[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to the Short term show. The show about short term rentals and long term wealth with real property owners hosting real properties who are crushing it in the vacation and short term rental space.
And here's your host, Avery Carle.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey all, welcome back to another episode of the Short Term show. I'm your host, Avery Carle. And before we get to today's guest, we have a few announcements. The Short Term Shop is hiring. We are hiring agent positions in a number of markets including Orlando, Myrtle beach, the Poconos and any market actually that you think might be a good fit. Email
[email protected] we are also hiring a client, experience experience manager. So again, careers at the short term shop.com that position is not an agent position. So let us know if you guys are interested in coming to work for us. And without further ado, we'll get right into the show. We have Chris and Cynthia Hansen here today to discuss their short term rental investing careers. How's it going guys?
[00:01:14] Speaker C: Good, how are you doing?
[00:01:15] Speaker D: It's going great. Thanks for having us.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for coming on.
First, let's just introduce you to our audience. Tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you ended up investing in real estate State.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Sure. I'm Chris Hansen.
We live out in Mesa, Arizona. Currently have three short term rentals, two one bed, one bath condos in the heart of Oldtown Scottsdale, and then one two bed, two bath cabin out in Sevierville, Tennessee, out in the Smokies. The way we got into real estate, so I grew up in outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Bucks County. So it's kind of a upper middle class type of place. So I got kind of lucky. I grew up with parents that taught me, you know, you don't work for your money, you make your money work for you.
You know, make sure that, you know, you do that. And so with that, you know, I kind of got into looking at real estate, having an idea that I was wanting to get into it, but it took a while before we actually bought our first place.
So Cynthia and I, before we had gotten married, she was living with a friend and the friend was going to get married and so she had to move out. She said, hey, I want to rent a place in old Town Scottsdale. So I said, well, places in Old Town at that time, this is back in 2013, they're going for about 1000 to 1200 bucks a month. So instead of us giving our money to someone else, here's an idea. I've always been interested in real Estate. Why don't we buy our own place? So. So we got a realtor who was a friend. We went out, started looking at different condos and stumbled upon the one that we bought. It's a one bed, one bath.
So we originally decided we were going to do that long term. Said, hey, you know, well, first Cynthia's going to live in it. That was what we did first. I said, okay, Cynthia will live in it for a few years. She'll pay rent to us to make it, you know, legal.
And so we did that. And then once we got married, she moved into the house that I had owned. We decided that we were going to rent it out. So we decided, hey, let's do it long term. So we did it long term. Then we had some midterm renters, so we're super close to the San Francisco Giants spring training facility, so you can walk to that. So we had a minor league baseball player stay with us during spring training for a few months. Him and his wife came down, so they stayed with us. And then we realized back in about 2019, hey, we can Airbnb this place. We looked at the HOA, there's no rules for 30 day rentals. Most of the places in Scottsdale, 30 days or more. Luckily, the one we had, you could do daily rentals. So we got into Airbnb, you know, signed up and decided where you're gonna rent this thing out on Airbnb and vrbo, let's just go for it. Let's see what happens. And that's what we did. So. So that's kind of how we got into it then. 2020, right before COVID we decided it's time to expand. Let's buy another one. Bought another condo, same complex. It's literally a floor up in about eight doors over. So that was easy. We already had our systems in place, so everything was good to go there. Then one day, I'm on Bigger Pockets and I said, hey, there's these people talking about the Smoky Mountains, you know, this guy Luke, and talking about the Smoky Mountains. And it seems cool, you know, we've got our systems in place, you know, I mean, we're in Arizona, but I don't see why we can't do it, do this out there. We've. We've. Everything's technology based. We're all good to go. So came on to the, the call with you guys and got an agent and got a place out there and went from there.
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[00:05:29] Speaker B: All right, so great story so far and I love that you guys kind of just like stumbled into it from a different asset class. So I think first I would like to know about your Mesa places. So I know it's, you know, five, six years ago now since you bought one there, but I'd love to hear, you know, what the purchase price of those were and what they make annually.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: Sure. So it's two. We have two one bed, one bath condos in Old Town Scottsdale. So the first one we bought, it was actually back in 2014. Yeah, December of 2014. So it's been, you know, 10, 11 years now. So that one was nice and cheap. It was $114,900 time at the time. Yeah, I wish would have bought 30 of them back then. Right.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: What would that be now? How much would you pay for that now?
[00:06:16] Speaker C: So they're selling now for about 300. Anywhere from 300 to 320 for the one bed, one bass.
So that one. Yeah, 114. Nine. And I. I bought my primary house back in 2002. So I've been living in this thing for a long time. So I said, you know what, you know, again, we. We're gonna buy a place for, for Cynthia to live in instead of renting a place out. So I said, let me get a home equity line of credit on my house. I have a ton of equity. It's sitting there doing nothing. Let's have the equity do something. So went and got that. Use that for the 20 down. 20 of 149 is nothing. Right. So it was barely anything. And so, so that one was the first one. That was our test case. Right. And so it makes. Right now it's making, I'd say about 38, 40,000 a year is what it's gross. So, yeah. And then the other one, same idea. We bought that one then in March of 2020 again, right before COVID Right. That was 200 and yeah, perfect time to buy. Right.
That was 220,000 was the purchase price then for that one. And it does the same about 40,000.
[00:07:24] Speaker D: And that was just right at the time where Airbnb was taking off massively. So just to get a property there, you had to act very fast. So we literally saw it in two seconds, said, okay, let's take it, because they were just going and going and going.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Right around that time, everything went a little crazy. We bought, I think, our top producer right around then, like maybe February of 2020, it up and running by end of March. So we were renovating it and just missed the, the Florida shutdowns and then got it up and running just in time for the masses to come flooding into Florida.
I mean, we just as kind of an example of not being able to time the market. You know, there's people out there, they're like, I'm waiting for prices to go down. I'm waiting for interest rates to go down. They're always waiting for something. And we had no idea, you guys, us, anybody that was buying houses in 2019, what was right around the corner with COVID and this huge, huge appreciation. Pretty much overnight, some of our properties and Yalls too, sounds like, are worth 200% more than they were and sometimes more than that. It's just so crazy. And just proof that looking back, you're like, man, we hit that timing really well, y'all, you know, bought in 2014 and then again in, in 2019 or March 2020. Yeah, like, you could not have time that better if you'd known, you know.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. We know people that have bought since then in the same complex and, you know, they bought for 300,000 and I'm like, man, that's. I paid half of that. And, and we're doing the same amount of gross. You know, we're obviously doing a lot better, which is, which is pretty sweet. So.
[00:09:13] Speaker D: And we would have people from Canada pick up 10 units at a time in the same complex just so they can Airbnb them. Yeah, it was just a crazy time then. And inventory was low due to all the laws that Scottsdale had in place for Airbnbs. So we were lucky we got what we got when we did.
[00:09:33] Speaker C: So.
[00:09:33] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: And Scottsdale doesn't have like. Refresh me on what the laws are now because they seem to be pretty friendly for short term rental owners. Or am I incorrect about that?
[00:09:44] Speaker C: No, they are. So there's a state law that says that cities cannot dictate what property owners can do with their properties. And so the cities have to follow the state laws, but cities are now allowed to have permits, you know, put permits in place and other kind of, of different laws as well. You're, you know, you're still allowed to short term rent. So when we originally bought our condos There weren't any permits. You know, it's just, you buy the place, you put it on Airbnb and you go, you did have to have a TPT tax thing, whatever. They, you know, you had to have one of those to run a business in Arizona. So you had to have that for short term rentals as well. And you have to have your TPT number up on your Airbnb listing. But there wasn't any kind of short term rental type of permits. So now there's a permit. It's 250 bucks a year per property. You, you have to have that. And in Scottsdale, you're only allowed to have six adults in your property and then, and their dependents. So for people that have a 10 bedroom house in North Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, you can still. The law says you can only have six adults in there. Now, whether they're really checking that or not, I mean, how do you, how do you enforce that? Right? I mean, how can you really do that? But, but that is the law that's on the books right now. And Scottsdale has a really good short term rental webpage that you can go to and read. You know, hey, you have to do this, this, this, this and this in order to be compliant. Your, your license number now has to be on your listing as well, along with your TPT number. So, so those are the things that you need to do in Scottsdale, in Arizona. Really?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: So it's pretty friendly. Well, let's, let's switch gears to another short term rental friendly market. Let's hear what you bought in the Smokies.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: Okay, so in the Smokies it's a two bed, two bath with a loft cabin. And we bought that in August of 21 with the short term shop. And that was the time where you had to have escalation clauses and no in, no inspections, no this, no that. And you know, 8,000 people were bidding on the same house that you were. So I think the one that we got was the fourth cabin that we put offers in. We, we got turned down for the first four or someone beat us out, you know. So we finally got this one August of 21. We paid 575 for it.
And we had to stay with the rental company for six months as well. So we bought in August. We had to stay with them through December of 21, which was absolutely terrible.
Yeah, they were awful. Yeah. And you know, they nickel and dime you for everything. We would get an invoice and it was like bath mats, 50 bucks. I'm like, where are you buying bath masks for 50 bucks and why are you charging me? Like, it was crazy, the things that they, they were doing.
And, and so it, you know, the good thing was it was on their own rental pages. So it wasn't. Didn't have our name tied to it. So it was a total grandma cabin. And the reviews that people gave, even though we were making the income on it, the reviews didn't go under our name. So if anything bad know, any kind of bad reviews came up, it had nothing to do with us. So we went out, flew out from Arizona to the Smokies in, in January of 22, and we basically took everything out of it. You know, took the, the cow hide off of the wall, the deer, basically.
[00:13:14] Speaker D: Brought it up to date. Yeah, it took a very long time.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: But we did it, ungramma'd it and, you know, got a contractor in there. There's a ton of stuff we had to do to it, you know, and then fixed it all up and got it up on Airbnb and VRBO and we booking.com and just, you know, got it running, and it's been running great ever since.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: How many bedrooms is it?
[00:13:35] Speaker C: It's too bad. Yeah. Yep. And a loft. So we have sleeping space up in the loft. We have it advertised as three bedroom on Airbnb, but we make sure that people know the third bedroom's a loft. It's not truly an enclosed bedroom, so we don't get screamed at for that.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. So all right, so we got this thing in 20, 21. And what is it gross usually when you're, you know, not on the first year where you had to stick with that manager for six months.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: So it, it's average gross about 86,000 for us. So it's, it's done good. Last year was a little bit lower. 23 was, I think, the best year.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:14:15] Speaker C: Okay. It last year might have been a little bit lower. I might have not paid as much attention to revenue management as I should have on it last year. That's my goal this year, is to spend a little more time on that, to bring it back up to that 86, 000. Hopefully do better than that.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: So.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. And just to compare to your Scottsdale properties. So what was the best year for them?
[00:14:38] Speaker C: For the Scottsdale properties?
Every year.
We'll do the same every year. Really?
Pretty much. And, and we're in high season now. Right. January through April is our high season. This is when people are coming. We have spring training. We've got the Bear Jackson car show. We've got the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament. So we got hiking, we've got golf. We got everything. I mean, people just coming out here right now. So we love it because it's the opposite, obviously, of the Smokies, right? Right now the Smokies are dead, but Scottsdale is kicking. And so it's. It's great to have that variety in the properties that we have.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Yeah, love that. Love to have, like, opposite high seasons to kind of balance things out.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker D: And we're kind of. Well, actually, we've been doing this for at least, I'd say eight months now. Is deciding what is the next step for us. What area do we want to go into? It's definitely going to be on the East Coast. So we listen to you guys all the time. We're like, okay, where should we go? You know, what's going to be the most profitable? Definitely want a beach property. So I think that's our next move.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Okay, did the cat. Let's work this out. Let's work it out.
If you want a beach property, what do you think? What do you. What's your target price point for this?
[00:15:57] Speaker C: So it depends if we. So my sister and husband have come to us and said, hey, we've got extra money. We see what you're doing.
Can we invest with you guys? Right? So we're like, yeah, why not? You know, and we have to figure all that out. But. So if that happens, our target price will probably be million. Million and a half.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Okay, so.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Then what? It. What is it?
[00:16:20] Speaker C: If it's just us, then it would probably be, you know, up to 7, 700, probably.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:26] Speaker C: And we're, you know, we, like, we have the condos in Old Town. We're not opposed to condos. We're used to them. We understand everything that goes along with condos. We understand assessment, special assessments, and making sure the condo has its reserves and all that kind of stuff. I know a lot of people are scared off by condos.
[00:16:41] Speaker D: I love it.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: They are.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: They really are.
[00:16:44] Speaker D: Get a condo. It's great.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: I was talking to somebody on Instagram the other day and they were like, I want anything you have, any market you have, but no condos. And I was like, okay, well, what about, you know, somewhere like Myrtle beach or Panama City beach, like a beach market with condos? And they're like, no, no condos, no HOAs. And I'm like, but guys, I get it. If you're like, In Houston, Texas. And the condos. Condo building has a lot of people who live there and they don't want Airbnb. That's different. But in places like this, the condo buildings are built specifically for short term rentals and they were just anti. I'm like, man, you guys are missing the boat here. I own a condo and it's amazing. Love it.
[00:17:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:24] Speaker D: The best part, I think about the condo and the HOA is that they have all of these other amenities that they offer the guests. So they're already taken care of on that end with a gym, with a bar, pool, Jacuzzi. So any of those items that normally, you know, you would have to put in your house if you bought a house, that could be extra or not, you know, depending on what the house offers. So it's great to be able to have those amenities so when they come, they can just go ahead and use them. And it doesn't even really, I mean, it's all part of the hoa, so it's a beautiful thing, actually.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: We're not paying for a pool guy. We're not paying for someone to come clean the hot tub. You're not paying for any yard work. You're not, you know, all of that goes away. The maintenance is minimal. I mean, the maintenance on our Scottsdale places over these four years has been nothing, you know, absolutely nothing. Because there's nothing. What goes wrong. You have to replace a toilet, you know, every once in a while or it stops flushing. Like that's it.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Nothing major. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing too major when it comes to condos. I mean, to me there is. And you know, the spreadsheet people will argue with me all day, but I own more properties than them.
You really cannot. For the price point and for what they are, for what they make beat. A Gulf coast condo on the Gulf of Mexico, Any of the, maybe not any of the Florida Gulf coast markets, but definitely the Florida Panhandle or Gulf Shores, Alabama. You really can't beat the purchase price versus the income anywhere. And you have the most beautiful water. Like you can get cheaper properties. There was this, this whole movement where everybody thought that Gulfport, Mississippi was going to be the next Gulf Shores. A few years ago, people that had never been there, I was like, y'all. Have y'all ever been there? It's nasty, isn't it?
[00:19:06] Speaker C: Murky water and like, it's brown.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: That's where like Mississippi river empties right there, like at New Orleans. And kind of like it's, it's brown. It's gross. It's like, it is like going to the beach and standing in a latte.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: And you can't see your feet in the water. You're like, yeah.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: So you know, for the water quality and the, the quality of tourism that comes, like, you really cannot beat the Florida Panhandle and then over to Gulf Shores. So there you go. I fixed it for you.
[00:19:37] Speaker C: There you go. And we actually have been looking in the Destin area, you know, so I've been there once in my life and it was beautiful.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Oh, it's beautiful.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: Yeah, we've been looking there.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: So yeah, I went and walked on the beach this morning and well, it's still cold, but it's so clear out there. It's so. I just love, love this part of the country.
[00:19:53] Speaker D: One thing, Arizona is missing. We don't have a beach to walk on.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: I do love a good desert scape though.
I don't properties yet.
[00:20:03] Speaker C: Yeah, till it's the summer, then the desert is. The desert sucks.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: It gets hot. It gets hot.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Short Term Shop plus has live and recorded sessions on the following topics.
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[00:21:47] Speaker B: All right, so let's talk about your smokies property. So you bought in 2021. Did you experience an Airbnb bust or have you been been happy with the income this whole time?
[00:21:59] Speaker C: No, I've been happy with the income. I don't, I don't really have a problem with it. One of the things that also got us into short term rentals. Cynthia has a degree in hospitality management. She's been in the hotel business for 25 years. Anywhere from front desk all the way up to director of sales at various hotels. And she actually used to work for Airbnb as well. She was an Airbnb plus.
[00:22:22] Speaker D: Of all the insights.
[00:22:23] Speaker C: Yeah. She was an Airbnb plus host advisor where she would onboard people onto the Airbnb plus program before they got rid of it.
And so with that experience with her helping, you know, like, we don't really have those Airbnb bus problems, I don't think. I think, but I think we have, you know, her knowledge of hospitality is so great that it really helps us to, to have our properties be top notch and be desirable.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. I love that.
[00:22:52] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. And it helps with a cabin because, you know, when a lot of the properties now that people are, are buying and you can, and you can tell by their listing pictures, they're trying to make it look like a hotel, unless it's, if it's not themed, it's, you know, the hotel look to it and so, and the amenities that go with it. So I find that very interesting considering when people do do an Airbnb, they're trying to get away from a hotel. So you just really need to go where, you know, whether there is a niche. And of course, the cabin was a great way to kind of change things up from the condos because, you know, we hadn't been in the mountains, so it was a different change for us. And I think that was a great learning tool, for sure.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: And I, I like that you guys, you know, come at it from a place of hospitality and not a place of spreadsheets because so many people try to make this business such like rocket science and it's really not. You create a place that people would like to stay in and that's it. It's just common sense. And then you find the number that this is where it gets a little spreadsheet, but the number that they're willing to pay for that and what you can do for your property that will make a guest choose yours instead of the other properties that they're presented with when they're, they're searching at the end of the day, just buying houses and renting them and being nice to people.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: That'S the biggest, pretty much. And it's crazy because most people, they're like, well, I'm going to buy a place, I'll just throw some stuff in it and we're going to rent it out and it's going to be awesome. And that's not how it works. Right. You're buying a hospitality business whether you realize it or not. I mean, that's what you're doing, you know, and it, I get on some of these forums and you read some of the things that people write and like they'll show you how they answer to guests. And I'm like, you should not be in the hospitality space at all. Like it's just crazy. And you know, and the hospitality is to me the bigger than the real estate side when you're, when you're doing vacation rentals.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And I, I think that that scares some people away. Like some people will listen to this and say, oh, I don't want to buy a hospitality business, but if you don't own any real estate and you don't know any bit own any business, say, you know, you've got a W2 job. Buying a short term rental really is like the gateway drug to either being a full on real estate investor and learning how to invest in real estate and branching out into other types like apartment buildings, commercial, other things, or it's also teaches you how to run a business and how to deal with people, how to implement systems and processes and, and if you wanted to go the other way and start buying businesses or just become an entrepreneur, you can do that too. So short term rentals I think are like the perfect gateway drug into just general entrepreneur ism. Yeah too because if you buy a business that doesn't come with real estate, if you screw it up, you're down to zero and you're out all your money. But if you buy a short term rental and you screw up the business part, you can only ever be out the amount that you put down for the property. And then when you sell the property, hopefully you buy it in an area that, that appreciates. And listen to my past podcasts if you want to hear about why not to do that, why not to buy something that doesn't appreciate, then you get your money back that you put down property. So you kind of have that like buffer of it'll never go down to zero usually unless something really terrible happens.
[00:26:11] Speaker C: Right? Right, absolutely. That's for us it's a long game. Right. I mean we're, if we buy a place, we're keeping it at least 10 years. Right. So it's going to appreciate. I mean history says real estate's going to appreciate over a ten year span. Right. I mean like you said, unless something super crazy happens. But if it does, then you hold it a little bit longer. Right. I mean that's to me that's, that's how we approach buying places is that we're going to hold on to them, we're not going to buy it. And if it doesn't work, we'll get rid of it type of thing. You know, we're in it for the long haul. And to me, that makes the most sense when you're looking to buy a place to know that that's kind of what you should be looking for.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: Yeah, well, unfortunately, you guys are in the minority.
A lot of people want to buy real estate because they want to quit their job tomorrow. And you can. That can be done, but it's not always the wisest way to go about things.
What do you do, Chris? So we know Cynthia worked in hospitality. What's your day job?
[00:27:10] Speaker C: So I'm an electrical engineer.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: Okay. You don't vibe like an engineer at all, by the way.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: I hear that all the time. You're not a typical engineer. I'm like, well, what is a typical engineer? You know, I guess I'm not.
But yeah, I mean, I have a degree from Arizona State University in electrical engineering. So that's what I do every day. I go in and design electrical and control systems for work and do project management as well, which I think has helped also with dealing with contractors, because I deal with contractors. You know, we do design for industrial facilities. These are $50 million contracts that we're dealing with here. And so I work with contractors and can kind of understand how they work. So that helps when we're dealing with contractors and trying to get our places fixed up and whatnot and understanding, you know, what goes into that and making sure there's scopes of work and everything, you know, goes by, you know, how I think it should go on the project. So.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: And boy, with working with contractors, does it often go not how it should go? Oh, we're just wrapping up a rebuild of a property that burned down, and it has been the biggest nightmare to deal with. Like, normally if I see Luke getting a little heated, I'm like, oh, my gosh, babe. Like, stop. You're being. But this time I was like, just let the train run. Just cuss him out. Loop. Just cuss sometimes, right?
[00:28:36] Speaker C: I mean, sometimes that's the only way.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:39] Speaker C: Especially in the Smokies. It's a different brand of contractor there than. Than anywhere else, I think.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, The Smokies is definitely a special place. And that was going to be. My next question was, how do you feel like your electrical engineer career has translated over? So you guys kind of have like the. Of both worlds in terms of being coming from places that are really well suited to being short term rental owners, the hospitality industry, and then someone who deals with project management.
[00:29:04] Speaker D: Yeah. Makes it a lot easier.
[00:29:06] Speaker C: A lot easier. And by earlier in my career, I did a lot of programming, and so that's helped with being able to put in smart devices in our condos. We have, you know, Alexa in there. When we have, you know, you can turn the lights on and off and the lights automatically come on when you open the door at night. You know, we have things set up like that. So I'm starting to put, you know, smart type stuff into our places. And that helps with the electrical engineering background too, because I know it's easy for me. I take it out of the box, I do what I need to do and it works. Right. A lot of people have a lot of problem with that, but for me, it's simple. We haven't done it the Smokies yet, I think. I don't know if the smokies guest is as wanting of the smart home as the Scottsdale guest. So we kind of left that out.
Different clientele.
[00:29:51] Speaker D: And I noticed with all the contractors that we've used, Smokies are on their own time.
Want something done, it's going to be whenever Bob says it's going to get done.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: That was a learning.
[00:30:05] Speaker D: A learning curve for us because here in Scottsdale, they come, they do it, they leave. Yeah, it's a little different on the west coast as, you know, versus Tennessee. And in Tennessee, we were like, well, are they going to call us back? When are they going to get there? What's going on?
[00:30:18] Speaker B: You know?
[00:30:19] Speaker D: So you had to learn to be more patient on that.
[00:30:21] Speaker C: Yeah, we've been. We've been ghosted a lot. It's weird. We got to the point where I had someone that ghosted me and I had her text him and she. They answered her and came and did the work they needed to do and everything. And I'm like, whatever, as long as it gets done, I don't care. Maybe they didn't like you, but it was over text. Like, how can you not like some. Whatever text?
[00:30:42] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know. It's kind of the southern way. So rather than say, hey, you know, I don't think this is going to be a good fit, we ghost. We just disappeared.
[00:30:49] Speaker C: Right?
[00:30:51] Speaker B: It's been like that for forever. That's true.
[00:30:56] Speaker D: That was really interesting to get used to because we were like. At first we were like, what is.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Going on over there?
[00:31:00] Speaker C: And now we're like, okay, every time something needs to get done, do I have to fly there and do it? Because no one's I can't get anyone to do anything, you know, it's. It's insane.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:11] Speaker C: We have now found some people that do good work and, you know, we continue to use and that kind of thing after over the years. So that's good. We hold on to them dearly.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, I think it's just kind of like the way it goes in any market that you'll find a contractor, handyman or something that works really great for a few years and then they disappear, and then you get in a whole new cycle in somebody else. And, I mean, almost every contractor that we've had, not necessarily in the Smokies, but. Well, yeah, there too, but in other places, we'll have them do like 10, 15 good, you know, flip jobs in a row, and then all of a sudden they disappear.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: Right.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: And it's kind of crazy, but it is.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: It's weird.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: The good ones, for sure.
[00:31:53] Speaker C: Absolutely. And hope they stay around.
[00:31:55] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: Well, guys, we're coming to the end of the show. So before I go into the last three questions, is there anything about your journey that you feel like other people would benefit from hearing that I haven't asked about yet?
[00:32:08] Speaker D: Sure. I mean, I know a lot of people are nervous about. You know, I talk to some of my friends all the time and they're like, we'd really love to do that, too. We just are just nervous about taking the leap. And anybody who wants to do this, they should absolutely do it because not only is something. It's a new way to learn a new skill, actually, and then it's profitable. Most people get nervous about how much money they have to put into an investment or how much they have to make up for whatever they put into. But in the end, it's very worth it and it's a lot of fun.
I enjoy it immensely. I always wanted to have a bed and breakfast. That was kind of my dream going into the hotel field. So this is almost like what I have, minus a few amenities.
[00:32:48] Speaker C: So.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:50] Speaker D: Just do it, you know, don't wait on it.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Do it.
[00:32:52] Speaker D: It's going to be something that you'll, you know, completely just appreciate in the end. That's what I do.
[00:32:59] Speaker C: I agree with that. I mean, and there's so, so much content out there that you can watch to learn from as well. So just jump in. Right. Just, you know, I mean that, you know, that's what we did. You know, obviously we had her hospitality background, which really helped us, but still, just jump in and just.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Just go for it totally agree with all that. Well, we're going to ask that question a little more formally here in just a second. But first question, what advice would you give 20 year old Chris and Cynthia?
[00:33:29] Speaker C: Okay, so 20 year old Chris was, was trying to be a rock star. I played the drums, I was in a band when I was 20, we actually got signed to a contract, got flown out to Minneapolis, recorded an album. All kinds of.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Minneapolis.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Crazy right? But for me that was great. Grew up in Pennsylvania, had never been farther west than Michigan. All of a sudden I'm flying to Minnesota for free. I'm like, this is the life. But then that didn't work out right, because not everyone becomes a rock star. So anyway, I think what I would, the advice I'd give 20 year old Chris is to, is to look into other things that could help you build and accumulate wealth. And you know, when you're 20 you're just so young, right. So you just, you kind of just don't even know about those kind of things. So I think I would tell myself to research what it would take to make sure that you're set up for the rest of your life. You know, make sure that you, you have everything together that, so that as you get older, you know, you, you just, you're set up for your life. That's basically what I would tell myself now. Yeah.
[00:34:37] Speaker D: As far for me, I have always put off buying something for the longest time. I just never wanted to do that commitment. So I've always rented for the longest time before I got married, I would definitely buy in. When I was a lot younger I would have made that commitment to buy something so I would have known what it's like a lot earlier than to wait for.
[00:35:00] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:35:02] Speaker D: That's something that I wish I would have done. So.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Same, same.
[00:35:07] Speaker D: Yeah, I was too busy going to college and you know, having a good time.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: So I was too busy trying to be a rock star and shooting tequila. And there you go, the east side of, of Austin back then like people, older bartenders that I knew are buying seventy, eighty thousand dollar houses that are now two million dollar houses. And I'm like, man, what was I doing? But you know.
[00:35:33] Speaker C: Yeah, well you're trying to be a rock star, right?
[00:35:37] Speaker B: Yes.
Anyway, okay, next question. What advice would you give a new investor who's looking to get started in short term rentals today?
[00:35:47] Speaker C: I would just do it. Just jump right in and do it. You know, don't be scared, you know, don't allow the analysis paralysis to take a hold of you just, just go do it. Yeah, do it. And you'll, you'll learn from experience. I mean, it may suck for a time and you're going to get those guests that are difficult and things are going to break. But it's all part of the process, right? I mean, it's all part of what you're doing. So just, just go do it.
[00:36:14] Speaker D: Definitely do your research too, because there's a lot of people that will just buy something without researching the market or the city. And then they're like, well, this isn't making what I thought it would. Well, did you do your research on it? That's the most important part. And exactly how much effort do you want to put into it to make it successful?
[00:36:32] Speaker B: Well, nobody wants to make a lot of effort, Cynthia.
[00:36:39] Speaker D: I know.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: All right, last question. What's your favorite book that's impacted your mindset?
[00:36:45] Speaker D: For me, it's real estate, but it's a book by Tracy Tudor, and it's called Fear is a four letter word. And Tracy Tudor is a realtor. I mean, she's been on Million Dollar List LA for a long period of time. And she wrote a book about women in real estate and how it's taken her through a journey on how to be more powerful because it had been such a man's world for a long period of time. And she said even though times have changed, she still had to really break down barriers and really show and work harder that she could do this because there were so many doubters. And she just basically decided one day that she wasn't going to take crap from anybody anymore. And in her book, she talks about that and really lets people know. I mean, and if you've seen the show, she really lets people know what's on her mind. And I think that's helped her just continue her success. So I think it's an amazing book to read.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: I have not read that one. I've read Josh Altman's from Million Dollar Listing.
[00:37:48] Speaker D: Okay, that's my next one. So good.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: His is good.
[00:37:53] Speaker C: So for me, right now it would be becoming your own banker by R. Nelson Nash, because I talked about how I had gotten the home equity line of credit on my personal home to buy our properties for the down payments. So now I'm thinking of what are other ways that I can do that as well. And so I started looking into the infinite banking concept and I bought his book. I read it once. I think I need to read it five times to really grasp everything in it. But that's right now that's the one that I'm reading and that's impacting me.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: Awesome. Well thank you guys so much for coming on. If our listeners want to follow you on your journey how can they do that?
[00:38:31] Speaker D: We're both on Facebook so you can look us up on Facebook or Instagram.
[00:38:37] Speaker C: Yeah so you can find me in the Facebook groups.
We don't that's our next thing is to get social media content for our our properties. That's the one thing that we don't have yet. You know we have personal Instagram accounts but we don't have ones for the properties yet so that's the next thing we're going to do but for now yeah we're always on all the different short term rental Facebook groups commenting on there so people can find us on there.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: All right well thank you guys so much for coming on. It was a great episode and we really appreciate it. Thanks y'all.
[00:39:07] Speaker C: Thank you. It.
