Episode 508

Mastering Airbnb: Effective Communication and Property Management with Noah Hoffman

Noah Hoffman is a dynamic entrepreneur who ventured into the real estate industry at a young age. Initially working for a mentor in property management, Noah quickly identified the potential of short-term rentals through Airbnb. He began managing properties for his mentor and gradually expanded his portfolio, renting additional properties to put on Airbnb. Noah's experience as a carpet cleaner also proved beneficial as he pitched the idea of short-term rentals to property owners, successfully securing management contracts.

After five years of working in property management, Noah made his first property purchase - a duplex with an FHA loan, occupying one unit himself. Empowered by his remote management skills, acquired through overseeing properties out of town, Noah took a leap and started investing in Fresno, California, as the San Francisco Bay area lacked favorable cash flow opportunities. To further increase his income, Noah also ventured into building accessory dwelling units (ADUs), capitalizing on favorable legislation that made the process more affordable and accessible.

Noah now successfully manages multiple properties remotely and has expanded his ADU projects to include five units. With his entrepreneurial spirit and ability to seize innovative opportunities, Noah Hoffman continues to flourish in the real estate industry.

Connect with Noah Hoffman: https://www.instagram.com/noahhoffmanairbnb/

Key Topics:

Communication with Guests on Airbnb

  • Importance of providing key information
  • Bedroom/bathroom details
  • Location
  • Price
  • Offering discounts to guests
  • Based on requests or short notice check-ins

Managing Airbnb Properties

  • Coordinating with service providers
  • House cleaners
  • Handymen
  • Delegating property management tasks to staff
  • Keeping detailed property information
  • Appliance model numbers
  • Warranty information

Offering Additional Services to Guests

  • White glove services
  • Pre-arrival groceries through partnerships with services like Instacart
  • Starting with free or low-cost options, gradually incorporating income-generating services

Maximizing Rental Income

  • Splitting a house into multiple units
  • Especially in expensive areas like the Bay Area
  • Meeting the demand for furnished rentals for traveling workers
  • Willing to pay around $2000 a month

Real Estate Investing Strategies and Financing

  • Creative financing and wholesaling for finding off-market deals
  • Purchasing properties without getting loans in their name
  • Personal branding and networking for attracting investors

Speaker's Journey in Real Estate

  • Starting as an entrepreneur at a young age
  • Gaining mentorship and work experience in property management
  • Gradually expanding from managing properties to buying their own

Fundraising and Crowd Funding

  • Using a platform like Air Me for a large fundraising call
  • Transitioning from a 506b investment to a crowd funding campaign
  • Hiring a SEC attorney and finding a SEC approved platform
  • Importance of having a website for investor announcements and updates

Challenges and Lessons Learned

  • Challenges with managing properties with pools
  • Experiences with buying and selling deals from wholesalers
  • Struggles with effectively managing a cold caller
  • Balancing personal involvement and delegation as a business owner

Growth and Future Plans

  • Exploring new markets and favoring Fresno
  • Potential move towards the Midwest in the future
  • Risk-taking and trying new things as a business owner
  • Developing software for Airbnb management business and future sale
  • Goal of growing and selling the management business, extracting from day-to-day operations

Team Building and Scaling

  • Having a team of remote contractors and on-site workers for property management
  • Growing the team to ten people
  • Importance of finding the right people to work with

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"You can invest 10,000 hours and become an expert or learn from those who have already made that investment." - Jack

Transcript
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Noah Hoffman joins me here today, and you can find what he is up to by going

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to Instagram at Noah Hoffman, air BNB.

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And his title says it all there.

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We are going to be talking quite a bit about Airbnb today, but you've had some.

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Interesting story starting this whole process off, and I know you've

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probably have shared your background in your story a number of times.

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So we're going to do a truncated version of that on this show.

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I probably should have warned, we focused mostly on what people

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can do and actions they can take right now to have direct impact.

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And frankly, I'm sure you've shared that story.

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Like I said, a million times over.

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Could we start at the kind of a truncated version of that and start off by just

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introducing yourself and how you got found your way into real estate investing?

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Absolutely.

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And I first want to thank you, Jack.

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I really appreciate you for having me on your show.

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I know you worked for a very long time to build this platform, so I appreciate

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that.

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No, I appreciate have you giving and sharing some of your time and expertise.

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Sure.

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The way I got started was I've always been an entrepreneur, but and then I met my

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first real estate mentor when I was around 20, but there was no way for him to.

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Teach me how to start the way he started.

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He started with money to invest, so I just was working for him.

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I found a way opportunity to work for him and manage one of his properties.

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And I suggested, let's put it on Airbnb.

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And so basically I started managing properties for him and then other

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people for five years before I bought my first property myself,

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I also started renting properties.

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To put on Airbnb started with one, then two, three, four, five cause one

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of my other jobs was a carpet cleaner.

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So I would pitch property owners, Hey, you should look at Airbnb.

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Some people, a couple of people hired me like that to manage for them.

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And then one guy started renting to me.

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And after about five years, I was able to start buying my first properties.

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My first was a duplex with an FHA loan.

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Owner occupied for one unit.

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Then from there I learned about remote manage.

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So I had already been managing remotely out of town for someone else.

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So that gave me the confidence.

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And at first that was a big step.

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Like somebody said, can you manage a property for me in Vegas?

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And I said, no that's crazy.

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That's 'cause I'm in the San Francisco Bay area and he says, we

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have people on the ground, so we just need you to do the online part.

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So I said, okay, I'll give it a shot.

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So fast forward a few years.

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I started investing out of town myself.

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So Fresno, California, because the Bay area wasn't a great place to cash flow.

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So I started investing in Fresno, which was like out of state prices.

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And then I started building ADU.

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So these are all little wild cards, like special ways to make more money.

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Going out of town, building ADUs are like a, it's the California gold rush

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building ADUs because with the laws have made it cheaper and faster to do it now.

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So I've built about five ADUs now and then

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we probably should take a second there Noah, what could

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you define what an ADU is?

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What is when you say that for

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it is called an accessory dwelling unit.

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It's like a secondary property.

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You can build, it can be detached or attached.

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It can be part of, you can split your property, your home and, split off

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another studio or you can detach.

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My favorite is detached, but I've done both versions.

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Sure.

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Yeah.

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I think that some areas of the country might even refer to it

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like as an in law house or a sure,

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sure.

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And so may and I know in some states it doesn't make sense, but

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in, in the Bay area where I grew up and where I lived, space is

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very expensive and hard to come by.

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So if you have one house let's say, let's take a four bedroom

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house, four bedroom, two bath.

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If you can split that into a two bedroom, one bath and two bedroom, one bath,

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you're going to make more instead of 50%.

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On each side, you might make 70 percent on each side of, so you make,

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140 percent just by splitting it because there's more single travelers.

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There are people right now, like all over the country, pretty much, I can rent a

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studio for about 2, 000 a month if it's furnished and utilities are included.

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Because I have them in California all the way to Maryland in different states.

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And so 2, 000 everywhere.

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And these are, and the special thing is I ran them for multiple months.

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These are like traveling, mostly traveling workers.

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They don't need a place.

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They don't want to sign a one year lease and buy furniture.

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They don't need, they don't want to put that investment in, but they

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do need it for multiple months.

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So they don't want to stay in a hotel.

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So they're willing to spend about 2000 on the smallest possible studio.

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I even have a trailer, a travel trailer.

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I rent for around that same price also with internet and everything included.

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So to finish the story about two years ago I I knew there was more to,

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so I learned how to buy a property every year, one property a year

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through conventional loans, but I knew there had to be a better way.

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So I wanted to look into it.

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And I had heard something about wholesaling, which was a creative

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way to find off market deals.

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And I, I committed to driving three hours to go to a one hour meetup

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in my, in the area that I prefer to invest in, which is Fresno, California.

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I learned about wholesaling.

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I never really got great at that, but I also was referred

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to look up creative financing.

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So I looked, somebody suggested, look up pace, Morby creative

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financing, Facebook page.

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I joined the page.

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And then I had another wave from there.

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And in the last two years, bought over a dozen properties and then

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more in partnerships without getting loans in my name so I can take over

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someone else's loan, a mortgage, and that's creative financing like seller

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finance or taking over a loan is called subject to is subject to financing.

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So I've been and that's what I've been doing.

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And then just recently, through the power of branding, personal branding.

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And name recognition.

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I've been able to, me and a partner who did our first syndication.

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So we were able to get investors because, we were in the right circles

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and had the built the right reputation.

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We, we got people to trust us with.

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1.

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7 million to buy 20 unit property in Florida that right now we're converting

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into a a short term rental community.

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There's a lot to unpack there.

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So first of all, what I think is especially interesting is that you started

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off saying that you found a mentor.

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Do you think that was one of the most important things that you were able to

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do is find that initial mentor and some guidance there at first when you got into

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investing?

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Yeah that it's pretty it's a prerequisite.

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It's completely required.

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It's like any, anything in life.

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It's, there's, at some point there's, you have to get into it.

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You have to do it because there's so many things, so many avenues in real estate.

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Like even two successful real estate investors will disagree with each other.

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So where, so as a beginner, where do you go?

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So you have to just follow somebody.

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You have to take their advice, do it the way they do it, and

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then you put your own spin on it.

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So for sure, I've had multiple mentors.

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And they've all taught me what they had, what they're good at.

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How did you approach that initial mentor or how would you suggest

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somebody approach a mentor?

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Because I can get the impression that these are busy individuals.

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Just to walk up and say, will you be my mentor?

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More times than not isn't going to

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work.

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It's not going to work.

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No, so there are such thing as paid mentorships and even those,

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that, you pay and they start from, inexpensive to very expensive.

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And even then you're only going to get a fraction of the mentor's time and

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you might get some recorded content.

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But really the way you get close to anybody.

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To learn is you have to come, you have to start by giving, how can I help you?

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And then even more than how can I help you?

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You have to observe and say, this is how I can help you.

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You have to come in there Hey, let me take something off your plate.

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Cause entrepreneurs in general always have a lot on their plate.

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So if you can start running on the side of them and take some and help them with

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no expectations, not a transactional thing, just let me be of service to

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you and let it, and they'll find out you're also trying to learn real estate.

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And here go, here goes one other thing that I want to mention.

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A lot of new people, they come to me and they say, Hey, Noah, I have no experience,

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but I want to do this and this.

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And I always have to say, wait, what's your day job?

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What are you already good at?

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Because a lot of times they come already with some skills from their

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background that I might need in my business because I'm building businesses

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that need all kinds of people.

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Somebody just reached out to me and she's an HR manager.

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I said, I need help in the HR department.

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With the team I'm building, right?

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So you never know what people don't know what skills they already have.

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Don't discount that.

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Say, this is what I'm good at.

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Let me help you.

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They might need any, you never know what they need.

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They might just need someone to get coffee for them.

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They might need a driver, who knows they might need, they need everything.

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So just be of service, be helpful.

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And then also, make sure you keep pushing on your own goals and you have

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to pick a path and kind of stick to it.

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So there's ways to start with time or money or experience.

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You have to decide what you have, but you have to have something.

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You mentioned earlier, too, that You were sticking in your backyard

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when it came to your personal investing in California there.

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And then people were approaching you to manage their Airbnbs remotely.

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Could you talk briefly about getting through that mindset and deciding

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that this was actually possible?

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So yeah it's it's pretty pretty crazy, but but again, it's not

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just real estate, but business.

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Business owners in general have to be willing to step out on the ledge and try

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new things and you have to understand you might get five failures in one success,

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but you have to go out and try things because there's not going to come to you.

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You can't go sign up and wait your turn.

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In line for, to learn how to become a business owner or a real estate investor,

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but but I, and I said, no, initially, so I was managing properties locally

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and then someone said, Hey, can you do this, manage this property out of town?

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And I said, no, that's a crazy idea.

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And then he told me we have some people there who can help on the ground, but

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they just need help with the online.

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And I said, okay, I'll try it.

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And it just went surprisingly well.

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I found online, I found house cleaners and handymen and things just went well.

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And what I learned over time was the kind of the funny thing is all the properties

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that were near to me would suck my time.

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The ones that like, cause there's always something that

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needs to be done at a property.

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You stop by and then you'll be fixing things all day long if

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that's the kind of person you are.

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But and then there's this weird balance of.

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Doing things yourself and delegating as a business owner.

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You have to delegate, more and more as you grow, but then, you always

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have to be willing to step in.

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And induce and help out to get something done right because things will inevitably

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Go wrong as you keep handing things off.

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So there's that just this balance that everyone has to find for themselves I

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think most people don't delegate enough.

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That's why they don't grow enough

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As entrepreneurs We have this mindset that It's not going to get done if

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we don't do it ourselves and it's hard to get that shake that loose.

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So right now I'm doing tons of things poorly because I'm, I delegate so much

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and it's not getting done properly and it drives me crazy, but I'm

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able to focus and grow new things.

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That's the thing.

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That's the other thing about being an entrepreneur is we'd like to break

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down new walls and try new things.

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We don't want to get stuck doing the same job for 10 years.

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So we have to start to delegate.

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And so right now I'm in a.

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a phase where I'm having to document microprocesses, every single thing

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that you never think that you do naturally, you don't think about.

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Now I have to write down every single thing.

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And I'm getting the customized software.

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Like a a database, a Q and a database for all my for my team.

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I have a overseas team in the Philippines who do a lot of things

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to do everything, run my management business almost a hundred percent for me.

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And but I have to answer questions all day long.

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And then I started hiring new people and they're asking me the same questions.

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And what I used to think was a gut feeling can be quantified.

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There's ways to measure it.

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It's not a gut feeling.

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There's a way to, to analyze things and and write them down.

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So I call it my SOP standard operating procedures, and I'm just

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creating a vault of SOPs and trying to break, divide them by category.

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Just to remind everybody, head over to Instagram for Noah's page there.

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Noah Hoffman, Airbnb you'll find him there.

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I'll make sure to have that link in the show notes.

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And if you like what Noah is saying so far, can you do us a quick favor?

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If somebody is getting in.

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To Airbnb here today, share this episode to them.

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They might find what a lot of what Noah's saying, very helpful.

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NOAA, what I also think is interesting here now is that you, or you

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mentioned a couple of times regarding your VA's in the Philippines.

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Is was that kind of a leap for you as well?

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And how did you find those resources?

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So that was it was bringing over traditions from the wholesaling industry

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into my airbnb management business.

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So I had been doing a lot of networking with real estate wholesalers Have

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been using virtual assistants in the Philippines for forever.

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And then and then a friend of mine, I had, maybe he had talked about, I had

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used, I had tried some virtual assistants for wholesaling business venture, but

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I hadn't brought them into my Airbnb business until a friend of mine said,

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Hey, Noah, did you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, Airbnb, which has all

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their call centers in the Philippines.

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Let go of a few thousand employees so they are available for work.

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If you go to, for example, onlinejobs.

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ph or upwork.

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com, you can just put in the requirements Airbnb experience needed

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and they'll apply within minutes.

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So I, you can start interviewing people.

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Yeah, so it was just, I had done it myself the first seven years.

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I just, I would be answering guests and communicating with

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house cleaners all the time.

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And then once I started doing that, I had to start, offloading.

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I'll even before the VAs, I got some automation software, which took 90.

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It felt like it took 90 percent of my messaging from me, which was great.

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But then the next step was the VAs.

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And now the VAs, they're able to turn some of the automation off.

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Because we have people on now 24 hours.

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So what kind of stuff do you have them doing for you?

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So that they communicate with guests so on your airbnb profile, you can put all

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the main information Bedroom bathroom the location the price But if somebody

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says, Hey, I want to book, I actually, I need a place for three months.

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Can you give me a discount?

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Can we negotiate a price?

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So they, I tell them if someone asks for a discount, you can give them

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5 percent off without asking me.

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And if it's within the, with, if the check in is in within one or two

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days, you can give them 10 percent off other than that check with me.

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And then if they want a long stay, like four months, eight months, which happens.

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I say, look at those same months last year, what did we average,

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subtract out the expenses, the cleaning expenses and offer them that

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price or, try to beat that price.

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Or like coordinating with the house cleaners, can we check in early?

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Can we have a late checkout?

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They'll talk to the house cleaners about cleaning schedule.

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If, and then they also communicate with handymen and service

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providers landscapers, everything.

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No, they'll let the guests know, Hey, we have a landscaper

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coming in today in the backyard.

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Pretty much everything.

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I managed some properties that I've never been to at all.

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And so I'm really trying to get out personally, get out of.

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Every aspect of the business.

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I, my goal is for someone to say, Hey, Noah, I have a property.

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I, can you manage my property?

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And then, as soon as possible, I want to hand them off to someone

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else, a salesperson, and then we're going to, we have a onboarding form.

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We want them to upload all of the information.

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About their property, eat all the way down to the model number and serial

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numbers of all appliances, links to repurchase off furniture, the same brand,

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same style we need every single thing.

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So if we have a problem with an appliance.

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Our appliance repair person already knows the model number.

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So they bring the right parts.

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They bring the right tools.

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We need to have warranty information on all those parts to see if we can order,

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if we have a warranty, we can access it, or do we have to replace it, if the guests

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have, so what I'm working on now is.

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I want to roll out like really white glove service as far as would you like

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some, we want to be able to offer them like groceries Hey, you, we can get,

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we can have groceries here for you before you arrive is, what do you want?

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We're going to send them options.

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Do you want a fruit basket?

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Do you want, we can, I want to try to integrate some other services like

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Instacart or something like that.

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And so we can make sure it's already on the table for them.

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So we're going to start with neat.

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Yeah.

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We maybe want to start out with a free or a cost option.

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And then eventually include some kind of service where we can make money.

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Sure.

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That's a neat, I haven't heard anybody try that before.

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That might be, that's, I'd be interesting to see what you find out.

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It's all about coordination.

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A lot of people that get into wholesaling, you've mentioned that

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a couple of times as well here now.

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And it.

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The allure of it is that you can get into that with no money out of your pocket.

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You've accomplished this to a certain extent, the no money out of your pocket

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part by finding partnerships and then a syndication and a few other things.

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What was the secret sauce there to get partners on board and

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finding the right opportunity.

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So it all comes with experience and reputation.

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That's what it comes down to.

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I've also that I mentioned the very first real estate mentor that I

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used, or that I met, I was managing his properties for 10 years before

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I got into this creative finance.

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Or maybe nine years, whatever it was, and he saw me start getting into doing

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deals with other people, then he became willing to be my private money lender.

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He started lending me money to buy properties, buy, fix up whatever,

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and I didn't even know the concept of private money before I got into

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other group and they're like, yeah, you just ask somebody who has money.

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for a loan and they secure their interest against the property.

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Like a second lien position could be first or second lien.

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Second lien means they have to really trust you.

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They have, you have to have a good relationship.

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Like a hard money loan company, they would want first position on a property

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always, but so it just came with the experience and personal branding.

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That's why I got serious about social media, like willing to invest money

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in it and also the events, networking events, real estate and meetup events.

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I'm willing to spend money on that because you're.

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Your network is your net worth.

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I think that's one of those things that alludes a lot of people, especially when

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they get into wholesaling is the concept of how do you do this or how do you even

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start with no money in your own pocket?

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And I think there's having that partner or somebody That adds to

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the team adds to the confidence.

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So when you go in and you're talking to anybody else regarding a project,

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you just have the confidence that you can deliver on what you're saying.

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And I'm still learning.

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I'm still learning all the time.

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I never successfully ran a wholesaling business I've done.

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A handful of hosts like the old, I've bought a lot of deals from wholesalers,

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which I learned about from this process.

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But I have sold some deals and partnered on deals.

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And and right now I'm just in the midst of, I just recently

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started a new marketing campaign.

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with, I made a new partnership with a guy and your partnerships are very important.

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If you probably, if you if your partners are not experienced,

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then that might cause a problem.

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But so for me, but I partnered recently with the guy, he's a real estate agent.

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And he's a contractor.

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And so he, so Mike, right now we're doing a flip and he's the

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project manager on the flip.

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I was able to access my private money to buy and rehab the property.

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And this new partner he's the project manager because it needs

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a lot of project management.

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And we also hired this time we have, we hired a virtual assistant.

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She's from Canada, living in Costa Rica.

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And we're paying her as a cold caller, but what we notice is me and

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this partner we never, neither of us successfully ran a wholesaling business.

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And so a cold caller needs a schedule and this is not, this is, it can

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be a lot of trial and error, which, where do you pull your lists?

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What software do you use and how do you manage this human being schedule

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and make sure she's on the right track and how, what do you need to do?

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To be an active participant.

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So me and my partner, we're not doing a good job managing this new code caller.

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It's been three months.

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So what we just did actually today is we just offered a partnership with another

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guy who has great experience managing code callers for this type of business.

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And he was willing to meet with us and talk with us.

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And he's a friend of my other partner.

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And we just said, Hey, how about we offer you.

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Some equity and so a percentage of whatever deals we get.

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Through this endeavor, if you help manage this caller for us, because

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we're doing a poor job managing.

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That comes back to the comes back to the book who not how,

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so you, you mentioned doing a syndication of this place in Florida, and it's

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going to be an Airbnb community.

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Are you working on that project right now, or is that something you've run?

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Yeah, we're working on it right now.

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We so through the right network, we were able to get on the

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right, get on the right group.

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And we were able to raise all the money, in a 15 minute time span.

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So one of our partners was on this, it's called an air me.

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It's similar to a zoom, but air me, you can have over a thousand people.

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And he had 1100 people on this call and we got on the call and

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talked about it for 15 minutes.

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And had a, had enough commitments to fund the deal.

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And so the first phase was, it's called a 506 B 506 B is investment.

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It's for accredited investors and, or friends and family.

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And so we were able to raise money to purchase the property through that.

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And then for our next phase, we're doing a crowdfund.

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So it's called a reg CF.

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So we had to hire it's called an sec attorney.

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And he is drawing up the paperwork and we had to find a sec approved platform.

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And this is a learning experience for me.

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I didn't know it was.

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such an important part.

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You can't, you have to have a website that announces and announces the deal

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and gives updates to your investors.

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And they have to, and they actually the money actually goes through there

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through an escrow type situation.

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And I didn't know how important that website was, but like they get a,

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they get like a portion of the deal.

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They're like, we'll take 3%.

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Of your deal to use because they have to work directly with the sec to

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make sure it's all It's all illegal So it's a learning experience.

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So we did a 506 B and converting to a reg CF to, or combining the two.

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So how many units will that be when it's said and done?

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It's 20, 20 small houses on one lot.

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Oh, okay.

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Pensacola, Florida.

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So

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Is this becoming more common to do an Airbnb

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community?

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Yeah, I think, it's just, the.

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It's like a resort or a hotel, same thing.

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And that first investor, that mentor that I've talked about after our

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first Airbnb, he went and started getting involved with hotels.

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And I honestly see that could easily be one of my next moves because Airbnb really

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it's it's not meant for big businesses.

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It's meant for individual people.

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Who want to start their, it's like a one house business, right?

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They put their house, make money.

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And then, what I've learned is it's a lot, it's a lot more efficient

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if all your properties are close together, ideally in the same building.

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So that's called a hotel.

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So I might as well, so now me and my partner, we just started negotiating.

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With somebody who's selling a hotel in Florida because we're are, I'm like we're

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already going to be, developing boots on the ground, some, cleaner, a cleaning

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team management or maintenance team.

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So what else can, and with the reg CF, a crowd fund, you're

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allowed to raise up to 5 million.

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So we might as well use the rest of that, those funds.

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To possibly buy a hotel right there at Takoma, Florida.

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So we started negotiating.

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I found if you can look up hotels for sale and you'll find there's

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different websites, not the same websites you find houses, but we

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found a hotel for sale, 146 key hotel.

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Discounted, it's around 5 million.

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So we want to what we would like to do is give him a big down payment

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and then arrange to make payments.

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So that's that's where my mind is going.

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So it's also, if I, with my new software, I'm developing this software

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for the Airbnb management business.

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So that, so another idea is that I'm working on now is

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to perfect that business.

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Those SLPs get it down so tight to where the business, I put in a manager in place.

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I keep developing the team, which now we have about 10 people and, I

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strengthen this team and it's hybrid.

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It's, remote plus that we have people on the ground near these properties.

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They're all contractors.

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And then the idea would be to, with the right partnership, I grow that

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business and sell the business.

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That's what I see for the future.

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Is that management business to become sellable?

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It has, I have to, I have to be able to be extracted out of the

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day to day operations for it to be.

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A viable business for someone else to buy.

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So you mentioned Airbnb isn't really made for large businesses.

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Are you already shifting?

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Do you for example, do you take reservations for some of your properties

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on your own site outside of the Airbnb or those type of platforms?

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We

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do now.

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And don't get me wrong, you can run a pretty big business on Airbnb.

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We're over $2 million a year in bookings right now.

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But I, but but yeah, and we do offline.

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We do all, we do off platform reservations.

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I'm also right now I'm currently, and I've done it in the past.

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I, I list on home away, VRBO Expedia vacation rentals and booking.

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com.

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So I've done that.

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I did that for one year.

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I, you can use something called a channel manager.

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Once one that I use now is called host away and channel managers are,

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it's a term from the hotel industry, but it's it'll blast your property

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to different platforms, even like Google hotels, if you're on booking.

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com, you'll get pushed to hotels.

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com and Google.

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And so I'm in the process now of putting all the properties I

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managed over 50 properties now.

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It'll be, maybe 70 to 80 by the time the Pensacola ones are ready.

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But yeah, and so right now I'm on the process of moving

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them to all the platforms.

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Sure.

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Yeah.

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I had another guest on not too long ago and she was using those

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platforms to essentially collect her list because she was experiencing

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a lot of recurring customers.

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They're coming back.

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They like the vacation spot over and over.

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And then she started doing a mailing list too.

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Blast to those customers to and get them push them to her own website

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to sidestep these I get the it's it sounded like the profitability was

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higher if you could book them direct,

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right?

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so the thing is so We get there's so much traffic through Airbnb and even

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when I use those other platforms It was still 85 percent came through Airbnb.

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The other 15 came through the other ones and then maybe 1%

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Was coming through me directly.

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So you have to do what the woman told you start collecting

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those info, that information.

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And there are some ways, so I haven't really put a lot of energy into

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that, but but at this point, since I'm building a team, I will, I have

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to figure out who to give it to.

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'cause I noticed when I put too many things on, Somebody's

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plate, they drop something else.

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So I have to do it strategically.

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But so there's for example, there's a wifi router called stayfi.

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So if you get stayfi, you plug it into your internet system, your modem, and what

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it will do, it'll make all of your guests give their email to have access to that,

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and that's how you start your database and not just the person who booked it,

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but all of the people in the house.

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I have to give their email.

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They get a free account and then you remark, you build the list

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and remark it to them when they're traveling near any other properties.

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That's a good, great idea.

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Noah, I told ya, we were going to chew up 30 minutes pretty easily.

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And I still have a ton of other questions, I, I told you I had a list of rapid

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fire that I was going to end with here.

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But before we get into that, again, it's Noah Hoffman, Airbnb on Instagram.

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I'll make sure to have that link in the show notes.

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I'm going to swap out one of these rapid fire questions because you spurred another

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one when you talked about the Staphy.

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Has there been one, one Accommodation in any of your air and B's that you

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manage that has surprised you and has had a really big impact on your,

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on your customers when you say accommodation, you mean

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like some kind of anything,

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an attraction?

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I get swimming pools a lot.

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No, actually honestly, like I've nothing, nothing comes to my to my mind right now.

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So most of the properties that I've always focused on are for traveling workers

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more so than a real vacation destination.

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I do manage some properties in Hawaii.

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That's a real vacation destination.

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Other than that, they're like traveling workers, construction, medical, or

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sometimes people are vacationing.

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And we do have pools and it's always been one of my dreams to have a nice

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house in North Fresno with the pool.

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And I finally got it.

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I'm actually here now.

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You can actually see.

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I'm working on this house today.

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You can't really see it out that door.

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I guess you can't see but there's a pool back there But actually Now i'm now pools.

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I'm not so excited about pools anymore because the costs are really large

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people will pay more but also, I learned it cost You know, it can cost 10, 000

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to replace a pool heater, like a spa heater, pool heater, like these things

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and it's and the, but also pool pumps.

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I've had pool pumps break so many times pool cleanings.

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I've had, I had to cut down trees around the pool because the leaves blow

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in and the guests keep complaining.

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The pool's dirty.

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Every piece of wind, every time a wind blows, some leaves go in the pool.

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So I've had to send pool cleaners two, three times a week.

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So it's just been nonstop issues.

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So now it's nah, actually, but with the Pensacola property, now that

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might make sense, we have 20 units supporting one shared pool that

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kind of makes more sense, honestly.

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Here's your chance to bust a real estate investing myth.

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That you might have heard.

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Airbnb is a get rich quick scheme, right?

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What have you heard that you'd like to say that hasn't been your experience?

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So definitely not.

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Airbnb is definitely not a way to get rich quick.

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First off.

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So Airbnb is just another tool in my tool belt.

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It's another tool in your tool belt and it's a lot of work, right?

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It's like a lawnmower.

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You have to actually push it and clean up, clean the blades when you're done and

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all that stuff and throw the leaves away.

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But so Airbnb is a lot of work.

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You can make more money.

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You can make more cashflow, which is amazing, but it's

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like a game of cat and mouse.

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H.

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O.

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A.

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S.

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City regulations.

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And then you're lucky if they even let you do it.

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And then there might be taxes all of a sudden.

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Now this city has new taxes, 14%.

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That's a lot of money all of a sudden.

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And you're in your guest.

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Your customers don't want to pay extra.

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They're not thinking about your city taxes.

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So it's it's almost like a game of musical chairs.

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So that's one of the good things that, that's one of the good reasons that I

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started learning how to manage remotely because markets change every few years.

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So I'm always looking for the next best place.

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And this is my favorite place now, Fresno, California.

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But prices have been going up over the last five years.

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Airbnb rates have not been going up.

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So I tell people I'm looking for the next Fresno, so I don't know if

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that's in Florida, Georgia, Texas.

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I don't know where it is.

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But it's it's changing.

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So I might go to the Midwest.

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Sure.

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What book would you recommend or what are you reading right now?

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So let's see here.

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I millionaire real estate investor by Gary Keller.

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That was just one of the first books I read that kind of gave me the mindset.

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Yeah.

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I've

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said that I mentioned, don't say rich dad, poor dad, because everybody

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answers that, this question that way.

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If I allowed that, but rich dad, poor dad puts you in the right mindset and

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millionaire real estate investor kind of set you on the path to, in the

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steps needed to get some of that done.

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It's right there.

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They're good.

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Good combination.

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What is your biggest business mistake you've made?

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And what did you learn from it?

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Biggest business mistake.

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Let's see here.

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Everything's been perfect,

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right?

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No, everything's a mistake.

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So everything that I've learned from has been a mistake.

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So I want to say investing out of town.

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Has been one of my biggest real estate mistakes that I've learned

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that's what you're that's what you're doing

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for people So so you but I want to take it with the grain of salt It's so right

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now so I went out all over and in 2022 I invested in probably five six states and

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I still own those properties in but now Since the real estate market has shifted

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Because I have to retract a bit now, I'm focusing in on fewer markets because I

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need better relationships with vendors.

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And when you only manage one property, your relationships

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with vendors will be zero.

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You have no relationships.

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The more properties you can have focused in one area, the stronger your

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relationships get with those vendors.

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But for me again, I do both or you just in life, you have to take a risk, right?

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You can't get to work if you're not willing to get in your car and

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take a risk, you'd have to know when you get in the car and drive,

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it's, you're taking a risk, you're risking your life on the street.

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It's like you do, I have to do it.

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And then, so that's both a mistake, it's a mistake.

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So some of those properties I bought were mistakes.

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But I made money in some of them.

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I learned from them.

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So I'm going to keep making mistakes.

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So that's the point is you have to make mistakes to learn.

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And but then you adjust.

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If you could go back into time and give your younger self one

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piece of advice, what would it be?

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Think bigger dare bigger, work hard for it and don't give up.

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Okay.

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Now I'm going to time you.

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You have 60 seconds.

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You're going to give one piece of advice or something that everybody

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can implement in their business today.

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Right after this show ends, what is one piece of advice

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they can implement right now?

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Go find a house that looks really beat up, really run down, tall

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grass, boarded window, anything.

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You find the worst looking house you can and ask somebody if

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they want to sell that house.

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You see someone coming in or out of that house, do you want to sell this house?

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I tell them, I don't care if it's your first day, tell them I work with a network

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of investors who buy properties as is, you don't have to speak numbers at all.

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Just ask them what they want for DM me on Instagram and I'll

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let you know if it's a deal.

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And the way, if it's a deal is you go to Zillow, look at what

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the Z estimate this estimate is.

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And you want to be at about 50 percent of that if it's a full gut rehab needs

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tons of work, just at, just as a way to gauge your numbers, be around half

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of that to start, the higher that number is the less likely it is a deal.

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Yeah.

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I'm going to say, no, that was that's a great piece of advice and it really

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gets people working that muscle.

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I know it's going to be that first time you do that, it's going to be hard.

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It's not an easy thing to do.

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You're going to be shy.

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You're going to be insecure, but the more you do that and taking that

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massive imperfect action, the easier it gets and the better it gets.

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Noah, is there a question or concept you wished we would

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have chatted about here today?

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No I think it was great and I appreciate you again, Jack, for having

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me on.

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No, I appreciate it.

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One last time.

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Find Noah on Instagram, Noah Hoffman, Airbnb.

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I hope you'll come back again sometime, Noah.

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This was great.

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Thank you, Jack.

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Appreciate it.

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Jack Hoss

We gather amazing stories from leaders in Real Estate Investing. In each episode, our guests will tell you what they are doing that works, what they tried that failed, and best of all you'll learn actionable steps to take your real estate investing to the next level.