- Know who Lauren Coats is, how, and why she started her Airbnb hosting business.
- Things necessary to be successful in managing and running a rental business
- The biggest challenges she faced in her business and how this made her grow and transform.
- How property management can be like running a circus.
- How the pandemic presented some challenges for Airbnb hosts
- Ways to create shortcuts in their business operations to free up time.
- How to check the legality of your business before you start.
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Website: https://www.exitstrategiesradioshow.com
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
- FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/exitstrategiessc/
Life Hack Journey: Creating Wealth thru AirBnb Hosting
CORWYN:
Good morning, good morning and good morning guys welcome to another amazing episode of EXIT Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I’m your host, yes that is me Corwyn J. Melette Broker and Owner of EXIT Realty LowCountry Group in beautiful, beautiful North Charleston South Carolina. So y’all know what I say, if this is your meaning your first time listening to this show, you sir or ma’am are in for a treat because our mission is very simple that is to empower our community and financial literacy and real estate education guys we are hashtag legacy building that is what we do. So when you’re doing those things in your community, for your family, but those that are in your circle, guys, that’s what we’re doing. We’re building and creating a legacy. So I want y’all to go ahead right this moment, I mean, right this second and go ahead and get a pen and a pad, note you go get one pad with one piece of paper on it. I need you to go ahead and get a pad that is full, okay? And get a pen to go with and don’t you get the pen or pencil that’s at last of the lead or the last of the ink that you got to try to get all this stuff so you can write this stuff down? Guys, we are super duper excited today. Super excited. Oh God, I’m so excited. So welcome to our show today. Miss Lauren Coats now. I gotta give you a snippet about Lauren. So Lauren is my running joke with her, she is a Hostess with the Mostest. So she has an Airbnb Educator and Business Development Specialist who has personally welcomed over 4000 travelers as an Airbnb host. She’s the author of Airbnb Beginner’s Guide on how to set up and run your own Airbnb business. That book is on Amazon so guys go check that out. An official Airbnb Brand Ambassador, and also the creator of Airbnb Express, starts hosting in 14 days. Look, she started her Airbnb business in California in 2016, got financial freedom, automated her business and became a remote travel host. All right. And now, look here, as she’s with us today, she’s in another country and I’m gonna let her tell you where she is. She lives lifestyle designs with Airbnb business coaching, and teaches others how to research their local vacation rental market, write a business plan, create a strategy and launch a profitable new short-term, vacation rental business using data confidence, and most importantly, joy. But look, that was a whole mouthful to say, look here. We got the Hostess with the Mostest. How’re you doing, Lauren?
LAUREN:
Hey, Corwyn thanks so much for that beautiful intro. I’m doing amazing. And I’m so excited to share everything I know with your audience to get them activated and ready to start building their own Airbnb business if that’s what they feel aligned to start doing.
CORWYN:
Awesome. Awesome. So look, before we go too far and long. tell our listeners where you are right now. Because look here, that thing just blew me away. So hold back in, get my office chair seat belt situated over here. Tell our folks where you are right now.
LAUREN:
So I live on a mountain top overlooking a beautiful valley in Brazil in the heart of Brazil and a big, beautiful national park with 1000s of waterfalls and tropical birds. I really am living my goal lifestyle and working remotely on the internet.
CORWYN:
That is priceless. That’s amazing. That’s plain plainly put. Um, so Lauren, tell our listeners if you don’t mind. So they heard the bio. You know, they picked up hey, this is what you did. You started a business in 2016. So what kind of got you to that point?
LAUREN:
Yeah, so I had actually been traveling the world for about five years at that point. And I realized that I wanted to come back to the US and set up a passive business, a business where I could work remotely. And so I flew back to California and as synchronicities of life will sometimes happen, I was put in contact with a bunch of property owners that all wanted to do Airbnb, and they knew I had been traveling for a very long time so I was really coming from the hospitality business. From the point of view of a full-time traveler, looking for Airbnb, looking for guesthouses, looking for hotels, pretty much every night for five years. So I became a manager and I was taking a percentage. So this didn’t require any money for me, it didn’t require any property ownership, all I needed was determination, a little bit of a vision of what I wanted to provide to travelers, and then just the willpower and the dedication to keep learning, learning from my errors, trying new things, seeing how they work, and evolving my systems, my operations, my team, learning best ways to do it. So when I figured that out, and all of a sudden, more property owners were coming to me, because they saw that the money they could make with me was two or three times that of a long-term tenant, I immediately wrote a book and I threw it up on Amazon. And since then I’ve updated it a few times, but I wanted to just pass on this life hack to other people. Because sometimes people think you need to buy a property, or you need to have $5 to $15,000 to set up an Airbnb business. But there are multiple routes you can go if you’re just ready to do the work. A lot of property owners, like perhaps some of your audience, they’re more interested in investing, building equity and expanding the day-to-day cleaning operations is not exactly something they want to be doing with their time.
CORWYN:
Yeah, well wax off. Yeah, I don’t want to do that.
LAUREN:
Exactly. So my goal is really to share that there are so many different strategies to go about this, depending on your desired lifestyle.
CORWYN:
So it’s impressive to read your bio, okay, I mean, look, hats off. If I got a hat on, I need to grab one or something, but hats off to you. You’ve done like you had that, you beat it, you’re like, Nah, I’m out. I’ve lived on top of a mountain, I’m gonna have to be in a beautiful place. And life is gonna be good for me because I’m gonna make income passively. Which is, that’s one of the things that we talk about from our show about legacy and all that stuff. So that was how you got started. What prompted you? Well, let’s talk about this. Because there are so many people, probably some of our listeners who are either thinking about or thinking about maybe trying to explore what were the things that you found when necessary to be successful with managing and running Airbnb.
LAUREN:
Definitely. So like, when you sell a product, or like when, even make a Tinder profile, shall we say, the photography and the listing description is gonna be the most important, the copywriting. What are you saying about the rental? What are you sharing? And what kind of photography are you presenting, as many of your listeners probably know, you go to go on a vacation, and you go to booking.com. And you start to look through the photos and you start to read, well, if there’s too much text, you feel like oh, this, you know, you’re just like next, I don’t want to read all this, it’s too much. And if you look at the photos, and there are too many photos, at this random corner, and that random corner and this blurry photo of the sauna, you’re just like, I don’t, I don’t trust this place if they don’t know how to even put good photos on their listing. So for me to really get the client conversion, to actually start your cash flow, you want to focus on having the best possible photography, and you could speak on this as well I’m sure Corwyn with listings, you need to have wide angle real estate photography, you need to have it look like an interior design magazine, it doesn’t mean it is an Interior Design Magazine space, just the quality of the photos need to be top notch. For me, that’s the only real investment that someone really, really sure needs to make. If they already have a furnished place and they already have some extra sheets. The only thing you really need is to pay your electricity bill, have some toilet paper and get the best possible photography done. So I would say designing your listing to connect with the traveler. It just means describing what they can do there. If you have a back patio, take a photo and say and you know, enjoy a glass of wine or family dinner on the back patio, you spark the imagination of what experience you’re going to provide. And if you’re, if this is the first time you’re hearing this, you may there be a little disconnected but once you read or think about it just a little bit, you know if I was traveling there, what would I want to know about a property? And when you do your competition research, then you can see what other people are doing. You can see what successful hosts are doing and you kind of self-educate yourself on what a good listing looks and feels like. So I would say having a powerful listing that converts is like number one, a few of the more pillar foundational things are very clean, very comfortable, and don’t need to be a gorgeous or show-stopping luxury. It just has to have some comfort level to it. And then I would say do your research. So if someone wanted to start, the most important pillar would be to check out your competition, see how many rentals there are, look on AirDNA that’s going to hold all the vacation rental data, and just write down this information. What are rentals around me making? How much what’s their occupancy rate per month? AirDNA is going to show you all of this data, which then you can just plug into your own business plan. The business plan is very simple, you just write down your initial setup cost. And then you write down every single month, what you can expect to make and what your bills are. And then just type this into your calculator. And you’re ready to know if this is a profitable business. Because not all markets are super profitable places where the rent is a little bit higher. And there are a lot of vacation rentals or hotels, so the price might be a little bit more competitive. This may not be the ideal market for short term, two to four days. But you can always go for Furnished Finder and for 30-Day furnished rentals for traveling professionals and traveling nurses. That’s an incredible market, especially because it doesn’t require you to be managing your cleaners and doing all this turnaround of talking to guests. So this is a more passive style if you’re going to do it yourself and still get way more than you would get with a long-term tenant
CORWYN:
Yeah, and that’s interesting. You know, they asked for me and no people do that. And you know, one thing as far as the longer term rentals or what have you, that’s huge. Because it’s a game-changer. When you’re Airbnb and, I mean, for lack of a better way to put it, almost like you’re running a hotel. So you got to turn all that other stuff to manage the cleaners. You know, if you got a property that has a lawn, you got to cut grass, all that other stuff. And you don’t want to cut, you have grass cut while guests are there. So it has to happen in the window between people. And sometimes you got somebody leaving it at 12 o’clock today and somebody else coming in at four o’clock today. So you got four hours, it’s like that look, that’s like a circus of something going on, right? Hold on. Okay.
LAUREN:
Corwyn, I have so many funny stories. And I will tell you 99.9% of my guests were amazing. And that’s actually why I loved this business and thrived in it because the nicer I was to my clients and the work I did to prepare for them, so more gratitude came my way. And so many repeat guests, and I would get these long letters and long reviews about how I helped to fulfill their dreams. And without me and the tips I gave their family vacation when it’s like, you get so much appreciation back. And I know very few businesses where clients are so kind to the service provider. So I love that. It fed my soul, to be honest. So I did. I ran seven rentals by myself. So there is wiggle room to hire a property manager. If you’re more interested in the investing side, property management is a full-time job and can be a circus. There were those tight windows where I was running around, like calling and looking because something was broken. And the next guest was coming.
CORWYN:
Yeah, yeah, I mean, look at literally the big top, like 10 out. Let’s get elephants in. And we know what elephants do, right? So it’s, it can’t be a myth. It could be entertaining. But Lord, it can be, it could be something else. So how many properties do you currently are over-seeing right now?
LAUREN:
Yeah, so I’ve taken I’ve actually done a little bit of a career position change. The pandemic came and presented some challenges for Airbnb hosts that short, luxury vacation rentals. So in that time, I started to dive deep into new strategies for Airbnb hosting, which is where I got really deep into Furnished Finder and some other places. So then I started doing Business Development Consulting for host friends of mine to help them adjust to the pandemic. And then I was able to basically, like create my own consulting business and work remotely because now remote work in zoom has been very normalized because of the pandemic. So working from Brazil is now super normal and cool in the past. I would absolutely have to be there in the office in person right to have clients. So I oversee now as a co-host about six properties, but I do more of the marketing management. So I’m looking at the statistics, I’m looking at different research. I’m doing the pricing strategy. I’m art directing the photographers. I’m doing more of the sales things, and I let the hosts that live locally there do the cleaner management and the guest’s communications, but I also educate the host about ways that they can create shortcuts in their business operations to free up time.
CORWYN:
So really and truly you help people go from, okay, I want to do this. And that’s actually one of the subjects of the podcasts that you start, you basically how to get started up and running within a couple of weeks, that you take them, quote, unquote, over the hurdles and stuff. So setting, doing the research to understand what’s going on in their particular market, because Airbnb differs from locale to locale, I mean, so I’m in South Carolina and in some parts of our state that does a plethora of short term rentals, vacation rentals, etc. And then you go to some more rural places, and there’s really none, and there’s possibly an opportunity, but also trying to get the data right to understand it. It’s going to be a little bit more challenging because that market hasn’t demonstrated as much of a knee or reception to having a lot of short-term rentals or having them versus where other markets have. People traveled to the coasts, to go to the beach, but people might not go to the country to look at the tobacco fetal. So, that is interesting. So, what has probably been, if you don’t mind, one of the biggest challenges? I’ve definitely got to come back around because of the fact of what you’ve done, we touched on and mentioned early about, you created financial freedom for yourself. But if you don’t mind, what’s been maybe one of the largest challenges that you’ve encountered so far?
LAUREN:
In the business in general? Yes. Oh, I would definitely say that pandemic moment, when there were absolutely no bookings coming in. Some of my clients were doing rental arbitrage. So they didn’t own these properties. And they had big bills. And no, yes. So I would say having to evolve and adapt and go deeper into the market and find new places. You know, we started to partner with real estate agents. So we would say, Hey, if you have any people that are relocating, and they need a place to live, we can do the direct booking for you. And we would give them photos. So we started to basically put out new strategies and into effect, and I would say, there was a moment of not darkness, I would say, but like a little bit of despair, like, “oh, no, what are we going to do now.” But as many of us know, that’s the moment when we grow. That’s the moment when we transform. And sometimes that’s the moment when we fly to the moon.
CORWYN:
That is fair. That is fair. In times of challenge, what do we do? Do we shrink? Or do we grow? Because you got to do one. You got to do one. You can’t stay where you are. The pressure is either going to cause you to compress, or it’s going to launch you to the next level. So that is awesome. That’s awesome. To be transparent, I can’t imagine just kind of thinking about a quote-unquote, out loud, what it was like during that time period with all the uncertainty. I mean there was a lot of uncertainty in everything related to our way of life, to our economy, to everything, there’s so much uncertainty. I can’t imagine what that looked like for you as a leader in this segment, in this industry, and how you felt. That’s woohoo! Look here, look here I bet you were patting your head and heart palpitations and all kinds of stuff. So but you weathered it. So you have created for you to be on top of that now I’m stuck on you on the continent in Brazil, you have truly changed your life, and created the freedom for you to be able to do so. And by the way, that’s a beautiful home that you have. I love the decor in the background, you really have done it. So for someone who is maybe kind of considering, challenged by or otherwise, like, “Well, how do I do this? How do they get started? What should they do?”
LAUREN:
Definitely. So my door is always open. By the way, I do free discovery calls on Calendly. So anyone and everyone can come to chat with me, for 30 to 60 minutes and I’ll just hear what’s going on, what your story is and give you free advice. For me, this is a joy and a pleasure. This is why I’m in this business. I just want to pay it forward. I want to show people the path I’ve already walked. So that’s one. That’s an option. Number two is I would say to type in and go into your local market. So if you are in the middle of nowhere or if you are in a city that’s quite populated, go in and type in your location. If you’re in a big area type in your particular neighborhood, the kind of suburb name or the area of the town, and then zoom in on the map and see how many rentals there are. You can enter and filter by how many bedrooms and baths if it’s the same as your property. And you can also look at all the rentals that exist. And you’re just going to start to get an idea of how many rentals exist, start to look at their listing and see which of these listings impress you and write down these impressions. Like, how many rentals do I think are doing a good job? How many of these places would I never stay at, then you have a little bit of a first idea, then you could make this small investment on AirDNA. It’s about $39 where you can actually see all of the vacation rental data. So you’re going to know exactly the occupancy rate, exactly how much money these hosts around you are making annually, how much they’re making per month, and what’s the high season. What’s the low season? And of course, again, we just want to record this data. And then you need to just run the basic numbers. What are my expenses per year? How much is my rent? If I own this house, how much is my mortgage? What is the electricity cost average per month? And then see what the annual income of a similar Airbnb is around me. And then exactly what are my expenses? If you see a 20, 30, or $40,000 profit, that is a good sign. I will tell you that I also have business plan examples and case studies and templates and things like that that I can share with your audience too so they can see that there are huge profits to be made here. This is not like a little bit of money. The cash flow is outrageous when you have that whole equation balanced. My market supports. I have a powerful listing. I’ve looked at my competition and made a few notes of how I can add things or describe things about my area that they’re not that they’ve forgotten, right extra selling points. And then you just realize that you can take this cash flow and you can reinvest it and you can expand. So that’s beginning due diligence of checking the legality, so there are prior versus secondary residents and the laws differ. Most places don’t have laws, only, kind of, bigger cities and established markets have these permit systems. So just check the legality, and check out your competition. And you know, if it’s feeling good, and your intuition is speaking to you and you feel aligned, and you’re getting more excited, go and pay that fee on AirDNA and do this beginning business plan. You can always come and chat with me and show me and tell me what you’re thinking about. Because the amount of strategies here is really infinite. You know, if you have a farmhouse next to a tobacco field, you can actually create a touristic experience, and you really can build a strategy. And I do think that we’re there are no Airbnbs sometimes this is actually an incredible idea. Because travelers are always looking to move beyond and to go to places. So it’s normal to feel a little bit of fear. But your mindset is like, I’m going to try this out, I’m going to look into it, I’m going to keep going, I really want to see if this is right for me. Because it does take a little effort to do this research. And then of course, your intention. Because if your intention is to make a bunch of money, to build a legacy for your next generation if your intention is to make a bunch of money and invest it so you can then go live your best life and, whatever the intention you’re holding, I do sense that the energy that we live in can magnetize opportunities to you.
CORWYN:
That’s fair. So, we actually have a client who, you touched on something a little earlier about the experiences you give people, the impact that you can have, how you can serve people through and we actually, we’ve been very fortunate and blessed that a lot of people that we work with work for approach all they’re giving as a ministry in the service of others. And in turn, this is also an opportunity for someone who may be, who may have that desire designed for them also to utilize this an opportunity to minister to people because you never know if some people are staying at your property because they’re trying to get away from a bad situation or wherever else they are, wherever else they could stay, it’s going to be a reminder of something that is hurtful or otherwise and them saying that your property and having a good experience. You would mean so much to them and be a joyous occasion versus being one that is full of grief. So you never know. You never know what people are going through. So that is huge Lauren. That is huge. So give our listeners a takeaway. If you’re on the other side listening to the show today, what will be a takeaway? What is something that they should be thinking of No, otherwise understanding about how to implement this, and obviously, we’re going to make sure for our listeners, guys, we’re going to make sure that you have all able to reach Lauren, so please give us a shout, go to our website www.exitstrategiesradioshow.com, hit our links on our bio, all that, catch us on YouTube? But Lauren, what is the takeaway for our listeners today?
LAUREN:
So I will say that if you feel called and excited and interested and this has had your attention, and this has been in the back of your mind for a while, it’s time to take some action steps. And these can be many action steps, but essentially getting out of your comfort zone of thinking about it. And actually taking a step forward to do a little bit of this research and this due diligence, you can give yourself a lot of appreciation for that. It takes courage, it takes bravery, to do entrepreneurship and look on the internet for creative solutions when you have an issue. We live in a creative renaissance on the internet. Everything is there. You can find anything there for the most part. So there are plenty of places to educate yourself and find the answers that you need along your journey. So you’re not alone. That’s kind of my point there. I would say that if you can start to take some action steps, with the mindset of excitement, not with the mindset of stress, there’s nothing to be stressed about. We are opening ourselves to new opportunities, and new possibilities, and we’re using our free will to take some action steps. Okay, if you don’t end up starting an Airbnb, you learned about it. And now you have a new conversation topic. You know, you’ve added another interesting thing in your toolbox that you can share with other people, something that you learned this idea of holding a physical space for travelers, but also holding any emotional space, because travelers in essence are going to a place that they don’t know, sometimes they’re in fear or doubt, or they’re living behind a situation where they have a big expectation for what this vacation or this trip is going to do for their soul. So we’re kind to the travelers, we ask them if they need anything, and we let them know that we care. And we offer some tips on the best of the best locally. If you’re thinking about this, I would say make a personal decision that you can and you will and you are going to take the first step with relaxed grace. And then as you move forward, learning more, you’re going to get more confident. Your intuition is going to start to shine. Is this right for me? Do I want to go for this? Or am I not ready? Or maybe my market doesn’t support this, right? Only when we start to study and learn and try, does it become clear? So I encourage you to take an action step with the much relaxation as you can and start to open the way for yourself.
CORWYN:
That is awesome. Lauren, thank you so much for that. So for our listeners, guys, as we get towards the end of the show, I want to remind you of who Lauren Coats is. All right. So she’s an Airbnb Educator, Business Development Specialist. She’s welcomed over 4,000 travelers as an Airbnb Host. Guys, I said this before she is the Hostess with the Mostest. He’s the Author of Airbnb Beginner’s Guide: How to Set up and Run Your Own Airbnb Business. Guys, you can find that on Amazon. Let’s go ahead and break the platform today. And let’s order this book. She’s a brand ambassador for Airbnb and a Creator of Airbnb Express: Start hosting in 14 days. Look, she has done it. She has quote-unquote, figured out the life hack. I can do this. I can live the life that I want. I don’t have to live in a house here. I can live in a house on that mountain top. I keep having a vision. And guys look, she’s figured it out. So if Lauren can do it, and most importantly, this is the thing that when people like Lauren, thank you so much for being a part of the show and a part of EXIT Strategies Radio Show family. But when people like Lauren guys come on our show, they’re not coming to say hey, look, I’m amazing. They’re saying hey, I figured this out. Hey, let me show you what I did. And there is something to be said about that. Guys, you gotta take advantage and utilize people like Lauren, who are willing to be a resource and a guy to help you guys get your own mountaintop.
LAUREN:
Exactly, exactly. And I will say that sometimes this is actually what happened to me. I had Paradise Syndrome. I just want to go, live on the beach and not work and be totally free, right? But after a certain amount of time doing that, you realize you’re just ready to serve. Once you’ve had your time of like, okay, I made it, there is no destination. Life is a journey. So I then came back and was like, “Okay, how can I make the biggest impact possible? How can I help as many people as possible”, because I found something that changed my life and made all my dreams come true. Yes, I have more dreams. But the main ones that were really needed, I happen to realize, so the course that I’ve made, it’s on Teachable. And it’s basically a program that has video lessons explaining every single thing, from the property management to the cleaning team, to the listing, to the photographer, to finding a space. It’s everything you need to know just with these videos with a workbook. And then each course involves me as well. So I’m going to be your direct mentor, we’re going to talk on Zoom, we’re going to talk on email, and I’m going to help you to develop this unique strategy. If it’s talking to realtors, if it’s talking to local surf coaches, if it’s getting into the network, if it’s targeting nurses, we want to just target also the demographic that you’re comfortable with. So if you want to host baby boomer retirees, we’re going to design your listing for that. If you want to host adventurous people or make an eccentric place, we’re going to do that. So it’s really up to you what your vision is, how you want to structure your life, if it’s going to be passive, or if it’s going to be DIY, all of that is available within this business model. And once you get those first steps, you’re ready to multiply and scale as much as you want.
CORWYN:
Awesome, awesome. Well, Lauren, thank you so much for being on the show with us today. For our listeners’ guys, as we wrap up, we want you to make sure trustfully you guys started making notes. Um, truthfully, you put a note in there for you to go and make sure you listen to this episode again and again. Make sure you have Lauren’s contact, and most importantly that you reach out to Lauren. So she can put you on the right path on the right trajectory to get to where it is that you’re going. I caught something and something you just said about life not being a destination and the reality and it sounds so sobering. But the only destination that we have is that. So the rest of it, the things that we get to enjoy the journey, and you have figured out the hack on enjoying the journey. So for our listeners that want to do the same, y’all please reach out to Lauren, y’all please, please, please take the course if you’re ready. But most importantly, do And some of you may just start by renting out a room versus renting out your whole house. Some of you may start with, Okay, I’m gonna go stay with my family for a week and rent my house out for a week. And that’s a hack. Because now that we may make your mortgage payment for the month, you go hang out with your brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, or whatever for a week or a long weekend or something. So there are so many different things that you guys can do to change the narrative and that’s what we’re about here about creating and building your legacy. So for our listeners, one final time, in closing, you know what I always say to all of you guys, what I always say to all of you, I love you. I love you. I love you. And I will see you guys out there in the streets.
