Flip or Rent? How New Real Estate Investors Should Choose

Gus Gallucci (00:00)

I basically flipped the home and had the granite and all the other goodies in it. I could just sell the property and I would make a profit and now go along my merry way. But when I found out about midterm rentals, what I did was I said, let’s try it. Let’s try it. What do we got to lose? If it doesn’t work out,

we just sell the property. So we tried it and it didn’t take long. I want to say within 72 hours, I had a booking. And it was a it was a 60-day booking. It was a traveling nurse. And traveling nurses are commonly brought up in association with midterm rentals. But they’re only once they’re not a small percentage. They’re just a they’re not the majority of the people who are doing this.

Dylan Silver (02:11)

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Gus Gallucci, an Ohio investor and managing partner with New Life Homes, who brings a mix of flipping experience, business leadership, and now advisory to the conversation. Gus, thanks for joining us here today.

Gus Gallucci (02:28)

Thank you, Dylan. It’s a pleasure to be with you.

Dylan Silver (02:30)

What types of deals are coming across your desk these days?

Gus Gallucci (02:34)

The deals that are coming across my desk are mostly residential, buy and renovate. They’re in the area, primarily in the box that would be defined by the highways in the north of the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, 480, and then down in the south, down by the Turnpike and bordered by 77, 71, which are the north-south arteries going into town. This may basically the

heart of the suburbs of Cuyahoga County and a lot of residential opportunities are coming up in parts not all but in parts of Summit County. That’s generally my farm, so to speak, and that’s the area where I seek the most the most opportunities.

Dylan Silver (03:14)

Now, when we talk specifically about acquisitions and the scope of work in a project, what types of deals do you look for? Are you looking for something that’s heavily distressed, like a roof to studs a rehab, or something that may be maybe more superficial repairs?

Gus Gallucci (03:31)

That’s a great question, Dylan, because I’ve done both. And in the roof, the st the roof, the studs, those heavy duty renovations, there is the most opportunity, but at the same time, there is the most chance of a lot of latent problems that can happen throughout. So I tend to look for properties that kind of are situated in the middle. Not only because they provide an easier pro forma to build around them, but they’re also

more of a majority of the properties that actually become available. Most of the properties are not just cosmetics. A lot of people go in and they think that they’re just gonna flip a home and just change a kitchen and a bath and everything’s gonna be just great. A lot of it a lot of it when you really examine even the ones that were quote unquote grandma’s old house and that, they there’s a lot of inter infrastructure problems with them electrically, plumbing wise, that need to be investigated.

So I tend to look for those properties that have kind of aged out of themselves in the cosmetic sense, but also understanding that if it’s going to be a good deal, it’s because it’s going to need some of the higher end things, HVAC, roof, concrete, that sort of thing.

Dylan Silver (04:43)

Now when we talk about the scope of work and you mentioned some of the things that you might not be able to see even if you love grandma’s house, right? The plumbing, the electric, the foundation. Do you like to buy homes that are newer than a certain year or decade? Or are you agnostic to how old the home is?

Gus Gallucci (05:02)

Generally I’m agnostic to how old the home is. However, I have noticed that once you get over 100 years old in a property, you run into the possibility of a lot more infrastructure problems that are, as you mentioned, not immediately visible. Mostly sewer lines running to the street, supply lines running to the home, and that sort of thing. Or some that just storm and sanitaries that tie into one another that should be separated. There’s a lot of things. So I generally I’m overall agnostic, but I

kind of like to keep it within that 100-year time frame. So I buy homes mostly that are built anywhere between I love mostly post-war homes, anything that’s built between ’45 and ’65.

Dylan Silver (05:44)

When you look for those opportunities, do your end results of these rehabs look similar? Is there a similar design or aesthetic, or is each one very much unique?

Gus Gallucci (05:56)

I wanted to go into this when I first started, really having fun with it, getting really creative and changing the look of every house. But when you’re doing multiple properties, especially in the course of the year, it is important to lend your ear to those people who have more design experience, looking at homes that sell quickly and finding out patterns that are between them. So as I’ve gone along, I’ve gotten into some of the cosmetic formulas.

There are certain colors that actually attract buyers. And that has changed through the course of my career in flipping homes. I will say this though: generally, if there is there is benefit to both neutrality and contrast. So on the interior side, I’m a big fan of, for example, doing subway tile backsplashes. They’re universally liked, they have a nice clean look and

you they’re not very expensive. So if you’re going to be doing more than one property, you stock up on some of that. And that that helps reduce your costs in the long run if there are certain formulas. I used to use a tiramisu formula for kitchens where I wanted to go dark with the top and then white and then dark and then light. And it w and it looked really good. I have a background in hospitality. So I’ve been in restaurants

And everything that all these colors, like I want to use latte on the walls. Everything had to do with food. I started to discover. Maybe I maybe I’m just constantly hungry. But I’ve noticed that as time has changed, that people like light. They like bright. This whole grayish thing is starting to walk away now, but they still like things that are brighter, cleaner, and more of the neutral color palette because

The new homeowner, they’re gonna be the ones that are gonna start supplying the color in window coverings, which I don’t do consider that art. They’re gonna put up their own artwork on the walls. They’re gonna do their own we’ll stage, we’ll give them thoughts, we’ll give try to spur their imagination. But I think that it’s important to be careful with staging, you don’t want to go too far. And with virtual staging, it makes that a lot easier, as long as of course that’s revealed in the listing. But there are that lighter, brighter, light gray sort of

palette works great on the interiors and to provide some contrast even if it’s black with hardware and lighting and then on the exteriors you start to get into formulas where there’s maybe two or three different colors I’ll use in the exterior that aren’t too adventurous. I stay away from those bright, vibrant primary colors overall. But going into formulas, especially with flooring

and walls in cabinets, it becomes you it becomes more effective. Your economies of scale start to benefit you more as you get into doing things that have a similar palette.

Dylan Silver (09:30)

Having that similar palette like you mentioned helps you scale, right? I liked the idea of the tiramisu kitchen. Tiramisu is my favorite dessert, right? Yeah. It’ll perk you up and keep you full at the same time and it’s sweet, right? So the other thing that you mentioned is how important staging is. And I’ve noticed this from all sides. As someone who’s worked with a lot of flippers, you can potentially flip a project and skimp on the staging and

it won’t sell as quickly. Now you’re incurring holding costs. Now that may factor into your overall sense of confidence going into the next flip. And this of course applies on the residential brokerage side as well. A staged home is gonna be so much better than a vacant home. And I’m always shocked when I walk into open houses for vacant homes, thinking, Well, w what’s happening here? Did this person just not have the ability to pay extra to leave a little bit of furniture around or to have some furniture in there?

‘Cause it does go such a long way when you’re looking to sell the property.

Gus Gallucci (10:30)

Couldn’t agree more. Staging, like anything else, has to be done in the in the right amounts. I have gone through different properties, and it depends, of course, I should qualify that by saying it depends on the property. If you have a very large, very valuable property, you’re gonna want to do some more staging. But I’ve taken these 1064 ranches and I’ve put entire bedrooms in them and all of this, and that much isn’t really necessary for a house that’s like a

1100 square foot bungalow or 1200 square foot bungalow or ranch. Those homes, which are frequently the homes that I’m in, of course we have the tools now with virtual staging, but it’s important to note that on a listing, you have to show the picture with it empty. I do like the stage because I think that if it’s done right, you provide enough spark for the imagination and enough color. A good example of this is in kitchens. So I’ll put in a new granite countertop and the

And the subway tile backsplash. I’ll have shaker white cabinets with black hardware. I’ll have a sink with the black faucet and always have the dishwasher and the garbage disposal because those are important practical selling items. But then you can have a little fun. Let’s put some colored salt and pepper shakers over here. Let’s put a little green over here. Let’s use the jar of the lemons. Lemons are great in the kitchen because they symbolize

Not just this is a place where food is eaten, but it’s clean. People like that’s why you see lemons on all kinds of cleaners. It has that there there’s there is some psychology involved with it. But I think that adding color is the most important thing in just the right doses in kitchens and in baths as well. And using the colors and you can use primary colors there because now you’re using them as kind of like a spark as an accent. And that can be nice.

Sometimes instead of using a cabinet, I’ll instead of putting a cabinet to the right of a kitchen sink, I’ll put open shelves because sometimes people like to show off some of the glasses or plates that they have, and then I’ll stage it with some nice glassware or maybe a wine carafe or something attractive like that. And I’ll add a little color to it. So I don’t think you need to go ahead and buy a bedroom set.

But I think staging is important. And by the and so I would use a little bit of I if it’s if it’s done right, you can use a little bit of that virtual staging for living areas and bedrooms. But the baths and the and the kitchens, go ahead and have some fun with it. Use your imagination. Try to create a space that would be attractive to you. And chances are it’ll be attractive to others.

Dylan Silver (13:05)

I wanna pivot here and talk about acquisitions strategies. Th this is something which of course folks are interested in and people are constantly trying to bait make a better mousetrap, so to speak, when it comes to acquisitions. Everything from working foreclosure lists, probate lists, looking at properties that are high days on market, listed properties, broker relationships, pocket listings, working with wholesalers, having their own marketing direct mail or

digital campaigns going throughout the years, what has worked for you in acquisitions?

Gus Gallucci (14:20)

Well, I can say from my experience, I’ve known people who have employed everything that you have mentioned with success. But for me, it started out with a relationship with this is before my wife became a realtor because I have a very close relationship with my realtor now, but I would recommend if someone is just entering the sphere, start talking to real estate agents. Because what you can do is start developing those relationships.

Let them know this is what I’m doing, this is how I’m going to do it. Have your game plan in place for when you do acquire the properties so that they know that you’re serious about it. And I think that there are certain real estate agents that understand what a home remodeler is trying to accomplish, what a what a what a buy and flip person is trying to do. And those real estate agents will be the ones that will be on the hunt for you because they can be the ones that help you

acquire the property, and they’ll be the ones that you can keep that number so that when you’re ready to sell it, they’ll sell the now improved property and they’ll benefit on that end. So you it’s nothing really nothing extra out of pocket. These are costs that we would spend anyway. And I don’t recommend for sale by owner on any of on any of my sales. I’d bought many that way, but on the sales end,

I highly recommend employing the use of real estate agents. They’re beneficial. Now, my I mentioned my wife is a real estate agent. And what that really helps me do is it helps me identify you mentioned homes that are on the market for a long time. There are an increasing amount of people who do what I do. I started in 2013. It’s 2026. There’s a lot more people that are trying to do this. And a lot of them they want to they see Chip and Joanna and they’re like, I can do that. I’m handy.

Or I can do that. I know what looks good. And then they’ll go in and they’ll go into auctions and they’ll buy a property. And most of them will go through one property and they might even have a good experience and then they’ll kind of fall off. For the people who want to do this in the long run, I would recommend developing relationships with real estate agents. How do you find the right one? Go to real estate investor meetings, go to REIA meetings, find them there. If anyone’s the first thing I would do if the moment a person says, I want to

I want to buy, I want to buy homes, I want to run them out. Or I want to buy homes and I want to flip them. Before they do anything else, find your local real estate investor meetings. Even if they’re not right around the corner. I mean there are if you have a concentrated area like New York, you’re gonna have a whole bunch of them. If it’s more spread out, like a Dallas-Fort Worth area, you might drive an hour or so to get to one. It’s worth it. That’s where I first built my team. So finding properties, acquiring properties, building that better mousetrap

comes with building a better team. And primarily I think the winners on that team are going to be real estate agents and wholesalers. Now there are areas where they’re making it a little more difficult to wholesale these days. And I believe it’s because

these are areas that generally are looking to find different ways to increase their tax base. And when people are finding a way to make more money, there will always be administrators that are trying to find a way to get a hold of some of that. And that’s why it’s no coincidence that a lot of these areas that are that are more restrictive to people who flip or people who wholesale or people who have found creative ways in a win-win situation to earn a good income through knowledge, through work.

By putting the hours in, they’re the ones that are that are being looked at right now. And they’re and that’s yeah, that that’s been that’s been done for time immemorial. But it still holds true. The best context, the best relationships create the best businesses, in my opinion. And by looking at real estate agents and developing relationships with wholesalers, I think that those are those are two of the most effective ways to start building pipelines for properties.

Dylan Silver (18:21)

These days you’re involved in an advisory capacity for folks who are real estate investors or building a portfolio as a real estate investor. What are the kinds of scenarios that they might be bringing you these days?

Gus Gallucci (18:38)

Well, most of them are new. So they’re bringing me s scenarios of how do I get the money to do this? How do I like you just mentioned, how do I find properties? How do I get started? What is going what’s going on here? What do I need to do? And a lot of them, if they don’t have a lot of money, they want to start off by wholesaling. And I say that that’s good. You can do that. There are no matter what c what kind of money you have, no matter what kind of experience you have, there is a way for literally

anyone to make money in real estate. Now, some people choose to become realtors. And that’s that is great because there is schooling, there is training there. You could get you can get ramped up to that. And there is a process and procedural way to do that. But most of the people that are coming to me, they’re like, how do I get started? So the first thing I usually do with them is I say, well, what is it you would like to do? If you can wave a magic wand and you could be that person

however many years from now, one year, two years, five years, whatever, how would wave that magic wand? Tell me what you’re doing. Tell me why I have so many rental properties. Okay. You want to be a buy and hold. That’s fine. Here is the way to begin. And every single beginning, again, and I can’t stress this enough, I believe is bound with good mentorship. So I start with the real estate investor meeting. Now, for me, I had a very good mentor in my brother-in-law. He owned a shirt business.

He decided he was gonna sell it. And then I’m like, why on earth would you wanna do it? Because it was successful at the time. And he decided because he had met someone through another channel that was a rental. He had like 300 doors. And he’s like, This guy is I mean, I’m really excited by what he’s doing. I said, Well, I guess you are. And he started doing it and now he does he still does it, but he focuses more on assisted living. And that’s another avenue. So before I start

branching out too many ways, the important thing is to find out what these people who are generally new, what they want to do. And sometimes they have money. And I can say, well, if you have something and you want to turn it into something else, then the first thing you would need to do is draw up a pro forma. I like to know how the book is going to end within a reasonable range before I crack it open. So the people that I talk to generally are new or new er. They may have had some rental properties and they want to go into flips.

Sometimes they may have done one, but maybe they got burned. And that can happen easily. And it’s happened to me. I mean, not all of mine have turned out to be home runs. I’ve gotten burned along the way, but I call that tuition. So yeah, I so the people that come to me, they come from different they have they have different stripes, but they all have gaps in between where they have where they have come from

and where they want to go. And I think that all of them, the very first steps I’m happy to reveal is find some find those real estate meetings and find someone who would be a good mentor and find someone you could feel comfortable with that you trust to help give you guidance. And absent of that, I’m available to do that as well. And I’ve served as an advisor

to many investors. And that’s kind of where I’m going now, to serve more as an advisor and to bring my value, which is my experience, to people. And that they I’ve found that they are more than happy and the price that they pay for it, they are delighted to do because they’ll start seeing results if they’re willing to put into work in within a few months, a short amount of time.

Dylan Silver (22:08)

Now, a couple asset classes we mentioned there. We mentioned assisted living, short-term rentals, long-term rentals. There’s so many different ways to be in business in the single family space. You could buy duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, you could do a co-living facility, a PadSplit, a midterm rental, right? You could you get started wholesaling. And when people have this many things to look at,

even experienced investors tend to get shiny object syndrome, or maybe they start looking at a d a different asset class entirely, small bay industrial. They look into commercial syndication. When folks are coming to you, do they know which niche they want to be in? Or is this something that they’re unpacking as they’re discussing this with you?

Gus Gallucci (22:57)

Generally, a great question, Dylan. Generally it’s the latter. They’re kind of unpacking it as they go. A lot of times you’ll have someone that tried a flip and got burned, but they still want to make money in real estate. They still have a there’s still fuel for that in their fire. And so they’ll do that, what you mentioned, shiny object syndrome. Well, this didn’t work, so I want to try that instead. And what I do is I bring them along. I have a certain set of questions that I ask them that

kind of direct me and the quest the questions are driven towards how soon do they want to generate income and how much they want to make. Okay. So if you’re the kind of person is I like big, exciting money, but I can wait for it and I want it in chunks. That’s flipping. If you’re like, well, what, I want to build a steady prof portfolio so that I could pass it along to my kids, well, that might be more of a long-term rental property. But I found that the best if someone

has something to work with and they want to get involved and they like the they like the rental space but they’re they don’t like the tenants and toilets part of it, I usually direct them towards midterm rentals. Midterm rentals, I think, provide the best ROI in the rental sphere if it’s done properly. And I have a background in hospitality. So there are certain elements of it that I that are automatic for me. But

it’s not like running a hotel. It’s not like running a restaurant. There are there are real estate components to it. So it’s important to have a running pro forma so that you can see, hey, where is my where’s my ROI going to be at the end of the year? What can I expect? And how does that change month to month? Because it’s going to, because with the midterm rental, you’re picking up the snowplow, you’re picking up the grant the lawn care, you’re picking up the utilities and the internet, but you’re getting

And then again, this is a really loose rule of thumb, double the rent you would get otherwise. And as opposed to a short-term rental, your tenants are generally people that will respect your place more as a home than a hotel room because they’re going to be there for a longer period of time. They’re also generally professionals, people that have people in construction or the medical field. Also, there are there is a lot to be leveraged in the insurance space.

Things happen. People have an accident in their kitchen and even though thankfully they’re okay, their living space is not. And it’s rendered by the insurance company to be unlivable. In the past, these people would be put up in a hotel somewhere. Well now, for a lower cost to the insurance company or it

they can they use these companies. Dan Housing is one. There are many different housing companies that will work hand in hand with insurance companies and help place these people. I’ll communicate with them and they’ll need a place for three to four months while their kitchen or their living space or whatever is getting rebuilt. Those those are great midterm rental tenants. And they’re more plentiful, I think, than people really realize. So that’s

so if people are unsure and they want to have a property and they want to do something to make it nice again, and they don’t want to do a total down to the studs flip, those are the areas that’s one of the best areas I lead them towards. And having been a Superhost on Airbnb, I can say these are the things most of being a successful host is really communication. So that’s where I lead a lot of people. Now, if people are they have

contracting experience or they are good at managing and they want to really get their fingers dirty, then I’ll say, okay, let’s go f let’s go find you a flip. Or let’s go find you a way to find you a flip. It depends how much they want me to take them by the hand. How far do they want to go? And I’m not someone who wants to continue an assignment indefinitely. I want to give them enough so they don’t they don’t have to rely on me and they can rely more on themselves. I think that’s the best form of teaching,

getting someone to the point of independence like you would a kid.

Dylan Silver (26:56)

When we talk about

midterms and what qualifies as a midterm rental, I think a lot of people will think 31 days, right? Because it’s longer than th than a month. Is that a good rule, generally speaking, longer than one month?

Gus Gallucci (27:08)

Yes it is, but it is really state dependent. So in the state of Ohio, what has happened is you have you had some incidents, okay? These were people who did one night rentals on Airbnb in generally quiet suburban areas and they threw a big party and they trashed the house. And so that municipality gets very nervous and they say we have to stop these Airbnbs altogether.

And so they start saying you can’t do and they aren’t gonna target Airbnb. They want to make sure that VRBO and all the other ones are out of out of the picture too. So they say no short-term rentals. So now you have no short-term rentals, but they don’t want to eliminate the idea of someone who wants to do a traditional 12-month vanilla box rental to somebody. So they just say no short-term rentals. Well, what a lot of people don’t realize is

there is a

great middle ground that will qualify with most cities. Well, all cities in the state of Ohio, where I do my business as as a not a short-term rental. And it is just a matter of escaping that short-term rental parameter. So short-term rentals in the state of Ohio, 30 days or less. So if you want to have an Airbnb in certain communities, like Seven Hills, North Royalton, Brook Park, for example, you can do it.

You can have an Airbnb, you can have a VRBO, you can have whatever you want, Furnished Finder, however you’re finding it, as long as it’s a 31-day or longer rental. So, and the state of Ohio provided that for us because there was a lot of commotion when these people were doing bad things to houses. So they went right to the source and they said, Okay, these if we just get rid of Airbnb, all these problems will go away. And the state of Ohio, they had enough knowledge, like a lot of states, say, well, hang on a minute.

The problem wasn’t Airbnb. The problem was the people who came in there for a one-day rental and trashed a house. How do we eliminate that or how do we mitigate against that? Well, we’re going to say that anything 30 days or less is a short-term rental in all the state of Ohio. Once that law was established, then people who wanted to do short-term rentals and he wanted to do them in some of these other communities couldn’t do it. But you could do midterm rentals because they’re outside of that 30-day time frame. I can’t speak to what other states are doing, but I know that’s that that’s a

formula for success in the state of Ohio. And that’s another reason why I encourage people to, if they’re going into short-term rentals, to consider it. Because one of the barriers to it is they think, well, I won’t get as many rentals. Well, you won’t, but you won’t need as many either. So you gotta weigh that out.

Dylan Silver (29:41)

And half dozen in the other, right?

Gus Gallucci (29:43)

And I think, and when you consider that you’re cleaning it so much less, I mean, though, and even though you could build your cleaning costs into your rent, generally you want to be able to, if you’re going into this and you want to have multiple

properties like I’ve had, I only have one person who does the cleaning. And if people are there for 90 days at a crack, I mean, generally it doesn’t come into conflict. There’s plenty of time for them to do what they need to do. And it’s easier to manage. If you set it up right, your people are fine for three months. Once they run out of toilet paper, they know to go buy more. It’s not like you had to stockpile three months of everything for them. Although there are certain things without getting into all the nitpicky details

that you would need to provide and make sure that they have for a for any stay between two weeks and a year.

Dylan Silver (30:29)

Getting the first few bookings, getting a midterm rental off the ground, that can sometimes be challenging, I’ve heard. When folks have a new listing on one of these platforms, or if they’re new to it as a whole and their profile may be new, what can they do to generate their first few bookings?

Gus Gallucci (30:48)

I would say make the make the property attractive, price it right, and put it out there on the platforms and let the internet do its job. That’s how I did it. I was nervous. I remember so the Brook Park example. I was like, hey, we’re gonna make this an Airbnb and we’re gonna rent it, but we’re not gonna do it’s gonna be three days minimum. So you don’t get the weekend warriors and all that. I had a great game plan in place. Then I found out what you can’t do Airbnbs in Brook Park. I’m like, yeah, sure you can. Nope.

And then the short term rental, then I learned about the law and I’m like, all right. Well, I had another plan to do one in a neighboring community as well that didn’t have those restrictions. So I thought, well, I have two choices here. It’s because I have another exit strategy. I basically flipped the home and had the granite and all the other goodies in it. I could just sell the property and I would make a profit and now go along my merry way. But when I found out about midterm rentals, what I did was I said, let’s try it. Let’s try it. What do we got to lose? If it doesn’t work out,

we just sell the property. So we tried it and it didn’t take long. I want to say within 72 hours, I had a booking. And it was a it was a 60-day booking. It was a traveling nurse. And traveling nurses are commonly brought up in association with midterm rentals. But they’re only once they’re not a small percentage. They’re just a they’re not the majority of the people who are doing this. Insurance as I brought up, construction.

You have grandparents that are coming up from Florida, right, back to Ohio to be with their kids because their grandkids are being born. And grandma doesn’t want to come in for a weekend. No, she wants to stick around and stay there for maybe five, six, eight weeks. So though there’s a lot, there’s a lot out there. And I would say make it attractive, do it right, and there’s ways to do that, market it right.

Price it right and get ready for the internet to do its job. And when they start coming to call, pick up the phone or pick up the email. Be available. Answer questions. Go into it boldly. Be ready. And the better you prepare a comfortable, inviting, clean, functional space for someone that is attractive and that provides them with the creature comforts that they need for the period of time they’re there, they will love it.

Because there is a perception, I believe, out there now still with Airbnbs where it’s like, I’m sharing Mel’s house and what is this gonna look like? The furniture’s gonna be old. There is there are ways to find attractive newer furniture. You might have to do some building. You might have to you might get sick of a hex wrench, but there’s an opportunity to do that.

And there’s also an opportunity with Facebook Marketplace to pick up furnishings, but certain things like whatever they’re gonna eat out of, whatever they’re gonna cook out of, buy that new. Just and there are ways to if you if you shop enough, there are auction sites, there are Amazon for supplies. You can even get stuff drop shipped with Amazon. I mean, there’s ways to do it, but before someone goes into one of those midterm properties, I kind of line it up. So make it attractive

and let the internet do the work, really. And you will be, I believe, pleasantly surprised if you prepared yourself because they will come to you.

Dylan Silver (34:01)

Staging again is so important here, especially when you’re trying to get your first booking or first couple of bookings, because what else do people have to go off of? Is there a difference in the way you might stage a midterm rental versus something that you’re listing for a residential buyer?

Gus Gallucci (34:21)

Yes. Great question. I think that most important is you need something that is immediately attractive for someone to live in. Whereas a residential living, residential situation, you need something attractive enough for people to go and look at and examine the house. With the residential listing, it’s all a numbers game. The more showings you can get in a short amount of time, the greater the probability you’ll sell.

With a midterm rental, you need to have something that’s gonna pull someone in right away. It says, I wanna I wanna I wanna live there. I wanna be there. I know I’m not gonna be there for a long period of time, but that looks like fun. That looks comfortable. I can cook my meals. I can you wanna make sure that they know they have all the accoutrements and you don’t need to have all stainless appliances. You can have white on white on white and the cute little ice maker.

One of the things I put in every one of my furnished midterm rentals is some kind of arcade game. And believe it or not, that’s some even if they’re not coming with kids, that’s something that attracts people because I may not be able to have a pool. I may not be able in the summer, I may not be able to have a hot tub per se, but I got I’ll have books, I’ll have games, I’ll have a Galaxian or I’ll have a foosball table, something that just says entertainment and fun.

I’ll set up one room as like kind of like a little bar that they can imagine bringing their own their own stuff to mix and have a good time with. TVs, excuse me, TVs, make them make them big. They don’t have to be 100-inch TVs, but put a nice size TV on the wall and have good internet. So if people want a game, they can game. So people are gonna want to know how am I gonna if I’m gonna be spending my time in here, how am I spending my time? They want it clean, they want it comfortable, and they want something to do.

And so those are some of the things I’ve done in the past to help make it so it’s more of an attractive space. And so far that’s working out.

Dylan Silver (36:16)

Conveying fun is interesting. I’ve heard now multiple guests talk about this in different ways, but you said it so succinctly. Conveying fun. And I’ve done this myself as someone who’s of course browsed on many of these platforms and I haven’t thought about it, but there is something when I see all those things that you mentioned, the arcade, the bar, maybe set foosball or a ping pong table or what have you. There’s just something about it that’s like I’d rather be there versus in that other place.

Even if this place may be not as big or maybe less new or what have you, there’s something about that emotional connection of conveying fun that really goes a long way.

Gus Gallucci (36:56)

Absolutely. I think it appeals to the child that it that exists in all of us. I mean, there is I grew up in the Pac-Man era, Space Invaders and all of that. And it’s funny because you’ll see these people that will come in and because very rarely will I be part of a tour or anything like that. Like I said, I let the platform do the work and I rarely, if ever, meet my guests personally. And so, but on those rare occasions where I do, they’re like,

Remember that? We used to play Galaxian when we were kids, or my gosh, look how fun they have a foosball table. It I think it wakes up something in them it from their youth. And I think that I think that that’s a that’s a that that’s a driver, I think, for a lot of people. I think that at the end of the day, yeah, we have this professional side to ourselves. It’s important for us to gather to gather resources and money and to do business and to do business well. But

there’s a kid that resides in all of us. And I think that all of us at the end of the day, no matter how serious we are about our business, we want to have fun. So if I’m going to create a space, and that comes from hospitality, because I knew when I was out there, I mean, if we were traveling and we’re going to a hotel, I wanted a Holidome. I want to go where I could play Asteroids. I wanted to go to the arcade. I wanted to have fun. And that’s where that comes from. There’s a kid in all of us that wants to have a good time.

And I wanna and I wanna provide that for them.

Dylan Silver (38:19)

We are coming up on time here, Gus. Any new projects or activities that you’re working on these days or anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

Gus Gallucci (38:30)

Yeah, well I am working on two renovations right now and they’re both going along the timeline. One is lagging a little behind, the other one’s going pretty well. One’s in Cuyahoga Falls, which is a great area, Summit County, ’cause they own a lot of their own infrastructure and they have a good school district.

So I like I like working there. And the other is in Northfield, which is also in Summit County, a new foray for me. So I’m working with my with my teams and I’m kind of building some I’m always opening my Rolodex to people who are in the trades who want to get involved with those. But most importantly, I’ve been building up a an advisory business for people who want to learn how to do what

basically what I’ve done. And I can give them and I can give them good sound advice on how to begin and how to build it up. But again, the end result to where I want to be at the end of the day with them, where they can take off and do it on their own. I love developing new real estate investors because a lot of people want to get involved with it. Literally anyone could do it, regardless of where your income status is, where your own personal work experience is

there is a way where people can learn this. It is not rocket science, but you do have to put in the hours. You do have to put in the time. So if a person is willing and they and they have enough where they can say, But yeah, Gus, for what you’re asking, I want to bring you on board and help give me the guidance. I can say to them, first of all, let’s have an advisory meeting. It will cost you nothing. Let’s find out what kind of path you want to go on. Then, depending on that path, then we can build out a timeline.

And that timeline must have a beginning and a middle and an end, just like any flip, just like any other project that you’re working with. So that it’s going to be concentrated in the early part of it. And then as we go forward, more and more of that I want to be able to hand over to them so they don’t have to pay me, rely upon me, have me. But at the same time, once they’re off and doing it on their own, they always have my number. And I and I and I love talking to people that I’ve helped bring up into business

that are now doing it on their own that have met with some success because what they’ve done is they’ve taken the time, and you alluded to this earlier, Dylan, to say really, where do I fit? Because there’s so many different ways and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed. You talked about shiny object syndrome. All of that is so true. But I believe that having a heartfelt conversation with someone to really try to determine where their drive and where their determination and where their goals are,

making sure that those goals are reasonable, putting together a game plan for them and working it with them in tandem until it’s a point where they can do more of it on their own. I mean, that’s the best formula because there are a lot of ways to make good money. There are a lot of ways to lose good money. What I want to do is bring my experience, the good, bad, and the ugly, to people so that they understand from a personal, professional point of view what’s their

most likely avenue for success. So if I could do that and I can help them, I invite them to reach out to me anytime. My and yeah I can be reached at gus@nlhnow.com. The NLH is for New Life Homes. Now is probably the time that you should reach out. So gus@nlhnow.com and I respond to every single email and I invite anyone to

reach out to me. And it doesn’t matter if they’re not in the Cleveland area. There are things that we can do remotely. But in Northeast Ohio, that’s where I’ve done the majority of my work, a little bit in Florida, but mostly right here in Northeast Ohio. And I love it. I call it home. It’s a great place to live and raise a family. So I would invite anyone who wanted to learn more

to either reach out to you guys at Investor—what you have done is been remarkable and Investor Fuel has been a remarkable resource for people. I invite people to reach out to you or they can reach out to me. And I think between the two of us we can give some sound guidance and help people get on their way where they can have a long, successful career in real estate investing.

Dylan Silver (42:41)

Gus, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for joining us.

Gus Gallucci (42:44)

It’s been my pleasure. Thank you, Dylan.