Dan Rivers has nearly 20 years of real estate experience and is the founder of SynergyStays, a short-term rental revenue management company that helps investors and property management companies maximize profitability.
Having facilitated transactions totaling over $100 million, Dan has honed his skills in analyzing deals, identifying market trends, creating value-add opportunities, and negotiating contracts for both buyers and sellers.
00:00:00:13 – 00:00:28:05
Charles
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host, Charles Carillo. Today, we have Dan Rivers. He has nearly 20 years of real estate experience and is the founder of SynergyStays, a short-term rental revenue management company that helps investors and property management companies maximize profitability.Having facilitated transactions totaling over $100 million, Dan has honed his skills in analyzing deals, identifying market trends, creating value-add opportunities, and negotiating contracts for both buyers and sellers.
00:00:28:06 – 00:00:30:15
Charles
Dan, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
00:00:30:18 – 00:00:32:21
Dan
I appreciate you having me. Charles. Thank you. I’m excited.
00:00:32:22 – 00:00:41:22
Charles
So being in so many different facets of real estate investing, can you tell us a little bit about yourself prior to kind of getting inside real estate investing and launching synergy stays?
00:00:41:23 – 00:00:56:16
Dan
Yeah, yeah. It’s funny, my story started I was 24 years old working at a bank in Florida. I’m from Boston, having moved to Florida after college, working at a bank, and I did a loan for this guy, and it was pretty cool. And I did this loan and I wasn’t sure where I was going to go with my life.
00:00:56:16 – 00:01:12:14
Dan
And he’s like, after I was done with the loan, he’s like, you did a really good job with this. Do you want to come work for me? And I said, you know, what is that? And he’s like, we property management. We managed large scale like condos and homes on the beach down in Tampa area. And I’m like 24 years old.
00:01:12:14 – 00:01:25:21
Dan
I’m like, sure. I didn’t even know what that meant. But I’m like, sure, I’ll do it. That sounds fun. All I remember is first day on the job, they were like, here’s 16 properties, about 600 units worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Good luck.
00:01:25:23 – 00:01:26:23
Charles
Thrown right in.
00:01:27:00 – 00:01:46:05
Dan
Yeah. Trial by fire. So honestly, that was my start of my real estate journey. And I owe where I’m at today because of that. Because I had to learn about contracts, insurance, you know, HOA documents and bylaws and how to not only all that, if you’ve ever lived in a way those boards sometimes can be a little.
00:01:46:07 – 00:01:48:22
Charles
Especially in Florida, maybe.
00:01:49:00 – 00:02:11:20
Dan
So I had to really get used to like managing people and getting us to stay on task to achieve the goals that we were going for. So a lot of different skills came from that, and I did that until about 2017. Moved to Charleston in 2018 with my wife. Started got my real estate sales license, sold over 400 properties over the last 8 or 9 years and flipped.
00:02:12:00 – 00:02:15:19
Dan
Have some buying holds short term rentals. Kind of did everything from that on. Yep.
00:02:15:23 – 00:02:45:00
Charles
Oh that’s great. Yeah. One thing property management. As much as I understand it’s not the most best use of people’s time, but if you really want to learn, if you really want to learn real estate or especially residential real estate investing, I mean, managing properties, whether it be ten units or, like you, 600 units, whatever it might be, or being involved with the process, the amount of information, you know, it’s kind of like almost being an entrepreneur where you’re wearing so many different hats and you have to know a little bit about accounting, a little bit about marketing a little bit, you know what I mean?
00:02:45:00 – 00:03:01:21
Charles
All these different things. And you really learn how the business goes because somebody behind an Excel spreadsheet doesn’t know how it works when you’re talking to tenants or about how about somebody comes in that can’t pay rent on time, and how you have to work that situation where you can make everything run smoothly, and you know what I mean?
00:03:01:21 – 00:03:16:17
Charles
Keep them in their unit, but also collect their rent, you know what I mean? So it’s that’s a it’s a, it’s a business that gives you a really good overview, in-depth overview of really what the business actually entails, because I think the other parts of the business don’t do that as well.
00:03:16:18 – 00:03:27:08
Dan
Oh, 100%. I mean, you learn so many things when you’re when you’re in the midst of managing property and it doesn’t pay well. And it’s a really it’s not it’s a thankless job.
00:03:27:10 – 00:03:27:23
Charles
That’s for sure.
00:03:28:00 – 00:03:44:00
Dan
Knowledge. Like you were saying, the knowledge is all there. Like I had to learn insurance. I understand, you know, properly insurance like ordinance and law. A lot of people may not know what that is, but when you’re managing big, large scale properties that are 20 or 30 years old, you need to know certain insurance policy language to make sure that you’re properly covered.
00:03:44:00 – 00:03:54:06
Dan
God forbid. That’s a major loss. So just kind of not being an expert in every area, but understanding each and every area enough that I’m protecting my client’s greatest asset.
00:03:54:07 – 00:04:14:00
Charles
Yeah. Because they’re coming to you. I mean, I think answering calls, as everybody says, 3 a.m. for the toilet or whatever is a it’s a it’s a portion of property management, but there’s a large portion of it is you’re paying for someone’s expertise in an area, and then also just their expertise to assist you in managing that property.
00:04:14:01 – 00:04:28:13
Charles
Right. Like what you should do. How many times I’ve leaned on property managers about what is good pricing for CapEx projects or what is this or like, you know what I mean? All these types of things that if someone didn’t have as many units as that property manager, this is what I’m relying on you for to tell me.
00:04:28:14 – 00:04:43:09
Charles
Yes, this is the right price. This is a good, fair price. If they do this and make sure you do this and that and like cover all your bases, I mean, that’s, that’s the part that I don’t think people really understand that never really had a property manager before. And they just go, oh, the self-manage myself, I can do the calls myself or whatever.
00:04:43:09 – 00:04:48:13
Charles
And there’s a huge different piece of like the advising that’s never really sold, I think by property managers.
00:04:48:14 – 00:05:02:18
Dan
Yeah actually. Right. Because we’ve lived it, we’ve done it. We’ve, we’ve dealt with all the issues. And you’re right, we can just like any expertise, you’re not paying a doctor necessarily for the 15 minutes, say, look at you. You’re playing a doctor for the, you know, all those years of experience to understand and diagnose you a lot quicker.
00:05:02:22 – 00:05:21:10
Dan
I mean, it’s the same thing in all these industries. I mean, I think I think I got away from that and I think a lot of people got away from it’s easy to try to do everything and be good at everything, but to really be great in certain areas is absolutely amazing. And I think that’s and that’s, you know, why you work with experts like a property manager like that.
00:05:21:10 – 00:05:30:12
Dan
People who are great in their area can really add a ton of value. The problem is that so many people who are okay are good, that they tarnish the great ones and the value that they can add.
00:05:30:13 – 00:05:36:14
Charles
Yeah, that makes it makes perfect sense. So let’s talk about kind of what you’re doing today. What does your firm synergy stays do.
00:05:36:15 – 00:05:55:07
Dan
Yeah. So I like to consider us a revenue optimization partner with people. Because at the end of the day, you know, when you say revenue management, it is the case. We basically in a nutshell, we come in, we look at your property overall, we help make sure it’s optimize. It’s the search rankings are there. You know it’s searchable on Airbnb, Vrbo.
00:05:55:08 – 00:06:13:05
Dan
And then we’re optimizing your pricing. And then there’s a lot of different levers that we pull accordingly. But we like to consider ourselves partners there because a lot of, you know, the industry standard is, you know, handle your pricing well. That’s great. But if you price your property well, but you’re not advertising to the right people or you’re not searchable, like what?
00:06:13:05 – 00:06:32:00
Dan
What good is it pricing your property at a good point if you’re not, you know, getting booked. So we come in as your partner. We take a look at your property, we give you some advice that we’re not going to touch. You know, certain things like we’re not taking your photography, but if you don’t have professional photography or there’s certain other things like we’ve seen before, someone hires us and they talk, you know, they have a hot tub.
00:06:32:00 – 00:06:49:00
Dan
I don’t see any pictures of it and then not really advertising it properly. The title of their property isn’t, you know, really standing out. It’s like the Magnolia House rather than, you know, sleeps ten with a hot tub with a mountain view. Like that’s a better title. It sounds weird, but it’s a better title because that’s going to get you more bookings.
00:06:49:00 – 00:06:57:09
Dan
So we come in and we just come as your partner and help you make sure that you’re squeezing as much money possible out of your short term rental and optimizing it.
00:06:57:11 – 00:07:01:20
Charles
So what would you say is kind of the current state of the short term rental business today?
00:07:01:21 – 00:07:21:00
Dan
Yeah, I would say just like a lot of different things that people got involved with. We all know wholesaling. We know bird method. We don’t know. We all know multifamily. Everything was hot at one point, and anybody can make money in pretty much all those areas when it was hot. And now we’re seeing that same effect with short term rentals as any other asset class.
00:07:21:01 – 00:07:36:06
Dan
You need to go all in and be an expert in order to succeed at short term rentals. It’s the same thing in pretty much every other asset class that we’re talking about in real estate. And, you know, a few 4 or 5 years ago, anybody could buy any property, make it a short term rental and make a revenue.
00:07:36:09 – 00:07:53:14
Dan
Well, now there’s a big difference. Like, are you in a combination or are you more of an experience. And the ones that are like more luxury experiences are doing really well. The people who are at accommodation just threw something together and kind of made it a short term rental because it was a good investment deal, are the ones that are struggling.
00:07:53:14 – 00:08:14:13
Dan
So the market right now is kind of like that, that what it I’ll say V shape. It’s like the luxury ones are doing really well. Those are combinations that are kind of half it for lack of better words are struggling right now. So my advice when it comes to the short term rental market, if it’s something you want to get into, it is a great asset class.
00:08:14:13 – 00:08:34:02
Dan
If it’s done well, just make sure that you do it well. Make sure you buy the right property, make sure that you really understand the competition and not even just what you have to do with the property. But if you’re in an area where you have to have a certain, you know, you want to have a mountain view, or if you’re in an area where you want to be walkable to downtown, where that could be 20, 30, $40,000 more than something that’s not walkable to downtown.
00:08:34:03 – 00:08:48:03
Dan
Like do the extensive research and make sure you’re buying the right property, and then have the cash to put the right amenities and features into that property to hit the goals that you’re going for. You just can’t you can’t wing it these days.
00:08:48:04 – 00:09:07:21
Charles
Yeah. I think that the analogy that you use is really well, because ten years ago when I would go into Airbnbs, it would just be like anything. You know what I mean? It was just and you’re, you’re paying so little for compared to hotels, it was kind of may do whatever. And I think sometime in the last few years it’s changed where you have a lot of subpar ones, but you have some really nice ones.
00:09:07:21 – 00:09:26:03
Charles
We just stayed at one a couple of weeks back, and the thing was that you can really tell the difference of people that have bought it, and they put a lot of money into it, and they’ve really like almost brought in like an interior designer to really make this property a, a something very unique that you can’t get anywhere else.
00:09:26:04 – 00:09:47:08
Dan
Yeah. And honestly, a lot of people are. I just came from a mastermind a couple weeks ago. This guy that’s doing really well in short term rental world, and most of his people use designers when they’re doing their term rentals, and they’re doing them really well. And that’s that’s the other key factor. Just like any other asset class, I always tell people, the way you’re going to be the most successful is short term rentals is a business.
00:09:47:09 – 00:10:13:18
Dan
It’s not. It is. It is real estate, but it’s a business. And you have to keep up the property, property management. You have to have a great guest experience like you. Sounds like you had you have to focus on your revenue management. And then if you have a really higher end property, you also need to incorporate marketing. So anybody who’s buying the short term rental in the business should understand all those areas, but they only have to be great at one and then hire people who are great at the other areas.
00:10:13:18 – 00:10:34:12
Dan
So if you’re really great at the revenue management side, you don’t need someone like us. You need to hire someone that can help out with the experience and someone who can help out with the marketing. And if you’re great on the experience side, well, then you should be working with the revenue manager and a marketing expert. And those are the people we’re seeing truly stand above and produce a great product and great revenue if they follow that strategy.
00:10:34:13 – 00:10:55:04
Charles
And again, really bring that hospitality into make it part of the business. So it’s really like two businesses on top of each other, kind of like when people are like retirement homes. It’s the same kind of thing. I think you have real estate and then you also have this hospitality type business, additional business as part of it. So you’re running two businesses at the same time, not just a real estate investor, correct?
00:10:55:05 – 00:11:09:05
Dan
Yeah. And if people think of it that way, then at the end of the day you’re running it as a business, not as an emotional impulse buy. Those are the other ones that we see that struggle. We talk about the market a little bit. People are struggling, are like they can’t get over well, two years ago I would never go under $200 a night.
00:11:09:05 – 00:11:27:00
Dan
Now you’re telling me I get to get 180? Well, if you’re at 180 at night, but you can get a five night booking versus a two night booking at 200. What would you rather? Because guess what? It’s only one cleaning fee. Utility bill is not going to be much different and yet. So it’s pretty much 90% extra cash right in your pocket by having that longer booking a little bit less.
00:11:27:00 – 00:11:32:18
Dan
So it’s like you got to take that emotional component out of it, look at it as a business, treat it as a business and you’ll succeed.
00:11:33:00 – 00:11:33:13
Charles
Do you have money.
00:11:33:13 – 00:11:52:18
Speaker 3
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00:11:52:19 – 00:12:11:04
Speaker 3
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00:12:11:05 – 00:12:27:05
Speaker 3
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00:12:27:05 – 00:12:50:04
Charles
Com what are some of the things when you take over a property like you just said? Obviously if you’re doing it from the beginning, you’re going to you’re going to look at probably take a whole different stance on everything within the property and finding the property of the location of it. But if you take over a property, what are some normal things that would help that STR owner be more successful immediately?
00:12:50:04 – 00:12:56:20
Charles
What are some small tweaks that you typically make, review and typically make initially with with new clients you’ve brought on?
00:12:56:21 – 00:13:16:07
Dan
Yeah. So the first thing we’ll do is check, check. You know, the properties. We’ll take a look at optimizing the listing, whether that means, you know, photo order might just need to be a little bit of adjusted or new photos may be needed. Like I said, the title, one of the biggest things that I can give a tip right now that I think a lot of people miss is the amenities.
00:13:16:07 – 00:13:31:08
Dan
And I don’t mean you have to have any ground pool. Airbnb has a lot of amenities that you could check off. The more you check off, the better. It’s going to help with your algorithm. So if your kid friendly, I think this 12 or 13 different items to be kid friendly. Check off all those 12 or 13 items.
00:13:31:09 – 00:13:49:02
Dan
Get every single one of those items if you can. Obviously within budget, but you’re only talking, I think, on that category a few hundred bucks and now you truly are kid friendly. And let me tell you why that matters even more now. We love AI. Everybody always talks. Abe. Not going to dive deep into AI, but I will tell you, Airbnb now is a new feature.
00:13:49:02 – 00:14:05:07
Dan
Rather than go in and you click, I want something that’s kid friendly with the pool. With this you can go in and basically talk to it and say, I want something in a safe neighborhood that’s kid friendly, that has a great view that like, you basically just kind of describe your experience you’re looking for rather than checking boxes.
00:14:05:07 – 00:14:26:05
Dan
And now it’s going to comb listings, finding that perfect listing for that person. So if your kid friendly, you’re checking off all those amenities. You mention it a few times in your listing because you got to realize AI scraping the description. It’s scraping the pictures, it’s scraping the amenity list. So make sure your listing is complete and thorough.
00:14:26:05 – 00:14:44:10
Dan
If you have a hot tub, you maybe mention it 1 or 2 times in the description. Make sure it’s in pictures, make sure it’s clicked on the amenity. Make sure that you’re truly capturing all your properties. Great details in every single area so that it can pick it up and it helps you in the algorithm. So that’s the first one of the first things we do.
00:14:44:10 – 00:15:05:02
Dan
And then we also real quick is we will look to see where their search rankings are. You know, because if they’re on page like 4 or 5 Airbnb, we want to figure out why that is. Make some adjustments a B test, get them back up to page one and two so that they have a higher probability of booking in their proper booking window for a higher average daily rate.
00:15:05:04 – 00:15:22:17
Dan
And then from there, then we start looking at their pricing, you know, short term pricing, far out pricing strategy and will implement strategies based on what we’re seeing. You know, they have a lot of a lot of weekdays open. Do they have a lot of a lot of availability over the next 30 or 45 days. So they booked up and they’re not available to, you know, 60 or 90 days.
00:15:22:17 – 00:15:35:09
Dan
What is their booking window? Is their booking window 30 days, which a lot of properties are, or is it more like 60 or 90 because they’re a bigger property and more of a resort style property. So we’re looking at all these things to figure out what’s the best strategy to implement for that property at that time.
00:15:35:10 – 00:15:54:20
Charles
Yeah, that make perfect sense. There’s one thing, especially when I’m traveling internationally and you’ll see some you’ll see some bookings. Do it. It’ll do like an internet speed test in the United States. Or internet’s pretty fast in most places. I think some parts, especially in parts of Europe, thick walls, stuff like that. You don’t know what your actual Wi-Fi is going to be.
00:15:54:21 – 00:16:09:00
Charles
So having that screenshot, like small stuff like that, I have found and you’re like, okay, like, you know what I mean? Especially if you’re traveling, you’re going to be working at the same time, or you’re traveling with family that’s going to be working. Then it’s something where like it’s a really important thing, just small little tweaks or added things to it when people are really.
00:16:09:01 – 00:16:22:06
Charles
Because if you’re spending a lot, if you’re doing one night, I’m not going to do a thorough check on something or two nights, whatever it is. But if you’re spending like two weeks somewhere, I mean, you’re gonna do an extremely thorough review on I’m going to know everything on that listing. You know what I mean? Before I broke it.
00:16:22:07 – 00:16:43:02
Dan
Yeah. And I think that’s another thing that I think anybody listening that has a short term rental wants to have one. I think this is important is to know your avatar and speak to that avatar and you know, that guest avatar. And I know that sounds small and silly and like, oh, of course I do. But so many times what we try to do in life, because I know I do it is you try to talk to everybody and appeal to everybody.
00:16:43:02 – 00:16:59:17
Dan
And when it comes to a short term rental, you don’t have to do that. You’re talking. If you can book 300 nights in a year, that’s great. If your average length stays three nights, you need 100 people a year. So you need to talk to 100 people that really want your home so niche and down and really grabbing that person.
00:16:59:18 – 00:17:23:20
Dan
That avatar’s attention is important. So if you want to be a place that people can get away to and have a co-working spot. Absolutely. You need to dive deep and make sure that you’re really showing off every area of that property. Being work friendly if you’re a kid, friendly, if you’re, you know, the experience, whatever it is, figure out your avatar and then build that short term rental towards that avatar and making sure that you’re talking about it.
00:17:23:21 – 00:17:31:05
Dan
You have the pictures about it, the amenities for it, and that really stands out. And that’s another way that you’ll be able to, you know, beat the competition.
00:17:31:06 – 00:17:51:15
Charles
One thing you mentioned before about marketing, and I guess it’s on platform and off platform, which you’re both interesting with on platform, like you were saying, and getting up to page 1 or 2, what are typical tweaks that you’re making other than, I guess, just the title and checking off some more boxes that would probably make it more amenity friendly and a better, more likable, let’s say, property.
00:17:51:16 – 00:17:59:03
Charles
What are some other things that you found when during that a B testing that have really popped those people up into one and two pages?
00:17:59:04 – 00:18:17:12
Dan
Yeah, that’s a great question. A lot of times it’s picture order description, title, but there’s also other things that can help out with the algorithm in general. Believe it or not, your cancellation policy is going to help you out. Airbnb basically came out at the end of last year and said, hey, a looser cancellation policy is going to help you out with the algorithm without actually saying that.
00:18:17:13 – 00:18:39:16
Dan
So we’ve seen a non pricing level to pull is to within your comfort loosen your maybe you’re on strict. You want to go a little bit more flexible when it comes to your cancellation policy. We’ve seen that make a vastly better big difference when people. Another thing that we’ve done quite a bit, and it’s all within comfort level in different times of years and different types of properties.
00:18:39:16 – 00:19:04:14
Dan
If you have a beach property, you may have a seven night minimum in the middle of the nice season, but the average property, especially in off seasons and everything, you might want to take your minimum length of stay. We’ve seen people have like four nights and we’ve gone to them and be like, hey, trust us, we’re going to bring it down the two nights, but we’re going to be doing some length of stay discounts and some merchandizing to really capture the human behavior of wanting to book your place for longer.
00:19:04:14 – 00:19:21:21
Dan
And we end up growing their length of stay by doing so. And you get more eyes on it, because when you have a fortnight minimum stay and someone’s searching for two, you’re missing out on those people, even though they may book for nights if you entice them properly. So those are some of the levers that people could pull to help operate more efficiently.
00:19:21:22 – 00:19:33:14
Charles
What do you do? Or do you do anything for off site marketing, and how does what type of properties require that? And I mean, what are some of the marketing tactics strategies that you’ve utilized?
00:19:33:15 – 00:19:49:12
Dan
Yeah. So we do more of like the SEO and the marketing on the platforms. That’s what that’s where we really excel. We don’t we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier on, like we used to be a full service property manager company. We’re not anymore. We just do revenue management. So we understand all facets of the business.
00:19:49:12 – 00:20:12:12
Dan
However, we are great at driving revenue and pricing your property property properly. That is what we are great at and making sure we’re merchandizing properly, making sure we’re maximizing this revenue opportunity. Either we’re doing it or we’re advising you on ways that you can do it yourself, not in the pricing side, but on the non pricing side. On the operational side, that can actually help you when it comes to pricing and driving revenue.
00:20:12:12 – 00:20:35:22
Dan
So we don’t do the marketing like social like direct booking website. We don’t create that. We’ll work off that. Any OTAs that you have. We will work with them. But those outside marketing, those are experts. They’re like, do you have a mega property that select like this one property? Talking to some of the other day, there’s a property on Miami where celebrities book that property to shoot rap videos like you want.
00:20:35:23 – 00:20:53:18
Dan
You want social media like influencers. You want that different marketing channel. Get very creative there to make sure that you’re capturing that right avatar to book that property. That’s not what we’re going to do. We’re going to make sure it’s priced well. So when it’s booked, you’re booking at the most optimal pricing for it. You know that night.
00:20:53:19 – 00:21:11:16
Charles
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. We had someone on the show about a year ago and luxury short term rentals and only a handful of places throughout the world. And they had like a, like a six bedroom like farmhouse in Tuscany or something like this. And this is like stuff I see that would probably be better marketing off, you know what I mean?
00:21:11:16 – 00:21:20:06
Charles
As well as on the platform, because it’s so unique, you know what I mean? And there’s going to be a specific buyer that’s going to spend thousands of dollars a night to stay there for, for weeks at a time.
00:21:20:07 – 00:21:35:18
Dan
Oh yeah, the most successful people are using the way I like to put it. It’s obviously get the experience going first, and then you start working with the revenue management company. And then when you have those do your marketing as well. And when you when you’re from an every step of those things, that’s where you could really drive the urban.
00:21:35:18 – 00:21:49:23
Dan
You’re right. That Tuscany spot, you probably have your own Instagram page. You have your you know, you get followers, but like that, that is the type of property that needs that and can really, you know, take revenue to the next level and beat what market comparisons are so interesting. I want to stay there at the six bedroom in Tuscany.
00:21:50:00 – 00:22:09:22
Charles
He I’ll have to I’ll, I’ll, I’ll find it later in my notes. I have to find the episode and I will put it in the notes for the show. But yeah, it was just you could look through and to see the workmanship, how well it was done. And you’re just like, oh yeah, this is just like very I imagine doing a project like that from the United States and Tuscany was quite the, the headache of managing that over there.
00:22:09:22 – 00:22:30:14
Charles
But I imagine it’s doing pretty well now. One of the things that I mean, over the last few years with residential, we as multifamily investors, it has been difficult for us. And it looks like a lot of non not so professional short term rental investors to have been kind of weeded out, let’s say, for lack of a better word.
00:22:30:16 – 00:22:49:17
Charles
Where do you see it now? We talked about getting people into your units. When you’re in for that experience. What are some things that you would suggest people to have? You talked about amenities, but what other things? Maybe small things that don’t cost that much of that, really increase it and make it make people give that five star review?
00:22:49:18 – 00:23:17:07
Dan
Yeah. I think one of the, one of the biggest things is communication, which I know it’s getting better and better. Again with AI, people could communicate, but don’t step away from the human touch. So like if you have if you’re using that AI for communication, that’s great. You should want to overcommunicate maybe give them that better experience. So like I’ve seen people where they have a house and there’s a lot of bachelor or bachelorette parties, or maybe it’s like, you know, there’s a few different types of groups that are going to go there and they’ll send out a text saying, hey, why are you visiting?
00:23:17:07 – 00:23:37:17
Dan
And once you click that, they’re going to send you an itinerary with suggestions of what you could do based on why you’re going to that property like that stands out above and beyond. You’re really trying to help them. I’ve also seen people and this goes above and beyond. It’s a little bit harder, but you take a video, you know the person’s name, you take a quick text video and you text it over to him saying, hey, you know, I’m really glad you’re saying it.
00:23:37:17 – 00:23:52:06
Dan
My property. Just want to let you know if you have any issues at all. I want to make sure you have a five star experience, like continue saying five stars and a lot of messages, talking about five star, talking about how you want their experience to really stand out. Send that off to the person now they feel a personal connection to you.
00:23:52:07 – 00:24:13:21
Dan
Not only are they going to be less apt to probably complain about a little issue, they’re going to let you know right away. They’re probably going to leave a better review because of it, too. In those better reviews and those higher, more five star ratings you have, it’s going to ultimately result in a lot more revenue because every I think it’s one points off of your 4.9 instead of a five star, it’s about 10% in potential revenue.
00:24:13:22 – 00:24:35:03
Dan
Now, it doesn’t necessarily continue on that trajectory, but it definitely it does correlate directly to your revenue potential. If you start getting below 4.84.75 when it becomes the ratings. So that’s another thing that I think people should be doing. Another thing, and I know this is not exactly what you asked, but I think these are good tips to help people out.
00:24:35:05 – 00:24:55:15
Dan
Take all your reviews, throw them into AI and ask it if there’s anything you can do to improve your property or stand out better, or just be a better host and listen to the suggestions, especially the more you plug into let’s say it’s ChatGPT the more you take your property. It’s pictures, it’s experience, the avatar you want through all that stuff in there, and then throw your reviews and ask it that.
00:24:55:15 – 00:25:02:11
Dan
It’s going to help give you a few extra tips of your specific property to how you can make it a better experience for your avatar. So there’s a few of you.
00:25:02:12 – 00:25:21:12
Charles
Now that’s a great idea. We’ve done something similar to that. We’re taking notes, AI notes of calls that we’ve had or people have had in our firm, and you put it in and they tell you. So when you’re putting together almost like a video sales letter or something like that, all your fake stuff that you weren’t even thinking about, and now it gets answered.
00:25:21:12 – 00:25:41:00
Charles
And when you’re getting on the call with that client, with that potential investor, whatever it might be for your business, a lot of those questions are already answered. You’re really just doing like a touch, and you know what I mean? It’s you shorten it up and it’s pretty much like, you know, everything is going. You already have your questions answered and it’s utilizing AI for that is a very powerful thing.
00:25:41:00 – 00:25:55:18
Charles
I think it’s one of the things I don’t hear too many people talk about it when they’re taking a lot of what they’ve created and putting it back through and seeing what, so you can make sure that you can bring it to new clients, because if someone had it before, they’re going to have that question again with somebody else in the future.
00:25:55:19 – 00:26:16:01
Dan
100%, and it’ll pick up those patterns and stuff a lot quicker. And one of thing in like your industry, I know we talk about multifamily. This is something that we’re going to start pushing out more. I’ve got a lot of friends in the multifamily space. I’ve invested in Syndications, so I know where they stand in that. That NOI has really got interrupted with insurance and taxes and CapEx and you name it, you know, rents.
00:26:16:02 – 00:26:36:09
Dan
And so one of the things that I think is beneficial is some of these multifamily, if it allows for it taking maybe 10% of the units, if you have 100 units, maybe take 5 to 10% of those units, turn them into short term rentals. You already have the staffing there to help with the experience side. We can help out with the revenue side.
00:26:36:10 – 00:26:55:17
Dan
Revenue management side. We could run an analysis to see if we could help you and just think about it. If you can bump those units up ten grand each in more revenue, it’s 100 grand or more revenue, depending on what your your cap rate is on that you could be talking a million plus more in value for that multifamily, while already having a lot of the things in place to be able to give that service.
00:26:55:17 – 00:26:58:20
Dan
So it’s just a unique way to try to help out some multifamily operators.
00:26:58:21 – 00:27:16:20
Charles
And we did that on a property we owned in in Phoenix. Maybe it was like 97 or 98 units many, several years back. And we had like, like you said, 10% of those units were on short term. The one thing for people listening to this, you have to check with your with your lender and check with your insurance beforehand.
00:27:16:21 – 00:27:34:13
Charles
When we refined it into a government an agency loan, right. I think it was Fannie Mae that they would not allow that back in the time. I don’t know if they do now, I doubt as well, but that’s just one thing that double check on it. But yes, it was a I remember because it killed some of our revenue and we had to do that when we had to refinance into it.
00:27:34:13 – 00:27:48:10
Charles
I think the people we sold it to actually took back that model because we showed it to them, you know what I mean? So it’s a you already have the amenities there, you’re already doing it. And you can put those, you know, you can put them in one certain place of the building or in two different buildings if it’s like, you know what I mean?
00:27:48:10 – 00:28:02:18
Charles
If there’s five units of building and you put two unit, two buildings of five each and they’re one part of the property away from common 12 month tenants, there’s all different ways of doing it, you know, to make it the best experience for for both tenants.
00:28:02:19 – 00:28:10:00
Dan
Now, it’s a good point. The lender has to be on board with it. But just, you know, talk to the lender. Or maybe there are lenders out there that will allow it to happen.
00:28:10:02 – 00:28:28:17
Charles
And if you’re if you’re thinking about it and you’re buying a property, it’s probably going to be it’s probably going to be your local banks and your local credit unions won’t have an issue with it. They usually don’t really care unless you pay. That’s how I found out over the years. When you start dealing with like government, obviously government agencies and everything like that, they’re going to have all their fingers and all these different things that they want you to do and all these requirements.
00:28:28:17 – 00:28:52:21
Charles
So just keep that in mind. I guess when you’re doing numbers on a property, maybe paying a little bit more for debt, something like that allows you to open up this STR kind of ability at your property. But Dan, so as kind of a wrapping up here, I had a couple questions personally over your career, over 20 years, nearly 20 years in real estate, investing in the business in general, what has compounded the most for you over your career?
00:28:52:21 – 00:28:57:12
Charles
What have you done that has really compounded and that you are still getting returns from today?
00:28:57:13 – 00:29:18:13
Dan
Yeah, and it’s something that I had to go back to because I started having shiny object syndrome again. As an entrepreneur, you know, you try to do 18 different things. And I mentioned that early on whenever I focused in one area and became great at it and then moved to the next area is where I’ve really compounded my my knowledge, my education, my business, my, you know, ability to make money.
00:29:18:13 – 00:29:33:16
Dan
So like in property management, I became one of the top ones and ended up going back to Boston. Up in Boston, I can be go to any firm I wanted to. And then real estate sales sold over 400 deals. Investor minded understood that. And then I started to shy away from that and try to do everything. And I was okay to good at it.
00:29:33:17 – 00:29:46:14
Dan
Now I’m back in, I’m in. Synergy stays, revenue management, optimization partners and I am here to be great, not just good. And I think that’s really compounded the most as well as the circle you’re in, the people you find yourself with.
00:29:46:14 – 00:29:49:21
Charles
Perfect. So Dana, how can our listeners learn more about you and your business?
00:29:49:21 – 00:29:58:14
Dan
I can go to Synergy Stays local. Com we’re happy to take a look at your portfolio. Happy to just have a chat with you. See if we are the right fit or not. But yeah synergy stays local.
00:29:58:14 – 00:30:02:23
Charles
Com Dan, thank you so much for coming on today. Looking forward to connecting with you here in the near future.
00:30:03:00 – 00:30:04:05
Dan
Yeah. Appreciate you Charles. Thank you.
DAN RIVERS is a devoted family man, real estate expert, and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience across every aspect of the industry. Having facilitated transactions totaling over $100 million, Dan has honed his skills in analyzing deals, identifying market trends, creating value-add opportunities, and negotiating contracts for both buyers and sellers. His extensive experience has also allowed him to build a network of trusted professionals, including contractors, lenders, and insurance agents, often partnering with others on deals to provide expertise, capital, and support.
In addition to traditional real estate, Dan is the founder of SynergyStays, a short-term rental revenue management company that helps investors and property management companies maximize profitability. Guided by an abundance mindset, he focuses on sharing knowledge, collaborating, and empowering others to build lasting wealth.
Dan’s mission is simple: to help people create financial freedom and live life on their own terms through real estate and STRs.
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