[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.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Hey, y'. All. Welcome back to another episode of the Short Term show. We've got a few announcements today. Yes, I'm still working on my office. It should be fixed next episode. So if you're watching me, I'm sorry that it doesn't look cool. It will next week. And number two, we are still hiring Smoky Mountains, Branson, Orlando and Myrtle Beach. So if you're a real estate agent in those markets, hit us
[email protected] if you feel like you might be a fit. And last but not least, we have our new free short term Shop plus app for you to download. There's a lot of cool stuff in there. You can get hooked up with our agents there or you can just kind of hang out and learn stuff. You got access to a free Q and A with me and Luke every week.
Got some videos in there. There's also access to our paid mentorship program in there. You can get one on ones, all kinds of coaching. It's super fun and I've enjoyed it so far. So please join. It's free. Free. There's tiers. So there's a free tier and there's a paid tier, but the free tier is pretty damn fun. So sign up, hang out with us. We'd love to have you help you learn how to invest in short term rentals. And now on to the episode this week. So this week we have Tamara Brown, who is actually in our short term Shop plus program and we are super proud of her.
She's one of our best students. So, Tamara, how is it going today?
[00:01:53] Speaker C: It's going pretty good. Staying warm, enjoying the last little bit of summer.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's. It is the last, well, second to last day of summer for me. Kids have meet the teacher tomorrow and then first full day back on Thursday and I'm really sad about it. We've had such a great summer.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Great times during the summer for sure. Gotta send the kiddos back to school.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Yeah, if we have to.
We've had fun. Well, anyway, it's not about me. This is about you. So, Tamara, tell us a little bit about what your portfolio looks like and then I'm gonna ask you some other background questions. So what do you got?
[00:02:30] Speaker C: Sure. First of all, thank you, Avery, for the opportunity. I greatly appreciate it. Totally humbled.
I Have a smaller portfolio. I have had up to 10. I've sold some, bought some.
Um, I had started out in long terms accidentally, totally accidentally.
I right now I have three long terms and one short term.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Three long terms and one short term. I love that good streamlined portfolio and I like that you have a little bit of both. So let's back up a little bit and tell me what got you interested in investing in real estate as at all.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: So I bought my first personal home in 2000 and my grandparents got sick soon after, so they needed someone to move in and become help caregiver for them. So I volunteered and.
But I had a new house. What was I going to do with it? So I rented it out and I thought, you know, this is paying the mortgage with a little bit of extra left over, I could get used to this.
And so they had given my grandmother 6 months to live and it turned into a year and it turned into two years.
And then so my mother and I, we all moved in together. So then we rented three homes and bought a new home for ourselves. So we totally got into it accidentally.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Oh, wow. So you rented your house, your mom's house and your grandparents house and then y' all all bought a house together?
[00:04:06] Speaker C: Together, yes.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Oh, wow. What a. I don't think we've had anybody give that as you know, how they got started yet.
[00:04:13] Speaker C: We had four generations in one household.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: And how did that go? Was that beneficial? Was that awesome or was that not awesome?
[00:04:22] Speaker C: It was pretty beneficial. My son and I, we primarily stayed downstairs. We had the basement to ourselves. We had a fireplace, our own bathroom.
And then upstairs, my mother and her mother lived in and we did that for probably five or six years.
So it really worked out very well. It was house hacking before we knew what house hacking was.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: I love that. And then you're able to take care of an aging grandparent without having, you know, those astronomical. I've got a aging grandparent right now and it's not my dad is dealing with it, but watching him deal with, you know, round the clock care and all of that is a lot.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: It's tough.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: And so I'm sure it helped then not only you're in the same house with two adults that can help take care of her, but then you've got income streams from three different properties being able to help with the bills on that as well.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Exactly, exactly.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: I didn't know any of this. This is all very fascinating. Okay, so you move out of that house. So we're ending that chapter. We're Moving out of this four generation house, then what next?
[00:05:34] Speaker C: So my mother and I realized the impact that rental income could have on us and we bought our first rental together for $14,000.
She paid 7,000 and I paid 7,000. It came with two renters. It was a small two bedroom and off we were to the races.
Then we would buy, we stay in the 23 bedrooms to rent out.
Personally 1 to 2 to 3 bedrooms are easier to manage.
So we started buying and selling from there and really enjoyed it.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. So all right, now you've got, you got three long terms and one short term. @ what point did you say okay, I think I want to get a short term.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: So I was introduced to bigger pockets and there I found Ms. Avery Carl and she was talking about, you know, the short term and how it could be pretty lucrative. And I never really saw my when I went on vacation I never really saw myself owning a vacation rental that somebody would pay me to vacation in. You know I always thought of myself as the payer, not necessarily the payee.
Um, so I started following you your podcast and on YouTube. I went to YouTube University. I have hours of YouTube University.
And then somehow Luke came into the picture and he started talking about long term.
He was the long term.
What is he the long best manager. Long term rental manager.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Voted world's greatest.
[00:07:20] Speaker C: Yes, there you go.
So yeah, so I was kind of drawn to him and he talks a lot about books and reads a lot and he.
I was writing down books and when I heard on your guys podcast, I love how you end it. You asked for a book and recently. So I probably followed you for about a year, year and a half and then recently he recommended or a guest on his show recommended a book Everything is figureoutable and that it's short, sweet, to the point and I was off to the races.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Fear not saturation.
When you are the cream of the crop you will rise to the top.
Come learn from me. The best in the business. Voted 19 time World's Greatest Landlord Luke Cashflow
[email protected] where you will learn to be the best in your field and the world's greatest landlord.
We are teaching all the best practices in the world of vacation rentals and we would love for you to join
[email protected] it is true everything is figureoutable.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: And I think where a lot of not just short term rental investors but real estate investors in general get hung up. They get really, really hung up on like 25 cents of a spreadsheet. Being off and not. And then they move on. They say, okay, I thought this was gonna make, you know, 800amonth, but it's making $799 a month and 75 cents. I'm moving on. They don't take that extra step to just try and figure out how to make that extra 25 cents. Now you have a deal rather than no deal. So, yeah, big fan of that book.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Yep. Yep. I really like it. So I was off to the races when I started looking.
I really didn't think it was time, but I wanted to know what was out there, what I was looking at, the numbers that I was looking at. And as I started playing with them, I was coming out to Destin. That's where my condo is. And it was a really quick turnaround because I was thinking I was going to work with Austin, but where I was going was not in his area. He didn't sell in that area. So Luke made the introduction to January, and she is amazing.
January Johnson, Shout out.
And what I liked about her is when we were looking at houses, I would ask her a numbers question, and she would say, what do you think? And I wasn't really asking her for her answer, but I wanted to.
To know what her answer was to see how far off I was.
And so I would answer, and then she would tell me, you know, if I was or off or what I needed to consider. So I really appreciated that in her. She would never really tell me my numbers, but. But talk me through the. The logic of the numbers.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: I think that's so, so important because so many people just pay somebody to say. To analyze for them, tell me how much this will make. Tell me this or that. And a lot of times those people don't really. They've never been to the market. They're just looking at a spreadsheet, and that's fine. Like, you know, let's all delegate. Once you get to a certain point in your business, you are working on the business, not in the business. And maybe it doesn't make sense for you to do that anymore, but at least at first, you have to learn how to analyze yourself. This is your money and your investment, and it is your responsibility to yourself and your kids or grandkids or future grandkids that you understand what you're doing and you're not just paying somebody to do something for you.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Absolutely. I had my spreadsheet and my tabs with my. My enemies on it. And at the time, I really didn't understand the enemy concept, but it is so important whether you use price labs or air DNA or you get out there. I looked on Airbnb for the condos and the areas that I was looking at, and, and I would, I would have a spreadsheet with a line with each condo and, and the price it was for sale and in the peak seasons and all of that. So it's just so important to know what goes into the numbers.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: It really, really is. And for those who are listening, who may not know what an enemy is. What's an enemy?
[00:12:01] Speaker C: An enemy is your competition. It's a frenemy.
It is a host that is in your location, your area, with the same comparable condo, in my case, house and other folks's case, and that you can use to evaluate yourself against.
There's some criteria there. You want it to be not a company ran or a property manager.
You want it to be ran by an individual with 4.75 to 4.85 rating overall.
150, 75. 100 reviews. And kind of compare yourself. You know, are they pet friendly? Are you prep pet friendly? Would you consider being pet friendly and kind of look at their numbers and. And compare.
Compare where they are and what you should. Where you might be able to go. Yeah. Right.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: So your.
Your enemy or your frenemy? The enemy method is your friendly competition in the market that your property is in. The things, the properties that guests are going to be presented with when they are searching for a place to book in addition to your property.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: Exactly. So you're not really stalking them. The information is public information.
So it's information that's available.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: We're not actually stalking them. We're just stalking them.
[00:13:40] Speaker C: Just a friendly stock. Yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Nothing dangerous.
Yes. Yes. All right, so let's talk about what you bought. So you bought in Destin, Florida. And a lot of people are scared of a Florida. Let's talk about that really quick.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: What.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: What are your thoughts on Florida and hurricanes and insurance?
[00:14:04] Speaker C: You know, I live in Kansas and the same thing. I think about tornadoes coming through. I think about hurricanes coming through. That's why you have insurance.
If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen.
You have insurance, you clean it up and you keep on moving.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I feel like every time I talk about Florida being a good place to invest anywhere on the Internet, like 10 trolls will be like, but insurance. But hurricanes. And it's like, I was like it just part of it. I've had a property in Chattanooga get run over by a tornado. And, you know, my Grandmother's had a house. Not actually, not too far from your condo in Destin on the water since the 60s and it's never been touched by a hurricane. So you got insurance and insurance in Florida. This is going to get me yelled at, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be. Is it high? 100? It's absolutely high. But people on the Internet make it sound so scary. Like we just got a two bedroom. 500,000 or sorry, 600,000. And I think the insurance on that is 2500 a year. Yeah, it's not as bad as people. It is bad, but it's not as like just soul crushing as people act like it is.
[00:15:26] Speaker C: Right. I agree. I'd agree.
Yep.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: All right, so let's move on to the second thing about your property that a lot of people are scared of and the fact that it's a condo. So tell me, did you have any apprehensions about buying a condo and how did you overcome those? What have you learned?
[00:15:44] Speaker C: So I wanted a condo.
I don't want the exterior maintenance. I don't want to have to worry about painting it. I don't want to have to worry about lawn up care. I didn't want to have to worry about taking out the trash. There are so many things that are taken off my plate, especially since I'm managing remotely, that I don't have to worry about.
And my, the lawn is manicured, it's beautiful.
I have five pools, you know, three hot tubs.
And if I were to try and maintain a pool, it would cost me at least half of what my hoa. Free cable, free water, things of that nature. You just really can't beat it, I think.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people forget that condo fees cover a lot of what you'd have to pay anyway, specifically pool maintenance. Pool maintenance is a lot. I've got a, a private pool in one of my properties in Destin. And it's, it's worth it. It makes sense to have the private pool. But, you know, this condo that I have upstairs is a $500 a month HOA fee. It might be a little more now, but I've got access to three pools. One of them is right there. I can walk out the door to my office and take 15 steps and be in a pool that I don't have to maintain. And it's nice. And there's two other ones if I want to walk a little bit further and then deeded beach access, which is a big deal over here in Walton. County right now. So you know, we have deeded beach access for our guests and we don't have to worry about the public beach situation. So it's to me, not every condo fee is worth it. You always want to dissect it and look further into what it covers. But you've been. How much is your condo fee by the way?
[00:17:28] Speaker C: It's about 700.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: 700?
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: And over there you've got, I mean you've got some really cool stuff. You've got the, you've got a golf course, you got tennis courts. Over there you've got pickleball courts. Oh yeah, pickleball. I didn't know.
[00:17:45] Speaker C: Three hot tubs.
We have an on site restaurant.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: That's such a good restaurant.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: It is. It's wonderful and the view is beautiful. Gorgeous over the bay. Yeah. Boat docking. We have the, the fleet Sand Flea which is the snack shop on the deeded beach. So you really can't beat it. You just can't beat it.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Are you looking for a change?
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[00:18:34] Speaker C: World.
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[00:18:51] Speaker A: You having trouble trying to decide which market to buy in?
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[00:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah so guy guys, her condo is in an area that I really love called Holiday Isle in Destin and it's really cool because it has the deeded beach access and you've got bathrooms over there as well as a snack bar which even just having bathrooms is, is big. But they've got Louisiana land yap which is like a white tablecloth. Nice restaurant. That is amazing. But you really like you've got to not eat all day if you're gonna go there for dinner. And then the really cool thing about Sandpiper Cove, which is where hers is, is that it has canals with boat. Boat dock access. So you can, if you have a boat, you can pay for boat access sometimes. Like, I don't know how many, how many available slips they have. But what's really cool is there's something called the Destin Water taxi and you call it. And there's a lot of really cool bars on the harbor in Destin and a lot of fun restaurants and stuff. And you can call the water taxi Captain Crystal and Captain Wendy, I think, and they'll come get you and take you bar hopping. And it's super cool. Like there. That's something that's very unique that you can only get at a certain.
Really, I think that might be the only condo building in Destin. There's some, some big, you know, mega mansions over there where you can have access to the water taxi. But really that's the only condo development that I know of that you can get the water taxi.
[00:21:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it has about 20 boat slips.
My condo balcony is over the. The harbor there, so you can park your boat right, right outside of it. It's pretty convenient. And people ask me if they need a car when they fly into town and they really don't if they can get an Uber or a taxi to the condo, they really don't need transportation within the city. I, I promote the, the water taxi and the restaurants there's right there on site. And then everything else is really closed. From CVS to Target. It's really all that right there in walking distance.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's really the only part of Destin right there on Holiday Owl where you can get away with that. Like mine is over in Crystal beach. And you, you could get away without a car, but you probably want to have one just because there's only like one or two restaurants you can walk to. But right there in Holiday Owl, there's so many. There's not so many. There's probably five or six that you can walk to without getting out in the Highway 98 traffic. The beach is right there. You've got Target just directly on like you cross one stoplight and you've got Target and Winn Dixie. So it really is. And, and guys, this is something too, that I want you to understand is when you're looking for a unique property where you can offer things that not a lot of other people can, it doesn't have to be the most expensive. Sandpiper Cove is one of the cheaper condo communities.
And in Destin. So what did you pay for yours? Tamara.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: 3:30.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: 3:30. And it's a one bed or two?
[00:22:36] Speaker C: One bed. Yep, one bed. Awesome.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: And you, you may not have owned it long enough yet, but what are you thinking you're gonna gross on this thing?
[00:22:45] Speaker C: I am hoping. I've done probably 2718-20 so far, so I'm not sure what I'll do during non peak season, but I was totally booked 100% of June and July so I'm thinking maybe 2530 maybe.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: I think you'll probably even do a little bit better than that once you get up and rolling. And you've only on this for like four or five months, right?
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Since March.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: Since March 10, yeah. So you even missed, if you'd owned in January, you would have gotten some of those earlier higher price bookings for the summer. And then you also missed quite a bit. You missed the booking window for spring break. So you got all of spring break to add on to that too. So I think you're going to do significantly better than that on a full year of ownership for sure.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: Yep. I'm excited about the 100% depreciation and all of the things that come with the short term, so.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Oh yeah, I'm excited about that for you.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: We'll be there Labor Day. I'm super excited. I plan on hitting some sales and sprucing it up and.
Yeah.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Awesome. So let's talk about how you were able to finance this. Because this is a condo.
So the, because it's a non warrantable condo, the lending options are going to be a little bit more limited than if it was a single family. So can you tell me how you financed it?
[00:24:23] Speaker C: So I sold one of my long terms and I would not have sold it if I didn't know the person I was selling it to.
My nephew was, was renting from me and wanted to start his real estate journey and so I sold it to him at a pretty good price and then I was able to roll that money into, into the condo. Now I did not do a 1031. I didn't start the process with my nephew early enough to complete it before I found what found the, the condo in Dustin.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Gotcha. Sometimes it can be a little bit of a wash anyway if there's not like a huge recapture.
[00:25:05] Speaker C: So yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: Yeah, is what it is. But you know, guys always consult your, your cpa, not me. I am not that.
So just because sometimes it's a wash does not mean. Don't bother with a 1031. Absolutely bother and do your due diligence.
[00:25:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I was not thinking that I would buy when I went to see January. I was just going to look and I kept thinking, okay, so if this isn't meant to be, then somewhere in the process will stop me. But I'm not going to stop until somebody tells me no. Whether that's the, you know, the mortgage, the mortgage company or the seller wouldn't sell to me. And it just completed the process. So I was totally amazed that it even happened.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: I'm super excited for you. So guys, I'm so happy to have Tamara on here because it's so nice to have somebody who's earlier in their investing career than somebody who has like a thousand doors because it just seems so unrelatable. But, you know, here she is just rocking and rolling on her first property and super excited for you. And what else can I answer? I mean, sorry, what else about your, your journey? Do you feel like our guests, I mean, our listeners should hear that.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: I haven't asked you about anybody can do it if you have an interest.
Don't let fear be the enemy of progress.
Do not do your deal due diligence.
Work your numbers, know what you're getting into. Know the environment, know your avatar, but don't be paralyzed by fear.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: That is really good advice. I'm about to ask you for some more advice because we're to the final three questions of the show. We asked all of our guests and first question, what advice would you give 20 year old Tamara if you knew then would you know now?
[00:27:04] Speaker C: I would invest more time in myself, more than climbing the corporate ladder. So I went to school, I got my bachelor's, I got my master's. And so I was really focused on climbing that corporate ladder when if I look back now, I would say invest in yourself physically, invest in yourself spiritually, your family life, build your skills for you. Not necessarily to be more efficient for your company or to make your company more money, but apply those concepts to me. Kind of the rich dad, poor dad concept. I was a poor dad for, had the poor dad mentality for a long time.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: I think that's such, such good advice. There was a period of like seven or eight years there where I did not focus on myself physically. And you know, now that I'm in my late 30s, things are starting to hurt.
I would have just not gone to school so hard and like worked so hard or just made time to fit in, at least just stretching.
[00:28:14] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Then I would feel better. So that's been kind of my focus I'm calling this when the kids go back to school. It's kind of like my New Year's.
You can actually go back to, like, setting goals and having a routine. So that's. That's me this year. I think that's great advice. Nobody's ever said that before.
All right, number two, what advice do you have for a new investor who's looking to get started today?
[00:28:39] Speaker C: Do not buy things.
Don't buy cars, expensive kitchen gadgets. Buy real estate. Whether that's a piece of land, an office building, a house, a condo.
Buy real estate that will generate income.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: Also good advice. And last question. What's your favorite book that's impacted your mindset?
[00:29:03] Speaker C: I think the latest one is Everything is Figureoutable that one in. How's book?
The five minute morning? No, 5:00am Club. The 5:00am club.
You get up early, you grind before anybody's awake. I get so much more done in the first couple of hours before. Before anybody else is awake, and that's kind of my me time. You know, what do I want to focus on? Yep.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Yep, that's a great one.
All right, Tamara, so if our listeners want to find you or follow you on social media, how can they do that?
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Probably Facebook, but I'm not a social media person.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Good for you.
[00:29:44] Speaker C: Yeah, don't do it. Too many other things to do.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:49] Speaker C: I love our community, though. You can find me at STS + Community.
That's where I'll be.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Tamara is very active in our short term shop plus Community, so join us there. I've just kind of found that, like, Facebook has kind of gone down the toilet and everybody's paying everybody to post stuff and nothing is a real recommendation. And then if you don't let people solicit whatever bull they're trying to do, then they get pissed off at you and then they go talk shit. Another group. It's just. Just garbage. So anyway, short term shot plus free.
[00:30:22] Speaker C: There you go.
Community is awesome. The coaches are wonderful. You can find an AM coach, you can find a PM coach, you can find a noontime coach, and you can talk about whatever you need to talk about, from numbers to decor to recommendations.
The sky's the limit.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Well, we really appreciate you being a part of it, guys.
Thank you so much for listening. Tamara, thank you. You've been a wonderful guest. Super relatable, and we will catch you on next week's episode.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: Thank you, Avery.
