Short Stays, Big Dreams: A Travel & Vacation Rental Podcast
"Short Stays, Big Dreams: A Travel & Rental Podcast" dives into the world of short-term rental management, the stay industry, and travel, offering insights, expert interviews, and actionable tips to help you maximize your rental business and explore the latest travel trends.
Short Stays, Big Dreams: A Travel & Vacation Rental Podcast
Revolutionize Your Glamping Experience: Mastering Innovation and Strategic Growth with Garrett Brown
Discover how Garrett Brown, a visionary in the short-term rental industry, transitioned from a background in hospitality and music to becoming a leader in glamping and real estate investment. Learn why his unique approach to creating innovative vacation rentals, including geodesic domes and mirror houses, offers not just a place to stay but an unforgettable experience. Garrett shares the pivotal moments that shaped his career, emphasizing the role of creativity and determination in achieving financial freedom through real estate.
From managing rental properties in Houston to pioneering glamping sites, Garrett's journey is a testament to strategic risk-taking and adaptability. Hear about the challenges and successes he faced while venturing into unique short-term rentals and the lessons that taught him the importance of seizing opportunities. He also delves into the broader impact of platforms like Airbnb, discussing how they have revolutionized the industry and what aspiring investors need to know to succeed in this competitive landscape.
Get practical advice on controlled growth and aligning personal goals with business strategies, as Garrett offers insights into navigating the evolving dynamics of online booking platforms. With examples of successful ventures and partnerships, Garrett illustrates the power of innovation in creating memorable and profitable short-term rental experiences. Connect with him through the BiggerPockets community or on Instagram for further insights into this vibrant sector.
I welcome back my beautiful people to short stays, big dreams the podcast where we explore the exciting world of travel, short-term rentals, the business of travel and short-term rentals and everything in between. Today, I am super excited to have a true superstar in the industry. He is an experienced short-term rental operator, a glamping innovator and a real estate investor. One unique thing about our guest is that he has built a reputation of crafting creative ideas in the short-term rental world, specifically in the real estate investing world. I firmly believe that his journey is going to offer you inspiration and practical advice for anyone looking to break into this particular industry.
Speaker 1:So, before we get into the actual episode itself, let me just give you a quick rundown of what my goals are for this episode. Number one, I really, really want you to get to know who my guest is. I'm going to try to get into his brain and pull out all the knowledge and creativity that he has so that you can benefit from that. I also want to get into everything related to short-term rentals, but specifically the rise of glamping, and, more importantly, I want to talk about how real estate investing can open doors for financial freedom for those that have the courage and the work ethic and the ability to really focus and dig deep into reaching that goal. Now, before we begin, do me a big favor, people Grab your coffee or something to drink, grab a pad and paper, because I firmly believe you're going to get a lot of value out of this episode. So let me begin by introducing you to Garrett Brown. Garrett, welcome to the show, buddy.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, Welcome. I'm very glad to be here and super honored to be joining with you. I know we're going to have a great conversation and really give some high level insight to people interested in the short term rental world and travel and everything and beyond.
Speaker 1:Beautiful, beautiful Garrett, let's get started from the beginning. What inspired you to get into real estate investing and the short-term rental world?
Speaker 2:So I've been in hospitality for a long time. I went to school for hotel management and waited tables for years. I was doing music at the same time. That's one of my big passions. I love being creative and I was going further with that and I started to realize that I needed something, that I love music, but I looked around the music industry and I saw a lot of rich people but not really people that were wealthy. All the wealthy people that I knew were in real estate, most likely, or some type of big business adventure. So I started to dive a little further into the real estate world, thinking how could I balance both of them?
Speaker 2:I got my license to be a real estate agent about eight years ago, when I was probably about 25 years old and I was still doing music, and I still have my license to be an agent to this day, but I don't use it as much now because I found the side of short-term rentals, which really opened my eyes to the creativity that could be brought into real estate and the investing side. One thing that I loved about my agent business was I'm not a real sales kind of person which sometimes takes a little more of that to be successful in the agent business, but I was able to start working with real estate investors. I didn't know anything about real estate investing. All I thought of when I was thinking of real estate was buy and sell a house. But I got introduced to the investing side on one fateful day from someone randomly reaching out to me that asked if I worked with investors. I didn't at the time, but I was so eager I was like yes, of course I work with investors and I went online. I found biggerpocketscom, which is kind of where I actually work now, to this day.
Speaker 2:So, eight years later, it's kind of wild how things come back around. But they taught me every single thing I knew about real estate investing. And one of the beauties of real estate investing is there's so many avenues that you can try. I tried flipping, I tried long-term buy and hold, I tried wholesaling. I was trying all different things and that's what's beauty. The beauty in it is I figured out what worked for me and that's when I landed on short-term rentals and it's I've been full force ever since then, once I found the power of, you know, vacation rentals essentially being being able to change my life and my family's life going forward.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Awesome. I love that story and, as I mentioned before we got on, I'm a big fan of what you've been doing and what you've done and, like you and probably like 90% of the people out there that's investing in real estate. I learned a lot through BiggerPockets. And it's funny because when I found BiggerPockets, you know, Brandon Turner wasn't even on the show yet. Oh, wow, you know I've been in this game a long time, right, Even before I even knew this was really a game.
Speaker 1:You know, like the short-term rental industry, when I started many years ago it was called a seasonal rentals. Right, we didn't, didn't? You know, Airbnb didn't exist. Verbal had just started, but it was only specific to Aspen. Bookingcom has always been in the game, but not to the extent that it is now. But here in South Florida we used to do seasonal rentals and our clients were snowbirds and people that would come down here during the wintertime. So that's how I got introduced into the short-term rental game. But going back to BiggerPockets, it's pretty cool and, like you just said, it goes full circle, it's. You know, I'm so proud of the fact and happy for you that you did get on their staff now. It's pretty interesting. You know I love those people. I think they're a good tool and you're an added plus to BiggerPockets, so congratulations there.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. I'm super happy to be there.
Speaker 1:Cool. Now let's talk about because, like you, I own or I have a real estate license. We do have a division in sales. But where was that shift? You got that client that was an investor, you started working with him, but but this started deep into that. What, what about that specifically? What did you learn? What lessons did you learn about that? And then what guides you to what drove you and guide you to the STR side?
Speaker 2:So I mean, I love telling the story because it's just, it's something I like to remind people that you know, one moment of you just saying yes can sometimes change your life, and it may not be instantly, you know, like some people think like, oh, everything has to happen so fast and they're just so worried about the next step. But so I'll tell the story of how I even got into the investing side. So I got an email one day randomly from someone I don't still to this day don't know how they found me. He was, I live in Houston, texas. He was a new investor. He had moved from Mexico City. He was saying he was looking to invest in properties and looking, you know, had a construction business in Mexico City and this is what he what he came to Houston to particularly do. We met at a coffee shop. You know, I vetted him a little bit just to make sure how serious he was. But, like again, I knew nothing about real estate investing at this time, which is a totally different beast than buying and selling residential real estate. They don't teach you a lot of these things in real estate school, you know, like I learned contracts, but real life experience just comes from going out there and you know putting your feet on the pavement and talking to people. So I met with him at a coffee shop. He explained what he was looking for, gave me some real good insight that I had no knowledge of of how investors look at properties, what the ARV needs to be and their percentage rules.
Speaker 2:This was 2016, so the investing game was a little bit different than it is now. Like I said, I went online, I met with him and told him absolutely I'm going to work on this. I took that moment and started researching, found bigger pockets, dove in there, learned a ton over there, just started doing my own analysis constantly and I kind of got obsessed with seeing, like you know, what the deals were out there and what we could you know. Again, my creativity always comes into play when I'm thinking of things and I would see deals and I'd go okay, like I knew. You know, being an agent, you have a lot of data that a lot of you know the consumer public doesn't have, and so I was really really starting to push some of these numbers and I was getting and I got really good on the investor side. I started calling for sale by owners, I started driving for dollars and I'm looking all over the place for basically dilapidated houses and I'm passing them over to investors and they're making, you know, 80 grand, 90 grand here, and this is. This is a little bit in the golden era of times and you could find properties in Houston like that Not as easy anymore, but still there. But I started seeing how well they were doing and I was really. I was spending so much time learning that I got to the point now that I was like man they're, they're getting these deals and a lot of them are coming because I'm doing the work and you know I'm also getting paid, but I'm not getting paid like they are. Um, so finally saying yes to that and saying yes to many opportunities.
Speaker 2:Eventually, maybe two or three years into that, I can't remember exactly I was showing a client a residential home. It was, you know, nothing out of the ordinary that I was doing regular and I saw a for sale by owner sign and this was in an area that I had a lot of knowledge in. I grew up in this area. I mean, I always tell people like, if you're keen on investing, one of the best places to start is in the hometown you grew up in because that's where a lot of your connections are going to be and you're going to know that area like the back of your hand probably. So I'm going. You know, I'm checking these places out with one of my residential clients and we we drove, you know we're leaving a place and she loved it and and as I'm driving away, I see a for sale by owner sign and and that was one thing I always I'm not a big cold call in person. It's not my favorite thing or I don't not many people's favorite thing to do. But for sale by owners, I always called them because I knew that they were at least interested in selling and if I could just present them with some options, they they may be open for that. You know, I got cussed out a few times calling people and that's just, that's just part of the game. So that's part of the game. So I ended up.
Speaker 2:We're driving away, I see the for sale by owner sign, I pull over and I call them and they happened to be in the house and they were clearing. The owners were in the house clearing it out and I knew the area very well because, like again, this was my backyard of sorts. Um, I called him and they were like, yeah, you can come in and check it out, like we can talk, like we're here right now, just come in and check it out. When checked it out it I knew, because of my, my knowledge in real estate and being my backyard, I was like this place, a hotel, which, if people don't know what hotel is, is, is when if I took it and just me as an agent or investor or whatever, and just put it cleaned up maybe the grass and a few other small minor things I could probably put it on the MLS and probably get about 150 for it, even with the seller.
Speaker 2:And I presented that option to them and I said, hey, like we can list this for that, or I have a partner and I didn't at the time, I just knew of some people that might be interested. You know, I was like I have somebody that they would probably buy this cash and if you wanted it and I didn't think in a million years that they were going to go, oh yeah, we cash. And if you wanted it and I didn't think in a million years that they were going to go, oh yeah, we'll take the 115 instead, because people always get so caught up with, like, oh, it's always got to be the highest price, it's always got to be the highest price. But what I learned is that all sellers you got to find what their pain points were and so I asked them I go, what you know, why are you selling like? That's the one of the main questions I always ask people, no matter what. Because, because always a bigger reason than just money, like that's obviously one of the main reasons.
Speaker 2:But this couple in particular, they were ready to be done with it. They didn't they, they, they. They moved to a totally different place. They were trying to go travel Um. They were selling a few of their, their rentals around and they didn't want us to do showings, they didn't want to do any fixes, like dealing with the public. And they were like, if you can close within a week and give us cash, like the prop, like we will do it.
Speaker 2:And I immediately called one of the investors that I worked with um and said, hey, I have a deal. I didn't have the money, but I want to partner with you. And we partnered with it. They brought the cash, I brought the deal and I did a lot of the um. It was. It was just cosmetic, so it wasn't anything major. I did, I I kind of went over a lot of the construction things, cause I'd learned so much from working with so many investors and my time of just researching um, YouTube, university and all those places, and we ended up closing that deal and, uh, we ended up put about $50,000 into the property, um, that the partner supplied and then we sold it for, I think, $245 a month or two, a month and a half later and, because I'm an agent, we saved on commissions and things like that. And then we split the profit 50-50. I think we both walked away with maybe $30,000 a piece. That really, really sparked me to go further with my investing journey. But I also say that to say my first deal might have been a solid one, but I had a few failures.
Speaker 2:After that, in the flipping world it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but it's never going to, you know. And but I learned from every single thing. Like one of my next deals after that, I learned that you know, we had a deal and it was going to be a slam dunk and it was almost closing and then a brother, a long lost brother, came out of nowhere to claim title on it and so, and if people don't know about that, like title issues are like one of the worst things you can deal with in real estate, and so we had to let the deal go. Um and and we and then I had a few more instances like that with my flipping business, where it was like one or two things out of my control that you know, just make the deals go right. And so I was like, okay, I control that, you know, just make the deals go right. And so I was like, okay, I need to try, I like flipping and I learned a lot. You know, rehabs are always really good to know about.
Speaker 2:But I was like I want to try, you know, uh, maybe buy and hold, or even like you know, this is when Airbnb was really starting to make its trends like 2018, maybe 20, yeah, 2018. And I was like, maybe I'll. You know, I was in. I was like, maybe I'll try that. And so it just happened from always saying yes to things is what I is one of my favorite um, you know phrases because I took on a, a very small rental, maybe two years before that that it was near my house. My broker calls me and she goes hey, um, we have a, you know, an investor client that's just trying to rent out a condo. It was like a thousand dollars a month, right, nothing like on in the real estate world that commissions very small and it takes, you know. But I said yes to it because I was a newer agent still then and I was like I'll take it. You know, I met the guy, we had a great relationship.
Speaker 2:I rented out his property two years over, which you know wasn't much, but me developing those relationships about two or two, three years later, when you know he had a tenant at the end of it uh, just leave, with a couple months left on their lease. And he was kind of like you know what I'm, I'm over this condo. He owns two others in the same building and they were small, regular condos and he was like I think I'm ready to sell them and they were, I think, 70,000 a piece. And I was like you know, if you want to sell them to me, I would gladly take them and take over them and, you know, operate them from there. And he sold them to me for 60,000 a piece. I used conventional loans to get all three, kind of a smaller portfolio loan actually and we got them, we put them on Airbnb and we were renting them out. We were making, you know, a thousand or two thousand dollars a month on each one and it was going good.
Speaker 2:But then pandemic hit and this is also when Airbnb really really started to explode, with, you know, institutional money coming into, especially in Houston, like, at that point, all the condos started popping up on Airbnb and at that point, it's just a race to the bottom with your price and you're pretty much just like who has the lowest price, because I didn't really under, I didn't understand that building the experience is is really the key in in, you know, in short-term rental world. So, um, at that point we were, we were, we were doing okay, but I knew that I was ready to shift to something bigger, and this was 2021. And I was. You know, I was glamping was really starting to get popular on YouTube and it's been popular in Europe for years, but America which doesn't happen often and some of these trends was actually really behind on this, and so I saw the niche starting to pop up and I knew I was new near Houston and I was looking around and there was nothing really unique on Airbnb and we're the third or fourth largest city in America and so I sold the condos and this is a big bet on myself and people.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, like one reason I was successful in this area was because I was willing to make a big sacrifice. For a year, I sold my my three Airbnbs. I sold my primary residence it was just a smaller town home I was living in and I still did. I was still working in real estate and my music studio. But I decided to buy land about an hour away from Houston in a, in a semi vacation destination area. It was a place I grew up going to um with, on the, on the lake with my family, and it was near a national forest and I was like you know, I think I'm going to take a chance and I used an owner occupied loan.
Speaker 2:This is this is where the sacrifice came in and most people they think investment properties. You're like, oh, you have to put 20% down every single time. You are 15% on some of them, um, but I used an owner occupied loan for 5% down. I bought a house with 10 acres on it, um, which was I. It's been coined land hacking, but the reason I was able to get that. You know people think of land and they're like you have to have cash to get land, and which is true. So that's the trick I used was using finding a house that had the land on it that I could use an actual mortgage on and they were willing to lend on. And when you do that and you live in the property for a year, you can put 5% down or even lower on some you know, in FHA or even, I think, even conventional now Definitely not a lender, so don't hold me to that but I used that and the cash I reserved from not having to put 20% down on an investment property.
Speaker 2:I used most of that to build my first unique short-term rental, which is a geodesic dome, first unique short-term rental which is a geodesic dome, and it was very hard to get. You can't get financing on some of these unique properties, especially when you're newer, because I didn't have the proof of concept and I was telling people basically like hey, I want to build this glamping site, but all they're hearing is you just want to put up a tent and try to charge people $500 a night and I'm like that's not exactly it, but I knew I had to. I knew I knew the business plan was there. I knew that the unique stay was there. In my hospitality background I was going to be able to manage it like a like a hotel of sorts and provide that kind of comfort in the middle of nature. And so the only person that took me serious was my mom and she. We went 50, 50 partners on the property to get. We needed a little extra cash to get some things in place. But I went in with a vision and I knew my end goal was to have, you know, maybe four or five small cabins, unique cabins, on this property and take this same business model to other markets that you know, I know well or I know will perform well.
Speaker 2:And to this day, I think we've been operating now for about two years. We put about $200,000 into the property but we make now gross revenue. We make about $260,000 and the net income is about $100,000 a year. So we've almost paid back most of our debt that we have Besides our mortgage. We pay that each month. Well, the guest pays that, which is the beauty of it, because I don't live in that house now. You only have to live in it for one year After I was done building it, I moved into a different house and now we rent that house out too as a vacation rental. So we have a whole operation going on there and the house is the equity play One thing that I don't want people to get confused, and I also like I love my geodome, but I would probably never build another one, because I think the real secret sauce is building a unique cabin that has more equity value let me.
Speaker 1:Let me stop you there, because we I gotta go back, uh, on a lot of stuff and we're gonna touch on that, because that, that isn't that. That is a good, uh um statement that you just made. So, but let me go back a little bit on your journey here, right? Sure, a couple of key things you said that I took notes on and I need the listeners to understand, right, one of the key points that he just mentioned. When he started and got into the game, he did so and he recommends, just like I do, that you do so in your backyard, right, um, there I I hear some people, some experts, and you know, or say you know, get into a market that you can get into, and oftentimes in these markets are areas that are far away from you because of the entry point. But people, I think that's a mistake. If you have no, if you're from, like, if you're from Fort Lauderdale, uh and back, then I can tell you, you know, back in 2012, 13 and 14, a lot of people were talking about investing in Jacksonville, uh, southern Georgia, but I'm not from there, never been there, didn't know anything about that. So, although the entry point was last, I stuck to my backyard right, and I firmly believe you should do the same if you're brand new. It's going to alleviate a lot of the headaches than doing stuff remote.
Speaker 1:I always give the story and I've done a couple of videos on this recently of David Green. David Green being a former member of BiggerPockets, who was one of those individuals that always preach, you know, go into markets that may have a lower entry point but a lot of upside, and he went into Jacksonville, and if you know his story, or if you don't know it, go to one of my videos that I talked about it. Man, he learned a hard lesson by doing that, because he didn't have the right people in place to sustain that kind of work. So, hindsight being 2020, if you were to ask him today, he would not have done that unless he had the right people in place, and I don't recommend you do that. I recommend you stay within your farm. So that's that's one thing I want to talk about that you mentioned. Is there something else you want to add before we move on to the next thing you talk about?
Speaker 2:No, I mean, you hit it on the head, it's, it's I. You don't realize how much you know. I don't want to discourage people, but there's a lot of work and a lot of like. Especially when you're a smaller operation, you can't always out a little more. I always I suggest the same thing like start in your, you know, your backyard or somewhere closer to you so you can learn nuances of building a team, building operations, building systems, cause now that I've been doing it for quite a few years, I am way more confident.
Speaker 2:If I did go to a market that is, you know, in a different state, but I still am not gonna. You know, like I'm in Texas, I'm not going to go invest in New York or Maine or something at this point because I don't know this, the nuances to that, unless I can just get a screaming deal. I'm. I want to stick to something that I know a little bit more about the weather. I know how. You know I don't know anything about snow plowing. You know I don't like. So it's like as just as I grow. I agree with you a hundred percent. Like learn your systems, learn your operations and then expanding to different markets later on will be much, much easier and you won't have that headache that will fall through the cracks that when you start investing in other markets just off the bat. It's a lot tougher than people think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot of work and, like you, I mean like you said, you don't want to discourage people, but I also I'm a true believer that I want you to know the truth right. There is a dark side to real estate investing. It is not a get rich quick scheme, so, and it does take a long time to really build wealth right, Especially if you don't have the capital to do so Now. We're going to talk about capital in a second, but right now what I want to talk about and go back to your first STR, Walk me through that. Was that the condos or was that the land you bought and you built your geodome? Which one was your first STR?
Speaker 2:The condos were first. Those were about 2018. I had three just plain Jane condos in a decent area of Houston with you know nothing special, no design. I think I got the couches from you know big lots and like it was just a simple plain Airbnb which at that time still could work. And now it's much, much harder to do that because just hosts and operators in general have stepped their game up so much.
Speaker 2:That's when I realized that I needed to make a change to just get as profitable as I want, because I've always thought that each STR they really take about the same amount of time, thought that the each str they really take about as much, about the same amount of time. Like I spend the same amount on my guests, on the ones that make 50k a year as the ones that make 150k a year. And so I started to realize like I need something that is like still gonna like have the same amount of time to it, but it's just much more profitable or has a higher upside to make revenue yeah, correct, and and correct me if I'm wrong if, if I heard you correctly, that was back in 2018, right, yep, okay, those that are my subscribers and my followers.
Speaker 1:What have I always said? From 2015 all the way to 2022, didn't matter what short-term rental you had, you were going to make money out of it. Right, that was the golden years of short-term rentals. Right? Again, he had an average, a condo, nothing fancy, nothing unique about it, but he did well with them. I, when I got into this game back early on in 2010, everything I put up on Airbnb was doing phenomenal, even a because I house hacked Even a bedroom in my house was doing great, great returns. Today, the game has changed and we're going to talk about that change in a little bit. But, okay, garrett, you went from the kind of if I heard you correctly, you sold those and then bought the land, or you kept them and then bought the land.
Speaker 2:Sold it and I cashed out on the little bit of equity I had wasn't, wasn't anything crazy, um, and then sold them at. I sold them at the right time, which when the you know, one thing about being an agent was I knew the market was super hot and everybody was just trying to buy whatever they could. So I sold the three condos, sold each one of them for 82,000 or around in there. And then I sold my townhouse, which I bought at like 120. And I did some small renovations while I lived there and I ended up selling that for like 180. And so I took that probably, you know, about a hundred thousand dollars, got matched a hundred thousand000 from my mom. We took that money and then pretty much put it all into that clamp site, which is now we've tripled or doubled that investment at least we're probably worth $1.3 million at this point.
Speaker 1:That's phenomenal. Now let's talk about that deal we're going to talk about now in terms of what he did with the land he mentioned. He bought the land, he actually lived in the land and, as a newbie investor, if you're looking to get into this game, for me and Garrett tell me if you agree with us For me, the best way to do it is through some type of hack either a house hack and, in his case, a land hack. Right, because you can get into those deals with very little money and, in the process, either live for free or, better yet, live for free and make money at the same time.
Speaker 1:In addition to that, when you do that, you really get to know what it is to be a landlord, what it is to be a real estate investor, and then you can decide whether it's for you or not, because a lot of people jump in. They sell everything. They're going to be these great investors. They start buying properties not even realizing if they're going to like it or not. So that's important. So let's talk about that process. You bought it, you were going to live in it for a little bit. Now, what you lived in, the actual what you consider the cabin or the actual what's. You consider the cabin or the house and then you put the geodome right.
Speaker 2:Yep, and and you? So you hit. A great point, though, too, is is I you? I tried so many different things within real estate that I knew I was ready to go all in on the glamping side because I knew that's what I liked and I knew that's where my passion was going to be. So if you're going to jump all into something, I would try, you know, test out a few little waters, even if you're just analyzing deals. I was analyzing deals every day and so that helped me know that I was ready to make that big commitment to building this property and, you know, putting a lot of cash into it, but I knew it worked from.
Speaker 2:I tried so many things and I learned what didn't work, and not every. You know people sometimes fail in certain things and I just get so upset and you know nothing's ever gonna work for me. But I took every single loss or failure that I took as a learning lesson, knowing like, okay, this is not particularly for me, I'm not gonna make that mistake again, I'm gonna go on to something that I, you know, each time I was able to narrow down, like what I think was gonna work and what was gonna me happy. I want to have fun with the things I'm doing, and that's how I ended up where I'm at with that.
Speaker 1:Awesome and great lesson. People, there's two things that you have to have if you want to be successful, or at least I firmly believe. Number one is you have to have work ethic. You have to have the desire to want to work your butt off, and one of the ways you get that desire is doing something you love doing something you like Hence why I'm a big fan of house hacking.
Speaker 1:You have to live someplace, so might as well live someplace. That's going to help you either build wealth and help you decide if this is the avenue you want to go to, because if it doesn't work out, you still have your home. You still can stay there and then forget that and move on to whatever other project you want. But it gives you that ability and you don't lose out because you're in something that, again, you have to live someplace. So that's a big plus. Now you bought that property, you moved in there and you decided my first STR that I'm going to do within that property is going to be this geodome. Why the geodome? And walk me through that process as to what made you narrow down to that specific item.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I, when you know I was looking into what, what to do. Uh, there's, you know, there's. There's a myriad of options you can do when you're glamping. You can have a safari tent, you can have a yurt, you can. You know, geodomes are very popular. Shipping containers are popular.
Speaker 2:You know, I was starting to, I was seeing all what was out there and the two things that I did that I think of. Why my geodome was so successful is I researched the market in my area. You looked in Austin, Texas, which is almost I don't want to call it the glamping hub of the US. Maybe Tennessee has probably something to say about that, but Austin has a ton of glamping, which is three hours away from us, a major city. But they had all types of data that I could pull to see like, all right, what are some of their better performing properties? The geodomes usually seem to be better performing than some of the other ones. I looked at my area and there was one yurt not far from the area I was putting up in, but there was not a geodome anywhere nearby and I was like, okay, interesting, I went and stayed at some different glamping sites, which is something I always recommend anybody looking to build something unique and, you know, just trying to figure out this type of business and short-term rentals in general is go stay at some of these sites and see what you like about it and don't like about it from your own guest experience.
Speaker 2:So, cause some geodomes are you know some glamping sites? I keep saying geodome sites, but glamping sites they'll. They'll come up with, you know, they'll have a structure and like they'll put 10 domes right next to each other or 10 different yurts right by each other. And I went and stayed at some of these places and I was like, uh, I don't, I that were, you know, more private and they had maybe one geodome, one unique stay on, you know, like a tree house, maybe over here. Maybe they had a yurt as well, but it was way more spaced out. And I was like, okay, this is, this feels more like something I would like as a guest and I would pay top dollar for Um.
Speaker 2:So I stayed at those sites and realized like, okay, I want less is more for me personally. And then it's just the honest thing, like I, I thought the geodomes just looked the best. Like I thought, if I'm scrolling on Insta, I'm a big market person and social media guy, I thought, if I'm scrolling on online and I saw a yurt versus geodome, versus shipping container, versus, you know, tree houses, is probably the one that I. It's just I couldn't afford it, to be honest with you. Otherwise I would have loved to build that, but at geodome the price point was something I could get into is about $20,000 for my geodome we we spent another you know $80,000 with between utilities and bathrooms and tile and other things like that. But I just thought that you know my experience.
Speaker 2:I liked staying in geodomes more than yurts and things and my personal preference. I just thought they looked the coolest and so I went with that and I and I figured other people would share that sentiment. You know some people love shipping containers and I know some people that that, you know, crush it with shipping containers. I personally don't like them. You know there's some designs I've seen that are amazing, but just the plain Jane shipping containers that you know people have retrofitted into, you know have insides and stuff Just my personal preference. I was like, oh, it's okay, it's not as it's not as appealing as the geodome.
Speaker 2:And that was one of my main things, cause I knew that me as a marketing person, if I'm, I try to vision it from the guest mind. If they're scrolling on Instagram and they're in a market and they see a unique stay that is like a geodome or my mirror house or things they're going to stop scrolling because it's it's super unique. And then as they click in, the thing that's going to get them the book is the amenities I put in behind it. I have, I have really unique amenities too. I knew that the outdoor space is going to be the thing that sells this and be and is able to get me that super high price point. I put in a hot tub. I put in a sauna. People thought I was crazy to put in a sauna near Houston, texas, cause it's basically a sauna when you walk outside. But I knew that these amenities were going to be something nobody else was really doing, even hot tubs. You know people like in Houston like what do you need a hot tub for? It's like no, that those amenities get me to that five hundred dollar a night price point.
Speaker 2:So, as I was starting to see like when I was going to other places, I knew what I wanted to provide and I knew what was going to keep guests to actually book and give us a steady supply of occupancy rates that are just like we're beating the market tremendously rates that are just like we're beating the market tremendously and they're like. You can look at air DNA, which I love, and all these data sites, but they're not always going to tell you the full picture. If you know that you can beat the experience that's being provided in that area. Nobody in my area was providing any kind of unique experience and our air DNA said we were going to make like 30,000 a year and we made a hundred K on each one of our small, tiny homes the first year, just because we we know marketing and we knew what people want to see when they're they're booking a unique experience.
Speaker 1:Great point there and there's two things I want to touch on and you just said the first. But before I do that, um, and you kind of touch on it, but I want to really dive deep into this part of about it. And you kind of touch on it, but I want to really dive deep into this part about it, and you picked the Geodome not only because of the entry point, but because you felt it's going to provide a better experience right Now, tell me why. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2:So I have a and you know other people I don't think many people would debate this with me, but it's also probably the harder part is the reason I one of the reasons I bought my land I looked at. I looked at places for like eight months. One reason I bought my lands because it had a massive pond in the middle of the land that I knew. The thing I saw with a lot of these places is the most popular ones had either an incredible view or some type of water feature near it. And so I the geodome thing that I like you know yurts, if people don't really know them, they can look them up, but they're pretty much, you know, encapsulated with not many windows and they're, you know, kind of dark and dreary. Same with shipping containers, they, they can be fixed up a little bit. But the geodome, the thing I loved about it, it has this massive, massive window and it and that, and then it overlooks this pond I have which people think is a lake and they say that all the time. I'm like it's not a lake. But if you think it's a lake, that's awesome to know.
Speaker 2:Um, and I knew that, that that view feature I'm in, I'm you know the area I'm in, we're not in they Mountains, we don't have these crazy terrains and like. We have a little bit of hills in our area, but nothing spectacular. But I knew that that view was going to be something people would pay for, and then the pictures were going to look just stunning when I, you know, got drone shots and it's like you see this geodome and there's a body of water right behind it which is just an acre pond, which are very common in Texas, but people think it's a land you know. So it's like that water feature was something I wanted to highlight and I knew that window was just going to be the selling point.
Speaker 2:People love light, they they're going out. I wanted to blend nature in the inside. You know, like people aren't. They're not going out there to just hang inside the house that they book because the house is cool, but they're going there to be in nature, like, and so I wanted to blend those the best I could. I felt like some of these other stays didn't blend the nature seamlessly, which is another reason why I have my mirror house as well, which is our highest performing one, because it- yeah, I want to talk about that, but let's finish talking about the TOO.
Speaker 2:Just the windows alone. Like I love blending nature and making it feel like it's seamless together, that is my goal with any property I buy now or build that I do.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, I, I'm going to, I'm going to 100% agree with everything you just said and I'm going to give you, give you my perspective on this right. Like you, I firmly believe that on this right. Like you, I firmly believe that number one, and we touched on it again, but it's important to emphasize in today's short-term rental market, you have to stand out, you have to provide a unique experience and it has to be an exceptional hospitality experience, exceptional hospitality experience. Now, I, like you, I'm a big fan of the geodomes. We're building our own site now. We do have some cottages, a couple resort cottages. In the cottages, though, they're also built with a big front window. They're built inside because we want the lights. But, more importantly, where we spend our money is not on the interior of the structure, it's on the exterior. Nailing it, nailing it, your bang for your ROI is so much greater if you really do your exterior right, your bang for your ROI is so much greater If you, if you really do it do your exterior right, then anything you can do on the inside Right, a hundred percent that's, and I'm and I'm glad you mentioned that, cause I've been that's one of the things that I try to emphasize with my clients when they team up with us and they want to invest in a short term rental and they, for some reason, that part doesn't click until I show them the numbers right, you can have an average like. I'm going to give you an example.
Speaker 1:When I first got into this industry many, many years ago, just like a lot of people, I had the misconception of thinking that my property needs to be huge, it needs to be on the beach, it needs to be super luxurious in order for that property to do well. With experience and with time, I realized, man, I was way off and man, it's the total opposite. Right Now, when I look at a property to invest in, I want a small property, right, I don't want these four, five, six bedroom homes anymore. The return on those isn't there. So I want a small property. But I need it's imperative that the outdoor allows me to create a phenomenal outdoor experience. Like you mentioned, the jacuzzi. The ROI on a jacuzzi is insane.
Speaker 2:Insane. Yeah, every place has to have a jacuzzi and string lights. If you don't, have those features it's over.
Speaker 1:Yes, so we are currently in. So I have a vineyard, uh vineyard in georgia, uh, that we're creating, uh, a, a, in my opinion, a phenomenal outdoor experience. Right, we have trails, we have mountain bike trails, horseback riding it's on a vineyard. So, especially during March all the way to June, when the grapes are harvesting and they're growing, I mean it's just a beautiful sight. If you're sitting in the geodome and looking out that big-ass window, you're going to see this beautiful vineyard and we're locating them so that you can see the sunrise as it comes up.
Speaker 2:Nice, that's exactly what we did too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so anyways. So that's a big plus and I'm glad you realized that early on and you actually implemented that. And you're proof of concept, right? I tell people sometimes you tell someone something and they, you know, they're like, ah, maybe, maybe not, but you're, you are this proof of concept, your concept is great.
Speaker 1:I have a good friend of mine, uh, he owns timbercraft, uh, tiny homes out of alabama. He created a couple's resort, uh, and we're trying to do a project together as well. But he has that proof of concept as well. Right, when he built his tiny home, he doesn't really we call it a cottage, because there's a misconception. When you say tiny home, you're thinking about a place where you can actually live in. We're not building that. We're building something for someone to come in a few days, max five days or a week.
Speaker 1:We don't have kitchens, we only have kitchenettes, but we have phenomenal outdoor areas barbecue fireplaces, jacuzzi. We're creating one of the properties has a nice gym. We have a yoga studio, like my property in Georgia. It's going to have mountain biking trails, atv trails, horseback riding trails, you know stuff. For the outside, the amenities the return on your investment is going to be much higher when you provide phenomenal amenities, and I'm glad you talked about that. Now, the next thing I want to talk about, because you brought it in and I truly love it. Now you have an interesting concept, right, because on your property you have different models. Right, you have the geodomeome and we're going to talk about the glasshouse right now. Uh, and then, what else do you have in addition to those two structures?
Speaker 2:uh, right, we're right now that's. We have that and then the main house. But we you know I co-host a few other semi-unique places but nothing like those. But we're building an A-frame pretty soon. We're already in permitting talks there and then we're going to build a tree house after that.
Speaker 2:And I've, every time I build something, especially in the same area, I want something different because I want people to come. I've had, I've had so many people stay in my geodome and stay in my mirror house and are ready to stay in my A-frame because I like building a different experience for them and there's definitely positives. I learned so much building my geodome. I would not make the same mistakes I made the first time and I would save money if I built another one, which we may eventually in a different area. But I I would rather have different structures and, you know, spend a little bit more to you know, get new structures on the property because just the marketing efforts are so much easier. Like, even on my social media page, if I'm always posting geodomes only it's going to get old. People are like those videos are going to flatline over time. But we've launched our geodome took off on social media. We launched the mirror house. It took off because it was all different.
Speaker 2:People hadn't seen in my area those kinds of things, and so I'm just a real.
Speaker 2:It goes back to my creativity, from music and just everything that I love providing different types of stays, and I don't want to be redundant in the same area I would take. My goal is to take like, build geodome, build a mirror house, build a you know a frame, take those same three properties and go to a different part of you know Arkansas or Oklahoma or Texas or somewhere else and take that same stuff I learned. But I don't want it in the same market that I'm already in, cause I just, you know, and I know people that crush it with that model and it's just everybody, everybody. The thing I love about real estate is everybody's model can be different and it could still work for them. But just in my own personal preference, I thought having different structures was going to work. You know marketing wise and you know to this day it's worked great. We have like 50,000 followers on social media that have crushed it because we're able to keep promoting new style places and, you know, build up the hype around them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to agree with you. So you know I get into a lot of debates with people and and clients when they're building their resorts or their areas. I tend to agree with you. So, multiple clients, and they all want, they feel like it's better to have the same model, right? So I'll go back to my friend, doug with Timbercraft Now he builds them, but he built the same model. So he has four of the same cottages in one location. Looks great, phenomenal. But I think if he would have went with a different model four separate, different models I think he would have done better.
Speaker 1:Now, couldn't prove it. I'm using you now as proof of concept, right, uh, because I don't. I, I haven't built that yet. I haven't done it. We're going to do that in my georgia property I'm going to have, just like you, I'm going to have the uh geodome. I'm going to have uh doug's uh tiny cottage, I'm going to have the mirror house and I'm going to have a tree house.
Speaker 1:Now, nice, in Colombia, we have, which I do, a lot of short-term rentals in Colombia as well, which was my first experience with a Gio, though, and I want to go, don't let me forget. I want to go back to what you said, that you had to learn some lessons that you wouldn't do if you build another one, but to go back on that concept of having different structures. So in Colombia we have a treehouse. We actually went and built multiple in one location. This is where I say that hindsight being 2020, why I agree with your concept is because, for example, on that particular property, we have seven tree houses and we don't have high occupancy at all seven right. So in peak season they're all rented out, but when we have the snow season, I may have two out of the seven rented out. Now I firmly believe that we had something different to offer, but probably there will all get booked because and more and more importantly, as it relates to marketing, it's much easier, much better.
Speaker 1:Like you just talked about, uh, if you're constantly promoting and showing the same thing, people get tired of it. But when you can shift and you have a treehouse, a geodome I'm not a fan of the York tents either. Like you said, they don't. They don't give that guest experience of being it, because you can't see outside. The windows are tiny, I'm not a big fan of those, but you can create and I have seen the canvas tents that you can open up, but that's going to be region and weather specific. I couldn't do that in certain areas. But anyways, going back to your concept, I agree with you and I'm glad you did it. But anyways, going back to your concept, I agree with you and I'm glad you did it. And I'm interested to see when you expand with your A-frame, because that's one of the structures we're going to put on. My Georgia property is going to be one of the A-frame houses. And now let's talk real quick about your glass house, because I think that is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Tell me what got you, how did you learn about it, why did you get it? And tell us your ROI on that. Yeah, it's actually probably a unique story, but this just goes to proof of concept and networking and never saying you know, always saying yes to stuff. So I had the geo dome. We hadn't even launched our geo dome yet. We were, it was getting built. We were in January. We didn't launch till May. Um, as all construction always is delayed for a million different reasons, um, but we, you know, around January.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, like the geodome's getting there, I want to start planning for the second you know spot. And I initially thought treehouse, you know that's. I was like I'll build a tree, I'll have a little more capital, maybe. But I started researching some things and I came across a company that's called Oud Mirror Houses and they were from Estonia, which is in Eastern Europe. They were just starting to make their way to the US. There's probably 60 or 70 of them in all across Europe. This same company was just now starting to come to the U? S. I was like, okay, well, I saw it and I was like that's amazing, I need to find out more about it. I started researching the company. I found out that they were. They had already came. They were in Mexico building some of the one. There was like two of them, I think, in America, one in Vermont and one in Tennessee. That's I saw. The one in Tennessee is how I even found out about them. Um, just doing my research on YouTube and things like that, and I and I saw that they were in Mexico city. But then I reached out to them and I was like you know, hey, this is, this is my name's, garrett, I'm building this glamping site and I was, you know, seeing, you know what, what products y'all had, and availability and all that.
Speaker 2:I started researching more and I got selected into their. They have a very, very exclusive partner, um partnership, basically, that can be offered to, where, if you have a site that you've developed a lot of, put a lot of money into, they will offer to give you the mirror house for a return on a revenue percentage each month. And for me at the time, you know and it's I got lucky with that because they're they and they've even told me this before it's a great company I love working with. We have a lot of big plans, uh, going forward. But they told me, like I got selected one because I put a lot of money art into my site, so I had some skin in the game. I have a hotel management background but I also was. They were moving their factory to Houston, texas, and I was just happened to be right there. So they kind of used me as a guinea pig to show, like the, the profitability of their site on a, you know, on a on somebody that's running a real glamping site. So we got in talks, took some different negotiations and and things like that to get everything set up, but we eventually landed a deal that we agreed to where they provided the mirror house and a mirror sauna for me, um, and I would give them the revenue percentage each month that launched my geodome launched in May. We finished the mirror house project in October and launched it, um, we, the, the.
Speaker 2:The mirror house is by far one of the best things I've ever done. I love it. It's super efficient. I wish I would have had the finances to buy it outright, because giving a revenue percentage each month isn't, you know, isn't my favorite thing, but at the same time I wouldn't have a mirror house if I hadn't took that model and so sometimes you have to explore options out there. That may not be your favorite thing in that moment, but because of that mirror house, adding so much virality to our site and it's going to be able to push, you know, my A-frame and all these other things I'm building I've learned so much from it that you know and I've in the partnership with Oud is great as well. They're they've been operating as they have their own hotel space, which they operate these mirror houses as like a hotel of sorts, and they gave me a lot of insight on things. They told me about all their data that they have about like guests and what we can provide. That actually makes sense and it does so many good things. So that's what's good about working with a partner like that is that they will be able to provide that. But I wouldn't have been able to get to that next place because these things are hard to get financing for um, especially when I'm trying to prove the concept and now that we've proven it and you know, we built this great relationship with a company like that, which is why I'm such so bullish on putting yourself out that they found me from uh, I found them and they found me about the same time because I was making a ton of YouTube content as well, and so that's why I'm a big fan of putting yourself out there and not being afraid of you know, like saying yes to things, because I took this meeting not really, you know, not really knowing what I was getting into, but I was like, you know, I'll take it and let's learn more. And I think we passed.
Speaker 2:We're going to make 115,000 in gross revenue just on the mirror house, which it's 221 square feet. So if you want to analyze what that is per square foot return, it's pretty, pretty staggering, even like touching on what we were talking earlier about big, big, big houses versus, you know, unique experiences. At the house I have at the front of the property is a 2,100 square feet four bedroom, three bath, nice house. We have a few small amenities, but we haven't put a ton into the outdoor spaces there which we need. We're working on it. But that that place only grossed 50,000, you know the first year. But the mirror house is 10, 10 times smaller and doubled that revenue, you know, and it's fit costs about 50 or $60 a month in electricity and you know certain things like that. So it's, it's a. It's pretty tremendous the revenue on that property, but it's all because it's a unique experience.
Speaker 2:It's it's the second people see it. They're they're, you know, blown away by the picture of it. And then we added the outdoor amenities to make people instantly book it, like they see it on Airbnb or even our direct booking site, which we do a ton of direct bookings as well. Um, they see it and they go okay, I need to learn some more, cause that's really cool. And then when they see, like, oh wow, they have an outdoor bathtub, they have an outdoor sauna, they have a fire pit area, they have, you know, seating and they have a couple of trails, and they instantly go okay, this seems like something I will never be able to experience anywhere else. And I'm willing to pay top dollar. And our occupancy rate is, I think, 88% and we're charging. I think our ADR is 428, I think, per night.
Speaker 2:Um, wow this is constant, I think, even this whole month, I think. For a while we were about 100% booked, which I'm never a big fan of because that means you're probably slightly underpricing it, and we kind of tinkered with the pricing a little bit and now we're sitting about 85 to 90%, which is the sweet spot I personally like to be in, and, yeah, it does amazing. I couldn't say. I say nothing but very positive things about the Mirror House. It's been one of my favorite relationships and I would buy that property over five or six times and put them out there or any other property that I get, just because I love those.
Speaker 2:And it's just the unique experience and the unique build is all that matters. And it goes back to the windows thing and all that. That place is awesome because it is nothing but windows, basically, and we're talking about, like even my A-frame design. I was like telling my architect. I was like I don't care about the interior that much, like I'll make it nice but I just want to spend the most on the windows. That is my biggest thing. I will, I will go broke on these windows to make it feel like it's seamless within, um, seamless within. You know the indoor, outdoor experience, which that's what I love about the mirror house, and it's a great company.
Speaker 1:No, I love that, and there's a couple of things that I want to address. What you just mentioned, right? Number one we're going to talk about I touched on it and you touched on it and it's the ROI versus something big, versus something small right Now. Is this trend going to stay with us for a while? I don't know, but I can tell you that, from 2021, all the way to present day, smaller properties, properties that that only hold max two, two to four people far outdo properties that that hold more by far. The data tells us that's. I think that's where it's at I was.
Speaker 2:I think four people is the sweet spot, like everywhere, like that's the one thing I like. I love my mirror house. I wish it could. Just I wish it was just slightly bigger. I think for Pete, and talking to all my friends in the industry from all over, a lot of people agree If you can build a place, that can, you know couples will like to go to but it also could hold two couples if you really wanted to. That is going to be the sweet spot. I think in a lot of markets Not every market there's some that are super vacation like big family houses that do well, but most likely a lot of market and just getting the entry point to get into these type of properties is going to be much easier if you get something that is two to four people is the sweet spot.
Speaker 1:No, my data tells me the same. So not only does the data that I, the data that I get from key data, from AirDNA and PriceLab, but also my personal data, right. We have over 3,200 properties in the management and I can tell you that studios, one bedrooms and two bedrooms far outdo anything more and I'm in my properties aren't very touristy areas. I'm in South Florida, I'm in Spain, portugal, colombia very touristy places and by far those properties far outdo all the other ones. And I'm not even going to because we don't have time to go into operating costs and insurance and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to touch on that yet because we don't have time for that, but that's why I'm a big fan of, you know, these glamping areas, these unique experiences, et cetera. We talked about the townhouse, I mean the bass house. Let's go back to the gym, and this is more personal perspective because, like I said, we have one in Colombia that does very well. I'm doing one and I'm doing another one in Georgia, but tell me what you have done different if you're going to do another one.
Speaker 2:So I love my geodome. I always hate having to say this, but, like the one thing, I think I do regret a little bit and even what I was saying earlier, like I would take it to different markets. I the one thing I do not like about my geodome is it does not really provide much equity into my property, which my main goal and some of these properties I'm building, is to build them, get them stabilized, extremely operational, get the net operating income as high as I possibly can and then exit out of it those assets. The geodome, like cash flowing, as a business asset it's great because it cash flows, great and other things like that. But from an equity standpoint it does not. And you know the mirror house is debatable and that's like we can. We'll definitely have to do a part two soon, cause I'm sure we can go on for hours about these nuances. But the mirror house, the equity, that's debatable. We can talk about that later. But the geodome, no appraiser in a residential style is going to be able to add, add value to that place. But from a business perspective it's great. But if you're looking to just build a place and eventually maybe, you know, sell it as a one-off, short-term rental or you know something along those lines.
Speaker 2:I I would build something like a unique uh cottage, as you said, or I call them cabins Now that's like the term I pretty much use exclusively, cause I see Airbnb uses that as one of their main categories that they push is the particular word cabin. So I would build a cabin that is extremely unique, like an A-frame or something like that, but that has a little more equity value to it. So that way, on my exit, it's just, it can just be even higher because that has an equitable asset to it. That isn't even debatable. Like, I think the geodome is an equitable asset, but other people might disagree because you know I have utilities and it's a fixed structure and things.
Speaker 2:But again, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a canvas tent in the end. So, um, yeah, that's I, I love my geodome and would I build more? I probably would build a couple. It was just really hard. And then, like there's so many nuance, like keeping the outside clean, like the canvas of it uh is one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's. It's actually kind of shocking how hard it is to keep that white canvas cleaner, especially like the longer it goes. So I think I guess my one piece of advice if you are building a geodome is to probably look into um painting it with there was a thing called thermoShield paint.
Speaker 1:ThermoShield yeah, Yep, that's what we did. Our one, our geodome in Colombia. We did that right off the bat.
Speaker 2:Does that help with the exterior, like the cleaning of it and things? Have you noticed that?
Speaker 1:It greatly helps with that, see, I know that it also helps with energy consumption.
Speaker 2:Well, that's my second thing I was going to get into and I'm sure Columbia, you have some really good insight on this. Like, we struggle, like I didn't buy the $8,000 liner. There's an insulation liner that I bought my dome from Pacific domes. I didn't buy it instantly. I have an AC unit inside and I was like, oh, we'll be fine. Like you know, it's a smaller dome and we have a two ton AC unit. Those domes will get they're. They're not. They're amazing how, how they do control temperature the best they can.
Speaker 2:But in August in Houston Texas, it's going to get pretty hot in there, even with an AC unit. So I had to put a portable AC unit on the other side to balance it and we finally broke down and spent the $8,000 on the liner, which was one of the best purchases I've ever made. That liner has, like, that liner was amazing. Like I, anybody that is buying a geodome, it doesn't matter what area you're in. Like, if you can afford that liner that that company is selling to you, it's a great investment because our energy costs has went down some but just the guest experiences has went up tremendously. We didn't have, like the first year we launched, we had a couple cancellations in august when they got there because it was like 80 something degrees in that geodome and you know, most people were fine, they, most people went outside and they still enjoyed it. But there's going to be a couple people that it bothers them and you know you just have to deal with it. And then when it got winter, like you know, houston's not very cold but there was a there was a few months, like you know, houston's not very cold but there was a there was a few months like even you know, 32 degrees, 30 degrees, and people inside were like, yeah, it was, it got kind of cold in there. Like you know, even with the heater that provided well, um, so I, I would definitely paint it with thermos shield paint. I think that was.
Speaker 2:I made that mistake. I should have done that and I would have either bought the liner first or I don't. You know, like I've tried different tricks to make it cooler inside. Like I put, you know, the um, the canopy tents over top of it and I did a few other things that like stop it but they, you know, like high wind would bring them down and I'd have to go up to the glamp side and you know like re put them up on these high. You know I'm on a ladder like trying to hang these canopy tents across of them, but uh, the I wish I would have bought the liner first and I also wish I would have done the thermo shield. I think those are two big keys, especially in a warmer climate. You know it's going to help and keep the exterior clean, because that was something that really has bothered me, is it?
Speaker 1:just it's hard to keep clean and I think the thermos shield paint would have been a good solution to that for me yeah, I would have, and, um, so ours in Colombia it's, we're in la zona cafetera, which it's, it's the same, it's we call it almost like internal spring. We're very fortunate the weather's own. It stays in the 70 year round, so we don't get that. Yeah, we don't get the extreme code, so we don't have the liner because we don't get the extreme cold and we don't get the extreme heat. The other thing we're like in a it's not a rainforest, but very similar to it. We have a lot of trees that actually cover the sides of it, so it doesn't get really direct sunlight, except for the actual skylight when it comes up. But we don't have that issue.
Speaker 1:But I'm thankful that we got the paint on it because, doing my research on it, that's one of the things that everybody talked about how difficult it is to keep that thing clean. So we don't have that issue Now. But sticking to the geodome, because you said there's stuff that would have saved you more money, what specifically was it? Just that? Just the energy cost of it? Um, or is it something else?
Speaker 2:so I think the two things that I made mistakes on money wise, um is, I wish I would have I built. I didn't know about like how the geodome really like fixated to a deck, because when I bought the the the dome from pacific domes, they only had one video online that they had this old, like an older way that they used to fix the domes to like a deck and it was a little different and it threw me off. But then when I got the dome, actually they had reinvented how they do it to now where you can directly bolt the dome into your deck structure. So right, I built when I worked with my contractor and I did a lot of the work myself, but I also had a contractor do some of the heavy stuff. They built a deck platform that was fit for the dome and then I built a separate deck where the hot tub and stuff went.
Speaker 2:I wish I would have just built one massive deck yeah put the dome on it and that would have saved me cause for a few, quite a few different reasons. I wish I would have known that and done that. And then I also think, I think you know like I designed the inside of the dome myself but I wish I would have maximized it's tough because I wish I would have maximized the space a little better inside of my dome. I think I would have saved a little more on cost and I spent a lot of money on my bathroom, which people love, my bathroom. I think I could have probably done that a little cheaper and still got cause I got high end tile, like I went all out on the bathroom cause I knew it was going to push a lot of people to come glamping Cause they're so worried about it.
Speaker 2:You know, like being in the middle of nature and not having the luxuries of their of their home. But I wish I in the middle of nature and not having the luxuries of their of their home. But I wish I would have probably spent a little less on the bathroom because it goes, and I spent more on the outdoor amenities. Like I learned, I spent more on the inside because I I wanted it to be a little more luxurious and I think, looking back, I could have saved some money there. Put it into the outdoor amenities and I probably could have even raised you know, got a higher adr at this point, which is, you know, we're still adding outdoor amenities and that's always something you can work on. But those are the two things that we've already kind of touched on that, like I wish I would have spent a little less on the indoor and a little more on the outdoor.
Speaker 2:And I wish I would have planned the design a little better. I kind of just winged it on my own and it worked out. But I you know those things I could have learned better. And if I built another dome which is still a possibility depending on the area I would definitely take advantage of those and save at least $10,000 to $15,000 on the build Awesome.
Speaker 1:So I mean we're going a little over. So I'm going to try to close this out in a little bit, but I've got a few more questions. On the geodome Number one what size geodome do you have?
Speaker 2:Do you have the 20 foot? Uh, the, was it the seven meter? It's 426 square feet. I think it's 24. I always draw a blank 426 square feet and I went a little smaller than I wanted to. I initially was going to get the 7 to 800 square foot one that's a 24, so they have.
Speaker 1:They have this. Yeah, so they have the 16, the 20 and the 24, so you got the 20. Yeah, yeah, I have the 16, the 20 and the 24. So you got the 20. Yeah, yeah, I have the 20. Did you build the bathroom in the structure or did you build the bathroom outside the structure?
Speaker 2:Built it in the structure.
Speaker 1:In the structure. Yeah, see, I did it outside the structure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's pros and cons to both of those too. So, like, yeah, there's pros and cons to both of those, and I think both of them have really good models that can work totally fine with that. But I I kind of wanted the bathroom inside, just because I didn't want guests to have to walk outside, but I think also, maybe having one big open room would have probably saved me cost and and done a few things. There's it's the thing with building these things there's so many pros and cons to everything we talk about. It's like each one is like you know, like, yeah, both of those would have been good options and both of them have their you know issues with them too.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean again, I think it's more and this is an important lesson for you guys. It's always, it's always going to be a decision based on where you're building it Right, like, for example, for me it works to do it on the outside because my climate is it's never gets cold and never gets hot. Yeah, so you know, if somebody has to get up in the middle of the night, and we build it really right next to it, so you walk out the front door and the bathroom is right there, but we did it out. I wanted it outside, um, but if I were building this in areas like texas that it gets 30 below, you know somebody gets up in the middle of the night to to go to the bathroom, it's. That's a different story, right? You don't? You don't want that and and and.
Speaker 1:The way I build my outdoor bathroom is is so just just for people to vision this. Um, in fact, I'll I'm gonna put some pictures of it, but to give'll give you a vision, my outdoor bathroom is truly like outdoors, so each geodome is super private. No one can see. You can walk around naked if you want. It's super private. So the way we did the bathroom although it does have some privacy. It is open air, so the shower is open air. So the shower is open air. Um, you know, the bathroom itself is open air, so we really saved a lot of money super smart yeah and you're, and you're adding to the experience too, like one
Speaker 2:my outdoor bathroom and my outdoor shower, even though I have an indoor one at the mirror house. The outdoor bath and shower they, they crush it online and like I, I wish, I wish I would've took the route you did, because that that I think that is the right route, like now that I've known more, I think putting it outside and building a private but still outdoor kind of area, it adds to the experience, it adds to the you know just the vibe of the place. So I think you, I think you absolutely nailed it with that for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, just like now in my property in Georgia. We don't think we're going to do the outdoor one for that reason, because in Georgia it gets hot in the summer but it gets, believe it or not it gets really cold in the winter, like we're building there. I mean, it was last week. It was in the 30s the entire week, so that like again a middle. You know, I picture myself having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and walking outside. It gets kind of chilly. Yeah, fair enough. So we're going to.
Speaker 1:Probably, if you don't mind, soon we'll have a part two. Yeah, absolutely. But let me close with a couple of important questions here that I really want to touch before we close this out, and that's going to be on Airbnb, the company, right? So I'm sure you I don't know if you noticed that, like I hate using the term Airbnb always because we're not in the Airbnb business, we're in the short term rental business Airbnb is a company. So, being in the industry as long as I have, I have seen that Airbnb. When it, when it took off mainly, mainly 2016, 17 and 18, but specifically in 2018, it really became a game changer. But tell me, I mean you got into it right at that time frame. So this may be a difficult question for you to answer, but what would you say is is Airbnb's impact on this industry?
Speaker 2:Uh, I mean, I, you know it's. It's honestly the biggest game changer, I would say. You know vacation rentals and you know a seasonal rentals. They've been around for quite a while but they didn't hit their popularity till Airbnb kind of brought it to mainstream and it's kind of like you know. It's.
Speaker 2:One thing I noticed doing a lot of content with short-term rentals is when you say short-term rentals, people are like huh, you know like what exactly it doesn't do as well, because that term isn't as synonymous as Airbnb is with short-term rentals. It's kind of like with Uber, with ride hailing and things like that. It's like you think of catching a ride. You're like you think of, uh, you know, catching a ride. You're like, oh, I'm calling Uber and even if you don't use Uber, um, so I think, bringing that mainstream to um, to the space and just what they and and you know, like bookingcom has been around forever, verbo has been around forever or longer. But what Airbnb did with technology and software and just like how they push, you know, and a lot of it was the host too with technology and software and just like how they push, you know, and a lot of it was the host too, as far as like pushing the limits with really cool unique stays. Um, I think that that opened eyes to a lot of people of, like, what exactly would work in this industry and what will work for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2:And so there's a lot of you know, a lot of people have a lot of negative things to say about Airbnb.
Speaker 2:I, I'm a pretty big advocate for Airbnb, even though I do a ton of direct bookings. I think Airbnb shook up the industry in a great way. It also, you know, like, a lot of things became oversaturated when you're you know, just like we talked earlier with regular condos, but being able to provide these type of experiences and having just an insane amount of guests that are eyeballs on properties, all we're paying for when we pay our host fee and things like that to Airbnb, is the amazing marketing they have brought to the industry, and so I'm a big proponent of direct bookings, and so I'm a big proponent of direct bookings. But Airbnb, I think, has brought this to the mainstream and to where that this isn't just a trend of like. This is going to continuously rise, and Airbnb is the leader of that and also, like you know, perpetually pushing that forward, even though bookingcom and all them are now starting to be, you know, on that train as well too. I get a pretty good amount of bookingcom. I think they call them alternative experience or alternative accommodations, or something.
Speaker 1:Alternative accommodation. Yeah, and Brian Chesky hates that. He hates when you say Airbnb is alternative accommodations, because it's not. But that's a couple of interesting things, though I agree with you that Airbnb has been a big game changer to the industry, both on the positive and negative side right, mainly, mainly on the positive in terms of giving people like you and I an opportunity to really do well in this industry. I credit that to Airbnb.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm a big critic of Airbnb, I I there's a lot of things that that that I criticize them on. I don't hate them for it because they're they're a business, and this is the part that people need to understand. They are in business for them. They're not in business for me, they're not in business for Garrett, they're in business for them. So, as long as that path is clear, then we shouldn't have a problem with Airbnb, and I am crystal clear in that fact. But at the same token, I'm not going to continue to promote them, I'm going to promote me. This is why I don't say Airbnb, I say I'm in the short-term rental industry. But, more importantly, our name says it. It says that we don't say short-term rental, we say I'm in the short-term rental industry. But, more importantly, our name says that we don't say short-term rental, we say vacation rentals, and I'm going to talk about going vertical in a second. But we're Dream Vacation and Vacation Rentals by PMI, right. So we're in that industry.
Speaker 1:But now let's talk about some of the stuff that's going to happen in 2025 and in the future. And are you up to date with what Airbnb's projections are and their winter release and all that? Do you know? We talk about that. Do you know what I'm going to be asking you? Yeah, pretty good bit, okay. So there's a couple things that that that I want to talk about real quick. Uh, and that is airbnb's vision for the future.
Speaker 1:Now, airbnb wants to go vertical. Uh, you know, they want to be the amazon of travel. I don't know if you're aware, but Uber also wants to do the same thing. In fact, uber tried to buy out Expedia and Expedia turned it down, but they want to go vertical as well. So what's your thought process on Airbnb's decision to go vertical and how do you think it's going to affect you and I in the short-term rental world? Now, more specifically, me, because I don't think you're in the management business, but I'm in the management business, so how do you think that's going to affect a host that are in the management business? So how do you think that's going to affect a host that are in the management business and then hosts that are, like yourself, investors within the short term of the world?
Speaker 2:I definitely have seen that trend tremendously.
Speaker 2:I even did a story not long ago about Uber trying to explore buying Expedia and it's still like it has never been reported, but usually when there's smoke there's fire, um, but I think, I think my you know, and I agree with you completely on the Airbnb side, like there's definitely some negatives there, they definitely are not. Like you know, host host will say like, oh, they don't care about the host. Guests will say, oh, they don't care about the guests. Because you know they have to find that weird middle ground between people and they end up making themselves happy, which is what they're supposed to do as a business. So, um, I think I hope that, with you know, they've tried that before, where they try to do other things, you know, with their co-host network now, and they're really trying to tap into experiences and basically, like you know, adding on, like you can add on, like we want to be the one-stop shop If you want to add on a dinner catered or a massage, you know mobile masseuse coming or something. I hope that they don't lose vision of what they do best, which is provide a really good soft technology platform for people to book these types of stays. That blows out, you know, bookingcom and all these other ones, like just their, their software, like in their their app and everything like that. Just hands down is the easiest for guests and probably host to use, Cause I have my own gripes with them. But Verbo and bookingcom have been nightmares for a lot of uh people on my side. Uh, but in the host space, I think you know I I can't stress enough and I'm you know you, having that many units one is amazing too, so congrats on that. But I'm sure you've seen it from a side. Like you cultivating your own direct booking platform, your own uh marketing list, your own email list, like people like that is going to be the game changer for people that are property managers or have more properties, like even for myself as a smaller operator, because we're able to control the guest experience from beginning to end and also I hate using this word, but like we own the customer of sorts, you know. Like we have their data, we have we can market back to them, we can bring them back in to our properties and it's much easier than Airbnb. Like you're always going to be competing with everybody else that's out there. So I think that the opportunity really lies in.
Speaker 2:I hope Airbnb doesn't struggle with this as they try to expand more and lose sight of what they're good at and then start, you know, chasing, chasing too many you know squirrels to where they kind of, you know, start falling off even more on the things that they, you know, excel at. But I'm hoping that all property managers are that people that are trying to build portfolios are utilizing their, their own direct marketing, their own social media, their own like, and really cultivating that guest experience. And when I say guest experiences, it starts the second they're on your website or the second they interact with you too. So you need to like have an amazing customer service team, have an amazing, you know like, systems and operations built out that are going to be able to walk them through each single step of being at your property until they leave that they, they, they thought the experience was so good that they tell people by word of mouth, which is the best source of marketing anybody can have going forward, because it's hard to build trust into people now, especially with you know some people don't trust Airbnb. Some people, you know there's different reasons why they may not trust an operator, but the bigger you can build up your database and really provide that experience to where people market you for free and you don't even have to build that trust within somebody that's looking to book with you. That's that's definitely the way things are going and then being able to expand your own services. I think people should take a page out of Airbnb's book and trying to, you know, add you know they add the experiences.
Speaker 2:One thing we've done successfully at our place is adding on some extra packages. Working with, you know, like, we work with a local company that makes, like, charcuterie, boards and things. We work with a company that does decorations and we bring them into our ecosystem. We control the guest experience and that same guest, the ROI, keeps increasing because we're able to, you know, piggyback on these extra things that allow our, you know operations to fully be, you know, developed, that we can, you know, house all of this in one ecosystem. But it takes some time and effort and you know there's and I worry sometimes that I am trying to like stretch myself a little too thin and I still need to focus on what we do really well, and so it's kind of a tough question to answer, but I see all the other sites doing it Like, as far as like, verbo is really trying to take on as many things as they can.
Speaker 2:Bookingcom is trying to be the all encompassing. You know like, hey, you want a hotel, you want a car, you want to, you know a flight, you want a unique stay, like I see a lot of people doing that, so I don't think you know, it'll be interesting to see who is able to. You know, I don't want to say come out on top because I don't think any of those sites are going anywhere anytime soon, but one of them, I think, is going to do it really well and is really going to maximize the opportunities out there for hosts and operators. But the biggest opportunity is is growing your own database and own database and understanding that your marketing and your guest experience from beginning to end is really what's going to set you apart and set you up for you know to keep growing and for you know years to years to come of success.
Speaker 1:Basically, no, 100%, and I 100% agree with what you just said. Right, and I think this is like I'm okay with Airbnb wanting to go vertical because they've done their core job really well. So I'm a big fan and I always tell my clients you have to focus on one thing and one thing. Only Once you have that established and only then can you start exploring going vertical. So I use myself an example when I started, when I started my company, uh and I and it's funny because you talked about this as well- a little bit.
Speaker 1:But when I started my company, for two years I made zero money. I lost money for two straight years, Right. And people are like, oh, you're crazy, you know you should quit, You're losing your ass on this business. They're not telling me that anymore. But I was in that same position, Right. But I focused on one thing as I started to grow, as my process and procedures started to get better. Once I had everything solid, then I started to go vertical. Then I bought my cleaning company. I started the cleaning company Once. That went really well and that was on autopilot. Then I went with the landscaping company and then I went with the travel agency, then pest control. So then we started to expand and go vertical. Agency, then pest control. So then we started to expand and go vertical, but only after we did everything and our primary business and it's still our primary business that takes priority. Everything else is secondary and I think Airbnb is going to do a good job with that. I hope so. They've learned from past experiences. When they first launched experiences, it failed.
Speaker 2:It failed yeah.
Speaker 1:And they're bringing it back. So I think they're learning their lesson and I think they're going to do well and I think it's okay for them to go vertical is because and you're not going to be in this boat but people like myself, these mom and pop operators that currently it's more than 80% of properties on Airbnb are managed and operated by mom and pop operators. You're going to see less and less of that because of regulation. I mean, look at Paris, look at New York, portugal, not Portugal. Lisbon, barcelona, these are all cities. New York, now, I think New York is. I don't know if you saw the shift interview with Brian Chesky. So New York, I think it's going to readdress their ban.
Speaker 2:I think they're going to bring it back because they realized that it was BS from the beginning. We'll see. I'm waiting to see how they feel about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to see. We'll see what happens there. But I do have some inside knowledge that the city, the commissioners there are readdressing this and Brian's lobbyists and all that. They're doing a good job there. But anyways, we'll see what happens there. But I agree, but I agree. And then the last thing I'll say and then you kind of touch on it is I'm a firm believer that you never should stop growing, Because if you're not growing, you're dying. But it has to be a controlled growth. You cannot grow too quickly. And I'll raise my hand because we did this. For us it happened in 2021. You know, in 2021, we went from a $2 million to $3 million grossing business to almost a $14 million business, but we lost focus. It was just chaotic, it was just way too much stuff. We had to take a step back right and take a step back to take a step forward. But anyways, let me close with this one last question and that is what advice would you give someone new in this industry?
Speaker 2:I think there's, I guess I mean it's kind of a. There's probably a few steps to that question, but the one piece of advice is figure out what your end goal you want is. Everybody's end goal is different, that and that, because that leads, you know, and it sounds like such a simple thing to say, but you know, not everybody may have want to build up an, you know an empire of sorts like, if you have, they may be, you know, like maybe they just want a couple of properties or something, or, or they do want to build that empire, you know, and those steps that you take to get to that point are going to be dictated very early on in your journey, and then it doesn't. You know. I highly recommend trying things because you're, you may think you want something and then you kind of start messing with it and you're like, actually that's not like fully. You know, like where I want to go, but figure out what exactly you know 10 years down the line, 20 years down the line, whatever number you want to put on it. Figure out what you would be happy with having come out of, you know, your next 10 years or something along those lines, because that's going to dictate your journey, so like so, because there's so many, you know, even in Airbnb or you know, short-term rentals, vacation rentals, whatever words you want to use there's so many different opportunities within it that might work better for you.
Speaker 2:There's, you know, the glamping side. There's also business travel. There's also, you know, people that do co-hosting only and they crush it with co-hosting. There's people that do rental arbitrage, which nothing I've done, but people do amazing. There. There's so many different facets in it. You know, and so I know a guy that he makes 100K a year income and he has one property and he works his W-2 job and he has one property and that's it, you know, and he loves it and that's all he wanted. And then I know people like yourself and people that have built massive, like massive businesses around it and they are doing amazing, but that's like what they wanted, and so the you don't want to. You don't always have to get caught up in the glitz and glamour and what the next person is doing. You can if you compare yourself to the other people other people you're always going to be behind. So worry about yourself, figure out what your end goal is. And then, every single day, my one of my rules for myself, um and I actually got this from Mr Beast when he talks about his videos and things is every single day, you need to try to get 1% better and it doesn't like you don't need to. You don't have to, you don't need to grow that empire in two days If every single day, you're improving by 1%, and this is my case. I've had my case exactly Cause I've had, because of you know, my YouTube channel and other things.
Speaker 2:I've had people bring me opportunities to go, hey, let's, let's partner on the glamping site. Let's, let's do this. Like, what do you think about this? You want to partner with me and I've told, I've said no to a lot of things because I know I don't want to stretch myself too thin while I'm learning these, like things that I am, but now that I'm two or three years in in this particular niche, I feel more confident now and I'm ready to take on some of those things, and I probably could have done it a year ago, but I know had different goals and, and me also holding back it actually led to me getting, you know, almost a dream job for me working at BiggerPockets because I was able to tap into different parts and, you know, learn like different nuances of what I wanted to do. That made me happy, which was helping people and teaching them the real side of this, and that was one of my end goals.
Speaker 2:I like educating and I like being like, which is one thing why I love the content you have and things is we're we're very honest about these things. You know, like we're saying, this is not an easy journey and you're not going to instantly put up a property and make $50,000 and never work a day. You know like so it. But everybody's goal is different, so it's really just like a roundabout way to put it is be honest with yourself. Know that there's going to be some hard work that comes in.
Speaker 2:Anything that has a reward to it. Nothing is easy. That is going to be, you know, rewarding in the end. And figure out in 10 years what kind of thing you would like to build and go try out some things before you fully, fully dive into it, before you go spend a ton of money on a glamping site or go buy some big vacation rental, you know, in Colorado or something like. Really try out some of these things and learn it. Don't get analysis paralysis for too long, but I would, I would. I would caution to the side of like you're over analyzing, as opposed to just going in blindly and thinking everything's gonna be rainbows and sunshine.
Speaker 1:I love that advice, great advice, and I really don't have too much more to add to that other than the fact that, like I said, they control growth. My dog wanted to jump in.
Speaker 2:Hey, I love my dog. I put my dog up. We could have had a little moment, but she was my dog. She's a puppy, so she would have been wilding out the whole time.
Speaker 1:But anyways, Garrett, this has been an incredible conversation. Like you said in the beginning, we can probably talk for hours. I would be honored if, sometime in the near future, we can hop on another, because there's so much more I want to get into that we didn't have time to get into. But thank you for sharing your journey, your strategies, your wisdom with us. So before we wrap up, please let our listeners know where they can find you. Wrap up, please let our listeners know where they can find you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely I'm. You can find me on Instagram at Garrett Brown R. E is my Instagram name, or jump over at bigger pocketscom anytime and I'm always in the forums and we're building out a pretty cool short-term rental ecosystem over there and we'd love to have anybody come over and chat and I love interacting anything short-term rentals I can talk all day about this type of things all right, brother, I'm gonna have all his information in the description down below his website, uh, his instagram, all that stuff.
Speaker 1:So if you didn't get to write it down, don't worry about it, you'll be in the show notes. I love you guys. If you guys haven't subscribed, please subscribe. If you want to have a, have a conversation with me, buy me a coffee. Love you guys. See you on the next one. Um, let me hold on a second. Let me stop this real quick. Now this is going to take a little bit too. First of all, I apologize for letting this go.
Speaker 2:I'm almost an hour and 35 minutes Honestly dude I.