All Forum Posts by: Stephen Keighery

You actually can't AirBnB in the French Quarter and the garden district so areas around that are good as these are big tourist attractions but people can't stay in an AirBnB in them. Also keep in mind the parade routes for Mardi Gras. If you can be on the route you will be able to charge very high rates over the Mardi Gras Period. I am not an AirBnB expert so you could probably get more specific advise from someone who is. I 

I am  not an expert on AirBnB but from what I know you need to have a homestead exemption to run an AirBnB in residentially zoned properties. If you buy a house with commercial zoning you can rent 25% of 1 unit (what ever is higher) of the property as AirBnB. It is obviously a great city and tourism is a huge industry so if you can get a good property to AirBnB then there is lots of demand for tenants. 

I am not sure who is best as haven't shopped around alot but can tell you that Gulf Coast Bank is good to work with. 

I thought I had read all of Roberts books but didn't know about this one. I am going to jump on this now. If its half as good as his other ones then I will be happy. 

I finally just got notified that I am eligible for the loan. I noticed they checked my credit file about a week ago. It is asking to pick and amount to go for between $1,000 and $28,000. It does state that this does not mean the loan is approved and it will still be reviewed. Has anyone gone through the next steps of picking an amount? Curious what the next level of review are. @Natalie Kolodij have any of your clients gone through this?

That would classify as SPAM so its not something you could legally do. You will also find the skip traced email addresses are pretty bad so it would also likely get a lot of bounces and spam traps so could hurt the reputation of whatever IP you send from so not worth it. If you are looking for a low contact way to reach out to the list you should try text messaging. The legality of that is debated but if you are sending one at a time (Even through a program like lead sherpa) and are not selling anything (you should be buying something right?) then lots of people say it is legal. There are lots of case of lawsuits so do your own homework. 

Hey Eddie, I got an E2 Visa which is a business investment. You need to have invested a "significant sum" into a business over here and show a business plan that will employee 5 or more US Citizens within 5 years. The significant sum is very subjective but essentially it is enough to in initially capitalize the business. If your business is capital intensive it would need to be a large amount and vice versa. My application was 300 pages so there is a fair amount of work to put in to get it. It took awhile and the waiting was frustrating but I didn't get much push back on my actual application when it was all said and done. I do have a solid track record of building businesses in Australia so this probably helped my application.

Yes Sydney is amazing. I miss the beaches and harbor. I didn't leave because it was bad, New Orleans just pulled me in a different way. The icing on the cake was property is much cheaper here and there are many more opportunities for investment. In the end a good mix of business and pleasure made the move make sense to me. 

I am born and raised in Sydney, Australia as was my parents and my wife and her parents. This is a beautiful city and there is a lot to offer. We would traveled to the United States regularly and have a goal to go to all 50 states (We are currently up to 28). Our favorite state is New Orleans, there is just something special about the city. The culture is infectious and the food is to die for for. I sold out of my company in Australia and we took the opportunity to take a 6 month vacation in New Orleans. 2 months into our 6 month vacation we knew we couldn't leave. That was 2 years ago and we actually ended up buying the AirBnB we were staying in on a lease option so never even left it. I now flip houses and wholesale in New Orleans full time and enjoy soaking in the culture, good food and good times. I am not sure what is store economically in the near future as the city is heavily reliant on tourism and oil, but the people are resilient and as an investor I have different strategies for different market cycles so think the future is bright here. Come for a vacation and check it out, who knows you may never leave. 

My business name is Home Buyer Louisiana so I think you know what my opinion is on the matter. 

If you can't pull lists then you should think about more inbound campaigns. Things like SEO, SEM, facebook marketing etc so that you get people calling you who are distressed and looking to sell. Also if you add creative finance to your tool belt you may be able to convert a lot more of those "cold" leads.