The world of mid-term rentals is evolving rapidly, with many individuals and families seeing the potential for both financial gain and personal growth. Amanda Coleman, a seasoned landlord, shares her journey, strategies, and insights into the industry, offering a wealth of knowledge for those considering diving into this lucrative market.
Amanda's Deep Dive into Mid-Term Rentals
Amanda Coleman's (opens in new tab) venture into mid-term rentals is a testament to how personal experiences can shape business decisions. Her journey began not just with the idea of generating an additional income stream but also with a genuine need to align her family's values and lifestyle choices with the environment they created within their home.
The decision to rent out a portion of their home was not taken lightly. Amanda and her family were keen on setting clear boundaries and expectations with potential tenants. This was especially crucial given the family's holistic health choices. These choices weren't just about a preference; they were deeply rooted in personal experiences that had a profound impact on their lives.
The turning point was when Amanda's son, Dawson, faced significant health challenges at the tender age of nine months. A routine doctor's visit and a subsequent shot led to a series of health complications for Dawson. This unexpected turn of events was a wake-up call for Amanda. She dove deep into understanding the potential triggers, which led her to the world of chemicals present in everyday products. The more she researched, the more she realized the adverse effects these chemicals could have, especially on young children. This revelation was a game-changer. It steered the family towards a fragrance-free lifestyle, eliminating potential harmful chemicals from their daily use of products.
But Amanda's commitment didn't stop with her immediate family. She realized that if she were to rent out a part of her home, she had to ensure that the same standards were maintained. This meant that tenants had to adhere to specific requirements, like using particular laundry soaps or cleaners that aligned with the family's fragrance-free lifestyle. While this might seem stringent to some, for Amanda, it was about ensuring the health and well-being of her family, especially Dawson.
This approach to rentals is a refreshing change from the usual landlord-tenant dynamics. It emphasizes the importance of personal values in business decisions. For Amanda, her rental space wasn't just a property; it was an extension of her home, her sanctuary. Every decision, every rule, and every interaction with potential tenants was a reflection of her family's journey towards a healthier lifestyle.
The Guest House Dream: Amanda's Vision and Execution
The ambitious project of building a second unit on her property marks Amanda Coleman's entry into the mid-term rental market. This wasn't just another brick-and-mortar project; it was the realization of a long-held dream.
Origins of the Dream
For Amanda and her family, the idea of having a guest house had been brewing for a long time. They had aspirations of owning land in Oklahoma and building a cabin there. These dreams, intertwined with their current property aspirations, were often met with skepticism, with some viewing them as mere daydreamers. However, for Amanda, it was a vision she was determined to bring to life.
From Dream to Reality
The process of turning this dream into reality wasn't instantaneous. Around 2017, Amanda and her family considered moving into an apartment and renting out their main house as a strategy to save money. Although this particular plan didn't materialize, it sowed the seeds for what was to come. By 2018, they had begun the planning phase for the guest house.
Finding the right contractor was crucial. Amanda emphasized the importance of trust in this relationship. Their chosen contractor wasn't just a project manager but an advocate, ensuring that every aspect of the construction was up to standard. Their association with him wasn't just professional; it was personal, having known him from their church group. This relationship proved invaluable, especially when issues arose post-construction and the contractor stepped in to rectify them.
Financial Strategy and Success
The financial aspect of this project was meticulously planned. They managed to put down 25% of the cost upfront and take out a mortgage for the remaining amount. Their contractor's flexibility allowed them to undertake some tasks themselves, saving money in the process. With a combination of strategic financial planning and the income from the guest house, they achieved a significant milestone: paying off the mortgage. This accomplishment came just last month, a remarkable feat considering the relatively short time since the guest house's completion in October 2019.
The Power of Personality Matching: A Deep Dive into Amanda's Innovative Approach
In the world of mid-term rentals, finding the right tenant is more than just about timely payments and lease agreements. For Amanda Coleman, it's about ensuring that the tenant's personality aligns with her family's values and lifestyle. This belief led her to develop a unique and innovative approach: Personality Matching.
Understanding the Color-Coded System
Amanda's system is based on four distinct colors: Blue, Red, Yellow, and Green. Each color represents specific personality traits:
Blue: typically outgoing, adventurous, and the life of the party. These individuals are often extroverted and bring vibrant energy wherever they go.
Red: driven, goal-oriented, and often seen as the go-getters. They are passionate and can sometimes be intense in their pursuits.
Yellow: compassionate, empathetic, and go-with-the-flow. They are often seen as peacemakers, bringing a calming presence.
Green: detail-oriented, organized, and sometimes resistant to change. They value structure and order.
Amanda identifies herself as a mix of Green and Red. She's organized and detail-oriented, but she also has that fiery drive. Through her experiences, she realized that having a tenant with a similar personality could lead to clashes. Hence, she tends to gravitate towards those who identify more with the Blue and Yellow personalities. These individuals are more flexible, relationship-oriented, and can easily adapt to the holistic lifestyle Amanda's family leads.
Why Personality Matching Matters
The concept of personality matching goes beyond just ensuring peaceful coexistence. It's about creating an environment where both the landlord and tenant feel understood, valued, and respected. By understanding the tenant's personality, Amanda can tailor her interactions, ensuring clear communication and setting mutual expectations.
For instance, a Blue personality tenant might appreciate spontaneous check-ins or casual chats, while a Green personality tenant might prefer scheduled meetings and written communication. By understanding these nuances, Amanda can foster a positive relationship, leading to longer tenancy periods and mutual respect.
The Benefits of Compatibility in Mid-Term Rentals
Mid-term rentals are unique in that they are longer than short-term stays but shorter than traditional leases. This means that the landlord and tenant will interact more frequently than in a typical rental scenario. Compatibility becomes crucial in such situations. A harmonious relationship can lead to:
Fewer conflicts and misunderstandings
A higher likelihood of lease renewals
Positive reviews and recommendations boost the landlord's reputation
A sense of community and belonging for the tenant, making them feel more at home
Harnessing the Power of Furnished Finder: The Tenant Tracking Feature
One of the standout features of Furnished Finder that Amanda frequently highlights is the tenant tracking system. This tool is not just about keeping a list; it's about organization and efficiency. With multiple tenants over time, it can become challenging to remember specifics about each one, especially when considering longer-term stays.
Amanda mentioned how, in the past, she struggled with recalling move-out dates or even specific deposit amounts. The tenant tracking feature alleviates these challenges by providing a centralized system where she can quickly access vital information. This not only saves time but also ensures accuracy, reducing potential conflicts or misunderstandings with tenants.
Affordability: Maximizing Returns without Compromising Quality
In the world of rentals, platform fees can quickly eat into profits. Amanda was vocal about her appreciation for Furnished Finder's cost-effective approach (opens in new tab). Unlike other platforms that charge exorbitant fees, Furnished Finder offers its services at an annual rate, ensuring landlords like Amanda can maximize their returns.
Amanda even drew a comparison with platforms like Airbnb, emphasizing the value she gets from Furnished Finder. This affordability doesn't come at the expense of quality. The platform provides a plethora of tools and features designed to make the rental process as smooth as possible, from listing properties to interacting with potential tenants.
Building Trust through Reviews
Another aspect of Furnished Finder that Amanda touched upon was the review system. In today's digital age, reviews play a pivotal role in building trust. Amanda's strategy revolves around ensuring her tenants have a positive experience, which in turn leads to glowing reviews. She actively encourages her tenants to leave feedback, understanding the weight these reviews carry for potential future tenants.
Furthermore, Amanda appreciates the platform's proactive approach, with tools that remind landlords to seek reviews. This not only boosts the property's online reputation but also provides valuable feedback for continuous improvement.
Building Trust Through Positive Feedback
For potential tenants, reviews serve as a window into what they can expect. A series of positive reviews can instill confidence, assuring them of the quality of the rental and the reliability of the landlord. Amanda's consistent five-star reviews on Furnished Finder are a testament to her dedication to ensuring tenant satisfaction. These glowing testimonials not only validate her efforts but also serve as a magnet, drawing in more potential renters.
Garnering positive reviews is rooted in relationship-building. Amanda believes in establishing rapport with her tenants from the outset. By setting clear expectations, addressing concerns promptly, and maintaining open communication, she fosters a sense of trust and mutual respect. This relationship-centric approach ensures that even when issues arise, they can be resolved amicably, leading to positive feedback.
Proactive Problem-Solving
A standout aspect of Amanda's strategy is her proactive approach to potential issues. For instance, when faced with an ant problem in her rental, she didn't wait for the tenant to complain. Instead, she communicated the situation, assuring the tenant that measures were being taken to address it. This proactive communication not only prevents negative reviews but often leads to positive feedback, as tenants appreciate the transparency and prompt action.
Tiny Homes: The Next Big Thing
Amanda's idea of introducing a tiny home on a trailer to her property is not just a novel concept but also a reflection of the changing preferences in the housing market. Tiny homes have gained immense popularity in recent years, symbolizing minimalistic living, sustainability, and flexibility. By considering this addition, Amanda is tapping into a trend that appeals to a wide range of potential tenants, from millennials seeking sustainable living options to older generations looking to downsize.
A Haven for the Next Generation
Beyond the potential financial benefits, Amanda's vision for the tiny home also stems from a personal place. She envisions it as a possible residence for her children as they grow older, especially during their college years. Given the escalating cost of living, especially in cities like Fort Worth, having a space like this could offer her children the freedom to save and live affordably. It's a thoughtful blend of personal foresight and financial prudence.
Adapting to Market Needs
Amanda's plans underscore the importance of adaptability in the rental industry. By staying attuned to market trends and emerging housing preferences, landlords can ensure their properties remain relevant and in demand. The tiny home concept, while trendy now, also represents a broader shift towards space-efficient, sustainable living. By considering such additions, landlords can cater to a growing segment of renters who prioritize these values.
Episode 5 Transcript
Welcome to Landlord Diaries where we talk about midterm rentals and the opportunities behind them we'll share landlords stories talk about maximizing investment potential and discuss how to live the very best landlord life this podcast is proudly brought to you by furnished finder the place for everything midterm rentals remember to like and subscribe if you enjoy our content hello my real estate enthusiasts this is your host kelly bailey with a handful of midterm rentals in the austin texas area and we are so thankful that all of you are listening in i've got my co host with us today uh and every other day katie lyon she is our Furnished Finder marketing director uh and in today's episode we travel all the way to fort worth texas what did you think about today's episode katie this episode was so cool um things went a little bit differently this time the property was built from the ground up and it was paid off within five years which both things i think are just so interesting and take a lot of intentional thought and practice and it was really really great to hear how our guest put that practice into play and made it all come to reality yes and she also adds a few choices about holistic uh hosting how to how to host with a holistic lifestyle it's pretty cool so enjoy the episode [Music] amanda how are you i'm good i'm glad to be here today thank you so much for joining us i think it's going to be such a helpful episode for all of our fellow landlords and we all have great stories to tell so let's jump into question one which is um you have two rentals uh so why don't you give the audience a breakdown of how your rentals work and just make them feel like they're in your in your home or in your space all right well we live in a um 26 ish 100 i think square foot house on an acre about the well the back half of the acres and flood zones so for all practical purposes we are on a very long track of about a half of an acre we built a guest house back there in 2019 before everything got crazy expensive and um so we've rented that out for i guess what is that two three years i don't know i can't do the math on the top of my head um and then we have had a so we have a wing in our house also that we've rented out for i think um four or five years now so we way our house is set up it's um all of our living space is on this side of the house there's is over here and we're separated by the kitchen dining and living so there's a very very nice separation between our spaces which has really made it work well that's good but i love that so um i did notice that the the hideaway in the oaks is on Furnished Finder but currently i don't see the wing in your home on Furnished Finder so where are you marketing um that uh portion of your furnished rentals and how does the marketing work for both well that's a little bit of a um interesting we've done just word of mouth with friends just sharing on my personal video okay um and we've also listed on craigslist which i know is like wow oh we'll still do that interestingly people do still do that so um just kind of a haunted touch of um of those few kind of methods with the the guest house most people we prefer to have stay for a year in our wing and most of the people on Furnished Finder tend to be wanting something shorter term more for three months which um although we have found longer term people on Furnished Finder of um of late which has been really great so our current private just moved in is going to be with us for a year and he's um orthopedics so yeah very cool how we've that's awesome um and i have to give you a shout out i love the title uh hideaway and the oaks but i've actually seen it on Furnished Finder as well and wow y'all have done such a great job it looks like this really beautiful modern style guest house uh with beautiful furnishings on the inside you've just done a great job so keep it up when you're in fort worth you'll have to come see it in person oh yes that'd be that would be cool texas is so big i don't even know how far fort worth is from austin it's just in my mind texas is just giant and everyone thinks everything's close and nothing's actually close it's about two and a half okay so that's not it's that's not bad no it's not in the hideaway and the oaks it really is that space before we built it when we moved in 11 years ago was just complete um overgrowth of shrubs and vines and my mind has really hacked hacked down to um where you can now go back there and not get all kinds of things on your clothes but um we just love how we're able to still keep so many of the trees and there's a lot of big trees back there a lot of little trees that are growing up that'll be big and um we've we kind of have to warn people it's a little bit of a track to to get back there walk yet so we usually offer the dolly and um so for being as in as it is people definitely feel um in the country which is fun that we can offer that right it is it's rare yeah so do you share a kitchen and living space with the wing of your house that you rent out then we do we really okay um we see them coming into our home as becoming kind of part of our family um we're very we do set a lot of really clear expectations which is to protect both parties but it's very much um this is our space which includes the guest and the wing some of the we i think we're on our fourth now um our fourth or fifth runner but everyone cooks different amounts and different times so sometimes it feels like one big party in the kitchen and then other times it's like will you ever eat because i never see you when we get this so now what now what made you decide to rent out a part of your house like how did you come to that decision because i know that can be a big step for especially when you have a family and you have littler ones of any age um how did you guys how did you guys come about that decision and what was that like for you yeah and we've been doing it long enough so our our kids just to preface are now 9 12 and 14 and we started when i think summer was five so it's been about five or so five seven nine um so thankfully they were in a sense young enough that it wasn't super weird and they didn't know that most people don't do this right so it wasn't too odd of a transition for them but um our house it has three bed three bathrooms and four bedrooms plus one that could be a bedroom so it just felt like so much space and we tend to be of the belief of kids it's beneficial for them to leak together just to learn to share space and work on that selfishness tendency so we do that anyway and then we just had this space that was basically just sitting there empty in between grandparents coming and visiting um so right kind of i talked to a friend who does um rentals just with her little space in her house and it just kind of got me thinking like that could be easy residual income that's on a space that's just sitting there we just kind of dabbled in and looked around and um decided to go for it we're always kind of looking for random sources of income so right i mean it's smart though especially if you're not using that space right um i think the only hurdle a lot of people have to get over is sharing that that common space but i think you're right especially for kids and everyone it can't teach you that like you know you need to have manners even when you're in your own house and and there's there's a lot of life lessons that can come with that too i know in my house our basement we have an extra guest room that like you said only gets used if if we have an actual like out of town guest and we have a bar that has a full-size fridge it's got a dishwasher it's got i mean it could be the only thing it's lacking is a a range right but like you're like man it really is just like it really is just like a source of income that's sitting there it's just that one hurdle um yeah but yeah that's really that's really interesting so who who have you had as tenants so far in your own in the house has been the first one is um she's a young 30ish gal who's a missionary in africa and she was over back the states just doing her support raising um and in fact she's coming back in a year and we've just we've kept in contact with all of these guests our roommates and she's hoping to come back and live with us again when she comes stateside next year so it's just fun to keep up those relationships but anyway she was one um it was real fun for her to she did some cooking with summer who was at that point like four-ish five-ish and made kind of african dishes with them and and then another roommate is from bulgaria is from bulgaria and so it's kind of fun to kind of hear about her growing up years and just being a different experience than what our kids are used to what we're used to um and let's see the third one she actually moved from california to work at where we now go to school at classical charter school that i had never heard of and she just kept talking about it and it was kind of during the 2020 summer where we're all reevaluating life and um we ended up going to that school thanks to her sharing about it so it's just been really like the lord has blessed us through these people that live with us in so many ways that you know we may never know um and we just are so grateful for those that's a that's a great way to put it and i think you have this experience uh in such a way that others are nervous about they you know they don't want to take that next step so uh for those that are thinking about it what would be like katie sounds like katie's wheels are turning uh what what would be your advice for someone looking to potentially start renting out portions of their home with kids or just you know just them there's so many um i would say for one it really it um it depends on your home layout it may not be a perfect home layout for everybody depending on you know for us it really worked out because that wing is so separate they can have that sense of privacy um and i didn't mention so there's between their bedroom and bathroom and the living space there's a hallway and a pocket door just giving a little bit extra privacy for them and a little quietness and then there on the side of the garage so they and they have a door that goes to the garage so they're able to come and go through the garage if they don't really want to be seen or see which happens you know a lot of our people and we kind of talked about this before but i i try to pick a very specific personality type um to live with us and that personality tends to be on the introverted side they like kids that's important but they do have more of a tendency to want to be alone than partying with people and so that works out really well for them to have that quiet entrance when they need that alone time so looking at the formatted house is really important you know if all bedrooms and bathrooms are on the same side of the house i think that'd be weird i'm not sure right you know wait see this person um so that's something so for katie's you know that's a totally separate space i'd wonder if you could right from the basement so they could come and go out if they wanted to or and hot plates were great that's good advice so i mean i i feel like it sounds like there's a good balance of logistical things to consider and then also identifying okay what type of person would mesh well with our family you know given the fact that it's going to be unavoidable that they mesh to some degree so i think those are some really good things you know for people out there to think of because um yeah you're right and i think setting up front like that we want them to be a part of our family like we love to play games right we would love you to play the games with us and we watch family movie nights on fridays and we would love for you to join us if you want to you know they obviously right sometimes sometimes they don't and some roommates have done it more than others um and we just really cherish those they kind of become like an aunt um and so setting my expectations up we're not just looking for um a money income source right we're looking for a relationship so yeah yeah and somebody love it i would say to consider is the husband um if it's a you know in our stance you know adam tends to be much more on the introverted side i tend to be a bit more on the uh relational side and he works all day obviously i'm here at my in the house and it's actually really great it's like i get both worlds i get a little of my like college roommate world with my grown-up husband family world and having that girl at home to talk to in the middle of the day um with an understanding of like okay we're done bye right so it's just a really nice balance of having that girl relational time with the family life and and adam's okay with that you know he's not yeah he's not super extroverted and he's definitely not a ladies man um and in fact have been like does he like me because i feel like he doesn't like me and i'm like it's not you he just really likes to keep you know that boundary just to write that space and be wise so anyway you have really thought through all this are you i feel like you're a left brain person are you left brain or right brain i don't know uh i'm analytical so does that make me left brain i think so yes i think i feel like you're left right i love it but i'm definitely right brain more the idea so okay your Furnished Finder landlord profile page it says and it great job by the way you you have done a phenomenal job making sure uh and we're gonna touch on this later but you get your you know five-star reviews your picture looks great your write-up looks great but one of the things he said that's fun to discuss is uh that you love uh reading a good book and playing games with your family so for those looking for a new family game what is your favorite and then after that are there any uh good reads that have impacted your property investment strategy or your hosting style you're putting me on the spot yep i did my current uh favorite game is quirkle have you heard of corkel yes my my uh sister-in-law has it but i don't think i've played it yet it's um i really like it the boys are kind of resisting but i really love it it's just a really quick in and out game it doesn't take a lot of setup like you know katan or ticket to ride that you can just pull the bag out and play i will say though my boy's current favorite with adam is um a game called bang have you heard of bang bang no these are fun we'll have to check them out katie container and it's very like wild west and it's a card game um i don't like it because it's way too many like deep i just i don't like learning new games too many too many rules but those are two fun ones that our family is enjoying right now cool um and then a book that has impacted your real estate investment options or just your hosting style um if you have one if not then we'll move on yeah you know i'm gonna pull this one out of thin air i'm not sure it's gonna fit the question but i really love i'm sure it will um the obstacles the way by ryan holiday i think is the book and it's all about the socratic uh kind of socrates thinking and thinking of obstacles as opportunities and and not just an opportunity but like the blessing in life wouldn't have happened had this obstacle not occurred and so just in a situation with having um being you know chafing with people you know having that um if someone has a bad experience if they which just happen you know instead of getting real down about it and just thinking man it's over you know and exploding the negativity of it just looking at it as an opportunity like wow what a great opportunity that this occurred i'm not going to really nip it in the bud um for next time so it doesn't happen again or just a chance to work through and develop some of our interpersonal skills of communication and expectation setting we've really had a lot of um just really kind of chafing i guess especially more so with the housemate than um the people in the back but even still then you know having to have hard conversations and just framing that from an uh from a perspective of this is an amazing opportunity um to be leaned into and not shy away from that has really helped kind of so tell us a little bit more about that tell us about one time where you had you know a conflict with a housemate obviously like you said like the people in the back that are in the separate unit you might have different issues with them right but you're not going to have like you left your dirty dishes out like it's it's it's different but what is what is an instance that stands out in your mind where you know it really was something that maybe did get you guys down at first or caught you off guard and got gave you a chance to use that um put that practice in into play because i i think that's a that's a lesson for not only landlords and property owners but everyone who's taking on a new challenge right whether the challenge is finding a new property buying it renting it or anything in life really like we're all going to face those times and i think having that perspective can help everyone get through it a lot um i have a lot of what i call awkward conversations with our housemates and one of them and i don't i do not enjoy them but i lean into them and one was so we haven't touched on this but we do chemical free living in our house we've had a lot of health issues in the past that's kind of put us down that rabbit hole and so we've learned through the the first guinea pig roommates how to do it and one of those kind of learning opportunities was um they were showering one night and usually they tend to keep their pocket door closed but it was open and they used a shampoo that was just very fragranced and and we're a fragrance-free home and we can talk more about that what that looks like which has been probably one of the most difficult things we've had to figure out but anyway her shampoo just made my entire dining room smell very very fragrant strong um fake fake freaking strong and my home just i feel like there's so much out there in the world like my home is my sanctuary it is my safe space so foreign smells just feel i know it sounds strange but like an attack it's like no this is like safe i just felt like her shampoo attacked my home and and it went away and it was fine but i had to have a conversation um and so you know hey i noticed um so just leaning into that and we learned through that that my definition of fragrance free does not necessarily match other people's definition of fragrance free and so through that i write and i did this new thing with our current lady and it really has been helpful where when they move in you know they understand like i'm very detailed you saw the information on my Furnished Finder listing like i set expectations they know but it's still like what do you mean by fragrance fruit you know right right they know that coming in um but we really have to no no and so i i go through and smell all of their products and i say no yes no no no no no yes that's about the ratio things are so fragrant whether it's shampoo conditioner hair spray you know perfume body spray people are just so used to you know these sprays from bath and body works or whatever and they never thought twice about it so it's an opportunity to share you know right concept with them um but it is kind of our products are very personal to us you know um we have such a strong connection to scent and so that's kind of a challenge one our current lady she's used the same um bath and bodywork smell for probably like 20 years like it is a part of her and so that was really hard to be like no um so that's something we've learned is just like really being super crazy clear up front to prevent shampoo now has anyone ever taken that the wrong way and like gotten almost offended or have you ever had anything or hasn't has everyone been fairly understanding because you do set those expectations they've been very understanding um but we usually have face-to-face before we decide yes or no and just to kind of get a feel for them and that's their chance to like ask your questions clarify i'm going to clarify right now people's laundry soap is super personal to them i've learned um and so you know saying you have to use mine is really like i feel like it's a violation but at the same time that's right it's our home our rule so and everybody's been great um i'm just i'm very grateful and out there to say yes i think this is a great time to circle uh back to uh and we've we've transitioned into the landlord logistics side now uh the meat of what we wanted to discuss today about your holistic health choices so why don't you tell everyone the story of why you switched to um you know fragrance-free uh style living uh you know back however many years ago uh well let's see so in dawson who's 12 when he was nine months he had his normal doctor's visit and he had the shot um that just i don't know what it did in his body but it triggered something and just put him down kind of a down spiral of um loss of health and so he went into basically became a whole different child um it's i can't think about it too much or i'll start crying but um i just all the things that the nutrition was suggesting to help fix it were just perpetuating the problem and so at one point uh i mean things like his eczema he'd never really had eczema and it just took over his entire entire body in the solution from the pediatrician was a bleach bath and of course you know i did that because that's you know what you do and so at some point though it's like okay wait a minute like what's causing this and what can i do to get it back get his health back and so it just sent me down the you know the google rabbit hole of things like food affects your health like for real i had no idea i was just that um that disconnected with healthcare you know the healthcare of our family so went down that and learned about chemicals and how they affect you know your respiratory system your hormonal system your just everything they really wreck um they can really wreck a body so and one of dawson's symptoms he developed was respiratory just asthma and so um that's when i really became like our home is our sanctuary like i can't i can't restrict what he gets out there but i can restrict what we do in our home so it just started looking in potions and you know food of course but lotions and soaps and laundry detergents and you know even like what do you spray your cutting board with because you're going to be eating off of it and investing that kind of substance so that's um that's kind of what sent us down and now my husband jokes that you are not the woman i married i used to love dr you know all the all the goodies sonic anyway so how has it changed your food choices i would say ignorance is bliss the less you can know the more you can enjoy so i really can't enjoy fast food restaurants anymore i just i know too much about where the you know the meat comes from or what's sprayed on the vegetables and it's really kind of sad i kind of just long for heaven when we don't have to worry about these things and you can eat whatever you want and it's all good so perspective right it's really taken kind of the joy out of eating a little bit for me which is unfortunate but i'm learning to find alternatives and and they're really great fort worth is a really um holistic friendly city so there's lots of great options good all right so i'm gonna circle back to uh the adu the additional unit that you have um on your property and i am very interested to hear the story of how you guys decided to go down that route um how you decided to build what kind of lined up in your life that said like okay let's take on this right and then and then kind of just the story of how you got started you know did you find a contractor did you you know how how did that all come about from the point of hey i have an idea to okay this is move-in ready we've wanted a guest house for a long time we actually would love to buy land in oklahoma and have a cabin so those two dreams kind of intertwine with each other um our family thinks we're a little bit crazy dreamers but no we longed for that for a long time um and it just wasn't the right timing with you know the paying off of the house you know our current house and all the have to line up but at one point i think it was maybe 2017 we got a wild hair idea to go live in an apartment like a 2-2 apartment and rent out our house to save money for i don't even i don't know why just for the adventure of it um adam is a police officer so there's this thing called courtesy officers to where you can live in an apartment and um for free and they just do off-duty kind of security um so that was an idea of a way to live in a luxury apartment um for almost free and it would have been like a tutu we did not get picked and i think it gets the children these fancy apartments some things do not want little munchkins running around their pool so we got uh we did not get picked for three we tried for three luxury apartments so but that kind of planted the idea of like okay what's next and um the money lined up just right at that point so that would have been 2017 2018 so we started dreaming in 2018 and it really takes a while to take dreams to reality you know like you said finding a contractor that you trust and i will say that is a big deal um don't just go with the lowest price because we've had some issues since it was built and our contractor um went to bat for us and really fought for us to have the situation righted that was wronged by the the roofing and the air conditioning people and those are his guys they're like you know his name's attached to it he really went to that so it's really important who you choose um to be your contractor they're not just you know a project manager they are your advocate right any issues right after the build's done so um we found him he we went to church a small group with him from church and so he knew his integrity um and i knew his personality i knew that he is extremely detailed um very organized and from what he told you know shared he really likes to keep things moving very efficiently and so it was a very rare occasion that and granted this was before 2020 but it was a very rare occasion that it sat without work being done on it so it got done as quickly as it could have gotten done and the timeline has kind of gone fuzzy in my head but um it was finished i think like october 2019. so okay um that was right before at all yes right before yeah so i can't remember some of the other questions you had asked um how it looks that that's that's the that's the gist of it um so i think you know when you guys had this dream and you had this vision in mind was it that you wanted to create that additional income to pay off your house sooner or was it that you wanted the additional income you know or equity like what was i mean the dream was obviously to have a guest house but like what was your purpose there what was your what was you know the engine that's moving the boat i think it's just to have another option for income source eventually okay um i'll take out a mortgage so we were able to put 25 down and then we took a mortgage for 107. um our contractor was really great and let us do some things ourselves which helps save some money um but the goal is to pay that off as quickly as possible and we just paid it off right um last month oh nice congratulations thanks yeah to get it paid off is you know we just been dumping every right uncle sam check you know every extra dollar we could into it along with right you know the money the housemate but so now it truly is just an extra source of revenue for your family and it's been so great we just had our driveway redone and we have wanted that forever we found a really great guy to work with with a great price but we redid the old and our driveway is very very long because we set far back from the road and we're able to double it basically to where now with all these random people with your property they all have a space in our driveway they're no longer on the road which our neighbors create um and we're good who um we use the money from savings but we're able to put it back with the money we're getting from the guest house and so it's just really um a breadth of fresh air to be able to do some of these projects that we've wanted to do in the driveway um 11 000 ish and so that was um actually a really big deal but that's a big chunk of money that right we wouldn't have been able to justify had we not had that stream of income from the guest house to cover that cost so we're excited i mean eventually um i mean we have other dreams the next dream is to maybe put a um a tiny home on a trailer back there because technically with the laws the way they are you can do that and it doesn't affect your property taxes but eventually like thinking about our kids when they're older and going to college they could maybe live in the tiny home or in the guest house and just as an opportunity for them to be able to live free and kind of have more freedom but yet save because the cost of living has really increased in fort worth in the last few years and so just having options oh my goodness right and everywhere so and everybody's always going a place to stay and and we do i feel like we give our guest house a pretty good price um for compared to what you can pay in other surrounding neighborhoods and i like that it still blesses us but we're not you know i feel like we're not over pricing so people can still afford to live it's still beneficial to someone else too yeah so that's smart uh to keep that balance i think this is a great opportunity to transition to the section we call furnished finder favorites so uh your landlord profile you do a great job getting five five-star reviews and when you look through Furnished Finder that seems to not always be the case there's a lot of landlords that just don't embrace reviews and so their properties are great but they're you know if someone's nervous about it being a new property they they have nothing to go by because there are zero reviews so how can you encourage other landlords with your process how do you take the Furnished Finder marketing and make sure they give you a good reveal well i try to make sure they have a really great experience and we tell them when they move in we do set the expectations so there's a little bit of the caveat with they have to use a particular cleaner and you know particular laundry there's kind of that aspect to it so that's a little bit you know tricky um of an obstacle to kind of work through so that they don't feel frustration and it's all about expectations right so you still have some limitations out there but not to the extreme as inside your house is that correct that's right we do ask that they not use perfumes things really and body sprays really can seep into the the walls and take a while to get out they have to use either my laundry soap or um an approved alternative so which is not that like as long as it doesn't stink up my backyard i'm okay you know like right right right um and then you know little things like when the last people moved out she knew how i am with you know chemicals and so she passed by me like what she could use to clean the sofa um and i really illustrated that so the point being setting up expectations i really try to make my my listing super almost overboard detailed so that they know exactly what to expect when they move in they know exactly every single kitchen i could possibly you know need i i have right right so from the people start setting up with a positive experience and letting them know like if there is anything anything that goes wrong i want you to tell me like i don't want to wait until you get out to find out and so it just gives us a chance to correct mistakes to fix things you know we've had an ant problem recently and um we had it sprayed a couple weeks ago and i apparently it takes time for the ants to come out of hiding and um to die it wasn't organic so maybe it was a little less potent than chemicals but anyway that was um something to communicate to the the guy that just moved in like hey we're battling ants should be getting better we just haven't afraid please let me know if it continues um and then we try to really keep just a relationship with the people um and this is different based on you know the guy that moved in he's a single guy he's probably not going to become best friends with us but just to kind of keep that that relational connection so that at the very end i know that they've had a good experience i have that relationship to where i can be like hey you might take some time yeah to fill out the um the review so relationship covers over a multitude of wrong you know ills or whatever and i didn't feel a little like i'm inconveniencing them to leave a review it is an extra step in their busy life and it's usually right after they've moved out so they're in the transition period where that's like the last thing they want to do um and so just really having that relationship strong enough um knowing that they had a good experience or if they haven't we fixed it um has really helped me be more bold to ask for reviews and people have been more than happy so i love it and when you actually ask them to leave the review do you use the from the Furnished Finder landlord tools do you send it from there or do you just send the listing and ask them to leave a review from the listing where do you actually go to send it i thought there was only one way to do review so i type in their email address into the tool and then they i guess they get an email i don't know what happens from there it seems working yep sounds like you go to your landlord tools and use the steps that's perfect so there it is guys that's how you get five-star reviews every time she's the tool all right so talk to us about what your most valued Furnished Finder or key check feature has been for you so far with renting out the back house what has given you the most benefit or has been the easiest to use for you i really love the new tools you guys have added in the last few months maybe it was i don't know when it happened i just noticed it a few months ago with uh who's paid deposit had they paid the deposit how much the deposit was when they moved in right that is for being such a left-brained person i have really had a hard time keeping myself organized with all of that and i am really excited about the two the those tools to keep me um knowing how much because they pay their deposit you know some of these people are staying for a year like i right paid and deposit and so it's really helpful to be able to go back and to remember what the amount was and if they paid it good that's great that's what we actually haven't heard yet so far so that's actually good to know our our goal is so that landlords really do have the full gamut of tools that they can use because we know that juggling everything without being a landlord is not an easy task i really like it and i like that even though um i i do also want to say i love and appreciate that your fee is so amazing like it's really fantastic value for what we pay um and we pay that i guess what once a year and we have once a year once a year like move over airbnb furnished Finder coming through right for real but when i hear when i hear the amount of fees on other sites it's unbelievable sometimes i mean even like when we're looking to go on a trip and i'm like i need something short so i'll look and i'm like oh my gosh i can't i can't and i've like people i've had friends who are looking for a place and i you know usually they look airbnb i'm like guys go look on Furnished Finder there's a lot of really great places you're not gonna pay the fee and because the the host doesn't pay the fee they're able to you know give you a great deal it really is right i'm excited and hope that more people find out about you guys and i'm doing my part well thank you we appreciate it yes we do um and just for everyone that's listening the tool that amanda is referring to is tenant tracking so if you are looking to really organize uh your landlord just stays like when did they move in when did they move out did they pay this deposit how much was that deposit that's tenant tracking and i will tell you um i just had to we were we're thinking about selling one of our properties and uh is that what well whatever i can't remember what the situation was but i had to go back and figure out when people were moving in and when people were moving out and i had the hardest time going back and figuring out the the move-in was obvious because that's in the lease but the move out because we offer month to month after their you know set time finishes then the the ending to the lease is not in there so i figured out uh that currently i only track that through text messages and text messages don't last for them i can find him up to a year but past a year i was like where is the details oh my gosh yeah so the tenant tracking is actually a really good uh tool and uh when you go to um update your calendar uh Furnished Finder reminds you hey do you wanna update tenant tracking and it's easy to push no but i encourage you to push yes and i need to push yes more often so that's good advice amanda um let's see i think the last question i want to ask is from our intro call i really loved how much you dive into people's personalities and you put together this questionnaire and can you just kind of go over uh that questionnaire that you put together to help you decide which tenants are a good fit for your family and which art i really loved it thank you um and yes this is definitely much more for the people who live in our house but um i have learned a lot about personality you know personality colors and enneagram and you know all these things and it's just a tool to figure out to understand yourself and understand who you work well with and who you don't work as well with and i've learned that i'm i i created the enneagram is amazing it's a little complicated for this purpose so i went more with the color personalities have you heard of um like the four colors is blue red um yellow and green and i tend to be a green red which is green is super detail oriented organized can be a stick in the mud with flexibility and i've grown a little more in that area but yeah i've had my way i'm not super interested in you know a bunch and then the red is um kind of the fiery go get it you know on the negative side they're the the ones that uh could not care who they have to step on to go get their goal you know that's obviously there's different levels of healthiness with all of these personalities but you know the ceo the go-getter that kind of i tend to be in those colors and so i've figured out that it's not a good thing for me to live with um myself um because we just i think it would be not and in fact we used to have a rental our first house in the neighborhood we rented it out for a while for several years and i was in charge of that and the lady who lived there for a few years she and i she was similar to me and boy we had so many unpleasant interactions it was very very stressful and we didn't even live together um finally i was like adam you the husbands are taking over because we're gonna kill each other so i've learned because y'all are too much alike way too much like man way too much so um the other personality is blue and yellow so blue is stereotypically the outgoing you know life of the party the jokester they love adventure they you know super flexible because it's an adventure to roll with it um and tend to be more extroverted the yellow is kind of the same earth kind of you know who you might imagine would be a hippie just very go with the flow they very compassionate incredible amounts of empathy um very you know just that's kind of the stereotype for them and so i've learned that i need to have guests that tend to be in these categories the blue the yellow um who kind of more on the more the introverted side of the yellow than the blue but they tend to be you know flexible they tend to be relationships like they put relationships over um goals and i've grown a lot of this area but i tend to really value goals which is something i'm working on but i really need someone strong in that area that they you know who cares what laundry detergent i'm gonna use because i'm just glad to be here you know and so figuring out um being able to identify who they are through the face-to-face that i have i can kind of generally get an idea um through that but then i decided to add it to my application when they apply just like it's the very cursory it's free like they just fill it out so i can get to know them a little bit and that's one of the questions i ask is i've summarized each personality color to where they can identify which one they identify most with and sometimes they do all four and like okay well maybe you're very balanced and we'll see how i feel but in general i tend to navigate towards people who fill out you know the blue and the yellow personality tendencies and that's what i've done and it's worked really well um and i will say though the i think the third or the second lady um tended to be a little bit more on the red side and she and i um that was the the weaker link of the four relationships like i feel like we didn't have as much of the friendship kind of um feeling as the other three but and she didn't play as many games with us and she really kind of um had her own life she was living and it was fine it was great you know but it was kind of interesting to see how that played out a little bit more versus the other three that we've had are very high on the relational scale they love kids they would play games with us a whole bunch and just um they didn't mind summer who [Music] makes they live here which is super sweet anyway so that's been a really helpful tool for us to kind of avoid a disaster i love it so much and while we're talking i actually i cheated i went ahead and pulled up some tabs and so i'm on amanda's uh Furnished Finder profile so a quick little trick for anyone that if you're listening to these podcasts and you happen to catch the first name and the last name you can often get to their landlord profile page just by re putting their first name amanda dot coleman at the end of any Furnished Finder uh profile page so let's say i went to my own favorites or my my own profile page and i would switch kelly over to amanda.coleman and you can see uh her page her listing and then she has in her listing that questionnaire if you want to see it and that whole color combo that she is describing uh is summed up in four questions so i'm going to leave it at that if you want to see it go to her application on her listing very cool and it's pretty cool so katie what would you anything last things you'd like to say to wrap it up i don't think so it's been so great to talk to you and so interesting and your property is beautiful i had time to check out the listing and you guys did such an amazing job and we just love to hear stories about um you know how people are using their own property you know their the house you live in or an additional unit or even investment properties to you know reach these goals and fulfill these dreams and i think it's it's so amazing to hear stories particularly like yours where you know you're not out there buying million dollar properties you are really doing this from the ground up um and working as a team with your family and just to see to hear you talk about going from idea to okay how do i make that happen and then seeing it come to life and you've already paid off the mortgage like i mean i think if that doesn't make it feel attainable to you know jane and john down the street like i genuinely don't know what what does so um thank you so much for your time and all of your information it was so great and yeah i can't i can't wait for everyone to see your property and i don't think you'll ever have a problem renting it out ever because it's so beautiful i think it is we love it we'd like well thanks so much amanda see you later bye everyone [Music] you know