Austin Walker has been disrupting the real estate industry, buying dozens of properties and renting them out. Today I had the privilege to sit down and ask Austin the questions we’re all wondering, Austin how are you doing?
Amazing! I’m fired up to be living at this time with such great opportunities. Happy to talk more about it with you today.
Can you explain what it is you do?
Sure, I invest into buying properties, mostly apartment units, and then I rent them out through Airbnb. It’s a good way to generate passive income.
What made you get into the Airbnb space?
I was brainstorming ideas on how I could make more money and I came up with this. I needed a space I could win in and just happened upon Airbnb.
What were your biggest obstacles you had to overcome while starting this?
I would say hiding from the leasing office as Airbnb was a breach of my leasing agreement. I had to weigh my options and ultimately decided this was a risk I was willing to take. I also was in a situation where my business partner at the time stole hundreds of thousands of dollars and tried to have me thrown in jail on made up charges that he knew might stick because of my past history.
Wow, that’s a lot to go through. What inspired you to keep moving forward when you felt like giving up?
I trusted my vision and knew that my formula could work if I just pushed through.
After how many years did you see success?
One’s definition of success is directly related to how you were doing before taking on the project. Prior to doing Airbnb, I was fresh out of prison living at my mother’s house and doing yard work to keep my stay. Success was felt instantly because I no longer lived at my mom’s house. I had a game to play everyday and I became addicted to it. Within a years time, I had 12 apartments and was making over 20k a month profit.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs starting their first business?
Find something where you’re not having to trade time for money. There are only so many hours of the day and only so many hours you can spend working. Even if you’re making $50 an hour, ask yourself if $400 a day is good enough for you. If your answer is yes then business is not for you, working for someone is. But if your answer is no, then you’ll really have to start thinking outside the box.
Well Austin, thank you for taking the time to sit down with me today, and more importantly, thanks for sharing the value with our readers!
