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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello listeners. Welcome back. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:00:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting. 

[00:00:08] Sarah: We are officially so close to TFV Con, and we are beyond excited to invite you to our hometown of Columbus, Ohio. And when Annette and I are putting together the content for the event, we wanted to come up with a theme. And right now, we are getting emails from you, DMs from you, any way you can get ahold of us. 

[00:00:29] We’re hearing that the market is shifting. It’s different, and you’re really wanting to figure out how to own your short-term rental business in a way that works well for you, and your family, and your goals. So we’ve named the conference, obviously, TFV Con, but it’s Own Your Future. And so every speaker that we have is coming to speak on a topic that will truly help you take ownership of your hospitality business.

[00:00:54] You don’t have to rely on Airbnb, although it will continue to be an amazing tool in our tool belt. And so all through the month of August, we’re going to bring some of our speakers onto the podcast and share a little bit about what they’re going to speak on, obviously, provide you value here on the podcast.

[00:01:10] Annette: Get you hyped.

[00:01:10] Sarah: But get you hyped to come and hear them speak and connect with them in person in Columbus. Real quick, a little bit about TFV Con. When you get to Columbus, Ohio, whether you fly in or you drive in, there’s a ton of drivable destinations around Columbus.

[00:01:24] Annette: Horse and buggy. Train. Bus.

[00:01:25] Sarah: Whichever way you get here. If you fly in, once you land, you are a 10-minute Uber ride from the airport to the hotel. Once you get to the hotel, there’s so many restaurants, and cafes, and shops, and these are locally owned, really amazing spots for you to enjoy while in Columbus. So you’re not going to need to rent a car, and you’re going to be with all your hosting friends and buddies, and you can obviously connect at the conference with all that conversation, but then of course, take the learning offsite with the fellow hosts and connect there.

[00:01:59] But with that, today, we’re going to chat with you about the woman who we’ve brought on as TFV Con’s MC. So Ashley Nobles is going to be our MC. She’s going to be there for the opening night party and for both days, but she’s also going to keynote. What has you so excited about her keynote, Annette?

[00:02:19] Annette: Because this is something that every single listener of the podcast, every single attendee at the event, whether you have your primary residence, your short-term rental, your friends, family, everyone can participate in this opportunity that Ashley is going to not only bring to the show today, but really dig in deep on at our event.

[00:02:44] Sarah: So let’s talk a little bit about Ashley’s expertise. Ashley is an interior designer, real estate investor, business coach, and short-term rental superstar that specializes on the location rental side of the short-term rental industry since 2015. So she’s been doing this for a very long time, and she’s got a ton of tested strategies to get you success as quickly as possible.

[00:03:07] She’s hosted thousands of photo shoots, events, meetings, film productions, worked with influencers and content creators across multiple properties, serving guests such as Google, Netflix, Facebook, and many more. And before you count yourself out from these opportunities, because you live in wherever USA, Ashley is going to talk about that on the podcast and how you have opportunity.

[00:03:31] And we know this to be true because even the middle of Ohio, nowhere, Ohio, not even Columbus, literally, I don’t even know the county’s name to be honest, we were able to work with a production to use a short-term rental of ours to create content. So her online courses and coaching programs have helped over 5,000 people create six and seven-figure success stories by starting location rental businesses of their own. It is still a very hot industry that you can partake in.

[00:03:58] Annette: And I believe it is the future. Sarah and I, during this episode, talk a little bit about how we have just recently used a location rental. And I think that this is something that if you haven’t done it, you’re going to want to do it. And the last but not least about Ashley, I will never forget sitting with my mom over the holidays, watching, yes, one of those Hallmark movies about the dog holiday or whatever. And I look up, and I’m like, Mom, that’s my friend Ashley’s place with the Hallmark movie. So I just had a little moment where I was freaking out that the movie was filmed at her house. It was a really fun moment. But let’s get on to the episode, Sarah.

[00:04:40] Sarah: Ashley, welcome back to the show. We are so excited to have you here.

[00:04:44] Ashley: Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here. Good to see you both again.

[00:04:49] Annette: All right, listeners, we have to start this episode off, though, with a little story because Ashley is tuning in from Boston. She normally lives in Southern California. And Ashley, can you just really quick, because it’s so good, why are you in Boston?

[00:05:05] Ashley: Live from Boston. So I actually won this trip on The Price Is Right a few months ago. And, uh, yeah, I won two trips. I won a trip to Boston, and then I won a trip to Fort Lauderdale, and a mini bar, believe it or not.

[00:05:21] Annette: Oh, wait.

[00:05:21] Ashley: So that is coming in the mail. But, uh, yeah, a girlfriend of mine invited me on The Price is Right back in, gosh, April. We went. I randomly got selected, went up there, met Drew Carey, played the game, and fast forward, I’m in Boston now. So happy to be here with you guys.

[00:05:40] Annette: We just love that. And listeners, we’re not just saying that because it’s super cool. I mean, you’re actually the second person I know that won something on The Price Is Right. I used to work with a guy that won a car on Price Is Right, randomly, but he was trying hard. He had the t-shirt. He was going for it.

[00:05:55] But listeners, the reason that I wanted Ashley to bring that up is Ashley is going to be the MC of our conference. And she is really excited because we’re going to do some games, uh, and they’re going to make sure that the attendees are going to be winning some things. And so it was just fun to know that Ashley’s recording this while she was the winner on Price Is Right. So if that has been a dream of yours, go for it. Maybe you can make it happen.

[00:06:20] Sarah: You never know what will happen. So listeners, we’ve been in talks with Ashley for a little while now. She’s agreed to not only be the MC of TFV Con 2023, which, again, is happening this September 24th through 26th. You still have some time to grab your early bird tickets.

[00:06:36] Plus, you probably heard an ad about another code that you could use to stack on some discounts there. So the time is now to buy your ticket, but we wanted to bring Ashley on to the podcast because Ashley is not only going to emcee the event with her amazing personality and her deep knowledge of the furnished rental industry.

[00:06:54] And I said the word furnished rental very purposefully because Ashley is known for a particular niche of furnished rentals that we’re going to talk a little bit about the podcast today because she’s also going to keynote about this very topic. Because I know a lot of us right now are feeling that market shift, wanting to get creative with our furnished rentals, and overnight stays are not the only thing you can do inside your rental to be profitable. So Ashley, share with us a little bit about– gave a little intro, but about who you are, how you got into furnished rentals, and a little bit more about this niche that you have become the expert in.

[00:07:34] Ashley: Absolutely. I could talk about this stuff all day. My husband Brett and I, he’s not with me, but we actually got started in short-term rentals in general back in 2015. Started off with overnights. So we started off with Airbnb and quickly transitioned to what we popularize the term as location rentals.

[00:07:54] So very similar, but it caters to a little bit of a different demographic and a different type of guest, but a lot of the hospitality aspects are the same. You just have guests coming to your spaces during the day, and you’re charging them on an hourly basis. Now, the term location rentals is a broader term that pretty much caters to anything and everything, anybody coming into your spaces, which can be a residential space, or a commercial space.

[00:08:20] But any use. So for events, small and large events, like parties, um, dinner parties, bridal showers, all the way up to big conferences, and you also have meetings, so corporate off site meetings where people can come and use your spaces as well as film production, which is the sexier, fun, really awesome side of the location rental industry where anyone from a small influencer to a big budget movie, or television series, or commercial would come and rent your space for a few hours, a few days. But they’re typically only there during the day.

[00:08:55] Now, the really cool thing about location rentals is you can do it in any type of market. A lot of people think, oh my gosh, this is probably only going to be effective, or really profitable, or successful in big markets like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago. I’m in Idaho. Is that going to work for me? 

[00:09:12] And the answer is yes. We have been doing this since 2015. We teach people how to do this. Coaches. We have an online course, and we’ve helped over 5,000 people from all over the world, all throughout the country, small towns and bigger markets alike, be really successful with this niche and short-term rentals.

[00:09:29] And it’s a lot of fun. You can get really creative if you’re into interior design. Um, if you like events, if you like meetings, if you just like hospitality in general, and really opening up your space to have people in there to have a good time, it’s a lot of fun, and of course, there’s lots of money to be made, but you can get really creative, which I love. You can go into whatever direction you want that suits your lifestyle, your financial goals, your property even. So there’s a lot of flexibility, which is why we love it and why we’re so passionate about helping other people learn how to do it well.

[00:09:59] 

[00:09:59] Annette: For all the listeners, Ashley is from Columbus, Ohio. It’s why she’s also near and dear to our heart. We did not know her well. She lived here, but that’s okay. We’re Buckeyes at heart. And her husband moved to LA. Your first property though, you were doing overnight stays. You were doing Airbnb.

[00:10:15] Can you talk about going from Airbnb and then that first hit of a location rental? And I know you’ll really get into this most likely at our event, but that transition, and because it’s so much different with an hourly rate versus a nightly, talk to us about going from Airbnb to a location rental and how that happened. Was it a 100% Airbnb and then you just flipped the script, or you were doing both of them? How did the transition happen?

[00:10:43] Ashley: We started off with Airbnb, and we’ve been doing that for about six months or so. Going really well. Our occupancy was great. Booking rate was really good. We had a guest. Um, and this is back before we had self check-in with our Airbnb. So I was checking everybody in and out. And, uh, I was checking out a guest, his name was Isaac, I will never forget. And he pulls me aside, he’s handing over the keys, he’s like, oh my gosh, I loved your space. I had a great time. Thank you so much.

[00:11:08] But I had a question for you. You ever considered opening up the space for photo shoots? I’m a photographer, I need to shoot some content to update more of my portfolio, and this place gets great lighting. I just love the design of it. I think it’s perfect. It’s got great energy. Do you guys ever open this up for photo shoots? 

[00:11:26] And at the time, I was not familiar with location rentals at all. We were very new to short-term rentals in general, only having done Airbnb for about six months, so I knew nothing. We knew nothing about this. But at that moment, a little light bulb went off, and I’m like, huh. I mean, I’m not opposed. And so he’s like, okay, great. Well, what would you charge me if I just wanted to shoot here from 8 to 5 today, or a certain day that we would set up? And I’m like, uh, I don’t know. $500?

[00:11:55] And at the time, he looks at me kind of crazy. And I thought it was because I way overcharged him, right. And keep in mind, we were charging $100 a night. This is way back in 2015. For an overnight fee. So I’m like, ah, $500, but I wasn’t charging him enough, turns out. Um, but he’s like, all right, I’ll pay you $500.

[00:12:12] Fast forward, we started charging around 150 an hour for that size shoot, and it was probably five to 10 people max between models, photographer, any other crew members that he had, and that’s where it took off. It was that one interaction with Isaac. We started doing some research.

[00:12:30] We started finding other platforms to post on other ways to market our space effectively. And fast forward, we grew to multiple properties, scaled to serve a bigger business, and now we teach people how to do it. But that’s how it started, all just within our Airbnb with a guest who pretty much changed the trajectory of our business model.

[00:12:48] Annette: Do you think that listeners that are paying attention right now, that a little light bulb is going off for them? How easy is it if you wanted to do both? I want to do overnight stays, and I want to test location rentals. Is that possible? Is that an easy thing to transition from hourly to overnight?

[00:13:11] Ashley: Absolutely. And I think a lot of Airbnb or experienced Airbnb hosts who are familiar with overnights or even direct bookings have an advantage because you have a furnished space, you have experienced servicing guests, giving them that five-star experience, you understand that side of the business, and so transitioning into location rentals, I won’t say it’s really easy, but it’s not going to be as complicated as if you’re brand new to the game in general. 

[00:13:37] So you have a good edge there. But as far as what we call the hybrid model, so doing overnights and doing location rentals, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re in complete control of your business. So you can turn it up. You can turn it down. You can turn it on. You can turn it off to your preference. 

[00:13:54] I think taking a slower approach in the beginning is the smart thing to do just to get your feet wet, but for markets where, let’s say, seasonality is a huge factor, where you have really, really slow periods for overnights, or you live in a market where it’s a vacation town, and then the other nine months of the year, it’s a little bit slower, that’s going to be where you can really rev up on location rentals and start taking daytime off site meetings, daytime photo shoots, events on the weekends.

[00:14:24] Or if you’re in a market where you have slower– maybe you’re very busy on weekends but your weeks are a little bit dead, or they’re a little bit slower, it’s a great model to turn on. And you’re listing on all these different platforms, there’s lots of different marketing strategies and resources you can use to put your space out there to get them booked for these hourly bookings.

[00:14:43] But taking the hybrid approach is definitely doable. You definitely have to stay organized, stay on top of your calendar, but if you start to consider, okay, in most cases, you can take your night rate. So for us, for example, our nighttime rate was $100 an hour at that time. We initiated our business taking that overnight rate and making it our hourly rate. 

[00:15:02] So you can start to do some calculations in your mind and say, huh, okay, your occupancy doesn’t have to be as high with location rentals because your profit is a lot higher. The cashflow is a little bit higher. But taking the hybrid approach is definitely effective. It’s just all about staying organized, staying on top of your calendar, and understanding your cleaning folks and everything, getting those SOPs in place. But very doable, very profitable, very fun, very busy, but definitely doable, for sure.

[00:15:31] Sarah: Let’s talk about your TFV Con keynote. What are you going to share there about location rentals that people can’t get here on the podcast. Give us a little high level sneak peek into– and I’ll tell you, listeners, this. When we were talking to Ashley about being our MC and delivering her keynote, she insisted on the keynote, number one, happening. And then two, she’s like, I’m going to make this juicy as I can. I want my keynote to be enough of a reason to come to TFV Con. So share with us a little bit, Ashley, about what an attendee could walk away with after attending your keynote. 

[00:16:08] Ashley: Absolutely. And it’s because I’m so excited about this. I’m so passionate about it, and I think everyone needs to know about hourly rentals and location rentals, just because it’s such an awesome opportunity that I think it’s overlooked a lot. So I get really excited, but I really want to dig into, and I really want to talk about just the opportunity with the types of bookings that you can attract as a short-term rental host with spaces, the types of spaces you can try to seek out if you are in the acquisition phase of your business or you’re ready to start, open up another space or multiple spaces, how to target the right spaces that can be super profitable for you.

[00:16:44] But I really want to dig into the types of bookings that you can bring in, the types of clients that you can host in your spaces. Since Brett and I started back in 2015, we’ve seen tens of thousands of bookings at this point. We’ve hosted Super Bowl commercials. We’ve hosted big brand names like Nike, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Lifetime movies. And these payouts are very big.

[00:17:11] They’re pretty significant. A lot of our students, a lot of the people that we coach, your overhead, your mortgage, your rent on a property can be paid in a single day with one single booking. And it’s a really exciting thing to start thinking about if you’re a numbers person, if you’re business-minded, you’re like, wow, I mean, just the profitability alone, but the opportunity to network and really just meet a lot of amazing people is endless.

[00:17:36] So I get really excited to talk about that and how easy it is to get started, especially if you have an existing space, but if you own property or rent property, there’s a lot of opportunity doing arbitrage as well. There’s a lot of co-hosting opportunity. There’s just so much flexibility with this business model that it’s too good not to talk about. So I’ve got a lot planned, and I’m bursting at the seams. I don’t want to give too much away right now, but there’s a lot to talk about, a lot to learn, and I’m hoping I can cram it into my slot actually, so really excited.

[00:18:09] Annette: The good news is Ashley’s going to be with us the whole entire time there. And I know she will be also mixing at all of our parties and hanging out with everybody. One thing I do want to mention listeners, you probably heard Ashley say they have a course. Well, they are retiring that course.

[00:18:23] So I don’t want you to think, oh, we don’t need to come to the conference because I’m going to join their course later. Well, they’ve been doing it for quite some time. I’m going to close doors to that so they can focus on just emceeing our event. Just joking. But I want people to know that this– we’ll share a small story just about location rentals, is that Sarah and I just did an hourly location rental in Portland, and it was for a photo shoot. 

[00:18:50] And again, it was from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We were in and out with our lovely– we did have a team, so there was, I think, probably eight of us in there. But trust me, when we saw our American Expressville at the end of that location rental, we were like, what are we doing?

[00:19:10] Sarah: Ashley, help. Please help.

[00:19:13] Annette: First of all, and hopefully, we’ll have that host on the show at some point in time too, because literally, we were following along of her day. It was their primary. So listeners, this is something, I wasn’t anticipating giving this hot tip out, but the location rental that Sarah and I just rented, it was their primary residence. When you’re at TFV Con, maybe you have a partner that has a little resistance to like, I don’t want anybody else sleeping on my bed, or I don’t want to go overnight. Our host there, she was very clear that this was their home, which was unbelievable.

[00:19:49] Sarah: Stunning.

[00:19:49] Annette: Unbelievable. Actually, you guys will see pictures from their property on our website soon, but she said that her and her husband, it is their number one asset. And it was just paining them that there wasn’t any income coming from that part of their portfolio. And she had actually taken a hiatus. She was an interior designer, and she needed to take a break. But again, they needed to fill in some of her income. And again, it was so painful that their primary residence was only money ever going out. So she started doing location rentals.

[00:20:22] I mean, we watched her on her story that day. She was out shopping. She’s like, had to leave the house for the day. And she needed to get back in because her daughter had a recital that night, and we were out. And so she just really opened our eyes to, oh my gosh, you have any space, even land, there are people out there looking. 

[00:20:41] Again, Sarah and I are from Columbus, Ohio. We flew to Portland for this specific event and did that location rental. You’d think when she put that up, she was like, oh, I think there’s going to be two girls from Columbus, Ohio here needing a place to shoot content. So I just want to offer that up. That was a great way for her to have her primary residence on there.

[00:20:59] So listeners, if that is also piquing your interest of– you’ve been like, oh my gosh, I’d love to open up my home for some stays, they could be the hourly. So you’re not having to remove all your things all the time and be able to sleep in your own bed. How many people do you come across, Ashley, that do that on just their primary residence?

[00:21:20] Ashley: If I had to put a number to it, I’d say 60 to 70% of our student base, our community started out with their primary residence. We did. We did.

[00:21:31] Annette: Mm-hmm. And how would you do that? Would you guys just leave during the day, go to a coffee shop? What did that look like for you and your husband? And I think you have pets too, or you do now. I don’t know if you did then.

[00:21:42] Ashley: Yeah, we did then. We still do. And it’s a great question. You can get pretty creative. So depending on the size, depending on the scope, the scale of the booking, if that’s something small like a small corporate meeting with an executive team that just wanted to get out of their stuffy office for the day and chill in a more lax environment, they’re not going to be doing anything too crazy, yeah, we’ll leave for the day, go run some errands, grab coffee, go get done in the world what we need to do, and then come back to check them out.

[00:22:11] If it’s a bigger scope, heavier footprint, like a movie shoot, a commercial, just something that has more bodies in the space, either myself, Brett, or one of our site reps, which is pretty much a site manager that babysits everybody in the space for the day, they’ll stay on site to make sure everything is going well.

[00:22:29] But with pets, yeah, we usually just put them in daycare for the day. The other good thing about location rentals too is that you don’t have to open up the entire space. So you can have certain rooms, certain areas that are off limits, or locked, or whatever, and you can just offer up.

[00:22:43] We have so many students that have a beautiful kitchen space, and they only take in people that use the kitchen space to film cooking shows or cooking content, but they work in their office upstairs, and they stay in the home the whole day. So you don’t have to open up your whole house. You don’t have to open up every single room. 

[00:23:01] We have people that have gorgeous backyards and just have people that rent out the backyard space, or the front yard, or an ADU in the back. So you can get pretty creative, and the money’s still great. You’re really in the driver’s seat to discern what you want to offer up to guests and what you want to keep off limits.

[00:23:19] Sarah: Ashley, we get a lot of questions about how to effectively be a resource for content creators. What contract should we sign? When do we exchange compensation for photo assets or video assets? When you come to TFV Con, would you be able to speak a little bit to that relationship too, between content creators and hosts? I know that’s a really big question our audience has because they have such beautiful spaces that they inherently get these DMs from content creators, and they don’t know how to handle them.

[00:23:53] Ashley: Absolutely. And again, the bookings do look a little bit different than an Airbnb booking. There are different contracts, different agreements, because it’s different use terms. They’re using the space to do things other than just lay their head down at night, and wake up, and leave. So yes, absolutely. We can talk about all the administrative items, red flags to look out for and green flags to feel comfortable about, and really just how to negotiate that entire transaction because no two bookings are really the same. 

[00:24:21] There’s a lot of commonalities, but it can get different, and it’s really important to advocate for yourself while also not missing out on giving a five-star service and being a really good host, but making sure that you’re protected, you’re getting your money, and just doing an all-around good job for everyone involved. So yeah, we’ll dig into all that.

[00:24:41] Annette: And I’m going to offer this up on your behalf, Ashley here, but during Ashley’s keynote, we are going to do a Q&A. So if there are questions that, um, come up during her keynote where there are only certain presenters that we’re carving out that Q&A time for, we’ve carved that out for Ashley.

[00:25:01] And like we said, if you have a VIP ticket, we’re going to have a VIP mixer, and she’s going to attend that. We’re also just going to have an opening mixer, and she’s going to be there for that. So I just want you to know listeners that we’re being very thoughtful about every person that we are inviting to TFV Con because this event is for you.

[00:25:20] It’s for all of us to uplevel. And Ashley, she’s not going to be just on stage and then behind the curtain and not open and available. Let’s keep these conversations going. And here’s the deal. There might be someone sitting at the table next to you that is already crushing location rentals in their area, and they can share that with you.

[00:25:38] But Ashley is going to be somebody that– I think even just during the small time that we’ve been on, if you haven’t had a light bulb moment of either your primary residence, something you could do with your short-term rental, I know everybody’s like, oh my gosh, my friend has the best kitchen, or the best backyard, or my mom, dad, my uncle, whoever.

[00:25:58] It’s like, I think you’re probably thinking in your mind now that even if you don’t have the location space now, I’m sure you’re going to start swiping, looking at things through a different lens. And that’s what we’re hoping that everybody that leaves our event is going to have those new set of glasses on of, see the world of all this opportunity.

[00:26:18] And there’s so much out there. We’ve been friends with Ashley for a couple of years now, but the reason we became friends with Ashley also is someone else, Dionte Johnson, is going to be talking about experiential design at our event. And you guys, he has a sneaker shop here in Columbus, Ohio, and he bought a property within walking distance.

[00:26:38] And he has a sneaker wall. It’s essentially an extension of his retail location, which is so cool. Those are the type of things that we’re going to bring to you at the event of like, wait a second. He owns a sneaker shop, and he’s a short-term rental host. And he was already hosting but saw how he could cater to people that were coming in for sneaker releases, people coming to do business with him. He now has the space for them. 

[00:27:04] And obviously, it’s a way for him to diversify his portfolio, but it’s also in his own neighborhood where his shop is. And so we know Ashley because of that, but that’s why I’m saying these location rentals, these retail extensions, the sky’s the limit when you have that roof, or you don’t have to have the roof, like Ashley said. You can have the backyard. 

[00:27:24] Let’s give them one little sneak peek, though, Ashley. Again, we know that you have had success all over the country. For instance, I know a while back, just to give them a little snippet, you had someone that maybe had some warehouse space just sitting there earning nothing. Can you tell us that story a little bit of a vacant warehouse?

[00:27:43] Ashley: Yes, absolutely. So this was one of our early days. One of our first students, his name was Eric, and he’s going to laugh because we always tell this story, and it’s just one of our first success stories. Eric was a real estate investor, and he had properties throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Vegas, and San Diego.

[00:28:03] Mixed portfolio of commercial, residential, and mixed-use spaces. And he had one particular warehouse in a not-so-great part of town, um, in Southern California that he just could not get a tenant on. It was a commercial space, but it was very run down. It had a lot of repairs that were needed for it.

[00:28:19] And so it was really hard to make moves on it, but he was underwater, losing money every single month. Couldn’t even sell it. So he was just in a really tough spot. Met with us. We’re going through options. We’re like, hey, listen, put it up there, put it out there. Let’s get this out into the marketplace as a location rental. Let’s see what happens. 

[00:28:37] And that’s the beauty of this. It doesn’t cost to list, doesn’t cost to advertise, so there’s nothing to lose. Put it out there. See what the market says. The worst they can say is no or nothing. So we put it out there. Within weeks, he’s getting inquiries, phone calls, emails, from a telenovela, believe it or not, that wanted to– they were inquiring about using the space to film a season of this telenovela series.

[00:29:06] And can’t disclose the name for NDA purposes, but they ended up signing a contract. He ended up getting $60,000 per month for six months for this rundown warehouse. And the gag is, the funniest part of this, is that they used this space as the backdrop of this drug cartel kingpin’s drug warehouse in this telenovela.

[00:29:33] And it worked perfectly. It was the perfect pre-established set. And believe it or not, how much money they spend in production, they were saving money. The production was saving money by not having to build a set to do this and just going on location at this warehouse. And it caught Eric backed up on all back payments, taxes, insurance he was behind on. $360,000 for six months. Couldn’t get a tenant. 

[00:29:56] He wouldn’t have made that in 10 years with a traditional lease tenant. I mean, he was sold on it. And he’s pivoted strategies within a lot of his spaces, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg of opportunity with it. And it sounds crazy, but these are the types of things you’ll see all the time with location rentals.

[00:30:14] Annette: You don’t want to give it away today, but I’m sure part of your keynote is letting the attendees know these top places to list your location. Is that correct?

[00:30:25] Ashley: Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:30:27] Annette: And I also want to say too, I have a friend, and I forget the movie now, but she’s done one location rental in her entire life, and it was a movie. And it was a Jennifer Aniston movie. And literally, she wasn’t listing her space. I’m pretty sure they were doing location scouting, but I can tell you that one movie changed the trajectory of that property. 

[00:30:49] There’s a lot of improvements that have been made after that. She has her dream backyard now. And when I say dream backyard, you could basically live out there now. So that one location rental to her was truly a game changer for that property. So they’re out there, definitely.

[00:31:07] Sarah: So we connected with Ashley, like Annette said, a couple years back, and so she got me thinking. We have properties here in Ohio.

[00:31:14] Annette: Oh, we did that horror film. 

[00:31:15] Sarah: We did a horror film. We also did a pretty big brand that was looking for more of a natural environment. And so we were managing a vacation rental in the middle of nowhere, Ohio, but it was a beautiful property. It had a lot of trees around it. And so there was a three-day location shoot there. 

[00:31:33] And I just went to Ashley’s content and helped my owner and myself make that a success. And so that’s in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. It wasn’t even Columbus, Ohio. It was literally between Columbus and Cincinnati. This brand came and spent money at our property, and it was a fantastic experience. So we are just so excited, Ashley, to have you here in Columbus in just– we’re several weeks out now, everyone, so if you don’t have your ticket yet, now’s the time to get early bird pricing in super soon.

[00:32:00] Annette: And we are going to ride Ashley’s Price is Right high, and Ashley’s going to be emceeing some games, and Sarah and I are really excited. We have some sponsors that are giving away just some amazing prizes. So we are going to gamify this event too, and I know Ashley’s excited about that. But Ashley, what are you most excited about about speaking at TFV Con and being with everyone?

[00:32:22] Ashley: One, I’m excited to see you guys. Haven’t seen you in a minute. So excited to see you again. But mostly, I’m just excited to connect with all the amazing speakers that are going to be there. I mean, I’ve seen the list. Yeah, there’s going to be a ton of value. It’s going to be a lot. Two days of experts within their industry, I’m excited to meet them, learn from them, apply a lot of the things within my own business, but also really to just teach as much as I can.

[00:32:52] I’m so passionate about meeting people, learning about everyone’s business, their market, their properties, how they got into it. I’m such an entrepreneurial, curious person. And so I’m excited to connect and really give value where I can help out, answer questions. It’s nice to be home too. Maybe I’ll invite my mom.

[00:33:12] Annette: Of course. Yeah. We’ll give her a shout-out from stage. But listeners, please, hopefully this has gotten you excited thinking about your property in different ways, but also just another reason to come out. We want to hang out with you. And then you’re going to learn all this. I mean, I’m hoping, after Ashley’s keynote, that we get so many emails of people that are taking her advice and listing on these alternative sites and getting these location bookings.

[00:33:41] And then hopefully, this is a challenge for a listener out there. I want someone to email Sarah and I and say, I want to be a guest on your show because I just had the most amazing location rental after they come to the event and they make that happen. And so that’d be a really fun episode to circle back to.

[00:33:56] Sarah: Yes. Well, Ashley, thank you so much for your time. We cannot wait to see you in Columbus, Ohio, super soon. Listeners, head to tfvcon.com. Use code PODCAST for an extra discount off of these early bird tickets. You have until August 24th, so hop to it. With that, I’m Sarah Karakaian.

[00:34:17] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:34:19] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting. 

[00:34:20] Sarah: Talk to you next time.