KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Reimagining Real Estate: Interest Rate Cuts, Advanced Airbnb Techniques, and Navigating Complex Renovations

Episode Date: September 13, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.SummaryThis episode is a masterclass in adapting to the changing real estate landscape, providing a holistic blueprint for success in any market. The discussion reveals how three distinct forces—economic shifts, technological innovation, and savvy project management—are creating new opportunities for agents and investors. You’ll learn how to leverage interest rate cuts to reignite a stagnant market, apply advanced techniques to scale a profitable Airbnb business, and navigate complex renovations without losing time, money, or your sanity.Key TakeawaysThe Strategic Advantage of Interest Rate Cuts: Understand what an interest rate cut truly means for the market and how to use it to your advantage. The episode provides a blueprint for educating buyers on how a lower rate can increase their purchasing power and for advising sellers on how a boost in buyer activity can drive higher demand and prices.Advanced Airbnb Techniques for Profitability: Go beyond a simple "how-to" and learn how to run a short-term rental business like a true CEO. The discussion highlights the use of data-driven pricing models, implementing smart home technology for remote management, and creating a five-star guest experience that drives consistent bookings and rave reviews.Navigating Complex Renovations: Learn the secrets to a profitable flip or a successful large-scale renovation. The episode provides a clear guide to managing a big project, including creating a detailed budget with a healthy contingency, finding and managing reliable contractors, and avoiding the common mistakes that lead to costly delays.The Power of an Adaptive Mindset: Discover that in today’s market, your ability to learn and adapt is your greatest asset. The discussion emphasizes that by mastering these three distinct skills, you position yourself as a multi-faceted expert who can help clients with a wide range of real estate needs, from a simple purchase to a complex investment.Topics:Interest rate cutsReal estate investingAdvanced Airbnb strategiesComplex renovationsMarket trendsCall-to-ActionReady to reimagine your real estate career? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start building your multi-faceted blueprint for success today! Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

Built to close your week strong and start the next one smarter. Here's what you is from this week's Friday Focus on KGCI, Real Estate on Air. Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group podcast. Here we're all about breaking free from the 40 to 50-year work grind and accelerating our journey towards financial freedom. Join us every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast-track your path to financial independence. We serve as a hub for connecting with fellow members during our sessions so you can share successes, ask questions, and keep the momentum going. Good evening, everyone. This is Nia Adewale, host of the Akaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind podcast, and I'm excited to

join you guys after a month hiatus. I was actually on my honeymoon, which was awesome. And I highly recommend, you know, I know we talk a lot about getting after goals and really working hard, but you do have to have some time to get away as well. It helps you to refresh your mind, refresh your body, refresh your energy, it really come back stronger. And so I was gone for a bit, but now we are back, and we're going to be kicking off

the weekly Mastermind Group and the podcast this week to kind of get started for the back quarter of the year. And so there's a couple things that happen today. First, that's pretty interesting, is the rate cut. So it's been close to four years,

maybe a little over four years, actually a little over four years, since we've had a rate. cut. Back in 2020, they cut down significantly, right, to kind of address the pandemic. And then ever since toward the end of 2020 and really, you know, beginning in 2021 and 2022, we've been having interest rate heights little by little by little and then a lot by a lot. And we were able to get all the way up to about eight interest and you're looking to buy a house. And so now we're starting to see the reduction because they've been able to stop the inflation or at least

get it into a range that they feel comfortable with. And because they're starting to see some breaks in the labor market, the Fed is actually easing up a bit on the interest rate heights. And now we're starting to see the reduction. And today I was actually factoring for a quarter point. I was thinking they were going to be a little more conservative. But we get a half point, which is pretty awesome. And we start to look at what's happening with mortgage rates.

But Nas, how you doing, man? What's going on, Nick? Not much. Not much. Happy Wednesday. I know it's been a month, right? letting everybody know that we are back in that. Absolutely, absolutely.

Excited to be back, actually. Come on, Matt. Did you see the news with the Fed cheer earlier today? Absolutely. How can you not talk about that news? It's great news. It stimulates the economy to where we're looking for. Come on.

I think it's needed, especially that half point. Like, I thought they're just going to do quarter because I'm like, okay, probably just going to play it safe and just keep it consistent. But the half point, especially heading into one election season where we don't know what's going to happen there. And two, the wintertime where historically it does slow down anyway, this is good. I think it will hopefully counterbalance it. And to your point, yeah, man, from a real estate perspective, this is refinance. Absolutely, absolutely.

You know, I was hoping that it would drop just slightly more. I know that was a big cut, so I was hoping for too much. A rate is just, it needs to be a little lower before I can actually capitalize on a refinery. That makes sense anyway. Hey, come on now. I'm hoping that we're able to get there over the next year. They're factoring in two more cuts this year, so another quarter and a quarter,

and then a hundred basis points next year, so four quarters. For me, somebody that got interest rates over the last two years in the nines, I'm excited for anything. I'm just waiting for maybe two more cuts, maybe right after the election period, and then going in to go try some refinement. Absolutely. I need one additional cut, and then that'll put me at least one percentage, so then the refi makes sense.

Come on, though. But I like me. I can't wait. Because your interest rate, what are your highest ones at? Not the low ones, but what's your highest interest rate at right now? Highest one is 5-8, and then the one you helped me close on is 5-5. Getting close. Right now, I want to say it's like, if you're buying a new house, you could be around six right now, and so it's getting close.

You know, I was just on the phone with one of the brokers we were in contact with, and he was able to close somebody the other day. with a 5-7. I was like, that's impressive. Was there a lot of points in there? Or did he mention anything about that? There was one buy down for points. Okay, fair enough.

If he did it without points, we're hanging up this call. I'm calling him right now. Go figure that one out. Like, hey, man, let's go ahead and hook me up. Absolutely, absolutely. I was shocked when he said it because he started to call him. He was like, hey, man, guess what?

I just closed somebody for like a crazy rate. He was like, but you get like a six? And he was like, I said 5-7, I was like, man, that's crazy. Yeah. No, that's good work, especially, you know, with what we've seen over the past couple years.

And so it's just exciting first time in four years to see this actually starting to reverse the other way. And so, yeah, all real estate investors unite. This is going to be a good time period for us. But one other piece for you, Naz, I know you were talking about it before, but you were working on a project that will leave up in Philly,

where you're doing like renovations, things that nature. or get regularly started. How is that coming? So it's interesting. A specific property, I'm in the probate process. And so because I'm not there, I've been utilizing some friends and family to get the ball for me, proxy. It took a little longer than expected.

Hopefully everything closes out within like the next week. The lawyers are tying up the loose ends. And then once it's fully in my name, we're breaking ground. I love it, man. I love it. It's a patient game, right? A waiting game. but it's all going to be worth it.

Yeah, hopefully, hopefully. You know, to that point, I broke ground on the property in Atlanta, the one in East Point. Nice. With rehabs, you're going to uncover some things, and they definitely uncovered some things. Like on the first day, or what?

Well, they were actually really quick. He gave the deposit. He gave me a call. He was like, all right, my guys are showing that we're starting demo. I was like, okay, start demo. Let's get it going. And within about three hours of him breaking ground, he sends me all these pictures with, like,

the studs having some water damage, the floor joyce having water damage, you know, subfloor, there was one section that just was a complete, just thorough. Cabinets, they had damage, but I knew the cabinets had damage. And so it really frustrated me is this is all damage that was in the home prior to. And so I reached out to my tenant before evicting him, and I asked several times, I was like, is anything wrong with property? Do you have any issues, any maintenance things? And his answer was always, no, everything's fine.

And I'm like, all right, well, this is just a great tenant. Lo and behold, I get into the unit. And, yeah, things are not what I expected. No, it never fails, especially somebody that's been there for a while, because he'd lived there for a couple years, right? Yeah. And so is the water damage? Or was it from a past experience?

It was from a past experience. It was pretty significant. It was dry, but you can tell that it was six. was fixed for a while because it looked pretty aged. So it is what it is. You know, that's a part of the game. You know, you run as these hiccups. You build in contingencies for it.

When you don't have a contingency budget, you leverage it. Yeah, this is true. It's one of those where it's definitely painful in the moment, but you're ripping apart that house and the value that you're putting into that thing, just the first minute alone. When I walked in there, I was like, this is night and day. You know, it's like, what to... Absolutely.

Absolutely. So, yeah, the more you can... do that, you're just going to be accelerating those rents. And yes, it's going to come back slow over time, but it's going to come back. Absolutely. And so the good thing is that that middle unit, I'm going for Airbnb, and it's going to be great. Nice. Nice. As long as you don't put a friend in there that's going to stay there for two years, right? You know, pay like, you know, minimal. So, yeah, we got to keep that one for a B&B because I think that will crush it over there, man. Eastwood is, it's solidly for it for. For sure, for sure.

The two-bedroom is a crusher. It's like a, in terms of projections, there's like a five difference from a one bedroom to a two-bedroom in that area. Yeah, that is crazy. And speaking of short-term rentals, I recently actually sat down with one of the, quote-unquote, professionals in this industry, and they spent, like, 30 to 45 minutes with me to go through pricing software. So I've been using, like, Price Labs, and you're familiar with Price Labs. Okay, so I've been using Price Labs now for, like, two months, two or three months.

And I've been using just the basic portions of it, apparently, right? Like putting the minimums in, putting the base price, and then making some adjustments, quote-unquote, season. This person in a 30-minute session took me through adjustments I didn't even know you could make. For example, one of the things that, because I wanted to help optimize the back unit, but then also understand how to do this for all of our portfolio.

And so I've actually set out time for Friday to knock out the rest of the portfolio, but I've already been for the back unit, and I'm seeing the results already. And so a couple of tips that he gave me is there's something in Price Labs, and you may have already known this, where you could do a gradual promotion or a gradual decrease. Does that make sense? Have you heard of that before? No, but I am intrigued.

Okay. So essentially the setting that we put in there is a 25% discount, right, at 45 days out. So the way it works is it does it gradually over time. So at day 45, it's a 0% discount. At day 30, it may be like a 10% discount. Next day, if it's not booked, it's a 25% discount. And so it allows you to, without having to go in there and play with it yourself, make those adjustments.

That's one of the things you showed me. Absolutely. Another piece is just being able to do by the day bonuses, increases, and minuses by the actual day. So that Mondays and Tuesdays are not days to get both a lot. So let's go negative, you know, 10, 15 on those days regardless of the rate. And then days like Friday, Saturday, those are typically booked. Let's go plus, you know, 10, 15%.

And things of that nature. So he went through a myriad of things to where it really tightened up our listing and also showed me how to truly accurately judge it against the rest of the market based on how we've got it set up. Like, hey, are we going for the love for it? Okay, this is the trend line that you want to be on and kind of move above this a little bit. And hey, do we want our weekdays to actually be in line with everybody else to where we can compete? Okay, boom, we need to change this year.

And it was, it was incredible. Wow, man, that's a huge value at. As you were talking about it, it made me think about like our large five-bedroom and four-bedroom homes that we manage. Because it's going to kill them. You know, people usually book for about a week. And if they're getting a lower rate across the market for booking out for a week because Tuesday and Wednesday are low rates, that's going to kill them. Yes. And that's the key.

overall, you're going to make it up on the weekend with the weekend pricing, but it's going to make it more attractive and get more of those weekday bookings, right? And so, for example, for the back, what I have right now is we have somebody coming in this weekend, but now we have somebody who booked for, from, not Monday, from Tuesday through next weekend, Tuesday through Sunday, which is like, okay, we'll take that and it's, and it's going to compound each other. So now look and do that for the rest of the properties, including the mansion, to figure out how, as we're going into the winter season, we can compete. He still at the luxury level, but during the weeks, capture some of those bookings without having to actively jump in and master that. And now that I think you're on mute. I didn't realize it. I thought you were doing sign language. So nobody's like, hey, listen, help me. I was like, no, I was just saying that's definitely going to be a strategy that benefits to mansion.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But what else you got top of mind, man? Man, you know, I've been super busy with this renovation and trying to build out how I'm going to design the Airbnb. And so, I'm ending right now. I may end up going that route. We'll see. But I'm thinking of designing one of the bedrooms.

And Boho. You ever heard of this, like, new design style? Yes. And not willingly. My wife's a designer, right? And so, yes, I've heard of the Boho, but what do you think it? I'm making some mock-ups. The color palette is going to be in the range of, like, green and, like, what's that word, like, brown, but, like, woodwick.

Not woodwick, is it woodwick? Wicker. Wicker, brown? He's looking into finding these, like, hanging lights go across the back half of the room. It's, I don't even how to describe it. Knock up looks pretty decent. And I was like, all right, well, you know, I'm interested. How much is it?

Which is the part that no one likes? I always go for. How much is it? No, hey, that's the part that's the most important. Listen, if the bow is going to cost us 50% more, let's not do that. But to your point, yeah, that's a hugely important thing when it comes to the short-term rentals. and we actually have a property indicator that went heavy on the bowl design for,

it's like a two-gun one bat, and it pressures it. Over the last year, it's had a midterm renter in there, so now we got to get it kind of reacclimated back on the short-term side. But before we had that midterm renter, that thing was booked out. For sure, for sure.

Yeah. What are you talking about, is it, which Decatur one is it? It's the modern farmhouse, but underneath. Got it. Yeah. I think we called it the cozy bohemium something, right? So it has the hanging lights.

Once you said hanging lights and the color palette, I'm like, oh, this is, that's the one. But no, I think that would be cool, man. Absolutely. Absolutely. So what else you got, man? I'm thinking we talked interest rates and the Fed. We talked, you know, upcoming projects. How is the new project with the, man?

So you're talking about the back unit of the Duplex? Yes. Dude, that's been incredible. So we've made all the adjustments that we need to do as far as like, icing and things that nature. And the cool thing about having a luxury unit in your backyard is we can make sure that we're checking it before we ever get. And so I've been able to find just small, small things, right?

That could change a guest experience. And so we've only gotten five stars so far. And I think that's going to continue. Plus, we're able to put out specialized welcome packages, right? With wine, you know, plantainships and things that nature in a handwritten note. And so I really believe that that one's going to be the one. to take it to another level. Similar to how we do the mansion.

The mansion, we do have somebody dedicated who goes in there for every check-in because it's worth it, right? When you get to 30 units and some of them are bringing in $75 or whatever for a day, it makes it kind of difficult to do that for all of them across the board. But for the luxury ones, it makes sense.

And with this one, you know, in the backyard, it makes a lot of sense. So I'm pumped for this one, excited, it's gone well. There's always some kinks you've got to work out. We have to be ready for that, right? So let me even get into that. So while I was gone, I was out, right?

We had our first three stays. And I always like to tell new owners of short-term rentals that within the first 30 days or the first couple of stages, there's going to be some random stuff that we find out about the property, especially if you hadn't been lived in for a while. And so the first thing that popped up was when they built the unit, the people, when they were drilling like the drywall, they accidentally drilled and hit one of the pipes

that led into like the, you know how you have those handheld sprayers? So it was drilled into the handheld sprayer. And so the inspector wouldn't know this because the water spraying, they're like, okay, the water pressure is good and on stuff. But when you flip it over, when the cleaners flipped it over to the actual handheld sprayer, the pressure dropped completely off. And they started seeing water leak under the wall. So we had to get that fixed.

We ended up cutting the wall open, understanding like, okay, that's what happened. And then the other bathroom upstairs, while a guest was staying there, thankfully we reacted quickly. They sent us pictures of like water leaking into the living room downstairs. And they're like, yeah, we think it's from the bathroom upstairs. I'm like, ah, crap. You know, this is a tub. So we send the plumbers out there.

And long story short, what they find is that the pipes were not fully tightened, like, behind the wall. And they had to actually go through the tile to get to it because the back of the wall was the outside of the house. And so that cost a bit, but it was fine. And when you got through those two things, now the house is operating well, but there's always going to be something under the first couple state. You know, and so in hearing that, the first thing I think about is when builders are coming in

and they're going through the project, any simple things that they'll forget, like plumbers tape, or just putting that extra torque on the pipes. And now you created a larger problem because you are, you know, slow and deliberate. Every time, every time, because it's not like something that's uncommon. It's a very common thing. It's true. It happens all the time. And it's in most professions, but definitely in construction. The 90% is not the easy part, but that's the part that everybody's focused on.

And that last 10% is the piece that gets left. And so as much as you can, you've really got to either build into your contracts, right? If you're the one that's our contractor, make sure you're withholding a significant portion back until that 10% complete, i.e. the project you're working on, wink, wig. And then also, with builders. we held them to the gun on a lot of different items. This was something that just, it was hard to discover, right? Until somebody's staying there and they're like,

I took a whole shower and a bath and now this thing's leaking. But it's part of the game. And, you know, to that point, it made me think about the punch list, right? So you've knocked out 90% of the project, or 95, honestly. And now we got this last 5%. I've do the property walk through and now identify a list of things that needs to get done. And like, if we're being honest, this is something that could probably get done in a week.

if you just dedicate the top. And then it takes like two weeks, three weeks. I'm like, dude, get it together. And then they get with you when you're pushing the hammer, like, let's get this done. I'm on a timeline here. Mind boggling. It's like the smallest thing. So I did my first build out.

The last two weeks was just they didn't put all the handles in the kitchen. And they forgot to like tighten something small. And it's like, I could definitely go in there and do some of that stuff myself. But I paid you. So we're going to need you to go on there. So you guys. Literally the handle thing, I forgot all about that. They forgot to put a bunch of the handles too.

We had to get that before closing. And then still, I missed one handle for like a drawer that was like a hidden draw. Oh, man. So I had to go buy that off the shelf handle to put on them. So yeah, it always never ceases. It never ceases. And to that point, if somebody were to build a business around just like getting the job fully finished and created and you build a reputation around that,

you can make a lot of money. Some of these big builders, that's how they started out. Just build a reputation. Keep going up, going up, going up. The next thing you know, you're in the money. We got to get a bell on here, man. That was like a bell moment. Seriously, that is a huge friction point in the value chain, right?

So I get to the last part of my project, and now I'm running into the hiccups that no one wants to deal with. Deal with it for you. Yeah. And the piece that I hate the most in that last percentage is because they're usually banging down the door. Like, hey, I've got to pay my guys. It's like, guys, no, here goes what we.

agreed to, I need it done. Once it's completed, I will personally drive over and hand you the chat, right? I'm looking at it. You just hit a soft spot. I got to pay my guys. No, I understand what you got to do. I know what you got to do for me. This is true.

This is true. No. But the other piece that we got coming up, Nas, is the event, man. So how's the event coming? Anything you want to say about it? Yeah, yeah. So the events coming along. You know, recently the, so which people have been booking, gone up significantly. We're getting closer to the date so people are actually gone in, you know, last minute bookers. We are maybe a couple percentage away from where I thought

we would be at this timeline. It's going to be a great event. I was just on the phone, one of the guest speakers at what they have in store is going to be nice. So many ideas. I were calling me the other day like, hey, so have you guys considered this? And I'm like, no, it didn't, but I think that's a good idea. How do you want to work it in? I think it's going to be a great event. and, you know, for the people that have my personal number that has already booked the event, they're super excited. So I can't wait. Come on now.

I'm pumped too, and the event he's talking about is the breaking ground event. We sent it out to the Akaba Home Network a couple weeks ago, and we're probably going to resend it out either next week or the maybe next week and the following week as we lead up to it, and we'll definitely be able to dive into a deeper conversation here next week. But if you have not booked that already, go ahead and head over. over to Acaba Home.com. It is the link there. You can click it, reserve your spot.

It is free. We're going to have awesome food, amazing networking, and some pretty cool women in real estate and entrepreneurship that are crushing it that they're going to share their story. And so we look forward to seeing you there in person

and to celebrating this next networking. And you know, I got to do a quick little plug on that piece because the caterer, the food's going to be amazing. So when I say it's authentic, it is authentic. texting the caterer day.

And she was like, I'm sorry, I've been a little, you know, slow on responding to the country. I was like, oh, no, take your time. You're good. And it's Jamaican food. Lo and behold, she's visiting Jamaica. Oh, no. She's bringing that recipe back, man. No.

No, I'm pumped. I'm pumped. Naz, I appreciate you joining tonight. We're going to be sending out the message next week. So, one, let people know that we're back. It's been a long month. And then two, to re-promote the event that we're going to have here in about three weeks. Any last words? No.

For the event. I'm looking forward to it. And, uh, you know, just keep crushing things. Come on now. I will catch you a little bit later. Be safe. And, uh, and we'll make it happen, man. Absolutely. Pick it easy. See you. Join us every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path.