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25 Years Of Short Term Rental Knowledge In 30 Minutes
Avery hosts a conversation with Kathy Fetke, who shares her journey from investing in California’s tough real estate market to discovering opportunities in Malibu, building short-term rentals, and how timing the market and understanding regulations helped her succeed.
Avery: Hey y’all, welcome back to another episode of the Short-Term Show. Today we have a very exciting guest you’re probably familiar with if you’re a Bigger Pockets listener. We have Kathy Fetke. How’s it going, Kathy?
Kathy: Wonderful! Happy to be here. I love talking about short-term rentals and real estate in general.
Avery: We’re very happy to have you. So, first off, let’s introduce you to our audience in case they’re not familiar. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into real estate investing.
Kathy: Yeah, I’m the founder of Real Wealth. I’m from California, so about 20 years ago, I was like, “How do you do this?” In California, it was really tough to invest in real estate, so I created Real Wealth to figure out how we could invest outside of California. We had to become good at investing out of state because everybody loves to talk about not investing in California. Even though I have one, two, maybe three short-term rentals here.
Avery: Oh, you do? They’re good? Where are they?
Kathy: Complete accident, really. We bought a house and built a house in Malibu, which is a beach town. It’s stayed very rural and, that’s why it’s so beautiful. Beaches, mountains, celebrities live here, and they’ve had the clout to keep it low density. There’s hardly any hotels. It’s a super vacation place. We bought our land just outside Malibu city limits, in LA County.
Avery: Oh, right on the edge of the metro area, but close enough for people to enjoy Malibu.
Kathy: Yes, exactly! Different rules, maybe better in some ways, but people can still stay there and enjoy the amenities. We’re three houses away from the Malibu city limits and there are so few hotels and short-term rentals. We stay booked all the time.
Avery: Malibu seems unattainable for a lot of people. I want to hear more about the costs to build and how much you make on a short-term rental in Malibu because I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone doing that.
Kathy: Yeah, my timing was right. We found land in 2018, right when there was a little pause in the housing market. The Fed was raising rates, and President Trump had a disagreement with the Fed. Rates were going up, then they reversed them after six months. Malibu’s market stalled, homes were dropping in value. We found land, bought a little house for $750,000, and a piece of land for $200,000, which is surprising in Malibu. We emptied some accounts and savings because it was a good deal.
Avery: Wow, a mile from the beach?
Kathy: Yes, but it’s hard to build in Malibu. A lot of people won’t do it. But when we sent our builder to the county, they said, “It’s shovel-ready.” We probably wouldn’t have bought it otherwise. It came with a guest house, which is very hard to find here because of restrictions. We got it built in 2020, right when COVID hit.