This Couple Replaced Their Salaries with 9 Rental Properties (In Just 4 Years)

21:51Chris Kim:But at the same time, doing it in a way that it is not overwhelming and is not overly personalized. So it gives you that feeling of home without feeling like you have just entered someone else's spare bedroom. But you have arrived somewhere that is a curated experience that has all the comforts of home. It gives you the quality standard of a high-end hotel. And it's very difficult to communicate that to someone. I can conceptually talk about it. But if I've not walked that road myself and have learned what does it take to actually put that experience together from cleaning, from how do we message the guests, from what are the amenities that we include in our properties, then I'm not able to train the team.

22:47Chris Kim:I'm not able to set that standard. So that was hugely important to us.

22:51Ksenia Kim:Yeah. And Ksenia, I know as you guys have scaled that you've been able to maintain a really tight, I guess, like compliance or the quality of your turns are still very strong. And you guys have really strong review scores across your portfolio, which is hard to do as your portfolio scales. So I think the time that you guys invested, really learning the ropes yourselves, has definitely paid dividends as you scaled. But I want to talk a little bit more about the financing piece. You mentioned that the first one, you guys just kind of saved up, right? You guys from your day jobs, how you guys afforded the first one.

23:26Ksenia Kim:But how did you guys get enough capital to buy the second one? Because for a lot of rookies, we can understand, hey, save some money to buy the first one. But deal number two and deal number three, it becomes harder to wrap their heads around, how do we actually get enough money for that? So Chris, how did you guys, after taking down the first one, where'd the capital come for the second one? Yeah. So after the first one, we realized that, okay, this definitely has a lot more cashflow potential than a long-term rental. Of course, there's a lot more work involved, but the cash flow is well worth it.

23:56Ksenia Kim:So I was thinking, okay, if we were to get into another property, does it make sense to try another one bedroom, one bath? Or can we get into a home and potentially four times what we're cash flowing now with more rooms. So we were searching and we came across a property. At the time, it was listed for$650 ,000. And this was in the end of 2022. And of course, getting into that first property, a lot of our liquidity or liquid cash was gone, right? By the time you furnish it, by the time you do all these things. and we didn't have long enough time to build up the reserves to get into a second property.

24:41Ksenia Kim:So we actually looked into a HELOC. And since we bought our primary in 2018, it appreciated quite significantly in the four years that we had it. And we decided to actually take some money out of our primary to get into the second home. And that's just that's kind of the the strategy that we used to get in that second property. And on that note, a lot of investors have leveraged the HELOC to do exactly what you guys did. But there are some folks who are listening that are maybe hesitant to tap into the equity from their primary residence to help them buy an investment property. What was it for you guys that gave you the confidence to say, hey, this is a risk worth taking?

25:28Ksenia Kim:Well, I think that first property really showed us that, hey, if a one bedroom, one bath can work and we can really maximize our cash flow, you know, running the property really well. At that point, we knew that, okay, this first property has shown us that getting into a second property that's much larger can prove is worth the risk since we already had the experience, that one year experience under our belt. So that gave us the confidence to really fully move into the second property, which is a four bedroom, three bath. So quite a bit larger than our first one.

26:11Chris Kim:And I would also add that we were really trading our equity for an equity in another property. So thinking about it that way really helped me get past that. and not just think, oh, well, I'm taking money out of my personal home. Is it a risk? Absolutely. It definitely is. But trading equity from one property to another property, it did not feel like an outflow. It almost felt like an expansion or a trade. It had carried a very different weight with it than it would if we were to take that money and use it for something else.

26:54Ksenia Kim:Yeah, I think for me, the true pivot happened when I believed in myself and in us that we could make this a successful move. And I think that was the biggest thing is just having the confidence and knowing your own ability and really investing in your time and your ability that you can make this work. I think that was the biggest shift for me, moving from that first property to that second property.

27:17Chris Kim:Now, as you continue to host more and more people, what was kind of your ideal guest? Who were your guests? And what did you kind of take away from that to actually find other properties to purchase in the future?

27:32Ksenia Kim:Yeah, absolutely. So right now, all of our properties are no more than three miles from campus, from the University of Tennessee. So that's really our market, our niche market. And because we're every property that we either have or own, since it's so close to school that I want to say 80 % of our guests are somehow affiliated with the university, whether it's alumni, whether it's parents of students, whether it's professionals that are here for a conference with the school. So I want to say that 80 % of our guests are somehow connected to the university here. And that's really been been our niche market.

28:15Ksenia Kim:And that's who we try to cater to the most.

28:18Chris Kim:Tony, do you have any experience with that? I know you're really like selective into like, you know, vacation areas or whatever, but have you or maybe any of your students done something similar where they go in, create their Airbnb and their ideal guest type ends up actually being something, you know, not what they expected or completely different. Like when I had an Airbnb arbitrage, a large majority of our guests were there to visit family members in the local nursing home. Like that was like we never would have expected that would have been like an ideal guest. But that was a large majority because there was nowhere else to stay in the area.

29:00Ksenia Kim:Because most of our or all of our short term rentals are really in like true vacation destinations with like a very low permanent resident population. We generally know what people are coming for. um but but yeah there's definitely been folks you know kristen continue being one of them who have invested in markets that there's multiple drivers for demand and and we might think that a is the initial driver but as we get into it it ends up being b um and and but that's why honestly guys like when i talk about like looking at markets it's i think it's important to understand what the demand drivers are and to kind of you know obviously build your property around that but sometimes people will look at a city and say like well why why are people going there and my answer sometimes is like, does it really matter what's driving them there?

29:42Ksenia Kim:Like if the demand is increasing on a year over year basis and the revenues are really strong and the price to revenue ratios are really strong, I'm kind of indifferent about what's actually bringing them there. It's just the fact that the people are there and there's more people there this year than there were last year. So I think I would put more importance on the trends of demand, more so than what's actually like driving the demand itself, right? Unless it's something weird that's like a, you know, if people are only coming here because there's like, I don't know, it's like the World Cup, right?

30:11Ksenia Kim:You know, like, hey, the World Cup is only coming around to this place once in a lifetime. So that's never going to happen again. But as long as it's consistency, I think I'm okay with that. But Kristen Ksenia, I think that the other part of your story that I really love is that you two are doing this together. And there are a lot of husband and wife duos, a lot of spouses, you know, boyfriends and girlfriends, whatever it may be, people who are couples that are doing this together who would love to follow in your footsteps. And I know one of the questions that me and Sarah, my wife oftentimes get is, how do you guys divide responsibilities as a couple?

30:43Ksenia Kim:And how is that dynamic being a husband and wife, but also being business partners? So yeah, I guess, because then maybe we'll start with you. Like how have you guys divvied up the responsibilities in your business as business partners?

30:55Chris Kim:Sure. I think over time, we have learned that we have really complementary strengths to one another. So from with my background and how my brain operates, I love anything operations related, standard, standardization, thinking through how can we make this experience for our guests, but more being on the back end of things. Being guest facing is not my forte, but that is his forte. He is excellent at guest communications and relationship and all messaging and things like that. So we've, over time, kind of settled into these roles where he runs the front of the house and I run the back of the house.

31:41Chris Kim:And it was not something that we said, okay, you handle this and I'll handle that. Thankfully, we naturally fell into these roles that really aligned with our abilities well. So then we may think about things totally differently. And he may be considering things that I didn't even think about. So when we sit down and do our rundown for the day, all right, what do we have going on? Who's checking in? Who's checking out? What's on our schedule? Oftentimes, the things that I say are very different than the things that he will say. That's exactly why we started our daily rundowns, because we've learned that not only do our brains work so differently, but because we fill those complementary roles, we're so focused on our lane, so to speak.

32:31Chris Kim:So we have to purposefully come together to really create that best experience for our guests. Overall, it's been awesome to work together. and part of it I think it is because we're so complementary to one another we fill each other's gaps really well and we also get to bounce ideas off of each other and we get to share in the highs and the lows of the business when there was that situation with the lockout right that we mentioned at the beginning it was not oh my gosh I can't believe this is happening in the middle of the night what why did you do this like okay like this is our thing let's go take care of it obviously We've got a little baby at home.

33:11Chris Kim:It makes more sense for you to hop in the car at two in the morning, right? It's that kind of thing. But sometimes it's let's get our kids in the car and go fix that TV because we need four hands, right? So we do that. It's been really enjoyable to do that together. And now that our kids are getting older, so they're preschool age, but not babies anymore, we get to bring them with us and check on the properties. and sometimes they'll ask questions like, oh, the guests coming today? Are they, what are they here for? Or are we going to get balloons for them? Things like that. And it's been really exciting to do that and share that not only with one another, but with our children as well.

33:52Chris Kim:I can relate to that aspect of when we were renovating our A-frame property. You know, my kids were there all the time to like see this huge transition of the remodel. And, you know, before we listed it, we stayed there a couple nights and we would just be like, just think anytime we want, we can come and stay here. Like this is ours. And it was so exciting. Guess how many times we've stayed there since renting it. It's like, you know, it's like so hard to block off a night for yourself because you think about, oh God, no, we're missing out on that money. We got to pay the cleaning fee still. So yeah, but it is like cool to share that.

34:27Ksenia Kim:And I think what oftentimes makes two people work as spouses also allows them to work together as business partners as well, because naturally, a lot of times people end up marrying folks that they are complimentary with, right? And it's the same thing for me and my wife, where it's like the details that I'm good at, she doesn't want to do. The things that she's really good at, I don't want to do. And as business partners, we just really naturally compliment each other. So I love that it's kind of played out that way for you guys as well. But I think the other part of your story and that's really interesting for the Rickies that are listening is that you guys have only been doing this for a short number of years in the grand scheme of things, but you both are now doing this full time.

35:05Ksenia Kim:So I'm curious, how did you decide when the time was right to actually step away from the W2s for each of you and turn this into a full time gig? So Chris, we'll start with you. Yeah. So yeah, that was a very difficult decision to make as a family. You know, we both had pretty high income W2s. So it's not like this was something that was going to be super easy to walk away from by any means. But for me, since I was really the one running the guests, messaging, making sure that everything was getting done, it was easier for me to step away from my work and really start doing this thing full time.

35:48Ksenia Kim:Since Ksenia was kind of still running the back end of stuff, she could still do it while she was working at W2. But for me going to property to property, making sure that everything was perfect, making sure that the guests had exactly what they went, you know, for me to kind of be on call 24 seven, I couldn't do that with a regular job. So, so we've been running short term rentals now for four years. And just this past October, or December, December, was when we finally made the decision that she could also walk away from her W2 and also start really focusing on the business. But I think the real pivotal moment was when we realized, hey, we're making enough for this to actually live off of.

36:39Ksenia Kim:I think that's the easy answer, right? That, hey, we're making enough. This is kind of replacing our W2. So yeah, why not? We have the, you know, this is not, you know, a nine to five by any means. So why not walk away from the W2 and really just kind of invest in our own business and see where we can go if we're both doing this full time? Guys, when you first started, when you got that first rental just a few short years ago, did you ever imagine that that quickly you both would be able to be full time in the business? No, not at all. I think after we got that second property, I think in my head at the time, I thought it would be another couple years before we got into our third, if we were even going to get into our third.

37:30Ksenia Kim:Obviously, that was not the case. But no, we did not imagine that we'd be here in such short amount of time.

37:39Chris Kim:I think getting into that first rental gave us the vision for it being possible, but the timeline, absolutely not. We thought that was years away. We thought that the opportunity to be able to not only work with one another, but to be home with our family, to be there for things like extracurricular activities or school pickup and things like that, to actually be there. I did I have a flexibility with my W2 I did I'm very fortunate that I had a lot of flexibility with my W2 before but there were times where I would be in the pickup line and on a call at the same time that's not really being there right so the decision to fully step away and step into this business and really be with the family was the best decision that we've made And I would also say that the numbers don't have to be there 100 % when you make that decision.

38:44Chris Kim:When you see that the numbers are pointing in the right direction and you know that you, especially if you're doing this as a family, you as a family are aligned on the vision where you want to go, you're already ready to make that call if that's where you're headed. Now, Ksenia, what does your properties look like now? How many do you guys have in total? and you guys are also co-hosting some. So how many are you guys co-hosting? So we have nine that are our own and then we co-host eight more. That's amazing. Congratulations.

39:16Ksenia Kim:Well, guys, don't go anywhere. Chris and Cassini are closing out with how business changed, not just for their financial reasons, but their family life as well. And what a rookie should evaluate before choosing short-term rentals and the advice they wish they had when they first started filling up their calendar. So we'll be back in just a quick moment. Do you ever notice how every passive investment somehow turns into a very active lifestyle? Active spreadsheets, active phone calls, active stress. Here's a better question. What if you could buy brand new construction homes, 10 % below market value, in the best markets across the country, without making real estate your second job?

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40:17Chris Kim:Nobody has a perfect plan when they start a business. I sure didn't. I just had an idea and a lot of nerves. And between t-ball games, weddings, and whatever chaos summer throws at you, there's genuinely never a good time to sit down and figure it all out. That's honestly the best thing about Shopify. You don't need a free weekend and a computer science degree to get something live. My go live day is still one of my favorite memories. I picked a template, dropped in some photos and Shopify's AI tools that basically built the bones of my site for me. It looked like something I actually paid a designer for.

40:49Chris Kim:And when a customer is ready to buy Shopify checkout, keeps it simple. Their info saved. They checked out in one click and you get to hear that little cha-ching before you've even finished your coffee. If you're on the fence, here's my advice. Stop waiting for the perfect moment. It doesn't exist. So just start. All you need is the idea. Shopify handles the rest. If you're serious about hearing your first cha-ching, start your free trial at shopify.com slash rookie today. You heard that right. Start your free trial today at shopify.com slash rookie. That's shopify.com slash rookie.

41:26Ksenia Kim:I have friends who own rental properties. They're not real estate moguls. They're regular people who found a smarter way in. Every month, the rent comes in, covers their mortgage, and they keep adding more. And I found out how they got started. Truehold Financial. Smart investors know the biggest obstacle to rental properties is qualifying. Traditional lenders, they put your personal income and debt-to-income ratio under a microscope. But Truehold Financial is different. They can qualify you, get this, based on the rental income the property is expected to generate. And unlike online lenders that simply tell you yes or no, Truehold Financial takes a concierge style approach.

42:07Ksenia Kim:So the question stops being, do I earn enough? And becomes, what's the smartest way to grow my portfolio? Truehold Financial doesn't just help open the rental property door, they help you decide which door to walk through. Call 1-888-521-4787 or visit trueholdfinancial.com to get started. Truehold Financial, NMLS number 274-0541. Equal housing lender, subject to approval. Details at truehold.com. A lot of insurance companies compete on one thing, speed. But if you're protecting an investment property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, should speed really be the priority? NREG believes strong coverage starts with understanding the property, the risks, and the realities of ownership.

42:55Ksenia Kim:That's why they don't rush the process. Their policies are designed for real-world claims, not just quick quotes. If you want insurance built to protect your investment when it matters most, visit nreig.com slash bplc and learn more today. A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to the East Coast for my dad's wedding. It was quite the trip. I had the honor of walking my 71-year-old father down the aisle, which is something I never imagined I would get to do. I spent time with family and friends I hadn't seen in years, soaked in the East Coast charm, and of course, enjoyed a lobster roll, which always makes a trip out there even better.

43:32Ksenia Kim:But while I was there, I was thinking that while I'm on the East Coast, my home was sitting completely empty the entire time I was away. That's why Airbnb's co-host network is such an interesting idea. If you've ever considered listing your space on Airbnb but don't want to manage everything yourself, you can hire a local co-host to help create your listing, manage reservations, message guests, and provide on-site support. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. All right, guys, we're back with Chris and Ksenia. Now, you guys now operate 17 short-term rentals between your owned and your managed properties in the same market where you began.

44:11Ksenia Kim:But the gold started with creating more time for your family. So I want to understand how that gold has actually been impacted. So how has building this business changed your family life and your definition of freedom? Yeah, so it's changed a lot. You know, I think the biggest thing for us is that we do everything pretty much together, right? So pickups, drop-offs, any kind of extracurricular activities that our children may have, we're there for. We don't miss a single one. And that's really important to us, that we're there for those moments. And then, you know, at night, for the most part, you know, we're all together as a family.

44:56Ksenia Kim:We definitely eat dinners together every night. We do bedtimes together every night. So that, you know, having this freedom now in the four years, you know, has really allowed us to spend so much time with our kids, with our friends, with our families. And, you know, that's definitely something that has always been the vision. And we didn't really know how to get there. But at this point in time, yeah, I think we've made that vision a reality day to day.

45:30Chris Kim:Absolutely. And I know my work would take me away from home a lot for travel. So that has been a huge shift for us as well, where I'm home overnight, right? I've not been away overnight from my family. And that's been very, very exciting.

45:48Ksenia Kim:Yeah, I think something that we really value now that we're in the thick of things is we actually get to help out our friends in situations where, let's say, they have a nine to five, they're stuck at work, they can't pick up their kids, or they can't do this or that. We're there to help. And I love the fact that we're able to bridge that gap and be that, hey, guys, we're here. We can do this. We can help you guys since we do have some of the freedoms that maybe some people don't have to use our time. So I love the fact that we're able to help our friends with their family moments and family time.

46:29Ksenia Kim:So I love that aspect as well.

46:32Chris Kim:when working together and spending the time that we get to spend with one another i think has also strengthened our marriage quite a bit because we're able to spend a lot of time together work through problems together problem solve troubleshoot and just connect with one another and we're very thankful for that opportunity there's so few people really get to do that and i do love

46:58Ksenia Kim:also the fact that now that our children are getting a little older, they are starting to get involved now, which I love, right? Because, you know, there's so many, I see so many situations where even for myself, you know, yeah, I knew what my dad did, but I don't really know what my dad, I didn't know his day to day because he was always out. But with us, we bring our children into what we do, right? Like they've seen, they've talked to our guests, they've set properties up with us, You know, they've cleaned with us even. So they're really also, you know, it's now become more of a family thing than just a me and Ksenia thing.

47:36Ksenia Kim:So I love the fact that, you know, we're able to include our children in it as well. And they get to kind of have the insight of, hey, this is what mommy and daddy do. I read this article the other day and I was trying to Google real quick what it was called, but there was a term of like parents who are doing like a retirement period of time, almost like a sabbatical while their kids are teenagers to be able to drive them

47:59Chris Kim:to all their activities and doing sports and things like that. But I think that's like a great thing about real estate is like you can already have that life by the time they are teenagers, too, if you start investing sooner.

48:12Ksenia Kim:Well, guys, for people who are listening and they're resonating with your story, but maybe they're worrying that short-term rentals, Airbnbs are just too much work or they're too unpredictable. What would you tell them as they think about deciding whether or not short-term rentals are the right strategy for them? Well, I think our advantage was that we were already doing it from day one together. together i i don't think we would be where we are at if it was just me wanting to do it or if it was just her wanting to do it and i just kind of followed along or if she just kind of followed i think our biggest advantage from day one was that we were both in it together you know whether it was you know really late night calls or whether it was unexpected things we knew each we knew that okay let's go tackle it together let's bring the kids let's hop in the car and let's go um i can't imagine trying to do this especially in the early years by myself um and i'm sure you can't either um i think that was that's the biggest uh advantage that we've had so far um but another thing is i mean i i i hate to say it um but i i do want to say that we got we got lucky in a sense as well um there was a little bit of luck um with just us buying that property on campus.

49:33Ksenia Kim:And then us realizing that, hey, this is not going to work long term for a couple months and pivoting to a short term. And I mean, that was kind of luck. I mean, that was not something that we had planned. Now, we took advantage of that, of that situation. But it was not something that that we saw as a vision or anything like that. So I think there was a little bit of luck as well in our journey to where we are now.

50:00Chris Kim:And I would say if you're even remotely thinking about it, just do it. Because you can get stuck, I know I can get stuck in the analysis paralysis mode. And I would say, well, if this happens, what if? If this happens, what if? Okay, let's talk through that scenario. If that happens, what are we going to do? Okay, A, B, and C. Great, we talked through that scenario. That's fine. It's out of my head now, right? If another scenario comes up, let's talk through it. And that scenario is out of my head. So if you're even remotely thinking about getting into real estate or getting into a short-term rental, because if you're willing to put in the work, the cash flow is worth it, then just do it and learn step by step.

50:45Chris Kim:Learn as much information as you can. There are people that have come before you that have done this already. There's so many resources out there. even setting up a property. There's so many resources in terms of here's a list of all the things that you need to stock a kitchen with. I know that I pulled one of those lists together when we were setting up our property and that helped me so much because there's a fine line in what do I put in the kitchen that is necessary and useful versus overcrowded, right? There's that balance too. And there's already people that have done it and that have figured it out.

51:21Chris Kim:Use that. See if it works for your property. If it doesn't, pivot and keep going. Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time to share your journey and what you have experienced so far and some of the lessons learned, but also your success. So where can people reach out to you, find out more information about who you are and follow your investing journey? Yeah. So if you want to take a look at our properties, you can go to rockytopstays.com. And if you want to reach out to us directly, you can send us a note at info at rockytopstays.com. We'd love to hear from you. Amazing. Thank you, Chris.

51:58Chris Kim:And thank you, Ksenia, for being with us today on the podcast. It's always a pleasure to have Rookie Investors on so that our guests can hear their experience and get some motivation, inspiration, and also learn how to get started themselves. I'm Ashley. He's Tony. And if you guys, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Real Estate Rookie. We'll see you guys next time. Thank you.