Entrepreneur Expat
On this podcast, we connect entrepreneurial expats and aspiring expats together to build a global community of adventurous entrepreneurs. Each week we bring you a new podcast where we share our expat adventures and highlight 6 and 7 figure expat entrepreneurs on how they run a business from anywhere in the world.
Entrepreneur Expat
How to Start an AirBnB Business So You Can Move Abroad
👉 Book a Mexico Relocation Consult: https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/consult
👉 Need to start creating a location independent business so you can go anywhere in the world? Get started with our Get Your First High Paying Client Online Bootcamp: https://entrepreneurexpat.com/firstclient-yt
👉 Learn how to use YouTube to build an online business with our YouTube Mastery Workshop: https://www.YouTubeMasteryWorkshop.com
👉 Want to learn how to move to Mexico in the next 12 months? If so, click here https://www.entrepreneurexpat.com/mexico
V I D E O S T O W A T C H N E X T :
Online Business Tips to Working and Traveling In Mexico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGH0voCyOc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j&index=2
Moving to Mexico: 10 Reasons Why We Chose to Live in Guadalajara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK23vD8_xjc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_LAY7UV78YMgms-f2e1UcwN&index=23
Tips for Moving Overseas: Top 5 Remote Work Skills That Make Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzjCrlNAL8&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j
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Inquiries: community@entrepreneurexpat.com
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Have you been wondering whether or not starting an Airbnb business might be a viable way for you to build remote income in the United States so that you can move to other countries? Where our guest today on Entrepreneur Expat is an expert in Airbnb and also a digital nomad who spends six months in Peru every year and the other six months. Traveling around the world. Her name is Tawny Powell, and she's answering all of your Airbnb questions today. For those of you who've been asking us about how to buy Airbnbs in the us, turn that into a business and then move abroad. We also talked a little bit about the differences between buying real estate in the United States. Versus buying real estate here in Mexico. Welcome to Entrepreneur Expat. I'm Amanda oga, and together with my husband Justin, we help you move abroad. Relocate to Mexico is where we're spending a lot of our time right now with our clients. We also teach you how to make money online so you can go anywhere in the world. We talk about international investments, international business opportunities, and we interview people like Tawny and other expats in digital nomads. About how they're able to travel all around the world and pay for it. So if that's something that you're interested in, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss a single video or podcast interview that we have coming out on this channel. And go ahead and give this video a like, because it helps us get it in front of more people. And if you're listening on the podcast make sure to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Or wherever it is that you are listening. And there's two kinds of people who are going to be interested in this interview today. The first group is those of you who are interested in buying real estate in the United States, uh, and starting an Airbnb business there and generating income from that, and then using that income to qualify for residencies and visas in other countries, which is essentially what Tawny did. So that's one group. There's another group of you that's going to be more interested. In buying real estate here in Mexico, it's actually one of the top questions we get asked every week. It's all about real estate, so we can now help you find real estate in Mexico. We can help you find commercial properties to invest in. We can help you find. Vacation rentals. We can help you find investment properties and we can help you find a home with our team of real estate experts. We've got notaries, we've got attorneys, we've got tax experts, we've got real estate agents. We basically built the whole team already to make this as seamless as possible for you. We also have bankers financing, uh, fio for the freehold leases. We figured out all the little details. For you already to help you find the best property for you. So if you're interested in Mexico specifically, then go to entrepreneur expat.com/consult and we can get started there. But there's another group of you who perhaps wants to get started in the United States because you're already there doing real estate investing there, and then using that money to move abroad. If that's you, then you're definitely going to want to listen to what Tawny says because she has a very methodical process that she works her clients through so they can see a lot of success. And here's the interesting thing. It's not as hard as you're probably thinking it is. It's not going to cost you as much money as you're probably thinking it is, and it's not as complicated to run Airbnbs remotely as you probably think it is. So without further ado, let's get into this interview. Hey everyone, and welcome to another expat story here on Entrepreneur Expat, where we show you how to make money from anywhere in the world so you can go wherever you want. Today I have Tawny Powell with us, and we met on Facebook. Book because Tawny is an Airbnb coach, and many of you have been asking us if Airbnb is a viable solution so you can have your digital nomad life. How does it work? How do we get started? So Tawny is here to answer all those questions. Tawny is an expert in investor in Airbnbs. She spends six months right in Peru every year. And then the rest of the time you're just traveling around and enjoying that passive income. So thank you so much for being here to, uh, talk about this.'cause it has come up a lot in the comment section, uh, on this channel and also in our emails from the podcast. Cool. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. So before getting into all that, like how they can get started with Airbnbs, um, who is Tawny and how did she end up becoming a digital nomad? Uh, who am I? And how did I become a nomad? I don't know. Which question is easier? Um, so I'm from Massachusetts. Uh, I don't know. I think sometimes that's important because sometimes I cuss a lot and I try to keep it clean most places I go. But I can be a little, uh, in that way a communicate in that way, a little abrasive sometimes. And I'm pretty like very business oriented. I work. Very fast. I move very quickly and uh, I've been pretty successful. Um, I am a invest real estate investor, coach and consultant, and I work with my clients all over the US and I help them typically either buy their first home and live in a portion of it and rent a portion of it on Airbnb, or I help them buy their first investment property. And put it on Airbnb. So I work with first time home buyers and first time investors who are usually like house hacking. Um, yeah, I, um, built my small portfolio of real estate in Atlanta kind of on accident. It wasn't my plan and I got really lucky, but a lot of businesses start by accident. Entrepreneur, expat was a half an accident, so Totally, totally. I got lucky and just like happened upon. A friend who turned mentor and yeah, I'm able to live off of that passive income now abroad. And yeah, I live in Peru half the year and right now I'm in CARNA, Columbia and I'll be, I don't know where next. What prompted you to to move abroad? I. Yeah, a few years ago I was actually in one of my Airbnbs, uh, in Atlanta, and it just, like, something just hit me like an overwhelming feeling. Um, like I'm pretty intuitive and I move with like my intuition or my spirit, like whatever guides me that way, especially when it's really powerful and strong. And so I just got this overwhelming feeling like I'm not supposed to be here anymore, even though I love Atlanta. I lived there for 16 years after I finished college. And it, it was odd. It was odd for me'cause I was like, really? I really love it here. But, um, I think in one hand, Atlanta as a city, in my opinion, has gotten a little overdeveloped, overgrown. It's just not as fun as it used to be. It's all a lot more expensive and all that jazz. Um, and. I didn't necessarily know that the current election was gonna go the way it went this year. Um, but I just think more and more I had become more dissatisfied with the politics in general in the us. Yeah. Talk about it. We had comments, uh, just on that very topic coming in last week, we did a, a video about 11 things we don't worry about since moving to Mexico. And one of the things that we said was like, we don't deal with the polarization anymore. And normally we've noticed that if you're the type of person who moves abroad, like you don't. Fit into like the whole polarized two party thing.'cause you're just seeing it from a totally different perspective once you're in other countries and you're just like, this is a mess. Yeah, it's a hot mess. It's a blazing hot mess right now. Um, yeah, and I never felt like I fit into either. And I, for a long time felt like whatever my values are and my beliefs, like, they're never really represented. So, um, I started going abroad a few years ago. I would skip the winter'cause I don't like the cold weather. Mm-hmm. From Massachusetts. And so I would skip the winter and go to like the islands. I went to Belize or Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic. Spent some time in Mexico City. Um, and after like the third time I was getting ready to go abroad again for the winter and I just stopped and I was like, why am I planning to come back? Like every time I came back I kind of never really wanted to come back, so I just decided not to. Yeah. Are you finding, um, that people are just finding,'cause this is, I mean we're obviously seeing it in Mexico, we hear in Columbia, uh, it's kind of similar right now. I know you're there. Um, are you just also finding that perhaps something that has changed is now'cause the world has changed so much that now you can just find a lot of similar opportunities, same standard of living or close to same standard of living and. Obviously much higher quality of life all over the world. Like you're not stuck to US, Canada, Europe, Australia, anymore. Yeah, I think you can definitely find a very similar standard of living in a lot of places, and I don't even know if the world has changed so much, like quickly. I also have it like Americans tend to live in a bubble and we just don't get out and we have this idea of, oh yeah, there's also that how, how life is like in other countries. And then we go and we're like, oh, wow. Like we're sold propaganda in the states that when you kind of start to travel, you're like, oh. Like everything's fine here. There's hospitals and there's places like if I get sick I can get well and you know, there's healthy food, often healthier than in the US and so, yeah. Yeah. If not better, because it's more affordable for us. Yeah. It's better'cause it's more affordable because you're doing the ultimate hack, which is, hey, I'm earning in dollars, but I am living, uh, in pesos, for example, or Thai B or whatever it is that people go do. That's like the ultimate hack. I was telling my husband just this morning, I was like, I almost feel like I'm cheating. I'm obviously not right, but, and none of us are. We've worked our asses off for this and made. Difficult decisions and changed, but it's almost like you feel like you're cheating in a way.'cause it's like, wait a minute, I understand business. I know how to earn in dollars. Uh, entrepreneur expats, to the point where we get applications for relocation consults every day. Automatically just off of YouTube. Um, you know, so we understand that whole game. And then we moved to another country. So now we're doing the geo, the currency arbitrage, and then we also reduced our tax bill from the us. Like we, we feel like we're cheating. Mm. It can feel that way. Yeah, you can. We can. Like we're not, we worked our asses off for this. Um, but it's almost like a, whoa, like once you see that all start coming, uh, together and people don't realize these are like wealth hacks. These are some serious wealth building hacks, um, that if you just change your, you know, you, you start learning how to make money on your own. So you're already getting tax advantages there. You're in real estate, you get even more tax. Advantages, uh, being in real estate. Um, and then you start taking advantage of geo arbitrage. I mean, you can pay off debt, you can invest, you can get savings. You can, uh, open your world to massive opportunities in other countries, not just the country where you're from. I mean, it really just expands you in a way that's just not possible if you just stay where you are. It absolutely does in a lot of ways. Yeah. I feel like we're very lucky also to have been. Born in the US and have that opportunity be so easy for us to do. Yeah. Yeah. Where you, where you learn that. It's like we tell people, like you take what's good of each country, right. And then you just make it work for you. Like take what's good about the us. A lot of us learned how to make money and earn in dollars. Uh, but learn how to do that online and go take it somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah, it works. I like it. It works. So how, okay, so how did you end up picking Peru? I'm interested in this'cause it's come up a few times in the expat spaces, uh, and also in in WhatsApp conversations that we've had. It seems like there's more people interested in Peru now, um, for residency. So how did you end up coming up on the decision of Peru? Yeah, um. It was sort of like an, I didn't know where I wanted to live. Like I, when I left the US I kind of came to CARNA for three months because I love it here, but I wasn't sure if this is where I wanted to like root down. And then I kind of bounced around Mexico a bit and Mexico City and Marta and Oaxaca and whatever, and, and then I decided to come, I planned a trip to Lima because I really wanted to get like some, I wanted to get some cooler weather. Like, I love the heat, but also I love like a good fall feeling where I like to wear a scarf sometimes. Well, you're from New England, so I missed that. I was in this hot weather for like almost a year. Um, and then I was planning to go from Lima to Bueno Saturdays. And when I got to Lima and I chose these cities, I should say, because I, after like traveling abroad for the winters, I realized there was like things I was looking for in where I wanted to live. I wanted to live in a massive city. Because I'm very fitness oriented. Like I like a, I like a really great gym. I like to dance. I like rock climbing gyms like I like to do cool stuff that you typically only find in really big cities. So I picked Lima because it was a huge city, and I like a city on the water because I'm kind of spoiled now. And. I live my life with an ocean, ocean view. Like I don't, that's a non-negotiable for me now in my residence. So I needed a big city on the water. I wanted somewhere. That was cool. I decided to go to Lima. I had a whole trip planned to Bueno Cyrus after that. And when I got to Lima after five days, I was like, I'm not, I canceled the Bueno Cyrus trip. And I found out after canceling that too, like a couple weeks later, I started to ask more and more about, you know, residency because they give you an automatic 90 days when you get there, but that's it. You know, you're supposed to leave and come back or whatever. Um. I then found out that the residency process is really fairly simple, very easy, comparatively, and very affordable. Um, and there's a short path to dual citizenship in Peru, like two years. Oh, yes. Once you have residency, you can apply for dual citizenship within two years. Like that's really short. Yeah. And I had that in the back of my mind that I would like to have another citizenship somewhere else, uh, as a, you know. Something back on. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're working on Mexico now. Um, yeah. But, uh, we tell people a lot of times on this channel, we're like, look, a lot of people get started in Latin America, number one, because it's more affordable, number two. Usually more straightforward for residency. And number three, you can actually become a naturalized citizen that is not typical, uh, all over the world. It's, it's kind of unique to the Americas. So if you're looking for like your first plan B passport and you don't qualify via ancestry or anything like that, a lot of people get started in Latin America. Yeah. Yeah. And I, there's like consultants down there that do it. I worked with a team and they made it really easy for me. So it's kind of a no brainer. Yeah. And once I got my residency, I now have health insurance. I have Peruvian health insurance for$4 a month. Like Wow. Yeah. Mexico's more expensive on the health insurance front from Latin America. Peru is cheap also. I'll say that'cause I've spent a lot of time in Mexico City. My best friend lives there. I, I enjoy Mexico. It's gotten really expensive in a lot of places compared to other parts of Latin America. So. Your dollar goes really far in Lima. I enjoy that. Yeah. Mexico is really, it's, it's turning into a bit of an economic powerhouse and everybody and their mom literally from all over the world is trying to move here right now. Yeah. So obviously that, that causes an increase in prices and there's all their other factors to it as well. But Mexico's kind of doing one of these right now, uh, and then the prices are going up with it. Very, very much. You also just need to know how to hack it and who to talk to. Like on our team, for example, of real estate people,'cause we help people relocate. We're like, listen, you gotta make sure that people don't get gringo priced because, or gringo taxed. Because part of the problem is like the gringos come, they think it's cheap, but they're actually getting kind of taken advantage of and then that increases the prices for everyone. That's a, that's a part of what's going on too, but, uh, yeah. Okay. So what is the process for residency in Peru? Like, and, and what is it that they ask for? I could tell you very little about that. I hired consultants and I just did what they told me. Like, well, that's the best way to do it, girl. Yeah. Like, I don't wanna do it on your own. That was like six that started back, back in October, I think is when I started. So, I mean, we opened up a bank account on my first day. Like Scotiabank will allow you to open up a bank account there without residency yet. And then we had to go to another bank and do some other stuff. I had to get a background check from the states submitted. So how about, talk about why you chose to just hire it out? Because a lot of people will stick it through and try and do it on their own. Don't know a whole bunch of countries. I don't have the time, energy, or interest to do that. Hell no. Like I'm not into bureaucratic stuff. I kind of hate paperwork, hate all that stuff. No, I'm happy to pay somebody else to handle it for me. If they're available. Yeah. No, I do. Perfect. Okay. It took like three months, I can tell you that took like three months. Three months for the whole process. Yeah. That's not too bad, including opening the bank account and all that stuff. That's not, that's not too bad at all. Um, did you have to like go back to the states and do part of it over there, or is everything just done in Peru? Everything was unimproved. Oh, it's so fascinating how different countries do it. Yeah. They all have their own nuances of how they handle these things. Okay, so let's get back into the Airbnb and how you actually make money, because half of the audience, um, they're very interested in Airbnb as a means of, you know, generating some sort of income. So then they are able to move, um, abroad. So if someone's in that space right now where they're like, Hey, I think. This is how I'm gonna do it. Right. Where would one get started? I know you have courses and programs and all that kind of stuff, so we'll leave it, um, down below.'cause I know you can't answer in like a 30 minute interview, but Right. To the best of your ability. Right. If someone's in that space right now. I guess a better question is who's a good fit for it? Maybe that's a better question. Um, because yeah. It's kind of like every business, like not everybody can do every business. Not everybody has the profile for it. So who's actually a good fit for being like, Hey, air, Airbnb would actually work for you, like this profile of a person. Um, I would say there's a, there's a number of people that it would work for to be quite frank. Like it can work for a young or even a mid-career professional. It can work with who's single or a couple who wants to do it together. Probably be a little easier if you have a partner to do it with, but not impossible to do it alone. Um, I also have some clients who are older and wanna eventually retire out of the us but they're like ready to go remote now, like 10 or 12 years early. Um. It makes a difference, you know, to have a good, stable job. I mean, some solid income always makes a difference to be able to have the funds to acquire the property. Not only that, but like to set up the property to furnish it and then like if you're, if or when you're abroad, if there's things that are happening, you know, you're hiring a property manager to manage a lot of stuff, so you wanna be able to absorb some of the costs that may come up on owning a property while you're abroad. So. Somebody who has a decent amount of disposable income, I think would make a big difference for them. Um, yeah, and if you're looking to build wealth, like you buy a house that's going to appreciate in the future, then that's always a benefit too. But I think there's a pretty broad spectrum of people that I can fit for as long as you can work remotely. Yeah. And I think with Airbnb or real estate in general, a lot of people perhaps, uh, an objection they would have maybe along the lines of like, oh, okay. But because you hear people saying this, like it's not really passive, like you have to be there all the time, or if something breaks, it's on you or, um, you know, you're the owner. So like every, everything that happens with the house, like you have to handle it. So some people will make the argument that it's not that passive. Or they might not see a pathway in terms of like, well, how would I be able to do this remote if I have physical properties that I have to deal with? Like, wouldn't I have to physically be there? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a bit of a misnomer. Like there are people who own vacation properties in other states and that have been doing that for decades. Like that structure is not new. What's new is. People going abroad now. Um, but with a great property manager or I have a lot of clients who have family who maybe have like kids and they don't really wanna leave the US at least not yet, or family who for whatever reason, they're taking care of an elder or somebody, they have local people who can help them manage. It's not a problem at all. And, and you can set it up to where you like, rarely ever hear a word about it and you just collect money in your bank account. It's really in how you set it up. You go through all of that in your courses. So let's get into how else you make money, which is the fact that you now teach people, um, how to do this for themselves, which is, you know, taking advantage of the knowledge economy. Mm-hmm. Which is what we tell a lot of people. Like if you're an expert in something, you can turn that into a business course. So how did you come across, how did you come to. To doing that, right? Yeah. Or was it just kind of like a natural progression, like I'm already doing it, I'm getting all these questions about it. Let me just start answering the questions and get paid for. Yeah. Yeah, so it was sort of serendipitous. Like once I, when I, like I began my career. After I finished grad school, I began my career in the nonprofit space, uh, working at community development organization, teaching their home buyer in their home buyer program. It was not at all what I planned to do with my career, but I ended up really loving it. And so I worked with first time home buyers for, I have now for 13 years. And so for the first eight I was working in two different nonprofits. Uh, and so through that process I bought my own house and started Airbnb, my guest rooms, um, because I liked the flexibility of it. I didn't want a long-term roommate. Like I wanted to be able to make the money that I wanted and then close the calendar when I wanted my space to myself for a week or whatever. Um, and so, and then once I moved on to property number two and property number three, at number three, I kind of felt like, okay, I can now start like really helping people do this. Now that I've done it and I've. Been through a lot of the hiccups and the roadblocks and all that crap, like I went through all the obstacles that I can help my clients not have to go through. Um, so I had a history of teaching and counseling and coaching already in the nonprofit space, and so it was just sort of a natural progression when I decided to quit my job and become self-employed full-time, I had Airbnb income already coming in, so I didn't have to worry if my. Coaching online business didn't make money for the first like six months or whatever. I was gonna be fine. So it gave me the freedom to do that. And I love to teach, I love to coach, I love to work with people anyway, so it just kind of made sense. How long have you been doing the coaching part? I've had a coaching business for of, of some kind since 20 15, 10 years. Um, it looked different. Then I was like, because I was still working in the nonprofit space, I had friends who didn't wanna become a homeowner but wanted help with their budget or how to plan for their taxes or stuff like that. So I created a small little side coaching business to help my friends and people who wouldn't come to the company I worked for anyway. Um, and I wasn't really competing. Uh, and then a highly trained coach in other areas like communication and just like general life activation, empowerment coaching. So I did a lot of that coaching early on until I quit my job and I created this. I'm wondering if you've seen like an increase in interest of,'cause you mentioned that, for example, the thing that's different now is that people are going abroad. So I'm wondering if you've, um, it sounds like you've seen like an increase in interest of people being like, here are the Airbnbs, but I'm dipping out of the United States, and then the Airbnbs are just gonna, it sounds like you've seen an increase, um, yeah. Over the years. What do you attribute it to, just based on the conversations that you're hearing from people as to why they're considering that? Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I'm sure you hear it all just like we do, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a spike, you know, this year in January after the election results, of course, like a huge spike and, uh, there was all, it was already starting before that, um, I think would attribute it to, I think, I think the pandemic. Gave people the awkward, a lot of people, the taste of working at from home or working remotely. I think that's one part of it. When people realize, oh, I don't necessarily have to be at the office. I don't have to be in Cincinnati or whatever city they live in. And then it was like, I don't even have to be in Ohio. I don't have to be in the States. I think it kind of just like that, that had that progression happen. And I think also. The cost of living has gone up in the US like steadily and quite a bit in the last few years. I mean, I have friends, like my best friend moved to Mexico City like six, seven, almost seven years ago now. She was early, an early adopter, and I don't think at that time there wasn't as many people going, but in the last like three. Or so, yeah, Mexico stayed open during the pandemic. So it saw, it was one of the only countries that was open, so it and was more lax. Uh,'cause the president at the time was like, I'm not ruining our economy over this. Wear a mask basically and wash your hands. Um, so they were closed, but they were a lot more lax. Uh, and people could go in and out. A lot of people got stuck, uh, in Mexico because they couldn't go back to their home countries.'cause the pandemic caught them here. Then Mexico had to regularize all those people. Like there's a lot of factors as to why everybody's ended up in Mexico. Mm-hmm. Um, but we can see it just from our stats, uh, on the website. There's people from all over the world trying to move here right now because they think there's actually a lot of economic opportunity in Mexico. A lot of people think Mexico's on the verge of its golden age. I believe that's probably true. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we literally, uh, Americans are the top one, obviously then Canadians. But if we look at our stats, we're getting Australians, people from Asia, people from Europe, other Latin American countries, a lot of people got their eye on Mexico. So there's a lot of factors going on. That's, uh, that's where everybody's ended up in Mexico. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, people have been going abroad, I think more in the last few years because of those reasons. Yeah. And then, um, Mexico also, um, has a relatively straightforward residency process. Um, and then you don't have to live in Mexico to have the residency. So a lot of people would just have it in their back pocket, go in and out. All that kind of stuff. And then it has a generous, uh, tourist visa, although they are cracking down, uh, because it's gotten so overwhelming that they are cracking down and tightening up their systems. Um, because I mean, we were just talking to the immigration attorney that we work with the other day and she's licensed in Mexico and the US so she helps our clients on both ends. And uh, she was like, the consulates in the United States for Mexico are absolutely overwhelmed. With Visa appointments, like it's getting harder and harder to get appointments. You have to like know people work with an attorney who can get you in. I mean, it's, it's getting pretty balls to the wall. I believe it. Yeah. Um, but, but to your point, you know, there's other countries that are seeing surges. I mean, Costa Rica saw surge, Panama saw surge. Um, Columbia saw a search. My husband lived in Columbia for three years in Meine, and he was like, I got there before all the Americans got to Meine and now Meine ISS full of Americans. Oh. Full, completely full of Americans. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I know a lot of people got their eye on Argentina. Um, trying to see like what happens over there? Are there investment opportunities? Is it a decent second passport? So Latin America's, a lot of people are very interested, um, in Latin America. And then of course we hear about, you know, Southeast Asia all time as well. Those are the two that come up the, the most. It's, it's really interesting. My mom says it's a global musical chairs. Could be. Oh, may maybe could be. I like that. I like that. Yeah. There's just people moving around all over the place and to places that they never would've considered. And, and you also take into account that now there's more and more, uh, like marriages and relationships happening. Uh, more multicultural. So I mean, we interview people all the time who ended up in other countries'cause of their spouses. Yep. I ended up in another country'cause of my spouse. Yeah. I think it's a great thing. Yeah. So there's a lot of really interesting stuff, um, going on. Okay. So back to the Airbnb for the people who are like, this is my thing, where do you suggest they get started? Um, in terms of research? Obviously you Right, but where, where would you recommend that they get started in terms of really trying to understand, you know, how this world works so that you, like you said, they avoid a lot of the pitfalls that you experienced. Hmm. I mean, there's a ton of like Facebook groups that get, there's like people who are gurus that share information. There's a ton of people who just have like mini, mini courses that they share. Um, I largely do one-on-one consulting, and then I have a DIY course that I've just launched this week that's like super affordable for folks. Um, and that teaches everybody from start to finish there. But I think truly, you know. I think it's a cool thing to literally go on Airbnb as if you are looking to travel to a certain place. Like if you're thinking of, for example, putting up an Airbnb in Florida, whatever part, right? Like go on Airbnb, like you're gonna travel to that city and just see what the options are like, like if you're gonna, if you're thinking you wanna put one up in Miami, go look at your competition. See what their nightly rates are, see what the properties look like, and then you can take that and go to realtor.com and see like, how much is this gonna cost me? Can I afford a property like this? What can I afford? And then go back to Airbnb and be like, how much money is that actually gonna make me? And you can open their calendars and see how booked up a listing is or isn't. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the best listings are always booked up. There's some great listings that maybe just don't have the best marketing, don't have the best management. You can make a lot of things work. But I think that's the best way to actually get started is go to the source and see what properties are earning nightly, look at how much their calendar is booked, and do the math like. 10. I became an Airbnb host in 2015, like. Eight years ago, like two years after I became a host, I started doing this myself. This is before Price Labs existed and all of that stuff. And you know, I kind of just had to do my own data digging from scratch, from airbnb.com when I was looking to buy my next investment property and figure out where I was gonna buy it and what made sense. Like I just pulled a bunch of listings and did the math. I think you can get a lot of value out of that alone instead of just like taking people's opinions about stuff. Go look at the numbers. I've seen you posting on Facebook recently because I'm thinking about the cost of living and how cost of living has gone up in the United States. And I'm thinking there's probably people watching or listening to this right now that are like, Hey, that's great, but like housing prices are through the roof, uh, in the United States. I'm looking at other countries now. We'll get to the other countries in a second. Right. But you have been, uh, posting something interesting on Facebook that I've seen this week about people thinking that they need the 20% down, but they don't actually down payment for the United States, but. They may not actually need the 20% down, so no real talk. 90% of my clients, you're gonna, you're not gonna believe me when I tell you. 90% of my clients spend less than$5,000 outta pocket to buy their property. Granted, they live in it and their intention is to live in it. At least when they buy it, their intention is to live in it and they live in part of it and they Airbnb part of it. That's how 90% of my clients get started, and I recommend that more than anything in the world because you end up buying a home, you now have an asset, someone else is paying your mortgage. You get to learn how to become a host. On site, like you said, a lot of people think, I can't just buy a property and leave while you can. You'd probably be a lot more comfortable and have a lot more confidence in that if you didn't and you lived there part-time or for time, and manage it yourself so you know what the process is like. That way when you go to move abroad, you're not having a property manager or cleaners or whomever like try to tell you that they wanna charge you through the roof for whatever service they provide, because you know what it took. Right. Like you're like, it doesn't take me three hours to clean, and then it takes you an hour and a half, like, you know? Right. Same thing as running a business. Like you know what the KPIs and their metrics are based on what you did first. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Same thing. So you don't need 20%. Now, if your intention flat out is just to buy a home and never touch, set foot in it, never live in it. Nothing. Yeah. There's not really, and you don't plan to ever be there at all. Yeah. 20% is. Standard. There's no other way around that. Um, and if you're willing to, or you are interested in living in it for a time or even living, splitting your time, 50 50, there are ways to do it. A lot more affordably than that, and most of my clients do. Okay. So we'll leave the information below for those who are interested in doing that first. The other question that we get. Is, uh, Airbnb in other countries. Mm-hmm. So, for example, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, I don't think people realize how different it can be from country to country. Mm-hmm. Uh, depending on what's going on. But for example, we will get comments and they'll say, okay, well my plan. You know,'cause we get applications for relocation every day. So people are telling us some of their plans and sometimes they're like, well my plan is to, uh, buy real estate, for example, in Mexico, which is where we can help people find real estate, um, and investment opportunities. And my plan is to, for example, Airbnb it, right? So for those who are like, Hey, my plan is like. If I don't wanna buy an asset in the United States, uh, maybe I wanna go buy an asset in Mexico because I can get higher returns on a vacation rental or anything like that, you know? What advice would you have for those people? Because, you know, the United States is very regulated and lots of other countries are not as regulated, and the US has certain rules and other countries have other rules. So what would be your advice for, for those? And not just Mexico, but you know, we hear Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, we hear it all. I hear, I hear it sometimes too. I have people contact me a lot saying that's what they wanna do. And while I could and I would be willing to help somebody navigate that, I haven't done it myself, you know, and there's a lot to consider. Um, you know, I don't know that, like, like you said, the regulations is one aspect. I also don't know that air cover, Airbnb, air cover insurance is the same country to country. You know, if you have Airbnb guests in your house in the States, and they. Light, a fire on accident in your kitchen and they burn your kitchen down. Like Airbnb is going to reimburse you for that at some point. May take them a long time, but you're going to get reimbursed. I don't know that that holds true everywhere else, you know, I just don't, I personally don't know. Um, also, every city has their own regulatory oversight, uh, and then countries in general like. You know, like if we go to a store, whether you're in Mexico or you're in Peru, or you're in Columbia, and we slip and fall and we break a leg. We're not suing anybody. No, not in Latin America. That's not happen happening. They're really the idiot who fell. Exactly. But in the states there's a way to get like compensated for that. So I think people forget, like a lot of Americans, they bring their American mindset and they to this, to this possible investment. And there's a lot that they need to consider that like stuff like that. If something happens, like. You may not be made whole. Like it's there. It's riskier. It is by for sure. So let's talk about that. For those of you who are looking for real estate in Mexico, we've got real estate people, attorneys, notaries, like it's a little bit, people are used to doing vacation rentals and investment properties in Mexico. So it's perhaps a little bit more, um, thought out. I guess is the word I'm looking de uh, developed. Um, yeah. And in like Costa Rica and stuff like that as well. Probably. I don't know about Dominican Republic. I know a lot of people are starting to go over there. But, um, talk about the American mindset because that is actually something that we talk about a lot. With our clients. Mm-hmm. When it comes to like immigration process and buying real estate in other s for example, we have a lot of questions coming in about, uh, and we'll have our real estate people, uh, hear from Mexico doing videos to answer a lot of these questions. But we had one come in recently. That was like, uh, hey, so can I, is it worth it to buy foreclosed properties in Mexico? Like, is it, uh, like, is it worth it? What is the state of the, the, the property? And I'm like the foreclosure process here, like when something's in here is not the same as the United States.'cause like over there, um, and this is what our real estate people have told us. They're like, you could, but it's gonna cost you an arm and a leg in lawyers. And like the process is different. Um. Because like over there in the United States, for example, like the bank just kicks you out. They have an asset they're trying to get rid of and then you can get it for cheap. Right. Here's not quite that simple. Yeah. When you have a property that's, uh, in cio, um, as they call it, so sometimes we have seen that too. Or the other thing that we have seen is um, because they're not exactly sure what the rules and the systems are of the country, then they accidentally end up breaking the law. We've seen that happen, um, sure. As well. Mm-hmm. Which I guess is another part of the mindset of like, oh, okay, I'm just gonna trust anybody in what they tell me in this country where I don't know where the systems work. Um, so what do you have to say about like, those things? Like what should people keep in mind now that you have the. Experience of having Airbnbs and obviously having lived in the United States, and then also spending a lot of time perhaps not investing in other countries, but living in other countries and Yeah. You learn how stuff works. Yeah. Like, you know, you could buy a property. I help my clients buy properties in the US and from the day that they get their mortgage pre-approval till they close, typically 45 to 60 days. Woo. You know? Right, exactly. Not always like that in Latin America. Exactly. Coming to anywhere in Latin America, like do not expect the same amount of efficiency timeliness. Clarity through the process. Like I, I haven't bought a property abroad and I've heard stories, like it just takes a lot longer. It depends, like in Mexico it'll depend like who's the real estate person, who's the lawyer, who's the, so when we built our team, um, like for example, there's this other thing in Mexico, a lot of people don't know this either about buying property. In other countries we are, like in Southeast Asia, you technically. Can't own property, quote unquote. It's like freehold leases, uh, because the property is reserved for the citizens. Now, I think if you're in a building, it's a little bit different in Thailand. Like you can own a condo, but like foreigners cannot own more than 49% of the condos. The building. But if you have a house, then the foreigner gets 49%, the Thai person gets 51 or you do a freehold lease. Mexico has that too. Um, and so do other countries where there's certain areas where you can buy as a foreigner and other areas where you have to do freehold leases. So for example, here in Mexico, we have a company that we work with that specializes in the freehold leases. Um. For the foreigners that we have to vet, and if they do it, the process can take one or two weeks to get the permit approval. If somebody goes to do it on their own, forget it. It's gonna take months to go do it. It is just not the same. It's just not the same at all. And then people get very frustrated with the process'cause they bring that sort of like, oh, it's the United States, all this stuff. Uh, like it's so efficient in the United States. And we're like, yeah, these things are not as efficient in other countries. It just takes longer. Or the legal process is different. Or there's places where you can buy and places where you cannot buy. Um, as a foreigner. So other than like it not being the same process, what would you think are things like three things that people like absolutely need to consider if they're considering perhaps, you know, doing Airbnb or buying properties in another country that's not the United States? Yeah. Um, do you have a generous amount of your own personal capital, whether it's like invested somewhere but semi-liquid? Or assets, like can you absorb a major loss if you were to have one for one? Because there's just not the same kind of consistency or protection in other countries as there typically is, and we're used to in the states. Um, I think number two. If you're not, some people are buying properties and developments where they already have, like, you know, if you buy a condo in a condo building and it's used to Airbnbs, there's already cleaners on site, there's a whole management team, like, cool. But if you're not doing that, if you're looking to buy like a freehold, like a, not a freehold, like a standalone property, a single family somewhere, wherever I. You know, do you have the relationships locally? Like one of the reasons that I really encourage my clients, even though ones wanna buy a move abroad to buy in the states, and they always ask me, where should I buy? I say, wherever you are, because you have relationships there. You have people you can trust. Even if you don't know someone directly who can property manage. You probably know someone in your circle who can refer you to someone like you've got a couple degrees of separation. Very few. To trustworthy people that can help you manage your property, keep an eye out, clean it, and do whatever you need. Um, what would be the third if someone wants to move abroad? Um. I, I would say, and I'm not an expert in this in any capacity, but like research the taxes and fees. Fees and the closing costs and all of that. Because it varies widely country to country. Yes. And if you were to sell it. Yes. Math. I'm glad you brought this up. What's gonna take, I'm so glad you brought this up.'cause here's the thing, a lot of people don't know, and again, we specialize more in Mexico'cause that's where we're spending most of our time and people are asking us about. But for example, in Mexico, let's say you buy a property and then you are a foreigner. We recently did a video on whether or not the Mexican passport is worth it, and we forgot to mention this part in terms of getting Mexican citizenship. So if you were to buy a property as a foreigner in Mexico and then you go sell it and you're still a foreigner, oh, you're gonna get taxed. Big time. Mm-hmm. Big time. Now, if you're a citizen, um, of Mexico, then you don't pay as much, um, in the tax. And then again, when we built our team, like we've got tax attorneys, the lawyers, the accountants in both countries and all that kind of stuff. Because to your point, it can get very messy when you're dealing with taxes in multiple countries and then a country that you're not, um, that you're a foreigner in and you don't understand how the system works and all that stuff. You just, yesterday actually. Uh, we were talking to one of the CFOs who helps our clients, uh, with their Amer with their businesses based in the United States, but they're living abroad. And he told us a story. He's Mexican, and he's like, yeah, I had American clients. They had American businesses. They came to Mexico City. They started doing Airbnbs in Mexico City. Um, and they did the, the registration of the company in Mexico correctly. But they screwed up on the tax, uh, application, and they ended up having to shut everything down. Because they've tried to do it on their own. Yeah. Without necessarily like understanding the system and how it works. Yeah. Not a good idea. Yeah, not a good idea, um, at all. So I'm glad you brought up taxes because that can get very, um, hairy and a lot of people don't realize that a part of this moving a broad journey is you have to tax plan and you have to do tax strategy. A lot of people just like leave and move and didn't think about the taxes. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Yeah, they're like, oops, uncle Sam is still charging me California state taxes. And we're like, yeah,'cause you're domiciled in California. You gotta go domicile in Florida or something. Right. So a lot of people don't, or you know, like to your point, when you start buying properties and things in other countries, like what's the tax like, uh, when you buy, when you sell, what are the closing costs? And again, for those of you interested in Mexico, our team handles all that stuff and runs all the numbers, so you don't have to like, freak out about all of that. Um, but if you're trying to do it on your own, to your point, like it gets crazy, it gets really, really crazy and very confusing and very complicated, very fast. Like I said, we've, we've had some, uh, we've had stories come in where people got defrauded half a million dollars.'cause like the land didn't technically exist. We've had that happen. We've had people who pay for a property completely in cash, um, and didn't realize that there's legal limits to how much you can pay in cash in Mexico. So they. Broke the law and so did the notary that they were using. Or they get told, for example, like, oh, there's no such thing as an intermediary here. And we're like, that's bullshit. There's intermediaries, uh, to buy properties, uh, in Mexico. So I guess all of this to say, and I guess you would agree, don't try and do it by. No, it's not worth the, it's not worth the headache or the loss of money to try and do it by yourself. Not at all. Business and life lesson. For sure. Okay. Where, um, can people learn more about you? Because I see you posting on Facebook all the time about stuff about Airbnbs and things like that. So where can people go to get started in learning more about you and what you offer and the resources that you have for those who are like, Hey, okay. I think I'm cool with starting in the United States. This is more of a long term plan for me. Uh, and then actually, I just thought of another question for those in terms of like timeline, in terms of like. How long before they buy in the US before you think they can go abroad and do it with the least amount of hiccups possible? With the Airbnb? Yeah. I'm sure it depends, but if you had to like measure it somehow. I would say, you know, if somebody were to close on their property today, right, it's gonna take them at least a month, if not six weeks, to get the property furnished and painted and all the things ready for them to take their first guest and for them to be, feel ready to take their first guest. And then I would say do that for a good six months. Like, don't shortchange yourself. You could do it for shorter. I would recommend doing it for six months. Okay. Then after six months, do you think they would be ready to start making the plan abroad? Yeah. I mean, at six months they could dip out. Like you could, oh, okay. At month, like three or four, you could start like having people help you. You could start turning over, you know, some of your responsibilities to people locally while you are still there, over overseeing things and stuff like that. Like you have some portion where you're doing it all yourself and then you start to scale it. Oh. Scaffold yourself out, but you're still, I guess, for, for those who are, the more the analytical numbers, people who follow us, they're probably wondering this question, which is like, okay, well how much, uh, how many properties am I going to need? I'm, I'm sure it depends where I. How much cash flow you're getting and all that kind of stuff. There's calculations to this that Tawny can help you with. Right. But if you had to like ballpark it, I know somebody's wondering this question, which is, you know, how many, what's my goal of the properties to be able to earn enough money where I can. Book it and go overseas, like for example, right in Mexico, they're asking for about$4,100 a month to prove in monthly income, uh, for the temporary residency. So if someone's first goal is$4,100 a month, so I can go to Mexico, you know, what should they be looking at in terms of how many properties, um, they're gonna need or how they set that up. Uh, and$4,100 a month is not a lot in my world. My clients typically make six to eight KA month on their first property, so there you go. So you need one? Yeah, I was thinking much higher. Like if somebody wants 10 KA month or more. Really depends on how much money do you have to spend on a house. Like you can make six to eight K off of a house and spend, give, or take 300 k depending on the market. That's, you know, that's in within range for most of my clients who make about 75,$80,000 a year. You know, any more that you can spend, you can probably earn a little bit more with some key features and stuff. But I mean, if you wanna make more, yeah, if you have like enough, you could buy a half a million dollar house. You know, you can probably turn that into a 10 k monthly strategy if you want for yourself. Okay. That's really good. All depends on the strategy and how much you want to have. Yeah, in your pocket. Like I have three because I did this when I didn't have a plan. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. You know, like I've thought of it and I may like go back and wipe all three and turn it into just one. Like it would be easier with less questions. But you know, I kind of got started and I didn't have any guidance, so I just did what I did. So that's a pretty good, I think we kind of created the profile while we were here. 75 to 80,000 a year is what they're earning. They get the house. The house makes six to eight. Then with that, they can already go to most, they can go to all of Latin America with that and get a residency, 75 to 80 K in most markets in the us. Like that doesn't, that's not New York City or la you know, not at all. But in most markets, that's probably the roughly the minimum you wanna make to be able to turn into a strategy like that. And also somebody who's not trying to move abroad next week. Yeah. Yeah, months, six to eight months, like my clients we're, our process. I've had people do start to finish, do this as fast as four months. Yeah. You know? And I've had people that's still pretty fast though. So yeah, four months is fast. The average for my clients is around six, six or seven. But you can do it as fast as four if you're ready on day one. And you don't waste any time. And you're not super picky when you're trying to shop for your home. Like you just follow the instructions and you pick something you buy and. I've had people take up to a year,'cause they were really picky. Person. So if you guys are, if you guys fit into that category, the profile that you, we just said go reach out to Tawny. Mm-hmm. Uh, because she can help you in terms of finding that first Airbnb, you're not in a hurry. You're making 75 to 80 k in most US markets, you can get that first property in six months. You're basically squared away. Not bad if you ask me. Now, for those of you who are like, I, I already did that. I'm selling my house in the United States. States, I want property in Mexico. Then reach out to us because we have all the real estate people and the lawyers and the notaries, and we'll make sure you don't break the law by accident. Sure, perfect. And all that kind of stuff. And sort out the residency and taxes and all, everything that comes with that wild animal of international. Real estate. So Tawny, thank you so much for being here. Let the people know where they can find you.'cause you're always sharing resources on how to get started doing this. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me. Uh, so yeah, if you're on Facebook, find me on Facebook, just search my name. Uh, you'll see me probably, probably at the top of the search results. I post a lot. If you're not on Facebook, my website is tawny powell.com. I'm also on Instagram, instagram.com/tawny Powell. Uh, those are the three top places that you can find me. I am on LinkedIn as well. If you're strictly on LinkedIn, just search my name. I'm not hard to find. Great. Thank you so much for being here today and kind of, uh, helping us better understand the Airbnb world and how someone can use it as, um, their means of income so that they can finally. Go overseas and then still have assets in the United States. Everyone, thank you so much for being here today. If you like this episode, you already know the drill. Give it a like, leave us a review on all the podcasting platforms. Share it with a friend.'cause uh, we're doing God's work here trying to get people living in other countries and getting out of some interesting situations in the us, Canada, and Western Europe right now. And Australians, you guys are reaching out as well, so make sure to share this with a friend and we will catch you guys on the next one. Thank you.