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Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:22] Hello. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:00:26] I’m Annette Grant. Wait. I am Annette Grant. We should leave that–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:30] I like that.
Annette Grant: [00:00:30] Okay. I went real deep.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:32] Listen, listeners. Usually, we would stop that, rerecord, but we’re going to keep that.
Annette Grant: [00:00:36] We’re going to keep it.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:36] Can we try it one more time, though?
Annette Grant: [00:00:38] Yeah. Please.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:38] Okay. I’m Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:00:41] I am Annette Grant. And together we are–
Both Annette & Sarah: [00:00:43] Thanks for Visiting.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:44] There we go.
Annette Grant: [00:00:46] Oh, that was good, though. I always make fun of myself.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:49] Annette, we, not too long ago, wrapped up TFVCon. We organized a full-on conference.
Annette Grant: [00:00:59] It felt like our wedding. I’ve never had a wedding, but it felt like a wedding. We were the bride’s, bridezillas. Just joking.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:07] Hopefully we weren’t bridezillas.
Annette Grant: [00:01:08] We weren’t. It was awesome.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:10] But I miss that conference, which was so fun, so successful. Annette, you also moved twice. Can you share why you moved the first time and then why you moved again a couple of weeks later, a month later?
Annette Grant: [00:01:27] I’m in search of a view.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:29] Okay.
Annette Grant: [00:01:31] I had water view, and now I have a city view. I’m not in a tireless search, but there are certain things I want to check off the list of things in my life. And I had the water view, and now I have the city view, and I’m very excited about that. But I am extremely independent to a fault, and I thought it was going to be super easy because I’m also a minimalist, and moving twice, even with help, was a lot.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:57] I told you.
Annette Grant: [00:01:58] I know, but it’s okay.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:00] And you have a killer view. Listeners, we’ll have to maybe share it on Instagram soon.
Annette Grant: [00:02:05] Share the view, yeah.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:06] For now, do you feel satisfied with the view?
Annette Grant: [00:02:11] Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but I need to settle in, our office. Our studio isn’t done.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:17] Yeah, that’s next in the list. I’m very excited to actually paint the walls, and branded, and have it be splashier than it is now.
Annette Grant: [00:02:26] You moved to.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:27] I did move into my dream home.
Annette Grant: [00:02:32] Again, there’s things, right?
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:35] There’s so many things.
Annette Grant: [00:02:36] We’re going to get it finished. We’ll have to go over there and do a tour too for everybody.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:39] Yeah, it is beautiful.
Annette Grant: [00:02:40] But we did all of that amongst our conference. We’re back on the airwaves today, even though you haven’t missed us on the airwaves.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:46] Yeah, a lot has happened.
Annette Grant: [00:02:48] We got things done ahead of time.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:02:49] Okay. Let’s get down to business. Who are we sharing this week for our #STRShareSunday? If you’re new here to Thanks for Visiting, first of all, thank you for tuning in.
Annette Grant: [00:02:59] And if you’re old here–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:00] Thank you for tuning in
Annette Grant: [00:03:01] Extra thank you.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:02] But every week, we share one of you, and the easiest way to find you is for you to use our hashtag on Instagram. We are on that hashtag, seeing who’s using it, looking at your properties, and we share you here in the podcast. You get a big old blast in our email list. We share you on Instagram of course, too. So, Annette, who are we sharing this week?
Annette Grant: [00:03:22] Today, we are sharing @theblackshack, and that’s T-H-E-B-L-A-C-K-S-H-A-C-K, and they are coming from the land down under. They are in Queensland, Australia, and it’s amazing. It’s beautiful. I love their logo. Please check it out. A couple of things. Just wow, wow, wow. Let’s put that out there.
But I want to highlight the outdoor. Outdoor area is unbelievable. They actually have a garden that you can pick from and bring the fruits and veggies, I think, in from the garden. But one thing that stuck out to me that anybody can do anywhere is, on their highlights, they went through their 2022 and 2023 guests, but it’s really cute.
Their guest book is the old-school handwritten kind, and so cute. They gave a highlight in the shout-out to all of their guests and then tagged them. And I just thought it was paying homage to that old-school guest book where people could write a little thought about their stay. And as we’re heading into the next year, this is something easy that you could add to your property.
And I think, a, you will get a lot of delight from it. And then, b, the other guest staying in your home. And just want to give The Black Shack a huge shout-out too, because they are crushing it with doing a ton of reels and just simple posting. And I know it can get tiring host, trying to create content, but follow your other hosts, and get some ideas. Get some ideas from them, for sure. And one other thing you said, Sarah, was they had a CTA right in the beginning.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:05:10] They tell you what to do. They say, start planning. They don’t say, I think you should. Or think about– no. Start planning your getaway to this beautiful cabin nestled in the forest. I love that. We really do have to tell our potential customers or potential guests what we want them to do. And when we do that, you’ll be surprised at how they follow suit.
Annette Grant: [00:05:33] Market.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:05:34] All right, let’s get into today’s content. Today we are bringing on, truly, she feels like an old friend, but we just, this year, met her. We asked her to come speak on a panel at TFVCon. She obliged. She’s from California. She flew all the way to Ohio, graced our stage. And just in case you couldn’t make it to TFVCon, we invited her here on the podcast.
And so today we’re going to discuss so many things. Marilynn Taylor has been a short-term rental host since 2004. So yes, my friends, that is pre-Airbnb. Is a fellow HGTV alumni, and now focuses on helping short-term rental hopefuls and current hosts how to build a profitable, sustainable, heart-centered, hospitality business.
I know she’s an Airbnb ambassador, so she helps hosts there. But Annette, one of my favorite takeaways from this episode is shifting that mindset around– oh my gosh. She took “direct bookings” before Airbnb existed. And now hosts are terrified to book a guest off of Airbnb.
Annette Grant: [00:06:34] She brought some calm to me, too.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:06:35] She brought a lot of calm about that whole process and what that means. She got kicked off at Airbnb, and she’s a rule follower, so we’re excited to share that story with you. Let’s get to that interview with Marilynn. Marilynn, welcome to the show.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:06:49] Thank you. I’m so excited to finally be doing this with you guys.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:06:53] I can’t believe it’s been this long.
Annette Grant: [00:06:55] We’re just going to get it out at the very beginning. Listeners, please go follow Marilynn online. Years now, if you like the content, and the education, and any information that Sarah and I provide, we guarantee that you will love adding Marilynn to the assortment. We have vibed with her, her messaging that she puts out, the way that she hosts, and she is just a star. So we’re really excited to introduce her to everyone today and dig in to more about her story.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:07:32] Yeah, Marilynn, take us back right around 2000. What were you doing, and how did you start investing in real estate? Take us from there.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:07:44] Okay. So in 2000, I was auditioning for dance gigs and working as a makeup artist. I lived in LA, so I was doing the gig life, and 9/11 happened. So this really was 2001. And I feel like I already had investing on the brain. I had My Rich Dad, Poor Dad book. And I was dabbling and trying to learn the concept of investing.
But I hadn’t really made any moves until 9/11 happened, and I knew I wasn’t going to have any gigs, and I was living penny-to-penny. So I had the opportunity to jump into mortgages. So random. But I had a friend working at ditech.com, and he was like, come work over here. I make five grand a month, and I read books all day.
And I was like, that sounds good. Okay. I guess I could do that. And I think because of my sales background, I was a makeup artist for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and a few other lines, and I kicked behind selling lipstick. So I figured if I believe in something and I know it and I think I’m helping somebody, I could probably sell that too.
So I just have to learn what a mortgage is. And so I got into mortgages for two years, and now I’m in an environment with, when I first got hired, me and 47 other dudes that all came from stockbroker. They were all just in the industry. They were all very financial-minded. It was the boiler room, basically, and me.
And I think because I grew up between two brothers, it was fine for me, and I liked the competition. I feel very comfortable around men, and so I just absorbed all of that. And they were the first property I ever bought was with those guys, because a bunch of them started going to Vegas. It was back when it was the boom. Everything was booming. Interest rates were just coming down.
Mr. I-make-five-grand-a-month-and-read-books-all-day, by the time I got hired, it was nonstop, 14 hours a day. If you hang up the phone, you immediately have another call. It was crazy. So it was definitely trial by fire. But those guys all went to Vegas, and I’m like, who’s buying what properties? I want to do it too.
So I had been dabbling in the stock market a little bit, and I sold my Apple stock at $24 a share to go buy– damn it– a house in Vegas. And that was my very first rental property. That was a long-term rental, just standard rental. And so that’s what I was doing in 2000.
By the time I bought the house, it was 2002. But two years at Ditech, I learned so much about investing and broke through that fear of taking that first step because I was around a bunch of other people doing it, too. And so that really helped.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:10:59] When the market crashed in 2008, talk us through that. And how did you not lose hope for real estate?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:11:06] Yeah. So I got out of mortgages in around 2002, and then I promptly– I was moving to New York City to dance there because I was like, I’ve got money in the bank. I can do anything I want. Let me move to New York City. So I moved to New York City. Meet my husband two weeks before I moved to New York City. And he lives in LA, of course.
So I do a year in New York City and end up back in mortgages after I moved back. So now I’m working for a broker, and this is during that period of time when all those nutty mortgages came on the market. So Ditech was all a paper, 30-year fix, 15-year fix, maybe a few arms here and there. But I watched that whole thing happening, and I couldn’t wrap my brain around a lot of those loans because they were being sold to grandmas.
I understood them for investor loans. They made sense for that, for a short-term loan. So it crashed, and I lost my mortgage income. But by then, by 2008– let me back up. So during that period, my husband is from Cape Cod, and he had friends selling a house. So I’m already in the mindset of, I want to be a real estate investor, and I’m heading down that path, and I go to a real estate college for two years and learn every possible strategy I can possibly learn to be a real estate investor.
And of course, by then, HGTV is the big thing, and everybody’s flipping houses. And I’m like, I love this. So I see an opportunity to buy our friend’s house in Cape Cod. They were selling their house off-market, and they knew that I was interested in real estate investing, so they’re like, Marilynn, would you be interested? And I was like, why, yes. Yes, I would.
And so we bought their house off-market, and now Cape Cod is a vacation rental area. So I knew this was not going to be a long-term property, or that it wouldn’t be long-term rental. So that was my first vacation rental. And I didn’t even think twice about it. I just set it up. I designed it from here.
And Pinterest didn’t even exist yet, so I had to pull magazine pages and then go find things that looked similar, order them, and have them there ready to set up. We set up that house in four days and put it on the market. And we almost killed each other. Talk about putting together this back with Ikea furniture– was okay to use in a rental– and the little things that you’re turning trying to put the pieces together.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:13:52] Yes.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:13:53] And then we went to Paris, and it was amazing. So that was the first rental. But then we had the opportunity to buy his parents’ house, also in Cape Cod. They were retiring. They wanted to sell their house. They wanted to go around in an RV, and so they offered us a gift of equity. And so, of course. No brainer. Yes. No money down for another rental cashflow? Yes. So that house is what taught me how to become an interior designer.
It was through my making over both houses that I started to realize that I actually had a talent for that. It was always a side hustle for me. And so then I became an interior designer, and I started doing that primarily for about ten years. So by the time 2008 happened, it didn’t affect us because of people going to Cape Cod, and I think the level of rental that we put together in Cape Cod attracted a demographic that wasn’t really impacted.
So they were still coming for the summer, and it really was just a very seasonal rental. So it didn’t impact me in that way. It impacted me in the sense that I lost my six-figure income. Hollywood shut down. My husband was around the same time. So we got married 2006. By mid-2007 is when the mortgage industry really crumbled.
And then it was 2008 when everything went to hell. Yeah. So we just hung on. And that extra cash flow, let me tell you, helpful. It was helpful. But we bought a house to for us to live in. And thank God we bought conservatively because had we not, we would have been bankrupt after 2008.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:15:41] There is so much value there because, Marilynn– when you bought the first Cape Cod property, did you manage it yourself fully?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:15:51] Oh, 100%.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:15:51] And where did you list it?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:15:52] Remotely.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:15:53] Do you remember where you listed it?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:15:55] Oh, Vrbo. It was the only game in town.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:15:57] Got it.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:15:59] Vrbo. Actually, no. There was another website called weneedavacation.com. I’m trying to think if that was around in the beginning. I feel like maybe it wasn’t. Maybe that came up a little bit later, but Vrbo was literally– and I can’t call it Vrbo. I’ve been calling it Vrbo for way too many years. It was just Vacation Rentals By Owner. And then HomeAway came along and bought Vrbo. And then HomeAway was my favorite platform.
But back then, every booking was a direct booking. It wasn’t like Airbnb. I feel like people coming into this industry now, it is such a different monster now compared to what it was then. You talked to your prospective guest before they booked. You actually got on the telephone and had a conversation.
And I think I did really well because I knew, from sales, that the first person to contact this person is the one that’s going to most likely get the booking. And I still apply that today because if people are inquiring or– now we have instant books, so most bookings come from an instant book scenario. But those that don’t, if it’s an inquiry, I’m so on top of that because I want to be the first person responding to them so that I can secure the booking. That’s a whole other conversation.
Annette Grant: [00:17:20] You said HomeAway was your favorite. Can you tell us why?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:17:25] Because Vrbo was old and antiquated. It had been around for ever, and it was just bare bones basic. HomeAway came along, and it was cute. The platform was really esthetically pleasing, easy to use. It just seemed more updated. That was really the only reason. Because ultimately, it was the same thing. HomeAway quickly bought Vrbo, or was it the other way around? I don’t remember, but HomeAway just became my platform of choice just for simplicity of use.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:18:01] So being able to compare life pre-Airbnb, which is anything pretty much before 2008, and now, Marilynn, what is different in your perspective for the guest and the booking process? Anything that comes to your mind when I ask that question. What is the biggest difference you’ve noticed pre-Airbnb to now?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:18:23] Pre-Airbnb, I loved actually being able to build that relationship and connection with the guest, and speak to them, and gain their trust. We gained each other’s trust prior to the booking. And that is the piece that I don’t love. When Airbnb came along, I remember just being like, okay. It took me two years.
It was 2009 when I first got on Airbnb because when I looked at the platform, I was like, wait, what? I can’t talk to my guest first, and I’m not going to get any contact information? And I just felt like they took so much control. And funny story, I actually got kicked off of Airbnb early on because, listen, I’m a rule breaker. I’m just–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:19:13] You are? Wait a minute.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:19:15] I totally am, I totally am.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:19:16] What did you do?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:19:18] Hilarious. Because I was a straight-A student, I’m like, typical Virgo. I like to be the good girl, but if something makes sense to me and someone’s trying to put a rule in my way, I’ll just break the rule. So the rule I broke was that they did not want me taking security deposits. This is part of my whole process. What do you mean I can’t take a security deposit? And this is before AirCover, no guarantees. There was nothing like that.
And I’m like, so not only do I not get to talk to my guests and feel comfortable with them. Now, I have to let them stay in my house, and I have no protections? I can’t take a security deposit? What the heck? And I’m a total stickler for rules in this sense. I go and look at their terms and conditions. It doesn’t say in there that I can’t take a security deposit.
And so somebody complained that I was taking security deposits. This is when Airbnb came to me and said, hey, you can’t do it anymore. And I’m on the phone with them, and I was like, show me in your terms and conditions where it says, I can’t. Show me legally where it says I can’t. Well, it’s in our frequently asked questions.
And I was like, but that’s not your legal terms and conditions. That doesn’t count. They’re like, yeah? Watch us. Blocked. They canceled all of my bookings. And I was like, oh, that’s how you play. Okay, so this is an authoritarian scenario. Got it.
So I was not mad that I lost it, but here’s the cool thing, is that because of my process, because I had rental contracts for every guest, and because in that rental contract, I got their contact information, I was able to reach out immediately to every single guest and keep every single booking because I emailed them and said, hey, here’s what just happened, but we have a contract together.
Your booking is still totally secure. Let’s just set up payment through PayPal. And they paid PayPal-ed me, and every single person still stayed. And I was like, that’s fine. Airbnb just lost the money. Bye. And I didn’t mind because I only used Airbnb for last-minute bookings there anyway, because Cape Cod is such a seasonal location and people book a year in advance, and I couldn’t afford the super lackadaisical– and still, if I still was on Cape Cod, I would not use Airbnb for my summer bookings because I can’t afford their cancellation policies. They’re too lackadaisical.
And if somebody cancels last-minute for a summer booking in Cape Cod, I am not going to earn the same amount of money. By then, people that are willing to pay those prices, they’ve already booked, and now it’s people looking for discounts. And now I have to break up my week to try– and it’s not a good scenario.
So through Vrbo, I was always able to keep the no cancellation policy thing, but then tell them what my cancellation policy was. And I just saw you guys did a reel on this. What is your cancellation policy? And we all should have our own policy. And mine is always cancel any time.
Even if Airbnb is not going to give you your money back, or Vrbo, or whoever, I will still give you back what I can earn, minus a small admin fee to cover my time for that cancellation and having to rebook. And people love that because then it gives them more confidence. But again, that’s a whole side note. But yeah, that’s my story of getting kicked off on Airbnb.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:22:49] Actually, that’s a really good direction to take this in, Marilynn. You know this because you work with so many newer hosts or hosts who are looking to solidify their business. You know there’s so much fear out there from removing Airbnb between us and the guest. You doing this before Airbnb even existed, if you could talk– I mean, you are talking to our listeners right now. What could you share with them about that, as what Annette and I believe to be this false fear, this made-up fear that Airbnb is some protection?
Annette Grant: [00:23:24] Right.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:23:24] Obviously, there’s things you want to put in place, but let’s talk about that because you had this confidence of emailing these guests and saying, let’s still do this. And you weren’t nervous at all. Obviously, they booked via the platform, so maybe that’s where your confidence came from. But I think it’s coming from somewhere else. So share with us that whole direct booking. We’re moving Airbnb from this scenario, and where you stand in all that today.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:23:46] Yeah, absolutely. So in the beginning, every booking was a direct booking. Vrbo was, you paid to advertise on their platform, and that was it. So they did nothing else for you. They weren’t a payment processor. So people were literally, yes, we want to book it. And then I would block out my calendar manually, and then they would I would email them a rental contract. They would put a wet signature on it and mail that back with their check.
Paper checks. That was the process.
So it’s just so different now. I love technology, so the minute that I was able to take online payments and remove that paper piece, I absolutely did. But I had already learned how to protect myself. So that was just how it was done. So it was nothing. I loved coming back off of Airbnb. That was not a problem for me because I had my rental contract that I used, and I had my security deposit. I had my processes in place.
So applying that to today’s world, I have built in so many different layers of protection, from how I disclose in my listings, the things that I say in my listings, the policies I put in my listings, my house rules, and I have it in multiple different places, plus the requirement of a photo ID, plus a rental contract.
These are all things that are filters in place for a reason. And I always get this question, but Marilynn, aren’t I going to lose bookings? Yes, you will, from the wrong guests. You don’t want those bookings. And it keeps it open for the people who are okay with your policies and feel confident with your policies because they don’t plan to break them. That’s who you want booking.
So that’s why I have no issue with a direct booking now, because I have damage protection policies in place. I vet my guests. Now I have a whole different level of spidey senses, where, as you’re talking to your guests via technology and just the messaging system, you start to figure out little radar things you get a sense for. Are they being sincere?
As far as taking a booking that doesn’t have protections of Airbnb or something along those lines, I just don’t even put any eggs in the Airbnb protection basket. I don’t. Because they function very similarly to an insurance company in the sense that they’re going to look for reasons to not cover you.
And this is why I work with companies that will cover me for any damage, anything that happens with my guests, not just accidental. I remember when Vrbo, you could choose between a security deposit or a damage protection policy. And I’m the girl that reads the fine print, so I go read the fine print, and I realize that those damage protection policies were written in the name of the guest, not me.
Even though Vrbo was making it sound like that was a protection policy for the host, they were encouraging us to use it. But when I read that the guest was the one being protected and not me, I was like, no, thank you. And then as things have progressed over the years, now there are additional companies that are for the host, but still it’s accidental damage only.
So they’re going to go and look at your policies, and if they realize that your guest has violated one of your policies, no, that’s not accidental. And they’re going to deny you. So I’m always looking for the best. I want peace of mind. This is why my course and– I have a mentorship. I call it the Stress Free Host. That is my coined phrase because I don’t worry.
If something gets damaged, I’m covered. I’ve had someone try to squat my rental contract? The cops are going to come get them out. It’s very rare that anything like that happens, I think, because of the type of host I am, because of the type of screening I do with my guests, the way I communicate with them, the way I connect with them, that I find that as soon as I present them with, hey, just making sure you understand my policies and that this is a good fit for you, and then I get radio silence, or I’m ghosted, I know what’s happening, and I’m okay with it.
I let them go. So people are like, oh my gosh, I have to approve or decline within 24 hours. What happens if they don’t respond? I’m like, it’s a decline because they’re not– that’s how I approach it anyway.
Annette Grant: [00:28:49] Let’s make this a teachable moment because I’m interested. You were saying your spidey senses go off. What are some things during the interaction with a guest that you can share with our listeners that you are an immediate, like, wait, that seems a little off to me. What are some scenarios? What are some things that are said in messaging, that you can share, where you’re like, wait a second, this is not a booking that I want to approve.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:29:17] Yeah, I have a list of red flags. And so I can try to do them all off the top of my head, but here’s a few that are super obvious.
Annette Grant: [00:29:29] Yeah, give us a few.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:29:31] So things like very last-minute bookings, especially if they’re local. If they want just one night. That’s party alert. And I don’t want to sound prejudice, but I’m just going to be honest. I am a little bit. If it’s a group of all dudes, especially if they’re young, that’s when I’m just going to ask some more questions like, okay, what’s the age range? Because any time I’ve had a rager party at my house, it’s been a group of dudes.
I’ve seen horror stories about groups of girls, too. So it happens. But that, for me, has been a red flag. When somebody is too eager and excited about your policies. Oh, yeah, I’m going to be the best guest you’ve ever had. And it just feels insincere, and they’re over the top, and like, oh, I love it. I love all your rules. They’re great. Okay, simmer down now. So that is a red flag. Let me see. What are some others?
A booking over two weeks from anybody who is local. I’m just going to ask more questions. And mid-term rentals are the rage right now. Don’t get me started on that. Just the amount of additional risks you take on with 30 days plus that nobody realizes because Airbnb is just like, yes, take a six-month booking on Airbnb, and not helping hosts realize you just became a landlord.
Annette Grant: [00:31:10] Great point.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:31:11] That’s definitely a bone I have to pick with Airbnb. I get what they’re doing for their business, but I think they’re doing a disservice to hosts by not properly disclosing this is a whole different ball game that you’re getting into now. So yeah, for me, if it’s a booking over two weeks, I want to know. And they live locally? I just need to understand why. And so none of these things are non-starters for me. It just means I’m going to ask more questions. I know there’s more on my–
Annette Grant: [00:31:40] I love that, though. Just sharing a–
Sarah Karakaian: [00:31:41] We just like to give people a taste of what alerts you. I’m going to take the conversation in a little different direction, Marilynn, because you offer so much value. We just had you on the stage at TFVCon, which, by the way, thank you for your time there, and your expertise. And you said something that Annette and I both talked about after the event, and it’s your love of vintage pieces in your property.
And I loved your reason because furniture was made so much better back in the day, back when it wasn’t this easy breezy thing to get off of these online, cheaply made and cheaply offered stores. So talk to us about that balance of your interiors and furnishing them with vintage pieces.
The balance not only of vintage pieces sometimes being more expensive, especially if you shop nicer consignment stores and things of that nature, but also one of our members mentioned she bought this beautiful vintage couch, but of course, it has some dings on it from being well-loved.
And so talk to us about that and having that balance of guests appreciating the vintage furniture but also not thinking that it’s dingy, or dirty, or old. What does Marilynn think about when she buys vintage pieces and adds them to her properties so that you still feel that luxe feeling, that high-end feeling, the beautiful feeling, well-made feeling, but also not that feeling of hey, this has been around for a long time and has had a lot of seen–
Annette Grant: [00:33:11] Instead of seeing its better days. It’s like it’s in its glory days instead of better days.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:33:17] Yes. Okay, I love this topic so much. So anybody watching this on YouTube, you see behind me an array of vintage. Literally, every single piece within eyeshot of this screen is vintage, but I am not the girl that’s going to go to an antique mall and pay a premium price for my vintage. I am the girl that thrifts and goes on Facebook Marketplace. I love a deal.
So that’s how I approach vintage shopping for my rental. I would not ever put a piece that I spent $1,200 on in, unless it’s a super luxury property. So let’s just say it’s like an end table that is $1,200 on Chairish. I just want to do it. I probably paid $40 for that. It’s multi-level. I love the fact that it brings character.
These vintage pieces have so much character, but I also make sure that they function properly so that it guests aren’t like, it looks cute, but I can’t open the drawers. That’s not fun. So I look for pieces that if I know that the top is going to get damaged, I’m just going to have a piece of glass cut to put on top of it. I love a place that feels collected. Now, when it comes to things like a sofa, I’m not going to use vintage for that. I just won’t.
Let me back up on that. I think in some scenarios, I would, if it was leather or something like that. But again, it would have had to have been a really good deal because I don’t want to feel heartbroken if my guests destroy it. So it really is a combination. Almost everything in my property Chateau Vigne, I got screaming deals on almost everything. It’s nuts.
And so because of that, now I have the bonus of these gorgeous pieces that are probably worth a ton of money, but it wasn’t a ton of money out of my pocket. So now my guests get the benefit of that beautiful quality furniture without me having the fear of them destroying it. But then, I also have my damage protection policies, which help me feel better about it.
I don’t know. I feel like nowadays, with design, even if a place is designed nicely, I just am seeing so much cookie cutter. I just feel like you see the same style of design over and over and over and over, and it just makes it so easy to stand out.
Annette Grant: [00:36:08] Yeah. How many of your guests talk about your design? What do you think the percentage of guests booking your properties was specifically due to your design?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:36:17] 85%, if not more?
Annette Grant: [00:36:20] Wow.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:36:22] They say it in their reviews. If you go look at the reviews on my property, they almost all mention how beautiful the house is, the impeccable design, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I designed it specifically because I wanted my guests to have an amazing experience in the house. I wanted my house to feel like a destination. I wanted it to feel like you were somewhere other than Central California.
I wanted it to feel like you were in Europe somewhere. That was the goal. And I’ve accomplished that because people are reflecting that back to me in their reviews. I’ll have guests that weren’t even on the Airbnb booking reach out to me and say that they love the design so much. Could I find out what your paint colors were? Where did you get this stuff? They want to know. And I’ve actually made my rental shoppable.
So anything I did by retail– and it is a combination of vintage and retail in my house. Behind me, there’s a painting right there that I bought in France, and I had it on the wall, and then I left it, and I’m like, I don’t think I want that to get damaged, or lost, or stolen. And so then I found some pieces at Target and Amazon that had that similar feel that I put up in its place.
And I think because there’s so much richness and personality throughout the house, those retail pieces fit right in. It doesn’t look like somebody else’s living room that went and bought all the same things at Target. So I just like places to feel collected.
Annette Grant: [00:38:04] Yeah. And you used a term at our event I’d never heard before, and it was reverse of minimalist. It was maximalist.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:38:14] Yes.
Annette Grant: [00:38:14] And I have to ask, because this has happened probably the entire time we’ve been following you online. I’m like, you are a maximalist. And I’m like, how does her turnover team– I want to know. Being a maximalist, having these vintage pieces, how do you train your turnover team? I’m more of a minimalist. Things are very basic. There aren’t as many things– how do you train your team to maneuver that with these vintage pieces, with the new pieces, with being a maximalist? Is that a different learning curve for them?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:38:52] Honestly, not really. And I would say, as much as my design style is maximalist, in my house, if you walked through where I live, every surface is covered. Every wall is covered. I would never do that in a rental. I would never go that far. So what you see in my listing for Chateau Vigne, that’s my minimalist version of maximalism. Yeah.
So I only have a few little vases maybe sitting on top of a book. I don’t have every surface covered because that would drive everybody crazy. And my guests need somewhere to put their things. So I design very intentionally to make sure that, while I probably have more furniture in my house than other people would have, I’ve done it in a way to make sure they have somewhere to store their clothing, somewhere to put their bags, somewhere to put their makeup bag.
I make sure every room has a vanity space and a hairdryer inside the dresser with a mirror above it, so that girls can be doing their makeup and hair in the bedroom while other people are in the bathroom. I just really think all of that through. Because I sleep 12, I don’t want to crowd the room with enough chairs for 12.
So then I’ll have other little Ottomans that are underneath a console or something like that, where there’s that temporary seating to make sure, if they want to sit around the coffee table and play games, that they can do that. And people have somewhere to sit, and they’re not sitting on the floor. So I just think through all those things.
Annette Grant: [00:40:34] I have other questions that I wasn’t able to ever ask via social media, and I think this is going to help so many people. You’ve sold a few of your short-term rental properties, and you’ve seen those through hosting for years and years and then selling them. Can you offer us some of the tips and tricks on when people are wanting to sell their home as a vacation rental?
What was an advantage that you had? What did you use as a tool to try to get maximum value out of your properties when you were selling them “turnkey vacation rental”? What did you learn through those selling process? Because you’ve sold a few at this point.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:41:17] I’ve sold them all at one point in order to recast my portfolio. That was one thing getting into all of my rentals. It was nowhere on my radar to say, is this the best market to get into? Am I going to have maximized profit? It was an opportunity. It was a good buy, and I jumped in. But now, knowing what I know, I knew that I could, with fewer properties, earn more money in different markets.
So that’s why I sold everything. So on Cape Cod, when I sold both of those homes, I was not able to sell either successfully as a vacation rental. And I tried really, really hard to sell the business with it, and all of the business assets, and the 1,000 people I had on my email list, all that different stuff. Both homes sold to people that just wanted them as a second home.
The second house in Cape Cod, I had it on the market. I tried so hard to sell the whole LLC, the whole thing. There just wasn’t enough income because it was seasonal that I just don’t think that people were thinking that way. Nobody was looking to buy a business on Cape Cod. I think they would have wanted to see multiple properties. It just didn’t work.
But my little tiny homes that I had in Southern California, in the desert, I was able to sell two of them as functioning vacation rentals, where they just took over and kept all the stuff that was in there. One girl redid it a little bit in her own style, but those two, what I did is I put together, I don’t know of pro forma is the right word for it, a document that showed them all of the financials, what the expenses were.
I offered the whole list of all the people, the team that was already functioning, and cleaning, and handyman, and all that stuff. I offered the whole package so they could literally just step in and continue renting. And this is a real pet peeve for me, when people sell a property and cancel bookings. Not okay. We have to be good stewards of our guests.
When they book at a hotel, they never worry about being canceled on. So why do we think that’s okay to do to people as hosts? And so I think that if you are thinking about selling your vacation rental property, you need to take your calendar down to maybe three months out, only be booking three months out. Or if you know that you’re going to close escrow six months out, do it then.
But try to not have bookings on the calendar beyond that. You can’t always control it, but try. Then I try to find people that will honor the bookings in place. And then now you can make them a co-host. There’s ways to transfer that over so they can still manage the booking and you can let go. So there are ways that you can do that nice transition.
And I just would let my guests know, hey, there’s going to be a new owner, but everything’s going to be as it was advertised. Nothing’s going to change. They understand the process. They’re going to take great care of you. And I vet the people buying my rental too. I’ve put so much love and care into it. I want to make sure that if I’m handing my guests off to somebody, they’re going to be treated well in the same way that I would.
Now that’s idealistic. It worked out on both of those properties for me. Both of the people that took them over went on to have all five-star reviews. So I was very happy with that. But I understand sometimes you just have to take the buyer that’s there. But anyway, those are some of the things that I did.
And I prepared my rental knowing that I want to sell it, and I timed when I was going to sell it to not be trying to sell in the high season, and then I even offered to keep, say, 20% of the bookings that were in place, meaning 20% of the revenue, and the rest would get paid out to them. So they would be walking into income. And they loved that because they knew they already had cash flow lined up. They didn’t have to start from scratch.
Annette Grant: [00:45:47] And did you end up getting higher than market value for the two smaller homes that you were selling more as a vacation rental business?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:45:57] I would say yes, especially because they were designed really, really cute. And those were in a hot springs resort. And of course, I sold right before COVID. I had the best timing, you guys, seriously– just the best luck, the best timing. Yeah, sold right before COVID. So to say did I sell above market? Yeah. At the time, yes. But then shortly after, values exploded, and it was in an area that– everybody wanted to buy a house or get into Airbnb at that time. If I had held on for two more years, I would have probably tripled what I sold them for.
Annette Grant: [00:46:38] It’s okay. That’s in the past.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:46:40] Yeah.
Annette Grant: [00:46:41] So you’ve clearly been in the game for a long time. What’s your take right now on Airbnbust? It’s over. Give us some of your wisdom from seeing so much of the transformation. And obviously, you’ve sold four to reinvest in one. So when people come to you Airbnbust and they’re nervous, what’s your comeback to them?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:47:08] It’s Airbnbust for crappy hosts. Period. If you are a host like the three of us here, you’re fine. You’re going to survive. It’s coming back down to– I think there’s always been crappy hosts, but it wasn’t on the radar the way Airbnb is on the radar of people now, as far as, oh, this is a new way to make extra cash flow.
It’s become a trend. It’s a whole thing. To me, we’re just back to normal. This is normal. This is what it was all the years that I was hosting. And it wasn’t even called hosting. I don’t even know what we called it before Airbnb.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:47:57] Managing my rental.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:47:57] Yeah. They were vacation rentals. It wasn’t an STR. It wasn’t a short-term– anyway, all these new terms. So I’m thriving still because I kill it for my guests. My guests, when they stay at my rental, they love it. I pour into them. I dote on them. I take care of them. I see them. I acknowledge them. They’re people to me. They’re not just some rando sleeping in my house.
And I think that there’s been such a rush into this industry of people that just want to make money and don’t understand you’re buying a hospitality business. These guests are what matters most. Not just your cute rental that is going to fall apart in two months because you bought the cheapest possible furniture. The guests, the people staying, that is what this business is.
And for me, it is so personally fulfilling to not only get that amazing feedback from them when they’re raving in my reviews, but just knowing that I provided a special time for them. I just had a family come and stay. Their brother was diagnosed with ALS, and he didn’t have a whole lot longer to live. And so they had a family reunion, and they asked, can we have extra family over? Of course.
And so at the end of it, she just was like, this was such a special, wonderful– we picked the perfect house. Thank you so much. It was so wonderful. And they took so many pictures. And she’s like, we had so many photo shoots and made so many memories. And it’s just like that is what this is. My house isn’t a hotel. It is a home, and they’re my guests. And that’s how I approach it.
And I think that the people who approach it in that way, in a heart-centered way, they’re going to be fine. Now, are there some markets out there that are just not doing well? Yeah. Cut your losses. It’s okay if it’s not working and you need to sell. You didn’t fail. Things shift. Things change. So be okay with cutting your losses and then reinvesting somewhere else better.
But I think that’s why, too, people getting into this industry think that they can just get a rental anywhere and they’re just going to make money. It is not a guarantee. It wasn’t before COVID, and it isn’t now. You still just have to be wise in your decisions. So that’s my thoughts on the Airbnbust.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:50:45] What a wonderful way to wrap up this episode, full of wisdom and insight from someone who’s been in the industry for a very long time. Marilynn, thank you so much for everything you’ve shared with us today. Where can our listeners follow you, find out more about you? I know we gave that plug at the beginning, but from your point of view, what’s the best way to follow your journey and learn from you?
Marilynn Taylor: [00:51:09] Instagram is where I hang out the most. So I would say my Instagram account. My handle is just my name, Marilynn Taylor, and Marilynn is with two n’s. I’m sure there will be a link.
Annette Grant: [00:51:22] There will be.
Marilynn Taylor: [00:51:22] I also have marilynntaylor.com, but Instagram really is the best place to come find me and everything that I offer.
Annette Grant: [00:51:29] Amazing.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:51:30] Listeners, she offers so much. Obviously, continue to hang out there myself, but adding Marilynn in there is just going to make you the most well-rounded host you could possibly be, and investor. Marilynn, thank you so much for your time. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.
Annette Grant: [00:51:44] I am Annette Grant. And together we are–
Both Annette & Sarah: [00:51:46] Thanks for Visiting.
Sarah Karakaian: [00:51:47] Talk to you next time.
