Karen Chenaille:               00:00                    I plan on buying more stuff because I know there’s going to be some deals because I know the prices on those properties are going to come down or the sellers are going to be taken a beating right now and they’re just going to be like, get me the hell out of this thing and I know it’s coming back, so if I can buy it and hang on for another five or six months after I get it, I think the returns are going to be really good.

Julian Sage:                       00:20                    This is episode number 57 in the short term rental success stories podcast. Are you an investor that’s looking to have your home professionally managed? Go to cohostit.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 hosts 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 hosts. We all strive for five star reviews, so please go on over to iTunes and let us know what you enjoy is. 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 what is going on nation. I am super excited to be back again with you this week.

Julian Sage:                       01:03                    In this episode we have the special honor of speaking with Karen and Scott again who were in episode number 44 of the success stories podcast, so if you go to shorttermsage.Com/STR44, 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 want to do anything. 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.

Julian Sage:                       01:54                    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 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. I also started meditating every morning. So before I looked at my phone or anything, I would just go and sit down and meditate.

Julian Sage:                       02:42                    One of the things that I’ve been using is this app called Calm. It 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 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 one, I found that inspiration again.

Julian Sage:                       03:27                    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 have to think about why I started the 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 now. 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.

Julian Sage:                       04:08                    I lost sight of moving forward and the direction of where I want to go, but it wasn’t until that I got re-inspired and excited again about the future and about the possibilities. 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 down. 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 in hosting and being heavily involved. Karen and Scott owned quite a few short term rental properties.

Julian Sage:                       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’d like my show notes for this episode and go to short term sage.com backslash/57 or if you’d like my show notes sent directly to your inbox every week, you can go shorttermsage.Com/Shownotes. With all that being said, onto this week’s conversation. Hey welcome back host nation to another set of short term rental success stories. In this episode, I have the special privilege of being able to speak with Karen and Scott once again, Karen and Scott. If we go back to one of the previous episodes back in episode 44, so if you want to listen to that, go to shorttermsage.com/str44 to listen to Karen and Scott story. But please, if you wouldn’t mind giving yourself a brief introduction about where you are, how you guys are handling this whole COVID-19 situation. And yeah, let’s hear it from you.

Karen Chenaille:               05:41                    Well, we’re here in lockdown in Vermont, much like probably all your listeners are going to be if they listen to this anytime in the next week or two. We’re doing pretty good though.

Karen Chenaille:               05:55                    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 longterm. We are not giving up. We’re pretty well invested. We’re actually planning on buying a couple more, but I think we’re going to 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 and I think we’re gonna wait until I think we’ll probably have to like the third week of may before we actually have to go under contract.

Karen Chenaille:               06:38                    So I think by then we’ll kind of know where this thing is going to head. Hopefully it will have peaked by then and we’ll see kind of a light at the end of the tunnel. Mmm. I don’t really think anyone’s going to swoop in and buy those two things that we want because I think everyone’s kind of like we are now and 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 going to 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.

Julian Sage:                       07:07                    So, so where, where were you guys right before this whole situation occurred? Where you were you playing for something like this? I mean majority of your portfolio is your purchase properties. Were you planning on purchasing more right before this happen or did this just kind of blindside you?

Karen Chenaille:               07:25                    So we were planning on those two that were Panama city beach. So we went to look for, look at, I mean that was the plan and that’s why we went down there. Cause I, I’m actually surprised that this is at the time when it first happened, I didn’t, I thought it was going to be like two or three weeks. It was going to 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 him. Once we realized that it was going to take a lot longer for this to Passover, we decided to put the brakes 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 cause we do have mortgage. Nice. So we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to 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 to your credit. But trying not to do that. If we could get away with, with just paying these things out, right. For a couple of months and survive that way, that would be good.

Julian Sage:                       08:25                    Hmm. What do you w what are you doing? Because I mean, having 10 properties that you own. I mean that, that’s, that’s a lot. 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?

Karen Chenaille:               08:39                    I’ll be real candid. I have a performance coach that I work with and kinda has made all the difference in sort of keeping the, the long game in mind. I try not to get mired down and to what’s going on every day and try to really remember like, why did I get this in the beginning? What are my longterm goals and really try to just focus on the end game. You know, I still have a w two 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 to delay. But I’m hoping that, you know, by mid may people are booking again, I mean we’ve all think that when, when they say you can go out again, I think that you’re going to see an explosion of bookings because people will have been cooped up at that point for like 12 weeks and they’re just going to, they’re going to need to get away and I think that the demand will be there.

Karen Chenaille:               09:31                    So it’s just getting through this next couple of months and paying the mortgages and all the properties and things were terminal expenses in the portfolio right now. So like I think I’m going to let my virtual assistant go. I’ve put in 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 know I have a lot of saved messages and stuff that I can use. So I figured I’ve got a lot more time on my hands now because I’m working from home. My company has some, allows me to work from home, which I’m very fortunate for. I don’t have to drive anywhere though. So that’s like another two hours back in my day that I can use if, if something like that comes up.

Julian Sage:                       10:09                    I know lots of people are, are talking about different strategies on trying to get bookings or converting to longterm rentals or finding a traveling nurses and such. Are you doing anything in your business or you just kind of letting things happen as they are?

Karen Chenaille:               10:23                    I think for the property that’s down in Biloxi, there might actually be a market for that. Cause there are a couple, 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 Smokies, 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 going to have to wait. And we did keep going. So my husband is not able to work right now because Vermont is on a total shutdown. So he was in construction and was building a rather large home and had to stop work there. And so he’s home now.

Scott Chenaille:                 11:00                    Working on the house.

Karen Chenaille:               11:02                    Working on the house.

Scott Chenaille:                 11:03                    We are going to convert this, our house to maybe longterm, 30`days we’re trying to, right?

Karen Chenaille:               11:12                    Yup. Yeah.

Scott Chenaille:                 11:13                    So we’re putting in a couple of new bathrooms so every room will have it’s own bath. And we’re going to try that here first.

Julian Sage:                       11:25                    So right now you’re saying that the strategy that 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 things don’t pick up the way that maybe we anticipate. Do you have any backup plans already set in place?

Karen Chenaille:               11:45                    Not really. I don’t want to sell anything because I do think it’s going to come back. You know, our plan to just hang on. I mean if I had to, I could tap into my 401k. I don’t definitely don’t want to do that. That’s the absolute worst case resort. But when we were both still working, we both draw pretty good salary. 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, we’re bullish. I’m trying to get my realtor’s license. I’m studying for that like crazy. I 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 rentals here in Vermont up near Killington. So I’m, I’m going to keep going. I think the market’s going to be there. I don’t think people are going to stop traveling. People especially go ski towns and stuff like that,

Julian Sage:                       12:47                    I know that you’re part of a lot of different groups and you’re also 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?

Karen Chenaille:               13:01                    You know what my coach said to me and I thought it was funny because I’m a driver. 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 on my hands and I feel like I’m not really making forward progress as fast as I want because I kinda can’t. Right. And it was funny, he said, all of this stuff, he thinks there’s a big shift coming in 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’s hard for humans to adapt to change.

Karen Chenaille:               13:40                    And he said, just take some time to yourself. He said, it’s really important. He said, all of this stuff is going to be there when this thing straightened out. And, and I thought it was really funny cause this is guy, he’s a performance coach. He’s supposed to be cracking the whip on me. And he told me to, to kind of kick it for a, for a little bit and get my wits about me and kind of recenter and then move forward. So I thought that was really helpful because until he said that I felt very lost, very frustrated and anxious and I’m not going to 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, we’re doing the arbitrage model or that’s gotta be a little bit scary for you as well.

Julian Sage:                       14:17                    You know, I just, 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 speak a very similar language in that we’re always trying to move forward. And then when something puts that, that stop on the brakes, 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 would you tell them?

Karen Chenaille:               14:46                    Take a deep breath. Cliche as that sounds, you really have to take a deep breath, take a couple steps back re examine your goals, figure out, ask yourself, you know, why didn’t, what, what was the real motivation for me to get into short term models? What am I trying to do? Because candidly there are going to be people exiting a market. You and I both know that I think this is going to kind of sort out Mmm. Sorted out quite a bit and you’re going to find two people that are left standing. I think there’s going to be deals to be had. Particularly if you’re in like a hosting model, I think you’re going to see a lot of people who were hosts maybe want to hang under the real estate but not host anymore because working with all those people in those cancellations has been really tough.

Karen Chenaille:               15:29                    People have been brutal in some cases when we’ve wanted to cancel. So I think it’s going to 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 can just hang on and stay to the long game. I really think there’s a ton of opportunity and we’re all going to get smarter about this. I mean, and a couple of years, the people that are left standing are going to be very, very smart and very savvy and a lot more opportunity there. And that’s, I totally believe that this is going to scare a lot of people away, that we’re just kind of in it to make a quick buck versus like people like you and I who are really into it for long home. And this is our business. This is my plan to retire. So I’m, I’m in.

Julian Sage:                       16:10                    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 going to be purchasing more properties you believe in the future? If things go down would you be, you know, exiting those or just doing longterm D? What’s, do you have any plan on moving forward?

Karen Chenaille:               16:32                    I don’t really care for a longterm rental, so I don’t think we’re going to go there because 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 would ever become longterm focused. I think that I would, I plan on buying more stuff because I know there’s going to be some deals. That’s the other reason why I’m waiting to the end of my exchange period. Cause I know the prices on those properties are going to come down or the sellers are gonna be taken a beating right now and they’re just going to be like, get me the hell out of this thing. And I know it’s coming back. So if I can buy it and hang on for another five or six months after I get it, I think the returns are gonna be really good.

Karen Chenaille:               17:13                    So I don’t think we’re really going to change our strategy too much. I, I can, I like to buy my properties and hang on to them. Not so sure I want to do a ton of co-hosting. 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 rentals 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 model, there’s certain pieces of data you want to have in your hands. And every griller 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 going to be my plan. I’m going to to it.

Julian Sage:                       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, it’s an investors coming to the particular area. Like we have another host that comes on the show Irene Roth and she’s in the st Petersburg areas. There’s no one, no other people really in that area that are short term mental focus. So to be able to have someone in different markets that really knows that area. Like I know I’m in the, was it the Gatlinburg area? You also have

Karen Chenaille:               18:16                    Avery?

Julian Sage:                       18:18                    Avery Carl you know, she’s, she’s very popular within that market. So 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 — Majority of your portfolio I believe it’s kind of the Midwest, but now you’re looking at the Florida area as well.

Karen Chenaille:               18:37                    So the Smokies 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 in a single day they would have multiple offers on them and the sellers, we’re not making any concessions like you were just having to buy stuff that was, that you were going to have to put money into. And our model is by turnkey, just too much competition, too much stress. Panama city beach, if you will, if you have ever been there. Mmm. It’s very much like, like Gatlinburg and pigeon forages. There’s a lot of family focused 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.

Karen Chenaille:               19:26                    Bye. You’re not allowed to drink on the beach in 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 this starting look a lot more like Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg shoulder season is like January and February right now. Mmm. And I think Panama city is going to be the same way. And then in January, February, you just put a snowbird in there, someone who wants to stay for the whole month and you know, at least you’ve got somebody in a covering. It’s 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 going to get a lot like gala Berg. It’s going to shoot up. So that’s why we went.

Julian Sage:                       20:10                    Awesome. And w what do you guys do in at home right now during this cool down period? Is there anything that you’re I don’t, I don’t have to give me too, too much detail, but besides eating, what are some of the things that you’re doing in the house? Getting it ready, getting ready. Awesome. Awesome. Well thank you so much. Is there anything that you do want to share with the audience? Any last words? You know, 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 want to share with the host nation?

Karen Chenaille:               20:44                    I just want people to stay, stay in for the long game. Don’t get too scared. Don’t watch the news too much. I notice it 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 do. You got stand for him. But maybe like watch it for like 10 minutes at night, get, get the little nugget 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. I just stay away from it because there’s nothing you can do about it if you’re not going to change any of it. You just have to kind of build up your reserves and both mental and monetary if you kind of be ready to pounce when everything comes back up because it’s going to come back.

Julian Sage:                       21:29                    Hmm. And, and what about the Facebook groups? I know that you’re pretty active on Facebook and the, and the, all the Airbnb short term rental groups. Is that something that you’re you’re staying away from right now? Or have you noticed a shift in there?

Karen Chenaille:               21:41                    I still get on the ones, the ones that I own property. And 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 going on down there. And I, I S I still plugged into your group kind of listening to everybody, but I try not to do that too much either because honestly I get anxious. I’m like, Oh my God, this could happen to me. And you know, and, and that’s just, it. Maybe it won’t happen to you, you know, so, Oh, I try not to participate in it too much, but you kind of have to like, do you just have to, you got to 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 gonna there’s going to be an end to it and then we’re going to be a really well poised, you know, so that’s the goal. Just be ready.

Julian Sage:                       22:34                    Awesome. Well, thank you so much Karen and Scott for coming on here and sharing, sharing them 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 going to fix everything at the moment, but just being, being real and being optimistic I think is is the best approach right now.

Karen Chenaille:               22:54                    Well thanks for having us.

Scott Chenaille:                 22:55                    Thank you.

Karen Chenaille:               22:55                    We jumped at the opportunity. Loved chatting with you. Love to see your smiling face.

Julian Sage:                       23:00                    Yeah. Thank you so much. Are you going to be at the next bigger pockets event?

Karen Chenaille:               23:03                    Well we are going if they’re going to, so it’s in new Orleans in new Orleans is ground zero right now. 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.

Julian Sage:                       23:15                    Awesome. I’ll see you guys there as well.

Karen Chenaille:               23:18                    Sure we’ll.

Julian Sage:                       23:19                    All right, take care.

Karen Chenaille:               23:19                    Thanks.

Scott Chenaille:                 23:19                    You too.

Julian Sage:                       23:19                    Until next time, host nation, keep on hosting. Hope you hosts benefit from the show. If you found value, please go on 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 had been featured in these episodes as well as the community, then go on over to our Facebook group, the host nation.