HORROR Story: How This "Perfect" STR Cost Him Big...

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What's up, guys?
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Welcome back to another episode of the Vacation Rental Revolution podcast.
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I'm your host, Sean Moore.
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We're back with another episode of Expert Corner, my favorite interviews every single week.
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We get to talk to short-term rental investors willing to share the good, the bad, the ugly of short-term rental investing so that we can all walk into this game with our eyes wide open.
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Today, we have the pleasure of talking to Mr. John Price.
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And so, John, I appreciate you joining me.
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Glad to be here.
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Awesome.
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Glad to have you.
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And so we're going to have a fun conversation just talking about your journey into short-term rental investing.
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But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of the investing journey, I'd love to hear the backstory.
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I'd love to start with where you're from, what pays the bills, and what got you interested in short-term rentals in the first place.
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Okay.
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Well, let's see how far to go back.
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I was born and raised in central Ohio in a small farm town.
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I've actually had three very distinct careers post grad school.
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I was in the fitness industry for a decade.
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My master's is in exercise physiology.
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I worked in worksite health promotion and the commercial upscale health club sides of the industry.
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Then I owned my own brand marketing company for about a decade.
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sold that, and then went back to my biology roots and joined a good friend of mine who's a brilliant senior scientist.
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And we developed a biotech company supplying biospecimen to industrial scientists doing disease cure research.
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And that was my last career.
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And I was blessed to be able to retire early at age 56, right at the end of 2019.
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So I missed having to work during COVID.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Great timing.
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That was just dumb luck.
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So that's kind of my life journey.
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And I got really interested in investing.
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I've always been good about saving and putting money away in mutual funds and things like that.
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But I got very interested in individual company investing about two years before I retired.
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And ever since I retired, that's been my part-time passion hobby, where I spend a lot of my time and energy.
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And getting into short-term rental was just another way to think about diversification.
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Right, right.
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Awesome.
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Yeah.
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So, so not a ton of, tons of background with, with investing in that.
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It sounds like more companies than real estate originally.
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And then kind of looking more at the real estate side was, was short-term rentals your first venture into real estate outside of like personal assets and personal homes?
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Correct.
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Correct.
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Yeah.
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Awesome.
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So when was that?
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When did you start doing it?
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So actually, it got on my radar probably in late 21.
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And then I caught some of your early podcasts in 2022.
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And pretty much just followed you from the background for most of 2022.
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And then I joined Vodacy in late 2022 when...
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You know, I knew based really based on your teaching and prompting, I really felt like, yeah, this is something I've got the time, the energy, the interest, mostly the time and the interest to do.
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And, you know, you guys laid out a beautiful playbook.
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Are you still based in Ohio?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So, so Ohio is still home.
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And so we started getting in and I always love to know the timeline because based on the timeline, we kind of know the interest rate environment and the price environment and the inventory environment that you, that you entered the game in and, and,
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All three of those were not necessarily in your favor when you started buying these properties and added this to the portfolio, right?
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No.
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And one place I owe you a lot of thanks is when I first started getting into this, I got to live in the mountains of Colorado for about seven years.
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And that's still where my wife and I have a vision to return back out to the Mountain West.
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It doesn't necessarily have to be Colorado, but somewhere going out back West.
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So when I started thinking about short-term rentals, my first choice was the Mountain Markets.
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But of course, by 2022, COVID had been around for a couple of years by then.
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And everybody, once their boss told them, I don't care where you work, you know, you don't have to come to the office anymore.
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The mountain markets have never been inexpensive, but they just got stupid.
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But thanks to the Vodesee playbook, I was able to run the numbers in a smart way and figured out the math doesn't math.
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There was no way I could make the math work in those markets, which was my first choice.
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So I really, I tore apart Steamboat Springs.
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I tore apart Breckenridge, a couple of my favorite places.
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Yeah, again, the math just couldn't math.
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So I switched to plan B, which was something else that I knew a little bit about because I'd been to the bourbon trail maybe a half dozen times in my life.
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Always enjoyed it as a tourism experience.
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And so I started looking into the Kentucky bourbon triangle market.
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Found Bardstown.
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I really didn't know that much about Bardstown before.
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I knew Lexington.
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I knew Louisville.
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Didn't really know Bardstown all that well.
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And found a good realtor in that area.
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And we went, you know, looking around and found, you know, what we thought was going to be, you know, the ideal property for a short-term rental.
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Awesome.
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That's awesome.
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And you're so right.
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I live in the mountains in Utah.
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I love the Intermountain West.
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And it is just one of those markets that as much as people love the mountains, as much as we have visitors here, that acquisition cost is so high that it makes that ratio of...
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our debt service and our holding costs and all that things that we have to have as far as expenses on a property versus the revenue that it can generate that is not real favorable in our especially where interest rates and prices are at right now and it's just it's one of those markets that is really really tough to great property breaks even right and it's and so you're you're just i love the mountains as well and it's but they're hard to make work on a short-term rental pro forma right and so
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Still went in though to, you know, another market, like you said, plan B, the Bourbon Trail, something that I love as well.
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I've been out to that area and kind of figure out that triangle.
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And when I went out there the first time, that's a fairly large area, right?
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The Bourbon Trail Triangle is a pretty dang large area and you're covering a lot of different ground and area.
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And so you chose Bardstown.
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And so talk to me about the property condition.
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A lot of these properties are older, right?
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When we buy them, I don't know if yours was.
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And so there's some things you're navigating, right?
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There's old and then there's old.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So the property we found was in a historical district of Bardstown.
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And one thing that had really going for it was walking distance to the central part of town, walking to the restaurants, walking to the shops.
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And there weren't a lot of choices in that.
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And that property is called the Bard House in Bardstown.
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So a family member that the town got named after
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back in the 1700s, lived in this house.
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The house was constructed roughly between 1790 and 1800.
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Wow.
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Now, you would never know that now.
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The guy I bought it from had just spent two years.
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It had not been lived in for more than 10 years.
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It was in horrible shape.
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Inside, outside, everything.
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It had just been like left alone for a long period of time.
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So he spends some hundreds of thousands of dollars and two years of his time.
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He's a do-it-yourselfer.
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And he brought everything back up to modern standards.
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New plumbing, new electrical, changed the inside a little bit and really gave me a clean slate to start imagining what this could be as a short-term rental.
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So when my realtor and I walked into it the very first time, all we saw was potential.
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It had that nice combination of modernization.
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You know, the kitchen is very modern and beautiful, but you're in a 226-year-old house.
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And you can see the bones of the house in that way.
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So it was just this nice...
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juxtaposition of new and old and in the right part of town, et cetera.
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So yeah, I got to start with a very clean slate, 3,000 square feet, completely empty,
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I'm living four hours away and I've got to set this thing up, right?
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Yeah.
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So that was the first hill to climb after getting through acquisition and permitting.
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And we can talk about that too, if you want, because that...
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I'd love to, right?
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Because that's absolutely, as we go through that permitting process, and you said it was in a district, a historical district, close to everything.
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But yeah, walk me through, because right then,
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That was really the year, late 2022 and 2023 were really the year of those sweeping regulations.
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So were you dealing with some of that?
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Are you currently dealing with it?
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Has they settled down?
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Walk me through a little bit of that.
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Okay, yeah.
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So we got our sights set on this property, got in contract with some contingencies around permitting.
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We needed to make sure everything was actually going to get approved.
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Being in the historical district added a few extra hoops to jump through, but I had to go to some town meetings.
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I had to go to a historical district committee meeting.
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I really felt like
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Bardstown, because I had already heard all the stories of some, especially in smaller towns, they just let the horses out of the barn way too fast, way too much.
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And then they were dealing with all these unintended consequences around their school systems and property taxes and all that, you know, all that stuff.
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Anyway, I really felt like even though Bardstown was making me and everybody else jump through a lot of hoops.
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They were doing it responsibly.
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And I thought, well, if I'm going to be an owner in this market, I actually like that it's not getting oversaturated.
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They seem to be doing the responsible thing.
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Short-term rentals couldn't be within 500 feet of each other.
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That was one.
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And...
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Things around ratio of parking spots.
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You weren't allowed to let people park on the street.
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You had to provide off-street parking.
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So I had to build a four-car parking pad.
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So everything seemed reasonable.
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Yes, it took time, it took energy, it took money, but it all seemed pretty reasonable.
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And, you know, we got approved.
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Everything was green light.
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And once I got past all that and had all my permits in place, then it was really about getting this empty 3,000 square foot historical home set up.
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So I was driving down from central Ohio.
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It's four hours each way.
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I was driving down every Sunday night and coming back on Thursday night for four months.
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Wow.
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Oh, wow.
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Jeez.
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Yeah.
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That's a lot of work.
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It really was a full-time job making all those.
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There's hundreds and hundreds of decisions, you know, the shopping, the
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the placing orders, the receiving items, unpacking and building things, disposing of all the packing material, it's hugely time consuming.
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Not to be underestimated.
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Yeah, right.
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I always, I talk about that setup phase is,
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It is.
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It's just grueling, right?
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And you're in a rush.
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It's like a sprint because you're like, I need to get this done as soon as possible because all I'm doing is spending money.
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All I'm doing is spending time, right?
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And it's like money's going out, time's going out.
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And there's so many...
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unexpected things that you run into as much as we kind of try to prepare ourselves for it, the amount of boxes that you have, the amount of disposal of items and boxes and packing material that you have when you're setting up these properties, it's mountains of it, right?
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And you just don't think it's that big of a deal.
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It's not like you can just go fill the garbage can up.
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You literally have to plan for trips to the dump and making sure you have trailers and trucks to haul it, right?
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It's crazy amounts of things that you just...
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That's not counting putting it all together and placing it all and all that stuff, right?
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Yep, yep.
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But we used, well, we used Jeff Chisholm to help with, you know, getting the right mortgage product.
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The financing.
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Yep, the financing.
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This was a 10% down, you know, second home business loan product.
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We used Mike Whitfield for some consulting on deciding how to make some final decisions around what room to use for what purpose.
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He was helpful in that regard.
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And I used him for the large graphics, creating the atmosphere on the walls and things like that.
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So Mike was a real asset.
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Used Mike and Kevin at Revo.
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Yeah.
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Did some consulting.
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Tax guys.
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We did do the cost segregation.
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We went through that process.
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So that was very beneficial from a tax standpoint.
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But yeah, once in this market, and this is probably true for anybody else in smaller markets, I had also, this was never going to be self-managed.
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I knew I wasn't shopping in my backyard.
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So this was never going to be self-managed.
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And in small markets, well, in Bardstown, there was, and to my knowledge, there still isn't a true property management company.
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And I didn't want to use a national provider because I knew the level of service was maybe going to be average at best.
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So I had to find somebody local.
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So I actually took the time to try to contact other owners of short-term rentals in the market to find out who might be interested in co-hosting.
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And that's how I found my property manager.
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I probably solicited 15 to 20 short-term rental owners, only heard back from maybe half of them at all, and then discovered one that was willing to think about co-hosting.
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So that was another barrier to get over, is trying to find a property manager in a very small market.
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Yeah, it's a very good point.
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In a lot of rural markets, small markets, you just don't have the options, right?
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There's not a lot of property management options.
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And for those of us, myself included, who don't manage our own properties, that's a, that is a, and it's such an important barrier to get over, right?
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We need somebody to deliver this experience that we're spending so much time and money putting together.
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And it's a really good point you bring up that we suggest a lot is, look who else is managing properties in the area.
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They're probably local, they're already doing it, there's economies of scale and management, they already have some of the things set up, maybe they'd be willing to take on your property, they can make a little bit of extra money, it helps everybody out.
224
00:14:37.070 --> 00:14:43.355
And so, when you went through that process and you found one, did you have to go through multiple or did you find a good one from the very beginning?
225
00:14:43.735 --> 00:14:47.378
Just found one from the very beginning and that's who's been with me ever since.
226
00:14:48.078 --> 00:14:48.859
That's awesome.
227
00:14:49.299 --> 00:14:52.081
Yeah, she and her husband are realtors in the area.
228
00:14:52.121 --> 00:14:56.884
They have two, now maybe three of their own short-term rentals at this point.
229
00:14:56.904 --> 00:14:58.365
I think they only had one at the time.
230
00:14:58.686 --> 00:15:02.228
They've also bought a special event center that they're running.
231
00:15:03.029 --> 00:15:04.470
And again, they're both realtors.
232
00:15:04.510 --> 00:15:04.690
They've
233
00:15:05.202 --> 00:15:07.543
have three little kids, younger kids.
234
00:15:07.964 --> 00:15:18.070
So they're distracted and busy all the time, which actually is its own topic that is applicable to my situation.
235
00:15:18.710 --> 00:15:22.052
We can get into that a little bit further down the road in this conversation, but
236
00:15:22.766 --> 00:15:30.929
Because I've been on autopilot for the last two years, like literally giving this almost none of my time and attention.
237
00:15:30.989 --> 00:15:33.850
We can talk about that.
238
00:15:34.530 --> 00:15:37.171
And I've got a property manager who's very...
239
00:15:38.273 --> 00:15:42.435
bifurcated and distracted with everything that she and her husband have going on.
240
00:15:42.935 --> 00:15:46.397
So this is a property that has, let's put it this way.
241
00:15:46.737 --> 00:15:51.479
We did all of the right things up front and set this house up for success.
242
00:15:51.899 --> 00:15:54.781
Not that we were planning on going into autopilot.
243
00:15:55.501 --> 00:15:56.582
That was never the plan.
244
00:15:56.982 --> 00:16:03.185
But because of doing a lot of the right things on the front end, we've had, you know, over...
245
00:16:03.885 --> 00:16:15.948
200 visitors at this point and five star across the board and not just five stars, but gushing written comments about the experience.
246
00:16:16.188 --> 00:16:16.409
Yeah.
247
00:16:18.001 --> 00:16:18.441
Yeah.
248
00:16:18.461 --> 00:16:19.922
So that's been the good side.
249
00:16:20.262 --> 00:16:25.164
It hasn't really made us any money, but we've provided a great experience.
250
00:16:25.964 --> 00:16:26.905
Howell, talk to me about that.
251
00:16:27.045 --> 00:16:27.625
Yeah.
252
00:16:27.705 --> 00:16:35.568
So we bought because of one, you probably bought a fairly a property that was pretty much like all the deferred maintenance is taken care of.
253
00:16:35.808 --> 00:16:38.529
It was so you're paying kind of top dollar on when you bought it.
254
00:16:38.749 --> 00:16:41.670
One that prices were there, but you didn't, you kind of bought it.
255
00:16:42.310 --> 00:16:45.874
a really good property that a lot of this stuff had been done to already.
256
00:16:45.934 --> 00:16:52.321
So you didn't really have a lot of value add that you were doing outside of bringing it to life on the short-term rental side though, right?
257
00:16:52.922 --> 00:16:53.162
Right.
258
00:16:53.202 --> 00:16:59.749
We had, so using the Biodacy playbook and math, we knew that this was really only going to math
259
00:17:00.530 --> 00:17:05.959
If, and frankly, I was only ever interested in playing in the luxury end of the market.
260
00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:09.264
I didn't, I had no interest in the other parts of the market.
261
00:17:09.304 --> 00:17:13.150
I only wanted to, if I was going to do this, I wanted to provide a luxury experience.
262
00:17:13.507 --> 00:17:17.550
And that's kind of where the math showed it had any real potential at all.
263
00:17:18.010 --> 00:17:25.916
So, yeah, so this is a, this is a, at the time it was a $645,000 house that comped for the area for what it was.
264
00:17:25.956 --> 00:17:27.577
But again, completely empty.
265
00:17:27.938 --> 00:17:36.164
It took about 70 grand to outfit this place for, you know, the kind of experience we wanted to provide.
266
00:17:36.184 --> 00:17:36.424
Yeah.
267
00:17:36.882 --> 00:17:37.122
Yeah.
268
00:17:37.322 --> 00:17:40.584
And interest rates were six and three quarters at that point.
269
00:17:41.464 --> 00:17:50.289
You know, if we had done everything exactly the same back when we could have gotten a 3% mortgage, this thing would have been cash positive from day one.
270
00:17:50.589 --> 00:17:51.410
Yeah, you're making money.
271
00:17:51.990 --> 00:17:53.731
Yeah, I'm making money.
272
00:17:53.771 --> 00:17:56.712
But it's really been that mortgage.
273
00:17:57.413 --> 00:17:59.514
That's keeping it.
274
00:17:59.634 --> 00:18:03.176
So you feel like you're hitting the revenue numbers, but the debt service is higher?
275
00:18:03.236 --> 00:18:05.397
Do you feel like we're short on the revenue numbers as well?
276
00:18:05.994 --> 00:18:12.458
Well, the first year, the numbers off the top of my head is we did about 86,000 the first year.
277
00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:18.082
So really, there was just a few months at the end of 2023, we were open, but just kind of getting momentum.
278
00:18:18.462 --> 00:18:19.963
But 2024 was like 86, 2025 was 77 revenue.
279
00:18:19.983 --> 00:18:21.264
So it started to come down.
280
00:18:21.304 --> 00:18:22.885
And so that was 25.
281
00:18:22.945 --> 00:18:25.147
And 26 is shaping up to be more like 60.
282
00:18:25.507 --> 00:18:25.727
Wow.
283
00:18:33.172 --> 00:18:39.614
And again, this is that trend downwards is mostly just attributable to neglect.
284
00:18:39.654 --> 00:18:45.236
Just not putting any time and energy in, certainly not me.
285
00:18:45.856 --> 00:18:49.958
And then my property manager as well, just also kind of being on autopilot.
286
00:18:50.398 --> 00:18:57.020
Still doing the minimums to make sure that we're providing these five-star reviews.
287
00:18:57.240 --> 00:18:59.821
She's great at communicating pre and post.
288
00:19:00.281 --> 00:19:01.603
But she's kind of on autopilot.
289
00:19:01.623 --> 00:19:04.428
She has a system and she keeps it all going.
290
00:19:04.709 --> 00:19:12.101
I go down probably once a quarter and put my own eyes on everything and tidy things up if I think something needs to be dealt with.
291
00:19:12.202 --> 00:19:12.322
But
292
00:19:13.308 --> 00:19:21.714
largely the theme here is this thing's been on autopilot and the revenue trickling down, down, down, down, down is a result.
293
00:19:22.235 --> 00:19:23.236
Very, very interesting.
294
00:19:23.296 --> 00:19:29.140
Love that you brought that point up because one, we wanna set these properties up on autopilot, right?
295
00:19:29.180 --> 00:19:38.287
For us as an investor, but whoever is delivering that experience and the revenue management piece, this is a big piece, which is pricing and revenue management.
296
00:19:38.887 --> 00:19:42.831
And that strategy on the backend, because that doesn't show up on the photos.
297
00:19:42.931 --> 00:19:44.613
It doesn't show up on the reviews.
298
00:19:45.034 --> 00:19:48.537
She might be doing a great job of delivering the experience, communicating with a guest.
299
00:19:49.038 --> 00:19:56.987
But if we're just getting kind of lazy on the set it and forget it on price labs and set it, forget it on our price optimization tools, and letting them price it out and,
300
00:19:57.567 --> 00:20:01.689
especially if you have a luxury property, what it's doing is suggesting that you be average.
301
00:20:01.889 --> 00:20:03.549
You're gonna average price it, right?
302
00:20:03.649 --> 00:20:05.550
And we're not in a price it toward the top of the market.
303
00:20:05.870 --> 00:20:16.615
That takes manual and very diligent manual pricing and ultimately setting the rules within those optimization tools that are not normally set in there, right?
304
00:20:16.715 --> 00:20:17.055
And so,
305
00:20:18.172 --> 00:20:24.475
Very interesting point that you're making that we don't talk about a lot, that is that costs a lot of people a lot of money.
306
00:20:24.915 --> 00:20:31.599
And it's a lot of times the pricing strategy on the backend, I see it all the time when I audit properties right now.
307
00:20:32.259 --> 00:20:36.101
And it sounds like that might be the case.
308
00:20:36.141 --> 00:20:39.223
When I look at the reviews, you still got five stars across the board.
309
00:20:39.263 --> 00:20:45.246
So as far as like autopilot as communication and cleaning and getting people in and out of there,
310
00:20:46.086 --> 00:20:49.867
that seems to be going okay, but that's not the whole name of the game, right?
311
00:20:50.067 --> 00:20:50.427
That's right.
312
00:20:51.027 --> 00:20:52.347
And would you agree?
313
00:20:52.367 --> 00:20:55.088
Do you feel like that part seems to be doing all right?
314
00:20:56.208 --> 00:20:56.568
Oh, yeah.
315
00:20:56.768 --> 00:20:59.369
Again, it's an amazing property.
316
00:20:59.489 --> 00:21:06.090
When everybody walks in, and I've hosted family and friends down there too, it is wow.
317
00:21:06.650 --> 00:21:07.170
Oh, my gosh.
318
00:21:07.370 --> 00:21:07.690
Wow.
319
00:21:08.111 --> 00:21:08.971
Throughout the whole house.
320
00:21:09.691 --> 00:21:13.232
It's a special property, and people do have a great experience there.
321
00:21:15.212 --> 00:21:15.472
Yeah.
322
00:21:15.793 --> 00:21:17.615
Autopilot, you know, want to make money.
323
00:21:17.835 --> 00:21:18.796
Autopilot doesn't work.
324
00:21:19.317 --> 00:21:20.017
Autopilot doesn't work.
325
00:21:20.058 --> 00:21:23.441
And it can, for me, I hire the right revenue managers on my private.
326
00:21:23.541 --> 00:21:28.267
It's on autopilot for me, but that it's not an autopilot business period.
327
00:21:28.287 --> 00:21:28.447
Right.
328
00:21:28.647 --> 00:21:32.311
Somebody has to be, you know, you can't be asleep at the wheel in this business.
329
00:21:32.391 --> 00:21:35.194
And specifically one as an investor,
330
00:21:35.935 --> 00:21:37.596
I want to spend the money on the right property.
331
00:21:37.696 --> 00:21:39.777
I want to spend the money on the right setup.
332
00:21:40.097 --> 00:21:42.758
And then I want to hand it to somebody that doesn't want to be on autopilot.
333
00:21:43.038 --> 00:21:48.481
And so, and it really, really comes down to a lot of times right now is the revenue.
334
00:21:48.621 --> 00:21:52.263
I'll, I should pull it up right now while we're talking, I should pull it up.
335
00:21:52.283 --> 00:21:52.423
But,
336
00:21:53.063 --> 00:21:58.627
My guess is the revenue being spent by the consumer in Bardstown has not dropped like that.
337
00:21:59.088 --> 00:22:06.473
And if you've got one of the top physical properties in that market, it still has to be looking and say, how am I pricing this?
338
00:22:06.673 --> 00:22:08.395
What is my strategy on the back end?
339
00:22:09.175 --> 00:22:11.316
And we don't need to get into all the details right now.
340
00:22:11.376 --> 00:22:19.321
You and I can talk after we're done, but I love that this point came up because it is something that we see so common on really good top properties in good areas.
341
00:22:19.501 --> 00:22:25.425
And a lot of times the canned response is the market's just going down a little bit.
342
00:22:25.485 --> 00:22:27.546
The market's like, it's just the market.
343
00:22:27.586 --> 00:22:28.606
It's not the market.
344
00:22:28.647 --> 00:22:34.370
We look at this all the time and I would be willing to bet you, you know, a dollar that it's not the market.
345
00:22:34.890 --> 00:22:39.573
Yeah, I actually looked at some just actually in kind of in preparation for our conversation.
346
00:22:39.613 --> 00:22:45.576
I did pull up like the Kentucky tourism, bourbon industry, some some data over the last three years.
347
00:22:45.916 --> 00:22:46.096
Yeah.
348
00:22:46.156 --> 00:22:47.657
And it's kind of what I expected.
349
00:22:47.817 --> 00:22:51.859
The tourism is slightly still going up.
350
00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:52.539
Yep.
351
00:22:52.883 --> 00:22:58.287
The consumption of the actual product is slowly going down.
352
00:22:58.688 --> 00:23:00.329
And that's just a demographic change.
353
00:23:00.389 --> 00:23:03.211
Younger people aren't drinking as much, et cetera, et cetera.
354
00:23:03.331 --> 00:23:12.399
So the actual consumption of the product is on the way down, but the experience, the travel, the tourism, that is still slowly marching up.
355
00:23:12.979 --> 00:23:18.083
And there's something like 75 plus destinations just in Kentucky.
356
00:23:18.644 --> 00:23:22.627
The Bourbon Trail used to be eight primary destinations back.
357
00:23:22.867 --> 00:23:23.808
you know, 10 years ago.
358
00:23:24.468 --> 00:23:24.648
Yeah.
359
00:23:24.868 --> 00:23:26.789
It's 75 plus now.
360
00:23:27.490 --> 00:23:27.910
Exactly.
361
00:23:27.990 --> 00:23:29.090
It's a whole bunch of them now.
362
00:23:29.350 --> 00:23:31.992
And why don't you talk to me about the location?
363
00:23:32.012 --> 00:23:39.876
Because we said right before, I'm going to, while you're telling me this about the location, I'm actually going to look up the dollars being spent in the market, see if it's going up or down, trending up or down.
364
00:23:39.916 --> 00:23:39.936
I
365
00:23:43.858 --> 00:23:47.499
The Bourbon Trail, you've got really, you're on the bottom side of the triangle, right?
366
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:49.719
You got Louisville, Lexington, and then Bardstown, right?
367
00:23:50.040 --> 00:23:50.800
On the triangle.
368
00:23:51.340 --> 00:23:54.761
And so, and there's distilleries scattered throughout the triangle.
369
00:23:54.821 --> 00:24:00.182
So are you next to what distilleries outside of being close to downtown and restaurants and stuff?
370
00:24:00.502 --> 00:24:04.183
What are their big name distilleries that are close to you, usually within that 20 minute range?
371
00:24:04.841 --> 00:24:05.421
Yeah.
372
00:24:05.461 --> 00:24:09.284
So Bardstown Bourbon has become one of the biggest players in the industry.
373
00:24:09.304 --> 00:24:10.185
They're fairly new.
374
00:24:10.245 --> 00:24:14.608
They're less than 10 years old, but they're now among the biggest players in the whole industry.
375
00:24:15.529 --> 00:24:16.629
They're right on the edge of town.
376
00:24:16.750 --> 00:24:18.551
Lux Row is right there.
377
00:24:18.791 --> 00:24:20.432
Heaven Hill is right there.
378
00:24:20.812 --> 00:24:23.434
Those are both in town.
379
00:24:23.494 --> 00:24:25.336
1792 used to be right in town.
380
00:24:25.376 --> 00:24:27.237
They're now a little bit outside of town.
381
00:24:27.697 --> 00:24:29.299
Maker's Mark is not far away.
382
00:24:29.679 --> 00:24:32.961
And again, there's about a dozen others within 20 minutes.
383
00:24:34.294 --> 00:24:34.975
Right, right.
384
00:24:35.556 --> 00:24:36.937
Okay, you're going to like this.
385
00:24:37.618 --> 00:24:43.225
This is, well, on one side, you're going to like it because there's a lot of money to be had.
386
00:24:43.585 --> 00:24:46.309
On the other side, you're not going to like it because we're leaving some money on the table.
387
00:24:48.091 --> 00:24:48.732
So bear with me.
388
00:24:48.772 --> 00:24:52.556
Those of you that are listening, so I pulled up the dollars being spent in Bardstown.
389
00:24:53.217 --> 00:24:56.878
specifically, and I look at peaks and valleys throughout.
390
00:24:56.918 --> 00:25:00.218
So if we go to, so really 2024 was your first year, right?
391
00:25:00.258 --> 00:25:04.559
So if the peak in 2024, it looks like the peak every year is around September.
392
00:25:05.619 --> 00:25:08.220
And so- September, October are the two busiest months.
393
00:25:08.300 --> 00:25:09.420
Yeah, September, October.
394
00:25:09.460 --> 00:25:14.021
So we'll go to our, well, let's go to our October peak.
395
00:25:14.201 --> 00:25:15.881
That does look like it's the peak there.
396
00:25:16.141 --> 00:25:19.282
And so October of 2024, $511,000 spent in Bardstown.
397
00:25:22.715 --> 00:25:27.057
October 2025, $641,000 spent in Bardstown.
398
00:25:27.877 --> 00:25:31.098
October 2026, $945,000.
399
00:25:31.298 --> 00:25:45.224
So while we're dropping a little bit, and I'll tell you what we really find, John, is on these, the luxury side properties are really capturing their unfair share of those dollars being spent in the market.
400
00:25:45.344 --> 00:25:49.549
And so my guess is we change our pricing strategy on this property.
401
00:25:49.849 --> 00:25:52.832
It's an overnight change in that, in what's going on.
402
00:25:53.112 --> 00:26:00.821
And then it's something we really should look at because that there, like you're, you look at the overall tourism, but really just, I look at this is just revenue numbers.
403
00:26:00.881 --> 00:26:03.724
This is revenue being money being spent by the consumer.
404
00:26:03.744 --> 00:26:05.085
That's an indicator of the demand.
405
00:26:05.466 --> 00:26:06.226
And so if we're at 945, right.
406
00:26:07.875 --> 00:26:09.136
in, oh, that was September.
407
00:26:09.176 --> 00:26:10.877
Sorry, because we don't have October numbers yet.
408
00:26:10.897 --> 00:26:12.078
That was September of 2026.
409
00:26:12.098 --> 00:26:13.739
That was 945.
410
00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:16.481
And last year, September was at 641.
411
00:26:16.501 --> 00:26:18.322
That's a pretty massive increase, right?
412
00:26:18.342 --> 00:26:20.784
You got a 30% increase in dollars being spent.
413
00:26:20.924 --> 00:26:26.028
And sometimes we assume that the market's not as good as it actually is on the back end.
414
00:26:26.048 --> 00:26:28.730
And we've got, you've got all the recipes to be able to get
415
00:26:29.370 --> 00:26:35.814
Like it pains me to hear that those dollars are going down when I look at this property and I look at what you've got and where you're at.
416
00:26:35.994 --> 00:26:39.856
And so it's very interesting to hear that and look it up in real time as we're having the conversation.
417
00:26:40.577 --> 00:26:40.717
Yeah.
418
00:26:42.335 --> 00:26:48.620
So not to throw salt on the wound or say, hey, listen, somebody's got to change, but we need to change something, right?
419
00:26:48.660 --> 00:26:51.402
We definitely need to, and it's the revenue side of it.
420
00:26:51.442 --> 00:26:52.783
The revenue management side.
421
00:26:52.863 --> 00:27:00.910
One thing we haven't brought up yet is by the end of 2025, the end of last year, I had just...
422
00:27:01.470 --> 00:27:12.116
take an honest assessment that my time and interests had not been focused on this for quite a while and was not and that wasn't going to change.
423
00:27:12.777 --> 00:27:17.319
So I contacted my my same realtor, Chelsea Wood.
424
00:27:17.760 --> 00:27:20.561
She works with some other Vodasi people as well.
425
00:27:20.581 --> 00:27:21.142
I know Chelsea.
426
00:27:21.262 --> 00:27:22.102
I met Chelsea, actually.
427
00:27:22.122 --> 00:27:23.543
I actually looked at properties with Chelsea.
428
00:27:24.124 --> 00:27:24.724
Okay, great.
429
00:27:25.606 --> 00:27:26.647
So Chelsea's my realtor.
430
00:27:27.028 --> 00:27:30.593
So I contacted Chelsea and I said, Chelsea, I really think we need to move on.
431
00:27:30.673 --> 00:27:35.620
And this is where we discovered something quite unfortunate out of the blue.
432
00:27:35.921 --> 00:27:38.425
We wanted to put the house up on the market and we, and
433
00:27:38.965 --> 00:27:39.506
And we did.
434
00:27:40.086 --> 00:27:54.681
But in the process, we learned that the town, unbeknownst, no announcements, no letters sent, no email sent, the town had changed their regulation for short-term rentals in town, inside the city limits.
435
00:27:55.161 --> 00:27:57.984
Not just historical district issue, city limits.
436
00:27:58.304 --> 00:27:58.565
Okay.
437
00:27:58.945 --> 00:28:00.386
And the change was...
438
00:28:01.255 --> 00:28:16.102
Now, if this property were to sell and somebody wanted to buy it and just keep operating it as a short-term rental and give it the juice that somebody like you could give it, they would have to have it as their primary residence.
439
00:28:16.442 --> 00:28:23.545
And they would have to be there when the guests are there, which is the definition of an Airbnb, or I'm sorry, a bed and breakfast, right?
440
00:28:23.565 --> 00:28:23.765
Yeah.
441
00:28:24.585 --> 00:28:28.348
So it was a ridiculous change.
442
00:28:28.408 --> 00:28:36.114
It was basically the town's way of saying, we don't want to put any more of our time and energy into regulating any of this.
443
00:28:36.695 --> 00:28:39.117
We're just going to hope that by someday...
444
00:28:40.379 --> 00:28:42.061
This won't even be an issue in town.
445
00:28:42.081 --> 00:28:43.123
It phases itself out.
446
00:28:43.343 --> 00:28:47.668
They didn't change anything about out of town if you're outside the city limits.
447
00:28:47.989 --> 00:28:53.215
But if you're in town, so Chelsea said, I would have sold this property.
448
00:28:53.235 --> 00:28:55.759
I would have had multiple bids within a week.
449
00:28:56.972 --> 00:29:10.500
if people were still able to operate this as a short-term rental, because they could see the potential in it that we weren't necessarily manifesting, but it was easy to see that this, this was a great short-term rental opportunity.
450
00:29:11.141 --> 00:29:19.306
So Chelsea's been, she's got brain damage at this point, fielding phone calls, just keep having to tell people, nope, it's gotta be a single family home.
451
00:29:19.346 --> 00:29:20.707
It's gotta be a single family home.
452
00:29:21.187 --> 00:29:22.307
Again, this is a 226 year old house that,
453
00:29:25.169 --> 00:29:30.831
When it was built, the downstairs has 12-foot ceilings, but the upstairs is where the servants used to live.
454
00:29:30.891 --> 00:29:33.432
And the ceilings are slanted.
455
00:29:33.592 --> 00:29:46.657
And we really, the guy I bought it from really had to get creative on how to get the plumbing and stuff to work, to have a nice, luxurious bathroom upstairs, et cetera, et cetera.
456
00:29:47.217 --> 00:29:49.758
So now we've got a house that could comp at $700,000.
457
00:29:51.719 --> 00:29:59.606
for sale in a market that the average house in Bardstown is probably $300,000 at the most.
458
00:29:59.846 --> 00:30:02.469
The average house, maybe high $200,000.
459
00:30:03.149 --> 00:30:13.419
So it's a mismatch on, you know, it's going to take a special buyer to come in and even think about this as a single family home, let alone the fact that it's so darn unique.
460
00:30:14.397 --> 00:30:16.038
It's in the historical district.
461
00:30:16.278 --> 00:30:18.879
It's not a family-friendly house.
462
00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:19.319
Right.
463
00:30:19.619 --> 00:30:23.881
It's in the middle of the action type of a house in the historical district, right?
464
00:30:23.941 --> 00:30:29.383
Like, I want to walk to the bars, but it's also, to your point, it's in an area where
465
00:30:29.843 --> 00:30:35.046
that there's a premium because the highest and best use for it is what you're using it for.
466
00:30:35.146 --> 00:30:38.688
But it's also if if it doesn't work that way for the next buyer.
467
00:30:38.728 --> 00:30:44.612
So you're not you're not being told like you're grandfathered in because you're operating a licensed and permit.
468
00:30:44.692 --> 00:30:47.453
But the new buyer see that that that.
469
00:30:47.713 --> 00:30:49.815
Yeah, that's that's very unfortunate.
470
00:30:49.835 --> 00:30:52.916
It really hurts those owners in those areas.
471
00:30:53.017 --> 00:30:53.117
And.
472
00:30:53.937 --> 00:30:55.398
Because it hurts the value of the property.
473
00:30:55.418 --> 00:30:59.979
Because now all of a sudden, it's like taking a commercial property and saying, hey, listen, you can't use it on commercial anymore.
474
00:31:00.159 --> 00:31:06.282
It's no longer, but you're in a, when you're in a commercial type of a district with these types of properties, the homeowner doesn't want to live there.
475
00:31:06.602 --> 00:31:06.842
Right.
476
00:31:06.902 --> 00:31:10.503
And so it makes it very, very difficult to sell those types of properties outside of that.
477
00:31:11.164 --> 00:31:19.227
And ironically, I have not been able to track down anybody who can tell me what the conversation was back a couple of years ago when they changed this.
478
00:31:19.882 --> 00:31:22.043
You know, people on certain committees have changed.
479
00:31:22.104 --> 00:31:28.208
I finally, just earlier this week, got the guy who runs the planning and zoning in Bardstown.
480
00:31:28.428 --> 00:31:32.030
And there was a little bit of fruit that came out of that conversation.
481
00:31:32.150 --> 00:31:35.933
He had no idea what the backstory was on why the regulation changed.
482
00:31:36.373 --> 00:31:37.414
He was tipping his hand.
483
00:31:37.434 --> 00:31:41.597
Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either, but he's newer on the scene.
484
00:31:42.157 --> 00:31:47.040
But to make a long story short, we did think of a potential workaround.
485
00:31:47.780 --> 00:31:54.964
If we don't find a single-family homebuyer relatively soon, I am going to spend some time and energy chasing this down.
486
00:31:55.565 --> 00:32:10.213
But he was saying that if the LLC that I created is actually the entity that got the special use permit, that I could sell the LLC and the property inside of it.
487
00:32:10.833 --> 00:32:15.036
But the LLC is who holds the permit.
488
00:32:15.836 --> 00:32:25.122
And now that's going to create a very, it's going to make, it's going to be a very complicated conversation to try to have with potential buyers.
489
00:32:25.462 --> 00:32:30.905
And because they're going to want assurances that eventually it's all going to work out and it's going to take a lot of effort.
490
00:32:30.925 --> 00:32:36.448
But Chelsea and I may not have a choice if we really aren't finding buyers.
491
00:32:36.969 --> 00:32:39.190
You know, I don't want to give the property away, but-
492
00:32:39.610 --> 00:32:46.293
At this point, you know, I'm willing to take just about any bid because I really need it.
493
00:32:47.233 --> 00:32:49.954
Yeah, I need it to be kind of out of the back of my mind.
494
00:32:50.555 --> 00:32:50.795
Right.
495
00:32:51.055 --> 00:33:00.099
And that's kind of what I was wondering too, if the LLC can be sold where it transfers, where now the permit doesn't, it stays with the LLC, right?
496
00:33:00.299 --> 00:33:02.780
And it stays with that house, the LLC that you've created.
497
00:33:02.800 --> 00:33:04.901
It'd be interesting to see how that shakes out.
498
00:33:04.941 --> 00:33:06.941
I wouldn't stop running down the road with the city either.
499
00:33:06.981 --> 00:33:07.742
It's trying to uncover...
500
00:33:08.482 --> 00:33:13.407
I want to see why and when this was changed and who was a notified.
501
00:33:13.427 --> 00:33:18.513
This really affects property values, especially in a district like that, and be able to look at that.
502
00:33:18.533 --> 00:33:23.338
In the meantime, I would look at the pricing as well and put a little more money in your pocket.
503
00:33:23.878 --> 00:33:35.085
In the meantime, when Jake contacted me about having this conversation, I told Jake, I said, hey, I'm actually going to write something up for Sean and I'm going to get on a Tuesday AMA call.
504
00:33:35.245 --> 00:33:35.965
I wish you would.
505
00:33:36.506 --> 00:33:43.270
And I want Sean to give the 30,000 foot flyover audit, the 10,000 foot flyover audit.
506
00:33:43.910 --> 00:33:46.471
And because I've seen you do it on the Tuesday AMA calls.
507
00:33:46.872 --> 00:33:58.898
And that's exactly what this property needs right now is, you know, we've got we've got a little wound that's bleeding on an ongoing basis and we need to cauterize it as much as we can until we can get the house officially sold.
508
00:33:59.438 --> 00:34:02.380
So, yeah, I'm going to tee that up for this coming Tuesday.
509
00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:06.642
I can't wait because I can just I got excited just looking at that.
510
00:34:06.682 --> 00:34:13.764
What we just looked at together while we were talking on the podcast is that the dollars being spent is they're there and going up.
511
00:34:14.125 --> 00:34:21.888
And that on a property like this, like normally sometimes you can look at a property and I can say, listen, you're we don't have a luxury property.
512
00:34:21.908 --> 00:34:23.128
We don't have a great property.
513
00:34:23.168 --> 00:34:24.909
Our location is not great proximity.
514
00:34:25.209 --> 00:34:26.990
There's certain things that we can see right out of the gate.
515
00:34:27.670 --> 00:34:32.272
When you already have all that, and those of you listening, we always post the property links in the show notes.
516
00:34:32.472 --> 00:34:36.954
And so if you're interested in checking the property out, you can always go to the Airbnb link and check them out.
517
00:34:37.394 --> 00:34:38.394
So you know what we're talking about.
518
00:34:38.414 --> 00:34:44.517
But when I see a property like that, and I see that, and I hear that story of the revenue, I look at the delivery of it.
519
00:34:44.677 --> 00:34:46.538
You've got the guest loves the property.
520
00:34:46.638 --> 00:34:48.458
And like you said, there's glowing reviews about it.
521
00:34:49.059 --> 00:34:52.640
All of those things are stacking up to say, hey, this is a revenue management property.
522
00:34:52.760 --> 00:34:56.502
problem that we're not pricing this anywhere near what we should be pricing it at.
523
00:34:56.522 --> 00:34:58.083
And our strategy is probably way off.
524
00:34:58.103 --> 00:35:14.851
So Tuesday, I look forward to looking and diving into that so we can do that together because I think- If anything, we've been, when I've looked, and again, I haven't spent much time doing it and that's on me, but when I have looked, if anything, I think we've been too high most of the time.
525
00:35:15.192 --> 00:35:15.372
Yeah.
526
00:35:16.232 --> 00:35:22.458
We actually priced ourselves out of the average because it's not like we have no competition.
527
00:35:22.618 --> 00:35:31.706
As a matter of fact, when I first did this in 2023, the comps for what I created, I could probably count on one hand.
528
00:35:32.606 --> 00:35:33.607
Now, that's not the case.
529
00:35:34.128 --> 00:35:39.252
It's more like a couple dozen that I would look at and go, wow, that's nice.
530
00:35:39.272 --> 00:35:39.652
They're nice.
531
00:35:39.672 --> 00:35:40.133
That's nice.
532
00:35:40.153 --> 00:35:40.533
They're nice.
533
00:35:40.553 --> 00:35:40.853
That's nice.
534
00:35:40.873 --> 00:35:41.094
Yeah.
535
00:35:41.794 --> 00:35:42.915
Yeah.
536
00:35:43.355 --> 00:35:46.096
So that is actually really helpful for a market.
537
00:35:46.256 --> 00:35:51.079
As you notice, we have we've got 30% jumps in revenue every single year.
538
00:35:51.179 --> 00:35:53.440
Total dollars being spent in that market.
539
00:35:53.480 --> 00:35:57.102
That is an indicator that there's better properties to spend money on.
540
00:35:57.162 --> 00:36:02.324
And that's actually really good when you're at the top of the market to say, Hey, listen, the consumers are actually coming here now.
541
00:36:02.805 --> 00:36:04.425
They're noticing that they want to spend money here.
542
00:36:04.445 --> 00:36:05.426
They like to spend time here.
543
00:36:05.686 --> 00:36:12.193
So that's actually a good thing when you have a really nice property in the market to have a little bit more competition than just what you can count on one hand.
544
00:36:12.313 --> 00:36:14.915
And so sometimes we think that's counterintuitive.
545
00:36:14.935 --> 00:36:16.377
That's actually really good for you.
546
00:36:17.058 --> 00:36:18.659
And a very common strategy.
547
00:36:18.739 --> 00:36:23.564
One of the one of the audits I just did on within our Vodacy family, we had a member who had a property.
548
00:36:24.025 --> 00:36:25.766
It's about a seven hundred dollar a night property.
549
00:36:25.926 --> 00:36:26.227
Right.
550
00:36:26.267 --> 00:36:28.229
That's about what our averages should be.
551
00:36:28.669 --> 00:36:28.849
Well,
552
00:36:29.550 --> 00:36:35.532
Their pricing strategy was, and it was using a tool that everybody knows and just plug and play the tool.
553
00:36:35.832 --> 00:36:39.092
And they said, I want to be at the top 90th percent because I'm a top property.
554
00:36:39.532 --> 00:36:48.115
And so this tool was suggesting outside of like 60 days, they were asking for like almost $2,000 a night, anywhere from $1,600 to $2,000 a night.
555
00:36:48.195 --> 00:36:50.355
It's not a $1,600 a night property, right?
556
00:36:50.375 --> 00:36:57.157
So even if you're, so what it was doing is maybe to what you guys are doing, we'll look at it is asking for way too high
557
00:36:57.837 --> 00:36:58.317
further out.
558
00:36:58.718 --> 00:37:00.999
They were never going to, it's not a $2,000 a night property.
559
00:37:01.059 --> 00:37:02.380
It's not a $1,500 a night property.
560
00:37:02.400 --> 00:37:05.902
It's a $700, $800 a night property if you're asking for a premium.
561
00:37:06.683 --> 00:37:11.346
So we just had to bring that premium down closer to what it should be at.
562
00:37:11.406 --> 00:37:16.469
But what they were also doing is as it got close, it was this massive, massive drop.
563
00:37:16.509 --> 00:37:22.493
So when they got within 45 days, they were at their $700 mark for less than a week.
564
00:37:22.833 --> 00:37:24.194
And then it would go down to $350.
565
00:37:24.254 --> 00:37:25.275
And everybody was booking it at $350.
566
00:37:26.976 --> 00:37:28.877
You're training your customer to wait.
567
00:37:28.897 --> 00:37:33.100
Yeah, the customer is just like, and it's just a slide right down to that 350 mark.
568
00:37:33.120 --> 00:37:34.241
And then they would hold and they book it.
569
00:37:34.602 --> 00:37:36.783
And I'm like, they're like, well, what if it's $700 a night?
570
00:37:36.803 --> 00:37:38.024
Why wouldn't it book at $700 nights?
571
00:37:38.344 --> 00:37:41.226
Well, in a month's period, you're only $700 for three or four days.
572
00:37:42.387 --> 00:37:42.587
Right.
573
00:37:42.687 --> 00:37:45.128
You need you guys need to be at your at where you're at.
574
00:37:45.148 --> 00:37:45.749
I would drop it.
575
00:37:45.789 --> 00:37:49.150
Maybe I would drop it to five fifty at a discount and a premium.
576
00:37:49.250 --> 00:37:50.571
I might be asking for eight fifty.
577
00:37:50.751 --> 00:37:51.231
Right.
578
00:37:51.411 --> 00:37:53.692
And I'm going to keep it closer in that delta.
579
00:37:54.092 --> 00:37:54.933
Maybe that's what we're doing.
580
00:37:54.953 --> 00:38:04.837
If you feel like you're asking too much a lot of times and instantly overnight, this property should be like it's like, OK, that's a change you can make and instantly start to get revenue coming back in.
581
00:38:05.037 --> 00:38:15.164
I know we weren't that far off the mark, but the pricing that we dialed in for late 23, all of 24, seemed to be working pretty well.
582
00:38:15.264 --> 00:38:19.868
The mistake, if you will, is as the market became much more competitive through 24 and
583
00:38:20.973 --> 00:38:23.996
25, now into 26, 26 is almost over.
584
00:38:24.576 --> 00:38:36.386
It was that not using some of the pricing tools and just kind of staying with the program that the pricing program that seemed to have worked pretty darn well in 2024.
585
00:38:37.087 --> 00:38:38.448
We just kind of, again...
586
00:38:38.588 --> 00:38:39.508
too much autopilot.
587
00:38:39.528 --> 00:38:40.188
Set it and forget it.
588
00:38:40.228 --> 00:38:40.749
Yeah.
589
00:38:41.069 --> 00:38:42.189
It has, that's not it.
590
00:38:42.469 --> 00:38:45.150
That revenue management is definitely not a set and forget.
591
00:38:45.170 --> 00:38:46.910
In fact, it's not set it and forget it for a year.
592
00:38:47.150 --> 00:38:49.931
It's set, it's like, okay, during this season, I'm gonna do this.
593
00:38:49.991 --> 00:38:51.232
During this season, I'm gonna do this.
594
00:38:51.252 --> 00:38:53.932
I'm gonna have different strategies at different times of the year.
595
00:38:54.193 --> 00:38:56.213
I'm gonna have different strategies on different days of the year.
596
00:38:56.233 --> 00:38:57.914
This is a weekend type of a market, right?
597
00:38:57.934 --> 00:39:00.174
We're gonna really capitalize on those weekends.
598
00:39:00.274 --> 00:39:01.115
And so it's, yeah, I,
599
00:39:02.895 --> 00:39:04.256
We'll dive into this Tuesday.
600
00:39:04.316 --> 00:39:08.980
You and I will, where we have all the numbers, but I love that this came up on the podcast.
601
00:39:09.100 --> 00:39:11.643
Very rare does this conversation come up on the podcast.
602
00:39:11.663 --> 00:39:19.649
So it's fun to be able to have this where people can listen in and understand that there's, I always say this is not a game of one silver bullet.
603
00:39:19.709 --> 00:39:22.011
This is a game of a thousand golden BBs, right?
604
00:39:22.151 --> 00:39:27.976
And just because you dialed in 900 of the BBs, the other hundred could affect your revenue significantly.
605
00:39:29.602 --> 00:39:29.782
Yeah.
606
00:39:30.302 --> 00:39:31.123
So awesome.
607
00:39:31.143 --> 00:39:33.625
Well, listen, John, so as we wrap up, I always put you on the spot.
608
00:39:33.765 --> 00:39:44.211
I always love to ask you like kind of words, if you will, like if you could go back and give your younger self some advice, people listening, you know, saying, hey, I wish I would have done this different.
609
00:39:44.231 --> 00:39:45.592
I wish I wouldn't have done that.
610
00:39:45.672 --> 00:39:50.115
Is there anything that comes to mind as far as a piece of advice that we could that we could wrap up with?
611
00:39:51.419 --> 00:40:04.166
You know, at the top of my list, one of the, again, this is getting back into a little bit of backstory of why, you know, life kind of took over and my interest and passion in investing is really what I spent all my time and energy on.
612
00:40:04.706 --> 00:40:06.827
And I seem to be doing it very successfully.
613
00:40:07.488 --> 00:40:16.912
So, you know, it's for young people to really, really understand the math magic of compounding.
614
00:40:17.413 --> 00:40:17.973
Oh, love it.
615
00:40:18.213 --> 00:40:31.212
And to save, save, save in your 20s, frankly, in your teens, take 10% of that part-time job you have and just start putting $10 away, $25 away,
616
00:40:33.615 --> 00:40:39.078
Don't buy the silly stuff that we all, you know.
617
00:40:39.678 --> 00:40:50.464
So that's right at the top of my list because I spend all my time and mental energy these days, a lot of it in the real estate and investing world or in the investing world.
618
00:40:51.025 --> 00:40:54.347
And that's the number one thing I would impart.
619
00:40:54.707 --> 00:40:58.509
We taught it to our kids when they were still teenagers and,
620
00:40:58.969 --> 00:41:07.215
Other than that, you know, just don't don't live your life based on on other people's expectations and what you think their perceptions are of you.
621
00:41:07.895 --> 00:41:13.379
You know, this is about and frankly, back to the whole compounding and investing thing.
622
00:41:13.539 --> 00:41:15.521
What people really want is freedom.
623
00:41:16.101 --> 00:41:19.183
Money cannot buy happiness, but the lack of it.
624
00:41:20.104 --> 00:41:45.740
can certainly take away your freedom what people really want is to be able to do what they want when they want with whom they want for as long as they want yeah and financial resources provide that and the lack of it can make you pretty miserable takes it away absolutely takes it away so appreciate the magic and einstein said it was the eighth wonder of the world exactly it's to understand the math of compounding
625
00:41:46.265 --> 00:41:48.546
Yeah, it's I love that so much.
626
00:41:48.566 --> 00:41:49.087
Yeah, you're right.
627
00:41:49.107 --> 00:41:50.367
The eighth wonder of the world, right?
628
00:41:50.387 --> 00:41:51.208
Compound interest.
629
00:41:51.408 --> 00:41:55.030
And it is we're always looking for those home runs on an investment.
630
00:41:55.070 --> 00:41:56.731
It's like I need those massive returns.
631
00:41:57.151 --> 00:42:03.595
If you just understand the power of compound interest over time with a steady small return, it is massive, right?
632
00:42:03.715 --> 00:42:05.476
And the sooner you can start, the better.
633
00:42:06.136 --> 00:42:07.896
And and so I love that.
634
00:42:08.056 --> 00:42:09.417
And you're exactly right.
635
00:42:09.437 --> 00:42:11.017
Lifestyle freedom, financial freedom, right?
636
00:42:11.037 --> 00:42:17.198
Everybody's chasing that financial freedom and it can help buy that lifestyle freedom, which is say yes to the things you want to do and no to the things you don't want to do.
637
00:42:17.578 --> 00:42:21.659
Well, it's one of the things that resonated when I first was listening to your podcast back in 2022.
638
00:42:21.779 --> 00:42:26.260
It was you were you were very upfront about, hey, this did nothing.
639
00:42:26.340 --> 00:42:28.200
Nothing about this is get rich quick.
640
00:42:28.640 --> 00:42:28.840
Right.
641
00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:30.100
This is this is work.
642
00:42:30.160 --> 00:42:31.601
This is effort.
643
00:42:32.101 --> 00:42:33.121
But there is a roadmap.
644
00:42:33.541 --> 00:42:34.242
Yeah.
645
00:42:34.322 --> 00:42:36.663
This is the definition of compound over time, right?
646
00:42:36.703 --> 00:42:39.526
This is that's absolutely the definition.
647
00:42:39.546 --> 00:42:43.709
This is these are not, you know, we're not retiring on one property by any stretch.
648
00:42:43.769 --> 00:42:44.009
Right.
649
00:42:44.089 --> 00:42:45.870
And so in fact, quite the opposite.
650
00:42:45.910 --> 00:42:48.332
And so I, John, I love this conversation.
651
00:42:48.452 --> 00:42:48.973
I love that.
652
00:42:49.293 --> 00:42:51.655
We were able to run down the road that we ran down.
653
00:42:52.095 --> 00:42:56.378
Very unique conversation, more of a, and we'll dive into it more on our coaching call on Tuesday.
654
00:42:56.398 --> 00:42:59.780
But it is, I so appreciate you being willing to have that conversation.
655
00:42:59.800 --> 00:43:06.004
A lot of times people are nervous to say, you know, where things are going wrong and where they're, you know, where we're having bumps in the road.
656
00:43:06.104 --> 00:43:11.828
And part of what we do here at Vodesee, our ultimate goal always is to help people walk into this game with their eyes wide open.
657
00:43:12.208 --> 00:43:14.069
Like I always say, this is not an easy road.
658
00:43:14.089 --> 00:43:15.189
This is not an easy button.
659
00:43:15.689 --> 00:43:17.670
And sometimes we hear all these other stories.
660
00:43:17.730 --> 00:43:24.793
And to your point earlier is we compare ourselves to everybody else and we compare ourselves and our success against everybody else's success.
661
00:43:24.833 --> 00:43:26.313
And sometimes you don't know the whole story.
662
00:43:26.893 --> 00:43:30.675
And so we can have these conversations and people can start to hear more of the whole story.
663
00:43:31.155 --> 00:43:33.416
I think it all puts us all in a better position.
664
00:43:33.516 --> 00:43:34.776
And I'm so appreciative of it.
665
00:43:34.796 --> 00:43:36.037
So I appreciate you joining me today.
666
00:43:36.057 --> 00:43:37.377
It's been a really fun conversation.
667
00:43:37.397 --> 00:43:38.438
We're all in this together.
668
00:43:38.879 --> 00:43:41.882
I have no regrets about having done this.
669
00:43:41.902 --> 00:43:43.103
You know, life takes over.
670
00:43:43.303 --> 00:43:45.826
That's another life lesson is just be ready.
671
00:43:45.906 --> 00:43:46.767
Life can take over.
672
00:43:46.827 --> 00:43:48.029
It did for me in other ways.
673
00:43:48.169 --> 00:43:51.773
And now I need to move on from the short-term rental world.
674
00:43:52.193 --> 00:43:54.135
But no regrets at all.
675
00:43:54.275 --> 00:43:55.397
This has been fun.
676
00:43:56.738 --> 00:43:57.038
Love it.
677
00:43:57.178 --> 00:43:57.478
Love it.
678
00:43:57.538 --> 00:44:00.039
And since we're talking about the bourbon trail, love your shirt.
679
00:44:00.099 --> 00:44:00.719
Life happens.
680
00:44:00.839 --> 00:44:01.439
Bourbon helps.
681
00:44:01.759 --> 00:44:03.660
And I always do Whiskey Wednesday.
682
00:44:03.680 --> 00:44:04.980
And so I couldn't agree more.
683
00:44:05.040 --> 00:44:07.281
So we'll wrap it up with that.
684
00:44:07.321 --> 00:44:10.061
I had this shirt made and it's got the house logo on the back of it.
685
00:44:10.541 --> 00:44:11.402
Oh, that's awesome.
686
00:44:11.422 --> 00:44:13.742
So people have them when they get to the house?
687
00:44:14.222 --> 00:44:16.963
Yeah, we give them away as swag every once in a while.
688
00:44:17.023 --> 00:44:21.564
And we give away a nice whiskey glass with the house logo on it.
689
00:44:21.624 --> 00:44:24.605
We put together a little basket so everybody gets a glass when they...
690
00:44:25.396 --> 00:44:25.916
when they leave.
691
00:44:26.196 --> 00:44:27.076
Yeah, yep.
692
00:44:27.156 --> 00:44:28.497
Tee them up for the whole trip, right?
693
00:44:29.017 --> 00:44:29.517
That's right.
694
00:44:29.637 --> 00:44:30.217
That's awesome.
695
00:44:30.697 --> 00:44:31.657
Well, John, we'll wrap it up.
696
00:44:31.677 --> 00:44:32.598
I appreciate you, my man.
697
00:44:32.658 --> 00:44:36.898
Those of you listening, we know how valuable your time is and we appreciate you spending with us.
698
00:44:37.338 --> 00:44:39.879
I hope you got as much out of these conversations as I always do.
699
00:44:40.119 --> 00:44:47.581
Every single week, I learn more when I have these conversations and that collective knowledge and experience hopefully puts us all in a better position to succeed.
700
00:44:47.601 --> 00:44:48.801
And that's our goal here at Vodesee.
701
00:44:49.581 --> 00:44:53.664
Those of you that listen on a regular basis, you don't have to listen to a bunch of ads and sponsorships.
702
00:44:53.704 --> 00:44:55.846
And so the only way the show grows is if you guys share it.
703
00:44:55.906 --> 00:44:58.729
And so I always ask you at the end of every episode to like it.
704
00:44:58.749 --> 00:44:59.489
Give us a thumbs up.
705
00:44:59.509 --> 00:45:02.151
Give us a review on whatever platform you're watching or listening on.
706
00:45:02.572 --> 00:45:06.095
Those things are very, very much appreciated on our side because it helps the show grow.
707
00:45:06.575 --> 00:45:11.779
But the final, most important thing I ask you at the end of every single episode is pick that one thing you can do today.
708
00:45:11.819 --> 00:45:13.901
Start building that life you don't want to take a vacation from.
709
00:45:14.101 --> 00:45:14.642
Cheers, my friends.
710
00:45:15.623 --> 00:45:15.923
Cheers.
711
00:45:16.625 --> 00:45:23.690
Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Vacation Rental Revolution podcast.
712
00:45:24.070 --> 00:45:27.452
Share this with other people you think need to hear about it.
713
00:45:27.712 --> 00:45:30.935
And don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review.
714
00:45:31.315 --> 00:45:33.036
Hey Grace, is there a website?
715
00:45:33.436 --> 00:45:33.797
Yes!
716
00:45:34.157 --> 00:45:38.780
For more amazing content and expert advice, visit Vodicy.com.
717
00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:43.243
Thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.