Lindsay Fischer: couple books $17,500 on their first Airbnb cabin

0:00 So today we're talking with Lindsay who joined the program and then hit the ground running within a month they secured a property that they don't even have to own and made $17,500 in bookings within a week so in today's episode we're going to go over that exact listing her thought process behind everything and also her strategy this episode's full of golden nuggets that you don't want to miss so check it out all right looks like we're live so we have Lindsay Fischer here on the call uh thanks so much for joining us so first and foremost you know just want to kind of get to know your background obviously you know you and your husband have been you know crushing it with your newest Airbnb getting over 12,000 bookings in a short out of time but let's kind of take a step back first for a moment and talk about what led you to this journey let's you know we can start there Instagram is how I found out about you I found out about the world of Airbnb Arbitrage it was July 2nd it was a long weekend and I was actually chilling on this couch and I came across your free work like workshop and it was only an hour long and then you were like you can stay on if you want to keep and that would end up being 3 hours and my husband's like what are you doing I was like we've got to talk about this as soon as as soon as I got off of there so I think we both work 9 to FES and I just turned 40 this summer he just turned 37 we want to get out of the rat race of 9 to5 and so we've been looking for passive income and we're doing small things here and there but nothing that would actually be significant enough to get us out of the 9 to5 we want more I think the biggest thing would be Financial Freedom and

1:17 time Freedom you know like we're not getting any younger and we want to travel there's so much we want to do so we saw that on there and then that same day we ordered it and started watching the modules together and we're like let's do this let's see what happens and we just got mared a year and a half ago so this was a new adventure even as a married couple to you know finances is can be a sticking point for couples and it's just neat that we both hopped in on this together and I think it's been great for our marriage weirdly enough in all of this too so yeah that's awesome yeah usually it can uh tear you apart if you guys aren't on the same page but you know glad to hear that you guys have are on the same page you know with the same goals and all that you know obviously that's you know great background a lot of people you know find out about financial Freedom you know whatever you know that kind of like it clicks with them in different stages of life right so what made it really click for you this time around cuz I'm sure you've thought about it you know maybe in your 30s maybe even in your 20s so what made it click for you at your age right now actually I know that you talked about how you went on a mission overseas for a while with your church I actually worked for like a Christian nonprofit overseas for over a decade and came back to the state three weeks before the co shutdown started I knew I wanted to Pivot to Something in the job market had no idea what I wanted to do and then during Co I met my husband and so I think I've been kind of on this like I've been having jobs just to pay the bills but looking

2:34 for something that gets me really excited and something that would allow me to spend more time with my husband I think before when I was single and overseas there wasn't anything pulling me away from my job like my life was my my job because I likeed the mission of it but now that we're married I'm like oh I don't want to go there for eight hours I want to figure out how to spend more time with you and so that was really what made it click was how can I spend more than just the 2 and 1 half hours at the end of the day with my husband like how can I I get way more time and only spend 2 and a half hours working a day so that we can enjoy the rest of our lives you know like we met later in life so we got time to make up yeah no that that's great I think definitely you know when you're single your priorities are different you know you can kind of you know grind yourself in your career get you lost in that and I think that's you know great for some people but once you know your priorities change you kind of start thinking at things differently so you know definitely went through the same things myself but you what's kind of your background and what made you want to start you know this Airbnb journey I grew up here in North car like we're in North Carolina properties in North Carolina I grew up here and went to college in the mountains here I always loved the mountains and wanted to figure out how I could get there again one day without a second mortgage yet because we just bought the house we in a year ago and then of course I've introduced my husband to the mountains and he he loves them as well so our background really is he's been in sales his whole life I did the nonprofit world I'm currently

3:51 working um I sell insurance Like Home Auto life insurance that kind of thing and while it's great to get to meet people and help them with that part of life it's not a passion and and I think the more I kind of learned about who I am which is something I think people figure out as they get older I learned that I love networking I love Home Design I love making money and not like worrying about finances all the time and I love traveling and so this oddly enough kind of combined all of those strengths and enjoy like things I enjoy in life and so I have found that while there's some challenges I've really enjoyed this whole journey um and it's worked well for both of our strengths in life too so how did you find and choose your first property I know you mentioned it's kind of in your backyard it sounds like you know near you so how did you you know I'm sure you had some expertise you know with this Market sounds like but yeah how did you go about finding your and choosing your first property yeah so we used your module so we you know did figured out rep parts we put up the modules on the TV and I had a laptop and my husband would go through we used air DNA of course and you know would figure out what's the occupany rate what's the average daily rate is this going to be a market and there were actually some like my where I went to college I thought was going to be like a home run and it was not on there but the surrounding areas were so we actually got a place up not far outside of

5:09 Asheville it's about 30 minutes outside of Asheville and it's an upand cominging Market that I was shocked did so well on Airbnb so we called a few places I did all the landlord calls and this was actually only our fourth call that we did that we got this place the very first one we did this guy was super nice his HOA was just actually in the middle of a court battle with him to not allow him to do Airbnb yeah talked to this lady she received everything really well I think she had you know tinkered with the idea of using as an Airbnb as well and was looking she's in the middle of a move so she actually was looking at leaving it like 75% for so that's one of the reasons it looks so nice is that those nice leather couches things like that she left behind for us and of course ran it into the rent but it it's worth it so that's how we found that first one we talked through her about like she even she had heard the term Airbnb Arbitrage but she didn't understand what it was but just in her own dealings with Airbnb she had heard it so we explained it and we first spoke to her on my birthday which was July 21st and we signed the contract on his birthday which was August 11th so it was a really quick it was pretty quick turnaround and we just knew we wanted to get on the market as soon as we could because the fall is peak season up here with the Western North Carolina Mountains so we were pressing them a little bit of like can we do this and yeah and and so that's where we are yeah and I really like what you said like in your mind you're like okay you know this

6:26 Market is going to crush your old colge town and then you know as you start looking at the data you're like okay maybe the numbers don't make sense that's why you know I always harp on running the numbers making sure that you follow the data well with a reliable data source you know love air DNA with what they put out and that way you can make a good decision because a lot of times people just go with their gut feeling and a lot of times I got a feeling might be wrong right so you know going through that and you know love the story of you know on literally on your fourth person sometimes not of like for me for example it took me like over a 100 calls to you know find my first person to you know really move forward so what what did you say you know what's kind of like in your script or your pitch to you know get them to trust you and also you know eventually close a deal so we started with Zillow was the was our main way of using ited we also reach reached out to a few people on Facebook Marketplace I would just write them my kind of intro was hey beautiful property would you consider doing a 2 to four year lease so before I explained anything else I just would see if they're even open to that and then if they were I wanted to try and get them on the phone to try and woo them over with my personality and my and just my competence just wa you said you one of the parts of the script you always say is like I'll be the best tenant you've ever had you know that there's a guaranteed check every month and all those things no parties and so I knew if I could get them on the phone that would be great but if I asked them anything through text it would probably not go well or through a message so did that

7:43 talk to her the other landlords were great too I talked to four total and all of them received everything really well some just were in zoning areas and that was something you talked about too is you know figure out the permits but also don't do so much indepth research that you're just wasting time and so that was something we tried to really fight against too is hey let's just let's just make the calls and bite the bullet and see what happens rather than getting stuck in like the quicksand of research so that was how it went kind of explained everything of I really just used everything that you've talked about in the script of hey I want this to be a win-win for both of us I'm not trying to pull one over on you like what is it that you need what you know how can I you know come alongside of you to make it great for both of us so that was really the the angle that we went with and so far it's gone really well yeah and obviously just like the way you talk um you know I'm sure your husband you said is in sales as well like there's no you don't have to like have like these weird slimy you know sales tactics right you just literally having a conversation with the other person and if you do that and you know they you know build that Rapport and build that trust like you can close deals even with no experience which obviously you guys were able to do so you awesome job on that love the property you know kind of going through every single thing that I talk about and Har on you know in the program if you don't mind you know they just kind of walk through the different pictures of you're you know you're kind of like your mindset of like going in you know what was is already here what you added uh to

9:01 really you know get it to PL pop because you know obviously your your your place looks awesome so if you want to just kind of go through we can just go through the pictures and go go from there absolutely so first thing we did so a lot of the major Furniture in the living areas were already there we came in and added a lot of I guess home homeier things to make it there was a Vibe or a feel we wanted to the cabin which was you know cozy so there's I built in a bookshelf that's there I brought a lot of books that people would want to read you know little signs basket of blankets and it says let's cozy we went ahead and did some fall Decor there as well um because that is why most people come up there is in the fall season and then the other thing we did was we transformed the downstairs the most so we put some black wallpaper on that wall behind the TV and then we actually put up all college pinnet so that way if it's football season you've got your team up there if it's basketball season you've got your team up there and then we wanted to give this Vibe of you know guys getting just four girls hanging out you know like having a good time shooting pool playing on the car card table and you know getting to watch the game so that was the thought down there and then there's also this Greenery wall that we created downstairs we have a sign there that says hey take a photo and tag us on our social media you'll get 10% off of your next visit you know so we tried to incorporate marketing into it so we named it the Old

10:18 Fort cabin we made a social media Instagram handle with the Old Fort cabin so we tried to integrate that as well so it would be memorable you know there's sometimes where cabins aren't named or properties are not named or they're harder to remember and so we intentionally named it something that people could remember so they'll come back to and we'll have repeat guest the other major thing we did was we changed all the bedding it had been just one king bed and then some twin beds a full and so we came in and changed it so that it would be three kings and only and one queen that one that's right there with the plant hanging you just physically couldn't get a king in there but the rest of them I know when my husband and I travel we look for king bed and we look for hot tubs and so those were the two things we wanted to make sure we true there we turned the garage into a ping pong and dart rig room painted a mural on the back of the garage wall so we wanted to access and I guess utilize every space we could in there and then we've you know as you can see we also did the deck added some sofas and fire pit dining table outside and then we invested in a hot tub which is below the Deb as well we saw that on the air DNA it showed that less than 20% of that area had the hot tub so we wanted to make sure we did that just to stand out we're working on some new photos we've got lights hanging up under there now and it looks it looks a lot nicer than than that photo from when the photographer came that day and that's another thing is you know we paid money for a nice photographer to really

11:34 accentuate house that people would see it and think of an experience and also that they would see it and you know could imagine hey there's I could see my family here I could imagine you know like a high school reunion or a College reunion things like that we also included baby gates cribs things like that so that families can have those amenities when they come and bring their family yeah no huge like you know obviously you put a lot of thought care into every single item and that's really how you you know build up that repeat cinel also you know thinking about families right cuz you you have your target audience that you want to go after which is families you know celebrating you know graduation you know the fall and obviously like there are times where I'm like looking to book a place myself and now you know having kids you know like a pack and play or you know something as simple as like a high chair or something like that if they don't have it then it's almost like hey I'm not I'm not going to book this place even if it looks great so you know having that family person and that Target Persona in mind I'm sure is you know going to pay dividends in the future as well yeah that's the hope that is the Hope for sure we're actually at um as of this morning we're at 17,500 for Wow looking through New Year's Eve that's awesome and you guys went live what was it a mid August we went live two weeks ago oh wow so it's been so today's September 21st and so you went live like second week September 7th yeah on our way to my family's vacation um at the beach we I set it up on my phone on

12:51 the way down there so it's only been two weeks and we have 14 bookings that's awesome it's no surprise right like a lot of people think know take a couple of dinky photos post posted on Airbnb like pray for bookings but you clearly have a strategy you follow the strategy in place to get you know to where you are so that's awesome talk to me about your first booking cuz you know I think that especially with your first listing right you you post it and you're kind of just sitting there toing your thumbs you know hoping so like I want to kind of talk or hear about your first guest experience you know was it a nightmare was it great like if you could talk to us a little bit more about that as far as the booking or the actual them staying there let's let's go with like the actual person staying there okay so that is happening literally right now they got yesterday so we went lie we figured people books like immediately and so we actually we went live before we were ready so we just blocked out the next week and a half but we wanted to at least get it up there but we have some people staying there right now we actually have some influencers there that are going to post for us we made ours dog friendly that was another thing that you had discussed and I'd read other places that you know pet friendly places are not as common and so it's good if you can be that as well we've got a great cleaner and a great handyman that we have found that have done a fantastic job so far the girls that are staying there messag last night and said hey this place looks like this place looks incredible it's beautiful well decorated it's really clean so I think they're having a great time and we'll see what they say you know whenever they

14:07 leave but it was one of our kind of marketing strategies um they have like 120,000 followers so we're like hey what if we comp a stay and then they'll share about our cabin just to get the word out as fast as possible and so that's what they're doing but then the first real Pay customer are like guests are coming on Saturday and uh I'm excited and nervous you know you live and die by your reviews and they would possibly be our first review you we're excited I think we've done everything we can you know to make it work and it's always exciting when you get those text messages that say you have a new booking it feels like all the hard work is has been worth it just hopefully that all the guests will have the same experience that we want them to have with yeah no for sure and having that trust that boots on the ground team if you're not physically there is huge right so you know issues do occur you know because they always do inevitably right in any sort of business you know you have some a trusted person that can go and take care of things so that way you know you're not having to wake up in the middle of the night and take care of all that so that that's all good great stuff and I'm sure with especially with how you're booking out it's going to be pretty smooth sailing from here on out that's the hope we started talking about another property already so I was going to say that's that's a good segue so what are what are your guys' goals with your portfolio of you know how how much you want to scale cuz clearly you have you guys have the chops to you know scale this pretty quickly so what are some of your goals here from from here on out so I think we are so this one was big investment obviously the first one even though there's an incredible discount you know buying airdna or

15:24 getting our LLC it's not crazy expensive but there's just a lot of front end there's just more fronted cost on top of the property itself so I think we want to in the next 4 months land on our second property if it was up to me I'd be like let's do it next week but um financially as we decide together he's like four months I'm like okay we can do four months our thought is that we will continue to get properties every four to 6 months to the point where we will eventually both not be in our 9o FS anymore I would think that after the fourth or fifth Property we would want to look at purchasing and actually buying some real estate but we have have actually had some you talk about how to finance things we did some 0% you know 24 month no interest type of thing so that we could buy the hot tub and pay the electrician and by the way hot tubs are needed they make sure you count all the costs before you do it that's the thing that that was our surprising challenge was how much it was to get the hot tub so I've actually started looking on when I look on Zillow now I put that as one of the requirement for the rentals to see if it's already there and so I'm actually talking to someone right now who's looking to rent start in December and he's already already got the fire pit he's already got the hot tub and uh it would just it would make the setup so much quicker for us to start another property and start listing it so down the road I mean this is something where we'd love for it to become what we do for our income and for

16:42 the rest of our lives so that we can just enjoy staying at some of those houses and traveling and not having to stick to the 9 to5 grind anymore yeah no that that's awesome and so for projections on this property uh what are we looking at from a cashow perspective for for this property here on a monthly basis yeah if we can just Nar yeah boil down to monthly again this is our highest this is the peak um would be now until January but right now it's going to be somewhere between 25 to 3,000 would be our cash flow over like the once the expenses are done you know so that cash flow would be once we pay the rent pay the utilities and everything that would be in our pocket we' be between 25 and 3,000 that's awesome and you know there's few more of those and you know you well on your way to Financial Freedom right and that's why I love this model right because it doesn't make a lot of properties like you before you know I got into real estate I thought I had to have you know a thousand doors to to ever retire but you know there's other methods you know different way this is just you know one of those methods where you can get to Financial Freedom much quicker right there's way less risk you know like we just got this house last year so we weren't going to turn around and and set up a second mortgage this is a great way to get your foot in the door make money while you're figuring out where do I want to invest larger chunks you know where do we want to purchase especially if you're not if you don't have any experience in the real estate market like we like us this has been a great way for us to get our feet wet make some

18:00 money but also you know like help curb the risk and be more educated in where we want to purchase 100% agree um I always recommend the same even if people have the capital I always tell tell them to go this route just because it gets their feet wet you have a property up and running there's much less risk involved than getting another mortgage right so that because that's a whole different beast but yeah you know totally totally agree with what what you're saying so another question I like to ask is you know now that you know everything's up and running how how like how much time per week do you are you typically you know spending managing assuming that you guys are managing the property yourselves right now yeah so we're managing so the property it's in our backyard because it's in the same state but it's still a 2 and a half hour drive from our house so we do have our cleaner is kind of like our property manager and stuff or she's our designated person in a lot of ways you know she'll bring in mail for us things like that and then the handyman as well so with the two of them right now I would say I probably spend 30 minutes a day working on some form of advertising so coming up with doing the reels or whatever it is on Instagram to just promote notice more I've also joined a bunch of groups you know for North Carolina vacation rentals so when I see people post hey we're a family of eight trying to find a place you know you put your listing on there so I've say maybe 30 minutes a day I'm spending just trying to promote more but as far as the house itself I mean it it's just doing its thing you know so I would say in

19:17 total maybe three hours a week that's awesome cuz a lot of people don't believe that they're like there's no way that you spending that little time but you know once you get the systems and processes up and running and you can even further down the line as you scale more you can even step back even further by hiring you know virtual assistants and whatnot like even you know with your first few properties like it really does not take that much time to you know to manage so there's that for the people that are the doubters that you don't actually believe it only takes a couple hours per week and I think it's also part of your personality and you know like I enjoy the engagement that I'm doing I don't have to do it you know most of our bookings have come straight from Airbnb they're not necessarily coming from this other it's just that I enjoy that part of it um I could step away and do less if I wanted to but I enjoy this Hands-On part of it our the next property we're looking at is in a city that's close to where our current one is so our handyman and our cleaners still work that area so we're actually thinking of how can we do another one that an easy setup because we wouldn't have to create a whole another team for it but no there's no lie it's really just a few hours a week right now and then it the system kind of does itself You Know M well I know you're busy so you know before we hop off here what advice would you have to someone that's you know considering starting their own Journey airb business entrepreneurship yeah what would you say to that person it seems like a lot and it seems maybe terrifying to take that risk but you know we're only a month and a half in

20:35 and we're already like it is completely worth the risk and I think that's why so many people get stuck in lives and schedules and you know these nineo FES whatever it is you get stuck in these lives and you just watch and say maybe one day I'll do it when this is more secure this is more secure and I would say just do it Airbnb is alive and kicking it's not dying and I can already see it's going to change the trajectory of how we get to live our lives together that's awesome and that's that's really what it's all about okay well thanks so much Lindsay for hopping on you know all the best to to Mr fiser as well even though he uh ditched start dit their call here today I know he he sounds good all right well have a good night U we'll talk to you soon thanks lindzie