[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to the Short Term Show. The show about short term rentals and long term wealth with real property owners hosting real properties who are crushing it in the vacation and short term rental space.
And here's your host, Avery Carle.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey, all. Welcome to another episode of the Short Term Show. Today we have our Galveston and Crystal Beach, Texas agent, Kelsey Ardouin to chat with us about what works in that market. We haven't talked about that market that recently on the show, so we wanted to give you guys an update, remind you that it's there.
Typically a lot of, a lot of Texans buy in that market, but it's a good market to invest in even if you're not from Texas. You and Kelsey is going to tell us what's been working for her, what's been working for her clients and how to be successful in this market. How's it going, Kelsey?
[00:01:00] Speaker C: It's going great.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: So I wanted to talk about how to set up a beach house because in this market you're really catering to big groups and that's, that's where the money is to, to cater to big groups. And sometimes people will create a. They'll have a house and they'll just make it a pretty place to sleep. And that's. If that's all you do, you're making a mistake because people want to have a good time.
Even if the house inside isn't as cute, they will book somewhere that has more fun built into the house.
So I was going to show you what we did with our property. Okay, am I able to share my screen?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: You should be able to.
And guys, if you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple podcasts, you'll be able to see the video on our YouTube channel.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: Okay, so this was the house that we bought back in 2023.
And this is generally what it looked like. It had a lot of like, probably every bed was broken in some way, shape or form. You know, it was like little cheapies.
Shower curtains.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks new but very bare.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: It's like apartment style and quality of furniture and very, yeah, very bare bones.
So we kept like the corel plates and the bar stools and we. And this one chair. And we pretty much got rid of everything else that wasn't like a kitchen item.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: All right, and for people who are listening, how big is this house?
[00:02:36] Speaker C: It's a five to six bedroom house and on the mls, it's five bedrooms because you walk through, not really a loft area, but you walk through the game room area into the bedroom.
So we use the loft game room area as the bedroom slash game room.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: So, and then here, let me get through the end of the picture so you can see the outside. So they did have bar stools, and it did have some tables and chairs, but it didn't have a whole lot else.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: So you had some bar stools and tables and chairs underneath. So, guys, for those of you listening, this is a beach house that's on the piling. So underneath the house, they have like a little bar area set up.
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Yeah. And let's talk about that for just a second. So the area underneath the house, like the whole footprint of the house on the ground floor, that is basically like a big deck. It's not, but that's a shady space that your guests are going to hang out at. Which is why I never sell somebody what I call a squatty beach house. Like, if it's like 8ft off the ground, it's not going to be comfortable from a head height standpoint to hang out there. So I never sell somebody a squatty beach house.
All of this area, you know, it's hot in Texas. It's hot teaching 10 out of 12 months of the year. And honestly, that's one of the reasons why it does so well, is because people want to get out of, you know, Houston, go somewhere fun. And you're near the water.
It's.
There's, you know, it's breezier and then there's this whole shady area under the house to go hang out at. And it does stay significantly cooler underneath.
So let me show you what we did with it.
So this is what it looks like now.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: Oh, wow, Hot tub. You got some strand lights.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Yep. We had all kinds of games. So big games that photograph well, it
[00:04:47] Speaker B: looks beachy, like life size Jenga. Is that what that is?
[00:04:52] Speaker C: Yeah, Life size Jenga and ladder ball. We have cornhole.
This is a playground. We have a fire pit out in the yard.
And they're not expensive amenities.
What I oftentimes people is other than the hot tub, which that'll run you like 7,8000 and then 2000 to hardwire it, we want to spend hundreds of dollars to make thousands of dollars.
So we're spending a, you know, 80 bucks on ladder ball, 50 bucks on giant Jenga, 100 bucks on giant Connect 4, and all of these things you set up in your photos because you got to get credit for it.
And people say, oh, wow, I don't have that stuff at my house. That's why I'm not just going to go take A day trip. I'm going to spend the whole weekend there with my friends because most people are splitting a house with more than one family or they're having a big family reunion.
Crystal beach and Galveston really shine when it comes to large groups because it's such a low ask to have a group of people meet you at a beach house in Crystal beach or Galveston.
If you wanted to get that same group of people together and go fly to. I don't know, Destin, you could. You could do that. But that involves renting cars and booking flights and all of the logistics. And here it's like, oh, do you guys want to get a beach house? Okay, I found one. Okay. Your part is this much. Venmo me and then drive an hour and a half.
That's low ask.
So, yeah, we just did things right. A lot of it's like local art.
A big mistake that people make also is they try to take what they think is beachy or they go Hobby Lobby beachy, and they decorate that way. I. If I never see a sign that says beach again, it will be too soon. I am so tired of signs that say beach or, like, beach rules or whatever. Different Hobby Lobby things people come up with.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Lots of.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Lots of signs.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Also landscapes of beaches that aren't this one. Why. Why would we do that? That is weird.
It also is not a sailing location. I mean, does it exist? Yes. Is it common? No. So the sort of Cape Cod, like, beaches.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: That's always weird. The, like, Nantucket thing in Florida always kills me. Yep.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: It is not. Don't do that.
So what I have is, I have stuff that's local. Like, I don't really see, like, you know, we see there's a lot of fishing here.
There's a lot of shrimping. There's lots of people who look for shells. There's tons of birding.
This area is actually very well known for birding.
The Audubon Society has land down here.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Oh, that living room looks a lot better every. Okay, you've got. So let's talk about what all you're showing me in these pictures right now.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: Yeah. So we've got a leather couch that's on purpose because people will sit on your white linen couch that you thought was cute and beachy, and then they'll make a big wet spot, a big wet bum spot.
And then your couch is eventually just trash. So don't do that. Make it wipeable. And I got, like, a spill guarantee on mine. And each one of these cushions come off. So I Assume that this is a Wayfarer couch.
I assume that if one cushion gets ruined, they're just going to send me a new cushion.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:34] Speaker C: So I couldn't. So this is a louvered garage, and I just couldn't take any more brown. So we got a mural done.
It does have the beach house name. I'm sure people use it. But my actual purpose for it was just to break up the brown.
And even though people do paint underneath the house, it becomes a maintenance thing. So we are not going to paint this one.
We have swinging chairs, Giant jingo. Lots of places for people to sit, swinging chairs, bar stools, and then these tables. And then behind here is where the hot tub is.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. You have a lot of matching furniture down there.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So there's a place called Chairs by Bill. There's one called Island Time Design, and people just buy furniture locally, and then they deliver it, or you can go pick it up and bring it to your house. It's nice. They make it locally, and that's what I recommend. I think it's a huge mistake for people to try to buy. I don't go on Wayfair and buy cheapy deck furniture or furniture with cushions.
Like I said, it's breezy. Those cushions are going to end up in somebody else's yard.
It's not going to work out, and it's not going to be made of, like, galvanized material, and they're going to get rusty, and they're usually really lightweight. So the chairs get knocked over and break and things like that.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I always. In any market, tell people, just invest in the polywood furniture. Just do that. It's expensive. I know, but if you buy the plastic version, it's going to break. And a season or less. Just get the polywood. You won't regret it.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Hollywood looks really nice, and I do like it. I do think it's expensive.
I do kind of feel like it gets hot.
And to me, I feel like I'm unsticking my legs from the back of a Hollywood chair.
And these are pretty affordable. Like, I think they're like $100 a chair for these that are wooden. And it's predominantly what people buy in the market.
But, I mean, polywood's really nice. It's just. Do you. Is that just depends on what your budget is.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I like it because it looks. You get the bright colors, and it looks so good in the pictures that it really does elevate a listing. Even if they don't use them, even if they don't sit in them, it just helps everything look nicer in the listing photos.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot of times what people do for these is they'll get chairs and they're like, you know, maybe they're a couple years old and they'll, they'll pay somebody to come paint them. So you get those pops of color, which is nice as well. I have that at my other house.
But yeah, if you want to spend, if you got polywood money and want to spend on polywood, you can absolutely do it.
[00:11:35] Speaker D: Thank you for joining us. Here at the Short Term Shop, we help real estate investors like you buy and sell vacation homes.
We operate in over 20 true vacation markets across the United States.
If you have more questions about buying and selling, join us every week for a live Q and a@str questions.com that's strquestions.com this program has been brought to you by the Short Term Shop.
The Short Term Shop is the premier vacation rental real estate agency. And we are hiring real estate agents in the following markets.
Outer Banks, Shenandoah, Virginia, Galveston, Texas, and the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.
If you are a real estate agent in one of these markets or want to move to one of these areas, please contact us.
[email protected] all right, so we've done lots
[00:12:45] Speaker B: of big games, lots of good outside furniture. In that downstairs, not garage area, but under the house area, you've got more art in the living room, you've got a good, I guess that's kind of like a caramel colored fake leather couch for reasons we already explained.
Basically just getting a lot of color and small amenities. Not huge, 20, $40,000amenities, but small amenities to help people, you know, have something to do and hang out. Because you're right. In a market like this, they're just going to the beach, coming back in the house, going out to the beach, coming back in the house. So you want the house to have all the things.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: And I want to cater to a variety of people. So within a group, you have a variety of people. You have some people who just want to sit and look at the, you know, just sit on the deck and drink their coffee and hope no one bothers them.
We've got you covered. Here's the Keurig, whatever kind of coffee you want.
We've got people who want to go to the beach. We got people who probably want to play basketball. We provide basketballs, a beach cart, chairs. We tend to provide affordable things because we don't want to.
We don't want to consider these amenities as so precious that they couldn't be used or worn or whatever. So they're. They're going to get. They're going to get used, and that's the intention.
So, like, I buy books for a beach house. We buy games.
But, like, when I bought the games, honestly, I bought a ginormous box of very gently used board games and picked out the best ones that don't have.
Like, if you lose one piece, you can't play the game. No, we're not. We're not using that. That's got to. It's got to be something. Something that's still playable even if a piece gets lost.
Provide all kinds of books for all sorts of ages. Because let's say it's rainy or the power, I don't know, the electricity goes out or the Internet goes out. We got you covered. There's, like, so many different games and things to do then even on a rainy day, you're going to be entertained.
And of course, we're stocked for kids.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: And you have. I like that you have pictures of the open cabinets and open drawers in your listing so that people can see exactly what is there. So they know if they're trying to make lasagna one night, they can look at these pictures and see exactly what's there. So that's. I think that's a really good move.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: Thanks. I got a high chair. We provide this radio for people to connect to their phones. Because you don't always think about this. That's an item that we personally forget sometimes when we're on vacation is to bring, like, a Bluetooth speaker with us. So it's a Bluetooth speaker. Oh, wow.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Has that ever gotten up and walked away?
[00:15:41] Speaker C: No, it's been there for the, I don't know, two and a half years that we've owned it.
[00:15:45] Speaker D: Oh, wow.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: We're on the honor system.
We got Barbie and Ken here.
[00:15:55] Speaker B: Love it.
You use the refillable shampoo conditioner and body wash that.
That, like suctions onto the side of the shower.
[00:16:07] Speaker C: That one is a.
What is it called?
It has like the sticky tape stuff.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Oh, gotcha.
[00:16:18] Speaker C: And then we provide, like, makeup remover and cotton pads.
I don't even. I don't think it gets used that often, but I think people feel.
I use it when I go.
I think people feel taken care of.
Like, oh, they thought of everything. We get that comment a lot. That, oh, there was everything. They. They wanted for nothing when they stayed there. We had already thought of everything. That they could be doing.
And
[00:16:47] Speaker B: hang on, hang on. Scroll back. So I like that you have these floor to ceiling headboards. So are those. Is that an accent wall that looks like a headboard?
[00:16:57] Speaker C: It's a headboard.
My husband actually built the beds.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: So I came up with the design and he built the headboards and the nightstands so they float. And so you can't really forget anything. Like, there aren't drawers and that's intentional. And you don't hit your feet on the side because it's like recessed.
And then it's easy to sweep underneath the nightstands because they're floating.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: Oh, okay, cool.
[00:17:29] Speaker C: We like them more.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Are more bright colors to just break up, break up the rooms. I like that.
[00:17:37] Speaker C: Yeah, it's kind of a.
I wanted it to not just be like, here's one piece of art. Here's one piece of art. We wanted it to be more interesting.
So each room has like a light theme, but sometimes it's physical stuff that's on the wall. Like a little bit Joe's crap shack without being so overwhelming. So like a surfboard and a life ring. And we have.
We gotta get him Baywatch Ken. And then we did these cool backlit mirrors. We were gonna replace the mirror anyways. And we just wanted to have like a cool factor of something people might not have at home that they thought was cool.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:18:18] Speaker C: And then we provide tampons and toothbrushes and hair dryers.
Speaking of honor system, we've actually a lot of times so we buy one brand from Costco. We don't replace them very often, but we know that things close down at like 10 o' clock at night in terms of like a grocery store.
So if somebody had some sort of emergency, we want to be there for them.
I've even found that probably the next day they've gone to the store and they left stuff. Like they replaced what they used, like when it comes to like the tampons. So like it's like a leave one, take one, leave one system.
So we rarely replace those.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: All right, so what would you recommend for a new, new short term rental investor in this market? What do you recommend they do if they're buying a house like this? That, you know, it's pretty updated. It. It's very like a nice house, but it's just very plain. Like, what are your top five things
[00:19:21] Speaker C: that they need to do at a hot tub?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Okay, hot tub.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: What else you need to maximize how many people can sleep in the house comfortably. Me personally, as a Mom, I do not like a pull out couch. Very rarely am I interested in anyone sleeping in probably the only living space that's in a house because then they just live on that couch and nobody can sit on it. So maybe in some markets there's multiple living spaces, but at beach houses, they're really efficient layouts. So comfortably in bedrooms.
And then I would add stuff that's very photographable.
I would do giant Connect four cornhole is big.
Any, and honestly, any games that you like, something big, life size that goes on the decks, set it up for your photographer, all of those things are good. And if there's room for like an arcade game inside, I would add that.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: Okay, so we're adding color, adding things that are interesting to look at, which are the big.
I, I do like those big Connect four games. Those do add a lot just to the, the pictures that are in the listing. The big connect fours, the big jengas, all that just makes the. Even if the guests don't use it, it just looks really cool in the pictures.
And it's not expensive to do.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: What I tell people all the time is that when somebody looks at my listing, my goal is for them to say, oh great, they have everything.
And that looks like a great time.
All I have to do is bring my people and my luggage and my food.
Take my money.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: Then they whip out their credit card and then they book it and they're happy and some of them come back and we have people now that we've had it for two years who are coming back annually to do their vacation there with their, you know, their big family vacation.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So, all right, so we've got hot tub, we've got the big games, Instagrammable stuff. What else?
[00:21:41] Speaker C: Maximizing sleeping comfortably.
Mm.
Buying a four plus bedroom house.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Four plus, okay, why is that?
[00:21:52] Speaker C: Plus why? Because you're sharing with your. So ideally you are coming down and splitting a house with another family.
It also makes it more affordable if you can do it that way because there's two families that are splitting the booking fees and the cleaning fees and just the total cost of the house.
And so my ideal setup for a house that's four bedrooms is two private king bedrooms, one bedroom that's like, has two side by side queens and then a fourth bedroom that's bunk room. And I always prefer queen over full and XL twin over twin because you don't know if it'll be adults using the room. Could be kids. And anytime I do a bunk bed, at least if I'm putting It in. I'm always doing a built in bunk bed. It elevates it and doesn't make you feel like you're crawling into a tiny kid's bed. The ones that you from the store have like a tiny space to like crawl in.
Yeah. And built in bunk beds are like you could fully sit up in the bed and it makes it where you can maximize sleeping comfortably.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah, we love doing built in bunk beds. When we can, we'll do a king on the bottom and then whatever we can on the top. So sometimes it's a full. Sometimes we've had somewhere on the top. We can do like an L shape of two twins over. Over a king. And that really works well. And we always make sure to add not just,
[00:23:33] Speaker C: I cannot think of the
[00:23:34] Speaker B: word electrical outlets, but also USB outlets too up there so that people can plug in all their stuff.
[00:23:40] Speaker C: It's pretty common in this market to have each bed in a bunk bed with a light and an outlet.
Okay.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Gotta have that. So people can charge their phones and stuff.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Yes.
I don't know that they've gotten advanced enough that they're like, oh well, we'll do a USB plug. But that's. That is the idea.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: I mean USB plugs are almost out of date anyway since you have the little USB C now.
[00:24:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: All right, so what else? What else? For people who maybe have not heard much about Crystal Beach, Texas before, what do they need to know? So it is significantly cheaper than buying on the Florida Gulf coast or Alabama Gulf coast. What else should they know about it? Now that we've kind of gone through a property and looked at, how do we update this without breaking the bank in order to get more bookings for new people, you know, what are they looking for? Why do people come here? Why would they buy here?
[00:24:40] Speaker C: In this market, the bigger the better for the house. Cause you're catering to groups. So we are within driving distance like 2 hour drive of 12 million plus people in the greater Houston area. And so that's, that's who you're. That's probably 75% of your guests will be coming from within two hours and they're able to enjoy like a very low ask vacation with their family, their, you know, maybe their best friends or whoever else and come enjoy the market. And so we cater to those people.
There are, I'm, I think I got under contract this morning on a beachfront four bedroom in Gilcrest for four, nine, what was it? 5.99.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: And it's got a big piece of Land. And so on that land you'll be able to do all those extra things. So you could build things out in the yard to invite them out into the yard and do large things that are very photographable.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: So are there a lot of. I haven't noticed this in the pictures. Are there a lot of pools, A lot of private pools with houses in this market?
[00:25:58] Speaker C: There are not a lot of private pools. I think my theory on that is that traditionally this has been a second home market up until, you know, a couple years back, like when we got into the market.
And so the house is already a splurge.
It's actually the.
You know that a house is a second home when you walk in and it's like furnished with like grandma cast offs. What I call it is because the house was already a splurge. So whenever they updated they're like primary home furniture. They just brought the old stuff to the beach house. That's your number one. Tell that they're not renting it out. Yeah. Or not optimally. And then so putting in a pool is like. They're definitely not doing that. There's also regulations about putting in pools. About the only thing Galveston county cares about because you are in Crystal beach in the unincorporated part of Galveston county, they do care about flooding. So that's the only thing they care about. And part of that is pools. So I think within, I think from the vegetation line or. Oh no, from median high tide back to about 200ft. You can't put in a pool of any kind.
200 to 1,000ft from median high tide. And I could be mistaken. That's where you can put in an above ground pool or you can do a pool in the.
What do you call it, the foundation of the home. So like underneath the house and the concrete they'll do like wading pools. And they look really nice and look like they're very photographable. Look great.
Beyond a thousand feet from median high tide. You can put in a full in ground pool like outside of the foundation of your house.
So it's. And then there's some places that are grandfathered because those rules have changed over time.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: So not. Not many pools at all then you have to be pretty far from the beach to be allowed to have a pool.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: Yes. I have sold exactly two houses with pools. Not to be a third.
Wow. You know, I've worked here. They're. They're not common or you know, maybe they're three bedroom houses and I don't sell a lot of three beds.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: That is an Interesting window, though, for people. So for people who are listening, who really want to buy a beach house, because maybe they want to use it themselves some and they maybe don't have the budget for the Florida Gulf coast or Gulf Shores in Alabama and they feel like they need that private pool to compete. Maybe they scoot over here where that's not common and you don't have to have that and the properties are a little bit cheaper. This might be a really good option for them.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And honestly, you don't have to ask anybody permission to put in a hot tub or a swim spa.
So you can absolutely go that route and find lots of success. And even though it doesn't sound like, oh, wow, a, you know, above ground pool, but people do not care if you do a. A deck surrounding it.
People don't feel any different about it. It looks like a great time, like if you have a way for them to enjoy it, not just like climb up into the pool, but feels more like vacation. And it's a lot more photographable and inviting if you have the deck surrounding the pool. So, yeah, totally agree with that.
Act as about a. It's anecdotal, but I've talked to people who've put in pools and I think the revenue is about 30k. You're higher with the pool even when it's an above ground pool.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: Okay, interesting.
All right, so what else do they need to know before we get to the end of the show about Crystal beach potentially buying there? What it looks like now versus what it looked like a few years ago during the COVID bump.
[00:29:51] Speaker C: So Covid bump, things super went up all at once. There was really low inventory and people got into a bidding war trying to beat the deadline for when financing rules were going to change. And so things just ran up really quickly.
We are at a point now where pricing is back where it was in 2021. So, you know, you have one of those rare opportunities to kind of go back in time and buy in yesteryear's prices.
I think it's a great market.
Sellers are very negotiable.
The prices have come down in my opinion. There's just only up upside from here.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: So it's all a big bump in Covid Prices have kind of come down and it's, you would say, more of a normalized market now.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: I wouldn't say it's normalized. It's a huge buyer's market right now. And that's great for my buyers.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Okay, awesome. Huge buyer's market right now, which a lot of the country is especially in true vacation markets like this.
So, Kelsey, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about Galveston and Crystal beach, how to affordably update your property so that it's attractive for guests, what to buy and a market update. Anything else that you want to say about the market before we sign off
[00:31:10] Speaker C: by a beach house? Before you miss this 2021 prices this?
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Yes. If you want to buy a beach house in this market with Kelsey, email
[email protected] and we will connect you with her and listeners. We will catch you next week.
