The Best Short Term Rental Realtor in Branson: How to Build Your Buying Team

Avery [00:00:00]:
Foreign Everybody, welcome to the short term show special episode series on Branson, Missouri where we are doing a 10 episode deep dive on how to buy a short term rental in Branson. So we’ve got a few supplemental materials for y’ all in addition to the content on this podcast over on our website. So any questions you have about purchase prices and searching properties, you can do that on our website. We also have the Air DNA data thanks to our friends over at Air DNA income data on properties in Branson. So you can find these things at the short term shop.com so www.the shorttermshop.com purchase prices and income data. If you want to buy a short term rental property with a short term shop agent in Branson, you can email us at agents the ShortTermshop.com or if you just like us, you just want to hang out with us more, there’s a few ways you can do that. Can join our Facebook group. It’s the same title as my book.

Avery [00:00:59]:
It’s called Short term Rental Long Term. We we are over there talking about short term rental investing all day, every day. Or if you prefer to talk to us in person or virtual person, you can join our Zoom call that we have every Thursday. You can sign up for that@strquestions.com. we’ll catch you guys over there. Hey guys. Welcome back to another Branson episode of the Short Term show special episode series. Today we are going to talk about building your buying team.

Avery [00:01:35]:
So we’re going to talk about all the people that you need from start to finish to get your short term rental in Branson purchased and off the ground and managed. So got a great cast of characters here today. First we have Siobhan Cooney. Siobhan, you want to introduce yourself really quick?

Siobhan Cooney [00:01:53]:
Sure. I’m Siobhan. I’ve been a short term shopper since way before COVID When Avery was a team of one. I bought my first cabin and Pigeon Forge. I also currently own in Broken Bow and I will be clothing soon in Kimberling City outside of Branson.

Avery [00:02:11]:
Siobhan keeps buying in markets before we get to them. She’s like, that’s correct. She’s always one step ahead of us opening in those markets. So I keep trying to hire.

Siobhan Cooney [00:02:24]:
I was going to say I bought and sold in Scottsdale before you got there.

Avery [00:02:28]:
Oh yeah. So that’s three. Yeah. Yep. And I keep trying to hire her but she keeps saying no. So next we got Josh Bynum. Josh, how’s it going? Introduce yourself.

Josh Bynum [00:02:40]:
Very good, thanks. Thanks for Having me here, I started my journey in short term rentals right about this time last year and closed on my first condo in Branson on August 5th.

Avery [00:02:51]:
All right, awesome. And Bill, we know who you are, but go ahead and introduce yourself.

Bill Beck [00:02:56]:
My name is Bill. I am a real estate agent here in Branson, Missouri. Have a background.

Avery [00:03:02]:
You have to think about that for a minute.

Bill Beck [00:03:03]:
Yeah, I did. I was like, I keep getting thrown off by my own alliteration. Buy with Bill Beck and Branson. You know, I’m like, oh, yeah, it’s kind of corny. So just background in home buying, consulting for vacation rentals. Pick Branson because this is one of the top markets. And yeah, I helped Josh get his place. So excited to be here.

Siobhan Cooney [00:03:23]:
Awesome.

Bill Beck [00:03:24]:
Yes.

Avery [00:03:25]:
All right, so let’s talk about who you need to find to help you buy one of these things and who you need to find first. So it’s actually kind of arguable which of these two vendors you will need first, an agent or a lender. You’re going to kind of need to find them at the same time. But the main thing you need to remember about both of those people is you need to hire someone who does the type of deal in the asset class that you’re buying in in the market that you want to buy in often. So you don’t want to hire somebody who lives in St. Louis but is trying to sell you a house in Branson. You want to hire a local Branson agent. Sometimes your agent will.

Avery [00:04:09]:
An agent isn’t really going to want to talk to you until you have a pre approval. Sometimes it’s. I think personally the best way to go about it is to go to an agent before you have a pre approval and say, hey, I’m interested in this market. I don’t have one yet. I’m happy to use whatever lenders you recommend for me to go get one. Because why, Bill, why do you need to use a lender that the agent has probably worked with often?

Bill Beck [00:04:35]:
Well, definitely, if you haven’t listened to that lending episode, I don’t know in the chronological order, because that I get pretty fired up about. We have nonable condos here. Every single conversation I have with every buyer, it’s like, okay, first, need to be aware of zoning. Secondly, because all these communities are going to be owned by people that have vacation rentals, it triggers a non warrantable situation, which isn’t a problem because that’s the inventory that people are booking here. But do not bring your own lender to town and be like, yeah, he said it’s fine because it’s probably not fine. So, so just, just trust me on this because like the, the amount of triggered I get is intense.

Avery [00:05:15]:
Yeah, I’ve, you do get very triggered by.

Bill Beck [00:05:19]:
Well it’s, it’s from like the worst types of situations where it’s like your heart feels like it’s going to explode because you’re like, I don’t know what the heck’s going to happen because we’re past our lending contingency. This is supposed to be closing today and the bank’s not giving the money because they’re like holding everyone hostage. It’s like that shouldn’t be like part of the deal anyway.

Avery [00:05:41]:
Yes, yes. So you want to use a lender that does. Maybe they don’t have to be like hyper local but they do have to be a lender again that does the type of property that you’re buying in, in that market often. And I think a lot of people, especially new investors can get a little turned off by want, by using or by wanting to use the lender suggested by agents. Because I think that some people think that somehow we’re getting kickbacks or we’re like, you know, just trying to get our friend business. And A, that’s not legal and it’s not really worth anybody’s license and livelihood to do. And B, it’s really not that. It’s that we, if we have worked with an 8 with a lender, excuse me, a bunch of times and we know they’re going to get you to the finish line and get you closed and not have you have these horrible problems and surprises right at, you know, three or four days before closing like oh crap, it’s, it is non warrantable after all.

Avery [00:06:34]:
And we thought we could do it but we can’t. There it’s protecting you as a buyer and your earnest money by making sure that we’re getting you connected with a lender who can do it. Now of course you want to shop and make sure that you’re getting the best, you know, the best rates, the best deal, best products. But you that only kind of goes so far with certain asset classes like a lot of the big national lenders, like I guess I don’t want to name any names but like Quicken Loans you’re going to get as you’re shopping for loans and looking at houses and like Zillow and realtor.com you’re going to start getting a lot of targeted ads from those big companies and those guys are, you know, they’re taking primary homebuyer leads all, all day. And I’ve gone down this road before too when I was, when I was a newer investor and I was like, oh man, this. I got this targeted ad from this huge company and these rates are way better and they told me it would work for investment. And then you know, we get down the line and it doesn’t. So again, doesn’t have to be absolutely local, but at the very least you want a lender who has done a lot of those types of deals before.

Avery [00:07:35]:
Same thing with your agent. So what are some questions that you want to ask an agent when you find one in your. When you’re shopping for an agent to buy a short term rental.

Josh Bynum [00:07:47]:
Yeah, so I would say in my case, linking this back to the, to the previous conversation. So I found my agent first. I actually found Bill off of a bigger pockets for him. And whenever I contacted him I knew right off the bat he was really knowledgeable in the area. Number one. So are they, you know, how, what kind of questions can you ask to get a good feel on how they are in the community? And then second one was, hey, what are the lenders that are in the area and how do they do portfolio loans? Are they accustomed to doing this? And so my connection to the lender actually came from Bill, but it was a multiple. You know, he said, hey, here’s two or three that you may want to check out. And so I kind of did the homework after getting the connection from the lender.

Josh Bynum [00:08:34]:
But I think it’s super important to have an agent who really knows the market is connected so that you can leverage that network locally. Whether it’s a lender or even getting insurance, whatever that may be. You can really work through the network of the lender and in the area.

Avery [00:08:53]:
Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think it’s also important when you’re getting recommendations. So whether it’s biggerpockets, forums or there’s a ton of like huge Facebook groups geared towards short term rentals now. But when you’re getting recommendations for agents or lenders, make sure that when someone recommends someone, you clarify if they’ve ever actually done a transaction with them, if they’ve ever actually used that person. Because what we see now is a lot of people, they’re called fan clubs and you pay to get in them. I see it mostly with real estate agents. I don’t know about lenders yet because I’m not as in that world. But you pay to get in them and then everybody shares referral fees so what happens is there’s a bunch of people in this group and anytime somebody asks for a recommendation in a market that one of their members is in, they just completely flood the feed with recommendations for that member.

Avery [00:09:41]:
Half the time that is not even like, I see it all the time with people who are like buying something in the Smokies and they’re getting recommendations for agents like in Nashville or Cookeville or Johnson City or places that are not there. And there’s like a ton of recommendations. And it’s because of those fan clubs, which I think a lot of people don’t know those exist. So just anytime you’re taking a recommendation really for anything or anybody in any business, make sure that that person has used the person that they’re recommending before. But once maybe you’ve gotten a few recommendations and you’re talking to these agents and, or lenders, I. There are a lot of just realist general real estate investing podcasts from way back that say, you know, the first agent that answers the phone is the one who gets my deal. Well, I don’t think that that’s necessarily true. I think that that’s kind of bad advice in any asset class of real estate investing.

Avery [00:10:38]:
Like if you want to buy a 25 unit apartment building and I’m the first one that answers the phone, you are totally screwed. Because I don’t know how to do that. Like, that’s not what I do. I sell single family short term rentals. So the first person who answers the phone, all that means is that is the person who happened to be holding their phone when you called. So make sure that you’re asking some questions like, hey, how many deals did you do last year? I like to see a busy agent. And the reason for that is I call, we’ll call them busy agents and then I call the other kind of Aunt Susie agents. Everybody has an Aunt Susie who does real estate and she’s been in it for 20 years, or, you know, an Uncle Ricky or whoever, and they maybe do three or four deals a year.

Avery [00:11:20]:
So the reason that’s a problem when it comes to buying investment properties is the last couple of years are a really good example of this. Two years ago, you had to offer $100,000 over asking on everything because there were a thousand buyers on every property. So an Aunt Susie agent who hadn’t done many deals that year might not realize that. And you might be going around say, she’s like, oh, you know what? Yeah, let’s offer 20,000 under asking and see what happens. You’re not getting any deals because Aunt Susie hasn’t been, doesn’t have her finger on the pulse of the market really because she hasn’t been in it, doing deals monthly, weekly, and really understanding what’s going on. Conversely, now if Aunt Suzy did a few deals in 2021 and knew how crazy it was, come now, you don’t have to make hundred thousand dollar offers over asking anymore. So what can happen is somebody who did four or five deals in 2021 did maybe two or three last year and now they’re like, okay, yeah, we got to go in super hard. The market’s really crazy.

Avery [00:12:18]:
And now you’re offering way too much when you don’t have to because they just don’t have enough experience over time and they’re not doing it often enough to really have like that good pulse on the market. So I like to see a busy agent. I don’t want you to answer the phone every time I call you. I want to make sure that you’re like actually that you’re, you’re doing deals other than mine. I don’t, I don’t ever want to be anybody’s only client first.

Josh Bynum [00:12:44]:
If they’re the first one to answer your phone, they may not be, they may not be busy enough or you.

Avery [00:12:49]:
Know, just the stars aligned that they happen to be right there. And then I also want to ask, okay, of how many deals did you do last year? Of those X amount of deals, how many of those were primary homes versus short term rentals? Because especially in markets where there’s like Branson, where there’s regulations and zonings that you have to worry about if you’re, if you have an agent who sells mostly primary homes, they might not be familiar with the zonings and what needs to happen in order for you to be able to short term rent it. And you could end up with, you know, a problem on your hands. So do you guys have anything to add to that? Anything to add to questions to ask agents?

Josh Bynum [00:13:25]:
Yeah, you know, the other piece, similar to the zoning piece, especially when you think about cash flow, that can really play a big role is the COA or the POA or the HOA or whatever that may be. And I know that whenever I was working with Bill, he had a really good idea by neighborhood of what those condos would be, would be charging. So it would help, it helped me with my numbers just as I was going around and looking at properties to have that because that, you know, it can range significantly based off of amenities or whatever that may Be and, and so that’s a, that’s a big piece that I was really thankful the agent had that, that information.

Avery [00:14:05]:
Siobhan, did you have something to add to that?

Siobhan Cooney [00:14:06]:
Yeah, I was just gonna say that I think that agents who are also investors tend to look at the transactions differently so they are more attuned to the numbers and they’re also, you know, if they own or they manage or some combination of both, if they’ve been doing this for at least a couple years locally, then they’re probably pretty good estimating what the property is going to bring in. And I think that that’s also really important because you know, as margins get tighter, 10 or $20,000 in either direction can really make a difference. I do agree being well connected is very important, especially when you’re starting off in a new market. If you already have something in that market and you have your team already in place and that’s different. But if it’s a brand new market, you don’t live there. You know, having people that you can call for maintenance, cleaning, etc. Is really, really helpful. And that is, you know, something that your agent should be providing if they’re an investor friendly agent.

Avery [00:15:04]:
Y and kind of to your point about agents who are investors, I tend to avoid agents. I look at everybody’s social media. I’m a total stalker. And there are some things that when I’m looking at agent social media that I avoid. I don’t like people who say call me for all your, all your buying and selling like all your real estate needs. I don’t want that. I want a specialist. I don’t want you to do jack of all trades is a master of none.

Avery [00:15:29]:
I want somebody who focuses on this specifically. Another one that I don’t like is I don’t and this one is like hyper specific and maybe I’m crazy. I don’t like to see agents posting pending deals that are not closed. Like don’t call attention to my deal, period. It’s not closed yet. It’s not mine until it’s closed. I don’t love that. And then I also don’t like, I don’t want to see anybody who’s acting like super aggressive.

Avery [00:15:57]:
And you can see that on social media too. When people are like I’m a bulldog, I’m a fighter, I fight for my clients. And that’s not actually what gets, gets you anywhere for your clients. You know what gets us the you get more bees with honey. Just like I tell my four year old, she says that she quotes that to people, you, you can get more for your client in a deal by saying like, hey, you know, we’re not trying to be difficult here, but the numbers really just kind of stop working at this point. Buyer’s not trying to be difficult. They totally understand that you need to make X amount. What can we do here to meet, like to get everybody what they need or as close to a deal as we can, rather than like coming in and busting heads right out of the gate.

Avery [00:16:38]:
That doesn’t get anybody anywhere. You’re going to get your client more by being nice and by having a good relationship with the other agents. So I don’t really like to see that either. But you know, since I’m an agent, I’m way too specific.

Bill Beck [00:16:54]:
I think my personal style is, I like to be almost like an encyclopedia of knowledge. I’m just kind of an intellectual person by nature. So I like to go. If people want to go down rabbit holes of like intricacies on things, like, I’m happy to do that probably can be a crutch in terms of like actually doing all the sales volume and crushing call volume. But at the same time it’s like I have so much quality. I try to spend with everyone that I have on the phone with me that if we need to go 45 minutes to an hour, like, hey, sometimes that’s what we need to do to give them the information they need to feel comfortable. And I, I do. Yeah.

Bill Beck [00:17:31]:
I own Investment short term rental and when I was looking for, I want people that know what the sub asset class is all about, right? Like someone who’s a specialist. That was huge. Like when I first got my license, it was like the first, you know, couple months. It’s like, here, we’ll give you leads. And I was taking people who were looking for trailers to live here and I’m like, I’m not really like sure I’m the right guy. Like, I don’t a. And I, I’ve definitely shown a couple trailers. You know, you walk through, you’re like, this is great.

Bill Beck [00:18:01]:
Yeah, I don’t really know what to say here because this is not really what I’m familiar with. I don’t have just a bunch of high volume, low budget, friendly real estate primary residences that I’ve done. I mean I’ve done, I did 50 deals last year and one was a primary because I’d helped sell that guy’s vacation rental. Is like, hey, why don’t you sell my house? Because I’m moving out of state. Too. I’m like, sweet, but yeah. So totally agree on all fronts.

Avery [00:18:26]:
One last thing that I want to bring up. And again, I’m way too persnickety. But I don’t love. I’m not saying you should never, but I don’t love agents who are also property managers because I feel like the potential of them being able to get my business in terms of managing my property gives the. It doesn’t necessarily have to happen, but it presents an opportunity for a conflict of interest. So, you know, if I’m buying a really badass property, of course you want to manage it, but if I’m looking at two deals and I need some. Some guidance and you’re kind of thinking about it in terms of, well, maybe she’ll let me manage it at some point. And I don’t really have cleaners that go over to that side of town, but my cleaners handle this side of town.

Avery [00:19:14]:
Like it just kind of. I’m not saying that people can’t be property managers, but it just can kind of present an opportunity that I. For a conflict of interest that I don’t want to be there. So I don’t love that. I’m not saying you. Because property managers are going to have knowled about what things will make, but I just personally, that’s not my favorite is what I’ll say about that. But back to lending, I think anything else to add on Agents? I think we beat that horse to death. It’s a terrible saying.

Avery [00:19:41]:
I got to find something else to say. Okay, so back to lenders. We again, you could totally get those. There are. Is there a Branson specific Facebook group, Bill?

Bill Beck [00:19:50]:
There’s a couple. Vacation. There’s. There’s Branson. Yeah, there’s a couple out there.

Avery [00:19:57]:
Okay, so, you know, maybe you’re in one of those Facebook groups and you’re saying, hey, I need a local lender, I’m planning to buy something. Again, you’re asking those people, did this person do your loan? Anything else we need to ask lenders, Bill. So people are going to, they’re going to listen to this and they’re still going to find the Quicken loans of the world. And Quicken loans is going to say, well, let me just try it. That’s like the famous last words of non warrantable condos is, well, let us just try. And then.

Bill Beck [00:20:24]:
So funny you say that. So true. It’s like, well, what we think, we think we can do it. We’ll check, we’ll get. With underwriting, it’s always like someone else’s fault because they can’t do it. But anyway, that is something. I’m perfectly fine. Throw me on the phone.

Bill Beck [00:20:41]:
I say, who is your person? I will talk to them and I’m gonna get it right out front. Like, it’s like, let’s just, let’s just throw it out there. Is this gonna work or not? And these are non warrantable. And what do you think? And like, oh, when they do that, that’s like, okay, cool. Well, I’m going to tell them that you’re not going to work.

Avery [00:20:57]:
That is exactly what they do.

Bill Beck [00:20:59]:
Oh, ooh, ooh, not an ooh. And you’re like mailed it. Told them. All right, thanks. By 30 seconds. Done.

Avery [00:21:06]:
All right, so we’ve, we’ve got our agent, we’ve got our lender. The next person we’re going to need is a home inspector. How do we find them?

Bill Beck [00:21:15]:
Home inspector. We do not, as agents ever want to recommend one person just for liability purposes. This is something we have an active list that we curate over time. So we don’t want the inspectors that do. This is like the spectrum. So I’m going to give generally three options because any more than that can be just too much. But on the spectrum you got, sky is falling, you’re buying a piece of trash, everything doesn’t work. You’re going to need to spend probably $3 million to fix this place.

Bill Beck [00:21:47]:
Like those types of inspectors which knock.

Avery [00:21:50]:
It down the deal killers.

Bill Beck [00:21:51]:
And then you got on the opposite side. The place is great, nothing’s wrong. You’re like, are you sure? Because I walked through there and I saw like the deadbolt didn’t kind of like work real well and like there were like cracks but you didn’t say anything. So I’m kind of in this awkward position. So I have over time paired off those tails, so to speak. And I’ve got to got a nice group of people that, you know, hey, they’re going to do an accurate job, fairly assess the property, not make it feel like you’re buying something that’s, that’s about to explode. And something that is just a fair, you know, good. I mean we found situations where it’s like, yeah, it’s got a lot of problems.

Avery [00:22:30]:
It’s.

Bill Beck [00:22:31]:
I wouldn’t buy it, you know, so that’s, that’s what I do.

Josh Bynum [00:22:33]:
Yeah. And I, I think too, you know, as we were talking about kind of building the network that you have within there. So I think the way that I did it was I had gotten some recommendations from Bill, who was my agent, I had gotten some recommendations from the lender that I had chosen, and then I actually got some recommendations from the insurance group that I was going with. And when I found the one person that was on everybody’s list, I was like, okay, obviously this person has a great reputation, and. And then selected the inspector there. So there’s. There’s, I think, a few different areas in being able to select the inspector.

Avery [00:23:08]:
Yeah. And one thing that I want to make sure everybody does is it’s really easy to say, oh, Bill, whoever you normally use, just schedule them. Don’t do that. You need to call and vet and interview and hire your own inspectors and make sure that you understand what’s covered in a home inspection in this market. Because it can be. It can vary from market to market if there are any other ancillary inspections that they recommend you have done. And just make sure that you like the person that you can communicate. I mean, God, one time I had the worst experience with a surveyor because I just had to take whoever was free.

Avery [00:23:44]:
I was trying to close something in, like, two weeks, and everybody was three months backed up. And this one was available clearly for a reason, and they got it done really fast, but then they were, like, completely hideous when I needed, like, hey, you didn’t sign this. Or there’s not. Can we have the CAD file? We need the CAD file, not just a PDF. So I did not call and vet them first. I just scheduled it because they were available. But had I done that, I wouldn’t have had to have it resurveyed later for another several thousand dollars because this guy was a dick. So always call and vet them up front.

Avery [00:24:17]:
Anybody. We’re talking about home inspectors now, but make sure that you guys get along and that you communicate in the same way and that you. Everybody understands what’s going on. But the worst thing you can do is just say to your agent, just schedule whoever, because things can get really blurry if something’s missed. And then whose fault is that? So always call them and vet them yourself.

Josh Bynum [00:24:37]:
I think, too. That’s a good point. Especially whenever, depending on the season and the market. Like, for myself, I was closing right during peak season over the summer. I’m looking to try and get an inspector in July. And so it was hard for me to find a day in which the condo wasn’t rented in order to be able to get an inspector in there. And then you got to match it up to the inspector’s calendar. But I do believe it’s worth waiting to get the right inspector rather than just finding somebody that’s available on the town on the time or day where you’ve got an exchange happening and somebody can get in there.

Siobhan Cooney [00:25:09]:
Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, I was going to say I would agree with that. I mean, I think that the inspector, you know, if you don’t find a good one, they’re either going to find things that aren’t really there or they’re going to miss something that they should have found. So I do agree. It’s, it’s, it’s good to get a good person with a solid reputation. The other thing I just wanted to say is, you know, as you buy more properties and most people, once they buy one short term rental and see what happens, we’ll try to be buying another, I think. But I think that the inspectors are really good sources of information because I know that, you know me personally as I bought more properties over time I’ve learned a lot more about the way houses work. So I think that, you know, if you are able to attend the inspection and you read the report, if you can’t, you know, if you can’t be there, just read the report and definitely ask questions because over time you will want to know those things about the way that the septic works and the gutters and you know, the fire pit is too close to the house and all of that stuff.

Siobhan Cooney [00:26:16]:
You don’t want to be a newbie forever. And I think the inspector, if they’re a good communicator, is a really good source of information for all of that.

Avery [00:26:25]:
Yeah, really, really good point. And a lot of people don’t. Is it customary? It’s customary in some markets for agents to attend inspections is customary and others them to like not be welcome at inspections, period. What is it in Branson, Bill?

Bill Beck [00:26:39]:
I hardly ever go. I encourage them. If they are able to come and do it and visit, they’re happy to do it. I don’t want any, I really frankly just don’t want to get in their way because I know they want to efficiently go through their thing. And if I’m just like hovering like, hey, it’s like, okay, what’s this bald dude hanging around behind me like doing? So I generally do not go unless someone specifically asks, please can you go with which I’ve only had once or twice. So it’s atypical to do that.

Avery [00:27:09]:
Okay.

Siobhan Cooney [00:27:10]:
Yeah, I should, I should clarify my, my previous comment here. Don’t distract the inspector. So let them do, let them do their inspection. You can Be there, but don’t follow.

Avery [00:27:24]:
Them or asking questions.

Siobhan Cooney [00:27:25]:
It’s horribly distracting. And that’s probably a really good way for them to miss something that they would have otherwise realized about the property.

Avery [00:27:33]:
Total.

Siobhan Cooney [00:27:33]:
Anyway.

Avery [00:27:36]:
All right, anything else out, inspectors before we move on to insurance? Nope. Okay.

Bill Beck [00:27:42]:
Well, actually, I’ll just say that I, you know, of the few inspectors I select, it’s like people are like, which one’s the best? And it’s like, I can’t tell you because they’re all pretty much good enough to be on par with each other. So, you know, I know you said don’t go with the cheapest one, but I mean, factor that in how much they cost and then also factor in availability, as Josh mentioned. Like, we’ll have times a year where it’s like, we’ve got like two slots in the next two weeks. So whoever can make it work, like, that’s probably what you have to work with. So.

Avery [00:28:12]:
Yeah. All right, enough on inspectors. Let’s move on to insurance. So in some markets, insurance is like a huge deal. It’s very expensive in, like, coastal markets, and you have to shop and shop and shop and find somebody who will do it. How difficult is it? Like, is the insurance piece a big piece of the puzzle here, Bill, or is it pretty easy generally? Because I know everything’s condos, so a lot of times you’re only having to ensure what’s inside the property. Tell me about insurance.

Bill Beck [00:28:39]:
Yeah. Recommend agents that are familiar with how to write a policy that would include short term rental coverage here locally, so there aren’t a ton of options. And then, you know, proper is kind of the national brand for like the Cadillac of insurance coverage for short term rentals. So obviously for the price, you know, you’re getting a lot of coverage with them. But yeah, walls in policy for condo. I mean, it could be really, really like, like astonishingly cheap. I mean, we’re talking like 600, 500, 600 a year. Josh, what’s your policy?

Josh Bynum [00:29:12]:
800.

Bill Beck [00:29:12]:
800. Okay, so it’s, it’s not going to be breaking the bank.

Avery [00:29:16]:
Whoops. On mute. 800amonth or 800 a year?

Josh Bynum [00:29:19]:
A year.

Avery [00:29:21]:
Wow.

Bill Beck [00:29:22]:
Right?

Siobhan Cooney [00:29:23]:
Holy shit.

Bill Beck [00:29:26]:
Everyone gets fixated about these HOA fees, but they’re not like, oh, sick. My property taxes are $563 a year and my insurance. $800 a year. No one says that, but just throw that up.

Avery [00:29:36]:
Wow. Yeah. So, guys, I’ve said this on other episodes on the Branson podcast, but this is a really easy market to Own in in terms of just overhead and, you know, things that you have to deal with. Like you’re not really dealing with wells and septics or anything. And so very easy market to own in. So how do we typically find insurance agents in this market? Or I mean, I guess you could do the. The usual Facebook groups, ask your agent, all that stuff. I would imagine, though, you don’t have to find anything terribly specialized.

Avery [00:30:11]:
So it could really be anybody that does STR insurance.

Bill Beck [00:30:15]:
Yeah, anybody who asks me, I’ll just give them a short list. So say, hey, call up each of these and it’s not going to be a huge, like, menu of options. So it’s pretty short list.

Avery [00:30:24]:
Okay, well, that’s pretty easy. And let’s see. So is Missouri a title state or an attorney state?

Bill Beck [00:30:33]:
We are a title state.

Avery [00:30:34]:
Okay. And this is a part of the puzzle that kind of gets skipped over a lot of times about choosing title companies to close at, because typically the agents just use whoever they normally use. And if you want to use somebody else, you can, but it’s kind of, I don’t want to say it’s inconsequential because that’s not a good thing to say because it matters. But, you know, title companies, typically we just use the one that we use all the time that we know, know their process and all that. But what do you. What’s the process for choosing a title company in Brainston?

Bill Beck [00:31:07]:
Oh, good question. I mean, I honestly don’t ask everyone every single time, like which title company they want to use. Frankly, it’s just one of those things that they’re all pretty similar as far as what they provide. It just kind of comes down to speediness of getting a title commitment. Some of them will take two weeks to get that title commitment. Others will take a day. So it’s like, well, that’s nice to have it quicker. It’s the method by which you can do your earnest money.

Bill Beck [00:31:35]:
Some of them are like, you’ve got to wire us or mail us a check. Whereas others are like, you can go to our website and do an online deposit. I generally think that’s easier, is better, especially for title stuff. So if title fees are something that if someone really wants to get into saving a couple hundred bucks, definitely call around to different title companies and see which one might give the best pricing. But at the end of the day too, it’s like, you’re right. Some agents, it’s really interesting in our market that some agents actually have, you must write offers with this title company in Order for us to. And that’s as a listing agent, which I don’t know if that’s like breaking the rules, but like basically we want you to use this, this closing company and title company to do a deal.

Avery [00:32:24]:
Yeah, I don’t think it is. I think sometimes sellers have title companies that they prefer hold it. So in some areas it’s common for one of the real estate brokerages to hold it. We don’t hold earnest money at short term shops, so we always have the title company hold it. So like in some markets it’s title companies have been like, that’s really weird. Like why is one of the brokerages. Why do you want to. We can hold it.

Avery [00:32:47]:
But that’s kind of weird. And in some markets it’s like, yeah, the title company always holds the earnest money. So I’ve always, when I started I would always just ask the listing agent because I didn’t. If I wasn’t familiar with title companies, I’d say, who do you want us to use? And then I kind of started finding my own way of like, okay, well they all seem to use this one. So I’ll use this one and then maybe that one is. The communication is really slow, so I’ve tried another one. So for me, what’s important in a title company is making it easy to do things and also communication. So I don’t want it to be difficult to schedule a closing.

Avery [00:33:21]:
I don’t want it to be difficult to do remote closings because almost everybody closes remotely. Like if you guys can’t schedule a mobile notary without blowing me up or the buyer, like maybe this is not the title company. You want somebody, they don’t have to be terribly technologically savvy because a lot of title companies just aren’t. But they do need to be able to just get a mobile notary to anybody, you know, within 24 hours, I think.

Bill Beck [00:33:45]:
So a nuance here too is, okay, so Continental is a title company, they require a mobile notary for a remote closing. But like Great American Title and Meridian, they will actually, if you want, they can just FedEx you the documents and you can take it to any notary you want and then sign everything and put it back in the mail with the FedEx overnight. So those are kind of what’s interesting because you’ll get someone who’s like, I don’t want to pay for a mobile notary. What the heck? You’re like, sorry, that’s, you know, that’s what they do, they require it or other people are like why am I not getting a mobile notary? Like I thought that was always like part of the deal. And you’re like, well, so that’s why I put that out there is like you just should ask that maybe if you care or if it doesn’t matter, then it’s not a big deal.

Avery [00:34:32]:
Yeah, I personally, when we’re closing on stuff, because we close on all of our stuff that we buy remotely, we have a girl at the UPS store who we’ve got totally trained and gets it how, how we do things and we just have them email us the closing packet, we have them print it and she understands how we do everything. Like sometimes I’m going to come at 10 o’ clock in the morning to sign and she’s going to notarize me and then Luke is going to come later because we can’t always be in the same place at the same time. And I mean I’m a big fan of just taking it to any UPS store and doing that. But yeah, so mobile notaries, UPS stores, if you’re closing remotely. Anything else on title companies, they’re kind of like, kind of just fly in the background.

Bill Beck [00:35:10]:
They’re keeping everything together. But like as far as like issues during a transaction, I mean usually title companies are not killing deals. Usually it’s lenders or inspectors or other things. They’re just kind of, hey, here we’re alerting you to a problem generally and then that this becomes a whole problem solving equation. You got to get through.

Avery [00:35:32]:
So totally. All right, so I think that’s pretty much everyone involved in the transaction to get it to closing. So let’s talk about finding vendors. So cleaners and handy people, I recommend you really just need the cleaner and handy person to start and then you can kind of build everybody else out from there as you get going. Like you don’t need to have every single potential person you would need lined up in order to go live on Airbnb. You just really need those two at first. So how do we find those two usually?

Bill Beck [00:36:02]:
I mean, I’ve got a master list I share with all my clients. I’ve just been building it over time. Actually sent that to. I think Luke’s got it now. So anybody that needs that, it’s out there, it’s, it’s available, so.

Avery [00:36:15]:
And again, same thing as everything else we’ve talked about, either bigger pockets, forums or pretty much now almost every market in the country has a short term rental investor, Facebook group specific to that market. So that’s a great place to look Again, make sure that the person who’s recommending has actually used that cleaner in the past or does use them. It can work a little. Funny, though, with this, because sometimes, like, I will never. You will never catch me recommending my cleaner in any Facebook group because I don’t want her getting too busy. I need her to have time for me. So there’s a little bit of that going on. But a lot of people are like, maybe their cleaner is just starting and they really want to help them build their business because they’re really great.

Avery [00:36:59]:
So that’ll be, I think, the best place to start, other than just recommendations from your agent.

Siobhan Cooney [00:37:05]:
I think the cleaners are probably the hardest part of the entire puzzle, and sometimes you do go through a few of them. But I am a heavy user of the Facebook groups for both cleaners and maintenance. But I think that once you find one good person and it might be the agent or might not, when you’re building the team, they often know other people. So, you know, if I go to someone for maintenance and I’m like, hey, there’s something going off my hot tub, you know, they might be like, oh, I don’t do that. But call this person. And 99% of the time, that will work out really well. So I think use the network of the people who you already know. Sometimes it’s the agent.

Siobhan Cooney [00:37:46]:
Sometimes, you know. Other local owners, I feel like, are a really good resource, but the Facebook groups, yeah, I think over the past few years have become really, really helpful to the local markets, and people do get reputations on there for either being good or not so good at cleaning and maintenance. You’re muted, Avery.

Avery [00:38:09]:
I’m stuck on mute. I keep doing that. Today I see you talking, but there’s no sound. I like my. My desk is right in front of a window that’s got a road in front of it. So I always try to stay on mute in case any loud trucks go by, and then I forget to turn it off. So what kind of questions do you ask cleaners? Because I think some people, especially new people, will say, like, I want one cleaner. I don’t want a company.

Avery [00:38:36]:
I want them to be the same person every time. And that’s just not typically going to work, guys, so don’t do that. But what questions do you like to ask to make sure that they’re going to be able to do the job efficiently?

Siobhan Cooney [00:38:49]:
I mean, I always ask for referrals. I asked to speak to someone else who they are already working with, and that person, you know, as Far as I can tell, has always been really honest with me. I’ve gotten some really good feedback from people. You know, like, this person’s really good at this. Maybe not so much this other thing. So just be on the lookout for this. This, you know, one particular thing. You know, the cell phone that doesn’t always work, doesn’t have good reception, stuff like that.

Siobhan Cooney [00:39:19]:
I also ask, you know, if they have the Airbnb listings of the places that they clean, because I like to see the comments and I like to see what sort of cleanliness scores they are getting. And if they are consistently doing well in cleanliness, then I feel like that’s a good sign that it’s probably a good cleaner. Because otherwise, you know, the owner is not making up for all of those mistakes. I mean, maybe some of them, they are by refunding cleaning fees or whatever. But I do think that when there are consistent cleaning issues, it does start showing up in the reviews some way or somehow.

Avery [00:39:54]:
That’s genius. That actually hasn’t occurred to me to go find the listings of the ones they clean and see if there’s anything about that. Wow, that’s a good tip.

Siobhan Cooney [00:40:04]:
I’m surprised that Luke. I’m surprised Luke doesn’t use that one.

Avery [00:40:08]:
He. He met. Well, we haven’t hired. Well, yes, we have. Have. We have hired one cleaner in the past, like, two years. We lost one in Florida, but yeah, we’ve had our smokies cleaner for, like, five years.

Bill Beck [00:40:19]:
Is he going to rip that off now? Be the enemy cleaner method.

Avery [00:40:23]:
Yes. Somebody told me one time, actually, I was in the elevator at the last Bigger Pockets conference, and he said, I don’t know how, like, cool this is to do. It’s a little bit slimy. But what I do is I get on Venmo and, like, search my friends and my. So if they know any investors that are in that market in their phone and they start looking at who people are paying and snag their cleaners that way.

Siobhan Cooney [00:40:52]:
Set all of your transactions to private. There’s no reason that needs to be out there publicly.

Bill Beck [00:40:57]:
Can I get a drug dealer?

Siobhan Cooney [00:41:01]:
Right.

Bill Beck [00:41:02]:
Oops.

Siobhan Cooney [00:41:02]:
They’re definitely calling the wrong person.

Avery [00:41:07]:
Yeah, drug dealers, prostitutes.

Bill Beck [00:41:09]:
Yeah.

Avery [00:41:10]:
Don’t know until you text them.

Bill Beck [00:41:11]:
Gambling. That. All sorts of fun. I like it, though.

Siobhan Cooney [00:41:17]:
Yeah.

Avery [00:41:17]:
Yeah. And same thing with handyman. Typically, I’ve always found my cleaner first and they happen to know a handyman because a lot of times they’re in there at the same time because they’re. They have to do everything in between guests so they’ll have some recommendations. What do you guys do? You guys have anything specific that you ask? Handyman? We really don’t. We just throw them a job one time, and if they do it well and in a timely manner, then they stay on the list. And if not, then we don’t call them again.

Bill Beck [00:41:44]:
Absolutely, that. Yeah, I do that. Just, hey, throw you a job, see how you do, and then if it’s good and keep you. If it’s not good or. I had a guy that was just too chatty. He nice guy, but it was like we would get into story mode and it was like, dude, like. Like looking at my watch. Like, you got to pick up on, like, social cues here.

Bill Beck [00:42:06]:
Like, I got it. I got chop, chop. We gotta go, gotta go. Like, knock us out. Love you, man. But, like, I don’t have 45 minutes to talk about just stuff like, sorry, man.

Avery [00:42:17]:
Yep.

Siobhan Cooney [00:42:17]:
I think it’s really important, you know, for maintenance for them to understand that we’re in the hospitality business. And that means that responsiveness is a key part of the job. So if they can’t do it, if they can or can’t do it, it doesn’t matter. They need to respond fairly quickly because if they can’t do it, you have to move on to someone else. And this is especially true if something needs to be fixed while the guest is still in there. And you can’t just wait for a turnover in a day or two because again, it does come back to reflect in the reviews. So they have to understand that part of it. The other thing I really like about meeting people, and it took me a while to realize this, but my favorite ones, I think, are good at anticipating issues before they.

Siobhan Cooney [00:42:59]:
So whether I’m hiring them for preventative maintenance to come in, like quarterly or monthly whatever, or not, just to sort of check on the place and look for a loose doorknob and, I don’t know, you know, with the nail sticking out on the deck or something. The ones that go in are kind of like, you know, hey, I noticed this other thing about your place, and I just wanted you to know. And you know, when they are also a set of eyes on the property, maybe not for that specific reason that you sent them, but also for something else. I find that really helpful. And then I feel like, you know, if they’re looking out for my best interest, then I’m more likely to call them. They’re going to be top of my list the next time I need somebody.

Avery [00:43:37]:
Yeah, that’s actually a really, really Good point. That, like, they don’t just go in and do the bare minimum if there’s anything else that they see. Like, hey, I think you might want to check this out. That’s super helpful and really valuable. So also another, another hot, hot tip from Siobhan.

Bill Beck [00:43:53]:
Speaking of tips, too, if they, like, you know, if it’s the first time and I want to, like, hey, thanks for your job, I’ll give them a little tip just to be, like, thankful because, like, it literally helped pay back because, like, I had him do another job for an actual real estate transaction on the side and he missed something and I was like, hey, man, you didn’t, you didn’t do this. He’s like, oh, I’m sorry. I’ll go get it. You know, knocked it out and didn’t charge me. So I was like, just throwing that out there.

Avery [00:44:17]:
Yeah. I mean, with it being a lot of condos, like, you’re not going to need. There’s actually probably not that many things you’re going to necessarily need a handyman for because the HOA is going to take care of all the exterior stuff. So again, another reason why it’s just really easy to own in Branson. Well, if nobody has anything else that we feel like the listeners might need to hear about. Nope. Going once. All right, cool, guys.

Avery [00:44:40]:
Well, if you guys are interested in buying house with bill or condo with Bill. Excuse me, a non warrantable condo, you can hit us up@agentshorttermshop.com to get connected. Or if you just feel like, hey, you know, I just want to lurk and learn a little bit. You can lurk away in our Facebook group called Short Term Rental, Long Term Wealth. Or if you want to ask us questions, we have a live Zoom Q and A every Thursday. And you can sign up for that@strquestions.com. thanks, y’ all. Sam.