Do you dream about owning your own Airbnb? Are you afraid you’re too busy with life and family to become an investor? Do you wish you could learn from someone in a life stage like you who succeeded?
If so, If so, don’t miss Episode 94 of the Host Coach Airbnb Investing Podcast where the Kellers share how they went from dream to Airbnb reality while juggling two full-time jobs and three kids under the age of six!!
Read on to learn the Keller’s advice for how to save money as you prepare an Airbnb for market, and how important it is to involve your family and friends in the process. They also share how you can get over your fears and get started on your own investing journey!
Topics discussed in this episode:
- How to get over your fears and start your Airbnb investing journey
- The importance of self-education before you begin investing
- What to expect when it comes to setting timelines for completion and launch
- The sacrifices to anticipate when preparing your Airbnb for market
- How to incorporate fun for family members helping with your project
- The hidden joy of being an Airbnb host
- Why you should involve your first few guests in selecting amenities
- How to save money as you outfit your Airbnb
Host Coach Airbnb Podcast Episode 94 Show Notes:
How did you guys get into Airbnb investing?
I think I was always like the dreamer of looking at properties and just trying to find something, but could never like really pull the trigger on anything. That's where I depended on Lauren to finally reach out to our realtor loan officers to try and get this ball moving in the right direction.
I was done with how many properties he just kept showing me on his phone. I was like, "Cool, great, awesome. Now do something - let's do something!" I'm also the one that is really into we have to be educated and we have to be informed. I was like, "Before we can do any of that, I have to really make sure that we at least have some education before we dive in." Lauren read your book, and I read another book from another short term rental company. Lauren fell in love with the Host Coach Airbnb Investing book and the rest is history for us with meeting you and getting everything set up.
You're Not Too Busy for an Airbnb Business
And for those of you out there that might be thinking "I'm too busy for this." I coached Lauren and Michael, so I know a little bit about their story. You're married, you both have full-time jobs, and you have how many kids under the age of what?
We have three kids. And when we started our Airbnb investment our baby was six to nine months - I don't even know. But our kids currently are seven, four, and one. So we are busy to say the least. It's probably the busiest season of our life, so why not start right around the holidays? What a great time to start, we were bored, right? We had nothing better to do. Truthfullym we were at this point where, if we just keep looking and wondering what if, then it's never going to happen. We have to find the courage and take the opportunity to pull the trigger on becoming Airbnb investors.
Airbnb Investing with the Goal of Financial Freedom
What were your goals going into Airbnb investing
Our ultimate goal, like anybody else is financial freedom. Maybe like in 10 years from now, we have all these properties and that's our full-time job. We can also bring our kids in travel whenever they have breaks in school and not have to worry about it. And just that overwhelming cost of increases with daycare and stuff like that, maybe we wouldn't have to worry about that anymore because we'd be making all of this passive income and not having the day-to-day hustle and bustle of a regular nine to five job.
We're still in the very baby phase of Airbnb investing. Ultimately, we tell our girls that when we're working on the property, we're doing this so that we have more opportunities for traveling. We really want our girls to see the world as well as different of the United States first. Then we have hopes and aspirations to visit different parts of the world. We have to take it one step at a time, but ultimately that's what we would like to be able to do - create those memories with our family.
I can tell you it's not always easy, but the first Airbnb investment is the hardest. It gets easier and easier. We're living that life you want... and that life is possible and amazing, especially being able to have time with your children, travel with your children! We lived internationally for a year with our son because we could, and we wanted him to experience that. So those are very attainable dreams and I think you're very much on the right track for that. That's a great why for getting started as investors.
Airbnb Investing Fears
Did you have any fears as you began your first property?
I think our biggest fear was not just finding the right property, but once we found it what's next with designs and things like that. Also, how to file Airbnb taxes and how to create an LLC and doing all of those backend things to make sure like your property is in the right spot come tax season.
Also, the risk of financially doing this as a family, right? Michael and I have been together for a long time, so when it was just he and I making decisions for just us financially we're like, "okay, we've got this." But when you have three little ones in addition to yourselves -it's a bigger risk. The other fear for me, as an overachiever, being able to find balance between our jobs, our parenting, and just our home. It's a lot.
What was the hardest part of your process?
Managing two full-time jobs, and managing three kids every weekend. We'd go down to the cabin to do renovations every weekend, and keeping that on track as well as figuring out at three or four in the morning after a long night (because that's what we had to do to get projects done) sitting there on the couch looking around and deciding what's the next thing that we need to do? How do we keep a good timeline and continue to be good parents in the same? It's it was definitely hard to process all of those things.
Balancing what we needed to do - versus what we wanted to do - versus what was going to make the most impact on the guest experience and for return on investment. And obviously that's where we leaned on you guys and your book a lot, but it's still hard when you're in your space, your design, your element, you have to make things specific to what your goals are as well. Sometimes at three o'clock in the morning we'd be laying there on the floor like, "Wait, what's next? What do we do? How do we still have more projects to do?"
Involving Family in Your Airbnb Business
I think I recall you saying your girls were really having a good time at the cabin during this process. I know you guys were working late nights, but they were really enjoying themselves. Is that right?
They were, Callie, our youngest, was getting really mobile at the time, so that made it a little bit tricky. But I can't tell you how many box houses and crazy adventures the girls were going on, We made it memorable, to say the least. And it was fun to include them in the process.
The kids did help paint some of the cabinets, redo the bathrooms, and cut wood. They played a lot of games and we made sure to make it a family affair for sure. We could've probably had our Airbnb done a month sooner if we threw out all the fun times that we took. But it, it was worth it to make the memories. And we have a hill on the side of our cabins and we unfortunately, got a lot of snow there this past year, but we brought sleds down and the girls would have fun. We went sledding down the side of the hill on the side of the cabin. Just making those memories was definitely worth it.
Not to be working on the cabin for an hour or two and not to derail, but actually were able to meet some of the neighbors in the surrounding area. By doing that, we were able to reach out and be like, "Hey, you have a snowmobile. What can we pay you to plow our driveway when we need it?" And stuff like that. So we got to meet some members of the community as well.
Timeline: From Search to Launch First Airbnb Listing
How long did it take you to go from finding that property Michael showed you on the phone to getting it listed on Airbnb?
We started looking seriously in October. We knew we wanted the cabin property - we knew what we were looking for and by December we had found a property and we closed on it the second week of December. We celebrate Christmas so the timing wasn't ideal for that. But we went from a mid-December closing to taking our first Airbnb guest booking on April 17th or 19th.. Pretty fast for full renovation!
The entire cabin got painted -top to bottom, all the bathrooms got ripped out and redone, and all the bedroom furniture was replaced. It was a lot of clearing out of things that conveyed with the cabin - like bulky furniture. Yeah. And getting that furniture sold on marketplace just to get it out of the house. That was an adventure for a few months of donating things, asking people to just please come pick it up. Yeah. We were getting towards the end and I'm like, "what are we gonna do with these six end tables that we don't want anymore?"
I think we've underestimated that ourselves at our last couple of projects. Nobody thinks about the number of hours spent just to get the stuff out that you don't want there. And we've done the same thing, free yard sales and donations and getting to know neighbors. So sellers thinks they're doing you this huge favor. They're like, "oh, we left everything there for you." It does make the initial part of staying in the space and figuring out what you're doing easier. It is helpful that there's a table and a bed. But one we bought, the owners left their socks and underwear in the drawers. It was ridiculous! We had weeks of getting the stuff down the side of a mountain. So we, we feel your pain!
$10,000 in One Month
l right, so four months of blood, sweat, tears, a little bit of sledding, a little bit of fun. Would you say your investment has been a success financially?
Yeah. It's been on Airbnb for three and a half months now, and it's booked every weekend, most days of the week. We've been very busy with getting people in there, which has been great. This past July, we made over $10,000 in bookings. So that make it feel like it's was the right decision!
The Learning Curve: Tech, Tools, and Hosting Airbnb
What has surprised you the most about being an investor and managing your Airbnb?
I think for me, once we finally met with you guys, just how many like AI platforms and apps that need to be synced in with Airbnb to make it flow very smoothly. It was definitely overwhelming at first: creating the wording for Hospitable, setting up Pricelabs, and getting that all integrated. I'm glad that we have those things to be able to answer the day-to-day questions and things like that. But it was definitely a little bit surprising on how many things we needed. I was like, "oh, we just listed on Airbnb and we just take care of it from there." But it's way more complex than that. I still feel a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of the different programs. Which again, we have one property, so you guys are probably like, "Oh my God." It's almost like talking to someone who goes from no kids to one kid. You're like, "oh, just wait till you get more than one property."
We understand that we have the opportunity now - we only have one property, so we always know everything about what's going on that one property. So we can still answer guests personally. I directly answer most of the questions from guests. But like Michael said, I do sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by the number of just other apps and operations that you have to think about to make things go smoothly, efficiently and maximize the guest experience.
Something else that really surprised me about this experience overall is how much I really like hosting. We love hosting in our home. And so we're not the perfect hosts. We're messy. We've got snacks over here and treats over here, and "Oh, your kids shoes can just go right outside." But it's a place where we can make memories and eat good food and have some drinks and have a good time. So hosting in the Airbnb capacity - I didn't know how I would like it. It's not the same type of hosting but I love the opportunity to say come to our home, make memories whatever that looks like for you and your family and friends. And I've really liked some of the things that our guests have shared with us, and I like being a part of it.
"Do you feel like you made any mistakes from an as an investor? Not just in the decor, but from an investment perspective as you were getting started. What would you have done differently or what mistakes could you learn from?"
As an investor, I think we had unrealistic timelines to getting it all turned around. Yeah, initially I was like, "we could have this going by February, no problem." But as we got in there every weekend, I was like, "these things are just taking way too long and as like the list just gets longer and longer." Trying to figure out what to prioritize within your plan is hard when you're new..
So looking at like the financial aspect of our unrealistic timeline: we were like, okay, we're paying two mortgages. We have our our kids' daycare to pay for. Doing that calculation you do, especially in your first property, because usually you have to take a different type of loan out. You just have to really make sure that you are at least staying somewhat close to that timeline. So that was a little scary for us in the beginning. But, I'm already hopeful for our next project. Not that we have one yet! But, I'm already hopeful for it because I know that we'll do some things differently. I know that for example we will do room to room planning right off the bat, as opposed to just having those overwhelming moments of "I don't know what to do next, so I feel paralyzed by this."
Cost-Saving Hacks for New Airbnb Hosts
You mentioned selling the existing furniture on Facebook marketplace, which was a brilliant idea. "Do you have any other cost saving tips for setting up a new Airbnb?"
I think reusing some things that are left in your Airbnb, even if it's not your style, find a way to pull it in to keep within the whatever your character (or avatar) is for your home or whatever your style is. We were able to take pieces that were there and I would strip them all down and remake them. That saved us a lot of. And they're really unique pieces. At that point too, I created one of our signs in the lower level. It says, the name of our cabin. And I created that with some pieces that were already there at the cabin and just other crafts that I had. So yes, that takes a little bit more time, but the sign that I made would probably bat least a couple hundred dollars. And I think it's pretty cool that I made it.
The other thing I would say is don't be afraid to just ask people their opinions and ideas. I would have friends who use Airbnb or do short term rental things, "Hey, what would you hope for? or What would you want, when you go to an Airbnb?" The other thing is we went to Goodwill for games and we would find really cool games and things like that. A lot of our guests have commented how much they've appreciated having a variety of our games and things to do at the cabin.
I want to highlight something that you just said to make sure it comes across. Get other people involved: friends, family, letting them look at pictures, look at the listing, come to the place with you and be a fresh set of eyes. You're not alone.Everybody's got some family, everybody's got some friends. Involve them in the process to. Get another perspective. I think that's a great hack.
Both of our families came down and we did have a set of friends come down for a weekend with their kids, We tried to pick their brain because they've traveled quite a bit. And similarly just trying to figure out what could we do better here? What amenities could we add to make this just stand out a little bit more? Since our region is very heavily populated with Airbnb, we're working hard to try to stand out from everybody else.
The Secret to Improving Your Airbnb
We asked our first few guests directly "Hey, was there anything else that you wish that you had that we didn't have?" And our first couple of guests early on, they were super communicative and we did have a couple guests say, "It'd be really nice if there was an air fryer."
We had thought about adding one when we listed, so we're like, "You know what, let's just get an air fryer because people keep asking for it, so why not?" It's a hot appliance currently.
I always lean in on the small appliances, waffle makers, griddles - the things that people maybe even have in their home but don't have time to use. It;s important to lean into what people aspire to do while away, not necessarily what they do every single day.
Advice for Future Airbnb Hosts
What advice would you give our listeners who are thinking about getting started? What should they know?
Stop dreaming. Go out and do it! I think that was the biggest hurdle I needed to get over. Stop looking, call your realtor, do those types of things. But definitely know that it's going to be a sacrifice. You're not gonna go see other family. Hopefully they can come see you. Your kids are gonna be going to your property every weekend with you to try and work on it. But we were a team and I think all of those things worked out. If you guys have good open communication and are good parents, you'll be successful in all of it.
I definitely think that educating ourselves on Airbnb investing has been really helpful because knowledge is power. Neither one of us has business degrees, right? We're both in different areas of the health field. You guys did not ask us to say this. This is us independently saying this, but your book Host Coach has helped us so much. And, utilizing you guys as coaches has been so helpful for us in the fact that we know that we have experts that we can go to when we need them. That has been invaluable. Yeah, it's been a blessing for sure, to say the least.
And then listening to your podcast. Especially when you are doing that work in your Airbnb. I can't tell you how many late nights I was listening to a podcast as I was, taking off a border in the bathroom. When you have those moments of feeling overwhelmed, just take a step back, simplify things to one step at a time. You can do all of the things. You'll definitely reach your goals. It may take longer than you want to, but at the end of it, it's totally worth it.
The Difference Details Make
I keep telling him to remind me that success takes time and success is measured by more than just a financial piece of it. Especially if you're doing this for the guests and you want this to be a really positive experience for guests. It takes time because you're pouring your heart and soul and your income into the property, but we know ultimately by having those positive experiences, we'll be able to generate more revenue and then buy more Airbnb properties.
Guests can tell when you care! I pour so much into our Airbnb's - down to the detail of there's a light raccoon theme through the current place we're working on. So I have a raccoon mug, I have raccoon puzzle in a laundry closet. Details take time and some money, but people realize that this place is special and someone cared about it and they feel cared about as a guest. That shows up in your reviews, that then elevates your page rank. It all feeds into that feeling of I'm somewhere special. I didn't go to a hotel that's sterile. I went somewhere where somebody cares that I make great memories that they love this place and are sharing it with me. So bravo, you did such a good job.
We're very grateful for your support, really pointing us in the right direction, and being there being a constant for us. It's been helpful.
That's why we do what we do. We love being Airbnb coaches! We can't wait to hear how your journey continues with this property and future properties. We want to hear about you living your dream with your girls. It's going be exciting to keep up with you guys through the years.
So there you have it. You now know the Keller's advice for how to save money as you prepare an Airbnb for market, how important it is to involve your friends and family in the process, and how you can get over your fears and get started on your own investing journey.
Should you need an Airbnb coach to help you find the right market, property, and help you set yourself up for success - feel free to book a free 30 minute Airbnb coaching call with us. We LOVE helping new investors avoid pitfalls and find financial freedom through Airbnb investing!
