management but I think that a lot of
times your task has become degraded to become party houses and it probably doesn't happen as
much in the Smokies more people are just booking an Airbnb because they want to have their friends
over and get stupid like wreck a house that it doesn't matter that you do it and all that maybe
the host either doesn't care doesn't know what's going on but who wants that right Leslie this was
such an amazing conversation you've honestly made me I might be calling you to buy something in the
Smokies because it is something that Liz and I have looked into and what I really got from
this is with the right operator and the right property management team this can become a lot
more hands-off for someone who wants to own something passively and a really alternative
investment you know we offer apartment buildings as you know but this is something so different
than anything else that's out there you're really offering up space in the recreation department and
if you do it right you're creating spaces that are unique enough that they're creating helping
create memories for families and something that's so unique that's such a different experience than
they get a hotel thank you for educating me with this no this has been great I love
leslie.anne with an E so a n e dot Morris so Leslie Dot and Dot Morris and then my personal
website where I have all my companies and every all my investing you can even look at what's in
my portfolio it's Leslie and morris.com Leslie and morris.com check it out she
is the cabin lady you guys gonna be hearing more about her Leslie thank you so much for
joining us today for this and uh guys check out Leslie on her feeds that she just said thanks
for joining us Leslie talk to you soon thank you if you like this video here's a few more
you might like too thanks again for watching make sure you subscribe and like this video
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