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Show Summary
In this conversation, Diane Bostick shares her journey in the home repair and rental industry, discussing her experiences from Florida to Syracuse, the challenges of managing Airbnb properties, and the importance of building relationships in business. She emphasizes the need for proactive repairs and the significance of choosing the right professionals for various tasks. Diane also reveals her creative projects and aspirations to start a home repair school for women, highlighting her commitment to empowering others in the industry.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Diane BOSTICK (00:00)
So proactivity is very important in that case where you look ahead and make sure that you have a photo record of everything being perfect and a paper record of everything being perfect. And so if there’s something that comes up, you need to be close and at hand or have some manager to go in to fix that.Because when you have Airbnb, unlike when you have a friend staying over or family coming through town, there’s a review that goes out. And you cannot take that away from the net when it’s out there.
Dylan Silver (00:25)
Right.Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Diane Bostick has been in home repair and rental since 1999. She’s also an actress, writer and comedian. In the repair space, she and her husband’s focus has been on saving people money in their home with proactive repairs matching integrity with style and an educational approach to meet new repair challenges. She also conducts workshops from time to time called Healthy Home, Healthy Body. You can find her at hisandherfixits.com.
Diane, thank you for taking the time today.
Diane BOSTICK (02:34)
Well, thank you for having me. Well, never did I imagine it. Although my mother said if you marry a guy that has a car repair shop, a funeral service, or real estate, you’re okay. Because people have to drive around, have to have shelter, and all the rest of that.Dylan Silver (02:34)
Diane, thank you for taking the time today.I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking folks how they got started in the real estate trade.
Diane BOSTICK (02:59)
Anyway, was raised in a family that was manufacturing. My dad had manufacturing company and doing very well there. And I left Syracuse just because I wanted to travel and get on cruise ships and sing. And when I got there, I realized I was in debt. A student loan debt, everything else. And a friend of mine offered me an out. She said, I met this guy, he talks a little fast. I think he’s from France.but he’s looking for somebody to work in his business. At that time I was in Hollywood, Florida. That’s where I had moved. So, connected with him and didn’t want to get into the business because he had a big step van, so my uniform was going to be halter tops, a short skirt, and an attitude with a crib board. And I was using offices, you know, where I could make up, wear heels, and eat pizza. So anyway, we started going around and then we built this business together.
Dylan Silver (03:54)
Now, when you talk specifically about the repairs space, there’s really a lot that comes to mind. I’ve heard about folks being super specialized in doing like one type of repairs. I’ve seen on this show a number of what I would call like handyman service people come in and really do a lot of different things for investors primarily. Who’s your primary client? And then also do you specialize in one area of repairs or is it really like, whatever is going wrong in the home, can address?Diane BOSTICK (03:58)
The latter is true of us. is an old fashioned, skilled, and learning area of interior home repair. And this got us started with investors in Florida. We had an investment group that we connected with eventually, who was the vice president of guitar center, and he had a bunch of properties. So that’s when we got into repair and management.and rental management because they would look at me and say, okay, you can let him repair, but you collect the money, you know? So I was throwing in kind of on my head and then I realized it was a very good team. So these investors needed somebody that go in under the hat of what you call a handyman, but skilled enough to be proactive to from crises happening.
like taking care of the uh the roof at the right time and everything else, looking ahead. Because investors don’t want to spend money and they have to spend big money redoing the roof or something else that could have been taken care of before. They just want to start making the money from the rentals. So we started doing that. We ended up managing 225 units. That was from a rental management perspective of the height of our energy going out.
And then we left Florida when they changed the laws about working with just general repair. After the hurricanes then, these people, these companies would come in out of nowhere and charge these little ladies by the beach like $200, $600, $6,000 to change their roof. And they said, give me a deposit of $1,000. And then they would disappear. So the…
The government of Florida said, okay, now if you want to hang a picture in a condo, you need a million dollars worth of insurance. And we said, no, we don’t want to do that because we don’t work, we don’t even make a million dollars in our business, let alone the little stuff. So we went back to New York. That’s where I came from. He’s from Canada. Yeah, he’s French Canadian. So when he’s angry at me, it’s in two languages.
He was always saving money and everything, so I said, well, let’s go back and see my family. I had already lost my father and my mother was kind of sick. So came to Syracuse. I reestablished in Syracuse. I had left Syracuse in 2000. In 1996, I came back in 2006 with a French Canadian handyman as a husband.
Now I want to ask specifically about those two different markets. I Florida and Syracuse probably couldn’t be more different in a lot of ways. But why was Atlanta getting reestablished in Syracuse and then too wasn’t quick to build up a book of business? Okay, this is it. My husband is like an x-ray vision with real estate. So when we were in Florida, the first thing that we purchased was a bungalow house. Of course there’s no basements in Florida.
Dylan Silver (07:39)
Now I want to ask you specifically about those two different markets. I Florida to Syracuse probably couldn’t be more different in a lot of ways. What was it like getting reestablished in Syracuse? And then two, was it quick to build up a book of business? What was it like getting reestablished in Syracuse? And then two, was it quick to build up a book of business.Diane BOSTICK (08:09)
Okay, this is it. My husband is like an X-ray vision with real estate. So when we were inFlorida, the first thing that we purchased was a bungalow house. Of course there’s no basements in Florida.We had a 32 foot in-ground pool that had never been finished. We finished it. We made it mother-in-law quarters out of the back of the house. We bought it for 64. We sold it for $302,000 in 2006 before the market got. So we had money in the cloud when we came to Syracuse. And we took over a farmhouse, which is about 15 miles from my family, from the city where my family is.
and we just kind of settled. It took us five years once we made the move from where we were in the farmhouse to just on the outskirts of our city of Syracuse to establish our new business. The other one had another name in Florida. We expunged that and we went with his and hers fixes. Because I kept thinking of his and hers bath towels and how mine was a little farm town that never grew up and that should be good. So then I started doing workshops for women.
Healthy home, healthy body. And we started to get more work. And what I realized was something very important lately about what’s changed with the remodeling business is you need to build relationships with people. You need to partner with people. ⁓ You know, the whole thing about bulldozing a person saying they need a big repair when all they need is a small repair because you just want to make the money, see the habit and leave is…
not ever been our policy and it’s not a good policy going forward. So your question was how did we get established? It took us between 2006 to 2010. We started being on the map and we got involved in Airbnb because- Oh yeah. That’s a big one.
Dylan Silver (09:55)
yeah, that’s a big one. want to pivot and ask you about that because I know for folks who areDylan Silver (10:24)
when someone needs something fixed, especially if they’ve got a booking coming up, it’s really like, hey, this needs to happen now, right? someone needs something fixed, especially if they’ve got a booking coming up, it’s really like hey, this needs happen now, right?Diane BOSTICK (10:24)
Say that again, the last question.Dylan Silver (11:07)
It needs to happen right now. There’s an urgency to it that might not exist in some other cases because they might have a looping coming up right around the point.Diane BOSTICK (11:07)
yes, well, well that’s the thing about working in a small framework of a mom and pop store going into the 2026-27 is all through that time we lived in the house and my husband does never let anything go. So you know.Dylan Silver (11:07)
It needs to happen like now. There’s an urgency to it that might not exist in some other cases because, you know, they might have a booking coming up right around the corner.Diane BOSTICK (11:32)
He would hear a drift in the middle of the night somewhere in the upstairs loft area, which wasn’t even inhabited. He’d be up there fixing it.So proactivity is very important in that case where you look ahead and make sure that you have a photo record of everything being perfect and a paper record of everything being perfect. And so if there’s something that comes up, you need to be close and at hand or have some manager to go in to fix that.
Because when you have Airbnb, unlike when you have a friend staying over or family coming through town, there’s a review that goes out. And you cannot take that away from the net when it’s out there.
Dylan Silver (12:06)
Right.Diane BOSTICK (12:11)
We had that experience with Angie’s List. People that are paying you for that review and we’ve never even done the work. then we would, what’s other word? We can do nothing until the customer or the client removes it themselves. So that’s one of the experience.Dylan Silver (12:15)
No, yeah, that’s exactly.Yeah, that’s one of the challenges about Airbnb is
that you can have one bad review or one bad experience and can kind of like take it out. And then also too, there’s this build up period. you have a new Airbnb initial incremental, it might take a couple months for it to start seeing bookings. so it’s very much you have to, and almost enjoy being a host. Because if not, you could have one bad experience and it kind of hurts your business. ⁓
Diane BOSTICK (12:56)
A COVID, a COVID changed things also.We have a spate now of owners that have multiple properties that have sold all their properties because they were getting into a position where during COVID rent was ⁓ waived for certain tenants. And so they were building up, they were still paying their taxes, still doing the maintenance, everything else, but no rent was coming in. So a lot of the situation here and Syracuse has always been seen as a rental market, as a good
investment rental market because we have lower cost of living, lower cost of real estate here. ⁓ We have a lot of people we know that have sold. And ⁓ that has come after ⁓ increasing regulation by Airbnb for ⁓ inspections, for being ⁓ open to government review ⁓ and everything else. So it’s tricky right now with the real estate market.
Dylan Silver (13:56)
Yeah,Diane BOSTICK (13:57)
No, no, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, ⁓Dylan Silver (13:57)
no question. I’m licensed in Texas, I’m a tech-a-pro in Dallas. I’m pretty sure you can’t have short-term rentals. mean, all the states are 30 plus days, right? So what do people do in that case? Well, I think a lot of people convert their short-term rentals to maybe like a 31-day space. So they’re staying, you full month. They can still actually put it on Airbnb in that regard if they would have to make the minimum stay like that, if it wasn’t a month. But it’s definitely quick.enforcement by local governments and then you’ve also got the stricter standards from the platform themselves. All the more reason why people need to really be on top of the guest experience, the repairs, everything that goes into welfare.
Diane BOSTICK (14:37)
to be a business person, a manager, a customer service person, and everything else when you intrigue people to come who are going to compare you to other Airbnbs.that are more efficient or in nicer places or whatever else. during the time we had Airbnb, before that regulation really kicked in, we ⁓ were good. We were doing well. Because Magic’s hospitality background, he ran a cleaning company at one point. He’s really an immaculate, meticulous kind of person, plus a very skilled, ⁓ all around handyman. That’s what you need in combination.
to have an Airbnb be successful. And even then you have all of the bells and whistles you gotta have and dance around the tariffs now and yeah.
Dylan Silver (16:13)
Yeah. I want to figure out about who have a short term long-term rental, right? And they’re thinking about who I go to, do go to a handyman, do I go to someone who is specialized in one specific niche?Diane BOSTICK (16:32)
uhDylan Silver (16:32)
Is there a time when it’s better to go to one versus another?Diane BOSTICK (16:38)
Well, I would think each property dictates that, pretty statistically. If you have a real HVAC problem where you need to change a furnace system, then of course you go to a specialist. But if you need the punch outs and you know someone, have someone in your tool kit, your human tool kit, who can do all of those little things.and you trust them. Obviously you’re going to go there. the skill, where we’re outside our skill is building a deck, building an addition on a house, know, more into licensed GC territory. So each property will dictate that. Obviously it’s very good for you to go into any situation with connections in that way where you know, can get recommendations for and then…
With the all around sealed handyman, you can get, take care of a lot of the punch outs. I call them punch outs because they’re finishing work rather than establishing walls or putting on a roof or putting in a whole new floor, subfloor, that kind of thing. So.
Dylan Silver (17:46)
Right. I mean, we talk about so much of this, I think there’s a lot of times where people honestly are stuck in quotes or they’re not surewhat to do, but having someone like yourself who can really give them like a second opinion honestly, like, this is where basically the limits of what we can do, this is what we can do, are you don’t need to go to a specialist for X, Y, and Z. It’s really important, think, for investors anywhere, whether you’re a CERIC user, whether you’re an accessor, wherever you are.
Dylan Silver (17:56)
But having someone like yourself who can really give them a second opinion on this is where basically the limits of what we can do is what we can do are you don’t need to go to a specialist for X, Y, and Z. It’s really important for the best of anywhere, whether you’re a certain user, whether you’re a taxist, or wherever you are,to have someone like yourself to reach out to if you are an investor. We are coming up on time here though, Diane.
Dylan Silver (18:16)
have someone like yourself to reach out to if you are an investor. We are coming up on time here though, Diane.Dylan Silver (18:21)
Are there any new projects that you’re working on? I know you’re involved in so much. Any new projects that you’re working on? And then also too, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you and your husband, you and your team?Diane BOSTICK (18:32)
OK, wow. OK. So in 2019, I had an older brother. He died by suicide, but he was an artist. I made coloring books out of his work. We were able to find a property that could absorb all of the work, theproperty from the family home, which was a big tape card, and put it in the house. And I’m sitting in the gallery for my brother’s art right now. I have a laptop Buddha behind me. He did a lot of really neat images. So I made the books into coloring books and I saw them. Fast-boarding all of that, my parents left me stories, so I was able to actually start taking one of my father’s stories and doing a film using this house and retrofitting two of my rooms with antiques.
do the interior shots. So my real estate now has worked into my creative projects. At the same time, now our remodeling business, the handyman business, has come up again. And what has come up again beyond that is our big goal with that business is to crescendo with a home repair school for women. And at this point, we’re on a talking point with a couple of investors in this area that might help that happen.
Dylan Silver (19:50)
That would be…Diane BOSTICK (19:50)
won’t be instantaneous, but we found a lot of women in their homes are the ones that make decisions regarding the procurement of any labor and skill from basic things to medium things to large things. my husband is a very big supporter of that idea. And we’re going to start doing test workshops in the area to test and get email addresses in people’s interest in something like that that we could show to some of our potential investors here.Dylan Silver (19:50)
Diane, thank you so much for coming on the show.Diane BOSTICK (19:50)
Thank you very much, Dylan, it was lot of fun.Dylan Silver (20:19)
Diane, thank you
