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Taylor Jones: How to Find Gaps in the Data and Use Amenities to Stand Out | Episode 13 | STR Data Lab™ by AirDNA

This week Jamie Lane sits down with the Head of Acquisitions at Techvestor, Taylor Jones, to walk us through the process of acquiring short-term rentals at scale! Taylor tells us how they filter out markets by using the price-to-rent ratio. Taylor then walks us through how they narrow down which properties will perform the best based on where they are in the neighborhood and what amenities they have.

 

Taylor explains that they buy anytime, whether the real estate market is high or low. They plan to buy about 150 properties next year. Techvestor also finished above their projected revenue for the past three months, and they plan to stay within their niche. Taylor proceeds to show us some broad short-term rental trends, real-life examples, and more!

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Transcript

00:00:14:04 - 00:00:19:11

Speaker 1

Taylor, great to see you here and welcome to the STR data lab.

00:00:20:15 - 00:00:21:29

Speaker 2

Thank you. How are you?

00:00:23:00 - 00:00:35:07

Speaker 1

I'm great. See your down–we were talking and you're down in sunny Orlando and up here and and cool Atlanta. But we've got some East Coasters for the first time in a while on the podcast.

00:00:35:23 - 00:00:41:27

Speaker 2

Yes. No, I'll always love East Coast. Everybody naturally caters to us. You noticed that. So that's kind of.

00:00:44:06 - 00:01:00:09

Speaker 1

Yeah great. Well, welcome to the STR data lab. We're going to get into some data and maybe some investment philosophy. You're active in the STR market. Very active on Twitter. So you ready to jump into the STR data lab?

00:01:00:25 - 00:01:01:27

Speaker 2

Yeah. Let's dive in.

00:01:03:01 - 00:01:12:29

Speaker 1

So let's do it. Let's start with maybe the who, what, why of Techvestor. Maybe a bit about how you joined and what you do there.

00:01:13:29 - 00:01:40:00

Speaker 2

Yes. So Techvestor, we’re a strategic opportunity for people to passively invest in short term rentals. You know, personally, I lead our acquisitions team. And speaking of Twitter, our CEO, actually, when we're building out our team, he slid into my DMS. So, you know, kind of a nice benefit of being active in promoting on Twitter. And, you know, me and my wife, we've had some short term rentals personally.

00:01:40:00 - 00:02:02:23

Speaker 2

And so I always looked at this as, Hey, I want to give back and promote the asset class and grow and share. You know, I'm a washed up baseball guy, so numbers are everything to me anyway. And that kind of fell in line with what what our CEO was needing. So he kind of reached out. We had a little back and forth and came to an agreement and I joined Techvestor.

00:02:02:23 - 00:02:18:17

Speaker 2

And now I dive in and run our acquisitions, look at every property, the underwriting, the data of what we're going to buy and what markets and use that to build out our portfolio. So that's kind of the who, what, why of Techvestor and how I got started and what we do.

00:02:19:29 - 00:02:24:06

Speaker 1

So, so do you guys consider yourselves like the Moneyball of STR investing?

00:02:25:07 - 00:02:55:00

Speaker 2

Yeah. I mean, we try to really dive in and see what data makes sense, where the arbitrage and the gaps are in the data, and those are the good opportunities. So, you know, yeah, just as looking at, you know, whether it's RBI’s or, you know, runs or anything on the baseball side, we definitely look at that same approach for short term rentals and see where does it make sense, both from a geographic standpoint but also a amenity standpoint and everything else in between.

00:02:56:19 - 00:03:22:28

Speaker 1

So maybe help me and given where we're at in the cycle and investment returns have been really good, I feel like over the past few years, correct me if I'm wrong, industry is definitely at a high point in the housing market and has been very strong. We've seen some weakness. So what is sort of the near-term strategy for Techvestor?

00:03:23:26 - 00:03:52:18

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, the near term strategy is to continue to do what we do. We buy properties, we renovate them, we design them, we furnish them and we rent them out. So for us, we're going to continue to build our portfolio. We're vertically integrated. So everything is in-house, whether it is the acquisitions which which I run, whether it's the project management, the renovations, whether it's the design, and whether it's the the property management.

00:03:52:18 - 00:04:00:15

Speaker 2

So any step along the way we handle in-house. So for us, we're going to continue to do that on a near term basis, which is what we're doing today.

00:04:01:07 - 00:04:13:13

Speaker 1

And give me a sense of what you guys look like. Are you all short term rental or do you have some long term rentals how many properties you're at? And can you give me a sense of what what your guys portfolio looks like today?

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:31:02

Speaker 2

Yeah. So all short term rentals, that's our laser focus in this first fund that we have, we ran over 60 properties across nine different states in the US. So, you know, all of that being in the last 12 months.

00:04:31:23 - 00:04:34:06

Speaker 1

That’s a lot of properties.

00:04:36:07 - 00:04:38:12

Speaker 2

We've been very active buying this past year.

00:04:39:13 - 00:04:51:05

Speaker 1

And what are you guys thinking long term Like what, what are you trying to build here with this sort of an acquisition strategy? What Well, what's the long term vision?

00:04:51:25 - 00:05:10:29

Speaker 2

Yeah, the long term vision is we're actually going to bundle up all of these turnkey short term rentals. I mean, these are all mini businesses wrapped into one, and we're going to bundle them all together, whether it's 250, 500 or a thousand, and we're going to sell it to a large, you know, institution. You know, you go look at any other asset class.

00:05:10:29 - 00:05:38:01

Speaker 2

If you want to go deploy 25 or 50 million, you can go buy that in multifamily today. You can go buy that in self-storage, you can go buy that in office or retail. But if you have 25 to 50 million to deploy tomorrow, where in short term rentals are you going to do it. And that's a big, you know, pluses and minuses to the asset class that the positive is, is institutions aren't really in here and it's not as competitive as, say, multifamily.

00:05:38:01 - 00:06:05:16

Speaker 2

And that's the opportunity we are we are seizing today with our portfolio. You know, we're competing with mom and pop, Uncle Bob down the street. You know, we're not competing with Mr. Billion dollar Institution like multifamily self-storage. So that's the opportunity. But you know what? We're building will allow institutions to write one singular check and get exposure to yield and exposure to short term rentals with all of these turnkey assets that we have.

00:06:06:00 - 00:06:17:21

Speaker 2

So that's our high level plan. You know, long term is to continue to build a portfolio, scale up and then eventually exit when the numbers make sense for both us and our investors.

00:06:19:12 - 00:06:26:00

Speaker 1

So does that sort of shape your investment strategy in terms of the market you're going in and the types of properties you're buying?

00:06:27:02 - 00:06:58:21

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, we definitely want to always keep the exit in mind, but at the same time, our core thesis that we tell investors is, you know, getting yield tomorrow, tax benefits tomorrow, opportunity tomorrow. So, you know, we need to look at what the yield opportunity is today when acquiring. So that's really a big driver of where we're going as we look at the data and a big metric that's really easy to narrow down market is the we call it the price to rent ratio, and that's the gross revenue divided by the purchase price.

00:06:58:25 - 00:07:22:27

Speaker 2

So very simple, if something's generating 150,000, that's good. If you can buy it for, you know, 750k, that's not good. If you have to buy it for 1.25 million. So for us, when we look at markets and revenue, a quick, easy filter is price to rent ratio. You know, we can quickly filter out markets where it just will never make sense.

00:07:22:27 - 00:07:47:28

Speaker 2

The revenue's not strong enough, the purchase prices are too high. And obviously the bigger that gap, the more margin you have for profits. So obviously, we're going to seek out those gaps where it makes sense and continue to do that. You know, And then within that data, you can also find opportunities. So for example, in Nashville, a studio on average makes 45k annually, a one bedroom makes 46k annually.

00:07:48:09 - 00:08:12:01

Speaker 2

So the math tells you that you're probably going to pay way more on purchase price for a one bedroom in Nashville, your studio, but your revenue is nearly the same. So the data tells you to go buy a studio in Nashville versus a one bed because you're going to get way more yield out of it. So those are just little nuances and gaps in the data that we find is both from a geography standpoint but also from a bedroom count standpoint.

00:08:12:01 - 00:08:28:11

Speaker 2

And, you know, you'll see this a lot of times, too, when you jump from, say, a two bed to a three bed or a three to a four, four to a five where the revenue just shoots up significantly. But the purchase price doesn't really grow. You know, that like the purchase price kind of grows linear, but revenue grows exponentially.

00:08:28:11 - 00:08:43:05

Speaker 2

And there's just something about like, hey, there's not a lot of five beds in the market, so you can command a massive premium over fours, but the purchase price doesn't. So those are just some little nuances of how we we study markets, figure out where to go, and then within those markets what to look for.

00:08:44:00 - 00:08:58:16

Speaker 1

That's good. Are there any sort of broad trends that you guys are seeing in terms of more bedroom's less bedrooms, certain types of markets, certain types of geography, areas that are sort of leading to where you guys are investing today?

00:08:59:12 - 00:09:22:27

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, definitely I think, you know, you guys put out the data as well that the larger bedroom counts are exploding in rental growth. I mean, we've noticed that too, amongst our portfolio. And I think when it comes to exceeding the, you know, top line revenue, the bigger ones just have a better opportunity to increase that on a percentage basis than the, you know, ones twos and threes.

00:09:23:09 - 00:09:41:29

Speaker 2

So, you know, we do have a blend. We carry everything from one beds to six beds in our portfolio. So we do own the entire gambit just to stay diversified. But it is very fascinating to see that the rise of larger properties, you know, we're we look at the data and the data tells us to buy them great submarkets.

00:09:41:29 - 00:09:51:21

Speaker 2

The data tells you to go buy those, you know, ones and twos, and there's tons of opportunity there. So for us, it's it's really market by market. And you really got to see what makes the most sense to buy within that market.

00:09:53:13 - 00:10:08:26

Speaker 1

Okay. So you mentioned price to revenue. Are there any other sort of key metrics you guys are looking at to sort of narrow down the list of properties out there when you're looking to maybe dive deeper and underwrite individual properties, individual investment?

00:10:09:16 - 00:10:23:08

Speaker 2

Yeah. So once we find that that an overall market has a good price to revenue ratio, then we'll start breaking it down by zip code by neighborhood and see like, okay, is all the money made on the east side of town or is it more profitable on the north side of town or the south or the west side?

00:10:23:17 - 00:10:39:23

Speaker 2

So we'll look at that data. You know, a lot of it coming from, you know, your guys platform, which we're very grateful to to use and soak up. And then once we have that, what we're going to do is start looking at all the top performers so say we've narrowed it down that, hey, the east side of town is where the most revenue is being made.

00:10:40:06 - 00:10:58:13

Speaker 2

Then we're going to look at what are those all have in common and we’re going to start building our buy, say they all have pools, they all have hot tubs, they all have fire pits. They have mountain views. They'll have game rooms. One of those commonalities will build that list. Then for us, that allows us to turn around and go to our on the buy side and say okay, we have minimum need X, Y and Z.

00:10:58:22 - 00:11:29:16

Speaker 2

And then what our team will do is say, okay, all the top performers have the following amenities. What can we add in? What's one or two differentiators we can do to make ours stand out? So, hey, this is the minimum you need to play the game to be a top performer. We already know the geography, so we're honed in there and then we say, okay, let's add one or two new things that nobody else has, whether it's a movie theater, whether it's a miniature golf course, whether it's whatever it might be, you know, if everybody has the same boring design, maybe we go different, maybe we go bold and change it up.

00:11:29:16 - 00:11:44:21

Speaker 2

So those are the things we're going to look at once we've narrowed down that high level, the market works, then we're going to figure out where in the market the money is and we're going to figure out what the top performers are doing to drive the most money. And then we're going to go execute, replicate, repeat.

00:11:46:15 - 00:12:02:20

Speaker 1

So when you're thinking about adding maybe a mini golf course or a movie theater, and how are you sort of getting to what that return is going to be, or is it just a guess or. And are you finding that in the data that you can quantify that.

00:12:04:03 - 00:12:24:08

Speaker 2

Sometimes it's quantifiable, sometimes it's not. It's also looking across markets, for example. So we'll take like the Smoky Mountains. Movie theaters are almost a near given right now. If you don't have a movie theater, you're almost not in the norm anymore. And then you take a place like Blue Ridge, Georgia, where movie theaters are few and far between.

00:12:24:15 - 00:12:47:14

Speaker 2

So, you know, what we also do is steal amenity ideas that catch fire in certain markets and go, you know, execute them in markets where they're nonexistent. You know, on the flip side, it's in a place like Scottsdale and everybody has, you know, miniature golf courses. You take a place like Gatlinburg or Blue Ridge in the mountains, and it's kind of hard to build it because most lots are fall off a cliff in the street.

00:12:47:25 - 00:13:05:24

Speaker 2

So if you can find a relatively flat lot, a competitive advantage you can have is you add, say, a miniature golf course. Now you have the amenity that no one else does. Indoor pools are on the rise in Gatlinburg if you've been looking at trends. So that would be another amenity that you would probably want to look for or buy.

00:13:06:13 - 00:13:29:13

Speaker 2

I know adding it is probably tough to do compared to just adding a movie theater or a game room. But those are different things we look at too, is what works in other markets and because we're diversified across so many different markets, we see trends and we see like awesome amenities that a lot of people have. And if we notice those lacking in other markets, we're just going to copy them and replicate them in those markets.

00:13:29:24 - 00:13:49:01

Speaker 2

So, you know, a lot of times we're just we're just seeing the whole landscape and seeing what's missing because not every market has a game room, a movie theater, a miniature golf course. But, you know, we can go replicate that because we know it works in other markets. So, you know, a little bit of data, a little bit of hunch, a little bit of just seeing what's going on in other areas.

00:13:49:01 - 00:14:05:20

Speaker 1

Yeah, that that's interesting. You don't necessarily need to reinvent the wheel when you're sort of got an emerging market and and get a sense of what the demand is and what they're going to like and make sure and put those things in that are getting you booked over your competitors, Right?

00:14:05:25 - 00:14:07:12

Speaker 2

Absolutely.

00:14:07:12 - 00:14:27:10

Speaker 1

So you guys have been very active in a hot market. You're still active now in a cooling market. Do you guys do you consider you guys have a competitive advantage in underwriting deals? And what gives you guys the edge when you're when you're bidding, when you're competing for your assets?

00:14:28:01 - 00:14:46:27

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, I would say a competitive advantage we have is we have way more data than the average investor. And for us, that just gives us so much opportunity to really make the correct decision. You know, we might be able to pay 10k more for a property because we know that the revenue is better based on the data than the average investor.

00:14:46:27 - 00:15:06:11

Speaker 2

You know, we also built our own software to underwrite short term rentals at scale. So in our software we can actually underwrite over 100,000 deals a month. So anything that hits the MLS in any market that we want to track, it'll go through our system and so we can underwrite 100,000 short term rentals a month. Well, these will be potential short term rentals.

00:15:06:12 - 00:15:24:27

Speaker 2

a month, let me rephrase that because they're technically not there today. Some are, some aren't, but some are, you know, homes in the correct zoning that can be converted into short term rentals. And so for us, it's just all about tracking that data, utilizing it and, you know, having it go, you know, to the best of our abilities and use that.

00:15:24:27 - 00:15:35:06

Speaker 2

So yeah, a huge advantage is just our data access to the common investor, which allows us to make better decisions on a on a large scale basis.

00:15:35:06 - 00:16:10:10

Speaker 1

So most of our our focus and what we've talked about so far has been on the income side but everyone knows investing in real estate, there's also the asset appreciation side and forecasts I've seen or anywhere from 10 to 20% declines in home values over the next year maybe peak to trough that has pushed many investors to the sidelines of not wanting to buy in a down market and overpay.

00:16:10:10 - 00:16:20:12

Speaker 1

And how do you guys think about asset appreciation? Is that causing you pause or sort of pushing forward? What's the thesis there?

00:16:21:11 - 00:16:42:24

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, we're pushing forward. If prices drop, that's that's great for us. We're buying really good assets off the clearance rack. So for us, we look at this as this is a great buying opportunity when everybody else is fearful, you know, you can really make a lot of money. We're not selling tomorrow. So that's kind of the good news is we're going to build this over the next 4 to 6 years.

00:16:43:18 - 00:17:06:13

Speaker 2

Real estate, cyclical. And you know, what we're also proving out is that we're going to be able to sell based on yield in a bundled portfolio style. So, you know, yes, asset prices matter on a one off basis or for a one off investment, but on a on a 250 to 500 unit portfolio basis, it's really yield driven, you know, as well as timeline.

00:17:06:13 - 00:17:28:14

Speaker 2

Like I said, we're 4 to 6 years out before we're really looking at any strong exit opportunities. So for us, no, if they keep dropping, we'll keep buying. We don't time the market, so we buy the best available based on the data today. So yeah, we're not catching knives as they, as they say, trying to figure out where the bottom is. You know we'll buy at the top will buy at the bottom.

00:17:28:14 - 00:17:50:12

Speaker 2

You know what we are always buying. So whenever the top was, we probably bought some assets at the top, quote unquote. But you know, at the time we had the best available data and they're still cash flowing short term rentals. So that's at the end of the day, what we're doing is we're delivering yield to our investors. And so we're going to buy the best available yield in today's market, whether it's up, down, sideways, crooked or backwards.

00:17:51:17 - 00:17:59:12

Speaker 1

So do you expect 2023 to be busier than 2022 in terms of asset purchases?

00:18:00:09 - 00:18:12:00

Speaker 2

Yeah. I mean, this year, you know, we’ll be right around 70 total acquisitions and we have our eyes set on 150 next year. So we will be very active on the buying side.

00:18:13:24 - 00:18:14:24

Speaker 1

So you're going to be busy?

00:18:15:17 - 00:18:23:22

Speaker 2

Yeah. As head of acquisition, all that means is I'll have no time off.

00:18:23:22 - 00:18:41:10

Speaker 1

And for the properties that you've already purchased in the past year, assuming you've been monitoring the performance sort of and checking them versus what you modeled. So how are they performing? Are they sort of meeting your expectations exceeding underperforming? How's it looking?

00:18:41:10 - 00:19:05:27

Speaker 2

Yeah, we're doing great. So you know, Q4 here. So in October we finished in 107% of projected revenue, so we finished 7% above what we projected in November. We finished at 120% of projected revenue, so we were 20% over. And in December, assuming no other last minute bookings come in, we finish at 140% of projected revenue. I'm looking ahead to January here.

00:19:05:27 - 00:19:25:12

Speaker 2

We're still obviously six weeks out from finishing the market, our finishing to close out and we're already on the books. We have over 90% of our projected revenue is already booked on the calendar. So we're kind of in that great little niche where we take what is, you know, the average, you know, 50th percentile type of product.

00:19:25:20 - 00:19:45:18

Speaker 2

We're going to renovate it, out design our competitors and we're going to out amenity them based on that market to win. You know, we're not in the luxury space that's kind of that top 10%. Those have their own competition and factors and we're not competing on, you know, budgetary, you know, quick, easy, you know, one night stay type of product.

00:19:45:19 - 00:20:14:15

Speaker 2

So what we've learned is we just hang out in our niche where we can execute and do it and we're not as affected. And, you know, at the end of the day, elite properties are still getting booked. And if you have an average product in an average market, you will suffer in a downturn. You know, if you're also in an average geography area, you know, if you're in the middle of, you know, flyover America and there's no draw to it, it's going to be hard without the COVID boom to to draw.

00:20:14:23 - 00:20:34:15

Speaker 2

If you have a plain vinyl siding home with nothing standing out, it's going to be tough to do. So you know, we're also in very strategic markets, whether it's you know, everybody says, hey, be close to the national parks. You know, we have some exposure into that realm of thinking. We have some hey, always be close to the, you know, hour and a half, 2 hour away getaway.

00:20:34:15 - 00:20:52:03

Speaker 2

You know, you you're in Atlanta and, you know, Blue Ridge is an hour and a half away. There's a reason Blue Ridge is a great market is because of that, you know, drivable destinations for metros, whether it's Atlanta, D.C., you know, L.A., you know, Austin, etc.. So there's a lot of markets that, you know, are within a good two hour drive.

00:20:52:03 - 00:21:19:00

Speaker 2

So we really try to diversify amongst, you know, geography investment thesis is opportunities. We own beach properties, lake properties, mountain properties, downtown metropolitan, you know, where the zoning is allowable. We don't want to be too overexposed to one style of home to one geography either. Natural event regulation could hurt you if you got all your chips in one geographic area.

00:21:19:13 - 00:21:39:13

Speaker 2

So that's why we're diversified. The way we are structurally is to deliver that. And I think that allows us to drive the revenue that we are and we're not affected by this, you know, “Airbust” or whatever you see on the Facebook groups online, we kind of laugh not our head and just plug, you know, plug forward and continue to execute.

00:21:39:13 - 00:22:03:00

Speaker 1

Yeah, that was actually going to be my next question. I know you're active on the socials and do you think the “Airbust” sort of hashtag is around just people with cookie cutter properties and maybe some non-sustainable markets that we're just seeing a drop of bookings or do you really think that it's a phenomenon that's happening throughout the industry?

00:22:04:18 - 00:22:26:27

Speaker 2

I really think what's happening is people got caught up in what was promoted by, you know, the guru's quote unquote, on on the social platforms. And, you know, we joked before, like in 2019, you could get a map out, close your eyes, throw a dart, and whatever you landed on, you could buy and generate a 20% return. And unfortunately, a lot of people got sold that vision and people bought very average products.

00:22:26:27 - 00:22:53:01

Speaker 2

I'm probably going to get hated in Wisconsin, but if you bought a plain vinyl siding home in, say, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and the decor is grandma's drapes from the eighties. Well, yeah, you maybe got a COVID boom because people left Chicago and Milwaukee in during COVID and now all of a sudden you're not getting bookings. Well, like, what do you have to offer to draw somebody to that, both from a market standpoint and from an amenity field?

00:22:53:01 - 00:23:19:29

Speaker 2

So, you know, yeah, I do think the people who are loudest are the people who maybe got sold a vision incorrectly. So, you know, yeah, hey, I definitely promote the asset class, but I also try to be realistic with what's, you know, available in the marketplace. At the same time, I think unfortunately, there's too many people misleading and they have alternate motives, you know, whether it's education or selling courses or consulting, you know, I try to just be real and straightforward as, hey, we're active buying in this market.

00:23:19:29 - 00:23:41:17

Speaker 2

I can tell you that buying in 2022 and going into 2023 is a lot different than 2019, 2020, or even 2021, just both from an inventory standpoint, a competition standpoint, a debt, you know, cost standpoint. There's so many other factors that have to be weighed in. And, you know, so for us, we're not affected by it. We laugh.

00:23:42:01 - 00:24:02:20

Speaker 2

And I've talked to other good investors, good operators, and, you know, they're seeing the same stuff we are. They're crushing it. They're up year over year, you know, but they're also buying in good markets and they're performing well. And, you know, they have the proper tools to win in those markets. A lot of what you see is the people who have average products in average markets getting absolutely eviscerated right now.

00:24:03:19 - 00:24:30:01

Speaker 1

Yeah. So and it sounds like you guys are crushing it and it sounds like you're growing. It sounds like you really don't consider the mom and pops your real competition because and you're professionally managing your professionally investing and you're sort of doing it. You're sort of up leveling and a lot of the things we talk to with the industry about and you guys are doing it.

00:24:30:13 - 00:24:48:00

Speaker 1

So who do you see as your sort of main competition out there? And are you coming up against other real professional investors that you guys see and any competition for and if it's funding? And who are you competing against today?

00:24:49:00 - 00:25:12:09

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, to our knowledge we have the largest, you know, public short term rental fund of diversified properties across the U.S. I'm sure you know, somebody is going to start replicating us or already has started replicating us. But, you know, we've put systems in place, we've hired the right teams. It is not easy to scale a portfolio of, you know, next year is going to be 150 short term rentals.

00:25:12:09 - 00:25:38:10

Speaker 2

I mean, that's, you know, like one every other day we got to buy to to hit that math if my math correct, you know, we've put the team in place to be able to execute it. And so for us, we just know we're going to continue to execute our plan, build this diversified portfolio, deliver the best risk adjusted yield of short term rentals for investors across the US and people who want exposure to passively invest in the asset class.

00:25:38:21 - 00:25:52:12

Speaker 2

We want to continue to deliver them those results that we always target. So for us, we're just going to continue to do our thing and build out what we know is working and continue to execute.

00:25:52:12 - 00:26:12:10

Speaker 1

So wrapping up and you've been announcing that you're going to release a big announcement on Twitter where I think I know when this launches they'll be past when you announce it. So can you talk about and what that announcement is and maybe what it means for you, the business?

00:26:13:07 - 00:26:35:09

Speaker 2

Yeah. I mean, what we're going to be doing is able to publicly talk. So this last year, we've kind of been, you know, building in private a little bit, you know, Yes. People know we've been building, but, you know, we can publicly talk about the opportunity that people have. So, you know, people want to invest in short term rentals and it is very difficult and it's very operationally intensive compared to other opportunities.

00:26:35:19 - 00:27:02:22

Speaker 2

And so for us, what we're doing is giving people that exact opportunity is, hey, let us deal with all the headaches, all the crazy stuff you hear, cleaning, check in renovations, finding the right property. Now we're bringing that opportunity to people as you can passively invest in short term rentals, you know, via our short term rental fund. And so that's an opportunity that we want to allow investors to get exposure to get yield.

00:27:02:22 - 00:27:25:11

Speaker 2

Like I said, you know, with with our quarterly distributions that we're giving out, those are the opportunities that we have for investors is invest in this asset class, get exposure in your own personal investment portfolio, your own investment thesis, and have that opportunity. You know, you can always try and go on your own. And if you're like, Man, I don't want to deal with this headache anymore.

00:27:25:11 - 00:27:45:06

Speaker 2

I don't want to deal with this issue. Well, that's what we're providing, is that opportunity is, hey, let us handle all the hard work. You can sit back passively, get exposure, and you get that nice diversification because we are spread out throughout the U.S. We were spread out throughout, you know, style of home. We're spread out throughout bedroom count.

00:27:45:25 - 00:28:10:28

Speaker 2

You know, we really wanted to deliver that good risk adjusted yield to investors so, you know, publicly will be able to start talking about it, you know, and that's what I've been teasing is, you know, hey, what we've been building kind of in private the last year, you know, with little glimpses. Now we can go more public with it and give get the word out to people that, hey, here's an opportunity to park your capital and invest in short term rentals and, you know, really grow this asset class.

00:28:10:28 - 00:28:17:02

Speaker 2

We're really excited to be able to share with people where we've kind of been sharing it with ourselves mostly for the last year.

00:28:18:10 - 00:28:43:13

Speaker 1

Yeah, and it sounds like it's bringing the industry to the next level in real estate, right? Where and if you want to invest in industrial buildings or hotels, you can go and there's public markets, you can buy into the Ritz and get an ownership in that asset class. And this is it sounds like bringing that type of opportunity to the short term rental sector.

00:28:44:04 - 00:29:00:05

Speaker 2

Absolutely. You nailed it on the head and like we talked about, it doesn't really exist because it's not been an institutionalized asset class like multifamily, industrial, self-storage, etc.. So we want to bring that opportunity to people and make that offering available.

00:29:00:05 - 00:29:12:10

Speaker 1

Awesome. So last question, and if we came back a year from now what do you think is going to be the headline for either Taylor or and Company as a whole?

00:29:13:13 - 00:29:32:14

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, definitely it definitely never was in the prediction business, but in just, you know, we're going to continue to go out and execute our play. You know, I'd love to say that, hey, we did hit our goal and acquire 150. You know, I think what we really want to continue to do is learn from our data.

00:29:32:14 - 00:29:50:04

Speaker 2

So the more properties we acquire, the more data points we look at through great sources like you guys with AirDNA is we're able to make better buying decisions which will allow us to, you know, drive better yields. And the more refined that is, the better our buy boxes get in every market and the more properties you're able to buy.

00:29:50:04 - 00:30:12:25

Speaker 2

And it just continues to create that domino effect of, you know, we buy better homes, we deliver better yields, we're able to continue to raise more money, we're able to continue to buy more homes. And it just continues that circle and flywheel effect. So for us, we'll just be excited to see. You know, we think we have a ton of data right now, and I think we've probably barely scratched the surface in how much data we'll have 12 months from now.

00:30:12:25 - 00:30:30:18

Speaker 2

Looking back and be like, Man, if only I knew. You know, there in late 2022. What I know now, we could have by so many more in X, Y, Z market or X, Y, Z this. So we're excited to continue to expand our data, continue to grow, and I think that's going to be an awesome opportunity for us as we scale up.

00:30:31:07 - 00:30:35:12

Speaker 2

Is making those better buying decisions based on the available data we have.

00:30:36:21 - 00:30:46:03

Speaker 1

Well Taylor, you sound like a true data nerd. Really great to meet you in person. Are you going to be down in Miami for that? IMN conference.

00:30:47:00 - 00:30:55:09

Speaker 2

I am trying to see if I can. It's always tough to to make it to some of these, but I might try to do.

00:30:55:09 - 00:31:08:02

Speaker 1

All right. Well, I hope to be around in person some time. Great to meet you here on the podcast and thanks for joining the STR Data Lab. Thanks for that. Final question. Where can people find you if they want to connect?

00:31:09:00 - 00:31:28:02

Speaker 2

Yeah, obviously I hang out on Twitter mostly Mr. Jones STRs If people want to learn more about investing with Techvestor, we have a whole team of people to talk to. Then go to techvestor.com book a call, get all the information and get their questions answered. So those are probably the best ways to find me if you want.

00:31:28:02 - 00:31:38:17

Speaker 2

Find me personally on Twitter or learn more about Techvestor in the investment opportunity in short term rentals, go to Techvestor.com. Feel free to book a call with one of our team members. Get all your questions answered.

00:31:39:28 - 00:31:41:08

Speaker 1

Awesome. Thanks for joining.

00:31:42:01 - 00:31:43:06

Speaker 2

Absolutely. See ya.

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