Teri Holland [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to another episode of Success in Mind. In today's episode, we have a fascinating interview with the incredible Sean Moore, a full time real estate investor with over 23 years of experience. Sean shares with us invaluable insights about his journey starting from humble beginnings to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the real estate industry. We delve deep into his story of resilience, facing challenges head on and finding new opportunities in unexpected places. From fixing and flipping properties to venturing into the world of short term rentals, Sean's wisdom and expertise will leave you inspired and motivated to take action. Get ready to learn about the power of mindset, the secrets to success, and the importance of building a life of fulfillment. So let me introduce you to Sean Moore. He is an active real estate investor and the host of the Vacation Rental Revolution podcast.
Teri Holland [00:00:56]:
He's also the founder of vodyssey.com, the number one vacation rental investing education company in the world. Sean has one goal in mind, to cut through all the noise and help you find success in acquiring, managing and marketing a profitable vacation rental portfolio. Sean has helped thousands of new and experienced investors alike Navigate the complicated world of vacation rental investing. If you don't catch him in the office, he will be spending time with his wife and 2 kids on a river, beach or mountain somewhere where phones and computers don't work. You're listening to Success in Mind with Terry Holland, the show for high performing entrepreneurs, leaders, and change makers ready to take your life and your business to the next level. If you're ready for whole life success, keep listening. Hey, Sean. Welcome to the show.
Teri Holland [00:01:49]:
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Shawn Moore [00:01:52]:
Absolutely, Teri. So excited that you had me and, excited to jump into this conversation.
Teri Holland [00:01:57]:
Yeah. Me too. I'm actually someone who's looking at getting into vacation rental property investments over the next year, so this is very timely for me.
Shawn Moore [00:02:07]:
Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. We'll we'll have a lot to talk about for sure then.
Teri Holland [00:02:11]:
Definitely. So why don't we start with the beginning? How did you get started in this?
Shawn Moore [00:02:17]:
Yeah. It's been, it it's been an interesting journey. So I've been a full time real estate investor for 23 years now. So dialing all the way back right out of college, I had a job as a sales rep for about 6 months and Was making about $31,000 a year, and and I started seeing this guy next to one of my customers who would fly in and out on this helicopter. And I'm like, what the heck does that guy do? And at the time, I was still my wife and I would always go to Barnes and Noble, and we would buy books, and we were always really interested in real estate. And and back then, we had The Carlton sheets on TV, and I have my taped cassettes and listen to all the real estate gurus talking about real estate. Listen, It happened that I bought this book in Barnes and Noble, and it happened to be the guy that was flying around this helicopter that was Close to us. And so one day, I went over and had a little conversation with him, and and he said, listen.
Shawn Moore [00:03:09]:
I'm hosting a a seminar This next weekend, why don't you him join me at the seminar? And we're gonna talk about what I wrote in the book, and so we did that. And the The rest was history. We, a week later, we flipped the house or we wholesale the house and to another flipper and And got a check for $19,000 after putting it under contract and didn't when we're like, holy crap. This is 2 thirds of what I make in a year. Maybe we should think about this real estate thing. And so that was back in 2000. Right? So that was the 23 years ago. And Along that journey, I've been in a lot of different asset classes and building a number of different businesses through real estate development businesses, building.
Shawn Moore [00:03:49]:
We built a lot of homes. I did a lot of fix and flips, hundreds and hundreds of fix and flips for years was the main source of revenue for us. And As we started doing this, we're developing properties, and I started getting into a development. I went and asked this hard money lender If we would if he would lend us money on a development we were doing, it was a normal the normal thing that we would do is always borrow money from hard money For 6 months to a year, we develop and entitle it and then sell it. This lender, he said, told me no, and it was a really good deal. He said, I don't. We're not gonna do this development, Sean, but we want you and Teresa to come work with us on a development we're doing, and you guys be the marketing and sell department for this big high end resort community. And this was a big ski and golf resort community in in the mountains in Utah.
Shawn Moore [00:04:32]:
Yeah. But I'm talking, like, 25, $30,000,000 homes, so really high. And so this was back in 2006, and we were like we told them no for a little while because we had our we'd established ourselves with this Nice little fix and flip business and development business, and we are our own bosses and doing our own thing. So we told him no for about 6 months and and he just kept We just kept talking, but it was we're really intrigued by the opportunity to work on this really big project because we didn't work on that bigger project. And so we did that. We jumped made the leap to this resort style, and this is my introduction to hospitality. Right. It was these were all 2nd homes resort type properties, and we we started doing that, having a lot of fun, and Really helping this resort get off the ground.
Shawn Moore [00:05:19]:
About two and a half, 3 years into it, the end of 2008, the owners of the resort got indicted on securities charges. One day, the fed came into the office and locked down computers, locked down laptops, and took all the file cabinets and said, we were shutting it down. And it was just like this overnight, everything just shut off. And so at the time, we were just all looking around and pointing fingers, And I immediately reverted to that victim role of this isn't my fault. This is somebody else's fault. I didn't do anything wrong. Why is this happening to me? And getting in that the mindset which you're so you'll dig into of this was this downward spiral for us. Right? Because all I was doing was playing the blame game and figuring out All these bad things that were happening, and all I would do is focus on the bad.
Shawn Moore [00:06:06]:
And Mhmm. About 6 months into it, Bills weren't getting paid. We lost our house. We lost our vehicles. We lost everything that we had built up. But except for one little asset, We had this mountain house in a lake community in it's called Bear Lake, Utah, and we started putting it on local like, local classifieds, Craigslist and start renting it on the weekends, and we lost our everything but that house in it. It was making us a little bit of money, but more importantly, just producing the whole time we had it. I didn't lose Right.
Shawn Moore [00:06:36]:
At the time, that was my goal is not to foreclose on this one as well. And it was producing enough money that we were able to keep it. That was That's important to the story because of what we ended up doing afterwards, but about 6 months in after we lost everything, finally, I read I was reading a magazine that just said, hey. Listen. You gotta once you take responsibility for your life, you're gonna take control of your life. And this Quote in this magazine that from this guy named Craig Proctor, and he's he was a real estate trainer, but it's it almost like just felt like it was just this Slap in the face, like, you gotta get your shit together. Right? You gotta get after it and go, take some responsibility here And get back on your feet and start writing again and doing your thing, and so we did that. We finally rolled up our sleeves.
Shawn Moore [00:07:23]:
I didn't have any money to invest. I didn't I I wasn't I couldn't do the development deals that I did in the past because we had lost everything, and I wasn't very lendable at the time. The real estate market in 2009 wasn't Exactly the best market. We're in a tailspin here in the states and with the the in the great recession. Right? And But I had a real estate license because of what we had done in the past, so I started selling real estate. I started helping the investors buy in because I understood how to underwrite investment deals, I understood that game, and I started helping them find good deals. And that got us back on our feet, and We started grinding away again and starting to make some money and and ultimately started doing more development deals and and back to what we were used to doing. And this was back my wife and I also had fertility problems.
Shawn Moore [00:08:11]:
And so we tried for a long time to have kids, and back in back in that time, there was a we We got tested. We tried all kinds of stuff for about 8 years, couldn't have kids, and then we finally got all the really expensive tests to to find out what was wrong. And we had to do this procedure called ICSI. It was in vitro fertilization, but it was a new procedure called ICSI, which was, At the time, really pretty new, and it had about a 20% chance of working, and it wasn't covered by insurance and so about $100,000. And I'm looking at Teresa saying, I don't know. Maybe kids aren't in the cards for us. Right? Embarrassingly, I was more saying, maybe we shouldn't do this. And I was looking at it just because saying, I just barely got back on my feet.
Shawn Moore [00:08:52]:
I don't know if I can write that big check and drain everything again and go back through that rebuild process. And and luckily for me, Teresa was Not of the same mindset, and she was more determined than me. And, we were we did it, and we were blessed with twins. We had White and gray scale 2011. And so it was really a it was, like, again, I I'm embarrassed to say that I was, like, almost without Teresa, I wouldn't have done it. But once I had kids, I changed. I changed my mindset of thinking about, well, who do I wanna be? What kind of an example do I wanna be? What do I wanna teach them? All these things that go through your head as a new parent. And at that time, I was just always thinking about that stuff.
Shawn Moore [00:09:36]:
Well, fast forward until they were we every year for their birthday, we don't do We don't do parties. We always take them to Hawaii. We go to the same place in Hawaii for the week, and it's all about just having a fun week together, and that's how we celebrate their birthday. And so At one one of those birthdays, we were there and they were turning 4. And I was working on a development deal. I was really frustrated, and I was really stressed out. And Wyatt grabbed my hand, And he said, dad, if you're if real estate's not very fun in Utah, you should just sell real estate in Hawaii. And I'm thinking, okay.
Shawn Moore [00:10:08]:
Good. Yeah. If it was just that the mind of a 4 year old, but at that but that, I remember him grabbing my hand and telling me that. And at the same time, Tony Robbins was talking about his friend Robin Williams who had just committed suicide and was talking about Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. And so Yeah. You can have all the money in the world. You can have all the success in the world, but if you're not fulfilled, you it's There's this emptiness. And then Mhmm.
Shawn Moore [00:10:34]:
And at the same time, a neighboring stay here I'm in live in Utah, and a neighboring state of Idaho was running their tourism department, Was running this ad campaign called 18 summers. And the whole point of it was you got 18 summers with your kids, don't waste them. Wow. Spend the time. Right? So all these things together Made me ask the question of what do I really like to do? And I really love I loved investing in real estate, but at the time I was in the hospitality space, I Really loved that as well, and I had that asset that was a short term rental back then before short term rentals were ever popular. And for saying there might be something to this. We still have that. We're making pretty dang good money on it right now.
Shawn Moore [00:11:12]:
And so at that time, we dove like, I I would I Shut down everything I was doing development wise, and we go right into the short term rental game. And
Teri Holland [00:11:21]:
Wow.
Shawn Moore [00:11:22]:
And that's so, Teri, that was a Long winded answer to where did we get and how did we get there, but I think it's important that sometimes people think, man, there's We've grown it to where we've grown it to, and you look at on the surface that, man, there's this huge company and there's this there's this massive portfolio, but It doesn't always start there. There's a lot of backstory to it. And we got into this asset class, and that's what brought us here by accident. And just asking ourselves the question, what do we really like to do? And we've had a lot of fun since.
Teri Holland [00:11:53]:
Amazing. I think that's such an incredible story. And I appreciate you taking us through that journey because for a lot of us, without knowing that, we just think You must have always had lots of money to invest with, and it must have been easy for you. And so I think I appreciate you sharing that.
Shawn Moore [00:12:09]:
Yeah.
Teri Holland [00:12:10]:
And so how about For those of us like myself who are looking at getting our 1st short term rental investment property, like, what what should we keep in mind as We're getting started.
Shawn Moore [00:12:22]:
Yeah. Keep in mind that this is short term rentals are like any other asset class out there. There's pros and cons To them. Right? There's no perfect asset in I believe in real estate more than probably anybody you'll ever talk to. I love real estate as a means to building wealth In creating that lifestyle financial freedom that we're all after. And I I think it's a passive income vehicle that works for so many people. Short term rentals are an asset class within real estate. Right? Just like any, like, multifamily long term commercial.
Shawn Moore [00:12:51]:
They're all can serve a lot of different purposes. Short term rentals, you first have to realize that short term rentals are not a fad anymore. They're not a trend. Right? We had this big spike after Post COVID. Right? And they became very popular that COVID really accelerated the maturity of this as an actual asset class. When I got into it, it wasn't considered its own asset class. Right? It was something that you did k. With a property, maybe grandma's cabin, and you throw it on the Craigslist KSL or your a KSL, my local classified.
Shawn Moore [00:13:22]:
Sorry. That's, like, your local classified. That's how we start. Then Airbnb came along, And that was more urban destinations and couch surfing and sharing, and then it turned into more of a a professional way to Go in and host people in those hit urban destinations. COVID made it to where it was really popular in the destination markets, and it really started to explode onto the scene. The when you're thinking about getting into it now, you have to realize there was this major wave of popularity for the last couple years And having a short term rental was like having toilet paper during COVID. Everybody was making money and there was a lot of people that jumped into the game, but they it's an asset class that has A lot of really great advantages and benefits to be able to invest in for the long term. You're not riding a fad anymore.
Shawn Moore [00:14:11]:
And like any mature market, like any mature asset, the top 20% of the market makes 80% of the money. And that's True across the board in any market that you go into. It doesn't matter whether you're a plumber, whether you're an attorney, or whether you own a short term rental. When it's a mature market, which short term rentals are at this stage, You're gonna have rules and regulations that you've gotta follow. You're gonna have different things that you have to really look into. And for somebody getting into it, realize what you're getting into. Right? You wanna walk to the game with your eyes wide open and saying, I have to pay attention to it and not just treat it as I'm gonna go buy a cabin or a beach house or whatever it is And for road on Airbnb and make money. Those days are behind us, and they were really short lived anyway.
Shawn Moore [00:14:51]:
They were only about a year and a half, 2 year period that we could do that. And Right. A lot of people think that's the game, but that's not the game. This is it's their short term rentals, but it's a long term investment. And so, one, you wanna make sure that You're in it for the long term. What are the property goals? What are you trying to what is the purpose that you want this asset to serve for you To build that lifestyle financial freedom, the funnest part about this asset to me is that we actually get to use them. I've invested in a lot of different real estate, and I've never Have my wife tell me, hey, Sean grab the kids and the bags, and we're gonna go visit the duplex for the weekend. We're gonna go use the but we do that with our short term rental portfolio, and it's a lot of fun.
Shawn Moore [00:15:31]:
The the key is understanding that it is an actual mainstream asset at this stage, which needs to be treated that way in the very beginning. Otherwise, You're gonna get into the game thinking you're gonna ride this wave that's just already pretty much gone.
Teri Holland [00:15:44]:
Good to know. That's yeah. That sounds like great advice. And What do you would you say? Because you've obviously been very successful at doing this. What do you think is the key to your success in this industry?
Shawn Moore [00:15:56]:
Yeah. I think it's I think it's the key to success for most people is and I say this because of I've been on both sides of the coin Is our success comes from our, one, our mindset of being able to look at the possibilities and the All the all of the great things that we want to accomplish, and we really do focus on that. We don't focus on the negatives of it, but we also look at it and realize, okay, it's not just It's not just putting a vision board on the wall and thinking about that every day. I love vision boards. I love affirmations and all that stuff, but I also The key is realizing that it takes effort and work to accomplish those things and knowing that every day I'm gonna pick one thing that's going to drive me toward those goals, and I think that being able to accept the fact that I don't have to accomplish everything overnight Mhmm. And I can say, okay. Here's my vision board on the wall. Here's where I'm going.
Shawn Moore [00:16:48]:
Here's what I wanted here's who I wanna be and what I wanna become and what I want to accomplish. And every day saying, If I make decisions that t move me toward that, I'm okay with the day. And instead of saying looking at the challenges and the obstacles, I've heard Dean Graziosi talk about a river guide. I don't know if you've ever heard him talk about it. He said that a really experienced river guide We'll never tell somebody, hey, don't go hit that rock. Hey, you have to really watch out for that tree around the bend because it can flip the raft over. He says, okay. What we wanna do is we wanna hit that corner where that current is.
Shawn Moore [00:17:24]:
He says that you focus on where you want to go, not where you don't want to go because wherever your focus is at, Whether you want to or not, it you're that's where you're going. And so I think the key to success is being able to identify And then focus on where we want to be going and be okay with the work and the journey along the way, knowing that it's not gonna be perfect. There's never a straight line to success From where we're at today to where we wanna be tomorrow, that line has all kinds of curves and bumps in the road. Right? And being okay with that as long as we're continuing Move forward.
Teri Holland [00:17:54]:
Nice. And when you do have those those times, like you hit the curve in the road or something happens that's unexpected for you, do you ever have bad days where you think, oh, I just wanna quit and go do something else or I'm just gonna go get a regular job. Do you have those days? And then if you do, what do you do to get out of it?
Shawn Moore [00:18:14]:
Yeah. Absolutely. I have those days. I think I I think it'd be Anybody that tells you they don't have those days, I I don't know that how much We try to again, we it's having those conversations with ourself and not letting those bad days take control And turn into multiple, like that spiral out of control fight. Say, hey. Listen, Sean. You're being a victim here. You're acting like a victim.
Shawn Moore [00:18:33]:
You're acting like blaming. Like, I always tell people, I believe there's layers of different things that that we start that that hold us back. And when we have those bad days, the first thing we typically we do is look at our outside circumstances. We figure, okay, what can I point to on the outside that is causing this form? And then if we're We get beyond the outside circumstance. We're saying, okay. Well, there's maybe there's somebody else. My partner, my spouse, my my friends, they are telling me that I can't do this or I'm I shouldn't be doing this, And we let them dictate that control. And the last thing we typically do, which is the true reason why we don't move forward or we have those bad days that spiral out of control, We don't look in the mirror and say, it's us.
Shawn Moore [00:19:12]:
It's our own fears, our own doubts, our own insecurities because we'd rather point to the outside. We'd rather point to somebody else. And so when you have those bad days, for me, it's just trying to it's trying to acknowledge that it's a bad day, that bad days happen. And I'm not gonna let this bad day dictate my future. I'm not gonna let outside circumstances dictate my what I want out of life. I'm not gonna let somebody else dictate what I want out of life, and so I remind myself what I'm able to what we've been able to do. Like, sometimes it's nice to say what if I look at my life today, A year ago, would I be would I have been happy with where I'm at? And most of us, a 100% of the time, almost were like, man, A year ago, I would have dreamed where I'm at today. It'll be awesome.
Shawn Moore [00:20:01]:
And so, sometimes it's just that reminder. Every single day, I always say A gratitude prayer right when I wake up and right when I go to bed. Right? And and the whole point of that is, 1, before we go to bed, we do it together as a family. My wife, my Myself, my wife, Teresa, and our 2 kids, we all go, and it we we do it in the form of prayer, and we say, hey. Thanks. Here's the things I'm thankful for today. Thank you for helping with this. Thanks for this.
Shawn Moore [00:20:25]:
Because try to remind yourself that there's a lot of good things going on even when you're having bad days. Right?
Teri Holland [00:20:30]:
Absolutely.
Shawn Moore [00:20:31]:
And to me, That's a way for us to get out of that, the that mindset of the negative, because the the negative mindset, one, It's really easy. Right? It's really easy to say. If you list all the things that are gonna keep you from doing something, most of us can come up with a laundry list. Right? If you said to me, tell me the things that are gonna make it to where that you're gonna succeed with that. And sometimes we struggle. Right? We're like, okay. And that that should be the opposite. Right? So you have to just awareness is the key to say, we all have bad days.
Shawn Moore [00:21:04]:
Motivation fades. Inspiration fades. All of those things faint. Right? And we have to be able to say every single day. I always say at the end of my, podcast and when I talk to people is to pick one thing That you can do just one thing today to start building that life you don't wanna take a vacation from. The point of that is to say, just take steps forward every single day before you know it. You you're mile down the road. You're 10 miles down the road.
Shawn Moore [00:21:27]:
I have. And you look back, you're like, man, I can't believe how far I've come.
Teri Holland [00:21:30]:
I love that you mentioned your gratitude practice. Do you have Do you have any other habits or rituals that you do throughout the day that help keep you focused and motivated?
Shawn Moore [00:21:40]:
Yeah. It's it's interesting. I'm very structured and routine to the point where it drives the people around me crazy. And And I just like, to the point, like, I eat the same thing every day. Like, I have Chipotle. They I call in the order. They bring it back to my office. I have my my have my routine.
Shawn Moore [00:21:58]:
I have Teresa and I, like, every single day we wake up, we have coffee together for an hour. And so we before we do anything for the day, we talk about the day, we talk about what we're gonna be doing. We I have the we have the workout. I I for me, without those things, I do lose do lose the energy. And for me, it's the energy. Right? When you're going, Like, I have to be able to we try to work out. We try to make sure that we're eating right. We're trying to do all those different things, but also making priorities for the people in our lives that because most of us have a really small inner circle, if we're honest.
Shawn Moore [00:22:31]:
Like, you probably have 5 people that you're really close to. Right? Or less. And And making sure that and and for me, it's my family. And so we make sure that I make sure that I have time every single morning with just Teresa and I And every single night with the kids and Teresa and I. So, no, we we start the day and I end the day with the people that that are priorities in my life and that are important to me. And I wanna try to make sure Because I have a tendency to not be as present as I should many times. And so for me, I have to make a point To have those times and remind myself, okay, now that's Teresa's time, that's white and racist time, and I'm not going to do work stuff. The same is true though when I'm at work And I'm working with our team, or we're working on an investment project, or we're working with some of our mentorship clients is Mhmm.
Shawn Moore [00:23:18]:
The is when I compartmentalize that Time. I block everything else out. So for me, that's how that keeps us like on task, but it also is very like it. At the end of the day, it helps us stay motivated And keeping running down the that right path because, again, I do believe motivation is it's tough to sustain long term. Right? Motivation is fleeting. Right. Inspiration is fleeting. And so we have to make sure that we've got what our actual goals are, and I review those every single day.
Shawn Moore [00:23:47]:
The same the gratitude prayer is literally the in the morning is a list of my goals as if I've accomplished them. Hey. Thank you for helping me get here, helping me get there this. That's almost like more of a gratitude, but affirmations Mhmm. Around the goals. Right? So that I start the day focused on those goals. Right? It's all about focus For me, because I can lose focus pretty quick. I always tell people if I was a fish, I'd grow up to be about 80 inches long because any shiny object behind me, I'd go grab any lure.
Shawn Moore [00:24:16]:
And so for me, I have to be very intentional about what we're doing every 2nd of the day, and it's very compartmentalized to the point where it's really Annoying for people around me. Because they're like, man, you have to have some flexibility here. And I'm like, oh, sorry. That's that's that works for me.
Teri Holland [00:24:33]:
I love it. And if you looking back, because you've now been doing this for quite a while. So if you could If you could go back and do anything differently or if you could if you knew back then what you know now, would you have changed anything or done it differently?
Shawn Moore [00:24:51]:
Man, that's a great question. I would I don't think for me, I would have changed a lot. I think, obviously, sometimes you wish you would have avoided the mistakes. Right. You wish you would've like, when like, my my dad, well, I was having this conversation with my dad. He said, man, don't you wish you never met Those guys don't you wish you never did that development deal? And and my the truth is no. I learned so much from them, even though they did some wrong things. And I met so many amazing people during that.
Shawn Moore [00:25:18]:
It opened my eyes to this whole new world that is now a huge part of what I do. And so when I look back, The biggest regrets I have, and it's so cliche to say it, that the older I get, the more it rings true is I wish I would have taken more chances. I wish I would have not worried about the outcome so much when I was young. Like, I was one of those kids that was I've always Done my own thing, and I've always felt like I that we've we I feel like I could have succeeded at a much higher levels if I pushed myself a little harder because I didn't want I didn't wanna look like a failure. I wish I would've taken more chances, especially early on. I wish that I would've Never sold any property that I've ever bought. Right? And so it's we buy and sell properties a lot, and I'm like, if I wish I would've just kept a property every single year For the last 30 years, and life would be different financially, like all those different things. But if I would have done all that, There would've been a lot less learning, but I guess you would've learned different things along the way.
Shawn Moore [00:26:20]:
And, and Right. And the other thing that I wish that I would have done when I was younger or learned when I was younger is as I got older, and this is this sounds really sappy, but I wish I would have told the people who were really important to me, that inner circle every single day, how much they meant, how much I loved them, because The more I realize that those moments are fleeting and you don't know when tomorrow's gonna to end, and I've had some instances in our lives where You get reminded of that really quick, and I wish that I just wasn't always not trying I wasn't trying to be, like, the tough tough guy or anything else. I wish I would've just say, hey, listen. I appreciate you. I love you. And I I love you being around you. So I'd probably say those 3 things. Take more chances.
Shawn Moore [00:27:03]:
Make sure the people who are important know they're important every single day. And then I wish I would have had Been buying properties every single year since I was 20. Yeah.
Teri Holland [00:27:14]:
In terms of buying properties, because I'm looking at 1st investment property, and it's scary. Like, it's scary going in the 1st time. So how What would your advice be for those newbies of overcoming those fears, and how do you stay focused when you're just starting out and you have no idea what you're doing?
Shawn Moore [00:27:34]:
Yeah, the biggest thing for sure is you gotta bridge that knowledge gap, right? And you're gonna pay, you're gonna pay for the knowledge one way or the other. And and when it comes to paying for knowledge is you're going to make sure that somebody is going to help you and you're gonna find a mentor, or you're gonna have to go learn it the hard way. The school of hard knocks is really expensive. Yeah. And so my advice to somebody that is new is find somebody That you can that can wrap your arm around. There's a lot of mentors, a lot of people depending on what asset class you're gonna run down, what type of property you're gonna buy, lots of books, Lots of people that are willing to help in today's day and age with podcast and YouTube channels and everything else, then those things are Those are great resources, and sometimes it can stifle you as a brand new because sometimes there's information overload. And so What I would do is see who you align with, see who you're like, oh, I like their style. I like their advice.
Shawn Moore [00:28:33]:
Make sure they actually have the experience. But if you find somebody with experience, that's a lot cheaper than figuring this the game out on your own. Real estate specifically, there it's an expensive asset Right? It costs a lot of money to get into it. Many times you're buying several 100,000 up to $1,000,000 assets. You don't wanna make major mistakes And because those mistakes can be really costly, so find somebody that is willing to help you. And that to me is the fastest way to accelerate your success and the fastest way to make sure that you can succeed, but, also, like, for our like, like, we coach people. Yeah. And I say this because we have We coach about our our mastermind group has about 3,000 members in it Wow.
Shawn Moore [00:29:14]:
That are buying short term rentals and do it investing in this asset, but the number one thing we hear is I finally felt like because somebody was in our corner that knew what was going on, that I had the confidence to move forward. And so it gave me the confidence to take that 1st step because it is a scary first step. There's no question. And you're gonna have doubts, and you're gonna have fears, and you're gonna have insecurities. And when it's an expensive asset, it's usually a lot cheaper to just find somebody that can help you. And a lot of times, that help is not very expensive. Just be careful that they align with your goals, that they actually have done what you're trying to do. Right? There's a lot of people who who who coach and sell stuff that they've never really done.
Shawn Moore [00:29:54]:
And so sometimes that's the difficult part is weeding through some of the the help that's available, but there's a lot of really good information out there, a lot of really good help.
Teri Holland [00:30:03]:
Absolutely. And can you tell us about vodyssey.com and what resources and stuff that you offer and support?
Shawn Moore [00:30:12]:
Yeah. So if somebody is thinking about getting into the short term rental game at Vodasy, we run the largest real estate short term rental investment group in the world right now. It's the we've got the largest network of investors across the country here in the US. We've got them in multiple countries up where you're at in in Canada. We've got a lot of members up in Canada as well playing the game of short term rentals. We've got a lot of free resources again. Like, I've got a book called what the hell is a lifestyle asset. Somebody You can buy it on Amazon.
Shawn Moore [00:30:40]:
It's a best seller on Amazon, but you can go to vodasy.com, download a free digital copy of it. We've got a lot of free video trainings on there. We have Podcasts on there that you can tap into, lot of social channels. And so we try to help people walk into this game with their eyes wide open. We talk about the ownership model. Right. We're not we don't make money with other people's properties. We don't cohost.
Shawn Moore [00:31:01]:
We don't arbitrage. We follow down really one path. So if you're interested in actually buying properties and Seeding in the short term middle game in a mature asset class right now because what's really fun is the middle of the markets in like, we were talking about mature markets and how Mhmm. Short term mills are mature now. The middle of the market is really saturated. It's really crowded, and that's where everybody's fighting on price and dropping price and everything else. The top of these markets are not very crowded, and you don't have to do a whole lot of extra things to gain some unfair advantages. We call that our grizzly method.
Shawn Moore [00:31:33]:
And where you gain those unfair advantages, so you don't worry about competing on price. You don't worry about market saturation, and you learn how to pick the right markets and the right assets To help you really succeed. And so at odyssey.com, we've got tons of free resources on there. And then if you wanna talk further, there's obviously links to chat with our team, and we'll go through we'll go through an actual Strategy session, where you're at, where you wanna go, how this asset fits in. Mhmm. The lots of resources there for people.
Teri Holland [00:31:58]:
That sounds amazing. And You've talked about it being a mature market now, so is it, like, is it still viable to invest in this? Does it still make sense?
Shawn Moore [00:32:09]:
Yeah. It's a that's a great question because we assume when you hear the say me say the wave is going out. Right? We rode that wave and the wave is going out. That was just a blip where everybody was making money. The supply and demand gap was so wide that everybody was making money, but there is more money being in this market year over year, every single year, and everybody said that this year was gonna be down and that there was less money being spent. You're you'll be hard pressed to find any markets that have gone down in total dollars being spent. And so if there is a lot of money being spent in short term rentals and on short term rentals, The market is there for you. Right? It's your job to go figure out and pick the right assets in the right markets so that you can and that set you up to get those unfair advantages To get your unfair share of business.
Shawn Moore [00:32:52]:
That's what we're after. I don't want my fair share of business. Right? I want my unfair share of business. Right. And so you wanna and and that's in any business. Right? We when we are doing things and we're building businesses, that's our goal. Right? We don't If you're a business owner entrepreneur, you're not saying, well, I hope everybody gets makes the same amount of money. That's short term rentals are a little they're little businesses.
Shawn Moore [00:33:12]:
And so The game is absolutely I I'm so excited about the future because we are mature, because it is mainstream. Because now, The things that we have to do to stand out actually make a difference. Where couple years ago, it You could have a crappy property and I could have a really good property, and we're both making money. Right? Now
Teri Holland [00:33:32]:
Right.
Shawn Moore [00:33:33]:
I get rewarded for operating at a higher level. And and I really I like that. I get excited about that, creating great customer experiences, understanding how to articulate that in our marketing to stand out in the crowds. All of those different things now, Actually, I get paid for. Right? I instead of being able to just say I'm riding this way. So for me, it's a more viable market. It's a lot funner to play When you really dive into this game and really have a lot of fun with it because there's a lot of money to be made because there's a lot of money being spent.
Teri Holland [00:34:00]:
Great. That's exciting.
Shawn Moore [00:34:03]:
Yeah. It it is exciting. We get pretty stoked about it. Even with the high prices and interest rates and everything else, there's always challenges in every market. Right. And Yeah. And, yeah, I've been doing this for a long time. And if there's if rates are low and prices or lower, you've got a ton you're bidding price you're in bidding wars, and you're competing in and nothing things are sitting on the market for 5 minutes, and there's 50 offers, and you're frustrated there.
Shawn Moore [00:34:27]:
So There's always challenges to navigate. Right now, I I really think the future looks bright for short term rentals And the hospitality world because it's just it seems to be weathering the kind of the economic turmoil really great.
Teri Holland [00:34:43]:
Nice. Thank you so much for coming on today. I really appreciate you sharing so much knowledge and your expertise with us. Is there do you have a final Thought you wanna share with the audience before we wrap up?
Shawn Moore [00:34:57]:
Yeah. Terry, I appreciate it, and and I appreciate you having me. I appreciate everybody listening. We know how valuable Everybody's time is in spending it with us is it is important, so I appreciate that as well, and it's been a really fun conversation. I would say the final thought Is what we what I said before. It's just the mantra that we live by is to make sure you're making progress every day. Don't feel like you have to accomplish Everything all at once. Like, a lot of people overestimate what can happen in 30 days, but they way underestimate what can what they can accomplish in a year.
Shawn Moore [00:35:28]:
And so I always say, go pick that 1 thing that you can do every single day, start building that life. You don't wanna take a vacation from it. Pick those things that are important to you, and every single day, Make at least 1 step forward. You're gonna find those good days you're gonna think make 10 steps forward. But some of those bad days that we talked about, you're gonna be like, man, it's, I I'm just doing everything I can just to move forward 1 step and realize that part of the journey, and it's okay to have the bad days. You're not there's nothing wrong with you when you have bad days. It's let's try to stack those good days and minimize those bad days and just taking steps forward every single day. So I I'd say that would be the final thought that I think would be helpful.
Shawn Moore [00:36:03]:
It's helpful for me to have that mindset, and and hopefully that's helpful for somebody else.
Teri Holland [00:36:08]:
Oh, absolutely. Thank you so much.
Shawn Moore [00:36:11]:
Absolutely. Thank you.
Teri Holland [00:36:13]:
To learn more about Sean and everything that he offers, check out the links in the show notes. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave your 5 star review and share it with a friend who you think would benefit. Thank you so much for joining us this week, and we'll see you again next week. Bye for now.
