She Lost Everything — Then Built Luxury Short-Term Rentals

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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Micah Johnson interviews Leigh Ann Baker, a successful entrepreneur in the short-term and mid-term rental market. Leigh Ann shares her journey into real estate, highlighting the personal challenges she faced, including a divorce and job loss, which ultimately led her to pursue a career in real estate. She discusses the importance of embracing risk, maintaining a positive mindset, and finding creative solutions to challenges in property investment. Leigh Ann also shares her experiences with specific deals, including a unique project on Baldhead Island, and emphasizes the significance of building generational wealth through real estate. The conversation concludes with insights on how to connect with Leigh Ann and learn more about her work.

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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

Leigh Ann Baker (00:00)
money’s not security, it’s a tool. And it’s given to you, and it’s just as easily as it’s taken away. And so I think that when you, it’s a lot of people’s relationship with money that makes them nervous. And my relationship with money after I lost all those things in a year,

I had to take a risk to get what I wanted, right? So I like to say people always like, my gosh, I can’t believe you can do this. I can’t believe you did this. Well, when you’ve lost everything, like you’ve got nothing left to lose. So you might as well bet on yourself.

Micah Johnson (02:08)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Leigh Ann Baker, who’s been making some serious moves in the short-term and mid-term rental space. Leigh Ann, welcome in. Glad to have you.

Leigh Ann Baker (02:21)
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Micah Johnson (02:23)
Absolutely, I’m excited for you to be here today. I think our listeners are really gonna take something away from how you’ve approached real estate, how you got into it, and the way you view education versus how to take risks. Because no matter what, there’s always that risk involved. It’s still investing. So I’m really pumped to dive in. So for people who may not know you yet, what’s your main focus right now and what markets are you operating in?

Leigh Ann Baker (02:46)
So we have a company called Porch Life Properties that focuses on high-end luxury short-term rentals. We are in Baldhead Island, North Carolina.

Dustin right outside of Dustin Florida Sand Dustin Resort and we are currently we have a midterm in Charleston and we’re currently renovating a house in historic Serena.

Micah Johnson (03:07)
So let’s back up for a second. What got you ultimately to real estate? What led you into the industry?

Leigh Ann Baker (03:14)
So I’ve always been really interested

in real estate, always kind of bought low and sold high and was always buying in emerging neighborhoods. I’m from Charlotte, so it’s been really easy for me to see the growth and the opportunity that there is in real estate just because of how new Charlotte is and their approach and how many people are moving to the city. So I was always kind of comfortable with that idea, but then…

When my daughter was born, I did all the things that you’re not supposed to do within a year timeframe and it happened, it all happened in six months. We had just bought in and built a brand new house. I had a baby, ended up getting divorced, sold the house and I had a job that I thought I was gonna have forever and lost that job, right, as my daughter was born.

I had to figure something out. And like I said, always been interested in real estate and the gains. In fact, we bought that house, the house we built, we built in the first phase of the neighborhood. And then I was able to sell it less than a year later for like 20,000 more. And I thought I was like rich, like that was amazing, right? So I then was able to, I thought I really wanted to get in flipping investing.

something I’d always been interested in. And then I was able with some friends to be able to do some ride arounds with people that they knew. And I was still kind of scared at that point. And my whole vision with this was how do I provide for this child, this little child without.

me missing her entire childhood. And I thought real estate was a really good way to be able to do that, but was still apprehensive about it at the time and really needed health insurance. So I through my aunt, found a mortgage broker that needed an assistant. And so I started working for her as an assistant. Like if you’ve ever seen the Devil Wears Prada, that was me as the assistant in this mortgage business. And I was very lucky. She taught me a lot and was really the first person that like kind of showed me that like, you can be

Micah Johnson (04:58)
Thanks.

Leigh Ann Baker (05:06)
really successful as a single woman in this world and you don’t have to sacrifice the time with your children and all of that. So dove head first into mortgage lending, which you know is a lot of nights and weekends. And I was able to spend a lot of time with her during the day and all of that. And I was telling Micah that I remember she used to go to mother’s morning out like two days a week and at three hours I would go and sit in a Chick-fil-A and just like

research everything that I possibly could about mortgage lending about ⁓

real estate investing and there was a ⁓ lady that I was following at the time who was a single mom and was doing house flipping. And I remember I emailed her, you get really like, bold, that was something I would have never done before. But you get really bold when you’re like desperate, right? So you’re like, I was like, how are you doing this? And how did you get into how did you do it the first time? And she said, it just comes down to how bad you want it.

And so I was able to for the next couple years.

see other clients doing things like this, seeing the money people were making. And I remember the first time I took an application of someone making $30,000 a month, I was like, ⁓ my goodness, like, you know, it was just amazing to see what was out there. And I just didn’t know, you know, and so I started kind of adapting like a, why not me? You know, like what, why not this and mortgage lending taught me a lot of that too, because it’s full commission, right? So I was able to build my confidence through that. And then

Micah Johnson (07:19)
Yeah.

Leigh Ann Baker (07:26)
I did end up getting remarried about six years ago and I have to say my husband, he’s not a risk taker but.

he really he sees that in me and was really is very very very supportive of anything that I want to do and so he kind of was like let’s let’s try it if you think this is what you want to do like let’s try it and so we bought our first one in Destin in 2020 right as everything was happening crazy things are happening

and then bought the Charleston house about six months later and then did the Baldhead house last year and we’re currently working on this Savannah house. Savannah will be completed in 2026. We’re getting our final approvals from the historic district and Wednesday so hopefully cross your fingers everything goes right and we’re able to start that project very soon.

Micah Johnson (08:19)
Listen to your story. Reflecting on it now where you’re at today, how important of a moment was it when that person said, if you want it bad enough, you will?

Leigh Ann Baker (08:35)
I mean, I’m so grateful for that. I mean, there’s, I can look back now and there’s so many steps and things that people have just little things that people have said to me along the way that I still think back to all the time, you know, that is obviously one of them that was 15 years ago from a random email and Chick-fil-A, right? And so I, you know, I just have kind and that’s how I feel. I still feel that if I want it bad enough, it’s going to work out. You got to, you know, there’s

It is investing, right? So there always is risk in investing. But if you do, if the numbers work, they work, right? And that you don’t have to have, you know, every little contingency down to whatever it’s going to be. There’s going to be things you’re going to overspend, but there’s always a solution, right? And so you’re not just going to, you know, give up, but what am I going to do in the Savannah house if it starts costing a little bit more money?

What am I going to do? I’m going to figure it I’m going to figure it out. I’m going to talk to people. I’m going to figure out how, okay, I’ll refinance at the end and ask the contractor, can I pay you at the end when I refinance? All these things, there’s always a solution and there’s so much money out there. That’s one thing that I did not get. I always looked at money like it was my security.

Micah Johnson (09:32)
Right?

Leigh Ann Baker (09:52)
And

money’s not security, it’s a tool. And it’s given to you, and it’s just as easily as it’s taken away. And so I think that when you, it’s a lot of people’s relationship with money that makes them nervous. And my relationship with money after I lost all those things in a year,

I had to take a risk to get what I wanted, right? So I like to say people always like, my gosh, I can’t believe you can do this. I can’t believe you did this. Well, when you’ve lost everything, like you’ve got nothing left to lose. So you might as well bet on yourself.

And that’s, I think what we’ve kind I’ve kind of tried to do here all the time. And I mean, like one of the things is I always laugh about when people are like, how do you make decisions on properties?

Well, I never go to them before I put an offer in on them. That for me, that’s a really important because I, if I go to them before, then I get emotionally attached. I can’t help it. Right. And I, ⁓ okay. I know that that sounds crazy to people. Yeah.

Micah Johnson (11:29)
Okay. Right, Bill, good to know.

No, it’s about

you.

Leigh Ann Baker (11:37)
Because if I can make the numbers work and I know what the number is and that person’s not willing to negotiate to that price, there’s no use in me going to look at it. You know what I mean? All that’s going to do is make me overbid on it and I can’t overbid, right? That’s not what this is, right? It’s not my house that I’m living in for the next 10 years. It’s to make money and build wealth. And so

me getting emotionally attached. Like if I had gone in the Savannah house before I, before I bought it, like I don’t, I would, I would have seen all the things, but like I went in and I was like, this is amazing. Cause I have that. I also have this gift and a curse that I can always see things for better than they are or in people for better than they are usually, or what I think they could be.

I would have walked in there and overbid. So I got it for what I wanted, was by the way 50 % of what listing it was listed at. So don’t let anybody tell you to not make the offer. Make an offer, yeah.

Micah Johnson (12:48)
the offer, you got to put it,

it’s part of the risk, it’s part of that. I think a lot of folks in this industry, what they want is certainty. They want to just feel like it’s going to work out. And the thing is, is it’s never going to feel that way, ever. It’s never going to. There’s a quote, one of my favorite quotes is by Virginia Satir. She says, most people prefer the misery of certainty. No, hold on.

Leigh Ann Baker (12:55)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Micah Johnson (13:13)
Most people prefer the certainty of misery than the misery of uncertainty. And it’s, that’s it. Like as I’ve progressed my own life in the industry, there’s always that little feeling like your neck hair’s standing up a little bit. There’s like this charge in your system that is a little uncomfortable. And it’s, once you start to embrace it and realize, hold on, this actually, that’s the indicator I’m doing something big, that I actually could pull off.

Leigh Ann Baker (13:28)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (13:40)
success that I can make it. This is what that feeling is. And then your whole mind shifts on it, where it’s just like, okay, hold on. Now it’s not just about not making, not taking risks anymore. It’s about taking educated risks. It’s about, know, it’s investing, not gambling. And that’s where you were nailing on, you know, your numbers, you’re not going in there, just making it up. And you’re offsetting for your weakness. You’re offsetting for the part you know could trip you up, which I think is so powerful. And one, I got to shine light on this.

It stems from the fact that if you can go through what you went through all in one year and still maintain an abundance mindset from there, the rest of this will should be much simpler, right? Because those are real life things you went through that our listeners are going to go through themselves if they haven’t already, where you do experience that your moment, right? Like life is hard. It delivers things we don’t ask for that.

require of us to take a good look inside and see, okay, what am I going to do? Is life happening to me or is life happening for me? Which one? Because whatever route you take from there, you take the to me route, you don’t pull off what you’ve pulled off in life. You never got to see your daughter and probably still working the same job, not getting anywhere because life’s happening to me versus even the hard stuff’s okay.

Leigh Ann Baker (15:46)
Right.

Micah Johnson (15:46)
Even the

things that come along that, you know what, I wouldn’t wish on anybody, but they taught me how to be me, how to operate in a hard environment, which leads to the next thing I want to tag on with. Let’s talk about the deal on the island. We were mentioning it pre-call where one hard scenario, living that first hard part has allowed you to walk through some tough deals, things that some investors won’t even tackle. So specifically the one on Bald Eagle.

Tell us about that deal and some things that you went through there that’ll you know enlighten listeners.

Leigh Ann Baker (16:18)
Yeah, I will say, looking back on it, I don’t, it was.

It’s been a great experience because now I’m not afraid of anything. I really like walk into the Savannah house. I was telling Micah that I walked into the Savannah house the first time and on the third floor, there’s some skylights there that are not supposed to be there. So there’s holes, there’s, you know, it’s an 1853 house, but after I did this baldhead house, I’m really not afraid of anything just because the pure logistics of the whole thing. So baldhead is a lovely island. Would love for you to come and visit our property.

Micah Johnson (16:27)
Mmm, wow.

Leigh Ann Baker (16:52)
We bought the first house on the island because my stepdad had a stroke several years ago and is in a wheelchair and there’s only one one-story house on the island and it came for sale and It was crazy how it happened. We went under contracted it at first

And then ended up because of after some inspections, couldn’t come to terms. It was an estate sale. Couldn’t come to terms with the whole trust is, know, when you’re buying estate sales, it’s there were four siblings. And so every, every sibling has to agree plus their spouses. And so it takes some time, right? So we, there’s another good lesson. We let it go, even though I felt like in my soul, this was our, this was our family’s property. Like I knew that this was it. We’d been vacationing there for 30 years and all the things.

I was just like we’re gonna have to build and we can’t build on two lots because of the way that as much as they will have to buy two lots because of the sizing of the What you can build on a prop property anyway, so We really really really wanted this and we wanted other families who have People with like, you know

grandparents who have mobility issues, other families. We know how hard it is for us to go on vacation and so we wanted to be able to provide this for other people too. So I say this is more of like a lifestyle purchase where we’re building generational wealth because I long-term hold everything. So I’m looking 10 years out and if you do the calculations on 10 years out,

what the property will be worth then still will build generational wealth, but the cashflow with the lifestyle purchases, which is what a lot of people want to do.

I we try to break even with the rental numbers every year. So it’s covering its cost. It’s building equity over time, but then we’re using it as well and it’s enhancing my family’s life, right? So it’s not a pure cashflow perspective from that one and hopefully, you know Our children my child my nephew they will like to go there for long time and my parents will always be able to go there as long as they’re living because it’s it’s Handicap accessible. Anyways, so all of that it is a barrier island. You have to take a boat to get there. There is one

shipment boat every day at two o’clock and if your your trucks on there then your stuff gets over if your trucks not on there you don’t and I actually did not hire this is the first time big scale project that I didn’t hire a general contractor because honestly the prices of the general contractors there are almost

Twice to three times as much because of the specialty of the island and people are afraid and people that don’t work on the island don’t want to come because they know the logistics of trying to get it over so I interviewed a whole bunch of people I We were getting quotes for you know

million dollars basically a million dollars and we ended up spending I think 450 but what I did was there’s a group of subs subcontractors on the island and so every time I would see their truck on the island and they were doing everybody else’s projects so

I went to the guy who owns the subcontracting company and said, would you be willing to take this on? And he was like, I have a sponsorship with this general contractor. Yes, I can do it. So he’s been working on the island for 20 years, had all the specialties of knowing everything, the logistics of the island, when things could go over. just like things you don’t think about, like getting a dumpster on and off the island and trash. Like

Micah Johnson (20:15)
Thank you.

Leigh Ann Baker (20:15)
pulling wood

out and all of everything like we took down a whole wall like that’s one dumpster getting it on and off the island, right? So I hired, we hired him and his group of subcontractors. It was their first major project and they hit it out of the park. Like.

And that’s where like, you know, I could have I could have you get what you pay for, right? And I could have paid for this million dollar guy who was going to basically just get them to do it anyways, and pay them and then he was just going to make, you know, a commission off of that. And everything well is is good in different situations. But that’s where knowing your market is really specific is really important and that I had been there a lot and then I saw the trucks and that I would ask the plumber, the electricians on the island, who would you use things like that and

They we’re saying all the time. Well Cortez is good Cortez is our lesson Cortez is gonna do the work so you might as well hire them and After I heard that enough another times enough times. I didn’t need to hear anything else right so Picking contractors obviously in in major projects like that and subs and all of that is is Really really super important, but I will say in Savannah. I did hire a general contractor because

Savannah it’s in the historic district, which you know historic districts have all sorts of different of Specialties or whatever and I hired an architect even though we’re not doing many changes to the inside Just basically adding bathrooms and cleaning the whole thing up and keeping it historical as much as we can He’s on the historical committee the architect I hired so

Micah Johnson (21:44)
Peace.

Leigh Ann Baker (21:44)
Even

though there it was worth it to spend a little bit extra money versus being delayed months, which I learned on the last on the baldhead property because they have an architectural committee on the island and it took us four months to get a ramp approved just to get in and out of the house. So, I mean, you have to know the market, know the people.

Micah Johnson (21:57)
Wow.

Leigh Ann Baker (22:03)
and figure out how to problem solve within that, right? Like if I had to do it again, I probably would have at least hired an architect to do the ramp, even as silly as that sounds, it’s a ramp drawing and we’re doing it to code, I don’t know what else, you you really need to know. But four months of going back and forth with drawings. And so,

Micah Johnson (22:17)
Bye.

Leigh Ann Baker (22:24)
But it’s just one of those things, again, the house got done, we got done in six months. I mean projects there involved had usually take a year at least. I mean, I’m still watching a house that’s new construction. They’ve been working on the driveway for like six months, right, since we even started. So staying on top of people, they wanna get it done, they wanna get paid, people that are motivated.

Micah Johnson (22:27)
Bye.

Leigh Ann Baker (22:47)
And honestly, what it comes down to is fighting the best fit for you and the person that you trust the most, I think.

Micah Johnson (22:55)
Absolutely, and it’s one of the things I like that you’re doing and I want people to pay attention to is you’re out there having the conversations. You’re not just guessing, you’re not just hoping, you’re literally walking up to the plumber, you’re walking up to the electrician and asking, what do you know, who do you know? And that’s where a lot of folks can feel.

Our desire not to feel dumb costs us more money than we know what to do with, right? We don’t want people to think we’re stupid, so we’ll just be quiet. And it’s like getting over that fear will unlock all the doors that you’re trying to get into because somebody knows the answer, especially in real estate. This is not a new industry. It’s been around a long time. People have been doing it a long time. And like you’re saying, in each market,

There’s a specialist there. There’s somebody who knows, who’s been doing it a long time and has the knowledge that can get you through that process. Cause that is what changes everywhere. Each city has its own rules. They have their own ordinances, their own zoning, their own people. Just everything is really nuanced to its own market. Like I’m in St. Augustine. We have a historical architectural review board.

I had the pleasure of when I was a realtor selling one of the most historic houses downtown and then going through the process of what it was like to bring that thing back to life. Cause it was not in good shape. I found multiple vagrants doing questionable things on the porch when I would have to go out there and check it out. Right? Like it was a, it was a very interesting process to go through, but just knowing that next person to talk to, right? It’s, it’s something I teach my kids.

Leigh Ann Baker (24:20)
No. ⁓

Micah Johnson (24:32)
and I recommend it in real estate. Hard doesn’t mean it’s bad. If you’re willing to do the hard part, good things will happen. It’ll open up doors where, like even the fact that you’re doing this in places, we’ll just go back to Savannah. If you got a listing at 50 % of its value, one, there’s still deals in the MLS, that’s what that means. And two, you found a place that other people didn’t wanna do it.

And if you’re willing to go in there and like you’re saying, and it makes complete sense with where you started, the first three problems you’ve named where you years ago, those are way bigger than putting a tarp on a roof, then making sure that the fairies is all the stuff’s on the ferry. Like it starts to pale in comparison. And that’s what I would encourage people to reflect on in this industry is we’re all people.

We all went through lives. Use your life experience as leverage into the life that you want. It’s teaching you something. There’s things you can pull out of it. And that’s what I love about the through line of your story is you embraced hard, you kept an abundance mindset, and you are very sober to the fact problems are still gonna come along. It’s not right off into the sunset. Every project has its issues, but when you know that, I can solve it.

I’ll deal with that when it comes. You start to be able to take the risks that you were mentioning because it’s not so much a risk anymore. Yeah, it has the nervous feeling. Yeah, something could go wrong. But when you’re not paralyzed by that fear, you actually create the life that you want.

Leigh Ann Baker (26:08)
And I think it’s perspective too, right? Like I was telling you earlier that like everything that could have gone wrong on that bald head project did, okay? I remember they called me on a Monday morning and were like, a huge tree just fell on the property from the neighbor’s property. And luckily it fell right in between where the garage and the house were and it just kind of nicked the corner. But that could have…

I mean, that could have been disastrous, right? But I also think when you do the right things and you’re taking the right steps,

good things happen right like I look at it like that was a good thing that happened to us and not like my gosh there’s another tree we’re gonna have another it was another 17 000 for someone to come cut the tree down and whatever but I was like well you know what now that’s good because we won’t have to go get that approved should get it taken down from the art committee and Mother Nature just took it care of itself

took care of us for and we don’t have to worry about it for the future, right? So, but every if you are going into a real estate project and you’re like every single thing that goes wrong, you’re like, my gosh.

this is another this I didn’t budget for that. I didn’t do that. It’s like, you’re gonna be miserable. Like, don’t do it, right? Like, you got to have that mindset. And it’s easier the more you do it. And the more that you experience, right? But like, I don’t know, I think it goes down to mindset. And like we were talking about before, like,

You gotta keep looking at it like, this is my long-term payoff. It’s not a short-term thing, right?

Micah Johnson (27:46)
That’s what you’re doing. there’s no, if you weren’t doing real estate, you’d be having problems somewhere else. And the ability to look at them as not in the fuzzy positive thinking way of, this is an opportunity, but soberly saying, okay, I can either freak out and have a miserable life, or I can take a deep breath, make one choice after the other and get out of this. One of my favorite movies is the Martian.

Leigh Ann Baker (27:52)
Great.

Micah Johnson (28:12)
and with Matt Damon and at the end of it where he makes it back from Mars and he’s teaching a class, he says, if you want to survive in space, it’s solve one problem and then solve the next problem. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come back home. And it’s all it is that like it is a series of problems that you solve. You can look at as good, you can look at it as bad. Doesn’t matter. You’re going to have to solve them anyways. And I know people who are super successful in real estate and are kind of bummers to be around.

Because they do take that other mindset where you can talk to ones like yourself where they make you feel like you can do it. And that is what I really enjoyed about our conversation today is you use this confidence that helps other people see that I can do this too. I can actually change my own life as well. I don’t have to be stuck. I don’t have to believe I can’t. And because the moment you believe you can’t, you can’t. If you tell my kids that I can’t do that, well, you’re right.

Leigh Ann Baker (28:41)
Thank

Mm-hmm.

Micah Johnson (29:09)
If you tell

me you can’t do it, I believe you. You are literally saying to me what you can’t do. If I believe you can, it doesn’t matter. You believe you can’t. And that’s what we got to change. So.

Leigh Ann Baker (29:19)
Yeah, and.

I always say I talk to people all the time about their first property or maybe like a lifestyle property, right? First of all, there are creative ways to be able to fund it without clearing out your 401k. There’s so many great products right now that are DSCR or you do a hard money loan for six months while you’re renovating or 12 months while you’re renovating and then you refinance into something that’s more long-term. And then if you are able to build

So just for easy numbers, let’s say I bought we bought the bald head at 800. Okay, it We put three we put 300 in in it. So we’re in for it for 1.1 Okay, and then we just when we had the refinance done it appraised at 2.1. Okay, so now I have that built-in equity of Over 80 % so basically I did it without a down payment, but I still have the equity I didn’t put 20 % down in the beginning

Micah Johnson (30:17)
Right.

Leigh Ann Baker (30:20)
I got it. did a hard money loan that we were able to use for for 12 months We got out of it out of it at six months And then we didn’t we didn’t put any money into it, right? So it’s like you are able to do that It’s like I’m sure you everybody’s heard of the BRRRR strategy, but it’s that’s what it is but doing it with ad adding value to the house, right so and

That’s how you can do that. And so people are like, I’m afraid because what if I deplete my 20, 25 % and then nobody rents it? I don’t know. I’ve never even thought about what if nobody rents it? I know that someone said to me the other day, like, what if it doesn’t work? And I’m like, I’ve never thought about that. What do you mean? What if it doesn’t work? Like I just, that doesn’t even ever cross my mind anymore. Right. Because you have to be so like,

in you have to be so focused on it is going to work that there’s not another option right and things are going to happen but that doesn’t mean it’s not working that just means that there’s like we said there’s issues right so and everybody always says to me you know if i do that if i deplete my 20 percent and then nobody runs it for the first six months i can’t afford that

And my solution always is, I never think I can’t afford that. I’ve never said it in my life. What my brain thinks is, how can I afford that righr? So if these things happen, let’s say I deplete 20%, which I’m not going to do on a project, I can say I deplete my 20 % and nobody rents it for six months. Okay I’m going to look for.

But like your normal typical vacation I would if this happened in baldhead what I would do or savannah i’d be like Let’s look for a film crew. Do they anybody does anybody need to do? ⁓ a film like film something somewhere right like just out of the box things that

you know, do I need to get a midterm renter in there? Can I, is there somebody on the island that the construction people all need to stay at? could get a, you know, and someone else will pay for them to stay on the islands because they know the work is getting done, right? So like, there’s so many creative things that you can do. But to your point, like, if you don’t ask and you don’t have the hard conversation, like,

You’re never going to know that stuff. And it doesn’t just happen. Like I don’t just put it up on the internet and people just book it. That doesn’t happen. Right? Like, I mean, on Airbnb sometimes, but that’s not what the goal is. The goal is, you know, to build long-term clientele and be able to make money.

so you can build generational wealth for yourself. Into your point, like what happened to me when I was 30 and all that whole year when I turned 30, that will never happen again because of what I’ve done in the last 10 years, right? And so sometimes playing it safe, like by just getting a normal nine to five job. And if I did that, I would still be in the same place if I lost my job tomorrow. But now because of all of these risks I’ve taken, like I don’t have to worry as much and I get to do the things that

Micah Johnson (33:08)
Right.

Leigh Ann Baker (33:14)
I really love to do is spend time with my daughter, spend time with my husband, travel, go to my properties, look for new properties. And I still have a normal nine to five job that I love and I get to work with people that I went to and I get to help them solution, but I’m not in that.

desperation place anymore because of what real estate’s done for me and my family. And so I, is it scary? Yes. Is it scary when nobody, I look at my Dustin house right now and like usually we’re full in March at this point and we have like two weeks booked. Okay. It’ll happen. If it doesn’t happen, then I’ll figure something out. I’ll call some film crews. I’ll see if there’s a travel nurse. I’ll see if any of my friends in the area have family coming that they need to stay for, you know what I mean? So again, it’s always,

Micah Johnson (33:53)
Right? One office.

Leigh Ann Baker (33:55)
It’s about being creative.

Micah Johnson (33:57)
Right, right, and that’s powerful. Well, as we wrap up today, one, great job. I love talking with folks who’ve literally changed their life doing this. Like you said, you can never be in that position you were in at 30 because you’ve intentionally built your way out of it. You went through it and said, okay, never again, and pulled it off. So I love hearing that. You’re willing to do the hard things. So for listeners out there who are interested in learning more about you, possibly working with you, what’s the best way for them to find you?

Leigh Ann Baker (34:27)
company, short-term rental company is Porch Life Properties. So you can find us on Instagram just @porchlifeproperties. And then I have a separate page for my mortgage lending business and it’s just Leigh at Leigh Ann Baker, MLO. So if you want to talk about creative financing strategies or follow along on the Savannah renovations, follow both of those accounts.

Micah Johnson (34:49)
and thanks for sharing. And for those listening, we’ll make sure that those are in the show notes for you to be able to reach out and connect with Leigh Ann. Leigh Ann, again, thank you for being here today. I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. I love the energy you’re bringing to the space. And I love getting to meet people that have actually changed their lives. You’re really doing it. So thank you so much.

Leigh Ann Baker (35:07)
Thank you.

Micah Johnson (35:09)
Listeners, if you got value out of today’s episode, please like this episode, share it with someone you think can get benefit from it. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators just like Leigh Ann who are out there building real businesses. So until next time, we’ll see you on the next

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She Lost Everything — Then Built Luxury Short-Term Rentals

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