TJ Tijani Reviews

@tjtijani

TJ Tijani became a Rentalpreneur, as he calls it, on accident. He got a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Houston. Graduated, went to work in the oil and gas field.

On the side, he was investing in real estate. Wholesaling 1-2 deals a month, despite being out in the middle of nowhere on a rig.

So when oil prices sank in 2017 and TJ’s company had to let him go, it was time to go all in on real estate.

Eventually he sees a video about Airbnb.

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Decided to give it a try.

“I had one single family house,” TJ recalls, “that I was gonna turn into a long-term traditional rental.”

“But I spent $14,000 to furnish it and I listed it on Airbnb instead. Didn’t get a listing that day, but I woke up with two reservations the next day,” he continues.

“And when I ran the numbers, it’s like, even at 50% occupancy, at the price I was charging, which was well below market rate, I was still looking to 2x (at a minimum) what I would make on the long-term traditional rental. So it became a no-brainer for me.”

“Then I learned that you didn’t even have to own these assets. You can arbitrage ’em. You can rent these properties long-term then re-rent them out short-term.”

“So then I started doing that.”

“Plus still buying properties creatively with private money. Rehabbing ’em, value acquisitions. While I’m rehabbing ’em, I’m picking up arbitrage units at the same time. That’s how I was able to scale my business. Documented the process, started sharing the knowledge,” he says, bringing us up to speed.

If you want the path of least resistance, the lowest barrier to entry to get in the short-term rental game, arbitrage is the move. But don’t be a one-trick pony, TJ warns.

Eventually you wanna own some of your Airbnb properties.

Think about ordinances and regulations. When a city or a neighborhood gets banned from offering short-term rentals, it’s almost always some arbitrage a-hole who ruins it for everyone else.

Don’t get him wrong, he’s got friends doing 7-figures. All arbitrage. But it’s risky.

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Or, there’s a third strategy you can do. Where you don’t own or arbitrage; you manage. Some call it cohosting or even bed flipping.

But yeah. You help somebody else do a short-term rental, whether that’s a landlord you talk into it or someone who’s already in the game but they don’t wanna deal with listings and marketing and customer support and whatnot.

With this, the going rate’s usually about 25% of gross revenue. So you can make good cash flow just managing other people’s Airbnbs and VRBOs.

Isn’t it super competitive now though? How do you compete? TJ says you should focus on building your own brand within the short-term rental space.

Stop looking for the quick buck. Yeah, you can beg a landlord to let you arbitrage their place, slap it up on Airbnb, make a little somethin’. But so can everybody else.

So change your mindset. Think long-term. Build a real business that’s sustainable.

You want people coming to you. You wanna be able to monetize outside of Airbnb. You wanna own the data and build your own direct booking pipeline.

TJ retargets every single person who steps foot in any of his short-term rentals. Once a month, they get a series of follow-up emails, which creates repeat business. They come straight to his website and book through him.

Some will tell their friends about it. Boom, more bookings.

And now you’ve got a money machine, right? That’s the difference between “oh I do Airbnb” and “I’ve got a legitimate short-term rental business that can stand the test of time.”

Attend TJ’s Rentalpreneur Summit (cost: $800) or buy his course, The Short-Term Rental Roadmap Masterclass Program (cost: $997), if you’d like his help.

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