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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, listeners. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we’re– 

[00:00:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:06] Sarah: All right, let’s kick off this episode like we do every single time, that is sharing one of you, our amazing listeners, who’s using our hashtag on Instagram. That’s #STRShareSunday. If you use it, we’ll find you, and we’ll share you here on the pod. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

[00:00:20] Annette: This week we are sharing @motojave1953. That’s M-O-T-O-J-A-V-E1953, and they are a home in Joshua Tree. Want to go over a few things that, hosts, you might be able to do today. One is, let’s call it “the brag bar”. So when you go to their Airbnb listing, you can add a section where you’re like, featured in, awards won, and designed by. I’ll call it the brag bar.

And I like this. They let potential guests know that they were featured in as best wedding venue in Joshua Tree in January of 2023. The awards won, they’ve won 50s Vacation Rental Experience of the Year by Home&Garden in 2023, and then designed by Erin O’Connor and Christopher Smith, which I think is them.

But I think that’s just an interesting place to add. It is a brag bar. Like, oh my gosh, they were featured in this. Awards, Home&Garden. That just gives you– you’ll see this a lot on websites where they’ll say, featured in X, Y, Z magazine or on this television show. So if you could fill out that brag bar, I think it’d be awesome for you.

 The other thing I want to say about this listing, and I think this is going to become more and more important as we roll into the future, is they do have free EV charging. And so if you are looking for a way to potentially stand out in a sea of listings and you know that someone might be traveling to your home with an electric car, that might be the reason.

 Especially if they have to travel. Let’s say these people are coming from LA to Joshua Tree, they need to charge, and they can do it at that home. That might be the difference maker if they’re deciding between your place and someone else’s. So I think an EV charger could be something that you could install if you’re looking at some amenities that might draw guests in. So well done, and thank you for using the hashtag. And then Sarah, I’m excited about this episode. It’s about me and you. You and me.

[00:02:22] Sarah: I know.

[00:02:22] Annette: And a couple of other threes.

[00:02:24] Sarah: Try to make that rhyme.

[00:02:25] Annette: You, me, and three–

[00:02:27] Sarah: And three– 

[00:02:27] Both Annette & Sarah: Other people.

[00:02:29] Sarah: We’re going to be vulnerable. We’re going to share what we don’t know, what we do know, why we’re doing this.

[00:02:37] Annette: Yeah, we’re going to go over the who, what, when, where, and why of a new project we’re working on.

[00:02:42] Sarah: That’s right. Here we go.

 All right, Annette, so it’s been about a week and a half since I dragged you to the middle of Ohio and look at some land. What do you think?

[00:02:54] Annette: My favorite part was riding in the back of a truck. I haven’t done that for a really long time. It’s probably dangerous. Justin Ford, I hope you’re not listening.

[00:03:01] Sarah: We are looking at land to buy, and we’re going to get into the who, what, when, where, and why of it soon here. But we also have heard from our listeners, from you all, that you would like a little bit more behind the scenes of what Annette and I get ourselves into. Well, let me just share with you– I’m going to skip forward to actually looking at the land, and we are meeting with the seller. 

It wasn’t planned to meet with the seller, but we were trying to find out where to look at this other section of the land. And so our friend Mike was like, let me just call him, and brings him over. And the guy comes over, and Annette does what Annette does and she assumes that they’re already best friends. And this guy is trying to sell us a lot of land and talk leach fields, and what is that thing, hogan, or what’s it called? 

[00:03:46] Annette: I don’t know. Some sort of bailing. 

[00:03:48] Sarah: Some sort of–

[00:03:49] Annette: I don’t know.

[00:03:49] Sarah: We are very ready to be land buyers. Anyway, Annette asked for a ride in the back of his truck.

[00:03:57] Annette: And this was a big truck.

[00:03:58] Sarah: A big, giant dilly.

[00:04:00] Annette: But I haven’t done that since I was probably a teenager. Remember you’d hop in the back of the truck. So I was living my best life–

[00:04:06] Sarah: With the seller driving.

[00:04:07] Annette: With seller driving. And it was fun, but we got to see some more of the land that way. We were one with the land in the back of the pickup truck.

[00:04:15] Sarah: And it was fun to see the seller loosen up a little bit too and have some fun with us. So anyway, Annette and I are looking at land. I would say the past couple years, you and I have dreamed up some ideas of structures we would put on land.

[00:04:28] Annette: Yes.

[00:04:29] Sarah: But we’ve not made that step of putting our feet on land that is for sale.

[00:04:35] Annette: Sarah and I started dreaming this up when Airbnb did their competition of, if you dream it, we’ll give you a $100,000. 

[00:04:44] Sarah: That was pre-pandemic and I think the pandemic actually closed, the contest down. I think they reopened it. But anyway, we’ve talked about it for a long time.

[00:04:55] Annette: And now we’re getting more serious about it. And we’ve been looking, and we want to get into and share with you the who, what, when, where, why. And so first, let’s start with who, because it’s not just me and you. Let’s talk about who will be buying this land. And when we say land, also, we’ll get into what, which is buying the land, but this is potentially hundreds of acres. Just so people know, it’s not one acre of land. It’s a big–

[00:05:24] Sarah: 175 be exact.

[00:05:26] Annette: We’re partners, and Sarah and I have partnered on other projects, obviously our business, and then other properties. But we’re going to bring in some more folks in on this one.

[00:05:36] Sarah: So actually, Annette and I, we based our whole partnership on the fact that we like working with other people. Now, Annette, that’s not to say we haven’t been burned by other people in the past either. So I think that’s interesting that we actually value partnerships in that way. 

[00:05:51] Annette: Always. I always will.

[00:05:52] Sarah: I just like working with other people and collaborating. Now I know there’s people out there who would rather do it on their own completely, and that’s great, but that is one thing that Annette and I can agree on is that we like partnerships, and not just with each other, who obviously we have trust now there, but also we’re willing to put ourselves out there. Now, that doesn’t mean we won’t protect ourselves. 

[00:06:11] Annette: Yeah. 

[00:06:12] Sarah: So the people that we’re going to partner with, it’s not just Annette and myself, and of course, my husband, because I’m legally bound to him so–

[00:06:18] Annette: But I am not. So this is my first time actually, I mean, kind of legally bound to him because he is your husband, but the other property is more with my sister. This one is definitely– Nick is going to be in the scene. He’s always in the scene.

[00:06:31] Sarah: And then when Annette and I met, however many years ago, at that city council meeting, we also met another couple, and we were instantly impressed by their portfolio. They own all of their short-term rentals, and I think their niche is large homes here in downtown Columbus, and they’re new builds.

[00:06:52] Annette: Yes. Which is very different, especially in the areas that– they have a knack for finding land.

[00:06:58] Sarah: They do.

[00:06:59] Annette: So hello. Partner with people that do things better than you. They have a knack for finding– it’s land, but it’s more like vacant lots. Or if there’s a house that has the lot next to it, a lot and a half, they’ve done a really great job of finding those open lots here locally.

[00:07:16] Sarah: And they build new. They have renovated where that’s Nick and my, I don’t even want to call it expertise, but it’s what we do sometimes.

[00:07:24] Annette: You’ve done it.

[00:07:25] Sarah: Three four times a year for the past several years, and we’re still learning every day. But they specialize in building new.

[00:07:31] Annette: Yes.

[00:07:32] Sarah: So you mix the fact that they’re in short-term rentals. We’ve now watched their business grow for the past, what, four or five years? They’re great people. We get along. They bring different things to the table, and actually, they brought to us another piece of land that we’ve decided is way too risky for us right now, where we’re at. I like it because they also pursue this. We’re not driving it by ourselves. It’s like there’s equal interest in doing it. So that’s who.

[00:08:01] Annette: Yeah, that’s who. And I want to say one little caveat here. When we talk about who also, we’ve already, in this process– I’ll give a shout-out to my brother. He is an environmental lawyer, and so he has been an important person to lean on during certain things, our own attorney. But we have been chatting with our network about this potential so that other who is definitely us having conversations outside of our partnership.

 Shout-out Mike Hicks, as someone in our membership and a coach, and he is an expert in buying land. So we are already talking about this with some people outside of our partnership to lend us some help, all the way from lenders to attorneys to other people that have done it before.

[00:08:44] Sarah: Heck yeah.

[00:08:45] Annette: All right. So what are we buying? Is it acres? What have we been looking at?

[00:08:54] Sarah: We’ve been interested in drivable destinations to us, acreage, so that we can build new.

[00:09:04] Annette: What we’ve been looking for also is something that already has a property on it, a structure, a primary residence. So that already had a electric, plumbing. We could use it potentially as the contractor’s house, or maybe if we had–

[00:09:21] Sarah: The innkeeper, or the caretaker, whatever you want to call that person who might be there full time.

[00:09:26] Annette: So the what is land that we could build multiple dreams on and already has some zoning, some structure, something that isn’t just– all of them have had a home on it so far.

This land is also nestled between bigger populations. So we’re looking at land between Cincinnati and Columbus, and also not far from Dayton. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

[00:09:52] Sarah: I mean, obviously, there’s outlying states that aren’t that far. So drivable destination that allows us the flexibility too to build our dreams.

[00:10:03] Annette: And the what, we know it’s land, but the what is we do want to have multiple structures on it. So that’s something also that we’ve been looking at, is what is important is that this isn’t going to be a one-and-done build. 

[00:10:18] Sarah: No.

[00:10:19] Annette: Hopefully, we’ll develop multiple properties there. All right. So we got the who. We got the what. When, Sarah? When? When are we doing this?

[00:10:29] Sarah: We’ve been talking about it for so long, and Annette and I also, listeners, we want you to understand too, we are doing this thing, Thanks for Visiting. We are sharing all of our past experiences with hosting and building our hosting businesses with you, and it has grown into this beautiful thing, but there’s only so much time in the day for us to figure out how to grow Thanks for Visiting and make it the amazing, reliable resource that we hope you see that it’s become.

[00:10:56] Annette: And community.

[00:10:57] Sarah: And community. The time is now for us to continue our real estate investing adventure.

[00:11:03] Annette: So the when is now, but we’re also not in a huge rush. We’re definitely going to be calculated in it and take our time. Because if we’re going to build on land, we’re not going to have this thing up and running in the next 90 days.

[00:11:18] Sarah: No.

[00:11:19] Annette: The when is, it is mission-critical that we find it now, and start the build, and get it going. We’ve been looking with our current partners for, oh my gosh, how many months now? So it hasn’t gone quickly. 

[00:11:31] Sarah: Several.

[00:11:32] Annette: Okay. All right. We’re going to get into a little bit more of where we have been, strategics, little more behind the scenes. Sarah and I are looking all over the country. We’re making plans for future out, but we’ve decided this land, especially with our partners, we do want it to be here in Ohio. So let’s talk a little bit about the where, Sarah.

[00:11:54] Sarah: Yeah. Going back to pre-pandemic, and I was talking about building some really cool structures, it has become even more important for myself to invest in Central Ohio since the pandemic and the explosion of experiential vacation rentals, Forbes Magazine, other real estates, what do you ever call them, not marketplaces, but real estate marketing–

[00:12:20] Annette: Periodical. 

[00:12:21] Sarah: Why can’t I think of it? People who have things to say about real estate. 

[00:12:25] Annette: Media outlets.

[00:12:26] Sarah: Thank you. Have mentioned the importance of Central Ohio and how it’s growing. I mean, a lot of things are happening in our area. There’s room for crazy appreciation here, I guess is what I’m saying.

[00:12:37] Annette: And our population growth. Before we hopped on this episode, Amazon just announced a 7.5 billion, yes, billion, addition to their web services here. Intel is currently building. Of course, we still have the Ohio State University. There is just–

[00:12:53] Sarah: Google.

[00:12:54] Annette: Tons of room for growth. Facebook has some of their web services here too, so there is just tons of growth here. And so what that means is there’s going to be many more people moving, and having a drivable destination is going to become more and more desirable. So we feel like there is a lot of room for growth for those drivable destinations

[00:13:13] Sarah: And Annette and I have big plans for Thanks for Visiting. And so it’s going to be nice to spend some of our time doing Thanks for Visiting things and also being able to turn around, drive 45 minutes to an hour and look at our project.

[00:13:26] Annette: Sit on the land. 

[00:13:27] Sarah: We’re not going to do anything. We’re going look at it. But do you know what I’m saying? So that’s the where.

[00:13:31] Annette: And the where is also important to us because our partners are going to be heavily involved in the build out, and we will be able to leverage current team members, current contractors. It’s like Rolodex of a network of people, from hopefully people that want to stay to people that can help us create it. That’s going to just make it a lot more tangible for us and hopefully easier for us to get the project across the finish line.

[00:14:00] Sarah: Yeah.

[00:14:01] Annette: All right. We got the who. We got the when. We got the where. And now, drum roll.

[00:14:07] Sarah: Yeah. The why.

[00:14:08] Annette: But why? Why build something? Can’t you just go get something that’s already created?

[00:14:13] Sarah: Right. Or like, why don’t we stick with what we know, which is more metro places? And Annette and I were going over this episode before we hit record, and we were going to say what our whys were, and I was like, don’t. I want to save this for authentic airtime.

[00:14:26] Annette: On the fly why. Go for the why.

[00:14:31] Sarah: Yeah, go for the why. I have a lot of whys.

[00:14:34] Annette: Okay.

[00:14:34] Sarah: Should I list them all? 

[00:14:35] Annette: Yeah.

[00:14:36] Sarah: All right. Potentially, I have some problems, and I like to continue to challenge myself, so I feel like I’ve done what we’ve done here in Columbus, Ohio. We did New York City, and we nailed it. It was great. Learned a ton. Came to Columbus, Ohio.

[00:14:50] Annette: Done in Gulf Shores. You did in the Gulf Shores.

[00:14:52] Sarah: Did in Golf Shores. Did in downtown Columbus. I’m not going to lie. I’m seeing other people create interesting structures and places, and I’m like, I want to see what our creativity would become if we built something new. So challenging myself and my husband, who’s an architect and loves designing. Two is, with all the new AI developments that are happening very fast, I’m just going to be honest– Annette’s laughing right now. And I am a city girl. 

[00:15:22] Annette: I’m smirking. I’m not laughing. 

[00:15:25] Sarah: I am a city girl at heart, but I also see that– can’t hurt to get ourselves some land a little more moved from the city.

[00:15:32] Annette: Are we going to do a Thanks for Visiting like that group commune where we all farm together?

[00:15:37] Sarah: Honestly, let’s see how bad it gets. 

[00:15:38] Annette: Okay. 

[00:15:39] Sarah: We at least have this option now, but I’ve just seen the– you know what I mean? They’re not building any more of it. That old saying, buy land. They’re not building anymore.

[00:15:46] Annette: Buy dirt.

[00:15:47] Sarah: Dirt won’t hurt your real estate portfolio. And I’m not going to lie either. Not only with you, Annette, we bought a townhome. It’s been a great experience investing with someone other than my husband, and now you, and bringing in this other couple who is going to work with us, and I’ve really admired them, and their work, and their tenacity. I am excited to see that energy. I like collaborating, and so I’m excited to, again, just– I like to live on the edge a little bit.

So those are my whys. And, ooh, I have one more. This is the big one. It is, Nick and I, since moving here, we’ve chipped away at buying a fourplex, a duplex, a townhome. And I’m excited to buy land. And maybe, not maybe, but fast forward a little bit to the baby steps. So if we build a structure that’s truly unique and set our own marketplace for that stay and be able to build more than one on this one plot of land, that excites me too to fast forward the success, the investment, how much we own in real estate a little bit faster.

[00:16:51] Annette: Okay. I like it.

[00:16:53] Sarah: That’s why I wish–

[00:16:53] Annette: Cool. I have a couple of whys also. The first thing I wrote down, which is interesting is legacy. Even though I’m like–

[00:17:01] Sarah: Yeah, I like that.

[00:17:02] Annette: Single. No kids. That’s probably not the first thing you would anticipate to come to mind, but for you, and I, and our brand, and just something that’s special. When I say legacy too, it’s like I want to create something that lots of people can share in, and hopefully, maybe it’s a way for us to give some special give back to like what kind of place are we going to create where if not legacy for us– and I mean, I do have a large family. They’re not my children, but all my nieces and nephews. But a place that multiple people can enjoy at the same time and maybe go back year after year.

And also for us to diversify. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with diversifying, um, my portfolio. So that is an option there of one of my whys. Also, a chance for us to really dig in and see, with the experience, what can we do with direct booking and truly owning a hospitality brand and have the land become a brand that has a lot of meaning for me.

And then exactly what you just said too. I’m excited to continue to– I obviously do work with Nick, but to really work with Nick, work with the other couple, and just expand that partnership and those teams and just really use strengths and get us together there. So I think that’s the why. And another part of the why is more of like, why not?

[00:18:35] Sarah: Right.

[00:18:36] Annette: Like, why not?

[00:18:37] Sarah: Let’s say why not. Why not? Because things can go wrong. Why not? Because the partnership, we could be oil and water. Why not? Maybe what we build isn’t at the average daily rate or occupancy that we thought it would be. Why not? You know what I mean? Okay.

[00:18:54] Annette: But still, why not?

[00:18:55] Sarah: But like, why not?

[00:18:56] Annette: Right. And I think for you and I too, we just keep coming back to this, and when I can’t shake something and I just circle back– so I was like, let’s do it so I’m not sitting in this what if forever. I’d rather do it and have done it than continue to what if it. So my why is I want to stop what if-ing it, and there aren’t any why nots to me. So that’s a green light go. 

And obviously, listeners, there are so many things that have to fall into place for this to actually happen, but we want to share with you, we just have to go and start, and we don’t know what’s going to happen in 30 days, 60 days, three months, six months, nine months. But we want to take you on the process with this of, we went and visited, we were all together and took some hours out of our day, and we’re making investments mentally and with our time because we have this dream. 

And I want to say something that was a takeaway from meeting the gentleman that owned some of the land that we were look looking at. It was funny. He was showing us the land. He was giving us– he’s been touring it with a lot of other potential buyers. Everybody’s got a dream. Everybody comes down here, and they want to tell me their dream. And I was like, well, we’re part of those dreamers. And then I was just like, man, I think it’s okay.

He said it in a snarky, like, yeah, everybody’s got these big plans and a dream. And I was like, I hope they do. I actually hope everybody has a dream, everybody has something that they want to do. And I think that’s part of the why too, because I need things to look forward to and challenge me and want us to raise the bar.

And so when he said that, everybody’s got the dream, I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t– I’m glad I’m one of those dreamers to him. That also is a why of being able to scratch that itch of like, okay, let’s dream this up and actually do it. So that’s also– I want to be– for the dreamers, do that stuff. Actually do it, not just dream about it.

[00:20:56] Sarah: And that’s the cool thing, is that we will do it. And in whatever form that is, we will do something that is legacy-building, will challenge us. And for me too, Annette, another why that I have, and I am not saying this just, listeners, to butter you up, but I do feel a sense of– and I’ve always said this to Annette. I do feel a sense of responsibility to try new things. 

[00:21:22] Annette: Oh yeah. For sure. 

[00:21:22] Sarah: Being in this position, we put ourselves in this airwave in this podcast, and we advertise it, and we have our amazing sponsors who are behind us. And so if we were just to sit here and not challenge ourselves– I will give a shout-out to Beardy Brandon from BiggerPockets.

And that’s the one thing why I kept listening to the BiggerPockets podcast. Not because he had great guests and because I was learning so much in soaking it in, but I feel like every quarter or six months, Brandon would learn something from a guest, and then he would commit to his listeners that he was going to try it.

[00:21:51] Annette: Oh, I like it. 

[00:21:52] Sarah: He would say, I’m going to– I don’t even know what– I still don’t understand what a 1031 is. I’m going to try it anyway. Or, I want to buy a property for my daughter so when she graduates from high school, she’s got– and he would do these things, and he would mess up along the way, and he would learn new things.

He would say, well, that failed. That didn’t fail. And I don’t know, I really admired that. And obviously, he’s done gone to do great things by challenging himself and being vulnerable and open. And so I think this is a great opportunity too for us to do the same thing. And hopefully, we inspire a listener out there who’s like, I just need to go tour some land. Just go walk it. Show up, even if nothing happens. Just take that first step. 

[00:22:26] Annette: Yeah. And we have plans, but we don’t know.

[00:22:29] Sarah: We don’t know. 

[00:22:30] Annette: Let’s talk about them. So we just wanted to give you a little behind the scenes of, yes, that’s what– if you go to our phones right now, you’ll see texts back and forth, you’ll see emails back and forth on actual properties. And if you would’ve asked me when I sat down at a city council meeting with Sarah, I mean, a handful of years ago now, oh yeah, you’ll be looking at 175– I’d be like, what are you smoking? 

[00:22:55] Sarah: You’re nuts.

[00:22:55] Annette: What is happening there? But I think that’s fun when you just lean in and let your path unfurl in front of you.

[00:23:02] Sarah: And there is so much we don’t know, Annette. I mean, even having the couple, and Nick runs an architecture firm, and he’s helped people build on land, and we have our attorneys and your brother, there is still so much we don’t know, and we’re going to make mistakes. It’s going to happen.

[00:23:16] Annette: The biggest thing I’ve learned so far, the septic. I’ve learned way more about septic systems than I’ve ever–

[00:23:23] Sarah: Annette said it’s all about poop.

[00:23:24] Annette: It’s all about poop on this land.

[00:23:27] Sarah: Where’s it going to go?

[00:23:28] Annette: Where’s it going to go? Where’s it coming from? Where are you going to hold it? Where’s the soil? I’m just telling you, I never thought so much about septic, and we’re not even anywhere– 

[00:23:36] Sarah: No. 

[00:23:37] Annette: Near really thinking about it yet, but it matters.

[00:23:41] Sarah: We’re going to get excited about it. Poop matters. All right. With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

[00:23:46] Annette: I am Annette Grant, and together we are–

[00:23:48] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:23:48] Sarah: Talk to you next time.