How Austin Hair Built a Niche in Healthcare Real Estate Site Selection Strategy
In this episode of Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing, Austin Hair breaks down a powerful and often overlooked niche: healthcare real estate site selection strategy. His journey from professional athlete to real estate entrepreneur highlights how identifying underserved niches and leveraging data can unlock significant opportunities in today’s market.
Austin started in real estate through house hacking, inspired by Rich Dad Poor Dad, and quickly learned how strategic property use could generate income and financial freedom. Over time, he transitioned into a specialized role helping healthcare operators find and secure optimal locations, ultimately building a scalable and highly profitable business model.
Why Healthcare Real Estate Is a “Blue Ocean”
One of the biggest takeaways is why healthcare real estate remains a strong opportunity for investors. Austin explains that healthcare tenants such as dental practices, urgent care centers, and veterinary clinics are:
- Recession resistant
- Pandemic resistant
- High-credit tenants with stable income
- Long-term occupants with strong lease security
This makes them ideal for investors seeking predictable cash flow and lower risk compared to other commercial asset classes like office or traditional retail.
Additionally, many healthcare operators are restricted from owning real estate due to private equity structures, which creates a unique opportunity for investors to step in as landlords and developers.
The Core of a Healthcare Real Estate Site Selection Strategy
Austin emphasizes that successful site selection is driven by data, not assumptions. His process involves layering multiple data points to identify the best possible locations. Key factors include:
- High visibility locations (main intersections, strong signage)
- Proximity to major retail anchors like grocery stores
- Traffic patterns and consumer behavior
- Demographic alignment with target patients
- Competitive mapping to avoid oversaturated areas
One of the most valuable insights he shares is using grocery store data to track where ideal customers already shop, then positioning healthcare services nearby to capture that traffic.
Single Tenant vs. Multi-Tenant Strategy
Rising costs in land, labor, and construction have made single-tenant developments harder to pencil. As a result, Austin and his team are increasingly shifting toward multi-tenant developments.
This strategy allows investors to:
- Offset costs with higher-paying retail tenants
- Reduce rent burden on healthcare operators
- Increase overall project viability and returns
While multi-tenant deals introduce more complexity and leasing risk, they can significantly improve profitability when executed correctly.
Short-Term Rentals and Event-Based Income Strategy
Beyond healthcare real estate, Austin also dives into his short-term rental strategy, particularly focusing on high-end, experience-driven properties. He explains that the short-term rental market has evolved into three phases:
- Basic listings with minimal effort
- Clean, hotel-like experiences
- Unique, destination-style properties
Today, success requires creating highly differentiated, “Instagrammable” experiences. His properties feature luxury amenities, themed designs, and large group accommodations.
One standout strategy is combining short-term rentals with event hosting, such as weddings. By layering event fees on top of nightly rental income, investors can dramatically increase revenue per property. Many existing event venues fail to capture this upside because they don’t offer overnight stays.
Why This Strategy Still Has Opportunity
Austin believes both healthcare real estate and event-based short-term rentals remain underutilized niches. In healthcare, barriers like data analysis and relationships keep many investors out. In short-term rentals, the shift toward hospitality and experience has eliminated less serious operators, creating space for those willing to build a real business.
He also points out that rising interest rates have created temporary friction, but for investors who can make deals work today, future refinancing opportunities could significantly boost returns.
About Austin Hair
Austin Hair is a real estate entrepreneur specializing in healthcare real estate site selection and development. He works with healthcare operators across the country to identify, secure, and develop high-performing locations. In addition, he actively invests in short-term rentals with a focus on unique, experience-driven properties that maximize cash flow through both lodging and event-based income.
If you want to hear the full conversation and detailed insights, watch the podcast video or read the complete transcript below.
Healthcare Real Estate Site Selection Strategy FAQ
What is a healthcare real estate site selection strategy?
A healthcare real estate site selection strategy is a data driven approach to identifying the best locations for medical, dental, and healthcare facilities. It focuses on analyzing demographics, traffic patterns, competition, and consumer behavior to position healthcare providers in high demand areas. The goal is to maximize patient access, increase revenue potential, and create long term value for both operators and real estate investors.
Why is healthcare real estate site selection important for investors?
Healthcare real estate site selection is critical because the success of a medical tenant is heavily dependent on location. A well selected site can lead to higher patient volume, stronger tenant performance, and more stable rental income. For investors, this translates into lower vacancy risk, consistent cash flow, and a more valuable asset over time.
What factors are considered in a healthcare real estate site selection strategy?
Key factors include population density, income levels, age demographics, traffic counts, visibility, and proximity to retail anchors like grocery stores. Investors and operators also evaluate competition in the area and ensure there is unmet demand. Accessibility, parking availability, and local zoning regulations are also essential components of the decision making process.
How does data improve healthcare real estate site selection?
Data allows investors to make informed decisions rather than relying on assumptions. By analyzing where target patients live, shop, and travel, investors can identify optimal locations with strong demand and limited competition. Layering multiple data sources such as demographic reports and retail traffic patterns helps pinpoint high performing sites with greater accuracy.
What types of healthcare tenants benefit most from strong site selection?
Tenants such as dental practices, urgent care centers, veterinary clinics, and outpatient medical services benefit the most from strong site selection. These businesses rely on convenience, visibility, and accessibility to attract patients. A well positioned location can significantly impact their growth and long term success.
Is healthcare real estate site selection different from other commercial real estate strategies?
Yes, healthcare real estate site selection differs because it prioritizes patient behavior and accessibility over traditional retail metrics alone. While retail focuses heavily on consumer spending, healthcare also considers medical demand, insurance coverage areas, and population health trends. This makes the strategy more specialized and often more resilient during economic downturns.
What are the benefits of investing in healthcare real estate with a strong site selection strategy?
Investors benefit from stable, long term tenants, predictable income, and reduced sensitivity to economic cycles. Healthcare tenants often sign longer leases and provide essential services, which helps maintain occupancy even during downturns. A strong site selection strategy enhances these advantages by ensuring the property is positioned for sustained demand.
How do retail anchors impact healthcare real estate site selection?
Retail anchors like grocery stores attract consistent daily traffic, which healthcare providers can leverage for visibility and convenience. Locating near these anchors increases exposure to potential patients and reinforces the property as a central hub in the community. This strategy helps drive higher patient volume and improves tenant performance.
What role does competition play in healthcare real estate site selection?
Competition analysis is a key part of site selection because oversaturated markets can limit patient growth. Investors aim to identify areas where demand exceeds supply, creating an opportunity for new healthcare providers to thrive. Mapping competitors alongside population data helps reveal gaps in the market.
Can healthcare real estate site selection strategy increase property value?
Yes, a strong healthcare real estate site selection strategy can significantly increase property value. When a property is located in a high demand area with a successful healthcare tenant, it becomes more attractive to buyers and lenders. This can lead to higher valuations, better financing terms, and improved long term returns for investors.
01:20:07:26 – 01:20:25:04
Rod Khleif
Welcome to another edition of Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing. I’m Rod Khleif and I am thrilled that you’re here and we are changing it up again today. So we’ve got a very cool guy here today. His name’s Austin here. And what he does now is site selection for health care groups. And he does short term rentals.
01:20:25:04 – 01:20:42:21
Rod Khleif
And we’re going to dig into site selection a little bit also into the star space. But what’s cool is was a professional wake boarder. And most recently he was an American Ninja Warrior finalist. Him and his wife, she was born as well. And she’s going to be on this year as well. And now he’s, become a capitalist instead of having fun.
01:20:42:21 – 01:20:43:24
Rod Khleif
Right. Welcome to the show, bro.
01:20:43:28 – 01:20:45:03
Austin Hair
Yeah, man, I appreciate that.
01:20:45:04 – 01:20:59:12
Rod Khleif
Yeah. So. So, why don’t you do a much better job of talking about who you are than I just did? And, you know, kind of let us know why you’ve done some of the things you’ve done, and, and, and then bring us current.
01:20:59:16 – 01:21:23:15
Austin Hair
Yeah, sure. I feel like I’ve had, like, you know, my version 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 because it’s been like kind of drastic career changes, but there’s a lot of overlap. So I’ll kind of give some context around it might help. So started out wakeboarding when I was really young around like 12 years old. And just focus on that, you know, like wanted to go pro like that was I mean, I still wanted to do good in school and I did college, but like my primary focus was definitely wakeboarding.
01:21:23:18 – 01:21:31:21
Austin Hair
And so as I was getting older, I just kind of saw like, you know, like in your career, athletic wise, you kind of go like this and then your income kind of starts to do this.
01:21:31:23 – 01:21:32:28
Rod Khleif
Go up and then you go down.
01:21:32:29 – 01:21:49:19
Austin Hair
Yeah, business. You can kind of keep doing this and this and that keeps going up. Yeah. So because I had a passion for fitness like I, you know I had to stay fit and healthy to do this. I opened up some gyms in Orlando. Oh cool. Yeah. And so well actually if I back up a second when I was wakeboarding, I got into real estate by reading Rich dad, Poor Dad, of course.
01:21:49:19 – 01:22:06:03
Austin Hair
And yep. And found out about house hacking. So, you know, I was a single young guy, brought in other roommates to live with me and, essentially pay my rent. That allowed me save enough money to buy a house. And then I was kind of doing the same thing. Like I had a house where, you know, I’d run out all the other rooms, like there was a guest house on the property.
01:22:06:03 – 01:22:22:05
Austin Hair
That sort of thing was like a house on the lake with a great view. Wake words would come in and pay to live there and and stuff like that. And so that kind of like helped me get out of the rat race. So was doing that, that was like obviously very passive. And then as I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the wakeboarding, I started to open up some fitness centers.
01:22:22:05 – 01:22:24:22
Rod Khleif
Besides try to see the you start to see the end of the tunnel.
01:22:24:22 – 01:22:31:18
Austin Hair
Yeah. Gosh. Right. Yeah. The end of the tunnel. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was, it was I was getting old. Yeah.
01:22:31:18 – 01:22:36:13
Rod Khleif
It’s like all athletes, you know, I have that window of opportunity. Yeah. Anyway, continue.
01:22:36:13 – 01:22:51:03
Austin Hair
Yeah. So, you know, I, I saw it as a platform, I, I tried it like, which did help me get into real estate. And then it also did help me get into, opening up the fitness centers. And so that I was essentially going around opening what you would call de novo and health care, which just means like a startup, like, you know, you have acquisitions and you have to novos.
01:22:51:06 – 01:23:05:23
Austin Hair
And so I had done a couple of locations, and then that’s when I met my partner and we started looking for the fourth one and where I was going to go open it. And so in my head, I had this idea of like, okay, you know, I want to go to Winter Park. That’s like the cool, sexy area.
01:23:05:23 – 01:23:24:16
Austin Hair
I got to be there, but I want to go in Orlando. Yeah. And I want to stay away from Kissimmee because those demographics are garbage. Or so I thought. So we ran an analysis. My partner went like a couple layers deep with all of the, demographics and stuff like that. And what we found was actually Winter Park is super saturated, rents are really high and there’s a ton of competition.
01:23:24:18 – 01:23:25:25
Austin Hair
And Kissimmee was wide open.
01:23:25:28 – 01:23:26:10
Rod Khleif
Interest.
01:23:26:10 – 01:23:43:20
Austin Hair
And I had no idea because, you know, I learned that you can’t make good decisions without good data. Correct. So, that was really insightful. I actually luckily ended up selling the gyms right before Covid, so I sold them in 2019. Dodge that bullet. Yeah. And then my my partner invited me to start working with him full time on the real estate side.
01:23:43:20 – 01:23:49:28
Austin Hair
So a lot of like, you know, we’ll invest in properties, for the groups. But that’s, I would say sorry.
01:23:49:28 – 01:23:50:08
Rod Khleif
For what.
01:23:50:08 – 01:23:51:14
Austin Hair
Groups? Health care groups.
01:23:51:14 – 01:23:56:21
Rod Khleif
Gotcha. Okay. Yep. So we’re going to dig into all that. But I don’t understand your do Novo. What is that? De.
01:23:56:21 – 01:24:14:13
Austin Hair
Novo. It’s Latin for of nothing. From nothing. So, like, you can either. Like, if you have. I have an LLC that I have say I have 1 or 2 dental practices. Okay. I can either acquire other dental practice or I can start one de novo from, from scratch. Okay, okay. Got just a startup. Startup might be a better word.
01:24:14:13 – 01:24:30:16
Rod Khleif
Not know that lingo. Okay. Yeah. It’s like I learned more on these interviews than than I teach. All right. Good. All right. So so you’re now in the health care practice finding site locations for health care. Talk about talk about how that started and what you’ve done so far in that space.
01:24:30:22 – 01:24:50:24
Austin Hair
Yeah. So, you know, my partner had been doing that for about 14 years. And the urgent care space. Well, 12 well, I guess maybe ten years when we started working together. Now, now it’s been we’ve been together 14 years working together. And so yeah, he was just up in Ohio working with the group, and they decided to go health care focused because it was a little bit of a blue ocean.
01:24:50:24 – 01:24:51:24
Austin Hair
And it’s still kind of it’s.
01:24:51:24 – 01:24:52:21
Rod Khleif
Urgent care is.
01:24:52:21 – 01:24:53:24
Austin Hair
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:24:53:26 – 01:24:54:17
Rod Khleif
So I’ve been up all.
01:24:54:17 – 01:25:16:19
Austin Hair
Over the place. Yep. Urgent care is and it’s a lot of the same strategies, whether it’s urgent care or dental or that or derm or behavioral health. You know, you’re kind of looking for the corner of Maine and Maine, right, where you have great street signage and good visibility, high traffic. And then you want to kind of be close to you, maybe like a Publix or a grocery or anything like that, because you’re kind of piggybacking off of.
01:25:16:19 – 01:25:17:07
Rod Khleif
Their traffic.
01:25:17:07 – 01:25:23:19
Austin Hair
Off of their traffic. Exactly. So, you know, used to be medical was like recessed a couple roads back.
01:25:23:21 – 01:25:24:13
Rod Khleif
You had to find it.
01:25:24:13 – 01:25:25:18
Austin Hair
Got it. Yeah, exactly. Now they.
01:25:25:18 – 01:25:25:27
Rod Khleif
Want more.
01:25:25:27 – 01:25:31:26
Austin Hair
Visibility. Now they want more visibility. So we call it we call it med tail medical retail. Okay. But that’s the that’s the niche that we’re in now.
01:25:32:00 – 01:25:59:21
Rod Khleif
Well you know, I know and you know, I’ve been around this space, real estate space my whole life. And I know that, you know, very often, you know, a highly profitable practice, medical, dental, whatever it is, will want their own space. They want their own location. And, you know, if you can provide that site selection and so on and so forth, you know, you’ve got a locked in tenant, the financing is a slam dunk, you know, because you’ve already got the tenant.
01:25:59:21 – 01:26:07:18
Rod Khleif
And if especially if it’s a, you know, a medical practice that’s profitable, you know, then then it’s very salable. Would you as an exercise.
01:26:07:18 – 01:26:27:23
Austin Hair
Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. So it’s kind of funny, because with medical, there just hasn’t been a lot of distress. Right. So like health care in general, it’s pandemic resistant, recession resistant, inflation resistant. Right. And so you got a lot of these guys that have been paying their rents. Right. And so sellers who want to list it are like, well, I can get my price or I can hold it right.
01:26:27:23 – 01:26:34:22
Austin Hair
And so what that means it’s a very, very secure asset. Right. So you’re not going to be getting a lot of these like really distressed. They’ll come up.
01:26:34:22 – 01:26:40:22
Rod Khleif
It’s hard to find buildings you can buy. Yeah. Well you got to do the do own de novo piece is what you’re saying.
01:26:40:22 – 01:27:09:17
Austin Hair
Yeah yeah yeah. So there’s a because if you’re a private equity group, there’s a high probability that your backers and your, your LPN like your documents, your investor documents dictate that you only invest in certain this specific asset class. Right. And they prohibit you from investing in the real estate. So also like when it comes down to spreadsheet math, truthfully you’re probably gonna make more money operating a healthcare business, growing that, acquiring other building, starting I mean other than buying real estate, then buying real estate, right.
01:27:09:17 – 01:27:22:16
Austin Hair
Just spreadsheet math. So that kind of leaves a vacancy. So that’s what we do. Like our goal is to buy all the real estate. But I would say we probably to do about five deals for every one opportunity that we get to buy. So it’s just like, a numbers game. Okay.
01:27:22:16 – 01:27:27:02
Rod Khleif
Now I’m confused. Okay. You have to do five deals for you or you want to buy your own practice.
01:27:27:07 – 01:27:44:03
Austin Hair
No no no. Yeah. So it is confusing. So you got the operations right, which I realized like in general might be big group RPG group. They’re buying operations. Then you got the real estate and they’re two different buckets. But when it comes to real estate there’s there’s a lot of times where we just broker meaning we help them find a place to where they going to rent from the landlord.
01:27:44:05 – 01:27:55:03
Austin Hair
That’s probably 80, 90% of the time. But every one out of 5 or 1 out of ten times, there’s nothing available for them to lease. And and again, these guys have a specific,
01:27:55:05 – 01:27:59:29
Rod Khleif
So you direction about the operators like these urgent care operators, they are looking for sites.
01:27:59:29 – 01:28:00:26
Austin Hair
They can’t buy the real estate.
01:28:00:26 – 01:28:03:00
Rod Khleif
Sometimes they can’t. Interesting. Okay.
01:28:03:00 – 01:28:04:06
Austin Hair
Sometimes every group is different.
01:28:04:06 – 01:28:11:18
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Some of them do. I mean, you know, McDonald’s became wealthy buying the land. But yeah, some of them don’t want to screw with the land. Yeah. And that’s where you come.
01:28:11:18 – 01:28:14:01
Austin Hair
In and we’ll buy it on there and we’ll buy it. Well Lisa by.
01:28:14:01 – 01:28:29:25
Rod Khleif
Then. Lisa. Correct. Oh gosh, that’s the end goal. I was wondering what the where the profit was if it was a buy and sell or buy and lease. So to buy and lease binaries. Yeah okay. Yep. Is there is there a market that you’re targeting for these. Whatever. So you’re doing what other types of verticals are you doing.
01:28:29:25 – 01:28:39:29
Rod Khleif
You’re doing urgent care. Who are your clients that that you’re looking for. Yeah. And I think you mentioned before we started recording some of this you’re even willing to do on spec. So speak to that whole mix for me.
01:28:40:02 – 01:28:54:17
Austin Hair
Yeah. So I’ll answer both those questions. In order. Urgent care, right is one dental is actually a big one. So dental so with urgent care is they get hospital backed and then they kind of bring your all the real estate in-house. There’s a lot of red tape and it can take years and years and years. So that’s good until it’s not.
01:28:54:17 – 01:29:12:06
Austin Hair
But there’s still some opportunity but dental you know like they’re backed or they’re backed by a large group. But it’s not like a hospital backing. Right. So there’s more flexibility in terms of who they work with I see. And you know, they can bring on outside vendors like us. So we like dental a lot. Vet is like kind of similar to dental.
01:29:12:09 – 01:29:24:17
Austin Hair
You know, again, it’s like you’ve got these health care that they have good credit. They have good financials. Right. They’re looking for good visibility. And as a result, it’s a very, very, very stable and safe tenant. You know, it’s one of the central tenets of banks.
01:29:24:17 – 01:29:47:21
Rod Khleif
Very, very comfortable. Yeah. Especially with what’s happening economically right now with some of the other asset classes. We won’t even talk about office right now. Yeah. So your clients are the ultimate whatever it is lessees or you know, people that piece from you, and in these different disciplines. Yeah. I vet thousands of dollars with vets as well.
01:29:47:23 – 01:29:48:24
Austin Hair
That’s you dog.
01:29:48:24 – 01:30:06:02
Rod Khleif
Guy. My, my, my ex is very much so. I, but, you know, I yes, I like dogs, but not as much as she does, but, but. Yeah, so, so, you know, and then and then, of course, dental, I mean, that’s hugely profitable. If you Google highest margin businesses. Dental is right at the top.
01:30:06:03 – 01:30:20:28
Austin Hair
Yeah. And that’s one thing that’s kind of interesting too, is it’s both considered I’ve heard people classify it as a growth sector because so many boomers are retiring and needing extra health care. And then, you know, it’s also safety because like, it’s health care, right? Like you have to go. It’s not like a, like a luxury spending item.
01:30:20:28 – 01:30:32:02
Austin Hair
You have to go there. So that’s why we like it. And, and then you don’t answer your question about the multi-tenant thing. You know, most people prefer to go in and just, like, buy, build a single building for their tenant.
01:30:32:03 – 01:30:32:28
Rod Khleif
Their own practice.
01:30:32:28 – 01:30:55:24
Austin Hair
Yeah. Or it could be, if you’re a developer, you would, even if you have a client in tow, like, right. Like you’re a developer, you’ve got a PE backed dental group. They want to do a new dyno or new start up. You want to build in one single standalone location, right? Because that’s the safest, right? The problem is like we’re talking about earlier, you know cost of land is up, cost of capital is up, cost of labor is up, cost of supplies are up.
01:30:55:24 – 01:31:14:03
Austin Hair
And so to build a single freestanding tenant, I mean, the rents are just insane right now. And a lot of these guys can’t make it pencil a lot of the a lot of the health care tenants. Interesting. So we’re doing multi-tenant, which is like more risk on our part, but it helps us. What we do is like we’ll bring in a retail tenant to pay a retail rate, and then we can kind of bring down the rent of the health care operator a little bit to help offset those costs.
01:31:14:03 – 01:31:24:14
Rod Khleif
And so you might have a you might have a mixed use where you’ve got some retail with the with the practice inside of that retail, see above it, behind it, next to it, whatever. Okay.
01:31:24:14 – 01:31:37:13
Austin Hair
Yeah. There’s an I can I can tell you a funny story about that if you want. So one of the first deals that we did, we found a, we had a health care group, urgent care group that gave us an assignment, which is where they tell us how we want to go here. But, we found out with Bank of America building that was vacant.
01:31:37:16 – 01:31:53:14
Austin Hair
Got it for a pretty good, cost. Our base business cost was low. We started. It was. They only needed half. So we started looking for another half to occupy the space. And Starbucks came along. They wanted to do it, so we signed a lease with them. Great. The urgent care actually backed out of the deal completely.
01:31:53:14 – 01:31:54:02
Rod Khleif
They didn’t want to staff.
01:31:54:02 – 01:32:08:26
Austin Hair
They didn’t even they well, they just it wasn’t because of that. It was because like I said, there’s a lot of red tape, a lot of moving parts with their hospital back. Gotcha. Decision makers. And so we ended up getting a 90 unit, physical therapist to come in and take their spot. Wow. So it ended up working out great.
01:32:08:26 – 01:32:20:25
Austin Hair
I mean, we had some stuff go really wrong. Like, we had to invest 300 grand into the parking lot that we had no idea we were going to have to do. Right. Like, so that is a huge hit to the bottom line. But it was still profitable because the principles are there. Like there’s a lot of flexibility in there.
01:32:20:25 – 01:32:24:09
Austin Hair
So it was you know what I mean. It was like a testament to the strategy.
01:32:24:09 – 01:32:49:08
Rod Khleif
So what he’s talking about here, guys, you know when you’ve got a single tenant situation, it’s very safe. If it’s a high caliber, well-financed, tenured, profitable tenant. I mean, it’s, you know, a lot a lot of people do this in the in the, drugstore space, like CVS and Walgreens and these single tenants, where, where they very seldom own the land, but they’re on prime location, and it’s very safe.
01:32:49:10 – 01:33:07:17
Rod Khleif
Asset. But, you know, if if with cost of everything going up, what he’s talking about here is you basically build a much larger building or buy a larger building and, and you have, you know, you have other tenants, which is definitely more risky because you got to lease the space. You talked about that Bank of America building.
01:33:07:17 – 01:33:22:18
Rod Khleif
Now, I’m guessing that retrofitting health care into a bank building is a big deal, because you got a ton of plumbing, a lot more plumbing, electrical. You know, if you’ve got imaging equipment, whatever. Speak to that a little bit. How do you how do you get around all that?
01:33:22:22 – 01:33:34:25
Austin Hair
Yeah. So there is a distinction between when you start, the building process and then when you hand it off to the operator. And so we build out to kind of what’s called gray shell. So yes, the gray.
01:33:34:25 – 01:33:38:23
Rod Khleif
Shell has no plumbing at all. I mean, it’s maybe, maybe some stubbins or or.
01:33:38:29 – 01:33:53:06
Austin Hair
Yeah, you’re right. Sometimes vanilla shell. Right. So it’ll be like everybody. It’ll be unfinished. And so they that’s usually factored under their build out. Right. And even with Starbucks is kind of the same thing. I mean they have so much equipment. Right, right. But they’re bringing in a lot of their own equipment and they’re paying for that build out.
01:33:53:06 – 01:33:57:15
Austin Hair
Now of course tie is negotiable. Usually that’s factored in to whatever.
01:33:57:23 – 01:33:59:20
Rod Khleif
Improvements is tea by the way. Okay.
01:33:59:21 – 01:34:11:09
Austin Hair
Yep. Yeah. So we’ll we’ll essentially what what happens with tenant improvements is they might say hey I need an extra hundred grant joiner grant to build this space out. Like I don’t have the cash right now. So it’s like, okay, we’ll give you that in.
01:34:11:10 – 01:34:12:01
Rod Khleif
But but the price.
01:34:12:01 – 01:34:19:28
Austin Hair
Is getting an improvement. But the price going up goes up to account for that. Yeah. So it’s just a it’s just it’s an off balance sheet loan. You know what I mean. For the for the groups.
01:34:19:28 – 01:34:37:25
Rod Khleif
So you’re you’re out there finding sites for whatever works at this point. So let’s talk about site selection for. Yeah okay. You talked about demographics and there’s some great websites by the way guys if you haven’t heard me talk about this, one of my bootcamps are some great websites to study demographics. There’s city hyphen Datacom is a good one.
01:34:37:27 – 01:34:54:04
Rod Khleif
Best places dot net is a good one. Data USA dot I always a good one. Census.gov is a good one. But you know when you’re, you know, we’re buying a multifamily asset. Of course we want to know what the median income is. We want to know what the you know, the make up of the demographic there is.
01:34:54:04 – 01:35:08:12
Rod Khleif
We want to know, you know, median home price in our case, and make sure the median income, for example, is three times what the rent would be at our highest number. So these are all the things you do when you’re doing your research. So talk a little bit about what you do in your site selection.
01:35:08:14 – 01:35:21:27
Rod Khleif
I’m sure it’s silo specific in some regard right. As it relates to who the end user might be. Or you do you do you look at sites for more than one type of end user or are they pretty much individual?
01:35:21:27 – 01:35:42:22
Austin Hair
We’re kind of pivoting, to where we are. We will be looking for holes like, well, where identifying land that there is not. We’ll identify retail tenants, both health care and regular retail and then say, okay, there’s a there’s a gap here. But traditionally, yes, it’s been specific for that group. So what that means is like I’ll meet a group or they’ll say, hey, we want to open up a location over here.
01:35:42:25 – 01:35:47:06
Austin Hair
Then we begin our process. You know, they might say, I want to go to the northeast corner of Houston, right? Or I want to go.
01:35:47:10 – 01:35:48:11
Rod Khleif
So you’re nationwide?
01:35:48:12 – 01:35:49:04
Austin Hair
Yeah. We’re nationwide.
01:35:49:04 – 01:35:52:20
Rod Khleif
Okay. Gosh, I forgot to ask. I we passed, but yeah.
01:35:52:20 – 01:36:13:08
Austin Hair
Yeah. Right. Right now we’re doing the yeah we’re doing deals in Texas and Oregon and wow. Maine. Yeah. All over. So okay. But what the process then becomes is actually the grocery stores have a lot of the best data. So we have different subscription services that we pay for. We’ll go through and we’ll do the analysis. And so the idea is like, hey, we’re going to go through and say, where are your ideal patients already going?
01:36:13:08 – 01:36:26:07
Austin Hair
Right? So we pull all grocery store anchor data and then we say, okay, now where is your existing competition? We essentially put those on two different maps. We layer them over each other. All right. Now we’ve got the most ideal patients right here. Right. And the least amount of competition right here. Right. So that’s what.
01:36:26:07 – 01:36:43:19
Rod Khleif
So what’s different between what he’s talking about and what I did. The websites I just gave you is we’re talking retail right now. We’re talking which they’re looking at traffic count. They’re looking at, you know, different things than we would look at in the multifamily space. But they’re relevant, frankly. I mean, if you get a a nice multifamily asset on busy street, you’ll kill it.
01:36:43:19 – 01:37:05:07
Rod Khleif
But that’s typically not one of the biggest things you look for. Like, like, which is critical for you and, and you’re and of course grocery, you know, when you see a and that’s why when and let me digress for just a second from my peeps here for a second. Austin. So so, you know, when we look at an asset, you know, I want to see a bunch of national retailers around it because like you said, they do their freaking homework, right?
01:37:05:14 – 01:37:29:27
Rod Khleif
You know, so I don’t want to see Bob’s Burgers and Sushi. I want to see the Walmart’s the home Depots, the Lowe’s, and of course, you know, nice big anchor, Publix, Publix, on all that. So, that makes a lot of sense. So I imagine so. So you compile. I didn’t, it’s been a while since I’ve even looked at retail, but I imagine that, parking is an issue is what it is.
01:37:29:27 – 01:37:31:18
Rod Khleif
Look at parking. So speak to that a little bit.
01:37:31:18 – 01:37:52:26
Austin Hair
So that’s totally tenant dependent. But yeah, it’s a big it’s a big issue because in general, like health care doesn’t need as much as like your traditional retailers like, you know, Starbucks and coffee shops and restaurants like that, but they do need enough parking because they’ve got quite a bit staff on hand at all time. And so, yeah, usually they’ll just tell us, hey, I need 17 spots or I need 20 sponsor or whatever, 12 spots.
01:37:52:26 – 01:37:57:27
Austin Hair
Right. And so once they give us that number, then we can kind of start to be more granular.
01:37:58:00 – 01:38:15:13
Rod Khleif
But if you’re multi-tenant, that comes into play as well. Yeah. So you make it, you’re taking it, you’re doing some some guesswork and and making sure you’ve got enough have you ever, done a compilation where you’ve compiled pieces next to each other? I mean, I see, I know it’s a very long term place. Sometimes there’s a corner.
01:38:15:16 – 01:38:34:00
Rod Khleif
Oh my God, it’s the best freaking corner. And probably the state in Sarasota here at Clark Road in 41. Oh my God, it’s primo location. It’s the bridge on the on the CSS Turkey. But I think they’ve been working it for a long time. So are you doing any of that or you just looking for sites as sites you can move right on.
01:38:34:02 – 01:38:35:29
Austin Hair
So are you are you.
01:38:36:02 – 01:38:36:20
Rod Khleif
Saying is take.
01:38:36:20 – 01:38:38:00
Austin Hair
Combining multiple acreage or.
01:38:38:02 – 01:38:50:14
Rod Khleif
Multiple multiple lot multiple multiple pieces of property, you know, and you know, that that can be incredibly lucrative if you put a couple together and you’ve got then you’ve got the the space requirements that you need for something. Yeah.
01:38:50:15 – 01:39:09:26
Austin Hair
No, absolutely. That’s a strategy, you know, especially when we’re looking at multi-tenant developments. I mean, because it really depends on the, the environmental studies that come back. Because if you like, as a rule of thumb, you can kind of get about 10,000ft² of retail space on about an acre. You know, maybe it’s eight, but if you need like a retention pond or something like that, that number starts to shrink.
01:39:09:28 – 01:39:24:12
Austin Hair
And so if you’re looking at doing like, you know, you can you guys can edit this out. But one of the deals that we’re looking at that we’re doing right now is, essentially it’s in Oregon. And so the legislation is terrible, right? Like it’s so hard to get anything approved.
01:39:24:12 – 01:39:26:06
Rod Khleif
To go down that rabbit hole if you’d like.
01:39:26:08 – 01:39:44:22
Austin Hair
Okay. Well, so we had to submit a two. We’re working with a dental, tenant, pediatric tenant. They want 5000ft². So we got an acre. But they want the city wants 200 pages of documentation submitted to their report. And so it’s insane. We’re having to spend so much money out of pocket before we even close. And,
01:39:44:24 – 01:39:58:07
Austin Hair
And so. But because it’s so hard to get approval there, like, that’s also the opportunity. And so we’re, we’re actually are barring extra acres in that area like, like looking at, acquiring the project, the property next door. But we’re going to do that multi-tenant.
01:39:58:10 – 01:39:59:09
Rod Khleif
Phase two or.
01:39:59:13 – 01:40:24:14
Austin Hair
Yeah. So like yeah, phase one, we get the tenant in there. Well it’s kind of it’s kind of simultaneous. It’s a little bit split prong. So it’s like as soon as we get somebody, you know we’ll develop for them. We’re actually we’re in the process of combing through other tenants, to be their neighbor tenant. But it could be it could be a standalone or it could be part of it because it’s like once you start kind of combing, you know, doing a horizontal cost, like it’s not that much more whether you do 5 or 10,000ft², like, so you might as well just maximize money.
01:40:24:14 – 01:40:25:17
Rod Khleif
You’re spending the money anyway.
01:40:25:17 – 01:40:26:18
Austin Hair
Yeah.
01:40:26:20 – 01:40:39:19
Rod Khleif
You know, one thing you just said I want to flag, like when you know, when. And I tell this in my bootcamps around multifamily when it’s hard to get information or get something done, get excited because everyone else quits. Right. Would you agree with that?
01:40:39:19 – 01:40:41:17
Austin Hair
Yeah. That’s that’s what it seems like for sure. No.
01:40:41:17 – 01:41:05:07
Rod Khleif
No question. I mean like like we’ll find a multifamily deal and there’s no information and and I found one in Tampa once and there was nothing online. It was like and thousands of people had looked at it was on Loop Net, which is the big listing site for, for, you know, for commercial real estate and and, and it was these 90 year old owners that, that I plugged in and it was a screaming deal because.
01:41:05:09 – 01:41:05:29
Austin Hair
They weren’t marketing.
01:41:05:29 – 01:41:29:16
Rod Khleif
It. Exactly. Everybody else gave up, you know, because so, you know, if you’re if you’re in this business and you see it’s hard to get information, get excited, okay? Because that’s, when sometimes you’ll find some of the best deals. So you’re doing dental, you’re doing, medical, you’re doing, vet. Are there any other verticals that, that you haven’t mentioned yet that you might consider doing?
01:41:29:18 – 01:41:35:04
Austin Hair
So yeah. Well, there’s dental, vet, urgent care. Urgent care. Yeah. Anything? Yeah.
01:41:35:06 – 01:41:37:10
Rod Khleif
Retail price centers, you know.
01:41:37:10 – 01:41:57:26
Austin Hair
Would that be we try and say, like, sub 10,000ft². So I don’t know exactly how big those are. Probably, I will say the least favorite is like hospital back to. Oh, yeah. So a lot of those are hospital backs. But that being said, you know, we’re definitely I mean, by the nature of it, we’ve just built relationships with other retailers around the country because somebody’s got feel.
01:41:57:27 – 01:41:58:17
Austin Hair
Yeah, there’s you gotta do.
01:41:58:18 – 01:42:02:04
Rod Khleif
You go to ICS. We do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I went there. It was like intimidating.
01:42:02:04 – 01:42:03:07
Austin Hair
And many of.
01:42:03:10 – 01:42:09:10
Rod Khleif
The people that I went, I was very interested in retail a lifetime ago like nine, ten years ago. So I went and I was in.
01:42:09:10 – 01:42:13:02
Austin Hair
Retail live is in Orlando. Oh is it in March okay, okay.
01:42:13:05 – 01:42:21:18
Rod Khleif
Yeah. I, you know, I’ve kind of stayed away from retail. I was I was worried about the whole Amazon dynamic or the online buying dynamic, you know if I.
01:42:21:18 – 01:42:22:23
Austin Hair
Want it was online.
01:42:22:23 – 01:42:31:03
Rod Khleif
And buy it. But but it did the whole demographic shifting though. It’s you know, it’s fitness centers, it’s restaurants. It’s things that that aren’t impacted by.
01:42:31:03 – 01:42:45:15
Austin Hair
Well yeah. It’s funny. It’s like I mean I was wrong about so many things about the result of all the lockdowns. Right? And, I don’t even want to say Covid anymore. It wasn’t really Covid as much. It was the lockdowns. Yeah. So I just got the lockdowns. But, you know, one of the things was, oh, retail’s dead right.
01:42:45:15 – 01:42:56:08
Austin Hair
That’s it. Everybody was saying and then like you look into it and it’s like actually e-commerce and dropshipping requires more real estate square footage than retail because like it’s it’s different.
01:42:56:11 – 01:42:59:00
Rod Khleif
It is. But they require the square footage. Yeah. They need and so.
01:42:59:00 – 01:43:11:10
Austin Hair
We we saw warehouses, industrial space taking over malls that were traditionally retail because it was actually cheaper because malls were kind of going on the down and retail was one on the up and was like cheaper. Like there’s a deal in Orlando where they I think was like a Kohl’s or a Sears, like Amazon took it over as their industrial center.
01:43:11:10 – 01:43:23:06
Austin Hair
So that was just a prediction that was wrong. But yeah, I mean, and then also retail didn’t really end up dying because people as soon as they could go out, they wanted to, you know. Sure. And I was listening to one of your other podcasts talking about they want an experience, right.
01:43:23:11 – 01:43:41:22
Rod Khleif
Like that. I was just going to bring that up. I remember that from a previous interview recently where where, you know, it’s it’s like like here we’ve got the universal, UTC, it’s called, University Town Center, and it’s so frickin beautiful there. And Christmas time we got all these restaurants and shops is like this giant area that you enjoy going to.
01:43:41:22 – 01:43:43:14
Rod Khleif
So that’s not going anywhere.
01:43:43:15 – 01:43:54:24
Austin Hair
No. Exactly. So and health care, you know, like we’re, we’re a long ways away from like putting up your robotic arms in your house and like, having your surgeon come in and I take over like I’m not. No. That’s you know.
01:43:54:24 – 01:44:14:27
Rod Khleif
No, no, definitely. Health care is not going anywhere, especially with 80 million baby boomers getting old. There’s yeah, it’s not going away. But, so love, love the site selection conversation. And it’s fascinating to me and it’s, really I’m really enjoying, you know, triggering parts of my memory I haven’t thought about in a long time. But let’s talk about short term rental a little bit.
01:44:14:27 – 01:44:19:06
Rod Khleif
So talk talk about what you’re doing there because, I mean, I know we’re completely shifting gears, but you know.
01:44:19:13 – 01:44:34:25
Austin Hair
Yeah. So I short term rental is another space that I’m really excited about. I got into that, like through the Rich app that house hacking thing. Like essentially I moved out, all right, but I bought another place. I was doing that. And then I was traveling a lot for wakeboarding, and I was like, my. I had a duplex living in a duplex.
01:44:34:25 – 01:44:36:11
Austin Hair
I was like, this place just kind of sits.
01:44:36:13 – 01:44:37:03
Rod Khleif
Abandoned.
01:44:37:06 – 01:44:52:18
Austin Hair
In Orlando. Yeah. When I lived in Orlando, I was like, this place just kind of sits abandoned every single week. And when I go out of town for a competition, I would start on Airbnb and sure enough, booked every weekend. It booked and booked in book. And so essentially, I ended up kicking out all the long term tenants that I had, because I had the first house that I bought and I was living in a duplex, renting out downstairs.
01:44:52:18 – 01:45:05:28
Austin Hair
A long term tenants ended up, converting, fixing them up, that sort of thing. And the other thing that I was nice about, short term rentals was like my house stayed a lot nicer because I didn’t have these long term people that were there for six months or a year where I couldn’t see what was going on. And then it’s trashed.
01:45:05:28 – 01:45:22:15
Austin Hair
And like, I got maids coming in every 3 to 4 days to to keep it nice. So I like to have my property saved a lot more well maintained. And then of course, cash flow was crazy. Crazy. Better now, of course. Crazy amount of work. It’s a it’s a business. The hospitality business. Right. But, if you do it right, it can.
01:45:22:15 – 01:45:35:24
Austin Hair
It can be really well. So like, I think Trump has a saying like there’s always an opportunity, there’s always a market for the best. Right. And so we always we try to make ours like luxury like, you know, have on the lake with pools, hot tubs, bocce ball courts, putting greens like everything like that, even like saunas and stuff.
01:45:35:26 – 01:45:48:05
Austin Hair
Well, and so then we’ve recently acquired a place that was like, oh, this is on like three acres. You know, it’s nice and private. This would be a great space to host events. And sure enough, people love it. And so I really like the event space right now.
01:45:48:07 – 01:45:51:24
Rod Khleif
So, so so we’re talking short term rental for event space.
01:45:51:24 – 01:45:53:07
Austin Hair
Well okay. It’s both.
01:45:53:07 – 01:45:53:17
Rod Khleif
Okay.
01:45:53:17 – 01:46:12:11
Austin Hair
So what we do is we have our minimum nightly, stay, which could be 4 to 1 night depending on how far out you are. Okay. And then you charge an event for on top of that okay. So if you have it which means it’s like usually we’re underwriting these properties to make sure the cash flow would just be the short term rental overnight like nightly rates.
01:46:12:13 – 01:46:16:18
Austin Hair
And then whatever we get as events fees is just gravy on top of that. So it creates really nice profits.
01:46:16:18 – 01:46:23:15
Rod Khleif
So give you an example of do you have an asset already that you’re doing. You talk describe to describe the asset.
01:46:23:18 – 01:46:51:14
Austin Hair
So this was a unique home. It was actually built in 1924. It was about 5000ft². So can sleep 20 people. So on three acres on a small little lake. And there’s a really nice pool deck area, stuff like that, and plenty of outdoor space and parking and that sort of thing. And so, you know, we’ll just like, I think if on average, maybe we can get a thousand bucks a night for that place, and then maybe you charge anywhere between 2 to 5000 for events on top of that.
01:46:51:16 – 01:47:09:10
Austin Hair
So, you know, you have 150 person event. That would be 7500 bucks for a weekend. Wow. So we’re looking we have another property under contract, out in Ohio, but it’s a lot. This one is 12,000ft² on 18 acres. So you can do some more people there. But the same sort of thing is, you know, you you fit as many people as you can overnight.
01:47:09:10 – 01:47:30:24
Austin Hair
You have your overnight rates, and then whatever the event is, you just add on top of that. So you might have a two night minimum and then plus the event fee. And so with events it’s nice. But like the thing is what I realized is I was going around looking at these things like I do, I kind of stumbled into this, it’s like a lot of these wedding venue event space people like don’t do any overnight stays, right?
01:47:30:26 – 01:47:46:15
Austin Hair
So they’ve got these assets a lot of times around their houses, you know, they’ve got these assets that like they’re charging the event fee and then everybody packs up and leaves. Right. And so it’s like nobody else can stay there. So you’re missing out on all this opportunity for the revenue. So our our thought was like let’s look at these houses maybe.
01:47:46:15 – 01:47:49:25
Austin Hair
And then there’s a lot of mom and pops that are just like you mentioned earlier, like.
01:47:49:28 – 01:47:59:21
Rod Khleif
Yeah, I’ve got a buddy that owns a farm up in Tampa that, he built it on a lake, and he built a barn into this big Barney has weddings, and they’re people freaking love it. He’s got a zoo there with animals.
01:47:59:21 – 01:48:00:17
Austin Hair
Oh. That’s cool. Yeah.
01:48:00:18 – 01:48:17:29
Rod Khleif
No, he’s a cool guy. He he he does this. I love him because he does this thing for orphans where he’ll bring or, not on friends. I’m sorry. Yeah. Orphans, kids that don’t have a family. And and he’ll bring. And parents, people will come in and adopt these kids. It’s beautiful. Beautiful. But anyway, I digress.
01:48:17:29 – 01:48:18:16
Austin Hair
It’s nice though.
01:48:18:19 – 01:48:33:24
Rod Khleif
Yeah, it’s really cool. Really cool. And he does things for the military as well. Was good guy. He’s a good friend. But anyway, so so, now I love that idea. And so where do you market for the event piece? I understand Airbnb for that piece, but how do you market for the event?
01:48:34:00 – 01:48:49:27
Austin Hair
Yeah. So, there’s like wedding wire and the not, you know, we just have listings on there. Yep. You can do SEO. We haven’t done that at this location because we’re trying not to piss the neighbors off too much. So we’re just doing, like, one of it a month right now. Oh, gotcha. But at the new one, yeah, we’ll do more.
01:48:49:27 – 01:49:02:05
Austin Hair
And then, honestly, Vrbo, Verbio and Airbnb, like, we have pictures of our weddings. Oh, like, and we have, you know, the reviews that they’ve said and we said like, hey, message us, reach out for details. We say in the listing. And that’s been a great place to get inquiries.
01:49:02:07 – 01:49:18:20
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Something you just said I want to flag, okay. Because he had a real problem with his neighbors there. I mean, had it went all the way up the wire to County and everything else and thank God he was doing, you know, adoption stuff. He was doing military and military for for wounded wet veterans and doing all kinds of things.
01:49:18:20 – 01:49:25:05
Rod Khleif
And, you know, they didn’t stand a chance against all of that. But, I could see that being a potential issue with neighbors and.
01:49:25:07 – 01:49:49:26
Austin Hair
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it is an interesting thing in the short term rentals. I mean, the zoning is very important. So if you I believe it’s like seven acres, you can then get the agricultural zoning, but it’s also dependent on where exactly the, the house or the property is located. Sure. But yeah, I mean, look, if you’re just if you just found a random spot of land and a house and it’s, it’s got a bunch of acres, but it’s got a bunch of neighbors.
01:49:49:27 – 01:50:02:28
Austin Hair
Right. And you’re kind of close. Like the further you get outside of the city, the less of a big deal it gets, right? But, yeah. You know, there, if you’re not zoned for it, they can shut you down for sure. So you want to make sure that you got your proper, proper zoning in place. And that’s a whole, whole other issue.
01:50:02:28 – 01:50:10:07
Austin Hair
But, you can get special event permits, but you got to pull those individually. That’s a real pain. Yeah. Good luck doing more than five a year, you know.
01:50:10:12 – 01:50:11:06
Rod Khleif
Right.
01:50:11:08 – 01:50:14:05
Austin Hair
And then you the other option is you can change your zoning.
01:50:14:07 – 01:50:16:18
Rod Khleif
Yeah, but like zoning variance. But that’s.
01:50:16:21 – 01:50:17:07
Austin Hair
Really hard.
01:50:17:12 – 01:50:22:09
Rod Khleif
And the neighbors are going to be there screaming. Yes. Don’t want your shit in the backyard. Right. Okay.
01:50:22:12 – 01:50:29:10
Austin Hair
Yeah. So you want to make sure there’s a it’s already operating doing events or be it’s on and off. It’s on in like an agricultural zoned agricultural.
01:50:29:10 – 01:50:32:19
Rod Khleif
So then you can get a permit. You can get you can do it on that. Okay.
01:50:32:22 – 01:50:41:26
Austin Hair
And you start to get you started. Let the city know. But it’s allowed. It’s not it’s not even allowed on residential, you know residential. You’re not allowed. If it’s residential would you just have to check your individual and property.
01:50:41:29 – 01:50:51:02
Rod Khleif
Interesting. Interesting. So what’s next. You got you got your site selection. You’re doing you’re doing that which sounds like a lot of fun. You’re doing some some of this Airbnb event space. What’s.
01:50:51:05 – 01:50:55:29
Austin Hair
Well yeah. So I mean to harp on the Airbnb thing, you know, I, I really love it. I have a passion for it.
01:50:56:01 – 01:51:02:12
Rod Khleif
You know, one thing I’m sorry to interrupt. One thing is, is I’ve heard that it’s hurting right now. Airbnb has been hurting. Is that accurate?
01:51:02:15 – 01:51:06:12
Austin Hair
We did not get we’ve had we’ve continued to grow.
01:51:06:14 – 01:51:16:21
Rod Khleif
Because you’re you’re you’re you get you described your properties which are unique. You got saunas, you got all sorts of cool shit there, which I’ve seen. Well, they’ll have a whole row of game machines.
01:51:16:22 – 01:51:17:13
Austin Hair
It’s expensive.
01:51:17:13 – 01:51:17:27
Rod Khleif
Yeah, it’s.
01:51:17:27 – 01:51:19:04
Austin Hair
Expensive, but that’s what you have to do.
01:51:19:05 – 01:51:26:06
Rod Khleif
If you got the best, you’ll. You’ll always be good. Like, you know, you can have the crappiest food, but if you’re on a waterfront location, you’ll kill every time, right? Yeah.
01:51:26:07 – 01:51:53:02
Austin Hair
Okay. So that’s more competitive for yourself. Yeah, it’s more competitive. And so I think what happened was you just got a lot of people that got in the game because they thought they were going to get passive income, but like, no, it’s the hospitality business. Yeah. And so and I, I was guilty of it too because I was running the gyms, I was wakeboarding, you know, I had this Airbnb in the background and, but there’s been three iterations of Airbnb and expectations for the customer when it was like you had stage one, which is just like, build it and they’ll come just throw it up.
01:51:53:02 – 01:52:07:19
Austin Hair
Like leave your clothes in the closet. It doesn’t matter. Then you had to say she was like, oh, like, we actually have to make this, like kind of like a hotel, like, presentable for the guests. And then now we’re on stage three, which is like, good luck if you’re cookie cutter and it’s clean and you got all your sheets and beddings and, like, working furniture.
01:52:07:19 – 01:52:19:12
Austin Hair
No, you need to be unique. You need to make it Instagrammable. You need to have a minute. These you need to make it a destination in in of itself. Yeah. And so I think that everybody who got in thinking it was passive is getting crushed. Yeah. And then you had a pivot. Like I had to put a lot more time.
01:52:19:12 – 01:52:33:12
Austin Hair
I mean luckily I, I sold my gyms, you know, and I had more time to go and do this thing. But yeah, it was like a lot of intentionality behind that is I mean, I’ve learned so much about design. Yeah. Like painting murals on the walls. We did a historic theme at our at our, wedding venue because it was built in 1924.
01:52:33:12 – 01:52:33:27
Rod Khleif
Yeah. It’s cool.
01:52:33:27 – 01:52:39:04
Austin Hair
So seven bedrooms, each bedroom is a different decade. You know, we have, like, different stories of, like, from those decades and different.
01:52:39:09 – 01:52:40:14
Rod Khleif
It makes a big difference. Yeah.
01:52:40:14 – 01:52:50:00
Austin Hair
And people, people really like that you know. And so I that’s the thing is just making yourself unique. And so it is hard right. Like you can make money but you gotta put a lot of effort. You just you have to run the business as a business. Is it.
01:52:50:00 – 01:52:50:21
Rod Khleif
Worth it.
01:52:50:23 – 01:52:51:18
Austin Hair
To me? Oh yeah.
01:52:51:18 – 01:52:58:08
Rod Khleif
It’s worth it. Of course it is. Nothing. Nothing that’s worth it. Anything is going to be easy. But is it worth it? You. Yeah, I can believe it’s worth it.
01:52:58:08 – 01:53:16:27
Austin Hair
I mean, those, like, cookie cutter, you know, condo units where it’s like A21 maybe, right? By universal where you can just go get em anywhere. Yeah, I see those having a hard time because, like, you know, labor costs are high. Like, your, your machine like appliances and that and your margins are so much lower on those, like, one thing going wrong can like totally cut into your margins for a whole month.
01:53:17:00 – 01:53:19:25
Austin Hair
So those are the types of deals that I think are getting really hammered.
01:53:19:28 – 01:53:38:13
Rod Khleif
My brother’s got some cabins up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and they’ve slowed down a little bit. My, my ex, my best friend Tiffy, is has been looking into mid term rentals where you’re renting the nurses and residence and things like that for hospitals and, teachers, so on and so forth, which is interesting. And she’s been playing around with that.
01:53:38:13 – 01:53:40:12
Rod Khleif
So yeah, it’s cool on her a little bit with that.
01:53:40:12 – 01:53:59:23
Austin Hair
Yeah. You know, and like, I think I know you guys like to talk macro sometimes on here. That’s always a factor because it was like since 2008, everybody’s kind of had to shifted to be a macro economist because we’ve seen it just so volatile all the time. So it’s like trying to predict like, I mean, people have been saying that real estate going to crash for cash in season 16.
01:53:59:23 – 01:54:00:27
Austin Hair
I first started hearing about it.
01:54:00:27 – 01:54:05:15
Rod Khleif
Oh yeah, I said when it when Covid hit, I did a YouTube video says the coming crash.
01:54:05:15 – 01:54:06:22
Austin Hair
Yeah, I thought so too.
01:54:06:22 – 01:54:12:19
Rod Khleif
I got so much freaking hate. It was a highest watched video I’ve ever done because, you know, negative shit sells. Yeah. But, yeah.
01:54:12:23 – 01:54:29:01
Austin Hair
Well, that’s the thing. And it’s like, so my thesis right now is like, if we haven’t seen a correction with residential real estate because interest rates are like, we know they’re the highest that they are going to be right now. They’re only going to either stay flat or come down from here. Right. And like I do think that it is taking longer than anybody expected.
01:54:29:05 – 01:54:33:15
Austin Hair
Yeah. But if housing price hasn’t significantly corrected now, what makes you think it’s going to correct.
01:54:33:18 – 01:54:36:20
Rod Khleif
When I don’t think it’s going to correct, it’s going to go up. It’s going to explode.
01:54:36:20 – 01:54:37:05
Austin Hair
That’s what I think.
01:54:37:08 – 01:54:52:04
Rod Khleif
When rates go down, it’s going to explode because there’s huge pent up demand. You know, there’s all these people that own a house at 3% interest. They want they want to do a bigger house, but they they don’t want to pay 7% interest on their new place. Yeah, exactly. If the rates come down, watch out man. It’s going to go crazy.
01:54:52:06 – 01:55:10:24
Austin Hair
Yeah. And it kind of rates so that the interest rates really obviously affects both our development projects and our and my short term rental projects. But it’s like the same thing. You know if we get so we’re we’re trying to acquire properties now residential because we think that once interest rates drop the value will go up. So that’s one way to offset refi residential easily.
01:55:10:24 – 01:55:14:19
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Not like commercial where you’ve got heavy heavy prepayment penalties and things. Yeah.
01:55:14:19 – 01:55:31:17
Austin Hair
Yep. It’s one way to offset the you know, if you do have a little bit of a slowdown in the revenue, at least if the building is appreciating that can help a lot. And then also with development deals, like if it underwrites right now, which it has to to get financing right, with the interest rates being as high as they have in decades, then, you.
01:55:31:17 – 01:55:32:24
Rod Khleif
Know, it’s a home run when they come back.
01:55:32:24 – 01:55:45:08
Austin Hair
Yeah, exactly. Because when when interest rates come down, a you can refinance, get your capital back but be you might even still have the same monthly payment, you know, with rates down. So you might still be collecting the same cash flow. But now you’ve got almost all your investment back, right?
01:55:45:08 – 01:55:55:29
Rod Khleif
Yeah. No, that’s that’s, that’s that’s good. So you really love this event space business. You really think that there’s some real opportunity there? Why do you think you know. Why do you why why are you loving it? Why are you excited about it?
01:55:56:01 – 01:56:12:00
Austin Hair
Well, it started when me, my wife got married and we said, in this beautiful place in, Cleveland, North Carolina, right outside of Charlotte. Okay. And, you know, just seeing, like, wow, they charge a lot of money. There’s there’s a lot of money to be made having here. And so it’s been on the back of my mind for a long time.
01:56:12:02 – 01:56:23:12
Austin Hair
And then actually diving into it, it’s like, oh yeah, there is a good amount of money to be made. And now it’s a lot of work, because if you got to maintain your property for a short term rental, multiplied or triple the amount of work that you need to maintain it for a wedding, right? So you got to have.
01:56:23:12 – 01:56:26:10
Rod Khleif
Flat space that doesn’t get muddy means you’ve got.
01:56:26:12 – 01:56:27:08
Austin Hair
The landscaping.
01:56:27:14 – 01:56:28:23
Rod Khleif
The landscaping, all.
01:56:28:24 – 01:56:51:00
Austin Hair
All that stuff. Yeah. But you know, with all the circles that I travel like, you know, I do like different, capital raising groups and networking events and all that sort of thing, and nobody’s just talking about it. And so there’s not like groups chasing or there’s not private equity chasing it. And so for some reason it’s just like to me seems like a big blue ocean where you can go acquire like a mom and pop their maybe they’re running a business out of there.
01:56:51:02 – 01:57:07:20
Austin Hair
They live in the unit, so they’re not renting out. That’s a huge amount of revenue that they’re missing out on because not doing overnight stays. They haven’t figured out how to optimize their pricing for the events, get a loan for the overnight rentals. And so I think, you know, there’s a market in like every metro to go out and like find these spaces where you can theme them out.
01:57:07:23 – 01:57:10:25
Austin Hair
You know, you do something really cool, really creative, like, I’m from.
01:57:10:26 – 01:57:16:08
Rod Khleif
That’s a good idea to go in and think of a theme, that’s a really good idea.
01:57:16:08 – 01:57:19:05
Austin Hair
And, and that draws people, right? Not everybody. But you draw yours, man.
01:57:19:05 – 01:57:34:21
Rod Khleif
If it’s cool, they want to see it, man. You see these Airbnbs and, you know, a tree house and a plane they’ve converted and all this crazy shit and, and and they’re I’m sure they’re full all the time just because people want to have a story to tell, you know. So and of course, you know, weddings are a big deal.
01:57:34:24 – 01:57:40:28
Rod Khleif
You know, I’ve watched that. What is that, a movie where the bride is like, Dracula, but, bride, something.
01:57:40:28 – 01:57:42:00
Austin Hair
That Brazil or.
01:57:42:00 – 01:57:59:12
Rod Khleif
Brasilia or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, yeah. So, you know, that wedding’s got to be. I mean, we got married on the top of a cliff in Puerto Rico, 600ft cliff, which was spectacular. Wow. And it would cost a freaking fortune, I can tell you that at this hotel, but, Yeah. No, I think that’s an actually an excellent idea.
01:57:59:12 – 01:58:07:08
Rod Khleif
Where you where you go and see what the competition is, what’s what’s available. You know, what don’t they have, you know, lakefront, whatever it is.
01:58:07:10 – 01:58:24:16
Austin Hair
Yeah. And this particular one that we’re doing in Ohio, you know, I spent hours on the phone. They had an existing wedding caterer planner that was like managing some of their weddings. And I and I spent hours on the phone with them just vetting the information, the area, all that kind of stuff. And and the takeaway was like, man, we need we’re we’re booked all the time with all the places we have.
01:58:24:16 – 01:58:33:13
Austin Hair
Like we need more spaces here. Wow. And they’re like, you know, do this. If you do the things you want to do, fix it up. We’ll give you some tips of what we we think we’ll have you guys booked out like year round I.
01:58:33:13 – 01:58:44:10
Rod Khleif
Wonder I wonder if you should check, you know, age demographics. Yeah. I’ve had Harry dent on the show, and he that’s he’s an economist. That’s been doom and gloom and forever. But. Yeah. Right. Eventually. Just think I will be.
01:58:44:13 – 01:58:46:10
Austin Hair
So what do you think’s going to happen in real estate then.
01:58:46:10 – 01:58:58:00
Rod Khleif
Because I, I believe that we’re headed for a well, I know we’re headed for a crash in the office space environment. Office environment I mean some there’s some cities that are at 50% occupied. You mean you can’t I mean, those are those are going back to but well that will that.
01:58:58:00 – 01:58:58:24
Austin Hair
Affect the residential.
01:58:59:01 – 01:59:17:12
Rod Khleif
And multifamily because there’s a lot of Bridget coming to us, a lot of debt coming doing. There’s operators in trouble. They have to sell a refinance. Sales are way down. Refinancing is almost impossible with rate caps that you have to pay for to, to to get short term rates and adjustable. You know, you got these guys with adjustable rate mortgages that are dying.
01:59:17:12 – 01:59:28:01
Rod Khleif
So there’s a lot of upset in the marketplace where we’re finding deals already. Do I think it’s going to impact residential? No I don’t I think it’s I don’t know either. I think the crash is going to be commercial. I don’t believe it’s going to be residential.
01:59:28:01 – 01:59:34:14
Austin Hair
And then even with commercial, it’s so segmented. Right. Like we talked about how retail was hurt, but industrial took it over.
01:59:34:14 – 01:59:51:17
Rod Khleif
Right? Right, right. Yeah. I mean, retail, is just shifting. I mean, there’s a mall here that’s going to be a different use for sure. It’s it’s practically empty. They’ve built a Costco on the back of it. But, you know, it’s just shifting. But, but no, I think there’s a lot of debt coming due. It’s held by small and regional banks.
01:59:51:17 – 02:00:15:14
Rod Khleif
And I think we’re going to see some some bank failures and some stuff happening this year. And then I will tell you, there’s a you know, I was just reading something today. I mean, there are, a lot of countries in trouble right now, including China, including, you know, there’s recessions that are that are happening in Japan and other places that, you know, that it’s, you know, we are pretty connected economically with other countries at this point, Europe.
02:00:15:14 – 02:00:30:14
Rod Khleif
And so, you know, I think I think it’s likely we’re going to have a recession, how bad it’s going to be. Who knows. But I know there’s going to be opportunity. I get excited, okay? I was hiding under a rock. The last time this happened and it was residentially driven, you know, but this one will not be residentially driven, I think.
02:00:30:15 – 02:00:45:22
Rod Khleif
I think, you know, there’s a huge pent up demand for housing, that there’s a shortage of housing. So I think residential is going to be fine. But but there are companies laying off already. There’s a lot of layoffs that aren’t making the news. And these interest rates are killing a lot of different things. And so it’s gonna be interesting.
02:00:45:27 – 02:00:50:17
Austin Hair
Yeah. So getting all these spillover, like contagion from office.
02:00:50:20 – 02:01:07:15
Rod Khleif
Any other in your health care thing, I think you’re great there, for sure, but I think, you know, it could impact travel. It could impact you be it could impact how much money people want to spend on a wedding. I mean, you know, if there’s if there’s unemployment and things like that, that that impacts everything. So, it’ll be interesting to see I.
02:01:07:15 – 02:01:18:25
Rod Khleif
I’m wrong all the time. Yeah, I know you want me to go home, too, so, you know, I’m happy to admit it, but, that’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I think there’s going to be incredible opportunity. And, you know.
02:01:18:27 – 02:01:20:21
Austin Hair
So are you buying anything right now? Oh, yeah.
02:01:20:21 – 02:01:41:13
Rod Khleif
I got a screaming deal under contract right now. Apartment complex in San Antonio, a mile away from another one that we own. And, you know, the one next door sold in 2022 for 137,000 a door. Same year. Everything ours. We’re buying for 100,000 a door. Wow. Give me an idea. It’s huge. Like a 40% discount. I mean, it’s incredible.
02:01:41:19 – 02:01:59:28
Rod Khleif
Incredible deal. Very excited about it, by the way, if you’re an accredited investor, text the word partner to 72345 and check it out. It’s or go to crazy capital.com. There’s a webinar there you can watch. In fact a great idea to watch it anyway, even if you’re not accredited. See how we present a deal on what we look for?
02:01:59:28 – 02:02:11:17
Rod Khleif
It’s very educational as well. But, well, Austin, I appreciate you coming down here, brother. I know you got caught up in Orlando traffic, but, you made it. And, appreciate you coming all the way over here. And there’s been a lot of fun talking to you, bud.
02:02:11:18 – 02:02:16:19
Austin Hair
It was absolutely. Yeah, it was my pleasure. Had did not account for the holiday. Yeah. Traffic. So I appreciate your patience with me.
02:02:16:19 – 02:02:24:09
Rod Khleif
No worries, no worries. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, bud. Likewise. Thanks. Thank you for listening to the lifetime cash flow Through Real Estate Investing podcast.
