Today we’d like to introduce you to George Salas.
Hi George, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Lima, Peru. When I was a teenager, I migrated with my mother and siblings after my parents’ separation. As a kid, I’ve always dreamt of wanting to be a better provider by launching my own business. That’s why after several years of success planning events for a series of venues around Houston, In 2015, I invested all the money and savings from the past 7 years to open up my first ever brick and mortar business – a nightclub on Washington Avenue. Less than 2 years later, this million dollar business failed. 2017 was by far the lowest point of my career and personal life esp. since that was something I really dreamed of and worked hard for. Nevertheless, life has to continue and I went back to my old job promoting and marketing events at different venues. Then a lifesaving phone call came to me a few weeks later. A friend invited me to come over to one of his fix & flip properties.. Without even asking why, I drove for an hour and with a few others, we listened to my friend speak about what was possible for our lives. He literally opened my eyes with so much possibility in real estate! This friend taught us about what it takes to build a business, what real real estate was and why we should get into it. It was an awesome meeting and I went home a different person. The next day, I woke up with life-changing realizations that helped me jumpstart my career in real estate. First, I realized that my parents did what they can to be the best parents they can be to us. Next, I realized that I built my dream of creating my own business for the wrong reasons. That I don’t need to be the best provider that Dad never was to us. I only had to work hard to become what I wanted to become. So I forgave myself and my Dad. Then I let go of the guilt of not being accomplished enough, of not being a good provider.
And I’ve never felt so free in my life! I was ready to pursue my dream without anything holding me back. The “why” of my goal has been established and that fueled me to strive further. In 2018, I learned about short-term rentals and Airbnb and began earning consistent and predictable cash flow from my first short-term rental properties which I slowly and consistently scaled. In 2020, during the pandemic, I had around 40 STR properties. I found myself in a financial dilemma while the entire city of Houston was in lock down and very little bookings.
While my rental arbitrage apartments were hurting for bookings, my homes had higher occupancy and more revenue than even before the pandemic. I realized I needed a better business model so I rebuilt my STR business strategy and slowly transitioned into what we do today, medium luxury short-term rentals — or what I call 6-figure properties, which bring 6-figures per year in short-term rental cash flow. During the years that followed, I found a wonderful business partner in the person of the very beautiful (inside and out), Moona Shenawi (now) Salas. She helped me stage my properties to perfection. And in March of this year, we tied the knot and a few months later, our adorable son was born. Today, I have a totally different life than just 4 years ago. Our properties pay our bills and lifestyle. And we are expanding by the day. I absolutely love empowering my fellow real estate investors through my coaching programs and passive investment programs. It has been an amazing journey and currently, and I feel like we are just getting started..
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all.
Personal obstacles:
My very first obstacle was the divorce of my parents.
My mother brought us with her and left Dad because of financial issues.
We moved to an adobe house that had holes and leaks. It was a difficult life.
Some years later, my mom remarried and migrated here to the US.
I wanted to be a soccer player but had to choose between being a pro soccer player and working to pay the bills. I had to work and finance myself.
My mom and step dad divorced in 2006 and I was left homeless after my step dad kicked me out.
I had no father growing up, after age 15.
I was hella broke after my night club was shut down. And couldn’t even afford to pay my rent, so I had to move into a family member’s home for a few months, then to a friends house renting out his room.
When starting real estate I had to live on $20k a year.
Drove a beat up 2001 ford f 150 for 2 years.
Many personal sacrifices for the first 2 years of my real estate career. Living completely under my means.
Covid was another mid size beat up for me personally. Spent many nights trying to keep the business afloat that my health deteriorated.
2021 we finally came out strong, doing our almost $2M in revenue.
We tripled our revenue from $600k in 2020, in 1 year.
2022 has been a huge building year with the creation of a second coaching program and our investment fund.
Amazing things on the horizon, thousands of more lives to be impacted with what we are doing for the world.
My wife and I are creating our legacy every single day.
If business or real estate obstacles are needed. See below:
Business:
Carrying that emotional burden from my parent’s divorce, I grew up to be an adult who wanted to prove himself, who wanted to be a better provider than what my dad was to us.
I knew this could only happen if I built my own business.
Like I mentioned earlier, after several years of success in planning events for venues around Houston- I was an event producer and promoter…
I later had enough money and savings to open up my first ever business in 2015.
Unfortunately, due to bad partnership, this million dollar business failed in less than 2 years.
All my money and savings were gone.
I went home, cried my brains out and got super drunk.
I woke up the next day with the biggest headache that was so bad I thought I was gonna die.
But it hit me– I knew I needed to make a decision and search for that one thing that can change my life forever.
But before that change happened, I supported myself by going back to event promotions again, as a marketer again.
Then, not long after, I received a life changing phone call that introduced me to real estate, changed my perspective and gave me a fresh new start.
Real estate:
It took me four months to close my very first successful real estate deal.
I wouldn’t really call these obstacles but of course I did tremendous hard work in the beginning before I eventually closed that 1st deal.
I called everyone I know; I built relationships with people by being genuine, empathic and helpful.
I posted on all social media platforms to build my online presence.
I read every book and researched a ton about real estate.
I went to every real estate seminar, event and meetup in town.
I educated myself further by buying online courses (started with affordable ones first).
I did fixes and flips first then wholesaling.
Now, the obstacle was although I was earning huge chunks of money, what my business was lacking were predictability, consistency and a stream of stable cash flow.
Later, with a bit of luck, I learned about the cash flow from short-term rentals from a friend who was earning from her Airbnb.
I researched a bit about STRs then immediately launched my first rentals and consistently scaled them with every cash flow I’m earning.
Short-term rentals:
Flashback August 2018, I hit $10k in short-term rental income with my first STRs- 10 one-bedroom studios.
In 2020, I was on my way to $70k/ month rental income which could have been my first best month ever…
Then Covid came.
During the lockdown in 2020, I went down to some insane 28-29k – which translates to more than half of our revenue gone.
Covid may have been a terrible burden globally, but it actually helped transform my business into its best version yet.
It was a rude awakening that got me to evaluate and dig deep into my entire business model.
I spent over 2 weeks of long 15-18 hour days trying to come up with strategies to keep my calendars somehow occupied…
During this difficult time, I discovered the narrow niche that will transform STR properties into 6-figure income generators.
The 35 short-term rental apartments I had at the time are making me less than $2k a door, with 15-20% profit margins- while most of the income was going to expenses of our cleaners, our small team, and office.
I only had around 5 houses BUT they were winning. With constant tweaks, they are giving us between $4-5k revenue and $2k- 3k monthly cash flow.
With the pandemic lessons in hand and after 10,000+ hours of continually re-strategizing, retargeting and remodeling my business and systems, I found the secret sauce that increased my short-term rental revenue of up to 10x!
Now, my quest for finding an indestructible, consistent and predictable flow of income has finally come to an end… with a strategic approach in SHORT-TERM RENTALS!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
a. Sure thing. Creative STR Wealth is our coaching & consulting company, specializing in education and training for savvy buy & hold investors who are seeking to create long term wealth and hyperfast profit from high-yielding single-family assets. We operate all over the U.S and our niche focus is in the short-term vacation rental industry.
b. Empress Capital, LLC is our Houston based real estate investment and advisory firm, specializing in the management and creation of real estate investment funds.
c. Empress uses a variety of investment structures to fit the needs of investors, which are designed specifically for investors seeking both current income and appreciation as well as 1031 exchange investors.
d. With over 90% of rental properties in the United States today, the biggest problem with single-family rentals today is that these traditional rentals yield minimum cash flow and rents can’t keep up with inflation and real estate values.
e. We pride ourselves on 2 things. Number 1, the level of customer service and relationships we’ve built with our clients over the years.
f. Number 2. The fact that we are pure results driven. We have literally developed a step-by-step road map that helps us create high income-producing properties in a very short amount of time in any area, city, metro market, or vacation rental market.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I am very spontaneous and love to just randomly get away with my family. For example, sometimes, my wife, Ethan and I wake up on a Saturday morning and randomly I bring up a quick last minute “road trip”. So we drive for an hour or two and spend family time in another city, or on a lake house and reflect on our week, month or year. I love nature, and getting away to the hill country for the weekend with my family is one of my favorite things to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: georgesalas360.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GeorgeSalas360/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgesalasxtreme/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeorgeSalas/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GeorgeSalas
- Other: https://www.creativestrwealth.com/
