Sunny's Houston Airbnb near the Texas Medical Center

0:00 so in today's video we're talking with sunny who found a niche and just ran with it so he works as a respiratory therapist at his day job and he's looking into other businesses to help him supplement his income so this is a prime example of leveraging knowledge and then turning that into action we're also going to be talking about how Taylor Swift helped him make five thousand dollars of profit in just one month this is a great conversation with someone that's absolutely crushing it I know you're gonna love it all right sunny in the house uh thanks for helping on man it's always good good to chat um so I know you know you've been you know doing really well with your property um I know you're looking at other properties here to scale as well here soon so let's just talk about you know what inspired you to start an Airbnb business and we'll go from there okay so what I am a respiratory therapist in Houston Texas and I've been working for about two and a half years almost three years now and I just know that I want to do like a side hustle I always want to do real estate investing on the side even before respiratory therapy but I just knew I needed to you know get some Capital somehow get my foot through the door and make some income before I start investing so yeah after I built I have enough savings I decided to do real estate investing like Airbnb because I've seen people who have done it and they are making quite a bit of money and I was interested I was on Instagram I was on YouTube I came across your IG profile and I watched your reels and I

1:18 just got hooked on and I signed up for your class and that's how I dive into it nice match so yeah respiratory my wife is actually a respiratory therapist so I know you know especially during the pandemic how hard you guys were working and I'm sure it's crazy for you as well yeah so I mean that's kind of what a lot of people's you know Ambitions are right or they want you know to start a side hustle something like respiratory therapy you have a couple days off per week where you can you know kind of use that time to you know start building it so so I'm assuming do you have a family or what does that look like right now yes I'm living with my mother right now bought this house about in 2002 my dad did and then he passed away back in 2015 when I turned 21. I inherited the house ahead of this household and yeah it's just me and my mom mountains in the beginning of Houston gotcha so you know kind of going back to that because you know you we're both kind of from Asian backgrounds so there is you know kind of this like level of responsibility you know especially I'm just like you know you being the head of the household you have this responsibility to provide for you know your mom and you know try to get that better lifestyle so where does that stem from is that just from your background like where did that responsibility wanting to start a side hustle you know where did that desire come from yeah I think that decides kind of a sense of well I knew I had to take care of my mother because she is getting older and my dad prepped me for a long time as I was growing up he said one day

2:35 you know I would not be here it's up to you to take care of your mom and when she's gone you have to know how to take care of yourself and when you go a family you have to take care of that so he built that into me 2015 when he passed away I guess my life had a huge jump start I knew that I can't be like messing around so much I had to find a way to take care of my mother but know how to secure myself for the future so it's not just like real estate investing but investing in myself that's how I answered Medical field and I knew that I need to do something more so that way even when I take care of my mother I knew that I can be secure for my future family whenever they come into my life awesome that's good that's great record man so let's kind of talk about some of the challenges you start you face you know when starting this business just because obviously a lot of people see the end result they don't see the struggle and all the hour countless hours you know kind of developing yourself to get to that point so what are some of the challenges that you faced you know with this business and how did you overcome those things let's see I think first thing would be education how to educate yourself what is thought you know do I just you know just Google something how do you Google it how do you know which source is a reliable source to look up a lot of stuff who would ask like I just came here across your IG profile just by you know Stroke of Luck I was just scrolling and then all of a sudden I hear about Airbnb real estate investing and I guess as I applied for your school course

3:53 that's when met other people and then they also helped me learn more about what to do how to real estate real estate testing and at my hospital I hear other people who is also doing really say investing so that's how I could connect with them and educate we educate each other in that aspect so that's pretty cool so one of the hardest things I say to start out is not just no I went to something but how to start and once you know how to start then is about when and the answer should always be just right now this jump a gun see where you can go and then just keep improving from there I'll say that's the main struggle just knowing how to start yeah I think you touched on a good point a couple of good points number one is having that community and being surrounded with like-minded individuals because if you're surrounded by a bunch of people that don't have that ambition like whether you like it or not you're going to be the average of the five people that you're around the most which is I'm a huge believer in because you know my income exploded once I started getting around and keep you know communicating and collaborating with people that were on the like my you're like-minded individuals wanting to get to the same place that you wanted to be and then number two is it's like all this knowledge is great but if you don't actually apply it then it's not going to do anything and so I think that's something you know something that I'm picking up on is that you're really good at taking the knowledge and then just you know going right away and starting

5:10 applying it is that is that kind of on the right path of what I'm saying yes exactly yeah cool and that was just listening you know making mistakes is already given you will make mistakes but that's how you learn that's the like the golden tidbit like make the mistakes so that you can learn 100 so let's talk about the first property that you found uh can it kind of give some backstory on you know how did you find it how did you choose the area and also you know let's start let's start there and then we'll go on to the other details yeah sure so as you know I'm working a medical field I'm respiratory therapist inside Texas Medical Center and as I'm working I'm like you know there are families who are visiting the medical center who wants to visit the um you know stay with the children or the relatives or extended periods of time or just some visitors from our state coming in they want to stay temporarily and they go back home so I thought well if there's a property around here like instead of just going to a hotel you can uh book a house that you know has a sense of privacy and enough space for enough visitors so I looked around uh the Texas Medical Center in Houston Texas and my first property is like six minutes away from the Texas Medical Center I found it on Zillow and I saw it it was up for rent and I thought this is a townhouse that is four stories with uh um five bedrooms and two and a half baths it looks pretty

6:27 good so I thought you know if I rent this place I mean sublease this place it would serve very well to those families or any medical workers who are visiting so on Zillow I found that and I decided to give it a go give a landlord a call A realtor actually and then she hooked me up with the landlord and the landlord was very open to it because initially this house was for pre the previous tenant for this townhouse was for a family with kids because there's a school nearby that's very very good for children so when I bought the idea of a serving for the electrical field families and for medical workers or business professionals he was open for it nice so how did that pitch look like because I think that's something that you know people struggle with with you know talking to people trying to convince the landlords you know what was that conversation looking like with you know first of all you know talking to the agent to kind of get her on board so that they would you know go and Kim communicate to the landlord hey this is an offer that I want to present to you so let's talk about how are you able to you know get the you know the the go ahead from the landlord and also the agent okay I think the first thing was how my experience was again I was a respiratory therapist I work nearby and I see some families who want to you know temporarily rent like stay at a house so that that way they can visit their families or relatives and the level was very like you know empathetic about that I guess that's what hooked them on it's like oh this is a very nice idea uh we

7:45 didn't know idea of uh subleasing before because you before he was serving other families for the schools and all that stuff so why pitch that idea that's when he realized oh yeah now that you mention it I am nearby a hospital I never realized that the way I have that um service um pitched towards him he was empathetic he was and he wanted to help as well so that way there's act that though that bond that to help others so to help others is what helped my pitch to ask for his permission to sublease got it yeah it sounds like you you did a good job of building your Rapport as well and you know kind of getting him on board with the business model because you know a lot of the times people think that it's kind of like you versus the landlord and trying to see who can get the better deal but if you frame it the right way and if you structure everything correctly it can be a win-win right because you can you know you know treat their property better or through paying them a little bit more in rent each month like there's a lot of different aspects where it can be a win-win um it sounds like you were able to do that really well with this landlord yeah I think that what helps is having a purpose of why you want this sublease right not just saying yeah I just want to do it for like travel people who are coming in and then if there's like a money driven mindset it's that's that's a little bit harder but it's like a business driven like to help others a mindset in that aspect with you know in the medical medical field our

9:04 business field then I think that truly helps and I I think you were able to gain that expertise knowledge of your market and you know kind of come in from okay this is my plan kind of laying it out there being vulnerable and just letting him know what you're planning on doing instead of trying to be sneaky about it or whatever because I you know I see people saying hey like you know I want to tell them this like what do you think and I'm like just be honest with him because at the end of the day they're gonna find out it's better just to be open and honest at the beginning and then you know from there that's going to develop that Foundation of having a good relationship you know before you move in just because in almost all cases it's never going to work out if you start off the relationship on a lie and so I'm a firm believer in that yeah for sure I believe that so uh let's kind of talk through your photos first uh can I talk walk me through some of the ideas behind it because obviously these photos are professionally taken so let's kind of talk about you know your thought process on the design and all that okay cool main point one is yes always get get the photos professionally done I haven't furnished this way just by scrolling through all the websites different websites cell division of that this is a like a very homely Vibe so that when people are visiting they're not like overblown with a bunch of different designs and when I get that photos done I knew the backyard patio was like the money shot you know with the string

10:20 lights and uh the backyard Furniture this is where I believe people will be hanging out you know just talking to each other really relaxing and then I go indoors with that living room with the sofa and the um TV with the boy games this is when people will come inside and they can still hang out have a good time and relax as well and then there's the kitchen kitchen area is is that uh not the greatest greatest design but it's just a good area for people to also still hang around have breakfast have a cup morning coffee have lunch have dinner they can cook with whatever they need and then in the bedroom so our four bedrooms but one of the bedrooms have two twin beds there's a king bedroom two queens and a Jack and Jill bathroom yeah because this was originally like a house for families really so like children can come into the um Jack and Jill bathroom and sleep while the parents were living in the massive Suite yeah very big bathroom a huge mirror very spacious space in the master bedroom the high high ceilings like even when I furnish it this way with the master bed and the table and the two chairs it's still a lot of space so it really gives that open feeling so that they're not they don't feel so cramped and then the fourth floor is a a um it used to be a game room but then I converted to just another bedroom and another table for like private space in case someone needs

11:39 to do like a conference call and yeah that's how I designed it yeah no it's really clean uh looking just you know something that I think a lot of because you know who your target target audience is right like you have that in mind for the get-go and that's really important when it comes to you know designing your property is to you know think about it from the perspective of a traveler right your ideal demo or person that you're trying to uh Target and I think you've done a beautiful job obviously everything looks good clean and even you know the furniture looks good and updated and so you know you've done it obviously you've done a good job because you've have you know five star reviews coming in so let's talk about like yeah do you feel like the target audience that you had in mind is that the person that's staying consistently at your property or what does that look like yes so um the guest I had two of them were uh two of the guests were weekly stays they were both parents of a of a child who's getting a surgery in the medical center they stay for a week and then one of them are a travel group of people who are here for a business meeting business convention near the NRG Stadium they worked with the Hess Oil Corporation in Houston I wasn't familiar with them but when I looked it up it looked it was a very legitimate Corporation so that was pretty cool and then the other two were this guests who were traveling for a NRG Stadium event so just like recently there was a Taylor Swift concert and

12:57 that was the one I made the most profit because there were 10 guests they hear and yeah they paid they picked quite a lot for uh just to stay for two nights the other was just Atlanta Google guess who was just visiting Houston for the first time and then they just wanted space near the downtown area and Energy stadium so that that's actually a really good point that you bring up because a lot of times when you look at someone's calendar I'm assuming you have the dynamic pricing setup right yes I do no yeah perfect so talking about that Taylor Swift concert because if you just had stagnant pricing where it was just let's say 200 a night just kind of whatever like someone would have booked those nights where the Taylor Swift concert was happening and they would have only made you know a couple hundred bucks but you had the the dynamic pricing on I would imagine and you know it kind of picks up and shows that you know there's a huge demand for you know airbnbs or hotels during that time and so you were able to charge a premium because something you know something was happening in that area so so how was that how do you feel like Dynamic pricing has helped your business you know pick up those extra Revenue yeah so I use Priceless like um the one you uh recommend on your class and it worked really well yeah I would never know that Taylor Swift was coming in that weekend if I used price Labs I look those days I'm like why is these dates like more expensive than the others is there

14:13 something special so with a little Google search I realized oh Taylor Swift is coming into uh into town thing no wonder prices might went up so I would have never known if it wasn't for this um the dynamic pricing really helps awesome man so let's let's talk about because I know you're looking at other properties and you're sending in you know deals for us to review and whatnot so what's kind of your goals you know in the in the future you know when it comes to this business and um yeah let's talk let's talk about you know some other ideas about your current business and where you're wanting to be in you know the next year or so so uh I know subleasing was a like a very huge a very great way to get your foot through the door and to make generate profit but now it's all about taxing and my friend was like saying you know you can also be able to own the house as well so you can take advantage of appreciation build equity and all that and I was just looking around the same way I was doing with my Airbnb just looking around Jill I'll see what's around see if I can own anything and then while I was running this Airbnb there was a new construction going on in front of my Airbnb it's super close it's a new four-story townhouse five bedrooms and I was thinking well if my Airbnb right now is doing well and let's say the landlord is willing to like terminate this lease for some reason I was thinking if I buy this townhouse in front of it it could also

15:31 like do just as well if not better so that was just a thought that I had and I was just looking around and I just want to know you know if I want to own a own a property does it changes anything when it comes like like what's different between that and Arbitrage owning a property yeah no for sure so let's talk about you know some of the numbers on this current property right like what what are we looking at cash flow-wise on average uh for this current property and they say it's doing pretty well so I was fully booked out this this month and then minus the uh rent minus the rent and utility bills and all stuff I would made 55 216 yeah that was back my profit for this month so over over five thousand dollars for the month today geez yes yeah yeah I guess it was just a Taylor Swift but yeah I only made at least 2K up it looked coming up in June and July yeah it's going pretty well awesome man you know that's great you know you've obviously you know found a really good niche in your market and you took action so you like a lot of people are like oh like you know he just got lucky because Taylor Swift was in town but it's like you you took the action steps to be able to get lucky I think people that take action just end up being luckier because they kind of create that for themselves so you know that's awesome that you're able to you know have such you know honestly life-changing money right yeah sometimes you know being a respiratory therapist obviously you know you guys obviously do you know all you know

16:48 awesome jobs uh you work really hard but sometimes you can make even more doing this than you know your full-time job which is you know awesome supplement and also to help uh support your mother as well no so why did you actually want to join you know a program to kind of get to that next level uh you know specifically you know obviously the Airbnb Arbitrage roadmap that you know we run and the community what what made you want to join is this your um way that you made your IG videos it was very convincing I was like you know I don't know what it is I felt like I could trust this guy you know he's all I guess it's because either you're also Asian and I'm Asian and I just felt that relation I just want to join just to get a head start again for the education educational value and yeah that's why I joined your world map class yeah and obviously I I don't want it to be like Oh I'm trying to convince you to do something right it's I try to you know give the value because I'm a firm believer if you give that value away then it's going to come back to you as well right and that's always kind of been the idea for the all the channels is to give away as much value uh you know you can take it and use it and I've got I got so many messages of people asking me about what I do um if they can help me and so I decided you know kind of came from people constantly asking me I never wanted to do any sort of coaching or anything like that that is a huge reason why I wanted to start that is because so many people were asking and I'm glad that you know you found the value from that yeah

18:05 there's so much value that uh you uh you bought and I just want to say thank you so much yeah man and I'm not paying Sonny to say that but I appreciate that man cool so how many hours per week do you feel like you're dedicating to your their current business like what is like have you outsourced the management yet or are you managing the property yourself for now and then what is that what is that looking like time commitment wise yeah so right now this is just my first Airbnb so I'm doing everything myself I did all the first I'm doing all the communication with the guests and managing all by myself when I started this business and before I uh sublease this property I would say this before Thanksgiving before the holidays of last year that's and I spend maybe like maybe three hours a day might as the work days that I worked so I would say around four days out of the week so three hours so 12 hours a week I spent a lot of researching about okay how do I get this finished how do I make a game plan of getting everything delivered and setting it up and making it look nice pointing with the professional photography get the string lights installed yeah I would say 12 hours a week since Thanksgiving last year up into end of February of this year because I launched I launched this Airbnb in March so yeah it's been around that time I spent much got it so that's on the initial setup of the actual property right yes cool so now that it's you know up and running I'm assuming

19:22 it's a lot less than that where you know just kind of have to to manage the property guest communication and cleaners and stuff uh how many hours a week do you feel like you're working you know now that it's up in live okay nowadays it's just mostly just an hour out of the day yeah this community came with the guests asking any questions talking to my cleaners saying hey this day uh I guess we'll check out please come in and clean on this date and this yeah is much less hours worked than getting it furnished yeah for sure yeah the initial setup part does can take you know time obviously because you want to make sure that everything's good to go in the proper place you know ready for photographers and kind of getting everything lined up but you know even 12 hours isn't unreasonable per week right it you know you work a full-time job and I'm sure some days were harder the harder than others but uh once it's up and running like it really can be streamlined if you have the proper systems and uh you know processes in place so yeah the kind of talk about uh you know your next you know you're kind of your overall vision for the next you know even let's drag it out to two to three years like what what does that look like you know from year end what are some of your goals that you're trying to achieve yes so probably by about year three I hope I um have like maybe a fifth Property I'd own or sublease that helped me generate a good amount of profit hopefully at least two or three k a month monthly like this one and once that's done I should be uh able to go on to doing like

20:42 bigger deals out of state hopefully like maybe the my third problem maybe I'll stay or just even at least out of the city of Houston somewhere where it's a little bit more luxurious like a beach fund property or something but go right if the US three should be having at least five properties that helped me generate a good amount of profit and that's the beauty of this business model because you so something I love because like a lot of people when they get into real estate they're like I want to have 50 doors or I want to have 100 Doors the nice thing about this business model is that there's a lifestyle component component to it right because you know I personally have over 40 traditional long-term rental units and it's not fun managing that many uh that many tenants sometimes right yeah even if you Outsource the property management you still have to kind of deal with like the repairs and all that but the thing with this is like you just need a handful of properties in order to truly become financially free um yeah and so being you know particular about the properties I select and and all that you know can get you to where you want to be pretty quickly which is awesome so what yeah what are your thoughts on that yeah I want to focus more on just quality rather than just having a bunch of airbnbs and just like Supply Furnishing it yeah it may be generating me a good amount of profit but I'd rather focus on you know good giving a good experience for the guests especially if since I'm marking catering

22:00 towards like uh travel families who are visiting for other family relatives I want them to have a good experience not just like a place they can just sleep in about places they can come by and actually feel like they're home away from hope that's one of the views that my guest um my three-year-old my five yes told me it feels home away from home and I feel like you know that's why that's why I want for my properties to feel like you know it's not just like a place that I just bought so I can make money off of it it's also my home that I'm willing to share yeah you know no I think a lot of like you you know even looking at your listing and you know the thought process and all like the hard you know sweating tears that you put into it you can definitely tell that there's a human touch to it right because you know when you're because obviously there's you know there's a nothing wrong with scaling you know you know dozens and dozens of units but like you kind of lose that aspect of why a lot of people get started in this business in the first place is to have a home away from home and kind of give that experience to some someone else's family because these are memories that these families can cherish for forever right with their you know traveling with their families and all that stuff so um love that you're you know kind of bringing that Personal Touch to it yes sure cool so uh you know kind of let's just talk about you know kind of to wrap

23:19 this up you know what are the biggest takeaways that you learn from kind of starting this entrepreneurial business and uh yeah let's just kind of see what what's what's your biggest takeaway from starting this business uh that's uh my biggest takeaway is that this I just wish I could start this much sooner like I was much more confident back then yeah there's so many opportunities that uh to be had and it just like you said it just you just have to start now you know and the more you start now and the more success you have the more you think about man I should have started even sooner I wish I could start even sooner you know but even then it's still not too late to start so that's the biggest takeaway is that I wish this was I learned about this even before respiratory so that way uh I have a game plan already so that I could scale much faster awesome dude well I know uh how valuable your rest days are as a respiratory therapist you know just because my wife was one um so yeah appreciate taking the time man thanks for sharing uh your story and also you know how you've been able to be successful I'm sure it's going to help a lot of people so um appreciate the help man and we'll we'll talk to you soon