The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

Bringing "Boom-Mates" to Society with Tiffani Ray-Smith

• Dwan Bent-Twyford/Tiffani Ray-Smith • Season 5 • Episode 384

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What if stepping away from a stable corporate job could lead you to financial independence and a lasting legacy? Join us as we chat with Tiffani Ray-Smith, an inspiring real estate investor who made this bold career shift. From our initial meeting on a panel dedicated to top female real estate investors, Tiffani and I bonded over our shared values of prioritizing people over profits. Tiffani shares her journey from her Cincinnati roots, the fears and challenges she faced while transitioning from corporate stability to the dynamic world of real estate, and how she encourages women to embrace entrepreneurial ventures over traditional career paths.

Curious about the realities behind the glamorous facade of real estate investing? Discover the grit and resilience required to succeed. From navigating neighborhoods with paper maps to facing the insecurity of the unknown, Tiffani’s personal anecdotes reveal the perseverance needed in this business. We reflect on the importance of adaptability and the pitfalls of information overload in today’s digital age. Tiffani’s story is a powerful testament to how hard work and determination can pave the way to achieving financial independence.

Shared housing is more than just a trend—it’s a revolutionary approach to real estate with profound social impact. Tiffani shares her expert insights on transforming properties into shared housing facilities, highlighting her focus on re-entry housing for individuals with mental health and behavioral disorders. We delve into the nuts and bolts of managing such properties, from setting house rules to ensuring a safe and respectful living environment. This episode underscores the balance between profitability and social responsibility, emphasizing that real estate can indeed be a tool for both financial gain and positive community impact.

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Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hey everybody, thanks for being on Tthe most wonderful real estate podcast ever. I'm your host, dwayne Benton Twyford, america's most sought-after real estate investor, and I have such a good guest for you today. I actually met Tiffany a few months ago. How many months ago, tiffany, do you like? Six months?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

It was back in april. I think it was april, march, april yep.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So we were on a call together and they had a panel of you know us top dog female real estate investors and I loved her like I have got to get you on to my podcast. So I'm excited for us to talk to her today and see how she can help you grow in your business. But our motto at Dwanerful is people before profits. So if that resonates with you, you're at the right place. I'm your girl. You can go to Dwanerful, d-w-a-n-d-e-r-f-u-l, dwanerfulcom, and I have some free e-books and some fun things to get you started on your real estate investing. So I took my name Dwan and wonderful, and I made a new word. So that's how we came up with Dwan Dwan. So Tiffany, miss, tiffany, ray, how are you today?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I'm great. Great Thanks for asking and thanks for having me on your show.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I loved when we were on Venaus' panel and I thought okay, I am not familiar with her and she is sharp, so I hunted you down to.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Cincinnati, born and raised in Cincinnati, been at this for a while, but I think the big thing is that I had a corporate job for a very, very long time, and so my real estate. I would call it maybe my side hustle, but it really was never a side hustle, just more so my passion. And so I had an opportunity to move forward, to become full-time. 10 toes down in real estate, and here we are.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's it. That's it. So we're going to get to all that, because that's what I loved about your story as well. So, first off, I just sort of like to throw my guests to the wolves a little bit. I just want you to tell everyone how to find you on social media and give us a website directly where people can go to you. I just like that to be in the very top of the show notes, because some people glance over the show notes, some people listen, some people watch. So I want your contact info at the top, so kind of like, what's your deal?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Absolutely so. I am on Facebook, instagram and LinkedIn. It's Tiffany Ray- hyphen Smith. So Tiffany, with an I, ray hyphen Smith, you can find me there. As far as my business is concerned, ray of Hope Realty Services is my baby and you can reach me at TiffanyRay. com Very simple.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's it, and I like Ray of Hope because it's like a ray of sunshine. But it's Ray, your name, like Dwan. I love plays on names.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah, it makes it personal for real. Yeah, it does make it personal for real, yeah yeah, it does make it personal for real.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

All right, so when I met you on the panel, uh, so you're gonna have to just help me remember a little bit, because I there was what four or five of us on the panel that night yeah, I believe there were five.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yes, yeah, and so, and the other girls, I love them too. But I saw you, I think I love her. I I have to have her on my show for myself myself. So you started off in corporate. So this is part of what I love is hearing about the journey, because I feel like most of us.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Well, I am also from Ohio I don't know, I think I told you that, dayton so and I'm a little bit older than you, but not much. But I was raised up in that get out of high school, get married, have kids and go work at the factory, so like that was what my whole life. And then I did work at a factory and I thought, oh, why would somebody want this for me? This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me and it was terrible. But I feel like most of us, especially women, are just like either get married and have kids or, you know, go get a job, and they don't just go. Hey, I'm going to just start my own company. I just don't feel like. I mean I don't know. I feel like women. Our age is just not. That's not bred into us.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Absolutely not Very much. From the same generation. I saw my grandfather go to work. I did see my grandmother work a little bit. My mom was a single parent so she had no choice in the matter. But it definitely wasn't surrounding a business, it was I need something stable because I have to take care of my kid, and so that kind of bred her doing the W-2. And so I did see hard workers doing the W-2. And so I did see hard workers. So I knew I had to work hard. But I also, like yourself, it wasn't going to be just a traditional trajectory for me. I've always been a lone ranger and cut my own path when a lot of people did.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So what did you do before you became? You got into like micro developing Because a lot of talk about your niche, but it's I like to hear yeah, because like I tell people listen I got fired from Denny's on third shift. I was a broke single mom. I really had no place to go, but up I really. Who gets fired from Denny's in the middle of the night, you know.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Well, such was not my background. From Denny's, I definitely became what I call an accidental banker. I was very artistic. So, to be quite honest with you, dwan, I wanted to be a singer in the South of France, like you know, tiffany Ray. Yay, and quickly, very quickly, I realized that that probably wouldn't be very fruitful and I couldn't sustain as a starving artist. So I became an accidental banker, started in collections and I asked people for money for delinquent bills and it was on jewelry collections of all things. So I caught on your watches and your rings and your necklaces and, yeah, that kind of stuff on on cards. We collected on on index cards. Oh, that's right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I have. I still have it's in a box. I still have my old rolodex and I look back at it sometime. It's like, wow, half the people I don't know, half the people are dead and you know it's like a sliver of people I still know. But man, at one point that rolodex, it's like life, that's your life. You lose your book, you're it's like losing your phone. You're like, ah, you freak out. So joy, so. So, being in collections, especially jewelry collection, that probably got you over any fear you ever had of talking to people absolutely.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

People are yelling you stop calling me and they're screaming at you, right but I went from jewelry collections to hospital collecting. So I went backwards.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

So imagine your kid's sick and you got this lady on the phone, but, ma'am, you still owe $10,000. How are you going to pay? Like, really, that's their first priority, right Is paying the bill when they're when they have it. Yeah, and it was for children's hospitals, so it was right, right. So you're talking about punching yourself in the gut and taking the fear of asking anybody for anything. So I I don't have any fear to ask anybody for anything and I.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I feel like now you've been investing for a while now, right? How long have you been investing?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

oh, uh over 30 years okay, so, 30 years so, and you deal, you're on calls and webinars and you coach and train. You know similar, we have a similar what we do, but don't you find or maybe you don't find, but tell me what you think. I always, when I do a lot of those live works like in Cincinnati live workshops I always ask people like, why have you not started investing before now? And the number one answer I get is fear, like what are you afraid of? And they say, well, I don't know what to say. I'm gonna yell at me like all these fears, and it's like I don't really know where that comes from. I guess, because I've always been really outgoing and talkative and and I feel like fear is a big thing, but you are already doing something that everyone's afraid of.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Right, ask him for money. So yeah, I don't know about the fear thing, I don't. I think it's not really fear. I think it's people's insecurity. I do, I really think it's people's insecurity, because everybody that presents seems like they just know everything all at once, but they don't realize. Dwan, you've been doing this for 40 years, or they don't realize.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

You see what I'm saying, right, they don't realize that if I'm in a specific strategy, I've been doing it for a long time, and then I think, with this generation, the other thing is they expected everything to be handed to them with bullet points and check checklist points, and we've had to dig in I spent a million to master my craft yeah, yes, girl, we did.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

We had to dig in, like I started off 35 years ago. My daughter was a baby and when I go door knocking there's no gps. I had to use a big old map books, and let me tell you, that in and of itself is a skill and it just you know. And I'd have to go to the courthouse. I hand write all the addresses and, like I do knock on the door, I got a baby hanging on my hip because I'm a single mom and it's like. And then people are like I don't know how to find deals and I'm just like oh, my god, my God, I just want to like. What is wrong with you? What do you mean? I don't want to find deals, they're everywhere.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Go to the courthouse and go door knocking with a paper map and they'll talk about it Right Now. How did you so? You started off as an agent.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

No, I'm. I am not a realtor at all.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Good.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I am not a realtor at all. Good, I started out accidental, like accidental banker, accidental investor. I did my first. I'm going to call it short sale, cause I know that's your your baby in 1987. And it was, but by, by accident, it was a total accident, didn't even have a name for it. Back then we didn't know what that was. Nobody was talking about it. This is when the ITT financials and all of there was a financial on every corner where you could go get a loan and it was actually a family member that was in distress and I was actually rooming with them. I had a room there and they really felt dire straits and I was. I had a decent job and I was just like okay, well, let me see what I can do with this. And accidental short sale.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, that's how I did my first one too. It was a complete accident, and then, after it happened a bunch of times, I thought I'm going to trademark this.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I love that you did that. Right, I wasn't. I definitely did not catch on to that part, because I was like, oh, this is a fluke, like will that happen again? And yeah, it happened again, but I never thought anything of it. So, yeah, I became an accidental real estate investor.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I like that term because everyone always says, well, how did you get in? And I said, listen, the fact that someone is listening to me on this podcast they're 100 years ahead of me. Because it was an accident really too. I was just looking for something to do from home and raise my daughter and I met some investors. Oh, we buy them, we fix them up, we sell them. I'm like, oh, decorating, how hard could that be? And then it's like it's not decorating, it's rehabbing, and it was really hard. But once I made the first check, I was like, shoot man, I got all this money, I'm going to do it again and the next thing, you know, like 35 years go by. So I like the fact. I like when I meet someone else that like kind of accidentally fell into it, because it's a, it's like a huge giant blessing to fall into something that's so amazing, exactly, and then to actually make a go of it.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah, yeah. And you think about it and you hear all these things or read all these things in hindsight. It's like you know real estate is one of the best ways to become independent and independently wealthy and leave something legacy for your family. But you read all that like in hindsight. At the time I was trying to save somebody from losing a house, you were trying to make money, it wasn't the why. And then you understand the what this is and what it can bring, and you move forward into okay, I'm, I'm gonna make this a, I'm gonna make a go of it, I'm gonna really try and go ahead and do this. And so where's the fear in that? I'm trying to make a couple of extra bucks, and so were you. Well, what did you have to lose? Really Nothing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And that's probably to our benefit. Yeah, oh, by far, because you know people now that are sitting down and like saying, okay, I'm going to make a decision, I'm going to work with Twine, I'm going to work with Tiffany. They're really constantly making a decision. They're terrified because they read everything. The internet has so much information that's good and bad. You don't know who to trust, like you just don't know. You don't know, like, who do you trust? Who do you work with? You don't know. So I feel kind of like falling into it accidentally and being naive was probably the best thing for me that I might have like overanalyzed it to death oh, knowing what I know now like it would definitely be too much information.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

it would be like being a surgeon and then going to another surgeon for an opinion way too much information. But I've actually, for some strategies, had to unlearn everything that I've learned about a certain thing you know and and that is a trait as well it's like, okay, I'm going to listen and I'm going to throw this part out and I'm going to use this part, or I forget everything. I know that's hard to do, but we do it and we learn new things and ways to develop our skills all the time. We have to pivot. That's right. It is the magical word.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But people don't do that. They get in, they go. This is my niche, this is what I do. I'm doing this forever, until the end of time. And then markets crash, things happen, elections, the things, and then they're like I don't know what to do.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

It's like pivot. Well, I'm going to say this, and I know you have a lot of listeners out there and you gentlemen out there that are listening to us. We think you are very awesome, but us gals, especially us single moms that had to do it that way, pivot is that that is a skill that we should put on a resume, because you learn how to make a little out of a I mean a lot out of a little and I think that definitely helped that. That fright thing in your belly.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, it does. It does. So you got into your niche, and what specifically is your niche?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Right now, for the past almost four years, is shared housing or co-living. That's my niche right now.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And see now, I love that. And do you know that as much as I know about real estate, I only discovered this concept like two or three years ago. I was like what People do that Like Pad-splitting the, the houses and the bedrooms, that I was like that's a thing. So I didn't even like and I've been investing in 35 years. And when I found out it was like fresh news I never heard in my life. It's like I got 30 years in and I just found this out a few years ago.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah Well, I actually know, I bet you that you you didn't. You just never looked at it that way. So when, oh yeah, because when I was growing up, my grandparents had the neighborhood home and there was always someone in our attic upstairs that didn't belong to our family, but that was our magical cousin. Oh, they're just staying here till they get on their feet. So boarding houses have been around forever and a day. Yeah, really, when you think about it in hindsight, dwan, that's all this is is just boarding houses on steroids.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, it is.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah, that really is yeah. So, and our parents and our grandparents did that thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You bring your family up from another state and they stayed in one room, they were in your house yes, my aunt, she's 97, god love her, she's still alive and she was telling me some stories, like when she first got out of like high school college she went to live in dc this is from tennessee, if I'm like, I mean like almost like a holler to live in dc and stayed at a boarding house. And you know, now I'm like, oh my gosh, weren't you scared like just you move on by yourself. I said no, I just took a train, go to a little boarding house, I'm paying for my room and they're making my meals. I was like I love that, but you know, I think it's because it was called boarding houses. So I don't think about it as as what it is.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

It's, it's a, it's a big thing it is, and you will hear a lot of names co--living group homes, shared housing, I mean there's a whole lot of nomenclature around it. But I definitely think that because the housing crisis is upon us and right now the prices of rents are steady and they're still climbing in a lot of areas, but the cost of living just has not kept up, and so it makes you wonder, like, is this, you know, going to really be the next thing? And then you got the generation that, the millennials. They don't really care to have a house and two kids and a dog they want to hang out with their friends, and so they live together anyway, so it just like okay they do.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So someone is hearing this like, hey, I like this shared housing. Yeah, I.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I don't even know if the millennials even know the concept about what a boarding house is right, I feel like our generation might be, like the boomers might be, or the ex-gen x's might be like the last ones that know of that, because we saw that happen. Like I remember aunts and people staying and my grandparents always had somebody and I was like, oh OK, and so so someone's like, hey, I like the idea. What would be like a first step. What would someone do? Well, first explain the concept a little bit more better. So I have a house, I don't know. I have a three bed, two bath house. I want to make a shared housing. What do I do with it?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yep, so it first, first thing. First, you would need to determine the type of shared housing facility that you want, because, if you think about it, there's everything you could do a granny pad or as I call them. You know, boomers like boom mates. I call them boom mates, that's the the name I like you could try you should trademark that you know what? I said it enough. I probably should like roommates is.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That is a trademarkable term, okay, because there are like 70 million. I'm a boomer, so there's like 75 million of us, right? And people don't want to live in a big old house alone. That's right. And boomers I, you know all my friends, were active. We go out on boats and we buy, ride bikes and we hike and we camp and we ride paddle boards and we're not like our grandmas, my grandmas that were like knitting and canning food and working in the garden like they had to survive.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

We're just like hey, instacart, drop it off. We're going over there and I, I don't want to. Should I end up being a widow before you know my husband? I don't want to just like live all by myself. Of course, not Like who would I bother all?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

day you would have a boom mate.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'd have a boom mate. Yeah, okay, tell me right now, trademark it girl. Okay, I will look at that. I promise I got a boom mate. And how does that happen?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah. So we were saying, boom mates, you can do it for veterans, you could do it for sober living, you could do mentally challenged behavioral. So if you think about it vastly, there's all these niche markets you can go after. I'm looking for people to rent by the room and maybe they're just going to be professional people. They could even be the like you do the short term with the furnish finders for nurses. You could even go after them. So you need to determine what area you want to look for, or service, because that's basically you're being of service.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

What's your favorite Right now? I started with mental health and alcohol behavioral disorder. Right now, my go-to is re-entry. So if you understand the population, you know that there are a lot of people that are being reintroduced back into society from the criminal justice system. Yeah and yeah. So reentry is a big thing. They come with a stigmatism because of their background. However, they have served their time enough that either they're on parole or they are released, and they have typically no credit or diminished credit they do have. They're hard workers because they don't want to go back. Yep, they pay their rent on time, they will take care of your place, and so right now, my specialty is for re-entry clients, and mostly are men.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And I really do like that because I have an uncle that was in and out of jail all the time and he had mental illness.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

He is schizophrenic, but you know, back in that day they just, I mean, gave people shock therapy and all the really tragic things that they did. But my uncle, elmo, he was like our favorite because he was like a big giant kid and he had all these. He was in and out out jail all the time and sometimes he'd be like I'm just gonna go break into someone's house so I can go back to jail for a while because I just I don't know what to do. And I can remember him saying those words to me and then they go Elmo's back in jail. I was like, yeah, but I think Elmo wants to be there. He just he didn't know what to do or how to get out, you know, because I mean he's been passed away for a decade and he was 80 then, so I don't think he ever knew how to get back out there right and I mean, and that's a real thing, um, there are a lot of wraparound and bridge services for these guys, um, when they re.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

But the main thing is, I think, that they just need somebody in their corner. So a lot of their friends have moved away. Maybe their family is who they did something to. They don't want to be bothered with them, or at least they don't want to be in their house. They understand that if they have some place to live, like that's half the battle. And then you know, getting something to eat, that's the other half the battle, and it's just knowing that somebody's in your corner that really does care about you being a productive citizen. But to your point, yeah, they call it three hots and a cots. I know what I'm getting when I'm in jail I'm getting three hot meals and I'm getting a cot to sleep in and I don't have to worry about anything.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

So a lot of these guys haven't even transitioned into society. They don't even know how to open a bank account. Blind, they don't know anything. So you, just I have a sheet on my wall and it's got all of these services in them that I give them a support sheet. Here are the places that you need to call. Here are the people, my contact people. This is going to help get you started, you know, and down down to the toothbrush, like I've got dentist office that I've gone to and say, hey, you know, I've got I'm onboarding five guys and I need dental hygiene stuff. They'll give it to you, they really will.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You're going to have a thing, You're going to be a saint. You got like a saint named after you. Take that Because you know what People are afraid of criminals. But then I look at my uncle and he would say, well, I get three hots. And he would say that. And then the next thing, you know, he'd break into somebody's house and just like, okay, they called the police and he's like so eventually we got him put in a place for his mental illness because that's what he needed.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But I mean I just don't think people realize unless maybe you've been an actual part of that people realize how hard it is to get back because people do like, oh, you're in jail, what are you in jail for? I don't want you around me or my kids like what did you do? And like for life to have this big stamp on your head. That's like I'm a, but I'm sure most of us have done things that could have landed us in jail.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yes, ma'am.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I bought and sold my fair share of drugs and I did not get arrested. Okay, so you make the decision, because I like let's talk about re-entry, because that is, and mentally ill things, those are really highly overlooked, I feel, and like the boom the boom mates. I think those people can, you know, they can organize it. So we want to do something that's really super useful to the community. Want to do re-entry. I want to buy a house. What do I need? What am I looking for?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

um you're looking for. It depends on your risk, your tolerance. Personally, I believe that everybody needs their own place to unwind, detox, think, and that's one person behind the door. I have some friends in other areas and states that do. Two people to a room. That feels very like a sardine to me, like in a can, all squished up. But you can do it. It's legal as long as the room is large enough. I just happen to not like that, yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I wouldn't like that either. I'd be like what if I want to like fart in the middle of the night? That's it right.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I can't do that with care, like there's no freedom and all Right. I need my own space to think Right. So you need to decide how many people you want in your room, because more people they can have a tendency to live hard in your place. And you also need to decide do they need all that extra common space? So a lot of my common space. I don't need a living room and a dining room. I combine those so that there's a living dining room together and then usually I end up converting my living room to a bedroom. That's what typically happens. So you want your bang for your buck and you want to convert.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You have like three bedrooms and you have a big living room and maybe it made two more rooms, that's right. You have five bedrooms, that's right. And then you have a kitchen and like a dining area, and what about? Then people pay by the room. So what about? Like? These are things I would think about. What about, like housekeeping?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

you eat somebody else's groceries like you put your name on your groceries in that, and when you work in the fridges, my yogurt so let's, let's talk about that, because I learned I skinned my knees on that the hard way, thinking that hey, if somebody puts something in the refrigerator, of course you're not going to touch it, like that's, but you don't think about the fact that people may be hungry and they may not have had money to buy something. So when my, my goal is four to one for the bathroom, so I like to have a bath and a half if. If there are more than four people you're better off with.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Guys are share, can share less bathroom space than women. They just can't. That is true, we're in it right. So it depends on who you're servicing female or co-ed, when you think about that. Also, the refrigerators I learned that I thought it was one refrigerator was good to go and you know everybody was just going to fare OK and nope. So when I go to the person, I add another refrigerator and then I assign cabinets, and then I assign cabinets and in the kitchen.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

you have multiple refrigerators. Yeah, and then people are assigned. What a good idea.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah, I assign cabinets. So there's a common cabinet, there's a free for all. Like, if somebody goes to the store and they don't want something, you put it in the common cabinet, nobody is upset about you taking it. If I stop at the free store, there's a common cabinet, nobody upset about you taking it. If I stop at the free store, there's a common cabinet, nobody cares if you took it. And I assign colors. So you know the little dots with the green, orange, yellow, yep, everybody gets a color. If you have something in the refrigerator, you you get a little pad of colors. When you move in you put your dot on your thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's your color and everybody knows whose color is what well, I really like that, because that would be the first thing I would think of. It's like I have leftover pizza. I want to eat it. At midnight I go down there and it's gone. It'd be like yeah, where is my food?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

yep so, and people have almost had fistfights over food. So one thing that I do is no cameras, of course, in bedrooms and bathrooms, but my entryways and my kitchen is monitored, period. I can't have theft, and a house rule is in this house. I have a motto In this house we don't hurt people, and hurting people could be stealing something from them. It could be aggressive talking, calling them a name, hitting them, but if you steal something from somebody, it may be their last. You hurt them, you injured them in some way. So that is grounds for a writeup, depending on the person the other, the person that you know you did it to or or removal. I have asked people to leave because they've so, and those are my house rules. You sign those when you come in the door.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

this is how we operate here I think, and you know rules like I mean like right now this week I've got two of my grandkids. I've had them for like 15 straight days. They're four and eight. Well, my house and my rules are different than where they're at, and I was just the first week. It's like, oh my god, I just gotta get these kids. Like these are the rules at mimi's house. Like if you break these rules I'm gonna bust your butt. Like because people have to function. Not everybody has the same common sense and not everybody values the same thing. So I feel like you it rules without rules like it would never work. Even living in a house with your own kids and your family and your moms and dads or whatever. Rules are important.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

They are. People just have boundaries. We have rules. We have rules. We stop at the stop sign, we stop at the red light. You don't leave the grocery store without paying for it. There are rules all over the place. They'll just not post it. We just grow up with them. Yeah, over the place. They'll just not post it. We just grow up with them. Yeah, you know and and they get a copy. But I also do have poster boards so that I can communicate and their rules on the post board. Here they are, they're in plain sight so you can see them.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm not hiding it I'm not making them up, they're right. So now you can't maybe give an exact amount, but let's just say you have I don't know cincinnati, ohio. You have a house that ends up being a five bedroom and the average rent so I don't really know the rents in that part of the country that rent is $800 a month for a house like that. How are they paying per bedroom?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Right, so the easiest way I find to, because it's different in different neighborhoods- yeah, it is.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yep, so it depends on where your house is, how easily accessible it is to the bus stop. All the same things you would do to look at what you were going to price your regular rental. Yeah, you're going to look at to see what you're going to price this particular rental. So is it a moderately upgraded house or does this house have stainless steel? And you know, it depends on what you're doing. Okay, so, modest to to nice, to you know b, quality, you know c, cd to b, so you're, so you're everything in between. And then I'm looking at what a studio would rent for in that area. I'm also looking for what a if there's an extended stay. Oh, that's a good idea.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Extended stay yeah.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Because there's no, there's, there's no precedence on how to do this thing Right. I don't know.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm thinking on a new charge. But yeah, extended stays. I have used those a couple of times where I just get like six weeks someplace and it's like, ah, I clean the room twice a week, I do laundry. I got to clean the room twice a week, I do laundry, I get my groceries, that's all right. So that's a good idea. You look like an extended stay by the month.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yep, I'm looking at that. And then it's who is your clientele? So of course, if it's a re-entry, just a regular veteran, and you're not providing any services, just the room, then of course I have internet and all of mine and usually washer and dryer is on site, if I can do that. But a typical house that you would rent for anywhere from maybe $1,200 to $1,800, I'm probably going to get double, maybe even triple that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay. So let's say we have a $2,000,. I'm just going to do a super easy math. We have a $2,000 a month house. You have five bedrooms, so you're making like $4,000 to $5,000 a month thing that you do with your equity and your rent thing.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

That I think would bode really well with this and we definitely could talk about it. But I will tell you this. So what it does for me is most of my home own homes I've owned because that was my strategy, but now I'm starting to get into the place where I'm master, leasing some of them. So you bring stability to the house because you know you can afford that particular X marks, the spot payment, and you don't have to worry about it not income producing, because it's not one tenant, it's not one resident, you got five. That's right's right.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Even if somebody falls off, I'm still churning like the whole time I'm just always marketing for that replacement person and and, and, so you're never without rent in that property at all. There's always something coming in the door, so I mean it's like, and you're fulfilling a need for them. It's really win-win, it really is.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, no, I love it. I and I've talked to a few people that do it and I think one guy I talked to was doing it like for nurses. I know a lot of people do it for like medical and executives and traveling, but there's so many people out there that are not executives or nurses that need like the mentally ill and people coming back in re-entry or people that have had drug and addiction, Like those are the people nobody wants to help.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yep, and there's a whole business to be made out of this. It really is. It started out as a what am I going to do with the house? And somebody needed a place to stay and it's oh, here's the thing, let me rent the room See how this works. And oh, that really works. It's like you just kind of fall into it and you creatively, magically I call it automagically it automagically comes together. I love those words. Yeah, I thought you would appreciate that Automag magically.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I do love that I can add the new word for me I magically come together and you're and you're really helping someone and you're, you're my. My houses are the cutest house on the street. It's well manicured. They don't have to worry about the you know the, the noise thing. They don't have to worry about the. They don't even know that it's a shared house. The neighborhood like nobody even knows.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

But I do go to the neighborhood meetings and let them know. This is who I am, this is what I'm doing, this is how you contact me. Here's my why. You know, here are my credentials. And oh, by the way, should you come to the door, there's something on there that says this is a shared facility. If you have any questions, please contact Tiffany Ray. But it's helping to stabilize some of. You're talking about that particular entry re-entry person. They're going to go to that DC area, probably where they can afford. But having a person like yourself or myself invested in that property is going to help bring up the property value, because that's what we do, that's right, yeah, no, I do like it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I live. We have a house in florida that's in a gated community and they have an hoa and, like I never go, it's like listen, I travel all over. I don't have time to be going about who's arguing about someone had weeds in their yard and I don't care. But we get, I guess, an email every meeting and say, hey, we're doing this and this and this. And there was an email that came out a few months ago So-and-so wants to make their house a halfway house. Yeah, I mean, the neighbors had a meltdown and I was like, ok, but like it's a halfway house for people that are trying to get back in. So this is me like, with no votes whatsoever, because I'm not on the board of anything and I'm I'm one of like 300 people. I was like, yeah, but people know I don't want next to my house but next to your house. But if they were next to my house I'd probably help them.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Right, so I understand.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And I mean it was like the neighborhood was, they were, oh my God. The emails went back and forth. I was like what the hell is wrong with all you people?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

It's the stigmatism, the stigma that comes with it and you get that not in my backyard is real, that's a real thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's what everybody said and it's on a different street and I mean to tell you people were putting signs yeah, children live here. We don't want people coming out of halfway houses in our neighborhood and I was like, yeah, but lots of people have issues with drug and alcohol and they do and all that things, that doesn't mean they're going to be horrible, crazy maniacs for life. I mean, like I don't know, and that was what everybody said, not in this neighborhood, this is a gay community.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Well, the person that owns that house doesn't mind, and right why should you? I don't mind and half the people in here 90 people don't mind. But, man, I never saw such a fight in my life between I was like dang people.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

it's real, it is. But you, you have to convince them, um, that you run a tight ship and that is, I think, where my corporate background comes from, in being able to run a tight ship and I tell them we have rules, we have regulations that we abide by. You know, here's all of my criteria. I'm doing a background check on people before they come. If you don't want them if they're you know an SO because you don't want them if they're you know an SO, you don't want them close to children, you know you don't want that yeah, yeah, you have to onboard the right person.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

The right person for the right property. That's a big thing yeah, it really is.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And, like I said, most people I have talked to do like executives, that's like well, that's it. And you know, I think I've just always. I've always volunteered, like when my daughter was little, we volunteered at the YWCA and they had the women that literally like left their house at two in the morning with their kids and got picked up by a van and left the house with their backpack and they're like you know, they're behind a gate and there's guards, and like these women are a really abusive situation. And so so I volunteered once a week and I would babysit all the kids while the moms were in counseling. And they're like you just can't believe we can't get people to come and babysit because they're afraid some ex is going to show up.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm like, well, there's like 20 foot fences out there with razor wire and you got guards everywhere. I feel safer in here than out there, I don't know. So even then I was like helping. I told my daughter listen, you know, people need help. Women, like they're in abusive relationships, they need help getting out. And the same thing like with you, like there's all kinds of places where people need levels of help and most people just want to do the easy, like mail in a check somewhere and call it, and not like do anything about it and not like do anything about it.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

When you think about it, duondo, at the very core of our American values, we have rights, we do. We have rights. There's amendments First amendment, second amendment we have a quality of life standard and so when people do something and they have paid for it, whether so so say, your crime is a white collar and you pay extra penalties for it, you still paid for it, so it doesn't stay with you forever. Okay, so aren't people entitled to clean and safe and quiet, affordable, healthy environment for them? Right? I mean, that's just like the at the very core of our american way is like what we expect for ourselves, shouldn't you expect that for others? Like, aren't they entitled to that if they can? Okay, this is that I love it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like the fact that, like, like I said at the beginning, my model is people before profits and you have like a heart for people and a lot of investors. I mean, I love all investors, but a lot of investors are really more about the money and what can they do for me and people. I don't find that everybody wants to necessarily like kind of give and help and give back because we you know, it's like anything we don't want to look at the homeless people, they don't want them in our neighborhood and we'll just like put some money over there but no one wants to actually go and help. But this is the best of both worlds.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

This is blended, though it's the best of both worlds because you, as a investor, if I would say, you know, dwan, I have this opportunity and I'm going to do a 20 bedroom and this is what it's going to be, so there's a social component to it that you may want to put your money. Maybe you don't want to be a house man, maybe you don't want, or maybe you have the house that I'm going to lease and I stabilize that asset for you. I need a lease and I want three to five years because I don't want. So I'm going to guarantee you, you know one, so that is a safety net for you. Then, if you're the owner of the property, you're making two, three, four, five times the amount. So I mean it is a win all the way around. I don't see the bad in this at all.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I don't either, yeah. I don't either, but as a woman that's 65, I'm like boom mates. I want a boom mate.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Don't you just love that?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love that so much. So I have a lot of friends that live in the villages in Florida the little golf cart community that's known the world wide and I mean there's three or four women all living in houses together and they just have the best fun. They go to happy hour at like 3 in the afternoon. They're drinking, they have the best fun. They're going to happy hour at like three in the afternoon. They're drinking. They're playing golf, they're riding their golf cars. It's like living their best life. That's a boom mate. That's it. I love all that. Let's jump topics for a minute. What's your favorite band of all time? Let's talk about music, oh, music.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Band.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Oh, now, if you have a singer, I will be able to do that, oh singer, I can give you that one right away, because remember, I said I wanted to sing in the south of france, remember I told you that? Okay, my favorite singer of all time, barbara streisand. Oh man, she is so good, right? Angelic, yes, and she sings with angels. Now the band thing I'm gonna have to think about that. I never really, and I grew up in a in a band. I grew up with a band in our basement. My um stepdad played bass, and so there was band practice three times a week in my house yeah I love music.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I think music is like it's part of your soul.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You can tell a lot about people but the music that they listen to, yes yeah, and some people are like I don't ever listen to music. It's like what? How could you listen to music? Every song equates to a memory yes, like music is.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Music is something I have a favorite movie, the Matrix. I love the Matrix, the Matrix, and people meet me and they go like are you a sci-fi? And then I put up the Live Long and Prosper and they go oh my gosh, you's a truck yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Girl. Yeah, I just did that. I'm like my husband's, like what are you doing?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I'm like Live. Are you doing? Live long and prosper.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

How do you not know that? Yes, that's why I love you. Any Trekkie is always a favorite. What's your favorite part of the day?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I think my favorite part of the day is going to be early evening. Yeah, it's when you might catch a breeze, it's when the sun might be setting, so you get the beautiful landscape. Yeah, I just I like everything about it. I'm a driver, so I don't know if I told you I commuted to colorado for six years from ohio. You committed wow, yes, when I say I mean like the 17 hour drive commute.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Oh shoot that commute. Yeah, that's a drive. Yeah, my husband worked there for six years. We had a house first in Lakewood, then we moved to Pueblo South and I would drive once a month and the evening that evening, right before the sunset, and I will be coming up over the mountains I can see Colorado Springs. Oh my God, it's the most picturesque thing. I could never erase it out of my brain and I think that's when I fell in love with that time of day.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, you know, it's funny because we live in the actual mountains, so we live at 9,000 feet, and 90% of the people I interview are like oh, I like the morning I get up at five, I work out and I was like, I don't know, I mean living in the mountains. It's like when that sun starts to go down, everything is just, it's like wow, it's beautiful, this is. God's country right here.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yes, it is beautiful. So you know exactly what I'm saying. I know exactly I'm always like no evening.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

When the sun's going to change, it's like you can't. You can't do any. That's just amazing. So what is your biggest goal? So I have two more questions for you. So what is your biggest goal that you have right now, and how can this wonderful family help you?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

biggest goal, um it, it, you're. This is. This is so funny. So I, when, when I'm speaking and we're talking about real estate, and why? Because you always have to have a, why, yeah, um, I ask people how many people in here know your great grandmothers, grandmothers, grandmothers, grandmothers? So five generations name, and nine times out of 10, the room is dead silent and they don't. And I tell them it's because they haven't left them anything. But if they left them something, I bet you they would know their name. So my goal for my family is five generations deep for them to know grandma Tiffany's name. So that is my goal. I love it and it's a big. It's a big one, it's a big goal generational wealth.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's a big thing, hey. The bible says it's a blessing that.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Hey, that's all right. You, hey, you gotta think big, think big right. Um, how can the DeWine family, ben Twyford's, helped me? I believe that you guys have some strategies that you have worked with for a very long time that will fit well into what I think shared living is the next blue ocean for sure, and I think figuring out how to maybe combine some of that stuff and teach other people how to do it so that they can have a five-generation dream too, would be really super cool, awesome okay, so everybody's a wonderful family.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You got to get engaged now yeah you, uh? Do you help and teach people how to do this?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I'm working on it. Um, I do host the um. We started our focus group for, in my particular RIA, our inaugural meeting was March, so we're four or five months in and I'm working on a few things, but I'm here for questions all the time and eventually, yeah, it would be cool to Well, it would be cool to get that some kind of package where you can, uh, you know, teach people how to do it, but then they can, like you know, like we do, coaching and mentoring.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, because that is like, especially, like you know, with prices going up, up, up, up up and people can't afford groceries, and you know, shared housing makes sense, but I feel like a lot of people like I wouldn't even know where to look for that to do live in one, right, not to do it, but just to live in one. So I feel like that's something where the word needs to be out more than people like hey, listen, there's shared housing, there's this. I can teach you how to do it and and make it. I don't know, like um more, where people think of it yeah, it's, it's come, it'll be a thing, you know.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

It's just, I guess, like when short-term housing was new, nobody knew about it. You had to make it a thing. So I'm trying to make it a thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, I'm helping you make it a thing, girl.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I know Airbnb. When I first came out, I was like what? You ran out of your house for a week. Who would do that? Well, I stay in them all the time now. So it's just. I mean it's good for anybody really for anybody and anything traveling or reentry or anything. But I feel like it's a good thing for women too, because if you're a single woman and maybe you're 40, 45, 50, kids are growing up. It's like it's nice to have like roommates, but not like friends who are roommates where you ran your friendship over. It's like it's nice to have like roommates, but not like friends or roommates where that's right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You ran your friendship over. Like you just have people that you like. You can talk and hang out with a little barbecue backyard.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Yeah, we did a barbecue Saturday. It's just a cooperative living. That's what it is, that's it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it. Ok, so people can Do. You have a website for people to go to. I love it. Okay, so people can do. You have a website for people to go to.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

I do it is. You also can reach my website at Tiffany T-I-F-F-A-N-I raycom as well. Or you can do the traditional Rayofhoperealityservicescom Dot com. Exactly, that's the long way we shortened it. So they link. They both go to the same website.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Correct, same with me, correct, okay. So everyone, uh. So one more thing for you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So, uh, if you have enjoyed the show today, which I know that you have, because I mean, look at this angel over here, miss tiffany ray like a ray of sunshine I love it and I love what you do and I love your heart, because I am just such a big helping people kind of person and when I get another person like that, I'm just always like, oh, we need more people like you in the world today. So if you guys had fun or live, laugh, learn anything, does anything at all, I want you to subscribe to the podcast, leave a five-star review, because I can't grow without your help, and also follow me on YouTube. I put these podcasts up on YouTube and on my website do wonderfulcom. I have free eBooks, wholesaling, short sales, subject to whatever you want, not shared housing. You got to go, tiffany, to learn about that. So okay, so, um, I like all the guests, so leave us with a parting word of wisdom, but just actually one word. A word of wisdom, ooh, just actually one word, a word of wisdom.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Ooh, wow, and it's hard to do right.

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

Wow, you stumped me and I'm hardly rarely stumped. Let me think it's my superpower. I know right, one word.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Commit, perfect, okay. So everyone that listens regularly, I tell everyone to take a little yellow sticky, write the word commit, put it up on their mirror and then say the word commit every week. Commit, commit, commit, commit. That's the word of the week in the wonderful family this week. I never tell guests. I'm going to ask them that because then what you're doing through the whole show so you're thinking about your word, I like it, and then you think, and then you change your mind like, oh, I'm going to say that, and then it's like I can see people trying to. I'm like I just wait till they say give me a word, because you know people want to give you word. What is the part? They want to give you like a 45 minute dissertation. It's like just give me a word, come on. Now. The important part is what does that word mean to you?

Tiffani Ray-Smith:

What it means is definitely not one word. It means I have a saying in my house, and that saying is don't be offended, ladies. Action is the man. So to me, what commit means is don't be afraid to drive through the fog, get through it, find a way to get it done. That's what it means to me action is the man.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

No, I like it. I always do want to ask everyone what it means to them, because commit means something different to every person that hears it. We're going to focus this week on tiffany ray's. Action is the man and women. If any women are offended by that, they need to seriously grow up. It's like women. Stop with everybody being so offended, like what the hell's wrong with people. Yeah, I agree, I just stop it. All right. So action is the man right on your boards, women especially, and for those of you that are thinking about you know other things besides rehabbing or landlording. I mean, I really feel like shared housing is a huge thing and I'm hearing more about it and learning more about it all the time and I love it and I really love the way that you do it, ms Tiffany.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So, all right, everybody, we'll be back. So thank you for being on the show first off, and everyone else will be back next week, same bat time, same bat channel. And remember that the truth is in the red letters. All right, everybody. Ciao. See you, tiffany. Thank you.