01/02/2025
The summer leading into my sophomore year of high school, a few people told me that I had what it took to get drafted and play professional baseball. I was a left handed pitcher and, apparently, a rare commodity in the world of baseball.
There was a chance for me to work hard, get drafted, and make some big time money. So my mom and dad sold the house, packed our bags, and we moved to King, NC to play for a powerhouse high school with elite coaching that could help me make that dream a reality. We left our friends, my mom left her job, and my dad made sacrifices so that I could chase my dream.
I hated baseball. I tried to fall in love with it, but it's literally the worst sport you could think of. I knew if I could just make it work long enough to get really good, I could get drafted and get paid. I had to fake it for the next 3 years and try to enjoy it. It was miserable, but my eye was on the prize. After all, my family literally packed up their stuff and sold the house in order for me to do this, so I really had no choice.
Two shoulder surgeries later, the dream had fallen apart. I had no back up plan. The plan was to get drafted and make a lot of money. I did not have a license to drive a vehicle because I was planning to have a chauffeur. It was a crazy way of thinking, but it was all or nothing. I found myself in a very dark place. No direction in life. A high school graduate with nothing and I was starting from scratch. At the time, I was working at East Coast Wings, flipping burgers and tossing wings. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life or what was next.
The grind didn't stop. The hustle remained the same but the game just changed a little bit. Somewhere around that time, I met Ashley. We shared a similar goal, and that goal was to build a lifestyle that would allow some financial freedom, which is something neither of our families ever had. By this time, my parents were going through a divorce. Our house was soon to fall into foreclosure. My mom and sister had moved to Winston Salem, NC so that my sister could play for an elite volleyball team. What was once a haven of love and security had become an empty, depressing place. The thought of sleeping there was not of any interest, and there were multiple times where I found myself sleeping in the storage room at the restaurant. It seemed like everything was falling apart. Like a stray dog trying to find his way, Ashley took me in. She couldn't resist 😁 We started dating, and I was on a search to find my purpose.
I moved into her double wide, a piece of real estate that would, surprisingly, jump-start our next move. I had tried a few different business ideas, but none seemed to quickly take off like I had hoped. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and at one time, I was trying to help my brother-in-law sell mice, worms, and critters to pet owners and pet stores.
Then one day, we realized that we could pull equity funds from Ashley's house, and invest that money somewhere else. Because Ashley had purchased the double wide in foreclosure, she got an incredible deal. We pulled the max amount of money from the house, and we invested that money in two budget-friendly vacation rentals in Myrtle Beach. We knew very little about investing or vacation rentals, but after weighing the pros and cons, it was a risk that we were willing to take.
Taking risks are not for everyone. You either take them and chance a fruitful reward, or you play it safe. I learned that not many people liked taking them, and most people preferred a more conservative approach. Given my background, taking some crazy risks became part of who I was. I had nothing to lose and for the most part, Ashley didn't either. So, we started down a path of rolling the dice and taking some huge leaps of faith.
Ultimately, we knew we wanted to make our way from NC to Myrtle Beach. We liked the idea of coastal living, and we wanted to be closer to our investments. But again, nothing happens without taking some chances. At the time, I had a job in an Aerospace facility. For me, the pay was really good and I had found some stability. Ashley had a great job working at Baptist Hospital. Life was good and money was not a problem, but we wanted more. We took another major risk, and I quit my job and we moved to the beach. My goal was to start selling real estate, and try to make a living doing that. Ashley was able to continue working remotely through the hospital, so we had something to fall back on if things got tight. By that time, there were over 3,000 realtors in Myrtle Beach, many of which were well-established. I knew nothing. I knew no one. I was starting over in a lot of ways; a small fish in a very big pond.
Through self-managing our 2 little beach condos, we were able to put our own personal touch on them. In doing so, we had a very high occupancy rate and we were generating higher income than just about everyone else in the building. This is where things got interesting. Slowly, other homeowners in the building caught wind of the success we were having, and one by one, they asked Ashley and I to help manage theirs. We quickly proved that we could generate better gross and NET revenue for homeowners by offering a personalized, affordable property management service.
What started with management of 1 beach condo turned into 2....then 3....then 5. It was a lot of work, but we seemed to have found our "thing". In July of 2016, Ashley and I sat down and set some goals for this business venture. How can we scale this business into something that can support us and our finances, and our future? So many people set goals, but one key thing they fail to do is formulate a plan on how to achieve those goals. For us, this was a crucial step in the process, and we decided to reverse engineer those goals. Sure, it was easy to say that within a 5 year period, we wanted to manage 50 properties, but how would we make that happen? By reverse engineering the goal, we were able to break it down into smaller milestones. Setting a goal of 50 properties and saying "Ok, GO", seemed tough to do, but when we broke it down and determined that we only needed to obtain 10 properties within the first year, that seemed much more feasible. By the end of year 2, we had acquired more than 50 properties, and we had done no marketing or advertising to obtain those contracts. Our growth was primarily through word of mouth, and we chose to go all-in on each of our clients. We knew that if we could give guests and homeowners a more personalized service, we knew we could generate some demand.
Over the last 8 years, the business grew.....and grew.....and it grew some more. We started in our garage; packed full of towels, linens, plungers, TV remotes, and everything you could imagine. We then moved our operations into a hotel room that was in a central location where we, and our housekeepers, could meet and get their items needed for each cleaning. We would use the hotel laundromat to launder all of our towels and linens. It was a great idea until the HOA shut us down and kicked us out. We then moved to a storage facility until we outgrew that. We had to evolve and adapt to the challenges. Many roadblocks and hurdles along the way.
Within a couple years of starting the rental business, we realized that we needed help. In order to continue providing a level of service that was second to none, we needed to build a reliable team that we could depend on. So, we turned to our family. We first helped my sister move to Myrtle Beach. Then, Ashley's mom. Then, Ashley's brothers. Then, my dad. Somehow, they saw our vision and offered to be a part of it. To this day, our family and many of their spouses show up and help us run the business.
Ashley and I eat, sleep, and breathe our business. Late at night, holidays, weekends, at church......it seems like we're always working. But the cool thing is that we enjoy doing it, and we get to do it together. Hospitality and serving is at the core of who we are. We are not perfect, and we will make mistakes. There will be internal family disagreements and will fall short. But, one thing I know to be true is that we have a team that can overcome anything. We genuinely care about our guests and our homeowners, and that's why we are so passionate about what we do!
We can't wait to host you in 2025!
