We Don’t Just Own Property—We Own the Process

Playing It Safe Might Be the Riskiest Thing You’re Doing
We were told to follow the rules: get the job, play it safe, save what you can, and hope it adds up to freedom someday. But what if that path is actually keeping us stuck?

In this episode, we talk with someone who stopped coasting. Andrew was living the “smart” financial life—until he realized comfort was costing him control. Now? He’s building a life of freedom on purpose. From buying his first multifamily in Omaha to managing an 8-bedroom co-living space in Austin, he’s not chasing some get-rich dream. He’s building systems, making real decisions, and playing the long game—with clarity.

We unpack the wake-up call that shook him, the $44K mistake that taught him, and the mindset shifts that freed him.

📌 Key Topics:
 ✅ Why playing it safe can quietly drain your future
 ✅ The high price of hiring the wrong contractor
 ✅ How a rent-by-room model created consistent cash flow
 ✅ What it takes to run properties while keeping your day job
 ✅ How clarity and control beat hustle and hype

Freedom doesn’t come from more comfort—it comes from making moves that matter.

Chapters:
00:00 The Real Estate Journey Begins
02:23 Diving into Real Estate Investment
07:04 Understanding Rental Strategies
12:29 The Multifamily Property Decision
17:11 The Roof Nightmare and Lessons Learned
22:33 Balancing Personal Challenges with Property Management
30:37 Balancing Profit and People in Property Management
31:58 Building a Reliable Maintenance Team
34:22 The Importance of Systems in Property Management
38:14 Personal Challenges and Family Connections
42:36 Life Lessons from Loss and Travel
45:00 Finding Freedom in Flexibility
01:24:50 Defining Freedom in a Nomadic Lifestyle

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00)
I could find a single family home, but it almost felt like a waste, I guess, of why do that, of why waste the loan on a small property when I could get a multifamily. Maybe it wasn't as easy to find, but it worked out. I mean, I'm happy with that. And so that was really the focus. It's like, that's the biggest potential I can get with this loan. let's maximize what I can get out of that loan on a property.

Speaker 3 (00:29)
Well, Andrew, thanks for coming to join us. We're here to talk a little bit about your pursuit of freedom, what freedom means to you, and ⁓ how you're achieving the lifestyle that you really enjoy and how real estate has impacted that. So, start, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to this chair.

Speaker 2 (00:49)
Sweet, well thanks for the invite, appreciate it. How I got to this chair, boy, I guess working with you, buying my first property in 2021, I guess it was, and that was my first dive into real estate, and I now have two properties, one in Omaha and one in Texas, and it was kind of a random passion that came up that I decided I wanted.

to get into real estate, wanted to do more with my own finances, have a little bit more control in my finances. it's been great. I almost use the word passionate times because I love it, I enjoy it. And the idea to have setting up myself, but more importantly, my family for the future. And so it's been a great part of my life. And then the people that it's brought me in touch with as well has also been a huge blessing as well.

Speaker 3 (01:42)
And so how did you get into wanting to do real estate? know you're financially responsible. You did the college thing, got a good job. So how did that lead you into deciding real estate was next?

Speaker 2 (01:56)
It was like, it's funny, literally I can tell you it was December 3rd, 2021, I guess it was. So I guess I brought the property must've been in 2022 that I had this moment at night where I was thinking that I was too comfortable, that I was, know, yes. And that's how I grew up. You know, it's, the classic rich dad, poor dad too, right? Like I love my parents, but I grew up with poor dad.

or poor parents, know, like it was get a good job, save your money, you put it in the bank. There was no talk about like what you could do with that money or how to make it work for you. ⁓ And I just literally couldn't sleep that night. And there's more to the story too with the relationship I was in and everything as well. But I just started thinking on it's like there's other aspects of my life where I push myself like fitness is an area that I've always pushed myself in. And I'm like,

why are you not pushing yourself harder in other aspects? In the same way that I did that and knowing that like it takes time, but like it's one step at a time. And it kind of clicked for me and I was like, well, what would I want to do? I wasn't big into stocks because I didn't like the idea of not having any control. You know, it's, it's at least with real estate, it's a tangible object that I have some control over.

So that was my route and I kind of dove in and I think you heard this story that I was like, I want a property in three months and just barely didn't meet that goal. But like I just dove in, started listening to all podcasts that could and everything. And so it was a way of like pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, but also looked at it as, as I kind of mentioned already, how can I set up myself and my family for the future? ⁓

you know, after I'm gone or when I'm still around, you know, those things, what can I do to put them in a better place? And again, in a way that I felt at least I had some control. Control is obviously maybe something that we don't have or maybe we don't have any control, but at least some control over that and what was being done to set that up for the future.

Speaker 3 (04:10)
And to be fair, we missed the date by two days because the closing got pushed. So we were on track to make it.

Speaker 2 (04:17)
I remember because you bumped the closing up so we could make it. And then the delay. Yep.

Speaker 1 (04:22)
So before we start it, we're talking about College World Series and Airbnbs. Is both your properties? You say you got one here and one in Texas, are they both Airbnbs?

Speaker 2 (04:31)
So the property in is a mix. It's a four unit. I have one long-term tenant and great, love him. And then I had at first, I lived in one and then one of them already was a short-term rental. And then the other one was also a long-term rental. So as things shifted, kept one, one of the two bedrooms. When she moved out, I turned that into a midterm rental.

Speaker 1 (04:47)
Okay.

Speaker 2 (04:59)
It's seven minutes from UNMC. So I of course get a lot of healthcare workers. My unit that I was in after I was done living there, I turned mine into a, it's a one bedroom. I turned that into a midterm rental. And then I kept essentially always running the one as a short term. So it's this mix where mostly midterm rentals or half of them are midterm rentals, one short term, pure short term, one long term. And during the College Realty series, I open them up.

take away my 28 day restriction and open it up of course for College Real Series fans for those couple weeks, which obviously makes sense and always works out.

Speaker 1 (05:38)
Yeah, it's cultural series can be lucrative.

Speaker 2 (05:40)
Yeah.

And then the Texas house is interesting. It's, have you heard of pad split? Yeah, it's a pad split house. So it's rent by room. That came about because the realtor I was working with there, he, the owner had to move to Florida for a job, didn't want to take the time, knew the realtor asked him, Hey, you got anybody that would be interested quick, more or less off market. And it was off market.

And he knew that I was someone that would be willing to work with fact. There are already roommates there. So it was a six bedroom house. They already had five roommates and his room and he knew, so he contacted me first. He's like, kind of knew that I'd be willing to work with that. We're not, maybe everyone would. So I was all for it. It worked out great. Cause again, save some money being off market. And I just kept rolling with the rent by room. Now at the time he just did it on his own, but I,

then switched into PADSplit to help.

Speaker 1 (06:40)
How does PadSplit work? Do they basically sign a master lease with you?

Speaker 2 (06:45)
Pretty much, right. So I signed a lease with them that the property will only be used for pad split and then it's individual leases. And essentially, well, the other thing I did is I actually turned an office and a projector TV room into a bedrooms. Now I have eight bedrooms. Wow. And yeah, it's a big house. It's 4,000 square foot, big house. There's six bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms, and then there's two bedrooms downstairs and two bathrooms downstairs too. ⁓

So it works great for that setup. Parking's probably the hardest thing when you have that many people in one house. ⁓ But Padsplit essentially takes care of all the marketing. And they've really grown, well, in Austin, especially too, with ⁓ the cost of living. Like Austin's so expensive and Brent went up so much and Austin blew up so much during COVID that...

There's just so many younger generation, especially that can't afford of course to buy a house. They can't even afford the rent in some places. So it works really well for an option for a cheaper way to live. You give up some things, of course, right? Like you now you just have your room and it's common spaces and you're sharing a bathroom. It's kind of like a little mini dorm, but with that you get some cheaper rent and it's, it's worked great. I mean, pet split takes their fair chunk, of course, but ⁓

Overall now that I'm a couple years in well year and a half in with that one then really have Right now the one thing I do unlike a complete property management Pad split doesn't do the maintenance doesn't take care of any of issues. So those things still all come to me So like they're basically only marketing. Okay, so they don't do anything. I have to maintain the house I have to do all that stuff. So it's There's a bit of a balance where it's

Speaker 1 (08:15)
Yeah, you don't really have to worry about anything.

Speaker 2 (08:37)
It's not as easy as just handing over to proper management, which of course doesn't mean that you don't have to get involved at all, but I'm still more involved than it would be maybe your typical property management.

Speaker 3 (08:49)
So I want to talk about when you were going after this first property, you were very intentional with knowing what you wanted. You wanted a multifamily property. ⁓ There wasn't a whole lot of ⁓ convincing, you know, of what loan type and stuff. I remember we had conversations about the options and what loans you could go after, but do want to talk about how you made those decisions and came to the conclusion you wanted a multifamily?

Speaker 2 (09:15)
think it was the idea that, and yeah, I think you're right. We talked about this. Multi-family was the way that I get the most bang for my buck. Like if I'm going to do an owner occupied loan and you know, I can go up to four units to do that. Well then why wouldn't I use that loan and that cheaper interest rate and lower down payment to get myself the most doors, I guess we'll say in this case that I could ever get myself the biggest property or the biggest potential.

I guess in that case. So yeah, cause I think we specifically talked about too. I could, I could find a single family home, but it almost felt like a waste, I guess of, of why do that, of why waste the loan on a small property when I could get a multifamily. Maybe it wasn't as easy to find, but it worked out. and I'm happy with that. And so that was really the focus. It's like, that's the biggest potential I can get with this loan. let's maximize what I can get out of that loan.

on a property and then, hey, I guess bringing back into Texas House, that's interesting because it's a single family home, but it's really run like multi-family too.

Speaker 1 (10:25)
say eat bedrooms. It's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (10:28)
Yeah,

exactly. And now that and that was part of rolling, I guess, as I kind of already described with what the market gave me with Austin being so expensive. It's really hard to cash flow. And it was kind of like this is probably the only way I'm going to be able to cash flow is if I do something like this where, Right. And that was that was 100 percent. went into Austin when I bought the house there with the mindset

Speaker 1 (10:49)
get the appreciation of Austin.

Speaker 2 (10:57)
If I break even, I'll be happy because I was banking on that because and we've talked about this. I'm a long-term 10, 20 plus years down the road. I don't care about the quick turnaround. So I was banking on long-term Austin's gonna appreciate. So if I even break even, I'll be happy. And then who knows what 10, 20 years down the road or I don't know longer maybe, but a hundred percent what I was thinking.

Speaker 3 (11:22)
You're also in a position with your active income where you don't need that money to survive off of. You're not running from your W-2. So you can afford to wait that time.

Speaker 1 (11:31)
Right, I think that's what so many investors make the mistake of trying to, I do the same thing, trying to get as much passive income so they can walk away from their active income, if you will, from their job. And it just, it gets you in a bad position, I think. Right. Versus just realizing I'm probably always gonna need active income. So.

Speaker 3 (11:54)
So from going and making the decision, ⁓ we got in contact on bigger pockets, right? that's how we started. And we went after the FHA loans, 3.5 % down. And then was rainbows and butterflies after that,

Speaker 2 (12:12)
Right,

exactly. Completely smooth. Yeah, until day before closing? No, I think it was the day before. I don't think it was the day before closing when we learned about, you're gonna have to help me remember the clause exactly, that your rent has to be, can you remember it's 75 %?

Speaker 3 (12:32)
How

does that work? Well, so they take 75 % of the rental income to increase your debt to income ratio. But then there was a clause in the FHA that we, none of us were aware of the lender. mean, I'd never heard of it before, but something about how 75 % of the income from the, from the other three units, assuming that you're going to move into one of them, ⁓ can cover a certain percentage of the mortgage payment. because of the size property that we went after, it was a $500,000 purchase.

the mortgage payment was high enough where he had to put more of a down payment.

Speaker 2 (13:05)
Right, right. And which is one of those things where finding that out right from the start is one thing. Finding out the day before closing was another thing. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Pushing that back in the end. Still worth it. Of course. 100 % right. Right. And again, with looking long term, completely worth it. I had saved up and

Speaker 1 (13:16)
push closing two days.

Speaker 3 (13:25)
20 something thousand.

Speaker 2 (13:34)
a lot anyway so that it's not like it completely drained my account or anything like that. So I was, I could handle it.

Speaker 1 (13:41)
So instead of putting three and half percent, you like seven and a half percent.

Speaker 2 (13:44)
I

think so. exactly. Yeah, there we go. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (13:46)
Did the quick math while we were here.

so somebody can fact check me.

Speaker 2 (13:53)
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:54)
And one thing I'll say is I remember from our initial conversations. We talked about your strategy. We went through, you know, the Omaha market and then we got very clear on what you were looking for. And I've talked about this before, but when people say I just want a deal like you're looking this big and when a deal pops through, you're not going to know it. But when you're very clear, I want a fourplex. I want it to be close to the Med Center and you know within X price range when that deal popped up. How quickly did we take action?

Speaker 2 (14:23)
That's right. love telling this story too. So I believe it listed it maybe 4 p.m. And I think you contacted me by 5 because I don't turn to remember if I was even done with work, which would have been off at 430. You had contacted me about seeing the property. We were met at we must have met like six maybe and then we had the verbal close. I believe it like seven because I usually tell people think from the house.

actually going live at like, I think 4 p.m. We had a verbal at seven, so like three hours. Maybe it was three and a half hours that it took for all of that. So yeah, I'd love to tell that story too.

Speaker 3 (15:05)
And you offered on it site unseen. You had not walked the property yet. So I remember that we, so it listed at four, 445. I told you about the property. think I walked it by like five. And then by six o'clock I was telling you, this is the one. And I talked to the agent. said, if I can get you an offer in the next half hour, can you get them to take action on it? And so we did up the paperwork. He signed everything, it over. We had it locked up by seven o'clock.

Speaker 1 (15:33)
So that's pretty fast for a multi, mean, Stigl family. Okay, I've seen that, but multifamily, it's pretty.

Speaker 3 (15:43)
gave

him full asking price. Like it was normal contingencies. wasn't anything special. we were, yeah. And I was standing in front of the house while waiting for her to confirm that they were going to accept it and cancel the other showings. And I remember there was a few other investors that were walking up and I told them, sorry guys. Yeah. And they, they got the call from the agent right then and there that it's under contract. they're like, you got kidding me.

Speaker 1 (15:48)
I don't think it was that feature.

Speaker 2 (16:07)
Yeah, I remember because I ran into one of those guys at one of the local investor meetings. He was like, you're the one who bought that property, aren't you? then like, I remember seeing him walk up to the door because I did actually get a walk it with you. I remember that. And you already had a pamphlet that said Andrew's house. I think I remember an or a binder that was already ready. So yeah, that we did have to think we did have to give up inspection.

That was the one thing, the one contingency, guess, was we did give that up, but otherwise, yeah, and offered full. Yeah, did get things checked out, exactly.

Speaker 1 (16:41)
Did you still get it inspected?

Yeah, just because you wave inspection doesn't mean you can't get an inspector. Because that's not part of the contract.

Speaker 2 (16:51)
Exactly. Which

is why I knew because like we had someone check out the roof. I knew and that's when you go into that more too. That's been the story. I knew the roof was probably going to need it. So I kind of was aware. Um, the guy that checked it out just kind of did a brief cause it's February of course too. I remember it was hard for him to get up there, but I kind of was like, okay, I'm going to be prepared to have to replace the roof. Didn't realize how soon that would happen, but I was prepared to have to replace the.

Speaker 3 (17:20)
And we underrope for those kinds of things, leaving a margin of knowing that those things are going to come up and having a budget for them. But I think that led into the next, you know, smooth sailing moment. Yeah. Facetiously speaking. ⁓

Speaker 2 (17:30)
Yeah,

and that also helped for me in my mindset. And again, I had set enough aside that financially I knew, okay, if I have to replace this roof, I have enough to cover it. So I knew that going into it too, which even after the bump in the down payment. So then it was, that was closed in March and June already had a rainstorm and there's water coming in through the ceiling.

And it was like, Oh, right. So I guess it's time to take care of this roof now, um, sooner than I had hoped. It's always sooner than you hope, guess. Right. But, but still it was like, all right, well, let's take care of this. And Oh boy. It's like, how do I summarize the next year and a half process that this took? Um, basically I tried to find, you know, different people to do this. Of course, this is my first time now hanging the lean, a big project like this. So I got a few different bids.

You know, I learned a lot from bigger pockets about the things to look for and stuff like that. Another big story is my sister, literally when I found out about the roof leaking, I was in Omaha because my sister just got admitted to UNMC with a cancer diagnosis. So looking back, I'll say this now before I get into the story more. I don't know if I should use this as an excuse, but I always think my mind was not focused on.

on this. Like I would just wanted to get somebody to fix it. Like I was like, I'm my sister is my priority right now. But in hindsight, it was one of those almost classic things where I had gotten a couple of bids from big companies, which were more expensive, or I had a guy that was kind of a small guy and cheaper. And I thought, gosh, you know, I'd like the idea of helping small businesses and I still do. It doesn't take that, but

So I went with him and it was kind of a nightmare from the start. One of those things like he was hard to get a hold of. I was supposed to meet him one time to do, ⁓ to like do payment and go over everything and he didn't make it and didn't contact me ahead of time. And I told him like, that's bad. He had wanted a portion, not all of it paid upfront, but a fair portion paid upfront. So we're, wasn't able to pay him. And then when he didn't show up, I was like, okay,

I'm starting to question this already and I'm not even started yet. And I at least maybe had the know how to say, all right, I'm now going to pay for all the products. I'm not paying you to buy the product because I didn't trust giving him the money. And so I'm, you're going to send me all the payments for that and I'm only going to pay you in draws. Like I think we broke it down into quarters. So I paid him.

Speaker 1 (20:24)
.

Speaker 2 (20:24)
Yes,

for the labor. Exactly. So I paid him his labor in quarters and every time like he had to get product I made the payment and and so I took care of that part. So it took, you know, it's one of those things. There's so many levels of this that went wrong and so many red flags that looking back, you know said it would take two weeks. It took six weeks. I think finally got done. He got it done. He started like beginning of October got it done early November.

And it's kind of one of those things I was just glad to be done with it. Again, I was like, I'm focusing my sister right now and I had somebody kind of check over the roof and they said it looked okay. And again, they're in hindsight. I'm like, I wish I had had somebody check it closer. So two weeks later get another rain already have water coming in through the ceiling. So I try to get in touch with him. No surprise ghosts never would never responded to anything.

I tried for a week to get ahold of him. I even reached out to his wife who was helping at times too ⁓ and nothing. now it's, yeah, two weeks and I've already got leaking going on. I hired somebody else to go up there and already repair a portion of it that had like pulled back and they took care of that and let's see, so here we are December. I think I was mostly okay even though I had gotten another company involved at that time too and

they found other things that were not good, just poor work. Um, so I, even now to this point, I've always known like I'm probably enough to replace it again. So then it was, or what do I want to do about this? I decided I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to let this happen. I'm not going to let this guy do this to anybody else. I'm going to sue him. So I did. So I found a lawyer that was a year long process. think all of 2023 was litigation because of course,

he never responded to anything from the courts or anything from the lawyer, anything like that. So again, no surprise. Never showed up to court, so I won by default. So I did win, but again, lawyers serve a purpose, but as everybody says, it's always more expensive than they tell you it's gonna be. And because everything got drawn out, like every email, every call is always a cost. So that took, I mean, I literally don't think

Speaker 1 (22:36)
I

Speaker 2 (22:51)
we got the decision till the next December. So it took basically a year. It did win, but of course there too, it's not like I just get paid. ⁓ in that case, it's just a lien against his house. ⁓ which I'll get paid one day. They sell the house one day. ⁓ they were, we were, I hate to say lucky cause I never wish harm upon anybody, but because his wife was involved and knew

they were able to tie her into the lawsuit and she's the name on the house. So that's how we were able to put the lien on the house is because she was also one of the defendants. ⁓ I guess bright side, try to look at it. ⁓ it's so,

Speaker 3 (23:37)
Was he doing operating business in an LLC or just his personal name? So, so they also had to pierce corporate veil just to tie them personally. That's, and that's difficult process to do.

Speaker 2 (23:41)
LLC.

And then, and you know.

Speaker 1 (23:52)
Well, when you don't show up to court to defend yourself, it's probably a little bit easier.

Speaker 2 (23:55)
Yeah, exactly. you know, and he had some insurance, which I think, I know, again, no surprise. I don't think his insurance was current. So that we didn't get any coverage from there. Oh, bright side, I'll tell myself this now. It was that I'll tell you guys the settlement. was like 44,000 at 12 % interest. So I'm like, all right, well, 12 % interest is pretty good. I'm just going to look at that as an investment.

Speaker 1 (24:24)
could end up owning his whole house if he doesn't pay this at 12 % interest yeah that compounds pretty quick I mean rule 72 I mean that's what less than six years that's gonna double

Speaker 2 (24:26)
Pretty much, yes.

Yeah, I'll let you do the math again.

Yeah, that's good that I hadn't even thought that far ahead on it. I just knew like, okay, well that's better than I probably could do by another property, right? Or in stocks. So I'm like, that's the bright side that I'll look at. I mean, the hard part is now I'm, you know, I'm already having some issues with the roof and I may need to replace it literally within months. I'm already working on that too. I don't get the money to pay to do that. I've saved enough up.

to do it again, but it's just, obviously that's a hard pill to swallow. Like, okay, now I gotta pay to do it again. It would be nice to have it to pay it, but I just tell myself, hey, that's a really good, I'll take that interest rate and that anyway, so.

Speaker 1 (25:21)
Yeah. Every seven years you go, hey, my money's doubling. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:24)
Yeah,

yeah. A process. is. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (25:26)
So, yes.

Speaker 1 (25:29)
Yeah, technically, yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (25:34)
It was a headache in the end, of course, that I would love to go without. It was a learning experience. That's the other thing I tell myself. Like definitely a learning experience as far as going through it. And that's why I started with the disclaimer that like my mind was not, cause I'd been following bigger pockets and like, I know I'd heard some of the red flags to watch for and stuff like that. And it's like, yeah, I, in hindsight, I, I knew they were there or I should have seen them. I knew.

what to look for and I still made some mistakes.

Speaker 1 (26:06)
I mean, that's the thing is like, yes, the larger companies, cost more, but that's because they're insured. It's because they're bonded. It's because they pay workman's comp. You know, all those things add up. Funny enough, plumbing business, like I just not even counting workman's comp and all that stuff, but on average, our employees benefits is 35 % of their base pay. So if they're making $50 an hour,

You're at what? $17 and a half of additional spend outside of workman's comp and insurance, gas, all that stuff. Just on their base pay. Um, actually I did the wrong, but, not something that's right. Yeah. So like, so you have to add that. if there are $40, you know, like $15 or whatever. So like you don't recognize that, but that's. You know, all I'm gonna make $40 an hour. Well, you're really making $55 an hour when you count in all the benefits. So.

Speaker 2 (26:46)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Speaker 1 (27:03)
Right.

All that stuff adds up that when you get the smaller guy, he's just looking at, want to make $50 an hour, $40 an hour. So they don't factor in all that other crops. My little tangent there. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:13)
So exactly. Yeah.

And again, lesson learned and now, yeah, I won't make the mistake again. I better not make the mistake again.

Speaker 3 (27:23)
Yeah. Well, and that's where real estate is forgiving is he, I mean, you make the mistakes and you know, to look for the next time, but because it's so forgiving, you're still going to make a killing on this property. And it stinks in the meantime, having that money tied up, like you said, changing your mindset around and seeing it as an asset is beneficial. But while you're going through the process of learning to be a landlord and all that stuff, obviously having extreme personal stuff going on, how are you able to balance?

Speaker 2 (27:28)
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 (27:50)
managing your property and you you, I believe you had four or three long-term tenants at the time. So how did you work with keeping the tenants, you know, deciding whether to raise the rents and whatnot while handling, you know, personal?

Speaker 2 (28:06)
Boy, a lot of learning on the fly. I probably asked you a lot of questions and in going through, I suppose that's the, the deep dive of listening to stuff, just filling my head with nonstop info as much as I could. You know, it was listening to podcasts every day, several podcasts every day about real estate and those things. And so getting an idea of like, how can I balance this? But still it was, I mean, it was a mess. I mean, obviously a very stressful time in my life and

I think I'm lucky that, so yes, some things didn't go well, but overall, like I feel I was pretty lucky with the tenants that I had and stuff, even though I had one turnover, you I had one that, and so I had to remodel too. Now I guess that was done before the roof. So that was nice. ⁓ The tenants, I I closed early March, had a tenant that one of the long-term was out at end of March, remodeled. I think that took,

April and then I had somebody in, I think it did take until July 1st and he's the long-term tenant I've had ever since. And so that was before the mess of the roof, I guess. So it took care of that. So now I've got a stable tenant in, still got the short-term rental. One of them is technically mine. So I don't have to worry about my own home yet. ⁓ Though I did switch that over during that time and I had that booked within weeks and I still have a long-term tenant in the other. So I guess it was.

Some things do go smooth, I guess. know, the turnover from the one, the remodel to getting a new tenant in one of the long-terms, that actually I would say went smooth. And I was happy for that. Had a good contractor that redid my floor, that did work well, that was, you know, a great example of someone to work with, and I still work with for that reason. And so that went smooth. The changeover from my own property was probably easy, turning that to midterm rental because of how...

I already had my own furniture in there, so I didn't have to furnish it. It was basically laid out and the need was there. The demand was there because traveling nursing was just, it's still a good market, I guess, but then it was booming. And so I, again, I think within two weeks of listing, I had someone booked for three months.

Speaker 3 (30:26)
And you had the intentionality when you bought it. I mean, I remember the conversations of you'd like to turn it into a furnished rental, but if the tenants stayed, then great. You didn't at all come in and say, I'm going to gouge them and raise their rates until they're out. So one of them decided to leave. You're like, great, my opportunity to furnish this. But I think people look at properties and they run this crazy pro forma. And then the only way their numbers work is that they kick everyone out, but they forget they're dealing with people. And especially when you're

self-managing a property, it's a lot more personal to then go and just kick everyone out to make more money. You got to find the balance there. And then the other thing is you had to set up a lot of systems. And so when it came to your maintenance and cleanings and stuff like that, how did you manage all that to be able to eventually, obviously FHA loan, have to stay there for a year, but to...

be able to go on the road and live out in an RV and have your property looked after back home.

Speaker 2 (31:25)
That was kind of again, something I learned probably through listening podcasts, stuff like that. The idea of basically having a spreadsheet and I do have it even though I don't have to go to it often, of like, so like I try to have three options, I think. So I have three handymen that I can call. I've got my primary that it does most things. I've got a guy that I maybe go to more for if I want flooring done other bigger projects will say. So I've got three options there cleaning.

probably have two options, although I say I like to have three in every cleaning. ⁓ I've had plumbers, a list of three to go to electricians. Now I think I've got a list of three roofers. Now I've got probably listed two and you know, take the one guy off the list, but like, so it's, it's weird. It's, maybe it still took time, but it's not that hard. Now again, I won't, I don't have as many properties, but I look and I'm like, people ask me that all the time, especially when I'm on the road.

How are you managing your properties? You're never there. I'm thinking this is a classic thing I heard on some podcasts too. It's like, even if I lived in Omaha, I'm not driving even across town to go fix a toilet. Like that's, you know, it's the classic, what does it work? Work on your business, not in your business, right? That, that cliche statement, but like it makes sense. So even if lived across town, even if I lived a few blocks away, maybe then I would walk over, but I'm not doing those things anyway. So

It's really, doesn't matter if I'm here or if I'm halfway across the country, something comes up. It's like, Hey, I call my handyman. Hey, can you take care of this? Oh, it's something else. It's like, Hey, my cleaning lady, can you take care of this for me? It helps to that. I mean, and this is something you kind of weed out. I'm very lucky with my handyman that he is already been working on the property and has some storage. Yes, exactly. So, he is. Yes. He actually rents, there's a storage unit on the underside.

Speaker 3 (33:15)
him from

Speaker 1 (33:18)
came with the property.

Speaker 2 (33:22)
And so we actually rents that storage area where he stores some tools and otherwise like extra fridges, stoves, stuff like that. So, and he is the jack of all trades. And so he can handle almost anything. ⁓ I don't usually give him the big projects because I know he's too busy. So that's where like, I'll have somebody else if I want flooring or I've done that, but he's, he's quick. ⁓ and he can handle so much. So, you know, it's like something comes up and I call him, Hey, can you go take care of this? And

and he does. And I think it's been very helpful. I've got pretty lucky too. And you know, my cleaning lady that she's also good at like picking things out and like, let me know about things. And it's kind of like, she's the one who's on site the most to like, Hey, I noticed this. Hey, I noticed this. And she keeps me in the loop too. So that's really helpful too.

Speaker 1 (34:15)
think that's the biggest thing with short term and midterm is your team. Like you have to have a good team. And if you don't, it's going to cost you money.

Speaker 2 (34:19)
Yes.

Right. And stress and time and everything else. Right. Yes.

Speaker 3 (34:28)
I think it's one of the things that Brandon Turner of BiggerPockets talked about was he was not handy, but he had tools and he would go and try and do these things, which was not his highest and best use. And so he had to get rid of all his tools. So he physically cannot go to a property and fix these things. And by you having to go virtual, not having to, but choosing to go virtual, it one solidified the path in life that you want, which is the freedom to be able to move wherever you want, whenever you want.

But also it forced you to treat it like a business, not just like a solo shop where you're like, yeah, mean, $200 to hire a plumber. I'll just go do that. And then maybe it takes you six hours to figure out what a plumber can do in half an hour, but you running it like a business, forces you to find who not how. Right. And so I think that's, that's a huge breaking point because then you're learning how to put all these systems in place and the sky's the limit. You could do this with eight properties, 10 properties, 15 properties, cause you're building systems around.

Speaker 2 (35:28)
Right.

Speaker 3 (35:29)
You

have thresholds at every point, but still.

Speaker 2 (35:31)
Exactly. It made it that much easier for the Texas house, which that one I was, I signed the papers for my Texas house. I lived in the Austin area for like nine, well, six months, I think at that point and knew I wanted to find the property there, but I had left. I signed the closing for the Texas property in the state of New York. And I, that was completely sight unseen. and that was, you know,

That was new, had the realtor like send me videos and everything like that and just really fill me in on the property. So I utilized him as much as possible and he knew that, you he knows I'm not around right now. So he's got to help me out. And then, and then what you said is I already had systems that I was used to how this works with the Omaha property. So that part was already, I guess, easy or I already knew that process. Yes, exactly.

The, was a little different, of course, closing from a distance. Scary, of course. I'd do it again though. I mean, it worked out really, really well, but that was, yeah, like you said, copy and paste. It was just repeat the process and same thing. It's just, have a great cleaning crew. I have a friend nearby that helps me out, keeps an eye on the property. I have my, I found an amazing general contractor that helped me turn the rooms over and.

He's essentially handyman too. They'll do little projects, big projects. He's amazing. so there are times when I look and I think, yes, I've had bad experiences, but I've also feel very blessed for some of the people that I have on my team now too, that I'm like so grateful for because they are amazing.

Speaker 1 (37:14)
Yeah. Sounds like you have a good team. mean, obviously you probably couldn't be where you are now if you didn't.

Speaker 2 (37:20)
Right, right. Or I'd be stressed the whole time and then wouldn't enjoy the traveling that I'm doing. And that's the thing. It's like you said, paying someone. It's so much easier to get things into place so that I can truly enjoy where I'm at and be present where I'm at and not be my mind somewhere else. That happens occasionally. Stuff comes up and I'm I've had that before. Like I'm doing this hike and there's something going on and I'm not present and I really do not like that. I really

hate knowing I'm like in a situation and I'm not fully present because something else is going on. And so that's the thing is like, okay, what can I do to make this right? So that this happens as little as possible or when it does happen, it's easy to fix. And that just comes with time and experience too. Realizing that cliche statement again too, that every challenge is an opportunity to, right? To learn from this and how to fix this and how to.

Speaker 1 (38:17)
That's a good way to look at it. Yep. So I want to, you start talking about your sister a little bit and you and MC, ⁓ and I take it she got sick while you were in the process of buying or shortly thereafter.

Speaker 2 (38:31)
Shortly after, Closed beginning of March, June 9th, my sister gets, she got admitted and basically found a large mass in her abdomen, got sent to UNMC and ended up getting diagnosed with a sarcoma cancer, pretty rare cancer, usually not aggressive. And that was obviously below. This is my younger sister who's 30 at the time.

And it was awful as anyone who's known some personally that's had cancer and that it was the thought was, well, we'll remove this mass and she'll be better and we'll recheck in three months, you know, and they do surgery, remove a mass and they, they check again. I forget what happened. They had to check again or do another surgery a week later.

actually I think it was six days and the mass had already grown back. Now it was like cantaloupe size when they removed it and it had already, forget it, six centimeters or something, but in six days it had already, there was already a small mass again. That changed everything. It went from, you know, this is normally not aggressive and you know, a recheck in three months to it's like, now we had to look at chemo and all these other things. So.

That was an awful three months or three months, six months of life. She was diagnosed June 9th and she ended up dying on December 7th and spent 122 over 180 days in the hospital in those six months. And it was a blessing again for me.

with my job, like I just gotten this job and it's a 100 % remote job and I am to this day, I try to remember to tell my supervisor how grateful I am for them because I was able to take so much time off to be with her and it's again, awful but yet at the same time a blessing that I could do that and I'm so grateful for that time I had. So I probably worked for her last three months, I probably worked 10 hours a week.

over that time and I would, was at the hospital every day and got to spend time with her. And it is a, an experience that taught me a lot of things as well. Like everything can of, we talk about real estate and we talk about like building wealth and those things. And, and certainly one of those right in my face examples of the biggest wealth is, is your family and love and those things in your, in your faith and being together.

I think that showed through in that, you I grew up, we didn't have a lot of money, but we were together and we spent time together and I saw my parents, my mom was a teacher, so she was home whenever I was home basically. And I kind of got brought up that way and I realized instead of this potentially tearing us apart, we actually grew closer through that. And that was a big example. And that's, it's ironic for me because I also,

My mind ties into this, fact that I don't want to go too much into detail on this, but I was in a relationship that I got out the day I closed. ⁓ Literally the day I think actually that we got the verbal with someone who it didn't work and it didn't work because we had different worldviews. And one of the big differences was is how we looked at money. And a very ironic lesson, I think from God that, you know, money would not have saved my sister, but

What did you could say save my family or did help us get through it was the love that we shared. And that was from a source of where, again, growing up, we never had that much money. My parents never had much money. So it was a big, ⁓ again, learning experience, lesson learned life lesson for sure in that regard.

Speaker 1 (42:41)
How did that change your life? Like moving forward? ⁓ I'm going to speculate here. know you drove up today and you're in an RV that you drive around the country and stuff like that. Did that have anything to do with where you're at now in life?

Speaker 3 (42:58)
for

Speaker 2 (42:59)
And ⁓ the RV idea and the traveling did come before my sister even got sick. Probably it was, I think, got the job in March, I think I bought the first RV in May. And in June, I was actually literally expecting in a couple of weeks to go out on my first travels and then she got sick. And so I pushed that back. So I had already had that idea that I wanted to travel the country and see the country, but

then it was that much more of, no surprise again, it was that much more of like life's short, right? And I could get diagnosed tomorrow with cancer and then have only six months left. So I'm not a big fan of the YOLO term, but it was a little bit of like, like take advantage for all that God has given me now and what's right in front of me. And so it was that much more of a reason. So the idea was there, but that amplified that.

and that goal to get out. I mean, big differences now too that I've seen are, don't, people ask me like, oh, what's your plan? How long are you going to do this, this and that? And a big change for me has been, I don't worry about the future because I don't know if it's going to be there. And so I don't, I plan as much as I have to, but like I'm, I've never been a big like five year plan, 10 year plan person.

I like the idea of having vague goals, but I don't put set goals and I don't do this like I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this because I don't know that that day will be here. So I'm a very like day to day person and enjoy that day for all it can be. And again, I say this all with a caveat. There has to be a balance. You can't completely throw all goals to the wind, like with real estate and yeah, I have some vague goals about what I want to do, but they're flexible.

And I also don't, they're not so set in stone that if I don't, like this goal doesn't get hit that life's over there because they're not my highest priority. They're not my highest goal. Like my faith in God is my highest goal and the other things fall below that. So that's the center and everything's built around that. But that's a big thing. And I just was talking to a friend the other day too, and about like, he asked me that very question about where I'm going to go. And before I even had to say it,

He knew that he's like, know maybe you don't know the answer to that because he knew from my sister that I had learned that experience too, that it's going to be one day at a time and take it then and I'll figure things out because things can change.

Speaker 1 (45:38)
I agree wholeheartedly, especially like what's your goal thing? ⁓ I've said it time and time again, but, and I haven't finished parsing through everything as far as what I believe in goals and stuff, but I'm more of a, a North star guiding principle type person. Like put something out there that's not achievable, like a, a principal or a,

mantra or you know, whatever core value that you're you're striving towards and It's unattainable But everything you do in life goes towards those things versus goals like My north star is to invest and provide as much as I can for my family, know, like that's not I'm have a hundred units during cash flow this like I just I Bring faith into it

I've never read a Bible verse that's like, this was my goal and this is how I set KPIs to it and how I got there. it's kind of like, just go about life with guiding principles that guide you there and eventually you'll get where you're going.

Speaker 2 (46:57)
And if you found two in your experience, like if you set that goal that it, I'm trying to think of an analogy of how everything falls into place the way it's, I guess you could say supposed to. Like if you set that goal or that, like you said, that mantra, however you want to look at it, it's almost as if the world then manifests itself.

Speaker 3 (47:21)
I mean the whole thing about works based faith, right? And how you can't earn your way into heaven that price has already been paid. And I think the same way about, ⁓ you know, using that North Star to live a life worthy. And I've seen so many animations of just like when we get to that gate, it's like envisioning a bouncer, right? And the bouncer is saying like, why do think you should get in?

And the people are like, oh, I did this. I did this. I saved children. I did all this stuff. I'm like, no, sorry. And when you get to the gate and say, oh, I'm with him and Jesus is standing inside, that is the life that I want to remember. why, if that is true, which we know it is, then why live a worthy life? It's like, well, so when you have that first conversation with Jesus, you say, I tried my best. I tried to live like you. tried to...

to live a life of purpose and not just, mean, ⁓ I hate to crap on Catholics, but where they're like, you know, go gamble and cheat and steal all week and then come back and repent, repent, repent. Yep, he's got me. You know, I don't think that's what it's meant to be.

Speaker 1 (48:35)
don't think that's what it's supposed to be either in the Catholic religion.

Speaker 3 (48:38)
Bye.

Speaker 2 (48:40)
In

a dramatic sense.

Speaker 1 (48:42)
Why I just think any religion says that, you know, like, I'm saved. I got baptized. know.

Speaker 3 (48:48)
I'm Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:50)
Yeah, I think it's just a...

Speaker 3 (48:53)
I'm saying that as the ultimate extreme opposite.

Speaker 1 (48:55)
I

mean, it's the same thing like people will be like, well, God knows my heart. He also knows your potential.

Speaker 3 (49:02)
I,

oh, who was it that said that I, Oh, it was David Goggins. He's like, I don't want to get to heaven one day and have God show me this is the version of you that you could have been. gives me chills.

Speaker 2 (49:16)
Yeah, you're right. And I've heard him say that too, and that eats at him. Exactly. And now it's, you've just made me think of so many things that I've been listening to recently too, about the idea that, you know, Christianity is the only religion where I think this was John Lennox too. It's like, if you draw a line, most religions, it's like you're born and then this is your life. And then there's an arrow to heaven or an arrow to hell or whatever is not heaven or whatever. And it's like, and this is the point where the decision's made. Christianity is the only one where the decision is made here.

before you get to that end. And now you get to live knowing that it's heaven. Like it's just this route, but it's the only religion, is also one those words like hard to use sometimes where it's like, you know that from the start. And that's, and that's where, as I mentioned earlier too, that's where I feel, I think you're mentioning this too, that like that sense of freedom, because I already know. So I can live, like you said, it's not works. Timothy Keller has a really good book, Reason for God.

Because I always think about ways of thinking that the idea that it's not about my works, but you do it because you're saved. And this, I kind of had a year ago or so moment too, where I had this, ironically, I come to Jesus thought too of like, okay, if I really believe what I believe, then what am I doing not making that the center of my life? If I truly believe in a God that was willing to...

send his son to die for my sins in a horrible fashion so that I am safe. If I truly believe that, then what are you doing not living to honor that sacrifice and that love? And I mean, this is just how I envision it, but to do otherwise, like you said, to consciously go out and sin after that, for me is like, I literally envisioned looking up at the cross and spitting on Jesus.

you're doing this for me, but I'm going to go make this choice because it's what I want to do. It feels good in the moment and this and that. So yeah, thanks. You know, and like that's, that's how I see it. I'm a very visual person and that often guides some of the, we all have those hedonic urges, right? Like those in the moment whims, like where you want to do it. And I'm like, no, like God knows my heart, right? Like, and he knows what I'm going to do here. like,

what he did for me, how can I not want to glorify him? So it's the acts of like doing it to glorify him in thanks for what he's already given us that we don't deserve, right? And I Keller uses the analogy of it's like when you first get into a relationship, like when you're in love that first time, think about how you don't even have to be asked to do things. You're proactively like maybe as guys we're like proactively like

Speaker 3 (51:49)
you

Speaker 2 (52:07)
cleaning stuff up and maybe taking the trash out. We're like setting things up. We're proactively doing these things. That's what it should be like. should, and then should always stay, no, right? It's so hard to do that. It's hard to do that in relationships and marriage, but like our ultimate relationship with God, that's how it should be. It's like, we're so grateful and so in love with him because what he's already done for us and his love for us, we want to do these things for him, not because we have to.

Speaker 1 (52:36)
Yeah, that's good. One thing I want to ask you about, so you talk about living in the RV life. So kind of unpack that. What's that look like? You know, I talk about travel around, all the beautiful things God's given us. But specifically, I guess, as a whole, I just like to hear about it. But specifically, how do you go about living life so you don't really have community? Right. You...

don't have a church. So how do you, how's that working into the life of our being from that standpoint?

Speaker 2 (53:13)
Sure, that's a really good point too. So I'll disclaimer that with I'm someone who has even into childhood, I played a lot by myself. I've never minded being alone. So I always bring that up first because people ask me, you don't have a pad or anything. I'm like, no, and it doesn't bother me one bit. So all my life, and I say even back to childhood, ⁓ I love to play outside. My sister really didn't. So I played outside by myself all the time. I spent a lot of time by myself.

I'm used to that and it doesn't bother me to start. then, and you're right, like I work a remote job. I have phone calls, but I don't see somebody. So my community usually comes through. Well, so I enjoy the gym. So when I go to the gym there, that's kind of, you know, I'll meet people, talk to people there. That's kind of my, um, bit of a community, but that's always changing. So, you know, especially sometimes when I'm traveling and I'm literally bouncing somewhere every week.

then it's like, don't have a lot of time to establish much, but when I've stayed places, then I can more. Church is very interesting. have, I have found, which is again, no brainer. When I first started traveling, what I would often do is watch something online because I don't know the churches and this and that. That's fine, but that's a, I don't want to call it, I was gonna say a shallow version because you're not getting the community.

I have found now that I will usually make a much more significant effort unless I'm truly in the middle of nowhere to find a nearby church and go. And that has been amazing. So like I was in Arizona and I was in Sedona for about a month and, and I went to the church there and it was great because it was like, I would go to church and then I ended up spending like the three, three or four times I went like half an hour or more each time talking to people in the congregation afterwards. ⁓

So again, no surprise, finding a church has been my easiest way to plug into a community, especially if I'm in somewhere longer, then it's really great. Like if I'm somewhere like Sedona where I was for a month and I can go several times, it's that much better. But even if I'm bouncing, I'll go. I stopped in a church in Asheville once, North Carolina, I remember, and went and they had Bible study after. And I just asked them, was like, can I join you?

And they're like, yeah, sure. Who's going to say no, right? And so that was great. And then same thing. It's like Bible study with them, spent probably an hour after Bible study talking with people. So it is a huge way to plug in. And outside of that, otherwise it's, I make more phone calls, you know, then, then maybe I used to do more calls to family to keep them up to date, which is fun anyway. It's, you know, staying in touch with my mom, which

That's something after my sister, like my sister and my mom, like they were best friends. So that's a void for her that I'm trying to help fill more of too by, you know, it used to be, would talk every once a month, maybe every couple of weeks. Now it's like, I, it's a pretty steady goal that like every Monday or Tuesday after the weekend that I try to check in and see how they're doing. And, and that's a big part of it too. So still not going to be as plugged in as if I was in a place.

one spot all the time, but those are my little ways I would say personal contact is the gym and then going to church, which has been a huge help as far as staying plugged in more.

Speaker 1 (56:53)
That's what I was gonna question.

Speaker 2 (56:56)
I have a vague goal each time, each adventure I go on, I have a vague goal. And I guess maybe I'll bring this up too, like when I'm back like now. So when I'm traveling, it's all about experiences and seeing things. But when I'm back, it is all about relationships. So I'm trying to spend as much as my time when I'm back on the relationships that I have, because that's, again, I'm not gonna get that when I'm on the road. ⁓ So I'll always have vague ideas of where I'm going. Sometimes it's pretty planned out. So I did...

I'm trying to remember my timelines anymore. A couple of years ago it was, I wanted to get to Maine and see Maine and I left in July. And so I was like, okay, what route do I want to take there? So I just went through Wisconsin, UP and Michigan down Niagara through New York, Vermont, Hampshire up to Maine. And then, well, then I bought the house. So then I had to head to Texas. There's always ⁓ one of the other trips was like my first one was to see glacier and Teton National Park.

Maybe that's where I should, simple answer to your question is national parks. That's, there we go. That's the simplest answer to your question is the places I want to see are not cities. Now don't get me wrong. Like Boston was amazing. I love seeing Boston, Philly. I love history and cities are okay. Not my goal. My goal is like national parks. And it wasn't my initial goal when I started doing this to see all of them, but it's kind of become one because as my list grows, I'm like, you know,

Speaker 3 (57:56)
Hmm.

Speaker 2 (58:23)
kind of now want to cross these all off the list, but not just to cross them off a list, but it's like now that I've gotten this far. So that's my basis. It's always okay. Based around the national parks, then figuring out a route. So it was like, that was a Northeast route. then I, North Carolina was, I spent a month, no, two months outside of Smokey Mount National Park because that's a big park. And I wanted to see that. And while I'm there, I also checked out other parts of North Carolina. did go to the coast. And so I see other parts of that area, but like,

That was the center of what I wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (58:56)
So you just wake up and say, I'm going to drive here tomorrow, or is it, you know, I'm going to stay here for three days and on day three I'm going to head out. You know, how do you, how do you gauge that?

Speaker 2 (59:05)
Completely flexible, always depends on the place. I know usually a little bit ahead of time. So as an example that I just brought up, I knew Smokey Mountain National Park was big enough to take months. I spent last year, May and June, right outside the park. And I didn't do a trail twice. So that's a big park. And I did other stuff too, because there's, I had the motorcycle then too, and it's just so beautiful out there that I've sometimes the weekend, it was a day I would just go on a ride and just go see something. So,

But it really depends. When I was traveling to the Northeast or the last trips that I did was going out to see National Parks of California and I came through Arizona. It really will depend on the area. So I often don't have a specific timeline. I knew I just had to be back at the beginning or wanted to be back at beginning of June with this last adventure. So okay, I saw Sequoia and Yosemite and I went to Big Sur on the coast.

and Death Valley. Then I came back through Arizona and I stopped. I knew I wanted to see Sedona area. Well, I thought that might be a week, maybe a couple of weeks. I stayed a month because it's beautiful and there's so many trails thrown. In fact, there, the people were really nice. I found that most places too, but it was like, man, like that's one of things. So there it was like between the church that I mentioned and the gym too, like in these, I kind of want to go back and I may because like the people were also really, really nice. So

It's unfair. It's a huge blessing that I don't take for granted that I can be completely flexible because then after that I went and I did parks that all a day. You know, I stopped at Petrified Forest. That was a couple hours, you know, and that White Sands in New Mexico was a day, you know, because they're Guadalupe, which is Western part of Texas. I stopped there. Same thing did one hike. That was a day. I mean, it could have stayed longer, but

They don't need to. So I kind of base it off of that too. Like white sands is beautiful, but it's really, I told my family this, it's not at all to take away from how beautiful it is. But once you see in a white sand dune, you've seen it. Right. Exactly. You're like, did a hike where at a point you're just looking around and this is no joke. I heard people get lost before I went there. I'm like, people really get lost. And then I got there half mile and I'm like, okay, I see why people get lost. ⁓ Cause it's, you're just.

It's the same in every direction. So, you know, it did, I didn't need to go back. ⁓ and then there was another big bend and, Palo Duro in Texas, places I stopped that again, a day or weekends enough. And so that's, but I never know for sure. So that's why it's another reason why I never booked campsites ahead of time. And why, as we were talking beforehand, why I stay in a lot of Walmart's truck stops or the West half of the country, dispersed camping, because you don't have to book it.

So I'm never tied to, I gotta be at this spot by this date to check in because I paid for that. So I also, even though it was harder on the eastern half of the country where there's not as much dispersed camping, I still then never planned ahead. And maybe that means I don't get to stay as close to a park or I'm not right where I wanna be. I gotta stay 30, 40 miles away.

That's the sacrifice that I make to have the flexibility, the freedom to basically adjust my schedule on the fly.

Speaker 3 (1:02:39)
Have you been to all 48 continental?

Speaker 1 (1:02:43)
States.

Speaker 2 (1:02:43)
Yet

I missed I need some in Northeast. I miss Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland, because when I bought the house, I went from Maine back to Texas instead of down the East Coast like I was planning. I

Speaker 1 (1:02:58)
wonder.

Speaker 3 (1:02:59)
You're not missing. there we go. So take one route one all the way down and get through all of them.

Speaker 2 (1:03:00)
You

Speaker 1 (1:03:05)
⁓ I guess to wrap it up, what does freedom mean you? Because you have obviously a different vantage point as most people do, right? Living nomadically and ⁓ working remotely and all that. What's freedom mean to you in this day and age?

Speaker 2 (1:03:24)
I like that question. And I have thought about this at times. And then my answer seems to.

The more I do this and the more older I get to my answer. Yeah, wiser. There we go, exactly. Seems to be. ⁓

And yet I still with my response, always struggle with the think like when I think of the freedom that I've always tried to attain, it's okay. How can I put myself or the position that I can be in where I can truly serve the North star that we talked about that I want to serve, which that's a choice. And so it has kind of been a situation for me or like, okay,

putting myself or focusing my life in a way that I know that I have assurance. And that's where my faith comes from. And that's why I talk about that's my freedom. I've already kind of mentioned that earlier where my freedom comes from like my faith and my salvation. like, so that is my freedom. Like, I guess that is the simplest answer. I struggle sometimes with how to put that into words, but that...

really has become my freedom because again, as we've already talked about, like everything else can fall away and I'm still at peace and I still have that freedom because of the salvation that I know through Jesus. And that really, again, is like, if I make that my center at the times and when I truly focus on that, keep that in my center, that's, man, the freedom and the peace from that is...

that don't want to describe it almost.

Speaker 1 (1:05:11)
Awesome. Well, I appreciate it. Andrew, I don't know if you have you. All right,

Speaker 3 (1:05:17)
Well, I think for me, I one of the things I love about trucking is just being able to see the whole country. And, you know, I just got back from a trip. We went out last week and got to see, you know, Wyoming and all through Colorado. And, you know, it's just beautiful drive and just, I mean, looking at one, how long it takes to get everywhere, which, you know, I mean, driving does get kind of boring sometimes, but I enjoy it.

but also seeing how big everything is, but how close it is in the grand scheme of things. It's like, I'm a drive away from coast to coast. I can get anywhere in the country in such little time and stopping in places like on a road trip at the Grand Canyon. Like I could spend a week just drinking coffee, reading the Bible, looking at that view. Cause I like almost fell to my knees at how beautiful it was. And it was like, this is God's creation. and.

going on road trips and being able to see all these things, it's like, it's another form of almost meditation for me, you know, and just still and be one with God, you know, and appreciate everything that he's created. And if he can create all of this, then any problem that's in my life is a needle in the infinite haystack of his creation. And so it just, I so much admire, you know, being able to do that. And we want to take our kids on more road trips and stuff and just

Speaker 2 (1:06:20)
BITCH

Speaker 3 (1:06:42)
hearing how you discern that. I mean, I love to have you on another time, talk more about how it is that you speak to God and make your decisions and peacefully go through life. We'll touch in on the next journey, see when kids and wife are coming along and how that affects your road trips. But appreciate your time. This is not a great conversation and glad to have you on.

Speaker 2 (1:07:09)
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (1:07:09)
Bye Jordy.