Join us as we discuss how he grew his Airbnb portfolio one by one, in various sun drenched, fun-filled locations. He dives into the gaffe he made with his first property that he rectified with his second and third, how important it is to have a theme for the property, and the many ways Airbnb properties differ from hotels and motels. In addition, we find out how $10,000 can be the difference between renting privately and renting on Airbnb, and how one shower plus $5,000 can make a winning combination!

Timestamps:
02:18 | Some For Me, Some For You
04:50 | It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson
07:13 | A Day at the Beach— Or Lake? Take Your Pick
10:11 | Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
13:45 | Experience is Key
16:11 | Pick Your Perspective
20:20 | For Your Consideration
23:20 | To Renovate or To Rent?
26:17 | Bump Up the Bathrooms
28:48 | Lessons Learnt
32:03 | Think Like You’re on Holiday

Resources and Links:

[00:24:33] So maybe the $25,000 I put in might give me an extra $100,000 of sale price at the end of the day. Because when people buy property you want the buyer to be emotionally charged. You want them to go, ‘Oh, well, it's all nice and fancy and comfortable. I'm going to pay more money for that’. 

This is Property Investory where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

 

I’m Tyrone Shum and in this episode of Invest Like A Pro we’re chatting with founder and director of House Finder, Simon Loo. We discuss his recent foray into and success with renting his investment properties on Airbnb, and find out his tips and tricks for creating such great listings that are so fully booked, he can’t even use them himself!

Tyrone Shum: 

Loo shares with us what he’s been up to since the last time he was on the show, and if you’re interested in holiday letting, you’re in for a real treat!

Simon Loo:   

[00:00:55] It's definitely been some exciting progress. We touched base on the last episode that I was getting into the luxury Airbnb space. [It's] a bit of a passion project of mine that I've been dreaming about for many, many years, whilst I was building my initial portfolio of properties. 

[00:01:22] So just to recap, initially we picked up a waterfront property up on the north coast of New South Wales that we furnished. We set up the Instagram page, the marketing and everything and we started Airbnb-ing it out. And off the back of that we immediately found it was quite successful. So we actually bought another one that was in the same kind of area, also on the water, and has that physical attraction [and] appeal to it. And since we did the recording last time, we've already set it up, everything's all good to go. So currently, we've got two of these properties, just doing its thing as Airbnb rentals, really, at the end of the day. 

[00:02:18] The plus side, and 50% of the reason why I bought that, I remember mentioning last time, was the fact that I could use it personally as well. So when it [is] vacant, when it's not booked out, me and my family can go up and obviously enjoy the properties ourselves. Which, to be completely honest, we haven't really had that kind of opportunity as yet, because the demand has just been so huge to rent these properties that there hasn't really been a solid week or anything like that where it's become vacant. Which I guess is a good problem to have! But at the end of the day, we're just trying to keep our head above water.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:03:06] That's amazing to hear. And it sounds exciting, because it's really interesting that— we were having a conversation offline— saying that the properties [themselves are] actually pretty much able to generate positive cash flow in a very short space of time. Do you want to share with the audience how that's happened based on your calculations?

Simon Loo:  

[00:03:27] Obviously, going into these properties, we're again, treating it like a business. You kind of have to think to yourself, 'Okay, how many nights do I have to rent this property out for it to break even?', and 'How consistent we need to be throughout the year?' And with the first property that we bought, we worked out obviously a weekly figure, a monthly figure, a yearly figure. And, to our surprise— because we released that one in very, very early January, to rent out to holiday-goers— that actually surpassed our yearly figure that we needed to stay to stay positive cash flow within that first month. 

[00:04:12] So, imagine from my perspective, getting so much demand in that first month of renting it out, they covered all the costs of running this property for the entire year. That was one of the main reasons why I decided 'You know what? I think we should pick up another one'. So one month out of 12 we've already got all our revenue back for the year and then we've got 11 months of profit at the end of the day, so I can't definitely can't complain about that. 

Simon Loo:   

[00:04:50] Just to tie into that as well— just for any listeners out there who are thinking 'Oh, you know, I'm just going to go out and buy some property and Airbnb it'— you have to get a large number of elements right. There's quite a few variables that tie into the success of a property that I’ve found. And it could be a combination of things like where the property is, how much you're charging, how you decorate the property, how you stage— there needs to be themes, like I said in the last podcast, we had a professional designer come in and do everything— it needs to be priced well as well, you can't be too expensive, or you can't be too cheap either. 

[00:05:34] And one important, very, super, super important aspect that we noticed was your neighbours. Every Airbnb property is mostly in a residential area. And if you're having people or unruly visitors or party-goers and things like that, then it's going to cause a lot of distress to your neighbours, [and] in turn it will affect the performance of the property. If they're not good neighbours, while you have guests staying there, then obviously it's going to impact how popular it is in the future. So ensure that you have your respect for neighbours, respect for noise limits, and definitely no parties and really keep on top of that with an iron fist. I think that that actually is a huge factor of how successful a property can be. 

[00:06:35] So off the back of that, obviously, we've got a lot more experience now, we've got the second property going. So personally, I'm actually in the process of searching for a third. So it's definitely a bit of a journey at the moment, at the start of a journey. But it's definitely a lot of fun as well. Like, it's a lot of work. It's a huge learning curve. But for me, it's definitely something that me and my wife, we both really enjoy running and doing the promotions and the furnishing, and all that kind of stuff. So it's not all business!

[00:07:13] It's amazing to be able to hear that and congrats on that success with Airbnb. The first one is always the most challenging, because that's when you're learning everything and setting it up and so forth. And it's fantastic to be able to hear that first month, it's covered all the expenses. So you're pretty much going 'Okay, so what are we gonna do for the rest of the year?' Obviously, go buy another one, right?

Simon Loo:   

[00:07:36] Well, yes, I mean, enjoy the cash flow! Enjoy the property as well. I'm sure when winter comes around there's going to be a few more vacant weeks that we can go up and enjoy these properties ourselves. But having that second one coming on board is definitely exciting as well. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure each of the properties are a little bit different. 

[00:08:04] So the first one, we called it the Boathouse because it's on the water, it's got a little boathouse underneath the main house. And it lends itself to that more sort of rustic, boathouse feel to it. The second one, we're calling it the Lake House, because just the way that it's positioned on the water, it's a lot calmer, there's black swans and white swans—a lot of swans, that just are always present in that lake, and it's very picturesque. It's got nice gardens and all that kind of stuff. 

[00:08:44] And the third one that we're probably going to be going for, that I'm on the lookout for at the moment, is probably going to be beach themed. So we're looking for a property that's on the beach, if not very close to the beach. And naturally, we're going to be calling that the Beach House. So I think having a point of difference in your portfolio also means that you get a wider variety of guests. And not only that, but if you were to enjoy it personally as a family, then you can choose. Maybe I want to spend my holidays at the beach or spend my holidays fishing [at] the Boathouse... so that just gives us a little bit more choice. 

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:09:30] Wow! It sounds like you've got your holidays planned out for the rest of the year already!

Simon Loo:  

[00:09:36] Well, as you know, I've got some little kids. So I think it's important to have— if you can— that kind of choice. But anyone can do it, really, in the sense that you can rent the Airbnb, you don't have to own them to enjoy them up the coast or down the coast with your family. But for me, it just made sense to turn it into a business as well as having these properties that I can also enjoy with my family. So it's been a very interesting journey so far and I look forward to continuing it. 

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:10:11] Fantastic. So Simon, tell me a little bit more about the experience of the second property. We touched on it previously on one of the episodes, and you were in that process of just purchasing it. You had talked about the stage when you went to the open home, there [were] a lot of people there wanting to purchase the property as well. You felt that you might not be able to purchase it as well, because there [were] so many people coming through, but in the end, the owner chose you. So tell us about that journey after that— what have you done to that property currently?

Simon Loo:  

[00:10:45] We furnished it during the settlement period. From the learnings from the first property, we knew where to buy the furniture from, we knew how to furnish it. The delivery process is definitely a challenge, getting all the furniture like your fridges, and your beds, and coffee tables and things delivered to one place and making sure that they've been accepted. In our case, because these two properties were in driving proximity to each other, we just had all the furniture delivered to the first property that we had and just stored it in the garage whilst it was being used as the Airbnb. So that definitely helped. And obviously, just the physical labour of moving the furniture to the second property, unboxing them and putting them all together. That's been the majority of the time taken so far. 

[00:11:45] Establishing connections with your neighbours… for the first property, we did that immediately. But for the second one, that's what we've been doing as well, just ensuring that all the neighbours are aware of what we're doing. Maybe even getting them in on it in terms of ‘If you see any issues, or if there's any problems with guests or anything, let me know immediately’. They've got our numbers directly. It gives them a little bit of a peace of mind that we're not here to just ruin the neighbourhood and turn it into a massive party central type scenario. So just kind of building that rapport and maintaining that relationship with neighbours, I think has been super important. And just the other things, like obviously listing the properties and getting the booking started. 

[00:12:34] At this time of recording, we're aiming towards Easter; the Easter holiday is going to be a biggie for any Airbnb host. So, hopefully that'll all go smoothly, and it'll be a good test run for the property to see if there's any teething issues or anything we need to touch up. The second property as well, I've been planning to do a minor renovation on it because the property only has one shower. So I was thinking, obviously, to put in another shower in the laundry, and little things like that, just basically just a lot of prep work that's been going into this one.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:13:22] Has the property already settled as is, or are you still waiting on that process?

Simon Loo:   

[00:13:27] Oh, no, it's definitely settled. It settled pretty much on time. And we did a lot of work prior to settlement, but now that it's settled, we’re definitely all hands on deck, getting everything together as well.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:13:45] So how long do you think it might take to actually get someone in to do that? To add the extra shower or to do a little bit of those renovations? Because obviously, it's leading up very close to Easter. Will you have enough time to do all that kind of stuff, or will you do it later on?

Simon Loo:   

[00:14:01] Well, luckily I've got a lot of experience with my own properties, and helping my clients buy properties, from an investment perspective. You know obviously the thing to do is to get three quotes, make sure you check out the reviews of the people that you have working with you, meet them, obviously, making sure that they're trustworthy, and they can do it efficiently and cost effectively as well. So that that definitely helps. 

[00:14:32] I think it's been pretty smooth so far. We had a couple guys come out [to] do a quote, I know who I want to work with at the end of the day, and they're not going to take too long either. I think it was only going to be about three or four days to waterproof and put up the shower. So yeah, it's a pretty smooth process. And that I think that that comes down to the invaluable experience that you build up as a property investor yourself over time. It just makes it mentally a lot easier as well, just something that you go out and do. Whereas when I first started investing, to spend money on any property was quite a daunting task, just the act of having to spend money on any property. You're always kind of questioning, ‘Is it worth it? Should I do it? Should I not do it? Who should I use?’ All that kind of stuff. So I think having that experience has definitely helped.

Coming up after the break, we discuss the costs and benefits of listing on Airbnb compared to renting to tenants... 

[00:18:02] As a property that you're going to be renting out— as in you just buy it and rent it out normally to a tenant— sometimes it may not be worth the $5,000 [or] $10,000 renovation to get an extra $20 or $30 a week in rent, depending on where it is and what it is. 

We delve into the trap of overcapitalisation...

[00:22:34] I think a lot of people do get carried away when they do renovations, to make themselves feel better, to be completely blunt with you. I think a lot of people when they buy a house, they think, ‘I wouldn't be comfortable living here. So I'm going to spend all this money to make it look nice, and then rent it out’. 

He lets us in on the best ways to renovate your Airbnb to maximise your rental return...

[00:27:31] So for me, in my case, adding an extra bathroom in this Airbnb is pretty much purely to attract more holiday-goers, to rent the property. Because people will look at that fact that there's only one bathroom, and that will impact how much you can charge. 

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory.

Tyrone Shum:   

How do you determine if the money you’re going to spend on a property will give you additional value? Loo shares what he’s seen in his experience that gives a property that extra touch.

Simon Loo:   

[00:16:11] It depends on a lot of variables. In this case, as an Airbnb, adding an extra shower is going to make a huge difference to the bottom line. Because if you have two families wanting to holiday together, and they've got kids, having one shower or one bathroom is just simply not going to be enough at the end of the day when everyone's trying to have a shower, or whatever it is. So it's a no brainer from that perspective. From a purely investment perspective, I think the evidence is out there. 

[00:16:50] So for example, if you buy a property as a four bedroom, one bathroom property, then you can easily go and check out some of the recently sold properties to see how much they've sold for, and hopefully, when you buy it, you don't overpay for that property. And similarly, if you were to think to yourself, ‘You know what? This property has that potential’, like a really large laundry or something like that that you can convert into a second bathroom— again, it's equally as easy to just jump online and see what properties have sold that are four bedroom, two bathrooms. 

[00:17:25] If, let's say for example, the cost to chuck up this second bathroom is going to cost you $10,000— including vanity and shower and a toilet, all that kind of stuff, as well as tiling, waterproofing— and if the difference between four bedroom, one bathroom and four bedroom, two bathroom houses in that area is a $50,000 difference, then obviously immediately you know that it's worth it at the end of the day. And this comes from either an equity extraction perspective, or whether you want to sell the property perspective. 

[00:18:02] Now, I will say though, as a property that you're going to be renting out— as in you just buy it and rent it out normally to a tenant— sometimes it may not be worth the $5,000 [or] $10,000 renovation to get an extra $20 or $30 a week in rent, depending on where it is and what it is. Obviously it's going to take ages for you to recoup that money. And sometimes, depending on what stage you're at [in] your investment journey, it might actually make more sense to put that $10,000 towards your next property. Accumulate another property instead, and just rent the property out as is. And then one day when the property values have increased, or you want to put more equity out, then you can justify spending the $10,000 on the reno for that existing property that you have at the time.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:18:55] Yeah, I like the strategy that you're putting forward because it kind of gives investors— and even myself, I'm just thinking it through my own property journey— that [idea] that you’ve just got to weigh up the differences on what could potentially happen now, or whether or not you should just continue to buy another property in the future because it may be an opportunity cost. That $10,000, instead of putting that money into a renovation right now, you could actually potentially purchase another property in the future that could go up even more value which will cover all the costs anyway. 

[00:19:25] I'm actually thinking about a particular property I've got at the moment where it's been vacant downstairs, which used to be a commercial property. And we're just deciding whether or not to convert it into a residential unit at this point in time. And so far, the tradesperson who I've been working with has been fantastic. He's saying that it's going to cost about $25,000 to do the full fitout where we turn into a two bedroom unit— add vanities, a kitchen and all that. If I was to do that and I might get, say, $300 a week back from it, how long that's going to take to recoup that would be almost two years to be able to recoup that investment. Whereas having a chat with you about Airbnb, I'm really considering, ‘Okay, if I do do it, what about Airbnb?’ Where my property’s located you can literally see the water from where it is, like, it’s a few hundred metres down the road. So, yeah, I'm thinking the same thing.

[00:20:20] The other considerations you need to also take into account is if you do establish a— just using your example— if you do establish that second unit, will it impact the property, the existing property itself? I think a lot of people when they do these conversions, they think it's going to bring in extra income, which on paper could be correct. But the reality of the situation might be the fact that when you've got two separate parties living so close to each other, you might experience a lot more vacancies, you might experience a lot more sort of conflict between tenants. And that obviously, in turn impacts the cash flow and the performance of the problem itself. So that's another consideration. 

[00:21:07] A third consideration you might want to think about as well is whatever money you put into a property physically— whether it's a renovation, cosmetic, touch up, new bathroom, new unit, in your case— if you're planning to hold that property for the next few years, five years, 10 years, or whatever it is, just know that every single year that you have that property it’s going to depreciate. Anything physical in your house is going to depreciate, it's going to be worth less than it was when it was brand new. And it's going to be accelerated by the fact that you've got tenants living in that property as well because of wear and tear. Tenants aren't really going to care as much as you do about the brand new walls or the brand new floors or the brand new bathroom. So they're going to use it, it's going to depreciate, it's going to be worth less at some point in time. 

[00:21:58] So, again, looking at a situation where you've got, let's say, $10,000 of capital that you have, is it worth putting that $10,000 into a property of where that $10,000 is going to depreciate? What the benefit is of that is it could be an extra little bit of rent every week versus putting that $10,000 into the next property. Again, that could be worth more in terms of value for money at the end of the day. So this is just a quite a few things to consider. 

[00:22:34] I think a lot of people do get carried away when they do renovations, to make themselves feel better, to be completely blunt with you. I think a lot of people when they buy a house, they think, ‘I wouldn't be comfortable living here. So I'm going to spend all this money to make it look nice, and then rent it out’. But the reality is that number one, they don't get to enjoy it themselves. But number two, if the house was tidy, if it was safe, it was in a good decent condition anyway, they could have just rented it out for maybe a little bit less rent— definitely not more— than to cover the cost of renovating itself. So sometimes you just need to look at it from a really black and white perspective.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:23:20] That's what really bugs me at the moment, because I'm trying to weigh up the benefits of doing it as well. And I totally understand exactly what you're saying. Because for, as I said, $25,000 to reinvest into it, I might get an extra $20 a week. 20 times 52 is about $1000-something. So almost like 25 times. And you go ‘Why do people actually renovate a property or convert it?’ I mean, I need to convert it because commercial down there at the moment hasn't been good. And I could be waiting up to, say, six to 12 months roughly for a commercial play to come into place. So that's one of the driving forces behind it. But normally I wouldn't even renovate unless I needed to because I'd rather put that money into buying another property if possible, another investment.

Simon Loo:   

[00:24:12] Yeah, definitely. I mean, for your scenario, I mean, it's hard. Obviously, you need to analyse the commercial rental aspect of how much money you're putting in. Generally speaking, if I were to put $25,000 into an investment property, it would most likely be me preparing to sell that property. So maybe the $25,000 I put in might give me an extra $100,000 of sale price at the end of the day. Because when people buy property you want the buyer to be emotionally charged. You want them to go, ‘Oh, well, it's all nice and fancy and comfortable. I'm going to pay more money for that’. 

[00:24:54] The other reason is if I'm planning to pull out equity from that property, and if I do the reno the valuer will come in. And instead of looking at it as like a four bedroom one, using my example, like a four bedroom, one bathroom house, they might look at it as a four bedroom, two bathroom house and give me a much higher valuation, which means I can pull more equity out to use that to reinvest or whatever I what to do with that money. So very rarely, unless you buy an absolute rundown or you have a property that's in desperate need of renovation anyway, very rarely does it make sense to renovate and then rent out. 

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:25:36] Totally, totally, I mean, that's what I'm thinking, I'm thinking of the equity play here as well, not planning to sell the property, but I want to increase the equity play, because the fact is, once that's renovated, it's rented out, it'd be a commercial property. We base it on the rental yield, and bring the rental yield a little bit over... I think close to about 11%. So that should bring that up. And then that's what I'm thinking at the same time. But I'm also curious actually, how a valuer would be able to value your property based on the income from Airbnb, because it is quite a substantial difference in terms of the rental yield. Have you had a look or considered that avenue as well?

Simon Loo:   

[00:26:17] When I meant the valuation side of things, I meant more in terms of just your typical investment property that you buy and rent out yourself to a normal tenant. But valuers don't really take into account the rental amount. They don't really care whether you’re Airbnb-ing it or whether you're renting it out or maybe even if you're living in it yourself. They just look at the physicalities of it. So if we're looking at a four bedroom, two bathroom, two garage, brick house, 600 square metre block, 25 years old, then they'll just compare that to all the other four [bedroom], two [bathroom] 600 square metre 25 year old houses in that area. 

[00:26:56] So if I were to add an extra bathroom, [if] I made it, let's say, four [bedroom], three [bathroom], two [garage], then they'll compare it to all the four [bedroom], three [bathroom], two [garage] in the area as well. So there is an element in its actual full [valuation], where they go in, if the house is properly renovated, and it looks great, then there is a small element where they might be swayed to give you a high valuation. But most valuers just go off the fundamentals of the property itself. 

[00:27:31] So for me, in my case, adding an extra bathroom in this Airbnb is pretty much purely to attract more holiday-goers to rent the property. Because people will look at that fact that there's only one bathroom, and that will impact how much you can charge. It will impact how frequently people will book out a place. The cost to do the shower for me, for this particular place, is going to be less than $5,000. So I wouldn't say it's like a huge outlay. But the fact that you can have those two separate showers, I think will be definitely worth it in the future. If not for personal enjoyment as well. Like I said, I'll be using this property myself. And most likely I'll be with my family and maybe extended family or friends or something like that. And it'll be nice to have a couple of showers.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:28:30] I was gonna say, especially screaming kids going, ‘I want to have a shower, you can't fit everyone in!’ It really makes a huge difference. Absolutely.

Simon Loo:   

[00:28:37] And being close to the water, obviously a lot of the activity is going to be water based. People are going to get muddy, they're going to get dirty. So it just makes sense.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:28:48] It's really interesting to hear that side of things. And these are sort of the nitty gritty kind of things that we don't really hear much of. Because I guess we can see from the front end, okay, now it's successful, you've furnished it, you've put it on the market, you're going to get people coming through to rent the property and use it during that time. But there [are] a lot of behind the scenes things that we're just talking about that really adds an extra level of value to it. And things like this [are] really, really good that we're talking about. I'm also wondering, in terms of the marketing side of things, are you going to be applying similar strategies that you did for your first property to this one, or is there a slightly different angle for this?

Simon Loo:   

[00:29:27] There [were] a lot of lessons learnt from the first for the first property. How we photographed the property to put on Airbnb, obviously, that's the first and most important thing that people see when they're searching for a place to rent out for a couple of days. So having professional photos, having the theme or the furniture in the property all coordinated and all looking nice, that's super, super important. Social media is huge at the moment. So Instagram and all that kind of stuff and ensuring that your guests take photos and put their photos up on Instagram and incentivising them to do that. 

[00:30:16] So you can use that as well as content, I think that's also been quite important. The location of the property— I don't think I stressed this enough last time. I really do feel like the fact that the property, or the properties that we have so far, has been successful is because there is that appeal or that point of difference that most Airbnbs don't have. In this case, these properties are on the water. So if there are any people out there that are looking to get into Airbnb, and they're thinking, Oh, you know, I might rent out like my back room, or the granny flat’ or something like that, it may not be as appealing. Because if you go on holiday, or your family, [it] might be once a quarter or once every half a year, whatever it might be. You're not stressing too much about paying a little bit extra if it means [a] much more enjoyable experience, or if it means you're getting a property or you're getting to enjoy a property that is a lot ‘nicer’.

 

[00:31:26] So, I think having that ‘wow’ factor is very, very important. Otherwise, you just get muddled into all the other typical houses that people try and Airbnb out. Even though it might be close to some attractions or the beach or whatever it might be, it may not cut it, if it means that there are a lot of competitor Airbnbs, I guess you can say, that do have that ‘wow’ factor, that point of difference. So that's probably where we're going to be.

Tyrone Shum:  

[00:32:03] I think I totally understand and agree with you on that side of things, just because when you think about it, people are going away on a holiday. And as you've suggested as well, when they're going on holidays, they don't really want to be thinking about where to get laundry and all that kind of stuff done, as long as it's all there. That's the reason why it's an alternative strategy, an alternative way to go on holiday instead of renting a hotel or motel, that kind of thing. So as you said, you're spot on, it's not like you're just gonna rent out a granny flat and expect someone to do that, that's more of a rental kind of thing. Where you've got to think where the holiday people [are] going because people searching on Airbnb [are] usually wanting to go somewhere where they don't have to pay the prices of a hotel or motel or some kind of reservations that's going to be quite expensive.

Simon Loo:   

[00:32:53] I think that's a very good point there, Tyrone. I like the fact that all you really have to do is sit down and think ‘Okay, if I were to go on a holiday, and my family, what am I after?’ ‘If I were to stay at a place what kind of furnishing or what kind of quality would I expect from a place?’ And when you put that into perspective, then you will question yourself— okay, maybe I shouldn't try and save a little bit of money by buying... second hand furniture for example, which I do see a lot of. Even when we go and stay in some Airbnbs you can kind of tell that they've... maybe they had an old couch that they’ve used in their existing house and they've plonked it in into this Airbnb. That kind of stuff is actually really obvious. And it makes a huge difference. When you actually go to one of these places, and the overall feel— and I don't want to sound over the top— but the cohesiveness of how everything's placed and all that kind of stuff that makes a huge difference.

Tyrone Shum:   

[00:34:03] Absolutely. Like mish-mashing a combination of different things in there. To put it in perspective, if you were going to the Hilton— the Hilton has not cut corners and just put in any random furniture in there. And you're still paying premium prices to go in there. And I guess the reason why people search on Airbnb is that they are looking for a premium location without that premium pricing that you're paying for the hotels. You probably will not get the service that you are paying for for a hotel, but you are getting that premium feel and lifestyle, potentially, for your holiday to enjoy it, because that's what people want. So that's the reason why people are willing to pay just a little bit extra but not as high a rate as a hotel. Hotels have their place, for sure, but Airbnb has come in and disrupted the market, providing us with a great opportunity like this.

Simon Loo:   

[00:34:53] Yeah, it definitely has. It’s been fun, don't get me wrong, but for anyone out there who is under the assumption that they are ‘Yeah, sounds great, I'm going to buy a place and Airbnb it out’, I will say that it is a lot of work. You have a significant interest, enough to spend a lot of time setting it up— obviously purchasing property in the first place— but obviously setting it up and doing the necessary marketing, the communication with every guest, ensuring everyone's [having an] enjoyable [time], liaising with neighbours, liaising with cleaners, spending a lot of money to upkeep the property as well. 

[00:35:39] All this kind of stuff requires a huge amount of work. And to be fair, there are definitely companies out there that do do it. But just to be completely blunt, I’ve found the ones that I did inquire on to be subpar in terms of what I would expect as acceptable. So luckily, we're in a position where we can do it ourselves. And I think that's also another key factor that gets that personal touch. You know what I mean? Like, it makes a huge difference to outsource it.

Thank you to buyer’s agent Simon Loo, our guest on this special episode of Invest Like A Pro presented by House Finder. 

Also, for being a loyal listener of the podcast, I’ve asked Simon to offer a free 1 hour strategy session normally valued at $500 to help you put together an actionable property plan.

To get your free strategy session, simply visit housefinder.com.au and fill out the contact form, or call Simon directly on 0415 626 342 and quote “Property Investory”.