April 28, 2025 • 35 mins
In episode nine of The Rent-ish Pod, Zach and Patrick take a trip (at least in their minds) to paradise! First up in Proptology, they dive into The White Lotus and the stunning island properties featured on the show — exploring what it would really take to own a slice of tropical heaven.
Then, it’s your turn: Zach and Pat open the floor to answer listener questions about real estate, rentals, and everything in between.
🏡 Whether you're dreaming of island investing or just curious about the realities of property management, this episode has something for everyone!
🎧 Tune in for laughs, insights, and some serious vacation home daydreaming!
📩 Got a real estate question or a story to share? Email us at questions@therentishpod.com — we’d love to hear from you!
Check Innago at https://innago.com/podcast/ to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Rentish Podcast.
My name is Zach, and I'm herewith my co-host, Patrick.
What up?
We are your hosts for this realestate podcast, a podcast that's
about rental properties andhosted by two guys that work in
the real estate industry andsort of know what they're
talking about.
But mostly don't.
(00:21):
That was good.
You got the catchphrase.
It was like 0.5 second delay,though.
Your reflexes are on it today,man.
I'm telling you.
This is going to be a good one.
Yeah, Patrick, mostly we don't,which is why you'll have fun
hearing us talk to experts andlearning with us or just
laughing along and how little weknow.
We appreciate each and every oneof you for hanging out with us
on this episode of The Rentish.
If you like the show, follow useverywhere that podcasts are
(00:43):
served.
Give us a rating on Spotify orgive that thing a star on Apple
or whatever you do on thosepodcasts.
platforms throw us a commentlike us on Facebook maybe I
don't know wherever you can seeThe Rentish just throw us a
little bit of praise weappreciate that Patrick and I we
need to we need to be humbledyeah yeah great interjection or
(01:05):
a comment how about that acomment or send us an email if
you have a topic suggestion thatyou'd like to send in or a
question for our reader mail youcan always send it to questions
at therentishpod.com pleaseplease we need questions begging
How's your day going, Patrick?
You doing good?
Yeah, I'm good.
Earlier recording session thannormal.
(01:25):
Yeah, it's early afternoon.
I'm not worn down by the weightof the world.
Yeah, I got my tea there that Ifinished.
And now I've got this limesparkling.
Your caffeine-free soda water.
Yeah, this is a byproduct of thehealth journey.
It's really disappointing.
I saw some Dr.
Peppers in the fridge.
Oh, you got tempted.
(01:45):
Is soda your biggest sweettemptation?
Oh, yeah.
I'm not a dessert person.
So a candy doesn't reallyinterest me, but soda.
I was at a point having at leastone soda a day.
Can I interest you in thislovely Coke Zero?
I can't do it.
Zero sugar, which has zerocalories, zero fat, 2% of your
daily sodium.
You can't do it.
No, I just don't like the fake.
Yeah, the diet sugar.
(02:07):
I would rather drink water.
I would rather drink thissparkling lime flavored nothing
than your Coke Zero.
All right.
Well, I agree to disagree.
We got a great show for youtoday.
We're going to talk a lot aboutproperty management, real
estate, and we're going to havefun doing it this week topical
kind of topical I mean the showended a couple weeks ago but
we're gonna talk about the WhiteLotus I'm so excited and no
(02:28):
don't click away you haven'tstumbled upon an entertainment
and pop culture podcast you'veactually you're still listening
to the Rentish but we're gonnatalk about the White Lotus and
the Four Seasons Resort that theseason three was based on the
HBO show we're also gonna dolistener questions so it's gonna
be a jam-packed episode filledwith a lot of fun goodies and I
hope you all have a good timedoing it but Patrick why don't
(02:49):
you leave me Yeah, so like Zachsaid, we are going to be talking
about the Four Seasons co-star.
I'm going to say.
I'll get a pronunciation.
You keep going.
This would have been great to dobeforehand.
When I was reading this article,I kept getting sidetracked and
(03:11):
was watching clips of WhiteLotus instead, and now I find
myself very unprepared for thesegment.
Explain the segment reallyquickly.
This is Real Estate Real, asegment that we started not too
long ago.
It's a joke because it's likereal estate real, like R-E-E-L
is It's the second reel.
The first reel is like R-E-A-L.
That's the whole joke.
It's funny because of spelling.
(03:32):
And it keeps getting funnier.
The longer we explain it, itkeeps getting better.
It is a good yes.
So in this segment, we dive intoiconic properties from TV and
film, exploring their real-worldlocations that they're based on.
Yeah.
Yeah, today, talking, did youfind out?
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
(03:52):
Okay, I was pretty close.
Yeah, close.
So we're heading to Thailandwith the Four Seasons Koh Samui
from season three of the WhiteLotus show.
This is where it is filmed.
So that's what we're talkingabout.
That's why we're talking aboutit.
It's also just a luxuriousproperty, stunning vistas.
I feel like a marketing rep forthe Four Seasons.
(04:15):
Villas, infinity pools,signature locations.
Yeah, yeah.
Definitely one of the mostluxurious locations that we've
talked about in this segment sofar.
Definitely.
But yeah, this is definitelylike you think like luxury
vacation property, man.
You go to this website and likecheck it out.
It's like it is exactly what youpicture when you think like
(04:37):
where's a celebrity going onvacation?
Right.
It's this place.
Do you want to give people?
We're going to talk about WhiteLotus.
Yeah.
But do you want to give thepeople just a very surface
level?
What's your elevator pitch forthe White Lotus in case someone
out there just completely hasmissed what this show is, pop
culture, where it is right now?
Yeah.
So White Lotus is a terrificshow, in my opinion.
And it is about these wealthyindividuals who go to these
(05:00):
White Lotus resorts.
And it's just kind of abouttheir, I'm not going to say
misadventures per se, because Ithink that is a bad pitch.
But it's just like theirsituations that they get into,
which oftentimes are not goodfor the character.
Each season opens with a deathand then that happens in the
last episode of each season.
So it's kind of like there'ssort of a mystery at play.
(05:21):
But yeah, I think it's kind oflike a satire, a comedy.
It's dark all at the same time.
Great dialogue, greatcharacters.
And each season isself-contained.
So it's like an anthologyseries.
So there's not a ton ofcrossover season to season.
Okay, cool.
My elevator just got out.
So that was great.
Great, great pitch.
(05:41):
Good job.
Tell me about the property.
Tell me about the actual resort.
So the resort is located in thenorthwest part of the island.
I assume when they say theisland, they're talking about
Thailand.
I'm assuming that's what thearticle is.
That's the only island I know.
Have you been to Thailand?
I've never been to Thailand.
Is it on your list?
It is on my list.
I love Thai food.
(06:02):
I don't know a ton aboutThailand besides the food, I
guess.
But I would love to go.
It seems like a cool place.
Is it on your list?
I think the nature aspects lookreally, really cool.
Bangkok seems like a crazy busypopulated city but yeah sure I
would say it's on my list it'snot high on my travel
destinations but I will saywatching the White Lotus season
3 it's like man it looksbeautiful so definitely looks
(06:25):
relaxing yeah so in real lifethe Four Seasons Resort where
the White Lotus fictional resortis filmed is perched on a
private hillside with panoramicviews of the Gulf of Thailand
the property blends luxury andlocal design think teak wood
thatched roofs and outdoor rangesurrounded by tropical forest.
Have you ever stayed at a FourSeasons?
(06:46):
I have not.
Have you?
Neither have I.
No.
I don't.
Too luxury for this guy.
Our podcast doesn't make enoughmoney yet.
Yeah.
I'll find a place that's calledThe Motel.
That's all you see on the side.
The Motel.
Yeah, it's like$40 a night orwhatever.
The Motel.
So if the room, I appreciatewhere they're saying, oh, it's
got local design, kind of thatrustic Thailand atmosphere.
(07:10):
Yeah.
If I wake up and there's alizard in my room No, thank you.
Really?
No.
No, are you kidding me?
I love lizards.
Well, they're cool to look atfrom a distance, but I don't
want one sleeping in the samedark room as me.
What if it tries to make a neston my face while I'm sleeping?
Terrifying.
I don't know.
I'm all about lizards.
I'm all about lizards.
(07:31):
I'm all about lizards.
Bugs, I think, is where I woulddraw the line.
Yeah, the bug situation would bepretty rough.
I wouldn't want bugs in my room,but lizards all day long.
Tell me a little bit more aboutthe four seasons.
Yeah, so some fun facts aboutthe four seasons.
on the real estate here.
So foreign ownership in Thailandand the show, it's actually an
American, I think, who owns theresort.
(07:52):
Yeah, I think so.
Well, in Thailand, interestinglyenough, non-Thai citizens can't
legally own land outright inThailand, but they can own
villas via long-term leases,often 30 years or so.
So, yeah.
So it's likely that the peoplethat own the White Lotus and the
show, but like the four seasonsitself would just be a villa on
(08:14):
a long-term lease, notnecessarily owned or Thai-owned.
Right, which I thought that waskind of interesting.
Yeah, that is cool.
The Koh Samui, right?
Koh Samui?
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
It's actually part of Thailand'sgolden triangle for luxury real
estate alongside the Phuket andBangkok.
It's one of the most in-demandregions for high-end villa
investment by foreigners.
(08:35):
Cool.
And then high-end resorts inThailand are often hidden from
main roads and signage toenhance the sense of exclusivity
Something that also addsperceived value and mystique to
the properties.
Which I think in the show itvery much seemed like not in
part of civilization.
It just seemed like this resortright in the jungle.
Which I thought was really cool.
One of the coolest things, and Itruly don't know if I'll ever
(08:57):
live a life luxurious enough toarrive at my hotel via boat.
Where it's like, at the verybeginning of the season they get
off the boat and they literallygo up to the sand shore to get
off their boat and walk up tothe resort.
Where it's like, where's thedriveway?
It's like all the hotels I haveusually have free complimentary
overnight parking, but it's likeif you're going to the Koh
(09:20):
Samui, you actually have to sailto your destination or whatever,
but it does make it look likeyou're living on another planet.
Like you've arrived to thisplace of luxury.
It doesn't feel like you're partof normal society anymore.
It's cool.
I think that's part of theappeal.
And we'll talk about if that'sworth the cost here in a moment.
Yeah, so the villas in WhiteLotus are actually the real
deal.
They're sprawling privateresidences with infinity pools,
(09:41):
outdoor showers, and andpanoramic ocean views.
The design blends indoor andoutdoor living with contemporary
Thai elegance.
So some of those typical villafeatures are one to five
bedrooms, private infinitypools, open air living and
dining spaces, rainforestbathrooms.
What does that mean?
I don't know what that means.
That deserves a Google.
What, like plants and stuff inthe bathroom?
(10:03):
Mitts, fog machines.
Oh, that looks sweet.
Yeah, it's just like, it's asthough there's just like a
bathtub and sink in a forest.
Yeah, that's kind of a coolvibe.
Okay.
That is cool.
Do I need that in my bathroom?
I don't know.
I do.
You need that.
Yeah, I need that.
I can't go to the bathroomwithout that now after seeing
that.
Compared to the luxuryproperties in the U.S.
(10:25):
or Europe, the villas inThailand typically offer much
larger land plots and squarefootage per dollar, making a
hotspot for ROI-driven buyers.
And ROI, of course, means?
Return on investment.
Nice.
Right?
Acronym deciphering.
Yes.
I got it.
Nailed it.
(10:45):
When I said that, 42%confidence.
I'm giving you the answer.
You killed it.
Thank you.
So let's talk the cost andaffordability of the villa.
Patrick, you talked infinitypools, rainforest cafe
bathrooms.
We've got luxury, life luxury,boats and stuff.
It's like, what am I gonna bespending to stay at the Koh
Samui.
(11:05):
Do you have a guess?
I don't know if you saw thesheet.
I did see the sheet, sounfortunately I don't have a
guess for you, but my original,it was a little bit higher than
what I had anticipated that Isaw.
The rooms start at$1,200 to$1,800 US dollars per night,
which is expensive.
(11:26):
But for a luxury resort in themost beautiful destination in
Thailand, I would have expecteda Agreed.
But the premium villas, whichare those featured in the show,
are more in the$4,000 to$8,000plus range per night.
So that seems to me to be alittle bit more...
(11:49):
what I may have expected.
Good news, Patrick.
I checked for us for thisweekend.
They have availability.
This coming weekend, one room,two adults, all in pricing.
We got the bed and breakfastoption, which is a one king bed,
one rollaway or crib with aserenity pool for$2,300 a night.
(12:11):
Oh, that's doable.
A little over$1,500 a piece.
Then you got to think about thetip.
Flights.
Flights.
Food.
Unless food's included.
I don't know what the foodsituation would be at the– but
let me go– I want to go all theway up to the– Let's try and
make the rent-ish pod take usthere as part of a– So on the
high end, let's say, Patrick,this episode does really well,
(12:32):
ad revenues off the charts.
We want to get the residenceescape this weekend.
They have availability.
Four king beds, 15 adults with aprivate pool, and a personal
residential assistant.
So I'm guessing that this islike– what's the girl's name who
takes– their phones away what'sher name Pam that's right yeah
(12:54):
so we get our own personal Pamhow much would you pay per night
for the residents escape I meanI don't know that I would pay
much more than a couple hundredbucks how much do you think
we're paying I'm gonna guess perperson no per all in per night
cost$50,000$15,000 per night$15,000 per night for the
(13:19):
residents escape.
Wow.
That's a lot of money.
That's a lot of money, but thatis a 15 adult thing.
So then you have to think aboutit.
It's like a thousand per personper night per night.
So it's like legit.
If you have like a big group,You could split this and it
would be a luxury vacation, butit's not completely out of the
question.
Some people pay comparableprices for resorts in Hawaii or
(13:42):
Florida or whatever.
You know what I mean?
That's doable.
That's including the PAM.
You don't need the PAM.
That's including the PAM.
You get to the Thailand Resort,it's like, I would like one PAM,
please.
All right, tell me a little bitmore.
You got more cost facts for me?
So, yeah, the similar villas inKoh Samui sell for between two
(14:03):
to eight million US dollars.
Yeah, that's a lot of money fora villa.
That's a lot of money.
They make a hell of an Airbnbthough.
You invest two to eight milliondollars to buy your own Thailand
property and then just rent itout to people when you're not
there.
Yeah, no.
Talk about an investmentproperty.
Talk about an ROI.
Nice use of the acronym.
(14:23):
But those in brandedcommunities, resorts like the
Four Seasons, a lot of them comein with built-in property
management and hotel levelservices.
Gotcha.
So it might be easier to runthan, you know, some other
rental property investments.
Right.
But yeah, as far as the rentalyields, villas and Costa movies,
high end market can generatefive to 10% of their annual
(14:45):
rental yields.
So that's a, that's a goodreturn.
Not to keep using the term.
That's a pretty good ROI.
Yeah.
Something you got to think abouthere too, is like we always talk
about, you know, consultproperty professionals and
everything like that.
Like you got, if you're going tobuy, if you're going to run out
there and decide like you lovedwhite Lotus season three and you
want to buy one of theseThailand property or whatever,
you gotta think about damageprotection and insurance in the
(15:06):
event of a what?
A tsunami.
Yeah, there you go.
I was trying to tee you up for aPiper Parker Posey or whatever
her name is.
Yeah, but actually, Thailanddoes not have property taxes.
Did you know that?
No, I did not.
For personal use homes.
So that's another thing.
If you're gonna invest in one ofthese resorts, you don't have to
pay property taxes.
That's cool.
Yeah.
Are you interested in investing,what is it, two to eight million
(15:29):
dollars in a...
To avoid paying property taxes?
Yeah, right.
I gotta tell you, it's a littlesteep for my wallet, but I
appreciate the thought.
I think it's cool.
So, of course, one of thesesubsections, whatever you call
that, of this segment is, canthe characters actually afford
it?
White Lotus characters rangefrom influencers to CEOs to
actors.
Could they swing this kind ofluxury?
(15:50):
What do you think?
I mean, they purposefully make apoint to really call all of the
people that go on this show.
Most of them either come frommoney or they just are wealthy
by their own accord or whatever.
So, I'm a assuming that most ofthe characters in the show could
afford it, it probably actuallywouldn't hurt their bottom line
all that much.
Right, yeah.
I'm thinking like the family,right?
The Smiths, what are they?
(16:12):
The Parkers?
The Parkers.
It's just Parker Posey.
What's their, what's their,Radcliffe's.
The Radcliffe's, right.
That's a wealthy guy with, isn'the the CEO?
Yeah.
So four nights stay in a premiumvilla for$30,000.
Let's say$30,000, yeah.
Definitely the Radcliffe's.
It's like, I can't think of acharacter on that show that
couldn't swing that, really.
So we got the Radcliffe's wehave who are the other
(16:33):
characters I don't know dudewe'll talk about this when we
talk about the show but I can'tremember any of these people's
names I got the girl with theteeth the Walton Goggins Walton
Goggins yeah so there's we don'tknow as much about what they do
so if it was just like a youngcouple's retreat they probably
wouldn't be able to afford itbut the characters in the show
they are all pretty much filthyrich Walton Goggins his
profession is this and that yeahright it was a line I was like
(16:57):
shady shit that's a good lineGoggins yeah and then old Greg
old Greg he can afford that Thethree women, one of them's an
actor.
Yeah, so the actor coulddefinitely afford$30,000 is
probably what?
A 16th of her salary on oneproject.
So it's like, yeah, not even abig deal.
I feel like it's not like someother shows like in Seinfeld
where they have the unrealisticapartments for like a comedian,
(17:19):
for example, or like in Friends.
Like this is like the charactersin here are written to be super
rich.
This man murdered my father,George.
I'm trying to do a sign.
Like Jerry, but he's WaltonGoggins.
Come on, you know what I mean?
He murdered my father.
What are you saying to me rightnow, Jerry?
You saying that he murdered yourfather?
(17:44):
Oh, what about owning a villareal quick?
Let's touch on that.
Cause I do still want to talkabout the white Lotus itself.
Yeah.
Well, 2 million in liquidcapital to own.
Right.
None of these people reallybesides Greg, I guess.
Greg definitely.
Well, he owns, he owns a place.
I think the rat lifts couldprobably, they could do it.
They could own it, but they arethere for a week, but like CEO,
(18:04):
what, what's the typical giant,like giant big business CEO
making.
It's like, yeah, it's likemulti-million year salary.
Well, then there's the whole funfact about like non, Oh, that's
a catch right there.
So how did Greg get around that?
Just a big lease?
He's a 30-year lease, I guess.
30-year lease.
Or just like, you know, MikeWhite, the writer, is just like,
(18:26):
ah, nobody knows that fun factbesides Zach and Patrick at the
Rentish Pod.
Yeah, well, Mike White, if youwant to come on the podcast and
explain yourself, we'll havesome talking to do.
All right, do you want to talkabout the show?
Yeah, I don't really.
I mean, like, we've touched onbasically everything that we
have fun fact related about theWhite Lotus.
About the actual property.
About the actual property,Samui, it's already forgotten.
(18:51):
What is it?
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui, yes.
Koh Samui.
And the Four Seasons.
So if you want to go book yourproperty and check it out
yourself, you can always go tofourseasons.com backslash Koh
Samui and you can check thatout.
Interestingly enough, after thetrailer for White Lotus dropped,
Google searches for the FourSeasons Koh Samui surged by 80%.
Wow.
Yeah, and obviously like- God,can you imagine being that hotel
(19:13):
staff, like all these- Americantourists are like, I love the
White Lotus.
Hi for now.
And they're saying that to allthe people at the desk.
These hotel workers are like, ohmy god, this is awful.
Damn you, Mike White.
Alright, do you want to talkabout the show?
Yeah, let's do it.
So, we're getting a little bitof leeway from our producers
(19:35):
because Zach and Patrick, youguys know, we're movie fans,
television fans, we're critics,we love all this stuff, right?
Many of our conversations in theoffice turn into conversations
about movies.
This is not an entertainmentpodcast.
We talk about real estate,property management.
We have a little fun with it,but we're going to take a small
(19:55):
slice of time right now to talkabout this show itself.
So hopefully you stick aroundfor just a few minutes because I
want to hear
UNKNOWN (00:00):
...
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
Firstly, I want to get your take because you said
something the other day in theoffice that really stuck with me
where you said It might be yourfavorite show that you've ever
watched.
That is correct.
Okay.
Can you elaborate on that?
I'm not a huge show person.
I'm a movie person.
Okay.
Right?
With a lot of shows, there'sseveral seasons of filler
(20:26):
episodes.
UNKNOWN (20:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
There's ruined arcs or arcs that go in directions
that they shouldn't.
There oftentimes isn't acomplete and tight story.
These are some issues I havewith shows in general.
I don't have this issue withWhite Lotus.
Every season is...
Six to eight episodes.
Everything is self-contained.
There's a beginning, a middle,and an end.
(20:48):
I like finishing things in onesitting if possible.
As few sittings as possible,certainly.
So yeah, White Lotus scratchesthat itch for me.
And I love just like...
well-written characters withwell-written dialogue, these
characters that have a lot oflayers who oftentimes aren't
likable, aren't just stockcharacters with cliche sort of
(21:09):
flanderized traits.
I think White Lotus in all theseasons has done a really good
job of providing uniquecharacters who for the most part
aren't super likable as people.
I think that oftentimes makesfor more interesting characters.
I love the situations that comeabout.
I just, I love, love the show.
Okay.
So you typically don't vibe withthe TV format, but White Lotus
is drawing you in because youthink it's It's got like, you
(21:31):
said you like the writing,complex characters.
The acting is all terrific.
There's pretty much not a badacted character on the show.
Okay.
And it may or may not havegotten a little heated when I
dropped my bomb that I am notdigging the show at all.
In fact, it's like becoming achore for me to watch it.
Yeah.
And I don't have the strength tofinish it.
(21:51):
I'm on the second to lastepisode.
I just finished it.
I have no desire to finish it.
I love the TV format whenutilized effectively.
There's...
plenty of shows out there thatdo the crap fillers or whatever
but I really like a good showthat can like draw you in with
like likable protagonists and Ifeel like this is a big problem
I have with the White Lotus isthat it's a really well shot
(22:12):
show it might be the bestlooking show on TV right now
like just visually thecinematography off the charts so
good the acting is fantastic myproblem I don't care about any
of these people and I don't wantto I really don't care about any
of them like finding any I don'tthink I don't believe in them to
find any sort of to find anyempathy for me I don't feel like
(22:34):
myself rooting for thesecharacters at all right like
they're all making terribledecisions they're all super
wealthy and not like reallycaring about any of the other
people around them right and I Iget like it's like okay if that
was like a single season that'syour message Mike White you want
to like say that message is thatlike oh money is bad or like
people like do terrible thingswhen they're put in a position
(22:56):
of power cool but now we're onthree seasons of this and I I
started watching season threebecause I was like, I want to be
part of this conversation.
I want to see what everyone elseis saying about this show.
And then I started watching.
I'm like, the thing I keptsaying to myself was I was like,
this is the show that everyone'sfreaking out about right now.
It just doesn't reallyupsetting.
Yeah, it just I just don't seelike I don't see what the big
(23:17):
draw on it other than like it'skind of like it's kind of like
below deck with a bigger budget.
So there's like a reality TVshow called Below Deck where
it's like it follows the crew ofa yacht and it's just all their
drama.
while they're like working thisyacht.
So and so's in a relationshipwith this person and then they
cheated on them and this personlied about eating the last donut
(23:39):
on the thing.
And that's this whole show.
It's just all these trivialthings that these people are
having drama about.
You want a protagonist that youcan actively root for.
Or someone that I can empathizewith or sympathize with.
Like the only person in the showreally that I think is kind of a
pure heart is the Amy Lou Woodcharacter, which I don't even
know what her name is.
Chelsea.
That's her name in the show?
Yeah.
(23:59):
You're clearly not paying asclose attention to the show.
I don't care.
I'm just watching the show sopassively.
I'm like, this is abeautiful-looking vista, and
it's a really well-shot scene,but I don't care about any of
the characters.
I just find it really hard to beengaged in a show if Godzilla
came out of the water anddestroyed this entire villa.
(24:20):
Would I care?
No.
I wouldn't.
I'm like, once the show ends, Iknow what's going to happen.
They're going to keep going onliving their miserable lives,
and what am I...
What did I learn from watchingthat?
Okay, I hear your opinion.
I hear the words that you'resaying.
And thanks for sharing.
So you have nothing else youwant to say about the show?
No, I mean, I don't think I'mgoing to convince you to like
(24:42):
the show.
So again, I hear your opinion.
The words that you're sayinghave registered.
I hear your opinion, but I thinkyou're full of shit.
It's like, no, I get it.
I totally understand that I'm inthe minority of the show.
I just, you know, it's just notdoing it for me, but I'm glad
that other people are enjoyingit.
It's clearly an HBO calibertechnical production like if you
(25:03):
enjoy a good looking show you'regonna find that with the White
Lotus it'll tie it back to realestate in many ways this show is
making me more intrigued aboutvisiting Thailand or visiting
the resort more so than it doesactually giving a crap about the
story and where these charactersgo in life but okay well that's
it thanks for indulging us as wetalked about the White Lotus
show for just a minute if youguys are enjoying the show and
(25:25):
you have opinions if you want toyell at me feel free to email
questions at the right Or sorry,questions at therentishpod.com.
We would love to get into thatdiscourse with you.
Yeah.
Roast Zach.
Let him know.
Roat me?
Roast.
Roast.
Yes.
Roast.
What is that?
Roast.
Yeah, no.
Roast me.
I can take it.
(25:46):
Trust me.
Trust me.
First to say it, I have someterrible takes on entertainment.
He deserves to be roasted aboutthis.
Yeah, I deserve to be roasted.
Okay.
Patrick, what do you say we jumpinto the mailbag?
Oh, the luster.
That sounds good.
It took a second to registerwhat the mailbag was.
Yeah, it's the reader mail.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, we're going to jumpinto another round of listeners
(26:07):
submitted real estate questionsthat were sent to questions at
therentishpod.com.
But as always, we are here tohelp, but remember to consult
the pros before making any bigmoves.
You want to jump in?
Let's do it.
First question is from Nina B.
from Miami, Florida.
I really enjoy the news articlesegments, and I love how Patrick
is never prepared.
What are you talking about,Nina?
(26:27):
Yeah, I don't know.
Nina seems off base here.
Yeah.
I completely agree.
Patrick is the most preparedhuman I've ever met.
I've always prepared.
I was like, hey, did you readthe White Lotus thing to get
ready for the podcast?
He's like, oh.
He just laughed at me.
I watched clips.
I watched the White Lotus toprepare for the White Lotus.
Okay, Nina's question for us is,what do you typically look for
(26:50):
in a rental property?
This is a good question.
I'm trying to get more creativewith my listings, specifically
the subject lines anddescriptions.
I want to get into the mindsetof a renter instead of just a
posting basic photos and boringdetails.
Any fresh ideas?
(27:29):
Yeah.
(27:59):
And it's the opposite direction.
It's a walk to like a naturepreserve.
So it's like, to me, that wasthe most enticing thing about
renting that place was where itwas located.
And so if I'm understanding youproperly, if you have like a
property that has these sort ofwalkability or maybe like
location specific things forthat property, maybe putting
those high up in the descriptionof the subject would be
(28:20):
attractive to you.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
What about you?
I'm going to be honest.
Like a good first photo isreally important for me.
Like I, I, personally when Ilook for properties I don't look
at the subject lines anddescriptions first I look at the
photos first and then thedescriptions and like the actual
words so I think like reallyprioritizing high quality photos
(28:41):
that make your property lookgood sure would be first
impressions are important yeahdon't just take it with your
cell phone yeah doing like thisor whatever take a snapchat
photo of your house as you'relistening get a good
professional photo a lot of thegood places that I've seen on
Zill like whenever I've beenapartment hunting or house
hunting have been likeprofessionally taken photos not
just like the landlord walks inand snaps a couple pics with his
(29:02):
Nokia from 2007.
Yeah, good lighting.
That's a good question.
Anything else?
That's, I mean, that's the firstthing that comes to mind for me.
Okay, cool.
Well, then we're going to jumpover.
Thank you, Nina, for writing in.
Carlos H.
from Phoenix, Arizona haswritten in and says, how do you
balance investing in real estatewhile still renting?
Do you ever feel pressure to buya home for yourself first or are
(29:23):
you cool staying renters whilebuilding a portfolio?
Patrick, tell me about yourportfolio.
I don't have a portfolio yet Iam still renting.
Yep.
I would like to one day ownmultiple properties.
Yeah.
Me personally, I wouldn't wantto be renting in a property and
then own a property that I rentout.
Like I want to first buy my ownproperty to live in.
(29:43):
And then after that point, thenstart renting, renting other
properties out, like maybebuying a duplex, for example.
Yeah.
That seems to be the mostpopular option.
Right.
What about you?
Yeah.
Same here.
Buying a piece of property isn'tin my, isn't really on the
horizon for me, at least for thenext year.
So So when that time comes,maybe looking into the
investment aspects of it.
(30:04):
I mean, this podcast, if itcontinues to be a thing, it's
certainly motivated me to wantto look for options for
investment properties as well aspersonal properties.
But the first step for me wouldbe just a place for me to live.
And then the last question kindof related from Olivia P.
from Chicago.
Since you guys are renters, I'mcurious, how do you usually
(30:26):
handle maintenance issues withyour landlord or property
manager?
This is an interesting one.
Yeah.
Because I think we're both ininteresting situations.
Go ahead.
So my last apartment, I haven'tbeen in one of those big
apartment complexes wherethere's a whole system and it's
procedure.
I've kind of just had landlordphone numbers.
(30:47):
And at my last apartment, thewater heater did not work.
And it was kind of like I textmy landlord and then he just got
it fixed within the next coupledays, which is a really nice
situation to be in.
I understand that.
that not everybody is in thatsituation.
That's kind of like where I'vebeen.
(31:29):
me to like their they had amaintenance guy or like a
specific person like an HVAC guythat would like they'd be like
hey I just gave you this guy'scontact information reach out to
him mention my name and you'llbe all set or whatever like that
I've only lived at one apartmentthis was back in college where
they had a maintenance likewebsite uh-huh wasn't super
thrilled with it luckily there'sbeen a lot of advances in that
(31:49):
like property managementsoftware out there that you can
use there are lots of propertymanagement software out there
that offer like really easymaintenance tools the ones that
are really easy the good tomanage the ones that we that are
available to you now.
Awesome.
The one I had back in the day,totally busted, totally janky.
Like you would submit somethingand never hear anything back and
the landlord was difficult tocontact.
I often told my roommate, I waslike, I think he just has this
(32:11):
website set up as like a fakefront to like deter tenants from
like actually reaching out tohim with maintenance requests.
Not a great apartment situation.
I only lived there for a yearand it was like not a great, not
a great landlord, not a greatsituation.
Well, that's probably one ofthose things that you'd want to
get squared away when you signthe lease.
Like you got to know what theprocedure would be in case you
(32:31):
ran into a maintenance issue andhow that would probably need to
be outlined in the leaseagreement.
You probably want to make thatclear from the onset.
For sure.
I would love to go back and telldumb college Zach be like, hey,
this guy might be a littleshady.
Maybe find a different landlord.
All right, cool.
Was that it for the listenerquestions?
(32:52):
Yeah, it looks like we just hadthose three.
Okay, cool.
Well, thank you all for emailingquestions at The Rentish Pod.
We love hearing from our readersand listeners and everyone out
there, readers.
I don't know why I'm sayingthat.
I don't know.
Who reads?
I'm too busy watching WhiteLotus to read.
All right, well, thank you guysfor listening to another episode
of The Rentish Podcast.
(33:12):
We are very glad that you'vedecided to join us for the ride.
It's been a fun one.
We got to talk movie television,which I think is a fun little
change of pace.
Keep subscribing and followingus everywhere that you get your
podcasts, Spotify, Apple,wherever podcasts are served, we
can be found.
(33:34):
Questions at therentishpod.comif you want to email us your
questions or your topicsuggestions or anything like
that that you want to send ourway, just general praise Just
praise.
Just praise.
No feedback.
We don't want any feedback.
No, I'm just kidding.
And thank you guys again.
Yeah, give us a rating, afive-star rating, a review, a
comment.
Ten stars if that's the format.
Sure.
Whatever the format is, just maxthat thing out.
(33:57):
And yeah, that's it.
So we'll see you guys next time.
Bye.
What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Rentish Podcast.
My name is Zach, and I'm herewith my co-host, Patrick.
What up?
We are your hosts for this realestate podcast, a podcast that's
about rental properties andhosted by two guys that work in
the real estate industry andsort of know what they're
talking about.
But mostly don't.
(00:21):
That was good.
You got the catchphrase.
It was like 0.5 second delay,though.
Your reflexes are on it today,man.
I'm telling you.
This is going to be a good one.
Yeah, Patrick, mostly we don't,which is why you'll have fun
hearing us talk to experts andlearning with us or just
laughing along and how little weknow.
We appreciate each and every oneof you for hanging out with us
on this episode of The Rentish.
If you like the show, follow useverywhere that podcasts are
(00:43):
served.
Give us a rating on Spotify orgive that thing a star on Apple
or whatever you do on thosepodcasts.
platforms throw us a commentlike us on Facebook maybe I
don't know wherever you can seeThe Rentish just throw us a
little bit of praise weappreciate that Patrick and I we
need to we need to be humbledyeah yeah great interjection or
(01:05):
a comment how about that acomment or send us an email if
you have a topic suggestion thatyou'd like to send in or a
question for our reader mail youcan always send it to questions
at therentishpod.com pleaseplease we need questions begging
How's your day going, Patrick?
You doing good?
Yeah, I'm good.
Earlier recording session thannormal.
(01:25):
Yeah, it's early afternoon.
I'm not worn down by the weightof the world.
Yeah, I got my tea there that Ifinished.
And now I've got this limesparkling.
Your caffeine-free soda water.
Yeah, this is a byproduct of thehealth journey.
It's really disappointing.
I saw some Dr.
Peppers in the fridge.
Oh, you got tempted.
(01:45):
Is soda your biggest sweettemptation?
Oh, yeah.
I'm not a dessert person.
So a candy doesn't reallyinterest me, but soda.
I was at a point having at leastone soda a day.
Can I interest you in thislovely Coke Zero?
I can't do it.
Zero sugar, which has zerocalories, zero fat, 2% of your
daily sodium.
You can't do it.
No, I just don't like the fake.
Yeah, the diet sugar.
(02:07):
I would rather drink water.
I would rather drink thissparkling lime flavored nothing
than your Coke Zero.
All right.
Well, I agree to disagree.
We got a great show for youtoday.
We're going to talk a lot aboutproperty management, real
estate, and we're going to havefun doing it this week topical
kind of topical I mean the showended a couple weeks ago but
we're gonna talk about the WhiteLotus I'm so excited and no
(02:28):
don't click away you haven'tstumbled upon an entertainment
and pop culture podcast you'veactually you're still listening
to the Rentish but we're gonnatalk about the White Lotus and
the Four Seasons Resort that theseason three was based on the
HBO show we're also gonna dolistener questions so it's gonna
be a jam-packed episode filledwith a lot of fun goodies and I
hope you all have a good timedoing it but Patrick why don't
(02:49):
you leave me Yeah, so like Zachsaid, we are going to be talking
about the Four Seasons co-star.
I'm going to say.
I'll get a pronunciation.
You keep going.
This would have been great to dobeforehand.
When I was reading this article,I kept getting sidetracked and
(03:11):
was watching clips of WhiteLotus instead, and now I find
myself very unprepared for thesegment.
Explain the segment reallyquickly.
This is Real Estate Real, asegment that we started not too
long ago.
It's a joke because it's likereal estate real, like R-E-E-L
is It's the second reel.
The first reel is like R-E-A-L.
That's the whole joke.
It's funny because of spelling.
(03:32):
And it keeps getting funnier.
The longer we explain it, itkeeps getting better.
It is a good yes.
So in this segment, we dive intoiconic properties from TV and
film, exploring their real-worldlocations that they're based on.
Yeah.
Yeah, today, talking, did youfind out?
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
(03:52):
Okay, I was pretty close.
Yeah, close.
So we're heading to Thailandwith the Four Seasons Koh Samui
from season three of the WhiteLotus show.
This is where it is filmed.
So that's what we're talkingabout.
That's why we're talking aboutit.
It's also just a luxuriousproperty, stunning vistas.
I feel like a marketing rep forthe Four Seasons.
(04:15):
Villas, infinity pools,signature locations.
Yeah, yeah.
Definitely one of the mostluxurious locations that we've
talked about in this segment sofar.
Definitely.
But yeah, this is definitelylike you think like luxury
vacation property, man.
You go to this website and likecheck it out.
It's like it is exactly what youpicture when you think like
(04:37):
where's a celebrity going onvacation?
Right.
It's this place.
Do you want to give people?
We're going to talk about WhiteLotus.
Yeah.
But do you want to give thepeople just a very surface
level?
What's your elevator pitch forthe White Lotus in case someone
out there just completely hasmissed what this show is, pop
culture, where it is right now?
Yeah.
So White Lotus is a terrificshow, in my opinion.
And it is about these wealthyindividuals who go to these
(05:00):
White Lotus resorts.
And it's just kind of abouttheir, I'm not going to say
misadventures per se, because Ithink that is a bad pitch.
But it's just like theirsituations that they get into,
which oftentimes are not goodfor the character.
Each season opens with a deathand then that happens in the
last episode of each season.
So it's kind of like there'ssort of a mystery at play.
(05:21):
But yeah, I think it's kind oflike a satire, a comedy.
It's dark all at the same time.
Great dialogue, greatcharacters.
And each season isself-contained.
So it's like an anthologyseries.
So there's not a ton ofcrossover season to season.
Okay, cool.
My elevator just got out.
So that was great.
Great, great pitch.
(05:41):
Good job.
Tell me about the property.
Tell me about the actual resort.
So the resort is located in thenorthwest part of the island.
I assume when they say theisland, they're talking about
Thailand.
I'm assuming that's what thearticle is.
That's the only island I know.
Have you been to Thailand?
I've never been to Thailand.
Is it on your list?
It is on my list.
I love Thai food.
(06:02):
I don't know a ton aboutThailand besides the food, I
guess.
But I would love to go.
It seems like a cool place.
Is it on your list?
I think the nature aspects lookreally, really cool.
Bangkok seems like a crazy busypopulated city but yeah sure I
would say it's on my list it'snot high on my travel
destinations but I will saywatching the White Lotus season
3 it's like man it looksbeautiful so definitely looks
(06:25):
relaxing yeah so in real lifethe Four Seasons Resort where
the White Lotus fictional resortis filmed is perched on a
private hillside with panoramicviews of the Gulf of Thailand
the property blends luxury andlocal design think teak wood
thatched roofs and outdoor rangesurrounded by tropical forest.
Have you ever stayed at a FourSeasons?
(06:46):
I have not.
Have you?
Neither have I.
No.
I don't.
Too luxury for this guy.
Our podcast doesn't make enoughmoney yet.
Yeah.
I'll find a place that's calledThe Motel.
That's all you see on the side.
The Motel.
Yeah, it's like$40 a night orwhatever.
The Motel.
So if the room, I appreciatewhere they're saying, oh, it's
got local design, kind of thatrustic Thailand atmosphere.
(07:10):
Yeah.
If I wake up and there's alizard in my room No, thank you.
Really?
No.
No, are you kidding me?
I love lizards.
Well, they're cool to look atfrom a distance, but I don't
want one sleeping in the samedark room as me.
What if it tries to make a neston my face while I'm sleeping?
Terrifying.
I don't know.
I'm all about lizards.
I'm all about lizards.
(07:31):
I'm all about lizards.
Bugs, I think, is where I woulddraw the line.
Yeah, the bug situation would bepretty rough.
I wouldn't want bugs in my room,but lizards all day long.
Tell me a little bit more aboutthe four seasons.
Yeah, so some fun facts aboutthe four seasons.
on the real estate here.
So foreign ownership in Thailandand the show, it's actually an
American, I think, who owns theresort.
(07:52):
Yeah, I think so.
Well, in Thailand, interestinglyenough, non-Thai citizens can't
legally own land outright inThailand, but they can own
villas via long-term leases,often 30 years or so.
So, yeah.
So it's likely that the peoplethat own the White Lotus and the
show, but like the four seasonsitself would just be a villa on
(08:14):
a long-term lease, notnecessarily owned or Thai-owned.
Right, which I thought that waskind of interesting.
Yeah, that is cool.
The Koh Samui, right?
Koh Samui?
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui.
It's actually part of Thailand'sgolden triangle for luxury real
estate alongside the Phuket andBangkok.
It's one of the most in-demandregions for high-end villa
investment by foreigners.
(08:35):
Cool.
And then high-end resorts inThailand are often hidden from
main roads and signage toenhance the sense of exclusivity
Something that also addsperceived value and mystique to
the properties.
Which I think in the show itvery much seemed like not in
part of civilization.
It just seemed like this resortright in the jungle.
Which I thought was really cool.
One of the coolest things, and Itruly don't know if I'll ever
(08:57):
live a life luxurious enough toarrive at my hotel via boat.
Where it's like, at the verybeginning of the season they get
off the boat and they literallygo up to the sand shore to get
off their boat and walk up tothe resort.
Where it's like, where's thedriveway?
It's like all the hotels I haveusually have free complimentary
overnight parking, but it's likeif you're going to the Koh
(09:20):
Samui, you actually have to sailto your destination or whatever,
but it does make it look likeyou're living on another planet.
Like you've arrived to thisplace of luxury.
It doesn't feel like you're partof normal society anymore.
It's cool.
I think that's part of theappeal.
And we'll talk about if that'sworth the cost here in a moment.
Yeah, so the villas in WhiteLotus are actually the real
deal.
They're sprawling privateresidences with infinity pools,
(09:41):
outdoor showers, and andpanoramic ocean views.
The design blends indoor andoutdoor living with contemporary
Thai elegance.
So some of those typical villafeatures are one to five
bedrooms, private infinitypools, open air living and
dining spaces, rainforestbathrooms.
What does that mean?
I don't know what that means.
That deserves a Google.
What, like plants and stuff inthe bathroom?
(10:03):
Mitts, fog machines.
Oh, that looks sweet.
Yeah, it's just like, it's asthough there's just like a
bathtub and sink in a forest.
Yeah, that's kind of a coolvibe.
Okay.
That is cool.
Do I need that in my bathroom?
I don't know.
I do.
You need that.
Yeah, I need that.
I can't go to the bathroomwithout that now after seeing
that.
Compared to the luxuryproperties in the U.S.
(10:25):
or Europe, the villas inThailand typically offer much
larger land plots and squarefootage per dollar, making a
hotspot for ROI-driven buyers.
And ROI, of course, means?
Return on investment.
Nice.
Right?
Acronym deciphering.
Yes.
I got it.
Nailed it.
(10:45):
When I said that, 42%confidence.
I'm giving you the answer.
You killed it.
Thank you.
So let's talk the cost andaffordability of the villa.
Patrick, you talked infinitypools, rainforest cafe
bathrooms.
We've got luxury, life luxury,boats and stuff.
It's like, what am I gonna bespending to stay at the Koh
Samui.
(11:05):
Do you have a guess?
I don't know if you saw thesheet.
I did see the sheet, sounfortunately I don't have a
guess for you, but my original,it was a little bit higher than
what I had anticipated that Isaw.
The rooms start at$1,200 to$1,800 US dollars per night,
which is expensive.
(11:26):
But for a luxury resort in themost beautiful destination in
Thailand, I would have expecteda Agreed.
But the premium villas, whichare those featured in the show,
are more in the$4,000 to$8,000plus range per night.
So that seems to me to be alittle bit more...
(11:49):
what I may have expected.
Good news, Patrick.
I checked for us for thisweekend.
They have availability.
This coming weekend, one room,two adults, all in pricing.
We got the bed and breakfastoption, which is a one king bed,
one rollaway or crib with aserenity pool for$2,300 a night.
(12:11):
Oh, that's doable.
A little over$1,500 a piece.
Then you got to think about thetip.
Flights.
Flights.
Food.
Unless food's included.
I don't know what the foodsituation would be at the– but
let me go– I want to go all theway up to the– Let's try and
make the rent-ish pod take usthere as part of a– So on the
high end, let's say, Patrick,this episode does really well,
(12:32):
ad revenues off the charts.
We want to get the residenceescape this weekend.
They have availability.
Four king beds, 15 adults with aprivate pool, and a personal
residential assistant.
So I'm guessing that this islike– what's the girl's name who
takes– their phones away what'sher name Pam that's right yeah
(12:54):
so we get our own personal Pamhow much would you pay per night
for the residents escape I meanI don't know that I would pay
much more than a couple hundredbucks how much do you think
we're paying I'm gonna guess perperson no per all in per night
cost$50,000$15,000 per night$15,000 per night for the
(13:19):
residents escape.
Wow.
That's a lot of money.
That's a lot of money, but thatis a 15 adult thing.
So then you have to think aboutit.
It's like a thousand per personper night per night.
So it's like legit.
If you have like a big group,You could split this and it
would be a luxury vacation, butit's not completely out of the
question.
Some people pay comparableprices for resorts in Hawaii or
(13:42):
Florida or whatever.
You know what I mean?
That's doable.
That's including the PAM.
You don't need the PAM.
That's including the PAM.
You get to the Thailand Resort,it's like, I would like one PAM,
please.
All right, tell me a little bitmore.
You got more cost facts for me?
So, yeah, the similar villas inKoh Samui sell for between two
(14:03):
to eight million US dollars.
Yeah, that's a lot of money fora villa.
That's a lot of money.
They make a hell of an Airbnbthough.
You invest two to eight milliondollars to buy your own Thailand
property and then just rent itout to people when you're not
there.
Yeah, no.
Talk about an investmentproperty.
Talk about an ROI.
Nice use of the acronym.
(14:23):
But those in brandedcommunities, resorts like the
Four Seasons, a lot of them comein with built-in property
management and hotel levelservices.
Gotcha.
So it might be easier to runthan, you know, some other
rental property investments.
Right.
But yeah, as far as the rentalyields, villas and Costa movies,
high end market can generatefive to 10% of their annual
(14:45):
rental yields.
So that's a, that's a goodreturn.
Not to keep using the term.
That's a pretty good ROI.
Yeah.
Something you got to think abouthere too, is like we always talk
about, you know, consultproperty professionals and
everything like that.
Like you got, if you're going tobuy, if you're going to run out
there and decide like you lovedwhite Lotus season three and you
want to buy one of theseThailand property or whatever,
you gotta think about damageprotection and insurance in the
(15:06):
event of a what?
A tsunami.
Yeah, there you go.
I was trying to tee you up for aPiper Parker Posey or whatever
her name is.
Yeah, but actually, Thailanddoes not have property taxes.
Did you know that?
No, I did not.
For personal use homes.
So that's another thing.
If you're gonna invest in one ofthese resorts, you don't have to
pay property taxes.
That's cool.
Yeah.
Are you interested in investing,what is it, two to eight million
(15:29):
dollars in a...
To avoid paying property taxes?
Yeah, right.
I gotta tell you, it's a littlesteep for my wallet, but I
appreciate the thought.
I think it's cool.
So, of course, one of thesesubsections, whatever you call
that, of this segment is, canthe characters actually afford
it?
White Lotus characters rangefrom influencers to CEOs to
actors.
Could they swing this kind ofluxury?
(15:50):
What do you think?
I mean, they purposefully make apoint to really call all of the
people that go on this show.
Most of them either come frommoney or they just are wealthy
by their own accord or whatever.
So, I'm a assuming that most ofthe characters in the show could
afford it, it probably actuallywouldn't hurt their bottom line
all that much.
Right, yeah.
I'm thinking like the family,right?
The Smiths, what are they?
(16:12):
The Parkers?
The Parkers.
It's just Parker Posey.
What's their, what's their,Radcliffe's.
The Radcliffe's, right.
That's a wealthy guy with, isn'the the CEO?
Yeah.
So four nights stay in a premiumvilla for$30,000.
Let's say$30,000, yeah.
Definitely the Radcliffe's.
It's like, I can't think of acharacter on that show that
couldn't swing that, really.
So we got the Radcliffe's wehave who are the other
(16:33):
characters I don't know dudewe'll talk about this when we
talk about the show but I can'tremember any of these people's
names I got the girl with theteeth the Walton Goggins Walton
Goggins yeah so there's we don'tknow as much about what they do
so if it was just like a youngcouple's retreat they probably
wouldn't be able to afford itbut the characters in the show
they are all pretty much filthyrich Walton Goggins his
profession is this and that yeahright it was a line I was like
(16:57):
shady shit that's a good lineGoggins yeah and then old Greg
old Greg he can afford that Thethree women, one of them's an
actor.
Yeah, so the actor coulddefinitely afford$30,000 is
probably what?
A 16th of her salary on oneproject.
So it's like, yeah, not even abig deal.
I feel like it's not like someother shows like in Seinfeld
where they have the unrealisticapartments for like a comedian,
(17:19):
for example, or like in Friends.
Like this is like the charactersin here are written to be super
rich.
This man murdered my father,George.
I'm trying to do a sign.
Like Jerry, but he's WaltonGoggins.
Come on, you know what I mean?
He murdered my father.
What are you saying to me rightnow, Jerry?
You saying that he murdered yourfather?
(17:44):
Oh, what about owning a villareal quick?
Let's touch on that.
Cause I do still want to talkabout the white Lotus itself.
Yeah.
Well, 2 million in liquidcapital to own.
Right.
None of these people reallybesides Greg, I guess.
Greg definitely.
Well, he owns, he owns a place.
I think the rat lifts couldprobably, they could do it.
They could own it, but they arethere for a week, but like CEO,
(18:04):
what, what's the typical giant,like giant big business CEO
making.
It's like, yeah, it's likemulti-million year salary.
Well, then there's the whole funfact about like non, Oh, that's
a catch right there.
So how did Greg get around that?
Just a big lease?
He's a 30-year lease, I guess.
30-year lease.
Or just like, you know, MikeWhite, the writer, is just like,
(18:26):
ah, nobody knows that fun factbesides Zach and Patrick at the
Rentish Pod.
Yeah, well, Mike White, if youwant to come on the podcast and
explain yourself, we'll havesome talking to do.
All right, do you want to talkabout the show?
Yeah, I don't really.
I mean, like, we've touched onbasically everything that we
have fun fact related about theWhite Lotus.
About the actual property.
About the actual property,Samui, it's already forgotten.
(18:51):
What is it?
Koh Samui.
Koh Samui, yes.
Koh Samui.
And the Four Seasons.
So if you want to go book yourproperty and check it out
yourself, you can always go tofourseasons.com backslash Koh
Samui and you can check thatout.
Interestingly enough, after thetrailer for White Lotus dropped,
Google searches for the FourSeasons Koh Samui surged by 80%.
Wow.
Yeah, and obviously like- God,can you imagine being that hotel
(19:13):
staff, like all these- Americantourists are like, I love the
White Lotus.
Hi for now.
And they're saying that to allthe people at the desk.
These hotel workers are like, ohmy god, this is awful.
Damn you, Mike White.
Alright, do you want to talkabout the show?
Yeah, let's do it.
So, we're getting a little bitof leeway from our producers
(19:35):
because Zach and Patrick, youguys know, we're movie fans,
television fans, we're critics,we love all this stuff, right?
Many of our conversations in theoffice turn into conversations
about movies.
This is not an entertainmentpodcast.
We talk about real estate,property management.
We have a little fun with it,but we're going to take a small
(19:55):
slice of time right now to talkabout this show itself.
So hopefully you stick aroundfor just a few minutes because I
want to hear
UNKNOWN (00:00):
...
SPEAKER_01 (20:03):
Firstly, I want to get your take because you said
something the other day in theoffice that really stuck with me
where you said It might be yourfavorite show that you've ever
watched.
That is correct.
Okay.
Can you elaborate on that?
I'm not a huge show person.
I'm a movie person.
Okay.
Right?
With a lot of shows, there'sseveral seasons of filler
(20:26):
episodes.
UNKNOWN (20:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
There's ruined arcs or arcs that go in directions
that they shouldn't.
There oftentimes isn't acomplete and tight story.
These are some issues I havewith shows in general.
I don't have this issue withWhite Lotus.
Every season is...
Six to eight episodes.
Everything is self-contained.
There's a beginning, a middle,and an end.
(20:48):
I like finishing things in onesitting if possible.
As few sittings as possible,certainly.
So yeah, White Lotus scratchesthat itch for me.
And I love just like...
well-written characters withwell-written dialogue, these
characters that have a lot oflayers who oftentimes aren't
likable, aren't just stockcharacters with cliche sort of
(21:09):
flanderized traits.
I think White Lotus in all theseasons has done a really good
job of providing uniquecharacters who for the most part
aren't super likable as people.
I think that oftentimes makesfor more interesting characters.
I love the situations that comeabout.
I just, I love, love the show.
Okay.
So you typically don't vibe withthe TV format, but White Lotus
is drawing you in because youthink it's It's got like, you
(21:31):
said you like the writing,complex characters.
The acting is all terrific.
There's pretty much not a badacted character on the show.
Okay.
And it may or may not havegotten a little heated when I
dropped my bomb that I am notdigging the show at all.
In fact, it's like becoming achore for me to watch it.
Yeah.
And I don't have the strength tofinish it.
(21:51):
I'm on the second to lastepisode.
I just finished it.
I have no desire to finish it.
I love the TV format whenutilized effectively.
There's...
plenty of shows out there thatdo the crap fillers or whatever
but I really like a good showthat can like draw you in with
like likable protagonists and Ifeel like this is a big problem
I have with the White Lotus isthat it's a really well shot
(22:12):
show it might be the bestlooking show on TV right now
like just visually thecinematography off the charts so
good the acting is fantastic myproblem I don't care about any
of these people and I don't wantto I really don't care about any
of them like finding any I don'tthink I don't believe in them to
find any sort of to find anyempathy for me I don't feel like
(22:34):
myself rooting for thesecharacters at all right like
they're all making terribledecisions they're all super
wealthy and not like reallycaring about any of the other
people around them right and I Iget like it's like okay if that
was like a single season that'syour message Mike White you want
to like say that message is thatlike oh money is bad or like
people like do terrible thingswhen they're put in a position
(22:56):
of power cool but now we're onthree seasons of this and I I
started watching season threebecause I was like, I want to be
part of this conversation.
I want to see what everyone elseis saying about this show.
And then I started watching.
I'm like, the thing I keptsaying to myself was I was like,
this is the show that everyone'sfreaking out about right now.
It just doesn't reallyupsetting.
Yeah, it just I just don't seelike I don't see what the big
(23:17):
draw on it other than like it'skind of like it's kind of like
below deck with a bigger budget.
So there's like a reality TVshow called Below Deck where
it's like it follows the crew ofa yacht and it's just all their
drama.
while they're like working thisyacht.
So and so's in a relationshipwith this person and then they
cheated on them and this personlied about eating the last donut
(23:39):
on the thing.
And that's this whole show.
It's just all these trivialthings that these people are
having drama about.
You want a protagonist that youcan actively root for.
Or someone that I can empathizewith or sympathize with.
Like the only person in the showreally that I think is kind of a
pure heart is the Amy Lou Woodcharacter, which I don't even
know what her name is.
Chelsea.
That's her name in the show?
Yeah.
(23:59):
You're clearly not paying asclose attention to the show.
I don't care.
I'm just watching the show sopassively.
I'm like, this is abeautiful-looking vista, and
it's a really well-shot scene,but I don't care about any of
the characters.
I just find it really hard to beengaged in a show if Godzilla
came out of the water anddestroyed this entire villa.
(24:20):
Would I care?
No.
I wouldn't.
I'm like, once the show ends, Iknow what's going to happen.
They're going to keep going onliving their miserable lives,
and what am I...
What did I learn from watchingthat?
Okay, I hear your opinion.
I hear the words that you'resaying.
And thanks for sharing.
So you have nothing else youwant to say about the show?
No, I mean, I don't think I'mgoing to convince you to like
(24:42):
the show.
So again, I hear your opinion.
The words that you're sayinghave registered.
I hear your opinion, but I thinkyou're full of shit.
It's like, no, I get it.
I totally understand that I'm inthe minority of the show.
I just, you know, it's just notdoing it for me, but I'm glad
that other people are enjoyingit.
It's clearly an HBO calibertechnical production like if you
(25:03):
enjoy a good looking show you'regonna find that with the White
Lotus it'll tie it back to realestate in many ways this show is
making me more intrigued aboutvisiting Thailand or visiting
the resort more so than it doesactually giving a crap about the
story and where these charactersgo in life but okay well that's
it thanks for indulging us as wetalked about the White Lotus
show for just a minute if youguys are enjoying the show and
(25:25):
you have opinions if you want toyell at me feel free to email
questions at the right Or sorry,questions at therentishpod.com.
We would love to get into thatdiscourse with you.
Yeah.
Roast Zach.
Let him know.
Roat me?
Roast.
Roast.
Yes.
Roast.
What is that?
Roast.
Yeah, no.
Roast me.
I can take it.
(25:46):
Trust me.
Trust me.
First to say it, I have someterrible takes on entertainment.
He deserves to be roasted aboutthis.
Yeah, I deserve to be roasted.
Okay.
Patrick, what do you say we jumpinto the mailbag?
Oh, the luster.
That sounds good.
It took a second to registerwhat the mailbag was.
Yeah, it's the reader mail.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, we're going to jumpinto another round of listeners
(26:07):
submitted real estate questionsthat were sent to questions at
therentishpod.com.
But as always, we are here tohelp, but remember to consult
the pros before making any bigmoves.
You want to jump in?
Let's do it.
First question is from Nina B.
from Miami, Florida.
I really enjoy the news articlesegments, and I love how Patrick
is never prepared.
What are you talking about,Nina?
(26:27):
Yeah, I don't know.
Nina seems off base here.
Yeah.
I completely agree.
Patrick is the most preparedhuman I've ever met.
I've always prepared.
I was like, hey, did you readthe White Lotus thing to get
ready for the podcast?
He's like, oh.
He just laughed at me.
I watched clips.
I watched the White Lotus toprepare for the White Lotus.
Okay, Nina's question for us is,what do you typically look for
(26:50):
in a rental property?
This is a good question.
I'm trying to get more creativewith my listings, specifically
the subject lines anddescriptions.
I want to get into the mindsetof a renter instead of just a
posting basic photos and boringdetails.
Any fresh ideas?
(27:29):
Yeah.
(27:59):
And it's the opposite direction.
It's a walk to like a naturepreserve.
So it's like, to me, that wasthe most enticing thing about
renting that place was where itwas located.
And so if I'm understanding youproperly, if you have like a
property that has these sort ofwalkability or maybe like
location specific things forthat property, maybe putting
those high up in the descriptionof the subject would be
(28:20):
attractive to you.
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely.
What about you?
I'm going to be honest.
Like a good first photo isreally important for me.
Like I, I, personally when Ilook for properties I don't look
at the subject lines anddescriptions first I look at the
photos first and then thedescriptions and like the actual
words so I think like reallyprioritizing high quality photos
(28:41):
that make your property lookgood sure would be first
impressions are important yeahdon't just take it with your
cell phone yeah doing like thisor whatever take a snapchat
photo of your house as you'relistening get a good
professional photo a lot of thegood places that I've seen on
Zill like whenever I've beenapartment hunting or house
hunting have been likeprofessionally taken photos not
just like the landlord walks inand snaps a couple pics with his
(29:02):
Nokia from 2007.
Yeah, good lighting.
That's a good question.
Anything else?
That's, I mean, that's the firstthing that comes to mind for me.
Okay, cool.
Well, then we're going to jumpover.
Thank you, Nina, for writing in.
Carlos H.
from Phoenix, Arizona haswritten in and says, how do you
balance investing in real estatewhile still renting?
Do you ever feel pressure to buya home for yourself first or are
(29:23):
you cool staying renters whilebuilding a portfolio?
Patrick, tell me about yourportfolio.
I don't have a portfolio yet Iam still renting.
Yep.
I would like to one day ownmultiple properties.
Yeah.
Me personally, I wouldn't wantto be renting in a property and
then own a property that I rentout.
Like I want to first buy my ownproperty to live in.
(29:43):
And then after that point, thenstart renting, renting other
properties out, like maybebuying a duplex, for example.
Yeah.
That seems to be the mostpopular option.
Right.
What about you?
Yeah.
Same here.
Buying a piece of property isn'tin my, isn't really on the
horizon for me, at least for thenext year.
So So when that time comes,maybe looking into the
investment aspects of it.
(30:04):
I mean, this podcast, if itcontinues to be a thing, it's
certainly motivated me to wantto look for options for
investment properties as well aspersonal properties.
But the first step for me wouldbe just a place for me to live.
And then the last question kindof related from Olivia P.
from Chicago.
Since you guys are renters, I'mcurious, how do you usually
(30:26):
handle maintenance issues withyour landlord or property
manager?
This is an interesting one.
Yeah.
Because I think we're both ininteresting situations.
Go ahead.
So my last apartment, I haven'tbeen in one of those big
apartment complexes wherethere's a whole system and it's
procedure.
I've kind of just had landlordphone numbers.
(30:47):
And at my last apartment, thewater heater did not work.
And it was kind of like I textmy landlord and then he just got
it fixed within the next coupledays, which is a really nice
situation to be in.
I understand that.
that not everybody is in thatsituation.
That's kind of like where I'vebeen.
(31:29):
me to like their they had amaintenance guy or like a
specific person like an HVAC guythat would like they'd be like
hey I just gave you this guy'scontact information reach out to
him mention my name and you'llbe all set or whatever like that
I've only lived at one apartmentthis was back in college where
they had a maintenance likewebsite uh-huh wasn't super
thrilled with it luckily there'sbeen a lot of advances in that
(31:49):
like property managementsoftware out there that you can
use there are lots of propertymanagement software out there
that offer like really easymaintenance tools the ones that
are really easy the good tomanage the ones that we that are
available to you now.
Awesome.
The one I had back in the day,totally busted, totally janky.
Like you would submit somethingand never hear anything back and
the landlord was difficult tocontact.
I often told my roommate, I waslike, I think he just has this
(32:11):
website set up as like a fakefront to like deter tenants from
like actually reaching out tohim with maintenance requests.
Not a great apartment situation.
I only lived there for a yearand it was like not a great, not
a great landlord, not a greatsituation.
Well, that's probably one ofthose things that you'd want to
get squared away when you signthe lease.
Like you got to know what theprocedure would be in case you
(32:31):
ran into a maintenance issue andhow that would probably need to
be outlined in the leaseagreement.
You probably want to make thatclear from the onset.
For sure.
I would love to go back and telldumb college Zach be like, hey,
this guy might be a littleshady.
Maybe find a different landlord.
All right, cool.
Was that it for the listenerquestions?
(32:52):
Yeah, it looks like we just hadthose three.
Okay, cool.
Well, thank you all for emailingquestions at The Rentish Pod.
We love hearing from our readersand listeners and everyone out
there, readers.
I don't know why I'm sayingthat.
I don't know.
Who reads?
I'm too busy watching WhiteLotus to read.
All right, well, thank you guysfor listening to another episode
of The Rentish Podcast.
(33:12):
We are very glad that you'vedecided to join us for the ride.
It's been a fun one.
We got to talk movie television,which I think is a fun little
change of pace.
Keep subscribing and followingus everywhere that you get your
podcasts, Spotify, Apple,wherever podcasts are served, we
can be found.
(33:34):
Questions at therentishpod.comif you want to email us your
questions or your topicsuggestions or anything like
that that you want to send ourway, just general praise Just
praise.
Just praise.
No feedback.
We don't want any feedback.
No, I'm just kidding.
And thank you guys again.
Yeah, give us a rating, afive-star rating, a review, a
comment.
Ten stars if that's the format.
Sure.
Whatever the format is, just maxthat thing out.
(33:57):
And yeah, that's it.
So we'll see you guys next time.
Bye.
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