Hey everyone, Matt here! I’m taking over the blog this week to tell you all about our Airbnb journey! In February 2021, I was sitting in my office, and I just happened to see a couple of stories my realtor friend had on her profile. It was this property she was about to bring online in Running Springs, about an hour from us in the mountains.

Now, Lisa and I never grew up in the mountains; in fact, between the both of us, I bet we could count on one hand how many times we’ve both been to a mountain range. But we were intrigued by it and thought it would be so neat to invest in a property like that for a long-term addition to our portfolio (and a fun escape for our family). Now, Lisa wasn’t immediately on board (mainly because I bring a lot of ideas to her daily, and I’m sure it’s overwhelming), but like most things, I knew she’d come around!

I called Lauren (our realtor) and told her we were interested in the property, and when we got there, we were immediately in love with the mountains. The property, on the other hand, was not up to our standards; we knew it’d be work, but looking at the location, we both knew it would be worth it (well, mainly me but remember, folks, we’re getting Lisa to come around to these things)! We dove in, purchased it, and a month later were in the thick of demolition; this is where this house’s story starts to get interesting because we thought we were demo kings. We thought we knew all things demolition, and this would be a walk in the park. *insert hysterical laughter here*

I borrowed so many tools to help demo this property and it was my job to have the dumpster delivered so we’d be set to put all the trash there on demo day. Now, when I ordered the dumpster, the girl asked me if I wanted a 4-yard or a 40-yard dumpster; now, I’m not a genius, but that’s a huge difference. Obviously, the 40-yard is big right? It’s commercial-sized and gigantic so I thought, ‘I don’t need anything that big, I’ll just get the small one’. Again, insert hysterical laughter here. So, we get going on demo, and within three hours, the dumpster is completely full, and I’m talking drywall, cabinets, toilets, tile, and everything you can imagine. Now our day is stuck. We’re at a standstill. What’s a demo crew to do? In true fashion we started throwing the debris over the balcony, taking loads of trash downstairs, and piling it in the garage (this obviously made it more complicated in the long run since now we had to put it in two different places). That’s lesson number one, always go with the bigger dumpster.

Here is lesson number two. It was time to do tile demolition, and I thought I came so prepared with my tiny little chisel and whatever kind of muscle I thought I had. When I tell you this was back-breaking work, I mean it was back-breaking work. I kept thinking there had to be a better way to do this because I was only breaking small bits of tile at a time. I whipped my phone out and googled “tile chipping machine,” and sure enough, there was one available for rent at Home Depot. Perfect. I brought this savior of a machine to the property, and what would have taken me hours upon hours took me 15 minutes. Lesson number 2, use the right tools.

Ready for lesson number three? When it came down to painting, we wanted a color called “Simply White” by Sherwin Williams. We love that color, it’s the perfect shade of white, and we use it frequently in our properties. When we picked it up, we thought it looked a little yellow but thought maybe it was just the lighting (yes indeed, insert hysterical laughter again). Once the painters got the wall painted, and we drove up, we immediately looked at each other with a horrified, “oh no” look. It was a green tint of white. Green. After a disappointing preview, we headed back, and Sherwin Williams gave us our money back to get the right color. In the same breath, for our exterior paint, we went with “Soji White” by Sherwin Williams and had the painter do the whole house in this color. We were so excited to see it and when we drove up, it was this God-awful white color – we both looked at each other with a “this again?” look. We had to repaint the exterior for the second time so now, we are painting professionals everyone! That’s lesson three: always check your paint as many times as you need to ensure it’s the right color before telling the painters to look at it.

We really wanted to put our handprint on this property, so the contractor let us prime walls and assemble cabinets; we’d do that 2-3 times per week. I remember sitting on the freezing plywood floors with this tiny microwave in the middle of the room, eating our warmed-up meals in beanies, pants, and gloves. I love that memory though, eating warm food in a freezing house. The kids would come and help paint and demo too, so we truly have so much blood, sweat, and tears in this property.

I love seeing the entire thing come together, from design to paint to furnishings! We were lucky to have a Pottery Barn Outlet right by us, so Lisa would find an amazing piece of furniture and tell me to drive there and grab it quickly; since it’s an outlet, if you miss it, it’s gone! If you’ve ever been to our properties, you’ll notice a lot of them have Pottery Barn furniture, and that’s a big reason why. When we built this house, it was during covid, so there were a ton of supply chain issues, but we were thriving! Snagging great furniture left and right!

Here’s the scoop; we currently have three properties, two are active, and one will come online soon. Deep Creek One was purchased in February 2021 and went live July 2021. Vista Lago was found in March 2021 and completed in October 2021 (from October to March 2022 we were doing all of the installations like window coverings, paint, etc.). We went live with that property in March 2022. In February 2022, we noticed our neighbor at Deep Creek One was moving out, and we very subtly (ok, not at all) asked if we could peek inside. We fell in love with the wood beams and made them an offer. We jumped into escrow super quickly, and Deep Creek Two was completed in October 2022. Our big goal is to have ten properties active, from small to large!

I get asked all the time about what advice I’d give someone who wants to do what I do with Airbnb’s, and the very first thing I always say is, do your research. I mean it. Talk with people who have been doing this for a while and who own multiple properties, talk to them about their strategy. Network. Get in groups who do what you do and bounce ideas off each other. Pick a location you’d personally like to visit as a vacation destination, but also make sure it has the ‘it’ factor. Maybe you pick somewhere by a lake, river, or a mountain range – what makes it unique? Pick a destination market like a desert lake, a beach, or maybe somewhere close to an attraction like Disney World, wherever people are drawn to.

Once you have this up and running, have an amazing cleaning or service crew that you can lean on; this is one of the most important things. We are so lucky to have a team who treats our home like it’s their home. In some cases, they are more particular about the house than we are! There are many websites out there that will give you rental data on Airbnb’s, activity levels in specific markets and forecasting projected income.

What do you need to start? Well, a few things. 

• One. Cash. Let’s be honest here, you need money to buy a house. You can source funds through loans or investors, but you’ll need patience. 

• You’ll also need one hell of a work ethic; this isn’t easy work. It’s way more work than I ever anticipated, but it’s also something we are undeniably passionate about. 

• You’ll need to plan marketing strategies, pricing strategies, and ways to monitor your performance.

We’ve learned so much and are constantly learning more and more about the industry we’re in. Right now, we’re looking at the wine country in California, beach properties, Palm Springs and Phoenix, which is currently in the top ten Airbnb markets! We love the west coach based solely on logistics and easy access (our son, Cole, is going to college in Phoenix, and we need to see him a lot too).

Bottom line. It’s a great business opportunity, but more than that, we love serving guests and allowing them to experience our beautiful properties. We can’t wait to have you! Thanks for letting me jump on the blog this week, and remember, get the tile chipping machine!