STRSS 57 – How Hosts are Staying Positive in Times of Uncertainty w/ Karen and Scott Chenaille

Video Transcript

 

00:00:00

I plan on buying more stuff, because I know there’s gonna be some deals. Cause I know the prices on those properties are gonna come down or the sellers are gonna be taking a beaten right now. And they’re just gonna be like, get me the hell out of this thing. And I know it’s coming back. So if I can buy it and, and hang on for another five or six months after I get it, I think the returns are gonna be really good.

 

00:00:20

This is episode number five seven on the short term rental success stories podcast. Are you an investor that’s looking to have your home professionally managed, go to cohost it.com for more information, welcome back to short term rental success stories. I’m your host, Julian Sage. This is a show where I talk to host about their journeys and starting and growing the short term rental business. My goal is that you’ll be able to walk away with practical information. That’ll help you become a better host and learn how to scale your business. Like any exceptional host. We all strive for Fivestar reviews. So please go on over to iTunes and let us know what you enjoy as it really helps support the show. If you haven’t done so already going over to our Facebook group, the host nation to connect with the community.

 

00:01:00

Hey, what is going on? Host nation? I am super excited to be back again with you this week. In this episode, we have this special honor. I was speaking with Karen and Scott again, who were in episode number four, four of the success stories podcast. So if you go to shorttermsage.com slash SDR 44, you can catch that episode. But Karen and Scott wanted to come back onto the show to help inspire the host nation. Because right now there is a lot of uncertainty. Even when we had this conversation, I was still not in the best mental place, just because of how uncertain the situation was. Everybody handles emotional stress differently, and it’s something that we shouldn’t take lightly. I know from firsthand experience, just what it means to be burnt out and not wanting to move forward. It seemed like for about a month, I was really out of it and I didn’t wanna do anything.

 

00:01:47

I didn’t even want to open my browser tab on my computer and see all the different tabs or all the different things that I felt like I needed to do. I didn’t want to touch any of that. I didn’t know because of just the amount of uncertainty moving forward, where I was supposed to be going. When you don’t know where to go, everything can seem lost. So here are some of my tips on what I did to be able to come out of burnout. One of those was just putting everything down and just taking a break. I went through a whole show, being Ozark. I went through like 30 episodes. I was like 30 hours right there, just laying in bed and watching television. I purchased a VR headset because I have never, I haven’t gained in quite a few years. So I bought one of those and just had fun and was really mind blown by that experience.

 

00:02:34

I also started meditating every morning. So before I, you know, looked at my phone or anything, I would just go and sit down and meditate. One of the things that I’ve been using is this app called calm, has guided meditations that are really easy to follow. And if you don’t have any experience meditating before then, it’s a really easy way to be able to start. I also started journaling every day and just spilling out whatever is on my thoughts. If you’re religious, then now’s the time to be praying. I pray every morning, every day I read the Bible and I just take a moment to, you know, thank God for what I do have. I didn’t force myself into trying to do anything that I didn’t want to do. I also slowly started integrating more work into my life. So while I had my tabs up now, I was also watching Ozark, but what really kicked it off and what helped me to really start moving forward was when I found that inspiration.

 

00:03:27

Again, one of the members of the host nation family actually reached out to me. He was a long time listener and said like, Hey Julian, something’s up? You haven’t been right. Your shows aren’t right. The way that you’re talking isn’t right. And you know, really just kind of like a check myself moment. And I had to think about why I started this show and what I wanted to do moving forward. Sometimes when you lose sight of where to move forward, you have to take a step back and remember where you came from. You know, what are the reasons that you started hosting? What are the reasons why you wanted to be able to reach financial freedom? Why did you take that job in the first place? A lot of my podcast friends are also being impacted. I think right now is the time more than ever that we should be preparing ourselves and helping to get ourselves ready for what is to come.

 

00:04:09

You know, I lost sight of moving forward and the direction of where I want to go, but it wasn’t until that I got reinspired and excited again about the future and about the possibilities that I had, that fire kind of come back to me. I now know moving forward that I have to be a little bit more careful and treat myself better this past year has just really been grinding and grinding with the show. But it’s exciting when everything is moving up and there is a clear direction, but when there isn’t that clear direction, you really need to fall back on the reasons why you started doing things that you did. So that’s why I’m excited to have Karen and Scott come on to help inspire us and to help share their experience and hosting and being, you know, heavily involved. Karen and Scott own quite a few shorter Rental properties.

 

00:04:49

Their whole strategy is purchasing these properties. So they have a lot of mortgages, a lot of responsibility. So we talk about, you know, their mental state and how they’re handling this situation. Moving forward. If you like my show notes for this episode, go to Short Term Sage dot com slash SDR five seven. Or if you like my show notes sent directly to your inbox every week, then go to Short Term Sage dot com slash show notes with all that being said onto this week’s conversation. Hey, welcome back, host nation to another episode of short term rental success stories. In this episode, I had the special privilege of being able to speak with Karen and Scott. Once again, Karen and Scott, if we go back to one of their previous episodes back in episode 44. So if you wanna listen to that episode to go to shorttermsage.com slash SDR four to, to Karen and Scott’s story, but please, if you wouldn’t mind giving yourself a brief introduction about where you are, how you guys are kind handling this whole COVID 19 situation. And yeah, let’s, let’s, let’s hear from you.

 

00:05:42

Well, we’re here in lockdown in Vermont, much like probably all your listeners are gonna be if they listen to this, anytime in the next week or two, we’re doing pretty good though. You know, I think that it was a little bit of a shock to the system. We have properties in Gatlinburg, we’ve got some in Biloxi and some so very sobering and, but we’re still here. We’re planning on sticking it out for the long term. We are not giving up. We’re pretty well invested. We’re actually planning on buying a couple more, but I think we’re gonna hold off on that. So we went to Panama city last weekend to look at a couple of different condos on the beach. Cause we had some money coming out of a 10 31 we’re in the middle of, and we’ve decided to wait. So we’ve got 45 days in the 10 31.

 

00:06:31

And I think we’re gonna wait until I think we’ll probably have till like the third week of may before we actually have to go under contract. So I think by then, we’ll kind of know where this thing is gonna head. Hopefully it will have peaked by then and we’ll see kind of a light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t really think anyone’s gonna swoop in and buy those two things that we want because I think everyone’s kind of like we are now in kind of a wait and hold mode, you know? And if, if worst case, if, if it’s still really bad and we don’t think, you know, it’s gonna pick up before the end of the year, we’ll probably just pay the tax penalty and keep the money in reserve and, and wait and buy something later.

 

00:07:07

So, so where, where were you guys right before this whole situation occurred? Were you, were you planning for something like this? I mean, majority of your portfolio is you, you purchase properties. Were you planning on purchasing more right before this happened or did this just kind of blindside you?

 

00:07:26

So we were planning on those two that were Panama city beach that we went to look for, look at. I mean, that was the plan and that’s why we went down there, cuz I I’m actually surprised that this is at the time when it first happened. I didn’t, I thought it was gonna be like two or three weeks. It was gonna be over. Cause you know, summer in Florida, June and July are the peak months. So I said, let’s get in there and let’s buy ’em once we realized that it was gonna take a lot longer for this to pass over, we decided to put the breaks on. But you know, I, I still think there’s opportunity for this thing to clear up right now. We’re just trying to shore up what we have cuz we do have mortgage. So we’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna pay those. You know, we’ve got some reserves that are set aside and I know that a lot of the banks are giving folks extensions three months extensions right now with no impact your credit. But I’m trying not to do that if we could get away with, with just paying these things outright for a couple of months and, and that way that would be good.

 

00:08:25

What are you, what, what are you doing? Because I mean having 10 properties that you own, I mean that, that’s, that’s a lot of, that’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of that you owe to the banks. Are you worried about this? Or how are you just even emotionally handling this type of situation?

 

00:08:39

I’ll be real candid. I have a performance coach that I work with and kind of has made all the difference in sort of keeping the, the long game in mind. I try not to get mired down into what’s going on every day and try to really remember like, why did I get into this in the beginning? What are my long term goals? And really try to just focus on the end game. You know, I still have a W2 job, which I’m very grateful for, which will help us. And then again, we did have some reserves, worst case. I can still call the banks and ask for a three month delay. But I’m hoping that, you know, by mid may, people are booking again. I mean, we both think that when, when they say you can go out again, I think you’re gonna see an explosion of bookings cuz people will have been cooped up at that point for like 12 weeks and they’re just gonna, they’re gonna need to get away.

 

00:09:29

And I think that the demand will be there. So it’s just getting through this next couple of months and paying the mortgages and all the properties and things. We’re trim all the expenses in the portfolio right now. So like I think I’m gonna let my virtual assistant go. I’m putting a lot of the automated tools on hold because what I have no bookings coming in, what do I need them for? I mean, if I were to get a reservation or two here or there I’ll just respond manually, you know, I have a lot of save messages and stuff that I can use. So I figured I’ve got a lot more time on my hands now. Cause I’m working from my company has allows me to work from which I’m very fortunate for. I don’t though. So that’s like another two hours back in my day that I can use. If something like that comes up,

 

01:10:10

I know lots of people are, are talking about different strategies on trying to get bookings or converting to long-term rentals or finding traveling nurses and such. Are, are you doing anything in your business or are you just kinda letting things happen as they are?

 

01:10:23

I think for the property that’s down in Biloxi, there might actually be a market for that. Cuz there are, there’s a couple of big hospitals around there and I do intend to market that, to traveling nurses, the properties that are in the smokes, really no traveling. I mean that’s a Vacation destination for families. There’s really not a market for traveling nurses there. So those are just gonna have to wait and we did keep going. So my husband is not able to work right now cuz Vermont’s on a total shutdown. So he had was in construction and was building a rather large home and had to there. And so he’s home now

 

01:11:02

Working on the house,

 

01:11:03

Working on the house, we, we

 

01:11:05

Are gonna convert this, our house to maybe we’re trying right bathrooms and its, we’re gonna try that here first.

 

01:11:26

So, so right now you’re saying that the strategy that you’re you’re trying to implement is, is after this whole situation kind of rolls over, you think that it’ll pick up, do you have a plan in case let’s say, let’s say things don’t pick up the way that, that maybe we anticipate. Do you have any, any backup plans already set in place?

 

01:11:46

Not really. I don’t wanna sell anything because I do think it’s gonna come back. You know, our plan is to just hang on. I mean, if I had to, I could tap into my 401k. I don’t definitely don’t wanna do that. That’s the absolute worst case resort, but I mean we’re both still working. We both draw pretty good salaries. So we would have to trim out our expenses here at home a little bit and maybe not go out to eat as much and stuff, but I think we can hang on and just continue to keep the portfolio expenses down and, and do more a lot. Like I said, a lot of the automation we had put in place we would be scaling back on, but I mean we’re still re bullish. I’m trying to get my realtors license. So I’m studying for that like crazy I’m fully intend to go ahead and be licensed for that. Hopefully by the middle of may, if the test center is open, that’s my plan to take the test and get licensed and start selling short term rental here in Vermont, up near Killington. So I’m, I’m gonna keep going. I think the market’s gonna be there. I don’t think people are gonna stop traveling. People will, especially to ski towns and stuff like that.

 

01:12:47

You know, listen, listening to, you know, I know that you’re part of a lot of different groups and you’re also, you know, getting the personal development help. Is there, have you heard anything or was there any, any advice or anything that maybe someone said that really spoke out to you that’s helped you through this time?

 

01:13:02

You know what my coach said to me and I thought it was funny because I’m a driver. I like, I just go, go, go. And I was talking to him about feeling a little bit lost and feeling like I have all this time with my hands and I feel like I’m not really making forward progress as fast as I want because I kind of can’t right. And it was funny. He said things, all of this stuff, he thinks there’s a big shift coming and the economy and in the world at large. And he said, you know, it’s time to slow down. And he said, you need to go sit down and just relax and watch the movies. He said, it’s a very stressful time. There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of change. And it takes, it’s hard for humans to adapt the change.

 

01:13:40

And he said, just take some time to yourself. He said, it’s really important. He said, all of this stuff is gonna be there when this thing straightens out. And, and I thought it was really funny cuz this is a guy he’s a performance coach. He’s supposed to be cracking the whip of me. And he told me to, to kind of kick it for, for a little bit and get my wits about me and kind of reenter and then move forward. So I thought that was really helpful because I was until he said that I felt very lost, very frustrated, anxious. And I’m not gonna say it’s a walk in the park. It is scary having all those mortgages and all those properties. But I mean, you know what it’s like. I mean, I know you guys, you know, were doing the arbitrage model and that’s gotta be a little bit scary for you as well.

 

01:14:18

You know, I, I just wanted to get you on the show to, to, to share. Was there, was there anything that you did have in mind that you did? Like, let’s say there’s somebody listening right now that is feeling overwhelmed or feeling stressed. Maybe they felt like everything was go, go, go. Like you said, you know, Karen, Karen, I think we, we speak a very similar language in that we’re always trying to move forward. And then when something puts that, that stop on the breaks, it’s just like, man, like it’s a shock to the system almost if there’s anybody else that maybe is in a similar situation, what, what would you tell them?

 

01:14:47

Take a deep breath is, is blase. Is that sounds, you really have to take a deep breath, take a couple steps back, reexamine your goals, figure out, ask yourself, you know, why did I, what, what was the real motivation for me to get into short term rental? What am I trying to do? Because candidly, there are gonna be people exiting the market. You and I both know that. I think this is gonna kind of sort out, sort it out quite a bit. And you’re gonna find, do, do people that are left standing. I think there’s gonna be deals to be had, particularly if you’re in like a hosting model. I think you’re gonna see a lot of people who were hosts maybe wanna hang under the real estate, but not host anymore because working with all those people in those cancellations have been really tough.

 

01:15:29

People have been brutal in some cases when they’ve wanted to cancel. So I think it’s gonna thin out the herd. I think hang in there. Cause I think opportunity, massive amounts of opportunity on the other side of this thing, if you just hang on and state the long game, I really think there’s a ton of opportunity and we’re all gonna get smarter about this. I mean, in, in a couple of years, the people that are left standing are gonna be very, very smart and very savvy and lot more opportunity there. And that’s, I totally believe that this is gonna scare a lot of people away that were just kind in it to make a quick buck versus like people like you and I who are really into it for long home. And you know, this is our business, this is my plan to retire. So I’m, I’m in,

 

01:16:11

Do you plan on picking up any other strategies, you know, different different markets have different types of different cycles in real estate. Are you planning on implementing anything else? Are you gonna be purchasing more properties? You, you believe in the future, if things go down, would you be, you know, exiting those or just doing long-term what do what’s do you have any plan on moving forward?

 

01:16:32

I don’t really care for long-term Rental, so I don’t think we’re gonna go there. Cause those folks are struggling just like us, right? Like if you’re people are unable to pay their rent and you’ve got the wear and tear on your property. So I don’t think we, we would ever become long term focused. I think that I would, I plan on buying more stuff because I know there’s gonna be some deals. That’s the other reason why I’m waiting to the end of my exchange period, cuz I know the prices on those properties are gonna come down or the sellers are gonna be taken a beaten right now. And they’re just gonna be like, get me the hell out of this thing. And I know it’s coming back. So if I can buy it and, and hang on for another five or six months after I get it, I think the returns are gonna be really good.

 

01:17:13

So I don’t think we’re really gonna change our strategy too much. I, I can, I like to, to buy my properties and hang on to them. Not so sure I wanna do a ton of cohosting. We’ll have to see, you know, my idea with becoming a realtor I’m still moving forward on that would be to sell short term rental here in Vermont, in the ski areas. There’s nobody that really focuses on that and understands like if you’re an investor looking to buy a short term rental, there’s certain pieces of data you wanna have in your hands. And every realtor I’ve worked with has no idea what they’re doing. They don’t know how to present the property. I think there’s a huge market here for that. So I think that’s gonna be my plan. I’m gonna stick to it.

 

01:17:50

Yeah. I think, I think that there’s like you said, there’s a lot of opportunities that, you know, even within the short term rental niche, like you said, if an investor’s coming to the particular area, like we have another host that comes on the show, Irina Roth and she’s in the St Petersburg areas. There’s no, no other people really in that area that are short term rental focus. So to be able to have someone in different markets that really knows that area, like I know in the, was it the Gatlinburg area? You also have

 

01:18:17

Avery,

 

01:18:18

Avery, Avery, Carl. Yeah. You know, she’s, she’s very popular within that market. So that’s, that’s, that’s really good that you’re looking for different tools for your tool belt to be able to diversify yourself. Is there, is there a reason why you’re moving towards, you know, majority of your portfolio I believe is kind of the Midwest, but now you’re looking at the Florida area as well.

 

01:18:38

So the smokey before, before Corona came along, it was very hard to buy anything there. The returns are really good, but I mean you would cabins would go on the market and a single day they would’ve multiple offers on them and the sellers were not making any concessions. Like you were just having to buy stuff that was, that you were gonna have to put money into. And our model is buy turnkey, just too much competition, too much stress, Panama city beach. If you, if you have ever been there, it’s very much like, like Gatlinburg and pigeon forges. There’s a lot of family focus activities. You have the beach there. Obviously it’s just a, it’s a really great environment. They’ve done a lot to clean it up. So I see it as kind of an up and coming area. I do think that the town in particular is working really hard to get rid of that college vibe.

 

01:19:28

You’re not allowed to drink on the beach and March at all, which has really changed the dynamic. There’s no more spring breakers that go there to party like that. So I do think there’s a lot of opportunity there. They hardly have a shoulder season anymore. It’s, it’s starting to look a lot more like Gatlinburg Gatlinburg shoulder season is like January and February right now. And I think Panama city’s gonna be the same way. And then, and in January and February, you just put a snowbird in there. Somebody wants to save for the whole month and you know, at least you’ve got somebody in it covering its expenses for that month. So that’s why we’re going there. Just because I think that it’s a, it’s kind of at the bottom right now and it’s, I do think it’s gonna get a lot like Berg, it’s gonna shoot up. So that’s why we went

 

02:20:10

Awesome. And what, what are you guys doing at home right now during this cool down period? Is there anything that you’re, I don’t, I don’t have to give too too much detail, but besides eating, besides eating, what is some of the eating

 

02:20:23

And more

 

02:20:23

Eating? Yeah. What, what are some of the things that you’re doing?

 

02:20:26

The house we’re working on the house? Yeah. Yep. Getting it, ready,

 

02:20:30

Getting it ready. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything that you do wanna share with, with the audience? Any last words, you know, I’m, I’m really grateful that you guys came on here to share some, some of your positive outlook, but is there anything that you would wanna share with the host nation?

 

02:20:45

I just want people to stay, stay in it for the long game. Don’t get too scared. Don’t watch the news too much. I, I notice a completely different feeling throughout the day. If I get on my phone in the morning and I read all this crap about the coronavirus, don’t look at it. Like I know you gotta stay informed, but maybe like, watch it for like 10 minutes at night, get, get the little nuggets you need and then get off because just so it’s, I think it’s so hyped up and there’s a lot of misinformation out there and it can really make you depressed, just stay away from it because there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re not gonna change any of it. You just have to kinda build up your reserves and both mental and, and monetary, if you can, and be ready to pounce when everything comes back up, it’s gonna come back.

 

02:21:30

And, and what about the, the Facebook groups? I, I know that you’re pretty active on, on Facebook and the, all the Airbnb short Rental groups. Is that something that you’re, you’re staying away from right now? Or have you noticed a shift in there?

 

02:21:41

I still get on the ones where the ones that I own property in. So I get on the one in Gatlinburg, the smokey mountain Vacation Rental owners, just to know what’s going on in the local area, because I have no idea what’s what’s going on down there. And I, I, I still plug into your group kind of listening to everybody, but I try not to do that too much either because honestly I get anxious. I like, oh my God, this could happen to me. And you know, and, and that’s just, maybe it won’t happen to you, you know? So I try not to, to participate in it too much, but you kind of have to, like, you just have to, you gotta know what’s going on. So I try not to do too much of it though. Really. We’re trying to focus on what’s going on in the house and, and get the house ready and just stay busy doing that. Because like I said, there’s, there’s gonna be an end to it. And then we’re gonna be really well poised, you know? So that’s the goal. Just be ready.

 

02:22:35

Awesome. Well, thank, thank you so much, Karen and Scott for coming on here and sharing, sharing your experience and, and being, being honest about the situation, you know, you, don’t not, everybody has all the answers. There’s really nothing. There’s no magic pill. That’s gonna fix everything at the moment, but just being, being real and being optimistic, I think is, is, is the, the best approach right now.

 

02:22:54

Well, thanks for having us. Oh yeah. Thank you. Yeah. We jumped at the opportunity. Love chatting with you. Love to see your smiling face.

 

02:23:01

Oh yeah. Thank you so much. Are you gonna be at the next bigger pockets event?

 

02:23:04

We are going if they’re gonna, so it’s in new Orleans and new Orleans is ground zero right now. Oh yeah. We were actually just talking about that. If they’ll still continue to have it there, but yeah. We’re planning on going for sure. Absolutely

 

02:23:16

Awesome. Well, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll see you guys there as well.

 

02:23:19

You sure will.

 

02:23:19

All right. Take care.

 

02:23:21

Thanks you too.

 

02:23:22

Until next time, host nation, keep on hosting. Hope you host benefited from the show. If you found value, please going over to iTunes, leave us a review and let us know what you enjoy about the show. If you’d like to talk to hosts that have been featured in these episodes, as well as the community, going over to our Facebook group, the host nation.