From Bravery to Business: A Hospitality Success Story From An Ex-Firefighter

Hey everybody. Welcome to the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings and most importantly, the confidence on how you can go out there and get some more direct bookings. My name is Liam Carolan and today we are diving behind the host with another successful and interesting short term rental host. Today we've got Ryan Duffy from Duffy Home Realty and Ozark Mountain Vacations. I'm really excited to dive in first of all because he's got an awesome book direct sticker in his background. So I know he's, he's on board with the direct book and movement but also he's an ex firefighter and he's got a really exciting project to tell us about as well as some awesome short term rental homes. So Ryan, welcome along. Thank you for joining me today.

Thanks for taking the time, Liam. Appreciate it.

So introduce yourself, your business, where you are in the world and what sort of model that you use and how many units.

Cool. No, I'll, I'll dive into that. So I'm a licensed broker in the state of Arkansas, Missouri. My wife and I own Duffy Homes Realty here in Branson, Missouri. We also own Ozark Mountain Vacations which is kind of our branding for our own personal vacation rentals. And we're starting to branch off into a little bit of project or property management for some of our clients down in the area that we live in. So we live actually in Omaha, Arkansas, which about 20 minutes south of Branson. And at the moment we have two active rentals. We've got five under construction in various stages also. And then we've got, we've got some plans to do some other kind of cool, interesting developments.

What is your most, I guess what do you prefer to do? Obviously you've got developments like you say, you've got two sort sides to the business. What excites you the most?

Doing something different in, in the short term rental sphere. So here in the Branson area it's actually heavily restricted. You know, if you're on the Missouri side, there's county restrictions or city restrictions and, and with that, the, the type of rentals that we have predominantly in our inventory, they're all pretty similar. You know, you've got a lot of condominium, you've got a lot of the larger lodge complexes and, and since they're restricted to certain zoning requirements, you know, they're kind of crammed on top of each other. So what I like to do down where we're at, just on the other side of the Border in Arkansas is to really embrace the fact that we're not in resort settings, we're not crammed on top of each other, and provide a guest experience that is, you know, just. Just very different in that regard. You know, so you can have a larger yard, you can go out and look at the stars, not have a bunch of light pollution. You know, I grew up in Chicago and, you know, I, I didn't see a shooting star for the first time until I was like 18, you know, in basic training, looking up in Oklahoma like, wow, there's so many stars up there. So when I, when we first moved down here, you know, that was, that was one of the things that blew me away. You know, down in Arkansas, it's. There's no light pollution. You just look up and you see endless stars. And, you know, and so when, when we go, that'd be something that would really resonate with us. And that's one of the, one of the small things that we're trying to integrate into our guest experience. You know, we're really hammering the fact that we're close to an international dark sky site. And we've got all these, these outdoor activities that you can enjoy between Table Rock Lake and the various creeks and rivers and caves and all this stuff in our area. But we're also 20 minutes from Branson, which is a major tourist attraction that brings in 10.5 million visitors per year. So we can kind of have the best of both worlds.

That really kind of paints a picture for me. I'm literally picturing the stars. I'm picturing the kind of trees, the caving experience and stuff like that. Especially as a Brit, I don't know, I roughly know where you are in the US but really, painting that picture is important for both the people listening, but also for your guests. Because as hosts, if we know why people come to our properties, if we know our avatar, it's just so important what aspects internally of the properties attracts your perfect guest avatar, and who is your perfect guest avatar?

So predominantly we're hosting family groups and it's just a couple different avatars, really. So we've got a four bedroom rental at the moment that sleeps 14. So typically it's like double family units. It'll stay there. We've got a large dedicated bunk room space and then a couple of different master suites. So that's what we're seeing there is kind of the family dynamic. You know, there's a private hot tub, there's a big private fire pit area. And then our other Rental we've got. At the moment, it's just a two bedroom couples retreat. So, you know, two very different avatars. But, you know, that's, that's kind of, kind of what we're gearing after is, you know, there's, there's these two different main demographics that are coming here. We feel like they're couples and there's larger families and within that, you know, just trying to identify, you know, what people would need in that space.

So.

And again, for us, going back to privacy and separation and nature, you know, trying to create spaces where you can, you can lay out in the yard and you don't have to, you know, have cars driving by in front of you, you know, so that sort of.

Thing that makes sense. And one of the things which we often get asked is, I was literally asked that on the call before this is, is who is my ideal avatar. I'm not quite sure because there's a few people that we serve. And I say it's never a bad thing if you've got more than one. Obviously it's easier if you've just one kind of avatar or one kind of niche, but if you're not going for one avatar, you can go for one area. And that sounds as though that's what you're doing. It's. People who come to the area would stay with you, whether they're a couple or a family. It's kind of the people who are coming to the area. Am I right in saying that?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That, you know, to try to identify one specific avatar, you know, that might work in certain markets, you know, but, you know, for us, it's. It's really the draw of the Ozark Mountains. It's the draw of the Branson attractions, the lake. I mean, there's just a number of different things that bring people to our area. And so as a demographic, it's hard to really dial that into one specific avatar.

I definitely want to dive into more about you and how you got started in the business, but I'm going to segue slightly into. Am I right in thinking you had sort of the real estate before the short term rentals?

Not really. My wife got into real estate before I did. So, you know, I. Before we moved here, I was, I was a Chicago fireman and I did that for. I had nine years on the job. I had a series of back injuries that led to a bunch of surgeries. And, and really that's what prompted us to, to change our, our life and uproot and come here. And so when we did that, you know, my wife Shea and I have always had this, this dream and this passion to get involved in real estate and become developers in some capacity. And uh, but we just didn't really know how to manifest that. So she had a background as an interior designer and, and as a firefighter. I had no real practical, you know, real estate experience. But, you know, we moved here and you know, I recovered enough to be able to get back to work and you know, the, the logical thing to do after recovering from back surgery, I guess, would be to get into construction, which is what I did. Made no sense. But, you know, I had an opportunity at the time to, to mentor under somebody who had a lot of construction experience and um, basically was able to just get taken under his wing. And we built two houses from the ground up, just me and him. So I got a feel of every aspect of the construction world, the processes that go into it. And in the meantime, Shay got her real estate license immediately and started trucking away at that. And you know, with real estate in particular, it's, it's really about who you know and your connections to the community. And we had just moved 550 miles away and started a new life. So we knew nobody here and we had no real connections to the community. So it took, it took quite a while for, for that business to up and going and. But she was persistent and she, you know, you know, she was pregnant at one point, you know, eight months pregnant in, in August, going door knocking, you know, trying to drum up business, you know, and so really bootstrapped, you know, that for her, for her own brand and really learned a lot in the process and, and throughout that process, you know, she started working with short term rental investors and she started seeing P and L, she started seeing booking reports and we reached a point in our lives where at this time now, three years after we moved here, two years, two and a half years approximately, we'd started out growing our house and we had a three bedroom, three bath house that we kept telling ourselves over and over again as we, as our family grew, like, this is a great place to vacation, but I wouldn't, you know, it's not really comfortable to raise our kids here. You know, we, you know, the kids bedrooms were on the second floor, we were in the basement, you know, so it was, you know, three times a night, run up two flights of stairs to change a diaper, you know, and there's no garage, no storage. But we kept having this conversation over and over, over. It's like, oh, do we build an addition? Do we build a garage? And she comes home from work one day and she goes, you know, I think if we put this place on Airbnb, we'd make like 30 grand a year. And I said, B.S. there's no way, you know, and, and she's like, no, I'm serious. I'm like, well, we're in Omaha, Arkansas. No one's ever heard of Omaha, Arkansas. She's like, yeah, but we're 20 minutes outside of Branson. We're five minutes to table Rock Lake. We've got a full service marina at the end of our road. And best of all, there's no restrictions where we live. She's like, if you go 10 minutes north, you can't do that. Like, you just can't. So she, she convinced me and, and a good friend of ours, we had a business partner at the time that I was doing construction with, convinced us to purchase another property up the road from where we were living. And it was a metal shop house, just a big metal barn with a two bedroom apartment built in the half of it. And the agreement was that we'd purchased this through our construction business and we'd use basically the, the open dirt floor shop spot to store construction materials and his tractor and all this. And then our family would rent back the two bedroom apartment so it would cash flow the thing, you know, so that we could convert our home into a full time short term rental to do that kind of experiment. And, and that was mid 20, 2019. So we got up and running live right around Labor Day 2019, expecting to do about 30 grand a year in revenue. And the first year just blew it out of the water. I mean it was like 52, 53, 000. Second year was like $82,000, you know, I mean, just blew us away, you know, and, and it was kind of like a watershed moment for us. Like we're like, wow. Like this isn't, this isn't like a little, you know, hobby. Like this is a real industry, you know, I mean within, within six weeks of going live on, on the short term rental platforms, I stopped taking bids for remodel jobs and I started real estate school. And I just dedicated, you know, full time to taking care of and managing our one short term rental. And then within, within six months we were under contract for our second one. And then it just, it just snowballed from there, you know, as it, as it does so. But that was an interesting progression.

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First of all, wow, that is an amazing and inspirational kind of journey. To only be in this for what, less than four years and to be doing what you're doing. But also, you know, there's a couple of things which I want people listening to take away from this. First of all, having the, you know, the, I guess the courage to, to say, hey, I'm going to give this a go. I'm actually going to try this because it's where a lot of people get stuck. They go, I'm thinking about doing this. And that's all that ever happens. They just think about it. The second thing is you mentioned you're right on the edge. Ten minutes north was where there are restrictions, regulations which you tend to find a lot of areas. I was talking to Bill Faith and he says actually some of the best areas are just outside those heavily regulated areas. And that's exactly what you've done there is you've found an area which is just outside of, you know, where there is regulation. But then actually just having the right kind of product, having the right kind of mindset where you're like, hey, hang on, this is working. Let's go all in on this. Let's, let's, let's go for it. So, you know, big respect for doing that and for making a success out of it. So I missed the location. Is that first one, is that where you are now or is that.

Yeah, yeah, it's Omaha, Arkansas. Yeah. Everything I've done personally, my wife and I has been in Omaha, you know, and we're trying to, our kind of long term business plan is to, is to get to the point where our commute doesn't take us more than a mile from home. You know, so everything we're building and developing is it's on the same peninsula, the same two lane road, you know, we're building our primary residence for, for ourselves and our kids to grow up in, you know, right within a mile of all this.

That's cool. And how many units did you say that you're looking after now?

Just two at the moment. So the first two we started with, we liquidated about a year ago. You know, the first one that we had lived in, you know, for a period of time, we never had any intention of selling, but you know, the market appreciated dramatically like everyone else did, you know, throughout Covid. And, and for us here, you know, from a tax liability, liability standpoint, you know, we've got an exemption. So if you live in a, in a property as your primary residence for two out of the past five consecutive years and then you go to sell it, you're exempt from capital gains tax up to a certain point. So, so we were right at the end of that five year window. You know, we had lived in it for two and a half years at this point. We had rented it out for two years and we had just acquired some property that we wanted to build like our, our forever home on, you know, and we're like, oh man, lumber was through the roof and there's no way we can afford to build a house right now. But if we sell this property that we really don't want to sell, we're going to have a huge tax free windfall that will allow us to do that. So, so we did that. And then the, the second property that we had purchased, we purchased it with, with our, our, our best friends and our partners at the time. And they were in a position where they had found a large piece of acreage that they wanted to go move away to and, and build a homestead. And so they didn't want to really be involved in the management side of it anymore. And, and again, the market had appreciated. We're like, okay, well let's just liquidate the thing and we can both walk away with a large paycheck. And, and so we did, and we did, did a 1031 exchange to defer our taxes on that and purchased another property, which is where we're at now. You know, it's the four bedroom house, which was when we purchased it, a three bedroom house. And we did a six month renovation. We gutted it all out, added a bedroom, added a bathroom and then added a bunch of amenities. And then the one bedroom cabin that we've got currently that actually just went live like two days ago, it was the detached garage for that property. So what we did there was once we were done with the remodel in the main house, we went over and we tore it down to the foundation and we rebuilt it as a, as a luxury two person couple suite. And it's just, you know, it's just far enough from the main house where there's separation. It can be private, but we can also rent them together as a parent listing and have like a little like family compound if you wanted to. And, and with that one, you know, we, we wanted to, to honor Shay's parents a little bit. And you know, they've been really instrumental in us, in our, in our growth and our success over the last few years, you know, because they're, they're, they're amazing grandparents. They're, they're with our kids almost every weekend, you know, and just, you know, allow us to have the freedom and time to do what we're doing. So when we were getting ready to start building that cabin we surveyed off a half acre with that, that garage and we gifted it to them and we told them if they, if they kind of split the cost with us, we would help them build it out as a new construction, you know, one bedroom cabin that they could have for themselves as a rental to generate revenue for themselves and we'd manage it for them. So, so we're really excited about that. They, you know, they're brand new hosts now. They, so they, you know, got to, got to enjoy watching it from the outside, you know, looking in, you know, the, the excitement at first and they get in there, it's all done. And then, you know, after the first two weekends of being in there for 12 hours a day setting things up, you can see like this is a lot of work. Like yes, it is. But, but it's all, it's all worth it in the end. So, so yeah, at the moment we've got two active units. We, we are building a shipping container house across the street from there, which is, which has been kind of a crazy ride too. And so we'll be managing that one with a partner that we're, we're building it with. And then we've got another set of partners that, that we are building a, a four unit, a frame resort with that we're getting ready to break ground on. Should be this month actually. We're just waiting on the loan final loan approval. So we're looking at by the end of the summer having 6, 7, 7 units under our management with plans to do some pretty rapid expansion beyond that.

That's cool. And we're going to be diving into some of your, your plans shortly. What would you say are the things which obviously the first property was kind of almost like house hacking A little bit. You've, you've gone, lived elsewhere, you've, you've put your main house on there. I'm going to ask you sort of a three part question, this one. So first of all, what did you change when it came down to setting up these new units, obviously, which were purposely made for short term rental would be one question. Also for the people listening into this, where they're considering doing exactly what you've done, what advice would you have for them? And then lastly, is there anything else that you'd go back and tell yourself, you know, that, hey, we need to be doing more of this at the start, so it's all kind of the same kind of thing. But those kind of questions, I'd love to get your insight and I think people listening who are considering this, that would be some really important lessons for them.

Yeah, absolutely. So on our first one, you know, it was very much bootstrapped. I mean we, we were really tight on capital. I mean we put every penny we had into the thing. We maxed out our credit cards to get it done. And so there were, there are some items there that, you know, I had a list like four pages long of things that I needed to fix in the house, or not necessarily fix, but improve, upgrade, you know, little things. Like it was an older house, it had some, some weird light switches that, you know, there's like mystery switches. Like you don't know what it does, you don't know what it turns on and off. You know, things like that.

You, you click them.

Yeah, exactly. And you know, and at first, first, yeah. But then, you know, at first, you know, we started as a new host and like we get, get a text message, you know, at 10 o' clock at night, like, what does this light switch do? And like just like, I don't know, nothing. Figure it out. Like. Yeah. And so then ultimately I just went over there with a label maker and just put big question marks on it. And it's like, you know, funny stuff like that. But it's like, all right, going from a remodel to purpose building, like, just simplify everything. You don't need to have, you know, six light switches in a row in a room. You need to have some pretty clear instructions and how to's, you know, like, even for simple things like, like taking off the hot tub cover. I mean, it's amazing how quickly those little snaps break because people just want to yank them off and throw the COVID on the floor, you know, so, you know, and then just kind of the progression of like how you get from, you know, those early kind of not new and nuisances, but you know, the early little things that become time sucks. You know, it's like having to answer questions on how to operate something, this and that. So then you, you figure out, okay, well I need to drop a guest manual, you know, and it's like, then you've got this little binder that's sitting there and then ultimately it gets sticky and nasty. It's like, okay, well there's probably a better way of doing this. Then you find a program like Touch Day, you know, where it's like a digital guest book that you can, you know, have, have your guests download an app for. And, and then it just, you know, it just kind of snowballs from there. So all these little things that you realize are, are, are inconvenient. That's probably the number one thing that I get from a lot of our real estate clients is like, I want to manage this remotely, like how can I make this so that it's automated? And, and the answer, the answer is fairly simple. Like, you know, when you first start setting it up, I mean it's very front end heavy. It's a lot of work. You know, you have to put all your systems in place. You have to coordinate with your cleaners, your handyman, you've got to do all of your home automations, you know, your smart locks, your, your blink cameras. But once you have all that set up, it's very easy to just let it run itself and that. Not to say you can just completely step out of the picture. But you know, you don't have to physically be there, you know, every day or every week. You know, our first two units, we literally live next to one of them and then we were half mile away from the other one. And it got to the point right before I sold them that I can go two or three months at a time without setting foot on the property if I wanted to. You know, I mean I still would because I'd be driving by, I'm like, I wonder how the hot tub looking today. You know, make sure the cleaner took care of it and you know, that sort of thing. But, but you can really automate and, and again when, you know, I think the biggest distinction between, you know, doing a renovation to turn something into a short term rental and then purpose building, you know, you just need to, need to be really attentive when you're renovating and making sure that everything is, you know, you've got safety in mind, you've got ease of use in mind. You know, our first place had a very steep stairway, you know, and for us, like, we didn't even think of anything of it, you know, it's just like, oh, we're used to it, you know. But then I start renting it out and within the first month or two it's like, hey, there's no handrail here. You know, that's this, you know, I almost slipped and broke my, broke my ankle. It's like, oh, shoot, like, okay, yeah, that's kind of a big deal. So just being very mindful of the fact that, you know, you're, you're hosting other people. It's not, it's not a thing where, you know, it's, I live here, so I can just overlook it. You know, it's, it's really making everything cohesive and smooth and safe and enjoyable, you know, so, and then in our, in our new builds, you know, just really focusing on what we can do to, to make sure everything is basically unbreakable, you know. So I went into a house the other day that I looked at that a guy had built for himself for a short term rental and it was brilliant. I mean, his, all the floors were stamped concrete. They looked like wood, but they were concrete. His countertops were concrete. You know, all the, I mean everything was like a, like pre finished scratch proof and it looked great. But you know, I was talking to him about it, he's like, yes, the third one I've done. It's my, my first actual custom build for vacation rental. And he's like, all those little things I learned about, you know, if you've got laminate countertops, you know, first thing someone's got to do is put a, put a hot pan on it and melt it. And it's like, that's a good point. You know, and, and when we were renovating our first place, you know, I, I was like, do I put granite in here or do I do laminate? And that's one of the biggest things I'd say if I was going back in time and doing this over again. It's like, just spend the extra few bucks and do granite. You know, it's going to look better, it's going to hold up better, it's going to make your place rent for more, you know, and you're not going to be going in there in three or four months and saying, shoot, I need to replace laminate.

You know, so it's amazing those, those points that you've covered there. I mean, there's a lot of value that you've just provided in that answer. Especially the thing that I've got from it is all this stuff you've done is reducing the touch points and the hassle that you might get. You know, like labeling up switches, labeling up stuff. And this is the stuff which, when you're fresh, you don't know what you don't know. So people listening to this could save time by, you know, going in, labeling stuff up, having digital guidebooks instead of having the, the paper thing which gets destroyed after a brief period of time and goes out of date quicker as well. And like you say, just spending that extra money now. I mean, I've, I've had people damage wooden surfaces, you know, all the stuff which could get damaged unfortunately does, you know, over a long enough period of time. So by having that extra money spent, like you say, granite is very hard, near impossible to damage that kind of surface. So that's just great advice for people listening. You mentioned Touch Day, which brings us nicely onto what kind of, I guess what are the top pieces of tech that you use in your business, if any, and which one's your favorite?

You know, for us, I think the biggest thing that guided us into like self management was knowing that this technology was out there. You know, so for the first two years we used a third party management company and it was like a national company and but you know, we, we liked it because it seemed like it was easy, like we didn't have to set up our, our listings, we don't have to set our pricing or anything like that. But then ultimately, you know, over the course of a couple years, we had some guest interactions where, you know, one in particular really struck me. You know, it's the place we were living next to and I just happened to strike up a conversation with the gentleman that was staying there and his kids were playing in the yard, our kids were playing in our yard. And so they were throwing stuff at each other. And he just goes, you know, and we live literally like three minutes from the lake, from like a beach and a public marina and everything. He goes, is there a closer place to swim than in Branson, which is 20 minutes north of us? I'm like, yeah, our road is called Boat Dock Road, like it ends at the boat dock. He goes, oh. Because when I called the management company, who I will not name, they said the nearest place is 20 minutes away. And I'm thinking they're thinking about like, oh yeah, well they're, they're not here. Like they're in another state. They know nothing about my property. So then we started. Started diving more into it, and we started really connecting with some of the Facebook groups you mentioned. Bill Faith. That's one of my favorite groups. The build Short term rental wealth group. We're looking forward to going to Nashville here in a little bit for the next conference. But, like, when we went to that last conference, like, we picked up so much value, you know, all these little tidbits that, you know, like, oh, owner res, price labs, you know, and we were using blink cameras and stuff like that, but putting all those together, like, you know, the. The dynamic pricing was like the thing that kept us with that management company for so long because I kept having all these little irritations. I'm like, well, but they're pricing the place really well. If I was doing it myself, I'd be leaving probably 30% on the table. And then I realized I could get a price lab subscription that's next to nothing. And it'll. It'll link all your stuff together with owner res. Like, those are. Those are probably my three favorite things is price labs owner res. And then I say blink cameras. But really all the home automation stuff together. You know, the. The wi fi lock, the blink cameras, the digital thermostat. That's a huge thing. You know, that was one. One of the things I learned the hard way. You know, I had a. A Christmas booking one year a couple years ago, and we've got a hot tub at all of our units. And the guests that were there, I mean, they had the sliding glass door open, going to the hot tub, and they had the heat cranked up to like 90 degrees for the whole week. And they were just. The kids are just running in and out on the deck in the hot tub. And. And I got the. The heating bill for that month, and it was like $2,000. And it's normally like 150, 200. And. And I go into the unit after they checked out, you know, and. And it was. Thermostat was set to like 80 degrees, 90 degrees. So little things like that, too. It's. It's not like you need to sit there and, you know, on your phone and like, oh, nope, ac's too. Too low. I'll turn it back up. But if you have an idea like, oh, there's something going on here. It's good to get a heads up, you know, from. From your smart, you know, thermostat, rather than going in there two weeks later and finding out you just. You've been Heating the outside for the last two weeks, you know, so.

And you're giving me flashbacks to when me and a group of the, the lads went to the US and we went to Orlando and literally it was a case of, hey, we can turn the pool up, let's stay here. So I, I've, I've been that terrible guest and looking back, just the stuff you're saying there, if there's people listening to this and you're not installing home automation and smart thermostats and all this stuff, well, you're definitely going to be losing money because unfortunately, you know, guests don't necessarily know. I certainly was just, it wasn't that I was out there to cause a problem, it was just I didn't really know, you know, the cost to an owner. Whereas now I dread it because now we get heating bills, you know, we get things and having those smart thermostats. So there's one that we use here in the UK called Inspire Home Automation and that just makes things a lot easier to control. But there's so many of these, these home, you know, sort of automation type products like you say, blink cameras, ones which can even control lights where you can, you know, have lights on from afar and things like that. It's just so important. And I think that message around you mentioned that the company that your guest rang up probably just googled the closest swimming pool and obviously I guarantee it. Yeah, and that's, that's come up and this really brings me on to a really good, good point, that we are the experts of our own business, you know, like nobody knows your house like you do. Nobody knows the area if it's an area obviously that you either usually have holidayed in or lived in. You know, nobody knows that kind of stuff as well as you do. So ultimately this is where independent short term rental hosts can win over these great big companies and build an audience who will come back time and time again because not just the experience, but also because of the memorable people, you know. And this is what, what does it isn't it is that you're building up relationships with, with real people who are coming to stay. So.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's probably my favorite, my favorite part of the hospitality business in general. You know, I've been in, I've had all kinds of jobs over the years. I've been in food service and all kinds of stuff. And, and you know, when you're, when you're dealing with, you know, with guests that are on vacation, it's great because they're happy they're on vacation, you know, so as long as you're, you're identifying their needs, you're taking care of them, you're showing that they're, that they're valued and you know, and you want to make sure that, that they've got, got a great time there with their family. You know, usually it's, it's amazing. You know, they're, even if something goes wrong, as long as you're, you're quick to identify it, you're quick to come up with a resolution, you know, they're still happy, you know, whereas in, in a lot of other industries and businesses, you know, people, people just want to get angry, you know, but you know, when you're dealing with people on vacation, they're, they're just happy to be there. So that's, that's one of my favorite parts of it.

I always think of hospitality as, is people already usually in a good mindset and it's just our job not to, not to mess it up, you know.

Not to rock the boat there. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

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Now, before we hit record on the podcast, you mentioned that a really cool project which is, is coming up and something which, you know, that, that you've got in the future. Can you tell us more about that and why you're excited about the opportunities that hospitality is really providing?

Yeah, so, I mean when we first got into the short term rental business, you know, it was, it was really, you know, an additional source of revenue for our family and, and it is very much a business and I feel like it's in a lot of instances it's easy to get carried away with that and people just want to, you know, have as many doors as they possibly can and, and increase their cash flow as much as possible, which I, everyone does, but I get it. But you know, a big part of why I think The Branson area is so restricted. And why public sentiment, you know, on a county level in Branson itself is so negative to a certain degree against vacation rentals. It's because of this kind of rampant runaway development. You know, like some of these developments that have come in, they're just these giant lodges and they're just. When you turn a corner and you've got like 200 houses on a hillside and it's just like, wow, like even as a local, like I wouldn't want to be driving around in there. Like that just looks overwhelming. So I think, you know, on a, on a, on a local level there's this, this impression that, you know, vacation rentals, you know, they're just going to be a tax to the infrastructure. They're going to bring in too much traffic, they're going to do this, have all these party people all over the place. And so where, where we live and where we're developing, it's very rural and there's, you know, there's not very much in terms of, of housing. You know, it's a lot of farmland and that sort of thing. And you know, along with that, we also don't have very many parks. We don't have very many like public amenities. You know, there's no basket, you know, 20 miles of my house. So we've identified an opportunity, I think, where we can find a piece of land that's. It's not necessarily a good development piece of land in terms of building permanent structures. It's, it's where, it's where the lake comes in and joins a creek and it's a gorgeous piece of property. All the local people go back there and they go fishing and hunting and dirt biking and that sort of stuff. And, and. But you know, every now and then it floods so the waters will come up, you know, three or four feet over the ground. It's just a muddy mess. So it's not really conducive for building housing, but it would be an amazing place to have a park. And, and so our thought was to, to kind of develop it in that, in that direction. We could take part of the property that doesn't flood and we can, we can put the whole thing into a non for profit organization and develop part of it in such a way where we can do glamping sites, geodesic domes, you know, yurts, all that crazy stuff and allow that to cash flow. The development and maintenance of a public use park that would be open to everybody in the community. We're going to have A basketball court. We're going to have, we're going to try to put in a swim platform, fishing piers, that sort of thing and be able to, to maintain it as well. You know, this is a beautiful piece of property and as much as everyone goes back in there and enjoys it, you know, there's a certain element that goes back there and destroys it too. You know, there's a lot of people that dump trash, you know, broken beer bottles, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, so if we're able to, to provide this to the community, to help, to help create something that everyone can enjoy, you know, and allow that to fund future projects too. You know, we'd like to see school bus stops on the road. You know, there's a lot of, a lot of kids that go to school in our area and it's again, it's very rural, so there's a lot of, a lot of kids that will walk half a mile, you know, up from their home to the highway and then, and we're seeing them standing in the rain waiting for, for a bus to come pick them up. So little things like that. And I feel like it can kind of again, being in an area that is currently unrestricted, you know, ultimately that will change right as it becomes more popular. And I think if we can help help the community grow in a way that, that makes everybody comfortable and so that we're not seeing big condominium buildings all over the place. Like it's, you know, like the, the a frame development we're doing. It's on a six acre piece of land and our plan is to put four houses on it. You know, we want to keep that spacing and keep that natural element to it and not clear cut all the trees and all that kind of stuff that, that really the people, you know, just north of us, you know, have become sick of, you know, so kind of learning from that example and showing that short term rental development, when it's done responsibly, doesn't just lift up the person owning the unit. I mean, it can lift up the entire community. You know, between hiring builders and cleaners and handymen. And then if we can provide this, this common wealth element to where we're not, we're not pocketing the cash, we make like we're putting it into a park that all of our kids can use because otherwise that'll never happen. You know, we're, we're in an area that has a very low tax rate, which we love about it. And that's why a lot of people move here, but at the same time, there's not a lot of tax money. So they're not going to come in and, you know, pave roads and build parks. You know, if you want to do it, you know, you have to do it yourself. And I feel like this is a great opportunity to, to involve the community in this, this growth that we're experiencing.

That's really exciting. And what I love about that is when hospitality allows you to give back, if hospitality has given you opportunity and cash flow. And of course it works on both levels because you're also creating somewhere for your guests and your neighbors to go.

Exactly.

So literally it works on, on all levels. And I just really like that sort of, you know, the, the feel of, of that. Especially like you say you kind of taking your own responsibility, you know, hey, low taxes. But then it's on us to, to make this what we want to make it. Which is, which is really cool. So right as we start to approach the end of these, we love to ask a couple of quick fire fun questions. These you wouldn't have been given a heads up on at all. So if there's any which pop up and you're just not sure, just let us know, we'll move on. But first question is, if you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing? What sort of career? What, what, what would life look like if you weren't doing this?

That's a great question. I mean, six years ago I never would have thought I'd be leaving Chicago and I never would have thought I would not be a firefighter anymore. I really enjoyed that. I mean, I love being a fireman. You know, if it wasn't for the fact that I physically couldn't do it anymore, I'd still be there.

And you know, I, I thank you for it. And I know a lot of people listening to this will be thanking you for your services of firefighter. I always think any of the public sort of services are just incredible. Like it's not something which I could ever imagine myself doing and big respect for, for doing it. I've got to ask this. You said you're close to the Ozarks, is that right?

Yeah, yeah, we're in the, the region you consider the Ozark Mountains. Yeah.

Cool. Have you seen the program?

I was waiting for that. Yeah, I have, I have. Actually, that came out right around the same time we were moving. Is it even close now?

Is it anything, anything like.

No, no, no, it's.

I've got to ask. As soon as you said that, I was just like, yeah, I've got to ask that question because it's one of my favorite programs. But all the things are dramatized, aren't they?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Who would you invite to a dinner, either alive or dead, Famous person, person throughout history? Whoever. Whoever you like. You could have two people at this dinner.

That's a tough one. Jesus and Stephen Hawking.

Wow. That is.

I think that'd be an interesting conversation right there. You know, a little juxtaposition.

Yeah, I. I would like to be. I would be a fly on the wall at that conversation. Definitely.

Absolutely. I think that'd be a blast.

Fantastic answer. That might be my favorite answer to that question we've ever had, so thank you for that, Ryan. And then we always end with, what motto or mantra would you say you like to live by? Or a saying that really resonates with you?

Yeah, and I saw that on, on the, the, the prep sheet there, and I had to think about it because I don't really have a motto. But, you know, I, I think just over the past year or two, as we've really gotten busy and expanded in different business fields, something that's resonated with me over the past couple weeks is be still for a number of different reasons, that, that phrase has just come up a number of times through different, different conversations and different business interactions. But the, the idea of being still and being in the moments and appreciating where you're at, I think it's something that, that I have a hard time grasping and, and achieving. But it's. I think it's, it's key and essential for, you know, you know, being able to stop and enjoy your surroundings, enjoy your family, you know, enjoy your kids while they're little, you know, and you can do all these, these big, these big things, and it doesn't matter what scale you're on, you know, if, you know, if you're diving into your first vacation rental, that's huge. It's scary. It's earth shattering. You know, same thing. If you're getting ready to, to buy a bunch of acreage and try to figure out how to develop it into a park. Like, I have no idea. I've never done that before. But, you know, it's really easy to become overwhelmed with the grand scheme of things and then to lose sight of what's right in front of you. So I think it's really important to, to just take pause and just enjoy life as it is in front of you. You know, especially being in the hospitality business, like, it's easy to get carried away and, and look at it as a job, but. But, you know, if you take a step back and you just look at where you're at, especially if you're in a popular vacation destination, you know, it's. It's like, wow, this is beautiful. Like, people are. People are paying money to come here and stay in my house because of where I'm at. And it's real easy to go two or three weeks at a time just, you know, staring at your phone and driving from place to place and then realize, I love it here. This is gorgeous. This is beautiful. So I think, I think it's really important, you know, in any, any business venture you're in, anywhere you're at in your stage of life to just to be still and to take in the moment.

What a fantastic answer and one that really resonates with me. That got my mind boggling as I was going, because I remember, I don't know where this is from, but they say that obviously people who are thinking about the past as often, you know, you're not enjoying the moment. The people who are thinking about the future, and that's, that's how I am. I'm always thinking, oh, this will be awesome. This will be awesome. But the now is where the magic happens, is where the action to bring the future happens. You know, that is the action changes the metaphysical of the future into the. The physical. And that happens in the present. So, yeah, and to be still and to be enjoying it is just so important. And I think it's a great, a great way to bring it to a close. Was there any other thing that we missed or anything that you wanted to share before we, before we draw it to close?

Oh, man, I think you nailed a lot of it. I can't really think anything else I can contribute other than, you know, if you haven't been in the Ozarks, come check it out. You know, it's not all, not all drug dealers and, you know, and gangsters out here. You know, we got some other stuff too.

Absolutely. And speaking of which, where can people come and check out your business and follow you personally? What's the best way to do.

So, yeah, we're on Facebook. You can find me personally. Ryan Duffy. Duffy Holmes Realty on Facebook. Duffy holmes Branson on YouTube. We post a lot of YouTube videos and then our direct booking site that, that you guys helped us out with, ozarkmountainvacation.com and we'll have all of our properties uploaded on there shortly too. But always happy to jump on a zoom call with somebody if they're interested in the area or just want to check out what we're doing. Just find us on Facebook.

That's cool. And just for, can you reiterate the website, we just got a little bit of lag and I'm not sure if it picked up on the mic and I want to make sure people know where to come and find you.

Yeah. So on the real estate side of things, DuffyHomes LLC.com and we primarily help people with short term rental investments, but we also do a lot of lake properties and we've got residential agents on our staff too. And then for our direct booking site that, that Boostly helped us with, it's www.ozarkmountainvacation.com.

Nice. Thank you so much. So we'll add those to the show notes as well because I don't know whether it was my connection which bottomed out there. I don't even know if it picked up on it on the podcast. But never mind. We'll, we'll add it to the show notes just so people can, can come and check you out. Ryan, I've really enjoyed this podcast. There's, there's sometimes we're, we're sometimes struggling for, you know, sort of the questions and the flow, but this has flowed really naturally. What I've taken away, and hopefully the people listening has taken away from this is that first of all, hospitality really does give back all the things that people can do to ensure they have success from the start, which is things like the better quality worktops, labeling stuff up, making sure they've got touch day guides, making sure they're using dynamic pricing. I think that was a really important point. Just backtrack into that, that you were worried that you had to use this outside company. Whereas as hosts, we've got all the power at our fingertips using some of the awesome technology. And of course a lot of that is discussed in the book Direct Blueprint by Mark Simpson as well. There's a lot of the kind of tech that people could use in there. If you don't know what that is, go and check that out on Amazon. But yeah, thank you so much for spending your time with us this afternoon. That's it from, from us here at Boostly for this podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We know there's a lot of places you can put your attention. We really appreciate you putting it with us. So yeah, thank you very much. Buy from me and that's bye from Ryan.

Thanks, Liam. Have a good one.