Financial Freedom Fast
Quitting Her Job After 2 Properties (MTR Strategy) w/ Sarah Weaver
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I could see that this was my ticket to financial freedom, because you're exactly right, that $3,000 a month was almost exactly what my take home pay was every month from my day job. And keep in mind I still have the other two properties which now were conservatively cash flowing 13 to $1,400 a month. Add in these two properties and I realized, oh my gosh, I could leave my job. So that's exactly what I did.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Financial Freedom Fast Podcast, the show that teaches you how to buy back your time and live life on your terms. Learn how to confidently leave your 9 to 5 from guests who've done it themselves. Whether you want to lay on a beach, travel the world or focus on your passions, this show will give you the tools to do what you want when you want. Now here's your host, matt Ammabio.
Speaker 3:What is up? Financial Freedom Fast Fam. Today's podcast dives deep into midterm rentals with my good friend, sarah D Weaver. She held it in midterm rentals. I am telling you what, guys. She's got 19 doors and they throw out $13,000 of cash flow every single month and she's been able to build other businesses off of that. But, guys, 13 grand a month, you can live off of that. You can have a pretty good life, travel pretty nice and go see and do the things that you want to do just by building out that much income. And her cash flow to unit ratio is just ridiculous. She's almost at $1,000 per door in cash flow and some people, as we dig into in the podcast, look for only 100 to 200 doors dollars of cash flow per property. Guys, it's absolutely insane. So I'm so excited for you guys to dive in there and hear about this.
Speaker 3:Guys, if you are not subscribed to this podcast yet, make sure you subscribe to the podcast, which means click into your app right now as you're listening. Click into the app. Don't not listen to me. Click into the app unless you're driving. Click into the app that you're listening to this and press that subscribe button, the follow button, so you can follow this podcast and get notified when we're dropping these pods. My people, let's jump into the pod. Sarah Weaver. Welcome to the financial freedom fast podcast. What is going on, sister?
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me, Matthew. I'm good. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:today. I am so good, so excited to get you on here and share some of the knowledge, the information that you've got in your head, that our listeners have been dying to find out about, and that is midterm rentals. Guys, if you haven't heard of Sarah Weaver, how have you not heard of her? She is all over the place. Real estate agent coach, investor coach. Author. The 30 day stay with Ziana Macintyre, digital nomad, midterm rental investor, started in longterm rentals. I am so excited to dive in today. Sarah, just for let's give a 30,000 foot overview. If I didn't just do it, let's give a 30,000 foot overview of who you are today, and then we'll dig back into the story of how you built that up here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for the very kind introduction. For those of you that don't know, my name's Sarah Weaver, and I am just a girl from Kansas who decided that I didn't wanna live a normal life. I went to university, but I didn't get what I call my MRS degree, didn't marry my college boyfriend. Instead, I had my eye on one thing, which was living abroad. Though my resume looks a little wild, I've taught English and South Korea. I had an internship in at Sports Illustrated, I was a journalist, I was a recruiter.
Speaker 1:But one thing stayed constant I always prioritize traveling, and while I spent most of my 20s traveling like a dirty backpacker which there's no shame in the game I stayed at a hospital last month in Munich. I don't wanna live like that or travel like that forever, and I also didn't want to ever have to have a job where I couldn't nag a cheap flight on a Tuesday or say yes to a last minute concert in Berlin on Friday. I just wanted freedom, and that costs money, whether we like it or not. Yeah, I can travel, hack and house hack and do all the hacks, but the reality is that freedom. You need some money in the bank, and so I discovered real estate investing and have gone all in on real estate investing to fund my lifestyle.
Speaker 3:I love that and we were going to dive more in on the why. Just curious as a side question here do you know the count of how many countries you've been to or places that you've? Do you keep track of that with young people, dan?
Speaker 1:I do, I do, I do, and for those of you that do the same thing, like for me, I wanted to visit 30 countries before 30. I think I said that when I was like 19,. I had visited three or four countries, and so I hit that before 30. And then I stopped counting, because for me, traveling is not about counting or visiting every country. So this last couple of years I visited a lot of countries that I had been to before and so spending a lot of time going back to places like England and Italy and Guatemala, where I spent quite a bit of time. And, with that being said, I hit a pretty big milestone last week when I visited my 50th country.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow. That is impressive. How many countries out there in the world, isn't it Like two hundred and hundred and ninety four recognized by the United Nations A hundred and ninety four. So you're a quarter, more than a quarter of the way there to see and everything that is amazing. What is? It's so hard when people ask me from my travels oh, what was your favorite place? Where is your favorite place? Do you have somewhere, or maybe one, two, three places that have a special place in your travel?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And yes, for anyone out there, out of the traveler, it is my least favorite question. What's your favorite country? I'm like I can't answer that question, but what I can do is I've put them into categories. So best nature or anything outdoors? Easy, new Zealand and Bants, canada. They're by far the most beautiful places for nature. For food, it would be Japan and Thailand. The food is just out of this world.
Speaker 1:And you guys heard me like I'm from Kansas, like I didn't know what off a Goddo was, or I had never eaten eggplant by choice, like I did not grow up with a sophisticated palate. But man, traveling has made me a snob when it comes to food. And Japan and Thailand on the back. What other categories can I give you the best? Oh, my favorite place to just grab a coffee and walk around would be Florence, italy. It's just magic. The town is so special to me. The most beautiful women would be Columbia, like no questions asked. I don't date women, but that's my opinion. And then the most beautiful men, matthew. Whoever I'm on a date with, obviously.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go. That speaks volumes there. That is amazing. That is a great travel guide, honestly, to be throwing out there. Noted about the women in Columbia, and I do need to make sure that I get a trip out there.
Speaker 3:And I love what you said about the dirty backpacker lifestyle. Like I did that same thing coming out of college. Let me just go travel longterm, not care about where I'm staying, how I'm staying, and like the point of traveling is for me to experience the area. So I'm just gonna go experience it, feel it and live that lifestyle that I can.
Speaker 3:I went to Europe for a month and a half, came back and ended up only spending right around five grand, and so that popped into my head like boom, if I can create $5,000 a month, somehow I could do that pretty longterm for the rest of my life if I wanted to. But again, I wouldn't wanna travel like that forever. So there would have to be some jumps up in lifestyle which would come from buying more assets or buying more real estate. So this all leads us into now you saying you got into investing. You're in a niche, pretty more niche part of real estate investing. Let's talk about the beginning of your story. I know you started in longterm rentals and then transitioned into the midterm space. Let's talk about those first few properties that you bought there and then how we transition into midterm rentals.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. The first two properties that I bought, I used what's called the house hacking strategy. So for those of you listening that aren't familiar with real estate, all that means is that I used an owner occupied loan. Why would I do that? It's because it allows you to put down less than 20 or 25%. So a regular conventional loan they're gonna walk 20% down, which could be depending on the size of house that you're buying. That could be $100,000. But for me, I was able to put 3% down using what's called the home ready program. If you're not familiar, ask your lender about the owner occupied home ready program. It's not an FHA loan, it's different than the FHA. So the first two houses, that's what I did. I did 3% down home ready owner occupied conventional loan, got roommate and then said Sayonara and spent the whole summer in Europe and then eventually moved to Argentina and spent a whole year traveling South America and Mexico.
Speaker 1:And what was so cool is those numbers that you gave about. Like that you spent 5,000. I was cash flowing, meaning profit, like in my pocket about 1100. It was like a 1100 would be like a bad month, 1400 would be a good month and that is about how much money. I was spending every month living in places like Brazil and Argentina. My writ at one bedroom apartment that was a Four-minute walk to an exclusive beach. In Brazil, I was spending 400 us dollars on my rent man.
Speaker 3:That shows how Available this is and prices have Granite gone up a bit but there are still places and I know you're a big proponent of the almost like the lifestyle Staying at a place for more than a month. I love that strategy Because you can get pretty big monthly discounts when you're going out and staying at a place for more than 30 days. On Airbnb you can get a place for this 608. I went and stayed a month in Paris this past February and that Airbnb was like a loft style Airbnb right in the middle center of Paris beautiful area and it was only the granny. It's more than $400, but it was $1560 for the entire.
Speaker 1:You were living. You were living your Emily in Paris era. How was it?
Speaker 3:Oh, my Paris is. Paris has my heart, and so I actually. The women in Paris are amazing there too, I think yeah, I thought I don't spend very.
Speaker 1:I don't spend very much time in France.
Speaker 1:I can't compete with these very posh French women, Right apart yeah so I'm glad you had a good time, but I think what's so interesting is that you bring up a really good point Is that I do prefer to slow travel, which is interesting because, as you mentioned, I am Focusing on an investing strategy called the medium term rental or the midterm rental, and it's funny because I am a midterm rental Gaff or tenant, and so I'm investing in this type of investing strategy, which I'll get to, but then I'm also that type of tenant. So when I lived in Brazil guess what? I stayed there for more than 30 days. When I lived in Buenos Aires, argentina, I stayed there for more than 30 days.
Speaker 1:When I go to Mexico City, I usually stay at my friend's apartment, which she rents on Airbnb, for more than 30 days, and so I already knew there was a demand for this, because I have been living as a digital nomad, and so while I was living in this $400 apartment in Brazil, I would fire up my laptop every morning, monday through Friday, and Work for the boss and do the grind. But then I will say, like my Tuesday evenings were like magical Sunsets or barbecue picnics on the beach, friends, and it was incredible, and I want to make it really clear that I was working. I always have been working. This is not a trust fund, baby, by any means. Or I wouldn't, or I wouldn't have been staying in that apartment. That was $400 a month. I would have been staying on the apartment on the beach. That was probably $1500.
Speaker 3:So what was your job at the time that you were working, and that was fully obviously, fully remote that you were doing there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when I was 25, I had gotten back from teaching English in South Korea for a year and I kept saying, okay, it's time to be an adult, it's time to get a real job, sign a lease, and so that's exactly what I did. I moved to Texas. I followed a boy to Texas. We got a dog. I've now lost the man and the dog, so it's like a bad country song, and I tried to live a normal life and I just couldn't do it. I didn't want to go into an office, and so I'll never forget.
Speaker 1:I was sitting in my living room in Texas and I had my computer open and I just started applying for remote position. And you guys, this was 2015, so this was not common. This was way before COVID, and I applied to 83 jobs. The only reason I know that is because I had a spreadsheet To see if it all straight right from in yeah, and hyperlinks to all the job ad, because I was thankfully getting callback, which I hear is a hard thing to do these days. A lot of times you apply for a job, you don't even hear from them, but I would get a callback from either a recruiter or the company and I'd be like I don't even know what the how about? What's the position? Like? How good can I be at bullshitting this job interview? And and must have been pretty good because I snagged a job with a real estate.
Speaker 1:So what this company did the woman's brilliant these. I love her because she's also an avid traveler female entrepreneur and she realized that real estate agents go through assistant Like water. So she started a recruiting company Helping I in real estate agents hire staff so that's their transaction coordinator, they're buyers assistant, they're showing assistant, they're listening assistant, they're marketing manager, they're executive assistant. And that is what the company does that they place administrative Daff with real estate agents all across the country. And so my job was just like you and I right now on video. I was interviewing potential candidates for these positions and the boss did not care where I lived, and so one day I said, hey, I'm gonna buy a one-way ticket to funny Columbia and Took that boyfriend with me. And we discovered while we were there that we just wanted to live a normal life in the US, then work a nine to five and have Sunday dinner with mom, and I said I want those things too. I.
Speaker 3:In 10 years. Yeah, let's experience life now.
Speaker 1:And it's wild, matthew, because now that was seven years ago and I am starting to see, oh yeah, if I met the right person today, I would be ready to have a house, and maybe not even house hack it, but like actually have a house that I want to live in and Sunday dinners with mom. That sounds great. But at the time, when I was 26, no, I knew I wanted this life, which has been travel and buying rental properties.
Speaker 3:I feel that so hard with my heart right now because I am 26 right now and my life is like fully encompassing. How much real estate can I buy? The most profitable real estate? How much of it can I buy? And then, how much time can I go and spend overseas? So next year I am like I am planning on trying to be traveling for four months out of the year, going out to Bali doing a yoga training out there to become a certified yoga instructor, and then got some other trips planned throughout the year.
Speaker 3:But I love the mindset, the lifestyle, and you made the choice Like you, were true to you and you said this is actually what I want to do. I see what you want to do. I could see myself want to do that in the future, but if this doesn't match up right now, then Sianara and I will keep doing what I'm doing. So I love that, and you've used midterm rentals to be able to afford you this lifestyle and create this lifestyle around you. So you had I know you went like your first few properties was like single family. Then what was it? Duplex, underplex, moving in that era, but those were all long term rentals. When was the time where you saw that midterm rentals are the thing, and before maybe. Yeah, let's answer that question and then we define what a midterm rental is for our listeners.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You're exactly right. I bought a single family house hack that then I bought. Two years later I bought a duplex. So keep in mind, like the part of the story I'm about to tell is I bought a lot of real estate really quick, but I bought one property and then two years later, bought another property. So it wasn't going anywhere fast, because that wasn't the goal.
Speaker 1:The goal was to spend as much time abroad and live my best life, and so, after property number two, I will admit, though, something changed in me and I started identifying as a real estate investor. I wasn't introducing myself like that at a hostel in Bali, but I definitely was thinking of myself as a real estate investor. So that meant I was reading real estate books, listening to real estate podcasts, attending real estate meetups via zoom. Then one thing that I told someone recently is, when I attend a zoom meeting, I am in the chat, like actively networking with people in the zoom chat, whereas I know a lot of you and no change in the game. I know a lot of you attend these zoom events or networking, and you're half there. You're like scrolling on Instagram or you're doing something else. You have another window open, but what I would do is I would attend these zoom meetings and I would like network with every single person there.
Speaker 1:So I was like sending private messages. I was setting up calls with these people. Later, oh hey, jimmy, I see that you do flip. Let's have a call next Tuesday. I'd love to ask you. Or, hey, I want to connect you to. So and that's how I was spending almost all of 2020 and 2021 was networking with people, and it's funny that you mentioned Bali. I spent three months in Bali, living all around Bali, and then I moved to New Zealand and bought a van and did van life, and so I was doing all of this networking while in Bali and while in New Zealand.
Speaker 3:Man, I feel like our stories are just I'm going to have to get your travel tips for Bali and I am buying. I'm actively making offers on my phone for travel bands out here in the US so I can do the van life for three months and go see every national park that we have out here, because there's so much beauty in the US that I just have not seen yet. So you are slowly buying and slow is a relative term, right? A lot of people could see that as fast, right, like you bought one and then you bought one two years later and then another one a year and a half later. So you're doing that. And then what was this turning point where you saw? Let me try out this different method.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Property number three was a fourplex that I had the funds to put 25% down, but at the time it was really hard to get a seller to accept FHA. For those of you that don't know, the FHA loan is like an owner occupied loan. It allows you, the buyer, to put three and a half percent down, but for the seller it means like a couple extra inspections. There can't really be much wrong, if anything wrong, with the property. And so a lot of sellers are instructed by their sellers agent, their real estate agent, not to accept FHA, which in my opinion, I don't think that's right. There's a lot of great investors that are able to. I could have closed either way. So thankfully I had an amazing buyer agent who convinced the seller to accept my FHA offer because, worst case scenario, we would just switch to a regular conventional loan should the FHA not work. And so the difference you guys like, why would I agree to live in this house? The difference was a down payment of $80,000 or a down payment of $11,300. And so it turns out you guys, you can buy my loyalty, and for $70,000, I will move anywhere in the world. And so what that meant was it kept more money in my bank account so that I could buy the next properties. But it also meant that I could live in one of the four unit and I furnished my unit because, by the way, that's what you do when you move somewhere. It turns out I kept saying I was staging it and my friends were like, no, sarah, you're living there, you're an adult now. I was like, oh yeah, that's how that works.
Speaker 1:So I moved into that unit and then I put it on Airbnb, thinking that I would Airbnb it on the weekends and go visit my grandparents my grandpa's not in great health and he lives about 45 minutes from the property. So I was like this is gonna be great. I haven't been home in a year and I'd love to spend time with my family while getting 27% return on investment. I was like this is brilliant, but what happened is my like.
Speaker 1:Second inquiry on Airbnb was for 90 days and I was like, whoa, they're willing to pay me that and my mortgage is a late that. They were willing to pay me 1400 a month and my entire mortgage principal interest tax and the insurance was $2000. And keep in mind that this is a fourplex. So I have three other units paying me rent. And that's when, like, my eyes got really big and I was like, wow, this medium to rental thing is amazing. So while I couldn't accept that for my unit because I need to live there, you intend to live in the unit the unit below me had just become vacant, so I hurried and I furnished the bottom unit in four days and accepted that longer term booking. And that's when I discovered the power of medium term rentals.
Speaker 3:Wow. So that what was the rent difference? If there's $1400 that they were willing to pay for the month, what would they be paying if it was not a furnished midterm rental?
Speaker 1:Great question. So the two tenants next door by the way, all units are exactly identical, one bedroom, one bath units and the tenants next door were paying $700 and $750.
Speaker 3:So basically being able to double the rent that you're bringing in and maybe not doubling the cash flow, it could even do more than double the cash flow that you're bringing in at that time, cause you could only be making if, let's see, every unit is at $750. So you were bringing in right around $2,200 a month on this fourplex that you were living in one unit in and your mortgage, taxes and insurance were right around I think you said $2,200. And now, if you can do two of these units, let's say at $1,400, now you're at $2,800 just with those two units, and then you have another 700 coming in from a long-term rental. You're at like $3,500. That takes your cash flow from almost $0 up to $1,500 just on this one property. So that shows, like the power of this strategy. And is that what you did? Did you make two units, two units in that building, the midterm rentals?
Speaker 1:Exactly. So now fast forward to today. So these numbers, you guys. I bought this house in 2021, or this fourplex, and I now rent a one bedroom, one bath furnished rental instead of $1,400. I'm now getting $1,875, or $2,200 if they booked through Airbnb, which I ended up netting like closer to $1,900. So let's just call it $1,875. And then I moved out. Eventually, one of the long-term tenants lease came up for renewal and I did a notice of non renewal, so I now have three furnished rentals. In this foreclap, my long-term tenant is up to 850 a month in her rent, so I'm getting 6475 dollars and my PITI has gone up to I think I'm in pain like 2052.
Speaker 3:This is illegal, sir. This is highway robbery. You cannot make that. That's $4,000 a cash flow on One building. That is absolutely insane and there's people that could most likely live off of 4000. One building could potentially be enough to Get somebody's financial freedom number met. Some people have three thousand dollar a month financial freedom number which. How attainable is there? How manageable is that? But this one strategy was able to do that just for that one building.
Speaker 1:And I recognize the power of medium to rentals. So guess, when I did, I bought the building next door. So I own two fourplexes right next door to each other. There's only like a driveway in between. It allows me to have the same handing in, the same cleaner, the same plumber Everything is the same. I furnished all of the units with the same formula. Then there is like different artwork and throw pillows and all those types of things, but it's like it was plug-and-play and Next door. All four units are medium term and I'm bringing in 7500.
Speaker 3:That's the end of the show, right there, that's. That is the message that everybody needs to know is like the power and the ability to be able to increase your rents Just by using this one niche strategy. Now I want to talk a little bit about the intricacies of Midterm rentals, one of the things we need to look out for. What makes the best midterm rental Location wise? How can we test? Demand a bunch of these questions. Before we dive into that, I do just want to see you where your real estate investing career went from there. So, was that after you bought the fourplex next door? Is that the last building that you bought, or what is your portfolio look like today?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that summer was absolutely wild because, for those of you that have been falling along like, I've traveled a lot and then I moved to Nebraska, and so my personal life was a little bit like wait, what have I done? This was a really dumb. And so I went full board. Real estate investing was attending meetups, was getting on podcast. I started writing a book about this strategy. I was head down.
Speaker 1:Really hate the word grinding, but that's exactly what I was doing, as I like was grinding real estate. So what that meant was I was analyzing deals Every day and I do want to get into some of the details of this so I was networking with what I call investor friendly agent from afar. So I had never lived in Omaha before. I had been to like the suburbs, to go to my aunt's house, but I had never even been to this part of the city before before I moved into this building that I had never seen, and so I and I didn't fly in for the inspection, I didn't even fly in clothes. I closed on the property and I moved in about like 30 to 40 days later. So when I like hold into the driveway, I'm like holy, I own this. Like I hope, I hope I like it, I hope it's nice. Yeah, and the good thing is, you guys, I did like it because I could see Exactly what Matthew was saying, like I could see that this was my ticket to financial freedom. Because you're exactly right, that $3,000 a month was almost exactly what my take-home pay was Every month from my day job and keep in line.
Speaker 1:I still had the other two properties which now were like conservatively cash-blowing 13 to $1,400 a month and so add in these two properties and I realized I was like, oh my gosh, I could leave my job, and so that's exactly what I did. So I left my job and I bought two more duplexes. They also are next door to each other. I really like buying properties next door to each other and I bought two duplexes, so four more units, and I used what's called the burr strategy. So I bought it Using hard money and private money, renovated it, then got tenants, rented it out and then I was able to refinance it and get all of my money back. Now, when you're talking about, that should be illegal. This whole thing, like I felt like the whole time I was doing it I was getting scammed, but it turns out that it worked and I did a near perfect burr, and so that summer I bought a fourplex, a duplex and a fourplex All in 92 days.
Speaker 3:Wow, quick, quick movement there. But yes, I completely agree with the mindset, the feeling that you have, that this should be illegal and this probably isn't gonna work, like until you actually execute a refinance. It's all made up and it doesn't. There's no way, because if not, you're just like shoot, throwing money out there and being like, if this whole refinancing doesn't work out, I just got to wait for the cash flow to pay me back, which will take a bit longer for me to get that money back out of it. But lo and behold, you do a cash-over refinance and you can pull your money back out, which is really amazing, and you're able to do that. So you focus fully Any more long-term rentals after that, or everything is fully a midterm rental.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those four units, the bird properties, I actually have those as long-term tenant. Then I did something interesting. One of my tenants because now I've owned it for what is that? Two years One of my tenants that lives in let's call it side a. He actually also rent side B and she puts it on Airbnb and rents it.
Speaker 1:Huh, and so for me it's okay. Sarah, wait, why wouldn't you do that for me? I'm able to rent the whole building. He takes care of lawn care, snow removal, and I was able to have zero turnover that month because he went ahead and took possession the day the other tenant moved out. So those four units are long-term. And then about six months later, I picked up two more duplexes and I did what I recommend everybody do, which is have one unit, so like side a is long-term for the stability and you just can have Less stress, no furnishing. And then side B, I turn it into a medium-term rental and I rent it medium term, and so that's what I've done with both of those Duplexes and I really like that strategy and recommend it, especially for like first-time furnished rental owners.
Speaker 3:So what does that put your unit count at? Currently today, it sounds like it's like mid-20s area. Yeah, I met 19, 19 units and what is the cash flow that those 19 units push off?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think it's really important that we talk about, like, what is cash flow? So when I say cash flow, I'm setting aside 5% for capital expenditures, 5% for maintenance and repairs. I do 8% for vacancy and I get this question a lot. I do 8% vacancy for both long-term and medium term, because that's one month a year of it being vacant. So 8%. And then, even though I self-manage, I still pay myself, because now I have a virtual assistant and I pay another 8% For property management. So I'm setting aside about 28% Every month for all those things and then that whatever you left over with that's cash flow, of course, after you pay your principal mortgage in true loan taxes. And so I'm at 13,000 a month.
Speaker 3:13,000 dollars, guys. 13,000 dollars off of 19 units is Absolutely insane, bonkers crazy. Because if you listen to this industry, some of the bigger players in this industry that talk about long-term rentals three years ago, two years ago, everybody was saying you know, all I need to find is a Multi-family property that cash flows a hundred dollars per unit. So we're looking at that's $1,900 a month that you're bringing in from these 19 units, but you have 13 divided by 1900. I don't even know what is that sick. More than six X what the average return that you're supposed to see on is by using this strategy and you're not even fully maxing out this strategy you are using.
Speaker 3:What I love about your strategy is you are doing long-term rentals to hedge a bit of the risk that could be involved that could be seen with midterm rentals. So you've got your long-term first stability and then you've got midterm rentals as well. So you're maximizing your portfolio while doing a little bit of risk hedging on your end, which I love so much, in $13,000. That's a great lifestyle to a great income to be able to live a nice, a nice Lifestyle on. And we're gonna talk about your lifestyle and why you're doing this before we do that for our listeners today. Hey, sarah, I want to buy a midterm rental. Where do I buy it? How do I know if the location's right? How do I know that people are actually gonna rent these things? How would you answer those questions?
Speaker 1:great question. I have made a Freebie for you guys because I get asked this question all the time. So if you go to SarahDweavercom forward slash markets M-A-R-K-E-T-S, I have a free video and free handout showing you exactly what do I look like, what do I look at to pick these cities? Because I'm in three different markets. I'm in Kansas City, both on the Kansas side and the Missouri side. I'm in Omaha, nebraska, and Des Moines, iowa, and I get asked all the time like why did you pick these places? And so I have made this freebie. It's free to your audience. Stayerdweavercom forward slash market.
Speaker 3:Love it. Guys, go check that out if you want to find out markets. And now in that guide, in that freebie, does that dig through testing demand on properties, so being able? Ok, it does, because that's one of the main things that I think I worry about.
Speaker 3:And now on your and just so you know like how much our story is aligned, this is my four unit house hack that I live in, similar to exactly what you've done, but I so, in the beginning, like I was furnished, like slowly furnishing this thing, I had the mattress on the floor and all that stuff and I was like I'm not actually going to live here, like I'm going to travel, I'm going to give this to somebody else eventually. But then I put it on Airbnb and I started getting bookings in like longer term. So then I actually I didn't furnish it for myself, I furnished it so that the people coming for Airbnb wouldn't feel like they just had a mattress on the floor and they actually had a nice place to stay. But a lot of those are shorter term stays. Where are the main places that you're posting these midterm rentals for and what is a lot of the clientele that you're getting on your midterm rentals? Is it insurance? Is it travel nurses? Is it travelers? What does what's that look like for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question. So I'm listing in two places and again I have all one bedroom and two bedroom units are my medium term rentals. For those of you out there that have larger four bedroom homes and three bedroom homes and you want to get those displaced insurance clean holders, I'm going to give you different advice. But what I do? Because I'm looking for the travel medical professional or intern or corporate worker who's in town. Maybe they follow storms and they are a rougher that follows hail storms or an insurance claim adjuster that follows storms. Those are the types of tenants that I go after and I'm getting them by listing on Airbnb. You can just toggle a little button and make it so that you can't accept anything less than 28, 29, or 30 days. And then I also list in one other place, which is called Vermish Finder, and as of today for 2023, I'm getting 70% of my tenants from Vermish Finder.
Speaker 3:I like Vermish Finder. I haven't gotten. I think I just tried to max out my price way too high on Vermish Finder to justify me wanting to move on there. But yes, for our listeners, Vermish Finder is exactly what it sounds like. It is a app that helps people who are looking for furnished apartments, furnished houses, go and find these things for longer term stays. So you can post up, take pictures of your place, Basically need to get verified on Furnish Finder and you can have your apartment listed. Probably within around less than a week you could have your place up there and that's where a lot of these people looking for longer term stays will go to try and find a furnished place. So I love that and I love that we are pointing them in that direction. Sarah, why are you doing all of this? What is your?
Speaker 1:why Long time, I asked myself. That's the new question. To be completely fair. No, I'm only kidding. I wanted this lifestyle because I wanted to be able to say yes to anything. Don't worry, guys, that's not just like drug, sex and rock and roll. It was like saying yes to a challenging experience Like this summer.
Speaker 1:I trained and summited Kilimanjaro, and so I never think you, I never thought that that would be something that I would do. I'm not an avid gym goer, by any means, but I had the freedom and the time to train three days a week for two hours and sign up for something that I just didn't know if it was going to work out, and say yes to that and then also to go off grid for eight days. That was actually one of the scary things as an entrepreneur. And then also, I now can, speaking of entrepreneur, I can start businesses and just see if it worked. Oh, since owning this real estate, I've opened three businesses. One of them is, of course, coaching. So I know everyone roll your eyes, you know you learn how to do it Charge people but the reality is that I love the coaching piece, because anyone that's coming contact with me can tell you that I don't speak like a normal person, I'll excuse some deep, thought provoking question. Like within five minutes of meeting you I'll make your husband cry, like I am really good at digging deep because I really freaking love people.
Speaker 1:And so people that are in my mentorship program get to experience that, as well as all of those real estate agents that I've been networking with for the last seven years. They get introduced to them, so you get access to my Rolodex so that you can own a midterm rental in Ohio or Oklahoma or Omaha, and then also just like the, what the heck do you do after you buy the property as it's sitting in your foreplex? There's so much that you have to learn when you become a real estate investor. It's not even just like analyzing markets. It's then learning how to analyze properties, but then, once you buy a property, there's about 100 other things that you need to learn. Oh yeah, and so I'm helping real estate investors navigate all of that through a 12 month coaching program called the mentorship, and I convince a lot of people to buy furnished rentals in places that they don't live, and everyone asks me how do I furnish it from afar? So I started another company, aria Design Services, and my company helps real estate investors analyze, furnish and launch their furnished rental anywhere in the country. We typically do about eight units a month and I think we've furnished in 14 different states. So I have a full team doing that.
Speaker 1:And that's my second company and then my third and it's probably no surprise that it's my favorite which is invested adventures. So I now take real estate investors on epic adventures around the world, like Kilimanjaro that I mentioned. Later this month we're going to head to Guatemala for one of those more heartfelt kind of mindset mastermind retreat. I'll probably make everyone cry, but then we'll also have a private dinner at a chef's house. We'll do a private cocktail class on our rooftop which has a pool and views of volcanoes. We'll all go on an easy hike and roast marshmallows on lava on a volcano, and it's all a tax write off. So all of these real estate investors get to hang out together and hang out with me and it's a business trip and so if you guys need a tax deduction, please come on my next adventure.
Speaker 3:It sounds like everything that you're saying here. One sounds amazing, but in the beginning, realistically, what this has given you is the option. You now have freedom. You've got the option to try and test these businesses out, these different ideas that come into your head and for my listeners out there, I know that you guys have a thousand ideas that you're like, man, if only I had the time to do that, this could work.
Speaker 3:And you know what Real estate investing is a way to buy back your time, to be able to afford you the ability to be able to go out and create these businesses. And then you, as a savvy entrepreneur and business person, you tried a business. You tested a business out and then that worked. And then you needed a solution for a problem that your people were having and you created it REI design. And then you went out there and you also created a company that fits your lifestyle, the things that you want to do, being able to travel, adventure, do these masterminds and I'm doing a little bit of the same thing with my trip coming up to Costa Rica, got a mini mastermind right before that and then going out to Brian Lubin's talking to Brian Lubin's mastermind in Costa Rica.
Speaker 3:So we've got this. The ability to do this comes from the time that you buy yourself back by doing things like investing in passive income assets. I love it, sarah. I have had such an amazing conversation with you and I am going to dive into our final two questions of the day. What is one actionable step our listeners should take today to start on their path towards financial freedom?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll give you two. One. You should follow me on Instagram, not just to see my travels, but I do post a lot about medium term rentals, out of state investing. Out of state investing is actually like my first true love when it comes to real estate investing, and so follow me on Instagram at TheraDLiever. And then the second action step is to write down what you want to accomplish in the next 180 days.
Speaker 1:I think that the simple act of writing it down is not enough. You need to write it down and then you need to look at it at least a couple times a week. The reality is, you might not look at it every day, don't beat yourself up, but look at it at least a couple times a week, because I find that when I look at my goals consistently, I just make better decisions. So one of my goals was to eat cleaner. This week, it made sure that I poured my coffee with no milk and sugar, I had a nice nutritious breakfast, I put collagen in my coffee and you just make small little decisions. Those small decisions like my decision to analyze more properties or attend those Zoom calls and be proactive.
Speaker 1:I did all of those things because my goal was so clear back then. My goal was to buy enough rental properties to get $8,000 a month in cash flow. That was my goal. So I just woke up every day. Maybe not every day, but at least 80% of the time I was waking up and making decisions. That all led to me getting my goal.
Speaker 3:And once you hit that goal like I had that $5,000 goal I hit it and the $5,000 cash flow per month to be able to travel I hit it and then I went and traveled and I went and did my thing. Sometimes it's so hard to create a new goal for yourself after you hit that one big thing. And now-.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh yes.
Speaker 3:It's like a lost puppy. Almost now it's. I did the thing. Where's the confetti and the happiness?
Speaker 1:And where is my award, guys?
Speaker 3:So it is. So that 180 day goal, I think, is really powerful because you can choose something that means something to you right now. Let's figure out what that is and go and get it done. For some of us, it might be just finding a real estate agent and being able to offer on 10 different properties. Whether you get that accepted or not within the next 180 days, that'll get you closer and closer to getting your first property.
Speaker 3:For some of us, it might be going and buying a midterm rental. Maybe you have three, four different rentals right now and you want to go buy one of these midterm rentals instead of sticking with that long-term rental strategy there. So I love that. For some of you I would say for all of you one of your goals should be to buy the 30 day staybook and get that read within the next 180 days, and that'll get you closer to your goal of getting a midterm. The last question I've got for you today, Sarah what is one question that you wish I would have asked or one topic that you wish I would have covered, and how would you have answered that question or how would you have expanded on that topic?
Speaker 1:Oh man. Yes, Matthew, I am single and I am looking for someone to travel the world with me. So if any of your listener is ready to have a kick-ass girlfriend who buys real estate and travels full-time, fly it into my DM.
Speaker 3:I love it, I love it. There you go, guys. That's your path to financial freedom, right there.
Speaker 1:So if I'm not looking to be someone, not a girl, my famous girl. This is looking for a partner, not a project. Other than looking for a partner, not a project.
Speaker 3:Someone to share the growth with. I love it. I love it. That is funny and cool and great. Sarah, you have an amazing personality. You are so fun to talk to. It has been a great conversation that we've had today for my listeners and watchers that want to find more about you online. I know we've got your Instagram at Sarah D Weaver. Where else can we find you online?
Speaker 1:Yes, at my website, sarahdweavercom, I have a ton of free resources. So if you're feeling stuck with either out of state investing or furnished rentals, head there. If you want to come on my next trip or you need our help with furnishing, all of that information is there.
Speaker 3:Go check it out, my peeps. Thank you everyone for listening. Thank you, sarah, for coming on and sharing such valuable information with us and really appreciate it. Today From the Financial Freedom Fast podcast, I'm your host, matt Amobile. Today we had on Sarah Weaver and we are signing off. Thank you, sarah. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Be sure to tune in Monday, Wednesday and Friday for our weekly podcast drops. Thanks for listening. Let's retire together.