Building Wealth Through Short-Term Rentals, Tax Strategy, and Video Marketing with David Bibiano

DAVID (00:00)
Yeah, it’s scary. I mean, it’s, terrifying. I’ll be honest in, my wife and I just, we, we sat there just discussing for a long, long time. with any business though, and Scott, noticed you have some posters on the wall that are very similar to the ones that I have over here. but I have one that says entrepreneur is someone who, jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.

and so I’m, I’m very much the person that’s like, okay, if, if we want to make this move, let’s just climb the cliff and let’s jump and let’s figure it out as we go.

Scott Bursey (02:01)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we are talking about building a real estate empire with strategic high level efficiency. Our guest, David Bibiano of Bibiano Real Estate Holdings is the pro who brings the pure high octane fuel of modern acquisition, strategy and operational excellence. David has mastered the art of not just buying, but holding for maximum profit.

Get ready to fill your tank, pros. This will be a master class in scale. David, welcome to the show.

DAVID (02:37)
Thanks, Scott. Appreciate you having me. This is awesome.

Scott Bursey (02:39)
This is just awesome having you here, you said it, and for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please give us the front row seat on how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

DAVID (02:51)
Yeah, I’ve got a lot of, I got a lot of irons in the fire, Scott. so I, 20 years, I spent 20 years in, in just the workforce, including seven years in the military and got to a point where I was like, you know what? I can’t work for anybody else and I want to work for myself. And in 2018, I decided to be an entrepreneur and launched my first business, which is a video production business, which I still operate. and it took off.

And, it’s, still doing very well. and, once it’s kind of took off, I started having a lot of videographers asking me like, Hey, how are you doing this? How are getting people to pay you to make videos and, how are you landing these deals and whatnot? And, it was about, well, it was in COVID 2020 in March, 2020, I launched a coaching program. So, I started coaching videographers on not like how to use their cameras because they know how to use their cameras. and most of them are better at that than I am anyways.

But I would teach them how to like run a video business and like actually run a business business. and so I launched a coaching program and that took off and I coached about 3000 videographers all around the world. And that led to, more programs where I partnered with professional disc golfers and professional pickleball players and chefs and real estate agents. And now we have a whole bunch of programs, that’s that we, we own and operate.

And now we’re getting into it to investment real estate. my wife and I, launched our investment real estate, business last year and, we’re off to the races.

Scott Bursey (04:12)
That is such an incredible trajectory, David. You know, what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to leverage high impact digital media and video strategies to not only source unique off market deals, but also maintain an incredibly engaged investor base. That tech edge in acquisitions is pure investor fuel.

DAVID (04:33)
Yeah, it definitely is. mean, every business that I have is, mean, it’s, there’s going to be a video component. having some sort of video strategy is just a phenomenal way of attracting people, whether those be customers or, you know, partners, investors, ⁓ students, whatever it is, it’s, it’s, it is integral to everything that we do, in, in all of our businesses. So yes, we, leverage, you know, video strategy very heavily.

Scott Bursey (04:59)
Now that we have that amazing background, let’s jump right into your insight for the pros. What is the biggest operational advantage your holding structure gives you for rapid acquisition, would you say?

DAVID (06:00)
Yeah. So this is, we, we studied this a lot. and I have, I have a phenomenal attorney, and the state that we live in, he suggested that we set up something called a series LLC, which is something that I had never heard of. it’s not available in every state. so hopefully it’s available in like one of the seven states that you know, your, your listeners are in. but essentially what it is, is, is one LLC. That’s kind of like your mothership.

And then it has subsidiaries, in each one of those, what they call series is basically its own, its own business within the bigger business, but it’s separated financially and legally from the other ones. So as we grow, we can, we can bring on another property and have it within the same LLC, without having to set up a whole nother LLC and company structure and everything that goes with that. accounting, bookkeeping.

payroll, like all the stuff that comes with, with having an LLC and, and, know, the administrative stuff. So, I mean, from, from our, from our structural standpoint, I think that our attorney knocked it out of the park, setting this up for us.

Scott Bursey (07:02)
Awesome, awesome David. And let’s shift gears here just a little bit. What is the biggest hurdle when implementing new acquisition technology or software across a multi-asset portfolio?

DAVID (07:15)
Well, I mean, it’s, for us, it’s learning all these different tools, and how to use them across different homes. So my wife and I, just jumped in. We got our first property, which we’re, very excited about. on the market. We operated as a short-term rental. but we are looking to bring on additional properties. And so it’s like, how do we use these tools? How do we, how do we use the systems that are out there and available to us?

All the way up into including, you know, artificial intelligence to, be able to operate across the board. And so those are, those are things that we look at on a daily basis. How can we increase our efficiency and our output? and there’s, there’s a lot of great tools that we use at my wife. She’s the operator. She does all the stuff with, with the properties. she manages the thing. I, I, I’m the big picture guy. So I say, babe, we gotta go, we gotta go jump on this property or we gotta go do this big thing. And then she figures out how to actually get it done.

But yeah, there’s plenty of tools out there that, we’re already leveraging. And I’m sure there’s a bunch that we probably need to start looking at as well.

Scott Bursey (08:10)
Now let’s drop this thing into overdrive. As a leader in leveraging high impact media, what’s the one video strategy, you know, your bread and butter you use for investor communication that accelerates trust and commitment.

DAVID (08:13)
do it.

Yeah, we, so with all of our businesses, we use something that I like to call the video, sales trifecta. And it’s a series of three videos and it’s really understanding that. Well, let let me, let me, let me give you a quote quote here. and, and, a quick story, Scott. So when I went to army basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, we had a drill sergeant that would make us do pushups and sit ups and all that stuff. It’s called getting smoked. And, we, we.

The group that I was in one day, we got smoked so bad that I was like, I’m now I’m always going to make sure that I do everything that the drill sergeant says because I’m not doing that again. And so that afternoon he took us into the room and there was this quote on the board. There was a bunch of them and, he said, write these down and remember them. And I was like, okay, I got it. So I wrote them down and one of them was, amateurs talk tactics, but professional study logistics.

It’s from a general name, General Robert H. Barrow of the United States Marine Corps. And so what General Barrow was talking about is, you can be very tactical as a soldier, but without moving pieces like, you know, the deployment of tanks or medical supplies or food and water, like everything stops, right? The logistical part of everything is incredibly important. And in my video business and all my business, we use that with information as well. So we, we understand that we have information and we need to distribute it to the right eyeballs.

In order for people to take the actions that we want them to take. So the video sales trifecta is something that is very simple. It’s a three-part system. create a, what we would call a promo video, that would live on places like social media, right? It gets people’s attention. It’s very flashy. It’s very exciting.

and it’s, targeted at the right person that we want to target. And once we get their attention and we use that video to drive them to like a landing page or somewhere where we want them to go to, we get them onto that page and then we provide them with a longer form video that tells them who we are, what we do, how we can partner, what our product does, our company culture, whatever the case is, right. That’s kind of like the meat of the thing.

And then after that, we drive them to videos that include like testimonials or case studies or something that shows results that we’re looking to get. And so we utilize that to attract customers, to attract partners, to attract, investors, to attract, you know, whatever it, it’s, it’s a tried and true, tried and true, strategy that we’ve, we’ve implemented on just tons of businesses.

Scott Bursey (11:23)
That’s the trifecta right there, pros. And David, if someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking, hey, this is someone that I really like, what would you like them to know first about your video business?

DAVID (11:34)
Yeah, I mean, so I love the video business as we’re moving forward though, I’m starting to phase that one out. I really enjoy it, but our roadmap of where I want to go professionally is a little bit different. I will more than likely always continue to make videos because it’s a passion, but I don’t know that that’s a business that’s going to be around for too, too much longer anyways.

unless the right projects come, but we, mean, right now we help medium to enterprise size businesses, implement video strategies that, that really helped them to grow their business. Like if you don’t have a video strategy in 2026, then you know, like, what are you doing? Hey, it’s, you know, it’s like, that would have been like operating a business without the internet in, in, you know, 2005, like it just, doesn’t work. you gotta have, you gotta have that. So, but yeah, that’s the video business.

Scott Bursey (12:26)
Okay, and now as far as Bibiano real estate holdings, what do feel is the biggest opportunity right now? Maybe let’s talk a little short term and then long term strategy.

DAVID (12:36)
Yeah. So short-term strategy for, for us anyways, is, the tax advantages that come with real estate. you know, I, own several businesses, and we sell digital products. And so we, we have, we have good profit margins. And when you have good profit margins, that’s great until, until the government sees you have good profit margins and they’re sitting on those margins and you don’t do anything with them. And so you end up giving them money to, to the, to the government.

and it’s all the same. I don’t want to do that. I’d prefer to keep my money. So for us, real estate very much is in the short term, the opportunity to reallocate that money to something that we own in an asset, as opposed to just giving it to, up in taxes to the government,

So long-term it’s, it’s very simple for me. it’s not a cashflow game. it, and I don’t, I don’t think that I’ll, I’ll ever get into real estate so much that I’m trying to produce a ton of cashflow. Cause I, I, I don’t, I don’t think that I could produce more cashflow than my business has already produced and do that with real estate. I just don’t see that happening for us. It’s the, the holding of the real estate that then we can pass to our kids. and, and that’s a long time away.

But you know, I’m, the kind of person that’s thinking, you know, 30, 40, 50 years down the road. What, what is this going to look like? Can I pass something onto my kids that wasn’t passed to me? and, can I, can I set them up, to, be able to, to have that. And on top of that, like when, once they’re old enough to leave the house, can we hand something over to them and they, can learn to manage it and, learn to understand real estate and how it can impact their, their financial lives.

So for us, it’s certainly not a cashflow game, at least right now. It’s more of like the long-term, we wanna hold this and create that long-term wealth.

Scott Bursey (15:03)
Understood, David. And what geographical markets are you operating in? And how much would you like to scale?

DAVID (15:09)
Yeah. Texas for right now. and, we’re, we’re already on the move to try to get our second property. so we, we operate in the Hill country, and we’re, we’re, we’re looking to continue to operate there. mainly because we’re, we’re somewhat obviously pretty new to, to investment real estate. So we want to, we want to make the mistakes with properties that are pretty close to us.

And we want to learn from those mistakes. And then once we feel confident enough to, expand to other markets, then we can look at, you know, places on the beach in Florida or, or, know, in the Poconos or something, something like that. But we’re, we’re definitely going to operate here in Texas. That’s a very landlord friendly, state it’s, we got some huge advantages. Plus, you know, it gives us the opportunity to go and hang out somewhere else other than where we live for, for, you know, just to use our homes when we want to use them.

Scott Bursey (15:57)
Absolutely. David, this has been pure gold, but we can’t let you go yet. Is there any advice that you could give our listeners who are thinking about getting into the real estate game, some trials and tribulations or some strategy that you you put forth before you dove in?

DAVID (16:15)
Yeah, it’s scary. I mean, it’s, terrifying. I’ll be honest in, my wife and I just, we, we sat there just discussing for a long, long time. with any business though, and Scott, noticed you have some posters on the wall that are very similar to the ones that I have over here. but I have one that says entrepreneur is someone who, jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.

and so I’m, I’m very much the person that’s like, okay, if, if we want to make this move, let’s just climb the cliff and let’s jump and let’s figure it out as we go.

And every time I’ve jumped off a cliff in business, what I find is that once you’re flying or falling away, it’s just work. there’s, there’s, it’s not rocket science to operate a short-term rental. It’s not rocket science to operate a long-term rental. It’s just, it’s, it’s not any different than people.

going to work and doing work at a, at a nine to five job all the time. So if somebody were to ask me, should I just, yeah, just jump like otherwise you’re never going to get anywhere. have a plan. Obviously we, we have a plan for an event that, know, our, our, our property doesn’t cashflow or we need to, you know, cover a difference. and so we have that in place, but you know, I think that once we bought the property,

in late November, we put it on the market in early December and immediately we started getting bookings and we were like, wow, that like, that was easier than we expected. There’s actually people who want to rent our house and we, we, we have like an 80 % occupancy rate from January 1st through right now. So it’s just, you have to put yourself in the situation to be, to be successful. And if you don’t put yourself in that situation to be, have that opportunity, then it’s just never going to come.

Scott Bursey (17:56)
David, you just moved the needle for a lot of people. Take the leap of faith. If our listeners want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

DAVID (18:06)
Yeah, you know, I’ve got a few different ways. we, the realist probably not through real estate unless you’re local to, to where we’re at. We’d love to meet. We’d love to chat. love to network. we love to get connected with the people that are, that are around us. but you know, if you want to follow my other stuff, if you’re a pickleball player, we’ve got a pickleball program called transitions on pickleball. If you’re a disc golfer, we’ve got a disc golf program called the power disc golf Academy.

we’ve got other academies. I w we teach, I, you know, I, I, I’m coming out with another program as well. That’s going to be focused more towards like middle-class dads who want to escape the middle-class. that’s called gravity breaker. we’re going to release that probably in the next two months. and, and that’s just, you know, giving my, think that’s the one I’m excited about the most, honestly. we, kind of build a financial, what we call a financial rocket ship that focuses on five things.

It focuses on a mindset that’s rooted in faith, entrepreneurial skills, understanding taxes, understanding debt, understanding investing and understanding processes and systems. so if, if you’re a middle-class dad that wants to escape the middle-class and you need some help with that or need some direction, keep an eye out because you’re going to be seeing that, pumped out here pretty soon.

Scott Bursey (19:14)
David, you brought the rocket fuel today. Thank you for joining us.

DAVID (19:19)
Absolutely.

Scott Bursey (19:19)
And for our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with the lineup of elite guests just like David, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.