Built Through Discipline, Grown Through Perspective with Megan Greathouse

Transcript

[Mattias]
Welcome back to the REI Agent. We are here with Megan Greathouse. Megan, thanks so much for joining us.

[Megan Greathouse]
Thanks so much for having me.

[Mattias]
Megan, give us a bird’s eye view of who you are and what you do in the real estate space.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yep. So I am an investor primarily focused on long term rentals in my own backyard in St. Louis, Missouri. I have 20 long-term rental units, but I have started to diversify a little bit with mid-term.

I added one of those this year and a couple short-term rentals on the way. But I really like the rental space. I’ve done flips and wholesaling here and there, but rentals are really where I focus my energy.

[Mattias]
Do you do burr methods or anything like that to acquire these rental properties?

[Megan Greathouse]
I’ve done a little bit of everything. So when I started, I had some capital built up and I just put the 25% down and bought the rentals and maybe did a little work after I got them. But over time, I started adding in the burr method and I never did a perfect burr, but I always ended up with way less left in the property than I would have otherwise.

So it definitely made my money go further.

[Mattias]
Yeah, you know, I think there’s too many people that want to play advanced chess from the beginning and there’s just nothing wrong with a traditional just kind of investment deal, because like at the end of the day, like, you know, if you waited for the perfect burr, you wouldn’t have 20 rentals, right? Because you just said you haven’t ever gotten one.

[Megan Greathouse]
So, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, investing is never perfect anyway. And people talk about wanting to do these perfect burrs. And they do happen.

And some people are really, really good at them. But I’m never an advocate for having a 100% solution before you start. I don’t think that exists.

I think it’s better to take the action and start buying sooner than later rather than trying to wait forever for the perfect solution that will never happen.

[Mattias]
100%. I definitely want to get into the the midterm and the short term as well. But let’s start with kind of what got you started with investing.

[Megan Greathouse]
So very initially, just as I was graduating college, I was really interested in already. I hadn’t even started in the workforce yet. And I was really interested in how do I reduce the amount of time I have to spend in the workforce before I can just retire and enjoy life?

So I started reading on personal finance, and ultimately that led me to that Robert Kiyosaki book that we all know and love, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And that planted the seed of real estate in my mind. But I was actually active duty in the Marine Corps at the time.

I was deployed when I read that book. And I didn’t I started looking around. I was interested, but I didn’t take action because I didn’t know if I wanted to invest in the places where, you know, from from abroad.

And then even once I got home at that duty station where I knew I wouldn’t be for very long. So it kind of was just there as this idea in the back of my mind for a while. And then when I got back to St. Louis, I bought my first home. And when I moved to my second home, I kept that first one as a rental. So finally, this was probably at least four years, four or five years after I first had that idea of real estate investing that I finally dipped my toe in to see if I would like being a landlord. And I did like it.

But I decided I did not like single family residence because it was great for two years. But then when those tenants were going to move out, I kind of felt all this pressure and stress about having two mortgages and no tenants covering anything. So when I decided to really dive into real estate investing, I started looking for small multifamily.

And in St. Louis, in particular, particularly in the city, there’s a lot of duplexes and four families. So that was the route I went in 2017 when I started buying properties as rental properties.

[Mattias]
OK. And but you said earlier that you do have a lot of single family. So did you go back to single family then?

[Megan Greathouse]
No, I don’t have a lot of single family. I have 20 units across. I think it’s seven buildings, six or seven buildings.

And then I have I do have one single family. And then I’m bringing on a couple of short term rentals, one of which will be a condo. So I am starting to go that way in these higher cash flow situations.

But for my long term rentals, they’re all primarily small multifamily. Got it. Got it.

[Mattias]
Got it. I always want to know, partly because I feel like I missed out on some of the discipline that I could have used. But I just want to know what kind of lessons or what kind of benefit you feel like the Marine Corps had for you in in who you are today and your success.

Like, what do you how do you attribute your success to the Marine Corps?

[Megan Greathouse]
I definitely think the Marine Corps gave me a huge foundation. And that’s really the the basis of everything that I’ve done in my life. I was fortunate to grow up in a military family.

So my dad was a career Marine my entire childhood. I was moving every two to three years. We lived overseas for part of my childhood.

High school was middle school and high school were in Japan. So I learned flexibility and adaptability really early on in life. And I learned that, you know, some people really make sacrifices.

And you watch you know, I watch my dad and his colleagues and the things they did and the way that they joked and laughed through it all. And I didn’t hear anyone complaining. And I just I think I really appreciated that mindset, which I now, you know, I refer to as stoicism.

And I really enjoy that that practice or that mindset of stoicism. And so when I was in college, though, I actually didn’t have any plans to join the Marine Corps. I kind of lived that life growing up and I didn’t think that it was for me.

I was very appreciative of what I’d learned. And then college was my first experience in the civilian world, and it was a major culture shock for me. And by sophomore year, I was in the recruiting office signing up to go to officer candidate school in the summers so that I could commission as an officer after college.

So I learned a lot even as a kid. And then, of course, even more when I was doing it myself, I really just wanted to see if I could. I knew it was a big challenge.

I think being the type of person who sees a challenge and goes for it head on rather than shrinking away or say, oh, I never want to do that is is one thing I really learned that helps me in real estate. You learn perspective, you know, like it could always be worse. Our problems are not real big problems.

Like if we’re sitting here recording a podcast, if you’re listening to a podcast on a smartphone or a laptop in a warm house with food in the fridge, we don’t have real problems. So perspective, stoicism, the willingness to run, you know, head first into challenges and to just figure out along the way, understand that you can get to a 70 to 80 percent plan and then just go and adjust course as needed. I think all those things really contributed to my ability to invest and do fairly well with it.

[Mattias]
Yeah, you really got to be able to take that leap. And I think it also it just it takes belief in yourself. I mean, I think you need to believe that you will be able to figure it out, that you can you can surmount challenges.

There’s this new term I came across and I’m going to butcher this. You said you spent time in Japan, so maybe you can help me. But I can’t even I’m trying to pull up the word.

It’s it’s a it’s a term that basically talks about setting one big challenge for the year. It’s like, yeah, we’ll see or something. I don’t have no idea how to say it’s something.

[Megan Greathouse]
But yeah, I know how to pronounce it. If I saw it, I can’t remember the word, but I know what you’re talking about. I actually read about that.

It’s funny. I didn’t I didn’t hear about it when I lived there, but I read about it in a really great book called The Comfort Crisis. Have you heard of that one?

[Mattias]
It sounds familiar, but I’m not very familiar with it, though.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, it’s it’s a great one. I definitely recommend it’s not real estate specific. It’s much more mindset and how we take care of ourselves and perspective and seeking challenge in life.

So it is a great book. I really recommend it to anybody. Yeah.

[Mattias]
So like, you know, we’re coming up as of recording this. You know, it is it is December 17th. And, you know, thinking about the year to come, 2026, you know, what kind of big challenge that, you know, that would be like this is going to be 2026 is the year that I did this.

You know what I mean? Like that kind of like I climbed that mountain or whatever you want to make it. I won’t say write a book because I said that in twenty twenty four.

Yeah, it’s still it’s in the editing stage, but it is nice. Congratulations. Thank you.

That’s the kind of thing where you can like, you know, you know, take on a big challenge. And I think I heard an interview with David Goggins and Andrew Huberman. And he was just basically talking about the part of the brain that gets exercised when you do things that you don’t want to do.

And I think this kind of relates to what we’re talking about here, too, is like if you if you build in, like you can think about these things, these challenges, these overcoming obstacles, these putting yourself into these adverse situations as like a way of building strength. And like if you continue to show up, you continue to do these things. You will then have the confidence to take on something like, you know, a real estate investing deal if you struggle with the confidence aspect.

I think really showing up for yourself, committing to something and doing it is where you build that up, that you exercise that muscle.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, absolutely.

[Mattias]
Sounds like you had a lot of that growing up. And then the Marine Corps, I’m sure, did that for you as well.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah. And I think what you say there about that concept of kind of continuing to push yourself and how that helps you improve. Discomfort is all about lack of familiarity.

Right. So when you do something new, it’s uncomfortable no matter what. It could be, you know, just entering a room in a new place that you’ve never been with a bunch of strangers.

It could be investing in a property, traveling abroad, whatever it is. If it’s brand new, it’s going to be a little bit uncomfortable, maybe a lot uncomfortable. But as soon as you start to get familiar, you just take the steps, you take the actions, you do the thing, you start to gain familiarity.

And that discomfort goes away. I really think discomfort is primarily a lack of familiarity. And that’s easily fixed.

[Mattias]
Absolutely. One hundred percent. I mean, this podcast, it’s a great example of that.

Like when I started, when I tried to speak for the first time on something, it was just like it’s nothing’s come out right. I’m nervous. This is crazy.

And now like it’s, you know, after doing it a lot, it’s just you don’t think twice about it. And it’s hard for you to understand, like other people that like, you know, they’re worried about, they’re nervous about it. And of course they are.

Like if it’s not familiar, this this might feel like it’s a really big thing. But, you know, at the end of the day, you’re just you’re just talking. And yeah, it’s a familiarity.

So I love it. So, yeah. So what brought you into moving into let’s get back to real estate?

What brought you into going into the midterm space? You said that’s you’re looking at getting into the short term. You haven’t yet, but you have started getting into the midterm.

Am I remembering that right?

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah. So I actually once again, kind of just the way I dip my toe into rentals in general, I just moved again. And when I moved, I decided instead of sell my other home, I was going to turn it into a midterm rental.

It’s in a great area. I’m still just a few minutes away from it because I’m in a very central area. Great school districts, all those good things.

And I just wanted to try it. I have multiple really good friends. I’m a big networker.

I love to be out and about with other people who are doing similar things as me and hopefully doing more than I’m doing so I can learn from them. And I have friends who have just done amazing with midterm rentals. And it’s an interesting concept to me, that kind of sweet spot between long term and short term.

Yeah. So I decided to give it a shot rather than put a property on the market when I was already buying another one and deal with all that. And so far, so good.

It’s only been rented for a few months, but it’s been the same people for about three months now. The rent is definitely way higher than I would get as long term rental. It was a fun process furnishing it, and they’re really happy there.

And I should have net cash flow much higher than I would generally have from a long term rental. So I like this because I think at this point in the market cycle, we’re seeing that it’s just not as easy to find cash flow as it used to be in long term. And it is a cycle.

So it’ll come back and, you know, we’ll have corrections. And there’s still great investments to be made out there, even in the long term space. But it felt like a good time in the market cycle to try a different strategy, especially after the fact that I’ve spent almost 10 years just strictly doing long term rentals.

[Mattias]
Yeah, I was I was wondering, so you’re moving from your house that you lived in. I was like, did you just like start over? Did you buy a new house, just get all new furniture and leave everything?

[Megan Greathouse]
A lot of that is a lot of that is what I did. I mean, it’s easier than moving furniture. It was funny, though.

Some of the things I bought the same exact thing for the new house because I knew I liked it and it would fit the space. But yeah, I did do I did a lot of buying new furniture for the house. I was moving to rather than move furniture from one house to another house and then backfill the other house.

So that did make the furnishing a little bit easier. And still, it was kind of a crazy process. So, you know, it’s new to me is that discomfort of doing it for the first time and realizing just how many things you need to stock a place in the matter of a week when you’re in between.

I finally moved out and I had pre leased it just with my stuff in it. So it was a yeah, I don’t know why I did that to myself, but I pre leased it. I don’t know if I expected that it would lease that quickly.

So I had a deadline, but I do tend to work better under deadlines anyway.

[Mattias]
So I actually had another guest once that they were like, like about to have a nervous breakdown. I mean, I was impressed how well they were handling it. But I feel like they had like 48 hours or something.

They had to like basically get off the podcast and order everything from.

[Megan Greathouse]
Oh, my God.

[Mattias]
It was something crazy. But yeah, yeah, that’s that’s amazing. So we recently so our most recent burr was getting into the midterm space for the exact reason you mentioned.

It’s like just it wasn’t going to do well long term. It was in a great location. We really wanted it.

We probably were a little too emotionally attached to the property because we was cute and was in a good spot. And we’re like, we want to live here if we yeah, if if it wasn’t too small for our family. But but anyway, so we flip we did.

We’re going to try this. We’re going to try the midterm rental. Actually had Jesse Vasquez on the show and he live analyzed the property.

Oh, wow.

[Megan Greathouse]
That’s awesome.

[Mattias]
But anyway, so that’s been really interesting. And we’re coming to and, you know, I’ll be curious what your thoughts are on this. But we’re coming up on this really interesting decision point.

So so one of the cadences that we’ve had a hard time adjusting to or we’re just kind of learning is is what happens is is that the bookings are like so last minute. Like you you will have it open on the platforms, the entire like tenancy and then nothing, nothing, nothing. And you’re like, OK, we’re coming up.

It’s like a month out. Like what’s going to happen? And then like, you know, a week out, it’s like, boom, it’s filled.

And it’s it’s not an issue. But so right now we have somebody in there for seven months, which is awesome.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, that’s great.

[Mattias]
But we have somebody requesting multiple months with like two months of a gap after they’re done. And it’s a higher a higher pay point than we’ve gotten before. So we’re tempted and we’re like, can we figure out like a couple month gap?

It’s not like it’s three weeks. You know, it’s not going to be doable. But I obviously ideally we’d want it to bump right up against that other booking.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah. Are you in a place where you can short term rent in that?

[Mattias]
No.

[Megan Greathouse]
Interim? No. Yeah, that’s what my my property to is.

It’s in a neighborhood where it’s only 30 plus day stays. Yeah, that’s I mean, you can still potentially be a 30 day stay in there. Yeah, it’s a math equation of if they’re willing to pay more than you generally get per month, then what’s the shortfall?

[Mattias]
It definitely wouldn’t pencil out if if we didn’t fill it. You know, it’s not much more. But but, you know, we’re also just kind of open to the idea of maybe.

I don’t know what we’re having. We’re having to decide it’s on Airbnb. So I think we have to like kind of say yay or nay here shortly.

But yeah, I’m kind of interested in trying and seeing. And then, you know, maybe it’s a lesson learned and we’re eating a couple months. Yeah, because there’s like I said, there’s also a chance that this person will renew for longer and it might, you know, end up working out well that way.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, but it’s a different cadence that it’s going to work out right. Like it’s I feel like that’s I don’t know, 40 percent of real estate investing is being like, well, it’ll work out. We’ll figure it out.

We’ll make it happen. Yeah, I’m not for having that attitude about everything all the time. But yeah, there’s these cases where you’re like that bird in the hand.

[Mattias]
Yeah.

[Megan Greathouse]
Is worth two in the bush kind of mentality. I think there’s something to that sometimes. So it is a difficult call, I feel for you, because I I know exactly.

I know exactly what that’s like.

[Mattias]
People should be leaving comments about how silly this is.

[Megan Greathouse]
And I shouldn’t do it or something, but you’ll get to review those later and decide.

[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah. Well, hindsight will be 2020 now. But we you know, and that’s the thing is like we have had a couple.

So we’ve had three different tenants now and we’ve only had one day of vacancy, which is incredible, right?

[Megan Greathouse]
That is incredible. Yeah.

[Mattias]
But, you know, we’ve had one time we ended up filling again kind of like that anxiety of like, OK, it’s not filling. It’s not filling. We knew of some it was some past tenants.

They’re kind of friends with similar, you know, friend group that that wanted a place. And we kind of cut them a deal because they were they were needing to renovate their own house that they just bought that as a fixer upper. And so we kind of cut them a deal.

It kind of helped us. It’s covering expenses. It’s cash flowing a little bit, not as much as we normally would.

But anyway, as soon as we like signed that lease, we got like a full full price request.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah. Of course, it goes both ways sometimes, though. The folks who are renting my place right now, it’s a similar situation.

They’re moving from another state and they bought a fixer upper like five minutes away from the house that I had on. And I only had it on Furnish Finder at first. Actually, was at a meeting right before this with a friend who is helping me navigate Airbnb for the first time and set it up there for future.

But they requested October 24th through November 30th. And they mentioned like we’re renovating this house. So obviously, I prefer not to try to refill a unit during the holiday season, even in midterm.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a great time. Right. But they said they were renovating a house and like automatically my spidey senses go off and I’m thinking it’s going to be longer than November 30th.

I think I bet I bet I could get through the end of the year with these folks. And I had no way to know for sure, but I went ahead and went for it. And they’ve already added a month and then they added another month.

So we’re now going through January 31st, at least while their contractor finishes their home. And even that, you know, we’ll see in a couple of weeks if they end up needing a little bit longer than that. But so it’s funny, those things, those kind of toss ups.

Yeah, it’s kind of like tossing a coin. Sometimes they work out, sometimes not so much. But I guess it’s just part of the process.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, totally. Yeah, I was expecting the exact same thing, honestly, with the last sentence. And they I think they kind of moved into an unfinished space because they were just ready to to get in.

[Megan Greathouse]
But they were done.

[Mattias]
Which they might regret. I’ve been in that living in a rehab is no fun. We spent I mean, it was also COVID.

So we spent time in our basement doing dishes in our bathtub while our kitchen was being renovated. And those are some dark times.

[Megan Greathouse]
I never forgot to remember those. I have never had to do that, actually. My mom did that, though.

And every time she told a story, I was like, I think I’ll avoid living flips. Yeah.

[Mattias]
Yeah. I mean, I think I’m all about like, you know, do what you have to do to like, you know, there’s a season, there’s a time and do what you have to do. There’s a grind phase.

And I think then, you know, you can get maybe past that a little bit. But so so are you under contract to buy this condo then? Or what’s what’s going on with the short?

[Megan Greathouse]
I basically there was some initial it was kind of a word of mouth situation. And I shouldn’t dive too deeply into it yet because it’s just nothing’s official. But we just a few days ago came to I guess it was the end of last week came to like a verbal agreement.

And I’m just kind of double checking a couple more things before I send them over a contract. So I’m 90 percent sure that that’s something I’ll end up closing on maybe by the end of the year because it’s, you know, off market. I have a line of credit on some of my rental properties, which is allows me to buy cash, which for now is still really great until next.

I guess it’s March or end of March when the FinCEN stuff shows up and then it won’t be so quick to buy with cash. But yeah, we’ll see if I can push it through by the end of the year.

[Mattias]
Cool. And the and the premise for you doing this or the like the pool, is it that you want to get into the short term space or just the opportunities? Great.

[Megan Greathouse]
I think for me, short term is more of a lifestyle investment. Obviously, when you do it right and you really depending on where and how you do it, people can make a ton of money that way. I see short term rentals being maybe five to most 10 percent of my portfolio in the future.

And really, I want to be in places where I can go enjoy it for a week or two each year with my family. So I’ve got two kids. I already have them invested in one of my rental properties and I’m trying to help them learn about real estate.

And I want to show them kind of the the power and the versatility and how creative you can be with real estate and how you can use it to fuel your life in a lot of different ways. I really love travel. My ideal situation would be to have a home somewhere in the mountains, maybe somewhere on a beach, somewhere in a big city, somewhere abroad.

I want some of these vacation homes in different places just to be able to call a place my own in some of these spots where I want to go spend time. And I want short term renting to cover that cost for me. If I can make a little bit on top of that, that’s great.

But ideally, as long as it’s covering all my costs for having that place and getting to use it a little bit, that’s what I want. So this particular condo is just under three hours from St. Louis, and it’s a relatively low price point for a vacation home, you know, compared to some of the other places I’d like to own in the future. So for me, this is like a nice test.

It’s again, dipping my toe in the water. It’s getting comfortable with the uncomfortable in a place where I can get out there pretty easily. And the mortgage payment is not going to be insane.

There are condo fees, of course. So that adds to it. But overall, I feel like it’s a good learning opportunity.

[Mattias]
Really interesting. Yeah. Did you did you feel like this market?

Did you look into like how much like the whole Airbnb craze like impacted that market? Like, I mean, what’s in my market, my local like kind of vacation area? There’s definitely there was definitely like this boom in the Airbnb space.

And then now it’s you know, I mean, I think a lot of people were operating off of, you know, numbers that were previously good. But then, you know, there was a flood of new ones. So like the amount of bookings and stuff went down.

But obviously, we’re past that. There’s not like a huge craze of buying and new Airbnbs popping up all over the place. But just curious what that looked like for you when you were looking to that market, that opportunity.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, the place where I’m buying is a vacation spot and has been for forever. It’s on a lake. So it’s not it’s not the same as if I were buying here in St. Louis. I actually didn’t really want to touch short term rentals in St. Louis, because first of all, there’s not that much of a personal utility to me for it. I guess it could have been a way to learn it. But second of all, I do think it could be a really saturated market at this point, because, yeah, there were so many people jumping into that to improve cash flows.

And then, you know, the supply and demand situation flips on you eventually. So but I don’t it’s not quite the same situation in a place where the major economic driver is the fact that this is a vacation destination for people in Missouri and, you know, throughout some different areas of the Midwest as well.

[Mattias]
Sure. Yeah. No, I mean, that’s going to be most of the house is going to be used for vacation type things.

[Megan Greathouse]
So, yeah. Yeah. And it is.

I mean, we’re in Missouri, so very seasonal. People don’t want to be most people don’t want to be at the lake outside of summertime. But there are, you know, people will do the places up with Christmas decorations and you’ll get some bookings during holiday seasons and everything.

And then there’s people who come in kind of during the offseason, contractors and such who come and do work on all the different condos and hotels and places in the offseason. So there could be opportunity to midterm rent then as well. So I think, you know, it’ll be a really interesting test to see how I can manage a rental like that, because I’m sure that seasonality is going to be affecting most short term rentals that I would be looking at to some degree.

[Mattias]
Totally. Yeah, absolutely. That’s interesting.

I love the mixed model, too, of the midterm and short term. I wish we could do that in in this property, but we can’t. And we could if we bought, you know, close by or in a different market, obviously.

So we might explore that later as well. Have you looked into the I would imagine there might be some areas around St. Louis that you could do like the co-living thing is pad split in your market.

[Megan Greathouse]
I don’t know. I haven’t even looked into it. I did one time I bought a house over by one of the major universities here, Washington University in St. Louis. I just saw someone post about it on Bigger Pockets and they said they were selling it off markets. They said what the price was and they said what the rents were. And I was like, that’s not right.

Like I know I know long term rents in this area. There’s something up with that. So I messaged him out of curiosity.

Cat’s trying to photo bomb us. I messaged out of curiosity and it turned out it was because he was renting by the room to college students.

[Mattias]
Yeah.

[Megan Greathouse]
So I did do that one, but I bought it with the intent of it being like a slow flip. So I was going to own it, let those people finish their lease and then flip it after they left. So I really don’t know a lot about rent by the room.

I barely squeaked by with that one because there’s a law or the time there is a law in St. Louis that no more than three unrelated adults could live in a single home. And this guy had snuck through that because two of the four were siblings. They were like twins who were going to school at the same time.

And so they had two of the rooms and then they had two unrelated people in the other rooms. But there were like complaints from neighbors about it who knew the regulation. And I had to reach out and politely explain to the very nosy neighbors that technically we were within code.

But yeah, so my my experience with rent by the room is minimal and I can be very bad about shiny object syndrome. And I’m just going to not look for a little bit.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, I that’s definitely the same in my town. We have a, you know, a max depending on the zoning, though. I mean, so there would be areas that we could do it.

It is an interesting concept. And it’s one that people are exploring when they are looking to figure out how to cash flow. And, you know, I think there’s definitely the college, although in our college town, it feels like the kids are like looking for like a resort property kind of thing anymore.

I mean, it’s it’s it seems like it’s it’s like a lot of the apartment buildings that go up and stuff have tons of amenities and everything’s like everybody has their own bathroom. And like, it’s just like, you know, like much fancier thing than what I what I had when I was in college. Yeah, but I think I think a lot of the co living or the past split kind of model would be more labor force and kind of more along the lines of the midterm rental, almost space where people just need a place to crash that’s furnished.

And yeah, you know, the whole model is like you do away with living rooms, you do with dining rooms and you just make them into bedrooms.

[Erica]
Yeah.

[Mattias]
You know, people just would share a kitchen, but they would, you know, maybe have a maybe they would even have a microwave in there in the room and a TV and they would just kind of go and crash when they get off of work and the rent would be cheaper for them. And overall, the rent would be better for the landlord. And obviously, you’d want to try to keep the place nice.

So it’s not just straight slum lording. But right.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, it’s interesting.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Anyway, it’s it’s I don’t know how many where it works for people, because I think I would imagine there’s a lot of those zoning laws around. So there must just be certain areas that they don’t have that or whatever, because if you’re fitting eight people into a house, it just seems like there’s most places would have regulations against that.

So I don’t know.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, I mean, I guess it depends. There’s a I’m sure chat GPT could easily answer that question if you’re wondering about the areas around you. It’s funny how much I find myself using that instead of going to like city websites anymore.

When I was researching it for the house I just moved out of, I just went to chat GPT and I was like, tell me for this area of St. Louis, you know what I can do. And it gave me the information. And, you know, it’s good to double check that stuff sometimes.

But it just it comes to you so quickly asking them versus hunting around on these kind of ancient city websites.

[Mattias]
Yeah. Yeah. For real.

I mean, I’m sure you could just like upload like the code or like all the like zoning ordinances into.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah.

[Mattias]
And just kind of ask questions. It’s a make me a strategy. Yeah.

So, yeah, I’m curious if you have any golden nuggets for our listeners for just kind of general advice about investing, mindset, et cetera.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, I mean, I think I spoke about it a little bit earlier when we were talking about the military time. But I think perspective and just really maintaining, cultivating and maintaining a healthy perspective is so important in real estate. You know, I remember early on how kind of devastating it would feel when a big repair or maintenance request came in.

And I just I’d have that like kind of not in my stomach and be like, oh, man, how much is this going to cost? And now, you know, I get bills all the time where I’m like, well, that’s why I have reserves, you know, and it’s just like you barely even pay attention to it. And so some of its practice.

But I also think that you can actively cultivate that that perspective and that that feeling of being unbothered by things. And I think that’s what gives you longevity in this industry. In life in general, things are going to happen.

And I think in real estate with a lot of tenants and a lot of properties and a lot of roofs and all of those systems, there’s definitely a lot they can hit. But if you have the patience, if you are organized and setting money aside and reserves and working through those things without losing your cool every single time, the compounding factors of wealth building and building up that cash flow over time. I mean, it’s amazing.

You know, I left my corporate job in twenty nineteen. I did actually start a business. Like I said, I have an issue with shiny object syndrome.

So I started a business in twenty twenty, built that up and sold it in early twenty twenty four. But it was continuing to do real estate the whole time. And now I’m just able to do all real estate.

And, you know, I still have things to do. I still have building to do to get where I want to be. But it’s it’s amazing how much it’s done for me in about 10 years, a little less than 10 years, really.

[Mattias]
I love it. That’s amazing. And I agree with you completely.

Like perspective is great. Expecting like expecting those things are going to happen can help. Right.

I don’t know. Obviously, we’re supposed to to budget in things like CapEx and maintenance and stuff into our analysis or underwriting the deals, which can help as well that you’re you know, you have it set aside. You’re you’re you’re ready for those kind of things.

I think also knowing yourself and knowing what’s going to burn you out can be helpful. You said you said, Bill, so are you like out there on clogging toilets yourself or are you like kind of hiring out the stuff whenever things like that come up?

[Megan Greathouse]
No, that’s a good question. And I think it’s so important to know which things you’re good at, which things you enjoy doing. Try as much as possible to focus on things that hit both of those.

And if you neither enjoy it and you’re not good at it, then don’t do it at all. Hire that out. So I don’t swing hammers.

I don’t unclog toilets. I don’t I mean, there are probably some really easy things I could be doing that I just don’t do because I don’t want to touch the building. I don’t want to work on the buildings themselves outside of maybe, you know, I like to be involved in the renovation process in terms of design, but I don’t want to actually do any of the stuff hands on.

So I avoid all of that stuff. I do actually enjoy self-managing my rentals. Maybe it’s my military background, but I think I’m good at setting up processes or SOPs and then following them consistently.

And I actually found that my cash flow improved quite a bit and my tenant retention improved quite a bit when I took it over from property management companies, because I did start with property management when I was still in my corporate job. So I enjoy managing tenants and I enjoy my own bookkeeping because I really like the numbers. I’m a little bit of nerd.

I like math. I like spreadsheets and I like to do my own QuickBooks each month. It really only takes a couple hours.

And then running my reports and seeing kind of big picture how things are performing and how it breaks down across the different properties.

[Mattias]
I love it. Yeah, and I agree completely. I kind of drew that line in the sand for myself as well.

Like I’m not a handy person necessarily. And I just, you know, like I could beat my head against the wall and try really hard to learn how to do whatever and then maybe have to pay somebody to do it anyway. And I just get really frustrated.

Yeah, I just drew that line in the sand. I was like, I’m not doing the repairs. I’m letting somebody else do that.

That’s going to keep me in the game. That’s more important. And I think that’s for a lot of people.

Like I think if you’re an agent that is out there really good at sales and you’re just out there, you know, really good at that and you don’t want the headaches of, you know, managing your own property, doing the repairs, whatever, like give it to somebody else. If you’re in an area that appreciates well, you know, you’ll be so thankful to have five properties, even if you like didn’t make quite as good of a spread because you had it actively managed and you had everything handled for the repairs wise, you’re going to be great. That’s going to be a great retirement fund.

Plus all the tax advantages of owning real estate. So, yeah, knowing your lane to stay in the game long term, I think is awesome. And don’t beat yourself up for not doing everything.

It’s not for everybody.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah. In fact, if you’re doing everything, you might be slowing yourself down. So, yeah.

[Mattias]
Yeah. And I think that’s almost like not being handy is almost an advantage in some ways because you don’t have to go through the process of like, I’ve done everything myself and now I’m at the point where it’s getting to be too much and I have to figure out how to like delegate and hand it off to other people. I think that people end up struggling with that as well.

But anyway, you’ve mentioned a couple of books in this in the podcast already. So do you have one that you think is fundamental that everybody should read or one that you just currently are really enjoying?

[Megan Greathouse]
So I’ll give two. I’ll give a real estate and a non real estate one. I mentioned I really enjoy the mindset stuff and perspective and stoicism.

So I love to read the Daily Stoic, just the single page of the Daily Stoic every single day. It’s a nice like bedside before you go to bed or when you wake up in the morning. It’s just one page, but it gets your mind right.

And then for real estate, as I said, I’m primarily a long term rental investor. And I thought the book on managing rental properties by Brian and Heather Turner was amazing. And when I was setting up my own processes and systems for managing my rentals, I really used that as the blueprint.

And then I adjusted from there. So it’s really nice when you don’t have to recreate the wheel. You have something to start with and then you just tweak to fit your own business and your own lifestyle.

And I mean, it’s worked so well for me that I now present at conferences and real estate meetups about my process for self-managing my portfolio. So that I think is a great one if you want to self-manage your rentals.

[Mattias]
I agree. Yeah, that one is good. I read that and Landlording on Autopilot or something like that.

And I found I found the Bigger Pockets, Brandon Turner one was better.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, I read Landlording on Autopilot as well. And I don’t think I finished it, though. I think I read it after the book on managing rental properties.

I got partway through and I’ve heard great things and some people love it. But yeah, to me, Brandon and Heather Turner’s was was better and more organized, I guess, in the way that I think.

[Mattias]
Yeah, no, I agree. The Stoicism one, like I know that he sends out a an email. Are you talking about a book that you just read one page a day or what are you talking about?

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, it’s a book. It’s called The Daily Stoic. So, yeah, it’s a Ryan Holiday book.

He’s kind of the modern day Stoic. Whoops. That cat really wants to be in this interview.

And he is so he’s written all these great books. I love I’ve read three or four of them. Ego is the enemy.

Obstacles the way stillness is key. All of those are great. But, you know, it’s I read those and then I go on to some other kind of book, a real estate book or a business book or just a book for enjoyment.

And I really decided I wanted that daily kind of hit of that mindset. And he has, you know, Instagram and I follow his Instagram posts and everything, too. But there’s something about like that page for the day of the year, every single day that I enjoy.

[Mattias]
I could see that being perfect for that kind of thing, because it can also be kind of, you know, dense material that like, you know, you’re not going to want to necessarily, you know, be driving down the road and listening to an audio book and just kind of speed through it at two X. I could see it being better digested by like, you know, small chunks at a time every morning. So I actually didn’t know that that about that daily book.

So I’m gonna check that out. It’s cool.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, it’s a great one.

[Mattias]
Megan, if people want to follow you for more or reach out to you about by any means, is there are you Instagram? What are you on?

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, I’m on Facebook. I’m pretty active on Instagram. So, it’s Megan, @megan_great_houses, plural.

And then I actually also a friend and I recently started a YouTube channel where we talk about where we’re two women who run a real estate meet up for women in real estate. And then we want to start this YouTube channel as well. Just talking about real estate investments.

We’ll talk about investments we’re working on or we’ll just cover kind of a concept in investing, go through terms, do kind of deal deep dive sometimes. So that’s the Mindy and Megan channel on YouTube. Mindy and Megan.

[Mattias]
Awesome. Cool. Well, thank you so much for being on the show.

It’s been a lot of fun talking to you.

[Megan Greathouse]
Yeah, it’s been great. Thanks so much for having me. It was great to talk with you as well.

[Erica]
Thanks for listening to the REI Agent.

[Mattias]
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week.

[Erica]
Visit REIAgent.com for more content.

[Mattias]
Until next time, keep building the life you want.

[Erica]
All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.