Why Functional Design Matters in House Flips, Airbnb Renovations, and Real Estate Investing

Marci Taylor (00:00)

One of the most important things that I think when you’re doing a flip, especially, is that you need to make

emotional connection between the buyer

and the home. So when you go in and you can make a space a beautiful space, but if you can’t create a space where they can walk in and go, man, I need to live here. It’s just going to sit there.

Scott Bursey (01:55)

Hi everyone and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey and today I’m joined by someone I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with. Marci Taylor. Marci is a designer, real estate strategist and the powerhouse behind Heels and Ladders. She’s known for creating spaces people don’t just see, they feel. While helping investors stay on time, on budget and wildly profitable.

If you want to know how to design, how a design can transform both homes and opportunities, you’re going to love this conversation. Marci, welcome to the show. It’s great to have you here. If you could give us just a little bit of a background of what you’ve been up to here recently.

Marci Taylor (02:33)

Thank you.

Recently I’ve got my hands on a couple of things. I just finished my real estate course and passed my tests, so I’m just waiting to get my license there. ⁓ I have been flipping homes with investors, ⁓ helping them create everything from a house that they’re going to.

turn around and sell, but also some that are going to be turned into Airbnbs because we have a lot of opportunities here in Atlanta right now. So we have ⁓ FIFA that’s going to be here later on this year, and then we have the Super Bowl coming in 2028. And so people are really gearing up for a lot of Airbnbs to be able to make a profit during that time. So I’ve been, you’re focusing on that.

Scott Bursey (03:22)

And if you could just,

absolutely, hey, and that’s a great focus. Really an exciting time. And let me ask you this, are you operating just in the Atlanta, in the suburbs right now?

Marci Taylor (03:39)

No, I have a couple of contractors that I also work with in DC, but I’ll go wherever the money is. Wherever somebody needs me, I’m gonna go. If I can create a space and create an experience in that space, then I’m ready to travel.

Scott Bursey (03:55)

Absolutely. Yes, and what caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to seamlessly transition. know, you’re a deep-rooted, connected person in the community, in your area, the Decatur community. And you don’t just sell homes there, you advocate for the lifestyle.

the history and the people showing us how that real estate is truly about, you know, local. And that is really commendable. Could you elaborate a little bit about ⁓ what you’re thinking of doing and how you’ve been able to keep the machine running smoothly?

Marci Taylor (04:39)

So.

I’ve been doing a lot of these Airbnb’s lately and what’s been great about it is we’re creating experiences instead of just a place to lay your head. So what I’m loving is when you look at the reviews on the properties, the reviews reflect the feeling and the experience that I want them to have when they’re in the space. And so we try to take a lot of what the community is and the energy for the community and put it into that space as well.

So I did one that was trying to make it very ⁓

It’s a family home. It’s a large home. It’s a place where you can gather a whole family to do a reunion or just a nice family trip. But I wanted to gear it more towards having some autism and sensory friendly.

space because I have a lot of friends that travel and when they travel with their children that have autism or have sensory issues they don’t have a way to calm them they don’t have a way to deal with it and it’s very traumatic at times for the child and so ⁓ there’s a lot of color there’s a lot of texture and some people don’t realize that that’s what that those type of people need

to it helps keep them calm. And so we also put in every one of the Airbnb’s a sensory tent and a sensory pod chair to just kind of help the younger ones especially. But it’s all about just trying to make people feel comfortable. And then we did another one that was in a really artsy area. It’s really upscale. There’s a lot of color and texture throughout the entire community. And so we did something really fun where

I decided I was going to make it a theme of Find Your Adventure and every room in the house is a different country. And I know that sounds really overwhelming, but when you see it, it flows really nicely. But it’s just super cool and everybody is really loving ⁓ just the aspect of it.

Scott Bursey (07:28)

absolutely, that’s brilliant. I love it. It’s impressive that you’ve reached that level of autonomy. Was there a specific moment, Marci, or a particular deal where you realized, hey, okay, this is actually working?

Marci Taylor (07:45)

⁓ I think I was doing on the first one that I did for this particular

And the fact that I was getting the positive response from him and he was feeling very comfortable and he was feeling the good energy in the house and and he was getting excited about the house ⁓ Just pushed me further to make me feel more excited about it and and to go that extra mile and to make it even more fun ⁓ Without feeling limited

Scott Bursey (08:20)

Absolutely, that energy makes all the difference in the world. That connection is just outstanding. Now, Marci, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments with us?

Marci Taylor (08:39)

So I haven’t really had a moment where things have fallen through or anything like that. To quote one of my friends recently, he said, I have an uncanny knack of finding people that need me and then being able to get them to trust me to ⁓ create the spaces that they want. I will say though, my real moment was I had a full-time job and I just was getting too stressed out.

and I just decided I can’t do this anymore. I put in my two weeks notice and I had no plan. No plan at all of how I was going to make this work. I had barely been in Atlanta for a year. I really didn’t know anybody here. And I just started like.

pounding the streets. I really just started making phone calls, reaching out to some builders and some contractors that I knew and just trying to develop a plan of attack. And surprisingly, it came very easily. was like once I closed that door on the retail, I was able to just set myself up for success by just

putting myself out there and really just getting people to trust in me. And one of the things that I find is that with design, you’re not selling the design, you’re selling yourself. So you have to be secure in your design because people need to know and believe that you believe in what you’re doing. And if you can’t do that, you’re not gonna be successful.

Scott Bursey (10:17)

Hey, I couldn’t agree more. And you can’t argue with where the road has led you. Pounding the pavement has certainly worked well for you, Marci. Let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

Marci Taylor (11:08)

I really like working with the builders and investors more so than anybody else. Not that I don’t like customers, I do. It’s just there’s a lot more.

of the in the process there’s a lot more going on right so you have to get all these different approvals whereas when you have an empty space that is a complete blank canvas

You can start fresh and do everything and then when you start putting things together and you start showing it to the builder and showing it to the investors, ⁓ they generally really fall in line with the theme that you want to create in that space and they understand where you’re going because it’s going to create value for them.

One of the most important things that I think when you’re doing a flip, especially, is that you need to make an emotional connection between the buyer

and the home. So when you go in and you can make a space a beautiful space, but if you can’t create a space where they can walk in and go, man, I need to live here. It’s just going to sit there.

Scott Bursey (12:17)

Creating that masterpiece and that is so rewarding when a person does that successfully. Let me ask you this, Marci. What’s the next real big goal that you may have on the horizon?

Marci Taylor (12:32)

to do 40 homes this year. So that is, that’s really my plan is to do 40 homes and on the design side. And then of course I want to sell them, but.

Scott Bursey (12:43)

Okay.

Marci Taylor (12:46)

I really want, I want to be able to do 40 homes that are going to be either flips or eventually turn into Airbnbs. And then I want to be able to do at least four Airbnbs. The Airbnbs are a lot more work for me because I’m actually physically doing the work. So I get in there, I’m hanging the curtains. And the name of my company is Heels and Ladders and that’s because you will find me on a ladder.

almost all the time. Every time you walk into a property, on a ladder doing something and sometimes in heels, sometimes my heels are at the bottom of the ladder. Don’t tell Osha.

Scott Bursey (13:21)

That’s impressive

and that’s some really excellent goals. We see people chase doors or revenue all the time. For you, is that goal a destination or is it just the fuel that allows you to do something even bigger?

Marci Taylor (13:39)

I just want to keep growing and learning and expanding, also I want to be able to give a hand up. So I want to be so busy that I can bring projects to some of these other people that I’ve been mentoring and working with and say, hey, I know you’ll take care of this customer. Can you take care of this? And that way I’m also building a relationship with my customer, but also helping them rise up with me.

I’m not the smartest person in the room. never want to be the smartest person in the room because if I am, I’m in the wrong room. So I’m always looking to expand and grow and learn more and more. I want to learn more about the investment side. I want to learn more about the real estate side. I have a basic understanding, but I really want to get into the part of being able to start investing myself within the next five years. I want to be able to already have my own properties that I’m flipping.

Scott Bursey (14:36)

That’s big, especially when you’ve already got the resources in place. That next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of our audiences either earlier in their journey are looking to level up. And I think they’d benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you, Marci?

Marci Taylor (15:47)

Truly I believe in treating people at face value and understanding that people are who they are. ⁓

I’m not always going to get my way, you’re not always going to get your way, but we can work together to always make things work. ⁓ The important thing to me with creating these relationships is that I have contractors that I can call that I can say, hey, I want to get this done. How can we do this? How is it going to be the most effective way to do this? And then taking that back to the investor and saying, hey, we can do this and this is what’s going to cost. And this is how we can get it done in this amount of time.

One of the real advantages of having a designer on a project is that they’ll keep you on budget. They keep the flow going. ⁓

It keeps you from making costly mistakes. One of the contractors that I work with, one of the reasons he brought me in was that he got tired of making mistakes and having to change things. was creating problems with his timelines. It was creating problems with the space. He wasn’t making emotional connections with buyers.

And so bringing me in gave him the opportunity to create a space where he’s not constantly having to reorder things and changing things and paying his guys to change things out all the time because it didn’t work the way he thought it was going to work in his head. ⁓ So all of those relationships are really important and I truly believe as long as you treat everybody with respect, you can get through anything.

understanding everybody has to make money, everybody has to have a way to do things so it can’t always just be one way. There has to be some compromise along the way.

Scott Bursey (17:37)

agreed everyone says provide value but when you were starting out and you didn’t have a huge bank account or a massive portfolio what was your currency how did you actually get you know the attention of the the bigger players the heavy hitters

Marci Taylor (17:56)

really again, it’s selling me, right? So I had to go in and say, hey, this is what I’ve done. This is where I’ve been my entire life. This is what I’ve been working on. But for the first time, I’m out here on my own doing my own thing. And so I know I’m just starting out, but how can I show you the benefit of bringing me on? And the other benefit that I have is because I have a construction background,

Scott Bursey (18:17)

Absolutely.

Marci Taylor (18:24)

I know what will work and what won’t. And unfortunately, there are a lot of designers that don’t have that background. And so sometimes they have a vision of something, but it’s not a functionality. And so also being a mom, a functionality is crucial. So I had to always make sure that spaces make sense. Can’t just be pretty, they have to make sense.

Scott Bursey (18:50)

Absolutely,

yes. And I must say, relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way that they can contact you?

Marci Taylor (19:07)

There’s a couple of different ways. I have an Instagram page that is Heels and Ladders, it’s at Heels and Ladders. And then ⁓ on Facebook, I’m MS Designs. ⁓ I think it’s MS Designs Consulting ⁓ because Facebook hasn’t let me change it. ⁓ Or you can reach out to me at, email me at heelsandladders@gmail.com ⁓ or reach me by phone.

Scott Bursey (19:36)

Perfect. Well listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here, Marci.

Marci Taylor (19:47)

I appreciate you having me. Thank you.

Scott Bursey (19:50)

And for those of you tuning in, if you get value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators just like Marci, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you in the next episode, everybody.