Podcast 194. Are Short Term Rentals in the Smokies Still Viable with Leslie Anne Morris

Average Joe Finances:
0:02

Hey, Welcome back to the Average Joe Finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Leslie Anne Morris. Leslie, I am super excited to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining me.

Leslie Anne Morris:
0:14

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Average Joe Finances:
0:16

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm gonna start this off the same way I start every podcast episode, and we wanna know more about you. So if you could share a little bit about yourself, share your story. Who is Leslie Ann Morris?

Leslie Anne Morris:
0:30

I'll started on a dark jury. No kidding.

Average Joe Finances:
0:34

Hey, that would be a great way to start.

Leslie Anne Morris:
0:38

Born and raised California girl. Now I'm in Tennessee was in banking my entire career, so career banker and intentional career banker, which is rare I hear. And just got to a point where I was like, what else? I felt like I hit all the rungs in banking and so what more could I do? And I recalled some conversations from my junior days in banking when I had clients telling me about how they built their real estate portfolio. So this wasn't very long ago. I built my real estate portfolio in a really, on a rapid schedule. But I was living in, working in Los Angeles and pursuing a master's degree at the University of Southern California. And I decided now's the time. I started looking into real estate investing and quickly discovered that, I didn't have enough cash to do what I wanted to do. I wanted to get something down in Southern California, of course. And so then I started looking outta state and had a deal, blow up overnight. It was just gonna be a long-term rental. Super skinny margin on what I was gonna actually make there. And the guy decided not to sell the property like in the middle of the night, and so my agent was like, you have a case, a lawsuit, case on your hands. How do you wanna move forward? And I said, eh, let me just go back to the drawing board and think some things through. Part of my strategy was I don't want my tenant to decide in the middle of the night that they're out and then have no way to make that mortgage. So I fell into short-term rentals. I loved the idea that. As soon as I got sick of whoever was in there, they would get the heck out. And I also loved the idea of, I look at these vacation homes that I own in my portfolio as lifestyle assets. They trade at a real high scale. It's not really a multiple cuz it's single family, but, so you still are looking at the property value. But I liked, I could use them myself. I could host friends and family. And I had a true love of hospitality also because I traveled a lot. I've been, I went to 45 countries in 15 years, so I felt like I knew a thing or two about decent places to stay, and so I just jumped all in into short-term rentals and built a portfolio. I think it's valued at about 8 million now. I have 11 properties and a lot that I'm building on, and it's all in the Smoky Mountains. And then I grew some businesses out of that in the property management and property acquisition space to help other investors follow in my footsteps. It's the American dream, if you will. And then I quit my job in 2022.

Average Joe Finances:
3:04

Awesome.

Leslie Anne Morris:
3:05

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
3:06

What a great background. So I'm sitting here taking notes as you're going. You started off in the corporate world as a banker, right? And, from what I understand in your banking background you did some pretty big things on the banking side as well.

Leslie Anne Morris:
3:17

I did. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
3:18

And you know what I really liked about how you were describing your background is you asked yourself this question, Okay. What else? I absolutely love that I had to write that down because, I feel like so many people out there that are stuck in the rat race or stuck in their nine to five, that's the one question that they need to ask themselves, right? If moving on to something else. Would be beneficial to you or not. The question you have to ask is, what else? What else is out there? What else can I do? What else is there for me to do for financial freedom? I absolutely love that you asked that question. And, and by doing so, you discovered real estate, right? You discovered short-term rentals and I'd like to get into that a little bit because short-term rentals are really hot right now. Still, even with the way. The market, the real estate market has shifted. You still see a lot of people out there seeking out short-term rentals because there's still a really great market for it. Now I wanna ask you too, because now I've heard of a lot of people investing in that area, but why the Smoky Mountains? Actually why did you uproot from California.

Leslie Anne Morris:
4:26

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
4:27

Tennessee to invest in the Smoky Mountains.

Leslie Anne Morris:
4:30

Yeah. Actually was living in Los Angeles I guess I probably closed three deals before I relocated. I think the biggest thing was I fell in love with Tennessee initially. The only thing I knew about Tennessee was that Justin Timberlake was from here. That's the only thing I knew. I had no family or friends here at all. So my decision to move here was primarily based on the freedom that it presented. That's a lot different than California. I'll tell you that. Taxes are a lot lower and I saw an opportunity to basically reduce my cost of living, to have, a further way to invest more money faster. So I relocated with US Bank to the South. I didn't immediately make it to Tennessee. I moved to Tennessee during the pandemic. It started to get a lot harder to build a portfolio for the bank during the pandemic. And I. Saw a bit of a failure. I honestly thought I would lose my job because I wasn't closing sales as fast as I used to. And I've always been a top performer. I'm very competitive and even sometimes that's just with myself. So I got headhunted by another bank in Tennessee, and relocated to Tennessee October, 2020. And it got me right at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, right where my properties were. So I think a lot of things in life where you have that idea, like to your point, if your listeners are questioning what else is out there, like sometimes when you just have your mind set around, I'm headed this way, life helps you. So I ended up getting here in this weird, roundabout way, and then built on all the businesses. Yeah, initially when I was in LA the Smokey Mountain decision was based on the high occupancy and the demand for the market. Being in commercial banking, I dealt with really big names like SpaceX was one of my clients. And helping them around strategy too with their banking. Those are some of the things that we're thinking about of longevity of systems. I primarily was focused for them on like their receivables and payables and how to make that more efficient for their various companies. But, I thought about that for myself too. I wanted to buy an asset where, if there's not gonna be a lease agreement that's risky. Also but I wanted to be in a situation where the assets stayed booked, consistently, and the Smokey Mountains provides that to me. So it was a stability choice.

Average Joe Finances:
6:49

Yeah. So have you in the past, like vacation there and you got a good feel for the market by being there yourself as a tourist or vacationing?

Leslie Anne Morris:
6:58

Not initially.

Average Joe Finances:
7:00

Oh, okay. Okay.

Leslie Anne Morris:
7:00

I actually, my first several deals, most of my deals I buy just based off the photos through Zillow. I do have my agent license now, so I have access to all the data. But initially I would just find the property myself and then, get an agent that could help me close the deal. Even now it's hard to get into a short term rental to see it, to buy it because it's a competitive multi bid situation. Even still now with rates where they are. But, also, I just didn't feel the need to go in there. It was a proven system, a proven market.

Average Joe Finances:
7:33

Okay. Right on. Now, especially with the Smokey Mountains too like I said before I ask you that question, like I know several people that invest in that area. Do you feel like the market there is saturated?

Leslie Anne Morris:
7:46

I get that question daily. In a sense, sure. I think the way, anyone in this industry that is an agent in the Smokies, they all have a way they answer this question to keep you buying cabins. The space is limited. There is building happening, but it has been a vacation market since the beginning of the market itself. The county of severe is really tourism driven. So there's, support for it. The other thing is that we're within driving distance of 60% of the United States population. So the occupancy's high, the numbers for the free national park there, I think tripled or quadrupled Grand Canyon and all the other parks. I think there's a statistic where if you combine the top parks, the smokey still kills it. I think we had 14 million visitors during Covid. And prior to Covid, we were around 12 something. Last year we were at 13. So you're still seeing that huge influx from a saturation standpoint. There are new investors in the market. Yes. I'm seeing a lot of them sell now because they didn't realize how much work it was gonna be to own one, and they're outta state, which does, it doesn't make it tough. You have to have the right mindset around that as well. But there is definitely, if you're interested in the Smokies, there is a sliver you can carve out for yourself. You just have to do it right. You have to buy the right property that most people will see and book. That's the secret to it, really.

Average Joe Finances:
9:12

Yeah, absolutely. So what would you say is is your criteria for finding a good deal in that area?

Leslie Anne Morris:
9:20

It's hard to say deal in this area. You're not gonna find something like, for example like your typical flip or burr, those are really hard to find in the Smokies. People know that they're looking for those, so they're like, multi bids still. I made an offer on a few just in the last couple of months that I didn't, was not the top bid on even though I went, 30 grand over or whatever. In order to find something that's gonna work, you have to know the market. You have to work with a team that knows what the rent potential is. A lot of my clients that are outta state they rely on me for some data input. But if they just see a listing and it's got in the description this is what it performed with last year or the year prior, those numbers are usually low because I'll tell you the reason I formed a property management company is because a lot of the management companies in the area, not all of them, there are very good ones out there, but a lot of them I'm seeing is. They were not investors, they just started a property management company because there's demand for them and they don't manage the rates as well as they can. So you have to remember that when you buy one, it might perform better than it's saying it has in the past. The other thing is, even when I buy one that is turnkey, you know it's coming with furniture, it's furnished. You could essentially just put it right back, listed on the internet and get it right back up. Renting, but, when we go in there, my team goes in there, we lay on beds, sit on couches, kick the tires on the whole thing, and then we spruce it up in some nature or form. I have some that I've themed around something like I'm a whiskey aficionado, you can see in the background.

Average Joe Finances:
11:02

Okay.

Leslie Anne Morris:
11:02

Haven't been drinking much lately. New Year's resolution. Go figure, but.

Average Joe Finances:
11:06

All right. Good on you.

Leslie Anne Morris:
11:07

I know, but a lot of people come to that area to go, moonshine tasting or whiskey tasting. So I themed one that way. And then I have some that, are themed based around colors. So making it like a special space where they wanna be, so that all goes into like your deal, when you're get looking down to take down a deal, you wanna put some of that thought into it so that you can make more money out of it.

Average Joe Finances:
11:29

Yeah, right on. Now you, when you first went out there, you said it was during the pandemic. Is that when you first started acquiring the short-term rental assets there?

Leslie Anne Morris:
11:39

No, I started in 2019.

Average Joe Finances:
11:41

Okay.

Leslie Anne Morris:
11:42

I had moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in very end of 2019, so I got to the south really quickly. And then the pandemic hit what, early March. So I was in Charlotte for about 60 days and then it hit. But yeah, I did take down quite a few deals during the pandemic. We at first had a lot of bookings canceled, and then the rates dropped a little bit and everybody went crazy working from cabins, and then the rates just shot way the heck up. And I continued to buy deals with that cash flow as I made it. So it was a really good time to scale. It was a really good decision.

Average Joe Finances:
12:16

Yeah. Okay. So you had mentioned earlier that. The people that were investing out of state in the Smokey Mountains were the ones that you find that are like selling now, that they were having the most trouble trying to keep it together. Is that because they weren't, present to self-manage, or, do you self-manage? How do you put this together?

Leslie Anne Morris:
12:37

Yeah. I was self-managing until I got to five. And then I was, became legally licensed, insured, bonded all that to become a property management company. And I hired a team. So I'm largely passive in it now. I do mostly strategy around that, but I do coach and mentor clients on self-managing. That is an easy way to get in, if you're getting into the market and you want. A particular net operating income out of a deal, to be very honest, that's how you do it. That's how you make the most money fastest. But I'll tell you, all the things that I had to learn and all the systems I had to create and all the headaches I had firing and hiring just cleaners alone has been a ha was a huge nightmare. Now I've, now it's very solid. But that's the biggest complaint. I met with a owner of a cabin in Gatlinburg recently. Who has fired seven cleaners in the three years she's owned her cabin and she's just fed up, she's ready for, somebody else to take that headache over and it's worth the cost that you pay. I do coach clients to include a metric for property management in their underwriting in the event they think that could happen to them. If you live in California and it's in Tennessee and you're in a high demanding job, you're not gonna be able to be texting guests. All hours of the day while you're meeting with your own clients. So there's strategy both ways. It just depends on the investor. I do pretty much everything custom based on who I'm working with. And even, my own deals, I don't charge, my company I own doesn't charge me management fee. So that makes it easy for me to buy whatever I want. If you are gonna self-manage, you can almost just buy about anything and make the numbers work. It does get tougher with property management. I'm hoping to see a situation where, I think the Fed is saying that they're gonna increase, at least 25 basis points again this year. So I'm hoping to see a situation where the rates start to really drop, but anytime soon, that's probably not, that's not gonna happen. So you really need to just sharpen your pencil on your underwriting and make sure that you're getting into a good deal.

Average Joe Finances:
14:41

Yeah, keep those numbers conservative too. So there's a lot of things that will pop up in the last minute. That's usually what always happens. And if you tried to fudge the numbers to make it work, you're gonna fudge yourself.

Leslie Anne Morris:
14:51

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
14:52

Okay. Awesome. All right, Leslie, so what would you say is like the must have software or CRM systems that you must have as a short-term rental investor?

Leslie Anne Morris:
15:06

If you're just gonna buy one or two, you can literally throw it on Airbnb and it can make money. Professional photography is key there because this is an online shopping decision, let's be honest. But as you start to scale, the things that become really key are going to be a property management system, property management software. I use owner res. It's got a low price point so anybody can afford it. It is, has a learning curve. It really truly does. But outside of that remote door lock, that's key. Smart door locks, nobody's gonna be meeting them there to get a key. And you don't wanna have a key. I know some people that have a little punch code and then a key comes out, they're gonna take the key home. So that's an obvious one. We have surveillance cameras just on driveways to watch who goes in and out. But it's pretty simple from that regard. The property management software is really the jumping point. It's gonna integrate all the platforms where you wanna book your cabin into that one software you have keep track of stays, cancellations. You can automate messaging at that point. But again, just one or two. It's very easy to just buy one and put it on Airbnb. And you can learn as you go, you really can. I think that's what's exciting for a lot of people about it. But with the market shift, guests are more demanding, property numbers are higher, so you do wanna stand out and stand out in a way that gets you booked fast. So get a mentor or a coach and do a lot of due diligence, watch podcasts like this to learn other people's trials and tribulations and you'll be off to the races.

Average Joe Finances:
16:42

Awesome. Now, okay, with that being said, so that's some of the must-haves. When it comes to finding the short-term rental that's gonna work, where the numbers are gonna work, what are some of the things you're looking at when you are, when you're underwriting some of these deals? Like what are some of the metrics that you focus on? For some of these.

Leslie Anne Morris:
17:01

Sure. Just, I don't calculate a cap rate like I would for a big client. These are just single family homes, but we do look at the NOI component. So net operating income is key. And then cash on cash, so year one deal in cash. And how much are you gonna make per dollar that you put in? I like to see 20%. I've seen people do 10, but if you're getting down below 10, you might want to Google T-bills. Those are guaranteed, I think at 5% right now. So that's a no-brainer. But yeah, I mean it's pretty straightforward. You're gonna need to know your gross annual rent potential. And in order to locate that, there's a lot of tools out there that aggregate data. So AirDNA is one of them. I don't use AirDNA, I use market knowledge. My property management company has a relationship with key data. So we are able to create rental projections based off of not just the prior three years, historical data. And then you'll need to know what your carrying costs are outside of just the mortgage insurance tax. You're gonna need to think about wifi, furnishing. That'll be, one time that'll be on your cash. Cash on cash side of the equation. But it's pretty straightforward. I have written information for people that wanna take a look at that out on my social media.

Average Joe Finances:
18:22

Okay. Awesome. I appreciate that. Now, Leslie, from what I understand, you have a pretty Big audacious goal that you're working on right now too, right? And I know it has to do with women investors, right? So what is your mission right now when it comes to women in investing?

Leslie Anne Morris:
18:40

Yes. I learned after I got into investing that only 31% of all investors are women, and I didn't like the sound of that. So I am empowered to get more women to start thinking about things like generational wealth. Getting out of that mindset of your tied to the job. Your job can end at any moment. You can be fired. Let's be honest, that's there's no guarantee with anything in life. And with this you become empowered and you're in control. So I am on this mission. I wanna create a thousand women millionaires, which is a billion dollars in net worth, and I am doing a lot of things to support that mission. Right now, I've been asked to speak at some pretty big conferences about it. Why are there not that many women? I really think, honestly, I was in a lot of the movement at US Bank around their d e I and women minority groups, but we have a certain way we're wired to always feel like we're a fraud. It's something in our dna n feeling like we're lesser than oh, I got lucky and now I own 12 cabins. No, I worked my butt off to get here. So coaching around imposter syndrome is huge for me. And then just, I think the other thing is especially in marriages, not always, this is not always the case, not in any of my relationships, but sometimes women look to the men to lead. And there's another way. So I'm just trying to get that messaging out there and just empower women that if I could do it, you could do it too. I come from a really humble background. Like the sky isn't the limit anymore. You are the limit. You yourself are the limit.

Average Joe Finances:
20:14

I love that. I love that. And hey, if you create a thousand women millionaires, that's a billion dollars right there. That's awesome That you are like creating. You know what I hope that this episode can help you with your goal and that, there's some women out there that hear this and say, you know what? I need to talk to Leslie too and get some information. Because that's just amazing. And that's a great goal to have. I definitely wanna link you up with some people after this as well that I think would be Really good to have in your network as well. And you probably already connected to them honestly. But yeah that's fantastic. Now I wanna go back to you yourself, because you have really built something amazing, right? And you worked really hard to get there, so as you pointed out it's not just, oh, I got lucky. No, you busted your butt, like you said, right? Now I wanna ask you, because a lot of people will, they'll get that one deal, maybe two, three, and they're kinda like, Hey, I'm pretty comfortable here. And it's hard to get past this. And I feel like a lot of people, getting that first deal is hard, but deals two through 10 and up are harder, right? It's harder to get past that first one. Once you get the first one, you're like, cool, I'm in. You have to get to two to make it start tumbling and growing into this avalanche. So how did you scale so quickly to where you're at now?

Leslie Anne Morris:
21:35

I don't know. I had took retire. I've taken some retirement funds more than once.

Average Joe Finances:
21:41

Okay.

Leslie Anne Morris:
21:42

If you Google Tom Wheelwright, it'll blow your mind up about how to use retirement. And then I inve have invested every single dollar it's ever made right back in even when I quit my W-2 job in 2022. I don't know if this is like empowering myself to build these companies. I wanted a revenue stream that didn't use the passive investing stream simply because I wanted it to continue to grow itself. So that's been a big strategy, but definitely retirement income and partnering with lenders. There was a lot of things I didn't know because I was in corporate, commercial, corporate lending on a much larger scale. Dealing with, M&A, VC, private equity deals, those are very different. But in this, it's almost like. When I bought my first cabin, I was shocked that I was approved, even though I was a high income earner and had no debt or kids I just because I didn't know. So until you go talk to lenders, you're not gonna know. But as of the recording of this podcast, 10% down is still a thing. In the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac conventional mortgage world if you can take advantage of that, you can stretch your dollar to get into more deals. You do have to be careful because. Your payment's gonna be higher if you put less down. So that's one part of it. And then the other part of it is there's a chance that anything can happen with these deals, right? I don't know, just talk to a lender. I try not to quote like rates or structure or terms, just because we're in a market where things are constantly evolving around lending. But get somebody that you trust. I have lenders, I give out their names, they also own cabins. They're in the Smokies. And so they know the environment and what's possible and you might be shocked, that you can get a deal together. I've had buyers come in twos and partner, put splitting the down payment to get into a deal faster. And yeah it's sometimes hard to structure the deal and where's the money gonna come from, but if you could figure it out, it, the wheel starts to turn rapidly.

Average Joe Finances:
23:42

Yeah. You just gotta be creative. Most of the things that I talk about with real estate investors is just the fact that it, the investing part's easy. It's the problem solving that you have to really be good at, right? That's what you have to work on is problem solving. And like you said too, there's creative ways to do this, have a partner, split the down payment find, other ways to bring that money in. Family, friends. There are creative ways to do it. See if the person you're buying from would offer seller financing for the down payment.

Leslie Anne Morris:
24:10

Yes.

Average Joe Finances:
24:10

There's so many different ways to, to structure the deal that would work. But of course, in the end, no matter what way you structure it, make sure when you underwrite it that the numbers make sense. And that it's not gonna be, like you said, for a short term rental, you don't wanna be under 10% because that's, you're really taking a big risk there. So you never know when the next pandemic or something's gonna go down that might shut things down, right? So just make sure you're mindful of everything, all those possibilities when you're putting these deals together. And like you said earlier too, no matter what you do there's always a risk involved, right? So I think it's important that, you have a very strong criteria. That is what. You set for yourself to make it work? You were talking about how you're still, putting in offers on deals and you were offering 30,000 over and still not getting them, but you realize that, hey, this is the number where it'll work if I go any higher than this. It's not gonna work. So that's great that you can recognize that and, hopefully the other people that did wind up getting it don't wind up. Who knows, maybe you'll be buying it from them next year. So you never know.

Leslie Anne Morris:
25:16

You want too much money. There's one like that now.

Average Joe Finances:
25:18

Yeah.

Leslie Anne Morris:
25:19

They're listing it 120 over, less than a year ago. I'm like.

Average Joe Finances:
25:23

Wow. Yeah. It's amazing. You know what I also find funny about that too because, I look at the real estate market out here in Hawaii. And it's completely shifted, right? We've changed from that, multi bids on properties, six figures over asking price, what, we've seen last year alone. But now we're at the point where, you know the prices have dropped a bit. People are offering maybe a little bit under asking or asking call at the asking price. And you're seeing deals close that way which is unheard of on Oahu. So the thing is right now is, yes, the interest rates might be higher, but it's also getting rid of all the competition. It's scaring people away. So now you can get the house that you want at a better price, and then guess what? Refinance it when the rates drop. That's the beauty about this whole thing. Yeah, you just gotta be smart about it. And I think, that's the whole thing that you were talking about too, is just you gotta be smart about what you're looking at, right? Yeah. Enough, enough of that. I'll get off that soapbox there.

Leslie Anne Morris:
26:18

But the time to buy real estate is now because you missed yesterday and tomorrow it's gonna be different again. So get in, if you're thinking about it now, jump. That's a secret.

Average Joe Finances:
26:29

No, I love that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for adding that in, cuz it, it really is, that famous saying, the best time to buy real estate was 20 years ago. The second best time is today, right?

Leslie Anne Morris:
26:38

Yes.

Average Joe Finances:
26:38

And it's true. As long as your goal is to hold onto it, at least for a longer period of time, you're always gonna look like a genius no matter what.

Leslie Anne Morris:
26:46

Yes.

Average Joe Finances:
26:46

David Green says that all the time in the Bigger Pockets podcast because it's true. If your intent is to hold a piece of real estate for 30 years, you'll always look like a genius no matter what. Okay. So enough about that. Leslie, I'd like to transition this into something that I call the final round. It's where I'm gonna ask you the same four questions that I ask everybody that comes on this show, and it gives us an idea of how you are when you're put under pressure a little bit.

Leslie Anne Morris:
27:11

Oh no, I think I'm pretty good.

Average Joe Finances:
27:15

No, you're gonna crush it. You're gonna crush it. Alright. If you're ready to go, we'll get this party started. Okay?

Leslie Anne Morris:
27:21

Yes sir.

Average Joe Finances:
27:22

First question of the final round. Leslie, what is the biggest mistake you've ever made in real estate?

Leslie Anne Morris:
27:29

See, I do this on podcasts all the time, so I always try to come up with a different one, which is more pressure. Oh goodness. I've been really lucky. Knock on wood, I haven't lost any money in any deals ever, so that's pretty awesome. I did buy a property in Florida when I felt like Smokey mountain prices, I felt like I was priced out, so I pivoted and bought one in Florida and it was a bad choice because, by that time I had the team managing the cabins and then this took them off of the mission we were on in the Smokies and put them onto this one unit in Florida. And the quality of the guests there was really poor. They were destroying the place rapidly. I sold it. I held it for 11 months and sold it. I did make money on the deal. I turned around and did a 1031 exchange into another cabin. Which is my whiskey whispers lodge. It's deal, I closed September, 2022. So I think that was a really good decision. In hindsight I'm like, I shouldn't have been buying in Florida. I should have just bought more cabins then. They would've been cheaper than, the whiskey one I bought. You don't know unless you try. My plan was to build the same company I have here, there, and have a couple. But we just weren't ready for that scale at that time. So I'm, I still have the domains parked and still have all the branding I created, and one day, maybe in the future I head that way again, but right now, smokey Mountains all the way.

Average Joe Finances:
29:01

Awesome. Awesome. Hey I appreciate that transparency too, right? A lot of people, it's hard to talk about certain things like that, To, to have that property only for 11 months and then turn around and have to sell it, but it still wound up becoming a win. So that's, that's really good. But you realize that was not the market for you to be in at that time. So I definitely appreciate that.

Leslie Anne Morris:
29:18

Right.

Average Joe Finances:
29:19

Now, Leslie, this next question kind of ties into the last one. The, these all kind of tie into each other. But what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Leslie Anne Morris:
29:31

I wish that I would've known how easy it was gonna be to buy the first one. I coach a lot of people that are having a really hard time getting the first deal, so their mindset is this first one is gonna be so hard. If I would've known how easy it was gonna be to take money outta retirement and buy an asset that was immediately gonna. Like blow my life up, my career up, I would've started much sooner. I would've, I could have been in a position maybe 10 years earlier. I had a long career in banking and was paid fairly well the entire time. I spent a lot of money on travel. So maybe some of that money could have been real estate driven and not travel driven. I wasn't ready then. I don't get hard on myself. I don't live in the past often. I try to stay in the present moment. It helps me just be grateful for where I'm at.

Average Joe Finances:
30:23

No, I appreciate that. Yeah. It, dwelling on the past is never a good place to be, right? Because everything happens for a reason. You're absolutely crushing it right now. You didn't get into it back then for a reason. And here you are now doing awesome work.

Leslie Anne Morris:
30:37

Thank you.

Average Joe Finances:
30:38

Sharing what you're doing with so many people and encouraging other women to get investing and I absolutely love that. So I want to help empower your message as well. Okay. So Leslie, next question. Again, these all tie into each other, but do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started out today?

Leslie Anne Morris:
31:01

Yes. Podcasts are free, so watch them all. I was just googling things to try to teach myself and that's how I found bigger pockets. I write a blog for them now, but, get out there and ask the questions. If you don't ask the question, the answers automatically know. Or you don't learn it. So get out there and learn. That's the biggest tip or trick. And then if you have that drive and passion, set goals around it for yourself or otherwise, it just stays a dream. So tell yourself, maybe you really feel like you want to explore this, but you're just not sure if it's for you. Get out there and learn if it's for you, cuz you're not gonna know unless you do the research. Or you might hear this and be like, oh, our story is crazy. I could never achieve that. I know a lot of other people that share the same story. So just get out there and learn and do and ask questions. Find a mentor. If you've got an uncle with a big real estate portfolio, buy him a coffee and be like, Hey, how did you do this? That's a lot of what I did in my early banking days with my clients, like, why is your tax return so big? Why, how did you do this?

Average Joe Finances:
32:07

Yeah.

Leslie Anne Morris:
32:07

And just ask the questions.

Average Joe Finances:
32:09

I love that. I love that. Take action. I love what you said about if you don't do anything, it's just gonna stay a dream. Absolutely love that. That is probably the best sound bite of this episode right here, because that is like super important because Yeah, if you don't, I talk about, I have these pillars to building wealth and, the very final pillar that I have is, Action. You have to take action. Cuz if you don't, those other pillars don't even matter, right? And those other pillars are education, coaching, and mentoring and networking. Those are the other three pillars.

Leslie Anne Morris:
32:40

Yes.

Average Joe Finances:
32:41

But those three don't matter if you don't take action. You could sit here and network all day. You could sit here and educate yourself all day. You can have a coach yelling at you all day saying, Hey, you need to take action cuz they're gonna tell you to do that. But if you don't listen and you don't take action you're just spending a lot of time doing a whole bunch of nothing.

Leslie Anne Morris:
32:58

Do you want a better, do you want a better sound bite?

Average Joe Finances:
33:01

No. Hey this is great.

Leslie Anne Morris:
33:02

No, I had a good one.

Average Joe Finances:
33:03

Oh, sure.

Leslie Anne Morris:
33:03

I was gonna say take action and get shit done.

Average Joe Finances:
33:07

I love it. Get shit done. All right. Hey Leslie, that that's fantastic. I do have. One more question of the final round for you though.

Leslie Anne Morris:
33:15

Okay.

Average Joe Finances:
33:16

And this is different than the other ones. This is just an opinion-based question. But it's Do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Leslie Anne Morris:
33:28

Everybody's you can't say it, rich Dad, poor Dad. Although if you haven't read that you can what's this one I just got? I was able to meet Sharon Lecter and she wrote, this fits into my pillar of my mission, so that's why I'm sharing. It's Think and Grow Rich, but it's four women. It's a rewrite of the Napoleon Hill Original by Sharon Lecter, and Sharon actually was a part of the Robert Kiosaki movement. When he was writing the book and creating the game, she was on his staff then. So she's largely responsible for a lot of the concepts from that. So get this book and read it. I like the original two. Think And Grow Rich. I don't know. It's if you can get someone else's opinion, it's almost a hack. I think that's a lot of my strategy is seeing what other people are doing. And then if it makes sense for me, I'm stealing it. Sorry.

Average Joe Finances:
34:20

Yeah. No, that, that's fantastic. Look, if it works for someone else, it could work for you too, right? And. I'm not saying to plagiarize, but plagiarism is the best form of flattery, right? You don't necessarily have to do everything that other person did or say everything that other person said. But being able to know those and have those as a source of information is huge. Just like I quoted David Green earlier, right? With with what he says. You know that if you buy real estate and you plan to hold it for 30 years, you're always gonna look like a genius. He says that all the time, right? And it's true. So I don't mind repeating something that is really good information. So yeah, love that. Okay.

Leslie Anne Morris:
34:58

It's abundance mindset.

Average Joe Finances:
35:00

Yes.

Leslie Anne Morris:
35:00

Like I was trying to explain this to a friend that didn't get it, and it's like I share everything I've ever done. I don't have any secrets. Everything I've learned that's a hack. I will share it and maybe I get one back in return, or maybe I help somebody be successful some way that is coming back to us. We are all, in the same bodies on the same planet. It's the more, the merrier mindset.

Average Joe Finances:
35:24

Yeah. Awesome. Definitely appreciate that and thank you for that book recommendation. That's fantastic. Now, I know you listened to a lot of podcasts. Are there any podcasts you wanna give a shout out to you right now?

Leslie Anne Morris:
35:33

Yeah, I really like Mike Sjogren. His STR Secrets, if you wanna learn more about short-term rentals. Emanuele Pani and Mike Sjogren, STR Secrets. And then Sean Moore. He has the Vacation Rental Revolution podcast. I've been on both of them, so I'm a little biased for my episode. But those are two really good, well done podcasts out in the short term rental world.

Average Joe Finances:
35:59

Awesome. Awesome. Appreciate that. Thank you for those recommendations. Okay, now that is it for the final round. However, I have one more question for you, and this is the most important question of this entire episode because everything we talked about was fantastic. You really gave us a lot of great information really great content in this interview. So thank you. I wanna say thank you so much for that. Now people are listening and they're saying, Hey especially some of my female listeners might be listening saying, Hey, I wanna be one of those 1000 women millionaires that Leslie's trying to create, and they wanna know where they could find more information about you. So if you could share that with us. You have a website, social media.

Leslie Anne Morris:
36:41

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
36:41

All that good stuff. If you could just let us know and put it out there.

Leslie Anne Morris:
36:46

Sure. Start with the Instagram account. I have a link tree that goes out to everything. You can look at what's in my portfolio through my website, but the Instagram is @Leslie.anne.Morris, and then leslieannemorris.com is my website, but I would just start at Instagram. It's fun over there. It's something new daily. If something happens, I'm posting about it. I try to share case studies. I have a project right now. I'm remodeling. I'm sharing progress reports on that, and yeah, just all the things.

Average Joe Finances:
37:18

Awesome. I will make sure we have the link to your Instagram and your link tree and your website all in the show notes to make it easy for everybody to find you. So you can copy and paste or click away, but please don't do it if you're driving. Okay. Wait till you get somewhere safe. Cause I know a lot of people listen to this show while they're driving. Leslie, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your amazing story and your amazing goal, and I really hope that we can help push you on a catalyst towards that.

Leslie Anne Morris:
37:50

Thank you so much, Mike. I really appreciate you having me.

Average Joe Finances:
37:52

Absolutely. And hey, I also wanna say thank you to my listeners for joining me and our special guest, Leslie Anne Morris on the Average Joe Finances Podcast. Make sure you go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Leslie. Aloha from Hawaii and have a great rest of your day.