[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, y'.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: All.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of the Short Term show. Today we have Melissa Nash, the founder of Passively Rich with Rentals. She's got a really great story and I am really excited to interview her today. How are you, Melissa?
[00:00:40] Speaker C: Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for coming on. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into real estate investing.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I'll start off by saying I live here in Southern California, and for a while there I thought I couldn't be a real estate investor. I mean, it's expensive here. It's not landlord friendly. The math just doesn't math. And so I just thought, I guess I can't do this and kind of gave up and I ended up investing thousands of miles away from where I live. And that was how I got into the game. And then since then, my goal has been to be as lazy as possible with my real estate portfolio. And what I mean by that is I'm not trying to actually be like, you know, couch potato lazy, but I have created systems that enable me to free up my time and I call it the lazy investor system. And so everything that I do, whether I'm buying a long term rental or a short term rental, I'm like, hey, is this going to free up more time for me either now or in the future? So that's kind of just the overall view of what I got going on.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Awesome. So let's hear a little bit about how you bought that first rental. Like, what made you decide to do that? Why didn't you do it in Southern California, all that stuff?
[00:02:02] Speaker C: Yeah, so I had very little money. I mean, we're talking. My husband and I had just shut down and kind of. I say shut down, lost, sold our business that we built for the last, you know, 15 years. And it happened during the Great Recession. We actually owned a children's clothing business, manufacturing business, and yeah, we were importing from overseas and we had worldwide distribution and it was a pretty big company. And after the Great Recession, you know, Nobody was buying $85 baby jeans.
And so we, we kind of made the decision to close it down slash, kind of sell it for what it was kind of, you know, leftovers there. And we were just struggling, like, what are we going to do next? Like, what is the next Thing we. And so I had very little money, very little capital.
When I was looking around here in Southern California, I'm like, you know, at the time, this was, you know, 12 years ago, I was like, I'm not going to buy a $500,000 property that rents for, you know, 1200amonth or whatever it was. And, and coming up with the capital for all of that. And so I started looking in affordable areas.
I had family that lived in the south and it was way more affordable. So I was like, wow, I could get a property for under $100,000. You know, my total in could be maybe $15,000 to get a property. And so I really started my journey there. Of course, read Rich dad, poor dad and you know, was binging the podcasts and you know, all the things. And I went, you know what, I'm just going to do this.
I met somebody who was in the turnkey real estate space and what that means is you can buy a long term rental that's already renovated with a local property manager in place. So I kind of met somebody through that world and I just. The right property came up with the right budget and I went, hail Mary, let's just do this. You know, I was like, I'm either going to do it now or I'm not going to do it. I had done enough research and I was, you know, I was, I was never going to take action unless I took action. So I was like, this is it, gonna do it. And I did that. So, you know, never. I've never seen that property to this day. I still own it.
I have no plans to ever see it. So it's a hundred percent, set it and forget it. And I have a property management company that really does everything for me.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Wow, okay. And so then did you just repeat that same process with the same company for multiple properties or did you branch out?
[00:04:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I definitely branched out just because I, I loved it. I was like, this is really cool. Like, you know, that first rent check showed up in my bank account and I was like, I had an epiphany. I was like, oh my gosh, I, I didn't do anything to earn this money. You know, this literally shows up while I'm sleeping and I was sold. I was like, I gotta figure this out. I gotta rinse and repeat. And so, yeah, so about a year later I saved up, saved up that cash flow was saving up savings.
And then I went and rinse and repeat and I stayed in the same state in Alabama and I bought another one and that one, I kind of branched off on my own a little bit. I started making connections and meeting people and kind of figuring out what I wanted. So I bought a couple more that way. And then came short term rentals shortly after that.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Well, let's hear about those.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Well, you know, I was, you know, again, living here in Southern California. I was looking at the idea of, you know, my family loves to go skiing in Utah. And you know, we try to go at least once a year, maybe twice a year if we're lucky. And, you know, like, you and I were just chatting beforehand. You've got kids that are going back to school. And at the time I had all my kids home and I just knew time was going so fast. And I was like, oh, I just love these family trips that we get to go on and really get away from the sports and the activities and just slow down and kind of be somewhere together.
And I was like, where is that place? And we love to go skiing in Utah.
It's really expensive. And you know, and I was like, I wonder if, if I could get a property there, you know, something affordable, a condo. What if it could just pay for itself? Like, that was my goal. Like, I wasn't even. This was 12 years ago, mind you. Let. Well, about 11. No, about 10 or 11 years ago at this point. Actually, I'll refrain. I'll rephrase that. I think it was about 10 years at this point.
And I was like, you know, I don't know anything about short term rental world. Like, I didn't even know anything about Airbnb. And I was just kind of like, I wonder if it would pay for itself.
And so I found a condo that just looked horrendous in the photos. I could see the potential. And I was like, oh, I could, you know, Joanna Gaines this property up, you know, and just kind of bring in some new furniture and new paint and this would be a whole new place.
And so I honestly didn't know what I was doing, but I knew that the property could at least cover itself. We could rent it out when we weren't there and we could vacation for free. So we went ahead and did that.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Is that in like, Park City maybe?
[00:07:03] Speaker C: No, it's actually in Southern. It was in southern Utah in a little ski town called Brian Head.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Oh, okay. We happen to have an office there. It's new as of the last year. So, guys, if you want to buy in Brian Head, email Cody C O D
[email protected].
[00:07:18] Speaker C: very cool.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: That was not on purpose.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: It's meant to be.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Meant to be.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Thank you for listening. We sincerely hope that you find value in this podcast.
We would love it if you would use our team to purchase your next vacation home.
We sell houses in all of the best vacation markets in America and we want to earn your business.
Reach out to us
[email protected] stsconsultation.com that's the shorttermshop.com this program has been brought to you by the Short Term Shop.
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[00:08:39] Speaker B: right, so how many properties do you have total now?
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Well, as of right now with my short term rentals I have 20.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: 20. Okay, and how many are short terms versus long terms?
[00:08:49] Speaker C: I have five short term rentals and I run everything myself totally on my own.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Okay, that's awesome. That was. I was about to ask you if you self manage those. So where, what locations are all of those short term rentals?
[00:09:03] Speaker C: Yeah, so remember when I said I didn't think I would be able to invest in California?
The only way, the only way I've been able to invest in California is through short term rentals because that's the only way the math can. Math.
So we've got a couple cabins up in Lake Arrowhead area, just about an hour and a half outside of Los Angeles.
And then we've got two properties out in the desert. And then long story short, back to that condo in Brian Head, we ended up selling, selling that. We got into a crazy HOA situation and they were just throwing down restrictions on us and trying to limit how many guests we had. And I was like, no way Jose, I'm not doing that.
So we sold that one. We're able to get one in Palm springs. We did 1031 exchange on that and then we just kind of started rolling them over. We even bought a couple other rentals out in the desert that I actually we flipped them on purpose. So essentially I'm kind of skipping stories here, but essentially what we did is we bought a couple properties that we knew would be good short term rentals and they just needed to be fixed up and they needed some love and they needed some attention. We bought a couple of those for the Purpose of essentially fixing them up. So we did small renovation, nothing big, just maybe $100,000 renovation.
Then I set it up as a business, as a short term rental business. Because that at this point I'd owned about seven short term rentals. Now I kind of had it dialed down. So I hired the cleaners, got the supplies, had all the systems in place, and then sold those as a business. So we sold two of those as a, as a package deal. Like hey, you're, you're buying a complete business and the house.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Oh, nice, nice. So you own five. You've purposely flipped a few. I love that. I think that that is a very underutilized strategy in the short term rental world because there's so many properties in, you know, insert major market here, the smokies, Destin, Panama City, 38 that are just grandma, like so grandma. Maybe they've probably been short term rentals already, but because they're just ugly, they don't really have good rental history. They get overlooked by investors. But if you were to buy one and actually make it an attractive rental, you can turn around and actually sell that and make a profit. So I think that that is a grossly underutilized strategy in short term rentals. So. Good for you.
[00:11:31] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks. It was really fun. And you know, and I will say that, you know, for anybody listening, there is a time and a place for everything. And it can be sound all this like, sounds together like very intimidating. But you know, I started with one property, a $15,000 investment in Birmingham, Alabama. And I've just grown my confidence and my skills with every single thing I've done. And I've been very aware of, I reassess. Like I'm kind of crazy. Like I'm like, you know, every property I'm like, do I enjoy this? Do I, do I like this? Is this taking up too much my time? What can I do? And if. And at the end of the day I'm like, no, I don't, I'm not happy with this decision. I'm like, I'll sell it. You know, that's always like, I'm always pivoting. And so I've done a lot of 1031 exchanges for both short term and long term rentals now because I'm always growing and learning and figuring out what it is I want to do.
Awesome.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: And you're on it, you're doing all the things. So I feel like people in short term, they get so stuck in one avenue of doing things and sometimes then they over improve the Property to where they can't sell it for what they had into it. We see that a lot right now with, you know, every single influencer has some, either owns a design company or is getting gigantic kickbacks from a design and amenity company. So they're telling all their clients to, hey, you know, this $500,000 house you bought, you're only going to be successful if you spend $300,000 in amenitizing it. And when they're done, they don't now have an $800,000 house. And you know, for me, I think there's better ways to utilize that money, like the down payment on one or two more appreciating assets than just dumping it all into things that may make this one make a little bit more money.
But there are better. The opportunity cost of that money is, is not what you want. So anyway, I love that you're utilizing
[00:13:25] Speaker C: all these strategies 100%. I've seen like, I mean, you know, how it was like, like during COVID you could literally just take a property and just throw it up on, you know, Airbnb or vrbo and you're like, this is amazing. I'm a millionaire. You know, I'm booked out solid. And you know, that whole window. And then when, when everything kind of opened up again, everybody can like travel the world again and whatever. And you know, so many people overbought in some of the areas was in. And so I was like, oh my gosh, do I need more amenities? Do I need this or do I need that? And you know, so I had to really evaluate where the things were that made money and what, what things people cared about. And it's funny because also just recatering who I was serving on that property, like calling them out, like, I have a, a little two bedroom cabin in, in the mountains. And that one is best suited for, you know, couples with a dog. We have a big fenced in yard, we have a dog, you know, gated area with the doggy door. And I charge a pet fee. I charge a pretty hefty pet fee. And it's perfect for couples. And so I advertise it for couples. It's a romantic getaway, you know, and so that's mostly what I get. And so I find that like so many people are like worried about these, you know, I want a bigger house, I'm a bigger cabin. I want to fill, you know, filled with all these people, you know, heads and beds. And I'm pretty booked on that property because I know who my guest Avatar is. And I'm focusing on that and I'm catering to that. And I'm also trying to figure out where I can monetize that guest a little bit more.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: 100% agree. That's also been my experience. We've got a few one bedroom and studio properties and so many investors are like, no, no, I need to sleep 2700 people in a five bedroom and we sleep two, not four. We are not cramming a bunch of people in there. 2. And they stay booked all the time. And have. We've got one that we've had for 10 years now and it's done. Amazing. So if you know who your target guest is, you don't have to try and cram a zillion people into one room and they don't want to be crammed. Like, who wants to sleep in a room with other adults and hear them breathing during the night? Like, it's. I don't even want to hear my kids breathing. Go in the other room.
[00:15:41] Speaker C: It's true. Also, wear and tear. Like, you know, this cabin that we have, it's a hundred years old and it's really old. It's really cool. But I can't imagine if there was like, you know, 10 people sleeping in there, just the wear and tear on that house would be pretty bad. So it kind of works out that we're like really limiting the guests that are there and they're older people that tend to take care of the property too. So it just kind of suits, you know, and that's something that people don't think about is like wear and tear on properties. And we have to like really take care of these properties, otherwise the next guest is going to complain. So we're on it. And so I tend to like properties that actually sleep less. Just for the wear and tear thing.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So what. Let's back up a little bit before we get into the management. So how did you finance these?
[00:16:29] Speaker C: 100%, like 20% down, you know, myself, I own them all myself. I've never, I'm. I'm not a sharer.
I don't have partners or anything like that because I want to deal with other people and their opinions. I thought about it for a hot second because a lot of people have approached me and been like, hey, you've already got this kind of dialed down. Can we partner on a deal? And I'm like, no, because I like to make all the decisions myself and I don't want to get permission from somebody else.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: I could not agree more. And then I see these people online that it's taken like 70 dudes to buy a 4 Plex and it's just ridiculous. Just I, save the money, work harder, get it done yourself. Because I agree, I, I do not want to have to ask anybody. I just want to do what we're doing and we're off to the races. So totally agree with that. And nobody wants to hear that. Honestly, nobody wants to hear that there wasn't some secret hack to use other people's money. Nobody wants to hear you got to get extra jobs, you have to budget. Maybe you're not going on vacation this year because that's not cool, that's not sexy. But it really is what it takes to build a sustainable portfolio.
Well, it is.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: And you know, one of the things that I say, whether you're buying short term rentals or long term rentals, it's time in the market, not timing the market.
Because there are, I could pull up right now on my computer properties that cash flow and make sense, like they're everywhere you can find them.
But some people, their expectations are just off. And so the longer you, the quicker you buy a property and the longer you hold it, the more it's going to work for you. And so I have done cash out refinances on my properties. I've done 1031 exchanges. You know, you just have to put in, do it, take action. Wait, let the math do its math. Let the market do, do its thing. The markets are going up in value. If you can like find a property like you said earlier, that is just looks like grandma's house, which several of the properties that I bought was, I didn't have to do much to it to improve it. It was literally just like paint new lighting, some furniture, you know, some cute bedding and just make it look nice. And all of a sudden it's going to appraise for more.
And so if you can just kind of do that and be patient, then you're going to give yourself more options. I would never be where I am today if I wasn't able to tap back into my property's equities and to buy more and continue to grow and scale.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Man, everything you're saying is making so much sense.
So let's talk about your management a little bit. So you say you do it all yourself. What platforms are you using to help you manage these properties?
[00:19:06] Speaker C: Yeah, so I mean the, the two big ones. Well, I, I don't really get a lot of direct bookings and that's pro that's on me because I haven't really focused on it.
So, you know, I rely on Airbnb and brbo.
I use Guesty is, you know, my platform that I can just kind of manage everything on. They just merged. I have Guesty for hosts and they closed down that and now it's just Guesty.
So I use that and Price Labs. That's it.
Pretty, pretty low tech.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: All right. No, I love it. And that's really all you need is those two things. So anything you've got your eye on, thinking about using maybe Host Buddy or anything like that, or you just keeping it low profile.
[00:19:51] Speaker C: You know, I just feel like adding more, more tech and more things just takes away more time from me. My goal in everything I do, whether I'm buying, you know, a short term rental or a long term rental, it's how is this going to save me time? I'm at the point with my portfolio that I want everything to be absolutely as passive as possible. I want to leave and travel when I want, I want, you know, so every system that I set up, you know, with my short term rentals I've got, you know, from the listing page I'm setting expectations. Then you know, the email automations, we're setting expectations and I'm checking in and doing all the things, you know, my cleaners are dialed down, you know, pool guy, whatever, you know, all the, all the people are pretty dialed down with expectations. And of course I still, you know, I've got my phone on me even when I'm on vacation because there's always the guest that's like, hey, the pool pump isn't coming on or you know, whatever, you know, So I still have to kind of answer those things, which annoys my husband to death.
But I chose to do that because I have hired management companies in the past and they do not get the bookings that I do. And maybe it's because they're focused on so many other rentals. And this is just my experience that I found when a guest knows it's me and I'm the owner and they're talking to me. And I'm not some corporation, I'm not some big property manager.
I don't know, I've just been, I've gotten better reviews.
You know, I. My first property, well, not my first property manager I hired, but my Palm Springs house, I had a property manager there initially because Palm Springs City is ridiculous, by the way. They have so many rules and you have to pay taxes on your own and you have to meet the guest at the house. And you have to like, give them all the rules because there's crazy rules. And so you do have to have a local boots on the ground there. And I thought that meant property manager. And that property managers in Palm springs take like 30, 35%, like insane amount because they do have to do more work with all the city requirements. And so I hired a property management company out there and I remember and I had managed my own properties separately, by the way, in other markets. And the first review, I wasn't really paying attention because they listed on their own site. It wasn't on my Airbnb account, it was their own. So I wasn't really paying attention to the reviews and different things people were saying. So a couple months go by and I see a four star review come in on the property management site. And I about lost my mind. I called them and I'm like, there's a four star review. Like, what's going on? And they're like, what do you mean? That's great. A four star review is awesome. And I'm like, no, it's not Like I'm used to five star reviews.
How is a four star, okay? And they're like, no, we would be freaking out if it was like a two star or a three star. That's bad. Four stars to be expected.
And I was like, okay, we are not aligned. Like, I expect a five star. And I, you know, had messages to my guests like, hey, I. I want a five star review. If you don't think your stay is a five star review, please reach out to me, let me know what's going on. You know, I'm setting expectations across the way. So that was like one of the first times that I was like, I think I can do this better.
And so I took that property back over and then, and I've done it again. I've. I tried another property management company on another property and they just weren't getting the bookings that I was getting. And I gave them a full year. And I was like, oh my gosh, I used to profit on this property. Now I'm breaking even. What's going on? I took it back over. Profits go back up. So I don't know. I don't know what they're doing and, and why, but I just am like, maybe it's me and I'm a control freak, but I'm. I'm making more money than they are.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's, I think that it's a volume thing that they operate a lot of the bigger ones anyway operate on a high volume of low price bookings because they manage so many properties and so they're getting their 20% regardless. They're not the ones having to pay the mortgage or the expenses. So, so if they have 2, 300, 400 properties that they're getting 20% of these small numbers, that adds up to a lot. And then you're the one that's left to, to pay for things. So I think that they just book it for less is really like the end period. They book it lower night, lower price per night is what they do.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: Yeah, so. Yeah, so I'm, I'm doing it all, doing it all myself now.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: So tell me about, you mentioned your lazy investor method earlier. Tell me about that.
[00:24:20] Speaker C: Yeah, so, you know, I think one of the biggest things that I've seen over the years and I've helped over 2,000 investors get into rental properties just through, you know, coaching and education and, and it's all people are buying properties out of state.
And I think that a lot of people need to, you need to be lazy if you're investing, investing out of state. And what I mean by that is you can't control it. If you have a property near you, you can drive by it, you can check on it, you can be like, hey, you know all the things and you, you want to con, you want to do all the things when you can see it and touch it. When you're investing out of state, you have to build systems.
Whether it's a short term rental or a long term rental, you have to build out those systems and trust the people that are in place now. Just kind of pivoting to long term rentals and kind of short term is kind of a totally separate, separate be separate animal that it has a lot more moving parts. With a long term rental, you can buy a property out of state and you can hire a property manager and they literally do everything. I mean there's no move in and move out. The tenant is literally there. They sign a lease for a year or 18 months or 2 years or wherever it is. They are responsible for the utilities, they're responsible for yard care. You know, there isn't anything that I need to do. So I could easily, you know, property manager, you handle it. You pay a property manager 10% on long term rentals and it's pretty passive. However, a lot of people just leave it at that. And the lazy investor method is still whether you're buying short term rentals or long term Rentals, you still need to be in control of your systems. You still have to check in with your property managers, you still have to build your teams out. You need to have systems that make everything as passive as possible so that you're not the one, you know, reacting every time there's something going on and then also growing and scaling, you know, so, so the lazy investor method is people first, then the property and then the process. And the process is everybody that you're going to need to be in place to close on the property, manage the property and then grow and scale.
Because then the day I, maybe you have, I've never spoken to somebody that said, hey, I just want to buy one property.
Everybody wants to grow and scale and they want to buy multiple. So then it's like, well, how do you do that?
And it's really hard to do that if you start all over again every single time. So if you can create systems or have a system that I've created that is kind of a rinse and repeat, then you can scale much faster.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: Okay, and what does that look like to a potential client?
[00:26:48] Speaker C: Yeah, so most, Most, I'd say 90% of what we do is starting somebody off a new investor with a long term rental. And maybe it's because that's the way that I did it, but I think it's most passive way to get started.
So you can buy a property in, you know, St. Louis for $140,000 and again, everything is in place for you and it's done. So the property is newly renovated, there's a property manager in place and you can cash flow year one over 15% where you're not doing anything, you're not touching the property, you're not seeing the property, you're not flying out to the property. And so I have all those systems built out for people where I literally, here, here's how to, here's how to understand what makes a good market.
So when we're talking about the property location is, is everything, whether it's short term or long term, you have to have a renter or you have to have a guest, you know, so demand really is everything. So it's understanding the markets and then what's creating that demand. If it's a long term rental, it's jobs. We need to see what's going on in the market and we need to see, you know, who's going to be your renter.
If it's a guest, you need to know why are they coming to the area, whether they're a Vacation or whether they're on business or whatever, it's still the same, still the same thing. We've got to figure out why people are coming to that market and then what you can provide to them.
So understanding that and then the math, that's huge. Whether you're running the numbers are very, very different. If you're running a property as a short term rental and as a property as a long term rental. You know, with a short term rental you've got to pay for the utilities, you have to pay for water, you have to pay for, you know, all the things, yard care. And with a long term rental the tenant pays for it all. So you don't have to include all that stuff. Also I focus on properties that are already renovated or newer construction with out of state investors on those long term rentals. So you're also running numbers very different on those. You're not. I'm not teaching people how to go out and you know, buy a property and hire a contractor and oversee a renovation. I'm teaching them how to buy properties that are already, you know, almost, almost done or done kind of rent ready stuff.
And so that's part of the process is understanding the math and expectations. I think this is the biggest thing that, you know, I've been teaching other people now for over 10 years, other investors. And expectations are probably one of the biggest things that people overlook is if they're disappointed in an investment later, it's usually because their expectations were off. You know, if they're looking at a property and they thought that the returns were going to be this and the properties are and the property actually has a different return, well, that's on them. They didn't run their math correctly or the agent that was helping them oversold it. So you have to understand, you know, why you're doing this and, and know enough to ask the right questions and run the numbers yourself.
You know, and also expectations in a market, if you're thinking, wow, this, I'm going to go to this market because it's going to appreciate and my property is going to go up like crazy high. And it doesn't, well, yeah, you're going to be disappointed. So you have to understand, you know, true expectations of a market and true expectations of the math especially, especially.
Well, actually both, I was going to say especially with short term rentals because you can't control when a guest is there or not. But same thing with long term rentals, you know, you can't control if a tenant, you know, loses their job and has to move out.
So you have to be prepared to pay expenses if you have vacancies. And a lot of people just think they can just throw it up on Airbnb or hire a property manager and they're going to get booked.
So expectations are truly. Sorry, that was long winded. But expectations are probably the most important thing, I think, in, in, in, in all of this.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Yeah, expectations are the most important thing and to have realistic ones. And I think that influencers a lot of times don't give realistic expectations. They post about how they bought a short term rental for $600,000 and I put $1 million into it and now it's worth $5 million and it appraised and then I took all that money out and it still cash flows. No, it doesn't. Like, and then, then people have this expectation of, oh, well, I found this $400,000 house and it's going to cash flow $30,000 a year after everything. And they feel like that's not good enough because it wasn't this crazy pie in the sky, like big fish story, when really that's what you need is a portfolio of those base hits and they're going to, you know, base hits knock the runners in too. You still score runs. I said points one time on Instagram and every dude in on Instagram was like, it's runs, not points.
Whatever.
It still contributes to the score. So anyway, what I'm saying is that base hits are, are good. Not everything has to be this big crazy thing that you're never going to be able to repeat. That's probably not even true where you heard it in the first place. So expectations and having realistic ones are extremely important when it comes to any type of real estate investing, in my opinion.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Absolutely. Well, and you know, as you were saying that I was thinking about that as well is, you know, I, I want people to think and go, why am I buying this property? What is it going to do for me? Like, like, realistically, like some people might buy a property for tax benefits. Awesome. If that's your goal, then great, that's your goal. You can find a bunch. You can find any property that's going to give you tax benefits.
If your goal is to just have the property cover itself. Like, like my goal with that very first short term rental that I bough our. My goal was literally like, I, I don't even know if this is going to cash flow. You know, it was like, that's cool, I don't care because at least the property is paying for itself. The guests or the tenants in a long term rental are paying the mortgage down for you. The property is going up in value if you're buying in a decent area.
And then I get to use it whenever I want or whenever it's not being booked out.
And so I get free vacations, you know, and hey, cherry on top, I get some tax benefits.
And so I think that so many people miss all the other amazing profit centers of real estate and they're just focused on that cash flow and, and people turn down really, really amazing properties because they miss some of the other things. So I think that's the other part of the expectations is aligning. What are you really trying to do? What do you want? What are your expectations with this property and what it's going to do for you and your Life?
[00:33:19] Speaker B: Nailed it 100%.
So, Melissa, we are coming up on the last three questions of the show, but first, is there anything about your company that I didn't ask you that you want to make sure our listeners hear about also where they can find you on social media to learn more?
[00:33:37] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. So go to Passively Rich with Rentals dot com.
That's the best place to start. I've got freebies on there. I've got videos on there. And really what I do is I help investors.
Kind of what we've been talking about, the first place is setting expectations like, what are you trying to do? What do you want?
So, yeah, I can work with people. I've got a couple different coaching programs and things like that. I've got a podcast, Passively Rich with Rentals. Lots of free education. So go check that out.
And then what else did you ask?
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Oh, anything else that we didn't cover about Passively Rich with Rentals?
[00:34:10] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, my goal really is working with people or talking to people that want to free up their time and they want real estate to help them grow and scale. You know, that type of a lifestyle where you're no longer trading your time for money. And whether that's, you know, now or goals that you're working towards, real estate can do that. That's why the richest people in the country own real estate. It's actually possible and it's a real thing. You just have to start somewhere and start with baby steps. And that's really my focus.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: All right, great segue into the final three questions. Ready?
[00:34:43] Speaker C: Ready. Let's do it.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: All right, so first question. What advice would you give 20 year old Melissa if you knew then what you know now?
[00:34:51] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. I would have loved to have gotten started in real estate sooner.
You know, I've got a client and she's a perfect example. I'll wrap it up really quickly, but she was in her late 20s and she works in a ski town, waitressing, hosting or something like that. And she saves up all her money, saves up her tips, saves up everything.
And she owns two duplexes now and she's literally in her late 20s. And she's like, it was really hard because my friends were like going to bars and they were spending all their money and they were partying and doing all this stuff. And she's like, I'm going to stay home and eat my ramen noodles. But she's like, you know, guess what? Like, I'm going to be retired before they are. And so, you know, the sooner you can get started, the younger you are, the better. So, man, I wish I would have just eight more, eight more ramen noodles and saved up my money and got started sooner.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Don't we all?
And number two, what is your advice for a new short term rental investor who's getting started today?
[00:35:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I would, I would. Going back to what we've been talking about, setting expectations, like, really, truly, what is, what, what is the point of this property? Like I said before, if it's about tax benefits, awesome. Almost any, any short term rental is going to give you tax benefits. Is this something that you want to go and enjoy and use with your family? Is this something that you're going for cash flow and you're like, no, I don't, you know, I want to buy a property that cash flows. I want this to change my life in cash flow ways. Then you're going to have to look for those markets, the cash flow. Not all markets cash flow.
I have a property that does not cash flow. I'm lucky if I break even every year and I don't care because that property is going up in value. The, the guests are paying down my mortgage and I get to use it whenever I want. I was just there this weekend enjoying and floating in the pool. So I don't care that it doesn't cash flow. So I think just setting your expectations and going to the right markets or the right opportunity for what you are really wanting to do.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: All right, great advice and last question. What's your favorite book that's impacted your mindset?
[00:36:59] Speaker C: Well, I would have to say Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich was probably, you know, cliche. Everybody probably says that.
But really, truly changing my mind about what real estate can do for you, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I mean, again, super cliche, but if you guys listening have not picked up Rich Dad, Poor dad or if you haven't read it for a while, please do again. I always learn something new when I pick it up.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Always a great recommendation.
And Melissa, thank you so much for coming on. Really great conversation. Y' all definitely follow her and learn more about what she does and listeners. We will catch you guys next week, I guess. Thank you so much, Melissa.
[00:37:39] Speaker C: Thank you again. Bye.
Sa.
