Mastering Short-Term Rentals with Corey D’ Agostino

Corey D’Agostino (00:00)
I have a little thing I call the three P’s. They’re my three P’s of a successful short-term rental. And these are the foundations that need to be put in place in order for somebody to have a successful short-term rental. The first one is the property, right? The property needs to be a unique looking property, okay? Either the angles on the house or the aesthetically pleasing look of the property, that’s what’s going to separate you on Airbnb and VRBO and the other platforms.

But it’s not just the property. It’s also the amenities, right? How the property is designed, both inside and out. What type of outdoor space do you have? What type of settings do you have on the inside of the property? Do you have ⁓ a movie projector in the property? Do you have a coffee bar at the property? These are things that help with the property to get it to where it needs to be. my second P that I talk to people about is the photography.

So a lot of people who don’t know any better will go out and they’ll say, ⁓ I’m great. have this, the newest version of the iPhone. And they go and start snapping their own pictures. Right. you can tell. not only can you tell, but the people looking for properties can tell and your property just does not stand out the same way that it does when you get a professional photographer in there. So I don’t care how good you are, right? Professional photography is my second P inside outside drone and Twilight.

Quentin (00:51)
Mmm.

Corey D’Agostino (01:20)
And not Twilight that is Photoshop actual Twilight 10 minutes after the sun goes down and do the photos that way. And then the third P that makes a successful short-term rental is pricing. And there are a lot of different pricing strategies out there. I have personally come up with one, utilizing, ⁓ dynamic pricing software, my management software and the platforms that seems to run the gamut on every pro every market out there. So I could take a property that’s in a market.

There’s about a hundred different settings on the dynamic pricing, but I know the settings to click on in order to get your property competitive and start filling up because the last thing you want after you spend all the time setting up a property is for that thing to be vacant and not have any occupancy. So I get your property occupied. I get your property full. get the revenue coming in and we skip all the pitfalls that you would possibly face.

Quentin (03:44)
Welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. We’ve been on a little bit of chatting backstage. So I am excited for you guys to meet Mr. Corey D’Agostino. C-DAGs. I think I did that right that time. C-DAGs. C-DAGs. ⁓

Corey D’Agostino (04:08)
C-DAGs, there you go.

Quentin (04:12)
I’m excited listen. He is making serious moves in the short-term rental space. mean, listen, you know what he talking about y’all? And I’m glad to have him here so that he can put y’all up on what I like to say, put y’all up on game. You know, my man is gonna put y’all up on game when it comes to the short-term rental space. so Corey, I know our listeners are really gonna take something away from your approach and the way you’re doing it, even just how you’re coaching people through it, coaching people through some of the.

you know, the tax packets, but we’ll get to that, you know, and you know, I’ll let you, I’ll let you, you know, you be the, be the person that they tell them all about it. But if you don’t mind, listen, I just want to dive in first off, people who may not be familiar with you, familiar with what you do, give us a short version of what your main focus is these days. And if you don’t mind, what markets are you operating in?

Corey D’Agostino (04:46)
Sure.

Sure. Thanks for the intro. I appreciate it. So I’ve been investing in real estate for about 19 years. ⁓ I’ve done the long term, short term

flips, 1031 seller finance, the whole thing. ⁓ The three, three years ago, I started getting involved in the short term rentals and I kind of went all in on that. The cashflow on those is terrific. The space has changed though in the last three years. And one of the things that I noticed is people were getting into this stuff and

not making any money. And so what I decided to do is try to help people understand how to make money on the short-term rentals. There are some people that are in it where their pricing’s not right. So I can help adjust their pricing to get it to be where it needs to be in order for them to cash flow on the property. ⁓ But what I really enjoy doing is getting folks that have not bought a short-term rental yet, right? They’re thinking about getting into this space, but they don’t know where to start.

And I like working with them from start to finish, showing them how to analyze a property, showing them the markets to buy in, hooking them up with a bank, hooking them up with a real estate agent, showing them and working through how to do the design on the property and then getting them up on the platform, work on their pricing strategy and their messaging, ⁓ to give them the whole package that they can just go to market with and become successful immediately instead of waiting and waiting and waiting and scratching their head and making all the mistakes that I personally made when I first started doing this.

Quentin (07:24)
And you know, that’s what really caught my eye when you said it, is that how you want to walk people through it. You want to give them the white glove service. want to help them analyze the property. What did I say? White glove? Yeah, that white glove service. man, you want to… Yeah, absolutely, man. And I love it. And hopefully I’m not talking out of pocket, but I believe I heard you say you even set them up for somebody that can…

Corey D’Agostino (07:33)
White glove.

You did? Yeah, it’s the white glove, It’s like Michael Jackson, you know?

Quentin (07:50)
help them run it for six months, you know, that way they making money from day one. I think I heard you say that. So that’s.

Corey D’Agostino (07:54)
So I personally do that with them. I personally do that. Yep. I sit on board with them, right? And I run it with

them for six months. And then, you know, listen, it’s a, it could be a year long process, eight months, you know, the six months when I’m helping them at the end. But before that, we’re looking for a property, you go under contract. So all this takes a little bit of time. By the end of it, we’re friends, right? We’re buddies. They call me when they need me. ⁓ I have other things I try and help them out with. Cause it’s a short-term rental world. It’s not just purchasing and running a short-term rental.

There’s a lot of different avenues that entrepreneurs can get involved in this world and start to make money aside from just running the property. That’s a different conversation, but it is, it is out there for people.

Quentin (08:36)
I love it, man. And I can only imagine that sometimes it’s easier than other times, man. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Corey D’Agostino (08:46)
So the key to keeping it running smoothly is keeping up with the changes in the market. ⁓ Even the last three years, right? ⁓ Everybody has gotten on the short term rental train and some people are good at it and most people are not. It’s not as easy as purchasing a property and getting it up and running and then having it sit there and just cranking money, right? There are things that need to be looked at at the property prior to purchasing it. You got to put the right amenities in the property. You got to get the right design at the property.

and the pricing and the photography all needs to be put in place.

I have a little thing I call the three P’s. They’re my three P’s of a successful short-term rental. And these are the foundations that need to be put in place in order for somebody to have a successful short-term rental. The first one is the property, right? The property needs to be a unique looking property, okay? Either the angles on the house or the aesthetically pleasing look of the property, that’s what’s going to separate you on Airbnb and VRBO and the other platforms.

But it’s not just the property. It’s also the amenities, right? How the property is designed, both inside and out. What type of outdoor space do you have? What type of settings do you have on the inside of the property? Do you have ⁓ a movie projector in the property? Do you have a coffee bar at the property? These are things that help with the property to get it to where it needs to

my second P that I talk to people about is the photography.

So a lot of people who don’t know any better will go out and they’ll say, ⁓ I’m great. have this, the newest version of the iPhone. And they go and start snapping their own pictures. Right. you can tell. not only can you tell, but the people looking for properties can tell and your property just does not stand out the same way that it does when you get a professional photographer in there. So I don’t care how good you are, right? Professional photography is my second P inside outside drone and Twilight.

Quentin (10:45)
Mmm.

Corey D’Agostino (11:14)
And not Twilight that is Photoshop actual Twilight 10 minutes after the sun goes down and do the photos that way. And then the third P that makes a successful short-term rental is pricing. And there are a lot of different pricing strategies out there. I have personally come up with one, utilizing, ⁓ dynamic pricing software, my management software and the platforms that seems to run the gamut on every pro every market out there. So I could take a property that’s in a market.

There’s about a hundred different settings on the dynamic pricing, but I know the settings to click on in order to get your property competitive and start filling up because the last thing you want after you spend all the time setting up a property is for that thing to be vacant and not have any occupancy. So I get your property occupied. I get your property full. get the revenue coming in and we skip all the pitfalls that you would possibly face.

Quentin (12:08)
I love it, the three Ps, property, photography, and pricing. I absolutely love it. When you said photography, I laughed. I don’t know if you noticed, because my very last podcast before you was with a photographer. And we was talking, I was talking about like, yeah, I can’t call myself a photographer with my little iPhone. Clicky click, clicky clicky. Like yeah, no. That’s getting professional in there.

Corey D’Agostino (12:09)
three piece.

You got it.

Okay.

Well, it’s

funny. just was doing this with somebody ⁓ up in Shenandoah, Virginia. That’s where I work a lot. I have a lot of properties that I work with up there. It’s a great market for short-term rentals. ⁓ And these folks are like, no, we have a friend, and he’s a photojournalist. I won’t say their name, but he’s a photojournalist, and he can do this. And they’re like, hey, we’re ready to launch. Why don’t you come up, and you can help us get set up? And I started look at the photos, and I was like, I can’t do it with these photos. I was like, look. I said, look at the angles. ⁓

Quentin (12:38)
Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah.

Corey D’Agostino (13:04)
The angles aren’t right. They didn’t use a 16 millimeter lens, right? They’re using a fish eye lens. The rooms look distorted. They look off. The lighting’s not right. And it was a tough conversation, but at the end they were like, yeah, we get it. And so I got them the photographer they need to get. They have to spend the money, which nobody wants to do, but it’s important. It’s important to do the right thing.

Quentin (13:22)
Yep. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So man, you kind of got me right where I want to go with my next question. Cause of course we get pushbacks sometimes. know those they acquiesce like, okay, let’s go ahead and do it. But sometimes people don’t. Right? So tell me about a time when things really got real, maybe like a deal went sideways or you had to pivot fast. You mind telling me a story like that?

Corey D’Agostino (13:35)
Sure. Yep.

⁓ sure. ⁓ we were actually, this is a personal story of mine. ⁓ we were under contract. ⁓ we, sold a property and so we were in the middle of doing a 10 31 exchange. So you have a certain timeframe on that. have to identify the property within 45 days and then you have to close on one 80. ⁓ we bought, we sold our property and then we went under contract on a property site unseen down in a little area outside blue ridge, Georgia and Helen, Helen, Georgia outside Atlanta. It’s a good short-term rental market.

And we were like, right, this place is going to do fantastic. Like I said, we bought it sight unseen. We put down our deposit. went down two weeks later to meet the real estate agent out there. We were walking around the outside of the house. Came back up to the front. There was a guy standing on the front porch looking down at us. And I was like, Hey, how you doing? He goes, I’m not trying to be a jerk. He’s like, but this is a shared driveway and your car is six inches over the spot where it should be. And I was like, sorry, you know, uh,

I could definitely pull it up because well, I’m not so worried about you, but all these people you’re going to have coming into this property, this is our full time residence. And if anybody’s hanging outside where they should be, or they shouldn’t be, we’re going to have a problem. And he went on for about five minutes, 10 minutes. And I walked inside with the real estate agent and we went through our thing and she goes, well, what do you know? Do you like it? I said, I really have to rethink this. And I spent the night and I thought about it I was like, I’m out.

I’m out. I’m not doing it. So we pulled out, we lost our deposit

it is what it is, but you know, it wasn’t something I was going to deal with, with an ongoing headache with that guy who was going to give me a problem every time somebody pulled up to that house. So we pulled out of that market. Uh, went back to my company market of Shenandoah, uh, went under contract on one there and never thought twice about the money I lost because it just didn’t matter. It wasn’t worth the headache.

So yeah, you gotta pivot, gotta pivot quick sometimes. Yep.

Quentin (16:28)
and see, there you go. And

that’s the insight. That’s why I love asking that question because that’s the type of insight that our audience need to hear, that people need to hear, right? Like, and some, I’ve never even, you know, I know when you said it, it logically makes sense, but I really never heard somebody say it like, no, I do not want to be in proximity with my next door neighbors. It’s going to ruin, it’s going to just be a headache.

Corey D’Agostino (16:55)
Everything is

gonna be a headache. Yep.

Quentin (16:57)
Yeah, it’s gonna ruin everything.

It’s gonna be a headache. And so, no, I thank you for sharing that. Thank you for the gift of your vulnerability to be able to share that because you’re right, man. Like this type of stuff people need to hear. This is the type of stuff you need to consider. You know, maybe go talking to the next door neighbor and say, hey, how y’all doing? How y’all doing? How long have you been here? You know? Let’s talk. You wanna come over for some peach cobbler, you know? ⁓ And so, yeah, maybe, you know.

Corey D’Agostino (17:11)
It is.

Sure, sure.

Yeah.

Quentin (17:25)
It’s as fun as things that maybe you haven’t heard of.

Corey D’Agostino (17:28)
Definitely definitely and I make sure I do my homework and there are neighbors that I go and introduce myself I let them know what’s going on And I get I I give them my phone number. I’m like listen if you ever have a problem like just give me a call I’m not here like trying to hide from you. I’m not here trying to cause problems. Here’s my phone number This is how you get a hold of me. You can text or call me if there’s a problem Call me. I will contact the people and I will make sure everything is settled Yeah

Quentin (17:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.

I love it. That’s

beautiful. Yep. I love it. Great, great, great insight, man. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s your next real goal?

Corey D’Agostino (18:02)
⁓ I enjoy helping people. ⁓ I really, really enjoy helping other people do what I’m doing. I find that what I found is that this is one of the reasons I started doing what I do Q is because I’ve joined these programs before, right? These programs that, you jump in this mastermind and you get, give you this course and this course is 30 hours of stuff you have to read and digest and, and

Not only are leaving it, we’re going to charge you $5,000 to join the club, right? We’re going to charge you $10,000. 15. I’ve heard as much as $35,000 to join some of these masterminds and I’ve done them before and I found it to be a waste of money. like the network, but as far as the education and somebody helping me to walk through the process on getting started in real estate, I felt that that portion of it was lacking.

And so what I wanted to do is create something for people where they didn’t have to spend their down payment or spend their renovation budget or spend their furnishing budget on trying to get in touch with somebody who can help them get the process started. So I created a little program. It’s my coaching program, ⁓ booked in banked.com, ⁓ not, and just the letter N booked in banked, ⁓ where I will walk somebody through at no cost to them on the front end.

Quentin (19:23)
Yeah.

Corey D’Agostino (19:29)
right? How to get into a short term rental. So how to find a property, how to find a market, how to analyze that property, look at the profit and loss of what we can expect on that property. I have banks that I’ve been in touch with that I can then hook them up with to get the loan. I have agents in different markets I work with so we can help facilitate the transaction. I then go out and help them design the property. I show them what amenities to put where, what things would be good in that market, what things they don’t need.

And then we get them up and running on the platforms, right? ⁓ there’s pricing software that I get hooked up management software that I get hooked up for them. And I show them how to run the property. And then I sit on the property with them and help walk them through how to manage it for the first six months that they’re on there. And it’s a win-win, right? They’re not taking, they’re not taking their 10, 20, $35,000 upfront and giving it to somebody to help them pay to find the property. They only, you know, I work with them on a.

back of the end deal, right? So they only, I only make money if they make money. That’s it. The property has to be up and running. It’s gotta be a successful short-term rental. And that’s where my payment comes in. So the better property I can get you into, the more money I do make, but the more money you make as well. And so I’ve got skin in the game. I’m there to work with you and I am available for them as we’re going through this process and even afterwards by phone call or text anytime they need me.

Quentin (20:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, man, I love it. mean, you have your own properties. You have properties that you manage. But even still, with all that going on, you’re like, I still want to build something where I can coach people and I can still help people. And so, that Booked in Bank, again, y’all, the letter N, Booked in Bank, that’s phenomenal, man. I really believe that’s going to help people out, And I mean, you know, I mean, you’re a forward thinker, but you know the next move.

Corey D’Agostino (21:08)
Yep.

Quentin (21:22)
It can either compound things or create chaos, you know, depending on how you play it. Right. And so I love it, man. I love it that you’re, willing to, because you want to serve, you’re like, no, I’m still going to make the move. I’m going to make the move. And I absolutely love it, man. I have that you continue to grow what it is that you’re doing because you have a serving heart. I appreciate that. I love hearing that. Absolutely, man. So of course, you know,

Corey D’Agostino (21:24)
Sure. Sure.

Appreciate it. Yeah.

Quentin (21:47)
A lot of people that are listening, they’re early in their journey, they’re looking to level up, they’re looking to make their own pivots. And I think they have benefit hearing from this, hearing this, when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s the biggest difference for you? What’s made the biggest difference for you?

Corey D’Agostino (22:05)
man,

somebody else asked me this question. That’s a great question. Somebody said, and they asked it a different way. They said, they said, Corey, how did you learn all this? How did you learn all this? And there’s no school for this, right? There’s, there’s no school that teaches you all the ins and outs of real estate investing. So how do I learn from it? I talk to everybody. I talked to everybody. If you call me, I pick up my phone. If you text me, I return your text or I pick up the phone and I call you.

So I talk to everybody, I ask questions. If I don’t understand what you’re telling me, I continue to ask questions until I understand it. But the network effect in all of this, Q, you could probably attest to it, right? It’s huge. And it’s what makes the difference between, I think, the people that are successful and the people that aren’t. Because you don’t know everything. I don’t know everything. I still don’t, right? Real estate is a constant game of chess.

and you never know what move you have to make next. And you gotta find the people that can help you make the right move. And that comes from talking to people. And so, where my success comes from, it’s come from talking to people, networking, and always keeping the conversations alive and open.

Quentin (23:17)
Yes, sir. My tagline after I asked this question and the person answered it, I said, you can’t fake that. You cannot fake relationships. Relationships are everything in this space. Connections is everything in this space. And so I think they said, I’ll borrow it from somebody else. Your net worth is your network. And so yeah, relationships is everything, man. Absolutely. Absolutely. So listen, all right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you.

Corey D’Agostino (23:28)
Yep, absolutely.

Sure.

Quentin (23:47)
Maybe collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing. What’s the best way for them to get in contact with you?

Corey D’Agostino (23:50)
Sure.

There’s two ways. The first way is if they want to see kind of what I can help with and what they might have a specific problem with, they can go to the bookedinbanked.com. That’s B-O-O-K-E-D, the letter N, and then banked, B-A-N-K-E-D. We get you booked and then you bank the money, right? Bookedinbanked.com. They can go ahead and contact me there. I’m going to go out on a limb and I’ll do you one better. ⁓ Call or text me.

Call or text me. My cell phone number is 301-725-6306. Reach out to me. Reach out to me. I’m here to help. Let’s have a conversation and let’s see where it goes.

Quentin (24:35)
I love it. I love it. There he is. Everyone. Mr. Corey D’Agostino, my man, C-Dags. Thank you so much, man. Listen, I thank you and I appreciate your time. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your coaching, your education, man. I really appreciate it, man. I really appreciate it. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. And so listen, if you’re tuning in, of course, you know, make sure you are subscribed.

Corey D’Agostino (24:36)
You

Absolutely.

Well, I appreciate you having me on. I really do.

Quentin (25:03)
You do not want to miss out on these important conversations that we’re having with important people, just like my man, Mr. Corey Deak. My Mr. Corey, I can’t get it out now. I come to the bar, I come bar to the bar in and down. want to, I want to trip up now. My man, Corey D’Agostino. I appreciate you brother. Thank you so much. Listen, y’all have a great one. Absolutely.

Corey D’Agostino (25:13)
D’Agostino, you’re not the only one.

Sure thing.