You've probably heard the saying, "Experience is the best teacher." Today, we'll share a hard-earned lesson from our own journey, where we lost over $20,000 in a short-term rental investment. It was a wake-up call about the significance of understanding all the risks involved and adhering strictly to investment criteria. We'll share how disruptive guests can turn a profitable rental into a money pit, and the importance of thorough analysis before making any investment decisions. This is a candid discussion from our hearts, aimed at helping you avoid similar pitfalls.
But it's not all about the losses. In this journey, we've discovered the power of a solid investment strategy and a sound money mindset. We'll chat about the role of mentorship and the value of surrounding yourself with successful individuals to learn, grow, and build wealth. There are stories about our values, the legacy we want to pass on to future generations, and how every setback can be a setup for a comeback. We'll explore the essence of taking ownership, overcoming obstacles, and creating your own path to success. So, gear up for an episode filled with personal stories, hard-learned lessons and a fresh perspective on creating and preserving wealth.
You've probably heard the saying, "Experience is the best teacher." Today, we'll share a hard-earned lesson from our own journey, where we lost over $20,000 in a short-term rental investment. It was a wake-up call about the significance of understanding all the risks involved and adhering strictly to investment criteria. We'll share how disruptive guests can turn a profitable rental into a money pit, and the importance of thorough analysis before making any investment decisions. This is a candid discussion from our hearts, aimed at helping you avoid similar pitfalls.
But it's not all about the losses. In this journey, we've discovered the power of a solid investment strategy and a sound money mindset. We'll chat about the role of mentorship and the value of surrounding yourself with successful individuals to learn, grow, and build wealth. There are stories about our values, the legacy we want to pass on to future generations, and how every setback can be a setup for a comeback. We'll explore the essence of taking ownership, overcoming obstacles, and creating your own path to success. So, gear up for an episode filled with personal stories, hard-learned lessons and a fresh perspective on creating and preserving wealth.
You got all your keys. You got all your keys. Everything you want on top, everything you need, just got all your keys. Nobody could take this. Built it from ground up. Nobody could break this. I'm making real moves. When I see it, I want it, I get it. Let's build an empire, baby. I know that you with it can't. Nobody stop this. They call it. Watch this. It's time to talk life balance, love and marriage All the trend topics, no off days, come up the hallway. Love with no shortcuts. I took the long way. Gotta leave trust.
Speaker 2:
Even when I think about it, I feel like I still have trauma. I was really sitting here thinking about that and I was like about to let the words come out of my mouth and then I was like, wow, that really happened. $20,000 just gone down and drained y'all have. That still affects me, even right now. I'm not gonna say okay, well, obviously it does. I'm gonna be honest, and the reason why is because we always talk about making calculated investments and always analyzing the risk.
Speaker 2:
And this was another time that we were partying and we felt as though we had paid attention to everything, but we really didn't and we really shouldn't have signed these documents In the environment that we signed them in, because we were in a party environment, we were out of town with a lot of friends and we were out of town for like five days and you know, it came time for us to sign these documents for this Airbnb.
Speaker 2:
And, yes, we did sign the documents and, you know, the week before we had it prepared, we were out of town the week before that. So it was like we were just doing a lot, you know, and we didn't pay attention to the fine print. And we signed this document. You know, spent all of this money on this Airbnb and then not even 30 days later it was over 20 days Because we furnished because actually we furnished the Airbnb with all brands oh my gosh all new furniture and not even in 30 days. We had a notice of AK and the reason why was because of the the Chantarino Clause you know and we missed it.
Speaker 3:
So you know, like man, you know the world we live in. I get people caught up in and just thinking of everything I'm about to invest in this glistening land. You know it's real work, it's rewarding, but it's real work. And then there is sometimes there's losses you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:
So we felt compelled to come on and talk about the time that we've had that we experienced substantial loss in our investment journey and this was one of them. You know, the first thing I'm going to say is, like you know, this was one of those times so where we went outside of our normal investment criteria. Yes, we did Usually we looked to purchase property to do short-term rental, but this time, you know, because we had already kind of we had been doing.
Speaker 2:
We had did this, I think, three times already.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so we did that.
Speaker 2:
Because we did it in Atlanta and we did it twice in Houston.
Speaker 3:
Right. So you know we like alright. We bought a couple properties during this particular year and we were like alright, we don't need to buy anything else we could do rental arbitrage, we could do the owner ESA Right.
Speaker 2:
You know we got our opportunity. You know it's at a good location.
Speaker 3:
You know good price. So boom, we get into it, we furnish it. We dropped 20 bands on the furniture plus the deposit, the first month's rent.
Speaker 2:
And the owner was, and because. So the thing that we did was this was the thing we every time, anything that we did, we always did it in the company, you know, and so they knew that we would have. So we're not even gonna fake about this, you know, Because we were real and transparent. My phone is ringing and see, this is the criteria right? Did we just check out the criteria to make sure that everything was right? Make sure that your phone was on the phone? Yeah, let me get this right.
Speaker 2:
The owner knew that we would have different people from the company coming in and out, but what happened was it wasn't that it was the tenants, I'm gonna say the tenants, they weren't tenants, it was the guests. So the guests were the ones that were loud, obnoxious, and that's what raised concerns about everyone else. So the guests that they had within that month were just, yeah, they were just so loud, obnoxious that that's what prompted the owner, so some of the other people that were there in this kind of association, that's what prompted them to start looking like okay, what's going on?
Speaker 2:
So, that's really what happened. The short term what?
Speaker 3:
are you going with that I?
Speaker 2:
wanted to finish down. I was saying the short term rental clause would have been okay if it was company policy.
Speaker 3:
What if it was longer?
Speaker 2:
than 30 days In 30 days, yeah, short term rental.
Speaker 3:
If there's a short term rental clause, that means that you can't have any rentals less than 30 days at a time, right, and so then?
Speaker 2:
you would have to use sites like Tell us about the one that we use for the furnace funders at here.
Speaker 2:
R, you just offered longer stays, which that's what we eventually started doing, but that was it wasn't even a thing. Because she particularly told us that and we were like, okay, cool, which. We knew that we were going to do that anyway, but we felt as though, because of the area that was in, that we wouldn't have the loud, obnoxious guest, that it would be okay, because we've done this before and we've done it in two other states. So it was just a. It was again like Jay said. We deviated from the criteria that we normally would stick to and then we did not look at the fine print. So whenever you're investing in anything, whenever you're taking a risk because investments are a risk, no matter what kind of investments that they are you definitely want to make sure that you read all of the fine print. You go through the contract. I used to go through contracts with highlighters.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's funny. I think about this, you know, a lot of times. It's funny when I get clients, or get potential clients to ask me when we're talking about, you know, building an investment portfolio, when they say what's my guarantee? Yeah, you know investing, there's no guarantee.
Speaker 2:
And even with less being an overhand thing, I'm sorry. No, it's never.
Speaker 3:
If anybody that's advising you or working with you and you're looking to do any type of investment. They tell you that you're guaranteed your money, which is illegal. They can't tell you that you're guaranteed because investment there are risk associated with all types of investments, every type of investment. So, there's no way that you can say legally that there is a guarantee.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
It don't matter if they have a 30 year track record of bringing you know exponential returns and no losses. They still can't tell you that they can guarantee.
Speaker 2:
There's still a limit to the risk limit school to be a CFA and you know these are highly regarded financial destinations and the reason why is not just because of the destination, it's because, with us going through a lot of the financial hardships that we've been through being in an investment world, being in the financial world as black people we are not properly represented when it comes to being in a finance phase of African-Americans that are in the financial space, especially as it appeases, and when it comes to, like our finances, representation matters when it comes to investments. When it comes to the knowledge the experience is one thing, but the firsthand book knowledge is a whole, total different thing. We're not properly represented in these spaces and even with that, even getting into these spaces, going back and looking over some of the decisions that we've made, now that we know a totally different dynamic of finance, some of the previous decisions that we made we wouldn't even make.
Speaker 3:
You know Exactly so in case in point. I've seen so many people that get into an investment and they expect that investment to pay them immediately. If you're getting into some type of investment venture and you're looking for that venture to pay your bills or to support you as soon as you make that investment, you need to reevaluate that.
Speaker 2:
That's even when you get into business. That's another thing that we do, and we have bad-ass African-Americans. You know, I was just having this conversation with my sister yesterday. You know she was a photographer and she was doing a free event yesterday, an event where the photography was free, and she was like I'm not. And I said make sure you take a lot of pictures. And the first thing that she said was I'm not going to take a lot of pictures. And I'm like why? I said, at the end of the day, you have to invest in yourself. You're right now you're struggling to get clients. So you're struggling to get clients, so that means that you should be doing more to get clients than doing less.
Speaker 2:
But if we go into our craft and we're not even experts- we're not even giving ourselves time to learn to navigate these spaces that we are in, because we're already expecting a return. How will we ever grow, you know?
Speaker 3:
For real. So one of the things that I want people to always understand we're talking about again we invest in real estate, we invest in Airbnb. That's one of the vehicles that we put money into. But, going back to having an investment criteria, you got to set up rules for yourself as an investor. You have to set up non-negotiable things that you're going to put in place that you're not going to deviate from. One of the reasons that we lost those 20 bands was we deviated from our rules. We deviated from the thing that we have been doing, that we were doing consistently. That worked for us.
Speaker 3:
And the moment that we did that, we paid for it.
Speaker 2:
But we also I'm going to say this too, because that's not the first time that we spend a lot of money on investment because when we opened up the boutique, we spent a lot of money on investing in that actual boutique. But the reason why was because we didn't have non-negotiables and at the time we didn't understand the value of money.
Speaker 1:
So we looked at it.
Speaker 2:
And we just spent it, and we just spent it. Right, and we spent it without even paying off some of the debts that we had. It's like if you are investing, you should always pay your debt off first.
Speaker 3:
You know what I'm saying, like seriously, or what it's like knowing what you're going to use your funds for.
Speaker 2:
Like what's going to be the best use of your money. Or even just maybe not paying your debt completely off, but maybe having control of your debt.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that goes back to strategically knowing like if you're getting money, especially if you're getting like at this point we was getting money out in the office. We was getting money from so many different places. Yeah, it was ridiculous, but because we didn't have a true respect for money and we didn't have a good relationship with money. Then we just felt oh, we want to start a boutique, all right, we got money over here, we just dumped the money into it and we don't even have a strategy Co-mingling Terrible we don't even have a plan, but just because the money is available, then we go ahead and put it into it, right?
Speaker 2:
Without having an, even without having an exit strategy without having a return on investment, not looking at saying, OK, what are our growth measures?
Speaker 1:
What are we going to do For?
Speaker 2:
KPIs, right, we didn't look at any of those kind of things. But again, that was because we were young in business and we were just Just really, we were just just going, just going, just going.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we were just doing because we could do, and then we didn't have good examples in terms of, like you know, people that were in our families that were successful entrepreneurs. And then the people that we were around that were entrepreneurs, guess what they were doing? They were just doing just like we were, you know. And so that's another thing that goes back to exposure, like who are you, who's in your circle, what are you exposed to? Because if you and your show me, your, show me your three friends and I'll show you your future. So if your three friends, y'all are all just willy nilly and out here, guess what? You gonna be the fourth person that's out here, willy nilly.
Speaker 3:
Your goal, your goal need to be the dumbest person in your circle and every circle that you're getting. You need to be the dumbest person in that circle.
Speaker 2:
So elaborate on that.
Speaker 3:
That means that if you're the dumbest person in every circle that you put yourself into, that means all you can do is learn and grow.
Speaker 2:
That's it.
Speaker 3:
That's all. That's all you're gonna be able to do Is learn, grow elevate.
Speaker 2:
But because we feel as though a lot of times people, I'ma say in our community, we feel like we need to let you know that you don't know more than us.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that means you got a security issue. Yes, so that means you gotta deal with you first.
Speaker 2:
And, oh goodness gracious, we not even getting on that. We was talking about that last time.
Speaker 1:
So it's like that's the thing, so it's all tied in it is, it is.
Speaker 3:
Because we don't wanna get to the bag so bad. We wanna invest, we wanna get to the money and we lose everything that we acquire. Like I can't say this enough, and I've had so many conversations with people who are high chees or high earners, but they can't retain anything. No wealth can be built. No wealth can be passed down. Nothing can be accumulated. Because they don't have a relationship with their money, they haven't dealt with them.
Speaker 2:
Right and their selfish also, because when people think about legacy, you know legacy is not just about money. That's what we have to continue to say, that it's like what values are you passing?
Speaker 3:
Money's like a small small percentage of it.
Speaker 2:
Because, regardless of if you're passing down money, if you instill certain values into your family, into the people that are around you, the money is gonna be there Because the value stem from that.
Speaker 2:
You know, we're not out here trying to live with the Joneses. We did that and we don't even know who the Joneses. We were just trying to live. However, we wanted to live, and living all really nearly. You know, there's no reason why we were 25 years old making 70, 80 thousand dollars a year, and then I said a month and then going back to literally, literally the few years later not having anything to show for but debt. Yeah, you know, because we didn't understand our relationship with money, Even going to the point of having invested in things that we didn't even know what was even gonna be our return.
Speaker 3:
Just cause we like clothes.
Speaker 2:
And we feel like we can do it. And then, not only that, not even understand the industry that we were going into. It's one thing to buy businesses, but then it's one thing to try to buy a business and build a business. Why do you buy it? No, people that purchase businesses. They're purchasing thriving businesses and then they have CEOs that are already in the company, that are running the company, so they're not buying a business. Trying to learn a business, trying to do the business, trying to be the business.
Speaker 3:
Why run another?
Speaker 2:
business. Thank you, no, and that's basically what we were doing. So that's why we wanna encourage you guys that are listeners, that are listening to these podcasts, that are listeners if you are part of the On your Kids Network make sure that whenever you are going into whether it's a business, whether it's investment you first count the costs. Count the costs first, know why you're going into it, know your why, know your why, why are you doing it. Thank you, and then it can't just be about money. It can't just be about money. What's the purpose of it?
Speaker 2:
You know what are the and they have your non-negotiables you know, what are your standards? What are the standards? What is the exit? How long do you even want to do this? When people say about having a vision for it, we said we were gonna stop saying that we're having issues this year we're doing strategy, boards, everything that Execution boards.
Speaker 2:
Execution. You can have a vision all day long, but if you don't have a strategy to even, to even I wish A dream without a plan is just a dream. That's it, you know. And so, with that being said, you know that was one of the last times that we invested in something, cause it was that was hard, that was really, really, really hard, that was really hard.
Speaker 3:
That was a tough one because we was like-.
Speaker 2:
We knew better at that point. Talk awesome.
Speaker 3:
We knew better. Yeah, you know, it's like like how we let that fall.
Speaker 2:
And then, and then it's both of us. So it's like there should have been some accountability. There should have been someone to say, now, baby, let's stop, let's look at this. But you know, we just both, they're just doing. You know, and that goes to you know why there's no 50-50 in relationships, there's a hundred for a hundred right. Cause if I was given a hundred percent and he was given a hundred percent right, one of us would have caught that, you know.
Speaker 2:
And so that's why you know when, when you are as a couple, when you are a team, whatever that is, you know building a team, you know it's so much deeper than just, it's so much deeper than just the relationship. You know you have to hold each other accountable. You guys have to have the non-negotiable standards that you operate by just every single day. How do you operate your business? You know y'all are gonna say y'all are gonna have financial meetings once someone, have your financial meetings once someone. If someone has an attitude, leave that attitude at the door. You know, like seriously, because the your mindset, what you believe in, what you want for yourself, you're never at first, if you don't believe, you'll never have that as a couple, and then, if you don't change your mindset and change your actions, you'll never have that as a couple, you'll never have that as a team. You know. So you definitely wanna make sure that you know you're checking in instead of checking out.
Speaker 2:
You know so you're in a relationship and if you're in a business with your partner, wherever you are, even if it's just you're by yourself, you're by yourself and you're trying to change your own habits, check in instead of checking out. Challenge those habits right. Challenge those beliefs. Then you won't have to be going into investing $20,000 into an investment because you didn't look at the small print, because guess what your criteria you like? Nah, I don't even operate like that. Whatever I got going on, right now, let me pause and sit myself down and make sure that I look at all of the things and not half of the things. Right, fast, so, yeah, so I think that was good, right? Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:
Yeah y'all make sure y'all like, comment and subscribe, send this to someone that y'all feel like could benefit from this. Have y'all ever made any investments that y'all regret that y'all said and, looking back like, or if y'all even just y'all wanna have a better relationship with your mother, like we know? Y'all already know we take the money journey together. But just even more than just that, you know we are at a time right now in our society where you know collaborative community matters. You know we can no longer say there's, you know, a little big eyes and little use, like. We're definitely in desperate times right now and we really have to stop having the crap in the barrel mentality. Come together, share knowledge, share resources so that we can, as a community, have more and do better together. Right, yes, so I'm your host, mink.
Speaker 3:
And I'm J Golday, aka Mr Onyapies, aka the Monopoly Boss. Let's get it.
Speaker 2:
Ownership over obstacles. Take control of your life. Take ownership of your life. Take ownership of your mindset, take ownership of your actions.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, Candleball and stop this. They can only watch this. It's time to talk. Life balance, love and marriage all the dream topics. No updates Come up the hallway, never. No shortcuts. I took the long way. Gotta leave treasure for my kids, kids pleasure. Every loss been a lesson and an unexpected blessing. Plenty seeds showing up, small money growing up, accomplishing my gold champagne bottle, pouring up Damn on everything. I'm signing the dot in line. Money been working for me. I'm kicking back on recline. I only just like the moment. Everything I became my hustle could take the blame To little. Find my name. Gotta walk through the rain. Gotta go through the pain. You gotta soak up the game. Create your own lane, switch gears. Never change, level up and gain. You can have everything long as you do one thing you just got on your keys. You just got on your keys.