How to Make Money with Airbnb Like a Pro with Ralph DiBugnara

foreign [Music] welcome to Super entrepreneurs podcast today we have with us Ralph D book Nera I hope hopefully I pronounce your last name yeah you got it you got it right oh that's awesome because you know sometimes I make a mistake no it's pretty yeah it's not an easy one the first time either so you did a good job no no that's that's so thank you so much is that what is that uh Italian Italian yeah ah nice awesome my friend so you know we always like to start the show um by kind of allowing the guests to take the stage and introduce themselves in their own words uh would you mind sure um so my name is Rocky mcnaira I uh I'm a mortgage and real estate professional for the last uh 21 years I guess now at this point um I run a pretty large mortgage division uh that's really my main day to day and besides that uh a lot of my life is my own personal real estate portfolio which consists of a lot of short-term rentals at this point now that's a big portion of it so Airbnb stuff is a big portion of it um we also have disruptive Network which is uh our podcast and TV show the TV show was on Apple TV um Amazon Prime uh Roku last year and now this year it's going to be on DirecTV um season two is going to be on DirecTV so that's premier hearing hopefully in October we're still working on a release date and I have a book coming out uh in a week actually well the 31st um that first book is called the growth trap and that's really a story about kind of my growth and failure through business and The Traps that I I got kind of got caught in and I interview a lot of other people who are like me entrepreneurs whether they're famous or not and just kind of traps that got quoted on the way to success so that book's coming out it's available on all platforms Amazon Barnes and almost Target and that's the 31st so that's I guess the the uh the short reader's Dodges version of Me no that's great that's great Ralph that's great and you know I always say that you know any book that anybody mentions I feel that it should be given the time and the energy um to review it read it you know what I mean like not just the whatever books that you you may think that you want you need to read or someone that you respect you know kind of recommended a book but any book you know any book that comes up like you mentioned this book for me is so valuable because I want to read what other entrepreneurs went through even though I know because I went through it right I know everyone you know there's a struggle always right because we're there's a big risk we're taking as entrepreneurs right so there's always going to be a story but it's so amazing to kind of read a book read a story find out what troubles they went through how they overcame them and it can only become you can only find that in books I find I yeah I I agree with you I mean I read every single day it's a staple within my life yeah me too which is how I ended up writing something because um I you know I got all this knowledge and you asked us so much that other people are working on that you can relate to through reading so I agree with you like I really feel like it should be given the time um sometimes I feel like I don't even give the stuff I'm reading enough time and I have to go back and read it again so I'm a thousand percent on that yeah yeah like I will do I agree with that as well like I'll do a book more than once I won't if it's a book A book is good and I have received something from it I'll read it more than once yeah um yeah it's beautiful but do you do audio or do you read I'm audio uh so I like to save here yeah so I I kind of tasked stack in the morning so I'll get up and exercise every single morning and I listen to earlier before I'm exercising so it's it's really a good start for me because I'm kind of feeding my brain and I'm giving myself energy and um so yeah so I do audio and that really works yeah it works for a lot of entrepreneurs so much but that's why podcasts are so important uh be successful right especially the entrepreneur ones you just put them in your ear and you just listen you're good to go yeah so so how did you get into this short term like you know there's other opportunities right where you can um invest in a single family home for example or apartment building whatever and and just get a lower income but a monthly kind of stable income for example why would you choose uh short term like Airbnb compared to that so so you know it really started for me um around the beginning of covet actually um that's when I started to go really heavy towards that and um there was a little bit of a dip in that market you know airbnbs were kind of Frozen because nobody could stay anywhere so I started to see um that there was a need because before Kobe it was a very very high demand for it um and then after covert there was less properties available so it's kind of like this place in the market I was like well I see an opportunity here so that's how it started um you know we changed one of my long-term rental properties over to a short-term rental property and then I really saw the light and then I started to go out to purchase properties that was specifically for um this so over the last two years I've acquired about 14 properties that are strictly uh Airbnb uh short-term rentals and it's a lot more work for sure it's definitely more work it's like running a hotel but it's also um it's a it's a it's a higher rate of return on my money so you know like anything else as you know like the more more you get paid the more you're going to work so we just we've learned the system with it and and I really believe in it um as an investment strategy no no that's great and you know I want to ask you do you do those um the swan uh uh the towels the swan towels and different animal shaped towels my properties are all over the place but I don't have the same cleaners but I do have cleaners in three of my luxury properties that do do the spots that do that right yeah and you know what it's the little things so you really like you know what I mean so it's like those little things I've learned that um the good stays are really in the details of people so yeah that little stuff is important yes so true Ralph like I live by the small details because that small details have a way bigger effect on subconscious than anything else a conscious we're so busy right everything is just whizzes by us there's little things all of a sudden they just kind of get feeded in and you remember well I went to that place and like I still remember where I've seen those kind of things you know what I mean it makes it a good experience you know I even kind of um I live my life um kind of that way like even the properties I buy the properties of places that I had fond memories of in those areas like so I know if like if it's an area that I like for a specific reason and I want to go back then chances are that some other people who are like me so I even buy properties kind of around that theory um that's great and you do do you recommend doing any uh specific or or luxury type improvements for example if you buy a property in a good location that you know is going to be picked up uh quite often on these short-term platforms um would you add a hot tub if you could would you add a pool like do you do those things yeah so it depends on the it depends on the area for sure but you know here's what I would say two things uh you know just basic things that I think are very very important you know I I you know we're having we're in a recession at this point now and we and we're probably going to see some kind of dip in the housing market right um I think that the property that is safe my properties that I've seen that have done well are properties that are in vacation areas that were always vacation areas pretty much right so like the first thing you can really do is find the property in an area that has other attractions besides your house right so whether it's a beach or it's a lake or it's a historical downtown or it's wineries or whatever get something that's going to draw people in that's just not your house because so so that's that's first because it gives you a kind of thing um some of the things I found that have been really really helpful within the houses are definitely Pools and Hot Tubs for sure are my houses with those um attributes do better um being pet friendly is a big help with Airbnb you know I think that people want to travel with their pets so that's definitely something I would do um I have a property that has a home gym and that has really really helped so I think there's little things like that that definitely help but I think the most important thing is find homes in areas that have attractions besides just your house um that's excellent because you know there are people that pick up properties uh for Airbnb um just because they're getting a good deal right so compared to that that's a really good point right so if someone's looking at oh I'm getting a solid deal here you know I can I can do good on Airbnb but the location is is not like the typical location that does well like vacation spots but it does good and yeah in those situations I think the recommendation for that type of individual is that you know what just step back and just take a look at those locations and then come here yeah and that's the biggest thing you know because you know you see a lot of Articles out there right now is is Airbnb going to be down and if you look if you really look at the stats and I do because you know it's something obviously that they live in every single day the demand for these properties is actually up but what is also up is the amount of properties that are on the market to be rented you know I was covert a lot more people have caught on to the trend but I do think the houses that are going to have the most trouble over the next couple of years when people are spending less money is um homes that are just like the same house next door or the homes that don't have anything specific about the area that you want to be in except that you just needed some place to stay I think those houses um are going to have a harder time renting um during cold but I think during covet and those kind of times people just wanted to get away when the economy is moving people needed places to stay you know I think the stuff that falls down is that kind of stuff yeah yeah such a great point you know and then for for someone wanting to to kind of Park their money and and get something or get involved in the short term what would your recommendation be if they starting from scratch what what should they be doing first is obviously research to find the right location or do you recommend first making arrangements to have the down payment ready and answer like what are the steps that you recommend so I think that zeroing on on an area that you want to buy in is definitely okay number one right like hey this is where I'm going to start looking right you know having funds available to do it for sure but I think finding an area that makes the most sense for you and and here's the thing the beautiful thing about Airbnb rbo all the information is out there um there are websites that'll give you exact numbers for exact houses and what they rent it for so you can go like I use a website called airdna um I have a course based on this by the way it's called the next Real Estate gold watch so if anybody's interested in short-term rentals you want to get in I have a course it's the next Real Estate goldrush.com and I go through my 80z steps on what I did right wrong in a different uh of this but this the the all the stats are out there right so um airdna.com will give if you put a zip code in you have to pay for the zip codes but if you put a zip code in it'll give you the exact stack to that zip code what the house is rented for what the demand amount for was what the occupancy rate for is and if you look at the top properties in the area it'll tell you the dollar amount for the year that they actually rent it for the average daily rate for so you can really zero in on an area and say hey I want to be in this ZIP code I know that this is going to be my competition so I have to have a house that's comparable to this property and if I do that I probably should be able to make about this much amount of money now I'm making unsimplifying it but like the stats are out there so you can really make conscious decisions but I think first is finding an area that first you like that has a decent amount of income potential in and third where it's legal to do short-term rentals so it's it's performing the the local municipalities and see that making sure what their short-term rental rules are but that's where I would start um yeah that's great because you know a lot of and for the audience for example a lot of people you know hear this stuff and then like Ralph just shared some amazing links and ideas to to research right to look into this but from my experience um what I my advice or my recommendation would be is always invest in some kind of expertise knowledge either you know course mentorship coaching something like that I know it costs a lot more but the reason I'm saying that is because that information that knowledge that they're sharing they have very pinpointed details that you would miss otherwise and make mistakes and then you know waste time and we don't want to waste time we don't want to waste money and that's why you yeah you invest you find out yeah what you're buying is time like my course is 987 what you've bought with 997 is my time over the last two years and all the mistakes that I've made so yes that's a that's an excellent point really really yeah because I see it too much yeah like I'm I'm in the public right so I I see I see this they say oh you know that pointer that what you shared was amazing you know it helped me and I'm glad it helped you know I'm glad but just be very careful because that's one point there might be 10 other linked points that you don't know and then you know it might be okay for now but what if what if right so you want to make sure you have your your t's cross eyes dotted you know you want to make sure you know everything so you don't hit a hiccup or you don't hit a bump as as much as possible of course you're on the money yeah yeah so that's great so do you do you do public speaking too right yeah so you know I do some we do some stuff from disrupt this network but we've done over the last we did a lot of it before covert and then coven kind of slows down a little bit now we've gotten back to what we have really educational uh seminars where we're trying to train people how to um either build their business through their branding or just build their business through different sales strategies so we just had a conference a few months ago called the code instructors and we had Brad Lee we had Kevin Harrington who was on Shark Tank I had Dottie Herman you know and I had them come in and we had them speak to our community about you know what are your sales strategies this year and what are you branding how are you building a business so a lot of the stuff I'm doing is built around that I get asked to speak sometimes about my story and that really is what the growth trap is and I explained kind of how I started I went like this and like this and like this and it's not a straight line up but like um you know what have I learned from my failures and how am I using that now to to make the right decision so yeah a little bit we're doing a little bit of public speaking yeah so then were you we always uh someone that that wanted to go into entrepreneurship or investment or mortgage for example is that like the business side of you that made you go into the mortgage world I think no no it wasn't actually I think I think it was that was in my brain I grew up I grew up in Brooklyn New York and I grew up uh you know my family was my father was a teacher my mother was an educator as well um he was a principal and um I knew that I didn't want to do that because my father said teachers in New York City don't make any money don't become a teacher right so yeah and I saw people around me mostly um people who were making money were doing the wrong things so I and and so I learned that at a younger age that's not what I wanted either but you know I wasn't very good in schools when I graduated college um I just graduated because I kind of had to and I just made it through and there was no job it was 2001 2002 when the um.com bubble had just burst so there weren't a lot of jobs out there they were sales jobs so my first job was I was selling copiers door-to-door which was the only job I could really get um and then I had a friend who was in mortgages he said hey um why don't you come try this out I'm working for a new startup company they're going to go public um I can put you in the training course and get license but this it's commission only so I was like I guess I'll save up money for a couple of months and I'll try that and that's what I did and um it just happened to be a good time I got into business and I kind of rolled that wave from 2002 to 2007 but during that time period I started buying real estate I started other businesses I I had the entrepreneur Spirit but I just didn't know what direction that kind of pointed and then yeah and oh wait the market crashed um and it was a complete start over for me uh you know just I lost everything in the crash I lost all my properties I I lost the apartment I was living in I moved from a penthouse apartment on Wall Street to a studio a 600 foot square foot studio in Staten Island New York so I really it was a complete start over for me which was in hindsight the best thing that ever happened to me but at the time it was a lot of pain um I just dug out and I started over and um it didn't you know I think the thing I left I learned it most is that when you're on top you never think it's gonna end and when it's over you never think it's gonna get it back right like that's the famous saying and I really believed that so when I when I lost everything and I started over I was just going 100 miles an hour to try to get back to where I was where I was comfortable with my money again um I didn't care about anything else that I got back to being comfortable and I was unhappy I was like this isn't it I don't want to be comfortable this isn't this isn't what um this isn't what I'm meant for so then I started really getting back to what my entrepreneurship was and starting other businesses and opening other things and and the challenges I think failing and succeeding and all that other stuff really really have uh helped me address who I really am in life and it's somebody who needs constant obstacles I need constant competition I need constant stuff that I can strive for to really be you know content in my daily activities yeah well Ralph I always say there's a you know um my like for example for me my failures made me you know like my failures my my mistakes is is what created who I am today so you know it's you have to go through it right many call it like success tax right like you have to pay this tax you have to you have to fail you have to learn but you learn from it you don't emotionalize it but your situation when you lost everything what got you to go back in because many don't right many many stop there and they go back to working or get a job or something what was it now what was that one thing internally that got you going again yeah I think at first it was Pride um I was really one of the people out of my group of friends to make it any anything and I think I was too prideful to admit that I had failed so miserable right so like I think first it was like well I don't want anybody to know that I'm a failure so I'm gonna move some what the place I moved and I moved out of my apartment nobody even knew where I was like I just was kind of and I just because I didn't want anybody to know that I had failed so I think stupid Pride was first and then once I started to gain traction again I was like wow um I really because you know the whole thing too Jade is I think when you fail the first time especially when you fail majorly uh you start to feel like almost like you were an imposter and I think that was my first instinct I was like I was locked like I just got lucky the market was good I don't really know what I'm doing but when I started to work because I had no choice I had bills to pay so I started to just continue to work at it I started to realize I started to have success again I'm like wow I can really do whatever I want as long as I put effort into it I think that was where um I really found the need to kind of go again right like all right well I can I can repeat this and if it crashes again so what I'll just I'll rebuild it again and I and I think that's I think the failure like you just said is what really empowered me um to to Really to keep going and keep looking for more things that I could that could fail at almost you know yeah I guess intimidating for a lot of people right but as entrepreneurs or seasoned entrepreneurs especially with that that foundational work that mindset stuff like how we look at things for example that helps to take that additional step again right because you know it is it can be scary yeah yeah for sure yeah so I'm glad that you did it yeah I'm glad that you kept going um are you are you planning on writing more books are you are you I just I just have this feeling that I think you're going towards that rude where you're gonna just be publishing books you can do everything else but I think you have some kind of passion in the books you know I I think I um what I enjoy most is educating people um like I think that's where it's funny my father was an educator and he told me not to be one but I think what I actually are doing most is educating people and that includes my own kids the people that I work with myself and you know when I feel uh most happy and empowered when I'm giving somebody else my experiences and explaining to them um how I failed and how they could succeed and avoid what I did so I think if yeah if those books include me helping other people get around things and um and even my course the course I built for the short-term rentals because every store I've been doing it and I kept getting phone calls like well how did you do this and how'd you do that and I was just like you know what I'm just gonna put a course together um and so I can just say hey go go get the course you know I mean and and um but I think if if a food's educated I think I'll write more books for sure definitely yeah no yeah I see it I see it and that course like it shows you know the pricing that you added for that course is is phenomenal like it's it's it's peanuts if you think about it right now especially with yeah you know and I want it to be viable I didn't want people hey like I wanna I think look I want it easy but I wanted to be something that was a price that people could really afford and especially if they're trying to buy a house like thousand dollars if you're trying to buy a house can go towards something else but it's in that thousand dollars is gonna save you a hundred thousand dollars if you really take heed to what I said because I've lost that much trying to do some of the things that didn't work hmm yes so what are your excuse me next five year goals like what are you planning on what are you envisioning you're going to see yourself in the next five years um you know the real estate is always something that I want to be um very very heavily involved in so I think you know what I'm working on now is I'm working on um creating a fund um that that may be a token I'm working on at the the the the idea that actually maybe a token instead of an actual real estate fund that is going to give people access to invest in in my real estate portfolio and my growing portfolio and I you know a lot of my focus over the next five years besides my mortgage business which was always going to be a stable for me um is going to be based around that and I think really because it's my I'm passionate about it you know I like going to find the properties I like making them profitable I like putting them together I like creating experiences for people so I think a lot of what I'm going to do is going to be based around that fund which I'm hoping to release late this year early next year oh that's awesome that's great definitely when you release that fun get in touch with us I would love to share and support and help you out with spreading the message we can do like some lives or something that would be awesome yeah 100 I really appreciate that I will pleasure yeah my pleasure Ralph um so what do you what do you what kind of suggestion could you give an entrepreneur that is looking to increase their cash flow um but doesn't want to invest anything that's like one of the biggest searches right so I it's a great question and I I honestly feel like right now it's such a big opportunity for people to to make huge strides in their career in the entrepreneurship and everything like that because you know we're going into what we're in what defines as a recession and the definition of recession is two uh consecutive uh down fiscal quarters based off a gross domestic product right so basically the value of things were down for two consecutive quarters right but if you listen to every major entrepreneur right the end my lats the Tony Robbins the dean gracioso is that all those guys what they'll tell you is that they made their biggest strides during recessions like they give me the most because there's less competition during recessions right so the lanes are more wide open even though there's less business to lanes are more wide open so I think what you're going to have to invest as an entrepreneur is your time but that old thing I I also that you should look at is even and even Warren Buffett did it this week right Warren Buffett has always doubled and tripled down on things that he had a lot of experience in during recessions so he didn't start something new right he he doubled down on what he felt like his strongest asset was or his strongest skill was and he perfected it because he knew it was going to be needed during economic time so I think whatever you're working on right now whatever you feel like that you have some substance in or experience it or whatever it is double and triple down your time on that stuff and I think that you will see you know exponential rewards at the end of this recession which where sessions usually last about 18 months that's historically how long they last whether this lasts that long or not I'm not sure but at the end of it you will have so much momentum coming out of it that it's inevitable that you will find some success so I think that you know investing time and doubling down on the things that you that you know right now is is very very powerful amazing thank you Ralph for that suggestion recommendation it was great advice we also like to ask our guests what their innermost superpower is that got them to this point uh yes it's really really good so I think my superpower is um holding myself accountable um I really hold myself accountable every single day and I and I am I find different ways to do it like for instance we talked about reading uh I have a timer on my phone that I have to read a certain amount every single day and I look at that every single day I run pretty regularly um I set a goal at the beginning of the year of how many miles I want to have for the year so it keeps me accountable every single week like hey if I don't run 20 miles this week I can't get my to my goal of 1300 miles this year so I you know I I hold myself accountable to to everything right and if I can't do it myself I find ways and or people to hold me accountable like I'm not great at keeping a strict diet it's just the one thing that I can't seem to do I like sweets um so um you know I found I found the nutritionist that holds me accountable every single and and I have to weigh in and I have to send them pictures and he's annoyed with me if I'm late so like so I found if I can't do it myself I find other people to hold me accountable but I think that's my superpower that's awesome such an important one right because those voices we hear in our head especially if we're not centered yet once we get Center obviously is more control but without that center it's it's those thoughts go ramp they run a rampage right so even if you make a commitment those voices say well you don't need to do it today you know it's okay you can read tomorrow right so yeah you say yeah you know that's right maybe you're right you know maybe today is not a good day it's a nice weather I'll go for a walk instead you know I don't want to put it in my ear you know so there's no voices they're arguing with each other right and then she says okay good let's go for a walk yeah forget it accountability I find that is such a crucial component and Entrepreneurship but it's it's not there because the the you know there's foundational work that needs to be done obviously to get to that point but it's such an important Point like that is such an important superpower accountability is everything to get you in action consistently at 100 yeah I mean and the consistency the consistency that accountability affords me everything is every bit of why I'm successful in anything it's just I can just keep myself accountable on that and that really is has helped me a lot that's amazing well you know Ralph it was amazing talking to you um audience you could see Ralph is a wonderful person he's out to help serve key you want to work with people that are out there looking to serve others and that quality is as as you can tell you can see it's not in everyone so when you see that you know give give kind of personality if you're looking to increase your cash flow or looking to increase your your net worth or your business or anything get in touch with people like Ralph because that's where you will get that genuineness right and that course I talk to you about you know I have nothing to do with it like I'm not saying it for commission or nothing like that I'm just saying it because it's a good value and if you can get something out of it that can help you increase your cash flow it's a good investment because it's a low investment so that's something that you can look at and again thank you again audience love you guys get in touch with us you know engage uh follow us comment on our uh posts send me a DM love to hear from you say mid Ralph we would love to hear from you guys I'm sure and again Ralph thank you for your time today to come on the show I really appreciate you I really appreciate your struggle before and now the happiness and the success and the growth that you're achieving and keep going my friend keep going I appreciate it I appreciate I appreciate all the information you're putting out to the world I think it's very valuable so thank you thank you bye-bye [Music]