We were lucky to catch up with Nick Aja recently and have shared our conversation below.
Nick , appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
Where does one even start? A business and its processes are not built overnight. These come through much trial and error, with eventual success as the result. The idea to open a short-term rental right outside of the Bishop Arts District began around 2018 or so. My girlfriend, and now wife, and I wanted to purchase a home as an investment. We were familiar with the idea of long-term rentals, and had only recently learned about short-term renting. Honestly, I am not sure what brought it to our attention. I do remember that the return on investment was much more per month on paper than that of a long-term rental. It must be understood, though, that this is not true in all short-term renting circumstances. One thing we did know was that we had to provide value, much more value than those around us. Creativity and effort to provide this extra value was required. Location, location, location. This is the number one rule in short-term renting. If you are not where people want to be when traveling, you will have mediocre results. There even comes a point when long-term renting makes more sense. One last mention regarding the idea behind the business was that an incredible amount of time was spent listening to podcasts, reading STR specific books, and dozens upon dozens of hours scrolling through STR Facebook pages.
The day came, and we closed on the house. What’s next? The clock began ticking. We needed to implement technology and software. We needed to design the interior and furnish the spaces. We had to rebuild more than 200 feet of fence for privacy, We had to hire a cleaner and their backups. Hotel Occupancy Taxes. Oh the joy of learning that you owe the City of Dallas 7% monthly (now 9% 01/2023) and the State of Texas another 6% quarterly of gross revenues for hotel occupancy taxes. These are steep figures, in my opinion. These accounts had to be created and managed as well.
The list goes on. You cannot imagine how often you learn about something you need that you were totally unaware of.
All of these tasks were carried out after our work hours and took up most if not all of our weekends. I must give a huge thank you to my wife, because she designed this space like a true professional. She bought it and I put it together. We installed really neat rope swing
chairs for the back porch, and while these are incredibly fun and look great, the labor in the attic to reinforce the structure for their hanging was painful and exhausting. I found a tremendous amount of joy and pride once we completed all of these tasks. In all, we took our time, and finished furnishing in about 3 months. Look, this can be completed much quicker, without a doubt. But, I tell you, in order to truly design a space that you personally enjoy, you must spend a bunch of time and experience the space for yourself. My wife and I lived in the house while we built and designed everything.
Did she like the fact that we would possibly eventually move out of the amazing space? Absolutely not! We are incredibly proud of the final product. Her and I sacrificed a bunch of time together to complete this project. We are truly happy with the result.
We opened the doors of The Aja Casa in March of 2021. We were in business! The reservations began coming through. All weekends were fully booked. The worst part, can you guess? Dealing with and communicating with the cleaner. It is one thing bringing someone into the home and explaining expectations, and another for the cleaner to execute as expected. Frankly, if you tell me that you can clean and turnover short-term rentals, I want to believe you. Lesson learned here – Ask for references. Nothing speaks more about a person or business than a handful of references. To be honest, this is obviously not an easy task, that is, the turnover of an STR. The home must be cleaned completely, floors mopped, dishes put away, linens cleaned and replaced, dog hair removed with rollers, trash removed, backyard surveyed etc.
We ultimately worked our way through three different cleaning crews within nine months. This was honestly exhausting. There were standards to maintain as a five-star STR. The presentation must be perfect and similar for every guest. Standards matter. Fast-forward to today. We have stepped away from the operation of the STR. Through a meticulous handpicking of local short-term rental property managers, we chose one that has met and continues to exceed our expectations. Although we are no longer integral in the operation of this short-term rental, we have grown as a couple and cannot wait to find the next spot to begin the process again.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
First and foremost, I am a husband, I am a friend, and I am a lover of life. My wife, Nuria, has turned me into an avid traveler. Most recently, we spent 10 days in Iceland, exploring the wintery wonderland of frozen waterfalls and glaciers. I am a salesman by trade. I have an amazing family. Life is what you make it in the midst of all that is thrown at you. I am a human that understands humans. My goal in life is to serve others. My wife and I found another awesome way to do so through our first short-term rental.
I learned about the power of real estate around 2017 to 2018. Knowing that this was one of the greatest ways to build wealth, I began putting much of my time into learning all I could. There are so many aspects of real estate which cover a broad range of opportunities. After much time, we settled on the idea of short-term renting, and we felt this was something we could take on and find success with.
Nuria and I set ourselves apart from other short-term rentals in Dallas, because we put such a large amount of time into the design and creation. We knew that due to the abundance of existing rentals, we had to go above and beyond. We hand painted individual planks and created a beautiful master bedroom wall behind the king bed. We put a 50+ inch tv on a huge swing hinge that allows the guest to comfortably watch movies while in bed. Nuria bought real used lassos from Etsy, and horseshoes fabricated to hold shelves on the wall. The space was built specifically to our liking and desire, because we knew that people would enjoy it and even wanted to stay in spaces like the one we were designing. The cost of bypassing detail and spending on a budget is directly correlated with gross revenues, in my opinion.
The Aja Casa was designed with YOU in mind. What would make your stay in Dallas fun, comfortable, and memorable? Even more important than those, did you leave rested? Did you find peace inside the space? This is what The Aja Casa represents.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
What a good question! What has not been mentioned yet is that Nuria and I had planned to live in the home and rent it as a shared space. Well, we learned extremely quickly that this was not going to be the case. Let’s start off by mentioning that the staff hired by Airbnb are not always easy to communicate with. Initially, after a couple messages with Airbnb representatives, I had decided with the approval of this rep that we could list the home as an entire space. If you have short-term renting foresight, you might know where this is headed? The listing went live…. as an Entire Space…. and we lived in the master bedroom. What a disaster! C’mon, Nick, how could you make such a mistake? It just happens. What’s next? Then came the apartment searching. Like really fast. I don’t recall how quickly we made the decision, but we decided that the next move was into an apartment. We moved out. I increased the attic floor space. We put a bunch of our belongings up there. Ohh, this came with a few bad reviews due to the confusion. Thankfully, Airbnb allowed us to delete the listing and begin from scratch. The rest is history. It became a legitimate Entire Space!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
There comes a huge transition when you go from non-business to business minded. Seriously, a lot of give and take. This becomes even more interesting when two people, husband or wife or even partners, are making the decisions simultaneously. Emotions must be removed. Let’s be real here. Most if not all of the decisions we make in life are tied to emotions in one way or another. In business, however, we must not hinge so heavily on these feelings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/797784450605174699?adults=6&location=Bishop%20Arts%20District%2C%20Dallas%2C%20TX%2C%20USA&check_in=2023-01-20&check_out=2023-01-22&federated_search_id=4d8b2ed1-8668-4b2e-8e0d-c0541c059e3a&source_impression_id=p3_1674170486_uJJVGYPMvDg8vc7i
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theajacasa/?hl=bg
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasaja/