Recap: The STR Wealth Conference 2023

I attended The STR Wealth Conference 2023 in Nashville, and I'm sharing my take-aways!

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The STR Wealth Conference was held for a second year in Nashville, Tennessee March 20-23, 2023 by conference founders Bill Faeth and Mike Sjogren. The mission for the event was to provide an “immersive event with actionable takeaways and strategies” and an opportunity to network. This was my first time attending any event by Bill or Mike, although I've followed both on social media for sometime.

About the conference organizers.

Bill Faeth has been in STR since 2015; he’s been an entrepreneur his entire career primarily in ground transportation. His self-proclaimed super power is marketing - and I’m sure he is the force behind the showy, profanity-ridden but content-heavy show. I don’t mind profanity but admit as a recovering ex-corporate exec the mood of the conference had a different feel than I’ve previously experienced. My experience with Bill’s group has been as a member of his large Facebook group for some time. He offers training and insights for others to be successful in the space and I resonate with his position of less is more - don't chase number of doors, take action toward living your best life - whatever that means for you.

Michael Sjogren got into STR in 2017 to find financial freedom following a very challenging medical challenge with their then newborn baby. He and his wife have been very successful - building an arbitrage and co-hosting business and now focusing on hotels. His wife started an interior design company specifically for STR - highlighted during the conference. Mike was a CPA, and his self-proclaimed superpower is being very process-focused. I have listened to Mike’s podcast on and off for a couple of years, appreciating the operations-focused topics often brought to the show. I should note, having commented on the profanity - Mike is not immune, and having Bill and Mike set the stage - the other speakers were not shy about dropping F-bombs. This is clearly part of the brand. So if that's an issue for you - this isn't your tribe.

TakeAways

Keep in mind, these are MY takeaways from the conference, and I'm not commenting on EVERY presentation or event. I’ve been around the industry for a while, not every presentation was directed toward me, and no one wants to read the transcript. It was a well put together engaging conference really focused on success in short-term rentals - whatever your seat in the industry. That said, although I got some get nuggets from it - I talked to a few newbies who felt very much like a firehose had sprayed at them full force - and were even a bit lost. It was 1000 people in one big room, which suffered a bit from noise and - frankly, a bit overstimulation. As they plan to grow, I presume they might start break-out sessions but who knows?! So - here we go!

The STR Law Guys did a great presentation on layered asset protection - having the right STR rental agreement, the right insurance, and the right asset protection structure. My take-aways -

Review/Revise my rental agreement to include credit card authorization and ensure I have controlling law language in there
Make an appointment to set up my layered asset structure (I have some of it, but some key holes exist)
Limit opportunities to reach through my LLC. I’ve not been very good about always keeping the business money separate from personal - but this is a key strategy for “piercing the corporate value” and reaching through the LLC protections.
Premises liability - Make sure I have at least $1M (ideally $2M) premises liability. Pretty sure I do, but going to double check.

2023 State of the Industry - Bill and Mike presented data put together by STR Insights, one of the newer data clearinghouses out there.

72% of listings nationwide were new between 2022-2023
Average revenue went from $44,662 (2022) to $43,078 (2023)
Overall average Occupancy dropped 59% (2022) to 51% (2023)
Average host rating went UP from 4.72 in 2022 to 4.79 in 2023
Houses stayed on the market for 75 days last quarter, which is up 17% but still less than 2019
17% of homes on the market had a price reduction in the last 30 days
42% of home sales had concessions
Investors purchased 46% fewer homes in Q4 2022 than 2021

The message? The word "saturation" came up. Alot. But only in the context of its time for new strategies. I've talked alot about this in my blog - with numbers. The message from the conference best summed up by Avery Carl was - Look for opportunities. Throughout the conference, it was clear that the opportunities aren’t everywhere anymore. Key strategies include Level up design, make your space “instagrammable”. Step up your amenities to be better than your competition, deliver great customer service - and know you may have to lower your prices. If you use a dynamic pricing tool, make sure you know HOW to use it (check your impression settings!)

Bill doesn’t stay in Short-Term Rentals?

We should all be taking note - Bill said he doesn’t stay in short-term rentals unless its with his mastermind or other specific reason. He prefers the consistency of hotels. Standing on stage at an STR Conference he put together - that’s a big admission about our industry. And true. My business bestie and I shared a condo in Nashville we booked on Airbnb and it was phenomenal! But we spoke to two others who mentioned their accommodations were dirty or not well stocked short-term rentals. Although the last hotel I stayed in ALSO wasn’t clean (coffee filter wasn’t even changed!) that does happen far less in the hotel setting and is a big issue in our industry.

Keynote

Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First did a terrific presentation, challenging us to rethink our approach to our business financial model. I won’t say much other than it was highly engaging and valuable presentation - buy his book! His other books just got added to my Audible list, too; he was funny and engaging. I appreciated the fresh take.

Hotel Investing.

Michael Sjogren’s presentation was gold! As a process and procedure oriented person, I share his belief that freedom is in the discipline of writing it down and delegating it. My entire coaching and consulting business is built on my experience leading organizations through the lens that we need to be strategically AND operationally organized and intentional. That said, the case studies he shared on the magic of hotel investing has me really thinking - the value of forced appreciation, the ease of one transaction vs. many - the numbers were motivating and I was already sort of thinking about it.

I took many photos of slides but without permission to share I won't - he had a couple of key performance indicators he uses to monitor his business that I’ll be adding to mine. And I’ll note his absolute commitment to preserve his time is laudable and we should all take note.

Reverse Engineering Your Life.

For each of us its important to consider who we get our information from and who we choose as mentors and teachers - be it up close, or from afar. I wasn't sure I had a strong sense of Bill before this conference, but this session really highlighted clearly how he is crushing it - with intention.

This session he did - Building Your Outcome, I really appreciated the insights he gave into reverse engineering your life and how he applies that - and helps his mentees do the same. I believe as he does in accountability - a fact that I have taken increased steps to have in my life but not to the extent he has. None of this is new to me, I have invested in my own personal development and have done this reverse engineering work - and invested in the support to do it. Bill’s presentation was really great - I’m sure lit a fire under many.

If this idea of reverse engineering your life IS new to you, Bills approach is that he effectively starts with vision and backs it down to action steps and then has systems in place to ensure those steps are taken. This is in his relationships, business, etc. He was very clear about his vision of retirement and where he is at in that process. I’m impressed with his commitment to have an audit with Brea (his wife) as part of a lunch date every Friday - they review EVERYTHING. I came home and told my husband we’re implementing something similar (I’m not sure what the Hubs was thinking but it wasn’t exactly enthusiasm ya’all!)

Manage Your Lend-ability Status

There were some good nuggets in Bill's session about what lenders need, and how to up the chances of getting the funds needed. So while the need to know your debt-to-income ratio and financial health is important, he really took a dive into how to impress prospective lenders and how that changes as your business grows, and how this is an important part of what they audit and manage. As I am deepening my knowledge as a professional in this industry, I really **heard** this message and I'll be taking action.

Know your credit score at all times
Keep a personal financial statement up to date
When you approach a lender, have (3) proforma - "Good, Better, Best" w comps

For Hosts and PM looking to grow

My biggest surprise was actually the presentation done by Brooke Pfautz, author of 0 - 500 properties in 5 years and founder of Vintory. What a fantastic presentation that - for all its not being a sales presentation, sold me. To be clear, this presentation was focused on people looking to grow their property management/co-hosting business.

This surprised me as - while I already knew the value of selling a property management business, he included co-hosting and the valuation being a “per contract” sort of valuation. I won’t re-do his presentation, but its enough to say it has me rethinking my plans.

The clear, concise presentation about marketing and tools was riveting - to me. If growing your business isn’t your thing, maybe you snoozed off but I was taking copious notes as he included tools and I could see applicability even for marketing my properties themselves. In other words, I’m Brooke’s newest fan. His book just got added to my list.

The REAL Takeaway.

There were many other nuggets I didn’t get into here - mostly because if you are even still reading this far it took time and I appreciate that.

Bill and Mike elected to have a women’s panel, which I appreciated and that’s the last thing I’ll comment on. Avery Carl spoke about her commitment to not being away from her kids more than 48 hours - she was leaving the conference at 2pm to get her flight to honor that. We may be building our businesses and be hungry entrepreneurs, but the WHY has to drive our decisions. And the WHY may curtail our reaching for more in our businesses because of the personal cost. Avery wasn’t boasting, she was just explaining why she was leaving early. I heard similar messages from Bill, Mike, and others on stage and in the audience as I talked with others - our efforts have a greater purpose. Hold tight to “why” and make THAT happen; the rest of this is just a vehicle.

Interested in attending?

The STR Wealth Conference will occur in 2024 - they released dates for early February 2024. They sent information to conference attendees but I don’t see any general announcements yet, so I’ll update when I do.

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Hey Boss! I'm Kate, owner/founder of The CEO Host. If you are interested in taking a leap into short-term rentals - or struggling with your existing business, my goal - passion, and career, is to help YOU succeed. I've coached hundreds of folks getting started, analyzed more deals (and duds) than I could count, completed thousands of hours of education and training, attended conferences... So don't be shy. A good CEO knows to bring in expert help - and that's what I'm here for! Lets HOP ON A CALL and chat!

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