Show Summary
Kevin Lee has built a fortune harnessing the power of Airbnb while becoming a strong influencer on TikTok & Instagram for short form video. Learn his secrets to blowing up in both segments of the business.
Resources and Links from this show:
- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- FlipNerd Real Estate Investor Facebook Group: Join for Free!
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Kevin on Facebook
- Kevin on Instagram
- InsighfulREI
- Dylan Tanaka’s website
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
FlipNerd Show Transcript:
Dylan: [00:00:00] We’ll do short term rentals and TikTok have in common. You’re gonna find out on today’s. Welcome to real
estate investing secrets. We’re all looking for freedom and the opportunity to live better, more fulfilling lives. But most of us were trained our entire lives to work for someone else and chase their dreams.
How can we use real estate investing as a vehicle to achieve financial freedom? My life is dedicated to answering your real estate investing questions and helping you build an investing business that allows you to change your. And the world around you and to enable you to turn your dreams of financial freedom into a reality.
My name is Mike Handbright from flip nerd.com and your questions get answered here on the real estate investing secrets show.
Dylan: Hey Kevin, how are you buddy?
Kevin: Hey Dylan. Nice to see you again. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be on your podcast. It’s a, it’s been an honor.
Dylan: Of course, of course it’s been a long time coming.
My good friend, Kevin [00:01:00] Lee. I’m not gonna give you any of his background because I always do it when I have guests on the show. So I’m gonna let him talk a little bit about it, but we talked about you coming on at our last investor fuel event. So finally, we’re doing it right before our next investor fuel event.
That way, uh, at this investor fuel event, we can talk about some other fun marketing things that we can do together instead,
Kevin: right? That’s right.
Dylan: Cool. So why don’t you tell everybody, uh, a little bit about yourself, what market you are in and, um, and kind of how you got started in real estate investing.
Kevin: Cool. Cool. So I started, uh, real estate investing when I, when, uh, when I was what, uh, uh, like what, uh, 30 years old, you know, back in 2010. And, uh, I was just like, you know, buying rental properties passively. And I was also, I, I had a W2 job, you know, back then as well. So I was in the tech industry. I was in the tech industry for seven years and I quit in [00:02:00] 2017 and started pursuing risk day, full time.
So my business. Right now is like Airbnb and then fixed and flip. Yeah. So we do pretty much, I would say 50 50 of, of, you know, uh, both. Yeah. And, uh, fixed and flip business actually, uh, help us to, uh, uh, the down payment, you know, uh, it, uh, uh, create a down payment for us to acquire those short term rentals.
Dylan: Cool. So this is called the real estate investing secret show. We are on the flip nerd. I’m trying to do it this way. Flip nerd podcast network. So we have to tell a little bit of our secrets, right, Kevin. So when you hedge your, your full-time W2 job still, and a lot of us, we go to college, we work really hard to get into those positions, but somehow it’s kinda like we get bit by this, by this real estate or entrepreneurship bug.
So, so what was it about real estate investing that really like drew you in.
Kevin: I think it was like when I was really young that, uh, I, I [00:03:00] remember this, you know, my mom, uh, she was a high school teacher, uh, in the back of her mind. She was already kind like thinking about how I can get passive income. And she started the, you know, acquiring rentals back then.
So that bug was actually planted into me when I was really young. I still remember to this day, That, uh, this is back in Taiwan. I can’t do this country once 14 that, uh, I would write on her scooter in the back of her scooter and we go post those flyers, uh, you know, uh, uh, houses for rent. And we would put them on the pole and the public bulletin boards.
And there’s like strips, uh, in the back of the, you know, we would cut the little strips with our phone numbers, uh, you know, on the bottom of the flyer and people would just tear that off and they would just contact us that. So we would go and advertise, uh, you know, these houses for rent. And we would also go into the rental units and we would do the, uh, the red ready, you know, we would cling [00:04:00] out the units ourselves, you, my mom and I, so we would do the groundwork and that’s how I cut that, uh, real estate bug.
So like in the back of my mind, I, I just thought that, Hey, uh, I don’t know anything else that will give me the passive income other than real. And this is something that I wanted to do when I grew up. So I did it, you know, when I had some saving, when I was working as a w two employee, and I was able to use that saving to just, you know, multiply and then to grow that passive income.
Yeah. Yeah,
Dylan: that, that’s a super awesome story. So I’ve known you Kevin for pretty much four years now. And, uh, I’ve got my four year trophy from investor fuel somewhere behind me. So I’ve made it, made it four years or whatever, but so I’ve known you four years. I kind of know your story, but I’ve never known that.
And, and you know, when you have these conversations and you really get to get to get deep into. Kinda made us who we are today, not just as entrepreneurs or, or, uh, you know, as investors, but almost as men and as people, right. Or, or [00:05:00] women too, I guess it’s only two guys on the podcast today. But, uh, but that’s really exciting, like to, to know that backstory, because I think when that’s built into you and especially you’re coming from a different country, I’ve got a lot of friends who are immigrants from all around the world.
And, you know, it’s kind of like a saying, you know, we, as I was born here in America, so we’re a little bit lazier, a lot of. Then the immigrants who come here because they see an opportunity that we’re born with. Right? So the regular Americans are like, ah, how many friends do I have that don’t have rental properties or didn’t have that dream.
Or weren’t cleaning out rentals at 14 years older, basically doing like bandit signs almost, or, uh, gorilla marketing, you know, on the back of a moped in another country. So I think that builds something inside you. That of course no one can ever take away. And it makes you a better business person and strong.
Kevin: For sure, for sure. I think when you, your back is against the wall, right. And you really have nothing to lose. Right. So anything you’re just open to trying anything, everything, uh, you know, I, I, I didn’t [00:06:00] grow up with, you know, my family didn’t grow up with lots of money. Right. Um, we’re just kind of like a, on the lower end of the middle, uh, middle, uh, class family income bracket.
So. Yeah. So my mom was always, you know, she has that mentality of saving every dollar and she has that mentality of not owing any, anybody, any, any debt, but, you know, you know, Robert Kiosaki, uh, you know, he mentioned about the good debt and the bad debt. So there’s, there’s a paradigm shift that, you know, uh, you need to have as well, you know, uh, you know, buying a fancy car, that’s really, you know, kind of like a bad debt, but in the only real estate and use.
Uh, the, the, the, the, the rental income to, you know, pay off the mortgage and, you know, accumulate that equity. That’s, that’s, that’s a good debt. So she, she doesn’t like to owe any money to anybody. Um, so everything that she has is owe payoff. So that’s a paradigm that needs to be changed. [00:07:00] You know. Yeah, yeah,
Dylan: absolutely.
I, and I’ve, I’ve talked to a lot of first generation, um, and you’re not even first generation really. I mean, you, you came when you were 14, but you’re kind of, kind of first generation, at least building your own business here. So that paradigm shift can be tough, but again, you’ve got the old school behind you, that foundation that will never be taken away or shaken.
And then you kind of have that new school way of thinking. And you’re one of the only guys I know who I believe still owns multiple. Um, luxury vehicles or sports cars, right. And you don’t hardly drive any of ’em you just lease ’em out to
Kevin: other people. Yeah. Yeah. I still do that. And, uh, that’s another like kind of like passive income business that I have and, uh, you know, we just rent out our cars on tour and, um, yeah.
It’s, it’s it’s good. Yeah. So I’m about like Cy hustle, like anything that can make money that I’m, I’m open to, like anything that can create passive income without me being in the business. Uh I’m I’m I’m so open to like investing in.
Dylan: [00:08:00] So I think a lot of newer investors and, and a lot of our, uh, listeners and, and viewers, uh, are, are just getting started, um, or, or maybe getting to that next level.
So when did you figure out that you were kind of addicted to this idea of passive income versus just flipping or being a wholesaler or just being a regular landlord? You know, like what most investors talk about?
Kevin: Uh, I. Um, I was never worried about money, even though I, I, I knew that, you know, we need money to really kind of like survive.
We need money to pay for food. Pay for utility and so forth. Right. But at, at a certain point, uh, it’s, it’s almost just like, it’s, it’s, it’s a byproduct of the work that you put into wherever that you’re passionate about. So I guess I was really passionate about real estate. And, um, I tell you, it gives me so much gratification to [00:09:00] turn an ugly duckling of a distressed property into like a beautiful wan of just, oh my God.
I, I just wanna own that property. Right? You walk into a house, you look at the kitchen, you look at the bathroom, you look at the flooring, you look at the decor of the home. You say, Hey, I want, I want this home. I wanna live in it. Right. So that, that gives me a sense of gratification. I, I I’m, I mean, I, I, I believe that everybody is a creator, right?
Uh, we’re we’re, we’re meant to were, um, you know, we’re, um, meant to create something on this earth. Right. So, um, I guess I was given this, um, you know, uh, I guess passion or,
Dylan: um, yeah, ability gift all the,
Kevin: all the above, right. To, to, to create something like this. And, uh, just wanna, you know, do something with hard assets if you will.
And I think real estate for me is kind of like the, the, the entry to, you know, create something with my own hands [00:10:00] and also with my, uh, creative.
Dylan: Yeah. And we’ll, we’ll talk a little bit later about creating marketing because I’m a big marketing guy. So are you now? And, uh, I don’t wanna jump into that yet, but we’re gonna talk a lot about short form video and TikTok and reels and shorts, all that cool stuff.
But before we get there, what advice do you have? Um, to newer investors? Maybe even not new, but those who are not yet doing, we call it Airbnb, but it’s really short term rental. Right? So. What, what advice do you have for someone like me? I don’t have any short term rentals. How do, how do I get started? How do I approach.
Kevin: Uh, I would say that, uh, first of all, it’s, it’s about the mindset. I think that you have to close the, the doing and the knowing gap. We can know a lot, but if we don’t do right, it doesn’t really mean anything. I’m a person of just application. I just apply what I learned and I try to close the, the, the knowing and the doing gap.
I stumble upon Airbnb. , you know, in the earlier [00:11:00] stages of my career, you know, like we fixed and flip a lot of properties. I thought to myself, Hey, uh, there must be a way for us to also, you know, cash flow on those properties. Right. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s why, you know, when we sell a flip, you know, we gotta Hong, you know, and look for the next deal.
Right. So it’s, it’s, it’s just a transactional business and it doesn’t really. Help us to grow passive income, right. To get cash flow that way. Right. You sell a house, that’s it. And you gotta go and look for another deal. So. And in California, like, you know, unlike, you know, all the, all the other states in the Midwest, we can’t really possibly cash flow on a, you know, 300, $400,000 home, right.
Of the mortgage payment versus the rent that you get. It’s just kind of like upside down. Right? You, you, you ended up just having negative cash flow every single month. So for us to really make it work and I, I, I call it the bird two point. yeah, [00:12:00] the first strategy 2.0, is that, uh, you know, instead of, uh, renting it long term, we just, we just rent it short term and usually it can get anywhere from 130 to $150 a night.
And not only do you, are you able to just pay out the underlying mortgage obligation? You’ll get about like 15 to $2,000 of cash flow there per property. So if you can just do, like, I don’t know if, imagine you do two or a year. Five years you’ll get $20,000. So passive income, right?
Dylan: Yeah. So you mentioned your California market.
I don’t think you talked about being in Sacramento specifically, but if what is a regular, we’ll just try to do this really quick. Not go too deep, but a regular fix and flip your average profit in. Today on a fix and flip, and the time invested versus finding one of those long term rentals. Um, you know, at what point do you make as much money on your long term rental as you did on your fix and flip, except that long term rental keeps going.
Kevin: [00:13:00] Right? So, uh, We make about $60,000 per flip. And the, uh, we like to buy homes around like right now, right? It’s about like, uh, the late two hundreds. So like, you know, or the, uh, the, uh, early 300 S or, you know, Uh, that, that kind of range engine, we flip it and then sell it for four 50 and we make about, you know, 50, 60,000.
Uh, so assuming right each home is giving you like $2,000 of, uh, cash flow. Uh, you can make that $60,000 back with. 30 properties. Okay. it may sound like a lot. Right. But you have also factor in the fact that you don’t have to work anymore. You just own that 30 properties. And if you have management in place, right.
Because cuz I, I, I do. And uh, you know, I’m not really in the business. Uh, it’s just purely [00:14:00] 60,000 go to you and $60,000 a month. That’s a lot of. For a lot of individual, right. Uh, imagine what you can do with $60,000 of profit. That’s coming to your, you know, that’s almost close to a million dollars, a.
Dylan: Yeah, and, and it, and what’s the B you know, we don’t have to talk about this, but, you know, thinking a little deeper, like what’s the borrowing power on, on $60,000 a month, if you can prove that that’s coming in, so you can borrow a lot of money, if you can prove to someone that you’re bringing in to $60,000 a month.
Um, so what, what do you, I guess, what do you love best just you yourself, about, about short term rentals?
Kevin: Um, I, well, so. I’ve gotten a lot of properties from, uh, Brun out landlords. And, uh, I get PTSD just by, by looking at these houses and I don’t ever wanna put myself in that situation. I’m not saying that I’m not a responsible landlord or anything.
Uh, nobody wants to be a SL lo [00:15:00] right. Uh, but at the end of the day, it’s not really your property. And you would not take care of that property as if it’s yours. So I, I get it from the perspective of a tenant, right. Uh, and you know, and, and you’re not really living the property, so you don’t really know. So you really, you you’re really dependent upon your tenant to tell you, Hey, this is wrong.
Hey, you gotta fix this. And sometimes tenants don’t tell you, or sometimes tenants are okay. The deferred maintenance. Right. And, uh, so when you have tenants that move out, you usually get like a 10, $15,000. I don’t know. Right. Of, uh, you know, uh, repair pay ticket ticket, its right. And that’s not really always, uh, Easy to like kind of swallow.
Right. Um, so I, I, I’m the person that I just wanna maintain my properties really well. So every time, if there’s anything that breaks, you know, we can just address those. [00:16:00] So, uh, I think that the, uh, that the value of these properties, um, you, you, you can retain a lot more value at these properties cuz they, again, taken care of a lot more, uh, better than, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, the properties that’s rented to, you know, long term tenant.
Dylan: Yeah, it’s basically called moral hazard. Right? It’s it’s like if you’ve got a 16 year old son and you give him a brand new red Corvette, how hard is he going to work to take care of that? Versus if he’s 50 years old and he saved every penny that he ever made to buy that Corvette. Right. So they, they just don’t care as much.
Doesn’t mean that some don’t care, but in, in general, you’re gonna have a little bit of heartache, uh, when you have a lot of tens. Yeah, for sure. So what would you say. The biggest mistake that you see real estate investors making when they move into short term rentals in the very beginning.
Kevin: Uh, so I think that it’s been talked about so much right now that it seems like if you [00:17:00] talk to anybody, any real estate investor on the, on the street, they’ll say I wanna do short term.
Yeah, but they don’t really understand that the number has to work out too. Right? You can’t just buy a luxury short term rental, expect that to make $10,000 a month. Right. It’s not really turnkey that way. There’s a lot of support system around it. Right. You need to have, I, I tell you, cleaning is so foundational to this business.
If cleaning is not done right, you get one or two of bad review. You’re you’re you are basically over, right? Uh, I mean, just imagine yourself, checking yourself into a hotel and then you see a, a hair on a toilet seat, right? You would just call and say, Hey, I want, I want a room change. And maybe the next thing is the hotel is gonna get, get a battery review from you.
So they do a lot of just making sure those things don’t happen. If they happen, they’ll probably give you a free state, something like that. And we don’t want that to happen to us, cuz that means [00:18:00] it’s it’s. Uh, uh, three day, four days of loss, right. Money. Uh, so, so I say that the biggest mistake that a newbie can make is not to really consider the things that, uh, will have to kind of make sure it’s it’s happening seamlessly and working really.
For this to happen. Yeah. You know, we look at the numbers, but a lot of times, right, we don’t look at the downside or the risks that’s associated with. And the most important thing is to mitigate those risks so that, uh, you know, you go into the business and you have the, the right kind of expectation.
Dylan: Yeah, I think customers nowadays, I thank God.
I don’t have a business where I have a hundred customers walking in every day because people are so quick to complain. And I know that, you know, you’ve, you’ve traveled a lot and I don’t know if we travel more than the average person, but we, we, we be get to see each other because we get to travel and there’s nothing worse than rolling into a hotel room at 9:00 PM [00:19:00] or 10:00 PM and it’s dirty or stinky or whatever.
And it’s like, even if you change it, the other one’s probably stinky too. So, so what do you do? Right. So it’s very, yeah, it’s very, it’s a. For Airbnb, um, owners or for short term rental owners is it should be stick and span, like walking into a Mercedes dealership. You should be able to, you know, touch the floor with your finger and not have any dust on it.
Kevin: Yeah. And a lot of people, right? Like you and I were traveling for work, but a lot of people are traveling for vacation and they wouldn’t mind paying the extra, I don’t know, $100 per hour. Right. Just to get the experience because. The comfort of the pillow, the bed means so much to Larry vacation, the overall experience.
Right? I, I, I wouldn’t mind. I don’t know about you. I wouldn’t mind paying, you know, a couple, you know, a hundred dollars more just so that I have, I can have a good time. I can create like everlasting moments, you know, memories with my family. Right? So that, that means so much to me. And I wanna make sure that as a, you know, responsible host, I can [00:20:00] provide that experience and, uh, you know, moments for, for guests that’s traveling, whether they’re here for work or for vacation.
Yeah.
Dylan: Yeah. And Kevin, you’re building a brand, whether we know it or not, right. You’re building a brand as a short term rental owner. And, um, you need, uh, for now, anyways, you need those websites to say great things about you, because if somebody’s in there saying bad things, it’s terrible. I’m never gonna rent an Airbnb.
If it says that, like I said, it was stinkier, like you said, there’s some weird stuff all over the, in the bathroom or something like that. It’s like, no, thank you. I choose the next one. Right? So, um, so talking about branding, well, you know, before we go on to that, let me ask you this. So. You and I met because of investor fuel, right?
So, uh, nationwide mastermind, not really a networking group, but there’s a lot of networking that goes on there when, when we do mastermind. Right. So we talk about each other’s challenges, help each other, kind of get to the next level and hang out and have fun. So, uh, before, before investor fuel, uh, [00:21:00] and, and I guess like when you first started as a real estate investor, how important was networking to you then versus how important it is to you today?
Kevin: I think that networking is so important from the very beginning, uh, especially in this line of work, right. That cuz uh, I, I think that, uh, you just, you cannot live on island by yourself, right there. There’s a lot of, uh, support system you need to have. As a real estate investor, whether real estate investor, or, uh, a, a realtor so much the more cuz realtor, you know, you have to network with, uh, home sellers, you have to network with, uh, realtors in your, in your office, your brokers and other agents and so forth.
Right. You probably need to network with lenders, you do a lot of open houses, get contact information and you put them into a follow campaign and then you, you touch up, you know, follow up with them like every now and then that’s how you get your business, right? [00:22:00] Uh, for us it’s the same too. Like we have to do a lot of follow ups, right.
With these owners that’s in our database, you know, and say, Hey, you know, Mr. So, and so are you interested in selling your home right now? You know, maybe 3, 2, 3 months ago. It wasn’t a good. But are you ready to move on? The market is still doing well. Right? Uh, it’s still good to sell right now, you know, are you, are you open to making that move right?
So you to always constantly touch up and it really just, I go and I network with realtors so that they know Kevin is a big time flipper in town and he’s ready to buy that house to stress home and you cannot sell on the market. Right. Just, you know how GI gimme the first. Right before you just, you know, blast it out, uh, on the open, you know, market, you know, I I’m willing to pay, you know, oh, cash I can close in 14 days or less, you know, that’s my, you know, promise to you and, you know, I’ll do whatever I can to close that house for you.
Right. And I’ve done that many, many times. That’s why I have that relationship or that [00:23:00] trust with the realtors. And, uh, they can, you know, go on our website and see all the testimonials. So that instant credibility is so important. Um, I’m sorry. I, I forgot your question. Oh,
Dylan: I was talking about, yeah. Like how important networking is to your business?
Not, not, not necessarily just investor fuel and, and what we do together, but just in general.
Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so that’s, that’s so important. And, um, I think, especially when you start, when you start in this business, is I, the way that I started is I, I started going to, you know, the RS, right? The local R, and that’s how I met the wholesalers.
And I got to find out the biggest house selling in town, where I actually went to her house to. You know, to pick a brain and to pick up all the marketing, uh, tactics, right. Uh, you know, direct to seller marketing tactics from her. And that’s kind of like, I think that’s worth, you know, uh, it’s it’s price [00:24:00] priceless.
Yeah. Tons of value there. Right. And, uh, I, I wouldn’t trip for anything less. So I think, especially when you’re, when you’re starting, gotta go to these events. Right. And we do a lot of zoom right now. So what is really stopping you from just turning on your computer, right. And then just signing on, and then just say hi to, you know, whoever is, you know, right across, you know, from you, you know, I maybe like 1,000 miles away from you.
Right. We can just do this, like virtual. There’s no barrier, right? No entry to barrier it’s it’s technology is making it so much easier to do it now, right. To network with people, right. Not just locally, but across the whole United States. Yeah.
Dylan: Yeah, I totally agree. We’re obviously shooting this right now on zoom, so we don’t have to be together.
Uh, myself, I’ve been running real estate, investing events and groups since, um, 2005 ish. And, uh, during the, the pandemic, we started doing a lot of stuff on zoom. We were doing happy hours. It wasn’t even so much real estate investing related, [00:25:00] but I met a bunch of people. I never stopped meeting people and I’m doing hard business, like money making business with some of those guys and girls today.
Because I never stopped networking because I can’t, you know, I like to network just like you like to create tos. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna switch gears and talk about that now. So about, um, I don’t know if it was six or nine months ago, Kevin and I were hanging out and he’s just started creating some short term, uh, or some, some short form video.
And, uh, I probably had five times as many short form videos on my, on my Instagram, uh, page as Kevin had at that point. Now he’s got. Thousand times as many as me. And he is like, I’m going into this thing all in I’m serious. And, um, and he has a ton of great content. So down below, we’re gonna have all the links to Kevin’s channels, all his social channels.
So make sure that you guys subscribe to those and follow ’em because you can learn a lot on how to market, but I want to talk a little bit about, I don’t know what, what your favorite channel is, so you can tell us whether it’s TikTok or, or Instagram and, [00:26:00] uh, and. Is so fun about creating short term videos, uh, that has you creating so many Kevin?
Kevin: Uh, it was really, I guess it wasn’t really just kind of like fun for me. Uh, but it does actually force me to. Really just produce the creative juice or to actually make it happen for me cuz every single day I remember, right. Like I have to look for contents. So I’m very well aware of what is being put out out there.
Right. And then I will save those reels, those popular videos on tit TikTok. And then I would just. Kind of copy them, right. The music that they use, the content, right. And what is popular, what catches people’s eyes, so on and so forth. I, I think that’s important, but in the back of, you know, building this out is really to just tell people the story and really just to, you know, tell people about the personal brand, right.
Kevin. [00:27:00] Right. And then this is what he does. Right. And you feel interested in learning more about Kevin or his business please? D and Kevin. So that kind of opens up the door and people can just look you up on, uh, Instagram on TikTok, right? Because that, that builds instant credibility, right? Kevin is doing business actively.
You know, he’s not like somebody who is like talking about real estate 10 years ago. Right. He’s still active. Right. And social media, right. The posts, you know, he’s got dates and so forth. That means that, Hey, you’re still in the business of doing real estate. Right. So I, I should do business with this person.
Yeah.
Dylan: So, so when you decided to get pretty serious about short term video, why did you choose short term video versus 30 minute YouTube videos? As, as an example,
Kevin: Uh, I thought about, uh, so I, I guess this is really a bias opinion of mine, and I think that, uh, maybe social media can’t really. Uh, provide hard data of why this is the case.[00:28:00]
And, and I, I guess, I guess it’s, it’s the case because YouTube is doing shorts as well. Right? I think that we have a very short attention span. Nobody is gonna watch like a 30 minute, like YouTube video, me, myself. I’m I’m not type of person. I just don’t have that 30 minutes to watch the video from, uh, beginning to the end, even.
Uh, I was just told by a producer that he is got a lot of films on Netflix. And Netflix is to say, Hey, we’re gonna start paying you less because we know we started to notice that people are not watching the, uh, the movies, uh, you know, uh, you know, they’re, they’re basically just clicking out of the movies after watching for like a minute or two.
Right? So, uh, the, the royalty that we’re paying you is going to be less now. Uh, I, so I think. We are so bombarded with so many things that can distract us can, so you have, have only can capture someone else’s attention for like, I don’t know, a few seconds at the, at the very most right. Especially first two [00:29:00] seconds.
If your video is not interesting, right. It doesn’t provide value valuable, you know, people is gonna just know school, square it off the page. Right. So I think that’s so important right now. I learned about you, Dylan, would you watch something that’s like more than a minute? Um, and is super boring
Dylan: well, no, definitely.
So they, they have an acronym in, in copywriting, which is the same as creating content. And it’s C U B Cub, you know, like a little Cub, like a little, um, li lion Cub or bear Cub. So is it confusing, unbelievable, or boring, so you don’t want it to be confusing, which. Some of us like you and I, if we keep talking about this stuff, we’ll confuse everybody because we love it.
Right? So we go too deep. Unbelievable. Kevin’s like, I’m making $7 million a minute with short term rentals. We know that that’s a lie. And then boring is like, Hey Kevin, how are you today? You know, like, no one wants to hear that. So you, and I know because we kind of study this stuff that even with your reels or TikTok every three seconds almost you want something [00:30:00] to happen or change because people are like this or like this, or they’re constantly swiping up.
I think what what’s been proven, like you just said is our attention spans are shorter. And the short form video is really the top of the funnel as they say. So if somebody sees Kevin and they’re like, ah, Kevin’s cool. I like that. And I really like short term rentals. So if I’m gonna learn from somebody I’ll I’ll, I’ll watch, I’ll follow this guy then after seeing 10 or 12 or 15 over the next month, they’re like, wow, this guy actually knows what he’s talking about.
He’s not just being silly and running over things with this car or whatever, all these other, you know, YouTube and TikTok people do. Then I think what happens is they start to look deeper into what you’re offering or, or, or what. Um, and then I think that’s where the longer form comes in, but for sure the ladder is there now.
It’s kinda like a reverse ladder. You know, it’s a funnel, but. You definitely have to put more thought into it. It’s okay. We could do, we could make one right now, which I’m not ready to do. Right. Cause my phone’s using the timer, but we could make one right now and it’ll work. Cuz sometimes some of that stuff we just [00:31:00] come up with is perfect.
But to really be serious about creating content, especially short form video, you’ve gotta have things written down. You’re saving things. You’re studying. You’re looking at what songs are popular. The hashtags. You’ll tell me, and I’ll tell you, we know it’s a lot of work, but when you make that commitment, you know, let’s, let’s talk about each, each channel.
Maybe you don’t know your exact numbers, but do you have any idea on Instagram, how many followers you’ve gained in the last year and how many total views, maybe that you’ve had just an estimation in the last 12 months. And I don’t know if you’ve been focused even for 12 months or it’s been less.
Kevin: I tell you, we get about 6,000 followers and these are organic followers, you know?
And, uh, we get about 1000 views per reel. And right now, if you check my page, right, it’s all about reels. We pay, we, we put so much emphasis on reels and I believe that Rios, um, is probably the next [00:32:00] thing. Next next big thing then just like static posts that, you know, Hey, swipe left, you know, so that you can continue.
I think that the Rios are going to capture a lot more people’s engagement than ever. And, uh, so we’re just really just, you know, kind of completely shift our strategies just to do reels and Rios alone. Yeah. So,
Dylan: and how many reels do you think that you have on your Instagram channel right now?
Kevin: Oh, we probably, I don’t know, like maybe 300 plus
Dylan: 300.
And your average is a thousand views. Let’s. Yeah, well, that’s 300,000 views, so you can’t buy, you can buy that, but it, it isn’t as effective and it isn’t as deep, you know, and, and, you know, it’s a real life, uh, story right now. I did a real, about a week ago, my friend came to the office. So I, I like just recorded me walking up to him.
He’s in the middle of the street. I put on a cool song, put on a filter. There was no real estate investing involved other than my caption said, you know, today I get to spend time with Kevin Lee, one of the greatest real estate [00:33:00] investors of all time. And um, just yesterday, a week or two, after I posted it, my, my views doubled because somebody caught it, somebody shared it.
I don’t know what it was. And that makes me smile. And who do, who really loves that? My friend, Kevin, if he’s the one who I, who I shared that, or you know, who I tagged in there. So there, there’s definitely a lot of bonuses to that. And this whole, show’s not about social media marketing, but. But the short,
Kevin: sometimes it does surprise me.
The reals you think are not going to capture, get so many views. They’re the ones that are like you, you you’d be surprised. Gold. Why would people like look at someone’s ring camera? Like what ring camera is capturing? Uh, And there’s like, I, I, I’m sorry to say, there’s silly people out there that are just looking for reels and they actually get captured, you know, by, you know, these silly things that we put out.
Right. So I, I, I wouldn’t, uh, deemphasize these things that you think will be boring to your audience, let your audience dictate, you know, what is going to capture their attention. [00:34:00] Right. And then just push out these contents to, to your a. Yeah. And that’s maybe how you grow your niche that way too. Dylan.
Yeah. Yeah. I,
Dylan: I totally agree with you. Uh, if you’re doing it organically, what they’re attracted to is what they’re attracted to. And, uh, and you just don’t know. There’s been times probably just like you I’ve spent maybe 45 minutes. On a real one, one or two times. And I’m like, this is gonna be the greatest one of all time and it, and it just gets no views and I’m not selling anything.
I’m not saying come to my, you know, click the link. None of that stuff. I just thought Dylan was cool. And Dylan wasn’t cool. so, so what advice can you give Kevin to, uh, to real estate investors who are shy to do short form video or just haven’t started yet? Like what, what, how did, how did you get started?
Kevin: Uh, so I, I was really shy, very, very, uh, you know, very, at the very beginning, uh, I didn’t wanna be like in front of the camera. Um, I don’t really I’m, I’m not really [00:35:00] articulate. Right. And, uh, you know, uh, kind of like broken English if you will. Right. Uh, uh, my, my thoughts are always, you know, my, my speech is always behind my thoughts.
Right. Uh, but, uh, you can do a lot of. Rios without you being a camera, right. Just shooting like a video out, maybe a walk throughout the property. Uh, or you can just do a real where just pointing things. Right. If you wanna just do a list of things, right. What, what is, you know, the list of things that you need to do to get a property ready?
Right. So on, so forth and just, you know, adding like some popular music and, uh, you know, just make it that way. Or you can just script it. I mean, it, it is no more than one minute. And usually what I do is I would just break it into like, uh, you know, just paragraphs and, uh, I would just remember the, each paragraph it’s one or two sentences, and then you would just splice them together and make into one real, uh, you know, long video, no more than a minute.
And then you would use a caption [00:36:00] application, right? Uh, it’s gonna transcribe so that you have caption for people who’s got hearing or death. Right? So you, you, you. Both, uh, audience that way. Uh, so, uh, I, I, I say, just get started, you know, I started this, what, uh, maybe, uh, a quarter or two ago, Dylan. Right. Um, and I was, I was being really emotional about it cuz I’ve been told if you’re consistent enough, you’ve pushed your content for like three months.
Right. You’re bound to. Uh, so I want to like kind of destroy that belief or that, uh, you know, so I, I try them myself and, you know, look, look at how many, like followers that we have and how many views, like you mentioned, you know, 300,000 views and that’s a lot, but at the end of the day, uh, I put my customers or audience first.
Yeah. I, I, I, I wanna, I wanna know, you know, what they’re attracted to, and I’m just gonna continue to produce those contents that attract their attention. Ultimately, it’s gonna come back to me, [00:37:00] right. Whether it’s like doing a business where I get a lot of people that, you know, wholesalers, Hey, Kevin found this house, you know, do you mind taking a look at it?
You know, they D me on Instagram, so that’s like free market in there. And why, why don’t you just use it? Yeah.
Dylan: Yeah, it definitely works. Uh, I think when we first start doing this stuff, I’ve been a content creator for a long time. Doesn’t mean I’m a good one, but I didn’t really have a, a target or a focus.
My focus was more like I’m in Metro Detroit. So if everybody knows me, I’m either gonna get the deals or I can wholesale or partner or find money, whatever that is for me to buy and sell real estate in whatever capacity is working at that point, you know, in the economy. And, and for the last couple years, I’ve been a little bit more focused on, on some other businesses that I, that I’m doing.
And I’ve been able to add some, uh, some members and, and get in front of some other people just because of content. And a lot of it is, it starts with the, with the short, uh, you know, the short form video, uh, because that’s just what people wanna see now. And, and, and it’s, and it’s what everybody’s doing. So, um, [00:38:00] Kevin, as we’re, as we’re coming close to a close here, what, um, what is the best?
Where, where do you want people to go to follow you right now?
Kevin: Uh, so they can, uh, really just, uh, you know, get on Instagram and follow me there. Uh, it’s insightful, Kevin. Kevin Lee. Yeah. Um, and, uh, they can, uh, just go to our website as well. If, uh, you know, they are interested in selling a home, right. Uh, insightful.
I buy houses there. Uh, they can just pay me on Instagram as well. And, uh, I’m, I’m very responsive there and, uh, you know, we can, uh, start there that way.
Dylan: Very cool. And, uh, so before, before I take us out, do you have any last words on either. Term rentals or short form video. Everything with Kevin is short and he’s not short.
He’s tall.
Kevin: Okay. I like that. Um, I just, uh, wanna encourage all the listeners to just get started. [00:39:00] Right? There’s it’s it is never too late. I think the time is now. Yeah. So don’t wait if you have, uh, a bug yeah. About real estate, just, uh, you know, get on it, you know, there’s so much help that you can get in the industry and there’s so many successful stories, so many people that have made.
Right in this business, and there’s always people out there who are open to help you to pay forward. And I think that’s what this show is all about, right. Is to, you know, help listeners, you know, beginners to know anything, everything about real estate, right? So that you, you go out there and you have some kind of knowledge.
Right. And as you apply this knowledge, you’ll get more experience. Right. And eventually you’ll be, you know, one of the guest speakers on flip nerd. Yeah. So, uh, you never know, but, uh, I think that, um, We can never graduate. Yeah. Uh, [00:40:00] this is the school of heart knocks and, uh, every day there’s always, you know, new things you can learn, uh, just, uh, be humble and be a sponge.
Right. And you’ll, you’ll learn, you’ll be the expert. And, uh, you know, one day you’ll become a guest speaker on the show. Yeah,
Dylan: that’s an awesome message. Kevin, I think, you know, Flipp nerd’s been around for a long time. There’s 1500 plus episodes and videos. So if, uh, if any of our listeners or Watchers today are not yet subscribed, we want you to be armed with what you need to go out there and talk to those people that you’re doing business with.
Just like Kevin says. So make sure to subscribe. Uh, you can subscribe. On iTunes or Spotify, or if you wanna subscribe on YouTube and watch, watch us instead of just listening to us. And of course, if you haven’t left us a review, please love it. Leave us a big, shiny, I don’t know, at least five star review.
Right. And just tell the truth. Tell, tell everybody how awesome this show’s been. Um, but Kevin’s right. That’s what it’s all about. It’s. Making it happen taking that [00:41:00] first step. And sometimes it’s, it’s not the easiest step, but it’s the most important one. So if you wanna learn more about me, there’s links to my stuff below there’s links to all of Kevin’s, um, channels below.
So you can make sure that you follow Kevin and subscribe so you can figure out how the heck to take over the short term rentals and short form video. And, uh, and AF as we always say, we’ll see you guys on the next show.
Kevin: Sounds good. Thank you so much. All right.
Ready. Thanks for listening to today’s show.
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