How to Build Passive Income with Airbnb Rental Arbitrage Without Owning Property - Linda Kim

Sebastian Rusk 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk. Kim, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. Super excited. I'm super excited to have you here. I know that uh you and I literally just met about a week ago. Uh typical product of being in the right room around the right people. You meet other great people that you want to build a relationship with and get them on your podcast and see where that goes. So so great to meet you last week in uh in Dallas. Our friends at Sphere Rocket hosted a very unique hybrid golf tournament slash mastermind event where we had sessions and speakers and networking in the morning, golf in the afternoon, and then more networking and hanging out in the evening time. And I'm telling you, we crave experiences as business owners and entrepreneurs. If we have to go to one more conference with the same speakers, regurgitating the same message over and over again, you know, I'm gonna punch a baby. Like a real one? That's an old Dane Cook joke. Can't take credit for that one. But uh yeah, it was a lot was a lot of fun last week. We were just talking before we started the interview here. Uh it was hot. It was the Texas heat, but we had a good time.

Linda Kim 1:37

Yeah. We go off in hundred degree weather, two days in a row. Three days.

Sebastian Rusk 1:42

On purpose.

Linda Kim 1:43

Yeah, yeah.

Sebastian Rusk 1:44

Like on purpose.

Linda Kim 1:45

Yeah, we didn't get paid for that.

Sebastian Rusk 1:47

No, we didn't. We didn't we didn't. We didn't at all. But um I know you and I met um the first night. Um, we had a little mixer there, and uh I got some Orange County, uh, California roots uh where you're based. So we chatted it up about that. I know you're in the Airbnb business. You built something that you're really proud of uh and excited about. And as I followed your content, I thought, you know what, there's always a story behind a brand that's that's that's built and someone who shows up like you do. And I want to I want to find out more about that story. So I want to invite you to be on the show so we can we can talk about that. I believe that our stories inspire people because we really don't know what um level of the journey that they're at. Some people are just getting started, some people are restarting, some people are in the thick of it, some people are trying to take it to the next level. Whatever it is, the goal of this show is to take conversations and hopefully they're meeting you exactly where you are right now. And if you press play on this episode, there are no mistakes. Um it's divine timing that you press play, and whatever you're gonna hear today is what you needed to hear. So I'm excited to jump in. So let's let's do that. Linda, uh I always like to go back to the beginning of the story uh to give our listeners some context. Now, the beginning is different for everyone. Sometimes um, you know, it started after high school, sometimes it started after college, sometimes it started years after that. So you decide what that starting point is, but let's spend a few minutes and and bring us back to the beginning of the story of where this all started.

Linda Kim 3:22

Yeah, the whole journey for Airbnb, just everything. Life, D, all the above.

Sebastian Rusk 3:27

Yeah.

Linda Kim 3:28

Yeah. So I grew up with parents that weren't in nine to five. So I always thought the traditional route was go to college, get the nine to five, retire at 60, and then pass away, you know, several years later. So that's just what I thought I was gonna be doing. And I was on track to do that. So I was in tech my whole life, and I was going through really hard divorce. So that marriage, I you know, I was with someone that I settled, and I just thought, like, I'm just gonna do this forever. Like everything was very complacent, stuck. I was in a cycle. And so it wasn't until I finally left that after my best friend of 20 years passed away, I it was like a wake-up call of life isn't forever. And I'm really not, I don't want to live like this for the rest of my life. So I ended up leaving the marriage. And a year after I hired a mentor because I wanted to make more money and I didn't know how. I just found Airbnb online and thought, okay, I'm just gonna try this as a side hustle. And I started my Airbnb. Three weeks later, I get laid off. So I'm going through the divorce, single parent, uh, just started a side hustle, and a couple months later, I just never went back to corporate.

Sebastian Rusk 4:38

And then how so and how long ago was that?

Linda Kim 4:41

That was about four years ago. So yeah.

Sebastian Rusk 4:44

And how's it been so far? I know you've created you've you've built an Airbnb business. Let's talk about how that all started to take shape as you were. It's amazing what happens when you you jump off the cliff. Um, I always say when you jump off the cliff, one of two things is gonna happen. You're gonna learn how to fly or God's gonna catch you and teach you.

Linda Kim 5:02

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because it was scary because I I was applying for jobs for a while because that's just what I all I knew. Like, okay, you get laid off, you go back in. And it felt really weird being at the gym at noon. Like I felt like I should be at work. And then like a couple months later, I'm like, I don't even want to go back to corporate. And so I just never went back. And now I would never go back to corporate. But yeah, it just really um I started hitting six figures within several months of doing Airbnb, which took me forever to hit in corporate. And so I just never went back and I just kept scaling across the country, and then that quickly turned into a coaching business because people were asking me how I did it. So now I'm running the coaching business and the Airbnb and a design business.

Sebastian Rusk 5:45

Wow. So where did it all start with the Airbnb stuff?

Linda Kim 5:51

Yeah, so I started in California and I I did learn from a mentor. I spent $35,000 hiring a mentor at the time. Super scary, huge risk. And I never hired mentors before that. So it wasn't like I knew the ROI. I just thought I just don't want to keep doing this. And I made, you know, exponentially more after that, obviously. It was totally worth it. But um, yeah, so I just scaled across California, Texas, and also uh designed business for Airbnbs. I do that uh nationally. Cool. What's that all about? Yeah, so people started asking me, oh, like can you design my Airbnb? And so I started doing that, and organically my mentor would send me clients, so that turned into a whole business. So I virtually uh will help people design their Airbnb, and then they're just getting higher profits right when they hit the listing. Because yeah, Airbnb is all about design.

Sebastian Rusk 6:45

So sure. Yeah. Like, yeah, but we uh that's what people always say. We stayed in a really cool Airbnb, you know?

Linda Kim 6:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's competitive now, so you have to be on top of it, like design-wise, or you're not gonna survive.

Sebastian Rusk 6:58

Yeah, and I've even heard of like br brands teaming up with Airbnb owners as well, too, and doing product placement and all kinds of stuff.

Linda Kim 7:06

Oh wow. Oh yeah, that that makes sense.

Sebastian Rusk 7:09

So um what what's what's your favorite part of the Airbnb business? Coaching, design, oh, or buying and selling them?

Linda Kim 7:18

That's a good question. So I do arbitrage, so I I rent houses and put them on Airbnb. But I love it because yeah, but it's passive income because I learned how to automate everything. So it's only a couple hours a week and it's yeah, it's amazing.

Sebastian Rusk 7:32

That is amazing. So hold on a second. So well you have a software that does it now. So I mean, I would the first thought someone's gonna have is what if I rent the place and then I can't rent it out via Airbnb and I'm stuck with the rent.

Linda Kim 7:48

Yeah, so I do all the research ahead of time. So I teach people and I learn learn this myself. You have to look at the data. So there's different apps or platforms that you go on, it tells you all the numbers. So you go ahead and you're getting your numbers ahead of time and then picking that city. And then there's a lot of little yeah, moving pieces that work together.

Sebastian Rusk 8:07

And do you do you uh so all the Airbnbs that you own are are are leveraged that way through you renting the property and then renting them through through uh Airbnb?

Linda Kim 8:18

Exactly. Yeah. So I do arbitrage. All so I'm basically uh leveraging other people's properties. So it's super low capital, and you can scale much faster, and then you just put on Airbnb. So you can do this legally. People are like, is this legal? Yeah, so they all the owners know.

Sebastian Rusk 8:35

Right, right. So um and how many Airbnb properties do you have?

Linda Kim 8:40

Uh I acquired 10 in the last uh few years.

Sebastian Rusk 8:43

Fantastic. Very cool. And then so if somebody's listening to this right now, they're like, This is really cool. And I I would love to do this, and I would learn to love do this. Is this where your coaching program comes in?

Linda Kim 8:54

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I've helped even the stay-at-home mom. She had five kids, hadn't worked in a while. She hit surpassed hundred thousand dollars in four months of joining my coaching program, and it's passive income. So you can easily just go, you know, do another business or not even work or travel.

Sebastian Rusk 9:12

And how long are the how long how long are you renting? How long are the leases for the places that you're renting?

Linda Kim 9:17

I do it for a year at a time just to feel out if I want to stay there, if it kind of goes both ways. So every every single landlord has renewed every year because we take care of the properties and it's staged all the time. So there's a lot of different benefits for landlords, like they they don't realize that.

Sebastian Rusk 9:35

Yeah. That sounds that sounds occurring. So, but uh that there's a lot of um condos and apartment buildings that frown upon that stuff. Are you able to like you're in you're in Orange County? Could you go to an Irvine Company apartment complex and go sign a lease?

Linda Kim 9:50

Probably well, I mean, under the radar, but not probably not legally. Okay, uh, yeah, I know. So I do single family homes too, because you make a lot more money with single family. Right. And yeah, yeah. And apartments you can do it on some of them, but I would rather just get a house because what you make on five apartments could be one big house. Right. Yeah.

Sebastian Rusk 10:11

And how what's the occupancy rate on on a property when you're when you're on the hook like that?

Linda Kim 10:18

Typically it's like 70 to 90 percent. 90 over 100 sometimes, yeah.

Sebastian Rusk 10:22

So covering the rent's no big deal. That's like Oh yeah, no, yeah.

Linda Kim 10:26

100%, yeah, exactly. Because you make at least double or triple the rent uh or profit. So anywhere from like five to fifteen thousand dollars profit per house.

Sebastian Rusk 10:34

How much do people need to get started? I mean, above and beyond joining your coaching program, um, what what is like what's like the minimum investment to do something?

Linda Kim 10:43

So you basically just need first month's rent and then deposit. So if your rent is $4,000, you would need $8,000. And then the rest is furniture. So a lot of people will finance furniture on credit cards. But if you pay, you know, with cash, then it's three times the rent.

Sebastian Rusk 11:00

And when when someone gets started with this, do they have to, does it have to be local? Do they have to go to the property and get all this stuff situated?

Linda Kim 11:06

Yeah, initially you would want to go and set it up, but the student that I mentioned, she got three properties in four months. Those were out of state. And she had kids. So she was able to go out there set it up because it runs with your team after that. So the the one in Texas, I got uh one in Texas. I only went there once in the whole year. So you really don't need to be out there.

Sebastian Rusk 11:29

So you don't spend a lot, so you it's like a one and done type deal.

Linda Kim 11:33

Yeah, because you can manage it remotely. So you have your team in that city that's gonna go check up on stuff for you. So you set up the whole system. Uh yeah. So it's yeah, so many benefits.

Sebastian Rusk 11:46

I know I had no idea. I mean, I've heard of I've heard of this, but yet always seems like it's a bunch of, you know, it's a lot of work, and that that wouldn't really be for me. Let's talk about the competitive side of things because you've you said it's very, very competitive out there. So you have to be really good at what you do and and deliver a quality product.

Linda Kim 12:05

Yeah, exactly. So it is very competitive because 10 years ago, I didn't do Airbnb 10 years ago, but people I've I know were like, oh, it was so easy back then because it was new, and you could just put crappy furniture and people would stay there and you would make a killing. But those days are over because now it's saturated, but you can still make a lot if you design it well and you pick the right areas. It's super lucrative. So, because not that many people are doing it nicely, right? Yeah.

Sebastian Rusk 12:33

So you have 10 properties, and do you plan on acquiring more?

Linda Kim 12:37

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So I'm just trying to figure out which city I want to go to next, probably Arizona or possibly Florida.

Sebastian Rusk 12:45

Yeah, Florida, where the world moved.

Linda Kim 12:48

Exactly. Including you.

Sebastian Rusk 12:51

Yeah, well, no, I'm from here. I didn't migrate here. Yeah, I know I'm from I'm from I went, I came back to Miami.

Linda Kim 12:57

Okay, you okay?

Sebastian Rusk 12:58

It's a little different. I don't know what the hell took people took people so long to realize Miami's a great place to live. But uh gee, thanks for driving the cost of living up, and there's people everywhere. So California is I heard a bunch of people moved to California recently, but then I also hear a bunch of people left California too. So I don't know why I don't know what the hell's going on out there. Um so what's next for you? It's it's you know, we're we're winding down 2026, which is wild to even say what do you what do you got going on for the rest of the year and and into 2027 that's got you excited?

Linda Kim 13:31

Yeah, so I'm super excited just about scaling my coaching business because I'm just I get to help more people. And so it's really cool to see people from literally like teenagers to 70s that are my students from men, women, every you know, different ethnicities. And so that's been really awesome. And I also speak at events across the country, which I love doing, and then also um writing a book. So those are my top three things right now.

Sebastian Rusk 13:59

Love that. How did you get started speaking at events?

Linda Kim 14:02

Yeah, so I got invited by somebody to tell my story in Miami, actually. And then one thing led to another, and then I became business partners with uh someone named Shane. He's huge in real estate. So we started doing real estate events together. So it it kind of happened organically, but I used to be like afraid of that public speaking. So I made myself do it, and now I'm like used to it.

Sebastian Rusk 14:26

And now you're a badass. Yeah, I live for it. I you know, I I I can understand how people are like intimidated by it. Yeah, especially when they first get started. I um I live for it. I was like, let's go.

Linda Kim 14:40

I love that.

Sebastian Rusk 14:41

Room full of people and a microphone. I'm ready.

Linda Kim 14:44

Were you always like that? Because I heard it's the like second, is it fear?

Sebastian Rusk 14:49

Like yeah, yeah, yeah. It is, yeah. People's number one fear is dying. Second is public speaking. Second is dying. First is public speaking. I always say, riddle me that one. Well, you know, I always like to say, you know, I mean, you're you're it's all the fear main mainly exists in our minds. So, you know, who's missing out because you're not showing up. Yeah, who's missing out on you? You know what I mean? You can say one thing that could forever alter the trajectory of somebody's life. I think that's a pretty big deal, you know.

Linda Kim 15:16

I agree. Yeah, that's exactly the mindset I had to get into. So right.

Sebastian Rusk 15:21

How long did it take you to do that?

Linda Kim 15:23

Uh, I think within a few months, because at first you're focused on how do I look, how do I sound, but like no one really cares about that. They just care about what you have to say. So I I had I had to understand. I think people started coming up after my first speech in Miami, like crying and saying that I like really resonated with them, my story, just being open. So I think I really saw the power of me sharing my story.

Sebastian Rusk 15:47

Yeah.

Linda Kim 15:48

Yeah.

Sebastian Rusk 15:49

Yeah, it gets fucking weird when they come up and start crying, but you got to be compassionate, you know what I mean? Yeah. You're like, this just got fucking weird, but I don't even know you. You're fucking crying, you know. But uh no, I'm just kidding. I'm such a sap. I'll start crying with him. Well, Linda, I love what uh I love what you've built here, and I love how you show up. And uh, it's been great to to connect with you and and call you a friend now. And I can't wait to play some golf next time uh I'm in Orange County. Um and uh wishing you and keep keep doing what you're doing. It matters. You're obviously making an impact and a difference through your coaching, through your speaking, helping change lives through the work that you're doing, uh, which is it it it really uh exemplifies the the the the quote lift as you climb. And that's really what we're here to be able to do um as we as we build our businesses and brands and dreams, etc. So keep doing uh what you're doing. Any final thoughts for our listeners?

Linda Kim 16:50

I think always take the risk. If there's something that you keep thinking about that comes into your mind, because I didn't do anything for decades. I knew that I wanted to change my life, but I was too scared. So just do it because it's gonna change your life.

Sebastian Rusk 17:04

Yes, it is. Yeah. Linda, you're a gem. Keep rocking and rolling. Thanks so much for your time. It was great to have you on the show.

Linda Kim 17:10

Uh, thank you so much.

Sebastian Rusk 17:12

Until next time, friend. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you're so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, LaunchLab.com studios. I'll talk to you next time.