Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexa & Lamel.
Hi Alexa and Lamel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
So DSI was completely not planned or expected. I was 9 months pregnant with our now son, and at the time working for another property management company here in Atlanta. I had been working in the multi family property management industry for 7 years, although Lamel came from a sales background. My then employer was overseeing a portfolio of Airbnbs (about 26 at the time), and she had several markets across the United States managing vacation rentals. At the time, I was a property manager for her Atlanta portfolio. This was my first experience working with Airbnbs in property management. Prior to this, I had only worked as a leasing agent or property manager for several apartment complexes.
Well, a couple of weeks out from me giving birth, I was hit with news that my then boss and CEO of that company would be removing the Atlanta portfolio from their company. Essentially I had a month to figure out something else, which was super sh*tty timing!
What’s funny is since I was managing her portfolio, Lamel and I would sometimes pick up cleanings for her. They would have issues from time to time with cleaners, and we felt like “hmmm.. maybe this is a stream of income we should consider”. At the time I remember discussing with Lamel and saying “hey, the baby is on the way, we could use some extra cash so let’s just start cleaning these airbnbs”. Not to mention, we knew we would do it right! This is when Don’t Sweat It ATL was born. We spent 6 months cleaning Airbnbs while I was working for her. Mel even did quite a bit of maintenance work as a freelance handyman for the company as well. So you could imagine, he’s working full time, I am also working full time and now we’ve added cleaning to the mix. Mel’s doing some maintenance jobs here and there, and keep in mind this is all while I am pregnant! We were running it up in those 6 months, at that time we had generated the first $10,000 we’d make under DSI.
It wasn’t until I got that news about me being laid off that we ramped it up and decided to turn DSI into something more. I’d say within two weeks of that news, we created a logo, paid for our LLC and registered our business, got a business bank account and really started building the blueprint. Maybe a month later we had our first clients and the ball was rolling.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Anyone who has ever been in property management knows that this industry is not for the weak of heart, same with real estate. You genuinely have to have a heart for helping people and connecting with people. This was never about the money. We had our own horrible experiences with renting from huge corporate companies who just want to collect your rent. When we decided to start this journey, not only were we looking to represent our culture, but we wanted to change the trajectory of professional property management. We’ve dealt with all kinds of issues throughout this journey, yet we have learned so much more along the way.
A huge struggle that we’ve faced during our journey is working with owners who own a home that needs serious maintenance work, and them not wanting to invest in the “upkeep” of their property. It’s mind blowing actually, to see some of these people own property, want it to be profitable as a rental but not want to reinvest their income back into their place. It can be frustrating but we try to educate and coach our clients as much as possible on why not only it’s necessary for the guest experience, but also to maximize the revenue potential and ROI. Lamel and I have taken money out of our own pocket to improve the quality of some of these properties. We’ve purchased furniture, interior decor ect. Anytime we’ve felt it was necessary to help increase our clients profitability, despite us loosing money, we’ve trusted the process and saw it payoff later in our results.
Another issue we’ve faced is dealing with the platforms themselves. Airbnb has been under a lot of pressure I’m sure. The laws and changes being made are quickly changing the future of vacation rentals. Overall to say the least the platform is a great resource for guests to use to find quality rentals, although the platform lacks on protecting its hosts and makes it very difficult to resolve any issues. We’ve lost quite a bit of money over penalty fees and have taken a hit on our super host status/ reviews for things completely out of our control.
Another thing that I want to touch on that I don’t think a lot of people consider when starting off is the struggle with balancing business and home life or the relationship. In our story, we’ve just had a baby, (we also have a 9 year old) and we both juggle other responsibilities. Having to balance being parents, and business partners is something we’ve had to learn to do along the way. Starting off we didn’t always know how to balance these responsibilities and relationships. Nevertheless we’ve always kept GOD first, did our best to support one another and lean on each other’s strengths to figure any and everything out.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Don’t Sweat It ATL?
We are a non-traditional property management company based in Atlanta, GA. Our vision is to infuse contemporary elements into our clients properties, bring joy and soul to property management, and create spaces that provide timeless value; connecting vacation homes to guests and renters. Through our modern approach, and dynamic strategies, we leave our clients with nothing to “sweat” -no pun intended
Our approach is simple, we meet our clients where they are and see how we can help. We are family oriented, and care for our clients like family. Our services allow flexibility and more options to our owners. It allows us to cater to all different types of needs in property management. We pride ourselves on being “boots on the ground” and the type of owners who aren’t afraid to work hands on. We take this approach so that our clients can be as hands off as possible. Providing them the ability to truly focus their time into other things.
We specialize in making rental homes not only profitable, but we increase the quality of these rentals bringing them value! We focus on ensuring our renters and guests can have the best possible experience.
How do you think about happiness?
Giving renters and tenants a fair chance, making their needs feel heard and addressed, while providing them with an affordable and comfortable space to stay. Making our own rules, and us being able to be ourselves. In the most unorthodox professional way..
Being able to take the weight off someone’s shoulders, because they know they will be living somewhere well maintained and managed by people who are honest, who have integrity, and who care for them like family. This is what makes us happy.
Pricing:
- We base our pricing on the needs of our clients, we have standard management fees set but we allow the space for negotiation to ensure it’s a good fit and makes sense on both sides.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dontsweatitatl.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dsimgmt?igsh=dXY2am8zYjEwZDhs&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555281700008&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Image Credits
Le Aura Studios- Lamel Johnson
