What It Really Takes to Finance an STR With an SBA Loan with Jamie Folk

Jamie Folk (0:00)

Don't think you're ever going to get rich by getting a job that will make you rich.

I think you got to do it on your own. No one's going to hand it to you, and especially not the people that you work for, because they are a business and it's their business to make money. And paying you goes against, the amount of value that you give them is nowhere close to the value that they pay you. So the only way you're going to get that value is to go into business for yourself.

Avery Carl (0:40)

Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode of The Short Term Show. We've got a super cool guest for you today. His name is Jamie Folk. He owns in three different markets. Two of them are in the Northeast. I, as always, am your host, Avery Carl, and Jamie, how's it going?

Jamie Folk (0:55)

Great, Avery. Thank you for having me. I am a big fan. I read your book and it was awesome.

Short Term Rental, Long Term Health, Long Term Wealth, yep.

Avery Carl (1:04)

Long Term Health.

Jamie Folk (1:05)

Yeah, hopefully both, right?

Avery Carl (1:10)

Well, thank you very much for reading. I am very interested to hear about your portfolio as I'm sure our listeners are.

First, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up becoming a short-term rental investor.

Jamie Folk (1:24)

Well, I was looking for ways to diversify. I work in biotech and I have worked in biotech in the Boston area for the past 20 years and I was looking to diversify my portfolio. But prior to that, I always wanted to just own a home either on a lake or on the water.

My family had always, they're from Pennsylvania, from York, PA, and they had always, and I have always, vacationed on the Jersey Shore in Wildwood, New Jersey.

I just ended up in 2020, right before the pandemic, buying a house on the Jersey Shore, a block away from the beach. It's a single-family home. If people in the audience know anything about the Wildwood, New Jersey, everything there is like a duplex or a condo and this was a single-family, it really stood out even though it was never used as a short-term rental.

My mom had actually house hacked and done bed and breakfast stuff. So I knew growing up that she had done that and had success with it. I'm like, okay, well, if I buy this place, I want to rent it out to try to make my mortgage payment or help make my mortgage payment a little easier. Of course, I had this big plan and then the pandemic hits.

Which was a blessing and a curse because we got the house super cheap prior to the pandemic and then right when it hits, the value went like as everything did at that time. For places by the water went up and up and up. Believe it or not, I did rent out a good portion that summer. People wanted to get out of their homes and having a single family home was hugely beneficial with a fenced in backyard and we made it pet friendly to highly compete in that market. First year, we did all right. Second year, we did much better.

The last few years, we've actually been cash flowing it, even though that wasn't our intent upfront. That was my history with that home. Then I read, what's the name of that? Oh yeah, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That really set my brain, lit my brain on fire with this investing because of what it said about real estate, and wealth, and how you acquire wealth. It was from there, a few years, convincing my wife, really into purchasing another vacation home. Then I read your book, and you had said in there, and I listened to your podcast as well, and you had said, I think a couple of times, that you should invest in places that you know, so you really know the market going in, in places that you like to vacation. I did that in Bar Harbor, Maine up in Acadia. I don't know, have you ever been there?

Avery Carl (4:22)

I've never been. I've been to Portland, but I haven't been up to Bar Harbor.

Jamie Folk (4:25)

Yeah, it's a hike. It's way up there, but it's beautiful and people absolutely love it. I knew it from trying to get a place up there. It's always booked out. I rented a place right on the water again there in 2025 That's where I really took the plight. For years, I was thinking about it, thinking about it. Then my job was taking a turn. I knew they were probably going to lay me off at my job. I'm like, you know what? I'm getting to the age where I want to think about retirement. What's my retirement strategy? I want my retirement strategy to be doing Airbnb, short-term rentals for the foreseeable future.