[00:00:02] Speaker A: This is short term rental management, the show that is all about short term rental property management with your host, yours truly, Luke Carl.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: This episode of the short term show is brought to you by the short term shop. 30 year fixed mortgages, tax benefits, and long distance management training made easy are just a few of the perks of owning a short term rental. The short term shop can help you buy and learn how to manage your property from anywhere in the world. Just go to theshorttermshop.com and click get connected again. That's theshortermshop.com, and we are brokered by Exp. See you all over there.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: There we go. Welcome to short term rental management, a show that is, you'll never believe it, all about managing properties and vacation homes and short term rentals. And very exciting conversation today with Amanda Bax, who's Missouri native, still lives in Missouri, and she's got quite the resume.
So, Amanda, I'm going to turn it over to you. Just introduce yourself a little bit, and let's get into this whole thing. When did you start in real estate, and where has your journey brought you today?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Well, the story is long, so I'll try to keep it as brief as possible.
We started, I would say, maybe 2013.
We were trying to sell our house that we lived in. Couldn't sell it, so I thought, we'll see if we can rent it for a while. So we found a renter and slowly but surely tried to get into that. We weren't really specifically trying to get into real estate, but we actually, my husband's in construction. So we bought a house that had a massive fire and was halfway burned. So we bought that house, and my husband worked for a number of months to fix that up. And so we had, were trying to sell our first home to move into the burned down, newly renovated home. And when we couldn't sell that home, we finally got the renter. And that's what kind of started us off. We would buy a house, fix it up, rent it, continue on down the path over and over. So right now, we have eight long term residential homes. They're all single family in Jeff City.
Of course, that's this very slow process to eventually get to the point where you're making money. But we did that, and it's working out well for us. And then in 2019, actually, I told my husband, you know, the single family homes are wonderful, but it's so slow to get to the point where you feel like you're actually making money, and it's doing anything for your portfolio. So in 2019, when I told my husband that we had this conversation, we probably need to do something bigger at some point, and he happened to come across a commercial property that was for sale, but it was not on the market. It was just somebody that we knew, knew these people that were looking to retire and sell their commercial property.
So when my husband came back home to me, of course, and told me this story, I mean, this property was way bigger than anything we had ever touched before. So I said, oh, my gosh, I think that's too much. There's no way we'll be able to afford it. There's just no way. It's a 24 unit, three building, commercial real estate property, and it just seemed like a lot to bite off. So, anyways, he ended up talking me into it, and we made it work. We wiggled around things financially, made it happen. So that's a property that we have. It's, like I said, a 24 unit commercial retail plaza in Jeff City. And then in 2020, we decided to buy a house at the lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.
And it's funny because we went and looked at the property before COVID was really a thing, and some people, some older people were just looking to move closer to family. So I went and looked at it, and I then Covid happened, and we were like, oh, my gosh. We cannot buy anything right now. Everything is unstable. No way. Well, then, you know, everyone's on lockdown for a while. This is probably a month later. You're on lockdown. You can't go anywhere or do anything. But people were still going to the lake of the Ozarks because that's outside. You're on a boat. You're not by anybody. You don't have to quarantine because you're outside by yourself with your family. So we went ahead and we bought that house that was in 2020 and still own that house. And then in 2022, we bought a 15 unit resort, also at the Lake of the Ozarks. And just a couple of months ago, we bought a nine room inn in Herman, Missouri.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Okay, let's break some of this stuff down. First of all, what did you guys do for a living when you bought the first eight single family homes? Or, I mean, just in general, what did you do for a living?
[00:05:10] Speaker B: So I am an old ER nurse. I worked in the ER at the local emergency room for a long time, and then I actually went to be a director of nursing for another small mom and pop pharmacy closer to home. And my husband was in construction. He had his own construction company since about 2010, and that's what we both did in 20. Well, really, it was probably in 2019.
All of the things of life started building up, and my mom was actually sick. She had Parkinson's and cancer. And so I was trying to take care of my three little kids, be a wife, manage all of our properties. While I was doing that, I was working probably 60 hours a week. And I kept telling my boss, I think I'm going to have to quit. My mom needs me more than I need to be here. I've got all these things on my plate. I really think I need to quit. And God bless her, she kept talking me into staying for about two years. We went through this cycle. No, Amanda, don't quit.
I went to part time, and then I was doing part time at home, and they were wonderful. And I loved my job dearly. So it pained me the day that I had to turn in my notice, but it worked out great.
So I actually turned in my notice in early 2020, and that was before COVID was a thing. And because I was a director, I gave a lengthy notice. So by the time I was finished at my job, the kids were home from school. So, of course, I couldn't go back to anything for a good long time. But the rest of 2020, I spent taking care of my mom, who eventually passed away in December. So I have no qualms at all about getting rid of the nine to five, quote unquote, job and taking care of my mom. So that was a wonderful thing. And then, you know, we started building on our real estate portfolio, and that became what we do for a living. And then last year, in 2023, my husband sold his construction company. So now between the two of us, we manage and take care of our properties, and that's what we do for a living.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: And it looks like it's about 50 plus, maybe 60 units for the whole thing, give or take.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah, probably close to it.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Okay. And just this past December, she passed.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: No, December of 2020.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: Okay, so you were a job quitting early adopter, because at the time, this was like, you know, you didn't realize that the whole world was getting ready to quit their job.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: You know, I didn't. I didn't. And, you know, so many real estate investors are looking to quit their job. I loved my job. I had been a nurse all my life. I loved being a nurse. I loved the people that I worked with. I loved our patients. I loved the owners of the company. I loved everything about it. I had no intention of quitting my job. And I did not quit my job to be a real estate investor full time. I quit my job to take care of my mom. And it's just come full circle that now that's what we're doing. And of course, I love it because we have the flexibility to take care of our kids. We've got three kids, and unfortunately, my dad has dementia, so I take care of him as well. So it's worked out that we have the flexibility to do what we need to do and take care of things in our life, but still obviously make money, because that's important too.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. And so what was your take on that? Like, as you. You quit your job and, like, you had no idea, you know, everything's just kind of chugging along like normal, and then the sky fell out and the whole world changed. And then all of a sudden, it probably wasn't. All of a sudden, it was probably, like a year period where everybody was adjusting, and then people just started quitting jobs. And working from home is almost like, just, like, falling like dominoes. Like, I'm not gonna work anymore.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Complete change. And I, of course, was working in the medical field, so before I had, I had put in my notice, and then before I actually quit, Covid started becoming a thing. And of course, you know, we had nurses. We were talking about how to make your own sanitizer and how to fashion your own mask. And I'm like, what world is this in that we're in the medical world, and we're having to, like, come up with our own solutions because you couldn't get supplies. It was wild, and I'm actually very thankful that I got out of it when I did because I have lots of friends that have told me, you know, things just went crazy. Of course, after that, as far as the medical industry goes, and people were just kind of getting worked to death, obviously, there were so many people quitting, and you have to have staffing for patients. Um, so I'm thankful that I quit when I did. I still miss it, but, you know, what I've got going now is way better.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Yeah, um, I agree. So. But, yeah, it was a weird time. Like, almost, like, created all this opportunity, and everybody all of a sudden decided they didn't want to work anymore. And there was, like, entrepreneurial, uh, startups left and right. Start. It started with the masks. I forgot all about that. It was, like, the most masks, the quickest.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Cloth mask. Never thought that was going to be a thing.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. What is your take on that moving forward? Are we getting to a point now where, you know, we're going to look back and say, do you remember those Covid years, or are we just. Is the world never going to be the same? I don't want to beat this Covid horse here, but I'm interested in your perspective.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Well, you know, I do have an interesting perspective because I was a nurse in the medical world, and then I was also a caretaker for my mom maneuvering through all of this. And I know a lot of really wonderful physicians and, you know, techs and nurses, but the medical industry, I could get on a soapbox, and I'm going to try not to. The medical industry has really gone downhill. We are not doing what we need to do for the american people. It's really, really sad. I could tell you story after story about.
I mean, honestly, the hospital would have killed my mom years before had I not had my medical background and been involved with her every step of the way.
I saw a lot of incompetence.
You know, there's no communication in between the departments.
When my mom was first diagnosed with cancer, we took her to a hospital close by, and it's, of course, a teaching hospital, so you have all of the services trying to come in and perform procedures and things to figure out what the problem is. And of course, it's a teaching hospital, so everyone's ready to jump on and do something because that's what they're trying to do. But it's not always best for the patient.
When I took my mom into the hospital for the last time, of course, with it being Covid, I could go with her into the emergency room, but I could not go with her to her room and stay with her, which is what I had always done. She was very hard of hearing, and with her Parkinson, she was very hard to understand. So typically, anyone else trying to talk to my mom, they couldn't understand her. You know, you'd have to get really close. And I. Me and my siblings were kind of the only people that could really understand what she was saying and what she needed. And she just had so many problems with so many things, feeding herself, you know, she walked with the walker, lots of different things. But I always stayed with her in the hospital and took care of her because texts can't always come right away when you need somebody and all these things. Anyways, the last hospital admission, I had to leave her there. And again, I could get really upset about this, but the past is the past. But you know, on a daily basis, the doctor would call me, the nurse would call me, physical therapist and occupational therapist. And every day they kept telling me, mom's doing good. Mom's doing good. We'll probably discharge her in about five days.
She had actually got cancer again because with COVID her getting her maintenance infusion, she couldn't do it. If you didn't have an emergency to be in the hospital, you couldn't go to the hospital because she had cancer. But she was only getting maintenance infusions.
They wouldn't let her come get her maintenance infusion. So in about seven to eight months, her cancer came back and so she started chemotherapy again. She was not tolerating it well, she was losing blood. So she had actually went to the hospital because she was losing blood. But then we found out she had Covid, so she had to go to a special Covid ward, which is where every day these people would call me and tell me, oh, mom's doing good. Mom's doing good.
So I actually, on the day that she was, this is getting into a very long story, and I'm sorry, but the last day that I was going to get her to bring her home, I got all the way up to the hospital with my three kids in the car, prepared to load mom up and take her back home. And her oncologist actually called me, who had not been taking care of her because she was, of course, on the COVID floor with the COVID doctor. So her normal oncologist wasn't seeing her. She just happened to pop in that day and said, amanda, I hear you're taking your mom home. And I said, well, yeah, I think she's been discharged. I'm up here at the hospital now. She said, amanda, your mom's dying. I'm so, like, she's not doing well. I don't know what they've told you. So, of course, plans changed and we had to take mom home on hospice. And she passed away in about three days. It was a wonderful passing. All of the siblings were there. It was calm and beautiful in the house and she was very much ready. But I could get on a soapbox about the medical industry.
So, you know, I think they've got a long way to go. And I think there's so many regulations that the government has put on, that insurance companies have put on. I mean, I saw so many mandates in the hospital about different things that you have to do so that insurance would approve these certain procedures or treatments or whatnot. And it's just not always the best care.
And you have to follow all of these protocols. And we're looking. I think government and insurance and hospital administration is looking at it in a totally different way than they need to be. It's just not good for the american people.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: So wait a minute. You had your three kids and your mother who had cancer, and Covid, and you had no choice. You were going to load her up in the car and possibly infect everybody else with COVID because it was the right thing to do?
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I literally got all the way up to the hospital and I called her nurse to ask if she could bring mom down to the car because I said I had my three kids in the car. And she said, oh, my gosh, I didn't know your mom was going to be discharged. Let me call you back. And so I'm just driving around town waiting for the nurse to call me back. And in the meantime, that's when the oncologist called me, her regular doctor, and said, hey, just popped in on mom. She's actually not doing well at all, which was really.
I had been prepared for her to pass. I saw how sick she had gotten that year. I was really prepared for her to pass, just not necessarily in that way, because I had been told daily by four different providers that mom's doing okay. Mom's doing okay. She'll be going home soon.
So that was really frustrating for me because, again, I'm in the medical field and was very aware of the situation.
Felt like I had been lied to in their defense.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Not that I want to defend anybody during all of this, but it was, you know, during that time, you couldn't get anybody to do anything. It was crazy. I mean, if you wanted to go to the dentist, it took like four months. You know, people had extra money and we're not really working. They had extra money and extra time. And that is what has led to the crappy economy that we're dealing with right now. Really, you know, so, yes, now that's.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Just giving money away like candy.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And then we have more time to spend it because we're all at home and we don't have to drive and commute and all that, you know, so it was a recipe for disaster. And we're still dealing with the aftermath. Thank God it's gone, by the way. Nobody ever talks about that, about the fact that I know happy and healthy. But I will say I called the vet this morning, there's dog right there. And to get an appointment, and I thought that they were going to say, three months to get her in or something.
And they were like, oh, we can take her today. And I'm like, what? So I think things are changing a little.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Fantastic.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: I think things are changing.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Maybe a little too much, but.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: Right. Let's laugh.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Free money's not around anymore, so it's like, hey, let's go get a rescue dog, you know? Like, we've got plenty of money, and we can go take it to the vet whenever we want. That kind of thing seems to. I don't know. That's not great. But it is nice that we can actually get service and people to answer the phone. And I'm seeing the same thing with vendors. I am seeing it with vendors, you know, like electricians, where it used to take six, seven phone calls to get somebody to show up. Now they're a little bit. I don't want to say hungry, but they're kind of starting to get there. And I think that's. That's good. You know, it's good for the overall economy.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: It is.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: What is your take on the insurance situation? You know, here's my problem with. With the way the world is living now, where everybody's trying to quit the job and all that. The health insurance is a problem. It's a problem. Now. Here's why I have a problem with it.
Major problem, okay? Cause, you know, Avery and I are both self employed. So back when I had my day job, we had fantastic corporate insurance. And I would walk in to the doctor, and I'd throw that card down, and they'd be like, oh, this guy gets the royal treatment. He's got the best healthcare that they have.
And now I go in now that I'm wealthy, and I show them this card, which is on my phone. Cause I can't even get a real card. And they're like. They're like, what is this? And I'm like, what do you mean? And she's like, I don't know what this is. I've never seen this before. And I'm like, well, I'm self employed. And then they look at you like, oh, you live under a bridge. You don't have a job.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: One of those.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Yeah, you're one of those. And you're gonna stiff us. We're not gonna get paid for this. So, honestly, it's not even the self. I do want to talk a little bit about self employed insurance, because I'm sure you're on that now, but, like, what's with this stigma of me walking in? Don't you understand that to have self employed health insurance, you're probably that. Those are the cream of the crop people out there. This is what Elon Musk has. You know what I mean?
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Doesn't have corporate insurance. He has. Well, he probably self insures, but, you know, so, like, the crema de crop folks have exactly what I have. Yet when I go in there, I look like I'm. They act like I'm going to rob the place.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. It's terrible. We switched to a, like a shared, it's not really insurance, a shared plan. So, of course, pretty much everything else we basically have to pay for out of pocket. We knew that going into it. It's fine. Yeah. When you. The couple of appointments that I've had this year, they look at the card and, oh, we've, we've never seen this before. You know, they don't know. They don't even know how to put it in their computer.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So welcome to the world of self employed health insurance. This is a thing. It's a thing. It's a plan. It's not actually called insurance. If you, if you're not aware of that out there when you quit your job, this is a thing. And at first, it's not that big a deal. It's a little more expensive. And honestly, if you dig into how much you're paying for your corporate health insurance, it's not as cheap as you think it is. It's pretty expensive. But they just bury it. You know, they bury it in your paycheck and all those fees and things. And I think I went, I may have increased like $200 for the whole family for my corporate insurance back when I had a job. That being said, it's not nearly as good. And everybody looks at me like I'm a criminal. So we can do a whole podcast on that subject. Let's back up. I want to talk about your portfolio. Okay. So we started with these eight single family long terms. Are those in your tiny town in Missouri? You said this sound is only like 100 people.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So we live in Little Hartsburg, Missouri, in between Jeff City and Columbia. So we are about 15 minutes to Jeff City, which is where most of our properties.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: Oh, 15 minutes. Okay.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not bad. So all of our single family homes are in Jeff City. And our commercial real estate property, the retail plaza, that is all in Jeff City.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: Okay, great. So the eight single families you've had for some time, and you like them, you're going to keep them, they're functioning, no problems.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I think we found a good spot to be in the single family homes. We feel like really tend to do a lot better. I think the kind of tenants that we can bring in, they typically stay with us for a really long time. They typically keep the place pretty decent. There's not a lot of damage and or cleaning that we have to do. When they do finally vacate, they really treat it as their home. And of course, you can get, you know, optimal dollar when you have a single family home.
We don't have, you know, the yards to take care of and those kind of things like you would if you had a multifamily or townhome, something like that.
And so we've. We've had them for long enough where we're finally able to really start making some pretty good money. You know, when you first start off, you're really not making much when you have a long term single family house.
But that was okay. You know, we're in this for the long game. We're not in it to jump in and jump out. So they work well, and we plan to keep them.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. So then we move in, and they do have yards, but the tenants take care of them, I think, is what you.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Tenants take care of all that? Yep.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Yep. So then we get into the 24 unit commercial. That's a big jump from eight. Eight single families to a 24 unit.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: You're telling me. I thought my husband was crazy when he proposed this. There ain't no way we can do that.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: It's retail or what is it?
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's retail.
And again, this one was a little. It's a little odd because there's not many other retail plazas in Jeff City that are full and seem to do well.
We actually did some renovation on it. It was an older property. Again, the people that owned it before us were looking to retire, so we went through, did a lot of cosmetic work on it to update it, and it's completely full. That's actually. That one's kind of our bread and butter. That one brings us in probably the majority of our profits. And for the most part, we really don't have many headaches as far as tenants or maintenance issues on that property.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: How many of the 24 were occupied when you took it, when you purchased it?
[00:24:36] Speaker B: I think so. In 2019. Earlier that year, in May, we actually had a tornado that came through, and it just barely missed that plaza. This was before we owned it. It just barely missed that plaza. But it did have a little bit of damage. But because there were a lot of other damage around town. There were businesses that moved into that plaza right before we took over, so I think there was maybe one. No, I think there was two or three open units when we purchased that. But we've pretty well been full. Of course, we've had a couple of changes. So you have, you know, a month in between tenants here and there, but we've pretty much been full since we've owned it in 2019.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: What's the. Does it have an anchor unit or what is the big unit?
[00:25:21] Speaker B: The big unit is actually a liquor store.
It's the. I would say it's probably about three times what the others units are. But it's got a driveway that comes through. It's in a really nice location of town. It's a high traffic area that kind of leads out to another kind of suburb of Jeff City. It's a well used area there that we get a lot of traffic. And we have a variety of businesses in there. We have the liquor store, of course. We've got a hair salon. We've got a YOGA studio. We've got a jujitsu studio.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Are there any of them franchise, or are they all local?
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Yeah, most of them are local, which I actually prefer because it's really hard to find people that you need to touch base with when you're looking to renew a lease of when it's a franchise business. So we have a couple of, like, payday loan places that were there before we bought it, and those were the only franchises that we have there. Everything else is all local businesses.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: And you're doing the tenant placing and the rent collections and the maintenance and everything?
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Yes. So we have no property managers. My husband and I manage all of our properties ourselves.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Good for you.
Are you getting much turnover on this? How many would you say have turned over on the 24 unit? How many units have come and gone?
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Not many. We have. We had, I would say, maybe five to seven businesses that have left since we purchased it, and we just get a new one to come right back in.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: And would you say that's mostly due to location, the quality of the building or the management?
[00:27:10] Speaker B: There's been a couple of businesses that I. There was one, our most recent one, that vacated. They started kind of a specialty business, and I just don't think that Jeff City was the right location for it, and they didn't do well, and they had a early, early lease termination clause in there, so they were able to get out of their lease after a short time because usually the commercial plaza, our leases are longer than it would be at, like, you know, our long term rental houses.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Like how long? Two years, five years?
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Three to five. We try to do it. Three to five.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: And what was this business, if you don't mind?
[00:27:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a like, international food store.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Did you, can you see it coming? Can you tell which businesses are going to make it and which ones aren't?
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Yes, usually, yes. Now we really haven't had a difficult time in getting rents from our people, though. We do not chase rent for the most part.
There's one tenant that I've honestly been waiting for several years knowing that I just don't know how they're sustaining themselves, but they still pay their rent and they're still there and they're still hanging on.
But the rest of them, you know, you kind of, you kind of see, or you can kind of start if once they start telling you things, you see that like, oh, they may out of this. And for the most part, you generally are not surprised when someone says they're going to be leaving.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So 24 unit, fantastic. Great job there.
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Then we get the vacation house, which is on the lake. And what, what brought that about? You just, were just shopping on zillow one day and said, I love this house, or how did that go?
[00:29:28] Speaker B: No.
Well, again, when you're in real estate, you're always kind of looking for what's on the market. What's the next thing?
And I had been wanting a lake house. We're avid boaters. Our kids love to boat. We usually go out on the river. But I thought, you know, this would be great to have a lake house. We could use it some ourselves. As most people that own a short term rental home typically do. You buy in an area that you love. You like to vacation yourself so you know you're going to use it. So that's what we were looking for. And my husband actually found this home. It was posted on Facebook, of all places. And it was an older couple that were, she was actually sick and they were looking to move closer back home so that they could be close to family.
Um, and so we got a pretty good deal on it, which, you know, later, had we waited five months, we probably would have paid $200,000 more for the house than when we put our offer on it, just because that's how crazy, obviously, real estate in general went. But at the lake of the Ozarks, I mean, over the course of two years, real estate probably doubled, um, in prices. It. It was crazy, and it's still crazy. Things are staying on the market longer, but there's still really, really expensive. So we immediately got tons of equity on that property, and that was great. So we've owned that since 2020.
And, you know, the people that are coming and the time frames that they're booking, it's changed almost every year, but it's sustaining itself really well. We still get. Use it for our personal family. And actually, last winter, my husband did some renovations, so it looks wonderful now. And we were able to pay for it, obviously, with the money that we've made so far on it. So we've equity even more.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Yes. 200 grand in equity in five months. Now, isn't it not much fun to be in real estate when everybody's making a ton of money, you know?
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Everybody's grumpy. Everybody's grumpy and mad. This was supposed to be such an amazing investment. All my forefathers made hundreds of thousands of dollars in six months doing nothing, and that's what I was looking to get into. And now it's reality. And everybody's, you know, angry and grumpy.
Just gotta stick in there. And I do think there's gonna be a long game. It is 100%. And I think there is gonna be a period of time when I'm old and even more gray, and people are gonna say, luke, where did you get all this money? And I'm gonna say, I bought real estate before COVID and I. And there'll be another.
There'll be a whole nother Covid by then. You know, there'll be a whole nother weird thing that nobody ever dreamed would ever happen. And then we'll have a new crop of people that say, I bought real estate before such and such.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: You know, I know it's the roller coaster ride of life in real estate, and, you know, you just got to live through all of the ups and downs of it, and eventually, you're going to come out.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: All right, so talk to me about the management of this lake of the Ozarks house. Was that easy to slide into? Obviously, it's a little different with no leases. Did you find it to be, I know you're in our Facebook group, so you've done some research at least. And did you find it to be a pretty simple transition or can you talk on that?
[00:32:47] Speaker B: It was simple, but I think I was trying to make it way more difficult than it needed to be and everybody else.
Right. So I kind of learned the hard way. But, you know, now once you get all of your automatic messages and your check in them and all of your calendars synced up, so there was a lot of work on the front end. Of course, you know when you're setting up the property and you're trying to plug it into all the platforms. But once we got it going, it's really, it's, it's been pretty smooth sailing.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: So soon, so smooth, in fact, that you decided to roll right into a hotel of sorts with this, this resort. Tell me about the resort. What is it exactly? Is it in the same area?
[00:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So they're about 30 minutes from each other. So still on Lake of the O's, but two different sides of it. The lake is very big. There's more shoreline of the lake of the Ozarks that it, than the state of California. So it's a very large lake. So we bought on the other side of the lake. And you know me and all of my infinite wisdom, I found this property and I told my husband, oh, we've got the one lake house, and it's kind of set. It's good to go. So this will just be like another 15 lake houses? It'll be fine.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: What does it look like? Describe it to me. Do I drive into a front desk situation or what does it look like?
[00:34:14] Speaker B: So that's been no and yes at the same time. So my vision was this was going to be more Airbnb style of cabins at a resort where you had all the amenities. Well, the people, our guests that come to resort quickly schooled me that that was not how they were going to do this. And they need a lot of assistance while they're there on different things. They have questions. They have the guests. You're talking about different needs.
The guests, yes. And I honestly, this, it kind of perplexes me all of the time, and I haven't been able to nail down what the difference is. At our lake home, I have the same information that I provide. I have guidebooks. I send information before they come. I have checkout information, check in information, everything they would need. And our guest at the lake house, check in, check out you don't really hear from him. If you do, it may just be a random question here or there.
And then at the resort, I could have 20 questions from one guest about one reservation. It's vastly different, the types of guests that we get in each one. So we had been managing remotely for that property until this year. We actually have a little store that we started, a little general store, and so we've had someone on site more this year, which has been great for me to have someone on site that I'm not, you know, constantly answering questions and having to try and maneuver help for our guests there. And that's been wonderful.
But, you know, again, you've got different problems when you have a resort. So, you know, we have lots of family reunions that will come, and they will book the whole property, and that's wonderful. And I love to see the family reunions still come. They're my favorite. I love that families still travel together.
But, you know, each cabin has patio tables and chairs outside of each cabin. They will move them everywhere around the resort to suit what they need, and that's fine. But then they leave, and it takes us two days to put the property back together.
So it's different, and it's been much more difficult to manage than I thought we were going to have. There's been damage to the property, and because there's so many people that come at the same time who don't really know always, if it's not in a cabin, you don't know who to charge because you have no idea who did the damage.
We had teenagers that were walking on a roof. We've got a fish house that is on a dock, so it's actually on the lake that's got a hole cut out so that you can do the crappie fishing and stuff inside of this enclosed fish house. And we had teenagers. They've dented up our tin roof, and.
Yeah, so you have to look at all of. There's. There's a lot of different things that come with owning a bigger property like this. Fun and amazing. And we've really increased the equity when we bought it, the people that owned it before us, it's. It's a 1940s is when the cats were all built. So it's the. The dam was created to build the lake of the Ozarks by 1930, I think, is when it was completed. And so these cabins were built shortly thereafter, and they had had very little renovation over the years, so they were all really in dire need of being updated. So we still owned the construction company at the time, so my husband's construction company. We went into every single cabin, renovated inside, renovated outside, got new furniture for everything.
We added a swimming pool, brought in kayaks and paddleboards.
Just really did a lot of improvements to the property. So, again, it's a long game. We will win in the end. We've done a lot of work on that property, and I've really gained a lot of equity, but it's been a lot of work along the way. A lot of work.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: And even with the front desk person, it's making a little bit of a profit or breaking even. And you're happy with it?
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really kind of just breaking even. It's not a big money maker, but it is. It was needed. It was needed for me to not have to be so tied to thousands of phone calls a day from guests.
[00:38:51] Speaker A: How did you find this?
[00:38:52] Speaker B: They needed someone on site.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: How did you find the front desk person? What does that interview process look like?
[00:38:59] Speaker B: Oh, it was awful.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Honestly, it's hard to find people, and. And because the lake is so seasonal. I mean, really, we're closed from December 1 through March 14 every year, and we open back up again on March 15. So with it being so seasonal, it's hard to find somebody. You have lots of college kids that come down for the summer, but they're usually bartending or waitressing and making good money, not working at a little, you know, mom and pop resort for a handful of hours every week. So.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Wait a minute. Hold on. So this place is closed for how many months? Five, four months a year?
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Three and three. Two and a half. No, three and a half. December, January, February, and half of March, which is great, because that gives me time to, you know, I pay our taxes, which, of course, when you own your own businesses, takes you, like, 800 years and just get caught up on processes and procedures and cleaning up the website and all of those things.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: So that was my next question. How are they finding you? It's all through a website? Website?
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Yeah. When we first started, well, that was another thing with the property. It was mom and pop owned and operated, and they were still taking paper reservations. So when we bought it, you know, I had to start with sourcing reservation software. And they had a website, but it was very, very minimal. It was just like a one page. Hey, we're kind of a glorified campsite. Call us if you want to make a reservation. So we had to start fresh with all of that. So I built our website and sourced the best reservation software I thought would be for us. So we got all that on board and then we integrated with Airbnb, Expedia, Vrbo, all of those. And honestly, this year we have very, very little booking through any other channels. It's, I would say, 98% direct booking. So I've actually done a lot of Facebook advertising, sponsored posts and such.
And then I've also done our local visitor and conventions bureau. They've got a great website, and so I do a little bit of advertising from them. And then I also post to the local Facebook, like Lake of the Ozarks Facebook group. And I think that's where most of our interest has come from.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: What. What's the foundation on these properties?
[00:41:31] Speaker B: What do you mean?
[00:41:32] Speaker A: In other words, is it a basement? Is it.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: Oh, the physical foundation foundation? Um, no, they. None of them have a basement. They're all. I honestly don't even know. I would imagine just cement walls. Um, until you get. Yeah, I don't. I don't think there's.
[00:41:50] Speaker A: But they're not, uh, mobile homes. They're.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: Well, there. So there are two that are modular homes.
I absolutely hate those.
And I am dying to get them out and put in some different cabins there.
But they paid them.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Why? Just because of the maintenance?
[00:42:10] Speaker B: No, because I don't think they look the best.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Uh huh. Um, but the guests haven't complained or said anything?
[00:42:18] Speaker B: No. And I mean, I've got tons of pictures, but of course, you don't want to put on the website. Hey, this is a mobile home, which they're not. They're modular homes, but still kind of the same. The same difference. But no, we've not had anyone that came and complained. They actually like them because they're larger than the cabin. So if you have more people in your party, you just have more space and still the same amenities. And I don't. I don't. I was. I was initially thinking I would be able to charge the same amount for those as I do our lake house, because you have the amenities as the difference. The amenities that we have at the resort is far better than the amenities that we offer at the lake house, obviously. So I thought that would be, you know, the difference that. I know you're renting a trailer, but we have all these amenities.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: But I've had to tailor that down so that I can get them rented because I just had my.
[00:43:15] Speaker A: This property is fascinating me, much more so than this, the retail center, but the. Cause that's kind of cut and dry. Right. You know, but, yeah, of course. How are you pricing it? Are you, are you, do you have prices on a website? Are you even on Verbo?
[00:43:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we're on verbo and we're on Airbnb and we're on Expedia. But again, I don't get many bookings from there anymore because almost everything is coming directly through my website, which, of course, is great all through Facebook.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: And so are you pricing this thing with beyond or price labs or something or. No.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: No, I'm not. It has been a, I am always looking at our competitors in the market down here, but we have a very different resort. Most of the resorts down here at the lake are still, they're still very outdated, and that's fine because they can keep their prices low, but we have a much better product to offer our guests, and so obviously our prices reflect that. I also, as I was used to with our lake house, charge cleaning fees. And so we have cleaning fees for all of the cabins and houses. And the first year that people started booking with us, all of our guests, about how to come apart because of the cleaning fee, no other resort around here charges a cleaning fee. Oh, my gosh. Heavens to Betsy. What is this? And, you know, now, three years later, I don't have anyone that complains about the cleaning fee. I don't think any of the other resorts in the area still do it, but it's working for me. I do have a third party cleaning company that does all of our turnover cleanings, and so that just helps me keep it cut and dry. I know how much they charge me. I charge my guests absolutely nothing more than what the cleaning company charges me. So that just, I get paid for the cleaning fee and I pass it on to our cleaning company. We also supply a lot of the things that other resorts down here don't supply, you know, linens, including bath sheets and bath towels and all those things. There's a lot of resorts down here that do not supply bath towels and washcloths and those kinds of things. We supply toilet paper and paper towels and, you know, dish soap and all those.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: How does the cleaner work? Is this cleaner self sufficient within your property, or are they working for other people? How does that work?
[00:45:43] Speaker B: No, I have a cleaning company, so they actually have a number of cleaners that come and they, they manage all of the turnover cleans. I still go in and do the deep cleanings. I usually do it in the spring time, and then I try and do a little bit of a deep clean in the summer and then again in the fall. I like to also inventory cabins, because it's unbelievable how many things walk away from a cabin. I just found a cabin the other day that sleeps eight people, and there were three butter knives. I'm thinking, where did the butter knives go? Why is there only three butter knives in here? You know? So that's still good for me to go in and do those deep cleans, because I really get to look at different things that the cleaners don't always communicate. Um, but, yeah, they manage all of the turnover cleans.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Okay. And so you're saying that when the new season starts, you're going to find a new front desk person. I would imagine this person is not hanging around for four months doing nothing.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: Well, so this. This is. This has become interesting. As of late, it was very difficult for me to find someone to come on board with us, and I had a number of people that were so interested, and then they fell off, and they never came for an interview, or they messaged me 15 minutes before the interview and said, oh, we've found something else. We're no longer interested.
I finally got a retired person that had shown interest, came on. They worked with me. And then last week, out of nowhere, honestly, she texted me and said she was quitting. Just out of nowhere? No, she was supposed to work that afternoon, and she was just done. But I have another lady named Jill who came on several months ago, and Jill is one of those people that you. We brought her on, gave her training, and she's really taken the bull by the horns. She's doing a lot more than I ever expected of her. She's trying to figure out problems on her own.
As a business owner, that is so invaluable to have an employee that just goes and figures it out. I don't know what's happened that there seems so few people that just go and figure out the problem and find a solution without coming to the manager multiple times over and over again. But Jill's a self starter. She's very motivated. She loves the job. She loves what she's doing. She loves to be there.
So my husband and I are actually, we proposed to her a couple days ago for her to be the reservation manager, where she would be communicating with all of the guests, managing all of the reservations. It sounds very cut and dry, but, you know, again, I could have a guest that we're pet friendly at our resort in certain cabins only. And so I might have a guest that says, oh, we're going to be bringing our dog. Can you add that pet fee on? And I say, okay, yeah, I'll add that pet fee on, and then two months later, oh, my dog died. Can you take that pet fee off? Okay, yeah, I'll take that off. Oh, I want to change cabins. I mean, it's, again, it is different what these guests at the resort need, and they need a lot. We have about 400 reservations that we manage in a season. And, you know, even if you have a number of them that have multiple different questions, you've got a lot of communications. And so it's. If I'm doing that, I answer hundreds of emails and phone calls and voicemails, and then on our website, we have a chat bot. So people get on there a lot and say, oh, I've got this quick question. And it's a lot of communication. So if Jill can manage the reservations and take care of our guests and make sure all the reservations have what we need, the cleaning company is alerted of certain things. I think that will really alleviate a lot off of my plates that I can dig into more of operational marketing. How can I make this property more profitable, bring more people in, maximize our profits, and all of those things? So I'm looking forward to that. I think that's going to be a big change.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: All right, Jill.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: In a good way.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: I'm pulling for you, Jill. Let's make this thing work.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Right. Go, Jill.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
All right. Now we move on. The saga continues to the hotel. You got a little. You got a little nine unit motel. Is that a recent acquisition there? What's the story there?
[00:50:15] Speaker B: That one's just two months old in our portfolio. So that's the newest baby and so on location.
That one's in Herman, Missouri. So it's not at the lake. It's a different location. Hermon, Missouri, is about an hour south of Jeff city. It sits along the Missouri river. It's beautiful. Wine country, rolling hills. It's an old german established town. There's no. Well, I say no. There is a subway and there's a tractor supply. And other than that, there are no franchised businesses there at all. All of the buildings are beautiful, historic buildings.
It's a heavy tourist town, so there's lots of wonderful wineries that people come and visit. And October is the big season. There's a big October fest every October. Every weekend there is OctobeR Fest, and it is packed. My husband and I have been vacationing, vacationing weekending in Herman for years. And we love Herman. We were there in the fall, and I said, oh, wouldn't it be fun to own something down here? It's so beautiful. So I had looked on different things on Zillow and realtor.com and that kind of thing. Well, because I looked at those, you have your settings kind of in there. And so zillow or realtor.com will message you, hey, this property is new on the market and these places that you look at. And one night, I had just got into bed, and I got an alert on my phone that says, oh, new property in Herman. And so I just happened to flick into it. I don't always, but that night I did, and the first thing that popped up was this amazingly beautiful property, riverfront property. And I said, oh. Oh, my gosh. I clicked into it, and I start looking through all the pictures, and I said, robbie, robbie, we've got to see this property. It's fantastic.
And we went and looked at it two days later and made an offer the next day. And so that one is the newest one. That's two months into our portfolio.
[00:52:24] Speaker A: Wait a minute. Let's talk about it. Nine units, nine keys, we should say. And. Sounds like a pretty good location. What, what. What vintage is this thing? How old is it, and what did it cost?
[00:52:35] Speaker B: It's really, really old. It's actually two buildings put together. One was an old bar slash saloon, and one was an old hotel.
One building was 1858, and I think the other one was 1849, maybe they're very old, about 150 plus years.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: This would not even have been a stuff. Was Missouri even a state in 1849?
[00:53:02] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: I don't think so.
[00:53:04] Speaker B: I have no idea. But german settlers were in Herman anyway, so that's. That's all they needed. But there's a lot of history in the property. There was a.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: Yes. Sorry.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: 1821, Missouri became a state. So you go, the state beat this hotel by 20 years.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: Not much.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: Not much.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: But, yeah, this property is in an absolutely amazing location. It's right downtown Herman. So it's walking distance to distilleries and breweries and restaurants and boutiques and live music venues and wineries. It sits right on the riverfront. So you've got riverfront views on four of our rooms, the back five or courtyard views. We've got a nice courtyard in the back.
It's right along the train station also. So we have people that take the Amtrak from St. Louis or Kansas City. They get dropped off nearly at our front door and can walk right over there.
And.
[00:54:09] Speaker A: Which. Hold on. Again, I should mention, I seem to be a lot of midwesterners drawn to the show here, because I am a midwesterner myself. I'm from a tiny little town in Nebraska, and it's funny. Cause I had a little more history lesson. Nebraska did not become a state until 1867. So your building has. Yeah. First of all, your state is way older than mine, even though they're each other. And this hotel is older than my state, which is crazy.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: Isn't that funny?
[00:54:38] Speaker A: But I do love the midwestern thing. Where'd you go to college, by the way? Off on a tangent here.
[00:54:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So I went to college two different times. I actually. The first time I went to the University of Missouri in Columbia.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:50] Speaker B: And I started off with every intention of being a realtor and owning a real estate company, but I just wanted.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: You'd be good at that. You would be good at that.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Right? I know. Isn't that funny? So I wanted some education to back myself up. So I went to you for four years and actually ended up graduating with a just regular old business management degree. Who's your.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: What I'm getting at here is who's your football team? Who's your husband's football team?
[00:55:19] Speaker B: Well, he did not go to Mu, though, so we. We do like the Mu football Tigers. Or not football tigers, but mu Tigers. We are big football fans, of course. Kansas City Chiefs fans.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: Okay. But, yeah, college, so you're Mizzou fans. You're.
Okay. Got it. All right. I just like to know where I stand here as a corn husker, and I gotta bring that up every chance I get because my team is terrible, of course. But anyway, a lot of changes for your team in the past few years there. Okay.
[00:55:52] Speaker B: Oh, yes.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: Let's get back on track. This nine key hotel motel, what did it cost?
[00:55:58] Speaker B: It cost 1.2. It was listed for 1.3.
But the people that owned it, they were just retiring and looking to spend more time with their grandkids and their age parents.
And when it was listed, there wasn't really an appraisal.
You could tell in talking to their realtor that there wasn't a lot of information to back up why they put it on the market for that price.
So my husband and I just tried to dig into the numbers a little bit. My husband is more of the numbers guy than I am. So he started digging into what the potential was looking at. Air, DNA, and those kinds of things. So the inn is nine rooms, but the former owners, it's a man and woman, man and wife, and they live about 30 minutes from the inn. So when they hosted guests, they would come to the inn and stay on site. While they had guests there. So they had one room completely reserved for their personal use while people were staying. So we are not doing that. So now we have an extra room that we can rent out on top of utilizing some other resources that they didn't do. They only had a direct booking website and they didn't utilize Airbnb or any of these other platforms. They were on the local visitor and convention bureau page and I think they got quite a bit from that also. So we're trying to set ourselves up to be in a couple different areas and get some other guests from different avenues in the door.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: Okay, so where are we at with this property now? Is it being renovated? How long have you owned it?
[00:57:45] Speaker B: So we've only owned it for two months. And the beauty of this one, the resort, was a full renovation. Took us over a year to get everything fully completed. And of course, we're still working on at the inn. They had already done all of the hard work. They tore it down to studs and renovated everything. New furniture, new walls, all of that. It's an absolutely beautiful property. It's more of a luxurious boutique style. The rooms are very sizable. They have jetted tubs, gas fireplaces, king size beds, all of those goodies that, you know, give you a nice luxurious feel.
[00:58:26] Speaker A: Okay. And what was the purchase price on that thing?
[00:58:29] Speaker B: That was 1.2.
[00:58:30] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. Very, you know, this is pricey property for nine units.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: It's a pricey property.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Pretty nice, I would imagine, this thing.
[00:58:40] Speaker B: It's. Yes, it's very nice.
[00:58:42] Speaker A: How are we managing this? Is it on Airbnb? Are you mostly Facebook?
That kind of thing?
[00:58:48] Speaker B: So we are, we finally got everything connected to Airbnb on our reservation software. But again, we are getting mostly direct bookings. I think that they have a lot of repeat guests that come year after year. They've been there before. They had a great experience. They love it. They come back again. So that's fantastic. Facebook, I've not been very active on it yet. I have sent out some emails to the past guests through our reservation software reminding them that we're there.
And I think the local visitors website also does a lot in getting a lot of people in and looking at their website and you can set it up so that they can book directly from your site there on the convention and Visitors bureau website. So that kind of works nice because they just get transferred directly to your website to book.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: And how do you manage software wise, the apartments?
I'm sorry, the apartments, the hotels.
[00:59:51] Speaker B: So that's all. I use reservation software that's called ResNexus. I actually use it for both the resort and the inn. And it's nice because it's just one login and I can toggle in between the properties and customize it to what I need each property to look like and have and offer and all of those things. And I really like the software. It's done great for managing both of those properties.
And what about pricing for the reservation software?
[01:00:21] Speaker A: Yes. No, no, I'm sorry, your nightly rates.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: Okay. Yes. So at the end are nightly rates for a riverfront suite, which of course offers a riverfront view. The gas fireplaces, the jetted tubs, those are 300 a night. And then the courtyard suites which don't obviously offer a riverfront view. And they also don't have a jetted tub. They're dollar 250 a night.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: And it's the same rate all year. All the time.
[01:00:51] Speaker B: Right now, yes. So the previous owners, that's how they had it set up. And I'm honestly just waiting to see how that works for the first several months before I change anything with it.
[01:01:06] Speaker A: Okay.
What is, what do you like better, the long terms or the short terms?
[01:01:15] Speaker B: Both have goods and bads. The long terms, you know, we make, we're starting to finally make decent money on those.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: A couple years, right? Like two, three, four years.
[01:01:26] Speaker B: I mean, it's, it's been almost probably 13 to 14 years since we started with our first one. So yeah, we're just now to the point where we've got eight of them. So altogether we're making pretty good money on them. So that's nice. And honestly, maintenance wise, they're not bad. Our tenants. We don't have to chase after money again. We have the single family homes and I think for the most part, we bring in better tenants that really treat it like their own space and their own home and stay for years. So those are, they're almost self sufficient. They're just so easy.
I say that and I'm going to jinx myself and we're going to have a tenant leave. But those are easy. But as far as long term gainshead, obviously our bigger properties are just. We've got so much more potential. It's a slow start to get your guests on the, on the calendar and your repeat guests coming year after year. But at the resort, I would say we've already probably added at least a million dollars in equity from the amount of people that we've brought in and the renovations that we did to the property. So when you look at it long term, that in the end is really going to be where we're going to, where we're going to get our biggest bang for the buck. But the long terms are just so easy.
[01:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it can be a pain in the rear end every now and then, but it's a whole different thing where, you know, you're not really at the mercy of reviews. And the expectations are so high on the overnight rentals where they.
[01:03:03] Speaker B: Absolutely a lot on the line there.
[01:03:05] Speaker A: It's lights, camera, action. It's like when they, when they show up, it's lights, camera, action. The whole thing needs to be ready to rock. And otherwise it's, you got a bunch of bridezillas with a rainy, rainy wedding day on your hands. Yeah.
[01:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's. I mean, you can have tons of five star reviews, amazing guests, and there can be one that comes along and they're just the one that makes you wonder why on earth you're doing this for a living. You know, we had a guest a couple weeks ago that came to our lake house, and we've had no complaints for anything all season long. And she proceeded to send me probably 25 pictures of what she thought were things wrong in the house that she just wanted documented, that she didn't do it.
And probably 15 of those were little gaps in vinyl plank flooring that's out in a sunroom. So, you know, expanding and contracting in a sunroom with the weather. That's pretty normal. But she, she sent me lots of little pictures of the cracks and the flooring. And you just think, who? Some people you don't know, but, you know, there's lots of great ones that come, too, and gotta be thankful for those.
[01:04:20] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Love my guests. Love them, love them, love them. Even when they're horrible. I had one recently where.
I had one recently where they was a 4 July week was after the fourth, but it was heavy, you know, heavy dollar week. Yeah, they, they showed up with the h vac not working, and we offered them. It's a long story that, you know, you've heard it a hundred times, but then we offered them a full refund. They declined it. Then we offered them $800 for their trouble. Basically one night I five $6,000 reservation, and they declined that as well. And that's where I got skeptical. And then they started to ignore us. And so we got a bad review, obviously, even though we did have the h vac fixed in like 9 hours or something.
[01:05:06] Speaker B: Oh, well, that's impeccable.
[01:05:08] Speaker A: Right? And it was a weekend holiday weekend.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: Always happens on the weekends.
[01:05:13] Speaker A: Always happens on the weekends. That's my new motto. And so we got a bad review, which is still up, still working with it. They've declined taking it down three times now, and they did a charge back on their credit card. So it's pretty good chance I will make no money. And I got a bad review. So welcome to the world. The short term.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: Oh, those burn you bad.
[01:05:34] Speaker A: Meanwhile, I'm sitting here like, well, hello, vrbo. If I'm not getting paid and I'm getting a bad review, why am I doing this?
[01:05:41] Speaker B: Exactly.
[01:05:42] Speaker A: What's the point here?
[01:05:43] Speaker B: I'm in this to make money, and it's so frustrating.
[01:05:46] Speaker A: Anyway, okay, we got about 60 units, give or take.
What's your future look like? Where are we taking this thing? Are we happy?
How do we find happiness in all this nonsense?
[01:05:59] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Isn't that the daily question?
I don't know. To be honest with you, we were not really set to buy another property before we bought the inn. My husband and I absolutely love Key West, Florida. It's our favorite place. We've vacationed there many, many times over the last number of years, and I had always had that on my mind. We wanted to buy a house in Key West, Florida. I've talked to several realtors, and there's just too many. Too many factors that I don't feel comfortable with. So we had kind of tabled doing anything else, and then this amazing end came across my phone one night when I was getting ready to go to bed, and there we are. So, you know, I'm not really sure I know that, you know, if I can get this reservation manager off and going, I think that's.
[01:06:50] Speaker A: Jill. Was it? Was it Jill?
[01:06:52] Speaker B: You got it.
[01:06:53] Speaker A: Go, Jill.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: I know. Go, Jill. I'm so excited about this. So I'm hoping that if I can get a lot of the day to day. You know how it is, the day to day stuff bogs you down so much that you can't look at any of the big picture stuff that really makes a difference in what you're working towards. So I'm really hopeful that getting Jill on and getting the day to day things transferred over to her, I can work more on making everything that we have more efficient. We have a lot of opportunity in both the commercial plaza that we own and at the resort to EXPAnd with additional buildings and cabins on both of those properties. So we're looking at how to, you know, get the most out of the properties that we already have also.
And that just takes time and planning and thought and talking to your husband about what this looks like. What do we need to do? Where do we start? All of these things? And when you're so bogged down with all the day to day stuff, you just don't have time for those. So I'm looking forward to having time to thinking more about what this all entails and putting that into action.
[01:08:04] Speaker A: Ever feel like sometimes I feel like my life is like Tetris, my business life is like a game of Tetris, except for analogy. It's almost like the reverse. I feel like I'm, like building up this thing to get to the top, and then all the pieces start to crumble down, and then I have to find the piece, the right piece to fill in the hole and build it back up again.
[01:08:23] Speaker B: Right?
[01:08:24] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[01:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:26] Speaker A: It is hard.
[01:08:27] Speaker B: A house of cards. That's what we call it, a house of cards.
[01:08:30] Speaker A: It is. It is. But you got the kids. The kids. That's. That's what it's all about, right?
[01:08:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's great because I have so much flexibility in my schedule. I have four kids in the house right now, and you would never know it, but we get to spend lots of times together. And, you know, we've got them working at the resort, and the boys are cutting firewood, and my girls helped me set up the general store, and we're putting them to work and showing them what you can get out of life when you do it. A little bit different than any of the conventional ways that we're taught to go about it.
[01:09:03] Speaker A: Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, listen, this has been fantastic. I really enjoyed your company.
How do we find you? Do you? Maybe you don't want to be found. I don't know.
[01:09:14] Speaker B: You know, I'm really active on all of the social media platforms, but not as much personally. I try to keep that to a minimum. So I'm a good example for my kids because I'm a little bit anti social media and how much people throw out there, especially with kids and teenagers and all those things. But I have a website, amandabax.com. i'm on there. It's actually a travel blog website that I started years ago, and it's kind of morphed into a thousand other different things. But any way that you can get a hold of me is on there.
[01:09:45] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful. Well, I appreciate your time. I really thank you and appreciate it as usual. Don't overthink it.
