Christina VanDergrift

Sunrise Ridge – It’s LIVE and ready for you to stay there!

Remember my FIRST EVER Vacation Rental – Villa Bella Mermaid?

By keeping a close eye on the Real Estate Market, utilizing Creative Financing, and having faith that things happen for a reason, we are still reaping the benefits of that investment!

Like I mentioned in a previous blog post (Just In the Nick of Time) we used the capital gains from the sale of Villa Bella Mermaid to purchase a property neighboring one of our own that I’d had my eyes on for quite some time – just as our opportunity to use that 1031 Exchange was about to expire!

We did, in fact, have our work cut out for us. We have set a pretty high standard for ourselves on the quality and design elements of our investments, and we weren’t about to lower those now, especially since this is close to our home property and we plan to keep it forever. We decided to remodel almost everything – including tweaking the floor plan here and there – so this was no small task. In fact it ended up being a year-long project due to also splitting our time with our Main St space for MVR Vacation Rentals and installing an elevator in an 1880’s building…but that’s for another post.

We were planning on making this property another Vacation Rental, so it needed to be as visually appealing as it was comfortable and practical for people visiting our area. It’s surrounded by farm fields and has some of the most amazing sunrises and sunsets you can imagine! It’s been a labor of love and definitely a rollercoaster ride.

Once the bones were ready, we got to my favorite part – furnishing and decorating. I’d decided on the name “Sunrise Ridge” and wanted it to be as beautiful as the setting that inspired the name.

We could not be more pleased with the finished product, and are excited to finally be able to share this property with our guests! Make sure to check it on MVR Vacation Rentals, Inc. and book your stay here for your next trip to Wellsboro! You will LOVE IT!!! 🙂

Just In the Nick of Time

As much as we would like to force things sometimes, the universe has other plans!

Back in June I posted “So Long Villa Bella Mermaid” on my blog, about the sale of our very first vacation rental, down in Cape Coral, FL and its sale. I was so bittersweet because we did love that place, but for a variety of reasons we decided to cash in on the CRAZY market and sell it, as a turn-key vacation rental.

That purchase was literally the scariest investment that Jeremy and I had ever made. We were so unknowledgeable, and it was so far away. It was also the first time we had a decent chunk saved up for a 20% down payment!? That in itself was so gratifying because everything we had purchased up until that point had been creatively financed, whether it be using equity in our property or having the seller hold the down payment/mortgage (I teach you how to do this in my book “Vacation Rentals: The Ultimate Guide”). What made it scarier was that we were going to be relying on other people’s advice, management, and our faith that it would all work out. It had a huge mortgage payment, and the taxes were crazy, but we pushed forward and got one heck of an education anyhow!

After COVID as the world started to open back up, the FL real estate prices skyrocketed!!! I reached out to the agent that we had used to purchase the house to see what he thought it would be worth and if it would be worthwhile to sell. Boy, was I surprised when we could list it for over $150,000 more than we had paid for it 3 years prior! I was even more surprised when we got 3 offers on it within 24 hours of listing it…all $30,000-50,000 over asking price!? So that was it, we accepted one and decided to end that Chapter and start a new one.

Our original thought was to do a 1031 exchange and try to buy a chunk of land to hang on to. With a 1031 exchange, all your proceeds from your sale get held by a third-party intermediary until you close on a property, or if one isn’t found, you get your proceeds back but then must pay capital gains tax on the gain from the sale. People do 1031 exchanges because then you can offset your capital gains of that sale and kick the can down the road to another property, sometimes even decades down the road. This is a HUGE opportunity that most people don’t know about and one that I would like to do some trainings on in the future.

With a 1031, you have 45 days from the day of closing to identify a “like-kind” property and then 180 days to close on it. If you haven’t found one within the 45 days, then you pay your small fee for that company to hold your money and then must pay Uncle Sam on the capital gains of the sale.

Our original plan didn’t work out with making an offer on the land that we wanted to purchase, so we decided to just be practical and take the proceeds, pay Uncle Sam, and then with the rest pay some things off – like, maybe fix up our barn and whatever other projects we wanted to start or add to. I called the 1031 company at that point and told her that we wanted to take our money out and not do the 1031 exchange. She explained that legally, we still must leave the money in the account at her company until the 45 days was up, and that they do this in case a property happens to pop up, because once it’s done you cannot do a 1031. So, we did…

Wouldn’t you know it, that just a few short days before the clock ran out, one of our neighboring properties with a house and 10 acres hit the market!?!? I literally sat down at my computer at the office, at the end of an overwhelming day, opened my computer, logged into our MLS system and there it was! I recognized it immediately and literally said out loud – “Oh crap, I think I have to buy a property!” One of my agents was sitting nearby and giggled and probably thought I was a crazy person, haha.

I immediately called the listing agent and before she even said hello, she said “I knew I would be hearing from you!” I was scrambling to get the words out, because I know in this market that places are literally going under contract within minutes of listing. I asked if anyone else had called or made an offer etc. She said that she had just clicked “Submit” to go live minutes before I called and that she had told her Broker that I would probably be calling – No sooner she said that to her Broker, I did!

Jeremy was working in a bad cell area, so I hoped that my call would go through. I called him and said, “I think we have to buy a property and do a 1031 after all!” He laughed at me, laid back as he usually is and said, “Oh boy!” I quickly explained which one and he said, “Do it!” Boy have times changed in our world…I rarely get a NO anymore…with buying property that is 😉

We made the offer, got it together and identified it just in the “Nick of Time” before our 45-day window had ended. We were able to use just enough for the escrow, down payment and closing costs and have the rest sent to us to do with it as we please. We will still have to pay some capital gains, but not nearly as much as we would have if we hadn’t purchased a property directly.

It’s funny how the universe (God or however you identify with it) seems to always be conspiring behind the scenes, when we so badly want to rush and force things. I am a total control freak because of the constant busyness and life’s chaos, but some things must happen on their own – you just must lean in and have faith. I will say it again and again – There is no “right time”, you must set the goal, put in the work and be consistent! There also is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme. It all takes time and if you are like me, you struggle with staying patient, but it is always worth it!

I hope that this inspires you to take chances, invest in real estate and get onto that road of abundance. If you haven’t purchased my course yet, click here to do so! I will personally teach you every step of the way from start to operations. I was scared too with our first one and almost didn’t follow through, but if we hadn’t we wouldn’t be able to make all of those memories with our family, have that additional income, tax write offs, a free place to stay and then eventual proceeds ($$$) from the sale of it to roll into having even more financial freedom and more income.

We have a long road of renovations, planning, furnishing etc, ahead and I want to share the journey of it from start to finish with you all. I will be sharing updated info and incite here on my blog, and on Instagram (@christinavandergrift) and FB (@MsChristinaVanDergrift) with the play by play.

Chris

P.S. If you haven’t signed up yet to stay in the loop, please do so below!

Going away guilt and anxiety for entrepreneurs and most everyone else…

“You have to make it happen. No one’s going to do it for you. No one is going to show up to work one day and say, ‘Hey, I got you. I got you covered. You don’t have to work. You go away and you enjoy yourself. It just doesn’t happen.”

This takes a ton of courage to do and try, but you are worth it. So many studies show that those who take time to recharge are more creative, more motivated and do better quality work!

Right before I went away with my husband and my 2 little guys for a family vacation, I had a fellow entrepreneur ask me:

“How do you do it? How are you going to go away? And how do you actually take the time to make it happen without feeling guilty, or without feeling obligated to still work and be there at work in case they show up and then call you? Or how do you take the time to do it? Because my work is going to be backing up, I’m still going to have it mounting and piling up without me here. But on the other hand, I’m not getting any younger, plus I have money, I’m able to do things, but I just don’t take the time to do them. How do you do it?”

(Just so you know – this was a very well-established business owner who’s very talented, has a lot of repeat clients, and a guy. Many people think just women face guilt, but yes, men do too!)

In my mind, you wouldn’t think someone this well respected, with mostly repeat and referral business, would feel this way. He did say, “I follow all your stuff on social media with the coaching and I’m trying to learn from it and I want to know how you do it and go from there.”

So, I said to him that “No one is going to do it for you! And no one is going to make that time for you to go away or do your work while you’re gone. I grew up watching my parents never travel. It’s one of those things where, when you have the time, you don’t have the money and when you have the money, you don’t have the time.”

This was a prime example of that. He had the money and he could do it pretty much anytime, but just didn’t make the time. So, my big thing with him was “You have to make it happen.” That is one of my catchphrases and sayings that I say to everybody – Life is what you make it, you have to make it happen. No one’s going to do it for you.

Going back to my parents, my mom grew up in a household where they never traveled, because of my grandparents. Not that they didn’t have much money, but my grandfather was a penny pincher and didn’t want to spend the money. I also think, honestly, he had so much anxiety and fear that he was afraid to travel. So, my mom didn’t travel growing up.

My dad’s family never traveled at all because they didn’t have the money to, his father was wheelchair bound and his mom didn’t even have a driver’s license.

Fast forward to our generation, we didn’t have the money to travel. And normally, if we did travel anywhere, it was for a craft show or someplace work-related so that not only could she write it off, but then we had the income to make it make sense to actually go someplace.

So, I did not grow up traveling. I knew when I got older though that I wanted to, and I wanted to experience life to the fullest if I could. It goes along with the whole limitless thing – I didn’t want to settle, whether it’s traveling or experience in life and enjoying life. And I want to give that opportunity for my kids too.

With all of that being said, as my mom has gotten older, she still does work 7 days a week most of the time, but she has actually gone on a few trips the last couple of years.

Prior to that, she just worked and never took any time off, ever. And would say, “I wish I could travel. I wish I could do this or that.” And I would say to her, “You have to make it happen. No one’s going to do it for you. No one is going to show up to work one day and say, ‘Hey, I got you. I got you covered. You don’t have to work. You go away and you enjoy yourself. It just doesn’t happen.”

So, I made suggestions to this gentleman, “You have to plan for it. You have to schedule around it. You can do it.” His entire business could be by appointment only. He does not have to have walk-ins unless it’s a certain time of the year. So, my suggestion was, “Put ‘by appointment only’ on your social media. If you have a website, do it on that and do it on your storefront, which by the way has no windows, so they can’t see if you’re in here anyway. Start small, by trying to figure out how to train your customers to respect your availability and have those boundaries for you and your schedule.”

This takes a ton of courage to do and try, but you are worth it. So many studies show that those who take time to recharge are more creative, more motivated and do better quality work! Which leads to more business, more production, more intuitive insights and better health too. And don’t forget, we are role models to those watching, and you wouldn’t want your kids to be frazzled, tired, adults not fully enjoying the journey of life, a slave to their work.

I learned this at a brokers class a long time ago. When you go away, don’t pretend you’re still working, because then you are never fully going to be in the moment and present wherever you go. If you explain to your clients, have an out of office response and educate them ahead of time that you’re going to be going away and what the protocol would be to reach you, or to check in on updates, educate them. You will ultimately do a better job for them, by taking this time for you…

People will generally respect your time if you create and set those boundaries with your schedule. Not everybody’s going to and maybe they’re not your people. Maybe they’re not your clients. So, keep that in mind.

They are my biggest suggestions: Create those boundaries, create your schedule and coverage, don’t feel guilty for it and then plan for it. Remember the why behind it – why you need to recharge, why you deserve to enjoy the journey and not just be so focused on the destination that you forget to.

What’s the point of working your rear end off to be an old person someday and live with regret? It goes along with the whole limitless idea. You either are living a limitless life or you’re settling. There’s probably comfortable area in between, but if you feel like you’re settling, you can change it if you want to bad enough.

I hope that that entrepreneur takes the time to change how people can access him, and when they can access him, and does take that trip, and makes it a regular thing.

Especially if you’re established – if you do everything in excellence, have great follow up and explain your expectations and boundaries, they will be waiting for you. A balanced life will set you up to be your best and bring your best, and if a client isn’t willing to respect those boundaries, maybe they aren’t your people. This takes courage to do, but will be more than worth it.

Even if you go away and they don’t know that you’re gone and you have a business where they cannot readily walk in and see you – they don’t know if you’re working on their item and/or their product or someone else’s, or they’re in the pipeline just waiting for their product to be completed.

I hope that this serves you and helps you, and that you create those boundaries. Schedule that trip, and live life to the fullest. And live a well-balanced, full life. Work hard, play hard, but well-balanced.

If you want some more resources and accountability, check out my coaching options at my website www.christina-vandergrift.com/coaching.

If you want to see how I handle my guilt and anxiety while away, read my previous blog post. Don’t forget to Subscribe below 🙂

Things Rarely Feel How You Expect Them To…

Things rarely feel how you expect them to. Sometimes better, sometimes worse and sometimes you feel nothing, and that’s ok. I think we as people have a natural tendency to put so much anticipation and anxiety into what things should feel like and when it does not happen, we feel that something is wrong with us. We need to remember to just be present and observe what is actually happening in the moment without forcing it because that also sets us up for failure and disappointment. And above all do not self-judge. Forgive yourself if you do and then check back into the present again and just be.

and other self-reflections from a road trip!

Things rarely feel how you expect them to. Sometimes better, sometimes worse and sometimes you feel nothing, and that’s ok. I think we as people have a natural tendency to put so much anticipation and anxiety into what things should feel like and when it does not happen, we feel that something is wrong with us. We need to remember to just be present and observe what is actually happening in the moment without forcing it because that also sets us up for failure and disappointment. And above all do not self-judge. Forgive yourself if you do and then check back into the present again and just be.

I typed that up on my phone and emailed to myself, while going down the highway on a family road trip recently. I was feeling extremely anxious along with a little bit of guilt, anger and disappointment. Here we were finally on a family vacation and taking some time off, away with our kids and this is what I was feeling. Of course, then you beat yourself up for acting ungrateful for the opportunity and the moments when you could be stuck at work or someplace miserable – the opposite place of a “vacation”.

The guilt was from not being at work. The disappointment was that I was feeling anxious and not some supermom character being all things to everyone, like you tend to see on everyone’s highlight reel on social media. The anger was at myself because I finally wasn’t at work and felt like I couldn’t enjoy myself.

I knew that I needed to get these feelings out of me somehow to feel lighter and decided that I would then email them to myself. I do this also sometimes when I am feeling stressed or anxious and call it my “mental dump”. I cannot explain how much lighter I felt after hitting the send button.

I think in this instance, I needed to just remember to breath, forgive myself for the experiences not feeling how I thought they would or should feel and move on to be able to be present again and take it as it all played out.

This trip was a two-week road trip from Pennsylvania to Wyoming, Montana and 9 others states, 5,542 miles with the 4 of us in our Jeep Wrangler. We had never been away that long in our entire lives and knew that it would be a once in a lifetime experience for all of us, Jeffy (9) and Jaxon (10) included. And being in a small-ish vehicle for all of that time was going to be out of everyone’s comfort zone, and we were probably going to have those moments when you get on each other’s nerves, but leading up to those kinds of trips, you only see and feel the magic things that can come out of them – never the full picture of what life tends to actually be like.

Don’t get me wrong, we did have a lot of those magical moments too, but I didn’t get to fully experience them until I was settled and present and I emailed myself those words:

It is ok to have life not feel how you expect it to…it is ok to sometimes feel emotions that you don’t want to at special moments. Don’t fight it, because that will make it worse. Breathe, be present, write it down, don’t self-judge for feeling these emotions that you feel you shouldn’t or don’t want to feel and above all – Forgive yourself. You are human and doing the best that you can!

Who Is Prioritizing You?

The less that you take care of yourself, the less time and energy you have to put into your day. This could start with 8 hours of sleep each night that sets you up to complete a healthy morning routine. This could also be something as simple as adding a few steps to your day, scheduling self care, taking 5 mins here and there throughout the day to just be, breathe, or stretch even.

Where your focus goes, your energy flows – but what happens when you don’t have the energy to accomplish your goals?

My mornings include a healthy breakfast, exercise, and quality quiet time with my husband before the kids wake up and the crazy begins. I also make sure to fill this time with inspirational and motivational readings and podcasts that keep me focused and inspired. It turns out, my best ideas come in the morning.

These habits are not always easy to start, so make sure to set yourself up for success. This could mean laying your clothes out the night before so you don’t have to think about it, pick a day to meal prep or subscribe to a healthy meal service that sends the ingredients right to your door, whatever it is that challenges you to stay on track, there will always be something you can do to make it a little less of a challenge.

Making these changes will not only make you physically healthier, but they truly create more energy for you to feel more committed, focused, and vibrant throughout your day.

You carry the weight of your world on your shoulders, and no one else is prioritizing you. Making positive changes in your routines and focusing on creating the energy you need to get through the day will help you to show up better for yourself, your family, your job, and whatever else it is you need to take your next steps to Live Limitless.

Carpe Diem!

It is easy on your journey to Live Limitless to overbook yourself. Even after you have sat down to prioritize your daily tasks and delegate what you can, you may still have a pretty full plate for the day – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to manage it and still find joy in the process.

I have found that if I don’t create margins in my day to reset and refocus, the day will run me. I end up feeling behind, out of control, and frazzled – which only leads to anxiety and stress as a result of feeling like I’m not in control of my own life. If I let myself get to this point where I’m burning candles at all ends, not only does the quality of my work decrease but I also end up not being pleasant to be around and it will bleed into the next day when I’m dragging because the stress from the day before is still with me.

My morning margins and afternoon margins are two completely different things. In the morning, I am finding the books, podcasts, or music that will pump me up and motivate me to tackle my day. But by the time I’m switching gears into home life my focus needs to be a little different. While I still need to create the energy I need to be present for my family, it is a much different energy than I need to get through the work day.

This time is typically filled with a quick meditation where I can truly shut my brain off for a bit to get a restorative moment without going into sleep mode and losing all of my motivation. I get to mentally unwind and have a clear mindset so that whatever happened during my workday does not affect my evening with my family.

If you need help identifying where you can find the margins in your day to keep you working at your full potential, check out my one-on-one coaching options where we have the privacy to dive deep into the things that are keeping you from the Limitless Life you deserve and help you break through!

https://www.christina-vandergrift.com/coaching-application

Want More Joy in your Job?

No matter what your role – owner, employee, independent consultant, etc. the key to enjoying your job and your life is figuring out what is the highest and best use of your time and delegating the things that don’t fit that description.

When we bought Mountain Valley Realty, I held all the positions. I was broker, owner, realtor, trainer, accountant, marketer – everything. I was 5 different people collecting one paycheck and knew that wasn’t right, but how do I fix it?

The game changer for me was realizing that I couldn’t do all of the things. There were tasks on my plate, personally and professionally, that ranged from $5/hour to $500/hour jobs. Delegation of the lower end tasks has been key to finding the balance in my life that allows me to be the most productive and complete the highest quality work without having to worry about the tasks I was able to delegate.

As it turned out, the parts I enjoyed the most were on the higher end of the payscale, so focusing on them not only made the most sense financially it also helped me stay invested in and excited about my businesses, increasing my motivation that much more to make them the best that they can be.

These changes couldn’t be made overnight, but I could strategically plan over time to make it happen. This process will come with its own growing pains that you can’t predict or prepare for, but once you get through them all aspects of your improve – peace, productivity, joy, and so much more.

If you need help identifying what tasks on your daily list that you can delegate, make sure to apply for one-on-one coaching with me where we will have the privacy to dive deep into what is holding you back from the living the Limitless Life that you deserve – and break through!

https://www.christina-vandergrift.com/coaching-application

Preparing For The Best (And Worst)

No challenge is unbeatable – you just need a fortified plan to get you through!

Whether it’s an impending downturn in the Real Estate Market, balancing work and personal life, marketing your business to stand out from the crowd, furnishing Vacation Rentals to meet all guests’ needs, or overcoming challenges in your journey to Live Limitless, I’ve got tips and tricks for you!

My High Performance Coaching is all about creating Focused Goals for yourself, and then creating the steps to make it happen. But do you realize how difficult it can be to break down your goals into something achievable?

When speaking with groups of people, the majority are going to say that they would like to create more wealth, abundance, and ease in their lives. But what does that really mean? How much wealth do you want to create? How do you want to create that wealth? What in your daily life that is causing you stress or getting in the way can you eliminate or make less of an inconvenience? How do you pivot, when it doesn’t go as planned?

This is why you need a coach to help you create your own individual plan, what steps that you should take first and I can help you to break down your goals into smaller, achievable steps – a coach also helps you create timelines, offers accountability and calls you out when you make excuses.

Interested in Living Limitless? Make sure to check out my coaching offerings where we can work through your goals together here.

Make sure to follow me on social and subscribe to the blog to stay up to date on all things Limitless!

Sky High Inspirations

Vacation Rentals have been a passion project of mine for a long time – so much so that I not only own and operate multiple, I even created my very own Vacation Rental Management Company as I began to see a need for it in my community.

Our first Vacation Rental, Villa Bella Mermaid, served as my introduction and first few lessons learned (check out my book for details) to Vacation Rental Management Companies (VRMC). Because it was so far from home, there was no way for us to be able to do the turnovers or provide customer service for guests ourselves – making a VRMC a must.

As we built our Vacation Rental Portfolio back home and I was looking into the other Vacation Rentals in the area, I had a lightbulb moment – with such a wide variety of Vacation Rentals in the area and more being added all the time, along with the fact that I had so many people reaching out to me with questions about how to buy and manage Vacation Rentals, I decided that maybe I should be the person to create the first one since I was already a Real Estate Broker and legally able to do so!

And MVR Vacation Rentals, Inc. was born.

As a serial entrepreneur with a habit for monetizing my hobbies, this was the perfect next step for me. It gave me an opportunity to help promote the Vacation Rental Industry even more in my community, as well as help out fellow entrepreneurs looking to start their own vacation rental businesses.

I had already started to find ways to share my expertise on the subject with my book, Vacation Rentals: The Ultimate Guide, where I share my professional experiences, trials, and errors as a comprehensive roadmap for the exact steps to beginning your vacation rental business. AND Vacation Rental Academy, designed to teach you everything you need to know to start and scale successful vacation rental businesses.

This next step was the perfect continuation of everything I had been working on and in 2021 we officially started listing properties. A couple of my own are in the catalog, but we have had a steady flow of onboarding properties since the inception of the business. We are rated SuperHosts with AirBNB and Premier Hosts with VRBO already, and I am excited to see how this business grows.

We definitely saw with the Sky High Chalet how important time was to build up year-round consistency for bookings, recently even being ranked 3rd Best Pine Creek Gorge Vacation Rental! We are excited to see how this trend continues with not only the Sky High Chalet, but the rest of our rentals and MVR Vacation Rentals, Inc – maybe some day soon we’ll see even more of our properties with similar rankings!

Million Dollar Advice & Video Tour of the Sky High Chalet!

I truly want you all to live vibrant, abundant lives and if you head down this road sooner rather than later, that is all the more wealth and freedom that you can create and grow!

The contents of this video and the Vacation Rental Academy course can literally lead you on your way to wealth and long term abundance, regardless of where you currently are and your experience!

Becoming a wealthy individual, or even a millionaire is much closer than you think! You can start small and accomplish anything – YOU JUST HAVE TO START!

This video was originally recorded in May of 2020, during the shut down for COVID. I watch it and see an innocent version of myself. This was pre-book, course, issues with our town and vacation rentals, but every part of it is solid info and advice present day! Our world hit its tipping point shortly thereafter it was recorded and has grown like a weed in all directions. Real estate and vacation rentals have given my family more income, more fun, more memories, more experiences and networks, it helps other businesses, creates jobs and who doesn’t want that?

I truly want you all to live vibrant, abundant lives and if you head down this road sooner rather than later, that is all the more wealth and freedom that you can create and grow!