Avery: How’s it going, short-term shoppers? Today we have a very special guest for the podcast. I am very excited.

Avery: Mr. Tony Robinson, a short-term rental investor, host of the Bigger Pockets Rookie podcast, and a YouTube sensation soon to be on the Real Estate Robinsons channel. How’s it going, Tony?

Tony: It’s going great! I’m super excited to be here and excited to share my story with your listeners.

Avery: I’m very excited for them to hear it too. So, to start off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into real estate investing?

Tony: Absolutely. I’m one of those weird kids who grew up reading Rich Dad Poor Dad when I was in junior high or something like that. My dad introduced me to real estate investing. He had set up a wholesale business in Detroit, Michigan, and we lived in California. He was doing it remotely and traveling for about five years until 2008 happened.

Avery: Oh wow.

Tony: Yeah, like many others, his business didn’t make it through the recession. One of the things he told me was that his biggest regret was not holding onto the properties he wholesaled. If he had, he probably would have still been in business post-recession. That lesson really stuck with me.

Avery: That’s such a powerful lesson, realizing the wealth-building comes from actually holding properties instead of selling them.

Tony: Absolutely. Wholesaling and flipping are great for producing big chunks of income, but when you hold real estate long-term, you get cash flow, appreciation, and all the other benefits of being an actual investor.

Avery: 100%. So, when did you personally get started in real estate?

Tony: I bought my first long-term rental back in 2019 in Louisiana. I bought four long-term rentals, and then I transitioned over to short-term rentals in 2020. Since then, we’ve purchased eight short-term rentals in the last eight months and have five more under contract right now.

Avery: That’s awesome! Sounds like you’ve been going full steam ahead ever since.