Episode 036 - Five Upgrades Your Guests Want to See

As a host and property owner, you must protect your income investment by attracting and retaining quality short-term guests. To accomplish this, it's important to ensure that each property is updated with all, or at least some, of the amenities short-term guests desire to have in homes they rent. 

Plus, contest details are inside this episode!  Enter to win BIG!!  Go and Grow!

Transcript of this Episode:

Hi, this is Michelle, the master of money mindset, and you are listening to BNB dash boss podcast.

And in today's podcast, we are going to be talking about the five upgrades your guests want to see. So stay tuned. Our show today is brought to you by audible. Audible is where you get your audio books online and get a 30 day trial into the audible membership for free. By going to audible trial.com forward slash S T R revenue that's audible trial.com forward slash.

S T R revenue. You'll get your first audio book for free and 30 days into the audible membership just for trying us out. You'll love audible right [email protected]. You can find our $7 courses available for you to try out. Find out how to cohost, how to do rental arbitrage or how to invest in real estate.

We're all three, by going to B and b-boss.com and click on our store and you'll find our $7 courses right there. Try us out. You'll love it. You'll love those courses and they're only there for a limited time. So do it also, don't forget our contest. We've got our contest running right now in every week.

We're picking a winner. And everyone's names are going to be put into a drawing at the end for a final prize of an Amazon Dodd with a little clock on it. And your guests will love that. There'll be able to walk right in, ask Alexa to connect to their account, and they'll be able to play their favorite music, ask for the weather or whatever else they want to ask Alexa to do pretty darn awesome.

And I would really greatly appreciate. You going to iTunes and leaving me a five star review. I appreciate it. So please do take a picture of it. Send it over to me at Michelle at BNB dash boss. Let me know that you did and we'll enter you in those drawings. So they just got done doing some surveys and checking in on gas and seen what upgrades they love to see and our properties.

And a few of them are no surprise. One of them was a bigger surprise to me. I was like, Okay. And then once I read it, I was like, okay man, I can see that. So I'm going to save that one to the end, but let's talk about the five upgrades your guests want to see inside your short-term rental. So as host and property owners, I mean, we know that we have to protect our income and our investment by attracting.

Quality gas. And to accomplish this, we're going to have to make sure that our guests are happy and that we're giving them the amenities that they want to see. I wanted to make really sure though, when I did this, because I'm going to have the girls make an article about this pretty much in mind. Please note, please note that when you are doing your upgrades only do what you can afford to do as long as.

The area that you're in dictates the return on your investment. You don't want to spend more than you're going to make. And I would say that the majority of times that we invest in something, we make it up in one or two stays. I mean, that's just the market we're in. We can put a new refrigerator in and one or two SES will pay for that refrigerator.

Or we can put a new dishwasher in, or a new couch and everything, and it's going to be paid for within a month of when we did it. And that's kind of how we know that it's like a good investment. We're like, okay, we can, we can buy this back. We know that we can use the upgrade to boost our revenue too, on the majority of properties.

So once you do some renovations, you upgrade a kitchen or you do something like that. You can get a lot more rent for it, but just make sure that you're doing all your due diligence. You want to make sure that you can put in that money, but be able to pull it back out in a quick amount of time. That's not going to take you five or 10 years to make it up.

I'm talking months. It really should only take. A month, if that Ray, you want to make up that, that difference pretty quickly, you can decide to, I mean, if it takes you two or three months, you can go, okay, it's worth the investment to me, but we like to see that investment come back to us right away. So do your research, know your numbers, know what you're going to be able to make?

On your investment, you know, how much are you going to be able to earn? How much more will you be able to earn on it, run those numbers and make sure that you're sticking to a budget and that you're not going to go over that because it has to be worth it for you. So that's on every single one of these.

That's my caveat of my note. Okay. Now, whether you're decorating or renovating focus on these features and it's going to help you attract discerning guests, the ones who will come back time and time again, you're going to love this. Well, number one was kind of a shocker to me and that's probably because we don't have very much of this and our two favorite locations, which is Florida and Arizona.

We don't do wood flooring and people seem to love wood flooring. If you're from Arizona or Florida, we like tile tiles. Like our favorite thing. We even have tile that looks like wood. And we would rather put that in. But now that we're having all these people move in from other parts of the country, we're seeing even more wood flooring out here.

And I don't know why, because it just doesn't hold up the same as tile does. In the desert because it gets dusty and dirty and gross in the desert. And in Florida, it's just, we like the cool tile. I mean, it's just nice to have cool tile on your feet, but people love the wood floor. So I guess it just depends on what floats your boat.

They're saying that wood flooring. Is the way to go now in the Midwest? Yes. I remember living back in the Midwest when I was younger and all the homes back there. And when you go to my friend's house in Pennsylvania, she's got wood flooring and we were talking about the different companies where to pick up wood flooring and how much it costs.

And so I was like, okay, give me your best flooring, you know, guys. And it's the same flooring that we get for our other stuff too. So we were like, okay, If you have quality wood flooring and your were rental property, you are pretty much ahead of the game because people seem to love it. It makes a huge impact on them.

Of course, authentic wood floorings would be the ideal choice, but they can cost about $3 to eight 50 a square foot for Brazilian wood. But there are laminin plank flooring that give you the same look for a fraction of the cost. So it can cost as little as 89 cents a square foot. If you go to some flooring outlets like LL flooring.com and floor max direct, those are two big companies to get your flooring from, but you got to remember the wear and tear on a rental property.

On a short-term rental property is a lot less than on a regular long-term rental property when people are living in the place. It gets a lot of wear and tear. So having gas, I know that there's a lot of people who have only done short term rentals and they're like, well, my guests, you know, have this wear and tear.

And we're like, it's nothing compared to a long-term rental, but you want to make sure that you have something that's going to hold up and that's going to be the same for number two. It's the updated kitchens and bathrooms. Obviously, I mean, this one is so super obvious because hello, it's the first thing.

When you sell a house too, whenever you're flipping houses, whenever you're selling your house, the two biggest rooms are always the kitchen and the bathroom. If you can upgrade those, you are in good shape. And there are so many ways to upgrade a kitchen and bathroom. Every room in the house is important, but these.

Are the most important ones and make people go Gaga over your property. I mean, they just go crazy. If your bathrooms and kitchens look amazing in, in the tile backsplash too, you want to have a really nice tile backsplash that pops and gives them a wow updated countertops and cabinets. They are the wow.

That perspective guests. See, when they're looking at your pictures, they're like, oh my gosh, I want to, I want to live in this kitchen. It's so awesome. So make sure that you've got something really spectacular and don't skimp on it. A tile backsplash can cost anywhere from about 250 to a thousand dollars, depending on the type of tile you choose.

And you can take it and just do underneath the cabinets, down to the countertops, or you can take it all the way up the back wall, all the way to the ceiling, if you want. That gives it a really dramatic effect. But if you want to go inexpensive, you can just do a white subway tile. It's a tried and true favorite people.

Love the white subway tiles. And you can do different patterns. You can do a regular pattern, or you can do an, a herringbone pattern, whatever your budget allows for, go for it. Right. But I love those little mosaic tiles, the glass ones that are shimmery and, you know, spectacular. I honestly love any kind of metallic in them, even in kitchen with the color cabinets.

I don't like. I've seen people go really dark and then put like a copper in the back. And I'm just like, wow. I mean, that looks really good. It's not something I would do, but it looks amazing. So make sure that you're taking. A couple of these things home and kind of looking at it with everything together.

Okay. Don't just grab it and say, I think this will look good. And then you get home and go, oh my gosh, it's the wrong color. It's just off. You want to have everything with you, your cabinets, your flooring and the backsplashes and the countertops. You want to pick all of that together and you want to get some opinions too, from people you love and trust.

Right? Placing granite and a short-term rental can be a waste if it's in the wrong market. So don't go crazy with your countertops, unless you know that you have a market for it because you can be over killing it in, in several different markets. But I have found granted to be super cheap and someplace is so down in Tucson, I got a guy down there.

Who I can put granite in for less than a thousand bucks. And to me, I'm like put it in. I mean, it looks great. I love a really nice granite, but I also love quartz. I think course is my favorite. Personally for my taste. I don't like the grainy stuff, but some people really, really love it. And as long as it goes with my cabinets, you really can't go wrong again.

Just watch your expenses. You want to make sure that the market rate warrants, what you spend on your countertops, because you can get a really nice laminate now or Korean or even cement countertops. And spend a lot less money than, than most people without going overboard. But if the market allows then get something really nice, you'll make that investment back in a couple of stays and it will be fantastic.

Right. You can also use. Kids to make countertops. It'll look like granite countertops. I get these ads on YouTube all the time. This guy, he pours this stuff on there and kind of swishes it around. And when he does, it looks like a granite countertop. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Anything like it, but I'm like, okay, it looks like a granite countertop and they put all kinds of colors in it.

It's pretty cool. They have kits that do that too. So you can save money on one of those. Number three is molding crown molding. People love crown molding, and you can go expensive and get the real wood crown Moline. Or you can get the cheaper stuff, right? Nobody's going to go up there and check it. But molding can make a home that seem luxurious and finely detailed.

I've seen people do some spectacular things on walls with molding, and I'm just like, wow. I mean, that looks fabulous. This project is like a weekend project. It doesn't take a lot of time and you can do it yourself. Like you don't have to pay somebody to do it. It's actually super easy. I mean, you just get a miter box and you should be set.

You can do your own crown molding and install it. Then you get the right type of cock, you know, once you nail it in and cocky and then paint over it. And I mean, you're all sad. It's really not that hard of a project to do. You can fit it in anytime you've got two or three days open and a gap, but when in doubt, always choose crown molding.

Other popular molding options are wainscoting or just putting in chair rails and. You can watch HGTV and you can see some really cool patterns that they put on the walls that just make a wall pop. I mean, it looks so amazing, but adding molding to your doorways and above windows, it really looks amazing when you've got those older properties.

I love a good molding around windows and doors. And like I said, if you're on a tight budget, just get the big stuff that it's made out of like a foam, like a tough foam. And it looks the same. Once you paint it, nobody's going to be able to tell the difference and you can cut this stuff yourself. Don't be afraid.

It's really one of the easiest projects that you can possibly do. If you do nothing else, you can do your crown molding. Number four is high-end master closets, an ample closet space. I was going to make this the last one because I just, I did not see that coming. Then when I started reading, I was like, oh, you know what?

I know closets who would have guessed it. There are a lot of people who need to have when they go to short-term rentals, obviously nurses and people who stay a longer time, but a lot of people bring a lot of stuff. They bring a lot of suitcases. If they have kids or they might bring an extra suitcase so that they could buy stuff and they want to have some place nice to store it.

So we always think, well, they don't need a lot of closet space, but they do. A lot of people overpack. My husband is an over packer. God bless him. He will pack. We just went to Hawaii last month and this man packed enough clothes for two weeks. And he's like, well, you know, I don't want to be wearing the same thing in all the pictures.

That's like, who cares? You would have on, we were saying in one of the condos at the Alani. So it has its own kitchen and laundry and everything. I'm like. Dude, you could bring like three or four sets of clothes and just do laundry every day. It doesn't really matter. I just couldn't believe that he loves to overpack like that, but he does.

It seems like it's an odd thing, but in terms of storage, guests pretty much are no different than owners. They need storage space and they want a place to tuck away their suitcases and their strollers and coats, and just keep things out of sight. Right. So that they can enjoy their stay and relax. They don't want to be looking at their stuff, can cumulation of stuff and they don't want to be tripping over it.

So, you know, if you were going to purchase a house to resell, you would knock out a wall and make a bigger closet. And I don't think you have to do that, but make it look nice. Install like custom shelving systems. And make the closet look like an amazing space, especially the master closet. You want people to think that they're in a luxurious home and they will feel like, oh, look at this closet.

I've never seen anything like this. And they will feel great about staying in your space. If you make them feel great, it's not a really expensive project. It's usually about a hundred dollars. To set up a really nice system in a closet when you're doing it yourself, you can do that in a regular closet, or you can go custom and spend a couple thousand dollars.

So it's pretty much up to you how far you want to go, but you can create your own closet system. Home Depot has like a ton of stuff for closets that you can put in there. And some of them look really, really nice, but they're easy, easy. Two or three day projects. It's super easy, pretty cool. And you can get it done all by yourself.

And the last one I'm going to tell you is getting rid of brass. People seem to hate brass. Now brass is out it's sane. Hello, 1980 called and they want their brass back. And that is so true. I don't think I've ever seen brass pictures that I like. I've seen some copper fixtures that I like in other people's homes, but not mine.

I would definitely opt out or some pewter or brushed nickel finishes. I mean, I definitely would get rid of the brass. So when they pulled everybody, they said, just get rid of the brass fixtures. It just shows that the property. Is old and it hasn't been brought up to date in like decades. People don't want to see it replace the brass door, knockers, the door knobs, the light fixtures, the cabinet handles.

Right. You want to put in brushed nickel or pewter? Just get rid of the brass. It's such a small update. But it really does make a big difference and how everybody perceives the whole unit, just by making everything look fresh and updated. It works really well. So just doing one or two of the updates here, you're going to see a big increase in how it appeals to everyone.

And the pictures. I mean, once you get your pictures redone, it'll make an amazing difference. You'll be able to bring in a lot of extra money when you do just a few of them. And if you do them all holy cow. I mean, it'll just be like, Kuching catching. You can start on one weekend and every time you have two or three days, just take a project in bite sized chunks and chunk it out and you can redo your whole property in less than a year, just in those little cracks of time.

And each time you'll be able to make it up within a couple of months. And move on to the next project. You can do this with each one of your properties, and I recommend you do because it will really keep it up today. People love going into spaces that just look amazing again, make sure you're doing your due diligence with your numbers, crunching your numbers.

Once you get those. I think you'll really, really like it. So that's good. Today's episode. I want to thank you for listening. Remember to tune in on Friday. When we have a repeat episode of the short-term rental revenue, go to our website, bnb-boss.com and register there because the membership is opening.

And if you are on our email list, you're going to get a special discount. And don't you want a discount because everybody always wants a discount. So make sure that you're on our mailing list and we'll get that stuff out to you. ASAP, our summit is going to be at the end of this month. We've had some bumps in the road when it came to the advertising with Facebook, God bless them.

Just making sure that freedom of speech is being halted at every angle. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram. Oh my goodness. It's just so crazy. But, um, there's always something good that comes out of it. And we've had a lot of. Really great feedback coming in. So, um, I, I think that everything will work out.

Oh, we are hiring a new team to do the marketing for us so that we can go with probably Google is where we're going to go. But we'll see what happens. I think everything will turn out. Right. I'm really excited about the interviews that I've done. I can't wait for everybody to see and hear everything that we've been working on for the past couple of months.

Thanks so much for listening. God bless you. Have a great day. Go and grow.