What It's REALLY Like to Own and Run a Hospitality Business While Travelling

Hey. Hey. Welcome to another episode of the behind the Host podcast on the Boostly podcast. So I'm Liam Carolan, the co host and today we've got a special guest for you. So today we are joined by Sarah Weaver. Now I'm not going to take any of the sort of introduction away from Sarah. She's going to introduce herself in a second. But today's episode is all about how you can be somebody working from afar. So a digital nomad, in Sarah's case, able to travel to the places you've always wanted to travel to while still self managing a number of short term and midterm rentals or medium term rentals which we're going to dive into. Sarah is, is a real expert. She's literally written the book on medium term rentals. So we're going to dive into that today and ultimately you're going to pick up some actionable tips on how you as a host can put some of the things that Sarah's found works for her into action. So let's listening for the next sort of 30 to 40 minutes. It's going to be a good one today and I'm so excited to have her here. Before we do, what I'd love to do is to ask you a question. So if you're watching on the Facebook Live, if you say in the comments, just mention are you a host who would like to work from afar if you could, you know, if that was an option for you and if you are a host who would like to do that, what's currently stopping you? So if you add those comments in below, I'll happily go through and answer any of those and perhaps Sarah can, can help us with some of the answers as to how we can break through some of those bottlenecks as well. So Sarah, welcome along.

Thank you for having me.

So before we get started, I'd love to first of all, for the people on the live, I know on the podcast you might not be able to see this, but Sarah stood in front of one of the brick walls which looks like it's one of the, you know, sort of fake backgrounds. But whereabouts are you in the world, right? Why?

Yeah, absolutely. So I am in Bangkok, Thailand this week. I am actually speaking at a conference. It's called the Dynamite Circle and they are location independent entrepreneurs. Most people are talking about SaaS or crypto or building a business, hiring. And I'm here to talk about how I invest in real estate as a perpetual traveler.

Amazing. Amazing. So all the way in Bangkok and just for anybody who's watching the Live. That is a real wall behind her at the moment.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I'm staying at my friend's apartment. He's actually from York, and so he lives here with his wife and teaches and I'm here at their apartment.

Amazing. Amazing. So let's go back then. So at the moment, you're traveling, you're speaking at conferences, you are a host yourself, which we're going to dive into. But take us back to how you got into the world of hospitality.

Yeah, absolutely. So before I became an Airbnb host, I was an avid Airbnb user, so. So I have been a traveler for a very long time. I first went abroad when I was 19, and I think a light bulb went off that year and I thought, okay, I need to find a job where I can be location independent. And that's what I called it. A few years later, I even wrote it in my journal. I want to be location independent. And eight days later, I got a job where I could live anywhere. And so for five, five, about five and a half years, I worked for a US based company, but worked remotely. And so that was my first kind of experience being a digital nomad, really practicing this whole life of being able to wake up at any time and answer calls or the technology needed to run a business from anywhere in the world. That's how I got into it. Then about, gosh, maybe two years into being location independent, I read a book called Rich Dad, Poor dad, which a lot of real estate investors read. And I realized that I was never going to be wealthy by just having a job. The way that the United States system works, it's just, there's not a good pension plan, there's no health insurance, and it's really hard to stack away cash unless you do what's called geo arbitrage. So I lived in South America for a little over a year, and I just saved my money. And during that time, I bought a property. The. The United States does a lot of things wrong, but one of the things that I think we do right is we make it home ownership possible. So I was only making US$52,000 a year, and I was able to buy two properties within two years and turn them into investment properties.

That's amazing. That's amazing. And just going back to where you've. You've just written that down to say, hey, I want to be, you know, location independent. Was that the term used?

Yes.

Yeah. Do you think that if you hadn't written that down, you wouldn't have Searched for that job. That sounds like that was an intentional kind of, you know, and, and a lot of people say, you know, you've got to write down your goals. How. How important was that for you?

Oh, Liam, I'm so glad you're asking this, because I call it manifesting. I know a lot of people call it that. And it was interesting. I was talking about manifesting not very long ago at a conference, and someone was like, okay, but what is it? And so I do want to break it down. I think manifesting is getting really clear on what you want and simply writing it down. It's making a manifestation or even a declaration even that this is what I want. And I think eventually it would have happened. I think writing it down isn't necessarily, like mutually exclusive with it happening, but I do think that it happened as quickly as it did because I wrote it down. And what happens when you write it down and actually do it differently now. So as I said, I wrote I want to be location independent. Now I write everything down either in the presence or the present or the past tense. So, for example, I wanted to write a book and I wrote, I wrote a book and I wrote that sentence in my journal. And then this is going to sound really woo, woo. So bear with me, you guys. But then I go as far as imagining it's happened and then giving gratitude. So whether you're religious or you want to thank the universe. I thanked the universe for like giving me the opportunity to write a book. And then you feel what it feels like to have become location independent or write a book or own an Airbnb or have the man of your dreams, whatever you're. You're manifesting, you actually imagine that happening. You do a visual, a visualization. And yeah, I think it really, really, really works. I think a lot of my accomplishments and my success ties back to my intention of writing it down and manifesting it.

I love that. I love that. And, you know, they say that's what pro athletes do a lot of the time, is they, you know, envision themselves either having succeeded or succeeding. This great book, I can't remember the name of it by David Goggins, who talks about this, about how visualization is just so important and how you're. You can use your mind to help you, you know, whether or not it's chemically or who knows? But it's one of those things where if you start to believe and to put your mind or put yourself into that place where you've already done it, you. You're Much more likely to succeed because whether or not it's increasing your skill set or just your belief or characteristics, depending on what it is, something's changing within yourself to make yourself get that goal or bring that goal to fruition, which is amazing. So I had to dive in there. As soon as you said that was written down, I know we've, we've gone off track. So with your, your two investments that you, that you got there, what, what sort of investments were they? Were they long term, were they, were they short term rental? What sort of investments and where we working? Just mention again where we working at the time?

Yeah, I worked for a company called Pro Rea Staffing and we helped real estate agents grow their business. So we were recruiting and staffing agency and my boss at the time, she was well ahead of her time. She was using Skype way before we lived on Zoom and she was doing Skype interviews as early as 2011, 2012. She like me, is an avid traveler and so when she interviewed me for the job, we spent more time talking about travel than we did my qualifications. And for those of you listening and don't know, not very many Americans travel, especially travel at the extent that I do. And so definitely I kind of found my like two peas in a pod with that boss. So to answer your question about the properties, I bought a single family home and turned it into a long term rental and then two years later I bought a duplex or a two unit and I turned that into a long term rental. And that was my first experience of owning property from afar. So I bought these properties and almost immediately bought a one way ticket to Europe, used my 90 days that they allow me to hang out in Europe and then from there ended up moving to Argentina down in South America and was doing all of my deal analysis and property management from afar.

Wow. So not even being close to the the areas?

Oh no.

Yeah. We're talking thousands of miles, not just a few hundred. So when was your first experience? A lot of our guests are going to be hospitality owners. When was your first experience of hosting people on a short term or even a midterm? How many years into the sort of real estate investing journey did short term rental and midterm medium term rental come about?

Yeah, absolutely. So in 2017 I bought that single family and then in 2021, that's when I really got serious about real estate investing. When we're talking about manifesting, I started identifying myself as a real estate investor. I started hanging out with real estate investors and that year I bought a four Plex or a four unit, a Duplex, a Duplex and a four Plex, all within 92 days of each other. Wow. So, yeah, I scaled really quickly that year and, and that first fourplex, I turned two of the four units into furnished rentals and put them on Airbnb. I had them as a short term rental, meaning they were renting for two to three nights. But really quickly I discovered that the city that I was in, Omaha, Nebraska, which for those of you that don't know, that's like a tiny 400,000 person town in the middle of America, not normally what you think of when you think of a hotspot destination for an Airbnb. So to my surprise, the Airbnb did really well. Like, there were a lot of people wanting to stay there in the summer. And then what I had thought or my preconceived notions about Nebraska, which is who the heck goes to Nebraska? Became true in the fall. And so that is when I switched from short term rental to medium term rental and I started renting for 30 days or more.

Amazing. So with you going into this, this market, which you've analyzed from Argentina, you've got these units quite quickly before we dive into the midterm medium term rental, which I definitely want to get into. What challenges did it present for yourself being from afar? Was there any challenges or was it all smooth sailing from. From afar? Because I think that's one of the things which I always look at and think, well, you know, as a host, and I'm sure people listening will feel the same, that if I was looking at markets which I'm not able to go to within a few hours drive, that would worry me. Is there any challenges or any kind of mindset shift that needs to happen for myself and for hosts to be able to do that?

Yeah, absolutely. So what happened for me was I actually lived in New Zealand. By the time I 2021 hit, right before COVID as the United States shut their borders to Europe, my jaw hit the floor and I thought, oh no, the next country I go to, I'm going to be trapped in. And so as a digital nomad, I can live anywhere in the world. I might as well pick the best country. Don't you love? We, like live in a world where we can Google, you know, best headphones to buy, best microphone, best Thai restaurant for dinner, but you can't necessarily Google like best country to live in, because everyone's gonna have a different opinion. Right for, for Covid or right before the Pandemic hit. I wrote in my journal, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia. For context, I was living in Bali, but I was in Malaysia for the weekend doing a visa run. And I just panicked and I thought, okay, if I get sick stuck in a country, I, I want to be stuck in a really great country. So I fled to New Zealand. I bought a one way ticket on a visitor visa and four days later they shut their borders. And then the world just kind of started to go crazy, as everyone knows. And we don't talk about COVID because everyone experienced it differently. But what that meant for me as an investor was I was on an island in the Pacific Ocean on literally the other side of the world, man, analyzing deals from 8,000 miles away. So for me, it wasn't necessarily this like huge mindset shift. It was, I would have to give up my life in New Zealand if I can't get over the worry of analyzing from afar. And so it was either get over it or get on a plane and basically give up the life that I had in New Zealand. For, for those of you that probably don't, that you probably all know, but New Zealand had like zero cases of COVID We were completely free. The borders were shut and there was a flight to LA every day. So I could leave. I wasn't actually trapped. I could leave, but I couldn't come back. It was a one way ticket out. Like if you left, you couldn't come back. And so it was really kind of this really cool thing that happened because it forced me to be okay with long, long distance investing.

That's really cool because like you say you had a choice there and by deciding this one, I definitely don't want. So I'm going to have to get through this mindset shift and to be able to be okay with it, which is amazing. Once you've decided on that, on that mindset shift, is there any, any tips or any. How did you do it? I guess is the question. How did you manage from afar with these new places?

Yeah, it's really cool. Like when your back is up against a wall, you can figure out anything. And so when it came to analyzing markets, I had a criteria. I wanted population growth, job growth, wage growth, meaning I wanted more people moving there, I wanted them making more money and I wanted them to keep their job so that I could continue to house them. Then I needed a market where the price was a certain price point. You know, I wasn't, I was still making less than US$60,000 a year, so I couldn't buy an $800,000 house. So that limited the types of markets that I could invest in. Then you have to have people sending you deals because I couldn't knock on doors or I could have cold called and made a bunch of calls, but. But I really needed what I call boots on the ground. And so then that led me down a search to find an investor friendly agent. Then I needed that investor friendly agent to send me deals. And so what started out as looking at nine different markets really led to me looking at two markets which were two markets. One I had never been to Des Moines, Iowa, and the other was Omaha, Nebraska. But for anyone that's ever like visited their, their auntie for Christmas, you don't like tour the town. I wasn't like super familiar with Omaha, Nebraska. I had just been to my aunt's house in the suburbs. And so again, I wasn't really familiar. I had never been to that part of the town before. And those are the two markets that I ended up investing in.

You know, one of those things that you've mentioned there which just so important for everybody listening, whether or not the uk, us, Worldwide, wherever they are, is that, and this is even if they're based locally, is just analyzing that market is. And treating it like a business instead of many times when we talk to hosts, they're just going, well, I like going on holiday to, you know, I like going on vacation to this place. And that's where they think of, but actually itself is actually looking at a place where you know, there is investment happening, where the population is growing, where there's something going on, where you know that your money is probably going to be safer. There's because it's a growing, growing market. And then finding the right person to help you, which even if you were local, you'd still need somebody to, well, presumably you'd need somebody to help you with the investing as well. But it's finding the right person or people to assist, which is amazing. It sounds like there was somebody successful in Nebraska who helped you there.

Absolutely. And you touched on something that I think is so important and it's that you are investing in real estate, you're not investing in lifestyle. If I want to own, let's say a beach, I just recently went to Hawaii, went to Maui for the first time. It's funny, as a backpacker, I never understood the appeal of Hawaii because it's so expensive. I'm like, why wouldn't you go to the Caribbean or Southeast Asia? But then I realized, oh, like I could actually Just move to Hawaii. There's no visa. It's a United States territory and now a state. And so I realized that I was like, oh, maybe I do want to own an Airbnb in Maui. That is a lifestyle investment. The amount of cash flow that I'm going to get from Maui is going to be less than what I'm getting in properties in the Midwest as far as cash on cash return. And so I encourage the listeners to instead thinking about where would I like to own property? It's, it's really kind of looking at the timeline. So where do I need to own property to build up my cash reserves or have really good cash on cash return? And then later in life you can invest in an investment property. At least that's how I had to invest. There might be listeners in here who just have a bunch of money and in that case, like go buy the houses in Hawaii, like all power to you. But I have a feeling a lot of people are getting into investing because they need the cash flow and so start thinking about where can I invest and then you can use that money and you could go vacation anywhere in the world.

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I love it. Assess demand. We will dive into some tech and to see what you're using in a minute as well. But so you've got your places, you know, you've got your first, well I say first places. You've got a lot of places within a short period of time. What does the journey look like at the moment? How many long term, short term, medium term properties do you, do you look after or manage at the moment? And do you manage or do you, do you have some help?

So I own 19 units in four states. There are eight buildings, there's one single family, the rest are all duplexes or fourplexes. So it's 19 apartment units and nine of them are furnished and 10 of them are long term. So half of my portfolio is long term rentals and half of my portfolio are furnished. They're all functioning right now because it's fall, they're all functioning as medium term rentals. And then in the summer I kind of play with what I call this hybrid model where I'll switch some of them to short term rental, capitalize on the higher average night stay and then I'll switch them back to medium term rental. And yes, I self manage all of them. I want to be really clear that I don't necessarily recommend self managing. If you're listening to this and you're a high income earner, don't apply for another job and become a self manager. Go ahead and hire that out. But for me, self managing meant keeping more money in my pocket and giving me the ability to quit my job faster.

That's cool. That's cool. And you've kind of touched on something there, which is the it is a job to manage. You know, self managing isn't something that can be done completely passively. There is some, there is some work involved in it, isn't there? But then you reap the rewards from it, which is, which is cool. So medium term rentals you mentioned, because it's fall, a lot of them have gone to medium term and long term. For the people listening both on the podcast and on the live. What, what is medium term rental?

Yeah, so medium term is similar to a short term rental. It is a furnished rental. What differentiates short and medium is the nightly stay. So a short term rental is going to be two to three nights, maybe a week. It's really interesting. Half of all Airbnb bookings are now a week or longer, which I think is really interesting. But then you have 24% of all bookings on Airbnb are 28 days or longer. 28 day stay wasn't a great title for our book, so we named it 30 Day Stay. And so I'm always thinking of medium term rentals as 30 days or more. My typical tenant stays 91 days on average. And they're all sorts of different tenants.

So with that, I mean short term rental, I think a lot of people listening in will know short term rental. There's a lot of hospitality owners will be thinking Airbnb people staying for a weekend, a week, you know, a few weeks on vacation, that sort of thing. Long term of course is, is people who are using it as a family home, but that mid medium term. And here in the UK we often say midterm as well. So I use those terms interchangeably. Who is it who's staying for that period of time and why?

Yes, all different reasons. So a lot of my tenants, again, they're all in the us A lot of my tenants are traveling nurses. There's this really cool concept where nurses can get 13 week contracts and they typically make four to five times as much money as a regular contract nurse. And so I'm housing a lot of nurses. My properties are near hospital complexes. That's who I target. But not all medium term tenants are nurses. Some of them are construction workers, seasonal workers. We're seeing a lot more like Amazon warehouse workers moving to a town near an Amazon warehouse because the pay is better and they need a furnished rental during that time because they're seasonal workers. I've also housed people who need a furnished rental because they're looking for their next home and maybe they sold their previous home or they're new to a town. I've housed a couple while they renovated their kitchen. I've also gotten a panic message from a divorcee who was like, I need to move in tomorrow.

And that, I mean, what I love about this is we're talking about people who are traveling while working and you're hosting them while traveling while working. And the whole thing is self perpetuating because I imagine that you're staying medium term in some of the places that you're staying in. Is that correct?

Yeah. Liam, I'm so glad that you brought that up because yes, I am a medium term rental investor and I'm a medium term rental user. And so I would like my accountant to somehow make it so that everywhere I stay is a business expense. But I haven't quite figured that out yet. But yes, I, I've been using Airbnbs for years and often I am a medium term tenant. I like to stay somewhere. For example, I moved to Medellin, Colombia in South America and I lived there for six weeks. So I technically was a medium term tenant. And those are the types of people that I serve. Digital nomads are becoming way more common. Worldwide. There's 36 million digital nomads, 11 million of them live in the United States, and 76% of those prefer to work in the U.S. so that means we have, let's call it 7 million digital nomads in the U.S. who want to live in the U.S. i think a lot of their jobs actually require them because of security purposes. And so we have 7 million digital nomads just in the US alone who want to work remotely. So that's another, like pocket that you can serve. I don't think they're necessarily going to flock to Omaha, Nebraska. I should probably pick a cooler destination if I'm going to serve digital nomads, but you never know. I have served a digital nomad. Her mom lives in Omaha and so she lived in San Francisco. Things with COVID were kind of weird and restrictions were really different in San Francisco than Omaha. And so she rented my place for a month and worked from Omaha to be close to her mom.

That's really cool. And just having that, just having those options of knowing that you can go long term, midterm, short term, you know, you've really got a lot of options there. What is it that makes the places more attractive? You know, you mentioned they're furnished properties. Is there anything in particular you have to do to attract people for medium term rentals? And another sort of attachment to that is where do you find people, you know, where do you advertise to get people?

Absolutely. If you are thinking about having a furnished rental, short or medium term, I urge you, you have to have a professional photographer. So it sounds really simple. It's kind of a no brainer for a lot of us. But that really differentiates you from the other listings. So you have to have a professional photographer and then spend the money on some of the things that make your unit pop. So examples are great throw pillows or coffee table books. Anything that adds texture and layering. Not only does it photograph well, but it's esthetically pleasing. And where I list helps me stand out. So Airbnb is full of beautiful listings. You know, some great interior designers have flood the market. Some beautiful listings are on Airbnb and I do list on Airbnb with a 28 day minimum. I also list on a website called furnishedfinder. Com. And I don't mean to sound rude when I say this, but the listings on Furnish Finder are nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as they are on Airbnb, meaning the competition just isn't there. So it's really easy for my units to stand out when it's in a sea of, you know, unprofessional photos, darkly lit, terribly decorated. My units pop.

That sounds amazing. And for anybody listening of Furnish Finder, unfortunately we don't have here in the uk, but I know that is such a good option for the US and there's something like about $100 for to list for a year, something like that, isn't it?

Exactly. It's $99 and then every listing after that is even cheaper. And so I'm just kind of holding my breath. We shouldn't talk about, oh yes, that's very expensive. Yeah, we don't want to, we don't want them to catch on that they should raise their price.

Worst kept secret saying how good it is. And then they go, hang on, we could up our price.

But I will poo poo on them a little bit though. Their user experience is really bad. And so I hope that the CEO is listening. Improve your user experience before you raise your prices.

Awesome. Awesome. Fingers crossed. Yeah. Across here in the UK we've got something called Open Rent, which is More for longer term, but certainly places where short term hosts can list to try and get longer contracts. Certainly people who are working in the area, um, for contract basis and that side of things, which is really cool.

And there's two, there's two types of people that I forgot to mention that you can also house. So you can house people who are doing an insurance claim. So in the United States we love insurance and we love suing people. And so if your house is flooded or burned down or becomes unlivable, you can claim through your insurance and they will place you in a new home. And so we saw a lot of that happening with the wildfires in California. There was terrible wildfires that went through Boulder, Colorado and all of those families then needed to be placed in a home, likely furnished. And so if you're an investor and you get in with these insurance companies, you can oftentimes get four to five times as much as you would otherwise.

It's amazing. And I mean I love diving into medium term rentals, but there's just so much more I want to talk about as well. So when working from afar, is there anyone, do you need a power team? Is there any, have you got like some most, Most valuable players MVPs, you know, like who are on your team, who help you to do this while you're, you know, so traveling?

Yes. Your cleaner is your in vp. I mean they are your eyes and ears for every turnover. They are your connector. And so your cleaner is so, so important and you're probably going to fire them eventually. So you should have not one cleaner but you should have four or five cleaners because something will happen. Unfortunately, I've gone through a lot of cleaners and what's really interesting, Liam, is I'm actually a daughter of a cleaning lady. So my mom cleans houses. She used to clean construction homes like brand new builds before they moved in. But when 2008, the housing crash, she had to stop doing that and start cleaning regular residential homes. And so I actually spent my childhood helping my mom in the summers cleaning people's houses. And so it's really cool to come full circle and realize that I now employ cleaners. They often have families. I've even met some of their kids and looking at their son, you know, he's like, has his phone in one hand and a rag in the other. I'm like, kid, I've been there. Like that was me when I was your age and my mom as well as my grandfather, they told me they were like, Sarah, work with your head not your hands. And so it's really cool to come full circle and employ cleaners. Considering that I'm a daughter of a cleaner.

I like that, I like that story arc. That is for me. My, my uncle, he owns a cleaning business which I worked for when I was a teenager. And that is just one of those things where the, the reason he always says is that, look, there'll always be a need for cleaning. You'll never be short of work for, for being a cleaner. He said that won't be, you know, is manual work, but there'll always be work. But one of the things which allows you to do is, when you've seen it firsthand, is understand that it is, you know, there is some work involved. You know, it isn't necessarily. Is it repetitive? Yes. But is it easy? Not, not all the time. And that's one of the things where being able to put yourself in your cleaner's shoes and understanding that is so important. So, yeah, that's really cool. So we briefly touched on tech earlier on what kind of tech do you use in your business which helps you to manage from, from afar? And particularly going back to the question before is, do you use something to analyze deals from afar?

Yes, great question. So my tech stack includes, we already mentioned Airbnb and Furnish Finder. So Airbnb is a booking site, but Furnish Finder is just a listing site. So then you're going to need to take those leads or tenants off of the site and move them to something where they're going to accept payment as well as house their lease. So I use a company called Avail. It's a V A I L C Co and that is a property management software. Their competitor would be apartments.com. i use them as well. And, and so some of my units are on one and some of my units are on the other. And so that, that's my tech stack when it comes to that. Then now that I have nine furnished rentals, I wanted to make automated messaging easier, communicating with my cleaner easier. So I use a site called Hospitable. Um, I actually believe they're based in Europe. I think they're based in the Netherlands. And so I use that for my furnished rentals. And then I have a veil for my long term rentals. And then another piece of technology that I don't think people talk about enough in the short term rental space is your task management software. So something like Monday.com, trello, asana. I prefer Asana, but that is absolutely essential because you're doing the same thing over and over again every time a tenant leaves. In my case, you know, they're only leaving four times a year because you're housing them on average for 90 days. And so why not make a checklist? So I love Asana because it makes making templates really easy and then it made hiring really easy. So something that I've done in the last, gosh, eight, eight months is I've started to hire. So I have a full time virtual assistant in the Philippines and I have a full time executive assistant in the United States and they now both property manage my properties so that I'm not the one messaging guests every day. It's them.

That's cool. That's really cool and hospitable. You mentioned there, which we've got to give a shout to. We've had Matt on here on the podcast on Mark's side of things and yeah, it is really useful messaging service and makes things a lot EAS and the software which helps you to just manage tasks in general. So you use Asana. Right? I'm one of the people who, I've tried every single one of those. I've tried, you know, Monday.com I've tried Asana Trello and I've gone through them all. And one of the things I always think with, with those kind of technologies is sometimes we're trying to use them because that is what we kind of feel we should do. But if you're not finding that they're working for you and making things simple and easy, switch to the next one, which is what I've done. And eventually I've landed on one called ClickUp. And once you find one that works for you, it just, just works so much better, doesn't it? Just to manage those, those tasks where you can either diarrhatize or have reminders or lists like you say, it's just so important.

Yeah. And I should be really clear that I am not a dot I cross T type of person. I am a visionary for anyone that like subscribes to ES, EOS or traction or rocket fuel. Like I'm 100% visionary. I don't really care about the details and so I want to be very clear in case my EA is listening. I don't use Asana. I am terrible at using the task management software, but my team does and I can slow down enough at times because I really. One thing as a visionary is I hate inefficiency. And so I'm not a patient person. It's my only flaw. But I love efficiency. So I. While I don't like slowing down enough to dot I's and cross T's, I know the importance and it's the only way to scale, the only way that I can actually sleep through the night. Because trust me, there was a lot of sleepless nights, especially at the beginning. I was like, what if an Airbnb guest message or what if this happens and there's a lot of worry that goes into all of this. I don't want to sound nonchalant, like, oh, I lived in New Zealand and I just had to get over it. No, I was still worried. Like, I was worried, what if I buy the wrong deal? What if a plumbing issue happens? What if, what if, what if? But I make sure that I still function even in the fear.

It sounds like you've really got your. The path laid out and that you know, that despite the, the emotions involved, like say the, the fear, the anxiety, the worry that, you know, you've still got to get there, like a, like a rickety bridge sort of thing, you still got to get to the other side no matter what. And you know you will. Which. Which is amazing. So is there a. Any perceptions which has changed over time? So obviously during your journey, you've gone through a lot of amazing different places to live. Investing in four states. What has been one perception which has changed over time from when you first set off on this path to what it is now?

Yeah. So I think one thing that I thought at the very beginning was that it was going to take forever. So, like, I have talked a lot about manifesting and writing in my journal. It's so fun to go back and read because I thought, okay, maybe by 2025 I'll make, I don't know what I thought, 5,000amonth, 8,000amonth. And then because I like dosed rocket fuel on my portfolio in 2021 and I bought a 4 Plex duplex. Duplex.fourplex. i went from making $4,000 a month in profit to often making over $10,000 a month in profit. And so the perception that it's going to take forever is definitely the biggest thing that's changed. And now my goals are so, so, so much bigger.

That reminds me of our previous guest mentioned Tony Robbins quote. Which people is it Tony Robbins? The one which is, people underestimate what they can do in one year. Sorry, underestimate what can be done in a decade, but overestimate what can be done in one year. So true, isn't it? And like you say, Just by knowing the destination of what your aim is, what the goal is, that although you may feel looking forward that it's going to be slow, looking back, I mean, that's a whirlwind. I mean all the different places purchased in a short period of time, you know, within a few years, you're, you're, you're free to now do what you want to do. And yeah, that's amazing.

So, and, and you get a re. Identify or like, you know, have a new identity all the time. So I'm at a place now where if I wanted to, I'm in Bangkok, right? So if I wanted to just stop what I'm doing and live in Bangkok, I could, I could stop. Like I could, I feel so weird to say retire, but I could, I could retire to a inexpensive place. However, like I'm from the US I would eventually like to live in the US and then I'd like to live in a cool city in the US and so the reality is I don't quite make enough money to live the lifestyle that I want. If I wanted to live in a Denver or an Austin or a San Francisco, however, I get to make that choice. So if I wanted to just chill for the next six to nine months, I could do that. But I also am wildly ambitious and it's funny you mentioned David Goggins, that book. I read that and I was like, hoorah. Like, yeah, I'm going to do it all. And so that's definitely my personality. But there's probably a lot of listeners that are, are thinking, man, I would love to just chill. And so I encourage you to just buy a rental property because if you buy even 4 really good rental properties, you may be able to retire.

You've reminded me of a quote from. There's a guy called what's his name? McDonald is his surname. But he basically says don't, don't wait to buy property. Buy property and wait. Which is just so, so important. So I'd love to dive into because there's so much more to talk about. You do home interior sort of advice. There's, there's so much more that we could talk about but we are getting towards the end of the show and we like to do a couple of quick fire questions and the other thing we've got to mention is your awesome website and the coaching that you offer as well. So let's do some quick fire questions for you. These can be as short or as long as you like, but yeah, just a bit of fun. So top Travel, destination and why.

Yes, I keep going to Antigua, Guatemala. Lately, it's really underestimated or like, you know, people aren't talking about it enough, in my opinion. So especially for US based, you can fly from Houston, Miami, Louisiana for like $71 way. So that's really nice. And then all these digital nomads that we're talking about, it's a central time zone. So I really like antigua. It's at 8,000ft elevation, so the weather is perfection. You know, it's like cool at night, hot in the morning, and it is surrounded by volcanoes. So nice. Check out Antigua, Guatemala.

Is that mentioned in Pirates of the Caribbean as well or something like that? Isn't it?

I don't know.

Yes, I'll check it out. So is there any guests that stand out from the time that you've been hosting and why?

Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, yeah, I have this guest. We'll call her Sammy because that's actually her name. And Sammy, just like, she couldn't figure out how the TV works. She couldn't figure out the Internet. Then the window just fell in. I was like, oh, my gosh. Then we go to clean her unit when she moves out and there was actual dog poop on the rug on the lamp. I'm like, how is her dog poop on the lamp? So any tenant that bothers me, I call them. I'm so sorry for anyone named Samantha, but I call all troubled some tenant Sammy now. So I'm like, oh, Sammy.

I know there's hosts listening to this to come. Yes. That is. That reminds me of, you know, whoever their Sammy is. But yeah, awesome.

I love the window. The window just. I don't know what happened. It just fell in love.

We had it recently where somebody was like, yeah, I was just sitting on the table. The table just broke. And I was just like, yeah, yes. Yeah. That doesn't just happen. Something's happened to that. You know, that isn't normal. You didn't put a plate down and the table just falls apart.

And to be fair, I have broken stuff. Like, I have stayed in Airbnbs. I'm a little clumsy. I have broken things and I fess up, like, right away, I say, I am an idiot. I'm so sorry. What can I do to fix this? And I try to fix it while I'm there. And so if you're ever an Airbnb guest and you do break something, don't wait until the end and then cause headache for them during turnover. Tell them so that they can ideally, like, like for example, a lamp just broke in one of mine. Well, it was no problem. I just ordered a new lamp and shipped it to the unit. And then I asked my guests nicely to unbox it and set it up. And so, you know, stuff's gonna happen. And one thing I don't like about the podcast interviews is when we only talk about the bad stuff. So I'll also mention one really great tenant. So I had a tenant who improved my unit while they were there. They like installed shelving in the closet. She left a vacuum. Because that's the beauty of these medium term tenants is they take ownership of the unit and so they want to live in a nice place especially even, even if it's for three months. And so there are tenants that have actually improved my unit as they've stayed there.

You know, that's a really great point because a lot of time people, you're right, just talk about the bad. And there is, there is some stuff which happens which makes, there's some good stories. But yeah, I mean, we've had plumbers who stayed in our unit and just go, yeah, we noticed your tap was leaking. So we've just sorted it out, we've done this to it. And you just go, wow, thank you so much. Like send some beers across and that sort of thing. So amazing. So what is one motto or mantra that you like to live by?

Yes. So my, my motto is live where you want and invest where the numbers make sense.

Love that. I love that. That doesn't take any explanation, does it? That is amazing.

No. But I will tell you guys a really funny story. So I wrote a book. I have a journalism degree. I graduated with honors from journalism. So I school and I am a horrendous speller. I'm young enough that I've always had word processor. Now I can even say, hey Siri, how do you spell conscientious? And so I'm a terrible speller. And oh, Siri, so. So I am a terrible speller. And I give this presentation teaching real estate investing all over the US and Canada, mostly to real estate agents. And I have a slide that says, you know my motto. And then up at the top it says, live where you want. Invest where the numbers make sense. And it's all these travel photos. I have been showing this slide to hundreds, if not thousands of people. And motto was spelled wrong. It said moto, like with one T. And no one told me. And so it's just really funny how I don't want you guys to think that us presenters or authors or anyone, we have oftentimes no idea what we're doing. And mistakes like that do happen. So if you're ever feeling like imposter syndrome or like you're not good enough to do any of these things, you guys, I'm not good enough to do a lot of the things that I do, and then I just do it anyway.

I love that. And what a perfect way to bring it to a close. I mean, that is amazing. And Sarah, I feel so lucky to have had you on the boost. Leave behind the host podcast. And if people who are listening want to get in touch, obviously you've got some awesome coaching. You've got your book. Where can people find this, this information? And is there anything you'd like to tell us about those?

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much. So my website is sarahd weaver.coms a r A H D as in David Weaver. W E A V E r dot com. And yes, if you want to invest long distance, there's a couple ways that I can help you. You can sign up for coaching or in my mentorship. And I want to be the first coach to say, you also don't need a coach. So you can do this on your own. Then. I have a company called Aria Design Services. And if you want help furnishing from afar, if you're like, how on earth did this girl furnish in Nebraska while living in New Zealand, I can tell you I started a company called Aria Design Services. So if anyone listening wants to buy property in the US but you can't fly there to furnish it yourself, hire us and we'll do it for you. And then lastly, travel is my why. It's why I do what I do. I am in love with traveling. So now I own a travel company. So I actually take real estate investors on epic trips around the world. So I'm taking 22 investors down to Chile to hike the W trek in Patagonia because I think we should be living a really big life and not waiting until we have enough money in the bank or we hit our financial independence goals. I urge you guys to go on a trip. So even if you don't come on one of my trips, my hope is that you book the plane ticket.

I love that. I love the. I mean, the whole message of this is live the life you want to live while seeing the things you want to see. And don't let that stop you from really investing and in getting involved in, in both hospitality, real estate, events investing, and, you know, having that, that goal and making it your own. So Sarah, thank you so much for today. So this will go out now on the the Boostly podcast and for everybody listening, if you haven't already, go and check out Sarah's website. That was Sarah D. Weaver and if anybody has got any questions at all or wants to get in touch with Sarah, you can do so there. Or alternatively send us a message here at Boostly and we'll more than happily pass on Sarah's details. So thank you so much, Sarah for today. It's been really eye opening. I've learned so much and I'm sure the listeners will have done as well. And yeah, is there any closing comments before we close it down for the day?

I think the last is just reach out to me. I really love hearing from you guys. I read all of my DMs, so you can go to my website, email me, or you can reach out to me on Instagram. It's also Sarah D. Weaver. If anything I've said resonates with you or you want to swap stories about your Sammy, just reach out. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks very much Sarah and yeah, take care and bye for now.

Thank you.

Having a blast. Going to get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee because it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.