[00:00:00] A lot of the people that I hang around with, they just have an abundance mindset. I'm here with my good buddy, Ruben finally having on the show. Why consider MTR? So I was hanging around a bunch of people who were in vacation rental markets. I'm hearing some ridiculous numbers like, Oh yeah, 25 K a month, 30 K.
So with that, I had kind of like the shiny eye object syndrome, or we were almost ready to jump the hook. Okay, let's go find ourselves a realtor in Florida. But then I thought, I'm saying, okay, how do we extract [00:00:30] more with what we currently have? All it is is problem solving, right? You want to be a good business person.
Like if you can solve problems, like you're halfway there. Are there certain properties that are more suitable for midterm rentals? I'm just trying to, that sounds great. How do I do that for myself? I think typically we get people like, well, will this work in my market? And I actually flipped the question.
I said, well, what kind of asset do you own? And for me, it's all about the asset type, because this is very prevalent. And at the end of the day, it's applying to men.
All right. Welcome back to the [00:01:00] best. I'm your host, Michael Chang. I'm here with my good buddy, Ruben. Ruben, finally have you on the show. I know it's about time. Like, you know how, you know how it is. I was just talking about it offline. I like to, I like to ask questions because I'm constantly learning. So I guess we're rules reversed How mind though.
That was great. I we had a great podcast. Yeah, no, you, you were, uh, the early inspiration for the podcast and the, the why and just helping me kind of think through it. So it's a treat for me to have [00:01:30] you on mine now episode. This is my, we published 30 now to date, so, okay. I mean, it'll just be at 35 or something when it gets published.
Good for you, man. What is it? Most people quit at like after five or something. I read most people quit after 25. So what I did was I was like, before I launched the podcast, there's 25 names of people that I want to interview. So I was like, if I don't have 25 names and I thought I can get to them and why I would want to talk to them, I'm not even going to start it.
So it took me actually a little while to get to that. And then I was like, [00:02:00] okay, I'm committed to doing this. And then, yeah, it's been, it's great. So folks that are listening. I really appreciate your support. Uh, please subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe. And, and honestly, I, I, I gotta say this cause it's on top of mind and on my chest, like, I think it's one of the biggest under utilized tools.
A, because you get to connect with someone, maybe you're not in the same city or state and you can't do a meetup and you can't maybe reach out in person. I'm all for in person, but if you can do that, [00:02:30] I don't know why people stop at 25 because I just, I have so many questions still, 260 plus episodes after I went on, like, keep learning and connections, make great connections and relationships.
So I love listening to yours. So on that point, why don't we, uh, why don't I let you introduce yourself? Yeah, brother. Um, I introduced myself as a student of the game that takes action very quickly. You know, I host the real estate experiment podcast. Subscribe to that folks. It's a great podcast. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, and that was actually [00:03:00] one of the podcasts that allowed me to get into the space that we're in today. A little bit of background though. Fun fact for the both of us. We, um, management consultant by trade. So every skill that I learned, I kind of applied it to business. Um, had an e commerce business.
I worked with a lot of virtual assistants. So still to this day, I'm a very big on building systems and teams. I love building teams and I've done it in the corporate world as well. As a consultant helping firms kind of, you know, we've always done it this [00:03:30] way to why are you doing it this way? So by nature, I have to ask great questions.
And so that's what I do. And so when I want to get into real estate, I went back to the tool that I think I'm relatively good at asking questions. Like literally I had done some experience as a business analyst. You have to ask questions. You have to be able to ask those questions. questions no one wants to ask in the room because it's deemed as a stupid question.
So I was asked a question and one of my things is proximity. Right. So I got in proximity to people that I trade places with. [00:04:00] That's my rule of thumb, whatever book I want to read, whatever, uh, thing I would like to accomplish, I say, how can I get as close as possible to the source so that I can hear it from them?
Uh, because I'm, I'm against the paradox of practice. So that's when people are. No longer in the game and they're selling you one thing that didn't necessarily was the thing that got them there Yeah, there's no no wrong. It's just not my style I know you can help people but I want to go straight to the source So if someone's doing what I want to do, I want to get close I want to ask questions and that's how I'm here today.[00:04:30]
And now I get to share the gems with the people Yeah, no, you're doing really cool stuff on midterm rentals, which is what we're gonna talk about Today, but you know just a little bit of you know history you You No, so Ruben and I, when he used to live in New York, we had a lunch at PJ Clark's down at, uh, Battery Park city and it turned me the recovering investment banker, which I love the term.
Yes. We were both overlapped at a bank, [00:05:00] you know, in our careers. And we're both now, you know, we both started short term rentals, you know, we'll be doing more on, on the longterm rental side. So. Let me talk a little about the short term rental side. Like tell us about your short term rental business right now.
Yeah. Yeah. So we built a business on top of our short term rental business and that's what you're probably hearing now. It's very prevalent for people to hear like midterm rentals. And really all that means that's an internal term. That's not an external term. You talk to a tenant that's going to move in and you tell them midterm rental, and they're going to look at you like [00:05:30] with four eyes.
That's it's, it's corporate housing. It's temporary housing. It's, it's working with insurance companies, but I've said this before. I truly believe that we have an advantage if we're in the short term rental, AKA the hospitality industry, because we have the foundation to be able to then build a model on top of the other.
And what is that? That's the one where there's a state that's. Typically more than 30 days, but I think you probably are familiar with more of the old 30 day stay. That's like travel nurses, et cetera. Well, not necessarily. We like [00:06:00] to go straight corporate. We like to go with, there's tons of corporations out there who are looking to relocate a group of individuals, whether it's construction workers, whether it's, you know, it professionals or whatever the case we happen to specialize in one niche that we love because there's a lot of money in it.
And that's the insurance. Uh, niche, right? And when we say insurance, it doesn't mean that it's all state and state farms sending us clients directly. But these insurance companies have direct relations with temporary relocation [00:06:30] agencies. That then are the ones that place these displaced families when an unforeseen event happens like a flood or, or a fire or something of that nature that occurs.
They're eligible with respect to having a home insurance to be relocated temporarily until the problem gets resolved. So we really like to tap into that. And we actually use a hybrid model where we use a short term rental model when we don't have these large contracts, but then we truly, truly optimize for the MTR contracts because I always like to have an [00:07:00] exit strategy.
Yeah, that makes sense. I think the way you framed it too, it's like you kind of build, you've built your business, you know, the foundation of it was a short term rental side, right? That you kind of understood how, Uh, to, to service you over only a few days and then building a different strategy on MTR. So maybe, you know, talk about the transition, like why I believe short term rentals probably like, or at least my belief, it's more profitable, you know, short term stage, you charge a [00:07:30] higher premium generally speaking.
Like why, why consider MTRs, rent term rentals, all term MTRs? Why do people opt for that? I don't know if I told you the story. Cause you're a shout out to my buddy. I started, if there's another Mike out there, I either, I'm going to name my future child, Mike, and they will become a real estate investor by default.
Cause all the Mike's that I know in my network are just crushing it. Right. You included, of course, my friend. So we were talking [00:08:00] about Mike Elefante, a huge shout out to him. Cause I remember I was in his, um, we had a mastermind together. He, he, he had a mastermind and. What you're saying is actually accurate with respect to where you are in the marketplace.
So I was hanging around a bunch of people who are in vacation rental markets and they were talking about their numbers. And I'm like, golly, like you guys are just squeezing the juice. Like I'm hearing some ridiculous numbers. Like, Oh yeah. 25 K a month, 30 K. And I'm like, God, like. We don't see those kind [00:08:30] of numbers in my market because I'm in a short term rental market.
I'll keep in mind. We're also buying the properties at a very different price point. Right? So with that, I had kind of like the shiny object syndrome or the grass is greener, but I had some interest in, I'm like, okay, we were almost ready to jump. Okay, let's go find ourselves a realtor in Florida because all these guys are just crushing in Florida.
But then I thought, I'm so, okay, what can, how do we extract more? With what we currently have. So that's how we got [00:09:00] into the midterm rental space. And that's how we got into a lucrative area. Because now, if I tell you like, Hey, you know, yeah, Mike, we're able to bring 10 K a month. My cell will ribbon. That's, that's an off month for me.
Well, yeah. If your market at peak season is going to make 30 K, there's no reason why you should optimize for that. However, there's a caveat to that because it's all with respect to the price and the value of your home. So for us, it made sense because, you know, typically in our market, we're getting like, Maybe like 6k, 7k top month gross.
Now, mind [00:09:30] you, these homes are like 1900 or 1800 for the mortgage. So again, decent margins compared to, again, all relative, right? All relative to what we're buying. Cause you might have someone else in another market that has an overhead of 5, 000 and then they're grossing. So for us, we are looking for a spread to get more of what we currently had.
And so one of the lowest hanging fruits was to say, well, there's two things. It was like, okay, great. Well, what would it look like if we didn't just jump ship and go to another market? What's another strategy that could work? And that's how we got [00:10:00] into the midterm rental insurance niche where these guys were willing to pay us a premium for X, even we're actually making more doing this model than we did with short term rentals.
Which is pretty fascinating, especially when you land a really good contract, there's less headaches, less turnovers. You don't have to deal with the nuances and the high maintenance of SDR guests. So one of the things is the numbers that we talk about, but another thing we don't talk about is that peace of mind as well.
I know you and I were talking about offline, like [00:10:30] where we have a very stable portfolio, these corporations like pay on time, lucrative at a premium rate. For me. Even if I were to make an extra a thousand or two, I would say, you know what, without all these headaches that you have to deal with, I love the peace of mind of having like an eight month stay at a premium rather than, you know, the alternative.
Now it doesn't mean that you can't have your cake and eat it too, but it's good for you to know that there's an option for you to even possibly be able to leverage the strategy in your existing market. Okay, I think that's, that's a very great pitch, right? I [00:11:00] think a lot of people are very attracted by that, right?
Hey, I can have one guest, eight months, premium rates. I don't have to deal with, you know, people coming in, you know, every three, four days and having to deal with that. Is there a certain kind of property, you know, but not every single property can do that, right? Like, are there certain properties that are generally more suitable for midterm rentals?
I'm just trying to, you know, what I'm trying to get at is if someone's listening right now and says, that sounds great, how do I do that for myself? Like for me, like, you know, we have [00:11:30] two bedroom apartments in Philadelphia. Like they don't do, they're not going to MTR at a rate that where it makes sense, but you know, because I think that where it is and it's small and it's in Philly, I don't know, right.
It probably isn't the most optimized. So like what works generally the best in what you're talking about, the model that you're talking about. That's a good question. Cause I think typically we get people like, well, will this work in my market? And I actually flipped the question. I said, well, what kind of asset do you own?
Because if you're on a one bedroom or two bedroom, then you're probably [00:12:00] thinking of what the traditional MTR model is. And this for the smaller, you know, maybe it is that traveling nurse, maybe it is your close to the hospital, but that's not what we optimize. Nurses don't have budgets. Exactly. That's not, that's not, that's not what we're optimizing for it.
Cause listen, I want to follow where the money's at. And so where does the money flow towards? And for me, it's all about the asset type because this is very prevalent. And at the end of the day, it's applying to men. And so the type of asset that works the most that we've seen, and we've seen our students have success in is the four to five bedroom range, [00:12:30] right?
Now, three bedrooms, a nice little, you know, right in the middle there, but why not go for four, if you can? And I mean, like, if you're going to go ahead and buy, if you're going to go ahead and co host. I like to always say, Mike, I always want to increase my chances because it's not like people always ask, like, is it this or that?
It's not this or that. And it's just, can I increase my chances of landing our contract? Because I always say this and whoever's watching my YouTube channel, you know, I've always, I literally repeat this all the time because I think it's a hundred percent true. It's like, It's easy and it's possible [00:13:00] to fit a family of two in a five bedroom home, but it's hard to fit a family of five in a two bedroom home.
So we've done that. We've had an eight month contract where there was two people in a five bedroom home. We could fit them because. Because there was a need that couldn't be met. And again, our, our home was wheelchair accessible as in it wasn't ADA compliant by any means, but it was master was on main, everything was accessible on the first floor again, tons, we had a fenced in backyard, we're increasing all of our chances to be able to [00:13:30] host a family, which maybe there is somebody that has a physical limitation, or maybe there is, uh, by the way, 70 percent of the families that we've had have had pets.
So the whole, if you don't believe in being pet friendly, maybe this isn't the right opportunity for you because the market shows that there is a lack of supply for homes that are pet friendly. And when you think about it, if you relocate and your pets are going to be running around, do they have a place to run around and do they have safety?
Do you have a fenced in backyard? So that's what we look at four to five bedroom home. Stay [00:14:00] away from carpets. Want to make sure that you have the, all the amenities, right? You could ask for, it doesn't have to be fancy by any means. It has to be functional. Do you have a dedicated workspace? Do you have a garage?
That's a big one. People are going to come with their cars. And if they're used to putting in the garage, they're going to lean towards having a place where they can put their cars in the garage. Do they get a choice? Do the displaced families get a choice? Yeah. They get like, Hey, the insurance company goes to them and says, Hey, we have three choices for you.
And they're like, okay, I like, you know, Ruben's place versus, you know, John's place. Well, it's a good question. Cause it, I'll give you a [00:14:30] scenario. To answer your question, 'cause I always, I'm, I'm a visual person, so let's say I gotta re relocate a family of five with two dogs, right? And I gotta be in this specific zip code 'cause I gotta be close to home.
If I zoom in on that zip code, I might see, okay, great. What's available in that zip code? Now a few things happen. If I leverage the OTAs, for example, or let's say, let's just keep it simple and let say it's on Airbnb. I look at there's 30 properties. Then I do some that's interesting. That's by, by data.
Always, always will, most of the time will have this outcome filter on pet friendly all of a [00:15:00] sudden. That denominator gets cut in half. There's 15 properties left. Now then I'll do, well, that's fine. They're available now, but I need to relocate this fan for the next three months. What's available for the next three months.
All of a sudden there's four properties available. Now look at those four properties in there. There'll be two things. If you're available, there's a reason why you're available. Either it's you're actually not a property that's worth booking for it. And that's why you're still available. So mobile will knock out two options.
Now you've got two options left. And I [00:15:30] look and we'll say, well, One finishes and looks like an Airbnb and the other. Looks like ooh, like a furnished finder property. And I don't mean to take a hit on furnished finder properties, but when you look at the kind of product that I know you have a mastermind where you teach, right?
We are not trying to be the Airbnb operator next door. We're in a hospitality business that where we offer great properties, great photos, Great design, smart locks, et cetera. If you have two experiences and you [00:16:00] choose to walk those two properties, which one are you going to choose? Mike, the one that's like, oof, bent out of shape based on what is available or the one that is the best product in the marketplace.
And by the way, it's pet friendly and has everything to offer plus more than maybe the home where they came from. So in short, yes, they have a choice. And if they happen to have, let's say three choices or five, If you're in an SDR space, you're probably going to be at an advantage because you know everything about serving a quality product compared to someone who's just slapping a property on a [00:16:30] website.
But then again, that's why it serves you best to have all those, those tick boxes checked, because if someone does walk five property, how do you make sure that they're able to say that, Hey, I want to pick Mike's and not everybody else's. You're going to have to make sure you really cater to the experience.
And yes, they do have a choice. So at the end of the day, they have a choice with a little caveat, little asterisks. If it is approved by their adjuster and falls within a comparable like property that they're coming from. And for example, if I, if I'm coming from a 300, [00:17:00] 000 home, it's going to be tough to sell to the adjuster to move me in a million dollar home.
And that's probably not going to be in your neighborhood anyway. So, so yes, they do have a choice with all respect to the other market. Do they have to be close by? So you say in the neighborhood, do they have to be close by? Like, you know, if I live here, like within, Was it 10, 20, 30, 50, a hundred miles?
Like what's the general Yeah, they, they like to stay within a 10 mile radius. 10 mile. Okay. Based on what is available in the marketplace. Right. Because if I do that zoom in and I do a, Hey, what's available for the next three months and there's only one property available in the next zip [00:17:30] code over, well, maybe they're willing to actually commute a little bit further out.
So it's all based on supply and demand. Right. Do, do you get paid up front month, like you know, since anyone to con, is it month to month they pay every single month or? So it's funny, I've tried asking for two months up front and I've gotten it, which is great because it's a nice cash injection. I've never asked for eight up front, but corporate is pretty, corporate is corporate.
You know, if you sign a contract, whether you want it up front now, I kind of, I like the cash flow. But if you've ever done, uh, we've done two months [00:18:00] up front, which is pretty sweet because we get security. Two months up front. So you get a huge cash injection and maybe you just run the next play. Right. But I've never tried that.
Maybe an experiment worth having. All right. I mean, the more cash you had, the better for the cashflow. When a song comes to you and say, Hey Ruben, my, uh, I had this short term rental, it's not working out. I want to flip it to long term rental. Well, what would your advice be to that? I guess, starting with STR, I'm interested in MTR, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to flip it to a long term rental, right?
Like this STR thing isn't working for me. What would be your [00:18:30] counsel to, to this person? I would always start with the exit strategy. I think if I were to add to that question is if someone were to ask me today, Hey Ruben, I'm not allowed to do any STR in this area at all. I would say for me, that's a deal breaker because at the end of the day, I still want to have the ability to have an exit strategy.
And if the way I analyze all the properties, whether we're co hosting, whether you're about to buy, it's literally about what did the SDR number show? Cause I don't want to buy a bus right now. If I [00:19:00] show that there's potential, great. This is an add on strategy. This is not in Leah of, this is how I look at it.
We've confidently gone back to back to back to back on contracts because we're building also what I told you a second business on top of it. And that's the relationship business. It's a book of business at the end of the day, but it still does not guarantee that I will lend an empty or a contract.
There's still some chance involved. There's still some demand involved. I can't just [00:19:30] optimize as much as possible to, to just land a contract today. I can be optimized to be in a position where I will always be available, which is one of my other strategies where. What most people are not doing is making themselves available, which means they're, they're missing out on opportunities.
But going back to your question, Mike, I would always want to have an exit strategy because yes, this strategy works, but I always want to make sure that I understand what my risk from a risk mitigation, To always have a backup, right? And so that's how I look at it. That's how I do [00:20:00] my business. It doesn't mean that it can't work without by going all in.
Cause that's, that is essentially what we've done. We're 90 percent empty or occupied at this time, but it doesn't mean that that can't change. And I'm very aware of that. Got it. I agree. I'm great. It makes sense. I, um, me just to double back, just to hit on one of the points that you just made, you know, kind of always have an exit strategy.
So I guess. Double click on is like, how do you analyze if a property is good for MTRs, right? Like, cause obviously, you know, that's, that's an area that person was kind of off on the short term rental and maybe [00:20:30] they're not a good operator. Maybe it's not a good area, whatever reason it is. Is there like a quick self assessment tool that they can say to themselves, like, all right, I'm a, I'm a two bedroom.
So this is probably going to be pretty tough. Or like, okay, I'm a four bedroom, right? Yeah, not bad. Like, what is the way they can kind of self assess themselves a little bit? Like this is viable to do. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, no, it doesn't. Okay. So first I'll go back, I'll double down on what I just said.
First. I'm always going to run it like an STR because I want to make sure that I can have STR income [00:21:00] in case I don't have MTR contract. Now, if you want to understand like, well, how, how much could I actually really make on this property? The napkin math and easy way to do it from, especially again, I want to be very clear because there's a lot of different types of MTRs, right?
The MTR next door might be, you know, it's traditional. Someone's coming in there in and out of town for the next two, three months. They need somewhere to stay. They're booking you at. Long term rental rates. That's not what we optimize for. We're optimizing for premium rate, which is with the insurance companies.
The insurance companies have a [00:21:30] way that they're able to identify how much you'd actually be eligible for. What they use is on your home insurance policy. If you have one, if you're looking at one, if you can get access to one, whether it's one that you're managing or property that you own, as you want to look at your coverage, a section, it's also known that what these insurance companies are using is the loss of use, additional living expenses as a way to then compute the amount that would be eligible for their policy.
I'll give you an example. If you own a 400, 000 home, what you [00:22:00] might see on your coverage, A, coverage A is the dwelling unit. Right. It's usually 20 to 30% of the dwelling unit value, which for a $400,000 home you'll see a hundred thousand dollars. Let's say we go with 20% or 25%, I should say it'll be a hundred thousand dollars, right?
Uh, what does that mean with a hundred thousand dollars? Well, additional living expense, which means that if there's any condition. Where you're unable to currently live in your home. That's the amount of money that you can access. Now that's kind of like an art to that. Cause you [00:22:30] might say, well, Ruben, what if they need to relocate for the next four months?
Great questions, right? Cause then I would take the a hundred thousand dollars and say, well, would it be unreasonable if I were to divide it by four and say that I could pretty much charge 25, 000 a month? Sure. However, the insurance company is not over going, is not going to overextend their budget.
They're always going to leave a little bit of a cushion. So it's probably in your best interest to take that 100, 000 and divide it by six months. And now you're looking at more of 16, 000 a month. That is a good [00:23:00] ballpark. Now keep in mind, there's a few key things you may want to ask if they're coming in.
If they're coming in with water damage, you might be like, okay, that could be anywhere from three to five months. If they're coming with a fire, you know that's going to be a six to eight months. And we use that as a negotiation tactic where you know what, because it's a fire, I'm actually not going to overextend the budget because I know they're coming to me from a 400, 000 home that if I were to say, Hey, 20, 000 a month, I know that your adjuster is not going to improve that.
So if you want to do some quick napkin math, let's say go on [00:23:30] zillow, realtor. com, look at the property value that you have and then multiply 20 or 0. 30 so that you're able to get 20 or feel free to do 0. I like to sit right in the middle because most insurance companies will have a 20 percent of the dwelling value to 30 percent of the dwelling values, uh, loss of use called the additional living expense, AKA or coverage D.
And that is what is derived as call it the numerator, uh, to then you can [00:24:00] at the bottom divide by the X amount of months that you think they're going to be relocating for. That's a good little napkin math trick for someone who may want to know how much can actually grow in the MTR insurance space.
Interesting. Interesting. Okay. That's a, do you want to actually, while you were talking here, I was like, I just pulled up like a quote I had. So I don't own this property or anything, but I'm just curious. Like I'm looking at the subject a here. It says, so this coverage is seven 15 K for the property. So I think it is simple.
I just take 0. 25 of that. And then that's the, [00:24:30] no, no, no. What is that? Is that, is that cover J covered? Yeah, actually this goes on YouTube. So, you know, if you're a. If you're watching this now and you want to see what we're talking about here, I'm going to put Ruben on the spot here and, uh, yeah, for sure.
Take a look at this for me. So I'll describe it for those of us who are listening. So we're looking at an insurance policy right now. This is a quote. It's not a, yeah, you'd have to see because unless if the quote tells you what the coverage D is and keep in mind, cause folks might [00:25:00] be like, they might have a rent, an investment property and might be like, I don't see it.
Well, that's because. Some investment properties have loss of rent, not loss of use. Yeah, I've lost of rent. Yeah. We've lost of rent here. Yeah. So it's 120, 000. How much is the property worth? Let's say this, you know, 830. Okay. So what did I just say? 830. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah. That's all right. Look at you.
Perfect. Right on the money every time. Right on the money. [00:25:30] So that, for those who are maybe not watching, You want to look for additional living expense. You want to look for coverage D now, what we're saying is the following. Cause I want to be very clear. We're not saying to take the one 20 and divided by note.
What I'm saying is the following. You're not going to have access to this document, right? You're not going to have an investor. You're not going to have a displaced family reached out to you and Zillow rental manager, and you're not going to be like, Hey, can you pull up your loss of use real quick?
That's just not practical. However, what you're [00:26:00] going to know is if someone reaches out to you because you've done the homework ahead of time and you've looked your property up and maybe you don't even need to look it up. Cause maybe you're like, we're going to have no idea where to find is. I know it's dug up somewhere deep since I closed.
I haven't even looked at this. No problem. Go on Zillow. Look at what your property is worth. Take 20 to 30 percent of that. That is on average. I've looked at many. It's either 20 percent to your 30. Now, if you come back to 15. Well, guess what? This is this. [00:26:30] With respect to the insurance company that you're using, there's a range.
There is even ranges that say unlimited. That's right. Unlimited loss of use. I've worked directly. I think it's a USAA. They have unlimited. So all I'm saying is because someone is going to come to your property and because they're looking to be within a 10 mile radius to relocate a family, because they're looking to relocate a family in a similar zip code and a similar like kind of property, you can use your own as a comp.
To get an [00:27:00] idea of the kind of budget that they're working with so that you can then set your price for the monthly and set it. So it's competitive so that you don't leave too much money on the table, but you also don't break and bust a deal. Does that make sense? That's a lot of value you're dropping to folks.
So I appreciate you walking through that math. I think a lot of people have that same question like that. I did like, how do you actually just do the quick napkin math? That's perfect. Just take, go on Zillow times 0. 2. And you know, that gives you a ballpark of what the annual, or is that, so is that like, [00:27:30] Is that annual?
Is that annual? Is that eight months, six months per claim per claim per claim. Okay. Now, now that goes without saying, I'm not saying you're not going to pay a higher insurance company. If you have two claims in a year, that's between you and your insurance company. And that's typically what they're going to do.
They're going to increase your premium, but yeah, so don't go ahead and start, you know, making a bunch of. It would be, you're not even in your best interest. Right. But that's, yeah, that's interesting. Some of them are annual, right? So just, just everyone do your due diligence to your insurance company. But like, what you're [00:28:00] asking me is like, Hey, what, you know, what happens a year after if they run out of budget, that's between the insurance company, right?
If, if they, your company is probably not going to leave you out to dry, but we've seen some cases too, where they're like, Hey, listen, they've run out of money. So what happens next? That's the house, the houses that the house isn't fixed. They got to go figure out themselves. That's between you and your, I would put it this way.
I had a gentleman who came on shout out to Andy. A lot of us are just programmed to call our insurance company when something goes wrong. Remember the insurance company has their best interest. [00:28:30] Make sure you speak to a public adjuster before I've had a public adjuster at extra zeros to my claim, right?
Because. They're experts. They're like an attorney for making your own claim. I always focus on the who, not how so to everyone who's listening. I don't wish it upon yourself, but when something, if it's a matter of, if not when, if you're anything like us, we've been through a battle battle, battle stories after battle stories, we literally had a basement flood twice back to back.
You wouldn't even, you couldn't even make it up. But because if you have a public adjuster, [00:29:00] uh, when it happens, make sure you remember this call your public adjuster before you do anything, because you want to make sure that you're squared away and you squeeze juice. These insurance companies have, these are billion dollar companies.
This is like a, this industry has so much money. Keep thinking about it for a second. You're paying a premium on a mortgage every single month. And maybe one out of 10 homes. End up having to do one of these filing a claim, which means, what do you think happens with all the premiums you've been paying, invested in markets and they make a ton load of money.
I can tell you that right now, there is not a shortage in amount of money. They actually had [00:29:30] an excess amount of money that they didn't use. Right. So keep in mind when you start being shoved around and like, can you do better? And, uh, this company has a small budget. I've had all sorts of conversations.
There's always more money on the other side. It's a matter of. Stating your cause now, it's about also understanding that if I have a claim that that came in four dogs and 13 chickens, I know for a fact that there are less options out there. And for that reason, you should be able to charge for a premium for that because you're solving a complicated problem.[00:30:00]
That's it, you get paid, I think Naval was the one that said this online. It's like, if you want to make real money in this world, like find a problem that you can solve, solve it at scale. And that is, that is the path. That, that's how you make money actually is solving problems. Like you want to build a business, find a problem that you can uniquely solve.
If you can do that and you can do it at scale, like you will be just fine. And that is what business is. I was just talking to a friend of mine. It was, uh, and you know, we're just like, [00:30:30] she has two businesses. She has a catering business and she has a restaurant in New York that does 7 million bucks total a year.
I know. That's great. Right. Yeah. And I had a catering business. I don't even know what she told me. We were prepping for it. She was telling me, I was like, Oh, that's gonna be a, that's gonna be a separate episode folks. Uh, so make sure you watch that. She, next, next time you're in New York, I'll, I'll take you, uh, take you and something, but we're just like, it's just, this, it's just a game.
Like business is a game. And once you kind of like, you get to that [00:31:00] place where you just view it as a game, it's just a series of problems and there's, there's a series of rules and there's actors and you just got to move the chess pieces around and you gamify it. It becomes much more fun, you know, and all it is, this problem solving, like every day it's just.
I have this problem, like, what, how do I solve this problem? And I think that's, if you want to be a good business person, like if you can solve problems, like you're halfway there. Yeah, and I think another thing that that will serve your audience too because I know that one of the things you do very well Is teaching people how to how to arbitrage people are over there like well Ruben I'm [00:31:30] 100 percent occupied dude If you solve that problem that relocation specialist is gonna come back to you time and time again Like it's not about you.
It's about who loses if you don't win like in our mastermind I've had so many times where we've been 100 percent occupied. They come to me because we have the relationship keyword Then I'm able to funnel it over to someone else. Maybe you do a referral fee. Maybe you do a co host fee. We had a co host where we, I would, if you're going to do co host, I would highly recommend you to have a separate contract with an addendum stating what [00:32:00] happens when you land a lucrative contract, because maybe it's not the same 25 to 75, because you have to work for that relationship.
Maybe you structure a win where there's, you know, minimum, you get this maximum, that whatever. There's like some kind of, you know, don't overcomplicate it, but set it up that way, because. Now you have an extra tool in your toolbox. That is also a selling point to, uh, investors or partners that you're working with where you say, Hey, short term rentals is great, but we also have relationship with the insurance companies that we work with directly, which allows us to have, um, [00:32:30] you know, stays that we can book at a premium.
And, uh, we have that relationship. So that's another thing that we can offer. And I will reach out to you as the homeowner. When I do have, uh, an availability or a request, does that work with you? And by the way, if I do reach out, I just want to set precedence by the terms. Would these terms work for you?
What's the number that you need to have, right? To be at peace. Great. Boom, handshake. Right. Because now you're solving a problem with somebody else's asset. Right. And I think there's a huge opportunity to do that for those who are looking for it. Uh, different [00:33:00] ways to, to add value to their business. I'm glad I know you.
So it will just be like, yeah, no, I have access to all these insurance companies, but through my partner, Ruben. So, oh yeah, that's huge leverage. Who not? How, as you should, as you should. Exactly. Exactly. No, it's, um, you know, I'm saying, you know, I'm very big on short term rentals, but I also know the power of midterm rentals.
There's definitely. It's a very viable strategy. There's a place for it. Just like there's a place for short term rentals. Yeah. You know, the more arrows in your quiver, the [00:33:30] more tools in your tool set, whatever analogy that you want, cliche you want to use, the more capability, the more people you know, the better business person you will be.
And that's why I think that's. And I think it's very hard to disagree with that statement. And to your, you know, to your, we were talking earlier about the podcast. So, you know, you definitely were one of the inspirations for me to start this. It's, you know, I love having these long form conversations with other guests, with you.
Um, it's a great way to, for you and I to catch up. We haven't spoken a little bit, um, and it's a nice [00:34:00] to, to spend the last 35 minutes with you. So like, I appreciate you, uh, spending time with us today for folks that are interested in short term, uh, in midterm rentals first, Ruben is really one of the experts.
So if it's something that you're interested in. Really should reach out to him and have a conversation. What's the best way for people to find you? Sure. Just go to my website, experiment, real estate. com. Uh, I'll have a little blueprint for you guys for free. MTR insurance blueprint. Just put in your email, get it sent right your way.
And at least you can be in proximity. My assistant does check the emails and I, it does make it [00:34:30] my way. And I do have a lot of, you know, bootcamps that I'll do or, you know, webinars and here and there. But if you want to, if you're interested in this, you want to get more information, definitely go to experiment real estate.
com and grab the MTR insurance blueprint. All right. Experiment real estate. com. It will be the show notes. Click on that, send Ruben an email or his assistant an email. And they will get back to you. My final question, which I ask every guest business is a team sport. Those words are no true [00:35:00] words have spoken to that.
It is absolutely a successful business in the team sport. We wouldn't be where we are today without people that have been kind to us. Uh, that maybe didn't need to be, um, and just did it out of the kindness of their hearts. Who was someone like that for you who, you know, went out of their way and really kind of helped you along in your journey to get to the successful, good looking entrepreneur you are today?
Wow. Um, my goodness, there are so many people, but specifically because we're on the topic of [00:35:30] midtermentals, I'll give a huge shout out, a combination to Dr. Rachel Gainsborough and Mike Sjogren. It's funny because Mike came on my show in episode 91, and he was a client of mine at the time because we launched the Short to Mental Secrets podcast.
And he's like, I returned, I retired my mother, I retired myself and my wife in 18 months with this model. And I was like, what? I was, I was, I had a bunch of syndicators on my show storage. I had never like, like short term rental, like, okay, like if you're [00:36:00] 56, 70 percent occupied, that's not a hundred percent occupancy.
Like I just. I just did not have the right paradigm. Right. And I think it's so important. I'm very big on that. I have an entire, I have a mindset coach literally that just talks about changing your paradigm, change your paradigm, change your life. If you, you know, change the way you look at things and things you look at change.
I think it's in your best interest. If you've looked at all your portfolio the exact same way, You just need to plant the seed and look at it a little bit differently because it's the exact same asset type. You know, there's people out there [00:36:30] who don't believe, and you just have not looked at the numbers for short term rentals who own a bunch of long, long term rentals, and they just don't know that it exists.
Just like this, you could add this model, right? To your existing portfolio, right? It's not in lieu of it's, and And just have a complete paradigm shift. So huge shout out to Michael Schroeder because he gave me that foundation. And then Dr. Rachel Gainsborough was in my neck of the woods. I was like, how are you getting these large margins within the same marketplace?
You mean I don't have to go to Florida? And she's like, let me show you. And I [00:37:00] think it's in your best interest to surround yourself with people who, you know, it's funny, I was having a conversation about this with, with someone, a lot of the people that I surround myself with. I'm always stretching, right?
Like I love hanging around you. You're just like, you, you, you told me something personal. I told you about it. I'm like, dude, I had an extra zero. I was like, yeah, you're right. Why am I thinking small? But a lot of the people that I hang around with, they, they just have an abundance mindset. It's not like if I tell you something, it takes away from me.
And [00:37:30] I think that's so critical when you pick who you want to learn from. is you want to pick to learn from someone who just has like infinite supply of, of knowledge and willingness to give and share. And, uh, I think I'm blessed. Um, and I'm very grateful for those people that come in my life, including yourself, Mr.
Mr. Mike, Mr. Chang. I appreciate you brother. Yeah. I appreciate that. I appreciate you. I appreciate the compliment and shout out to, to Mike Stroger and him. And, Mike and MP, [00:38:00] they, they had me on their podcast early when I was kind of starting out my journey and Dr. Rachel was super, um, kind to, to me and Liz when we met at national, she didn't really even know us then.
And she sat us for like 30 minutes and just kind of, we just had questions. We're like, Hey, you're the MTR person. Can we sit and talk to you? She's super generous with her time. Just really explaining. Stuff and see her national just, you know, she immediately remembered like we just had a kid and everything just like great people.
And yeah, you're right. Like, I mean, just surround [00:38:30] yourself with with the abundance mindset of good people and in great things will come. So thanks for coming on today. I really appreciate your time and look forward to great things to come from your end. Hey, listen, the feeling in me, Troy, anytime I can be in proximity to my man, I'll take it any day.
Say less. National, National 2025. All right, man. Absolutely. Thanks, [00:39:00] brother.