[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.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Hey, y'.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: All. Welcome back to another episode of the Short Term Show. I, as always, I'm your host, Avery Carl, and I'm bringing to you another very cool short term rental investor today. Her name is Mary Mueller. How's it going, Mary?
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Great. It's nice and toasty here. I mean, we have no air conditioning in the room I'm in, so it's a little sweaty.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. Where are, where are you calling in from?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: We are in Wisconsin.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Okay. Not what I was expecting.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: I know. No, but our summer people are always like, oh, it must be cold. Our summers are really hot and humid. But like it's like 92 today. Which people don't ever expect.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: But oh, yeah, I would not expect that out of.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: Being that far north. All right, all right. So tell us, Mary, a little bit about who you are, what you do, and how you got into short term rental investing.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So I, my husband and I live in Wisconsin with our three young kids, seven and under. And we both, I mean, for years we were both working full time trying to figure out kind of what our investments were going to look like and all of that, but also not being super financially savvy for a long time we were kind of just doing the we'll save and we'll pay things off and figure things out as we go.
But I was working full time still. And then I actually left my job when I had my second to start this. I had my. I, I was raised in the restaurants here in Wisconsin. So my parents ran. Yeah, my parents ran like 11 restaurants.
What kind of restaurants?
They were just like breakfast, lunch, dinner, every, like family. Everything was homemade. They made their salad dressings, their breads. It was kind of like before the locally sourced thing existed. That's kind of what they were doing. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so hospitality has kind of been in my, in my blood. So then I actually left my job to start a gluten free baking business here in Wisconsin.
So it's kind of like a dream. But my dream was to make things that didn't taste gluten free, that normal people could eat and not know that they were gluten free.
So I was doing that for a while and it was taking off. Like all the local grocery stores were wanting to start having my cookies and my cookie Dough and the sports arenas, like, it was starting to grow and it was getting really exciting.
And then at the same time, we had some health diagnoses for my second son and then a little while later for my daughter as well.
And so things just kind of started escalating where it was clear for us that I just had to be home and available with tons of doctor's appointments. Our care team ended up being like, across the country, so travel across the country all the time. And so it was one of those things where it was like, okay, I left my job. I'm doing something I kind of think is a dream.
And then it also became clear that this was not the time and the place for that dream. So I'm home now with our three kids and we're actually homeschooling and it's utter chaos, but it's also a lot of fun.
Yeah.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Okay, awesome. So you came from what. What was your day job before you got into the. The baking.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Yeah, so I actually ran like, I don't know, like, on a lot of college campuses. You know how they have different, like ministries, like athlete ministry and different religious ministries. So I ran a big.
I ran like the. Yeah, Yep. So I ran the Catholic ministry house on the campus at UW Milwaukee here in Wisconsin, so. Okay. Okay.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: And what does your husband do?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: He works in admin at a private school here in town.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: Okay, awesome. So, yeah, you really do have. I always tell people that the best experience for becoming a short term rental owner and host is having either weighted tables or bartended. Some of that just like at its very most basic hospitality.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yes, totally. And when, I mean, when you can make the grumpiest customer at a restaurant happy, you can do whatever.
[00:04:22] Speaker C: That is true. And making gluten free taste not gluten free is pretty amazing. I. My sister. Sister was gluten free for a while. She was having some like, stomach problems. I'm sure she's really psyched that I'm talking about that on a podcast. And my. So my mom would try to make. She would make us like the blueberry cobbler that we were gonna have and then made a. Would make a. A gluten free one for my sister. But then one day, she didn't have enough time. We were all home from the various places that we lived and she just made the gluten free one. And she didn't tell anybody that. She just like forgot. Slipped her mind like, hey, that one's gluten free.
And my brother was like, what is this so terrible?
[00:05:07] Speaker B: It can be so bad. It's. Yeah, gluten free can be the worst. So.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: But I love that, love that you figured out a way to make it so good that everybody in Wisconsin wanted to carry your. Your products.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Okay, great. So you've got the hospitality background. You've also got the entrepreneurship background. So you are a very good. You have all the makings of being a successful short term rental investor. So you needed more time at home to be more available for your kids. So what?
We, we have all the whys. So how did that kind of happen that you ended up buy. And by the way, you're a very new short term rental investor. Guys, I wanted to highlight that, that this is a new short term rental investor podcast episode. So for those of you who are new, maybe you're like, I don't know what to do, or maybe you're in the looking phase. This is a great episode episode for you to hear from somebody who's just a little bit ahead of you in the process. So tell us how that kind of came about.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah, so we kind of were thinking like, okay, we've been working hard, but. And I think also, like, we are not clearly your typical investors.
You know, I was working in religious ministry stuff and my husband worked for a school. So it's not like we were high income earners either, but we'd been working hard to save and invest. Right.
And so we kind of were trying to figure out, I mean, we were doing the typical investing, the Roth ira, you know, different investment accounts.
But then I just kept having. We had some friends in real estate who have kind of, you know, they're 30 years ahead of us and they have a huge portfolio, but they always talked about, like, one day you guys need to get into real estate.
And so it was in the back of my mind, as we'd been saving money to try real estate, there was kind of that itch that I wanted to scratch, but I didn't know how. And so I found all the different gurus on social media. And I remember being like, simultaneously so stoked and so let down because you're like, oh, yeah, quit our jobs, get a yacht, travel the world. This is great. And then also being like, we don't have $3 million to buy this vacation home with the 50,000amenities in it.
And so then actually, I mean, not trying to toot your horn, but it wasn't until I found your book that it was one of those things where everything started to fall into place and it became clear that we don't have to be these crazy high income earners with the $3 million vacation rental. We can do this where we're at right now. So it felt like the game, I couldn't even get in the game at first. And then as soon as we read your book, it was like, wait a minute, we can get in the game. We just have to play it differently.
And once my husband read, he was always on the fence with real estate. And then he actually read both your books and he was like, sold, we'll do it, whatever you want. So you converted a non believer there.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: Well, good.
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm really glad that that resonated. That's exactly what I wanted it to do because like you said, it's the three million dollar houses and the crazy amenities and everything. They get a lot of views, they go viral on Instagram. But a lot of people that post that kind of thing, they are influencers. That is their core business. Whereas like we invest in real estate. I hate, I hate being an influencer. I would not post a selfie until 2020 because I felt like a. A D bag. So. But people who are influencer first, there's nothing wrong with that. But their goal is to get as many views as possible.
And what gets views, these big cool, crazy properties that people are going to send around to their friends when in real life you don't have to do that. You don't have to go crazy. So I'm so happy that that resonated with you because that was what I wanted to put out into the universe. And
[00:08:43] Speaker B: yeah, I mean, we were so grateful because it was like finally both of us were on the same page and we were like, okay, we can actually do this now. And so then we got in touch with you guys and with a number of the different markets. And then I was paralyzed between every market under the sun and my husband. I think every week I was like, actually, I think we're going to do this one. No. This one. No. This one. And finally. And he's like, how about you pick two? And then we just go from there.
So it actually ended up being between Panama City beach and the Smokies.
And then we kind of just were going, we. So in Wisconsin to the smokies. It's an 11 hour drive. So we finally were just like, it's not a close drive, but we. It's drivable for us to do with the kids.
So then we settle on the Smokies and went from there.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Okay, love that. And what was the target price? Range that you were looking for. So you made it clear you guys are normal people. You're not looking for 5 million doll.
So what did you settle on for your price range?
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah, so even that's kind of funny. We started at under, I think 5:50 was what we started with. And there were some beautiful homes, great views. And then we got to the point where we were like, hold on, this will. We won't have any money if we have issues come up or repairs.
And it would really have to be totally turnkey if we do this. So then we actually scaled way back to doing what we didn't know would be possible. Like we didn't know if it'd really be possible.
Our goal was to be under 350 and we actually ended up closing in this house for I think it was 260.
And it's a two bed, one bath.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: Wait, so you closed on a house in The Smokies for 260?
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:24] Speaker C: When?
[00:10:24] Speaker B: The last year in November. Yeah.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: I mean it needed, it needed a lot of work and like, I mean the whole deck had to be redone. Needed a new roof, all new H vac, all new duct work, and then every bit of furniture had to go.
[00:10:40] Speaker C: So I mean that could have very easily been a million dollar house that needed those same things. So that's crazy. Okay, so what part of town is that in?
[00:10:48] Speaker B: It's actually right off the spur, right between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Okay, so like sky harbor area.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: It's actually right like if you go right across from sky harbor, it's a little small community in there. So just across.
Yeah.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: Okay. We own one just past Sky Harbor. It's not in sky harbor, but it's past that development. So right over there off Boogertown.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Oh yeah, we actually looked at one in Boogertown. Best street ever.
[00:11:14] Speaker C: Yes. Ridiculous. Okay, great. So that's crazy that you even found a deal that needed work for that price. That's like 10 years ago. Prices. That's amazing.
And so tell me a little bit about the deal. So it needed some, some things. Is it a cabin? Is it a house? Cottage? What does it look like?
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a cabin and it's. So it's technically one bed plus a loft.
I think it's like 1100, 1200 square feet and it's in a little wooded community, so there's no views. But it's. I think there's like only 14 cabins on our.
Off of the neighborhood road that we're on. And it's super cute, real, like just surrounded by forest.
And it's got a big deck off the back with a hot tub, of course.
But we first wrote initially, I think she had it listed for like 305 when we first came in and way Low balled at 250 and she said no. And so then a month later after looking, I was like, you know, this just. I'm not getting the same numbers if on some of these other places wouldn't be able to do quite the things we wanted to make it. Yeah, just with the furniture and design. So then we came back a month later and wrote 2:60 and she agreed. And then even she had to give some of the closing cost or some of the money toward the deck repair and stuff. So.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: Wow. Okay.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: The real estate market is always changing. Covid is long gone, prices are down and properties are sitting on the market.
The Short term shop sells houses in all of the best vacation markets. And we'd love to help you purchase your next vacation home.
Join us at theshorttermshop.com theshorttermshop.com let's find you a deal.
This program has been brought to you by the short term shop.
The short term shop is the premier vacation rental real estate agency. And we are hiring real estate agents in the following markets.
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[00:13:45] Speaker C: So what did you do? A second home loan or a vacation or. Sorry. Or a conventional. What did you do?
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it is a second home loan.
Okay, so you put 20 down for
[00:13:58] Speaker C: like $26,000 and some change.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Sorry, can you say that again?
[00:14:07] Speaker C: So you got into this thing for like $26,000 and some change. So 10 down at 260. So some.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: We did 20 or so. I made it. It's a 90 second. We did 20% down.
[00:14:17] Speaker C: Oh, okay, 20%. So you did an investment loan then?
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Yes, investment loan, that's right. Sorry. Okay, gotcha.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: Yeah, no worries. All right, so investment loan still. Great.
And then what all did you have to do to it to get it up and running in terms of fixing stuff, updating, and then furniture and decor?
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, so we. The deck needed not to be completely taken off, but it had no. I mean, it's a. The deck is a two story deck and it had none of the support beams. It had the super thin little stands that it was on and it was Caving under the hot tub. So they had to redo a lot of the deck. And then there was a soaker tub in the bedroom that had been leaking, so we tore that out and put down new flooring.
And then the rest of it was kind of, you know, H vac and all that, but then the rest was more cosmetic. So we did the bathroom needed, you know, vanity mirror, all that stuff. And then the whole place pretty much needed. I don't think we kept any furniture except a few.
Yeah, like a couple lamps and everything else kind of had to go. She. It had been owned by the same person, I think, for like 20 years, and didn't seem like we. So we bought the house sight unseen and. Which is very common, but we. This was against Luke's recommendation, but I actually had never even been to the Smokies, and he was like, you have to visit before you buy. And we didn't. So we closed down the house and. And we're driving up to the house, and both my husband and I were like, what did we do? Like, we have never even been to this town and we've never seen this house. And when we walked in, it needed. It was so dirty and so gross.
And I was like, I don't. Do we want the kids sleeping here? This is. This is, like, disgusting. And I don't know. It was actively being rented, so we kind of just threw everything out and started from scratch. And I think we ended up putting like 18,000 in furniture into the house.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: Okay.
And that's a. Like a one bed with a loft, you said. So technically a two bed.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So the loft, half of it's the sleeping side, and then the other half is kind of the game room.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: Okay, awesome. And how has that been performing for you so far? Like, what. I know you don't have a full year of income to talk about, but what's that been looking like?
[00:16:30] Speaker B: You've.
[00:16:30] Speaker C: Well, we're just kind of. Now if you closed in September, you probably missed the October high season. And we're just kind of now getting into the true high season of what you're going to make. But how's it been doing so far?
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Yeah, so we actually closed in the end of November and then didn't go live until Christmas, so we missed the holidays, too.
So we really basically. January through. What is it, June 10th now.
And so we've been able to hit. I think we've been between 75 and 90% occupancy every month. And then I think we're at 26,000 gross so far.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: Okay, that's great for half the year and for half of that year being the low season. So. Yeah, yeah, y' all are doing great.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's right on. I mean we didn't expect this first year to be a huge money making year. We're, you know, trying to get in, get all the reviews we can. So for where, where we're at, we are pretty pleased.
[00:17:30] Speaker C: Yeah, that sounds great. So what would you say has been the hardest part so far of this very early stage journey of being a short term rental investor?
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think those first like right when you close and you have to get the place rent ready, you're kind of like, what did we do? Like my husband was like, my husband immediately was like, are you happy we made this decision? Because you seem really stressed and I was really stressed and even so I feel like just getting it rent ready was hard for me because we weren't there. We were doing all this work across the country and we, you know, some fairly significant work. But then even I think launching for me like getting all the systems in place was probably the hardest piece for me of, you know, getting all of the different platforms launched and then syncing it with the, your property management and then especially learning the pricing software, price labs. I, I'm not like a spreadsheet numbers person and I had so many coaching calls just trying to figure out all of the different settings in price labs and so I think that was the hardest. And then I've been, I mean, not surprised.
Everybody always says it's not going to take that much time, but after getting launched and up and running, I'm really not spending, I think I'm spending one to two hours a week and some change just with everything on the rental.
[00:18:49] Speaker C: Oh, that's nice. So you, you got it figured out a little bit of a learning curve with the revenue management. Who, who are your favorite coaches in short term Shop plus.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: So I think just by my availability, Coach Jim was always at like the 6pm time and that always worked for me. So I have, I had so many with coach Jim and then I had a few with coach Chuck and coach Kelly and those were just all the time slots that fit with being homeless kids. And so I think, I think coach Jim walked me off a lot of ledges in those first couple months.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: Got it. So your favorite coach is whoever can fit your, your timetable, which I.
Oh, I'm the same way. Totally the same way.
Whatever it basically my favorite anything is whatever can fit my time frame of between work and getting the kids where they want to go, and they're in every everything and Luke and all the things, so. And then in this line of work, things just pop up out of nowhere that are all of a sudden an emergency that have to be dealt with, so.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right. And you're homeschooling, so that's just a whole other level of. Of time.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: Yes, completely. And that's where it's kind of. You know, people always say, like, I don't have time to invest. I don't have time to do this. I don't have time to do that. And it's like. I mean, when I was in college, I also thought I didn't have time. Right. And then you look back and you're like, wow, I had so much time, and what did I do with it? Nothing productive. Right.
But then now it's like, yeah, we're never gonna have time. And I would say we are in a season of having the least time we've ever had, and yet investing has been one of the best decisions we've made, so.
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Oh, love that.
So are there any plans on the horizon to do it again once you get this one up and stabilized and running?
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah, our goal is we've kind of wavered on where our next one would be, but I think we're actually going to do a condo in Branson next, hopefully within the next six to 10 months.
[00:20:47] Speaker C: So, yeah, Branson is a very similar market to the Smokies, but better price point.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's kind of where I was. Like, we kind of found a. A gem. I mean, it wasn't a gem, but we found a deal, and it's hard to find that again in the Smokies. So we can kind of do the same numbers in Branson.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: Yeah, love that. I love Branson. It's such an underrated market, in my opinion. It never gets mentioned when people talk about the best places to invest, but it really is. Like, you can get properties there for under 300, no problem. Branson is mostly condos, though, by the way. That's kind of the difference between it and the Smokies, the way that their regulations are. It's a lot of condos, but you can get great prices. And on these condos, it's so much more affordable to fix up a condo than it is a single family, because there's only so many things inside the walls to fix up that are really expensive.
Whereas house, you might have to do the deck like you did, and all these crazy things that can get really expensive before you even get inside the house.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: So yeah. And then there's also in Branson, if you do want to spend a million or two, you can get these huge, really high income properties too. So it is a really versatile market and you can get a really great bang for your buck there. And I don't know why more people don't invest in Branson, but we have some great agents in, in Branson. If you want to email
[email protected] we'll get you connected. Plug, plug. Anyway, so Branson is next maybe.
And do you plan to just kind of keep saving a down payment and then going, are you pulling equity out of other properties for the next down payment or how, how's that looking?
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that's kind of where we're, I think we're kind of at that breaking point now of what's going to be the next move. And so for now we've got, we have our next down payment almost there through saving and stuff. So that'll be the easier move. And then I think after that we'll have to start getting creative.
We've been talking a lot about co hosting and so hopefully, you know, I think depending on how, how lucrative we can actually make it, that will help. But yeah, we've talked about, yeah, liquidating certain other assets and investments, but I don't know.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm a big fan of saving, saving and making the down payment and not pulling any equity out of houses. Although I have, I have not pulled. I did one HELOC back at the very beginning. It was small, it was like 20,000 but never done another one. But we have liquidated some small like retirement accounts from back when we had day jobs and things like that to, to make down payments. So you gotta, you know, just decide where your money is best invested and it's different for everybody.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
Awesome.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: So have you had any, any difficult guests yet in the Smokies?
[00:23:36] Speaker B: Yes, we was amazing. We had our, I think it was our second guest we had and it was like the New Year's New Year's Eve New Year's guest and they were just very communicative about everything in the cabin that they would actually have done differently. And they did not like that. It was so dark in the cabin at night in the woods.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: What.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: And so they literally were like, can you please instacart us some lamps? Because we feel that the lighting in this cabin is inadequate for us to be here as a family. And I was like, wow. I. This Is amazing. I don't think ever in my life I would have told somebody that the lighting in their home was inadequate for us to enjoy our time there. But it was. And then it was like, you know, my kids are afraid walking. It's a spiral staircase, but it's in the middle of the cabin. She's like, my kids are afraid of the spiral staircase. Can you please have someone come over and install under, like, lighting underneath each step of the staircase during our stay? And I was like, I really appreciate the input and the feedback about the lighting. I'm not able to get anybody on January 2nd to come and install lighting for you today.
So that's something that we will look into. But it's just. I feel like everything. And then it was the kitchen utensils, which we just replaced everything. But she felt that she wanted, you know, different sizes of forks, and it was pretty amazing. Yes, they. There were not small enough forks for her. They were too big.
Oh, man.
[00:25:04] Speaker C: For the adults. Like, did she want kid forks or. They were too big for the adults.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: I don't. I mean, we have kids. We have all kids. Plates, cups, and utensils, too. So apparently the adults.
We're struggling with the fork size.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: Oh, man. What a thing to struggle with at this. At this age, right?
The lighting. If my kids were scared to go up the stairs, I would be. Y' all get up the stairs. We don't have time to play around with this. Go to. Get up there and go to bed.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: This. This feels like a parenting problem, not a cabin problem.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Oh, man. So have you had any bad reviews yet? And how have you handled that?
[00:25:42] Speaker B: So we have been really lucky so far. I think we're at 35, five star reviews, so no bad reviews. I mean, we had the typical, you know, we had a cockroach found in the cabin, and just one. And it was dead, but we had a cockroach. And then we had the H Vac, the brand new H vac, the outdoor unit. A sheet of ice fell on it and basically destroyed all the parts inside. And so it was rattling really loud for one of the guests. And we had to replace the whole outdoor unit a month and a half after replacing the whole outdoor unit.
So we've had complaints, but it's also.
It's how you. It's how you manage and navigate those complaints where it's like, okay, what can we do? We're going to instacart you. Whatever you need. We'll send you a gift card. Sorry for the inconveniences. And we haven't had to move anybody out yet either. But we had people get snowed in that we told them, do not come. This is not gonna be safe. And she's like, we're from Florida. Snow. This will be fun. And I was like, but you don't understand. Never seeing snow and being snowed in are two very different things. And so I feel like we had a stretch of things going wrong, but we were able to work it out, luckily.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: Yeah. And that's. That's all you can do is work it. Did you send the fork lady any. A gift card for her inconvenience with the forks?
[00:27:03] Speaker B: I sent a small gift card, and then I actually just sent those, like, flashlight lanterns with, like, a handle for hours. Your kids can carry these up and down the stairs. And did they.
[00:27:14] Speaker C: I don't know if they did, or was she like, this is stupid.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: She was like, thank you so much. This was such. She was very grateful and very appreciative. And so we needed. It was our second guest. We needed the review. I was like, here's your gift card. Here are your lanterns. That's all I can do.
[00:27:29] Speaker C: Well, I'm glad she was grateful about that.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Yes. I mean, we got the whole. After she left the whole, like, here are my suggestions for every room of the cabin, what you could do differently. But she didn't leave a bad review.
[00:27:41] Speaker C: So we got a bad review last week because the guest. It was in one of our big houses at the beach, and the guest broke the outdoor shower. They were fine the first two or three days, totally cool. And then they were drunk. Broke the outdoor shower. And I don't know. They were drunk because they broke the outdoor shower. I know they were drunk because of how they were talking to us. And who cares? Like, be drunk, whatever. We've all. We.
To each their own. But he was being really, really disrespectful. And Luke was like, okay. He was like, and why are there only 10 pool towels? Who only has 10 pool towels? And Luke was like, put him in the washing machine. You know, he was being super, you know, customer servicey. But in the background, we were like, oh, my gosh. And the guest said, oh, and by the way, I found the owner of this cabin on Tick Tock, and I've sent her a message. And I was like, oh, that's me.
He said, because I did, like, a walkthrough one time, like, here.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: This is.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: This is how my guest left it. And so I went on Tick Tock.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: And I looked.
[00:28:47] Speaker C: I'm like, oh my gosh.
He went on and on, like totally just drunk ramblings about he wanted pool umbrellas, more pool umbrellas, and we didn't have enough pool towels. And how was he supposed to use the outdoor shower with. Because he broke the chain. So you just had to reach way up there and pull it and we couldn't get in. We could not get a replacement chain that day.
And anyway, he just sent me this long, ranty thing and I was worried that.
So long story short, I blocked him and then he went nuts and put it in all the reviews. But in my mind I was like, man, he's gonna find out what my business name. He's going to go, leave, you know, go on some kind of review spree of the actual short term shop. Real estate agents, not just us. And so I'm like, I just need to block him because he's drunk. And then maybe he won't remember the name of it and he won't. I'm like all worried about everything.
And then not only did he, he didn't. I don't think you remember the name, but he, he did leave it in, in the review that I was not a nice person because I blocked him on it.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Tick tock.
Oh, my goodness. That's. I mean, that's a lot of work on his part. That's impressive.
[00:29:57] Speaker C: Yeah, he spent a lot. See, that's why I was like, I'm just gonna block him. So maybe he won't like remember the name of the short term shop and go around because it was on the business page. It wasn't on mine. Oh, so now I can't do walkthroughs of the houses anymore after people leave.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: I'd love for those videos too.
[00:30:12] Speaker C: I'll still do them, but maybe just not of that house for a minute. Oh. So anyway, it happens to the best of us. And that was on vrbo, at least not Airbnb.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: That's a little easier to deal with.
Yeah.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: So happens to the best of us. Anyway, it's not about me, it's about you. So before we get to the last three questions of the show, is there anything about your story that you really want people to hear that maybe they can relate to or maybe limiting beliefs they have? Anything like that?
[00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, I think it's easy to undersell ourselves. I. For, I think for years I was like, there's no way we could do this. I don't have the experience. I don't have the knowled.
There's. I don't have the time. And so I've kind of undersold all aspects of my ability to invest in real estate. And it's just one of those things where like, you can learn anything. And I read so many books and listened to so many books and just got engaged. Like that was like one of the biggest things for me was like, I just got engaged with the short term shop and I attended so many office hours and I was too scared to even ask a question. Like I sat there, I think I attended like six months of office hours and never would ask my question until that point because I was like, I don't know, I don't feel like I know this stuff. And all these other people are smart, they're on their second properties, fifth properties.
But I think it's just like you can learn, you can learn anything. And this isn't like there's so many transferable skills in real estate. I've learned kind of like what you said in the beginning, like waiting tables and running a baking business, like the hospitality industry.
And then there are people who come in with the numbers background and they can jump right into the pricing side of things. So there's always, you're always going to have weaknesses in any part of a business, but there's also, you can learn every part of the business. So I think that was for me, I limited myself a lot and I just kind of watched from the periphery for a while, which was helpful and I suggest it. But I think I was my own worst enemy in that because I probably could have jumped in a year or two sooner, but I didn't believe I had the time or the skills to do it, so.
But you did. Yeah, yeah, we're working it out, we're figuring it out. And that's the, I mean, again, not just trying to toot the short term shop's horn, but it's like you guys, you handheld us through so much of it and the coaches and you and Luke and it's like there was not a moment where I felt like I was just out treading water alone and nobody was going to help.
So I think, yeah, no, I think that's what made it really possible for us was like there's. It's not just this guru that I'm like watching videos and listening to, but it's like I'm sitting down and asking you guys questions and the coaches are, you know, screen sharing everything and helping me fix all the mistakes I'm making. And so I think like the coaching sessions for me were really Invaluable because I would have made a lot of mistakes until I would share my screen and one of the coaches would be like, whoa, don't do that. That's wrong. And, but that's kind of the beauty of the short term shop is you guys aren't afraid of the nitty gritty details and you're also not afraid of the more exciting parts of it. And so every part of it, you guys are there for it, so.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: Well, thank you. Yeah, we do our best and I'm glad that, that you felt that way and I hope other people feel that way too.
All right, Mary, last three questions of the show. Number one, what advice would you do? Sorry? What advice would you, would you give 20 year old Mary if you knew then what you know now?
[00:33:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that's such a good question. And there's so, so many things. Um, I think one of my biggest pieces of advice I would give would be to Talk to people 10 to 20 years ahead of yourself and just immerse yourself in their wisdom and like ask tons of questions and just like if that's, if they're investing in real estate and that's somewhere you want to be, talk to them, spend time with them. Like my husband and I would bring our kids over to dinner with this family who I mentioned in the beginning and just ask every question under the sun about real estate and they're in all long term rentals and apartments and. But they just answered so many silly questions of ours and it was kind of like, they're ahead of us, they're 25 plus years ahead of us, but we want to be there and so how can we do that? So I think it's just like, find the people that are ahead of you and whether it's, you know, personally, like in marriage and in goals you have personally, or if it's financial goals or whatever the goal is, just like, look for the people that are already ahead of you in doing it and just soak it up.
[00:34:38] Speaker C: Good advice. Number two, what advice would you give a new short term rental investor who's getting started today?
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Similar question. Yeah, and I think my answer's a little bit similar where I think it's just be a student. Like, like I just was talking about like not being afraid to learn, but then also like, don't be afraid to ask the dumb questions. Like I finally had to get over myself and be like, hold on, I have dumb questions, but I need to ask them because they keep sitting here week after week and I don't know what they what the answers are. So I think it's like, be a beginner. I think so often when we get to, you know, out of our 20s and we're more established, we're afraid to be beginners again because either our pride or we don't know how to do it. And I think it's just be a beginner and don't be afraid to pick up every book, ask every question and get over yourself.
[00:35:25] Speaker C: Also great advice. Get over yourself. And number three, what is your favorite book that's impacted your mindset?
[00:35:33] Speaker B: So this is so good and so hard because I could name so many and I. In so many of the episodes I've watched of your guys, there's like a million of the books that I would also recommend that other people have recommended. But I have a curveball that I was. That I really love that I don't think I've ever heard mentioned. And it's called Improv Wisdom by. I think her name is Patricia Madsen. And it's a really short book, really easy to read. She teaches improv, like at universities.
And I'm not in the improv theater world at all, but she takes these, these like tenants of the improv world and talks about how you apply them to life. And so it's a lot of it is like how you roll with the punches of life and you flip the script. So it's like you can't control every outcome, but you can take the next well thought out step. So even like in real estate, I can't control what, you know, how this house is going to perform in every way. But I can take the next step. I can do the due diligence here. I can add this amenity. And so she talks a lot about, like, if you're afraid of failure, it's going to end the game forever. But if you're willing to take the next step and pivot and roll with the punches and say yes to an opportunity that you never would have said yes to, then it helps you to open that next door and you don't know where that next door will lead. So it's just a really. It's a different book and it just changed a lot of different. Yeah, the way I think and it opened. It opened me up to opening new doors. Basically.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: No one has recommended that book yet, so I'm definitely going to check that out. I'm going to put that on my list.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: It's fun, it's different, It's a quick read. She's engaging and she tells funny stories. So it's not like some laborious business book.
Yeah.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: And they can be some of us.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: Awesome. Well, Mary, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story with our listeners. I think that it's going to be really helpful to a lot of people who are maybe just a little bit behind you on the road to investing. And if our listeners want to. If you want to be followed or gotten a hold of, how can they do that? It's perfectly acceptable to say, I would not like to be followed.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: I mean, I actually just don't have any.
You can probably find me on Facebook, but I'm just not a big. I'm not really on social media. I mean, I've. I have a personal page that I follow you guys from, but I don't post about the house yet or anything, so I don't have any exciting. Good for you, though, for people to follow.
[00:37:51] Speaker C: I love that.
I hate social media, so.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: I know. I do, too. And I just, like, I go on to consume, like, from you guys and other people I learned from, and then I leave. So I'm not. I'm not the best person to try and follow.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: Well, that's great. Good for you. Keep it that way.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: All right.
[00:38:06] Speaker C: The real deal. So thank you so much for coming on and listeners, we will catch you next week.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: Thanks, Avery.
