Managing property at a distance can be a challenge, especially if it is a short-term rental.
Jesse Beaubrun took that challenge on and has bookings set for months ahead!
Transcript :
Chris Bounds 00:02
I think it’s funny because we’ve had this conversation, that it’s a tight social group. I mean, obviously it’s a very unique experience that no one else can relate to. You end up being very social. Actually, I think I was connected to you by Charlie Matt.
That whole team and you know that those relationships it’s been fun. Hey, Jesse. You’ve got a an Airbnb and I want to have you on because your Airbnb that you have it’s not local here, in the Houston area. You’ve got that experience and you’ve had it a while now. Tell folks about this Airbnb and how that’s gone for you.
Jesse Beaubrun 00:46
In essence really, I was actually looking into the Airbnb game here in the Houston area. Before I actually decided to jump ship and partner with my parents and what not and do the Orlando one. It’s a property very close to the Disney World area at the time, we had tenants in the property that were in the process of moving out.
The numbers just made sense, right? After all the research I had done here in Houston, I figured hey, close to Disney World, Universal, just got a pool in the back. This can be an ideal property for us to go ahead and use for the Airbnb game.
I’m kind of semi, kind of rolled into it, with the limited amount of research that I had done, which would have been more conducive to doing it here in Houston. But we did it in Orlando instead. Went out there, drove to the property. Fix it all up. It’s painting. Got some cleaning, done some repairs done and yeah, been going since last summer. June, July of last summer.
Chris Bounds 01:44
All right. How’s that been?
Jesse Beaubrun 01:47
A roller coaster. Right? I guess that’s the only way to describe it. We decided to go ahead and jump into the Airbnb game right before COVID hit, and then everything shut down. Right. That was a bit of a hurdle in the beginning, in terms of our expected returns, but the benefit was the location was still the location.
Might not be going there, particularly to the parks, whether it be Disney World, Universal, etc. We’re still going there from vacation to relax. That was a very, very big draw for us. We’ve been able to go ahead and still see profit margins, not as much as we were expecting, but definitely better than what we were having before with the rental.
Chris Bounds 02:28
Okay. Okay. Because Florida had some unique restrictions. I don’t know all the details. You do. But I think there was restrictions on like, how much space in between books and stuff like that? Which, is it challenging?
Jesse Beaubrun 02:42
Yes, it was. We had to restructure our calendar to abide by those bylaws. In fact, in order for you to go ahead and be able to get put on the first page, Airbnb required you to go to this little white tutorial and whatnot of what they were expecting. Once you do that, you can a little certification of Hey, you did it.
Then we were able to go ahead and create those separations between guests, so we can do cleaning via the Airbnb COVID protocols. You can get a little badge that says that, hey, we’re, we’re obliging by the Airbnb COVID protocol. It definitely restricted our earning potential.
But at the end of the day, like during a pandemic, it just made the most sense to make sure that all the guests were being taken care of, and there were no possible cases of transmission. We understood that and definitely, we’re glad to oblige.
Chris Bounds 03:28
Guests were happy to stay and they were even happier whenever they saw extra precautions being taken because they couldn’t do anything else.
Jesse Beaubrun 03:38
This is true, they’re still kind of limited.
Chris Bounds 03:40
But now we’re pretty much back to normal. How’s it been performing? How you mitigating? I’m sure that there’s still operational hiccups that come in how you met.
Jesse Beaubrun 03:51
It’s been great. We’re actually booked out right now through the end of the year, already. We actually have a cap on on rentals going into January. Right now. You’ll be very very hard pressed to find two days of free space between now and December. For the property as Disney was opening back up and Universal Studios opening back up we’re seeing a huge influx of guests pouring in.
It was it was doing good before, but we’re about to go ahead and see what it’s truly capable of over this. I guess the second half of this year. But yes, it’s looking pretty fast right now.
Chris Bounds 04:25
Yeah, that’s absolutely crazy. Though, during the summer I know we get a lot of advance bookings nothing like that. But we don’t have Disney World.
Jesse Beaubrun 04:34
That’s it’s a bit of an advantage.
Chris Bounds 04:36
What do you plan on buying more Airbnb’s or what?
Jesse Beaubrun 04:42
Yes, actually. Right now I’ve been self managing the one that we currently have in Orlando. I’m very, very time consuming, especially with mostly transactions going on here. We have a wholesale business as well as a couple of flips going on here in Houston area. It’s been challenging to go ahead and juggle all that, of course, a traditional real estate stateside as well.
But right now we’re looking to go ahead and jump into what one of my partners at inspired properties is on board with potentially buying a couple of deals when he gets here in the next month or so, we’re looking at a couple of business plans to acquire some in the woodlands area, unfortunately, downtown. So yes, it’s a very profitable business model and we’re definitely going to be digging deeper into it, the second half of this year,
Chris Bounds 05:23
When you’re looking at those or you’re going to be looking at- because I’ve always said that, I said it earlier. This whole platform, one is not new. I mean, it’s been around forever. But the platform gives the average person, the ability to put pretty much any property on and but it gives us investors the ability to make money out of a property that otherwise wouldn’t necessarily be a good deal for a long term rental.
Donald Stan, like you get to buy the most expensive real estate in the world, not literally, but just really turning into a business what people pay down and you own the asset. Are you targeting, because V mentioned she’s got a place in the spring and I don’t know the price point of that. But spring is just a it’s your typical suburban tough community. But you mentioned Woodlands, Woodlands is a huge community, but it’s also a hot spotted downtown. What type of properties are y’all targeting?
Jesse Beaubrun 06:27
We’re targeting Single Family residences. I know a lot of individuals, that I’ve mentors of mine, friends of mine that are in the game and they’re using apartments or they’re doing the subleasing aspect, and they’re doing very well for themselves. One of the things that we want to kind of cater to is being able to control the environment throughout.
As such, by not having specific bylaws, by the apartment complex or townhouse specific developments, a single family residence is obviously going to have the HOA requirements. But it allows us to go ahead and cater to more type of events, right? We want to get to a point to where it’s also feasible that individuals who look at our properties want to use them for corporate events.
I actually had, that was one of our best months in Orlando, there was um, I guess a nursing school, that took a bunch of their students to Orlando. Right to go ahead and I’m not sure what they’re doing there, whether it was just having some fun or whatever the case might be, but they booked it up for an entire month. That was definitely the best month we’ve had when it came to the Airbnb.
It got me looking more so into-Okay, well how can we go ahead and make sure we have enough properties that not only 50, the Airbnb model but my fate the verbal model where the verbal aspect is more traditional companies leasing up properties in order for them to go ahead and do events hold events. We’re looking into that right now moving forward, but dead woman’s in the Houston area based off of the data we’ve pulled from the individuals I know who have properties in those areas. They’re doing extremely well, very, extremely well.
Chris Bounds 07:55
You have a long term perspective, the whole Texas market but especially Houston, you’re looking good.
Jesse Beaubrun 08:04
Yes, yes.