Airbnb vs Midterm Rentals: The Pivot Smart Investors Make in Slow Seasons

Catie Lawrence (00:00)
It is a hospitality business. So it is not necessarily a rental business. People are there to enjoy their vacation. So if you say you have coffee, make sure that you have coffee. Make sure you’re restocking your supplies. If you have hot tub, make sure that you are cleaning that hot tub on a regular basis.

Make sure that the filters are clean. You need to run it like a business because one or two bad reviews can really, really screw you up, especially in a saturated market.

Dylan Silver (02:02)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Catie Lawrence, a realtor investor, fix and flipper house hacker, Airbnb super host based in Frasier, Colorado. Catie’s passionate about helping people build wealth through real estate, whether that’s finding their home, placing tenants or scaling into investments. Alongside her husband, she’s actively investing and also building a custom home while living a lifestyle centered around the outdoors from mountain biking and skiing to back country adventures. Welcome to the show, Catie.

Catie Lawrence (02:31)
Thank you so much for having me, Dylan. I’m really glad to be here.

Dylan Silver (02:35)
Now you’re involved in a lot, right? Agent, investor, house hacker, Airbnb super host. What’s it like day to day involved in all these segments?

Catie Lawrence (02:46)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Day to day changes, which is part of the beauty of real estate, right? You can really go anywhere you want. So day to day, typically, ⁓ because I’m an investor as well as an agent, ⁓ I am actively looking at the market. Currently, I have two listings on, so I’m actively ⁓ managing them.

showings and all of that, but I also manage my four long-term rentals as well. So depending on what’s going on, fingers crossed, not a lot of management goes into those. But as you know, as an investor, it’s all about systems and making sure that you’re front loading the work. So day to day is really, you know, I try to get an adventure in every day, try to enjoy the mountains.

again, because I’m also an agent depending on if I have listings, if I have buyers, it really does change, which is not a very solid answer. But that’s the beauty of real estate. I really got into this for the autonomy for the independence of my time. So

Dylan Silver (03:53)
there’s always going to be some level of juggling with real estate, but one of the abilities that seems like you’ve really dialed into is the ability to pivot, right? Because when one thing may be hot, you can ride that out, but then when that maybe dips or when the market shifts, you have to go into some other segments. And I think as a realtor myself in Texas, we’re starting to see kind of a…

shift towards more people realizing they can’t just be a, you know, one size fits all realtor mean, maybe that’s the wrong term, they can’t just do one thing and say, this is my widget, they have to maybe work with investors, they have to maybe looking into some other segments of real estate, it’s just very difficult for people to do the same thing for 510 years.

Catie Lawrence (04:43)
Oh, absolutely. And because we were down in Denver Metro for about nine and a half years and then moved to a mountain town here in Frayser, I kind of had to pivot. Now I’m in a luxury market. The medium home price is almost a million in this environment. Down in Denver, it was about $530,000 a single family. So now I’m in a luxury home market.

It’s very saturated with agents, as you can imagine. So I pivoted into ⁓ leveraging my knowledge with ⁓ midterm rentals, with short term rentals. So I started helping people who are out of state manage their own portfolios from a distance. So I think leverage and pivoting, if you cannot do that in this business, you might not make it. And I know that sounds very harsh, but

Pivoting, understanding the market where you are because it’s very different. I’m an hour and 20 minutes from Denver and the market here is way different than Denver. So I had to learn what the market was doing up here. mean, square footage pricing, it’s almost 800 square foot. I mean, we’re building a mountain house so I know these numbers but down in Denver, very different. It moves a lot faster up here to second home market.

So again, pivoting, you, that’s the name of the game.

Dylan Silver (07:10)
I mean, like, look, you mentioned Frasier being drastically different from Denver. And I think when people think about the luxury market, oftentimes they might not realize, you know, there’s luxury all over. Right. And so there’ll be luxury in certain ⁓ segments of Colorado where, know, you have to have really granular knowledge of the Frasier market. And that’s why they even say, you know, if you’re going to be a realtor, you really need to know that area. You know,

Catie Lawrence (07:24)
Absolutely.

Dylan Silver (07:40)
like your backyard. And so going from Denver to Frasier, you mentioned the increase in the cost of these homes. But also, are there investors who are flipping in Frasier? And what’s that like? What’s a flip look like in Frasier?

Catie Lawrence (07:55)
Yeah, so it’s a lot harder to do. think location matters greatly here. So if you are closer to the the ⁓ actual resort, Winter Park and Mary Jane Resort is about eight minutes from where I live. You can definitely find older homes. There’s a lot of building going on right here, which is great, which means there’s a lot of older homes that are sitting. So I don’t see flipping so much as rehabbing. So

we’re gonna fix a bathroom, we’re going to update the kitchen. ⁓ Because people that lock in right effect happens in the mountains as well. I think I have seen over the past year, a lot of people are pulling the homes that are not selling and rehabbing them. So I think there’s a great need for good contractors up here ⁓ because it’s mountain time, so it’s a little slower.

People are a little slower. There’s not as many people doing that kind of work up here. So I think that is the next wave of opportunity here in Frasier.

Dylan Silver (09:03)
What’s the reception in that market for short term rentals? the locals happy to have as many short term rentals as people want to put out there?

Catie Lawrence (09:13)
Absolutely. ⁓ I think this is one of the most friendly short-term rental markets in the mountains in Colorado. There’s a lot of moratoriums ⁓ in some of the other mountain towns. Breckenridge, I know, has moratoriums. Again, it’s just a very friendly market. That being said, that means it’s very saturated. So there are tons of short-term rentals in the boom over COVID. People want it to be out.

and about in the mountains. it just and investors came and bought a lot of things up. And I think the town is okay with that. It’s just now they’re sitting. A lot of them are sitting. So you really do have to dial into what’s happening from a town perspective. Are there events going on? This has been a very slow snow season. So if you’re not adjusting prices, if you’re not kind of dialed into what

your short-term rental is and what the price per night is, it’s going to sit. So it’s very saturated here.

Dylan Silver (10:55)
Now, if someone is looking at, you know, Frasier as a destination for themselves, they’re thinking about buying a place potentially for themselves as a second ⁓ home, but also an investment opportunity. And they’re weighing the pros and cons of putting it up as a short term rental. When would it make sense for folks?

Catie Lawrence (11:16)
Sure, so if you are thinking that, I’m in Texas and I’m going to probably use this maybe a month or two out of the whole year, I would say that that is definitely worth it. ⁓ There are fees involved. There are inspections involved. Obviously, that’s going to happen in any market you are. ⁓ But if you are using it monthly, ⁓ it might just not make sense for you ⁓ to use it as a short-term rental or

you could self manage and just put it to friends and family. I mean, there are plenty of sites that allow you to do that to create a little website and, you know, put it out there just for friends and family. ⁓

Dylan Silver (11:59)
Yeah.

That’s a great point. And I think there’s a lot of people who are trying to figure out how to maximize their short term rental. And the reality is, especially in some markets like the one you’re in, it sounds like there’s a lot of competition, you know, you have to approach it from a business mindset. And if you’re thinking like, okay, I’m going to be using this all the time, that’s going to impact your ability to get bookings, your calendar is not going to be as clear. Also, in general, you might not

Catie Lawrence (12:05)
We can work.

Dylan Silver (12:27)
that might bleed into other aspects of the business, changeovers and so forth. Specifically as a super host, what distinctly separates good operators and folks who have successful Airbnb listings versus folks who may put something on there and doesn’t get a lot of traction?

Catie Lawrence (12:46)
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think you hit it earlier, managing it like a business. Even if you’re going to be using this, people are renting this.

It is a hospitality business. So it is not necessarily a rental business. People are there to enjoy their vacation. So if you say you have coffee, make sure that you have coffee. Make sure you’re restocking your supplies. If you have hot tub, make sure that you are cleaning that hot tub on a regular basis.

Make sure that the filters are clean. You need to run it like a business because one or two bad reviews can really, really screw you up, especially in a saturated market.

Again, the nightly price matters greatly too. And I’m not saying give it away for free, but looking at what’s available in your area, making sure that you understand how many more rentals are in the area and understanding where you sit.

from a price per night perspective, I think that’s really important too, just having a dial in approach and running it like a business.

Dylan Silver (13:52)
Are you seeing developers, and I know you’re involved in this as well, are you seeing builders look into these treehouse builds that look super stunning and beautiful? I’ve seen this in Oklahoma. Are you seeing any of that out there?

Catie Lawrence (14:06)
So I’m not seeing any of the tree houses, ⁓ but there have been people who are building, you know, yurt-like structures on their property. Again, because it’s such a saturated market, it is cool to, you know, kind of set yourself apart. And that’s where I think location comes in. I mean, real estate is all about location, location, location. So the closer you are to the resort, the closer you are to town and walkability.

we’re seeing the price per night jump ⁓ from a short-term rental perspective. So if you’re close to all of the action, ⁓ walkable into town, I think that’s really what sets people apart as well.

Dylan Silver (14:48)
Now this time of year, we’re talking it’s April 1st today. Is it a time of the year where it is actually getting busier? Because I’ve heard, you know, spring skiing is lovely out there. Or is this at this point, you know, the end of the winter snowing season and it’s getting less busy?

Catie Lawrence (15:46)
Yeah, so we call this the shoulder season. Typically, April’s still pretty good for skiing. ⁓ In years past, people have booked through the end of April for these ski houses because it’s been such a low snow year. ⁓ I’m seeing it slow down immensely with a few of the short-term rentals that I manage. That being said, this is where pivoting comes into play. I manage a midterm rental for

a client and this is when those 30 plus days days come into play. If you can pivot your short term rental into a 30 plus day stay, you might not have the vacancy that others will. And yes, that means you’ll probably have to drop your nightly rate, give discounts on monthly. But I think that this is a pivot that not a lot of people talk about. And I get it, you want to get that, you know, the most bang for your buck, but

Dylan Silver (16:22)
Yeah.

Catie Lawrence (16:45)
if you’re able to pivot during shoulder season because they can be very long. They can be from April, May to like mid-June. So you’re talking almost two months of not a ton of action.

Dylan Silver (16:58)
Yeah, and I’ve heard people who almost intentionally look to have their calendars clear in multiple markets for that reason. You know, they might get a two month booking out of nowhere and say, OK, well, that’s, you know, going to pay for itself. Right. And so part of it, too, is it is almost a seasoning period with Airbnb and other platforms. What I understand where.

Catie Lawrence (17:14)
Huge. Yep.

Dylan Silver (17:23)
You know, might have to wait a little bit to get into the on-ramp of now you’re searchable, you’ve got some reviews, you’ve got some momentum. All it takes is that one booking, right? Now you’ve got two months booked out. You know, that’s gonna be a good review if you can get it right. That’s how you start getting the ball rolling, right?

Catie Lawrence (17:41)
Absolutely and making sure that you’re on multiple platforms I mean furnished finders the the UI of that is terrible But I’ve gotten all of my bookings for my seasonal rental that I manage from furnished finders people are going there for those longer term So if you’re going if you’re trying to pivot don’t just rely on one platform There’s Facebook groups about this. That means a lot more work for you, right? You’re

managing it and a lot of people don’t have time to do that. That’s where somebody like me can come into play, find somebody local who knows the market who can do this for you or do it yourself, you know, but definitely making sure that you’re on multiple platforms helps.

Dylan Silver (18:23)
We are coming up on time here, Catie. Any new projects that you’re working on and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you?

Catie Lawrence (18:31)
Yeah, so our new project is a mountain build. We fixed and flipped for 10 years down in Denver, and now we are building our own mountain house. My husband is GCing it, which means that we’re saving hundreds of thousands of dollars because he’s a builder as well. But we will actually have a ADU on that property. So we will have that as an income producing property. So we are getting into the mountain.

the mountain scene by building that. So that is super exciting. And then if people want to reach out to me, I’m very active on Instagram. So Catie Lawrence, happy homes. I’m all over Instagram.

Dylan Silver (19:13)
Catie, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for joining us.