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Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:05] You are listening to the Thanks for Visiting podcast. We believe hosting with heart is at the core of every short-term rental. With Annette’s background in business operation–

Annette Grant: [00:00:14] And Sarah’s extensive hospitality management and interior design experience, we have welcomed thousands of guests from over 30 countries earning us over a million and garnering us thousands of five-star reviews.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:00:27] We love sharing creative ways for your listing to stand out, serve your guests and be profitable. Each episode, we will have knowledgeable guests who bring value to the short-term rental industry.

Annette Grant: [00:00:39] Or we will share our stories of our own experiences so you can implement actual improvements to your rentals. Whether you’re experienced, new or nervous to start your own short-term rental, we promise you’ll feel right at home. Before we dive into the content, let’s hear a word from our sponsor.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:01] Hello, listeners. Welcome back for another fantastic week with us. I am Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: [00:01:06] I am Annette Grant and together we are– 

Both Sarah and Annette: [00:01:08] Thanks for Visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:01:08] We’ve got an amazing show today. We are going to talk real estate, but we’ll also talk hospitality, and we are so excited to share the story of the gentleman that we have on our show today. He was one of the huge highlights of the conference we went to about three weeks ago, four weeks ago now. 

But before we do that– introduce him– we are going to do what we love doing, and that is sharing you, our faithful listeners and viewers, and your short-term rentals, giving you some air time. Annette, who are we sharing on the show today?

Annette Grant: [00:01:36] Today we are sharing @MagnoliaCottageFarmstay. Again, that’s @MagnoliaCottageFarmstay. And this is what I want to bring to everybody. This is a 70-acre property because today on my walk, for some reason, I was like, I really want to have a farm. And then like, how can I have people come stay there? 

So I just want to encourage everybody, whatever your dream is, if it’s this farm stay, you can make it happen. This property is in Lancaster, PA. It is amazing. And she is crushing it. There’s a basketball court here, but it’s for large families. She’s really thinking of reunions, family get-togethers, and just unplugging. 

And I love that because a lot of times we think short-term rental, we think vacation rental, we think maybe metro markets, smaller places. And you don’t really think of larger plots of land. I know we just had a guest on that is also thriving in this acreage, housing larger families. And it brought a lot of joy to see that people whatever your dream is, whatever that property that you’ve been wanting to create that experience, please go do it, check them out. 

And through their photos, you can see the expansiveness of their property. And I think a lot of times we get wrapped up into the amenities inside the home. And I think the selling point here is all of the acreage with nothing on it. 

So I always think, what’s that value prop for your guest and all the acres with nothing is probably what they’re looking for. So well done @MagnoliaCottageFarmstay. We love that you’re using our hashtag. We will continue to share you. All right, Sarah, let’s get on. How many times have I said this guest’s name today?

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:17] 75 times, you guys because it does roll off the tongue really well. So today we have on the show TJ Tijani. I should let you do it.

Annette Grant: [00:03:26] I have to say TJ Tijani. I love it.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:29] So if you go to TJ’s Instagram account, he is TJ Tijani rentalprenuer.

Annette Grant: [00:03:35] And he’s now crushing it at all, just a few followers. We’re lying.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:40] He even has to say this is the only account that TJ runs because he’s crashing the game. So we went to the STR Wealth conference. What is it now? A month ago, maybe. Time flies when you’re having fun. And I believe TJ was the first presenter.

Annette Grant: [00:03:56] He was.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:03:57] And the minute he started talking, I was just like, is this going to be a presentation just about acquisition and numbers because TJ– we’ll welcome him to the show real quick in a minute here, but I was just like, are we going to talk about hospitality at all in this event? And bam, he hits us with guest experience and why it matters to do quality work, and why it matters to know your numbers.

Annette Grant: [00:04:21] And he had a plethora of before and after pictures of the investment that he– yes, he did huge investments on the exterior, but TJ does not skimp on the interior before and afters. And he was sharing picture after picture to this audience of the investment that he put into the interior design and the amenities for his guests.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:04:42] So without further ado, TJ, welcome to our show.

TJ Tijani: [00:04:47] Fantastic. Thank you all so much. It’s a true honor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for real.

Annette Grant: [00:04:52] First of all, we want to let everybody know that TJ also is the rentalpreneur and we’re going to have to start using that. He’s wearing a rentalpreneur hat right now. So you’re going to have check it out.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:05:02] Yeah. Can we buy your cap, TJ? Is that something we can purchase?

TJ Tijani: [00:05:04] Yeah. It’s actually for sale. I don’t talk about it at all.

Annette Grant: [00:05:07] Well, let’s talk about it. Can we get an affiliate link here?

TJ Tijani: [00:05:11] Yeah, you can send someone to rentalmerch.com. You can grab your friends for a trip.

Annette Grant: [00:05:17] We’ll sign up for your affiliate and we’ll put it in the show notes. TJ, we know your story, but share with our audience. It was not that long ago you were out at sea on the grind, really out at sea.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:05:31] Literally, listeners. So TJ, please tell us your story from the beginning.

TJ Tijani: [00:05:35] Oh, man. Well, originally I’m from Nigeria. I’m a Nigerian immigrant. So it was interesting. I don’t even know if I’m first generation. I think I’m like zero generation because I was born in Nigeria. So I moved down to the United States here in Houston, Texas, H town. So if we hear a little bit of twang, a little bit of slang, just know that’s why, that’s where it’s from. 

So grew up in Houston, came here when I was eight years old, and I was here with my four siblings. So it was five of us and my mom and that was it. Grew up in a one-bedroom apartment. It was interesting growing up. It’s amazing hearing my name. And I didn’t even really embrace and really realize how cool my name was until I got older, seriously. 

Because back then, growing up, being Nigerian wasn’t necessarily a cool thing. You know what I mean? Now the vibe is high, everybody’s into the vibes and afrobeats and the music is live and all that. But, man, I nearly had to grow it to just really just appreciate not only who I am, but my culture as well. 

So growing up was always really interesting. But I am the first in my family to even go to college and I end up putting myself through school. And I went to University of Houston because I wanted to stay close to home because I just wanted to be as close to my mom as possible. We are really, really close. And I tell people my mom is the best human being on the planet that I know just because of her sacrifice where I watch her grow up. 

So a lot of who I am literally was what she instilled in me. And so I ended up going to college. It took me six years to graduate with my engineering degree, put myself through school work, two full-time jobs, and a full-time study load. And because at the time I wasn’t a private, even though I qualified for the maximum financial aid and I couldn’t even get a loan, I couldn’t get financial aid because I wasn’t a citizen at the time.

So the only way I was able to make it through school was to put myself through college. And so they wanted me to pay out-of-state tuition, but I was able to get in-state tuition because I went to Texas High School. And so now that was half the battle, but then I still have to figure out how I was going to pay for it. 

So I got a job. I would sell shoes at Foot Action, and the manager was so cool. He was like, “I’ll pay under the table. Don’t worry, I’ll pay under the table.” I was like, “Man, thank you.” So I hustled. I ground it. I was his best worker. I was the biggest hustler. So I did that. And then I was really, really good at math. And so just one person that end up mentoring me in college saw how good I was at math, got me a job teaching mathematics at school.

And that was where the birth of me realize that I love to educate came from. So then I ended up graduating from engineering school, worked in oil and gas because Houston is oil and gas capital. A lot of folks who graduate with engineering in Houston, you’re likely are going to be in oil and gas.

But the thing is in a lot of markets what we understand is for oil and gas are quite finicky. It has its ebbs and flows. And when the price is over $100 a barrel, everybody’s happy. You understand the money is being made. Gas is a little bit higher, but money’s being made, the market’s good.

But at the time, the price dropped to $42 a barrel. And the day I was laid off, it was about 79 people laid off that day. So June 1st, 2017, I was laid off. But before that, I was already investing in real estate. One of my good friends of my five brothers came a year after– no, it wasn’t even a year, maybe three months after I graduated college. He handed me a book and he said, “TJ, I watched you hustle your way through college, bro. You need to read this book. I just read it. It blew my mind.” I was like, “Man, what is this?” Of course, you can probably guess what that book is. It’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, which, by the way, I got a chance to hang out with Robert Kiyosaki in Vegas [Inaudible 00:09:11]. You can check out my–

Annette Grant: [00:09:12] Just throw that in there. Just throw that in there. No big deal.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:09:15] Just hanging out with Robbie.

TJ Tijani: [00:09:17] Crazy experience. That was crazy. So I took this book because I was working offshore. That was my job. I was a subsea installations engineer, so all the crude oils and hydrocarbons that is extracted from subsea. My company, we built it, we fabricated it, we took it offshore, we installed it subsea. 

And so that was my job and I was good at it. I got promoted to a lead within a year and a half and I was working on his rig and I took that book when we were offshore and I read it and then I read it again. I read it twice in three weeks. And I said, “Get me off this boat right now. I need to go buy some assets.” It was the biggest lightbulb. That’s how I knew I was going to do real estate for real, for real. 

And so then I came back, purchased the course, Cody Sperber’s course, the clever investor. I purchased the course that teach me how to wholesale. I joined a local group and then I became soon a YouTube university. I was watching videos, how to use hard money lenders, how to leverage private capital to buy real estate. So I started doing that and then I pulled the trigger. 

But it’s crazy because the engineering mind in me, I was stuck in analysis paralysis. I was always doing so much research that I was so scared to pull the trigger. But it’s crazy how much I did pull the trigger at one deal. That first deal taught me more than anything that I had studied up until that point. But it was great.

And so then I learned that I can buy assets with my time, not so much my money if I can buy them distressed and leverage private capital to rehab it and then get to refinance the whole night. So that’s how I started doing. I started building a traditional rental portfolio. Then I was also wholesaling maybe about one or two deals a month. And so that’s what I was doing. 

Our cell phone service was so limited offshore. It’d be so interesting if they gave us the connection to where– they had the segments where we can call from our laptop, man I’m happy, we’re excited. Other than that, it’ll be like a pay phone. You have to stand in line for it to call home. So I would stand in line to call sellers so I can put their property on a contract.

Annette Grant: [00:11:24] Hold on. At the pay phone? You get the award of the day– Hustler award. I need to go do more work right now. I’m feeling a little beneath you right now. I sound very lazy. Oh, man. Okay.

TJ Tijani: [00:11:41] It was crazy. It was so interesting. Then June 1st, 2017, was when everything changed. That was the day that I was laid off. I left home that day not knowing that that was my last day working. You just take this every single day. You take it for granted. And so my goal at the time was to have 10 rentals. If went to 10 single-family rental properties, then I knew I was going to walk away from my engineering job. 

When I was laid off, I had five, so about halfway there. I wasn’t necessarily there, but halfway there. Then I decided, I said, you know what, I’m going to go all in. I’m going to just all in real estate. So I’m out here, big engineer, big entrepreneur, real estate full-time entrepreneur. And it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy. I knocked my teeth to the ground. My first deal was a flop. I did a flip. It was a flop.

Annette Grant: [00:12:23] Wait, hold on. I think let’s pause right there. What’s a flop? Did you lose money? Did you lose time? Did you lose all the things?

TJ Tijani: [00:12:31] All the things. I lost money and time. I lost money and time. Then I did a second deal. That was a flop as well. I lost money and time on that.

Annette Grant: [00:12:38] What did you gain now? You’re getting ready to come in with some serious gains from all these flops.

TJ Tijani: [00:12:43] Oh, absolutely. The gain was insane lessons, insane lessons on exactly what to do because at the end of the day, when you fail, you got two options. You can lay underneath them and let the pressure continue to apply, or you can decide to stand on top of them and keep it pushing. 

Because at the end of the day, for me, coming from where I’m from, I don’t have a choice, but to keep pushing. And that’s one thing why I would not take my journey back for anything because the amount of character that it built in me, that it instilled in me coupled with what my mom taught me that’s what allowed me to go as crazy as I’m going now. 

So the work ethic is there, but the why is there at the same time. So yeah, we got to stay on top of the failures. At the same time, we want to keep this thing pushing. But when I found short-term rentals, I lost my first one. I was laid off June 1st, 2017. I lost my first short-term renal in the last week of December 2017. And it’s been short-term rental focus ever since then.

Annette Grant: [00:13:39] Why did you get started in the short-term rental? Was it a friend? Was it a podcast? Where did you get bit by the short-term rental bug?

TJ Tijani: [00:13:47] So I was actually doing market research on how to better market for wholesale deals, and deals that I could do, creative deals in probably flip or whatnot. And I came across a video– and what’s interesting is I can’t even remember. It was just a video on YouTube. It was almost like a commercial about how you can earn more money on the Airbnb and the traditional rentals.

And I had never even stayed in an Airbnb at the time. And I was like, I know about it, but I’ve never stayed there. So at the time, I was remodeling a single-family house that was going to add to my traditional rental portfolio, just like I was already doing. Then I said, you know what? I’m going to go ahead and furnish this thing.

TJ Tijani: [00:14:20] I spent 14,000 furnishing a three-bedroom, two-bath house. And I remember standing in the middle of it one time– when you furnish it, the craziness, the boxes everywhere, everything is in pieces and you’re standing in the middle of the room. And honestly, I almost forgot. I said, man, I might be in over my head. What am I doing? And it’s just me. I’m putting the furniture together, I’m doing all that, and I’m like, What the heck? 

And so I finish furnishing this thing. I scheduled professional photography, but I took cell phone photos because I was so ready to get it listed. So I took cell phone photos and then I listed it. And I was so nervous. And I listed it and I put my phone down and I started watching the movie. I started watching Planet of the Apes, the movie. 

And I put my phone down, and the Airbnb noise goes off, phone dings. The level of excitement, I couldn’t even explain it to you. I was like, oh, snap. Oh, what’s going on? Yeah, it’s ready. Book it. Yes, yes. Please, it’s ready. They inquired. They just had a question. They said, “Hey, do you have more pictures of this?” I was like, “Yes, it’s ready.”

Annette Grant: [00:15:31] Just get over here.

TJ Tijani: [00:15:34] I ended up not getting that reservation. But I woke up the next day with two confirmed reservations. And that was what instilled the short-term rental game in me. And I said, oh, wow. And I did the math. So when I ran the numbers and I said, okay, even at this price point, because I wasn’t even at market price, and I said, even if I was 50% occupied this month, at this price point, I’m still looking to at minimum to x what I would as would a traditional rental. And so that was just a no-brainer for me.

So I said, okay, I need to run a play on this. This is what we can do. Then I learned that you didn’t have to own it. I said, wait a minute, I can rent this and do– Was this arbitrage thing? And this was 2017, 2018, when short-term rentals was nowhere as popular as it is now. And so I just thought of documenting my process and start putting it on Instagram.

People were like, “Yo, TJ, show me, teach me. Let me pick your brain. This, this, and.” So I started teaching. Then I said, “How about y’all, everybody just come get the game. That’s all. This is a free class. I’m just teaching. Won’t even charge anything. Come to my Airbnb. Check it out. Look at it, see it. Look at the setup.” I was teaching. And that’s how I got into the education space. 

So it’s been a heck of a journey so far. And then COVID happened and I ended up– that’s a whole conversation. We can get it to how we pivoted during COVID if y’all want to. But yes, so we were able to scale our business during COVID, which was interesting. 

And then I got tapped in with Cody Sperber and he’s been amazing. And he put me in touch with a lot of other folks. And I started speaking a lot of big stages and started educating, started realizing that people were really, really using this information. And it’s been a heck of a journey so far.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:17:22] You are an impressive, man, and you have so much energy and it’s refreshing. But I think the most refreshing part, TJ, is I don’t even know if you realize this because maybe it’s so ingrained in you. I don’t know if this is your mother or what it was, but so many people in this space continue to frustrate Annette and myself because they talk about the numbers and the math, and that’s all well and good. But how the heck did you know that hospitality was a huge part of what you were getting into? How the heck did you know that–

Annette Grant: [00:17:54] That the $14,000 is spent out of the gate. You never–

Sarah Karakaian: [00:17:57] So many people are like–

Annette Grant: [00:17:58] Facebook Marketplace, putting free furniture, that was very popular back in the day when you started. You had the foresight for that.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:18:05] Yeah, people brag about how little they spent. And it’s like Annette and I loved that message that you had and you didn’t even highlight it. It was like, well, yeah– 

Annette Grant: [00:18:14] Understood.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:18:15] So talk to us about that. How did you know that there’s a guest involved and that there was this, yes, you’re getting paid for it, but then you have to make good on that overnight stay for those people.

TJ Tijani: [00:18:32] 100%. And I think my experience, my prior experience as a traditional long-term investor helped out a lot because when I got into start doing short-term rentals on Airbnb, I realized and I understood quickly that there’s a separation between the real estate business itself and then the experience you actually provide for the guests and hospitality portion as well.

Because I was like, okay, I got this real estate portion down and I know that if I just stick with real estate, that’s not going to cut the cheese on this. And if I’m really trying to get this hospitality thing right, so I have to be hospitable. So I wanted a comfortable couch. This house had two living room spaces. So I had to get two couches. 

Then I was like, okay, but that was the first thing. I was always wondering, well, who would want a book here? Who would actually stay here? So I was like, well, I’m not far from the medical center, so the medical center folks are probably going to stay here. So I need to make sure that I get quality care. 

They’re probably going to want to use the coffee. My sister’s a nurse. She loves coffee. Let me go ahead and make sure the coffee’s on point for the nurses. You’ll probably get a lot of them. You’re probably going to serve a lot of patients. And these patients, when they’re recovering, their mobility is quite limited. You know what? I’ll put a TV in every single room to make sure that they can still be entertained while their mobility is limited. 

And so I didn’t get everything right the first time, but then as I was learning, I would look at reviews and then I would pick things up. Then I saw this person that had a free trip. Some people just started putting up information on YouTube. And shoutout to my guy Sean. I got to give Sean Rocket a huge profit because he was one of the first people on YouTube that I saw that was talking to anything about short-term rentals. He’s actually going to be speaking about events, too, by the way. He’s good for it.

And so a lot of it was trial and error. And I hired this cleaner. Oh, my gosh, she was horrible. Three days later, I had to fire her and let her go. It was so many things they would just have to figure out. And it was an interesting time with the short-term rental space. It’s crazy starting then. And seeing where it is now is very, very interesting. But yeah, a lot of it was really, really trial and error. But understanding that the real estate and hospitality were two totally different things, especially when you own these assets, yeah, that was something that helped that a lot.

Annette Grant: [00:20:51] We are going to dig into this because you glazed over it at the short-term rental conference. And Sarah and I were like, holy smokes. I thought it was so cool because you’re talking about operations and the importance of it. And then you told us about your most recent purchase, your most recent rehab, and the importance of trying to put operations under one roof and really maximizing. So can you tell our audience– Sarah and I are so excited. We cannot wait to come stay. But can you tell everyone where you are right now on your journey in this amazing project that you’re working on?

TJ Tijani: [00:21:26] Yeah. My very first short-term rental was one that I owned, the one house talking about– single family house, two living rooms. And so then I started arbitraging. Then I will buy more single family while I’m fixing it up. I would pick up more arbitrage units and then I would start saying, you know what? I want to do a duplex, I want to do a triplex, a four plex.

When I would get a multifamily, one of the things that I realized– and this is what let the lightbulb go. So I said, okay, if I have a duplex, I can each unit out, but then I said, what if I just rented out both units to large groups? And this was back in 2018. And I tried that and I was one of the few people doing it in Houston at the time because it was still so new. 

And so I was able to charge more, like for example, if my average is 150 a night for each unit, I would rent both out for like 500 a night. And so I would want those reservations more so. And then our bodies duplexes, we have to do the same thing, fourplexes, triplex. I’ll pick up more arbitrage units. So then I got up to 32 doors with mostly under ownership and then with 60% on ownership and 40% went to arbitrage.

Now my business model shifted. We want multiple units in one location. That is what we’re targeting right now. And so that’s why I started a boutique hotel brand. And so people’s interpretation, by the way, of boutique hotel is quite different. I know it’s very different from mine. 

I’m buying apartment complexes. I buy apartments and I remodel and make them beautiful then I rent them like a hotel. That’s essentially what I started doing. So I started and the one that I highlighted at the conference was a 13-unit building that I purchased. 

We come in porcelain tile. We’re coming in. We’re not missing a thing with this building. When I tell you I’m coming with the hammer with this building. And so we’re super, super excited about that. And then we bought an eight-unit deal. And so essentially we’re running in that search. 

And what’s great is that in this business, what I tell people is that the value is not necessarily on Airbnb or Booking.com or any of these hotels. It’s not really where the value is. The value is in the infrastructure that you build out. The value is your business, your systems, your business model, your outsourcing because that’s the reason I can take the same amount of time to run and manage five beds for the same amount of time it takes me to run and manage 55-plus beds because of the infrastructure.

[00:23:53] So I’m massive, massive, massive on systems and automation. And so it’s the same team, the same infrastructure and I’m going to use to just run these buildings. As we need to scale up and add more team members, then we do that. And so that’s where we’re at right now in our business. It’s amazing. 

And I think when you have multiple units in one location it forces you to do a lot of cool things. Now you can provide a much dope experience. You can provide additional amenities. Your inventory management is easier, your turnover management easier. So we’re going to be able to offer different packs, two packs, four packs, six packs depending on their size. We already have a reservation confirmed for November for a wedding party of 25. They want the entire complex. They want all 13 doors. There’s 25 people. I’m charging 13,000 for three days.

Annette Grant: [00:24:45] That probably doesn’t cover any of your expenses, does it?

TJ Tijani: [00:24:49] That literally covers probably 80%, maybe 90% of our expenses for the month.

Annette Grant: [00:24:56] One reservation. 

TJ Tijani: [00:24:59] It’s crazy. So the opportunities when you are able to have multiple units, one location, that’s why our focus is now these larger deals to where we are curating these dope experiences then we’re able to offer more things. Imagine now you can even have stores in there. You can offer so many additional products right there in your units and it can be systematized a lot easier because they’re all in one location. So that’s definitely the direction that we’re headed.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:25:28] Well, it’s interesting, looking at it like, well, the multi-family because I love that multi because you can diversify your building a lot more, you can do more with it. You can also do some stuff more of like a hostel model with the larger single-family homes. 

But it’s funny, TJ and Annette, because so then it’s like hotels are like, yeah, it’s easier. That’s why we got hotels, you guys. That is why we have– you know what I mean?– one engineering room and one housekeeping room and they’re like, yeah, but we’re taking these buildings and we’re getting creative with them. So my next question for you, TJ, is you are a busy guy. You’re on stages, you’re running deals–

Annette Grant: [00:26:05] You’re on podcasts.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:26:07] You’re on podcasts. Where do you get your inspiration from for all your properties? Is it individually branding them? Or how do you make them stand out? Your market, I’m sure, is very popular. So how are you attracting guests and really optimizing who you are as a human and how you put yourselves into your properties? Where are you getting the inspiration from?

TJ Tijani: [00:26:28] That’s such a good question. And the thing is, is that I think that my time in this business has allowed me to understand that Airbnb has been around for a long time, over ten-plus years now, but understand that times have changed now. And with time changes mean expectations also change over time. And back then in the infancy of Airbnb, you could just get a couch off anywhere off the street and put it on your property, any bed, any mattress and you would have been making money on a plate because it was still so new.

But now the expectation has changed so much because of how much more market penetration this industry has had, which is a good thing. So now we are in a place where it’s imperative to– I tell my students, your goal should be to be in the top 10% of your listings in your marketplace. You want to be in the top 10% of listings. 

And at first, it was funny. I was talking to one of my friends, Jon Bianchi. He’s one of the super geeky with the Airbnb analysis. So we were talking yesterday and I said, man, I remember when I was telling people and I would say, man, I love AirDNA’s numbers. Look at AirDNA’s numbers because we tend to outperform it by at least 2x. 

So it’s a very conservative number. You’ll find it conservative as well. And he was like, TJ, how should you tell people that? Because you got to understand, these are real numbers, bro. If you’re outperforming it, your listings outperform. That don’t mean their listings outperform. You know what I mean? So I was like, oh, snap. 

So our understand now what we do is we try to find ways to stand out. And I had to get out of my own way at this. I was talking to one of my good friends, Zoe, he has some pretty unique listings out of Atlanta. And he did a Barbie-themed unit in Atlanta. And I mean pinked out the entire place. I couldn’t even believe it. The walls, the couch was pink. The walls were pink, everything, Barbie thing. He had a Barbie mannequin in there. It was crazy. He took pictures with them. 

And I was like, man, imagine how many people he is alienating from this listing. I said, oh, it might be niche. Whose niche? I don’t know. Probably one of the dumbest things I thought about it because imagine how many people he’s really attracted to, the people that really want it. And guess what? But it’s a one-bedroom unit. He’s charging 300 a night. It’s so cool.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:28:46] Nice. The riches are in the niches, everybody. And it’s like, you hear that, but it’s like you get scared because you’re like, if I go all in on these pink couches, I can’t return a pink out. You mean, like, who’s going to buy– this better work. And so I get why you got nervous or why you might. So how are you using that now– the niche thing.

TJ Tijani: [00:29:08] That was what locked it from me. I said, man, if I’m a niche, if we’re going to get themed, we’re going to be unique. Let’s go all in. So I said, okay, we got to start thinking– I grew up in the Marvel and DC era. I’m a huge Marvel and DC fan. So one of my duplexes I decked out the whole room Marvel theme, the other one DC theme. And I rent them out together and pin them against each other. The Marvel thing one gets the Disney plus, so with all the Marvel movies and all that. The DC one gets HBO, which gets all the DC movies.

Annette Grant: [00:29:40] It’s amazing.

TJ Tijani: [00:29:41] We got arcades in there. There’s a whole wall wallpaper. It’s super, super dope, DC Graphic and Marvel graphic. It’s like–

Annette Grant: [00:29:50] What are some of the reviews you get? Are the reviews fun for you to read on those properties?

TJ Tijani: [00:29:55] Oh yeah, they love it. It’s like when people look at the pictures, if they just have a kid or even a thing,, even a–

Sarah Karakaian: [00:30:05] A doll. My husband would love that.

TJ Tijani: [00:30:05] So they’ll look at the wallpaper, they’ll look at the arcade, they’re like, oh, snap. It’s a whole theme. We got the track lighting. One of the rooms is a Black Panther room. So we got the whole purple thing going with the oh, man. Yeah, we went all the way.

So when you understand, don’t be scared to go in. There’s a reason why brain surgeons make more than general surgeons because they’re niched down. So understand if I go to an Indian restaurant, I expect Indian food. If I get anything out of the Indian food, I’m telling you, it’s going to be weird. It’s going to be a weird day. 

So people know what they want. At the same time, when they see that listing they say, man. And then you make it family-friendly and put the pack and play in there, put a highchair in there, make sure you set it up and photograph it as part, make it part of your photo so people can see that, oh, we don’t have to trouble with that. 

And they got kids. It’s super family-friendly. So things like that, thinking ahead, putting yourself in the shoes of the guest, understanding the times we’re in, figuring out ways to stand out, you don’t have to be so crazy with the thing. It could be some simple and you could think that out and you just go crazy with that theme.

So I think theme units is 100% worth it. It is every single one of my units theme because there’s still some use that I was setting up way before I saw the theme. But are they still very profitable? Yes, they still are profitable. You know what I mean? 

But understand you want to try to be unique. You want to definitely try to stand out and add as many amenities as possible. As many amenities you can put on your listing, add as many amenities as possible. One of the hotels we’re building, I’m telling my business partner, I said, we’re putting a pool here. We’re starting a pool. We have to put a pool here because now we’re going to be unlike any building in the city once we do that. So, yes, so 100%.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:31:55] You alluded to it, TJ. You are first and foremost a real estate guy. That’s how you got started long-term rentals. We are moving into maybe some uncertain times. It’s definitely rocking the boat for a lot of short-term vacation rental owners because 2021 was good. And so now things feel different, things feel weird. Everyone’s like, what’s happening? So being a numbers guy, being a math guy, being a real estate guy, but also being a short-term rental guy, what is your forecast? What are you feeling? Are you feeling confident? Are you still buying? Where are you looking at for the next 6 to 8 months, a year?

TJ Tijani: [00:32:34] Listen, I recommend everybody to get as cash-heavy as possible to start getting the opportunities because these opportunities are coming. And I think this is a great time for people to start investing. Understand, this is why I love real estate and why it’s still one of the best hedges. If you’re so worried about inflation, understand what else gets inflated, rates get inflated. So if you’re owning and you’re paying 6% in interest, but rental rates have increased 20%, listen, just buy. Get into the game. That’s my recommendation. 

And one of the things that we were literally looking at just yesterday, I recommend everybody to look at the base stat. They just released on AirDNA. So the main numbers for your particular marketplace or any marketplace that you’re interested in looking at right now, look at the main numbers of what that market did in revenue and then look at what it did last year in May. 

But also cross-reference that with the amount of listing increase, the amount of percentage of listing increase, but also cross-reference that with the amount of increased revenues. So what you find is some markets are thriving to where the number of increased listing in respect to the amount of revenue generated increase is a great spread.

So some markets are thriving, some markets are stagnant to where it’s decent market, but the kind of those numbers are on par, then you’ll find that some markets are more depreciated, they’re declining. We’re seeing the declining markets to where the revenue increase– maybe there was a $200,000 difference in revenue, but there was a 50% more increase of listings that came up in that market. So that is a declining market. I’d advise everybody to look at that. 

But now understand that’s just numbers that we can start understanding to give us an idea of what’s happening in the marketplace because there’s still not enough data. We’re still at the beginning of what’s happening. But that’s something that you want to look at as we go on. 

And I think the next quarter numbers are about to come out here in a second. We’re going to make sure we’re still running some analysis with that as well. So there’s a lot of things happening that’s still unknown in the marketplace, especially for short-term rentals. It hasn’t lived through anything. This got us in a wave. But the closest thing we can compare it to is COVID. But of course, the circumstances are so vastly different.

So I would say that I would look at the marketplace because certain markets, their numbers are up. That means that not only are the markets more profitable, but the prices, the ranges have gone up, the price for these listings have gone up and some markets are flat and some are stagnant and some are depreciating. And that’s numbers you want definitely want to make sure that you look at. 

So, yeah, these are things to look out for right now. So it’s hard to speculate as to what’s to come and but– oh, there was something else I want to mention. It was interesting because I was looking at all this data yesterday. And I said, well, some of these markets that are having this increase in prices is it due to inflation? But if it’s due to inflation, then we’ll see that across the board.

So we’re trying to figure out. So there’s still so many unknowns. I’m pretty much trying to say. So we’re still trying to see what the market’s going to bear for short-term rentals, especially with the way things are going right now. But those are metrics that I will start tracking. You should definitely listen to me right now.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:36:03] When you’re underwriting your deals,TJ, are you using long-term numbers? Are you using what you know with your short term? And if you’re buying multifamily, is it like hotel or bus or boutique hotel or bus or would you be willing to pivot if it became necessary?

TJ Tijani: [00:36:19] I think this is such an important question because people need to understand that in real estate, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you exit because you make your money the way you buy it. So one of the things that I tell people all the time is that in this game, I buy my short-term rentals and we exit with a strategy of short-term rentals, but we buy them as traditional rentals. We buy over traditional rental numbers. 

We ensure that they cash flow with a long-term traditional tenant. Hence also why I haven’t yet just purchased old hotel because that’s going to be a totally different underwriting process, which we’re going to do. We’re totally going to do that. That’s coming. That’s on the way. But when I buy the real estate I know now, when I buy these apartments that I can turn to a hotel, I buy them on traditional rental numbers. 

This property has to cash over to a traditional rental. And so we’re still satisfying the lender’s DSCR requirements. We’re still making sure that– matter of fact, when I put a property on a contract, we’re not even considering short-term rental. To us, we just look at it as icing on the cake. That’s a massive icing on the cake. But from the acquisitions process, that’s not even a factor right now. We’re just looking at long-term rental of that. 

And so that way, that’s why the properties I own my yields are so much better. The ones I own literally I can be booked 40% of the month and still be very profitable because of the spread. Because we buy in with traditional rent price, rental numbers, but they do so much well, so at least 3x at minimum. That’s very conservative. At 3x it’s super minimum conservative at minimum of what they would have with the short-term rental. So that’s how we purchase them. 

And understand when you own these assets, own them in a different– I’m going to say this, I’m not an attorney, so consult your attorney. But I’ll tell you, your asset, your entity that owns that asset should be different from your short-term rental entity that’s managing your short-term rental business. Your short-term rental company very different. Understand there should be a separation of church and state there. You know what I’m saying? Your asset, your entity that owns the asset is totally different entity. 

And guess what, there’s a lease agreement. My short-term rental company rents my units from my entity that owns the real estate. We do this for multiple reasons. So understand there’s a separation there. And I would recommend highly, highly recommend doing it that way. Sure.

Annette Grant: [00:38:58] Before we wrap up, TJ, what is your number one tech tool? What’s the app? What does TJ got to use every day that’s backbone of your business?

TJ Tijani: [00:39:10] Sure. So it’s hard for me to–

Annette Grant: [00:39:20] We’ll give you a few if you need it.

TJ Tijani: [00:39:22] I’ll say this. He probably won’t mind this. So there’s a company called Zulu. There’s a company called Zulu. They heavily only usually work in the hotel space. This is a company that what they do is they work on– they’re very similar to StayFi where they provide the routers to capture the guest information.

They put the technology. That’s where you can upcharge for a faster Wi-Fi, of course. But what’s dope is that as soon as the guest signs in, the next screen that populates could be any link, it could be advertising, it could be an upsell, it could be whatever it is. And so that’s there as well. They also have this dope review system to where before they get the day before the guest checks out, they’ll send them just a survey. 

They’ll send them a survey. Say hey, from 1 to 10, how good would you say? And if they put anything less than a nine, they’ll let you know, like, hey, you might want to check on a guest before they check out because they’re not going to leave you a five star because if you list anything less than nine, it’s likely they won’t leave you a five star. And a 10, then all right, cool. Then a matter of fact, when they put a nine in a 10, you can actually route them to another site, a website, your Facebook page that you want them to leave a review at. You can route them there directly because if they book through Airbnb, they’re already going to leave a review. But if it’s an eight, they’ll let you know, hey, this guest just left you a six or seven. You might want to reach out to them and make it right before–

Annette Grant: [00:40:57] No, I like that.

TJ Tijani: [00:40:58] And there’s some other pretty dope features. And I told them, I said, hey, look, man, I know you guys only work with hotels, but there’s an entire short-term rental industry that will love to get tapped in with you guys. So I’ve been–

Annette Grant: [00:41:15] Evangelizing, so people can–

Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:17] Keep working on that, TJ. Let us know if you need our help.

Annette Grant: [00:41:18] Our partners, reach out. Yeah.

TJ Tijani: [00:41:20] Trust me. I will let you know once we run a play on that for sure.

Annette Grant: [00:41:27] That’s super. We’ll make sure to link to everything in the show notes.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:30] Yes. TJ, thank you so much for your time, your inspiration, your energy, your wisdom. Our listeners, I know are going to be reaching out to you and chatting with you. So thank you so much. Listeners, I am Sarah Karakaian.

Annette Grant: [00:41:43] I am Annette Grant, and together we are– 

Both Sarah and Annette: [00:41:44] Thanks for Visiting.

Sarah Karakaian: [00:41:45] We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to the Thanks for Visiting podcast. Head on over to the show notes for additional information about today’s episode. And please hit that Subscribe button and leave us a review. Awesome reviews help us bring you awesome content. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to hanging out with you next week.