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SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 681: MAKING BANK WITH MEDIUM-TERM RENTALS & INTERNATIONAL PET SITTING
It’s one of the hottest real estate investing strategies today! In this podcast, medium-term rental expert, coach, podcast host, and author Zeona McIntyre shares how she discovered and became financially independent by investing in medium-term rentals.
What You Will Learn
- Why medium-term rental investing is the best real estate investing strategy today
- How you can start investing without buying a property
- What makes out-of-state investing easy
- How you can manage all your medium-term rentals while traveling the world
- Why switching from short-term rentals to medium-term rentals can be more profitable
- How to reduce your world travel expenses through house and pet sitting
About Out Guest
Zeona McIntyre
Zeona McIntyre has been an Airbnb host since 2012. After 10 years of managing short-term rentals across the globe, she has transitioned to selling Real Estate to investors looking to househack or live for free. She is an avid Real Estate Investor owning a double-digit portfolio of short and medium-term rentals. In the fall of 2022, she released the book: “30 Day Stay. An Investor’s Guide to Mastering the Medium-term Rental ” coauthored with Sarah Weaver. She teaches listeners how to achieve Financial Freedom through Real Estate on her Podcast: Invest2FI, co-hosted with Craig Curelop. She has been featured on BiggerPockets, Mr. Money Mustache, NPR, Business Insider, and more than 50 podcasts. Zeona has been to 47 countries. She spends half the year in Boulder, Colorado, and the other half traveling the world as an international pet sitter.
More About Zeona
- Zeona is originally from Hawaii
- Lives in Colorado now
- Her real estate investing journey started in Boulder, CO (a college town)
- She first heard about AirBNB in 2011 – it became popular in 2016
- She first heard about AirBNB from a friend who lived in New York City
- He got laid off of his job
- He had this super expensive apartment in NYC
- He had heard about AirBNB and thought he could try it
- He really wanted to just travel for a bit so he rented out his apartment on AirBNB while he was traveling
- After a short time, he kept pestering Zeona to try doing AirBNB as well
- She, at the time, was in massage school and trying to create a career and she said she wasn’t interest
- After a year, he shared with her that he made $50,000 on an apartment that he didn’t even own
- That got her attention – she never made that much money
Jumping in to AirBNB
- She was 26 at the time, working for $15 an hour
- She was renting a 2 bedroom apartment, that had a furnished 2nd bedroom where her roommate was just about to move out
- She thought, this would be a good opportunity to try out this “AirBNB Thing”
- It turned out to be so successful that she started renting her room out as well
- She would do house/pet sitting to get out of the apartment
- She started finding other apartments where she would do the same thing as an AirBNB arbitrage
- It took her about two years before she could afford to buy an AirBNB property that she could own
- It was a little one-bedroom condo in Boulder
- She had been renting and re-renting a similar condo very close by for approximately a year and a half
- So, she knew the area well and the seasonality of the rental peaks and dips
- It ranged from $1,700 per month to $4,000 per month
- So, she knew the area well and the seasonality of the rental peaks and dips
- It was very close to the college
- The mortgage, HOA, etc. was only $950 per month
- She liked owning better than renting because she was more secure
- With rentals, the owner could cancel the arrangement at any time
- She also wanted to buy more at that time because, when she bought the condo, the market was going up and her condo increased $100,000 in value in just 3 months
The Boost in Mid-Term Rentals
- There is a new trend that is beginning
- People who use AirBNBs are looking for longer stays
- Since Covid, there are a lot more Digital Nomads and remote workers
- The workforce in the U.S. used to be 7% remote workers
- Today, its over 40%
- There isn’t enough housing to accommodate this group
- This niche is about to explode
- They aren’t looking for short-term or long-term stays
- They are looking for 30, 60, 90, 180 day stays
- They don’t want to deal with furniture and move expenses every time they relocate
- This is the group that Zeona and her new book focus on
The Advantages of Medium-Term Rentals
With the medium-term rental strategy, you will:
- Stop worrying about short-term rental regulations
- Handle less communication and coordination with renters
- Reduce expenses on supplies, cleaning fees, and more
- Simplify your bookkeeping and say goodbye to lodging tax
- Gain the ability to set your rates due to less competition
- Deal with less vacancy than long-term rentals and source higher profits with the right guests
- Use the property yourself or as a guest apartment when needed
- Find popularity in unusual locations (near a port, warehouse, etc.), allowing for cheaper property purchases
- Self-manage your properties from anywhere in the world with less hassle than short-term rentals
Expanding Her Portfolio
- When she first started, she was living very frugally but she knew that would eventually change
- She was financially independent with just one rental and one owned property
- Her expenses were $2,500 and her net income was $2,500
- But she was concerned that the rental property terms could change because she didn’t own that one
- She was financially independent with just one rental and one owned property
- She decided to purchase a property out-of-state in St. Louis (her other properties were in Colorado)
- Buying out-of-state was a real leap of faith
- She went to a friend’s wedding in St. Louis
- At the wedding, she heard people talking about how low the rents were in St. Louis and this piqued her interest
- Then, they said their mortgage was only $300
- Zeona’s mortgage was $1,100 a month for a one bedroom condo
- The people in St. Louis were paying $300 monthly and were getting a 3-bedroom house!
- She came back a month later and closed on her first property there
- She bought on the edge of a gentrifying area that has done pretty well
- The first house she bought, she rented out a room to a “property manager,” at a discount, who oversaw the the other tenants who rented rooms
- A few years later, she went to rent out the whole house, as opposed to just renting by the room
- She found that the quality of tenant that rents rooms vs. a house was very different
- She eventually bought 4 places in St. Louis
- However, she later scaled back down to one because the cheaper homes she was buying were in fringe areas or older, with lots of repairs and maintenance
- Today, she is in 4 states: Colorado, Missouri, Florida and Washington
- As AirBNB became more popular, there was more automation and software that made managing out-of-state-easier
Managing Other People’s AirBNBs
- In 2015-2016, she couldn’t grow as fast as she wanted so she started managing other people’s AirBNBs as a co-manager
- She didn’t have to pay anything to buy furniture, etc.
- She split profits with the owners for managing it
- She expanded it all over the U.S., plus 5 other countries
- In every market she had a cleaner and a handyman
- Otherwise, she did everything herself
Traveling
- It was always a dream of Zeona to be a “Digital Nomad” (see episode #309) or have a job that wasn’t location-specific so she could travel
- But she thought those jobs only went to tech people (engineers, programmers, etc.)
- With her first AirBNB, she realized that most of what happens is virtual and that all she would need is a cleaner in the area
- She saw how she could be anywhere in the world
- The co-author of her book, Sarah Weaver, is a full-time Digital Nomad.
- Sarah owns 19 units but has no home for herself
- There are many countries you can go, where the U.S. dollar is still strong, and live like a king or queen
- Zeona has been to 47 countries so far
International Pet Sitting
- Very early on, she realized she made money when she was out of the house
- This happened when she was renting out both of her first two AirBNBs
- She started telling people (by word-of-mouth) that she was interested in pet sitting
- Sometimes she got paid, sometimes she didn’t
- Sometimes it was also a “house sitting” gig where she just got a free place to live for a while
- Sometimes, though, the house wasn’t that great
- She eventually found an app called “Trusted House Sitters”
- You have an annual membership
- It’s all over the world
- There usually are pets that need sitting so they get free pet sitting too
- And you get a free place to stay
- She still does it today!
Biggest Mistakes
- In the beginning, she hard on the cleaners of her AirBNBs on their pricing
- She realizes now that it is better to pay someone a more to get someone that is good and more dependable, instead of being frugal
- Also, in the beginning, she was very frugal in the furniture she bought for her AirBNBs
- She didn’t have much money so she bought furniture second hand, on Craigslist, or garage sales
- She now realizes it’s better to buy new, assemble and ship it
- It lasts a lot longer
- She used to have to fly out to her properties every year and a half to check on furniture and maybe do upgrades
- Now she doesn’t need to do that
Biggest Success
- Her ability to take risks has been beneficial to her business (i.e. her quick purchase of properties in St. Louis, etc.)
- Too many people get caught up in “analysis paralysis” and end up never doing anything
- You’re wasting precious time to build wealth if you’re always sitting on the sidelines
Advice for Old Dawgs Looking at Real Estate Investing to Help Them in Their Retirement Years
- Zeona really loves the medium-term rental for cash flow
- Retirees and seniors want cash flow too
- Home prices are up – limiting the number of rentals you can acquire
- Interest rates are up – seriously affecting mortgage rates and cash flow for longer term rentals
- A lot of people are shifting from long-term rentals to furnished medium-term rentals for the cash flow
- It gives you more flexibility to build up increased cash flowing assets
- To get started, she recommends you get her book
- The book is written, from A to Z on how to get started, with the intention that you will go get a property when you complete the book
- If you need more, Zeona does 15-minute strategy sessions to address the nitty gritty details of buying that first property – she then can connect you with a vetted team you can work with in the market you are interested in
Current & Future Business
- There is a lot of potential for medium-term rentals
- Medium-term rental space is on the verge of exploding
- There are a lot of opportunities
- She is going to continue to slowly grow and pick up more properties
- She is always refining what she has already owns
- She feels she’s too diversified right now and may narrow down to less markets
- She also has an interested in getting her own TV show
Rap-It-Up
- Favorite real estate book: The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop
- Favorite business book: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
- Most valuable web site for success (other than your own): MrMoneyMustache.com
- Favorite app: TrustedHouseSitters
- Favorite quote: “You can go faster alone but you can go further with someone else.”
- If you lost everything – all your assets – and had to start all over, knowing what you already know, and you only had $1,000, what would you do to re-launch your real estate investing business? I would rent a place to start. Then, I would rent and re-rent. Even if it’s just a one-bedroom or a room in a house that I’m renting from someone else, I would rent that place out and get out to do more pet sitting until I build up enough to buy my first place.
How to Get Her Book
- On Amazon: 30 Day Stay. An Investor’s Guide to Mastering the Medium-Term Rental
- On BiggerPockets.com: 30 Day Stay. An Investor’s Guide to Mastering the Medium-Term Rental (Get an extra 10% off if you mention her name – Zeona)
How to Reach Zeona
- Her website: ZeonaMcIntyre.com
- Her Podcast: Invest2FI
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