How to Automate Your Rental Property Business With AI | Stephanie Cabral

Stephanie Cabral (00:00)
So that’s when I started actually putting great systems in place and focusing on the repetitive process, metrics and then moved into like the automation as well. So that these things are firing and the money that I pay to do work is an investment and not an expense. Because when you have a virtual assistant doing the work when you separate, as I’ve found out, that money is an expense—that is a sunk cost. But when you put money into automating things, that’s an investment that then carries with you. So being able to pivot and handling more scale and just the turnover made me realize like the work that I do with one property, I need to be able to do it with five, with 10, with 20, with 50. And seeing the—the pinch of time, desperation is the—what is it, the mother of all invention. I was there.

Freddie Steen (02:30)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. Stephanie, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate industry, particularly in being able to automate real estate operations. Stephanie, I’m glad to have you here. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching artificial intelligence, operations, capital raising, and scaling, all while splashing in a little maintenance by using your knowledge with artificial intelligence. So let’s dive in. So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in?

Stephanie Cabral (03:22)
Yeah, thanks for having me, Freddie. I’m really excited to be here. So, Stephanie Cabral, I am a full-time investor. My properties are all in Connecticut. I’m based in Connecticut for half of the year, and then I spend my winters chasing warmer weather down in Georgia. So I’m very grateful for my portfolio to give me the—the cash flow and time freedom to be able to do that. So my portfolio is a mix of long-term and midterm rentals. I’ve done the occasional flip. I’ve done a lot of interesting financing, 203k loans, historic preservation tax credits, tax lien foreclosures, reverse 1031s, standard 1031s. So really gotten in there and, you know, most recently now I’ve been doing some creative financing that has landed me some trophy assets. So I am absolutely, you know, all into whatever makes the deal work.

I think what’s been most interesting for me right now is my portfolio is stable enough that it’s given me the time freedom to really optimize it. And with the tools that are coming down the pipeline and specifically like technology AI automation platforms that are now like accessible to the common user. You don’t have to be this developer or coder. So I’ve been really incorporating automation and AI into my platforms so that I’m no longer dependent on the virtual assistant that I’ve been using over the past six years. So this is a really timely conversation. I just let her go and we parted ways. Just we out—I outgrew her, and that was last week. So very timely conversation. I’m really happy to be here.

Freddie Steen (05:02)
Well, first of all, we acknowledge and we thank the work of your VA. We thank her. We thank her for her service. Secondly, you mentioned something that our audience at Real Estate Pros really tends to lean in on in our pods. You said that through creative financing, you were able to gain a couple trophy assets. We’ve got to hear that story. Can you explain?

Stephanie Cabral (05:06)
Yes, that has been wonderful. Sure. So there’s two. I’ll tell you the one that makes more sense, I guess, or the one that’s easier to explain. So I had 1031 into a property that was the problem child. And I stabilized it, you know, a typical BRRRR deal. And then when I exited, I had a trophy asset that I wanted to purchase. The terms, you know, the—the purchase price was just a little outside and we could not come to terms with it. But I wanted out of Problem Child and I wanted that property. And so I was able to offer—basically it was gonna be another BRRRR deal. So I was able to offer the terms of rather than me paying the bank the points and the interest, I wanted you, seller, to do short-term financing on this deal. You’re gonna get more.

Because all that money that I would have funneled to the bank, I’m gonna funnel to you, that was able to bridge the gap basically and—and make the difference. And what made that deal even sweeter is I bought the property that was next door to it as well, owned by that seller, was able to flip that one, which just really like juiced up the numbers on the—the one that I was holding. And they have a shared driveway, which I know is kind of a no-no, but while I owned both of them, I was able to move some lot lines around, take some parking and actually make it—it a little bit more, and I’ll also in—add a maintenance agreement to the deed of the property that I sold. So I now have control over the entire parking lot. So it’s—it’s like a shared driveway that I get control over. So you’ll hear control is a big theory for me, big a big priority for me. So this was a way that I was able to do that. And then I refinanced them out, you know, ahead of schedule, and that deal has—has been wonderful and I’m thrilled to not have the problem child anymore.

Freddie Steen (08:19)
Love it. Love it. What caught my attention about you, Stephanie, was the way you’ve been able to navigate the changing climate in the tenant pool. Now that’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Stephanie Cabral (08:37)
Yeah, I think really staying on top of the tenants and the applications and understanding for me who’s coming into the properties. So having the ability to transfer between long-term rentals and midterm rentals is a really valuable place for me to be in. That’s not something that I would have been able to do without originally my VA, because midterm rentals are really like operationally heavy. And now the automation piece, you know, all of that, the inquiries are all automated and—and also, you know, even just the—the digital assistant that looks at the numbers and looks at loss to lease and looks at, you know, the applicant pool and just gives ratings of like, we are now seeing the quality of applicants historically is dropping. So having that pivot point has been really valuable for me.

Freddie Steen (09:31)
Every operator I know has a moment where things got real. The pivot that you just mentioned brought this to my mind. Maybe it’s a deal that went sideways or team—or a time that had you—had to pivot fast from. Do you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Stephanie Cabral (10:20)
Biggest change in my business, honestly, was when I started taking on midterm rentals. And, you know, I had a—I was doing renovations, I was doing midterm rentals. I was also at the time still working a W-2. I’m a recovering lawyer. So I had my, you know, W-2 job, my renovations, my rentals, and the recurring inquiries, all of this going on. And I was super overwhelmed. And I read The E-Myth about just organizing operations, and that totally changed everything for me.

So that’s when I started actually putting great systems in place and focusing on the repetitive process, metrics and then moved into like the automation as well. So that these things are firing and the money that I pay to do work is an investment and not an expense. Because when you have a virtual assistant doing the work when you separate, as I’ve found out, that money is an expense—that is a sunk cost. But when you put money into automating things, that’s an investment that then carries with you. So being able to pivot and handling more scale and just the turnover made me realize like the work that I do with one property, I need to be able to do it with five, with 10, with 20, with 50. And seeing the—the pinch of time, desperation is the—what is it, the mother of all invention. I was there.

Freddie Steen (11:52)
You brought something up about having to be able to scale handling multiple projects at one time. Can you dig deeper on that?

Stephanie Cabral (11:59)
Yeah, I mean, a lot of people I think they—they build their operations around where they’re at now. You know, a newer investor will take Venmo, for example, as a—as a rent collection platform. And that works for them because they’re tracking just a handful of properties. But if you look at, okay, can you now 10x that? No, you can’t. That’s not a sustainable system, that’s not a scalable system.

And so what I teach is building systems that look forward so that they’re scalar—scalable on a linear path. So like virtual assistants aren’t linear, right? They can handle a certain amount of work and then you max them out. But if you were to get another one, you probably have not enough work for the next one. So it’s a very like cyclical scaling, right? So that’s where again, like the use of technology to scale is incredible because you just add one unit, add one unit, add 20 units, it’s the same. The technology just handles that. So I think building out processes that are repeatable, predictable, and scalable, regardless of how many properties you have, looking at it and just imagining if I had 20 more tenants texting me or calling me when a maintenance request comes in and I have to now go find my vendor and follow up with them and do, you know, do I even have the record keeping abilities to know when I last changed the air filter? Or what am I doing to track the sizes of the filters, to know who, you know, to all of these records, right? So recognizing that what you do at five properties is not sustainable at 20 and looking ahead.

Freddie Steen (13:39)
You said that you did have a background as a recovering lawyer. Could you just share for the rest of the recovering lawyers that could be out there that are similar to you the symbiotic relationship between the golden thread of continuity even between you having a career in law and bridging that to what you’re doing now with automation and real estate.

Stephanie Cabral (14:42)
Yeah. I mean, so I don’t practice anymore. And I was worried that that was gonna feel bad, that that was gonna feel stigmatized, right? I went to law to be a prestigious lawyer, I was doing great, but then I left that, I left that degree, I left all that—the pedigree. And what I’ve found is a couple of things. One, I’m just operating so much more in alignment with the—the lifestyle that I want to live. So that’s a big one. Any of you that are still practicing know what I mean by that. And also your—your story, all of your experiences, they—they carry forward. They’re not just a closed chapter that—that sits dusty on a shelf. Everything that I learned in being a lawyer has been tremendously helpful for me.

My other—the other creative deal that I didn’t mention involved like a very interesting trust that I wouldn’t have been able to put together without my law degree, honestly, or without—and I worked hand in hand with multiple lawyers, my—an estate planning attorney and my transactional attorney to get this closed. And I was the one that structured that deal. Right. So, you know, whether it’s—whether you’re an attorney or you’re an engineer or you’re, you know, whatever it is, maybe you’re a hairdresser that just has an amazing ability to connect to people and you want to change professions and get into real estate, like whatever it is, you have a skill that is transferable.

Freddie Steen (16:17)
Stephanie, that’s big. Explaining that when you already have a skill, how that skill can be transferable to real estate is huge. Especially like you when you’ve already got this background in law and you’re marrying that to this automation all the way through the process to maintenance. The next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up. And I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Stephanie Cabral (16:53)
Showing up consistently, showing up vulnerably, going to the rooms where the people that you want to be in are at, not just the ones that you feel safe and comfortable. That’s been a huge one for me. Recognizing that you can go and be uncomfortable and feel unqualified and still fit, still belong is amazing. You know, and they don’t teach you this in school. They don’t teach you how to invest in real estate. They don’t teach you how to start a business. They don’t teach you how to manage your rentals. This is all something that you’ve got to self-teach, right? And so the faster that you can get up to speed, the better you can build your network, the better of an investor you’re gonna be. So absolutely like showing up, showing up to events and consuming the materials from people that have—that have walked the paths before you so that you can lean on their mistakes and not yours is incredible.

Freddie Steen (17:49)
Yeah, you—you can’t fake that. I mean relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, Stephanie, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Stephanie Cabral (18:06)
Yeah, so thestephaniecabral.com is my website. And then you can go to theleanlandlord.com as well. That’s like my personal brand on, you know, where I’m on the soapbox on automation. That would be the—the best thing. You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram. My handle is The Stephanie Cabral. So easy to find me.

Freddie Steen (18:26)
Perfect. Well listen, I appreciate your time, Stephanie, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in the space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here, Stephanie.

Stephanie Cabral (18:37)
Thanks for having me, Freddie.

Freddie Steen (18:38)
And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Stephanie, who are out there building real businesses just like you. We’ll see you on the next episode.