May 13, 2025 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, Luck and Load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Michael Varie Show is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
An article appeared in the Houston Chronicle saying that Galveston
may be the Houston region's biggest buyer's market as a
wave of Airbnb's floods listings. The average Galveston home now
sits on the market for over five months, as the
beach town shifts into what may be the biggest virus
(00:56):
market in the Houston region. I am somewhat fascinated by Galveston.
I must say I love Galveston. I love the people.
Even though it's only an hour south of Houston.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I find the.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
People to be different. They're sort of like a Houstonian
and a New Orleanian had a child, so they're a
little more responsible and less partying than a New Orleanian,
but not by much. And I like that because anywhere
else you go, if you get outside of Houston, even
(01:32):
up to a few hours, you don't get the feel
that you're on vacation. And I can go to Galveston
and when I drive across that Causeway, I can't tell
you how many times we've taken our kids down there,
and when we would get to the causeway, the windows
would go down, and the smell of the water. And
now I understand there's a certain percentage of you who
(01:54):
are just ick ick icking that you don't have to
like what I like. Okay, I go to Florida. I
know the beach. The sand is white, and the water
is pretty, and it's not down there. How often you
go to Florida. Florida toots once a year, because we
were going every weekend for a while. So you go
(02:15):
to Florida, you go and have tsa put their finger
up your ass, and then you get there early, and
then you fly there and you get stuck on the foot.
All that is great. Florida is still there for me.
But I'm not going to Florida every weekend. I can
go to and by the way, I don't care about
the water and I don't care about the beach because
I hate beaches, always have, always will. I don't like sand,
(02:37):
and I don't care if anybody thinks I'm a Wills
for it. I don't like sand. It gets everywhere, it's nasty.
I think it's vile. I'll drive along the sea wall
and I see these families down there, They're day trippers
and they come down and they're just full of it,
and those kids are having a blast. And you know what,
some of those kids are kind of poor and working
class kids like we were. And that was the idea
of a good time was to go to the beach
(02:58):
and roll around in the sand. My mother would sit
out there drinking her tab in her little lawn chair
that she brought with her, and we had a hell
of a time and didn't cost anything. And I think
that's cool, right, Well, we did Crystal Beach because Galveston
was kind of fool for us. But we'd ride the
ferry over sometimes and get to go to the fancy beach.
So that's my opinion of Galveston.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I love the restaurants, I love the people. Have a
lot of friends that live down there and a lot
of friends that go down there that we see. So
I really enjoy Galveston. If you don't, that's your business.
But if you love Galveston, I'm not pooping on Galveston.
We're talking about a real problem and you can't deny it.
This is like the Catholic church pedophile problem, and frankly,
some other churches have had some problems as well. This
(03:38):
is like a lot, it's like run or a number
of other things. Just because you got a wark, you
can't pretend it away. You got to bite into her over. Well,
what are you doing, Philip? Let's bring Philip back. Okay,
So you're on the East End, you're at S and
(03:58):
thirty five.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Yeah, that neighborhood rut there?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Are you gay?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
The same things that Brannan was talking about.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
No, well, a lot of it's okay, a lot of
that area is gay, and thank god for him. If
it hadn't been for the gays redoing those houses, it
wouldn't be any good.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
I don't know how many locals are left.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
How many of your neighbors are gay?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Are you think that many of my current ones?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Are you the one whose wife they live all around
the airbnb? No? I mean I had a fellow who
would call in.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
He's a massage therapist and I think he's a personal
trainer too. I think he does both. He does both
of them. And she ran she ran a bed and
breakfast there right around where you are.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
There's there were several there's one across the street from
me for sale right now? What do you do for earlier?
And there's I can see. I have two businesses that
support civil infrastructure projects here in Texas, like what I
have one that is an installation firm and dewatering specifically
groundwater removal for heavy sewer, all the underground things, anything
that goes in the ground. Here it's wet, we come in,
(05:07):
we pull the water out and make it easy for
the gas to work on the ground and a work
at the dry condition.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You ever come across called the other company called Griffin
de Watering.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Oh yeah, we compete.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So the owner of Griffin d Watering here in my
backyard right now working. Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
He's an Irani guy who was at the time when
I had a real estate firm in the late nineties.
We did some real estate work for him. All right,
So you've got a dewatering firm. What's the name of
your dewatering firm, TeX's well Point company okay.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And then what's your other firm?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The other company supports my competition with materials and supplies
for dewatering.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Okay, a lot of folks do that.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And what's that based out of here as well? Golf
dewatering Solutions.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
It's interesting how many industries have. I know a lot
of people who do that. So they are a service
provider in the field, but then they also own a
a supply house and support firm that's for the whole industry.
But they had to separate them out or people would
wouldn't buy from them. I find that so interesting. So
tell me what's going on with the short term rentals there?
(06:12):
How bad is it? Is it a big problem? I'm
assuming you don't do it because you live there.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But yeah, my parents did it with our house for
about fifteen years and up until about I fell. I'm sorry.
Up until COVID, it was really easy. It worked well.
They made a little bit of money every year, nothing crazy.
And then the COVID market happened and everybody wanted a house,
so home prices climbed, and then year after year tax
values climbed. Some storms came in, nothing bad. Well, all
(06:42):
of a sudden, you got houses down here that ten
years ago were let's say two hundred k at best.
The insurance wasn't crazy yet, the taxes weren't.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Well.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Now that's all doubled and tripled out, and there's so
many that it saturated the market to where you can't
possibly rent it often enough at the rate to make
it survive. So there's a whole pile of people that
are spending five and six grand a month on a
house that they're only making thirty eight hundred and forty two. Right,
it's the money ten Phi. Look, they got it dumped it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I'm hearing this.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Oh listen, the real estate property taxes have gotten so bad.
And let me tell you something. The House and Senate
in Austin, they're doing nothing about it. Abbot's not talking
about it. They'll occasionally bring it up as a little
they're not.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
For my guy down here just sold us down the river.
Oh yeah, it is a guy down here just sold
us down.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
This is the number one issue I hear about.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And people are furious, and they're doing nothing about it
because they love having all that money.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Well, they lie to your face down here. They tell
you they're going to do something about it, and they
go sign a deal.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Who lied to you? Who do you feel?
Speaker 6 (07:50):
What are we.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Supposed to do?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
My state rep down here that's working in Austin, which
is who I can't remember his name, it's not in
day's middle. And at another guy the Chronicle.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Hold on can you stop from Mimo? So I got
a message from Justin Van Sant. I've known Justin originally
as a singer. I don't know he had a day
job at the time, but he's one of these guys
like Josh Fuller, just doing whatever it takes to keep
the rent paid and the lights on and the family
(08:37):
happy to to make music. And then eventually enough kids
and a wife says you got to go get a
real job. So Justin worked for us as a GM
at the RCC for a while, and which was funny
because people would come and they thought, oh, you playing tonight.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
No, I'm running the show right now. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Uh, he was a frequent performer at the RCC. He's
a good friend. He now works with some other friends
of mine who the father of the young man who
the race that almost killed me with my hamstring toward
Chris Spears, if I knows Chris Spears from Beaumont and anyway,
So Justin doesn't make as much music as he used
(09:17):
to does a great Neon Moon, but he sent me
a song and he said, I'm just putting this here
with you like to get your feedback on it, and
it really I love this I'm gonna play it and
then we'll get back to the calls. It's a song
about a guy who dreamed of being up on stage
like Keith Whitley and came to realize that my dream
is having a wife and kids in a stable home,
(09:39):
and the Keith Whitley's never had that, so we perceive
that that is the pinnacle, is to be Keith Whitley
dying in a hotel room overdosed, and the real dream
is to be able to make it out alive and
play some songs for your friends and anyway, that's what
the song's about.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I don't want to run it, and he started.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Every thought I was put on insert please guitar.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Everyone is faith.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Never wanted to take it away.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
You far only wanted to be good man to a
good war, raised a couple of good kids. So I
some say, still to this day, I quit all.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
On my dream. They don't know every dream I have.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
It's right here and next to me, the ball game, balady,
mom and dad getaways. I came to believe how blessed die
and these days.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
How want to be my kind of legacy.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I want to fall over my heart and my guys.
I didn't want those around me to be proud of
the man I'm trying me.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I will every ride his song or sing like with me.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So I just happen. Long kind of legacy.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
Long kind of legacy.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
That's it, That's all I got.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I love that, Philip. Let's go back to you real quick.
What percentage of homes around you if I was to
go seven homes each direction? Are in the show? Or
term rental pool, Phillip, we lost, Philip. Go to Larry
(12:10):
Larry on The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Go ahead, Hello, Michael, Yeah, I can. I can speak
to just about all of this stuff. We bought a
house in the Historic District I don't know, over a
decade or so ago as a weekend place and been
a few years ago. When we decided to bail out
(12:31):
of fullsher we bought a bigger house over in in
Midtown and we loved it over in the Historic District.
It's great. And I can speak to one thing. The
gay guys or the gay folks have the best landscape
yards in the place.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That's why when you see neighborhood regentrification, inner city regentrification
in the major cities in the country, it was. The
schools are always bad. You have these areas that are predominantly,
almost exclusively black, crime.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Rate is high.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You've got the old folks like boys in the hood,
the old folks who own the old homes, and they're
trying to keep this neighborhood together, trying to get some
community support.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
But then you've got.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Young thugs that are ruining it, and the homes aren't
being maintained. The older folks can't afford to. Grandma's taking
in her grandson. She's trying to help him out. Maybe
he's in trouble, maybe he's not, but a few of
them on the street are. You've got gang activity, you've
got drug activity, and the schools are going to be horrible.
So the way those neighborhoods begin to gentrify, clean up,
(13:36):
however you want become a neighborhood at a grocery store
would want to be in because that's what people want.
Is you'll have a gay couple moving, and then another,
and then another, and then because they don't care, at
least used to, they didn't care about the schools. Now
some of them do. And then following them would be
two young folks with double income, no kids, they would
follow in and then you might get a guy that's
going through divorce but he's got some money. And that's
(13:57):
how you would see neighborhoods like Midtown on parts of
Third Ward, some of the East End. You'd see those
neighborhoods make a big comeback. So, anyway, where are you located?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Yeah, well, our historic house is over off of the
seventeenth Street. We're just a few blocks from downtown and
walking distance, Winny, we're Cady Caddy cornered from King Vider's
(14:27):
house where the statue of the Ten Men from Wizard
of Oz is.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
As after whom Vouder, Texas is named through story.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah right, So how intense is the str activity there
and how much of a problem is it.
Speaker 6 (14:43):
Well, for us, it's not been a problem. But here's
part of the thing. We were a mom and pop
air We put our place on Airbnb mainly just to
try to cover the dead young taxes and the insurance
on the place. And it's not bad over there. And
my wife is a beast at vetting people, believe or not.
(15:03):
Some of the best people we've had that are rented
ours or people during the Lone Star rally the bikers.
We've we've got some people that they after one year,
they've rented for the next year and they they're awesome.
And we've we've our experience has been real good. But
like I said, we're a mom and pop.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Now.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
My understanding, and I don't know that this is a
fact or not, is that a lot of the airbnbs
now have been bought up by corporations. They haven't heard
that's some hedge fund bought a bunch of them, and
so you know, they just rent to whoever. But the
mom and pop air and be airbnbs evidently is not
(15:45):
nearly what it used to be. And so we're then
we have this house over in Midtown. I mean I
can see the Sant Louis from my front porch, and
we put it on the market a while back, and
it's been on the market for a long time. What's
the address of the one in midtown? We're Crockett and fiftieth.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
He just missed an opportunity to tell I just saw
the video. Saudi Arabia's Prince brought in a mobile McDonald's
for President Trump for his visit. It's basically a tractor
(16:40):
trailer container on the back of an eighteen wheeler that
has the big M on it. They made McDonald's, I
mean McDonald's runs it, and they brought it for his
visit just in this morning.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Came out a little over an hour ago.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The inflation rate for April, we don't get that, of course,
until halfway through May, far below expectations. For the third
straight month, less inflation than predicted. Grocery prices saw their
largest decline in nearly five years. That's the entirety of
(17:21):
the Biden presidency. Gas prices fell for the third month
in a row. Well, let's see, we're in May. Let's
go back. This is the April number. That's March, April,
March February. President Trump took over with ten days left
in January. I understand people are scared. I understand people
(17:45):
don't know what's going to happen. But I also understand
that the panic and fear and chaos in uncertainty and
confusion is being stoked by the media. See what happened
to the stock market yesterday. People don't know how to
negotiate that. Let's start there. When Trump says I'm gonna
I'm gonna put a tarif on Channel so much, I'll
(18:05):
put them out of business.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I'll bankrupt the country.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Oh my god, everybody's gonna die. We're wrong, gonna die.
Wall Street Journal, Oh my god, we're wrong, gonna die.
Calm in the pocket there, happy feet. And then the
next weekend they signed a deal to pause for ninety days.
Oh everything's great. Look at that stop Mark's booming? Are
people this week? Apparently we're talking about the short term
(18:30):
rental market on Galveston Island. Let's go next to uh Willie.
Now you spelled that W I L L I E.
I understand someone that will be a female Willie if
you spelled the eye instead of y.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Oh no, no, sir, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
You don't know anything about short criminals?
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Go ahead, well, actually you with you saw mine that
I had a hed It was beautiful. Yeah, yeah, sold it.
And I think the right time. I think what people
are understanding is Galveston is You know, it's a historical town.
There's lots of great old houses, and over the years,
(19:14):
through the seventies, eighties and oil crash and the different
things that happened, these houses fell by the wayside, but
they all had great bones and COVID and the whole
housing thing that happened during that time really spurred a
rejuvenation of all these neighborhoods that I mean, let's face it,
some of these houses are painted like blue with sea
(19:35):
sales on the front porch. But it's better than having
the cars that were parked up, you know, on the
front yard and a house that was falling apart. Now,
the mistake of a lot of people that came in
from out of town made I think was just a
perching seeing these properties that were five and six blocks
away from the beach, because you know, anything one and
two blocks from the beach is going to hold its values.
(19:57):
Like you always talk about location, location, and by the way,
way you nailed the culture of the Galvestonian perfectly.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well, it's true. I mean, you would fit in with that.
You're a musician. But listen to this, a woman named Laurie.
I'm a drummer, You're still a musician and a lead singer,
so that makes you a full blow musician. So Laurie writes,
and this is what I'm hearing from, folks, And this
is what isn't being talked about. The problem with why
there are so many airbnbs is one of economics. I
(20:25):
think she means to say one of necessity. We have
a rental in Crystal Beach, and we also have a
lake house that we do not rent out. The cost
of property taxes and insurance is driving people to rent
their homes if they don't live there full time in
order to be able to hold on to them and
afford them. One solution is for the state to allow
you to homestead two properties that you do not rent out,
(20:46):
and that would lower property taxes.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
There are over.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Three hundred houses on the Peninsula that are for sale
because people can't afford them and the rentals are not
covering the cost of the homes. I agree that there
should be regulations on airbit so they don't disrupt the
neighborhood environment. We've had bad experiences at the Lake with
airbnbs being disruptive, leaving trash it everywhere and just making
the residents feel unsafe. Now she says, we've got to
(21:11):
do this second home that is a homestead. Now here
is what people are missing out of all this. Okay,
you can find more exemptions for taxes. You can say
old people don't have to pay property tax. You can
say veterans don't have to be paid property tax. Disabled
people don't have to pay property tax. You can keep
exempting everybody until you exempt everybody, and then what happens
what no one sees. Okay, if you say, well, what
(21:33):
we really just need to do is give a second
home tax exemption, all right, I'm fine with that. It
would encourage the purchase of second homes. Fine, that would
drive up the market. But that's okay. Why would we
give a second homestead tax exemption because the taxes are crippling? Right, Well,
you still have the same need for taxes, because what
(21:56):
nobody seems to see is for all this talk in
voting from Republicans in Austin about how, yeah, property taxes
are bad, we're gonna go to this tax if you
don't reduce the spending, you're just moving the ball around.
You're still gonna have to drain the people, soak the
people for all of this money.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And you can say what we ought to do. Y'all
don't like property taxes, do you No?
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Well, what you really don't like is having to fund
a government that's out of control. And by the way,
it's all Republican and it's still out of control. Abbot's
doing nothing about that.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
School vouchers.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Great, what did school vouchers do? The public schools bitched
and moaned that they didn't want school vouchers. They didn't
want school choice. Why because it would take money from
the public schools. So what does Abbot do. Go, No, no, no, worry.
You're still gonna be bloated. You're still gonna get all
that money you've been getting in bitching the whole time
that you're underfunded.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh, you're underfunded. The schools are underfunded.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And if you don't agree that the schools are underfunded,
you can't run for public office because the teacher are
support and the schools are support and they're falling down
and it's the end of the world. And well, wait
a second, it's been that way for how long? And
you're still giving raises to your administrators. Okay, but the
schools are supporting, oh my god, and the schools and
you don't care about the kids. And I'm a proud
public school grant. I got people from Orange that I
(23:18):
know that I grew up with. I'm from a public school,
and I want to protect the public school. All these
people that I know that went to public I did.
We got to care about the public school kids.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
We got to take care of the public.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Well, don't worry, we're still gonna throw all that cash
at the public schools for one hundred million dollar sport state.
We're gonna do all of that, y'all. Don't worry. We're
gonna give you every bit you've been given because we're
never ever gonna take away from the schools. We're just
gonna keep increasing what we give you, plus let you
float bonds. It's out of control. The people are furious
(23:49):
in your neighborhoods. But that's okay. Because your poor school.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Was falling down. God help you out. Did the kids survive?
So all the school for.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
The public, all the money for the public schools that
they've always had, but a new pool of money for
the school vouchers. So we didn't really offer you the
opportunity to take the money that you were paying to
the public schools because you don't use them and go
to a private school. Oh no, no, no, we gave you
a whole new pool of money. Well guess what that
(24:17):
effectively does. That just increased your taxes. That's not a
win for school vouchers. You didn't give people an opportunity
to take money from the public schools and say, you
guys are going to have to compete with private schools.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
You said, you stay just as bloated as you want.
We're going to give a whole new pool of money.
So you're never going to get out of this problem.
Even the Republicans are raising your taxes.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You're listening to Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
The insurance costs increases in Galveston. People giving me numbers
that blur my eyes. If you owned a modest home
in Galveston that was your weekend get away. It's particularly
truef it's a second home, but primary home hits just
(25:10):
as hard. But you had a weekend home down there
you enjoyed. Maybe it's been in the family for multiple generations.
And then all of a sudden, the cost of home
ownership goes through the roof because of the storms, and
then the insurance claims. Insurance itself is out of control,
(25:33):
absolutely out of control, and there are a number of
reasons for that. I mean, look, these things come in cycles,
but we've had some bad storms on the Gulf Coast.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
There's nowhere around that.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
The people of Orange, the people of Calkashuote Parish, Lake
Charles area. God bless them. They have been through hell.
I mean just hell, just hit time after time after time.
Every time we thought we were going to get in Houston, Nope,
it stays east and just wallops Lake Charles. You think
about how debilitating Harvey was for us. You've had floods
(26:07):
like that in Calcashue Parish multiple over the last twenty years.
And that's a community that wasn't ready for it. I mean,
they didn't have much more in a couple of chemical
plants and steamboat bills, and then thank god Tilman put
the casino there. They didn't have a lot to rely
on already. I know people. I know a lot of
(26:30):
people that work at Tilman's Casino of the Golden Nugget
Lake Charles and live in Orange because there's nothing to
do in Lake Charles. They live in Orange and drive
back and forth because they all email.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Me, Hey where should I go?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Eat?
Speaker 6 (26:41):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
What should I.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, it's interesting. We're gonna have a guy coming up
just a moment to talk about ibagain. And I first
heard about ibagain several years ago from veterans who were
taking this experimental treatment because they were having good results,
and my thought is anything that can give results to
our veterans with PTSD, I'm for it. And this treatment
(27:05):
is being touted. I've always hesitant to make medical claims
or financial return gain claims because I'm not the one
providing it. I don't know the fundamentals, I don't know
the recipe. But it's being touted, it's having amazing, amazing results,
and I hope that's true. Dakota Meyer was speaking before
the house about it. We'll get to that in just
(27:27):
a moment. But our guest coming up the next time
is going to talk about that. Let's try to get
these folks in here. Did we do, Willie? Because you've
misspelled Willy's name? How about Frank?
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Frank?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
What you got?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Hey?
Speaker 8 (27:40):
Good morning, Michael, Yes, sir, I've got two Airbnb rentals.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
One I've had.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Crystal Beach for about sixteen years. The other one I
have in Canyon Lake and I've had that one about
seven years, Okay, and money was money was good until
last year. I'd say I lost about seventy five percent
revenue online and about ninety percent revenue on.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
The second one.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
There's just a lot of Airbnb homes all of a sudden,
and its flooded the market.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Okay, hold on for me, hold on for me, Frank,
I want to I want to drill down this. We're
not talking about net revenues. We're talking about gross revenues.
You lost ninety percent of your overall sales at the
at the Crystal Beach or at the Canyon Lake.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
The Canyon late was worse.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Okay, and that's because a competition.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
I was attributing a little bit towards economy maybe, but
I honestly do believe is the market is saturated with
airbnb homes.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
You know, there's something else that I believe is happening,
and that is we had an artificial market during COVID,
And what happened was you couldn't travel, or people didn't
want to travel, and so they didn't want to leave
the country, so they turned inward. We saw this in Aspen, Colorado,
(29:06):
we saw it in Fredericksburg, we saw it at Canyon Lake,
we saw it in Galveston, and so it created an
uptick in the market. It created a whole new market
because it created a massive new demand both for short
term rentals, long term rentals, and actual purchases. Interest rates
were good, so you could afford to do it, and
(29:26):
a lot of people looked at it as well, we'll
just relocate there. So these were in parts of Colorado.
It's people that would have flown to Japan or Hawaii
or a European vacation, and instead they went to Colorado.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
A lot of these people that went.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
To Galveston and bought down there are Cabo people, and
they're Applied Del Carmen people, and they're people who would
normally go to Mexico and spend a fair amount of
money there and the high end resorts, Cozamel and all that,
and instead they I said, well, I don't want to
get stuck down there in.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Covid so we'll just go down to Galveston.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
And guess what they could afford a place in Galveston,
whether to rent.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Or to purchase.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
And so all of this activity drove the prices up,
and it drove the rentals up, and that stayed the case.
People found that they enjoyed Colorado or Fredericksburg or Galveston,
and that continued twenty twenty through twenty twenty one, twenty
twenty two, twenty twenty three, and then as the COVID
(30:34):
hoax began to tamp down, people go, you know, we
hadn't been to Europe in a while. You know, last
time we were in Europe, the kids were in sixth grade,
and now they're sophomores and juniors. I'd like to get
one family trip in before they graduate. So now those
people that were going to those places before are now
going back slowly to their old behaviors. And it's not
(30:56):
that you lose one hundred percent of the market of
buyers or renters in these places. It's that you lose
a marginal amount, but you find out, like in the
grocery business, if a grocery business loses five percent of sales,
they go out of business because the marginal is so
much and you're on the margins to start with. I
(31:17):
also think that a lot of people during that time
converted their properties to Airbnb and competitor properties, and so
that meant there was a much bigger supply at the
you know, you plot this, you see a decrease in
supply and a I mean sorry, increase in supply and
(31:38):
a decrease in demand. And where you are at that
intersection is a lower price point. It may just be
the case that it's going to require lowering the price
to rent these places out, but nobody wants to do that.
I have watched in Colorado a number of people who
(31:59):
the market and Colorado went so crazy during COVID and
it shot properties up in value, and then that began
to change. And there are people who still think they're
going to get that amount, and they're still waiting around
and their property has been on the market for eighteen months.
Somebody's gonna wear that hickey. Somebody's gonna eat that loss.
(32:22):
You bought a place for eight hundred thousand that used
to be worth three point fifty. Now the market's come
back down. Eventually, you either walk that property or you
sell it for what. But the real problem is if
you were a cash buyer, that's one thing. You got
people that are upside down on these things. They got
low interest rate, low down payment homes, and now they
(32:45):
all owe all that money and the market's just not
there for that home and they've kind of moved on.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
There's gonna be a reckoning.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
It's not gonna be a it's not gonna be pretty
It's that time time, time, time, Luck and Load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The Michael Varie Show is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
An article appeared in the Houston Chronicle saying that Galveston
may be the Houston region's biggest buyer's market as a
wave of Airbnb's floods listings. The average Galveston home now
sits on the market for over five months, as the
beach town shifts into what may be the biggest virus
(00:56):
market in the Houston region. I am somewhat fascinated by Galveston.
I must say I love Galveston. I love the people.
Even though it's only an hour south of Houston.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I find the.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
People to be different. They're sort of like a Houstonian
and a New Orleanian had a child, so they're a
little more responsible and less partying than a New Orleanian,
but not by much. And I like that because anywhere
else you go, if you get outside of Houston, even
(01:32):
up to a few hours, you don't get the feel
that you're on vacation. And I can go to Galveston
and when I drive across that Causeway, I can't tell
you how many times we've taken our kids down there,
and when we would get to the causeway, the windows
would go down, and the smell of the water. And
now I understand there's a certain percentage of you who
(01:54):
are just ick ick icking that you don't have to
like what I like. Okay, I go to Florida. I
know the beach. The sand is white, and the water
is pretty, and it's not down there. How often you
go to Florida. Florida toots once a year, because we
were going every weekend for a while. So you go
(02:15):
to Florida, you go and have tsa put their finger
up your ass, and then you get there early, and
then you fly there and you get stuck on the foot.
All that is great. Florida is still there for me.
But I'm not going to Florida every weekend. I can
go to and by the way, I don't care about
the water and I don't care about the beach because
I hate beaches, always have, always will. I don't like sand,
(02:37):
and I don't care if anybody thinks I'm a Wills
for it. I don't like sand. It gets everywhere, it's nasty.
I think it's vile. I'll drive along the sea wall
and I see these families down there, They're day trippers
and they come down and they're just full of it,
and those kids are having a blast. And you know what,
some of those kids are kind of poor and working
class kids like we were. And that was the idea
of a good time was to go to the beach
(02:58):
and roll around in the sand. My mother would sit
out there drinking her tab in her little lawn chair
that she brought with her, and we had a hell
of a time and didn't cost anything. And I think
that's cool, right, Well, we did Crystal Beach because Galveston
was kind of fool for us. But we'd ride the
ferry over sometimes and get to go to the fancy beach.
So that's my opinion of Galveston.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I love the restaurants, I love the people. Have a
lot of friends that live down there and a lot
of friends that go down there that we see. So
I really enjoy Galveston. If you don't, that's your business.
But if you love Galveston, I'm not pooping on Galveston.
We're talking about a real problem and you can't deny it.
This is like the Catholic church pedophile problem, and frankly,
some other churches have had some problems as well. This
(03:38):
is like a lot, it's like run or a number
of other things. Just because you got a wark, you
can't pretend it away. You got to bite into her over. Well,
what are you doing, Philip? Let's bring Philip back. Okay,
So you're on the East End, you're at S and
(03:58):
thirty five.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Yeah, that neighborhood rut there?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Are you gay?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
The same things that Brannan was talking about.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
No, well, a lot of it's okay, a lot of
that area is gay, and thank god for him. If
it hadn't been for the gays redoing those houses, it
wouldn't be any good.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
I don't know how many locals are left.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
How many of your neighbors are gay?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Are you think that many of my current ones?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Are you the one whose wife they live all around
the airbnb? No? I mean I had a fellow who
would call in.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
He's a massage therapist and I think he's a personal
trainer too. I think he does both. He does both
of them. And she ran she ran a bed and
breakfast there right around where you are.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
There's there were several there's one across the street from
me for sale right now? What do you do for earlier?
And there's I can see. I have two businesses that
support civil infrastructure projects here in Texas, like what I
have one that is an installation firm and dewatering specifically
groundwater removal for heavy sewer, all the underground things, anything
that goes in the ground. Here it's wet, we come in,
(05:07):
we pull the water out and make it easy for
the gas to work on the ground and a work
at the dry condition.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You ever come across called the other company called Griffin
de Watering.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Oh yeah, we compete.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So the owner of Griffin d Watering here in my
backyard right now working. Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
He's an Irani guy who was at the time when
I had a real estate firm in the late nineties.
We did some real estate work for him. All right,
So you've got a dewatering firm. What's the name of
your dewatering firm, TeX's well Point company okay.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And then what's your other firm?
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The other company supports my competition with materials and supplies
for dewatering.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Okay, a lot of folks do that.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
And what's that based out of here as well? Golf
dewatering Solutions.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
It's interesting how many industries have. I know a lot
of people who do that. So they are a service
provider in the field, but then they also own a
a supply house and support firm that's for the whole industry.
But they had to separate them out or people would
wouldn't buy from them. I find that so interesting. So
tell me what's going on with the short term rentals there?
(06:12):
How bad is it? Is it a big problem? I'm
assuming you don't do it because you live there.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
But yeah, my parents did it with our house for
about fifteen years and up until about I fell. I'm sorry.
Up until COVID, it was really easy. It worked well.
They made a little bit of money every year, nothing crazy.
And then the COVID market happened and everybody wanted a house,
so home prices climbed, and then year after year tax
values climbed. Some storms came in, nothing bad. Well, all
(06:42):
of a sudden, you got houses down here that ten
years ago were let's say two hundred k at best.
The insurance wasn't crazy yet, the taxes weren't.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Well.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Now that's all doubled and tripled out, and there's so
many that it saturated the market to where you can't
possibly rent it often enough at the rate to make
it survive. So there's a whole pile of people that
are spending five and six grand a month on a
house that they're only making thirty eight hundred and forty two. Right,
it's the money ten Phi. Look, they got it dumped it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I'm hearing this.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Oh listen, the real estate property taxes have gotten so bad.
And let me tell you something. The House and Senate
in Austin, they're doing nothing about it. Abbot's not talking
about it. They'll occasionally bring it up as a little
they're not.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
For my guy down here just sold us down the river.
Oh yeah, it is a guy down here just sold
us down.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
This is the number one issue I hear about.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And people are furious, and they're doing nothing about it
because they love having all that money.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Well, they lie to your face down here. They tell
you they're going to do something about it, and they
go sign a deal.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Who lied to you? Who do you feel?
Speaker 6 (07:50):
What are we.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Supposed to do?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
My state rep down here that's working in Austin, which
is who I can't remember his name, it's not in
day's middle. And at another guy the Chronicle.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Hold on can you stop from Mimo? So I got
a message from Justin Van Sant. I've known Justin originally
as a singer. I don't know he had a day
job at the time, but he's one of these guys
like Josh Fuller, just doing whatever it takes to keep
the rent paid and the lights on and the family
(08:37):
happy to to make music. And then eventually enough kids
and a wife says you got to go get a
real job. So Justin worked for us as a GM
at the RCC for a while, and which was funny
because people would come and they thought, oh, you playing tonight.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
No, I'm running the show right now. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Uh, he was a frequent performer at the RCC. He's
a good friend. He now works with some other friends
of mine who the father of the young man who
the race that almost killed me with my hamstring toward
Chris Spears, if I knows Chris Spears from Beaumont and anyway,
So Justin doesn't make as much music as he used
(09:17):
to does a great Neon Moon, but he sent me
a song and he said, I'm just putting this here
with you like to get your feedback on it, and
it really I love this I'm gonna play it and
then we'll get back to the calls. It's a song
about a guy who dreamed of being up on stage
like Keith Whitley and came to realize that my dream
is having a wife and kids in a stable home,
(09:39):
and the Keith Whitley's never had that, so we perceive
that that is the pinnacle, is to be Keith Whitley
dying in a hotel room overdosed, and the real dream
is to be able to make it out alive and
play some songs for your friends and anyway, that's what
the song's about.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I don't want to run it, and he started.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Every thought I was put on insert please guitar.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Everyone is faith.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Never wanted to take it away.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
You far only wanted to be good man to a
good war, raised a couple of good kids. So I
some say, still to this day, I quit all.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
On my dream. They don't know every dream I have.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
It's right here and next to me, the ball game, balady,
mom and dad getaways. I came to believe how blessed die
and these days.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
How want to be my kind of legacy.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I want to fall over my heart and my guys.
I didn't want those around me to be proud of
the man I'm trying me.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I will every ride his song or sing like with me.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So I just happen. Long kind of legacy.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
Long kind of legacy.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
That's it, That's all I got.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
I love that, Philip. Let's go back to you real quick.
What percentage of homes around you if I was to
go seven homes each direction? Are in the show? Or
term rental pool, Phillip, we lost, Philip. Go to Larry
(12:10):
Larry on The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Go ahead, Hello, Michael, Yeah, I can. I can speak
to just about all of this stuff. We bought a
house in the Historic District I don't know, over a
decade or so ago as a weekend place and been
a few years ago. When we decided to bail out
(12:31):
of fullsher we bought a bigger house over in in
Midtown and we loved it over in the Historic District.
It's great. And I can speak to one thing. The
gay guys or the gay folks have the best landscape
yards in the place.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That's why when you see neighborhood regentrification, inner city regentrification
in the major cities in the country, it was. The
schools are always bad. You have these areas that are predominantly,
almost exclusively black, crime.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Rate is high.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
You've got the old folks like boys in the hood,
the old folks who own the old homes, and they're
trying to keep this neighborhood together, trying to get some
community support.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
But then you've got.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Young thugs that are ruining it, and the homes aren't
being maintained. The older folks can't afford to. Grandma's taking
in her grandson. She's trying to help him out. Maybe
he's in trouble, maybe he's not, but a few of
them on the street are. You've got gang activity, you've
got drug activity, and the schools are going to be horrible.
So the way those neighborhoods begin to gentrify, clean up,
(13:36):
however you want become a neighborhood at a grocery store
would want to be in because that's what people want.
Is you'll have a gay couple moving, and then another,
and then another, and then because they don't care, at
least used to, they didn't care about the schools. Now
some of them do. And then following them would be
two young folks with double income, no kids, they would
follow in and then you might get a guy that's
going through divorce but he's got some money. And that's
(13:57):
how you would see neighborhoods like Midtown on parts of
Third Ward, some of the East End. You'd see those
neighborhoods make a big comeback. So, anyway, where are you located?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Yeah, well, our historic house is over off of the
seventeenth Street. We're just a few blocks from downtown and
walking distance, Winny, we're Cady Caddy cornered from King Vider's
(14:27):
house where the statue of the Ten Men from Wizard
of Oz is.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
As after whom Vouder, Texas is named through story.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah right, So how intense is the str activity there
and how much of a problem is it.
Speaker 6 (14:43):
Well, for us, it's not been a problem. But here's
part of the thing. We were a mom and pop
air We put our place on Airbnb mainly just to
try to cover the dead young taxes and the insurance
on the place. And it's not bad over there. And
my wife is a beast at vetting people, believe or not.
(15:03):
Some of the best people we've had that are rented
ours or people during the Lone Star rally the bikers.
We've we've got some people that they after one year,
they've rented for the next year and they they're awesome.
And we've we've our experience has been real good. But
like I said, we're a mom and pop.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Now.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
My understanding, and I don't know that this is a
fact or not, is that a lot of the airbnbs
now have been bought up by corporations. They haven't heard
that's some hedge fund bought a bunch of them, and
so you know, they just rent to whoever. But the
mom and pop air and be airbnbs evidently is not
(15:45):
nearly what it used to be. And so we're then
we have this house over in Midtown. I mean I
can see the Sant Louis from my front porch, and
we put it on the market a while back, and
it's been on the market for a long time. What's
the address of the one in midtown? We're Crockett and fiftieth.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
He just missed an opportunity to tell I just saw
the video. Saudi Arabia's Prince brought in a mobile McDonald's
for President Trump for his visit. It's basically a tractor
(16:40):
trailer container on the back of an eighteen wheeler that
has the big M on it. They made McDonald's, I
mean McDonald's runs it, and they brought it for his
visit just in this morning.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Came out a little over an hour ago.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
The inflation rate for April, we don't get that, of course,
until halfway through May, far below expectations. For the third
straight month, less inflation than predicted. Grocery prices saw their
largest decline in nearly five years. That's the entirety of
(17:21):
the Biden presidency. Gas prices fell for the third month
in a row. Well, let's see, we're in May. Let's
go back. This is the April number. That's March, April,
March February. President Trump took over with ten days left
in January. I understand people are scared. I understand people
(17:45):
don't know what's going to happen. But I also understand
that the panic and fear and chaos in uncertainty and
confusion is being stoked by the media. See what happened
to the stock market yesterday. People don't know how to
negotiate that. Let's start there. When Trump says I'm gonna
I'm gonna put a tarif on Channel so much, I'll
(18:05):
put them out of business.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I'll bankrupt the country.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Oh my god, everybody's gonna die. We're wrong, gonna die.
Wall Street Journal, Oh my god, we're wrong, gonna die.
Calm in the pocket there, happy feet. And then the
next weekend they signed a deal to pause for ninety days.
Oh everything's great. Look at that stop Mark's booming? Are
people this week? Apparently we're talking about the short term
(18:30):
rental market on Galveston Island. Let's go next to uh Willie.
Now you spelled that W I L L I E.
I understand someone that will be a female Willie if
you spelled the eye instead of y.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Oh no, no, sir, yes it is.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
You don't know anything about short criminals?
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Go ahead, well, actually you with you saw mine that
I had a hed It was beautiful. Yeah, yeah, sold it.
And I think the right time. I think what people
are understanding is Galveston is You know, it's a historical town.
There's lots of great old houses, and over the years,
(19:14):
through the seventies, eighties and oil crash and the different
things that happened, these houses fell by the wayside, but
they all had great bones and COVID and the whole
housing thing that happened during that time really spurred a
rejuvenation of all these neighborhoods that I mean, let's face it,
some of these houses are painted like blue with sea
(19:35):
sales on the front porch. But it's better than having
the cars that were parked up, you know, on the
front yard and a house that was falling apart. Now,
the mistake of a lot of people that came in
from out of town made I think was just a
perching seeing these properties that were five and six blocks
away from the beach, because you know, anything one and
two blocks from the beach is going to hold its values.
(19:57):
Like you always talk about location, location, and by the way,
way you nailed the culture of the Galvestonian perfectly.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Well, it's true. I mean, you would fit in with that.
You're a musician. But listen to this, a woman named Laurie.
I'm a drummer, You're still a musician and a lead singer,
so that makes you a full blow musician. So Laurie writes,
and this is what I'm hearing from, folks, And this
is what isn't being talked about. The problem with why
there are so many airbnbs is one of economics. I
(20:25):
think she means to say one of necessity. We have
a rental in Crystal Beach, and we also have a
lake house that we do not rent out. The cost
of property taxes and insurance is driving people to rent
their homes if they don't live there full time in
order to be able to hold on to them and
afford them. One solution is for the state to allow
you to homestead two properties that you do not rent out,
(20:46):
and that would lower property taxes.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
There are over.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Three hundred houses on the Peninsula that are for sale
because people can't afford them and the rentals are not
covering the cost of the homes. I agree that there
should be regulations on airbit so they don't disrupt the
neighborhood environment. We've had bad experiences at the Lake with
airbnbs being disruptive, leaving trash it everywhere and just making
the residents feel unsafe. Now she says, we've got to
(21:11):
do this second home that is a homestead. Now here
is what people are missing out of all this. Okay,
you can find more exemptions for taxes. You can say
old people don't have to pay property tax. You can
say veterans don't have to be paid property tax. Disabled
people don't have to pay property tax. You can keep
exempting everybody until you exempt everybody, and then what happens
what no one sees. Okay, if you say, well, what
(21:33):
we really just need to do is give a second
home tax exemption, all right, I'm fine with that. It
would encourage the purchase of second homes. Fine, that would
drive up the market. But that's okay. Why would we
give a second homestead tax exemption because the taxes are crippling? Right, Well,
you still have the same need for taxes, because what
(21:56):
nobody seems to see is for all this talk in
voting from Republicans in Austin about how, yeah, property taxes
are bad, we're gonna go to this tax if you
don't reduce the spending, you're just moving the ball around.
You're still gonna have to drain the people, soak the
people for all of this money.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And you can say what we ought to do. Y'all
don't like property taxes, do you No?
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Well, what you really don't like is having to fund
a government that's out of control. And by the way,
it's all Republican and it's still out of control. Abbot's
doing nothing about that.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
School vouchers.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Great, what did school vouchers do? The public schools bitched
and moaned that they didn't want school vouchers. They didn't
want school choice. Why because it would take money from
the public schools. So what does Abbot do. Go, No, no, no, worry.
You're still gonna be bloated. You're still gonna get all
that money you've been getting in bitching the whole time
that you're underfunded.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh, you're underfunded. The schools are underfunded.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And if you don't agree that the schools are underfunded,
you can't run for public office because the teacher are
support and the schools are support and they're falling down
and it's the end of the world. And well, wait
a second, it's been that way for how long? And
you're still giving raises to your administrators. Okay, but the
schools are supporting, oh my god, and the schools and
you don't care about the kids. And I'm a proud
public school grant. I got people from Orange that I
(23:18):
know that I grew up with. I'm from a public school,
and I want to protect the public school. All these
people that I know that went to public I did.
We got to care about the public school kids.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
We got to take care of the public.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Well, don't worry, we're still gonna throw all that cash
at the public schools for one hundred million dollar sport state.
We're gonna do all of that, y'all. Don't worry. We're
gonna give you every bit you've been given because we're
never ever gonna take away from the schools. We're just
gonna keep increasing what we give you, plus let you
float bonds. It's out of control. The people are furious
(23:49):
in your neighborhoods. But that's okay. Because your poor school.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Was falling down. God help you out. Did the kids survive?
So all the school for.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
The public, all the money for the public schools that
they've always had, but a new pool of money for
the school vouchers. So we didn't really offer you the
opportunity to take the money that you were paying to
the public schools because you don't use them and go
to a private school. Oh no, no, no, we gave you
a whole new pool of money. Well guess what that
(24:17):
effectively does. That just increased your taxes. That's not a
win for school vouchers. You didn't give people an opportunity
to take money from the public schools and say, you
guys are going to have to compete with private schools.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
You said, you stay just as bloated as you want.
We're going to give a whole new pool of money.
So you're never going to get out of this problem.
Even the Republicans are raising your taxes.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You're listening to Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
The insurance costs increases in Galveston. People giving me numbers
that blur my eyes. If you owned a modest home
in Galveston that was your weekend get away. It's particularly
truef it's a second home, but primary home hits just
(25:10):
as hard. But you had a weekend home down there
you enjoyed. Maybe it's been in the family for multiple generations.
And then all of a sudden, the cost of home
ownership goes through the roof because of the storms, and
then the insurance claims. Insurance itself is out of control,
(25:33):
absolutely out of control, and there are a number of
reasons for that. I mean, look, these things come in cycles,
but we've had some bad storms on the Gulf Coast.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
There's nowhere around that.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
The people of Orange, the people of Calkashuote Parish, Lake
Charles area. God bless them. They have been through hell.
I mean just hell, just hit time after time after time.
Every time we thought we were going to get in Houston, Nope,
it stays east and just wallops Lake Charles. You think
about how debilitating Harvey was for us. You've had floods
(26:07):
like that in Calcashue Parish multiple over the last twenty years.
And that's a community that wasn't ready for it. I mean,
they didn't have much more in a couple of chemical
plants and steamboat bills, and then thank god Tilman put
the casino there. They didn't have a lot to rely
on already. I know people. I know a lot of
(26:30):
people that work at Tilman's Casino of the Golden Nugget
Lake Charles and live in Orange because there's nothing to
do in Lake Charles. They live in Orange and drive
back and forth because they all email.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Me, Hey where should I go?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Eat?
Speaker 6 (26:41):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
What should I.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, it's interesting. We're gonna have a guy coming up
just a moment to talk about ibagain. And I first
heard about ibagain several years ago from veterans who were
taking this experimental treatment because they were having good results,
and my thought is anything that can give results to
our veterans with PTSD, I'm for it. And this treatment
(27:05):
is being touted. I've always hesitant to make medical claims
or financial return gain claims because I'm not the one
providing it. I don't know the fundamentals, I don't know
the recipe. But it's being touted, it's having amazing, amazing results,
and I hope that's true. Dakota Meyer was speaking before
the house about it. We'll get to that in just
(27:27):
a moment. But our guest coming up the next time
is going to talk about that. Let's try to get
these folks in here. Did we do, Willie? Because you've
misspelled Willy's name? How about Frank?
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Frank?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
What you got?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Hey?
Speaker 8 (27:40):
Good morning, Michael, Yes, sir, I've got two Airbnb rentals.
Speaker 6 (27:46):
One I've had.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Crystal Beach for about sixteen years. The other one I
have in Canyon Lake and I've had that one about
seven years, Okay, and money was money was good until
last year. I'd say I lost about seventy five percent
revenue online and about ninety percent revenue on.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
The second one.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
There's just a lot of Airbnb homes all of a sudden,
and its flooded the market.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Okay, hold on for me, hold on for me, Frank,
I want to I want to drill down this. We're
not talking about net revenues. We're talking about gross revenues.
You lost ninety percent of your overall sales at the
at the Crystal Beach or at the Canyon Lake.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
The Canyon late was worse.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Okay, and that's because a competition.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
I was attributing a little bit towards economy maybe, but
I honestly do believe is the market is saturated with
airbnb homes.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
You know, there's something else that I believe is happening,
and that is we had an artificial market during COVID,
And what happened was you couldn't travel, or people didn't
want to travel, and so they didn't want to leave
the country, so they turned inward. We saw this in Aspen, Colorado,
(29:06):
we saw it in Fredericksburg, we saw it at Canyon Lake,
we saw it in Galveston, and so it created an
uptick in the market. It created a whole new market
because it created a massive new demand both for short
term rentals, long term rentals, and actual purchases. Interest rates
were good, so you could afford to do it, and
(29:26):
a lot of people looked at it as well, we'll
just relocate there. So these were in parts of Colorado.
It's people that would have flown to Japan or Hawaii
or a European vacation, and instead they went to Colorado.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
A lot of these people that went.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
To Galveston and bought down there are Cabo people, and
they're Applied Del Carmen people, and they're people who would
normally go to Mexico and spend a fair amount of
money there and the high end resorts, Cozamel and all that,
and instead they I said, well, I don't want to
get stuck down there in.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Covid so we'll just go down to Galveston.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
And guess what they could afford a place in Galveston,
whether to rent.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Or to purchase.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
And so all of this activity drove the prices up,
and it drove the rentals up, and that stayed the case.
People found that they enjoyed Colorado or Fredericksburg or Galveston,
and that continued twenty twenty through twenty twenty one, twenty
twenty two, twenty twenty three, and then as the COVID
(30:34):
hoax began to tamp down, people go, you know, we
hadn't been to Europe in a while. You know, last
time we were in Europe, the kids were in sixth grade,
and now they're sophomores and juniors. I'd like to get
one family trip in before they graduate. So now those
people that were going to those places before are now
going back slowly to their old behaviors. And it's not
(30:56):
that you lose one hundred percent of the market of
buyers or renters in these places. It's that you lose
a marginal amount, but you find out, like in the
grocery business, if a grocery business loses five percent of sales,
they go out of business because the marginal is so
much and you're on the margins to start with. I
(31:17):
also think that a lot of people during that time
converted their properties to Airbnb and competitor properties, and so
that meant there was a much bigger supply at the
you know, you plot this, you see a decrease in
supply and a I mean sorry, increase in supply and
(31:38):
a decrease in demand. And where you are at that
intersection is a lower price point. It may just be
the case that it's going to require lowering the price
to rent these places out, but nobody wants to do that.
I have watched in Colorado a number of people who
(31:59):
the market and Colorado went so crazy during COVID and
it shot properties up in value, and then that began
to change. And there are people who still think they're
going to get that amount, and they're still waiting around
and their property has been on the market for eighteen months.
Somebody's gonna wear that hickey. Somebody's gonna eat that loss.
(32:22):
You bought a place for eight hundred thousand that used
to be worth three point fifty. Now the market's come
back down. Eventually, you either walk that property or you
sell it for what. But the real problem is if
you were a cash buyer, that's one thing. You got
people that are upside down on these things. They got
low interest rate, low down payment homes, and now they
(32:45):
all owe all that money and the market's just not
there for that home and they've kind of moved on.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
There's gonna be a reckoning.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
It's not gonna be a it's not gonna be pretty
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