A financially independent real estate investor shares the book that changed his strategy and helped him build a profitable portfolio of rentals
When Manny Reyna struggled to find a tenant for one of his investment properties, he turned to a principle he learned from " Blue Ocean Strategy."
The book, co-authored by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, breaks down the market universe into two main categories: "red oceans" — the industries in existence today, or the known market space — and "blue oceans," the industries not in existence, or the unknown market space.
While "red ocean strategy" is all about competing in an existing market space, "blue ocean strategy" is about creating an uncontested market space and capturing new demand.
"One of my homes was not picking up on Airbnb," Reyna, who rents two single-family homes and two tiny homes in San Antonio, told Business Insider. "So, I shifted my strategy to something called mid-term rentals. I took the playbook right out of 'Blue Ocean Strategy': Everyone's looking at this shiny object — short-term rentals — but what about mid-term rentals?"
He listed the property on Furnished Finder, which specializes in 30-day plus stays and is geared toward traveling professionals. It's less mainstream than sites like Airbnb and VRBO, and Reyna had to spend time familiarizing himself with a new platform.
"Furnished Finder charges you to post your home, they bring in tenant leads, and then you have to engage them, so that's a whole other thing," he said. "I had to make templates and figure out the whole process, everything from screening tenants through a third-party app called KeyCheck to taking deposits and writing leases."
The upfront work paid off, he said: "When I went to mid-term rentals, I was able to pick up a lot more bookings. For whatever reason, in the area where the home is in San Antonio, there are a lot of medical professionals that go there, a lot of construction professionals, and a lot of business professionals."
Using books to get his foot in the real estate door
Reyna spent years working in the US Army before purchasing his first property.
"I was a medic, so we wouldn't really have too much to do unless somebody got hurt. With that downtime, I read so many books about business and real estate and finance," he said. "We didn't have a way to get internet a lot of the time, so I just read anything I could get my hands on."
When he was wrapping up his service in 2021, he had about $12,000 in savings, a family to support, and a career to figure out.
"I was super concerned about a lot of things," he said. But, as interest rates started to drop to historic lows in 2021, Reyna recognized an opportunity to buy property and start building equity.
The knowledge he'd acquired reading "Blue Ocean Strategy" and other books, including "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Profit First," helped him turn the idea of buying a home into reality relatively quickly.
"I won't say that I was an expert, but I had some confidence," he said. The mindset he developed in the Army also helped him act quickly. "They teach you to make a decision and act on it. I was just thinking, 'This is a now-or-never moment. The interest rates are super low. I know they're going to go back up soon.'"
He found a single-family home, financed it with a 0% down VA loan, and locked in a 3% interest rate. He and his family moved in in the spring of 2021. That property is now one of four rentals that he owns.
Self-education is one lever you can pull if you're cash-strapped or starting from scratch.
"I really just read anything I could get my hands on because I felt like I was so behind and needed to figure out a way to make money for my family," said Reyna. "So that was the fastest thing I could do — just read, read, read, read, read, and try to get caught up on everything."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
OpenAI cofounder tells new graduates the day is coming when AI 'will do all the things that we can'
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says "the day will come when AI will do all the things that we can." He spoke about the state of AI at the University of Toronto convocation last week. Sutskever also advised graduates to "'accept reality as it is and try not to regret the past." Ilya Sutskever says it might take years, but he believes AI will one day be able to accomplish everything humans can. Sutskever, the cofounder and former chief scientist of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, spoke about the technology while giving a convocation speech at the University of Toronto, his alma mater, last week. "The real challenge with AI is that it is really unprecedented and really extreme, and it's going to be very different in the future compared to the way it is today," he said. Sutskever said that while AI is already better at some things than humans, "there are so many things it cannot do as well and it's so deficient, so you can say it still needs to catch up on a lot of things." But, he said, he believes "AI will keep getting better and the day will come when AI will do all the things that we can do." "How can I be so sure of that?" he continued. "We have a brain, the brain is a biological computer, so why can't a digital computer, a digital brain, do the same things? This is the one-sentence summary for why AI will be able to do all those things, because we have a brain and the brain is a biological computer." As is customary at convocation and commencement ceremonies, Sutskever also gave advice to the new graduates. He implored them to "accept reality as it is, try not to regret the past, and try to improve the situation." "It's so easy to think, 'Oh, some bad past decision or bad stroke of luck, something happened, something is unfair,'" he said. "It's so easy to spend so much time thinking like this while it's just so much better and more productive to say, 'Okay, things are the way they are, what's the next best step?'" Sutskever hasn't always taken his own advice on the matter, though. He's said before that he regrets his involvement in the November 2023 ousting of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Sutskever was a member of the board, which fired Altman after saying it "no longer has confidence" in his ability to lead OpenAI and that he was "not consistently candid in his communications." A few days later, however, Sutskever expressed regret for his involvement in the ouster and was one of hundreds of OpenAI employees who signed an open letter threatening to quit unless Altman was reinstated as CEO. "I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions," Sutskever said in a post on X at the time. "I never intended to harm OpenAI." Altman was brought back as CEO the same month. Sutskever left OpenAI six months later and started a research lab focused on building "safe superintelligence." Read the original article on Business Insider

Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
Waymo suspends robotaxi rides near LA protests after 5 cars are set ablaze
Waymo suspended robotaxi service in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday after five vehicles were set on fire during protests against President Donald Trump 's immigration raids in the city. Photos show Waymo cars covered in anti-ICE graffiti burning in the street, engulfed in smoke. A spokesperson for Waymo confirmed to Business Insider that five vehicles had been vandalized during the protests. The company temporarily suspended service in downtown LA and doesn't think its vehicles were intentionally targeted, the spokesperson said. Waymo is working with the Los Angeles Police Department, they added. On Sunday night, the LAPD said on X that "burning lithium-ion batteries release toxic gases." Electric vehicles often use lithium-ion batteries. The spokesperson told BI that Waymo, which Alphabet owns, operates more than 300 vehicles in LA and is continuing operations in other parts of the city. It's not the first time that Waymo vehicles have been targeted in California. Last year, a crowd in San Francisco set one of the robotaxis on fire during Lunar New Year celebrations amid a wave of distrust about driverless vehicles. The protests broke out on Friday after an immigration raid in the city. Over the weekend, Trump bypassed California Gov. Gavin Newsom 's authority and ordered 2,000 National Guard members to the LA area. Despite the dramatic images, the protests have largely been peaceful, according to multiple reports. The demonstrations have become a political lightning rod between Newsom and Trump, and the governor has announced that he's suing the administration. They may, however, serve as an olive branch between the president and Elon Musk, who had an ugly falling out last week.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB): A Bear Case Theory
We came across a bearish thesis on Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB) on Wolf of Harcourt Street's Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bears' thesis on ABNB. Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB)'s share was trading at $137.29 as of 5th June. ABNB's trailing and forward P/E were 34.85 and 31.45 respectively according to Yahoo Finance. A family boarding an airplane with their suitcases, symbolic of the company's reach into the global travel industry. After years of promise and steady ownership since 2021, the investor exited their Airbnb position following a disappointing Q1 2025 and underwhelming product updates. Nights and Experiences Booked grew just 8%, the slowest rate since the pandemic, partly due to tough comps from last year's Leap Day. Gross Booking Value rose 7% year-over-year to $24.5 billion, but this too marked a slowdown, even after adjusting for FX. The Average Daily Rate dipped 1% (up 1% ex-FX), and the take rate softened slightly to 9.3%. Revenue increased just 6%, or 11% on a normalized basis, but momentum remained weak. Operating margin shrank from 5% to 2%, mainly due to elevated product development and marketing costs tied to the Summer Release. Net income also slipped to $154 million, buoyed by interest income, without which Airbnb would have been unprofitable. That said, free cash flow remained robust at $1.78 billion in Q1, reflecting Airbnb's capital-light, high-margin model. The long-anticipated Summer Release failed to inspire confidence. Airbnb expanded into local services—chefs, photographers, massages—and rebranded Experiences across hundreds of cities, while also revamping its app. But these were not game-changers. The lack of a loyalty program, despite its proven success at peers like and Uber, was seen as a glaring omission. New verticals like Services appear to offer limited repeat usage, are potentially lower-margin, and introduce operational overhead. With adjusted FCF margins already high and margin expansion opportunities limited, future upside hinges on reaccelerating top-line growth. Without clear evidence that this is achievable, the author exited, concluding that while Airbnb remains a good business, it may no longer be a good stock. Previously, we summarized a on Airbnb (ABNB) by Chit Chat Stocks, which contrasts sharply with the bearish view from Wolf of Harcourt Street. The stock has since then been stable, experiencing a 0.3% appreciation in value. Chit Chat argues Airbnb is expanding its value proposition through Experiences and Services, laying the groundwork for deeper engagement, higher spending per user, and long-term platform expansion. Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB) is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 66 hedge fund portfolios held ABNB at the end of the first quarter which was 54 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of ABNB as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio