Airbnb Investing Secrets: Scale to Profit Fast with Short-Term Rentals

Janel Gallucci (00:00)
Airbnb public relations team just reached out to me a couple of weeks ago and they’re like, Janel, congrats. Your Airbnb is the number one most wishlisted Airbnb in the entire state of Mississippi. And then if you look in AirDNA, which is a tool that short-term rental investors use to look at revenue potential and revenue of different properties and listings, we don’t have the full revenue up because it’s not a full year.

Quentin (00:11)
Let’s go.

Janel Gallucci (00:22)
but I know what our revenue is and we are the number one three bedroom, two bath property in that entire 62 miles of coastline. And so I just feel really passionate about spreading this message that anyone can do this. I’m not a rocket scientist, I’m not a genius. And also I did not figure this all out on my own. I’m not some sort of like, again, genius that just figured this all out. You know, I got myself in the right rooms with people that were doing this and.

took what I learned, put it into action and put my own spin on it. And so, yeah, really excited to kind of talk about how to find a profitable market, how to launch a profitable short-term rental in today’s market where people are like, interest rates are too high and home prices are high. It’s so competitive and it’s so saturated and there’s regulation. Like, yes, all of that is true, but there is still a lot of opportunity for short-term rental investors out there.

Quentin (02:41)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Quentin Edmonds. And normally I say I’m excited and I am excited. I’m a little intimidated too, right? My guest, she is sharp. Listen y’all, she’s sharp. I feel like she’s trying to take my job. I feel like she could probably do what I do better. You know what saying? I I’m gonna stay on my ground though. I’m gonna stay on my ground and I’m gonna do what I do. But I am so excited about my guest. Listen.

You guys are gonna find great value in what she’s saying. You’re gonna be able to look at things from her unique lens. I am so happy to have with me today, Ms. Janel Gallucci. How are you, my dear?

Janel Gallucci (03:19)
doing great, Quentin, thanks so much for having me. I’m pumped for the convo as well. Let’s roll!

Quentin (03:23)
Me too, absolutely. Listen, normally I tell them what you all involved in and the different niche in your space. I ain’t gonna do none of that because I’m gonna let you do it yourself because you’re gonna do it better than I can do it anyway. You know what I’m saying? You’re gonna do it better than me anyway. But I am so excited. And listen, I know our listeners are gonna take something away from your approach and your lens. I know they’re gonna find value in what you had to offer. And so if you don’t mind this, I wanna dive right in.

Bring people into your world, right? They’re getting to know you for the first time. They’re getting, they want to know what you do. So tell us what’s your main focus these days. And if you don’t mind, tell us what markets you’re operating in as well.

Janel Gallucci (04:00)
Yeah, for sure. So hey, everyone, my name is Janel Gallucci. I am a short term rental owner, investor and educator. I’m currently based in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, on the Nevada side of the lake. The markets I operate in, I own and operate short term rentals here in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, as well as on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi. Really, really fun markets. And yeah, I got into real estate and short term rentals in 2019. I kind of fell into it. We were living in the San Francisco Bay Area, working full time corporate

W-2, nine to five grind kind of jobs. And we were weekend warriors. you know, if you, anyone that lives in San Francisco knows that Lake Tahoe is just a couple hours away. It’s a great weekend getaway. And we were coming up here a ton and we’re like, you know, it’d be pretty cool if we could buy a property and like.

maybe we could like put it on Airbnb and rent it all summer and winter and like maybe make enough money to just cover our expenses and then we would have a free place to stay in the off seasons. And so that’s how this whole thing got started. know, flash forward to today. I now see and I’m on this journey myself of retiring myself fully through short-term rentals. So that dream has really evolved from let’s just buy something and break even and have this cool property to like, wow, there’s actually a lot of.

opportunity and short-term rentals when they’re done right and a lot of opportunity to scale your portfolio, retire yourself and get the time and financial freedom that you know most all of us are getting after. So yeah that’s me.

Quentin (06:12)
Absolutely. One thing I love about you, one of the, after I asked you a question, one of the immediate things that you said is that you guys are all about building trust and earning credibility, right? It’s just not about, like you’re doing this for the right reason. You want the perfect clientele. You’re not trying to sell. You’re not trying to push. You’re like, listen, I want you to know that I will bring you value.

You know, and you’re gonna bring me value because you are the person that I want. Like this had to be, this is like a match made in heaven. So I want you to talk more about that, about that building trust. Cause I love when you said that.

Janel Gallucci (06:45)
Yeah, well, I think what makes me different and what I do with my business partner, Han and Kim, we do run a short-term rental mentorship together, but we really try to lead by doing. I think there’s a lot of educators out there in the real estate space. And if you actually look at their numbers, they’re making more money through their coaching and educating than they are through their real estate. And with us, we lead with our real estate, we lead with our short-term rental portfolios. And we happen to have a group of folks that we meet with every week and we mentor them through building their own portfolios with short-term rentals and retirements.

themselves. And so, know, for me, since we’re here to talk about me and my story, what I really wanted to talk about today is I recently launched a property. So we had our one property in 2019 and for years, you know, kind of just broke even until I started getting serious and implemented a lot of strategies, started becoming profitable. And then I was like, wow.

I think I figured out how to scale this thing. got in touch with the right lenders and figured out how to analyze the right markets and properties, landed on this property down in the ocean in the Gulf Coast. And I was like, we’re going to be number one. I’m going to launch the number one property in this market. And so there was a whole blueprint that I followed. And now that property launched in October of 2024. So we’re not even one year in.

Quentin (07:53)
Absolutely. No, that kind of brings me to where I want to go next because it’s not easy in this climate. You know, it’s not easy. A lot is going on. It’s not easy to stay true to your core sometimes. Like not to get greedy, not to try to, you know, go too big to kind of stay right where you need to be. So I guess my question is what’s been the key to you keeping that machine running smoothly for you to keep in your principles intact and stay in this, you know, as smooth as possible, right? Stay in the course.

that you’re on, what’s been the key to that?

Janel Gallucci (08:23)
Yeah, well, I’d say, mean, there’s a couple of things when it comes to actually running, operating, acquiring short-term rental properties and scaling them and getting the time and financial freedom through it that we’re all after. I kind of break it down to 10 steps, right? So I’m going walk through those real quick, right? So the first one I think that a lot of people miss and it kind of leads them astray from the beginning is they don’t define who they’re actually serving. Now, a short-term rental is very different than a long-term rental. It’s very different than multifamily. It’s not a house for sale on Zillow. It’s an

experience. You’re actually selling and advertising and marketing and experience. And so how do we do that effectively? We have to first define who we’re going after. We call that our ideal guest avatar. And so I see that this is a thing that a lot of short-term rental hosts that are struggling miss is they’re kind of trying to be everything to everyone, right? So got to be laser focused on who you’re serving. And that constantly brings you back when you’re thinking about, you know, let me make this investment in my property or let me do this or let me add this, like throwing amenity spaghetti at the wall where we’re actually really, we want to create one specific thing.

for one specific type of person. And a lot of people say, well, I’m scared to go niche. Well, there’s riches in the niches, so to say, right? So we want to make sure that we’re really honing in on who we’re serving to keep our short-term rental business on track, right? So.

That’s something I think the other thing is when we go to add amenities, like I said, a lot of folks will throw amenities spaghetti at the wall. We’re in like an amenities arms race in the Airbnb space where it’s like,

I’m to buy this property. Let me slap a hot tub and a sauna and a mural on it. And it’s going to be great. And listen, those amenities can be really great, but like, you know, it doesn’t make sense to have like, have this property and this is where this caught me off guard. You know, I had this property, you know, years ago that I was trying to be everyone, everything to everyone. But in reality, I served a lot of families with young kids.

I remember talking to a fellow investor and I was like, know, I’m thinking, I think I want to add a sauna. And they were like, well, let’s look at the numbers. And we broke it down. It’s like actually a really cool playground and play area for kids on the property would actually attract more of my ideal guests and more revenue for me than some of these other amenities. So I think being really strategic in what your amenities are, are key. And then the whole other piece of this is that it’s not just about.

creating unique experience and having amenities that are really specific, but you have to be able to articulate that really effectively in your listing. And what is the main way we do that through short-term rentals? It’s photography. And so I think that’s a lot of another area where a lot of folks miss is they will hire again, a regular real estate photographer, nothing wrong with them, but their job is to sell a home, is to sell a space for sale.

on Zillow and a short term rental is very different than that. This is an experience. This is a vacation. This is a place where your guests are going to come and make memories. so making sure that you are investing in the right photography, short term rental specific photography. So key. So I think those are three things. Those are three parts of our blueprint to, you know, success with short term rentals that I think a lot of people miss.

Quentin (11:48)
Gotcha. And I love how you didn’t get all 10. He was like, you know, I got 10, I’ll give you three though. See, I told y’all, see? I told y’all she short. I told y’all.

Janel Gallucci (11:56)
We only

got 20 minutes, so I don’t want to talk on and on. But we…

Quentin (12:00)
She ain’t dead.

See, this is what I’m saying. told y’all, y’all. Listen, I appreciate it. But no, that’s great. Again, I love your lens. I love your lens. I love your perspective. Yeah, this is refreshing. I love it. So, okay. So let me ask you this, right? So of course, you know, there’s a moment when things get real, right? There’s times when things go sideways. There’s a time when you had to

you know, pivot fast probably. And so, Mr. Nell, you mind sharing one of those times when you kind of had to think on your toes when things didn’t go the way you expected and you had to pivot?

Janel Gallucci (12:35)
Yeah, well, I think when we first got into short-term rental investing, the goal was just to cover expenses and break even. And eventually that started to really be a challenge. Like I’m spending time here. I should be making money on this investment. And so I know that was a time where I really had to pivot and get myself in the right room and start learning what strategies I could utilize to be able to actually pivot and make this profitable instead of just this side hobby. I think that’s actually something that a lot of folks, a lot of hosts that I talk to struggle with is we maybe

into short-term rentals or we don’t quite know what we’re doing when we get into it and like who doesn’t want an Airbnb right I talked to a lot of people who are like you know I love Miami and Maui and Vale like I’d love to own a property to those markets and it’s like well is the goal to make money or is it to just live this lifestyle because you could probably invest

much less money in other markets, make a lot more profit and just pay for your own vacations in those markets, right? Those are very tough markets to get into. So, and that is another challenge happening in the short-term rental space right now. It’s just regulation.

Quentin (13:28)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Janel Gallucci (13:35)
it’s becoming harder and harder to navigate regulation. so I’m in this process right now. I own two short-term rentals. I’m on a trajectory of trying to buy one per year so that we can retire ourselves fully from our work. so that’s something that just, had to pivot this week. I was looking at this particular market. I was dead set on it. We looked at a bunch of properties. The numbers were looking good. Well, then I call the county and they’re like, yeah, they were super not friendly to short-term rentals. And they’re like, we’re actually trying to cap them or ban them.

and there’s all these septic requirements we’re gonna be adding. And so it’s like, well, gonna have to pivot. So I feel like any successful real estate investor, we’re always pivoting, but those are kind of three, couple of pivots that come to mind for me.

Quentin (14:08)
Yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely. love it. And I’m going to ask this question just to put it out there. Cause I heard you mentioned trying to buy one property a year so you can retire. Like, listen, like you, and I see it, your 10 step process got you focused. You know, you know who your ideal client is. You’re not throwing amenities, spaghetti, which I’ve never heard, which is so dope.

I’m telling you, like, it’s just so, that’s just, I love your play on words, but I do just want to, I want to put this question right in your face. You may have already answered it, but then I still want to, you know, put it out there. What are you most focused on solving or like scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal, Mr. Now?

Janel Gallucci (15:34)
Well, you my husband and I both did leave our nine to five jobs back in 2020, 2021. And we do the same type of work as consultants. So we work hourly and it’s cool. We get to, you know, there’s much better, you’re in a much better tax situation when you’re self-employed, you get to control your hours. It’s awesome. But at the end of the day, we’re still trading time for money. If we don’t show up and work those hours, like we want to go on vacation or take a day off, like.

that is impacting your income versus our short term rental portfolio on the flip side. woke up this morning. I had two bookings. Like literally I made money in my sleep and yes, was it hard work to find those properties, buy them, set them up? Yes, but it’s like this one time investment that you’re able to keep reaping the rewards from. And so that’s sort of our primary goal. And inside the mentorship that we run, that is a lot of the goals of the folks we work with as well is like, how do we get ourselves out of this and stop trading time for money and have more of that time in financial

freedom that we want. Most people, don’t have kids yet, but I know when I want to have kids, I want to be able to spend that time with my family. And when I think about how I was working that corporate nine to five and commuting two hours a day, every day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, it’s like, I don’t know how people do it. That’s not the dynamic that I want. And so that’s our focus right now, at least for me and my husband. And then inside of the mentorship that I run with my business partner, we’re trying to help other folks get on that same trajectory. And it’s interesting because I think

I know when I first got into this, I’m like, how are people buying properties every year? Like, I literally don’t understand. Like, especially once you leave your corporate job and maybe you are self-employed.

financing and lending becomes harder. And the truth is there are a lot of strategies out there that most people don’t know about. There’s all sorts of different loan types out there, DSCR loans, know, there’s, gosh, there’s, there’s a ton of different strategies out there. And so, yeah, that’s what we’re just focused on right now is, you know, looking for that next property, staying on the trajectory and, you know, lot of different creative ways to finance it since we are, you know, self-employed now, but that’s, that’s our primary focus. We’re trying to stay on that track. One a year, add one to the portfolio a year. And again,

others to keep doing the same along the way.

Quentin (17:40)
Yeah, now I love it. It’s like, you you and your husband, y’all make the jump, what you like. also we’re going to pull people along with us, right? Like we will trail the blaze so people can find the path, right? So y’all can be trail blazers so people can come behind you and be pathfinders, right? I absolutely love that. And you know, I you, I face enough adversity to know that the next move, can either compound things.

Janel Gallucci (17:51)
you

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Quentin (18:06)
or it can create total chaos depending on how you play it, right? And so I love it.

Janel Gallucci (18:08)
Yeah. Well, there’s

there’s always a little chaos. I forgot to mention, you know, when we closed on that property last year, it launched in August. We closed 30 days before our wedding on a property in a state we had never been to. We never saw the property. We bought it without. We had inspections, never saw it. And yeah, we spent three weeks renovating it. And then right when we were about to fly home, there was a hurricane that hit the coast.

Quentin (18:14)
Please.

Let’s go.

Janel Gallucci (18:33)
and a wildfire in Lake Tahoe. And we’re like, are we gonna, we have 125 people coming to Tahoe. For our wedding, are we gonna make it? Sure enough, finish the renovation, hurricane passed, wildfires put out, we fly home, we get married, get our photography back. Listing gets live right after the wedding, so. There’s always a bit of chaos.

Quentin (18:49)
Let’s go. See?

Always. But that is the beauty in the chaos. It’s only chaos until we put order to it, right? It’s only chaos because it’s new. And so, but once we put order to it, you know, it’s no longer chaos. And so, no.

Janel Gallucci (18:57)
Right.

Yeah. And again, you focus on

that goal and staying focused on your North Star goal. And it’s like for us, a wedding is just a day, but our real estate portfolio is our foundation for our life. Right. And so we kind of tried to people like, can’t believe you would do that. Did some of the details of the wedding, like not go perfectly or the wrong cups put on the table? Like, yeah, there were some little details, but at the end of the day, like

We got our asset live and now it’s making, it’s been making a profit from the first month, like from day one. And so like, so glad that we made that shift. And again, dealt with a little bit of the chaos to stay on track.

Quentin (19:36)
Yeah, absolutely. can tell, and I’m prepping myself to go into my next question, right? But I can tell that you and your husband is going to do well in marriage, just like how y’all are going to do well in business, right? And I’ll tell you why. I heard somebody recently say, when you, as married people, instead of fighting each other, you fight the problem. It’s not us against each other. It’s us against the problem. And when I heard all the adversities that you faced,

Janel Gallucci (19:56)
Yeah.

Yup.

Quentin (20:02)
It was like, no, babe, this is us against the problem. And with your husband and you and your husband making the move to get out of the nine to five, the weekend warrior. When y’all made that move, it’s like, no, babe, we are focused. We know what the problem is. know what the, all we know what the goal is. It’s us trying to accomplish the goal together. And so this prompts me right to ask you this conversation because you talked about your husband, you talked about your business partner. And so there’s a lot of people that are listening, they’re early on their journey. They’re looking to level up.

Janel Gallucci (20:04)
100%.

Right?

Quentin (20:31)
And I think it would benefit them hearing this when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what has made the biggest difference for you?

Janel Gallucci (20:40)
Yeah.

of this question, I think this was something that took me a while to learn and now I wanna like scream it from the rooftops. If there is a goal you’re getting after, like you wanna retire yourself through short-term rentals, you wanna make a profit on your property, then you’re not currently. Like if there’s a goal you’re getting after, the most powerful thing you can do is get yourself in the room where that dream is other people’s reality. That is the hands down most powerful thing. Like the fact that my husband and I are even on this trajectory to retire ourselves through short-term rentals, I didn’t even know that existed.

that was possible until I started getting into these rooms and I was like, yeah, you we’ll probably buy property number two, you know, maybe five years down the line. And it’s like, well, no, there’s no reason why you can’t buy one property every year. Well, that opens your mind starting to realize what’s possible. So I think that’s the most important advice I can give anyone here, whether it’s short-term rentals or flipping or multifamily, you know, investments, whatever kind of real estate goals you have, find a way to get yourself in the room with people who are already

doing those things and your dreams are their reality, and it’s going to really accelerate reaching your goals.

Quentin (21:43)
I love it there. can’t fake relationships. so, yeah, I absolutely love, like, I knew this was gonna be fun. I you was gonna drop gyms and I appreciate it. So, yeah. So listen, listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you or someone wanted to collaborate with you or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Janel Gallucci (22:04)
Yeah, I would say find us on Instagram at Seven Summers Host Academy is the name of our mentorship. My business partner actually named it that because she started it, came up with the name when her oldest son was 11 or 12. And she’s like, oh my gosh, there’s only seven summers left with my child before he grows up and goes off to college and starts his own life. And so you can find us on Instagram at Seven Summers Host Academy. Every single day we push out free knowledge. And then through that page, if you are interested today, I give you a teaser of those 10 steps I

to launch the number one property in the state of Mississippi. You can repeat this in any state, in any market. That is a guide that we offer through that Instagram account. So if you go follow us over there, you can get the guide. Feel free to shoot me a DM. I’m always happy to chat. And yeah, I would love to talk to anyone that’s interested in short-term rentals and growing a profit through their property if they’re just breaking even and then figuring out how the heck to scale and retire themselves from their job.

Quentin (23:00)
I love it. I love it. Listen, you giving me stuff. You giving me good stuff all the way to the end. I’m dropping notes even as we doing the outro, right? So I just, appreciate you so much. Listen, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your perspective. We definitely need more people like you that’s doing things the way that you’re doing. So it was an honor to have you on today. So Ms. I thank you so much for being here today. I really do.

Janel Gallucci (23:27)
Thanks, Quentin. This was fun.

Quentin (23:28)
Absolutely. And listen, you know, I always say this, y’all, and I say this very slowly. If you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. You want to make sure you’re subscribed. I want that bell going off. I want the alarms going off and let you know when a new episode is dropping because we have great conversations with great people, just like I had with Ms. Janel today. So again, thank you, Ms. Janel, and for those tuning in, we’ll see you on the next time.