Buy When Others Panic: Julie Gates on the Best Time to Invest in Real Estate

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (00:00)
Well, I’m not even going to say the midterm real space. I’m going to say real estate in general. when this is on every asset class, this is stock market, this could be crypto, real estate, you name it. But the worst thing you can do as an investor is wait for a trend to hit, watch it, and then buy at the top of the curve. Okay. Everything has a curve. I don’t care what the asset class is. I really don’t. It’s all going to be low, high, down, up, down. And your job as an investor is to buy low.

and sell or rent high.

Scott Bursey (02:04)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we’re talking to Julie Gates, the visionary behind Sid Was Here and Team 912. Julie has completely cracked the code on the Savannah short-term rental market, turning property management into a high-level hospitality experience. She’s an investor, a coach, and a master of the midterm pivot. Julie, thanks for being here.

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (02:32)
Thank you for having me. It’s an honor.

Scott Bursey (02:34)
Yes

it is, it most certainly is. And Julie, before we dive into the market dynamics, please give our audience the short story of your journey and where you are now.

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (02:47)
Okay, sure. I’d be happy to. I’m in the beautiful Savannah, Georgia. The only city in the world built around 26 squares filled with beautiful houses and trees. So it is a beautiful place to live. It’s kind of rural. Like people think we’re right next to Atlanta, but we’re actually on the coast. And I’ve been in Atlanta. I mean, in Atlanta. I guess I don’t know where I live. I’ve been in Savannah for over 20 years and I’ve been a real estate investor here for over 20 years.

So I got my start actually in commercial real estate if you can believe that and then I flipped to residential and then I needed my own property management because my portfolio got kind of big and I was making it just for myself so I wasn’t really thinking about it that seriously. So I named my property management company after my son’s squirrel rescue which is Sid was here and Sid is actually a squirrel.

So my logo has a squirrel and people always think I have the weirdest name, but it really is an ode to how much I love my kid and what a great job he did with squirrels. So after I started the property management company, I got into short-term rentals and then became an agent. And so kind of a triple threat where I’ve, I’m an investor first, and then I’m really a property manager second and then agent third.

When I work with buyers and property owners, I’m very familiar with what they’re going through. Everything I’m telling them to do, I have done and failed at myself, you know, multiple times. And I’m just really big on legitimacy and I’m proud of what I’m doing. There are very few real estate brokers, you know, at my level that really understand, you know, investment real estate like I do. So I just, love investment real estate. I don’t do anything with your traditional, you know, real estate.

I call it Ken and Barbie’s dream house. I’m not interested at all. I want to know how much money a house will make. I do not care what color it is. I don’t care, you know, about anything other than the revenue. How much will Ken and bring in and how much will it cost us to get there? So that’s really my focus.

Scott Bursey (04:47)
That’s awesome. And how exciting. Julie, what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to turn a personal tribute into a professional masterclass in hospitality. What’s been the biggest key to maintaining that standard that you have achieved?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (05:55)
You know, hospitality is tough and for your listening audience, I don’t know if any of them have a short terminal, but if they do, they’re going to resonate with this. It is a job. Okay. Hospitality is a full-time seven day a week, 24 hour a day job and burnout is real. We have a lot of Karens out there that will rent your property. And I mean, I had this woman, it was mine, which is why I’m so offended, even though I manage for a lot of other people.

I, this woman just give me a bad review because there was a notch in the scissors. You know, it was just kind of dumb, but she said, these are chicken scissors. And anyway, it was just crazy. So you, kind of deal with a lot of ⁓ complaints and frustrations and you, you’re supposed to be perfect at all times. I have to say is a grind, but after a lot of failure, I kind of, finally cracked the code. I’m now managing at scale.

and we’re super hosts, which is very hard to find in a large-ish property management company. But we’ve really, you know, I just decided a long time ago, I’m not going to run any business unless I’m doing it to the absolute best of my ability and it’s just going to be amazing or else I’m going to let the property go. And when I started cutting properties and really only picking up exactly what I was going for and we just made sure they were just managed the dime, it’s really kind of turned things around. So

It’s a business. terminals are a business and it’s also a great asset class.

Scott Bursey (07:23)
Absolutely, couldn’t agree more and that was great illustration. It’s clear that having that human mission is what separates you from perhaps others in the hospitality business. That’s crystal clear. Julie, Savannah is famous for its strict STR regulations. How has the long short strategy allowed you and your clients to bypass some of the legal headaches, I guess, associated with short term rental permits?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (07:53)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Savannah’s actually had short-term rental permits for over 20 years. So this is a very old hospitality market, which is actually a win. Now, I didn’t know that when I moved here. I did not move here because I did so much great market research. I wish I could say I was that smart. I kind of looked into it. ⁓ But when I did start getting into real estate, I did become very well aware of the laws. And so back when I was buying houses back in the teens,

you you could get houses for very low and there really weren’t that many short-term rentals. I had actually never heard of Airbnb when I got into the furnished rental space. That’s how old I am. And so I learned the laws very quickly because I’m here to follow them. I’m really not one to do something illegal. And so I got into short-term rentals, but I also got in, I called it the long short for a long time. It’s now become known as the medium term rental.

which I actually ended up writing two of the chapters for the 30 day stay, which is out by bigger pockets. That’s how much I’ve done with that space. But I realized very quickly, I had a short-term rental ⁓ on my property where I live here in Savannah and people kept asking me to stay for a long time, know, 30, 60, 90 days. And some of them were travel nurses. And I kept saying, no, I don’t really want you in my yard that long. I really liked that guests would leave, you know, in three days. And I said, there’s an opportunity here.

And really at the heart of what I do, I’m an entrepreneur. Okay. So I’m always looking for opportunity. And so that’s when I kind of saw that opportunity there in the 30 day market, because I’m only going to speak for Georgia, but I think it’s everywhere unless there’s an HOA. If you stay 30 days or more, it’s not a short stay, you know, and so you can do it that way. So back in the day, I was really doing well with medium term rentals and short term rentals.

And it really allowed me to expand my portfolio very quickly because it was such a heavy cash flow play. If you come up with the furnishings and make it nice and obviously standards were lower then and you know that’s a big reason I was able to scale.

Scott Bursey (10:32)
I love that. It sounds like you’re essentially professionalizing the shadow rental market. Instead of just filling a bed, you’re solving a high-end housing problem for traveling professionals or people in transition, let’s put it that way. It’s less of a hospitality play and more of a strategic real estate play. That’s a powerful distinction.

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (10:56)
It was all about the numbers. Yes,

it was about the money. I mean, I saw the money and the beautiful thing was I had over 70 of these under management, these medium terminals. had short, again, I do short terminal as well, but I had over 70 under management when COVID hit. And of course, who saw that coming? Not me. I don’t, I’m not that bright again, but again, I was very lucky. I was ready and COVID hit. Well, Georgia is a red state. We didn’t even have a mask order.

So when COVID hit and everyone got locked down, they wanted to get out of, you know, the blue states where they were locked in their apartment for six months. And so everyone came to Savannah and boy, that was actually, I thought it was going to put me under. And that actually really launched us into the stratosphere, but it also brought all this competition into the asset class. So it’s like, we did very well because of that. And then after we saw quite the decline. So

You know, with any business venture, you’re going to see a high, you’re going to see a low. And I’ve been at this a long time. I’ve been through both on multiple levels and you just got to kind of hang in there. But the key is really to buy correctly. So, you know, when things started going down in 2024 for the medium term rental market and the furnished rental market, I very quickly got out. And so I’ve actually now turned 11 of mine into long term rentals, which I have no problem doing. I buy them numbers wise.

making sure that they’ll work as a long-term rental. So as an investor, it’s important to be able to pivot and understand what’s going on in the market. That’s really, really important for your longevity. If you get into an asset class and you have only one exit strategy, you may not make it as long as I’ve been here.

Scott Bursey (12:36)
golden nugget I’m taking out of that is that you must weather the storm and that makes perfect sense. What is the biggest mistake Julie you see new investors make when they try to jump in you know the midterm rental space?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (12:42)
for sure.

Well, I’m not even going to say the midterm real space. I’m going to say real estate in general. when this is on every asset class, this is stock market, this could be crypto, real estate, you name it. But the worst thing you can do as an investor is wait for a trend to hit, watch it, and then buy at the top of the curve. Okay. Everything has a curve. I don’t care what the asset class is. I really don’t. It’s all going to be low, high, down, up, down. And your job as an investor is to buy low.

and sell or rent high.

Okay. And I’m amazed at how hard it is to get that concept through because everyone goes, no, it’s COVID. I’m going to sit on my hands and freak out and watch Tiger King. I went and bought tons of real estate during the shutdown. Okay. And it was not hard to do because people were thrilled to give it away to me. They were like, no, the world is ending.

And I was able to almost double my portfolio at that time because I’m an opposite girl. Okay. I understand these things go up and they go down. And when things crash, that is not the time to freak out. That is the time to go and purchase. So it’s very important, you know, as people go through their investment journey to be aware, you’ve got to see what’s going on and think differently than everyone else. If you follow the crowd, if you’re in the back, you’re going to get what falls out the back. And it’s usually not that pleasant.

Scott Bursey (14:17)
Absolutely. Hey, I’m with you on that. Interested to know, how do you handle the pet friendly aspect of your rentals without destroying your maintenance budget?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (14:30)
That’s a very good question. So first off, we have a background with squirrels. As you are aware, I’ve already said that and I love animals and I love being pet friendly. I’m very proud of that. I always encourage owners to be, it’s up to the owner. I don’t dictate that obviously, but we do like to be pet friendly. There are many people that want to travel with pets and especially in the medium to rural space, they’re a lot more likely to come with a pet because they might be here for 90 days or whatever.

I do encourage being pet friendly. It is more work. The turnover is a pain in the neck and I don’t love it. The longer the stay, the dirtier the house. And I’ve had that question from owners before. They’re just like, well, you you’re renting it for 30 days or more. Your management fee should be less. But if, and I tell them, I go from two people to doing a turnover to when they’ve been in the house for two, three, four months.

That’s a six person turnover. Okay. And that’s the most expensive part of being a property manager is all the staffing. So we’ve seen some pretty heavy, you know, pet hair situations. I had one lady move out of one of my places years ago. I could probably still find hair in that unit. I mean, you could have knitted a new dog from that thing. we, we actually kept vacuuming the carpet. I’ll never get, we pulled back. was a, a floor of throw carpet on top of wood. We peel back the carpet.

there’s another half inch of hair under the carpet. I don’t know how it got there, but this dog was just crazy. So, you know, be aware that it is going to be a pretty heavy lift on the clean. When you have a pet, it just depends on the pet, but you’re never going to know, you know, until you get in there and you can leave all the cleaning products that you want. The guests will not be using it. So you really want to manage that expectation very carefully with the owner.

And it’s important if you’re going to be pet friendly and especially have those longer stays, you want to have the right furniture. You like I’m going to say like your couch, get a leather couch. Okay. Do not do a couch with fabric because that fabric is going to eat the fur and the next seven guests are going to pull up pet hair and they’re going to complain about it. And that’s going to cost you in their negative review. So you do actually want to set a house up a little bit better. If it’s going to be pet friendly, it’s important to keep that in mind. You know, you, every investor.

matter what avatar, you need to know what asset class you’re going for and you want to know who your end person is that’s going to rent it. So if you’re going for travel nurses, that’s one thing. And if you’re going for a high end luxury short-term rental, that’s another. So you kind of want to set up the house appropriately.

Scott Bursey (17:48)
Julie, that is such a smart pivot. You’re basically turning a massive liability that most landlords are terrified of into your biggest competitive advantage and a predictable revenue stream. Yes, and this question here has been on my mind for a bit now. What’s the one luxury amenity that actually pays for itself in the midterm rental?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (18:03)
That’s right.

⁓ Midterm rental, I would not say there’s a luxury amenity that is going to draw them into your midterm rental. For a short term rental, that is very market specific. So it’s important for you to know your market and I do know my market, but I cannot speak to your market. Like Minneapolis is a great example. I don’t know. I’d have to do some research, but here in Savannah in the historic district, the number one amenity is a hot tub because there are none and there are zero. Well, there are

zero but there are very few swimming pools because the historic district was built before there was like in you know in wall electricity. But Tybee Island for example which is another one of my markets their main amenity is a pool okay for example. So that’s very easy to find using research but when you’re running a short-term rental you want to have an amenity that is very scarce and that everybody wants. Parking is another great example that’s a very big deal.

⁓ for pretty much any property, but especially I would think a medium-term rental would want parking. ⁓ medium-term rentals, that’s a different animal. A lot of times they want walkability, know, things like that.

Scott Bursey (19:24)
Thank you for elaborating on that. And that’s a classic case of spend a little to earn a lot. It’s amazing how a one-time upgrade can justify a higher monthly rate for years to come. Smart, very smart. Julie, beyond capital, what is the single biggest bottleneck you see right now for real estate professionals trying to move from a transaction-focused business to a scalable enterprise?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (19:33)
young.

Yeah, it’s tough. know, the big guys that all have a lot of real estate, they all have property managers and it’s really easy to look at a light at them and say, ⁓ I’ll just do that myself and I’ll make more. But what people don’t really realize is that a pro is always going to pay for themselves. That is their job. Okay. Just like going to the dentist. Could you pull your own tooth? Yeah, you could probably do it for 50 bucks, but is that a good idea? You know, are you going to get as good of a quality of work?

blah, blah, long-term everything. And real estate is the same way. The people that really have significant portfolios, they work that management fee into their numbers. So, you you could run around town, you could do things, but a property manager, we can do things at scale that no single owner can do. We have 50 handymen on tap, right? And you know, like short-term rentals is a great example. A furnished rental.

You have a very high expectation for service. Okay. And because I manage so many units and I take very good care of my vendors, I can get a bug guy out on a Sunday to spray because the guy saw the guest saw a cockroach. Okay. That’s not easy. If you just have one bug guy and you’re nobody to him. Okay. And like a fridge goes out, I can get an appliance guy there on a Saturday. I have six of them. I’m going to call every one of them till one of them says they’ll do it. And with short-term rentals,

If you can get something fixed very quickly, a fridge is a great example. You can’t leave the guests without a fridge for three days. Okay. But if you leave them without a fridge for three hours, they’re going to be okay. You don’t have to refund. You just, I’m so sorry. You know, here’s a bottle of wine. You’re good. You’re probably going to get a five-star review. We had recently, we had a guest fall and she broke our toilet.

in a luxury short-term rental million dollar property in Savannah. She broke the toilet somehow, massive water leak, all the things. We had it shored up and fixed. We had a new toilet within a few hours and then we’ve repaired the rest after they left. But that’s not easy to do if you don’t have the connections at your fingertips. But someone like myself who’s constantly calling guys, constantly needing their help, we take great care of them. I’m their biggest customer. I pay them quick. They’re gonna show up for me because I’m at scale.

and they don’t want to lose my business. They don’t want to upset me. They want me to call them three days a week, you know, for a toilet repair, like that’s how they get paid. So that 10 % or that 20 % or whatever it is the property manager charges, when you realize that the owner is doing literally nothing, the work has to be done anyway. And someone sitting by the phone waiting to pick it up and handle that call, it just removes a lot of the stress. And the other thing that I’ve seen over and over, you know, I have a friend,

that self manages right here in Savannah. And you know, I’m looking at their numbers just yesterday and I was like, wow, I could have done so much better for this person, you know, but they’re trying to save money. But when you look at what a pro can do and they have all the tools to do it with, they actually will pay for themselves or at least mostly. And then also you’re saving your time, which is also valuable.

Scott Bursey (23:03)
So smart. Those relationships are everything. And take care of your people. They’ll come back twofold for you. Absolutely. Couldn’t agree anymore. And Julie, what market risk, if any, are you watching most closely now?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (23:13)
always.

Market risk. Well, it’s super important to know the market that you’re investing in. know, first off, it’s important to pick one market. I’ve had people call me as an agent and go, I’m looking in these eight markets. Okay, then you don’t need that. And then they’ll call and go, I’m going to talk to three agents. You don’t need three agents. You don’t need three markets. You need one killer market and one killer agent. And you’re going to do great. You know, if you can be loyal to someone and make sure they know you’re competent and you’re going to buy.

They will be loyal right back to you. But first off is, you know, selecting your market and then you need to really understand your market. What’s going on? Are jobs coming in? Are jobs going out? Is tourism strong? Is tourism not like, you know, Savannah, sometimes Savannah does really well with short-term rentals. Sometimes it does very well with medium terminals. And sometimes I’m telling everyone and their grandmother, Hey, you need to buy long-term rentals. I have done all of those cycles and they’re all true.

but it’s also important to just really understand your market first. And if you’re in it and you’re connected to it, you’re going to know what’s going on.

Scott Bursey (24:25)
Absolutely. Last question, Julie. What is a major lesson or perspective shift you’ve embraced recently that has fundamentally changed the way you approach market opportunities?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (24:40)
Well, I’m always watching the market very closely. I’m always watching for opportunities and I’m always watching for reasons to pivot and being a property manager who’s like knee deep in this. I see it very quickly. I see when there’s going to be a lot of vacancy. I see when things are hot, you know, things like that. And the biggest thing that I’ve seen lately is the war in Iran. I mean, that has been a huge game changer.

2025 was a very tough year on short-term rentals. We were still coming down off of the highs from COVID because everyone jumped into short-term rentals during COVID or right after they saw the money, everybody jumped in and we’re seeing a lot of people that overpaid. Unfortunately, if you bought a short-term rental in 2023 or 2024, you probably overpaid and you were not making your mortgage payments last year. And I see it all the time. It’s unfortunate, but when you get over-saturated,

Obviously average daily rate is going to go down and you’re not going to make the same money. You know, and when you’re looking at numbers like that, after a big worldwide event, it’s important to run your numbers very conservatively. So we were telling people in 2023, you need to be looking at 2019 numbers. Those are your actual numbers. And sure enough, today we’re moving back towards that. So 2024 was, I’m sorry, 2025 was pretty tough on short term rentals. But in February, the U S attacked Iran.

And you know, it’s horrible. I obviously don’t wish for war, but since that happened, gas has gone up. Airline is doubled. Airline fees have doubled. The TSA, you know, Lord knows what’s going on there. The lines are long. And so, and this has happened every time there’s a major world event. It happened when 9-11 happened. I know you were around. I was as well. No one wanted to travel internationally. And what’s going on right now? No one is going international. No one.

Okay. And do you know what happens with that? That creates a real demand for drive to markets for short-term rentals. And we’re seeing it already. 2026 is really going pulling together. I’m starting to send owners record amounts of money and they’re thrilled. They’re so like, you’ve never sent me this much before. And I’m like, yay, we’re both winning, right? I get a percentage of what they get. So we’re on the same team, but right now I’m seeing a really massive increase in bookings for short-term rentals.

So if you’re in the short-term rental space, it is time to make that the best short-term rental it can be and raise your pricing because it is absolutely coming.

Scott Bursey (27:09)
Julie, that was incredibly valuable. And before we wrap, for our listeners who want to follow your work, know, connect with you directly or learn more about your real estate offerings, what are the best ways for them to reach out?

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (27:25)
You know, I do a lot of content on YouTube and I’m always talking about real estate investing. I’m here to educate. I really love what I do. And it’s, you can search Julie Gates or also Sid was here 912. 912 is the area code. And I actually brought something special for your audience today. It is only for this audience. I’m not putting this anywhere else, but.

I’ve been slowly through my YouTube channel and other things. You know, I do a lot with real estate investing and I’m here to help my investors speed up and also make more money. We’re always looking at return on investment. And one issue that I found in my own portfolio is that I let my insurance policies go for years and I didn’t watch them. And I finally figured out that I needed to audit my insurance policies. And the first year I did it, I saved over $10,000 that year. And that’s a fixed expense.

So I have created a custom tool. You upload your policy declarations page to it, and it actually gives you an opinion on your insurance. If you’re overpaying, underpaying, are you missing out? And it also gives you suggestions on where you can get more quotes. And I want to say it’s really, really important to shop around your insurance policy every single year. You’re paying that money anyway, but what if you could get a 30 % discount? That money goes right in your pocket as an investor.

So if you’re interested in this tool, I’m giving it away for free two weeks after this show airs and that’s it. I’m turning it off, but it’s at shop.team912.com and I’m going to put the coupon code in podcast and team912 again, 912 is the area code for Savannah, but team912 is my real estate team. We’re all investors, you know, the agents on my team, we all have portfolios and I want to give that to your audience. It’s a really great tool.

And I genuinely hope it’ll help you save a ton of money on your portfolio, whether it’s your personal home or your portfolio. You can use the tool over and over as much as you want. It’s free to you and it will absolutely help you save a lot of money on something that you have to spend money on.

Scott Bursey (29:26)
Thank you so much Julie. That is going to be so valuable for our community. And thank you for being on the show. This has been an absolute delight.

Julie Gates – Sid Was Here (29:30)
You’re welcome.

Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.

Scott Bursey (29:41)
And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. If you found value in today’s episode, please make sure you’re subscribed until next time. Keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.