At only 25 years of age, Amanda Kimani has made a big name for herself in the lucrative real estate sector, which she says is not for the fainthearted.

Her firm specializes in the Air, Bed and Breakfast (Airbnb) business and currently manages about 37 Airbnb units in Nairobi and also offers consultancy and marketing of various spaces.

Amanda, the CEO and founder of Luxe Living, diverted into entrepreneurship after losing her job as a trainee at a real estate company due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While coping with the aftermath of unemployment was not easy for Amanda, she was determined to make it in entrepreneurship and decided to establish her own company with the little savings she had, alongside a top-up from her parents.

“To succeed in real estate, where many assume you need very deep pockets to thrive, I decided to find a niche that will allow me to start small and grow. That is how I settled on focusing on Airbnbs,” she said.

She started small with one unit, which she furnished and started renting to clients. The business took three months to break even, allowing her to expand to 5 units.

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She would later venture out to manage other people’s units with the help of three other personnel handling marketing, IT, and a managing director.

“We run our own Airbnbs and also have clients who give us their units to manage on their behalf. We also offer consultancies for clients interested in getting into the business. ”

“We help them identify the best place to invest, where to get high returns, how to furnish their units to appeal to clients, how much they will be making, and how long it will take them to break even,” she added.

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She notes that to succeed in real estate, one needs to heavily invest in education as well as build strong networks.

Due to her consultancy work, she has to regularly take courses and read widely on real estate in order to help her clients be on top of the game.

“I have come to realize that real estate is really a person-to-person business. To succeed, you need to meet that and engage with a lot of people who may be potential clients and partners, ” she noted.

The journey has, however, not been a smooth sail as she has struggled with multiple challenges, among them clients who book rooms and then end up canceling, which locks out potential customers.

She has also faced lots of criticism and discouragement in her work, primarily due to her young age.

“I’ve had someone tell me to my face that I am trying too hard and that I am not going to make it in this space. However, I keep pushing on, and every day, we are growing as a company, and we are always meeting our targets,”

She advised anyone intending to venture into the business to try tourist destination areas like Nanyuki, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Naivasha, as they are not as saturated as Nairobi.