Avery: “Another episode of The Shortterm Show. I’ve got a super cool set of guests today. I have Ashita and Harshad.”

Shita: “You got it, got it.”

Avery: “So sorry, such a jerk. Uh, they are the founders and owners of Asida Interiors. They do a lot of really cool projects here in the Smokies, Western North Carolina, and the Florida Panhandle. So, I’m really excited to hear their story today. How’s it going, guys?”

Shita: “Awesome, very, very good, thanks Avery. Thanks for having us on your show. Um, I’m AA, and we started our journey in the STR world as investors ourselves. My background is in design and architecture, so I’ve worked in architecture firms. And I also was a set designer, um, in the Bollywood industry. So, the whole STR design is a perfect amalgamation of the two. And, uh, when we started our journey back in 2019, I don’t think, um, a lot of people were focused on design-centric STRs. Um, and a little would go a long way, but for us, it was the reverse. We were focusing on design, and that helped set us apart and got traction. And our entire business is due to word of mouth, and here we are, you know?”

Avey: “Yeah, cool. What’s your role?”

Harshad: “Well, uh, I’m Harshad, and, uh, well basically whatever she wants me to do. I’m the husband, I’m the assistant, you know. Uh, but my background is in engineering, so when we initially started investing with one of our very big investments, in the beginning, we took out all our 401K money during COVID, and we were investing in our first STR, second STR. That was a big, uh, investment amount, so I was just like, ‘I want to make sure this is going to perform because I don’t have any savings left.’ So that’s where the whole analysis part of it came in, like, ‘Hey, how do I make sure it’s going to work? How do I make sure what revenue it’s going to generate? What should we put into it?’ So I kind of bring in that analysis portion of what we do, uh, to the design firm. So I do the data analysis, the consultation, we come up with what that avatar needs to be, what the amenities need to be, and then we don’t start design until we have that figured out with the clients. And then she takes that on and does her magic from there.”

Avey: “Okay, awesome. So I want to back up and talk first about y’all’s investment portfolio. So, you own in several markets. How do you decide what market you’re going to buy in?”

Shita: “So, initially, when we are from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when we found out we were avid travelers ourselves, uh, our investment journey did not start with short-term rentals right away. We actually, uh, we were thinking about where our lives were heading, and our entire goal was to travel more, right? So we just wanted that sweet spot for us to have like 10k of passive income, which was crucial at that time. Um, and that’s when we were, um, that that’s what our goal was. And when we started venturing into multi-family, but that was not the right fit for us because there was no space for creativity, and—”

Avery: “It’s just too much to have to maintain.”

Shita: “Yeah, too much to maintain, no creativity at all. And since we were traveling and living in short-term rentals, it was like, ‘Let’s just do it,’ uh, you know, let’s just venture into our first short-term rental. Our first deal was, um, we were just getting close in that Cedar Rapids market. So, and then we started going like four hours radius or 30 minutes, and then four-hour radius. We wanted to manage our own; we wanted to have control of our rentals. And, um, and then we would also research and study like Short Term Shop, we would listen to your podcast, Bigger Pockets—those Bigger Pockets is the best. Bigger Pockets, Short Term Shop. We have literally self-taught ourselves listening to all the influential people in the industry, and that’s when we went to the Ozarks, and then we went to the Emerald Coast, and we fell in love with it the first time.”