How to Buy a Profitable Airbnb Without Managing It Yourself

Rob Nardelli
but nothing is perfect. So I think that that’s where I ran into trouble because I took a lot of time rather than just buying and in like twenty twenty in particular.

in twenty twenty one, those home prices skyrocketed. I benefited from it, like a lot of Americans with zero interest rates. but in trying to find that perfect market, you’re just chasing. and sometimes you just need to do your analysis and then make a move. As as mentioned before, action is key.

Joseph Crooms
Welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Joseph Crooms. Today I’m going to be joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. His name is Rob. I’ll let him tell you his last name, everything that he does.

’cause he can say it much better than me, who’s making some serious moves in the real estate industry. Rob, glad to have you here. Say hello.

Rob Nardelli
Thank you, Joseph. Really appreciate you having me on the show today. as mentioned, my name is Rob Nardelli. I am the president and CEO of Select Properties.

Joseph Crooms
Okay, and where you located, Rob?

Rob Nardelli
so I’m all over the country, between Nashville, Palm Springs, New York, and on a plane just about every week. and of course I just checked in for my flight tomorrow, out to the west coast to visit San Diego.

Joseph Crooms
Okay, all right. So one of the things that I I that caught my attention, listeners, is at that Mob comes Rob comes from a banking IT background. So we’re gonna talk about how what mattered to him when he got into the real estate business. So we’ll dive into that a little later. So so but first of all, for people who are not familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and

What markets are you operating?

Rob Nardelli
absolutely, Joseph, and to your point, I started in in banking and now I’m also doing the the tech world as well. But really the purpose of today’s conversation, this story dates back to being an associate at JPMorgan and my fellow cube mate who convinced me to open my doors to let people stay at my place in New York City back in the day.

And that same partner is now invested with me and we’re we’re work we’re looking at potential homes for him to buy his own rental. High-level overview, Joseph, what we do here at Select Properties is we go out, we do the entire flywheel experience for our investors. We either take an investment, minimum of fifty thousand dollars or above, and they can make money and and all the benefits of cash flow, asset appreciation as well as active depreciation.

as we go about things on the either the fund path or the limited partnership or what we call Select Stays Studios where we go ahead and we actually will curate the perfect, which we know such a thing does not exist, right? The Aphrodite of short-term rental homes. We will help you pursue and find one that’s custom and tailored to you and the specifications that you want to have so that you can benefit from those three major benefits of cash flow, net asset appreciation.

an active depreciation for the home that would be in your name, and we will help you every step of the way. You’re not gonna have to fix toilets in order to have your own short term rental. I can help you A to Z soup to nuts.

Joseph Crooms
So we’re gonna dive into that to a little more. As I opened up, Rob, I spoke about your IT and your banking experience and how it may ma h causes you to pay attention to the regulatory changes or what they are. Can you sort of brief us on you know how your I how how you think should look at these matters?

Rob Nardelli
Well, and that’s when you’re trying to curate the the ideal home. How’s that sound? It’s better than perfect. When you’re trying to curate the ideal home, the biggest concern for me with the banking you know, regulatory background, especially in the 2010s, one of the biggest overhauls of compliance that the industry ever saw, I take that same lens when I go into a short-term rental market. So for example, I own a home in Palm Springs. There are a lot of rules in Palm Springs, and you have to adhere to those rules. So

That’s where when you’re deciding on the ideal market, yes, you want the best possible cash flow potential as well as real estate appreciation. you want those things, but not at the cost of going into a market where you could end up getting yourself into trouble because there are so many rules and they’re also always evolving. right. So it’s something that could be the rules this year. The goalposts can be moved around in real estate, unlike in the World Cup that some of us are enjoying currently.

that’s the things that you need to be close, pay close attention to when you’re buying your home and then constantly maintenance and upkeep of what’s going on in those local markets, how those rules or goalposts could shift.

Joseph Crooms
That’s not easy, especially in this climate. So what’s been the key keeping the machine running running smoothly?

Rob Nardelli
Hmm. well, just constantly, I mean for me now with AI and the tools that are available, getting the exact news that you want to have has never been easier. and and I do that every Monday morning for both my for for for Select Properties as well as my my other hustle or or job. Every Monday I will take an hour and dedicate that to research and find out what’s going on in the markets that I currently participate in.

and then always have an eye for the future for those new homes, you know, where are the trends, right? Which markets are doing better year over year and which ones are in decline. and obviously make moves accordingly.

Joseph Crooms
How has AI been assistant to you?

Rob Nardelli
I I mean it’s just it’s it wasn’t there always, right? in terms of the level of tech and the ability to help either professionals, whether real estate or in other industries. The the next generation, or I’d say starting around February. obviously I I work through Claude a lot. I had in the past used ChatGPT and OpenAI. but for me, Claude is the best way to analyze markets at a high level. But

I also, Joseph, I I need to say this on the recorded line for everyone. you also have to read your work, right? And what I mean when I say that is you have to go back and then take a look. Get those sources, get those dates, and then do your own research. Don’t just take I AI’s word for it. as much as it’s improved, it’s still not a hundred percent effective. so you have to work with it. Think of it as a personal assistant and not your commander-in-chief. Does that make sense?

Joseph Crooms
That makes a lot of sense. So give me a when you’re proofing your work, what are some mistakes you may have identified because say you didn’t do it or you you didn’t you say, hey, this is something that could be detrimental to what I’m doing. Can you give us some thoughts?

Rob Nardelli
Joseph,

it’s as if you speak from experience.

Joseph Crooms
sort of I I’m more of a layman term, but you know what? I’ve learned to be careful, so but we want to hear from you. Talk to us, Rob. Give us an example.

Rob Nardelli
So an example for me, I’ll give you a a high-level one is I was looking at certain markets. the research was solid, really was impressive how quickly it was able when you give it the right resources, right? We use AirDNA in the short-term rental world, and there are many other PriceLabs, etc. so when they’re scraping that data, it can you can get very powerful data in minutes. the pinpoint accuracy of

You know, back in the day, you know, in 2020 and before in the 2010s, you know, you have to click market by market, get this research, do your hours and hours and hours. It can all get condensed if you can work with AI to help magnify where it is. Also, it’s never been easier to help with decks or with PowerPoint. sorry, those two are the same, or with Excel, where you’re able to get some deep research.

Now, you look through all this. I’m just reading the printout. And even in looking at the printout, one of the homes that it was mentioned in the specific market that looked beautiful. And I had already seen it in my own research. So I knew I was like, so this one that you put in as an example is that one that I can get a permit on, so I can short term rental. And its own pressure test did not. So the AI itself corrected itself once you, you know, drew a spotlight on one of the claims that they were making.

just clearly had skipped a step. so proofread your work, always read over everything, and then check in on your own, especially before you go make a decision. You want to use AI to set the table, if you will, that’s fine. But when it’s time to eat, Joseph, you and I, the humans, we have to eat. Machines don’t eat food anyway.

Joseph Crooms
Now, every operator, Rob, I know has a moment when things get real. Can you share maybe a deal that went sideways or a time you had to pivot fast?

Rob Nardelli
So let me start with the first home that I bought. my background was such where I did rent arbitrage. That’s how I got my exposure. I shared with you that story with my fellow cube mate. shout out Seth. So when it comes to actually by know, you know, go to Nashville, did all my market research. I spent so much time. again.

Always through the regulatory environment. It is, it was, at least back then, was a relaxed market. it still is one that is, I would say, more short term rental friendly than the larger metropolis areas of New York, et cetera. So when you when you go into that market, you’re buying a home. I’ve never bought a home in my entire life. I go in there, I know that the rev, like again, I I put together my spreadsheet, put together all the analysis. I knew I could sell this beautiful brand new construction in East Nashville,

and the rules for short-term renting, you know, was was okay. Like it we packed all past all the regulatory hurdles. The actual buying of the house. this thing, we got the inspection report, first inspection report I’ve ever looked at. I’m in contract, already put the deposit down, and we look, and as I dig in deeper and deeper into the inspection report, I I had to call the inspector. I was like, I’m sorry, sir. I think there’s a mistake with what you put, because

You mentioned something about a joist. I don’t even I couldn’t even begin to tell you what a joist was at this point in time. and so it it basically was like not set up appropriately, a major pillar off the foundation. And so the house was starting to twist. There’s a natural settlement. I immediately reached out to a general contractor. This is before AI, by the way. and so went in and talked to the family friend, shout out Mr. B, who walked me through the inspection report and he said, Rob, look at this blueprint.

Look at the blueprint. It was actually supposed to be a three-bedroom home that they then ma magically turned things around and made it a four-bedroom home. So you said you’re so you’re not looking at the blue blueprint that was used when they actually went to buy the home. Again, let me Tarantino this and go back to the inspection report and that conversation I had. Sir, I think there’s a mistake. your report here says that there’s a hole between the window and the outside.

And I was like, was the window open or was there a crack? Because sometimes a framing, you know, the putty gets out or something, not likely on a new construction, but I was trying to understand it. And and the gentleman tells me, No, Rob, there is a hole between the window and the wall. And there’s actual daylight coming into the house. So you can only imagine this is like the one thing a house is supposed to be is a shelter to benefit or rather, you know, keep you from the elements of outside.

In this instance, the rain could get directly into the house. That’s going to mess up your electrical. Then you’re going to have electrical issues. Then the entire frame itself could have issues. So getting back to the general contractor, he said, Rob, if they can’t produce the original blueprint they used, you shouldn’t walk away from this house. You should run. So that was obviously got out of the contract. I got my house in Germantown, Nashville.

Joseph Crooms
Mm.

Rob Nardelli
And the rest is history as they say. But that first home, imagine if I had bought a house that was falling apart, then it would have been my problem and I would have been stuck with a a money pit as opposed to a you know new revenue stream for me and my family.

Joseph Crooms
Rob, I’m a homeowner. And one of the mistakes I made was not looking in depth at the the inspection report. Tell me some things that you found from that experience. What what do you look for right away when you look at this? What’s what’s the priority order that you probably look at that inspection report?

Rob Nardelli
no.

You’ll hear

people in real estate talk about does the home have good bones? that is always number one. You could have a house that literally, and I’ve seen some of these in Florida, where, you know, you don’t even know what person or type of person what their financial or their psychological issues or or what their at home life was like. But I have seen homes that really looked like I I I don’t even know what to call it, other than, you know, a shelter. And those homes had

Perfectly good bones. What do we mean when we say good bones in real estate? It means that the framework, right? The foundation is solid. The joists, aforementioned, I I love this. People are gonna be Googling joists after this, after this podcast. Make sure those joists are soundly in place. so that all the weight is appropriately proportioned where it needs to be. And that’s known as good bones. The house is in good standing. A house with good bones might need a new roof, but that’s okay. You know, I mean it’s

It’s not cheap to get a new roof for anyone that’s that’s done that before, but it’s a fixable problem. If you have bad bones, again, this is a brand new home, never been lived in before, but the joist wasn’t in place properly, so it starts to shift. And that is known as bad bones, which which means that you can have much bigger issues. As aforementioned, if there’s holes in the house and the elements, water’s getting in the house, your electrical is going to be destroyed. You’re gonna have mold, then you’re gonna have mold problems.

so good bones, basically it doesn’t matter how old the house is. my house in Palm Springs was built before 1970. Great bones, and still standing. so that’s that’s one of the biggest things to look at in the inspection report in terms of prioritization. there are there are always going to be issues in the most recent house I bought in the Poconos, we had a ch we had a tree that was like dr growing into the deck. You cut down the tree. That is a very fixable problem. The house has good bones.

and then the last thing I’ll look at is, you know, amenities are super important for short term rentals. and a pool is usually one of the biggest, most expensive amenities. you want to make sure that that pool is in good working condition. if you’re if that’s the market that you’re looking for. so did that answer your question, Joseph?

Joseph Crooms
Yes it did. And and because of my experience I thought that it would be very very valuable information to share with our audience. That’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And I it’s it’s what separate folks who are just dabbles or dabble with things from the ones who stay in the game long term. Let me ask you this, Rob. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal?

Rob Nardelli
Mm, absolutely.

Yeah.

Joseph Crooms
Well you

Rob Nardelli
The one for me is I I’ve got a proven track record now across multiple decades. I mentioned to you in the prep about aging myself. I did it again. so I have the experience as an operator, as someone who’s acquired multiple properties and multiple markets. for me, scaling is where I’m at now. so those of you who have interest in getting involved in short-term renting, I use the Rich Dad Poor Dad quota, but you don’t want to fix toilets.

you don’t have to fix toilets with me. I can take care of that with the team. but what I’m looking for is you know, folks that either want exposure via the fund, minimum 50k investment, for or folks who want to buy their own home, do it themselves, but again, not have to do the day-to-day maintenance. I can help them with that every step of the way. and due to the STR loophole and the ability for high income W-2 earners, you don’t have to be a sophisticated real real estate investor.

In order to benefit from the tax benefits of active depreciation that are out there. And the time to act is now. We talked about threats. you never know when these rules or goalposts are going to be changed or turned on you. And we have no sign that says the next incoming administration is going to change these rules, but they very well could. and that’s why I think the time to to strike, if you will, is now. the opportunity’s never been better. rates have leveled off. You have affordable housing.

as an investor, I think now in the right markets, now is the time to act.

Joseph Crooms
So we just heard from Rob saying now’s the time. That next move can either compound things or create chaos to be depending on how you play it. Now a lot of people listening are either early in their journey or looking to level up. I think they they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships, and you spoke a little bit about your your your your cube mate that was in JPMorgan Chase, right?

But when it comes to building risk and growing units, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Rob Nardelli
Yeah, in in business such as life, you’ll come across people like I came across you, Joseph, that that can help you. And networking works. It’s just a matter of when. The timing is not written. it is, you know, essentially what you make of it. So having a strong network, always doing right by people, the golden rule, the platinum rule, right, golden rule do unto others as you would have done unto you, and the platinum rule, do unto others as others would

would want done to them. these two guiding principles, as well as making sure you keep in touch with folks. That’s where I struggle, Joseph. So I built these strong relationships, and naturally a lot of those friends have stayed with me, whether professionally or in the personal life. but as you you know get older and things change, you know, whether you have a family or you move, you have to go out and continue to nourish those relationships. It doesn’t take much.

it really doesn’t. and old friends are very easy. I just recently had my college reunion. You can meet up with old friends and you know, within minutes you pick up where you left off. so for me, it’s having a good network, nurturing that network, and then when that timing comes, you you don’t know when that’s going to happen. It is not written, but you can make your own future by having a good network and then knowing when to reach out to those folks. again, whether you met with them professionally.

Or personally, it doesn’t really matter. Just stay in touch with those folks and do right by them.

Joseph Crooms
I think that’s great. And you know, you know, breaking the cycle of old habits that you you realize is gonna benefit you later. So before we wrap this up, give me an an example of a bad habit that you identified that was hurting you in business.

Rob Nardelli
no. so for me to show a little vulnerability, analysis paralysis is a real thing. What do I mean when I say that? in 2020, I did, you know, we’re all a lot of people. We’re stuck in your your homes. I I did have a day job at the time. that workload had never been more lax. and I

leveraged that availability to start digging in deeply. And I went literally market by market. I traced the entire continental US looking at all these markets that could potentially be well again before AI so I had to do all this manually in a spreadsheet typing it all out. Spent so much time analyzing, trying to find that perfect home that we talked about earlier, Joseph. And there is no such thing as a perfect home. There is no deal without risk.

by doing all that analysis, I think it it slowed me down from just getting that that first home, doing it out with other other partners, with other people’s money. I take that extremely seriously. I’ll take more risks if it’s just myself versus with my investors, I’ll take less risks.

but nothing is perfect. So I think that that’s where I ran into trouble because I took a lot of time rather than just buying and in like twenty twenty in particular.

in twenty twenty one, those home prices skyrocketed. I benefited from it, like a lot of Americans with zero interest rates. but in trying to find that perfect market, you’re just chasing. and sometimes you just need to do your analysis and then make a move. As as mentioned before, action is key.

Joseph Crooms
Rob, thank you for sort of sharing a threat. We try to stay with what I thought it was a valuable question and thank you for your transparency. all right, before we wrap things we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you? I like to have people say it two times. No way, Rob, because sometimes as are we doing this, they’re fumbling for paper. So say the first time and then say it one more time.

Just for the formulas.

Rob Nardelli
selectproperties.org is my website. You can see what we’re all about. You can also book time with me. and at the at my own risk, I’m going to give out my personal email because if you are serious about investing, I want to hear about it. so the website again is Select Properties, S-E-L-E-C-T P-R-O-P-E-R-T-I-E-S

And my personal email is Rob Nardelli, [email protected]. I I if you’re curious, if you just want to have a conversation, would love to spend 15, 20 minutes at a minimum to get to know you. And again, we talked about relationships before, Joseph, the relationships I’ve built along the way. It all started with a little curiosity. So if you’re curious, hit me up.

We look forward to connecting.

Joseph Crooms
Perfect.

I appreciate your time, your story today, Rob, and your perspective. We need more people in the space who’s doing the right things and thanks for being here. and for tuning in. If you got value from this, make sure you subscribe. We got more conversations between our operators just like Rob who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode, which is

Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. Thank you for joining us, folks.