Whitney talks to Andresa Guidelli today on the She Buys It Podcast. They talk about Airbnb, real estate investor/mom/wife mindset, long-term mindset, and bringing financial freedom to women.
Andresa started real estate investing in 2011. It all started when she was working in door-to-door sales. She approached her manager to ask if he had any book recommendations so she could learn more about sales. He said, "Honey, you're not going to be in sales. You're going to be an entrepreneur." He gave her the book recommendation of Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. She read it in a week and talked it over with her manager. She told him that she wouldn't be in the job long. He said he knew she wouldn't, regardless of reading the book or not, and he wanted to guide her.
She took a course. Then she and her husband at the time started looking for a property to invest in. Labor Day weekend of that year, a property came on the market. She knew as soon as she saw it that she needed to visit it and make an offer.
She called her realtor and he told her to wait until Monday, but she said, "Jack, I love you, but I'm seeing this property with or without you on Saturday morning." He ended up meeting her there early that Saturday. She put in a full price offer, bought it, renovated it, and moved in. She used house hacking and pulled out $68,000 in equity and was able to use it for further deals.
Within two years, they moved out and rented it out. She's sold the house and moved on to looking for commercial and large deals.
In 2012, she heard about Airbnb. She thought it was weird at first, but a friend of hers was renting out her house and told her to try it. A light bulb went off. Just by renting out her house for a couple of days while she was traveling, she could cover the mortgage.
Andresa's word of advice when it comes to Airbnb.
"Tailor to your niche. I tailor to families, so it's kid and pet-friendly. I have a crib, highchair, and things for the dog. It attracts a lot of folks, and they barely stay at the house, to be honest. They are with their family, but they want to explore the city. This way it is very attractive and you also get repeat customers/clients/guests that come to visit every year and want to stay at your place because they know they have everything they need."
