From Realtor to Investor: Shauna Geers’ Airbnb & Commercial Playbook

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Shauna Geers shares her journey in real estate, discussing her background, investment strategies, and the current market trends in Arkansas. She highlights the appeal of Airbnb properties, the challenges of traditional home flipping, and the emerging asset classes in the region. Shauna emphasizes the importance of understanding the local market and adapting to new opportunities as they arise.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Shauna Geers’s Phone Number: (417) 844-2903
    • Shauna Geers’s Website
    • Shauna Geers Email address: [email protected]

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Shauna Geers (00:00)
  it’s a highly desirable place to live because there’s so much outdoor activities that people can be involved in here. And a lot of retirees like to look at that as an investment for the short term, maybe five to seven years they’re getting close to retirement and they’re wanting to buy something that’s affordable at today’s prices that they can hang on to so that when they do get ready to retire and live their golden years out, can find, they can.

  retire in a place that’s really beautiful that ⁓ is has great outdoor spaces where they can go hiking and biking and and Walk the trail and be in nature and so it’s really a beautiful place to be

  The legislation that’s been passed down recently in the last few years has been kind of put a dampener on that business. But what they don’t realize is, know, rental is a rental is a rental. ⁓ It’s, you know, we’re not running hostels over here. We’re not running a brothel or anything like that. They’re just really a family wanting to get away for some good family time to connect

  Dylan Silver (02:35)
  Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest has been a realtor since 2005 working in Northwest Arkansas, also licensed in Missouri. She’s also an experienced flipper active in Airbnb ⁓ and currently focused on working with buyers and sellers. Please welcome Shauna Geers Shauna, welcome to the show.

  Shauna Geers (02:57)
  Hey, great to have, great to be here. Thanks for having me.

  Dylan Silver (03:01)
  Absolutely, Shauna, always like to start off at the top really by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

  Shauna Geers (03:11)
  So ⁓ I grew up with parents that like to buy and ⁓ reinvent a home, if you will, and turn around and sell it for profit and buy something better. so ⁓ I think I explained to you earlier that ⁓ my dad was in the recycling business, and so ⁓ I’ve been very environmentally conscious from a very young age.

  And so when I go into a home and I see something that has great bones but just maybe needs to be enhanced a little bit or brought up to speed with today’s styles and transformed, those are the things that I see. ⁓ I just really have an eye for those kind of things. And with ⁓ new buyers, first time home buyers say they always want the new shiny nickel that they see that their parents have and everything.

  Dylan Silver (04:04)
  right?

  Shauna Geers (04:07)
  And the reality is, know, champagne tastes bear budget. So we’ve got to start somewhere. And sometimes I can go in and just say, hey, if we adjust this paint, maybe move a wall, change this room a little bit, we can make it functional, and it’ll be in your price range.

  Dylan Silver (04:14)
  Yeah.

  I think for folks who may be looking at getting into the real estate space, it’s helpful to have family or someone to mentor you. I got in, I didn’t know anybody, so it was a little bit challenging. But having, you mentioned parents that were involved in the space, were they mentors and ⁓ feedback sources for you along the way? And how often were you talking real estate with them?

  Shauna Geers (04:54)
  You know, they didn’t really help with that process. My father died at a very young age. He died at the age of 47 from a massive heart attack. So he didn’t really get to see, you know, what I’ve been doing come to fruition. My mother on the other hand, she was an investor and so she would invest in, she invested in commercial properties. And…

  That’s how she made her living as an older person to build her retirement wealth. And so ⁓ that’s something that I’m doing as well. I’ve got some rental properties and ⁓ some commercial properties that I am using to leverage my retirement as well.

  Dylan Silver (05:28)
  Yeah.

  want to ask you about some of the different asset classes that you’re involved in and then also you know pairing that with being a realtor. I think it’s two different realms right. I mean you’ve got the investing side of real estate and then you’ve got being a realtor. I’m an investor agent and I think when I originally got licensed earlier this year so I’m a new agent ⁓ it seemed like

  you kind of had to pick which side of the game you wanted to play. Do you want to be an agent or do you want to be an investor? And I think it’s an interesting marriage to have both ⁓ and to be able to do both. How has it been for you being active as both an investor and an agent?

  Shauna Geers (07:12)
  Well, there’s some times that I go into a property and I’m thinking, oh gosh, I really like this, you know? And it’s hard to, like a kid candy store, it’s kind of like, you know, I feel like a grownup playing the game of Monopoly, you know, I just want to sit there, to buy houses, you know, and add up those houses, maybe even a few hotels, you never know. So, yeah, it’s really been kind of the fun grownup game of Monopoly, I really like.

  Dylan Silver (07:19)
  Right, let me get it.

  Right.

  Shauna Geers (07:40)
  you know, that would be a good way to describe it.

  Dylan Silver (07:44)
  I want to get a little bit granular here, Sean, and maybe give away some of the gold, but not the whole gold bar for our audience. You’ve been active in Airbnb. You mentioned you have commercial properties as well. When you’re looking at deals, are you looking at on market? Are you looking at off market? Are you looking at distressed? Are you looking for things that are rental grade? What’s to you and attractive deal?

  Shauna Geers (08:09)
  So I look for something that has ⁓ good foundation, all of the right things in place, but maybe needs a few tweaks. I’ve sold a few of those that I would…

  that I think you really need to light a match to and walk away and shut the door. But some investors actually like those kinds of things and I’ve actually seen them bring them back from the dead. So it’s really interesting to see which investor likes what because when you’ve got one that’s that and that.

  Dylan Silver (08:31)
  Yeah.

  Shauna Geers (08:44)
  much of a decrepit state. There’s a lot of work that goes into that. It really has to be a passion of yours to get down and dirty. And not only that, but you’ve got the environmental hazards of an older home. Usually it’s an older home that they have to deal with. So you have to think about those costs as well and factor that into your remodel. I think for me, I like an older home, 70s and up.

  Dylan Silver (08:56)
  Yeah, no question.

  Shauna Geers (09:12)
  ⁓ The older, older one that I saw, really cool one over in Neosho not too long ago. Fabulous house, was actually turned into an accounting firm. But I thought this would make an incredible, incredible wedding venue. Because you could do, or a bed and breakfast. Yeah, you could have turned it into a bed and breakfast because it had this really ornate, beautiful woodwork throughout.

  Dylan Silver (09:28)
  Really?

  Shauna Geers (09:36)
  And you know, there were some things that it needed, overall it was in really immaculate shape for its age. And it was built back in the late 1800s. Fabulous house. What a great piece of history.

  Dylan Silver (10:22)
  I want to ask you about, you mentioned that you have some Airbnbs. Arkansas is super hot for Airbnbs. I lived in Texas for about five years, the last year of which most of it was in Dallas, Texas. And so I would see going on Airbnbs, working with investors and then also myself just looking at Airbnbs. I would see Arkansas had some beautiful Airbnbs, tree house Airbnbs, glamping and all this kind of thing.

  It’s a thing out there in Arkansas, isn’t it? There’s a lot of really nice Airbnbs out in Arkansas.

  Shauna Geers (10:55)
  day.

  Well,

  it’s a highly desirable place to live because there’s so much outdoor activities that people can be involved in here. And a lot of retirees like to look at that as an investment for the short term, maybe five to seven years they’re getting close to retirement and they’re wanting to buy something that’s affordable at today’s prices that they can hang on to so that when they do get ready to retire and live their golden years out, can find, they can.

  retire in a place that’s really beautiful that ⁓ is has great outdoor spaces where they can go hiking and biking and and Walk the trail and be in nature and so it’s really a beautiful place to be ⁓ with that caveat if you were from Dallas, then you will know that Dallas kind of Cut the cut the Airbnbs out and basically said no more Airbnbs. They didn’t want people doing that and so

  Dylan Silver (11:52)
  now.

  Shauna Geers (11:55)
  The legislation that’s been passed down recently in the last few years has been kind of put a dampener on that business. But what they don’t realize is, know, rental is a rental is a rental. ⁓ It’s, you know, we’re not running hostels over here. We’re not running a brothel or anything like that. They’re just really a family wanting to get away for some good family time to connect and feel like they’re at home and instead of a hotel have some space where they can they can cook and they can entertain and.

  and ⁓ feel like they’re at home. And ⁓ I find most of my guests come for, they come for weddings or funerals or family holidays and they just want to be close to their family.

  I have a lot of people that come up here and they’re maybe looking to invest in the area or they’re looking to buy a long-term home. And so they’re renting from me for three months or so until they find the perfect space that they can find to hang their hat.

  It’s you know to me it’s been a win-win situation because they’re not stuck in a lease you know they don’t have all that money that they got to up front into a lease and then I have a specific time that they have to be out I usually work with those tenants and I you know when once we find them the perfect house then you know we we know the date that we’re going to close and in all in their stay time within that time period so that they can move on to the next chapter of their life.

  Dylan Silver (13:02)
  Yeah.

  I wanna ask you about some of the other asset classes that you’ve been involved in, but also that are out there in Arkansas. I know a little bit about Arkansas because of its proximity to Texas, but I’ve never been there, shame on me. Need to go, especially to some of these beautiful treehouse Airbnbs that I see with the Jacuzzi. said, gosh, I don’t even know how that got up there, it’s incredible. But in Arkansas, I’m imagining, similar to Texas, you probably have a lot of land that can be developed.

  Shauna Geers (13:45)
  Mm-hmm.

  Dylan Silver (13:51)
  Are you seeing a lot of interest from folks in RV parks, even upscale RV parks, storage facilities, and then of course building out new homes as well in Arkansas?

  Shauna Geers (14:45)
  Yeah, so I live approximately… ⁓

  25-30 minutes from the Missouri State Line. I’ve been a licensed Missouri agent since 2005 and I got my Arkansas license in 2016. So I’m very familiar with both areas. I handle all the way from, you know, the Springfield Ozark-Nixa, Camerling City area to Joplin, Anderson, Pineville, Goodman. I’ve even gone as far as Knob Noster, which is all the way up by Kansas City and Whiteman Air Force Base. So I handle a really wide area. I had a

  lovely home that was built down and it was a turn of the century home and it was over by Mount magazine State Park and Paris Arkansas. Beautiful home and you know the Missouri border is really starting to blow up right now with all of the Arkansas residents you know kind of being priced out of our market area since we’ve got so many people moving in here and Missouri seems to be a little bit more affordable place.

  for people to be and it’s not that far away. mean, when you think about it, two hours drive to either Tulsa or to, ⁓ you know, to Camerling City and Branson, ⁓ you’ve got just a few hours to Little Rock. So there’s a lot of big metropolitan areas around this area. You know, you three hours to Kansas City. ⁓

  Dylan Silver (16:01)
  Yeah.

  Shauna Geers (16:14)
  People can go and have some fun and get some entertainment from. And so this is just a great place to be. And it’s really ⁓ a thriving community. And I look for our prices to continue to increase. And yes, we have several new RV parks that have opened up. We have also several storage facilities with all the people moving in. So there are a lot of those going in, especially on the Missouri state line and over into Silver Springs.

  Dylan Silver (16:27)
  you

  Yeah.

  As someone who works a lot with investors,

  I think it’s interesting. I’ve had to pivot my strategy when I was more active in wholesale, really away from fix and flip, although that’s still, of course, a strategy and really more towards new builds because the margins for the flippers was getting slimmer and it was more challenging. And so I was like, well, how do I wholesale new? I mean, there’s nothing there to wholesale. What do I do?

  Shauna Geers (16:56)
  Yeah, the margins are not there anymore. Yeah.

  Dylan Silver (17:08)
  I then started shifting and looking for basically properties that had to be entirely torn down and it was lot value. And so I was looking for infill lots really. But then I also being in Texas, really in northern Texas, north of Dallas, closer to Oklahoma, honestly, I had the opportunity to see lots of vacant land and the possibilities involved, which really got me thinking about. ⁓

  the ADUs, is how I stumbled upon, you know, alternative dwelling units, which is how I stumbled upon some of those Airbnbs that I saw in Arkansas. And it got me thinking, you you could have offsite stick built modular homes, you could have RV parks. I’ve even heard an investor on this show that I had on here today was talking about how she’s doing great in mobile home, which is a different asset class, but nonetheless affordable housing. That’s right.

  Shauna Geers (17:57)
  Deals on wheels. Deals on wheels. Yeah.

  Yeah. So, I mean, we have a lot of mobile homes around here. We have a lot of places where there are, you know, we have land close by and, you know, the affordability factor for people has kind of gone out the window on a stick-built home. And so if you can buy a nice modular home and put that on a permanent foundation, you know, a lot of people are going to that because it’s a more affordable price point for the average American.

  ⁓ And it gives them a little bit of space to garden and to have a few animals and not have the restrictions that maybe a community would.

  Dylan Silver (18:38)
  Yeah, there’s no question. think ⁓ all of that I would call alternative housing, but also ⁓ plays that are very land heavy, right? In order to have a RV park, you’re going to be a lot of vacant land you’ll need, right? It’s interesting to me, both because… That’s right.

  Shauna Geers (18:53)
  We didn’t even get some yurts here for

  sale.

  Dylan Silver (18:59)
  That’s right. mean, especially coming from the perspective of working with flippers and seeing them having a more difficult go of it, needing to pivot my business. I’m realizing there’s this whole other realm that I really wasn’t considering beforehand. And now there’s all these other opportunities for developers, young developers too. Shauna, we aren’t coming up on time here though. Where can folks go if maybe they’re in the Northwest Arkansas area and

  Maybe they’re looking at properties and would like to reach out to you or if they’d have a deal that they’d like you to look at, how can folks get in contact with you?

  Shauna Geers (19:34)
  So I work for EXP Realty. I’ve been with them since 2021. I am licensed in both Missouri and Arkansas and you can call me directly at 417-844-2903 or [email protected] or [email protected]. They can get ahold of me in any one of those ways.

  Dylan Silver (19:57)
  Shauna, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

  Shauna Geers (20:00)
  Yeah, you’re welcome.