Avery: Hey all, welcome back to another episode of the Short-Term Show. We’ve got a super cool guest today, dare I say, the GOAT of midterm rentals, Jesse Vasquez. Jesse, how’s it going?

Jesse: It’s going great! Thank you for calling me the GOAT; that’s very nice. And you know what? I just found out what the GOAT meant like literally six months ago.

Avery: No way!

Jesse: Yeah, my teenage daughter was like, “You know what the GOAT is, right?” I was like, “No, I have no idea.”

Avery: Well, now you know! I only found out about it six months ago, too, so that’s pretty cool. Thanks for that; it’s very kind.

Jesse: You’re welcome. There are so many things that I’m like, “Wow, I didn’t realize until last week.” I didn’t even realize that Xander was short for Alexander until I was 34 years old!

Avery: There are so many weird little things like that. My daughter brought it up. Actually, my son, who’s 15, said the other day, “Oh, that’s mid.” You know, like, have you heard that before? What is that? What does “mid” mean?

Jesse: Yeah, teenagers are saying it when something’s just average, like, “Eh, it’s mid.” Makes sense now, right?

Avery: I get it now! I was like, “What the heck is mid even supposed to mean?” I guess it’s all part of the midterm rentals thing. Anyway, here we go, we could talk about that!

Jesse: Yeah, [laughter]. Alright, so tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up in this space.

Avery: Yeah, sure! I worked in healthcare for 17 years, which is a long time! I know everybody’s listening out there. I worked in a hospital setting, mostly in the business development side of hospitals. Long story short, I saw clinicians that were coming into the market; there were travel nurses, and they were in all over the Bay Area.

Jesse: Ah, gotcha.

Avery: Yeah, I saw a lot of clinicians coming in from the Central Valley, and I found out what agencies they were working with. I talked to the HR departments and got contracts with the actual agencies rather than the clinicians. That’s when I started making decent money hosting these travel nurses.

Jesse: Interesting.

Avery: Yeah, they were coming in groups, and the agencies were paying me, so it was a bit of business development and legwork to get things started. That’s essentially how I got into the space.

Jesse: It was a natural progression for you then?

Avery: Absolutely! I saw the need, especially with the clinicians coming in. I wasn’t involved in real estate at all before that, in fact, my first experiences were the worst.

Jesse: Oh wow.

Avery: My parents were immigrants who owned properties, and I saw them being taken advantage of over the years. Tenants weren’t paying rent, and we even ended up in court several times! Subconsciously, I think that’s when I realized real estate was an opportunity.

Jesse: Yeah, I get that.

Avery: I saw an opportunity with clinicians staying in shady Motel 6s, paying $3,000 a month, and I thought, “I could buy a house with a $1,500 mortgage, and cash flow $1,000!” That was unheard of back in 2015.

Jesse: Wow!

Avery: It was my first introduction to creating a business, finding an opportunity right in my own backyard.

Jesse: Was this in the Bay Area?

Avery: Oh, no. The Bay Area is way too expensive! But yeah, that’s basically how I got started.