Inside the STR Empire Managing 700+ Vacation Homes with Michael Elefante

🎟️ STR AI SUMMIT 2.0 — Sept 29–30 | Freedom Factory

50 spots left. Two days building real AI tools WITH us — revenue manager, listing optimizer, bookkeeping + lead gen — installed in your business before you leave.

👉 Grab tickets: strsecrets.com/aisummit2

Michael Elefante didn't set out to build an empire. There was no whiteboard and no master plan, just one short term rental he bought in 2019 and a willingness to jump before he felt ready.

Before real estate, Michael went from working at Dunkin' Donuts after college to climbing the corporate ladder at Google and in outside sales. The income was high, but the travel and the hours weren't the life he wanted for his future family. So he bought his first rental, hit financial freedom fast, and even spent a year traveling the country in a camper van with his wife Jill, running the business remotely the whole time.

Today he's the President and Co-Founder of The RISE Collective, a vertically integrated ecosystem serving the short term rental industry. It spans BNB Investor Academy, BNB Turnkey & Construction, Home Team Luxury Rentals (a nationwide property management firm), Summerlet Designs, and in-house lending, CPA, legal, and referral divisions. A best-selling author and investor who has helped thousands of people optimize high performing properties, Michael scaled not by chasing shiny objects but by pulling referral services in-house, building a multi-million-dollar portfolio now aimed at a nine-figure exit.

In this episode, Michael sits down with Mike Sjogren and Mike Reilly to break down how it actually happened, and the mindset that made it possible.

Inside this episode:

The "do it before you're ready" philosophy, and why confidence comes after the jump, not before

The "who, not how" mentality: hiring strong operators so you can work limited hours and take Fridays off

How to build experience-driven properties that price out your competition

The simple migration-pattern strategy Michael uses to pick winning markets