The Property Perspective
From hidden gems to billion-dollar deals, this is The Property Perspective - where seasoned real estate pros reveal how they spot value others miss, and industry disruptors share the unconventional strategies reshaping real estate.
The Property Perspective
From Classroom to Real Estate: Billy Perez's Journey to Elevate Vacation Homes
Billy Perez, the visionary behind Elevate Vacation Homes, shares his unique journey from a San Clemente classroom to an impressive real estate enterprise. Raised in a family of educators, Billy initially followed a familiar path, but the call of entrepreneurship and the thrill of real estate investment soon pulled him in a new direction. Discover how surfing influenced his business philosophy, providing a crucial balance between the relentless pace of managing 35 vacation rentals and the need for personal respite. Billy's tale is not just about financial success; it's a testament to the power of mindset shifts and the pursuit of a passion that aligns with personal values.
Visit BatchData.io to learn more about our enterprise-grade APIs and startup friendly pricing
Use code "PODCAST50" for 50% off your first month with BatchLeads
Company Links:
BatchService.com - Learn about all products
BatchLeads.io - AI-powered property search and lead generation
BatchData.io - Enterprise-grade property data APIs
BatchDialer.com - Multi-line power dialer for real estate
00:00 - Hope (Announcement)
From teacher to 35 vacation rentals. How did Billy Perez pull it off? Host Preston Zeller sits down with the founder of Elevate Vacation Homes to uncover how Billy went from house hacking as a public school teacher to managing millions in short-term rental properties across San Diego and Phoenix. Learn the mindset shifts, marketing hacks and must-have amenities that helped him scale fast without spending a dime on ads From hidden gems to billion-dollar deals. This is the Property Perspective where seasoned real estate pros reveal how they spot value, others miss and industry disruptors share the unconventional strategies reshaping real estate. Now here are your hosts.
00:42 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Hey everyone, my name is Preston Zeller, I'm Chief Growth Officer at BatchService and I have Billy Perez here from Elevate Vacation Homes on the property perspective. Billy, welcome, you're coming from sunny Southern California, aren't you?
00:57 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yep Located here in San Diego. Stoked to be here, man. Thanks so much.
01:01 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, awesome. Well, thanks for joining. Why don't you give the listeners just a brief on where you're at today and who Elevate Vacation Homes is?
01:12 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah, so my name is Billy Perez. Today we manage about 35 different properties in Southern California and in the Phoenix area. I was a former teacher for five years, got my master's, my credential, all that good stuff that you do, loved my job but always felt that there was a better way to build wealth and to help others and to bless my community. That's where my heart's always been is how can I help, how can I do more? And it seemed like entrepreneurship in real estate was the best path to that.
01:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Cool. I liked how succinct that was. That was a fantastic beta version. So walk us back then, because even you just mentioned getting teaching credentials. Just include me in on that. But I'm curious, what did your parents do growing up? And then, how many siblings do you have? And kind of age difference, that kind of thing.
02:10 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah, my parents are both teachers as well. We grew up in San Clemente, California. I'm the oldest of five kids. We have two adopted brothers, two biological sisters, so I'm the big bro was always the first to do everything, first to go to college, first to get a job, um, and so I mean, obviously, like you, grew up as a a child of a teacher and you think, oh man, their job's awesome, they get summers off to hang out with me, we can get, we can go surfing in the morning, like you know, when you're a teacher and with a lot of w2 jobs, when that, when you clock out when your time's done, you're done, and so there's a lot of W2 jobs.
02:44
When you clock out, when your time's done, you're done, and so there's a lot of attraction to that. Right, it's very structured. You know when your breaks are, so you push yourself until those breaks happen and then you're done for the day, right, it's very different from, as you know, Preston, from owning your own business and being an entrepreneur. There's really never an off button. So part of me does miss that, but I grew Part of me does miss that, but grew up very, very normal family and we had a big 12 seater van that drove around town, went to public school, had a pretty great childhood, a great life.
03:12 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, that's, that's awesome. And grew up surfing. You said,
03:21 - Billy Perez (Guest)
yeah, surfing, playing lots of volleyball on the beach, basketball, golf now.
03:23 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So I identify a ton with that because I was telling you before I grew up in socal, so there's definitely a lot of skateboarding skate culture, for sure oh yeah, but just going to the beach and I feel like there's a certain mindset that comes with the um, you know how you spend a lot of time in the water and the freedom of that. Of course, the, I guess the ultimate example it's like point break or something. You go watch that movie, the original one, but yeah, I'm curious like how that maybe just you know environment alone had an impact on you. You know, just in shaping your mindset.
04:02 - Billy Perez (Guest)
You're talking about like my mindset today as a business owner.
04:06 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, sure, I mean just financial goals and just again going back, I think, going back to like the, the freedom that comes with that. Just you're in nature, you're in the water a lot you know, um, there's something about that that like calms you, makes you think differently, totally. Maybe it did or didn't knowingly. Is that something you think about much, I guess. Maybe it's my question there.
04:31 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I think surfing's unique in the sense that you can't have your phone with you. So it's one of the only sports that I can think of where you can't actively check, you can't actively be distracted. You're literally embedded in nature and there's no, there's nowhere else to go, and so, um sure, I could totally make ties to the. You know. You know, an entrepreneur needs an outlet like that, and they need something where they're not plugged in because, as you know, there's always something to do, there's always someone that wants your attention, and, um, surfing is a great way, a great outlet for that. Surfing is a great way, a great outlet for that, where you're, you're not distracted, just shooting the waves unless it's like 10 foot and you're terrified it's a different kind of alertness, like oh yeah see a set coming in that you're like I am going to get pummeled by that unless.
05:15 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I swim past it not so relaxing yeah, yeah for sure. So, um, where did you go to college?
05:23 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I went to Texas Christian University for two years and then I finished my degree at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and then I got my master's at the University of San Diego.
05:33 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Okay, yeah, so you went to a few different schools there. Which one did you like the most?
05:38 - Billy Perez (Guest)
TCU was the most exciting it was a fraternity culture football school.
05:43
Point Loma was just a different vibe. It was a fraternity culture football school. Puerto loma is, uh, it was just a different vibe. It's a different feeling, um, and really, but I really enjoyed being back home, you know, and being back in in my roots. I love southern California, I love San Diego. Uh, it's really just truly the greatest city. There's so much to do. There's so many uh different ways to get involved in in any industry. It's just amazing. And so the beaches, the zoo, I don't know whatever you want here it's great, right?
06:08 - Preston Zeller (Host)
yeah, yeah, um, and so point how many people go to point loma? It's a super small school, isn't?
06:15 - Billy Perez (Guest)
it super small. Yeah, it's like 900 per class, so less than 4 000 yeah, yeah.
06:20 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So I went to chapman, which is I didn't, I don't think it was quite that small, but pretty, pretty small, yeah, um, similar. So did you go into college knowing like, hey, I'm going to be a teacher, yeah. So I went to Chapman, which is I didn't. I don't think it was quite that small, but pretty, pretty small yeah.
06:30 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Similar. So did you go into college knowing like, hey, I'm going to be a teacher? No, I went in thinking that I was going to be a speech pathologist at first, and then I was like one of two men in the entire like 300 person program and part. Something in me was like, okay, this probably isn't right for me. When I started doing clinicals, I was working with one-on-one with kids and I'm like I really don't like working with young kids like this. This is a struggle for me. So I switched my degree to Spanish and I was like, oh, well.
06:54
I speak Spanish already. I grew up speaking Spanish at a dual immersion school in San Clemente. I might as well go teach Spanish. That's what my parents were teachers. It seems like a great job, so I felt like that was the natural career path. Right, I mean you? You don't have anyone telling you differently, right? People are just going to support you, and if you want to be a teacher, go be a teacher. Why, why wouldn't you want three months off a year? And you know it's supposed to be fun. Right, it's a. It's a great job. It's a lot of work, but there's supposed to be a lot of fun in it too. You're working with kids. Kids are hilarious.
07:26 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Right and then. Okay, so is that what you? What did you go get your master's in?
07:32 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Education.
07:33 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Okay, Okay. And then where? Okay, you get done with your studies and then it's just like you went straight into teaching.
07:43 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I went straight into teaching. Yeah, I finished my master's. I was a teacher for four and a half years five years if you include student teaching. And yeah, like halfway through, like on my second year of teaching, it was a great time to buy a house. It was July 2020.
07:58
I had no knowledge or education in real estate, I just knew that I had the money to make it happen. And I had roommates who wanted to move in with me because I can't. You're a teacher, you can't afford a mortgage, but you can qualify for a mortgage. So that's what's interesting about a lot of these W-2 jobs. It's like oh, on paper, my gross income is 5,000 a month, so I qualified for a $600,000 mortgage, but I can't pay the monthly payment for a $600,000 mortgage. So I had three people move in with me a little brother we put in the garage, and then two of my friends moved into the other two bedrooms and so I had four people sharing a 900 square foot one bath house and they're all paying me $800 a month at the time, which is good rent anywhere in Southern California. And it worked. And I realized I was like, oh my gosh, my living expenses for a home that I own is like $100 a month and because my mortgage at the time was like $2,400. And I have these three guys paying me $800 each and so something clicked In my second or third year of teaching.
09:01
I was like I'm paying $0 for this asset. I live here for free. Something called equity that I just learned about on the BiggerPockets podcast. Something called equity where it's like fake money, but it's real if you take advantage of it. Because I didn't know, I was a teacher. I majored in Spanish. I didn't take any real estate courses, I didn't listen to real estate YouTube videos, I wasn't a big fan of Alex Ramosi or any of these big players. I was just me. I wanted to be a teacher. I thought that was cool. I thought it was very humbling and very rewarding experience. I felt like I was put on this planet. God put me here to encourage and uplift the next generation, and I was okay with that. But I owned this asset and I'm like, wait a minute, this $700,000 house that I bought in San Diego and Claremont is now worth a million dollars and this guy on Big Ear Pockets is telling me I can have access to some of that equity, this fake money.
09:54
So that's how I got started on the real estate investing game, right, because I wasn't an investor yet. I was just. I owned a primary home. That was it. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't understand what an APR was. I thought an interest rate was 2.5% of the total loan paid over 30 years. No, it's 2.5% of the total loan paid every. And I looked at, I looked on my, on my uh, I think at the time I had, uh, what, what? Whatever loan company that was at the time, five years ago, and I'm like, oh my God, my principal payment is like $600 a month. The rest is going to this bank, right, yeah, and so, um, I did my first cash out refinance in 2021.
10:45
I bought a condo near grand Canyon University in Phoenix. You're familiar with that area, Very shady area, but it worked. I bought it for $200,000, put 15% down, I think, and it was already an Airbnb. It was a turnkey Airbnb, and so this is a process I've actually done three times now, and the first time I did it, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't hire a mentor, I didn't watch any YouTube videos, I only knew Airbnb equaled cashflow back in 2021.
11:11
Right, so I knew, as long as I make more than my $850 a month mortgage, I'm going to make money. That's all that's how my brain worked. I wasn't thinking of I wasn't thinking of cap rate. I wasn't thinking of any kind of payments outside of the mortgage. I wasn't thinking of cap rate. I wasn't thinking of any kind of payments outside of the mortgage. I wasn't thinking of insurance. I wasn't thinking of expenses. I was thinking, if I can make $2,000 a month, which means I have to rent this house out for $75 a night, I can make $1,000 a month. Right, that was my mentality. And that property ended up renting out for like $150 a night.
11:39
And then something else clicked. I was like, oh my God, this property. It's a pretty crappy run-down property off Camelback. There are prostitutes. Two blocks down, there are pimps in their cars watching them. Two blocks away on the other side there's gunshots. I'm still cash flowing $35,000 in my first year. It didn't make any sense to me. Like I. Like I said, I'm a teacher. I didn't know what I was doing and I was like oh my God, I've, I've, I, you know. I felt like I just I just discovered gold. I'm like I did it so.
12:13
I did another he lock a line of credit as opposed to another cash out refinance. I did a line of credit on my primary home. Again. Somehow I still had more equity right from 2020 to 2022. Now there's even more equity. Now my house is worth 1.2 million. I'm like this is crazy. I'm making money out of thin air. It's just nuts. I bought another Airbnb same process in south mountain, which you're familiar with. That area very quiet, much nicer area, twice as expensive, but turnkey Airbnb. They had money they had. They had the profit and loss for three years. I'm like okay, that works. My mortgage is 2000 a month there. As long as I make X dollars, I'm going to be fine in cashflow. And so I had two Airbnbs in 2022. Should I keep going or do you? Do you want me to stop? Sorry, I got in a role I'm happy to.
13:02 - Preston Zeller (Host)
This is good, but yeah, let's just clarify. I think, reading between the lines, so your parents didn't really. They did their own finances, but that wasn't like financial literacy, it wasn't really like in the house growing up Sounds like.
13:19 - Billy Perez (Guest)
No, we didn't talk about investing. We didn't talk about exactly. We were very Christian household and the career you chose should honor and glorify God. It wasn't about the career you choose should make generational wealth and be able to pass down to your kids and then your kids' kids. Right, it wasn't about that. And my dad and mom they're not. They're not entrepreneurs and you know exactly. There was not a ton of financial literacy at home and I love my parents and they're amazing supporters and that's what I needed, right, all I need, all anyone needs to launch into their own business is someone to support and love them yeah you know, no, I think the uh parable of the talents actually covers off on that.
14:02 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Well, where it's like the one, the one who just kept it and didn't even earn interest on it, is like you're, you're, you're worse than the rest, because you should have at least been a good steward in that way, you know but, no, I totally get what you mean.
14:15
You know, it's like we're, yeah, the connecting to an occupation that glorifies god and isn't an occupation that glorifies God and isn't necessarily a money grabbing thing. I think some of that can come from to, like you see no shortage of selfishness in the world that you go, okay, well, let's, let's, let's go the really conservative route of just like being a good worker.
14:44 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah.
14:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And that's fine too, and so, um, no, uh, okay, so that that's good context. Um, so you're, you're kind of like you started house hacking without really knowing it.
14:56 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I didn't know what it was until I had bought the house and I was listening to. People told me to listen to these podcasts after I bought the house. They're like you have a house, you're house hacking. You realize right now what you're doing? And I was like, no, I don't. And so, listening to Ben Avasolo, all these people on BiggerPockets that team their podcast, the Rookie Podcast I really liked all this content I was getting. They're quick, little 15-minute bites of this is what equity is and I'm like this is crazy.
15:24 - Preston Zeller (Host)
It's not real but it is. Yeah.
15:26 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah.
15:27 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So, who were your friends? I'm just and I want to, we'll get back to how you kept accumulating these rentals but who were your friends that were telling you to listen to these podcasts? I mean, were they in real estate themselves, or they were just kind of interested in it, or no one was telling me to, except for one friend.
15:45 - Billy Perez (Guest)
His name is Colin Meyer. He's actually a business partner of mine for a separate venture not related to real estate, and he's also five years younger than me. So when I was 25, he was 20. And he was like, hey man, I'm a real estate agent, I've been closing a bunch of deals. I didn't really get into real estate until I started listening to this podcast and he literally showed me the BiggerPockets podcast. I'm like what's the BiggerPockets podcast? And this was months after I bought my house and so he was the one who introduced me to it. So one person it just takes one person to refer you to a podcast, and then that podcast can radically change the direction of your life.
16:24 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh man, so many I've reflected on this with a lot of people that you can have one, listen to one podcast, have one conversation that just for some reason clicks in your brain. You're like, oh, you have this epiphany. So okay, it's 20. I think you said 2021. You got two Airbnb's 2021.
16:46 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah, a year after I bought my primary house, I did a cash out refinance and bought the first Airbnb Okay, yep. And then I did a HELOC on that same house that I did the cash out refinance to buy the second Airbnb Okay, both in. Arizona.
17:01 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yep. So yeah, the one by GCU and the one by South Mountain, which is right by us. You'd actually like look at it over there nice um, so, so South Mountain. So what goes on from there? Um keep, keep the story rolling so I'm still teaching.
17:18 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I think I'm in my third or fourth year now. I had the two Airbnb's at the time and you know, 2021, 2022, Airbnb's were cash flowing. They were crushing it and more than they are now my property is still cashflow to where I'm not selling them, but nothing like 2021 or 2022. Like, I was making my salary as a teacher from those two properties alone like doubled my salary, which you know, at the time, as a young teacher, you're making 50 grand a year at best. It was matching that. And so I was stoked. I felt like I was rich. I bought a Tesla. I was just making dumb financial choices. I'm like this is great. I bought my now wife a $6,000 engagement ring. I was like I'm the man, I crushing this. And then, you know, reality catches up to you. Right, I had to replace the HVAC unit at the first Airbnb. That's nine grand. You know how, in the summers, if you, if your HVAC goes out in the summers in Phoenix, they charge you double. Right, I got screwed. Um, a couple other things happened to where I was like, okay, there needs to be more scale now because I can't rely. You know, like I can't have a $600 a month car payment. If my Airbnb's are cash flowing, double that. I just cut my cash flow in half because I made a dumb decision and I wanted to roll up in a $50,000 car to my teaching job. It was a super. I still have that car and I paid it off, but it was a super silly decision.
18:40
And so 2022, summer 2022 hits and I get married A few months before that. So this is now two years I've owned this house. A few months before that, I had teased the idea to my roommates. I'm like, hey, I'm thinking of asking you guys to move out and I'm going to redo the house a little bit. Put some money into it. Just slap it on a credit card. I didn't have cash. Slap it on a credit card and I'm going to redo the floors, repaint it and I think I'm going to turn this house into an Airbnb. And two of my roommates were like that's great, awesome, we'll move out by the time you get married, because if I didn't do that, my wife's going to move in. My other roommate is like that's the stupidest thing you could ever do. Nobody vacations in Claremont and if? For those who don't know where Claremont is, we're east of La Jolla, so we call it East La Jolla, whatever. Right, it's very close to La Jolla, about five to ten minutes from La Jolla shores, and but it's like a bargain compared to buying a house in La Jolla, yeah. And so this roommate's like you're an idiot, you're not goanna make any money doing this. Like nobody.
19:37
Airbnb's in Claremont and I I didn't really know if that was true or not and I just, you know you kind of fake it till you make it with some of these things, especially when you're young and you're 25. I was like I think it will and I think it's going to be fine. And so I kicked them out, slapped a bunch of money into a credit card, hired an interior designer, got to work with friends right, I had friends do paint a mural for me. I had a j table for 500 bucks on a Facebook marketplace. I turned my little three bed, one bath into like kind of a bachelor, like frat, like a bachelor party house. You know it was. It was cool and that first summer we listed. We get back from our honeymoon in June, we list that property and we do like $13,000 that first month in July. Mind you, my mortgage at the time was 3,800 after the cash out refinance. So for me I'm like, oh my, my mind's blown Right Cause San Diego, summers in San Diego are money. It's money time. And back then in 2022, you printed money on Airbnb's.
20:41
People were coming to San Diego. They still couldn't travel internationally, you don't you didn't. If you weren't vaccinated, you couldn't really go anywhere. People were coming to San Diego. They still couldn't travel internationally, you don't you. If you weren't vaccinated, you couldn't really go anywhere. So people were coming to San Diego. They're driving.
20:49
So we were getting a ton of people within uh, 100 to 200 miles away from us, people from Arizona you know the zonies coming to mission beach, you know you had all these people that were traveling here and I was like I cannot believe my 80-year-old house that I paid not that much money down for that was worth $700,000 two years ago just did $13,000 in gross revenue in one month in the summer, and that blew my mind. It's a tiny house and so, seeing the success of that, my wife and I were like, okay, we got to milk everything dry of this house. So we pulled out yet another line of credit to build an ADU behind the house, and so back in 2022, these lines of credits are still so cheap. An ADU line of credit is like $600 a month, and so we're living in this ADU, this 300-square-foot ADU, like 20 feet away from the Airbnb, and we did that for two and a half years.
21:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
But just you and her are living in the Adu, yeah with all these rondos just coming oh yeah okay, have a pool it.
21:55 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Does the Airbnb have a pool?
21:56 - Preston Zeller (Host)
yeah, no, no we have the hot tub though, okay that's next level, that's like.
22:01 - Billy Perez (Guest)
That's like probably in the next year we'll have to do a pool because we need to compete now with the other houses. But, um, at the time, yeah, I could I have. If you had three hours, I could tell you stories of different guests you know knocking on our door and we all, we will rip open the door and they're covered in blood and I ran through the shower door and what's your?
22:21 - Preston Zeller (Host)
what's one of your most memorable stories? Let's hear it probably that one.
22:25 - Billy Perez (Guest)
we're being woken up in the morning to a girl dripping in blood because she ran through our shower door, because she was still drunk from the night before, ran through a shower door like the slide you know the sliding to transparent glass doors to open it up get into the shower, she just like I think she slipped and just like ran into it. And so my, my heart is racing. I'm like I'm going to get sued. This is horrible and you know, nothing ever happened. Nothing came of it. But stuff like that.
22:51
And when you're that close to the business and you're not close to the Airbnb, you get really good at it. And so we were even at a point like where we're cleaning the Airbnb to save money, like. We were just like, let's make as much money as we can, let's milk this thing right. We're living in our ADU behind the Airbnb. We just increased the property value by 300,000 because of the ADU laws here in San Diego, it's super easy to build these things out here. You can, you can print them on your properties. It's really great. And so we increased the value of that property. We're able to pay off that loan for the, for the house, and we were able to do a lot of things financially because we were living so below our means in this tiny little house behind our Airbnb, so seeing strangers coming and going every day.
23:34
It was a lot and so that's why we moved in August 2024. But at the time so I'll put you guys into perspective where we're at it's fall 2022. I'm recently married, I'm now managing three Airbnb's and I live in an ADU. So I have the three Airbnb's and this is fall 2022. For a whole year, nothing happens. I'm just managing the three. I'm posting about it occasionally on my Instagram.
24:00
This is the revenue we did. As humbly as I could, I was like this is the revenue we did, you know, with. You know, as humbly as I could, I was like this is what we're doing with occupancy and revenue. This is crazy. Like everyone should be doing this. And then, um, you know, posting about different guest stories, different like zoom, like ring camera clips of like I one time pulled up to my, my house. You know cause we, we, because we would park on the property in front of the Airbnb and have to walk through the backyard to get to our house. So all the time we're walking through guests and some guests didn't mind. They were like hi, how's it going? We'd meet them and it was really cool to meet them and they're like we love your house. Other guests would not realize we lived there and wouldn't read like the description and they'd be like who the hell are you?
24:44
Oh man, we have stories for days, or it's people that don't speak English and they didn't understand and they're like fine. So I one time pulled up to my property and there's about 80 high schoolers there.
24:57 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Holy smokes. Okay, that's probably like your worst nightmare is having an Airbnb.
25:02 - Billy Perez (Guest)
But they're in high school, they're 10 years younger than me. So I open the door and I say everyone out. Yeah, okay, unc, like making fun of me as they're leaving, and it took forever to get them out. And eventually, you know, I called the person who booked it. I'm like, hey, like you're not here, you booked this for your son and he's underage and there's a ton of alcohol here. And she's like, oh, I had no idea. And I'm like, well, there's a receipt here from Costco with your name on it with all this, for all this beer and alcohol. And I see that you door dashed it. So we're not refunding you, we're kicking them out, and that's that. And she didn't fight it. So, yeah, that's one of my crazier stories.
25:39
So for a whole year we're managing the three, we're managing the one at San Diego pretty closely because we're 15 feet away. And then a whole year goes by, it's now it's fall 2023, and I have two friends separately have said hey, Billy, we've seen you posting about your Airbnb's. It's really cool that you're having all the success with them. We own Airbnb's. Can you manage these Airbnb's for us? And I never thought. I never thought of that. I. I'm like huh, at the time, I'd already quit my job as a teacher. I thought I was going to go into commercial real estate Back in 2023, in summer 2023, when I quit, I was like I'm going to be a commercial broker, I'm going to do all this and that, and it all fizzled. Nothing worked out. Why commercial? I had a mentor who owns a commercial real estate brokerage and he had suggested me working for him and I think at the time I just wasn't ready and he knew that and, without saying it, he basically was like you need to get more experience doing something else first before you jump into this job.
26:40
And so I went and got an office job at a real estate company in Oceanside doing long-term rental management. So now I was getting my feet in both worlds right the long-term leases, deposits, lawsuits, tenant laws, right. And then I'm also in the short-term rental world with the properties that I owned. Yeah, I was posting about it on Instagram, my main source of social media. Friends noticed they were like Billy, can you manage our properties for us? I'm like oh well, I'm managing a portfolio of 70 homes in Oceanside, getting paid pennies to do this. They're offering me management contracts for 10% of their gross revenue. That's way more money than I'm making managing these little houses here in Oceanside. So that's when kind of a light went off. I was like oh yeah, I'll totally manage those listings for you. So now I'm managing five Airbnb's and I have my office job. What kept happening at the office is people would call in and say, hey, we need vacation rental management. And our office assistant would go oh sorry, we don't do vacation rental management. You could try Vacasa.
27:49
They're a big company.
27:49
They're down the road, here's their number. And I would go, oh my gosh, so I'd go find those numbers that would call in and I would go call them and I that's how I got a few, my first few clients. I went and got these numbers from our because they would email or their call and I was like, hey, what was that number? Give me their, their number. They're like why? I'm like, cause I have Airbnb's, I'll manage it. And they're like, oh, but your job is to do long-term management. Why would we just give you these leads if your job here is to do? You see the conflict of interest there. And I was like I don't care, I want that lead. So I would figure it out one way or another. I'd look their name up yeah, I was a little detective Star 69 them Exactly no-transcript, like $500 commission check. And I'm like, wait, that's great, but you guys are going to be making $3,000 a year off of these commissions for 10 years. Some of these clients they had on their books they had had since like early 2000. I was like you have made $50,000 from this house for the last 20 years, but if I renew the lease I get 500. I'm like that doesn't make any sense to me financially. I'm like my business brain is turning then and so quit my job.
29:12
March 2024, I decided to launch Elevate Vacation Homes. I'm like I'm going to do this, I'm going all in, I don't care anymore what happens. I have, like the six clients that I'm managing sorry, the six properties, including my three that I'm managing on my own on the side. I'm going to live off that little income for now. And because I just went all in, because I started posting on social media, I started being the shameless small business owner entrepreneur on Instagram. I was just posting all the time I'm like I will manage your property. You got clients for me, I'll give you a thousand bucks. I all the time I'm like I will manage your property. You got clients for me, I'll give you a thousand bucks. I was just going, going, going and we're got out my first few clients once I went official. We're friends of friends and they just started rolling in.
29:55
I started meeting people at different real estate meetups. I went to beers and deals that's hosted by rich summers here in San Diego. He's now a friend of mine. I've been on his podcast where we're in the same group together now down here in San Diego and made connections and just shamelessly was myself and that's my biggest encouragement to anyone that's like how do I do this? I'm like you just have to be shameless, you have to be very comfortable in your own skin and know that this business is literally going to pay for my bills. I need this client, I need you. Almost have to have like this like commission breath right, like everyone you talk to is like this guy wants money and I like it Right, I want to refer him Right Cause I'm willing to pay people for these leads. I'm like give me your leads, give me your clients, I'll pay you, and so it's. It's been a journey, it's been, it's been incredible. So March 2024 went from about five or six properties. Now we're at 35 march 2025 crazy ride, um, yeah I'm going to stop talking now.
30:47 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, no, that's dude, that's all really good. Um, no, I I think you know there's a lot of things in what you just said, but what you, what you're just now talking about, is, like you, you got to ask. You can't be afraid to ask people. I think it's too often people have the mentality of like, okay, I'm going to learn all this stuff and I'm just going to wait around for something to happen. You're like that's not really how it works. You have to ask and be okay with a no. You're not always going to get the yes.
31:16
Um but you're going to get. You're going to get a. Yes, you're persistent enough. You ask enough people. Yeah, but that you're providing value, right? I mean, people saw you being successful with your own venture and your own properties. You're doing so. Of course, that's an interesting niche because a lot of people who own they don't want to manage people who own they don't want to manage. You know, um so and I'm curious because, okay, your original house in um tan diego you sounds like that was the first one you kind of remodeled to be more like themed or more fun looking exactly right, so was.
32:01
was that kind of a light bulb for you of, like, wait a second, what? What if I, if I do this to other properties? I mean, what does your portfolio look like today? Is it? Is it normal, the home's normal? I didn't get to look at it before this. Are they normal or are they, you know, kind of like you're on vacation type of home, you know?
32:20 - Billy Perez (Guest)
There are like a mix and match of a lot of different properties. We've got about five clients that have big, nice pools so we market that. It's like the pool house. All of them are modern. We're not going to have any historic homes in our portfolio. They all have to be modern. They've got to have the granite countertops, the nice cabinets, the nice tile bathrooms. We're not going to manage anything with the ceramic shells and all the older stuff. We're going to make sure they look nice and if they don't, we're going to manage anything with, like, the ceramic shells and you know, all the older stuff we're going to make. We're going to make sure they look nice and if they don't, we're going to highly suggest it before taking on this management.
32:50
Um, but to answer your question directly, my house was designed to be fun, right, I was trying to make up for the lack of bathrooms and lack of space. So I used the backyard with the putting green, jacuzzi, dartboard, pool table. I used all that, even putting a ping pong table. We got all the bells and whistles right, cornhole. That was to make up for the lack of what I had. We weren't near the beach and we're not a big house. My other clients. They've got the three-story four-bedroom house in Mission Bay. They don't need to put the ping pong table out front. They're going to generate $800 on average a night because they have an ocean view. My clients in La Jolla are walking distance to all that is La Jolla. They're going to make probably about $1,000 a night on average split out between 12 months. They don't need to put the sauna in. They don't need all this stuff. Their location speaks for itself. We're in Claremont, we're in East La Jolla, we're east of the five freeway.
33:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
We need the amenities to really um beef up our chances at competing with all these other properties yeah, you see that, um, I'm curious how your phoenix properties are too, because phoenix, like, even though you could be really close to, like, say, you know, old town, Scottsdale or whatever, um, you're still in like a desert environment. So you got to have like you know, ideally a pool, but there's one other guy I follow, but I'll probably have on here. They go. They do these like elaborately themed Airbnb's.
34:18
Are they any different out here, because you don't quite have that, like you know, beach access. That sort of makes up for the really fun house yeah.
34:28 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I mean, all the properties we manage in Phoenix have access to a pool or they have their own, and so we manage one in Tempe. It's called the Tempe Tango. It's got really nice interior design. It's really funky. They got a pool and jacuzzi. We manage one in Glendale, right by Cardinal Stadium Huge pool, jacuzzi, pool table inside the house, everything right, and it's a big house. It fits 12 people.
34:50
We have another property in South Mountain, smaller. That one's more of a luxury, high-end one. That's the one I own, that one we have like the water softener. We've got the really luxury beds and interior and they have access to two different pools and Jacuzzis 24-7. They don't lock, they don't close, they have access to those. A playground, a volleyball court.
35:11
So yeah, to answer your question, there needs to be a pool if you're in a desert and there needs to be access to more than just a house. Right, when people aren't always going to Phoenix for the location, they might be going there for whatever conference is there. They're there because their son has a basketball tournament, right, there's a lot of reasons people go to Phoenix, San Diego, it's the majority is vacation and so it's different market. But as long as we provide those amenities that are comfortable and make their trip more enjoyable and we can compete with the hotels. Then we get a lot of booking.
35:41
So my properties in Phoenix still do very well. I mean, this last March is the highest month of the year, it's like San Diego's July, and this March my client in Glendale and Tempe combined did like $30,000, like a ton of money, and that's the highest. They didn't do that last year. This is more. So we're learning on our end too, like how to get these higher occupancy. We've been adding amenities. I've been encouraging them to do X, y, z, add a pool heater, you know, get this amenity, because if you don't have a pool heater and then your pool, is going to be valuable.
36:12
Yeah, yeah.
36:13
I've even heard people have pool chillers right To make their pool colder in the summer, which I'm like.
36:17 - Preston Zeller (Host)
That is nuts, but I guess if it's 115 out for a whole week 15 out for a whole week, your pool's not going to feel super good, you know. Uh, just on that note. Um, I don't think you need a chiller, and here's why, um, if you attach the unless you have a natural fountain built in if you attach the fountains to the jets that circulate the water anyways, it'll cool enough. Oh, good, cool.
36:44
So I mean if, if, uh, if someone's I, I know this because I did it with my pool, but, um, nice if you don't want to go spend the money on a chiller for a property, that's a good, uh, cheaper way to do it. But, um, are you, do you guys have any properties and other parts outside the phoenix area?
37:03 - Billy Perez (Guest)
um, no, just Mountain, phoenix, Tempe and Glendale. So, like the greater Phoenix area, not all in Phoenix.
37:09 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I only ask because, like Sedona is a obviously that's a pretty awesome spot, they command some silly rental rates. Tell you what?
37:20 - Billy Perez (Guest)
I bet.
37:21 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So if you have those properties, it's a very different vibe, of course, but people will go there. It's like yeah. Press gets pretty interesting too. Flagstaff has. Flagstaff has a lot of older stuff. So how many properties between, like, how many are in California? How many are in Arizona?
37:38 - Billy Perez (Guest)
31 in California, four in Arizona.
37:40 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Okay, cool, yeah, and is the hope to expand more into? Like where, how do you want to expand, or not?
37:49 - Billy Perez (Guest)
um, just because of my proximity to San Diego, I've naturally been growing here and so a lot like, like I said, 90 of my leads have come from either people that know me or have met me. Right, I only have two clients right now that are cold leads that I didn't know, that are not connected to me in any way. So Phoenix would be great to grow in. I'd love to grow there. It's a super saturated market. There's like 20,000 Airbnb's, 7,000 alone in Scottsdale and so it's really hard to compete out there 7,000 in Scottsdale.
38:20
Yeah, that's pretty crazy, yeah, and so these owners aren't interested in paying me 20% of their revenue because that's their margin. So, yeah, I mean, obviously I would love to get a client in Sedona. I just need to find them and I need to be out in Phoenix more and I need to go to these real estate meetups and events. But my connection that I have out there. I've asked them like, hey, let me know when there's real estate meetups and they're like we don't really do those. I could meet up with dozens of real estate entrepreneurs three times a month if I wanted to. There's three different events that I'm a part of that I go to on the first Wednesday of every night, the first Tuesday and the last Thursday or something like that.
38:59
And so the community out here we're less about a scarcity mindset and we're more about community, and that's what I love about it and that's what has probably kept me in it to this point is I have met my competition. I know other operators and we've gotten lunch together. We see each other once or twice a month because we're friends. At this point, even though we're all in competition with each other, there's 18,000 Airbnb's in the greater San Diego area. If you're managing 100 of those Airbnb's. Your company is doing $2 million to $3 million in revenue, and so that's all we need. We just need a little tiny slice of the pie to make this business make sense.
39:36 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So yeah, I mean I'd say there's definitely meetups out here too. I mean, I guess, depending on what kind of meetups you're talking about, but I mean there's a ton of real estate investment activity here. So yeah. Well, I'd love to come to one, that'd be great. Yeah, yeah, I'll have to. I'll see if see if there's one I could send you. That happens regularly, but you know. So people listening to this, I mean obviously an appeal is going to be like hey, you know, Billy manages 30 plus Airbnb's. So what are the? You know?
40:18 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Airbnb. So what are the top five tips that you could give on what makes an Airbnb really hum, profitable? Airbnb is going to have the best amenities. You want to make sure that you're investing the money in the small things that people will look forward to. I think something like 45% of people who booked an Airbnb last year said that they wouldn't book one unless it had a jacuzzi.
40:35
Jacuzzis are huge for travelers, vacationers. It's a way to relax. It's a way to create, um, you know, foster conversation with friends and family. Jacuzzis are a huge one and I a lot of listings have them. Um, that's the first thing. Second thing make it it pet friendly. I know that sucks for some people and people hate pets, but another, it's like another 48 of those travelers that used Airbnb last year brought their dogs. It's a huge amenity. People are going to spend a hundred dollars a night on a pet hotel to leave their pet, or they can pay you 150 to bring their pet for the weekend. So you're saving them money and you're generating an extra. It's like five to $6,000 a year Once it. If you, if you host like 70 to 80 different groups and half of them bring a dog, you're making good money off of that $150 pet fee. So it's. It's 100% worth it, even if there's pet damage. These pet owners are pretty responsible and they let us know when there's damage. So the first two things right. The spa amenities, pet friendly interior design is everything lately.
41:39
You can't just get away with throwing Ikea furniture and Facebook marketplace into your listings. You need some sexy looking listings. You need to make sure you invest the money. It should be like, I would say, 4,000 to 5,000 a room and I know that sounds crazy, but you got to think people are going to spend more time on that mattress than they're going to spend anywhere else in that property. That better not be a $200 mattress from Amazon. That better be 600, $700 nice plush mattress that people can lay on. That they can relax on that. They can do things that people do on vacation on right. You want to make sure it's comfortable. Relax on that. They can do things that people do on vacation on right. You want to make sure it's comfortable. That bed frame, the artwork, the dresser, the work from home desk if you can provide a desk in these rooms with a nice little chair, that's a work from home space. That's another amenity you're marking off.
42:23
Okay, interior design is very important. Have a freaking coffee maker. Don't cheap out and just give them a damn coffee pot, right, right, get them the espresso machine. Let's spend $100 so people can pop those K-cups in there and make some good coffee. Do not give them the pot. Do both Air fryer, everything to cook.
42:42
You are trying to provide and compete against these hotels. Hotels are not providing the air fryers and the frying pans and the spatulas. They're providing you a bed and a bathroom. You want to compete with these hotels. You need to make it a home away from home. That's three.
42:58
The fourth thing is going to be something you can't control. That's going to be location. If you're going to invest in an Airbnb, it's got to be. I think this is obvious, right, it's got to be somewhere that people are going to go. Some markets will surprise you. There's some markets in Cleveland Ohio, that freaking crush, and I'm like why are we going to Cleveland Ohio? You have Ernst Young's headquarters out there. You have all these different big top 100 companies that do business out there because it's cheap to rent commercial real estate out there. So you have people going there Cleveland Cavaliers, the Browns. There's a lot of sports out there too. I mean, it's Ohio, it's not a lot to do, so there's going to be sports, there's going to be the lake right. My wife's family is from Ohio, so I have the green card to be able to make fun of Ohio a little bit.
43:43
She's not. My wife is not from Ohio. She hates when people think that. And then yeah, the fifth thing to make your Airbnb successful is to have a fantastic boutique vacation rental management company like Elevate Vacation Homes managing it, taking care of revenue, making sure your property is maintained and well-cleaned and prepared for these clients. I'm kidding If you can match what we're doing, if you can do that yourself as an operations manager, that's what matters. It doesn't matter if you've got the spa and the hot tub and the sauna and the weight room and the bicycles and the great amenities and the interior looks great. Your house is in a dope location like Scottsdale.
44:21
If you're not pricing this thing correctly, if you're renting it out too cheap, if you're renting it out too expensive and your calendar is sitting vacant or it's chock full of people paying too little and they're going to come destroy your property, you're not doing it right. So all of those four things don't matter. If you're not managing the property correctly, if you have no idea what you're doing, if you do what I did in 2021, where I went into this Airbnb turnkey on camelback with no knowledge of what revenue management was. I have no knowledge of maintenance and cleaning expectations for these guests, you're going to get crushed. It doesn't matter if you got the perfect $100 sheets. If you're not managing this thing correctly, if you don't have the right technology behind this, you're not going to find success. So those are the five things Amenities, interior design, location management and home away from home.
45:12 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, that's a fantastic list. One thing that came to mind as you were talking to um. So I, I've, I've definitely been in, I've been in Airbnbs and quite a few States small places, bigger places, Nice but um, just the cleanliness and the turnover of the, which is goes to your fifth point, but the in the turnover of the, which goes to your fifth point, but the in the turnover of the people using it, like when you can tell someone went in there and just totally half-assed the clean job oh yeah you just feel like you know, um, anywhere you go, right, hotel, um, but it's.
45:50
It seems like that can be a real marker of like, okay, this is a bush league, you know, managed property because they, you know, didn't hire the right cleaner, or you know, I know that kind of thing. So exactly one, one thing that came to mind um, so with elevate, I mean expanding in cal, do you ever, do you ever do just kind of like window shopping, research and other markets to be like, hey, what if I, what if I went into you know XYZ market? You know, you just hear about it.
46:24 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah, um, I just co co-signed on a property in Palm Springs with my little sister.
46:30 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So okay, just to Airbnb to Airbnb.
46:33 - Billy Perez (Guest)
It's a it was a turnkey Airbnb. It came furnished, ready to go Heated pool, jacuzzi, garage, four bedrooms so we're going all in on that. I just co-signed, I didn't put any money down, but now I've paid for all the upgrades, so I'm going to own like 15% of it when it's said and done, just to help her out, because she's. She's also someone who's been interested in it but didn't pull the trigger like I did five years ago Cause she was like 19. So now she's ready to do it and she's like, okay, cool, like I want to do this, um, help me buy it. And so I co-signed with her to give, you know, double the income and, um, yeah, it's been, it's going to, it's going to launch sometime in the next two weeks and it's a really beautiful property located just five minutes from downtown. So that's an example of yes.
47:15
I do want to expand it to other markets and I'm happy to, as long as they make sense and they're short-term rental markets that I trust. And Palm Springs is a legacy short-term rental market, much like Scottsdale, much like San Diego, um, santa Monica. Right, these are. These are markets that are never going away and I trust Palm Springs that it'll do well. So yeah, I'm interested in growing for sure how much was that property.
47:43
That was a $750,000 purchase. It was listed for 800, but it had been listed for like 80 days and so I told the seller I'm like, hey man, you and me are the same. You manage a bunch of properties, I manage a bunch of properties.
47:54
I know you're trying to get rid of this thing because you were trying to buy a better property and and it's been sitting for too long because you're pricing it too high, because you're trying to sell it like a multifamily property, where you're like look how much revenue you can make. It's not the same. It's not like selling a multifamily, it's not like selling a business. You can't 2X your net revenue and expect, or your revenue and expect people to pay for that premium, right, it's like. No, it's like, if anything, it's more of a hassle to have all your old furniture and it's more of a risk to buy an investment property in Palm Springs where there's so much competition, right. So he understood that and we worked out a deal and we were able to get it $50,000 off.
48:33
I think we ended up closing at 763, but it was a good deal. I'm happy with it. Our mortgage makes sense to where we can do the same amount of revenue or a little bit under what he did last year and still cashflow. And so that's what our buy box was. It's like how much can we get into this house for without losing money? And so so I told my sister like, as long as it makes more than uh 65 000 a year, we'll be fine. 70 000 I can't remember the number, but he did like 100 so so did you?
49:03 - Preston Zeller (Host)
did you even have a, an agent represent you on it, or you just go straight to him?
49:07 - Billy Perez (Guest)
no, we did. I am a firm believer in using an agent, and I'll tell you why. Um, as opposed to me just using myself, cause I have a real estate license, or using going direct to agent, um, I like to keep relationships healthy and strong, and so my real estate agent that I used to buy this property I was the same guy I used five years ago to buy my house here in San Diego, and so keeping him in, keeping him in my relationship really strong, is important to me. He thinks of me when he thinks of vacation rentals. I think of him when I think of selling or buying real estate. So it's a symbiotic relationship. It was an advice piece that I got from another mentor in the business. He's like hey, don't dabble in broker licenses and buying houses, selling houses. Find the connections and get people to trust you that they can use you as a resource for short-term rentals and then they know, in exchange, you're going to use them as a resource for purchasing homes, long-term renting homes, etc.
49:59
Yeah, that's awesome, anything you haven't shared that you'd like to share for anyone listening. Yeah, I mean, I'm pursuing this business full-time. This is my gig, but I do other things too. I dabble in a lot of other stuff. I own a vending machine business. I have five different locations, five different luxury vending machines. Um, I got into that two years ago. Um, that's obviously a separate conversation, but the short and sweet of it is I hired someone to do it full time for me and I still I still really am looking to grow that business slowly. Uh, it's not the same as growing a vacation rental management company, because there's a lot more upfront costs like buying a $6,000 vending machine.
50:35
When I'm not doing that, I also do coaching. So for anyone listening that's stuck around for this long, I do coaching. So if you're interested in learning how to do what I do, it does not cost any money to start this business. I'm telling you that as honestly as possible. It did not cost me anything to get my first 10 clients. I didn't pay for these clients. They were given to me because people trusted what I was doing and I had the experience to back it up. So if you want coaching, if you want to get from zero properties to 10, I can help you do that.
51:01
I have two students right now that I meet with every week and we're going to meet for the whole year. You're welcome to come in for a free session. I do that as well. And then I still coach, I still teach. I love working with young adults. I teach a class, a volleyball class, at Point Loma Nazarene University, where I graduated from, so I'm still in the volleyball world, I play a lot, and so there's still so much more to life than buying I'm sorry.
51:26
There's still so much more to life than running your own business because you don't want to start a business and then you basically just gave yourself another job. You want to be able to have the flexibility and freedom to do things like this Preston, like come on podcasts to coach young adults and mentor them, to mentor either Airbnb investors to run your company, to have side hustles like a vending machine business, right, like it's so random and people think it's so funny that I still have it. But life is more than just, you know, 80 hours a week on the same job. You should be able to have the freedom and flexibility to do what you want to do, because this is your business and a reminder to everyone out there these clients that you have, you're providing them a service.
52:03
They're not your boss. They do not tell you where to go and where to be. You set the boundaries and tell them this is my job, this is my career, this is my business. I'm providing service to you. If you can't get on board with that, then we're done so. Healthy boundaries are good.
52:18 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, absolutely Give them back. I love that. I think people can definitely miss the boat on that. Especially after they've accumulated loads of cash, they go. But it's mine, I earned it like yeah you can have that mentality um yeah, you could also be generous, you know it's.
52:38 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Life's not worth living if you don't share. Share your wealth, share your time and energy with other people. It's I don't who cares. If you have 300k in the bank. Did you see anyone you loved in the last three months while you're making those sales? Did you do anything valuable to this world, to the community? No, money's on everything. It's about the life you have. Your time is more valuable than money, and so I definitely still believe in that. I do have days where that might not seem true. You've had those days too, where it's like 6 am to 8 pm I'm like what did I do all day? Oh my gosh, I have no life. But then you know, days like today I'm looking forward to. I look forward to this. I'm looking forward to some coffee with other business owners later and yeah it's, it's a good life.
53:26 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Where can people find you, billy, and you said Instagram's kind of the spot.
53:30 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Yeah, instagram is the best. Billy Elevate Billy Elevate is my username. That's kind of the brand I want to go for. Billy Perez is my full name. You can reach me there. There's all my links on my Instagram at Billy Elevate. Yeah, I'm willing to talk to anyone, chat with anyone about any kind of business stuff.
53:49 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Cool, Thanks, Billy. Go check them out on Instagram. Go talk to him if you want any guidance, coaching, and uh, you know the vacation rental space and uh, yeah, thanks for coming on.
53:58 - Billy Perez (Guest)
Thanks, preston, appreciate it man.
54:01 - Hope (Announcement)
Thanks for listening to today's podcast. Please make sure to subscribe on your favorite service to get notified every time a new episode is released.
