Snowballing to 6 Properties and $75K+/Year Cash Flow (After a Late Start!)

Summary

Real Estate Rookie Podcast Summary
Episode: Snowballing to 6 Properties and $75K+/Year Cash Flow (After a Late Start!)
Release Date: February 24, 2025
Hosts: Ashley Care & Garrett Brown
Guests: Brianne & Douglas

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of the Real Estate Rookie podcast, hosts Ashley Care and Garrett Brown welcome special guests Brianne and Douglas—a dynamic couple who have successfully navigated the real estate landscape to build a thriving portfolio. With Tony on paternity leave, Garrett steps in to co-host, ensuring the conversation remains engaging and insightful.

Journey into Real Estate

Ashley Care kicks off the discussion by inviting Douglas to share his initial foray into real estate.

Douglas [00:54]: "I'm a tradesman. Brianne worked for a big bank, and we saw some of my colleagues and some of Brianne's colleagues acquire real estate and secure their future, and it just makes sense."

Brianne elaborates on their motivations, emphasizing the desire for financial security and the limitations of relying solely on day jobs.

Brianne [01:21]: "We wanted another mechanism to ensure our future was secure... Utilizing the equity in our primary home just made sense because working our day jobs is not going to get us that future wealth that we would want to have to ensure we're comfortable."

Initial Strategies and Financing

The couple discusses their strategic approach to real estate, highlighting the BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) strategy as their entry point.

Brianne [03:47]: "The BRRRR strategy really appealed to us because we wanted the ability to add value to the property and reuse that money."

Financial Breakdown:

• First Property:
  • Purchase Price: $457,000
  • Down Payment: 20%
  • Renovation Costs: $130,000
  • Refinance Value: $768,000
  • Equity Freed: Approximately $350,000 (from their primary home in Toronto)

Douglas touches on the logistical challenges they faced, such as managing properties two hours away while juggling weekend renovations.

Douglas [06:20]: "We would drive two hours there, work like eight to 10 hours and then drive back."

Transition to Short-Term Rentals (STR)

After establishing a solid foundation with long-term rentals, Brianne and Douglas pivot to short-term rentals to diversify their portfolio and enhance cash flow.

Brianne [11:02]: "It was more of a personal leap into having a lifestyle property but utilizing STR to pay for that."

Motivations for STR:

1. Lifestyle Integration: Combining their love for travel and cottages with real estate.
2. Market Conditions: Navigating rent control and the housing crisis in Ontario by diversifying their investments.
3. Entrepreneurial Aspirations: Moving beyond passive investments to active property management.

Building a Property Management Business

To manage their expanding portfolio, Brianne and Douglas launched a property management company specializing in both long-term and short-term rentals.

Douglas [17:43]: "We've got about 30 properties now that we're managing, including some in Nova Scotia and even assisting clients in the States."

Key Services Offered:

• Property Management: Handling tenant relations, maintenance, and operations.
• Short-Term Property Management: Focusing on STRs in popular regions like Muskoka.
• Co-Hosting Services: Assisting other property owners in optimizing their rental strategies.

Securing Financing and Networking

A significant portion of the conversation delves into their innovative financing methods and the importance of networking in scaling their business.

Brianne [19:15]: "We secured private financing for our first cottage, which included the renovation costs. After six months, we converted that into a conventional loan through a bank."

Networking Strategies:

1. Local Real Estate Investment Groups: Building relationships with seasoned investors.
2. Transparency About Goals: Sharing aspirations to attract like-minded partners and lenders.
3. Referrals: Leveraging successful deals to gain introductions to new financial partners.

Douglas [23:02]: "Once you get known that you're savvy enough to do it, people come out of the woodwork, and you get to choose who you want to work with."

Maximizing Direct Bookings

Brianne shares actionable insights on driving direct bookings, reducing dependency on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Airbnb.

Brianne [27:37]: "I went back to my roots of marketing and PR, ensuring we had a great website and a strong social media presence to attract direct guests."

Effective Strategies:

1. Cross-Promotions: Partnering with local businesses such as restaurants and boat rentals to offer guest discounts.
2. Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with content creators to showcase their properties.
3. Email Marketing: Utilizing QR codes in properties to capture guest emails and incentivize future bookings.

Garrett Brown [32:57]: "Having a simple QR code in your listing, especially if you have a larger cabin, can capture numerous emails for future marketing."

Portfolio Growth and Cash Flow

By the episode’s end, Brianne and Douglas reveal the impressive growth of their portfolio and the resulting cash flow.

Brianne [36:42]: "We currently own six properties, have completed nine deals, and are aiming for an annual rental income of $500,000."

Cash Flow Insights:

• Annual Rental Income: Approximately $500,000
• Take-Home Income: 15-20% from gross revenue
• Cash Flow from STRs: Cyclical, peaking during summer months with potential earnings of up to $200,000 annually.

Douglas further explains the scalability of their business model, emphasizing the balance between passive earnings from rentals and active income from their property management services.

Douglas [37:45]: "Some of our cottages make around $7,000 a week during peak seasons, providing significant cash flow to reinvest and expand."

Conclusion and Takeaways

Brianne and Douglas provide invaluable lessons for rookie investors:

1. Start with a Solid Strategy: Whether it's BRRRR or STR, having a clear plan is crucial.
2. Leverage Networking: Building strong relationships can open doors to financing and partnerships.
3. Diversify Investments: Balancing long-term rentals with short-term properties mitigates risk.
4. Focus on Direct Bookings: Reducing dependency on OTAs increases profitability and control.

Brianne [35:57]: "We want to have real ownership over our business and not be totally reliant on platforms like OTAs."

Their journey underscores the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and strategic planning in real estate investing. For aspiring investors, Brianne and Douglas exemplify how dedication and innovative strategies can lead to substantial financial growth and business success.

Connect with Brianne and Douglas

• Instagram: @JunctionHousePM & @JunctionHouseGetaways
• Website: Accessible via their Instagram profiles.

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Thank you for reading this summary of the Real Estate Rookie podcast. For more detailed discussions and actionable advice, consider listening to the full episode on BiggerPockets.

Transcript

[Ashley Care]

It's never too late to start investing in real estate. Whether you're in your 20s and just starting to build your wealth or you're in your 40s and looking for ways to diversify your portfolio, real estate can be a powerful tool for achieving your financial goals. We'll break down a strategy to explain how you can snowball to six properties. My name is Ashley Care, and welcome to the Real Estate Rookie podcast. This week, Tony is on paternity leave with his newest baby girl. So we have Garrett Brown filling in to be my co host. Welcome to the show, Brianne and Douglas. Thank you guys so much for joining us today on this episode of Real Estate Rookie.

[Douglas]

Thank you.

[Ashley Care]

So, Douglas, why don't you start off telling us about your first couple of deals? Why did you choose to even get into real estate in the first place?

[Douglas]

I'm a tradesman. Brianne was, you know, worked for a big bank, and we saw some of my colleagues and some of Brianne's colleagues, you know, acquire real estate and secure their future, and it just makes sense.

[Ashley Care]

Brianne, what about you? Did, were you. Did you have any experience in real estate and what were your thoughts kind of getting it into this?

[Brianne]

For me, it was really about an opportunity for us to have another kind of mechanism to ensure our future was, you know, kind of secure. And we had. We would have options for our retirement when we got older and also to help our family and our kids, you know, seeing that other people were doing it and once we started learning more and understood how we could finance that and really utilize, like, the equity in our. Our primary home, it just made sense because we're like, you know, working the grind. Working our day jobs is not going to get us that future wealth that we would want to have to ensure we're comfortable.

[Douglas]

No. And like most people, I think we've seen a decrease in our income, theoretically. Right. Everything's gone up. My, my income hasn't gone up with inflation, and it just, you know, especially in this day and age, it. You have to do something. So. And I'm really glad we did. We did real estate because I don't see really anything else that brings the returns and that you can not just, you know, have a nest egg or a strategy or an investment, but you can also push into the industry and be entrepreneurial.

[Brianne]

And yeah, I think that was another thing that really got us hooked is that it's not like, you know, typical investments where, you know, you. You go to your advisor, you throw some money in a mutual fund or, or so on, like, it is a very active kind of thing you. You kind of end up falling into. And there's so many different aspects to real estate investing. So along with, you know, just managing the, the renovation, the property, getting into like property management aspects of it, there's like massive communities, like networking. Like, we just kind of felt like we kind of found our, our space, our community, whether it be in person stuff or online. So I think it was really great to just be able to connect with like minded people as well, you know, across the globe really, who've kind of discovered real estate investing and just are, you know, benefiting from. From that.

[Garrett Brown]

Can you tell us a little bit about Yalls first deal and how y'all decided to land on that strategy and you know, what, what, you know, what were some of the things you were thinking as you were going through that process?

[Brianne]

Yeah, so I think as we kind of got started and we're talking to different realtors, given kind of, you know, the budget we had and our skill sets, and especially Doug already knowing everything about construction and what we'd be in for, we felt comfortable going into that kind of the brrr strategy because we, we wanted to have the ability to add value to the property and then be able to, you know, reuse that money. Right. So we really, you know, that kind of strategy really appealed to us because we were at a point where we didn't just want to buy one property. We wanted to be able to. To keep doing this a few times to kind of, you know, get ahead a little bit. Because also we felt like we were our late 30s at the time, and we're like, okay, some people are, you know, in their early 20s and they're already doing this. So we kind of felt like we want to catch up a little bit. So what strategy can we do that will allow us to kind of fast track a little bit?

[Ashley Care]

Rhian, what did your finances look like at this point as you're deciding you want to make this investment?

[Brianne]

You know, we're lucky enough to buy our primary house. I guess it was 2013 or 2012, and we live in Toronto. So this city, you know, like many big cities around the world, you know, see massive growth. You know, you really get that equity boost. So we were able to free up about 350,000 Canadian. So with that, we were able to, you know, have money for a down payment and then plenty to do a rental. So what that looks like is the first house was about, I think it was 457. So we put down 20%. And then the Reno for that one was about 130. And then it refied for 768. So with that we were able to pull out, you know, a big chunk and then, you know, add to what we had left and we just kind of kept going and we did it.

[Douglas]

In a different city. So it was around two hours away, but it was really hot. It was, you know, the prices were moving up. It had great legislation in there in the city. So, you know, every weekend we packed the kids in their car seats and we drove there and we worked. And I think we did that for a couple of years.

[Brianne]

So we did. We would have some trades doing some of the work, but we would also do what we could as well.

[Ashley Care]

So did you guys stay in the house or did you stay in a hotel?

[Douglas]

Sometimes, but no, we would drive two hours there, work like eight to 10 hours and then drive back.

[Ashley Care]

And that's the thing is like, there are these opportunities out there, but you have to take the time to put in the work to get that sweat equity. Not everybody is going to want to drive every single weekend, two hours each way, and spend the whole Saturday working on a rehab.

[Douglas]

Yeah, we consumed so much information as well. I mean, I would meet people that, you know, were in their investing in real estate for 10 years and they just wouldn't know what we knew because we just consumed it so fast. I mean, we're like full time for a while there when, when we knew it made sense. So why stop right. If there's, if there's not that much risk and if we establish, you know, tenants and they're good tenants, even if the market crashed, we still had those tenants paying rent. Right. And because there's rent control where we live, it's not like the tenants were going to move. Right. Because usually with rent control means that people aren't moving around because they don't want to pay more once they leave. Right. So it was a great strategy and it worked really well. You know, as house prices got more expensive and more expensive, it's not working all that well. But still, like, I mean, that first house is now, what, worth what was the last time we.

[Brianne]

Yeah, it's like mid-800s now. Yeah, you know, it's gone up and it's gone down, but we're still, you know, we're still ahead, you know, and with those as well, like, we're, our goal is to hold those, you know, for the long term. So in a few years we can and probably do another cycle again. Of getting a handful of properties and you know continue then to get some of those paid down with with our rent payments.

[Ashley Care]

Okay, so we're going to take a quick ad break but first rookies, don't forget we do have the new rookie Instagram page and Facebook page. When come back we are going to hear more from Brianne and Douglas on their short term rental strategy.

[Brianne]

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[Garrett Brown]

Can you give us a little background on how your story started and how you decide to move into the STR space because that's a. It's a pretty different change going from the burst strategy to deciding something like a short term rental that, you know, is such a bigger operational, you know, uphold. What. What was Yalls thoughts into that and how did y'all decide on moving into that?

[Brianne]

Yeah, so I think it actually started with a bit of a lifestyle kind of, you know, strategy mixed in there. So, you know, living in Ontario, we grew up going to cottages, going camping. So, you know, one of our goals was to eventually have a family cottage given, you know, the. The market was kind of really hot at the time, and we had been growing and just. We had such a great relationship with all of our trades and our contractors. We're like, okay, maybe now's the time to look for a more rundown cottage that we can rehab. And, you know, understanding kind of that rental strategy, it just kind of made sense to flip that into renting out the cottage using, you know, kind of opportunity. So we found the perfect cottage. We were able to rehab that very quickly and get that pain for itself. So it was kind of a, you know, it was more of a personal leap into have a bit of a lifestyle property, but utilize STR to. To pay for that.

[Douglas]

Yeah, there's also, like I said rent control in Ontario, and it's. We've got a housing crisis and there are some challenges that come with that. I deal with old tenants and it gets complicated. And so one thing is, if you're going to have real estate, you want to diversify a little bit and diversify into something that doesn't go under the landlord tenant board was appealing. Right. And then the other thing is, we had a really big debate about what do we want to do, because we knew that we were older and we couldn't like, buy a couple of homes and then suddenly retire. Because I'm like, you know, 21, and I can. I can live on Kraft dinner. Like, it just. It's just not. We made a lot of money. Like, I mean, we both have really good jobs. So, you know, where can we take our expertise and kind of make it into an actual entrepreneurial venture, like a company? Right. That's what we wanted to do. And we thought about, like, let's go get our real estate license. And then, well, you know, then I'm. I'm stuck in one place and do I want to do. And you know, like, we had months of discussions and finally it was like, hospitality is kind of cool. Like, I, we, you know, I've worked in hotels and built some of them.

[Brianne]

And we love to travel.

[Douglas]

We love to travel. And, you know, we like cottages. And Brienne's really good at it. Like, and it's.

[Brianne]

So, yeah, it was just a great opportunity to, like, combine all of our skills and passions into a business that we can work on growing, you know, to kind of help sustain us as well, beyond just our investments.

[Douglas]

And it's something that I don't have to, like, wake up and drag myself out of bed. You know, it's just like, so. And. And I'm getting older too, right? So there's.

[Brianne]

We're not that old. Well, I know, but like, we're like. Yeah, but.

[Douglas]

Yeah, but, you know, like, there's only so long you can, you know, haul stuff up ladders. Right. So I was thinking, hey, you know, a. A desk job might be nice one day.

[Garrett Brown]

Did that first cottage cash flow immediately or, you know, was it an immediate win for y'all when y'all. When y'all purchased it?

[Brianne]

Yeah, we had a bit of timing on our side because we bought it or we closed on it in. In May, and then we were. So we had about a six week rehab, so we were able to capitalize on the summer rent. So. Yeah. So that first year, because we were able to kind of go live, you know, starting in July, we were able to really capitalize on it being, you know, a great new little cottage. So we got enough rent from, you know, that half of the year to really. For it to carry itself.

[Douglas]

And, you know, it's right on Lake Erie. Like, Americans come up to stay. Yeah, we've got, like, people that come on a regular basis to stay there. So, no, it was pretty good. And then we get a cottage that we get to enjoy for kind of free. Right. So the kids love it. And I think this year we're putting in a sauna too, and maybe a cold plunge. We'll get that. You know, the trifecta of hot tub, cold plunge, sauna, repeat the amenities.

[Garrett Brown]

Arms race.

[Ashley Care]

Yeah. When I was younger, my parents used to take us to Canada all the time, and we would stay on lakes up there and stay in the cottages. And it was like a big thing. Being from Buffalo is going up there to the beautiful lakes and staying there. We used to go to the garbage.

[Douglas]

Dumps and watch the bears. It was still a big thing. Yeah, Nothing's changed.

[Garrett Brown]

As somebody from Texas, I've never heard of anything like that before.

[Douglas]

You kind of just don't roll down the window too low.

[Ashley Care]

My mom, she had a rally sport Camaro and the one time a bear bit the side of it and my dad never let her get it fixed. Fix. He always thought it was so cool. So she had to leave it in there.

[Douglas]

That's a bear bite. You know, I had to wrestle it.

[Ashley Care]

You've done your burrs and you've gotten your cottage. What other have you done? Any other kinds of strategies besides the long term rentals and the burrs and the short term rental.

[Brianne]

So I guess along with that we have purchased a few buy and holds within there. One was a four plex, so that's kind of our largest, I guess it's.

[Douglas]

Got a commercially a commercial space as well.

[Ashley Care]

And are you guys self managing all of these?

[Douglas]

Yeah, so we also opened up property management company because you know, people came to us and said, well you're doing great, so can you manage as well? And it's, it's difficult to work your way around tenants and all these kinds of things. So yeah, we do property management, we do short term property management, so cottage property management in like Muskoka and all over the place, all over Ontario. Then we got into Nova Scotia and we're, we're all, you know, had a couple of properties in Nova Scotia we were taking care of and even into the States now. So we don't own anything in the states, but we help a lot of people.

[Brianne]

Yeah, we've done some co hosting, co hosting, you know and I think we found with our experience first with long term tenants and then you know, short term our own, you know, and kind of getting those processes and just that whole kind of operations side of the business under, you know, that experience under our belt, you know, and we would share with people like the great success we were having and stuff like that. It just made it a real natural progression to start doing this for other people, you know, leveraging everything we already had in place. So it was an easy kind of step to start hosting for other, for other owners as well.

[Garrett Brown]

I was gonna say you mentioned the fourplex, which I want to just tap into for just a minute. How, how are you funding some of these types of fines and how are you finding these deals as they come? Like what, how do you know? I'm sure everybody is curious of, you know, with expansion.

[Douglas]

We found it, we looked at the numbers, we said, okay, how much can we, you know, make off of it? There was a backspace, we were very conservative. And then we went and got a private loan for the down payment and, and, and kind of bought it and didn't really fix it up, did a couple of things and then transferred that private loan into a long term private loan. So we bought the place for none of our money.

[Ashley Care]

Was it the same person that you took the short term loan and then negotiated a long term or this was two different people?

[Brianne]

No, it was the same person. So yeah. So we went into it with kind of, you know, the arrangements.

[Douglas]

Yeah.

[Brianne]

For the loan could convert into long term.

[Sponsor]

Yeah.

[Brianne]

And I think that's, you know, as you start or as we started doing the brrrrs using our own money. But then you do realize that once you get a bit more experience, it is possible to have, you know, creative arrangements. So similarly with the cottage, the area that it's in, it is actually a bit tough to get conventional loans because there's a lot of storms is right by the lake. Like a lot of banks don't like those. Right. So we were able to secure private financing for that which also included the renovation. So we basically went into that. I think after all was said and done, we spent about 10,000 of our own money on like some of the furnishings to get it set up as an sdr. But the purchase and the reno was all a private loan which, you know, after I think it was just a six month time frame, we were then able to convert that into a conventional loan through a bank. Yeah. So again, you know, we just kind of learned how to do these and Right. As you're networking and talking to different people and listening to podcasts, you hear these type of strategies and they're not that, you know, difficult to really execute yourself.

[Douglas]

And that lender actually, you know, was very interested in what we were doing. And once we started cash flowing, he says, oh my goodness. So first two questions, he said, can I do this because I want a cottage and do you want any more money?

[Brianne]

Do you want to do this again?

[Douglas]

Do you want to do this again? Because, you know, and how many can you do at a time? And I'm like, well, you know. Yeah. So it was, it was interesting. So we've always been cautious. So. But that doesn't mean we haven't, you know, moved pretty quickly. So. Yep.

[Ashley Care]

Say I'm a rookie investor listening to this right now. How does somebody else find someone like that? They find someone that has the money, they find someone that, you know, wants to lend you more money after you've had a successful deal. And also someone to loan you money long term, like that's even harder to find as most people want to do it short term.

[Brianne]

Yeah. So I think the key to where we were able to find money and make these relationships was through networking. So these were just tapping into our local real estate investment groups. And again, you're gonna find all different types of people there. But we just naturally seem to gravitate towards people doing what we were doing, but also who were a bit farther ahead. Right. And we took every opportunity we could to learn, like, kind of, you know, learn how they did what they were doing, but also share our goals. So I think that's really important in anything you do. If you don't talk about your aspirations or, you know, what you want to do in this space, nobody knows, and therefore, nobody's going to potentially approach you or want to work with you. So I think us just being really open and transparent about our kind of, you know, dreams and aspirations, but also talking about the successes we had was key to us slowly building those relationships. And then, you know, you kind of get referred to other people. Right. So it was through talking to people, building our little network, and then people saying, like, oh, you guys are looking to do something private? Talk to so and so. Right. So we just kind of flowed like that.

[Douglas]

Once you get known that you're, you know, savvy enough to do it, then people kind of kind of come out of the woodwork and then you get to choose who you want to work with. Right. And we're kind of. We, like, kind of earnest down to earth, you know, people that have seen it before and. And they see that, you know, we know what we're talking about. So it just. It just works. Right. And. And people come together, so. But you do need to network, right?

[Garrett Brown]

Yep.

[Ashley Care]

I think not only the networking, but the second piece is that you were actually talking about what you were doing and telling people what you needed. And what you're trying to do is a big part of that also.

[Brianne]

Absolutely.

[Sponsor]

Yeah.

[Ashley Care]

Okay, we are going to take our final ad break, but we'll be right back after this. While we are gone, make sure you are subscribed to the real estate ricky YouTube.

[Sponsor]

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[Ashley Care]

This show is sponsored by Airbnb. We love hitting the road for conferences, events and live appearances, but while we're out there making connections, we still want to make the most of our investments back home. Why let your place sit empty when it could be earning you extra cash? With Airbnb's co host network, you can hire a trusted local co host to handle everything from creating your listing and managing reservations to messaging guests and providing on site support. Make hosting easy. Go to airbnb.com host and let a co host do the hosting for you.

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[Garrett Brown]

Welcome back from our break. So, Briann Douglas, you have a property management business you're building in the short term rental industry. Can you share some tips and tricks you've had on getting direct bookings?

[Brianne]

I guess tapping into our passions and expertise again as we got a lot more active in the short term rental space. I really just went back to my roots of marketing and pr. So that was kind of my career path before this. And I really worked on growing our kind of online presence. So that was making sure we had a great website and on social media. So we do a lot with promoting our properties online that way and it was able to then translate into people approaching us, you know, privately to, to rent our, our spaces. So, you know, there's so much demand and competition on, you know, many of the OTAs that we always look for those opportunities to highlight our properties in different ways, you know, to attract people. I, you know, we've also done different things with local shops and, you know, restaurants, you know, just to kind of do that cross promotion because we really want to be seen as like, you know, a part of the communities where we have our rentals. I've also done like giveaways and you know, like we sponsor a giveaway for our kids school silent auction. Like so it's just like little things we've done to really just add some of that authenticity to, you know, to our business and show that our properties are not just, you know, we're not just looking to make millions as an Airbnb host. Right. Like, we do truly care about the communities our properties are in and we want to give back. So that's been a real, you know, driver to help with our direct bookings.

[Douglas]

Yeah. And it's also you know, saying that the, the property, you know, we've studied and believe in our product and we believe in, you know, giving the, the guests the best possible time and, and that kind of shows. And it's not just about, you know, getting some rent, it's about providing a product. And once you kind of go, okay, it's product first, then things kind of start lining up for you, because now you have your goals and, you know, if you have a great product, the money will take care of itself in a way. Now, I mean, you'll. You always have to have processes and. And things like that. But if you've got a great product, people are gonna pay for that great product and they're gonna come back, Right? And once you come. Once they come back, they don't have to go to Airbnb. They can come directly to us. Right. And we can have communication, you know, conversation. And people do. They want to, you know, come to us and they. A lot of people, you know, call us up and say, hey, I stayed at your cottage last year. Do you have any other cottages that. And we're like, yeah, no, absolutely. And a lot of the cottages that we now manage for people have, you know, kind of grown from there, you know, so even some of the people that. That have stayed with us have turned around, said, you know, I stayed with you. Can you. I've got a cottage. I'm like, really? Why would you be going to a different cot? Anyways?

[Ashley Care]

There's. It. There's this book.

[Douglas]

Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's. And. And they say, because we want you to. To make sure that the customer has that experience, and therefore we're going to get booked more than anybody else. And it works.

[Ashley Care]

Just the. The few that you named, I thought were really great ideas. The giveaway is like, I remember a long time ago, I used to help fundraise for a golf tournament and we would have somebody that would donate their cabin in the Adirondacks. And that was always, like, one of the biggest things that everybody wanted to win. So that's awesome that you're doing it. At school fundraiser, we do that.

[Douglas]

We reach out to.

[Brianne]

Yeah, we've worked with influencers. Influencers and, you know, similar things. Oh.

[Ashley Care]

So, like, to have them come in and they get to stay for free and take photos and then promote it.

[Brianne]

Yeah, they take photos and videos. Yeah. And even, you know, there's so many around here. Like, there's different travel, you know, companies and associations and even, like, provincial stuff. Right. So we really try to tap into all of that so that we can kind of be at the table too. Right. So we know what's coming. And with some of these other local tourism companies, they. They need stuff to promote too. So I've been able to get on, you know, like, city websites and so on that doesn't have to link to Airbnb. You'd be surprised how many direct sites.

[Douglas]

Yeah, like we've been featured in newspapers, we've been featured in all kinds of stuff because we reach out and say, hey, do you need anything? Because we're kind of experts at this. And they're like, absolutely right. So it does come. Brianne actually is, she's got, she works with a group in the United States. She actually teaches all this stuff for people that are interested in learning it so well.

[Ashley Care]

Garrett, I'm curious on your side of things as biggerpocket, short term rental expert, what are some of the things that you're doing that maybe you can give someone ideas to kind of generate business and to really add to the amenities?

[Garrett Brown]

I think one thing they pointed out that was a great thing that I do a lot in my local community is partnering with restaurants, we're near lakes, we partner with jet ski rentals, boat rentals. We do some cross promotion between each other that we have discounts there. But one of them, they tapped, they tapped a little bit into the influencer marketing, which, it kind of depends on your market and what kind of stay you have. But I've had tremendous success with finding content creators in my area that are either in the travel scene or the, the food scene is actually one that's very hits. Hits in similar niches because they're both kind of hospitality. And one of the biggest keys we've had is building up our email list. And a lot of people are not sure how to do this now that Airbnb doesn't provide emails anymore. When a guest book, you can get their phone number. But we have a QR code in every one of our units that is on a shiny silver placard, for lack of better words. And it has our social media and it also has a chance to sign up for our weekly bi weekly newsletter. But we offer them a 10 discount on their next state if they provide their email. And so we, there's a, there's a few other tips and tricks on the email side that we can dive into all day for short term rentals. But having just a simple QR code in your listing, especially if you have a bigger cabin that holds, you know, 16 people, these, these people, there might be quite a few people that submit their email for this 10 off. And you even can have a Internet system that makes people use their email to sign on to your Internet. You know, like similar, A lot of hotels do as well too. So we've collected a lot, a lot of things like that. And it's it's, it's become tremendous to build out over. You know, a year later you can send out a marketing email to the same people and it might be time to go to your next property or if you have a few cabins, then, you know, you're obviously being able to market all of that to them and get that, get that guest experience built up that they're looking for.

[Douglas]

Capturing emails is big and there's a lot like you, you've mentioned a bunch of them, but there's a lot of strategies on, on doing, doing that. We're going, we've actually got a booth at the home, not the home show the cottage. So as well. So we, I mean that's all about capturing emails. Right. So we do giveaways and stuff like that. And the people that sign up, like we can walk out with a couple of, you know, hundred emails, no problem. And these are all direct, you know, people that are interested in staying at cottages or potentially, you know, renting out their cottages. So. But there's lots of stuff that, that we can, that you can do.

[Brianne]

Yeah, I think ultimately it's like anything as a entrepreneur is you want to have real ownership over your business and your product. And that's why, you know, we love the OTAs, they do bring in guests, but we don't want to be, you know, totally reliant on them and we want to have some control over their direction our business can go. Right.

[Ashley Care]

So, and that's what a lot of people talk about as far as like if your main business, like look at TikTok for example, if, when, if and when it did shut down, as to do you have another way to contact your clients, your customers, your following. And that's why, you know, like an email list is a great way to do that. No matter what your business is, you most likely rely on some kind of platform that you don't have control over. So like that email capture is like something that you can control. But before we kind of wrap up here, Brianne, can you maybe give us an overview of your portfolio so what you guys own right now and what the cash flow is on that?

[Brianne]

We currently own six properties. I think in total we've done nine deals. We have sold a couple. And then from a cash flow, I guess perspective, annually or yeah, I guess monthly, we're probably sitting at about 60,000. So with, you know, rental income and then again with, with short term rentals, it can be a bit cyclical. So in our busier times where, you know, some of those summer Months are looking at, you know, close to like 150, 200. So you know, which is great. So always looking though to keep growing though. So that's our goal as well. We don't want to stay, stay static there and then.

[Ashley Care]

Doug, what about the co hosting business? How many properties are you guys managing and what, what do you make off of that? Like, I just have no idea as to like what is it worth, I guess to actually go and create some kind of management business for co hosting.

[Douglas]

Yeah, I mean there is, I think we've got what, 30 right now that we're managing. So. And some of them, you know, come and go. So we've got some clients that have stuck with us. We've got, we do bunkies up as well. So and then we've got, I think we, we help some people out, get started in the U.S. so those kind of come and go as well. So it changes, I think it's 30 and once again it depends on the, the time of year. But I mean some of our cottages make, you know, seven grand in a week. Right. In the summer in cottage country. But then they go to bed in the winter. Right. But yeah. Brianne, what do you think we're bringing.

[Brianne]

In for from a short term rental perspective? So gross revenue, we're hoping to hit 500,000 this year, you know, as rental income. And then again for, for on the co hosting side, those properties we usually make, you know, some varies a little bit but on average our fee is 20 commission. It's kind of the standard we, we charge.

[Garrett Brown]

When you say you make 500 gross revenue, what percentage of that is, is take home income? Because we all short term rentals have a much higher expense. Where, where kind of, what kind of, what kind of percentages are you all landing in the income side?

[Brianne]

Yeah, so on that it's probably close. You know, 15, 20% is take home.

[Ashley Care]

And are you guys still working your jobs brand, you still have your W2 job or have you guys fully integrated into being entrepreneurs?

[Douglas]

Yes.

[Brianne]

In case they're listening. Listening. Yes we do and we love those companies. We're never going to leave.

[Ashley Care]

Thanks for listening. I love it.

[Brianne]

Yes. It's actually 6:00 right now. It's. Yeah, yeah.

[Ashley Care]

Wait, you're not recording this at work right now. Well, Brianne and Doug, thank you so much for joining Garrett and I on this episode of Real Estate Rookie. Where can people reach out to you and find out more information?

[Brianne]

Instagram's probably the fastest and easiest for many, so you can find us at Junction House PM or Junction House Getaways. Those are our two handles. Yeah. And on there you can then find our website and, and all the, all the stuff to, to reach out. But yeah, we'd love to connect with, with other investors and, and real estate enthusiasts and short term rental hosts, all of the things. Right. So.

[Ashley Care]

Well, thank you guys so much for providing value to the rookie listeners today. I'm Ashley and he's Garrett. And we'll see you on the next episode of Real Estate Rookie.