How One Short-Term Rental Produced the Cash Flow of Five Long-Term Rentals

Justin & Chelsea Meek (00:00)
Coming from a numbers background a little bit in finance, it’s kinda like a like a stock, like an investment portfolio. You know, you have stocks and bonds. One’s really safe, kind of a slow guaranteed return. The other one you can have a little more risk with by you know, buy something a little bit riskier and the upside can be a lot bigger. So for us initially was the cash flow, consistent cash flow. Starting off, I mean, we were only getting maybe a hundred, hundred and fifty bucks a month true cash flow. It wasn’t anything that we were gonna be able to quit our jobs off of. Can you get 10, 15 of those now? It starts to add up. And I’m like, how can we move the ball a little bit faster? It’s like, all right, well, let’s roll the dice on some short term rentals.

Cody Crabb (02:06)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb, and today I’ve got Justin and Chelsea Meek with me. They’re based in the Tulsa area and they’ve built Dream Rentals of Tulsa around buy and hold, short-term, and midterm rentals. Justin used real estate as the exit ramp from a 19-year W-2, and now that they’re in the very real stage of building cash flow, we’re going to talk about tightening systems and figuring out how to buy back their time without killing income. Justin, Chelsea, thanks so much for joining me today.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (02:35)
Absolutely. Thank you.

Cody Crabb (02:37)
So I’d love to hear a little bit about the entrance to real estate here. It’s as we were chatting before the episode started, you— you sounds like you had a little bit of an interesting kind of ramp up to— to real estate, starting with a nineteen-year-long W-2 job. So I’d love to hear a little bit about that, Justin, and kinda how the— how the transition happened there.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (03:00)
Yeah, I was working for a company for— for nineteen years, a— a local convenience store company. Kind of realized I’d reached the pinnacle with that company, wasn’t any kind of up— more upward— upward mobility for me. So decided, being kind of the— the natural person I am to want to do more all the time, I was like, “I need to figure out something for me to do on the side that’s potentially an exit strategy for me,” as I didn’t see myself hanging out there for another thirty years. So started investing in real estate, similar to something like this— listen— listen to a whole bunch of podcasts, a whole lot of YouTube videos, read all the— the popular books, you know, by Robert Kiyosaki or anybody else you may know, Grant Cardone. Yeah, I was basically just trying to soak up any kind of knowledge I could find. For me, it was then kind of apply a lot of the similar things I heard across all the different people, whether they be a buy and hold or a flipper or— or whatever their kind of niche was for real estate, kind of taking a lot of the similar—

Cody Crabb (03:35)
Very popular on the show, yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (03:53)
—ideas they shared and applying them towards my first purchase. So initially for— for me, it was, “Let’s buy the first one, create a little bit of extra income for vacations or date nights,” that kind of thing. Bought the first one, I was like, “All right, this is about what I expected.” Real big numbers guy, kinda come from a numbers background.

Cody Crabb (04:12)
Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt in a— in a situation like this, yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (04:15)
Absolutely. It’s— it’s one thing I’ve learned, to try to be kind of emotionally detached from purchases. It’s— it’s strictly a business, it’s strictly numbers. I can’t get invested with, “Would I want to live here myself necessarily?” So the numbers to me is a real important aspect of— of real estate investing. Be truthful, be honest. So the first one kind of played out, went about honestly how I kind of expected, got kind of lucky in my opinion. Decided literally like maybe two months later, “Let’s buy a duplex.” First one was a single-family home, bought another house two months later as a duplex. Found a few more challenges with that one. But again, things were going smoothly and kind of just kinda ramped it up and said, “I— I think this is— this is my strategy for me to be able to leave my job.” So we kinda set a long-term goal of— we didn’t really have a timeline, just a goal of, “I think if we get to ten houses or ten doors, that can replace my income.” Like I said, we weren’t putting a timeline restriction on it, just that’s kind of the goal to get to eventually. Didn’t realize how quickly that eventually would happen. We got there, we were buying about four doors a year. So pretty— pretty aggressive buying for me, was real big of, “I want to leave my W-2 job, I want to hang out with the family, I want to hang out with the kids. The quicker I get there, the better it is.” So yeah, a lot of our extra income went into that. Talking to different people who’ve been in the— and been in the industry a little while, learning about lines of credits and ways I could use some equity that I— I purchased along the way to automatically reinvest or really scale this thing as fast as I could. For me, it was anything numbers-wise that made sense, I’m buying it. Even if I didn’t see myself holding it for 30 years, it got me out of my W-2 job, which was the goal. Got to 10, I was like, “Well, everybody cheats numbers a little bit, even myself, you know. Is— is this cash flow really accurate? Am I really saving enough for the roofs and the water heaters in the few— in the future, because now I don’t have a W-2 job to fall back on if I misjudge my numbers?” So then I told my wife, I’m like, “Well, let’s get to like twelve or let’s get to thirteen. I think that’s where the real numbers at.” Then it became pushing it. I kept pushing that goalpost. Then it became fifteen.

Cody Crabb (07:09)
Yeah, I can— I can just picture myself like, “Well, you know, I mean, but— but twenty is such a nice round number, don’t you think?” Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (07:18)
So we got to the— got to the fifteen and then she was like, “So here’s the deal. I’m not doing this anymore for you when you can’t go fix the leaky pipe in the middle of the day while you’re at work, or call the contractor to go do it. So if you buy any more, you’re quitting your job.” Life— wife laid down the— laid down the law. So at that point, it was focusing on a bigger purchase. Then we bought a six-unit apartment building, then— as my last purchase before I left. Something more substantial that we used some 401(k) to buy that property, but that gave me the true buffer I needed to exit that job and really pursue this as a full-time gig. So—

Cody Crabb (07:52)
Do you think that part of the reason that this was possible is the market that you’re in? Because I’m picturing myself in Salt Lake City, like there’s just no possible way I could kind of ever make that work on a— on a typical kind of corporate salary. So like what— what did you— how did you take advantage of the area you were buying in?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (08:08)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s kind of one thing— I’ll let my wife kind of talk about that since she’s the— the real estate pro here. What we did, I think, target houses that weren’t necessarily the— the popular ones to buy, you know, two bedrooms, a thousand square feet, so smaller properties that families weren’t necessarily going for. But we also kind of got lucky in that we started in twenty eighteen, I think. And so then we hit the COVID boost. Yeah, and we took advantage of pretty much every COVID program that we could. Yeah, and then also just the amount of equity that we had gained. We did what I like to call the “buy three houses, get three houses free” cash-out refi— took ninety thousand dollars in equity and bought three more properties with it.

Cody Crabb (08:44)
Yeah. Understandably so, yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (09:03)
So I think it was strategic luck. He definitely had a plan and we just targeted, like I said, the houses that not everybody else would want and went for it. Yeah, I think that’s kind of the— the big thing going into it is— you— you kind of have to know your lane or what you’re going after, because there’s so many avenues in real estate, whether it— “I want to do car washes and laundromats,” or “I want to do the multifamily,” or “I wanna do only class-A neighborhoods or low-income numbers.” There’s many different avenues for someone to be successful in real estate. To me, it’s really figure out what you think your avenue is, at least, because it could change. Figure out what you want to do, stick to it, don’t worry about what everybody else is doing. Stay in your lane and do it really well. So for us, that’s kind of our— was our— I think our strategy. We— we knew our buy box, I guess you could say, specifically what we were looking for. The Tulsa market definitely makes it easier than some others. There’s not a huge— there’s not huge swings in— in the real estate market here. There’s not a lot of big ups, not a lot of big downs. So not necessarily great for an appreciation play if that’s somebody’s avenue, but it’s great for just buying affordable housing. Yeah.

Cody Crabb (10:07)
Yeah, yeah. And I could see that too in— in kind of your situation where you’re trying to aggressively expand quickly. Like maybe the appreciation isn’t gonna be as good down the road, but like you can really dig in with that, you know, the quick expansion. So that’s— that’s certainly good. And I think that, yeah, that’s— I— I think that’s— that’s important to bring up because there are probably ways to do an equivalent of those things in whatever market. You took advantage of the fact that housing is not quite as expensive in— in your area and you were able to kind of expand that way. But in other areas, of course, there’s gonna be different versions of that. So I think that and— and the— the— the COVID programs too, it’s the whole the old preparedness meets opportunity is what luck actually is. And so that sounds like what that’s what it was. You were all primed and ready to go, and then once an opportunity hit, you were— you were cruising.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (11:35)
Yeah, that’s— that’s definitely a big thing. I say always, even if you have the cash available or the opportunity available through a good lender, mortgage broker, whoever you may know, just have those— those— I guess, what’s the word I’m looking for?— the— the relationships built so that when the opportunity does present itself, you can hop on it. It’s similar to a house that we just bought this week. We weren’t really actively looking for a single-family home. I’m looking for something larger now at this point. But an opportunity presented itself with a great buy and I’m like, “Let’s do it. The numbers make sense. Everything’s there. Let’s just take it.” So always being— always being prepared, like you said, is— is so true.

Cody Crabb (12:09)
Yeah. Chelsea, from the agent side, what made those kind of smaller properties attractive? Like, I— I’m trying to just figure out, like, I can think of a lot of people that would kind of be interested in this kind of— small house sort of thing, but I’m— I’m kind of figuring out— I’m trying to figure out like, so then who’s renting these? Do you know what I mean? Like, what’s the— what’s the difference here? Yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (12:31)
So our tenants initially in those houses tended to be young professionals like early twenties, not a lot. We had a couple of like newly married couples, that kind of thing. People just kind of starting out who, you know, were getting their first jobs. They didn’t need a big fifteen-hundred-square-foot house. Just— they just needed something small and manageable. And I mean, they’ve— they’ve worked out great for us. We’ve had, I think, multiple tenants who have kind of referred a friend after they’ve moved on. They’re like, “This is a great house and great landlords. You need to live here.” And so we’ve just kept the ball rolling kind of through that— that line. And like I said, there wasn’t as much as much competition to buy them initially. Everybody’s looking for the three-two. We were kind of focused on the two-ones. Three-twos would be nice, but a lower— lower price point to make the purchase. So again, you can scale a little bit quicker. The rents are still really strong for a lot of those houses because they’re just not as sought after, at least in our market.

Cody Crabb (13:39)
Yeah, but I mean, I— it makes sense that there’s like still this kind of in-between where it’s like someone doesn’t quite want to buy a house yet. Maybe they’re not kind of decided where they’re gonna live forever. Maybe they have some pets or something that like, they would like a yard. It makes— it does make sense, for sure. So I’d love to hear a little more about your strategy as well. So before we were recording, you were mentioning that, you know, you started long term and then you started adding short-term and— and midterm rentals. What kind of changed the way that you were thinking about this and wanted to add some furnished rentals into— into the mix here?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (14:15)
Yeah, for me it’s kind of like— again, kind of c— coming from a numbers background a little bit in finance, it’s kinda like a— like a stock, like an investment portfolio. You know, you have stocks and bonds. One’s really safe, kind of a slow guaranteed return. The other one you can have a little more risk with by you know, buy something a little bit riskier and the upside can be a lot bigger. So for us initially was the cash flow, consistent cash flow. Starting off, I mean, we were only getting maybe a hundred, hundred and fifty bucks a month true cash flow. It wasn’t anything that we were gonna be able to quit our jobs off of. Can you get 10, 15 of those now? It starts to add up. And I’m like, “How can we move the ball a little bit faster?” It’s like, “All right, well, let’s roll the dice on some short term rentals.” Heard the market was good, heard there’s a lot more upside. So we bought our first one with— with a kind of a back exit strategy of, “If this flops, like, we can still make cash as a rental property.” So we didn’t— we don’t buy strictly as, you know, all in on this. We have exit strategy if that— if this falls through. So it was real big on pop into first short term rental. We’re, “Okay, so instead of a hundred, hundred and fifty bucks a month, for us it was making six or seven hundred dollars a month.” I’m like, “All right, well that’s like buying five houses.” Mm-hmm. Something scale—

Cody Crabb (15:20)
As a numbers person, yeah, you see that th— those kind of— those— those kind of numbers and you’re kinda like—

Justin & Chelsea Meek (15:24)
—was just— was nice to— to walk into something that, hey, if everything just flops, I need to sell something quickly and load it. I got a perfectly clean house that looks great, so well taken care of. It just— let’s— let’s roll the dice on a few more of these. So we flipped some other long term rentals into short term rentals as some tenants moved out. They’re very location dependent. So we kind of learned if we’re gonna do this, they have to be in the right area. You can’t just buy anywhere.

Cody Crabb (16:28)
Yeah, that was my question. I mean, you— a— as you b— as you are in Tulsa, Oklahoma, like is there really that much of a demand in— in an area like that?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (16:37)
Until you kinda get into it and you really kinda start talking to some people, you— you’ll— you’ll be shocked. So for— for Tulsa, I mean, we’re small— I guess smaller city. I mean, the suburb itself is— Tulsa area is over a million people, so it’s not as small.

Cody Crabb (16:48)
Maybe in my head it’s just this teeny-tiny like— I— I think that’s what I’m doing.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (16:54)
So Tulsa’s not bad, but you— you kind of get into it because we said the same thing: “How many people are possibly coming to Tulsa?” And believe it or not, our average occupancy is like 93%. So we only average like three empty days a month. But there’s world championship horse shows for Tulsa, where are people staying from Australia and other countries staying with us for those horse shows? There’s the national dog shows are here— have been here for the past three years. BMX’s headquarters is here now. So they do their war—

Cody Crabb (17:07)
Holy cow.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (17:22)
—the world championships for BMX races are on Tulsa. Just amount of family visiting. A lot of— Tulsa’s a real big oil and gas industry, so you’ve got lot of people flying in for those business purposes, need three or four days.

Cody Crabb (17:35)
You know what? This is a perfect example of knowing your market, cause I would just have never guessed that in any way. So, the perfect example, yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (17:43)
Yeah. So that’s kind of how we got in the short term, I guess, is we like the numbers. We bought a few more, had a good couple of locations that we thought we could make some— a little bit extra money on, and that was kind of the— the game changer trying that out. So I kinda relate it to the stocks and bonds of: I like the mixture of, “Here’s something I can roll the dice on, I— I can take a little bit of risk, I— there’s some upside for me versus a long term rental.” The numbers are kind of what they are. There’s not a lot I can do to change those.

Cody Crabb (18:06)
Yeah. And especially with your strategy of like, you’re wanting to get going as quick as you could. Like, yeah, the risk is kind of, you know, that’s kind of part of it. I’d love to hear a little bit about the midterm rentals. That’s not a— a term that we— you hear too often in— in real estate investments. I mean, as many times as I’ve done interviews with people, I’ve probably had like a person ever talk about midterm rentals. So I’d love to kind of— if you could kind of explain, you know, what those are about. Like, what is a midterm rental and kind of the upsides and downsides of those. Cause I think that— that— that the midterm is like one of those, you know, y— y— you get a little bit of the best of both worlds in some ways, but there’s obviously some downsides too.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (18:48)
Yeah, it’s— I guess the midterm rental is kind of the— kind of the hotter topic, I guess, now for vacation rentals. A lot of markets, again, it’s knowing your market, are are pushing on— pushing on short term rentals a little bit more. And you know, Dallas area has kind of shut down a lot of those. New York City has shut down a lot of those. So midterm is kind of the— the cheat code between that and the long term. Anything over thirty days is not a short term rental, so it operates as a longer term rental. So it’s kind of the— again, kind of the best of both worlds. So knowing that that was kind of a harder thing, it might be something that we need as— as— as safety for future— future years coming up. The last one we bought was a six-unit apartment complex in our— in our downtown area. While it technically is a short term rental, we do get a lot more midterm— extended stays there because there’s a huge medical presence. People doing residencies, a lot of traveling nurses, people that need stays for two, three, four months. So you don’t make quite as much as a short term rental does, because people are paying a little bit more for the ability to hop in and out of a place, but you get more than a long term rental gets. You typically get a good professional who’s gonna take care of it. You know, they’re just there for sleeping. So the— the wear and tear on the property is— is pretty light relative to a normal person living there. So we figure we kinda play around in that market and I guess that’s kind of the pros and cons. There’s good money and it’s still not as quite as much as a short term rental, but it does give you some loopholes for people that may be in a more restricted market that doesn’t allow it. So—

Cody Crabb (20:18)
Yeah, and one thing that I’ve heard too is that one of the huge benefits is with midterm, it tends to not be the tenants paying the bill. It tends to be like some corporation or an insurance company or something like that. And that’s a— yet another upside is like, you’re not gonna necessarily have these issues of people not paying their rent and stuff like that. So—

Justin & Chelsea Meek (20:37)
Yeah, definitely the— the insurance piece is a whole ‘nother topic you could get into. That would— that’s an awesome play. We have a property that we manage, and the owner there strict— strictly wants to go after the insurance play. So we, as time gets closer, if we’re not booked, we allow short term stays, but anything more than like four weeks out, it’s a thirty-day minimum or sixty-day minimum to capture the insurance people. And then she’s been— it’s— it’s not uncommon for her to make eight to ten thousand dollars a month on a midterm rental because of the insurance play. They pay the full price. Money’s not really an objective at that point. They pay whatever you ask.

Cody Crabb (21:13)
They’re looking for something that fits the— the client, yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (21:15)
Yes, ’cause they’re more restrictive. If you came up from a four-bedroom home, you have to find like-kind. So you can’t— yeah, if you have a bigger house, they need a big house. So she opt to take that risk and, “Hey, I’m gonna forego some possible bookings to capture that big booking.” And for her particular house and us managing, it’s really played out really, really well for her with the amount of those that she’s captured.

Cody Crabb (21:37)
So— so when you say doing an insurance play, like, what— what are the— what are the things to put— I mean, I’m probably asking this for myself to be honest with you guys, sounds amazing. But— but I’m curious, like, what is it that’s in place? Is it just that the timing of the, you know, minimum this many days out has to be this many days? Is that— is that kind of thing?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (21:55)
Really, I’d say the biggest— the biggest hurdle is the timing thing. Most insurance things that at least we’ve come across are typically at minimum of a thirty-day stay. Typically it has some kind of small house flood or small house fire or— or something. And typically it’s— they need thirty days at minimum. Obviously there’s some longer ones. So you need to have that time window open for them to be able to— they’ll recognize a property to be able grab it. You know, if that— if that’s a play you want to go into, it’s really kind of getting to know a lot of— maybe a lot of your local insurance agents, get on their books of, “Hey, if you have something happen, need somebody to fall back on, on— I’m your guy and a call.” Yeah, that’s a good— so there’s lot of networking plays to kinda go into that— that opportunity.

Cody Crabb (22:34)
Yeah, interesting. Interesting. I— I always find that as soon as you think you know everything, you know, you couldn’t possibly learn all the strategies and stuff, there’s just gonna be— there’s gonna— something’s gonna pop up and you’re gonna be like, “Wow, that’s perfect for my situation or whatever.” So— so what are— as a— you mentioned to me too that a lot of this that you’re doing is you two are managing it yourselves, which is— some people would hear that at the level of how many doors you’ve got and basically have a heart attack, because that sounds like so much work. So, and— and it’s kind of funny because you mentioned one of your goals is like, “I’m trying to not do so— you know, I’m trying to be home. I’m trying to spend time with the family and stuff.” How has— how have you made it so that this isn’t like— like even worse than the W-2 as far as like taking up your time? Like, how have you managed that balance?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (23:26)
I wish I could say we’ve had— we haven’t managed perfectly, after—

Cody Crabb (23:29)
I was gonna say, the look you just shot each other looking at.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (23:32)
This— this is where you’re kinda working with your wife and we are— we’re completely opposites of each other. So it’s— it’s— if— if there’s anything possible, we are as opposite as opposite can be, anything in life. So I— I’m a very much a go-getter. I’ll work twenty-four hours a day if I need to. If it’s something I enjoy doing, I don’t mind it. Then you have the wife who’s like, “You need to be home. This was the objections. Th— these were the goals of you doing this. Need to enjoy your family time,” which I a hundred percent agree with. And it’s the— the balance, and it’s something that she really pushes on and that we’re still fine-tuning and adjusting all the time is— is getting the systems in place, using AI to your advantage. You know, have AI ma— make your calendar for you, separating times out. What are— there’s a great book to read by Dan Martell, Buy Back Your Time. It’s really kind of figuring out what it was my hourly wage. Am I a twenty-five-dollar-an-hour employee in my current job or a fifty? And what— what things am I paying out of, what things am I doing that are—

Cody Crabb (24:28)
And facing that number i— in a real way is terrifying and scary and horrifying. But I think you just need to do it. I think that’s— that’s really important. ‘Cause if you really think, “Yeah, I’m making all this money,” but you’re working a hundred hours a week, you’re— let’s see, might as well work— might as well— might as well go work at Burger King or something at that point. Absolutely. Yeah.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (24:47)
—so really just— really just kind of g— building the systems in place and— and just— and and knowing and adjusting as your life changes as you add more properties or as, you know, maybe down the road rent increases. That’s a big one for us. You know, rents increase dramatically since we started. It’s— I was getting seven hundred dollars a month maybe for rent seven years ago, and now I’m getting literally fourteen, fifteen hundred dollars a month for rent now. You know, let’s— let’s put that money back into— I’m making great money, so let me unload something off my plate that gives me back my time, kind of figuring out what those pieces are. Kind of knowing your long-term goals. Do I want to keep scaling? Do I have enough? And that’s something that we struggle with is we’re up to be, like I said, about to be 22 doors. You know, you start looking at your portfolio, it’s like, “Well, if I were to pay all this off, do I need more?” So I think everybody can get caught up in the whole of, “Well, I see this person scaling, scaling, scaling, buy more, buy more, buy more.” No, there’s nothing wrong with that. I think just really being truthful with yourself is: where am I trying to get to? What’s the objective? When can I be financially free or whatever it may be? And not getting caught up in what everybody else is doing. So for us, that’s kind of the— the line right now. I know she’s always like— my wife’s always like, “Do we need to buy more? You want more?” I’m like, “Yeah, I want more, but do I need to buy more?” So it’s, you know, we don’t have it figured out ourselves yet, but it’s really just using systems to give back your time.

Cody Crabb (26:05)
Yeah. And I love that you said too, like you— you’re— you don’t know what the end is necessarily. You kinda have the vibe of the goal, like what you— what you want it to kind of look like, but you don’t have these exact figures because it’s kind of like, maybe something will change or, yeah, I don’t know yet. So I think i— it’s a perfect example to me of like, do your homework, but like, don’t freak out about every tiny little detail. I mean, you know, it sounds like you really know your numbers. You know your market, you know what you’re doing. But at the same time, like, there’s only so much you can actually know and plan for. Like, some things are just gonna not be things you can plan for. So you kind of just have to start in a— in the dark a little bit in a lot of ways.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (26:46)
Yeah, you really do. I mean, for us it was, you know, speaking for her— I mean, she can probably speak to this— like, that initial purchase was— was super scary for her. For me, I’m like, “What’s the worst-case scenario? We— we turn around, we sell the house, we lose a couple of thousand dollars in the commissions we gotta pay to sell it.” But you don’t know ’til you try it. Yeah.

Cody Crabb (27:03)
Because I always say you can’t get broke twice. So if you— if you’re worried about money, can’t— can’t get— can’t go bankrupt double at the same time, you know? So why not?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (27:12)
Yeah. So to me, that— that’s absolutely— you’re never gonna have all the answers. You’re never gonna— nothing’s ever gonna be the perfect real estate buy. Things always happen. You buy enough of— some— something’s bound to happen eventually. You got five great deals and you’re gonna— you’re gonna get a stinker every once in a while, but it— it just happens. You— you to kinda— kind of know where your goals are and kind of stay on track towards that. And to me, just talking with other real estate investors, you just— you have to be truthful with yourself. You cannot lie to yourself. That’s probably one of the most important things. You gotta be truthful. Can’t exaggerate the numbers. You can’t exaggerate how well you’re doing. For us, some— like I said, I’m a real big numbers guy. And I had stuff down, but it was kind of judgers. I— I make about— rents about fourteen hundred. I know my expenses are about a hundred and fifty, everything was about— but when you really start putting pencil to pad, when you get that many of, you’re like, “Well, that hundred and fifty was really a hundred and seventy-one.” You know, and that twenty-one dollars adds up. And it’s— but it’s twenty-one dollars on five different things and yeah.

Cody Crabb (28:07)
It’s a little bit being— it’s a little bit being like a f— do you remember when— I— I remember in college, I like— I was afraid to like, check my bank account. I’m like, “If I just swipe it and just— just I’ll have faith that it will work. I will—” and it’s, yeah, like it’s kind of like that. Like you— it’s— it’s scary to face the actual numbers and the reality and stuff, but knowing you’re knowing it is so much better in the long run because even if it’s— even if you’re— I— I’ve said this too, like if you could make a thousand dollars in cash flow, more or less… Like, say in your mind, you’re like, “It’s just— it’s like a thousand dollars.” Or you could make five hundred dollars, but like, it’s a solid, very safe, “I’ve done the math” five hundred. Which one feels better? Like obviously it’s gonna feel— yeah, it— it without question, because you know what you’re talking about. You— it’s— it’s not just assuming and guessing and stuff. Well, this has been really awesome. Thank you both so much for hopping on with us today. If someone is in the Tulsa area or they want to get in touch with you or work with you, who should be reaching out to you, first of all, and how can they do that?

Justin & Chelsea Meek (29:12)
Yeah, we’re real— we’re both her and I are real big on— on sharing our knowledge. Happy to answer questions for anybody that just has some general questions. The website you can find me on is www.staywithdreamrentals.com. That’s my— my sh— my short-term rental site. So if you need a s— sel— selfless plug here, if you need a place to stay, you can find us on there. But there’s also a tab on there where you can click on us for property management. So if you’re needing somebody to— to do some local property management for you and or get— or get to know the market, there’s that. With her…

Chelsea Meek (29:43)
I am in real estate, so I help anyone buy or sell any houses in the Tulsa area. And you can just— probably the easiest way is find me on social media. My tag is ChelseaMeekKW on all platforms. So—

Cody Crabb (29:54)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, we’ll have all that info in the— in the show notes if anyone wants to— to click on that and follow you guys. Thank you so much for— for being here and for giving us the practical side of this, this kind of honest— the honest numbers, the honest systems, and the— and what this kind of freedom can look like. And it doesn’t have to be a nine-figure portfolio; it can be something achievable and attainable. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate it, and we’ll catch you next time. Have a good one.

Justin & Chelsea Meek (30:24)
Thank you, you too.