Recovering Investment Banker to Strategic Short Term Rental Owner & Operator with Michael Chang - Episode #214

Michael Chang is a recovering investment banker, now turned high scale short term rental owner and operator as co-founder of TrustBNB Vacation Rentals. Mike got his MBA from Cornell in 2009, and spent a decade on wall street as an investment banker. While the pay was great – what he now calls the golden handcuffs, he got over the lifestyle overtime. Today, he  reflects that he should have left in half the time to build the lifestyle business & empire he and his wife Liz built today. Mike perspective in our short term rental industry is unique coming from an individual who is all about numbers, knows his numbers very accurately, and shares with us exactly how he tackles the goals that got him & his wife to $7M+ owned in Airbnb real estate. Mike immigrated with his family from Taiwan when he was four years old. And the one constant in his life has always been work ethic. This same work ethic he saw from his mother helped him achieve a successful career in mergers & acquisition investment banking with over $40B closed in deals.He then took this knowledge and applied it to a blend of full owning his short term rentals with a combination of rental arbitrage in volume in buildings with proximity to the city. He resides in New York with his wife and daughter and their portfolio expands from Philadelphia, PA. Fun fact, Mike & Ruben worked at the same investment bank at some point (Jefferies) and both reside in New York city, during this episode they both geek out in the lab with love of short term rental real estate. If you love the gritty details and mindset that it takes to succeed in this industry from someone who’s walked the walk successfully in one of the most respectable industries as an investment banker to a successful transition into short term rentals – you need to listen to this episode. This is one of those gems of an episode that really goes into the granular actionable steps with a touch of serendipity, as Mike happens to share the same values of experiment nation. Experiment. Fail. Learn. Repeat. Enjoy! HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE: 17:34 How Michael Got Into Short-Term Rentals 27:49 How much investment banker makes vs rental host 40:58 How to think for yourself KEEPING IT REAL: 04:05 Introduction 06:12 The recovering investment banker 13:59 Changes from investment banking 17:34 A taste of short term rental 21:07 Life doesn’t start until.. 24:21 What game are you playing? 27:49 Investment banker vs rental host 31:31 Arbitrage numbers 33:06 Location criterias 36:05 Who are the travelers to target 37:45 How to avoid bad guests 38:26 How to price the highest 40:58 Every business has a mote 43:49 The biggest misconception of STR 46:11 Airbnb inspiration for all 47:52 Taking advantage of opportunities 51:07 Starting out in rental arbitrage 55:11 Always think of win-wins 56:35 Laser focus on numbers 1:01:26 What is next? CONNECTING WITH  THE GUEST: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhchang/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelchangbnb/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@michaelchangbnb #investment #banking #rentalarbitrage