May 27, 2025 • 27 mins
In our 100th episode of Your Landlord Resource, Stacie shares a deeply personal story of grief, caregiving, and loss—and how she and Kevin continued to self-manage their rental properties through one of the most difficult periods of their lives.
We’re not just talking about landlord tips today—we’re talking about how to stay grounded, motivated, and operational when life knocks you down. From caring for aging parents to managing tenant issues and unexpected emergencies, this episode is all about perseverance, preparation, and learning to keep your rental business running—even when your world feels like it’s falling apart.
If you’ve ever felt like walking away from it all, this episode is for you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stacie (00:00):
I think part of it for me was that I had been through
(00:03):
really hard times before.
Like for years, when my firsthusband was ill and I was trying
to raise three boys.
So I knew while all this toughstuff was happening, one after
the other, that it would beokay.
If you're struggling right now,no matter what, it will be okay.
It may not be what you wanted orit may not be what you've
(00:25):
planned.
But if you can learn to pivotand accept change, lean on those
who are there for you, and justkeep creating action by doing
what needs to be done.
You'll come out on the otherside of things okay.
Welcome to Your LandlordResource podcast.
(00:47):
Many moons ago when I started asa landlord, I was as green as it
gets.
I may have had my real estatelicense, but I lack confidence
and the hands-on experienceneeded when it came to dealing
with tenants, leases,maintenance, and bookkeeping
after many failed attempts.
Fast forward to today, Kevin andI have doubled our doors and
created an organized.
Professionally operated rentalproperty business.
(01:09):
Want to go from overwhelm toconfident if you're an ambitious
landlord or maybe one in themaking.
Join us as we provide strategiesand teach actionable steps to
help you reach your goals andthe lifestyle you desire.
All well building is streamlinedand profitable rental property
business.
This is your landlord resourcepodcast.
(01:32):
Well, hello landlords.
Welcome back to the YourLandlord Resource Podcast.
I'm your host, Stacie Casella,and I'm here with my co-host
Kevin Kilroy.
Kevin (01:41):
Happy to be here.
Stacie (01:43):
We are very excited because this is our 100th
episode, and I'll tell you whenwe started back in March of
2023.
We had no idea what we weredoing for the podcast part, not
the landlord stuff.
Kevin (01:57):
I was gonna say, Hey, wait a minute.
Stacie (01:59):
Yeah, no.
We had no idea what it meant tobe podcasters, and we didn't
even know if we would haveenough content to make it a
year, much less two.
But here we are and we'reworking hard for all of you
guys.
It takes a lot of time andresearch to make sure what we
want to discuss is presented ina way that you guys can
(02:20):
understand and relate to.
Kevin (02:22):
Yeah, I will say that Stacie does a lot of the
research and writing, and andI'm more on the production side.
So I get to sit with myheadphones on after we have
recorded and edit each episodeand make sure it gets posted.
My job is fairly easy comparedto Stacie's, but we do sit and
have discussions about eachepisode and what we need to
(02:46):
cover so you can all learnsomething.
Our goal is for you to learn onenew landlord tip on each
episode, so hopefully that'shappening.
And we do get a lot of our ideasand content from you all as
well, so keep emailing us ideasfor subjects you'd like to learn
more about.
Stacie (03:05):
So 100 episodes.
Oh, and before I forget, makesure you listen to the end.
We're doing a giveaway and we'lltell you all about it when we
wrap up this episode here.
But yeah, we have sharedmistakes made, wins celebrated,
and lessons learned.
You know, landlord life isn'talways easy, and what we want to
(03:28):
focus on today is how to staymotivated when life gets hard.
And this is not just landlordlife, this is life in general.
For us as soon as we get ourplates full on the personal home
front, something goes wrong withone of the properties.
As soon as we think, all right,we can relax a little, let's
plan a vacation.
(03:48):
Something comes up that we needto handle with one of the
rentals.
It never fails.
And we might have told you thisstory before, but Kevin and I
were working a lot on theSacramento sixplex a few years
ago, and I'll never forget this.
It was August and we hadrecently moved the youngest back
to college in South Carolina.
(04:08):
The other two boys had eithermoved out or were away at
college as well.
But we were driving back fromSacramento and it was late like
9:00 PM.
We were just getting ready tocross the Bay Bridge into San
Francisco, and I said to Kevin,ah, Sac is done and we have
nothing that we need to worryabout for a while.
(04:28):
And I said something to Kevinalong the lines of, it feels so
good to finally be able to havesome free time.
We were thrilled to have thiswide open schedule.
Because Lord knows that weneeded to work on our own home a
little bit here.
And this was in 2020.
August of 2020.
And I know this because it wasright before my 50th birthday.
(04:48):
And I kid you not, five minuteslater after I said that, the
phone rings and it's my mom.
Dad's in the hospital, she says,he's having surgery first thing
in the morning.
And I was like, what are youtalking about?
We just saw him a few days ago,he was perfectly fine.
Well, long story short, a fewyears prior he was body surfing
(05:09):
on Maui on our family vacationand a big wave tossed him around
and threw him on the sea floor,which resulted in a broken
shoulder.
The shoulder healed and he wasdoing great, but his shoulder
had metal plates, and somehow heingested a rare bacteria that is
found in soil.
Now, he's an avid gardener, andan infection had formed at the
(05:32):
site of the broken shoulderwhere those metal plates were.
Of course, my dad, who forseveral days, saw the redness
and felt the heat on his skin,ignored it until he was nearly
septic.
Kevin (05:44):
And we've talked about our parents before.
Both our parents are, uh, let'ssay older, I guess elderly, but
for the most part, they'repretty much self-sufficient.
So I hate to use the termelderly because you know, that
sounds like they're dilapidatedand just sitting around all day
and that is not the case at all.
(06:06):
And at the time this happened,Stacie's dad was 80 years old.
He was still climbing laddersand painting his house, caring
for a big, beautiful landscapegarden on a property that's just
shy of an acre.
Stacie (06:21):
Yeah.
I mean it's, it's all prettyimpressive.
In August, all his veggiesalready and he is out there for
hours every day tending to them.
Nonetheless, he had to havemajor surgery and Kevin and I,
you know, we're their people.
The ones that they turn to whenthey need help, which up until
then was pretty rare.
(06:42):
He came through surgery fine,but he had a very long road of
recovery.
He had to have a drain, which anurse had to come daily to tend
to, he had a pic line put in andneeded to get antibiotic
injections twice a day for sixweeks.
By me because my mom was notcomfortable doing it.
So I spent my days, the daysthat, for those five precious
(07:04):
minutes, I was so excited aboutbeing able to have time to do
what I wanted, making meals anddriving back and forth to my
parents' home, which was about a25 minute drive one way, and
that was to care for my parents.
Dad couldn't drive, so doctorappointments, et cetera, they
were all on me to get themaround where they needed to be.
My dad could not use his arm andhad to rest, so Kevin stepped in
(07:27):
and helped around the housewhere he could.
Uh, Kevin also picked up theslack with the rentals.
My sole job and concern wastaking care of my parents.
And don't misunderstand me, Iwould do it all over again.
When my late husband was ill, myparents stepped in and took over
everything for me.
They helped with my boys, helpedaround the house, helped with my
(07:47):
duties in the business that wewere all running.
You know, this was my turn.
And for us, that's what you dofor family.
And by the time my dad was onthe mend in mid-October, my
brother had taken a turn for theworse and I had to pivot and
step up my care for him.
And unfortunately he passed thatfollowing November, and I have
(08:08):
no idea what the holidays evenlooked like that year.
It was all a blur.
I know is that Kevin and I havenot slowed down at all, nor have
we had that feeling of, ah,unless we force it upon
ourselves with a vacation.
2021 and 22 were filled with alot of change, some good, some
(08:29):
not so great.
And you know what I wanted todo?
I wanted to give it all up.
I just wanted to sell it all andwalk away.
Even the simplest of amaintenance request became such
a hassle because I had nopatience to handle it.
Kevin (08:42):
And one thing Stacie is skipping over is that in 2021,
after her brother passed hishome, which was a rental under
their family LLC, was brokeninto several times and these
guys robbed him blind and nearlyburned the house down using an
acetylene torch to burn a holein the gun safe.
(09:04):
So here she is grieving over herbrother and at the same time
trying to empty out a 3000square foot home as fast as
humanly possible.
It was an absolute mess.
Stacie (09:16):
Yeah.
And then in January of 2021, 6weeks after my brother passed,
we lost my best friend's husbandsuddenly.
And this guy was the best man inmy first wedding, and basically
an uncle to my kids and kid.
Two, spent a lot of time withhim after losing his own dad.
As a matter of fact, he waswaiting for him in their hunting
(09:38):
blind when I had to call andtell him that his uncle had
passed during the night.
It was just a nightmare.
So when I'm trying to handle allof this that has been thrown at
me or us over several months,the last thing I wanted to do
was deal with our rentalproperties.
How do we stay motivated to keepgoing and not just sell it all
off and invest our capital inthe stock market?
(10:00):
We waited, we reflected and whenmotivation never really came, we
had to just take action in orderto keep the business going.
We called on our team,specifically our contractor,
Jim, to deal with all themaintenance issues.
Because I have standardoperating procedures in place, I
was able to hand work off toKevin to handle.
(10:22):
The stuff I always took care ofmyself, like tenant screening,
he had to handle that now.
And I know you may think youhave it all together, but you
really need to ask yourself whenthe shit hits the fan are you
covered?
We, and when I say we, I meanmostly Kevin because he had to
show up and take action.
He had to do things he was notfamiliar with and make decisions
(10:44):
he never had to make before.
Because honestly, I could careless.
It was a bad year for me, youguys.
I was all excited about turning50 and having the kids outta the
house for the first time.
And you know, God had anotherplan for me.
Kevin (10:59):
Thankfully you leaned on people.
I mean, you're a very strongminded and independent person.
And man, I know it was hard foryou to let someone else step in
and handle the business when youcouldn't.
But if anything good came fromthose tough, really tough years,
it was that you and I learned alot about ourselves and the
(11:20):
business too.
If I'm being honest, it'sbecause all that stuff happening
one after the other for over ayear, nearly two, that's when
Your Landlord Resource cameabout.
A lot of our professionalfriends and friends in property
management were like, how thehell did you do that?
(11:40):
Because you know, most rentalproperty owners and
self-managing landlords fly bythe seat of their pants.
They do not have systems inplace, business plan, reserves,
budgets to follow, financialgoals to meet, or a solid team
to lean on.
And thank goodness you had thewherewithal to have that
(12:00):
business running like a welloiled machine when all this
happened.
You literally were able to handme the quote unquote Bible to
your business and let me handlestuff.
Did this mean I just took over?
No way.
Come on now, if, if you knowStacie well enough, you should
know she still had her hands inthere.
(12:22):
She was able to take a back seatand let me drive for a few
months, but I'll tell you, shewas still in the car and giving
me directions.
And thankfully, as she mentionedearlier, we had just finished a
huge project on the sixplex andthe units were all occupied.
Stacie (12:39):
Well, until that one tenant had the fruit fly
infestation and we had to askhim to leave, those were fun
times.
Kevin (12:44):
Oh, right.
That, that happened that yeartoo, didn't it?
Stacie (12:47):
Yep.
And then the flood in Chico inOctober of 21.
Kevin (12:51):
Holy crap.
That was a bad couple of years.
And for all of you who are like,wow, that's tough.
When 2022 came along, beingoptimistic, we were like.
Okay, it's a new year, time tostart over.
Kid two had just moved to Idahothe previous summer to live with
his college buddies who hadmoved there after graduation.
(13:14):
He reached, what, four, maybefive months of living there, and
he just loved it.
I mean, he's the outdoorsman, sothe mountains were perfect for
him to go hiking and mountainbiking, all things outdoors.
So now it was time for him tobuy his first home.
So we were back there, I believeit was early February, driving
around and looking at singlefamily homes that he had picked
(13:37):
out, and the phone rings.
It's Stacie's mom.
All right, her dad was fine, butshe had gone to the doctor and
had just been told she hadbreast cancer.
I mean, talk about the worldstopping.
We helped kid two decide on hisfirst home purchase and finished
out the trip so we could getback home as soon as possible to
(14:00):
do the parent health thing allover again.
I mean, Stacie did not miss oneappointment and to this day she
still doesn't.
To say our world was centeredaround the situation for the
next three to six months is anunderstatement.
And her mom was very lucky.
They caught the cancer early,were able to do surgery and she
(14:22):
did not have to do any chemo orradiation.
But the surgery was a bigchallenge and we are grateful it
ended with that.
Stacie (14:31):
Yeah.
So for all our female listeners,my mom was 84 when she got her
breast cancer diagnosis.
Please get your annualmammograms and don't stop just
because you think you're too oldto get it.
And although we had somechallenges since that time, they
were nothing near as scary oremergent that took us out for
(14:52):
months.
And I'll tell you, I know thatgood and bad times ebb and flow
through all of our lives.
But this couple of years wastough.
Thankfully, I was able to keepmy head above water.
I think part of it for me wasthat I had been through really
hard times before.
Like for years, when my firsthusband was ill and I was trying
(15:15):
to raise three boys.
So I knew while all this toughstuff was happening, one after
the other, that it would beokay.
If you're struggling right now,no matter what, it will be okay.
It may not be what you wanted orit may not be what you've
planned.
But if you can learn to pivotand accept change, lean on those
(15:38):
who are there for you and justkeep creating action by doing
what needs to be done.
You'll come out on the otherside of things okay.
If I could give one piece ofadvice, it would be to not make
any big decisions until you arethrough with whatever hard time
you're going through.
I mean, how many times did Itell you I just wanted to sell
(15:59):
it all?
Kevin (16:00):
Many times.
I mean, many, many times.
You even went so far as to workout a plan on what it would look
like, and if I recall, the planwas not what you had hoped.
Stacie (16:12):
Right.
I mean, you know, we were, we,we are older, we are established
with a home and a family aroundus.
We have people who depend on us.
And sure, we could have sold itall and paid a ridiculous amount
of money in capital gains taxes.
We could have moved to Hawaii orFlorida, lived in the little hut
for all I cared.
(16:32):
I wanted to get rid of all theresponsibility, but it would've
just followed me.
And let's be real.
I need to have something goingon.
I can only sit around for solong before I start needing
stuff to do.
Kevin (16:44):
Well, kid two in his new duplex is a perfect example of
that.
That started what, back inJanuary.
He texted about the property andwe helped him run the numbers
and even flew out there to walkit with him in February.
By the end of March, theproperty had closed and we were
raring to go to get back thereand work alongside him to fix it
(17:06):
up and get it ready to rent.
You had spreadsheets and to-dolists and a file folder that's a
foot tall with all the stuffneeded to help him in that
property.
Stacie (17:17):
And I love it.
And that's what I mean.
I want to be able to do thesethings with my kids.
Regardless if it's rentalproperties or weddings or
changing careers or moving awayfrom us.
I want to be their biggestcheerleader.
Kevin (17:31):
You've been following that Instagram account sailing
with Phoenix lately, and forthose of you unfamiliar with
this account, there's this guy,he's young, I don't know, maybe
early thirties.
He received a diagnosis where hehas a degenerative spine
disease.
I'm, I'm not quite sure whatit's called, but he had a job
(17:51):
and decided to just up and selleverything he had.
Depleted his 401k and buy asailboat to sail around the
world, just him and his cat.
Stacie (18:01):
I, I am a bit obsessed with that guy.
And there's a little part of methat wishes I, we had the guts
to do something like that.
Kevin (18:11):
What if one of the kids wanted to do it?
Stacie (18:14):
Well, I'd be worried, of course, but man, do it.
I want'em to go live their livesthe way they want.
Because before they know it,they're gonna have a wife and
kids.
And yeah, people can live anomad life with kids too, but as
long as they're smart and havesome investments to fall back
on, I'd support my kids sailaround the world with their cat.
Kevin (18:35):
I, I think by the time this episode airs, he will have
made it from Oregon to Hawaiithen he plans to live in Hawaii
for a while to get his boatrepaired and all set up for the
next leg of his world tour.
It is kind of a trip watchingthe videos of him all alone in
the ocean.
I mean, I'd be fine, I think,but I believe you'd go stir
crazy.
Stacie (18:56):
I, I would have to have something to do, like write a
book or something to pass thetime.
But the point of this episode isto share how we continued on
with our journey as landlordswhen times were challenging.
You know, the mindset that isneeded now in order to push
through and stay motivated if atime comes along where you feel
(19:17):
you want to throw in the towel.
And let me tell you the twothings that saved my butt were
that I had systems in place andI had someone to hand the work
off to.
It really is as simple as that.
You know, it's kind of like, um,a living trust for your
business.
I mean, except if you pass yourpartner or heirs can obviously
(19:37):
do whatever they want with thebusiness, but you know what I
mean.
When I say have systems inplace, I mean, it can be as
simple as making a list that youuse and you go off of every day
or every week, month, or year onwhat needs to be done.
Now, this period of time was nota situation where I was
completely removed.
(19:59):
It was certainly not a time whennothing got done, but it was a
time when scheduled projectswere pushed back, and that was
because other projects likerepairing my brother's broken
windows and doors and firedamaged house had to take
priority.
Our tenants had no idea that anyof this was going on.
Inspections still took place,repairs were made, renewals were
(20:22):
done on time, all those things.
And this is because forinspections and renewals, I have
reminders on my phone.
So we do inspections everyspring and every fall, typically
in May and November.
In late September, my phone popsup with a notification to plan a
day in November for inspections.
That reminder keeps popping upweekly until I have the date set
(20:46):
and can cancel thatnotification.
I do this because I like to havesix weeks to plan that one day.
One because we're busy, wetravel.
Like this November kid one isgetting married in Mexico and
we're gonna be gone for a week.
We come back and it'sThanksgiving.
So I know that this year I needto do that inspection day early
(21:08):
in the month, or even move itback to late November.
During this time, I have mynephew getting married out of
state.
We have homes in the mountainsthat need to be winterized, and
that takes a few days in earlyNovember as well.
So we need to plan that datewell in advance around all the
other things that we have goingon.
(21:28):
Two weeks before thatinspection, we email the tenants
to let them know that the datehas been set and ask if there
are any maintenance issues thatthey need remedied.
Doing this allows us plenty oftime to schedule the necessary
repair people for that day.
We do each property inspectionin one day so we can have Jim on
site to check for leaks, etcetera.
(21:50):
Our HVAC guy is on site to checkthe heaters or in the spring
he's checking the AC units.
And then anyone else, like thislast spring inspection, we had
fiber optic installed to everyunit.
If we need to access someone'sunit, we try to do everything we
need to do in one day so wedon't inconvenience them any
more than we have to.
Kevin (22:11):
And I wanna jump in here and say that we will be doing an
episode on why we installed thatfiber optic and what that
experience was like.
It's mostly for multi-familycomplexes, but we actually
learned a lot and want to sharewhat we did and why as well as
if we would recommend it.
Stacie (22:29):
Yeah, we had a lot of aha moments with that internet
installation.
Kevin (22:34):
Yeah.
It's not as cut and dried asyou'd think.
So, uh, keep an eye out for thatepisode.
It should be the next one or theone following.
To continue what Stacie wasdiscussing.
She has notes in her phone,reminders on her phone, like to
set the inspection date and apaper calendar that we use where
we plan our weeks out a coupleof weeks at a time.
(22:56):
If something happens that uprootour lives and her or my focus
comes off the day-to-day tasks,when we are then able to come
back, even if it's only for anhour here and there, we can look
at what we have coming up andgo, yes, let's move forward with
that, or nope that's not apriority now let's table that
for a later date.
(23:18):
We did an episode early on aboutstandard operating procedures.
It was in our top five mostlistened to episodes until
recently, but I think it'sdefinitely still in our top 10
most popular.
If you want to give it a listen,you can go to landlord
resource.com/episode 6.
We break down why they areimportant and what we do.
(23:41):
We will link it in the shownotes as well.
You know, the point of thisepisode was really to discuss
how to stay motivated whenyou're not getting the results
you want.
It seems we took a turn and arefocusing more on how to work
through your business duringpersonal challenging times.
Stacie (23:57):
Yeah.
I can see we did go on a tangentabout our tough couple years.
But I guess my point is, is thatwe want to let you all know that
even for us landlord life issometimes hard.
It's not because the businessitself, it's because of life
itself.
You know, thank goodness we arein a position with these rentals
to be able to have the time weneeded to care for my family in
(24:20):
their time of need.
Owning rentals gave us thatfreedom.
Listen, we're gonna table theinformation we wanted to talk
about until next episode.
We will cover how to handle whenyou feel your rental property
business itself is not workingout as you'd hoped or planned.
Because we have had those issuesas well.
Kevin (24:40):
Right?
I mean, we're working to itright now with the Idaho
property and it's not fun timesyou guys.
Listen, we know a lot aboutbeing property managers, but we
certainly don't know at all, andwe absolutely are always
learning.
And that's what we wanted todiscuss, so let's focus that on
the next episode.
Stacie (25:02):
All right, well then let's talk about our giveaway.
Kevin and I have decided tostart doing a little landlord or
property management coaching onthe side.
To kick this off, we're givingaway one free hour of coaching,
which is valued at around ahundred bucks.
Get it?
A hundred dollars gift for ourhundredth episode.
To enter, there is a link in theshow notes, or you can go to
(25:24):
your landlordresource.com/contest 100.
You can enter there and for abonus entry, you can leave us a
kind review for the podcast.
Just make sure that we're ableto align your review with your
online entry.
Kevin (25:41):
Don't make it anonymous review.
Make sure it has a way for us toconnect them together so you get
proper credit.
Like use your first name andinitial of your last name.
The link to leave the review isin the show notes.
We will also be announcing thiscontest on Instagram and
Facebook and offering bonusentries for those as well.
(26:02):
So you'll have multiple ways tograb those bonus entries.
Stacie (26:06):
Yeah, we're running this contest through the month of
June, that's in 2025.
Ends at midnight PacificStandard time June 30th, 2025.
So if you're listening to thisepisode in the future, you can
still sign up for coaching, justnot the contest for a free
session.
All right.
Well thanks for tuning in.
I hope this helped you to knowthat it's not always wine and
(26:30):
roses as landlords.
Even with our experience, westill struggle to handle
everything professionally.
If you enjoyed this episode,follow or subscribe to the
podcast so that each week theepisodes are downloaded right to
your favorite podcast platform.
We would love to stay in contactwith you.
In the show notes, you can findlinks to all the free downloads
(26:52):
that we offer, ways to sign upfor our free newsletter, and the
wait list for our upcomingcourse on tenant screening.
There's also links to ourprivate Facebook group that's
just for landlords and oursocial media accounts on
Instagram and Facebook, as wellas YouTube, where we share
informative and detailed tipsand tricks for landlords.
So go check those out.
(27:13):
I think that's about it.
Thanks again for tuning in, anduntil next time, you've got this
landlords.
I think part of it for me was that I had been through
(00:03):
really hard times before.
Like for years, when my firsthusband was ill and I was trying
to raise three boys.
So I knew while all this toughstuff was happening, one after
the other, that it would beokay.
If you're struggling right now,no matter what, it will be okay.
It may not be what you wanted orit may not be what you've
(00:25):
planned.
But if you can learn to pivotand accept change, lean on those
who are there for you, and justkeep creating action by doing
what needs to be done.
You'll come out on the otherside of things okay.
Welcome to Your LandlordResource podcast.
(00:47):
Many moons ago when I started asa landlord, I was as green as it
gets.
I may have had my real estatelicense, but I lack confidence
and the hands-on experienceneeded when it came to dealing
with tenants, leases,maintenance, and bookkeeping
after many failed attempts.
Fast forward to today, Kevin andI have doubled our doors and
created an organized.
Professionally operated rentalproperty business.
(01:09):
Want to go from overwhelm toconfident if you're an ambitious
landlord or maybe one in themaking.
Join us as we provide strategiesand teach actionable steps to
help you reach your goals andthe lifestyle you desire.
All well building is streamlinedand profitable rental property
business.
This is your landlord resourcepodcast.
(01:32):
Well, hello landlords.
Welcome back to the YourLandlord Resource Podcast.
I'm your host, Stacie Casella,and I'm here with my co-host
Kevin Kilroy.
Kevin (01:41):
Happy to be here.
Stacie (01:43):
We are very excited because this is our 100th
episode, and I'll tell you whenwe started back in March of
2023.
We had no idea what we weredoing for the podcast part, not
the landlord stuff.
Kevin (01:57):
I was gonna say, Hey, wait a minute.
Stacie (01:59):
Yeah, no.
We had no idea what it meant tobe podcasters, and we didn't
even know if we would haveenough content to make it a
year, much less two.
But here we are and we'reworking hard for all of you
guys.
It takes a lot of time andresearch to make sure what we
want to discuss is presented ina way that you guys can
(02:20):
understand and relate to.
Kevin (02:22):
Yeah, I will say that Stacie does a lot of the
research and writing, and andI'm more on the production side.
So I get to sit with myheadphones on after we have
recorded and edit each episodeand make sure it gets posted.
My job is fairly easy comparedto Stacie's, but we do sit and
have discussions about eachepisode and what we need to
(02:46):
cover so you can all learnsomething.
Our goal is for you to learn onenew landlord tip on each
episode, so hopefully that'shappening.
And we do get a lot of our ideasand content from you all as
well, so keep emailing us ideasfor subjects you'd like to learn
more about.
Stacie (03:05):
So 100 episodes.
Oh, and before I forget, makesure you listen to the end.
We're doing a giveaway and we'lltell you all about it when we
wrap up this episode here.
But yeah, we have sharedmistakes made, wins celebrated,
and lessons learned.
You know, landlord life isn'talways easy, and what we want to
(03:28):
focus on today is how to staymotivated when life gets hard.
And this is not just landlordlife, this is life in general.
For us as soon as we get ourplates full on the personal home
front, something goes wrong withone of the properties.
As soon as we think, all right,we can relax a little, let's
plan a vacation.
(03:48):
Something comes up that we needto handle with one of the
rentals.
It never fails.
And we might have told you thisstory before, but Kevin and I
were working a lot on theSacramento sixplex a few years
ago, and I'll never forget this.
It was August and we hadrecently moved the youngest back
to college in South Carolina.
(04:08):
The other two boys had eithermoved out or were away at
college as well.
But we were driving back fromSacramento and it was late like
9:00 PM.
We were just getting ready tocross the Bay Bridge into San
Francisco, and I said to Kevin,ah, Sac is done and we have
nothing that we need to worryabout for a while.
(04:28):
And I said something to Kevinalong the lines of, it feels so
good to finally be able to havesome free time.
We were thrilled to have thiswide open schedule.
Because Lord knows that weneeded to work on our own home a
little bit here.
And this was in 2020.
August of 2020.
And I know this because it wasright before my 50th birthday.
(04:48):
And I kid you not, five minuteslater after I said that, the
phone rings and it's my mom.
Dad's in the hospital, she says,he's having surgery first thing
in the morning.
And I was like, what are youtalking about?
We just saw him a few days ago,he was perfectly fine.
Well, long story short, a fewyears prior he was body surfing
(05:09):
on Maui on our family vacationand a big wave tossed him around
and threw him on the sea floor,which resulted in a broken
shoulder.
The shoulder healed and he wasdoing great, but his shoulder
had metal plates, and somehow heingested a rare bacteria that is
found in soil.
Now, he's an avid gardener, andan infection had formed at the
(05:32):
site of the broken shoulderwhere those metal plates were.
Of course, my dad, who forseveral days, saw the redness
and felt the heat on his skin,ignored it until he was nearly
septic.
Kevin (05:44):
And we've talked about our parents before.
Both our parents are, uh, let'ssay older, I guess elderly, but
for the most part, they'repretty much self-sufficient.
So I hate to use the termelderly because you know, that
sounds like they're dilapidatedand just sitting around all day
and that is not the case at all.
(06:06):
And at the time this happened,Stacie's dad was 80 years old.
He was still climbing laddersand painting his house, caring
for a big, beautiful landscapegarden on a property that's just
shy of an acre.
Stacie (06:21):
Yeah.
I mean it's, it's all prettyimpressive.
In August, all his veggiesalready and he is out there for
hours every day tending to them.
Nonetheless, he had to havemajor surgery and Kevin and I,
you know, we're their people.
The ones that they turn to whenthey need help, which up until
then was pretty rare.
(06:42):
He came through surgery fine,but he had a very long road of
recovery.
He had to have a drain, which anurse had to come daily to tend
to, he had a pic line put in andneeded to get antibiotic
injections twice a day for sixweeks.
By me because my mom was notcomfortable doing it.
So I spent my days, the daysthat, for those five precious
(07:04):
minutes, I was so excited aboutbeing able to have time to do
what I wanted, making meals anddriving back and forth to my
parents' home, which was about a25 minute drive one way, and
that was to care for my parents.
Dad couldn't drive, so doctorappointments, et cetera, they
were all on me to get themaround where they needed to be.
My dad could not use his arm andhad to rest, so Kevin stepped in
(07:27):
and helped around the housewhere he could.
Uh, Kevin also picked up theslack with the rentals.
My sole job and concern wastaking care of my parents.
And don't misunderstand me, Iwould do it all over again.
When my late husband was ill, myparents stepped in and took over
everything for me.
They helped with my boys, helpedaround the house, helped with my
(07:47):
duties in the business that wewere all running.
You know, this was my turn.
And for us, that's what you dofor family.
And by the time my dad was onthe mend in mid-October, my
brother had taken a turn for theworse and I had to pivot and
step up my care for him.
And unfortunately he passed thatfollowing November, and I have
(08:08):
no idea what the holidays evenlooked like that year.
It was all a blur.
I know is that Kevin and I havenot slowed down at all, nor have
we had that feeling of, ah,unless we force it upon
ourselves with a vacation.
2021 and 22 were filled with alot of change, some good, some
(08:29):
not so great.
And you know what I wanted todo?
I wanted to give it all up.
I just wanted to sell it all andwalk away.
Even the simplest of amaintenance request became such
a hassle because I had nopatience to handle it.
Kevin (08:42):
And one thing Stacie is skipping over is that in 2021,
after her brother passed hishome, which was a rental under
their family LLC, was brokeninto several times and these
guys robbed him blind and nearlyburned the house down using an
acetylene torch to burn a holein the gun safe.
(09:04):
So here she is grieving over herbrother and at the same time
trying to empty out a 3000square foot home as fast as
humanly possible.
It was an absolute mess.
Stacie (09:16):
Yeah.
And then in January of 2021, 6weeks after my brother passed,
we lost my best friend's husbandsuddenly.
And this guy was the best man inmy first wedding, and basically
an uncle to my kids and kid.
Two, spent a lot of time withhim after losing his own dad.
As a matter of fact, he waswaiting for him in their hunting
(09:38):
blind when I had to call andtell him that his uncle had
passed during the night.
It was just a nightmare.
So when I'm trying to handle allof this that has been thrown at
me or us over several months,the last thing I wanted to do
was deal with our rentalproperties.
How do we stay motivated to keepgoing and not just sell it all
off and invest our capital inthe stock market?
(10:00):
We waited, we reflected and whenmotivation never really came, we
had to just take action in orderto keep the business going.
We called on our team,specifically our contractor,
Jim, to deal with all themaintenance issues.
Because I have standardoperating procedures in place, I
was able to hand work off toKevin to handle.
(10:22):
The stuff I always took care ofmyself, like tenant screening,
he had to handle that now.
And I know you may think youhave it all together, but you
really need to ask yourself whenthe shit hits the fan are you
covered?
We, and when I say we, I meanmostly Kevin because he had to
show up and take action.
He had to do things he was notfamiliar with and make decisions
(10:44):
he never had to make before.
Because honestly, I could careless.
It was a bad year for me, youguys.
I was all excited about turning50 and having the kids outta the
house for the first time.
And you know, God had anotherplan for me.
Kevin (10:59):
Thankfully you leaned on people.
I mean, you're a very strongminded and independent person.
And man, I know it was hard foryou to let someone else step in
and handle the business when youcouldn't.
But if anything good came fromthose tough, really tough years,
it was that you and I learned alot about ourselves and the
(11:20):
business too.
If I'm being honest, it'sbecause all that stuff happening
one after the other for over ayear, nearly two, that's when
Your Landlord Resource cameabout.
A lot of our professionalfriends and friends in property
management were like, how thehell did you do that?
(11:40):
Because you know, most rentalproperty owners and
self-managing landlords fly bythe seat of their pants.
They do not have systems inplace, business plan, reserves,
budgets to follow, financialgoals to meet, or a solid team
to lean on.
And thank goodness you had thewherewithal to have that
(12:00):
business running like a welloiled machine when all this
happened.
You literally were able to handme the quote unquote Bible to
your business and let me handlestuff.
Did this mean I just took over?
No way.
Come on now, if, if you knowStacie well enough, you should
know she still had her hands inthere.
(12:22):
She was able to take a back seatand let me drive for a few
months, but I'll tell you, shewas still in the car and giving
me directions.
And thankfully, as she mentionedearlier, we had just finished a
huge project on the sixplex andthe units were all occupied.
Stacie (12:39):
Well, until that one tenant had the fruit fly
infestation and we had to askhim to leave, those were fun
times.
Kevin (12:44):
Oh, right.
That, that happened that yeartoo, didn't it?
Stacie (12:47):
Yep.
And then the flood in Chico inOctober of 21.
Kevin (12:51):
Holy crap.
That was a bad couple of years.
And for all of you who are like,wow, that's tough.
When 2022 came along, beingoptimistic, we were like.
Okay, it's a new year, time tostart over.
Kid two had just moved to Idahothe previous summer to live with
his college buddies who hadmoved there after graduation.
(13:14):
He reached, what, four, maybefive months of living there, and
he just loved it.
I mean, he's the outdoorsman, sothe mountains were perfect for
him to go hiking and mountainbiking, all things outdoors.
So now it was time for him tobuy his first home.
So we were back there, I believeit was early February, driving
around and looking at singlefamily homes that he had picked
(13:37):
out, and the phone rings.
It's Stacie's mom.
All right, her dad was fine, butshe had gone to the doctor and
had just been told she hadbreast cancer.
I mean, talk about the worldstopping.
We helped kid two decide on hisfirst home purchase and finished
out the trip so we could getback home as soon as possible to
(14:00):
do the parent health thing allover again.
I mean, Stacie did not miss oneappointment and to this day she
still doesn't.
To say our world was centeredaround the situation for the
next three to six months is anunderstatement.
And her mom was very lucky.
They caught the cancer early,were able to do surgery and she
(14:22):
did not have to do any chemo orradiation.
But the surgery was a bigchallenge and we are grateful it
ended with that.
Stacie (14:31):
Yeah.
So for all our female listeners,my mom was 84 when she got her
breast cancer diagnosis.
Please get your annualmammograms and don't stop just
because you think you're too oldto get it.
And although we had somechallenges since that time, they
were nothing near as scary oremergent that took us out for
(14:52):
months.
And I'll tell you, I know thatgood and bad times ebb and flow
through all of our lives.
But this couple of years wastough.
Thankfully, I was able to keepmy head above water.
I think part of it for me wasthat I had been through really
hard times before.
Like for years, when my firsthusband was ill and I was trying
(15:15):
to raise three boys.
So I knew while all this toughstuff was happening, one after
the other, that it would beokay.
If you're struggling right now,no matter what, it will be okay.
It may not be what you wanted orit may not be what you've
planned.
But if you can learn to pivotand accept change, lean on those
(15:38):
who are there for you and justkeep creating action by doing
what needs to be done.
You'll come out on the otherside of things okay.
If I could give one piece ofadvice, it would be to not make
any big decisions until you arethrough with whatever hard time
you're going through.
I mean, how many times did Itell you I just wanted to sell
(15:59):
it all?
Kevin (16:00):
Many times.
I mean, many, many times.
You even went so far as to workout a plan on what it would look
like, and if I recall, the planwas not what you had hoped.
Stacie (16:12):
Right.
I mean, you know, we were, we,we are older, we are established
with a home and a family aroundus.
We have people who depend on us.
And sure, we could have sold itall and paid a ridiculous amount
of money in capital gains taxes.
We could have moved to Hawaii orFlorida, lived in the little hut
for all I cared.
(16:32):
I wanted to get rid of all theresponsibility, but it would've
just followed me.
And let's be real.
I need to have something goingon.
I can only sit around for solong before I start needing
stuff to do.
Kevin (16:44):
Well, kid two in his new duplex is a perfect example of
that.
That started what, back inJanuary.
He texted about the property andwe helped him run the numbers
and even flew out there to walkit with him in February.
By the end of March, theproperty had closed and we were
raring to go to get back thereand work alongside him to fix it
(17:06):
up and get it ready to rent.
You had spreadsheets and to-dolists and a file folder that's a
foot tall with all the stuffneeded to help him in that
property.
Stacie (17:17):
And I love it.
And that's what I mean.
I want to be able to do thesethings with my kids.
Regardless if it's rentalproperties or weddings or
changing careers or moving awayfrom us.
I want to be their biggestcheerleader.
Kevin (17:31):
You've been following that Instagram account sailing
with Phoenix lately, and forthose of you unfamiliar with
this account, there's this guy,he's young, I don't know, maybe
early thirties.
He received a diagnosis where hehas a degenerative spine
disease.
I'm, I'm not quite sure whatit's called, but he had a job
(17:51):
and decided to just up and selleverything he had.
Depleted his 401k and buy asailboat to sail around the
world, just him and his cat.
Stacie (18:01):
I, I am a bit obsessed with that guy.
And there's a little part of methat wishes I, we had the guts
to do something like that.
Kevin (18:11):
What if one of the kids wanted to do it?
Stacie (18:14):
Well, I'd be worried, of course, but man, do it.
I want'em to go live their livesthe way they want.
Because before they know it,they're gonna have a wife and
kids.
And yeah, people can live anomad life with kids too, but as
long as they're smart and havesome investments to fall back
on, I'd support my kids sailaround the world with their cat.
Kevin (18:35):
I, I think by the time this episode airs, he will have
made it from Oregon to Hawaiithen he plans to live in Hawaii
for a while to get his boatrepaired and all set up for the
next leg of his world tour.
It is kind of a trip watchingthe videos of him all alone in
the ocean.
I mean, I'd be fine, I think,but I believe you'd go stir
crazy.
Stacie (18:56):
I, I would have to have something to do, like write a
book or something to pass thetime.
But the point of this episode isto share how we continued on
with our journey as landlordswhen times were challenging.
You know, the mindset that isneeded now in order to push
through and stay motivated if atime comes along where you feel
(19:17):
you want to throw in the towel.
And let me tell you the twothings that saved my butt were
that I had systems in place andI had someone to hand the work
off to.
It really is as simple as that.
You know, it's kind of like, um,a living trust for your
business.
I mean, except if you pass yourpartner or heirs can obviously
(19:37):
do whatever they want with thebusiness, but you know what I
mean.
When I say have systems inplace, I mean, it can be as
simple as making a list that youuse and you go off of every day
or every week, month, or year onwhat needs to be done.
Now, this period of time was nota situation where I was
completely removed.
(19:59):
It was certainly not a time whennothing got done, but it was a
time when scheduled projectswere pushed back, and that was
because other projects likerepairing my brother's broken
windows and doors and firedamaged house had to take
priority.
Our tenants had no idea that anyof this was going on.
Inspections still took place,repairs were made, renewals were
(20:22):
done on time, all those things.
And this is because forinspections and renewals, I have
reminders on my phone.
So we do inspections everyspring and every fall, typically
in May and November.
In late September, my phone popsup with a notification to plan a
day in November for inspections.
That reminder keeps popping upweekly until I have the date set
(20:46):
and can cancel thatnotification.
I do this because I like to havesix weeks to plan that one day.
One because we're busy, wetravel.
Like this November kid one isgetting married in Mexico and
we're gonna be gone for a week.
We come back and it'sThanksgiving.
So I know that this year I needto do that inspection day early
(21:08):
in the month, or even move itback to late November.
During this time, I have mynephew getting married out of
state.
We have homes in the mountainsthat need to be winterized, and
that takes a few days in earlyNovember as well.
So we need to plan that datewell in advance around all the
other things that we have goingon.
(21:28):
Two weeks before thatinspection, we email the tenants
to let them know that the datehas been set and ask if there
are any maintenance issues thatthey need remedied.
Doing this allows us plenty oftime to schedule the necessary
repair people for that day.
We do each property inspectionin one day so we can have Jim on
site to check for leaks, etcetera.
(21:50):
Our HVAC guy is on site to checkthe heaters or in the spring
he's checking the AC units.
And then anyone else, like thislast spring inspection, we had
fiber optic installed to everyunit.
If we need to access someone'sunit, we try to do everything we
need to do in one day so wedon't inconvenience them any
more than we have to.
Kevin (22:11):
And I wanna jump in here and say that we will be doing an
episode on why we installed thatfiber optic and what that
experience was like.
It's mostly for multi-familycomplexes, but we actually
learned a lot and want to sharewhat we did and why as well as
if we would recommend it.
Stacie (22:29):
Yeah, we had a lot of aha moments with that internet
installation.
Kevin (22:34):
Yeah.
It's not as cut and dried asyou'd think.
So, uh, keep an eye out for thatepisode.
It should be the next one or theone following.
To continue what Stacie wasdiscussing.
She has notes in her phone,reminders on her phone, like to
set the inspection date and apaper calendar that we use where
we plan our weeks out a coupleof weeks at a time.
(22:56):
If something happens that uprootour lives and her or my focus
comes off the day-to-day tasks,when we are then able to come
back, even if it's only for anhour here and there, we can look
at what we have coming up andgo, yes, let's move forward with
that, or nope that's not apriority now let's table that
for a later date.
(23:18):
We did an episode early on aboutstandard operating procedures.
It was in our top five mostlistened to episodes until
recently, but I think it'sdefinitely still in our top 10
most popular.
If you want to give it a listen,you can go to landlord
resource.com/episode 6.
We break down why they areimportant and what we do.
(23:41):
We will link it in the shownotes as well.
You know, the point of thisepisode was really to discuss
how to stay motivated whenyou're not getting the results
you want.
It seems we took a turn and arefocusing more on how to work
through your business duringpersonal challenging times.
Stacie (23:57):
Yeah.
I can see we did go on a tangentabout our tough couple years.
But I guess my point is, is thatwe want to let you all know that
even for us landlord life issometimes hard.
It's not because the businessitself, it's because of life
itself.
You know, thank goodness we arein a position with these rentals
to be able to have the time weneeded to care for my family in
(24:20):
their time of need.
Owning rentals gave us thatfreedom.
Listen, we're gonna table theinformation we wanted to talk
about until next episode.
We will cover how to handle whenyou feel your rental property
business itself is not workingout as you'd hoped or planned.
Because we have had those issuesas well.
Kevin (24:40):
Right?
I mean, we're working to itright now with the Idaho
property and it's not fun timesyou guys.
Listen, we know a lot aboutbeing property managers, but we
certainly don't know at all, andwe absolutely are always
learning.
And that's what we wanted todiscuss, so let's focus that on
the next episode.
Stacie (25:02):
All right, well then let's talk about our giveaway.
Kevin and I have decided tostart doing a little landlord or
property management coaching onthe side.
To kick this off, we're givingaway one free hour of coaching,
which is valued at around ahundred bucks.
Get it?
A hundred dollars gift for ourhundredth episode.
To enter, there is a link in theshow notes, or you can go to
(25:24):
your landlordresource.com/contest 100.
You can enter there and for abonus entry, you can leave us a
kind review for the podcast.
Just make sure that we're ableto align your review with your
online entry.
Kevin (25:41):
Don't make it anonymous review.
Make sure it has a way for us toconnect them together so you get
proper credit.
Like use your first name andinitial of your last name.
The link to leave the review isin the show notes.
We will also be announcing thiscontest on Instagram and
Facebook and offering bonusentries for those as well.
(26:02):
So you'll have multiple ways tograb those bonus entries.
Stacie (26:06):
Yeah, we're running this contest through the month of
June, that's in 2025.
Ends at midnight PacificStandard time June 30th, 2025.
So if you're listening to thisepisode in the future, you can
still sign up for coaching, justnot the contest for a free
session.
All right.
Well thanks for tuning in.
I hope this helped you to knowthat it's not always wine and
(26:30):
roses as landlords.
Even with our experience, westill struggle to handle
everything professionally.
If you enjoyed this episode,follow or subscribe to the
podcast so that each week theepisodes are downloaded right to
your favorite podcast platform.
We would love to stay in contactwith you.
In the show notes, you can findlinks to all the free downloads
(26:52):
that we offer, ways to sign upfor our free newsletter, and the
wait list for our upcomingcourse on tenant screening.
There's also links to ourprivate Facebook group that's
just for landlords and oursocial media accounts on
Instagram and Facebook, as wellas YouTube, where we share
informative and detailed tipsand tricks for landlords.
So go check those out.
(27:13):
I think that's about it.
Thanks again for tuning in, anduntil next time, you've got this
landlords.
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