In this episode of The Same Day Podcast, host Walter Bowser sits down with Alyssa Dyer, Owner of Table Investments, to discuss the art of acquiring and managing short-term rentals. They talk about strategies, from securing great deals and styling properties to handling the licensing process and setting up successful operations. Alyssa also shares insights into the importance of understanding guest reviews and how to prepare financially for unexpected property expenses.
The Art of Acquisition and Management in the Short-Term Rental Market With Alyssa Dyer
Alyssa Dyer is the Owner of Table Investments, a company specializing in the acquisition and management of short-term rental properties. She has worked in real estate since 2014, helping investors navigate the complexities of buying, underwriting, and managing short-term rentals. Her focus is on maximizing profitability through strategic property management and design, ensuring her clients’ properties perform at their best. Alyssa and her team manage a portfolio with high occupancy rates, offering full-service solutions for investors looking to succeed in the short-term rental market.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [1:01] How Alyssa Dyer got started in real estate and launched Table Investments
- [2:17] Why location is the most critical factor for success in short-term rentals
- [7:12] The importance of honest listing descriptions and transparency about the property’s surroundings
- [11:02] Alyssa’s experience in hospitality and how it influenced her approach to short-term rentals
- [14:31] Essential amenities for short-term rentals
- [17:52] Setting up and marketing short-term rentals
- [27:55] How to properly handle and avoid negative reviews
- [29:59] Alyssa explains the current license restrictions for short-term rentals in Oklahoma City
- [35:16] Alyssa’s advice for investors
In this episode…
Breaking into the short-term rental market comes with its own set of unique challenges, especially when you’re competing against well-established properties with hundreds of reviews. How do you make your property stand out and ensure long-term success?
According to Alyssa Dyer, a seasoned expert in real estate and short-term rental management, the key is to prioritize both styling and proactive management. She highlights that exceptional design and high-quality photography can set a new listing apart, while ongoing property maintenance is crucial to maintaining a positive reputation. Balancing these elements and a deep understanding of guest expectations can significantly increase both occupancy rates and revenue, even in a crowded market. Alyssa stresses that successful short-term rental management entails constant negotiation with market demands, not a set-it-and-forget-it venture.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Walter Bowser on LinkedIn
- Yonatan Schmidt on LinkedIn
- Mat Zalk on LinkedIn
- Keyrenter Property Management
- Keyrenter Property Management in Tulsa | Oklahoma City | Arkansas
- Keyrenter Property Management email address: [email protected]
- Alyssa Dyer on LinkedIn
- Table Investments
Special Mentions
Quotable Moments
- “Location is the holy grail that we look at first.”
- “Investors should remember most of the general public is not exposed to the scary parts of real estate.”
- “Short-term rentals are moving into hospitality territory more than real estate territory.”
- “Quality matters — we tested 40 different bed linens to find the best for our guests.”
- “Our occupancy rate across the portfolio is 88%, well above the market average.”
Action Steps
- Focus on location first when considering a short-term rental property: This ensures the property is desirable and accessible, a key factor in achieving good ratings and consistent occupancy.
- Accurately underwrite short-term rental income projections: This prevents unexpected financial shortfalls by accounting for variables such as taxes, platform fees, and guest turnover.
- Invest in quality property photos and consider hiring a stylist: High-quality visual assets can drastically improve the attractiveness of listings, leading to higher occupancy and revenue.
- Adopt a hospitality mindset and proactively address guest needs: Treating short-term rentals like a hospitality business rather than just real estate can lead to better guest experiences and more positive reviews.
- Keep updated with local licensing requirements and regulations: Staying informed allows owners to adapt quickly to market changes and avoid legal and financial issues that can affect their rental business.
Sponsor for this episode…
Keyrenter Property Management:
This episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management.
Keyrenter Property Management is a full-service property management company that helps clients buy, renovate, and operate real estate assets.
The team helps clients build wealth while taking the headache out of property management.
That’s why, no matter what rental you have — single-family homes, condos, townhomes, or apartments — they can give you the management solutions you need.
To learn more about their services, go to https://keyrenterpmc.com/ or send them an email at [email protected].
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:05
Welcome to The Same Day Podcast where we discuss driving incremental business growth and other topics related to real estate, property management and entrepreneurship. Now to the show at hand.
Walter Bowser 0:20
Walter Bowser, here, I’m the host of this episode of The Same Day Podcast where I connect with top business real estate leaders. Today’s episode is brought to you by Keyrenter Property Management. At Keyrenter Property Management, we’re a full service property management company helping our clients buy, renovate and operate real estate assets. We help our clients build wealth while taking the headache of property management off of their plate, Alyssa, we’ve helped over 1000 investors manage their properties, from non performing portfolios, renovations or finding new investments. We can help. That’s why, no matter what rental you have, single family homes, condos, townhomes, apartments, we have the management for it. I’m super excited to have you on Alyssa, tell me a little bit about yourself, what you’re doing and about your company?
Alyssa Dyer 1:00
Yeah, thank you so much. I’m happy to be here. So I own Table Investments. We’ve been around since 2017 sounds like we kind of work in the same area. We do a little more brokering. So we do a lot of helping people find the asset, underwrite it, kind of go through that whole acquisition process. We do some management, definitely not at the scale that you guys do. Most of our management focus is actually on short term rentals. So maybe other people would recognize that as like Airbnb or executive rentals, corporate rentals, anything that kind of falls under that wheelhouse.
Walter Bowser 1:41
That’s awesome. So you said something interesting to me. You know, doing the acquisition, you know, process of it kind of dive into that a little bit deeper. What does that look like?
Alyssa Dyer 1:55
Yeah, man, the whole podcast could go just to acquisition piece. So for in general, are you asking for short term rentals specifically?
Walter Bowser 2:03
For short term rentals specifically? I mean, I think it’s super interesting. I think it’s very different than long term rentals, especially kind of like, where you’re looking, how you do the underwriting, and kind of like, I guess, expense lists, and kind of keep factors that way.
Alyssa Dyer 2:18
Yeah. So generally, as a starting point, location is kind of the the holy grail that we look at first learned that pretty, pretty early on, when a guest checks into your property, there’s or checks out. Really, all platforms are the same, and almost every single one of them is going to have the guest rank you in different categories, you know, communication or cleanliness or location or etc. It’s challenging when you’re doing everything right, and no matter what, you’re getting dinged on a three or four star on location. So it’s just the uphill battle. Can be pretty challenging. We generally speaking, stick to central Oklahoma City. So for people who are kind of familiar anywhere that is historic, over by OU Med does really well anywhere central to like the fairgrounds, hospitals, we actually have a ton of training at Will Rogers airport and the surrounding area for the FAA. So anywhere that’s close to I 44 Hefner Parkway. I have a map that I generally send out to people. If it would be helpful, I can give it to you to link in the show notes. But generally, you just want to be somewhere. You don’t have to be right in the thick of downtown Midtown, but you do need to be accessible to places. It needs to not feel sketchy. I’ll get investors that are like, Yeah, I’ve got a long term rental. Can I just, like, turn that into a short term and it’s on a terrible Street? Definitely don’t want to do that most. A lot of the numbers, it’s a location is kind of the first thing. Then we really dig into numbers. I generally start outside of just kind of like knowing what a one or two or three bedrooms going to go for air, DNA is actually a really good source, with the caveat that you have to know the numbers that you’re looking at. So a lot of investors are like, Oh, this is pulling, you know, $150 a night, not realizing that in that number, cleaning fees, pet fees, you know, all the individual line items are rolled into that number. So if you’ve got an average, easy example, if you got an average cleaning fee of $100 and they stay for three nights, on average, that $150 nightly rate is actually a lot closer to 120 so when you’re doing your projection, that can skew it quite a bit in a hurry. So we’ll generally start there for just kind of getting a broad scope of what the numbers are doing. I tend to estimate down, especially with some of the volatility that’s going on in the market. And then from there again, maybe. Alerted the map, I have a projection that I could send you that’s really easy, but just taking into account all the things like consumables, or there’s a couple different taxes that have to be paid. Airbnb, if you list with them, exclusively handles paying those for you. But a lot of investors forget to underwrite, because they are like, Oh, I just got this money. You know, they forget to think about the taxes that are leaving before.
Walter Bowser 5:22
I’m sure that’s super easy to forget about especially if you don’t know if it’s your first time.
Alyssa Dyer 5:27
Yeah. And it’s like 9% so it’s a big wow, yeah. And then, if you’re in Norman, you have a transient and hotel tax as well. So if you’ve got both of those together, like all your profit can go towards taxes if you forget. So, you know, for there’s a ton of nuance with the numbers, but the main things that I see people kind of get a little off course are either forgetting things like taxes or platform fees. Because whether you’re, you know, Airbnb, Vrbo, booking.com, Google Book, any of those, they all have their platform fee. So talk to those platform fees not really understanding the numbers on whatever source. So whether it’s Breezeway or air DNA or whatever, whatever that source of truth you’re using to calibrate what that nightly income is going to be, make sure you know how that platform is giving you the numbers so that you’re underwriting your income projections correctly, and then just get a location that is actually going to be desirable?
Walter Bowser 6:31
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s, let’s look a little bit closer to that’s super, you know, interesting to me, because as No, I’m familiar with Oklahoma City, and, you know, someone that’s not or kind of just looking around, and you can easily go on Google Earth and, you know, go down the street or whatever. But, you know, there’s sometimes, especially right now in Oklahoma City, I feel like there’s a lot of, like, very, very slow gentrification happening to where, like, one house is very nice right then, literally, the next door is like, you know, I don’t want to, you know, ever stay there my entire life. How do you, like, manage that as Oklahoma space kind of slowly gentrifying downtown Oklahoma City to where it’s not almost, you know, everyone is on the same street, you know, in the same I’d say.
Alyssa Dyer 7:11
Yeah, heritage Hills is really different from, you know, three blocks north and Jefferson. Like, they’re really different. Um, man, I don’t have like, a quippy little short answer on this. A lot of it has come from experience. The one thing I will say that has helped overcome a lot of issues is just being really honest in our listing descriptions. So I’m not saying to border tacky, but if you’re on a main street, just disclose that, because there’s, I’m a heavy sleeper and I travel with the sound machine, I’m fine if I stay at an Airbnb. You know, on a main road, there’s my partner is not that way. He this. Really likes sleepy. He needs to be somewhere in this quiet and so I see a lot of managers and owners really selling in their listing, which there’s an element of that that is required, and you can avoid a lot of bad reviews and a lot of headache by just being transparent about what it is that you are or not offering safety. I think is the main thing that I would say, if it’s even a question in your mind that a guest is not going to feel safe, and imagine a woman who is scared of traveling without her husband and traveling with her daughter, and they are staying at the house if they would feel unsafe pulling up to the house because the next door is boarded up, or it’s got trash all over the yard or whatever. I would probably steer clear at this point and just not do it unless you knew that you could buy that house and remodel that one too, and kind of take care of the headache.
Walter Bowser 8:52
Yeah, absolutely. That’s a really, really good point to, you know, kind of put yourself in that guest’s shoes to make sure that you’re feeling safe. They’re feeling safe. And, you know, you know, everyone’s, you know, good, my area and.
Alyssa Dyer 9:05
Well, and, but beyond that, it’s, it’s also you kind of have to put yourself in, like, really, okay, investing just kind of, like, sucks a lot of the time, you know, like, I’ve, I’ve been in real estate Since 2014 as my full time gig, and so I have been chased out of houses with needles by squatters. I have seen men defecate on the front porch to get me to leave. I’ve had to call the cops. I felt like, there I I’m so exposed that I see a house that’s boarded up, and I’m like, I I just am not really fazed by it at this point. And so I think it’s hard sometimes for investors to remember that, like most of the general public is not exposed to like, that’s scary. It’s really scary. So we kind of have to lower our tolerance, various, raise our tolerance for No, it’d be lower, yeah, for that kind of thing. One of the things crazy. Stuff that happens on a daily basis, yeah? And it impacts guests in a way that doesn’t impact us? Yeah, I imagine you are not phased anymore, you know?.
Walter Bowser 10:11
Fair share of crazy on a daily basis, right?
Alyssa Dyer 10:16
For sure, it’s just real estate’s nuts. So you just have to remember that, that with short term rentals, we’re moving into hospitality territory more than real estate territory, and so just kind of think about people’s experience than that.
Walter Bowser 10:29
That’s a, that’s a really good like piece that you just said you’re in a hospitality area, not just a real estate area. That’s, that’s a really good truth that I really didn’t think of. That’s a really good point kind of talk a little bit more to that, you know, just, I mean, kind of getting off topic of the acquisition process. But, I mean, if you’re jumping in and you’re doing this, and you’re owning a short term rental, you know, what is that mind shift? I mean, obviously you’ve had that, but Where’d that come from? And, like, how did you come to this point where, like, Hey, I’m having to, like, shift my mindset from real estate to hospitality.
Alyssa Dyer 11:02
So I love hospitality. I If money didn’t matter, I would I work through college. I worked at Cheevers, which is, they’re not in Oklahoma City. It’s a local restaurant. I suggest it to all the guests, and I loved it. I loved having regulars. I loved that when I saw them walk in the door, I could just start making their drinks, that by the time they sat down at the bar. It was ready for him. I knew which regulars wanted to hear about the special when it was finished and which ones didn’t. And then beyond that, the relationship that developed there some of my closest friends now came as a result of working there. So if money was not an option, I would have worked as a bartender. Probably achievers for the rest of my life. I loved it. Getting into real estate was not a passionate decision for me. It was a career decision. Um, so I think that’s where short term rentals have kind of been a fit. For me. It feels almost like a merging back to something that I’m actually really interested in. A lot of investors that I work with, they do not care about hospitality. They care that I care about it, but they and that’s okay. That’s why they hire us. And the main example, I guess, that I give people is, you know, if you hire me to take care of your long term rental, there’s a contract, and I look at the tenant and say, rent is due on the fifth, and here’s how repairs are going to go. And everything, for the most part, is guided by that contract. Um, there’s not really a contract with hospitality. If somebody is celebrating something and they forgot candles, you know, you just kind of help them figure out how to get that so if their birthday plans they’ve been planning for two months, aren’t wrapped. You kind of have to be prepared for if a guest. I mean, there are times where a guest forgets something, or they didn’t read the amenities in a house, and they’ve got this whole freaking dinner planned and didn’t see that a crock pot isn’t included. I’m 99% of the time just going to get a crock pot and get it to the house that they can have a great stay, rather than be like, well, the contracts, you know, the amenities, didn’t list a crock pot that’s on you like the review, you just kind of have to think about that piece of it. Like, is the bad review? Is the bad experience? More importantly, for the guest, really worth like, who is right on the amenities that can be a real challenge for some investors who have lived by a black and white contract for so long. And if that’s a real challenge, I would say, don’t do short term rentals. There are times where there are decisions that have to be made in the investor’s best interest that I don’t really have a way to put on a spreadsheet why it’s the best decision to take care of the guest.
Walter Bowser 13:45
No, that that makes 100% sense. I mean, you know, I don’t know how much a crock pot is as a strong Well, it’s probably $30 or whatever is probably worth, you know, the the force or the five star review instead of the two star review, because they’re, you know, in the here the moment, like, oh, man, they didn’t have this crock pot. They’re just gonna say, you know, whenever it was there, they had a horrible stay. That’s a really good point, I guess, jumping from from that, since, you know, we’re talking about amenity lists and kind of what that looks like, you know, I’m sure you have one. I mean, obviously, but like, a very thorough, you know, list of like, Hey, this is what we’re gonna need for the property. And then kind of jumping to that. So what does that, you know, kind of look like? I guess I called it an expense list, but it’s probably more of like a furniture list or amenity list. What does that look like?
Alyssa Dyer 14:31
Yeah, it’s honestly always evolving. The market seems like it’s evolving, and guest expectations are it’s kind of a constant door, but yeah, we do have one. I just have a huge spreadsheet that runs done list, and I try to have it kind of broken out, because I’ve some people are like, Hey, can you send me that list so I can get written, set up, um, it. I try to have it broken out where it’s like, Hey, these are the things you have to have. But then beyond that, one of the things that I kind of prep investors for is that each. House is different. So if you think about like the Hilton or the four seasons, or whatever your flavor of hotel is, they’re able to control a lot. A lot of times they’re developing a building, they have huge relationships, and they’re able to kind of, in some way, set each hotel up to be a carbon copy of each other. Short term rentals, you can get pretty close, but there’s always going to be nuance with each house. And so one thing that investors should know is that this is not, you know, it’s a long term until you get your make ready done, and you put the tenant in, and mostly you’re done until that tenant moves out or something breaks. Short term rentals, that is a constant kind of negotiation with the market for what needs to be done. So baseline, like most elementary like stock the kitchen, you don’t need every little hand appliance in the world. But I mean, there needs to be, like, enough plates and some, enough mugs and some, I am constantly surprised by how many properties I go into that don’t even have enough plates for all the guests, wow. Um, or they’ll have like, four utensils or two spots. I mean, you gotta, like, really stock the kitchen, um, really having essentials in the bathrooms. And then a quality i i think we tested like 40 different bed linens, and it was extensive, but quality bed linens and a quality mattress actually do matter a ton. So if there was one area I was going to skimp that would not be it.
Walter Bowser 16:34
Let me ask about that right away. So you tested quite a few. I mean, what did that look like? Was it just like, hey, we’re just gonna try them out and see what the reviews are on them. Or did you specifically.
Alyssa Dyer 16:42
Yeah, so sort of, and also, we’re, we’re a pretty small team, and this is gonna, like, definitely be shown in that I bought linens and then, like, gave them to some of my team members. And was like, All right, we’re doing, like, an internal, like, bring this home, sleep on it, or, like, giving my friends. And was like, I need you to sleep with these mattress or these sheets for a couple weeks and tell me, like pros and cons of each obviously, like flannel, polyester, anything like that, is a no go. It’s so hot and it abstains I’ve found the best. I’ve stayed away from linens, or linen, the luxury feel of it is really nice, and they’re cool, but they stain so easily, it’s nearly impossible to get stains out of them. So we stick to 100% organic cotton whenever we can.
Walter Bowser 17:34
Interesting. That’s really cool. No, I mean, like, that’s probably the best way actually to test them is to have your friends and trusted people you know, use them that that’s smarter than doing it on the guest side, because they were, like, if I slept in a bike, I don’t know it was good or not. I don’t know. I have no idea. Plus, probably a bunch of different factors, you know, go into, go into that. So that’s, that’s really a cool way to test it. Um, so, so, you know, from, let’s just say you’re, you’re managing a short term rental for this investor, from the minute that you, you know, underwrote it, you went through the acquisition process, you know, everything was good. You closed on the property. What happens next?
Alyssa Dyer 18:10
Um, okay, in a perfect world, we close utilities are on. So this is similar to, like, long term rental. Maybe you know your property closes, you get keys, you get utilities on, you make sure your paperwork is good. That takes one to three days, depending on, you know, what external factors you’re working with in hopefully by the time we’ve gotten to closing, we’ve already nailed down the budget, already have approval on everything. So days, you know, the first like three days, we’re just getting utilities set up. I’m making the request, if I’m if our team is who is doing the installation and furnishing, you know, we’re submitting for that contribution request that we can get all the supplies ordered. And we’re spending, hopefully about two, maybe three weeks getting the property set up. And then, you know, the fourth week we’re doing deep, clean, final, trash removal, professional photos, etc. That said there is always a delay with something with shipping that just I have had maybe two projects so far where we didn’t have something major, like a mattress or a bed, or something that we like, can’t work around delayed. The other caveat is the city approval used to take way less time than it takes now. So this last round that I went through, it took us about 90 days to get our license back. Yeah, so now we’re not really putting the pressure on ourselves to get the setup done so urgently, because we’ll, I mean, there were a few that we got it done in the house that vacant for a couple weeks. We were like, okay, cool. So glad we, like, really scrambled to get this done.
Walter Bowser 19:50
Yeah, absolutely. So that’s, I mean, that’s a pretty quick turnaround. I mean, minus the licensing or whatever it needs to be done to municipality. But that’s. Really quick. So let’s say.
Alyssa Dyer 20:01
And I do have to clarify there, that assumes that budget is approved. We’ve already agreed on the styling selections, all of design and procurement is done. So there’s, you know, that assumes that we’re good to go, but like, it can be done that quickly.
Walter Bowser 20:20
I mean, that’s, that’s still, I mean, even if you add two weeks of that, that’s still way quicker than I was expecting, you know, from, let’s say, the minute you went through that whole process, you got your licensing, you’ve listed it when, when’s the expectation for, like, Hey, we should have a guest within, you know, five weeks of it going live.
Alyssa Dyer 20:39
No, definitely. Usually about two weeks, about two weeks, if at most, yeah, usually Airbnb does specifically, really all the platforms, Airbnb just seems to be the one that most people are familiar with. So I reference it the most. They do a really good job of promoting new properties. Yeah. And so most platforms, when you list on it. If you’re a new listing, they’re going to encourage you to do some type of new listing promotion. You’re going to be on certain emails and be kind of at the top of the algorithm to make sure, because they want you to be happy. I mean, if you’re an owner and you’re taking you six weeks to get a booking, you’re not going to be happy with them. So they actually do a really good job of making sure that you’re getting traction out of the gate.
Walter Bowser 21:22
Now that’s a super interesting thing that I didn’t think of. How much money are you putting towards the marketing side of of the Airbnb? Is that a budget that most mind or is it.
Alyssa Dyer 21:35
So us in particular, my brain’s gone like 100 different directions with this. Uh, yeah, so marketing, um, I strongly encourage, I learned a long time ago, quality over quantity and this business. Um, so I strongly encourage all of our owners to, even if they do this setup themselves, at least spend a little bit of money, uh, paying for styling and staging consulting and then doing we use Sarah strump for all of our photos, and she has a lifestyle photography option. It is pricier, for sure, but if you can get your styling and design work done right and have really great photos, and then pay for additional photos when you do that shoot, that’ll do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. On the back end, a lot of everything is an algorithm now, right? And so one way that I kind of tell people to think about it is if you look at Airbnb the same way you’d look at Tiktok or Instagram or YouTube or whatever your flavor is, they want to see constant activity and constant checking in. So a lot of the work for marketing on these platforms is just paying attention to okay, if this platform rolls out an update, you need to make sure that your listing is as fast as possible updated to those changes. So that’s free to do. You just have to do it. And then beyond that, if the platform doesn’t have updates going out, if you’ve got a bank of very well styled photos that you can kind of swap out from time to time, the system is looking at that and saying, Oh, this owner is active. They’re engaging. They’re making changes to their listing. They’re, in theory, improving, and because of that, we will favor them in this algorithm.
Walter Bowser 23:29
No, so maybe it’s not necessarily a whole bunch of dollars, it’s just more being active and proactive. It sounds like and really cool on the front end, that you can have those, you know, higher quality photos taken and stuff like that, and really do some heavy lifting. That sounds like a no brainer to me. I would, I would most owners, or is it?
Alyssa Dyer 23:47
Yeah, no, not necessarily. It can just be hard when they’ve spent like, 15, 25, 40 grand setting up a house, and I’m like, okay, yeah. Can you spend photos on or, like, can you spend, actually, $300 on photos that I’m not going to use right now. Sure, I need them in the future, that can kind of be challenging, and then a lot of people really do not want to invest in a designer or a stylist, that the photos are an easy sell for people, but they’re like, I don’t want to spend money on the stylist, but the owners that we have who are spending money on that are making more money. It’s something that matters.
Walter Bowser 24:22
If it works, it works. Tell me how much is a stylist usually cost? I guess it probably depends on how big the house is.
Alyssa Dyer 24:30
Yeah. I mean, it depends on how big the house is, but for the most part, they can come in. And so usually it looks like either totally empty house, and we’re actually hiring a designer to get it set up. And even that is, like, less than $4,000 usually, for them to pick out everything in the home, artwork, furniture, because they’ve got a good rhythm, like they know what works and doesn’t. And then for the homes that are already set up, you’re only paying for a couple hours of their time for them to come in and just be like, Oh, move this here. Move that here. And. Um, so usually, like, less than 500 bucks, which, in the grand scheme of things, I’m, like, it’s nothing, and it will make you so much more money to have this person who’s eye.
Walter Bowser 25:13
They’re trained for it, yeah I mean, that’s a no brainer. That’s, that’s, I mean, that’s like, feel like that’s if I were to do it, I’m, obviously, I’ve known nothing about style, but I would definitely hire that, just because I would need help with it seems like a no brainer to me. I guess, you know, switching gears a little bit. You get your first guest, you’re in there. Kind of, how long does it, I guess, really take to get everything flowing? And, I mean, because, I mean, I’m sure you have, you know, vacancy or whatnot, like, what? What exactly like, when do you see the property hit its best stride? Because in long term rentals, you’re hitting the best ride once the tenants in there for about three months, and then those six to, you know, three to nine month period. You know, there’s usually no maintenance requests. You’re running pretty good and, you know, you’re pretty hands off, right? So how does that look? And in a short term rentals.
Alyssa Dyer 25:59
Overarchingly, I’ll say four to six months, when you hit the market, you’re gonna have a little attraction. Just because you’re new and shiny and exciting. You just have to remember that you are competing with properties that, I mean, some of these have been on the market since like, 2017 2019 and they have hundreds of reviews. And so you’re showing your like little three reviews. You have to either be undoubtedly exceptional in your photos and marketing and presentation, or you are going to have to list a little bit lower to get the attention, because you’re essentially saying, hey, guests take a risk on me. I know I only have three reviews and they have 200 but I’m worth your money. Most guests are not going to agree with you, and they’re going to spend their money elsewhere, so you have to make your price lower. Usually about six months is whenever I start seeing us really be able to crank up the prices.
Walter Bowser 26:52
That’s awesome. So I guess walk me through this because I’m not like, a big review guy. I probably should be. I should probably, like, look at reviews a little bit more stuff like that whenever I go to travel, but I’m sure a lot of people out there look at the reviews and the reviews and early I guess, tell me, is every guest required to write a review and like, what does that look like? Like, review wise, do you do?
Alyssa Dyer 27:12
They’re not required to, but almost every guest does Okay, yeah. And most guests, I have found are actually pretty reasonable. If they’re well taken care of, and you set expectations well and are proactive in communication, most guests are actually really reasonable with it.
Walter Bowser 27:30
That makes me, seems good, because I always, you know, you hear the at least in long term rentals, you know, you usually, you usually get the extremes, right? It’s like, you know, like this person’s super upset and or this person’s really great, but yeah, most of the people are in the middle, you know, there’s having, you know, living in their house, doing it. I would assume that is it the same way. I mean, you said they’re reasonable, but I feel like if someone had a really bad experience, that’s the first thing they’re gonna be doing is to get on that review and writing it up.
Alyssa Dyer 27:55
I’ve had one actually bad review, and are out of, I don’t know how many I’ve got, maybe pushing 1000 but I’ve had one actual bad review that I was like, I really don’t think that was justify. Um, most guests are very like, hey, just want to let you know I ran into this thing. I I mean, easy one from this week, a guest was like, Hey, just wanted to let you know I showed up, and it looks like Oklahoma wind. The wind had blown the trash can over, so keeper had gone by, pulled it to the curb. Guest checks in late at night when they arrived, the wind has knocked over a trash can, and so there’s trash all over the driveway. So the guest was just like, hey, I just wanted to give you a heads up. It looks like this is what happened. Super great. We’ll be out there first thing in the morning, we’ll get all that picked up for you. Thank you so much for understanding. So housekeeper goes by, drops off, you know, $10 Starbucks gift card with a little note that’s like, hey, sorry you arrived too trash in your driveway. Thanks for letting us get you taken care of. Um, so that’s what I mean. Like with the hospitality piece, like, I don’t have a way to make, kind of tying it back to earlier. I don’t have a way to make that $10 gift card, like, makes sense on a spreadsheet, but that kind of stuff will help avoid a bad review on the back end. I think as long as that channel for communication is open. Um, so, yeah, I just, I we really don’t deal a lot with bad reviews.
Walter Bowser 29:25
That’s, that’s great. I mean, that’s a really good, you know, way to handle it. And I mean, I mean, I would assume the worst, honestly, but that’s, that’s great to hear that it’s not, not the worst. No, I guess, circling back to something you said earlier, and just out of curiosity, because we, I think we touched on a little bit the licensing. So what does that process look like? And it actually is, like, mind boggling, or, you know, horrendous, as they say, because I’ve heard some horror stories about, like, where someone’s bought the property, they couldn’t get the license for it. Um, how does that? How does that work?
Alyssa Dyer 30:01
Yeah. Um, okay, so year ago, my answer would have been really different. The city. It’s really worth noting here that the city is actively working through how they want to. I mean, each municipality, the village, Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman, they’re all having these conversations around we have this beast. How do we want to handle it? Some people are like, it’s here. Let’s do it. Let’s take the tax dollars. Other people are like, we have a housing crisis. F this. These people need to get rid of them ASAP. And so there’s a lot of there’s a lot of opinions about this, and the city is in the middle of that right now, which is important for investors to know, because those all these opinions are impacting decisions that are being made. So right now, as of about two or three weeks ago, there’s actually a moratorium that a lot of people are not aware of. The city is not approving for either 180 days or when they come to a decision, whichever is, sooner they’re not approving any special exceptions, which I’m realizing now I should probably back up. So if you live in your home like this is your primary residence, and you are going to go travel to Paris for a year and you want to just list your home, this does not apply to you. If you’re an investor, this is not your primary residence. This does apply to you. You have to go before the Board of adjustment and say, I want a short term rental here. Can I have permission? And they have to say yes, and that’s called a special exception that allows you to have a home sharing license when you have got you take that information and apply for your licensure. The moratorium that is in place right now is saying, hey, that’s step one of this process. Answer is no. If you already have your application in, we’re going to go ahead and process those like normal but overarchingly, the answer is no. There’s a bunch of the caveats here, like, so, like, one of the roles is that, if you’re if them saying yes to you would make the number of short term rentals and a plotted block above 10% that, you know, and so that, like, for the sake of a podcast, I don’t want to get too granular with it, yeah, but it is important for owners to know that this has become, I mean, in 2021 summer of 2021 there were 1700 short term rentals on the market. And according to AirDNA, there are now 3800 so we’ve had, yeah, so that’s quite a bit of growth. Um, and so the city is just kind of responding to that and saying, like, Hey, we are. We have a lot going on here. We need to just kind of pump the brakes a little bit. So we’re just going to default to no on some of this. A little bit.
Walter Bowser 32:43
Makes sense. I mean, I mean, 100% makes sense. So how are you, how are you dealing with that? And then also, I guess, like, when you’re going through this process of the acquisition, are you like, are you doing a whole bunch of acquisitions right now? Are you saying, like, Hey guys, we need to wait to see what and how this works out.
Alyssa Dyer 33:01
No, this is one of the few business ventures in my life that I’ve done really slow and steady. The owner has to be a fit. The property has to be a fit. Really, really, really proud of our statistics, and I want to keep them that way. And I like my days. I don’t have any grumpy people. And so I guess more importantly, I really want to work with people that it feels in alignment. So I’m not like, in a huge, like, growth at all costs phase. We’re in a like, Okay, we want the growth, but let’s make sure that we’re a good fit. So that said, we’re not, like, really pushing for like, oh, acquire this. Acquire that this is new. I mean, this is, like, less than a month old, new. So very candidly, we’re in the midst of figuring out anybody who’s in our portfolio already has licensure. Um, so they’re all grandfathered in. They’re good to go. Um, anybody I’m in conversations with, and this is only worth noting, so that ordinance is only for a coma city, so it doesn’t apply to Norman, it doesn’t apply to Edmond. So a lot of the conversations I’m having right now with newer people are just around, okay, like, where is your property? Where do you want your property to be? Are you already grandfathered into this thing, and are you in a position where we could just do it as like a Can we list it for 30 days, stays at a time until we get your licensure. If no, then that’s probably a non starter. Let’s talk again in six months. But we don’t rambling a bit, but it, it would be a complete lie if I was like, Oh yeah, we’ve got this great process for this, like, this kind of like, I showed up to a board of adjustment meeting for approval for one of our properties, and they were, like, passing out this packet that was, like, effective yesterday. This is in place, yeah? So we’re very
Walter Bowser 34:45
They’re like, oh my god, I gotta read through this?
Alyssa Dyer 34:47
Yeah. So I’m like, frantically reading through, like, oh my god, am I about to get declined? And then I was like, Okay, no, this one will be approved. We’re good to go. I just have to worry about anybody who doesn’t have a license yet. Um, yeah, it’s a risk when you’re buying i. I would have a backup plan. I would not if your house will not cash flow, like, if you’re right on the line on this thing, like, don’t buy it. Oh, my God, don’t buy it. I would, I would just be careful and cautious with the acquisition process.
Walter Bowser 35:15
Yeah, I guess that leads me right to the next question. Was kind of like, you know, on the investment side, you said, be cautious. And that’s kind of, you know, I underwrite all of our properties with the most conservative numbers possible. And, you know, really taking the worst case scenario on on stuff. So that way, you know, once we do get into it, hopefully it’s, you know, better than promise, you know. Tell me, you know, I suggest, you know, probably something way different than you would suggested to have in reserves and stuff like that for the property, you know, kind of, what is your guideline on that? And what do you tell owners, like, hey, you know, be prepared for 90 days of, you know, no income, or gonna pay this mortgage for 90 days, or, or, or whatever it may be.
Alyssa Dyer 35:57
Yeah, um man, I don’t even know anymore. I used to really kind of have some firm guidelines. At this point. I just tell owners and like, I need you to be in a position where, if I call you and your HVAC stopped working, and you have to replace your sewer line, you are not bad, like you are not hurting, or if you’re hurting, it’s like an emotional hurt, not, like, a I lose my house hurt. Like, those are two different things, but the worst case can and will, you know, 100% Yeah. So I don’t have, like, a shiny number. I just mostly have a conversation with people around. Is there, like, if I call you and say, Hey, your furnace stopped working and it’s going to be $7,000 and your sewer line? Your sewer line stopped working, or, you know, it’s done, it’s shot, it’s collapsed, and we’ve gotta replace that. And it’s 12,000 that happens, like every day, and what I do for a living. Can you, can you manage that?
Walter Bowser 36:59
No, that’s a, that’s a great, you know, thought, and then tell them, like, hey, you know, when you have this in reserves. And, you know, don’t be surprised if it does happen, because it’s not about if, it’s about when, right?.
Alyssa Dyer 37:09
Well and also and, and, and I am very like, love the American dream. Go get it. You know, like, I bought my first house when I was waiting tables at Cheevers, and it was like a little house with a garage apartment. We rented it out. And at that point I was like, I’m making seven that point I was like, I’m making $700 a month and my mortgage is 900 like, I’m basically Rich and I did not have enough money. I mean, I was full time student and waiting tables. Like it does not take much math to figure out how much money I was not making sure if somebody would have told me, like, I need to be able to replace the H back and the two replace the HVAC and the sewer line, like, I never would have gotten started. Um, so I kind of subscribe to both ideas, because there are, I mean, there are financing plans for HVAC systems with most credible companies up this. There are solutions. It’s mostly just a conversation around, like, if this is actually the last bit of money in your savings account? Like, maybe not. Like, really, maybe not. But if you’re, you know, in a position where you can explore solutions and get creative and kind of make it happen. And this is a dream, go for it, but that’s where I honestly put all that on the owner. I’m like, you gotta find your comfort level. Um, yeah.
Walter Bowser 38:20
Are you risk averse or not? Right? Like.
Alyssa Dyer 38:22
Yeah. Like, we all gotta kind of figure that out, because there’s a lot of people way wealthier than I am, because they can tolerate more risk than I can tolerate.
Walter Bowser 38:29
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, that’s a, that’s a really good point. And, I mean, you know, I guess you know when, whenever you’re getting that investment, especially short term rental, there’s probably a time in the market that makes the most sense to buy a short term rental. Would it be, you know, I guess in the like, I guess springtime, is that where you’re hitting at the summer, or is that how that works? Or.
Alyssa Dyer 38:50
Um, generally speaking, I’m going to say, worry about getting a really great deal. We are not in Hawaii. We’re not in Montana, Colorado. I mean, if you’re in Vail, Colorado, you’ve got a window where you have to make your money and you’re dry. I mean, Oklahoma, like, where we’ve got our highs and lows, but, like, it’s all relative. So if you’re really going to be a purist about it, January, February and August are the three lowest months of the year. So that’s whenever I try to do, like, if I know I need to replace carpet, or when I replace some light fixtures or do improvements, I try to do it in those three months, because the nightly rate and or occupancy is going to be lowest at that time. And if you have an awesome deal, and you’re going to be setting that up in November, take the awesome deal over, like, an average deal in February, like, it’s Oklahoma, we’re fine. You’re fine, you’re fine.
Walter Bowser 39:45
Yeah, so that’s a really good point. Well, I guess kind of just to wrap everything up and, you know, ask you one last question. It’d be, you know, if someone is just getting started, super green, maybe they are an investor. They’ve done. You know, maybe, let’s say storage units, or they’ve had a long term rental, you know, but they’re, they’re like, hey, I want to diversify into short term rentals. You know, what would be your main piece of advice for them getting started?
Alyssa Dyer 40:16
Um, I would say, like, pragmatically, like, actual, practical, useful advice is to like really, style it very well. Design it very well. Invest in exceptional photo assets for the property. If you are dead set on doing it yourself, you do not set it up and forget about it. Every single guest has to be touched every I mean, we check on the property. So guest checks out, housekeeper cleans the house, and then somebody from our team checks on the house after the housekeeper and before the guest checks in every single time. So set yourself up well on the front end, maintain yourself well, if you are really committed to doing this work yourself, and I do believe that we are probably one of the best in the market at doing this, call us. Call somebody to get help. If all of that seems overwhelming, but if you know you’re not going to maintain it, you know that, like you know that you’re not going to check on it before every guest, I would say the market is competitive, that you should call somebody or email or do whatever you need to do, but outsource that.
Walter Bowser 41:26
Yeah, also, I mean, I’m, I’m probably a little bit biased, because I we do property management, but, I mean, we’ve only heard good things about Table Investments, and, you know, I’ve, you know, really want to make sure that people know that if you are doing short term rental, you know, property management is probably the best thing for you, because I’m sure it’s a lot more high, high touch point than long term rentals.
Alyssa Dyer 41:47
And you make more money. Like, I like, actually, truly, our owners make more money with us, and they wouldn’t. Our occupancy right now, across the whole portfolio is like 88% and the market, that’s very impressive, I know. And the market is at like, 52% so I’m like, when I tell you that we are earning our management fee, and it’s pricey, it’s 20% of gross revenue. So people look at that and are like, okay, so if you’re bringing in $6,000 a month, holy crap, you’re making $1,200 it’s like, and we are earning every freaking penny of that and earning it for our investors, Like, legitimately, they’re making more money than they would without this.
Walter Bowser 42:26
I mean, 88% is insanely impressive. So that’s something that you should be very, very proud of. That’s awesome, and absolutely well, I’m gonna put your email and your website and then in the show notes, that way people can, you know, reach out to you. I know we have a lot of people that have been asking about short term rentals and kind of you know where to get started at. So I really appreciate you coming on and Thanks for Thanks for joining me today.
Alyssa Dyer 42:50
Yeah, of course, I had so much fun. Thank you.
Walter Bowser 42:51
Absolutely. Thank you.
Outro 42:56
Thanks for listening to The Same Day Podcast. Tune in to a new show each week, and be sure to subscribe to get future episodes.