Cale Delaney, owner of JBR Investments & Management, joins Joe Cornwell on the Best Ever Show. In this episode, Cale discusses his move from construction management to investing in short-term rentals in the Smoky Mountain region. He shares how he built his short-term rental business, including the keys to a successful short-term rental and the financing, renovation, and rental strategies in a changing STR landscape.
Cale Delaney | Real Estate Background
- Owner - JBR Investments & Management LLC
- Portfolio
- $7M portfolio of REO with another $2M of co-hosted AUM
- Based in: South Florida
- Say hi to him at:
- Best Ever Book: The Bible
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Transcript
Joe Cornwell (00:04.201)
Best ever listeners, welcome to the best real estate investing device ever show. I'm your host Joe Cornwell. And today I'm joined by Cale Delaney. He's the owner of JBR Investments and Management LLC. He's a real estate investor, coach and consultant, short-term rental expert with a current portfolio of over 7 million. And he's also a co-host in another $2 million in assets under management, primarily in the short-term rental space. Kale's first time on the show. So thank you so much for joining us. How are you today?
Cale Delaney (00:33.258)
Thank you Joe, appreciate it. Appreciate you having me on.
Joe Cornwell (00:35.785)
Well, we appreciate you joining us. Definitely excited to jump in and talk a little bit about the short-term rental game. It's something we don't get to spend a lot of time on here. But before we do that, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, where you came from and how you got into real estate.
Cale Delaney (00:49.89)
Sure. Yeah, so I'm based out of South Florida. I grew up in the Northeast, but I've been down here for a while.
You know, I followed the typical career path like most people do, went to college, got a job and worked a career as a construction manager for about 15 years. And it was really right before COVID and coinciding with the birth of my youngest son in 2019 that I had a bit of a paradigm shift mentally and just thinking that there needed to be another way that I needed to find a way to start building wealth for myself and my family and not just for somebody else.
You know, looking at my peers at that time and the ones getting to retirement age, I just, I couldn't see myself doing this for or doing that for another 20, 30 years. And so I started down the real estate rabbit hole, just devouring podcasts and books. You know, I thought long-term rentals and small multifamily was gonna be, you know, the vehicle that I was gonna use.
And so that was actually the first investment property that I purchased was a quadplex in a local market here in South Florida. And just based on the time and income goal that I had set for myself, which was basically I wanted to make it seems to be a common thing, but $10,000 a month net in five years was the timeframe that I had set. I thought that was relatively aggressive, quickly found out that at least with the long-term rentals that I was looking at, it wasn't gonna really happen in that time span.
So after a little bit of shiny object syndrome, came across short-term rentals, just from hearing about it, frankly, on another podcast, both the short-term rentals and the market that I invest in primarily, which is the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. And a few days later, packed the family up in a mini-man, drove 17 hours out there, scoped it out, and three weeks later, we're under contract on the first property, snowballed it from there and like you said you know over a period of about two years or so we built up a seven million dollar portfolio Allowing me to quit the job and so now that's what I focus on currently Construction management
Joe Cornwell (02:59.697)
Okay, what was the career before real estate? That's right, okay. Construction management. So what specifically was it about that career field that opened your eyes and mind into, hey, I need to look at some avenues to get out of this.
Cale Delaney (03:14.666)
Yeah, it was, you know, I had lost a passion for it a long time ago and throughout that 15 year career, there were several times where I wanted to get out, but I had no idea how, you know, I, I did not have an entrepreneurial mindset. I did not ever think that I would be an entrepreneur. And so I was always kind of, okay, what other type of job could I get? And I could never figure it out. And so, yeah, I just kind of stuck with it, right? And so I had lost the passion for it.
It was a very stressful job, very demanding, and just not a great fit for me, especially after so many years. And really when my youngest son was born, like I said, and then COVID hitting, it made me really want to change things, try to get a better work-life balance, be able to spend time with my son as he was growing up. That's what really was the big motivation, the big why for making that big shift.
Joe Cornwell (04:10.193)
Okay, and how long have you been full-time now in real estate?
Cale Delaney (04:14.387)
uh... about a year and a half.
Joe Cornwell (04:16.341)
Year and a half, okay. I would imagine that some of those skillsets you developed in construction management have translated into real estate and I'm assuming you do some sort of build outs on these short-term rentals, is that true? Okay.
Cale Delaney (04:31.006)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, it was project management. So, you know, I mean, that's a good thing is that project management, that skillset can kind of transfer over to most anything. I mean, so you're doing, you know, you're doing budgeting, you're doing accounting, you're doing scheduling, you're coordinating with vendors and contractors, all different types of personalities. So yeah, a lot of the skillsets really help transfer over into the hospitality industry, which has helped out a lot.
Joe Cornwell (04:55.441)
Yeah, that's great. That was my first thought when you said that is, you know, I kind of did the opposite route. So I was in law enforcement, got into real estate, started buying long term rentals. And then, as a result of the types of rentals I bought, I built out a construction company where now my role in my business is kind of the project management. And so it's funny how all of those things are so intertwined and the skill sets overlap. But but that was kind of the first thought I had when you mentioned that.
So you know, tell me, I know you mentioned briefly, but like what went into your mindset as to determining why short-term rentals, why the smokies, like what helped you develop that specific strategy and obviously, you know, grow it so quickly.
Cale Delaney (05:37.382)
Yeah, so again, my goal was I wanted to get out of that job as quick as possible. So I was looking for cash flow and cash flow fast. And so after kind of seeing that, like I said, the long term rentals wasn't really going to get me where I wanted to be as quick as I wanted to be. That's when I was just scouring every other type of real estate asset and trying to see, OK, what can give me the best returns in the quickest manner? And once I heard that podcast about the short term rentals and they were talking about the numbers and they were talking about that market and the it just kind of clicked and checked all the boxes, right?
And so, you know, that's where I said, let's go check this out. So that's why, like I said, this was a few days before Thanksgiving in 2020. And so I had that week off for vacation from work, but you know, we didn't have any plans. So that's why we just packed up the minivan and drove out there and scoped it out. And you know, I sold myself on the market and the idea, but.
Again, this is end of 2020, beginning of 2021. The Smoky Mountains is the premier vacation market in the US. I mean, the market was on fire. It was crazy. I mean, property comes on the market within 24 hours. I had a dozen offers over asking, right? And it was gone within a few days.
And so on the drive back, I was really struggling a lot because I was again, I was sold on the idea. I felt convinced that it could get me where I wanted to be. But I'm a very frugal person and the idea of like paying over asking for something number one is like hurts. And then just seeing how competitive it was and getting into those bidding wars. I had to figure out another way. So you know, it's nothing, nothing magical, but I what I call my stale listing strategy, right?
Properties that have been sitting on the market for at least two weeks. And especially in that market, when something sat for more than a week, it was forgotten about whether it was good or bad. And so that's how, actually that's how I pretty much found all my properties is just doing that simple strategy. Sure. So, well, I'll do the first short term rental one. So...
Joe Cornwell (07:29.629)
Okay. Yeah. So walk me through your first deal.
Cale Delaney (07:46.29)
It was actually a four bedroom log cabin. Everything out there is log cabins out in the mountains. And like I said, it was, I used that stale listing strategy. So I'd been sitting on the market for about three weeks. At that time, I had just found it on Zillow and took a look at it. It looked good. Had the realtor go out there. He looked at it, didn't see any issues with it. And, you know, again, let's be in the first one.
And it was very expensive. It was a bit of a scary endeavor. I think everybody's first, you know, first bigger deal is a scary endeavor. And so I actually, you know, I'm a Christian, so I actually sat on it for about a week and prayed about it a lot. And ultimately, my prayer was, you know, Lord, if this is meant to happen, if this is the plan according to your will, then make it happen. And if it's not, then, you know, don't make it happen, but don't let me be discouraged. Help me find the next path, right?
Cale Delaney (08:45.5)
And so I sat on it for a week knowing that this could be gone any second. And the week passed, it was still available. I shot out an offer below asking and we went under contract. So they were asking.
Joe Cornwell (08:56.019)
What was it listed at?
Cale Delaney (08:57.418)
Yeah, they were asking 700. We bought it for 650. I guess that was a four bedroom. We immediately converted it into a six bedroom with a theater room because it had a two car garage and the master suite on the main level actually, I mean, it was giant. I mean, the closet was bigger than most bedrooms. So we added a couple of doors, made that closet into a bedroom and then made the garage into another bedroom and a movie theater. And so, excuse me.
So that property went from a projected income of 85,000 gross annually to now it performs at about 150 to 160.
Joe Cornwell (09:38.865)
Okay. All right. So a property like that, what, and I obviously know it's seasonal, but like, you know, what is your monthly cash flow on average?
Cale Delaney (09:51.902)
Yeah, so like you said, it's very seasonal. Like I said, annually it grosses about 150 to 160. So you're talking, what's that, 13 a month on average, I guess you could say.
Joe Cornwell (10:03.195)
Okay, and then what of that do you net?
Cale Delaney (10:06.219)
The net overall across the portfolio, the net is usually around 40%.
Joe Cornwell (10:12.593)
Okay, all right, so if it's gross at 150, you might net 60, 65, something like that on a property of that size. Okay, gotcha.
Cale Delaney (10:19.562)
Right. I wouldn't say that's typical, right? I'm going to put that out there. And that's the thing. I'm a very patient and conservative underwriter as well. And thankfully, I feel it's served me well. I would not say those types of returns are typical, but I've been able to achieve those by being very conservative in things.
Joe Cornwell (10:41.341)
Okay. Yeah. I mean, so when you, when you talk about like a long term rental in perspective, or in contrast, you know, a deal here in Southwest Ohio, a lot of investors who buy here looking for like that one to 2% range right on rent ratio. So if you're buying a, you know, a million dollar property, you're going to want it to gross at least 10,000 a month in cashflow, or I'm sorry, in gross rents minimum.
And so it sounds like an ideal like you're talking about, you know, that would be rent ratio. Now, obviously, I assume there's going to be quite a bit of higher operating costs turnover, cleaning, maintenance, things like that. So can you speak to that and how that may differ from the long term for anyone who may be unfamiliar?
Cale Delaney (11:24.546)
Sure, sure, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I mean, when you hear the kind of the gross revenue numbers in contrast from a long-term rental to a short-term rental, yeah, it can sound very significant because it is, but like you mentioned, so are the expenses, right? So as a long-term rental, right, oftentimes you're hopefully even gonna be able to pass on the utilities and all those things. So your expenses are gonna be relatively minimal outside of your debt service and some maintenance and things of that nature, right? With short-term rentals, you're taking care of everything more maintenance too because you know just think of a rental car you know things are gonna get used and abused.
Your cleaning that's one of your biggest expenses that you're gonna have, you know, like you said, the turnover, so it's gonna be much more management intensive. So I self-manage online still. But if you hire a property management company, expect to pay 20 to 30% of your revenue as well. So that's a big, big consideration. And then of course your utilities and all those things. So yeah, your expenses are gonna be much, much higher. So kind of the rule of thumb, more or less, and again, it's market dependent.
But the rule of thumb is you wanna see revenue potential to be two to three times as a short-term rental what it would be as a long-term rental for it to make sense because of those increased expenses right and just for my underwriting again that just another rule of thumb that I use is I want the annual gross revenue to be roughly 20% of the purchase price right so you know for example if I'm buying a half million dollar property I want that thing to gross around a hundred thousand
plus or minus, right? And that's just, again, some background.
Joe Cornwell (13:09.766)
Okay. So yeah, again, roughly on that scenario, like a 2% rent ratio. Okay, gotcha. Okay. Now, how are you financing these? Or how did you, I guess you can start with the first one. How did you finance that deal as your first investment?
Cale Delaney (13:13.039)
Exactly the 2% right?
Sure, yeah, I've used all conventional financing. So in the first short-term rental or vacation home that you purchase in a new market, typically as long as you meet the qualifications, which usually isn't an issue, is you can purchase it as a second home and get a second home loan, which the benefit to that is it allows you 10% down. So that's what I did for that first one. And then every other one has been just a conventional 15% down investment loan.
Joe Cornwell (13:52.753)
Okay. Interesting. Now, if you know, it happened to know these off the top of your head, so you walk through some of the numbers on your first deal, give us an example of your best deal and maybe your worst deal, just of like purchase and maybe out of pocket costs and then, you know, kind of the current annualized income.
Cale Delaney (14:12.142)
Sure, I would say that first one is actually probably the best. Not only because of that easy value add that we did that jumped that revenue up significantly, but it also increased the value. That value add combined with just the appreciation in that market. So again, we bought it for 650. About a year ago, we had it reappraised just to remove the PMI from our mortgage, and it appraised for 1.2.
Joe Cornwell (14:36.494)
Mmm. Wow.
Cale Delaney (14:40.224)
So, I mean, that's been a fantastic deal.
Joe Cornwell (14:43.081)
How much you think you put into it?
Cale Delaney (14:47.062)
For that renovation, it wasn't even much of a renovation. We only put in about 20,000 to do that conversion. Yeah, including furnishing. Yeah, it was not.
Joe Cornwell (14:52.385)
Okay, yeah, so cool. Yeah, so almost doubled your equity and limited out of pocket cost.
Cale Delaney (15:01.822)
Yeah, yeah, so I still think that one was probably my first deal. And for the fact that when we were under contract, we discovered that the seller actually owned the two neighboring properties and they were looking to sell. So immediately after we closed, we negotiated off market to purchase those, those two properties as well. So it just, that one really got the snowball going, you know.
Joe Cornwell (15:20.829)
Yeah. And how many properties do you have today?
Cale Delaney (15:24.982)
So we have nine out in the Smokies and then another six units in South Florida. But only one of those in South Florida is a short-term rental, the others are long-term.
Joe Cornwell (15:36.105)
Gotcha. And now when you were getting into these first few deals, how were you doing the initial down payments on these conventional loans? Was this savings? Were you having partners?
Cale Delaney (16:17.308)
Who doesn't know you can pull out a $50,000 401k loan for any reason. And so I did that, and I pulled out a heat lock on my primary home. And so I use a combination of those three things for those initial properties. And then really after those first three, since I was still working the W-2, I was just letting any profits from those properties pile up. And so really after those first three, those started purchasing the rest.
Joe Cornwell (16:48.489)
Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I mean, so I know you said you're still in South Florida and you're managing all this remotely. Tell me a little bit about that. What's your structure? What are some of the challenges you've had?
Cale Delaney (16:59.214)
Sure, yeah, and that was one of the other things that drew me to Short-Term Rentals is because I wanted a location-independent business as well, and Short-Term Rentals lends itself to that. With the technology that we have today, the software, I mean, really, as long as you have a phone and a connection, you can manage it from anywhere in the world. I mean, I did a three-week trip through Europe last year with limited internet service even, and I was able to manage my entire portfolio without issue.
So, you know, the softwares are pretty simple too or property management software that's kind of your central hub that links things together, your Airbnb and Virgo platforms and your. I use hospitable.
Joe Cornwell (17:35.946)
What are you using?
Cale Delaney (17:40.934)
And then a dynamic pricing tool, that's your other key one, which I use Price Labs. And that's gonna look at the market supply and demand and other factors and really it updates your pricing on a daily basis. You tweak it of course as well, but that's really key. So those two, your PMS and your dynamic pricing software, those are the main tools that you're gonna need. From there you can dig into the weeds a little bit.
There's some other management softwares out there for cleaners or handymen and some other things, things once you get a sizable portfolio but you know for most people those two things are really all you're gonna need and then as far as your team if you're gonna self manage it which is totally doable even working a job you know totally doable you just need your boots on the ground so you're gonna have to have a good handyman team and a good cleaning team you know those are your essential ingredients there, and that's the hardest part, right?
Finding especially a good cleaning team, you're probably gonna go through a few, especially initially. Oftentimes you get one that's great and then they start growing and they run into quality issues and you might have to move on. That's kind of the trend that happens. But yeah, that's really what you need. You can do it for...
Joe Cornwell (18:56.745)
How did you find yours? And I'm assuming that changed over time, as you mentioned, but how did you find the initial ones and how are you finding them today?
Cale Delaney (19:04.19)
Yeah, the key really is referrals. So before you even start and purchase your first one, get plugged in with the investing communities in the markets that you're looking at and start being a fly on the wall, and getting people to know you, even if it's just virtually. Because that's going to be your best resource for getting any types of referrals for when any issues come up that you don't know how to handle. That's going to be key.
So that's really what I did. I was the realtor group that I work with. They have a very good investor community. So I plugged in right away and got referrals from that. And I always, when I purchase a cabin, I always go out there for about the first week set up and just get to know the property as well. You know, I always recommend that. Just get to know your own property so you can manage it better, right? So you can answer questions. And while I'm out there, you know, I'll meet with the team or if there's any new people I need to interview, I'll take that opportunity to do it.
Joe Cornwell (20:02.013)
Now were you buying these furnished? Were you furnishing them yourselves? What was that process?
Cale Delaney (20:06.526)
Yep, buying them furnished. Now, especially those first ones, I tried to do as little as possible in changing things because I didn't have a lot of money. And so now...
When I purchased one, I still purchased them furnished, but I usually end up going in and changing out a lot of the stuff and updating it and doing some cosmetic stuff. So I spend more now upfront when I purchase a property, which it pays off, of course, and the returns on the backend. But those initial ones, yeah, I bought them and I updated electronics mainly. You put in some big TVs and surround sound and smart stuff and that was about it.
Joe Cornwell (20:46.6)
What was your biggest property purchase as far as size or, you know, cost, whatever you want to metric you and use?
Cale Delaney (20:54.194)
Yeah, that first one. I purchased a couple others about the same, but yeah, so it was around that range.
Joe Cornwell (21:01.478)
Okay, okay, so like let's call it maybe 700K all in and that was the largest investment. Gotcha. Okay, and in South Florida, I think you said you had a short-term rental. What's the, what's that type of property?
Cale Delaney (21:13.15)
Yeah, so that was actually the first, like I mentioned before, that first property that I bought was a quadplex in a local beach market. And so we still have that quadplex and we ended up about three years ago, two or three years ago, we converted one of those into a short term rental. And so we have the other three still as long terms and then that one as a short term. And the other ones are just single family homes that are long terms.
Cale Delaney (21:39.938)
But yeah, that one, and just to give you an example on that, when we converted that, it was a two bedroom, small two bedroom, about a thousand square feet, and it was renting for 1200 a month at that time. And when we converted it to the short term rental, that first year, we did about 70,000 gross. So you're at what, a little under six grand a month.
And we just actually earlier this year, we spent about 10 grand on doing some updates. One of our focuses right now is that we're trying to make properties that are more experiences, not just a place to stay. And I think that's really where the industry is heading. So on a few of our properties now, we've created these, what we call mini retreats or mini resorts where we're offering spa like amenities. We have saunas, we have cold plunges, we have jacuzzis, we have steam rooms.
I mean, we're making these places where somebody says, hey, I wanna go there because I wanna stay at that place. Not because, hey, I'm going to this town and I need a place to sleep. And so we've been doing that this year and it's been working excellent. I mean, just another example, we had a property that it's a single family home, one of our co-host properties here in South Florida that we worked with the owner on designing it and getting all the amenities in place and it went from a projected 80,000 a year if you looked on like AirDNA to in these six months that we've had it live it's already gotten 70,000.
Joe Cornwell (23:17.941)
So when you say co-hosts, is that like a partnership on a purchase or they own it and you're like arbitraging the short terms?
Cale Delaney (23:24.658)
They own it and I manage it for a fee.
Joe Cornwell (23:27.193)
Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Have you done any of the actual like, you know, short term arbitrage stuff?
Cale Delaney (23:35.494)
No, to be honest, I'm not a big fan of that. Um, don't get me wrong, I think there's certainly a place for it. Um, but...
Both arbitrage and co-hosting, they're purely cashflow plays, right? I'm more of the wealth building, which is why I prefer the ownership model. The only reason I started doing co-hosting over this past year, I started doing it and bringing it on selectively was, you know, an opportunity presented itself within my network.
You know, as a friend, I wanted to help out and get going. And that was that one that I mentioned that, you know, in six months we've already achieved what it was projected to earn in a year. And since it's gotten so well, you know, just from word of mouth, some other referrals, I've taken on a few more. And so that's what I'm doing right now. It's purely a cashflow supplement, but my main focus is still on building wealth through ownership.
Joe Cornwell (24:26.997)
Gotcha. Are there any other markets you're underwriting for future purchases or are you still focused on Smokies?
Cale Delaney (24:32.622)
I'm still focused on the Smokies.
You know, I've stayed out of Florida myself for purchasing additional properties just because I think the, number one, the property taxes are very high and the property insurance situation has kinda gotten out of hand. And so I think it takes a lot of the meat off the bone. Not to say you can't find deals here. I'm absolutely sure you can. But for me, the Smokies has been working very, very well.
You know, I have, the team's already set up and so it's relatively plug and play for getting another property out there. That being said, it is not an easy market to find deals. You have to really be patient to find something. So there is another market that I'm interested in that I've been looking at up in Maine that intrigues me a little bit. But I kind of stick with what works. That's one thing that's kind of run as a theme for me is, I say success leaves clues to be the most inventive person. Like, if you find something that works, I mean, stick with it and go for it, you know?
Joe Cornwell (25:41.853)
Now couldn't agree more with that. And I know in the intro, we talked a little bit before we started about mindset. You wanna spend a little time on your mindset, where it came from and how it's affected your business.
Cale Delaney (25:54.99)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So again, I go back to that kind of like paradigm shift mentally, where in, you know, in 2019 with the birth of my youngest, and when I made that decision that, okay, you know, I'm going to work towards building a business and real estate is how I'm going to do it. It really required a complete revamp of my entire life.
And one thing for me that's very important in my life is fitness. I've been a big gym rat for decades. And at that time, I was going to the gym in the evening, so it was get off work at 6 o'clock or so, go to the gym, come home. Then it's eat something, go to bed, and don't really see anybody. And so I knew I couldn't continue doing that. And so I changed my schedule completely to starting the miracle mornings, which is a great book if nobody's read that.
So I changed to getting up at 4.30 in the morning and doing my workouts in the morning, doing my prayer, my scripture reading, my meditations, all these things before 7, 8 a.m. and then starting the day. And to me, that's been one of the real critical things. And excuse me, I encourage anybody to really try it because I think it just sets your day up to be productive and more efficient, you know, when you get so much done before most people are even awake or starting their work day, it just gives you kind of a boost, right?
You feel better, you feel more energized, you can get started and really plan and attack your day. And, you know, again, I think the fitness is super important. For me, it's not only about the physical aspect of it, but it's about the mental aspect. You know, it's a big stress outlet because, I mean, anybody who's an entrepreneur or has and kids, you're gonna have stress. So you know that gym time for me is kind of that that outlet that you know one to two hours where I can turn off you know my mind more or less and just focus and relax a little bit and then kind of get back into the day afterwards. So that's why it's so important for me. You know I'm still not a morning person. I do not enjoy getting up early but it's just a necessity.
Joe Cornwell (28:18.729)
Yeah, there's so many things there that translate into real estate or entrepreneurship. But the one thing that I find the most important is, and I'll admit, I am not a good morning person. I don't like to get up super early. And I struggle with building routines and building habits. But the one thing that I'll say is that when you do stick to a discipline and a regimen of any sort, whether it's diet, exercise, scheduling, time blocking, all those things, those skill sets when you hone them translate over and they make you a better entrepreneur, they make you a better investor.
And so it's like, you know, you hear people kind of look at these mindset gurus that you see on social media and a lot of people think they're kind of a joke. And while I think that there is a lot of that fluff that happens, you know, in social media the way I look at it and relate to what you're saying is that it's not getting up at 4 a.m. and doing a cold plunge and going to the gym that makes you a better investor, right?
It's the fact that you have the discipline to do the things you don't want to do when you say you're gonna do them that make you a better investor and a better business person. And so that's hopefully the lesson people listening to this can take that, you know, it's the skillset of, you know, the habits you create of the person you become to do those things that helps translate not necessarily the actions.
Cale Delaney (29:47.694)
Right. Yeah, exactly. And you know, just to, you know, kind of expand on that, you know, with weightlifting, for example, you know, that's my fitness of choice. To me, that does the same thing, because, you know, when you're weightlifting, just like you said, you're doing hard things, you're doing painful things, right? And it's the same with business, right? Because it teaches you that, okay, the way to grow is you have to push through the pain, you have to do the hard things that you don't want to do.
And so for me, it really just, again, and teaches that discipline. And you have to have the consistency, right? Because, again, if you go to the gym, you know, once this week, twice the next week, skip the next week, you know, you're not gonna get results, right? You have to go consistently. Yeah, you gotta go consistently and do it day in and day out, right? And the same thing with your business, too. So if you can't be consistent in doing the things that you need to do for your business to grow, it's not gonna grow either. So yeah, just like you said, developing those habits, developing especially that consistency and that discipline, and that's what's going to make you a better entrepreneur.
Joe Cornwell (30:57.809)
Yeah, couldn't agree more, man. I appreciate you sharing your insights on that. All right, let's transition to the best ever lightning round, are you ready? Give me your best ever book recommendation.
Cale Delaney (31:09.55)
Creature from Jekyll Islands. That book is, it's amazing. It's like, after reading that book, it's like, you know, waking up from the matrix. Just learning about how the central banking system works, how money works, and so that, I highly recommend that book to anybody. Especially with the events that are going on today, it really helps explain a lot.
Joe Cornwell (31:29.361)
Yeah. Good and agree more. It's, uh, somebody else recommended on here and, and yeah, I read it about, I don't know, 10 years ago, but it is an eye opening, uh, book for sure. Okay. Give me your best ever way you'd like to give back.
Cale Delaney (31:43.63)
You know, that's an ever evolving thing. I will say just one recent example is I created and did a six week financial literacy course for our high school youth group at church. And I gotta say that was one of the most enjoyable things I've done in a long time. Just teaching them a lot of those same things from the Creature of Jekyll Island, you know, and Robert Kiyosaki, I'm a big follower of his as well, but teaching them those concepts and just seeing those light bulbs going off.
And I mean, they were literally the whole time they were like, why, why are we not being taught these things? Why is nobody teaching us these things in school, right? Their minds were blown. So that was really, really enjoyable. I hope to expand upon that more as well.
Beyond that, I guess I'm actively involved in my church otherwise and some other charitable organizations as well, but that's something I'd like to expand on.
Joe Cornwell (32:41.461)
Very cool. And give me a mistake you made in one of your deals and a lesson you learned from it.
Cale Delaney (32:47.79)
Uh... You know, I think...
I think it just goes to relationships. I think as you go more and more into real estate, you understand that it more and more is about relationships. And I think at the very beginning, especially when I was new, I was anxious, didn't have a lot of money. And so just kinda, and coming from a construction management background, the contractors out in that area work a little bit differently. And so trying to manage things like I managed things when I was working that job did not really go over too well with some of those people I was working with in the beginning and so caused some friction in some of those relationships.
And that area is a very small town mentality. And so things can kind of spread and get out of proportion. So that did create some difficulties in the beginning. So that's something that I've focused on a lot more and understand that concept and your audience better.
Joe Cornwell (33:57.405)
Yeah. And that's a great point. I, I'm not exactly sure, uh, what the phrase is, but it's, it's when you start a real estate, you think it's like a brick and mortar business. You're dealing with assets and physical structures. When you scale in real estate, you realize it's just a people business. And that's where the skill sets become most important is dealing with people.
Cale Delaney (34:16.782)
Yeah, absolutely.
Joe Cornwell (34:18.825)
Very cool man. Well my last question is where can people learn more about your company, what you guys are doing and how they can connect with you.
Cale Delaney (34:27.79)
Yeah, so you can find me on Facebook or Instagram, Cale Delaney, you can also find us, we have the Fit Investor podcast and community on Facebook as well. So that's part of our mission in just creating a faith-based, Christian-based platform for successful entrepreneurs to talk about how to be fit financially, physically, and faithfully is our tag. So you can look that up on Facebook or Apple, Spotify, all those good places.
Joe Cornwell (34:54.537)
Very cool, we'll be sure to link to that in our show notes as well. Kale, thank you so much for joining us today. I appreciate you diving into your short-term rental business. I know I learned a lot as an area that I haven't done a lot of business in and I appreciate you sharing it with our audience.
Cale Delaney (35:08.302)
Absolutely appreciate the opportunity.
Joe Cornwell (35:10.793)
Best ever listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to leave us a five star review and share this episode with someone who could benefit from it. Make sure you follow and subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss anything. Thank you all for listening. Have a best ever day.
