Miranda: Hey friends, welcome back to Practically Happy Podcast. This is episode number 292, airing on Independence Day in 2024. Happy 4th of July if you live in the United States.

 Happy Thursday if you live anywhere else in the world. I’m excited about today’s Pass the Mic episode. This is my summer series this year, where each week during the summer, I’m passing the microphone to a friend, a fellow podcaster, a business owner I admire, a woman in my circle of influence who I want to introduce you to.

And today’s episode is with a good friend. Lydia Ojuka. Now, Lydia and I go way back. We met in college. We had roommates who were friends, and we got connected that way. And, you know, saw each other quite a bit back in our early 20s. And then fast forward, just in this last Five, ten years, we have reconnected and formed a friendship that I really appreciate.

Lydia is an incredible, open-hearted woman, a mom of three. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and children, although she was born and immigrated from Uganda when she was super young, a toddler. Lydia is a realtor in Utah. She’s obsessed with third spaces and creating incredible retreat and vacation homes where people can come, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

She is such a great example of taking care of yourself as a mom, maintaining your hobbies, building strength, having a great home care and spa routine, being able to go out on dates and enjoy your life, travel, and see the world and do cool things. Lydia loves good food and good coffee and good conversation.

And I think you’re going to love getting to know her in this episode. Specifically, I wanted to pass the mic to Lydia for this episode to have her tell us a little bit about her experience building beautiful short-term rentals for, as vacation homes for people to rent. I have this long time dream of owning and operating an Airbnb as a retreat space or a short term rental, and  I’m not yet there yet on my own journey, but it was really fun to hear about Lydia’s experience in real estate, where she got started, some of the projects that she’s been working on, and most recently, these beautiful, incredible spaces down in southern Utah and Kanab that she’ll talk more about.

The links to the spaces that are available for short term rental in the Southern Utah area, I will make available in the show notes. You can check those out and see all the incredible things that we’re talking about in this show. And even if you personally aren’t interested in having a vacation home or starting an Airbnb, listening to the process and an incredible mom, a woman, build.

Her own empire around the idea of creating beautiful luxury spaces for others is really empowering. I hope that you’ll enjoy this episode as I pass the mic to my friend, Lydia.

Hey there, Lydia, welcome to Practically Happy to the Pass the Mic series. How are you doing today?

Lydia: I’m great, Miranda. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.

Miranda: Yes, I’m so excited to have you here to share a little bit more about what you’re up to right now. I’ve been fascinated with the last few projects you’ve been working on.

And I, myself, am just super interested in the idea of creating spaces for hospitality and these, like, retreats for, for people. I would love to hear more about that whole process. So, let’s start with just a general introduction for those of my followers who aren’t familiar with you or the things that you do.

Just start by telling us a little bit about yourself.

Lydia: Yes. Well, thank you.  I’m a mom. And,  a real estate professional, and I’d say, you know, I’m a licensed agent, but primarily I’ve been focusing on just investments. And honestly, that did come from motherhood. It came from kind of my journey of growing up.

Um, I’m married right now to a wonderful, wonderful husband, but I was a single mom for 10 years before he and I got married. And I really think just on a very real, real level, I learned in that 10 years how important it is to kind of hang on to my own profession. Even if I was married to someone who was more than, you know, happy and great at, at earning money.

I just really felt at my core. I still do. I think it’s such an important thing for. women, moms. Um, so that, that’s kind of where real estate came from for me. It was just a way to leverage my time a little bit better and, um, kind of be able to juggle kind of a, a business and have that ambition and be able to have that drive, but to be able to do it in a way that’s sustainable for also raising kids and taking care of a home and taking care of, you know, having, having a partner at home and everything like that.

Miranda: Yeah, so interesting. Were you always interested in homes and houses and real estate, or was that a newer kind of passion for you in your adulthood?

Lydia: My mom’s a real estate agent, she’s my broker, so I’ve always had exposure to real estate, and my mom as an immigrant was able to show me like, you know, And I’m the oldest daughter.

And I watched how my mom never did have an enormous nest egg until she purchased her own home, gained equity in that home, which created a lot of options when she found herself needing to move. And I was like, wow, what a brilliant tool. I mean, people always tell you what a great tool, tool real estate is to invest in and being able to see it.

That way really helps kind of anchor that. And, you know, I’m married to someone who also believes in real estate. So, you know, I got into it. I finally had the opportunity to begin investing as an adult just recently in the last decade. But I’d say that that was kind of instilled a little bit, little by little, you know, by the mother I had growing up.

Miranda: Yeah, makes sense. And it is. It’s So interesting how we become comfortable with the things that we are familiar with, right? So, of course you know, what a gift to be able to watch how your mom benefited from working in the real estate field and then find that you could kind of circle back around to that in your, as an adult and, and follow in her footsteps in some ways.

Lydia: Absolutely.  I had this, I had this experience just recently where I ran into a friend who was like, I, you know, I ran into her at Trader Joe’s and she’s like, I love what you’re doing. Oh my gosh, I’m way too lazy for that. I don’t have the energy or the ambition. And I think that that’s kind of the.

The thing that got me into it was it was recognizing that it’s not, you know, I’m not being lazy. I’m really being bombarded by modern day motherhood and all the things that are expected from mothers. She, she was saying this as she’s like wrangling this five-year-old, you know, next to her. And you know, when Ben and I got married, we had very unsexy, real conversations about that, what that would cost me personally as the one, you are growing the child as the one, you know, nursing the babies.

And so, creating an opportunity that would leverage more, you know, I just, I’m, I’m ambitious. I would love to go to an office and to do work, but as a mother, it’s a little bit more difficult to, you know, hold everything you need to hold in place to be able to even think about what that would look like, let alone to be able to create the space necessary to be able to Get those opportunities.

And so, it was strategic at the very beginning of my marriage to Ben, that real estate was going to be the way in which I kind of leveraged that ambition and created that income. Right.

Miranda: With the flexibility of hours, being able to work. remote being able to work from home as needed and kind of working on your own schedule.

I don’t have any experience other than like buying homes that our family has lived in with kind of the day to day of real estate but tell me a little bit more about the schedule that you’re keeping right now as a mom of young kids. You have, you know, your, your youngest two are little still. Um, and then so your schedule first and then kind of the decision to move into short term rentals instead of long-term rentals as, um, you know, real estate management.

Lydia: Yeah. If you, if you don’t mind, I’m going to answer that kind of backwards because I’m getting into short term rentals happened when I went to a conference just, I believe it was like three years ago now. So, I had a portfolio already that I was managing of long-term rentals. How much time did that require?

Zero, it really didn’t require any time I had, you know, I have management here in Salt Lake that’s taking care of that, and the Salt Lake market was doing well. And so, um, you know, the returns aren’t that exciting in long-term rental, but that’s kind of what I had going on. I went to this real estate conference and just kind of saw, okay, short term rentals are where it’s at.

If you really want that income to be, you know, three, three to five X, what long-term can provide. So that’s really, it just takes, it takes more management time. And so, it was a little bit of, of, uh, just recognizing that, okay, once my, my child is a year, two years, I’ll have a little bit more time, is short term rental going to be something that I can balance and juggle?

And it took a couple properties for me to learn about it or to kind of learn that, learn that dance. But I would say right now, um, after an intensive launch, I don’t spend more than an hour a day total on, uh, on managing properties. I have people locally that take care of the day to day, but I am on my phone, you know, answering questions and notification, you know, the notifications are coming in.

It’s just, you know, it’s probably an hour, give or take throughout the day here and there, which is a lot more manageable and a lot more doable. And kind of the understanding too, that I could step back even more. I could step back even further. I’m just kind of hovering and babying everything myself right now.

But if I wanted to put an additional manager in place, I really could and do really nothing.

Miranda: It seems like, and again, with zero experience and just kind of watching from the outside and from the way you just kind of explained that your longer-term rentals don’t have a whole lot of management because you have managers doing it.

And then the shorter-term rentals, you know, you’ve got the on the ground folks doing the turnovers in between, um, rentals and stuff like that, but you’re just kind of background answering questions and doing kind of some customer service type of things. What would you say is the biggest investment? And what my question was is that is it just capital?

Like is it just having the money to buy a property that then you can put into either long- or short-term rental? Is that kind of where people need to start if they want to?

Lydia: I think capital is enormous and there’s no understating how much, how privileged and, you know, capital is everything. If you have capital, you can move a lot faster.

Um, for us, you know, now we could say it’s capital, but really it was equity. So I would say that You know, if you’re living in a home that you currently own and you’ve owned it for a while There’s probably equity in your home that you can use as capital if you are trying to pursue Real estate investing if that makes sense So that’s I think one of the hidden opportunities that a lot and you know, moms are tired So it’s not like you’re looking for more work to do but it was probably 2019 when I looked at our home that we were living in and we had probably I was just talking numbers.

400, 000 in equity in our home. We were able to pull a huge chunk of it out. Purchase a home. I really like this strategy called BRRR. It’s B R R. I think there’s one more R in it, but you buy, yeah, you’re, you’re buying a home that’s distressed and usually wholesale for cash. So that’s what we ended up doing.

And then, um, and the reason you want to do that is because then you can rehabilitate the property and kind of force equity into the home and then you rent it and you can pull your money back out and, um, you know, theoretically do this and. Repeat, repeat this repeatedly. Okay. So that’s Roll it into the next

Miranda: property to, to rehab.

Lydia: Yeah. Your next, you know, dumpster property that needs everything done and then, and then go over again. So that’s kind of where we were starting and we had this incredible property in, uh, the ninth and ninth area of Salt Lake. I’d say that’s arguably one of the best neighborhoods in Salt Lake, right?

You’re from the area. Right. Yeah. I love it. And it was, it was insane. I picked this up for 290, 000 and it needed everything gutted. But if you know the area, you know, the lot that it’s sitting on is worth 400, 000 alone. Right? Right. And so I was, um, I was very pregnant at the time, but we picked up this property and it was a lesson kind of in knowing what I didn’t know.

And this, this, um, Burr didn’t necessarily work out the way I expected it to, but it was, it was still a lot of, uh, a lot of great lessons. I went through a couple of contractors. I went through, you know, going through city planning, understanding if it’s in a historical area and what I can and can’t do. And honestly, what I ended up doing at the end was taking a cash offer from somebody that was just like, I’ll buy this in seven days off your hands and give me, you know, 90, 000 profit in it.

Okay. I was like, okay, that’s, that’s a deal. You know, I have this little baby and I was just like, this is, um, you know, this is maybe taking a bigger bite than I was ready to. I kind of look back on it now and I, I would have, I would do it now. I would still do it. I would pull this project through the finish line.

But at the time I think it was the very best thing to, to get out of the property. And we ended up trading it for this land in Kanab. Okay. And Kanab, for those of you who are listening and, and don’t know the area, it’s the southernmost, um, tip, uh, you know, southwest tip of Utah, almost in Arizona. We’re like 10 minutes away from Arizona.

And it’s known as the gateway to the national parks. So, it’s all this beautiful desert, red rock, and it’s just like such a, it’s a stunning little town. It’s tiny and not very many people know about it, but it’s just, it’s a beautiful town. accessible to Zion to, uh, you know, all, all of these, uh, slot canyons and just that beautiful earth down there.

So, we bought this land, and it was, you know, when you trade downtown Salt Lake premium ninth on ninth, ninth and ninth, you know, property for something in a more rural, rural area, you’re in a favorable position. So, we had more cash to be able to build and come up with a, the strategy that led to modern West Co.

Yeah.

Miranda: Amazing. I mean, sounds like, I mean, of course, hindsight is always like, oh, that’s, I see what happened there, but what a perfect opportunity to kind of roll your benefit over into what has become such an incredible property. So, tell us more about. the origin story of modern west, finding the land, and how you made the decision to put the types of, you know, the A frame and the, um, the container home, that’s these homes on this property and just a little bit about what that process looked like.

Um, from ideation, like, I love the, how you came up with it and what your vision for it was.

Lydia: Yeah. Well, Ben and I love going to Southern Utah. I, we love, that’s like our preferred weekend if we’ve got, you know, a few days together and just over the years we’ve gone and gone and gone and gone. And I just think that, um, we were looking for something just a little bit more elevated and a little bit more luxury.

And we didn’t, we weren’t, we haven’t been able to find it, um, hadn’t been able to find that. And so, what we wanted to build was a little more upscale that you could, you know, still just rent it in the same exact way, but that put a little bit more effort into that design and created a more, a more luxurious environment for someone who, who cares about that, who wants, who wants to have that additional experience.

So that, that’s where the ideation came from. The modern West Co idea came from the fact that it’s horse property. And from, for as long as this land has existed, people have come and, um, you know, been keeping their horses there and I felt like really keeping the soul of the property and the town of Kanab.

They used to film a lot of Westerns there. I think that, you know, it would just be well appreciated if that was incorporated into the design. And I think that one of the biggest lessons I learned about bringing this to the finish line, it’s like the same lesson that I’ve learned about motherhood in general, as, as a, as a general, um, idea is that asking for the help you need.

is essential, creating that village and that team. So, I hired a friend from high school. Her name is Tamara Lambert of Tally Design Studios to, uh, kind of design, co design with me. And I believe that that was absolutely like essential to the, to the, uh, to the way that it’s turned out. And it’s been wonderful.

We’re in our second month of operations, so it’s not, it’s not been a huge, you know, I don’t have a ton of, uh, record to show you, but the launch was so wildly successful and we’re, we’re booked, um, we’re seeing exactly what we need to see in order to kind of move to phase two and build out that second lot with this, you know, next set of properties.

Miranda: So cool. So, for people, I’m going to send everyone, of course, to follow modern @westco on Instagram, but, um, for people who are, you know, just hearing about this for the first time, like walk us through a little bit about if you show up at modern @westco, there’s two properties, like available rentals on the @westco website.

Land right now. Yeah. Tell us about each one and kind of what it would be like to walk through the door and kind of experience each one separately.

Lydia: Okay. I’m going to tell you about that, but I want to start by saying that strategy just from a real estate strategy standpoint was really an accessory.

dwelling unit strategy. So, what that means is we have three different lots and Utah and, I want to say there’s some nationwide laws that have been passed about ADUs, but there is a tremendous housing shortage at the time that we’re, we’re speaking. And so, a lot of places are implementing this ADU, um, these ADU strategies just to try to create more housing.

So that’s the first thing that we saw when we saw these three parcels. Huge lots, great, um, with a great view, you know, it’s just, just stunning when you get out there. But we saw the opportunity to build not only a main home, but to also get an accessory dwelling unit on there, which is essentially doubling the revenue that you could have on one property.

So that’s, that’s just the, the strategy behind it. But um, when you get to, when you get to modern west, you’re going to have like a container home is the This was the first main home, and this has two main bedrooms with two bathrooms. There’s also a kitchen area, living room area, and a stunning view in this.

It’s all this front panel window, um, in this container home. It’s beautiful. So, the whole,

Miranda: basically, the whole wall, right, is like the window looking out onto this gorgeous desert landscape.

Lydia: Yes, yes, it’s beautiful. It’s the most beautiful thing. I really love this property. Um, yeah, and you can, so this one is more of a family, or if you have a small family, you can, um, stay in this container home.

We call this one the sun dance, primarily because that when the sun comes right in through those windows and throughout the day, you know, kind of dances around. It looks beautiful. Um, but everything, yeah, everything is kind of Western y. It’s really stylized. You’ve got to just check out the pictures.

You want to be transformed and you really care about the environment that you’re in. You really like the textures and the colors and the surroundings. Then you’re going to really appreciate. You know the details that went into the design and, um, for this property,

Miranda: right?

Lydia: Mm-Hmm. And then just next to it for the A DU is a 458 square foot.

Um, contain, or sorry, did I say container home? A 400? Yeah. A-frame. Yeah. An a-frame. And this one was custom built. It’s an a-frame. Um, shell kit. Are you familiar with that? A-frame company? No. Okay. Well, they are. They’re a Swedish company, but they have a warehouse in Salt Lake City. So, once I knew that they had a warehouse here, I was like, okay, we got to use them.

Um, they send you essentially the shell and your exterior and you customize the interior. And yeah, we just ended up with the most stunning little luxurious A frame. We’ve had rave reviews about it and it’s the most perfect couple’s retreat. If you’re again looking for an elevated space to stay while you enjoy the great outdoors.

Miranda: Yeah, and that one is one bedroom, one bathroom?

Lydia: Yes, just one bath, one bedroom, one-bathroom, full size kitchen that’s fully stocked with everything you need if you’re a cook. Um, but also one of the things that we’re getting, I mean, this was something that we knew was important to us, but we’re getting a lot of comments about it, is the fact that it’s walkable.

It’s right downtown to Salt Lake. And so if you really are, or Salt Lake, to Kanab. Yeah, to Kanab. So, if you’re looking for Art galleries, dinner, coffee. You don’t have to take your car and you can really get to know Kanab on foot or on bike. Um, because it’s really in that walkability. Uh, it’s really got the walkability.

Miranda: Yeah, that’s really cool and seems like, The perfect combination of like an escape where you have these expansive desert views and this really cozy, beautiful, luxurious nest to come home to but easy access to, I mean, not like Kanab is this, like you’ve already mentioned, it’s not a bustling city center, but absolutely hopping out and getting dinner or getting coffee or, or wandering around and kind of getting to know the, the local zone, which Super cool.

I mean, I grew up going to Southern Utah all the time. Kanab truly was kind of like the last stop. That’s where we always would like get gas and a soda before we went on to our big adventure, whether it was a backpacking trip or hiking or, um, river rafting or whatever we were doing. And so, I love the idea of being able to have Kanab be the destination and not just the stopover.

Although it can be that too. Like road trip to somewhere and stay. You know, have a beautiful couple days on the way and make like the trip it, you know, the whole trip The, uh, a vacation rather than just like bustling through. I know sometimes on a road trip, you’re like, just get there. But it’s kind of nice if you can pause somewhere beautiful.

Absolutely. On the way.

Lydia: Absolutely. And our last guest went to the Grand Canyon and still said it was worth the drive and the whole thing is scenic. And, um, that’s something I’ve experienced too is just going down there even when I was still working on the project. project and just down there to do work.

Just noticed how, you know, maybe it takes a long time to get to a store to get here and there, but you can’t beat the scenic drives in any direction in that area. It’s stunning. Right.

Miranda: Well, I have to say Modern West Co. hits on every single one of my, like, favorite aesthetics.

It’s a little bit industrial, but still warm and cozy. It’s super textured, but very natural. It’s the, the desert, like the warmth of the desert, and those desert kind of Western colors and, and history. And I cannot wait for a chance to go sometime when I’m on that side of the country. It just seems like the perfect retreat.

Lydia: Oh, thank

Miranda: you. Our favorite thing as a family over the years has been finding, like, not just going and staying in a cool hotel, although we like that from time to time, but I really have loved doing short term rentals, doing Airbnb, and having, like, that experience be, you know, where we stay becomes kind of the core of the memory.

I have very favorite Airbnb’s in Texas, and we just found a new one that we love in North Carolina. That’s just a couple hours from us here that has the same kind of elevated feel. It’s like a, I don’t know, 200 square foot container. You know tiny house that’s on a trailer like it’s on wheels Oh, I love those it says that they pull it when they go camping like it’s kind of wild but it’s when you find somewhere like that that just feels like the perfect elevated home away from home I love having a place like that, that I repeat, that it becomes part of our couple hood, like part of our romantic getaway, that we love going back to that same place, or part of our family’s adventure, that, oh yeah, we’re going back to that cool place that we love.

Um, and it feels like Modern West is going to be that for your guests because of the attention. to the whole experience that you’ve created.

Lydia: Thank you. We’ve certainly had a lot of response. It’s like, I can’t wait to come again. And you got, you know, telling people that they’re going to love coming and staying here year after year.

So that is, that was the intention. And I, I’m so grateful for you to give me an opportunity just to, just to say publicly, I’m so proud of what we created, and you know, it’s been a hard journey, but it’s been really rewarding and worthwhile.

Miranda: Yeah, that’s amazing. What, um, I’m curious about just a couple of like the touches that you, you know, you, you went in thinking we want to create this elevated luxury space in this sort of, you know, small town.

In the gateway to the National Park. So, what were some of the other than having a designer and beautiful decor and being thoughtful about the actual properties? Are there some special touches that you include for your guests, even in terms of like recommendations or little things that you feel add to that, the elevation of that experience that other people who are considering short term rentals may want to kind of mine your, your, uh, brain for some of these ideas?

Lydia: Yes. Well, for, we do give recommendations in our welcome book. Um, we want people to know where they can find, you know, the most satisfying meal, a romantic elevated meal. Um, especially when you’re in a, in a smaller area like that, your opportunity, your options are sometimes kind of limited. And so, um, you know, we want people to be able to get a great coffee.

So, we made sure, you know, to have amazing, you know, coffee makers in the, in the, uh, homes themselves, but also where they can get a great coffee, you know, where they can. Um, so we do like to leave those recommendations. I’d say another couple of touches. Um, we just, we give people, you know, they have a little modern West, uh, kind of Western robe that they can relax in, in the space.

Um, Let’s see, I’m trying to think of all the little elevations that we recreated, but my mind’s kind of going blank. Yeah, I feel

Miranda: like in looking through it, I was even like, Ooh, like I want to smell the soap. Like, like just a real attention to detail on things that you might not consider a big deal.

But when you’re, when you’re in a retreat type environment, like that vacation type environment, those little things add up to make. This whole experience wonderful.

Lydia: Yes, I think one of those things for me too is like a fully stocked kitchen when I’m on vacation. I’m not necessarily dying to You know, cook all the meals or whatever for my family.

But, you know, on a romantic weekend away with my husband for us to both cook a meal together, um, feel, you know, it just feels really relaxing a lot of times. Um, but having a kitchen that kind of has everything you need is I think a way to, um, really elevate that experience for the guest. And that’s, yeah, absolutely.

Miranda: I love it. So, um, Modern West Co. is incredible, and I can’t wait to go. Thank you. You were mid process. You hadn’t launched Modern West when you discovered and went ahead with the acquisition of Oak Grove Retreat, which is um, a little bit different. I mean, same cool kind of western desert energy because it is still Utah, but tell me a little bit more about that, um, and how it’s different.

and what the best uses for that type of property are.

Lydia: Yeah, Oak Grove Retreat is just an hour north of Kanab in an area called Alton, and it’s really, really close to Bryce Canyon. That’s the closest national park over there, but it is, again, like very central to Cedar Breaks, uh, you know, other state parks in the area.

It’s an, it’s an outdoor hub, and This property was a, it’s a good cabin renovation that was not even a renovation. It just needed some elevated style and some furnishing upgrades for it to just perform just that little bit better. And so, I knew I didn’t have the energy and the capacity to take on a full new build again, but this one was just easy enough to get in and out and kind of refurnish in time.

About a month, you know, couple, couple months of sourcing, a few trips of going down there. But this one sleep 10 to 12 people, so it’s really an ideal family or mastermind or small retreat space. And, uh, I, the, I can’t, I can’t say enough about the location. It’s like location, location, location. It’s really close to, um, what’s I, is it I 89?

the 89 that goes, anyway, it goes up. It’s kind of

Miranda: crosses from I 15 over to like the more eastern side of the state.

Lydia: Exactly. Yep. And it goes right up and down. So, it’s just one, it’s not even 30 seconds off that main junction. So, it feels remote, but it makes your ability to get everywhere, whether it’s grocery store or to get to Bryce Canyon or to get to, um, Cedar, Cedar breaks, um, that much easier.

So, Yeah, so cool. Yes.

Miranda: And it has a hot tub, which is like, check, check, check on my list of favorite things when I’m going to a rental.

Lydia: I mean, don’t you need that at the end of the day after all the adventures and hiking around? Yes, absolutely. And

Miranda: particularly like with a bigger property where, you know, you may have a group of, you know, group of friends or family or kids or whatever that I feel like that’s just like an activity all its own.

And., I think I’m spoiled too because we have a hot tub at home that we love and we use almost daily in, even in the summer, you know, for just general recovery. And, uh, so I love, I love a hot tub when I travel and I’m always like, Oh, what a bonus. Like, absolutely. And we have, we do,

Lydia: we do also have a sauna that is going to be operational in about two weeks for that property as well.

Yeah. So, sauna, hot tub, and you can sleep, you know, 10 to 12 people easily. So

Miranda: cool. Yeah, another one I’m adding to my list for when I’m, when I’m out there soon. So, what’s on the horizon for you? I know you just have launched Modern West. And so that’s, you know, like you said, your kind of in hover mode of like making sure that everything, everyone’s happy and it’s going well.

And that’s probably taking up the most of your attention and time right now. But do you have something around the bend that you’re looking forward to? Um, with either another property or is it just building on the other lots that you have? Yes, it’s, we

Lydia: have phase two and phase three coming up where we’re building a full size, it’s about 3, 000 square foot, um, A frame cabin and it will have a smaller, um, ADU right next container home.

So, if, if you, it’s kind of inverse. Um, yeah, of what’s going on our first little lot. Um, but we’re going to go full speed ahead with that. We, we were going to take about a three-month break, but honestly, the launch has been so energizing and so kind of validating in terms of the numbers and that, that we’re pretty much getting started on it, you know, I’m going to take a little mental break, maybe another month or so, but going full speed ahead into that and hopefully that’ll be ready in about.

Uh, seven months, we’ll say. Wow, that’s quite a turnaround. Yeah, it’ll be Yeah, I wish it was faster. I wish it was sooner. But yeah, it’s just got to be completed on the inside and One of the really cool things that we use for our container homes is a company called stack homes and they build actually in warehouse in Salt Lake City So as soon as we see you could know they could turn around a property in 90 days and then they just crane that property in You know, they, they truck it in and then they just crane it onto your property on the foundation.

Just put it right on the foundation. Yep. So that, that’s exciting. That’s one of the reasons why we can turn around so quickly.

Miranda: Yeah. I love that you’ve connected to all the different resources within Salt Lake, within, you know, your community to bring these properties to life. I feel like you’re, it’s like the layers of layers of, um, supporting me.

The community giving back to, you know, create these beautiful retreats for people who are coming into the state and just, you know, like a beautiful, thoughtful, sustainable way to be building your business and benefiting, you know, with, with benefits like rolling out beyond you.

Lydia: Absolutely. And it feels great, honestly, to promote, you know, you can be on social media for a lot of different reasons, but I really love being able to promote these retreats and escapes because I think it’s what’s needed in, in our, in our lives.

You know, you can’t work yourself out of burnout. You can’t hustle your way to, you know, everything. It requires retreating. It requires escape. It requires some pampering of yourself. And so, I really love. Promoting and encouraging specifically moms to do that, do that for yourself, do that for your marriage, do that for your happiness, all of that.

So, it is exciting in that way.

Miranda: Totally. And you know, I fully, fully agree. I’ve made, um, you know, part of this big arm of my own business, creating those spaces and retreats in community for women to come join. And so, you’re doing the same thing on the property level, which I think is amazing. Um, a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned something on Instagram about.

The conference, maybe there’s one coming up, maybe it’s already passed. I don’t know, but that, you know, where you originally got started, but for people who are listening and they’re like, I would love the idea of having a rental kind of getting started in this real estate game, what would you recommend is the best place to get started?

They can reach out to you. Is there some somewhere that you’d recommend they go?

Lydia: Yeah. If you’re, if you’re looking for short term real estate in the state of Utah, reach out to me. I’d be happy to, you know, even send you a few numbers in terms of like, which areas you might want to consider. I, although I always really love, um, when people look at areas that they know.

I think that’s one of the important secrets is just to understand the area and what people there do, what seasonality looks like. And that comes with experience going there year after year. Um, but I can, I can certainly help you out with that, but I am a part of a, uh, what is it? A cohort, um, called host camp.

And I invested initially in something called GLAMP camp. His name is Rob Abusolo. He’s a He’s a coach. There’s another podcast called Bigger Pockets. So, I think finding your community, finding a community of people who are running alongside you, kind of doing the same thing is, you know, that that’s how I was able to find the confidence, I think, to move forward on some big projects that I had never done anything like before.

Miranda: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great recommendation to surround yourself with people doing kind of headed the same direction, parallel community and be supports for each other.

Lydia: Yep.

Miranda: But Host Camp

Lydia: is a couple times a year and it’s in Houston in the end of August. Um, yeah, it’s called, it’s called Host Con actually.

Host Con. Oh, okay. Mm hmm. Like Comic Con. But

Miranda: for. short term rental hosts. Exactly.

Lydia: Exactly. Mm hmm.

Miranda: There’s no, there’s no outfit required. No out. Not

Lydia: yet. I’m sure, you know, maybe a cowboy hat. I know as the years keep going, I’m sure people, you know, will show up dressed up more and more. I love it. Yeah.

Miranda: Well, so wonderful.

Thank you so much for sharing so much of your wisdom and your story. It’s been really inspiring. I mean, we go way back and I’ve, I love you, and I have loved seeing you come alive through these projects that you’ve been working on over the last couple years. It really has been, you know, energetically, like through the phone, through Instagram, as you’re sharing about these processes and, and the design and the building and even just the way that you’re living your life in harmony with the things that you’re promoting in terms of people making space for themselves within their motherhood and taking time and space to retreat and going on wonderful dates with your spouse.

And you’re, you’re embodying the message, um, that you’re sharing through your properties. And I have just I just love following along. So, thank you so much for hopping on and sharing so much of your story with us today.

Lydia: I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Miranda.

Miranda: Wow. I’m so grateful to Lydia for giving us such a candid look inside the building of a short-term rental portfolio.

The details that go into creating spaces, the strategy behind it. You’re going to want to follow along with Lydia and with her upcoming projects. I will link her personal Instagram, as well as the Modern West Co Instagram in the show notes right there in your hand. So, you can watch the magic as it unfolds and all the links for the Airbnb’s where you can stay with your friends, with your family, with your spouse, by yourself, take yourself on a solo retreat to Southern Utah.

All of that is available in the show notes as well. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I will chat with you again next time. Bye.